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. Some fans began to catch on to the fact that more and more Transsexuals were appearing every episode, even some that hadn’t been produced yet. The makers calmed the fans fears however, by guaranteeing that the new characters would appear immediately in a new wave of special limited edition figures cast from metals that didn't even exist yet, attainable only by signing your soul to the company. The TV series worked on the basic premise that two of the stronger Transsexuals had a fight in the Transsexuals Nightclub (seen in episode 1.1 and available in all good toy stores) and had set up rival factions in order to obliterate one another. These were the Decepticuntts fronted by Boy George and the Estrobots fronted by Optimus Prima Donna. The Decepticuntts generally wore foundation that was darker in color and used a more natural shade of lipstick than the Estrobots, who preferred glossy lipstick and glittery eyeshadow. The episodes would mostly comprise of organized bar room brawls that ended up with robots from each side beating each other senseless with handbags. One of the spin-off series was the more popular Beast Whores. Video game Edit Transsexuals: The Video Game Cash-In was released in 1989 when the success of the franchise was at its peak. You were put in the role of young Estrobot Samantha and had to obliterate the oncoming Decepticuntt fleet using only nail clippers and a eyelash curler. Further upgrades could be collected during the levels, such as a lipstick cannon and a pastel colored jumpsuit. The last level was apparently glitched and unbeatable. In fact, should anyone ever attempt to beat it, their Sontendosoft Gamecylinders-Box would grind to a halt and set on fire, whereupon enraged customers were encouraged to soothe their rage by buying the new non-exploding Transsexual branded Sontendosoft Playcylinder-Box 270 at a moderately increased price(roughly 600 dollars more than the original).Ohio has been really good to me. Throughout my 29 years of standup comedy, it just seems like I keep circling back to Ohio where I continually meet good people in good places regardless of weather conditions, with a smile on their face telling me, "Thanks for coming." And when I leave I feel like I'm the lucky one for having gone in the first place. ROCK ON THE RANGE. An enormous music festival. Three days, thousands of bands (I'm exaggerating slightly), four of which I've heard of because I guess I'm old. Red Hot Chili Peppers I've heard of, and my opening joke did not go particularly well. Friday (Red Hot Chili Peppers were headlining on Sunday). "Hey Red Hot Chili Peppers are here." I say, as I walk into the comedy tent, and onto the stage, in front of 800-1200 people. For some reason I did not have any idea, or care, or have any cognitive recognition that Dave Mustane and Megadeth were performing at the same time as me 100 yards away. Oh well, either they really, really, really love me and my comedy or they have no idea where they are. I walked on stage and I said "I love the Red Hot Chili Peppers. How great are they? I loved them back in the day when they were Fishbone." The crowd moaned like a child had been bumped with a slow moving vehicle. I was now digging. This is rare for me. Usually when I go do standup comedy, everybody is there to see me, and me only. They have their tickets months in advance, and I have a job to do, and I do it. Everybody leaves happy. I had arrived at an enormous rock and roll festival where they decided to have a comedy tent. There had been six comics on stage before I got up there. Everything had gone great and I decided to walk up and bump a child with a slow moving vehicle. "Red Hot Chili Peppers were better when they were called Fishbone." First of all, I don't think this is true, second of all, If Red Hot Chili Peppers are headlining the last night of the festival, it's probably a big deal. Turns out, it was a very big deal. This whole Rock on the Range thing, which by the way was run exceptionally, military operations should look towards Rock on the Range on how to do things. It was so bizarre to begin with. I was actually at Dolphins in the Pacific Palisades and a guy named Gary walked up to me and said "JJ, you gotta do Rock on the Range with me, bro. I got a comedy tent." I thought, "Okay guy in aisle six, I'd love to, but I can't hire myself, I don't know who you are, and I'm not going to talk about price in aisle six." It turns out he was the actual guy that's booking the comics and works for a very, very reputable company. When we were talking about my fee I realized I had one shot at this. I can walk it back, I cannot walk it up. So I thought of what I usually make, I added a little bit, then I told him, "I hate when I get a check and it's less than it should be because my agents have taken out their commission." If you think you're going to make twenty dollars an hour and you get your check and it turns out that you're making fifteen dollars an hour, it's kind of a bummer. So I added that money, added on my commissions, and I let it out of my mouth, and the guy said, "Sure!" So I told Gary, "You're going to have to email me right now so moving forward nobody can screw you and me. Now Gary and I are very, very close partners in this venture. The emails began, everything moved forward, everything was fine. I have to do a radio show every day from noon to three in Southern California. That would make my Friday, the night of my performance, radio show three to six. No problem. I'm in Columbus, I get to meet a program director, I get to say the name of the station Fox Sports AM 1230 Columbus. Tonight Rock on the Range, etc. etc. Everybody's happy. Until I get a text from Gary with a half hour left to go during my LIVE radio show. "Hey are you going to make it to the venue on time? Your show ends at 6, you're on stage at 7." This is the first time that when I was going on stage, how I was getting there, where the place was, who is bringing me, etcetera had ever been discussed. I got my money. I'm in Columbus Ohio. It's assumed you guys will make everything else come to fruition. That's the way it works, usually. So I tell Gary via text "no idea." SEND. I'm talking on a live radio show. He texts back, "Because this is a military operation, brother, gotta get you a little bit before 7 o'clock or everybody's going to freak out." I'm still talking live on the radio, texting with my right hand as I'm going through papers and notes about LeBron James and Steph Curry with my left. "Well, Gary, this is the first time I have ever been in Columbus Ohio. I have no idea." SEND. Keep in mind I took the red-eye from Los Angeles. I'm a bit out of sorts, as they say. I arrived at 6 a.m. I slept for a couple of hours. I'm doing live radio from Live Radio Rock On The Range. I don't know how long it takes to get from the radio station to the venue because I've never set foot in wonderful Columbus, Ohio (That's not sarcastic. I thought it was wonderful.) In fact, when you go do a college, and the student activities board director, which is a fancy name for I'm 19, I'm the one that picks you up at the airport says to you "Are you hungry?" And you say "Yes." And they say "Where do you want to eat?" And you have to explain calmly, instead of shouting, "I don't know. I've never been in Natchitoches Louisiana." It would be really odd if I said "Ted's Chicken!" So Gary continues to text me the last half hour of the radio show, and he's getting more and more angst ridden, I can tell. He's starting to realize that there's a very good chance that the last comic on the opening night, of this comedy tent, next door to Megadeth, Shinedown, and Linkin Park, might not be there before 7 p.m. it might take more than an hour to get from the radio station in Columbus Ohio to a venue with a rock festival in it, in Columbus Ohio. Hmmm what to do? On my end, nothing. All I can do is alleviate some of Gary's anxiety. There is a gal that picked me up at the airport named Kim and she was fantastic. She was young, energetic, wanting to do a great job. She has no idea that over the next 25 years she's about to be beaten across the head, back, neck and scrotum (yes ladies, even yours) by this business called show. However, you have an obligation, in my opinion, when you come across these young bright eyed 'oh my gosh we're doing it!' kind of kids to give them the best advice you have. In my case it's always been the same with interns at the radio show, runners on movie sets, or this gal that at 5 a.m. looked across a parking lot at Columbus airport, and from about 100 yards went "Jay, here." I was wearing a hat. I don't know how she knew it was me, but she knew it was me. I told her, "This is the best advice you will ever receive. And I'm not kidding, when the shit hits the fan, S-L-O-W D-O-W-N. She giggled. I said, "No I'm serious when the shit hits the fan you have to slow down, just slow down. You ever been a waiter? No? Okay forget it, just listen. When the shit hits the fan, slow down." As Gary is texting me, and I realize he might think he is completely fucked, and people are asking Gary," Why isn't he here at 6 o'clock? It's almost 6 o'clock Gary." He didn't have an answer. I text Gary. I said to Kim, "Watch this. Remember when I told you when the shit hits the fan..." "S-L-O-W D-O-W-N" she says. Right. Watch. I write "Gary". SEND. I go back to my radio show. Then I texted 4 minutes later "there is" SEND. And then 4 more goes by "an." SEND. "We'll be right back Jay Mohr Sports, Fox Sports Radio next." "Old Hawaiian expression." SEND. I look at the girl, Kim, and I say "it's been 8 minutes, he's sitting still looking at his phone. I now have him on my time. I'm relaxed. It's not going to take an hour, it's 12 minutes, which Gary doesn't know that Kim told me at 5:30 this morning (and I didn't tell you my dear reader) hence the reveal. Gary's waiting for me to finish this. I tell her, "He is no longer running around texting, typing.. Oh... Oh....What...If...This..." No I have slowed Gary down with words, and texts. I type "There's an old Hawaiian expression 'If can, can. If no can, no can'" SEND. I look at the girl and I say, "This was actually said to me on Christmas Do-Over, by an assistant director, Tommy Ku, who is half Korean half Hawaiian, after I complained to him for about 6 hours about whether or not a shot was going to get done before lunch. Finally, he looked at me and he said "If can, can. If no can, no can." Whoa, that's some other level wisdom and I realize that it's going to make no sense to Gary who is receiving it. So I told the girl, "He's also going to sit there for a minute before he replies to try to figure out what that actually means because I haven't told him that I can or no can. So then I typed to Gary "I can. Relax." SEND. Then I typed "Unless I no can, but still relax." SEND. Gary now has no idea what is happening with me. I have now successfully gas-lit Gary. Which is perfect because now instead of worrying about time, Gary is trying to figure out what this expression means and why I sent him texts one word at a time. We get in the car from the radio station at 3 minutes to 6 p.m. At 6:30 I am backstage at Rock on the Range. We stopped, by the way to get soft drinks. There was no reason, ever, for anybody to have any doubt. I don't know what they thought I would do in between, it's a 12-minute ride, I stretched it to 30 on purpose. So I'm backstage and there is a band on stage, I have no idea who they are, but it's important for Gary to show me how absolutely phenomenal this all is. And you know what? It was absolutely phenomenal. There are 25-30 thousand people in a stadium outside. They're surfing on one another's heads. The band is going bananas. It is bat-shit crazy, however, keep in mind that this is a 3-day festival. So not only are there 8 bands each day on the main stage, but 8-10 bands on stage B, there's also a comedy tent. My point is there are about 25 different nations all trying to get their shit together for one band going on stage. They are crisscrossing each other constantly. Gary is weaving, jogging, looking over his shoulder, and as the intern, Kim, goes to keep up with Gary, I put my hand on her arm. She looks at me and I said "This is exactly what I was talking about. Let him keep looking back. We're here. Don't let his energy be your energy. Just keep dialing it back." And she did. As did I. Gary wanted a photo (Show Business, nothing ever changes) of he and I with this enormous crowd behind us. Comedy tent, not as sexy as outdoor arena where they do Motocross with people crowd surfing. We go to the comedy tent. Slowly, otherwise he'll lose us, because I'm walking slowly and Kim is following me. When we get to the comedy tent he says "There's your trailer" I said "okay I'm going to go to pee." He says "There's no bathroom in your trailer." I said "okay, well..." and then the girl Kim says "I saw porta-potties behind the trailer through the fence. I'll hold all of your things. You go to the restroom and I'll stand at the gate and I'll make sure you get back in because you don't go on stage for another half-hour." She said this slowly and how she knew all this I have no idea because she was exactly right next to me the entire time but something is rubbing off and I dig it. I pee, I come back and I Periscope. I tell everybody "I'm at Rock on the Range, come check it out." Keep in mind: red eye flight, full day of work, I look like hammered dog shit, but I'm relaxed. In fact, before I go on stage I pretty much could go into a nap and that's the truth because I've always when the shit hits the fan S-L-O-W D-O-W-N so when it's really nutty, like a festival where rock and roll is being played, and metal, and people are crisscrossing and there's actual fire trucks and golf carts, and tents and camps... S-L-O-W D-O-W-N. When I walk on stage at the comedy tent, I'm not only relaxed, I'm pretty unflappable. More so than normal. So after I say Red Hot Chili Peppers were better when they were called Fishbone, I don't really mind that they moan. I just say something nice about Red Hot Chili Peppers and I continue, and as I continue, a guy in the second row to my right, wearing a vest and jean shorts keeps yelling "What about squishels? You gotta say hi to squishels." This goes on for about 6 minutes. I'm not a guy that yells at the audience, talks to the audience, heckles the audience, insults the audience, but this guy won't be denied. Everyone around him is getting bothered and I said "How much attention you need? Please be quiet, they're going to throw you out." And he keeps going and I said to him "Look I'm working, when you're working I don't go to the trailer park and kick over your house, relax." The place goes a little nutty. I'm now insulting the audience, way out of my comfort zone. However, like an old fighter that's retired, it kind of feels good. I haven't used these in a while. Pow Pow. "Hey buddy, I'm glad you wore your best shorts to your favorite band's festival." Pow Pow. "You can't make children, right?" Pow Pow. He gets settled down. I tell him "You have to be quiet because I don't want you to get thrown out. They are going to throw you out. I don't want that to happen. Now he's on my side, because he thinks I'm there to keep him from getting thrown out. About 10 minutes later, a man starts walking toward me. There's a straight shot. Picture yourself in church looking out the back window with pews on both sides. There's about a sidewalk's width of nothing but ground straight towards the stage. This guy enters the tent and going with that old gunslinger imagery, he actually is dressed all in black, and he's coming towards me. He's obscured by the light outside the tent, and as he comes into focus, he has a look on his face that with any amount of street smarts can only be interpreted as he's about to kick the shit out of me. And he kept coming. And coming. I locked eyes on the guy and I kept nodding my head yes and I now know that he realizes that I have made eye contact with him even though I am telling an entirely different story in my brain and he stops walking about 8 feet away from me. But only because by the grace of God there's 2 people that are so fucked up that they're actually sitting on the ground in front of the stage at 7 feet, even though there are empty chairs to the left and right of them. The man in black with his goatee and his mullet, looking like if a late 1980s hockey player lived in, well, Ohio, kept staring at me with hatred. Then he raised his hand and in mid-sentence I said, "Sir you're raising your hand. Do you have a question?" This man yells loudly "You fucking suck!" The crowd makes noises of what's happening, noises of dissension, noises of I agree with what that guy said. Regardless, my hands on my pistol. It's my turn. I say to the man, "Well I think you're great. I do. You raised your hand, you have manners. He's got manners. I think you're a good guy, man. When you leave here, at some point tonight or tomorrow you're going to say something nice to somebody and make them smile, and I'm just going to focus on that." I realize I am right on the edge of the precipice of something cool. Annihilating somebody by being kind to them, but I need a co-host so I say I think you're a good guy. I point to the guy in the jeans "This guy's a fucking dick. YOU raised your hand." The crowd is screaming now. The guy in Black raises his hand for a second time and when I say "see? Manners. Why can't we all be as polite as the man in black?" "Yes sir. You fucking suck less." "Thank you." Applause. Now no matter what happens, it happens. It's the nuttiest day and evening. I've been heckled, I've been approached by The Man in Black, I've been told I suck, I've been told I suck less. I had no idea how to close my set after all of the craziness, but I realized everybody had a great time. So instead of having a day closing bit, I gave 800 people instructions. I said, "Look, I could stand here talking, but this is Rock on the Range. Let's all go out there and fucking rock. Let's go rock now. Let's go out there and rock!" Applause. I duck out. I get off stage, Gary is there. Huge smile and he says, "That was incredible. That was really great. At one point I asked the policeman what's going on? Is he safe?" And the Ohio State Trooper said, "Yes, he's telling the story about blowing a ten-year-old kid. They're having a good time." And I thought no policeman's ever said those words. This was the craziest thing I've ever seen. Gary's happy, I'm happy, the policeman's happy, the crowd's happy. He said, "Let's go get paid." Then I got really happy. When I came home I realized it's been a long time since I got heckled. I used to get so angry about it. I used to take it so personal, "How dare you open your filthy fucking mouth when I'm doing this art!" This time, they had been drinking all day. I just happen to be the guy up there at the moment. They have no idea that they think I suck, if it's a squishy or a squiggle, or if the guy with denim shorts and a vest looks absurd, so I just communicated the best I could, got on with my life and the guy in the shorts that I said was a dick, to win over the man in black, was waiting back stage for an autograph. But as I reached to sign it and oblige him, instead of chastising him, (he did not have a pen because he couldn't put the thought together. Autograph. Pen. Paper. Those 3 things in a row... there was 1 too many.) I politely told him, "Find a pen, find me, I'll make this happen." I know he didn't know where to go to find a pen, and that's fine, because it just was. Because when the shit hits the fan, I slowed down. I think my friend, I think that was the first time I took my own advice, or was in a position to take my own advice, implement it, and see the results. I liked him, I liked him a lot. ROCK ON THE RANGEBrad Keselowski answered questions Thursday at NASCAR Media Day at Daytona International Speedway. (Photo: Andrew Weber, USA TODAY Sports) DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Carl Edwards is the best driver in the Sprint Cup Series — at least according to Brad Keselowski. Keselowski was asked during Thursday's NASCAR Media Day where he ranked among the sport's top drivers. The Team Penske driver's answer? In the top three, he said. Of course, that begged the question: Who are the other two? "I personally think just from watching, and I'm not afraid to say it, that Carl Edwards right now is the best driver in the Sprint Cup," Keselowski said. "That's my personal opinion; it doesn't make it law or fact. To go with that, you could probably place an argument for Kevin (Harvick) as the second best." Harvick makes sense; he just won the championship last year and was the fastest driver all season. But Edwards is a bit of a head-scratcher for the top pick, since he won just twice last year and finished ninth in the point standings. But Keselowski has reasons to back up his thinking on the Ford-turned-Toyota driver. Mainly, it's "what Carl has done in cars that didn't have the speed." Carl Edwards earned one of his two 2014 victories on the road course at Sonoma Raceway. (Photo: Kyle Terada, USA TODAY Sports) "He has a very diverse skill set," Keselowski said. "He's been able to win at tracks like Sonoma and has won at every type of track. I think he does the best job of any driver out there taking a car that is not fast and finding speed out of it. I think when the times have come that he's had dominant cars, he's had dominant performances. He's shown me the skill set at every level to be a top driver." Given all that, Keselowski said it wouldn't surprise him if Edwards' new No. 19 team at Joe Gibbs Racing was the one to beat this year. Edwards moved from Roush Fenway Racing to JGR after the season. "There's something about those new teams where magic comes together," Keselowski said. Follow Gluck on Twitter @jeff_gluck PHOTOS: Drivers hit Daytona for NASCAR Media DayFormer Klan leader David Duke - YouTube screenshot Former KKK leader David Duke came to the defense of one of his political idols Tuesday, blaming Donald Trump’s legal problems over his scandal-plagued Trump University on a new culprit. “Jewish agent” Wolf Blitzer and the Jewish-owned media. Pointing out “the Jewish establishment knows all about psychology,” Duke went on to explain that they have the ability to “marshal up an army of Jews” to go after opponents like Trump by sending out experts to attack him. Duke cast a wide net, including Chris Wallace from Fox News, CNN’s Jake Tapper as well as Blitzer from CNN, who Duke claims he has already exposed as a “Jewish agent from AIPAC.” Duke went on to point out that CNN is run by “Jewish extremist” Jeff Zucker, helpfully noting that Zucker has said “he lives and breathes Israel.” ‘They’re the ones who have been attacking Trump,” Duke continued, “And most recently Fox News, the shabbat goy shiksa Megyn Kelly, because they love to have some gentile — they don’t always want all the Jews out front. She recently criticized Trump, the fact that he said this judge isn’t fair. This Mexican judge. This Mexican-descended judge.” Duke went on to criticize Judge Gonzalo Curiel, noting his affiliation to several Hispanic lawyers groups before adding, “You couldn’t even imagine someone being a member of the European-American National Bar Association. In fact there isn’t one, it wouldn’t be allowed. That would be called ‘racist.'” Listen to Duke’s comments below, beginning at the 25 minute mark:This post is from GetRichSlowly.org staff writer Tim Sullivan. I love the jeans I’m wearing. I actually wear them almost four days a week. Chances are that if you see me, I’m wearing these jeans. They’re my only pair. When I bought them, I very gladly put down my $200 cash and left the store with a smile. The jeans I had before them cost the same, and I wore them until they got holes in them, and then I got those patched up, and then the patches got holes in them and the hem came out and I decided to move on. A lot of personal finance advice I read says that $200 is entirely too much to spend on jeans, no matter their longevity. The problem here is that I love these jeans. I feel confident in them. It sounds weird to me, but having jeans that fit this well have become a value of mine. The jeans aren’t the point though. Chances are, we all have something we buy that maybe costs more than it should, or at least more than it could, be it wine, fitness, clothing, makeup, electronics, or pure-bred cats. My goal is to spend on the things I care about, and ferociously save on the things I don’t. I practice the art of conscious spending. Your Values Should Dictate Your Spending We can’t have it all. With my jeans, I spend on the pants and then save on the shoes I wear with them. My shoes aren’t important to me. They probably should be, but try as I might to read studies about proper arch support, I can’t get myself to make it a value. If I were to spend on the jeans, then spend on the shoes to go with them, then the belt to match, I frankly wouldn’t have enough money for a shirt. With travel, it’d be great to stay in a luxury hotel, eat at fancy restaurants and take cabs everywhere. But for most of us, that would make travel inaccessible. If I ever splurge on more comfortable accommodation, I’ll make sure to walk everywhere and get cheap street food to eat at the park. My point is this: Figure out your values. Spend on those, skimp on the others. For me, this meant charting my spending. By seeing where my money was going, I could more properly cut out what I didn’t care about and funnel the funds into what I did, or more probably, into savings. Here’s an untrue example of where my $500 in discretionary spending went one month: I look at this list and have three things come into mind first: I love Chairman Meow, and so his wild caught Alaskan cat food is non-negotiable. I do hear the people sing and tend to cry through all of Act I. I still can’t believe how effective acupuncture is at reducing stiffness in my back. Outside of those three, I realize I usually don’t have a very good time when I go to concerts with my friends and these Levis come on way too high on my waist. To align more with my values, I should keep the cat food, Les Mis, and needles, and enjoy a night at home reading a library book (Victor Hugo!) in my amazing new jeans. Saving Up If the desire to buy a more expensive item is strong enough, I should be able to save for it. If my desire wanes from day to day, or I realize that I’d be happy with something cheaper, I don’t buy the product. I’m really looking forward to a trip I hope to take to Istanbul next year. If Istanbul didn’t come up at least once a week in conversations for me, it would probably cease to be a savings goal. If I don’t change behavior and put more money toward it, it isn’t going to happen. To change behavior, I set up smaller goals and advertise to myself. I have a picture of Istanbul on my desk now and gaze lovingly at it every time I transfer funds into my Istanbul savings account. The week before I make a transfer, I go to the library and get out a book (hopefully with lots of pictures) about the city and read away. Not only will I have more appreciation and knowledge of various landmarks once I get there, but it helps keep Istanbul exciting, fresh, and sexy for me, not that it needs much help. A few months from now, if my monthly savings goal continues to be met, I’ll buy the plane tickets and know some more awesome facts, like back when the city was part of the Ottoman Empire, Istanbul had 1400 public toilets all over town. Europe at the time had yet to build a single palace. Merit-Based Rewards With some of my larger purchases, I make myself earn them in a less financial sense. I want to make sure something is a value of mine before I spend the money on it. Here’s what I’m talking about: For a big trip, justify spending the money by having a tangible language goal. Tell yourself that after a year of weekly French classes, you’ll finally allow yourself to spend the money on eating a baguette under the Eiffel Tower. Interested in taking barre classes? Commit to using the DVD two or three times a week for the next two months. If you can get that done, it’s become a value and money can follow. Want that expensive new makeup? Use up everything in the bathroom first instead of adding to the pile of half-used containers. Looking forward to your favorite band coming to town? Learn the riff of your favorite song on guitar, especially if you’ve never played before. Pick a goal that makes sense and stick to it. If the purchase isn’t inspiring you to save and better yourself, then it probably isn’t a value. Frugality isn’t always about finding the cheapest option, but rather bringing as much consciousness to your spending as possible. You can lose the guilt, increase the pleasure, and accomplish something new. What’s your more pricey item? How do you make sure your spending is a conscious effort on it? This article originally appeared on GetRichSlowly.org: Saving For a Big PurchaseA firefighter struggles to get control of a runaway fire hose. JukinMedia video screenshot WASHINGTON, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- A firefighter was caught on camera struggling to wrangle an out-of-control hose. The video shows the firefighter in an apparent training exercise trying to gain control of a fire hose writhing around on the pavement and shooting water in all directions. The firefighter has difficultly keeping control of the hose, despite tips from an onlooking colleague. The hose at one point tangles itself in the firefighter's legs, causing him to fall to the ground. The exercise comes to an end when the other firefighter signals colleagues off-camera to shut off the hose's supply of water. The firefighter appears to handle his defeat gracefully, smiling for the camera and his applauding coworkers. The location of the video is unclear, but the letters "LMFD" are visible on the firefighters' uniforms.LOS ANGELES -- Boston Celtics guard Ray Allen set a new NBA Finals record for 3-pointers in a game with his eighth of the night in the third quarter of Game 2 against the Lakers at the Staples Center. Allen's 3-pointer with 4:42 left in the third quarter Sunday night allowed him to break the mark he shared with Scottie Pippen and Kenny Smith. "I didn't think it was easy, getting the 3's up in the air," Allen said. "You look up and everybody is probably thinking, 'How did this guy get open?' But there's so much going on there -- big screens, misdirection plays. I thought they did everything they could to keep me from shooting 3's, [but we] worked tirelessly." Allen connected on the first seven 3-pointers he attempted in Sunday's game before one rimmed out late in the first half. Allen finished 9-of-14 shooting for 27 points in the first half. Of Allen's nine makes, six were assisted by Rajon Rondo. He finished the night with 32 points as the Celtics beat the Lakers 103-94 to even the best-of-seven series at 1-1. Allen also had made seven 3-pointers in a game against the Lakers two years ago. Limited to 27 minutes due to early foul trouble in Game 1, Allen never got in a rhythm, connecting on 3-of-8 shots, but no 3-pointers, while finishing with 12 points. Chris Forsberg covers the Celtics for ESPNBoston.com. Information from The Associated Press contributed to this report.By Dan Merica and Eric Weisbrod, CNN Washington (CNN)– It has been a year since Matisyahu, the famed Hasidic reggae star, shaved his beard, separated from his devout following of Orthodox Judaism and said he was ready for a "rebirth." Since that time, he has produced new music - including a recently released album, "Spark Seeker" - and is ready to stop talking about his big change. Of course, we asked him about it anyway. In his view, it was his decision to get into Hasidism and it was his decision to get out. The beardless, but still scruffy, artist is touring the country with a show that included lighting a menorah during Hanukkah. We caught up with him in Washington to talk about his album, his new take on Judaism and how his life has changed in the last year. The following is an edited transcript of our conversation. Belief: Thanks for having us. Let's talk about the new album, "Spark Seeker." It's incredibly diverse; it jumps from pop to hip-hop to reggae. How is this album different from your past work? Matisyahu: Whenever I approach a record I don't really have a science to it. I approach every record differently. First record was in a home studio. Second record was a live record. Third record was made while I was on tour. Fourth record was made over the course of like two years in David Kahn's basement. This record was basically - I got friendly with this producer, Kojak, and I started recording with him whenever I was in L.A. Belief: How does Judaism influence this album specifically? Matisyahu: Judaism is just such a huge part of who I am. I don't think I could separate that at this point. I spent 10 years sort of really immersed heavily in the practice and in the study of Judaism. This record was made when, I wouldn't say phase out, but when I started to expand and explore and let go of a lot of that. But it's still such a part of me that it's inescapable. Follow the CNN Belief Blog on Twitter Belief: Last year, you notably left Hasidism, because you "took it as far as you could take it" and you "started finding other things resonating." What was it about Hasidism that caused that feeling and what else resonated with you? Matisyahu: I started out in the Chabad movement, and I started pretty closed up, with the idea of there being that "this is it." I bought into that fully. I really explored in depth the Chabad ideology. Then I started to open up.... I started to explore other types of Hasidism.... Eventually I began to regain trust into my own intuition and my own sense of right and wrong. I began to realize that there were a lot of things within that lifestyle that were actually holding me back. That were sort of weighting heavy down on me and keeping me from tasting a certain freedom of expression. Belief: What specifically was weighing on you? Matisyahu: In Judaism there are a lot of rules - everything from which fingernail you cut first to which side
RHEV 3.4. Below is what I did to fix rhevm-reports: First, make sure that rhevm-reports and rhevm-dwh are not installed on the system anymore: yum remove rhevm-reports rhevm-dwh Then, I removed the databases and users from the PostgreSQL server: su postgres -c 'dropdb -U postgres ovirt_engine_history' su postgres -c 'dropdb -U postgres rhevmreports' su postgres -c "psql -c 'drop role engine_history;'" su postgres -c "psql -c 'drop role engine_reports;'" Next, I reinstalled rhevm-reports and rhevm-dwh: yum install rhevm-reports rhevm-dwh Next, we’re going to re-install the RHEV-M services, so lets stop ovirt-engine: service ovirt-engine stop Now remove the config and WAR files for rhevm-reports: rm -rf /var/lib/ovirt-engine-reports/ovirt-engine-reports.war/ rm -rf /var/lib/ovirt-engine-reports/build-conf/ rm -rf /usr/share/ovirt-engine/rhevm-reports.war I then re-ran the RHEV-M installer to reconfigure the services: engine-setup Tags: RHEV, RHEV-M, rhevm-dwh, rhevm-reportsLesson Summary Overview The Middle East conflict and terrorism are issues we hear about almost daily in the news. This lesson will use video segments from Wide Angle's "Suicide Bombers" (2004), Internet sites, and primary sources to examine the roots of the Middle East conflict. The video contains interviews with young Palestinians who participated -- or intended to participate -- in suicide bombings. These young Palestinians share the personal, religious, political and emotional reasons behind their participation in these suicide operations. This lesson could be used to review information about the three major monotheistic religions and their connections to Israel, to relate post-World War II policies to the current political state of the Middle East, and/or to get students to understand the roots of the terrorism that threatens the world we live in. Objectives Describe the connections that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have to Israel; Describe the connections that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have to Israel; Evaluate primary source documents relating to the origins of the Middle East conflict; Evaluate primary source documents relating to the origins of the Middle East conflict; Analyze why the Middle East conflict began and continues today; Analyze why the Middle East conflict began and continues today; Discuss how religions can unite or divide people; Discuss how religions can unite or divide people; Explain why individuals and groups sometimes turn to tactics of terrorism, and evaluate how terrorism affects the world we live in. Grade Level: 9-12 Suggested Time Two one-hour blocks, including the Culminating Activity Media Resources Materials For the class: Computer monitor or computer connection to television/projector for segment viewing Computer monitor or computer connection to television/projector for segment viewing Computer with Internet access for all or groups of students OR a computer with a projector for the whole class to view Computer with Internet access for all or groups of students OR a computer with a projector for the whole class to view Recent newspapers or news magazines Recent newspapers or news magazines Poster paper Poster paper Scissors Scissors Glue Glue Answer Key to Student Organizers For each student: Web Sites Before The Lesson Bookmark the Web sites used in the lesson on each computer in your classroom, or upload all links to an online bookmarking utility such as Bookmark the Web sites used in the lesson on each computer in your classroom, or upload all links to an online bookmarking utility such as www.portaportal.com. Preview all of the video segments and Web sites used in the lesson to make certain that they are appropriate for your students, currently available, and accessible from your classroom. Download the video segments used in this lesson onto your hard drive, or prepare to stream the segments from your classroom. RealPlayer is needed to view the video segments. If your classroom computer does not have it, download RealPlayer for free at Download the video segments used in this lesson onto your hard drive, or prepare to stream the segments from your classroom. RealPlayer is needed to view the video segments. If your classroom computer does not have it, download RealPlayer for free at www.real.com Make copies of all the Student Organizers for all students. Gather recent newspapers and news magazines that may contain articles relating to the Middle East conflict. When using media, provide students with a focus for media interaction by a specific task to complete and/or information to identify during or after viewing of video segments, Web sites, or other multimedia elements. The Lesson Part I: Introductory Activity Tell your students that they are about to see three different structures. Provide them with a focus for media interaction by asking them to try to identify what kinds of structures these are and who might visit them. Go to http://www.inisrael.com/tour/jer/vt_church.htm. Click on the images of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and show the students the exterior and interior of the church (this site allows you to navigate around 360-degree panoramic pictures of the church). Ask your students what type of building it is (a church). Ask your students which religion worships there (Christians). Tell them that this is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and that Christians believe it is the real site of Jesus' crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. Go to http://www.inisrael.com/3disrael/kotel/index.html. Show the students the Western Wall images. Ask your students if they know which religion considers this wall significant (Judaism). Ask your students if they know why it is significant (he Western Wall is a remnant of the retaining wall built by Herod the Great in the 1st century BC, that surrounded the Second Temple enclosure). Go to http://www.inisrael.com/tour/jer/vt_temple_mount.htm. Show your students the image of the Dome of the Rock. Ask them what type of building it seems to be (a mosque). Ask your students which religion worships there (Islam). Ask your students if they know the significance of this building for Muslims (the Dome of the Rock is the site at which Muslims believe Muhammad ascended into heaven). Explain to your students that all of these religious sites are located in Jerusalem. (You may show students a layout of the city showing the location of the Dome of the Rock and the Western Wall at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/middle_east/03/holy_sites/html/default.stm.) Ask them in which country Jerusalem is located (Israel). Ask them what these three religions have in common (Answers might include: holy sites in Jerusalem, monotheism, holy books, places of worship, trace their roots to Abraham). Ask your students if they can recall any conflicts these religions have had with each other in the past (Some examples -- Crusades: Christians, Muslims and Jews fight for control of Jerusalem; Middle Ages: Jews are blamed for the Black Death and persecuted; the Muslim Ottoman overthrow of the Christian Byzantine Empire). Ask the students if they know which religions are currently fighting over control of Israel today (Islam and Judaism: Palestinian Muslims and Israeli Jews). Distribute the " Brainstorming! Student Organizer to the students. Ask the students to write down ten words or ideas that come to mind when you say the words "The Middle East conflict." Have the students share their answers aloud. Discuss any common themes among their lists (Student answers will vary). Part II: Learning Activity #1 Show or distribute copies of the Balfour Declaration to the class (an online source is http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/mideast/balfour.htm). Distribute the Document Probing Student Organizer to the students. Provide your students with a focus for media interaction by asking them to examine the Balfour Declaration and Resolution 181 while filling out the top of the Document Probing Student Organizer. Show or distribute sections of the U.N. General Assembly Resolution 181, available at http://www.trumanlibrary.org/israel/unres181.htm. The sections to show students should include the first six paragraphs of the introduction (starting at "The General Assembly" and ending at "... B. Steps preparatory to Independence...") Have students continue with a focus for media interaction by asking them to examine Resolution 181 and fill out the second part of the Document Probing Student Organizer. Next direct students to the chart available at http://www.israelipalestinianprocon.org/populationpalestine.html#chart3, "Palestine: Arab/Jewish population 1914-1946." Have students continue with a focus for media interaction by asking them to examine the chart showing population changes in Palestine and fill out the third part of the Document Probing Student Organizer. Next direct students to http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/middle_east/israel_and_the_palestinians/ key_documents/1681322.stm, which includes a map of the partition plan and a summary of U.N. General Assembly Resolution 181. Have students continue with a focus for media interaction by asking them to examine Resolution 181 and fill out the fourth part of the Document Probing Student Organizer. Ask students to share their thoughts about these documents aloud. Ask them to draw two faces that show emotions -- one face for a Palestinian Muslim after seeing these documents, and one face for an Israeli Jew -- after seeing these documents on the bottom of the Document Probing Student Organizer. (For example, a student may draw a happy face for an Israeli Jew and an angry face for a Palestinian Muslim). Call on students to share what type of faces they drew and why. Part III: Learning Activity #2 Provide your students with a bit of background on the segment they are about to see: explain that this segment is taken from an interview with an 18-year-old Palestinian named Mohanned Abu Tayyoun, who entered Israel carrying a bag of explosives with the intention of carrying out a suicide bombing. He wavered, however, and returned home without carrying out the mission. He was arrested several days later and this interview was conducted within an Israeli jail. Provide your students with a focus for media interaction by asking them to identify how Mohanned views his life and how he feels it differs from the lives of Israelis (Jews). Play the Martyrdom QuickTime Video for the class. Check for understanding by asking students to respond to the focus question. (Mohanned feels he would rather die and by a martyr than live his life, sees his life as hollow -- in contrast he sees Israelis as happy, going out, having fun, traveling.) Ask your students why Mohanned may feel that way (Answers may include: Palestinians have less land, fewer privileges, cannot come and go as they please.) Provide your students with a focus for media interaction by asking them to consider how religion played a role in the decision Mohanned made not to detonate the bomb. Play the Suicide Bombing QuickTime Video for the class. Ask your students to share their thoughts on why Mohanned didn't carry out the plan. (Mohanned felt that not all Jews were guilty of being against him, and that God wanted him to continue to live.) Part IV: Learning Activity #3 Provide your students a bit of background on the next segment -- this is taken from an interview with 25-year-old Majdi Amer, who in March 2003 built a bomb and prepared a suicide bomber for a bus bombing in Haifa that killed 17 people and wounded 50. Provide your students with a focus for media interaction by asking them to compare Majdi's opinion of suicide bombing with Mohanned's opinion. Play the Israel and Palestine QuickTime Video for the class. Ask the students how Majdi and Mohanned's opinions differ from one another, even though they are both Palestinians involved in suicide bombing plots. (Majdi feels that Islam calls for him to defend his land any way he can, he does not recognize the Jewish state, he will kill an Israeli for every Palestinian killed. Mohanned did not see every Jew as an enemy, did not want to kill innocent people, felt that God wanted him to live.) Part V: Learning Activity #4 Distribute the Religion and Conflict Student Organizer to the class. Ask students to complete the organizer answering the questions regarding how religion plays a role in religious conflict. Discuss the answers to the questions aloud. Part VI: Culminating Activity Students will create an objective newspaper article from the perspective of a reporter who has just witnessed a suicide bombing. The title of the article will be "Suicide Bombings Impact Both Israelis and Palestinians." The article will include background on the conflict, motivations of the bombers, impact of the bombing on Israelis, and a conclusion. The Newspaper Article Template Student Organizer can be used as a template to compete this assignment. Extensions Language Arts Students can research poetry written by young Palestinians and Israelis to gain insight into how young people living in the Middle East deal with the conflict taking place around them. One source is a magazine Web site called "Crossing Borders," at http://www.crossingborder.org/CB29Low.pdf. This is a site bringing youth and educators in conflict areas of the world together. The magazine has poetry, articles and editorials written by educators and youth living in the Middle East. Art Investigate other methods of protest in the Middle East by examining vandalism-type art at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4748063.stm, a BBC article depicting vandalism art on Israel's West Bank wall. This could be compared to vandalism art from the Berlin Wall as well. Music Examine contemporary rock and roll music to see the cross fertilization between Israeli Jews and Arabs in Israel and in Palestine. Community Connections Visit a local mosque or invite a member to come in and speak to your class about current issues facing Muslims in your community. Visit a local synagogue or invite a member to come in and speak to your class about current issues facing Jews in your community. Contact your local law enforcement agency and ask how their policies have changed since the issue of terrorism has become more pressing in the aftermath of the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001.As part of the stories of the year collection, this piece is being resurfaced along with others in the coming days as ESPN Digital and Print Media closes out the year. Check out the full list here. Share with espnW How much do you filter your real self on social? Join the conversation by tagging @espnW and using #LifeUnfiltered when you post your photo and story on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. Madison Holleran's friends share their unfiltered life stories Five of Madison Holleran's friends remove the filter -- literally and metaphorically -- from their social media accounts to disclose their true feelings during the shared moments in their lives. ON THE MORNING of Jan. 17, 2014, Madison Holleran awoke in her dorm room at the University of Pennsylvania. She had spent the previous night watching the movie The Parent Trap with her good friend Ingrid Hung. Madison went to class. She took a test. She told a few friends she would meet them later that night at the dining hall. She went to the Penn bookstore and bought gifts for her family. Share with espnW How much do you filter your real self on social? Join the conversation by tagging @espnW and using #LifeUnfiltered when you post your photo and story on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. Madison Holleran's friends share their unfiltered life stories Five of Madison Holleran's friends remove the filter -- literally and metaphorically -- from their social media accounts to disclose their true feelings during the shared moments in their lives. While she was there, her dad called. "Maddy, have you found a therapist down there yet?" he asked. "No, but don't worry, Daddy, I'll find one," she told him. But she had no intention of finding one. In fact, she was, at that exact moment, buying the items she would leave for her family at the top of a parking garage. Godiva chocolates for her dad. Two necklaces for her mom. Gingersnaps for her grandparents, who always had those cookies in their home. Outfits for her nephew, Hayes, who had been born two weeks earlier. The Happiness Project for Ingrid, with a note scribbled inside. And a picture of herself as a young kid, holding a tennis racket. Over winter break she had told her dad that she was borrowing that picture, that she needed it for something. She didn't say what. Then, on the evening of Jan. 17, just after dusk settled on the city, Madison took a running leap off the ninth level of a parking garage in downtown Philadelphia. She was 19 years old. MADISON LOVED QUOTES. Sometimes she took a picture of the words, spotted in a magazine, and posted the image on social media. Other times she wrote down the quote -- in beautiful script, to be framed -- so she could revisit the sentiment anytime she wanted. She loved to draw, write in her journal and read. She enjoyed long runs, singing in the car, sushi, and bananas with peanut butter. She also loved her big New Jersey family. She was especially close with her dad, whom she called "Big Jimbo." He was her biggest fan. He came to her soccer games and track meets, always wrapping her in a hug afterward. He believed she could do anything. Family and friends used to joke that whenever they opened the Bergen Record, they saw a picture of Madison, another athletic feat captured in print: so many goals scored, so many track meets won. Life seemed good; life was good. Then Madison left for college. She had decided to run track at Penn, only two hours from home, but it felt like a foreign land to her. Everything seemed to change. Running had once made her feel alive, but at Penn she couldn't breathe. Her friends had once made everything better; now they just couldn't understand. EVERYONE IN MADISON'S LIFE holds a piece of her story, possesses a clue: a text message, a vacant look, a deleted Instagram post. In the days after she died, the people who knew her best converged on Allendale, New Jersey, her hometown; siblings (one brother, three sisters), parents (Jim and Stacy), high school friends, college classmates -- all offered their shattered piece to see whether they could rebuild Madison. It was as if they hoped she might be breathed back to life. As if they might then do and say the things they hadn't known she needed. Madison was beautiful, talented, successful -- very nearly the epitome of what every young girl is supposed to hope she becomes. But she was also a perfectionist who struggled when she performed poorly. She was a deep thinker, someone who was aware of the image she presented to the world, and someone who often struggled with what that image conveyed about her, with how people superficially read who she was, what her life was like. THE LIFE MADISON projected on her own Instagram feed was filled with shots that seemed to confirm everyone's expectations: Of course she was loving her first year of college. Of course she enjoyed running. Her mom remembers looking at a photo on her feed and saying, "Madison, you look like you're so happy at this party." "Mom," Madison said. "It's just a picture." Everyone presents an edited version of life on social media. People share moments that reflect an ideal life, an ideal self. Hundreds of years ago, we sent letters by horseback, containing only what we wanted the recipient to read. Fifty years ago, we spoke via the telephone, sharing only the details that constructed the self we wanted reflected. With Instagram, one thing has changed: the amount we consume of one another's edited lives. Young women growing up on Instagram are spending a significant chunk of each day absorbing others' filtered images while they walk through their own realities, unfiltered. In a recent survey conducted by the Girl Scouts, nearly 74 percent of girls agreed that other girls tried to make themselves look "cooler than they are" on social networking sites. No image captures the paradoxes of Madison's Instagram account more than the one she posted just an hour before jumping off the parking garage. Holiday lights are twinkling in the trees of Rittenhouse Square, and Madison put a filter on the image that produced an ethereal quality, almost as if the night is underwater. She seemed acutely aware that the life she was curating online was distinctly different from the one she was actually living. Yet she could not apply that same logic when she looked at the projected lives of others. Before going home for winter break, she asked Ingrid, who was also struggling at Penn, "What are you going to say when you go home to all your friends? I feel like all my friends are having so much fun at school." She and Ashley Montgomery, a friend and track teammate, followed a group of Penn upperclassmen on Instagram. They would scroll through pictures and say to each other, "This is what college is supposed to be like; this is what we want our life to be like." Madison's high school friends had told her they were also struggling. Emma Sullivan was running track at Boston College and having a hard time. Another friend, Jackie Reyneke, was playing basketball at Princeton and feeling overwhelmed. They had all shared some form of their struggles with Madison, yet in her mind, the lives her friends were projecting on social media trumped the reality they were privately sharing. This confused them, and it still does. Checking Instagram is like opening a magazine to see a fashion advertisement. Except an ad is branded as what it is: a staged image on glossy paper. Instagram is passed off as real life. Yes, people filter their photos to make them prettier. People are also often encouraged to put filters on their sadness, to brighten their reality so as not to "drag down" those around them. The myth still exists that happiness is a choice, which perpetuates the notion of depression as weakness. Life must be Instagrammed -- in more ways than one. MADISON ONCE POSTED a picture collage of her dad on Instagram with the caption, "Happy Father's Day to Big Jimbo, the greatest man I've ever known and ever will know. Love you with all my heart Daddio." Every summer they attended the U.S. Open, the last of the tennis grand slams. Madison loved watching the best female players, occasionally wondering aloud whether she could have played tennis at the highest level. "Of course you could," Jim said. The first inkling he had that his daughter wasn't doing well at Penn was when she refused to come with him to Flushing Meadows, site of the U.S. Open, just after the start of her freshman year. She said she was too swamped with schoolwork and practice. He offered to drive down to Philly from Allendale, a four-hour round trip, just so she could get a break from what he sensed had become a high-pressure environment. But Jim didn't press her. "I should have just driven down there and gotten her," he says, letting the sentence trail off. Madison's older sister Ashley had started college at Penn State just two years before. She was unhappy, so she transferred to Alabama, where life improved. Jim and Stacy thought Madison must be going through something similar. A change of scenery was what she needed. An easy fix like that and Madison would continue her upward trajectory. "This is normal," her sister Carli told her. "People leave home, they're unhappy, they transfer -- they figure it out." Madison shook her head: "It's not normal. It's not normal to feel like this." She started seeing a therapist during Thanksgiving break and would continue seeing the woman through winter break. The closest Madison came to a diagnosis was "battling anxiety." "There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that happened when she was younger, growing up, that makes sense of the decision she made," Stacy says. "Am I angry at her? Yes, of course I am." Everyone now agrees that Madison was depressed, though she had never previously exhibited symptoms. (Depression exists on Jim's side of the family.) Something had changed with her brain chemistry. She was not seeing the world in the same way she had before. She had lost weight too, had become so thin as to appear sick. The day before Madison returned to Penn for spring semester, she had a session with her therapist that Jim also attended. She admitted to having suicidal thoughts. "If you have suicidal thoughts, don't act them out," her doctor said. "Either call me or call someone in your family." Madison nodded. As a family, they had never talked about suicide. Jim never considered it a real possibility -- just the dramatic ending to someone else's story. As Carli explains: "Other people battle depression for years. With Madison, it feels like one day she was happy, the next she was sad and the day after she was gone." Jim feared that speaking about suicide would make its likelihood greater. He didn't raise the subject as he and Madison drove back to Philadelphia. Bill Schmitz Jr., former president of the American Association of Suicidology, points out that depression does not have a one-size-fits-all prognosis. "The course varies," he says. "In a way, it's the same as cancer. For some, we might prolong life for months, for years. For others, it can be very sudden." Jim drove Madison back to Philadelphia on Jan. 11. As they approached the exit off I-95, he offered to keep driving, to put Philly in the rearview mirror, to drive south, to the University of North Carolina or Vanderbilt University -- to somewhere, anywhere. She could enroll at a new school, start over. "Let's just keep driving," he said. "Let's enroll you somewhere else." She shook her head. She had promised to meet friends at a Penn basketball game. As he left his daughter that evening, Jim remembers looking at Madison and thinking, She's still not happy; that's not a happy kid I'm walking away from. A few days later, at the start of the spring semester, Stacy and Mackenzie, Madison's youngest sister, drove to Philadelphia to join Madison for a meeting with Steve Dolan, the head track coach at Penn. Madison had told Ingrid she was planning to quit the team. The three Hollerans walked into Dolan's office. Madison pulled out a letter she had written outlining why she wanted to quit. "I need to figure out if track is making me unhappy, or Penn, or if it's something else," she read from the letter. She also spoke of struggling with the training (at that point, she was being coached by an assistant, not Dolan) and with the dorm she was in. She talked about wanting to join a sorority. Dolan listened patiently, but the news surprised him. Madison seemed to have lost perspective, was seeing through a blurred lens, like some kind of dysmorphia. She had excelled in school (GPA of 3.5) and in track during the first semester, despite her constant fears that she was failing at both. To Dolan, she had appeared happy and content. "I support you, and I want you to be happy and healthy," Dolan said. "The decision is yours. Do you not want to keep training, keep running?" Ivy League track is demanding. Madison wasn't the first runner to tell Dolan she might quit. He saw a college freshman in transition, struggling to find her place. Madison folded the letter and put it away. "Yes, I do," she said after a pause. "I want to keep running." Later that week, Madison heard that another member of the track team had quit. "I can't believe that," she said longingly. "I really can't." As they walked out of Dolan's office, Stacy said, "He is one fabulous coach." They walked to Ingrid's dorm room, where Madison told her friend about the meeting, her voice lighter than anyone had heard in months. "I drove home feeling pretty good," Stacy says. "I thought she was actually getting better, or starting to. She seemed better, in my mind anyway. But now I know that she was putting on an act that week." MADISON SPENT WINTER break at home, in Allendale. Over the holiday, she went to her friend Emma Sullivan's house. Emma was one of her best friends; the two spoke more intimately, more deeply, than they did with others, sharing the fears they had about growing up and leaving home. Her most pressing thought: If she quit, wasn't she just a failure? - She sat at the kitchen table with Emma and her mom. Snow fell heavily outside, sheets of white streaming outside the window. The three women sat there for hours. "Why are you not as happy as you used to be?" Emma asked. "Tell us how you're feeling," Emma's mom urged. Madison was unable to identify exactly what had cast her adrift. Was it the disappointment with Penn, once her dream school? Was she homesick? Was track overwhelming her? And the most pressing thought of all: If she quit, wasn't she just a failure? Wouldn't that be the first in what would become a lifetime of letdowns? Madison had always struggled to handle even garden-variety failure. She chased perfection. Once, when a track result wasn't what she expected, she broke down in tears. Outsiders thought she was so gifted she could just show up and run faster than everyone, not knowing how hard she prepared and trained. Madison kept her eyes down while sitting at the kitchen table. Emma remembers feeling that her best friend was lost -- just so lost. Like everyone in Madison's life, Emma urged her to transfer from Penn. "Yeah, it's kind of too late," Madison told Emma. "I'm already at Penn." She said this as if she were locked in a room, the key thrown away. That winter break, Madison wanted to keep her circle of seven friends close. They watched movies together. They slept over at one another's houses. And on the final night of break, they got together for a potluck dinner. (Madison brought store-bought sugar cookies; typically, she would have baked.) They called the night "The Last Supper" because, in the morning, the first among them would leave for the start of spring semester. As the evening ended, Madison said, "Love you, see you soon!" as if they'd all see one another in a few weeks, maybe over spring break, maybe sooner. Later, she sent a text message to Ingrid, a picture of the seven high school friends, arms around one another. "These are the types of friends we need to find at Penn," she said. THE NIGHT OF Jan. 17 was chilly, but not unseasonably so. Madison walked the streets of the city, wearing jeans, a sweater and a coat. She carried a shopping bag filled with the goodbye gifts for her family. For a while, she responded to friends on iMessage. Then she stopped. Just after the sun went down, Madison began walking toward the parking garage at the corner of 15th Street and Spruce. "Madison?" came a voice from across the street. National Suicide Prevention Hotline Are you in crisis? Please take the first step in getting help by calling 1-800-273-TALK (8255). The call is free, and you will be connected to a skilled, trained counselor at a crisis center in your area. Lehigh soccer coach Eric Lambinus was standing on the street with assistant coach Amy Hough. The pair had recruited Madison out of high school, but at the last minute she chose Penn. The coaches were standing outside a restaurant. Eric waved to Madison, and she crossed the street toward them. "How are you?" he asked. Madison mentioned that she was cutting back on track but said otherwise everything was fine. Eric had heard through mutual friends that she was unhappy at Penn, but nothing appeared out of the ordinary. "What's in the bag?" he asked. "Some presents for my family," she said. After a few minutes, Eric told Madison: "Just know there are doors open for you still. There are opportunities." The coach needed to be careful with his words. He didn't want to appear to be poaching another school's student-athlete, but he also wanted to convey to Madison that if she wanted to start the transfer process, to play soccer at Lehigh as she had considered doing out of high school, that option was available. Madison had been one of the best prep soccer players in the state, winning two state titles with Northern Highlands. Madison thanked him. The two said goodbye. She walked away, toward the parking garage. Eric immediately called his wife to tell her about running into Madison, about what a coincidence it was. Perhaps the meeting was serendipitous, he thought. A block away, Madison began climbing the nine flights of stairs. When she reached the top, she placed the bag of gifts where it would easily be found. And a few minutes later -- maybe as few as five or as many as 15 -- she hurdled the silver-colored railing. She landed in the bike lane. A woman who did not see her fall stayed with her until an ambulance arrived. The woman believed Madison had passed out, perhaps drunk. Madison did not look like she had jumped from a building. She looked like she was asleep, the only scratch on her a small one, just above her eye. When Eric walked out of the restaurant a little over an hour later, he heard the wail of police cars and ambulances. Something had happened down the street. He walked the other way to avoid the commotion. "I've gone over that night probably 100 times in my mind," he says. "I wish I had spent a little more time with her, but really nothing seemed out of the ordinary." More than two hours after Madison jumped, at 9 p.m., Stacy received a call from the 215 area code. Even before she picked up, she felt unsettled. "Is Madison OK?" she said. It was Steve Dolan. He told Stacy something was wrong with Madison and he would find out more details and get back to her. Frightened, Stacy called some of Madison's friends at Penn. First on her list was Ingrid. "Where is Madison?" Stacy asked. "Have you seen her?" "No, I haven't, but we were supposed to eat dinner together tonight." "Something is wrong," Stacy said. Ingrid ran the quarter of a mile from her dorm room to Madison's, calling her friend's roommate on the way. The information to that point was limited: Nobody could find Madison. None of it made sense. Ingrid had just seen her friend that morning, and she had seemed the same as any other day. Ingrid burst into Madison's dorm room -- her friend left the door unlocked. Every other time she'd been there, Madison's bed was unmade, clothes draped across the chair. As Ingrid looked around, alarm bells went off in her mind. Madison's bed was crisply made. Within minutes, campus officials were in the room and Ingrid was back on the phone with her friend's mom, who had received a call from the chaplain. "She's gone," Stacy said. No one can say for sure why Madison chose that specific parking garage. Maybe it doesn't matter. Or maybe it does. Maybe comfort exists in believing there is order in the world, even when someone is making the most disorderly decision we know: running toward death instead of away from it. In their absence, we're left trying to pin meaning to air. Nine stories of air. PHILLY IS THE City of Murals. Hundreds of buildings are covered in artwork. There is art on the parking garage from which Madison jumped. On the south side of the structure, on the wall facing Spruce, is a small installation. Quotes, fragments of thoughts, are stenciled in white against a black background, like chalk on a blackboard. The most evocative phrase reads, "She had wings on." The wall looks like the rubble, the stacked words from poems never published. She had wings on. Madison left a suicide note that began, "I thought how unpleasant it is to be locked out, and I thought how it is worse perhaps to be locked in." Previously, in her journal, she had written "Help!" at the top of one page, followed at the bottom by "No, no more help." She also left a copy of the young adult book Reconstructing Amelia, which tells the story of a devastated single mother who pieces together clues about the death of her daughter, who supposedly killed herself by jumping off a building at her prep school. In the book, nothing is as it seems. And at the end, the mother discovers that Amelia didn't jump; she was pushed. Jim cannot bring himself to read the book. "Sometimes it's hard to tell how fast the current's moving until you're headed over a waterfall," the author writes. Madison seemed to see a version of herself in Amelia, in the perfectly crafted veneer that never felt like an honest reflection of her interior life. As though she could never find validation for her struggle because how could someone so beautiful, so seemingly put together, be unhappy? This is illogical, of course. Like thinking a computer's hard drive can't malfunction simply because the screen hasn't a scratch. The day after Madison jumped, Jim walked to the top of the parking garage. He read the phrase, She had wings on. He spoke with Madison's friends. He compiled clues. Then he stopped. He could spend his life trying, in vain, to make his child whole again, he thought. Or he could work to keep others from breaking apart. The Hollerans are trying now to deliver a new message: It's OK to not be OK. It's OK to show people you're not OK. ASHLEY MONTGOMERY IS now a sophomore at Penn, and she still runs track. When she was a freshman, she and Madison would train together; the two were also close away from the sport. For Ashley, sophomore year has gone much better than freshman year, and she often thinks to herself, If only Maddy were around to feel this, to be here. Freshman year of college can be like running an obstacle course wearing a blindfold. Nothing prepares you for how hard the workouts will be, how long they last, what each class will be like, which events are fun and which should be avoided. Once, as she and Ashley ran through the Penn campus, Madison spotted a quote on the side of a building, part of a mural. She stopped to take a picture. Then she uploaded the image to Instagram. A few hours later, when Ashley went to Instagram to see the picture, the image was gone. Madison had deleted it. After Madison died, Ashley went running, hoping to find the mural that had caught the attention of her friend. She couldn't. "We all shared what we knew, and
, agreed and said he doesn’t think the 18-pack will cause as a big a splash as others believe. “I have 8,000 square feet dedicated to beer. Is one more package going to make a difference?” he said.About This Software America’s #1 Estate Planning Software Quicken WillMaker Plus 2018 is the easiest way to create your estate plan, whether you're just getting started or you want to update your previous arrangements. This powerful software guides you through the process from beginning to end, giving you the practical and legal information you need to make the best decisions for you and your family. The benefits of using Quicken WillMaker Plus 2018 include: • A customized estate plan, including a will, health care directive and other essential documents • An easy-to-use interview format that lets you complete documents at your own pace • A user-friendly legal manual answers common questions • A team of lawyer-editors working to ensure each document reflects the laws of your state* Quicken WillMaker Plus 2018 is the original will-writing software, created and updated regularly by Nolo’s experts. Free legal updates will keep your program current through 2018. Technical support is also available. Plus, get a free-living trust and five other valuable online documents! Registering your copy of Quicken WillMaker Plus 2018 gives you a free one-year subscription to Nolo’s Online Living Trust. Here’s a closer look at what you can do with Quicken WillMaker Plus 2018 Your Will The heart of every estate plan is a will, also known as a last will and testament. This legal document puts you in control of who inherits your property and who would take care of your children if it were ever necessary. Without a will, state law determines these issues. Your will also allows you to name an executor (sometimes called a “personal representative”) to carry out our wishes. And you can appoint a trusted person to manage property left to young people. With Quicken WillMaker Plus, you can revise and update your will whenever you like. Also, use Quicken WillMaker Plus to give your executor authority over your digital assets, including social media accounts, online banking and more. Your Health Care Directive Spare your loved one’s difficult decisions by laying out your wishes for medical care and naming someone to carry out your instructions: • Health Care Power of Attorney Name a trusted person (your "health care agent") to make important medical decisions for you if necessary. • Living Will State what types of medical treatment you do or do not want if you are too ill or injured to direct your own care. Your health care providers must do all they can to follow your wishes. Your Durable Power of Attorney for Finances A durable power of attorney ensures that someone you trust (called your "agent" or "attorney-in-fact") will be on hand to manage the many practical, financial tasks that will arise if you become incapacitated. For example, bills must be paid, bank deposits must be made and someone must handle insurance and benefits paperwork. In most cases, a durable power of attorney for finances is the best way to take care of tasks like these. You can give your attorney-in-fact authority over your digital assets. Your Final Arrangements Plan a funeral or other ceremony and ease the burden on your loved ones. Describe your preferences for burial, cremation, memorials, obituaries and more. Documents for Your Executor Make sure your executor has all the forms and instructions necessary to do the job: checklists, letters, notices and claim forms. Information for Caregivers and Survivors Organize your information so that your survivors don't have to. Use these documents to give them details about everything from bank accounts, to passwords, to the names of people you'd like contacted in the event of your illness or death. Letter to Survivors Use the Letter to Survivors to leave your loved one’s detailed explanations about your decisions. For example, you may want to let them know why you made certain gifts or named a particular person to be your executor. You can also use your letter to leave some general thoughts about your life. Personal Finance Documents Over a dozen forms let you handle common financial situations, such as lending or borrowing money between friends or family, creating a bill of sale, and closing a credit card account. Home & Family Documents Practical forms you can use every day to help run your home and keep your family safe, including authorizations and agreements, promissory notes, limited powers of attorney, and child and elder care forms.Image caption Activists recently chained themselves to a drill ship off Shetland before swimming in front of it Licensing of oil and gas exploration in UK waters has been cut back by the UK government in its bid to ensure protection of marine wildlife. The 26th round of offshore licensing, since it began in the 1960s, was announced on Wednesday. They include 22 licences for deep water drilling across 64 sea blocks, in depths of more than 500 metres to the north and west of Shetland. In recent months, these have been opposed by environment campaigners. The total number of licences granted in the latest round has been cut by more than a quarter to 144, with fewer companies involved than the 25th round. These cover more than 300 blocks of sea area. Some 45 other licences, covering 99 blocks, have been withheld while further work is carried out on potential damage to marine wildlife and eco-systems. Tests are to be carried out on the potential impact of oil spills, digging pipeline trenches and underwater noise, in particular seismic tests. The areas affected include an area of sea off the north coast of Norfolk and in the Thames Estuary, plus Liverpool Bay. 'Healthy interest' European conservation regulations require special status protection of sea areas north of the Isle of Lewis, west of Mull, west of the Scilly Isles, on sandbanks off East Anglia, and with consideration of that protection being extended to a large area of the Dogger Bank, east of the Humber. The UK government claimed the latest licensing round shows interest in offshore oil and gas drilling remains vibrant. Energy Minister Charles Hendry said: "It's encouraging to see the healthy level of interest there is from industry to make the most of the UK's still substantial resources of oil and gas. "Whilst in the long-term, we want to decarbonise our energy system, we have moved swiftly to offer these licences as we must realise the optimum value from the UK's energy resources and ensure secure energy supplies. "We remain absolutely vigilant and determined to ensure that exploration in our waters is done safely and with minimal impact to the environment." Malcolm Webb, chief executive of industry body Oil and Gas UK, said the commitment to new drilling licences was very welcome. But he added: "We note with concern that a further 99 blocks have been held back, awaiting the results of environmental assessments being carried out by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). "We would urge the government to conclude this process as quickly as possible to allow prospective licensees to move ahead swiftly with investment in new exploration activity. "The industry takes its environmental responsibilities very seriously." "Oil & Gas UK stresses its commitment to working closely with the government and other agencies to ensure that our exploration and production activities are carried out with maximum attention to ensuring safety and the protection of the environment".Why you should read this article: Because your business might benefit from this professional 3D printer. No matter how colorful and complex the object you imagine is, the Projet 4500 can deliver it. As 2013 was coming to an end, awareness of 3D printing technologies had exploded, leading people in search of the most complete, versatile, affordable and convenient printer. The harsh reality though, was that a perfect machine capable of printing every material, color and shape simply didn’t exist at the time. Almost exactly one year later, 3D Systems, the first and still one of the largest 3D printer producer in the world, gave everyone an opportunity revisit their consideration for the perfect machine, presenting the new, sensation Projet 4500: a full color plastic 3D printer. Rapid prototyping made easy and convenient: 3D Systems Projet Before the Projet 4500, 3D Systems offered the color printer models in the Projet x60 series. They could (and still can, as they are probably the most common color 3D printer in the world) create objects at high resolutions but the use mainly gypsum based materials that are extremely brittle and therefore usable mostly for static prototypes and statuettes. Another 3D printer, the IRIS by mcor Technologies, uses full color laminated paper but it is slow and the resulting models are still rigid. The other largest 3D printer manufacturer, Stratasys, proposed launched the Objet500 Connex 3, a machine which can 3D print with multiple material and in multiple colors, although they choice is more limited and the price is affordable only to top design studios. Leveraging on CJP (color jet printing) technology and plastic powders such as the VisiJet C4 Spectrum, the Projet 4500 represents the latest evolutionary step for the 3D colored printing process invented by ZCorporation (or Zcorp) and later acquired by 3D Systems. This printer manages to combine the best characteristics of all these processes, allowing users to create, quickly and easily, objects that are resistant, flexible, durable, functional and colorful. Too good to be true? Color quality is important when it comes to prototyping or printing small quantities (Image: 3D Systems) Everyone knows how essential color is in order for the 3D printing to reach consumers. The Projet 4500’s advancement is equivalent to the first color movies or first color photo studio, back in the days when pictures were still in black and white. The switch is inevitable and unstoppable: in real life even more than in movies and photos, colors make everything beautiful and more alive, whether it’s an architectural model or an iPhone case. If you have the nearly 70.000 euro it takes to buy one, printing with Projet 4500 is incredibly simple. The machine will auto-start and automatically perform all checks and calibrations to its mechanical systems. The software provided by 3D Systems is fully compatible with any Windows 7 and Windows Vista PC, and is able to read and correct any OBJ file which, just like the STL format, is used to define 3D printable designs, although OBJ also contains color information. You can also control the printing from tablets and smart-phones using the corresponding Print3D application. In general, the formats that are supported are the STL, VRML, PLY and ZPR (ZPrint) and the machine is able to replicate the colors in Continuous CMY (cyan, magenta, yellow). These are the main mixing inks used in any color printing in order to derive with up to a million colorful combinations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFcQ15rSI4Y Its modern design and aesthetics make it look like an object from the future. Perhaps the only disappointment is its dimensions as the machine size measures at 162x152x80 cm, which, is about five feet in height and width, and has a print area of only 203x254x203 mm that is equivalent to about 10,500 cc. Yet, in this space it is possible to insert up to 18 different models with a diameter of 75 mm. Moreover, one of the most interesting aspects of binder jetting (which is the generic term used to describe technologies based on powder and adhesives, such as this) is that it does not need any supports for the model, since each part is supported by the surrounding non-glued powder. The Projet 4500 will also be interesting for bigger 3D figurines studios (Image: 3D Systems) Just pressing the “start” button will initiate the color jet printing process. A mechanical arm spreads a layer of dust, while at the same time a second mechanical arm moves to release a binder (glue) with very high precision. The layer resolution can reach 100 microns. The color is applied to the outer edge of the layer pixel by pixel with a resolution of 600 x 600 dpi, and the printing plate is lowered to let the arm lie down against the dust. Layer by layer the object quickly takes shape. The particles are held together by the glue and unlike the Projet x60’s plaster-like material, once the object has been completed the material is heated so that the powder particles adhere more to each other, conferring a much superior flexibility to the finished product. When printing phase is over, the model is placed in the post-processing station which is part of the machine itself and adjacent to the printing process. This way, the dust is not dispersed into the environment and it is possible to recycle larger material quantities: just because the VisiJet C4 Spectrum is not a particularly expensive material, does not mean it should be wasted. With a rate of about one centimeter per hour in height (the “Z axis”), the Projet 4500 is not the fastest machine in the world, but if you manage to place multiple models in the printing table, it can be considered quite effective for small productions. And yes: The Projet 4500 can also print iPhone cases (Image: 3D Systems) If you are considering starting a full color 3D printing service, this printer is probably the most suitable machine. To fully take advantage of Projet 4500 though, you will also need a good quality 3D scanner that supports color-detection, like the Artec EVA and Spider. You should also really train your 3D design skills, as you will need to be able to offer some serious added value designs – such as architectural models and industrial prototypes – in order to return of your investment in a relatively short time. All over the world, on-demand 3D printing and “physical photos” services are on the rise. The main product offer available today consists of statuettes and “mini-me’s”, but tomorrow their use may be extended to everything from a puppy to any family memory and special moments. I until a few months ago it seemed impossible that 3D models could ever become as common as photos, this 3D printes makes it more plausible than ever before. No matter how colorful and complex the object you imagine is, the Projet 4500 can deliver it. A real “dream factory”.I started jogging recently. I should say that I started jogging “again.” Years ago I ran but I had to stop because I started having seizures when I ran. I guess I forgot that because when I started to run this time I started to have seizures again. There are so many things in my life that I have given up because of seizures. Things from my life that I once enjoyed or used that are no longer a part of my life. Things that I avoid because they are now and forever associated with a seizure. I am a big fan of “The Simpsons” and “Futurama.” I had a particularly bad seizure while watching an episode of Futurama. There was a musical number during that episode. I have heard the song several times since then. It totally triggers a memory of that seizure. I know it’s a small thing but that song triggers a very strong memory in me. I hate it. I used to wear CK1 cologne. I had several seizures while wearing it. I get near any person wearing it (or anything that reminds me of it) and I get physically ill. It’s probably my worst one. I get physically ill when I smell CK1. There are several people in my life that remind me of seizures. I don’t like to hear their voice or even really see them. I don’t want to say who they are in case they read this – but they make me very uncomfortable. They remind me of episodes. I mean…I have lost friends. How many things do we avoid in our lives? How many things do we lose? How many things are just gone? We wake up and something has been taken away from us? The strange thing is that we don’t spend a lot of time thinking about these things. They are simply no longer there. They are gone from our mind because we don’t want to think about them. They are like holes in our memory because they are associated with this horrible thing that we don’t like to think about. So we forget that seizures have, in fact, stolen these things from us; things that we once enjoyed and even cherished. Until we bump into them again we forget these things even exist. And then we run away from them. We see them and think, “Oh yeah. I used to like you. Now go away.” These things become an ex-lover that we had a horrible falling out with. It’s sad, really. But that can be said about so many things associated with falling down.Image copyright Times Media A white South African teenager has undergone a traditional circumcision, even though dozens of boys die each year in such ceremonies, which are seen as a rite of passage into manhood in some communities. He told the BBC's Pumza Fihlani it had changed him for the better. Seventeen-year-old Brandon de Wet, from South Africa's Eastern Cape province, went through with the ritual, which is not without its risks, with his Xhosa friend of 13 years, Yanelisa Somyo. "It was a really tough road and was like nothing I've ever experienced," Brandon told the BBC about the three-week long experience in the mountains. I can understand a bit of Xhosa but my surgeon would explain the details of what was going to happen and why is was important in English Brandon de Wet "It was challenging mentally but it was worth it," he said proudly. The practice of ritual circumcision is common among ethnic Xhosas and Ndebeles - two of South Africa's most numerous communities. "Yanelisa and I have been friends since we started school as young boys. Sharing this with him has strengthened our friendship even more," says Brandon. "I also have a better understanding of his culture." The two go to a mainly white private school in the city of East London. They were joined by Yanelisa's cousin Mbuzeli Somyo. When young Xhosa boys are aged between 15 and 17, their families prepare to take them to an initiation school - where they will be under the care of an "ingcibi", a traditional surgeon, and an "ikhankatha", a traditional nurse. This ritual is usually performed over the June school holidays or in December. Secrecy Deep in the mountains, they are taught the virtues of manhood and how to become upstanding men in their communities, among other things. Image copyright Times media Image caption The boys spent weeks in a hut in a secluded area where only men can visit But it is a practice steeped in secrecy, so Brandon is careful not to give any intimate details of what he and his friend went through. True to tradition he simply says that it was a "difficult time". He recalls how accommodating his ingcibi was throughout his time there - but said he did not receive any special treatment. "I can understand a bit of Xhosa but my surgeon would explain the details of what was going to happen and why it was important in English," says Brandon. I sat him down and tried to persuade him to change his mind. But I could tell that his mind was made up Charlene de Wet, Brandon's mother Although most aspects of the ceremony are secret, some aspects are known. After the circumcision operation, the boys enter a specially built hut called an iboma, where they live together throughout the initiation period. Their families prepare food for them and send young girls to deliver it. The incibi will give instructions on what food should be prepared for the initiates. He treats the boys' wounds with herbal mixtures and is expected to monitor the healing process to make sure that there are no infections. During this time the boys are clothed only in loincloths and covered in blankets, while white mud is smeared all over their body. At the end of the initiation period they all bath at a river and wash off the mud - a symbol of leaving their "old selves" behind. They burn the iboma where they had been living, another sign of leaving the old behind and beginning a new life. The initiates then paint their bodies with red mud - this is how everyone at the homecoming knows that they have finished the entire course. They are also given new blankets, which only those who have completed the ritual are allowed to wear. In recent years many have begun to question the role of traditional circumcision in a modern society, especially with dozens of boys dying at bogus initiation schools every year. Deadly side of circumcision Image copyright AFP More than 20,000 young boys visit initiation schools in the Eastern Cape each year Traditional circumcision is practised by the Xhosa and Ndebele communities Close to 300 boys were rescued from illegal initiation schools and hospitalised this winter Almost 50 boys died in Mpumalanga and Limpopo in May from botched circumcisions while 30 died in the Eastern Cape province Hospitals across South Africa perform circumcisions to curb the spread of HIV Source: South Africa's Department of Health All traditional surgeons should be registered with the authorities - in the past, they were well-known members of the community but recently untrained people have seen setting up initiation schools as a way to make money, locals say. In the current initiation season alone, more than 70 boys across the country have died from dehydration, gangrene and septic wounds and others from multiple assault after weeks of maltreatment at the hands of their supposed carers. Knowing all this, it was an especially difficult decision for Brandon's parents to go along with. "I sat him down and tried to persuade him to change his mind. But I could tell that his mind was made up," his mother Charlene de Wet told me. "The only thing that gave me comfort was knowing that the Somyo family would take good care of him and they did," she said. "I remember the day he left, the goodbye was so abrupt. They just whisked him away. I felt both sad and anxious." Traditionally, women are not allowed to come into contact with the boys during their initiation period. They are not allowed to ask questions about what happens in the mountains - a sign of the patriarchy that exists in rural South Africa. About 20,000 boys in Eastern Cape go to initiation schools during each season, according to the province's health department. But those who swear by the practice say that when done in the correct way, it poses no threat to the lives of the young men. "This is an ancient practice that has an important role in grooming our sons. I underwent it as a young man, it helped to shape me into the man I am today," Mlibo Qoboshiyane, Eastern Cape's local government and traditional affairs minister, told the BBC. However, families need to play a more active role in the process, he says, firstly by ensuring that they choose a reputable "ingcibi" and "ikhankatha" and secondly by visiting their boys regularly to make sure that they are being treated well. A hero's welcome Brandon's father, Dave de Wet, agrees. As a man, he was allowed to visit his son. They were welcomed back like heroes. It was a really proud moment for us Dave de Wet, Brandon's father "I checked on my boy every other day. This helped me to be comfortable with what was happening," he said. On the day of their homecoming to Gqumashe village, there was a huge feast and euphoric celebration; the boys, now considered men, were received like kings. There was singing, ululating and dancing. "The outpouring of love from the community was just overwhelming," Mr de Wet told the BBC. "It was a really proud moment for us." Some villagers were surprised to see a white boy with the other initiates initially but Brandon says they made him feel like part of that community. But not all initiates return to such festivities. During the June holiday season, 300 boys were admitted into hospitals across the province, 10 of whom had their penises amputated because of their wounds. And five men have been arrested in connection with the deaths of 30 boys. Mr de Wet tells me that this experience was a learning curve not just for Brandon but for his entire family. All three boys are back home in East London, and normal life has resumed. But Brandon's parent say they have noticed a change in their son. "He seems a lot more placid, a lot more mature. This experience has definitely changed him," his mother says. His father says it has been an "invaluable lesson for him". "He was exposed to another way of life and now has a deeper appreciation of the luxuries that he would have otherwise taken for granted."Share. Roger, roger. Roger, roger. [Disclosure: The Star Wars Battlefront 2 campaign is co-written by former IGN editor Mitch Dyer.] Star Wars Battlefront 2 feels like its 2015 predecessor took a hard look at itself and discovered what it wanted to be: a fun, strategic shooter. I was excited for the first game, but ultimately disillusioned by the characterless shooter hiding behind a Star Wars skin. It was accessible, sure, and sometimes even fun, but I dropped it after two weeks. After just a little time with Battlefront 2’s multiplayer, I know this game has the potential to keep my attention all thanks to a major change: classes. The original Battlefront’s loose loadout system was seemingly inviting in its flexibility, but ultimately left me a little disappointed. The new class system still offers player customization, but also has some much needed structure. Each of the four classes (Assault Trooper, Heavy Trooper, Officer, and Specialist) have three equippable abilities that vary based on the player’s collection of Star Cards similar to the original. This time, however, Star Cards allow for more strategy as each class is outfitted with a standard set of abilities (like the Specialist’s trip mine and scanner) that make each class more defined outside of their weaponry and mobility. I would have liked to have seen more of the Star Cards, but the standard loadout fit to each class felt just fine too. Exit Theatre Mode Although I tried each of the classes, I mostly stuck with the Officer class. It was the one I was most curious about since it’s a support role, but it’s not a straight medic. Instead, the Officer emits a buff that increases ally recovery and reduces damage. Once I got the hang of it, I felt like I was actually making a good contribution to my team with that ability and my friendly turret. Racking in the points from essentially boosting those around me also awarded me a prime position on the leaderboard thanks to all the points I earned from helping numerous teammates at once (and from getting some pretty decent kills, of course). It felt good to have some sort of sustainability on the team, but I didn’t feel overly responsible for take care of individuals. “ Tokens have been replaced with the Battle Points system for unlocking vehicles and heroes. Those extra points were especially handy since Tokens have been replaced with the Battle Points system for unlocking heroes, special units, and vehicles. It doesn’t take too long to save up for an upgrade, but if you want to play Rey or Darth Maul, it’ll (thankfully) take some time before you’ll have enough to unlock them. The coveted heroes are given a specialization update, too. Boba Fett is more of a scout with verticality and rockets for a wider range of damage, while Darth Maul is a fast, close combat Force user. Though I didn’t get to play Rey, EA emphasized that her specialization is mind control. Suddenly I feel like I have a lot more context for the interrogation scene in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Her willpower was what I thought overpowered Kylo, not her natural talent for manipulation. Battlefront 2 is canon, so it’s interesting to see how the DICE team creates the kit for each of the heroes and how those can give us a unique insight into each of the characters. Exit Theatre Mode I played Theed, and made sure the handlers put me on the Separatists side – I happen to really like the Trade Federation's silly battle droids. Their banter was as fun as I was hoping, and it was especially satisfying to help my fellow droids take down a Rey on a rampage. Generally the weapons feel better too. My Officer couldn’t snipe an enemy from across the map (unlike the strange uniformity the blasters seem to have in the previous Battlefront) but I was especially effective at a closer range when paired with my turret. Battlefront 2 still needs some balance tweaks – heroes and the heavy assault soldiers felt a little too overpowered – but it has a lot of potential, especially with its campaign (which you can read more about in our hands-on impressions preview). Did I mention this game is gorgeous? Because the three-phase battle took us through brilliant areas on Naboo that I wish I would have had time to explore. Yeah, I’m ready for more. Miranda Sanchez is an Editor at IGN. You can chat with her about video games and anime on Twitter.A filmmaker of the modern era, James Cameron, who has made some of the best science fiction films: Titanic, Aliens and The Terminator, is responsible for making Titanic the most successful film of all time. It has supposedly raked in nearly $2 billion worldwide. To his credit, he is now also known for the film with the biggest budget ever. Most Expensive Movie This Canadian-born director enthralled filmgoers across the world with his $500 million years-in-the-making sci-fi epic, “Avatar.” You don’t agree with this figure? Determining the final cost of the film is a trick in itself. As you would have seen, there have been wildly different reports published, ranging from $230 million to nearly $500 million. But recent estimates put the final costs at about $310 million – only that of production, excluding marketing and other costs. Was Avatar worth it? Critics say that hundreds of millions of dollars is too much to spend on a film with a bunch of blue aliens. They find it over-priced and feel that money could have been spent much better elsewhere. But then Hollywood is not known for it’s economizing, it’s known for its excess. Wonder how the production cost of a film affects your enjoyment of it? It is to James Cameron’s credit, that viewers were completely taken in by the movie and all thoughts of the price tag vanished after the credits rolled. Cameron’s 3-D science fiction film, “Avatar,” was distributed by 20th Century Fox. James Gianopulos, CEO of Fox Filmed Entertainment said, “It is the most expensive film we’ve made, but now, having the luxury of hindsight, it is money well spent, so I’m not concerned about it.” Fox is happy, as “Avatar” grossed $601.1 million in just 47 days, and it took 252 days for Titanic to cross the $600 million mark. The total estimated worldwide gross for Avatar is over $2.782 billion. If the projected numbers are right, “Avatar’s” budget exceeded that of the most expensive movie ever made, and that crown was held by “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End,” with an estimated budget of $300 million. But this is nothing new for Fox, as it has been here with Cameron with “Titanic” (1997), his previous feature, with an estimated $200 million. That investment paid off big time when the film bagged nearly $2 billion worldwide, along with a clutch of awards including the Oscar for the best director going to Cameron himself. Generally, whenever there is talk about a movie budget, the talk usually involves the production costs, which includes the cost of building the sets, special effects, hiring actors, and this includes their diet needs too. The marketing costs are not taken into consideration. So, if you read about the Pirates of the Caribbean movie costing $300 million, they are not talking about the cost of advertising Johnny Depp’s face on all the billboards in town. Where Avatar is concerned, it is a known fact that the production costs have been shared with other investors: Ingenious Film Partners and Dune Capital Management. The News Corporation has also carried a smaller share of the production cost. This is done to hedge the risk. The filmmakers were also at an advantage due to the tax credit they received in New Zealand, where they shot about a third of the film. So, they got to save $30 million here. The marketing budget is again taken care of by Fox, and this tally’s up to about $150 million. We’re not including this in the cost of the film. How does one account for the 3D cameras and the motion capture tools used by the director to create the amazing world of Avatar? Most of these expenses are also not included in the $310 million. The price tag would certainly be higher if Cameron’s financial contribution and others were included. Along with the global marketing expenses, “Avatar” may have very well have costed the $500 million, as many reports stated. But from the movie industry’s perspective, “Avatar” is the most expensive movie ever made in more ways than one. They say that the film’s ability to motivate cinema owners to change to 3D screens and ushering in a new era of mass 3D-movie watching; is of exceptional value. Rumors go that Cameron has already sketched out the storylines for two more Avatar films. Well, going by his track record, it’s hard not to think BIG! Tags: Avatar, expensive movie, most expensive moviePokémon hunting in the Garden can be a great way to stop and take a closer look at some of the gardens while connecting with other visitors. Ordinarily, we love our visitors to enjoy our gardens with their senses, not their phones, but with the new Pokémon GO app, you can do both. Essentially an app that lets you run around and catch Pokémon using GPS and the camera on your phone, Pokémon GO has taken over the imaginations of kids and adults alike since its recent release. The game is global—users can play anywhere in the world—and the Garden is one of the locations with many features for those using the game. Nearly 50 PokéStops dot the Garden grounds, typically tied to sculptures and commemorative plaques embedded in walkways. In addition, six Gyms—virtual locations where players can train and battle their Pokémon—are currently found on-site. But that’s not all that’s to be found: the gardens are a mass of blooms and butterflies, herons and hostas, and beautiful sunsets. The best of both worlds—real and virtual—is here. As you discover the Garden and the Pokémon here, please keep these tips in mind: Look up! Please always be aware of people around you, especially in the Visitor Center. This is a popular location to plant Lures, as people take a break and eat at the Garden View Café and on outdoor decks. When you find a Pokémon on a path or in a garden, please take a moment to look around you first—you want to frame your screen shot nicely, but you also don’t want to ruin the visitor experience for our other guests, who may not have any idea what you are doing with your phone. Walk away, and walk back. If the GPS signal stops or you can’t get to a particular PokéStop, just keep walking. There is probably another one close by that’ll spit out more PokéBalls, eggs, and potions. The perimeter of the Garden is less crowded with Pokémon hunters, and it is a beautiful 2.3-mile walk. Hatch an egg or five while you take in the sights from afar. The Dixon Prairie is in full bloom, and the East Road offers a lovely vista of the Elizabeth Hubert Malott Japanese Garden. Visit the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Plant Conservation Science Center Green Roof Gardens (where a Pikachu was spotted earlier this week), and get back to the main gardens over the Trellis Bridge. Find nighttime Pokémon as you picnic at our evening concerts. The Garden is open through 9 p.m. all summer, so stay late, and join us Monday through Thursday nights for open-air concerts at the Garden. Pack a picnic and some lawn chairs—and maybe an extra battery charger. Activate a lure in the app to attract Pokémon to one of the PokeStops nearby while you enjoy the music. Get creative. The Garden is always a great place to take photos. Get creative by trying to screenshot your Pokémon frolicking on the grounds. Get a shot of Goldeen swimming in a fountain, position Pidgey on the branch of a Linden tree, or catch Charmander riding a train in the Model Railroad Garden. The photos are also a great way to remember what you saw in the Garden, since the app’s journal tells you when you caught certain Pokémon but not where. Use the photos as visual reminders of the places you enjoyed on your Pokémon hunt and as a way to mark what you’d want to experience further on a future visit, either on another virtual adventure or for an unplugged trek. Tell us what you find. Grab a screen shot and tag us on social media with #CBGPokemonGO—we’d love to know what you find and share with our other visitors. We have found that Meowth is almost always hanging around the entrance to the Garden, which is also a Gym location, as well as the path to the Visitor Center. Psyduck is usually on the southern end of the Garden, but a Golduck has been spotted by the Crescent Garden. There’s a lot of water here, so expect to catch Goldeen, Magicarp, Polliwag, Shellder, and Staryu. A garden is full of birds and bugs, and ours is no exception—Pidgey and Spearow abound; Weedle, Metapod, Caterpie, and Kakuna are out and about. Ratata can be found near buildings, of course, and Eevee can be found throughout the Garden. Dratini and Bellsprout were lurking here this morning. ©2016 Chicago Botanic Garden and my.chicagobotanic.orgImage caption There are about 2,000 boilers accredited to the RHI scheme The independent public inquiry into a flawed green energy scheme has been told that the scandal struck at the heart of Northern Ireland's democratic institutions. The claim was made at the opening of the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme inquiry by David Scoffield QC. The government scheme, which started in 2012, helped collapse the Stormont Assembly in January. It encouraged businesses to switch from fossil fuels to biomass or woodchip. But a lack of cost controls meant it could have an overspend of £700m over 20 years. The inquiry, which is being led by retired appeal court judge Sir Patrick Coughlin, opened on Tuesday morning. He said that the inquiry would seek to be a "measured, objective, independent and publicly-transparent
expansion franchises and an increasingly expansive sense of what a basketball uniform could look like, the NBA went a little nuts that season. How nuts? Let's look at five of the designs that debuted during the 1995-96 season: Vancouver Grizzlies AP Photo/Elaine Thompson If you're an expansion team looking to make a splashy debut, this is one way to do it. Oh man, where to start? It's nice that they tried to incorporate First Nations iconography on the collar trim, armhole trim and shorts, but it looked so clunky. (Bonus points for including the symbols on the right shorts leg but not the left.) The cartoonish chest lettering didn't exactly help, the teal-based color scheme was trendy for its time but looks hopelessly dated today, and the big grizzly on the shorts was, uh, an inspired touch. There's a fine line between uniform and costume, and this design was on the wrong side of it. Toronto Raptors Getty Images The Grizzlies weren't the only Canadian expansion team looking to turn heads in 1995. Over in Toronto, the Raptors used the other trendy color of the 1990s, purple, as a background color and slapped a cartoon dinosaur on it, a combination that quickly led fans to call this uniform "the Barney design." Among other problems, this uni represented a major missed opportunity for an infinite regression: The jersey should have shown a dinosaur wearing a jersey with a dinosaur wearing a jersey with a dinosaur, ad infinitum uniformum. What a pity. Atlanta Hawks Allsport The Hawks already had a history of pushing the uni-related envelope, having previously experimented with lime green and bold diagonal type. But their 1995 design pushed more than just the envelope -- it pushed the whole file cabinet and maybe even the entire office supply store. From the hawk's laughably elongated talons to the red-to-black gradation on the shorts, the design seemed like something out of a video game. You might say that means this uniform was actually ahead of its time. Or you might just say it looked ridiculous and leave it at that. Milwaukee Bucks Rocky Widner/Getty Images The Bucks had introduced a fairly sedate uniform set in 1994, but in '95, they augmented it with a new alternate design featuring a buck. The thing is, a buck is a tricky animal to use on a uniform. If you only the show the head, it looks like a wall-mounted trophy. If you show the whole body, it looks like a hunter's target. If you try to make it look ferocious or intimidating, it just ends up looking absurd. But if you don't make it look at least somewhat aggressive, it ends up looking too much like Bambi. The Bucks' 1995 solution -- show the head and a bit of the body and make it look fairly realistic, with a hint of an aggressively furrowed brow -- wasn't bad, but the green-and-purple color scheme made the whole thing look garish. Houston Rockets Getty Images After wearing a perfectly functional uniform design for nearly a quarter-century (and winning back-to-back championships in 1994 and '95), the Rockets shook things up in 1995-96 by unveiling a new color scheme and a design that was certainly, well, unusual. As with most of the other designs from the class of '95, the overall feel was cartoonish. Whose bright idea was it to put pinstripes on a basketball uni? Seriously, of all the people on earth, do NBA players need to accentuate the vertical in order to look taller? All-Star Game Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE/Getty Images In addition to all the bizarro team uniforms in 1995-96, the NBA also went with a pretty radical All-Star uniform set. The bar had already been set pretty high the previous season, which featured cactus-themed unis for the All-Star tilt in Phoenix. With the game shifting to San Antonio, the league swapped in a chili pepper while maintaining the same overall visual theme. (Also, notice anything about the colors? Purple one year, teal the next. Those two colors were everywhere in the '90s.) There were other notable NBA uniforms in the 1990s, of course -- the Nets' "denim" design, the Pistons' flaming Pegasus and the Kings' split-personality look among them. But the class of '95 marked a pinnacle (or, if you prefer, a nadir) for the decade's unusual hardcourt stylings. For better or worse, these uniforms didn't have much staying power. The one that survived the longest was Houston's, which was in use for eight seasons. Vancouver's was next, with five seasons, and the others lasted only four. All were replaced by more sedate, conventional designs. Twenty years later, the designs from the class of '95 have reached that sweet spot that lies somewhere between nostalgia and kitsch. Many fans can laugh about them or even embrace them as throwback uniforms, but few would want to see them brought back on a full-time basis. Meanwhile, the basketball uniform design pendulum might be swinging back toward more innovative looks. Have you seen the Hawks' new uni set? It makes their '95 design look tame. Let's meet back here in 20 years and see how it looks with two decades' worth of hindsight, shall we? Would you like to nominate a uniform to be showcased in a future Friday Flashback installment? Send your suggestions here. Paul Lukas will have this year's NBA season preview sometime around Oct. 22. If you liked this column, you'll probably like his Uni Watch Blog, plus you can follow him on Twitter and Facebook. Want to learn about his Uni Watch Membership Program, be added to his mailing list so you'll know when a new column has been posted or just ask him a question? Contact him here.While AP sends threatening letters to bloggers, blames Google for their woes, and plots the overthrow of Fair Use, their biggest wire-service competitors, Reuters, is smartly positioning itself for the future. Thomson Reuters' media group president Chris Ahearn recently tweeted that his company "stands ready to help those who wish an alternative to the AP," the Reuters competitor that has proclaimed it is "mad as hell" at various internet fiends. AP is trying to charge people for quoting as few as five words of its content. Ahearn has elaborated on his "alternative" in a blog post, writing that too many traditional media organizations waste manpower "recycling commodity news" and that they should instead seek to retool, including by forging a new "win-win relationship" with new media. The executive dispenses bluntly with those who would point the finger, like AP: Blaming the new leaders... or saber-rattling and threatening to sue are not business strategies – they are personal therapy sessions. Go ask a music executive how well it works... Let's stop whining and start having real conversations. [...] Reuters is even authorizing bloggers to "hyperlink" and excerpt its side of things, as God and the U.S. Code intended. Imagine that.(Photo: Empty Wallet via Shutterstock) Donald Trump is wrong. We don’t need to “Make America Great Again.” We need to let Americans fail again. It all starts by solving our student loan crisis. According to recent reporting by the Wall Street Journal, the most recent graduating class, the class of 2015, was the most indebted in US history. Students who threw caps in celebration last May held, on average, $35,000 in debt. While that’s only a few thousand dollars more than the average amount of debt held by students who graduated one year earlier in 2014, it’s over $20,000 more than the average amount of debt held by students who graduated 10 years earlier in 2005. There’s absolutely no reason to expect that the class of 2016 won’t be in even more debt. See more news and opinion from Thom Hartmann at Truthout here. The worst part of all, though, is that that there is no escape for the estimated 37 million Americans struggling to pay off their college loans. Thanks to the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 2005, it’s now illegal for them to get rid of their student loans through bankruptcy, something you can do with pretty much every other kind of debt. Do you know what other types of payments are illegal to discharge through bankruptcy? Child support payments, criminal reparations and unpaid taxes. That’s right, the US legal code treats college grads the same way it treats child-support-dodgers. Pretty ridiculous, right? You bet. There is absolutely no reason why student loan debt should be treated differently from any other kind of consumer debt. The banksters just wanted a little freebee from the government, and in 2005 Congress gave it to them. And here’s the thing: This isn’t just a problem for all the $20,000-in-debt college graduates out there who now have the financial equivalent of a ball and chain strapped to them for the rest of the working lives. This is a problem for all of us. Not only does it suck up thousands of dollars in demand that would otherwise be giving our economy a much-needed jolt, it also prevents college graduates from experiencing one of the most important tools for future success: failure. David Akidjian talks about this in a recent piece for DailyKos. The shackles of student loans, he points out, prevent many young college grads from taking the risks that make the US way of doing business so vital. Stuck paying off a mountain of debt that in many cases is equal to the average entry level salary, they’re (understandably) unwilling to do what earlier generations did and a take out a line of credit and start a business. And because of this, they’ll never really know what it means to fail. I do. I failed in my very first foray into running a business, and it’s helped me more than any management seminar ever could. Back in the late 1960s, I started and ran a TV and stereo repair shop in East Lansing Michigan. We called it The Electronics Joint. It did well for a while, growing to five full-time employees, but went under when I overinvested in repair technology that, it turned out, was unnecessary. The new line of solid-state TV’s filling the marketplace failed much less frequently than the old tube-type TVs, but I borrowed and spent a pile of money on testing and repairing equipment for TVs and stereos that just weren’t breaking down. I owed a bunch of money to the bank for that newfangled test equipment, so I ended up having to declare a bankruptcy. I couldn’t get a credit card for a few years afterwards, but that was pretty much all that happened. No landlord or employer checked my credit, and I was able to easily move on with my life, starting another business the following year. I learned a tremendous business lesson from that screw-up, and, like Henry Ford and Donald Trump, I was able to use bankruptcy to wipe my slate clean. That’s a privilege today’s college graduates just don’t have. They’re too in debt to go out there and borrow money to start a business, and they’re barred by law from getting rid of the crushing loans they already have. It’s time to once again make it safe in the US to fail. It’s time to make college free for everyone and it’s time to repeal the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 2005, and give US college graduates the chance to take the risks that make this economy great.Robots can tweet about technology and do pretty much everything else (or will soon be able to), so why can’t they be lyrical wordsmiths? The answer, apparently, is that they now can. In his paper, “DopeLearning: A Computational Approach to Rap Lyrics Generation,” (pdf) Aalto University researcher Eric Malmi and his colleagues describe how their machine-learning algorithm, nicknamed DeepBeat, can mine a database of over 10,000 rap songs from more than 100 rappers and then piece lines together to form its own. After analyzing all the rappers in the database, the algorithm ranked them by rhyme density (average rhyme length per word). Inspectah Deck (from the Wu-Tang Clan) came in at No. 1, and Rakim placed 2nd; Notorious B.I.G. was 30th, 2Pac 33rd, Eminem 39th, Nas 40th, and Jay-Z 50th. The Lonely Island, the comedy rap group that started on Saturday Night Live, placed 94th. The reason that Eminem, commonly considered one of the best rhyming lyricists in rap, was not near the top, is because he has a tendency to “bend” his words (video). He’ll adjust the pronunciation of certain words to make them rhyme with others—a technique that sounds awesome in songs, but can’t be picked up by the algorithm. After ranking the rappers based on rhyme density, the robot then analyzed sequences from rap songs and, when given a multiple-choice series of options, had to identify the next line in the actual song. It did so correctly 82% of the time. Finally, DeepBeat came up with a rap of its own, using lines from the database (including phrases from the likes of Big Daddy Kane, Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg, Common, and Missy Elliott). You be the judge of whether or not its got chops: For a chance at romance I would love to enhance But everything I love has turned to a tedious task One day we gonna have to leave our love in the past I love my fans but no one ever puts a grasp I love you momma I love my momma – I love you momma And I would love to have a thing like you on my team you take care I love it when it’s sunny Sonny girl you could be my Cher I’m in a love affair I can’t share it ain’t fair Haha I’m just playin’ ladies you know I love you. I know my love is true and I know you love me too Girl I’m down for whatever cause my love is true This one goes to my man old dirty one love we be swigging brew My brother I love you Be encouraged man And just know When you done let me know cause my love make you be like WHOA If I can’t do it for the love then do it I won’t All I know is I love you too much to walk away though The algorithm can’t yet generate lyrics of its own, but that ability can’t be too far away. Jay-Z and Kanye should watch the throne.The “Datapoint of the Day” comes from the NYT column we referenced yesterday: The mind-boggling drop in Justice Department criminal referrals over the past decade. I find this specific factoid astounding: “Data supplied by the Justice Department and compiled by a group at Syracuse University show that over the last decade, regulators have referred substantially fewer cases to criminal investigators than previously. The university’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse indicates that in 1995, bank regulators referred 1,837 cases to the Justice Department. In 2006, that number had fallen to 75. In the four subsequent years, a period encompassing the worst of the crisis, an average of only 72 a year have been referred for criminal prosecution.” This is more “Nonfeasance” — that is what I accused the Greenspan Fed of doing in Bailout Nation. It is also what the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency did and what the Office of Thrift Supervision engaged in. They did not do a bad job int he discharge of their duties. THEY REFUSED TO DO THEIR JOBS AT ALL. They simply refused to discharge their legal obligations, because the people in charge did not believe, philosophically, in regulations. This is yet another crime we should be prosecuting people for. It is no different than safety regulators who failed to inspect carnival rides and 100s of children died. The bank regulators who refused to discharge their duties for ideological reasons should be prosecuted. That means investigating John Duggan and John M. Reich for nonfeasance. How are they any different from people who took payoffs from carnies and allowed children to die on unsafe rides? Consider how bad it was under these to radical deregulators: We’ve mentioned this stat previously, but its worth repeating: Referrals for criminal prosecution plummeted under the Bush administration fell by 95%. While I have been frustrated by the poor policy and personnel choices Obama has made — and continues to make — the Bush administration was uniquely incompetent when it came to filling regulatory positions with anti-regulators. (Think Harvey “Shred-’em-before-the-subpoena-arrives” Pitt as SEC chair). Its no surprise that these criminally negligent appointees did not do their jobs. These so-called regulators were far too cozy with the regulated. Friends, pals, drinking buddies. And so, they failed their charges, and left the taxpayer at the mercy of thieves. • Why was John M. Reich, a former banker and Senate staff member appointed in 2005 by President George W. Bush, uninterested in prosecuting Countrywide or Angelo R. Mozilo, its chief executive? Reich said that “he was a good friend of Mozilo’s.” • Why were FCIC investigators (during Obama’s Presidency) told “Countrywide was off limits?” If you want to understand why the public remains so angry about the bailouts, these facts are merely frosting on the cake. The bailouts work to prevent the government from fulfilling its duties as prosecutors. Once they get in bed with banks, they refuse to do anything to “harm” that investment. And the public gets angrier and angrier.Orgasmic meditation classes are taking off in the capital – but what exactly do they involve? Text Dominique Sisley “Who wouldn’t want to get their genitals stroked regularly, pleasurably, and with no strings attached?!” writes one orgasmic meditation practitioner, with palpable enthusiasm. “(These classes) feel good, with side effects of better communication, more body awareness, less mental chatter, and the secret confidence that comes from knowing I’m taking exquisite care of my pussy.” The thought of your vagina being ~tenderly caressed by a total stranger may not seem very relaxing, but for thousands of other young Londoners, this has become a vital weekly practice. Known as OM, OM-ing, or straight-up ‘stroking pussy’, orgasmic meditation is sending shockwaves across the capital, giving curious women the chance to improve their “empathy, connection and attention” through the power of a 15-minute fingering session. The process is simple. You head to the class, strip off from the waist down, and lie across an unknown, fully-clothed man while he strokes your clitoris. The aim? A shared meditational experience, and “the deeply human, deeply felt, and connected experience of orgasm”. “(We’re shifting) sex out of the dark, under the covers, from the shameful and often consumptive places where it used to be, and into the light,” explains practitioner Rachel Tayeb. “We take the most powerful impulse, the orgasm impulse, and approach it in an entirely new way. OM offers a practice through which we can harness this impulse that is a deliberate, repeatable method for accessing the orgasm state.” “Learning how to handle her pussy is equally important as learning how to handle the rest of her. Imagine what would be possible if you learned to do both?” Orgasmic meditation may sound like a weird, and massively uncomfortable, idea, but its success silences any detractors. Since it was ‘discovered’ by charismatic Californian academic Nicole Daedone, the practice has spread across the world like wildfire, offering a new form of enlightenment to its hundreds of thousands of devotees. There’s been TED talks on the topic, a much-loved YouTube channel and countless converts singing the praises of their new ‘stress-free’ life. While this may be something to do with the often neglected female orgasm – an experience only felt regularly by 57 per cent of women – Tayeb insists the craze crashes way past that. “There’s an important distinction that’s worth making here,” she stresses. “We differentiate between climax and the orgasm state. The climax is a few seconds of physical experience, whereas the state of orgasm is continuous – more akin to an optimal state of consciousness brought about by the activation of the sex impulse. It’s that feeling of being so completely absorbed in an experience that there is no psychic chatter, no being ‘stuck in your head’, a falling away of the ego. When this happens, our sense of limitations falls away as well. In the orgasm state, we feel totally present and connected, as if a deeper intuitive sense has awakened.”A year ago, when Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz cut interest rates for the second time in six months, we knew we'd have to take the bad with the good. Slashing the bank's overnight rate in half to 0.5 per cent would surely further inflate regional real estate bubbles. But that, we figured, was just the price to pay in order to fuel non-energy exports and a sustainable recovery. A year later, we're still waiting for the second half of the equation to kick in. The real estate sector keeps setting new records. Indeed, it's now Canada's biggest industry, leaving Alberta's oil patch and Ontario's manufacturing heartland in the dust. Ongoing weakness in those latter sectors is generating talk of yet another rate cut, no doubt to the delight of the friendly neighbourhood broker who keeps urging you to sell. Hewers of wood and drawers of water, not. Canada is now a real estate nation, with little else to keep the economy from sinking into an even deeper funk. Gross domestic product shrank 0.1 per cent in May, and that's after excluding the negative impact of Alberta's wildfires on oil sands output. Yet, we're still buying houses like there's no tomorrow. Story continues below advertisement And there may not be a tomorrow for the suckers who buy in at the peak, whenever it comes. The so-called economic rotation from oil to manufacturing exports that rate cuts (and the related decline in the Canadian dollar) were supposed to produce has not only failed to materialize but policy makers have pumped helium into an already overheated real estate sector that is masking structural weaknesses in the economy and setting us up for a bigger fall. It's "difficult to believe that any progress has been made in terms of economic rotation. Indeed, the opposite appears to be the case, given real estate's increasingly large share of economic output," TD Bank economist Brian DePratto noted in a Thursday report. "Rising home prices do have positive knock-on effects for consumer spending, but over-reliance on the real estate market is hardly the sign of a healthy economy." The real estate sector's share of GDP has grown 0.4 percentage points in the past two years alone, TD noted, while the share of everything else (including oil and manufacturing) has shrunk. Going back 10 years, to May, 2006, manufacturing output is down 11 per cent in real terms and mining (including oil) extraction is flat. But real estate's contribution to GDP has surged 35 per cent since then. When you tack on to all those real estate fees the financial services that are bought and sold as part of real estate transactions, and the home renovations undertaken by prospective sellers or those unable to trade up to bigger or better houses as a result of surging prices, and it's not going out on a limb to suggest that the sector has grown too big for the country's own good. Who's to blame? The very policy makers now trying to cool the market with demand-side measures that instead risk crashing the entire economy. Not only have low interest rates and restrictive land-use policies created an affordability crisis by driving prices for detached homes through the roof, any sudden reversal of those policies would take the floor out of the market. Restrictive land-use and densification policies in B.C.'s Lower Mainland and Ontario's Greater Golden Horseshoe, on top of development fees and bureaucracy, have made it extremely difficult and costly to build single-family detached homes. These policies are the result of NIMBY lobbying and pandering to environmentalists who would force everyone but themselves into 700-square-foot condos in "location-efficient communities" on the subways or LRT lines. Only that's not what most people, including millennials, want. But to the "smart growth" zealots, aspiring to a detached home in suburbia is the new smoking. Story continues below advertisement Story continues below advertisement Politicians who claim to be fighting for the middle class have priced most of them out of the Toronto and Vancouver housing markets. But worry not. B.C. has slapped a 15-per-cent tax on foreign buyers and Ontario could follow, while Ottawa is contemplating raising minimum down payments and slapping a hefty deductible on banks' insured mortgages. These and other demand-side policies might indeed lead to a real estate slowdown – to wit, the 18-per-cent year-over-year drop in Vancouver home sales in July. But at what cost? If prices do start to fall, even moderately, buyer psychology will shift rapidly and a reverse wealth effect will set in. A real estate crash (which bypassed Canada during the last recession) could become a self-fulling prophecy. On the bright side, policy makers might finally get their economic rotation.OTTAWA — Federal Finance Minister Joe Oliver charged taxpayers hundreds of dollars to upgrade his seat on flights and spent more than $5,000 twice on in-country flights during his time as a cabinet minister. In July 2012, Oliver spent $5,593 on two one-way flights between Toronto and Calgary so he could hold roundtable meetings with oil, gas, steel and pipeline companies. The flights were the biggest cost for the trip, which came to $7,483. A few months earlier, in April 2012, a trip to Calgary came with an airfare bill of $6,710.55. Oliver charged $529 in March 2014 for an upgrade on flights that went between Ottawa, Houston and Toronto. He also charged about $500 for a business-class upgrade on a flight from Edmonton to Vancouver in March 2012. The figures are contained in publicly available expense disclosures Oliver filed while he was the minister of natural resources. Details of the spending are outlined in receipts obtained by The Canadian Press. Oliver's ministerial spokesman said Oliver followed all the rules when he travelled nationally and internationally on government business, including picking hotels that were close to where he had events. "Joe Oliver has travelled extensively in his capacity as a cabinet minister and always complies with government guidelines. He flies business class according to guidelines and because it permits him to work on the flight," Nick Bergamini said. Bergamini said Oliver sometimes had no other choice but to book flexible airfares that tend to be more expensive. "Because his schedule frequently changes at the last minute, it is more economical to book flexible flights." Federal travel rules allow ministers to charge for business class or higher when they are on a flight that is more than two hours long. Many upgrade their seats through travel points collected as they travel the country on government business, which doesn't add extra costs to the public purse. Travel expenses have been a thorn in the side of the Conservative government before. Former cabinet minister Bev Oda lost her post following public outrage that she charged taxpayers for a $16 glass of orange juice during a stay at the swanky Savoy hotel in London, U.K. Oliver's hotel bill shows a $16 US for a drink at the rooftop restaurant of the Mamilla Hotel in Jerusalem while he was there in late June 2012. The receipt doesn't describe the drink, but the prices on the hotel menu suggest either scotch or vodka. Bergamini said Oliver paid for it out of pocket, which he regularly does because such drinks aren't eligible for reimbursement under ministerial spending rules. Like flights, Oliver selects hotels that fall within government spending guidelines, Bergamini said. Those hotels are "usually close to where he had to deliver a speech or attend meetings." Oliver stayed at higher-end hotel rooms like exclusive "Fairmont Gold" rooms. One night in such a room in the Fairmont Palliser in Calgary in February 2012 cost $380, including taxes, a local destination marketing fee and a Alberta tourism levy. The receipt from a stay at a similar room at the Fairmont Pacific Rim in Vancouver in February 2013 cost $1,625 for two nights, taxes included. (The public disclosure document lists the cost of accommodations at $785, which would be one night. The receipt says Oliver paid for two nights.) A review of Oliver's top spending trip during his time in cabinet shows his travel cost the public purse about $68,434 on domestic trips, all when he was natural resources minister, and about $148,440 more for 10 international trips, four of which were since June 2014 after he became finance minister. Like Us On Facebook Also On HuffPost:Change log, Pictures, Music, links, and more pictures. Posted by Lord_Setesh on Mar 20th, 2016 Dawn of the Reapers.5 The Harvest Release Information Hello again folks, your friendly neighborhood mod dev here. Our initial plan was to release.45 shortly after our last one. With bug fixes and few added features that we simply didn't have time for before our last release. Well the Sins 1.83 patch took longer than expected, and because of that we have pushed the release back farther than expected but with more added features than we have anticipated on adding. This patch will begin our work on the Reapers. Do not expect them to be perfect right off the bat, this will be a slow and steady balancing project that we aim to get right. Overall - Some minor UI fixes, including faction selection screen. To make it easier and more practical to switch between your desired factions. - In-game navigation buttons have been overhauled to represent the ME theme we are going for. - Tech trees for both Cerberus, and Council have been 99% completed. - Abilities are trickling in, by the time of release the mod should have most if not all of the Cerberus and Council abilities done and working. - Minimum game resolution has been increased to 1366x768, This is simply to create an experience with better quality for you the user. - New unique planet types for your map making fun (Citadel, Omega, Mass Relay, Omega Relay) - Some Small stat fixes - Titan abilities have been added, and thanks to 1.83 the Themis (Synth Super Cap) is capable of literally destroying planets. You know if you want to. - Multiple starbases, each starbase has pros and cons. Chose yours wisely or risk losing it. (Yes their weapons work now too) One is meant to be offensive the other is used as a means of production. Both are from Bioware concept art Council - Council 99% complete, Salarians Included - UI, Ship pictures, and build buttons have all been redone. - Node system helps generates revenue for Council, ITS NEEDED! - Paragon/Renegade split allows you to chose your fleet selection and play style. - Council Extranet Hub has passive fleet defense ability that will call in a small picket fleet if the gravity well in question comes under attack. Once the well is cleared of enemies, the fleet leaves until its need again. - Added Titan options due to hard limit increase in 1.83 opt in patch. - Carriers are now neutral options, All Alliance vessels are accessible without faction choice. How they play will be dependent on your faction specific research. Any thing highlighted in blue is paragon locked, with red being renegade locked. You get to chose your play style. Reapers - We have begun work on the Reapers, REJOICE. - Added units with stats - Correct or appropriate voices for each unit. The time of our return is coming....... Assuming Control - Collectors - Mod DB Special Thanks At the end of this I want to throw out some special thanks to a number of people who have been MASSIVELY critical to getting the mod this far. ZombieRus5 - Without him this mod wouldn't have gotten off the ground period. Psychoak - Who has been of great help with some our more difficult abilities. Skyline5GTR - Who helped give life to Cerberus in the early days of the mod, and is a generous tutor who helped me pick up the skills to continue on my own. Waseem - His music creates the perfect atmosphere for the mod, it simply wouldn't be the same without it. DiscoverME - His voice over and effect work have put this mod in a category all its own, and helped to properly immerse anyone who plays it in that Mass Effect atmos we all loved so much. ChaosChild - Her photoshop skills formed all the pretty particle effects that you will see while playing, and added another level of immersion to this mod. Also created the concept art being used to create a number of ships soon to be in game. Malcontent - Who is helping with the Salarian designs Playtester Corp - There have been to many testers over the years to name them all, but all of them deserve a nod for helping me debug, test, and fix problems that would have otherwise gone unnoticed. Release Information Date - TBA (We will know within the next 3-4 days) Playtester Corp Applications We are still in need of good qualified testers, do you think you have what it takes? Feel free to apply Requirements are listed below Requirements -17 of age or older -Must have skype and ability to have full use of it -Be able to join in skype calls more than 1 time a month -Be able to at least put 4 hours a week into helping develop the mod -Have basic understanding of Mass Effect Lore -Have the understanding of installing mods for SOASER -Have more than 100 hours of play time from playing the vanilla or any other mod.(I.E. understand the ship stat values to be able to properly give feedback about balancing.) * Previous testing experience desired but not required Once an offer has been extended and accepted, you will be in a 4 week probationary period in which inability to meet the above requirements will result in a loss of your position and replacement. We understand this sounds strict but in order to provide a quality mod we need people who are just as invested in this project as we are and that requires strict standards.Longwood's former police chief will spend the next 48 months in prison.Thomas Jackson was sentenced in federal court on conspiracy and bribery charges Monday morning.>>Download the WESH 2 News app for iOS and AndroidProsecutors allege Jackson took $32,000 to help a convicted felon become a police officer.Jackson begged for leniency from the judge who could have sentenced him to 78 months in prison.Jackson will have to turn himself in Monday night.14277264 Longwood's former police chief will spend the next 48 months in prison. Thomas Jackson was sentenced in federal court on conspiracy and bribery charges Monday morning. Advertisement >>Download the WESH 2 News app for iOS and Android Prosecutors allege Jackson took $32,000 to help a convicted felon become a police officer. Jackson begged for leniency from the judge who could have sentenced him to 78 months in prison. Jackson will have to turn himself in Monday night. AlertMeHeading downtown for dinner? Get out your wallets. The long run of free evening parking on central Sacramento streets is officially over. Starting Thursday night, the city is extending parking meter hours to 10 p.m. downtown and 8 p.m. in a slice of midtown. The move is one of several major steps the city is taking this month, mainly to prepare for the opening of the Golden 1 Center arena downtown Oct. 4, when thousands of drivers will hit downtown streets in search of parking. City officials say they also plan to launch an online service Thursday called SacPark that will allow downtown visitors to reserve and pay for a spot in advance in one of a handful of garages, some at discount rates that make them cheaper than street meter parking near the arena. Sign Up and Save Get six months of free digital access to The Sacramento Bee City parking head Matt Eierman said the goal is to entice arena-goers, including those attending the opening-week Paul McCartney concerts, to reserve a garage spot in advance, leaving street parking for people who are visiting downtown or midtown for shorter periods during evenings to dine at restaurants. The evening meter hours and discount pricing at garages also should reduce the number of people driving in circles looking for limited meter spots, and will create quicker meter turnover for restaurant patrons on arena event nights. “There is a lot of vibrancy going on downtown; we want to make sure we make good policy, and get long-term parkers into parking lots,” Eierman said. “We have plenty of supply, but we want balanced use.” People who reserve a garage spot will generally pay $11.25 in a city garage for an entire evening under the city plan. Some private garages are expected to offer $11 prepaid parking; others more expensive parking. People who park in a city garage without reserving ahead of time will pay $15. When large arena events take place, drawing 15,000 people, street meter parking within three blocks of the arena will cost a premium flat rate of $18.75 for those who stay three hours or more. When events are not happening at the arena, or for people who stay shorter even during events, meters downtown will charge an hourly rate of $1.75 until the meter’s time limit is reached, typically two hours. Another new city smartphone app, called Parkmobile, will allow parkers to pay for an extra hour or two for a premium price of $3 or higher. (At some point, the city plans to merge the SacPark and Parkmobile systems into one app.) The bottom line, Eierman said: “If you are going to be under two hours, use the street; over two hours, use a garage.” Also, he said, make sure to read the meter signage for instructions, as well as changing messages on the meter read-out screen. Added parking revenue will bolster the city general fund, which is responsible for paying off a portion of the city’s $255 million subsidy for construction of the downtown arena. Annual arena rent payments to the city by the Sacramento Kings will be used by the city to pay off the bulk of its arena bond debt, about 60 percent. The complicated new pricing structure is likely to cause confusion, but officials and downtown business representatives say they hope over time that arena attendees and other visitors find parking patterns that work for them. City officials said they will offer a one-month grace period before they issue citations for meter nonpayment after 6 p.m. During September, city code enforcement officers will place information sheets on windshields explaining the new rules. Ticketing starts Oct. 1
in the UK, but is common in the US. All strands of society have been affected by the practice. Actors Tom Cruise and Ashton Kutcher have been targeted, as have singers Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, Rihanna and Justin Timberlake. In 2013, a 12-year-old California boy admitted to'swatting' Kutcher and Bieber. Swatting gets its name from "Special Weapons and Tatics" (SWAT) teams sent to deal with hostage situations in the US. It's essentially a form of online trolling in which game players seek revenge in the real world for things that happened online. The real danger is that a police raid is a trigger pull away from tragedy. And that is the point made clear by the woman involved in the London incident, which occurred last August. "What if my husband had made a sudden move or resisted in some way?", she said to New Statesman. "What if my eldest had grabbed the gun instead of gently reaching for it?" Though rare in the UK, they are not the first family to fall victim to the stunt. Mumsnet founder Justine Roberts has also been targeted. Mumsnet, a forum for parents, attracted attention in 2015 from an unknown group of individuals who claimed they disliked what they described as the 'anti-father' sentiment of the site. The group set up fake user profile and started bombarding the sites wth provocative posts. Things escalated and the group, callings itself DadSecurity, carried out cyber attacks on the site, shutting it down. Worse was to come. A 999 call was made in August 2015 claiming a woman had been killed at a North London home. A second caller told police that the Roberts' children had been taken hostage at the same address. Police responded quickly only to find the au pair home with the children, and no-one dangerous in sight. And there was the second swatting as one the family mentioned earlier. The victim involved in that incident had exchanged a number of critical messages with one of those who claimed responsibility for the initial hoax calls. She had been warned that they had a big'surprise' in store for her, too. In the wake of the incidents, Roberts has called for the police to take the matter as seriously as they would do in the US. In the UK anyone making hoax calls to the police can face a prison sentence of up to six month. In the US, authorities are working on a bill that impose up to a 20-year prison sentence and heavy fines for pulling such a stunt.Share Facebook Twitter Pinterest After years of tradition, even a small change can seem big. Over the weekend, many members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints noticed there were no lyrics provided on the screen during the intermediate hymns. You can see an example of what the lyrics looked like below. Many members questioned why the lyrics disappeared. Now, we have the answer. The Church is a worldwide church and General Conference is broadcast to millions of members around the world. According to behind-the-scenes sources, a single feed for General Conference is broadcast to 90 different countries. The translations are used over this feed. That means members around the world who do not speak English as their first language were seeing the English language on screen. Sources say it no longer made sense to have the English language being broadcast to so many different countries. If you don’t know the lyrics, what can you do? Here are a couple of suggestions: The Gospel Library App This classic mobile app has both the hymnbook and the children’s songbook available. Download it here. The Gospel Media App Did you know the Church release a new Media Library app last fall? It gives you easier access to the hymns, lyrics, and media of the Church. Plus, it has great features for editing videos, incorporating music, and using photos as part of your lessons and daily study. You can download it here. Other Media Apps Other apps are available for music, including the LDS Music app and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir app. You can see all the different mobile apps the Church has available here. Purchase a Hymnbook It is a great idea to have a hymnbook in your home. You can use it for family home evening lessons, personal use and musical study, and General Conference. Affordable copies are available for purchase here. Comments commentsIn the midst of the ongoing WannaCrypt attacks, Microsoft has issued an unusually strongly-worded warning to governments around the world to quit hoarding vulnerabilities. The bug exploited by the attack was hoarded by the United States national security agency (NSA), leaked earlier this year and since patched by Microsoft – but patches aren't perfect, rollouts take time and WannaCrypt locked up a lot of machines in its first wave. Microsoft is not pleased, and in this post, renews its call for a “Digital Geneva Convention”, and its long-standing demand that governments disclose vulnerabilities to vendors instead of stockpiling them. “An equivalent scenario with conventional weapons would be the U.S. military having some of its Tomahawk missiles stolen,” writes Brad Smith, Redmond president and legal boss. Noting the “unintended but disconcerting” link between nation-state activity and criminal activity, Smith adds that governments need “to consider the damage to civilians that comes from hoarding these vulnerabilities and the use of these exploits”. The “Digital Geneva Convention” Redmond recommends would therefore require governments “to report vulnerabilities to vendors, rather than stockpile, sell, or exploit them”. It ain't over 'till it's over There's more than a whiff of confusion about the current state of WannaCrypt, particularly about the longevity of the “kill switch” discovered by MalwareTech, which stalled the spread of WannaCrypt by registering its “magic domain”; the malware checked for the existence of iuqerfsodp9ifjaposdfjhgosurijfaewrwergwea.com and stopped executing once it appeared. Costin Raiu of Kaspersky believes all the versions currently circulating contain the kill switch: My bad - finished analyzing all #Wannacry worm mods we have and they all have the kill switch inside. No version without a kill-switch yet. — Costin Raiu (@craiu) May 14, 2017 … but well-regarded hacker Matthieu Suiche disagrees: A patched (non recompiled) variant with NO kill-switch is out there too. Patched jump and zeroed the URL. See screenshots below. #WannaCry pic.twitter.com/RliIRigXwH — Matthieu Suiche (@msuiche) May 14, 2017 It should be noted that in his explanatory blog post, Suiche says the “no kill switch” version was recovered by Kaspersky as a Virus Total upload, but it's incomplete: Although, this build does only work partially as the ransomware archive is corrupted — the spreading still works though. Suiche also found and registered a new kill switch domain. Crucible Oceania The accident of timezones means Australian and New Zealand businesses start today as the crucible for the ransomware/worm outbreak. If Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull's cyber-man Alastair MacGibbon's and assistant cyber-security minister Dan Teehan's figures are accurate, at the time of writing few businesses here reported infections over the weekend, but without insane good fortune there'll be more infections when people log in and start opening e-mails. Whether that is accurate depends on whose malware map you prefer. One live map eventually loads a couple of infections for Australia, while another briefly showed one in Adelaide. At the time of writing, New Zealand was only showing a single infection; it appears that for now, the kill switch is holding. UK's NHS recovering slowly England's National Health Service, among the first high-profile victims of WannaCrypt, is slowly returning to normal operation, according to statements gathered by the BBC. The Scottish government says the attack has been isolated and most services will return to normal by Monday. Of the 47 NHS trusts hit by the attack on Friday, the NHS reckons most should be operating as normal on Monday, but the BBC reports seven trusts are still either at reduced capacity or have cancelled outpatient appointments, diagnostic tests, routine procedures, and long accident and emergency wait times. Patch if you can, cry if you can't During the weekend, debate raged about who to blame for the spread of the infection, with most of what we'll call “Infosec Twitter” blaming victims for not being fully patched, or in the case of the NHS, having Windows XP running anywhere at all. Long time readers of The Register will know that NHS sysadmins had no choice in the matter: trusts were warned in 2014 that they needed to put Premier Service Agreements in place to continue receiving patches, but even those trying to keep up had the budgetary rug pulled from under them in 2015 by then-Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt. Some security bods showed both sympathy and an understanding of the real world. Duo Security's Wendy Nather had plenty to say in a Twitter thread starting here: Thread. Help me explain why orgs can't "just patch." I'll start with a few examples from my own experiences: — Wendy Nather (@wendynather) May 13, 2017 Microsoft's Jessica Payne chimed in: 'Just patch' doesn't work for industries where vendors lock them into outdated software. Many places forced to have XP/old flash/etc to run. — Jessica Payne (@jepayneMSFT) May 12, 2017 And here's your reminder: Redmond's patches commendably reach all the way back to Windows XP. You know what to do. ® Now read our analysis of the WannaCrypt epidemic.With their new Zen architecture, AMD has taken the x86 CPU market by storm. At long last, their Ryzen processors are finally competitive against Intel’s best offerings. Due to the dramatic changes made, the new chips are experiencing some growing pains and we are still working hard to get to know them better. Based off of quad-core CCX’s, it looks like the new chip design may feature something of a flaw when it comes to inter-core communication. As with all large multi-core CPUs, an interconnect is required to join all the cores together. Smaller designs can get away with a simple ring bus but a higher core count requires more sophistication. Intel had to use the slow FSB for their first quad-core Core 2 chips for instance and a sophisticated ring bus layout for their HEDT chips. AMD has turned to their flexible Infinity Fabric to fill this role but we’re now discovering some drawbacks. According to a new revelation from AMD, the speed Infinity Fabric runs at is linked to memory speeds. That is the IMC speed controls the speed of the 256-bit wide bi-directional crossbar. Faster DDR4 memory will lead to faster Infinity Fabric and hence faster communication between the 2 CCX making up Ryzen. This means to unlock the full performance of Ryzen 7 when stressing more than 4 cores, one must obtain the fastest DDR4 possible and OC the IMC like crazy. Perhaps AMD should have considered sending out faster DDR4 sticks with their review kits. This may also mean Ryzen can perform better than we’ve been led to believe with many reviews and perhaps even in gaming.Q: There still are up to two spots for the Heat to fill before the end of the season. There's been a lot of talk about Briante Weber, but is another guard really what we need? With the emergence of Josh Richardson and the likely return of Tyler Johnson we're suddenly deeper there than it looked like when we lost Beno Udrih. -- Jason, North Miami. A: First, there are no guarantees with Tyler Johnson, as the clock continues to tick on his recovery from shoulder surgery, with Erik Spoelstra refusing to offer a timetable. Beyond that, the Heat are an injury at point guard away from being forced to scramble beyond Richardson. Goran Dragic's collision with referee Bill Kennedy in New Orleans showed how tenuous a proposition the Heat remain at point guard. That's why I not only believe consideration should be given to adding a point guard, but also perhaps more of a veteran than a neophyte such as Weber. Spoelstra previously had spoken of Josh McRoberts as a potential emergency ballhandler, but McRoberts hardly has been playing and hardly distinguished himself in Wednesday's start. And while Dwyane Wade and Justise Winslow can handle, that takes them away from what they do best. The shame is Andre Miller signing on so quickly with the Spurs, where he has become a post-buyout afterthought. Should Dragic or Richardson go down, the Heat would do well to have a veteran point guard as insurance, especially with the luxury of a pair of vacant roster spots. To that end, Luol Deng's absence also showed Wednesday that a defensive wing might help, as well. Q: My biggest concern at this point of the season is that playoff atmosphere and stipulations may take our rookies and their production out the picture, leaving us with a bench of just Hassan Whiteside. The stage might be too big. I can't remember the last time a rookie played 25 to 30 or more minutes during a successful playoff run. -- Ben. A: A legitimate question. But also consider that Justise Winslow at this stage a year ago was helping Duke to a national championship. And also keep in mind that Josh Richardson played four seasons at Tennessee, and has seen plenty already. So they're not exactly your typical rookies. And the fact that they're helping position the Heat for the playoffs says plenty about what they already have accomplished. In fact, a bit more youth might be welcomed, as well, if Tyler Johnson can make it back from his shoulder surgery. Q: What would be the best first round matchup for the Heat between the Hawks, Hornets, and Celtics assuming the Heat get homecourt? You could make a case for all three but none of them are automatic. I guess Boston would be worst-case scenario unless Jae Crowder doesn't come back. -- W.L. A: Based on how they have been playing the second half of the season, I'm not sure anyone would want to be dealing with the Hornets at this stage, as their recent 15-point comeback against the Heat showed. I'm not as sold on the Celtics as a playoff team, with Isaiah Thomas their lone go-to scorer. But of the choices you mentioned, it seems like the Heat this season finally established a comfort zone against the Hawks. I would rate the more favorable matchups (although none are necessarily "favorable") of those you offered, in order, as Hawks, Celtics and Hornets. But each of those serious would present challenges.Today parents, educators, students and activists around the country are staging a “Day of Action” with scores of coordinated events in more than 60 cities that sponsors hope will draw national attention to the problems of corporate-influenced school reform and to build a national movement to change the public education conversation and to increase funding for schools. Protests, rallies, town halls and news conferences are being held to draw attention to the failures of standardized-test-based modern school reform and to discuss how to comprehensively improve schools and student achievement. A coalition of education, labor, civic and civil rights organizations is sponsoring the day nationally, with the American Federation of Teachers launching a $1.2 million in radio, print and online advertising campaign. “Test-fixation, austerity, privatization, division, competition are not working for our students,” AFT President Randi Weingarten said. “… Our schools need evidence-based, community-based solutions like early childhood education, wraparound services, professional autonomy and development, parent voices and project-based learning.” How effective the day turns out to be in building support remains to be seen. Protests have been growing over the past few years across the country against against school reform that is centered on the use of standardized test scores as the chief “accountability” metric and school “choice” that has led to the growing privatization of public schools. Today’s “Day of Action” marks the first time so many events — including in New York, Florida, Texas, Illinois, California and D.C. — have been coordinated on the same day. In New York, despite the bad weather, protests and rallies are being held in numerous cities, including New York, Rochester, Syracuse and Albany, with scores of local and organizations participating. The events began with a 7 a.m. rally at Nyack High School with New York State United Teachers President Richard Iannuzzi and American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten. Teachers around New York are wearing blue shirts in solidarity. The Day of Action is being sponsored nationally by these groups: Alliance for Educational Justice, American Federation of Teachers, Annenberg Institute for School Reform, Dignity in Schools Coalition, Gamaliel Network, Journey for Justice Alliance, Leadership Center for the Common Good, League of United Latin American Citizens, National Education Association, National Opportunity to Learn Campaign and the Service Employees International Union.April 30, 2011 at 11:16 PM Comments (0) E-mail article Print Share Posted by Joshua Mayers Photo credit: Dean Rutz, The Seattle Times *UPDATE: Steve Zakuani shared some of his thoughts late last night on Twitter* * * * SIGI SCHMID, Sounders FC head coach (Opening statement...) "First off I want to say to Steve Zakuani and O'Brian White that we miss you. We want you guys back with us as soon as possible, and the effort the guys put out tonight was a tribute to you as much as it was to our team. So, we really miss you guys and I want to start off the conference today with that. I thought we played well. I thought we were a little bit unfortunate to only be ahead by one at halftime. We got the second goal. We said the first 15-20 minutes of the second half would be important. We got that second goal early into the second half, so that established our rhythm and we came close a couple of other times. Obviously we had to change our formation a little bit, play a little bit differently, but I thought the guys responded really well. I thought we did a good job in the first half of disrupting the type of passing game that Toronto wants to establish. I was very pleased with how our team played. We made Kasey work for the shutout at the end. I guess they felt they didn't want to give him a free one." (Brad Evans moved to the right and had two goals and an assist, what went into moving him out wide and what did you think of his night?) "We wanted him on the right, but we also wanted him coming inside a little bit more. Same thing with Fernandez. We just wanted to get Friberg into the middle because we felt in this game that this is the way the formation would be best for us. Brad's played on the right before. He's comfortable out there. He's a good crosser of the ball as he showed on the first goal. And obviously he finished his goal. He was unlucky not to get a couple more. But I thought he and Fernandez, both of them as wide players tucking in at the right times, did a good job for us." (On the 11:00 tribute...) "Pretty emotional. I sort of caught myself looking around and almost forgetting about the game for a moment. I'd been texting Steve back and forth last night -- nowadays you text guys, you don't talk to them -- and the one thing he kept reiterating is he didn't want the focus to be on him. He wanted the focus to be on the team. That's the kind of guy he is and so I was thinking, 'Steve don't be angry right now because we are focused on the game and on the win.' (On getting two shutouts in a row...) "I think obviously it's something we got close to in the early games. We were a little bit unlucky, it seemed like. I think we had a couple of Goals of the Week against us, and things like that, so we were a little unfortunate that way. But right now, defensively, I think we're doing a good job. I think Patrick Ianni's played well the last two games he's been in there. I think Tyson Wahl's done well for us at left-back also, and Kennedy, and Riley's been solid for us defensively, Alonso as he always is. Defense is a good team effort. Kasey's come up with some good saves. We really put an emphasis on it a couple weeks ago, that we wanted to get shutouts, even before the Philly game, and we've been able to come up with some." (On shuffling the lineup to adjust for injured players...) "We had to make some adjustments in the game, to begin the game. Those adjustments were playing Evans outside rather than inside and playing Friberg inside. And basically diamonding our midfield a little bit. Our game plan was the same first and second half. We wanted to pressure the two center backs once they came forward with the ball a little bit and create turnovers." (On the Jaqua-Montero combination...) "Obviously, it's a combination that hasn't played a lot together since 2009. In 2009, they were pretty successful. Nate did a good job playing his role, flicking balls off. He works off the ball as well. Fredy, as a result, is able to drop in the hole a little bit more. That ball he lays off to Brad Evans is an example of what he can do when he drops to that hole. Fredy's still looking to regain his sharpness again after missing a couple of weeks because I think he could have pulled the trigger on a couple of shots. It's the classic target-guy, second forward. They make a classic pair in that regard." (On how tonight's performance matched up against the rest of the season...) "I thought we played really well against Houston and when you look at Houston's results now, you'll see how nobody's really dominated them since. I thought we were all over them. I thought that was a very, very good game for us. I think this game was a solid game for us as well. If you had asked us before the game, we felt, 'Hey, this is one we think we can win.' We're at home and we think we can win it solidly, and we came through and did it. So it's good from the standpoint that the game fulfilled the expectations that we set for ourselves." (On the upcoming tough road week, with a Wednesday and Saturday game...) "Sometimes with midweek games, you just try to stay in your rhythm and keep playing, because there's less practice. The guys are happy that there's no practice tomorrow, they fly on Monday. So it's a light practice on Monday, light practice Tuesday and then we go at it again. I think the team showed its depth today. It worked out well for us in terms of keeping Mauro out, so Mauro should be able to go on Wednesday. And if not on Wednesday, for sure he'll be able to go on Saturday. I think our depth showed through. Obviously we have to rely on our depth as we go into this week. We know we've got people - Jeff Parke, Leo Gonzalez, Mike Fucito, Roger, who came on, Lamar Neagle, Zach Scott. We've got a lot of different options and those guys will come through for us." (Seemed more energized tonight. Was it playing at home? Was it the hot streak?) "I think everything. I think playing at home. We really made a point before the game. We said that sometimes I felt that when we play at home, we look for our crowd to carry us into our energy. One of the things we talked about before the game today was that we wanted to bring the energy and have our crowd be the final nails in the coffin. So we wanted our crowd to feed off our energy and not for us to feed off the crowd's energy and then we would get that back-and-forth -- when we come out with that energy and then the crowd gets whipped up, then it's a tremendous thing. I thought the energy was good. Certainly there was a little bit of emotional-ness going into it. I think everybody thought a little bit about, 'Hey, we've got a pretty good job. It's a pretty great job and we're able to get out there and play every day.' You've got to appreciate every day because you don't know when that day is going to come when you can't play. So you hate missing games and I think everyone went out there and said 'Hey, let's make sure we enjoy ourselves.'" (Were you concerned there would be too much emotion?) "Not from me. We talked about it, but we didn't spend four days building up into it. I think everyone was aware of it. Sometimes things can go unsaid and you know they're there and you don't have to beat them to death for everybody to know it's there. I felt we were going to come with good emotion, but I didn't think we were going to be over-amped." BRAD EVANS, Sounders FC midfielder (On getting the victory...) "It was good. I thought for the team overall, just a good push going forward. We have two tough road games coming up so it was vital to get the three points at home right now." (On if he felt that the team was more spirited in this match...) "Yeah, we played players in different formations, different positions as well, so I think everybody had a good attitude from that standpoint and obviously, with Steve [Zakuani] and O.B. [O'Brian White], you know, we talked about before the game kind of doing it for them so I think that was in the back of everybody's mind. But now we come together as a team and we push forward from here." ALVARO FERNANDEZ, Sounders FC midfielder, through a translator (On the goal it looked like you judged the cross much better than the defender...) "It's a very tough play for defenders. You have to keep an eye on the ball and sometimes you forget about the player behind. For me it was a matter of jumping, heading it down and running in celebration." (Was this the best you guys have played?) "Yeah, obviously being able to win and score three goals. It has been a while since the last time (we did that). More than that the team really positioned well in all the lines." KASEY KELLER, Sounders FC goalkeeper (Was there something extra put in for the missing guys today?) "I hope not. Honestly I hope that's just the way we come out and play every time. Whatever your motivation is, you're motivation really should be, 'I'm a pro and I go and do it the right way.' It was just a great night to be able to go and win 3-nil under the circumstances, but we also have a group of guys that realizes that their opportunity has come. It's always disappointing when it comes because of an injury to someone else, but as a pro then it's your obligation to step up and show everybody what you're made of, and I thought the guys did that very well. (Were you due for breakout game?) "Definitely. No question about it. I think it could've been more than (3-0). There were some good chances out there and I'm just proud of the way the guys played. I'm a little disappointed in the last 10 minutes. I think we took our foot off a little bit, but they're probably just saying, 'Let's make that old (guy) make some saves.' But whatever it takes. It was cool. It was nice to go have a 3-0 win at home. Free haircuts, free tacos, just a great way to spend your weekend." (On 63 straight starts, which will be the longest streak in MLS after this weekend...) "I don't think too much about it. It's just nice to be able to train everyday. Like I said before, it's not a case where I'm just bandaging myself up and getting out and sucking down 55 Advil to get out there and crawl out onto the field and then take the week off. What I'm proud of is I'm able to train everyday, come out, perform and have fun doing it. That's the key. I don't worry too much about streaks or that kind of stuff." (At six games unbeaten, are you playing better now than earlier?) "Did you not watch the Colorado game?" (But you had said after the 0-2 start that this was a good team...) "I think we played well enough in New York to get something. We obviously played well enough at home against L.A. to get something. Sometimes it just goes that way. You take the Houston game; we should've beat Houston by three or four as well. That just happens. Now you get a little bit fortunate against Colorado under some circumstances, and then you come back home and stamp your authority in a game like this and win well. The thing is consistency. If you can come out and consistently perform the way you want to perform you're going to give yourself a chance to win games. Sometimes you're going to have games where you just hammer a team and they beat you 1-nil on a counterattack. I've been on that side. I've beat teams that I no right ever to beat. That's the cool part about this game. It doesn't matter who you're up against, if it's your day, it's your day. That's a cool thing to be a part of. For us, we just need to play well. If we play well, play the way we want to play, work as hard as we possibly can, we're going to be in most games." FREDY MONTERO, Sounders FC forward, via translator (On injured teammates...) "Sure, every time that you have a player out for injury it's sad. We just managed to fill their presence and we're all very proud to be a part of this team." (On Brad Evans' performance...) "That's his characteristic. He always runs and gives himself throughout the 90 minutes. He runs throughout the game. It was a good plan for Sigi to play him outside. That opened more space and with that he scored the goals and managed to get an assist as well." (On what the emotions were like heading into the game...) "It's always good to have the fans on our side and give them this kind of joy, scoring the goals and at the same time think about the players who could not play. But we always keep the team strong, playing strong." ARON WINTER, Toronto FC head coach (On his overall thoughts on the match...) "It is very simple, it was a bad game and we didn't play well. Seattle played the way we expected to play but during the game everyone was afraid. Secondly they were doing something just not the things we asked." (On the team being fatigued with the extensive travel the last few days...) "It could be but soccer is simple and we ask for the most simple things. When most of the players are doing their own thing it will be difficult." (On the play of the second half subs...) "They were doing what we were asking and doing it well. What I expect is the most experienced players have to do what we want. They have to be fighting and battling and doing things we expect." (On the team regrouping for two matches this upcoming week...) "First, I'm going to think about it. I'm not satisfied with some players with their performance during this match and the previous games. I like more players who are giving everything because some players today didn't give everything." JACOB PETERSON, Toronto FC midfielder (On his overall thoughts of the match...) "Terrible. We didn't show up today. Simple as that." (On being possibly fatigued...) "It was not an excuse. A lot of guys today didn't play a full game in Edmonton. We have to look in the mirror and take accountability." (On the dominant performance put out by Seattle tonight...) "What didn't they do? They did everything they wanted to do. We were running around chasing ghosts out there. We have to come together and look at the tape and figure out how to get better out there." * * * SOUNDERS FC 3, TORONTO FC 0 Scoring Summary: SEA -- Alvaro Fernandez 2 (Brad Evans 1, James Riley 1) 9 SEA -- Brad Evans 2 (Fredy Montero 2, Jhon Kennedy Hurtado 1) 52 SEA -- Brad Evans 3 (penalty kick) 75 Toronto FC -- Stefan Frei, Dan Gargan, Dicoy Williams, Adrian Cann, Danleigh Borman, Julian de Guzman (Nathan Sturgis 57), Maicon Santos (Mikael Yourassowsky 46), Jacob Peterson, Javier Martina, Alan Gordon, Alen Stevanovic (Matt Gold 62). Substitutes Not Used: Nana Attakora, Ty Harden, Joao Plata, Milos Kocic. TOTAL SHOTS: 6 (Javier Martina 2); SHOTS ON GOAL: 2 (Javier Martina 1, Mikael Yourassowsky 1); FOULS: 12 (Dan Gargan 3, Alan Gordon 3); OFFSIDES: 2 (Alan Gordon 1, Mikael Yourassowsky 1); CORNER KICKS: 4 (Nathan Sturgis 3); SAVES: 7 (Stefan Frei 7) Seattle Sounders -- Kasey Keller, James Riley, Patrick Ianni, Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, Tyson Wahl, Brad Evans, Osvaldo Alonso, Alvaro Fernandez, Fredy Montero (Mike Fucito 66), Nate Jaqua (Roger Levesque 72), Erik Friberg (Servando Carrasco 80). Substitutes Not Used: Leo Gonzalez, Lamar Neagle, Jeff Parke, Terry Boss. TOTAL SHOTS: 19 (Brad Evans 6); SHOTS ON GOAL: 10 (Brad Evans 3); FOULS: 13 (Osvaldo Alonso 3, Fredy Montero 3); OFFSIDES: 2 (Mike Fucito 1, Nate Jaqua 1); CORNER KICKS: 5 (Erik Friberg 4); SAVES: 2 (Kasey Keller 2) Misconduct Summary: SEA -- Osvaldo Alonso (caution; Persistent Infringement) 45 TOR -- Julian de Guzman (caution; Reckless Tackle) 54NIN Live: 1994 November 12, 1994, Louisville, KY, Louisville Gardens Setlist Pinion Mr. Self Destruct Sin March of the Pigs Piggy Reptile Gave Up Happiness in Slavery Eraser Hurt The Downward Spiral Wish Suck Ruiner Down In It Head Like a Hole Closer Dead Souls I Do Not Want This Something I Can Never Have Known Recordings Source 1: Audio - AUD (CSBs + BB + Sony TCD-D7) Taper: Jason Schmidlapp Time: 100 minutes Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Hear a Sample: Ruiner, 2 Minutes Download the Full Show:.Zip File FLAC, 607.5 MB Added to Archive: November 25th, 2013 Comments: Thanks to Tapeworm48 for sending over a few DATs to be transferred for the archive. This is an unknown gen DAT tape. Very good recording. This is a huge upgrade from the version we had on the archive, as that was cassette sourced. No EQ'ing was done to this recording, just normalized it to under 0 db. UPDATE: This was recorded by Jason Schmidlapp (source thanks to Happiness in Hersey) via his comment on alt.nin - It would be assumed that the circulating DAT source would be from him. At this point, I wouldn’t think there is another source.Today I’m sharing a more in depth Kat Von D Lock-It Concealer Creme review. This is the new cruelty free, vegan concealer by KVD. It comes in a staggering 21 different shades, including a pure white called White Out. It also comes in deeper shades for darker skintones. I think Kat Von D Beauty is doing a great job at embracing all the global shades of beauty. Kat Von D Lock-It Concealer Creme Review PR sample. Where to Buy Kat Von D Beauty, Sephora Price $26 Packaging The Kat Von D Lock-It Concealer Cream comes in a round container with a doe foot applicator. The doe foot is actually shaped like a tear drop, which is pretty unique in my experience. I think this is a great shape for applying concealer. Value The Kat Von D Lock-It Concealer Cream is a pretty good value for the price since it is $26 for.22 oz of product. To give you an idea on how it compares to others – Urban Decay Naked Skin is $28 for.16 oz (11 shades), NARS Radiant Creamy is $29 for.22 oz (16 shades), Too Faced Born This Way is $28 for.23 oz (10 shades), Tarte Double Duty Shape Tape is $24 for.33 oz (6 shades) and Becca Aqua Luminous Perfecting is $30 for.18 oz. Shade Range The concealers really do come in a wide range of shades for neutral, cool and warm undertones. For me, I wear the shade Light 1, which is described as fair honeysuckle with neutral undertone. For pale neutral skin like mine, it’s perfect. However, I do like that there is the option of White Out if I wanted to try some extreme matte highlighting. How to Apply Kat Von D recommends using this either by swiping the concealer directly onto the skin or the back of your hand, then blending with your finger or the Lock-It Edge concealer brush. KVD says to choose a shade that exactly matches your skintone to cover blemishes. To correct darkness under the eyes, select a shade 2 tones lighter than your skintone. They also suggest using this concealer with their setting powder to bake under the eyes. I’ve never tried baking, so I can’t speak to how well this works. They say to pack on a generous amount of setting powder on top of the concealer. Wait a few minutes, then dust it off with a brush. KVD also recommends using the white shade as an eyeshadow base to make ey
Egypt; but the Tuareg and Zenaga of the southern Sahara were almost wholly nomadic. Some groups, such as the Chaouis, practiced transhumance. Political tensions have arisen between some Berber groups (especially the Kabyle) and North African governments over the past few decades, partly over linguistic and social issues; for instance, in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, giving children Berber names was banned.[citation needed] The regime of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya also banned the teaching of Berber languages, and the leader warned Berber leaders in a 2008 diplomatic cable leaked by WikiLeaks "You can call yourselves whatever you want inside your homes – Berbers, Children of Satan, whatever – but you are only Libyans when you leave your homes."[244] As a result of the persecution suffered under Gaddafi's rule, many Berbers joined the Libyan opposition in the 2011 Libyan civil war.[245] Diaspora [ edit ] Berbers set up communities In Mauritania[246] near the Malian imperial capital of Timbuktu.[247] According to an estimate from 2004, there were about 2.2 million Berber immigrants in Europe, especially the Riffians in Belgium, the Netherlands and France and Algerians of Kabyles and Chaouis heritage in France.[248] Languages [ edit ] Areas in North Africa where Berber languages are spoken The Berber languages form a branch of the Afro-Asiatic family. They thus descend from the proto-Afroasiatic language. It is still disputed which branches of Afroasiatic diverged most recently from Berber, but most linguists accept either Egyptian[249][dubious – discuss] or Chadic (see Afro-Asiatic languages). Berber languages are spoken by around thirty to forty million people in Africa (see population estimation). These Berber speakers are mainly concentrated in Morocco and Algeria, followed by Mali, Niger and Libya. Smaller Berber-speaking communities are also found as far east as Egypt, with a southwestern limit today at Burkina Faso. Tamazight is a generic name for all of the Berber languages. They consist of many closely related varieties/dialects. Among these Berber idioms are Riff, Kabyle, Shilha, Siwi, Zenaga, Sanhaja, Tazayit (Central Atlas Tamazight), Tumẓabt (Mozabite), Nafusi, and Tamasheq, as well as the ancient Guanche language. Groups [ edit ] Although most Maghrebis are of Berber ancestry, only some scattered ethnicities succeeded in preserving Berber languages into modern times. Religion [ edit ] Traditional Berber penannular brooch, a custom dating from the pre-Abrahamic era. As a legacy of the spread of Islam, the Berbers are now mostly Sunni Muslim. The Mozabite Berbers of the Saharan Mozabite Valley and Libyan berbers in Nafusis and Zuwara are primarily adherents of the Ibadi Muslim denomination. In antiquity, the Berber people adhered to the traditional Berber religion, prior to the arrival of Abrahamic faiths into North Africa. This traditional religion heavily emphasized ancestor veneration, polytheism and animism. Many ancient Berber beliefs were developed locally, whereas others were influenced over time through contact with other traditional African religions (such as the Ancient Egyptian religion), or borrowed during antiquity from the Punic religion, Judaism, Iberian mythology, and the Hellenistic religion. The most recent influence came from Islam and pre-Islamic Arab religion during the medieval period. Some of the ancient Berber beliefs still exist today subtly within the Berber popular culture and tradition. Until the 1960s, there was also a significant Jewish Berber minority in Morocco,[250] but emigration (mostly to Israel and France) dramatically reduced their number to only a few hundred individuals. Following Christian missions, the Kabyle community in Algeria has a decent-sized recently constituted Christian minority, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, and a 2015 study estimates 380,000 Muslim Algerians converted to Christianity in Algeria.[22] whereas among the 8,000[251]-40,000[252] Moroccans who have converted to Christianity in the last decades several Berbers are found; some of them explain their conversion as an attempt to go back to their "Christian sources".[253] Notable Berbers [ edit ] In Christian history [ edit ] Before the arrival of Islam into the region, most Berber groups were either Christian, Jewish or Animist, and a number of Berber theologians were important figures in the development of western Christianity. In particular, the Berber Donatus Magnus was the founder of a Christian group known as the Donatists. The 4th-century Catholic Church viewed the donatists as heretics and the dispute led to a schism in the Church dividing North African Christians.[254] They are directly related to Circumcellions, a sect that worked on disseminating the doctrine in North Africa by the force of the sword. Augustine of Hippo (Hippo being the modern Algerian city of Annaba), Scholars generally agree that Augustine and his family were Berbers, an ethnic group indigenous to North Africa,[255][256][257][258] but that they were heavily Romanized, speaking only Latin at home as a matter of pride and dignity. He is recognized as a saint and a Doctor of the Church by Roman Catholicism and the Anglican Communion and revered by the Reformed; he was an outspoken opponent of Donatism.[259] Of all the fathers of the church, St. Augustine was the most admired and the most influential during the Middle Ages... Augustine was an outsider—a native North African whose family was not Roman but Berber... He was a genius—an intellectual giant.[260] Many believe that Arius, another early Christian theologian who was deemed a heretic by the Christian Church, was of Libyan Berber descent. Another Berber cleric, Saint Adrian of Canterbury, traveled to England and played a significant role in its early medieval religious history. Lusius Quietus, was the son of a Christian tribal lord from unconquered Mauretania (modern Morocco). Lusius' father and his warriors had supported the Roman legions in their attempt to subdue Mauretania Tingitana (northern modern Morocco) during Aedemon's revolt in 40. Masuna (fl. 508) was a Romano-Moorish Christian king in Mauretania Caesariensis (western Algeria) who is said to have encouraged the Byzantine general Solomon, the Prefect of Africa, to launch an invasion of the Moorish kingdom of Numidia.[261] Dihya (Berber: Daya Ult Yenfaq Tajrawt) was a Berber Byzantine Christian religious and military leader who led indigenous resistance to Muslim conquest of the Maghreb, the region then known as Numidia, known as the Algeria today. She was born in the early seventh century and died around the end of the seventh century in modern Algeria. According to al-Mālikī she was said to have been accompanied in her travels by what the Arabs called an "idol", possibly an icon of the Virgin or one of the Christian saints.[262] Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus (c. 155 – c. 240 AD), known as Tertullian (/tərˈtʌliən/), was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa and was the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin Christian literature. He also was a notable early Christian apologist and a polemicist against heresy, including contemporary Christian Gnosticism. Tertullian has been called "the father of Latin Christianity" and "the founder of Western theology." Sabellius, who was a third-century priest and theologian who most likely taught in Rome, may have been of African Berber descent. Basil and others call him a Libyan from Pentapolis, but this seems to rest on the fact that Pentapolis was a place where the teachings of Sabellius thrived, according to Dionysius of Alexandria, c. 260. What is known of Sabellius is drawn mostly from the polemical writings of his opponents. Fadhma Aït Mansour, born in Tizi Hibel, Algeria, is the mother of writers Jean Amrouche and Taos Amrouche. Fadhma, the illegitimate daughter of a widow, was born in a Kabylie village. Later, when she was with the Sisters at Aït Manguellet hospital, she converted to Roman Catholicism. She met another Kabyle Catholic convert, Antoine-Belkacem Amrouche, whom she married in 1898. Ahmed es-Sikeli, born in Djerba to a Berber family of the Sadwikish tribe was baptized a Christian under the name Peter, was a eunuch and kaid of the Diwan of the Kingdom of Sicily during the reign of William I. His story was recorded by his Christian contemporaries Romuald Guarna and Hugo Falcandus from Sicily and the Muslim historian Ibn Khaldun.[263] Brother Rachid, a Moroccan Christian convert from Islam whose father is a well-known respected Imam. He is one of the most outspoken converts in the world, he hosts a weekly live call-in show on Al-Hayat channel where he compares Islam and Christianity as well as debating with Islamic scholars. Malika Oufkir is a Moroccan writer and former "disappeared" person. She is the daughter of General Mohamed Oufkir and a cousin of fellow Moroccan writer and actress Leila Shenna. She and her siblings are converts from Islam to Catholicism, and she writes in her book, Stolen Lives: "we had rejected Islam, which had brought us nothing good, and opted for Catholicism instead."[264] In Islamic history [ edit ] Tariq ibn Ziyad, Berber Muslim and Umayyad general who led the conquest of Visigothic Hispania in 711 Tariq ibn Ziyad (died 720), known in Spanish history and legend as Taric el Tuerto (Taric the one-eyed), was a Berber Muslim and Umayyad general who led the conquest of Visigothic Hispania in 711. He is considered to be one of the most important military commanders in Spanish history. He was initially a servant of Musa ibn Nusair in North Africa, and was sent by his superior to launch the first thrust of an invasion of the Iberian peninsula. Some claim that he was invited to intervene by the heirs of the Visigothic King, Wittiza, in the Visigothic civil war. On April 29, 711, the armies of Tariq landed at Gibraltar (the name Gibraltar is derived from the Arabic name Jabal Tariq, which means mountain of Tariq, or the more obvious Gibr Al-Tariq, meaning rock of Tariq). Upon landing, Tariq is said to have burned his ships then made the following speech, well known in the Muslim world, to his soldiers: O People! There is nowhere to run away! The sea is behind you, and the enemy in front of you: There is nothing for you, by God, except only sincerity and patience. as recounted by al-Maqqari Ziri ibn Manad (died 971), founder of the Zirid dynasty in the Maghreb. Ziri ibn Manad was a clan leader of the Berber Sanhaja tribe who, as an ally of the Fatimids, defeated the rebellion of Abu Yazid (943-947). His reward was the governorship of the western provinces, an area that roughly corresponds with modern Algeria north of the Sahara. Yusuf ibn Tashfin (c. 1061–1106) was the Berber Almoravid ruler in North Africa and Al-Andalus (Moorish Iberia). He took the title of amir al-muslimin (commander of the Muslims) after visiting the Caliph of Baghdad 'amir al-Mu'minin" ("commander of the faithful") and officially receiving his support. He was either a cousin or nephew of Abu Bakr ibn Umar, the founder of the Almoravid dynasty. He united all of the Muslim dominions in the Iberian Peninsula (modern Portugal and Spain) to the Maghreb (c. 1090), after being called to the Al-Andalus by the Emir of Seville. Alfonso VI was defeated on 23 October 1086, at the battle of Sagrajas, at the hands of Yusuf ibn Tashfin, and Abbad III al-Mu'tamid. Yusuf bin Tashfin is the founder of the famous Moroccan city Marrakech (in Berber Murakush, corrupted to Morocco in English). He himself chose the place where it was built in 1070 and later made it the capital of his Empire. Until then, the Almoravids had been desert nomads, but the new capital marked their settling into a more urban way of life. Ibn Tumart (c. 1080 - c. 1130), was a Berber religious teacher and leader from the Masmuda tribe who spiritually founded the Almohad dynasty. He is also known as El-Mahdi in reference to his prophesied redeeming. In 1125, he began an open revolt against Almoravid rule. The name "Ibn Tumart" comes from the Berber language and means "son of the earth."[265] Abu Ya'qub Yusuf (died on 29 July 1184) was the second Almohad caliph. He reigned from 1163 until 1184. He had the Giralda in Seville built. Abu Yaqub al-Mustansir Yusuf II Caliph of Maghreb from 1213 until his death. The son of the previous caliph, Muhammad an-Nasir, Yusuf assumed the throne following his father's death, at the age of only 16 years. Al-Busiri (1211–1294) was a Sanhaja Berber Sufi poet belonging to the Shadhiliyya order being direct disciple of Sheikh Abul Abbas al-Mursi. Ibn Battuta (born 1304; year of death uncertain, possibly 1368 or 1377) was a Berber Sunni Islamic scholar and jurisprudent from the Maliki Madhhab (a school of Fiqh, or Islamic law), and at times a Qadi or judge.[266] However, he is best known as a traveler and explorer, whose account documents his travels and excursions over a period of almost thirty years, covering some 117,000 kilometres (73,000 mi). These journeys covered almost the entirety of the known Islamic realm, extending from modern West Africa to Pakistan, India, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, South-East Asia and China, a distance readily surpassing that of his predecessor, near-contemporary Marco Polo. Muhammad al-Jazuli - From the tribe of Jazulah which was settled in the Sous area of Maghreb between the Atlantic Ocean and the Atlas Mountains. He is most famous for compiling the Dala'il al-Khayrat, an extremely popular Muslim prayer book. Mohammed Awzal was a religious Berber poet. He is considered the most important author of the Shilha literary tradition. He was born around 1670 in the village of al-Qasaba in the region of Sous, Maghreb and died in 1748/9 (1162 of the Egira). Averroes, a philosopher in the medieval period Ibn Firnas, an aviation pioneer in the medieval period Architecture [ edit ] Culture [ edit ] Traditionally, men take care of livestock. They migrate by following the natural cycle of grazing, and seeking water and shelter. They are thus assured with an abundance of wool, cotton and plants used for dyeing. For their part, women look after the family and handicrafts - first for their personal use, and secondly for sale in the souqs in their locality. The Berber tribes traditionally weave kilims. The tapestry maintains the traditional appearance and distinctiveness of the region of origin of each tribe, which has in effect its own repertoire of drawings. The textile of plain weave is represented by a wide variety of stripes, and more rarely by geometrical patterns such as triangles and diamonds. Additional decorations such as sequins or fringes, are typical of Berber weave in Morocco. The nomadic and semi-nomadic lifestyle of the Berbers is very suitable for weaving kilims. The customs and traditions differ from one region to another.[267] The social structure of the Berbers is tribal. A leader is appointed to command the tribe. In the Middle Ages, many women had the power to govern, such as Kahina and Tazoughert Fatma in the Aurès Mountains, Tin Hinan in the Hoggar, Chemci in Aït Iraten, Fatma Tazoughert in the Aurès. Lalla Fatma N'Soumer was a Berber woman in Kabylie who fought against the French. The majority of Berber tribes currently have men as heads of the tribe. In Algeria, the el Kseur platform in Kabylie gives tribes the right to fine criminal offenders. In areas of Chaoui, tribal leaders enact sanctions against criminals.[268] The Tuareg have a king who decides the fate of the tribe and is known as Amenokal. It is a very hierarchical society. The Mozabites are governed by the spiritual leaders of Ibadism. The Mozabites lead communal lives. During the crisis of Berriane, the heads of each tribe resolved the problem and began talks to end the crisis between the Maliki and Ibadite movements.[269] In marriages, the man selects the woman, and depending on the tribe, the family often makes the decision. In comparison, in the Tuareg culture, the woman chooses her future husband. The rites of marriage are different for each tribe. Families are either patriarchal or matriarchal, according to the tribe. Berber hand decoration Detail of a traditional Berber carpet Algerian Berber calendar Ancient Tifinagh scripts in Algeria Jewelry, Kabyle, Algeria Cuisine [ edit ] Berber cuisine is a traditional cuisine which has evolved little over time. It differs from one area to another within and among Berber groups. Principal Berber foods are: Couscous, a semolina staple dish Tajine, a stew made in various forms Pastilla, a meat pie traditionally made with squab (fledgling pigeon) often today using chicken Bread made with traditional yeast Bouchiar (fine yeastless wafers soaked in butter and natural honey) (fine yeastless wafers soaked in butter and natural honey) Bourjeje (pancake containing flour, eggs, yeast and salt) (pancake containing flour, eggs, yeast and salt) Baghrir (light and spongy pancake made from flour, yeast, salt, served hot and soaked in butter and tment (honey).) (light and spongy pancake made from flour, yeast, salt, served hot and soaked in butter and (honey).) Tahricht (sheep offal: brains, tripe, lungs, and heart): these organ meats are rolled up with the intestines on an oak stick and cooked on embers in specially designed ovens. The meat is coated with butter to make it even tastier. This dish is served mainly at festivities. Although they are the original inhabitants of North Africa, and in spite of numerous incursions by Phoenicians, Romans, Byzantines, Ottomans and French, Berber groups lived in very contained communities. Having been subject to limited external influences, these populations lived free from acculturating factors. Music [ edit ] The most common traditional music instruments Berber music, the traditional music of North Africa, has a wide variety of regional styles. The best known are the Moroccan music, the popular Gasba, Kabyle and Chawi music of Algeria, and the widespread Tuareg music of Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mali. The instruments used are the bendir (large drums) and Gambra (a lute), which accompanying songs and dances. Traditional Kabyle music consists of vocalists accompanied by a rhythm section, consisting of e'ṯbel (tambourine) and bendir (frame drum), and a melody section, consisting of a ghaita (bagpipe) and ajouag (flute). Kabyle music has been popular in France since the 1930s, when it was played at cafés. As it evolved, Western string instruments and Arab musical conventions, like large backing orchestras, were added. By the time raï, a style of Algerian popular music, became popular in France and elsewhere in Europe, Kabyle artists began using less traditional instruments and formats. Hassen Zermani's all-electric Takfarinas (playing the Algerian mandole) and Abdelli's work with Peter Gabriel's Real World helped bring Kabyle music to new audiences, while the murder of Matoub Lounes inspired many Kabyles to rally around their popular musicians. There are three varieties of Berber folk music: village and ritual music, and the music performed by professional musicians. Village music is performed collectively for dancing, including ahidus and ahouach dances. Instruments include flutes and drums. These dances begin with a chanted prayer. Ritual music is performed at regular ceremonies to celebrate marriages and other important life events. Ritual music is also used as protection against evil spirits. Professional musicians (imdyazn) travel in groups of four, led by a poet (amydaz). The amydaz performs improvised poems, often accompanied by drums and rabab (a one-stringed fiddle), along with a bou oughanim who plays a double clarinet and acts as a clown for the group. The Chleuh Berbers have professional musicians called rwais who play in ensembles consisting of lutes, rababs and cymbals, with any number of vocalist. The leader, or rayes, leads the choreography and music of the group. These performances begin with an instrumental astara on rabab, which also gives the notes of the melody which follows. The next phase is the amarg, or sung poetry, and then ammussu, a danced overture, tammust, an energetic song, aberdag, a dance, and finally the rhythmically swift tabbayt. There is some variation in the presentation of the order, but the astara always begins, and the tabbayt always ends. Traditional Berber festivals include Fantasia. Imilchil Marriage Festival and Udayn n Acur. See also [ edit ] Notes [ edit ]There's no denying the appeal of virtual reality. The technology is advancing at breakneck speed, and the quality of the hardware, and the experience it provides, means consumers are chomping at the bit to get their hands on their very own VR headset. Right now though, those consumers will have to wait, as a retail version of arguably the flagship VR headset, the Oculus Rift, doesn't seem to be on the horizon. Instead, Oculus is firmly focused on honing its skills and perfecting its tech. Having said that, the DK2, Gear VR, and the in-house Crescent Bay headset all prove that things are heading in the right direction. The firm's head of developer relations, Aaron Davis, is a man who shares that view, and, speaking at Game Connection Europe 2014, he explained that consumers needn't worry, because Oculus won't be happy until hundreds of millions of people have witness the endless possibility of virtual reality. Soon, my friend "We're thrilled that VR is becoming more and more accessible," said Davis, addressing an packed room in Paris' Expo Centre. "Our goal as a company is that over the next 10 years want to have over 1 billion people engaged in virtual reality. "We're not just talking about people in this room. We're talking about old people, young people, people from difference economic backgrounds, living in different countries." Gear VR has stolen a match on Oculus, at least in terms of hardware Right now PC is undeniably the tip of Oculus' VR spear, however, that doesn't mean it always will be. Talking about the future of the company, Davis explained that Oculus expects to conquer other platforms in the future, starting with mobile in 2014. If you've seen Crescent Bay, you know which direction mobile is going over the next two years. Aaron Davis "We have a number of different channels for Oculus, at the moment, the most familiar one, is PC," he said. "The PC is the tip of the spear. It's where most of our research tends to focus. The Gear VR [Samsung's partnership with Oculus] is fundamentally different. It's very accessible, because you're not tethered to a box, and our team is focused on bring capabilities such as positional tracking to mobile. "Gear VR, if you compare it to DK1, has low persistence. It's a supremely more comfortable and exciting experience. Right now, the waterfall of features from PC to mobile is happening at a two year rate. "If you've seen Crescent Bay, you know which direction mobile is going over the next two years." Lean on me The Gear VR will be the first foray of Oculus' technology into the consumer space, and Davis believes that developers will play a large part in the success to come. After all, it's the relationships between Oculus and developers looking to push VR to its limits that'll ensure the device continues to be a growing force. Monument Valley developer ustwo is entering the VR world with Land's End "Over the past two years we've been working on providing research and resources for developers. It's all been developer-orientated, and we're in the middle, creating a platform to establishing those types of relationships," explained Davis. "The Share marketplace is the early backbone of consumerisation. What's happening in the future is that we're going to expand the reach so developers can reach users. "The free store for consumers will launch along with Gear VR before Christmas. Once we get users engaged at a consumer level we will build a commerce channel." Making history It's clear that Oculus is looking to inject some magic into the industry, and while there might still be some doubters out there, Davis insists that he wouldn't have committed his future to the company if he didn't fully believe it was going to chance the world. "Presence is the ultimate goal of VR. It's what allows you to put on a headset and forget you're in a room, or in a house," finished Daviis. "Seeing Crescent Bay was what made me see commit my future to the company. "When I saw that, I had this moment where I realised that this is real, this is going to establish new industries, and ultimately, this is going to change the world."Peak mental performance A question on the mind of every innovator, founder, and is: How can I reach my peak mental performance? We are obsessed with following the stories of the world’s top performers in hopes that by getting a glimpse of their life a little piece of greatness will rub off. The Tim Ferriss Show, a podcast that interviews world-class performers, is a perfect example of this obsession, with over 150 million individual episode downloads. Why is this the case? It’s likely because self-improvement and personal growth is a fundamental drive that exists in us all. We’re always looking for ways to be better and to improve our peak psychological functioning. Source: Tim Ferriss Show And now there’s scientific research showing that our peak performance is closely tied to how we feel. In this post you’ll learn from leading research that being the best version of ourselves means feeling emotions, particularly negative emotions. Emotions matter For centuries, emotions got a bad rap from both ancient philosophers (Aristotle’s virtuous life of reason over emotion) and theologians (Christianity’s seven deadly sins). Over time, this thinking informed cognitive scientists’ research and led to the idea that “cold” calculated was the model for optimal performance, and that emotion was a mere bi-product of the process. This has changed over the past decade with the that emotions are a critical part of human functioning. But what does this mean for the different types of emotions that we feel? Source: pixabay Positive emotions happen in times when we feel safe and when our world is certain and predictable. People feel-good emotions. There are entire departments and designated research hubs whose sole purpose is to spread the word of positive emotion. The public also caught on, with the number of products (a $10 billion industry) growing year over year, to where we’re now seeing the digitization of happiness through apps like Happify. Positive emotions are no doubt important, but if the recent Pixar movie, Inside Out, taught us (and our kids) anything, it’s that negative emotions shouldn’t be ignored. It’s the negative emotions that matter most for driving our optimal performance. We experience negative emotions when there is something uncertain or unknown in our. Anxiety, for instance, helps to hone our to what is directly in front of us, which is the brain’s way of telling us that this thing (or person) is important and should be resolved or dealt with before moving on. Without the experience of negative emotions, you’re less likely to reach a state of optimal performance. The reason, we suspect, is that negative emotions trigger a system in the brain that tell us when our performance is starting to suffer. Without those feelings of anxiety and frustration, the brain isn’t able to do as good a driving optimal performance. My and I took this hypothesis into the lab and asked the following question: Does feeling unpleasant emotions help us (and our brain) improve performance? Our Experiment The experiment worked as follows. Participants completed multiple rounds of a cognitive timing performance task. The better they did on the task, the more money they would get to take home. But the task was difficult and participants made errors in their performance. In one half of the rounds, participants completed the task while being told to react to their errors in a “cold, emotionless, analytic way with a detached attitude” (a prime to get them to suppress the experience of any performance anxiety). In the other half, participants were given the same instructions but instead this time were told to react to their errors and the task as “an immersive experience where you really feel all the emotions” (a prime to get them to accept the experience of any performance anxiety). Source: pixabay Participant did both rounds while hooked up to a machine that tracked and measured their brain activity throughout the performance. Specifically, we looked at a brain activation pattern responsible for monitoring our ongoing performance behaviors. This system is constantly checking in on our behaviors, making sure that things are going as planned and that there aren’t any issues needing to be dealt with. When an issue is detected, the system sends an alarm telling the rest of the brain and body, “There’s a problem here!” We predicted that feeling more performance anxiety would improve that alarm signal in the brain, and as a result, optimize participants’ performance. The results When participants were asked to suppress their negative emotions, they reported feeling less during the task. When they were asked to enhance and accept their negative emotions, they reported feeling more anxious during the task. Makes sense. But the results confirmed our thinking about the utility of these negative emotions: When people felt more anxious they showed greater activation in the performance system of the brain compared to when they felt less anxious. And, this heightened activation as a result of feeling more performance anxiety predicted better, not worse, performance. Why is this? Negative emotions play a huge part in the brain’s performance system because they awake the neural firing that allows even the slightest issue to be detected and (ideally) resolved. Anxiety is always the one going around yelling, “There’s a problem here!” In other words, negative emotions like anxiety are required for optimal performance because they allow us to see when we are experiencing setbacks, and they help keep us on track in reaching our performance. It appears there’s some truth to the old adage – no pain, no gain. Get emotional about your performance Here are some tips for you to experience a performance brain boost: Make sure you’re experiencing a healthy amount of anxiety or negative emotions. This is a careful balance of course. You do not want too much bad, or distress. What you want is good stress, or eustress. The eustress are the adaptive “negative” emotions that allow you to achieve your goals. Come up with a simple few lines, your mantra, similar to the primes used in the experiment, that you can repeat (either in your head or aloud if possible) on a regular basis. You can do it once in the morning and then twice throughout the day. It’ll act as a reminder that it’s okay to accept your performance anxiety, and that these negative feelings are actually helping you perform better. Source: pixabay Be mindful of your negative feelings. This means having awareness and accepting them as is. Remember the self-help and happiness hype I mentioned earlier? An unfortunate consequence of this movement is that it makes people feel like any sort of negative experience of anxiety or sadness is not okay. But we know from research that suppressing negative emotions backfires and only ends up making things worse. So, be okay with experiencing a healthy dose of anxiety. Keep a negative emotions log. Not as a method to get rid of the feelings, but to help empower you to meet your goals and drive peak performance. By doing this, you own those emotions and use them to your advantage. The log can have three columns: one for what you’re feeling, a second for what triggered it, and a third for the goal that this will help you achieve. So go ahead, get emotional and uncover your true performance potential. Your brain will thank you for it.FIFA will not pursue any action against Mexican fans for chanting 'puto' during World Cup games, saying the word is not a gay slur despite its most egregious definition being "faggot." FIFA had been investigating the chant for the last week. Debate arose last week after Outsports ran a story about the use of the word, which is chanted when the opposing team's goalie has the ball. Mexico's own National Council to Prevent Discrimination has already labeled it a slur and condemned its usage. Yet FIFA has determined it is not a slur. Some have defended the use of the word, saying in that "context" it only means "manwhore" and not "faggot." Either way, it's hardly language that should be used in what should be a friendly environment. What is interesting about FIFA's decision is that chooses one definition of the word over another. There are clearly many people, including gay and straight people, who view it as a slur. FIFA has assigned intent behind the word and invalidated the perspective of those who see it as a slur. It will be interesting to see what ESPN and Univision do with the chants today. For what it's worth, Mexican actor Diego Luna has also spoken out against the chant. "Soccer is a reflection of what we are in many ways," he said. "We live in a classist, racist, homophobic society into which we are very assimilated, that's all. I'm not really proud of that." Doesn't sound like that word is some innocuous term to many people, including those in Mexico. Ten years from now we will all look back at this kind of thing and shake our heads.Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos speaks during a Presidential address in Bogota, Colombia, November 12, 2016. Colombian Presidency/Handout via REUTERS BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said on Tuesday he will undertake medical tests in the United States this week for a possible return of prostate cancer. Increased levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) were detected during a routine checkup and his doctor has recommended he travel as soon as possible for further tests, he told reporters. Santos, 65, who won election in 2010 and is half-way through his second term, had successful surgery four years ago in Colombia to remove a tumor in his prostate. “This news has taken me and my family by surprise. I will travel tomorrow, exams will take place on Thursday and I will return on Friday,” he said. “I maintain confidence the results of these new exams will be positive,” he added, saying he would inform the nation of the outcome as soon as possible. The Harvard-educated Santos, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last month for his efforts to end a half-century war with Marxist FARC rebels, spoke with his wife and doctor by his side. The medical checks come at a busy time for the Colombian leader, as he tries to revive the FARC peace deal, which was rejected last month in a referendum, and also seeks to steer tricky tax reforms through parliament. The tests will be carried out at the oncology center at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. PSA is a protein in the prostate gland and men with prostate cancer often have an elevated PSA.By 2004, Google had already become well-known for its April Fools' pranks. That year, it appeared to up the ante, with not just one but two suspiciously improbable announcements. The first was a posting for job openings on the moon. The second was that the search company was launching a free email service that would offer users, not one or two megabytes, but 1000 megabytes of storage. If that were true, it would mean the average user would never have to delete an email again. The joke, of course, is that it wasn't a joke at all. Gmail was a real product, and it really did offer multiple orders of magnitude more storage than Hotmail and Yahoo Mail, the leading competitors at the time. But it took the tech media a while to figure that out, according to Georges Harik, director of Google's in-house start-up incubator at the time. "Journalists would call us and say, 'We need to know if you're just kidding, or if this is real,'" Harik recalled to Time's Harry McCracken. "That was fun." Google thought it would be funny to launch a free email service on April 1, 2004. In most people's eyes, it was actually a PR blunder, reported Steven Levy in his 2011 book In the Plex. But Google co-founder Sergey Brin never saw it that way. "Even years later, Brin still relished the reverse spin – tricking people by not hoaxing," Levy wrote. Early Gmail product manager Brian Rakowski also remembers Brin being tickled by the move. "The ultimate April Fools' joke was to launch something kind of crazy on April 1st and have it still exist on April
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Castle and Windward Bights Windward Coast (Nunez - Assini) Gold Coast, Fr. definition Other India Calcutta OK Select all Deselect all Quicksearch Third place of slave purchase [nothing selected] Select Africa Senegambia and offshore Atlantic Albreda Bissau Cacheu Gambia Gorée James Fort Rio Grande Saint-Louis Sierra Leone Banana Islands Bance Island (Ben's Island) Gallinhas Iles de Los Rio Nunez Rio Pongo Sherbro Sugary (Siekere) Sierra Leone, port unspecified Windward Coast Bassa Cape Mount (Cape Grand Mount) Cape Lahou Cess Petit Cess Grand Bassa Grand Bassam Little Junk Grand Mesurado Petit Mesurado Sassandra Grand Sestos St. Paul Ivory Coast Windward Coast, port unspecified Gold Coast Accra Anomabu Apammin Apollonia Axim Cape Coast Castle Elmina Kormantine Sekondi Tantumquerry Wiamba Gold Coast, port unspecified Bight of Benin Benin Amokou Ardra Badagry/Apa Dixcove Epe Popo Little Popo Jacquin Whydah Keta Lagos, Onim Porto Novo Bight of Benin, port unspecified Bight of Biafra and Gulf of Guinea islands Bonny Calabar Cameroons Cameroons River Cap Lopez Forke Gabon New Calabar River del Rey Rio Nazareth Princes Island São Tomé West Central Africa and St. Helena Ambriz Benguela Cabinda Congo River Liverpool River Loango Malembo Mayumba Metrueba Mpinda Luanda West Central Africa and St. Helena, port unspecified Southeast Africa and Indian Ocean islands Lourenço Marques Other Africa Windward + Ivory + Gold + Benin C.C. Castle and Windward Gold Coast, Fr. definition Africa., port unspecified OK Select all Deselect all Quicksearch Principal place of slave purchase* [nothing selected] Select Africa Senegambia and offshore Atlantic Albreda Arguim Bissagos Bissau Cacheu Casamance Galam Gambia Gorée Joal, or Saloum River Portudal Portuguese Guinea Rio Grande Saint-Louis French Africa (Goree or Senegal) Cape Verde Islands Madeira Senegambia and offshore Atlantic, port unspecified Sierra Leone Banana Islands Bance Island (Ben's Island) Cacandia Côte de Malaguette (runs through to Cape Palmas on Windward Coast) Delagoa Gallinhas Iles de Los Iles Plantain Rio Nunez Rio Pongo Scarcies Sherbro Sugary (Siekere) Sierra Leone estuary Mano River Kissey Sierra Leone, port unspecified Windward Coast Bassa Cape Mount (Cape Grand Mount) Cape Lahou Cess Dembia Drouin Grand Bassa Little Bassa Grand Bassam Grand Junk Little Junk Grand Mesurado Petit Mesurado Rio Assini Sassandra Grand Sestos Rock Sestos St. Paul Tabou Trade Town Ivory Coast Settra Kru Windward Coast, port unspecified Gold Coast Danish Gold Coast Accra Alampo Anomabu Apammin Apollonia Axim Cape Coast Castle Chama Christiansborg Elmina Eva Kormantine Wiamba Gold Coast from Kormatine to Accra Gold Coast east of Kormantine Pokesoe (Princes Town) Gold Coast, port unspecified Bight of Benin Benin Costa da Mina Aghway Amokou Ardra Badagry/Apa Epe Popo Little Popo Grand Popo Ife Jacquin Whydah Keta Lagos, Onim Lay Legas Oerê Porto Novo Rio Forcados Rio Nun Bight of Benin, port unspecified Bight of Biafra and Gulf of Guinea islands Andony Bilbay Bimbia Bonny Bundy Calabar Cameroons Cameroons River Cap Lopez Corisco Formosa Gabon Liverpool River New Calabar Quaqua River Brass River del Rey Rio Nazareth Calabary Gulf of Guinea islands Fernando Po Princes Island São Tomé São Tomé or Princes Island Costa de Africa (mainland coast around S Tome/Principe) Bight of Biafra and Gulf of Guinea Islands, port unspecified West Central Africa and St. Helena Alecuba Ambona Ambriz Benguela Boary Bomara Cabinda Cabo Lopo Gonçalves Cape Mole Coanza River Congo North Congo River Rio Zaire Grenada Point Kilongo Loango Malembo Mayumba Mpinda Nova Redonda Penido Quicombo Salinas Luanda Soyo West Central Africa and St. Helena, port unspecified Southeast Africa and Indian Ocean islands Cape of Good Hope Costa Leste Occidental Ibo Inhambane Quirimba Kilwa Lourenço Marques Madagascar Momboza or Zanzibar Mozambique Quilimane Sofala St. Lawrence Zanzibar Mascarene Islands Mauritius (Ile de France) Southeast Africa and Indian Ocean islands, port unspecified Other Africa Princes Island and Elmina Senegambia or Sierra Leone West of Cape Apolonia Windward + Ivory + Gold + Benin C.C. Castle and Windward Gold Coast + Bight of Benin + Bight of Biafra Bights Windward Coast (Nunez - Assini) Gold Coast, Fr. definition Casnasonis (location undetermined) Touau-Toro (location undetermined) Cape Logas (location undetermined) Africa., port unspecified Other Asia e Africa Asia e Africa, port unspecified OK Select all Deselect all Quicksearch Places of call before Atlantic crossing [nothing selected] Select Africa Senegambia and offshore Atlantic Bissau Cacheu Gorée Cape Verde Islands Santa Catarina do Fogo Canary Islands Gold Coast Accra Anomabu and Apam Cape Coast Castle Elmina Bight of Biafra and Gulf of Guinea islands Cameroons River Cap Lopez Cape Lopez and Annobon Corisco Corisco and Princes Island Gabon Annobon Epee and Princes Islands Fernando Po and Cameroons Fernando Po and Princes Islands Juda and Princes Islands Princes Island Princes Island and Annobon Princes Island and Cape Lopez Princes Island and São Tomé Principe, Cap Lopez, Annobon São Tomé São Tomé and Annobon São Tomé and Cape Lopez Costa de Africa (mainland coast around S Tome/Principe) West Central Africa and St. Helena Luanda St. Helena Southeast Africa and Indian Ocean islands Cape of Good Hope Bourbon Mauritius (Ile de France) Ascension, Assomption, and Bourbon Other Africa Princes Island and Elmina Europe Spain Gibraltar OK Select all Deselect all Quicksearch First place of slave landing [nothing selected] Select Africa Senegambia and offshore Atlantic Bissagos Gorée French Africa (Goree or Senegal) Cape Verde Islands Canary Islands Tenerife Senegambia and offshore Atlantic, port unspecified Sierra Leone Freetown Rio Pongo Sierra Leone, port unspecified Windward Coast Liberia Gold Coast Accra Cape Coast Castle Elmina Bight of Biafra and Gulf of Guinea islands Bonny Fernando Po Princes Island São Tomé Bight of Biafra and Gulf of Guinea Islands, port unspecified West Central Africa and St. Helena Malembo Luanda St. Helena West Central Africa and St. Helena, port unspecified Southeast Africa and Indian Ocean islands Cape of Good Hope Ile de France Mauritius (Ile de France) Other Africa Africa., port unspecified Mainland North America Rhode Island Newport Rhode Island, port unspecified New Hampshire Portsmouth (NH) Massachusetts Boston Connecticut New London Middletown New York New York New Jersey Delaware River Eastern New Jersey Perth Amboy Pennsylvania Philadelphia Maryland Annapolis North Potomac Oxford Patuxent Londontowne Maryland, port unspecified Virginia Hampton Lower James River Potomac river Rappahannock South Potomac Upper James River York River Virginia, port unspecified North Carolina Roanoke North Carolina, port unspecified South Carolina Beaufort Charleston South Carolina, port unspecified Georgia Savannah Tybee Island Georgia, port unspecified Florida St. Augustine Pensacola Amelia Island Key West Florida, port unspecified Gulf coast New Orleans La Balise Louisiana Biloxi Mississippi Mobile Other North America USA, location unspecified Spanish Mainland Americas Spanish Circum-Caribbean New Spain Campeche Veracruz Guatemala Portobelo Cartagena Santa Marta Venezuela Borburata Caracas Cumana La Guaira Margarita Orinoko Rio de la Hacha Trujillo Spanish Circum-Caribbean,unspecified Rio de la Plata Buenos Aires Montevideo Maldonado Rio de la Plata, port unspecified Caribbean Hispaniola Monte Christi Samana San Domingo (a) Santo Domingo Ocoa Hispaniola, unspecified Puerto Rico San Juan Puerto Rico, port unspecified Cuba Bahia Honda Banes Cabanas Caibarien Canasí Cardenas Cienfuegos Cuba, south coast Cuba, west coast Estuary of River Guane Guanimar Havana Isla de Pinas Magari, Manzanillo Mariel Matanzas Matanzas province, north Matanzas province, south Nuevitas Puerto Padre Sagua San Juan de los Remedios Santiago de Cuba Trinidad de Cuba Batabanó Cuba, port unspecified Dutch Caribbean Curaçao Bonaire St. Maarten St. Eustatius Dutch Guianas Guiana Nova Zeelandia (Wild Coast) Essequibo Suriname Paramaribo Berbice Tortola Tortola, port unspecified Antigua Saint John (Antigua) Antigua, port unspecified St. Kitts St. Kitts, port unspecified Nevis Nevis, port unspecified Montserrat Montserrat, port unspecified Dominica Dominica, port unspecified St. Lucia St. Lucia, port unspecified Barbados Barbados, port unspecified St. Vincent St. Vincent, port unspecified Grenada Grenada, port unspecified Trinidad Trinidad, port unspecified Tobago Tobago, port unspecified Jamaica Annotto Bay Antonia Black River Falmouth (Jam.) Lucea (a) St. Lucea Martha Brae Montego Bay Morant Bay Port Maria Port Royal Saint Ann's Bay Savanna la Mar Spanish Town Kingston Jamaica, port unspecified Bahamas New Providence Nassau Bahamas, port unspecified British Guiana Cumingsberg Stabroek Demerara Kingston (Demerera) British Honduras Mosquito Shore British Honduras, port unspecified Martinique Fort-Royale Saint-Pierre Martinique, port unspecified Guadaloupe Basse-Terre Pointe-à-Pitre Marie-Galante Guadeloupe, port unspecified French Guiana Cayenne Oyapock French Guiana, port unspecified Saint-Domingue Tortuga Arcahaie Cap Français Cayes (Les) Cul-de-Sac Fort Dauphin Jacmel Jérémie Léogane Môle Saint Nicolas Petit-Goâve Port-au-Prince Port-de-Paix Saint-Marc Saint-Domingue, port unspecified Danish West Indies St. Croix St. Thomas Danish West Indies, colony unspecified St. Barthélemy (Sweden) Gustavia, St. Barthélemy St. Barthélemy, port unspecified Other Spanish Caribbean Spanish Caribbean, unspecified Other British Caribbean British Leewards Bermuda British Caribbean, colony unspecified Other French Caribbean French Caribbean, colony unspecified Other Caribbean Caribbean (colony unspecified) Caribbean, port unspecified Europe Spain Cadiz Vigo Portugal Lagos Lisbon Portugal, port unspecified England Bristol France Le Havre France, port unspecified Netherlands Middelburg Brazil Amazonia Maranhão Pará Bahia Pôrto Seguro Rio Real Rio São Francisco Taipu Bahia, port unspecified Pernambuco Alagoas province Ilha de Itamaric Maceió Catuamo and Maria Farinha Porto de Galinhas Paraíba Pernambuco, port unspecified Southeast Brazil Baía de Botafogo Baía de Sepetiba Cabo de Búzios Cabo Frio Campos Cananéia Copacabana Dois Rios Ilha de Paquetá Ilha das Palmas Ilha Grande Ilha de Lobes Ilha de Marambaia Macaé Mangaratiba Maricá Paranaguá Parati Ponta Negro Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro province Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Santa Catarina Rio Grande do Sul Province Rio São Jeso Santos São Sebastião Ubatuba Vitória Southeast Brazil, port unspecified Other Americas Americas, region unspecified Americas, port unspecified Spanish Americas Spanish Americas, port unspecified British Americas British Americas, port unspecified Non-geographical Sold at sea to another vessel OK Select all Deselect all Quicksearch Second place of slave landing [nothing selected] Select Africa Senegambia and offshore Atlantic French Africa (Goree or Senegal) Sierra Leone Freetown Sierra Leone, port unspecified West Central Africa and St. Helena Malembo Mainland North America Rhode Island Providence Rhode Island, port unspecified Massachusetts Boston New York New York New Jersey Delaware River Pennsylvania Philadelphia Maryland Annapolis North Potomac Patuxent Londontowne Maryland, port unspecified Virginia Hampton Lower James River Rappahannock South Potomac Upper James River York River Virginia, port unspecified North Carolina North Carolina, port unspecified South Carolina Beaufort Charleston South Carolina, port unspecified Georgia Savannah Georgia, port unspecified Florida St. Augustine Florida, port unspecified Gulf coast New Orleans La Balise Biloxi Mississippi Other North America USA, location unspecified Spanish Mainland Americas Spanish Circum-Caribbean New Spain Campeche Veracruz Guatemala Santo Tomas Portobelo Cartagena Santa Marta Caracas La Guaira Rio de la Hacha Trujillo Spanish Circum-Caribbean,unspecified Rio de la Plata Buenos Aires Montevideo Caribbean Hispaniola Isabela Monte Christi San Domingo (a) Santo Domingo Hispaniola, unspecified Puerto Rico San Juan Puerto Rico, port unspecified Cuba Havana Matanzas Puerto Padre Santiago de Cuba Cuba, port unspecified Dutch Caribbean Curaçao Aruba St. Maarten St. Eustatius Dutch Guianas Essequibo Suriname Berbice Dutch Guianas, colony unspecified Tortola Tortola, port unspecified Anguilla Anguilla, port unspecified Antigua Antigua, port unspecified St. Kitts St. Kitts, port unspecified Nevis Nevis, port unspecified Montserrat Montserrat, port unspecified Dominica Dominica, port unspecified St. Lucia St. Lucia, port unspecified Barbados Barbados, port unspecified St. Vincent St. Vincent, port unspecified Grenada Grenada, port unspecified Trinidad Trinidad, port unspecified Tobago Tobago, port unspecified Jamaica Falmouth (Jam.) Martha Brae Montego Bay Port Royal Savanna la Mar Spanish Town Kingston Jamaica, port unspecified Bahamas Turk's Island Nassau Bahamas, port unspecified British Guiana Demerara British Honduras British Honduras, port unspecified Martinique Martinique, port unspecified Guadaloupe Guadeloupe, port unspecified French Guiana Cayenne Saint-Domingue Arcahaie Cap Français Cayes (Les) Cul-de-Sac Jacmel Jérémie Léogane Petit-Goâve Port-au-Prince Port-de-Paix Saint-Marc Île à Vache Saint-Domingue, port unspecified Danish West Indies St. Croix St. Thomas Other Spanish Caribbean Spanish Caribbean, unspecified Other British Caribbean British Leewards Other French Caribbean French Caribbean, colony unspecified Other Caribbean Caribbean (colony unspecified) Europe Spain Cadiz Portugal Lisbon England Liverpool Brazil Amazonia Maranhão Pará Bahia Bahia, port unspecified Pernambuco Pernambuco, port unspecified Southeast Brazil Rio de Janeiro Other Americas Americas, region unspecified Americas, port unspecified Spanish Americas Spanish Americas, port unspecified OK Select all Deselect all Quicksearch Third place of slave landing [nothing selected] Select Mainland North America Virginia Rappahannock Upper James River Gulf coast La Balise Louisiana Spanish Mainland Americas Spanish Circum-Caribbean New Spain Campeche Veracruz Portobelo Cartagena Venezuela Caracas Rio de la Plata Buenos Aires Caribbean Hispaniola Hispaniola, unspecified Puerto Rico Puerto Rico, port unspecified Cuba Havana Cuba, port unspecified Dutch Caribbean Curaçao St. Eustatius Dutch Guianas Essequibo Tortola Tortola, port unspecified Antigua Antigua, port unspecified St. Kitts St. Kitts, port unspecified Montserrat Montserrat, port unspecified St. Vincent St. Vincent, port unspecified Grenada Grenada, port unspecified Trinidad Trinidad, port unspecified Tobago Tobago, port unspecified Jamaica Montego Bay Kingston Jamaica, port unspecified Bahamas Bahamas, port unspecified British Guiana Demerara Martinique Martinique, port unspecified Guadaloupe Guadeloupe, port unspecified Saint-Domingue Cap Français Cayes (Les) Cul-de-Sac Léogane Port-au-Prince Danish West Indies St. Croix Brazil Bahia Bahia, port unspecified OK Select all Deselect all Quicksearch Principal place of slave landing* [nothing selected] Select Africa Senegambia and offshore Atlantic Bissagos Gorée French Africa (Goree or Senegal) Cape Verde Islands Canary Islands Tenerife Senegambia and offshore Atlantic, port unspecified Sierra Leone Freetown Rio Pongo Windward Coast Liberia Gold Coast Accra Cape Coast Castle Elmina Bight of Biafra and Gulf of Guinea islands Bonny Fernando Po Princes Island São Tomé Bight of Biafra and Gulf of Guinea Islands, port unspecified West Central Africa and St. Helena Malembo Luanda St. Helena West Central Africa and St. Helena, port unspecified Southeast Africa and Indian Ocean islands Cape of Good Hope Ile de France Mauritius (Ile de France) Other Africa Bights Africa., port unspecified Mainland North America Rhode Island Newport Rhode Island, port unspecified New Hampshire Piscataqua Massachusetts Boston Connecticut New London Middletown New York New York New Jersey Delaware River Eastern New Jersey Perth Amboy Pennsylvania Philadelphia Maryland Annapolis North Potomac Oxford Patuxent Londontowne Maryland, port unspecified Virginia Hampton Lower James River Potomac river Rappahannock South Potomac Upper James River York River Virginia, port unspecified North Carolina Roanoke North Carolina, port unspecified South Carolina Beaufort Charleston South Carolina, port unspecified Georgia Savannah Tybee Island Georgia, port unspecified Florida St. Augustine Pensacola Amelia Island Key West Florida, port unspecified Gulf coast New Orleans La Balise Louisiana Biloxi Mississippi Mobile Other North America USA, location unspecified Spanish Mainland Americas Spanish Circum-Caribbean New Spain Campeche Veracruz Guatemala Santo Tomas Portobelo Cartagena Santa Marta Venezuela Borburata Caracas Cumana La Guaira Margarita Orinoko Rio de la Hacha Trujillo Honduras, port unspecified Spanish Circum-Caribbean,unspecified Rio de la Plata Buenos Aires Montevideo Colonia de Sacramento Maldonado Rio de la Plata, port unspecified Peru Lima Caribbean Hispaniola Monte Christi Samana San Domingo (a) Santo Domingo Ocoa Puerto de Plata Hispaniola, unspecified Puerto Rico San Juan Puerto Rico, port unspecified Cuba Bahia Honda Banes Cabanas Caibarien Canasí Cardenas Cienfuegos Cuba, south coast Cuba, west coast Guanimar Havana Isla de Pinas Magari, Manzanillo Mariel Matanzas Matanzas province, south Nuevitas Puerto Padre Sagua San Juan de los Remedios Santiago de Cuba Trinidad de Cuba Batabanó Cuba, port unspecified Dutch Caribbean Curaçao St. Maarten St. Eustatius Dutch Caribbean, colony unspecified Dutch Guianas Guiana Essequibo Suriname Paramaribo Berbice Dutch Guianas, colony unspecified Tortola Tortola, port unspecified Antigua Saint John (Antigua) Antigua, port unspecified St. Kitts St. Kitts, port unspecified Nevis Newcastle (Nevis) Nevis, port unspecified Montserrat Montserrat, port unspecified Dominica Dominica, port unspecified St. Lucia St. Lucia, port unspecified Barbados Barbados, port unspecified St. Vincent St. Vincent, port unspecified Grenada Grenada, port unspecified Trinidad Trinidad, port unspecified Tobago Zion Hill Tobago, port unspecified Jamaica Annotto Bay Antonia Black River Falmouth (Jam.) Lucea (a) St. Lucea Martha Brae Montego Bay Morant Bay Port Maria Port Royal Saint Ann's Bay Savanna la Mar Spanish Town Kingston Jamaica, port unspecified Bahamas Nassau Bahamas, port unspecified British Guiana Cumingsberg Stabroek Demerara Kingston (Demerera) British Honduras Mosquito Shore British Honduras, port unspecified Martinique Fort-Royale Saint-Pierre Martinique, port unspecified Guadaloupe Basse-Terre Guadeloupe, port unspecified French Guiana Cayenne Saint-Domingue Tortuga Arcahaie Cap Français Cayes (Les) Cul-de-Sac Fort Dauphin Jacmel Jérémie Léogane Môle Saint Nicolas Petit-Goâve Port-au-Prince Port-de-Paix Saint-Marc Gonaïve Saint-Domingue, port unspecified Danish West Indies St. Croix St. Thomas Danish West Indies, colony unspecified St. Barthélemy (Sweden) Gustavia, St. Barthélemy St. Barthélemy, port unspecified Other Spanish Caribbean Spanish Caribbean, unspecified Other British Caribbean British Leewards Hamilton (Bermuda) British Caribbean, colony unspecified Other French Caribbean French Caribbean, colony unspecified Other Caribbean Caribbean (colony unspecified) West Indies (colony unspecified) Caribbean, port unspecified Europe Spain Cadiz Seville Vigo Portugal Lagos Lisbon Portugal, port unspecified England Bristol France Le Havre France, port unspecified Netherlands Middelburg Brazil Amazonia Maranhão Pará Bahia Pôrto Seguro Taipu Bahia, port unspecified Pernambuco Alagoas province Ilha de Itamaric Maceió Catuamo and Maria Farinha Porto de Galinhas Paraíba Rio Grande do Norte Pernambuco, port unspecified Southeast Brazil Baía de Botafogo Baía de Sepetiba Cabo de Búzios Cabo Frio Campos Cananéia Copacabana Dois Rios Ilha de Paquetá Ilha das Palmas Ilha Grande Ilha de Lobes Ilha de Marambaia Macaé Mangaratiba Maricá Paranaguá Parati Ponta Negro Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro province Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Santa Catarina Rio Grande do Sul Province Rio São Jeso Santos São Sebastião Santa Catarina Ubatuba Southeast Brazil, port unspecified Other Americas Americas, region unspecified Americas, port unspecified Spanish Americas Spanish Americas, port unspecified British Americas British Americas, port unspecified Codes without labels??? OK Select all Deselect all Quicksearch Place where voyage ended [nothing selected] Select Africa Senegambia and offshore Atlantic Gorée Saint-Louis Cape Verde Islands Azores Canary Islands Tenerife Sierra Leone Freetown Sherbro Sierra Leone, port unspecified Gold Coast Cape Coast Castle Southeast Africa and Indian Ocean islands Ile de France Port-Louis Other Africa Africa., port unspecified Mainland North America Rhode Island Bristol (RI) Newport North Kingston Providence Rhode Island, port unspecified New Hampshire Portsmouth (NH) Massachusetts Boston Newbury Salem New York New York Pennsylvania Philadelphia Maryland Baltimore Maryland, port unspecified Virginia Williamsburg South Carolina Charleston Other North America New England Spanish Mainland Americas Rio de la Plata Montevideo Caribbean Hispaniola Hispaniola, unspecified Cuba Cardenas Havana Santiago de Cuba Cuba, port unspecified Dutch Caribbean Curaçao St. Maarten Antigua Antigua, port unspecified St. Kitts St. Kitts, port unspecified Nevis Nevis, port unspecified Dominica Dominica, port unspecified Barbados Barbados, port unspecified Grenada Grenada, port unspecified Jamaica Jamaica, port unspecified Martinique Martinique, port unspecified Guadaloupe Guadeloupe, port unspecified French Guiana Cayenne Saint-Domingue Port-au-Prince Danish West Indies St. Croix St. Thomas St. Barthélemy (Sweden) Gustavia, St. Barthélemy St. Barthélemy, port unspecified Other British Caribbean British Leewards Europe Spain Bilbao Cadiz La Coruña Santander Seville Spain, port unspecified Portugal Lisbon Great Britain Great Britain, port unspecified England Bristol Chester Cowes Dartmouth Dover Exeter Guernsey Hull Kendal Lancaster Liverpool London Lyme Milford Haven Padstowe Plymouth Poole Portsmouth Wales Whitehaven Falmouth (Eng.) England, port unspecified Scotland Glasgow Greenock Leith Montrose Ireland Cork Dublin Kinsale Limerick France Bayonne Bordeaux Brest Dieppe Dinard Dunkerque Honfleur Ile de Batz La Rochelle Le Havre Lorient Marseille Mindin Morlaix Nantes Port Louis Saint-Malo Saint-Nazaire Sète Vannes France, port unspecified Netherlands Amsterdam Texel Rotterdam Dordrecht Maze Hellevoetsluis Zeeland Middelburg Vlissingen Netherlands, port unspecified Denmark København Northern Germany Elbe Hamburg Belgium Antwerp Brazil Bahia Rio Real Bahia, port unspecified Other British Americas British Americas, port unspecified OK Select all Deselect all Quicksearch Year arrived with slaves* Between At most At least Is equal to - Date voyage began Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Date trade began in Africa Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Date vessel arrived with slaves Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Date vessel departed for homeport Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Date voyage completed Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Voyage length, homeport to slaves landing (days)* Between At most At least Is equal to - Middle passage (days)* Between At most At least Is equal to - Captain's name Crew at voyage outset Between At most At least Is equal to - Crew at first landing of slaves Between At most At least Is equal to - Crew deaths during voyage Between At most At least Is equal to - Number of slaves intended at first place of purchase Between At most At least Is equal to - Slaves carried from first port of purchase Between At most At least Is equal to - Slaves carried from second port of purchase Between At most At least Is equal to - Slaves carried from third port of purchase Between At most At least Is equal to - Total slaves embarked Between At most At least Is equal to - Total slaves embarked* Between At most At least Is equal to - Number of slaves arriving at first place of landing Between At most At least Is equal to - Number of slaves disembarked at first place of landing Between At most At least Is equal to - Number of slaves disembarked at second place of landing Between At most At least Is equal to - Number of slaves disembarked at third place of landing Between At most At least Is equal to - Total slaves disembarked* Between At most At least Is equal to - Percentage men* Between At most At least Is equal to - Percentage women* Between At most At least Is equal to - Percentage boys* Between At most At least Is equal to - Percentage girls* Between At most At least Is equal to - Percentage male* Between At most At least Is equal to - Percentage children* Between At most At least Is equal to - Sterling cash price in Jamaica* Between At most At least Is equal to - Slave deaths during middle passage* Between At most At least Is equal to - Mortality rate* Between At most At least Is equal to - Sources Search New query Create a link Use this button to obtain a URL that will serve as a link to the current query. To reactivate the query in the future, paste the URL into the address bar. Click Here Previous query 1514 - 1866 Principal place of slave landing: Annapolis, North Potomac, Oxford, Patuxent, Maryland, port unspecified Delete Restore Time frame:Principal place of slave landing: URL link has been created To reactivate the current query in the future, copy the following URL and then paste it into the address bar:The first major snow storm of the season packed a serious punch, with waves of snow through the first week of December leaving Twin Ports and Northland residents digging out. So, how much snow did we get? Here are the latest snowfall reports (storm totals) from around the area in order of greatest to least snowfall. We also have a map from the National Weather Service at the bottom of the post showing totals. Minnesota Totals (11:00 am 12/05/13) Two Harbors (5 mi. N) - 42 inches Two Harbors (7 mi. NW) - 35.3 inches Beaver Bay - 34.5 inches Silver Bay - 29.5 inches Duluth Heights - 29.2 inches Lester Park Duluth - 24.5 inches Askov - 21.7 inches Duluth Airport (Official NWS measurement) - 23.3 inches Canyon - 23 inches Lutsen - 22.5 Sawyer - 21.7 inches Finland - 20.7 Kenwood Duluth - 20 inches Alborn - 20 inches Cloquet - 19 inches Moose Lake - 18 inches Brimson - 17.6 inches Holyoke - 17 inches Bruno -
they have spent a year testing out different labs during rotations and are (reasonably) confident they have found The One. But a small voice in the back of their heads keeps asking, “Is this the right mentor? Is this the right project? Is this the right place for me?” At the end of my first year, I was convinced I had found those right things. My mentor was energetic, passionate and well-funded, and he saw something promising in me that I didn’t see in myself. He was encouraging and supportive of my initial experiments and thoughts. The lab was small, with every person functioning as an essential member of the team. The older graduate students and postdocs were knowledgeable and helpful, and I was excited about my project. Almost a year and a half later, however, I was unenthusiastic and lethargic about my work. My PI told me to prioritize a single aim of my research plan over the others. Although I was making slow and steady progress there, I hadn’t begun the exciting experiments that initially had piqued my interest in the project. When I asked when I could start those experiments, my PI gave me several reasons why it wasn’t the right time: We were waiting for the new year for funding to kick in, and he wanted me to focus on my first aim. These were reasonable arguments. I trusted that he had my best interests in mind, so I plugged away at my work. Months passed and January came, and he still did not allow me to begin the experiments. I asked him again, and this time, instead of pushing it off, my PI told me that another member of the lab would be performing the pilot experiments of my coveted aim. When he said this, I felt my stomach drop. I was hurt and disappointed by his decision, so I decided to make my case. As a Ph.D. student, I wanted to feel ownership of this project from start to finish. I explained how I felt, and as a compromise we agreed that I would be a part of the planning and execution of these pilot experiments. It was a shock then, a few weeks later, when my lab mate began presenting the preliminary data for this project at a lab meeting. I had no idea she had started the work, and I felt completely blindsided. I sat silent throughout the entire meeting, trying to figure out if I could have seen this coming. I replayed my previous conversation with my boss over and over in my head. My only conclusion was that he had lied to me, or at the very least he had changed his mind without telling me. After the meeting, I couldn’t step foot back in lab. I was frozen in the conference room, trying to control my anger and hold back tears. I didn’t want my boss to see me so upset. Two of my other lab mates stayed in the room with me and helped me calm down and rationally think through my situation. They gave me the confidence to confront my boss that afternoon. I asked him why he had excluded me from the project, and he finally admitted that he was not confident enough in my ability to execute the experiments. I admit that I had not been as productive as I had hoped, so he may have had legitimate reasons to feel this way. But I was most heartbroken by the fact that he had not been honest with me about his reasoning and had kept me in the dark about my own project. I no longer felt like a vital member of the team — instead, I felt like I was dispensable. I became even less motivated and productive, paralyzed by self-doubt. I had fewer and fewer meetings with my boss, and even when we did speak I didn’t trust him to tell me the truth anymore. I finally realized that I would not be able to complete my Ph.D. in his lab. In fact, I was not sure if I would be able to complete my Ph.D. at all. I worried what people would think if I left my lab. Would they think I was incapable of dealing with the challenges that come with research? Would they believe I was just not tough enough? During this time, I reached out to my friends, family and professors. To my surprise, many people praised my decision to switch labs as brave. I spoke with a former mentor of mine, who challenged me to tease apart two things — my passion for research and my passion for research in my current lab — to help me determine my future in my Ph.D. program. It was a daunting question. Untangling the two seemed impossible; I feared I had lost interest entirely. I decided that I would put off the real decision by doing a new lab rotation. If I hated it, the worst that could happen was that I’d quit later. But I wanted to give research one last try. I explored new avenues of research around me, and I found my first spark of renewed excitement when I considered working for a PI I had met during her time as a postdoc. She had just opened up her lab at my university, and I was excited by the idea of working with her. I knew the work would be fast-paced and that I would need to play an important role in helping the lab get off the ground. I joined that lab as a (very experienced) rotation student. During this time, I was able to have frank conversations with my potential mentor. I was happier and more productive in my new lab because we could have open and honest communication. She was aware of the difficulties I had in my previous lab, and she understood my weaknesses as a researcher. When the rotation reached its end, I joined without hesitation or fear. I had finally found my home. Still today, she holds me accountable for my work but in a manner that leaves me less ashamed of my failures in the lab. I am more willing to be open with her than I ever was with my former PI — especially when my work isn’t going well. The trust built from our communication has given me confidence within the lab and as a member of the research community. Importantly, she fosters a community of collaboration rather than competition within the lab. I have been asked many times if I regret joining my first lab. Although I would have preferred a smoother start to my graduate career, I do not regret the decision I made as a first-year student. During my time in my first lab, I learned how to be a rigorous scientist, and I matured as a student. I was able to overcome a situation where my relationship with my mentor had broken down and I did not believe in myself. I learned that it is OK to admit defeat, and more importantly, I learned how to pick myself up and try again. For all of that, I am thankful that I got a do-over. The author is an anonymous graduate student at an East Coast research university.The sister of Salam Mukhaibir collapses as her brother’s body arrives at a Yazidi temple near Iraq’s Mount Sinjar. The 18-year-old was killed in clashes against peshmerga forces in Khana Sour. (Alice Martins/For The Washington Post) Relatives collapsed in grief as the coffin of an 18-year-old Yazidi fighter was carried to a small temple at the base of Mount Sinjar. Salam Mukhaibir’s death this month, along with four other Yazidi fighters, marked the latest dark turn for an Iraqi minority sect that has suffered genocide at the hands of the Islamic State. But the men were not killed fighting the militants. They died in clashes with Kurdish peshmerga forces when long-simmering rivalries erupted. The Islamic State overran the town of Sinjar and its surroundings 2½ years ago, executing thousands of Yazidi men, whom it considers apostates. Thousands of women who were kidnapped to be used as sex slaves and their children remain missing. But the fierce infighting among forces ostensibly meant to be battling the militants now threatens to set back efforts to recapture more land and rebuild areas reduced to rubble. The conflagration presents a challenge for the United States, which plays a role supporting both Kurdish factions involved — providing military assistance to them, or their affiliates, in the fight against the Islamic State. It also marks a bleak bellwether for the prospects of peace after territory is finally won back from the Islamic State. In neighboring Syria, U.S. troops have already been diverted to prevent warring between rival forces they support. At a strategic crossroads between Syria, Turkey and Iraq, the traditional Yazidi heartland has become a flash point for Kurdish political rivalries, fueled by the wider competing interests of Turkey, Iran and the Iraqi government in Baghdad. “We feel like a toy in the hands of the politicians,” Khalaf Bahri, a Yazidi religious sheikh, said before performing the burial rites for the young man, whose body was carried to a cemetery on the mountainside. “Yazidis are wounded and still bleeding. We still have our sisters and daughters and wives in the hands of Islamic State, but now this.” The body of Salam Mukhaibir is carried by relatives. He was buried in a cemetery on the mountainside. (Alice Martins/For The Washington Post) The slain Yazidi fighters belonged to the Sinjar Resistance Units, a local force affiliated with the military wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, a separatist group from neighboring Turkey. The United States has been providing arms to a coalition of forces over the border in Syria led by another PKK affiliate. Some fighters with the Yazidi group carried U.S.-made M-16 rifles. They said the firearms were captured from Islamic State militants or purchased on the black market. On the other side of the confrontation was the Rojava Peshmerga, largely Syrian Kurds under the command of Kurdistan’s regional government, which the U.S.-led coalition is also supporting in its fight against the Islamic State. They fled to Iraq at the beginning of Syria’s civil war and have been blocked from returning home. Both sides accuse the other of shooting first. Kurdish President Masoud Barzani has repeatedly asked the PKK to leave Iraq. But many Yazidis credit the group with saving them when peshmerga forces charged with protecting them abandoned their posts with little fight during the Islamic State’s onslaught in 2014. Tens of thousands of Yazidis became trapped atop Mount Sinjar as they sought refuge there. Those who did not make it ended up as Islamic State captives or were killed and thrown into one of the dozens of mass graves that surround the mountain. The plight of those stuck on the mountain and surrounded by militants sparked the first aerial bombardment in Iraq by the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State fighters. But it was the PKK and its Syrian affiliate that fought to open a land route to allow Yazidis to escape on foot. Since then, the PKK has put down roots, opening schools and training Yazidi fighters. Pictures of Abdullah Ocalan, the group’s figurehead, are ubiquitous in the area. A shrine on the mountainside, illuminated at night, is dedicated to more than 200 fighters from the PKK and aligned factions who died fighting here. To Kurdistan’s semiautonomous government in northern Iraq, Sinjar is an integral part of its territory. The Iraqi government disputes that claim. Many Yazidis consider themselves ethnically Kurdish. After Kurdish forces recaptured the town a year and a half ago, Barzani said in a triumphant speech from the mountainside that the Kurdish flag would be the only one to fly there. Since then, his party has expanded its influence, but the PKK has stayed put. “We are vulnerable and in a weak position, so whoever gives us a piece of bread, a house, a weapon — people will take it,” said Bahri, the Yazidi sheikh at the funeral, who is aligned with Yazidi-PKK forces. “Our leaders have sold themselves for money.” ‘We have been betrayed’ As the rival sides vie for influence, thousands of Yazidis who took up arms against the Islamic State have also joined the peshmerga. Hayder Shesho, who heads a force of Yazidi fighters, is integrating 1,000 of them into peshmerga ranks. Shesho said he has decided to merge his forces with the peshmerga because it was the “only open door.” He said he was arrested in 2015 in what he describes as an attempt to “pressure” him. “Yes, we have been betrayed by them. Yes, we have been abandoned by them,” he said of the Kurdish regional government’s ruling party. “But we are Kurds.” He said the U.S.-led coalition should “take responsibility” and unite Yazidis, calling for international forces to protect them. “No one represents the Yazidis,” he lamented. The clashes in recent weeks have sent thousands of Yazidi families that had returned to villages fleeing once more, some back to the mountain that provided them sanctuary in 2014. “We’re poor; we’ve been through genocide,” said Gowri Mitchka, who was putting up tents with 20 members of her extended family. “We don’t want to be a part of this. We need help.” Farther up the road, on the winding track that leads over the mountain, someone has spray-painted words that echo the sentiments of many here: “Yazidism unites us, the parties divide us.” Gowri Mitchka, in white, and her relatives set up a tent in Sinjar after fleeing clashes in Khana Sour. (Alice Martins/For The Washington Post) Two days after the clashes this month, the peshmerga — riding atop bulldozers — created large earthen barriers between the two sides, and soldiers restricted traffic along the road. The other side was also building defenses. Maj. Gen. Bahjat Taymis, a peshmerga commander, said the fighting started when Rojava Peshmerga were on a mission to cut off smuggling routes. The fighters were setting up a base on the edge of the village of Khana Sour when they were surrounded, and reinforcements that were sent in were then fired upon, he added. The PKK said the fighting began after two of its fighters were shot dead as they tried to block the advancing peshmerga convoy. The five Yazidis died in those clashes, according to PKK and Yazidi commanders. Shesho and PKK commanders said the decision to deploy a foreign force — the largely Syrian Rojava Peshmerga — was a deliberate provocation. Kurdistan’s government contends that it can deploy forces in its territory as it wishes. A female member of the YBS, a PKK-affiliated Yazidi armed group, surveys the scene in Khana Sour. (Alice Martins/For The Washington Post) Circumventing the barriers between the two sides involves navigating dirt tracks at the foot of the mountain. On the other side, Yazidi fighters set up new mortar positions. But instead of pointing at the Islamic State militants, they were angled toward peshmerga. “First, we will try and solve this through dialogue, but if not we will fight them, because it’s the will of the people,” said Zardasht Shingali, a 30-year-old commander with the group. “They are distracting us from fighting the Islamic State.” He said the opponents were not real peshmerga but “thugs.” “We consider Sinjar part of Kurdistan, and we have no problem with the peshmerga,” he said. “But these people are gangsters, working on a Turkish agenda.” Turkey considers the PKK a terrorist group and has said it will not let Sinjar become a “new Qandil,” referring to the mountain range in northern Iraq that has become a hideout for PKK forces waging attacks against the Turkish state. Others say the Sinjar Resistance Units are also influenced by outside forces, through their close relationship with the PKK and links to the Iraqi government’s popular mobilization forces, which are dominated by Iranian-backed militias. “We will not accept a Turkish agenda or an Iranian agenda. Turkey and Iran are trying to pull Sinjar into a regional conflict, and Sinjar will not accept it,” said Mahama Khalil, the mayor of Sinjar, who belongs to the same party as Kurdistan’s president. He added that the PKK should leave. But for the Iraqi government, the PKK presence in Sinjar provides a counterbalance to Kurdistan’s ruling party and Yazidi fighters said Baghdad paid their wages until late last year. Sinjar, Iraq, remains severely damaged and deserted 16 months after Islamic State militants were pushed out. (Alice Martins/For The Washington Post) Blurred lines Commanders with the Sinjar Resistance Units insist that they are independent and receive support only from their community. However, lines distinguishing it from the PKK are blurred, and Turkish and Iranian Kurds are among their ranks. One 35-year-old Kurdish Iranian manning a checkpoint said he was moved from the PKK’s military wing to the Yazidi force about 15 months ago. A 17-year-old fighter with the group also said he was from Iran. Agit Civiyan, a commander for the PKK’s military wing in Sinjar, said some fighters were integrated into the Yazidi ranks for “training and education” purposes. He said the PKK was ready to leave when no longer needed, but that the Yazidis still required protection. While the infighting continues, little has been done to rebuild Sinjar — Kurdish officials say they cannot begin until the PKK leaves — and areas nearby are still under Islamic State control. On the mountain, Jamil Khalaf said he was tired of all sides. “We blame them all,” he said. “They don’t care about anyone else. Why are they fighting each other when they should be liberating our villages?” His family has been living in a tent on the mountain for 2½ years because their village, Tal Azair, is still under Islamic State control. Two of his children died when the family’s tent caught fire, and his wife’s face and arms are scarred from burns. Her sister’s husband was killed when the militants advanced on the village. “We don’t want these people fighting on our land,” he said. “But we have no power. It’s inevitable.” Read more: ISIS dumped bodies in a desert sinkhole. It may be years before we know the full scale of the killings. Away from Iraq’s front lines, the Islamic State is creeping back in Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news Aaso Ameen Shwan contributed to this report.About This project is about vanishing histories and my attempt to capture them. I have been traveling and photographing places listed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation's 11 Most Endangered list. This has been an ongoing project for the past 6 years. I want to use the money raised to photograph more sites and re-photograph some that have been saved and redone. I really believe that these places should be/should have been saved. This project is my way of calling attention to the matter and hopefully making more people aware of these possible losses of history. I will be making a book of this project when I amass enough images. This money would allow me to photograph more sites and to scan and finish these images. I want to re-photograph Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco and the US Marine Hospital in Louisville, KY, and the Hotel Florence in the Pullman district in Chicago. I would also photograph new places in those areas, and a few new places that are listed on the newest and past 11 Most endangered lists. Along with the places above, I'm hoping to be able to go to: John Coltrane's House in NY Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin Deadwood Historic District Historic Route 66 Motels The Statler Hilton Hotel Ennis House With your support I could gain access to, and photograph all of these places along with these, I will be able to photograph those on the endangered lists in the same area. Please support this project and help my book become a reality! The rewards for this project are: Poster: Doctor's Quarters, US Marine Hospital 4x4: New, Old Porch, US Marine Hospital 5x5: Blood Pressure and Weight, Ernest Hemingway's Bathroom 8x8: Statler Hotel, Detroit MI 11x11: Examining Room, US Marine Hospital 14x14: Quarantine Hospital, Angel Island Immigration Station 15x15 diptych: Ernest Hemingway's Tower Room and Hangout Room Set of 12 10x10: All of the images above, plus: Thanks for your interest and support for my project!The following news story has interested me for many years. Once I began looking on the internet I found a lot more information. Ten camps were established. As far as I can tell this was the only one that closed early and became a German Prisoner of War Camp in 1944. JEROME – Only a tall, solitary smokestack with a thick rope of ivy standing in the middle of a cotton field identifies the spot that once housed more than 8,000 people. A memorial monument bears silent testimony to the men, women and children forced to leave their homes, businesses and schools in 1942 simply because they or their parents, grandparents or great-grandparents were native Japanese. In 1944 it became a German prisoner of war camp housing 7,000 of the most fanatical, pro-Nazi soldiers. With the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, xenophobia quickly reared its ugly head and swept the country and government. In February of 1942, two months after Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the War Relocation Order which mandated that anyone of Japanese origin who was living along the Pacific Coast or in Hawaii could be relocated inland. Ultimately, due to population density and resistance from officials, very few Japanese descendants in Hawaii were relocated. Around the country, 10 war relocation centers were established in Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, California, Idaho, Utah and two Arkansas at Jerome and Rohwer. Eventually, the centers housed 120,000 dislocated Japanese descendants, of whom two-thirds were American citizens. “It was the biggest thing that ever happened in Jerome,” asserts longtime area resident Curtis LaGrone. Like everything else during the war years, everything happened quickly to implement the order. In June 1942 the federal government contracted out the building of the war relocation center to accommodate up to 10,000 people. Peggy Head, now of El Dorado, spent her early years in Jerome. As a plumber, her father, Kyle McVoy, helped install the plumbing in the center. The Heads had moved to the Delta region in 1939 to take advantage of the Farmers Home Administration’s offer of a farm. The Depression-fighting measure offered each farmer up to 80 acres, a new house, barn, smokehouse, outhouse and a well with pump for the cost of $5,555, according to LaGrone, whose father also settled on one of the farms. Before the FHA and the War Relocation Order, tiny Jerome had a scattering of sharecroppers growing cotton and corn and big gardens, according to LaGrone, who added, “and everyone had a shotgun to go squirrel hunting.” With the FHA’s offer, people came and the little community grew. “We got this new high school, junior high school and had a basketball team. We were the Hornets,” he recalled with a touch of pride in his voice. Then in the summer of 1942, the Corps of Engineers of the U.S. Army came and began quickly building the War Relocation Center in Jerome and another camp about 30 miles north in Rohwer. The center at Jerome, located of U.S. 165, had 500 acres dedicated to the buildings which were surrounded by a fence with guard posts. Inside the restricted area, the federal government provided a hospital, school, administration building, sewage disposal – and burial arrangements. Although LaGrone, still not in high school, could not go beyond the gate of the center, he and a friend would often ride their bikes near the center’s building site. “I would climb up in an oak tree to watch. I could look down on top of these houses and look up across there and see rows and rows of rafters as they were being built. You could hear the whistles blow for break or for lunch. It was something fantastic to see. We had never seen anything like that around here.” He pulled out a small copy of a map of the center. “See these long barracks? Every block had the same thing: a mess hall, a laundry, a rec hall. They could get everything done in the same area, where they ate, the laundry, the post office, everything was contained in the block where they lived.” The 10,000 acres around the 500-acre center were tax delinquent lands purchased through a trust agreement in the late 1920s with the Farm Security Administration. Quickly, the centers rose out of the wilderness. Seven months after FDR’s presidential order and four months after the building began, the first Japanese received notice that they had 48 hours to evacuate their established lives, businesses, farms and schools and report to be assigned to a war relocation center. Wikipedia and many other websites relating the events report that scalpers took advantage of people trying to sell their earthly goods, their homes and farms on such short notice. Sometimes neighbors cared for the farms during the absence. With the evacuation happening at the beginning of the school year, teenagers put aside any plans for the spring prom, school clubs or playing sports with their friends. Instead, they packed what they could and went to centers still getting organized to make good use of the school facilities provided. As the trainloads of evacuees arrived, received their assigned barracks and settled into the center, a semblance of order developed within the centers. Outside the central area, the Japanese evacuees went to work clearing the land for farming. They dug ditches for drainage and built bridges. At the sawmill, they produced more than 280,000 board feet of lumber and more than 6,000 cords of firewood, according to the website javadc.org/jerome_relocation_center. By 1943, they had more than 630 acres under cultivation and grew over 85 percent of their own vegetables. The evacuees also raised 1,200 hogs for consumption at the center. In 1944, more acres were cleared or partially cleared. They also built a 45-acre Scout campsite with Scout headquarters and field house. But it was not all farming work. The evacuees included everyone from the newest baby to teenagers in high school to great-grandparents, doctors, lawyers, architects, teachers, college professors, farmers and businessmen. From the age of four, George Takei, who played Sulu in “Star Trek,” went to live at the Rohwer Relocation Center, 30 miles north of Jerome. Later his family was re-assigned to the center in Tule Lake, Calif. Life continued for the evacuees, but nothing erased the fence, the guard towers or the fact that citizens of the United States who had done nothing other than be the descendant of a Japanese ancestor were not allowed to exit the fences without permission. At the Jerome War Relocation Center, the evacuees worked to build an instant community. By April of 1943 a high school of more that 1,000 students was organized with a teaching staff composed from Japanese citizens with at least a couple years of college education. Head and LaGrone rarely, if ever, saw the Japanese-American students. A few miles away, they continued attending their small junior high where the principal served as the agricultural teacher, the coach and the home-ec teacher. The former three-room junior high building now serves as a community information center. Inside the center, a yearbook staff produced a pictorial record of the short school year from April to August of 1943. The book lists two senior classes: seniors A and B. Each class had about 200 students in the high school. Girls and boys basketball and baseball teams practiced and played three games each. At its peak, the internees at Jerome numbered 8,497, many of whom were second and third generation Americans who had to take a loyalty oath before serving in World War II. While most of the War Relocation Camps closed in 1945, the last in early 1946, the one at Jerome closed in 1944. The government needed the barracks to house German prisoners of war. “In the United States, at the end of World War II there were 175 branch camps serving 511 area camps containing over 425,000 prisoners of war (mostly German). The camps were located all over the U.S. but were mostly in the South because of the expense of heating the barracks. Eventually, every state with the exception of Nevada, North Dakota, and Vermont had POW camps,” according to Wikipedia. At Jerome, the name was changed to Camp Dermott. Other POW facilities were Camp Bassett, Camp Monticello, Fort Robinson, Fort Chaffee, Fort Smith and a camp in Pine Bluff. At Jerome the SS men had a separate isolated barrack. LaGrone remembers the soldiers well because local farmers could request a work crew to pick cotton or clean up around the area. LaGrone’s father hired the soldiers to pick cotton. LaGrone said they were working in the field when he heard shooting. They ran to see what was happening only to discover bored guards shooting buzzards. For many years during and after the war, the LaGrone family income came from the camps. “My dad was a security guard there. He worked until it was closed. Then he got a job at the water plant, the disposal plant. He worked for the fire department at the camp when it became a German prisoner of war camp and after. Then he was in maintenance taking care of the grounds that were left,” he said. After camp emptied, his father ran cattle on the grass around the deserted buildings to keep the grass cut. Fences remained at the camp, but scavengers still entered and took furnishings for their own homes. LaGrone said that the Japanese had painted extensive wall murals on the dry wall. When he found a picture he liked, he would cut it out and store it in the barn. “I was just a kid, I didn’t know what would happen to dry wall left out like that,” he said, mourning the loss of all those pictures that had deteriorated. Eventually, LaGrone bought many of the abandoned buildings from the government, cut them into two or three pieces and sold them at a profit for houses and shops in the Delta area. Curtis Lagrone said that sharecroppers would take the building his father sold and have a nice home. “I watched them build it and I watched them unbuild it,” LaGrone said reflectively. Little remains of the Relocation Camp at Jerome: a hospital smokestack and cement slabs. The only explanation is the 10-feet-high monument positioned just off U.S. 65. Most of the land of the former camps at Jerome and nearby Rohwer are now private property. “My father could have purchased the camp for $15,000,” recalls Curtis LaGrone. “But he did not have the money.” The John Tillman family purchased the land and continues to farm around the smokestack. The slabs of cement under the administration building are now the base for farm buildings. Occasionally, tour buses with descendants and those who once lived in the relocation camps visit the area. LaGrone said during a visit to Rohwer, he happened on one of the tours. One of the men had a map of the area that he followed until he pointed to a specific spot in the ground and said, “I was born right there. I was born right there.” The Japanese-Americans’ legal protest against the presidential order that tore them from their lives slowly worked its way through the courts to the Supreme Court. “On December 18, 1944, the Supreme Court of the United States clarified the legality of the exclusion process under Order 9066 by handing down two decisions. Korematsu v. United States, a 6–3 decision, stated that the exclusion process in general was constitutional. Ex parte Endo unanimously declared that loyal citizens of the United States, regardless of cultural descent, could not be detained without cause. On January 2, 1945, the exclusion order was rescinded entirely,” the Wikipedia article reports. The freed internees were given $25 and a train ticket to return to their homes. The U.S. continued to fight Japan until its surrender on Sept. 2, 1945. The last of the centers closed in 1946. This link will take you to a few pictures I took the day I went to cover this story. share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AbuWjdw3bMmLPtA Ivy covered smokestack still stands (a similar stack is in Rohwer). monument: The Jerome Preservation Committee and also the Japanese American Citizen League dedicated this monument to remember those who suffered the indignity of being incarcerated because of their ethnic background. remembering: Sketches and a brief history of the Relocation Center prepared for the third reunion of residents held in 1996. Curtis LaGrone provided this print. Rohwer 4 monuments: A small cemetery with four memorial monuments marks the War Relocation Center at Rohwer, Desha County off Highway 1, north of McGhee. Identical tombstones mark the burial spots of those who died in the camps. The majority of the stones have an end year of 1943 with birth dates in the mid-1800s indicating a person 65 and older who died in the camp. Monuments added at later dates note the names of the Japanese American soldiers who died fighting for the U.S.A. in World War II. Fields of crops on private lands surround the cemetery located on a lonely dusty road. This summer a walking tour with explanatory signs around the cemetery were installed an information booth replicating the original guard house. Nearby McGehee is in the process of building and opening a museum focused on the Relocation Center.“Insight for the Young and Unrestrained” is an original weekly column appearing every Thursday at Everything-Voluntary.com, by Gregory V. Diehl. Gregory is a writer, musician, educator, and coach for young people at EnabledYouth.com. Archived columns can be found here. IYU-only RSS feed available here. Do you remember when the prospect of trying something new was exciting? There was a time when you didn’t care about your inability to do it well right away or how foolish you might look when you fail the first dozen times. I remember. And I’m reminded of this daily because I am fortunate enough to get to work with children who haven’t yet lost their curiosity about the unknown and their eagerness to learn. It keeps me young. In my experience, kids will try anything new with little reservation if I can make it exciting enough for them. As adults, our intellectual abilities should be incomparably superior to how they were in our respective childhoods. We are also physically bigger, stronger, and in better control of our bodies than we were in our early years. We should, by most rational accounts, be able to take in new data, learn new terms, build new logical structures, and manipulate our digits and appendages in ways we could never have attempted as children and adolescents. Through the amazing nature of human development, kids will always have something we’ve come to lack. The passion, curiosity, and enthusiasm of a child exploring his environment surpass those of nearly any adult. This is what makes them so magical and precious to us and how they seem to learn so quickly. They haven’t yet adopted the fear and discomfort which comes with pushing personal boundaries. If you could create a creature with the enthusiasm of a child and the physical and intellectual abilities of an adult, you’d have an unstoppable learning machine. When I talk to my peers, and most especially my elders, they overwhelmingly seem to prematurely accept where their limitations of learning lie without ever really pushing them. As children they might have had endless ideas about what they were going to do with their lives and all the things they were going to try, but by age 25 they’ve resigned themselves to a life of steadily improving repetition of the same old routine. It grows easier and easier with each passing day to only continue to do what we already know, and even keep our tastes ever more narrowly contained in only specific applications of human creativity. Don’t misunderstand me here. There is nothing wrong with specialization and preference in life. The dividing of our knowledge and labor into increasingly particular skill sets and actions is what has allowed the most efficient free market in history to form and create the modern world around us. But there is great danger in a narrow mind which prematurely closes itself to new growth and experience. We often seem to define ourselves by our specializations. Our natural abilities and practiced skills become our jobs, hobbies, and how we describe who we are to the world. We get so used to labeling ourselves by a certain set of terms that we become closed off to any other things we could have been and skills we could have learned. Culture certainly doesn’t help. We are told that if we haven’t started to develop certain skills by the end of teenagehood that we will never be able to learn them. The world seems dedicated to convincing us that who we are when we finish college is who we are destined to be for the remainder of our days. The standard American schooling process does an exceptional job of instilling these limiting beliefs into us all from our earliest memories. If we don’t get excited about learning, we risk closing ourselves off further and further each passing year to new ideas and activities. Children can get away with performing poorly at anything because no one expects someone with such little life experience to necessarily be good at whatever they attempt. As adults, we don’t always get that luxury. We’ve learned to be ashamed when we hit a wrong note on the piano or make an inaccurate remark on an esoteric subject. There’s far less forgiveness for the grown man or woman who should supposedly know better than to attempt something he wouldn’t most certainly succeed at. With the endless ocean of knowledge available at our fingertips, how much of what we watch, read, write, listen to, talk about, and get paid to do are things already inside our zones of familiarity? I make an effort to spend at least a few of the 24 hours in each passing day trying something new or intellectually engaging myself in unusual ways. It has been one of the hardest things to overcome from the damage done to my psyche by the public school system where I was forced to “learn” by external demand and routine. I’ve had to focus on reawakening the spirit of enthusiasm for new ideas within myself before it became completely snuffed out. Now it’s become habit for me upon confronting a new challenge, or any demand I lack the knowledge to fill, to first attempt to learn it myself before employing someone else to perform it for me. It’s only daunting if I look at the gap between points A and Z without making the effort to figure out B, C, D, E, etc. as I come to them along the way. When my car won’t start in the morning, I could just resign myself immediately and accept that I don’t know anything about cars, so I’ll have to call or hire someone who does. We all do this on most subjects. But when I’m feeling
, we have started to elucidate the location of the missing ocean plastic [7]. Plastic accumulation is a global concern because of its effects on marine organisms. The discovery of previously under-reported microplastics suggests that there may be even greater plastic accumulation than was previously suspected. In contrast with studies on the effects of large plastic debris, which mostly document entanglement and ingestion [37], there are few studies examining the biological effects of microplastics. A range of organisms are known to ingest microplastics, and there is concern this could result in physical and/or toxicological harm [38,39]. The extent to which microplastics could have harmful effects will most likely be influenced by their relative abundance. The discovery of substantial quantities in deep-sea sediments is of considerable relevance to our understanding of the potential of these particles to cause harm in the marine environment. To date, our understanding regarding the dynamics of transport, accumulation and associated spatial distribution has been extremely limited, and the data presented here, together with that of Van Cauwenberghe et al. [13], provide the first evidence of global sinks for microplastic debris, a theory previously suggested for larger plastic debris items [40]. It is now crucial to establish consistent methodologies to allow robust temporal and spatial comparisons, to address how abundance and composition vary with depth, location, topography and habitat, and apply these data to the already complex oceanographic transport models available for some oceans, which have successfully been used to predict surface plastic accumulation [6]. In addition, the elucidation of the physical and toxicological effects of microplastics is also required. In summary, further data collection is required to properly establish the impact of microplastic particles on deep-sea communities and related ecosystem services. 7. Data Accessibility The datasets supporting this article have been uploaded as the electronic supplementary material. Acknowledgements We are in debt to the crews and colleagues who participated in the expeditions at sea, A. Tonkin for FT-IR data analysis, M. Taylor for laboratory assistance with corals, T. Ferrero for discussion at an early stage and D. Amblas, S. Lewin, H. Taylor and T. Absalom for preparing the final layout of figures. We would also like to thank the reviewers for their insightful comments which have improved the manuscript. L.C.W., A.S-V., M.C. and A.C. were responsible for sample collection and preparation. L.C.W., R.C. and V.S. processed the samples, and R.C. and V. S. performed FT-IR analyses. L.C.W., R.C.T., A.S-V. and M.C. wrote the original draft while G.L.J.P., B.E.N. and A.D.R. contributed to the final manuscript. R.C.T. provided overall guidance and revised the manuscript. A.D.R. was the PI on the SW Indian Ocean project. All authors discussed the results and gave approval for publication final manuscript. Funding statement L.C.W., G.L.J.P., R.C., A.D.R. and B.E.N.: NERC grant no. NE/F005504/1; Benthic Biodiversity of Seamounts in the Southwest Indian Ocean, part of the Southwest Indian Ocean Seamounts Project (http://www.iucn.org/marine/seamounts), also supported by the EAF Nansen Project, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the Global Environment Facility, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the Agulhas Somali Current Large Marine Ecosystem Programme (ASCLME). A.S.-V., M.C., A.C.: DOS MARES (CTM2010-21810-C03) and PERSEUS (FP7-OCEAN-2011-287600) projects, and a Generalitat de Catalunya Grups de Recerca Consolidats Grant (2009 SGR 1305). FootnotesThe White House said early Tuesday that President Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE will continue to enforce an Obama-era executive order protecting the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community in the workplace. “President Donald J. Trump is determined to protect the rights of all Americans, including the LGBTQ community,” said a statement from his press secretary’s office. “President Trump continues to be respectful and supportive of LGBTQ rights, just as he was throughout the election.” The administration said Trump is proud to have been the first GOP presidential candidate to mention the LGBTQ community in his nomination acceptance speech, “pledging then to protect the community from violence and oppression.” ADVERTISEMENT “The executive order signed in 2014, which protects employees from anti-LGBTQ workplace discrimination while working for federal contractors, will remain intact at the direction of President Donald J. Trump,” the White House said. Trump promised to protect the rights of the LGBTQ community during his speech at the Republican National Convention in July. “As your president, I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology,” he said, as he officially accepted the GOP nomination. The nation's largest LGBTQ civil rights organization, however, said that Trump is setting a "low bar" by not overturning his predecessor's order. “LGBTQ refugees, immigrants, Muslims and women are scared today, and with good reason. Donald Trump has done nothing but undermine equality since he set foot in the White House,” Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin said in a statement on Tuesday. “Donald Trump has left the key question unanswered — will he commit to opposing any executive actions that allow government employees, taxpayer-funded organizations or even companies to discriminate?” Griffin also criticized Vice President Pence and Trump’s selection for attorney general, Sen. Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsTrump says he hasn't spoken to Barr about Mueller report Ex-Trump aide: Can’t imagine Mueller not giving House a ‘roadmap’ to impeachment Rosenstein: My time at DOJ is 'coming to an end' MORE (R-Ala.), saying the president “talks a big game on his support for LGBTQ people, yet he has filled his cabinet with people who have literally spent their careers working to demonize us and limit our rights.” “You can't claim to be an ally when you send LGBTQ refugees back to countries where their lives are at risk. You can't claim support and then rip away life-saving services made possible through the Affordable Care Act for transgender people and those living with HIV or AIDS. You can't be a friend to this community and appoint people to run the government who compare being gay to bestiality,” he added. Bloomberg reported on Monday that Obama's order was more likely to be amended than rescinded. "It may be more likely that President Donald Trump will broaden its religious exemption than outright rescind the order," according to the report. The White House announcement follows a weekend of protests throughout the country over Trump's executive order imposing a temporary ban on nationals from seven predominantly Muslim countries entering the United States. The order, signed Friday, calls for a 90-day ban on nationals from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Yemen and Sudan entering the U.S. The order also includes a 120-day ban on admitting refugees and an indefinite halt on accepting refugees from Syria. The fallout from the order, which has been criticized by both Republican and Democratic lawmakers, has already created a hectic second week for the president, who late Monday night fired his acting attorney general and replaced the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Mallory Shelbourne and Mike Lillis contributed to this report, which was updated at 8:08 a.m.Three hooded raiders broke into the office of WikiLeaks lawyer Baltasar Garzon in Madrid, covering security cameras with tape in what police described as a “very professional” operation. The break-in took place at dawn on Monday, and police are treating it as an “attempted robbery,” El Pais reports. The thieves didn’t take any money and police are waiting for technicians to confirm whether any files were taken or copied from Garzon’s computer. Police are analyzing the security cameras at the entrance to the office. "They have not taken what they have been looking for," Garzon told El Periodico. He confirmed to Ser his clients’ security “has not been affected,” and that the people “acted very quickly.” El Diario reports an employee of the firm told police the individuals did attempt to copy information stored on their servers, but that they were unsuccessful. All they took from the office was a Christmas ham. Masked intruders have broken into the legal office of Baltasar Garzón, head of @wikileaks legal team, in Madrid. No money taken. Security cameras taped over. "Very professional" operation, say police. https://t.co/YyXvovQ03J — Julian Assange 🔹 (@JulianAssange) December 19, 2017 As CIA threats against @WikiLeaks heat up, at least three masked men dressed in black have broken into @WikiLeaks chief counsel Baltasar Garzón's legal office, blinding security cameras with tape, in a "very professional" operation say police. https://t.co/ao3nD3bk2c — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) December 19, 2017 Assange and WikiLeaks tweeted about the break-in, with WikiLeaks tying it to the CIA’s pursuit of the two. CIA Director Mike Pompeo has made a number of threatening statements about the whistleblowing organization and described it as a “hostile intelligence service,” while Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in April that Assange’s arrest is “a priority,” and that the Justice Department had started to “step up” its efforts to seek jail time for those involved with the whistleblowing organization. “As CIA threats against WikiLeaks heat up, at least three masked men dressed in black have broken into WikiLeaks’ chief counsel Baltasar Garzon’s legal office,” WikiLeaks wrote. Garzon heads Assange’s legal defense, working on his case to avoid extradition to Sweden and preparing for the charges US authorities are said to have prepared against him. He is known for investigating public officials and those suspected of genocide and war crimes, including Chile’s former ruler Augusto Pinochet, and opened an investigation into crimes committed during the Spanish Civil War and under General Francisco Franco’s dictatorship. Garzon was prevented from working as a judge in Spain in 2012 after he was found guilty of illegally wiretapping the money-laundering Gurtel network. His supporters and human rights organizations said the case against him was a “threat to human rights.”Experts believe that the current state of tensions between various major powers on the world stage has brought the planet closer to World War 3 than it has been in over five decades. That time frame would include the harrowing Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, where the world’s foremost superpowers, the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (the Soviet Union), had a showdown over the placement of ballistic missiles in Cuba by the Soviet Union. That confrontation lasted 13 days but ended with the Soviets pulling the missiles out of the island nation in the Caribbean. But now the world again appears to be precariously perched on the precipice of global conflict, with just one military, political and/or diplomatic mistake separating adversarial nations from global conflict. In an extensive report on the looming threat of World War 3 last week, The Sun revealed that not only could the entire world be hurled into a devastating multinational war due to some trigger incident in extremely tense regions like Ukraine and eastern Europe, where tensions between the U.S.-backed North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries and the Russian Federation (today’s version of the minimally larger Soviet Union), have escalated in the last few years (and intensified in the past few months, as the Inquistr has reported), but also in areas like the South China Sea (where China’s naval encroachments in the region have Pacific nations on edge) and the Korean peninsula (where recent missile tests by North Korea has earned a show of force by the United States). Additionally, as experts explained, there are other players on that world stage — Pakistan, India, Iran, the Islamic State terrorist caliphate, or an as yet undetermined rogue state — that could send an unsteady world into an escalating war that would eventually involve multiple parties and threaten World War 3 and, perhaps, even a nuclear strike or exchange. Britain’s Admiral (Ret.) Lord West, told The Sun, “Basically none of us know what is going to happen but we are in a more dangerous, chaotic and unpredictable time than any other in my 50 years in the force.” Admiral Lord West offered a vision of a United Kingdom-less European Union that could spiral into dissolution, causing untold devastating economic chaos amongst its current members, making the region ripe for political turmoil and even potential realignments of allegiances, not to mention military intervention by opportunistic states (like, for instance, the Russian Federation moving into the Baltic States or some other eastern European nation along its extensive western border. “I can see bits of Europe breaking up and when Europe gets into a mess,” Lord West said, “twice in the past we’ve had to go in there and clear it up with immense loss of blood and lives.” The one common denominator in all the various potential scenarios leading to conflict (except for possibly a nuclear exchange that could potentially occur between the adversarial states of India and Pakistan) is the supporting or dominant role the United States plays. Whether it be through various alliances like the mutual defense pact with NATO or with South Korea and Japan, the presence of the U.S. as a major supporting player — and an ally if war were to break out — is a tempering agent that undoubtedly prevents nations like Russia, China, and North Korea from engaging in little more than military rearmament, posturing (through tests, drills and exercises) and aggressive rhetoric. Besides the major players’ or their proxy organizations’ possible involvement in what could be a World War 3 trigger, there is also the chance that a confrontation between world powers, or smaller powers aligned with the world powers, could lead to a major conflagration. The current multi-state, multi-coalition set of conflicts ongoing in Syria and Iraq are an example of a precarious situation where a military mistake could quickly escalate into a serious problem between many parties. Future war expert Peter W. Singer wrote in The Daily Telegraph last year warning of the possibility of a minor incident or accident starting World War 3. “As in the past, it is perfectly possible that a third world war could start with a small event, or even by accident.” He further explained. “One of the many Russian bomber planes now probing NATO’s borders could collide with an RAF [Royal Air Force] Typhoon, prompting an aerial skirmish the likes of which the world has not seen for decades. Indeed, the skies over Syria are starting to get dangerously crowded, with Russian jets flying near US planes on bombing runs, and sparring with NATO air defences in neighbouring Turkey.” Back in November, such an incident occurred when a Russian bomber was shot down by a Turkish jet when it entered Turkey’s airspace and failed to heed numerous warnings to leave the area. Although tension mounted between Russia and Turkey (Russia having denied its aircraft had entered Turkish territory), as was reported by The Independent, the incident never got beyond the political and diplomatic sniping and the repositioning of Russian naval forces. As the Inquistr reported last month, Iranian involvement with Russia in Syria and the Middle Eastern nation’s current escalation of naval harassment incidents against the U.S. Navy have become worrisome. Some, like former GOP congressman and retired Army Lt. Col. Allen West, believe that the elements for World War 3 are already in place in war-ravaged Syria. Then there’s the fear of a politically unstable nation like Pakistan, which has a nuclear arsenal, being run one day by religious or politically motivated fanatics who wouldn’t hesitate to use the nuclear weapons at their disposal. There is also the continuing fear that North Korea’s constant bellicosity towards South Korea and the United States will one day become an open act of war, perhaps through the use of North Korea’s own cache of nuclear weapons. Lastly, there are nations like Iran and terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda, not to mention quasi-states like ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria), that could develop (as in the case of Iran) or acquire nuclear weapons somehow and employ them in an attack that could precipitate conditions conducive to World War 3. So can the involved nations pull themselves back from the brink of a multi-nation conflict? Thus far, they’ve been able to avoid a clash that might become a reason for war, satisfying themselves with proxy skirmishes and sabre-rattling. But experts agree that there are many areas of contention in the world, each of them holding the potential to ignite into what could become World War 3 at any given moment. [Featured Image by Mopic/Shutterstock]After starting out in the ball golf field, ScoreBand has been setting their sights on the disc golf world. ScoreBand is a lightweight, watch-like, wristband to help you keep score during your round. ScoreBand sent us one to take out on the disc golf course to see just how easy it is to use. ScoreBand has four modes: Time, AllScore, Tennis, and Golf. Time mode is a clock, AllScore allows for sports such as basketball, table tennis, or volleyball for example, Tennis will count in the typical Tennis scoring, and Golf allows you to keep track of your current hole and your total round at the same time. ScoreBand is made of a water-resistant, eco-friendly silicone. It can easily stretch to fit over your hand before resting comfortably on your wrist. The ScoreBand is very lightweight and was never distracting during the round. We obviously kept ours in Golf mode during our tests. ScoreBand has three buttons. The side button will switch modes while the top and bottom buttons will change the score. In Golf mode, you press the top button for each throw you take. At the end of a hole, press and hold the bottom button until it totals it. It is really that simple. As we were talking to our next shot we’d just quickly reach for the ScoreBand, log the previous throw, and continue on. We never felt interrupted while using it. While there are many options available to keep track of your score during a round, the ScoreBand is one of the easiest to use. There are countless apps available for smartphones which help you keep track of your score during a round, but those could expose your expensive phone to elements and potential damage. If you keep your phone in your bag, you need to reach down, pull it out, and unlock it before you can even enter your score. If it is raining, this could cause potential water damage to your phone. The ScoreBand really came in handy at the end of a round. After a round in a local league, others were totaling up their scores while we already had a total waiting for us and we still had full battery life on our phone. While the pencil and paper scorecard was still the official score, it was nice having quick, easy, and unobtrusive access to our score during the round. After using the ScoreBand, we reached out to the founder and president of ScoreBand, Jody Murdough to find out some history of the ScoreBand and what they have planned next. All Things Disc Golf: How did the idea for ScoreBand start? Jody Murdough: After years of playing recreational sports and experiencing/witnessing the effects of losing track of the score (disputes, mental performance, delays, errors) it hit me that there was a need for a simple, convenient and non-impacting device to keep score for recreational sports. Of course the idea occurred many years ago, but the opportunity arose in 2011 after departing from my prior business. So it was really my career timing with the newly available freedom to explore the idea further that sparked its inception. The design itself evolved from the growing popularity of athletic wristbands for performance benefits and/or charitable causes along with the improved technological capabilities that allowed for more programming into a smaller space at an affordable cost. All Things Disc Golf: You guys started in the ball golf field and are just now starting to get into the world of disc golf. Has it been easy to introduce ScoreBand to disc golfers, or no? Jody Murdough: Actually, the simplicity of the concept makes it easy for disc golfers to grasp how it would benefit them. Disc Golf is an ideal sport for ScoreBand. Since players are already walking and carrying DG necessities, anything that helps reduce hassle is a plus. Also, the benefit of taking a player’s mind off of the score and redirecting their focus on performance is universally appealing to recreational athletes. So the entry into the Disc Golf world is a natural fit. We also partnered with the PDGA early-on to help gain exposure for ScoreBand and received a very enthusiastic reception from their membership. We have also teamed-up with Holly Finley a rookie on the PDGA Pro Tour. Her energy for growing the game is infectious and we are proud for her to represent ScoreBand and introduce it to more disc golfers at her events throughout the year. All Things Disc Golf: Is the printable size guide on the website the best way to gauge size if you don’t have a box around? Jody Murdough: That, or simply measuring around your wrist with a measuring tape/tape measure. If you don’t have access to those options, we have found that Medium is the most popular size for Ladies and Large for Men. All Things Disc Golf: What’s next for ScoreBand? Jody Murdough: We are actually in development of a next generation ScoreBand that will incorporate many new enhancements and features. From Day One of ScoreBand’s release we have kept in touch with our customers through surveys and phone calls to find out what they like/don’t like about it and what improvements/features they would like to see. We have learned a lot in ScoreBand’s first year and are excited to launch the next version later this year. Stay tuned. ScoreBand comes in four sizes, two band-color and four button-color options. You can order a ScoreBand from their website with just $5 shipping to anywhere in the United States. ScoreBand is a great, simple solution to help you keep track of your score on the disc golf course. It won’t get in the way and it won’t distract you during the round. Be sure to follow ScoreBand on Twitter and Like them on Facebook.You asked, we listened, we improved. We’ve been working hard behind the scenes on Viveport and wanted to share news of some fixes, updates and changes we have made to our Viveport desktop client since launch. First, some context. Viveport is a brand-new software platform that has been live for less than a year. With all new software projects there are going to be bugs, and Viveport has been no exception. There are other digital software sales platforms that have been available a lot longer than Viveport, so we expect it will take a while for Viveport to catch up to them in terms of features and performance. Our goal hasn’t changed, though – to build Viveport into a great VR platform. When we launched Viveport in 2016, we had 75 titles. Today we have grown to 1,000 titles in all our regions and we have processed millions of transactions. We have also added some unique features like Viveport Subscription. While our product and engineering teams work continually to improve Viveport, other teams are monitoring and asking for direct feedback from you. With your help, we believe we’ve significantly improved Viveport. Recently we’ve shifted our development focus from adding a lot of new features, to optimization and stability. While there have been thousands of changes to Viveport (and you can find highlights here), let’s discuss some of the biggest issues reported during Viveport’s first year of operations – and what we’ve done about them. TOP ISSUE: “Viveport content download speeds” No-one wants to wait longer than they must for the latest VR content. While we originally had a basic CDN backed download system at Viveport’s launch, it didn’t match expectations. We rebuilt it and launched the new download system this summer, increasing Viveport’s download speeds to rival and even exceed the download speeds provided by other leading content platforms. The new download backend not only uses multiple CDNs, but it also provides multiple levels of redundancy, as we have incorporated new technology from third parties that are specialized in download optimization. When you download content now, you should see faster download speeds, no matter where you are in the world. TOP ISSUE: “Viveport takes up too many system resources” Virtual reality is a challenging task for almost any PC, so having a desktop client occupy more resources than necessary isn’t ideal. You told us that Viveport took up too many PC resources, so we have worked hard to reduce the resource footprint. The latest version of Viveport now uses significantly less CPU and memory (RAM) while running. This is mostly due to a new and improved client framework launched earlier this summer, letting us reduce the footprint while still adding new features. There are more optimizations coming, but for the moment we are much happier with the performance of client versions 1.1 and later. TOP ISSUE: “Viveport crashes too much” This was an early issue that we have focused extensively on in the last few months. No software crash is ever ‘fun’ but it is even more frustrating if it happens while wearing a VR headset. One of our top priorities has been to dramatically improve stability and lower the frequency of ‘crash events.’ In June, we replaced the original crash reporting system with a much better third party system, which has provided far better near-realtime stability info to the team. We can now monitor individual crash traces and determine if issues are with the software, or with specific user systems. As of release 1.1 we have seen dramatic improvements in software stability, though this is still a core focus area for the development team. TOP ISSUE: “Viveport doesn’t have enough content, and Subscription has a non-intuitive re-selection system” We have grown our VR library from 75 to over 1,000 titles in all our regions, in less than a year. However, now our focus is to help you discover great VR content. A brand-new search system is coming in Q4, which will improve your ability to find content. In addition to more titles and better search functions, we have also launched Viveport Subscription to provide a low-cost, no obligation way to explore new VR experiences. It’s critical to let people experiment in VR since each user can experience different effects from the same VR title. Given VR is a whole new content type, we felt a subscription option provided the best way to explore new and previously unknown developers’ work. Initially launched with 50 games, Viveport Subscription now features close to 250 titles, and we are adding new titles daily. One piece of feedback we heard about Viveport Subscription was that the initial process of choosing your titles for each subscription period was un-intuitive. From version 1.1 onwards you can now add up to five titles at any time during each subscription period giving you more flexibility to keep open slots in case new titles arrive on Viveport mid-month. OTHER IMPROVEMENTS you might have missed… Finally, we’ve been hard at work overhauling and improving the general Viveport client experience, from status messages to filters, notifications and in-client prompts. We want Viveport to be easy and intuitive to use, and we have a lot more improvements planned. That’s why we’re not slowing down. With your help, we’ve accomplished a lot in a relatively short period, but there’s plenty more to improve upon. We want your feedback on Viveport to help us improve. Feel free to talk to us through social media (we’re on Twitter and Facebook) and through our community forums. If you’re subscribed to our newsletter, you’ll see major updates mentioned there, or here on our blog. We look forward to hearing from you as we work to improve Viveport! – The Viveport Team Download Viveport here, and start your free Viveport Subscription trial here.Office Depot has refused to print copies of a pro-life prayer on the grounds that to do so violates company policy of printing material that “advocates the persecution of people who support abortion rights.” Maria Goldstein, 42, ordered 500 copies of “A Prayer for the Conversion of Planned Parenthood” at Office Depot in Schaumburg, Illinois, for distribution at her Roman Catholic parish’s Masses Sunday. The prayer was composed by national director of Priests for Life Father Frank Pavone, a Breitbart News contributor. The handout, according to the Chicago Tribune, also included statistics about abortion in the United States and at Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, which is currently under investigation by Congress after being exposed for its practices of harvesting the body parts of aborted babies and selling them on the open market. Pavone’s prayer asks God to “Bring an end to the killing of children in the womb, and bring an end to the sale of their body parts. Bring conversion to all who do this, and enlightenment to all who advocate it.” The prayer also denounces “the evil that has been exposed in Planned Parenthood and in the entire abortion industry.” Karen Denning of Office Depot defended her company’s refusal to make copies of the prayer, stating that company policy forbids “the copying of any type of material that advocates any form of racial or religious discrimination or the persecution of certain groups of people.” “It also prohibits copying any type of copyrighted material,” she added. “The flier contained material that advocates the persecution of people who support abortion rights.” Goldstein disagrees. “The intention of the prayer is to ask for conversion,” she said. “The conversion of the staff, employees, everybody who is part of this at Planned Parenthood. It means they will recognize life has dignity and that it is valuable and not a commodity to be bought and sold.” Denning reportedly invited Goldstein to use the self-serve copy machines at the Office Depot store, but Goldstein said that would have been inconvenient to make 500 copies. She had the copies printed instead at a print shop in Des Plaines. “I feel discriminated against,” she said. In a press release sent to Breitbart News, Pavone responded to Office Depot’s refusal to print copies of his prayer by saying that it was time for pro-life advocates to fight back against an effort to restrict their freedom. “Let me be clear: Priests for Life, and I personally, have a long record of promoting respect and dialogue with those who advocate abortion,” he said. “Just ask the Father of the Pro-Choice Movement, Bill Baird, with whom I have held joint press conferences over the years calling for respect in both word and deed across the lines of the abortion debate.” “I am proud of Maria Goldstein for standing up for her rights, and I call upon Office Depot to reconsider this decision by evaluating more carefully the words of the prayer and the intent of its author,” he added. Pavone also urged supporters of Priests for Life across the country to bring the prayer to Office Depot stores in their own communities to have it copied. “Let’s see how many come to the same erroneous conclusion, or whether some measure of reason will prevail instead,” he said. Meanwhile, Goldstein will be represented by the Chicago-based Thomas More Society, a public interest law firm, which has given Office Depot five business days to agree to print the flier. If the flier is not printed, the law firm will take the matter to the Cook County Human Rights Commission and the Illinois Department of Human Rights. Thomas Olp, a lawyer for the firm, likened Goldstein’s situation to the type of discrimination that took place when businesses refused to serve African-Americans and Jews. “We’re a country of diversity. We don’t want to allow people to pick and choose based on their bigotry or hostility,” Olp said. “You need to offer services to the public on a fair and equal basis. This is an example of religious expression. Therefore the law prohibits you from discriminating.” The “Prayer Campaign” for the Conversion of Planned Parenthood begins September 12 and runs through September 20, then again from October 10 to October 18. The entire prayer can be found below:Here now is the second half of my article in which I name the 10 most underrated episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Click here for part 1! Season 5: “Violations” This episode is quite a little chiller. The Enterprise is giving a lift to a trio of telepathic aliens known as Ullians: Inad (Eve Brenner), Tarmin (David Sage), and his son Jev (Ben Lemon). These people do their telepathic thing by probing one’s memories in order to flesh out any forgotten or scarcely remembered bits. This is demonstrated in the beginning when Tarmin helps Keiko O’Brien (Rosalind Chao) remember something from her childhood. The article continues after these advertisements... During dinner with the crew, Tarmin proves as overbearing as Lwaxana Troi (Troi herself even says as much later on) when he embarrasses his son in order to make his point. But Troi cheers Jev up later, saying that he’s not the only one with an annoying parent. That night, as she prepares for bed, Troi slowly becomes overwhelmed by a memory involving Riker, whose place in the memory is soon taken over by Jev. As he assaults her in the memory, Troi falls into a coma. Riker deduces that Jev was the last person to see Troi before she conked out. Obviously pissed off, Riker promises an investigation after questioning him. But later, alone in his quarters, Riker becomes overwhelmed by a memory in which an emergency in Engineering resulted in a crewman’s death. Riker lapses into a coma as Jev guilt trips him about it. Crusher examines Keiko to see if she could potentially experience any side effects, but discovers she’s fine. Before the doctor can continue further though, Jev puts her in a coma after forcing her to relive the moment when Picard showed her the body of her husband Jack (Doug Wert). Eventually, Troi awakens but can’t remember much. Jev offers to assist her with that, and probing her mind, frames Tarmin as the perpetrator. But shortly afterward, LaForge and Data deduce that Jev is the real culprit, and with Worf, detain him just as he’s about to assault Troi (for real this time). While we know who the guilty party is from the start, and while the climax is a bit too obvious, this episode still does a good job at delivering jolts. The memory flashes experienced by Troi, Riker, and Crusher are nicely done, and LeVar Burton and Brent Spiner are given a chance to show off their nice buddy chemistry as LaForge and Data attempt to get to the bottom of things. Season 5 & 6: “Time’s Arrow” / “Time’s Arrow, Part II” This cliffhanger two-parter, part one of which concluded season 5, and part two of which begins season 6, is unique in TNG’s run in that it’s a stand-alone adventure. In contrast, “The Best of Both Worlds”, “Redemption”, “Descent”, and “All Good Things…” were each pieces of a bigger puzzle. Returning to Earth, the crew finds Data’s head among some ruins beneath San Francisco. Further analysis indicates that it’s been there since the 19th Century. They also find evidence of other extraterrestrial interventions among the ruins and go to the planet which may house said aliens. Despite Picard’s attempts, Data vanishes and finds himself in 19th Century San Francisco. Among those he encounters are Samuel Clemens (Jerry Hardin) and even the younger version of Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) from that period. Guinan agrees to help Data track the aliens traveling to this time period. At the same time, Part I (and the fifth season) concludes with Picard and the others, sans Worf, following Data. Part II has everyone reunited and learning that the aliens are coming to this tme period in order to feed off the energy of human beings, specifically those dying of cholera, hence anyone finding their bodies can just blame the disease for it. As with The Terminator, the very event the time travelers hope to avert occurs anyway. But unlike that classic 1984 film, things end on an upbeat note as Data gets his head reattached (albeit one with five centuries of dust on it), the aliens are defeated, and the crew and Mark Twain are back in their own times. I’ve heard numerous complaints from some fans about this one since it aired. For instance, there have been complaints of too much technobabble, as well as questions about how Picard and company acquired the period clothes we see them wearing when Part II begins. But this romp is never boring, with Hardin delightfully chewing the scenery. Regarding the wardrobe, I’ve always assumed they got the clothes the same way Kirk and Spock got their clothing in “The City on the Edge of Forever”: they stole them (or they could’ve traded in their normal clothes, that works too). As for the technobabble complaints, oh, please! The technobabble here is no worse than it would be in the later time travel two-parters “Past Tense” and “Future’s End”. One of my colleagues said it best: It’s certainly not a wildly original time travel premise, but it’s competently done. Season 6: “Birthright, Part I” / “Birthright, Part II” This two-parter begins as a crossover with Deep Space Nine, which was in the middle of its first season at this point. The Enterprise arrives at the station for a Bajoran aid mission. Bashir comes aboard to use the ship’s computer to scan a recently found device. As he, Data, and LaForge analyze it, the machine shoots a bolt of energy knocking Data out. However, Data still experiences seeing his creator Dr. Soong (also played by Spiner) before he’s reactivated. Encouragement from Worf prompts him to go over his experience, and convincing LaForge and Bashir to repeat the accident, discovers that Soong had a dream program built into him. At the same time, Worf is approached by a Yridian (James Cromwell) who informs him that his father is still alive and living in a Romulan prison camp. Worf is incensed at the thought of his old man being taken alive, but his words to Data prompt him to seek his dad out regardless. Forcing the Yridian to take him to the planet, Worf finds that his father is indeed dead, but there are other survivors of the massacre which took his parents, and they’re peacefully living with Romulans on this planet. Tokath (Alan Scarfe), the Romulan who oversees this world, informs Worf that he took pity on the captured Klingons and arranged for them to live their lives on the planet in peace. He’s even taken the Klingon Gi’Ral (Cristine Rose) as his wife, with
clubs, Adelaide United chairman Greg Griffin said the new CBA was the best package of salary, benefits and certainty ever put to A-League players. “The CBA proposal improves the career of A-League players in terms of salaries, longer-term contracting and contract security,” said Griffin. “That’s what players have been asking for and that’s why we believe it’s a compelling offer. “At the same time, the clubs remain disappointed that the PFA executive continues to push totally unrealistic demands after six months of transparent and detailed negotiations. “In an environment in which the majority of clubs are making ongoing investments while running operating deficits, the CBA proposal is a common sense outcome for all parties.” Head of Hyundai A-League Damien de Bohun said that the CBA proposal continues the trend of rewarding A-League players for their commitment. “Over the life of the A-League, the Salary Cap has increased by an average of more than 7% each year, and there is scope for a further 12% uplift next season,” said de Bohun. “It’s not just about the salaries, as the CBA proposal provides greater flexibility for clubs in retaining players and invests in players’ well-being. “Any suggestion that there has been, or will be, a salary freeze is simply not accurate. Over the past three years Hyundai A-League players have received a 13% increase in total payments, while at the same time most clubs have continued to run operating deficits and also invest heavily in upgraded facilities, youth development programs, and improving conditions for players.” The A-League clubs have today reaffirmed their support for FFA to progress implementation of the improvements contained in the CBA proposal by regulation if a formal agreement with the PFA can’t be reached. “We are determined to make sure that the players will not be left worse off by the stance the PFA is taking,” said Head of Hyundai A-League Damien de Bohun. “A new CBA would provide certainty for all, but we could put these initiatives in place by other means if necessary.”Ruby Wax has branded her Madonna interview as her "most miserable showbiz experience" She has branded her 1994 interview with the Material Girl for BBC show Ruby Wax Meets Madonna as her “most miserable showbiz experience”. “I thought I was doing OK in showbusiness then they said, ‘Do you want to interview Madonna?’ “I thought we were going to bond but she hated me on sight.” “We were setting up the cameras and she was saying, ‘No, no, no, I don’t want that camera, I want that camera.’ I got nervous and I was asking dumb questions and then she got up and left.” Ruby, 59, who also famously put the singer’s underwear on her head during the interview, explains why she did it. “I needed to end the show with some comedy,” she explained on the BBC’s The Matt Lucas Awards.Spread the love The White Helmets, a Nobel Peace Prize-nominated group that has been painted as a selfless “humanitarian group” by the media, was once again caught on video helping the same terrorist group that is hurting the civilians they claim to protect. This time, however, the video was ironically put together by Now This as a pro-White Helmet piece. The group, which was the subject of an Oscar-winning documentary in February, is described by IMDB, “a group of indomitable first responders [who] risk their lives to rescue victims from the rubble” in war-torn Syria “as daily airstrikes pound civilian targets.” However, a recent post from Vanessa Beeley, the associate editor of 21st Century Wire, painted the White Helmets in a very different light. The video appears to show the famed White Helmets standing with Al-Qaeda and celebrating the massacre of Syrian civilians in Idlib. Ironically, Now This put out a propaganda piece attempting to paint those who show the misdeeds of the White Helmets as Russian agents and conspiracy theorists. However, the proof is in the pudding. Um should point out that at 3:18 in the "short film" that puts my work "in context", you will see #WhiteHelmets celebrating #AlQaeda massacre of Syrian civilians in #Idlib March 2015. So yes, I would agree this film puts my exposure of Al Qaeda civil defence in "context". https://t.co/9XhrVynhls — vanessa beeley (@VanessaBeeley) November 21, 2017 In the video, Now This shows a brief and out of context clip at the 3:18 mark. In the clip, White Helmets are seen celebrating with Al-Qaeda. To clarify the context, Beely tweeted still from the video she shot. In the images, we can clearly see the “hero” White Helmets standing alongside terrorists and celebrating. But the is more. In the Now This video, Beeley points out a scene that appears to show an armed Al Nusra militant wiping the nose of a White Helmet. Also worth asking, what is the green sign covering up? I can check archive footage of #WhiteHelmet centres. Is that an armed militant #NusraFront with ammunition vest wiping White Helmet nose for him??? pic.twitter.com/g8137ik9yA — vanessa beeley (@VanessaBeeley) November 21, 2017 Luckily, it appears that most people aren’t buying the lies. The top comments on the Now This video show the reality. To those paying attention to Syria, the White Helmets aiding or even participating in terrorism should come as no surprise. A Twitter post from earlier this year by user ‘Walid’ appears to show the famed White Helmets taking care of injured Al-Qaeda fighters who were recently wounded on the Syrian battlefront. This is just the latest in a series of videos, which has served as evidence that the White Helmets are not what they appear. The faithful #WhiteHelmets were on hand in East Reef Hama to take care of the injured Al-Qaeda fighters who had arrived from #Arsal. #Syria pic.twitter.com/W0OxnbSgGk — Walid (@walid970721) August 4, 2017 While helping injured people, regardless of what ‘side’ they are fighting for is noble, it is important to point out that the white helmets never help those injured by ISIS. Countless Syrian citizens have come forward to expose the group’s utter lack of care for injured men, women, and children alike — while helping only those who are friendly to the resistance. The first such scandalous revelation came about when a video was uploaded to social media demonstrating the WH staging an attack reportedly carried out by Syrian government forces. When the group discovered their video flub, they quickly stated they were simply carrying out a mannequin challenge. Few bought their explanation, yet their documentary later went on to win an Oscar. The group also came under fire in June when video surfaced that showed members of the White Helmets assisting in disposing of the dead bodies of Syrian soldiers. The US-backed “aid workers” were seen celebrating their kill whilst holding the heads of the dead. Impartial and humanitarian White Helmets participating in the beheading and throwing of Syrian soldiers bodies at a dumpster in Daraa today: pic.twitter.com/2UvEbhUu9g — Ali (@Ali_Kourani) June 20, 2017 As it stands, the White Helmets are heavily funded by the U.S. and the U.K., as well as many other international entities. That may be the reason they always worked in rebel-held areas of the greater Syrian conflict. The WH serve as a de facto propaganda wing of the West to sway public opinion into supporting regime change in Syria. As proof, one only has to look to the story of Omran Daqneesh, a Syrian boy reportedly pulled from the rubble of a bombed out building. Daqneesh’s image was broadcast around the world and used as a propaganda tool against Syrian President Bashar Al Assad. The truth was later revealed by The Free Thought Project and others that it is very likely the opposition itself destroyed the very building in which Daqneesh was residing, then used his image to promote the myth he was attacked by Syrian forces. As TFTP reported: “But it was a lie — from mass media’s parroted claims the boy had escaped an airstrike within an inch of his life, to bandages eventually wrapped around Omran’s head — virtually none of the narrative stemming from the starkly persistent image bore the weight of truth.” According to The New York Times, Mr. Daqneesh told the real story of what happened immediately following the bombing. He never supported the opposition and appeared on Syrian state-run media to proclaim his support for Assad. He described how the White Helmets used his son as a propaganda tool without his permission. ”They took Omran, got him to the ambulance, where they filmed him,” Mr. Daqneesh said. “It was against my will. I was still upstairs in the house.”Mr. Daqneesh said he was pressured by opposition activists after Omran was released from the hospital to “talk against the Syrian regime and the state,” adding that he had been offered money to do so, which he refused.” With the latest Twitter revelation, one can draw their own conclusions of whether or not the group is simply giving humanitarian aid, or whether its members are taking part in the Syrian/Iraqi genocide. According to Salon, they’re already beheading people on film. So much for that impartial humanitarian aid!30 August 2012 \| ferguson-6 8 \| We are infinite Greetings again from the darkness. Brace for gushing. Last evening I attended a screening that included a fascinating Q&A with writer/director Stephen Chbosky. It reminded me of how personal and intimate and observant and incisive a well-made film can be. A well written script is so refreshing, and an exceptional script can be truly breath-taking. Mr. Chbosky takes the unusual step of directing his own screenplay based on his own novel (a 1999 bestseller), and he left me stunned and enthralled. The popularity of the novel would typically make the film version a disappointment for its fans. Not so this time. Mr. Chbosky remains true to the spirit despite the need to edit for the sake of continuity and brevity. The key characters spring to life thanks to the efforts of four strong performances from young actors: Logan Lerman (Percy Jackson, The Three Muskateers) plays Charlie, Emma Watson (Harry Potter films) is Sam, Ezra Miller (We Need to Talk About Kevin, City Island) is Patrick, and Mae Whitman (Arrested Development) is Mary Elizabeth. If you have read the book, you know the story... you know the characters... you know the themes. If you haven't read the book, I will spoil nothing. The brilliance is recognized only as you get to know these characters and slowly uncover their stories. What we discover is that, regardless of our age, we recognize these characters from our high school days. We know the introverted, observant Charlie who so desperately needs a support system. We surely recognize the attention-starved, lacking in self-esteem Sam who is the epitome of "We accept the love we think we deserve". And we all knew a Patrick... the flamboyant one who sheaths his pain with an over-the-top act of public confidence. What Chbosky does is shine the spotlight on these characters to ensure that we really SEE them this time. The themes reminded me a bit of a darker John Hughes film (that's a compliment). There were also pieces of two other really good films: Stand By Me and Almost Famous. The formative years of a writer determine the depths to which his or her work will reach later in life. Admittedly, the film is substantially autobiographical, so when Mr. Chbosky says it's a personal story, we begin to understand the foundation of his remarkable writing style. "Welcome to the island of misfit toys." When this line is spoken, we realize that most every high school kid has thought the same thing at some point. These are painful and difficult times and as Mr. Chbosky stated, we should encourage kids to fight through this stage and get on to the next... then able to find their true self. Clearly, the film made a strong impact on me. My favorite reaction to a movie is profound thought, and this one caused this in waves. The decision to release as PG-13 was wise. There is no excess of profanity or nudity to divert attention from what really matters... the characters. I can think of no finer compliment to a writer and filmmaker than to cite them as the cause of my internal discussions related to their film. My hope is that you have the same reaction. (http://moviereviewsfromthedark.wordpress.com/)You’re invited to the Railyards Roads Grand Opening Celebration Join us on Friday, August 19 at 8:30 a.m. on the 5th Street Bridge for the Railyards Roads Grand Opening Celebration. Hear about the vision of the Railyards from Congresswoman Doris Matsui, Councilmember Jeff Harris, City Manager John Shirey, and Caltrans Director Malcolm Dougherty. Master of Ceremonies: Managing Partner of Downtown Railyard Ventures, Larry Kelley. Celebrate the grand opening of 5th Street, 6th Street and Railyards Boulevard. Parking is limited in nearby lots at the Sacramento Valley Station. Come by carpool, foot, bike, light rail or train! Please note this event will be outdoors. To download a flyer for this event, please click here. Immediately following the ceremony, join us for the Railyards Inaugural Commuter Bike Train. Bring your own bike and join the fun! Click here for more information. Please RSVP for either or both events, but no need to print out and bring the ticket. For more information about the Railyards, please visit www.Railyards.com.November 10, 2010 12:00 PM \| Simon Carless [Our own Christian Nutt is at MIGS in Canada this week, and while most of his write-ups are appearing on Gamasutra, we're excerpting some GSW-relevant ones here, such as this neat lecture from 2D Boy and Indie Fund's Ron Carmel.] World of Goo co-creator Ron Carmel used his Montreal International Games Summit keynote speech to urge large publishers to use their resources to create small internal teams that would work on groundbreaking games from within. "We need a medium-sized design studio. Something that is larger than a typical indie, but has the same propensity for of talent density, focus, and risk-taking," said Carmel, formerly an employee of major publisher Electronic Arts prior to going independent. Notably, a focus on profit must be eliminated from the equation. "Creating this within a major developer doesn't present a problem," said Carmel. With a budget of $1-$2 million dollars, 10 staffers could be hired to work on "creatively ambitious and forward-thinking projects." He likened it to the automobile industry, which alongside its mainstream consumer products works on concept cars -- few of which enter production as regular models. The concept car is, said Carmel, "a marketing expense to build your brand, and say, 'Look at all the amazing things we're creating.'" It also helps with recruitment. Said Carmel, "there's no reason the larger game companies can't do that." He also said that developers must move away from the notion that a team comprised primarily of programmers and artists can create a great work. Why do Valve's games have such amazing environments? Because, said Carmel, "Valve has architects on staff." "Because games are, in a way, a superset of all the mediums that came before them... we need to incorporate the people who are at the top of their respective fields into our game design process." However, he said, that doesn't mean just hiring them onto projects in limited roles. In his view, everybody has to have their hands in the project. "Cross-pollination [creates a] more cohesive [game] experience because everybody holds in their head the full vision of what the game is supposed to be." Both examples of teams he thinks approach this model come from within Sony Computer Entertainment. Carmel says that Team Ico, with 2005's Shadow of the Colossus, reached a point "that is about as far as games have come in terms of expressing something meaningful and authentic." At the same time, Flower and Journey developer Thatgamecompany, which is funded by Sony and works out of its Santa Monica studio, may not be "quite as far along as Team Ico," in Carmel's view, "but each project is significantly more ambitious than the last." Carmel noted that games are getting more ubiquitous as a medium, too, and that's a concern. "When everybody's playing, them there will be a much greater desire for experiences in games that are a lot more nuanced." His view is that a group like this could "have experiments and don't work, and try better next time" when separated from strict profitability. He also considered the idea that "a large studio would hire a bunch of indies and create a studio out of that... but I am not entirely sure that would work." The reason? Many current independents choose that road due to a singularity of vision, and may not be team-oriented. What Separates Indies? Carmel showed a clip from the acclaimed TV series The Wire early on in his presentation -- one he hoped would illustrate the show as what he calls "the first masterpiece of television... nuanced and authentic." In Carmel's view, "video games are in a relatively similar place to television, but they're 20 years behind. I don't think we've so far seen a masterpiece of video games. Great works yes, but nothing that's as expressive as the great works of film, television, literature." Interactivity, he said, is the key here. "With choice comes the possibility for something very interesting... in which your own emotional landscape gets to interact in meaningful tangible ways with a fictional world. They have very barely begun to climb towards reaching this potential." What's the stumbling block? "The way we develop games is not necessarily conducive to the creation of great works. Very few designers end up pursuing that desire" to create meaningful work -- due to circumstances of their employment or other reasons. That's why the indie scene is crucial, he argued. "In order to create great works, and to break new ground you have to take risks." "Unfortunately," he said, "you need a critical mass of resources to create something great. Is this where we're stuck? Either an underfunded indie or a risk-averse mainstream studio?... Does that ["indie"] label still have meaning for us today now that the independent game scene is well-established and games have been critical and commercial successes?" In Carmel's view, and thanks to some survey data, he doesn't see lot of difference between indie developers and mainstream developers in many ways -- age, whether they have kids, education, gender, and ethnic diversity are all similar. The main difference seems to be that they take on more roles working as understaffed indies. "Does the difference in people or environment make a different kind of game than another? I don't think so, it's priorities." Indies, he said, "make games they want or need to make." Meanwhile, developers at studios work under "pretty fine profitability constraints or schedule constraints, and within that they make the best game they can." Thus, rather than "indie" versus "mainstream", Carmel would view the split as design versus commercial studios -- and at this point he'd lump PopCap and Valve into the "design" camp. When we concentrate, as an industry, on "practices rather than identity, then we can talk about the meaningful differences in our games without creating conflict," said Carmel.JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- On a day when the Jacksonville Jaguars recognized their best players in history, the current team provided three notable franchise firsts. And an even bigger second. Blake Bortles notched his first game-winning drive. The defense scored twice in the same game for the first time. Editor's Picks Bortles good when it mattered most Blake Bortles wasn't very good Sunday, but the rookie quarterback came through when the Jaguars needed him most. Graziano: Giants hit bottom with loss to Jags The Giants didn't see rock bottom coming until they landed on it. Now that they've arrived, ownership has to consider sweeping changes. No one should be safe, Dan Graziano writes. 1 Related And the Jaguars managed their largest comeback ever, rallying from a 21-point deficit to beat the New York Giants 25-24 on Sunday for their second victory of the season. "It was an unbelievable way to win it," Bortles said. "It's awesome to be a part of this team and see how much fight they have....We weren't sharp in some situations, but we were sharp when we needed to be, and that was good." Bortles completed four passes and used two keepers to put Jacksonville in field-goal range in the final minute, and Josh Scobee delivered a 43-yarder with 28 seconds remaining that turned out to be the difference. The Jaguars (2-10) ended a four-game losing streak and dealt the Giants (3-9) a seventh consecutive loss that could raise more questions about the future of New York Giants coach Tom Coughlin. "It's a loss that we feel we should have won," Coughlin said. "We've done this too many times. We just helped somebody beat us. Instead of forcing them to beat us, we helped them.... I'm upset with everything. And I'm upset with me. I start with me." The Giants dominated the first half, scoring 21 points in the second quarter and looking like they would notch their first victory since early October. But Jacksonville played like a different team after the break, especially on defense. Veteran defensive end Chris Clemons may have ignited the turnaround with a fiery tirade on the sideline. His teammates certainly responded. Linebacker Geno Hayes forced Eli Manning to fumble in the third quarter, and teammate J.T. Thomas recovered in the end zone. The Jaguars forced another turnover in the fourth when rookie cornerback Aaron Colvin returned Larry Donnell's fumble 41 yards for a score and a 22-21 lead. "One thing that you can't take away from this football team is that we're fighters," Thomas said. In between those defensive gems, Bortles threw a perfect, 30-yard TD pass to rookie Marqise Lee. "He can flat out fly and made a great play," Bortles said. Jacksonville nearly wasted the comeback. Manning & Co. got some things going later, and Josh Brown's 33-yard field goal put the Giants ahead 24-22 with 3:26 to play. But Bortles took over after that, driving the Jags 55 yards while taking all but 28 seconds off the clock. Bortles used identical keepers to hurt the Giants for 11 and 20 yards. "We have to find a way to finish games and get wins," Giants linebacker Devon Kennard said. "It's not like we don't have a talented group and not hungry for a win. There are close games coming down to the last drive and we are just not finishing. We have to find a way to finish games and get wins." The Giants had one final chance to win, but Manning fumbled on first down. New York managed just 75 yards in the second half. Injuries were a factor. Right tackle Geoff Schwartz, playing in place of starter Justin Pugh, injured his left ankle and left on a cart. His replacement, James Brewer, also left with a concussion. Running back Rashad Jennings went down with an ankle injury. After the game, Coughlin talked to his players about "staying together, fighting." "I didn't even use the term `giving up," said Coughlin, whose team also faltered late in losses to Seattle, San Francisco and Dallas. "There's not going to be any of that. This is a tremendous test for all of us." The final drive was a good test for Bortles, who has been shaky most of the season. He completed 21 of 35 passes for 194 yards and a touchdown. He also ran five times for a team-high 68 yards. His performance capped "Alumni Weekend," where the Jaguars recognized nearly 50 former players, including retired stars Mark Brunell, Jimmy Smith, Fred Taylor and Tony Boselli. "You've got to overcome personal miscues at the quarterback position to be able to win games," Bortles said. "You're not always going to play as well as you want to, but you have to play well enough to put your team in a winning position. I think we did that and obviously came out with the outcome we were looking for. " Game notes In the past two games, the Jaguars have nine sacks, eight forced fumbles and six fumble recoveries.... Coughlin said X-rays were negative on Schwartz's ankle but he does have tendon damage. Giants LB Terrell Manning (ankle) and DE Robert Ayers (pectoral) also left the game.... Jaguars DE Andre Branch re-injured a groin muscle that kept him out the previous four games.... RT Austin Pasztor left with a hamstring injury. --- AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP-NFLFive years ago, KIPON developed out world first mechanic adapter with built-in iris, to use Canon EF lens on MFT(m4/3) body, to solve the problem for only electronic iris control of Canon EF lens. Today still KIPON, we bring to market a new world first full Auto-focus adapter, to use Canon EF full frame and EF-S Apsc lens on MFT(m4/3) body. This adapter equipped with electronic contact and built-in circuit board with chip, besides auto-focus and stability function, also can transmit precise EXIF information to the camera body. The market price for this adapter is 285USD,will be on sale from May 10, 2015. KIPON is leading brand in lens adapter field, the adapters we developed have many series, over 500 models, our products widely be used for consumer photography, broadcasting and cine, medical, industry cameras, etc..Earlier today, Apple released iOS 6 Beta 4 to iOS developers, moving the new iOS release one step closer to launch. The update is available for previous iOS 6 Beta users both over the air and as a standalone download from the developer portal as usual. The version bumps the build number up to 10A5376e, and updates the baseband version to 3.0.0 on the iPhone 4S. iOS 6 B4 on iPhone 4S (left), iOS 6 B4 without YouTube (middle), iOS 5.1.1 (right) In addition to the usual bugfixes and subtle changes to APIs, iOS 6 Beta 4 removes the Apple-built and maintained YouTube.app from the software bundle. The stock YouTube app has only seen a few updates since release with the original iPhone. The initial YouTube app's purpose was to serve as a gateway for the small catalog of MP4 and 3GP (MPEG-4 and H.264 encoded) format videos in the YouTube catalog, as opposed to FLV video. Much of this was motivated by the need to match YouTube's catalog to the video format compatible with Apple's hardware decode blocks. Since then, nearly every SoC's video decoder can handle H.264 well above even the 1080p YouTube format. As time has gone on, playing back YouTube videos directly from the web in MP4 has become the new norm, with Google's improved YouTube web player for iOS being the most common workflow. Apple and Google both issued statements to The Verge, noting that Apple's license to distribute the YouTube app has ended, and that Google will build and distribute its own YouTube application through the App Store. The end result is more control for Google over the YouTube experience thanks to the decoupling of YouTube from the OS. WiFi Plus Cellular (left), Upload to YouTube in iOS 6 B4 (middle, right) Another subtle change is the inclusion of a WiFi + Cellular data tab under cellular settings on iOS 6 B4. No doubt this enables applications to transact data over cellular when WiFi is spotty. iMessage for example on iOS transacts all data over cellular even when attached to WiFi. Update: Some readers asked, and interestingly enough the upload to YouTube functionality from either Camera.app or Photos.app remains intact. I tested and was able to upload a video just fine. No doubt Google's YouTube application will extend or replace some of this remaining OS-level functionality.Squares in Squares The following pictures show n unit squares packed inside the smallest known square (of side length s). For the n not pictured, the trivial packing (with no tilted squares) is the best known packing. 1. 2. 3. s = 1 Trivial. s = 2 Proved by Frits Göbel in 1979. s = 2 Proved by Frits Göbel in 1979. 4. 5. 6. s = 2 Trivial. s = 2 + 1 / √2 = 2.707+ Proved by Frits Göbel in 1979. s = 3 Proved by Michael Kearney and Peter Shiu in April 2002. 7. 8. 9. s = 3 Proved by Erich Friedman in 1999. s = 3 Proved by Erich Friedman in 1999. s = 3 Trivial. 10. 11. 14. s = 3 + 1 / √2 = 3.707+ Proved by Walter Stromquist in 2003. s = 3.877+ Found by Walter Trump in 1979. s = 4 Proved by Erich Friedman in 1999. 15. 17. 18. s = 4 Proved by Erich Friedman in 1999. s = 4.675+ Found by John Bidwell in 1997. s = (7 + √7) / 2 = 4.822+ Found by Pertti Hamalainen in 1979. 19. 24. 26. s = 3 + 4 √2 / 3 = 4.885+ Found by Robert Wainwright in 1979. s = 5 Proved by Erich Friedman in 1999. s = 7 / 2 + 3 / √2 = 5.621+ Found by Erich Friedman in 1997. 27. 28. 29. s = 5 + 1 / √2 = 5.707+ Found by Frits Göbel in 1979. s = 3 + 2 √2 = 5.828+ Found by Frits Göbel in 1979. s = 5.934+ Found by Thierry Gensane and Philippe Ryckelynck in April 2004. 37. 38. 39. s = 6.598+ Found by David W. Cantrell in September 2002. s = 6 + 1 / √2 = 6.707+ Found by Frits Göbel in 1979. s = 6.818+ Found by David W. Cantrell in August 2002. 40. 41. 50. s = 4 + 2 √2 = 6.828+ Found by Frits Göbel in 1979. s = 6.937+ Found by Joe DeVincentis in April 2014. s = 7.598+ Found by David W. Cantrell in September 2002. 51. 52. 53. s = 7.704+ Found by Károly Hajba in July 2009. s = 7 + 1 / √2 = 7.707+ Found by Frits Göbel in 1979. s = 5 + 2 √2 = 7.823+ Found by David W. Cantrell in in September 2002. 54. 55. 65. s = 7.846+ Found by Joe DeVincentis in April 2014. s = 7.954+ Found by Joe DeVincentis in April 2014. s = 5 + 5 / √2 = 8.535+ Found by Frits Göbel in 1979. 66. 67. 68. s = 3 + 4 √2 = 8.657+ Found by Evert Stenlund in 1980. s = 8 + 1 / √2 = 8.707+ Found by Frits Göbel in 1979. s = 15/2 + √7/2 = 8.822+ Found by David W. Cantrell in September 2002. 69. 70. 71. s = 8.828+ Found by Maurizio Morandi in June 2010. s = 8.881+ Found by Joe DeVincentis in April 2014. s = 8.960+ Found by Joe DeVincentis in April 2014. 82. 83. 84. s = 6 + 5 / √2 = 9.535+ Found by Frits Göbel in 1979. s = 4 + 4 √2 = 9.657+ Found by Evert Stenlund in 1980. s = 9 + 1 / √2 = 9.707+ Found by Frits Göbel in 1979. 85. 86. 87. s = 11 / 2 + 3 √2 = 9.742+ Found by Erich Friedman in 1997. s = 17 / 2 + √7 / 2 = 9.822+ Found by Erich Friedman in 1997. s = 9.851+ Found by David W. Cantrell in August 2002. 88. 89. s = 9.901+ Found by David W. Cantrell in August 2002. s = 5 + 7 / √2 = 9.950+ Found by Evert Stenlund in 1980. For more details, see my paper on the subject: Packing Unit Squares in Squares: A Survey and New Results. Back to.Late last month, a Boston-area man was arrested for allegedly boarding an M.B.T.A. bus and assaulting the driver. According to the Boston Globe's MetroDesk blog, police reports say the suspect got on the bus and confronted the driver about pulling away from a previous stop without letting him board. Witnesses saw the suspect punch the driver until he hit the ground, then kick him while he was down. The job of city bus driver has long been one of the most stressful and hazardous gigs in town. If staying on schedule or fighting through traffic or remaining in a seated position for hours doesn't get you, then fending off shod foot from some vengeful guy who was late to the stop will. And when a transit authority makes the hard cuts that reduce service, it's the drivers on the front line that feel the sometimes-mucus-filled wrath of the public. That's not just anecdotal pity talking. Half a century of medical research has determined that the demands of driving a city bus result in a variety of physical (notably heart disease and back pain), mental (anxiety and depression), and behavioral (substance abuse) health problems. A British review [PDF] of this work from a few years ago concluded that "poor well-being in drivers is part and parcel of the job."Council needs to deal with issue transparently, quickly and firmly says Krog as council majority remains mum about their knowledge of Liberal Party fundraiser N anaimo NDP MLA Leonard Krog has called on city council to clear the air over chief administrative officer Tracy Samra’s taxpayer-funded trip where she attended a BC Liberal Party fundraiser. Meanwhile, attention shifted to which city councillors had prior knowledge or approved of Ms. Samra attending community, sport and cultural development Minister Peter Fassbender’s annual campaign fundraiser. “Nanaimo City Council hired Ms. Samra and they need to deal with this promptly, transparently, and if the allegations are accurate, firmly,” said Mr. Krog. The MLA spoke out after News Nanaimo reported Tuesday that Ms. Samra flew to Vancouver last Feb. 4 and that night attended the minister’s up to $625-a-ticket event in Surrey with her lawyer, George Cadman, QC. An expense report shows that Ms. Samra charged her return airfare and a stay at the Coast Coal Harbour hotel to taxpayers, but no explanation was given for the expenses. Ms. Samra also has not provided details of her legal expenses. In-camera meeting minutes show that council granted Ms. Samra $5,000 for independent legal advice last December. Samra subject of mayor’s complaint to province at the time At the time of Ms. Samra attending the political fundraising event, the minister had received a complaint from Mayor Bill Mckay about the unusual hiring of Ms. Samra as interim CAO. The truncated hiring process had also sparked a legal wrangle between Councillor Diane Brennan and five councillors after they and Ms. Samra accused her of leaking confidential information. Ms. Brennan’s lawyer had asked the mayor to use his powers to suspend Ms. Samra pending a legal review of her hiring and the legality of council’s censure action against his client. Released in-camera council minutes show that after mayor McKay told council of his contact with the minister, council moved against him in a January 25 in-camera meeting that he was absent from. Councillors passed a motion expressing a loss of confidence in the mayor, asking that he immediately withdraw legal actions to remove Ms. Samra. They also asked him to share all legal and other correspondence in and out of his office, tell them in advance about any media interviews he planned to do, and only meet Ms. Samra with a councillor present. That was just 10 days before Ms. Samra flew to Vancouver via Harbour Air and then attended Mr. Fassbender’s fundraiser at the Aria Banquet and Convention Centre. Mr. Fassbender told News Nanaimo that he had no forewarning that Ms. Samra would be at his fundraiser and did not discuss the situation in Nanaimo with her as it would have been inappropriate. Ms. Samra has also said she didn’t have any “substantive” discussions with the minister and
generosity; at the other, tween boys try desperately to pretend they’ve matured more than they have. Both, as befits middle school tradition, are unforgettable disasters. Movies and TV episodes that seem as if they’re filmed in one long take are often gimmicky, and considering that Mr. Robot loves gimmicks, this one should have been as well. Instead, it combined an airtight story (in which Elliot Alderson must stop a catastrophic hack while simultaneously trying to evade the security guards hoping to escort him from the building) with the sense that the episode depicted the grinding wheels of late capitalism in the US, and the result was a tense yet weirdly contemplative hour of television. An overhead shot of one character, typing away at a computer while protests rage outside, filmed so that one half of the frame is outside the skyscraper and the other within it, might have been the TV shot of the year. HBO’s Girls died as it lived: at the center of fierce debates regarding its worth and/or accuracy in portraying the specific growing pains of Brooklyn’s privileged 20-somethings. But the series’ final season contained some real gems, and “American Bitch” was the best of them. Written by star and co-creator Lena Dunham and directed by Girls’ MVP director Richard Shepherd, “American Bitch” is essentially a two-hander between Hannah (Dunham) and a man named Chuck, a celebrated author who’s been accused of sexual assault. Guest star Matthew Rhys plays him with an ominous hint of a Cheshire Cat grin; the effect allows “American Bitch” to skillfully depict the inherent power imbalance between an established older man and an ambitious young woman around whom he can spin a convincing web. The last shot alone — in which Hannah leaves Chuck’s apartment after he reveals his true self, as a stream of symbolic anonymous women pour in — is a serious gut punch. Making a decent first episode of a television series is hard; making a great one is a true rarity. But Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale opened with a perfectly stark, taut hour, adapting Margaret Atwood’s disturbing novel with heart-stopping tension and an elasticity that kept it from feeling too burdened by its weighty source material. Just about every component clicked together to create a brilliant, terrifying whole, hinting at the horrors to come with an admirable steadiness. And Elisabeth Moss made a meal of her introduction as a Handmaid gritting her teeth through a terrible reality, making every single close-up count. But the true revelation to come out of “Offred” — and really the series’ first three episodes altogether — was director Reed Morano, whose unflinching lens and eye for lush detail made for some of TV’s most memorable moments this year, period. 7) I Love Dick: “A Short History of Weird Girls” Playwrights Annie Baker and Heidi Schreck, working with I Love Dick co-creator and director Jill Soloway, punctuated the first season of the show’s tricky, winking love triangle slash dissection of power imbalances between men and women with an entire episode of monologues delivered by the show’s many supporting characters. All of these characters are grappling with having experienced their formative sexual encounters in a society dominated by men (which is true even for the characters who aren’t attracted to men), and the result is the sort of brazenly experimental, thoughtful episode that has always typified Soloway’s work. Its theatricality — well earned by Baker and Schreck — only helps propel the already dreamy I Love Dick to new heights, and even better, you can pretty much watch it in isolation (though it will have more power if you watch the four episodes that precede it). All hail the astonishing ambition of BoJack Horseman, which just might clinch the title of TV’s most indescribable show (even four seasons in, “an animated comedy slash existential drama about Hollywood frivolity and unrelenting misery” is about as good as we’ve got). “Time’s Arrow” dives deep, not just into the history of BoJack’s family but into the recesses of his mother’s decaying mind. As the equally acerbic and tragic Beatrice (Wendie Malick) tries to remember her past, the episode renders her flashbacks through the filter of her dementia. Images flicker and fade, warp and wither. As is usually true of BoJack Horseman’s best episodes, “Time’s Arrow” is smart, devastating, and breathtaking in its artistic scope. With just three episodes left in Halt and Catch Fire’s run, a long-expected yet completely surprising death in the episode immediately preceding “Goodwill” leaves the characters of the ’90s-set tech drama reeling. The series has always loved its characters, maybe even to a fault, and that love shines through in this episode, as the survivors gather to mourn their lost friend and colleague, then slowly find ways to patch up their own differences. The greatest TV dramas find ways to be incisive and thoughtful about their characters, to acknowledge their faults while also giving us ample evidence of their strengths; what sets Halt apart is the way it seems to want its characters to become better people, to circle back around in their next iteration to some other, more beautiful self. “Goodwill” is the ultimate expression of that ideal, and when it ends, they’ve all come so far, while still falling short. 4) Nathan for You: “Finding Frances” Essentially a feature-length film, the season four finale of Nathan for You (and quite possibly the show’s final episode ever) is an intimate, intricate dissection of one man’s obsession. Host Nathan Fielder tries to help William Heath, whom he met in an earlier episode, track down a long-lost love — only to realize that, um, that long-lost love might not want to be found by this particular man. That’s already a tricky concept to build an episode around, but it’s even trickier when you consider that the series wants you to both empathize with Heath and understand why what he’s doing can only serve to make this poor woman uncomfortable. It digs deep, down to the very core of our collective need for connection, and it ends in a place of unexpected grace. No less than Oscar-winning documentarian Errol Morris loved the hell out of it. David Lynch and Mark Frost hit pause at almost the exact midpoint of their triumphant 2017 revival of the early-’90s weird small-town soap, in order to dig back into American history and explore the roots of evil. Filmed largely in black and white, “Episode 8” travels back to the detonations of the early atomic bombs — to the awakening of man’s capacity for species-wide destruction — to explore every possible meaning of the phrase “nuclear family.” The hour’s deliberately avant-garde style and its use of dark, horrifying symbolism (to say nothing of frog-bug creatures crawling down throats) marked it as an instant classic. But its most potent element is its presentation of an America gone very wrong. “This is the water, and this is the well,” explains its eeriest nightmare monster. “Drink full and descend.” Maybe you didn’t want to descend. But Lynch and Frost made sure you did. Television’s most unlikely network comedy is The Good Place, which threw Kristen Bell’s dirtbag Eleanor into heaven and meticulously set about untangling philosophy puzzles while spitting out increasingly surreal jokes. After the show’s (excellent) season one finale revealed that The Good Place is, in fact, taking place in “the Bad Place,” season two upended it completely, over and over again. “Dance Dance Resolution” — the season’s third episode, written by Megan Amram — is almost entirely a montage of Ted Danson’s frustrated demon making failed attempt after failed attempt to outsmart the humans he’s determined to trick into believing they made it to heaven, while simultaneously torturing them. The episode is staggeringly ambitious, and an awesome showcase for The Good Place’s amazing cast, which has only gotten better with every bizarre curveball the show has thrown at them. We never know what we’re getting with The Good Place, which is about as exciting an endorsement we can give. Our pick for the best TV episode of 2017 is the sixth episode of The Leftovers’ final season, one that attempted to summarize the entire, series-spanning journey of Laurie Garvey (the amazing Amy Brenneman) in just one hour of television. Laurie, a former therapist, found herself so rattled by the Great Departure (in which 2 percent of the world’s population simply disappeared) that she joined the Guilty Remnant, a silent cult designed to remind humanity of what it lost. As the series continued, she left the Guilty Remnant and gradually began to get in touch with her own grief; “Certified” features her final confrontation with the depths of despair as she shares long, thoughtful conversations about death and loss and understanding with The Leftovers’ other cast members. The hour concludes with a beautiful moment of ambiguity, but even after the show undoes that moment a couple of episodes later, “Certified” remains an always unsteady examination of the chaos swirling beneath Laurie’s otherwise civilized exterior. Had The Leftovers somehow ended with it, we would have been just fine with that. Fortunately, it didn’t, and it made one of the year’s greatest shows all the greater.Newcastle United are still hoping to make another two signings before the close of the transfer window, although there is a growing a possibility they will have to make do with a loan deal for Chelsea’s Brazilian winger Kenedy. Kenedy, 21, should arrive on Tyneside as soon as Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain completes his move from Arsenal to Stamford Bridge, but although Newcastle have the money to complete at least one more permanent transfer, confidence is fading fast. They have been considering an offer for Paris St-Germain goalkeeper Kevin Trapp, but that interest has cooled and, although the club will keep a close eye on the market in the final 48 hours of the window, they will not panic buy. An approach to loan Belgian striker Divock Origi from Liverpool was made last week, but Newcastle were unable to guarantee the 22-year-old would be first choice, so talks did not continue.Regular readers are probably tired of hearing us say that the latest hardware demonstration from Oculus is a new high-water mark in virtual reality that finally does away with a lot of the problems holding the technology back. To those readers, I apologize in advance: the new Crescent Bay prototype Oculus announced and showed off at its first-ever developer conference in Hollywood this weekend is a new high-water mark in virtual reality that finally does away with a lot of the problems holding the technology back. I tried on the new device for two 10-minute demo sessions at the conference, each time going through the same set of 10 pre-made demo experiences. As soon as I put it on (or rather had it put on me; we were barely allowed to touch the fragile prototypes for fear of breaking them), I noticed a significant jump in comfort from previous Rift development kits and prototypes. Those old devices have all been akin to ski goggles, with thick elastic bands in the rear pressing the display box tightly around the eyes. It was a design decision that put a lot of pressure on some sensitive facial areas, and it left this user a sweaty, red-faced mess after every use. The Crescent Bay prototype does away with this issue. Instead of an elastic band, there's now a rigid plastic support that goes over the ears and dips down to join at a thick, triangular rear support, which tucks around the nape of the neck and back of the skull. (The single threaded wire connecting the Rift to the computer now slides down the right side of this plastic support, which is much more comfortable than the over-the-middle-of-the-skull solution on previous dev kits.) This plastic band slides in and out of the main unit quite easily to adjust for differently sized heads, while a small velcro strip comes over the top of the skull for additional support. The new design, which CEO Brendan Iribe told Ars was a direct outgrowth of the recent purchase of industrial design firm Carbon, doesn't form quite as perfect of a dark seal as other Rift prototypes—more light seemed to seep in from the bottom. I was more than happy to make that tradeoff, though, for a unit that I could see wearing comfortably for hours rather than minutes at a time. Mysterious specs Oculus says the Crescent Bay prototypes are much lighter than previous dev kits, but the company wouldn't go into specifics on the weight—or really any other specific specifications of the device, for that matter. Iribe told Ars that this silence was to avoid confusion among developers, who he said shouldn't target their efforts toward a prototype device that isn't necessarily indicative of where a consumer product will end up. "Nobody should be developing against that, because it's not the real thing yet," Iribe said. "They should be developing against DK2. When we actually announce that is the resolution we are going to ship, then they can develop against that..." Still, we can guess at the specifications based on our experience. The display looked good enough to at least match the 1440p resolution of the Gear VR units being shown off in the next room. When held close to the face, this isn't quite a "retina" resolution with no distinguishable pixels; I could make out some slight color-warped moire patterns when trying to focus on a specific object up close. Still, it's a huge improvement over the 1080p screens on the DK2, with almost none of the readily apparent "screen door" effect caused by the black spaces between pixels. It was much easier to read small text on the Crescent Bay unit even at a virtual distance. The refresh rate is harder to estimate just from eyeballing, but I wouldn't be shocked if this prototype reached the 90Hz target Oculus says is needed to provide a truly stable, flicker-free VR image for most people (up from 75Hz on the DK2). The environment just feels a little more solid on Crescent Bay, with none of the juttering or smearing seen on previous Rift units. Combined with the increased resolution, it's much easier to suspend your disbelief and feel there's a virtual environment locked in place around your position. Iribe said multiple times over the weekend that this was the first Rift unit that solved the significant nausea problems he's had with VR since joining the company two years ago, and it's an easy claim to believe. Walking and listening While previous Oculus demonstrations have all involved sitting down in front of a computer, the Crescent Bay demo asked us to stand on a square, cushioned mat roughly three-to-four feet on a side. The attendant told us we could walk around anywhere on this mat and, surprisingly, move our head up and down anywhere from the floor to jumping up in the air. No matter how much I crouched, leapt, turned, or even sat during the demo, the head tracking never lost track of my position, thanks in part to new tracking LEDs on the back strap of the unit. Iribe told Ars the head-tracking camera mounted about three feet away during that demo was the first one custom-built for Oculus. It has a much wider field of view than the one that comes with the DK2. In fact, almost all of the components in the prototype were customized for Oculus, Iribe said, providing much stronger integration than the off-the-shelf parts of older units. The final key improvement in the Crescent Bay prototype is integrated audio, delivered through two small, optional, over-ear headphones that flip down from the side, like ear flaps on a winter hat. The audio quality was only modest, but building headphones into the unit removes the need for yet another wire between the user's head and the PC tower. This ends up being much more breathable and less sweat-inducing than separate, heavy-duty earcups. A few of the demos we tried used these headphones to show off a new directional audio solution Oculus is working on with RealSpace3D. This feature was definitely still a work in progress, making the apparent position of environmental sounds jump around a bit as I moved my head. If I turned my head to the right while staring at a roaring T-Rex, for instance, it would sound as if it was in front of me, then abruptly cut to a sound balance dominated by the right headphone. In another demo, though, I was able to hear a fire burning in a toy-sized apartment building only when I physically leaned in and put my face right up to it, which was a pretty incredible trick. Out of control Notably, all the demos lacked any form of handheld control or the ability to see my actual limbs, and Oculus is still remaining silent about any developments on its own control solution. That doesn't mean there was no way to interact with the environment, though. One demo featured a grey and wrinkly alien whose gaze and posture changed as I walked around examining him. Another demo replaced my head with a disembodied ivory mask bobbing in front of a mirror, tracking my position and angle perfectly as I looked at "myself" from multiple angles. Oculus seemed eager to show off the kinds of high-end VR graphics you can only get when tethered to a top-of-the-line PC (as opposed to, say, the wire-free mobile phone in the Gear VR headset down the hall). A scene set in a submarine was particularly detailed, as was a vertigo-inducing scene from the top of a steampunk skyscraper that could have come from a Bioshock sequel. But it wasn't all about "realism." One demo set me in a quiet forest scene in front of a pit fire with abstract, angular forest creatures that couldn't have been made up of more than 100 polygons apiece. Another showed a brightly colored town with toy-like trains, planes, and even a tiny fire engine moving around. These were a nice indication that Oculus believes a strong sense of "presence" in a VR world doesn't necessarily require an insane level of graphical detail. The initial demos all built up to the unquestionable highlight, an Epic-made Unreal Engine 4 showcase titled "Showdown." Set in a city street overrun by a firefight between armored shock troopers and a three-story tall robot, the demo moved me down the street slowly and automatically, letting me look as slow-motion carnage exploded all around. There was plenty of opportunity to track individual bullets and missiles through the air, see bits of rubble fly up toward (and sometimes through) my face, and even look in through the sunroof of a car as it flipped above me after an explosion. It was an impressive graphical showcase, but it immediately made me question how workable this kind of first-person action shooter would be as a full game. Crawling through the scene in slow-mo was nice for a demo, but dashing and twisting through the environment at full speed is likely to be much more nausea-inducing. None of the demos shown let us move outside of the virtual space represented by the cushioned mat on the floor in fact, and that could be a somewhat limiting factor for VR game design going forward. In any case, the experience left me more convinced than ever that Oculus is approaching hardware that can deliver an acceptable, nausea-free VR experience for an eventual mainstream consumer product (which Oculus still isn't discussing in detail). I've been enjoying my Oculus DK2 in the home office for a few weeks, but now I can't go back to it without being a bit disappointed. It doesn't live up to the experience I know I could be having if they just let me take a Crescent Bay prototype home.If you’ve ever wanted to see what it’s like to buzz Venus like only a spacecraft can, here’s your chance: this is a video animation of images taken by ESA’s Venus Express as it makes a pole-to-pole orbit of our neighboring world. Captured in ultraviolet wavelengths, the images were acquired by the spacecraft’s Venus Monitoring Camera last January over a period of 18 hours. It’s truly a “day in the life” of Venus Express! From ESA’s description of the video: We join the spacecraft from a staggering 66,000 km above the south pole, staring down into the swirling south polar vortex. From this bird’s-eye view, half of the planet is in darkness, the ‘terminator’ marking the dividing line between the day and night sides of the planet. Intricate features on smaller and smaller scales are revealed as Venus Express dives to just 250 km above the north pole and clouds flood the field of view, before regaining a global perspective as it climbs away from the north pole. The observed pattern of bright and dark markings is caused by variations in an unknown absorbing chemical at the Venus cloud tops. Read more: Are Venus’ Volcanoes Still Active? False-color image of cloud features on Venus. Captured by Venus Express from a distance of 30,000 km (18,640 miles) on December 8, 2011. (ESA/MPS/DLR/IDA) Source: European Space AgencyNew Crew Chairman Anthony Precourt wasted no time getting to know the club's supporters, taking over Major League Soccer's Twitter account Tuesday night while visiting Kansas City for the 2013 MLS All-Star Game. Precourt answered questions ranging from Homegrown Players, to stadium upgrades and even magnets... Yes, magnets. The questions and answers are below. . @V1andRotate meet with the staff next week...can't wait to get started. Hopefully see you at 4th Street next Friday! #crew96 — Major League Soccer (@MLS) July 30, 2013 . @david44094782 Good question. Given some thought to it...too early, bc I want the focus to be on the Crew. Believer in NWSL tho. #Crew96 — Major League Soccer (@MLS) July 30, 2013 . @CrewFanatic RW deserves our respect. Long-term Crew contributor. Will evaluate. No doubt winning is critical. #crew96 — Major League Soccer (@MLS) July 30, 2013 . @OhioJude Thanks! Equally excited about the fans. Need more of you! Day 1 here, will look at stadium plan. #crew96 — Major League Soccer (@MLS) July 30, 2013 . @CincyToLondon Just called Bliss. Will meet tomorrow. Will be looking at numerous ways to improve the club's on field performance. #Crew96 — Major League Soccer (@MLS) July 30, 2013 . @mehernandez66 First met w/ @thesoccerdon in Fall. Started meetings with Hunts in April. Can't believe we are now a part of the Crew! — Major League Soccer (@MLS) July 30, 2013 . @doug_waddell Absolutely. Being accessible very important. Want your feedback. Go easy on me though...first time out. Follow me @APrecourt — Major League Soccer (@MLS) July 30, 2013 . @Morgan_Hughes Stick it to your fridge. Make sure it's Black & Gold. #crew96 — Major League Soccer (@MLS) July 30, 2013 . @Archeo007 Yes, that is on for next year. Premier East seating being upgraded. You know anyone interested? #crew96 — Major League Soccer (@MLS) July 30, 2013 . @xthetracks I'll be hands on with the Crew no matter where I'm at. This Club matters. #crew96 — Major League Soccer (@MLS) July 30, 2013 . @SliceOfTony Like to duck hunt. 1 horse sized duck. Easy target. #crew96 — Major League Soccer (@MLS) July 30, 2013 . @CourtofTimmy @wil_trapp Love developing homegrown players. Yes, we have big plans for him. #crew96 — Major League Soccer (@MLS) July 30, 2013 . @TanaWeingartner Crew is in it's 18th season. So we picked 18. Hope you are excited about the new era. #crew96 — Major League Soccer (@MLS) July 30, 2013August 16, 1993: Apple ships the PowerBook 165, a lower-cost grayscale version of the PowerBook 165c, which was the company’s first laptop to offer a color display. The new model lacks the most attention-grabbing feature of the 165c, but it also brings its own claim to fame. The PowerBook 165 is Apple’s most affordable laptop yet. PowerBook 165 lacks color, gains affordability Apple introduced the PowerBook 165 as a replacement for 1992’s PowerBook 160. That computer was a great laptop in its own right, and was notable for being the first PowerBook able to drive an external color monitor. In terms of design and specs, the new PowerBook 165 was virtually identical to its predecessor. However, it lacked a floating-point unit while boosting processor speed from 25Mhz to 33Mhz. Until the 165 arrived, Apple was pushing the PowerBook 165c most heavily due to the first-of-its-kind color display. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a particularly good screen. The 8.4-inch, passive-matrix color display could appear dim if not viewed head-on under ideal conditions. It proved so mediocre that users wanting a great color display on an Apple laptop were better off buying the PowerBook 180c laptop, an upgrade to the higher-end PowerBook 180. (See how confusing Apple’s product lines were in the 1990s?) PowerBook 165: A good laptop at a great price All these factors made the PowerBook 165 a great option. It clearly had an edge when it came to pricing. The black-and-white PowerBook 160 it replaced cost $2,480. And the models with a color screen basically broke the bank. The PowerBook 165c cost a whopping $3,870, and a fully kitted-out PowerBook 180c would set you back $4,079. Meanwhile, the PowerBook 165 started at just $1,970 — nearly $300 less than the next-cheapest laptop Apple made. Today, the PowerBook 165 isn’t one of the laptops most people talk about when they wax nostalgic about Apple products. In the early 1990s, however, when laptops were extremely pricey, this was a solid machine at a very appealing price point. By today’s standards, it would cost $3,337. Did you own the PowerBook 165? What was your earliest Apple laptop? Leave your comments below.Foul fumes derail dinner for hungry moths Sandra Hines News and Information Car and truck exhaust fumes that foul the air for humans also cause problems for pollinators. In new research on how pollinators find flowers when background odors are strong, University of Washington and University of Arizona researchers have found that both natural plant odors and human sources of pollution can conceal the scent of sought-after flowers. When the calories from one feeding of a flower gets you only 15 minutes of flight, as is the case with the tobacco hornworn moth studied, being misled costs a pollinator energy and time. “Local vegetation can mask the scent of flowers because the background scents activate the same moth olfactory channels as floral scents,” according to Jeffrey Riffell, UW assistant professor of biology. “Plus the chemicals in these scents are similar to those emitted from exhaust engines and we found that pollutant concentrations equivalent to urban environments can decrease the ability of pollinators to find flowers.” Riffell is lead author of a paper on the subject in the June 27 issue of Science. The scientists used a chemical detection device called a proton-transfer reaction mass spectrometer to, for the first time, track the odors emitted by flowers in the wild just as moths might encounter them. With wing spans of 4 inches, adult Manduca sexta moths can travel up to 80 miles in an evening looking for food and mates. The moths are about equivalent to dogs in their ability to detect scents and both are several thousand times more skillful than humans. In the Southwest United States, where the field work was conducted, the moth navigates to and pollinates the white trumpet-like blossoms of Sacred Datura, or Datura wrightii. The moths can detect and home in on flowers hundreds of yards away if there aren’t too many competing scents. In the Southwest, moths in search of Sacred Datura can be hindered because the flowers often grow in dense stands of creosote bush, or Larrea tridentatae. Despite having “creosote” as part of its name – creosote being a component of tar – the plant actually smells of almonds and cherry soda and emits some of the same aromatic volatiles as Sacred Datura. Even while sampling in the desert environment the scientists found the odors the moths were seeking could be “swamped out” by the natural vegetation, Riffell said. Back in the lab, using a wind tunnel and computer-controlled odor-stimulus system, the moths in free flight were tested to see just how finely they could discern different frequencies of Sacred Datura odor as well as mixes of background odors from creosote bushes. The neuron pathways activated in the moths were tracked by inserting a 16-channel electrode into the moth’s antennal lobe, where the moth processes odor information from its antennae. To analyze the neural recordings the researchers developed an odor-recognition data classifier and computational model that allowed them to compare the recognition scores between the natural flower scents and those embedded with various backgrounds. The computational analysis showed remarkable similar results to those in the wind tunnel: backgrounds scents significantly modified the representation of the flower odor, and altered the neural perception of the flower. The scientists were surprised that scents that were only loosely similar to ones attractive to moths, such as those from auto and truck exhaust, also misled them. “We’d assumed that the moth’s ability to smell the flowers would be more specific. Instead, other volatiles also activated those same olfactory pathways,” Riffell said. Co-authors on the paper from UW applied mathematics, Eli Shlizerman and Nathan Kutz; from UW biology are Elischa Sanders, Billie Medina and Armin Hinterwirth; and from the University of Arizona, Leif Abrell. The work was funded by the UW. “Beyond our work with moths, we’d also like to see if these volatiles affect other pollinators, like honeybees,” Riffell said. “Such work could provide insight into whether urban emissions affect pollinators in farms neighboring urban centers.” ### For more information: Riffell, 310-488-1227, jriffell@uw.edu Additional information posted by co-authors: http://faculty.washington.edu/shlizee/flowerdisc/Courtesy Ian Lockwood The design of America's suburbs has actually made our streets more dangerous Descend from 40,000 feet into just about any major metropolitan airport in the United States, and patterns of the trajectory of American life over the last century become clearly visible. Old urban cores are etched out in tight grids modeled off a sheet of graph paper. Further out, all those neat lines and right angles begin their curling meander into suburbia. Sparsely populated roads loop through the countryside in an odd geometry designed around the residential real estate dream of post-war America: a cul-de-sac for every family. “I think it’s a missed opportunity when I’m flying and I can’t look out the window and see what the patterns are,” says Norman Garrick, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Connecticut. This is where it’s most apparent – from an airplane window – that American ideas about how to live and build communities have changed dramatically over time. For decades, families fled the dense urban grid for newer types of neighborhoods that felt safer, more private, even pastoral. Through their research, Garrick and colleague Wesley Marshall are now making the argument that we got it all wrong: We’ve really been designing communities that make us drive more, make us less safe, keep us disconnected from one another, and that may even make us less healthy. “What I understand now is that the patterns of places matter enormously,” Garrick says. “Even from 40,000 feet, you can tell the difference between places. It’s not going to give you all the answers, but it’s going to tell you an awful lot about how people live in different places, just by looking at these patterns.” • • • • • Most of the oldest cities in America – not to mention the oldest capitals in Europe, or in the Roman Empire, for that matter – were laid out in neat, densely interconnected grids that enabled people to get around before cars came along. Manhattan looks like this. So does Savannah, New Haven and Washington, D.C. Related Story Could These Crazy Intersections Make Us Safer? Dispatches from the imagination of transportation engineers. These communities had what Scott Bernstein, president of the Center for Neighborhood Technology, calls “location efficiency,” a rough analogue to the idea of energy efficiency that captures the extent to which your job, your grocery store and your favorite pub are all convenient to you. Around the turn of the century, U.S. cities of all sizes built thousands of miles of railway for streetcars that made the urban grid even more efficient. “It happened everywhere, it happened brilliantly,” Bernstein says, “and we threw it away.” Americans lost sight of that tightly knit model when we got into cars and began to envision something else: the Garden City. In the early 20th century, modernists decried overcrowded cities that were synonymous with pollution, slums, and poverty. They wanted to do away with unnecessary streets and give each factory worker and company man his own slice of the country. He would drive there, of course, first along a large arterial highway, then down a main thoroughfare, then a collector road, then a local street pulling into his own private driveway at the end of a cul-de-sac. There would be no such thing as noisy and menacing through traffic because no one else had any reason to drive through. The traditional street grid, with its busy intersections and jumble of apartments, shops and restaurants, was out. “It was addressing real problems, but it went overboard,” Garrick says of the suburban model. “It took real problems and then made caricatures for solutions.” The Federal Housing Authority embraced the cul-de-sac and published technical bulletins in the 1930s that painted the urban street grid as monotonous, unsafe, and characterless. Government pamphlets literally showed illustrations of the two neighborhood designs with the words “bad” and “good” printed alongside them. Cities are changing fast. Keep up with the CityLab Daily newsletter. The best way to follow issues you care about. Subscribe Loading... The FHA had a hand in developing tens of millions of new properties and mortgages, and its idiosyncratic design preferences evolved into regulation. From the 1950s until the late 1980s, there were almost no new housing developments in the U.S. built on a simple grid. “You hear the idea that a lot of it was just the free market, that’s what people wanted at the time,” says Marshall, an assistant professor of civil engineering at the University of Colorado. “At the same time, a lot of it was that we were starting to require these types of places along the way. It wasn’t just that people wanted to live in these types of communities. It was hard for a developer to come in and build anything different from what had been done.” The FHA never put it quite this way, but what we were really doing was building communities for cars, not people. Earlier neighborhoods were literally built on a scale for the human body, with architectural embellishments at eye level and blocks and sidewalks designed for foot travel. The human measuring stick hasn’t changed much over the last 200 years, and so, in theory, that model should still apply. “That is the fundamental connection between looking back toward older methods of design,” Garrick says. “We need to remember when we’re designing that we’re designing for humans, not for objects, and not for the movement of these objects. It’s about human beings, about humans being able to get from one place to the other.” • • • • • Garrick and Marshall’s research into street network patterns began in Davis, California. Often cited as the most bike-friendly city in America, it has the country’s highest rate – more than 16 percent – of people commuting to work on two wheels. It turns out, though, that Davis also has one of the lowest traffic fatality rates in the country, a counterintuitive discovery for traffic engineers who consider biking a riskier alternative to driving. Inspired by Davis, Garrick and Marshall compiled data on 230,000 crashes spanning 11 years in 24 medium-sized California cities. And they began to parse and classify street patterns in a kind of taxonomy. There are networks that look like square grids and others that resemble trees, with one trunk, many branches. There are networks that have tributaries, like a river, and others that have main roads radiating out from a central hub. There are hybrids of all these, and street blocks of different lengths, and networks that have 45 intersections per square mile (like Salt Lake City) and others that have as many as 550 (Portland, Ore). The historical trend, through, has generally moved in one direction – toward ever more creative works of geometric art. Related Story The Danger of Being Neighborly Without a Permit All over America, people have put small "give one, take one" book exchanges in front of their homes. Then they were told to tear them down. In their California study, Garrick and Marshall eventually realized the safest cities had an element in common: They were all incorporated before 1930. Something about the way they were designed made them safer. The key wasn’t necessarily that large numbers of bikers produced safer cities, but that the design elements of cities that encouraged people to bike in places like Davis were the same ones that were yielding fewer traffic fatalities. These cities were built the old way: along those monotonous grids. In general, they didn’t have fewer accidents overall, but they had far fewer deadly ones. Marshall and Garrick figured that cars (and cars with bikes) must be colliding at lower speeds on these types of street networks. At first glance such tightly interconnected communities might appear more dangerous, with cars traveling from all directions and constantly intersecting with each other. But what if such patterns actually force people to drive slower and pay more attention? “A lot of people feel that they want to live in a cul-de-sac, they feel like it’s a safer place to be,” Marshall says. “The reality is yes, you’re safer – if you never leave your cul-de-sac. But if you actually move around town like a normal person, your town as a whole is much more dangerous.” This is the opposite of what traffic engineers (and home buyers) have thought
of the Silver Spurs Alumni Association. We'll bring you more updates as they become available. Interesting facts about BEVO XIV, according to UT:Speechless. What part of “we’re broke” don’t you understand? Obviously, these people believe it is a natural human right to go someplace illegally and demand free healthcare. Stand With Arizona reported on this latest movement: A new ad campaign has been launched to extend medical coverage to illegal aliens in the state of California. The California Endowment, a private foundation that advocates for affordable healthcare, wants county-run Medicaid expansion programs called Low-Income Health Programs to be “retooled” to provide insurance for this population – well over 1 million people! Just what the people of California need, right? First they cut tuition assistance for citizen students by $1.2 billion. Then they made illegal aliens eligible for in-state tuition and financial aid, with AB131 – signed by Gov. Jerry Brown. Then tuition assistance was cut for members of the military by sequestration – affected tens of thousands of whom live in California. Now, this week we learned that 20,000 illegal aliens have signed up for tuition assistance in the state – costing taxpayers an estimated $65 million per year – so far – while at the same time the state closed 70 parks at a cost of a mere $11 million. Citizens get the shaft, and illegal aliens get VIP treatment – that is America’s Sanctuary State.Focus: First Direct Measurement of Gravity’s Curvature By measuring gravity with cold atoms at three different heights simultaneously, a team determined a new property of a gravitational field. iStockphoto.com/SGV Physics guides oil exploration. Measuring the curvature of the gravitational field could be useful in the oil industry, where prospectors perform sensitive gravity measurements to search for underground deposits. iStockphoto.com/SGV Physics guides oil exploration. Measuring the curvature of the gravitational field could be useful in the oil industry, where prospectors perform sensitive gravity measurements to search for underground deposits. × Earth’s gravitational pull gradually decreases with increasing altitude, and researchers have detected the differences even over several vertical feet within a lab, using the extreme sensitivity of cold atoms. Now a team has taken the next step by measuring the change in this gravity gradient produced by a large mass, using measurements at three different heights. They say their technique could improve gravity-based mapping of variations in rock density in geology and prospecting, and it could also boost the precision of tests of general relativity and measurements of the gravitational constant. The technique of atom interferometry enables distance measurements with extremely high precision, by exploiting the atoms’ quantum-mechanical wavelike nature. It has been used previously to measure the strength of gravitational fields and also the rate of change in those fields over some distance (the gradient). Together such measurements permit Newton’s gravitational constant G to be determined [1,2]. It is currently known to within about 100 parts per million, a much lower precision than other fundamental constants. More accurate measurements would allow higher-precision tests of the theory of general relativity. Measuring gravity at two close locations gives the gradient as the difference between the two divided by their separation distance; measuring at three locations gives the rate of change of the gradient, which is also called the curvature of the field. This experiment was proposed in 2002 [3], and now a team in Italy, led by Guglielmo Tino of the University of Florence and the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN), has carried it out. Previously, Tino and his colleagues determined G by measuring gravity at two different heights with a similar experiment [4]. To measure gravity at three locations simultaneously, the team launched three clouds of ultracold atoms to three different heights inside a meter-long vertical pipe. Surrounding the top half of the pipe was 516 kg of tungsten alloy weights, to increase the variation in the gravitational field. Near the peaks of their trajectories, the atoms were irradiated with a rapid series of laser pulses from the top and bottom of the pipe. In the team’s technique, the first pulse separates each cloud into two populations—one that absorbs two photons, sending it into an excited state and also providing a momentum boost, and a second population that remains in the ground state. The extra momentum causes the first population to fall a different distance during a fixed time, which leads to a gravity-dependent difference in the number of quantum wave cycles that elapse, compared with the ground-state population. Two more wave pulses recombine the populations, allowing them to interfere. From the interference effects the researchers can calculate the difference in the lengths of the two populations’ trajectories, a difference that depends on the gravitational acceleration. The team measured variations in the gravitational acceleration of a few millionths of a percent and calculated the average curvature to be 1. 4 × 10 - 5 s - 2 m - 1, which is virtually identical to the value they predicted. Measuring the curvature of a gravitational field could improve the measurement of G, says Tino. A common method involves measuring the field strength and gradient as a heavy mass is moved between one detector and another. But by making two separate measurements of the gradient at different positions simultaneously, the new technique could eliminate systematic sources of error without having to move the mass, which can introduce errors from shifts of the apparatus. The curvature could also be useful for mapping gravity changes in the earth, which are used to deduce buried geological structures and to find oil reservoirs. Even if the density changes are small, the curvature can alter dramatically if the density change is abrupt, like a step edge. So measuring gravity curvature could improve the spatial resolution of such density maps. “Measuring the gravitational force is sensitive to everything underground,” says Holger Müller of the University of California at Berkeley, who uses atom interferometry to make ultraprecise measurements for probing fundamental physics. “Measuring the gravity gradient enhances the sensitivity to nearby objects, and measuring the [curvature] does so even more.” A practical, curvature-measuring device would be “a great achievement,” Müller says. This research is published in Physical Review Letters. –Philip Ball Philip Ball is a freelance science writer in London and author of Beyond Weird, a survey of quantum mechanics (University of Chicago Press, 2018).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. 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Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits. Sign up for our Wine Club today. Did you know you can support The Nation by drinking wine? This Friday, 48 million people—including more than 21 million children—will see their food stamp (SNAP) benefits reduced. Instead of receiving an average of a buck-fifty for a meal, individuals in need of food assistance will get about $1.40. For families of three, the cut means they will receive $29 less in food stamps every month. Ad Policy Tianna Gaines-Turner recently described the impact of cuts like these in written testimony she submitted to Congressman Paul Ryan’s War on Poverty hearing: “Cutting a person’s benefits by $10, or $15, or $20 might not seem like a lot to legislators, but it would cut meals out completely for families like mine.” Families like hers are families with two working parents earning low wages while trying to support three children. Ms. Gaines-Turner is employed by a childcare provider and her husband works the deli counter at a grocery store. The SNAP cuts come at a time when 49 million people—about 14.5 percent of all US households—are food insecure. That means they don’t have enough money to meet their basic food needs, and don’t necessarily know where their next meal is coming from. The Institute of Medicine already demonstrated the inadequacies of the SNAP allotment for hungry families even before this cut. What are we to make of this—the timing of the cut, the lack of discussion about it on the Hill, and the fact that it will deliver yet another blow to people who are already among the most vulnerable citizens in our nation? It all points to the same hard truth we see time and again: when it comes to responding to the struggles of the more than one in three Americans who are living below twice the poverty line—on less than about $36,600 annually for a family of three—we prefer to look the other way. Even as the interests of low-income people and the middle-class converge—for example, the need for good jobs and fair wages, access to continuing education, a more equitable economy where 95 percent of the gains don’t go to the top 1 percent, and a safety net that is available in tough times or when jobs pay lousy wages—we still find that a SNAP cut like this can occur with hardly a whisper of protest (outside of the advocacy community) at a time when hunger is widespread. What is most frustrating, of course, is how easily we could move in a better direction. In 2007, when the Half in Ten campaign to cut poverty by 50 percent over ten years was launched, the Urban Institute found that implementation of just four of the campaign’s many recommendations would result in a 26 percent reduction in poverty. (At the time, there were 37 million people in poverty, so it would have meant lifting 9.5 million people out of poverty over ten years.) The four recommendations included a modest increase in the minimum wage, expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit (which lifted 9.4 million people above the poverty line in 2011), and guaranteeing childcare assistance to low-income families (tough to go to work when there is no reliable and affordable place for childcare). We didn’t move in that direction and we continue to move in the wrong direction today. Food stamps lifted a record 4 million people above the poverty line in 2012, but benefits will be cut on Friday and both the House and Senate are deliberating further cuts in Farm Bill negotiations. Unemployment insurance (UI) lifted 1.7 million people above the poverty line in 2012. But in 2011, it lifted 2.3 million people, and 3.2 million in 2010. Arloc Sherman, senior researcher at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, noted that “we pulled back too quickly on unemployment insurance” and if we hadn’t “there would be a million fewer poor people today.” Instead, Sherman writes, “the number of UI recipients for every 100 unemployed workers fell from 67 in 2010 to 57 in 2011 and 48 in 2012.” Why? Because some states cut back the number of weeks people are eligible for regular, state-funded UI benefits; and Congress provided fewer weeks of federal UI benefits for long-term unemployed workers. If we can’t even get good policy for unemployed workers in the aftermath of the Great Recession, or for hungry people at a time when there is a proliferation of low-wage work, then how in the world can we possibly expect to win on issues like investing in affordable housing, ending child hunger, or making post-secondary education available for all? It’s time to stop bemoaning “the lack of political will” to take on poverty and focus on what we are doing to create that political will. Because no matter how great a speech someone delivers, or how compelling a study someone conducts, or how smart the talking points are for those advocating for good policy, or how many twitter storms, e-mails, or online petitions we push—there will be no significant change without a truly broad-based movement along the lines of what we are seeing with immigration reform and marriage equality. Otherwise, expect the advocacy community to always be playing defense and the most vulnerable people to keep paying the price for it. Get involved Tell Congress: Protect Federal Nutrition Programs Stop the Hunger Clock Tell McDonalds to Stop Buying Luxury Jets Until They Pay Workers a Living Wage Tell Wendy’s to join the Fair Food Program United for Homes: Campaign to fund the National Housing Trust Fund Talking to Tavis Last week, I had the pleasure of speaking with Tavis Smiley on his show. It was a little surreal, since I’ve interviewed him a few times and found myself resisting the urge to answer his questions with questions of my own. But I enjoyed it, and I especially appreciate Tavis because he never stops talking about poverty—never. Truth be told, I kind of botched the ending because I always have so much to say about the Coalition of Immokalee (CIW) workers and I unsuccessfully tried to condense. So to learn more about CIW, please check out my last blog. Also, check out Tavis’s new four-year initiative, ENDING POVERTY: America’s Silent Spaces. (Be sure to sign up for updates at the bottom of the page.) Here is my segment with Tavis: Other resources “Texas Voter ID Law Discriminates Against Women, Students and Minorities,” Ari Berman “Four steps for keeping at-risk youth from engaging in the sex trade,” Meredith Dank “Oakland Workers’ Collective Matches Laborers, Employers,” Equal Voice News “U.S. Hits Record Number of Homeless Students,” First Focus “It’s Time to Bolster TANF,” Ife Floyd “TANF Cash Benefits Continued To Lose Value in 2013,” Ife Floyd and Liz Schott “Why housing policy really is education policy,” Megan Gallagher “As Our Safety Nets Get Slashed, More People Fall into Deep Poverty,” Stephanie Mencimer “Pivot Point: State Child Care Assistance Policies 2013,” National Women’s Law Center “Poor kids in schools is a poverty problem, not an education policy problem,” Austin Nichols “A Primer for Our New Mayor,” NYC Food Forum “Running In Place: Where the Middle Class and the Poor Meet,” Miles Rapoport and Jennifer Wheary “Social Security Keeps 22 Million Americans Out Of Poverty,” Paul Van de Water, Arloc Sherman and Kathy Ruffing “Paying But Not Eating: Fast Food Gets $7B in Subsidies,” Brad Wong This Week in Poverty normally posts on Friday mornings, and again at Moyers & Company. You can e-mail me at WeekInPoverty@me.com and follow me on Twitter. Greg Kaufmann has previoulsy written about the impact of budget cuts on Middle America.People who buy pot from medical marijuana dispensaries can still be charged criminally, even though the City of Victoria has implemented regulations for the storefronts, warns a local defence lawyer. Last month, Chantelle Sutton represented a Victoria man who bought marijuana at a local dispensary in August 2015. After a brief trial, Leslie Ian Hall was convicted of possessing marijuana. article continues below But Hall was handed an absolute discharge when the judge found Hall honestly believed he could legally buy marijuana with a doctor’s prescription and his membership with the Vancouver Island Compassion Society. The court is sympathetic to the “current state of affairs where businesses may be acting contrary to the law and, in doing so, lull some customers into thinking they are acting according to law,” Victoria provincial court Judge Christine Lowe said at Hall’s sentencing on Sept. 16. What Hall, 53, didn’t know is that the law requires individuals to apply to Health Canada for an exemption to possess medical marijuana. “This case is a warning to people — even though the dispensaries appear to be operating a legal, legitimate business, it’s an individual’s responsibility to get the proper certification from Health Canada,” said Sutton. “Judge Lowe’s decision shows ignorance of the law is not a defence, so, therefore, my client was guilty. But in the circumstances, she didn’t impose any punishment.” Victoria police are still selectively prosecuting people for possession of marijuana and Crown prosecutors are still approving charges and taking them to trial, said Sutton. “You can be charged. And you will have to retain a lawyer, run a trial and face other financial repercussions.” During the hour-long trial, court heard that Hall was arrested on Aug. 9, 2015, outside the B.C. legislature for being intoxicated in a public place. During the arrest, a 15-gram bag of marijuana fell to the ground. Hall testified that he told the arresting officer, Const. Callum Campbell, he had a licence for marijuana. The officer advised Hall that he would be charged with possession. Hall, who has been diagnosed with hepatitis C, testified that a doctor at the Cool Aid Medical Clinic had given him a prescription for medical marijuana. Prescription in hand, he went to the compassion society and told them he wanted marijuana to help increase his appetite. He was given a membership card with his photo on it. “For me, it’s a membership to a dispensary, which is a storefront sanctioned by the city,” Hall testified. “I thought it was legalized. I had my doctor’s prescription, which got me my membership and it was all good.” During final submissions, Sutton told the court that drug trafficking is going on in plain view, but the traffickers are not being prosecuted. Instead, people who buy marijuana are being charged with possession. “It’s quite clear police are aware this is going on. The businesses are in existence and police are not doing anything about it,” said Sutton. A statement from the Public Prosecution Service of Canada said cannabis-related offences in the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act have not been amended and continue to be in force. Their records show charges for these offences have declined from 18,470 in 2012-2013 to 13,343 in 2015-2016. ldickson@timescolonist.comSony and Lego are working together on creating a new generation of products that bridge the gap between toys and video games. A joint research project between Sony and Lego aims to come up with future projects that are part toy, part video game A team of researchers at Sony Computer Science Laboratories in Tokyo is embedding tiny motors, cameras, and actuators into Lego blocks. One demonstration uses two small motorized Lego platforms, one of which is computer-controlled and will relentlessly pursue the other, which can be maneuvered using a wireless PlayStation controller or by hand. (See a video of the project and others on YouTube.) Any combination of blocks can be built up on the platforms, and more platforms can be added. The system could be used to create Lego battles, or simply play tag. The research team has also added actuators that can cause Lego structures to crumble on demand, and camera blocks that can beam first-hand video of the action to tablets and smartphones. "Lego is concerned about losing kids to video games," said Ganta Kondo from Sony's research and development division. "We want to keep the size small, but add interactive games." The project is currently in the experimental stages, and there are no concrete plans for consumer products from the collaboration. Current problems include the short battery life that comes with tiny components and accurately keeping track of the active components. The research was shown as part of an open house at the Sony Lab. Another project was an application that can stretch and twist video of objects in real time, allowing for instance restaurants to be enlarged based on their popularity. Other research includes a small quadcopter that is controlled by the physical movements of its operator, who wears a Sony head-mounted video display, and an Android-based server for remote control of home appliances.“Please give us help in trying to defend what really matters,” Mr. Goddard told the lunch group. He accused Republicans of diverting attention from the state’s dire economic condition and the true border problem: crime and violence associated with drug cartels. The disputed law, known as SB 1070, allows the police to check the documents of anyone they stop whom they suspect of being in the country illegally. Opponents say that the law, which is to take effect on July 29, infringes on federal authority and that it will lead to racial profiling. Mr. Goddard said the immigration law and others passed by the conservative State Legislature not only endangered Arizona’s economy by provoking boycotts but had also tarnished the image of a state with a tradition of ethnic cooperation. “I pledge to keep Arizona off of Comedy Central for the next four years,” he said, drawing laughs. 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. Mr. Goddard said Republicans were already discussing further anti-immigrant measures of dubious legality, including refusing to issue birth certificates to babies born in the state to undocumented parents. The Arizona Democratic chairman, Don Bivens, who is a lawyer in Phoenix, embellished the theme of a spreading cancer, appealing for donations “for Arizona and for the country.” Because Mr. Goddard is running under the state’s public financing law, donors cannot give money directly. Mr. Bivens asked for donations to the state party, which plans to mobilize potential voters, including Hispanic residents, who traditionally have a low turnout. Mr. Goddard acknowledged that the immigration law has put him in a bind. He previously argued against it as bad policy, but as attorney general he says he will vigorously defend it against legal challenges, including one expected from the Obama administration. “I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t,” he said in an interview. If the state prevails in court, he will anger Hispanic and liberal voters, and if it loses, others will accuse him of not trying hard enough. Gov. Jan Brewer, who faces a primary battle for the Republican nomination but whose popularity soared after she signed the bill, has bored in on Mr. Goddard, saying she wants to use an outside lawyer to defend the state. Advertisement Continue reading the main story “We’re going to be dogged by this topic, and we’ll continue to try and change the subject,” Mr. Goddard said. “I want to talk about getting more jobs and building the economy.”AUGUSTA — The Democrat-controlled Maine House rejected several “right-to-work” bills Friday that are backed by the LePage administration but opposed by the state’s labor unions. The votes followed more than an hour of debate on an issue that has cropped up repeatedly in the Legislature in recent years. Supporters, largely from Republican ranks, contend the measures would improve the state’s business climate and correct policies they say penalize workers who do not want to join a labor union. Opponents decry the bills as little more than attempts to weaken organized labor in the state, ultimately resulting in lower wages and fewer benefits. “This bill has nothing to do with the ‘right to work,’ ” said Rep. Erin Herbig, D-Belfast, co-chair of the Legislature’s Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development Committee, which reviewed the bills. “It does just the opposite: It undermines workers’ rights.” The House voted 90-52 against a bill that would have prohibited organized labor from collecting fees from employees who decline to join a union. The chamber also rejected bills – by votes of 90-51 and 86-56, respectively – that would have prohibited state or local governments from deducting union dues from employee paychecks and prohibited state employees from being paid while engaging in union-related activities. This is the third time in four years that the Legislature has debated whether to add Maine to the list of 25 so-called “right-to-work” states. As in past years, lawmakers on both sides traded competing and, at times, contradictory statistics about job growth, economic recovery and wage levels in right-to-work states and states without such policies. Rep. Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, pointed to U.S. Department of Labor statistics showing that workers in right-to-work states earn, on average, $219 less per week – roughly 20 percent less – than workers in other states. But Rep. Lawrence Lockman, the Amherst Republican who sponsored the primary right-to-work bill, L.D. 489, said workers in right-to-work states earn thousands of dollars more than their counterparts when accounting for cost-of-living differences. Lockman, a vocal and at times scathing critic of organized labor, talked of “absurd” union work rules that prevent efficiency and “union bosses monopolizing power” within workplaces. “This legislation is all about personal freedom and individual liberty,” Lockman said. “No American citizen should be forced to buy something that they don’t want and didn’t ask for as a condition of employment.” Lockman’s statement and other supporters’ suggestions of compulsory unionism is one of the most contentious and confusing aspects of the national debate over right-to-work legislation. Federal law protects workers from being forced to join a union as a condition of employment. While Lockman and other right-to-work advocates have repeatedly said unions are allowed to only negotiate on behalf of members, labor representatives and legal experts on labor law counter such a practice is clearly prohibited under federal rules governing collective bargaining as well as the federal “duty of fair representation” requirements imposed on unions. Labor unions can, however, require all workers to pay dues – or “fair share fees” for workers who opt not to join the union – to help cover the costs of collective bargaining, grievance representation and other services provided by unions that extend contract terms to all employees, including non-members. Rep. Ralph Tucker, D-Brunswick, compared Lockman’s bill to a town making it optional for residents to pay property taxes for a Department of Public Works. “It is not fair for some employees to benefit from the benefits and protections of an employment contract without contributing their fair share,” Tucker said. The bills could fare better in the Republican-controlled Senate, but are unlikely to become law because of the lopsided House votes. Maine AFL-CIO President Don Berry cheered the bill’s defeat. “Coming together to have a voice on the job about wages and working conditions is the best way for workers to improve their standard of living for them and their families,” Berry said in a statement. “These attempts to undermine collective bargaining rights will do nothing to raise wages and reduce inequality. In fact, they have exactly the opposite effect.” Lockman was undeterred by the votes, however. “Every time we have this debate we gain ground,” Lockman said in a statement. “I believe we are moving the ball down the field and Maine will soon be the next right-to-work state.” Kevin Miller can be reached at 791-6312 or at: [email protected] Twitter: KevinMillerPPH Correction: This article was updated at 2:50 p.m. on Saturday to correct a statement about labor unions’ obligation to negotiate on behalf of all workers within a “collective bargaining” unit, regardless of their membership status. ShareDonald Trump's election was a life-altering event for many Americans. Those who supported him felt validated and optimistic, while those who opposed him found the results hard to accept. "It was the highlight of my life," said Cyndi Love of Scottsdale, Ariz., a Trump campaign volunteer. Nicki Weiss, a social worker from New York City said, "The sense of our world having changed reminds me of how I felt with 9/11." While men as well as women say the election deeply affected their lives, it is hard to overstate the impact it has had on women. An estimated 4.5 million Americans, mostly female, joined the Women's March the day after Donald Trump's inauguration. Since then, many have taken up political activism for the first time with profound effects on their work and personal lives. Some women are rethinking how they allocate their time and energy to have more for political activities. Others are joining grass-roots groups and finding new career paths, including running for office, to further causes they believe in. Along the way, women are learning more about themselves and their communities and discovering new ways to balance work, family and a newfound commitment to their country. The day after the election, Sharon Adams Poore, a 58-year-old product manager for a publishing company, said she noticed "utter silence" on her regular train commute from her home in South Hamilton, Mass., to her Boston office. That morning, she says, "there was a solemnness" she'd never felt before. Poore has always had an interest in politics, particularly local issues that affect her family, the environment and animal rights. But the 2016 election, and especially her participation in the Women's March with her 20-year-old daughter, Madison, reignited her commitment to national causes. Since the march, Poore has renewed her lapsed newspaper subscription in order to be better informed. And, like a lot of other women, she has been voting with her pocketbook. A grass-roots effort called #GrabYourWallet, which began as a social media reaction to the Access Hollywood tape released last October, has grown into a consumer movement targeting Trump-owned companies, sellers of Trump-brand merchandise, and companies with executives or board members who publicly supported Trump. The numbers change daily, but a recent check of the grabyourwallet.org website lists over 50 companies in the activists' crosshairs. Gina Perez, a 43-year-old mother of two in Ames, Iowa, and an IT professional for the Iowa Department of Transportation, decided to run for her local school board after the election. She says she was shocked by Trump's victory, but "I felt like I had no room to complain if I was not going to work toward fixing it." Perez's husband is from Puerto Rico, and she says she is concerned about possible racism targeting him or her sons. According to a recent poll by The Washington Post, political activism is catching on among women. Forty percent of Democratic women said they intend to become more politically active in 2017, as compared with 27 percent of Democratic men. Among Republicans, though, the men outnumbered women: 17 percent of women and 26 percent of men plan to increase their involvement. Still, many Republican women are energized. Lisa Vranicar-Patton, 50, of East Berlin, Penn., is a small business owner and longtime supporter of Donald Trump. She said Trump's win has motivated conservatives, and "the energy and enthusiasm is being used again to support our (elected representatives) and judicial candidates." Madison Poore Sharon Adams Poore, 58, has always had an interest in politics, particularly local issues that affect her family, the environment and animal rights. The 2016 election and her participation in the Women's March reignited her commitment to national causes, she said. Sharon Adams Poore, 58, has always had an interest in politics, particularly local issues that affect her family, the environment and animal rights. The 2016 election and her participation in the Women's March reignited her commitment to national causes, she said. (Madison Poore) Candidate-training programs also are reporting an upsurge in enrollment. Jean Sinzdak, associate director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University and head of Ready to Run, a national training program for female candidates, says interest in the program "is unlike anything we've seen before." Registrations are coming in about three times faster than usual, and many would-be candidates are being placed on waiting lists. "There is a new energy," Sinzdak says. Women who had not been politically active say they "cannot sit on the sidelines anymore." Christine Lui Chen, a 36-year-old from Bridgewater, N.J., and a first-generation Asian-American, says she was inspired to run for state Senate after participating in the Women's March. Chen, a Democrat, says her campaign provides an example for her 6-year-old daughter and demonstrates that "we create our own possibilities." If Chen wins, she will be the first woman since 1987 and the first Asian-American ever to be elected to the seat. Women also are joining grass-roots groups in droves. In the wake of the election, neighbors and friends from both the left and the right are coming together to promote causes they believe in. Many are relying on the Indivisible Guide, a tool kit for political activism, to learn how to reach out to elected representatives. According to its website, Indivisible includes nearly 6,000 groups, with every state and congressional district represented. Established political organizations, such as the League of Women Voters (LWV), are witnessing increased interest as well. Jesse Burns, executive director of LWV New Jersey, says the nonpartisan group has "seen a huge upswell in membership" since the election. And women say they are donating more to political causes and candidates. Cynthia Love, a recording secretary for the Paradise Valley, Ariz., chapter of the National Federation of Republican Women, says she has been donating to candidates committed to the president's agenda. Gloria Falzer of Montclair, N.J., has been giving more to Planned Parenthood and to Democratic candidates running in special elections. Engagement spans all age groups. Abby Schreiber, a 28-year-old New Yorker, disagrees with the image of younger people as apathetic, citing movements they were instrumental in starting, like Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter. But the 2016 election and the Women's March have increased their focus, she says. "This generation is mobilized and is speaking out." Whether making calls to Congress or running for office, women are finding ways to fit political activism into already busy lives. Monic Behnken, a 44-year-old sociology professor at Iowa State University, mother of two, and a candidate for her local school board, says she hadn't run before because she was too busy. But that changed after the election. "When I woke up on (Nov. 9)... I realized I'm really not that busy. This was something I needed to make time for."Brad Pitt may have played a gun-totting rebel in films such as Inglourious Basterds and Killing Them Softly, but he’s just adamant on bearing arms in real life as his onscreen personas. In a recent interview with the Daily Mail‘s Live magazine, the 48-year-old revealed that he “doesn’t feel safe” without his trusty gun. “America is a country founded on guns. It’s in our DNA. It’s very strange, but I feel better having a gun. I really do,” he said. “I don’t feel safe, I don’t feel the house is completely safe, if I don’t have one hidden somewhere. That’s my thinking, right or wrong.” What does his fiancee Angelina Jolie think of Pitt’s love for guns? The 37-year-old Mr. & Mrs. Smith star agrees with him. In a 2008 interview with Live, Jolie admitted they have a gun in their shared home in order to protect their kids. “I bought original, real guns of the type we used in Tomb Raider for security. Brad and I are not against having a gun in the house, and we do have one. And yes, I’d be able to use it if I had to,” she revealed. “I could handle myself.” The A-listers aren’t the only celebs to have openly admitted to bearing arms. From Johnny Depp to onscreen cowboy Clint Eastwood, many Hollywood stars are exercising their rights as Americans to own and use guns. Launch the gallery to see 15 celebs who are happily packin’ heat.Because it's 2017, fans of virtually anything are incredibly quick to point something out - whether that be theories, hidden meanings or inconsistencies. The most recent Game of Thrones episode had a lot of people rushing to the internet to make fans aware of a new debate that they thought was missed by everyone. After Beyond the Wall aired, there was a clip, only a few seconds long, that was being passed around on a few social networking sites. It was of the incredible battle scene between Jon Snow's merry men on the frozen lake and the White Walkers. While the battle is being praised as one of the best in the show's history, eagle-eyed fans were quick to notice a white pickup truck in the background. Surely the showrunners wouldn't be that careless that they'd leave something so obviously modern sitting in plain view? Check it out in the video. Credit: HBO Despite it being white, it still sticks out. How could no one have picked up on this before the episode aired? Well, because it was never actually in the episode. The scene in question was not in Beyond the Wall and was merely a behind-the-scenes look at how that section was put together. The actual scene only sees one of Jon's pals falling off the rock from up above before he's partially devoured by the White Walkers. So, yes, while the truck was definitely there, it didn't make it onto the show. Fans can now relax about the fact that a vehicle didn't somehow manage to transport back in time. But they should be thanking their lucky stars that the truck was there, otherwise the scene might never have been properly completed. (A pickup truck in the background of Game of Thrones) The Joke Hamster - https://t.co/T9hMy8eAjM pic.twitter.com/siLM8cNvQL - jokehamster (@jokehamster) August 24, 2017 The video explains that the showrunners had to use these vehicles and much bigger ones to transport all the equipment across Ireland in order to help construct a huge set with concrete to make it appear like a frozen lake. The plan had been to film the scene in Iceland, however, the winter months which provide that type of vista only have a few hours of sunlight per day and therefore it would have taken much longer. Production designer Deborah Riley explained: "It's kind of one of those things when you film something in another location and then are responsible for filming that location off somewhere else, you have to really do your homework to make sure you match it as best you can. "When you stand at the top and look down, it was like we were building an airport or something, the scale of it is enormous." Featured Image Credit: HBOFRESH from signing his first professional contract, Golden Boy
éspedes and a competitive round 2015 draft pick. The move reunited Lester with former teammates Jed Lowrie, Coco Crisp, Brandon Moss and Josh Reddick.[22] He won his debut start against the Kansas City Royals on August 2.[23] He had a 6–4 record and a 2.35 ERA, while pitching for the A's. In July, Lester made a cameo in the Air Jordan Re2pect Commercial honoring Derek Jeter. Lester is shown tipping his hat to the Yankees' captain, the first to do so in the commercial. Lester had a 16–11 record with a 2.46 ERA and finished 4th in the AL Cy Young voting. Chicago Cubs [ edit ] In December 2014, Lester agreed to a six-year, $155 million deal with the Chicago Cubs with a vesting option for a seventh year at $15 million.[24][25] 2015 [ edit ] Lester made his first start for the Cubs during opening night on April 5, 2015 against the St. Louis Cardinals. He pitched 4.1 innings allowing 3 runs as the Cubs were shut out by the Cardinals 3–0.[26] He finished the month of April with a record of 0–2 and an ERA of 6.23 in 21.2 innings pitched with 24 strikeouts and 5 base-on balls.[27] On May 27, 2015, matchup with the Washington Nationals, Lester hit a fly ball to deep center field that nearly eluded Denard Span. Span caught the fly ball to end the inning, bringing Lester to a record-setting 0-for-58 to start his career.[28] On July 6, 2015, Lester recorded his first career major league hit against John Lackey of the St. Louis Cardinals after starting his career 0-for-66 as a hitter. Lester posted an 11–13 record, logging 205 innings pitched with an ERA of 3.34 in his first year with the Chicago Cubs. He led the major leagues in stolen bases allowed, with 44.[29] On October 9, he was the losing pitcher in Game One of the NLDS versus the St. Louis Cardinals. On October 17, he took another loss in Game One of the NLCS versus the New York Mets. 2016 [ edit ] On July 31, 2016, against the Seattle Mariners, Lester came off the bench in the 12th inning and laid a bunt down to score the winning run. On a 2-2 pitch with one out and Jason Heyward and 3rd, Lester capped off a wild comeback for the Cubs, who were down 6-0 in the 3rd inning and going into the 7th. In 2016, Lester finished second in the NL with 19 wins, matching his career high. He was also second in ERA (2.44). He led all major league pitchers in left on base percentage, stranding 84.9% of base runners.[30] Lester started Game 1 of the 2016 NLDS against the San Francisco Giants. He earned the win after tossing eight scoreless innings, the Cubs would go on and win the series 3 games to 1. Lester also started Game 1 of the 2016 National League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, he pitched six innings and allowed just one run and had a no-decision. He also started Game 5 of the series and pitched 7 innings of one run ball, earning his third win of the postseason. The Cubs would go on and win the series 4 games to 2. Lester was named Co-MVP of the 2016 NLCS along with Javier Báez. Lester's performance helped propel the Cubs to the World Series for the first time since 1945. Lester was named the Game 1 starter of the 2016 World Series against the Cleveland Indians, where he took the loss after throwing 5.2 innings and allowing 3 runs. Lester also started Game 5, allowing just 2 runs in 6 innings, leading to a 3–2 Cubs victory to extend the series. Lester pitched in relief in game 7, which the Cubs won to win their first championship in 108 years.[31] 2017 [ edit ] On August 1, Lester recorded his 2,000th career strikeout, and also hit his first career home run.[32] On August 18, Lester was placed on the 10-day disabled list due to left shoulder fatigue.[33] 2018 [ edit ] During spring training, Lester was announced as the Opening Day starter for the Cubs.[34] On July 1, 2018, Lester hit his 2nd career home run, a three-run shot, off of Lance Lynn in an 11-10 win over the Minnesota Twins. Owning an 11-2 record with a 2.25 ERA, Lester was named to the 2018 MLB All-Star Game, although he was not able to participate and was replaced by Zack Grienke due to the fact that he had pitched on the Sunday before the game.[35] For the season he was 18-6 with a 3.32 ERA. Personal life [ edit ] In 2015, Forbes estimated that Lester's annual income was $34 million.[36] Lester grew up in Puyallup, Washington and attended All Saints School. He later attended Bellarmine Preparatory School where he was a three-time MVP and three-time All-Area selection. On January 9, 2009, Lester married Farrah Stone Johnson,[37][38] whom he met in 2007, while making rehab starts in single-A Greenville.[39] Together, they have two sons (Hudson and Walker),[40] and one daughter, Cy Elizabeth.[41] In March 2011, Lester partnered with Charity Wines to release his own wine label under the Longball Cellars brand. Proceeds from sales of his CabernAce cabernet support the Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, the place where Lester himself was treated, to aid the development of targeted immunotherapies. Funds raised from this initiative will help researchers maximize the body's own ability to strike out and eliminate disease so lymphoma patients can extend their life. He is partnering with former teammate Clay Buchholz who is also releasing a Charity Wine, called ChardonClay, to raise money for the Jimmy Fund.[42] Lester and his wife Farrah established NVRQT, short for "Never Quit", in 2011 to support children with cancer and researchers working towards a cure.[43][44] Lester has written guest columns about his cause on Boston.com[45] and CNN.com.[46] In his free time, Lester is an avid hunter and a wine aficionado. During the 2015 offseason, in an attempt to woo him, the Chicago Cubs sent Lester fine wines and camouflage Cubs shirts.[47][48]Share. The epic RPG that changed everything. The epic RPG that changed everything. In 1987, Hironobu Sakaguchi was planning his retirement from the gaming industry. Square, the four-year-old company he co-founded, faced imminent bankruptcy after a string of disappointing Famicom releases, while competitor Enix surged ahead with a new game called Dragon Quest. Sakaguchi knew he could do better than Dragon Quest, and boldly decided to prove it with one final fantasy-adventure RPG people would remember long after Square faded into history. He named it accordingly. Five sequels later, Final Fantasy proved anything but a finale. By the end of 1994, Square was a developer with some weight behind the name, and Sakaguchi was their executive wunderkind. They'd branched out with other successful titles like Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger, earned a place as one of Nintendo's top third-party developers, and slowly moved into the prized American market. With Final Fantasy VI in the can, Sakaguchi and his team had choices to make on where to take their venerable series next, and their decisions not only changed their company forever, but the entire gaming industry. Seven was about to become everyone's lucky number. Sending a Dream into the Universe Production on Final Fantasy VII started in late 1995. After a strict hands-on approach to his series, Sakaguchi stayed in the background for Final Fantasy VI. For the new sequel, he stepped back into the lead with a mystery plot centered around Midgar, the perpetually dark capital city of Gaia, and the familiar themes of rebels fighting a corrupt system, pursued by "Hot Blooded Detective Joe." The player's ultimate goal: destroy Midgar. That changed when Yoshinori Kitase, director on Chrono Trigger and Scenario Writer for V and VI came aboard. Working with co-writer Kazushige Nojima, the mystery angle was dropped and the game's opposing forces -- AVALANCHE and Shinra, Cloud and Sephiroth -- came into sharper focus. Basic FF gameplay was already long established, so only a few tweaks were deemed necessary. Active Time Battles, standard since IV, made a return to add urgency to the turn-based fights, but everyone agreed VI's underused and underwhelming Desperation Attacks had to go. Instead of a last gasp from a nearly-dead PC, Kitase instituted Limit Breaks, a massive, adrenaline-fueled counterattack that built up as a character took damage. Building and using Limit Breaks became a strategic part of combat. After years of forests, castles, and one trip to the moon, VI had moved away from a purely fantasy setting and went more futuristic. Following that trend, art director Yusuke Naora fleshed out a monolithic industrial playground in the tiered city of Midgar and built its towering Mako reactors. Sakaguchi expected series designer Yoshitaka Amano to put his signature touch on their characters and designs, but Amano was busy opening workshops and exhibitions in France and New York, limiting his involvement. The team turned instead to a minor character and monster designer named Tetsuya Nomura. This was Nomura's first shot as a design lead, and he attacked it. VII was shaping up as a dark game, and his first design for chief protagonist Cloud Strife was a slick, black-haired kid to contrast uber-villian Sephiroth's silver mane. Unfortunately, Cloud just didn't look very heroic. A spiky blonde hairdo lightened him up and kept his prickly nature intact, and the colossal sword by his side was met with instant approval. Gruff rebel leader Barret Wallace started with two hands and a bow-shaped gun before going cyborg with a Gun-Arm. Flower girl/savant Aerith rounded out the list of available PCs, designed to inject some needed femininity. Sakaguchi and Kitase decided that cast was a little too thin, though. Nomura added another half-dozen characters for players to choose from, and he sweated every detail. Tifa Lockhart came in as romantic competition for Cloud's affections; Nomura obsessed over the length and color of her skirt to counterpoint Aerith's long pink dress, and nearly settled it by putting her in pants. The new Cid, a staple since II, became a foul-mouthed chain smoker. Talking lion Red XIII gained tattoos and a Native American motif before Nomura set his tail on fire for a little extra color. Ninja thief Yuffie Kisaragi and mechanical puppet Cait Sith added the requisite cute factor, while brooding Vincent Valentine's background changed from horror researcher to detective to chemist to undead man of mystery. Nomura didn't stop there. He gave Final Fantasy's mascot Chocobos a makeover, took charge of animating Summon attacks and Limit Breaks, and soon had story input as well. One offhand, late-night suggestion became one of the most shocking story twists in gaming history.Baseball collusion refers to owners working together to avoid competitive bidding for player services or players jointly negotiating with team owners. Collusion in baseball is formally defined in the Major League Baseball Collective Bargaining Agreement, which states "Players shall not act in concert with other Players and Clubs shall not act in concert with other Clubs." [1] Major League Baseball went through a period of owner collusion during the off-seasons of 1985, 1986, and 1987. Historically, owner collusion was often referred to as a "gentleman's agreement".[2] After the 1918 season, owners released all their players – terminating the non-guaranteed contracts, with a "gentleman's agreement" not to sign each other's players, as a means of forcing down player salaries.[3] Before the 1966 season, Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale decided to hold joint negotiations with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Koufax and Drysdale were the team's star pitchers who had helped the Dodgers win the 1965 World Series. The Dodgers needed them if they were to have any chance of returning to the World Series in 1966. After negotiation for the first 32 days of spring training, they agreed on one-year contracts, Koufax for US$125,000 and Drysdale for $110,000,[clarification needed] the two largest contracts in baseball history. The owners were fearful that other star players would follow their example.[4] Collective Bargaining Agreement [ edit ] In 1968, new union leader Marvin Miller negotiated baseball's first Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with team owners. The owners wanted to prohibit players from holding joint negotiations. Miller was willing to agree, provided that the ban applied to the owners as well. The owners readily agreed, and every CBA since then has included the sentence: "Players shall not act in concert with other Players and Clubs shall not act in concert with other Clubs."[1] Shortly after being elected commissioner in 1984, Peter Ueberroth addressed the owners at a meeting in St. Louis. Ueberroth called the owners "damned dumb" for being willing to lose millions of dollars in order to win a World Series. Later, at a separate meeting with the general managers in Tarpon Springs, Florida, Ueberroth said that it was "not smart" to sign long-term contracts. The message was obvious—hold down salaries by any means necessary. It later emerged that the owners agreed to keep contracts down to three years for position players and two for pitchers.[5] Collusion I [ edit ] The free agent market following the 1985 season was different from any since the Seitz decision a decade earlier. Of 35 free agents, only four changed teams—and those four were not wanted by their old teams. Star players, such as Kirk Gibson, Tommy John and Phil Niekro, did not receive offers from other teams. The cover of the December 9, 1985 edition of Sporting News asked, "Why Won't Anyone Sign Kirk Gibson?"[6] George Steinbrenner offered Carlton Fisk a contract, then withdrew the offer after getting a call from Chicago White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf.[7] Teams also reduced team rosters from 25 to 24 players. By December, several agents thought something was amiss, and complained to Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) president Donald Fehr. In February 1986, the MLBPA filed its first grievance, later known as "Collusion I." Collusion II [ edit ] The free agent market following the 1986 season was not much better for the players. Only four free agents switched teams. Andre Dawson took a pay cut and a one-year contract to sign with the Chicago Cubs. Three fourths of the free agents signed one-year contracts. Star players that ended up back with their old teams included Jack Morris (Detroit Tigers), Tim Raines (Montreal Expos), Ron Guidry (New York Yankees), Rich Gedman (Red Sox), Bob Boone (California Angels), and Doyle Alexander (Atlanta Braves). For the first time since the start of free agency, the average major league salary declined. The average free-agent salary dropped by 16 percent, while MLB reported revenues increasing by 15 percent. This prompted the MLBPA to file a second grievance (Collusion II) on February 18, 1987. Even as this was happening, Ueberroth ordered the owners to tell him personally if they planned to offer contracts longer than three years.[5] In September 1987, the Collusion I case came before arbitrator Thomas Roberts, who ruled that the owners had violated the CBA by conspiring to restrict player movement. Collusion III [ edit ] After the ruling, the owners changed their tactic, but not their intent. They created an "information bank" to share information about what offers were being made to players. Players affected included Paul Molitor, Jack Clark, and Dennis Martínez. In January 1988 the MLBPA filed its third grievance (Collusion III). On January 18, 1988, damages were announced in the Collusion I case. Roberts determined damages of $10.5 million should be paid by the owners to the players. By then, only 14 of the 1985 free agents were still in baseball, and Roberts awarded seven of them a second chance as "new look" free agents. They could offer their services to any team without losing their existing contracts. On January 29, 1988, Kirk Gibson signed a $4.5 million, three-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers. In October 1989, arbitrator George Nicolau presided over Collusion II, and found in favor of the players. Nicolau determined damages of $38 million. "New look" free agents included Ron Guidry, Bob Boone, Doyle Alexander, Willie Randolph, Brian Downing and Rich Gedman.[8] Collusion III damages were $64.5 million. Owners would also have to compensate for losses related to multi-year contracts and lost bonuses. A final settlement of the three collusion cases was reached in November 1990. The owners agreed to pay the players $280 million, with the MLBPA deciding how to distribute the money to the damaged players.[9] At that time, then-commissioner Fay Vincent told the owners:[10] The single biggest reality you guys have to face up to is collusion. You stole $280 million from the players, and the players are unified to a man around that issue, because you got caught and many of you are still involved. Miller largely agreed with Vincent's sentiments, saying Ueberroth and the owners' behavior was "tantamount to fixing, not just games, but entire pennant races, including all post-season series."[11] Later, Vincent would blame baseball's labor problems of the early 1990s, including the 1994–95 strike, on player anger at what he called the owners' theft from the players.[12] Collusion and expansion [ edit ] In 2005, Vincent claimed that the owners used the majors' two rounds of expansion in the 1990s (which produced the Florida Marlins, Colorado Rockies, Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays) in part to pay the damages from the collusion settlement.[13] 2000s [ edit ] Collusion allegations: 2002–2003 [ edit ] Players alleged that owners engaged in collusion in the 2002 and 2003 seasons. As part of the 2006 CBA, owners agreed to pay the players $12 million from "luxury tax" revenue sharing funds. The agreement was made with no admission of guilt.[14] Collusion concerns: 2007 [ edit ] In November 2007, the MLB Players' Union raised concerns that owners collusively shared information about free agents and possibly conspired to keep the final price of Alex Rodriguez's new free agent contract down.[15] Collusion allegations: 2008 [ edit ] In October 2008, the MLB Players' Association indicated that it would file a collusion grievance against the owners claiming that they conspired illegally to keep Barry Bonds from receiving a 2008 contract.[16] The grievance was abandoned because there were no grounds to force a team to sign a player against their will, and no proof of any organized effort to shut out Bonds.Image Gallery: Stricker Golf Classic » more Photo by: John Dixon Illinois golf coach Mike Small watches shots by PGA golfer, and former Illini, Steve Stricker at the Steve Stricker Illini Golf Classic in August 2009 at Stone Creek Golf Club in Urbana. Former Illini Steve Stricker charged out to the early lead at today's PGA Championship near Atlanta. Seeking his first major titled, the highest-ranked American finished the first round 7 under. The 44-year-old Stricker got off to a brilliant start, posting a 5-under 30 on the tough back nine after teeing off at the 10th. Amazingly, the Wisconsin native made birdies at both the 15th — the longest par-3 on the course — and the 18th, a lengthy par-4 that has water hugging the left side of the fairway and guarding the front of the green. Stricker made the turn and quickly added another birdie at the first, taking his score to 6 under. He was 3 strokes ahead of Jerry Kelly and Alexander Noren. Stricker has finished in the top 10 at all four majors, but never better than a runner-up showing at the 1998 PGA Championship. Overall, he’s 0 for 52 in the top events. The Americans sure need a boost. They haven’t won a major since Phil Mickelson triumphed at the 2010 Masters, coming up short at six in a row. During that span, Northern Ireland has captured three championships, South Africa two and Germany one. Stricker is the highest-ranked American in the world rankings, a spot that used to be controlled by Tiger Woods. Former Illini D.A. Points and Illinois golf coach Mike Small teed off later today. Click here to follow alongAccording to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, college UFA Drake Caggiula could make a decision on his NHL future as early as Friday. “We’re expecting, likely, a decision from Drake Caggiula tomorrow, the North Dakota free agent, about his NHL future,” Friedman said. “He visited I think about eight or nine teams.” Caggiula was never drafted into the NHL, but starred this year with NCAA champion North Dakota. In 39 games, he scored 51 points, which was second on the team to Vancouver Canucks 2015 first round pick, Brock Boeser. The 21-year-old Caggiula — who stands 5-foot-10 and 180 pounds — has reportedly met with a bunch of NHL teams, but it’s not clear in which direction he’s leaning. Elliotte Friedman on Twitter It is worth noting a connection with two teams, though. As mentioned, Caggiula’s teammate at North Dakota, Boeser, was a first round pick of the Canucks one year ago. And Philadelphia Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol coached Caggiula in his first three seasons at North Dakota. Elliotte Friedman on Twitter As Friedman noted in a 30 Thoughts column from March, some teams were hoping North Dakota would be eliminated early so they could entice Caggiula by signing him and then getting him into one or two NHL games, thus burning a year off his contract. Since North Dakota kept playing past the end of the NHL’s regular season, Friedman noted teams such as the Chicago Blackhawks could get back into the race.March 17, 2016 President Barack Obama The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500 Dear President Obama, On June 23, citizens of the United Kingdom will decide on whether or not to leave the European Union in an historic referendum. It is a vote of profound consequence that will decide whether matters of economics, trade, and security are best handled in conjunction with the broad needs of twenty eight member states or the direct concerns of the people of the United Kingdom. With so much at stake, it is imperative that the question of exiting the European Union is not one answered by foreign politicians or outside interests, but rather by the British people who must ultimately live with change or the status quo. The benefits of a truly independent United Kingdom begin with the optimistic prospects of a country that can thrive without the obstacles of tariffs and trade restrictions imposed by distant and unaccountable bureaucrats; but also include the responsible and respectable handling of our country’s border policy amidst the ongoing migrant crisis. Faced with a vote of “Leave” or “Remain” the approaching referendum also puts the matter of national destiny in the hands of the citizenship: Are we better served tethered to the needs and restrictions of the European Union or would an amicable break from the EU permit a surge in industry and innovation that would further bolster the U.K. as an economic force? In the coming months the British public will evaluate the merits of a “Leave” or “Remain” vote and issues of national sovereignty must be decided exclusively by the people of the United Kingdom. While it is understandable that a sitting U.S. president feels the obligation to speak in the interest of the United States, it must be advised that even a passive diplomatic recommendation in the matter of our national decision will receive the opposite of the intended effect. The referendum vote is an act of democracy in its most direct form, and the question of whether or not to leave the EU is a rare political topic that is not owned by any one political party. This is a chance for the British people to choose the path of their country. Interfering in our debate over national sovereignty would be an unfortunate milestone at the end of your term as President. As fellow elected representatives, we would therefore ask that you abstain from any intended advocacy in the matter of the approaching referendum, and allow democracy to take its course. We would therefore respectfully ask that you refrain from further politicizing this debate by intervening in our approaching referendum and instead allow democracy to take its course. Peter Bone Member of Parliament Kate Hoey Member of Parliament Tom Pursglove Member of Parliament Kelvin Hopkins Member of Parliament Sammy Wilson Member of Parliament Nigel Farage Member of the European ParliamentTexas resident Wayne Propst showing off front yard fossil dig -- (KYTX screen grab) A Texas man who discovered what he believes to be prehistoric fossils in his aunt’s front yard has received confirmation from a self-described biblical scholar and fossil expert — although he has yet to see them, reports KYTX. According to Wayne Propst, he was replacing soil in his aunt Sharon Givan’s yard when he made the amazing discovery of the fossilized snail shells which he believes date back to the time of Noah’s flood. “What’s really interesting to me is we’re talking about the largest catastrophe known to man, the flood that engulfed the entire world,” Propst explained, while showing off fossilized remains and adding, “Noah’s flood in my front yard. How much better can it get?” Seeking to verify the veracity of his claim, Propst contacted self-proclaimed fossil expert Joe Taylor who stated that the fossils indeed are a remnant of the Biblical flood that covered the Earth due to God’s wrath. Although Taylor has yet to study the fossils — or even lay eyes on them in person — he believes that they are a sign of the flood in the dry East Texas town and called the discovery “rare.” “I’ve never heard of anything about that from over there, I’m surprised he found it there,” Taylor explained. According to Probst, he is maintaining the fossil dig with the help of neighborhood kids and his aunt Sharon who cleans each discovery with a toothbrush before they are photographed. “Now all I got to do is go in front of my aunt’s house and pick up something from back when it all began. I don’t even have to search anymore,” said Probst, adding, ” Who else can say they have a front yard full of Noah’s dirt?” Propst’s aunt Sharon agreed, saying: “To think that like he says that we have something in our yard that dated back to when God destroyed the earth. I mean, how much better could anything be?” Watch the video below from KYTX: KYTX CBS19.tv – News, Weather, & Sports \| Tyler-LongviewIn January, a lone gunman entered the trendy Blue Parrot nightclub in the upscale Mexican resort town of Playa del Carmen and opened fire. Chaos ensued as the crowd scrambled for cover as the gunman traded shots with another man inside the club and security working the annual BPM music festival tried to suppress the melee. When the bullets stopped flying in what is believed to be a drug cartel-related gunfight, five people were dead – including a Canadian bodyguard caught in the crossfire and an American teenager who was trampled to death as panicked partiers fled the club. On Sunday, sunbathing tourists were forced to take cover on the white sand beaches of Los Cabos – a popular getaway at the southern tip of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula – as gunmen unloaded and left three people dead. These two incidents bookended a bloody eight months for the resort towns of both of Mexico’s coast, heightening concerns that the country’s ongoing drug war could leave more tourists dead and threaten Mexico’s multibillion dollar tourism industry. “We’re in a period of disequilibrium and it will take some time to get back to equilibrium,” Christopher Wilson, the deputy director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, told Fox News. In Quintana Roo, the Mexican state that is home to both Cancún and Playa del Carmen, the government has recorded 134 homicides this year, which is nearly equal to the 165 the state saw in the entirety of 2016. The Benito Juárez municipality, which includes Cancún, has already surpassed last year’s homicide total of 89 when it ended June with 95 murders and in nearby Solidaridad has registered 21 slaying through June, closing in on last year’s total of 26. In Los Cabos, homicides in the famed beach area are up 400 percent this year. The U.S State Department, which last updated its Travel Warning for Mexico last December, cautioned travelers of the dangers of travel in Baja California, but so far has no advisory for Quintana Roo. Mexico’s drug war, which began in earnest in 2006 when then-President Felipe Calderón declared an all-out military offensive on the country’s narcrotraffickers, has left at least 200,000 dead. While current President Enrique Peña Nieto came into office in 2012 at time when violence was on the decline, the bloodshed continues and in June the country saw a record number of killings with the 2,566 homicides victims being the most in a month since the Mexican government started releasing that data in 2014. The overall rise in violence in Mexico is due to the extradition of “Chapo” Guzmán. — Christopher Wilson, deputy director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center The skyrocketing demand for heroin in the United States due to the opioid crisis – cartels are believed to make somewhere better $19 and $29 billion annually from the U.S. drug market – and the splintering of major drug trafficking organizations following the arrests or deaths of their leaders are believed to be the main factors for the spike in violence in places like Cancún and Los Cabos. The arrest and extradition of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán to the United States has created a massive power struggle within the Sinaloa Cartel, once the country’s largest and most powerful drug trafficking organization, and is believed to be the main cause of violence along Mexico’s Pacific coast. Disparate factions of the Sinaloa Cartel, along the rising Cartel Jalisco Nuevo Generación, are also known to be active in Quintana Roo. “The overall rise in violence in Mexico is due to the extradition of “Chapo” Guzmán,” Wilson said. “Simply because of internal criminal group dynamics there is a natural waxing and waning of violence. The one constant is that there is no governmental structure to respond effectively and until that is implemented these types of flare-ups will continue to happen.” Mexico’s tourism officials are undeniably concerned with the spike in killings and the accompanying bad press. Tourism is the fourth largest source of foreign exchange for Mexico, with visitors doling out an estimated $20 billion a year to visit the country’s beaches, clubs and famed archeological ruins. Drug war violence has already turned one of the country’s preeminent tourist hotspots, Acapulco, into one of the country’s most dangerous cities with dead bodies being hung from bridges, human heads being left in coolers outside city hall and shootouts occurring at posh hotels. At least in regards to Cancún and other Caribbean resort towns, however, both Mexican officials and outside experts attest that while violent crime may be on the rise there is little chance of it reaching the endemic levels seen in Acapulco and other towns along the country’s Pacific Coast – home to the traditional trafficking routes used by the cartels. "Tourist security has been a constant priority for the authorities," Daniel Flota Ocampo, director of Riviera Maya Tourist Promotion, told USA Today, adding that the violence is between "criminal groups settling scores among themselves" and that authorities are taking action against them. He also noted that the majority of the violence has occurred far from the all-inclusive resorts frequented by tourists. For now, it appears that the violence has not deterred tourists from vacationing along Mexico’s coasts. Occupancy rates at hotels in Cancún are at 90 percent and 74 percent in Los Cabos. Mexico also saw a record 35 million international travelers visit the country last year - a 9 percent jump compared to 2015. The Mexico Tourism Board aims to reach 50 million international visitors by 2021.To know Russia, you have to think like a criminal. If I were Putin, my game would be this... My economy was in decline but I'd successfully bludgeoned my way into the position of President. Through my career, I'd managed to understand the full capacity of a huge espionage and disinformation machinery and, outside of it, I've managed to become deeply important to the vast organised crime my country is built upon. There is nothing and no one I cannot touch. Free rein. My eyes are on expanding my borders, absorbing valuable resources to sell on, but standing against me is an old alliance, NATO, and a recently more active one - the EU, who court the countries on my own doorstep. Standard military moves will be frowned upon, and the sanctions these allies maintain in place keep my economy under control so, I had to do something different. Their weakness was an easy one to exploit. Terrorism breeds in an environment where war causes mass migration, which also helps nurture the necessary extremism, so I engage in a conflict which creates the movement of people into my strategic targets. This means their security services are overstretched and focused on a single issue. To generate just the right level of continued diversion, I invest in the xenophobes, the far-right parties and figures, making their message mainstream. This creates a perfect environment for more extremism - bringing the added bonus of a constant cycle of retaliation. Now comes the managed chaos, because I've realised the power of what I'm doing. So I put my weight into exploiting the overstretch, and the rising popularity of the xenophobes I've set in action. I interfere directly in democratic elections, through hacking, through cyber attacks, through constant disinformation. Within one year I topple two of the biggest members of NATO, but the EU proves harder to crack - my plans in the Dutch and French elections fail, and Germany is deploying active counter-measures. The jig isn't up though. The UK and the US are in my pocket, so I exploit them more, using terror attacks as an opportunity to leak information, driving a wedge between them and others. Reducing their intelligence co-operation and discrediting the US intelligence services who are on the verge of exposing my combined asset in the White House - the damage takes, even though the asset was also the source of the leaks. This prompts a renewed call for more military intervention, which will drive the cycle of retaliation and improve the position of my far-right resources - who are now embedded in the mainstream of politics, where they can influence the electorates with a less direct intervention. In earnest, my White House asset will set to the disruption of NATO, until it crumbles or becomes useless and then? Well, then I will see what disjointed forces are left, what resources and intelligence co-operation they still have, and I will micro-target my actions, destabilising them further until I can step in and declare myself their saviour. Or, take what I want with the minimum level of force. They have no laws which can unpick my plan. No resources. No legislation. Every weakness in their defences has been exposed and used, and they no longer believe their own media. This has all been too easy. The spies were looking for spies when they should have been looking for criminals. The old days of espionage are dead, like Latin. I am Vladimir Putin, and I am winning.Corpus Christi, TX – A U.S. District Court judge ruled today that Texas passed its 2011 voter ID law with the intent to discriminate against minority voters. This is a victory for civil rights groups and voting advocates who had been fighting the strict bill for years. Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos said in her decision that plaintiffs’ evidence establishes that discrimination was “at least one of the substantial or motivating factors behind passage” of the bill. In its analysis, the court focused on how the Texas legislature rejected efforts to soften the “racial impact of SB 14,” such as reducing the costs of obtaining ID or allowing voters to use more forms of ID. The court, like the appeals court before it, noted the “radical departures” that the legislature went through to “rush SB 14 through the legislative process without the usual committee analysis, debate, and substantive consideration of amendments.” And the court highlighted that the “evidence shows a tenuous relationship” between the stated goal of reducing “voter fraud” and the legislation ultimately passed, given the rarity of voter impersonation cases in Texas, and that other, more prevalent forms of voter fraud were not addressed by the bill. Today’s ruling comes one week after Judge Ramos determined that a bill currently pending in the Texas Legislature had no bearing on whether or not the state purposefully discriminated when enacting SB 14. She also granted the Department of Justice’s request to withdraw its intent claim after years of arguing, alongside civil rights groups, that the law was enacted with a discriminatory purpose. The DOJ had made initial moves to switch sides on Inauguration Day, and filed to withdraw its support shortly before a February 28 hearing on the intent of the law. Plaintiffs, including the Texas State Conference of NAACP Branches (Texas NAACP) and the Mexican American Legislative Caucus of the Texas House of Representatives (MALC) challenged the law under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, arguing that Texas’s strict ID requirement both has the effect of discriminating against minority voters and that the legislature passed the law with the intent to discriminate on the basis of
midnight Monday. One of the victims, when reached by Tidesports.com via email, declined comment. The other, reached via text message, also declined comment. It was the second trip to jail for Williams this week. Tuscaloosa police charged him with carrying a pistol without a license on Sunday after a disturbance at the BP gas station on the Strip. “A clerk in the store told police that Williams came into the store and was acting erratic and threatening that he had something in the trunk of his vehicle after a dispute about paying for gas,” TPD Sgt. Brent Blankley said in a release. “The suspect and other occupants of the vehicle left the store and began messing with something in the trunk. The clerk then called the police.” Officers stopped the 2007 Honda Accord at Second Avenue and University Boulevard, he said. Williams was sitting in the back seat on the passenger side. Officers patted him down and found a pistol in his pants pocket, Blankley said. He was charged with carrying a pistol without a license and later released on $500 bond. The University of Alabama Police Department posted information about the two robberies that were reported Monday. Both victims told officers that they were approached by men who asked to borrow a cigarette lighter, before striking them in the head, stealing their belongings and leaving in a dark-colored SUV, according to the UAPD. The first victim said that the robbery took place at 12:35 a.m. Monday morning in the 800 block of Campus Drive, on the sidewalk near Paty Hall. The second student was robbed at 1:20 a.m. in the 200 block of Seventh Avenue, near the UA Mineral Institute building. Both students told police that one robber had a dark complexion, a slim build and was around 6 feet to 6 feet, 2 inches tall. He was wearing a black wind suit and a red, beanie-style hat and possibly had dreadlocks. The second suspect had a medium to dark complexion, a stocky build, was of average height and wore blue jeans and a rain coat. “University Police Department investigators were able to develop information leading to the identification of suspects in the robberies described below,” the department's chief wrote in an advisory posted on their website. “Three suspects were arrested on Feb. 11, 2013, for two counts of second degree robbery each, with a fourth suspect arrested for fraudulent use of a credit/ debit card relating to the case.” It is the second arrest for Calloway since his arrival at the Capstone. He was charged with misdemeanor marijuana possession as an 18-year-old freshman in October 2011. Police stopped him for driving with no headlights on Paul W. Bryant Drive and said they found marijuana stuffed in his sock. Calloway was granted youthful offender status, meaning that the outcome of the case is not public record. Williams was released on $65,000 bond. Hayes and Pettway were released from jail on $60,000 bond each. Calloway was released on $5,000 bond. Jail records indicate that they were arrested around midnight and released between 3 and 5 a.m. Tuesday. Records show a bonding company posted the bail, but don't indicate who paid the bonding company. All four were backup players on the Crimson Tide's 2012 national championship team. Pettway is a redshirt freshman who began his career at defensive end, but had recently been moved to a linebacker position. He and Calloway, a third-year sophomore running back, and Hayes, a true freshman linebacker, played sparingly for the Crimson Tide last season. Williams, a defensive back, did not play in 2012 but practiced as a redshirt freshman. Sports Writer Marc Torrence contributed to this report. Click here to see the arrest reports for the four Alabama football players who are charged with robbery and fraudulent use of a credit card. The names of the victims, as well as personal identifying information for the accused, has been blacked out. The players' mugshots can be found at Jailbase.comFormer prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra waves to supporters while leaving the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions in Bangkok after the last round of witness hearings on her rice scheme case on Sept 27. (Photo by Patipat Janthong) Police confirmed on Tuesday former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra was in Britain and a red notice for her arrest was being sought from Interpol. Deputy national police chief Srivara Ransibrahmanakul said on Tuesday that he already signed a request for an Interpol red notice and was being sent to Interpol through the foreign affairs division of the Royal Thai Police. A red notice is similar to an international arrest warrant. Pol Gen Srivara said in seeking the red notice he reasoned that Yingluck was wanted under an arrest warrant. Whether it would be issued depends on the decision of Interpol, he said. The deputy national police chief said the red notice could be sought when the police knew the whereabouts of Yingluck and after the United Arab Emirates confirmed that Yingluck had left Dubai for Britain, they took action He also said that Britain and Thailand had their extradition treaty and public prosecutors would handle the matter. Yingluck allegedly disappeared on Aug 23. The Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions was originally scheduled on Aug 25 to deliver its ruling on her loss-ridden rice-pledging case. Her absence caused the court to postpone the announcement to Sept 27, when it handed down a five-year jail term for her failure to stop fake and corrupt government-to-government sales of rice from the rice programme even though she had been aware of the irregularities. Investigation into those who helped her flee was underway.The Pittsburgh Penguins have signed goaltender Eric Hartzell, to a one-year entry-level contract, it was announced today by executive vice president and general manager Ray Shero. The deal runs through the 2012-13 season and has an average annual value of $925,000. Hartzell, 23, led Quinnipiac University to the school’s first-ever Frozen Four appearance this past weekend at CONSOL Energy Center. Hartzell helped the Bobcats reach Saturday night’s championship game. The 6-foot-4, 187-pound netminder was a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award as the NCAA’s top college hockey player this season after posting a 30-7-5 record, 1.57 goals-against average and.933 save percentage in 42 starts. Hartzell, who is a native of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, led the entire NCAA in minutes played this season (2522:02) and tied for third in shutouts with five while being named NCAA First-Team All-American. Hartzell’s outstanding season earned him several accolades including 2013 ECAC Player of the Year, ECAC Hockey Ken Dryden Goaltender of the Year, a selection to the ECAC First-Team All-Star squad, a spot on the All-New England All-Star team and a selection to the CollegeHockeyNews.com's First-Team. In four seasons at Quinnipiac, Hartzell posted a career record of 58-27-17 with a 1.96 goals-against average,.924 save percentage and 10 shutouts in 106 career appearances. Hartzell’s 1.96 goals-against average established a school record. Before joining Quinnipiac, Hartzell played three seasons for the Sioux Falls Stampede of the United States Hockey League (USHL) between 2006-09. Hartzell went 39-32-4 in 79 career games for the Stampede.Clemens apologizes for'mistakes,' still denies drug use Clemens regrets personal'mistakes' He apologizes to family and again denies using steroids In his first comments since a tabloid linked him to extramarital affairs last week, Roger Clemens on Sunday acknowledged making "mistakes" in his personal life. For those mistakes, he apologized to his family and the public, but the seven-time Cy Young Award winner remained steadfast in his denials that he has used steroids or human growth hormone. "I know that many people want to know what I have to say about the recent articles in the media," Clemens, who has raised his four children with his wife, Debbie, in the Katy and Memorial areas, said in a statement to the Houston Chronicle. "Even though these articles contain many false accusations and mistakes, I need to say that I have made mistakes in my personal life for which I am sorry. I have apologized to my family and apologize to my fans. Like everyone, I have flaws. I have sometimes made choices which have not been right." While not admitting to any specific mistakes, Clemens did remain adamant that he never used steroids or HGH. He has been fighting to clear his name since Dec. 13, when he was implicated in the use of performance-enhancing drugs in the report former Sen. George Mitchell prepared for Major League Baseball. "I believe my personal life has nothing to do with the accusations of steroid and HGH use," he said in the statement. "I have already made clear that I did not use them." Roger Clemens appears before Congress in February. Roger Clemens appears before Congress in February. Photo: Chip Somodevilla, GETTY IMAGES FILE Photo: Chip Somodevilla, GETTY IMAGES FILE Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Clemens apologizes for'mistakes,' still denies drug use 1 / 1 Back to Gallery Denies McCready story Clemens also addressed the notion that he may have started an improper relationship with country singer Mindy McCready when she was 15. Citing numerous anonymous sources, the New York Daily News reported last week that Clemens began his relationship with McCready when she was 15. The tabloid claimed Clemens "carried on a decade-long affair with country star Mindy McCready, a romance that began when McCready was a 15-year-old aspiring singer performing in a karaoke bar and Clemens was a 28-year-old Red Sox ace and married father of two." In his statement, Clemens addressed the McCready story. "Now, I have been accused of having an improper relationship with a 15-year-old girl. Nothing could be further from the truth. This relationship has been twisted and distorted far beyond reality. It is just one of many, many accusations that are utterly false." McCready, however, told the Daily News that she "cannot refute anything in the story" about her relationship with Clemens. Request for privacy The Daily News also reported that Clemens had extramarital relationships with two other women, including the former wife of pro golfer John Daly Clemens is adamant that he won't confess just so the scrutiny will go away. "I realize that many people want me to simply confess and apologize for the conduct that I have been accused of, but I cannot confess to, nor apologize for, things I did not do," he said. "I have apologized to my family for my mistakes. And having offered this apology to the public, I would ask that you let me and my family deal with these matters in private." Clemens' former trainer, Brian McNamee, told the Mitchell investigators that he injected the 11-time All-Star with performance-enhancing drugs. On Jan. 6, Clemens filed a defamation lawsuit against McNamee in Houston. On Feb. 13, he maintained his claims of innocence before a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing. jesus.ortiz@chron.comThink speed traps are crooked? A Texas town’s “cash for freedom” policy has taken highway robbery to a whole new level. Imagine getting pulled over while on a family vacation and having small-town cops accuse you and your family of being drug couriers. Then imagine hearing that you have two options: Fork over your cash and continue on your vacation or face felony charges for money laundering and child endangerment, in which case you go to jail and your kids get handed over to foster care. That’s what happened to Ron Henderson and Jennifer Boatright while traveling through Tenaha, Texas, a town that regards piracy as just another way to raise revenue. Henderson and Boatright’s case helped launch a class action lawsuit against abusive civil forfeiture laws, laws which allow law enforcement to to shake down people and cash in. And don’t be fooled by officers tooling around town in Escalades seized from hotshot drug dealers--law enforcement often targets those who cannot afford to hire an attorney to fight for the return of their property. Officers may swipe your property even if you’re not charged with a crime. Cops can drive the cars they grab, and seized cash has even been funneled to officers’ salaries. Booty is often a large source of law enforcement funding, and last year the Department of Justice pulled in a record $4.2 billion from civil forfeitures. Mix easy targets with the all-too-common “guilty until proven innocent” presumption, and it’s no wonder officers get distracted chasing profit instead of bad guys. In 53 percent of violent crimes nationwide, no one is arrested let alone convicted. So even though it isn’t as lucrative as busting people for drug offenses, maybe cops could spend less hunting down cash and cars and more time busting murders and rapists. 2 minutes, 20 seconds. Follow the show on Twitter (@DontCops) and submit your nominees for next episode. To watch previous episodes, go here. "Don't Cops Have Better Things to Do?" is written and directed by Ted Balaker (@tedbalaker). Producer is Matt Edwards (@MattChrisEd). Opening motion graphics by Meredith Bragg. Camera by Paul Detrick. Music by audionautix.com and "The Contessa" is by Maurice and the Beejays (Magnatune Records). Scroll down for downloadable versions and subscribe to ReasonTV's YouTube Channel to receive notification when new material goes live.September 9, 2015 Ryan Weaver Symfony's documentation is an open source project with more than 800 contributors. That’s great! But our goal is to always make it easier to contribute and faster to merge in changes. And today, we’ve started doing something really cool to improve our workflow: integration with Platform.sh. Platform.sh is a hosting solution that provides out-of-the-box continuous deployment for Symfony, Drupal and any other PHP applications. It extends the concept of a Git branch at the infrastructure level. Basically, this means that it’s easy to deploy every branch and/or Pull Request to its own URL. Symfony's documentation is written in Sphinx (Markdown on steroids) with linking, complex code blocks and more. That gives us a lot of flexibility, but also causes 2 major problems: When someone makes a pull request to the docs, they can't immediately see how it will render. It's tough to review, since it takes too much time for a reviewer to pull down the branch, compile it locally, then open it up in a browser. The problem is shared with any real coding projects: when you finish a feature, you then need to manually deploy it to a server before it can be reviewed and tested. But what if each pull request could be automatically deployed to its own server with its own URL? This is something we've wanted for a long time… That’s why we were thrilled when Platform.sh approached us and said "Yeah, that's easy to do!". So, as of today, I’m excited to say that the Symfony documentation is the first open source project (we know of at least) that automatically builds and deploys any code change from any contributor into an isolated environment with its own URL, so it can easily be reviewed and tested. Boom! For example, Pull Request #5530 documents an entire new feature. By simply clicking "Details" next to the "platformsh" check on the bottom, we can review this pull request in its true HTML format. You see that there is a URL provided by Platform.sh and including the http://pr-5530-6qmocelev2lwe.eu.platform.sh/ How is the madness possible? First, Platform.sh was awesome enough to setup our environment for free! If you see them on Twitter or at a conference, give them a big thank you! Second, the only thing required to integrate with Platform.sh is to add a configuration file called.platform.app.yaml in your repository which describes how the code should be built - similar to.travis.yml. That - and a GitHub webhook - were enough to start automatically deploying pull requests. Third, WouterJ (core docs contributor) created a symfony.com-like theme to make the previews as realistic as possible. So, next time you make a pull request to the docs, check out how it looks!Your first name YouTube user “ASMDSS” uploaded a video on Tuesday showing a stolen valor confrontation at a Texas Walmart. WATCH: The video opens with the man accused of impersonating a soldier standing by the vending machines near the store entrance. “Hey man, you’re in the military?” the videographer asks him on approach. The alleged valor thief responds “yes, 75th infantry… Ranger Battalion. 101st Airborne.” The man behind the camera quickly turns the tables. “If you were really prior military like the rest of us,” he states. “You’d know you wearing that uniform is a fucking disgrace.” “Some of us wore that uniform — let go of my hand — and actually fought for our country,” he continued. “You don’t even know what the fuck you’re wearing. You don’t even know what patch that is.” The videographer continues to critique the non-soldier’s uniform for several minutes. Eventually, a Walmart employee ends the confrontation. He tells the man filming he “understands [his] frustration” but can’t let the confrontation take place on the store’s premises. Follow Datoc on Twitter and FacebookZapruder heirs to get $16 million for JFK assassination film The Zapruder camera which captured Kennedy's assination on film August 3, 1999 Web posted at: 10:48 a.m. EDT (1448 GMT) WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Nearly 36 years after Dallas dressmaker Abraham Zapruder captured the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on a home movie camera, Zapruder's heirs learned Tuesday how much money the historic film is worth: $16 million, about half what the family wanted. A three-judge arbitration panel determined how much the government must compensate the Zapruder family for the strip of 8 millimeter film, now preserved in a cold-storage vault at a National Archives building in suburban Washington. At arbitration hearings earlier this year, government attorneys suggested $1 million is fair compensation; Zapruder's heirs believe the film could command $30 million at auction. The arbitration panel's decision is binding. Zapruder took the famous footage on November 22, 1963, when he joined a crowd to watch Kennedy's motorcade sweep through Dealy Plaza in Dallas. Zapruder was one of three people to film the scene, but the images captured by his Bell and Howell silent camera are considered the most complete. Two years ago, a government commission declared the film a public record and took legal custody of it. But unable to agree on how much the film was worth, the government and the Zapruder family set up the arbitration panel to determine a fair price. The government is compensating the family for the actual 28-second film; the family will retain reproduction and royalty rights. Zapruder family keeps profits private An attorney for the family told CNN in 1997 that the family routinely gives copies of the film to researchers and others, but does charge for commercial use. He declined to say how much the film has earned the family over the years. "There is a gross overestimation of what the earnings are... generally from people who have absolutely no clue as to what the earnings are," attorney Jamie Silverberg said. The family has also released a digitally enhanced version of the film in home video format for sale to the general public. The arbitration panel originally was to announce its decision July 19, but it delayed the announcement out of consideration for the Kennedy family, which two days earlier had learned of the disappearance of the plane piloted by John F. Kennedy Jr.A MAN who has spent months researching the names of soldiers killed in action in the First World War has appealed for the return of a laptop stolen by burglars. Paul Stephenson has collected the names of 1,500 men from Darlington who died in the Great War, but the laptop where much of the data was stored was among a number of items stolen from his home on New Year’s Eve. Fortunately, Mr Stephenson had backed up most of his research, but work he completed over the Christmas period has been lost. The burglary at Mr Stephenson’s home in Pendleton Road, Darlington, happened at about 5.25pm on December 31 while he and his wife were out on a short walk with the dog. The rear patio doors were smashed open and the burglars went through the house, taking money from Mrs Stephenson’s purse, DVDs and the black Lenovo laptop. Mr Stephenson said the loss of the laptop is frustrating and, although he has a copy of most of his work, he had not backed up for several days before the computer was stolen. He is using a borrowed laptop to continue his work. He said: “I’d put a lot of work into the research over Christmas and will have to go back and do that all again. It can be caught back up on but it is frustrating. “I believe this research will be very important and useful over the next few years during the centenary of the First World War.” Mr Stephenson was inspired to research the number of Darlington’s war dead after a conversation with friends where he learned they both had relatives who died during the war, but were not commemorated on the town’s war memorial. The memorial, near Darlington Memorial Hospital, has 750 names recorded on it, but Mr Stephenson said he has found hundreds of men and boys who are not publicly recognised. Through his research Mr Stephenson would like to see the Cenotaph moved to a more prominent position in the town, with the full list of names, as part of the centenary commemorations. Anyone with information about the burglary or the whereabouts of Mr Stephenson’s laptop can contact Darlington Police on the non-emergency 101 number.Imagine devices that capture electricity from the air ― much like solar cells capture sunlight ― and using them to light a house or recharge an electric car. Imagine using similar panels on the rooftops of buildings to prevent lightning before it forms. Strange as it may sound, scientists already are in the early stages of developing such devices, according to a report presented at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). "Our research could pave the way for turning electricity from the atmosphere into an alternative energy source for the future," said study leader Fernando Galembeck, Ph.D. His research may help explain a 200-year-old scientific riddle about how electricity is produced and discharged in the atmosphere. "Just as solar energy could free some households from paying electric bills, this promising new energy source could have a similar effect," he maintained. "If we know how electricity builds up and spreads in the atmosphere, we can also prevent death and damage caused by lightning strikes," Galembeck said, noting that lightning causes thousands of deaths and injuries worldwide and millions of dollars in property damage. The notion of harnessing the power of electricity formed naturally has tantalized scientists for centuries. They noticed that sparks of static electricity formed as steam escaped from boilers. Workers who touched the steam even got painful electrical shocks. Famed inventor Nikola Tesla, for example, was among those who dreamed of capturing and using electricity from the air. It's the electricity formed, for instance, when water vapor collects on microscopic particles of dust and other material in the air. But until now, scientists lacked adequate knowledge about the processes involved in formation and release of electricity from water in the atmosphere, Galembeck said. He is with the University of Campinas in Campinas, SP, Brazil. Scientists once believed that water droplets in the atmosphere were electrically neutral, and remained so even after coming into contact with the electrical charges on dust particles and droplets of other liquids. But new evidence suggested that water in the atmosphere really does pick up an electrical charge. Galembeck and colleagues confirmed that idea, using laboratory experiments that simulated water's contact with dust particles in the air. They used tiny particles of silica and aluminum phosphate, both common airborne substances, showing that silica became more negatively charged in the presence of high humidity and aluminum phosphate became more positively charged. High humidity means high levels of water vapor in the air ― the vapor that condenses and becomes visible as "fog" on windows of air-conditioned cars and buildings on steamy summer days. "This was clear evidence that water in the atmosphere can accumulate electrical charges and transfer them to other materials it comes into contact with," Galembeck explained. "We are calling this 'hygroelectricity,' meaning 'humidity electricity'." In the future, he added, it may be possible to develop collectors, similar to the solar cells that collect the sunlight to produce electricity, to capture hygroelectricity and route it to homes and businesses. Just as solar cells work best in sunny areas of the world, hygroelectrical panels would work more efficiently in areas with high humidity, such as the northeastern and southeastern United States and the humid tropics. Galembeck said that a similar approach might help prevent lightning from forming and striking. He envisioned placing hygroelectrical panels on top of buildings in regions that experience frequent thunderstorms. The panels would drain electricity out of the air, and prevent the building of electrical charge that is released in lightning. His research group already is testing metals to identify those with the greatest potential for use in capturing atmospheric electricity and preventing lightning strikes. "These are fascinating ideas that new studies by ourselves and by other scientific teams suggest are now possible," Galembeck said. "We certainly have a long way to go. But the benefits in the long range of harnessing hygroelectricity could be substantial." CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) and FAPESP (The State of São Paulo Research Foundation) funded the study.Quick 9 a.m. update: UM running back Mark Walton's attorney (Farrell & Patel) tells me this morning that it will file a complaint against the city of Miami police, alleging the police botched his case even though charges were dropped. The complaint will be filed with the city's internal affairs division, the law firm says. (See below for more.) WEDNESDAY BUZZ COLUMN The Mark Walton matter was resolved this week with the lifting of the UM running back’s suspension, but Mark Richt is dealing with other disciplinary issues less than two months away from his first game as UM’s coach. Among them: • Ace Herald correspondent Peter Ariz and I have learned that freshmen receiver Sam Bruce is facing a potential one- or two-game suspension for brandishing a gun in a photo that resulted in Bruce withdrawing from St. Thomas Aquinas in February, shortly after signing his letter of intent with UM. Bruce made the photo of himself with the weapon because of a dispute with a former Aquinas male student, a dispute centered around Bruce’s ex-girlfriend. A source said the photo ended up in the hands of the former student, who then called police and Aquinas. No charges were ever filed. It’s always possible Richt could change his mind and decide not to suspend Bruce if his behavior is exemplary in August; neither I nor Peter nor anyone has a crystal ball and can predict if a coach will have a change of heart. But a UM source with direct knowledge said Tuesday the university’s full intention at this point is to be suspend Bruce for two games to start the season because there is an expectation of how Hurricanes players should represent themselves and that there should be consequences for their actions. Bruce, rated by Rivals.com as the seventh best receiver and 47th best player overall in the 2016 class, enrolled at UM in late June and is expected to receive playing time this season, potentially as a returner as well as a slot receiver. • Defensive end Al-Quadin Muhammad, arguably UM’s best defensive player, remains under scrutiny as UM continues to investigate whether at least four football players violated NCAA rules when they struck deals with a local car agency. As of Tuesday, Muhammad had not been cleared and it was undetermined if he would face discipline. A source said UM is not expected to bring back linebacker Juwon Young, who was suspended indefinitely last month both for his involvement and for not being forthcoming with UM officials. UM also has investigated whether linebacker Jermaine Grace was involved. UM’s investigation has focused on whether the players received discounted or heavily discounted luxury cars in exchange for some future stake in their careers. Three sources told Peter and me that the dealership in question is South Beach Exotic Rentals. Asked this week if his dealership had rented cars to any UM athletes, the company’s owner, Juan Caballero, said by phone: “I’m not aware of any of that. Maybe lower levels of the company have.” Asked if he has ever given UM players free cars to drive, he said: “We’re not giving anything for free. Jay Z paid when he rented a car. Justin Bieber paid.” Caballero said “no [UM] player is getting any sort of special treatment. I couldn't name one person on that team.” A UM player said eyebrows were raised when Young drove to practice last season in an expensive car. According to a UM source, a former girlfriend informed UM about Young’s involvement. ACC teams typically bring one offensive player and one defensive player to the conference’s media day, next week in Charlotte. But UM, cognizant of the car controversy, is taking punter Justin Vogel (along with quarterback Brad Kaaya) instead of Muhammad or Grace. It's important to again note that the NCAA is not investigating UM. If Miami finds wrongdoing, it will report what it discovered to the NCAA and get the NCAA's blessing on Miami's suggested discipline for student athletes who committed violations. • Walton, reinstated from suspension after a DUI charge against him was dropped, is not expected to be held out of any games. A day after Walton’s attorney accused the police of botching the matter, city of Miami police chief Rodolfo Llanes defended his department’s handling of the case. “Mr. Walton was taken into custody based upon probable cause, which is the legal standard required to effect an arrest,” Llanes said today in a statement emailed to several media outlets, including The Herald. “Mr. Walton’s physical contact with the Miami Police Department began with visual observations of possible impaired driving. Further investigation revealed he was driving with a suspended license. “Mr. Walton’s eventual blood alcohol level was below the.08 threshold, however it should be noted that Mr. Walton is not of age to purchase or consume alcoholic beverages. The declination to file criminal charges as a function of prosecutorial discretion should not be used to presume wrongdoing on the part of the Miami Police Department or any of its officers. Our investigation revealed there was no evidence of any prior relationship or association.” Walton’s attorney, Joey McCall, told WINZ’s Andy Slater this week: "We learned with our own investigation that at least two City of Miami officers, through the alleged victim, lured Mark over to a house, were hidden when he got there, and then rushed him with guns drawn. One officer came from inside the house and the other officer came from around the side of the house. “Mark was literally terrified and as a result cooperated with whatever he was made to do. All he could think about was trying to stay alive." So, why, Slater asked, were there cops at her house waiting for Walton as McCall described? "We learned from other officers within the City of Miami police department that the arresting officers, among others, were essentially conducting a warrantless sting operation that they were not assigned to do and weren't asked to participate in," McCall told Slater. "Based on additional information we received, the alleged victim and at least one of the arresting officers have a personal relationship of some kind and knew each other prior to April 23." CHATTER Though the Heat has 15 players with fully or partially guaranteed contracts, Miami remains in conversations with point guard Beno Udrih, according to his agent. The Heat has left open the possibility of his return at the minimum, but he hasn’t decided what to do. • According to agent Joel Bell, center Willie Reed accepted a two-year deal at the minimum from the Heat, instead of an offer for more elsewhere, because “he enjoyed his time with the Heat in Summer League last year and remembers how great the organization is and the coaches are. He said [assistant coach] Juwan Howard showed him a couple things that helped him and he remembered that.” Howard continues to impress people; he has been very helpful in the development of Hassan Whiteside. By the way, Bell said that the 26-year-old Reed, who was 6-9 in college at St. Louis, measured in at 6-11 1/2 this week. • Please click here for a lot of interesting things that Udonis Haslem had to say today, about Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Kevin Durant and others. • Despite the fear that Ndamukong Suh’s contract (which was restructured) would be an albatross on Miami’s cap, the Dolphins will be in pretty good shape next offseason. If the cap rises from $155 million to $160 million, the Dolphins would have $16 million in space, plus a large chunk of 2016 carryover space ($17 million, according to the players’ union) and the ability to clear out a lot more by cutting or restructuring Branden Albert ($10.6 million cap hit in 2017), Mario Williams ($10.5 million), Byron Maxwell ($8.5 million), Earl Mitchell ($4.5 million) and Isa Abdul-Quddus ($5 million), among others. They also could restructure Mike Pouncey ($8.9 million). • Please click here for more Dolphins nuggets from a few hours ago, on Billy Turner, the Miko Grimes Anti-Semitic comment fallout and Wes Welker. • The Marlins are one of only three teams that haven’t signed their first-round pick (Alabama prep lefty Braxton Garrett) and the MLB deadline for that is Friday. The Marlins have said they are optimistic they will strike a deal with Garrett’s agent, Scott Boras. With the slotting system for picks, it's not possible for a player to hold out for an obscene sum of money, as they once could. • The Marlins (with limited available trade assets) continue efforts to acquire a starting pitcher from a group include Tampa’s Jake Odorizzi, San Diego’s Drew Pomeranz and potentially Oakland’s Rich Hill, among others. If they can’t, their best hope for a competent fifth starter might be Jarred Cosart, who has allowed four runs in eight innings over two starts in Single A after missing a month with an oblique injury. Justin Nicolino, Jose Urena (1-2, 3.63 in nine minor league starts) and Jeremy Guthrie are the other internal options, but Guthrie hasn't been impressive at Triple A (6-5, 7.08 ERA). And Nicolino remains erratic. Twitter: @flasportsbuzzFootball Accepts Bid to Hyundai Sun Bowl Wolfpack to make its fourth consecutive bowl appearance, 31st all-time – NC State has accepted a bid to the Hyundai Sun Bowl, which will be played in El Paso, Texas, on Friday, December 29. Kickoff is scheduled for 3 p.m. (ET) and the game will be televised by CBS.The Wolfpack will face Arizona State of the Pac-12. This will be the third all-time matchup between the Wolfpack and the Sun Devils. NC State fell at Arizona State in 1960 (25-22), but then won in Tempe in 1974 (35-14). NC State has not faced a PAC-12 team since Arizona in the 1989 Copper Bowl (loss, 17-10).NC State will be making its fourth consecutive bowl appearance, all under head coach. In Doeren's seven-year stint as a head coach overall, he has advanced to the postseason six times.The Wolfpack finished the 2017 regular season ranked No. 24 in the final College Football Playoff Rankings with a record of 8-4. The Pack finished 6-2 in the ACC, tying as the most conference wins in a single season all-time at NC State.The Hyundai Sun Bowl will be NC State's 31st postseason appearance (16-13-1) and the 13th bowl game since 2000.Wolfpack Club members and NC State fans can reserve tickets by visiting GoPack.com/buytickets now. The priority deadline for fans to order bowl tickets isTickets prices range from $47-62 and can be ordered on-line at the GoPack.com Ticket Center or by phone through the NC State Ticket Office at (919) 865-1510 during regular office hours (Monday - Friday, 8:30a.m. - 4:30p.m.). Seating assignments will be determined by Wolfpack Club priority rank and if a price level is sold out, fans will automatically be assigned to the next lowest-priced ticket by priority and refunded the difference in cost. Any Non-Wolfpack Club member that places an order is subject to availability and seated after all Wolfpack Club orders are filled.For Wolfpack Club travel info, please visit www.wolfpackclubtravel.comPaul Ryan Primary Oppenent: Sources Say Paul Ryan is Colluding w/ Dems to Shut Down Government Over Wall Funding The state of Wisconsin voted for Donald Trump for President in 2016. It was the first time the state voted Republican since 1988 that the state voted for a Republican. You would think Speaker Paul Ryan would do everything possible to keep the state voting Republican for years to come. But he isn’t. President Donald Trump won the November 8, 2016 election in an electoral landslide. President Trump captured several states that have not voted Republican in decades. Riding on his coattails the Republican Party also won back the House of Representatives and won a majority in the US Senate. In December 2016 Speaker Paul Ryan spoke about how he would help the new president push through his agenda. The new Republican president wanted to pass tax cuts, repeal Obamacare and build a border wall. But nothing happened. On March 8, 2017 Speaker Paul Ryan told Tucker Carlson Congress had a 200 day play to guarantee the president’s agenda would be passed. Paul Ryan’s 200 day plan will ran out on August 7th. Nothing has happened. Earlier this week Paul Ryan slammed President Trump from vacation on his comments after the Charlottesville car attack. Now this… Today Paul Ryan’s primary opponent tweeted out that Paul Ryan is working with Democrats to shut down government over building the proposed Trump border wall. 🚨ALERT: @realDonaldTrump Paul Ryan is colluding w Dems to shut down Guv over building the wall. https://t.co/CDJl9F87is — Paul Nehlen (@pnehlen) August 24, 2017
it’s not something that lends itself to a vertical slice.PARIS (Reuters) - France’s ban on full face veils, a first in Europe, went into force on Monday, making anyone wearing the Muslim niqab or burqa in public liable to a fine of 150 euros ($216) or lessons in French citizenship. Kenza Drider, a French Muslim of North African descent, wears a niqab outside the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris April 11, 2011. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes The ban has been criticized in France and elsewhere, but mainstream Muslim groups — which had a six-month grace period after the law was passed to explain it to their supporters — opted not to protest at its entry into force. “We’ve already had our debate about the law and now our position is clear: we respect French law 100 percent,” said a spokesman for the French Council of the Muslim Faith. France’s five-million-strong Muslim minority is Western Europe’s largest, but fewer than 2,000 women are believed actually to wear a full face veil. Many still oppose the law, however, on the grounds of the precedent it sets. President Nicolas Sarkozy’s center-right government, which pushed the law through parliament in October, rolled out a public relations campaign with posters, pamphlets and a web site to explain the ban and how it will be enforced. Guidelines in the pamphlet forbid police from asking women to remove their burqa or full-face veil in the street. They will instead be escorted to a police station and asked to remove the veil there for identification. Widely criticized by Muslims abroad as impinging on their religious freedom, the law has provoked a limited backlash in France where a strict separation of church and state is seen as central to maintaining a peaceful civil society. But Sarkozy, whose opinion poll ratings are at record lows a year before he faces a tough battle for re-election, has been accused more generally of stigmatizing Muslims to boost his support among far-right voters ahead of the vote. “It’s so stupid what they’ve done with this law, because now people will wear the (full-face veil) not out of faith but because they are looking for a confrontation,” said Hager Amer, a 27-year-old Muslim woman. Amer wore black jeans, sunglasses and a zip top but stood next to her veiled sister at a tiny gathering against the ban at Notre Dame Cathedral in central Paris to support her right to wear a “chador” head-covering. Sitting outside a mosque in Paris’ multi-ethnic 18th Arrondissement, a young man who gave his name as Mohammed scoffed at the new regulation. “All Muslims are stigmatized by this law,” he said. “They don’t accept Muslims here.” Related Coverage Factbox: Policy on Muslim scarves and veils in Europe CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE A Muslim property dealer is urging women to engage in “civil disobedience” by continuing to wear the veil if they so desire. Rachid Nekkaz, the property dealer, said in a webcast he would help pay fines and was putting a property worth around two million euros up for sale to fund his campaign. “I am calling on all free women who so wish to wear the veil in the street and engage in civil disobedience,” he said. Police said they had detained five people, two men and three women, at the small protest Nekkaz had organized in front of Notre Dame Cathedral. The protestors were held for identity checks because their demonstration had not been authorized, not because they were wearing forbidden clothing, a policeman told Reuters. In the southern city of Avignon, Reuters TV filmed a woman boarding a train wearing a burqa, unchallenged by police. “It’s not an act of provocation,” said Kenza Drider, wearing a full-face veil on the train. “I’m only carrying out my citizens’ rights, I’m not committing a crime... If they (police) ask me for identity papers I’ll show them, no problem.” Sophie Belley, 32, the owner of a shop selling African goods in northern Paris, said Muslims here should respect French traditions and covering women’s faces runs contrary to that. “I’m not against the religion of Islam, it doesn’t matter to me. But people who cover themselves up, I’m against that.” Many Muslim leaders have said they support neither the veil nor the ban. But Hassan Chalghoumi, an imam in the suburb of Drancy northeast of Paris, said he supported the law because of the veil’s effect on women. “These women are under the impression that wearing the veil is a religious obligation,” Chalghoumi said on LCI television. “We have an obligation to protect them, to educate them.” On Saturday, police arrested around 60 people who turned up in Paris for a banned protest over the veil ban which had been called by a Muslim group in Britain. Slideshow (4 Images) One of the protesters, outspoken British Muslim activist Anjem Choudary, was considered a “serious threat to public order” and sent back to Britain, a police report showed. The guide sent out last week to police notes that the burqa ban does not apply inside private cars, but it reminds officers that such cases can be dealt with under road safety rules.Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Thursday filed for a Saturday cloture vote on both the stand-alone “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal and the DREAM Act. Here is Reid filing the move for cloture: According to reports, the DREAM Act will be considered first. If the DREAM Act fails to garner enough votes for cloture, the Senate will move immediately to the stand-alone DADT repeal bill. The repeal legislation will require a 60 vote super-majority for cloture. Should it reach that threshold, the bill would later face a full up-or-down vote where only a simple majority will be required to pass. However, the timing of the second vote still depends on whether Republican senators will agree to bypass the debate time they had asked for when the bill was amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for 2011. This seems possible given that much of the legislation the GOP wanted dealt with has now been voted on, and both sides seem reticent to offer any amendments to the bill. Advocates appear optimistic that so long as time can be found to actually hold the vote, the repeal has enough support to surmount a filibuster given that a number of GOP senators have now openly expressed support for the repeal. From The Advocate: In terms of vote count, advocates believe they have at least 59 and maybe 60 votes, if Snowe approves the stand-alone. Here’s the breakdown: of the 58 Democratic senators, 56 are likely to vote for passage (excluding Sen. Joe Manchin, who joined the last GOP filibuster of the defense authorization bill, and Sen. Ron Wyden, who was recently diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing surgery Monday); but the support of GOP senators Susan Collins, Scott Brown, and Lisa Murkowski brings the count to 59, and most believe Sen. Olympia Snowe will also come along since she has signaled support for repeal though not specifically the stand-alone bill itself. A few other GOP senators, such as Richard Lugar and George Voinovich, are also potential gets. Sen. Manchin (D-WV) has since apologized for his vote and has indicated that it was an issue of timing rather than one in which he doesn’t support the repeal. How he will vote on the stand-alone DADT repeal bill on Saturday remains to be seen. As The Advocate mentions above, Senator Ron Wyden (D- Oregon) will undergo surgery for prostate cancer on Monday and will also be unavailable for Senate business on Friday, but The Associate Press quotes Wyden’s spokesperson as saying that the senator will in fact be present over the weekend – therefore he should be available for the cloture vote. Wyden supports the repeal. With the tax deal now out of the way, another boost to the repeal effort is that Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) has agreed to support the stand-alone DADT repeal bill, saying in a statement issued Thursday, “After careful analysis of the comprehensive report compiled by the Department of Defense and thorough consideration of the testimony provided by the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the service chiefs, I support repeal of the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law.” Prior to Reid filing for cloture, Senator Joe Lieberman speaking during an MSNBC interview appeared to lay out a timetable for how the DADT vote might go in terms of reconciling it with the START treaty. From The Washington Post: “I believe instead of going back to the START treaty, we should go to the independent stand-alone repeal of don’t ask don’t tell Saturday night,” Lieberman said. “We can get it done by Monday, maybe Tuesday at the latest, and then go back to the START treaty.” [...] Here’s why this is the way to go, as spelled out by an aide involved in the discussions. If Reid waits until New START is done before holding the vote on DADT, Senators could start going home once the treaty is resolved, dooming DADT repeal. But this scenario would be averted if Reid slips in the DADT vote before START. By contrast, if the DADT repeal debate and vote are done first, no Senator will leave Washington before START is resolved. So doing DADT repeal first doesn’t imperil START. What’s more, if worst comes to worst, START could be resolved early next year. DADT repeal, meanwhile, can’t be resolved next year, because by then the votes simply may not be there in the Senate to pass it. The votes, however, are there right now, and GOP moderates have signaled that it’s time. The stand-alone legislation has an advantage in that it removes many of the procedural hurdles that dogged the repeal when it was an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for 2011, yet the Senate’s schedule and how effectively Reid can maneuver for the vote remains of prime concern. That said, advocates point out that the legislative repeal is now closer to passing than ever before. Related Reading: Photo used under the Creative Commons Attribution License, with thanks to the U.S. Army Photostream.TUNIS (Reuters) - As Islamic State’s last defences crumbled this week in their Libyan bastion Sirte, dozens of women and children used as human shields stumbled dazed and dust-caked from the rubble. A fighter of Libyan forces allied with the U.N.-backed government waving a Libyan flag flashes victory sign as he stands atop the ruins of a house after forces finished clearing Ghiza Bahriya, the final district of the former Islamic State stronghold of Sirte, Libya. REUTERS/Hani Amara Fighters from the armed groups that defeated the jihadists feted the end of a punishing six-month battle by flying Libyan flags over the Mediterranean city, once known mainly as the home town of late dictator Muammar Gaddafi, more recently as the main stronghold outside Syria and Iraq of Islamic State’s caliphate. But the campaign has been far from the unifying event some had hoped for. Celebrations have been muted by the risk of jihadist counter attacks and the potential for renewed war among Libya’s military factions. The past week’s developments give a measure of the chaos still enveloping Libya, five years after the NATO-backed uprising that overthrew Gaddafi. Just hours after the last district in Sirte was cleared, fighters in a newly formed force swept up from the desert south of the city towards Libya’s Oil Crescent, looking to recapture ports that had changed hands three months before. Tripoli has seen its worst clashes for more than a year as the capital’s militias rolled tanks onto the streets in a feud infused with ideological and political disputes. And in the main city in the east, the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) continued to suffer heavy casualties as it struggles to secure parts of Benghazi against Islamist-led rivals after more than two years of warfare. A half-formed, U.N.-backed government based in the capital looks increasingly helpless to stop the turmoil – though Western powers insist that it represents the only path towards peace. U.N. Libya envoy Martin Kobler told the Security Council this week that while a peace plan signed a year ago had stalled, weapons were still being delivered into Libya, the economy was facing “meltdown”, and the country remained a “human marketplace” for migrants trying to reach Europe. Gains against militants in Sirte and Benghazi were “not irreversible”, he added. The campaign in Sirte was led by brigades from Misrata, an influential port east of Tripoli. They launched their offensive in May when militants advanced up the coast towards their city. The U.N.-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) scrambled to take command, but only ever had nominal control over fighters on the ground, some of them with different agendas beyond the campaign in Sirte. The brigades hoped the battle would be finished in weeks, but their progress was halted by Islamic State snipers, suicide bombers and mines. By mid-summer, with casualties mounting and an official request from the GNA, they called in the help of U.S. air support. Nearly 500 strikes were carried out over Sirte between Aug. 1 and early December. After the last buildings in Sirte’s Ghiza Bahriya neighbourhood were secured on Tuesday, jubilant fighters paraded through the streets, chanting that the deaths of more than 700 men from within their ranks had not been in vain. But there have been no such scenes in Misrata, a city whose fighting force was forged in the 2011 uprising and string of military campaigns in the years that followed. COMEBACK? “Every time after we win a war we celebrate,” said Ahmed Algennabi, a 28-year-old salesman in a Misrata perfume shop. “But now I don’t think that it’s the end of this war, and I expect more fighting against Islamic State.” Fear of an Islamic State comeback or insurgent campaign is the stated reason for not declaring an official end to the operation in Sirte. Libyan security officials say a significant number of militants left Sirte before the battle or in its early stages, and that Islamic State has cells along Libya’s western coast as well as in the hinterlands. Even as the fighting continued in Sirte’s residential neighbourhoods, the group carried out attacks from behind the front lines, including suicide bombings and a major ambush. Military officials say they will now move to deal with this threat by securing the desert valleys south of Sirte and chasing down fugitive militants. But they are also nervous about Khalifa Haftar, the commander of the LNA in the east, who has fought on the side opposed to Misrata’s brigades in a stop-start national conflict since 2014, and has recently been boosted by his own military advances. In September, with Misrata’s fighters still tied up in Sirte, Haftar’s forces moved to seize the Oil Crescent ports, some of them just 200 km (125 miles) to the east, and many see him edging towards national power. Fighters of Libyan forces allied with the U.N.-backed government gather atop the ruins of a house as they are close to securing last Islamic State holdouts in Sirte, Libya. REUTERS/Ayman Sahely State control is still absent, and any patriotic feeling fostered by the campaign in Sirte is likely to dissipate soon, said Libyan analyst Tarek Megerisi. “Now it’s over it’s just back to business as usual, because none of the divisions have been healed, none of the drivers of conflict have been stopped or put on hold,” he said. “Everyone’s just been manoeuvring, waiting for this to end, so that they can return to their power struggle.”A federal court in Detroit, Michigan has permanently barred a former Liberty Tax Service franchise owner and his operating company from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today. The civil injunction order prohibits Craig M. Comer and Comer Inc. from acting as federal tax return preparers and operating a tax return preparation business. Comer and Comer Inc. agreed to the civil injunction order entered against them. On Jan. 28, the government filed suit against Comer and Comer Inc. and alleged that their five Detroit area Liberty Tax Service stores prepared federal income tax returns that improperly inflated claims for tax refunds and refundable credits for customers during 2013, 2014 and 2015. According to the government’s complaint, the defendants also altered completed, customer-signed tax returns to increase the fees they charged customers and then forged the customers’ signatures on the returns when re-signing and filing them with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). As of March, Comer and Comer Inc. claimed to no longer own or operate any Liberty Tax Service stores. Today’s court order, among other prohibitions, bars the defendants from operating a tax return preparation business and includes disbarment from practice before the IRS in any capacity. Return preparer fraud is one of the IRS’s Dirty Dozen Tax Scams for 2016. The IRS has some tips on their website for choosing a tax preparer and has launched a free directory of federal tax preparers. In the past decade, the Tax Division has obtained injunctions against hundreds of unscrupulous tax preparers. Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department’s website. An alphabetical listing of persons enjoined from preparing returns and promoting tax schemes can be found on this page. If you believe that one of the enjoined persons or businesses may be violating an injunction, please contact the Tax Division with details.Culture Heathenry in Iceland, America and Germany: The mainstream and the fringe From a Ástrúarfélagið mid-winter feast "In opposition to the “troll” insistence that outsiders determine Icelandic practice, most American and German Heathens emphasize the religion’s locality – a stance in keeping with Ásatrú’s emphasis on community and respect for one’s natural environment." Photo/Stefán Karlsson By Karl E. H. Seigfried In 1972, Icelandic farmer-poet Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson founded an organization for the practice of Ásatrú (“Æsir Faith”), a religion dedicated to Old Norse gods such as Odin and Thor. Beginning with a mere dozen adherents, the Ásatrúarfélagið (“Æsir Faith Fellowship”) now has over three thousand members, and Ásatrú is Iceland’s largest non-Christian religion. In early 2015, news that the group was building Iceland’s first modern hof (Heathen temple) went viral. In May, Gay Iceland posted a feature on the popularity of Iceland for same-sex destination weddings officiated by the Ásatrúarfélagið. These articles brought some unwanted attention to the Heathen group on social media. A small number of reactionary non-Icelandic Heathens posted anti-gay comments on the organization’s Facebook page. Administrators blocked the commenters and posted a statement in English: “Ásatrúarfélagið is an Icelandic religious association, subject to Icelandic laws. Discussions that do not adhere to our values and the laws of the land are not tolerated on our Facebook page.” News items appeared detailing threats against the hof, including what Ásatrúarfélagið leader Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson called “gushes of hate-mail from abroad” and alleged plans by American and German Heathen groups to perform a blood-ritual in the Icelandic temple to “re-consecrate” it and “correct” the religious practice of the Icelanders. Media stories treating these outliers as serious voices in the American and German Heathen communities promote the idea, perhaps unintentionally, that Icelandic Ásatrú is wholly and without exception progressive and liberal, while Heathenry in America and Germany is largely composed of bigoted extremists. This simply isn’t so. Looking to different pasts Although Icelandic followers of Ásatrú have a high media profile, their numbers are dwarfed by the Heathen community in the United States. According to results of the Worldwide Heathen Census that I conducted at the end of 2013, there are nearly eight times as many followers of the religion in America as there are in Iceland. Germany also has a higher total number of adherents than Iceland. Unlike Iceland, where one religious organization includes nearly all Heathens, America and Germany have a large number of national organizations, regional associations, local groups and lone practitioners. No organization is dominant and no one person is the public face of Heathenry, as is the case in Iceland. Icelandic-style Ásatrú is only one of many varieties of Heathenry practiced; Theodism, for example, centers on the beliefs and culture of pre-conversion Anglo-Saxons. The Ásatrúarfélagið focuses on Icelandic heritage. Given the nation’s rich literary past and mostly monocultural society, its members can look to purely Icelandic sources for information on pre-Christian religion, mining the medieval Eddas and sagas for texts to be used in blóts (religious rituals) and for models of how these rituals may be performed. Members gather to discuss Old Icelandic poems, and several leaders of the organization actively participate in re-enactment of music, crafts and fighting techniques of Iceland’s early settlers. American Heathens tend to be more omnivorous in their studies. This is understandable, in light of the great cultural diversity of American society. American Heathens incorporate elements from Iceland’s Eddas and sagas into their practice, but they also delve into literary sources from England, Denmark, Germany and the Roman Empire. They are intensely interested in archeological discoveries throughout Scandinavia, the European continent and the British Isles. Many follow the latest academic scholarship in historical and religious studies. German Heathens are interested in Icelandic materials, but largely turn to the pre-Christian history of their own region for inspiration and guidance. Written accounts of Germanic Heathens include Latin texts by Caesar and Tacitus; archeological evidence stretches back hundreds of years BCE. Andreas Zautner, a member of the German Heathen organization the Eldaring, stresses the importance of local history: “Specific historical Heathen events play an important role for Heathens in Germany. One event common to most Germans is the defeat of the Roman legions by Hermann the Cherusker. The two-thousandth anniversary of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest was celebrated by German Heathens only a few years ago.” The mainstream and the fringe Far from representing American and German Heathenry, individuals who engaged in online bullying of the Ásatrúarfélagið are isolated extremists. Despite media focus on the far-right fringe, the majority of practitioners in America and Germany are opposed to such attitudes. Websites of most groups include statements denouncing discrimination based on gender, race or sexual orientation. Sociologist Jennifer Snook’s new book, American Heathens: The Politics of Identity in a Pagan Religious Movement, contains data on “political values” of practitioners. On marriage equality, American Heathens are more progressive than U.S. society as a whole; seventy-seven percent of Heathens support gay marriage rights, compared to only fifty-five percent of the overall population. Within the American Heathen community, those who self-identify as liberals or moderates outnumber conservatives nearly five to three. German Heathens are particularly sensitive to appropriation of pre-Christian religious symbols by reactionary groups, given the Third Reich’s use of Heathen imagery. The Rabenclan organization’s “Ariosophie Projekt” has long detailed its research exposing right-wing elements attempting to co-opt Heathenry. Another group, Nornirs Ætt, has become so uncompromisingly dedicated to the idea of “Antifa” (anti-fascism) that they are left of even liberal Heathens. One person who harassed the Ásatrúarfélagið over gay marriage on its Facebook page also repeatedly commented on Iceland Magazine’s article on hate-mail sent to the organization. The self-proclaimed Hawaiian Odinist seemed to use at least three different aliases to praise her own comments and repeatedly link to her website featuring slander of Jews, African-Americans and immigrants. It remains unclear why a Hawaiian Odinist should have any say in the practices of an Ásatrú organization over six thousand miles away, or why a Hawaiian’s personal prejudices should impact legal decisions in the land of the sagas. What is clear is that a single reactionary individual can get a great amount of attention by being unrelentingly obnoxious online, even if her views are completely out of step with the mainstream of the religion. Locality and diversity In reaction to statements from the “crazies and trolls of the internet,” Hilmar Örn told Iceland Magazine that the Ásatrúarfélagið “will not tolerate some foreign reactionaries coming here to tell us how to practice our faith.” Andreas Zautner says the same of German Heathens: “No one is expecting that some kind of clerical authority from a foreign country should give religious guidance for German Heathens.” The reactionaries have misunderstood “the American myth,” according Steven T. Abel, Steersman of the Troth, a national Heathen group in the United States. “Think for yourself, make your own path, and find your own friends,” he says. "Freedom is important to us. The hard lesson is that some view freedom as being good for themselves; anyone else's freedom they're not too sure about. Some people learn and grow into wider views; others don't.” In opposition to the “troll” insistence that outsiders determine Icelandic practice, most American and German Heathens emphasize the religion’s locality – a stance in keeping with Ásatrú’s emphasis on community and respect for one’s natural environment. Haimo Grebenstein, Ewart (religious steward) for Germany’s Verein für Germanisches Heidentum (Association for Germanic Heathenry), believes that local-focus groups can support each other, yet still maintain independent identities. “Iceland is different from Germany, and that’s fine,” he says. The Icelanders “were probably the first in Europe in terms of modern Ásatrú, they are the largest organization by numbers, and in building the hof they are again up front. That is indeed inspiring for other groups, but rather in a public relations context than a religious one.” Josh Heath, co-director of Open Halls Project, an American Heathen organization currently advocating for recognition of Heathenry in the U.S. Army, stresses that local variation goes hand-in-hand with respect for other practitioners: “Icelandic Heathens do Heathenry differently than Heathens in the United States. This is good, because we recognize the value of localizing ourselves and understanding the Heathen worldview through the world, society and community we live within. We can support and defend others, but we can do so in a way that respects the diversity within a polytheistic worldview." In the age of “crazies and trolls,” a little respect would be a wonderful thing. Dr. Karl E. H. Seigfried is the author of The Norse Mythology Blog.Nokia just announced that it's suing Apple again, this time over the iPhone and iPad 3G. Apple shares are getting hit hard. Nokia sues Apple in Wisconsin for infringement of Nokia patents Espoo, Finland - Nokia announced that it has today filed a complaint against Apple with the Federal District Court in the Western District of Wisconsin, alleging that Apple iPhone and iPad 3G products infringe five important Nokia patents. The patents in question relate to technologies for enhanced speech and data transmission, using positioning data in applications and innovations in antenna configurations that improve performance and save space, allowing smaller and more compact devices. These patented innovations are important to Nokia's success as they allow improved product performance and design. "Nokia has been the leading developer of many key technologies in mobile devices" said Paul Melin, General Manager, Patent Licensing at Nokia. "We have taken this step to protect the results of our pioneering development and to put an end to continued unlawful use of Nokia's innovation." During the last two decades, Nokia has invested approximately EUR 40 billion in research and development and built one of the wireless industry's strongest and broadest IPR portfolios, with over 11,000 patent families. Nokia is a world leader in the development of handheld device and mobile communications technologies, which is also demonstrated by Nokia's strong patent portfolio. Don't miss: What Apple's New iPhone Means For You →DAKAR (Reuters) - The Ebola epidemic could flare up again in West Africa and health authorities are no better equipped to control it than they were a year ago, the head of medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said on Saturday. Children come forward to get their feet disinfected after a Red Cross worker explained that they are spraying bleach, and not spraying the village with the Ebola virus, in Forecariah January 30, 2015, REUTERS/Misha Hussain “The reality today is if Ebola were to hit on scale it did in August and September, we would hardly do much better than we did the last time around,” Joanne Liu said on the sidelines of a meeting on Ebola in Dakar. Leaders of the Group of Seven industrial nations vowed this week to wipe out the epidemic that has killed more than 11,100 people across West Africa, but offered little concrete action. While the virus is spreading more slowly than at the peak last year and Liberia has defeated the outbreak, cases have risen sharply in the past two weeks in Guinea and Sierra Leone. “We’ve been disappointed by the World Health Assembly and again by the G7 in terms of their recommendations,” Liu, the international president of MSF, told Reuters. She was referring also to a World Health Organization (WHO) meeting last month. The WHO did not declare an international public health emergency until August last year, eight months after the first Ebola case, delaying resources to the sick. Jerome Mouton, MSF country head for Guinea, described a state of “semi-denial” about the virus similar to a year ago, adding that another major flare-up of the disease was possible. “We are in the same situation where we are overly optimistic, saying that it is almost finished and there’s no problem but in fact it’s a big problem as there is potential for this to again set off a big epidemic,” he said. Sierra Leone reported the highest daily Ebola case count in nearly three months earlier this week and the government has since introduced a curfew for the affected areas. In Guinea, the outbreak has spread into districts previously free of the disease in recent weeks, including the border area with Guinea Bissau. “A month ago I thought we would see the end shortly but I am much less optimistic now,” Mouton said.- Advertisement - "Coincidentally", White House staff began taking the anti-anthrax medicine before the Anthrax attacks occurred. Indeed, "The FBI has completely shut Congress out of its now five-year investigation into anthrax attacks on Capitol Hill and around the nation". In other words, Congress -- which legally has every right to know what really happened, and which was the main victim of the attack -- is being kept in the dark. (While many in Congress may be complicit in alot of dastardly deeds, you don't want the victims of a false flag attack to know who really attacked them). And the authorities have mysteriously failed to investigate the main suspect in the anthrax attacks, yet another indication that the attacks were a false flag misdirection. - Advertisement - Without 9/11, the American public would not have given in to the Bush administration's imperial agenda. Without the anthrax attack, Congress would not have let the Constitution be demolished so quickly. A few legislators would probably have successfully stood against the Patriot Act, or at least demanded that that law be read and analyzed before it was adopted. While not nearly as many people were killed by the Anthrax attack as by 9/11, the anthrax attack was also an important false flag operation - one aimed directly at Congress.The Andy Dalton era in Cincinnati is just getting started. Schein: A Bengals blunder Adam Schein believes Cincinnati jumped the gun in signing quarterback Andy Dalton to a lucrative contract extension. believes Cincinnati jumped the gun in signing quarterback Andy Dalton to a lucrative contract extension. READ The Bengals agreed to a six-year, $96 million extension with the fourth-year quarterback, NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport reported Monday, per a source directly involved. NFL Media's Albert Breer and Rapoport said the deal is worth a possible $115 million with escalators based on advancing in the playoffs, per a source. The team later officially announced the signing. ESPN first reported the news. "We're betting big on him because we believe in him," Bengals owner Mike Brown said Monday. A lot of Bengals fans see Dalton as a quarterback with limited arm strength that has badly struggled in the playoffs. (Dalton has one touchdown pass and six interceptions in three playoff losses.) Brown sees a young signal-caller that has been to the playoffs every season of his career and has room to grow. Only Dan Marino and Peyton Manning have passed for more touchdowns in their first three seasons. The truth is somewhere in the middle. Dalton is not yet better than a league-average starting quarterback, but league-average starting QBs are worth a ton in this market. The structure of Dalton's contract will be key. When the San Francisco 49ers signed Colin Kaepernick earlier this offseason, they essentially gave him a "pay as you go" deal. There was very little money guaranteed, and Kaepernick will have to keep performing at a high level to earn his money. Dalton might have a similar structure, as Brown indicated publicly over the summer. Per Rapoport, via a directly involved source, Dalton's extension includes a $12 million signing bonus and a $5 million roster bonus in three days. The $17 million in fully guaranteed money is more than which Kaepernick received. Dalton needs to improve his decision-making and consistency. A quarterback like him with a limited skill set needs to win with accuracy and smarts, but Dalton too often goes on cold streaks like a wild relief pitcher. He also needs to win above the neck, and too often he makes head-scratching decisions when under pressure. He's certainly in position to improve. With A.J. Green, Marvin Jones and Giovani Bernard, the Bengals have a great, young offensive nucleus. Offensive coordinator Hue Jackson has succeeded everywhere he's been and should help Dalton this season. Around The League has long had a theory that Dalton is the prime meridian of NFL quarterbacks. If your quarterback is ranked "After Dalton," you need to a find new one. The Bengals, meanwhile, won't be looking for another quarterback. That could leave their offense stuck in quarterback purgatory for a long time, even if Dalton is now paid like a superstar. The latest Around The League Podcast breaks down Marshawn Lynch's belated arrival at Seahawks camp and debates which active NFL players are first-ballot locks for the Hall of Fame.The director of Final Fantasy XV is reading your comments, Kotaku. Hope you've got good ones. Hajime Tabata, the newly-elevated Square Enix superstar who is helming the next two major Final Fantasy games—Type-0 HD (this March) and XV (eventually)—told me on Friday that sometimes, when he has spare moments, he goes through Kotaku comments and runs them through Google Translate to get feedback on Type-0 and other games he's developing. No pressure, guys. Tabata, who is jovial and friendly, spent a little over an hour chatting with me last week at a quiet office in midtown Manhattan. He was in town to show off Type-0 HD, so Square Enix's PR folks asked me not to probe him too much about Final Fantasy XV, although he was open to questions about the XV demo, which Tabata says will be out as close to March 17 as possible. ("That's our current goal," he told me.) Of course, I couldn't help but slip in a few burning Final Fantasy XV questions anyway. And I left the interview again feeling optimistic about the future of Final Fantasy, as I have been since we first heard news that Tabata had taken over direction on the hotly-anticipated fifteenth main game in Square's iconic franchise. In every presentation he's given, Tabata speaks with the confidence of someone who is actually going to finish this thing. Here's hoping he pulls it off. Advertisement Read our extensive conversation for some interesting details on the development of Type-0 HD, what it's like to deal with overwhelming amounts of fan feedback, the size of Final Fantasy XV's map, and why Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi felt guilty about a snarky comment he made to me last year. This interview was conducted through a Square Enix-provided translator, so all pronouns have been edited to reflect Tabata's point of view. The interview has also been edited for clarity and brevity. Advertisement Tabata: I wanna start off by saying thank you for the previews and articles that you've written for us. I think it's been communicated to the fans that this essentially happened because of them, so we appreciate your support. Schreier: Thanks! So the first thing I want to ask, since we saw each other a few months ago… At this point we know a lot about the game and people have an idea of what to expect from Type-0. Have there been any changes in this HD version since the last time we talked? Tabata: One of the things that was bought up ever since PAX Prime, both from media and fans who have tried playing the game, they all pointed out the camera behavior and controls. And so that has been an element that we've been working on and tuning, and we're near mastering this title and we're working til the last minute to fine-tune that element, so that's one of the bigger points. Advertisement And with regards to the characters that the players will be able to control, we've improved the battle specs with regards to each of these characters, and so you'll feel that it's more intuitive, it's easier to play, it feels good controlling these characters. So those are some of the other points that we've worked on. Schreier: When you say improved the battle specs, can you get into specifics about exactly what was changed? Tabata: One of the major changes is in the speed that the characters move within the battles. They've become speedier. Those that felt a little bit slow, we've picked up their speed so that it won't feel like a weakness as much anymore. Also with regards to avoiding attacks, we've speeded up that process. It's easier to deflect attacks and move around more quickly. Advertisement The archer—the character that uses the bow and arrow—he was actually a very unpopular character in the PSP version and wasn't used much, but his popularity is really increasing right now among the people who are testing the game, because of his playability being increased. And also the character that uses the whip, those two are very much effective in battle now, so they're becoming a little bit more popular to use. This
a brass section and dancers as well," he says of his ideal Gorillaz stage show, "but I'm already carrying over 15 musicians (on tour) and that would take it into an almost prohibitive cost. I struggle to make it work," he admits. "Luckily a lot of people want to come see us, so that really helps. But it's not the cheapest of bands. I do sometimes look at Ed Sheeran," who performs by himself and use triggers and loops to simulate a full band, "and think, 'Why don't I do that?'" Routine, even on the road, is central to Albarn's creative approach. When at home in London he bicycles to his studio in the morning, arriving by 9 a.m., heads home at 5 p.m., cooks and watches television to unwind. "People always ask me 'Why are you so busy?" he says. "It's very simple — I just work five days a week. I just treat it like a job." It's humorous then to hear Albarn casually refer to how, after we speak, he'll be taking a lesson in the Malian language Bambara. Or how he has an undisclosed project that will keep him in France for the better part of the next two years. And then there's a forthcoming new album with his band The Good, The Band & The Queen that features the Clash's Paul Simonon, Simon Tong and Tony Allen. It's all a bit exhausting even at a distance; but for Albarn, it's all he knows. "I don't consider myself to be more work-obsessive than others," he offers. "I need something to do. Otherwise I'm just aimlessly wandering. I really do get that sense that if you love what you do you should do it all the time. Because you never know when you might lose that spark." Dan Hyman is a freelance writer. onthetown@chicagotribune.com Twitter @chitribent When: 8 p.m. Saturday Where: Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island, 1300 S. Linn White Drive Tickets: $114-$343; 312-540-2668; or www.livenation.com RELATED STORIES: '50 Years of Rolling Stone': Photographic gems and memorable moments you missed the first time around Jay-Z gets personal and deep on new album '4:44' Gorillaz throw a post-apocalyptic dance party on 'Humanz' Check out the latest movie reviews from Michael Phillips and the Chicago Tribune.BERLIN Laws kicked in last year making it illegal for landlords to rent out apartments to short-term visitors, with a penalty of up to €100,000 (S$158,400). Renting out rooms is allowed provided they do not cover more than 50 per cent of the entire floor space. Owners of second homes took the authorities to court and won, allowing them to rent out whole apartments. Last week, the city authorities made a fresh set of proposals that would force homesharers to register. They would be allowed to let out their properties for only 60 days in a year. BARCELONA In 2014, Airbnb was fined €30,000 by Catalonia's government for breaching laws stating that properties targeting tourists must be registered with the authorities. In 2015, the company was fined US$65,000 (S$87,000) for breaking the same law. Barcelona has doubled its illegal rentals squad, and will have more than 100 by next year. In July, Airbnb finally agreed to take down adverts for apartments that are not on an official register. PARIS One of Airbnb's most popular cities with nearly 90,000 listings, the authorities have a similar squad that conduct raids on homeowners who flout regulations, such as renting out their flats for more than 120 days a year. The authorities have also demanded that the site remove offers that do not have a registration number, a requirement that entered in force on Dec 1. AMSTERDAM The authorities have clamped down on illegal homesharing such as when homeowners bust the limit of 60 days a year, and more than four people at a time. This year, it imposed a record €297,000 fine on an Airbnb landlord and agency. The Labour Party, which is in opposition in the Dutch city, wants to ban homesharing sites like Airbnb ahead of next year's local elections.(TFC) – The country has its sights firmly placed on the spectacle occurring over the hack/leak of documents that may or may not have influenced the election. It’s irrelevant. The people of the United States cannot grant the Central Intelligence Agency (or any intelligence agency) the power to cast doubt on the results of elections via unconfirmed, unsourced, and politically biased findings. At the end of the day, the precedent set by allowing a secret agency to veto election results is the death of democracy. So what did you miss while this was occupying the national narrative? Lots. Troops are deploying to Afghanistan, the Boko Haram is back in the headlines, a new pipeline fight, and much more. Another 2300 US troops are headed to Afghanistan this winter to attempt to stop massive territorial gains by the Taliban. Like most military buildups, the US government is claiming the troops will “advise and assist”. While most of the attention is focused on Aleppo, the Kurds in Iraq have been fighting to liberate the city of Raqqa. The fight against the Boko Haram didn’t end with the #BringBackOurGirls campaign. According to sources in Nigeria, more than 600 people (including 450 children) were recently freed during a rescue operation. Construction of a pipeland is disrupting the lands of native tribes. This isn’t happening in North Dakota, it’s happening in Mexico. The Pentagon covered up $125 billion dollars worth of waste and abuse. Women in China have been required to submit nude photographs as collateral to obtain loans. Some have been released when the women failed to make payments. The United States halted arms sales to Saudi Arabia. The move is seen by many as a public relations effort because the US increased arms sales to other Gulf States. Dissident leaders in Iran are begging for a trial, after being confined for six years without one. 2.2 million children in Yemen are “acutely malnourished”. This is largely due to the war being waged by the Saudis with US weapons. The boss of the Central Intelligence Agency has attempted to disuade incoming President Trump from reinstituting torture. The UN General Assembly has voted to recognize the dangers posed by depleted uranium ammunition. The United States has admitted to using depleted uranium rounds in Syria. Shareholders approved the merger of Monsanto and Bayer. A completely fake US Embassy in Ghana has been issuing false travel documents for more than a decade.(Newser) – When a life jacket isn't within reach, just grab a cooler. Fisherman Solano Salazar is alive courtesy of the foam icebox he grabbed onto as his fishing boat capsized off the coast of Colombia on Sunday, the Guardian reports. Salazar and a companion had set out from the Guapi area on Friday, but soon hit bad weather. For two days, Salazar floated in the Pacific Ocean with the cooler until the Colombian Navy, which happened to be running drills some 22 nautical miles off the coast, noticed a dark blob, the BBC reports. On closer inspection, rescuers found Salazar, 47, dehydrated, but otherwise in good health. A Navy video shows Salazar letting go of his cooler to grab hold of a rescue buoy thrown from a ship. Once he was lifted aboard, rescuers gave him water before taking him to a hospital in Malaga. "He was given first aid," a coast guard captain says. The AP notes Salazar's case isn't unique. A Mexican man was rescued in September after a week at sea on a foam cooler. "I thought I was going to die," says Salazar, adding, "I didn’t think about anything else." His fishing partner has not been found. (At least Salazar didn't have to drink his own urine.)A package of dried grocery store mushrooms yielded three species that had never been identified before. In October 2013, two mycologists (mushroom scientists) at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in London discovered three new edible mushrooms—all at their local grocery store. This month, the two published their full findings in a paper in the journal PeerJ. The scientists, Bryn Dentinger and Laura Martinez-Suz, simply wanted to buy some dried porcini mushrooms as an ingredient for their dinner. We have to ask: who goes to the grocery store expecting to make a scientific discovery, let alone three? More importantly, how did these mushrooms end up in the laboratory instead of in a homemade risotto? The package of mushrooms originated in China, which led Dentinger and Martinez-Suz to ask some questions. One important thing they knew is that “porcini” are not one specific species of mushroom. CBC Science columnist Torah Kachur says, [pullquote]”[porcini is] a gastronomical label more than it is scientific. What the Italians originally called porcinis were this unique flavor of nutty type of mushroom.” [/pullquote] As the scientists explain in their paper, porcini are only harvested through wild foraging—all attempts at commercial farming have failed. Since 1973, China has been exporting mushrooms to Europe. Over half of the dried porcini in Italy are now of Chinese origin. Knowing all the above information, Dentinger and Martinez-Suz hypothesized that there were multiple species of mushroom in that single packet that they bought at the grocery store. Photo: African Center for DNA Barcoding One of the tools they used to quickly identify 15 samples from their package was DNA Barcoding, which samples a very short genetic sequence of a biological specimen to identify it. Simply using visual cues (“morphological keys”) to identify species can occasionally lead to error, but DNA doesn’t lie. Through their testing, Dentinger and Martinez-Suz quickly realized that they had three previously-unidentified species on their hands. As Kachur explains, porcini mushrooms tend to come from the mushroom family known as boletes. Instead of the gills you’re used to seeing under the caps of mushrooms like portabella, boletes have tubes. Kachur also adds, “Even though we don’t necessarily know those species, all of them are certainly safe for consumption.” So do these new species have names yet? Dentinger and Martinez-Suz published their names in October 2013. You’re looking at Boletus bainiugan, Boletus meiweiniuganjun, and Boletus shiyong. Most importantly of all, how do they taste? Kachur says that there are distinct differences in the tastes of different boletes. Unfortunately, no specifics about the flavor characteristics of these three have been given. We’d totally volunteer to taste them in the name of science and lunch. [via CBC News, PeerJ, CBC Homestretch (audio)]A simple rope built on the string of "Hello_my_name_is_Simon". In computer programming, a rope, or cord, is a data structure composed of smaller strings that is used to efficiently store and manipulate a very long string. For example, a text editing program may use a rope to represent the text being edited, so that operations such as insertion, deletion, and random access can be done efficiently.[1] Description [ edit ] A rope is a binary tree where each leaf (end node) holds a string and a length (also known as a "weight"), and each node further up the tree holds the sum of the lengths of all the leaves in its left subtree. A node with two children thus divides the whole string into two parts: the left subtree stores the first part of the string, the right subtree stores the second part of the string, and node's weight is the sum of the left child's weight along with all of the nodes contained in its subtree. Operations [ edit ] In the following definitions, N is the length of the rope. Index [ edit ] Figure 2.1: Example of index lookup on a rope. Definition: Index(i) : return the character at position i Time complexity: O ( log ⁡ N ) {\displaystyle O(\log N)} To retrieve the i-th character, we begin a recursive search from the root node: function index ( RopeNode node, integer i ) if node. weight <= i then return index ( node. right, i - node. weight ) end if exists ( node. left ) then return index ( node. left, i ) end return node. string [ i ] end For example, to find the character at i=10 in Figure 2.1 shown on the right, start at the root node (A), find that 22 is greater than 10 and there is a left child, so go to the left child (B). 9 is less than 10, so subtract 9 from 10 (leaving i=1 ) and go to the right child (D). Then because 6 is greater than 1 and there's a left child, go to the left child (G). 2 is greater than 1 and there's a left child, so go to the left child again (J). Finally 2 is greater than 1 but there is no left child, so the character at index 1 of the short string "na", is the answer. Concat [ edit ] Figure 2.2: Concatenating two child ropes into a single rope. Definition: Concat(S1, S2) : concatenate two ropes, S 1 and S 2, into a single rope. Time complexity: O ( 1 ) {\displaystyle O(1)} O ( log ⁡ N ) {\displaystyle O(\log N)} A concatenation can be performed simply by creating a new root node with left = S1 and right = S2, which is constant time. The weight of the parent node is set to the length of the left child S 1, which would take O ( log ⁡ N ) {\displaystyle O(\log N)} time, if the tree is balanced. As most rope operations require balanced trees, the tree may need to be re-balanced after concatenation. Split [ edit ] Figure 2.3: Splitting a rope in half. Definition: Split (i, S) : split the string S into two new strings S 1 and S 2, S 1 = C 1, …, C i and S 2 = C i + 1, …, C m. Time complexity: O ( log ⁡ N ) {\displaystyle O(\log N)} There are two cases that must be dealt with: The split point is at the end of a string (i.e. after the last character of a leaf node) The split point is in the middle of a string. The second case reduces to the first by splitting the string at the split point to create two new leaf nodes, then creating a new node that is the parent of the two component strings. For example, to split the 22-character rope pictured in Figure 2.3 into two equal component ropes of length 11, query the 12th character to locate the node K at the bottom level. Remove the link between K and G. Go to the parent of G and subtract the weight of K from the weight of D. Travel up the tree and remove any right links to subtrees covering characters past position 11, subtracting the weight of K from their parent nodes (only node D and A, in this case). Finally, build up the newly orphaned nodes K and H by concatenating them together and creating a new parent P with weight equal to the length of the left node K. As most rope operations require balanced trees, the tree may need to be re-balanced after splitting. Insert [ edit ] Definition: Insert(i, S’) : insert the string S’ beginning at position i in the string s, to form a new string C 1, …, C i, S', C i + 1, …, C m. Time complexity: O ( log ⁡ N ) {\displaystyle O(\log N)} This operation can be done by a Split() and two Concat() operations. The cost is the sum of the three. Delete [ edit ] Definition: Delete(i, j) : delete the substring C i, …, C i + j − 1, from s to form a new string C 1, …, C i − 1, C i + j, …, C m. Time complexity: O ( log ⁡ N ) {\displaystyle O(\log N)} This operation can be done by two Split() and one Concat() operation. First, split the rope in three, divided by i-th and i+j-th character respectively, which extracts the string to delete in a separate node. Then concatenate the other two nodes. Report [ edit ] Definition: Report(i, j) : output the string C i, …, C i + j − 1. Time complexity: O ( j + log ⁡ N ) {\displaystyle O(j+\log N)} To report the string C i, …, C i + j − 1, find the node u that contains C i and weight(u) >= j, and then traverse T starting at node u. Output C i, …, C i + j − 1 by doing an in-order traversal of T starting at node u. Comparison with monolithic arrays [ edit ] Performance[ citation needed ] Operation Rope String Index[1] O(log n) O(1) Split[1] O(log n) O(1) Concatenate (destructive) O(log n) without rebalancing / O(n) worst case O(n) Concatenate (nondestructive) O(n) O(n) Iterate over each character[1] O(n) O(n) Insert[2] O(log n) without rebalancing / O(n) worst case O(n) Append[2] O(log n) without rebalancing / O(n) worst case O(1) amortized, O(n) worst case Delete O(log n) O(n) Report O(j + log n) O(j) Build O(n) O(n) Advantages: Ropes enable much faster insertion and deletion of text than monolithic string arrays, on which operations have time complexity O(n). Ropes don't require O(n) extra memory when operated upon (arrays need that for copying operations). Ropes don't require large contiguous memory spaces. If only nondestructive versions of operations are used, rope is a persistent data structure. For the text editing program example, this leads to an easy support for multiple undo levels. Disadvantages: Greater overall space use when not being operated on, mainly to store parent nodes. There is a trade-off between how much of the total memory is such overhead and how long pieces of data are being processed as strings. The strings in example figures above are unrealistically short for modern architectures. The overhead is always O(n), but the constant can be made arbitrarily small. Increase in time to manage the extra storage Increased complexity of source code; greater risk of bugs This table compares the algorithmic traits of string and rope implementations, not their raw speed. Array-based strings have smaller overhead, so (for example) concatenation and split operations are faster on small datasets. However, when array-based strings are used for longer strings, time complexity and memory use for inserting and deleting characters become unacceptably large. In contrast, a rope data structure has stable performance regardless of data size. Further, the space complexity for ropes and arrays are both O(n). In summary, ropes are preferable when the data is large and modified often. See also [ edit ] The Cedar programming environment, which used ropes "almost since its inception" [1] The Model T enfilade, a similar data structure from the early 1970s. Gap buffer, a data structure commonly used in text editors that allows efficient insertion and deletion operations clustered near the same locationYannis Behrakis/Reuters Photographers working for Reuters and the New York Times won a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of the refugee crisis in Greece. This photo by Yannis Behrakis shows a Syrian refugee kissing his daughter as he walks to the Greece-Macedonia border. Two teams of photographers working for The New York Times and Reuters received the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography on Monday for documenting the journeys of migrants and refugees. The photographers followed hundreds of thousands of people traveling from Africa, Asia and the Middle East to Europe over the past year, shining a light on the harsh realities of the trip and the thin line between hope and desperation along the way. Among the winners were Yannis Behrakis, Alkis Konstantinidis and Alexandros Avramidis, three Greeks working for Reuters who captured the fight for survival within their own country's borders. Their work took them from the shores of the Aegean islands to the port of Piraeus to the Greece-Macedonia border. Behrakis, an award-winning photographer who serves as Reuters' chief photographer in Greece, wrote on his Facebook page that this is the first time Greece is taking home a Pulitzer. He said he’s proud of sharing the prize with two younger colleagues he considers to be his students. “With many personal sacrifices we achieved what we wanted, which was to become the voice of these people that come to this dot of land in the Aegean, seeing it as their last hope,” Behrakis told Athens News Agency. “The people on the islands welcomed them, showed them love and us journalists, who were there a very long time, finally became [like] life vests for them. Their voice was heard through our photographs and our stories." The photographers' Pulitzer-winning images for Reuters can be seen below. Please note that some of them may be disturbing to viewers.Cyclists Do Not Emit More Carbon Than Cars, State Legislator Admits Enlarge this image toggle caption Elaine Thompson/AP Elaine Thompson/AP Days after angering cyclists with his contention that people who ride bikes don't help pay for roads — and stating that "the act of riding a bike results in greater emissions of carbon dioxide from the rider," Washington State Rep. Ed Orcutt has apologized for his words, and any confusion they created. Bike shop owner Dale Carlson had written to Orcutt, who's on the House Transportation Committee, to say that a proposed $25 bike tax on many models was misguided and would harm bicycle stores that must compete with Internet merchants. "People who choose to ride a bicycle instead of driving a car actively reduce congestion, save wear and tear on our roads and bridges, and reduce the state labor needed to patrol our highways," Carlson wrote. "Additionally, bicyclists produce fewer emissions and reduce healthcare costs through increased physical fitness." Orcutt replied, "Since CO2 is deemed a greenhouse gas and a pollutant, bicyclists are actually polluting when they ride." He noted that cyclists' heart rate and respiration go up significantly. Within a week, his email was posted on the Cascade Bicycle Club site. Local cycling blogs picked up the issue; so did national media. The Republican representative has now apologized for his remarks, saying that his take on cyclists' carbon emissions "was over the top" and shouldn't be part of the conversation. But while Orcutt apologized, he also reiterated his view that cyclists should help pay for the infrastructure — bike paths, etc. — that they're seeking. To that end, he said he sees merit in Democratic legislators' "proposed $25.00 tax on the purchase of any bicycle $500.00 or more." In the current legislative season, Orcutt has fought against plans to raise Washington's 37.5 cents-per-gallon gasoline tax. He has also moved to end the practice of periodically replacing car license plates, calling it "nothing more than an excuse for state government to get more money from the public."From the Trailer Park to the Ivory Tower and Somewhere in Between: A Critical Autoethnography of Class Performativity in Academe Tasha R. Rennels Department of Communication University of South Florida Abstract Many academics hail from working-class backgrounds but there often is reluctance to reveal this information within the ivory tower—a space notoriously associated with privilege. This essay continues the work of unconventional scholars who yearn to debunk the common assumption that the academy is a space of middle-class homogeneity. Instead of denying my working-class identity, as I have done for the past decade, I embrace it. I share how the stigma of being a working-class woman in a presumed middle-class space is lived, felt, and managed via class performativity. My hope is that the stories I write provide a space of resistance for those in academe, specifically graduate students, who may not have the resources live up to its middle-class expectations. The larger this space can become, the greater potential there is for members of the academic community to accept and make a way for those with limited means. Keywords: critical autoethnography, class, passing, performance, academia From the Trailer Park to the Ivory Tower: A Critical Autoethnography of Class Performativity Class is not just about the way you talk, or dress, or furnish your home; it is not just about the job you do or how much money you make doing it...Class is something beneath your clothes, under your skin, in your psyche, at the very core of your being. —Annette Kuhn, Family Secrets: Acts of Memory and Imagination, 1995, p. 98. I was born poor into a world that despises the poor. —Dorothy Allison, "A Question of Class," 2009, p. 113. I was raised in a trailer park but I rarely tell that to anyone. Every now and then, my secret slips through the cracks revealing my hidden past—a past I am slowly learning to embrace. It is December 2005. I have just turned 21 and am home with my family for Christmas break. I am seated in our cramped living room among stained carpets, ripped blinds, a leaking ceiling, and gaping holes that line the walls and doors. Drop Dead Gorgeous—a movie about an aspiring beauty queen, Amber Atkins, who hails from a trailer park—flashes on the screen. The trailer park Amber lives in resembles many I have seen on TV before; it is riddled with crime, addiction, and filth. I quickly change the channel. My phone rings. It's my friend Austin from college. "Hello?" "Hey Tasha! What's up?" "Oh not much, just watching TV. You?" "Well, I just got off the phone with Liz and we were talking about meeting up with a bunch of people from school tomorrow night in Minneapolis. Would you be interesting in going?" "Yea! I would love that. I don't have a car through, so I have to figure out how I will get there first." Austin responds to my dilemma with enthusiasm. "I think your town is right on the way. I can just come get you if you want." I panic. "Oh, well, I guess it's kind of on the way, but my place is pretty hard to find and I would hate for you to get lost." "Whatever, Tasha," Austin chuckles. "It can't be that hard. Let me just come get you. I don't mind at all." His persistence causes my stomach to churn with paranoia. Austin not only lives on a lake—an indicator of wealth in Minnesota—but he owns a brand new truck and is always dressed in designer clothing. If he ever finds out where I live, he will probably lose all respect for me. I've heard him make fun of trailer parks before, calling them "ghetto" and "trashy." I can't stand the thought of losing Austin's respect. He is, after all, the ringleader of our group of friends. I decide to weasel my way out of the conversation. "Thanks for the offer Austin, but I am going to see if I can just borrow my mom's car for the night. I think it will be easier that way. I'll call you back and let you know what she says, okay?" "Sounds good. I'll talk to you later." After hanging up with Austin, I run to my mom to ask if I can use her car the following evening. She tells me she needs it to run errands but offers to drop me off at a coffee shop near Minneapolis so Austin won't have to go too far out of his way to meet me. The next day, mom takes me to the coffee shop and Austin pulls up in his pristine, dark blue F-150. He is dressed in an Abercrombie hooded sweatshirt, Abercrombie jeans, and Doc Marten shoes. I am greeted with a smile and a waft of his Ralph Lauren cologne as I hop into his truck. We head to our favorite bar in Minneapolis to meet with our friends. The night flies by. At 1:45 in the morning, I hear the bartenders yell "last call," and it dawns on me I never arranged for a ride home. I flee for the bathroom and, with trembling hands, frantically dial my mom's number. She doesn't answer, which means she is probably asleep. I have no choice but to ask Austin. Before I even open my mouth, Austin offers to take me home. I hesitantly accept his proposal as we guzzle down the last few sips of our beer. One by one the lights in the bar shut down and the reality of what's about to happen slaps me square in the face. Austin and I head to his truck. Panic and anxiety replace the calming effect of alcohol as we coast down the highway. I invent scenarios in my mind. Maybe I can tell Austin that our house burnt down, and our insurance gave us the trailer to live in while they build us a new house. Or how about I explain to Austin that we recently sold our last home before buying a new one and decided to live minimally in the meantime? I don't think my scenarios are convincing enough so I give up. Besides, we have just reached my hometown; it's too late to conjure up a lie Austin will believe. There is nothing more I can do. I can't magically transform where I live. The second he turns into my neighborhood he will see the unkempt homes and cramped yards littered with abandoned toys and broken down Chevy pickup trucks. I cringe at the thought of him pulling up to my own home: a light grey doublewide lined with uneven shutters, dented skirting, and torn window screens. We turn onto Maple Street, the dividing line between my trailer park and the middle-class housing community where I have always wanted to live. I know we are close because we have just crossed over railroad tracks and I can smell the foul, sewage-ridden river that borders the street on which I live. Any moment now I have to tell Austin to turn left, but so much of me wants to tell him to turn right instead. I give into my desire. "Umm, turn right!" I blurt out. "Right?" Austin says. I hesitate for a fleeting moment but continue to deceive him. Austin turns right while I frantically search for a house where he can drop me off. My heart is pounding. I decide to have Austin take me to my friend Sarah's house. It is late and her family is probably sleeping, so I figure I can just run around to the back door. "Do you see that green street sign up ahead?" I ask. "Yea." "Okay, just turn left when you get up to it and you'll enter a cul-de-sac where my house is located. As soon as you turn into the cul-de-sac, could you turn off your headlights?" After a slight hesitation, Austin cocks his head to the side, turns to me and says, "Sure, but why?" "Well, I just don't want you to wake anyone up," I say. "Sometimes my family forgets to shut the blinds, and they're all light sleepers." Austin turns off his headlights as we pull up to Sarah's driveway. I give him a quick hug and tell him I am going to run around to the back door so I do not wake my family. Quietly, I hop out of his truck, run to the back of the house, and plop into a nearby snow bank to hide while Austin pulls away. The frigid air stings my exposed skin, but I refuse to move until I am sure Austin is gone. When I no longer hear the sound of his truck's engine, I emerge from the snow bank and breathe a sigh of relief punctuated by shivers. It is so cold I can see my breath, but I try to think warm thoughts as I begin the mile long trek from my pretend neighborhood to my real neighborhood—the trailer park. Two weeks after the incident, I head back up to college for the spring semester. I try to forget about what happened with Austin but life takes an unexpected turn the following summer when I am living at home with my family. Out of the blue, Austin calls me. "Hey Tasha, I'm in your hometown right now," he says in an uneasy tone. I mask my panic with enthusiasm. "What? You Are? That's exciting!" "Well, I was on my way to Minneapolis to see a couple of buddies and I thought I would stop by." I feel my heart beat out of my chest at the mention of him stopping by. I try to speak, but the words escape me. Austin fills the silence. "Yea," he says mysteriously. "I actually came to your house and a guy named George answered the door. Do you know George?" Shit! George is Sarah's dad. Shit! I play dumb. "George? Hmm. Are you sure you're at the right house?" "Yea. I'm sure," Austin confidently replies. "When I came to the door and asked for you, George told me that he was your friend Sarah's dad and that you live in the trailer park across the street. Is that true?" My cover is blown. I swallow my pride, throw down my white flag, and surrender. "Yes, Austin it's true. I'm sorry. I just didn't feel comfortable telling you where I really lived. It's nothing to do with you. It's me. I just hate where I come from." Silence. Why is he not saying anything? Is he mad at me for lying? Has he lost respect for me because of where I live? Is he going to make fun of me like my high school classmates used to? "It's fine Tash. I don't know why you didn't tell me before. It's honestly not a big deal" I breathe a sigh of relief. "Thanks," I say. "I appreciate it. I just get embarrassed sometimes, you know?" "Well don't be. I don't think any differently of you," Austin says, trying to reassure me. I wonder if he senses my doubt. "Okay," I say cautiously. "But could you please not tell anyone about this? I don't want people knowing where I live." "I won't, but I don't think that where you live is something you should feel the need to hide." If only you knew, Austin. If only you knew... Confronting a Life of Denial through Critical Autoethnographic Inquiry In its most basic form, class refers to one's position, based on income, in an economic system of production (Orbe, 2014). Class, however, is more than the amount of money someone earns. As Langston (1992) indicates, "Class is your understanding of the world and where you fit in; it's composed of ideas, behaviors, attitudes, values, and language; class is how you think, feel, act, look, dress, talk, move, and walk" (p. 112). This description suggests that class can be performed apart from one's economic resources. In other words, someone may have little to no income but still perform as though they are middle-class by learning from, relating to, and imitating middle-class people around them (Bettie, 2003; Dykins Callahan, 2008). As the vignette above suggests, this is what I have done for most of my life. I have spent a countless number of years in denial of my working-class identity—a denial fostered by the increasing pressure to perform middle-class in the academy as well as the stigma attached to the white working-class population. According to Goffman (1963), stigma arises when a person possesses a "deeply discrediting attribute" (p. 3) that disqualifies them from full social acceptance. When someone is stigmatized, they are devalued and this applies directly to white working-class people who are regularly assumed to be stupid, immoral, dirty, lazy, and addicted to alcohol, drugs, and sex among other things (Bullock, Wyche, & Williams, 2001; Clawson & Trice, 2000; hooks, 2000; Kendall, 2005; Wray & Newitz, 1997). It is common knowledge in the academic community that white working-class people are stigmatized. The lived experiences of this stigma, however, are rarely addressed (Dykins Callahan, 2008). This is because scholars often examine stigma from a distanced observational stance that privileges outsider perspectives. Inspired by Ellis (1998, 2004), I seek to privilege insider perspectives instead by turning the ethnographic gaze in on itself. I create what Carol Rambo (1995) calls "a layered account" by weaving together a series of scenes to show how the stigma of being a white working-class woman in a presumed middle-class space is lived, felt, and managed. My work is guided by critical autoethnographic inquiry because it affords me the opportunity to provide a critique of academic culture through personal narratives that are written carefully, reflexively, and critically (Berry & Warren, 2009; Boylorn & Orbe, 2014). The stories I write, in other words, open up a space of resistance between the individual and the collective (Jones, 2005) to challenge processes of class domination and exclusion that pervade the academy (Kosut, 2006). By sharing the stigma I have endured for being a white working-class woman, I add to the limited amount of scholarship about lived experiences of class (Bettie, 2003; Dykins Callahan, 2008; Felski, 2000; Lawler, 1999; Overall, 1995). I also answer Dykins Callahan's (2008) call for academics to make room in the academy for class subjectivities. Instead of denying my working-class identity—as I have done for the past decade—I learn to embrace it inside and outside the walls of the ivory tower. My hope is that the stories I write will resonate with others who negotiate poor and working-class identities in the academy. More importantly, I hope they will resonate with graduate students who, like me, are steadily falling victim to
2011a). – Findings EFFECTS OF INTRINSIC FACTORS Comparing skilled and unskilled adolescent powerlifters, Brown and Abani (1985) found that no differences in external moment arm lengths between groups (15.7 vs. 17.2cm). In both groups, the external moment arm length was positive (i.e. it requires a plantar flexor moment from the musculature to counter it). EFFECTS OF BARBELL TYPE Comparing the effects of barbell type, Swinton et al. (2011a) found that there was no difference in ankle external moment arm length in the straight bar deadlift compared to the hexagonal bar deadlift but there was a non-significant trend for a greater moment arm in the straight bar deadlift (16.5cm vs. 11.9cm). EFFECT OF DEADLIFT TECHNIQUE Comparing the effects of deadlift technique, both Escamilla et al. (2000) and Escamilla et al. (2001) found that there was a difference in ankle external moment arm length between the conventional and sumo deadlift styles. There was a greater ankle external moment arm length in the sumo deadlift style compared to the conventional deadlift style (-18.2cm vs. +4.2cm [Escamilla et al. 2000]; -4.3cm vs. +6.1cm [Escamilla et al. 2001]). The ankle external moment arm length was such that a plantar flexor moment was required in the conventional style but dorsiflexor moment was required in the sumo style. – Summary Ankle external moment arm length is not affected by training status. Also, there is no difference in ankle external moment arm length between the hexagonal barbell and straight barbell deadlifts. However, ankle external moment arm length is more positive (so a greater plantar flexor moment is needed) in the conventional style compared to the sumo style. – Top · Contents · References – RELIABILITY OF 1RM TESTING [Read more: reliability] PURPOSE This section details the test-re-test reliability of 1RM deadlift testing, which helps provide strength and conditioning coaches with a method for assessing whether an improvement in 1RM deadlift is real or random.– – RELIABILITY OF 1RM Selection criteria Population – any healthy, adult population Intervention – any acute study assessing the reliability of 1RM testing in the deadlift exercise Comparison – between sessions (test-re-test reliability) Outcomes – Pearson’s correlation coefficient, Standard Mean Difference (SMD), Minimum Difference to be considered real (MD) – Results The following relevant studies were identified that met the inclusion criteria: English (2008), Bezerra (2013). – Findings English et al. (2008) reported that the ICC of the 1RM deadlift was 0.99. Bezerra et al. (2013) similarly reported that the ICC of the 1RM conventional deadlift was 0.96 and of the 1RM stiff-legged deadlift was 0.94. Since neither group reported descriptive statistics (mean ± standard deviation), it was not possible to estimate the SEM or MD. – SECTION CONCLUSIONS There is very limited research exploring the test-re-test reliability of deadlift 1RM testing. Studies to date have reported nearly perfect (r > 0.9) test-re-test reliability. This indicates that the 1RM deadlift test is reliable. Unfortunately, data are not available for the SEM or MD. – Top · Contents · References – REFERENCES Aasa, B., Berglund, L., Michaelson, P., Aasa, U (2015). Individualized low-load motor control exercises and education versus a high-load lifting exercise and education to improve activity, pain intensity, and physical performance in patients with low back pain: a randomized controlled trial. 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R., & Kang. J (2007). Acute muscular strength assessment using free weight bars of different thickness. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 21(1):240-4 [ PubMed Sakakibara, N., Shin, S., Watanabe, T., & Matsuoka, T. (2014). Influence of lumbopelvic stability on deadlift performance in competitive powerlifters. SportLogia, 10(2), 89–95 [ Citation Schellenberg, F., Lindorfer, J., List, R., Taylor, W. R., & Lorenzetti, S. (2013). Kinetic and kinematic differences between deadlifts and goodmornings. BMC sports science, medicine and rehabilitation, 5(1), 27 [ PubMed Schoenfeld, B. J., Contreras, B., Tiryaki-Sonmez, G., Wilson, J. M., Kolber, M. J., & Peterson, M. D. (2015). Regional differences in muscle activation during hamstrings exercise. Journal of strength and conditioning research, 29(1), 159-164.[ PubMed Swinton, P. A., Stewart, A., Agouris, I., Keogh, J. W., & Lloyd, R. (2011a). A biomechanical analysis of straight and hexagonal barbell deadlifts using submaximal loads. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 25(7), 2000-2009 [ PubMed Swinton, P. A., Stewart, A. D., Keogh, J. W., Agouris, I., & Lloyd, R. (2011b). Kinematic and kinetic analysis of maximal velocity deadlifts performed with and without the inclusion of chain resistance. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 25(11), 3163-3174 [ PubMed Winwood, P., Cronin, J., Brown, S., & Keogh, J. (2014). A Biomechanical Analysis of the Farmers Walk, and Comparison with the Deadlift and Unloaded Walk. International Journal of Sports Science and Coaching, 9(5), 1127-1144 [ Citation Wright, G. A., Delong, T. H., & Gehlsen, G. (1999). Electromyographic Activity of the Hamstrings During Performance of the Leg Curl, Stiff-Leg Deadlift, and Back Squat Movements. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 13(2), 168-174 [ Citation Zebis, M. K., Skotte, J., Andersen, C. H., Mortensen, P., Petersen, H. H., Viskaer, T. C., Jensen, T. L., Bencke, J., & Andersen, L. L (2013). Kettlebell swing targets semitendinosus and supine leg curl targets biceps femoris: an EMG study with rehabilitation implications. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 47(18):1192-8 [ PubMed – CONTRIBUTORS Chris Beardsley performed the literature reviews, wrote the first draft of this page and was the primary author. – Top · Contents · References –Ms. Delgadillo, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering, had lobbied for the event for three years, as a member of a group called the First-Generation Low-Income Partnership. Advertisement Continue reading the main story “The current political climate definitely pushed this initiative to come to fruition,” said Ms. Delgadillo, the daughter of Mexican immigrants living in Los Angeles. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Participants say the ceremonies are a way of celebrating their shared experience as a group, and not a rejection of official college graduations, which they also attend. Depending on one’s point of view, the ceremonies may also be reinforcing an image of the 21st-century campus as an incubator for identity politics. Advertisement Continue reading the main story “It’s not easy being a student, being a student anywhere, but especially at a place like Harvard,” Ward Connerly, president of the American Civil Rights Institute and a former University of California regent who campaigned against racial preference in admissions, said sympathetically. But events like black commencements, he continued, serve only to “amplify” racial differences. “College is the place where we should be teaching and preaching the view that you’re an individual, and choose your associates to be based on other factors rather than skin color,” he said. “Think about it,” Mr. Connerly added. “These kids went to Harvard, and they less than anyone in our society should worry about feeling welcome and finding comfort zones. They don’t need that.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story The alternative ceremonies at Harvard had printed programs, and incorporated the pageantry, ritual and solemnity of traditional commencements, though without the diplomas, which were reserved for the official university commencement. A few hours after the new “Harvard University Black Commencement” for the graduate schools, including the prestigious law, divinity, business, government and medical schools, about 120 students attended the third annual “Latinx” commencement. In the cavernous basement of a science building, where an animal skeleton dangled overhead and Latin music played, students received stoles with the words “Clase Del 2017” woven into them, while siblings devoured chocolate cupcakes. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Black undergraduates held a separate event that night amid the polished pews and Greek columns of Memorial Church, Harvard’s spiritual center and the backdrop for Mr. Zuckerberg’s address. Advertisement Continue reading the main story While Mr. Zuckerberg’s speech was broadcast live and received thousands of complimentary comments on Facebook, the black ceremony was relatively small and more intimate, and seemed invisible to scores of classmates noshing on sliders and beer at a white tent nearby, part of the broader commencement week revelry. The ceremony was open to all students, though virtually everyone who attended was black, and not all black students attended. Advertisement Continue reading the main story About 80 black graduates formed a procession to organ music, received kente-cloth stoles, listened to a classmate play Bach on cello and sang “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” “For me, the black community is a home away from home,” Olivia Castor, a student speaker from Spring Valley, N.Y., who earned a bachelor’s degree in social studies and African-American studies, said exuberantly. Advertisement Continue reading the main story “It’s where I spent most of my time, where I found my closest friends and, more importantly, where I’ve learned the most important lessons during my time here,” she went on. “So thank you, thank you for being beautiful, brilliant and blackety-black-black.”وفي حين أفاد شهود عيان، أن الانفجار وقع أمام باب الكاتدرائية المرقسية بالقاهرة، أظهرت المعاينة الأوّلية التي باشرها النائب العام المصري وفريق النيابة العامة، أن التفجير قد وقع في الجانب الذي تجلس فيه السيدات أثناء أداء الصلوات، وأن هذا الأمر بدا واضحاً من وقع آثار التفجير وتناثر الأشلاء ومحتويات القنبلة المستخدمة. وكلّف النائب العام المصري المستشار نبيل صادق، أعضاء من النيابة العامة بالتحرك العاجل لموقع تفجير الكاتدرائية، وإجراء التحقيقات الفورية للتوصل إلى كيفية وقوعه. وانتقل فريق من نيابة استئناف القاهرة إلى موقع الحادث لإجراء المعاينة اللازمة للكاتدرائية والمناطق المجاورة لمسرح الأحداث. تفجير الكاتدرائية المرقسية في مصر/العربي الجديد وبعدها، أصدر الفريق قرارات عاجلة اتخذتها النيابة العامة، منها مناظرة جثامين 25 جثة، وندب الطب الشرعي لتوقيع الكشف عليها وتحديد أسباب الوفاة وصرحت بدفنها، والانتقال إلى المستشفيات للاستماع إلى شهادات المصابين جراء الحادث، والتحفّظ على الكاميرات المتواجدة داخل وخارج الكنيسة، وتكليف المعمل الجنائي وخبراء المفرقعات بإجراء المعاينة لموقع التفجير ورفع آثاره وفحصها وبيان دلالتها وإعداد التقرير الفني اللازم. بالإضافة إلى تكليف جهاز الأمن الوطني وجهات البحث المختصة، بإجراء التحريات بشأن الحادث والتوصل لمرتكبيه والمحرضين عليه، لتحديد المسؤوليات الجنائية. تفجير الكاتدرائية المرقسية في مصر/العربي الجديد كذلك، انتقل النائب العام بشخصه إلى موقع حادث التفجير الذي وقع في الكنيسة، وقام بالمتابعة والمعاينة مع فريق النيابة العامة. وأكد أن النيابة لن تدخر أي جهد في التحقيقات للوصول لمنفذي تلك العملية، وتقديمهم للمحاكمة العاجلة للقصاص منهم. وأبلغ صادق جموع القساوسة المتواجدين بالكنيسة أن "الرئيس المصري، عبد الفتاح السيسي يتابع مجريات الأحداث، وما آلت إليه الأوضاع بعد العمل الإرهابي، مشيراً إلى أن القضاة يقفون بجانب المسيحيين في مصيبتهم، وينقلون لكم تعازيهم على سقوط ضحايا جراء تلك العملية". واستمع أثناء المعاينة إلى شرح تفصيلي من المستشارين رؤساء فرق المحققين، حول ما تم التوصل إليه من معلومات أثناء المعاينة، وقام بالدخول إلى منطقة بؤرة التفجير للوقوف على آثار التفجير، ونطاق الأضرار التي تسبب فيها التفجير. وأظهرت المعاينة الأوّلية التي باشرها النائب العام وفريق النيابة العامة، أن التفجير قد وقع في الجانب الذي تجلس فيه السيدات أثناء أداء الصلوات، وأن هذا الأمر بدا واضحاً من وقع آثار التفجير وتناثر الأشلاء ومحتويات القنبلة المستخدمة. In case you’ve forgotten, this is the handiwork of Geist. We’re really excited to be launching our Patreon campaign today. Patreon is a crowdfunding platform, sort of like Kickstarter. But instead of funding big, one-time projects, it’s for ongoing creative efforts. Like webcomics! Here’s how it works: patrons pledge to pay creators a specified amount each month. In addition to supporting the creations they love, they also get rewards. You can pledge as little as a dollar a month (ever dollar counts, and is appreciated!), and you can change or cancel your pledge at any time. Here are a few of the rewards we’re offering: For $1 a month, you’ll get access to our activity feed, where we reveal behind-the-scenes information, like production sketches and script ideas. , where we reveal behind-the-scenes information, like and script ideas. For $3 a month, you get to read every page two weeks early ; pages 187 and 188 are ready to read in our feed right now! ; pages 187 and 188 are ready to read in our feed right now! For $5 a month, you’ll get a new prose vignette set in the world of The Specialists every month. The first one will be ready soon; it tells the origin story of Geist! Those are just the highlights. We’re also offering discounts in our online store, monthly Google Hangouts, and more. And the best part is that if our total patronage get high enough, we’ll start publishing more pages every month! If you enjoy The Specialists, please check out our campaign, and consider becoming a patron. Even a dollar a month would show us that you value our work, and that means a lot to us. We’ll continue to produce the comic for free, but Patreon presents a new way for us to connect with you in a mutually beneficial way. With your help, we’ll be able to produce more and better content for you!Rush explains that he was wrong in 2012 about Romney winning, so he’s not comfortable giving a prediction for this election. But he does say there’s clear evidence that the polls are oversampling Democrats, and he blames that on the Democrats. Listen: Rush is referring, at least in part, to an email that Zero Hedge wrote about that shows how Democrats were telling the Atlas group to oversample certain populations. Now this was one group among many, so I’m not sure this is as widespread as some want to believe. But it could be. In any event, it’s always good to assume the polls are wrong and go vote your conscience. After all, we saw poll after poll wrong in the primary and the general is a much larger scale.Pelosi: Bush's war has 'taken us deeply into debt, and that debt is taking us into recession' David Edwards and Muriel Kane Published: Thursday April 10, 2008 \| Print This Email This In the Democratic Party response to President Bush's speech on Iraq Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) emphasized the staggering costs of the war, its growing strain on the US military, and its failure to make Americans any safer. "The president has taken us into a failed war," Pelosi stated. "He's taken us deeply into debt, and that debt is taking us into recession. We need some answers." Bush's speech followed Congressional testimony earlier in the week by Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. Bush painted a rosy picture of conditions in Iraq, saying that "fifteen months ago, America and the Iraqi government were on the defensive. Today, we have the initiative." Reid, however, dismissed Bush's talk of progress resulting from the surge. He noted instead that "two very important questions" were raised at the hearings -- "Has the was made us any safer? Are our troops any closer to coming home?" -- and that "on both counts, after the hearings, the answer is no." "Our military is badly strained," Reid insisted. "We're unable to respond to threats around the world.... American taxpayers are paying $5000 a second for this war." Reid also focused on Bush's promise that "I have directed the secretary of defense to reduce deployment lengths from 15 months to 12 months for all active Army soldiers deploying to the Central Command area of operations" after next August 1. "Today's announcement by the president can only be described as one step forward and two back," Reid commented. "If our president is genuine about providing our troops with the rest, recuperation, and training they need, then I call upon him and his allies in Congress to allow us to codify this, make it the law of this country.... If you're in Iraq or Afghanistan for 12 months, then you have to be home at least 12 months." "The president still doesn't understand that America's limited resources cannot support this endless war that he's gotten us involved in," Reid continued, noting that even though Gen. Petraeus has recommended a withdrawal of all five surge brigades by the end of July, this will still leave more US troops in Iraq than before the surge. "The president signaled to the American people that he has no intention of bringing home any more troops," Reid stated. "Instead, he's leaving all the tough decisions to... the next president of the United States." Nancy Pelosi reaffirmed all of Reid's points. "We need better answers from the president," she concluded. "We need real answers." This video is from MSNBC's News Live, broadcast April 10, 2008.Laravel Collections “when” Method Starting at v5.4.12, Laravel Collections now includes a when method that allows you to perform conditional actions on the items without breaking the chain. Like all the other Laravel Collection methods this one can have a lot of use cases but one example that comes to mind is being able to filter based on a query string parameter. To demonstrate that example, let’s pretend we have a list of hosts from the Laravel News Podcast: $hosts = [ ['name' => 'Eric Barnes', 'location' => 'USA', 'is_active' => 0], ['name' => 'Jack Fruh', 'location' => 'USA', 'is_active' => 0], ['name' => 'Jacob Bennett', 'location' => 'USA', 'is_active' => 1], ['name' => 'Michael Dyrynda', 'location' => 'AU', 'is_active' => 1], ]; Previously to filter based on a query string you might do something like this: $inUsa = collect($hosts)->where('location', 'USA'); if (request('retired')) { $inUsa = $inUsa->filter(function($employee){ return! $employee['is_active']; }); } With the new when method you can now do this all in one Collection chain: $inUsa = collect($hosts) ->where('location', 'USA') ->when(request('retired'), function($collection) { return $collection->reject(function($employee){ return $employee['is_active']; }); }); Filed in: Laravel 5.4 / CollectionsChip Somodevilla/Getty Images Stumbling across a list of Major League Baseball salaries or a similar list featuring N.B.A. stars is a bit like driving through an exclusive section of Greenwich, Conn., or Beverly Hills, Calif. The amount of money involved is so staggering that it doesn’t seem real. Alex Rodriguez makes $30 million a year? Kobe Bryant earns $25 million? That $18 million split-level has 12 bedrooms, 9 bathrooms, 2 swimming pools, a tennis court, and a bowling alley? Hey! Look! A unicorn just jumped over that Maserati! When the Major League Soccer Players Union releases salary information, as it did on Friday, it’s a dose of reality for all parties. It’s perhaps even a little depressing. Dozens of M.L.S. players earn salaries in the mid-$30,000s-to-$50,000 range – a far cry from the stratospheric numbers seen in other sports. Juninho, a rising star with the Los Angeles Galaxy, will make $65,625 this year – about what a New York City hotel bartender makes. Even David Beckham, the face of M.L.S. and an international superstar, earns $4 million a year in guaranteed compensation from the league. To put that in perspective, the Philadelphia Phillies will pay the barely adequate corner infielder Ty Wigginton $4 million this season. Beckham, in fact, took a $2.5 million pay cut to return to the Los Angeles Galaxy this season. Want more statistics? Here are the current minimum salaries in the five major American sports: N.H.L.: $525,000 M.L.B.: $480,000 N.B.A.: $473,604 N.F.L.: $390,000 M.L.S.: $33,750 How can this be? Last year M.L.S. attendance grew seven percent, to 17,872 per game, surpassing both the NBA and NHL in average attendance. Are M.L.S. owners a miserly bunch who just want to keep all the money for themselves? Hardly. The fact is, there is simply far less revenue to go around in M.L.S. because the TV contracts lag so far behind those in other sports. According to Forbes, the N.B.A.’s current TV contracts pay the league more than $1 billion per year, and will be increasing by at least 30 percent when the next contract is signed. The N.F.L. receives some $7 billion in annual TV rights. And some baseball clubs, including the Texas Rangers and the Los Angeles Angels, have agreed to multibillion-dollar TV contracts of their very own. M.L.S., by comparison, currently generates somewhere in the neighborhood of $27 million in annual TV revenue. Yes, million with an “m.” Those other leagues? Billion with a “b.” A few extra zeros go a long way toward explaining the salary discrepancies between M.L.S. and other major American professional leagues. The good news for M.L.S. players — not to mention M.L.S. fans eager to see the highest-quality product on the field — is that more money is finding its way to the on-field talent. In 2007, only four M.LS. players earned $1 million or more: Juan Pablo Angel, David Beckham, Cuauhtemoc Blanco and Claudio Reyna. In 2012, there are nine players above the million-dollar mark. The revenue is trickling down to the league’s middle class as well. Five years ago, 103 M.L.S. players made $100,000 or more per year, and only 33 players reached the $200,000 plateau. Today, 226 M.L.S. players earn six-figure salaries, with 84 receiving at least $200,000 in guaranteed compensation. Granted, in 2007 there were 13 teams in the league and now there are 19, but player salaries are clearly on the rise. All told, the league has spent more than $800 million on player salaries in the last decade, according to M.L.S. Commissioner Don Garber, which is not bad for a league in its 17th season. Will Major League Soccer salaries ever reach the lofty heights of those in the N.B.A. and M.L.B.? Not soon, but stay tuned. Better yet, start tuning in — and encourage a friend to do the same. If M.L.S. can draw better TV ratings, that could lead to more lucrative deals, which in turn could translate to increased revenue and – in all likelihood – better quality talent on the field. John Godfrey is a regular contributor to the Goal blog. Follow him on Twitter.by Rob Natelson There have been some on-line discussions recently of whether a federal mandate that individuals obtain health insurance would violate the U.S. Constitution. This issue is distinct from the issue of whether other sorts of government health programs â€“ such as single-payer â
L3 Cache (per Processor): 8 MB 9 Memory: 12 GB 10 Processor Interconnect Speed: 5.86 GT/s This gives us a total of 16 cores to use for our testing. I’m also using a Crucial M4 SSD Results Time to Process 150,000 sets of 20 numbers Type Time to Completion (seconds) Sidekiq (JRuby) 150 Threads 88 Sidekiq (JRuby) 240 Threads 89 Sidekiq (JRuby) 50 Threads 91 Sidekiq (MRI) 5x50 98 Sidekiq (MRI) 3x50 120 Sidekiq (MRI) 50 312 Resque 50 396 All about the CPU Resque: 50 workers Here we can see that the forking is taking its toll on the available CPU we have for processing. Roughly 50% of the CPU is being wasted on forking and scheduling those new processes. Resque took 396 seconds to finish and process 150,000 jobs. Sidekiq (MRI) 1 process, 50 threads We’re not fully utilizing the CPU. When running this test it pegged one CPU at 100% usage and kept it there for the duration of the test. We have a slight overhead with system CPU usage. Sidekiq took 312 seconds with 50 threads using MRI Ruby. Lets now take a look at doing things a bit resque-ish, and use multiple sidekiq processes to get more threads scheduled across multiple CPUs. Sidekiq (MRI) 3 processes, 50 threads We’re doing better. We’ve cut our processing time roughly in third and we’re utilizing more of our resources (CPUs). 3 Sidekiq processes with 50 threads each (for a total of 150 threads) took 120 seconds to complete 150,000 jobs. Sidekiq (MRI) 5 processes, 50 threads As we keep adding more processes that get scheduled to different cores we’re seeing the CPU usage go up even further, however with more processes comes more overhead for process scheduling (versus thread scheduling). We’re still wasting CPU cycles, but we’re completing 150,000 jobs in 98 seconds. Sidekiq (JRuby) 50 threads We’re doing much better now with native threads. With 50 OS level threads, we’re completing our set of jobs in 91 seconds. Sidekiq (JRuby) 150 threads & 240 Threads We’re no longer seeing a increase in (much) CPU usage and only a slight decrease in processing time. As we keep adding more and more threads we end up running into some thread contention issues with accessing redis and how quickly we can pop things off the queue. Overview Even if we stick with the stock MRI ruby and go with Sidekiq, we’re going to see a huge decrease in CPU usage while also gaining a little bit of performance as well. Sidekiq, overall, provides a cleaner, more object oriented interface (in my opinion) to inspecting jobs and what is going on in the processing queue. In Resque you would do something like: Resque.size("queue_name"). However, in Sidekiq you would take your class, in this case, POR and call POR.jobs to get the list of jobs for that worker queue. (note: you need to require'sidekiq/testing' to get access to the jobs method). The only thing I find missing from Sidekiq that I enjoyed in Resque was the ability to inspect failed jobs in the web UI. However Sidekiq more than makes up for that with the ability to automatically retry failed jobs (although be careful you don’t introduce race conditions and accidentally DOS yourself). And of course, JRuby comes out on top and gives us the best performance and bang for the buck (although your mileage may vary, depending on the task). Further Reading Deploying with JRuby: Deliver Scalable Web Apps using the JVM (Pragmatic Programmers) JRuby Cookbook Sidekiq & Resque Sidekiq ResqueWhat It's Like To Own Your Very Own Harrier Jump Jet Enlarge this image toggle caption Courtesy of Silverstone Auction Courtesy of Silverstone Auction The Harrier Jump Jet combines the speed of a jet with the maneuverability of a helicopter. These single-seater planes are known for vertical take-offs and landings, making them ideal for close-air support near the front-lines where runways may be damaged or non-existent. Designed by the British and now flown by the U.S. Marine Corps, Harriers also have an accident-prone track record and are notoriously difficult to fly. But why not have one for your private collection? On Saturday, a 1976 Harrier that once flew in the British Royal Air Force sold at Silverstone Auctions in England for the equivalent of $179,611. The weapons systems are dismantled and the engine isn't fitted to the plane. But with some work, it could fly again. If a civilian flying a Harrier sounds ridiculous, well, there's already a guy doing it. His name is Art Nalls, a retired Marine Corps test pilot. Nalls says he's the only civilian in the world to privately own and fly a Harrier. Enlarge this image toggle caption Courtesy of Art Nalls Courtesy of Art Nalls He's got a history with these planes. The first time he sat in the cockpit of one was 35 years ago. "I had the great fortune to fly about 75 different type model series of airplanes," Nalls says. "Most of them, pretty exciting. The F-18, the F-16. But my absolute favorite has and always will be the Harrier." That's why he bought his own. A Labor Of Love — And Just A Lot Of Labor He bought his rare 1979 Sea Harrier in England back in 2006. Like the Harrier from Saturday's auction, there were no weapons systems and it was no longer equipped to fly, but Nalls was determined to get it back in the air. "The FAA was on board, the bank was on board," Nalls says. "He offered it up for sale and I was the first one there with a checkbook." Nalls won't say how much he spent. "We shook hands on a deal and signed a one-page contract written in Sharpie," he says. "And I headed back to the United States." Meanwhile, the plane was taken apart, loaded onto a ship and sent to the U.S. Nalls and his crew painstakingly put it back together again. The manual was 400,000 pages long, Nalls says. Everything from instructions on fixing the landing gear, to gas-turbine jet-engine starters, and wiring diagrams. "We started following the instructions, step by step by step," he says. Ever Hear A Plane Hover? Finally, his plane was restored and airborne. "It can come to a complete stop in the air, it can back up, it can turn sideways," Nalls says. The plane's Rolls-Royce engines roar. It takes a lot of thrust to keep Harriers hovering. "It burns a little bit of gas," Nalls says. "When we're in a hover, we're burning a gallon of jet fuel every two seconds." Since his plane has been restored, Nalls travels the country taking it to air shows. "When we're at an airshow, I love the opportunity to be able to share it with other people," he says. Now that someone else has bought a Harrier for their private collection, Nalls says he's also willing to share his expertise. "There's no reason that a competent pilot who had been properly instructed and trained, couldn't, with the right supervision, safely fly this airplane," he says.Lego Ideas geologists.png Circe Verba's Lego Ideas proposal is a 213-piece set depicting research geologists in the field and in the laboratory. (Courtesy of Circe Verba) You've probably heard of Lego Friends, the Legos for girls. How about Lego Scientists Who Happen to be Female? That's the premise behind an Oregon research geologist's submission to Lego Ideas, an online forum where fans can submit proposals for new sets. Circe Verba, 29, who works at the National Energy Technology Laboratory's Albany site, said she's been a fan of Legos since she was a kid. "They really enable you to use critical thinking skills," she said. After seeing a successful Lego Ideas proposal for a "Research Institute" set containing three female scientists, which the toy company produced in a limited edition that swiftly sold out, Verba decided to try her hand at creating a set based on her own research career. "I feel that it is critical to find fun ways to encourage Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) related careers for children," Verba wrote in an email. The resulting 213-piece set has two vignettes. A "minifig," or Lego minifigure, of a research geologist. In one vignette, two geologists are out in the field, exploring a crystal cave system and accompanied by an "obligatory geology dog." In the other vignette, a female geologist is back in the lab, using a scanning electron microscope to analyze her findings. To turn her Lego Idea into Lego Reality, Verba needs 10,000 votes; if she hits that milestone, Lego will review her proposal and decide whether to create a limited-edition set. Women are well represented in college geoscience departments, earning about 43 percent of geoscience degrees, according to a 2010 report from the American Geological Institute. But, the report said, women's representation in geoscience and environmental occupations "has not exceeded 30 percent since 2003." Verba, a native of Pendleton, fell in love with science at age 14, after taking an earth science class. She participated in Oregon State University's Science & Math Investigative Learning Experiences pre-college program and enrolled at OSU, where she earned a degree in earth science, which allowed her to combine her interests in astronomy, oceanography and geology. "It encompasses everything because you really can't just learn about one kind of science when it comes to the earth," she said. Verba went on to earn a master's degree in geology with a minor in physics from Northern Arizona University and to work with NASA's HiRISE project aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission with the U.S. Geological Survey Astrogeology Science Center. "I studied Martian dust devils," she said. "It was really exciting... To see something that's occurring on another planet is just amazing." She also holds a doctorate in geology with a focus in civil engineering. Today, her focus is once again turned toward the earth. Her research interests include carbon dioxide storage and hydraulic fracturing - more precisely, the geochemistry underlying both processes. Whether or not her Lego Ideas proposal succeeds, Verba hopes to convey the idea that science can be fun and "that it doesn't matter what gender you are... any gender can aspire to have any kind of career." -- Amy Wang awang@oregonian.com 503-294-5914 @ORAmyWThis smooth and dreamy homemade & healthy Nutella is my newest obsession! Soon to be your newest obsession. Once you try this healthy Nutella chocolate spread, you’ll never want to put your spoon down. Never ever. Unless, of course, you don’t like Nutella… Is that even possible? Is there a person in this world who can resist that velvety chocolate butter? If it’s true, please send me your spoon. I’ll happily eat your portion of this healthy homemade nutella. I’m nice like that. On Friday, I posted my blog’s top 10 most popular healthy desserts. The following recipe is so incredibly delicious it might just make the list for next year! Super rich and creamy, my homemade Nutella rivals the decadence of that famous spread you find at grocery stores. Have you ever tried Nutella? I’m imagining all the possible ways I can use this healthy Nutella recipe. Homemade Nutella ice cream, pancakes, cupcakes… or if you are brave you could try it on top of my Black Bean Brownies! This version is much lower in sugar (or it can even be sugar free!), is suitable for vegans or those with dairy allergies, and it’s high in Vitamin E, B vitamins, and healthy fats! My homemade healthy Nutella also has just half the calories of store-bought Nutella, although I didn’t specifically set out to make a low-calorie homemade Nutella recipe. It just turned out that way. My first love. Long before I discovered boys (or at least before I stopped believing they had cooties), I gave my heart to Nutella. Back then, the spread wasn’t popular like it is now. All the kids in my class thought I was so weird for bringing Nutella sandwiches to school. Day after day, they nibbled their boring pb&js, while I blissfully devoured a chocolate sandwich. (In just a few months, I’d hooked all my friends onto this miracle spread, and soon everyone was bringing Nutella for lunch!) I gave up eating Nutella when I went vegan, over ten years ago. They do now sell such a thing as vegan Nutella (Justin’s chocolate-hazelnut spread), and it is delicious. However it’s not silky-smooth like the Nutella I so loved as a child. Tired of feeling left out, I took matters into my own chocolate-covered hands one day, throwing more and more ingredients into my Cuisinart until I achieved exactly what I was looking for: Healthy Nutella – Homemade Healthy Nutella Total Time: 10m Yield: 2 cups Print This Recipe 4.88/5 4.88 / 5 56 Ingredients Healthy Nutella 2 cups raw hazelnuts (240g) 1 1/2 tbsp pure vanilla extract 1/4 cup cocoa powder 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp pure maple syrup, xylitol, or unrefined sugar pinch stevia, or 1 tbsp additional sugar 1/4 tsp + 1/8 tsp salt optional: 2 tsp oil for extra smoothness 1/2 cup milk of choice Instructions Homemade Nutella Recipe: Roast hazelnuts for 6-8 minutes at 400 F. Rub them together in a paper towel to get the skins off. (It’s ok if a few stubborn skins won’t come off.) In a Vita-mix or food processor, blend the nuts until they’ve turned to butter, then add all other ingredients and blend a long time until it’s smooth like Nutella! (I think I blended off-and-on for a full two minutes. It’s extra-creamy in a Vita-mix, but a Cuisinart food processor works as well.) View Healthy Nutella Nutrition Facts The nutritional info includes the sugar/agave. For a sugar-free healthy Nutella, you can replace all of the sugar with an equal amount of xylitol. Or, you can sweeten with stevia instead. (I haven’t personally tried this recipe using just stevia, so I can’t vouch for the resulting taste if you go that route.) Trending Right Now: Peanut Butter Pie (Just 5 Ingredients) One Minute Chocolate Mug Cake Cauliflower Mac And Cheese More About The Cookbook 4.88/5 (56) 4.88 / 5 56Despite sharp political disagreements, Russia and Turkey have in the past weathered difficult times, pragmatically handling their differences. However, the current crisis is substantially different from any other previous quarrel. In the current hostile environment between Ankara and Moscow, the idea of Turkey as a transit hub for Russian gas is unlikely to make any headway whatsoever. Yet Turkey and Russia remain interdependent. Reasonably, both will eventually re-engage and make efforts to safeguard common economic interests, including the now suspended Turkish Stream project. The result will depend on how soon they will be able to check and eventually defuse the tensions that are now rapidly building up. BACKGROUND: It was only last month that Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin shook hands during the G20 summit in Antalya in Turkey and decided to hold a High-Level Cooperation Council meeting in Moscow on December 15. The two presidents agreed that a number of multimillion dollar projects, including the Turkish Stream project, would be among the many issues to be discussed. This was a clear signal that Moscow and Ankara were prepared to push ahead with the controversial and highly politicized pipeline scheme. Now, the situation has changed dramatically. After a Russian fighter plane was shot down by Turkey on November 24, tensions have dramatically escalated between the two countries. Moscow is economically retaliating against Ankara, restricting a number of projects. On December 3, Russian energy minister Alexander Novak stated that the talks between the two governments about the Turkish Stream had been broken off. “The negotiations on the project “have been suspended,” Russian news agency Tass reported. On December 5, President Erdoğan stated that “It was Turkey that suspended the Turkish Stream, since the project did not meet our demands.” At first, however, Erdoğan had tried to cool down the crisis. “We are strategic partners... Joint projects may be halted, ties could be cut. Are such approaches fitting for politicians?" the Turkish president asked, referring to Moscow’s rhetoric after the downing of its war plane. "We really attach a lot of importance to our relations with Russia... We don't want these relations to suffer harm in any way," he said. On December 3, Prime Minister Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu implored Russia not to sacrifice common economic interests. In December 2014, following the demise of the South Stream project, Moscow had proposed the Turkish Stream gas pipeline to Ankara; the idea was to allow delivery of Russian gas to Turkey and the European market. The project would provide 14bcm of gas per year to the Turkish market and another 49 billion cubic meters per year to Europe via a new hub on the Turkish-Greek border. Initially, an agreement was sought for four lines, each with a capacity of 15.75 billion cubic meters per year. Moscow saw Turkish Stream as an alternative to the Ukraine route to Europe, securing a smoother transit of Russian gas. Earlier, Gazprom had stated that after the current transit contract with Ukraine expires in 2019, it would not ship its gas via Ukraine. At that point, Moscow was desperately looking for alternative routes and partners to counter heavy Western sanctions and political and economic isolation. With the offer to Turkey, Russia was demonstrating that it was willing to surrender its decades-long dominant role in the European market by sharing with Ankara control over shipments of a major part of its gas to Europe. Turkey had set its sights on Turkish Stream as a means to achieve its goal of becoming a major gateway to the EU energy market. As a part of the deal, Ankara also wanted to get a better gas price and at that time, it felt that it had an upper hand over Moscow; Moscow wanted to keep both northern and southern route options available, so Turkish Stream was important to secure a Sothern entrance for its gas to the EU market. But since then the domestic and international political and economic dynamics have changed dramatically. In fact, negotiations between Moscow and Ankara over the project had already lost momentum. Moscow and Ankara had been unable to reach a formal agreement over the line in June 2015, as had initially been expected. Subsequently, Moscow announced that it would expand the Nord Stream pipeline. The move was seen as not just a backup plan for Turkish Stream, but also as a clear message to Ankara that Moscow has an alternative route for gas deliveries to Europe. Since September 2015, talks between the two countries had been completely “frozen.” Moscow’s initiation of its military mission in Syria complicated the situation even more, souring relations between the two countries and pushing Turkish Stream issues off the table altogether. President Erdoğan – who before the current crisis recently referred to Russia as a strategic partner – had warned that the Russian moves in Syria threatened mutual multibillion dollar projects in Turkey. Erdoğan went even further, saying that his country could even reconsider buying Russian gas. In October 2015, Moscow made another move, signaling a major shift in its supply strategy. Gazprom CEO Aleksey Miller announced that the planned scope of the Turkish Stream project had been cut to two strings, and that this alteration was directly linked to the expansion of the Nord Stream pipeline. The first string of the Turkish Stream would allow Gazprom to stop sending gas to Turkey via Ukraine. The second line would target the EU market. And Turkey’s security of supply would no longer be vulnerable to political stand-offs between Moscow and Kiev. Currently, Russia supplies 14bcm of gas to Turkey via Blue Stream and about 15bcm via Ukraine and the Trans-Balkan pipeline system. IMPLICATIONS: It is clear that Turkey and Russia depend on each other. Economic rationality speaks against the two countries taking drastic decisions that endanger their common economic interests. Reasonably, both would be expected to try to safeguard common economic interests, including the Turkish Stream project. Ankara has limited ability to alter its energy relationship with Moscow, its biggest gas supplier. Currently, 10 billion cubic meters of Russian gas is imported by Turkey’s private sector, while the remaining about 20 billion cubic meters are imported by the state-owned Botaş. About 70 percent of Turkish gas imports originate from Russia and there are few immediate alternatives. Additional volumes of gas from Azerbaijan and Iran would take years to bring online. Other options are even more problematic. Turkey is Russia’s second biggest gas market after Germany. At this point, it is unlikely that Moscow will impose any sanctions on current gas supplies to Turkey. It is hardly in Moscow’s interest to reduce its gas income and or lose any share in Turkish gas market. Since last December, Moscow has weathered Western sanctions over Ukraine, and re-engaged in international politics. Russia’s Gazprom has obtained support among European companies to expand its Nord Stream pipeline. The EU’s leading member, Germany, could be the main beneficiary of Nord Stream expansion. This would amplify the country’s status as a regional energy hub, as up to 80 percent of Russia’s total exports to Europe could, in theory, be directed via a single route. This would come at the expense of Turkey’s ambitions to become a major transit route for Russian gas. Moscow wanted to keep both northern and southern route options available. The Turkish Stream was still important to secure a southern entrance for its gas to the EU market. In the current hostile environment and with the deep mistrust that prevails between Ankara and Moscow, the idea of Turkey as a transit hub for Russian gas is unlikely to make any headway. It was apparent that the implementation of the Turkish Stream project would be delayed or even canceled. It was already clear when the project was first announced, that it could not be implemented unless both sides invest a significant amount of time, money and most importantly, political will. Both sides have already faced a number of potential stumbling blocks, including questions about gas prices and how to manage shipments to the European market, as well as criticism from Brussels. In the current situation, neither side has the political will to keep the Turkish Stream project moving forward. At the same time, neither side stands to lose much if the project is slowed down. It could be revived later, because the project potentially serves the interests of both sides. CONCLUSIONS: Turkey and Russia remain interdependent and the two countries will reasonably eventually try to find common ground; however, the result will depend on how soon they will be able to check and eventually defuse the tensions that are now rapidly building up. This process will have direct impact on political and economic dynamics between Moscow and Ankara as well as wider, regional implications. Despite sharp political disagreements over Syria, Cyprus and Armenian-Azerbaijani tensions, Russia and Turkey have in the past weathered difficult times, pragmatically handling their differences. However, the current crisis is substantially much different from any other previous quarrel. But even at this point it can be seen that, as political dynamics shift for both countries, they seem to be recalculating their approaches as they pursue their objectives. Dr. Najia Badykova is the head of Antares Strategy consulting. Image attribution: www.telegraph.co.uk, accessed on Dec 7, 2015Vitamin D has long been synonymous with bone health. More recently, new health benefits are continually being associated with vitamin D, including a burgeoning field on neuroprotective properties. This has generated a huge explosion of interest in recent years in the potential for vitamin D to be used not only as a therapeutic in neurodegenerative disease, including Parkinson's disease, but also as biomarkers and for risk association. With an emphasis on Parkinson's disease, this chapter will discuss recent evidence supporting the assertion that vitamin D can be a useful therapeutic agent used as an intervention therapy to be combined with existing treatments; and the case for further development of novel treatments utilizing the potential of vitamin D. In addition, we present novel, previously unpublished evidence showing that in a unilateral model of Parkinson's disease, vitamin D can not only reduce the extent of denervation, but that this is also reflected in functional benefit to the animals. The potential of vitamin D is slowly being realized; in the future, it will be widely associated with far more than just bone health and may even contribute to an elusive treatment of neurodegenerative illness. © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Well, its finally happened. The Bobcats of Charlotte were too much of a powerhouse franchise that Adam Silver had to step in and break them up.... yeah, if only. After having only two seasons above.500 and zero playoff wins in 10 years, it was only right that Charlotte decided to bury all the bad history with the Bobcats name and revitalize the classic Charlotte Hornets franchise, and the time couldn't have been better. Unless you live in Charlotte or are the single lone Charlotte fan in Los Angeles (Hello...? Anybody else out there?), you probably didn't catch a single Bobcats game last year. And that isn't your fault, 82 regular season games and not a single one was nationally televised. BUT if you did watch, then you know that the 4-game sweep that ended our season wasn't the end of something terrible, but rather the start of something beautiful. After the 2012-13 season, with only 21 wins and the league's worst defense, fans thought it was Bobcat's business as usual when their biggest off-season acquisition was a B-Level big-man who's notoriously known for having slow feet defensively. His critics aren't wrong either. Big Albus Ricardo Jefferson was scored on 52.7% of the time an opponent made a field goal attempt at the rim against him, 13th best out of 15 players who faced 8+ FGA @ the rim and recorded at least one block a game. (Only better than Pau Gasol and Spencer Hawes). But yet Charlotte as a whole was the 5th best team in protecting the paint, behind only the Pacers, Thunder, Blazers, and Bulls, all teams with elite paint defenders. Before you even ask, the answer is Steve Clifford. Coach Clifford took a rock bottom defensive team and turned it into one of the leagues best defenses in only one year and with no significant roster changes. Rather than coming into Charlotte and forcing certain ideas or styles, he did the complete opposite and analyzed his roster to mold his philosophies and the way he was going to handle the challenge of coaching his new team. Coach Cliff knows about Big Al's slow feet, so rather than having him play up tight on pick and rolls, he has him slide back towards the paint to force the PnR handler into a mid-range shot or a heavily contested lay-up. And this conservative style of defense didn't just apply to Big Al. Though Charlotte as a team was the 3rd worst in creating turnovers and 4th worst in getting steals, opponents had the fewest free throw attempts a game against Charlotte as a direct result. It's only been one year, but Steve Clifford has definitely already begun to identify himself as a defensive minded coach. A the year went on, the team's confidence defensively kept growing, but Charlotte's offensive struggles stayed stagnant. Charlotte made only 44.2% of their shots last year, 25th in the league. They're also a bottom-10 three point shooting team and they definitely knew it because only 22% of their shots came from beyond the arc. But this off-season is the perfect year to ameliorate any offensive woes. The Charlotte HORNETS (sounds so good to say) have the 9th, 24th, and 45th pick in a heavily loaded draft and over $18 million in excess salary space, mostly thanks to Ben Gordon's massively disgusting contract finally being dead. This is the dream place to be after coming off a great season, but Cho and the front office needs to keep its cool before it gets excited and signs an unproven free agent coming off a hot season to an insurmountable amount of money. Yes, you know exactly who I'm talking about. But first, lets talk draft! The Charlotte Hornets have the 9th, 24th, and 45th picks in this years draft and I'm confident that we can find a talented player at all three of those spots. As tempting as it might be to package up some draft picks/swaps and Hendo/Bismark to Orlando for Afflalo, it just isn't worth it. This draft has too much talent and potential for one year of Afflalo and hoping he re-signs. I'm interested in building a long term future in Charlotte. 9th Pick The biggest of Charlotte's issues last year was their three point shooting. This draft class runs deep with talent and there's two guys I'd really like us to take if they're available: Doug McDermott. He's not a great defender. He isn't much of an athlete. But I think people are underrating how much of an offensive machine this kid is. Catch-and-shoot, off screens, off the dribble, McDermott is going to create some interesting spacing for the Hornets and give coaches a headache trying to figure out a way to defend Al down-low and McDermott from deep at the same time. His biggest criticism is that he won't be quick enough to guard a small forward or big enough to guard a power forward. He's definitely a bit undersized, especially for someone who spent four years in college. But he still stands at 6'8 and 225 pounds, an extra fifteen or twenty pounds and the Hornets could have an extremely interesting power forward for the future. Worst case scenario (and I know this is a cliche comparison), his career turns out like Kyle Korver's. I wouldn't complain. It also gives Coach Cliff some new offensive flexibility. Small ball with MKG at 3 and Dougy at 4, or use MKG off the bench to give the 2nd some serious reinforcement. Just some ideas, but things could get interesting. If Doug isn't available, then I'm taking Nik Stauskas. He's undersized, but it's not too big of an issue. He's probably the best catch-and-shoot 3-point shooter in the draft and a natural cutter. I'd love to see him start and have Henderson move into a 6th man role. 24th Pick Shabazz Napier I didn't always like Shabazz, but he definitely won me over during the tournament. With Ridnour out, he's a perfect fit for the void left at back-up point guard. Shabazz has quite a reputation for being a wild shooter with bad shot selection, but let me tell you something you probably didn't know: He made 40.5% of his shots beyond the arc on about 5.5 attempts a game last season. He's got the kind of explosive offensive game we've been lacking off of the bench. Past UConn teammate Kemba Walker will be a great role model as well and it'll be great for the team chemistry as a whole. 45th Pick Patric Young or Khem Birch Both of these guys are pretty similar, so it's just a matter of which one is left on the board come the 45th pick. Biyambo and Haywood are most likely going to be both let go at the end of the season, so this pick would be perfect to find a new big man. Both were good defenders in college, but neither one had much an offensive game. But with a pick this late in the draft, I think it would be alright to take a chance on either one because they're both such intriguing prospects. Out of the two, I definitely prefer Patric. He's durable, has that MKG hustle, an extremely tough post defender, and has a natural knack for pulling down offensive boards that would be a perfect compliment to a trigger-happy second unit consisting of Shabazz, Gary Neal, and McDermott. If Patric isn't available, I'm taking Khem. An excellent rebounder with great length and defensive instincts that reminds me a little bit of 2012-13 Larry Sanders. Free Agency Charlotte has a little over $18 million to spend in free agency this year, but just because they have that money, doesn't mean they need to spend it. If we end up getting McBuckets, Napier, and Young in the draft, then there's two guys I'd love to see Charlotte pick up. Gordon Hayward I've been a big fan of Gordon Hayward and I think he's one of the most overlooked offensive players in the game. He's a versatile offensive weapon that's going to be a solid improvement to Charlotte's offense as a unit. He didn't exactly put up his best numbers last year, but that's just a result of being the only person in Utah capable of shooting a basketball. He's going to get some real comfortable spacing on the court when he's sharing the floor with Big Al. Now he's looking for a big time signing, but last year definitely hurt his stock, but if we add on the usual overpay cost for getting a player into Charlotte, we might be able to land him at a fair price. Thabo Sefolosha Had a train wreck of a season in OKC, but I'm okay to signing him to a 2 year/$6 million deal if there's even a chance he can replicate some of that deadly corner-three offense he produced in OKC between 2011-13. With Big Al's ability to attract double teams, Jesus' gift of passing, and Kemba's explosive off the dribble game, I think Thabo is going to find himself with some wide open looks a couple times a game. Whether they fall or not is up to him. If the price is right, I like the gamble. Looking Ahead Post-Draft/Free Agency Roster C: Al Jefferson, Patric Young, Biyambo, Haywood PF: Jesus, Zeller, (McBuckets) SF: MKG (Thabo), (McBuckets), (Hayward) SG: Hendo, Neal, (Thabo), (Hayward), (Napier) PG: Kemba, (Napier) This new roster gives a new level of 3-point shooting we weren't close to having last year. Plus with this roster has the flexibility to play both small and big ball effectively. I loved seeing what Coach Cliff did with our offense last season and I'm looking forward to see some more of that brilliance and creativity on the offensive side of the ball when surrounded by such a diverse group of new weapons. Whatever Cho and the front office elect to do, I feel like it's going to be a great season for Charlotte. Confidence is high after coming off a great season and culture shift. But Cho, just promise me one thing... God, please don't sign Lance Stephenson.Three people, including a minor, have been injured in the city of Lille after a gunman opened fire near the central Porte d’Arras metro station. Police are not considering the incident to be terror-related, local media reports. Witnesses heard at least five shots fired in central Lille late on Friday, local outlet La Voix du Nord reported. The injured reportedly included a 14-year-old teenager, who was shot in the leg. Another person has suffered a neck injury and has been hospitalized. Lille : fusillade près du métro Porte d'Arras, 3 blessés - Fdesouche https://t.co/XwBUWf39rz — Ce_line 🇫🇷 (@ce_li_ne_fr) March 24, 2017 #Lille : des coups de feu tirés près du métro porte d’Arras ce vendredi soir, plusieurs blessés https://t.co/GD3ROILUYqpic.twitter.com/tp2oID1XJi — La Voix du Nord (@lavoixdunord) March 24, 2017 The motive behind the shooting was not immediately clear. The shooter has reportedly escaped the scene. Multiple police and emergency service vehicles have been dispatched and police have cordoned off the area. Coups de feu ce soir porte d'Arras à LIlle. Trois jeunes ont été légèrement blessés. Le tireur serait en fuite. pic.twitter.com/06VD5gtrGZ — France Bleu Nord (@fbleunord) March 24, 2017 Police said they do not consider the case to be terror-related, France Bleu Nord reported. Officers found about 10 bullet shells on the scene, the outlet said. Media reports, citing sources, have claimed that the incident was understood to be related to drug traffickers “settling scores.” No official statement has yet been released, however. Police in #France have stated that #shooting in #Lille is not #terror related - no further details have been shared — TSM_Pulse (@TSM_Pulse) March 24, 2017 Update Shooting near Porte d'Arras metro in #Lille in northern #France. 3 injured.It seems clash btw drug deal/gangs so far 📸 pic.twitter.com/C7HosHiLTL — Mete Sohtaoğlu (@metesohtaoglu) March 24, 2017 The coverage of the shooting has caused some controversy on social media. While major international news agencies chose to ignore the incident altogether, several UK tabloids picked the story under headlines such as “Terror fears in Lille as'many wounded' in shooting near metro station in center of French city” (Daily Mirror) and “Terror alert in Lille…” (Daily Mail). Reckless sensationalism from British tabloids is once again driving fear, rumors and confusion https://t.co/HK5UBiVgAv — BNO Newsroom (@BNODesk) March 24, 2017 Terror
a vehicle to push the United States to shift its position on the legality of the settlements to one that is in line with almost the entire world (the overwhelming majority of international legal opinion), it will have accomplished a lot more than cutting off a few dollars from one group that supports the most radical settler elements. Video courtesy of Americans for Peace NowQuick Facts Dates August 23rd Hashtag #CubanSandwichDay report this ad Learn about Cuban Sandwich Day Cuban Sandwich Day is a day to celebrate the traditional pressed Cuban sandwich and its many variants, which have spread from Tampa, Florida’s Ybor City neighborhood to restaurant menus in all corners of the world. report this ad The Cuban sandwich is a history lesson pressed between two pieces of bread. Perhaps no other food represents the United States’ history as a melting pot at the turn of the century better than the Cubano, which combines elements from three different immigrant groups that came together, surprisingly, in the deep south. Also, it’s delicious? A traditional cuban sandwich consists of ham, mojo pork, Genoa salami, Swiss cheese, yellow mustard and dill pickle slices on crispy-but-not-too-chewy Cuban bread, all heated in a press, though Cuban Sandwich Day celebrates all variations. Cuban sandwich fun factAs a geek, I end up traveling with a ton or wires and cables. Apart from being near visually identical and completely non-interchangeable, they also like to torture me by turning into an instant rat’s nest. No matter how nicely I lay them out, if I turn my back for even half a second that all leap up into some sort of cable mosh pit and horribly tangle themselves into knots. My solution was to make a tool pouch like people have for screw drivers, lock picking kits, or other small tools. Nothing says “professional” like unrolling your wire kit and pulling out just the right wire for the occasion. No more, Is this a Micro USB or a Kindle USB cable for me! The whole project is about 1-2 hours and you can amaze your friends. Prep Work: Cut 3 14” strips of sew on velcro. These strips should have two pieces each, the latch side and the hook side. It doesn’t really mater which side you call latch or hook as long and you stay consistent. Cut 1 14×22 piece of fabric. I wanted my carrier to be decorated, so at this stage I sewed in ribbons to the right side of fabric. If you wanted to embroider, you should do it now before you start assembly. Note, half of the fabric will end up inside, so be mindful of where you are decorating. Step 1: Place your 14 x22 piece of fabric wrong side up. piece of fabric wrong side up. Step 2: Fold the fabric on the 22 in side in half, with the two wrong sides facing each other. Iron in a crease, which you will use later. Step 3: Fold the fabric again, thus folding it into forths. Iron another crease. Step 4: Unfold the fabric. On the bottom forth, sew on your velcro strips. The blue lines are for the hook sides and the orange line is for the latch side. When you are done, the orange will seal with the bottom blue line to close your carrier. The two middle velcros will hold the remaining 2 latch sides to hold wires into place. Step 5: Fold the carrier in the middle, right sides together. Now stitch around the outside, leaving a 1 -2 gap to turn the carrier inside out. Backstitch at both ends to seal them. gap to turn the carrier inside out. Backstitch at both ends to seal them. Step 6: Turn the carrier right-side-out and hand stitch the gap shut. Step 7: Place the two latch strips of velcro to the two hook strips in your carrier. You can see more of my sewing projects at MySewingProjects wiki. I know, I run a personal Wikipedia. I said I was nerd.Five mathematical biographies, looking at the histories, uses and idiosyncrasies of some very special numbers: 1, 2, 6, 1729 & G. Simon Singh investigates five numbers that lie at the heart of some of the trickiest problems in mathematics including four, seven and the largest prime. Simon Singh takes a quirky look at five of the most important numbers in mathematics: zero, pi, the golden ratio, the imaginary number 'i' and infinity. Tim Harford explains - and sometimes debunks - the numbers and statistics used in political debate, the news and everyday life. Mathematician Marcus du Sautoy tours the world to find some of his favourite forms: the cube, the pyramid, the sphere, the bagel and the blob. Professor of Mathematics Marcus du Sautoy reveals the personalities behind the calculations and argues that mathematics is the driving force behind modern science. Archimedes Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Archimedes. How did this Greek mathematician in the third century BC calculate Pi? Calculus Examining the epic feud between Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz over who invented an astonishingly powerful new mathematical tool - calculus. Fibonacci Sequence In the 19th century the Fibonacci Sequence began to crop up time and again among the structures of the natural world, from the spirals on a pinecone to the petals on a sunflower. Gödel's Incompleteness Theory Gödel proved that there were some problems in maths that were impossible to solve and the implications of his work take us to the very edge of what we can know. Imaginary Numbers In the sixteenth century, a group of mathematicians found a solution to a problem that had puzzled generations before them: a completely new kind of number. Indian Mathematics Mathematics from the Indian subcontinent has provided foundations for much of our modern thinking on the subject. Mathematics Discussing perceptions mathematics, the nature of mathematical ability, and what mathematics can show us about how life began, and how it might continue. Negative Numbers In 1759 the British mathematician Francis Maseres wrote that negative numbers 'darken the very whole doctrines of the equations...' Pi Archimedes calculated Pi to the equivalent of 14 decimal places and today we know its first 1.4 trillion digits. Prime Numbers For nearly two and a half thousand years, mathematicians have struggled to write a rule to predict the sequence of prime numbers. Probability Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the strange mathematics of probability where heads or tails is a simple question with a far from simple answer. Pythagoras The central Pythagorean idea was that number had the capacity to explain the truths of the world. This was as much a mystical belief as a mathematical one. Random and Pseudorandom Random numbers have become enormously useful to statisticians, computer scientists and cryptographers. But true randomness is difficult to find. Renaissance Maths European mathematics went from being an art that would unmask the eternal shapes of geometry to a science that could track the manifold movements and changes of the real world.The story of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in the summer of 2014 is not a complicated one. In June, Hamas operatives activated long-in-the-works plans to escalate terror operations in the West Bank and military attacks from Gaza. Israel responded by launching Operation Brother’s Keeper and then Operation Protective Edge, which were aimed respectively at eroding Hamas’s terror infrastructure in the West Bank and its military infrastructure in Gaza. By the middle of August, Jerusalem announced that Israeli security forces had secured the strategic goals of both campaigns. This is what happened. And yet the simplicity of this account bothers a great many people. There remains sustained disagreement on the most basic origins of the violence. There remains substantial debate regarding the course of the war in Gaza. There should be little disagreement: 1) Hamas caused the violence; 2) Israel prevailed in the military conflict. Now, to say this isn’t to say anything definitive. Everything is not going to be just fine in the wake of the summer of 2014. Hamas will still pose a threat; Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians will remain controversial. But in fact, Israel’s strategic position—with no army in the Middle East capable of launching a full-scale invasion and with a Palestinian leader who at least says out loud that the Jewish state is not going anywhere—has never been stronger. The country emerged from the summer’s violence more secure rather than less secure. Things could have gone differently, and had it not been for the decision made by various Hamas leaders and operatives to drag Israeli security forces into Palestinian-controlled territories, they probably would have. We now know that Hamas operatives in the West Bank were preparing to generate a massive wave of violence designed to radicalize the territory politically, make Israeli–Palestinian security cooperation impossible, and deprive the Palestinian Authority—which is controlled by Hamas’s rival, Fatah—of critical Israeli intelligence and strength of arms. With money from Hamas’s Gaza leadership, and under the auspices of the group’s Turkey-based commander, Saleh al-Arouri, the West Bank plotters had for years been preparing for their coming terror war by building infrastructure and stockpiling weapons. Hamas would use violence and the Palestinian Authority’s isolation, so the plan went, to overthrow its reign in the territories as it had done almost a decade ago in Gaza. Meanwhile, in Gaza, Hamas leaders had prepared a series of strategic “surprises” (their language) in anticipation of a full-blown military confrontation with the Israel Defense Forces. Various ordnances and tactics had been readied with an eye on executing mass-casualty attacks against Israeli civilians. The Muslim Brotherhood’s year-long regime from 2012 to 2013 in Egypt had allowed Hamas’s smuggling operations into and out of Egyptian territory to flourish, and Hamas was able to import through its tunnels dozens of advanced M-302 rockets powerful enough to reach the outskirts of northern Israel. Terrorists had slipped in and out of Gaza for hang-glider training and were preparing to replicate tactics that had facilitated some of the Palestinians’ most devastating terror attacks. Drones had been acquired; Hamas leaders boasted that some were packed with explosives for suicide missions. Meanwhile, Hamas had diverted hundreds of thousands of tons of cement (given as humanitarian aid) into the construction of 32 attack tunnels that ran under the Israel-Gaza border. Teams of commandos were readying to infiltrate Israel through those passages, which would empty them out a few minutes away from sparsely populated and lightly defended Israeli communities. All of it was gone by mid-August. In the West Bank the coup plotters had been rounded up, their weapons had been seized, and Hamas’s leaders had been captured. In Gaza, the long-range rockets had been blown up or wasted, the hang-glider plot had been disrupted, the drones had proven useless, and the tunnels had been destroyed. The unanswered question, then and now, is this: Why did the terror group decide to provoke the Israelis into war before its operatives could carry out their spectacular mass-casualty plot? The conventional wisdom, which has much to recommend it, is that a year of pressure brought to bear on Hamas by Egypt’s post-Brotherhood government combined with Israel’s steadfastness had brought the terror group to the brink of collapse. The Egyptian army destroyed the smuggling tunnels that had been the primary conveyors of goods and a huge source of revenue for Hamas. Hamas had no funds to pay its more than 40,000 employees. Its control of Gaza was slipping. Authoritarian governments are almost always weaker than they look from the outside but stronger than their paranoid leaders perceive them to be from the inside. Hamas’s top figures may have calculated that they were in a use-’em-or-lose-’em situation and lashed out (so the theory goes) in hopes of arriving at a better position on the other side. Another theory holds that Hamas’s leaders feared that the information Israel gleaned in the course of Operation Brother’s Keeper—launched against Hamas assets in the West Bank following the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers—had blown the secret of their planned attacks from Gaza, and, with nothing left in their quiver, Hamas chose to strike in desperation. Then again, the explanation could be much simpler: Terrorists are often not very bright, fanatics as a rule lack prudence, and one way of viewing history is as a series of consequential blunders. Maybe Hamas just screwed up. Whatever the reason, escalate Hamas did. In Gaza, Hamas radically escalated what had been, since the beginning of the year, a steadily increasing stream of rocket fire. Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon had declared in January that Jerusalem would “not tolerate rocket fire” and that the “IDF and other security forces will continue to chase after those who shoot at Israel.” February saw more rockets and a large bomb planted on the border. In March, Hamas fired its heaviest rocket barrage since the conclusion of Israel’s 2012 incursion into Gaza—but then the fire steadily decreased throughout April and May. It spiked again on the first day of June, when a rocket slammed into Israel’s Eshkol region. On June 11, another rocket was launched, this time barely missing one of Israel’s main transportation routes. That night the Israeli Air Force, aided by the country’s security agency, the Shin Bet, targeted a former Hamas police officer responsible for rocket attacks. By the end of the month, at least 65 rockets and mortars would be fired at Israel. Meanwhile in the West Bank, amid the escalation that had already begun along Israel’s southern border, Hamas terrorists kidnapped and murdered three Israeli teenagers: Naftali Fraenkel, Gilad Shaar, and Eyal Yifrach. Citing intelligence that had been convincing enough to generate immediate and definitive condemnations from Washington and Ramallah—information that later turned out to involve details of the coup plot aimed at PA President Mahmoud Abbas—the Israelis quickly blamed Hamas. They would later identify Marwan Kawasmeh and Amar Abu-Isa as suspects. With the help of outraged PA officials—who had inked a unity deal with their Palestinian rivals only days before the kidnapping and now realized that they had been manipulated—the Israelis immediately launched Operation Brother’s Keeper to find the perpetrators and in the process uproot Hamas from the West Bank. The teens, whom Israeli officials strongly suspected had been killed early in the course of the abduction, were found dead on June 30. Even after this discovery, Israel hoped to avoid an escalation in the south. On July 3, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Hamas still had the option of halting its attacks and reverting to the “quiet for quiet” arrangement that had characterized the border for almost two years. Israel made it clear, through public and private channels, that the Palestinian group had no more than the weekend to decide. Hamas’s foreign-relations chief, Osama Hamdan, said the next day that rocket and missile fire would continue until Israel lifted its import restrictions on Gaza and the PA transferred salary money to Hamas. The precision of these conditions would later provide fodder for those who argued that Hamas leaders had been driven by a try-or-die mentality. An Egyptian effort to end the war before it began never got very far. On July 7, dozens of barrages were launched at Israeli population centers. The tempo of the attacks reached as high as 30 rockets in 10 minutes. Israel commenced Operation Protective Edge that night. Hamas ended up breaking cease-fires and renewing the fight no fewer than 11 times over the 50-day course of the operation. It pressed the fighting even as the war objectively went from bad, to worse, to disastrous. A full tally of the destruction that Hamas brought to itself and to Gaza will not be possible to know for months. Preliminary reports suggest near-total devastation of Hamas’s infrastructure. Eighty percent of the group’s projectile arsenal was depleted. Many of the rockets were destroyed by Israeli airstrikes, and almost all the rest either landed in empty fields, were swatted down by the anti-projectile system Iron Dome, or fell short and landed in Gaza. Hamas’s 32 attack tunnels were destroyed after Israel launched the operation’s ground phase on July 17. Only two days earlier, the group’s leaders had rejected a cease-fire that would have preserved that infrastructure; they instead deployed a group of commandos through a tunnel with the intention of raiding a small kibbutz. At least three of Hamas’s very top military leaders were killed in the closing days of the war. They had made a frankly inexplicable decision to leave their underground bunkers after breaking yet another ceasefire. By the time Israel was through, roughly 1,000 Hamas fighters had been killed. Fully zero percent of Hamas’s spectacular attacks on civilians—to be conducted via long-range rockets, drones, hang gliders, and tunnels—succeeded. And Israel? A total of 72 Israelis—66 soldiers and 6 civilians—died. Israel’s international airport was shut down for just over a day, which was Hamas’s strategic high-water mark. Even this grim accounting fails to convey the scope of Hamas’s military debacle. The nature of the fight—the how’s and where’s—was entirely controlled by Israel. Hamas was capable of forcing the Israelis to fight, but there their control ended. The IDF’s July 17 ground invasion lasted precisely as long as Israeli leaders wanted to stay in the territory. After Hamas scuttled an 11th attempted cease-fire, the Israelis began on August 19 what they described as an “extraordinary escalation,” targeting top military leaders and leveling at least three multistory command-and-control centers. Hamas capitulated within a week, accepting the very same terms that had been on the table for more than a month and that had been widely considered to be favorable to Israel and humiliating to the Palestinian faction. Victory parades were held in Gaza that fooled only the willingly fooled. Abbas called on Hamas to admit that it had been soundly beaten and adjust accordingly. Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh crawled out of his bunker and returned to his home, which had been destroyed during the war. In what must be counted as the perfect distillation of Operation Protective Edge, Haniyeh posed utterly alone with a slack-jawed grin, surrounded on all sides by rubble and only rubble, and flashed a victory sign. Even so—and perhaps predictably—an idea has developed that Israel somehow lost the war, or at the least failed to meet its own expectations. These notions are simply wrong. Israeli leaders had declared as far back as June that they were uninterested in overthrowing Hamas. Any such task, they explained, would require an invasion of the Gaza Strip that would take many months, followed by a reoccupation of the territory that would last for years. Instead of spending the next half-decade focused on the south, Israeli leaders sought to reestablish “quiet for quiet” and then to get to work on the remainder of Hamas’s arsenal via diplomatic channels. Even though the latter option had only a marginal chance of success, it was still considered preferable to the 100 percent certainty of a protracted and distracting conflict. As proof that the Netanyahu government had not in any way welcomed the opportunity for making war on Hamas, Jerusalem chose to accept an Egyptian cease-fire. Hamas rejected it because it met none of the group’s terms and then launched a quickly thwarted tunnel attack. Israel then responded by explicitly declaring that the goal of the campaign remained the reestablishment of “quiet for quiet,” not the destruction of Hamas—but that in the meantime the IDF would be launching a ground invasion and destroying Hamas’s offensive tunnel network. On July 22, Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni explained that a cease-fire “won’t happen before we really finish the tunnels project…[and] won’t happen in a way in which Hamas’s completely unacceptable conditions are met.” Israel completed the tunnel work and withdrew, Hamas broke several subsequent cease-fires, Israel launched its “extraordinary escalation,” and then the war was over. Netanyahu took criticism from both sides throughout the conflict. The left blasted him for expanding the campaign beyond stopping the rocket fire—to destroying the tunnels, waging a ground war, and so on—while the right attacked him for refusing to expand the campaign beyond stopping the rocket fire. For example: On August 20, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman (on Netanyahu’s right) took to Facebook to declare that “quiet met with quiet” would never work, and that Israel must go further. On August 22, Yossi Sarid, who for many years led Israel’s left-wing Meretz Party, called on Israel’s southern residents “to explain to the politicians and the generals that another Pillar of Defense and another Cast Lead and another Protective Edge will not scatter the black cloud of enmity” with the Palestinians. The frustration felt by many Israelis over the conclusion of the conflict is understandable. Hamas’s eventual capitulation left many of the group’s leaders, and even more of its fighters, alive to fight another day. Israeli civilians still have genocidal Hamas fanatics living next door to them. Still, a couple of inconvenient facts are worth noting. They point to Israel’s substantive victory and seem misunderstood by many Western pundits. The confusion sometimes seems to proceed in ways suspiciously supportive of a hostile posture toward Israel itself, or toward Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership more specifically. Much has been made, for instance, of a precipitous drop in Netanyahu’s approval rating following the war’s conclusion; it has fallen from wartime highs in the 80s to the mid-to-low 30s. The decline has been greeted by his overseas critics with smug satisfaction and as a confirmation of their own belief in his and Israel’s wartime failure. But lost in the noise is any perspective on Israeli polling and public sentiment itself. Netanyahu now stands a bit higher than his natural median. Polls that have asked about his electability find that he still beats any challenger by a margin of 2-to-1. It is conceivable that Israel and Netanyahu will yet emerge as long-term losers. Perhaps fighting will resume and Israel will take substantial losses in the time it takes to craft the next cease-fire. Perhaps negotiations now or later will allow Hamas to secure the core demands it long insisted were prerequisites for a truce, but turned out not to be: cash for its workers, relief from Israeli import restrictions, the opening of Gaza’s border with Egypt. (Since the war ended, Jerusalem has agreed to expand Gaza’s fishing zone from three miles to six miles, a gesture that was already being considered but that still technically counts as something Hamas had asked for.) It would not be the first time that the Israelis had allowed the fruits of military victory to slip through their fingers. None of this changes the key fact: Hamas is isolated and broken. Militarily, it could not have continued to fight beyond a couple more weeks. Diplomatically, battlefield losses tend to position the losers poorly in subsequent talks. It is more likely that the full scope of Israel’s victory will begin to sink in. Israel used the war to forge new relationships with its neighbors. The bloc of so-called Arab pragmatists traditionally allied with the United States—Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the Egyptian army, elements of the Palestinian Authority—sees Israel standing in opposition to Shiite Iran on one side and an axis of extremist Turkish/Qatari/Muslim Brotherhood types on the other. These are the enemies of the pragmatists. It’s no wonder, therefore, that Israel and the new Egyptian government worked together so closely to isolate Hamas. And it would be no surprise if they continued to find common ground. Egypt will continue to limit materials to Hamas. So if there is a rebuilding process, the Palestinian Authority will be brought in to manage it. That’s a gambit that’s not without risk. Managed badly, the rebuilding process could end up with the PA having nominal control of civil institutions, Hamas having de facto control through strength of arms, and Israel being under nearly impossible pressure to spare damage to “PA” infrastructure in any future conflagration. This would lock in a kind of “Hezbollah model” for the Palestinians. But there is no love lost between Fatah and Hamas, and the latter will be humiliated by having to allow the former back into Gaza. More important, Israel’s attention has been turned to the military threat posed by attack tunnels, and this focus may avert a catastrophe in another war. Israel has a remarkable record of developing amazing technological solutions to asymmetric threats, but only after it has been forced to pay attention. Israeli intelligence knew for the better part of a decade that Yasir Arafat was preparing for a war that would be waged by terrorists infiltrating from the West Bank. But only after waves of suicide bombers had attacked family pizzerias and Passover banquet halls did the Israelis innovate and build their high-tech security fence. Similarly, Israel knew that Hezbollah was importing tens of thousands of rockets and missiles during the early 2000s. Only after northern Israel was saturated by Hezbollah rockets and missiles did Jerusalem begin seriously pursuing missile-defense technology. Hezbollah has undoubtedly dug its own network underneath Israel’s northern border in anticipation of war. Israel has now set to work and is focused on protecting itself from below as well as above. Hezbollah and its Iranian sponsors will not thank Hamas for having awakened the Jewish state. This is what victory looks like. It is not total victory, but total victory was never sought. In the summer of 2014, Israel was forced to defend itself—and it did so, brilliantly.- ISIS has lost 98 percent of the territory it once held -- with half of that land recaptured since President Trump took office less than a year ago, U.S. military officials said Tuesday. The massive gains come as critics say the Obama administration “micromanaged” the war for years, noting a more intensive air campaign could have ended the conflict much sooner. “The rules of engagement under the Obama administration were onerous. I mean what are we doing having individual target determination being conducted in the White House, which in some cases adds weeks and weeks,” said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula, the former head of U.S. Air Force intelligence. “The limitations that were put on actually resulted in greater civilian casualties.” But the senior director for counterterrorism in former President Barack Obama’s National Security Council pushed back on any criticism the former president didn’t do enough to defeat ISIS. “This was a top priority from the early days of ISIS gaining the type of territorial safe haven in particular, there was recognition that safe havens for terrorist groups can mean terrorist plots that extend — not just into the region — but to Europe and conceivably into the United States,” said Joshua Geltzer, author of “US Counter-Terrorism Strategy and al-Qaeda: Signalling and the Terrorist World-View,” now a visiting professor at Georgetown Law School. Today, the latest American intelligence assessment says fewer than 1,000 ISIS fighters remain in Iraq and Syria, down from a peak of up to 45,000 just two years ago. U.S. officials credit nearly 30,000 U.S.-led coalition airstrikes and regional partners on the ground for killing more than 70,000 jihadists, but only a few thousand have returned home. The remaining ISIS strongholds are concentrated in a small area along the border of Syria and Iraq. ISIS, at one point, controlled an area the size of Ohio. While ISIS has been largely defeated, it continues to call on followers around the world to conduct terror attacks during the holidays with a new message sprouting up on Tuesday, and a suicide attack in Kabul on Christmas with ISIS claiming responsibility. It’s part of the terror group’s effort to expand influence into Africa and Afghanistan. The U.S. envoy to the anti-ISIS coalition warned late last week not to expect a complete defeat anytime soon. Continue reading this story at FOXNews.comBJ Penn is not giving up just yet. The UFC is currently targeting Penn vs. Ricardo Lamas as the main event of UFN Fight Night 97, which is scheduled to take place at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Manila, Philippines on Oct. 15. The fight would take place in the featherweight division. Penn announced his return to fighting earlier this year, however, he has yet to actually compete. In fact, his return has been delayed three due to a series of different circumstances. Most notable was his six-month suspension from USADA after he disclosed the use of an IV infusion in excess of 50 mL in a six-hour period during an out-of-competition drug test taken on March 25. The suspension comes to an end on Sept. 25. Originally, Penn was scheduled to fight Dennis Siver, then Cole Miller, but now he gets the former No. 1 contender Lamas. The 37-year-old Penn (16-10-2), who is expected to train for this fight at JacksonWink MMA in Albuquerque, N.M., has not fought since 2014 and hasn't won since 2010. Lamas (16-5) is coming off a unanimous decision loss to Max Holloway at UFC 199 in June. He's 3-2 since losing to Jose Aldo at UFC 169 in a featherweight title fight. This event will mark the UFC's second in the Philippines. UFN 66, also held in Manila, was headlined by Urijah Faber vs. Frankie Edgar in May 2015.Despite the Obama administration’s claims of success, Afghanistan is in a guerrilla war that might be too expensive for the country to win, argues Juan Cole in our feature interview. The Obama administration has insisted that real progress has been made in Afghanistan, in military terms. Do you agree? In a guerrilla war, if you put in extra troops, then the guerrillas will stay back. So maybe temporarily there will be more security in those places in which the troops have been placed. But it doesn’t necessarily tell you anything about overall progress in the battle because guerrilla wars are such that the enemy doesn’t necessarily stand and fight, or hold particular territory. I think it’s a conventional war measure being applied to a guerrilla war, and this raises questions as to its validity. The US has said it will begin drawing down troops this summer. Is this feasible? The deadline is so vague that there isn’t any problem with it being met. The plan is to turn over some of Afghanistan’s provinces to Afghan police and the army, so in those provinces there won’t be US troops. But the fact is that there are 34 provinces. The Hazara Shiite provinces in the centre of the country are characterized by high degrees of security, and local police and the Afghan national army can certainly keep order in those provinces. There are fewer known Pashtuns and fewer known Taliban in these places, and you could take out US troops without any real fallout. So that’s what’s going to happen—the safe provinces will be evacuated first. That’s all the troop withdrawal means. The real problem won’t come this summer. The problem comes as you continue down the list of the 34. I think something like 80 percent of the country is in striking distance of the Pashtun insurgents, so once you get past the safe 20 percent of provinces then it starts to become problematic. You’ve mentioned there the idea of Afghan forces taking control of security in some provinces. Is the US doing enough to help create a force capable of securing the country? The US and NATO are putting enormous effort into training a new Afghan army and an Afghan police force—this effort is at the centre of the Obama administration’s policy in Afghanistan. There can be questions about the efficacy, but about the effort there’s no question that this is something they are putting a lot of resources into. The problem is that the national government that these troops would serve is starting to lack credibility, and these troops are being asked to risk their lives for this regime that’s riddled with corruption and that appears to have stolen elections. So there’s a problem with troop morale.Russia and China envision joint space exploration Tomasz Nowakowski Russia and China are discussing broad cooperation in the field of space exploration. Both countries have said they are willing to collaborate in a wide range of areas, including joint missions to the Moon and Mars. According to Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, both sides have the potential to implement impressive space projects as they trust each other at the political level as well as at the level of specialists. Rogozin made his remarks on the possible Russia-China cooperation last week, during a meeting with the heads of Russian regions and Chinese provinces as well as the managers of companies from both countries. “We’re developing an understanding for the rocket and space industry for possible interaction in such profound and technologically complex projects as the future exploration of the Moon, Mars and piloted cosmonautics,” Rogozin said. He noted that during his talks with the Vice Premier of China’s State Council, Wang Yang, cooperation on the issue of interaction between both space agencies was debated. The officials discussed large projects like the delivery of rocket engines and also collaboration in navigation systems. Although the cooperation is still in its infancy, last week’s talks mark another step toward evolving a Sino-Russian partnership in the space industry. Furthermore, last year, Rogozin said Moscow is ready to work hand-in-hand with Beijing on crewed space projects, joint deep space exploration and joint exploration of the Solar System. In May 2016, both sides have begun joint work with the aim to devise a set of unified standards to be used in manufacturing space technologies, including those necessary for future crewed lunar missions. The countries also aim to develop standards for docking units and electrical connectors. One month ago, Russia’s Ambassador to China, Andrey Denisov, disclosed Russia and China are actively discussing possible cooperation in rocket engine manufacturing, creating a heavy rocket, space stations, and making long-distance space flights. “Cooperation is perceptible in the field of designing a heavy rocket and establishing interaction in the sphere of space stations and long-distance flights,” Denisov said. He added this collaboration would be of a purely peaceful, civilian nature and would benefit the entire humankind rather than only the participating states. Another factor that could step up this cooperation is the fact that China has voiced interest in Russian rocket engines. On July 6, Rogozin revealed Beijing may buy rocket engines from Russia for it space program. “We are talking about urgently preparing the most complex intergovernmental agreements that will outline the issue of maintaining Russia’s intellectual property on most high-technology production which will be sold in China. These are, first of all, rocket engines. China displays great interest in this issue,” Rogozin said. Russia plans to send cosmonauts to the Moon on a regular basis as soon as 2025. The country laid out its ambitious plan to carry out one or two launches yearly of its crewed spacecraft called “Federation”—currently in development—in order to transport people to lunar orbit. Meanwhile, China also sets its sights on crewed missions to the moon as the country aims to land humans on the lunar surface and establish a base there. The emerging Sino-Russian cooperation could significantly hasten the progress on these projects.The United States, Turkey and India all have secular constitutions. However, none of them contains the definitive "secularism". There is no such thing. But these constitutions have a common aim: to protect religion. By not permitting the establishment of any particular faith, secularism seeks to ensure that the state cannot be used as an instrument to persecute minority religious communities, and that no religion can be imposed by law on an unwilling populace. Secularism works both ways - while it does not permit religion to interfere in affairs of state, it also forbids the state from seeking to control religion. This is surely the best way to ensure that those with faith can pursue their beliefs unencumbered. Equally, it permits all people to be secure in the knowledge that no outside authority will interfere with their search for meaning. Naturally, clashes will occur when religious conscience seeks to place itself above the law - for example, in granting "conscience" opt-outs for pharmacists. These conflicts are difficult, but they are not beyond resolution. As can be seen in the US, secularism, far from challenging belief, can in fact nurture and encourage faith in all its forms and approaches. Yet it does not always work. In all the countries mentioned above, secularism is under pressure from resurgent and politicised religion. In Turkey, Islamists seek to reverse the reforms of Atatürk; in the US, Christian evangelicals work tirelessly to undermine the church-state divide; in India, Hindu nationalists kill and maim in their campaign to overturn the country's constitutional protections for Muslim and Christian minorities. Elsewhere, Christianity is again politically resurgent - flying on the coat-tails of an expansionist Islam. Secularism is far from negative. When it opposes "faith schools", it makes the case for inclusive education; when it opposes bishops in the House of Lords, it is supporting a purer democracy; when it opposes religious opt-outs from anti-discrimination legislation, it is protecting the rights of minorities to live free from the diktats of religious bigotry; when it opposes blasphemy, it defends free speech; when it speaks out against sharia law, it promotes one law for all. Coupled with a strong democratic structure, secular societies protect us all from the authoritarianism that is characteristic of religion when it has temporal power. Faith groups regard evangelisation as their divine duty and, given the opportunity, they will pursue it using force and coercion. As the many religions that thrive in Britain today grow more assertive and demanding, secularism may ultimately become the only way to thwart their power-seeking ambition. We need to recognise that sooner rather than later. Terry Sanderson is president of the National Secular Society.Luxstang Wrote: I’m starting to get fed up with the car. The more I do on it the more seems to fail. Replaced the upper and lower control arms a few weeks ago. Took it for an alignment yesterday and the guy tells me he can’t adjust camber on the passenger side.. Turns out the hole in the rear ex-center washer is round so it no longer adjusts the camber properly. (Ok, when I replaced the control arms I could have sworn that washer was ok otherwise I wouldn’t have put it back in….) Now I gotta wait for 2-3 days for a new set of screws with washers to arrive. I had the wheels powder coated (and posted a thread about it) and I don’t like them anymore. The 18 inch rims rub with the new tires, I gotta get new ones but I don’t really want to either. The rear windows are out of the car as I’m waiting for WCCC to fix my pancake motors, so no interior in the back at all. Plus yesterday a big chip of paint flew off the rear quarter extension. I’ll need to try my painting skills on that…. I wonder if I shouldn’t just leave everything and simply drive the car into the ground as a daily driver and call it a day. Hang in there with the Mustang, Luxstang, it will be even sweeter when you get it done!!! My 73 is my second Mustang restoration (70 was my first) and my third personal restoration in the last few years. I can attest that you do run in to those periods of time when it seems that the car just doesn’t want to be restored. Heck I bought and drove the 73, maybe 5-6 times and it bent a rod and burned a valve. Had the
think outside the box. Needless to say I was forced to charge the Hyperion, doing little damage and went down to pretty heavy attrition from there. Game 3: vs Darius double wall I altered my list as I was finding I had too much infantry clear and wanted more hard hitting stuff. Krueger the Stormwrath – WB: +28 – Druid Wilder – PC: 4 – Argus Moonhound – PC: 6 (Battlegroup Points Used: 6) – Pureblood Warpwolf – PC: 17 (Battlegroup Points Used: 17) – Feral Warpwolf – PC: 18 (Battlegroup Points Used: 5) – Shadowhorn Satyr – PC: 12 Una the Falconeer – PC: 4 – Storm Raptor – PC: 38 Blackclad Wayfarer – PC: 4 My opponent went first, he moved up and I positioned aggressively just outside his run and jack hammer threat. His turn and he takes a third out of the Raptor with big guns. My turn and I land the hunters mark and between feat and the shadowhorn, clear necessary landing space for the raptor and the pureblood. Krueger wraithbanes the wolf and the bird and the Pureblood goes in, misses his charge and does a pathetic amount of damage. Raptor goes in, misses 3 attacks and I leave the stormwall on 5 boxes. The feral primals the dog and it charges the objective leaving it on 5. I score one. Darius feats and I lose my bird and 2/3rds of the wolf. The dog wrecks the objective. I clear my zone again, and krueger wraithbanes the pureblood. Pureblood and Shadowhorn mess up the stormwall pretty bad and I score to 3. My opponent, puts a pod beside kreueger and throws the wolf at it knocking krueger down and he dies. I feel bad dice lost me the initiative early in this game but it was a bad idea to wraithbane the pureblood in my last turn as it exposed krueger. Game 4: vs Skarre with 9 stalkers I stuck with the list from game 3. My opponent went first and I knew pretty quick I was going to be fighting from my deployment zone as the stalkers were all over me. Krueger feated to cripple 2 stalkers and advanced back. The moonhound animus’ and charges, the bird shoots the marked stalker off the table, killing 4 croes and beating up one stalker with electro leaps. The pureblood destroys a damaged stalker. My opponent feats and the remaining stalkers get up all over me, I didn’t back up enough, so he kills the shadowhorn, cripples the feral and mess up the pure blood as well as doing some decent damage on the bird. I did trigger a guardian beast attack but it missed. My turn and I struggle to retaliate properly. I do kill two more stalkers and disrupt 2 but the MAT 5 on the bird is a big hurdle when going after DEF 15. The pureblood goes into the raiders to contest my zone and kills like 3. My opponent kills the pureblood and the feral and leaves the dog on 1. He destroys the objective and scores his zone and mine. I try for an assassination, hit the first gun on a marked skarre but I only do like 3 damage after reinforcement. I miss the reload and lose. My positioning was bad and I think the raptor would have been a much stronger piece later if i hadn’t messed up and given him an alpha on the shadowhorn and feral. Game 5: vs Fiona the Black I felt I’d had enough of p krueger for now and switched to Kromac 2. Kromac, Champion of the Wurm – WB: +28 – Druid Wilder – PC: 4 – Storm Raptor – PC: 38 (Battlegroup Points Used: 28) – Shadowhorn Satyr – PC: 12 – Feral Warpwolf- PC: 18 – Pureblood Warpwolf – PC: 17 Blackclad Wayfarer – PC: 4 Blackclad Wayfarer – PC: 4 Sentry Stone and Mannikins – PC: 5 I went second and positioned up the table behind a wall, bird at the edge of the zone to threaten it. I moved my second blackclad into the trench forgetting about Anastasia. My opponent kills the one blackclad with Anastasia and uses an arced spell to kill my wilder. I charge kromac in killing a gobber and an idrian, feat and lightning strike over to cover the table I need. The pureblood warps ghostly and charges snap jaw killing him. The blackclad hunters marks a Talon and the bird charges in to engage all 3 jacks, disrupts the heavies and does a bit of damage. The goat kills the talon and the stalker runs to cover Kromac from the commodore. My opponent uses the commodore to slam the goat into the stalker, positions ragman for dark shroud, kills the goat with various attacks, almost kills the pureblood and takes the raptor down to like 6 boxes with mainly Alexia (I forgot about plasma nimbus but it was under Fiona’s feat). My turn and pull fury off the pureblood and the raptor, the stalker and raptor pass their frenzy checks but the pureblood fails. I can’t get the raptor positioned over to engage Fiona and it’s under her feat so I won’t be able to kill her anyway. Between Kromac and the stalker they kill the nomad but the bird misses a ton of attacks, doesn’t disrupt the mariner and only really succeeds in killing ragman. My opponent slams Kromac with the commodore and kills him. INITIAL THOUGHTS I’ll break this down into a number of sub sections for clarity: PLAYER USAGE I did not like the bird with pkrueger at all. He doesn’t do enough for it and it can’t really help him that much either. Def 15 just isn’t enough vs serious guns and I never had a good opportunity to utilize the animus with much as the bird couldn’t afford the fury and Una was never really in a good spot to use it either. As cute as guardian beast and birds eye are I feel the risk and limitations on the raptors positioning due to being tied to Una aren’t worth it and I would avoid playing it with her in the future. Without the tether to Una I would be able to take greater advantage of it’s high maneuverability. I did prefer it with Kromac 2 as carnage and the free animus were great and the disruption effect allowed it to take on jacks of it’s point value and stay alive. I would like to try a few more games with him to feel that out more. That said my list felt a little too battlegroup heavy and I would look to try to be able to manage the fury more effectively. LISTS BUILDING With the krueger lists I basically built around the bird, making sure it had the animi it needed and the dog for some mark and stealth removal. In hindsight I don’t think this is necessarily the best approach to list building with it and I am starting to think I may need to approach it as something that will be operating outside the mainline of the army on a flank looking for a breakthrough to wreck as much havoc as possible. Not to say I would take this approach with every list but I have a hunch that it’s speed and maneuverability may need to be more emphasized in list creation. POSITIONING Flight on a huge base is nice. I didn’t have to worry about objectives or models for getting it around which is a relief. That said I think it’s a strange huge base in that it doesn’t want to be centrally deployed and positioned throughout the game. I think I achieved it decently vs Bart (but got screwed by the blackclad), played it too central against Issryria, should have positioned more to the right against Darius, fine into skarre and decently into Fiona. Overall, if I find myself playing it into guns it needs to play more of a flank, which is weird for a garg. Normally you want that investment somewhere central where it can have the most impact, I’m thinking the raptor doesn’t belong there in a lot of games. Something to contemplate, as even a central deployment can be altered to a flank very rapidly with it. THE GUN Warmachine games progress rapidly and I found all I got was one turn to shoot the gun and in a couple games, no chance at all. I think part of this can be mitigated by better positioning or maybe better list building with more scenario stall pieces but overall I need to play it better or the gun isn’t all that. Out of the 5 games there was only once that I was impressed with it’s potential. That said range 12 feels like 2 inches too short for a stand off range and the POW 14 feels like a tax for the animus which is difficult to apply. THE CLAWS MAT 5. If there is anything that messes with the Raptors melee potential it’s his MAT. The POWs on his initials are respectable but I constantly felt I was let down by his inability to hit things straight out our screwed by his lost damage output by having to boost on DEF 12 models. The disruption and crit disruption are situationally brilliant and the electro leaps can be cute (I literally did nothing with them in 5 games) but the MAT 5 is a real burn to his melee potential. That said there are fixes for that with casters like Kaya 1, Kromac 1, Kromac 2, Tanith and animi like the wild argus’s dopplebark and primal. That said out of the 5 games there was only one game that primal would have been at all useful and I don’t think it would have had the impact I would have liked under Fiona’s feat. DURABILITY The bird is not durable. Def 12 is cute now and then when you’re opponents dice fail but ARM 18 and 50 boxes won’t last long against determined attack. There are a few casters that can up the durability; baulder 1 and 2, morvy 1 for armour and I am interested in trying those. It is a garg so if it is used wisely it will take your opponent 2 rounds to kill and that is an asset in itself. ANIMUS In the 4 games with krueger I never used the animus. There was once against the cryx player that I considered using it with Una but I needed her to do work with her gun to finish a crippled stalker. That said I forgot about plasma nimbus the entire night and if she had used the animus the turn before instead of putting up gaurdian beast the POW 12’s on ARM 18 stalkers could have done something. I also think using the gun on the raptor that turn was an option but I was more interested in disrupting as many stalkers as possible. I think if anything I under utilized the animus and this is a facet I need to consider more, especially in conjunction with plasma nimbus as a defensive function seems a bit easier to facilitate than the offensive benefits. PLASMA NIMBUS I completely forgot about plasma nimbus the entire night. That said it would have been ineffective against bart, no opportunity against Issy and useless against Darius. There were opportunities against the cryx player and it could have had a decent impact against Fiona particularly against Alexia but like I said that was under Fiona’s feat so the impact would be lessened. Still dice off 2 could significantly reduce the damage that Alexia did on the raptor. SUMMARY There’s two types of ways to build pairings; to ask questions or to answer them. Circle is in a good position meta wise in that they have some very powerful casters that ask some very hard questions. In particular, Wurmwood and 2Una ask some very vexing questions and as a pair they compliment each other very well. Besides them, Baulder 2, Tanith and even Kaya 2 ask excellent questions, just questions that are easier to answer than Wurmy and 2Una. The Storm Raptor does not feel like a piece that compliments a hard question build. It feels more like an answer piece in that it’s disruption can help handle jack spam and it’s electro leaps can help with infantry spam. So initially it doesn’t feel like it fits into the strong Circle “ask hard questions” meta pairing. That said there may be some opportunities within that pairing. That is to say that a 2Una build with the raptor may be viable over a hard spam. 2Una doesn’t really want to play into the dedicated gun lists as it stands like cygnar and ret so there may be room with her for an anchor piece like the raptor. In most of my games with her you have to wave the scarsfells and the pureblood stays out of it for most of the game, so typically there is 38 points of stuff standing around anyway. So, the question becomes, is it more advantageous to have the raptor hanging around or the pureblood and 2 scarsfells. Besides 2Una there are a number of casters I am interested in trying it with. Time permitting I would like to try it with Balder 2, the Kaya’s, both Kromacs and Krueger 2. Each of these casters offers something to the Raptor and the Raptor can provide something interesting for them. I do get a good amount of casual games in so I plan on trying them all. Krueger 2 is of special interest as he has a great command stat for procing the animus and likes to play aggressive for windstorm. His sheltering hand also makes electro leaps more controllable. CONCLUSIONS: FINAL THOUGHTS Is the Storm Raptor bad? It’s way to early to tell. What I can say is that I did not like it with Krueger 1 and was not convinced that having it on Una1 was the way to go. If you tried to build a gunline with Morvy 2 (ick) putting it on Una might be advantageous but outside that I think the birds eye is too situational, guardian beast too cute and the risks involved too great. My 1 game with Kromac 2 was enjoyable and the Raptor was pretty effective, so there is something there and I want to try it with Bromac again but with a different build. Is the Storm Raptor as utility and as general usage as a Stormwall or Viktor? No. The Raptor appears to be more of a specialized piece that requires more finesse and care but that doesn’t mean it can’t find a spot in competitive pairings. At this moment in the meta development I would say that the best thing it could do is throw it into 2Una lists as an answer to builds that try and counter scarfell spam. An example would be troll builds using the Glacier King. In this instance the Storm raptor has a strong ability to go in and severely damage or kill a GK and electrocute all the whelps on the way while staying upright and DEF 12. It can’t be knocked down or made stationary so the GK’s MAT 6 is way more relevant. Is it viable? I don’t know, it’s definitely not as simple as just spamming scarsfells and I am interested in trying it. Ultimately, if you are going to use the raptor I think you need to take advantage of it speed, flight and mitigate its fragility to guns by capitalizing on its speed and maneuverability or taking a caster that helps protect it with extra armour. I suspect the Raptor is slightly over costed for it’s value. 38 points is a lot to swallow, but if it is it’s probably only by a couple of points. Finally the Storm Raptor is probably as situational as the Wold Wrath but in the right build into the right meta I think it can be competitive. I am still very interested in doing further experimentation with it, particularly with 2Una as she can turn shit into shineola and she is super competitive. Stay posted for further updates.This is a list of National Football League (NFL) players who have reached the 100-sack milestone. The NFL began to keep track of sacks in 1982. Sacks before this date are not included in this list. List of NFL players with 100 career sacks [ edit ] Bold denotes an active player Elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame Unofficial sacks [ edit ] In 2000, Jack Turney, a member of the Pro Football Researchers Association, and Nick Webster conducted extensive research to create a more complete record of sacks in the NFL. After examining the play-by-play records of every NFL team as well as game film at NFL films they compiled a list of players with 100 sacks beginning in 1960. By including the unofficial sack/dump records from 1960 to 1981, the following players also qualify as members of the 100-Sack Club.[36]This post was analyzed for mistakes and other content in January 2019, as part of an effort to engage in self-criticism. Some changes have been made. Since June 19, the bourgeois media has been brimming with reports of the death of 22-year-old White college student from Cincinnati, Ohio, Otto Frederick Warmbier. While the family was happy to hear that their son was released from the DPRK, they were the ones that fueled the media firestorm. Warmbier’s father claimed that the DPRK had “murdered” their son, who had died in a coma possibly from an infection or blood clot, leading to anger in subsequent days from unhinged orange menace and “reserved” Tillerson, leading to a new “wedge” between the U$ and the DPRK. [1] As some media reported, the DPRK may have released him in hopes of making a deal with the orange menace. Of course, the orange menace, the fascist in a suit, didn’t want to make a deal, only knowing his supposed (and hyped) “negotiation” tactics from his days as a ruthless real estate magnate and his overrated “Celebrity Apprentice” show on NBC. As the days went on, bourgeois media, in another rash of imperial propaganda, cited varied “experts” who said they were “baffled” with the DPRK’s behavior, with John McCain, Marco Rubio, and Mike Turner following suit, and anti-DPRK columnists coming out of the ground like moles, claiming that the DPRK “murdered” Warmbier, even though he seems to have sought regime change in the country. [2] Even the Republic of Korea (ROK), often called “South Korea,” joined in the criticism. Furthermore, any future tours to the DPRK by Young Pioneer Tours have ended, with a possible ban of U$ tourism to the country floated. The former should be no big loss because the company seems very Orientalist while the latter is just meant to reinforce the empire’s perceptions on the U$ populace. [3] On Otto Warmbier The murderous empire won’t rest, from its proposed hideous sanctions to condemning the DPRK’s government as brutal and “oppressive.” Tillerson said that much in his remarks on June 19 on Warmbier: “we hold North Korea accountable for Otto Warmbier’s unjust imprisonment, and demand the release of three other Americans who have been illegally detained.” Later in this article, I’ll get the subject of whether his imprisonment is “unjust” which I do not think it is. There are three U$ citizens imprisoned in the DPRK. One of them, a businessperson named Kim Dong Chul admitted to CNN that he spied on behalf of “South Korean conservative elements” in 2015, saying that they “asked me to help destroy the (North Korean) system and spread propaganda against the government,” starting his spy work in April 2013, including bribing residents who would gather “important materials,” which he smuggled south or into revisionist China. [4] The other two were an academic named Kim Sang-duk or Tony Kim who committed “hostile criminal acts with an aim to subvert the country” which was not related to his teaching, and Kim Hak-song, “a man who was doing business in relation to the operation of Pyongyang University of Science and Technology.” As for Warmbier, a student of Virginia University, he was encouraged to rip down a patriotic banner in a restricted area of the hotel by a member of Friendship United Methodist Church, a secretive university organization, and even the CIA, which some scowled at as only an “accusation.” Truthfully, on January 26, DPRK’s government arrested him for perpetrating a hostile act against the country “after entering it under the guise of tourist for the purpose of bringing down the foundation of its single-minded unity at the tacit connivance of the U.S. government and under its manipulation.” [5] He further admitted this about less than months later. He told, to the Supreme Court of the DPRK, the nature of his crime and asked for forgiveness (across the bourgeois media are video clips of him crying): On December 29, 2015, I entered the DPRK as a tourist. On January 1, 2016, I committed severe crimes against the DPRK. The task was given to me by the Friendship United Methodist Church. At the encouragement of the Z Society and the connivance of the United States Administration, I came to commit this task. The aim of my task was to harm the motivation and work ethic of the Korean people.This was a very foolish aim…Sharon Webb…deaconess in the Friendship United Methodist Church…said that communist nations rally around political slogans. She asked me to take an important political slogan from North Korea to be hung in her church as a “trophy”. She continued to say that by taking this slogan, we would harm the unity and motivation of the North Korean people and show this country an insult from the West…She offered me a used car worth $10,000 if I was successful. And she said if I was detained and not returned, her church would pay $200,000 to my mother in a way of charitable donations. Since my family is suffering from very severe financial difficulties, I started to consider this as my only golden opportunity to earn money…He said my plan of action would certainly help the Z Society’s goal of spreading “freedom” and eliminating “tyranny”. He said if I was successful, he promised me that he would help me become a member in the Z Society. [6] The same day, the state media of the DPRK reported that those attending the trial were citizens from “different walks of life” and after his “written indictment confirming his crimes was submitted” the “court sentenced him to fifteen years of hard labor” for violating article 60 of the DPRK’s criminal code. After looking at varied sources (here, here, and here) one English translation of the criminal code, [7] stated the following about article 60, which concerns terrorism: A person who kills, abducts or injures cadres or people with anti-state purposes shall be punished by reform through labour for more than five years. In cases where the person commits a grave offence, he or she shall be punished by life-term reform through labour or the death penalty, and confiscation of property. In this case, it was a “grave offence.” Fast forward to the aftermath of Warmbier’s death. The U$ doctors have belayed propaganda claims, saying that Warmbier was NOT tortured or abused (as his family falsely claims), but that “beyond minor skin blemishes consistent with medical care they found no evidence of fractures or trauma to his body” with the DPRK sending medical records back with him! [8] If they really had tortured him, which they didn’t, they wouldn’t even send any records. Another article says that there is no evidence Warmbier was injured with the MRI scan showing brain damage and that “the medical team at Cincinnati got some medical records from the North Koreans and they said the records show Warmbier has been in this condition since April of last year” but that there is no evidence “of broken bones or other physical abuse, and scans of his head and neck looked normal, except for the damage to his brain.” [9] Of course, the DPRK released him “according to a humanitarian judgment of the DPRK’s Central Court” on June 13, 2017. [10] In days that followed, with the propaganda about his condition, the DPRK showed they were in the right. The Foreign Ministry said that the U$ administration is engaging in an ” anti-DPRK smear campaign by abusing the humanitarian measure taken by the DPRK” and said that “Warmbier is clearly a criminal sentenced to reform through labor in accordance with the DPRK law” and that he confessed on February 29, 2016 “in tears that he had committed hostile act against the DPRK,” with the US making “every frantic effort to disparage the prestige of the dignified DPRK and stifle it while imposing heinous sanctions.” [11] They also noted that U$ doctors argued that Warmbier was provided with medical treatment in the DPRK, with his death a mystery, questioning why the Obama administration never “made an official request for the release of Warmbier on humanitarian basis.” This is worth noting since they “had no reason at all to show mercy to such a criminal of the enemy state” but provided him necessary medical care anyway. [12] With Warmbier’s family interestingly declining an autopsy of their son, which will allow rumors to continue, those at least partially (or more fully) sympathetic to the DPRK have not been united. One site, called “Young DRPK watchers” has two opinions on this subject. [13] One says that “Otto Warmbier’s situation arose from neglect and medical incompetence, [rather] than abuse” with American prisoners not “physically harmed at all and are also fed well” and that the DPRK’s medical system is divided into levels for the privileged and everyone else (internalizing imperial propaganda by saying this), concluding that Warmbier “may have fell into the coma as a consequence of an unknown medical condition” with neglect by the DPRK. The other, by the same author, admitting that Warmbier is a victim but is also “an inflated symbol of American privilege.” Both of these opinions are better than that in the bourgeois, they fall into the category of concessions which Vngiapaganda warned about in a post almost a year ago. The same is the case in an article on Stop Imperialism on Warmbier’s death. It accepts the possibility that the DPRK murdered him, which is giving in too much to the bourgeois media narrative. All in all, these opinions are better than the seething Chinese netizens which seem be in up in arms about the DPRK, showing the effects of Chinese social-imperialism with the country’s capitalist system. DRPK’s healthcare and medical system With the death of Warmbier, the bourgeois media, capitalists, and their lackeys, along with those not adequately informed by the subject (the U$ public in general) is acting like the DPRK has a medical system that resembles people conducting voodoo (or their perception of people doing this) to “cure people” or wish them “ill.” I’m specifically thinking of those curses conducted by voodoo practitioner, Minerva, in the Hollyweird box office “bomb” titled Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, based on the book of the same name. It seemed to be the best example of this mentality which could come to mind, with people acting like the DPRK are in the “dark ages” of medicine and have some archaic medical system. The propaganda about the DPRK’s health system is nothing new. The Daily NK (an anti-DPRK outlet), the Los Angeles Times, BBC News, The Week, The Telegraph, NY Daily News have declared that the DPRK doesn’t care about healthcare and has a shotty (or “horrifying”) system, which some even thought was on the “brink of collapse.” [14] Much of this imperial propaganda, only some of the publications named above, with some within medical journals as well, was fed by an Amnesty report in 2010 titled “North Korea: The crumbling state of health care in North Korea.” As the report admitted, they conducted interviews “with North Koreans who have settled abroad” since the DPRK (rightly) has not let these humanitarian imperialists into their country, making the report pure propaganda. [15] Luckily, some on the international level know the report is BS. As the bourgeois media reported, the World Health Organization said that Amnesty’s report was based on a small sample of people of those who left the country, with WHO spokesperson Paul Garwood saying “all the facts are from people who aren’t in the country. There’s no science in the research,” not mentioning recent improvements to healthcare in the country, even as he made the concession that Amnesty’s accounts could be “credible” (they aren’t by definition) while saying that Amnesty is not “taking into account some of the things that are happening today” in the DPRK. [16] Numerous anti-DPRK accounts even admit the advantages of the DPRK’s system. In words criticizing the medical system in the country, one student doctor, had to “grudgingly” admit that the country has well-trained dentists and has a stress on exercise, among other aspects. [17] Even the Library of Congress in their broadly “anti-communist” report on the DPRK, written in 2008, had to admit this. It said that medical care is provided free of charge, that physical exercise is a major focus, and that there are nationwide medical check ups, especially at routine places like schools, factories, offices, and farms. Furthermore, they added that people receive a lifetime health card, the government has been aggressive attacking of diseases that cause epidemics (they say with spraying of DDT and other chemicals), and a high number of physicians and hospitals per capita, one of the highest in the world. [18] They add that more than 75% in the medical profession are women, with most hospitals as general hospitals, many clustered around Pyongyang, and no smoking in hospitals. Even with the supposed drawbacks, like shortages in medicines (because of sanctions), claims of variation in medical care, and economic problems weakened medical system [19], among others, the pages note that there has been a dramatic improvement in life longevity in the country ravaged by famine caused by Western imperial sanctions. Perhaps such “criticisms” shouldn’t be a surprise since most of chapter, which this information is within in, based on declassified CIA report. Even so, it is impressive that the CIA is even admitting the success of the DPRK. These are perhaps positives of progressive nature of the DPRK although the country has accepted too much revisionism for anyone’s liking. Commie Dad’s writing on this topic, within an article in which he claims that DPRK has a centrally-planned economy (partially questionable due to acceptance of revisionism), is worth noting. He notes how UN sanctions prevented a pharmaceutical company “from importing the chemicals it needed for a healthcare project in the DPRK countryside” and that the DPRK “still guarantees universal healthcare to its people,” which the U$ hasn’t done, a fact even acknowledged by anti-DPRK author Barbara Demick and a CIA report which acknowledges DPRK’s achievements in “free health care, and preventive medicine; and infant mortality and life expectancy rates comparable to the most advanced countries until the recent famine.” [20] He adds that the remarkable public healthcare system of the DPRK, providing ” unconditional universal coverage for citizens”continues to perform well, citing the words of Dr. Margaret Chan, the WHO’s Director-General, calling the country’s healthcare system “something which most other developing countries would envy,” pointing out that the “DPRK has no lack of doctors and nurses,” further praising their system for its “very elaborate health infrastructure, starting from the central to the provincial to the district level.” This quote about envy is used in the title of this article, which also notes the country’s comprehensive healthcare, saying that authorities recognize malnutrition is a problem but it is less of an issue than in the past, and the quality of their healthcare system. [21] Of course, the reactionaries are seething at this pronouncement. A Heritage Foundation fellow claimed WHO was “defend[ing] the North Korean government,” citing the horrid Amnesty report and U$ State Department, along with varied bourgeois media, while American Thinker was shocked at her “praise” of what they called a “totalitarian and rogue nuclear-armed police state.” [22] The only country that falls into that category is the U$ (and its client states in the Mideast, along with Western European capitalist states), not the DPRK. These reactionaries would find friends in the U$ State Department, which warns U$ citizens to not go into DPRK hospitals…because then they will learn that the system is excellent? [23] While, in the murderous empire, the GOP fights to pass a healthcare bill that would “increase the number of people who are uninsured by 22 million” by 2026 and the Dems fight to keep their insurance-friendly “Obamacare,” the DPRK already has universal healthcare. As I noted in my previous post about the Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) and democracy within the DPRK, this unicameral legislative body has enacted laws putting in place “perfect and universal free medical care.” [24] The DPRK not only provides rights and duties of citizens, but they have the right to “right to education and free medical care and freedom of scientific, literary and artistic pursuits” along with equal rights for men and women. Furthermore, in January 1947, the DPRK enforced “free medical care for workers, office workers and their dependents” with universal free medical care enforced since January 1953, and complete “universal free medical care” since February 1960, meaning that the state totally bears “the expenses of medical checkups and treatment, bed and board in hospitals, medicines, and even travel costs to and from sanatoria.” This commitment is manifested not only by the type of care the citizens receive but through the establishment of Pyongyang Medical University, the top medical school in the country which was founded in 1948 “when the Department of Medical Science at Kim Il Sung University became an independent university.” [26] The achievements of this Korean healthcare system are widely acknowledged. While one Cornell medical student (who talked with “the chair of Pyongyang Medical College’s Department of Neurosurgery for 90 minutes”) grumbled that the free medical system comes with “many costs of personal freedom” (his Western bourgeois concept of freedom) with government permission required, and physicians not more highly paid than others, if we are to believe him on that aspect, did admit the following: “[The medical students] smiled and very proudly told me that the government sends students to college for free – and that is consistent with the medical system, that it’s also free. Even intensive surgeries do not cost a penny…Everything I saw was very unique. Exploring the city [Pyongyang] was unreal. All buildings were beautiful and big – often with posters of the two great leaders in front, which gave off a little eerie feeling. American media give the idea that North Korea is constantly brewing with missiles, focusing on the unreasonable rulers…but the everyday life of North Koreans, at least in the capital, nearly mirrors ours. It was an incredible privilege to meet North Koreans and hear their sentiments, to physically see the land – and in that I realized that they were my fellow people, that we speak the same language, love our families and are all humans. Understanding is the first key to any peace and compromise.” The WHO notes that the country has a life expectancy of 67 years, or over 70 years if you are relying on the CIA World Factbook, which is impressive. Other data shows that while 3.7% of population drinks, mostly among men over 15 and not women, 78.9% abstain from drinking, with recorded alcohol consumption is steady over time, not increasing since the 1960s significantly. [27] Furthermore, while tobacco usage is strong among males, with almost half of males, smoking, smoke-free legislation affecting hospitals, non-university educational facilities, and public transit. There is also strong tobacco cessation support, partial funding of tobacco cessation, warning on tobacco packages, no tobacco vending machines. This is manifested by the fact that late last month, at the People’s Palace of Culture, the country honored World No Tobacco Day. During that day, as the Pyongyang Times reported, officials of the country’s Public Health Ministry, resident diplomatic missions, and international health organizations, talked about how tobacco is a threat to development. The Vice-Director of the Public Health Ministry, Choe Suk Hyon, was quoted as saying that they made achievements in tobacco control the previous year, saying the following: “What is important in tobacco control is to conduct large scale educational campaigns to publicize the negative impact of smoking on the health and socio-economic life. And we should strengthen scientific research on smoking cessation products which help quit smoking.” Others, like the representative of the WHO to the DPRK, praised the Korean females in the country for being at the “vanguard of no-smoking campaign” but still wanted them to help their “fathers, husbands, boyfriends and sons to quit smoking if they are smokers” and noted that there is a “newly-revised tobacco control law of the DPRK” with no-smoking “information activities were conducted at the central and provincial hygienic information halls and medical institutions across the country.” While the U$ has developed strong anti-smoking measures as well, there is still a formidable tobacco industry in the U$, something the DPRK doesn’t have. Apart from strong tobacco control, low alcohol consumption, and general healthcare in the country, there are a number of other accomplishments. For one, infant mortality declined from 1990s to present (same with people with tuberculosis), there has been a relatively steady amount in people with HIV/ AIDS (the country is likely an “AIDS free zone” by now), and immunization for DTP3 among children under 1 almost 100%. Furthermore, maternal death rate has also dramatically declined, less stunting of children than on the past, strong antenatal care, 100% of births attended by skilled health personnel, and broad measles immunization. If that isn’t enough, there almost complete treatment for tuberculosis, obesity is not a major cause for death (like in the U$)
_SEV, @ERR_STA) WITH NOWAIT END CATCH GO Output: (0 row(s) affected) Msg 50000, Level 16, State 1, Line 15 Error occurred while retrieving the data from database: Divide by zero error encountered. The RAISERROR() can take first argument as message_id also instead of the message. But if you want to pass the message_id then it has to be in sys.messages >> With THROW the benefit is: it is not mandatory to pass any parameter to raise an exception. Just using the THROW; statement will get the error details and raise it, as shown below: -- Using THROW - 1 BEGIN TRY SELECT 1/0 as DivideByZero END TRY BEGIN CATCH THROW; END CATCH GO Output: (0 row(s) affected) Msg 8134, Level 16, State 1, Line 2 Divide by zero error encountered. As you see in the Output above, the error message thrown is the default one. But you can also add your customized message, we will see below. IMP NOTE: Default THROW statement will show the exact line where the exception was occurred, here the line number is 2 (highlighted GREEN above). But RAISERROR() will show the line number where the RAISERROR statement was executed i.e. Line 15 (highlighted YELLOW above) and not the actual exception. Also passing the message_id won’t require it to be stored in sys.messages, let’s check this: -- Using THROW - 2 DECLARE @ERR_MSG AS NVARCHAR(4000) ,@ERR_STA AS SMALLINT BEGIN TRY SELECT 1/0 as DivideByZero END TRY BEGIN CATCH SELECT @ERR_MSG = ERROR_MESSAGE(), @ERR_STA = ERROR_STATE() SET @ERR_MSG= 'Error occurred while retrieving the data from database:'+ @ERR_MSG; THROW 50001, @ERR_MSG, @ERR_STA; END CATCH GO Output: (0 row(s) affected) Msg 50001, Level 16, State 1, Line 14 Error occurred while retrieving the data from database: Divide by zero error encountered. But if you parameterize the THROW statement as above it will not show the actual position of exception occurrence, and the behavior will be same as RAISERROR(). As with RAISERROR() you've to provide mandatory params, so there is no way to get the actual position of Line where the error occurred. As per MSBOL following are the difference between RAISERROR & THROW: RAISERROR statement THROW statement If a msg_id is passed to RAISERROR, the ID must be defined in sys.messages. The error_number parameter does not have to be defined in sys.messages. The msg_str parameter can contain printf formatting styles. The message parameter does not accept printf style formatting. The severity parameter specifies the severity of the exception. There is no severity parameter. The exception severity is always set to 16. NOTE: As per MS BOL for exception handling in new development work THROW must be used instead of RAISERROR. Source: from my personal blog SQLwithManoj: http://sqlwithmanoj.wordpress.com/2012/12/20/new-throw-statement-in-sql-server-2012-vs-raiserror/-- Thousands inundated Rider University's campus in Lawrence tonight for an Independence Day celebration that included an enthralling concert and spectacular fireworks. The free celebration officially kicked off at 7:30 p.m. with a concert featuring the rock-and-soul band Kindred Spirit (covering everything from Bruce Springsteen, to Bon Jovi, to the Beatles), followed by an extravagant 20-minute fireworks display at 9:40 p.m. While tonight's celebration was presented by the Lawrence Recreation Department, it was sponsored by... well, many different people. "We rely solely on donations from Rider University and local businesses and residents to make it happen every year," said department superintendent Christine Lee, who explained that fireworks for a celebration like this cost $20-30,000, or about $1,000 per minute. In order to collect donations from residents, the department utilizes year-round collection containers that can be found at local businesses around town. "While Rider gives us the bulk of the funding, donations from individual residents, sports organizations, and private businesses show how important this celebration really is to the township," said Lee. "We're very grateful to Lawrence residents and Rider University. It's absolutely essential and crucial that Rider gives us the space to do this on their beautiful campus." Lee stressed how important tonight's celebration is for Lawrence, explaining that the community has been coming together to celebrate Independence Day for approximately 40 years. "It's important to come together to celebrate our veterans' victories and the accomplishments we've made as a nation," said Lee. "This is a perfect opportunity for people to come together that don't normally get together. It's about bonding with other folks in the community. We really wanted to make this a lot of fun and make it a nice event for the community." Lambertville's Henry and Celia Struye-Auletta, two of the many children in attendance, were happy to be at such a festive community event. "I think it's pretty cool when everyone gets together for a community gathering like this," said Henry, 9. "It's really cool to come and see people that you know." His little sister agreed. "I'm excited to hang out with everyone," said Celia, 6. Just hours before the fireworks display lit up the sky, Henry shared his lofty expectations for the spectacle. "I'm expecting fireballs to rain down," said Henry with a wide grin on his face. Rich Cuccagna may be reached at rcuccagna@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @RichCuccagna. Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.by earthprince » Dec 19th, '08, 22:22 Hey guysFirst, AWESOME community you have here!Second, I come bearing a long story about the company you may know called "Teavana". I worked with Teavana as they opened a new store, and it was a long journey that left me very distressed about the company. I decided I needed to write up an account of what had happened at my store, because it created a ball of emotion in my gut, and figured you guys might find it a good read. I'll warn you now, its LONG. But its has a lot of little stories, so I hope interesting as well! It obviously is biased towards my personal experience, and I know not all stores run like mine did. I know Teavana offers great careers to some awesome people. But my experience taught me to distrust the entire company, and after the owner of all the stores confronted me in the end, I figured it was serious enough that I could post about it. Hope you enjoy, I look forward to comments :]To give my full experience working at Teavana, I think its important to know the “whole picture”, and so I’ll start my story before I even got the job. I worked in a mall for about three years, with an awesome staff at my store. My manager was a great person, friendly, understanding, awesome sense of humor, crazy and fun loving. She got the job done and we had a lot of fun doing it. She found that Teavana was opening in the mall, and was given several interviews for the store manager position. In order to become a manager, you are flown to Atlanta, Georgia, the hometown of Teavana, for corporate training. You meet the owners of the company, a husband and wife who started it all, and from what I was told, it was a lot of work, but very satisfying. The husband and wife maintained strict standards – even though the company was growing fast, they wanted to know every single manager. The wife had the deciding factor in everything the stores sold, from tea to teawares. If she disapproved of it, she wouldn’t let the stores sell it. It seemed that this spoke of the personal aspect of Teavana – it wasn’t just a corporation, but a store that expanded rapidly and was trying to stick to its principals during that growth.TRAININGI loved working for my manager at “Candy Store”, so I told her I would gladly work for her at Teavana. I wanted her store to be successful, and I wanted her to be successful. The assistant manager at “Candy Store” also went to work as Teavana’s assistant manager, and we had another coworker join us as well. Training was hectic, and started about a week before the store opened. We were trained by one of the two “corporate trainers”, who go around and open the new stores/visit poorly performing stores to revamp the staff. We had Eugenia, a big girl who had a lot of personality. The first step was to learn about tea – what it was, the different types, etc. The training involves learning the differences between the types of tea, and each one is given three main selling points. Whites have highest antioxidants/great for complexion/may prevent forms of cancer, whereas oolongs as great for metabolism/good for skin teeth and bones because of fluoride, and helps in digestion. Basic points to explain for each. This was my first inkling of how Teavana worked – it applied health benefits to each tea, but if you read up on it, all teas have the same properties, just in different amounts. They are from the same plant, after all. Teavana isn’t selling tea, but the health benefit marketing behind it. You don’t drink an oolong for its notes of complexity, you drink it for weight loss. You don’t drink green tea for its rich history, you drink it for your immune system.After learning the types of tea, we learned the top three teas in each category. These are specifically based on price. We learn the three best “quality” in each category. When asked why we needed to know those three, I answered jokingly, “Because they cost the most?” and everyone laughed. The trainer then went onto explain that it’s more so because the higher the quality, the higher the health benefit. The most expensive white tea would give you the best benefits in comparison to the others. This is where we learned Teavana’s technique of “Top-down-selling”. You always start by offering the most expensive tea, and work your way down. If they come in looking for a cheap herbal blend, you start with a white tea to blend it with. In other words, you aren’t even supposed to sell herbal teas or rooibos if you can, because they are a much lower price point. We didn’t really learn anything about these types of tea, other than to consider them “mixers”. You weren’t supposed to sell them on their own, and if you did, you were supposed to sell in large quantities to make up for the low cost. Try ordering just a couple ounces of a rooibos or an herbal tisane and see for yourself.After being drilled on this, we moved on to tea preparation, or teapots. The first thing we learned about is the cast iron pots, or “tetsubin”. We spent the most time on this, because it is the “best” way to make tea. There were eight key points for these pots, though some escape my memory since I’ve left the store. It’s main points were its extreme ease of use (just pull out the strainer and you’re good to go) and the fact that it builds up a patina (layer of minerals) so it makes the healthiest cup of tea. They also have the most expensive pricing. Pots are $70+ for smaller ones, $150+ for biggest ones, and all cups/coasters/trivets etc. are separate and cost at least ten bucks a piece. A typical set would cost a couple hundred dollars, so that’s why half the store is devoted to them.From there, we learned the other pots the store carries. Pay attention to how the store is laid out from the point of the cast irons. We literally started with cast iron on one side, and as you walked along the wall, the different prices of pots would gradually lessen until you reached the other side, where the cheapest pots were. When someone looks for a teapot, you start with the cast iron, and work your way down by showing them every single type until you hit a price that’s agreeable. While cast iron is debatably the “best” way to make tea, the next step down according to Teavana are ceramic Juddith Webber pots, which certainly aren’t. They are ceramic, do not include strainers, and when heated become extremely hot to the touch. It’s apparent from this that Teavana is about sales, not getting what’s best for the different customers.After this, we learned the “sampling” method. Think of it like a triangle – sample, cast iron, tea counter. You offer a sample to someone, bring them in to the cast iron (one of which always holds a “rare” tea sample) and then sell them a pot, then bring them up to the counter to buy tea. You know how booths in the mall call out to people as they walk by, and harass them to take a look at their products? A Teavana is store is the same exact thing – just a glorified sales booth. Selling tea has to be the most dishonest part of this job. I’ll insert how we are supposed to sell the tea:“As you can see, our tea is sold by weight. We do offer several sized containers, but the best value tin is this one here (show the one pound tin). It’s airtight and light tight, and will keep your tea fresh for a year. It’s an additional seven dollars, but completely reusable. We’ll put a label on the front of the tin indicating the type of tea and its brewing instructions. When I fill this up for you today (as you start to fill it up) you will be saving 10% for getting a pound of tea.”Basically you mislead the customer into thinking they have to buy a tin to put it in, and do not offer to put it in a (free) bag under any circumstance, unless they ask for it. Sure these tins are airtight/light tight, but they also dent easily and become useless when the lid won’t fit on anymore. I speak from experience. An old coffee can works just the same, FYI. You also start by selling the whole pound. This can range from $28 to $200, depending on the tea. You don’t stop there, you keep going. You can “overcome” objections by using their techniques of mentioning the pound discount, the health benefits, etc. You can sometimes sell those pounds, but mostly to stupid people willing to buy anything, thought this seems to be Teavana’s target demographic.MY STORYSo back to my story, our store opened with big expectations. We are somewhat near a really big volume store (in the center of the big city), and for whatever reason our sales goals were the same as theirs. I’ve worked in this mall for three years, and I can speak from experience when I say that there is a HUGE difference in the two places. Also, our store was located at the beginning of the “new wing” the mall is adding, with upscale stores. But this wing doesn’t open for another two years and after my store is one or two more and that’s it. We were in the dead zone of the mall. So we opened on a Wednesday with maybe a $3,000 goal. I can’t imagine we made it past the first thousand. I did sell a cast iron pot with my second customer, so I was optimistic. The next few weeks weren’t so great. We were scraping by with very low sales, and so we redoubled our efforts and kept trying. At this point, I was just a sales associate. One of our key-holders quit within the first few weeks because of the lack of hours. Our barista had to quit, and slowly but surely our staff dwindled down. We were lucky to have two sales an hour, because the mall was simply dead during the day. Our district manager started sending her friends by the store to spy on us, and reported back to her with what they thought we were doing. Several times these “reports” just didn’t make sense, because the people they’d describe didn’t resemble us, and so it led us to believe these friends weren’t too perceptive. They did catch the other key-holder reading a book, and so she became the scape-goat by upper management.Each week we were graded on an A-F scale, and you were supposed to have a B or greater at all times. It was pretty random, if you lucked out you’d get an A, if not, you’d get an F. Some weeks I’d luck out with a few good sales, some weeks I wouldn’t. I didn’t worry about it – I was a sales associate, and this wasn’t my career. I purposely avoid becoming management because I need my free time for school, not to devote to a company I can’t imagine working for forever. But my managers were being put under a lot of pressure. The key-holder that was caught reading a book was fired, because “she had three F’s in a row”, while the real reason is that our district manager needed a scape-goat to blame all our failures on. I was asked to step up and be a key-holder at this point, and since my manager was a friend, I agreed. Within just a few weeks, our staff was down to four people. Manager, assistant manager, myself, and a sales associate. Ironically, the four of us all came from our previous store. The last sales associate quit, and we were all pulling long shifts, alone.We were trying to hire new people, but it turned out really hard to find anyone who seemed worthwhile. For several weeks, I would work open-to-4 by myself, or 4-to-close by myself, because we simply had no people. I was still working my other part time job (I never left it) so I was pulling about 65 hours a week between the two, on top of being a college senior full time. I was dedicated. I know the stores sales weren’t what they needed to be, but by god, I was giving it my all. We lucked out with a few new people, who seemed eager and competent. A couple stayed through training, though one woman put in her two weeks after just a few days. She was an older woman just looking for a part time job to supplement her full time one, and as she put it, “I didn’t realize this job would be so stressful. I can’t make my goals, and I don’t like feeling like a failure. With my experience, I can get a job anywhere in this mall, I’ll work for Sears and deal with no pressure.”We did expand our arsenal of employees, who did become competent. But then we were put under a microscope again by upper management, and our original corporate trainer came back to retrain us and find out what was wrong with the store. She did coach us a little, but spent her time just shifting around merchandise. She was a fun girl, with an awesome sense of humor, but used that to her advantage. I almost thought I could consider her an acquaintance outside of work, but I realized she was being nice to try to exploit my friendship. She asked why I was upset one day, to which I explained that my friend was recently diagnosed with something she will have the rest of her life, and it will be a hard and painful recovery to get back to normal, not that there ever would be a “normal” again. She acted nice, asked about her, and as we were leaving, she started to ask questions more related to the store. She tried tricking me into admitting I didn’t sample as much as I was supposed to, or that I wasn’t doing the entire sales process. With my defense down, she managed to get me to admit I was disheartened by the stores lack of performance. I assume what she really wanted was a confession that my manager was doing a poor job, but that simply wasn’t the truth.THE BEGINNING OF THE ENDCorporate trainer Eugenia left, and things kept getting worse. We’d receive more and more phone calls from our district manager, and it was apparent our jobs wouldn’t last. The Vice President came to visit our store, and he agreed that it was mostly the malls fault, since our mall was dead. He told us to just do what we could, and wait it out. This apparently didn’t sit with anyone else in the company. The other corporate trainer, an incredibly rude woman named Nancy, was sent to our store. This is when things got really ugly, really fast. She acted rude, and would watch us as we interacted with customers. Immediately after each sale, she’d critique us, and not in a constructive way. Everything we did was wrong. For example: One woman came in, and wasn’t sure what she wanted to get someone for a gift. She wanted a gift set, something that had everything her friend would need to get started with tea. Of course, I started with the cast iron pots, and worked my way down. The woman eventually just said outright that she was only spending X amount of money, because that’s how much she had. I then took that number, figured out that she could get a cheaper pot (the cute and inexpensive Beehouse pots) and a tin of our popular matevana/rooibos chai blend, with a measuring spoon and some sugar. It came to five cents under her total allotment, and we were both happy. I got as much money as I could out of her, and she got a nice and complete set. Go figure, right after the woman left, I was ripped apart. How dare I take no as an answer to the woman not wanted a cast iron pot! How dare I accept only a half pound of tea, because at the whole pound they save ten percent. Couldn’t I at least had added some mints for herself? The next few paragraphs highlight my few weeks working with Nancy:First – drinks. If you’ve visited a Teavana, you may know that they serve cups of tea to go as well. It’s a neat idea, mall employees love it, and go figure – Teavana looks down upon selling cups of tea to go. As Nancy puts it, “When you sell a cup of tea, you satisfy the need to buy tea. We do not sell cups to go, we sell tea to take home. Do not offer if, and talk your way out of it whenever possible.” A $3-5 dollar cup of tea is generally less expensive than the minimum 2 ounces of tea, which is why its looked down on. My manager at my “candy store” came over a lot for cups of tea. He’d spent hundreds of dollars in our store, always willing to try what we’d offer him. He went over one day to buy just a cup (he’d get it instead of coffee from Dunkin Donuts) and Nancy waited on him. When he asked for a cup of whatever tea, she ignored him and brought down the tea to show him. Having already bought some, he told her again he just wanted the cup. She started explaining the pricing, and how it’s better to buy it loose to brew at home. He again explained that he already had it, and he just wanted some to take home. After a heavy sigh and rolling of her eyes, she agreed to make it for him. He’s since vowed never to spend any more money there.Second – attitude. Nancy brought a new way to sell tea – the spiel I wrote down earlier. It was a new wording, and as such she tried to teach it to us all. I worked one night with Nancy and another sales associate girl. The sales associate was being taught by Nancy the new way to sell tea, and I was told to man the sample cart. So I did. A few minutes later, after no one had even walked by, a friend came by who always bought a cup of tea from me. She walked in, I turned, and saw that my coworkers were not taking a break from their training to help my friend, so I came around the counter and did it myself. I made her tea, chatted her up a bit, and sent her on her way. Immediately after, Nancy told me to follow her out back. I did, knowing I was somehow in trouble. This is the conversation that ensued:Nancy: What just happened right then, that cannot happen again.Me: What? What happened?Nancy: You didn’t do what I told you to. I don’t work in that kind of environment.Me: What are you talking about? What did you tell me to do?Nancy: I told you to sample, and you didn’t. I don’t know how you think it works here, but when your superior tells you to do something, you do it. I don’t work in the kind of environment where that doesn’t happen. If you can’t understand that, we’re going to be having a different kind of conversation.Nancy seemed to thrive off being rude. After she’d say something rude, she continued her work and hum to herself with a grin on her face. She harassed my coworker to fill in shifts that she couldn’t, so bad that my coworker just walked out and never came back. She told another girl that she was incompetent and contributing nothing because she wasn’t selling tea correctly… even though this girl had not been retrained with the new way to do it yet. Last, she was simply misleading. She would tell her bosses that we’d say one thing, when he hadn’t said anything. She told us that when scooping tea, make big scoops, and always go over how much was asked for, because most people will say its fine when you ask if the overage is okay. While it isn’t illegal, she was certainly unethical.Third – the assistant manager. We knew that our assistant manager was bound to be on his way out. It was apparent when corporate BOO Nancy didn’t say anything to her, ever. Not even when he did things wrong, which she seemed to love correcting. She said she’d fire him, yet left when he was due to come in. When he walked by later on, she ignored him completely. On this note, I’ll mention that she did talk to me about working at the company even with the changes. I told her the truth. I was upset that some people were leaving or had left, and I would miss them, but I had put a lot of time and energy into running that store and wanted to make sure it stayed successful. She told me that was fine, they wanted me to stay. Oh how that changed.The next and perhaps most important part of this story is that my manager found a new job. She put in her two weeks notice. I was ecstatic for her, because it was better paying, a lot cooler, and sure to be less stressful. This also prompted the OWNERS of the company, the husband and wife, to decide to visit our store for a week. I expected them to have a conversation with me about my plans with the company – if I wanted to stay despite being the last person from the original staff, what they would expect from me, and stuff like that. No such conversation occurred. I introduced myself, but other than that, they simply ignored me. Strike that – I was talking to a customer about something while having a cup of tea in my hand – and the owner, a man named Andy, came over and took it out of my hand, and walked away. He later mentioned something about us not having them on the floor… which is fine, but everyone else always did it and he didn’t correct them.In any event, the husband and wife continued to ignore me, but I didn’t mind. They were supposedly the nicest people, so I figured I just interpreted their silence towards me wrong, since I was nervous about being fired. This all changed one Sunday morning. I was set to arrive an hour before the store opened and prep for the day. I did, and soon after so did a new woman who was just hired. Nancy had gone on a hiring spree, and was continuously forgetting who was coming in and when. I didn’t know what to do with her, so I tried finding her a training manual, and that wasted some time. Our new manager (though at the time, just a manager in training) came in shortly after, and distracted me some more. I was making the samples, but the two main samples were leaking. They are held in machines that have nozzles, and the nozzles just kept leaking despite my repeated attempts to fix them. It happened every couple weeks, and usually just needed the nozzles to be taken off and firmly put back on. But it wouldn’t stop leaking. So I decide any sample is better than none, and switched what samples went in what machines. In doing so, I had to take off the labels, indicating what type of tea was in it, but knew it wasn’t a problem since we got a box of new labels just the other day. So I do that, and go figure the labels are gone. Nowhere to be found. I keep working on fixing the leaks as we open, and my coworkers man the floor. Shortly after, Andy and Nancy Mack (not corporate trainer Nancy), owners of Teavana, came into the store. They noticed the sample cart was not filled automatically. They asked, and I explained the entire situation. They didn’t seem pleased, but said nothing else.I kept working on trying to fix the sample holders, and the owners/new manager started having a discussion outside the store. Nancy Mack came in to help me figure out why they were leaking, and we found out why – behind the nozzles (when you take them off) are two pieces, a rubber O ring, and a little plastic stopper. Both plastic stoppers were missing. Nancy Mack asked me where they were, and I said I didn’t know. She told me that they couldn’t have just come off, and asked who washed them the night before. I told her I had, since I had. I told her I’d check the sink again, and she left to go talk again with her husband. I told her that I was sorry for the mistake, and was very embarrassed over the whole situation.I look around some more, but of course it’s not in the sink. I have no idea where it was. I was checking under the sink, behind the fridges, figuring they had to be somewhere. I washed them per usual last night, and there are grates in the sink so they can’t go down the drains. The owner, Andy Mack, came back and asked me where the plastic stoppers where. I said I didn’t know. He got angry, and told me I was lying, and that he was “sick of the bullshit”. He said that he knew our current manager was leaving, but he owns the store and wants to take it in a new direction. He accused me of deliberately sabotaging the store, and that he didn’t understand how the plastic pieces could go missing, and that he “wanted them found”. He left, and I stood in the back room, alone and stunned. The owner of the entire company, a “great guy” who was very friendly, had confirmed he in fact did not like me despite not knowing me.I took a minute to think, and decided to look one last time. Looked in the sink again, not there. Looked around the floor. Nowhere to be found. I was accused of stealing them, which I did not. I thought to myself – if I wanted to sabotage this store, I’d do something a lot cooler than steal a little plastic stopper. It was hard, but I knew my time with the company was over. I went into the bathroom, and took down a letter an old coworker who moved away left us, offering us a place to stay where she lived if we were in the area. I figured I was the last person it applied to, and it was no longer needed. Thinking about how much time and effort I put into that store, I pulled out my keys, and took off my key to the store. My last thought was that I had just taken out a loan for school the day prior… and I really needed the job. But I knew that even if I stayed I was probably a target to get fired, so I might as well just quit knowing I did it for the right reasons. I took my key, walked to the front, and gave it to the owner, telling him I wasn’t comfortable working there anymore, and that I wished him the best of luck. He asked me to step out back with him, so I figured I could give him that since I was leaving without a two week notice.He gave me a rundown of what I assume was my “you’re fired” speech. He accused me of stealing the plastic stoppers again. He told me that they had confirmed what they thought was true – that I was trading free to tea to mall employees I worked with at my other job in the mall, for free chocolate (I work at a candy store as well). He accused me of giving my coworkers at “candy store” free tea, in exchange for free chocolates from “candy store”, which I also work at and get the chocolates for free. I told him how ridiculous that was – why would I steal from one job to trade/steal at my other, when I got both products for free? He didn’t care, because they had “traced” cups going over to my other store. Not sure what that meant, but whatever. He claimed that “half the mall” was getting free tea (not true) and that several managers had approached them about it. Right.So I again told him that I wished him luck with his company and this store, and I hoped that he could revitalize the business and make it successful. Clocked out, wished the new manager the best of luck, and told my coworker that I was leaving. She was 50/50 on leaving herself, and so I told her to just come visit me down the hall sometime. As I walked out, Andy the owner again called me over, wanting to check my bag. He found a notebook, three pens, and an iPod. I felt humiliated, having gone through that in front of a store of customers, some of which were regulars I’d gotten to know. I felt extremely distressed, having given so much to that store and company, having sacrificed so much to just keep it running, and ended up with such an ending. I called my manager on my way out of the mall, and she said she planned on just giving them her key that day too. Despite having given her two weeks, the upper management was now ignoring her and acting as though she were a sales associate, and ignoring her. She felt she had put in enough. We wished each other well, and I spent my Sunday home, and for the first time in months, completed an assignment on time!I thought it ended there, but it didn’t. The assistant manager got his old job at my candy story back, so we were still working together. The owner of Teavana stopped in our store one day, and told him he wasn’t allowed in Teavana unless he were buying something, otherwise security would be called because he was there to “demoralize” the staff. That was pretty rude, but whatever. I also found out that Nancy had told people I had stolen money, because there had been sixty dollars missing one day. Go figure, they found it in the safe. Also, those plastic stoppers I supposedly stole? Found out from my coworker that we never had them to begin with. That’s right. Before we even opened the store months ago, those pieces were never even sent to us. If you actually washed the sample machines thoroughly and took off the nozzle (which I always did), the suction left and it took time to build back up and prevent leaks. Go figure, it leaked because I had actually cleaned it properly.Now that is a lot of story to have read, and if you did, thank you for your time! I know a lot of my story was anecdotal and certainly biased in my opinions, but I think it’s a fair representation of how my store ran. I truly believed in both the company and the store, and expending long shifts and lost many hours of sleep for it. I felt passionate about it, and as the company described, it wanted people who went above their training, who had an “active interest” in tea. I did, because it was an interesting and very rewarding hobby. The training manual offers a letter from Nancy and Andy Mack, who say, “We are looking for people with great integrity, leadership drive, and who are plain old hard workers.” I had the most sincere integrity, and one of my biggest regrets is that I wasn’t able to give a two weeks notice when I quit. I didn’t want to be a key-holder because it meant more responsibility and time, which I did not have, but I did it for the sake of the store and my managers. I’m pretty sure that somehow fits in with leadership. I dedicated my entire life for several months to this job, giving up any social life I once had, and am only now getting back in touch with my friends and family I had missed out on because of how busy I was with trying to make the store successful. I’m damn sure that I was a good and hard worker. I don’t mean to depict myself as a model employee, because I had faults like any employee does, but I gave it my all.In conclusion, I would encourage you all to not frequent the Teavana Company. It is a company that bases its sales process on misleading you into what it considers the “best”. It is a sales intense store, which contradicts with the natural essence of tea – a relaxing and heartening beverage that soothes the soul. It seeks to build its image as the worlds premier retailer in tea, but uses average grade quality teas. Teavana faces a big challenge – how does a company market fresh and loose tea to a country where soda is the more poplar drink, and to people who didn’t even know tea was such a diverse subject. In order to do this, Teavana markets the hell out of its products, partially by making unsubstantiated claims about its products. It offers an unfriendly work environment. While it carries some great looking products, I would recommend anyone who is drawn in by the stores zen allure to step back, and look into the products on their own accord. Take a look online at some tea retailers. Read a book about it, and don’t be afraid by the big and overwhelming idea of tea. I started off overwhelmed, but don’t worry about learning about it all at once. It’s just tea.Defensive end Chris Baker chases Pittsburgh’s DeAngelo Williams. (Rob Carr/Getty Images) Washington Redskins defensive end Chris Baker was limited in practice for a second consecutive day Thursday, ailing with elbow and rib injuries suffered in Monday’s 38-16
influential and critically acclaimed mature soap-opera serial, after Kate Worley becomes its regular writer, after sporadic underground short stories in 1983 and two issues of its own title in 1984 and early 1986 (to issue 24, February 1995; uncompleted storyline published after Kate Worley's death, 2005 to 2007). November 1986: Redwall, the first novel in Brian Jacques' longrunning British series about the peaceful animal abbey, run by mostly small herbivores and omnivores such as mice and squirrels, in the forested land of Mossflower which is constantly being invaded by villainous carnivores, is published (June 1987 in America). Marketed as children's books in Britain and as adult fantasy novels in America, the series is exceedingly popular in Europe and America, and helps to promote anthropomorphic literature for all ages. There are 22 novels in the series, ending with Jacques' death in 2011; plus a 1999–2003 animated TV series by Nelvana of Toronto and comic book adaptations of the first three novels. January 1987: Fusion (Eclipse Comics) introduces the SF comic book adventures of the Tsunami, a tramp spaceship with a mixed crew of humans, bioengineered animals, and furry aliens (by Lex Nakashima, Steve Gallacci, Lela Dowling, and others); with the humorous back-up series The Weasel Patrol, by Nakashima, Dowling, and Ken Macklin (to issue #17, October 1989). April 1987: Jim Groat begins Morphs as the first anthology comic for'morphic beginning writers and artists (to issue four, September 1988). April 1987: Ed Zolna in Roslyn, PA creates Mailbox Books, originally only to sell his Fran an' Maabl self-published comic book. It quickly becomes furry fandom's first comprehensive mail-order book service, attempting to stock just about every furry book, comic book, art folio, and fanzine that is published (to April 1999, when Zolna sells the stock to Sean Rabbitt of Las Vegas, NV, who merges it with his older Rabbit Valley Books in October 2001). May 1987: Mark Merlino and the furry party crew encourage the "adoption" of the annual Baycon SF convention in San Jose, California over the Memorial Day weekend as the convention for furry fans to congregate at. There are large furry attendances at this and the next two or three Baycons, but active hostility by non-furry fans eventually causes problems. May 1987: Kyim Granger (Karl Maurer) in Oakland starts Furversion as the newsletter of the furry party crowd. It quickly evolves into furry fandom's first independent fiction and art magazine (to issue twenty-one, Nov. 1990). May 1987: The Electric Holt is started by Richard Chandler (sysop), Mitch Marmel (assistant sysop), John DeWeese, and Seth Grenald at Drexel University in Philadelphia. It is the first east coast BBS with an extensive furry users' group, thanks to Chandler and Marmel. (It also features ElfQuest, animé, and general SF storyboards.) It lasts until 1990, when the four graduate from Drexel. August 1987: Mark Merlino and the furry party crew host a furry party at Conspiracy '87, the 1987 World Science Fiction Convention in Brighton (August 27–September 2). This is the first furry event in Britain. Early British furry fans credit this party with introducing them to American furry independent comic books and fanzines, which eventually leads to a British furry fandom around 1992–1993. August 1987: The Chronicles of Panda Khan, written by Monica Sharp and drawn by A Distant Soil TMNT. Li Yang, the Panda Khan, is descended from a race of giant mutant anthropomorphized pandas in the future. After several adventures in his own world, Li Yang time- and space-travels to our world to help out the TMNT. Four regular issues and one Special are published (to August 1990), with Li Yang joining the TMNT merchandising as an, written by Monica Sharp and drawn by Dave Garcia, is published by Abacus Press (cover-dated May 1987) after "guest appearances" in the non-furry #6 & #7. This is arguably the best of the TMNT-inspired imitations, due to good stories and art, and an authorized similarity to and crossovers with the. Li Yang, the Panda Khan, is descended from a race of giant mutant anthropomorphized pandas in the future. After several adventures in his own world, Li Yang time- and space-travels to our world to help out the TMNT. Four regular issues and one Special are published (to August 1990), with Li Yang joining the TMNT merchandising as an action figure, and cameos and guest-appearance art in other comics. September 1987: Ralph Bakshi's and John Kricfalusi's Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures establishes television-cartoon funny animals as respectable for "adult" viewers. (Thirty-seven episodes, to August 1989.) November 1987: Amazing Heroes issue 129 (Fantagraphics) is a special funny animal issue highlighting independent furry comics, Rowrbrazzle, and the Bakshi/Kricfalusi TV cartoon series, Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures. Numerous furry fans later say they first learned about furry fandom from this issue. May 1988: Vicky Wyman's Xanadu (Thoughts & Images) introduces furry swashbuckling romantic fantasy. It continues to today, both as an irregular independent comic book (different publishers, to MU Press' Xanadu: Across Diamond Seas issue 5, May 1994) and through its fanzine, The Ever-Changing Palace. June 1988: Mary Stanton's The Heavenly Horse from the Outermost West, followed by Piper at the Gate the next year, introduces the Army of One Hundred and Five (recognized breeds of horses), and does for horses what Watership Down and Tailchaser's Song did for rabbits and cats. January 1989: ConFurence Zero, the first exclusively furry convention, is held 21–22 January at the Holiday Inn Bristol Plaza in Costa Mesa, California, organized by Mark Merlino, Rod O'Riley, and others. ("Zero" because it is considered a test for a'real' furry convention the next year.) Membership is about 90, attendance is 65, including most prominent furry fans from across North America and Steve Kerry from Australia. Art Show auction sales are over $1,100, including $450 for a Susan Van Camp painting. One programming track is on "Furry Costuming". May 1989: Martin Wagner self-publishes Hepcats, turning his earlier college-newspaper humorous comic-strip into a critically acclaimed furry human-interest serial involving mature themes such as child abuse and suicide (new series from Antarctic Press, to issue 12, June 1998). July 1989: MU Press' first anthropomorphic comic book is Steve Willis' Morty the Dog issue one, a collection of Willis' strips from small-press and mini-comics of the early eighties. MU Press, in Seattle, becomes one of the major publishers of anthropomorphic comics in the early 1990s. August 1989: FURtherance, published by Runé (Ray Rooney) in Philadelphia, is the first of several new fanzines, mostly short-lived, devoted to furry literature and art (to issue three, winter 1991). August 1989: FurNet is started by Nicolai Shapero as a network (through FidoNet) of BBSs with furry discussion areas. By 1996 it includes over twenty furry BBSs throughout North America. November 1989: Robert and Brenda Daverin in the San Francisco Bay area start FurNography, one of the first public fanzine-art folios for furry eroticism (to #4, June 1991). November 1989: Richard Chandler in Philadelphia starts Gallery as a cross between an artists' and writers' APA and a commercial magazine for general furry fans (to issue 50, Winter 2004). January 1990: ConFurence 1, the "first real" furry convention, is held 26–28 January, again at the Holiday Inn Bristol Plaza in Costa Mesa, California. Membership is 145; attendance is 130. The ConFurence adds guests of honor (Jim Groat, Monika Livingston, Martin Wagner) and awards (Best Costume, to John Cawley as Zorro the Fox; Art Show Best of Show, to Ken Sample's "Winter Charge"; Best Filk Award, to Kay Shapero's "Furry"). January 1990: Yarf! is begun by Jeff Ferris, Kris Kreutzman, and others in the San Francisco Bay Area to replace the moribund Furversion. Debuting at ConFurence 1, it becomes furry fandom's most reliable general magazine (to issue 69, September 2003). March 1990: MU Press' first original anthropomorphic title is Dwight R. Decker's and Teri S. Wood's Rhudiprrt, Prince of Fur issue one. (to issue 12, May 2004; Will Faust replaced Wood as the artist) Spring 1990: Mythagoras, an excellent literary furry fanzine, is published by Bill Biersdorf and Watts Martin in Tampa (to issue three, Autumn 1990). September 1990: The Furry Home at Squirrel Hill (2613 Tilbury Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is started as a furry commune by Centaur (Paul Blair), Ashtoreth (William Haas), Drew Maxwell, and Shaterri (Steve Stadnicki). All are students at or work at Carnegie-Mellon University, and all had been role-playing furry characters on a general SF multi-user dimension, Islandia, until it shut down that summer. The Home lasts as a furry commune through several student generations until around 1994, when the last furry fans are replaced by non-fannish students. September 1990: Meet the Feebles, a December 1989 New Zealand feature film directed by Peter Jackson, is shown at the Toronto International Film Festival. It becomes famous throughout furry fandom as a hilariously raunchy parody of The Muppet Show starring foul-mouthed and degenerate anthropomorphic-animal hand puppets such as Heidi (hippopotamus), Bletch (walrus), Samantha (cat), and Trevor (rat). The film is not distributed in the U.S. until September 1995, following which bootleg videos and later legitimate video and DVD releases from 1998 become widespread. September 1990: (Steven Spielberg presents) Tiny Toon Adventures, created and directed by Tom Ruegger, is co-produced by Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment and the re-formed Warner Bros. Animation studio. The cast featuring juvenile counterparts of Warner Bros. cartoon stars, including Buster and Babs Bunny, Plucky Duck, Hamton J. Pig, Fifi La Fume, Dizzy Devil, and others become favorites with furry fans. They also inspire considerable furry-fan pornography, which becomes so extensive that it results in a story in The Hollywood Reporter (November 1, 1995) and a chapter, "Fans versus Time Warner: Who Owns Looney Tunes?" by Bill Mikulak, in the book Reading the Rabbit: Explorations in Warner Bros. Animation, edited by Kevin S. Sandler (June 1998). It includes 98 episodes in three seasons to December 1992, plus a direct-to-video feature, Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation (March 1992) and two TV specials in 1994 and 1995. _____ _ _ _ _ _ __ _, /'' ) ) )') / / )') /,-/-,.. __ __ __, / / / / / / /-< (_/ (_/_/ (_/ (_/ (_/ /'(_ (__/ (__/ / ) ___ / - ---___- ', (' \|\| _ \|\|'(( \|\| < \, -_-_ _-_ _-_, =\|\|=,._-_ \\ _-_ _-_, (( \|\| /-\|\| \|\| \\ \|\| \\ \|\|_. \|\| \|\| \|\| \|\| \\ \|\|_. (( // (( \|\| \|\| \|\| \|\|/ ~ \|\| \|\| \|\| \|\| \|\|/ ~ \|\| -____- \/\\ \|\|-' \\,/,-_- \\, \\, \\ \\,/,-_- \|/ ' November 1990: FurryMUCK is built as the first exclusively Furry MU* by the denizens of the Furry Home at Squirrel Hill plus Claire Benedikt, with Drew Maxwell as the prime wizard, to replace the defunct Islandia. By 1996 it has more than two thousand users worldwide, with two hundred to three hundred log-ons per evening. The core group shifts around late 1992–early 1993 from Pittsburgh to the Bay Area, as the wizards graduate from Carnegie-Mellon and settle into the Silicon Valley computer industry. November 1990: The first furry Usenet newsgroup, alt.fan.furry, is started by Peter da Silva in Houston as alt.fan.albedo. He changes the name to alt.fan.furry two months later to make it more generic. December 1990: Gary Sutton in Poulsbo, a suburb of Seattle, starts the Furry Press Network as furry fandom's second major APA. Despite a successful start, Sutton kills it in early 1992 by refusing to allow its other members to continue it after he gives it up. January 1991: ConFurence 2, on 25–27 January at the Holiday Inn, Anaheim, California, grows to an attendance of more than 200. Guests of Honor are Reed Waller, Kate Worley, Steve Gallacci, and Vicky Wyman. It is the first to have attendees from mundane companies (Carl Gafford and Len Wein of Disney Comics). The art show auction brings in over $3,000. March 1991: The Tai-Pan Project, featuring stories set on a furry-crewed tramp spaceship, is started as a shared-world writers' project edited by a group of Seattle fans chaired by Whitney Ware (current, under new editorship and title, Tales of the Tai-Pan Universe). June 1991: Mark Merlino and the ConFurence group publish a fanzine, Touch (to issue three, August 1992). July 1991: The Furkindred: A Shared World is started by Charles Melville and Edd Vick at MU Press as a writers' and artists' project. Stories adhere to guidelines describing a furry world, its nations and politics (to issue 3 and a graphic novel, The Furkindred: Let Sleeping Gods Lie, February 1997). November 1991: Antarctic Press begins Furrlough, a monthly anthology comic book for furry action-adventure stories (transferred to Radio Comix with issue 52, April 1997; to issue 191, November 2011). February 1992: The "First British Furry Micro-Con" is held 1–2 February, when Ian Curtis invites furry fans throughout Britain (only about a dozen) to meet a group of visiting American fans. A dozen fans (six American and six English) spend the weekend partying at Curtis' home in the village of Yateley, Surrey, England. February 1992: Dwight J. Dutton in Huntington Beach, California turns Huzzah! (previously an Albedo fanzine) into an invitational furry artists' APA starting with its issue four (to issue 50, January 2004). May 1992: Shanda the Panda, created and written by Mike Curtis in Beaumont, Texas (later Conway, Arkansas), debuts from MU Press. By the end of 1996, Shanda holds a record for the number of publishers (MU, Antarctic, Vision Comics, and Curtis' own Shanda Fantasy Arts) and artists who have produced her adventures. July 1992: Growl (Paul Groulx) in Frankford, Ontario starts the FURthest North Crew as an APA for primarily Canadian furry fans. It is almost immediately filled by former Furry Press Network members, and becomes furry fandom's third strong APA (current, under new editorship). August 1992: Mortality comes to furry fandom when popular fan artist Charles "Deal" Whitley of New Haven, Connecticut succumbs after a lifelong struggle against sickle-cell anemia, on 30 August. January 1993: Robert C. King coins the term "fursuit" for the Fursuit Mailing List, for full-body anthropomorphic animal costumes worn at furry conventions. June 1993: Jan Paxton invites furry fans around Britain to a weekend party at his parents' home in Tonyrefail, South Wales, 5–7 June. About ten fans attend. June 1993: Antarctic Press starts Genus as an anthology comic book for furry mature erotic humor (transferred to Radio Comix with issue 23, April 1997, to issue 93, February 2011). September 1993: Darrell Benvenuto in New York starts The American Journal of Anthropomorphics, an annual coffee-table-format collection of furry art (to issue four, 1997). September 1993: Biker Mice from Mars begins a three-season broadcast, to episode #28, February 1996. This is the best and most popular of the imitation-TMNT TV cartoons, with its own three-issue comic book, video games in 1994 and 2006, and an August 2006 revival with 28 new TV episodes, to July 2007. September 1993: Tiny Toon Adventures leads directly to the even more popular (Steven Spielberg presents) Animaniacs, also created by Tom Ruegger, and starring Wakko, Yakko, and Dot, the three what-are-they? anthropomorphic animal WB siblings who live inside the water tower on the WB studio lot. Although the series features several other cartoon animal characters including Slappy Squirrel and her nephew Skippy, and the mice Pinky and the Brain, the fan favorite is clearly ultra-sexy Minerva Mink, who is drafted as the fan-fiction femme fatale of several furry conventions. The program lasts for 99 episodes through November 1998, plus a theatrical short, "I'm Mad", in March 1994, and a direct-to-video feature, Wakko's Wish, in December 1999. September 1993: SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron is a Hanna-Barbera animated TV series that comes the closest to costumed-hero action-adventure cartoons with a furry cast. Set in Megakat City, Chance "T-Bone" Furlong and Jake "Razor" Clawson are unfairly cashiered from the semi-military Enforcers and assigned as mechanics in the city's salvage yard. Secretly building their own Turbokat jet fighter, they fight supervillains and other menaces as masked heroes, earning the cat citizens' gratitude but dismissed and hunted by proud Commander Ulysses Feral and his Enforcers (who are jealous of them as rivals) as recklessly dangerous vigilantes. 25 episodes are broadcast (to January 1995) and it is the most popular syndicated TV cartoon series of 1994, but its abrupt cancellation (with three episodes still in production) and a lack of merchandising items leaves fans frustrated. October 1993: Damian Cugley (Slate) in Oxford publishes the first British furry fanzine, Furry Furry issue one, autumn/winter 1993. (To issue two, spring/summer [May] 1994.) December 1993: Anthropomorphine, the first successful British furry fanzine, is published by Kevin Charlesworth of Hailsham, East Sussex (transferred to Lazy Fox Studios, to issue 14, June 2010). January 1994: After "rattling around" with attendances in the low hundreds at different hotels, ConFurence V almost fills the Airporter Garden Hotel in Irvine, California, 21–23 January, with an attendance of slightly more than six hundred. The Airporter, with its friendly management, becomes the first real "home" for ConFurence. A Rowrbrazzle tenth anniversary celebration is held. April 1994: Ian Curtis hosts another weekend furry party at his home in Yateley, 22–24 April. This is called Furry Housecon 3, retroactively assigning #1 and #2 to his February 1992 party and Jan Paxton's June 1993 party. Furry Housecons have been hosted by Curtis in Yateley approximately quarterly since then (#13, 29 November–1 December 1996; attendance sixteen UK fans and two German fans). The average attendance is around fifteen. July 1994: The first annual UK Fur CON is held 9–11 July, organized through FurryMUCK by Adam Moss as an informal house party at his home in Colchester, Essex. About fifteen fans attend, including one each from Germany and the U.S. Furry Housecon 4 is the same weekend (8–10 July), and accusations of "trying to hijack our con" against the Housecon are later put down to an innocent lack of communication between Britain's FurryMUCK and non-Internet furry fans. The two series of house parties are mutually coordinated today. Winter 1994: PawPrints Fanzine, one of the highest-quality literary/art furry fanzines, is started by Conrad Wong (Lynx) and T. Jordan Peacock (Greywolf) of Los Altos, California (to issue 12, Fall 2001). November 1994: Martin Dudman in Keston, a suburb of London, launches the first major British furry fanzine, the quarterly Fur Scene: The Anthropomorphic Newsletter (to issue 11, February 1998). Dudman also starts United Publications, a mail-order service to import American furry books, comics, and fanzines for British fans, and vice versa. November 1994: As a result of perceived anti-furry prejudice at the annual Philcon SF convention in Philadelphia, east coast furry fans hold their own Furtasticon I. (Some furry fans are declined space in Philcon's art show or dealers' room when their applications arrive after both are all booked up.) Furtasticon is organized by Trish Ny of Cleveland at the Holiday Inn City Line in Philadelphia, 18–20 November. Organized on a couple of months' notice, it draws about 230 fans from across North America and creates a demand for an annual furry convention for eastern North America January 1995: An Anthropomorphic Bibliography, by Fred Patten in Los Angeles, is published by Yarf! as the first bibliographic compilation of general literature and SF genré novels featuring anthropomorphized animals. Its unexpected popularity leads to an expanded second edition in August 1996, and a third edition [cover] in January 2000. April 1995: Paul Kidd's Mus of Kerbridge, by a popular furry fan, is considered by furry fans as a novel by "one of us" and proof that furry-authored fiction can sell to the mainstream fantasy market. May 1995: UK Fur CON 2 is held 26–30 May, organized by Ian Stradling at his home in Bristol. About twenty show up to his house party, including a fan from Germany.?Videos shown include the British premiere of Eric Schwartz's furry animation. June 1995: EuroFurence 1 is held 30 June–3 July; organized over the Internet by Gerritt Heitsch and Tobias Köhler as a house party at Heitsch's parents' vacation farm in Kaiser Wilhelm Koog (near Hamburg), Germany. Nineteen attend from Northern Europe and Britain. Activities include watching furry videos and drawing in each others' sketchbooks. July 1995: South Fur Lands is started by Jason Gaffney in Brisbane as the first major Australasian furry fanzine. It is continued from issue 20, March 2001, by Bernard Doove in Melbourne (to issue 57, December 2011). September 1995: Ian Curtis hosts a "British Furry Convention" (Furry Housecon 8) at his home in Yateley 1–4 September, so British fans can meet American fans visiting England after the 1995 World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow the previous week. About twenty American and British fans gather to party and to take the American fans on a furry tour of London and Oxford. September 1995: Newspaper cartoonist Bill Holbrook's Kevin & Kell, about a rabbit's and wolf's controversial predator-prey mixed marriage in the city of Domain in a totally anthropomorphized world, begins on 3 September as the Internet's first original daily comic strip. The success of Kevin & Kell leads to hundreds of daily, semi-weekly, weekly, monthly, and sporadic original online comic strips today (current). October 1995: Furtasticon evolves into ConFurence East, held at the Holiday Inn Jetport in Elizabeth, New Jersey, 13–15 October. It is organized by Trish Ny and her family. Guests of Honor are Vicky Wyman, S. Andrew Swann, and E.L.V.I.S. Convention Services. Attendance is 449. The program more resembles a traditional SF convention format with many panels than the more informal ConFurence. The art show includes 795 pieces of art; sales are near $11,000. An official charity is heavily promoted: Wolf Park nature study preserve at Battle Ground, Indiana. The Sci-Fi Channel covers the convention. January 1996: ConFurence VII, 12–14 January, spills over into both Irvine, California's Airporter Garden (renamed Atrium Marquis) Hotel and the next-door Radisson Plaza Hotel, with a membership of 999 and attendance of 875. Many fans arrive on the eleventh to make it an informal four-day convention. The convention awards its first Golden Sydney Award (statuette by Ruben Avila), "to a person in'mainstream' media or publishing who has helped to create a more 'furry friendly' atmosphere for anthropomorphic material and fandom"; the first recipient is Disney animation writer-director Jymn Magon (TaleSpin, A Goofy Movie, et cetera). Art Show sales reach almost $30,000. There is general agreement that, as popular as the Airporter Hotel has been, ConFurence needs a larger venue. January 1996: Mike and Carole Curtis in Conway, Arkansas turn their Shanda Fantasy Arts small-press art folios into a full comic-book imprint with the Giant Shanda Animal (annual) at ConFurence VII. The imprint becomes a regular anthropomorphic comic publisher starting with the release of Katmandu: Velites and Hoplites and New Horizons issue one at ConFurence East 1996 in November. April 1996: Quarantine (9 Kitching Street, Chapel Hill [Brisbane], Queensland), is started by Chris Baird, Jason Gaffney, Marko Laine, and Simon Raboczi as the first Australian furry commune. It is the publication office of South Fur Lands (edited by Gaffney), and the Net center for OzFurry (moderated by Baird). May 1996: Darrell Benvenuto launches Vision Comics as a major specialty furry comics line, with four bimonthly titles — Kjartan Arnörsson's Savage Funnies, Mark Shaw's The Hollow Earth (both new), Carole Curtis' Katmandu, and Mike Curtis' Shanda the Panda (both from Antarctic Press) — and announced plans for others. June 1996: UK Fur CON 3 is held 14–16 June, organized by Kevin Charlesworth as a party at his student house in Coventry. About fifteen attend. The main events are games of laserquest and soccer. July 1996: EuroFurence 2 is held 18–22 July in Linköping, Sweden, organized by Snout (Henrik Isacsson) in a rented school building. About thirty fans from Sweden, Finland, Britain, and Germany attend, mostly Internet Eurofurries meeting in person. There are furry hall costumes, a martial arts demonstration, sketching, and a zoo trip. Chama (Thomas Hagenfeldt) premieres a EuroFurence Hymn. Labor Day weekend 1996: At the L.A.con III World Science Fiction Convention in Anaheim, south of Los Angeles (August 29–Sept. 2), a Furry Fandom Lounge operated by the ConFurence committee becomes essentially a five-day furry convention within the Worldcon. Its panels, demonstrations, and evening furry parties are integrated into and publicized within the general Worldcon program schedule. A glass-showcased History of Furry Fandom exhibit assembled by David Bliss is included among the Worldcon's exhibitions. A general SF trivia quiz includes a block of "Fins, Feathers, and Furry" questions. October 1996: The New York Times Magazine, 27 October, has a brief article (pg. 25) about "a growing subculture of furry-suit hobbyists who don pelts, whiskers and tails year-round. They hold conventions — 'conFURences' — and use the Internet to swap stories about the fun of role-playing as otters, foxes, and beavers." November 1996: ConFurence East 1996, 15–17 November, moves to the Holiday Inn Independence in Cleveland, Ohio. Guests of Honor are Susan Van Camp, Paul Kidd, White Wolf Game Studios, and White Wolf artist Andrew Bates. Attendance is estimated at around five hundred. The dealers' room of fifty tables is sold out. The art show has fewer entries (596 pieces), but greater sales ($12,400). Many attendees carpool to a local theater for the premiere of Warner Bros.' Space Jam that weekend. Trish Ny announces that this hotel will remain the convention's venue for the next several years, and that the convention's name will change to MoreFurCon to avoid confusion with the established ConFurence. A third annual furry convention, Albany Anthrocon, to be held in Albany, New York over the Fourth of July weekend starting in 1997, is announced.Johannesburg - Demand for cryptocurrency Bitcoin has soared in the last week with prices surging just over 20% on South African linked exchange BitX. The price of a Bitcoin on BitX has risen from R7 443 at 14:00 on May 26 to R8 998 at 10:00 on Thursday June 2. South African founded but Singapore headquartered BitX offers a Bitcoin wallet service that allows users to buy and sell Bitcoins. BitX also operates exchanges for the cryptocurrency in several countries that include South Africa, Malaysia, Singapore, Nigeria and Indonesia. Business development lead at BitX, Werner van Rooyen, explained to Fin24 this week that Bitcoin - like any other product, currency or commodity - is driven by demand and supply. “On the demand side, there has been a large increase in Bitcoin transactions on the Chinese yuan denominated (CNY) Bitcoin exchanges over the past few days, which has played a role in pushing up the price there,” said van Rooyen “When the price increases enough on one exchange, it soon starts pushing the price up on other exchanges around the world as people start to arbitrage, including South Africa,” said van Rooyen. BitX’s van Rooyen further outlined two other trends affecting Bitcoin prices over the past few weeks. The first centres on Bitcoin’s blockchain technology - the cryptocurrency’s public ledger which confirms and shares batches of transactions. Bitcoin prices have been steadily rising on the BitX exchange. (Gareth van Zyl, Fin24) “Some financial institutions are starting to realise that the application of ‘blockchain technology’ is quite limited, so they are starting to look into Bitcoin again,” van Rooyen told Fin24. Van Rooyen also pointed to “more demand from investment institutions and private wealth managers wanting to buy and hold Bitcoin as part of their portfolio or for their clients.” “Generally speaking, cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies are becoming more mainstream and better understood. Not just by banks and governments but increasingly by investors, businesses and consumers,” said van Rooyen. Bitcoin halving event Another key supply factor affecting Bitcoin's price is what is called the ‘halving’ event, said van Rooyen. Computers on the cryptocurrency’s network that process transactions are ‘rewarded’ for doing so in a process dubbed Bitcoin mining. At present, 25 Bitcoins get released for every group of processed transactions known as blocks but this process is set to be halved in July. This is a process that has been built into Bitcoin to control the likes of inflation and devaluation effects on the currency. Bitcoin is only designed to have a maximum of 21 million units, meaning that it is similar to limited supply commodities like gold. The next halving event then is set to be Bitcoin’s second such event since 2012. “This will limit the supply of Bitcoin being released into the network,” van Rooyen told Fin24. “Most people who buy Bitcoin today, believe that the price will be more tomorrow. This is often based not just on the many current advantages that Bitcoin holds, but its future potential as a global payment system or store of value too,” van Rooyen added. Meanwhile, van Rooyen could not disclose the exact user numbers for BitX but he said that the platform is performing “really well across all metrics” since its launch in 2013. In July last year, Cape Town headquartered internet and media giant Naspers [JSE:NPN] initiated a $4m funding round for BitX. “We’re active in South Africa, Nigeria, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, with more countries launching soon,” said van Rooyen. Fin24 is part of Media24 which is owned by Naspers.Despite clear evidence supporting the effectiveness of cannabis at treating a variety of conditions, the plant has long been classified as a Schedule I drug by the US government, painting it as a substance with a high risk of abuse and no accepted medical use. Recently, however, the FDA submitted a recommendation to the DEA to review the plant’s current status, perhaps an indication that the federal government is considering a change to this outdated and erroneous classification. The catch: nobody except the FDA and DEA knows what that change would be and what information it will be based on. Perhaps this is a sign that the FDA and DEA are beginning to cave under the pressure of the general public, the majority of whom support legalization. Given the DEA’s horrible track record with cannabis and patients who use it, however, the secretive nature of this decision is concerning. When considering a change to a drug’s classification via the Controlled Substances Act, the government must take into account a thorough medical and scientific review. With the closed-door nature of the process, the general public will not know what new information is being considered and what the proposed new classification will be until after the decision has been made. In an interview with Marijuana.com, who first broke the story, Mike Liszewski of Americans for Safe Access said, “We hope the agencies will become more transparent and give medical marijuana patients the respect they deserve.” Photo Credit: NCinDC EndWhile the hack of Hillary Clinton's private email account posted earlier this year on WikiLeaks didn't serve up a lot of Hollywood dish — save for effusive emails from Harvey Weinstein when she was secretary of state and a 2011 email from "H" asking staff to put studio chief Alan Horn on her call sheet days after Warner Bros. ousted him — the same can't be said for the recent hack of 2016 Clinton presidential campaign chairman John Podesta. As soon he resigned as an Obama White House adviser in February 2015 to work for Clinton's not-yet-announced bid, a priority was to court Hollywood, including Jeffrey Katzenberg (who backed Barack Obama in 2008's primaries), according to the database posted on WikiLeaks. Podesta likewise was courted by the town.Parliament has the power to keep Trudeau’s promise and legalize marijuana, but the provinces could bogart the process. Of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s campaign promises, legalizing marijuana is unlikely to be an urgent priority. True, in the lead-up to last month’s election, Mr. Trudeau stated that a Liberal government would move to legalize and regulate marijuana “right away”. And, on March 15, 2015, he told a Vancouver radio station that his government would bring forward legalization legislation in the first session of the 42nd Parliament. Mr. Trudeau’s “mandate letters” (i.e., marching orders) to the Ministers of Justice, Health, and Public Safety each refer to “the legalization and regulation of marijuana”. He specifically instructs the Minister of Justice to “create a federal-provincial-territorial process”. In Canadian politics, nothing says “make haste” quite like “create a federal-provincial-territorial process”. Politics won’t work in pot’s favour. Members of Parliament will quickly find themselves preoccupied with other priorities, since most of their constituents won’t see legalized marijuana – as opposed to, say, improved roads and highways – as a tonic for their daily woes. (Some will, but those people shouldn’t be driving.) The trickier hurdle may be legal. Unlike many of the Liberals’ campaign commitments, the legalization and regulation of marijuana likely can’t be achieved without provincial acquiescence. Though the federal government has the power to decriminalize pot, the regulation of recreational cannabis will fall, at least in part, within provincial jurisdiction. For now, Mr. Trudeau has assigned the task of figuring out when and how to legalize and regulate marijuana to three members of his Cabinet. Here’s what their legal advisors might be telling them. ** Parliament has exclusive jurisdiction over criminal law and procedure: Constitution Act, 1867, s. 91(27). To be upheld as valid under the federal criminal law power, legislation must entail a prohibition backed by a penalty with a valid criminal law purpose: see Reference re Firearms Act (Can.), 2000 SCC 31, [2000] 1 S.C.R. 783 (“Firearms Reference”), at para. 27; Reference re Validity of s. 5 (a) Dairy Industry Act, [1949] S.C.R. 1, at pp. 49-50, per Rand J., aff’d (1950), [1951] A.C. 179 (P.C.) (“Margarine Reference”). The federal government unquestionably has the power to legalize
Regional RIs, so customers running other software like Microsoft’s Windows Server are still locked in. Customers who want to reserve dedicated capacity in a particular AWS Availability Zone won’t be able to take advantage of it, either. The move comes less than a week after Google announced its own competing version of capacity reservation in what seemed like a response to AWS's Reserved Instances. GCP Committed Use Discounts allow customers to get a discount if they commit to paying for a certain amount of CPU cores and RAM over the course of a one- or three-year contract. Google’s plan offers more flexibility than AWS’s, because customers aren’t restricted to a set menu of different instance shapes. However, AWS's cloud platform is the more popular one with customers at the moment. This story has been updated to add a new fifth paragraph, specifying that Amazon customers don’t have to take action themselves to apply the new pricing benefits to their instances.A Republican state senator in Oklahoma has introduced a bill banning aborted human fetuses in food, despite the fact that there are no known foods or food products that actually contain aborted fetuses. Sen. Ralph Shortey of Oklahoma City introduced on Tuesday Senate Bill 1418, which prohibits "the sale or manufacture of food or products which contain aborted human fetuses." He says he based the bill on an article he read online about an anti-abortion group boycotting companies that allegedly use embryonic stem cells to research and develop artificial sweeteners. “People are thinking that this has to do with fetuses being chopped up and put in our burritos,” Shortey told NewsOK. "“That's not the case. It's beyond that. “There are companies that are using embryonic stem cells to research and basically cause a chemical reaction to determine whether or not something tastes good or not,” he said. “As a pro-life advocate, it kind of disturbed me that we would use aborted embryos or aborted human fetuses to extract stem cells and use them for research to basically make things taste better.” PepsiCo did partner with food product development company Senomyx to develop a new low-calorie sweetener, but the company denied using fetal tissue in its research in an April 2011 email to Children of God for Life. "Unfortunately, there is some misinformation being circulated related to research techniques that have been used for decades by universities, hospitals, government agencies, and private companies around the world. These claims are meant to suggest that human fetal tissue is somehow used in our research," wrote Margaret Corsi, a spokesperson for PepsiCo. "That is both inaccurate and something we would never do or even consider. It also is inaccurate to suggest that tissue or cells somehow are being used as product ingredients. That’s dangerous, unethical and against the law. Every ingredient in every one of our products is reviewed and approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration." Neither Senomyx nor PepsiCo responded to The Huffington Post's requests for comment. The FDA confirmed on Tuesday that it is "not aware of this particular concern." Even if Senomyx did use aborted fetal cells in its taste testing process, Shortey's bill does not address that particular practice. It addresses the issue of aborted fetuses in food, which is a problem that does not exist. As it stands, the bill has no cosponsors, and Oklahoma Senate President Brian Bingman (R) does not seem to be taking it very seriously.In 1975, when host George Carlin took the stage for the very first episode of Saturday Night Live, he walked out onto actual bricks that had been laid just hours before by production designer Eugene Lee. Creator Lorne Michaels wanted to surround himself with fresh talent who would give his new sketch show a unique vibe: “just a bunch of hippies,” Lee lovingly recalled to Vanity Fair over the phone. And Lee, straight from the theater world, shocked and appalled the veteran TV crew hanging around the now-legendary Studio 8H by opting for that actual brick and real wood. “They said it was going to only have six shows. I guess they got it wrong,” Lee chuckles. More than 40 years, three Tony awards, 11 Emmy nominations, and a win later, Lee—one of the few surviving original crew members to still work on the show—is having the last laugh. Lee still commutes into New York City for Saturday Night Live from his home and workshop in Providence, Rhode Island every Wednesday. Lee—who has no permanent New York address—sleeps at the Yale Club during the week but, at the age of 77, no longer hangs around to watch the show live and has a driver whisk him home after the Saturday dress rehearsal. “I work really hard for an old guy!” he says. Lee and Michaels recently retired their tradition of occasionally getting the original crew members back together. “We don't do it anymore,” Lee says sadly. “Last year, we didn’t do it because there were so few of us it’s not worth talking about. The stage managers, they are all either gone or dead. Don Pardo died a few years ago. There is hardly any of us. There is one cameraman that claims he was around for the first show, but I’m always suspicious. We have a lighting designer, Phil Hymes, he’s probably the oldest living lighting designer—but he wasn’t around for the first show. There are so few of us now. Maybe it’s time for us all to be put out to pasture.” But as long as Michaels wants to do the show—and Lee has some ideas about how long that might be—Saturday Night Live’s original production designer plans to be by his side. And while Lee has taken something of a step back from managing every facet of production (he leaves that to his “overqualified” team), he’s still very much in the inner circle. It’s Lee whom Saturday Night Live alums Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers called to design their own sets when they launched their tenures as late-night hosts. And it’s also Lee who was able to tantalizingly hint at a secret new endeavor Michaels has up his sleeve. “I’m not supposed to talk about it,” Lee said nervously, “But Lorne and I have a little—it’s more him than me—a little project we are working on that is really insane. I can’t talk about it. It’s a little like Wicked,” Lee explained referencing his Tony award-winning work on the long-running Broadway musical. “Nobody thought Wicked was going to happen either. It got mixed reviews. How many years now?” Again, Lee has the last laugh. But while Lee may not be spilling the beans on what he and Michaels have planned for the future, he is happy to reflect on the past. Here are some (literal) behind-the-scenes secrets from his 40 plus years on Saturday Night Live. Sometimes they send the wrong llama. Die-hard Saturday Night Live fans will tell you that there’s a long-running visual gag whenever the action of the show goes backstage. “I don’t know if you ever noticed,” Lee said. “When we shoot in the hallway, we go outside the studio. We always have, 99% of the time in the background, Abe Lincoln, a chorus girl—like Radio City—and a llama. We always have that.” The show actually didn’t always have it—the 80s and 90s were pretty llama-, showgirl-, and Lincoln-free—but since Seth Meyers started his writing tenure in 2001, the gag has been pretty frequent. Some credit an early appearance of a llama, a showgirl, and Abe Lincoln in the background of a pair of early Eric Idle-hosted episodes as the source of the joke... ... but according to Lee, “We don’t know why we do it anymore. We get a script [set] in the hallway, so we call the prop department and say, ‘Order up a llama.’ Sometimes it’s the wrong llama—it has the wrong color. We send it back.” The sets may be fake, but the cars are real. Most of the sets on Saturday Night Live—even ones you expect would be handy to keep around—get destroyed after every use. “Keep it?” Lee said incredulously, when asked about recycling sets. “That’s bound to be sitting in a warehouse costing money storing it.” There are a few exceptions, like the Oval Office—but, for the most part, every set on S.N.L. has the life cycle of only a few days. But while the sets may be disposable, Lee’s department doesn’t mess around when it comes to automobiles. “We do things in a way that would never be done in California. When we need a car, we go get a real car. We actually go looking in Brooklyn or someplace,” Lee explains. “You see some kid with a car and we say, ‘We like your car. Is it for sale? It’s going to be on Saturday Night. You’ll like it.’ We buy the car. We take it to the junk shop. They take the engine out. Anything that they can to make it lighter. Then they cut it into two pieces, because that’s the only way it will fit in the elevators. The studio, 8H, that we use, [Arturo] Toscanini used it—but it was all radio studios, so the elevators are small. All the scenery has to come in in small pieces and be put back together. It’s a miracle actually. The same with the car. A car just fits by sometimes half an inch. They call from the loading dock, ‘The car is not fitting.’ You go down and you say, ‘You got to make it fit. Shift something.’ It’s a very strange show to do. It really is.” Don’t believe everything you hear on the tour. Lee is full of Saturday Night Live stories, but he’s always wary of the legends that have grown up around the show. Take, for example, the seats in the Studio 8H audience. “We were very short on time,” he said recalling those early, brick-laying days of building the Saturday Night Live set. “And they were changing the seats at Yankee Stadium. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in the studio in the daytime, taking a measurement of something, and the tour comes through. A page talks to these people that have paid money to be backstage. Things are just made up. I’m tempted at times to say, ‘Stop, it wasn’t that way at all, guys. We made all this up. This is a myth.’ They say things like, ‘Lorne went to [then-Yankees owner George] Steinbrenner and he donated some seats from Yankee Stadium.’ No, that wasn’t true. The only reason that the seats are there is because it was the only thing we could get fast.” Release the cow (not to be confused with cowbell). “I may be a little bit old-fashioned; I’m a little sentimental,” Lee admits, thinking back to the earlier, scrappier days of Saturday Night Live. “We used to have a stuffed animal—it might’ve been a cow or something. It had spots on it, black and white spots. They used to hang up in the grid, and when a sketch wasn’t working, this thing would just fall to the deck. Release the animal. It just falls down. There is no explanation for it. It’s like the llama in the hallway. It’s just great.” Lee says it’s the writers, not Lorne, who used to make the cow call. “The writers are king.” The End. According to Lee, there are a few signs that signal Lorne Michaels may be getting ready to hang up his hat. “He’s been quoted as saying that his plan is to stay with it as long as possible. Whatever that means,” Lee says. But he points out that Saturday Night Live’s ever-changing home base—the show’s name for the set where the host gives the opening monologue—hasn’t changed since 2003. “It’s been around longer than any of the other home bases. It’s become kind of generic. I think it’s going to stay until the end. That’s what I think. I just sense that. It’s the boss who has to tell me if he wants a new one.” But as he talks about it, Lee—the man who defied convention to lay down bricks at the show’s home base back in 1975—can’t help but get ideas. “Maybe when we get to 50 years, what you think? Maybe eight years away. 50 years. Maybe we should change it then. I’m getting excited about it. That might be a good idea.” The prospect of giving the show a facelift makes Lee more excited than he has been during our entire conversation. There’s a sense that, after 40 years, Saturday Night Live—once a fly-by-night, edgy comedy experiment—has become predictable routine. Still, every once in awhile, there’s an emergency that injects Lee with a sense of that old adventure. For example, if someone asks for a last-minute color change, Lee says they “get out the paint“ and “the big fans to dry the paint faster because the audience is actually loading in... If it wasn’t live, we would just shoot ourselves.” Get Vanity Fair’s HWD Newsletter Sign up for essential industry and award news from Hollywood. E-mail Address SubscribeThe commercial whitewater-rafting season in the New River Gorge kicked off with high water and high hopes in March, and though water levels have already dropped, officials say expectations for the season ahead remain high. Despite a sharp decline in water-based tourism following floods in June 2016, tourists are eager to return to the region and get back out on the river. “There is a lot of interest in tourism in the area this year,” said Tabitha Stover, activity and event manager for the Fayetteville Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. “I have already had an increase in calls with the warmer weather from people who want to come check out the area.” While Fayetteville and whitewater rafting areas were not physically hit hard by the June 23 flood, the devastation presented on national news networks caused a major hit to local tourism. “I think this year will be much better for tourism in the area,” Stover said. “The communities that were affected are rebuilding, and I think people realize one of the best ways to help is by visiting our state.” For rafting companies, it can be tough to predict the season ahead this early in the spring, said Dave Arnold, senior vice president of public relations for Adventures on the Gorge. But, “under hopeful thinking,” he said he expects it to be a very good year. “Predicting the future is a very dangerous thing. We work with mother nature, so things can turn on a dime — a perfect example was last year,” he said. “When the flood hit, that day we were 10 percent up in reservations; a week later, we were 10 percent down, so we saw a 20-percent swing in reservations in one week — that is unheard of.” However, Arnold doesn’t expect anyone to be dissuaded from returning to Fayetteville this summer, and in preparation for the season ahead, the company opened new lodging units, reinvented one of its restaurants, and added electric-assisted bikes to the many activities the adventure-resort offers. Skip Heater, owner and operator of New & Gauley River Adventures, also said this year is tracking to be a great year for rafting on the New River. “Last year, 2016, was one of our best years ever, and from where we were at this same point last year we are way ahead of where we were last year,” Heater said. “So barring any natural disasters, wars or whatever, we are looking to have a really good year.” Heater attributes the growth of his company to its small, personalized nature and specific focus. “We specialize in rafting. We have not tried to deviate into the rock climbing, the mountain biking, the zip lining, and be very diversified,” he said. “We do one thing, and we do it very well.” Several events taking place in West Virginia this summer are expected to draw in even more tourists to the area, Stover said. A three-part Spartan Race and the National Scout Jamboree will both be held at the nearby Summit Bechtel Reserve National Scout Camp. Adventures on the Gorge has been contracted to take the members of the National Scout Jamboree rafting, and Arnold says he expects to take more than 5,000 scouts down the river during the event. The Spartan Race is expected to draw up to 18,000 people and is sure to provide additional tourism action in the region. “Everybody feels really good about this year,” Arnold said. “All the stars are lined up.”I miss Ctrl-S and the habit, the twitch, the protection, the distraction, the responsibility, and the imperative that saving my work has been for me every few moments since I started writing on computers 40 years ago. How often have all we learned — the hard way — the price of not hitting the Save button (in the early days of what we called word-processing) or then Ctrl-S (in Microsoft’s Word era, now ending)? “Did you save your work?” the unsupportive support guy would scold whenever the machine would lose everything I’d been working on since last hitting those comfort keys. The loss was never the computer’s fault. One was supposed to assume, oddly, that the machine was the fallible one in this relationship — it was destined to crash sometime; you simply didn’t know when — and it was the human’s job to cover for the computer, saving one’s work to save its ass. Today I live entirely in the cloud and the tools I use to write most of the time — Google Docs and Medium, too — do the saving for me, automatically. “All changes saved,” Google informs me. “Saved,” Medium says. These are like benedictions assuring me of God’s grace and salvation from weakness and sin. Godle loves me. Since I don’t need Ctrl-S anymore, I can now appreciate how much it had become a part of my ritual of writing and even of thinking. I used to hit Ctrl-S not just as data insurance — hell, I’d often hit it after having not made a single change in my text since the last time I’d hit it. I hit Ctrl-S as a break, a psychic, semiotic semicolon. It gave me a moment to search for the right word, to plan the structure of where I would go next, to commit to what I’d written, or to wonder whether I had the courage to erase what I’d written and try again. Library of Congress photo When I started in the business of writing — or what we now call making content — back in the ’70s for Chicago Today, a newspaper that had no tomorrow, then the Chicago Tribune, I was a rewriteman (the job and title both disappeared long before gender sensitivity would have had the opportunity to update it to rewriteperson, rewriter, rewriteist, or live-blogger). Writing on deadline, we’d type on half-length pieces of paper with many carbon copies for our many editors, turning out one paragraph at a time and then yelling “COPY!” (oh, how I loved that), so our words could be edited and then wooshed away by pneumatic tube to be turned into lead, line by line on the Linotype, ready to compose in a page (so many quaint media relics in that sentence). There was no going back. The rewriteman had just a second to pause to consider his next move, for that smash of the key would be his last chance to commit to that sentence before it was gone. We wrote in inverted pyramids — a form we still teach in journalism school today, a useful device for structuring and prioritizing the information in an article, but one that is being unbundled by the link online. In truth, we wrote this way so the bottoms of our stories could be lopped off on the composing room floor and still make sense. That’s why old newspaper stories could not have punchlines or wrap up with neat returns to a theme set in the lede [sic]. That’s why newspaper stories never ended, they just faded away. Boston Public Library image of Boston Globe composing room I remember working rewrite on the story of an Indiana prison break on the Tribune night shift. I called over to the news editor, Ralph Hallenstein, who was known for smoking so many cigarettes that the midnight shift held pools betting on how many butts they’d find in his ashtray. “Ralph,” I asked, “how long do you want it?” Dear Ralph took a long drag on his cigarette — this was his means of taking a moment to pause and consider, his Ctrl-S, though it didn’t save him, it ended up killing him — and he croaked back: “Find the nearest period.” When computers were turned on in our newsroom in 1974 (as a threat to bust a possible strike by the now-long-gone International Typographical Union, as it turned out), I was working the midnight shift, waiting for someone to die a horrible death so I could write stories slugged SLASH, CRASH, SLAY, or BURN. I started playing with what were then called VDTs, or video display terminals, learning such arcane concepts as the cursor and scrolling and saving. By the time they were put into use, I was the kid in the newsroom who wasn’t scared of them. Thus, I was marked a geek for life. So addicted was I to writing on computers that I bought my own in 1981 — my Osborne 1. Computers changed the way I wrote. Trained as a rewriteman, I’d rush through writing a story as quickly as possible to get the structure in place and include every fact I had so I’d have the comfort of knowing I had a complete article. Then I would use every available second to edit. I came to write by editing. I still do that. I like to get a draft done and then go back and reconsider word choices, no need for WiteOut. I take the luxury of cut-and-paste — without the scissors and glue pot of my formative years — to reconstruct a tale. I cram in another fact or quote. I trim and trim again — a discipline demanded by scarce paper now lost online. And I pause to think by saving. Or I used to. The medium isn’t so much the message as the tool is. Tools do affect creation on them. These days, my fellow blatherers about the future of news will argue that the CMS — the horribly named content management system — determines the fate of news organizations that use them. I disagree, for most news organizations produce what most other news organizations produce: paragraphs. But I will concede that each tool can have its own distinct impact on writing. When I started Entertainment Weekly, we were (thanks to my genius wife) the first major weekly to be produced entirely on Macs with QuarkXPress, which gave editors and even writers minute control over what type looked like — no more was text monotype on a typewriter roll or on a green screen; now, as in life, text had shape. The magic of kerning allowed us to make heds [sic] fit. Quark also made it possible to fit text to a page. When I wrote for TV Guide on its then-tiny pages, I could replace long phrases with more economical wording, kill widows and orphans, and cram and cram again until my beloved last line would fit. Welcome the punchline. Here on Medium, text has shape — its creators are positively anal about such typographical details as underscores and descenders — and the tool is simply elegant. That affects how I write; words here deserve more careful attention than in unaesthetic blog boxes. So I have all the more reason to pause and consider my choices. I need momentary distraction. But I have no Ctrl-S. Well, Ev giveth and Ev taketh away. Now, instead of Ctrl-S, I resort to his cocreation, Twitter. But Twitter has been terribly damaging to my writing — first because when I have something to say I can just tweet it instead of writing about it, and second because Twitter is no momentary distraction, it’s a rabbit hole. Now I do my best writing away from that distraction — on long flights, never turning on the wifi. On those flights, working on Google Docs offline on my Chromebook, my thumb and middle finger twitch over the Ctrl and and S but Google beats me to it. Now if only Google could anticipate my mistakes and fix them before I make them, eliminating the need for Ctrl-Z.Is it dangerous? Is it distracting? Is it easy to use? What is it like? So I'll try to eliminate some of the things people aren't aware of who have heard of Glass but know nothing about it.1. It's not in your line of sight, it's slightly above it2. It's not always on3. What you're focusing on is not two inches away from your face. It's at a distance of a few feet.With this said, I've had my share of experience driving with it and don't think it's very distracting if at all.Something that I can compare it to is switching your focus from the road, to your rear-view mirror. That's probably the closest comparison I can think of to "unfocusing" off of the road. It might even be safer because your rear-view mirror you typically have to turn your head a bit. When you're driving with Glass its above your line of sight and to the right a little bit. You're still facing the road and can still see what's going on beyond what you're focusing on at Glass.It's as dangerous as anything you could likely mess with in the car. Whether it be the radio or looking at a rear view mirror. On the scale of things though, I would say it's less dangerous than most things. Safer than using a GPS on a car mount and glancing at that.No it's not distracting, it's not on all the time. Once you're used to wearing Glass for a while you can honestly forget it's on your head sometimes. Obviously for someone who puts it on the first time and has their bold opinion on the fact that it's immediately distracting is a bit irrelevant to someone who has been wearing it for more than a few weeks.When using navigation because it's something that would be the best scenario usage besides the bluetooth headset case; they've implemented it extremely well. Having navigation on, you can see a map of your car and the road in front of you. An extremely Holo esque design (i.e. black and blue colors) and the same arrow as in the Android Navigation app. The thing that's great is like I said, it's not on all the time. The app will ding through the speaker behind your right ear that you have a turn coming up and will notify you when you get up to 0.5 miles away from that turn (not official lengths that are programmed but are what I've noticed). It's extremely simplistic and notifies you in a very easy manner without distracting you. You can however activate your device and reference what the next turn is or what the map looks like. It's not like you can only know when it tells you.In terms of driving, yes. Especially when you need to make a phone call. If your Glass device is correctly connected to your Android phone all you need to do is either:1. Tap the side of the deviceor2. Tilt you head up slightly if you have the angle feature turned on.Once the device is on you can easily say: "Okay Glass" -> "Make a Call to" -> "Hugo Barra" and it'll call all while not glancing down at your phone fumbling to look for a contact. The same pretty much goes for navigation. If you're looking to get directions whilst driving you follow the same procedure and then say: "Okay Glass" -> "Get directions to..." -> "Best Buy"Simplistic, easy to use, not very distracting. Much easier on someone who has been using it for atleast a little while.Here's a what is it like video by Google:We need to talk about M. Night Shyamalan. He's the director with a reputation for ridiculous unexpected twists. He brought us the line "I see dead people" in "The Sixth Sense" and made crop circles scary in "Signs." This past weekend the Shyamalan's latest film, "After Earth," a coming-of-age story set on a futuristic unpopulated Earth disappointed at theaters. The star power of Will Smith and his son Jaden came in third behind "Fast & the Furious" and magic movie "Now You See Me" with $27 million. It was expected to earn closer to $40 million, according to Variety, which is a decent take for a Shyamalan movie but very unimpressive for Smith. The movie cost an estimated $130 million to make. Not surprisingly, "After Earth" is getting bad reviews. If we take a look back, Shyamalan's movies have been getting steadily worse, as we have graphed below: m night shyamalan movie popularity rotten tomatoes More Kirsten Acuna / Business Insider Even as his movies get bad reviews, they fare pretty well in theaters. Note: It's been mentioned that we did not include 2010's "Devil" in our list. While the film does have a higher 52% rating on RT (still rotten), the movie was not directed by Shyamalan. We've included films solely directed by Shyamalan. "Devil" was directed by Drew and John Erick Dowdle. Shyamalan produced and wrote the storyline. More From Business InsiderManchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson says he is interested in Lille and Belgium playmaker Eden Hazard. The 21-year-old has been linked to a host of English clubs, including Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham. And Ferguson told French radio station RMC Sport: "I came to watch Lille play Lyon and followed Hazard of course, along with other players. "He is a very good player who has many qualities. He is particularly fast over the first 10 yards." Hazard became Ligue 1's youngest ever professional at the age of 16 and three months, and has scored 32 goals in 142 league games for Lille, including 16 in 33 matches this season. He made his international debut at the age of 17 and has scored once in 26 caps.Story highlights Housekeeper is accused of trying to steal a bag of frozen meatballs Estelle Casimir has pleaded not guilty Manager says Casimir tried to sneak the meatballs out, claiming the bag was garbage If convicted, she could face up to two years in jail and a $2,000 fine A housekeeper at the U.S. Military Academy could face up to two years in jail if convicted of trying to steal a bag of frozen meatballs. Estelle Casimir pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in White Plains, New York, this month, according to her attorney. "She is very upset," said Michael Ferraro. "We've pleaded not guilty, definitely." Casimir has been charged with stealing from the mess hall at the famed military academy in West Point, New York, on January 30. She faces two counts of misdemeanor crimes for stealing property and possessing stolen property. Each count carries a possible penalty of up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine. According to a signed affidavit, the operations manager on duty at West Point, spotted Casimir trying to hide a black bag with her hand and asked her what it was. "Nothing, it is garbage," Casimir reportedly replied. After some reluctance, Casimir revealed the bag of meatballs, the affidavit states. On the mess hall's menu that night: meatballs. "If it is garbage why didn't you throw it away near the pantry area, where they have a dumpster by the door?" the manager asked, according to the affidavit. Casimir claimed that she found the bag in a trash container and was going downstairs to throw it in another dumpster, the affidavit states. Pending the outcome of her case, Casimir has been suspended without pay by her employer, Watson Services, which provides food services at West Point, Ferraro said. Attempts to contact the military police at West Point, Watson Services and Casimir were unsuccessful. Ferraro said he'll be trying to reach an agreement with the assistant U.S. attorney. If he can't, Casimir is scheduled to be back in court on April 19. "Obviously nobody wants to go to jail," he said.Rumor alert everyone. Reddit’s member ‘AnonDN1978‘ – who claims to be a former Rockstar dev – has leaked new information about the rumored sequel to Red Dead Redemption. Before continuing, we strongly suggest taking everything you are about to read with a grain of salt as it has not been confirmed whether this user is indeed a former R dev. As AnonDN1978 claimed, the sequel to Red Dead Redemption will be called Red Dead Redemption 2: Legends of the West, will be a prequel to RDR, will be coming to current-gen platforms, and the PC version will arrive one month after the console release. AnonDN1978 said that the game will take place in the same area as the original game, twelve years before the first original game, and that there will be three playable characters, two of which are from the original game and one will be completely new. “The two “main” characters are Irish and Seth. Irish will be brought up in Ireland and will move to the Americas when he is fifteen and moves to the game setting when he turns twenty one. Seth is from Kansas City and works as a teller in a bank. He then hears of a treasure and uses his life savings to bring his family to Texas in the town of Tumbleweed. Throughout the story we experience him unraveling to his state of mind in the original game, losing his wife, children, home, and possessions to his treasure. The third person is a character you create similar to multiplayer in GTA V. You choose his clothes and horse. Although you can unlock outfits for Seth and Irish, the third person (Who you name) can acquire all different kinds of Western tops, bottoms, boots, gloves, and hats. Horses will also bring completely new customization to the game. You can choose there type/breed like the last game, but now you can also choose what saddle they have (with their own boosts and stats), storage, and paint. You can also buy your own safe house and customize it. Also, all of this carries over into multiplayer. There will be many new and more thought out stranger missions as well as roughly thirty campaign missions for both Seth and Irish. The third character can be involved in the campaign, but can not be used in missions. He will appear as a “gun for hire” and works with Seth and Irish, tying the stories together. “You” (the third character) will be in free roam, but Irish and Seth can be called in as companions (but not be played as), as well as other people. You will meet many of the characters from the original game including young Bonny Macfarlane, Sherriff, and even John Marston, but he will still be in his gang. A big new part of the RDR prequel is the new gang system. You can join several different gangs, or if you think you are up for it you can join the law enforcement of certain towns, but this will restrict you on things you can do like robbing. Although you can rob it might cost you your hard earned career and possibly your life. You can also bring in a posse (up to 4-8 friends) to single player, technically co op now. You can take on certain side missions and a few campaign missions with your posse.” As said, take everything you just read with a grain of salt. AnonDN1978 also said that Bully 2 is also rumored at Rockstar’s office to happen, however he doesn’t have any solid info on that. Rockstar has not confirmed whether RDR 2 is currently under development. However, AnonDN1978 claimed that the game has been in development for the last three and a half years. As we’ve already said – and we’ll repeat once again – take what you read with a grain of salt. Rockstar has never announced a game at E3, so this could be bogus! UPDATE: This rumor is likely false. Reddit’s member ‘AnonDN1978‘ – in order to attract more attention – shared this supposedly leaked information in another sub-reddit using a different title. While AnonDN1978 used “Red Dead Redemption 2 LEAK” for the title of his thread in r/leakthreads, he changed it and used “Red Dead 3 LEAK” for his thread in r/gaming. This change came after a debate with some of Reddit’s members in r/leakthreads. Therefore, we’re calling this entire ‘leak’ fake.The components of Quorum’s stack are each the best in their respective categories. PostgreSQL is the most powerful and mature SQL database, Django’s ORM is elegant and friendly, and React is the poster child for cutting-edge Javascript. Choosing these unrelated technologies has proven to be the correct decision time and time again, but making them play well together has occasionally been tricky. Using different languages on the client and server has prevented Quorum from becoming an “isomorphic” application, in which the same code executes on both. However, isomorphism has been the inspiration for many of Quorum’s most creative efforts to connect the pieces of our stack, including cross-language surfaces, an abstraction of REST, and a publication system for Django. typedef Enum One problem that shows up frequently in large programming projects is how to most effectively enumerate a discrete set of options. This is particularly important for Quorum, whose database contains hundreds of thousands of people, millions of bills, and nearly a hundred million documents. For each of these there are many things we may want to enumerate, such as the type of media a document contains, the status of a bill, or the gender of a Member of Congress (while Quorum supports all identities, Postgres does not yet understand gender fluidity). Consider trying to model the political party a member of congress represents. Without the ability to enumerate, one might solve the problem like this: Under the hood, Django would create three columns in the Member table, and for each row one would be true while the other two are false. This would work, but is not scalable. For each enumerable property you would need n boolean fields for n possible options. Suppose that instead of people we are modeling documents. If Quorum scrapes 100 types of documents we have to add 100 boolean fields to keep track, which is 100 additional columns in our table of 100 million rows. That amounts to 10 billion cells, which, even for single-bit booleans, adds 1.25GB to our AWS spend for a single property, of which we track hundreds. We would have gone bankrupt within a
bubble app, but this is on the startup’s immediate roadmap, which, once rolled out, would pit it more against something like Rocket Internet’s NestPick.SAN FRANCISCO — Bob Foreman’s architecture firm ran up a $166,000 phone bill in a single weekend last March. But neither Mr. Foreman nor anyone else at his seven-person company was in the office at the time. “I thought: ‘This is crazy. It must be a mistake,’ ” Mr. Foreman said. It wasn’t. Hackers had broken into the phone network of the company, Foreman Seeley Fountain Architecture, and routed $166,000 worth of calls from the firm to premium-rate telephone numbers in Gambia, Somalia and the Maldives. It would have taken 34 years for the firm to run up those charges legitimately, based on its typical phone bill, according to a complaint it filed with the Federal Communications Commission. The firm, in Norcross, Ga., was the victim of an age-old fraud that has found new life now that most corporate phone lines run over the Internet. The swindle, which on the web is easier to pull off and more profitable, affects mostly small businesses and cost victims $4.73 billion globally last year. That is up nearly $1 billion from 2011, according to the Communications Fraud Control Association, an industry group financed by carriers and law-enforcement agencies to tackle communications fraud.An engineered material that can be injected into damaged spinal cords could help prevent scars and encourage damaged nerve fibers to grow. The liquid material, developed by Northwestern University materials science professor Samuel Stupp, contains molecules that self-assemble into nanofibers, which act as a scaffold on which nerve fibers grow. Nano fix: An electron-microscope image shows the matrix of cylindrical nanofibers that self-assemble from engineered biological molecules in a solution. Stupp and his colleagues described in a recent paper in the Journal of Neuroscience that treatment with the material restores function to the hind legs of paralyzed mice. Previously, researchers have restored function in the paralyzed hind legs of mice, but those experiments involved surgically implanting various types of material, while the new substance can simply be injected into the animals. The nanofibers break down into nutrients in three to eight weeks, says Stupp. Right now, there is no cure for the thousands of people who have injuries to the spinal cord, the bundle of long nerve fibers that connect the brain to the limbs and organs of the body. When it is damaged, nerve stem cells form a scar at the point of the injury, which blocks nerve fibers and keeps them from growing, says John Kessler, professor of stem cell biology at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine, who collaborated on the work with Stupp. Nerves can no longer carry signals to and from the brain, causing patients to lose sensation, digestion, and movement. “It is like cutting a telephone cable,” Kessler says. “We’re thinking of regrowing the nerve fibers and rewiring the cut.” Other researchers have tried to regenerate nerve fibers using various approaches. They have used natural materials such as collagen as well as synthetic biodegradable polymers to make scaffolds that support nerves, helping them to grow. Implanting these materials at the injury requires surgery. The new material is different because the researchers can inject it as a liquid directly into the spinal cord. Negatively charged molecules in the liquid start clumping together when they come in contact with positively charged particles such as calcium and sodium ions in the body. The molecules self-assemble into hollow, cylindrical nanofibers, which form a scaffold that can trap cells. On the surface of the nanofibers are biological molecules that inhibit scars and encourage nerve fibers to grow. “The idea of using self-assembling nanofibers that can be directly injected into the spinal cord is appealing,” says Harvard Medical School professor Yang Teng, who does neural stem cell research for spinal cord injuries. Nanofibers help nerves: Northwestern University researchers have designed molecules made of biological parts, such as amino acids and fats, that self-assemble into cylindrical nanofibers. The researchers inject a solution of the molecules into the injured spinal cords of mice, where the nanofibers promote the growth of nerve fibers. Stupp and his colleagues have found other uses for the self-assembling molecules in the past. They have designed molecules with slightly different chemistries that promote the growth of blood vessels and that align themselves to mimic bone structure. In a 2004 Science paper, the researchers reported that in a lab culture of brain cells, versions of the material encourage the cells to grow the nerve fibers that extend into the spinal cord. They also found that the material prevents cultured nerve stem cells from growing into scar tissue. The new work is the first test for the material to heal spinal cord injuries in animals. And Kessler says that it worked better than the researchers expected. The researchers stimulated a spinal cord injury in mice and injected the material 24 hours later. They found that the material reduced the size of scars and stimulated the growth of the nerve fibers through the scars. It promoted the growth of both types of nerve fibers that make up the spinal cord: motor fibers that carry signals from the brain to the limbs, and sensory fibers that carry sense signals to the brain. What is more, the material encouraged the nerve stem cells to mature into cells that create myelin–an insulating layer around nerve fibers that helps them to conduct signals more effectively. Nine weeks after the injections, the mice that had been treated showed improvements over untreated mice. The animals could support their body weight on their hind legs and lift their lower bodies. “Animals that couldn’t use hind legs at all now had improved ability to use their hind legs,” Kessler says. “It was certainly not a cure but quite a substantial improvement in function. They’re able to navigate around their cages.” Stupp has cofounded a Skokie, IL-based company called Nanotope, which is working on developing the self-assembling nanofiber therapy for human beings. The first step would be making a material that meets Food and Drug Administration standards and then testing it in clinical trials. So far, Kessler says, some basic tests of the material on human cell cultures have so far shown no apparent toxic effects.Used with permission from Erica Hogan Erica and Matt Hogan never intended to walk away with 600 acres of wild rainforest when they went shopping for a little piece of Costa Rica to call their own in 2006. They happened upon a slice of land that was marketed as a potential harvesting site (i.e.: prime for deforestation) and decided to save it from the chopping block. "[The land] felt really sacred from the get-go and we felt like this would be a travesty to let this be deforested," Erica told Business Insider. "It was bigger than what we were intending to purchase initially. And one night I just thought, well there are some really cool trees on that property. What if we built treehouses?" The idea became Finca Bellavista, an epic undertaking that's become a thriving treehouse village, where the locals bounce door-to-door on ziplines and dinner is grown in everyone's backyard. "It's a labor of love and it's more than just our business," she says. "It's our life."When the Internet first collectively laid its eyes on cats, it was love at first furball. Though the cat's popularity dates far beyond the computer's lifespan, the Internet has increased our love tenfold. Now, it seems like a newer, weirder, fluffier, derpier kitty is born for Internet glory every day. At this point, the cat GIF supply has enough energy to keep the world spinning. (Probably.) But where did it all start? How many cats can there really be? Are we truly this obsessed? To answer these questions plaguing our sleepless nights, we dug deep into the annals of the Internet and discovered where the web's feline fascination began. From Ceiling Cat to Princess Monster Truck — and every a-meow-zing cat in between — we've cited them below in chronological order with their initial origin. You're going to need a tall saucer of milk for this one. The Unofficial Hiss-tory of Cats on the Internet BONUS: How Not to Make Your Cat Internet Famous The solar industry won a key victory this week as California regulators extended the program that allows homeowners to sell solar-generated power back to utilities. Solar advocate said California regulators gave consumers a victory this week. Solar power advocates are hailing the California Public Utility Commission ruling to preserve net metering. Net metering allows rooftop solar owners to sell electricity to utilities and in many cases zero out their electric bills. Regulators will require utilities to buy power from existing solar owners for 20 years, so that homeowners and businesses. They say that allows owners to pay for the upfront capital investment in solar. Brad Heavner is a spokesman for the California Solar Energy Industries Association and he expects the fight to shift to how much that energy is worth. "Utilities want to give you a low price for the electricity that you put on the grid and make you pay full price for the electricity you take off the grid," Haevner said. "We don't think that's quite fair, but there will be a big discussion about that over the next year." California has more than 200,000 solar energy projects, more than any other state. There is enough solar capacity to generate 2,000 megawatts of electricity. To view PDF documents, Download Acrobat Reader.Udonis Haslem appeared at Heat camp today giving back to the community and joined WQAM to chat about it. He also touched on his buddy Dwyane Wade choosing to stay, who he was rooting for in the NBA Finals, and what it is about Pat Riley that attracts a specific group of women. Was Haslem rooting for ex-teammates like LeBron James during the NBA Finals? “I ain’t watch that, man,” Haslem said on the Kup and Crowder Show. “I might’ve watched one game. I know who wasn’t playing — I know it wasn’t us. “I wanted to see LeBron, JJ, Mike Miller, all of those dudes — I wouldn’t mind seeing those dudes get a ring, man. I tell people this all the time, I keep it 100. Those were some of the best teammates I ever had. I wouldn’t give a damn if they went and played for Afghanistan or whatever. I’m always rooting for them guys and always want them to do well except when they play against me. When they play against me I’m gonna try to tear their ass up and they know that.” Is Pat Riley as cool as he puts off? “Pat’s that cool, man,” Haslem said. “I had to beat a couple of my aunties and all that off Pat to try to keep them away and let them know Pat’s married. I don’t know what it is about Pat Riley and older black women but they love Pat Riley, they love them some Pat Riley, boy.” Follow WQAM on Twitter \| FacebookWorst Mario Game Ever In the 15 years between the time the U.S. Government introduced Cabbage Patch Kids to desensitize the public to the appearance of mutated children born in the aftermath of a nuclear war and the time the U.S. Government released the final arcade version of Super Battletoads as part of a series of ESP experiments trying to seek out precognition in children, there was a golden age of video games. I was born into that era. The first few years were governed by blocky graphics and beeps-and-boops for soundtracks. But, much like the mutated rabies virus that the U.S. Government will "accidentally" release ushering in the zombie apocalypse, video games were evolving at an exponential rate. My first exposure to video games occurred at Showbiz Pizza Place featuring the animatronic band, The Rock-afire Explosion, the robotic ancestors to the cybernetic androids that the U.S. Government will be forced to unleash in a futile attempt to control the zombie apocalypse. As a little kid, I never questioned why a robotic band would have to take breaks between songs. But, it's clear now that it was just to present the kids with opportunities to pump quarters into the arcade machines that filled the place. In fact, the arcade machines were rigged to only accept tokens. As soon as you fed a bill into the token machine, your money was already gone. To save on tokens, the arcades were coming home... in a very technically-inferior fashion. Unlikely the consoles that followed it, the Atari 2600 enhanced your imagination skills. No my friend, those are not blocky graphics at all. There is an entire universe in there. I was also fortunate enough to own an IBM PCjr. Released in 1984, the PCjr was marketed as a gaming PC featuring 2 joystick ports and 2 cartridge slots. It featured a 16-color extension of CGA and sufficient RAM for off-screen buffering, enabling full-screen flicker-free animation. It also supported 3-voice sound. Mr. Wizard actually demoed the ColorPaint cartridge seen running above on one of the episodes of his Nickelodeon show, mirrored optical mouse pad and all. Actually, come to think about it, I wonder if IBM paid Nickelodeon to do that. The genre of graphical adventure games that would dominate PC gaming for the successive decade began on the PCjr. When it came to computers, it was still very much a hobbyist-era. Magazines and books featured BASIC programs that you could type-in. They encouraged you to tinker, to be creative. As a little kid, the idea of creating my own video games was sufficient motivation to learn how to program. I had all the tools that I needed. "Cartridge BASIC"... Really? They couldn't think of a better name for it? In fact, I had access to another flavor of BASIC. Scroll back up for a moment and study the image of the Atari 2600. Notice it says, "VIDEO COMPUTER SYSTEM", above the cartridge slot. Atari was forced to release a version of BASIC for the 2600 because customers complained that they advertised the system as a computer and computers are programmable devices. Look at that box art. So that's what it's like to be a video game programmer! This "Special Edition" cartridge will thrust you into Stanley Kubrick's 2001 and beyond! But, like most Atari 2600 game boxes, the amazing artwork would not compensate for the crappiness within. Due to hardware limitations, the IDE restricted you to 9 lines of code and the language itself had only the slightest resemblance to BASIC. The cartridge came with special keypad controllers. Compare the arrows around the button at the bottom of the left keypad in the image below with the logo on the shirt of the man on the box art. That's about the extent that the box art has anything to do with the box contents. Okay. Programming for the Atari 2600 was out, but at least the box art was inspiring. Anyway, 2 years after the PCjr was released, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) hit store shelves. It was bundled with Super Mario Brothers, the game that would serve as the template for all side-scrolling platformers, defining the gaming landscape of at least 2 generations of consoles. Before the NES, arcade game designers thought of video games as digital extensions of carnival games or pinball machines. Duck Hunt, which was crammed into the same cartridge as Super Mario Brothers, was designed with that mentality. Compare it to the Seeburg Ray-O-Lite machine released in 1936. While a handful of side-scrolling platformers did exist prior to the introduction of the NES, the prevailing design mentality of the time was that game play occurred on a single static screen usually with a black background to improve contrast. The restriction was not necessarily because of technological limitations, but rather due to video game designers failing to fully recognize the significance of the very concept of the side-scrolling platformer. IBM did not have the foresight to introduce video hardware necessary to support side-scrolling.* Consequentially, for the next few years, even though PCs had far superior processors and memory, PC gaming evolved along the lines of slower paced graphically-rich adventures while the consoles owned video games. Nevertheless, as a little kid with my magazine-acquired BASIC programming skills, I still wanted to develop video games for my PCjr. My games wouldn't require the fancy graphics of the NES, which I couldn't draw and the PCjr couldn't support anyway. I would borrow ideas from the Atari 2600, which demonstrated that game play could be achieved with less. The PCjr supported 2 text modes. As you can imagine, the 40×25 mode displayed a very large monospaced font. In that mode, I combined ASCII characters 1 and 19 together to form this little armless guy: More inspired by Mega Man than Super Mario Brothers, my text mode video game even used asterisks for spikes, the deadly obstacles seen in the NES screen shot below. I didn't develop more than a few screens of that game. I wanted to do something more ambitious, something with actual graphics. I drew a screen consisting of a red stickman, some brown blocks and some green pipes representing Mario and his world. Below is a recreation resembling what I remember. The original BASIC source is long gone. I didn't know anything about physics or math for that matter. When my stickman jumped, he moved upward linearly for a specified distanced and then he reversed direction. He jumped in a saw-tooth pattern instead of a parabola. However, since he moved 1-pixel-at-a-time in any direction, collision detection between the stickman and the ground and pipes was easy. It checked the pixel color below each foot and to the left and right of the hands. If it wasn't black, then the stickman couldn't move there. Sadly, that's about as far as I got. Reality began to set in. I had no idea how to write a game engine. I had no idea even how to do the timing code. In fact, most PC games of the era got that wrong forcing PC manufacturers to include Turbo Buttons that enabled you to slow your machine down for older games. Luckily, my interest in programming never waned since I was a little kid typing in code from magazines. I often wondered, what could that Cartridge BASIC version of Super Mario Brothers have been had I actually had the knowledge to write a game engine back then. Was I crazy enough to fire up an IBM PCjr emulator to find out? Nope. I wanted to create something that people could play online that was in the spirit of my PCjr coding efforts. I don't know Flash and I predominately code in Java; so, Java it was. Several websites feature images of all the worlds stitched together from screen captures from NES emulators and I began this project by encoding them by hand into text files. Of course, it's possible to rip the maps directly out of the ROM file, but this way gave me a chance to make minor changes if necessary and it also gave me that long-lost feeling of typing in magazine source code. It occurred to me while doing this, that I don't think that I ever played through all the worlds. Super Mario Brothers doesn't offer you a continue option on the Game Over screen (Yeah. I know about the A+Start cheat on the Title Screen. I'm not sure if I knew that one as a little kid though.). In this way, there was little incentive to play through every world. Instead I would warp from 1-2 to 4-1, warp from 4-2 to 8-1, and then just play through to the end, missing most of the game. I added a continue option to my version. I also added a hard mode that replaces Goombas with Buzzy Beetles, shortens moving platforms, and removes the Warp Zones forcing you to play through all the worlds to beat the game. I was also surprised to rediscover that Super Mario Brothers doesn't have much of an ending aside from a few sentences of text. It doesn't even credit the developers. I decided to add a more interesting ending to my version. Java's write-once-run-anywhere motto fails when it comes to fonts. Fonts render differently on each system. A bitmap font would solve the problem, but I wanted to avoid bitmaps. So, I made a simple font based on the 16-segment displays on my microwave oven. My games doesn't feature sound or bitmaps or much of anything else. The default keys are: Move = Arrow Keys Run = D Jump = F Pause = P Start = Enter The keys are configurable if you prefer a different mapping. LAUNCH GAME Feel free to hack up the source code. 2010.08.14 Update 2010.08.21 Bug fixes: There are 3 pipes that you can enter in World 6-2 that take the player to a bonus area. Prior to this fix, if you entered the right-most of the 3, the game would freeze. The player has built-in block-alignment logic. If the player stands below a narrow opening that is exactly 1 block wide, he will need to be precisely aligned with the opening to jump into it. The block-alignment logic automatically moves the player slightly left or right when it detects such a situation. Also, the world only scrolls rightward and the player is never allowed to pass through the boundary defined by the left side of the screen. Prior to this fix, the block-alignment logic and the screen boundary could conflict causing the player to get stuck. This was originally detected on World 4-2. In the NES version, the player can exploit a bug in similar block-alignment logic that enables the player to climb. Close to the start of World 4-2, the player smashes out a column of blocks exposing the ceiling. Then, the player advances, scrolling the world until a channel slightly less than 1 block-width is formed against the right edge of the screen. The player then jumps into this channel. In the NES version, the block-alignment logic forced the player into the channel and then upwards 1 block. The player could then jump a few times, smashing blocks and gain access to the ceiling. However, due to the aforementioned bug, the player would get permanently stuck hanging there as if glued to the blocks above. After fixing the bug, the player will not get stuck; however, he cannot climb either. Meaning, you can't cheat in this version. Prior to this fix, when the player beat a castle as Luigi, the game thanked Mario instead. If the player maintains running speed, he can safely run over gaps 1 block wide. Prior to this fix, sometimes the player would fall through such gaps while running. This fix makes some worlds slightly easier. It adjusted Turtle Cannons to fire less frequently. I also clarified some of the discussion above and I fixed a few typos. * For those interested, even though PCs had superior processors and memory capacities years before the introduction of the NES, they still lacked the video hardware necessary to support side-scrolling games. Much like text mode on PCs, the NES took advantage of tile mapping indirection. Backgrounds were constructed out of 8×8 pixel-sized tiles and a 32×30 map of 1-byte tile identifiers, called a "name table", covered an entire screen. For scrolling, the displayed image was generated from a pair of name tables conceptually laid end-to-end. The read offset into the pair could be adjusted by simply modifying values of video registers and if you offset beyond the boundary of the pair, it would effectively wrap-around. The full level map was stored in memory elsewhere and it would be incrementally copied, either 1 column-of-tiles-identifiers-at-a-time for horizontal scrolling or 1 row-of-tiles-identifiers-at-a-time for vertical scrolling, into the hidden region of the name table pair as the read offset changed. Copying memory is the slowest part of the process, but due to the indirection, only 30 bytes per column needed to be copied as opposed to 1920 pixels worth of data.Various studies link poverty and depression. At the same time, a growing body of scientific research shows how biological factors also lead to symptoms of depression. Duke University researchers combined behavioral data with genetics and brain imaging to show how poverty can lead to biological changes — in this case, gene expression — in the brains of teenagers. The altered genetic expression influenced the teens’ cognitive development, which in turn led to depressive symptoms as they grew older. The researchers examined how chemical tags that influence expression of a gene, known as SLC6A4, changed over time. Essentially, every gene contains a set of instructions to code for specific proteins (or other cell products), yet the amount of protein a gene is able to make can be modified by other genes and other processes. Since proteins are the workhorses of a cell, the number and type of proteins made will impact cellular function and ultimately shape the organism itself. “We focused on SLC6A4, which encodes the serotonin transporter, because we already know a good deal about the importance of this gene and this molecule on stress-related amygdala function and behavior,” Dr. Ahmad Hariri, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke, told Medical Daily in an email. From Gene Expression to Depression Serotonin is a chemical that transmits signals in the brain; this neurotransmitter has been linked to mood disorders, including depression. The gene SLC6A4 helps control levels of serotonin throughout the brain, including within the amygdala, an almond-sized region commonly believed to be the source of primal emotions. In a previous study, Hariri and his colleagues demonstrated the amygdala becoming more active in the presence of threats; for instance, when study participants viewed aggressive-looking faces, their brain scans showed the amygdala “lighting up” in response. Building on this for the current study, Hamiri and his team focused on the process known as “methylation,” where chemical tags are attached to a stretch of DNA near the SLC6A4 gene. The more tags present, the less likely this gene will be active and the less control it will have over the flow of serotonin, a mood regulator, in the brain. For the study, then, Hariri and his colleagues looked at possible changes in these chemical tags in the brains of teens over time to understand how this might influence depression. A total of 132 non-Hispanic white teens participated in the study. They came from households ranging from low to high socioeconomic status, and about half had a family history of depression. At the start of the study, the teens were between 11 and 15 years old. In successive waves over the course of three years, the researchers collected information on the teens. Not only did the teens undergo brain scans but they also completed psychological assessments. What did Hariri and his team discover when they analyzed their results? Teens growing up in impoverished households accumulated, over the course of three years, greater quantities of the chemical tag on SLC6A4, the depression-linked gene. The tags altered genetic expression in such away that the more tags, the more each teen’s amygdala responded to aggressive faces (as seen during a brain scan). Importantly, teens with the most active amygdalas were more likely to report symptoms of depression as they grew older. Though this research is preliminary, the results demand further testing. According to lead author Johnna Swartz, the team is now searching for new markers of genetic changes, since an entire panel of markers would naturally lead to more accurate predictions of depression. “This is some of the first research demonstrating that low socioeconomic status can lead to changes in the way genes are expressed,” said Swartz. “And it maps this out through brain development to the future experience of depression symptoms.” Source: Swartz JR, Hariri AR, Williamson DE. An Epigenetic Mechanism Links Socioeconomic Status to Changes in Depression-Related Brain Function in High-Risk Adolescents. Molecular Psychiatry. 2016.White House adviser Kellyanne Conway Kellyanne Elizabeth ConwayJussie Smollett hoax unveils clear double standard for liberal media Trump gets Razzies for appearances in Dinesh D'Souza, Michael Moore films White House interns forced to sign non-disclosure agreements: report MORE on Thursday predicted a boom in the creation of small businesses once the Republican tax-overhaul bill goes into effect. “I think there are so many men and women in this country who are going to now start a small business, who are gong to say ‘I like what I see. The regulations are fewer. The tax code is simpler. The tax cuts are more robust, including for those pass-through companies,’ ” Conway said on “Fox & Friends.” ADVERTISEMENT The comments from Conway, who serves as counselor to President Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE, come following the House and Senate passage of the tax bill this week, giving the administration and congressional Republicans a major legislative victory. “It also includes a president who since he was elected has presided over a booming stock market, booming consumer confidence, small business formation,” Conway said of the tax bill. The White House has pushed the bill as an effort to provide tax relief to middle-class Americans, but Democrats have argued the bill favors the wealthy over the middle class. Trump will reportedly sign the bill into law on Jan. 3.William Bradford ( c. 19 March 1590 – May 9, 1657) was an English Puritan separatist originally from the West Riding of Yorkshire in Northern England. He moved to Leiden in Holland in order to escape persecution from King James I of England, and then emigrated to the Plymouth Colony on the Mayflower in 1620. He was a signatory to the Mayflower Compact and went on to serve as Governor of the Plymouth Colony intermittently for about 30 years between 1621 and 1657. His journal Of Plymouth Plantation covered the years from 1620 to 1657 in Plymouth.[4] Early life [ edit ] Manor House, Austerfield —birthplace of William Bradford William Bradford was born to Alice Briggs and William Bradford in Austerfield, West Riding of Yorkshire, and was baptized on March 19, 1589/90.[5] The family possessed a large farm and were considered wealthy and influential in a time when most of their countrymen were farmers of modest means.[6][7] Bradford's grandfather was William Bradforthe who had at least four children, including Bradford's father, and was probably of noble ancestry, according to researcher George J. Hill.[8] Coat of Arms of William Bradford Bradford's childhood was marked by numerous deaths in the family. He was just over a year old when his father died. His mother remarried when he was four years old, and he was sent to live with his grandfather.[5] His grandfather died two years later, and he returned to live with his mother and stepfather. His mother died a year later,in 1597, and Bradford thus became an orphan at the age of seven and was sent to live with two uncles.[5] His uncles wanted him to help on the farm, and he later noted in his journal that he suffered at that time from a "long sickness" and was unable to work. He instead turned to reading and became familiar with the Bible and classic works of literature. This is seen by some as a key factor in his intellectual curiosity and his eventual attraction to the Separatist branch of Puritan theology.[9] Separatist congregation [ edit ] When Bradford was 12 years old, a friend invited him to hear the Rev. Richard Clyfton preach 10 miles away in All Saints' Church that is located in Babworth. Clyfton believed that the Church of England ought to eliminate all vestiges of Roman Catholic practices, and that this would result in a purer Christian church. Bradford was inspired by his preaching and continued to attend his sermons, even though he was forbidden by his uncles.[10] During one meeting, Bradford met William Brewster, a bailiff and postmaster[11] who lived at Scrooby manor, four miles from Austerfield. During frequent visits, Bradford borrowed books from him, and Brewster regaled him with stories of the efforts toward church reform taking place throughout England.[11] King James I came to the English throne in 1603, declaring that he would put an end to church reform movements and deal harshly with radical critics of the Church of England.[12] By 1607, secret meetings were being held at Scrooby Manor and about 50 reform-minded individuals began to worship together, led by Richard Clyfton and the Rev John Robinson. This group decided that reform of the Church of England was hopeless and they would sever all ties. Their weekly meetings eventually attracted the attention of the Archbishop of York, and many members of the congregation were arrested in 1607.[6] Brewster was found guilty of being "disobedient in matters of religion" and was fined. Some members were imprisoned and others were watched "night and day", according to Bradford, by those loyal to the archbishop.[6] Adding to their concerns, the Scrooby congregation learned that other dissenters in London had been imprisoned and left to starve.[13] The Scrooby congregation decided in 1607 to leave England unlawfully for the Dutch Republic where religious freedom was permitted, and Bradford determined to go with them. The group encountered several major setbacks when trying to leave England, most notably their betrayal by an English sea captain who had agreed to carry them to the Netherlands, but instead turned them over to the authorities.[14] Most of the congregation were imprisoned for a short time after this failed attempt, including Bradford.[15] By the summer of 1608, however, they managed to escape England in small groups and relocate to Leiden in the Dutch Republic. Bradford was 18. In Leiden and London [ edit ] Bradford arrived in Amsterdam in August 1608. He had no family with him and was taken in by the Brewster household. The Scrooby congregation had to work the lowest of jobs and to live in poor conditions, being foreigners and having spent most of their money in attempts to get to the Dutch Republic. After nine months, the group chose to relocate to the smaller city of Leiden.[16] Bradford continued to reside with the Brewster family in a poor Leiden neighborhood known as Stink Alley.[17] Conditions changed dramatically for him when he turned 21 and was able to claim his family inheritance in 1611. He bought his own house, set up a workshop as a fustian weaver (weaver of heavy cotton cloth for men’s clothing), and earned a reputable standing.[18] In 1613, he married Dorothy May, the daughter of a well-off English couple living in Amsterdam. They were married in a civil service, as they could find no example of a religious service in the Scriptures.[19] In 1617, they had their first child, named John.[20] In 1619, William Bradford sold his house in Leiden and appears in March 1620 tax records in London being taxed for personal property at the Duke’s Place, Aldgate. Aldgate was an area of London known to be the residence of numerous Dutch merchants, as well as many religious dissenters. Some familiar Mayflower names of families living in the area included Allerton, Tilley, Sampson, and Hopkins. One family in Aldgate played an important part in Bradford's life in America. Edward and Alice (Carpenter) Southworth and their two sons were residing at Heneage House, the Duke’s Place, in Aldgate in 1620. Southworth was a highly respected leader of the Leiden group, but he died in 1621/22. His widow Alice emigrated to Plymouth Colony after Bradford's wife died, and they were married.[21] Founding Plymouth Colony [ edit ] Departure aboard the Speedwell [ edit ] By 1617, the Scrooby congregation began to plan the establishment of their own colony in the Americas.[22] The Separatists could practice religion as they pleased in the Dutch Republic, but they were troubled by the fact that their children were being influenced by Dutch customs and language, after nearly ten years in the Netherlands. Therefore, they commenced three years of difficult negotiations in England seeking permission to settle in the northern parts of the Colony of Virginia (which then extended north to the Hudson River).[23] The colonists also struggled to negotiate terms with a group of financial backers in London known as the Merchant Adventurers. By July 1620, Robert Cushman and John Carver had made the necessary arrangements, and approximately fifty Separatists departed Delftshaven on board the Speedwell.[24] It was an emotional departure. Many families were split, as some Separatists stayed behind in the Netherlands, planning to make the voyage to the New World after the colony had been established. William and Dorothy Bradford left their three-year-old son John with Dorothy's parents in Amsterdam, possibly because he was too frail to make the voyage.[24] According to the arrangements made by Carver and Cushman, the Speedwell was to meet with the Mayflower off the coast of England and both were destined for the northern part of the Colony of Virginia. The Speedwell, however, proved to be not structurally sound enough to make the voyage, and some of the passengers were transferred aboard the Mayflower, making crowded conditions. Joining the Scrooby congregation were about 50 colonists who had been recruited by the Merchant Adventurers for their vocational skills, which would prove useful in establishing a colony.[25] These passengers of the Mayflower, both Separatist and non-Separatist, are commonly referred to today as "Pilgrims." The term is derived from a passage in Bradford's journal, written years later, describing their departure from the Netherlands (itself an allusion to Hebrews 11:13 in the Bible): ...With mutual embraces and many tears, they took their leaves of one another, which proved to be the last leave to many of them...but they knew they were pilgrims and looked not much on those things, but lifted their eyes to heaven, their dearest country and quieted their spirits...[26] The Mayflower voyage [ edit ] The Mayflower departed Plymouth, England on September 6/16, 1620. The 100-foot ship had 102 passengers and a crew of 30 - 40 in extremely cramped conditions. By the second month out, the ship was being buffeted by westerly gales, causing the ship‘s timbers to be badly shaken, with caulking failing to keep out sea water, and with passengers lying wet and ill, even in their berths. There were two deaths on the trip, a crew member and a passenger. They spotted Cape Cod hook on November 9/19, 1620, after about a month of delays in England and two months at sea. They spent several days trying to get south to their planned destination of the Colony of Virginia,
0 \|\| car.Orders.Where(o => o.end_date > _from && o.start_date < _to).Count() == 0 select car; } return cars; } protected void _ConfigureViews(DHXScheduler scheduler, IEnumerable cars) { var units = new TimelineView("Orders", "car_id"); units.X_Step = 2; units.X_Length = 12; units.X_Size = 12; //width of the first column units.Dx = 149; //row height units.Dy = 76; //order bar height units.EventDy = units.Dy - 5; units.AddOptions(cars); units.RenderMode = TimelineView.RenderModes.Bar; scheduler.Views.Clear(); scheduler.Views.Add(units); scheduler.InitialView = scheduler.Views[0].Name; } protected void _ConfigureLightbox(DHXScheduler scheduler, IEnumerable cars) { scheduler.Lightbox.Add(new LightboxText("text", "Contact details") { Height = 42, Focus = true }); scheduler.Lightbox.Add(new LightboxText("description", "Note") { Height = 63 }); var select = new LightboxSelect("car_id", "Car Brand"); scheduler.Lightbox.Add(select); scheduler.Lightbox.Add(new LightboxText("pick_location", "Pick up location") { Height = 21 }); scheduler.Lightbox.Add(new LightboxText("drop_location", "Drop off location") { Height = 21 }); select.AddOptions(cars); scheduler.Lightbox.Add(new LightboxTime("time", "Time period")); } public ContentResult Data() { return new SchedulerAjaxData((new RentalDataContext()).Orders); } public ContentResult Save(int? id, FormCollection actionValues) { var action = new DataAction(actionValues); RentalDataContext data = new RentalDataContext(); try { var changedEvent = (Order)DHXEventsHelper.Bind(typeof(Order), actionValues); switch (action.Type) { case DataActionTypes.Insert: data.Orders.InsertOnSubmit(changedEvent); break; case DataActionTypes.Delete: changedEvent = data.Orders.SingleOrDefault(ev => ev.id == action.SourceId); data.Orders.DeleteOnSubmit(changedEvent); break; default:// "update" var eventToUpdate = data.Orders.SingleOrDefault(ev => ev.id == action.SourceId); DHXEventsHelper.Update(eventToUpdate, changedEvent, new List<string>() { "id" }); break; } data.SubmitChanges(); action.TargetId = changedEvent.id; } catch { action.Type = DataActionTypes.Error; } return (new AjaxSaveResponse(action)); } } } The calendar with a date filter is ready. Part III. Signing rent boxes with rent duration period Customize the template to show the rent duration period in the rent box (e.g. “Rented for 4 hours”). Add the required attributes to scripts.js: //set displayed text var durations = { day: 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000, hour: 60 * 60 * 1000 }; var get_formatted_duration = function (start, end) { var diff = end - start; var days = Math.floor(diff / durations.day); diff -= days * durations.day; var hours = Math.floor(diff / durations.hour); diff -= hours * durations.hour; var results = []; if (days) results.push(days + " days"); if (hours) results.push(hours + " hours"); return results.join(", "); }; And finally, update Index.cshtml to display the duration in the rent box: scheduler.templates.event_bar_text = function (start, end, event) { var text = "Rented"; return text + " for " + get_formatted_duration(start, end); That’s it! Car rental application for ASP.NET MVC3 Razor is ready to use. Sign up now and get a ready car rental service. If you find this tutorial helpful, you are welcome to comment below and share it with your friends.On May 10th and 11th of 1536, the Grand Juries of Middlesex and Kent had arraigned Queen Anne Boleyn on various charges. These included adultery with Sir Henry Norris, Sir William Brereton, Sir Francis Weston and musician Mark Smeaton. She was also charged with incest with her brother George Boleyn, Lord Rochford. There were charges of plotting the King’s death with some of these men along with giving them gifts. On May 15, in the King’s Hall in the Tower of London, Anne went to trial. The court was presided over by her uncle the Duke of Norfolk in his capacity as lord steward. She was formerly charged with treason, adultery, incest and plotting the king’s death to which she pleaded not guilty. After a pretense of proceedings during which Anne defended herself admirably, she was found guilty of all charges. Norfolk pronounced the sentence of death which would be carried out by being burnt at the stake on Tower Green or to have her head smitten off if it was the king’s pleasure. Anne was escorted back to her lodgings in the Tower. On the morning of the trial, Archbishop Cranmer had visited Anne, possibly to get her to agree to have her marriage to the king dissolved. But this would have caused her daughter Elizabeth to be bastardized and disinherited. Cranmer may have promised to return but Sir William Kingston, the constable of the Tower, wrote a letter to Cromwell during the day of May 16th, stating that he had not heard from the archbishop and the Queen desired to be shriven. Plans were commenced for the Queen’s execution. Kingston was informed that a swordsman from Calais was on his way. Carpenters were called to build a scaffold on Tower Green high enough so all those present could see. On May 17th, the Imperial Ambassador Eustace Chapuys, learned that Anne was to be executed on May 18th. In the early morning, on a scaffold on Tower Hill, George Boleyn, Sir Henry Norris, Sir Francis Weston, Sir William Brereton and musician Mark Smeaton were beheaded by axe. According to one of Anne’s ladies in attendance, Anne watched the executions either from the Bell Tower or the Byward Tower which were high enough to give a view of Tower Hill. Anne was returned to the Queen’s lodging and Kingston came to inform her she was to die by beheading rather than burning, in the morning the next day. Anne took the news calmly. She was curious to know what the men who had just been executed had said and if they had protested her innocence. Kingston informed her that all the men except Smeaton had done so. Smeaton acknowledged that he deserved to die. Sometime between nine and eleven in the morning, Archbishop Cranmer arranged for a court to be called into session in Lambeth Palace. The King and Anne had both been called to the court but neither of them appeared. Along with other doctors of the law, Cranmer proclaimed Henry and Anne’s marriage null and void. Elizabeth, from this point forward was a bastard and called Lady Elizabeth instead of Princess. Later that night, the carpenters began building the scaffolding with four or five steps on Tower Green by the White Tower. The time for Anne’s execution was set for nine o’clock on May 18. May 18 – Anne, assuming she would be executed on this day, rose at two in the morning and was joined by her almoner, John Skip, who came to offer her spiritual consolation. She spent time with him in prayer until Cranmer came to hear her final confession and administer the sacrament. She insisted that Kingston be in attendance. In her confession, she professed her innocence, saying she had never offended with her body against the King. At nine o’clock, the appointed time for the execution, Kingston received orders from Cromwell to clear the Tower of “strangers”, meaning foreigners. Ostensibly this was to thwart any attempts by foreigners to write sympathetic descriptions of the execution which would reflect poorly of the King. Anne was informed her execution was delayed until noon. Anne sent for Kingston, complaining about the delay, saying she had hoped to be past her pain. When Kingston told her the death wouldn’t be painful, she put her hands to her throat, laughing, and remarked she heard the executioner was very good and that she had a little neck. The executioner arrived from Calais. Due to the timing, it appears he had been summoned from the Continent by May 9 or 10, well before the trial. It is unknown if Anne requested execution by sword as opposed to axe or if Henry had a crisis of conscience and required the more humane method. Death by sword was a cleaner and more precise method of execution and Anne may have heard about death by sword when she was in France. The evidence suggests the executioner may have been from Calais, an English possession. The Chronicle of Calais calls the executioner the “hangman of Calais”. Mary of Hungary, Regent of the Netherlands and the Spanish Chronicle state the swordsman came from St Omer in Flanders. Apparently there wasn’t anyone skillful enough for the job in England. Henry seems to not have considered burning Anne at the stake which was the customary method of execution for a female traitor. Execution by beheading was reserved for men of high birth. Henry paid the headsman £23.6s.8d, estimated to be in the range of about £7800 in today’s money. Noon came and went. It was necessary to supply a sufficient number of witnesses for the spectacle so the execution was deferred until the next morning. Kingston informed Anne who was clearly disappointed. She begged for the execution to go ahead but Kingston could not change his orders. Anne spent her time praying and consoling her ladies. She did not sleep that night. May 19 – Anne heard mass and took the sacrament at dawn and ate breakfast. At eight o’clock, Kingston knocked on her door to tell her the hour was near. Anne was ready and told him she was prepared. Kingston gave her £20 (£7000 in today’s money) to give as alms. It was customary for the condemned to pay the executioner but arrangements had already been made by the King. When Anne appeared, she had clearly given a lot of thought to her apparel and appearance. She is described as wearing a robe of black or possibly grey damask with a red damask skirt. She was also wearing a mantle furred with the royal ermine. On her head, she wore a gabled hood over a netted coif. The robe had a low neckline so she wouldn’t have to remove it for the executioner to discharge his duty. Assisted by Kingston, Anne emerged from her lodgings, accompanied by four ladies, whose identities we do not know. They met up with two hundred Yeoman of the Guard and there was a procession to the scaffolding where the executioner and his assistant were waiting, dressed no differently than the others. The sword was hidden in the straw on the floor. A crowd of one thousand was waiting. Included were the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, other earls, nobles and lords, the Mayor of London with alderman and sheriffs, along with representatives of the guilds. Important spectators included the chancellor Audley, Thomas Cromwell and his son Gregory, and other members of the king’s council. Henry’s illegitimate son the Duke of Richmond was there with his friend the Earl of Surrey. There was a buzz in the crowd when Anne appeared and witnesses described her as looking beautiful. As Anne passed the crowd she distributed the alms. Kingston helped her up the steps of the scaffold and they were followed by her ladies. Anne looked around at the crowd and then asked Kingston for permission to speak which he granted. Edward Hall, in “The Triumphant Reign of King Henry the Eighth” (London, 1547) gives this version of her speech: “Good Christian people, I am come hither to die, according to law, for by the law I am judged to die, and therefore I will speak nothing against it. I come here only to die, and thus to yield myself humbly to the will of the King, my lord. And if, in my life, I did ever offend the King’s Grace, surely with my death I do now atone. I come hither to accuse no man, nor to speak anything of that whereof I am accused, as I know full well that aught I say in my defense doth not appertain to you. I pray and beseech you all, good friends, to pray for the life of the King, my sovereign lord and yours, who is one of the best princes on the face of the earth, who has always treated me so well that better could not be, wherefore I submit to death with good will, humbly asking pardon of all the world. If any person will meddle with my cause, I require them to judge the best. Thus I take my leave of the world and of you, and I heartily desire you all to pray for me. Oh Lord, have mercy on me! To God I commend my soul.” Anne turned and asked which man was the executioner. She was told he would be there presently. Her women took off her mantle and Anne removed her gabled hood. One of the women gave her a linen cap which she put on and collected her hair under so her neck was exposed. Anne expressed her gratitude to her ladies and asked them to pray for her. The executioner stepped forward and asked her forgiveness which she gave willingly. He told her to kneel and pray. There was no block as it was not needed with execution by sword. She asked for time to pray. She kept looking around her and was worried her coif was in the way, putting her left hand up to her head. The executioner told her to have no fear, he would wait until she was ready and she didn’t need to remove the coif. One of her ladies came forward to bind her eyes. She kept praying then signaled she was ready. As she was waiting for the blow, the crowd knelt, except for the Dukes Suffolk and Richmond. Events moved swiftly. The headsman turned toward the scaffold steps, asking his assistant to bring him the sword. Anne turned her head toward the steps, her hand still on her coif. The executioner took the sword and approached. He had taken off his shoes so Anne did not hear him. He grabbed the sword with both hands, circled it around his head for momentum and brought it down, instantly severing her head from her neck. The head fell into the straw on the scaffold. One of the ladies threw a white handkerchief over it. The cannons along Tower Wharf were fired as a signal that the Queen was dead. One lady took the covered head while the other three wrapped the body in a white covering and carrying it, placed it in a chest which had once held bow staves. The chest was taken inside the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula on the Tower grounds. A priest gave a blessing and Anne was buried beneath the chancel pavement that very afternoon. On the day of Anne’s execution, Archbishop Cranmer issued a dispensation for Henry to marry Jane Seymour without publication of banns beforehand. On May 30, Henry married Jane in a small chapel at Whitehall. Further reading: “The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn” by Alison Weir, “Divorced, Beheaded, Survived: The Feminist Reinterpretation of the Wives of Henry VIII” by Karen Lindsey, “The Six Wives of Henry VIII” by Lady Antonia Fraser, “On This Day in Tudor History” by Claire Ridgway☯ ☯ ☯ ☯ ☯ ☯ ☯ ☯ ☯ A payphone is hard to hack. WRONG! A payphone is expensive. WRONG! A payphone is hard to get. WRONG! When I first started this project I suspected payphones would be hard to get, expensive, and a hassle to hack. I was wrong on all three! Online I was able to get city-grade cast-iron/stainless payphone for relatively cheap. And the hack, surprisingly, turned out to be quite elegant :) With my payphone hack I created a the 90 From The 90's Boombox: With this Instructable you will learn how to control the keypad, switches, and audio (both in and out) on a payphone. You can do A LOT OF FUN HACKS WITH THIS. The 90's boombox is just one basic example to get you started :)An 8-year-old primary school student has been heavily criticised for revealing to a trainee vicar that God is just a fictional character people use to make themselves feel better. The incident occurred at a carol service at St Mary’s Church, Stalham in Norfolk for Stalham Academy pupils on Monday night. A member of the local congregation said the child, 8-year-old Jack Williams, had “spoiled the magic” of religion for the vicar. The school said Williams had promised “not to make any such comments in the future”, and would allow members of the church to continue believing whatever they want, right up until they are old enough to realise the truth on their own. Jack told us, “I didn’t mean to upset anyone, it’s just when she started talking about God being there at Christmas I explained that, like Santa, God was merely a construct of man designed to give meaning to our apparently meaningless existence. “She blinked a bit, then started looking around at people for reassurance, and then she started crying. “I felt bad, of course, but I’m only eight and even I know there is no God. She should know by now, surely? “I mean, a magic man in the sky who is everywhere at once deciding if you’ve been good or bad? No, I mean God, not Santa, but it’s an easy mistake to make I guess. “She’ll get over it, just like I did when I realised Santa wasn’t real. And it doesn’t stop me enjoying Christmas, does it.” Jesus, like Santa, but for grown-upsI shouted out, “Who killed the Kennedys?” When after all it was you and me That line comes toward the middle of a song played so often on classic rock radio that it has been stripped of virtually all its original significance as one of the great works of 1960s oppositional pop culture, a collision of multiple currents in politics, philosophy, sexuality and music. As usual in Rolling Stones songs, the lyrics are kind of an afterthought — as pure sonic invention, the song was and remains spectacular — and quite likely all Mick Jagger had in mind was some sophomoric pseudo-Jungian yin-yang conception. Light and darkness are sisters, we all contain good and evil, and so on. I know what the song is called, but the identity of its “narrator,” if we pretend it merits a close reading, is ambiguous: Maybe it's Satan, maybe it's the Other Guy. (Maybe they're the same -- mind blown.) But it was a shocking line to deliver, more shocking than we can now perceive, in a time when the idea that a pop song could offer sardonic commentary on headline news was almost brand new. In fact, that line was inserted at the last minute; Jagger originally sang “Who killed Kennedy?” in a take of the song recorded in London on June 5, 1968. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated the following night in Los Angeles, after winning the California Democratic primary. The band returned to the studio and finished the song four days later. Advertisement: Donald Trump didn’t play that particular song at his campaign rallies. I suppose it’s possible that some aspects of boomer pop culture are too disturbing even for him — but that’s probably not why. Trump or someone close to him is clearly a Rolling Stones fan, and the early greatest-hits collection “High Tide and Green Grass” got played over and over (and over) to crowds waiting for Trump’s perennially late motorcade to arrive. It always struck me as almost ironic to be sitting amid a crowd of amped-up white people in big-box-store athletic wear listening to “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” or “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” — a particular favorite — but not quite ironic enough. Or maybe it was a different problem: In classic Socratic irony, there has to be somebody who doesn’t get the joke, and I had a sneaking suspicion it might be me. Sometimes the banal and sophomoric, delivered right on time, becomes urgent and profound. I think “Sympathy for the Devil” was like that. When calamitous things happen, we all feel the urge to find someone to blame. Meaning someone else, of course. Amid a burst of chaotic creativity in a chaotic era — captured in Jean-Luc Godard’s film about the recording of that song — Jagger had the rock-star arrogance to tell us that “Who did this?” is always the wrong question. Donald Trump represents the ultimate fulfillment of that tendency, in several senses. His rise to power is predicated on blaming a lengthy and incoherent list of villains for the real or imagined ills of working-class and middle-class white America: the Muslims, the Mexicans, the Chinese, the gangs, Black Lives Matter, the feminists, the corporations, the lying media and the “elites,” whoever and wherever they are. All politicians make undeliverable promises, and offer phony solutions to real problems or the other way around. But Trump exceeded all previous major-party presidential candidates in how far he traveled into pure semiotics. He promised solutions that were not possible to problems that did not exist — or, more properly, to problems that may exist but cannot be solved by the American political system in its current form. I want to move past that well-trodden ground to the fact that Trump calls forth the same impulse in his actual enemies. Depending on your perspective, his unlikely victory can be blamed on Clintonite neoliberals or left-wing BernieBros or “identity politics” cultists or denizens of the cosmopolitan “bubbles” of the coastal cities or an antiquated 18th-century electoral system or the complacent Democratic electorate or the long-term duplicity and corruption of the Republican Party or the bigotry and racial resentment and misbegotten entitlement of the “deplorables” who actually came out and voted for him. I would argue, in fact, that all those things played a role. But endless dispute about which of those factors is most important and how the Democratic Party and/or the left (not the same thing!) should adjust is the definition of failing to see the forest because of all the trees. (There won’t be as many trees after a Trump presidency, I’m guessing — so that will be easier!) Donald Trump is the culmination of a long historical process in which all those things and many more — all the flaws and contradictions of American democracy and American society — have crystallized in a single figure. In a sense, we have to accept him before we can move past him. He is our creation, an accurate if gruesome reflection of the state of our nation. We all have to reckon with that. Advertisement: Any honest American, looking at Donald Trump, is forced to echo Prospero’s words in the last act of “The Tempest,” when confronted with the despised monster Caliban: “This thing of darkness I acknowledge mine.” I wrote a widely shared essay two weeks ago about my vow not to utter Trump’s name for an entire weekend. I actually did it! It was surprisingly easy, although I did go out to a dinner where I had to engage in various circumlocutions about “that person.” But if negating Trump and transcending the Trump presidency are important tasks, they will take some time. Denying Trump, by constantly protesting that he is an unbelievable fluke or anomaly who can somehow be wished away, or by fantasizing about impeachment or the invocation of the 25th Amendment, is another matter. It’s simply not healthy: We have lives to live here. People will be born and will die, relationships will begin and end; there will be sunsets and amazing new houses and ugly furniture and broken dishes and laughter and tears. All of it under President Donald Trump, who will ultimately (I think) be less important than those things. I am not talking about “normalization,” about accepting repressive and hateful policies and saying, oh, in the end this guy won’t be all that different from other presidents. That’s clearly not true; there is nothing normal about this presidency or the current state of our nation. I am not saying that resistance is futile, because the passionate resistance to Trump’s policy agenda is growing stronger every day. I am saying that Trump or something like him was the natural and perhaps inevitable result of our damaged and divided society, and to pretend otherwise is to miss the larger historical point. His presidency represents a national emergency, and a moment of great danger. It also offers us a history-shaping opportunity to save ourselves and our country in a way that — forgive me, multiple friends and colleagues! — Hillary Clinton’s hypothetical presidency simply did not. If I could go into an alternate “Man in the High Castle” universe where James Comey never sent that letter and the turnout in Detroit and Milwaukee and Philadelphia was somewhat better and Clinton had been comfortably elected — I mean, yeah, I probably would. But knowing what I know now, I’d have to think about it. Instead we are here, in a universe of terror and exciting possibility, one we all colluded to bring into reality. Who put Donald Trump in the White House? After all, it was you and me.Now that all three Hobbit movies have been released, Google is apparently letting Tolkien fans everywhere celebrate by giving away the first Lord of the Rings movie. Yes, you heard that correctly — you can now download Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring for free right now from Google Play. VIDEO: Watch Colbert’s hilarious interview with The Hobbit’s massive dragon We have no idea how long the film, which you can normally buy on Google Play for $12.99, will be a free download so you’d better act quickly. And if you find that you want to watch even more of the epic trilogy after the first movie, note that Google is selling both The Two Towers and The Return of the King for $6.99 each, which is $3 less than their regular price. All told, then, you can get three of the best fantasy films ever made all at once for just $14.The Prime Minister has confirmed he would kick off WW3 whilst giggling like a lunatic. Mr. Cameron made the announcement following Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s confirmation that he would never use a nuclear launch trigger and subsequently end all life on earth, the big pansy. “Being Prime Minister does mean making some difficult decisions and carrying out difficult tasks,” said Cameron, “however I would take great pleasure in this particular task.” “I think everyone knows that beneath this shiny veneer beats the heart of a wankerous madman who would happily oversee the premature death of planet earth from the safety of an underground bunker.” “Just as long as we make sure Oxford is safe, of course.” The Prime Minister’s comments came as a shock to absolutely nobody. “Welcome to my world” shrugged disabled benefits claimant, Simon Williams, “it’s merely a literal representation of what he’s done to me and everyone like me.” “I’ve got a plan for this sort of thing anyway. It involves a VW camper van, several hundred tins of spam and a map of the Isles of Scilly.” “It would make a great little film if there was anyone left alive to see it.” 10 Downing Street also confirmed the comments, but also confirmed that David Cameron wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the launch button after a few scotches. “We’ll distract him by throwing a dead pig’s face at him,” confirmed a spokesperson. “It’s a crude solution, but it’s either that or he nukes an area the size of Wales; specifically, Wales.”Dive Brief: In response to consumer’s quests for meatless alternatives, Hydrosol has developed an all-in compound from its HydroTOP VEG series, according to Food Ingredients First. Large-scale users can used the semi-finished products in log or pre-ground form as the start for many foods; and industrial manufacturers can use them to produce a range of vegetarian retail products. The product uses soy and egg white proteins, creating a product that is free from dairy, gluten, and phosphates; the seasoning is free of monosodium glutamate. Dive Insight: Consumers continue to be more selective about where their proteins come from, turning to plant-based proteins as alternatives to consuming meat, for example. Whether it is due to ethical concerns about animal welfare, environmental concerns relating to the production process, or any number of issues, they are embracing meatless alternatives. Venture capital firms are taking notice, in an effort the New Hope Network refers to as "nourish tech." The Good Food Institute and New Crop Capital are dedicated to creating clean plant and culture-based alternatives to animal products, as well as making them widely available and cost-competitive with traditional animal products. The groups support companies such as Memphis Meats and Gelzen, which have recently disrupted the food industry with the world’s first cultured meatball and gelatin grown in fermenters, respectively. Food companies leading the way in the meatless alternative category include Beyond Meat, which offers 100% plant protein products such as crumbles, burgers, tenders and meatballs. Impossible Foods has created a burger without traditional meat but rather using unexpected ingredients like coconut and honeydew melon. In March, Gardein launched a meatless pepperoni pizza pocket. "We wanted to satisfy our consumers' needs for a delicious, convenient pizza pocket while making it better for them and the planet," said Yves Potvin, founder and president, Gardein, in a statement.Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Cabinet Office minister Brooks Newmark resigned after tabloid allegations he behaved inappropriately An MP has made make a formal complaint against the Sunday Mirror over a story that led to the resignation of a government minister. Conservative Mark Pritchard said "questionable techniques" were involved in the paper's report that Brooks Newmark sent explicit pictures of himself to an undercover journalist. Mr Newmark resigned after the sting, saying he had been a "complete fool". The Sunday Mirror said that the story was in the public interest. The paper said it had made contact with Mr Newmark during the course of an investigation into inappropriate use of social media by MPs. 'Swapped images' Adopting the false identity of "Sophie Wittams", a male freelance reporter described himself on Twitter as a "twenty-something Tory PR girl". "Sophie" then contacted and interacted with a number of Conservative MPs, including Mr Pritchard, via the social networking site. The Twitter account has since been deleted, although some of the reporter's activity is still available online. Image caption Mark Pritchard, Conservative MP for The Wrekin, said it would be the new press complaints body's "first real test" BBC political correspondent Iain Watson said there was no evidence that any MP, apart from Mr Newmark, had acted inappropriately in response to the flattering messages sent to them from the fictional Ms Wittams. In its account of the online exchanges between the reporter and Mr Newmark, the Sunday Mirror said the pair "swapped sexually explicit images". Mr Pritchard, MP for The Wrekin, in Shropshire, told the BBC he would be writing a "formal complaint" to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) "about the Sunday Mirror's questionable techniques". Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Kevin Maguire, Mirror associate editor, is challenged over the coverage of a Brooks Newmark photograph "It is in the public interest that their actions are fully investigated," he said. "This is the first real test as to whether the new body, IPSO, has any teeth." 'Serious questions' John Whittingdale, the Tory MP who chairs the Commons culture and media committee, said the paper had "serious questions" to answer about its journalistic techniques and it was right that the new press regulator got involved. "Brooks (Newmark) was a fool but it does raise serious questions over whether it was a legitimate use of subterfuge. There are very clear rules. "On first sight I am not convinced this is justified." IPSO came into being earlier this month, replacing the defunct Press Complaints Commission. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Brian Cathcart from campaign group Hacked Off said the Sunday Mirror had "a lot of questions to answer" It was set up by most major newspapers, including the Mirror titles, to investigate complaints from the public in the wake of phone hacking and the Leveson inquiry into the practices and ethics of the industry. Its editors' code of practice states: "Engaging in misrepresentation or subterfuge, including by agents or intermediaries, can generally be justified only in the public interest and then only when the material cannot be obtained by other means." Asked whether he thought the newspaper's actions were justified, Culture Secretary Sajid Javid told BBC Radio 4's PM programme that it would be "wholly wrong" for him to comment on the case as the minister responsible for media policy. He cited "rumours that some of the people involved may be taking some legal action" as one of the reasons why it was "inappropriate" for him to give an opinion. On IPSO's role, he added: "It is independent. It has been created by the press. Let see how it handles this. A lot of people will be watching." 'Not fishing' Kevin Maguire, the associated editor of the Mirror, defended the story and denied that it was a result of a "fishing expedition". The reporter concerned, he told Daily Politics, was investigating claims that half a dozen MPs were using social media to "meet people in an inappropriate way". "There is a huge question of judgement when you have a 56-year old father of five sending lewd pictures to someone who he believes is a 21-year old woman," he said. "As a parent, if I thought a minister... a man in a responsible position was chasing young women like this, I would think that is a matter of public interest." A spokesman for IPSO told the Daily Telegraph newspaper: "We will consider any complaints about the story that are submitted."Talk about embarrassing; during a C-SPAN segment featuring brothers Brad and Dallas Woodhouse, one of the callers turned out to be Mama Woodhouse, berating her sons for arguing. Host Steve Scully announced that the next caller was “Joy” from Raleigh, N.C. “Hey! Somebody from down South!” said Dallas, the conservative brother. “You’re right I’m from down South.” She replied. “And I am your mother.” “Oh, God, it’s Mom,” he responded while putting his face in his hands. “I disagree that all families are like ours. I don’t know many families that are fighting at Thanksgiving,” she said. “I’m very glad that this Thanksgiving, you two were supposed to go to your in-laws. I’m hoping you’ll have some of this out of your system when you come here for Christmas. I would really like a peaceful Christmas. And I love you both.” Scully made sure to make it clear the call was completely unplanned. “Is this really your mother?” he asked. “She called in on the normal line.” “I love you, Mom,” said Brad (the Democrat) at one point. “And I love politics,” she replied, without missing a beat. [h/t Washington Post] Follow Alex Griswold on Twitterby \| \| Friend and CNS Scientist-in-Residence Ferenc Dalnoki-Veress has written a detailed primer on what might happen if North Korea detonates a hydrogen bomb over the waters of the Pacific Ocean. We’re pleased to bring it to you here. Effects of a Potential Thermonuclear Test by North Korea in the Pacific Ferenc Dalnoki-Veress For more than fifty years, since the entry into force of the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (PTBT), almost all nuclear-weapon possessing states have observed a moratorium on nuclear tests conducted above ground. France stopped after 1974, and China after 1980, ending the era of atmospheric nuclear tests. This choice is principally meant to prevent the release of radioactive gases and particulates from bomb debris (known as fallout) into the environment, where it could contaminate large areas after it settles to ground level. As observed by the late Herbert York, the first director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the PTBT also legitimized nuclear testing and had the consequence of making the “the continuation of uninhibited weapons development politically respectable.” (Quoted in Fehner, Terrence R., and Francis George Gosling. Battlefield of the Cold War: The Nevada Test Site. US Department of Energy, 2006.) Unhappily, the foreign minister of North Korea, Ri Yong Ho, stated recently in New York that North Korea may test a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific Ocean rather than underground, as they have done previously, ending the global moratorium that has existed since before many of us were born. He did not state explicitly that any such test would involve a warhead mounted on a missile, but this would be a reasonable assumption. If the warhead is a thermonuclear bomb, it may also have an additional jacket of uranium to enhance the yield while at the same time producing more radioactive fallout. What might it look like? What might be the results? The least provocative version of such a test might be a high-altitude airburst detonation in the region near where the last two North Korean missiles that flew over Japan landed. The geographical location of the detonation is not critical so far out into the ocean, so accuracy of the missile that deliver the warhead is also not critical. (The North Korean missile launched over Japan on August 29 may have landed hundreds of km from where it was expected, based on an analysis conducted by Dr. Marco Langbroek.) As many have observed, this would be akin to the “Frigate Bird” test of 1962 where the United States Navy tested a 600 kt nuclear weapon coupled to a Polaris SLBM at an altitude of 11,000 feet (3.4 km). The Navy wanted to quell Air Force critics who were not convinced by the “effectiveness of the system under ‘real’ operational conditions.” (See: Spinardi, Graham. From Polaris to Trident: The Development of US Fleet Ballistic Missile Technology. Cambridge University Press, 1994, p. 62.) The North Korean leadership undoubtedly feels pushed into a corner to respond to President Trump’s verbal attacks, but there may also be technical reasons to do a “Juche Bird” test to demonstrate the reliability of the coupled system of missile and bomb. Since a test is also a public demonstration, it may be that North Korea may issue a NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) and/or NTM (Notice to Mariners) over a large region to prevent contamination of nearby ships and air traffic, while at the same time drawing in aerial sampling aircraft to collect information on the nuclear device design. On the other hand, they have only done
] Dreamcast version [ edit ] The original Dreamcast release of Grandia II received a largely positive response during its initial release in Japan, earning a 9.75 out of 10 rating from Dreamcast Magazine, as well as a 35 out of 40 from Weekly Famitsu, which earned it the magazine's editor's choice Platinum award.[13] Famitsu DC rated the game 26 out of 30 based on three reviews.[13] Despite good reception, sales of the game remained relatively low in the region,[11] with an estimated 184,863 copies sold.[23] Grandia II's English release met with an overwhelming positive response. It received an aggregate score of 88.81% on GameRankings[8] and 90/100 on Metacritic.[9] GamePro magazine found the game to be "solidly-built and features stunning visuals, dead-on controls, and a innovative combat system" yet remarked that that game's scenarios seemed too linear at times.[15] On a similar note, GameSpot stated that "While the first Grandia had lengthy dungeons full of puzzles and side routes, Grandia II's dungeons are more compartmental and linear affairs," and ultimately found the game to be "a solid RPG... even if it isn't as deep or difficult as the original."[18] IGN granted the game an Editor's Choice distinction, calling it a "classic" of the Dreamcast and remarking that its battle system was "arguably the most advanced system in play today", yet found the game's story and character development to be cliche and predictable.[19] Eurogamer also found the game's story and gameplay to be largely methodical, and despite being dubbed "the best RPG on the Dreamcast in Europe" and "strongly recommended", editors felt seasoned role-playing game players would find the game too generic, calling it "an incredibly tough game to call".[11] Electronic Gaming Monthly granted the game a 9 out of 10, earning it a Gold Award.[10] PlayStation 2 and PC ports [ edit ] The PlayStation 2 re-release of Grandia II in 2002 experienced lower sales than the Dreamcast version in Japan despite a higher install base, selling approximately 42,060 copies in its first month.[41] In North America and Europe, the game received mostly lower reviews than the original, with many publications remarking on the technical shortcomings of the port to the new console. Electronic Gaming Monthly found the PlayStation version to be vastly inferior to the original, citing reduced frame rate, color, and texture quality, adding that its "Inexplicably horrible graphics completely ruin an otherwise splendid title."[29] Some reviewers such as GamePro found the conversion shortcomings to be largely negligible, claiming that it "still holds its own as a solidly constructed but direct port in the more crowded PlayStation 2 fantasy camp" but added that it was still "overshadowed by Final Fantasy X."[32] IGN still regarded the PlayStation 2 version as "a good game" and one of the top role-playing games for the system at the time, but remarked that the "time and stress of transition" as well as the emergence of other prominent games during the one-year time frame had diluted the port's appeal.[37] GameSpot called the Dreamcast release "technically superior", but the new version was recommended to those who did not play the original and that it was still "well worth playing".[35] Like the PlayStation 2 version, the PC release of Grandia II had a much milder response from critics than the Dreamcast version. Critiquing the game by a PC game standpoint, IGN PC stated that "[t]his game is not like a PC RPG. It's light. It's fluffy. It's colorful. It's not exactly deep. Its storyline is console stereotypical. Its jokes are silly. Its gameplay is cartoony. And the characters all have huge eyes and no mouths," but adding that it "still manages to be fun, maybe even just because it's so different than most of the dark, dreary and serious RPGs that find their ways to our favorite platform."[36] Similarly, GameSpot found that the game would be difficult for consumers accustomed to western role-playing video games to get into, remarking that "Grandia II's linear gameplay, "young adult" sensibility, and anime artwork aren't likely to impress someone looking for another Baldur's Gate II. Still, Grandia II can be fun if you're used to Japanese RPGs to begin with or if you approach it with an open mind."[34] Notes [ edit ] ^ Japanese: グランディアII, Hepburn: Gurandia Tsū?On Thanksgiving, U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich called on President Barack Obama to reroute the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline and condemned the response by police to protests. Native Americans and others have protested pipeline over recent weeks over a fear that it would imperil the Standing Rock Sioux Nation’s only water source. The pipeline’s path was already moved once, from near Bismarck. Part of the reason was the risk to the city’s water supply. Update: Heinrich concerned over violence against Standing Rock protesters “Today is Thanksgiving and I cannot help but reflect on our history in these United States and how often it has not lived up to the rosy picture of Pilgrims and Indians sharing a meal in friendly company that I saw in textbooks as a child,” Heinrich said in a statement. “The issues facing Indian Country are many and they are complex, but that should not stop those of us in positions of elected leadership from seeking to make a difference wherever and whenever we can.” Heinrich called on President Obama and the Army Corps of Engineers to reroute the pipeline. “No pipeline is worth more than the respect we hold for our Native American neighbors,” Heinrich said. “No pipeline is worth more than the clean water that we all depend on. This pipeline is not worth the life of a single protester.” Related: A UNM professor writes about standing in solidarity with Standing Rock Earlier this week, the Democratic Party of New Mexico announced that it sent a letter of commitment to Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairman Dave Archambault, saying they stood with the tribe in their efforts to stop the pipeline from being built near the tribe’s water source. “The Democratic Party of New Mexico commits to the right of Indian Tribes to have meaningful tribal consultation in any matters Indian Tribes deem to warrant this guarantee, and we are appalled that the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has not been afforded respect and consideration regarding this matter,” the letter reads. The letter is signed by Debra Haaland, the first Native American state party chair in the nation. Haaland is a member of the Pueblo of Laguna. Heinrich also addressed recent responses by police to protesters, which included national guard spraying protesters with cold water and several protesters going to the hospital. “There is no excuse for the brutality we’ve seen in recent days and it should not be rewarded,” Heinrich said.Photo by Burak Cingi/Getty Images Kendrick Lamar is nominated for a lot of Grammys! Album and Song of the Year! Like every rap category, for songs that aren't even his! Best Video — with and without Taylor Swift! But will he win? We’re rooting for him the same way we were rooting for Cam Newton. We hope he fares better in the Super Bowl of music. We’ll be updating this post live as the results come in, throughout the pre-telecast awards and the main ceremony, where Kendrick also performed. Tune out the other noise if you want and just focus on what’s most important about Grammy night: Kendrick Lamar. Album of the Year: To Pimp a Butterfly WON / LOST Song of the Year: "Alright" WON / LOST Best Rap Album: To Pimp a Butterfly WON / LOST Best Rap Performance: "Alright" WON / LOST Best Rap Song: "Alright" WON / LOST Best Rap Song: Kanye West, "All Day" [for which Lamar has a writing credit] WON / LOST Best Rap/Sung Collaboration: "These Walls" [ft. Bilal, Anna Wise, and Thundercat] WON / LOST Best Music Video: "Alright" WON / LOST Best Music Video: Taylor Swift ft. Kendrick Lamar, "Bad Blood" WON / LOST Best Pop/Group Performance: Taylor Swift ft. Kendrick Lamar, "Bad Blood" WON / LOST Best Dance Recording: Flying Lotus ft. Kendrick Lamar, "Never Catch Me" WON / LOST Total: 5/11 WinsMany organizations developing software today use Docker in one way or another. If you go to any software development or DevOps conference and ask a big crowd of people “Who uses Docker?”, most people in the room will raise their hands. But if you now ask the crowd, “Who uses Docker in production?”, most hands will fall immediately. Why is it, that such a popular technology that has enjoyed meteoric growth is so widely used at early phases of the development pipeline, but rarely used in production? Software Quality: Developer Tested, Ops Approved A typical software delivery pipeline looks something like this (and has done for over a decade!) Source: Hüttermann, Michael. Agile ALM. Shelter Island, N.Y.: Manning, 2012. Print. At each phase in the pipeline, the representative build is tested, and the binary outcome of this build can only pass through to the next phase if it passes all the criteria of the relevant quality gate. By promoting the original binary we guarantee that the same binary we built in the CI server is the one deployed or distributed. By implementing rigid quality gates we guarantee the access control to untested, tested and production-ready artifacts. The unbearable lightness of $ docker build Since running a Docker build is so easy, instead of a build passing through a quality gate to the next phase… … it is REBUILT at each phase. “So what,” you say? So plenty. Let’s look at a typical build script. To build your product, you need a set of dependencies, and the build will normally download the latest versions of each dependency you need. But since each phase of the development pipeline is built at a different time, … …you can’t be sure that the same version of each dependency in the development version also got into your production version. But we can fix that. Let’s use: FROM ubuntu:14.04. Done. Or are we? Can we be sure that the Ubuntu version 14.04 downloaded in development will be exactly the same as the one built for production? No, we can’t. What about security patches or other changes that don’t affect the version number? But wait; there IS a way. Let’s use the fingerprint of the image. That’s rock solid! We’ll specify the base image as: FROM ubuntu:0bf3461984f2fb18d237995e81faa657aff260a52a795367e6725f0617f7a56c But, what was that version again? Is it older or newer than the one I was using last week? You get the picture. Using fingerprints is neither readable nor maintainable, and in the end, nobody really knows what went into the Docker image. And what about the rest of the dockerfile? Most of it is just a bunch of implicit or explicit dependency resolution, either in the form of apt-get, or wget commands to download files from arbitrary locations. For some of the commands you can nail down the version, but with others, you aren’t even sure they do dependency resolution! And what about transitive dependencies? So you end up with this: Basically, by rebuilding the Docker image at each phase in the pipeline, you are actually changing it, so you can’t be sure that the image that passed all the quality gates is the one that got to production. Stop rebuilding, start promoting What we should be doing, is taking our development build, and rather than rebuilding the image at each stage, we should be promoting it, as an immutable and stable binary through the quality gates to production. Sounds good. Let’s do it with Docker. Wait, not so fast. Docker tag is a drag This is what a Docker tag looks like: The Docker tag limits us to one registry per host. How do you build a promotion pipeline if you can only work with one registry? “I’ll promote using labels,” you say. “That way I only need one Docker registry per host.” That will work, of course, to some extent. Docker labels (plain key:value properties) may be a fair solution for promoting images through minor quality gates, but are they strong enough to guard your production deployment? Considering you can’t manage permissions on labels, probably not. What’s the name of the property? Did QA update it? Can developers still access (and change) the release candidate? The questions go on and on. Instead, let’s look at promotion for a more robust solution. After all, we’ve been doing it for years with Artifactory. Virtual repositories tried and true Virtual repositories have been in Artifactory since version 1.0. More recently, we also added the capability to deploy artifacts to a virtual repository. This means that virtual repositories can be a single entry point for both upload and download of Docker images. Like this: Here’s what we’re going to do: Deploy our build to a virtual repository which functions as our development Docker registry Promote the build within Artifactory through the pipeline Resolve production ready images from the same (or even a different) virtual repository now functioning as our production Docker registry This is how it works: Our developer (or our Jenkins) works with a virtual repository that wraps a local development repository, a local production repository, and a remote repository that proxies Docker Hub (as the first step in the pipeline, our developer may need access to Docker Hub in order to create our image). Once our image is built, it’s deployed through the docker-virtual repository to docker-dev-local. Now, Jenkins steps in again and promotes our image through the pipeline to production. At any step along the way, you can point a Docker client at any of the intermediate repositories, and extract the image for testing or staging before promoting to production. Once your Docker image is in production, you can expose it to your customers through another virtual repository functioning as your production Docker registry. You don’t want customers accessing your development registry or any of the others in your pipeline. Only the production Docker registry. There is no need for any other repositories, because unlike other package formats, the point of a docker image is that it has everything it needs. So we’ve done it. We built a Docker image, promoted it through all phases of testing and staging, and once it passed all those quality gates, the exact same image we created in development is now available for download by the end user or deployed to production servers, without risk of a non-curated image being received. What about setup? You might ask if getting Docker to work with all these repositories in Artifactory is easy to setup? Well, it’s now easier than ever with our new Reverse Proxy Configuration Generator. Stick with Artifactory and NGINX or Apache and you can easily access all of your Docker registries to start promoting Docker images to production.Edward Lucas is a senior editor at The Economist, where he was the Moscow bureau chief from 1998 to 2002. He is also senior vice president at the Center for European Policy Analysis, a Washington, DC, think tank. The opinions expressed are his own. (CNN) Rules don't apply to Russia. But Russia applies rules to other people. That, put crudely, is the Kremlin's outlook on life, exemplified by the latest bombshell from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). In a sense, it's no surprise. Russia has, since 1991, been at the center of an investigation into fraud involving IMF money, defaulted on its debt, flouted international human rights law in its wars in Chechnya, launched a cyberattack on Estonia, provoked a war in Georgia, annexed Crimea, and brazenly lied over the shooting down of a Malaysian airliner over Ukraine in 2014. WADA's report adds weight to its exposé this summer of Russian doping, which resulted in Olympic bans on scores of Russian athletes. The new material, announced Friday, highlights the sheer scale of the operation, claiming that it was authorized and implemented at the highest level. But it leaves unanswered the biggest and thorniest question: Why does Russia so flagrantly flout international laws, rules and conventions? Making generalizations about national character is risky (and these days smacks of political incorrectness). But serious scholars of Russian affairs have long wrestled with this problem. One of the most notable was a State Department official called Raymond F. Smith, whose Cold War classic " Negotiating with the Soviets " is still much pored-over by business executives wanting insights into their Russian counterparts' mindset. Smith explained how the imposition of Marxist-Leninist dogma on top of the czarist-era feudal mindset created a different pattern of thinking. First, Soviets did not believe in win-win solutions (having rarely experienced such outcomes). Second, spouting vranyo (baloney) is an essential lubricant of social and business life. Third, and most importantly, Soviet negotiators regarded rules as merely an expression of power. The rule-setting party aims to constrain and overcome the other players in the game. The rational response for the other party is therefore to break the rules. This can be done overtly or covertly, depending on the situation. Morals don't come into it. Conversely, if you are the rule setter, then you draft them in your favor and enforce them vigorously. You may dress them up with some independent dispute-settling procedures and other elements of due process. These are vranyo: not to be taken seriously. That was the way the Soviet Union worked. It preached anti-imperialism abroad, and ruthlessly crushed dissent in its own empire. At home, the constitution of the Soviet Union offered, in theory, great political freedoms and guarantees of fair treatment. In practice, the Soviet legal system was a club for beating the population into submission. Dissidents would be punished for political crimes, or (once rendered unemployable) for being parasites on society. Or they could be consigned to a psychiatric hospital where they would be zombified with powerful drugs. All this was strictly in accordance with the law -- yet the real decisions were made not by the judges and doctors concerned, but by their political masters, who would typically communicate the instructions by telephone. Follow CNN Opinion Join us on Twitter and Facebook The ideological superstructure has changed: Nobody in Russia studies the mind-bending and once-compulsory pseudo-philosophy of dialectical materialism these days. But the old habits remain. Russian decision-makers, like their Soviet predecessors, believe that the world is a dog-eat-dog affair, mostly run by America in its own interests. All the talk of a rules-based multilateral order, international human rights, or government of the people and by the people, is a sham. What matters is power. America bullied Cuba. Why shouldn't Russia do the same to Ukraine? This thinking applies not only to geopolitics. Russians sincerely believe that Western athletes cheat, too. They just don't get caught. Maybe this is because they are clever, or because the rules are (as is to be expected) selectively enforced. The row over doping is merely a Western sanction, imposed on Russia for the war in Ukraine. This worldview may be distorted, but it is not wholly fanciful. Russians who have worked in the city of London or on Wall Street are understandably cynical about the way the global financial system works. Why is it all right to launder the money of Saudi princes, or of African kleptocrats, but not that of Kremlin cronies? If the West wants Russia to obey the rules, a good start would be to do a better job in following them ourselves.SUNDERLAND — A rock-paper-scissors scenario reportedly played out during an attempted robbery Friday at the Spirit Shoppe, where a suspect with a knife was bested by a package store clerk with a gun, according to a published report. The would-be thief entered the liquor store at 295 Amherst Road with a large knife and demanded money. But when the female clerk pulled out a handgun, the male suspect fled the store without any cash, Sunderland Police Chief Jeffrey Gilbert told CBS 3 News, media partner of MassLive.com/The Republican. That information could not immediately be verified with Gilbert, who was not expected to be back on duty until about 7 a.m. Monday, according to a Sunderland police dispatcher. There were no reported injuries in the 2 p.m. Friday incident, which prompted authorities to launch a K-9 search for the suspect, who apparently still remains at large. The suspect was described as a dark-haired, heavyset white man, about 5-foot-8 to 5-foot-10 inches tall, who was wearing a white knit mask, black Adidas windbreaker, gray or white pants, and black sneakers, according to The Recorder. Sunderland police are asking anyone with information to call the department at (413) 665-7036. A 24-hour police emergency dispatch line may also be reached at (413) 625-8200.On February 10th, 2015, /u/dispenserhere asked the following on /r/DCcomics: Hi, I’ve just started reading JLA. I’m up to around no 15 but I’m still completely clueless what’s going on with Superman. Why is all different and blue? No-one else seems to be mentioning it. I’m guessing it’s something going on in his comics, but I can’t find anything on it. Yo listen up here’s a story about a Superman that lives in a blue world… ahem sorry. Anyway, here are the events that lead Superman to saying “I’m blue!” (DA BA DE DA BA DI… sorry again! That song’s just too darn catchy). Here we go: Origins of the Concept From Wikipedia: The original Superman-Red/Superman-Blue tale is an “Imaginary Story” [Basically an Elseworlds story, later designated as Earth-168 in the pre-Crisis continuity] that appears in Superman #162 (July 1963). The script was written by Leo Dorfman, with art by Curt Swan. In the story, Superman has decided he wants to finish his list of unaccomplished goals, including the enlargement of the Bottle City of Kandor. In order to accomplish these goals, Superman invents a machine, powered by various types of Kryptonite, that will increase his intelligence. The machine works, increasing Superman’s intelligence a hundredfold, but with the unexpected side effect of splitting Superman into two beings, Superman-Red and Superman-Blue. As Superman in that scan notes, this actually happened before under the influence of Red Kryptonite but that time one was evil and one was good, this time though we just got Super Twins. The story is so ridiculous I can’t not share more of it: The twin Supermen successfully enlarged Kandor, freeing its citizens from their bottle prison. They then bring the remnants of Krypton together, creating a “New Krypton” (and eliminating all existing Kryptonite in the process). The two Supermen go on to create an “anti-evil” ray, which can cure criminal tendencies in anyone. They place the ray into satellites in orbit around the Earth, curing not only villains such as Lex Luthor and Mr. Mxyzptlk, but Communists such as Nikita Khrushchev and Fidel Castro. The reformed Luthor goes on to invent a serum that cures all known diseases, which he puts into the water supply. With nearly all of the world’s problems solved, the two Supermen have time to deal with personal matters. The split allows them to resolve the love triangle between Superman, Lois Lane, and Lana Lang. Each woman claims her own Superman, and they have a triple wedding: Superman-Blue marries Lana, Superman-Red marries Lois, and Lucy Lane marries Jimmy Olsen. Red decides to live on New Krypton, sacrificing his powers, while Blue remains on Earth, starting a Super-family. These versions of Superman Red and Blue actually make a few cameos after this too: Superman-Red and Superman-Blue appeared again in a story written by Bob Rozakis and Paul Kupperberg and illustrated by Adrian Gonzales and Vince Colletta and first published in German in Superman Album No. 1 in West Germany in 1981. The story was published in English in 1982 in the oversized Superman Spectacular (an unnumbered one-shot in the United States but published as No. 1 in a series in The United Kingdom.) In this story, red Kryptonite causes Superman to be temporarily split into Superman-Red and Superman-Blue and the two Supermen battle Lex Luthor and the Terra-Man. Superman-Red and Superman-Blue appear in a panel in Infinite Crisis #5, when Alexander Luthor, Jr. is trying to fuse the many alternate Supermen: The 90s Version from JLA Anyway, in a 1997 storyline Superman basically lost his powers but, because he’s Superman, of course he developed new ones: Something odd strikes Superman as his powers begin to fluctuate. A trip to Kandor only seemed to make things worse. Superman found himself as pure energy, needing a containment suit from Dr. Emil Hamilton [which is why his suit looks so different]. Superman’s new form was a blue and white energy being who could still fly (faster than ever) but who possessed far different abilities than those traditionally associated with the Man of Steel. Furthermore, [he could turn his powers off but] when he changed back into Clark Kent, he was rendered powerless. Superman worked with his new powers and continued to be a hero. He found that he was considerably faster, intangible, and able to interact with computers in this energy form. However, he found that he was weaker to energy disruption, and needed to use his powers creatively to replace the super-strength he formerly had. Further details on his powers from the Wikipedia: While retaining most of his abilities, he could now also sense different kinds of energy, including the trail of radioactivity from a passing van, bolts of electricity and magnetic tractor beams rather than his original heat vision. He was also able to absorb the radiation, although this was incredibly painful. He also later discovers he’s now invulnerable to Kryptonite in this new form. Anyway, he has a bunch of adventures, including the ones you’re reading about in JLA. However, eventually Cyborg Superman and Toyman team up to destroy him… which doesn’t go exactly according to plan: In the Superman Red/Superman Blue one-shot (February 1998), a trap created by the Cyborg Superman caused Superman to split into two beings who represented different aspects of his personality, though each believed himself to be the original. Superman Blue was the more cerebral entity, preferring to think his way out of situations and actually solve problems with his mind as well as his powers. Superman Red was more rash, but also more decisive, preferring action over taking the time to think. Over time, these two personalities grew more and more polarized and individual, to the point that neither entity wanted to become one Superman again. Both Supermen deeply loved Lois Lane; unlike in the earlier Red/Blue story, there was not another love interest for one of the Supermen to pair up with. Instead, they fought over Lois’ affections, each with almost no consideration for her feelings; Lois lost her tolerance for this and essentially kicked them both out of the house until they could figure out how to unite. There’s some ridiculous stories during this, like superpowered female admirers of Superman fighting over them (one liking the idea of two of them, one hating it) but eventually the Millenium Giants are summoned and it all comes to a head in the crossover Behold! The Millennium Giants! Superman Blue and Superman Red are not capable of handling the colossal giants on their own. The Giants begin to march over the world, causing havoc and destruction, obliterating the city of Thiena Na Oge and most of the nation of Markovia in their path. The JLA rallies to take up the fight, and the two Supermen are finally able to destroy the giants – but the cost may be the Earth itself! The two Supermen engage in one last, desperate gamble to save the Earth from total destruction – even if it means losing their lives in the process. I’m sure the next part with literally shock you: Not only is the Earth saved, but Superman is restored to his old form and powers (and into a singular being once again) much to the happiness of everyone (especially Lois). So yes, the whole thing was pretty ridiculous and derided by fans even at the time. Personally I love the snark in Wikipedia’s coverage of them merging back together: The explanation is vague; Superman felt he was “rewarded” for saving the world, although he later claimed that he returned to normal when his electromagnetic energy dispersed. So there you have it! And that’s the end of them? Pretty much! Although Superman briefly returned to his electric-blue form when facing Brainiac-13 after he was apparently absorbed by Brainiac’s energy conduits while trying to disrupt his power supply, this was revealed to be the result of Brainiac 2.5 – Brainiac-13’s past self, hiding in Lena Luthor to avoid being deleted by his future self – creating the electric Superman based on scans taken of Superman in that form, allowing Superman to keep Brainiac-13 occupied while his real body was restored in a LexCorp facility. Superman Red also appears in Superman/Batman #25 alongside an army of alternate Supermen and Batmen. Well, glad the New 52 probably erased all that! Well… After Flashpoint, The New 52 was created and Superman’s continuity was altered. However in Action Comics #13, the “Electric Blue” suit is shown inside a display case at the Fortress of Solitude. Now, this wasn’t the only time that Superman split into two separate beings… but that’s a story for another day ;) Hope this was helpful!Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, must be extradited to Sweden to face accusations of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion, the high court in London heard. Clare Montgomery QC, appearing for the Swedish prosecution authority on the last day of Assange's appeal against extradition, said complaints against him showed a lack of consent during a string of sexual encounters in Stockholm last August. She said the charges set out on the European arrest warrant and supported by witness statements amount to valid allegations. Speaking to a packed court four at the Royal Courts of Justice before Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Ouseley adjourned to consider their verdict, she spelled out in graphic detail Assange's alleged behaviour and said the two female complainants known as AA and SW described "circumstances in which they did not freely consent without coercion". "They were coerced, either by physical force or they were trapped into a situation where they had no choice," Montgomery said. "AA says in her case the prelude to the offence was Mr Assange ripping her clothes off, breaking her necklace, her trying to get dressed again and then letting him undress her." He then had sex with her after pinning her arms and trying to force her legs apart to insert his unprotected penis, which she did not want, she said. In an increasingly hard fought legal battle, Assange's counsel, Ben Emmerson QC, hit back at what he said were attempts by Montgomery to characterise him as having "19th-century conceptions of consent". It was "crazy" of Montgomery to isolate a moment of lack of consent within sexual encounters that were otherwise consenting. He said police reports in Sweden showed SW had told a friend, Marie Thorn, that she felt police and others around her "railroaded her" into pressing charges. She had only wanted the police to force Assange to take a blood test after she became worried about HIV after unprotected sex with him, he said. Emmerson said a friend of AA, Donald Bostrom, said "she didn't say at all she had been exposed to abuse and didn't even want to go to the police", and a charge of sexual molestation arising from Assange sharing a single bed with AA was also unfounded. The European arrest warrant said Assange "deliberately molested the injured party on 18 August 2010 by acting in a manner designed to violate her sexual integrity". In an interview, AA said Assange undressed below the waist and rubbed his erect penis against her. She found it "strange" and "awkward" and moved to sleep on a mattress on the floor. But Assange's erection was normal, Emmerson told the court. "He's lying beside her in a single bed my lord," he said. "Men will get erections involuntarily and at different times during a night's sleep. If she chooses to spend a night in a single bed with a man there is a strong possibility she will come into contact with an erect penis. I don't mean that as a joke." "I agree with you," said Thomas. However, Montgomery told the court the definition of an extradition offence "means the conduct complained of. It has nothing to do with the evidence." Thomas appeared to concur: "We are not concerned with whether this is a good case or a bad case but whether what is charged amounts to a crime." In one of several criticisms of the Swedish authorities, Emmerson said: "The clearest possible facts have been concealed through the terminology of the warrant. That is wrong and it is the responsibility of this court to put it right." Assange left court without comment and returned to Norfolk to continue his house arrest. A verdict is expected in around a month.A review of the best secondaries over the last 15 years reveals how crucial these four/five-member units can be in elevating a team to a championship. The advances in the modern passing game have made it so that secondaries need to excel in two areas in order to handle the better offenses on the schedule. First, they need to be able to support the run without getting roasted on the back end by explosive plays in the passing game. Second, they need to be able to cover teams that flood the field with multiple receiver sets and spread the ball around. In accomplishing these aims, the best secondaries are typically marked by five main attributes. Check marks next to every box indicate a potentially dominant secondary. Attribute 1, adherence to the rule of three: Against the better passing attacks in the college game today, a defense needs to be able to put at least three strong coverage players on the field, as offenses are flooding their formations with multiple weapons and moving their top targets around to different positions. Attribute 2, good overall run support/force play: Many modern offensive attacks are geared around finding the force players and attacking them with run/pass conflicts. Attribute 3, a DB who can play in the box: The rise of nickel and dime packages have allowed the classic box safety to maintain a role in the modern game when it once appeared that the position was in danger of becoming extinct. Teams still crave a Roy Williams who can sneak into the box to help outnumber the run game, intimidate receivers in the middle of the field, and serve as another potential blitzer. Attribute 4, a lockdown corner: It's better to have no glaring weaknesses than a single great corner, but a defense can build its entire strategy around a true lockdown corner. Additionally, most college offenses can't survive seeing their best WR completely removed from a game. Attribute 5, an eraser on the back end: Cover 2 teams would prefer to have two erasers, but every secondary thrives when there's someone to make touchdown-saving tackles and plays on the ball while playing deep zone. A great example from 2014 would be Louisville's Gerod Holliman, who took advantage of playing on top of routes in Todd Grantham's two deep schemes to nab 14 interceptions. With those qualifications in mind, these secondaries stand out as the most likely to dominate the 2015 season. Just missing the cut Notre Dame has a chance to field a dominant secondary in 2015, but it has just enough question marks to be left out, including whether Kei'Varae Russell will be back on form and how much improvement comes from its talented but spotty safety tandem of Max Redfield and Elijah Shumate. The Houston Cougars were also a tough omission as they return their top-five DBs from a very strong 2014 unit, but the loss of their trademark, turnover-inducing style on defense raises a few question marks, as does their level of competition. Ohio State misses the mark due to questions at cornerback, where they lack a standout star to pair with their excellent safeties, and the fact that linebacker Darron Lee's brilliance reduces the workload for their secondary. Penn State and Wisconsin both have very strong secondaries heading into 2015, but lack the same firepower in coverage as the top teams, and Alabama may prove worthy of a spot, but its talent has a lot to prove on the field first. 5. West Virginia Cornerback Daryl Worley Lockdown corner 3-star Nickel KJ Dillon Strong box player, reliable in man coverage 3-star Free safety Dravon Henry Talented back-end eraser 4-star Strong safety Karl Joseph Another good run support player and big hitter 3-star Cornerback Terrell Chestnut Capable man coverage defender 4-star The Mountaineers very quietly finished in the top 25 in defensive S&P, and they did it through a fairly unique anti-spread strategy that could be described as "all or nothing." DC Tony Gibson would alternate between bringing man pressures with as many as eight blitzers and playing much safer coverages that would drop eight defenders into zones. All five of the defensive backs this scheme relied upon are back for more in 2015 and they check off the boxes quite well, thanks to the coverage abilities of everyone on the field combined with the physical and versatile play of Joseph and Dillon. With a leap from talented true sophomore Dravon Henry the unit could make another jump forward. 4. Ole Miss Cornerback Tee Shepard Lockdown corner 4-star Nickel Tony Conner Massively talented, brings playmaking off the edge 5-star Free safety Trae Elston Solid on the back-end 3-star Strong safety Mike Hilton A good corner and run defender now upgrading coverage in the back 3-star Cornerback Tony Bridges Between Bridges and Shepard emerging, Hilton had to move to safety 4-star It's hard to believe that Ole Miss could rank high again a year after losing All-American Senquez Golson, but Hugh Freeze's careful mining of the JUCO ranks has actually brought in enough corner talent to move Hilton to safety and survive the losses of both Golson and Cody Prewitt. The "landsharks" are still one of the fastest and most physical units in the country and they'll have the all-important combination down of talent on the outside and experience in the middle.
against Erdogan and his predecessors. That has allowed him to express more comfortably his religious sentiments, which are widely reflected in Turkey. For much of the first half of his term in office, Erdogan focused on political reforms that aimed to bring Turkey in line with European Union political criteria. Kurdish cultural rights were granted, religious minorities enjoyed greater freedoms and the overall public discourse was expanded. Despite the unrest of recent days, Erdogan remains Turkey’s most popular politician, with no obvious rival either within the ruling party or the opposition. “Turkish secularism was too rigid to create harmony in society where you have a fairly observant religious population,” said Mustafa Akyol, the author of “Islam Without Extremes”. “Secularists now fear Erdogan wants to reverse things, since he faces no challenges,” he said. Since 2008, thousands of government opponents from across the political spectrum have been jailed, including university students, academics, lawyers, Kurdish activists, military officers and the alleged leaders of ultra-nationalist gangs. “An administration that has no opposition for balance and no free media to monitor it can easily spin out of control,” said Kadri Gursel, a columnist for Milliyet newspaper and chairman of the International Press Institute’s Turkish committee. “The Turkish experiment has now answered the question of whether moderate Islam and democracy are compatible without checks and balances.” RELIGIOUS CONSERVATISM Legislation passed last month that restricts alcohol sales raises fears over other areas of private life the government may seek to regulate, particularly after Erdogan acknowledged the law was based on the tenets of Islam. Perhaps conscious of the concerns, he also said it was his constitutional duty to protect the health of young Turks. Other issues, including two high-profile blasphemy cases, in which a well-known pianist and writer were separately given prison sentences for comments on Twitter, show the government is remodeling Turkey, Gursel said. “Turkey isn’t just becoming more religious. It’s being made more religious,” he said. A colorful demonstration in the capital Ankara last month, when 200 people kissed to protest a morality campaign, ended in bloodshed when a group of Islamists carrying knives attacked protesters, stabbing one person, Hurriyet newspaper reported. Over his tenure, Erdogan, who served a brief prison sentence for reading a poem deemed Islamic when he was mayor in the 1990s, has spoken more openly of raising a religious generation. He has tried to restrict women’s access to abortions to encourage larger families and lifted curbs on the public expression of religion, such as once-strict limits on wearing the Islamic-style headscarf. Slideshow (3 Images) At the protest on Saturday, Metin, a 30-year-old doctor who described himself as a devout Muslim, said he had lost his faith in Erdogan over the years. “I say my prayers, and I fast, and I considered voting for Erdogan in the past because I believed he would help the oppressed, since he had been,” Metin said, declining to give his last name because he feared reprisals at work. “But now that he has the power, Erdogan has become the oppressor. He exploits our religious feelings for profit. He has become arrogant, and that is a sin.”Gojirasaurus (meaning "Godzilla Lizard")[1] is a genus of coelophysoid theropod dinosaur named after the giant monster movie character Gojira (the Japanese name for the monster Godzilla). Etymology [ edit ] The composite term Gojirasaurus is derived from the name of the giant Japanese movie monster "Gojira" (Godzilla) and the Greek word "sauros" (σαυρος) meaning "lizard";[2] thus, "Godzilla lizard". In addition, a theropod dinosaur with the name Godzillasaurus exists in the Heisei era of Godzilla films, and in that continuity is explained to be the unmutated form of Godzilla. "Gojira" was selected as a reference to the great size of this theropod, which exceeded that of its Triassic counterparts. The specific name "quayi", is a reference to Quay County, New Mexico, where the holotype specimen was discovered. Gojirasaurus was described and named by Kenneth Carpenter in 1997 and the type species is Gojirasaurus quayi. Description [ edit ] Gojirasaurus is one of the largest meat-eating dinosaurs known from the Triassic Period, almost the size of its relative, the large coelophysoid Dilophosaurus.[3][4] The size of its tibia was 469 mm, which was comparable to that of Liliensternus (409 mm) and Dilophosaurus (555 mm), suggesting that it was a large triassic dinosaur, estimated to be about 5.5 m (18 ft) long, which can be extrapolated to a weight of approximately 150–200 kg (330–440 lb).[5] Carpenter (1997) pointed to features of the pelvis and ankle suggesting that this was an immature individual, and could therefore have grown to even a larger size in maturity.[1] Specimen NMMNH P-4666, which consists of only a pubis, was referred to this genus by Hunt in 1994. Classification [ edit ] In 1994 Adrian Hunt, in his unpublished thesis, described and named this material "Revueltoraptor lucasi" which is now considered a nomen nudum.[6] Carpenter officially described and named UCM 47221, Gojirasaurus quayi in 1997 and classified it as a coelophysoid. The original remains attributed to this dinosaur included a serrated tooth, a cervical rib, two anterior dorsal ribs, one posterior dorsal rib, a right scapula, two gastralia, four vertebrae, one anterior chevron, a right pubis, a left tibia, and one metatarsal.[1] Tykoski and Rowe (2004) and later Carrano et al. (2005) agreed that Gojirasaurus is more derived than Dilophosaurus[7][8] However, later study by Nesbitt et al. (2007) showed that the vertebrae actually belonged to the rauisuchian Shuvosaurus, and the pubis and tibia belonged to another coelophysoid, indistinguishable from the contemporary Coelophysis, making the status of Gojirasaurus as a valid genus dubious.[6] Distinguishing anatomical features [ edit ] A diagnosis is a statement of the anatomical features of an organism (or group) that collectively distinguish it from all other organisms. Some, but not all, of the features in a diagnosis are also autapomorphies. An autapomorphy is a distinctive anatomical feature that is unique to a given organism or group. According to Nesbitt et al. (2007), Gojirasaurus can be distinguished based on the fact that its tibia is more robust than that of its relative Coelophysis.[1] Mortimer (2012) has proposed that the observed difference in the leg bone might be just size-related, and not a true apomorphy. Rauhut (2003) attempted to diagnose this genus based on the fact that the mid/posterior dorsal vertebrae had taller neural spines than those observed in other coelophysoids. However, the reassignment of the dorsal vertebrae on which the diagnosis was based would render it invalid.[9] Paleoecology [ edit ] The only known specimen of Gojirasaurus was discovered in the Cooper Canyon Formation of the Dockum Group near Revuelto Creek, Quay County, in New Mexico. This genus was discovered in 1981, in gray carbonaceous mudstone deposited during the Norian stage of the Late Triassic, which based on magnetostratigraphy,[10] was approximately 228 to 208 million years ago. This specimen is housed in the collection of the University of Colorado Museum, in Boulder, Colorado. Gojirasaurus's assignment to the Coelophysoidea, would suggest that it was a bipedal, terrestrial, actively mobile carnivore. Contemporaries of Gojirasaurus included the pseudosuchian Shuvosaurus, and the phytosaur Rutiodon. See also [ edit ]Twice, during the nineteenth century, the Republic of Yucatan existed as a sovereign state, independent of Mexico, and nearly ended up as part of the United States of America. Located in Southeastern Mexico, the Yucatán is now part of the 31 states of Mexico; however, amid the chaos of the Mexican American War, an uprising from the indigenous Mayans, and political infighting lead to the near annexation of the region to a very young United States. The first republic was short-lived, and joined what was then the Mexican Federation, in December of 1823; only seven months after being founded. Eighteen years later, the Republic of Yucatan declared independence from the same Mexican Federation, but would only remain independent this time for seven years, until rejoining in 1848. Near the end of those seven years of independence, a delegation of the Yucatan Republic was sent to Washington D.C., on the orders of then president Santiago Méndez Ibarra. Initially, the delegation was in Washington to argue for the nation’s neutrality in the conflict between Mexico and the United States, as it was currently facing a blockade by US forces. In addition to making pleas for military assistance to the governor of the island of Cuba, the admiral of Jamaica, and the ministers of Spain and England, Méndez also explicitly offered “the dominion, and sovereignty of the [Republic of Yucatan]” to the fast growing United States of America in exchange for assistance to put an end to blockades, infighting, and uprisings in the region. James Knox Polk, the 11th President of the United States, supported the idea of assisting the Yucatan Republic, and the U.S. House of Representatives followed with the so called “Yucatan Bill,” which was subsequently passed, paving the way for the potential eventual annexation of a large portion of Mexico into the burgeoning United States, even if the initial bill only offered military assistance. Polk also made an offer to the Spanish Government for Cuba during his administration, and was eager to secure the western regions of the United States before any European powers could attempt to control the area. However, due to concerns over the nature of internal conflict in the Yucatan, Congress did not act on the bill. They were also concerned about extending a military already engaged in the war with Mexico, and feared a drawn out conflict with the indigenous population in the Yucatan. Being unable to obtain external assistance, Méndez would step down as erstwhile leader of Yucatan, and his predecessor Miguel Barbachano would reach out to the Mexican government for assistance against indigenous conflicts, and returned the region to the confederation of Mexico. Thus, after coming within a vote from the United States congress of potentially being absorbed into the republic to the north, the Republic of Yucatán would return again to Mexico after less than a decade of intermittent independence.The months leading up to our wedding, my wife took on a countless numbers of crafts and tasks. So when I asked her to assign me something so I could lend a hand, a maniacal grin spread across her face, "Okay then. You take care of tracking the RSVPs." I let out a yawn and shrugged it off. How hard could it be? Our friends wouldn't let us down. All that was required of them was to check a box, place it in the prepaid envelope, and send it back with a stack of overdue Netflix DVDs. I'd quickly come to learn that a chunk of my buddies were completely clueless when it came to RSVP etiquette: these college educated, career-established, late-twenty-something year olds suddenly turned into a bunch of glossy-eyed Ralph Wiggums. I couldn't believe I was actually going to have hunt down each and every one of these drunk kittens to see if they were planning (or not planning) on attending my wedding. Hitting a little too close to home? For all of those inebriated felines out there, I'm here to help. Let's get it together by mastering the simplest, and yet for some reason, most difficult, wedding task to execute: RSVPing. 1. Do it. RSVPing to a wedding is not an option. Are you planning to attend? RSVP. Have you already told your friend via gchat last week that you were coming? RSVP. Are you the best man and therefore, it's obvious, you are attending? RSVP. Are you planning to go but you might pull the ripcord and bail if your buddy Griff comes through with those backstage Coachella tickets? RSVP. Preferably declining, because... well... screw you. It's really that simple. Really, as Adult Humans, you should RSVP for any invitation you receive - whether it's to taco night or Trevor's Lord-of-The-Rings marathon, but even more so for a wedding. The most common excuse I heard for not RSVPing is "well, I thought I already told you I probably couldn't make it!" That's what the "regretfully declining" box is there for, pal. For my wedding, I had to track down a buddy of mine who I was pretty sure was going to attend, but I hadn't received his formal RSVP. This was our conversation: Me: Dave, you still plan on coming to this thing? Dave: Yeah. I told you I was. Me: Saying "Yeah, of course, bro" while sipping a Coors Light at a barbeque two months ago does not qualify as RSVPing. I also need to know what meal you plan on eating. Dave: Oh right. Well, what are my options? Still confused? Here's an easy alliteration: Don't Do what Dave Did. 2. Don't assume you get to bring a date Never assume - the exception being if you're married or in a long term relationship (note: we're talking actually long term here - this isn't extended to that girl you drunkenly smooched in front of the Bellagio fountain, but swear you "had a connection" with). If that's the case, you can be pretty sure your significant other has been accounted for. However, if you're still unsure, the front of your invite envelope is the first indication of whether or not the bride and groom are cool with you bringing someone. Is your name the only one listed? If so, you're doing this solo. Still not sure? Pick up that sweet, sweet, A-2 card-stock. Does it say "____ out of 2"? If so, congratulations, that's a green light to Plus One Plaza. If you're still scratching your head, it might be okay to pick up the phone and ask - but just get ready to be shot down. Those $70/plate grilled halibuts ain't cheap. 3. If your date can't make it, don't automatically assume you can bring a replacement. This is really an extension of rule number two. If your fiancé happens to come down with a nasty case of bird flu and you feel like having your "really fun" coworker fill that empty seat: think again. Golden rule about weddings: every attendee comes with a price tag and the bride and groom don't usually take kindly to substitutions. If you still plan on attending without your S.O, you should anticipate going into this gunfight without a Sundance Kid. (The exception being if your invitation was addressed to "Your Name +1" - then you can bring whoever you want.) If you only take away one rule from the three I listed above, please let it be number one. No matter what, you need to respond. This isn't like those obnoxious Facebook invites from that old coworker begging you to go see his experimental band play every fourth Saturday of the month. You can't hit "Yes" without any intention of showing up.These women at the Love Ranch in Carson City, Nevada, wait for customers to arrive. Marc McAndrews Before traveling to Nevada, photographer Marc McAndrews had never been to a brothel. Now he's been to every single one in the state. Over the course of five years, McAndrews made regular trips to Nevada's legal brothels, staying anywhere from a week to a month each time. He stayed in bedrooms in the houses, shared a bathroom with the working girls, and saw the world that no one — except those who work at the brothels — see. "It's a different experience when you wake up in the morning and have to pass the cereal and the milk to your subject. It changes the relationship," explains McAndrews. "People's guards go down and they become more at ease. They start to let you see their world." McAndrews shared some photos from his trips inside the brothels with us. (You can see more photos and amazing stories in his book, "Nevada Rose.")LEAD HILL, Ark. — It was supposed to be a fairy tale come to life, but the hard truth can be read on the signs along Highway 14. One trumpets, “A castle in the making” and “They’re building it. Come see it!” The other sign, more recent, is a lament: “Closed for the season.” That was two seasons ago. The Ozark Medieval Fortress, an attraction founded in 2010 but built with 13th-century methods for tourists, is now a ruin — at least financially. And its investors face a challenge perhaps even greater than building a castle by hand: trying to sell it. The castle opened as an exotic idea imported from France. Tourists paid to step back in time, mingle with laborers in tunics and observe medieval tools and techniques. At stations surrounding the work site, they tried carving stone, making rope and forging iron. A human-scale hamster wheel powered a crane for heavy lifting. Artisans baked medieval bread, mead not provided. “Lots of people know about the medieval but never see a castle,” said Jean-Marc Mirat, 73, one of the founders. “To build one here, I think the idea is pretty good.”SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) has agreed to pay a former employee $2.5 million, more than any individual has received in the settlement of a racial discrimination case filed by the U.S. Equal Employment and Opportunity Commission, attorneys for the agency said on Wednesday. Charles Daniels, 45, said he was called derogatory names and threatened by four co-workers and a supervisor between 1999 and 2001 when he worked as an aviation electrician for the company in Florida, Washington and Hawaii. Daniels, who is black, said that when he complained about how members of his six-person team were treating him, company managers said, “That’s just boys being boys, and that’s the way it is here at Lockheed.” “It was pretty humiliating,” Daniels told reporters at a briefing in Honolulu. “To get called names is going to anger you. It’s going to upset you. And it makes you frustrated because you know what the law provides.” William Tamayo, regional attorney for the EEOC in San Francisco, said the settlement was also the largest ever to be publicly filed in Hawaii. A spokesman for Lockheed Martin was not immediately available to comment.The W.Va. Senate has passed a bill making medical marijuana legal in the state. Senate Bill 386 passed the Senate with a 28-6 vote Wednesday. After passing the bill, the Senate requested the House of Delegates to concur. The bill would require the State's Bureau of Public Health to oversee medical marijuana in the state and it would also ban patients from growing their own marijuana, among other things. Joseph Cohen, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia released the following statement Wednesday: “People across the state stood together and spoke with one voice. They demanded that the legislature let compassion and common sense drive policymaking for once. At the beginning of the legislative session, almost no one thought a medical marijuana bill could pass. But our leaders simply could not ignore the historic groundswell of public support.” “By legalizing medical cannabis, West Virginia will be providing relief to so many who are in pain. Veterans suffering from PTSD, children with epilepsy, and people with cancer all now have another treatment option. And with this new pain relief option available, fewer people will need to rely on highly addictive opiates. The sound private medical decisions of doctors and their patients will no longer be blocked by the state.” “While this new law isn’t perfect, it is so much better than the current outright prohibition of marijuana. This is a huge step in the long fight for just drug policies. We hope this is a sign that the state is ready to turn the corner on how it views addiction and that we are now ready to end the absurd war on drugs in West Virginia.”By Maayan Lubell HAR HOMA, West Bank, March 16 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, trailing in opinion polls, used a strategic Jewish settlement he helped found as the backdrop on Monday for an election eve bid to win back right-wing votes. His main challenger, Isaac Herzog, leader of the Zionist Union, said on Facebook that "Israel will be stuck with Bibi" unless voters turned out on Tuesday for the center-left alliance, which polls predict will take 24 to 26 seats in the 120-member parliament, compared with 20 to 22 for Likud. No single party has ever won an outright majority in the legislature, making coalitions the norm. Israel's president picks the political leader whom he believes has the best chance of forming a coalition to have a go first. Faced with the projected Zionist Union lead, Netanyahu has in the final days of the campaign ramped up appeals to disaffected supporters who have shifted their allegiance to smaller right-wing parties to "come home" to Likud. "The choice is symbolic: the Likud led by me, that will continue to stand firmly for (Israel's) vital interests, compared with a left-wing government... ready to accept any dictate," he said in a campaign speech at the Har Homa settlement. Setting the tone for his three terms in office, Netanyahu promoted the establishment of Har Homa in 1997, in defiance of deep-seated international opposition, after he was first elected prime minister. The settlement is on a hilltop in a part of the occupied West Bank that Israel annexed, along with nearby East Jerusalem, after the 1967 Middle East war. Palestinians, who call the site Jabal Abu Ghneim, have long viewed Har Homa's construction as an attempt to tighten Israeli control around the holy city. "I thought we had to protect the southern gateway to Jerusalem by building here," Netanyahu said, with a construction site behind the podium as his backdrop. "There was huge objection, because this neighborhood is in a location which prevents the Palestinian (territorial) contiguity." Avraham Diskin, a political scientist at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, said opinion polls showed the right-wing and left-wing blocs were both short of a governing majority. That could make two centrist parties, Yesh Atid led by former TV chat show host Yair Lapid, and Kulanu, headed by former communications minister Moshe Kahlon, kingmakers in the frenetic coalition-building that will follow the vote. "In all previous elections there were considerable differences between predictions and results," Diskin said, estimating that between 10 and 20 percent of voters were still undecided. With some 70 percent of the electorate usually remaining loyal either to left- or right-wing parties, "it's enough for three to five percent to move from one bloc to another to... get a dramatic change in the future government of Israel," Diskin said. In an interview with Reuters on Monday, Lapid said "the Netanyahu era is coming to an end," with the majority of Israelis seeking change. Yet despite having been fired by Netanyahu as finance minister in December, he did not rule out working with him again. Netanyahu has focused much of his campaign on security issues, paying a contentious visit to Washington two weeks ago to warn against a potential nuclear deal with Iran. But political commentators said Netanyahu, who has raised eyebrows in Israel by alleging that foreign powers want to topple him, has underestimated voters' concerns about soaring housing and food prices and miscalculated when he called an early election in December. (Additional reporting by Allyn Fisher-Ilan; Writing by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)The way most people meet romantically is through social circles. An example would be when a friend sets you up with someone. Or, you are invited to a party, and meet a woman by being introduced by a mutual friend. In fact, women are used to meeting men in these scenarios. This is why your chances of having lasting relationships with women you meet from your social circle are much higher than if you solely meet them via more anonymous social settings (bars, clubs, even internet dating). So, why not learn some ways then to enhance your social circle, optimizing your opportunities for meeting compatible women? This chapter is devoted to exploring this topic. Expanding your social circle has a snowball effect. You meet one person, they invite you to a party, and guess what – you have just also met 25 of her friends. You meet three people at the party, which leads to 3 times the amount of people in your social circle. Being open-minded and social is a great way to expand our world in an effort to find like-minded people. So, what are some specific ways that we can enhance our social circle? • Saying “Yes” • Be in the know about happenings in your community • Doing things alone • Be a leader • Start Where You Are Saying “Yes” I was recently working with a guy here in New York, in a one-on-one consultation. He mentioned to me that he had lots of friends, but they were not involved in activities that he was interested in. So, I asked him, “what do you do instead?” He said he liked to work out, or go home and read. These are fine activities, but clearly not ways to expand a social life. We realized eventually that his idea of a good time was doing something he knew in advance would be fun, and that this was typically a solo activity. He was not willing to step out of his comfort zone and try something new. My advice to him, and to you too, is to say “yes” more often. If someone asks you to join them for an event, say “yes”. If a group is heading out for a drink after work and you’re invited, say “yes”. Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone and experience new things. You will meet new people, and you may find you like the new activity. Your life can only get larger if you say “yes”, and it will only shrink by saying “no”. The only way to grow in this area, or in any area of life, is to consciously choose to be uncomfortable. Once you are comfortable, you have stopped growing. Also, if you stretch your comfort zone, you will have to relate to people differently than you do in your “safe” zones. We tend to talk about the same things when we spend time with the same people, in the same environments. If we say “yes” to expanding our social network and environments, our social skills will improve. Passionate people are open-minded, and naturally curious about things they do not know. You can’t lose when you say “yes”. Take advantage of every new opportunity presented. Know Your Local Events! Part of being a social person is in knowing what is happening in your local community. There is likely more to your town or city than meets the eye. Find where events are listed for your city, and check it out on a regular basis. As you become more involved in your life by pursuing interests and hobbies, you will be privy to the events surrounding that area of interest. Here in New York, we have The Village Voice which lists each week’s cultural events. Everything is covered, from movies and theater, to music and art, lectures and seminars. Find where this information is kept in your local community, and try some of them out. You can often find interesting, free events, openings, exhibitions and promotions by searching your community calendar. Often, free events are off-beat, and can provide for an interesting and adventurous evening. If you take a date to an event that turns out to be bizarre, strange, and otherwise horrible, that’s GREAT. Leave it with a laugh, proving that you are both open to discovering new things in your community. It reveals that you have good taste and are unafraid to walk away from something boring and uncomfortable, plus it gives the two of you a great story to tell. About a year ago, I was leaving the subway on my way home. I noticed a lot of people heading in one direction, so I decided to follow them to discover what it was they were going to see. It turned out that just two blocks away from my home was a rather large, and very cool, cultural center where they were hosting a big party that night. It involved a large gallery opening, a banqueted meal, and a huge dance party that went late into the night. Had I not been paying attention, without an open mind, I would have never known about the event or the venue, which I attended numerous times afterward. Pay attention to what is happening around you. Often people will post about events, parties and lectures on the community board in a grocery store. This is a great way to meet new people, and expand your social circle. Going Out Alone Also, if no one in your current network wants to go, feel free to go alone (gasp). Why not? Go to things alone, and force yourself to interact with new people. I have always had positive results from doing things alone. The key is to make friends when you arrive. Your goal is to meet new people, right? Why not apply a little social pressure to yourself and go alone, so you cannot hide behind what feels familiar? The worst thing that happens is that you attend an event, you extend your hand in introduction to people and they completely reject you (never happens by the way, but this is the worst case scenario) thereby proving to you that they are snobs. You leave knowing you tried to meet new people and they were just too close-minded to make space for a new, cool person in their little world. With the right attitude, going to things alone is a great way to expand your social circle. If you decide to do this, here is a strategy for increasing your effectiveness: 1) Arrive, and introduce yourself to the host of the party or event (I also used to simply hand them my card, and after a brief chat, ask to be put on their mailing list. This is a good tip for developing ideas for things to do in the future, as well as cultivating a network of cool contacts). 2) Mingle with some of the guys there (way easier for most guys to chat with guys…right?). 3) Now that you have some male friends as a base, mingle within their social circle – who knows, they may have single, available female friends with them. 4) Then, begin to mingle off of their social circle. As you converse and discuss things, bring other people into it – “hey, we are discussing ___, what do you think about ____?” Presto, you have just expanded the social circle. The above is a four-step outline which describes a structure to mingling. Now, you can take this further if there is a woman there that has caught your eye, and you want to meet her. 5) Take the lead, and move the group you are in to “her” area of the room. 6) When you are in her vicinity, bring into your circle the closest person to you that is in “her” circle. 7) Again, take the lead, and present the topic to her circle, connecting the two social circles. Presto, you are involved in her circle. When she says something, take the lead and respond. This begins a conversation with you and her. One word of advice, if you really want to begin a good conversation with her, and make it look smooth in the process – disagree with whatever she says. That’s right, find a way to disagree with her. Then, it makes perfect sense that the two of you talk – as you now have to work out your disagreement! The above structure is a classic way of socializing that has worked for me countless times. If your goal is merely to expand your social circle, follow this and find yourself meeting new people constantly. This is also a great way to smoothly meet the “her” in the room. Of course, you can also just walk up to her and introduce yourself that might be simpler, and more impressive too. Doing that is a lot easier if you have made some friends first, and established a home base somewhere in the sea of strangers. By the way, if someone catches your eye and you feel this strong urge to meet her, here is exactly what you say to meet her. Ready? You may be surprised to find it is super simple. Here goes: “Hi, I don’t mean to interrupt you, but I noticed you from across the room and had to risk embarrassment to meet you. My name is….” That’s it! You could spend all night trying to come up with the perfect thing to say, or simply say the truth. If you do this with a strong posture and voice, while holding steady eye contact, you will impress her. If she is cold or rejects you, she is probably that way anytime someone is direct and honest with her. Cut your losses and walk away. She just failed the test, not you. Got it? A basic rule of social circles is: If one person is interested in another person, the way to signal your interest is to talk to them! That’s it – real simple. Above I outline two strategies to get from knowing no one to talking with the one who catches your eye. If you are interested in a woman, are introduced to her or meet her in the above ways,the best way to let her know that you are interested is to simply talk to her for a while. Usually, when we meet someone new, there is a window of time where we introduce ourselves and make small talk. If you are interested in someone, take it further – show that you are interested by building commonalities and being curious about who she is. Use some of your conversational skills (that we discuss later) to see if you have anything in common with each other. If you decide you are interested in seeing her, ask her for her phone number. It is that simple guys. Talking with her for longer than is the social norm for simple introductions, and you are letting her know you are interested. By the way, the best way to get a woman’s number in any situation is to simply say the following: Unfortunately, I can’t continue our conversation now as I have to ____ (go back to my friends, go to a meeting, take a call, whatever the real reason is for you to leave the conversation), so we will have to continue some other time. How do we stay in touch? I have heard millions of craftily worded lines and gimmicks to ensure getting a woman’s number. If you have to resort to such a highly complex strategy to simply secure her contact information, you haven’t paid nearly enough attention to the basics (demonstrating your personality, storytelling, connecting etc. – don’t worry, we will cover these). If you cover the basics, continuing the conversation is a foregone conclusion. She will want you to have her number.This was my first Secret Santa, so like many I was nervous about what I would get and whether my own giftee would like what I got them. What drew me to this was not receiving a gift, but giving a gift and hearing about how much they loved it. Naturally, I expected that my Santa would want the same from me when I got my gift, although I feel I gave them the harder end of the deal. You see, I don't have a lot of wants, since whatever I need I buy myself throughout the year. My needs are rather meager, as well, and I often don't go above and beyond to get myself stuff to decorate my apartment or my office. I am a rather private person in terms of what I like, so I often go for the practical when I shop. In fact, it wasn't until this year that I got any art for my apartment at all, and I still only had a single paperweight decorating my cube at the office. My Santa must have known this somehow, or perhaps it was a lucky guess on their part. After all, there were plenty of pieces of merchandise that they could have gotten me, and they did a great job picking out what I needed. That isn't even the best part of the story, though! I will admit, as the clock ticked down to the end of the exchange, I was rather nervous and wondered if my Santa was alright since I had not heard anything from them at all. However, I realize now that they were just waiting to have my present delivered at JUST the right time. I had put in my profile that I was a fan of many different movie franchises and TV shows, among them being Star Wars, which I had gotten tickets for a 7PM showing Thursday night. When I got the email that my gift had shipped, I immediately went to check the tracking and saw it was being delivered that very same day! It came, and I waited, checking my phone and UPS while at work, just to see if it would be delivered before I had to leave to go see the movie, but it wasn't. To say I was excited was an understatement, but given it wasn't there, I left my work to go straight to the theater. Less than half an hour into waiting for the movie to begin, I got a text telling me two packages had arrived. I knew what I would be doing after the movie, despite it being 10:30PM at night and usually waking up around 6AM. I had never been to a showing on opening day, and the experience was great so I was riding on that high. My Santa really had to deliver. I got home to my apartment, and was greeted by two ThinkGeek boxes. I remember thinking to myself, "No, it couldn't be, the force doesn't really exist..." But, as I opened the package, my smile only widened as I realized Han was right, it does! What greeted me were Darth Vader & Storm Trooper hand towels, a new heat-changing Star Wars mug (showing off how beautiful the battle scenes in the new movie were as it got warm), C-3PO & R2D2 snack bowls, R2D2 and BB-8 magnets, and a Death Star cookie jar. The timing of this just couldn't have been more perfect! Remember how I said I like practical stuff? Well, a lot of this was very much practical. I took the bus into work so that
mentioned before, you can use multiple online cloud storage services to make the most of the available free space. For your work documents, for example, you might select SpiderOak or Wuala; for streaming music on your mobile phone, SugarSync; to backup files from one computer to another over your local network, Live Mesh; and for everyday files, Dropbox. Advertisement If that's too much overhead, however, the decision for which online syncing service is right for you will depend on your priorities: simplicity and third-party support (Dropbox), security (SpiderOak/Wuala), Windows advantages(Live Mesh), or most features and platforms support (SugarSync). Now that you've seen our thoughts, what's your take on these or other online syncing services? Advertisement You can follow or contact Melanie Pinola, the author of this post, on Twitter.- Police say a man was rescued after being trapped inside a garbage truck for over 10 miles. The Scottsdale Police Department says the 28-year-old homeless man crawled inside a dumpster to sleep for the night and was compacted twice when the garbage truck picked up the dumpster. Police believe the cardboard boxes inside the garbage truck helped save his life. Firefighters say the man was rescued after the driver heard screaming coming from inside the garbage truck. "I didn't think it was possible," said Selena Valdez, who saw the truck being emptied. She and Christina Brainich work near 68th Street and Camelback, where the driver eventually pulled over, emptied the bin, and found the man inside. "We all ran out here and we're watch watching from the balcony," said Brainich. Officials with Waste Management said drivers are trained to deal with this type of crisis. "It is certainly a concern that all of the waste industry talks about and cautions against, particularly in areas where there's cold weather when folks don't have shelter," said Isha Cogborn, Senior Communications Specialist with Waste Management. Scottsdale Fire Paramedics treating a patient who was in the garbage truck for over 10 miles. Driver heard screaming pic.twitter.com/ceYUfjwhJ8 — ScottsdaleFD (@ScottsdaleFire) February 9, 2017 Initially, paramedics treated the man near 68th Street and Camelback Road, however, he has been transported to a nearby hospital for observation to make sure he does not have internal injuries due to the compacting. Paramedics treating patient at 68 st and Camelback rd Scottsdale AZ pic.twitter.com/jL5OT4H6Wm — ScottsdaleFD (@ScottsdaleFire) February 9, 2017 >>VIDEO from the scene: https://www.facebook.com/FOX10Phoenix/videos/1270385443010000/According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the highest temperature ever measured on Earth came on September 13, 1922, when the thermometer at a weather station in El Azizia, Libya, reached 58.0°C (136.4°F). That measurement shifted the title for “the world’s hottest place” away from Death Valley, California, which set the previous record (56.7°C or 134°F) in July 1913. But more recent research says that neither location has a true claim to the title. “Most of the places that call themselves the hottest on Earth are not even serious contenders,” says Steve Running of the University of Montana. The images above show a portion of the Lut Desert in Iran. The top image is natural color, while the bottom is infrared; both were acquired on July 6, 1999 by Landsat 7. In a study of seven years of global land surface temperatures as measured by satellites, the Lut Desert ranked as hottest in five of the years. “The Earth’s hot deserts—such as the Sahara, the Gobi, the Sonoran, and the Lut—are climatically harsh and so remote that access for routine measurements and maintenance of a weather station is impractical,” says David Mildrexler, also at the University of Montana. “The majority of Earth’s hottest spots are simply not being directly measured by ground-based instruments.” That's where satellites come in. Orbiting instruments can scan every parcel of the planet's surface and fill in the gaps in global temperature measurements. In their analysis, Running, Mildrexler, and Maosheng Zhao scrutinized global measurements of land “skin” temperatures from 2003 to 2009. As opposed to air temperatures, which are measured 1.5 to 2 meters above the ground, land skin temperatures reflect the pure heating of a parcel of ground by radiation from the sun, the atmosphere, and other heat flows. In five of the seven years—2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2009—the highest surface temperature on Earth was found in the Lut Desert. The single highest LST recorded in any year, in any region, occurred there in 2005, when MODIS recorded a temperature of 70.7°C (159.3°F)—more than 12°C (22°F) warmer than the official air temperature record from Libya. The University of Montana team found that the location of the world’s hottest spot can change from year to year, though the conditions don’t. Think dry, rocky, and dark-colored lands. In the images above from the Lut Desert, note how the dark, gravel-covered regions of the natural-color image show up as the brightest (and hottest) areas in the infrared imagery of the land surface in the lower image. Lightly vegetated areas (in green, at the right edge of the image) are darker and cooler in infrared because shade and transpiration—the release of moisture by plants—cool the surface slightly. Likewise, the brightest sands in the top image are comparatively cooler in infrared because they reflect more sunlight. To learn more about how scientists measure temperatures, read the Earth Observatory’s new feature: “Where is the Hottest Place on Earth?” NASA images by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, using Landsat 7 data from the USGS Global Visualization Viewer. Caption by Mike Carlowicz.Fiorello Henry La Guardia (; born Fiorello Enrico La Guardia,[a] Italian pronunciation: [fjoˈrɛllo enˈriːko la ˈɡwardja]; December 11, 1882 – September 20, 1947) was an American politician. He is best known for being the 99th Mayor of New York City for three terms from 1934 to 1945 as a Republican. Previously he had been elected to Congress in 1916 and 1918, and again from 1922 through 1930. Irascible, energetic, and charismatic, he craved publicity and is acclaimed as one of the greatest mayors in American history.[2] Only five feet, two inches (1.57 m) tall, he was called "the Little Flower" (Fiorello is Italian for "little flower"). La Guardia, a Republican who appealed across party lines, was very popular in New York during the 1930s. As a New Dealer, he supported President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat, and in turn Roosevelt heavily funded the city and cut off patronage for La Guardia's enemies. La Guardia revitalized New York City and restored public faith in City Hall. He unified the transit system, directed the building of low-cost public housing, public playgrounds, and parks, constructed airports, reorganized the police force, defeated the powerful Tammany Hall political machine, and reestablished employment on merit in place of patronage jobs.[3] La Guardia is also remembered for his WNYC radio program "Talk to the People," which aired from December 1941 until December 1945.[4] La Guardia was seen as a domineering leader who verged on authoritarian but whose reform politics were carefully tailored to address the sentiments of his diverse constituency. He won elections against the historically corrupt Tammany Hall political system, presided during the Great Depression and World War II, implemented New Deal welfare and public works programs in the city, and gave political support to immigrants and ethnic minorities. He was also supported by President Roosevelt. La Guardia was known as a reform mayor who helped clean out corruption, brought in experts, and made the city responsible for its own citizens. His administration engaged new groups that had been kept out of the political system, gave New York its modern infrastructure, and raised expectations of new levels of urban possibility. Early life and career [ edit ] La Guardia was born in Greenwich Village in New York City. His father, Achille La Guardia, was a lapsed Catholic from Cerignola, Italy, and his mother, Irene Coen, was a Jewish woman from Trieste, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire; his maternal grandmother Fiorina Luzzatto Coen was a Luzzatto, a member of the prestigious Italian-Jewish family of scholars, kabbalists, and poets and had among her ancestors the famous rabbi Samuel David Luzzatto. It was in Trieste that Achille La Guardia met and married Irene.[5] Fiorello La Guardia was raised an Episcopalian and practiced that religion all his life. His middle name "Enrico" was anglicized to "Henry" when he was a child. He moved to Arizona with his family, where his father had a bandmaster position at Fort Whipple in the U.S. Army. La Guardia attended public schools and high school in Prescott, Arizona.[6] After his father was discharged from his bandmaster position in 1898, Fiorello lived in Trieste.[7] He graduated from the Dwight School, a private school on the Upper West Side of New York City. La Guardia joined the State Department and served in U.S. consulates in Budapest, Trieste (Austria-Hungary, now Italy), and Fiume (Austria-Hungary, now Rijeka, Croatia), (1901–1906). He returned to the United States to continue his education at New York University. From 1907 to 1910, he worked as an interpreter for the U.S. Bureau of Immigration at the Ellis Island immigration station. He graduated from New York University School of Law in 1910, was admitted to the bar the same year, and began a law practice in New York City.[6] Marriages and family [ edit ] La Guardia married twice. His first wife was Thea Almerigotti, an Istrian immigrant, whom he married on March 8, 1919. In June 1920 they had a daughter, Fioretta Thea, who died May 9, 1921, of spinal meningitis. His first wife died of tuberculosis on November 29, 1921, at the age of 26.[8] In 1929 he married Marie Fisher (1895–1984) who had been his secretary while in Congress; they adopted two children, Eric Henry (born 1930) and Jean Marie (1928–1962), the biological daughter of Thea's sister.[9][10] La Guardia between two Italian officers in front of a Ca.44, c. 1918 Early political career [ edit ] Elected to Congress [ edit ] La Guardia became Deputy Attorney General of New York in January 1915.[11] In 1916, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he had a reputation as a fiery and devoted reformer.[12] As a Representative, La Guardia represented an ethnically diverse slum district in East Harlem and, although barred from important committee posts because of his political independence, he was a tireless and vocal champion of progressive causes.[13] La Guardia took office on March 4, 1917, but soon was commissioned into the United States Army Air Service; he rose to the rank of major in command of a unit of Ca.44 bombers on the Italian-Austrian front in World War I. He resigned his seat in Congress on December 31, 1919. He served as senior advisor to President Herbert Hoover from 1930–33. President of the Board of Aldermen [ edit ] La Guardia during his time in Congress, c. 1929. In 1919, La Guardia was chosen to run as the Republican candidate for the office of President of the New York City Board of Aldermen. His Democratic opponent was Robert L. Moran, an alderman from the Bronx who had succeeded to the Board presidency in 1918 when Alfred E. Smith, who had been elected board president in 1917, became governor.[14] Michael "Dynamite Mike" Kelly, commander of New York's Third "Shamrock" Battalion, also joined the race. Tammany Hall looked with alarm upon Kelly's entrance into the campaign and tried to persuade him to withdraw his candidacy and throw his support behind Moran. When he refused, Tammany went to the New York Supreme Court and successfully sued to keep Kelly's name off the ballot.[15] When Election Day arrived, over 3,500 of Kelly's supporters wrote Kelly's name on the ballot.[15] This number was sufficient to defeat Moran, who lost to La Guardia by 1,363 votes.[16] Immigration [ edit ] As the son of Italian immigrants and an interpreter on Ellis Island between 1907 and 1910, La Guardia had experienced how immigration policies affected the families that came to the United States. He wanted a change for the immigrants, especially with the immigrant medical examinations that took place on Ellis Island. His passion for justice among immigrants, and his ability to speak Italian, Yiddish, and Croatian helped him in his endeavor for justice amongst immigrant factory workers and set him on his path in public service.[17] Return to Congress [ edit ] La Guardia, running as a Republican, won a seat in Congress from the Italian stronghold of East Harlem in 1922 and served in the House until March 3, 1933.[13] A leading liberal reformer, La Guardia sponsored labor legislation and railed against immigration quotas. His major legislation was the Norris–La Guardia Act, cosponsored with Nebraska senator George Norris in 1932. It circumvented Supreme Court limitations on the activities of labor unions, especially as those limitations were imposed between the enactment of the Clayton Antitrust Act in 1914 and the end of the 1920s. Based on the theory that the lower courts are creations not of the Constitution but of Congress, and that Congress therefore has wide power in defining and restricting their jurisdiction, the act forbids issuance of injunctions to sustain anti-union contracts of employment, to prevent ceasing or refusing to perform any work or remain in any relation of employment, or to restrain acts generally constituting component parts of strikes, boycotts, and picketing. It also said courts could no longer enforce yellow-dog contracts, which are labor contracts prohibiting a worker from joining a union.[18][19] Foreign policy [ edit ] Never an isolationist, he supported using American influence abroad on behalf of democracy or for national independence or against autocracy. Thus he supported the Irish independence movement and the anti-czarist Russian Revolution of 1917, but did not approve of Vladimir Lenin. Unlike most progressive colleagues, such as Norris, La Guardia consistently backed internationalism, speaking in favor of the League of Nations and the Inter-Parliamentary Union as well as peace and disarmament conferences. In domestic policies he tended toward socialism and wanted to nationalize and regulate; however he was never close to the Socialist Party and never bothered to read Karl Marx.[20] Champion of the progressive movement [ edit ] As a congressman, La Guardia was a tireless and vocal champion of progressive causes, from allowing more immigration and removing U.S. troops from Nicaragua to speaking up for the rights and livelihoods of striking miners, impoverished farmers, oppressed minorities, and struggling families. He fought for progressive income taxes, greater government oversight of Wall Street, and national employment insurance for workers idled by the Great Depression.[13] Prohibition [ edit ] La Guardia was one of the first Republicans to voice his opinion about prohibition, urging that the Dry cause "would prove disastrous in the long run". This was breaking a taboo, given the fact that both parties "avoided taking a stand on prohibition issues" at the time.[21][22] Defeats in 1929 and 1932 [ edit ] As a Republican, La Guardia had to support Harding in 1920; he had to be silent in the 1928 campaign although he favored Al Smith, a Democrat.[23] Mayor of New York [ edit ] 1933 election [ edit ] Walker and his Irish-run Tammany Hall were forced out of office by scandal and La Guardia was determined to replace him. First he had to win the nomination of both the Republican party and also the "Fusion" group of independents. He was not the first choice of either, for they distrusted Italians. On the other hand, La Guardia had enormous determination, high visibility, the support of reformer Samuel Seabury and the ability to ruin the prospects of any rival by a divisive primary contest. He secured the nominations and expected an easy win against hapless incumbent Mayor John P. O'Brien. However, at the last minute Joseph V. McKee entered the race as the nominee of the new "Recovery party". McKee was a formidable opponent because he was sponsored by Bronx Democratic boss Edward J. Flynn and apparently was opposed by President Franklin Roosevelt. La Guardia made corruption his main issue. The campaign saw mud slung three ways, with La Guardia denounced as a far-left "Red", O'Brien as a pawn of the bosses, and McKee as an anti-Semite. La Guardia's win was based on a complex coalition of regular Republicans (mostly middle class German Americans in the boroughs outside Manhattan), a minority of reform-minded Democrats, some Socialists, a large proportion of middle-class Jews, and the great majority of Italians. The Italians had been loyal to Tammany; their switch proved decisive.[24] Agenda [ edit ] La Guardia came to office in January 1934 with five main goals:[25] Restore the financial health and break free from the bankers' control Expand the federally funded work-relief program for the unemployed End corruption in government and racketeering in key sectors of the economy Replace patronage with a merit-based civil service, with high prestige Modernize the infrastructure, especially transportation and parks He achieved most of the first four goals in his first hundred days, as FDR gave him 20% of the entire national CWA budget for work relief. La Guardia then collaborated closely with Robert Moses, with support from the governor, Democrat Herbert Lehman, to upgrade the decaying infrastructure. The city was favored by the New Deal in terms of funding for public works projects. Ethnic politics [ edit ] La Guardia governed in an uneasy alliance with New York's Jews and liberal WASPs, together with ethnic Italians and Germans.[26] La Guardia was not an orthodox Republican. He also ran as the nominee of the American Labor Party, a union-dominated anti-Tammany left wing group that supported Franklin D. Roosevelt for president beginning in 1936. La Guardia supported Roosevelt, chairing the Committee of Independent Voters for Roosevelt and Wallace with Senator George Norris during the 1940 presidential election. La Guardia was the city's first Italian-American mayor, but was not a typical Italian New Yorker. He was a Republican Episcopalian who had grown up in Arizona and had a Triestine Jewish mother[5] and a lapsed Catholic father. He spoke several languages; when working at Ellis Island, he was certified as an interpreter for Italian, German, Yiddish, and Croatian.[27] It served him well during a contentious congressional campaign in 1922. When Henry Frank, a Jewish opponent, accused him of anti-Semitism, La Guardia rejected the suggestion that he publicly disclose that his mother was Jewish as "self-serving". Instead, La Guardia dictated an open letter in Yiddish that was also printed in Yiddish. In it, he challenged Frank to publicly and openly debate the issues of the campaign "ENTIRELY IN THE YIDDISH LANGUAGE." Frank, although he was Jewish, could not speak the language and was forced to decline—and lost the election.[citation needed] Crime [ edit ] La Guardia loathed the gangsters who brought a negative stereotype and shame to the Italian community.[28] His first action as mayor was to order the chief of police to arrest mob boss Lucky Luciano on whatever charges could be found. La Guardia then went after the gangsters with a vengeance, stating in a radio address to the people of New York in his high-pitched, squeaky voice, "Let's drive the bums out of town". In 1934 he went on a search-and-destroy mission looking for mob boss Frank Costello's slot machines, which La Guardia executed with gusto, rounding up thousands of the "one armed bandits", swinging a sledgehammer and dumping them off a barge into the water for the newspapers and media. In 1935 La Guardia appeared at The Bronx Terminal Market to institute a citywide ban on the sale, display, and possession of artichokes, whose prices were inflated by mobs. When prices went down, the ban was lifted.[29] In 1936, La Guardia had special prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey, a future Republican presidential candidate, single out Lucky Luciano for prosecution. Dewey led a successful investigation into Luciano's lucrative prostitution operation, eventually sending Luciano to jail with a 30–50 year sentence. The case was made into the 1937 movie Marked Woman, starring Bette Davis. La Guardia proved successful in shutting down the burlesque theaters, whose shows offended his puritanical sensibilities.[30] Public works [ edit ] La Guardia's admirers credit him, among other things, with restoring the economy of New York City during and after the Great Depression. He is given credit for many massive public works programs administered by his powerful Parks Commissioner Robert Moses, which employed thousands of voters. The mayor's relentless lobbying for federal funds allowed New York to develop its economic infrastructure.[31] To obtain large-scale federal money the mayor became a close partner of Roosevelt and New Deal agencies such as the CWA, PWA, and WPA, which poured $1.1 billion into the city from 1934–39. In turn he gave FDR a showcase for New Deal achievement, helped defeat FDR's political enemies in Tammany Hall (the Democratic party machine in Manhattan). He and Moses built highways, bridges and tunnels, transforming the physical landscape of New York City. The West Side Highway, East River Drive, Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, Triborough Bridge, and two airports (LaGuardia Airport, and, later, Idlewild, now JFK Airport) were built during his mayoralty.[32] 1939 [ edit ] 1939 was a busy year, as he opened the 1939 New York World's Fair at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens, opened New York Municipal Airport No. 2 in Queens (later renamed Fiorello H. LaGuardia Field), and had the city buy out the Interborough Rapid Transit Company and Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation, thus completing the public takeover of the subway system. When the city's newspapers were closed by a strike he famously read the comics on the radio.[33] Reform [ edit ] Responding to popular disdain for the sometimes corrupt City Council, La Guardia successfully proposed a reformed 1938 City Charter that created a powerful new New York City Board of Estimate, similar to a corporate board of directors. Germany [ edit ] He was an outspoken and early critic of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime. In a public address in 1934, La Guardia warned that "part of Hitler's program is the complete annihilation of the Jews in Germany". In 1937, speaking before the Women's Division of the American Jewish Congress, he called for the creation of a special pavilion at the upcoming New York World's Fair, "a chamber of horrors" for "that brown-shirted fanatic".[34] He also encouraged the boycotting of German goods, led anti-Nazi rallies, and promoted legislation to facilitate the U.S. rescue of the Jewish refugees.[35] Gemma La Guardia Gluck [ edit ] La Guardia's sister, Gemma La Guardia Gluck (1881–1962),[36] and brother-in-law, Herman Gluck (a Hungarian Jew whom she met while teaching English in Europe), were living in Hungary and were arrested by the Gestapo on June 7, 1944,[37] when the Nazis took control of Budapest. Adolf Eichmann and Heinrich Himmler knew that Gemma was La Guardia's sister and ordered her to be held as a political prisoner. She and Herman Gluck were deported to Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria, where he died, as Gemma learned from reading a newspaper account a year after her own release.[38][39] She was transferred from Mauthausen to the notorious women's concentration camp at Ravensbrück, located some fifty miles from Berlin, where unbeknownst to Gemma at the time, her daughter Yolanda[36] (whose husband also died in the camps[40]) and baby grandson were also held for a year in a separate barracks.[41] Gemma Gluck, who was held in Block II of the camp and assigned prisoner #44139,[37] was one of the few survivors of this camp[42] and wrote about her time at Ravensbrück. [43][44] She also wrote that the Soviets were "violating girls and women of all ages", and about her, her daughter's and grandson's suffering as displaced persons in postwar Berlin, where the Germans abandoned them for a possible hostage exchange in April 1945, as the Russians were advancing. Gemma and her family did not speak German, and had no identity papers, money, or means of documenting where they had been. Gemma finally managed to get word to the Americans who contacted La Guardia, who had no idea where they were. He worked to get them on the immigration lists, but asserted in a letter, included in the appendix of Gemma's memoir, that her "case was the same as that of hundreds of thousands of displaced people" and "no exceptions can be made". Thus, despite Gemma's intimate connection with a powerful American politician, who was then director of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), it took two years for her to be cleared and sent to the United States. She returned to New York in May 1947, where she was reunited with her brother only four months before he died. As he had made no provision for her, she lived in very reduced circumstances, in a public housing project in Queens, New York, until her death in 1962.[36][45] Gluck is one of the few American-born women interned by the Nazis. (Another was Virginia d'Albert-Lake.) World War II [ edit ] In 1941 during the run-up to American involvement in World War II, President Roosevelt appointed La Guardia first director of the new Office of Civilian Defense (OCD). Roosevelt was an admirer of La Guardia; after meeting Winston Churchill for the first time he described him as "an English Mayor La Guardia".[46] The OCD was the national agency responsible for preparing for blackouts, air raid wardens, sirens, and shelters in case of German air raids. The government knew that such air raids were impossible, but the goal was to psychologically mobilize many thousands of middle class volunteers to make them feel part of the war effort. At the urging of aviation advocate Gill Robb Wilson, LaGuardia, in his capacity as Director of the OCD, created the Civil Air Patrol with Administrative Order 9, signed by him on 1 December 1941 and published 8 December 1941.[47] La Guardia remained Mayor of New York, shuttling back and forth with three days in Washington and four in the city in an effort to do justice to two herculean jobs. On top of this, he still performed other gestures, such as arranging police protection with his personal assurances for local artists Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, when they were threatened by Nazi supporters for their new patriotic comic book superhero, Captain America.[48] After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, his role was turned over to full-time director of OCD, James M. Landis. La Guardia's popularity slipped away and he ran so poorly in straw polls in 1945 that he did not run for a fourth term.[49] Unemployment ended, and the city was a gateway for military supplies and soldiers sent to Europe, with the Brooklyn Navy Yard providing many of the warships and the garment trade providing uniforms. The city's great financiers, however, were less important in decision making than the policy makers in Washington, and very high wartime taxes were not offset by heavy war spending. New York was not a center of heavy industry and did not see a wartime boom, as defense plants were built elsewhere.[50] FDR refused to make La Guardia a general and was unable to provide fresh money for the city. By 1944 the city was short of funds to pay for La Guardia's new programs.[51] Later life and death [ edit ] The grave of Fiorello La Guardia La Guardia was the director general for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) in 1946. A man of short stature, La Guardia's height is sometimes given as 5 feet 0 inches (1.52 m). According to an article in The New York Times, however, his actual height was 5 feet 2 inches (1.57 m).[52] La Guardia was a Scottish Rite Freemason,[53][54][55], and was a member of Garibaldi Lodge #542, in New York City.[56] He died of pancreatic cancer in his home at 5020 Goodridge Avenue, in the Riverdale section of The Bronx on September 20, 1947, aged 64[57] and is interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City.[58] Legacy [ edit ] La Guardia was ranked first among the nation's mayors in a 1993 poll of historians and social scientists.[3][59] According to biographer Mason B. Williams, his close collaboration with Roosevelt's New Deal proved a striking success in linking national money and local needs.[60] La Guardia enabled the political recognition of new groups that had been largely excluded from the political system, such as Jews and Italians.[61] His administration (in cooperation with Robert Moses) gave New York its modern infrastructure.[31] His far-sighted goals raised ambitions for new levels of urban possibility. According to Thomas Kessner, trends since his tenure mean that "people would be afraid of allowing anybody to take that kind of power".[3] Memorials [ edit ] 14¢ Fiorello LaGuardia U.S. postage stamp issued April 24, 1972. The footstone of Fiorello La Guardia In 1972 the United States Postal Service honored La Guardia with a 14-cent postage stamp. New York's LaGuardia Airport, LaGuardia Community College, and other parks and buildings around New York City are named for him. A strong supporter of Zionism, LaGuardia Street and LaGuardia interchange both in Tel Aviv, Israel, were named in his honor. Known for his love of music, La Guardia was noted for spontaneously conducting professional and student orchestras and was instrumental in the creation of the High School of Music & Art in 1936, now renamed the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts.[62] La Guardia was a fictionalized character in many films – in Ghostbusters II La Guardia's ghost talks to New York Mayor Lenny (played by David Margulies). He was also the subject of the hit Broadway musical Fiorello!, portrayed by actor Tom Bosley and in The Little Flower, portrayed by Tony Lo Bianco. Fiorello! won a Pulitzer Prize, and ran for two years (1959–1961). See also [ edit ] Notes [ edit ] ^ He signed his surname as a single word with no space between the La and the capitalized G which follows, but also with no space between his initial F and the surname; in his lifetime his surname was almost always written as two words. References [ edit ]Authorities said on Wednesday that they determined the identity of the suspected terrorist thought to have set off a small explosion at Brussels' main train station but would not immediately release his name, the Interior Ministry said. Investigators are working to establish further information on the suspect's background. "The terrorist's identity is known. We have been able to identify him," Interior Minister Jan Jambon told RTBF radio television on Wednesday without giving further details. Following the explosion on Tuesday, the suspect was shot dead by soldiers patrolling the station. The train station reopened Wednesday morning, according to DW's Max Hofmann in Brussels. Read more: Madrid to Manchester to London: A chronology of terror in Europe Authorities later said that there were no other casualties in the incident. Investigators are treating the incident as a "terrorist attack," said Erik Van Der Sypt, a spokesman for the federal prosecutor's office. Watch video 02:16 Share Person 'neutralized' at central station: DW's Georg Matthes from Brussels Send Facebook google+ Whatsapp Tumblr linkedin stumble Digg reddit Newsvine Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/2f4IO Person 'neutralized' at central station: DW's Georg Matthes from Brussels The attack took place around 9 p.m. local time (1900 UTC) when the historic city center was packed with tourists and locals. Police evacuated the station, Gare Centrale, as well as the nearby Grand Place. Belgian media reported that a number of other public places in the Belgian capital had also been cleared. Prime Minister Charles Michel and his interior minister were monitoring developments from the national crisis center. "Thanks to our soldiers, security forces and SNCB (rail company) personnel for their professionalism and their courage," Michel later wrote on Twitter. Police wrote on Twitter that the situation was under control and urged the public to follow instructions. Gare Centrale and its surrounding roads remained closed through the night and into Wednesday. 'Wasn't exactly a big explosion' National newspaper La Libre Belgique quoted the Brussels prosecutor's office as saying the suspect was wearing a backpack and an explosive belt. A witness in the train station told Agence France Presse a man "cried 'Allahu Akbar' (God is great), and... blew up a trolley." Belgian media reported that the assailant is believed to have used a nail bomb, which failed to detonate completely. Pictures reported to be of the explosion in Brussels' central station were widely circulated around the social media. "I was behind a wall when it exploded," the witness, railway sorting agent Nicolas Van Herrewegen, said. "I went down and alerted my colleagues to evacuate everyone. He (the suspect) was still around but after that we didn't see him." "It wasn't exactly a big explosion but the impact was pretty big. People were running away." Brussels has been on high alert since twin suicide bombings killed 32 people on the Brussels subway and airport in March 2016. The bombings were carried out by the same extremist cell behind the November 2015 Paris attacks that killed 130 people. Since then, combat troops have been stationed at major public buildings and landmarks around Brussels. The Belgian capital is home to the headquarters of NATO and the European Union. Key figures in Brussels attacks Airport bombing Ibrahim El Bakraoui and Najim Laachraoui blew themselves up in the departure hall of Zaventem airport shortly after 08:00 local time (07:00 GMT) early on March 22 last year. Bakraoui, 29, was known to the authorities after attempting to travel to Syria in 2015. Laachraoui, 24, had previously fought in Syria. He is also believed to be the bomb-maker for the November 2015 Paris attacks. Key figures in Brussels attacks Metro station attack Less than an hour later, another blast ripped through Maelbeek metro station in the city centre, close to several EU institutions. Ibrahim's 27-year-old brother, Khalid El Bakraoui, was behind the attack. Khalid is also suspected of having helped Laachraoui find safe houses for other jihadists. Key figures in Brussels attacks 'Man in the hat' Mohamed Abrini, widely known as the 'Man in the hat' failed to detonate his suicide bomb at the airport. He was identified later from the video footage of the attack. Abrini fled on foot back to central Brussels where he disappeared. The 32-year-old, who grew up in the gritty Molenbeek district of Brussels, was a childhood friend of Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the Paris jihadist team. Key figures in Brussels attacks Another failed attempt Lawyer Vincent Lurquin, representing Osama Krayem, talks to the press at the appearance of Mohamed Abrini. Krayem, 24, also failed to go through with his suicide attack. He was seen with Khalid El Bakraoui at a metro station carrying huge backpacks. Krayem hid himself among refugees to reach Europe from Syria in 2015. Both Abrini and Krayem were arrested in Brussels in early April. Key figures in Brussels attacks More arrests Belgian authorities carried out extensive raids in the aftermath of the attacks and detained several people on suspicion of helping prepare the metro and airport attacks. Smail Farisi, 32, and Bilal El Makhoukhi, 28, still detained, are believed to be the most important figures. Farisi is said to have set up a safe house for the metro attack while Makhoukhi has been linked to Ibrahim El Bakraoui. Key figures in Brussels attacks Who actually gave the order? Federal Prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw believes the order for the attacks in Brussels came from a high-ranking Islamic State official. Investigators have identified Osama Atar, a Belgian-Moroccan extremist, as the main suspect. Atar has served time in US prisons in Iraq. A laptop found near the safehouse used for the airport attack shows that the jihadists had been in close contact with Atar. Author: Aasim Saleem nm/rc (AP, AFP, Reuters, dpa)All around the world, from the Himalayas to the Great Plains, fresh water is starting to run low. It’s shaping up to be one of the 21st century’s great environmental and humanitarian challenges: People use water faster than nature can replenish it. Some people argue that privatization is the answer to the water crisis. But others, including food journalist Frederick Kaufman, say that’s a recipe for disaster. The author of Bet the Farm: How
from the early 21st century, awakens from hibernation in this new age. She brings with her knowledge of a long-forgotten program dating from the beginning of the Trisolar Crisis, and her very presence may upset the delicate balance between two worlds. Will humanity reach for the stars or die in its cradle? Grab this in: Hardcover \| eBook The unmissable and highly anticipated new literary thriller from the author of the international phenomenon The Girl with all the Gifts. Fellside is a maximum security prison on the edge of the Yorkshire Moors. It’s not the kind of place you’d want to end up. But it’s where Jess Moulson could be spending the rest of her life. It’s a place where even the walls whisper. And one voice belongs to a little boy with a message for Jess. Will she listen? Grab this in: Hardcover \| eBook The thrilling new book in the acclaimed fantasy series from Marie Brennan, as the glamorous Lady Trent takes her adventurous explorations to the deserts of Akhia. Even those who take no interest in the field of dragon naturalism have heard of Lady Trent’s expedition to the inhospitable deserts of Akhia. Her discoveries there are the stuff of romantic legend, catapulting her from scholarly obscurity to worldwide fame. The details of her personal life during that time are hardly less private, having provided fodder for gossips in several countries. As is so often the case in the career of this illustrious woman, the public story is far from complete. In this, the fourth volume of her memoirs, Lady Trent relates how she acquired her position with the Royal Scirling Army; how foreign saboteurs imperiled both her work and her well-being; and how her determined pursuit of knowledge took her into the deepest reaches of the Labyrinth of Drakes, where the chance action of a dragon set the stage for her greatest achievement yet. Grab this in: Hardcover \| Paperback \| eBook Following Peter Newman’s brilliant debut, The Vagrant, this is the much-anticipated sequel, The Malice. In the south, the Breach stirs. Gamma’s sword, the Malice, wakes, calling to be taken to battle once more. But the Vagrant has found a home now, made a life and so he turns his back, ignoring its call. The sword cries out, frustrated, until another answers. Her name is Vesper. Grab this in: Hardcover \| Paperback Adrian sul’Han, known as Ash, is a trained healer with a powerful gift of magic—and a thirst for revenge. Ash is forced into hiding after a series of murders throws the queendom into chaos. Now Ash is closer than he’s ever been to killing the man responsible, the cruel king of Arden. As a healer, can Ash use his powers not to save a life but to take it? Abandoned at birth, Jenna Bandelow was told that the mysterious magemark on the back of her neck would make her a target. But when the King’s Guard launches a relentless search for a girl with a mark like hers, Jenna assumes that it has more to do with her role as a saboteur than any birth-based curse. Though Jenna doesn’t know why she’s being hunted, she knows that she can’t get caught. Eventually, Ash’s and Jenna’s paths will collide in Arden. Thrown together by chance and joined by their hatred of the king, they will come to rescue each other in ways they cannot yet imagine. Set in the world of the acclaimed Seven Realms series a generation later, this is a thrilling story of dark magic, chilling threats, and two unforgettable characters walking a knife-sharp line between life and death. Grab this in: Hardcover \| Paperback\| Audible \| eBook The fourth and final installment in the spellbinding series from the irrepressible, #1 New York Times bestselling author Maggie Stiefvater. All her life, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love’s death. She doesn’t believe in true love and never thought this would be a problem, but as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore. Grab this in: Hardcover \| eBook From the New York Times bestselling author of Star Wars: Lost Stars comes a thrilling prequel to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, set roughly six years before the events of the film. Grab this in: Hardcover \| eBook The bestselling author of the groundbreaking novels Under Heaven and River of Stars, Guy Gavriel Kay is back with a new novel, Children of Earth and Sky, set in a world inspired by the conflicts and dramas of Renaissance Europe. Against this tumultuous backdrop the lives of men and women unfold on the borderlands—where empires and faiths collide. From the small coastal town of Senjan, notorious for its pirates, a young woman sets out to find vengeance for her lost family. That same spring, from the wealthy city-state of Seressa, famous for its canals and lagoon, come two very different people: a young artist traveling to the dangerous east to paint the grand khalif at his request—and possibly to do more—and a fiercely intelligent, angry woman, posing as a doctor’s wife, but sent by Seressa as a spy. The trading ship that carries them is commanded by the accomplished younger son of a merchant family, ambivalent about the life he’s been born to live. And farther east a boy trains to become a soldier in the elite infantry of the khalif—to win glory in the war everyone knows is coming. As these lives entwine, their fates—and those of many others—will hang in the balance, when the khalif sends out his massive army to take the great fortress that is the gateway to the western world… Grab this in: Hardcover \| eBook The final adventure in the New York Times bestselling Temeraire series that started with the beloved His Majesty’s Dragon which has won fans of Napoleonic-era military history, Anne McCaffrey’s Pern novels, and Patrick O’Brian’s seafaring adventures. The deadly campaign in Russia has cost both Napoleon and those allied against him. Napoleon has been denied his victory…but at a terrible price. Lawrence and the dragon Temeraire pursue the fleeing French army back west, but are demoralized when Napoleon makes it back to Paris unscathed. Worse, they soon learn that the French have stolen Termeraire and Iskierka’s egg. Now, it is do or die, as our heroes not only need to save Temeraire’s offspring but also to stop Napoleon for good! Grab this in: Hardcover \| Paperback \| eBook The sequel to Alex Marshall’s A Crown for Cold Silver, an outstanding, game-changing epic adventure featuring an unforgettable female warrior. After five hundred years, the Sunken Kingdom has returned, and brought with it a monstrous secret that threatens to destroy every country on the Star. As an inhuman army gathers on its shores, poised to invade the Immaculate Isles, the members of the Cobalt Company face an ugly choice: abandon their dreams of glory and vengeance to combat a menace from another realm, or pursue their ambitions and hope the Star is still there when the smoke clears. Five villains. One legendary general. A battle for survival. Grab this in: Hardcover \| eBook Set between the events of Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, the never-before-told story that began with Star Wars: Aftermath continues in this thrilling novel, the second book of Chuck Wendig’s New York Times bestselling trilogy. Grab this in: Hardcover \| eBook From the international bestselling author of the Broken Empire Trilogy, the thrilling conclusion to the Red Queen’s War… Mark Lawrence’s “epic fantasy” (The Washington Post) continues as a reluctant prince returns from the bowels of Hell to engage in his greatest battle yet—among the living and the dead. All the horrors of Hell stand between Snorri Ver Snagason and the rescue of his family, if indeed the dead can be rescued. For Jalan Kendeth, getting back out alive and with Loki’s key is all that matters. Loki’s creation can open any lock, any door, and it may also be the key to Jalan’s fortune back in the living world. Jalan plans to return to the three w’s that have been the core of his idle and debauched life: wine, women, and wagering. Fate however has other plans, larger plans. The Wheel of Osheim is turning ever faster, and it will crack the world unless it’s stopped. When the end of all things looms, and there’s nowhere to run, even the worst coward must find new answers. Jalan and Snorri face many dangers, from the corpse hordes of the Dead King to the many mirrors of the Lady Blue, but in the end, fast or slow, the Wheel of Osheim always pulls you back. In the end it’s win or die. Grab this in: Hardcover \| eBook The Free Navy – a violent group of Belters in black-market military ships – has crippled the Earth and begun a campaign of piracy and violence among the outer planets. The colony ships heading for the thousand new worlds on the far side of the alien ring gates are easy prey, and no single navy remains strong enough to protect them. James Holden and his crew know the strengths and weaknesses of this new force better than anyone. Outnumbered and outgunned, the embattled remnants of the old political powers call on the Rocinante for a desperate mission to reach Medina Station at the heart of the gate network. But the new alliances are as flawed as the old, and the struggle for power has only just begun. As the chaos grows, an alien mystery deepens. Pirate fleets, mutiny, and betrayal may be the least of the Rocinante’s problems. And in the uncanny spaces past the ring gates, the choices of a few damaged and desperate people may determine the fate of more than just humanity. Grab this in: Hardcover \| eBook Michael J. Sullivan’s trailblazing career began with the breakout success of his Riyria series: full-bodied, spellbinding fantasy adventures whose imaginative scope and sympathetic characters won a devoted readership and comparisons to fantasy masters Brandon Sanderson, Scott Lynch, and Tolkien himself. Now, Sullivan’s stunning hardcover debut, Age of Myth, inaugurates an original five-book series—and one of fantasy’s finest next-generation storytellers continues to break new ground. Since time immemorial, humans have worshipped the gods they call Fhrey, truly a race apart: invincible in battle, masters of magic, and seemingly immortal. But when a god falls to a human blade, the balance of power between men and those they thought were gods changes forever. Now, only a few stand between humankind and annihilation: Raithe, reluctant to embrace his destiny as the God Killer. Suri, a young seer burdened by signs of impending doom. And Persephone, who must overcome personal tragedy to lead her people. The Age of Myth is over; the time of rebellion has begun. Discover the truth in myths and the lies of legends. Grab this in: Hardcover \| Audible \| eBook Ginger Stuyvesant, an American heiress living in London during World War I, is engaged to Captain Benjamin Hartshorne, an intelligence officer. Ginger is a medium for the Spirit Corps, a special Spiritualist force. Each soldier heading for the front is conditioned to report to the mediums of the Spirit Corps when they die so the Corps can pass instant information about troop movements to military intelligence. Ginger and her fellow mediums contribute a great deal to the war efforts, so long as they pass the information through appropriate channels. While Ben is away at the front, Ginger discovers the presence of a traitor. Without the presence of her fiance to validate her findings, the top brass thinks she’s just imagining things. Even worse, it is clear that the Spirit Corps is now being directly targeted by the German war effort. Left to her own devices, Ginger has to find out how the Germans are targeting the Spirit Corps and stop them. This is a difficult and dangerous task for a woman of that era, but this time both the spirit and the flesh are willing… Grab this in: Hardcover \| eBook With 50,000 copies sold of The Republic of Thieves and with praise from the likes of Joe Abercrombie and George RR Martin the saga of the Gentleman Bastard has become a favourite and key part of the fantasy landscape. And now Locke Lamora, thief, con-man, pirate, political deceiver must become a soldier. A new chapter for Locke and Jean and finally the war that has been brewing in the Kingdom of the Marrows flares up and threatens to capture all in its flames. And all the while Locke must try to deal with the disturbing rumours about his past revealed in The Republic of Thieves. Fighting a war when you don’t know the truth of right and wrong is one thing. Fighting a war when you don’t know the truth of yourself is quite another. Particularly when you’ve never been that good with a sword anyway… Grab this in: Hardcover \| Paperback The great city of Alt Coulumb is in crisis. The moon goddess Seril, long thought dead, is back—and the people of Alt Coulumb aren’t happy. Protests rock the city, and Kos Everburning’s creditors attempt a hostile takeover of the fire god’s church. Tara Abernathy, the god’s in-house Craftswoman, must defend the church against the world’s fiercest necromantic firm—and against her old classmate, a rising star in the Craftwork world. As if that weren’t enough, Cat and Raz, supporting characters from Three Parts Dead, are back too, fighting monster pirates; skeleton kings drink frozen cocktails, defying several principles of anatomy; jails, hospitals, and temples are broken into and out of; choirs of flame sing over Alt Coulumb; demons pose significant problems; a farmers’ market proves more important to world affairs than seems likely; doctors of theology strike back; Monk-Technician Abelard performs several miracles; The Rats! play Walsh’s Place; and dragons give almost-helpful counsel. Grab this in: Hardcover \| eBook The Last Days of New Paris is an intense and gripping tale set in an alternative universe: June 1940 following Paris’ fall to the Germans, the villa of Air-Bel in Marsailles, is filled with Trotskyists, anti-fascists, exiled artists, and surrealists. One Air-Bel dissident decides the best way to fight the Nazis is to construct a surrealist bomb. When the bomb is accidentally detonated, surrealist Cataclysm sweeps Paris and transforms it according to a violent, weaponized dream logic. Grab this in: Hardcover \| eBook As the “audacious and subversive”* Shadow Campaigns novels continue, the weather is growing warmer, but the frosty threat of Vordan’s enemies is only growing worse… As the roar of the guns subsides and the smoke of battle clears, the country of Vordan is offered a fragile peace… After their shattering defeats at the hands of brilliant general Janus bet Vhalnich, the opposing powers have called all sides to the negotiating table, in hopes of securing an end to the war. Queen Raesinia of Vordan is anxious to see the return of peace, but Janus insists that any peace with the implacable Sworn Church of Elysium is doomed to fail. For their Priests of the Black, there can be no truce with heretics and demons they seek to destroy, and the war is to the death. Soldiers Marcus d’Ivoire and Winter Ihernglass find themselves caught between their general and their queen. Now, each must decide which leader truly commands their loyalty—and what price they might pay for final victory. And in the depths of Elysium, a malign force is rising—and defeating it might mean making sacrifices beyond anything they have ever imagined. Grab this in: Hardcover \| eBook The second novel in a new fantasy trilogy by Hugo, Nebula & World Fantasy Award nominated author N.K. Jemisin. THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS… FOR THE LAST TIME. The season of endings grows darker as civilization fades into the long cold night. Alabaster Tenring – madman, world-crusher, savior – has returned with a mission: to train his successor, Essun, and thus seal the fate of the Stillness forever. It continues with a lost daughter, found by the enemy. It continues with the obelisks, and an ancient mystery converging on answers at last. The Stillness is the wall which stands against the flow of tradition, the spark of hope long buried under the thickening ashfall. And it will not be broken. Grab this in: Paperback \| eBook As the “gripping” epic from the author of Sword of the North continues, the Grim Company must battle a dangerous new enemy that is determined to destroy all of humanity… In the City of Towers, former rebel Sasha and her comrade Davarus Cole struggle to keep the peace between the warring mages who vie for dominion. But when the White Lady sends Davarus south to the Shattered Realms to seek allies among the fallen kingdoms, he finds that his hardest battle may be one fought within. The godly essence now residing within him offers power that could be used against the Fade—but with every death that feeds It, Cole risks losing a part of himself. An association with a Fade officer grants the Halfmage Eremul a position of privilege among Dorminia’s new masters. He witnesses firsthand the fate that awaits humanity. But with his magic pitiful in the face of the Fade’s advanced technology, the Halfmage must rely on his wits alone to save whom he can… And in the frozen north, the legendary warrior Brodar Kayne fights a desperate battle for his people. He is running out of time: an ancient evil sealed beneath the mountains is about to break free, an evil that is older than humanity, older than the Fade, older even than the gods—and it will not stop until the entire world is drowned in blood… Grab this in: Hardcover \| eBook How’d I do? Are these the most anticipated books of 2016? What books are you looking forward to? Did I miss any major books?Crider’s mom gave him a homebrew kit for Christmas in 1999. By March of the next year, he had 42 kegs, 10 taps, and he’d built himself a 10-gallon system. You might say he got a little obsessed. "I was brewing 20-40 gallons a week, dumping beer,” Crider says. “It was good. It was really good. Out here, when you have three or four dudes drinking the beer, you can't drink 20 gallons of beer a week. We tried several nights. But I'd dump beer so I could make another batch of beer, so I could try different recipes." After homebrewing for six years, Crider's uncle proposed the idea of starting a brewery. It was Thanksgiving 2006, and the pair were on a ski trip in Utah. By the end of the trip, his uncle had convinced him. So he immediately started reading books by Dogfish Head’s Sam Calagione and Brooklyn Brewery’s Steve Hindy, trying to learn all he could about the business. Crider also took a short, four-day course at the Siebel Institute about starting your own brewery before enrolling in the full Siebel course in February 2008. He’s not shy about what he learned there. "When I got back from Europe, that didn't gain me anything,” Crider says. “I came back and brewed exactly as I was always brewing. That school teaches you every single brewing aspect in the world in about 12 weeks—normally it takes 12 years.”How to Defeat Weaponized Empathy I’ve spoken at great length on the matter of Weaponized Empathy. It is the primary weapon of the modern Left. Indeed, it so completely dominates their tactical thinking that everything else in their arsenal pales in comparison. Defeating this weapon ought to be the foremost on the mind of any opponent of the Progressive Left. Almost nothing else matters, at this point. Any victory achieved without defeating Weaponized Empathy will be hollow and Pyrrhic. You may succeed in lowering taxes for a time, or passing some military budget items you want. But the Progressive steamroller will go on, slowly, inexorably, swallowing entire civilizations in the old Fabian manner. The war will be lost unless the weapon is destroyed. What is Weaponized Empathy? It is the deliberate hijacking of your own moral standards, your ability to empathize with your fellow man, in order to force you to serve someone else’s narrative. It is, in essence, a highly sophisticated form of guilt-tripping designed to turn you into a slave. You might consider it an evolution of the Alinsky tactic of forcing the enemy to live up to their own moral standards. But it goes beyond that. It forces an enemy to embrace your moral standards or suffer tremendous peer pressure and socially-engineered “justice” at the whims of the mob. Here is a practical example: The idea, of course, is to manipulate you into supporting certain Progressive policies by showing you the picture of a dead child, carefully positioned to elicit maximum sympathy. It’s like the TV commercials showing starving African children, covered in maggots and flies. I’ve no doubt that the cameraman deliberately engineers the scene for maximum effect. Donate or else you’re a bad person who hates the starving Africans. Support Syrian refugee resettlement in your country, or else you support dead children. The tactic is used for everything from welfare policy, to Social Security disbursement, to immigration and even climate change. Support climate change legislation, or else you want the poor residents of some tropical island to drown. Support Black Lives Matter or else you’re a racist who hates black people. Meanwhile, of course, they’ll show pictures designed to elicit maximum sympathy for one person, and maximize anger toward another. We all remember this case: And so those who most easily succumb to peer pressure are quickly convinced to become rabid Progressives, because it’s intellectually easier to say “oh, I’m helping” regardless of whether or not you’re actually doing anything constructive. It’s easier to be seen supporting the poor, innocent child over the mean-looking white guy. It takes no particular courage to take the position the media talking heads tell you to, for if anything goes wrong with the narrative, you can always say “well, I was just trying to help.” Weaponized Empathy is everywhere. Healthcare policy is not judged on how efficient it is, or the quality of care provided, or even the cost of that care. It is judged solely on how it helps the poor. If it cost a million dollars per person, per year, but the poor didn’t have to pay the bill, Progressives would deem it great success. Non-Progressives would be pointing out that it’s expensive, the quality of the product was poor, and it was bankrupting the country. The response from the Progressives would be simple. They would pull out a picture of a child on Obamacare, or whatever government program they were promoting. The picture would be carefully staged for maximum empathy. Perhaps the child would be crying, his face down, covered in carefully-enhanced sores. Maybe photoshop in a little blood and grime. Turn down the lighting a little, just so. Now, if you oppose Obamacare, you want this poor child to die of plague. Weaponized Empathy isn’t just employed to win easy converts, however. It is also used to mobilize the converted against the unconverted. To use threat of force, of financial ruin, and peer pressure (even within families) to silence the unconverted. To make them afraid to speak. It can even make it permissible to commit violent acts against you. Everyone has that one relative who guilt trips everyone else in the family. If you don’t do something he wants, you must want him to suffer. A false choice is presented, either obey or you’re a bad person. No other choices are presented. The key to defeating Weaponized Empathy in yourself is understanding that more choices exist than are presented by the wielder of the weapon. Opposing Obamacare may, for instance, mean you want healthcare to be better for everyone. Saying no to a guilt-tripping relative may be because he is guilt-tripping you, instead of asking for your help with no such strings attached. You may be helping him to become a better person by not allowing him to blatantly manipulate you. Or you could just say “you’re being an asshole.” That can be remarkably effective (and true), also. But this, of course, does no good on the world stage. The Right-wing has been replying to this weapon with logic and reason for decades, and it never works. The Left almost always succeeds in sculpting the narrative against them. Pictures of poor, bloodied children will circulate on Facebook, and the only alternative to being racist scum is to admit as many people into the country as the Progressive leaders want. The answer is to call them out on the lies. To rigorously tear apart their stories. When the picture looks staged, it probably is staged. Point out that the folks manipulating the bodies of dead children for political gain are assholes. When there is a shooting, and the media posts a picture of a darling little child to try and steer blame away from the perp, find and post the picture of the fully-grown thug flipping off the camera. Then call the propagandists lying assholes. After all, what kind of dickhead puts a deliberate, calculated political angle on a tragic death? Forget what they want you to do. It doesn’t matter what they want, if they are being lying assholes. You don’t need to consider the opinions of liars. What does it matter if they want you to bring in 100,000 Syrians? They are dishonest scum, using cynically-manipulated pictures of dead kids to do it. Their opinions can be dismissed without moral reservation because of this. Say so, openly, and without fear. You have the moral high ground, because you’re not a cynical, lying, asshole. You may have empathy, and may wish to do right by other folks. That is a fine and good thing. A noble trait. But never allow yourself to be manipulated and deceived into doing a liar’s bidding. That isn’t doing anybody any good, except the liar. And that’s the end of it. Charity is supposed to start with truth, not lies. Repeat it like a mantra, until the Progressives understand that you cannot be guilt-tripped by dishonesty. It really is that simple. Like this: Like Loading...I was disappointed with the clear implication in your Meet The Press interview that those of us, in the GOP who defend life, protect traditional marriage and advance religious liberty are intolerant. It was obvious to anyone who watched the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, that NO! had it. There was no way the convention chairman could have heard a two-thirds vote for the YES! position. Three times the chairman asked them to vote. Three times they denied God. Denied Him Thrice! What has happened to the Democratic Party that,in the 1960's, provided such leadership for the cause of Civil Rights? It was Democrats like John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey who supported the fight for civil rights among the white majority in the1960s. Kennedy, the first Catholic president, was in good company in his church. Roman Catholic bishops were among the first to strike out against segregation in the 1950s and 1960s. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was surely a Baptist preacher, but he could rely on thousands of Catholic priests and nuns to join his great March on Washington in 1963. And when he wrote his famous Letter from the Birmingham Jail, he cited St. Thomas Aquinas to make his case that an unjust law was no law at all. For the Democratic Party of Kennedy and King to vote three times to reject God was a shock to millions of black Americans. And it must have been especially shocking to black clergymen who have been leaders in the struggle for equal rights and equal opportunity for four decades and more. It is bad enough these pastors and their congregations have been given short shrift by the new elites in the Democratic Party, but we now see that God was not put in the back of the bus. God was not allowed on the bus at all. Only by an obvious power play did the convention chairman overrule the obvious sentiment on the floor. Anyone with ears to hear knew that the spirit of those delegates was against acknowledging God in the Democratic Platform. How far we have fallen from that great Inauguration Day in 1961 when John F. Kennedy said: "The rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God." No one in America yelled NO! on that crisp, clear day in Washington. What does it mean for a party to reject God? First of all, it means they must reject life itself. We know that God is the author of life. Speaker after speaker demanded abortion, and more of it. No longer would Democrats have any hesitation about abortion. No longer would they say, as Bill Clinton said, it should be safe, legal, and rare. The Democratic Platform dropped those last two words, and rare. Even the usually liberal Cokie Roberts--an NPR reporter--thought the Charlotte convention lineup of pro-abortion speakers was "over the top." She pointed out that 30% of Democrats are pro-life. And who would those pro-life Democrats be? Disproportionately, they are black and Hispanic voters. And Catholic and Evangelical voters. Why should black voters be against abortion? Planned Parenthood's founder, Margaret Sanger, made clear her own plans when she addressed the Ku Klux Klan of New Jersey in the 1920s. She wanted to have more children from the fit, fewer from the fit. When you read about her "Negro Ministers Project," you learn that Planned Parenthood has been targeting minorities for a long time. Today, in New York City, 61% of unborn children of black mothers are killed before birth. Planned Parenthood is there, pushing abortion all the way. President Obama's health care takeover and his HHS Mandate against Catholic and other religious institutions will only increase the daily death toll. Religious freedom is trampled when you force Christians to participate in ending the lives of innocents. Even Herod didn't do that! In 1866, as historian Allen Guelzo reports, Tennessee recorded thousands more marriages than in the previous four years. That's because newly freed black couples were walking to Tennessee to have their marriages recognized by law. How tragic, then, that the Charlotte convention came out against marriage too. They say they only want to add to the number of happily married couples by allowing men to marry men and women to marry women. But we know that wherever these counterfeit marriages have been recognized, true marriage declines. All over Northern Europe, when civil unions were enforced, true marriage ceased to be that special. Just as counterfeit money drives out true money, same sex marriage drives out true marriage. Some leading liberals know this. George Washington University Law Professor, Jonathan Turley, told an overflowing crowd at the Newseum in 2008 that critics say "gay marriage will lead to polygamy." He was wildly cheered by the educated, mostly white crowd when he said: "I'm for that!" President Obama knows that the black community, and especially the black church, is not for that. In North Carolina--just three months before the Democratic Convention met in Charlotte--black voters providing the winning margin for a state referendum that affirmed true marriage. There was no stronger group of voters supporting marriage than black voters. President Obama seemed reluctant to abandon this constituency that has so loyally supported him. Consider how much has changed and how fast. In 1996, the Defense of Marriage Act passed Congress by an overwhelming vote. It won 342 votes in the House and 85 votes in the Senate. It was so strongly supported that it would have been approved if there were no Republicans in either House of Congress. That’s why President Bill Clinton felt he had no choice but to sign it. President Obama has refused to enforce the Defense of Marriage Act and pledges to repeal it. He has openly joined the Marriage Enders. They're not changing marriage. They are ending it. If two men can marry, why not three? If gays and lesbians can marry, what about bi-sexual persons and persons who have sought to change their sex? Why can't they have one spouse of either sex? After slavery, after Jim Crow, after the KKK, it is fair to say that among the worst things visited upon black Americans have been the targeting of our families by abortionists and the effort to end marriage. That is why we are in a crisis. This is what happens when a major party rejects God. Best Regards, Ken BlackwellWe went over what scouts are saying about Max Tuerk. The reason I did that is that you'll get unbiased, level-headed analysis from them. From my point of view, there won't be much of that. This was my reaction when the Chargers took Tuerk. MAX — KP (@KP_Show) April 30, 2016 You'll learn more why tomorrow after we go over both linebackers that were drafted but this team, Tom Telesco specifically, is like the girlfriend that continues to do so many dumb things that get on your nerves where you're on the verge of leaving her and in a matter of a weekend she does a complete 180, gets it together and you're back in the honeymoon phase. This is what Telesco did this last weekend. He drafted the best pass rusher in the draft, a tight end that run blocks better than some offensive linemen in the draft and, well, Max. When I wrote about the top centers in the draft, I thought Tuerk was a mid 2nd round talent. For my money, they got the 41st best player at 66. Now, Tuerk is far from perfect. He isn't as strong as you'd like at the point of attack and doesn't have the mass to compensate. Complaining about Tuerk's strength is like complaining about Keenan Allen's speed. The irony is Tuerk had more trouble against speed rushers than power rushers. Tuerk was easily the most exciting offensive lineman to watch during the draft. USC asked Tuerk to pull and operate in space quite a bit. I don't think I've ever seen a center cover as much ground as Tuerk does in his first few steps. It's pretty ridiculous. It's one thing to move as well as Tuerk does. It's another to actually execute your blocks. Tuerk does both. You have to be a pretty damn good athlete to be able to hit moving targets the way he does. It looks effortless. If the thought process is to make life easier on Melvin Gordon by getting him to the edge and getting a center that can secure second level blocks, there's no better than Tuerk. Watching Max execute made me think I was overrating Alabama's center. Let's look at some plays from the Chargers center last year out in space. Oh, Trevor Robinson. Good Riddance. Even the most simple blocks were a struggle to execute for the Chargers last year. Two plays why I don't think this will be an issue for Max. First, he knows he has to secure the first level before he can work to the linebackers. That said, he's athletic enough where even if he is a second or so late he can still get to the linebackers in time. Second, it's all effort. Tuerk has the mentality where he plays to the whistle. That was missing up the middle last year. While many have brought up Tuerk's strength what they fail to mention is he has the length to lock out and keep defenders at bay. Before I show you what Tuerk can do in pass protection, let's look back at good old Robinson. Trust me, @BoltBaseDD, it gets worse. This is what being the worst player on a 4-12 team looks like pic.twitter.com/woFo4459jF — KP (@KP_Show) May 3, 2016 Let's just say that if the center position weren't upgraded this year, the boycotting would've been at an all-time high. The good news is that it was, and Tuerk doesn't have the same issues as any center that suited up last year. In the video below, the first few reps are against 1st rounder Kenny Clark. 1st rep anchors vs 1st rder Kenny Clark. 2nd rep drives him back a few yards. Then in space. This is my dude pic.twitter.com/FsuPY9P4gm — KP (@KP_Show) April 30, 2016 As you can in the other clips when Tuerk is in pass protection, he has a good base and the arm length helps him. More examples of him in space. The difference, this time, is he's finishing his man to the ground. I could show you endless examples. Needless to say, this is a massive upgrade. Going from Robinson to Tuerk, assuming Chris Watt won't stay healthy because we have no evidence otherwise, is like going from McDonald's to gourmet burgers. Like going from Mark Jackson to Steve Kerr. From a 28" TV with the hump in the back and no HD to a 66" LED TV. I don't have many complaints when it comes to Tuerk because I know how well he will compliment the rest of the offensive line and help spring Gordon on long runs. This was my favorite lineman to watch in the draft, and if he's healthy, I imagine he'll be the week one starter for the Chargers. My analysis is he is #good, and you're welcome Philip Rivers, you no longer have to worry about not having a pocket to step up into nor will you have to worry about your center getting beat almost instantaneously off the snap. This is my favorite pick of the draft. If San Diego took him at the top of the 2nd, I would've just nodded along like there was nothing to see here. Getting him at the top of the third is about as good at is gets. Well done, coupon god.(CNN) The American opioid crisis is only part of an overall drug abuse emergency. Cocaine-related overdose deaths among non-Hispanic blacks are on par with overdose deaths caused by heroin and prescription opioids among whites, according to a study published Monday in the medical journal Annals of Internal Medicine. "Numerous US national surveillance studies and media reports have highlighted an alarming rise in drug poisoning deaths in recent years," said Meredith Shiels, a co-author of the study and an investigator at the National Cancer Institute. However, most of the studies focus on opioid-related deaths, including prescription painkillers, heroin and fentanyl. They also tend to emphasize the fact that death rates are "rising most rapidly among white Americans
species daily. That means those creatures no longer exist because humanity overwhelms its own carrying capacity and destroys the food, water and living area for other species. Thus, humanity creates the most dangerous aspect of Mother Nature’s “carrying capacity” limits. The current rate of extinction within the United States runs at 250 creatures annually. (Source: U.S. Department of Interior) Collapsed civilizations litter history books: Easter Island, Mayan Empire, Incas, Anasazi, Vikings, Rwanda, Haiti and more to come. Read Jared Diamond’s: Collapse—How societies choose to fail or succeed. Those civilizations collapsed via exhaustion of food or water, i.e. they overwhelmed their carrying capacity. (Humans create electrical energy by burning billions upon billions of tons of coal that pollutes the atmosphere that creates air polluted cities and acid rain that destroys top soil and acidifies our oceans that kills marine, avian, plant and reef life. With endless population growth, it can only worsen beyond solving.) Photo by National Geographic Today, nearly all of humanity overrides its carrying capacity in oil-driven and oil-fed countries. Without oil, the United States could not exist with its 315 million inhabitants. Without the gasoline-filled tractors planting and harvesting enormous amounts of food, we could not feed the current number of people in the USA. Noted geologist Walter Youngquist said, “This is going to be an interesting decade, for the perfect storm is brewing—energy, immigration and oil imports. China grows in direct confrontation for remaining oil. I think the USA is on a big, slippery downhill slope. Will the thin veneer of civilization survive?” Youngquist continued, “Beyond oil, population is the number one problem of the 21st century, for when oil is gone as we know and use it today—and it WILL be gone—population will still be here.” He states the obvious. Today, accelerating from 7.1 billion humans, our species will grow to 10.1 billion hungry people by mid-century. Unfortunately, by 2050, humans will have used up most of the oil on the planet. Our current rate of 84 million barrels per day pales in comparison of the predicted usage by China by 2030 of 98 million barrels per day. With the added 3.1 billion humans, oil usage will grow to over 200 million barrels burned daily. The carbon footprint havoc on our biosphere and oceans will prove cataclysmic. (Source: The Long Emergency by James Howard Kunstler) (Oil spills and oil drilling create endless damage to our biosphere and to wildlife worldwide. The grease job on this pelican caused his death.) Photo by National Geographic When you look back on history’s ragged mane, those collapsed civilizations passed into oblivion without much fanfare. But with major cities like Los Angeles sporting 12 million; New York City with 19 million; Mexico City with 19 million; Bombay with 20 million; Sao Paulo with 20 million; Delhi with 22 million; Tokyo featuring a staggering 36 million and all the other overloaded cities around the world—it becomes obvious that humanity cannot exist without oil—but oil will soon vanish. Unfortunately, nothing on technology’s horizon can duplicate the energy we receive from oil. To say it’s going to get ugly with that many people bunched up in those cities may be the understatement of the 21stcentury. At the end of Kendall’s statement, he said, “…and will leave a ravaged world.” You may appreciate the “Seven wonders of the world” created by human beings. Glorious triumphs of architecture and human engineering! However, we could add the “Seven tragedies of the world” created by humans such as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, Sixth Extinction Session, Overly polluted Biosphere, Acidified and Destroyed Oceans, Acid Rain Phenomenon, Destruction of Worldwide Rainforests, Human Misery Index and more to come. We may prove ourselves a clever species, but none too smart. None too reasoning. None too rational. None too proactive. Can America lead the world in this quest for a sustainable future? Can it change its course from its current overload of 315 million on its way to 625 million within this century and probably on toward 1 billion in the first part of the 22nd century? As Dr.Kendall stated, “If we don’t halt population growth with justice and compassion, it will be done for us by nature, brutally and without pity – and will leave a ravaged world.” We need to get busy in order to provide a livable world for all creatures including ourselves. ## If you would like to make a difference, please join these organizations for the most effective collective action you can take: www.CapsWeb.org ; www.NumbersUSA.org ; www.TheSocialContract.com ; www.Fairus.org Join me, Frosty Wooldridge, with Dave Chaffin, host of the Morning Zone at 650 AM, www.KGAB.com, Cheyenne, Wyoming every Monday 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m., as we discuss my latest commentaries on www.NewsWithViews.com about issues facing America. You may stream the show on your computer. You may call in at: 1-888-503-6500. ## In a five minute astoundingly simple yet brilliant video, “Immigration, Poverty, and Gum Balls”,Roy Beck, director of www.numbersusa.ORG, graphically illustrates the impact of overpopulation. Take five minutes to see for yourself: “Immigration by the numbers—off the chart” by Roy Beck This 10 minute demonstration shows Americans the results of unending mass immigration on the quality of life and sustainability for future generations: in a few words, “Mind boggling!” www.NumbersUSA.org This is the best website to start: www.numbersusa.org ; watch Roy Beck’s“Immigration by the Numbers” at 14 minutes. Bi-partisan and very effective. Become a faxer of pre-written letters to your reps to make positive change. Visit www.TheSocialContract.comfor the best information on what we face as a civilization as to overpopulation, energy, immigration and much more. Canada www.immigrationwatchcanada.org; in Australia www.population.org.auandPublicPopForum@yahoogroups.com; in Great Britain www.populationmatters.org; and dozens of other sites accessed at www.frostywooldridge.com. In Florida, www.flimen.org. Must see DVD: "Blind Spot" www.snagfilms.com/films/title/blind_spot/, This movie illustrates America's future without oil, water and other resources to keep this civilization functioning. It's a brilliant educational movie! www.blindspotdoc.com Must see: Rapid Population Decline, seven minute video by Dr. Jack Alpert- www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTWduFB_RX0 Dave Gardner, President, Citizen-Powered Media ; Producing the Documentary, GROWTH BUSTERS; presents Hooked on Growth: Our Misguided Quest for Prosperity, Join the cause at www.growthbusters.org ; Trailer to his latest movie on overpopulation: http://youtu.be/KLWxWOcUrVc Check out this link with Wooldridge on bicycle and Lester Brown and panel discussion: www.upnorthmedia.org/watchupnorthtv.asp?SDBFid=1631 Tomorrow's Americaproject on www.youtube.com/contemporarylearning. Producer: GEORGE A. COLBURNwww.tomorrowsamerica.com DC: 202-258-4887 Email: gac@starbrightmc.com Link to www.tomorrowsamerica.comfor more discussions on America's predicament. FOR MORE INFORMATION: www.starbrightmediacorp.com www.tomorrowsamerica.com Alexandra Paul talks about human overpopulation and saving our world by all women having 1 child only: One planet, one child: http://www.worldpopulationbalance.org/content/one-planet-onechild This film will rock you: MOTHER: CARING FOR 7 BILLION Dr. Jack Alpert, www.skil.org Too Many People Video series How Much Degrowth is Enough? "NEW" Sept. 2012 The Human Predicament and What to Do About It Feb. 2012 Overpopulation Means Civilization Collapse Aug. 2011 =================================================== We must come to terms with birth control and stabilizing human population. This three minute video brings the terror of India’s predicament up close and personal by Paul Winn of Australia: ## Frosty Wooldridge has bicycled across six continents - from the Arctic to the South Pole - as well as eight times across the USA, coast to coast and border to border. In 2005, he bicycled from the Arctic Circle, Norway to Athens, Greece. In 2012, he bicycled coast to coast across America. He presents “The Coming Population Crisis facing America: what to do about it.” www.frostywooldridge.com. His latest book is: How to Live a Life of Adventure: The Art of Exploring the World by Frosty Wooldridge, copies at 1 888 280 7715/ Motivational program: How to Live a Life of Adventure: The Art of Exploring the World by Frosty Wooldridge, click: www.HowToLiveALifeOfAdventure.com Live well, laugh often, celebrate daily and enjoy the ride,GOLD Coast CEO Mark Evans has completed his clean-out at the Suns with the last remaining foundation senior football figure, Scott Clayton, to depart after this month’s draft. The Suns were caught out on Monday when GWS cut ties with list manager Craig Cameron after learning of his intention to join Gold Coast. DEFECTION: GIANTS LIST BOSS RESIGNS FOR NEW ROLE AT SUNS RECRUITER: GARY BUCKENARA NAMES HIS TOP 30 DRAFT PROSPECTS FOR 2017 LOCKED IN: THE 2017 NATIONAL DRAFT ORDER The Giants’ move prompted headlines about a cold war between the expansion clubs but in reality it only created another minor embarrassment for the Suns over the bungled handling of the departure of a long serving staff member. Clayton was long odds to retain his position after coach Rodney Eade and football manager Marcus Ashcroft were both sacked following Evans’ review. media_camera Scott Clayton will leave Gold Coast after the draft. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin But the Suns had hoped the news would hold until after the draft when an announcement could be made presenting it as a mutual decision. Gold Coast have yet to appoint a replacement for Ashcroft and have hinted at a restructure where Cameron might fulfil some of the football manager’s duties. Clayton is the only senior figure still at the club from their inaugural season in 2011. It is understood he knew he would not be at the club next year before the Giants’ announcement on Monday. NEW COACH: SUNS SIGN SWANS ASSISTANT DEW AS SENIOR COACH TRADE PERIOD: LIST GURU GARY BUCKENARA RATES YOUR CLUB’S TRADE PERIOD LIST CHANGES: YOUR CLUB’S RETIREMENTS, DELISTINGS AND ROOKIE PROMOTIONS GWS have demanded Cameron play no part in the upcoming draft but it appears to be just a shot across Gold Coast’s bows with the club already confirming Clayton was staying on until the end of the month. The Giants have pick 11 as their first selection in this year’s draft, while the Suns have pick 19. “We can confirm that Scott Clayton will lead the club through the draft period later this month,’’ a spokesman said in a statement. media_camera Gold Coast has poached GWS list boss Craig Cameron. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin Sources within GWS claim their outrage stems from the fact that any Suns appointments must be approved by the AFL, which means that headquarters had sanctioned a poaching raid. However, Suns insiders said the initial approach was made by Cameron. Gold Coast are surprised at the GWS reaction given the Giants had made a play for Suns senior assistant coach Dean Solomon during the 2017 season. INTERNATIONAL RULES: INJURIES THREATEN FUTURE OF THE SERIES Cameron only arrived at the Giants in May last year and is understood to have been contracted until the end of 2019. Cameron worked with Suns chief executive Mark Evans at Melbourne before spending several years at Richmond. media_camera Pearce Hanley was injured while playing for Ireland against Australia in Sunday’s first International Rules clash. Picture: Sarah Reed Meanwhile, Pearce Hanley will undergo scans on Tuesday on a suspected broken hand that may require surgery. Hanley suffered the injury while playing for Ireland in the International Rules series opener in Adelaide on Sunday. He flew back to the Coast on Monday night. The Suns suspect it is a fractured metacarpal. If surgery is required Hanley may have to skip a week or two of ball work but would be fit to start running when he returns to training in two weeks.TORONTO (Rio 2016 Olympic Games) - Minnesota Timberwolves guard Andrew Wiggins believes Canada "would have given the USA a run for their money" if they had made it to the Olympics. Wiggins and Canada, who failed to qualify for the Rio de Janeiro Games when they lost to Venezuela in the Semi-Finals at the 2015 FIBA Americas Championship in Mexico City, had to sit and watch as the USA plodded through the Group Phase in Rio de Janeiro before marching to the gold medal in convincing fashion in the knockout round. "I wish we would have made it when we had the qualifier in Mexico last summer," Wiggins said to the postgame.com. "Even looking at the Olympics now, looking at the teams that were in there. The Canadian team has the second most talent on there." Andrew Wiggins (@22wiggins) believes Canada is the second most-talented nation in basketball. pic.twitter.com/m3Iba8HgFP — ThePostGame.com (@ThePostGame) September 21, 2016 France, the team that beat Canada in the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament Final in the Philippines, might beg to differ, as well as Spain, who are No. 2 in the FIBA World Rankings. Venezuela, the team that beat the Canadians last year, lost to the USA in their Group A game, 113-69. "I feel like we would have competed and played hard and played a big factor in that Olympics but you know, we're looking forward to Tokyo in four years," Wiggins said. Wiggins did not play for Canada at the OQT, depriving the team of one its most talented players. It was a tough decision to take but Wiggins believes it was the right one. "This year was just kind of unfortunate for me," he said. "I couldn't help them get there because I had some other obligations. "I tried to just better myself with the Minnesota Timberwolves and take my game to the next level so in four years, we (Canada) can do even bigger and better." The Canada players that did show up gave everything they had to reach Rio, including Tristan Thompson. The NBA star showed up short of rest after his team's triumph over the Golden State Warriors in the Finals and played well but Canada lost to to the French in the OQT, 83-74. FIBAParkinson's disease, a disorder which affects movement and cognition, affects over a million Americans, including actor Michael J. Fox, who first brought it to the attention of many TV-watching Americans. It's characterized by a gradual loss of neurons that produce dopamine. Mutations in the gene known as DJ-1 lead to accelerated loss of dopaminergic neurons and result in the onset of Parkinson's symptoms at a young age. The ability to modify the activity of DJ-1 could change the progress of the disease, says Dr. Nirit Lev, a researcher at Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and a movement disorders specialist at Rabin Medical Center. Working in collaboration with Profs. Dani Offen and Eldad Melamed, Dr. Lev has now developed a peptide which mimics DJ-1's normal function, thereby protecting dopamine-producing neurons. What's more, the peptide can be easily delivered by daily injections or absorbed into the skin through an adhesive patch. Based on a short protein derived from DJ-1 itself, the peptide has been shown to freeze neurodegeneration in its tracks, reducing problems with mobility and leading to greater protection of neurons and higher dopamine levels in the brain. Dr. Lev says that this method, which has been published in a number of journals including the Journal of Neural Transmission, could be developed as a preventative therapy. Guarding dopamine levels As we age, we naturally lose dopamine-producing neurons. Parkinson's patients experience a rapid loss of these neurons from the onset of the disease, leading to much more drastic deficiencies in dopamine than the average person. Preserving dopamine-producing neurons can mean the difference between living life as a Parkinson's patient or aging normally, says Dr. Lev. The researchers set out to develop a therapy based on the protective effects of DJ-1, using a short peptide based on the healthy version of DJ-1 itself as a vehicle. "We attached the DJ-1-related peptide to another peptide that would allow it to enter the cells, and be carried to the brain," explains Dr. Lev. In pre-clinical trials, the treatment was tested on mice utilizing well-established toxic and genetic models for Parkinson's disease. From both a behavioral and biochemical standpoint, the mice that received the peptide treatment showed remarkable improvement. Symptoms such as mobility dysfunctions were reduced significantly, and researchers noted the preservation of dopamine-producing neurons and higher dopamine levels in the brain. Preliminary tests indicate that the peptide is a viable treatment option. Though many peptides have a short life span and degrade quickly, this peptide does not. Additionally, it provides a safe treatment option because peptides are organic to the body itself. Filling an urgent need According to Dr. Lev, this peptide could fill a gap in the treatment of Parkinson's disease. "Current treatments are lacking because they can only address symptoms -- there is nothing that can change or halt the disease," she says. "Until now, we have lacked tools for neuroprotection." The researchers also note the potential for the peptides to be used preventatively. In some cases, Parkinson's can be diagnosed before motor symptoms begin with the help of brain scans, explains Dr. Lev, and patients who have a genetic link to the disease might opt for early testing. A preventative therapy could help many potential Parkinson's patients live a normal life.M. Henry Linder, Richard Peach, and Robert RichHow tight is the labor market? The unemployment rate is down substantially from its October 2009 peak, but two-thirds of the decline is due to people dropping out of the labor force. In addition, an unusually large share of the unemployed has been out of work for twenty-seven weeks or more—the long-duration unemployed. These statistics suggest that there remains a great deal of slack in U.S. labor markets, which should be putting downward pressure on labor compensation. Instead, compensation growth has moved modestly higher since 2009. A potential explanation is that the long-duration unemployed exert less influence on wages than the short-duration unemployed, a hypothesis we examine here. While preliminary, our findings provide some support for this hypothesis and show that models taking into account unemployment duration produce more accurate forecasts of compensation growth. The hypothesis that individuals who are unemployed for long durations have less impact on the behavior of wages than the recently unemployed is not new. Insider-outsider models make this prediction, and a paper by Ricardo Llaudes finds strong support for this proposed explanation in data for European countries. What is new is the relevance of this hypothesis for movements in wage rates in the United States. In particular, conventional models—such as Phillips curve models—have generally underpredicted compensation growth since 2009. These models typically rely on the total unemployment rate as the measure of labor market tightness. If the long-duration unemployment rate has limited impact on the compensation growth process, then its relatively large share in the unemployment rate in recent years could account for the underprediction of standard Phillips curve models.The chart below plots the total, long-duration, and short-duration unemployment rates, with the division between short- and long-duration unemployment defined, respectively, by unemployment spells of 26 weeks or less and 27 weeks or more. Until the past few years, the U.S. experience has been that most fluctuations in the total unemployment rate were driven by the short-duration unemployment rate. The average of the long-duration unemployment rate was only 1.0 percent from 1960:Q1 to 2007:Q4, with deviations around the average fairly muted and short-lived. However, the long-duration unemployment rate rose to over 4.0 percent during 2009-10, and by December 2013 has only moved down to 2.6 percent.So, is it important to distinguish between short-duration and long-duration unemployment in the United States? In a recent study, Robert Gordon of Northwestern University uses a Phillips curve model to examine the behavior of price inflation from the early 1960s through early 2013. His findings indicate that short-duration unemployment has a much greater impact on price inflation than does long-duration unemployment. Further, out-of-sample forecasts using short-duration unemployment track price inflation much more closely than those based on the total unemployment rate, especially during the post-2008 period. Our analysis complements the recent work of Gordon and offers some evidence on the robustness of his results by looking at compensation growth, as well as by specifying a different Phillips curve model and by examining a shorter sample period that runs from 1997 through the present.In a conventional compensation Phillips curve model, the indicator of resource utilization is the unemployment gap, measured as the difference between the unemployment rate and the non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU). Conceptually, if the economy were operating with the unemployment rate at NAIRU, inflation would not have a tendency to either increase or decrease. Positive values of the unemployment gap indicate excess supply conditions in the labor market which should put downward pressure on compensation growth (and vice versa).We compare forecasts of compensation growth using two alternative measures of the unemployment gap—one based on the total unemployment rate and another based on the short-duration unemployment rate. The total unemployment gap measure is the difference, measured in percentage points, between the total unemployment rate and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate of NAIRU. The short-duration unemployment gap is constructed as the difference between the short-duration unemployment rate and our estimate of the short-duration NAIRU. The latter is the CBO estimate of NAIRU less the average of the long-duration unemployment rate calculated over the 1997-2007 period.As shown in the chart below, there had been a very close correspondence between the two unemployment gaps until the onset of the most recent recession. Currently, the total unemployment gap indicates a large amount of slack in the labor market, while the short-duration unemployment gap indicates little, if any slack.Following an earlier post on compensation growth, we specify a nonlinear compensation Phillips curve model (see this paper by Fuhrer, Olivei, and Tootell for a discussion of modeling the nonlinearity). The model relates the four-quarter growth rate in compensation per hour in the nonfarm business sector, relative to trend productivity growth and long-run inflation expectations, to resource utilization. For trend productivity growth, we use a twelve-quarter moving average of the (annualized) quarterly growth rate of productivity. For expected inflation, we construct a measure for the personal consumption expenditure index (PCE) by adjusting the Survey of Professional Forecasters ten-year expected CPI inflation series to account for the usual differential between CPI and PCE inflation. As in our previous post, we focus on the post-1997 period because it represents a low-inflation environment, based on the level and stability of the expected inflation series, and because we believe the nonlinearity may be especially relevant in such an environment.We examine both the within-sample fit and out-of-sample forecasts of the models to evaluate the alternative unemployment gap measures. The out-of-sample forecast performance is based on estimation of the model using data through 2007:Q4. With the resulting estimated model, we input the actual values of the unemployment gap, trend productivity growth, and expected inflation series for the post-2007:Q4 period to generate forecasts of compensation growth. The first forecast corresponds to compensation growth from 2008:Q1 to 2009:Q1.The next chart plots the four-quarter change in compensation growth, the within-sample fit of the models through 2007:Q4, and the post-2007:Q4 out-of-sample forecasts.Not surprisingly, the within-sample fit of the two models is very similar due to the two unemployment gap measures closely tracking each other during this period. The out-of-sample forecasts, however, reveal the different implications of the two unemployment gap measures. While the compensation growth series displays some volatility and both models missed the initial slowing and subsequent rebound in the series, the forecast using the short-duration unemployment gap does a better job tracking the subsequent movements in compensation growth and is about 10 percent more accurate than the forecast that ignores the duration of unemployment. The graph also illustrates that the forecast using the total unemployment gap have consistently underpredicted compensation growth, a feature shared by price-inflation Phillips curve models. Although they are not shown, we obtain similar results if we start the out-of-sample forecasts in 2004:Q4.Our results raise an interesting question—why has the distinction between short-duration and long-duration unemployment in the United States previously received so little attention? One answer is that the close correspondence between the total unemployment rate and the short-duration unemployment rate has masked the importance of the latter variable. If movements in the unemployment rate are largely driven by the short-duration unemployment rate, then the unemployment gap is a suitable proxy for measuring slack in the labor market—even if the appropriate measure is the short-duration unemployment gap. It is only since the last recession and its aftermath, when the composition of the total unemployment rate deviated from its historical pattern, that we can observe the differential effects of unemployment duration on compensation growth.The views expressed in this post are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York or the Federal Reserve System. Any errors or omissions are the responsibility of the authors.M. Henry Linder is a senior research associate in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Research and Statistics Group. Richard Peach is a senior vice president in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Research and Statistics Group. Robert Rich is an assistant vice president in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Research and Statistics Group.Buy Photo The Coca-Cola bottling plant, owned by Indianapolis Public Schools, sits along Massachusetts Avenue. (Photo: Mykal McEldowney/IndyStar 2016 file photo)Buy Photo The Indianapolis City-County Council on Monday night faced an unusual question about the planned development of an old Coca-Cola bottling plant on Massachusetts Avenue: How much is a seat at the negotiating table worth? Despite objections from both sides of the aisle, the council voted 14-8 to approve a proposal that gives the city the chance to hammer out a project agreement with the proposed site developer. But there's a catch: The city also had to agree to buy the plant for $12 million from Indianapolis Public Schools if the deal fell through. Today, the building is owned by IPS and is used as a service center for school buses. But the district in 2015 announced plans to sell the plant for redevelopment. In May, the School Board set in motion a tentative deal to do just that. Under the proposed deal, Wisconsin-based Hendricks Commercial Development would buy the property for $12 million and develop a $260 million mixed-use project, with apartments, a hotel and a dinner-movie theater. The plans also call for 339,000 square feet of office space, 67,000 square feet of retail and a day care. With Monday's council vote, the sale is now contingent on Hendricks entering into a project agreement with the city, giving the Hogsett administration some influence over how the project is developed, and how soon. "We have a different set of responsibilities when it comes to the site than IPS does," Jeff Bennett, the deputy mayor of community development, said at a recent committee hearing. "How does this site become catalytic for neighborhood development both west of College and east of the interstate?” Although the city hasn't been asked to provide local tax incentives, administration officials believe it gives them the chance to negotiate other things that the city typically requires of developers who receive taxpayer assistance. One example: a requirement that the developer try to hire local workers and contractors owned by women and minorities. It also could give the city some influence over how the development connects with nearby roads and affects the surrounding neighborhood. The city's proposed role as a backstop, though, caught many council members by surprise when the School Board agreed to it in May. Some expressed concern about one clause in particular: If Hendricks discovers extensive environmental contamination that would cost millions to clean up and bust the project's budget, the developer can back out of its deal to purchase the property. The city would have no such protection, and preliminary environmental testing has already found some contaminants from the site's former industrial days. NEWSLETTERS Get the Breaking News newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Urgent developments you should know now, not later. Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-888-357-7827. Delivery: varies Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for Breaking News Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters “They can walk; the city can’t," said Fred Biesecker, the council's attorney. "We'd have to clean it up before, presumably, we can sell it." On Monday, several council members said they saw no reason to subject city taxpayers to such a risk. And they worried that the developer, who so far hasn't requested local tax incentives, would now do so in exchange for whatever the city requests in negotiations. In its initial proposal, Hendricks sought only $2.4 million from the state for site work, by far the least incentives of any proposal IPS received. “I feel that we’re going to be setting a (bad) precedent by voting in support of this," said Councilwoman Marilyn Pfisterer, a Republican. "I don’t see that the city should put itself on the hook for this particular development.” Others, though, said that the benefits outweighed the risks. And if the developer ultimately asked for city tax incentives, it would require future council approval. “The community won’t have representation at the table without this proposal," said Council Vice President Zach Adamson. That the city even wants to get involved with an IPS property speaks to how important the city believes the site is to Downtown. Built in the 1930s, the ornate, art deco-style building is viewed as something of an architectural gem. And the Hendricks development is projected to generate $161.9 million in assessed value. That would translate to new property taxes for the city and the school system alike. In the administration's view, the risk to the city in buying the property isn't much of a risk at all. Officials know there's a market for the building: Developers bid between $11 million and $18 million to acquire the site from IPS. And because it's situated on 11 acres on Mass Ave., a thriving Downtown commercial corridor, the city would want to clean up any environmental problems, anyway, Bennett said. “At that point, really, who else is going to do a development but us?” he said. IndyStar reporter Chelsea Schneider contributed to this story. Call IndyStar reporter Brian Eason at (317) 444-6129. Follow him on Twitter: @brianeason. Read or Share this story: http://indy.st/29PYnxKAURORA \| Though Aurora recently nixed a plan to expand the city eastward by 20,000 acres and potentially add enough residents to make it the second-largest city in Colorado, that decision does not keep development from encroaching on the city’s eastern borders. There are two particular residential developments in unincorporated Arapahoe County just outside of city boundaries which remain a concern for Aurora City Council members because of their potential water and traffic impacts: Prosper and Sky Ranch. Prosper is a 9,000-home residential development proposed for a 5,100-acre area located between Interstate 70 and East Mississippi Avenue north to south, and Hayesmount and Imboden roads west to east. At an Aurora City Council Planning and Economic Development committee meeting Nov. 7, Arapahoe County planner Julio Iturreria told city council members that Prosper is now going through reviews at the county level, and that a preliminary plat — a map showing a proposed subdivision — has been submitted and approved by Arapahoe County Commissioners. For the past two years, Aurora officials have expressed concerns over Prosper, citing the difficulty of working with its developer on necessary infrastructure for the project. Aurora Ward III Councilwoman Marsha Berzins, a member of the committee, asked if Prosper had any water resources to serve its future residents. Iturreria could not directly answer the question. “By state statute there is no requirement to establish where a water source will be,” Iturreria said. He said financing for a water source will be aided by the county setting up eight metropolitan districts for Prosper. Arapahoe County officials say those districts will also help finance and build infrastructure such as water, utilities, sanitation, transportation, parks and recreation and fire protection for Prosper residents. “Virtually all developments — I don’t care where you are in Colorado — at one time or another, have all started off with wells, including the city of Aurora,” Iturreria said. A study conducted this year by Mark A. Nuszer Consultants for Aurora City Council said the best-case scenario for providing city services such as water and road infrastructure to the Prosper development would cost Aurora $143,000 per year, with the development so close to city boundaries. In August several council members cited their concerns about the financial burden of incorporating a development as large as Prosper as a reason for nixing the measure to expand the city’s boundary eastward. Last year Jeff Vogel, a Prosper developer, said he was “not supportive of the City of Aurora planning modifications or development assumptions proposed for the Prosper property, including the land use and transportation modifications.” Despite Aurora’s concerns, the Arapahoe County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved moving forward with initial plans for the Prosper development at a November 2015 meeting. “The Prosper Development meets all the requirements of the county’s Comprehensive Plan, a plan developed by the citizens of eastern Arapahoe County,” Commissioner Rod Bockenfeld, who represents portions of Aurora and all of unincorporated eastern Arapahoe County, said in a statement released in 2015 before the November meeting. “Prosper will bring jobs and renewable water infrastructure to the I-70 Corridor, while also allowing the eastern part of the county to maintain its rural culture.” Just northwest of Prosper is another 525-home residential planned development known as Sky Ranch — again, just outside Aurora’s boundaries. The project measures 931 acres and is located between I-70 and East Alameda Avenue from north to south, and Powhaton and Monaghan roads west to east. The project is owned by water and wastewater service provider Pure Cycle, which says it currently leases the land to an area farmer and the property’s mineral rights to ConocoPhillips. “We’re not necessarily a developer, we’re a water supplier. We have the water supply for our development,” Mark Harding, president of Pure Cycle, said to Aurora City Council members at the committee meeting. Harding said the development’s water plans include building a 7-mile pipeline to connect into a Pure Cycle water system near the Denver/Lowry area. He said Sky Ranch already has 25 acre feet of base and ground water supplies from Denver, as well as a 500 acre-foot share in the WISE water system, which takes unused and recycled water from several Front Range municipal systems, including Aurora’s Prairie Waters. He said those supplies would be more than enough to sustain the 525 proposed homes that the Arapahoe County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved at an October meeting. In July, Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan wrote former Arapahoe County Commissioner Nancy Doty about his concerns regarding Sky Ranch, including not only water but traffic impacts on I-70 and Aurora’s streets. “By placing significant development on the periphery of the metropolitan area, it reduces the metropolitan region’s ability to encourage denser development, reduce vehicle miles traveled, control air quality, and to provide the most efficient services to future residents,” Hogan wrote. Hogan added he was concerned to see Sky Ranch using groundwater as a longterm source without a concrete plan for how to replenish it. He said depleting groundwater in and around Sky Ranch would negatively impact Aurora’s own efforts to preserve groundwater in times of drought and emergency. Hogan also wrote the Sky Ranch development would place a huge burden on I-70, which residents would have to use with no direct connection into East Sixth Avenue for years to come. “Like our own street system, the existing I-70 corridor was not designed with a development like Sky Ranch in mind,” Hogan wrote. Arapahoe County spokeswoman Andrea Rasizer said county commissioners could not comment on the two developments because they serve on a quasi-judicial board, and because they are likely to hear more land-use decisions regarding both Prosper and Sky Ranch in the future.Mayor Naheed Nenshi has urged artists and business leaders to lobby councillors to kill a proposal that would slash the few million dollars of council’s infrastructure budget set aside for public art. He gave a passionately pro-art message Thursday at the mayor’s annual arts award luncheon, telling the crowd he agreed with their boos when he mentioned Coun. Peter Demong’s motion, which council will debate Monday. Demong is citing the oil price crash as reason to freeze all public art spending until at least 2016, and reallocate all unused art funds from older projects. Nenshi called that idea “terribly short-sighted” and unnecessary, since the art policy itself limits the amounts to less than one per cent of Calgary’s massive projects budget. “If one is going to use what’s going on in the world and the very real pain that people are feeling in the community as an excuse to go after a program one never liked in the first place, there are words one can use to describe that, which I will not use,” Nenshi said to close out the afternoon awards celebration. Council won’t know what sort of cuts the Prentice government, drowning in red ink because of plunging resource revenues, will exact from its civic infrastructure grants — though Nenshi isn’t worried about funding for projects that start this year. Nor do councillors know how many millions the city would save by killing the public art program for now, information that city officials will compile for Monday. Demong has said he doesn’t want to cancel existing projects that already have signed contracts. That would mean that art commissions worth $150,000 to $1.1 million for four new major recreation centres will go ahead, but the uncommitted $3-million
1 2017.If you listen to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke tell it, there's no inflation. Recent data suggests otherwise. Inflation has been picking up across the board in recent months, and not just because of "volatile food and energy prices" (the prices most Americans care deeply about but that Mr. Bernanke ignores). Here's the evidence, from Asha Bangalore at Northern Trust: First, the headline CPI (all items). On this measure, inflation is now over a 5% annualized rate. Northern Trust Then, the "core" CPI (excluding the food and energy prices Mr. Bernanke doesn't pay attention to). That's now running above a 2% annualized rate, which is the rate the Mr. Bernanke has said is as high as it should go. It has also headed straight-up-and-to-the-right for the past six months. Northern Trust And here's a breakdown of some of what's driving this core inflation. This is actually a bit more encouraging. The headline inflation is being driven by food and energy prices. The core inflation is being driven by healthcare costs, which are apparently going to rise faster than the economy grows until Judgment Day (which, by the way, may be this Saturday). And it is also being driven by rising car prices--new and used. Asha Bangalore points out that the car price increases aren't likely to be sustained, which bodes well--or at least better--for the core CPI going forward. Northern Trust And then there's something that is encouraging: Inflation expectations. Inflation expectations have actually been ticking down of late, as the economy shows signs of weakening. Northern Trust Now, when presented with evidence that inflation is rising, the Fed's response is that this inflation is nothing to worry about, because it's only "transitory." And it might be. But, unfortunately, the way it is most likely to be "transitory" is if the US economy takes another dive. So we shouldn't take solace in that. (And it also might NOT be transitory. Inflation in the UK so far, which is rapidly becoming stagflation, has not been transitory, and the UK economy sucks.) In any event, whether it should be or not, inflation is on the march--and not just for food and energy prices. See Also: 10 Signs The Economy Is Weakening AgainNote: Post updated for best practices in 2017! When you want to use ES6 you’re faced with a list of questions: Transpilers, shims, browser support… In this article, I’ll give you a detailed guide on making sure you get started with ES6 the right way, and instructions on how you can set up a workflow for using ES6 in production easily. Considerations before deciding on ES6 Before you decide to use ES6 in your app, there’s a few considerations. What are my target platforms? Do I need to debug on older devices or browsers? Am I developing a performance-critical application? For cutting-edge features which are not yet finalized in specs, you’ll also want to consider if you care about the specification changing Let’s address each of these before we go further. Target platforms Your target platforms – devices, browsers, etc. – should be kept in mind when deciding whether or not to use ES6. Latest versions of Node.js and modern “evergreen” browsers – that is browsers which get auto-updated – have good support for ES6. This includes browsers such as Edge, Chrome, Firefox and Safari. Older browsers may prove to be more difficult: Using ES6 in browsers which have no native support requires either the use of a transpiler or a shim. We’ll talk more about this later in the article, but if you need to use a transpiler, it will affect both your ability to debug the code and the performance of the code. This also applies when you want to use more cutting edge features in modern browsers lacking the native support. If you are one of the unfortunate people who have to deal with super old browsers such as older versions of Internet Explorer, then you may be stuck on using a smaller subset of ES6 features. Debugging If you end up using a transpiler, it will generate compiled JS files for you. Sometimes this output can be difficult to follow, and this can make debugging difficult. Thankfully modern browsers support source maps, which means you don’t need to worry about this so much. A source map will allow you to see the original ES6 code you wrote, rather than the compiled code. However, if you target some older platforms, they may not support source maps. Many older browsers support earlier versions of JavaScript just fine, and the transpiled code will work in them, but debugging code on those browsers may prove to be more difficult. This is less of a problem if you use a shim. The code in those is written by a human rather than generated, and should therefore be easier to understand. Performance This is also a primarily transpiler-related consideration. The ES6 transpilers don’t make any performance optimizations based on the browser running the code. In some cases, this can result in code that doesn’t perform so well in all browsers. If you are working on something that needs to have very high performance, such as games, you may want to stick to “standard” JavaScript. However this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use ES6 at all – simply avoid using ES6 features in performance critical sections of your code if you have problems with it. Spec changes If you want to use more cutting edge features only currently in the planning stages for future versions of JavaScript, you may need to consider what happens if the specification changes. If the specification changes, it can means the tools you use to make those features work change and break your existing code. If you’re worried about potential changes to the specification and your code breaking, you should think twice before using the cutting edge features. To help you choose which features to use, it’s a good idea to know how the specifications are written. For that, I suggest reading this article on how the ECMAScript spec process works Choice: Use a transpiler, or use a shim? If you decide to use ES6, you need to make a choice: Which features of ES6 do you want to use? ES6 provides both new syntax, such as let or the module system, but it also provides new objects and functions on existing objects. If you want to use the new syntax, you need a transpiler. If you only want to use the additional objects and functions such as Promises, the new String or Math functions or such, then you can use a shim. Shims are simpler and easier to work with, as you only need to include it in your page or node app before other scripts. However, a shim cannot support syntactic features. If you want those, you need a transpiler. This only matters if you need to support browsers which don’t have native ES6 support, or if you want to use other cutting-edge features. Setting up ES6 Shim If you only want to use the new objects and functions, you can use a shim. If you want new syntax, skip to the setting up Babel -part. For this, we will use ES6 Shim. ES6 Shim in nodejs Note that the shim is unnecessary in Node.js if you use a fairly recent version, since it has nearly full native ES6 support. If you use an older version of Node.js, setting the shim up is still very simple: Run npm install es6-shim Then, include require('es6-shim'); in your node-scripts. ES6 Shim in the browser ES6 Shim has a reasonably wide browser support, even down to Internet Explorer 8. The simplest way to get started in browser is just include a script tag in your page: <script src="path/to/es6-shim.js"></script> <script src="path/to/es6-shim.js"></script> You can download the file from the ES6 Shim GitHub page. You can also install it using one of the alternative approaches listed on the same page. Using the shim Simply make sure that the shim file gets loaded before any scripts that depend on the ES6 features. Production use requires no changes. Setting up the Babel transpiler There are two ways to use Babel: Include Babel in your page/node Pre-compile the code before loading it The first option is good for quickly testing things, but it comes with a performance hit. The JS code is compiled on the fly on the page, so it’s not as fast as running pre-compiled code. Option #2 is the best choice for production environments as you get the best performance with it. Babel workflow with nodejs Similar to ES6-shim, Babel is mostly unnecessary with recent Node.js versions, unless you intend to use more cutting-edge features. The first thing to do is we need to install Babel’s command line tools: npm install --save babel-cli We’ll use these utilities to run Babel. Depending on if we want to use Babel for development or production, we should do things slightly differently. For development, we can run babel “on the fly”, but for production we should precompile the code to improve startup performance and memory use. Regardless of which approach we choose to use, we need to tell Babel which features we want it to compile for us. This can be done easily by creating a.babelrc file with the necessary settings. Babel offers us two ways to choose what features we want: Plugins and presets. For most cases, presets are the easier choice – they are essentially collections of plugins, such as all the plugins you need for ES6. For example, to use ES6, we can set up our.babelrc file like so: { "presets" : [ "es2015" ] } { "presets": ["es2015"] } We also need to install the preset to our project: npm install --save babel-preset-es2015 Without the use of the preset, we would have to define a lot of plugins, as we need a plugin for every ES6 feature. There are a number of other presets available as well. Using Babel with Node.js for development The babel-cli package we installed comes with a wrapper for the node command. We can use it for development to automatically convert our code when we run our application. All we need to do now is simply run babel-node instead of node when running our app: node_modules/.bin/babel-node src/index.js We need to include the node_modules/.bin/ in the path because we installed babel-cli locally into our project. One good way to avoid having to remember the exact path is to create a custom start script for your project. We can add the following into our package.json file: "scripts" : { "start" : "babel-node src/index.js" } "scripts": { "start": "babel-node src/index.js" } With this in place, we can simply use npm start Babel and Node.js in a production environment Although using babel-node is convenient, it isn’t recommended for production. It’s slower and consumes more memory than if we pre-compiled our code and ran that with the normal node executable. To do this, we’ll use babel to compile our node app, and then separately run it. Assuming we have a directory called build/ … node_modules/.bin/babel src/ -d build/ This will take everything in the src directory, compile them with babel, and put the output into the build directory. Now we simply run the file from build instead of src: node build/index.js We can again simplify this process by adding scripts into package.json: "scripts" : { "start" : "babel-node src/index.js", "build" : "babel src/ -d build/", "production" : "node build/index.js" } "scripts": { "start": "babel-node src/index.js", "build": "babel src/ -d build/", "production": "node build/index.js" } Now we can simply run npm run build, and then npm run production Babel workflow for browsers If you need to support older browsers or want more cutting-edge features, you will need to compile your browser-javascript via Babel as well. If you simply want to do some quick testing with Babel, it’s possible to dynamically compile the code in the browser. This approach has some limitations in addition to the significant performance hit, so it’s not recommended – but we’ll cover that quickly, as it’s nice to know. Compiling code dynamically in-browser For this, we’ll use a package called babel-standalone. The quickest and easiest way to use it is through a CDN. This way, we only need to include a script tag on our page and that’s it. < script src = "https://unpkg.com/babel-standalone@6/babel.min.js" ></ script > <script src="https://unpkg.com/babel-standalone@6/babel.min.js"></script> After this, use type="text/babel" for scripts you want compiled: < script type = "text/babel" > const x = 'this is compiled with Babel' ; </ script > <script type="text/babel"> const x = 'this is compiled with Babel'; </script> Compiling browser-code with Babel The recommended approach for browser-based code is precompiling it on your server. This way we can make full use of all Babel’s features, plus we’ll be able to use CommonJS or ES6 modules. The simplest way to do this is using Browserify or Webpack. These tools allow us to bundle our code into a single file, optionally performing additional tasks such as compiling ES6 code. Since Browserify is much simpler to set up, we’ll use it here. First off, we’ll need to install Browserify. We’ll also install the Babelify transform, which allows Browserify to call Babel for us. npm install --save-dev browserify babelify Assuming our browser-code is in src/browser.js, and we have a directory called build/, we can simply run… node_modules/.bin/browserify src/browser.js -o build/browser.js -t [ babelify ] This loads src/browser.js, bundles any CommonJS and ES6 modules together and runs everything through Babel. Any settings such as plugins or presets are automatically loaded from the.babelrc file we created earlier. In order to use this code in browser, we only need to load build/browser.js using a script tag. The best way to avoid having to remember the long command to browserify our code is to add a command for it into package.json: "scripts" : { "browserify" : "browserify src/browser.js -o build/browser.js -t [ babelify ]" } "scripts": { "browserify": "browserify src/browser.js -o build/browser.js -t [ babelify ]" } With this in place, we can run npm run browserify to generate the browser-bundle. Source maps Lastly, let’s take a look at how to get source maps to ease debugging. When using precompiling with Babel, we simply need to include an additional parameter in the command: babel src/ -d build/ --source-maps inline Adding --source-maps inline includes the source map directly in the compiled JS file. This is the easiest way to do it, since it doesn’t require serving additional files. To use this with browserify, we simply enable the debug mode with the -d flag: browserify -d src/browser.js -o build/browser.js -t [ babelify ] Note that including source maps can significantly increase the size of your compiled output. As such, you should only use them in development, and compile your browser code without source maps for production. Using a JavaScript minifier will also strip out source maps, so if you prefer you can compile with source maps, and then minify the result. In closing With the right tools we can start taking advantage of the features available in future versions of JavaScript today. As usual, it does not come without its possible downsides, but often they aren’t relevant depending on your use-case. If you want to learn more about how ES6 can improve your JavaScript, I also wrote about the practical benefits of ES6 features. The final question remains: When can you stop using shims and Babel? If you only need to support “evergreen” browsers, you might not need them even today. If you need to support older browsers, you can use kangax’s helpful ES6 compatibility tables as a guide.Tottenham defender Serge Aurier has told Canal+ that his bad boy reputation cost him a move to Barcelona. Aurier joined Spurs from Paris Saint-Germain in the summer to escape the spotlight in France where he had courted controversy. Handed a two-month suspended prison sentence for an attack on a policeman outside a nightclub in the summer of 2016, the Ivory Coast international was also sanctioned by PSG for insulting then-boss Laurent Blanc during the 2015-16 campaign. His lack of professionalism was also roundly criticised for taking nearly 10 minutes to warm up and come off the bench as a substitute during a Ligue 1 game at Lorient last season. With Dani Alves having arrived at PSG in July to provide further competition for places at right-back along with Belgium international Thomas Meunier, Aurier sought an exit. He says Barcelona would have been his destination had the La Liga club not been put off by the negative headlines. "Yes, I'm certain, because the feedback from the clubs with which I had talked was that," Aurier said when asked whether he thought his reputation had cost him a move to one of the world's top five clubs. "'They talk about him a lot in France, they talk about him negatively too much, it's complicated.' When that was said, I was talking to Barcelona. It was very well advanced, and then there was that that caused a problem. People weren't sure that if I went there it would be different." Serge Aurier joined Tottenham from Paris Saint-Germain in the summer. However, a spokesman for Barcelona has denied the club were ever interested in signing the full-back before he completed his move to Tottenham. "We never sat down with [Aurier] or his representatives," the spokesman told Diario Sport. "They wanted to sit down with us, but nothing ever happened." The 24-year-old has avoided controversy since his move to Tottenham last summer, helping the club make a strong start to the season in his eight appearances to date. "I'm loving it, I'm smiling again, enjoying it. The coach called me on Facetime, we really had a good laugh that day," Aurier said with reference to Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino, who had publicly stated he would "kill" him if he insulted him online. "He said that in a press conference, but when he called me, we talked about it, we laughed. He said that if I said something like that we would fight. It was done for a laugh. He knows how I am, what I want, where I want to go. When it's clear like that, there's no problem." Aurier added: "I want to be known for what I do on the pitch, for the pleasure I give to people, for the emotions I give to people, not for that [negative] sort of thing. My reputation had been more tarnished. By staying in France, I could never have changed that. It was better for me to see something different, a new challenge." Boyhood PSG fan Aurier did not, however, rule out the possibility of returning to the Parc des Princes one day after being told by PSG chairman and CEO Nasser Al-Khelaifi he would be welcomed back. "Regardless of what happened, it remains the club of my heart," Aurier, who signed a five-year deal at Spurs, said. "I'm not against a return, they're my friends, like my brothers. I pay attention to what PSG does, and regarding the future, we'll see." ESPN FC's Barcelona correspondent Sam Marsden contributed to this report. Ian is ESPN's French football correspondent. Twitter: @ian_holymanIvy Bridge, Intel's first generation of chips to use the 22nm fabrication process, is hardly out of the gate, and yet talk has already turned to the company's next manufacturing technologies. According to Xbit Labs, which got its hands on some telltale slides, Paul Otellini et al. have the roadmap for 10nm, 7nm and 5nm processes locked down, and the company is preparing fabs in the states and Ireland to make chips using the 14nm fabrication method. Given that timeframe, Intel says 10nm chips will ship in 2015, with work on 5nm technology beginning that same year. While the slides in question look legit -- and that timeline matches previous reports -- we're not sure just when these mystery slides first made the rounds. Alas, we'll have a good few years to sort 5nm fact from fiction.BURNS, Ore. — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released a statement Monday after armed protesters took over a federal building at an Oregon wildlife refuge during a land dispute. One of the protesters occupying the national wildlife refuge in Oregon says the ultimate goal is to turn the land over to local authorities so people can use it free of federal oversight, according to the Associated Press. Ryan Bundy — one of the sons of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who was involved in a 2014 standoff with the government over grazing rights — told The Associated Press Sunday the protesters want to "restore the rights to people so they can use the land and resources" for ranching, logging, mining and recreation. The LDS Church released the following statement in regards to the ongoing situation: "While the disagreement occurring in Oregon about the use of federal lands is not a Church matter, Church leaders strongly condemn the armed seizure of the facility and are deeply troubled by the reports that those who have seized the facility suggest that they are doing so based on scriptural principles. This armed occupation can in no way be justified on a scriptural basis. We are privileged to live in a nation where conflicts with government or private groups can — and should — be settled using peaceful means, according to the laws of the land." × Related StoriesRussian Tycoon Berezovsky Reportedly Left No Suicide Note toggle caption Warrick Page/Getty Images British police say exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, whose body was found over the weekend, left no suicide note and that there was no evidence of third-party involvement in his death. Berezovsky, 67, a one-time billionaire who sought asylum in the U.K. after a high-profile falling out with Russian President Vladimir Putin, was found dead at his home in Ascot in Berkshire on Saturday. Authorities have not released a cause of death and say that for now they are treating it as unexplained. Berezovsky was a Soviet-era mathematics professor who exploited the chaos in the waning days of the Soviet era to wrest control of oil company Sibneft and state TV station ORT, in the process becoming not only one of the world's richest men but also a king-maker in Russian politics. NPR's Philip Reeves reports on Morning Edition that a bodyguard is said to have found the body on the floor of a bathroom in Berezovsky's lakeside mansion, after forcing open the locked door Saturday. Reeves says police called in a team trained in chemical, biological and nuclear emergencies to search the home, a move that fueled rumors that he may have been poisoned. From Morning Edition: Philip Reeves On Berezovsky's Death Listen · 3:43 3:43 That's what happened to Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB officer who was mysteriously murdered in London in 2006. Litvinenko was found to have been poisoned by a cup of tea laced with radioactive polonium 210. Two former KGB officers were linked to the murder, but British officials were unable to extradite them and they have never faced a court. Litvinenko's widow, Marina, is among those who doubt that Berezovsky killed himself. She was quoted by The Telegraph on Sunday as saying it was "not likely" that he committed suicide and noted that Berezovsky had "many enemies." On Saturday, a Kremlin spokesman said the tycoon had written to Putin in recent months saying he wanted to return to Russia. The spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told Russian state television that Berezovsky "asked Putin for forgiveness for his mistakes and asked him [to help him] return to the motherland." Asked how Putin reacted to the news, Peskov said: "It is doubtful that news of the death of a person such as him can prompt any positive response." But Berezovsky's death comes only months after the tycoon lost one of the largest private lawsuits in history — a $5.6 billion battle with fellow Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich over ownership of Sibneft. As the Russian news website RT.com explains: "The case left his reputation in tatters, with the judge presiding over the case describing Berezovsky as an 'unimpressive' and 'inherently unreliable witness,' who was 'deliberately dishonest' and viewed 'truth as a transitory, flexible concept.' "He was further ordered to pay Abramovich's $56 million in legal costs." As recently as last week, RT reported that Berezovsky was being forced to sell parts of his art collection to pay off creditors. The Telegraph reports: "Friends of the 67-year-old said he had become 'extremely depressed' after losing court battles against Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea football club, and his former partner Yelena Gorbunova. "In an interview with a journalist from the Russian edition of Forbes less than 24 hours before his death, he said he no longer saw the point of life. "He said: 'I've lost the point... there is no point [or meaning] in my life. I don't want to be involved in politics. I don't know what to do. I'm 67 years old. And I don't know what I should do from now on.' " Update at 6:57 p.m. ET. 'Consistent With Hanging': The AP reports:Portland, Ore. — A growing number of pet owners are having to give up their dogs and cats because of Portland’s tight housing market. The Oregon Humane Society has seen an 18 percent increase in the number of owners giving up their pets for adoption due to housing issues from the first three months of 2016 compared to last year. “People are giving up their pets to find new homes because they can’t find a landlord or a house that is going to accommodate their pet,” said David Lytle of the Oregon Humane Society. “It’s a sad fact of life in Portland.” A 14-year-old German Shepard named “Trixie” is an example of a dog with nowhere to go. The dog’s owner had to move out of her Estacada home after the landlord suddenly raised the rent. “We were going from paying $1000 a month to -- he wanted to raise it to $2000 to $3000 a month,” said Becky, who asked us not to use her last name. 14-year-old Trixie is being temporarily boarded because her owner couldn't afford a rent increase. Becky moved into a 19-foot motor home, along with her daughter and grandson. There was no room for Trixie. The dog had to go. “It’s not because we want to. It’s just physically not a possibility,” said Becky. “I never imaged myself in this position.” It’s a tough decision that’s becoming increasingly common. “People don’t want to surrender their animals, they just don’t have a choice,” said Sara Erlandsen of Eagle Fern Veterinary Hospital in Estacada. “I feel like it is progressively getting a little worse.” Eagle Fern Veterinary Hospital agreed to temporarily board Trixie with the help of community donations. But the arrangement can only last so long. “She deserves to be with her family and if she can’t be with her family, she deserves to be with another family that can take care of her,” said Becky. For renters on a razor-thin budget, additional pet deposits and fees push some apartments out of reach. For example in Portland, the Fairmont Villa apartments charge a $400 deposit for dogs and cats. The Images Columbia apartments charge $25 per month for a pet. There aren’t as many pet-friendly apartments to choose from. A search on Apartments.com shows 3,399 apartments for rent in the Portland metro area. Of those units, 718 don’t allow dogs or cats. In a tight housing market, landlords can be more selective on who they rent to. Pet owners say they’re being pushed out and their loved ones left behind. “It’s a heartbreaking situation,” said Lytle of OHS. “Who would have thought that pet ownership would be impacted like this?” Oregon Humane Society and The Pongo Fund can help people who need housing and food for their pets.Get the biggest Weekly Politics 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 Wallasey MP Angela Eagle has said she has been advised by police to stop holding public advice surgeries. The MP says counter terrorism officers have advised her to cancel the regular surgeries in which she helps local constituents. Ms Eagle said she would remain available to help members of the public but they would now need to contact her via email or phone. Ms Eagle told the ECHO: “Because we have been getting so much abuse direct to the office and the advice surgeries are normally done in public [the police] have sent me an email advising me to cancel them.” It follows a turbulent month for the MP who was part of a mass resignation by many of the Labour shadow cabinet and she said the decision to cancel surgeries was made in light of “the abuse that I’ve been getting over the leadership stuff”. This week a man arrested in Paisley, Scotland after death threats were allegedly made in an email to Ms Eagle was released on police bail. Ms Eagle said the police “basically think it might not be safe – they do not want them to go ahead at all”. Watch: Angela Eagle announces her bid for the Labour Party leadership Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now She said: “I think it’s also in the aftermath of what happened to Jo Cox. I am going to take their [police] advice this time, but people can still contact my office by phone and email. “They are talking to me about future arrangements in terms of security. “It’s with great reluctance that I’m doing this, but the safety of my staff is paramount.” The MP said she does not usually operate the surgeries during August and will be looking at bringing in new arrangements for September when they would usually start again. After quitting her role as shadow business secretary days after the Brexit vote to quit the EU Ms Eagle then became the first Labour MP to openly challenge Jeremy Corbyn over concerns about the party’s prospects in an election under his leadership. But this was swiftly followed by threats of a bid to deselect her by parts of the Wallasey Constituency Labour Party (CLP) which had reiterated its support for Corbyn and urged the MP to support him. The MP has also had a brick thrown through a window in the building where her constituency office is based the day after she announced she would run for the party leadership, while the have been other reports of threats and intimidation – although these have been strongly disputed by senior members of the Wallasey CLP opposed to Ms Eagle. The MP has since withdrawn from the Labour leadership race and backs Welsh MP Owen Smith’s bid to oust Jeremy Corbyn and the Wallasey CLP has been suspended by the Labour party while it investigates these allegations. The MP had earlier welcomed the investigation by party bosses and today said: “I can’t anticipate what will happen, that’s a matter for the party’s compliance department – but the party does have strict rule about threats misogyny, homophobic comments and disorder in meetings and they need to be properly respected.” She said there are signed letters from “about 17 or 19 people who were at that meeting and saw what was going on”. Angela Eagle’s constituency can contact her via email angela.eagle.mp@parliament.uk, and her constituency office number is 0151 637 1979Deep Habits: The Importance of Planning Every Minute of Your Work Day December 21st, 2013 · 226 comments Time Blocking The image above shows my plan for a random Wednesday earlier this month. My plan was captured on a single sheet of 24 pound paper in a Black n’ Red twin wire notebook. This page is divided into two columns. In the left column, I dedicated two lines to each hour of the day and then divided that time into blocks labeled with specific assignments. In the right column, I add explanatory notes for these blocks where needed. Notice that I leave some extra room next to my time blocks. This allows me to make corrections as needed if the day unfolds in an unexpected way: I call this planning method time blocking. I take time blocking seriously, dedicating ten to twenty minutes every evening to building my schedule for the next day. During this planning process I consult my task lists and calendars, as well as my weekly and quarterly planning notes. My goal is to make sure progress is being made on the right things at the right pace for the relevant deadlines. This type of planning, to me, is like a chess game, with blocks of work getting spread and sorted in such a way that projects big and small all seem to click into completion with (just enough) time to spare. Three Concerns Sometimes people ask why I bother with such a detailed level of planning. My answer is simple: it generates a massive amount of productivity. A 40 hour time-blocked work week, I estimate, produces the same amount of output as a 60+ hour work week pursued without structure. Sometimes people ask how time blocking can work for reactive work, where you cannot tell in advance what obligations will enter your life on a given day. My answer is again simple: periods of open-ended reactivity can be blocked off like any other type of obligation. Even if you’re blocking most of your day for reactive work, for example, the fact that you are controlling your schedule will allow you to dedicate some small blocks (perhaps at the schedule periphery) to deeper pursuits. (Another smart strategy in this context is to give open-ended reactive blocks secondary purposes: e.g., “process client requests; if I have downtime during this block, work on project X.”) Sometimes people ask if controlling time will stifle creativity. I understand this concern, but it’s fundamentally misguided. If you control your schedule: (1) you can ensure that you consistently dedicate time to the deep efforts that matter for creative pursuits; and (2) the stress relief that comes from this sense of organization allows you to go deeper in your creative blocks and produce more value. If you’re still worried, read Mason Currey’s Daily Rituals: very few of the world-famous creatives he profiled adopted a “I’ll work when I feel inspired” attitude — they instead controlled their day so they could control their art. Conclusion In the context of work, uncontrolled time makes me uncomfortable. If you’re serious about working deeply and producing high-end value, it should probably make you uncomfortable as well. Using your inbox to drive your daily schedule might be fine for the entry-level or those content with a career of cubicle-dwelling mediocrity, but the best knowledge workers view their time like the best investors view their capital, as a resource to wield for maximum returns.Disneynature’s new True Life Adventure Film “Born In China” is on track to arrive in theaters on Earth Day 2017 and viewers of this wondrous look at three animal families in their native habitat will now have extra motivation to see it as soon as it arrives. That’s because based on the opening week attendance, Disneynature, via the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund, will make a sizable contribution to World Wildlife Fund to help protect wild pandas and snow leopards in China. If that doesn’t convince you, then perhaps you’ll want to see some of the incredible footage they’ve managed to capture. WATCH: Directed by Chinese filmmaker Lu Chuan, Disneynature’s “Born in China” follows the stories of three animal families, transporting audiences to some of the most extreme environments on Earth to witness some of the most intimate moments ever captured in a nature film. A doting panda bear mother guides her growing baby as she begins to explore and seek independence. A two-year-old golden monkey who feels displaced by his new baby sister joins up with a group of free-spirited outcasts. And a mother snow leopard—an elusive animal rarely caught on camera—faces the very real drama of raising her two cubs in one of the harshest and most unforgiving environments on the planet. Featuring stunning, never-before-seen imagery captured in the remote wilds of China, the film is produced by Disney’s Roy Conli and premiere nature filmmakers Brian Leith and Phil Chapman. Disneynature’s commitment to conservation is a key pillar of the label and the films empower the audience to help make a difference. Through donations tied to opening-week attendance, Disneynature, through the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund, has contributed to a host of conservation initiatives. Efforts include planting three million trees in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, established 40,000 acres of marine protected area in The Bahamas, protected 65,000 acres of savanna in Kenya, protected nearly 130,000 acres of wild chimpanzee habitat, cared for chimpanzees and educated 60,000 school children about chimpanzee conservation. Additionally, efforts have funded research and restoration grants in U.S. National Parks, supporting conservation projects spanning 400,000 acres of parkland and protecting over 75 species of animals and plants, and helped protect monkeys and other endangered species in their natural habitats across Indonesia, Cambodia and Sri Lanka. “Born in China” opens in U.S. theaters Earth Day 2017.Story highlights Stephen M. Howells II and Nicole Vaisey receive 25-year sentences on state kidnapping charges The girls were abducted in August near their family's farm in upstate New York The Amish sisters were abandoned on a road a number of miles away (CNN) An upstate New York couple who abducted and sexually abused two Amish girls were sentenced to a maximum of 25 years in prison on state kidnapping charges. The sentences imposed by St. Lawrence County Judge Jerome Richards will run concurrently with federal prison terms of 580 years for Stephen M. Howells II and 300 years for Nicole Vaisey. They were sentenced in federal court last month. Howells and Vaisey, who were sentenced separately in state court on Tuesday, did not address the court before receiving 25-year terms each for the August 2014 kidnappings. The couple "targeted
.Fresh from the tropics, this is a mouthwatering fragrance of sweet fruits; clean and enticing! Navel Fling A rich delicious fling of oranges and cinnamon. All the citrus you want with just the right amount of kick. Orange Clove Warm orange with select spices of ginger, cinnamon and clove. Orange Satsuma Van Yulay has blended the perfect amount of refreshing and zesty fragrance with hints of pineapple, grapefruit and apple. It’s sweet, citrusy, fresh, and romantically pleasant. Satsuma combines fresh and sweet orange fragrance with exotic spices – cassis and orange blossoms to create a scent that is Van Yulay’s best seller! You will want this fragrance around you at all times of the year. Passion Pomegranate Van Yulay has blended the perfect amount of sparkling notes of citrus, dewberry and cassis to dress up this crisp fragrance. This fragrance is deep and sensual with a sweet, tart twist. This fruity, sweet fragrance smells so delicious, it’s almost sinful. Passionfruit Nectarine A tantalizing fusion of passionfruit nectar and juicy nectarine slices with notes of ripe mango, lemon zest, rome apple and plumeria. Pearberry A wonderful mixture of crisp pears, apples and mixed berries. An awesome scent for the fruit lover. Pina Loca Delectably tart wedges of deep golden pineapple are smoothed out with creamy coconut milk. A delightful blend of peach nectar and pink guava completes this irresistible tropical nectar. Pink Raspberry A tropical blend of sweet pineapple and luscious mango complimented with notes of lotus flower and warm vanilla Pink Grapefruit Smells just like a juicy bitter-sweet grapefruit! Grapefruit is associated with feelings of happiness and well being. Pink Raspberry Tart and very sweet- these plump freshly picked raspberries are full of sweetness. Put de Lime in de Coconut A tropical paradise vibrant notes of coconut, lime & added mango.*Regular Shaving Soap* Red Currant Tart, strong and freshly picked. Makes a great fall and holiday fragrance. One whiff and you will be Berry happy! Reggae Rumberry An exotic blend of tropical fruits with a twist of sparkling summer berries & lemon, with that little added touch of rum!*Regular Shaving Soap* Rise and Shine This is a Citrus blend; including Grapefruit, Lemon and Lime, with hints of fresh Cucumber and Jasmine, and a touch of Pineapple, Blackberry and Champagne. A wonderful scent to wake up to! This scent is all about happiness and light. Rockin’ Raspberry Juicy raspberry with a vine of fresh appeal. Seriously Lime Bursts of lime with every shaveRegular Shaving Soap Troop 99 Peach cobbler pie baked over a campfire dutch oven!*Regular Shaving Soap* Warm Plum A zesty hint of citrus in the top note adds freshness to this delicious plum treat. Soft sandalwood and winter orchid completes this festive favorite. Watermelon A very juicy, leap-out-at-you sensation. True, refreshing watermelon for those hot summer days. ***Special Blends** Afognak An enchanting blend of black amber, clove, nutmeg and musk. Dark, mysterious and very captivating. Beneath the Stars An enveloping blend of grape, peach and plum with sparkling citrus, rose and musk Chupacabra Warm clove, nutmeg, bergamot honeysuckle, gardenia, finished with lily, amber, sandalwood, cedar, musk Dark Fougere The mysterious character fragrance with top notes of citric, anise, masculine lavender, jasmine, and finishes with a rosewood, oakmoss, patchouli, sandal wood and vanilla base. Fougere Van Yulya has blended the perfect amount of lavender, Bamboo, Rosewood, Geranium with a rounded out oak moss. Four Seasons This scent is dedicated to my grandmother. She had inspired me to make the soaps that started Van Yulay and wrote a poem of the four seasons. Each season scent is great by itself, but combined it becomes the scent of a lifetime. We start with Spring-Gardenia, Summer-Raspberry, Fall-Country Spice, and Winter-Peppermint. In loving memory of Ruth Klessen”. Harvest Moon Spicy cinnamon blends deliciously with orange peel, creamy vanilla, and light fruity tones. Hints of baked apples and oak give life to this multidimensional fragrance, while a warm bottom layer of musk and spices balance it all out. So cozy! Heaven Sent Van Yulay has blended the perfect amount of fragrant cedar infused with the sensual smoky scents of patchouli, sandalwood and vetiver, then topped with Eastern spices and a trace of white musk. Twisted with a touch of tartness. Relaxing aromas to soothe the soul. Love in the Afternoon A masculine scent similar to Drakkar. With top notes of Bergamot, sparkling citrus, cedar leaf. Violet blossom, anise seeds, lavender defining those mid notes and finishing it off with Fresh cut pine, musk, white woods making it a scent that is very clean and uplifting. OMG A nice blend of neroli and orange blossom, for a white-floral fragrance with a bitter orange heart to give it depth and complexity. Little on the pepper side. Perfect for spring and summer. Sweet Paradise A fantasy scent to compliment the exquisite beauty of the Bird of Paradise flower found in tropical climates. A calming tropical blend of sweet strawberries, juicy pomegranate, creamy vanilla, and coconut milk with hints of rose petals and soft jasmine. Twigs and Berries Rich currant is blended with soft woods, cinnamon and a hint of peach and orange. Vetiver A fresh blend of lemon and vetiver with sandalwood. This exotic fragrance, the essence from a grass native to India, is known for its soothing, relaxing properties. Walk with Me This scented lotion contains only essential oils instead of fragrances. We have blended Rose, Helichrysum, Vanilla, Lime, Geranium, Casis, and Camellia for a wonderful Flower Bouquet scent. Blended to allure the senses to a heavenly place. White Citrus Crisp white grapefruit and fresh tangerines are blended with tart cassis, star jasmine, neroli and sparkling musk *Tobacco Scents** Achilles We have blended tobacco with the perfect amount of Kentucky bourbon. Among those fragrances you will get a hint of cherry, notes of vanilla with earthy infused essential oils. Hints of rosewood, cedar, smoke, and sweet birch.Regular Shaving Soap Cherry Tobacco The smell of fine spicy tobacco with sweet cherry.Regular Shaving Soap Fragrance Durham Green Very green notes as if you were walking in through the brush and smooth tobacco.Regular Shaving Soap Fragrance Papi’s Pipe Captivating damask rose and geranium lead to a heart of sweet orange & cherry honey. But this fragrance is all about the bottom notes — a warm, sweet, smoky, comforting accord of vanilla, patchouli, and honeyed pipe tobacco.Regular Shaving Soap Fragrance Puros La Habana Great aromas of a Cuban Cigar and the warmth of tobacco. With very spicy robust tobacco leafs. This is a fine gentleman’s shaving soap. It is rich with tobacco cigar notes and spices that are one of a kind.Regular Shaving Soap Fragrance Tabac de LaVal Tobacco Leaf notes with a touch of spice, Tonka been, Tobacco Flower, Vanilla, Cocoa, Dry Fruit and woodsy notes. (Tom Ford Tobacco Vanilla Type) Regular Shaving Soap Fragrance Tabaco Polvorón A great tobacco inspired by a great guy. This is an inspired scented shave soap with Tobacco, Almond, Honey & Vanilla. There is the top notes of a earthy tobacco that is touched by almond that explodes in your nose. Then rounded out with vanilla, honey & Tonka bean.Regular Shaving Soap Fragrance Tobacco A mellow, woodsy scent of just-cut tobacco leaves with a touch of warm cedar. Creamy notes of hazelnut make this a smooth rich blend. Tobacco Apple The smoothness of a fine tobacco, the crisp taste of fresh apples and the refreshing aroma of both. Apples and tobacco a natural combination. Tobacco & Bay Leaf A clean and soft floral bouquet of water orchid, fresh bergamot, sparkling lemon, sweet orange, pink jasmine, blooming narcaisse and soft musk Tobacco Bourbon An intoxicating blend of bourbon, rum, and cognac notes unfold into a heart of geranium, palmarosa, and rose accords. A dark, woody blend of cedar and vetiver create the base. Tobacco Caramel Rich, warming tobacco blossom wrapped with caramel and notes of mandarin, honey and rose. Tobacco Cedar Sparkling citrus and a hint of spice lead to the warm oriental signature of this scent. Tobacco leaf and western cedar are blended with a rich base of sandalwood as soft moss finishes the blend Tobacco Cherry Sweet and earthy! A great blend of tobacco plus a very distinct cherry top scent. If you like cherry, this is about as cherry as it gets. Tobacco Coconut This tobacco blend with its earthy but yet tropical twist of coconut lends a nice sweet, mild, but slightly tangy scent. A cigar in the tropics …oh how relaxing! Tobacco Coffee A smoke and a cup of jo… what a great combination! Tobacco and coffee all in one to get you ready for the day ahead. Tobacco Mint A fresh blend of tobacco and mint that will surely soothe and relax your senses with its earthy scent. Tobacco Vanilla The scent of warm vanilla, a bit of smokiness and fresh pipe tobacco. *Unique Scents** Bacon Just like Sunday Morning Bacon – smoked, meaty and a touch of sweetness Beer Beer has one of the most beautiful smell in nature. The smell of wheat, barley, and a little alcohol Gun Powder The sulfurous smell of explosive powder. Not actually explosive! Pizza Hot, cheesy and fresh out of the oven. With a strong scent of dough mixed with notes of tomato sauce, mozzarella and oregano. Nuts & Bolts The thick, viscous scent of engine oil is captured here — you’ll catch yourself looking around for a mechanic shop. NOTE: This is not for actual engine use… *Woodsy Notes** Amber Lights This combination makes a sensual and powerful statement — the sweetness of amber blended with the complex notes of musk and vanilla. Asian Sandalwood This scent is sweet, with calming woody bamboo & sandalwood notes. Balsam Cedar A crisp blend of balsam pine, aromatic cedar leaf and juniper berries delivers a fresh forest scent. Bamboo Fresh A crisp blend of bamboo and grapefruit with bergamot, lush cyclamen, jasmine and wild grass. Very clean and refreshing! Beyond the Forest Van Yulay has blended an exquisite woodsy notes t of intoxicating of Amber, Black Jasmine, Fresh Muguet with notes of Violet and Amber intertwined. Light notes of gardenia harmonize this magical fragrance. Black Forest Citrus accents lead to the nature inspired heart of this fragrance. Crisp pine needles, rich fir balsam, sweet berries, warm spices and patchouli are surrounded by vanilla musk. Blue Spruce Ever hike out and cut your own Christmas Tree? With our Blue Spruce, you’ll feel like you did just that. More complex than a typical Fraser or Douglas Fir, it’s got a punchy, bright citrus note that is really pleasing. Burmese Wood Exotic, warm blend of cedar, patchouli, amber and musk. Campfire If you’re short on kindling, fake it with this great fragrance. Our campfire blend contains natural oils of clove, fir balsam, fir needle, frankincense, cedar moss, and elemi Cedar This fresh, woody scent is just like walking through a tall cedar forest during a light autumn breeze. Cedar has an earthy, woodsy and slightly sweet scent. Cedar and Saffron Fragrant cedar is infused with the sensual smoky scents of patchouli, sandalwood and vetiver, then topped with Eastern spices and a trace of white musk. Down to Earth Whispers of earthy spices with light hints of sweet florals on a delicate background of oakmoss, sandalwood, and vanilla. Exotic Teakwood Very sophisticated, with tropical notes of the rain forest highlighted by apple, bamboo, pine needles and leafy greens. In the center of this delightful fragrance, you’ll find luscious green mosses, fir and balsam, spruce, teakwood and fresh cut cedar. All of this enveloped by a subtle base of amber, musk, patchouli and mysore sandalwood. This will remind you of a high end, sophisticated spa essence. Fireside A warming blend of cedarwood, sandalwood and leather with rich amber and cashmere musk. Fraser Fir Smelling this sweet, woodsy fragrance will remind you of walking through an Evergreen forest with fragrant fir needles crunching beneath your feet. Sit back and relax as the soothing scents of spiced clove, citrus, berries, and musk intermingle with fir and cedar for a refreshing sensation. Gnōthi Seauton A fragrance that is my signature scent. Knowing who you are is the key to life. I am like the tree in your yard, I will grow on you, till I blossom in a beautiful tree. Cobolo wood is my favorite wood because it is unique in every way. It has a is a tropical hardwood distinguished by its reddish-brown color and scent like no other. Like the other true woods, the scent gives off a smell similar to that of a fresh cut piece of rich dark red wood. Think beautiful rich rosewood with cedar notes and floral notes that any nose would love.*Regular Shaving Soaps** Outdoor Pine Lead your senses to the highest peaks of the Rockies. Nothing smells better than walking into a pine forest and breathing in all that piney freshness. This one is ideal for the outdoor person. Pine Cones The unmistakable scent of a fresh cut pine bough and pine cone wreath. Notes of balsam and patchouli combine with natural spruce and cedar oils to instantly put you in a holiday frame of mind. Sandalwood Fragrant grains of sandalwood with the sweetness of balsamic wood & notes of deep mahogany.Regular Shaving Soap Sensous Sandalwood This outstanding scent is sweet, but not too sweet with calming woody and peppery notes. This Sandalwood is the most alluring, sexy scent you will ever smell. Spiced Mahogany Rich woody scent has notes of Tonka Bean to round out the darker, more sensuous Patchouli, Cedar wood, and Oakmoss. With freshly cut wood & added spices of Cardamom, Vanilla Bourbon and allspice.Regular Shaving Soap*In Ana Rodas’ room, right next to her closet, she’s pinned a quote that reads, “With God all things are possible.” The small decoration is just one element of a space that is not only adorned with words of encouragement but also pictures, letters and anything else Rodas holds dear to her heart. The decorations make her room feel cozy and homey. But when taking a deeper look, each piece exemplifies a different part of her journey. Rodas, senior in FAA, has made a lot of sacrifices to get to this point. As an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, she is now within less than a year of graduating from the University. “I think for me the degree is not just going to be (about) the countless hours and sleepless nights that I spent doing art projects,” Rodas said. “It’s literally the experiences I had with each and every person that I came in contact with throughout my four years here.” “(The degree is about) the experiences I had with each and every person that I came in contact with throughout my four years here.” Rodas has made a concerted effort to positively impact the lives of those around her, and she doesn’t mind sharing her own experiences to do it. As a student staff member at La Casa Cultural Latina, Rodas has spent numerous hours educating campus and community members about undocumented immigrants and the misconceptions that often follow them. Even still, to some people, including President Donald Trump, that is not enough. On Tuesday Sept. 5, Trump announced that he would rescind Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. DACA was first implemented during the Obama administration to protect individuals who entered the country without citizenship as minors. The program permitted young undocumented immigrants to stay in the country, without fear of deportation, for a renewable two-year period. It also made them eligible for work permits. Rodas’ work permit expires in 2019 and right now she is one of roughly 800,000 DACA recipients, also known as Dreamers, whose future in this country is now up in the air. Despite the unfavorable decision from the Commander-in-Chief, she remains calm. Rodas remembers being consumed by fear the night President Trump was initially elected. But this time around, with a renewed faith in God, she is prepared to face any adversity that comes her way. “I’ve experienced pain and suffering without Him, trying to do it myself,” Rodas said. “I ended up at the bottom of the barrel. (Now) that pain and suffering is coming back, but I have that support that I need to get through it.” Rodas has spent 15 years living in the United States, and although she would like to continue, it’s not because she feels “American.” To her, that is simply a term. When her parents decided to bring her here, it was more so about the opportunity to pursue higher education and a better quality of life. Both things have come true since her arrival, but even this country’s affluence hasn’t shielded her from its moments of divisiveness. Rodas said her main goal is to earn her bachelor’s degree and continue on to graduate school. Beyond that, she doesn’t see herself spending the rest of her life in America because it’s been clear that she and other undocumented immigrants are unwanted. However, she did acknowledge that many others would elect to stay regardless of the opposition. She doesn’t think that one decision is better than the other but believes that each individual – instead of being forced out – should have the right to choose. Congress has about five months to come up with a solution for Dreamers, and it is yet another decision in Rodas’s life that is out of her control. She didn’t choose to come here when she was six, and at times she still imagines what it would have been like to grow up in Guatemala. Though contemplating about the past hasn’t distorted her faith in the future. The obstacles are all a part of God’s plan. “I honestly don’t think I would change anything,” Rodas said. “Every single moment, every single section of life … each one had its purpose in (my) life.” [email protected] @RomeovilleKidMy mother had never shielded me from the truth, yet somehow she still painted my father in a positive light. She prefaced her version with reminders that he was young … that he carried wounds from his time in Vietnam, and what he saw there forever altered the way in which he viewed life and his own mortality. My grandmother spoke of her son, her baby, with an unwavering belief that it had all been some terrible mistake. Her son hung the moon. The newspapers were wrong. When the edges of his story told by others left me raw, I went to my grandmother and she sat with me and spoke of my father until those edges were polished smooth. These stories, pieced together, gave me his story. My father (Photo courtesy of Nichole Beaudry) I was raised in a town that relied just as much upon the local newspaper as on stories passed through the community, from one person to another in the glaring light of the grocery store, musty church basements and small, local diners. We often joke about there being seven degrees of separation in any situation, but in Waterville, Maine, in 1973 (perhaps even still today), that number was more like two. If you didn’t know my father, you knew his mother or his cousin or his sister. And while I knew his story from the bits I gathered and hoarded, I came to wonder just how many specifics were omitted from the story. So I decided to find out. On a bitterly cold day in January of 1991, in the dimly lit basement at the local college, I waded through years of microfiche, from his murder through the trial, through the subsequent appeal. I was then 19 years old and I’m still not certain if I was on a quest to fill in any gaps in my father’s story or if I was looking for inconsistencies in the versions that had been told to me over the years. What I do know is I spent hours there in the dark that day, illuminated by the screen, loading microfiche and devouring everything I could find about his life and death until my eyes grew tired and my heart heavy. Young and impetuous, my father abandoned my mother and me for his best friend’s wife. My mother, ever certain that he would ultimately realize the mistake he made, waited for him to come home. Before she could know if he ever would, his best friend, overwhelmed with grief over watching his family fall apart, abruptly ended my father’s life. A crime of passion, his attorney insisted. Although I knew he had been shot, my mind never lingered over the graphic nature of gunshot wounds. Rather, I always saw him, in my mind, lying peacefully on the ground, just gone. It was there in the basement that I read that after being shot in the chest, my father raised his hands and plead for his life. I read, too, that his pleas fell on deaf ears as his murderer rose from his own chair, approached my father, stood over him and shot him directly in the face.Some members of the public have sympathized with Brown, saying he should be allowed to move on, some have not. Chris Brown's tour to New Zealand and Australia has been cancelled, in a move welcomed by politicians opposed to his visit. A statement from his promoters, Castor and Ford, issued on Wednesday morning, confirmed the Australasian leg of Brown's One Hell of a Nite tour will not take place. READ MORE: Chris Brown reportedly declined Australian visa, NZ appearance in doubt * Chris Brown tickets will be refunded if concert cancelled * Dame Tariana Turia to support Chris Brown's visa application * Judith Collins says Chris Brown can 'bugger off' * Chris Brown reaches out to Tariana Turia * Concert promoter says Chris Brown controversy is unfair and inconsistent Reuters R&B singer Chris Brown has cancelled his New Zealand show. Before the announcement, it had been speculated that Brown might be forced to cancel the New Zealand leg after the R&B star was denied a visa to enter Australia: it's a costly move to bring a US star to solely play New Zealand dates. On Wednesday afternoon, a spokesperson for Immigration New Zealand said: "Immigration New Zealand can confirm that Chris Brown withdrew his application for a work visa to travel to New Zealand. No decision had been made on the application. Any further queries need to be directed to the concert promoter." The promoters' New Zealand spokesman, Jevan Goulter, did not want to elaborate on a brief statement in which Brown offered his "deepest condolences" for cancelling the gig: "Mr Brown wishes to express his deepest gratitude to the fans for their support and looks forward to a successful tour in the near future. Mr Brown and the promoters both remain positive that a tour will take place in the near future." Shabnam Dastgheib/Stuff.co.nz Members of the NUMA, the National Urban Maori Authority, show their support for Chris Brown. Brown is technically barred from entering New Zealand, as he has been unable to enter other countries due to his felony convictions and Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse said Brown would need a "special direction" waiver to enter the country. POLITICAL SUPPORT Support for Brown's New Zealand visa application had come from an unlikely source: Dame Tariana Turia said she would back his application. The former leader of the Maori Party said she would write a letter of recommendation for the singer. Dame Tariana, who has worked to reduce domestic violence for decades, believed Brown would speak on his past while in New Zealand, prompting his young fans to think seriously about domestic violence. "Give him the opportunity to come and engage our young people, who want him to come," she said. However her sentiments were not shared by Maori Party co-leader Marama Fox, who felt "there were better examples" than Brown to spread the anti-violence message here in NZ. "What I'm very clear about is that a celebrity, no matter who you are, should be subject to the same rules as everybody else," she said. "Just because you're a celebrity or a politician or anybody who has a name or a public profile, does not give you an automatic pass card to come into our country." After the cancellation was announced, Fox said she was not aware of Brown's reasons for cancelling the concerts but he had probably realised his visa would not be approved. "It [a decision] wasn't made, it was anticipated probably by him, but he's made that decision based on his own ideals and I'm not sad about that." Green Party women's affairs spokeswoman Jan Logie said Brown's decision was "a positive move". "It's good that he's read the environment in New Zealand and realised obviously that he's not able to contribute until he's rehabilitated himself in a way that will meet the demands of New Zealand." Brown was convicted in 2009 of assaulting and threatening to kill his then-girlfriend, pop star Rihanna. He was sentenced to five years of probation. Since 2009, Brown has had multiple run-ins with the law. The R&B singer was booked to play Vector Arena in Auckland in late December. * Comments on this story have now closed.The Minneapolis Institute of Arts has agreed to surrender a 2,500-year-old Greek vase that has been a museum showpiece for nearly 30 years. The institute intends to return the object to Italy, which says it was looted from an ancient grave. Italian government officials first claimed the ceramic vase in 2005 as part of a wide-ranging investigation into the source of antiquities at eight U.S. museums, including the Getty in Los Angeles, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. "We're very sorry to lose this object because it's a very important example" of ancient art that museums essentially can't acquire anymore, said Kaywin Feldman, the institute's director and immediate past president of the American Association of Museum Directors. The Minneapolis museum is not accused of wrongdoing. Italian officials did not pursue the Minneapolis vase until the museum sought to resolve the issue starting last year. Under pressure from Italy, American museums have been repatriating questionable objects to their source countries and have stopped buying antiquities that lack verifiable histories of ownership. "I reached out to the Italian Culture Ministry," said Feldman, to see what evidence they had to support their claim. Trafficking in looted art Italian authorities produced three Polaroid photos of a looted object with details unique to the vase. The images came from a cache of 10,000 Polaroids of illegally excavated goods seized by Italian police in a 1995 raid on a Swiss warehouse operated by Giacomo Medici, an antiquities dealer who eventually was sentenced to 10 years in prison for trafficking in illegal art. Medici apparently bought antiquities from grave robbers, had them restored and then sold them to unsuspecting museums and private collectors through a network of well-connected art dealers. The Minneapolis museum bought its vase in 1983. It came from Robin Symes, a prominent British antiquities dealer and sometimes associate of Medici who also brokered to the Getty many items that were later challenged. Getty officials evidently suspected Symes even while buying from him. In 1987 Symes was referred to as "a fence" by Harold Wilson, then chief executive of the Getty Trust, which oversees the museum, according to written notes procured by the Los Angeles Times. About 2 feet tall and decorated with red figures on a black background, the vase is technically a "volute-krater" originally used to hold a mixture of wine and water. It depicts Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and revelry, leading a band of dancers including a young woman holding a child satyr on her shoulders. The woman and child appear to be the same as those in a Medici photo. As part of the investigation, an archaeology professor at La Sapienza University in Rome determined that the vase most likely came from Rutigliano in the Puglia region of southern Italy where Greek settlements were established in ancient times. The vase was a Minneapolis star because the museum's collection of antiquities is comparatively small, and museum scholars had identified its artist, now known as the Methyse Painter. Only 19 other surviving items have been attributed to Methyse from an era when art was generally produced by anonymous craftsmen. 'Really terrific relationship' Italy's minister of culture, Giancarlo Galan, praised the institute's cooperation in a statement. The "really terrific relationship" the museum developed with Italian officials may result in future loans or shows, but there are no specific plans and the museum is not getting anything in exchange for the vase, Feldman said. The vase is on display at the museum while arrangements for its delivery to Italy are being finalized. It will be transferred there by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations department, which is cooperating with Italy's national law enforcement agency, the Carabinieri for the Protection of Cultural Heritage.WASHINGTON -- With a shrewdly calculated innocence, Judge Neil Gorsuch told a big fat lie at his confirmation hearing on Tuesday. Because it was a lie everyone expected, nobody called it that. "There's no such thing as a Republican judge or a Democratic judge," Gorsuch said. Gorsuch, the amiable veteran of many Republican campaigns, is well-placed to know how serious a fib that was. As Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., noted, President Trump's nominee for Merrick Garland's Supreme Court seat actually received a citation for helping win confirmation for Republican-appointed judges. We now have an ideological judiciary. To pretend otherwise is naive and also recklessly irresponsible because it tries to wish away the real stakes in confirmation battles. The best scholarship shows an increasingly tight fit between the party of the appointing president and how a judge rules. It's a point made in "The Behavior of Federal Judges" by Lee Epstein, William Landes, and Judge Richard Posner, and also in research by Neal Devins and Lawrence Baum. As Devins and Baum write, party polarization now affects the behavior of judges, "reducing the likelihood that they will stray from the ideological positions that brought them to the court in the first place." Face it: If partisanship and ideology were not central to Supreme Court nominations, Gorsuch would be looking at more years in his beloved Colorado. Notice that I referred to the Supreme Court seat as belonging to Garland, the chief judge for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, appointed by President Obama to replace the late Antonin Scalia. In an appalling act of extreme partisanship, the Republican-led Senate would not even give Garland a hearing. It's frustrating that so many minimize opposition to Gorsuch as merely the payback for Garland the Democratic base yearns for. This content-free way of casting the debate misses what's really going on: Thanks to aggressive conservative jurisprudence, we have a Supreme Court that, on so many issues, continues to push the country to the right, no matter which party controls Congress or the White House. The reason Republicans wouldn't even let the moderately liberal Garland make his case is that conservatives who regularly denounce "liberal judicial activism" now count on control of the Supreme Court to get results they could never achieve through the democratically elected branches of government. They could not gut the Voting Rights Act in Congress. So Chief Justice John Roberts' court did it for them. They could never have undone a century's worth of legislation limiting big money's influence on politics. So the Citizens United decision did it for them. And it's true, as Franken and other Democratic senators noted, that Gorsuch has done what economic conservatives count on the judges they push onto the courts to do: He regularly sides with corporations over workers and consumers. We can't know exactly where the millions of dollars of dark money fueling pro-Gorsuch ad campaigns come from, but we have a right to guess. You don't have to believe the liberals on Gorsuch's record. Last month, a report by the Orrick law firm concluded: "After reviewing Judge Gorsuch's background and record of judicial opinions, it appears that the prior relatively pro-business conservative trajectory of the Supreme Court will now be restored." This is the whole point, and GOP senators couldn't allow Garland to get in the way of that. Better to have Gorsuch settle the court's current 4-4 tie. Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer tried to slow the Gorsuch train by noting that if a Democratic president were under investigation by the FBI, as Trump's campaign is, Republicans would be "howling at the moon about filling a Supreme Court seat in such circumstances." Republicans, of course, just shrugged off Schumer's accurate rendition of their hypocrisy. The nominee himself flicked away White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus' declaration to the Conservative Political Action Conference that Gorsuch "represents the type of judge that has the vision of Donald Trump and it fulfills the promise that he made to all of you." Bless Priebus for telling the truth and making clear that uncompromising resistance to Gorsuch is not primarily about payback or thrilling the base. The point is to make clear that conservatives, including Trump, want the court to sweep aside decades of jurisprudence that gave Congress broad authority to legislate civil rights and social reform, along with environmental, worker and consumer protections. Gorsuch good-naturedly evaded nearly every substantive question he was asked because he could not acknowledge that this is why he was there. (c) 2017, Washington Post Writers GroupAbout Treasure Gate was an idea, long in the making. I envisioned a tabletop board game that was unique, challenging, and different from the standard game. I wanted to involve a number of aspects, including a future world, and a story based on the past. Treasure Hunting has always been interesting, and survival seems to fit right in with the plot of this game. Both futuristic and mythical in design, Treasure Gate brings together the excitement of battling dragons, and finding treasure. Whether escaping from an island, or a dungeon, or being lost in a cave, it is all a possibility in this game. As a kid playing board games, I always enjoyed the thrill of chance, and never knowing what would happen with a toss of the dice. Treasure Gate brings back those exciting days of growing up, and family game night! As a new designer of games, I felt that KickStarter would be a good choice to get this game recognized, and into the playing market, or gamers' hands the fastest. I hope you will consider joining me in this quest to bring into play a truly new and fun game for all ages. market Treasure Gate has a Beautiful Full Size Quad-Fold Game Board, Unique Locations, and easy to follow rules. Each of the cards from the three different decks included, are highly detailed and help to draw the player deep into the unknown world of Treasure Gate. Thanks for checking us out. Dan Leighly The Story Revealed. You are a lone explorer on a journey into danger. What lies ahead is unknown. Only you can decide your fate. Travel along a mysterious path, through a world never before seen by human eyes. Make your way through forests, and deserts, across mountains, and deep oceans. Explore dark caves, swamps, dungeons, and discover hidden secrets. Find your way to a lost island, and then try to escape, before you meet your doom. You will stop to marvel at palaces and castles on your journey. Don’t waste too much time gazing, as the clock keeps ticking, and your time is running short. You can seek the truth at a temple, or make your way to a mountain high tower, but remember, there are dangers everywhere. If you search for answers, you will discover hidden treasures. As your journey unfolds, and your story unravels, beware of the dangers that lurk in the shadows. There is gold to be had for sure, but at what cost? Only time will tell. You will need four things to survive, a Gate Card, a Treasure Card, a Dragon Card, and a Gold Doubloon Card. If you think your journey will be easy, think again. Have you ever been stranded in the desert? Have you ever tried to find your way out of a jungle with nothing but a compass? Have you ever tried to kill a dragon armed only with a knife? Well, get ready my friend, the time is near. Only one will survive! Who will it be? Throughout the game, players will be told to pick either an adventure, or explorer card from the decks, and follow those instructions. Many cards require the player to perform certain actions, and to make use of various tools. If a player does not perform the action, or have the needed tool, that player will be unable to continue play, until they have the needed items. You cannot die in this game, but there is only one winner. The object of the game is to collect points, defeat a dragon, receive a gate card, find a treasure card, and collect a treasure. When a player has done all that, they are ready to exit the Gate Portal. In order to win the game, a player must have the following: 150 Points A Gate Card (A Gate Card opens your Gate) A Dragon Card (Proof that you Defeated a Dragon) A Treasure Card (A License to Collect Gold) And a Treasure (A Gold Doubloon Card) Players must exit the game through their Gate Portal. During play, there will be plenty of chances to explore and treasure hunt, but beware, there are traps and hidden dangers. Treasure Gate is a fun and exciting game, with a lot of twists and turns. The game uses some strategy when planning your moves, and mostly chance, with the luck of the dice roll or card draw. Anything can happen, and will, so get ready for some crazy and downright fun game play. The Game Components are as follows: One Game Board 50 Treasure Deck Cards including: 8 Dragon Cards 4 Treasure Cards 4 Gold Doubloon Cards, and 4 Gate Cards 3 Wizard Cards (Included with First Stretch
Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs in the United Kingdom lost two disks with personal data on 25 million British citizens, including dates of birth, addresses, bank-account information and national insurance numbers. On the one hand, this is no bigger a deal than any of the thousands of other exposures of personal data we've read about in recent years -- the U.S. Veteran's Administration loss of personal data of 26 million American veterans is an obvious similar event. But this has turned into Britain's privacy Chernobyl. Perhaps encryption isn't so easy after all, and some people could use a little primer. This is how I protect my laptop. There are several whole-disk encryption products on the market. I use PGP Disk's Whole Disk Encryption tool for two reasons. It's easy, and I trust both the company and the developers to write it securely. (Disclosure: I'm also on PGP Corp.'s Technical Advisory Board.) Setup only takes a few minutes. After that, the program runs in the background. Everything works like before, and the performance degradation is negligible. Just make sure you choose a secure password -- PGP's encouragement of passphrases makes this much easier -- and you're secure against leaving your laptop in the airport or having it stolen out of your hotel room. The reason you encrypt your entire disk, and not just key files, is so you don't have to worry about swap files, temp files, hibernation files, erased files, browser cookies or whatever. You don't need to enforce a complex policy about which files are important enough to be encrypted. And you have an easy answer to your boss or to the press if the computer is stolen: no problem; the laptop is encrypted. PGP Disk can also encrypt external disks, which means you can also secure that USB memory device you've been using to transfer data from computer to computer. When I travel, I use a portable USB drive for backup. Those devices are getting physically smaller -- but larger in capacity -- every year, and by encrypting I don't have to worry about losing them. I recommend one more complication. Whole-disk encryption means that anyone at your computer has access to everything: someone at your unattended computer, a Trojan that infected your computer and so on. To deal with these and similar threats I recommend a two-tier encryption strategy. Encrypt anything you don't need access to regularly -- archived documents, old e-mail, whatever -- separately, with a different password. I like to use PGP Disk's encrypted zip files, because it also makes secure backup easier (and lets you secure those files before you burn them on a DVD and mail them across the country), but you can also use the program's virtual-encrypted-disk feature to create a separately encrypted volume. Both options are easy to set up and use. There are still two scenarios you aren't secure against, though. You're not secure against someone snatching your laptop out of your hands as you're typing away at the local coffee shop. And you're not secure against the authorities telling you to decrypt your data for them. The latter threat is becoming more real. I have long been worried that someday, at a border crossing, a customs official will open my laptop and ask me to type in my password. Of course I could refuse, but the consequences might be severe -- and permanent. And some countries -- the United Kingdom, Singapore, Malaysia -- have passed laws giving police the authority to demand that you divulge your passwords and encryption keys. To defend against both of these threats, minimize the amount of data on your laptop. Do you really need 10 years of old e-mails? Does everyone in the company really need to carry around the entire customer database? One of the most incredible things about the Revenue & Customs story is that a low-level government employee mailed a copy of the entire national child database to the National Audit Office in London. Did he have to? Doubtful. The best defense against data loss is to not have the data in the first place. Failing that, you can try to convince the authorities that you don't have the encryption key. This works better if it's a zipped archive than the whole disk. You can argue that you're transporting the files for your boss, or that you forgot the key long ago. Make sure the time stamp on the files matches your claim, though. There are other encryption programs out there. If you're a Windows Vista user, you might consider BitLocker. This program, embedded in the operating system, also encrypts the computer's entire drive. But it only works on the C: drive, so it won't help with external disks or USB tokens. And it can't be used to make encrypted zip files. But it's easy to use, and it's free. This essay previously appeared on Wired.com. EDITED TO ADD (12/14): Lots of people have pointed out that the free and open-source program TrueCrypt is a good alternative to PGP Disk. I haven't used or reviewed the program at all. Posted on December 4, 2007 at 6:40 AM • 106 CommentsJeremy Corbyn will remain as leader Jeremy Corbyn started the year in a position that was stronger than it appeared, something the doomed attempt to remove him proved. Now he looks unassailable, which probably slightly overstates his strength. Party members are worried by what they see as the party’s right-turn on immigration, and those worries will grow more acute if the pattern of Richmond and Sleaford – where the party suffered an exodus of Leave-backing voters to the right and of Remain-backing voters to the Liberal Democrats – continues in by-elections and elections next year. There is also growing concern about what is seen as the Labour leadership’s frequent silence and inability to make news. Neither of these worries will cohere into viable opposition to Corbyn, however. It’s easy to imagine a candidate who could displace Corbyn: pro-European, pro-immigration and popular in the country at large. But there lies the problem: no such candidate exists in the parliamentary Labour party. The leadership is Corbyn’s as long as he wants it. If there is an early election, it won’t be at a time of Theresa May’s choosing Next year will continue to be marked by questions of an early election. One reason being that the government has been forced to abandon or delay key planks of its agenda already, thanks to its wafer-thin majority – but is also in possession of a double-digit lead in the opinion polls. An obstacle to such analyses is the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act, which means that the Prime Minister cannot secure an early election without either a two-thirds majority in the Commons or her government losing a vote of confidence. At that point, if a new government cannot secure a vote of confidence in itself, there is an election. Theoretically, the government could put forward a motion of confidence and instruct its MPs to abstain and, seeing as it is unlikely that the opposition parties would declare their confidence in May’s leadership, secure an early election that way. There are some problems with that approach though – as the Institute for Government’s Cath Haddon explains, it’s not at all clear who the Prime Minister would be in the intervening 14 days – would it still be Theresa May? Someone else from within her party? Or Jeremy Corbyn? All of those ambiguities mean that I think it is highly unlikely that May will call an early election out of choice. But the same arguments for calling one at a time of her choosing are all the arguments that may force her hand. So while I don’t rule out an election next year, if there is one, it will be as much of a shock to May as to everyone else. Angela Merkel will continue as Chancellor, but her power will be diminished Angela Merkel’s standing in Britain is odd. In regular times, she’d be seen as a fairly dull centre-right politician. But the leftwing achievements of the SPD, her coalition partner from 2005 to 2009 and again from 2013, mean that she is seen as cuddlier than she is, while her decision to allow a million refugees into Germany has made her a hate figure on the uglier parts of the right. That means her success in the German elections next year has become a proxy war among Britain’s elites, with the success of the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) a subject for celebration among Britain’s own nativists. The reality, as I’ve written before, is that what will decide Merkel’s future is how well the parties of the left – the Social Democrats, the leftist Die Linke and the Greens – do. If they can cobble together a working coalition, they will likely force her out. Far more likely – unless Martin Schulz can give the Social Democrats an unexpected boost – is a more fractious repeat of the coalition of left and right that she has run since 2013. Barring a terrorist attack, Marine Le Pen won’t win We’ve known since early 2013 that Marine Le Pen, the fascist candidate for the French presidency, had a strong chance of winning the first round of the presidential elections and a puncher’s chance of winning the second. (Under the rules of the French system, unless a candidate secures more than half of the vote in the first round, the top two go through to the run-off.) But the victories for Donald Trump and Brexit – plus the fact that, as far as Britain’s Brexit deal is concerned, elections on the continent matter to the United Kingdom more than ever – mean that here in Britain, people are waking up to the possibility that Le Pen could be France’s next president. I’m not convinced that she will. For all the far right is gaining from sharing best practice between its activists, it is losing through the association with extremists abroad. Most of the four million people who voted for Ukip detest Donald Trump, and that goes even more so for the perhaps three to four million voters who didn’t vote Ukip in 2015 but could potentially be persuaded to do so in the future. Don’t forget that allies of Norbert Hofer, the far-right candidate in Austria, believe the association with the anti-EU politics of Nigel Farage hurt their candidate. The comparison between Le Pen and her cheerleaders abroad risks hurting her. But more important than that is that the victories of Trump and Brexit – and I should emphasise that the differences between Brexit and Trump are more important than the similarities, in my view – both ran with the grain of their respective political cultures. In the case of Vote Leave, euroscepticism is part of the warp and weft of British politics, just as white reactionary politics are part of the story of American politics. It’s worth noting that while the Brexit vote, Trump’s victory and Matteo Renzi’s defeat in the Italian referendum were cheered by Le Pen, they were all the work of forces that were to her left. One of Vote Leave’s successes was largely in keeping Nigel Farage away from the cameras, Trump hijacked the party of the centre-right (albeit in the disturbingly right-wing context of American politics), and Renzi’s defeat was an alliance of much of the political spectrum against his government and him personally. Le Pen’s assault on the French presidency has two problems. First, she has not hijacked a centre-right organisation, and she is pushing against, rather than towards, the cultural headwinds of French politics. There is a long tradition of voting against the anti-system parties in French politics, and my expectation is that the left and the centre will lend their votes to keep Le Pen out again in 2017.PRINCETON, NJ -- Six in 10 Americans favor Congress' passing the so-called "Buffett Rule," which would mandate a minimum 30% tax rate for Americans with a household income of $1 million or more per year. Majorities of both Democrats and independents favor the policy, while a majority of Republicans oppose it. President Barack Obama has pushed this tax policy in recent appearances, and the U.S. Senate may vote on it next week. Few observers believe it has a chance of passing the Republican-controlled House to become law before the end of the year. The proposed legislation was informally dubbed the "Buffett Rule" after billionaire investor Warren Buffett asserted that he should not be allowed to pay a lower tax rate than his secretary. Gallup's question about the proposal, included in its April 9-12 Economy and Personal Finance survey, asked if "households earning $1 million a year or more" should pay a minimum of 30% of their income in taxes. The actual law the Senate will vote on would include more complex "phase in" clauses for those making between $1 and $2 million per year. Given President Obama's persistent emphasis this year on the need to increase taxes on higher-income Americans, and his adoption of a "fair share, fair shot, equal playing rules" campaign theme, it is not surprising to see that Democrats favor the Buffett Rule by almost a three-to-one ratio. More than six in 10 independents, a critically important group in an election year, favor the law. Republicans oppose the law by an 11-point margin, with 54% against and 43% in favor. Americans in general say that the distribution of money and wealth in this country is not fair, and that money and wealth should be more evenly distributed. Plus, 59% of Americans last year agreed that households making $250,000 or more per year should pay higher taxes. The current results reinforce these findings and underscore the now well-documented conclusion that Americans in general support various proposals for increasing taxes on higher-income Americans. Gallup's surveys do not allow the isolation of the very few respondents who might actually themselves make $1 million per year or more, but the more limited income categories that are defined show little variation in response to the Buffett Rule by income. A majority (55%) of those making $100,000 or more in annual household income favor the Buffett Rule, similar to the level of support from lower-income Americans. Implications Republican politicians oppose the Buffett Rule, and there is little possibility that it will become law this year. President Obama's intense focus on the policy and his emphasis on bringing it to a vote in Congress is thus mostly a symbolic gesture -- underscoring his general presidential campaign themes this year. An emphasis on millionaires paying higher taxes also helps position the Obama presidential campaign against his very rich GOP opponent, Mitt Romney. Perhaps more importantly than the fate of this one policy proposal, the expiration of the Bush tax cuts at the end of this year means that unless something is done, taxes will go up for many American taxpayers. Obama is on record as saying he would let the tax cuts expire for those households making $250,000 a year and up, but would keep them in place for all others. Although the public agrees with the idea of increasing taxes on the rich, this does not appear to be Americans' highest priority. Gallup's April measure of the most important problem facing the country shows that Americans cite the economy, jobs, dissatisfaction with government, and the deficit as the top problems, while very few (1%) mention the gap between the rich and the poor as the top problem. Previous Gallup research has also shown that Americans rate reducing the income and wealth gap between the rich and the poor as a lower priority than growing the economy more generally and increasing economic opportunity.Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., a member of the House Financial Services Committee, has introduced legislation that would end mandatory arbitration in broker and investment adviser agreements with clients, but the bill faces an uphill battle. The measure, floated Aug. 2, also would prohibit any restriction on class action claims. Mr. Ellison said the bill, the Investor Choice Act, would help level the playing field for investors. “Investors want to get back in the market, but they're rightly wary that the game is rigged against them,” Mr. Ellison said in a statement to InvestmentNews. “Investors shouldn't have to sign away their rights in order to work with a financial adviser or broker dealer to build a secure retirement. By removing some of the unfair advantages, consumers will be more eager to invest, which will create jobs and strengthen the economy.” State securities officials have been pushing for an end to mandatory-arbitration clauses, which are part of nearly every brokerage contract. The Dodd-Frank financial reform law gives the Securities and Exchange Commission the authority to prohibit such agreements, but the agency has yet to propose such a rule. The North American Securities Administrators Association, which has been calling on Congress to address arbitration, came out strongly in favor of Mr. Ellison's bill. The measure would give investors the option of pursuing a case in court or in arbitration and would ensure that they could coalesce into a class action group. Small investors need such flexibility, according A. Heath Abshure, Arkansas' securities commissioner and NASAA's president. “No attorney is going to take a $50,000 securities fraud claim,” Mr. Abshure said. “It's important that [investors] have a reasonable, effective and efficient forum to hear their claims.” Supporters of arbitration argue that it is the more successful and cost-effective venue for investor-broker disputes and broker cases against their firms. They say that court action can drag on for years and result in substantial legal costs. Handled by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc., arbitration cases are heard by a panel of three adjudicators who are selected from a roster consisting of industry and public arbitrators. Controversy over compulsory arbitration spiked this year when a Finra hearing panel ruled that the regulator couldn't stop The Charles Schwab Corp. from using the arbitration agreements to prohibit clients from engaging in class actions. It's not clear how much congressional attention the issue will draw. As a Democrat on the Republican-majority House Financial Services Committee, Mr. Ellison will find it difficult to get a hearing, much less a favorable vote. Still, Mr. Abshure said Republicans should get behind Mr. Ellison's bill because it would help protect small investors able to participate in securities sales allowed by the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, a bill approved last year by large bipartisan majorities. That measure OK'd so-called crowdfunding, or online equity offerings. “If the Republicans want to see the JOBS Act become a success, they better embrace this act,” Mr. Abshure said, referring to Mr. Ellison's bill.Intensified diplomatic efforts by the international community to put an end to the civil war in Syria are unlikely to reach a political long-term arrangement before the warring parties are exhausted by the conflict. It is often weariness that brings armed conflicts to a close, rather than a promising political solution offered by a disinterested mediator or international conference. Significantly, no protagonist seems to have overwhelming power to enforce its preferred solution. The Sunni powers, such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey, tried to unseat Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the ally of Shiite Iran, but displayed weakness that was exploited by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah. Even American aid to the Sunni rebels was ineffective. The much feared Islamic State (IS), born as a result of the disintegration of Iraq and Syria, was not strong enough to tackle the Assad regime successfully. The Russian military intervention was able to strengthen Assad's grip over parts of Syria, but was not enough to restore his rule over the entire country. This means that Syria will remain divided among several warring factions for some time to come. The fractured country will continue to be an arena in which local chiefs will try to expand their areas of control and in which outsiders will compete for influence. Fluidity and ambiguity will continue to characterize the arena. Syria will remain divided among several warring factions for some time to come. This equivocal situation is producing winners and losers, but it is Iran that is emerging with the upper hand. Assad is still in power, which means Tehran retains its clout in Damascus, a former capital of an Arab empire. Damascus is also the linchpin to Beirut, where the Shiite Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy, exercises effective power. Moreover, the Syrian crisis has amplified the threat perception of IS in the West, making Iran a potential ally in western attempts to curb radical Sunni Islamists. Such perceptions also help Iran strengthen its control over Iraq. Iran has been successful in preserving the Shiite corridor, a key objective in its quest for hegemony in the Middle East and for projecting force further away. Russia emerged as a beneficiary of the lingering Syrian crisis even before its military intervention in September 2015. It was successful in providing the diplomatic mechanism that enabled Obama to renege on his ultimatum against Assad's use of chemical weapons, and has effectively defended the Assad regime at international forums. The Russian intervention on Assad's behalf also signaled that Moscow is a reliable ally, a message that resonates well among the political elites of the Middle East and beyond. Russian soldiers in Syria's Latakia province. In addition, Russia preserved its strategic assets on the Syrian coast in the eastern Mediterranean after investing for years in the build-up of its Mediterranean flotilla. Russia, a large energy producer with global interests, has also maintained the exploration rights to the potential gas findings along the Syrian coast—a part of the rich Levant Basin. In contrast, the Syrian turmoil provided plenty of proof that the US, under Obama, is not adept at dealing with Middle East realities. One early example was the Obama administration's initial inclination to try to engage foes, such as Syria (and Iran). A defining moment of American weakness was the retreat from threats to use force against Assad for crossing the chemical weapons red line (August 2012). The American campaign against IS has provided additional evidence about the retreat of American power in the Middle East. In August 2014, after a confused and long decision-making process, the US concluded that the territorial conquests of IS are evolving into a significant threat to American interests and ordered its air force to raid installations of IS in Syria (and Iraq). Unfortunately, the gap between the goals and the capabilities of the US and its allies bolstered IS's dual message about the weakness of the decadent West and its own invincibility. By the beginning of 2016, the war against IS appeared stalemated. The US failed to induce local actors to cooperate effectively against it, and the limited air campaign has been insufficient. The US has failed to induce local actors to cooperate effectively against ISIS. In contrast, it was Russian air support that secured a victory for Assad against IS (the March 2016 conquest of Palmyra). The Russian intervention underscored American passivity even as it elicited dismissive statements by Obama, who called it a quagmire for Russian forces and absolved himself of the need to take any action. Obama did not specify how he would respond to Russian aircraft targeting US-supported rebel factions in the civil war other than to underline that the US would not directly confront Moscow. The tacit expectation that Syria would turn into a Vietnam or Afghanistan experience for Russia turned out to be unfounded. Turkey appears to be at a loss after several years of futile support for Syrian rebels. The destabilization of Syria has underscored Turkey's long porous border, which exposes the country to terrorist attacks. At the same time, the influx of a multitude of refugees fleeing the mayhem has exacted an economic price on Ankara. Turkey's crucial support for IS has been gradually revealed, the full diplomatic cost of which remains to be seen. While Turkey has shown itself ready to confront Iran by proxies in Syria, underscoring the Sunni-Shiite fault lines and the regional Persian-Turkish rivalry, that readiness may well precipitate Iranian support for Kurdish militias, which constitutes a national security threat. Turkey also miscalculated in November 2015 by shooting down a Russian fighter, an action that triggered a deterioration in Turkey's strategic position by reviving the Ottoman-Russian historical enmity. In addition, Turkey's Syrian policy has had the unintended consequence of empowering the most virulently anti-Turkish Kurdish elements. These Kurds have achieved a measure of autonomy in several regions in northern Syria, and have earned some Western support thanks to their effectiveness against IS. Still, the limited self-rule the Kurds have established, and the international attention they have attracted to their cause, will not be enough for state-building. For them to achieve full autonomy, they will have to overcome internal discord and their lack of territorial contiguity. Iranian entrenchment in Syria constitutes a critical national security threat to Israel. Israel continues to be a spectator as the Syrian tragedy unfolds, with occasional pinpoint interventions when immediate national security interests are at stake. The disappearance of the Syrian military threat to Israel is not, of course, inimical to its interests. But the entrenchment of Iran in Damascus, with substantial Russian help, constitutes a critical national security threat to Israel, because it strengthens the radical axis led by Iran in a Middle East from which the US has largely retreated. The possibility of opening a new front on the Golan Heights is a secondary issue that also needs the attention of the Israeli military. The Syrian arena provides Israel with diplomatic opportunities to nourish relationships with reluctant actors. Jerusalem must work under the assumption that Syria cannot easily be fixed and that conflict is likely to continue. Israel's interactions within its strategic environment are inherently limited. The use of force, often inevitable in our neighborhood, must be carefully calibrated in light of domestic and international constraints.In the ongoing debate about rising income inequality, two questions are often raised: one from the left—Is rising inequality impeding economic growth? And the other from the right: Does tackling inequality, which usually involves some form of redistribution, reduce growth? The questions reflect differing concerns and differing world views. In his 2012 book, “The Price of Inequality,” Joseph Stiglitz, the liberal Columbia economist, argued that recent trends in income distribution threatened not just economic growth but the very fabric of democracy. On the other side of the ideological divide, conservative economists claim that tackling inequality—by, for instance, raising taxes on the rich and using it to finance government programs for the poor—has adverse effects on incentives and restricts growth, which is counterproductive for everybody. Economic theory isn’t much help in resolving this debate. It’s pretty easy to build mathematical models in which high rates of inequality, by generating higher rates of saving and investment, are associated with higher rates of G.D.P. growth. (Nicholas Kaldor demonstrated how to do it back in the nineteen-fifties.) It’s a bit trickier, but also perfectly possible, to construct models in which high rates of inequality—by, for example, constricting saving and investment (especially human-capital investment) among the poor—lead to lower rates of growth. (Brown University’s Oded Galor is a leader in this area.) The debate, then, turns on data. And, thanks to three researchers at the International Monetary Fund, we’ve got some striking new findings that answer the second question, whether tackling inequality reduces growth, with a firm no. Countries that take redistributive measures in order to attenuate inequitable market outcomes do not, on average, tend to grow less rapidly than other countries. Indeed, the contrary is true. They tend to grow a bit more rapidly. The research paper, “Redistribution, Inequality, and Growth,” has been posted on the I.M.F.’s Web site and authorized for distribution by Olivier Blanchard, the I.M.F.’s chief economist. (I am grateful to Jim Tankersley, of the Washington Post, for drawing my attention to it on Twitter.) Its authors—Jonathan D. Ostry, Andrew Berg, and Charalambos G. Tsanarides—begin by pointing to previous empirical findings that sustained economic growth seems, on average, to be associated with more equal income distribution. But this might not, in itself, make the case for using distribution to attain that equality, they explain: “In particular, inequality may impede growth, at least in part, because it calls forth efforts to redistribute that themselves undercut growth. In such a situation…taxes and transfers may be precisely the wrong remedy.” To figure out whether this is happening, the authors exploit a new dataset that distinguishes between the level of “market inequality” in a given country and the level of inequality after taxes and transfers. The difference between the two types of inequality provides a measure of how much redistribution is being carried out; the authors then use statistical regressions to analyze whether there is any relationship between redistribution and growth rates. Here are two of their conclusions: Redistribution appears generally benign in terms of its impact on growth; only in extreme cases is there some evidence that it may have direct negative effects on growth. And: The combined direct and indirect effects of redistribution—including the growth effects of the resulting lower inequality—are, on average, pro-growth. The two accompanying charts, which I took from the paper, illustrate these findings. Each of the dots represents a country. The first chart shows a negative relationship between initial levels of inequality (as measured by the Gini coefficient) and subsequent rates of G.D.P. growth. The second chart shows a (slightly) positive relationship between the level of redistribution and subsequent rates of growth. As with any statistical exercise of this type, some notes of caution should be attached to these findings. To begin with, they are based on cross-country growth regressions, and it’s long been known that many of the results generated by this method of analysis are fragile. It remains to be seen how this study will hold up to inspection by other researchers. Arcane disputes are likely, possibly even within the I.M.F.’s research department. (In the past, other I.M.F. economists have challenged the claim that growth and inequality are negatively correlated.) The authors, however, are careful not to oversell their conclusions. In the introduction to their paper, they acknowledge the limitations of their data and the statistical tools they are working with. But they also point out that they utilized the best information available from a large number of countries, and that their results hold up even when their analysis is restricted to more recent data, which is the most reliable. In any case, the big contribution of the paper isn’t to suggest that a given redistributive policy—a tax-financed program to encourage kids in developing countries to stay in school, say—will deliver another x per cent of G.D.P. growth. Such a conclusion is beyond our current (and possibly our future) knowledge base. Where the paper will hopefully make a mark is in challenging the presumption, which until pretty recently was all too common in economics, that countries that try to reduce inequality inevitably pay a price in terms of lower growth. Once again, here is what the authors say: “We should not assume that there is a big tradeoff between redistribution and growth: the best available macro-data do not support that conclusion.” _ Photograph by Larry Towell/Magnum.Zack Burdi arrived in Winston-Salem and made his full-season league debut for the Dash on Friday night. I was there to watch, got some video, and had the opportunity to interview him before the game. So this article will be a mix of all that, with a brief background first, to provide a mini-profile of Burdi as a professional pitcher. This flame-throwing right-hander was selected by the White Sox as the 26th overall pick in the 2016 Draft just a few weeks ago. He was seen by pundits as a likely fast-riser in a relief role, and so far that's been playing out. Pitchers who can hit triple digits, with a wicked breaking pitch to boot, don't grow on trees, and that velocity could play at any level. Here's what he had to say when asked about the possibility of reaching the majors in his draft year, a la Chris Sale... No, they haven’t really put that on me, and haven’t heard that from anyone in the organization. But it’s definitely out there, people are whispering about it, I see people talking about it. But nothing from the front office. After signing (for $2,128,500, which is slot value), he started on what one might call the Fulmer path - opening with a single-outing tune-up in the Arizona League before skipping Low-A to go straight to High-A. Our own Kim Contreras caught that warm-up outing a few days ago and wrote this brief report about how he looked there, including embedded video, and you should definitely read that too. Upon arriving at BB&T Ballpark to join the team, he did the rounds interviewing with myself, as well as some local TV news crews. Then, after starter Spencer Adams booked seven solid innings, Zack warmed up and came out for the 8th inning, and got his first look from the mound at Carolina League hitters. Against his first batter of the Wilmington Blue Rocks (a Royals affiliate), Burdi's sequence went: FB 98, FB 101, CH 90, FB 100 that resulted in a medium-deep fly-out to right field. He then induced an infield pop-out on the first pitch against his second batter, on another fastball around 100. Then with two outs, he did this (velocity mentioned for each pitch in the audio in this video): That's 101, 102, 101 (same speeds registered on two radar guns - those numbers are real). Somehow on that last pitch, Samir Duenez managed to put a grounder just far enough away from the shortstop to manage an infield single on that 101 mph laser. Also worth noting, a very slick play from defensive wizard Cleuluis Rondon almost nailed the runner anyway, which would have ended the inning. Brandon Downes then saw a pitch he could actually turn on, and almost hit it out of the park, smacking a double high off the wall in left field on a 90 mph change-up or hanging slider (when you're geared for 100+, you can pull 90 pretty easily). In the final at-bat of the inning, Austin Bailey hit another ground ball up the middle this one escaping Rondon's reach into center field for a base hit - also against a change-up, this one at 91. But a strong throw home from Hunter Jones nailed the runner trying to score from second, allowing Burdi to get out of the inning. In total, he allowed 3 hits, one run, and threw 18 pitches (11 for strikes). Watching Zack pitch, a few things stand out: He starts with his front foot nearly on the rubber in front of (and in line with) his back foot, with his back turned nearly to the catcher. Bears fans may find this familiar, eliciting memories of placekicker Paul Edinger. One might consider that this gets his trunk setup in early, which perhaps could help alleviate some stress. But it's unusual to be sure. His initial kick and arm draw-back are not violent, in fact it looks almost slow in comparison to what happens next. When he does start his arm forward and trunk flexion, the acceleration is impressive, almost frightening. His arm slot is of a low 3/4 variety, almost side-arm. This does put more strain on the elbow, but again the way he uses his trunk is unusual enough that it's hard to say how much of a problem that may or may not be. He finishes falling off to the first base side. This is not surprising given the arm angle and rapid body rotation, but it may indicate a lack of balance on delivery that could speak to future problems improving command. Somehow, despite the oddities and the rapid acceleration, taken as a whole form it's pretty smooth. No particular hitches or body jerks. In terms of results, it's clear that he doesn't have particularly good command of any of his pitches yet. He only threw a true breaking pitch once, so I just can't comment much on that yet. His fastball had (oodles of) velocity, and some impressive arm-side run. His change-up had some drop to it, though not consistently, and he wasn't locating it particularly well. He appears able to throw strikes at a reasonable rate, but that's not the same as command, and he doesn't seem like a surgeon out there at this point in his career. Speaking of which, when I asked Zack what he's focused on right now development-wise, he had this to say: Just good command, having good control of the game. Just slowing the game down. It’s a different speed than college, obviously, all the guys are top caliber dudes. So just getting a grip on that, taking my game out there having it work. Consistency and command, driven from balance and body control, will be a key challenge for Burdi. There are parallels here with Carson Fulmer, and Carlos Rodon, among other recent draft picks for the White Sox. He's probably an ideal project for this club though, as they do excel as an organization at dealing with these sorts of issues (see Sale, Chris). One last note - we've been asked on social media if he's seen purely as a reliever, or a potential future starter. When I broached that topic, this was how Burdi responded: Yeah, we talked about it when I got drafted. They said that they see me as a reliever, and that there is a possibility I’m going to start. But for now, at least for this season, I’m going to be a reliever. Then going into the spring next year they can re-evaluate that if they want to. But they drafted me as a reliever, and that’s what I’m going to be for right now. Will he be in the majors this year? How much value will he bring? The answers to those questions will likely be found in how effective he is at improving his balance and control, so that he can arrive at the entrance to the maze leading to true command. *There is more from my interview with Burdi, which I'll include with the other Dash interviews when that article is published* Want to know right away when we publish a new article? Type your email address in the box and click the "create subscription" button. Our list is completely spam free, and you can opt out at any time.Week 12: Chicken Chasing for Mardi Gras in Mount Washington Brian Seel Blocked Unblock Follow Following Aug 7, 2017 Have you ever tried to catch a chicken? Most of my formative years were spent on five acres in rural Idaho. I didn’t live on a farm, but we did have cows, chickens, turkeys and horses. We used the horses for riding, cows and turkeys for food, and chickens for eggs. It was casual farming for the purpose of a bit of home grown meat, and probably to inflect a bit of torture on me (have you ever unloaded a tractor-trailer of hay in 100 degree heat?). One thing that we struggled with for years was caging our chickens. Now its trendy to have free range chickens, where they are walking around, catching worms and and just blowing off some chicken stress. But in practice, it sucks. Because this is how chickens think: “Hey… thats a beautiful garden you have there… would be a shame if someone dug it up.” And there is poop everywhere. Everywhere. You know that feeling when you smell poop, and realize that there is dog poop on your shoe? Well, chicken poop is much smaller and more frequent. That would happen to me all the time. But the worst incident was when my 75 year old grandmother came out to see us. It was early in the morning, I was inside eating my breakfast and my grandma was in our backyard, walking around and enjoying the tranquility. Then,
oured waste ground and derelict buildings. Hindley hired a vehicle a week after Kilbride went missing, and again on 21 December 1963, apparently to make sure the burial sites had not been disturbed. In February 1964, she bought a second-hand Austin Traveller, but soon after traded it for a Mini van. Twelve-year-old Keith Bennett disappeared on 16 June 1964. His stepfather, Jimmy Johnson, became a suspect; in the two years following Bennett's disappearance, Johnson was taken for questioning on four occasions. Detectives searched under the floorboards of the Johnsons' house, and on discovering that the houses in the row were connected, extended the search to the entire street. David and Maureen Smith, pictured around the time of the murders. David Smith's statement to the police led to Brady's arrest. Maureen Hindley married David Smith on 15 August 1964. The marriage was hastily arranged and performed at a register office. None of Hindley's relatives attended; Myra did not approve of the marriage, and her mother was too embarrassed—Maureen was seven months pregnant. The newlyweds moved into Smith's father's house. The next day, Brady suggested that the four take a day-trip to Windermere. This was the first time Brady and Smith had met properly, and Brady was apparently impressed by Smith's demeanour. The two talked about society, the distribution of wealth, and the possibility of robbing a bank. The young Smith was similarly impressed by Brady, who throughout the day had paid for his food and wine. The trip to the Lake District was the first of many outings. Hindley was apparently jealous of their relationship, but became closer to her sister. In 1964, Hindley, her grandmother, and Brady were rehoused as part of the post-war slum clearances in Manchester, to 16 Wardle Brook Avenue in the new overspill estate of Hattersley. Brady and Hindley became friendly with Patricia Hodges, an 11-year-old girl who lived at 12 Wardle Brook Avenue. Hodges accompanied the two on their trips to Saddleworth Moor to collect peat, something that many householders on the new estate did to improve the soil in their gardens, which were full of clay and builder's rubble. She remained unharmed; living only a few doors away, her disappearance would have been easily solved. Early on Boxing Day 1964, Hindley left her grandmother at a relative's house and refused to allow her back to Wardle Brook Avenue that night. On the same day, 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey disappeared from a funfair in Ancoats. Despite a huge search, she was not found. The following day, Hindley brought her grandmother back home. By February 1965, Patricia Hodges had stopped visiting 16 Wardle Brook Avenue, but David Smith was still a regular visitor. Brady gave Smith books to read, and the two discussed robbery and murder. On Hindley's 23rd birthday, her sister and brother-in-law, who had until then been living with relatives, were rehoused in Underwood Court, a block of flats not far from Wardle Brook Avenue. The two couples began to see each other more regularly, but usually only on Brady's terms. During the 1990s, Hindley claimed that she took part in the killings only because Brady had drugged her, was blackmailing her with pornographic pictures he had taken of her, and had threatened to kill her younger sister, Maureen.[124] In a 2008 television documentary series on female serial killers broadcast on ITV3, Hindley's solicitor, Andrew McCooey, reported that she had said to him: I ought to have been hanged. I deserved it. My crime was worse than Brady's because I enticed the children and they would never have entered the car without my role... I have always regarded myself as worse than Brady.[154] Incarceration [ edit ] Brady [ edit ] Following his conviction, Brady was moved to Durham Prison, where he asked to live in solitary confinement.[155] He spent 19 years in mainstream prisons before being diagnosed as a psychopath in November 1985 and sent to the high-security Park Lane Hospital, now Ashworth Psychiatric Hospital, in Sefton;[156] he made it clear that he never wanted to be released.[157] The trial judge recommended that his life sentence should mean life, and successive Home Secretaries agreed with that decision. In 1982, the Lord Chief Justice Lord Lane said of Brady: "this is the case if ever there is to be one when a man should stay in prison till he dies".[158] The death, in November 2007, of John Straffen, who had spent 55 years in prison for murdering three children meant that Brady became the longest serving prisoner in England and Wales.[159] Although he refused to work with Ashworth's psychiatrists, Brady occasionally corresponded with people outside the hospital,[d] including Lord Longford, writer Colin Wilson and various journalists. In one letter, written in 2005, he claimed that the murders were "merely an existential exercise of just over a year, which was concluded in December 1964". By then, he went on to claim, he and Hindley had turned their attention to armed robbery, for which they had begun to prepare by acquiring guns and vehicles.[e][163] During several years of interactions with forensic psychologist Chris Cowley, including face-to-face meetings, Brady told him of an "aesthetic fascination [he had] with guns", despite his never having used one to kill. He complained bitterly about conditions at Ashworth, which he hated. In 1999, his right wrist was broken in what he claimed was an "hour-long, unprovoked attack" by staff. Brady subsequently went on hunger strike, but while English law allows patients to refuse treatment, those being treated for mental disorders under the Mental Health Act 1983 have no such right if the treatment is for their mental disorder.[168][169] He was therefore force-fed and transferred to another hospital for tests, after he fell ill.[170] He recovered, and in March 2000 asked for a judicial review of the legality of the decision to force-feed him, but was refused permission.[168][171] Myra gets the potentially fatal brain condition, whilst I have to fight simply to die. I have had enough. I want nothing, my objective is to die and release myself from this once and for all. So you see my death strike is rational and pragmatic. I'm only sorry I didn't do it decades ago, and I'm eager to leave this cesspit in a coffin.[171] While at Ashworth, in 2001 Brady wrote The Gates of Janus, which was published by Feral House, an underground US publisher. The book, Brady's analysis of serial murder and specific serial killers, sparked outrage when announced in Britain.[172] According to Chris Cowley, Brady regretted Hindley's imprisonment and the consequences of their actions, but not necessarily the crimes themselves. He saw no point in making any kind of public apology; instead, he "expresse[d] remorse through actions". Twenty years of transcribing classical texts into Braille came to an end when the authorities confiscated his translation machine, for fear it might be used as a weapon. He once offered to donate one of his kidneys to "someone, anyone who needed one", but was blocked from doing so. According to Colin Wilson, "it was because these attempts to express remorse were thrown back at him that he began to contemplate suicide".[169] He might have achieved this in 2006, when a female friend sent him 50 paracetamol pills, stored in two Smarties tubes hidden inside a hollowed-out crime novel. The potentially lethal dose of tablets was intercepted.[169][175] Winnie Johnson, the mother of the sole remaining undiscovered victim, 12-year-old Keith Bennett, received a letter from Brady at the end of 2005 in which, she said, he claimed that he could take police to within 20 yards (18 m) of her son's body but the authorities would not allow it. Brady did not refer directly to Keith by name and did not claim he could take investigators directly to the grave, but spoke of the "clarity" of his recollections.[176] In 2012, Brady applied to be returned to prison, reiterating his desire to starve himself to death.[177] At a mental health tribunal in June the following year, Brady claimed that he suffered not from paranoid schizophrenia, as his doctors at Ashworth maintained, but a personality disorder. His application was rejected and the judge stated that Brady "continues to suffer from a mental disorder which is of a nature and degree which makes it appropriate for him to continue to receive medical treatment".[178] After receiving end-of-life care, Brady died of restrictive pulmonary disease in Ashworth Hospital on 15 May 2017.[179] On 21 September 2017, the inquest found that he died of natural causes and his hunger strike had not been a contributory factor.[180] Brady had refused food and fluids for more than 48 hours on various occasions, causing him to be fitted with a nasogastric tube, although his inquest noted that his body mass index was not a cause for concern.[181] Brady was cremated without ceremony by Sefton Borough Council on 25 October 2017 and his ashes were disposed of at sea during the night.[182] Hindley [ edit ] Hindley lodged an unsuccessful appeal against her conviction immediately after the trial.[183] Brady and Hindley corresponded by letter until 1971, when she ended their relationship. The two remained in sporadic contact for several months, but Hindley had fallen in love with one of her prison warders, Patricia Cairns. A former assistant governor claimed that such relationships were not unusual in Holloway at that time, as "many of the officers were gay, and involved in relationships either with one another or with inmates". Hindley successfully petitioned to have her status as a category A prisoner changed to category B, which enabled Governor Dorothy Wing to take her on a walk round Hampstead Heath, part of her unofficial policy of reintroducing her charges to the outside world when she felt they were ready. The excursion caused a furore in the national press and earned Wing an official rebuke from the then Home Secretary Robert Carr. With Cairns's assistance and the outside contacts of another prisoner, Maxine Croft, Hindley planned a prison escape, but it was thwarted when impressions of the prison keys were intercepted by an off-duty policeman. Cairns was sentenced to six years in jail for her part in the plot. Hindley was told that she should spend 25 years in prison before being considered for parole. The Lord Chief Justice agreed with that recommendation in 1982, but in January 1985 Home Secretary Leon Brittan increased her tariff to 30 years.[158] By that time Hindley claimed to be a reformed Catholic. Ann West, the mother of Lesley Ann Downey, was at the centre of a campaign to ensure that Hindley was never released from prison, and until West's death in February 1999, she regularly gave television and newspaper interviews whenever Hindley's release was rumoured.[188] In February 1985, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher told Brittan that his proposed minimum sentences of 30 years for Hindley and 40 years for Brady were too short, saying "I do not think that either of these prisoners should ever be released from custody. Their crime was the most hideous and cruel in modern times."[189][190] In 1987, Hindley admitted that the plea for parole she had submitted to the Home Secretary eight years earlier was "on the whole... a pack of lies", and to some reporters her co-operation in the searches on Saddleworth Moor "appeared a cynical gesture aimed at ingratiating herself to the parole authorities".[192] Then Home Secretary David Waddington imposed a whole life tariff on Hindley in July 1990, after she confessed to having been more involved in the murders than she had admitted.[158] Hindley was not informed of the decision until 1994, when a Law Lords ruling obliged the Prison Service to inform all life sentence prisoners of the minimum period they must serve in prison before being considered for parole.[193] In 1997, the Parole Board ruled that Hindley was low risk and should be moved to an open prison.[158] She rejected the idea and in early 1998 was moved to the medium-security Highpoint Prison; the House of Lords ruling left open the possibility of later freedom. Between December 1997 and March 2000, Hindley made three separate appeals against her life tariff, claiming she was a reformed woman and no longer a danger to society, but each was rejected by the courts.[195][196] When in 2002 another life sentence prisoner challenged the Home Secretary's power to set minimum terms, Hindley and hundreds of others, whose tariffs had been increased by politicians, looked likely to be released from prison.[197] Hindley's release seemed imminent and plans were made by supporters for her to be given a new identity.[198] Home Secretary David Blunkett ordered Greater Manchester Police to find new charges against her, to prevent her release from prison. The investigation was headed by Superintendent Tony Brett, and initially looked at charging Hindley with the murders of Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett, but the advice given by government lawyers was that because of the DPP's decision taken 15 years earlier, a new trial would probably be considered an abuse of process. On 25 November 2002, the Law Lords agreed that judges, not politicians, should decide how long a criminal spends behind bars, and stripped the Home Secretary of the power to set minimum sentences.[200] On 15 November 2002, aged 60, Hindley died from bronchial pneumonia, caused by heart disease, at West Suffolk Hospital. She was a 40-a-day smoker who in 1999 had been diagnosed with angina and hospitalised after suffering a brain aneurysm.[202][203] Camera crews "stood rank and file behind steel barriers" outside, but none of Hindley's relatives were among the small congregation of eight to ten people who attended a short service at Cambridge crematorium. Such was the strength of feeling more than 35 years after the murders that a reported 20 local undertakers refused to handle her cremation.[205] Four months later, her ashes were scattered by her ex-partner, Patricia Cairns, less than 10 miles (16 km) from Saddleworth Moor in Stalybridge Country Park. Fears were expressed that the news might result in visitors choosing to avoid the park, a local beauty spot, or even that the park might be vandalised.[208] Aftermath [ edit ] Smith became "reviled by the people of Manchester", despite having been instrumental in bringing Brady and Hindley to justice. While her sister was on trial, Maureen—eight months pregnant—was attacked in the lift of the building in which she and David lived. Their home was vandalised, and hate mail was regularly posted through their letterbox. Maureen feared for her children: "I couldn't let my children out of my sight when they were little. They were too young to tell them why they had to stay in, to explain why they couldn't go out to play like all the other children." After stabbing another man during a fight, in an attack he claimed was triggered by the abuse he had suffered since the trial, Smith was sentenced to three years in prison in 1969. That same year his children were taken into the care of the local authority. Maureen moved from Underwood Court to a single-bedroom property, and found work in a department store. Subjected to whispering campaigns and petitions to remove her from the estate where she lived, she received no support from her family—her mother had supported Myra during the trial. On his release from prison, Smith moved in with the girl who became his second wife and won custody of his three sons. Maureen managed to repair the relationship with her mother, and moved into a council property in Gorton. She divorced Smith in 1973,[211] and married a lorry driver, Bill Scott, with whom she had a daughter. Maureen and her immediate family made regular visits to see Hindley, who reportedly adored her niece. In 1980, Maureen suffered a brain haemorrhage; Hindley was granted permission to visit her sister in hospital, but she arrived an hour after Maureen's death. Sheila and Patrick Kilbride, who were by then divorced, were present at Maureen's funeral, believing that Hindley might make an appearance. Patrick mistook Bill Scott's daughter from a previous relationship, Ann Wallace, for Hindley and tried to attack her before being knocked to the ground by another mourner; the police were called to restore order. Shortly before her death at the age of 70, Sheila said: "If she [Hindley] ever comes out of jail I'll kill her".[216] It was a threat repeated by her son Danny, and Ann West.[217][218] In 1972, Smith was acquitted of the murder of his father, who had been suffering from terminal cancer. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to two days' detention.[219] He remarried and moved to Lincolnshire with his three sons, and was exonerated of any participation in the Moors murders by Hindley's confession in 1987. In 2011 he co-authored the book Witness with biographer Carol Ann Lee.[221] He died in Ireland in 2012.[222][223] A 1977 BBC television debate discussed arguments for and against Myra Hindley's release, with Lord Longford, a Roman Catholic convert, on the side who argued that Hindley should be released and Ann West (the mother of Lesley Ann Downey) on the side arguing against any suggestion of Hindley being released and threatening to kill her if she ever got out of prison.[224] Joan Reade, Pauline Reade's mother, was admitted to Springfield Mental Hospital in Manchester. She was present, under heavy sedation, at the funeral of her daughter on 7 August 1987. Five years after their son was murdered, Sheila and Patrick Kilbride divorced. Ann West, mother of Lesley Ann Downey, died in 1999 from cancer of the liver. Since her daughter's death, she had campaigned to ensure that Hindley remained in prison, and doctors said that the stress had contributed to the severity of her illness.[226] Winnie Johnson, mother of Keith Bennett, continued to visit Saddleworth Moor, where it is believed that the body of her son is buried.[227][228][229] She died in August 2012.[230] Manchester City Council decided in 1987 to demolish the house in which Brady and Hindley had lived on Wardle Brook Avenue, and where Lesley Anne Downey and Edward Evans were murdered, citing "excessive media interest [in the property] creating unpleasantness for residents".[231] Lasting notoriety [ edit ] The photographs and tape recording of the torture of Lesley Ann Downey, exhibited in court to a disbelieving audience, and the nonchalant responses of Brady and Hindley, helped to ensure the lasting notoriety of their crimes. Brady, who said that he did not want to be released, was rarely mentioned in the news, but Hindley's gender, her repeated insistence on her innocence, followed by her attempts to secure her release after confessing her guilt, resulted in her becoming a figure of hate in the national media. Her oft reprinted photograph, taken shortly after she was arrested, is described by some commentators as similar to the mythical Medusa and, according to author Helen Birch, has become "synonymous with the idea of feminine evil".[192] Given Hindley's status as co-defendant in the first serial-murder trial held since the abolition of the death penalty, retribution was a common theme among those who sought to keep her locked away. Even her mother insisted that she should die in prison, partly for fear for her daughter's safety and partly out of the desire to avoid the possibility that one of the victims' relatives might kill her. Some commentators expressed the view that of the two, Hindley was the "more evil". Lord Longford, a Catholic convert, campaigned to secure the release of "celebrated" criminals, and Myra Hindley in particular, which earned him constant derision from the public and the press. He described Hindley as a "delightful" person and said "you could loathe what people did but should not loathe what they were because human personality was sacred even though human behaviour was very often appalling".[235] The tabloid press branded him a "loony" and a "do-gooder" for supporting Hindley, described as "evil". She became a long-running source of material for the press, which printed embellished tales of her "cushy" life at the "5-star" Cookham Wood Prison and her liaisons with prison staff and other inmates. The case has been dramatised on television twice: in See No Evil: The Moors Murders and the award-winning Longford (both 2006).[237][238] See also [ edit ] References [ edit ] Notes [ edit ] ^ [38] Brady made more than one copy of the tape recording; the version played in court was 16 minutes in length. ^ Judgment at Nuremberg; Hindley recollected that it was King of Kings. Many sources state that Brady and Hindley's first date was to watch the film; Hindley recollected that it was ^ Brady told the police 30 years later that everything he had ever done was in Crime and Punishment. Brady also claimed that Dostoevsky and Nietzsche were his biggest influences. ^ His communications were sometimes censored by the prison authorities. ^ Forensic psychologist Chris Cowley writes "So there was a gap in the murder cycle, this is not unusual with serial killers, but in most cases the gaps between murders get shorter, not longer. The so-called 'cooling-off' periods diminish on a timeline. In Brady's case, this did not happen: it went the other way. So their next killing [Edward Evans] was out of sequence and it went badly wrong for pretty much everyone concerned, not least their victim. Citations [ edit ] Bibliography [ edit ]The_Red_Viper Profile Blog Joined August 2013 18351 Posts Last Edited: 2017-02-19 20:52:27 #1 ASL Team Battle Season 1 I saw the tweet of Waxangel and thought it's worth a thread here. I saw the tweet of Waxangel and thought it's worth a thread here. This is most likely the teamleague the afreeca ceo promised korean bw fans at the ASL finals. I don't speak any korean so i only have the information of the tweet atm. The top 8 of ASL season 2 were: Bisu, Sea, Best, by.hero, Flash, GuemChi, and (who apparently gave up his spot due to a wrist injury; replaced by Mind ) This is most likely the teamleague the afreeca ceo promised korean bw fans at the ASL finals. I don't speak any korean so i only have the information of the tweet atm.The top 8 of ASL season 2 were: Stork and Jaedong (who apparently gave up his spot due to a wrist injury; replaced by On February 08 2017 11:47 prech wrote: Couple of details from the press release: Title: "Daebang ASL Team Battle" (다방 ASL 팀 배틀) Sponsored by Park Sung Min (박성민) of 부동산 O2O, per Google, a real estate broker/startup Prize money: ₩10M (~$9k) with winners receiving ₩5M (~$4.5k) On February 03 2017 17:14 QuickStriker wrote: Brief timeless rough translation: (Top Section) Planned Matches: Set 1, 2, 4, 5 are 1v1 single sets. Set 3 is 2v2 match. [Note: I can't really translate maps from Korean to English because map names mean differently in two languages apparently] (Line) Each team captain will recruit 2 to total of 3 members (Next bold line) Schedule (Line 1) From Feb 18 to Mar 12, every Saturday/Sunday at 7 PM KST (Line 2) Team roster will be revealed Monday, Feb 13 at "afstar1" broadcast Round of 8 Match 1: Saturday Feb 18 Round of 8 Match 2: Sunday Feb 19 Round of 8 Match 3: Saturday Feb 25 Round of 8 Match 4: Sunday Feb 26 Round of 4 Match 1: Saturday March 4 Round of 4 Match 2: Sunday March 5 3/4 Rank Match: Saturday March 11 Finals Match: Sunday March 12 On February 03 2017 17:16 Zera wrote: I see the maps are: 1 set: FS 2 set: Blue Storm 3 set: 2v2 Hunters 4 set: Outsider 5 set: CB I see the maps are:1 set: FS2 set: Blue Storm3 set: 2v2 Hunters4 set: Outsider5 set: CB On February 05 2017 00:07 girasung wrote: Show nested quote + On February 03 2017 16:44 prech wrote: Looks like the Afreeca team league will be starting in a week or two. Saw hero and sSak trying to form teams and checking out the schedule on their streams. If anyone wants to take a crack at translating, someone on Ygosu took a screenshot of the schedule & maps: Source: Feb 18 to Mar 12, single elimination format, 8 teams of 3 members each, I believe? Looks like the Afreeca team league will be starting in a week or two. Sawhero andsSak trying to form teams and checking out the schedule on their streams.If anyone wants to take a crack at translating, someone on Ygosu took a screenshot of the schedule & maps:Source: http://www.ygosu.com/community/st/549877 Feb 18 to Mar 12, single elimination format, 8 teams of 3 members each, I believe? A : Flash, Last, By.Sun(Rain) B : Sea, Terror, Shuttle C : BeSt, Light, MIsO D : Bisu, sSak, Tyson E : hero, EffOrt, ZerO F : Guemchi(Iammang), Soulkey, PianO G : Stork, free, Larva H : Mind, Britney, Rush Each leader = Ro8 JD = give up (because, wrist injury) → replace Mind A : Flash, Last, By.Sun(Rain)B : Sea, Terror, ShuttleC : BeSt, Light, MIsOD : Bisu, sSak, TysonE : hero, EffOrt, ZerOF : Guemchi(Iammang), Soulkey, PianOG : Stork, free, LarvaH : Mind, Britney, RushEach leader = Ro8JD = give up (because, wrist injury) → replace Mind BLΛƆKPIИK in your area \| Rosé \| IU \| Yuna Kim \| SoHyang \|\| soO \| Maru \| Alphastar \|\| Jaedong \| Larva \| Calm \| Rain \| Snow \|\| There is no God and we are his prophets \| Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional maybe Profile Joined January 2008 207 Posts #2 awesome! so eight different teams? ThreeActPlay Profile Joined April 2011 United States 246 Posts #3 kickass :D great to hear twitter.com/haethos SCC-Faust Profile Blog Joined November 2007 United States 3620 Posts #4 This is a one small step for Starcraft, one huge step for Brood War. I want to fuck Soulkey with a Zelderan. Ilikestarcraft Profile Blog Joined November 2004 Korea (South) 17648 Posts Last Edited: 2017-02-07 05:02:41 #5 On the original link Jaedong's name isn't on there for captains but it has Mind instead. I wonder if this means Jaedong gave up his spot. "Nana is a goddess. Or at very least, Nana is my goddess." - KazeHydra ZeeSC2 Profile Joined May 2011 United States 132 Posts #6 Hopefully they can do something similar for sc2 as well, miss sc2 team leagues. Woahhhh this is going to be so sick!Hopefully they can do something similar for sc2 as well, miss sc2 team leagues. polgas Profile Blog Joined April 2010 Canada 1461 Posts #7 Nice! Well, I hope they have a draft. Otherwise some teams are going to be stacked. Leee Jaee Doong HerbMon Profile Blog Joined June 2009 United States 362 Posts #8 Nerd Chills all over muh body. feelsGOODman! Like, have you ever been so turned off by someone that instead of removing your pants, you put an extra pair on?- Nina Zerg classicyellow83 Profile Joined June 2016 United States 2393 Posts #9 Need to separate Flash and Last. Reach!!! Come back to BW!! GTR Profile Blog Joined September 2004 47912 Posts #10 hey its sponsored by these people Commentator Twitter: @GTR1H Stream: http://www.twitch.tv/GTR1H Ilikestarcraft Profile Blog Joined November 2004 Korea (South) 17648 Posts Last Edited: 2017-02-07 05:17:12 #11 On February 07 2017 14:10 classicyellow83 wrote: Need to separate Flash and Last. I agree. Currently I find a group with Flash and Last scarier than even a group with Flash and Bisu. I agree. Currently I find a group with Flash and Last scarier than even a group with Flash and Bisu. "Nana is a goddess. Or at very least, Nana is my goddess." - KazeHydra The_Red_Viper Profile Blog Joined August 2013 18351 Posts #12 Oh no JD? Well that's sad even though i totally understand why (hope he gets better soon!) BLΛƆKPIИK in your area \| Rosé \| IU \| Yuna Kim \| SoHyang \|\| soO \| Maru \| Alphastar \|\| Jaedong \| Larva \| Calm \| Rain \| Snow \|\| There is no God and we are his prophets \| Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional r33k Profile Blog Joined March 2009 Italy 2617 Posts #13 I'm glad Outsider is in the map pool, hopefully it's the original. Same can't be said about FS, it was a travesty that it replaced Destination as the most played map 6 years ago and it's a travesty now that Destination isn't back in tournament rotations. ZidaneTribal Profile Joined September 2007 United States 2694 Posts Last Edited: 2017-02-07 05:37:57 #14 is jaedong going to still compete? E : hero, EffOrt, ZerO wtf how did all the zergs get on 1 team fuck lag ne4aJIb Profile Blog Joined July 2011 Russian Federation 3003 Posts #15 hero, EffOrt, ZerO lol Bisu,Best,Stork,Jangbi and Flash, Fantasy, Leta, Light and Jaedong, Hydra, Zero, Soulkey assemble in ACE now! BigFan Profile Blog Joined December 2010 TLADT 23520 Posts Last Edited: 2017-02-07 06:01:35 #16 On February 07 2017 14:29 ZidaneTribal wrote: is jaedong going to still compete? E : hero, EffOrt, ZerO wtf how did all the zergs get on 1 team Team leaders get to chose the players afaik. Personally, I'm ok with it. These zergs are the best in the current scene. Maybe they can come up to some idea of how to deal with Flash and Last who are currently dominating hard. Team leaders get to chose the players afaik. Personally, I'm ok with it. These zergs are the best in the current scene. Maybe they can come up to some idea of how to deal with Flash and Last who are currently dominating hard. BW Editor-In-Chief "Watch Bakemonogatari or I will kill you." -Toad, April 18th, 2017 Hall0wed Profile Blog Joined January 2011 United States 8469 Posts #17 wtf Team A looks broken ♦ My Life for BESTie ♦ 류세라 = 배 ♦ Shana Profile Blog Joined July 2009 Indonesia 1720 Posts #18 Hooray for team league! Believing in what lies ahead. \| That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet. malady Profile Joined November 2010 United States 598 Posts #19 Group A and E seem OP ^-^ dumchu juvenal Profile Joined July 2013 2399 Posts Last Edited: 2017-02-07 06:53:52 #20 H : Mind, Britney, Rush got myself a new ACE to root for lol Michael Probu 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next AllNo one near the levers of power in Washington suggested that Ukraine’s territorial integrity was worth risking a war with Russia. That stark reality offers an opportunity to evaluate U.S. alliances. Which European countries should the United States be willing to go to war with Russia over? It’s an important question, given that Washington has a formal treaty commitment to a number of countries that are less strategically important than Ukraine. Since no one in Washington favored fighting for Ukrainian sovereignty, would they really threaten it over, say, Estonia, just because the latter is a NATO member? Does the existence of an alliance commitment create an interest worth going to war over? Over the second half of the twentieth century, the United States steadily accumulated allies. During the Cold War, we gathered allies in the name of containing the Soviet Union. After the Cold War, Washington parlayed its winnings, expanding its sphere of influence. In Europe, two rounds of NATO expansion brought the anti-Russian alliance up to the Russian border, accompanied by promises that NATO was no longer about Russia. Globally, more than a quarter of the world’s countries are now allies of the United States. The early Cold War rationale was strong. Leaving Germany vulnerable to the Soviet Union risked allowing Moscow to dominate Europe. But that’s not going to happen today, with or without NATO. If Russia annexed all of Ukraine and seamlessly integrated it into the Russian Federation without a hitch—something that’s not going to happen—the Russian economy would be about 14 percent larger, equivalent roughly to that of Italy and Turkey combined. Given that Russia could not threaten Western Europe, or even most of Central Europe, it’s hard to argue that the United States has a similar interest in threatening wars to defend most of its modern-day NATO protectorates. War with Russia would be devastating for the United States, for the country on whose territory such a war would be fought, and for Russia. Allowing a state to be pulled into the Russian sphere of influence would be less costly to U.S. taxpayers and servicemembers—and likely even to citizens of the targeted state itself—than fighting over it. It’s thus tempting to judge that NATO expansion was one giant bluff, but it’s probably more accurate to say that Washington rammed through two rounds of NATO expansion without serious consideration of the costs of defending the new allies. As Columbia’s Richard Betts wrote, “NATO’s ostensible purpose, collective defense, appears to have been barely in the minds of the sponsors of the organization’s enlargement.” During the NATO expansion debates, to question whether the prospective member-states would really be worth fighting a war with Russia over was considered impolite and retrograde. It was Old Thinking. The foreign-policy establishment wants two things from NATO: the ability to retain outsized influence on European defense and foreign policy, and cheap deterrence of Russia. For decades, Washington’s NATO policy seems to have worked, or at least hasn’t failed. EU security cooperation has floundered, and Russia hasn’t militarily threatened any NATO member-state. But the Ukraine crisis raises questions about U.S. interests and the Russian perception of them. The unanimity in Washington that there was no interest in fighting Russia over Ukraine could cause deterrence to fail where Washington has even smaller interests, such as the Baltic states. Putin could easily see that the U.S. interests in one of those countries are smaller than they were in Ukraine and decide to violate their sovereignty in spite of the NATO commitment. Given that no American political leader favored fighting for Ukraine, the only argument for fighting for a NATO member that is even less strategically important would be a sheet of paper. For his part, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO’s hawkish secretary-general, hasn’t batted an eye. In an interview with Foreign Affairs, he insisted that Georgia is still on track to NATO membership, despite two of its provinces being occupied by Russian troops, and claimed he is “100 percent sure” that NATO would invoke Article 5 if Estonia were attacked. As to what it would do after invoking Article 5, though, Rasmussen demurred: Actually, it’s part of our deterrence that you never know which decision we will take. Our potential adversary doesn’t know exactly how NATO will react… ambiguity strengthens the deterrence… One wonders. In particular, it is difficult to see how, absent any alliance commitments, American elites would favor fighting for Talinn but not for Kyiv. If anything, Crimea by itself is at least as strategically valuable as any of the Baltic states. So the argument that the same Washington in which no one suggested fighting Russia over Ukraine would fight it over Estonia seems to rely on the idea that the alliance commitment itself creates an interest worth fighting over. If deterrence were to fail, one could imagine two scenarios that would pull in the United States. The first is via concern over international credibility. A president, or a Congress, may worry about the impact of abandoning an ally on other U.S.
Conscription in Eritrea can last for decades and is one of the main reasons tens of thousands flee the country every year. More about Eritrea: Inside the secretive state of Eritrea Eritrean life in pictures The lone seven-year-olds leaving EritreaTerrorist detainees "were not covered by the Geneva Convention. They were unlawful combatants. And under those circumstances, they were not entitled to the normal kinds of courtesies and treatment." Former Vice President Dick Cheney has had a relatively quiet couple of years since leaving the White House. But with the recent release of a Senate report on alleged torture by the CIA, it was inevitable that Cheney -- who is closely associated with the post-9/11 policy of "enhanced interrogations" for captured terrorists -- would return to television screens. On Dec. 9, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released a report about the CIA’s interrogation techniques in the wake of 9/11. About 500 pages of the 6,700-page report were made public. The report concluded that the techniques were not an effective way to gain intelligence from detainees, and that the CIA misled Congress and the White House. The report detailed such techniques as " rectal rehydration " and the use of coffin-size confinement boxes. A few days before a scheduled appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press, Cheney sat for an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier. Here’s a portion of their exchange on Dec. 10, focusing on the fate of the detainees discussed in the Senate report. Baier: "Is there anything to the Geneva Convention, to the world rule of law on this?" Cheney: "Sure there is. But remember, the terrorists were not covered by the Geneva Convention. They were unlawful combatants. And under those circumstances, they were not entitled to the normal kinds of courtesies and treatment you would accord to those." There’s significant disagreement between Cheney and his critics on the issue of torture or "enhanced interrogation techniques." Still, experts told us that the question of what protections, if any, the detainees qualified for under the Geneva Convention -- is somewhat more clear-cut than other aspects of this policy debate. So we’ll take a closer look at Cheney’s claim that terrorist detainees "were not covered by the Geneva Convention. They were unlawful combatants. And under those circumstances, they were not entitled to the normal kinds of courtesies and treatment." The Geneva Conventions First, some background on the Geneva Conventions. They are a group of four international treaties covering different aspects of how civilians, prisoners of war and soldiers are to be treated once they are rendered incapable of fighting. (Read more about them here.) The most recent version of the treaties in force date from 1949; the United States has ratified all four though it has not ratified some of the protocols added later. The conventions guarantee a certain level of protection for former combatants, including prisoners of war and civilians. They set out in detail the requirements for food, clothing, shelter, safety from combat, access to medical care, and other matters. However, whether fighters could qualify for these protections depended on whether they adhered to some basic rules of law such as wearing uniforms, carrying arms openly, answering to a chain of command, and not committing war crimes. Many of those who would one day end up in Guantanamo Bay and other sites were from non-state terrorist groups and did not adhere to these rules. So these fighters were not guaranteed the same protections afforded POWs. Cheney’s strongest point in his interview with Baier was to draw this distinction between prisoners of war, who receive these extensive protections, and "unlawful combatants," who do not. There is, in fact, a distinction in the level of protection. What undercuts the accuracy of Cheney’s claim, however, is a different part of what he said. It’s misleading for him to say that such combatants are "not covered by the Geneva Convention." While detainees who do not have POW status don’t get the top level of protection, they do get more basic protections from the Geneva Conventions. And glossing over those less-stringent protections hides an important point: Even the lower level of protection would have shielded detainees, at least on paper, against some of the harsh treatments now alleged in the Senate report. Experts pointed us to identical passages in each of the four conventions, known as "Common Article 3." Among other things"prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever" by Common Article 3 are "violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture" as well as "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment." In other words, despite the implications from what Cheney said, even unlawful combatants "have minimum protections under the Geneva Conventions," Richard D. Rosen, director of the Center for Military Law & Policy at Texas Tech University Law School. The Hamdan decision In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, there was considerable debate inside and outside the Bush administration about how captured members of al-Qaida and the Taliban should be treated. The Bush administration contended that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to terrorism suspects held abroad, siding with White House and Pentagon lawyers over objections from the State Department. Administration lawyers also approved the "enhanced interrogation techniques" and said they were legally permissible. The debate about the Geneva Convention piece of the equation ended in June 2006, when the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling in Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld, a watershed case on detainee rights. The 5-3 majority wrote that Common Article 3 "affords some minimal protection, falling short of full protection under the Conventions, to individuals associated with neither a signatory nor even a nonsignatory who are involved in a conflict 'in the territory of' a signatory." In other words, by this decision, "our own Supreme Court has made it completely clear that, whatever their status, (detainees) are entitled to some minimal protections under the Geneva Convention," said Steven R. Ratner, a University of Michigan law professor. "That ruling is binding law in the United States, no matter what the former vice president says." University of Notre Dame law professor Mary Ellen O’Connell, a specialist on international law, agreed. "The Supreme Court's ruling in Hamdan conflicts directly with the vice president’s assertion," she said. We will also note that while Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions is one source of basic protection for detainees, their rights to these protections may be bolstered by other international agreements as well. One is Article 75 of Additional Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions, which includes minimal protections for all people, whatever their status, who are caught in a conflict. While the U.S. has not ratified this protocol, the U.S. government has said that, "out of a sense of legal obligation" it will adhere to Article 75 for "any individual it detains in an international armed conflict, and expects all other nations to adhere to these principles as well." And despite resistance during the Bush administration, two other international agreements to which the United States is a party -- the 1984 Torture Convention and the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights -- would also prohibit torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, experts said. Our ruling Cheney said that terrorist detainees "were not covered by the Geneva Convention. They were unlawful combatants. And under those circumstances, they were not entitled to the normal kinds of courtesies and treatment." Cheney has a point that unlawful combatants are not afforded as high a level of protection as prisoners of war or civilians. However, his comment glosses over the fact that unlawful combatants are still accorded a minimum degree of protection, including a ban on "violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture," and "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment," both of which have been validated by the Supreme Court. This is an important omission, since some of these very actions have been alleged in the Senate report. Because the statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression, we rate it Mostly False.CBS News - CENTENNIAL, Colo. -- Jury in the James Holmes Colorado theater shooting trial reached a verdict in the first phase of sentencing on Thursday. Jurors unanimously decided the death penalty can be considered for Holmes and will move on to the next phase of sentencing. They said capital punishment is justified because Holmes murdered a large number of victims; caused a grave risk of death to others; committed murder in a heinous, cruel or depraved manner; and laid in wait or ambush. One factor jurors said prosecutors did not prove was that Holmes intentionally killed a child, but the other "aggravating factors" ensure that jurors will continue to consider whether he should die for his crimes. The jury only had to find one of those aggravating factors valid in order to make Holmes eligible for the death penalty. Prosecutors still must clear two more hurdles before Holmes can be sentenced to die. Jurors began weighing on Wednesday whether Colorado theater shooter James Holmes, who killed 12 people and injured 70 others in a movie theater three years ago, deserved to die. The jury rejected his claim that he was legally insane when committed the crime, but also had to consider the extent of his mental illness against the enduring pain and heartache that he caused. The jurors who convicted Holmes took more time than expected to decide whether prosecutors passed the first legal test for a death sentence. Prosecutors said they proved several of the required "aggravating factors" in these murders beyond a reasonable doubt: That Holmes harmed an outsized number of victims when he opened fire at the midnight Batman movie premiere; that he killed a child, and that the attack was particularly heinous. They said Holmes wanted to murder as many as he could in the audience of more than 400 people but failed to kill more than 12 because his assault rifle jammed. The defense offered no counter-argument, effectively conceding that at least one factor justifying death was evident in the crime, but jurors went home without a verdict on this point and resumed deliberations Thursday. Copyright by KLFY - All rights reserved Copyright by KLFY - All rights reserved Colorado theater shooter found guilty of murder Prosecutor Rich Orman showed jurors photos of each person killed and read their names - bringing some of their relatives in the courtroom to tears on Wednesday. Holmes deliberately and cruelly killed all of them, including 6-year-old Veronica Moser-Sullivan who "had four gunshot wounds to her little body," Orman said. Orman reminded jurors that Holmes threw tear gas and sprayed so much gunfire that even moviegoers hiding behind seats couldn't avoid being hurt. "The victims were unaware of any danger, watching a movie, in a theater, a place of joy and of safety," he said. "The victims died surrounded by screaming, by pain and by anguish." The defense would lead the next phase, trying to show that his mental illness and other "mitigating factors" make it wrong to execute him in any case. Colorado law already establishes the penalties for his convictions on attempted murder and other charges. Holmes wounded 58 people and 12 others were injured in the chaos of the attack.You must enter the characters with black color that stand out from the other characters — A suspect was found dead inside a home Wednesday evening following a shooting that led to a standoff with authorities in Fayetteville. The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office said deputies responded to the home near Summerwind Drive and Shaw Road at about 4:15 p.m. for a domestic incident. Donna McCowre said her cousin wanted to break up with a man who she said assaulted and threatened her, which led her to call for help. "She was with me all day today. She didn't even know that man was in her house," McCowre said. "She tried to get rid of him, he wouldn't go nowhere, saying 'if I can't have you, nobody else will have you, I'll kill you and kill myself.' That's what he was trying to do to her." Cumberland County Sheriff Ennis Wright said when his deputies arrived on the scene, the man, who was not identified, fired one round at deputies and then when back into the home and refused to come out. A short time later, deputies heard a single gunshot go off. Cumberland County Sheriff's Office spokesman Sean Swain said authorities attempted to make contact with the man and a response team "shot gas into the trailer and made an announcement for him to come up with his hands up." A bomb squad deployed a robot just after 5 p.m. to determine if the man was still inside the home. Authorities found the man dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. "The robot when inside and of course the subject was lying inside with a self-inflicted wound," Wright said. For neighbors, the incident and the heavy law enforcement presence were scenes they were not used to seeing in the small mobile home park. "I just want to know what's going on and should we be scared for our lives here," said neighbor Teri Johnson. Wednesday's incident was apparently an isolated domestic violence issue. "He hit her in the mouth with the gun and pointed the gun to her head, she said," McCowre said. McCowre said she was relieved that her cousin was able to make it out alive and avoid becoming another domestic violence statistic.After months of denials and flat-out refusing to address the subject, [artist id="2000082"]Rick Ross[/artist] has admitted to being employed as a correctional officer. In the May issue of XXL magazine, the Miami rap star finally owns up. "Me not answering or addressing that situation has nothing to do with my career," he's quoted as saying. "I've accomplished enough, and I've made enough money for me to be good.... Yes, it was me in those pictures. But I'mma tell you this. Me taking that job, I was doing my job. You understand what I mean?" After a picture of Ross wearing a guard uniform leaked onto the Internet, The Smoking Gun Web site was the first to crack the case concerning Ross' controversial background. They released purported official papers detailing his job and old pay stubs. While the evidence of Ross' past seemed irrefutable, the MC had brushed it off until now, despite blog talk and continual mocking from 50 Cent (the G-Unit have constantly called him "Officer Ricky" in songs and interviews). Ross told XXL that his credibility cannot be fazed and the drug-dealing stories in his songs are authentic. "The stuff I talk about is real. The dope is real," he insisted. "The gun talk is official. Look up [notorious Miami gang member] Kenneth 'Boobie' Williams. Look where he's from. That's not nothing to be proud of. I wish that on no man. But, just to let you know, that's what I witnessed. It's a reality. I cannot discuss certain people that's still in the streets, and I will not. I took a street oath, and I'mma live by that, and I'mma die by that. And it's not about a music career, 'cause that sh--, I'm good. It's about me and being in the streets." The article also delves into Ross' much-hyped feud with 50 Cent. "50 Cent made a statement [that he'll] ruin somebody's life," Ross snarled. "Where I come from, it takes a AK-47 to do that. Cartoons, we laugh — funny. You put on a wig, come out the closet — funny. At the end of the day, we in the streets finna drop another #1 album, we pressing on." In February, Ross told MTV News that he was not impressed with 50's showing in their battles. "My freestyles as you could hear them, 'Kiss My Pinky Ring,' I do them in 20 minutes and put them out there," he said. "Those crumble empires. People listening to how potent the music is. That's all this really is for me." 50 Cent is planning to one-up Ross by releasing a sex tape called "Time to Make a Movie" that is said to feature one of Ross' children's mothers, known only as Brooke. At press time, neither 50 Cent nor Ross had responded to MTV News' requests for comment about that report, however, on Thursday afternoon (March 13), 50 released a trailer on his Web site.Eighteen months after retiring from a twelve year Formula One career, Mark Webber finally tells the story of his journey from Queanbeyan kid to Grand Prix winner – and in typical ‘Aussie Grit’ style, it’s a no holds barred, searingly honest account of life inside and out of the cockpit. Here’s a little teaser from the jacket: In the high-stakes world of Formula One, only the fastest make it to the top. Few know this better than Australian Formula One legend Mark Webber. His career in F1 stretched an incredible 12 years, saw him earn 42 podium finishes and triumph in nine races, including twice-winning the crown jewel of F1, the Monaco Grand Prix. But the road to the top of F1 racing is long and full of deadly twists and strange turns. In his long-awaited Autobiography, Webber tells the incredible true story of the small town pizza delivery boy who climbed the apex of the world’s most dangerous sport. With startling candour, Webber takes us on a thrill ride through the highs and lows of his amazing career, detailing the personal struggles that drove him, revealing the truth at last behind his rivalry with Red Bull Racing teammate Sebastian Vettel, and allowing us access-all-areas into a very private life played out on the public stage. Filled with anecdotes about the great drivers, epic races and characters of Formula One, Mark Webber: Aussie Grit is a fascinating account of a life in the cockpit of an F1 rocket and the inspiring, no-punches-pulled story of a great, gritty Australian. So how can I get my hands on a copy of Aussie Grit? Aussie Grit, is out today (July 1) in hardcover and e-book in Australia. Published by Macmillan Australia, Mark’s eagerly anticipated autobiography will be widely available from all good book stores and online retailers. What if I don’t live in Australia? Don’t worry, Aussie Grit is also being published in the UK! The UK version will be published in September 2015 by Pan Macmillan UK in hardback and e-book too. It too will be available in all good book stores and across all digital platforms. Are there any differences between the two versions? Yes, but they are minimal. The front covers and the forewords will be different – the Australian foreword is by cricketing legend Steve Waugh, and the UK foreword is by three time F1 World Champion Sir Jackie Stewart. Will you be selling any signed copies via the markwebber.com shop? We certainly will. There will be a very limited number of signed books available via the markwebber.com shop – 150 in Australia and 100 for the rest of the world. It will be the Australian version and they will each have a signed bookplate inserted. They will be restricted to one book per order – full details will be available on the shop soon. UPDATE: the signed copies of Aussie Grit on the markwebber.com shop have already sold out – keep reading for more options to get your hands on a signed copy. That’s not many, what if I miss out? All is not lost if you miss out on a signed copy this time! The UK version will be out in a couple of months and we plan to do the same again (i.e. have a limited number of copies with bookplates sold via the e-shop), so there’ll be another chance to get your hands on a signed copy of Aussie Grit (that’s the book, not the man…). And then there’s always the chance to meet Mark and get your book signed in person, which leads us to… I heard Mark will be in Australia this month doing a book tour – is there an opportunity for me to meet him and get my book signed? Yes! The list of Mark’s Australian book tour talks and signing dates are below. (Mark’s UK book tour dates will be confirmed in due course). Australian book promotion schedule: NSW: TALK – 09/07/2015 – 18:30 Mark Webber ‘in conversation’ cocktail party to be held at Sofitel Wentworth Hotel Sydney, through Dymocks city. Sofitel Sydney Wentworth, 61-101 Phillip Street, Sydney, NSW 2000 ACT: SIGNING – 10/07/2015 – 19:00 Dymocks Belconnen – Westfield Belconnen, Shop 159-160, Level 3, Benjamin Way, Belconnen, ACT 2617 NSW: SIGNING – 11/07/2015 – 11:30 Dymocks Penrith – Westfield Penrith, Shop 145, Level 1, 585 High Street, Penrith NSW 2750 WA: TALK – 13/07/2015 – 07:00 Crown Metropol ‘Grand Ballroom’ – The West Australian Leadership Breakfast with Dymocks Booragoon. Mark Webber ‘in conversation’ about his autobiography ‘Aussie Grit’. Crown Metropol Perth, Cnr of Great Eastern Highway & Boston Ave, Burswood, WA 6100 WA: SIGNING – 13/07/2015 – 12:30 Dymocks Garden City – Garden City Shopping Centre, Shop 33-34, 125 Riseley Street, Booragoon WA 6154 QLD: SIGNING – 15/07/2015 – 12:00 Dymocks Brisbane CBD – Queen Street Mall; 177 Albert St, Brisbane, QLD 4000. VIC: SIGNING – 16/07/2015 – 12:30 Melbourne City – Dymocks Melbourne, Lower Ground Floor, 234 Collins Street, Boutique Place, Melbourne VIC 3000 VIC: SIGNING – 18/07/2015 – 11:00 Big W – Eastland Shopping Centre, 171-175 Maroondah Hwy, Ringwood VIC QLD: SIGNING – 19/07/2015 – 11:00 Dymocks Carindale – Westfield Carindale (Centre Court) – 1151 Creek Rd, Carindale, QLD Any further questions? Please contact the shop (details here) who will try to help answer any queries you have.Responding to widespread concern in the medical world, Health Canada has ordered new labelling that makes clear homeopathic “nosodes” are not vaccines, contrary to how they’re often marketed. The substances — basically molecular quantities of active ingredient in vast, watery solutions — have been blamed for helping fuel resistance to real vaccines. Health Canada also says that it will no longer approve claims that homeopathic remedies can treat cold and flu in children — unless there is scientific evidence to support the assertions. Over the last decade or so, the regulator has certified 8,500 homeopathic products of all sorts, while admitting they “are not supported by scientific evidence.” Health Canada posted notice of the new rules with little fanfare late Friday afternoon, the eve of a long weekend. ‘Homeopathy has no legitimacy. It’s a scientifically bankrupt idea and it should not be promoted in any way’ Reaction to the changes was mixed in the science-based health-care world Tuesday, as some lauded the government for taking a positive step, others saying the changes only underscore the folly of approving homeopathic preparations at all. “It’s a joke, is what it is,” said Prof. Joe Schwarcz, head of McGill University’s Office for Science and Society. “Homeopathy has no legitimacy. It’s a scientifically bankrupt idea and it should not be promoted in any way.” Health Canada ought to ban nosodes completely because, while they may be harmless in and of themselves, they contribute to people rejecting actual immunization, he said. Schwarcz also voiced bewilderment that the government is now requiring scientific evidence for claims that homeopathy provides relief of cough, cold and flu symptoms in children 12 and under — but not adults. “Does this mean that if you’re over the age of 12, it’s OK to make false claims? … To me, this is just not logical.” Representatives of two national homeopathy organizations could not be reached for comment on Tuesday. Health Canada says the labeling changes must come in effect by July 2016. In an emailed response to questions delivered late Tuesday night, a spokeswoman said the new policy was developed because of concerns the current information on homeopathic products may not allow consumers to make informed choices, leaving the impression the claims are based on scientific studies. Homeopathy is a philosophy based on what its believers call “like cures like,” meaning that a disease can be treated by providing a little of a substance that creates similar symptoms. Remedies are typically microscopic amounts of an active ingredient, diluted massively. Health Canada has been approving them as part of its controversial natural-health product system, relying on evidence from homeopathy’s own textbooks, despite the lack of scientific foundation. Nosodes are a type of homeopathic solutions promoted by natural-health practitioners and anti-vaccine advocates as an alternative to vaccines. Indeed, five per cent of parents surveyed by the Public Health Agency of Canada said they strongly believed homeopathy and other alternative care makes immunization unnecessary. The new Health Canada rules require labels to now state nosodes are not vaccines or vaccine alternatives, have not been proven to prevent infection, and that Health Canada does not recommend their use in children. Public health leaders in all the provinces and territories had called for such action and Dr. Robert Strang, Nova Scotia’s chief medical officer of health, said on Tuesday it was a shift in the right direction. But nosodes should really be removed from the market altogether, he said. “There is a real potential that people will, under the belief they’re getting some benefit from nosodes, not receive regular vaccination,” said Strang. “That is potentially harmful to individuals and to others as well.” The Canadian Pediatric Society had also urged Health Canada to change labeling for nosodes, and applauded the move. Actually banning the products would probably be a long and arduous process, fraught with legal challenges, said Dr. Michael Rieder, drug-safety chair for the Canadian Pediatric Society. The next step should involve educating health-care providers and the public about the lack of evidence that nosodes work, and the benefits of immunization, he said. “We have some vaccine phobia and that’s unfortunate, but we have to deal with it,” said Dr. Rieder, a pediatrics professor at Western University. National Post • Email: tblackwell@nationalpost.com \| Twitter: tomblackwellNPImage caption Leaders of Brics met in India to discuss closer trade links and a new bank The main emerging economies have met in the Indian capital, Delhi, to look at ways of strengthening their position against Europe and the United States. Brazil, Russia, China, India and South Africa (the Brics group) are proposing an alternative to the World Bank. Leaders of the five nations, which now account for nearly 28% of the global economy, discussed closer trade links. In their jointDelhi Declaration, they also said dialogue was the only route to lasting solutions in Syria and Iran. The summit was held amid Tibetan protests aimed at China's president. Hu Jintao joined other Brics leaders for the fourth meeting of the bloc of emerging economies. On Wednesday, a Tibetan activist died in Delhi after setting himself on fire two days earlier in protest at Mr Hu's visit. Brics nations' share of the global economy has risen fast in recent years and is expected to continue to grow. Correspondents say they are also growing in diplomatic clout. Closer economic ties On Thursday, Dilma Rousseff of Brazil, Dmitry Medvedev of Russia and Jacob Zuma of South Africa joined Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Mr Hu for hand shakes and a group photograph at the start of the one-day meeting. "The Brics countries have agreed to examine in greater detail a proposal to set up a South-South development bank, funded and managed by the Brics and other developing countries," Mr Singh later said. The Delhi Declaration expressed concern over the current global economic situation, especially in the euro zone. It said the Brics nations were ready to work with the international community to ensure that the world economy was taken forward, and Europe was given the necessary assistance so it could help itself. The meeting also agreed to expand the capital base of the World Bank and other multilateral institutions to ensure global economic stability. But, Mr Singh said that "institutions of global political and economic governance created more than six decades ago have not kept pace with the changing world" and that developing countries needed access to capital. The five nations, in their closing statement, voiced concern about slow reforms and called on the International Monetary Fund to make its surveillance framework "more integrated and even-handed". 'Unjust policies' The countries also resolved "to promote greater interaction among the business communities of Brics nations and easier visa facilities for businessmen". Mr Singh said the Brics group must speak with one voice on important issues such as reform of the UN Security Council. President Hu said Brics nations should "enhance co-operation and intensify communication in international trade". Brazil's Dilma Rousseff said the Brics had become "the most important engines of the world economy in the past few years. Together, we will be responsible for more than half of the foreseen growth for 2012, 56% according to the IMF". She blamed the developed world for hindering other nations with "unjust" monetary policies. Correspondents say the joint development bank is expected to be established along the lines of the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, offering funding outside the current global financial system. The Brics leaders also discussed the volatile situation in Syria and Iran and stressed the "vital importance that stability, peace and security of the Middle East and North Africa holds for the international community". "We call for an immediate end to all violence and violations of human rights" in Syria, the declaration said adding that "the situation concerning Iran cannot be allowed to escalate into conflict, the disastrous consequences of which will be in no one's interest". The Brics nations have radically different economies and political systems and have often struggled to find common ground in the past. But, they have been looking at ways to increase their trade links and decrease dependency on Europe and the United States.Not all cats are as hard to trap as Tom Waits, who earned his name because his rough exterior recalled the gruffness of the singer’s voice. Usually, caretakers withhold food for a few days before luring hungry cats into baited cages with drop doors. When she moved to Bushwick, Brooklyn, last August, Myra McMinn, 32, noticed several cats that would meander through her backyard, so she put cat food out from time to time. And then they multiplied. All of a sudden, she said, “The seven cats had had nine kittens, and I did not know what to do.” She sought answers online and found a group called Neighborhood Cats that offers workshops in trap, neuter and return. After attending a three-hour class, Ms. McMinn took a week off from a temporary job she has while getting a master’s degree at Columbia. She borrowed 19 cages and set about luring the cats with Fancy Feast. (The shyer ones required sardines.) With the help of a handful of volunteers, she caught 12 the first night. “It was like camping and being a new mom,” Ms. McMinn said of the long night before the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals showed up to take the cats to be neutered. “All the cats would yowl if one of the other ones pooped, so I was waking up every 10 to 30 minutes.” The newly neutered felines were all returned to her; she had to let them recover for a few days in her room before they could go back outside. Now the cats come and go from the backyard but without any new kittens in tow. But as trap, neuter and return has gained in popularity, a backlash has emerged. Some critics argue that the tactic fails to significantly decrease the number of stray cats, in part because many owners do not neuter their pets and then have nowhere to house kittens, leading to more cats on the street. And across the country, bird watchers and birding groups say feral cats have decimated the population of backyard birds.Another week of hearings on Trump’s Cabinet nominations is underway as inauguration nears. What’s most likely to change about Donald Trump’s daily life once he becomes president? For one thing, it will be harder to sequester himself inside Trump Tower. Donald Trump boards the elevator in the lobby of Trump Tower. (Dominick Reuters/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images) This is more important than it sounds. Trump is one of the most physically isolated presidents-elect in recent memory, a habit born of years of conducting both his business and personal life inside Trump Tower. Trump sometimes doesn’t leave the building for days at a time. He doesn’t have to: Home and headquarters are separated by only an elevator ride. How will this affect his presidency? As our colleagues wrote Tuesday, Trump “favors his own people and his own places, creating the veneer of accessibility — his tweets reach millions and he still answers his cellphone — while placing himself in almost entirely habitual settings.” Moving to the White House, perhaps more than for other presidents, will break a long-standing way of life for Trump. Summer Zervos, a former contestant on "The Apprentice," said Jan. 17, 2017, that she had filed a defamation lawsuit against President Trump. (Reuters) FORMER ‘APPRENTICE’ CONTESTANT SUES Trump’s legal troubles appear to be following him to Washington: A former contestant on “The Apprentice” is suing the president-elect for defamation over his response to accusations that he groped her during a 2007 job interview. Trump has said the woman, Summer Zervos, fabricated her story; he has denied allegations of groping made by several women. Zervos is now seeking damages, though she said Tuesday she would drop her lawsuit if Trump acknowledged the alleged actions and retracted his claim that she lied. DeVOS, ZINKE FACE SENATE QUESTIONS Two more down, plenty more to go. Trump’s nominees to lead the Department of Education and Department of Interior testified at Senate hearings Tuesday that highlighted likely points of contention with Democrats if, as expected, they are confirmed to Trump’s Cabinet. Under questioning, education secretary-designee Betsy DeVos would not rule out working to privatize U.S. public schools or promise to uphold the Obama administration’s guidance on handling allegations of campus sexual violence. Interior secretary-designee Ryan Zinke, meanwhile, surprised some observers by saying he does not believe climate change is a hoax. This position could put him in conflict with Trump, who has in the past disputed the scientific consensus that human activity causes climate change, and other members of his administration. President-elect Trump's nominee for secretary of the interior Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) answered a question from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) about climate change at his confirmation hearing Jan. 17. (Reuters) LEWIS BOYCOTTED BUSH’S 2001 INAUGURATION Turns out civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) isn’t shy about boycotting Republican inaugurations. A Washington Post story dated Jan. 21, 2001, shows he also chose to skip President George W. Bush’s first inaugural because he didn’t believe Bush was the “true elected president.” As a reminder, Lewis will not attend Friday’s swearing-in because he does not see Trump’s election win as legitimate. Lewis’s protest has inspired dozens of Democratic lawmakers to follow his lead and refuse to attend the inauguration. There are now nearly 60 Democrats from the House who will not attend, according to our running tally. (No senator has yet joined the wave.) COMING UP THIS WEEK The Senate still has a full schedule for Wednesday and Thursday. On Wednesday: Wilbur Ross, nominated for commerce secretary, goes before the Senate Commerce Committee at 10 a.m. South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, nominated for ambassador to the United Nations, goes before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at 10 a.m. Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), nominated for health and human services secretary, goes before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions at 10 a.m. Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, nominated for EPA administrator, goes before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works at 10 a.m. On Thursday: Former Texas governor Rick Perry, nominated for energy secretary, goes before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources at 10 a.m. Steven Mnuchin, nominated for treasury secretary, goes before the Senate Finance Committee at 10 a.m. Check out our full guide to the schedule here.Since the Orlando terror attack the LGBT gun rights group Pink Pistols has seen their membership grow from 1,500 to more than 7,000. The Orlando attack occurred in a gay nightclub and Pink Pistols spokesperson Gwendolyn Patton said, “I’ve been thinking of this as the gay community’s 9/11.” According to NPR, Pink Pistols has “36 chapters around the country.” Meetings usually include getting together for lunch then going to a shooting range. The Pink Pistols urge members “to get concealed pistol permits and learn how to shoot.” To that end, the Pink Pistols use their website to “highlight over 500 firearms instructors around the country who are LGBT friendly.” The day after the Orlando terror attack, Patton wrote, “This is exactly the kind of heinous act that justifies our existence.” Patton said: What we’ve been trying to do is make some kind of good out of [the attack]; to try to help people protect themselves. To not just feel safe, but to actually be safe. NPR points to the fact that “gun control advocates” have seized on the Orlando attack to push “stricter laws,” while “gun rights champions want greater freedom to concealed carry in so-called gun free zones.” They went on to report that Pulse Orlando was a gun-free zone by Florida law–“Florida does not allow firearms in a bar that makes half its profits off alcohol sales.” Pink Pistols’ Patton says that needs to change; that people who choose not to drink should be able to carry a firearm as a “designated defender.” President Obama does not agree. He said the suggestion that “more people in a night club are similarly armed to the killer defies common sense.” AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRH
to explain it so Renolz would understand, and then leave them alone. “You dig up the metals, to make things. Right? You find the rare elements. You invent technology. Yes? And then you die, and leave it all behind. For us. We come and take it after you are gone. For profit. Now do you understand?” “So you created us to die.” “Yes.” “For [industrial exploitation]?” “That’s right. It’s cheaper than sending machines to do it. Often, the denser metals and rare elements are hard to reach. It would be a major pain.” Toku hit “send” and then waited. Was there any chance that, having heard the truth, the “Earths” would get back into their little ship and go back home, so Toku and Jon could leave before their careers were any more ruined? With luck, the “Earths” would finish dying off before anyone found out what had happened. “What kind of [night predators] are you?” Renolz asked. Toku decided to treat the question as informational. “We are the Falshi. We are from a world 120,000 light years from here. We’re bipeds, like you. You are the first living civilization we’ve encountered in a million years of doing this job. We’ve never killed or hurt anyone. Now will you leave our ship? Please?” “This is a lot for us to absorb,” Renolz said from the other chamber. “We... Does your species have [God/creator beliefs]? Who do you think created your kind?” “We used to believe in gods,” Toku responded. “Not any more. We’re an old enough race that we were able to study the explosion that created the universe. We saw no creator, no sign of any intelligence at the beginning. Just chaos. But we’re not your creators in any meaningful way.” Renolz took a long time to reply. “Will you establish trade with us?” “Trade?” Toku almost laughed as she read it. She turned to Jon. “Do you see what you’ve done now?” Anger made her face smooth out, opened her eyes to the fullest, and for a moment she looked the way she did the day Jon had met her for the first time, in the Tradestation’s flavor marsh, when she’d asked him if he liked long journeys. “We trade with each other,” Toku tapped out. “We don’t trade with you.” “I think I know why we survived,” Renolz said. “We developed a form of [wealth-accretion ideology] that was as strong as nationalism or religion. Dorfco was strong enough to protect itself. Jondorf is a [far-seeing leader]. We understand trade. We could trade with you, as equals.” “We don’t recognize your authority to trade,” Toku tapped. As soon as she hit the “send” area of the comm-pad, she realized that might have been a mistake. Although communicating with these creatures in the first place was already a huge error. “So you won’t trade with us, but you’ll sell our artifacts after we die?” Renolz was twitching again. “Yes,” Toku said. “But we won’t hurt you. You hurt each other. It’s not our fault. It’s just the way you are. Sentient races destroy themselves, it’s the way of things. Our race was lucky.” “So was ours,” Renolz said. “And we will stay lucky.” Oh dear. Jon could tell Toku was starting to freak out at the way this was going. “Yes, good,” she tapped back. “Maybe you’ll survive after all. We would be thrilled if that happened. Really. We’ll come back in a few thousand years, and see if you’re still here.” “Or maybe,” Renolz said, “we will come and find you.” Toku stepped away from the comm-grid. “We are in so much trouble,” she told Jon. “We might as well not ever go back to Tradestation 237 if anyone finds out what we’ve done here.” Was it childish of Jon to be glad she was saying “we” instead of “you”? Toku seemed to realize that every exchange was making this conversation more disastrous. She shut off the comm-grid and made a chair near Jon, so she wouldn’t feel tempted to try and talk to the “Earths” any more. Renolz kept sending messages, but she didn’t answer. Jon kept trying to catch Toku’s eyes, but she wouldn’t look at him. “Enough of the silent tactics,” Renolz said an hour later. “You made us. You have a responsibility.” Toku gave Jon a poisonous look, and Jon covered his eyes. The “Earths” started running out of air, and decided to go back to their ship. But before they left, Renolz approached the glowing spot that was Instigator’s main communications port in that chamber, so his faceplate was huge in their screen. Renolz said, “We are leaving. But you can [have certainty/resolve] that you will be hearing from us again.” Instigator dissolved the membrane so the Earth ship could disengage. “You idiot!” Toku shouted as she watched the ship glide down into the planet’s atmosphere. (It was back to “you” instead of “we.”) “See what you did? You’ve given them a reason to keep on surviving!” “Oh,” Jon said. “But no. I mean, even knowing we’re out there waiting for them to finish dying... it probably won’t change their self-destructive tendencies. They’re still totally hierarchical; you heard how he talked about that Jondorf character.” Toku had turned her back to Jon, her cilia stiff as twigs. “Look, I’m sorry,” Jon said. “I just, you know, I just acted on impulse.” Jon started to babble something else, about exploration and being excited to wake up to a surprise for once, and maybe there was more to life than just tearing through the ruins. Toku turned back to face Jon, and her eyes were moist. Her speaking tentacles wound around each other. “It’s my fault,” she said. “I’ve been in charge too long. We’re supposed to take turns, and I... I felt like you weren’t a leader. Maybe if you’d been in charge occasionally, you’d be better at deciding stuff. It’s like what you said before, about hierarchy. It taints everything.” She turned and walked back towards her bedchamber. “So wait,” Jon said. “What are we going to do? Where are we going to go next?” “Back to the Tradestation.” Toku didn’t look back at him. “We’re dissolving our partnership. And hoping to hell the Tradestation isn’t sporting a Dorfco logo when we show up there a few thousand years from now. I’m sorry, Jon.” After that, Toku didn’t speak to Jon at all until they were both falling naked into their Interdream envelopes. Jon thought he heard her say that they could maybe try to salvage one or two more dead cultures together before they went back to the Tradestation, just so they didn’t have to go home empty. The envelope swallowed Jon like a predatory flower, and the sickly-sweet vapors made him so cold his bones sang. He knew he’d be dreaming about misshapen creatures, dead but still moving, and for a moment he squirmed against the tubes burrowing inside his body. Jon felt lonesome, as if Toku were light-years away instead of in the next room. He was so close to thinking of the perfect thing to say, to make her forgive him. But then he realized that even if he came up with something in his last moment of consciousness, he’d never remember it when he woke. Last-minute amnesia was part of the deal. Copyright © 2010 Charlie Jane Anders Art copyright © 2010 Chris BuzelliReview: Starfinder Core Rulebook Starfinder is a stand-alone roleplaying game, being advertised as “Pathfinder in Space”. Starfinder is created and publisher by Paizo Inc, which made its name after licensing the classical magazines, Dragon and Dungeon before switching to 3rd Party adventures and then adapting the 3rd Edition of D&D into the Pathfinder roleplaying game. Starfinder is a science fantasy roleplaying game. Equal parts science fiction and pulp fantasy, it’s far more like Dragonstar than Spelljammer. The pulpy origins of Starfinder are pretty visible, as the old sword & planet influenced Pathfinder as much as sword & sorcery. There are spaceships, robots, artificial intelligence, and FTL travel. But there is also spellcasting, enchanted weapons, undead, and the like. So, in theory, you can fight alien invaders and escape spacial anomalies as easily as you face cyborg dragons and goblin space pirates. Originally teased as being backwards-compatible with Pathfinder (when announced at PaizoCon 2016), Starfinder diverges slightly from the source game but retains the vast majority of the mechanics—and mathematics—and the core mechanic of rolling a d20 and adding modifiers is untouched, as are the six key ability scores. There are some significant differences between Pathfinder and Starfinder, such as the twin defences of EAC and KAD and how health is tracked, but there are far, far fewer than the differences between 3rd Edition D&D and 4th Edition D&D. I’ve seen other variants of 3e that diverged more from the base rules than Starfinder, such as d20 Modern. (Heck, a homebrew game of Pathfinder I ran diverged more than Starfinder, using armour as DR and wound points.) Things are close enough that a remotely experienced Gamemaster could probably include a monster or NPC from Pathfinder, updating the statistics on the fly. What It Is The Starfinder Core Rulebook is a 524-page hardcover book containing all the rules necessary to play in Paizo’s science fantasy roleplaying game. Also included is a section for Gamemasters on running the game, as well as setting information. Not included are monsters, which will be featured in the forthcoming Alien Archive. Included in the book are seven races: humans, along with androids, kasathas (four armed people, likely inspired by the green Martians of John Carter), lashuntas (humans with antenna from the Venus analog), shirrens (insect people), vesk (Gorn/ Klingons), and Ysoki (ratfolk). There are also seven character classes, the envoy, mechanic, mystic, operative, solarian, soldier, and technomancer. A new addition to the ruleset are character themes. At first glance these might be mistaken for Pathfinder’s traits or 5th Edition D&D’s backgrounds, but are probably closer to being a combination of 5e’s backgrounds and subclasses. They provide a small boost of proficiencies to help you fulfil a role, but also give additional benefits at higher level. 9 themes are included as well as a generic “themeless” option that lets players design their own character. The included themes are the ace pilot, bounty hunter, icon, mercenary, outlaw, priest, scholar, spacefarer, and xenoseeker. I anticipate themes being one of the more commonly added bits of crunch in future expansions, being a neat way to customize your character, but also compact (fitting on a single page) with some restrained design. As one might expect, the book includes a number of weapons (both ranged weaponry but also advanced melee weapons) and armour. There are also vehicles (with accompanying rules) and starships. Space combat is given its own sizable section of the book. Starships have their own scale, mirroring the PC scale of Tiny to Colossal. Tiny starships range in size from that of a car to a bus. Huge starships are equal to the U.S.S. Enterprise (Kirk’s at the small end of the scale and Picard’s at the high end) while Colossal is anything over 4500 meters, which is 1 1/2 Borg cubes. The hard copy of the Starfinder Core Rulebook is available right now, and PDFs are available on Paizo.com. Like Pathfinder, the core book is just $10 (less with a subscription), being surprisingly cheap and probably below the market average for PDFs. The Good Starfinder is very Pathfindery. If Pathfinder-type games are your jam or it’s your system of choice, you’ll probably quite like Starfinder. If you got tired or 3.X or dislike games with high amounts of crunch, then you’ll dislike Starfinder. While there are some subtle rule changes, the majority of the game seems pretty identical. To me, my personal switch from Pathfinder to 5th Edition is recent enough that the changes seem minor in comparison. If all you’ve ever played is Pathfinder, then some of the smaller rules changes might trip you up (there’s some subtle changes and tweaks), but nothing that will break the game: you can dive right in and discover the changes as you go. Character classes in Starfinder follow the model set by Pathfinder, being 20 levels and possessing good/bad saving throws and variable attack bonuses. Most classes have some form of talent that provides decision points during advancement, allowing you to build and further customize your character every level of two. Some of these decision points are open at each level (so long as you meet prerequisites) while other decisions are more static, such as the soldier choosing their fighting style or the mystic choosing their form of magic. However, even in these less flexible classes, the soldier also gets to pick from numerous feats at regular intervals while the mystic gets to choose spells, allowing additional decision points. The above means there’s some nice variety to the classes, and lots of choices and options for people who enjoy the lonely fun character optimization. In addition to the classes, there are feats (which are close to Pathfinder feats in terms of power and complexity) and the rank-based skill system, which allows you to pick-and-choose where you focus your skills each level. There are two spellcasting classes (the mystic and the technomancer), both being 2/3rds spellcasters, reaching a maximum of 6th-level spells. Magic is less present, even at high levels. Which makes sense, as technology replaces magic to some extent: why study more months to learn scorching ray when you can just pick up a laser pistol? This also allows for more class features to fill the void let by high level spells, making for more interesting classes that do something other than just hurl magic. As mentioned above, you can use monsters from Pathfinder with very minimal conversion, which is included in the book. This allows you to play right now, without having to wait for the Alien Archive. It would also be easy to run a game with NPC humanoid opponents, using just this book, possibly supplemented with some additional space goblins, who are described the free First Contact PDF. From that perspective, the game is pretty complete. Ability scores seem to be more restrained. You can’t start with a score above 18, and ability score boosts are less common (and you’re encouraged to put them into secondary stats). And there’s no magical headbands that boost your Intelligence or cloaks that jack your charisma, meaning characters are less likely to have ability scores pushing 25. (Edit: Nope. Totally wrong about the above. Tucked away in the last third of the Equipment section are Personal Upgrades. Not to be confused with Armour Upgrades. These allow you to use either magic or technology to boost your stats (ranging from +2 to +6). 26 Intelligence characters remain. Wheee…. But at least accuracy should work a little better that I thought. The fluff of these upgrades is open allowing you to choose the flavour, but it gives you some suggestions. So it can be an elixir that boosts your strength or cybernetics that augment your muscles. But… if every character is assumed to have these three boosts to stats why not just fold that into the class or level system? Why not increase the rate of ability score boosts or the number of stats improved by said boosts?) Ship combat looks fun, albeit different from a lot of other Pathfinder combat. It’s complex, but it’d be doable to port over into 5e or classic Pathfinder. I can imagine this section being very useful for a twist on Expedition to Barrier Peaks. The rules are also designed with multiple roles in mind, so three to five people can cooperate to command a ship, with one person managing the engineering while another controls the guns, and a third pilots the ship. And it should work equally well for small scale fighter combat or lumbering Star Trek naval combat. Heck, with some GM approval, half the party could remain in a large Galactica carrier while the other half launches in intercept fighters, mixing the two styles together. Miniatures or tokens are pretty much required for ship combat, as the rules assume a hex battlemap. Thankfully, minis are coming from a 3rd Party and Pathfinder is doing a pawn set for Starfinder. And they have flip-maps planned (the first of which is currently already being reprinted). Ship size and tiers are dissociated. So you can have a massive Colossal dreadnought ship that is bare bones and might only be Tier 5 or 6, and thus challenged by a plucky but well-equipped band of adventurers in a Medium sized ship. The default setting is funky and unique. The assumed “world” is the Golarion solar-system, the same effective setting as Pathfinder albeit an unknown number of years in the future. Likely hundreds or thousands of years. The planet Golarion is missing, along with all memories and records for an uncertain number of years prior to the disappearance. Because reasons. Why? That’s the big mystery of the setting that will never be solved because it’s not a story based mystery, but a necessity based mystery. Having Golarion missing means nothing that happens in a Pathfinder game can affect a Starfinder game, and they’re not restricted in what they can do to the world in future Pathfinder adventures… Regardless, because the world is a future version of a fantasy world there are all the standard tropes of fantasy but in a world of space opera: ancient star empires, evil merciless insectoid aliens, lost artifices, space pirates, and more. There’s all manner of alien races and something is happening on every planet in the solar system. There’s a lot going on, leaving a lot of room for very different campaigns. It sidesteps the problem of Star Wars where there’s the one big story and everything else is tacked on, while also avoids the Star Trek utopia problem, where there’s this giant nation of good with no problems at the heart of everything. Because the world and setting is so gonzo—being a funky mix of technology and magic—it’s a little easier for players to understand. One of the problems that science fiction roleplaying games often struggle to convey is technology. When I ran some Eclipse Phase I came across this problem; the players were uncertain if they scan ships with sensors, didn’t know if there was artificial gravity or not, and generally fumbled with how technology worked. Hard science makes for a hard roleplaying game. You don’t need to worry about powering artificial gravity or the power requirements of FTL when you can literally just say “because magic.” There’s a fair amount of Starfinder released or coming soon, but it’s limited in terms of player options. They have the first Adventure Path, with new volumes every other month. They have pawns sets for the Core Rulebook (aka PCs and ships) and then the Alien Archive. An initiative tracker, some battlemaps (the space ones I’m rather excited for… when they’re back in stock). Apart from that, the schedule seems surprisingly light. Probably because they wanted to test the water, but also I think Paizo released they overdid it with Pathfinder: too much too fast. Three books a year seemed “slow” in comparison to WotC, but after three or four years that content add up. However, for people who really want more, Paizo has opened Starfinder up to the community through the Open Game Licenceeeeeee. While they’re not sharing the setting (like Wizards of the Coast is over on the DMsGuild), the rules are all open content. And there’s already some content released: http://drivethrurpg.com/product/219461/Starfarers-Companion The Bad Races and classes each receive their own chapter but character themes (which you’re told to pick after your race) are folded into the the character creation chapter that comes before races. It feels like they didn’t want to give them their own chapter but couldn’t think of a better place. And so it awkwardly rounds out a chapter and requires you to flip back and forth. The inclusion of the solarian is kinda weird. The other classes are very iconic and broad concept, working equally well with the default Starfinder setting or any combination of fantasy and sci-fi. But the solarian is non-generic and very setting specific. It’s a little like having a fantasy game with a hunter, warrior, priest, mage, burglar, druid, and dragon shaman. (One of these things is not like the others…) The hook of the solarian is that they get their power from the life of stars, and use that to form energy armour or weapons, while also generating various magical effects. Which seems odd until you realise their energy weapon is basically a lightsaber, making the solarian the counterpart to the Jedi. Still… since laser swords exist in the equipment chapter, a more generic warrior/monk with psionic powers would have worked equally. I don’t think all of the mechanical changes to the Pathfinder system work. One of the bigger additions is Resolve. This is a pool of points that increases with your level and your primary ability score. This is probably around 4-5 at level 1, and increases at higher levels (levels 4, 6, 8, etc or whenever you boost an Ability score). It’s a small pool but it’s used for a lot of things: some class features, feats, and even a few ship combat actions require you to spend Resolve. Regaining Stamina without resting comes from Resolve. However, Resolve is also what keeps you alive when you fall unconscious, and you lose points each round you choose to remain unconscious. On paper, this has the neat effect where you tire yourself out by spending abilities making you more vulnerable, while also meaning the more time you spend unconscious the closer you are to dying even multiple encounters later. And it adds this tension between using a cool power or saving it in case you get hurt. But, in play it also means if you take a few bad hits and get knocked down, you lose the chance to do something cool later. It encourages you to rest frequently rather than having prolonged adventuring days: the more time you’ve spent adventuring before a boss fight, the higher the chance being knocked unconscious will kill you. Enemy NPCs don’t have this same limit, and are able to nova with resolve or repeatedly stabilize after dying. Having both energy AC and kinetic AC seems needless. I imagine this was done because it should be easier to hit someone with a laser (where just contact is needed) opposed to a sword, where you need to penetrate armour, EAC replacing “touch” AC. (Which was done because wizards wouldn’t have the high Dexterity or attack bonus required to hit in combat.) But EAC is typically only a couple points lower than KAC, so the difference is negligible. If there was some worry about spellcasters being unable to hit the lower AC, then why not use their spellcasting ability for attacks with spells? Or give all classes the same attack progression? (Mechanical “innovations” that actually predates Pathfinder.) After all, why would a highly skilled assassin operative be less accurate than the soldier? EAC and KAC feels needlessly complicated for very little gain. Similarly, when reaching 3rd level of a class, the character gains the Weapon Specialization feat for every weapon they know through that class. Which feels awkward. I wonder why not just let characters add their level to their damage? Why make it a feat? I imagine out of concerns of multiclassing for proficiencies, but it feels like more could have been done to find a simpler (more elegant) solution. I’m not a fan of the change to combat maneuvers. Combat Maneuver Bonuses/ Defence was a fun rule in Pathfinder. Used for actions other than attacks, such as tripping and grappling, the rule was useful because whenever a player wanted to attempt something outside of the rules, it was easy to rule that as a Combat Maneuver. This could be balanced by having the attempt provoke an opportunity attack, so you had to balance the need for the maneuver versus granting the enemy a bonus hit. Here, the AC for opposing Combat Maneuvers is 8 higher than your regular AC in place of the attack of opportunity. So instead of “anyone can bull rush, but you get attacked if you try” it’s “anyone can bull rush, but you have a -8 penalty.” And instead of the feats cancelling the extra attack, they give a +4 bonus… so you’re still suffering a net -4 penalty on the attack. This feels annoying, because if you’re sacrificing an attack in an attempt to bull rush or disarm someone without building your character around the action, you likely really need that action to succeed. A -8 penalty to hit means for many classes you likely need something close to a 20 to succeed, so it’s not really worth doing. The rules might as well have said you can’t even attempt it without the feat. It’s a trap for the inexperienced. Through the book there’s a distinct lack of focus on aspects of gameplay other than combat, such as roleplaying and exploration. It’s worth noting that none of the character creation steps encourage you to define the personality of your character. Even the “character concept” section is very focused on mechanical implementation of concept. Heck, while there is a place for “gender” on the character sheet and gender is mentioned in vital statistics (in relation to how it might impact height or weight) you’re never actually told to choose a gender for a character. Or even pick a name for that matter… There are no roleplaying rewards or plot manipulation mechanics, no character aspects or personality traits. Most modern RPGs have some way of rewarding roleplaying or include character compels, such as Fate and its aspects, but also 5th Edition D&D (personality traits & flaws with Inspiration), Fantasy Flight Games’ Star Wars RPG (with Motivations, but also Duty and Obligations), and even Modiphius’ Star Trek Adventures (Values and Determination). This feels like an unfortunate omission. Similarly, the vast majority of the character features are focused on combat. (It’s rather telling that the one section of roleplaying on page 9 mentions skills and skill checks as much as acting in character.) There’s precious few exploration based powers and precious real flavourful/ fluff abilities (what Wizards of the Coast’s designers refer to as “ribbons”). I’m curiously reminded of 4th Edition D&D in this regard; as I’ve noted about that edition, when a game system gives you a toolbox of hammers, every problem seems like a nail. Yes, you don’t need rules for roleplaying, but if you’re not incentivized to play your character and incentivized to choose combat (because you want to use the cool new power you got) then you’re going to default to attacking. The Starfinder Core Rulebook is organised like a generic rulebook, not a single-volume RPG that combines setting and rules. All the setting lore is tucked away at the end. You’re seemingly expected to read through 425 pages of unfamiliar nouns and references before getting to the barest explanation of what anything means. There’s going to be a lot of unfamiliar nouns. The book begins with the standard introduction to RPGs, but it really also needs an introduction to Starfinder and not just the d20 system. The book includes two archetypes, which feel rather vestigial. Arguably, these are included to present the rules for archetypes for potential later use in splatbooks and accessories, with the two included archetypes being token examples. But it feels unnecessary. Themes do the same job and should probably have just replaced archetypes. These feels like prestige classes in Pathfinder, which were included because they were big in the previous version of the ruleset, and not because they were truly necessary. There’s very limited art through the first chunk of the book. The majority of the art is the standard body shots of people in a semi-heroic pose. There’s precious few shots of the world or setting, and no little bits of technology or elements of the world. This is especially noticeable in class section where there is the one picture of the iconic class member at the start and four adventurers posing with the sample builds but no other art leaving walls of pure text. As I just mentioned, each class has an iconic member, like the classes of Pathfinder. However, there are no details on these iconics. Like Pathfinder, their backstory (and even names) remain a web exclusive. This is unfortunate as their stories would give some necessary flavour to the world and the class. The start of each chapter is also missing the token bit of flash fiction, so there’s not even that big of flavour and personality. Having just come from reading Modiphius’ Star Trek Adveventures (and just starting to browse through a copy of Tales from the Loop) I wonder what the book could have looked like with small narrative sidebars. Little bits of lore or flavour breaking up the rules. In-character notes on weapons, races, places, organisations. The iconic operative musing on lasers vs plasma weapons or a vesk’s opinions of androids. The book uses pronouns curiously, randomly alternating between pronouns. Both “he” and “she” are used interchangeably and inconsistently, alternating even within a single chapter. (I believe I even noticed a transition on a single page.) I know Pathfinder tried to use the gender of the iconic in the class sections, but this book doesn’t following that style. I don’t mind she/her, but some consistency would be nice. Or a nice singular “they” to also include the intersex and gender fluid crowd. Starfinder retains some D&D-isms, sacred cows like ability scores ranging from 1-18(+), where the odd numbers do nothing. Dungeons & Dragons can’t get away from that, as that numeration is iconic. However, Starfinder could have dropped ability scores entirely. (After all, they did so for the monsters.) The difference between “Ability Score” and “Ability Modifier” is a big hurdle to most new players I’ve introduced to the game, and it’s entirely needless. Other small things didn’t change. Swift actions are present in Starfinder, but haven’t spread beyond class features (save being used to drop prone or change grips, which were both free actions in Pathfinder). Swift actions were added late in 3e and were never a big part of the core rules, and also thus never really did anything in Pathfinder’s combat rules, and were only featured in a third of the classes. Actions like drawing or holstering a weapon, reloading some weapons, opening doors, and the like could have easily become swift actions. The Ugly There are lots of abilities that recharge “once per day”. What that means is not explicitly defined. After all, a “day” on Idari is 27 hours while on Aballon it’s 12. To say nothing of being in deep space or the Drift where day and night are meaningless. It’s a grey enough area that some people will argue the point. I dislike the use of the term “race” to refer to the different types of aliens. “Race” has uncomfortable real world implications and there’s been a move away from it in gaming. “Species” tends to work as a solid replacement in science fiction/ fantasy gaming, but there’s no shortage of alternatives, such as “origin” or “heritage”. Because Starfinder keeps the foundation of 3.X, the remnants of the magic item Christmas tree remain in the game. Characters are as much a hero because of their gear as their class, if not more so. Damage and AC is heavily dependent on having better (and more expensive) gear, which is explicitly given a level. As a result, there are a LOT of weapons. Pages of weapons and armour that exist solely to be +1 level higher than the previous model. (This has more in common with the video game Borderlands than Star Wars.) This repeats the loot cycle of Pathfinder where you adventure to find treasure to spend entirely on gear to adventure in more dangerous places to find treasure… Overlooking how you could take the money that would be spent buying level 8 armour and just live off that for a couple years. (Edit: It should be noted that Starfinder doesn’t have the same Magic Item Christmas Tree, as characters are limited to two worn items. This is nice on paper, and somewhat similar to attunement in 5e D&D. Of course, there’s really not many magical items to choose from and this limit only applies to worn items and not—as the rules state— “armor upgrades, held items, weapon fusions, augmentations, magic armor consumables, or other forms of magic.” So you could still have five or six permanent magic items, which is pretty comparable to what you might have in Pathfinder. And, of course, you can just buy multiple magic items but only wear two at a time, swapping one in whenever you need. ) This gear treadmill means you can’t really play a Firefly style game where the heroes are always broke and willing to take foolish jobs just to keep the ship flying, because each mission has to give a small fortune in rewards to keep the gear the appropriate level. (Not that I can see any price for starship fuel.) And because gear equates with power level, you can’t award extra money because it breaks wealth-by-level and makes the characters too powerful. Similarly, you can’t give your players a sweet asteroid base, because it’s tempting to just sell it and buy a better laser pistol that does an extra couple d6 damage. (Which is why starships components have a cost in “build points” rather than credits, so you can’t capture enemy ships to sell them, or sell off your ship for better armour.) It also means you can’t have a situation where the party dons stormtrooper armour and blaster rifles, because then the players are either ineffective (as their equipment is scaled for lower level NPCs) or proceed to loot every stormtrooper (to sell of the valuable super gear). And heaven help your party if they ever get captured and lose their equipment… The math of the game seems poorly thought out. Starfinder retains the math porn aspects of Pathfinder, where the numbers for everything increase every level or two. So you continually get better. However, as the numbers in the world tend to increase at the same rate, you’re not actually any better or more successful, creating the illusion of progress. This is likely because they retained the monster math from Pathfinder, the numbers in the free preview monster document seem identical to the “simple monster creation” numbers from Pathfinder Unchained. But the Pathfinder RPG character math assumes characters have tens of thousands of gold pieces worth of magical items increasing their ability scores, save DCs, saving throws, and attack rolls. While higher level items in Starfinder can increase your damage and AC, accuracy doesn’t really increase, nor do saving throws, save DCs, or ability scores. The soldier should do okay in terms of attacks, keeping pace with foes as their defences steadily increase, but other classes might fall behind. This especially hurts the solarion who suffers heavily from mutual attribute dependence. They rely on Strength to hit with their signature weapons but Charisma for determining their saving throws and Resolve. They also need Constitution to boost their Stamina and Dexterity for their Armour Class—both very useful for a melee oriented class. Solarions either have to choose between missing in combat a lot, or not using many other their class features while also having precious little Resolve. Starship math is also a little funky. Many checks made while crewing a starship require a base DC 15 skill check further increased by 2x the starship’s tier, ranging from 1/4 to 20. The rules assume a party has a starship with a tier equal to the average party level, so the DC increases by 2 every level, but the character will only increase 1 skill rank each level. It also means if your party finds a starship Tiered significantly above their level, they’ll be unable to effectively fly. Useful in preventing low level PCs from stealing an enemy dreadnought, but hard if you want a Blake’s 7 style campaign. It’s also somewhat funky that your ship just improves at the exact same rate as the characters as they somehow find upgrades at regular intervals. The book doesn’t even pretend that starship Build Points are a form of treasure or currency, and there’s no option to award that as treasure. Instead the improvements just appear when the party gains a level. It’s a power boost for the sake of boosting power rather than because it makes sense for the ship to be improved. The Awesome The end of the book gives conversion advice for Pathfinder classes and full stats for the Pathfinder Core Rulebook races. So you can play an elf or have elf NPCs as easy as a vesk. I love space goblins in their fishglobe helmets, ala Flash Gordon. It’s cheesy and fun. Being able to mix-and-match Pathfinder favourites with pulpy sci-fi is one of my favourite parts of Starfinder. Repeating something I said earlier, character themes are just cool. They’re a neat third way of customizing characters. I like how they give you a small bonuses at higher levels, so they’re not just something you take at level one and forget. They’re also a nice way of differentiating between PCs who might have the same class and providing a simple story hook or bit of backstory with associated mechanics. And I like how, unlike D&D backgrounds, they have a feature that comes up at later levels so they don’t just fade into the background. Similarly, the execution of archetypes is nicely done. As you can apply archetypes to any class, you don’t need multiple archetypes covering a single theme, and replacing set features prevents abuse through mixing and matching archetypes. You also can never replace all your class features by taking two different archetypes that swap out different features. All operatives or technomancers will retain some iconic class features, and have something in common with other members of that class. I like the simplified encumbrance system. “Bulk” is an easier descriptor than pounds, and means the rules toe around being metric or imperial. It also involves less math and counting, as small items have no weight until you certain thresholds. It’s abstract but works. It’s worth stealing for any game system with lots of gear. The distinction between stamina and hit points is nice. And stamina heals pretty quickly (provided you spend precious Resolve points), but also
not stand as Charlotte recaptured the lead with just over four minutes to play at 71-70 on a jump hook by PJ Hairston. Hairston scored a game-high 27 points on 9-for-24 shooting to go along with seven rebounds and three steals. With the Rockets trailing by one, Motiejunas hit a turnaround jumper to give Houston an 80-79 lead with under a minute to play. On the following possession, Noah Vonleh was stripped by Nick Johnson, who was fouled on his drive to the rim. After missing the first free throw, he went on to hit the second. Trailing 81-79, Charlotte was looking for the tie but Jerome Dyson's three-point attempt came up short off the front rim and Houston secured the win. Charlotte has completed their Summer League slate with a 3-4 record and bounced back nicely after a 0-3 start.Kenrick Ellis Defensive tackle Kenrick Ellis returns to the Giants. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson) EAST RUTHERFORD - The Giants added a defensive tackle familiar with their system. They re-signed Kenrick Ellis, who was a surprising cut this summer, on Tuesday. Ellis took the roster spot of wide receiver Preston Parker. The Giants have three defensive tackles on this week's injury report. "We felt we needed another defensive lineman to be honest with you," coach Tom Coughlin said. The Giants signed Ellis as a free agent this offseason. He received a one-year, $1.15 million deal with $500K guaranteed. Ellis had spent the previous four years with the Jets, but was unable to beat out Markus Kuhn and Jay Bromley for a roster spot this summer. RELATED: Jason Pierre-Paul posts video of him bench pressing Ellis, 27, rejoins the team two days before a Thursday night matchup with the Washington Redskins. Defensive tackles Cullen Jenkins (hamstring), Jay Bromley (knee) and Kuhn (knee) were on the Giants injury report on Monday. Kuhn did not practice on Tuesday. Ellis (6-4, 346) remained in the area after being released by the Giants and continued to refine his skills by doing football drills at Parabolic Performance Rehab in Montclair. He won't have to travel far or relocate since it was the Giants that came calling first. TALK IS CHEAP, Ep. 24: Another 0-2 start, and this one's on Eli and Tom For the third straight season the Giants have dug themselves a hole, and for the second straight game it's a fourth-quarter disaster. Why do the same problems keep happening with Eli Manning and Tom Coughlin leading the way? Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher. Jordan Raanan may be reached at jraanan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JordanRaanan. Find NJ.com Giants on Facebook.Denial Esports Signs Marss (Denial Esports) Denial eSports has signed Super Smash Bros. Wii U player Tyler “Marss” Martins. The move comes two days after the team entered the Smash Melee scene by signing James “Duck” Ma. Marss has been on the rise in the last year. Panda Global ranked him the 13th best Smash 4 player in the world based on notable victories over top 20 players like PG’s own Eric “ESAM” Lew and R. “Komokiri” Furukawa. Scroll to continue with content Ad “I’m excited to become the first Smash 4 Player for Denial eSports,” Marss said in a statement. “Denial will enable me to be able to go to more events. I’m ready to represent the WolfPack moving forward.” The Zero Suit Samus main has had strong finishes this year, placing seventh at GENESIS 3, winning KTAR XVII, and taking ninth at Evo 2016. “We’re excited to add Marss to our roster. Marss has been showing he has a very bright future within Smash 4,” Denial eSports COO Ray Arsenault told Yahoo Esports. “We can’t wait to attend and watch Marss at his very first event under Denial at Shine.” Shine 2016 takes place August 26-28. Michael Martin covers all things related to the FGC. Follow him on Twitter @Bizarro_Mike.The Stepford wives and husbands Prime Minister Justin Trudeau picked for his cabinet, it turns out, are as tight a chorus as their predecessors in Stephen Harper's government. The difference is in presentation: Conservative ministers, if they answered questions at all, would robotically issue — usually in writing — mingy non-talking points drafted by the arrogant young satraps in Harper's PMO. Trudeau's ministers, nominally free to talk, prefer to answer practically every question with cheery, glassy references to the intrinsic value of diversity, moving forward for all Canadians, helping the middle class, respecting everybody, engaging with the world, etc., etc., until reporters begin nodding off. Ultimately, though, it's the same approach to singing from the same hymnbook, and none is more disciplined than Finance Minister Bill Morneau. Infrastructure bank After his fiscal update a few weeks back, Morneau was on CBC's The House, talking about his new "infrastructure bank." The idea here is that institutional investment titans, given the correct guidance from our government, will step in and pay most of the costs of replacing, for example, Canada's decaying roads and bridges and electrical grids. In fact, Morneau told my colleague Chris Hall, they'd be "delighted" to do it. "There's currently $12 trillion of money in institutional funds around the world that are attracting negative interest rates," he explained, and Canada offers much better returns. For every dollar of government money "invested" (governments nowadays never spend) in infrastructure, said Morneau, "we might find four or five or six dollars of pension fund money…" Morneau hints where investors may help the economy 1:57 When Hall repeatedly asked the obvious – should people expect to pay more to use all this new infrastructure? – Morneau dropped into cheery-speak, replying: "People should expect on an ongoing basis that we're going to find the most cost-effective way to build infrastructure in this country." Morneau was avoiding the real answer to Hall's question, which, simply put, is: "Yes." Investors want return on investment. If it's there, they're in — particularly if it's backstopped by government. They need no guidance. They have really smart people scouring the world for an extra point or two. Yes, European and Japanese sovereign bonds, held mostly by banks, are yielding negative returns. But privately managed pension funds? Take a look at the statements of Quebec's Caisse de dépôt et placement, one of the world's largest pension funds. It reported a 9.1-per-cent earning as of Dec. 31, 2015, with a four-year annualized return of 10.9 per cent. Meaning it's a pretty safe bet that if the Caisse bankrolls new bridges or roads or electrical grid, it's going to want a handsome profit, and that pretty much means one thing: user fees. Tolls, higher electricity charges, that sort of thing. If Morneau was permitted and inclined to tell the unvarnished truth, it would be something like this: "The Canadian deal is changing. It used to be that the government would tax everything that moves, and in return would build and provide stuff. The new deal is that the government will keep taxing everybody just as enthusiastically, but you'll also have to pay extra to use the stuff we build." Spread of user fees For now, it's bridges and roads and electrical systems. But count on this: soon enough, it'll be everything from hospitals and elective medical care to airports and garbage removal. "There's a breach in the social contract," says Carleton University business professor Ian Lee. It's inevitable, he says. Governments have spent foolishly for decades. Infrastructure spending has been politicized, and often corrupt. See the "bridge to nowhere," or just about anything made of concrete in Montreal. With a low-growth, low-tax-revenue future ahead, says Lee, there has to be some discipline. User fees are part of that, he says, and so too, probably, is the end of universality, which he calls "a squandering of public resources. Paying old age pensions to Conrad Black or Ian Lee was always absurd." (Or, as the Quebec government once did, paying Neil Macdonald to have children). Lee says road tolls probably won't affect the very poor. (Brian St Denis/CBC) Lee concedes that user fees are a regressive form of taxation; they hit the poor harder than the affluent. But, he says, most truly poor people don't own cars, and won't have to pay the inevitable tolls anyway. Electricity is another matter. Governments will have to pay low-income people rebates for user fees on essential services, meaning more affluent Canadians will see already high taxes rise further. To be more specific: the Fraser Institute calculated that the median household earned $80,593 in 2015, and paid $34,154 in aggregate taxes, or 42.4 per cent. If our finance minister were to be frank, he'd concede that tax tithe will likely rise, and significantly, in the years to come. There's only one cow. Bill Morneau must know that; he's actually an expert on these matters, having spent years on Bay Street. But he's learned pretty quickly how to dance the Ottawa waltz. During The House interview, seeking to explain the magic of private-sector involvement, Morneau said this: "When you think about affordable housing, where, you know, low housing contributions from people can help to make something economic. So there'll be multiple things that we'll look at." Oh. Well. Okay, then.Federal Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly was under pressure from an angry opposition on Thursday to cancel the appointment of Madeleine Meilleur, the Liberal government's pick for official languages commissioner, after revelations that two of Ms. Joly's staff members used to work for Ms. Meilleur. Ms. Joly was on the defensive yet again over the Trudeau government's choice for the bilingualism watchdog, a position that is expected to operate independently of the government and report directly to the House of Commons and the Senate. Both the Tories and the NDP have complained about the partisan Liberal background of Ms. Meilleur, a long-time Ontario MPP who served in a variety of cabinet posts, including attorney-general and minister responsible for francophone affairs. She also donated to the Liberals and to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's leadership campaign. Story continues below advertisement On Wednesday, The Globe reported that three members of Ms. Joly's staff worked for the Ontario Liberals while Ms. Meilleur was in office, with two of them reporting directly to Ms. Meilleur. Ms. Joly said her employees, which include her director of communications and scheduling assistant, had nothing to do with Ms. Meilleur's appointment, and a "clear firewall" was set up between her office and the selection committee. The Liberals insist that Ms. Meilleur's selection was based on merit, experience and a track record of defending francophone rights. "All measures were in place to ensure that any employees who had contact with Ms. Meilleur in the past were excluded from the process," she said. "We are extremely proud of our candidate for the official languages commissioner." Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said the issue is not Ms. Meilleur's professional qualifications. "What is at question is the Prime Minister's competence. This appointment process has turned into a fiasco wrapped in a dumpster fire," he said. "When will the Prime Minister take responsibility, cancel Madame Meilleur's nomination, and launch a new, non-partisan process?" Story continues below advertisement Story continues below advertisement Mr. Trudeau, who recently returned from a working trip to Europe, was not in the Commons on Thursday to face Mr. Scheer for the first time since the Conservative MP won his party leadership. Instead, Mr. Trudeau held a question-and-answer session with summer students. Ms. Joly was on her feet repeatedly during Question Period to answer to the appointment of Ms. Meilleur, who previously testified at the languages committee that she spoke with two of Trudeau's top aides before she was nominated. Ms. Joly repeated her explanation that Ms. Meilleur never spoke specifically about the post of official languages commissioner with Mr. Trudeau's chief of staff Katie Telford, or his principal secretary Gerald Butts. The opposition has accused the minister of misleading the House. Ms. Meilleur said in her testimony on May 18 that she met with Mr. Butts and expressed her interest in an unspecified position, and was told there was an "open and transparent process" and to go through the process. She also said she had a coffee with Ms. Telford and asked her whether "I could offer my service." NDP Leader Tom Mulcair also urged Ms. Joly to cancel the appointment. "Does the minister not understand that the more she defends the partisan appointment made by the Prime Minister the more she loses credibility? Will she do the right thing and recommend that Madame Meilleur be now removed from consideration as commissioner?" he said. Story continues below advertisement He pointed out that Mr. Butts was the principal secretary to then-Liberal premier Dalton McGuinty when the provincial Liberals cancelled their nomination process in Ottawa-Vanier and appointed Ms. Meilleur as their candidate. "Who pulled the strings so she could be parachuted into a riding? It was none other than Gerry Butts," he said. When asked whether Mr. Butts was involved in Ms. Meilleur's 2003 nomination, a spokesman for the Prime Minister's Office said, "No, he was not." "We're going to continue to stand by the fact that the person most deserving of the post has received the nomination, and not turn this into a political football, which is what the opposition is doing," said PMO spokesman Cameron Ahmad.Much has been made about the power differences between the Xbox One and PS4, and with Windows 10, there have been discussions about DirectX 12 possibly improving the visuals of Xbox One titles when it finally arrives on the console. However, DICE gameplay designer Alan Kertz doesn’t quite believe that. Speaking on Twitter, Kertz said, “No amount of consumer trust can change that it’s just an inferior horse in the horsepower category.” It’s not all about power though. Kertz further explained that, “But just like last gen, when enough exclusives pile up and the price drops it’ll be a worthy purchase.” Kertz also said (after an initial typo) that, “As I meant to say: Xbone will always be behind the PS4 this generation because it isn’t as powerful. Stupid typo.” Contrasting the current state of the Xbox One and PS4 with that of the Xbox 360 and PS3, Kertz said that, “The PS3 was more difficult to get power out of, but it wasn’t significantly less powerful. It took more investment.” When asked if DirectX 12 could even the odds for Microsoft, Kertz said, “I don’t think so, it’s not going to be able to reduce overhead enough to make up the margin.” That being said, with the rise of exclusives like Halo 5: Guardians, Kertz didn’t deny that the Xbox One had several things for it. When told that devs would focus on the minimum configuration at the end of the day, Kertz replied that, “It’s not that simple. If you can push more on another system for the same dev cost, you will. And PC is the gold standard still.” Kertz was also asked about Battlefield 4 and whether it ran better on PS4 versus Xbox One. “The frame rate and resolution is higher. That’s just a fact.” However, it is interesting to note how shooters using DICE’s Frostbite engine haven’t really increased their resolution since Battlefield 4 came out in 2013. Battlefield: Hardline used Frostbite and was still 900p on PS4 and 720p on Xbox One. Star Wars: Battlefront has a higher frame rate but still the same resolution. Regardless, it’s interesting to see how a developer like DICE views both consoles in their current stage. What are your thoughts on the differences between both consoles, especially with DirectX 12 coming to Xbox One? Let us know in the comments.lossy audio compression format Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) is an audio coding standard for lossy digital audio compression. Designed to be the successor of the MP3 format, AAC generally achieves better sound quality than MP3 at the same bit rate.[2] The confusingly named AAC+ (HE-AAC) does so[clarification needed] only at low bit rates and less so at high ones. AAC has been standardized by ISO and IEC, as part of the MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 specifications.[3][4] Part of AAC, HE-AAC (AAC+), is part of MPEG-4 Audio and also adopted into digital radio standards DAB+ and Digital Radio Mondiale, as well as mobile television standards DVB-H and ATSC-M/H. AAC supports inclusion of 48 full-bandwidth (up to 96 kHz) audio channels in one stream plus 16 low frequency effects (LFE, limited to 120 Hz) channels, up to 16 "coupling" or dialog channels, and up to 16 data streams. The quality for stereo is satisfactory to modest requirements at 96 kbit/s in joint stereo mode; however, hi-fi transparency demands data rates of at least 128 kbit/s (VBR). Tests of MPEG-4 audio have shown that AAC meets the requirements referred to as "transparent" for the ITU at 128 kbit/s for stereo, and 320 kbit/s for 5.1 audio.[citation needed] AAC is the default or standard audio format for YouTube, iPhone, iPod, iPad, Nintendo DSi, Nintendo 3DS, iTunes, DivX Plus Web Player, PlayStation 3 and various Nokia Series 40 phones. It is supported on PlayStation Vita, Wii (with the Photo Channel 1.1 update installed), Sony Walkman MP3 series and later, Android and BlackBerry. AAC is also supported by manufacturers of in-dash car audio systems.[when?][vague] History [ edit ] AAC was developed with the cooperation and contributions of companies including AT&T Bell Laboratories, Fraunhofer IIS, Dolby Laboratories, Sony Corporation and Nokia. It was officially declared an international standard by the Moving Picture Experts Group in April 1997. It is specified both as Part 7 of the MPEG-2 standard, and Subpart 4 in Part 3 of the MPEG-4 standard.[5] Standardization [ edit ] In 1997, AAC was first introduced as MPEG-2 Part 7, formally known as ISO/IEC 13818-7:1997. This part of MPEG-2 was a new part, since MPEG-2 already included MPEG-2 Part 3, formally known as ISO/IEC 13818-3: MPEG-2 BC (Backwards Compatible).[6][7] Therefore, MPEG-2 Part 7 is also known as MPEG-2 NBC (Non-Backward Compatible), because it is not compatible with the MPEG-1 audio formats (MP1, MP2 and MP3).[6][8][9][10] MPEG-2 Part 7 defined three profiles: Low-Complexity profile (AAC-LC / LC-AAC), Main profile (AAC Main) and Scalable Sampling Rate profile (AAC-SSR). AAC-LC profile consists of a base format very much like AT&T's Perceptual Audio Coding (PAC) coding format,[11][12][13] with the addition of temporal noise shaping (TNS),[14] the Dolby Kaiser Window (described below), a nonuniform quantizer, and a reworking of the bitstream format to handle up to 16 stereo channels, 16 mono channels, 16 low-frequency effect (LFE) channels and 16 commentary channels in one bitstream. The Main profile adds a set of recursive predictors that are calculated on each tap of the filterbank. The SSR uses a 4-band PQMF filterbank, with four shorter filterbanks following, in order to allow for scalable sampling rates. In 1999, MPEG-2 Part 7 was updated and included in the MPEG-4 family of standards and became known as MPEG-4 Part 3, MPEG-4 Audio or ISO/IEC 14496-3:1999. This update included several improvements. One of these improvements was the addition of Audio Object Types which are used to allow interoperability with a diverse range of other audio formats such as TwinVQ, CELP, HVXC, Text-To-Speech Interface and MPEG-4 Structured Audio. Another notable addition in this version of the AAC standard is Perceptual Noise Substitution (PNS). In that regard, the AAC profiles (AAC-LC, AAC Main and AAC-SSR profiles) are combined with perceptual noise substitution and are defined in the MPEG-4 audio standard as Audio Object Types.[15] MPEG-4 Audio Object Types are combined in four MPEG-4 Audio profiles: Main (which includes most of the MPEG-4 Audio Object Types), Scalable (AAC LC, AAC LTP, CELP, HVXC, TwinVQ, Wavetable Synthesis, TTSI), Speech (CELP, HVXC, TTSI) and Low Rate Synthesis (Wavetable Synthesis, TTSI).[16][17] The reference software for MPEG-4 Part 3 is specified in MPEG-4 Part 5 and the conformance bit-streams are specified in MPEG-4 Part 4. MPEG-4 Audio remains backward-compatible with MPEG-2 Part 7.[18] The MPEG-4 Audio Version 2 (ISO/IEC 14496-3:1999/Amd 1:2000) defined new audio object types: the low delay AAC (AAC-LD) object type, bit-sliced arithmetic coding (BSAC) object type, parametric audio coding using harmonic and individual line plus noise and error resilient (ER) versions of object types.[19][20][21] It also defined four new audio profiles: High Quality Audio Profile, Low Delay Audio Profile, Natural Audio Profile and Mobile Audio Internetworking Profile.[22] The HE-AAC Profile (AAC LC with SBR) and AAC Profile (AAC LC) were first standardized in ISO/IEC 14496-3:2001/Amd 1:2003.[23] The HE-AAC v2 Profile (AAC LC with SBR and Parametric Stereo) was first specified in ISO/IEC 14496-3:2005/Amd 2:2006.[24][25][26] The Parametric Stereo audio object type used in HE-AAC v2 was first defined in ISO/IEC 14496-3:2001/Amd 2:2004.[27][28][29] The current version of the AAC standard is defined in ISO/IEC 14496-3:2009.[30] AAC+ v2 is also standardized by ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) as TS 102005.[27] The MPEG-4 Part 3 standard also contains other ways of compressing sound. These include lossless compression formats, synthetic audio and low bit-rate compression formats generally used for speech. AAC's improvements over MP3 [ edit ] Advanced Audio Coding is designed to be the successor of the MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, known as MP3 format, which was specified by ISO/IEC in 11172-3 (MPEG-1 Audio) and 13818-3 (MPEG-2 Audio). Blind tests in the late 1990s showed that AAC demonstrated greater sound quality and transparency than MP3 for files coded at the same bit rate.[2] Improvements include: Overall, the AAC format allows developers more flexibility to design codecs than MP3 does, and corrects many of the design choices made in the original MPEG-1 audio specification. This increased flexibility often leads to more concurrent encoding strategies and, as a result, to more efficient compression. However, in terms of whether AAC is better than MP3, the advantages of AAC are not entirely decisive, and the MP3 specification, although antiquated, has proven surprisingly robust in spite of considerable flaws. AAC and HE-AAC are better than MP3 at low bit rates (typically less than 128 kilobits per second.)[citation needed] This is especially true at very low bit rates where the superior stereo coding, pure MDCT, and better transform window sizes leave MP3 unable to compete. While the MP3 format has near-universal hardware and software support, primarily because MP3 was the format of choice during the crucial first few years of widespread music file-sharing/distribution over the internet, AAC is a strong contender due to some unwavering industry support.[31] How AAC works [ edit ] AAC is a wideband audio coding algorithm that exploits two primary coding strategies to dramatically reduce the amount of data needed to represent high-quality digital audio: Signal components that are perceptually irrelevant are discarded. Redundancies in the coded audio signal are eliminated. The actual encoding process consists of the following steps: The signal is converted from time-domain to frequency-domain using forward modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT). This is done by using filter banks that take an appropriate number of time samples and convert them to frequency samples. The frequency domain signal is quantized based on a psychoacoustic model and encoded. Internal error correction codes are added. The signal is stored or transmitted. In order to prevent corrupt samples, a modern implementation of the Luhn mod N algorithm is applied to each frame.[32] The MPEG-4 audio standard does not define a single or small set of highly efficient compression schemes but rather a complex toolbox to perform a wide range of operations from low bit rate speech coding to high-quality audio coding and music synthesis. The MPEG-4 audio coding algorithm family spans the range from low bit rate speech encoding (down to 2 kbit/s) to high-quality audio coding (at 64 kbit/s per channel and higher). AAC offers sampling frequencies between 8 kHz and 96 kHz and any number of channels between 1 and 48. In contrast to MP3's hybrid filter bank, AAC uses the modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) together with the increased window lengths of 1024 or 960 points. AAC encoders can switch dynamically between a single MDCT block of length 1024 points or 8 blocks of 128 points (or between 960 points and 120 points, respectively). If a signal change or a transient occurs, 8 shorter windows of 128/120 points each are chosen for their better temporal resolution. By default, the longer 1024-point/960-point window is otherwise used because the increased frequency resolution allows for a more sophisticated psychoacoustic model, resulting in improved coding efficiency. Modular encoding [ edit ] AAC takes a modular approach to encoding. Depending on the complexity of the bitstream to be encoded, the desired performance and the acceptable output, implementers may create profiles to define which of a specific set of tools they want to use for a particular application. The MPEG-2 Part 7 standard (Advanced Audio Coding) was first published in 1997 and offers three default profiles:[1][33] Low Complexity (LC) – the simplest and most widely used and supported – the simplest and most widely used and supported Main Profile (Main) – like the LC profile, with the addition of backwards prediction – like the LC profile, with the addition of backwards prediction Scalable Sample Rate (SSR) a.k.a. Sample-Rate Scalable (SRS) The MPEG-4 Part 3 standard (MPEG-4 Audio) defined various new compression tools (a.k.a. Audio Object Types) and their usage in brand new profiles. AAC is not used in some of the MPEG-4 Audio profiles. The MPEG-2 Part 7 AAC LC profile, AAC Main profile and AAC SSR profile are combined with Perceptual Noise Substitution and defined in the MPEG-4 Audio standard as Audio Object Types (under the name AAC LC, AAC Main and AAC SSR). These are combined with other Object Types in MPEG-4 Audio profiles.[15] Here is a list of some audio profiles defined in the MPEG-4 standard:[24][34] Main Audio Profile – defined in 1999, uses most of the MPEG-4 Audio Object Types (AAC Main, AAC-LC, AAC-SSR, AAC-LTP, AAC Scalable, TwinVQ, CELP, HVXC, TTSI, Main synthesis) – defined in 1999, uses most of the MPEG-4 Audio Object Types (AAC Main, AAC-LC, AAC-SSR, AAC-LTP, AAC Scalable, TwinVQ, CELP, HVXC, TTSI, Main synthesis) Scalable Audio Profile – defined in 1999, uses AAC-LC, AAC-LTP, AAC Scalable, TwinVQ, CELP, HVXC, TTSI – defined in 1999, uses AAC-LC, AAC-LTP, AAC Scalable, TwinVQ, CELP, HVXC, TTSI Speech Audio Profile – defined in 1999, uses CELP, HVXC, TTSI – defined in 1999, uses CELP, HVXC, TTSI Synthetic Audio Profile – defined in 1999, TTSI, Main synthesis – defined in 1999, TTSI, Main synthesis High Quality Audio Profile – defined in 2000, uses AAC-LC, AAC-LTP, AAC Scalable, CELP, ER-AAC-LC, ER-AAC-LTP, ER-AAC Scalable, ER-CELP – defined in 2000, uses AAC-LC, AAC-LTP, AAC Scalable, CELP, ER-AAC-LC, ER-AAC-LTP, ER-AAC Scalable, ER-CELP Low Delay Audio Profile – defined in 2000, uses CELP, HVXC, TTSI, ER-AAC-LD, ER-CELP, ER-HVXC – defined in 2000, uses CELP, HVXC, TTSI, ER-AAC-LD, ER-CELP, ER-HVXC Low Delay AAC v2 - defined in 2012, uses AAC-LD, AAC-ELD and AAC-ELDv2 [35] - defined in 2012, uses AAC-LD, AAC-ELD and AAC-ELDv2 Mobile Audio Internetworking Profile – defined in 2000, uses ER-AAC-LC, ER-AAC-Scalable, ER-TwinVQ, ER-BSAC, ER-AAC-LD – defined in 2000, uses ER-AAC-LC, ER-AAC-Scalable, ER-TwinVQ, ER-BSAC, ER-AAC-LD AAC Profile – defined in 2003, uses AAC-LC – defined in 2003, uses AAC-LC High Efficiency AAC Profile – defined in 2003, uses AAC-LC, SBR – defined in 2003, uses AAC-LC, SBR High Efficiency AAC v2 Profile – defined in 2006, uses AAC-LC, SBR, PS One of many improvements in MPEG-4 Audio is an Object Type called Long Term Prediction (LTP), which is an improvement of the Main profile using a forward predictor with lower computational complexity.[18] AAC error protection toolkit [ edit ] Applying error protection enables error correction up to a certain extent. Error correcting codes are usually applied equally to the whole payload. However, since different parts of an AAC payload show different sensitivity to transmission errors, this would not be a very efficient approach. The AAC payload can be subdivided into parts with different error sensitivities. Independent error correcting codes can be applied to any of these parts using the Error Protection (EP) tool defined in MPEG-4 Audio standard. This toolkit provides the error correcting capability to the most sensitive parts of the payload in order to keep the additional overhead low. The toolkit is backwardly compatible with simpler and pre-existing AAC decoders. A great deal of the toolkit's error correction functions are based around spreading information about the audio signal more evenly in the datastream. Error Resilient (ER) AAC [ edit ] Error Resilience (ER) techniques can be used to make the coding scheme itself more robust against errors. For AAC, three custom-tailored methods were developed and defined in MPEG-4 Audio Huffman Codeword Reordering (HCR) to avoid error propagation within spectral data to avoid error propagation within spectral data Virtual Codebooks (VCB11) to detect serious errors within spectral data to detect serious errors within spectral data Reversible Variable Length Code (RVLC) to reduce error propagation within scale factor data AAC Low Delay [ edit ] The audio coding standards MPEG-4 Low Delay, Enhanced Low Delay and Enhanced Low Delay v2 (AAC-LD, AAC-ELD, AAC-ELDv2) as defined in ISO/IEC 14496-3:2009 and ISO/IEC 14496-3:2009/Amd 3 are designed to combine the advantages of perceptual audio coding with the low delay necessary for two-way communication. They are closely derived from the MPEG-2 Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) format.[36][37][38] AAC-ELD is recommended by GSMA as super-wideband voice codec in the IMS Profile for High Definition Video Conference (HDVC) Service.[39] Licensing and patents [ edit ] No licenses or payments are required for a user to stream or distribute content in AAC format.[40] This reason alone might have made AAC a more attractive format to distribute content than its predecessor MP3, particularly for streaming content (such as Internet radio) depending on the use case. However, a patent license is required for all manufacturers or developers of AAC codecs.[41] For this reason, free and open source software implementations such as FFmpeg and FAAC may be distributed in source form only, in order to avoid patent infringement. (See below under Products that support AAC, Software.) Extensions and improvements [ edit ] Some extensions have been added to the first AAC standard (defined in MPEG-2 Part 7 in 1997): Container formats [ edit ] In addition to the MP4, 3GP and other container formats based on ISO base media file format for file storage, AAC audio data was first packaged in a file for the MPEG-2 standard using Audio Data Interchange Format (ADIF),[43] consisting of a single header followed by the raw AAC audio data blocks.[44] However, if the data is to be streamed within an MPEG-2 transport stream, a self-synchronizing format called an Audio Data Transport Stream (ADTS) is used, consisting of a series of frames, each frame having a header followed by the AAC audio data.[43] This file and streaming-based format are defined in MPEG-2 Part 7, but are only considered informative by MPEG-4, so an MPEG-4 decoder does not need to support either format.[43] These containers, as well as a raw AAC stream, may bear the.aac file extension. MPEG-4 Part 3 also defines its own self-synchronizing format called a Low Overhead Audio Stream (LOAS) that encapsulates not only AAC, but any MPEG-4 audio compression scheme such as TwinVQ and ALS. This format is what was defined for use in DVB transport streams when encoders use either SBR or parametric stereo AAC extensions. However, it is restricted to only a single non-multiplexed AAC stream. This format is also referred to as a Low Overhead Audio Transport Multiplex (LATM), which is just an interleaved multiple stream version of a LOAS.[43] Products that support AAC [ edit ] HDTV Standards [ edit ] Japanese ISDB-T [ edit ] In December 2003, Japan started broadcasting terrestrial DTV ISDB-T standard that implements MPEG-2 video and MPEG-2 AAC audio. In April 2006 Japan started broadcasting the ISDB-T mobile sub-program, called 1seg, that was the first implementation of video H.264/AVC with audio HE-AAC in Terrestrial HDTV broadcasting service on the planet. International ISDB-Tb [ edit ] In December 2007, Brazil started broadcasting terrestrial DTV standard called International ISDB-Tb that implements video coding H.264/AVC with audio AAC-LC on main program (single or multi) and video H.264/AVC with audio HE-AACv2 in the 1seg mobile sub-program. DVB [ edit ] The ETSI, the standards governing body for the DVB suite, supports AAC, HE-AAC and HE-AAC v2 audio coding in DVB applications since at least 2004.[45] DVB broadcasts which use the H.264 compression for video normally use HE-AAC for audio.[citation needed] Hardware [ edit ] iTunes and iPod [ edit ] In April 2003, Apple brought mainstream attention to AAC by announcing that its iTunes and iPod products would support songs in MPEG-4 AAC format (via a firmware update for older iPods). Customers could download music in a closed-source Digital Rights Management (DRM)-restricted form of AAC (see FairPlay) via the iTunes Store or create files without DRM from their own CDs using iTunes. In later years, Apple began offering music videos and movies, which also use AAC for audio encoding. On May 29, 2007, Apple began selling songs and music videos free of DRM from participating record labels. These files mostly adhere to the AAC standard and are playable on many non-Apple products but they do include custom iTunes information such as album artwork and a purchase receipt, so as to identify the customer in case the file is leaked out onto peer-to-peer networks. It is possible, however, to remove these custom tags to restore interoperability with players that conform strictly to the AAC specification.[citation needed] As of January 6, 2009, nearly all music on the USA regioned iTunes Store became DRM-free, with the remainder becoming DRM-free by the end of March 2009.[46] iTunes supports a "Variable Bit Rate" (VBR) encoding option which encodes AAC tracks in an "Average Bit Rate" (ABR) scheme.[citation needed] As of September 2009, Apple has added support for HE-AAC (which is fully part of the MP4 standard) only for radio streams, not file playback, and iTunes still lacks support for true VBR encoding. The underlying QuickTime API does offer a true VBR encoding profile however. Other
date: 5/26/17 - Group code: BRR Visit http://group.home2suites.com/richlandregatta ~ NO ON-SITE CAMPING! ~ PASDCO/TRI-CITIES KOA - 8801 ST. Thomas Dr, Pasco, WA 99301 (509) 542-1357 Full hook-up $38.72 per night. Tent site with water, power and fire pit $26.54 per night. They have a good military discount, but you have to ask for it at the time of booking. All classes will run 4 laps on approx. 1.25 mile course. Not approved for records. Clock Trophies for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place overall for the weekend. Trophies will be held 1/2 hour after tear down. Trophy presentation will be held at the same location as the drivers meeting. Vintage - Medallions Awarded Thursday 3pm to 7pm - Friday 6am to 8am - Saturday 6am to 8am (At entrance to the pits) Pre-registration is appreciated. Send Entries: Alex Harper, 805 S. 124th, Burien, WA 98168 Entry Fees: $165 Entry Fee, ($170 if paying with a credit card at registration) Includeds all category administration and promo fees. $40 Step Up FeeEscape rooms are quite tough. This explains why a lot of groups fail to manage to break out. It is not that participants are too stupid to solve the puzzles; it is all about strategy. If you have played more games, you will start to understand what works and what does not. The truth is that Exodus Escape Adventures rooms are not difficult at all. You only need to know what you are supposed to do right. The following are some tips for a successful escape. Choose the Right Team When playing escape room games, it is not about what you know, but who you know. There is a need to have a good group to play with. This does not mean you search for smart people. Instead, you should play with people you are comfortable with. There is a high probability that you will freak out with a few minutes remaining. You need to pick the right group size. Some rooms can hold up to 10 people, but you should go for a group of 5 or 6 people. It is almost impossible to try to beat a room yourself. Plan Ahead Remember that you need to utilize your mental energy in the rooms so that you can beat them. The truth is that the rooms are mentally draining. This is because you will spend a lot of energy racing to escape a given room when another is calling. You should go in fresh and comfortable, ready to conquer. Thus, you should book a few days ahead of the planned day. Also, show up at least 20 minutes before the scheduled game. Positive Attitude Having a positive attitude can make all the difference you want. You should not be cocky, but feel confident in yourself and be ready to succeed. There is a need to embrace the struggles. You should not be frustrated if you are stuck on something for a few minutes without having a clue. Moreover, you should be on good terms. When you play with strangers, you ought to introduce yourself. Remember that you are working on the same goal, so be excited, helpful, and friendly. Know the Rules of the Room It is vital to know the rules of the room. You should avoid touching certain items. When you disrupt these, you can end up messing up a puzzle if a given device is not working. In this case, a game expert can get into the room to fix the issue. This may result in lost momentum and time.…A WOMAN who pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and causing the death of two Hervey Bay men in a crash near Bundaberg has been sentenced to four years jail and will be able to be released in three months. Pui Shan Rachel Wong, of Hong Kong, shed a few tears as details were read out about how she was overtaking over double white lines when she collided head on with another car in August last year on Childers Rd. Hervey Bay fathers Mark Smith and Steven Maher were killed in the crash. The Brisbane Supreme Court heard Ms Wong, 31, would be deported as soon as she was released from jail. The court heard she had been in jail for about a year. She was arrested a few days after the crash. Ms Wong was in Australia on a working holiday visa and was issued with an international drivers permit in Hong Kong a few months before the crash. Her defence barrister Harry Fong said his client was remorseful for her actions and wanted to apologise to the men's families. Ms Wong was sentenced to four years jail suspended after she served 15 months. She will be released in about three months.The Pittsburgh Penguins aren’t a franchise known for investing a lot in young players. For heaven’s sake, they’ve picked once in the first round over the last five years, yet Pittsburgh has seen quite a few young players emerge onto the NHL scene and make significant impacts the last couple years. Without the contributors of Matt Murray, Jake Guentzel, Bryan Rust and Conor Sheary, the Penguins do not win back-to-back Stanley Cups. Pittsburgh has been able to find and develop young players without top selections in the draft. And they might be just getting started, as more young talent is on the way. Here are the Penguins’ top four prospects heading into the 2017-18 season. *note: for the purposes of this list, we aren’t considering Derrick Pouliot a prospect The Electrifying Daniel Sprong Before most Penguins fans even knew who Sheary or Guentzel were, Sprong made his NHL debut as an 18-year-old. He went 46th overall in the second round of the 2015 NHL draft and scored two goals in 18 games with the Penguins under Mike Johnson in 2015-16. The former Pittsburgh coach didn’t trust him, though, reportedly because of his inability to play away from the puck, and Sprong finished the season in the QMJHL. With the Charlottetown Islanders, though, he absolutely dominated. In 2015-16, he tallied 16 goals and 46 points in 33 games and then 15 more points in 12 playoff games. Sprong finished 2015-16 with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, and in the AHL playoffs scored five goals in 10 games. In fact, the Netherlands native was so good with Charlottetown in 2015-16 that, if not for offseason surgery last summer, there’s a very good chance Sprong would have been the guy starring alongside Sidney Crosby’s wing and not Guentzel. Instead, Sprong sat out until February and never received a chance to make the NHL roster because of his shoulder surgery. That did little to slow him down when he returned to the ice. Including the playoffs, Sprong scored nearly a goal per game, recording 41 goals and 79 points over 43 contests in the QMJHL this past season. His defensive game and ability to play away from the puck took a huge step forward too. The 20-year-old posted a plus-32 rating, which was an incredible improvement after he earned a minus-10 rating in 45 total QMJHL games last season. FLASHBACK: Let's take a look at the first 8 seconds of our March 8 game vs the Wildcats.@sprong97 @nicolasmeloche @GBrisebois55 pic.twitter.com/RktC65C2C7 — IslandersHKY (@IslandersHKY) May 8, 2017 As if the No. 1 offense needed more scoring, they’re about to get another weapon in the “absolutely electric” Sprong. NCAA Scoring Champion Zach Aston-Reese NHL teams don’t need first-round selections when they’re able to sign college free agents such as Aston-Reese. The 22-year-old led the NCAA in scoring this past season, posting 31 goals and 63 points in just 38 games. After signing with the Penguins in March, he then got his feet wet in the AHL, scoring three goals and eight points over 10 contests with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Unlike Sprong, though, Aston-Reese brings a bit of nastiness to his game. He averaged nearly two penalty minutes per game this past season, registering 72 PIM in 38 games. Over his four years at Northeastern, the 22-year-old posted 182 penalty minutes in 145 contests. Aston-Reese should also give the Penguins some position flexibility. While Sprong appears destined to be a wing alongside Crosby or Evgeni Malkin one day (maybe as early as this coming fall), Aston-Reese can play center or right wing. Depending on how the rest of the summer goes for Pittsburgh, it’s not inconceivable to think the Hobey Baker Trophy Finalist could be an answer to the Penguins’ third-line center hole. General manager Jim Rutherford has indicated that he believes Sprong and Aston-Reese will both begin this season in the minors, but there’s still a lot of reasons to believe these two young studs will be ready to play NHL minutes at some point early in 2018. Reason number one to believe that would be Pittsburgh’s willingness to depart with key veterans Nick Bonino and Chris Kunitz, along with the fact the Penguins haven’t traded for a third-line center yet. Rutherford is doing everything he can to ensure there will be room for Sprong and Aston-Reese if they earn NHL playing time. Another Murray in Tristan Jarry It may be a while until NHL fans see another goaltender win the Stanley Cup twice in his first two seasons, but Jarry isn’t far behind where Murray was in his development a couple years ago. In 45 games at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton this past season, Jarry posted a 28-15-1 record,.925 save percentage and 2.15 GAA. During Murray’s final AHL season, he was 20-9-0 with a.931 save percentage and 2.10 GAA. Jarry allowed three goals in his only NHL appearance, but he did make this incredible save: Similar to the situation the Penguins find themselves in with their two young forwards, Pittsburgh is confident Jarry will be NHL ready as early as this fall, but if not then than definitely by next season. That’s why the Penguins somewhat surprisingly signed struggling veteran Antti Niemi. First off, he came very cheap at just $700,000 and agreed to a one-year contract. Niemi will provide Jarry some competition in training camp, and Pittsburgh some insurance in case the 22-year-old netminder isn’t NHL ready by the start of the season. One day, possibly very soon, Jarry will assume the backup role with the Penguins, and could even challenge Murray for playing time. Never-Ending Goaltender Depth with Filip Gustavsson Rutherford took a page out of the crosstown Steelers playbook when he selected Gustavsson at No. 55 overall of the second round in 2016. He was the best player available, so the Penguins took him despite having Murray, Jarry and Marc-Andre Fleury in the organization at the time. Gustavsson just turned 19 and is still playing in the SHL (Swedish Hockey League), so he remains a long-term project, but scouts say he has the quick reflexes and strong glove hand to be an NHL goaltender one day. He recorded a 2.70 GAA and.912 save percentage in the SHL this past season. Jarry will be a restricted free agent next summer, and Murray will join him as a restricted free agent after the 2019-20 season. All signs point to Murray continuing to become one of the best goaltenders in the league, but if injuries or something else derail his career, Pittsburgh will have options in net. At the very least, Gustavsson appears ready to develop into a strong trade piece in the future. Honorable Mentions: Lukas Bengtsson, Dominik Simon, Teddy Bluegar, Kasper BjorkqvistIn Charlottesville, the flashpoint of the white nationalist protest was a statue of Robert E. Lee. In Berkeley, “Free Speech Week” will take place on the same campus where students in the 1960s fought for the right to protest the Vietnam War and organize politically on campus. “Free Speech Week” is expected to trigger protests and possibly violence, and will force the university to spend hundreds of thousands, if not millions, trying to make sure no one gets hurt. It comes as public universities grapple with whether to welcome alt-right personalities, particularly in the wake of the deadly far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, last month that began with khaki-clad white supremacists chanting “Jews will not replace us” as they marched through the campus of the University of Virginia. The ringleader, Yiannopoulos — who’s known for disparaging transgender people, feminists, and Muslims, among others — resigned from Breitbart News in February amid backlash against his comments appearing to condone pedophilia. Eight months after a crowd of protesters ran him off campus, conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos is back, organizing a four-day event event dubbed “Free Speech Week” on Berkeley’s campus Sept. 24-27. The event’s website has featured Ann Coulter, Steve Bannon, noted anti-Islam crusader Pam Geller, and Blackwater founder Erik Prince. Other slated speakers range from conspiracy theorists to a right-wing, Banksy-like street artist. The four days’ themes: “Feminism Awareness Day”, “Islamic Peace and Tolerance Day,” “Mario Savio Is Dead” (higher education), and “Zuck 2020” (internet freedom). As the cradle of the free speech movement in the 1960s, the University of California at Berkeley is a cherished place in the hearts of American liberals. And that’s precisely why the far right is bringing its own “free speech” movement to the historic steps of Sproul Plaza. Read more As the cradle of the free speech movement in the 1960s, the University of California at Berkeley is a cherished place in the hearts of American liberals. And that’s precisely why the far right is bringing its own “free speech” movement to the historic steps of Sproul Plaza. Eight months after a crowd of protesters ran him off campus, conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos is back, organizing a four-day event event dubbed “Free Speech Week” on Berkeley’s campus Sept. 24-27. The event’s website has featured Ann Coulter, Steve Bannon, noted anti-Islam crusader Pam Geller, and Blackwater founder Erik Prince. Other slated speakers range from conspiracy theorists to a right-wing, Banksy-like street artist. The four days’ themes: “Feminism Awareness Day”, “Islamic Peace and Tolerance Day,” “Mario Savio Is Dead” (higher education), and “Zuck 2020” (internet freedom). The ringleader, Yiannopoulos — who’s known for disparaging transgender people, feminists, and Muslims, among others — resigned from Breitbart News in February amid backlash against his comments appearing to condone pedophilia. “Free Speech Week” is expected to trigger protests and possibly violence, and will force the university to spend hundreds of thousands, if not millions, trying to make sure no one gets hurt. It comes as public universities grapple with whether to welcome alt-right personalities, particularly in the wake of the deadly far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, last month that began with khaki-clad white supremacists chanting “Jews will not replace us” as they marched through the campus of the University of Virginia. What the movement wants In Charlottesville, the flashpoint of the white nationalist protest was a statue of Robert E. Lee. In Berkeley, “Free Speech Week” will take place on the same campus where students in the 1960s fought for the right to protest the Vietnam War and organize politically on campus. “We are showing up the hypocrisy of Berkeley.” “We are showing up the hypocrisy of Berkeley, which prides itself on being the home of the ‘free speech movement,’” Geller said in an email to VICE News. “Now we know they meant free speech only for the left. If people are upset about it, it is because they are insecure authoritarians who aren’t intelligent enough to deal rationally with dissenting ideas.” Experts say that key figures in the increasingly varied and nuanced far-right — nationalist, alt-right, alt-lite, anti-globalist, white supremacist — are using the free speech issue as a way to rally their base and recruit supporters. “I think there is a renewed effort by provocateurs on the right to claim the mantle of free speech defenders, and position themselves as free speech martyrs,” said Ben Wizner, director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. “Nothing pleases them more and galvanizes their supporters more than when they can present themselves as victims of a liberal or left-wing establishment.” And yet some argue that universities themselves are partly to blame for the fact that far-right personalities have fixated on American college campuses. “Universities have done an abysmal job of getting legitimate conservative speakers onto campuses,” said Brian Levin, a criminal justice professor at California State University, San Bernardino and director of the university’s Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism. “Universities need to embrace ideological diversity as much as they embrace demographic diversity. What they’re doing instead is killing the ability for students to learn critical analysis of positions they disagree with.” That has helped fuel the victim narrative that far-right individuals promote, Levin said, and has transformed campuses into ideological powder kegs. “Universities need to embrace ideological diversity as much as they embrace demographic diversity.” The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a nonprofit that promotes free speech, tracks “disinvitation attempts” against invitees, from lecturers to commencement speakers. It found 43 such attempts for both right- and left-leaning speakers in 2016 — 12 of which involved Yiannopoulos. Given Berkeley’s history as a symbol of the American free speech movement, the university is taking pains to not censor student events, and this one has a sponsor in students on campus who are using it in part to help launch a conservative newspaper, the Berkeley Patriot. Pranav Jandhyala, a member of the College Republicans and one of the Patriot’s editors, said the students don’t necessarily agree with Yiannopoulos and his cohorts, but their goal is to foster an environment on campus that is more tolerant of divergent views. “The way to heal this nation and detoxify politics is to take this libertarian philosophy toward free speech,” he said, before paraphrasing Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis. “Sunlight’s the best disinfectant.” Ashton Whitty, left, 21, and Hailey Carlson, right, 24, Cal students, make their feelings known during a press conference held by the Berkeley College Republicans in Sproul Plaza on the Cal campus in Berkeley, Calif., on Wednesday, April 26, 2017. (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group) Opponents on campus argue giving personalities like Yiannopoulos a platform in the name of free speech just serves to legitimize their views. “Just because you can go out there and say all these terrible things — you have the right to do that, you you can say whatever you want — but it doesn’t mean you should,” said Berkeley Democrats President Caiden Nason. “And I think that is something that the right doesn’t really understand at the moment.” Nason said he’s working with other student groups to plan counterprogramming during what he alternately dubbed “hate-speech apologist week.” It’s not the first time Yiannopoulos has created a stir at Berkeley. In February, less than two weeks after Donald Trump’s inauguration, his scheduled speaking appearance drew hordes of counterprotesters, including about 150 black-clad antifa, some of whom hurled Molotov cocktails and rocks at police. The event was canceled two hours before it was set to begin, and the damage reportedly cost the university $100,000. Two months later, UC Berkeley students invited far-right authors David Horowitz and Ann Coulter to speak, but their events were also canceled due to security concerns. Jandhyala sees “Free Speech Week” as an opportunity to right those perceived wrongs. “This event is really just about discourse,” he said. “The reason that motivated our invitation of Milo again wasn’t because he’s provocative or controversial and because we want to stir shit. It’s because we generally want a very symbolic way for the Berkeley community to actually deal with speech that they say they hate, that they regard as hate speech, in the proper manner.” How Americans think about free speech Free speech is something that the majority of Americans support; according to a Reuters/Ipsos/UVA poll from earlier this month, 59 percent of respondents said that political correctness threatens their personal liberty and freedom to speak their mind. And yet 61 percent of Democrat students favor excluding certain types of offensive speech from campuses in order to create a healthy learning environment for all, compared to 47 percent of Republican students, according to a survey of 1,500 college students across the country, released Monday by a Brookings Institution senior fellow. Besides offering alternatives to “Free Speech Week,” there isn’t a whole lot that Nason and his peers can do to prevent “hate speech,” no matter how offensive they find it. In June, the Supreme Court unanimously reaffirmed that “hate speech” — speech that attacks people or groups on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, religion and so on — is protected under the First Amendment. Even with Berkeley’s commitment to hosting the event, Chancellor Carol T. Christ wonders how far the university’s financial commitment should go. “It’s certainly not sustainable,” she told The Los Angeles Times. “As I understand it, it’s an unsettled question in the law – what is a reasonable level of expense for an institution to protect the right of free speech? I feel it’s very important. That’s why I’ve committed this money. I believe in the current state of the law; this is our obligation.” The event will put big costs on Berkeley Berkeley said it spent roughly $600,000 on security for a recent speaking appearance by conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro, which drew a ticketed audience of 600-700, and about 1,000 protesters. Both the event and the protest were fairly peaceful; there were nine arrests and no injuries. A UC Berkeley spokesperson declined to estimate the cost of putting on the four-day “free speech” event but said it would be “far in excess of what we spent on the Shapiro event.” After Charlottesville, some universities started pushing back on speaking requests from Richard Spencer, the white nationalist who organized the deadly rally that began with young men holding dimestore tiki torches and chanting “Jews will not replace us” around the statue of Robert E. Lee on the University of Virginia campus. But some of those schools soon encountered legal hurdles. Lawyers representing Spencer sued Michigan State University, and threatened legal action against the University of Florida, which ultimately agreed to reschedule his appearance to Oct. 19. Earlier this year, Auburn University, in Alabama, shelled out a $29,000 settlement after denying Spencer the opportunity to speak. For their part, the Patriot and other organizers are doing pre-emptive damage control. Jandhyala said they entered into a verbal contract with Yiannopoulos barring him from targeting individual students during the four-day event. Their concern stemmed from an incident last December when Yiannopoulos verbally attacked a transgender student while speaking at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and from rumors that he planned to identify undocumented students during his cancelled Berkeley appearance in February. Yiannopoulos denied the rumors. Jandhyala said the expected crowds of protesters are as important to the cause of free speech as the event itself. “Whether it’s the KKK, actual Nazis, no matter how terrible these people are, the second you create a barrier and say you can’t speak, you’re too offensive, they only grow strong,” Jandhyala said. “They only benefit from that.”TriMet's board of directors began Wednesday's meeting with a Portland woman who had been aboard the Max train where a known extremist fatally stabbed two men and attacked a third last month.The agency, she said, needs more security to deal with those kinds of threats. The meeting ended, at least temporarily, when it was interrupted by protesters who wanted more discussion about the police presence on the system. They wanted the agency to reverse its response to the May 26 stabbing, which included beefing up police patrols. The scene illustrates the transit agency's dilemma. While there's agreement that more needs to be done to ensure riders feel safe, the most vocal critics -- comprising a loose coalition of riders, union employees and police accountability activists -- say the presence of police officers actually has the opposite effect, especially for members of minority groups. Amy Farrara, said she was on the train when Jeremy Christian yelled epithets at two women, one black and one Muslim. The driver came on the public-address system to warn Christian that police would be called, she said, then exited the operator's cabin just in time to witness the stabbing. As the incident played out, the operator was the only TriMet staffer in sight, Farrara said, and he appeared ill-equipped to intervene. "I don't plan on getting back on a MAX train in some time, or ever. I want to help others make sure there's safety on the train," she told the TriMet board. "There should have been someone else there to diffuse the situation." TriMet increased security after the attack. It assigned more armed police officers, as well as unarmed but uniformed security guards and supervisors, to ride MAX trains in an effort to make riders feel safer. The agency contracts with local police agencies for its corps of 61 transit police officers, which is overseen by the Portland Police Bureau. In May, before the high-profile stabbing, TriMet's board approved a budget that included $10 million for a new transit police precinct to replace a leased facility. But critics contend that Transit Police target non-white riders. They point to studies that show black riders are more likely to be banned from the system, or to face criminal charges after instances of fare evasion, which is usually treated as a minor violation. The Amalgamated Transit Union has advocated for a reduced police presence, preferring instead more fare checkers, who are union employees. Though union members are particularly concerned about the recent increase in attacks on drivers, its leaders contend that police "intimidate the public" and are slow to respond in emergencies. Bus Riders Unite, a group of rider-activists, has pushed for "rider ambassadors," who would be unarmed but equipped with radios to summon police as needed. "We do need something more than we have now," said David Bouchard, a leader of the group. "We don't necessarily need more armed police." TriMet previously had a "rider ambassador" program in which volunteers rode bus lines to answer questions and act as the agency's eyes and ears, TriMet spokeswoman Roberta Altstadt said. The program ended, she said, because of "behavior issues" on the part of some volunteers. The meeting was disrupted when Mimi German, a frequent protester at Portland City Council meetings, interrupted to demand more discussion on the topic of police accountability. The meeting came a week after a Multnomah County grand jury found no criminal wrongdoing by a Transit Police officer who shot and killed a man holding a utility knife. The incident started at a transit station in Southeast Portland, where the man, 24-year-old Terrell Kyreem Johnson, was described as "acting erratically." Board chairman Bruce Warner declared the protesters to be trespassing and suspended the meeting, prompting a brief standoff between German and other protesters and TriMet's private security officers, who warned the protesters would be arrested. German eventually left the room and met outside the building with John Gardner, TriMet's director of diversity and transit equity, who invited the group to a private meeting later. That initial discussion was productive, German said afterward, and the protesters support some of the efforts Gardner raised. "We need to be at the table," she said. "The next step is to go to the meeting and see if what he's saying is actually happening." TriMet officials say they're trying to strike a balance between armed police and unarmed security personnel. The agency has hired additional fare inspectors and, in the wake of the May stabbing, is continuing its show of security presence on trains. Transit Police officers will continue working overtime indefinitely, Altstadt said, while 20 contract security officers hired after the May 26 attack will stay on for the next four to six months. TriMet was also scheduled to release new crime and safety statistics on Wednesday, but the presentation was delayed because of discrepancies in the numbers, the agency said. The release, usually in April, was already delayed because TriMet is moving to a new reporting methodology. -- Elliot Njus enjus@oregonian.com 503-294-5034 @enjusAnother piece of the NHL’s coaching puzzle fell into place Thursday. The Detroit Red Wings have hired John Torchetti as an assistant coach for two seasons, executive vice president and general manager Ken Holland announced. Former Ottawa Senators head coach Dave Cameron and newly hired Tampa Bay Lightning assistant coach Todd Richards were also reportedly considered for the job. Torchetti, 51, took over as interim head coach of the Minnesota Wild in mid-February when the organization fired Mike Yeo. Under his watch, the faltering Wild rallied to qualify for the playoffs. They were then outmatched and eliminated by the Dallas Stars in the opening round. The Boston native was a strong candidate to continue as the Wild’s head coach, but that job ultimately went to Bruce Boudreau when he was fired from the Anaheim Ducks. Torchetti has thrice served as an interim head coach in the NHL, posting a record of 30-30-4-2 in short stints with Minnesota, Florida (2003-04) and Los Angeles (2005-06). He brings more than 30 years of professional hockey experience as a player, coach and general manager to Detroit. Torchetti won a Stanley Cup as an assistant with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2010. Fun fact: Torchetti was also the first American to coach Red Army, as run by Hall of Famer and Red Wings alum Sergei Fedorov. (hing hint, nudge nudge) – Torchetti coached Radulov in the KHL. — Kyle M. (@KyleWIIM) June 9, 2016 The Red Wings also added Doug Houda (formerly of the Bruins) as an assistant coach and Jeff Salajko as their goaltending coach this off-season. Houda will be charged with leading the defence and penalty kill, while Torchetti will be tasked with the offence and power play under head coach Jeff Blashill.Sensors on light poles pick up sound, relay locations to police Buy Photo Detroit Police Chief James Craig (Photo: Daniel Mears, The Detroit News)Buy Photo Story Highlights Listening technology has detected what appear to be 24 shootings, police say Company is paying for pilot program in Detroit ShotSpotter is used in Saginaw, Flint and other cities nationwide The Detroit Police Department has launched a pilot program that uses light pole sensors to pinpoint for police where gunshots are fired. Since the program began last Monday, ShotSpotter listening technology that relays information to a computer has detected what appear to be 24 shootings, Detroit Police Chief James Craig said. "We're still doing some testing to determine if what we're hearing are indeed gunshots," Craig said. "There's a little tweaking that needs to be done yet." Vaughn Arrington, 32, who lives on the city's northeast side in the 48205 ZIP code, which is usually among the areas with the most shootings, said he supports police using ShotSpotter. "It sounds like it'll help them catch more people who are firing guns, and that's a great idea," he said. "I'm all for anything that will help make our neighborhoods safer." Craig did not identify where the system is being tested, how many sensors are employed or how long the pilot program will last. "We don't want criminals to have any of the details about how we're using this," he said. The technology, which uses remote monitors — consisting of microphones and circuitry encased in a weatherproof shell — detects loud, explosive noises. It doesn't raise privacy concerns, said Darrell Dawsey, spokesman for the Detroit American Civil Liberties Union. "As far as we know, it's collecting just gunshot sounds," Dawsey said. "If it was being used to eavesdrop on people's conversations, it would obviously be a problem. But as far as we can tell, there's no evidence that's how it's being used." ShotSpotter helps police respond more quickly to shootings because the technology immediately informs dispatchers when and where shots are fired, Craig said. A central computer analyzes the sound detected by the sensors and pinpoints its location. According to the manufacturer, California-based SST Inc., the system developed in the 1990s can give the exact street address, the number of rounds and the time shots were fired. With moving targets, such as drive-by shootings, the sensors calculate the shooter's position, speed and direction traveled. It can also tell whether two types of guns were used. Last year, there were 1,161 nonfatal shootings in the city, down from 1,263 in 2012. As of Friday, there were 797 nonfatal shootings this year, down 14 percent in the same period in 2013. Buy Photo How it works (Photo: The Detroit News) Those figures don't include thousands of additional instances of shots fired that don't hit their target. Previous rejection Detroit tried to install the technology in 2011 when former Mayor Dave Bing pushed for the city to sign a three-year, $2.6 million contract to use ShotSpotter. But the City Council rejected the measure, 5-4. Opponents on the council said they would rather use the money to hire police officers. The number of Detroit Police officers has dropped from 3,126 in 2001 to 1,854 today. Craig said the pilot program is being conducted at no cost to taxpayers. "The company (SST Inc.) is working with us on the initial phase," he said. "As we evaluate the success of the deployment, we'll look into funding options." Last year, Craig began drafting a plan to use the technology and worked with the city's Public Lighting Authority to install sensors on street light poles. Saginaw, Flint on board A 2006 National Institute of Justice study, conducted at the company's request, found ShotSpotter sensors correctly detected 99.6 percent of 234 gunshots fired at 23 locations. Sensors located 90.9 percent of the shots to within 40 feet, the study found. More than 80 cities across the nation use ShotSpotter, including Saginaw, Flint, Boston, Milwaukee and Washington, D.C. New York this summer initiated a pilot program using the technology. In Washington, D.C., which uses at least 300 sensors across 20 square miles, ShotSpotter sensors picked up about 39,000 separate gunfire incidents over eight years, according to a 2013 Washington Post analysis, which found the number of shootings captured have dropped 40 percent since the technology was employed in 2005. "We've seen the successes in other municipalities where ShotSpotter has worked as a crime-fighting tool, and I'm confident it will work in Detroit, too," Craig said. Disturbing trend Craig said the first week of the ShotSpotter trial uncovered a disturbing trend. "One thing we've found that's remarkable since we began using this: In all the incidents we think were shootings, not one citizen called the police," Craig said. "That tells me people are so used to hearing gunshots in their neighborhoods, they don't consider it anything out of the ordinary. And that's sad." Arrington, who said he constantly hears gunshots near his home on Pelkey street, agreed. "Hearing guns shouldn't be normal," he said. "It's not normal in Dearborn, it's not normal in West Bloomfield, and it shouldn't be normal in Detroit." ghunter@detroitnews.com (313) 222-2134 Read or Share this story: http://detne.ws/1sIzyflMay 13, 2016 Terrorists Commit War Crimes, U.S. State Department: "We continue to have dialogue with them." Russia asked the UN to blacklist Ahrar al Sham and Jaish al Islam as terrorist groups. The U.S. rejected that. "We continue to have dialogue with them," said the State Department. A day later Ahrar al Sham joins al-Qaeda in breaking the ceasefire in Syria and in assaulting and ethnically cleansing a village loyal to the Syrian government. Meanwhile Amnesty International accuses both groups of indiscriminate attacks on civilians, including by use of chemical weapons, and of other war crimes. May 11 Russia's bid to blacklist Syrian rebel groups at UN blocked by US, others The U.S. and other countries at the United Nations Wednesday blocked Russia’s bid to blacklist two rebel groups in Syria saying it would undermine the war-torn country’s halt in fighting. Reuters reported that Britain, the U.S., France and Ukraine blocked the bid to blacklist Jaish al-Islam [(Army of Islam)] and Ahrar al-Sham. Moscow claimed the groups should have been excluded because of their ties to militant groups including ISIS and Al Qaeda. May 11 - State Department Daily Press Briefing QUESTION: -- on this issue? Both Ahrar al-Sham and Jaysh al-Islam – I mean, they have exactly the same bylaw, almost the same bylaws. They don’t have a constitution. They have what they call internal document. They espouse the same dogma, they believe the same thing, they practice the same practices as Jabhat al-Nusrah and as al-Qaida. Why shouldn’t they be designated as a terrorist organization? MS TRUDEAU: So we constantly review information. We are constantly assessing these groups. At this stage our position is that these groups are members of the cessation of hostilities. We continue to have dialogue with them. If our position changes, we’ll make that assessment then. But we are in constant review of this. May 12 - Syria's al-Qaida branch seizes central Alawite village DAMASCUS, Syria – Syria's al-Qaida branch and allied fighters from ultraconservative rebel factions on Wednesday seized a village of President Bashar Assad's minority Alawite sect in central Syria, following fierce clashes with government troops. ... The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group tracking the conflict, said families disappeared from Zaara after the militants overran the village. Along with Syria's al-Qaida branch known as the
The headset LEDs are matched by LED-covered straps that give accurate positioning data for your hands. It doesn't register finger-wiggles or anything that precise, but I was able to manipulate objects in the virtual world as easily as I would have been able to on a touchscreen. Advertisement In the photo at the top of this post, you can see my point of view, looking at a touchscreen with options for Crow's Nest Cam, Bridge, Combat Decision Center, and UAS Cam. In the real world, there was no interface. It was just a plain, cheap square of plexiglass on a stand. Yet, when I touched the spot where the buttons supposedly were, it registered the input perfectly and switched me to a different room. This has profound implications. Let's say the Navy decides that a room full of touchscreens is the best way to control a new warship. Today, in order to train sailors on it, you'd have to build physical replicas of that control room. But what if you could just place plain pieces of plastic that approximate where the screens would be, slap an Oculus Rift on your face, and perfectly simulate what will be there? Outside of the VR headset, it's just a room full of cheap, blank plastic panels, but for the soldier in training, it would look and behave exactly as the real thing would. This would not only save a ton of money, but it would make the Navy far more adaptable. The most incredible thing about this system, though, is how just a single press of a button can shift your perspective to a whole new vantage-point. When I hit that virtual button for Crow's Nest, I was instantly transported to the top of the ship's mast. It actually made me want to grab the sides of my chair at first. There I was, floating a hundred feet above the deck of the boat, and yet I still had all of my important screens and controls at my fingertips. Advertisement And then the best magic yet; another press of a button and I was even higher, looking down from a drone's point of view. I was flying high above the water, looking down at the boat that my physical body would be on, and looking out over enemy ships, too. Obviously, this has profound implications. Imagine a drone pilot actually being able to see the entire world from the drone he or she is flying, not just from a single camera angle, but as if they were sitting in the cockpit. You would have so much more situational awareness. You might also have more of a sense that what you are doing is a part of the real world, not just some game, along with all of the moral implications that implies. It stunned me silent. A Flexible Future Another advantage of this system is its extreme customizability. Maybe you're left-handed, and you want the ship's throttle over on the left. You can just drag and drop it to where you need it to be. When the next user logs in, it would reset to his or her preferred settings. In this way you can customize the ship itself to work in the way that makes most sense to you. Advertisement It also allows for fewer personnel to be physically on a ship. As long as the data speed could handle it, you could virtually pipe in an expert on any subject you needed, and they would be able to see the situation exactly as they would if they were on the ship with you. This could be extremely useful in specialized repair situations, or when a crucial translation is in need. As incredible as BlueShark sounds—and will become—the system is a long way from perfect. There was occasional lag in the display, and when there's a slight disparity between what you are seeing and what you are physically experiencing, dizziness happens. I don't easily get motion-sick, but I definitely found myself getting queasy. At one point, when the screen froze completely, I became so disoriented I almost took a nose-dive out of my chair. But we're at the very beginning of this technology. That it's this good at such a rudimentary stage is staggering. Advertisement Where It's Going What remains to be seen is how the military adopts and implements BlueShark. One of the banner features of the Ford-class aircraft carriers is that they're made to be modular, so as technology progresses, theoretically entire control rooms could be swapped out. Might we see one that's just a bunch of lifeless glass panels that come to life when you look at them in virtual reality? Advertisement Even if that would make it endlessly customizable for the sailors using it, would the Navy ever trust a 100-percent digital system to pilot its boats? Would it be vulnerable to hacking? We asked the Navy these questions and got an official (and surprisingly candid) response from Lieutenant Commander Brent Olde, ONR Deputy, Human & Bio-Engineered Systems Division: "Due to rapid advances in unmanned systems capabilities, the military is currently experiencing a paradigm shift in how it commands and controls its assets. With growing confidence and verified reliability in these new control mechanisms, I'd say yes, someday the Navy could have a completely new way of controlling large vessels - as depicted in BlueShark. However combat systems require multiple fail-safe redundancies to be in place in the case of system failures (some systems have quadruple redundancy), so if the Navy ever did replace the entire control system, it would only be after rigorous testing and redundant back-up mechanisms to maintain positive control." Emphasis added, but suffice it to say that BlueShark could well be a reality, assuming it proved safe and reliable enough. Advertisement There are obviously also manifold applications for this technology outside of the military. You could put together a team of experts from around the world, who could collaborate in a virtual environment (with everything they say being instantly translated into the language of each individual listener) on a project. And, obviously, the gaming potential is off the charts. But ultimately, seeing the world from the perspective of a drone, turning a blank space into the world's most high-tech command center just by looking through some glasses; these have huge implications for our military. If we aren't always ready to adapt, we lose. The more flexible we make ourselves, the more adaptable we'll be. BlueShark is the future—and it's closer than you think. Advertisement Huge thanks to everyone at USC Institute for Creative Technologies for their time. Camera: Judd Frazier Edit: Michael Hession Stills: Brent RoseUsing Online Reviews by Restaurant Patrons to Identify Unreported Cases of Foodborne Illness — New York City, 2012–2013 Cassandra Harrison, MSPH1,2, Mohip Jorder, MS3, Henri Stern3, Faina Stavinsky, MS1, Vasudha Reddy, MPH1, Heather Hanson, MPH1, HaeNa Waechter, MPH1, Luther Lowe4, Luis Gravano, PhD3, Sharon Balter, MD1 (Author affiliations at end of text) While investigating an outbreak of gastrointestinal disease associated with a restaurant, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) noted that patrons had reported illnesses on the business review website Yelp (http://www.yelp.com) that had not been reported to DOHMH. To explore the potential of using Yelp to identify unreported outbreaks, DOHMH worked with Columbia University and Yelp on a pilot project to prospectively identify restaurant reviews on Yelp that referred to foodborne illness. During July 1, 2012–March 31, 2013, approximately 294,000 Yelp restaurant reviews were analyzed by a software program developed for the project. The program identified 893 reviews that required further evaluation by a foodborne disease epidemiologist. Of the 893 reviews, 499 (56%) described an event consistent with foodborne illness (e.g., patrons reported diarrhea or vomiting after their meal), and 468 of those described an illness within 4 weeks of the review or did not provide a period. Only 3% of the illnesses referred to in the 468 reviews had also been reported directly to DOHMH via telephone and online systems during the same period. Closer examination determined that 129 of the 468 reviews required further investigation, resulting in telephone interviews with 27 reviewers. From those 27 interviews, three previously unreported restaurant-related outbreaks linked to 16 illnesses met DOHMH outbreak investigation criteria; environmental investigation of the three restaurants identified multiple food-handling violations. The results suggest that online restaurant reviews might help to identify unreported outbreaks of foodborne illness and restaurants with deficiencies in food handling. However, investigating reports of illness in this manner might require considerable time and resources. Project Protocol Beginning in April 2012, Yelp provided DOHMH with a private data feed of New York City restaurant reviews. The feed provided data publicly available on the website but in an XML format, and text classification programs were trained to automatically analyze reviews. For this pilot project, a narrow set of criteria were chosen to identify those reviews with a high likelihood of describing foodborne illness. Reviews were assessed retrospectively, using the following criteria: 1) presence of the keywords "sick," "vomit," "diarrhea," or "food poisoning" in contexts denoting foodborne illness; 2) two or more persons reported ill; and 3) an incubation period ≥10 hours. Ten hours was chosen because most foodborne illnesses are not caused by toxins but rather by organisms with an incubation period of ≥10 hours (1). Data mining software was used to train the text classification programs (2). A foodborne disease epidemiologist manually examined output results to determine whether reviews selected by text classification met the criteria for inclusion, and programs with the highest accuracy rate were incorporated into the final software used for the pilot project to analyze reviews prospectively. The software program downloaded weekly data and provided the date of the restaurant review, a link to the review, the full review text, establishment name, establishment address, and scores for each of three outbreak criteria (i.e., keywords, number of persons ill, and incubation period), plus an average of the three criteria. Scores for individual criteria ranged from 0 to 1, with a score closer to 1 indicating the review likely met the score criteria. Reviews submitted to Yelp during July 1, 2012–March 31, 2013 were analyzed. All reviews with an average review score of ≥0.5 were evaluated by a foodborne disease epidemiologist (Figure). Because the average review score was calculated by averaging the individual criteria scores, reviews could receive an average score of ≥0.5 without meeting all individual criteria. Reviews with an average review score of ≥0.5 were evaluated for the following three criteria: 1) consistent with foodborne illness occurring after a meal, rather than an alternative explanation for the illness keyword; 2) meal date within 4 weeks of review (or no meal date provided); 3) two or more persons ill or a single person with symptoms of scombroid poisoning or severe neurologic illness. Reviews that met all three of these criteria were then investigated further by DOHMH. In addition, reviews were investigated further if manual checking identified multiple reviews within 1 week that described recent foodborne illness at the same restaurant. To identify previously reported complaints of foodborne illness, reviews were compared with complaints reported to DOHMH by telephone or online at 311, New York City's nonemergency information service that can be used by the public to report suspected foodborne illness (3). Yelp reviews categorized as indicating recent or potentially recent illness were compared with complaints from the previous 4 weeks in the 311 database. To follow up with reviewers, DOHMH created a Yelp account to send private messages to reviewers' Yelp accounts. Reviewers needed to log in at Yelp to view their messages. For reviews not requiring further investigation and not found in the 311 database, DOHMH sent messages advising reviewers of the availability of 311 reporting. For reviews requiring further investigation, DOHMH sent messages requesting telephone interviews. Reviewers consenting to interviews were asked to provide details about the restaurant visit, meal date, foods consumed during the meal, party size, illness symptoms, and a history of foods consumed in the 3 days before symptom onset. Review-Based Findings During July 1, 2012–March 31, 2013, the software system screened approximately 294,000 reviews and identified 893 with an average score of ≥0.5, indicating possible foodborne illness (Figure). Of these reviews, 499 (56%) described an event consistent with foodborne illness, as determined by the manual checking of a foodborne epidemiologist. This equated to an average of 23 reviews evaluated by a foodborne epidemiologist each week, with an average of 13 reviews categorized as consistent with foodborne illness. The remaining 394 (44%) reviews contained keywords but did not suggest foodborne illness (e.g., "I didn't get sick at all after my meal"). Of the 499 reviews describing an event consistent with foodborne illness, 468 (94%) indicated recent or potentially recent illness. Of these 468 reviews, only 15 (3%) were also reported to 311 during the same period. A total of 339 reviews that indicated only one person became ill and had no scombroid poisoning or severe neurologic symptoms were excluded, leaving 129 reviews that required further investigation (Figure). Of the 129, a total of 27 (21%) reviewers completed a telephone interview inquiring about meals and illnesses. The median time from review date to DOHMH contact to schedule a telephone interview was 8 days. The interviews provided information on 27 restaurants, and 24 restaurants were identified as potential locations of recent exposure because the meal dates were within 4 weeks of the interview. From the 27 interviews, DOHMH determined whether the complaints warranted an outbreak investigation by considering the following criteria: 1) more than one person became ill, 2) no other common meals were suspected, 3) ill persons lived in different households, and 4) the cases had similar onset periods (indicating a likely foodborne cause rather than person-to-person transmission). For scombroid poisoning or neurologic symptoms, DOHMH considered whether symptoms and onset were consistent with scombrotoxin, ciguatera toxin, or botulism poisoning. Three outbreaks meeting DOHMH outbreak investigation criteria were identified, accounting for 16 illnesses not previously reported to DOHMH. Interviews with reviewers identified likely food items associated with illness at each of the three restaurants: house salad, shrimp and lobster cannelloni, and macaroni and cheese spring rolls (Table). The reviews of the three restaurants had been posted on Yelp 2–5 days after the meals. Environmental investigations were conducted at two of the three restaurants during the week after the interviews; a routine DOHMH inspection had already been conducted at the other restaurant 2 days after the meal. The two investigations and the routine inspection identified multiple violations at each of the outbreak restaurants (Table). Investigators were unable to obtain laboratory data that might have identified the infectious agents. Discussion In a New York City DOHMH pilot project, of 468 recent or potentially recent online foodborne illness complaints posted on Yelp and reviewed by foodborne epidemiologists, three previously unreported restaurant outbreaks were identified. Because foodborne cases have a common exposure, a restaurant patron review-based system can identify small, point-source outbreaks that are not easily found by systems reviewing large sources of data, such as syndromic surveillance of emergency department visits (4), Google Flu Trends (5), and analysis of Twitter data for influenza and other public health trends (6–8). Most importantly, foodborne epidemiologists can confirm reports because Yelp offers a way to follow-up with reviewers for interview. In this project, only 15 (3%) of the 468 recent or potentially recent illnesses identified on Yelp were also reported directly to New York City's nonemergency 311 service, suggesting that knowledge about 311 reporting is limited. Of further note, after messages regarding the availability of 311 were sent to 290 reviewers who did not meet the project criteria, 32 responded, of whom 25 (78%) said they were unaware of the 311 system or would keep 311 in mind for the future. The 311 service receives approximately 3,000 food poisoning complaints each year, and from that number, about 1% are identified as outbreak-related (DOHMH, unpublished data, 2014). As social media usage continues to grow among U.S. adults (9), health departments might consider additional surveillance methods to capture illness reports from those more likely to post a restaurant review online than to contact a health department. By incorporating website review data into public health surveillance programs, health departments might find additional illnesses and improve detection of foodborne disease outbreaks in the community. Similar programs could be developed to identify other public health hazards that reviewers might describe, such as vermin in food establishments. The findings in this report are subject to at least four limitations. First, to increase the likelihood of identifying true foodborne illness, a narrow focus was chosen for the individual criteria used to score reviews. Therefore, it is possible that some foodborne illnesses were not picked up by the screening software because of low average review scores (e.g., because of illnesses resulting from toxins with short incubation periods). Second, personal contact information for reviewers was unavailable, requiring reviewers to check their Yelp accounts and provide a telephone number to participate, which extended the time from review to interview and might have affected the response rate. Third, investigators were not able to identify any of the infectious agents in the outbreaks. Finally, the system required substantial resources; in addition to programming expertise, staff members were needed to read reviews, send e-mails, interview reviewers, and perform follow-up inspections. Additional work using social media might improve health department abilities to use the Internet for disease detection. Working with the Chicago Department of Public Health, the Smart Chicago Collaborative recently developed a system to contact those who post foodborne illness complaints either on its website or on Twitter.* For health departments looking for an alternative to analyzing review data weekly, creating an illness-reporting vehicle such as the Utah Department of Health's "I Got Sick" website (10) could be a more practical solution, although it might be less widely used than a review website such as Yelp. Review websites could assist by offering a link to the reviewer's local health department's reporting system at the time of review posting. DOHMH plans to continue to refine this project. To shorten the time from review to investigation, Yelp will provide daily instead of weekly review feeds, and, to increase sensitivity, the project will be expanded to include additional review websites. To improve response rates, DOHMH will offer a link to an electronic survey. Finally, DOHMH is exploring the possibility of linking multiple complaints pertaining to the same restaurant, using data from different review websites and DOHMH databases. References Scallan E, Hoekstra RM, Angulo FJ, et al. Foodborne illness acquired in the United States—major pathogens. Emerg Infect Dis 2011;17:7–15. Hall M, Frank E, Holmes G, Pfahringer B, Reutemann P, Witten IH. The WEKA data mining software: an update. ACM SIGKDD Explorations 2009;11:10–8. The City of New York. NYC 311. New York, NY: The City of New York; 2014. Available at http://www.nyc.gov/311. CDC. Three years of emergency department gastrointestinal syndromic surveillance in New York City: what have we found? In: Syndromic surveillance: reports from a national conference, 2004. MMWR 2005;54(Suppl):175–80. Carneiro H, Mylonakis E. Google Trends: a web-based tool for real-time surveillance of disease outbreaks. Clin Infect Dis 2009;49:1557–64. Culotta A. Towards detecting influenza epidemics by analyzing Twitter messages. In: Proceedings of the First Workshop on Social Media Analytics, July 25, 2010; Washington, DC. New York, NY: Association for Computing Machinery; 2010. Available at http://snap.stanford.edu/soma2010/papers/soma2010_16.pdf. Paul M, Dredze M. You are what you tweet: analyzing Twitter for public health. In: Proceedings of the Fifth International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media, July 17–21, 2011; Barcelona, Spain. Palo Alto, CA: AAAI Press; 2011:265–72. Sadilek A, Brennan S, Kautz H, Silenzio V. nEmesis: which restaurants should you avoid today? In: Proceedings of the First AAAI Conference on Human Computation and Crowdsourcing, November 6–9, 2013; Palm Springs, California. Available at http://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/HCOMP/HCOMP13/paper/viewFile/7475/7413. Fox S, Rainie L, Pew Research Center. Pew Internet research project: the Web at 25 in the U.S.; 2014. Available at http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/02/27/the-web-at-25-in-the-u-s. Utah Department of Health. Report a foodborne illness. Salt Lake City, UT: State of Utah, Utah Department of Health; 2012. Available at http://igotsick.health.utah.gov. What is already known on this topic? Health departments rely on the public to report restaurant-related foodborne illness directly to them, yet many outbreaks go unreported. A large amount of publicly reported information about foodborne illness is available on restaurant review websites. What is added by this report? During a 9-month period, approximately 294,000 reviews of New York City restaurants posted on Yelp.com were screened by software programs for possible cases of foodborne illness. The software flagged 893 reviews for evaluation by an epidemiologist, resulting in the identification of 468 reviews that were consistent with recent or potentially recent foodborne illness. Only 15 (3%) of these reviews described events that had been reported to the health department. After further evaluation of reviews and interviews with 27 reviewers, three previously unreported restaurant-related outbreaks were identified. What are the implications for public health practice? Review websites might be a valuable source of data in the public health setting. Restaurant patron reviews can help identify small, point-source outbreaks of foodborne illness because cases have a known common exposure. Such reviews might be particularly useful if the website offers a way to reach reviewers for follow-up interviews. FIGURE. Results of investigation of online reviews by restaurant patrons that referred to possible foodborne illness — pilot project, New York City, July 1, 2012–March 31, 2013 Alternate Text: The figure above shows the results of an investigation of online reviews by restaurant patrons that referred to possible foodborne illness in New York City during July 1, 2012-March 31, 2013. During July 1, 2012-March 31, 2013, a software system screened approximately 294,000 reviews and identified 893 with a score that indicated possible foodborne illness.On this day – 12 May 1806 James Shields from Co.Tyrone was an extraordinary Irishman. He had an uncle of the same name who emigrated from Ireland and became a U.S. senator for Ohio. Not to be outdone James Shields Jr. left Ireland at the age of twenty and went on to represent not one but three states in the U.S. Senate. A unique achievement unlikely ever to be repeated. He started in Illinois, in 1849 and served one term. His election was helped by what came to be known as the ‘lucky Mexican bullet’ he had stopped while a brigadier general in the Mexican-American war in 1846. His opponent was the incumbent Sydney Breese, a fellow Democrat. A political rival wrote of Shields’s injury “What a wonderful shot that was! The bullet went clean through Shields without hurting him, or even leaving a scar, and killed Breese a thousand miles away.” Failing to be re-elected six years later he moved to the Minnestoa territory from where he was returned as one of the new state’s first two senators in 1858. Later, during the Civil War he distinguished himself as a Union General and then settled in Missouri. He had obviously taken a liking to the Senate chamber because he contrived to get re-elected to that house from Missouri in 1879 at the age of 73. He died shortly after taking office. But Shields is possibly even more important for something he didn’t do. In 1842 Shields was already well known in his adopted home of Illinois. He was a lawyer and was serving in the state legislature as a Democrat. After a periodic economic recession hit the nation in the 1840s Shields, as state auditor, issued instructions that paper money should no longer be taken as payment for state taxes. Only gold or silver would be acceptable. A prominent member of the Whig party, one Abraham Lincoln, took exception to the move and wrote an anonymous satirical letter to a local Springfield, Illinois newspaper in which he called Shields a fool, a liar and a dunce. This was then followed up by his wife-to-be Mary Todd, with an equally scathing letter of her own. When Shields contacted the editor of the newspaper to find out who had written the second letter Lincoln himself took full responsibility. A belligerent Shields, accordingly, challenged the future US president to a duel. The venue was to be the infamous Bloody Island in the middle of the Mississippi river, dueling being illegal in Illinois. Lincoln, having been challenged, was allowed to choose the weapons and set the rules. He did this to his own considerable advantage, opting for broadswords as opposed to pistols. While Shields was a crack shot he was only 5’9” in height, as opposed to Lincoln’s towering 6’4”. When the rivals finally met on 22 September 1842 Lincoln quickly demonstrated his huge reach advantage to Shields by ostentatiously lopping off a branch above the Irishman’s head with his weapon of choice. When the seconds, and other interested parties, intervened peace was negotiated between the two men, though it took some time to placate the pugnacious Shields and persuade him to agree to shake hands with Lincoln. The man who might have abruptly ended the life and career of Abraham Lincoln, and radically changed the course of American history, James Shields from Co.Tyrone, was born 207 years ago, on this day.Late on Wednesday, USA Today reported that a 2008 study by the Pentagon concluded that Vladimir Putin has Asperger’s syndrome. Brenda Connors, the lead researcher based at the US Naval War College, appears to have come to this conclusion based on ‘movement pattern analysis’ – essentially, watching videos of the Russian president, and making some sort of link between the way that he moves, and his state of mind. I’ve not seen the original study, but the contents reported in the news bear similarities to a 2005 patent from Connors. You can see the patent for yourself here. The swamp-like prose makes for difficult reading, but the basic idea goes like this: first, get a video of the person in question. Next, strip out the audio, and ‘examine’ the video to establish ‘a baseline pattern’ of the speaker’s movements. In case you’re wondering, here’s the definition of baseline: Baseline style is composed of: The universal— what gets passed down through evolution, and, the individual—the scaffolding of what gets stamped through our families, our culture, and social factors such as gender, class, social convention, region, etc. … It is the hardwired DNA of your communicative expression. It is composed of both “quantity,” the mass of self (the posture, body parts, the subsystems) and “quality,” the glue or dynamic energetic organization of weight and how that integrates it all together in expression. Good, that’s cleared that up then. So once you’ve established this baseline, you examine the video again – this time with the audio back in – and decode “said person’s emotional, cognitive and performance processes”. Finally, you need to get hold of other videos of the speaker, to see whether the patterns you’ve established crop up repeatedly. This isn’t an analysis method specifically designed to test for Asperger’s syndrome – much the opposite, in fact. It’s so generic as to be meaningless. This all sounds like a bit of a mess, really. Trying to figure out someone’s state of mind based solely on how they move is a hugely subjective endeavour, easily prone to misinterpretation. Now, we know that people are pretty good at figuring out certain basic bits of information from body movements – for instance, we can tell whether someone is happy or sad just by the way they walk. But there’s a huge jump from simplistic judgements about basic emotions, to claiming that you can infer someone’s state of mind – let alone whether they might have a neurodevelopmental disorder. Therein lies the more serious issue. According to USA Today, the “researchers can’t prove their theory about Putin and Asperger’s… because they were not able to perform a brain scan on the Russian president”. This assertion appears to have come not from the newspaper, but from Connors herself, which is bizarre and frustrating for two reasons. First, because diagnosing autistic spectrum disorder is a complex process and should only be done by people with an appropriate clinical qualification. Second, because very simply you can’t diagnose autistic spectrum disorders with brain scans. For crying out loud. I spoke to Professor Dorothy Bishop, who is a Wellcome Principal Research Fellow and Professor of Developmental Neuropsychology at Oxford University. “When it comes to diagnosing autistic spectrum disorder, you’re supposed to show impairments in three domains. One of them is communication, one is social interaction, and one is repetitive and restricted interest and behaviours,” she says. “In autism there may be a failure to match bodily movements to emotions, but it is only a small part of the picture, and it is also something that can occur for all sorts of reasons other than autism. You wouldn’t base a diagnosis on it.” Putting all of this together, it seems like another frustrating case of psychological diagnosis from a distance, causing all sorts of problems and solving none. We’ve seen this before, for example when psychologists were asked to comment on the mindset of Sandy Hook killer Adam Lanza, despite never even having met him. In these sorts of cases, we’re just being given pure conjecture, dressed up as convincing scientific knowledge. This sort of practice doesn’t offer any useful scientific insight into, well, anything, and it misrepresents how science works, and what good quality scientific research looks like. In the “Putin has Asperger’s case”, there’s an additional problem – it plays into stigmatising myths about the disorder. Prof. Bishop points out “it seems like a clumsy attempt to discredit Putin, so that people don’t take him seriously. But in doing so it manages to upset people who genuinely have got Asperger’s and autism. People in these communities get very upset about this sort of stigma. It’s become almost a term of abuse to say that someone’s got Asperger’s” she adds. In short, I can’t possibly see how anything good could come out of this story. It plays into tiresome and misinformed stereotypes about autistic spectrum disorder, and paints a farcical picture of the way that psychological research is conducted. Thankfully, a Pentagon spokesperson told the Guardian that the reports “have not informed any policy decisions by the Department of Defence.” Great, but why on earth was this nonsense commissioned in the first place?New Hampshire Democrat wants to restrict freedoms so libertarians won’t move into the state This is a story that kind of goes hand in hand with yesterday’s post about the ruling class Republicans in Washington trying to limit who can challenge them in the primaries in 2014 so they can protect those whom have already ascended to power, but in this case we are talking about the state of New Hampshire rather than the federal government. The ruling class Republicans in the federal government believe the biggest threat to their power is to be challenged by more conservative or constitutionally minded people and now we have heard from a Democrat in the New Hampshire state legislature that the biggest threat to New Hampshire’s future is people who believe in liberty moving into the state. She has a plan to deal with this threat: She went on to write that while there is “legally, nothing we can do to prevent them from moving here to take over the state, which is their openly stated goal,” she proposed making “the environment here so unwelcoming that some will choose not to come, and some may actually leave.” What does Cynthia Chase mean when she says we could make the environment in the state unwelcoming? The answer is chilling: One way is to pass measures that will restrict the ‘freedoms’ that they think they will find here. Another is to shine the bright light of publicity on who they are and why they are coming Cynthia Chase is actually proposing the live free or die state would be better off if we limited the freedoms of the people who already live here in order to make the state unattractive to people who believe in a smaller, less intrusive government and stop them from moving here. Oh, and if that doesn’t work then let’s intimidate the hell out of them! Of course when she talks about the “biggest threat the state is facing today” she is not talking about what she feels is best for the future of the state, what she really is referring to is what she sees as the biggest threat to Democrats staying in power in the state. And this solution would be twofold for the Representative from Keene because there is only one type of person who would rather live in a state that restricts freedoms and liberties and replaces them with government programs designed to keep the people dependent on it for their very survival in day to day life and that would be liberals. So in addition to keeping people from wanting to move into the state she must also realize this would drive constitutionally minded people out of the state, thereby setting up a permanent authoritarian dominant-party system such as we have seen for years in Massachusetts. AdvertisementsJust 10 minutes ago, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft made the closest encounter with Pluto the human race has ever had—a flyby for the record books. After its science payload gathers reams of data just 7800 miles above the surface, New Horizons spins around and begins collecting data on Pluto’s night side, which will be softly illuminated by Charon, its largest moon. In addition to unlocking the mysteries of Pluto, the data collected by New Horizons will help explain the origins of the outer solar system and how planet-satellite systems evolve. We'll have more updates for you once NASA releases the first images from the flyby, which should arrive at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), mission headquarters, at 9:02 p.m. ET. In the meantime, learn about the seven scientific instruments aboard New Horizons that are exploring the Pluto system for us. 1. Alice Alice is the spacecraft’s ultraviolet imaging spectrometer. Its job is to figure out the atmosphere of Pluto, and gain some insight into the atmosphere around Charon. Alice will analyze the atomic and molecular makeup of the atmosphere, determining what’s there and in what quantities, and probe its density and temperature. It'll also determine if Pluto has an ionosphere, or upper atmosphere. 2. Ralph Ralph is the spacecraft’s mapping instrument. Its job is to create composition and temperature maps of the surfaces of Pluto, its moons, and any Kuiper Belt objects to be encountered years from now. The instrument also records geology and morphology. Ralph’s resolution is about 10 times better than the human eye and uses less than half the power of a child’s nightlight. The APL describes Ralph as the “main ‘eyes’ of New Horizons.” Together, Ralph and Alice are named for the Kramdens on the 1950’s television series The Honeymooners. 3. REX Short for Radio Science Experiment, REX will determine the sizes and densities of Pluto, Charon, and a future Kuiper Belt object, and measure the temperature (both during the day and at night) and density of Pluto’s atmosphere down to the surface. It will also measure the density of Pluto’s ionosphere. REX is especially exciting in that it will use a technique called an “uplink radio experiment.” Here’s how it works: As the probe passes behind Pluto, NASA’s Deep State Network will send powerful radio signals to REX. The radio waves will pass through Pluto’s atmosphere on the way to New Horizons, and will bend certain ways depending on the temperature and molecular weights of gasses encountered. This is the opposite of how such scans are normally performed; until now, it’s the spacecraft that would send the radio signals to Earth. Because of the mindboggling speed and distance involved with New Horizons, that would be impossible. REX is a huge advance in outer planetary exploration. 4. LORRI The Long Range Reconnaissance Imager, or LORRI, "is essentially a digital camera with a large telephoto telescope—only fortified to operate in the cold, hostile environs near Pluto,” according to the New Horizons team. LORRI is so powerful that on closest approach, it was able to resolve features as small as football fields. The instrument began snapping shots of the Pluto system at the start of 2015 and is responsible for pretty much every shot we’ve seen so far. The camera only takes black-and-white photographs; color filters were left out of the design in order to keep things simple, and to ensure an extremely high light-sensitivity level. (Light levels are 1000 times lower in the Pluto system than on Earth.) The Ralph instrument provides the color data for LORRI images. 5. SWAP Solar Winds at Pluto, or SWAP, measures the interaction of Pluto with the charged particles from the Sun. The instrument will record the rate at which the atmosphere escapes from Pluto. (Because of the planet’s relatively weak gravity acceleration, it is thought that around 165 pounds of material escape per second.) Such measurements help planetary scientists determine the density and structure of Pluto’s atmosphere. 6. PEPSSI PEPSSI, short for Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation, is both a missed sponsorship opportunity and the companion instrument to SWAP. Once neutral atoms escape Pluto, they are charged by the Sun and swept away by the solar winds. Like SWAP, PEPSSI will help scientists determine the escape rate of Pluto’s atmosphere, and figure out the atmosphere’s composition. 7. SDC The Venetia Burney Student Dust Counter, or SDC, was created by students at University of Colorado at Boulder. Collisions involving asteroids, comets, and Kuiper Belt objects produce microscopic dust particles. Likewise, dust in the Pluto system can come from objects impacting Pluto’s moons. By counting and measuring space dust along the way, scientists can model collision rates and activity in the outer solar system. According to APL, this is the first time students have designed, built, and flown an instrument on a NASA planetary mission.
some entertainment. Also, I am capable of learning, so if you liked this article and want to see more, feel free to tell me. If you didn't like this article but and want to see more of the old stuff, feel free to tell me. If you don't like my blog either way, piss off, but do it elsewhere please. (Ha! Tricked you again! The moral is that CPAN is still cooler than those postmodernist would-be imitators with their new and untested baby modules and that the keep-it-shared argument is flawed). Updates When I first saw the left-pad implementation, I thought, wow, this looks inefficient. But since I know that (to me), efficient javascript is sometimes very surprising, I didn't pursue it. Apparently, left-pad is really inefficient, though - the more straightforward pad-left (sic!) module is about 10 times faster (and also has a dependency). The pad-left documentation also helpfully lists a bunch of other modules that do something similar. All this kind of weakens the argument for modularity being great - sure, left-pad could be improved, but unfortunately it isn't. Also, "if you want it done...". But all that aside, I didn't originally care about why the left-pad module was unpublished. Turns out the reasons are way more interesting than anything else in this discussion - the author of that module was threatened by lawyers and when he refused to buckle down, the lawyers threatened the npm maintainer, who then removed one of his modules. The author of left-pad then proceeded to liberate all of his modules. This required strength and backbone - I can only congratulate the left-pad author on his decision, knowing not many people would take appropriate action.This here's a course for those of you who've watched, loved, and probably rewatched (and rewatched again?) all the episodes of Breaking Bad. We can't teach you Heisenberg's cook, but we can teach you a whole lot about Breaking Bad. (Source) Also known as the cool kids. First, we're going to study the show as a classical tragedy, like the kind you'd see from the ancient Greeks or Shakespeare. We'll think about why we enjoy bleak and violent tragedies like Breaking Bad, see how Walter White stacks up as a tragic antihero, and compare the use of costumes to the masks of Greek tragedy. Then we're going to step into the haz-mat suits of the five main characters—Walt, Jesse, Skyler, Hank, and Mike—and see where, how, and why they each broke bad. But don't worry, we'll also give much love to Saul, Gale, Gus Fring, Marie, and good ol' Skinny Pete and Badger. (And maybe we'll figure out why so many of the guys are bald—you put something in the water down there, Walt?) Last but not least, we'll put this course to bed by talking about all the deep, amazing stuff you might have missed on your first few viewings: the camera tricks, daddy complexes, literary references, and existentialist philosophy that Vince Gilligan and his crew stashed away more carefully than a ricin cigarette in a power outlet. That's right, by the end of this course, you'll finally know what existentialist actually means. You don't need to have every episode committed to memory to follow this course, but we're assuming you've seen the whole thing already, so be warned: these lessons are packed with 99.1% chemically pure spoilers from start to finish. P.S. To make the most of it, you should have some kind of on-demand, fast-forward-capable access to all episodes of the show, whether through Netflix, DVD, Amazon Instant Video, or a creepy VHS bootleg. Whatever floats your boat. And if you need a quick refresher on what happens in which episode, we highly encourage you to check out AMC's official Breaking Bad website, where they do pretty thorough recaps of each episode. Summary Breaking Bad fits the bill of classical tragedy in a bunch of ways: it's got human suffering up to here, the use of many art forms, a five-act structure, revenge, violence, the downfall of a hero, and…okay, we'll stop here. The most tragic bummer aspects of Breaking Bad—catharsis, schadenfreude, philosophical pessimism—are a big part of what make it so deep and rewarding. Walter White is a classic tragic hero with a hamartia, a fatal flaw or error. But what is that flaw? Is it his arrogance, his ambition, his self-delusion, or even just his cancer? A lot like the masks of ancient Greek theater, Walt's various outfits are symbolic manifestations of his inner state: the Heisenberg hat, the hazmat suit, his hair, and even his pants. Walt is arguably an anti-hero—a protagonist that lacks the good qualities of a hero, such as noble heritage, bravery, a journey, and the values of his culture—but you could also say that he's a hero that turns into a villain. Hmmm. Walt has several tipping points on his path to breaking bad and going full Heisenberg, and most of them involve violence or death. Jesse has a hard time saying no because he's in need of guidance and security, and he's also got trouble controlling his impulses—a bad combo, if you ask us. Is Skyler really as unlikeable as people seem to think she is? She's just a mother who's desperate to keep her family together, and in a lot of ways, she's the same as Walt. Hank is a lot like Walt in certain ways; even though he's supposed to be on the lawful side of things, he does what he does for distinctly Heisenberg-y reasons: power, pride, and the abandonment of responsibility. Mike's a pretty decent guy for a cold-blooded killer. He always keeps his word, he's loyal, he's trustworthy, and he's the only one who doesn't act out of fear, ambition, or revenge. If it's one thing that connects the characters in Breaking Bad, it's the fact that they're all liars: either they lie to themselves about the consequences of their actions, or they lie to others in order to get their way. The cinematography and editing of Breaking Bad is so important that the camera is practically a character, and by using perspective, foreshadowing, and editing, it makes connections that are more omniscient than any other character in the series. It also creates visual metaphors for the main themes of the series: concealment, lying, and discovery. A macho show like Breaking Bad is full of daddy issues: Walt and Walt Jr., Walt and his spiritual son Jesse, Jane's father Donald, Jesse's absentee parents, the patriarch Tio, and even the childless Hank all bring their baggage to the series. In some ways, Walt is a Nietzschean Übermensch—a guy who sets aside conventional values to pursue power and truth. Objectives By the end of this course, you should be able toSen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Tex.) speak on Capitol Hill. (Carolyn Kaster/AP) A number of studies have made clear that the tax bill Senate Republicans are trying to pass this week offers some of its biggest rewards to wealthy Americans. The GOP's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act would cut taxes on wealthy Americans, while raising taxes on those earning between $10,000 and $75,000 over the next decade, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress’s official scorekeeper. The Tax Policy Center found that everyone outside the top 5 percent of income earners would see a significantly smaller tax cut in both the short term and the long term. At a time of high inequality, when many of the economy's rewards have already flowed to the wealthy, critics of the plan say this is an unnecessary gift. The plan “provide large benefits to the wealthy but little or nothing to everyone else,” says the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-of-center think tank, citing its large corporate tax cut and reduction of the estate tax. An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll from September found that 62 percent of Americans think taxes on the wealthy should go up. Twelve percent think they should go down. [The GOP tax proposal is really, really unpopular] But Senate Republicans say that they are not worried that the bill would disproportionately help the wealthy — at least according to 10 interviews with Republican senators Tuesday. Here's why: Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.): “Obviously, there will be more benefit for people that pay more — if you pay a lot more, and there’s any change for that, then there will be a greater difference on it... You have the bottom 50 percent of earners who don’t pay any taxes at all... It's hard to say the bottom 50 percent is not getting anything, because the bottom 50 percent is not paying anything now.” Lankford is referring to the fact that about 47 percent of Americans do not pay federal income taxes. Nearly two-thirds of those Americans do pay payroll taxes, which come directly out of one’s paycheck to fund Social Security and Medicare. (The statistic is the source of the “47 percent tape” that helped sink Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign.) Republican leadership has thwarted a conservative proposal to expand tax credits for low-income families paying payroll taxes alone. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.): “The upper 1 percent is going to pay 49 percent of the burden. The lower 98 percent is getting a better deal than anybody else... If you just apply the math, it means 98 percent of people who pay taxes are getting a better deal than the upper 1 percent. “If you make that comparison, I think it’s obvious that people who make money are going to pay more in taxes than people who don’t.” In a follow-up email, Isakson spokeswoman Amanda Maddox said: “The point Senator Isakson was making is that the top one percent are already paying the largest share in taxes, so what you should be looking at is the percentage cut that each income group is receiving.” Maddox pointed to the following chart by the Joint Committee on Taxation: If you look at the tax rate change per income bracket, the wealthiest do not see their rates decreased by a substantially greater margin than the middle and lower classes. However, the rich get to keep more money from each percentage point reduction in their tax rate than the poor do. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.): “In the real world, the markets sort of take over. The market is sort of off the charts here today expecting the tax bill to pass... If it does not pass, there are other considerations, meaning control in 2018. For that matter, the future of the Republican Party; for that matter, I have the gavel in Agriculture [Committee], I would like to get a farm bill passed.” Roberts continued: “You’re asking me if it would increase income inequality — the whole aim of the bill is to [help] the middle class and also those who are less fortunate, so they can be part of this whole enterprise. Whether that’s going to happen or not, I can’t tell you. And I don’t think anybody else can with any factual basis. I guess my answer to you is, well, of course if that is the case, we’ll have to take care of it. This isn’t over with just passing this bill. … I think any tax reform bill will take a year or two to shake out and also a year or two to fix.” Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.): “For those who pay a lot more tax, you certainly have a potential for them to get more.” Asked whether the rollback of the estate tax would help the rich, Boozman added that he thought doing so would help farmers who are subject to it: “I think most people feel like it’s double taxation. You’re taxed at your death, it’s not hard at all to accumulate many millions of dollars in hard equipment these days,” Boozman said. “The superwealthy have the ability to avoid the tax anyway.” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.): “Income inequality increased dramatically under President Obama. High taxes, high regulations, and big government benefit the rich and hurt working men and women.” Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.): “We’ve done a good job focusing on folks who are hard-working, often living paycheck to paycheck.” Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-La.): “You can find an analyst to say just about anything you want to say. Let me tell you about economic forecasting. There are 300 PhDs and economists at the Fed, and not a single one of them called a meltdown in '08.... Economic forecasting around this place in the last 10 years — let’s be fair, the last 8 years — makes those psychic hotlines look reputable.” Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.): “I don’t think it is [helping the rich more than the poor]. I guess you could argue it is. I think it does a lot for most people — I wouldn’t say everybody... I’m not worried about the rich in this country. The rich generally take care of themselves. Out of a country of 300 million people, there aren’t that many really rich, rich people. I do worry about the people who work every day that are paying more than their fair share” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) cited the doubling of the standard deduction as a big win for middle-income families: “The tax cut, if anything, is probably targeted more toward the lower-middle class and the working class than it is the upper class... The changes in the upper echelons are getting very little if any change.” Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.): “They’ve used this for so many years now that anything Republicans do is to reward the rich that they know better. We’re passed that bit of Charles E. Schumer propaganda.”MELBOURNE: An 11-year-old boy in New Zealand has become a father after conceiving a child with the 36-year-old mother of a school friend. The woman coerced the boy, from Auckland, into repeated sexual encounters over a period of time before becoming pregnant, the New Zealand Herald daily reported. The woman gave the boy beer to drink and then later took part in a sexual encounter with him, the report said. The sexual contact continued for a number of months after the initial encounter. The boy had turned 12 by the time the child was born.The Child Youth and Family Services, which took a baby into care about two months ago, confirmed it was dealing with a case at the school and that it was before the courts.According to the report, both the father and child are now understood to be in care after the principal at the boy’s school raised the alarm.The case has caused counsellors working in the area of child sexual abuse to highlight the lack of attention given to women as potential offenders. It has prompted justice minister Judith Collins to step in saying she will seek information on the law. “This case raises an important point. I will seek advice from officials on whether or not a law change is required.”And it has also highlighted disparity in the law of rape, which makes it impossible for a woman to be accused of the crime. Present legislation stipulates the crime of rape applies only when men force sex. In contrast, women who force an unwilling partner to have sex face charges of sexual violation. Both carry a maximum sentence of 20 years but only men can be charged with rape.The principal said he was shocked when the boy revealed the details.Arsenal managed to somehow come away from yesterday’s game against Everton with a point after two late goals from Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud. Considering the performance from the side, it felt like a win to me, but we need to play a hell of a lot better if we are to seriously challenge for the title this season. We have done well so far in terms of results, but, admittedly, our displays haven’t been up to scratch which is a little worrying. We managed to nick a late win against CrystalPalace last weekend, hold out in Turkey and take a 0-0 aggregate to the Emirates, and yesterday bag a point against Roberto Martinez’s side. It’s still early doors and with just seven days to go before the transfer window shuts, many will say that we still need two or three new faces to arrive to make this a title winning side, and I agree. A lot of fans will say that we have move forward in terms of personnel and strengthened the side this summer. But have we really? I don’t think we have to be honest. When you look at who’ve we signed and who we got rid of, the number players in our squad haven’t increased dramatically. Just taking into account first-team players who featured for us last season, we got rid of Thomas Vermaelen, Bacary Sagna and Lukasz Fabianski. Now take a look at who’ve we brought in thus far – Mathieu Debuchy, David Ospina, Calum Chambers and Alexis Sanchez. Can you honestly say we’ve strengthened our side? Debuchy has simply replaced Sagna and we opted to loan out Carl Jenkinson to West Ham. Ospina has taken Fabianski’s role as Wojciech Szczesny’s understudy, while Chambers, for the time being, is Vermaelen’s successor. The only player you can really say has strengthened our side is Alexis. But reports suggest Lukas Podolski is off, so another body in (Sanchez), another body out. Don’t get me wrong, Wenger has pulled off some great deals thus far, selling and buying. But you can’t tell me we are in better shape as we were last season? Not yet anyway. Yes we have technically a very good side and players have stepped up – Ramsey in particular – but the numbers game is once again against us. And a side that win trophies is a side which boast options. Some of you may be, but I’m not totally convinced yet. Like I said, we do have a talented squad but we need more options and actually add players to the side – not just buy one and ship one out.Updates at the end The White House has plans to legalize 13 to 15 million illegal immigrants who will then establish a “country within a country,” according to radio commentator Susan Payne who was accidentally included in a White House teleconference. The Mark Levin interview with Susan Payne below is shocking, but it also puts all the pieces into place. Susan Payne is a contributor to WCBM, Baltimore, and Co-Host of the Pat McDonough Radio Show. Unbeknownst to the Obama officials, Ms. Payne was invited to listen in on conference calls at an immigration rally. Cecilia Munoz, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, and 16 members of the White House cabinet were on the first call. White House officials were on all three calls. What Ms. Payne learned needs to be immediately shared with Congress and the public. It should be noted that Ted Hayes, founder of America’s Black Shield, also listened in on these calls. The “Task Force of New Americans” and the “Receiving Communities” are part of a plan by the Obama administration to develop a “country within a country” which will eventually form a new, and instantly fundamentally transformed the United States. The conference calls and meetings surrounding the task force made it clear Barack Obama is planning to legalize and protect 13 to 15 million illegal immigrants who will then be moved onto citizenship. When these “new Americans” come out of the shadows, the communities in which they’ve been placed will be designated as “receiving communities.” The “new Americans” are considered “seedlings” by the White House and the “receiving communities” are the “fertile ground” to nurture them, according to comments made during the meetings. Citizens will then be pushed into the shadows as the “New Americans” come out of the shadows. One member of the task force said they will be forming a “country within a country”. At the meetings, it was said that “immigrants need to be aware of the benefits they are entitled to”. The participants of the meeting also discussed the fact that these immigrants would not be interested in assimilating. They would “navigate not assimilate”. Obama’s plan is to treat the “new Americans” as refugees as soon as amnesty is pushed through. Refugees are given an allowance, housing, food, medical care, education, and an immediate pathway to citizenship. The meeting participants also discussed the need to convince state and local officials to give no interest loans to the “refugees.” This way we can fund our own destruction. Listen to this shocking interview: All this information was available in November, only the goals were not so clearly stated. THE WELCOMING RULE The President has tied the hands of Border Patrol and ICE. He has opened our borders and refuses to vet those who get through. President Obama often rules by memos and he did so in the case of the task force and receiving communities. On November 21, 2014, he issued the Presidential Memorandum — Creating Welcoming Communities and Fully Integrating Immigrants and Refugees for the purpose of creating welcoming communities and fully integrating immigrants and refugees. It was established at the same time as his task force and its entire purpose was to provide entitlements for “new Americans.” We mustn’t forget that the Obama administration hand-selected neighborhoods that would take illegal immigrants, most noticeably this past summer when he flew them all over the country and wouldn’t tell anyone where they were. They were not only children, there were many more adults. Cecilia Munoz, who was in on the conference call, is tied to LaRaza and it is LaRaza and other radical open borders groups who are behind forcing illegal immigrants onto neighborhoods and then treating them like a protected class. A HUD rule passed in July 2013 was reversed by a U.S. District Court but it does look like the plan to develop “receiving communities.” Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia reversed it because he objected to the department overstepping its powers to legislate and deliver outcomes never intended by Congress. Reversed or not, it shows where the administration is going. THE PROTECTED CLASS The rule by Obama’s Housing and Urban Development (HUD) would allow the government to infringe on the rights of one group to benefit another group in a “protected class”. HUD “published the regulation pursuant to the Fair Housing Act that defines discrimination as actions or policies that while neutral and nondiscriminatory in their intent have a disparate impact, shown through statistics, on a group of persons defined in terms of race (and other protected groups)”, according to the Weekly Standard. The rule would give the government the power to redistribute illegal immigrants, drug addicts, criminals, everyone who fits into a “protected class” according to the government’s definition throughout every neighborhood in the country and do it according to racial quotas. The rule ties government zoning rules to HUD grants and it opens communities up to lawsuits if they refuse their quota. It transforms neutral policies and actions into racism. The federal government – HUD – would influence zoning laws by providing set standards, guidelines, and goals to “measure” and “assess” how well a community is meeting its Fair Housing obligations. It works in conjunction with Obama’s neighborhood mapping and his ultimate goal of redistributing all the resources in every neighborhood in the United States. The Supreme Court will weigh in on this issue soon. Whether the Fair Housing Act supports disparate impact claims is currently pending on writ of certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court in Texas Department of Housing & Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities Project, Inc., Case No. 13-1371. It won’t matter, Obama is forcing illegal immigrants on neighborhoods throughout the country with or without this rule. Barack Obama and his administration appear to be social engineering us into a new America. LINK TO WCBM Judicial Watch is conducting an investigation into the Task Force of New Americans IT HAS ALREADY BEGUN IN NEW YORK CITY Updates Information about substituting Immigrants Day for Thanksgiving on this link and information on “receiving communities” on this link.Image caption Simon Hughes is the Liberal Democrats' deputy leader and MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark Lib Dem deputy leader Simon Hughes is threatening a backbench rebellion over planned cuts to housing benefit. The party's deputy leader told Channel 4 News some of the proposals were "harsh and draconian". In its Spending Review last week, the government announced major changes to housing benefit - including cutting it by 10% for the long-term jobless. Labour has offered to join forces with Lib Dem backbenchers to force the government to rethink the policy. 'Loud and clear' The government is proposing the biggest shake-up in housing in decades - cutting money for new social housing by 50% and allowing housing associations to charge new tenants close to the full market rate for rent. The government hopes the changes will lead to more social housing being built - but critics fear an exodus of poor people from the inner cities as they are forced out by higher rents and a new cap on housing benefit payments. Single people under 35 will have to live in shared accommodation if they are claiming housing benefit. The long-term unemployed also face tougher sanctions. Mr Hughes, whose Bermondsey and Old Southwark constituency has the most social housing of any in the country, said he was particularly opposed to the plans to cut housing benefit from 2013 by 10% for those who had been on Jobseekers allowance for 12 months. "My message to the government is, I don't think you will get Parliamentary approval for your current plans," he said. "I think the government understands there has to be negotiations. "The current proposals are not the best set of proposals, whatever the financial constraints. There are better ways of doing it and we need to achieve them. "I am making sure the message from me and many colleagues is being communicated loud and clear to government." Social housing Mr Hughes said he believed the Spending Review was fair "as a whole". We should be working to guarantee jobs for the long-term unemployed, not risking homelessness for those who are doing their best to find work Douglas Alexander, Shadow work and pensions secretary Clegg defends housing benefit cut "I believe it is far fairer because Lib Dems are there than if it had been a Tory-only budget," he said. "I believe it is broadly fair in that the rich will pay most and most of the poor will be protected." Mr Hughes' backbench Lib Dem colleague Tom Brake said he could not support the proposals on housing benefit either and called for a government rethink. "My concern is that the changes on housing benefit, particularly in London, are going to have a really hard-hitting impact on a number of families," the Carshalton and Wallington MP told BBC News. He said he agreed with Simon Hughes that the Spending Review overall was "fair" - but he said London MPs were concerned the housing benefit changes, particularly a £400 cap on claims, will force poor families to move out of the city. He said the coalition would not get the proposals through as they stood and said negotiation was needed with ministers to "smooth off some of the rough edges and make sure this package is truly fair and doesn't have a disproportionate effect on families in London". On Sunday, Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem leader and deputy prime minister, defended planned cuts to housing benefit, saying it was not fair that people who went out to work got less help with accommodation than those who did not. Mr Clegg told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show the government's plans would create more social housing and were "fair" on housing benefit claimants. He said: "We need to do something about a housing benefit bill which has gone up from £10bn to £21bn in recent years under Labour and there haven't been enough affordable homes built." 'Risking homelessness' Business Secretary Vince Cable, a fellow Lib Dem MP who also represents a London seat, Twickenham, also said the key issue was not housing benefit - but building more social housing. "Simon cares passionately about social housing and that reflects his many years as an MP in Bermondsey and he shares my frustration, I'm also a London MP, about the way over many years there simply hasn't been enough social housing to meet demand and that's the issue we have to deal with rather than the intricacies of the housing benefit regulation. "We have to increase the supply of social housing. It's absolutely crucial." But shadow work and pension secretary Douglas Alexander, for Labour, said Mr Hughes' comments showed "even the Liberal Democrat deputy leader doesn't believe the government's housing benefit cuts are fair". He said the proposals were not fair on housing benefit claimants who were genuinely seeking work. "We should be working to guarantee jobs for the long-term unemployed, not risking homelessness for those who are doing their best to find work," he said. "I now urge Simon Hughes to back up these words and, with us and other Lib Dem MPs, to force the government to think again."The following excerpt is taking from a comprehensive post breaking down Browns’ cornerback Justin Gilbert’s 2014 pick-six off Andrew Luck. The entire article can be read at The Orange and Brown Report… Base pass shells like Cover 1, Cover 2, Cover 3, and Cover 4 are too limited to stop the college and NFL passing game in this age of explosive offense. Creative offensive minds have identified and ruthlessly exploited the weaknesses in the various coverage groups using triangle (and rub concepts against man defense) that vertically and horizontally stretch defenders, creating defined progression and reads for the quarterback. Any offensive coach worth his (or her) salt has several ‘coverage beaters’ in the playbook that take advantage of schematic weaknesses within all of the aforementioned coverage families (think the ‘smash’ concept against Cover 2 or the curl-flat against Cover 3). Most defensive coordinators have integrated ‘pattern matching’ rules into their defenses that require the pass defenders to read the receiver’s release at the line of scrimmage to determine who guards who (like a matchup zone in basketball) to counter ultra-efficient offensive play calling, but even modern-day pattern matching rules can be defeated with creative route design. How do defensive coaches counter these concepts while maintaining tried-and-true base coverages? The answer lies in trap coverages. Trap coverage has been used up and down the college ranks for a number of years, but only within the last half-decade have we seen widespread matriculation into the NFL coaching ranks. College coaches like TCU Gary Patterson (whose Blue Special and Two Read are likely the most popular versions of trap coverage at the movement) have led the charge in modifying coverage rules within base concepts like Cover 4, both preserving the basic integrity and rules of the defense while changing individual rules and responsibilities. Trap coverages rely on three principles: Disguise the coverage pre-snap “Show” the quarterback a specific coverage before rotating to something different after the snap Change the ‘usual’ read rules that determine individual responsibility after the receivers release at the snap Gilbert’s pick-six of Andrew Luck provides a great example of all three principles in action. Without further ado, let’s go to the tape. Nursing a seven-point lead with ten minutes to go in the 3rd-quarter, the Browns’ defense has Luck facing a second-and-ten from his own 12-yard line. The down and distance make this a likely pass, creating a great opportunity to set a trap. Pettine takes it one step further by running the trap behind a slot blitz from the field defensive back (most teams will slot blitz from the boundary side as the defender has less distance to cover). This is likely by design in order to force Luck’s eyes to the trap side as it is now has one less pass defender and any built-in hot routes will be to that side. Continue reading Trap Coverage and Pick Sixes →Spread the love Supporters of the Dakota Access Pipeline insist that the project is safe and that it is not a threat to the water supply of millions of people. However, pipelines, in general, are dangerous projects, with ruptures occurring around the world on a near daily basis. There is also evidence that the Dakota Access Pipeline is even more dangerous than typical pipeline projects, because it is slated to run under a river that millions of people depend on for drinking water, and the pipeline is also in the direct path of a landslide zone, which could cause obvious and disastrous complications. The US Amry Corps of Engineers is the government organization responsible for assessing the safety of the land to determine whether the project will be a threat, and so far, all of their reports have indicated that the pipeline will be safe. However, a recent independent review of the pipeline path determined that the Army Corps overlooked massive dangers in the project and that their environmental assessment was “seriously deficient.” Not trusting the assessment of the government or the pipeline corporation, the Standing Rock Sioux tribe brought in outside contractors to investigate. According to Richard Kuprewicz, president of Accufacts, Inc., a consulting firm that specializes in pipeline safety, the Army Corps assessment was inadequate and that he disagrees with the possible environmental impact. “The Environmental Assessment is incomplete. I don’t agree with the finding of no significant impacts,” he said. One of the major issues raised by Kuprewicz was the fact that the Army corps overlooked the risk of landslides, which are prevalent in the area. The Army Corps allegedly did not even inspect the areas that are prone to landslides because they do not occur on federal land, but they do occur in the path of the pipeline, and experts say that a landslide could easily cause a pipeline to rupture. “If you have a pipeline routed in a landslide area, the only thing you can do there is to route it out of the landslide area,” Kuprewicz said. Kuprewicz also said that there are not proper measures to shut the pipelines down as soon as a leak happens. “I’ve been in too many investigations now where they’ve claimed they are going to shut the line down in less than 10 minutes and it’s [actually] 3 hours later. You are overstating the technical ability of the equipment to do its job,” he said. Energy Transfer Partners, the company responsible for the pipeline has denied these recent findings and is using the Army Corps assessment as a defense. “We are confident the USACE [US Army Corps of Engineers] has adequately addressed the portion of the project subject to their review. They are the experts in this area and we believe they have done an excellent job addressing any comments received to date. The decisions by two separate federal courts show that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers acted with great care and followed the law with respect to the river crossing permits issued to Dakota Access,” Energy Transfer Partners spokesperson Vicki Granado said in a statement. However, Army Corps spokesperson Moira Kelley said that they will be taking the independent investigation into account and will consider rerouting the pipeline. Kuprewicz and his crew are not the only experts who believe that these landslides could be a huge problem. According to Mohammad Najafi, another pipeline safety expert from the University of Texas at Arlington, a pipeline in this path would not be a good idea. “The pipe is not designed for that load. There will be a lot of weight on the pipe, that would cause the pipe to break, that’s obvious,” Najafi said. Najafi suggested that the pipeline should be rerouted and that the pipe should be thicker and encased in concrete. Najafi also agreed that there are not enough safeguards in place in case of a pipeline rupture. “They get a lot of false alarms with this type of equipment and the operators don’t know which ones are right and which ones are wrong. By the time action can be taken, millions of gallons of oil can be spilled,” he said. The pipeline is being constructed by the Energy Transfer Partners corporation and will stretch 1,172 miles from the Bakken fields of North Dakota to Patoka, Illinois, crossing the Missouri river. The pipeline runs alongside the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota, and according to the National Historic Preservation Act, the tribe should have been consulted about the project before it was approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The tribe was not contacted and they contest that the pipeline threatens their water supply, their way of life, and is technically on property that was stolen from them.Prince Charming wore a wedding ring in the pilot and he was seen wearing one in Season 3 (when they flashed back to right after the wedding), and cursed David wore one when he thought he was married to Katherine. But why did David not continue to wear one after the curse was broken? — Kristi “You’re going to have to ask [series creators] Eddy and Adam that,” said Josh Dallas, who has been equally puzzled by the MIA ring. “We just never got it back in Storybrooke and I don’t know why.” (The Once creators have not yet responded to TVLine’s request for comment.) Emma wasn’t wearing Graham’s shoelaces on her wrist in Camelot or while she was the Dark One in Storybrooke. Will she have them on in the Underworld? –Hollie “I’ve actually ‘lost’ all of my jewelry since the end of Dark Swan, everything that Emma’s been wearing consistently,” says Jennifer Morrison. “I felt like there was such a huge transition in the time in her life that this was a ‘rebirth’ in a way. But all of those things are not gone, they’re just, in my mind, in her little cigar box of memories that she keeps.” Now that Rumple has the power of all the previous Dark Ones in a new dagger, does this new dagger still adhere to the same rules as the original? And my second question is about Zelena and her “Little Green Bean”: Does she genuinely love her daughter? –Elaine Look at you, lucking into a two-for-one special! Regarding the blacker, badder dagger, co-creator Adam Horowitz affirms that yes, it does adhere to the same rules as the old one. Turning from Dark Ones to wee ones, Rebecca Mader believes Zelena does love her magically fast-tracked tot. After all, she points out, “You’d have to be pretty dead inside to not love your own baby!” Will we be getting any #WhiteSwan heart-to-heart moments or cute mother/daughter scenes between Emma and Mary Margaret? —Melissa “We’ve tried to put in some really sweet Charming family moments” in Season 5B, says co-creator Adam Horowitz, including mother/daughter, father/daughter and what Kitsis describes as a “great Grandpa Charming/Henry scene.” Adds Jennifer Morrison, “There are always great little moments between [Emma and Snow].” Do Snow and Charming still have reservations about Hook, considering what he did (and almost did) as
to assure the safety of Quebec City residents. "Quebec categorically reject(s) this barbaric violence," Couillard wrote. "We offer our solidarity to the loved ones of the victims and the injured and their families." The shooting came on the weekend that Trudeau said Canada would welcome refugees, after U.S. President Donald Trump suspended the U.S. refugee program and temporarily barred citizens from seven Muslim-majority nations from entering the United States on national security grounds. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said police were providing additional protection for mosques in that city following the Quebec shooting. "All New Yorkers should be vigilant. If you see something, say something," he tweeted. 'Not safe here' "We are not safe here," said Mohammed Oudghiri, who normally attends prayers at the mosque but not on Sunday. Oudghiri said he had lived in Quebec for 42 years but was now "very worried" and thinking of moving back to Morocco. Mass shootings are rare in Canada, which has stricter gun laws than the United States, and news of the shooting sent a shockwave through mosques and community centers throughout the mostly French-language province. "It's a sad day for all Quebecers and Canadians to see a terrorist attack happen in peaceful Quebec City," said Mohamed Yacoub, co-chairman of an Islamic community centre in a Montreal suburb. "I hope it's an isolated incident." Zebida Bendjeddou, who left the mosque earlier on Sunday evening, said the centre had received threats. "In June, they'd put a pig's head in front of the mosque. But we thought: 'Oh, they're isolated events'. We didn't take it seriously. But tonight, those isolated events, they take on a different scope," she said. Bendjeddou said she had not yet confirmed the names of those killed, but added: "They're people we know, for sure. People we knew since they were little kids." Reuters, AAP, DPAIt’s tough to put a finger on exactly what the knock on Phil Kessel in Toronto was; it seemed to morph to fit whatever the Leafs’ deficiency was that week. Sometimes it was that he wasn’t a winner, sometimes he had a bad attitude. He wasn’t in shape, he didn’t make his teammates better, he wasn’t motivated. He ate a lot of hot dogs. Maybe, just maybe, the problem with Phil Kessel was that he was stuck on a shitty team. The Conn Smythe argument is a tough one. Matt Murray came out of nowhere to backstop the Penguins to a title. Kris Letang played monster minutes against the toughest matchups and performed. Sidney Crosby, who got the MVP nod, constantly drove possession despite opponents throwing their best against him. But Kessel never stopped producing, leading Pittsburgh in goals and points this postseason, and coming a close third in assists. (Lambert’s got the Kessel argument, and it’s compelling.) But individual trophies don’t really matter. Can’t win? Phil, our Phil, our big, sweet boy, got to lift the Stanley Cup (“it was way heavier than I thought it was going to be”) and will have his name forever inscribed upon it, and everyone will remember the role he played in getting the Penguins there. Doesn’t make his teammates better? Since March there has been no line better than that of Kessel, Nick Bonino, and Carl Hagelin, the perfect combination of speed and smarts and scoring and even two-way play. Pittsburgh’s HBK Line, freed from the pressure and matchups of a top line, proved to be the Penguins’ best weapon. Advertisement Surly? Give us all a big hug, Phil. In Toronto, Kessel was asked to do too much with too little, made too much money to be the best player on a bad team without feeling the wrath of the particularly harsh local media, and to a lesser extent impatient fans who needed someone to blame. He is, functionally, not that a different player in Pittsburgh: He is still big and fast and has one of the best shots in the game. But has certainly benefited from teammates who will pick up the slack, and because he’s a human being, he’s giving full effort when there’s something worth trying for. Everyone knew that getting him out of Toronto was the best thing for all involved. No one could have seen his vindication coming so quickly. “I mean, how can you ask for anything better than this?” said Kessel, beaming, with a glint of emotion in his eyes. “It’s an unbelievable feeling. It’s special. A year ago you don’t think of this.” Advertisement So that’s that: Pittsburgh made Phil Kessel better, and Kessel made the Penguins better. The only question that remains is what he will do when he gets the Stanley Cup for a day. Throw himself a one-man parade through the streets of Toronto? See how many delicious street hot dogs will fit in its bowl? Cuddle with it? Whatever he wants to do, it’s his; he’s a winner.Bisphenol A (BPA) is one of the highest volume chemicals produced worldwide. This compound is a building block of polycarbonate plastics often used for food and beverage storage, and BPA is also a component of epoxy resins that are used to line food and beverage containers. Studies have shown that BPA can leach from these and other products in contact with food and drink, and as a result, routine ingestion of BPA is presumed. This compound is also found in an enormous number of other products that we come into contact with daily, and therefore it is not surprising that it has been detected in the majority of individuals examined. BPA is a known endocrine disruptor. Although initially considered to be a weak environmental estrogen, more recent studies have demonstrated that BPA may be similar in potency to estradiol in stimulating some cellular responses. Moreover, emerging evidence suggests that BPA may influence multiple endocrine-related pathways. Studies in rodents have identified adverse effects of BPA at levels at or below the current acceptable daily intake level for this compound. The various reported adverse effects of BPA are reviewed, and potential mechanisms of BPA action are discussed. Much more investigation is needed to understand the potential adverse health effects of BPA exposure in humans and to understand the multiple pathways through which it may act. Although many questions remain to be answered, it is becoming increasingly apparent that exposure to BPA is ubiquitous and that the effects of this endocrine disruptor are complex and wide-ranging. Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Ltd.The Dalai Lama gave a talk today in India with students from the University of California on a number of topics including the relationship between secular and religious powers. He began by clarifying that “secular” denotes not antagonism toward religion but toward certain religious institutions. In some cases, he says, institutions become rotten, as in the French Revolution. “Real religion means love,” he said, and nobody is against love. But, when elites begin to benefit from institutions, and “when people really suffer due to exploitation, then people should develop courage in order to topple that institution. They also need courage against religious institution.” “What do you think?” He asks the students; then referring to Haryana, where riots recently broke out after a spiritual guru was sentenced to 10 years in jail for rape. They “use the name Dharma [for] exploitation. They themselves do not properly practice this dharma. Including some Tibetan Lama.” Here he is referring to Sogyal Lakhar (a.k.a. Sogyal Rinpoche) and Rigpa. Rigpa. The leader. I know him, there was an open letter full of criticism about that person. So therefore, quite often the religious institution is quite often, you see, spoiled, not caring [about] the real message of religion, but rather use the name of religion. Religion is used [as an] instrument for exploitation. So the French Revolution and Russian Bolshevik Revolution, some tendency against religion because of that. So when I say “secular” some of my friends have some little reservation. But in this country [India], “secular” means respect all religion. Also one unique thing is according [to the] Indian concept of secularism: secular respects non-believer. It seems that he is explicitly connecting Sogyal to the jailed Indian guru rapist, and also clearly suggesting the use of secular power to literally topple the rotten religious institution (Rigpa). The Central Tibetan Administration wrote of the discussion with the students as follows: The interaction follows suit after His Holiness’, not so long ago, visit to San Diego. During his visit, His Holiness addressed a gathering of about 25,000 people at the RIMAC field of UC San Diego on 16 June, 2017. His Holiness also delivered the key-note address at the commencement ceremony of UC San Diego. The address was entitled, “The Value of Education, Ethics and Compassion for the Well-Being of Self and Others.” While some have downplayed the moral authority of the Dalai Lama in Tibetan Buddhism – saying he is not like the Pope of Catholicism – the fact is that while he doesn’t have de juris power over non-Geluks (or even over Geluks, the Ganden Tripa is the nominal head of that school of Buddhism), he does have de facto moral authority around the world for Tibetan Buddhists and those interested in Buddhism. In any case, a continued strong condemnation by the Dalai Lama signals a move away from what Mary Finnigan wrote about years ago as the taboo against criticising lamas. This shift began in August when the Dalai Lama called Sogyal “disgraced” and urged students to publicize any and all ethical misconduct by teachers. Similar advice has since come from Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, Dr. Miles Neale, Ven. Thubten Chodron, and others (see posts here and here at the Buddhism controversy blog). Support independent coverage of Buddhism by joining a community of fellow learners/practitioners at Patreon. ‘Like’ American Buddhist Perspectives on facebook.After the first Nuit Blanche in Ottawa, in 2012, I came home with heavy feet, after walking for hours through crowds that came out to share the exciting, overnight extravaganza of art. After the second Nuit Blanche, I came home with a heavy coat, for it had rained all night, but still the crowds had come to see the art temporarily installed in spaces expected and unexpected. After the third Nuit Blanche, which wrapped up early Sunday morning, I came home with a slightly heavy heart, and now I wonder if the pop-up festival of art on the streets is losing momentum in the capital, and whether changes are needed if there’s to be a fourth and a fifth. This is not to say the third Nuit-Blanche Ottawa Gatineau was a flop. There was buzz on George Street, which was blocked to vehicles and dotted with installations and performances. Nearby, the Ottawa Art Gallery, SAW Gallery and the rest of the Arts Court building were busy with people taking in the eclectic entertainments. The Rectory Art House, next to the St. Brigid’s Centre for the Arts, was moderately busy when I visited, though, I was told, it had been much busier earlier in the evening. Yet, everywhere I went, from Wellington West to Gatineau to downtown Ottawa, there seemed to be a little less of everything that was Nuit Blanche during its first two years in the city — fewer pedestrians, fewer exhibits, less artistic inspiration overall, and less of the atmosphere of a giant, roaming party. I had a greater sense of emptiness in spaces that been filled with art and people in previous years. With every step my feeling grew that Nuit Blanche needs a shot of something to survive and grow — more volunteers, more staff, more marketing, more money? Share Tumblr Pinterest Google Plus Reddit LinkedIn Email GALLERY: People watch Nick Cave's unique video out front of La Petite Mort gallery during Nuit Blanche in Ottawa, on Saturday, September 20, 2014. Cole Burston /Ottawa Citizen People walk through archways on George St. during Nuit Blanche in Ottawa, on Saturday, September 20, 2014. /Ottawa Citizen (L-R) Malachi Leduc, 10, and Jaya Vanasse, 12, play in 'Cut-outs', Lori Victor's personal response to the death of thousands of aboriginal children in Canada, during Nuit Blanche in Ottawa, on Saturday, September 20, 2014. Cole Burston /Ottawa Citizen People endure the rain and roam on George St. during Nuit Blanche in Ottawa, on Saturday, September 20, 2014. Cole Burston /Ottawa Citizen People sit and watch Genevieve Thauvette's flight simulator installation that gives participants an uneasy feeling of flying, under the Plaza Bridge during Nuit Blanche in Ottawa, on Saturday, September 20, 2014. Cole Burston /Ottawa Citizen People take a photo of a labrynthe of chairs on George St. during Nuit Blanche in Ottawa, on Saturday, September 20, 2014. Cole Burston /Ottawa Citizen Jacqui Du Toit reads a poster at the Ottawa School of Art, while wearing her alien people performance during Nuit Blanche in Ottawa, on Saturday, September 20, 2014. Cole Burston /Ottawa Citizen A woman walks through Genevieve Thauvette's flight simulator installation that gives participants an uneasy feeling of flying, under the Plaza Bridge during Nuit Blanche in Ottawa, on Saturday, September 20, 2014. ( Cole Burston /Ottawa Citizen Pat Holloway greets people at Rectory House during Nuit Blanche in Ottawa, on Saturday, September 20, 2014. Cole Burston /Ottawa Citizen People manoeuvre a labyrinth of chairs on George St. during Nuit Blanche in Ottawa, on Saturday, September 20, 2014. Cole Burston /Ottawa Citizen People view 'Cut-outs', Lori Victor's personal response to the death of thousands of aboriginal children in Canada, during Nuit Blanche in Ottawa, on Saturday, September 20, 2014. Cole Burston /Ottawa Citizen Stencils are cut at the Steamrolling print making project on George St. during Nuit Blanche in Ottawa, on Saturday, September 20, 2014. /Ottawa Citizen People walk through archways on George St. during Nuit Blanche in Ottawa, on Saturday, September 20, 2014. Cole Burston /Ottawa Citizen Kristof Watkins, 9, looks to Gerard Belec as they draw comics at Ottawa School of Artduring Nuit Blanche in Ottawa, on Saturday, September 20, 2014. Cole Burston /Ottawa Citizen The art is revealed at the Steamrolling print making project on George St. during Nuit Blanche in Ottawa, on Saturday, September 20, 2014. Cole Burston /Ottawa Citizen Stencils are cut at the Steamrolling print making project on George St. during Nuit Blanche in Ottawa, on Saturday, September 20, 2014. Cole Burston /Ottawa Citizen Guillermo Trejo shows people how to cut stencils at the Steamrolling print making project on George St. during Nuit Blanche in Ottawa, on Saturday, September 20, 2014. ( Cole Burston /Ottawa Citizen The art steamrolled at the Steamrolling print making project on George St. during Nuit Blanche in Ottawa, on Saturday, September 20, 2014. Cole Burston /Ottawa Citizen A few key observations... 1. There’s no official attendance number for Nuit Blanche — people are mixing with the regular pedestrian traffic — but I asked about a dozen people and every one said there were fewer people out than in the previous two years. A lower turnout cannot be blamed on the sporadic rain, as Nuit Blanche 2013 saw far wetter weather. 2. The large swath of open space that is the connected courtyards of the ByWard Market were almost entirely empty of art and people. In previous years they were crowded with both, and nowhere had the energy of Nuit Blanche been more palpable. Unless there are insurmountable reasons for these spaces to be empty, they must be brought back into the program, and that energy restored. 3. The “outlying areas” lacked a critical mass of art and events to generate excitement. Wellington West had fewer projects this year, and one could have walked down the street and never known it was Nuit Blanche. Ditto for most of the locations I saw in Gatineau. If areas outside of downtown Ottawa cannot be abuzz for the night, they should be dropped from the program and the organizational focus put on the essential core areas. 4. This years’s theme was “Bypass,” but it was indiscernible in most projects. Get rid of the annual theme, as it’s largely irrelevant, and is unnecessarily binding on artists and likely discourages what could be interesting projects. There were high points, not the least of them being, once again, Geneviève Thauvette. The Ottawa artist’s recreation of an aircraft cabin, built beneath the overpass by the Chateau Laurier, put people in airliner-like seats to watch video of flying through clouds, while the voices of real air-traffic controllers were heard dealing with real emergencies and crashes. It was a reflection on modern technology that was not for the faint-of-heart flyer. Lori Victor’s Cut-Outs, at the Rectory Art House, had strings of more than 4,000 cut-out figures, all sliced from printouts of an Ottawa Citizen story that had reported that more than 4,000 aboriginal children had died in residential schools. The tragedy of the message delivered with such child-like simplicity was powerful, and it visibly affected many who saw it. Other standouts included Michael Simon’s Piece Tower, a temporary, vertical campground of scaffolding at the corner of Sussex and Rideau, which imaginatively raised questions about our use of urban space. Elsewhere there was a lot of impenetrable dance going on, but what connected with pedestrians was the Ottawa Dance Directive’s Don’t Look At Me, which put dancers in upper-floor windows of the Novotel to pose, act or even mime the movements of people passing below. Then there was the “Micro Party” at the Ottawa School of Art, which was not listed in any program that I can find. It required one to squeeze into a tiny room with a DJ, turntable, dancers, streamers and other passers-by. I don’t know if it was art, but it was wonderfully absurd, and the most fun I had all night long. -30-Scientists have modeled the stunning structure of the receptor in our bodies that jolts our senses when we eat sushi garnished with spicy wasabi -- and it turns out that this so-called 'wasabi receptor' may hold clues for developing new pain treatments. The receptor, a protein called TRPA1, resides in the cellular membrane of our sensory nerve cells. Not only does it detect certain chemical agents outside of our bodies -- from wasabi to tear gas -- but it also gets triggered by pain-inducing signals within our bodies from itches and inflammation. “The pain system is there to warn us when we need to avoid things that can cause injury, but also to enhance protective mechanisms,” Dr. David Julius, professor and chair of the physiology department at the University of California, San Francisco, and senior co-author of the new study, said in a written statement. “Of course, this information may also help guide the design of new analgesic drugs.” (Story continues below.) An animation of the 'wasabi receptor.' The researchers built the new detailed 3D model using an advanced imaging technique known as electron cryo-microscopy, Science magazine reported. Using the model, the researchers discovered a spot in the receptor where wasabi chemical compounds bind, according to a video from UCSF about the research (see above). They noticed that when a receptor encounters such chemical compounds, it activates nerve fibers that then send pain signals to the brain. Ouch! There are already a few experimental drugs that target the wasabi receptor to alleviate pain, Smithsonian magazine reported, and the new model allows scientists to see the exact cleft in the protein where those drugs bind -- a discovery which may help guide the development of innovative pain medications. "A dream of mine is that some of the work we do will translate into medicines people can take for chronic pain," Julius told NPR. "What the structure does is, it gives pharmaceutical firms sort of a map for either tweaking the drugs that they have... or for developing drugs that might have different properties."It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia Goes Art House In Three New Promos By Nick Venable Random Article Blend I’m willing to bet that when most people think of art house dramas, they think of a French film. (New Wave foreeeever!) But the guys from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia like to think outside “le box” and they’ve gone all foreign and Swedish for these three new promos. How is this show not back on the air yet? In a more directly influenced way than the are rather nightmarish, even if a nightmare about Mac telling Dennis he looks like a pork chop isn’t entirely frightening. But seeing any of these guys speak introspectively rather than straight selfishly shakes me to my core. Check out the next one and rejoice in Sweet Dee’s noir-tinged look as she holds back some vomit. And now watch the final clip and take comfort in knowing that even in a strange foreign jail, Charlie and Frank are going to be laying down in the same bed together. It’s Always Sunny will return for its eighth season on October 11, 2013. But don’t forget, Hoss, it’s I’m willing to bet that when most people think of art house dramas, they think of a French film. (New Wave foreeeever!) But the guys fromlike to think outside “le box” and they’ve gone all foreign and Swedish for these three new promos. How is this show not back on the air yet?In a more directly influenced way than the anime-style teaser was last year, The Gang takes to the moody black and white setting like a lime to a tequila shot. All three clips look superb and make me wish they would branch off into more fantastical stuff like this during the actual show itself. Even if it’s just for a dream sequence. In fact, theserather nightmarish, even if a nightmare about Mac telling Dennis he looks like a pork chop isn’t entirely frightening. But seeing any of these guys speak introspectively rather than straight selfishly shakes me to my core.Check out the next one and rejoice in Sweet Dee’s noir-tinged look as she holds back some vomit.And now watch the final clip and take comfort in knowing that even in a strange foreign jail, Charlie and Frank are going to be laying down in the same bed together.will return for its eighth season on October 11, 2013. But don’t forget, Hoss, it’s switching to FXX, the more comedy-friendly brand of FX. Blended From Around The Web Facebook Back to topBreaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. Feb. 12, 2017, 11:58 AM GMT / Updated Feb. 12, 2017, 11:58 AM GMT By Ali Vitali Since attending her husband’s inauguration, Melania Trump has stayed out of the spotlight — and largely out of the White House. On more than one occasion, her absence has been conspicuous, raising questions about how she'll help shape the tone and tenor of life in her husband's new and busy administration. A delay in naming key staffers to her office has in turn delayed the carrying out of duties that typically fall to the first lady. On Friday, the first lady of Japan, Akie Abe, found herself making her scheduled stops in Washington, D.C., alone. Traditionally, the first lady of the United States accompanies the spouse of visiting foreign leaders visiting local sites. Trump instead greeted her Japanese counterpart at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland before they traveled down to the Trump family's private Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. In recent weeks, however, there are signs that Melania Trump's office is beginning to come together. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump greet a marching band as they arrive at Trump International Golf club to watch the Super Bowl LI between New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons in West Palm Beach, Florida on Feb. 5, 2017. Carlos Barria / Reuters The White House announced the first lady's second official hire Wednesday evening: Social Secretary Anna Cristina Niceta Lloyd, who will oversee events planning. In a statement about the appointment, the first lady said she was “looking forward to sharing my ideas and traditions of entertaining and social hospitality to America’s house, my new home as well.” One week earlier, the first lady tapped Lindsay Reynolds as her chief of staff. The filling of that key role came at a time when the largely unmanned first lady's office has thousands of White House tour requests piling up, according to the New York Times, something that typically falls under the first lady's purview along with the planning of state dinners. The White House did not immediately respond to NBC News questions about the timing of hiring for such positions as schedulers and press secretary staff. Nor did the White House answer questions about what plans are underway for marquee events in which first ladies traditionally take a leadership role, such as the Easter Egg Roll which takes place in the spring and draws thousands. Critics have noted that her decision to stay in New York until her son, Barron, 10, finishes the school year is costing taxpayers a significant amount of money. Meanwhile, Ivanka Trump, Trump's adult daughter who recently dismissed "inappropriate" speculation that she would effectively act as first lady while Melania Trump remains away, has fulfilled certain duties that might otherwise fall to the president's spouse. Still, one White House official told NBC News that the first lady's office is "staffing up and eager to get things moving," noting that there is much happening behind the scenes. President Donald Trump and the first lady Melania Trump dance at the Liberty Ball at the Washington D.C. Convention Center following Donald Trump's inauguration as the 45th President of the United States, on Jan. 20. Jim Watson / AFP - Getty Images Melania Trump’s thinly staffed office should come as little surprise, Anita McBride, former chief of staff to First Lady Laura Bush and executive-in-residence at American University, told NBC News. Each first lady can set the pace of her office “in the way that suits them best” and when it comes to Melania Trump, "she laid down the marker early that she’d be taking her time," McBride said. McBride surmises that “even if they were fully staffed as of today,” it’s not clear that things would be all that different. While Trump has moved quickly on executive actions intended at fulfilling campaign promises, the office of the first lady isn’t subject to the same expectations. “The president is doing so much, but he’s elected to do that,” McBride said. “She’s not the elected official. She gets to rewrite that position's description.” By comparison, Michelle Obama has been described as “reluctant” in the role at first, and Laura Bush had less time to prepare for the mantle due to the Bush v. Gore Supreme Court case that effectively decided the election in December 2000. However, each first lady developed her own signature platform and made her mark. Michelle Obama made healthy eating and physical exercise her cause célèbre as part of her "Let's Move" campaign. Laura Bush was an advocate for literacy. And both first ladies pushed for the rights of women and girls globally. “Each of them have evolved into the role on their timetable, and each has made a difference,” McBride said. “Mrs. Trump will find her footing in her own way to have an impact as well.” Melania Trump has said she, too, would advocate for the rights of women and children and would also make cyberbullying awareness one of her causes, though her office has not yet announced her official causes. She will have to work to overcome low approval ratings compared to her counterparts. Just before their respective husbands' inaugurations, Michelle Obama enjoyed an approval rating of 68 percent, Laura Bush 56 percent and Hillary Clinton 59 percent, according to Gallup. Melania Trump's rating was at 37 percent. And though she has been away from D.C., the former model has still made headlines. The first lady just settled a court battle with a British tabloid reporter for The Daily Mail over allegations made by the outlet about her time as a model, and in late January, she appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair Mexico clad in white and dishing up a forkful of jewels. But on Saturday, Melania Trump accompanied Akie Abe, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's wife, on a tour of a Japanese garden in Florida, signaling her appreciation for at least one aspect of White House life — its gardens. As first lady, her office said in a statement reported by CNN, she will preserve the Rose Garden along with Michelle Obama's vegetable garden.The two-day negotiating period for unrestricted free agents is underway and with the new league year beginning on March 9, here’s a look at where the Falcons stand heading into the free agency period. Head Coach Dan Quinn and general manager Thomas Dimitroff have been open in saying with no ‘glaring’ holes on their roster, the emphasis is on re-signing their players with expiring contracts. Here’s a look at who will become an unrestricted free agent on Thursday at 4 p.m. unless re-signing with the Falcons prior to that date, with analysis from Falcons radio analyst, Dave Archer: Unrestricted Free Agents Chris Chester Position: Guard Age: 34 Atlanta originally signed Chris Chester in May of 2015 and he re-signed with the team last April. Chester was a key piece of an offensive line that blocked for the fifth ranked rushing attack and first in points scored. Archer’s Take: “Chris Chester is a veteran guy. He’s got six consecutive seasons where he’s started all 16 games of the regular season. He’s incredibly consistent, you can count on him being ready to play. He only had five penalties last year, only two of those were holding calls. He played at a pretty high level for the age that he’s at.” Patrick DiMarco Position: Fullback Age: 27 Patrick DiMarco joined the Falcons in 2013, and in 2015 played in his first Pro Bowl. DiMarco has been an integral part of Atlanta’s offense, especially in the run game and has become a valuable asset in the passing attack. The fullback caught seven passes for 52 yards and one touchdown in the 2016 season. Archer’s Take: “DiMarco is an outstanding blocker in the run game and he’s really good – almost quarterback level – when it comes to identifying his protections. That’s his No. 1 job, to block in the run game and protection in the pass game. He’s an outstanding receiver out of the backfield. We don’t ask him to carry the ball very much, he’s a very consistent guy catching the ball. He’s a core special teamer, I think he plays on virtually every one of the special teams.” Jacob Tamme Position: Tight end Age: 31 Jacob Tamme signed with the Falcons in March of 2015 and quickly became one of Matt Ryan’s favorite targets. The veteran tight end played in 15 games in his first season and eight before injuring his shoulder and being placed on IR. In two seasons, he caught 81 passes for 867 yards and four touchdowns. Archer’s Take: “He’s an adequate blocker in the run game. He has an excellent feel for passing lanes. He and Matt Ryan have had some good success over the past couple of years they’ve played together.” Matt Schaub Position: Quarterback Age: 35 Matt Schaub returned to Atlanta for the 2016 season, playing in five games. Archer’s Take: “I think there is a value to Schaub because he’s played so much and has been a Pro Bowl player. I think it’s a nice blend between he and Matt Ryan in that Ryan can come off the field and it’s like he’s talking to another starter standing on the sidelines because he’s played so much. I think there’s a lot of value to that.” Jonathan Babineaux Position: Defensive line Age: 35 The 12-year veteran has played with Atlanta his entire career. He’s started 133 games for the Falcons, recording 456 tackles and 27 sacks. Archer’s Take: “Babineaux is one of those glue guys. He’s one of those guys that’s fought all the battles, but continues to line up and play. He has a tremendous work ethic, he’s a guy that practices hard and understands the importance of putting in extra time.” Tom Compton Position: Tackle Age: 27 Tom Compton signed with the Falcons in March of 2016, playing in all 16 regular season games. Compton took over for an injured Jake Matthews against Kansas City, playing 41 of 74 offensive snaps. Archer’s Take: “Tom Compton played sparingly, he only had one penalty when he did play. He’s only got 11 career starts, he’s still a young player learning how to play.” Kemal Ishmael Position: Safety Age: 25 Kemal Ishmael started four games for Atlanta this season when first-round draft pick Keanu Neal was injured. The hard-hitting safety tallied 49 tackles prior to getting injured and winding up on IR for the remainder of the season. In four seasons with the Falcons, Ishmael has totaled 194 tackles, five interceptions, 1 forced fumble and 11 passes defensed. Archer’s Take: “Kemal was great when he wasn’t hurt. He’s only 25 years old and even with the injury, he was still sixth on the team in tackles. He has a knack for getting to the ball, he has five career interceptions and one forced fumble. That’s something Coach Quinn values, and Kemal has the ability to get to the ball. He’s versatile in the fact that Kemal can play safety in the back end, but he also steps up and plays nickel linebacker for you which in this game, 60 to 63 percent of the time you’re in a nickel set and you need a bigger body guy who can run, and Kemal fits that build.” Levine Toilolo Position: Tight end Age: 25 Levine Toilolo emerged as a key piece to Atlanta’s passing attack in 2016, catching 13 passes for 264 yards and two touchdowns. He’s also commended for his blocking ability in the run game. Toilolo has started in 45 games for the Falcons in four seasons. Archer’s Take: “I think his versatility [is his biggest asset] from a pass game standpoint because he emerged as a reliable guy to throw the ball too. He had one reception in eight of the last nine games, and seven of those nine reception were for first downs.” Courtney Upshaw Position: Defensive line Age: 27 Courtney Upshaw signed with Atlanta as an outside linebacker, but was switched to defensive line, showing his versatility. Upshaw played in 13 games for the Falcons, becoming a dominant force along the interior line towards the end of the season. Upshaw posted 23 tackles, one sack, three quarterback hits, one tackle for loss, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery and one pass defense in the 2016 season. Archer’s Take: “Really versatile guy. Started as an outside linebacker when he first came into the league but Coach Quinn wanted to use him on the edge as an edge defender and then slid him to the inside and he became a guy who was hard to handle on the inside. He had a sack in the regular season and one sack in the postseason. His versatility helps Atlanta a lot." Dwight Freeney Position: Defensive end Age: 37 Dwight Freeney signed with the Falcons in early August, and his presence was felt immediately. Freeney helped mentor Vic Beasley Jr., the NFL’s sack leader in 2016. He added three sacks during the regular season and one in the postseason. Archer’s Take: “The impact he had obviously was being a pro. Dwight’s impact was probably as much or if not more off the field than on the field.” Aldrick Robinson Position: Wide receiver Age: 28 Aldrick Robinson’s elusive speed was on display from the minute he took the fields in Flowery Branch at XFINITY Training Camp in July. Robinson was a valuable depth player for Atlanta, catching 20 passes for 323 yards, adding two touchdowns. Archer’s Take: “He had 13 catches in his last five games, he came on at the end of the year. I thought a big moment for him was when Julio Jones was down with an injury against San Francisco, he had over 100 receiving yards. He stepped up when he was supposed to. He had a really good preseason to make the team and then late in the year when the Falcons were a little banged up, Aldrick made plays.” Philip Wheeler Position: Linebacker Age: 32 In his second season with the Falcons, Philip Wheeler continued to contribute. The veteran linebacker played in all 16 games, recording 27 tackles. Archer’s Take: “Philip’s versatility is No. 1 for him. He played inside and outside linebacker and he even played some edge rush. He’s a really good teammate, he’s a professional. Even at 32, he still runs well.” Dashon Goldson Position: Defensive back Age: 32 Dashon Goldson signed with the Falcons in late August, playing in just four games for Atlanta. Archer’s Take: “He’s a veteran player who understands how to played the game. He has the size to play both safety positions.” Paul Worrilow Position: Linebacker Age: 26 Paul Worrilow has played in 59 games for Atlanta, recording 242 tackles and four sacks. The undrafted free agent out of Delaware has started 44 games for the Falcons. Archer’s Take: “Core special teams guy. He led the team in tackles for three consecutive seasons, 13-15, he’s just one of those guys who loves to play, and you can’t get enough of those guys.” LaRoy Reynolds Position: Linebacker Age: 26 LaRoy
they start at $174,455 and don’t climb nearly as high. Still, the ION was selling location, so I thought we might as well take a look at something that really does have location to sell. Unfortunately, that’s not the message we got from the sales associate. After admiring the model tower, we asked her to tell us about the building. Pretty much the first thing she said was that you could get two parking stalls per unit! Each unit comes with one titled, heated underground parking stall but additional units are available for purchase. She explained that they want to attract people who are currently living in the suburbs, maybe with two vehicles, so the parking aspect is important. I couldn’t believe it. The Pearl is located in the most densely populated neighbourhood in the city, with lots of restaurants and shops within just a few blocks, plus access to the river valley, downtown, and 124 Street, and the parking was the focus of the sales pitch. I realized that the suburban developments are doing a better job of selling features they don’t even have than the urban developments are. What a wasted opportunity. We need to do a better job of selling the core No, condo living is not for everyone. But if you’re longing for an urban lifestyle, with access to everything, you’re not going to get that on the edge of the city. Maybe when Ambleside is further developed, some of the marketing messages will ring less hollow, but why wait? Downtown, Oliver, and other neighbourhoods in the core already offer what Ambleside can only dream of. Yet we don’t sell that. I’m hopeful that things are changing. With the recent launch of the Ultima Tower, located on 103 Street at 103 Avenue, the proximity to amenities does seem to be front and centre (though they still emphasize the yet-to-be-constructed downtown arena more than what already exists). We need more of that kind of messaging if development in the core is going to have any hope of competing with the suburbs. I don’t think everyone should live in the core, but I do want homebuyers to consider it. Downtown living will never beat edge-of-the-city when it comes to price, so we need to compete on other factors. We need to emphasize the strengths of living in the core and highlight the challenges with suburban living. And we need to be much more aggressive about it.The emergence of high-efficacy synthetic cannabinoids as drugs of abuse in readily available K2/‘Spice’ smoking blends has exposed users to much more potent and effective substances than the phytocannabinoids present in cannabis. Increasing reports of adverse reactions, including dependence and withdrawal, are appearing in the clinical literature. Here we investigated whether the effects of one such synthetic cannabinoid, 1-pentyl-3-(1-naphthoyl)indole (JWH-018), would be altered by a prior history of Δ 9 -tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ 9 -THC) exposure, in assays of conditioned taste aversion and conditioned place preference. In the conditioned taste aversion procedure, JWH-018 induced marked and persistent aversive effects in mice with no previous cannabinoid history, but the magnitude and duration of these aversive effects were significantly blunted in mice previously treated with an ascending dose regimen of Δ 9 -THC. Similarly, in the conditioned place preference procedure, JWH-018 induced dose-dependent aversive effects in mice with no previous drug history, but mice exposed to Δ 9 -THC before place conditioning showed reduced aversions at a high JWH-018 dose and apparent rewarding effects at a low dose of JWH-018. These findings suggest that a history of Δ 9 -THC exposure ‘protects’ against aversive effects and ‘unmasks’ appetitive effects of the high-efficacy synthetic cannabinoid JWH-018 in mice. This pattern of results implies that cannabinoid-naive individuals administering K2/‘Spice’ products for the first-time may be at an increased risk for adverse reactions, whereas those with a history of marijuana use may be particularly sensitive to the reinforcing effects of high-efficacy cannabinoids present in these commercial smoking blends. Introduction Smoking blends containing high-efficacy synthetic cannabinoids (often marketed as ‘K2’ and ‘Spice’) have recently emerged as popular substitutes for cannabis. Commercial preparations of these products are readily available, heavily marketed toward young people, perceived as safe, and not easily detected in drug screens (Vardakou et al., 2010). Similar to Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC), the primary psychoactive constituent of marijuana, the synthetic compounds in these smoking products are presumed to elicit their psychoactive effects by activating CB1 cannabinoid receptors in the central nervous system, although many of these compounds possess much higher efficacy than Δ9-THC (Atwood et al., 2010; Brents et al., 2011). Importantly, the majority of young people using synthetic cannabinoids also abuse marijuana (Hu et al., 2011; Vandrey et al., 2012). Preclinical data suggest that a history of Δ9-THC exposure alters the motivational properties of subsequent Δ9-THC. For example, Δ9-THC tends to elicit conditioned place aversion (CPA) in drug-naive subjects, but will induce conditioned place preference (CPP) if subjects are first ‘primed’ by pre-exposure to the drug (Valjent and Maldonado, 2000; Tzschentke, 2007). Similarly, a history of Δ9-THC exposure blunts conditioned taste aversion (CTA) to a novel flavor paired with subsequent Δ9-THC administration (Fischer and Vail, 1980; Switzman et al., 1981). These findings suggest that the motivational effects of emerging high-efficacy synthetic cannabinoids in those with a history of Δ9-THC use may markedly differ from those observed in Δ9-THC-naive users. In these studies, we assessed the aversive effects (using a CTA procedure) and appetitive effects (using CPP) of the high-efficacy aminoalkylindole synthetic cannabinoid 1-pentyl-3-(1-naphthoyl) indole (JWH-018) in mice, and determined how these effects were modulated by prior exposure to Δ9-THC. The major hypothesis tested in these studies was that prior exposure to Δ9-THC may render mice less sensitive to the aversive effects of JWH-018, but more sensitive to the appetitive/‘rewarding’ effects of this compound. Methods Subjects Adult (8-week-old) male NIH Swiss mice (Harlan Sprague–Dawley Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana, USA) were received at 20–23 g and housed, three animals per Plexiglas cage (15.24×25.40×12.70 cm), in a temperature-controlled room maintained on a 12-h light/dark cycle (lights on at 07:00 h). Animals were fed Lab Diet rodent chow (Laboratory Rodent Diet #5001; PMI Feeds Inc., St Louis, Missouri, USA) as needed to maintain their weights within 28–30 g during experiments, and water was freely available in the home cages. All studies were carried out in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and with the Guide for Care and Use of Laboratory Animals as adopted and promulgated by the National Institutes of Health. Groups of six mice per condition were used in CTA and CPP experiments, and each subject was exposed to only one experimental treatment. Δ9-Tetrahydrocannabinol pre-exposure An escalating-dose regimen of Δ9-THC was used to establish a cannabinoid history in some subjects before behavioral testing, whereas control subjects were administered a similar repeated regimen of drug vehicle (see below). Injections were administered intraperitoneally in the colony room, and escalated through doses of 1, 3, 10, 30, and 100 mg/kg of Δ9-THC. This dose regimen had been previously used to elicit tolerance to rate-decreasing effects in mice (unpublished observations). The drug (or vehicle) was injected every other day, and saline was administered on intervening days, for five total drug (or vehicle) injections. The first pairing for CTA studies or the CPP initial preference session was conducted 2 days after the final Δ9-THC (or vehicle) injection. Conditioned taste aversion Experiments were conducted in operant chambers (Med Associates, St Albans, Vermont, USA) enclosed within light-attenuating and sound-attenuating boxes. Two lit nose-poke apertures were located on the front panel of the chamber with a reinforcement aperture centered between them. Head entries into either nose-poke aperture broke a photobeam and registered a response. Reinforced responses allowed mice a 5-s access period to a 0.01 ml dipper of evaporated milk (Kroger, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA) diluted 50% with water, immediately followed by a 10-s timeout. Training sessions ended either after 60 min or after 60 milk presentations, whichever occurred first. Initial training sessions used a fixed ratio (FR) 1 schedule of reinforcement (FR1), and every 20th reinforcer earned incremented the FR by 1. Mice were shaped to a terminal FR5 across sessions, and CTA trials began when response rates varied no more than 20% between three consecutive training sessions. During CTA trials, a novel flavored solution was used to reinforce responding, consisting of 1 ml strawberry syrup (Kroger) per 8 ml of the milk reinforcer. Immediately after the first and second sessions, during which flavored milk was available, mice were removed from the chamber, injected (intraperitoneally) with 3.0 mg/kg JWH-018 (a dose that elicits marked unconditioned effects in the cannabinoid tetrad; Brents et al., 2011; 2013), and then returned to the home cage in the colony room. Thus, the flavored milk reinforcer was paired with JWH-018 administration only twice. Three ‘recovery’ sessions, during which unflavored milk reinforced responding, were interposed between each CTA trial. An additional group of mice (an ‘unpaired’ control group) was identically trained to respond for unflavored milk presentations and tested with flavored milk. These animals were also injected with 3.0 mg/kg JWH-018 after the first two flavored milk sessions; however, these injections were administered at least 10 h after the sessions ended and were administered in the colony room. Place conditioning Place conditioning was accomplished using Panlab three-compartment spatial discrimination chambers (Harvard Apparatus, Holliston, Massachusetts, USA), consisting of a box with two equally sized conditioning compartments connected by a corridor. The compartments were differentiated on the basis of the visual pattern on the walls, color, floor texture, and shape, providing multiple contextual dimensions across sensory modalities. An initial preconditioning preference test was first conducted, in which mice were allowed to explore the apparatus for 30 min, and the last 15 min of behavior was recorded and scored. Over the next 2 days, mice were housed in the colony room and were assigned to receive drug in their nonpreferred compartment and saline in their preferred compartment. The conditioning phase began with mice receiving a saline injection and being confined to their preferred compartment for 30 min. After the saline conditioning trial, mice were removed and returned to their home cage. Mice were injected with 0.1 or 1.0 mg/kg JWH-018, or with 3.0 mg/kg of the psychostimulant SR(±)-3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, as a noncannabinoid positive control), 4 h later and confined to their nonpreferred compartment for 30 min. Thus, mice were conditioned with both saline and drug each day, for four total trials with each injection condition. A 15-min postconditioning preference test was performed the day after the final conditioning trial. The entire test was recorded and scored, but was otherwise conducted in a manner identical to the preconditioning preference test described previously. Drugs JWH-018 was synthesized by Thomas Prisinzano (University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, USA) and provided as a generous gift to the investigators. Δ9-THC and SR(±)-MDMA were supplied by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA, Bethesda, Maryland, USA). MDMA was dissolved in physiological saline, whereas both cannabinoids were dissolved in a vehicle consisting of absolute ethanol : emulphor : physiological saline in a ratio 1 : 1: 18. All drug solutions were stored at 4°C until use, and all injections were administered intraperitoneally at a constant volume of 0.01 ml/g. Data analysis Because intersubject variability in response rates was relatively high in CTA experiments, response rates during aversion trials were transformed to percent of unflavored milk control, by dividing each individual trial rate by that subject’s mean rate on the previous three ‘milk recovery’ days, then multiplying by 100. Rates for each trial were compared using one-way repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey’s honestly significant difference (HSD) test for all possible pairwise comparisons. For CPP studies, a preference (or aversion) score was calculated by subtracting the preconditioning test time spent in the compartment, which was subsequently paired with drug administration, from time spent in that same compartment during the postconditioning test. Preference/aversion scores were not normally distributed and therefore, comparisons across groups were made using the Kruskal–Wallis one-way ANOVA on ranks, followed by Tukey’s HSD test. Statistical significance was judged at P less than 0.05. Results Conditioned taste aversion During the first (prepairing baseline) session, in which the flavored milk reinforcer was available, mice in all groups responded at high rates, which were not different from control rates observed in sessions in which unflavored milk was available (Fig. 1, ‘Bl’ points). For the group in which the flavored milk reinforcer was not paired with JWH-018 administration (Fig. 1, open squares), response rates across trials did not significantly differ from the baseline observation (P>0.05 for all comparisons). The range of mean rates for this group varied from a low of 90.04±5.48% to a high of 107.16±2.88% across all trials. In contrast, mice pre-exposed to the cannabinoid vehicle only (Fig. 1, filled circles) showed markedly reduced response rates for the flavored milk reinforcer paired with JWH-018 administration during the first six aversion trials (q=10.95, 11.36, 11.41, 11.35, 9.71, and 8.66, respectively, and P<0.001 for all comparisons), but recovered completely by the eighth trial (q=0.80, P>0.05). Interestingly, mice pre-exposed to the escalating Δ9-THC regimen (Fig. 1, gray triangles) showed a blunted taste aversion to the flavored milk reinforcer paired with JWH-018 administration. For these animals, response rates were significantly reduced only during the first three aversion trials (q=8.32, 8.81, and 6.00, respectively, and P<0.001 for all comparisons), and they completely recovered by the fourth trial (q=0.60, P>0.05). Further, the degree of response rate suppression was significantly lesser in Δ9-THC-treated mice than observed in vehicle-treated mice on trials 1–3 (q=3.33, 3.250, and 6.10, respectively, P<0.05 for all comparisons). Place conditioning Administration of JWH-018 elicited dose-dependent effects on place conditioning. The high JWH-018 unit dose (1.0 mg/kg/injection) resulted in a negative preference score in mice previously exposed to the drug vehicle only (Fig. 2, filled bars), indicative of CPA. These apparent aversive effects were blunted in mice previously treated with the escalating Δ9-THC regimen (Fig. 2, open bars), and the between-group difference was significant at this high JWH-018 unit dose (q=3.60, P<0.05). The low JWH-018 unit dose (0.1 mg/kg/injection) also produced a negative preference score in mice previously exposed to the drug vehicle only (Fig. 2, filled bars), but elicited a positive preference score, indicative of CPP, in mice previously treated with the escalating Δ9-THC regimen (Fig. 2, open bars). The between-group difference was also significant at this low JWH-018 unit dose (q=4.10, P<0.05.) Importantly, the escalating Δ9-THC regimen did not alter the apparent appetitive effects of a 3.0 mg/kg/injection unit dose of MDMA (P>0.05). Discussion Consistent with previous studies demonstrating aversive effects of cannabinoids in cannabinoid-naive subjects (Fischer and Vail, 1980; Switzman et al., 1981), the present CTA studies also demonstrate profound aversive effects after only a single pairing of 3.0 mg/kg JWH-018 and a novel flavor (‘postconditioning trial 1’) in mice with no prior cannabinoid history. These aversive effects were persistent, as responding for the JWH-018-paired flavor did not return to baseline levels until postconditioning trial 7 or 8, although a ‘floor effect’ may certainly be involved in the prolonged recovery observed in these animals. In contrast, mice previously treated with the escalating Δ9-THC dose regimen showed significantly blunted taste aversion, in which case response rates in these subjects were no lower than 30% of that in controls and returned to baseline levels faster than in the Δ9-THC-naive group. Previous reports also show that Δ9-THC pre-exposure is required to unveil the apparent rewarding effects of Δ9-THC in the CPP assay in mice (Valjent and Maldonado, 2000; Valjent et al., 2002; Castañé et al., 2003), and our present CPP results extend this observation to the high-efficacy synthetic cannabinoid JWH-018, but not to the noncannabinoid drug of abuse MDMA. Presumably, the learned association between a novel context and the interoceptive stimulus properties of the paired drug interacts with the pharmacological history to dictate both the magnitude and the directionality of the place conditioning effect. Interestingly, mice conditioned with JWH-018 without a prior Δ9-THC history avoided the drug-paired compartment in a dose-dependent manner during postconditioning tests – a result generally thought to indicate that the drug has aversive stimulus properties (Bardo and Bevins, 2000). The major finding of the present research is therefore that a history of Δ9-THC ‘protects’ against aversive effects and ‘unmasks’ apparent rewarding effects of the high-efficacy synthetic cannabinoid JWH-018 in mice. In contrast, JWH-018 elicited marked and persistent aversive effects in Δ9-THC-naive animals in the CTA procedure, and induced only CPA in the CPP procedure. These results suggest that cannabinoid-naive individuals using K2/‘Spice’ products may be at increased risk of adverse reactions, perhaps requiring medical intervention (Muller et al., 2010; Vearrier and Osterhoudt, 2010; Schneir et al., 2011). In contrast, those with a history of marijuana use may be particularly sensitive to the appetitive effects of high-efficacy cannabinoids present in these commercial smoking blends, perhaps leading to escalated use and dependence (Zimmermann et al., 2009; Nacca et al., 2013). These suppositions are supported by a recent case series documenting no adverse reactions to K2/‘Spice’ use in three regular marijuana smokers meeting the cannabis dependence criteria, as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed. – text revision (Gunderson et al., 2012). Among the cannabinoids, tolerance to numerous in-vivo effects is readily induced across species (reviewed in Adams and Martin, 1996); hence, cross-tolerance between Δ9-THC and JWH-018 could be at least partially responsible for the currently observed attenuation of apparent aversive effects. Indeed, cross-tolerance between Δ9-THC and high-efficacy synthetic cannabinoids has been reported in humans (Gunderson et al., 2012), nonhuman primates (Hruba et al., 2012), and mice (Fantegrossi et al., 2013). It has been proposed that the ‘hedonic effects’ of a drug are determined by a relative balance between appetitive and aversive effects (Riley, 2011); thus, tolerance to aversive effects would be expected to alter this balance in favor of appetitive effects, perhaps explaining the ‘unmasking’ of the apparent rewarding effects of JWH-018 in the present CPP experiments. Alternatively, Δ9-THC-induced changes in learning (Davis and Riley, 2010) or reward sensitization (Robinson and Berridge, 2008) could also account for the effects reported in this study. As states and municipalities within the USA consider normalizing recreational marijuana use, it is important to emphasize that the synthetic cannabinoids present in K2/‘Spice’ products are often much more potent and efficacious drugs than the phytocannabinoids present in the marijuana plant. Our present results also suggest that high-efficacy synthetic cannabinoids are likely to elicit aversive effects in drug-naive individuals, but these aversive effects may be attenuated in those with a history of cannabis use, allowing some apparent rewarding effects to be ‘unmasked’. This has implications not only for drug abuse and dependence, but also for the ongoing debate with regard to deregulation of marijuana use and control of emerging synthetic cannabinoids present in readily available smoking blends. Acknowledgements This work was supported by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Translational Research Institute (grant RR029884) and by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Center for Translational Neuroscience (grant RR020146). W.S.H. received a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) from the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics to conduct this research, and received a SURF travel award to present portions of this work at the 2012 Experimental Biology conference in San Diego, California. Conflicts of interest There are no conflicts of interest.JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Africa and Europe have strengthened their cooperation in the field of geology, stressing the importance of developing a solid policy framework to attract investments as well as to promote skills development and business education in the sector. The commitment, which was made at the fifth European Union (EU)-Africa Business Forum this week, was made by the Organisation of African Geological Surveys, EuroGeoSurveys, EU mining industry representative body Euromines, lobby group Business Europe and other industrial players and institutions, which discussed how to enhance the sustainable exploitation of the mineral resources wealth of the continent leading to sustainable economic growth. Advertisement This would be done along four axes – governance, infrastructure, knowledge base and waste management – and would ensure environmental protection and the participation of the local population in all part of the processes, also in the form of consultation. African Union Commissioner for Trade and Industry Fatima Haram Acyl and European Commission VP Antonio Tajani expressed full support for geological cooperation; considered to be one of the most important and urgent needs to understand mineral resources potential in Africa and its sustainable development. Advertisement Further, European Commission president José Manuel Barroso and African Union Commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma reaffirmed the strategy to strengthen African sustainable development while enhancing EU business and trade with Africa.Claire Bennett and Felicity Thomas Many aspects of the UK asylum process can be confusing, disempowering and traumatic for lesbian asylum seekers. Recent research examines the impacts of this process on their experiences, their identity and their well-being. Individuals making asylum claims based on persecution which relates to their sexual orientation need to argue their case under the ‘particular social group’ category of the 1951 Refugee Convention. This category has long been the most contested of the Refugee Convention grounds and such claims can result in an intricate and lengthy asylum application process. For asylum claims based on a person’s sexuality, their cases can be further complicated by the requirement to produce evidence of their sexuality. Currently in the UK, there are no statistics available which indicate the number of applicants who seek or who have claimed asylum on the grounds of their sexual identity. However NGOs estimate that in 2008, 1,200-1,800 lesbian, gay and bisexual people applied for asylum,[1] mainly from the Caribbean, Africa and the Middle East. Although gay applicants are relatively small in number, little is known about this group and there is limited academic research charting their experiences. This article is based on recent doctoral research which examined the ways that lesbian women navigate the UK asylum process and the impacts of this process on their experiences, their identity and their well-being.[2] All of the women interviewed had experienced physical and sexual violence in their home countries and described being targeted and experiencing ‘corrective rape’[3], torture, imprisonment and family abuse because of their same-sex relationships. All the women had sought international protection on the grounds of their sexual orientation and seven of these women had gained refugee status; four were still going through the UK asylum process at the time of the study. The women came from Jamaica, The Gambia, Uganda, Nigeria, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, all of which openly discriminate and legislate against homosexuality. Key findings The asylum process, legal arguments and court appearances were all considered to be confusing and disempowering. Women frequently referred to the stress and discomfort they felt when talking on demand about traumatic experiences. The pressure of needing to be believed and their frustration at not always understanding the decisions and judgments that were being made about them by the UK Border Agency (UKBA) and immigration judges were also upsetting. A major concern for the women interviewed was how individual decision-makers understood and interpreted ‘sexuality’ and made assumptions about the appearance, characteristics and behaviour of ‘a lesbian’ – perceptions which were found to have a significant influence on the outcome of women’s asylum applications. Talking about sexuality The research found that talking about private, intimate details in a public and legal domain was particularly troubling. As the women had not previously discussed their sexuality with strangers, declaring their lesbian identity to UKBA at the initial screening interview was frequently described as being very stressful. Exacerbating these difficulties was the lack of privacy available to them during the screening interview and their anxiety that their conversation could be overheard. Given that the participants had experienced sexuality-related violence in their home countries (including, for some, by police officers or while in police custody), disclosing their sexuality to people in a position of authority was stressful. Talking about being a lesbian during legal interviews and court appearances was described as exhausting and emotionally draining. One woman spoke of crying, shaking and feeling as if she was physically and emotionally breaking down after one interview. In addition, accounts emerged regarding the UKBA’s and immigration judges’ perceived lack of sympathy, sensitivity or appreciation of the difficulties women associated with talking about such intimate details. Appropriateness of questions Re-telling intimate accounts and being questioned in open courts about their sexual desires and their relationships also emerged as difficult, and for some this experience affected their mental health and well-being. Moreover, the appropriateness of the questions asked was queried. For example, women had been asked about sex positions, as well as being asked to justify why they chose to be gay when they knew it was illegal in their home country. Several women described being asked what shows they watched, whether they read Oscar Wilde [famously homosexual British writer], how many Gay Pride marches they attended and which gay clubs they frequented. One woman described how the immigration judge commented that she did not look like a lesbian while another was told in court that she could not be a lesbian because she had two children. Clearly, decisions regarding someone’s claim to be a lesbian were frequently based on the extent to which they conformed to Western stereotypes. Failure to meet these preconceived ideas often resulted in asylum claims being refused and women’s individual credibility being questioned. The need to be ‘out’ Under pressure to conform to Western stereotypes, some women felt under pressure to change their look and dress in a way described as “more butch”. While they felt that this might help their legal claim for asylum, several women also explained that this was not always a straightforward or desirable option. Two participants with children felt that they did not want their sexuality publicly known for fears over their children’s safety. A perception that other asylum seekers saw homosexuality as “immoral”, “wrong” and “unacceptable” led them to believe that being publicly ‘out’ could be isolating. Experiences were recounted in which women had been ignored or been asked to leave refugee support groups because of their sexuality, an issue which was particularly traumatic when such groups had been their main source of comfort and support. Fears that other migrants might spread rumours or threaten them also increased their sense of insecurity. As a consequence, some women requested to be housed separately from people from the same country of origin, a situation which in turn made them feel even more isolated. Sexual freedom Despite the many challenges facing lesbian asylum seekers in the UK, a number of positive experiences were also identified. All of the women reported feeling that they could now be themselves and that they felt respected for the first time in their lives. Some women had started their own support groups to help provide emotional and practical support to other lesbian asylum seekers. As a result of this research we recommend: further research on the experiences and persecution experienced by lesbian asylum seekers in their home countries to help women submit objective evidence for their claim; it is important that such research recognise differences across cultures and backgrounds as well as seeking to identify similarities in experience. further clarity (at both national and international levels) over the interpretation and application of refugee law in relation to asylum claims based on a person’s sexual identity provision of a discreet and confidential space for women to talk about the basis for their claim at the initial screening interviews training for legal interviewers in the need for greater awareness of and sensitivity towards the cultural difficulties, negative emotions and problematic nature of talking about and identifying oneself as a lesbian collaborative work between legal personnel and international agencies to form a better understanding of the complexity of ‘sexuality’ and to avoid stereotyping further research on, and a greater awareness of, the tensions that can exist among asylum seekers themselves on issues relating to homosexuality delivery by NGOs and service providers of targeted services and assistance to lesbian asylum seekers to alleviate their isolation, and to provide appropriate information and support. Claire Bennett C.M.Bennett@Soton.ac.uk is Research Fellow at the ESRC Centre for Population Change, University of Southampton. Felicity Thomas F.Thomas@Exeter.ac.uk is a Lecturer at Exeter University and a Research Associate at the University of Sussex, UK.THE framers of America’s constitution knew nothing about mobile phones, but they knew a thing or two about unreasonable searches. In Riley v California, the Supreme Court considered “whether the police may, without a warrant, search digital information on a cellphone seized from an individual who has been arrested.” Unanimously on June 25th, the justices said no, or, to be more precise, very rarely. David Riley, a member of the Bloods street gang who was sentenced to 15 years to life for attempted murder, and Brima Wurie, sentenced to 262 months on a drug charge, will be happy to hear this. Except in true emergencies where searching a mobile phone could, say, avert a terrorist attack, police prying without a warrant violates the Fourth Amendment’s bar on “unreasonable” searches, the justices decided. Since both Riley and Wurie’s convictions were based on evidence gleaned from such searches, they will be overturned. Get our daily newsletter Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks. Chief Justice John Roberts began by observing how attached Americans have become to their mobile devices: “the proverbial visitor from Mars,” he wrote, might mistake them for “an important feature of human anatomy”. Smartphones can contain “[t]he sum of an individual’s private life...from the mundane to the intimate.” In fact, the ruling reads, thumbing through a mobile phone is potentially far more revealing than “the most exhaustive search of a house”. Without the benefit of “more precise guidance from the founding era,” Mr Roberts explained, the court must weigh individual privacy against “the promotion of legitimate governmental interests”. And since it is usually easy to grab a suspect’s phone, remove its battery or stash it in an aluminium sack (to avert “remote wiping”) and hold onto it pending a warrant, there is no good reason to allow police to rifle through the digital lives of anyone they pull over. While Riley provides clear guidance for law enforcement, another technology-related case decided on the same day does not. The effects of American Broadcasting Companies v Aereo may not be known for years to come. At issue was whether a startup with a nifty way of delivering broadcast TV programmes to customers for as little as $8 a month violated the 1976 Copyright Act. The Court said yes, by a vote of 6-3. Aereo had sought to distinguish itself from cable and satellite providers, which have to pay for transmitting programmes created by others. Rather than sending programmes directly to customers’ homes, Aereo captures free, over-the-air broadcasts on wee antennae and transmits them directly to digital recording devices, one per subscriber. Users then access the content on the remote devices via an internet connection, streaming live television with only a few seconds’ delay. Justice Stephen Breyer, writing for the majority, was unimpressed with Aereo’s attempt to set itself apart. “For all practical purposes,” he wrote, Aereo is “a traditional cable system”. It uses its own equipment, transmits copyrighted material to users’ homes and lets them watch the shows “virtually as the programming is being broadcast”. Fancy technology does not give Aereo immunity from copyright law. Justice Antonin Scalia, writing in dissent, explored the wider implications of Aereo’s loss. Aereo is more like a “copy shop” than a cable system, he wrote. Rather than “provide a prearranged assortment of movies and television shows,” Aereo allows customers to choose freely available shows they want to digitise; “subscribers,” in short, “call all the shots.” The majority’s ruling, Justice Scalia charged, paves the way for similar curbs on cloud-based technologies that hundreds of millions of Americans rely on every day—from Dropbox to music-streaming services. “The Court vows that its ruling will not affect cloud-storage providers and cable-television systems,” Justice Scalia warned, “but it cannot deliver on that promise.” The boss of Aereo, Chet Kanojia, wrote that the ruling may have a “chilling” effect on the technology industry. Whether or not this proves to be the case, it will force Aereo to rethink its novel business model.Deputies bust North Austin gambling room AUSTIN (KXAN) -- A Travis County Sheriff's office SWAT team busted a gambling room with "8-liner" machines located at 8624 N. Lamar Blvd. A KXAN investigation recently uncovered similar gambling rooms operating in Austin. The rooms are like mini casinos. The game rooms are legal if cash payouts are less than $5, but once owners payout more than $5, it becomes illegal. You can read more about the investigation here. On Thursday, officers arrested a woman working the North Lamar parlor named Yong Suk Melton. When one officer approached Melton, she allegedly said, "I talk, I talk, no take me jail, I just work," according to the police affidavit. Police searched Melton's apron and found an undisclosed amount of cash. There was allegedly one customer in the 8-liner room when police arrived. He told police he had been playing Keno and 8-liner machines there for five years, and the location pays out in cash, the affidavit states. Police confiscated an undisclosed amount of money found in a locked box and 21 motherboards from the 8-liner machines, according to the affidavit. Magnets for crime An Austin Police Department sergeant previously told KXAN during its investigation of gambling rooms that they are becoming more of a problem, and they attract a variety of criminal activities, including drugs, robberies and assaults. KXAN went undercover at one gambling room off Burleson Road in Southeast Austin and found players being paid cash prizes exceeding $5. That location shut down, when KXAN began asking questions about its operation. KXAN witnessed a separate gambling room on North Lamar being raided by SWAT officers. In 2012, a man was shot trying to rob an East Austin game room. Undercover investigation exposes illegal gambling in Central Texas Legislative Fix? To help local departments crack down on illegal game rooms, Rep. John Kuempel, R-Seguin, sponsored H.B. 1830. On May 7, the Texas House gave a final approval to the bill. It now heads to the State Senate.Tony Remeur received a shut-off notice for his electricity and gas. Like many of his neighbors he has owed money for necessary services from last winter's harsh weather. (Photo: John Grap/The Enquirer) Story Highlights From Oct. 1 through Sept. 12, Community Action helped pay 1,279 utility bills %u2014 more than $770,000. Electric utility assistance is among the top six unmet service requests at the 211 call center. Nearly half of all households in Calhoun County have incomes insufficient to cover basic needs. Tony Remeur just paid his outstanding electric and gas bills from last winter. The 34-year-old was behind in payment and received a shut-off notice. When he and his wife couldn't come up with the money, they turned to local social service agencies for help. They learned electric and gas aid in the summer was no longer available. Remeur's family, who lives in Battle Creek's Post Addition, is one of many households still suffering the financial effects of last year's winter. Even with energy assistance programs from the state and local nonprofits taking part in energy assistance, families are struggling to pay their bills. "I don't know where to turn," said Remeur. Nearly half of all households in Calhoun County have incomes insufficient to cover basic needs, according to
law in 2014 during its investigation into the IRS’ treatment of tea party groups. Pascrell first raised the idea of using the law again earlier this month, but was shot down by the Ways and Means Committee chair, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas). “If Congress begins to use its powers to rummage around in the tax returns of the president, what prevents Congress from doing the same to average Americans?” Brady told Politico at the time. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) slammed Republicans for blocking efforts to release the documents. “If there’s nothing there, then what are Republicans afraid of?” she said. The @HouseGOP are officially accomplices in the effort to hide POTUS’ tax returns from Americans. #DoYourJob https://t.co/4UKhqF5o93 — Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) February 28, 2017 Trump is the first president in modern history to not release his federal tax returns. He blamed the decision on an IRS audit, even though the bureau has said it’s fine for him to release them anyway. He has also said that Americans don’t care about his taxes, a statement that polls have repeatedly disproven. Demands for Trump to release information about his finances have not gone away since he took office. A White House petition demanding that the returns be made public has received over 1 million signatures. Democrats have said that the president’s tax returns could help clear up his relationship with Russia following reports that the country meddled in the U.S. election to help Trump win. Earlier on Monday, reporters asked House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) if Congress would consider issuing a subpoena over the returns.Signup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world In an article about civil service reform, Lord Tebbit managed to get on to the subject of transgender Muslim flight crew. Writing for the Telegraph website, the former Conservative cabinet minister and ex-Tory chairman accused successive governments, from Tony Blair to David Cameron, of being preoccupied with political correctness when it came to the appointment of civil servants. He wrote: “At the heart of the Blair reforms was the utterly insane dictum that ‘the senior ranks of the civil service should be representative of the community it serves’. “Try putting that into practice elsewhere. Who would feel safer if just before take-off the pilot of the airliner told the passengers that she had been promoted to command because they needed more transsexual Muslim captains to meet the airline’s inclusivity target? “The senior ranks of the civil service, flight deck crews, surgeons, or any job should be comprised of the best candidates regardless of sexual orientation, gender, ethnic origin or religion. “I did not support Margaret Thatcher because she was a woman any more than I support Savid Javid or Priti Patel because of their ethnicity. I support them for their qualities as politicians.” Before going into politics Lord Tebbit was a pilot in the RAF and for British Overseas Airways (which became British Airways in 1974). Earlier this month, Lord Tebbit said Tim Yeo’s “dodgy” views, such as supporting equal marriage, contributed to his de-selection as a 2015 Tory parliamentary candidate. However, the MP had faced criticism from within his constituency that he spent little time in the area. Lord Tebbit was one of the staunchest opponents against the government’s decision to legalise equal marriage during the debates in the House of Lords last year. He said that David Cameron had “fucked things up” by introducing same-sex marriage, as it would lead to incestuous or polygamous marriage. The peer also argued that gay people are not currently discriminated against as a gay man has the same right to marry a woman as he does. By coincidence, the first same-sex weddings in England and Wales will take place on the 82-year-old’s birthday, Saturday 29 March.“Things are going pretty much all right,” he said, but he declined to say whether French forces had engaged in any fighting with rebels or government soldiers. Image The seizure of Bangui is the most significant step yet for the rebellion by disgruntled guerrillas. Credit The New York Times In a statement on Sunday afternoon, President François Hollande of France appealed “to all parties for calm and for dialogue.” Mr. Hollande said he had “taken note” of Mr. Bozizé’s departure from the country. A State Department spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, said in a statement on Sunday that the United States was “deeply concerned about a serious deterioration in the security situation” in the Central African Republic. “We urgently call on the Seleka leadership which has taken control of Bangui to establish law and order in the city and to restore basic services of electricity and water,” the statement said. The chaos began in 2005, when small-scale rebellions erupted in the loosely governed and remote north, where the guerrilla alliance was born. The government appeared powerless to halt them. “The C.A.R. has become virtually a phantom state, lacking any meaningful institutional capacity,” the International Crisis Group said in report in 2010, noting that the country was in “permanent crisis.” Talks with the rebels in 2008 failed, just as they had before and would again; Mr. Bozizé relied on foreign governments to help pay civil servants in the capital, one of his few bases of support. “It is actually a country that is not governed,” said Thibaud Lesueur, an expert on the Central African Republic at the International Crisis Group. “There is a kind of immobilism that is very serious, a thorough absence of the state.” A failed coup in 2001 led to 300 deaths, and 50,000 people fled the capital. More fighting erupted in 2002 and 2003 between government troops and rebels. “Seleka is a coalition of rebel groups that already existed for some time,” Mr. Lesueur said. The takeover of the capital on Sunday was merely “something one could have feared for a long time,” he said. The grievances have remained consistent: lack of development in the north.Alex Challoner and Alex Cassun could live anywhere. Between them, the couple have lived in Scotland, London, Portland and most recently, Los Angeles. So why did they choose Pittsburgh, and specifically, Carrick? “I just fell in love with the idea of never driving anywhere,” says Cassun, 37. “We wanted somewhere on the East Coast that felt like a big city but wasn’t [like] London — a little more manageable, less expensive.” Originally from Utah, Cassun runs a small film production company, Indieground Films, where he’s currently working on a Budweiser commercial. (He knows another cinematographer who just moved to Carrick from L.A.) He met Alexandra Challoner, who’s from England, in L.A. “We’d gotten to the point where living in London was so expensive,” notes Challoner, 36, who was born in England. “The thought of buying a house there was a laughable idea. And L.A. was the same story, really. We reached the point where we were sick of renting, and wanted to buy a home of our own.” Pittsburgh kept coming up in conversations, and on lists of most affordable places to live. They even made their own charts ranking cities by different metrics and Pittsburgh kept coming out at or near the top. The house they found in Carrick was built in 1910 — which means lots of charm but also lots of work. It has four bedrooms but no kitchen. And while the place was very affordable — “it’s less than what we paid for parking in L.A.,” cracks Cassun — they are in the midst of major renovations, starting inside. “I wouldn’t say it’s grand, but it’s got so much charm to it,” says Cassun who is clearly enamored with his street and the neighborhood in general. “I don’t want to feel like we’re living in the suburbs, but I didn’t want the noise and crowd of the city.” He also appreciates the friendly nature of neighbors on the block. The elderly woman up the street visited and told them who used to live there, going through the entire history of the house. Cassun notes that they’ve encountered seven layers of wallpaper while renovating and he wonders who lived there during which wallpaper reign. A quiet renaissance Downtown and the East End tend to soak up the most attention in Pittsburgh, with all the fast-rising housing prices that go along with it. The southern hilltop neighborhoods such as Carrick are undergoing a much quieter renaissance, attracting new residents like the two Alexes, who are less concerned with trendy and more concerned with getting a great deal. Though the neighborhood is densely populated (just above 10,000 people, according to 2010 census data and the 5th largest neighborhood in Pittsburgh), their house — like so many in Pittsburgh — is set apart by a corner lot and a hill. “It feels like we’re isolated, even though there are people all around,” says Cassun. “People out in yards, growing plants, and flowers, so you could tell they care.” Since both of them work remotely — Challoner is a personal assistant to someone in L.A. — they are seriously considering opening a coffee shop in Carrick. “We used to run an afternoon tea stall in London,” says Cassun. “It was called Fanny’s Afternoon Tea. The full afternoon tea was called ‘The Fanny Pack.’” They’re looking at a place near the Carnegie Library on the main drag. “Somewhere for all ages to be able to go and hang out and have a coffee, or non-caffeinated beverage,” says Challoner. “The library is being renovated at the moment. I think that will be a really good thing for the neighborhood. But at the moment, there isn’t really a place to go and hang out and use a computer.” A good investment Another young resident who is happy with his decision to move to Carrick is Jonathan Harvat, who arrived in Pittsburgh nine years ago. He lived in seven apartments in seven years, from Uniontown to Brentwood. At some point, he fell in love with the South Hills and then discovered Carrick.News > ESPORT > DreamHack Open Bucharest Broadcast Team DreamHack Open Bucharest Broadcast Team Announced With less than a month until DreamHack Open 2014 officially kicks off with the first stop in Bucharest, DreamHack is proud to announce the first details of the broadcast for the tournament. DreamHack, along with EIZO, HyperX and Razer are proud to welcome Tasteless, Artosis, DeMusliM, iNcontroL, FunKa, and Smix to Bucharest and the first stop of DreamHack Open 2014! DreamHack Open Bucharest will take place April 26-27th and award $25,000 + 4,000 WCS points to the top placing competitors. As well, the top 4 finalists will be the first players to qualify to the year end grand finals at DreamHack Winter with $75,000 on the line! Passes for competing as well as spectating are still available, check here for details to experience DreamHack Bucharest live! Furthermore DreamHack is proud to announce with the new year we will continue to re-invent the way esports is broadcast to make for the most entertaining show possible. For this event we will debut our new style of broadcasting StarCraft® II, introducing a panel of experts which will be primarily hosted by Nick “Tasteless” Plott. He will be joined by Dan “Artosis” Stemkoski, Ben “DeMusliM” Baker and Geoff “iNcontroL” Robinson. These four will share the duty of commentating games so expect to see each paired with one another for the actual in-game commentary, but between games all four will discuss the happenings of DreamHack Open and keep track of the massive group stage going on! As well they will be checking in from time to time with our host and interviewer Sue “Smix” Lee, who will be speaking to players on stage as well as in the tournament area to really capture the feel of attending DreamHack Open live. We are of course very excited to have Artosis, Smix and iNcontroL, who were staples of DreamHack Open 2013 returning to help kick off DreamHack Open in style this year. As well as DeMusliM joining them, who is a relatively new face to DreamHack Open, but can help provide the perspective of a Terran player, which is so often missed. Throughout the tournament we will make the effort to invite any players who are interested to briefly join the panel to contribute to the discussion. Lastly it is a rare opportunity that Artosis’ partner-in-crime Tasteless pokes his head out from Korea to attend an international event, but we believe he is the perfect fit to tie this panel together and provide some humour along the way! Alexandre “FunKa” Verrier will be another new comer to DreamHack open, playing the role of in-game observer to make sure none of the action is missed. It is also with some regret that after commentating the last 18 consecutive events hosted by DreamHack for StarCraft® II, Shaun “Apollo” Clark will not be attending, as he will be in Australia for his brother’s wedding, we wish him and his family all the best and look forward to having him back for DreamHack Summer! Broadcast Schedule For those planning to tune in online, the group stages will play out on April 26th, beginning at 10:00 EET, lasting until approximately 22:00 EET. From here the playoffs occur on April 27th, with the round of 16 beginning at 12:00 EET, and the famous DreamHack Open top 8 show starting off at 17:00 EET with a scheduled start time for the grand finals of 00:15 EET. Note that all times are subject to change. The livestream will take place at http://www.twitch.tv/dreamhacksc2 and SVT will be providing coverage for the Swedish audience as well. DreamHack Open 2014 To get caught up on all the information featured in last week’s DreamHack Open 2014 announcement, check out the original news post here.Stanislas Wawrinka and Richard Gasquet are first-time United States Open semifinalists this year. Both are in their late 20s; both have glorious one-handed backhands that have been making tennis aesthetes go weak in the knees for years. But in the expectation game that is professional tennis, Wawrinka has had it easier. True, Wawrinka won the French Open junior title and looked like quite a prospect, but he was Swiss, and that meant the eyeballs and the pressure would always be on Roger Federer. Wawrinka, to put it colloquially, was gravy. Gasquet was in a tighter spot. France, with its rich tennis tradition and its gift for centralized organization, has long had plenty of excellent male players. What it has lacked since Yannick Noah won the French Open and leapt into his father’s arms in 1983 has been a Grand Slam champion, and even Noah could summon the focus and desire to win a big one just once. The speculation began very early for Gasquet, when he graced the cover of France’s Tennis Magazine at age 9 under a headline that asked, “The champion that France is waiting for?”You must enter the characters with black color that stand out from the other characters — The University of North Carolina System Board of Governors met behind closed doors Friday for more than four hours, but no one was talking about what they covered. Multiple sources told WRAL News that the meeting was called to interview Margaret Spellings, a former U.S. Secretary of Education under President George W. Bush, for the UNC president position that will be left open with the ouster of Tom Ross at the end of the calendar year. The handling of that hiring process has board members at odds with Chairman John Fennebresque. Although board members have said in interviews and in emails obtained by WRAL they don't have a problem with Spellings herself, they have issues with the process used to tap her as the apparent front runner. "Among other things, in your short tenure you have blocked board members from accessing university staff for public information about the system, botched President Ross’ termination, hired an incredibly controversial search consultant and barred two-thirds of the board from participating in the hiring process," Thom Goolsby, a Wilmington lawyer and former state senator, wrote to Fennebresque and other members of the board this week. Goolsby's letter went on to say that no matter how qualified Spellings or any other candidate might be, the process used to select her was so tainted Fennebresque could not hope to win confirmation. His letter has touched off a chorus of agreement and several more calls for Fennebresque to resign. "Sadly I concur with Mr. Goolsby. This presidential search has been handled poorly in my opinion and a change in leadership is needed," said BOG member C. Philip Beyers. A formal notice issued Thursday said the UNC Board of Governors would hold an emergency meeting at 1 p.m. Friday in Cary to receive an update from a committee looking for a new president of the state's public university system. It was at that meeting that Spellings was supposed to introduce herself to a board. Hers is the only name to surface so far in the search to replace Ross, but even the the manner in which Friday's meeting was called drew criticism. The UNC Board of Governors is a public body and can only hold meetings on short notice under special circumstances. Board member Marty Kotis, a Greensboro real estate developer, filed a formal objection saying Friday's session lacked such urgency. Kotis went on to write that the "Chairman has contrived this 'emergency' as a subterfuge" to circumvent instructions from lawmakers about how to conduct the search for a new president. Before leaving session at the end of September, lawmakers passed SB 670, which directs the 11-member committee searching for a new president to bring at least three names to the Board of Governors. That bill hasn't been signed yet and the governor doesn't have to take action until Oct. 30. Top legislative leaders have also raised questions about the search process, questioning why the board seems to be rushing before SB 670 can go into effect. "Calling an emergency meeting to discuss only one candidate could be viewed as the Board's attempt to circumvent the overwhelming will of the elected people of the State of North Carolina," a letter from House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate President Pro Temp Phil Berger reads. "Our concern is not about any candidate for the presidency but rather the process which at least a few members of the Board have utilized that appears to cut against the fundamental notions of transparency and due process." Before Friday's meeting convened, it appeared as if a good number of board members shared those concerns. "I feel strongly that the Chairman should resign and allow new leadership to move the process along and I feel strongly the candidate will be in a much better position to move the UNC System forward with healthy initiatives," Harry Smith, another member of the Board of Governor's wrote. "It's time for the board to unite and do great things it's my opinion with the current leadership that will be a challenge. John has no doubt given a tremendous amount of his time and energy to this board and I thank him for that we all should." Board members said in a statement that they are following the state's laws as amended. "We fully understand President Berger’s and Speaker Moore’s view that the recently passed Senate Bill 670 requires that the full Board of Governors consider the names of at least three final candidates," the board's statement said. "We share their desire that the final selection not be hurried or made without consideration by the entire board."“Gliniewicz committed the ultimate betrayal to the citizens he served,” Commander Filenko said. In a statement, the Gliniewicz family said that “today has been another day of deep sorrow.” The statement said the family had cooperated with the investigation and would have no further comment. Crucial evidence, investigators said, lay in 6,500 text messages that the lieutenant deleted shortly before he died, but that were recovered by the F.B.I.’s crime lab. The messages contained incriminating statements and evidence of his crimes, investigators said, and showed his growing fear of being caught. “The Village of Fox Lake had begun conducting a thorough internal audit of all of their assets,” Commander Filenko said. While the lieutenant was not yet a focus of the inquiry, “as we found indicated in some of those messages that were retrieved, that was a concern, that this audit was going to lead to discovery of his malfeasance.” The amount stolen was “in the five-figure range,” Commander Filenko said, and at least two other people were still under investigation. Image Lt. Charles J. Gliniewicz of the Fox Lake Police Department in Illinois. Credit Fox Lake Police Department, via Associated Press In texts released by investigators, Lieutenant Gliniewicz wrote to two unidentified people about his conflicts with a new city administrator. To one person, he wrote that he was in serious trouble “if she gets ahold of the old checking account,” and “you’ll have to start dumping money into that account or you’ll be visiting me in JAIL.” He added that he had closed one account and opened another “to keep it from being traced.”It was a little-noticed event, but one that is emblematic of why Donald Trump has done such a good job outsmarting Hillary Clinton. In a campaign appearance at the University of Northern Colorado a week ago, Trump posed for a photo holding a rainbow flag emblazoned with the words "LBGTs for Trump" as he accepted the endorsement of the Colorado Log Cabin Republicans. I challenge you to name one other Republican who could have pulled that off while also receiving the enthusiastic support of just about every redneck and cowboy within a hundred miles - which is a lot of rednecks and cowboys if my visits to Greeley are any indication. Ted Cruz? Marco Rubio? John Kasich? Not a chance. How about that Bush fellow? What was his name? Oh yeah, Jeb. Clinton supporters: Can you name a single thing Hillary has ever accomplished? \| Mulshine I have been been following Hillary Clinton's political career from the beginning, and I can't think of a single thing she ever accomplished; but perhaps you can. Here's your chance When this race started early last year, the consensus among the experts was that we were headed for another Bush-Clinton election. The Democrats kept their side of the bargain. As for the Republicans, they backed that guy whose supporters amounted to "something like 6 to 8 percent of the electorate overall, or about the same share of people who think the Apollo moon landing was faked." That was how noted statistician Nate Silver of the 538.com website assessed the Donald's chances back in 2015. Silver got everything right about the 2012 race when he was with the New York Times. So why did he get everything wrong about the Donald? Maybe he didn't listen to the guy who said "The presidency of the United States is not some crown to be passed between two families." That guy was not a Trump supporter. That was former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, who made a brief run against Hillary Clinton in the Democratic race before bowing out. That left Bernie Sanders. Sanders wasn't even a Democrat and he almost beat her. Donald Trump had it right on Vladimir Putin and ISIS; Chris Christie didn't have a clue \| Mulshine The effect of those Paris attacks will be to isolate even more those mainstream candidates like Chris Christie who wanted to pick a fight with Vladimir Putin; only Donald Trump realized he's our best ally against ISIS There was a message in that, but the Democrats may be learning it too late. They're stuck with their pretender to the throne while the Republicans are united behind a candidate who wants to end the monarchy. The reason this race has surprised so many pols and pundits is obvious: Hillary Clinton does not share her husband's penchant for what the media praised as "triangulation" back when the first Clinton was beating the first Bush. Here's how Clinton's svengali Dick Morris put it after that 1992 victory: "You take the best from each party and you bring it together in an amalgam of what the American people want. Triangulation was a method of moving the Democratic Party from here to here." Bill Clinton pulled that off by stealing Republican ideas on hot issues like welfare reform. Trump is doing it by stealing what used to be Democratic ideas in areas like trade and foreign policy. Jeb Bush: Donald Trump made short work of his claim that his brother "kept us safe" and that deposing Saddam Hussein was "a good deal." The most brilliant moment in either campaign came when the Donald confronted the Jeb over what the House of Bush considered to be its sainted legacy, the idea that Bush 43 "kept us safe" after 9/11 and also deposed the evil dictator of Iraq. The GOP hierarchy was shocked when Trump told Bush that 3,000 Americans had been killed by terrorists on his brother's watch - and that we'd have been better off leaving Saddam Hussein in charge of Iraq because at least he knew how to run the damn place. Most of the pundits portrayed this as a gaffe. In fact it was as brilliant a piece of triangulation as anything Bill Clinton ever pulled off. So was Trump's adoption of populist rhetoric on trade. Clinton didn't intend to run this race as the pro-intervention, pro-big business candidate. But that's the box into which Trump put her. The most insightful liberal commentary on this came the other day from historian Thomas Frank in the pages of The Guardian, a socialist newspaper from London. Frank is the author of a 2004 book about a state bordering Colorado, "What's the Matter with Kansas?" The matter was that Kansans voted Republican, he wrote, when their economic interests were better served by the Democrats. But now that he's had a chance to look at those emails hacked from the account of Clinton campaign chair John Podesta, Frank gives us a most insightful look at what he terms "the upper reaches of the American status hierarchy in all its righteousness and majesty" who vacation in Martha's Vineyard every summer. "Read these emails and you understand, with a start, that the people at the top tier of American life all know each other," he writes. "They are all engaged in promoting one another's careers, constantly." Of course the same is true of the Republicans who frequent the Bush compound up the coast a bit in Maine. But their candidate is safely back in Florida where he belongs. The Democrats' candidate is on the ballot - and this year that is a most precarious place to be. PLUS- NO HANKY-PANKY AT THE POLLS? The democrats - and the media - insist there is very little vote fraud going on in America for this election because so few people have been charged with it. That's like saying that almost no one drivers over the speed limit on the Parkway because just a few dozen tickets are given out each day. The fact is that most elections are not monitored and there are all sorts of ways to get unfair advantages. Check this article about a State Police raid of a get-out-the-vote operation in Pennsylvania that allegedly used fraudulent registration forms. You probably saw my prior post about "knock-and-drag" voter turnout operations in Philly. In it I mentioned how I was on a cruise with a bunch of left-wingers after the 2000 election when they all cheered a speaker who revealed an illegal "ground war" in Massachusetts that year. There's a lot of this going on in the big cities, boys and girls. See video below:Our revised updated meta-analysis adds nuance to the continuing debate on the effect of omega-3 PUFA supplementation on depressive symptoms in MDD. By addressing several issues as noted in the introduction, the present meta-analysis studied effects of omega-3 PUFA supplementation in all available evidence in a specific relatively homogeneous group of MDD subjects. Overall, with an standardized mean difference of 0.398 present meta-analysis shows a beneficial effect of omega-3 PUFAs that is comparable to effects reported in meta-analyses of antidepressants.43 Of note, this effect seemed larger in studies (1) supplementing higher doses of EPA and (2) performed in patients using antidepressants (augmentation/add-on), while it was independent of baseline depression severity or EPA/(EPA+DHA) ratio. However, more recent trials had smaller effect sizes, independent of trial quality. By including a relatively homogeneous group of patients with MDD according to DSM criteria as assessed using a standardized clinical interview, we aimed to enhance internal validity and generalizability of the present meta-analysis. Nevertheless, the included MDD patients still form a heterogeneous group including both subjects that will benefit from omega-3 PUFA supplementation and those that experience no or even negative effects.21 Several other unreported factors may influence the response to omega-3 PUFA, which could not be tested in the present meta-analysis and meta-regression, for example, measurements of inflammation or nutrigenetics.44, 45, 46, 47 Nevertheless, we were able to test sample and trial-related factors that may influence omega-3 PUFA response. In the present meta-analysis, response was independent of baseline MDD symptom severity. This may be because we included a relatively homogeneous sample of MDD patients in comparison with earlier meta-analyses that also included subjects with depressive symptoms.1 In contrast to the lack of effect of baseline severity, we noticed that the effects of supplementation seemed larger in patients being treated with antidepressants compared with patients not being concurrently treated with antidepressants. Of note, MDD baseline severity was not associated with percentage antidepressant use across trials (P=0.778). Therefore, this larger effect in trials where patients were being treated with antidepressants suggests an interaction between antidepressant use and omega-3 PUFAs at the biological level, for example, due to PUFAs’ modulating effect on neuronal membrane–antidepressant interactions or on inflammatory pathways.21, 45, 48, 49 In addition, omega-3 PUFAs may interfere with serotonergic neurotransmission,50 or antidepressant transport across the blood–brain barrier by influencing p-glycoprotein.51 It could be highly clinically relevant to follow up on this finding that omega-3 PUFAs seem to have more effect in studies where participants use antidepressants, by further investigating the interaction between omega-3 PUFAs and antidepressants from (integrated) biological and clinical perspectives. The present meta-regression finding that higher EPA dose was associated with better response, nuances an earlier meta-analysis that observed significant effects after applying a dichotomous cutoff at 60% EPA content.7 First, although it remained relatively unclear how this previous cutoff was derived, our regression model suggested a linear relationship in all the available data without using an artificial cutoff. In addition, the present meta-analysis also showed that EPA/(EPA+DHA) ratio had no significant effect, nor had DHA dose. Altogether, this suggests that it is not the ratio of EPA vs DHA that is important, but rather the higher EPA dose. Although hypothesized, it does not seem that DHA counteracts the effects of EPA (for example, by competition for target proteins or membrane incorporation);6, 52, 53 DHA simply has no detectable pooled effect on the MDD symptoms. Nevertheless, it remains surprising that EPA seems to be responsible for the beneficial effects of omega-3 PUFA supplementation while DHA concentrations appear to differ more between patients and controls.54 In addition, the regression effect of EPA dose on RCT outcome depended to some extent on one trial that supplemented the highest EPA concentration.26 On the basis of these findings, it could be argued that the beneficial effects of omega-3 PUFA supplementation are not because supplementation corrects a membrane DHA ‘deficit’, but rather due to the anti-inflammatory characteristics of EPA’s oxidation products.21 Future mechanistic studies in a more continuous dose range should follow up on these findings. However, these oxidation products may not have positive effects only. Relatively little is known about the precise role and effect of the great diversity of PUFA oxidation products. Although adverse events reported during the studies were usually mild and gastrointestinal in nature (for example, belching, constipation, fishy aftertaste), exposure to PUFA oxidation products with unknown effects may pose unknown risks in the long term.21, 47, 55 It may therefore be advisable to measure these oxidation products during future studies with a longer follow-up to obtain more insight in their potential toxicity. In addition, fishy aftertaste may result in unblinding, potentially distorting effect sizes.4, 56 The finding that more recent studies showed smaller effects remains puzzling. It seems independent from study quality, as we observed no association between study effect size and study quality operationalized as Jadad score. It may be that differences in background diet over time contributed to smaller effects of additional omega-3 PUFA supplementation. For example, even though studies usually excluded participants that used omega-3 PUFA supplements on their own initiative at baseline, it may be that participants started using omega-3 PUFA supplements during the study owing to their increasing popularity, thereby diminishing outcome differences in more recent trials. Unfortunately, not enough trials provided uniform data regarding baseline omega-3 PUFA status or intake to formally test this,57 which would be interesting in future research. Limitations and strengths Despite several strengths of this meta-analysis, some limitations should be noted. First, the present meta-analysis has not been performed on patient level data. It would be interesting to confirm these findings on a patient level. Moreover, this may also lead to additional predictors of supplementation outcome, giving rise to extra targets for future precision medicine studies. We hope researchers will be motivated to share and pool available data in the future. Furthermore, while the present meta-analysis had enough power to detect small-to-medium effect sizes, smaller regression effects may have been lost as a result of the smaller number of studies due to the specific in- and exclusion criteria. In addition, several concerns regarding the quality of the available evidence could be made,4 like in most meta-analyses. Further high-quality evidence to support a beneficial effect of EPA in (antidepressant using) MDD patients could lead to more precise estimates of overall effect size. Finally, to maintain power for the meta-regression regarding the effect of percentage antidepressant users on supplementation outcome, we pooled all concurrent antidepressant classes together, while the effects may differ per class. It would be interesting to further test this in future studies including users of different antidepressants. Nonetheless, the present study/analyses focused on studies that specifically included patients with MDD according to diagnostic criteria as ascertained with a structured clinical interview. We thus limited clinical heterogeneity while still maintaining a substantial overall sample size. As a second strength, by performing extensive nuanced a priori planned publication bias analyses and meta-regression analyses, we revealed new evidence for (1) an effect of EPA dose as opposed to EPA to DHA ratio and (2) an interaction between omega-3 PUFAs and antidepressants, both of which may be highly relevant for clinical practice. Conclusion In conclusion, the present meta-analysis observed a beneficial overall effect of omega-3 PUFA supplementation in patients with MDD according to diagnostic criteria, which seemed larger in studies that supplemented higher doses of EPA and included patients taking antidepressants. Future precision/personalized medicine trials should establish whether possible interactions between EPA and antidepressants could provide targets to improve antidepressant response and its prediction.48 Nevertheless, potential long-term biochemical side effects of high-dosed add-on EPA supplementation should be carefully monitored.21Just 9 years ago Bernie won the Vermont Democratic primary for the 2006 Senate race as a write-in candidate — there was no serious opposition — but he declined to accept the nomination. Why? Because he's always insisted he is NOT a Democrat. In fact, he has said that it would be hypocritical of him to run as a Democrat: "It would be hypocritical of me to run as a Democrat because of the things I have said about the party." - Socialist Scholars Conference in New York City, April 1990. Well, we're all free to change our minds, maybe Bernie doesn't think being a hypocrite isn't so bad any more. Or maybe he's just decided the Democratic Party isn't quite as disgusting as he used to think it was. But what exactly has Bernie said about the Democratic Party? Let Bernie tell you in his own words: "The Democratic and Republican parties are tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum, they both adhere to an ideology of greed and vulgarity." “Why should we work within the Democratic Party if we don’t agree with anything the Democratic Party says?” "The Democratic Party ideologically bankrupt, they have no ideology. Their ideology is opportunism.”- Interview with Vermont Affairs magazine, 1986, when he was running for Vermont Governor as an Independent against popular incumbent Democrat Madeleine Kunin, Vermont's first female Governor. Bernie got crushed, winning only 15% of the vote.- Op-ed in the New York Times, January 1989. Hmmm, 1989 - that would be right after Bush the Elder defeated Michael Dukakis using the blatant racist Wille Horton ads and the ads of Dukakis riding around in a tank looking awkward. Sorry Bernie, if you didn't see any difference between the Democratic and Republican Parties you just weren't paying attention. I knew then just as I do now exactly which one party "adheres" to greed and vulgarity.- Again, Socialist Scholars Conference in New York City, April 1990 Bernie was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1990. On his arrival he said: “I am extremely proud to be an independent. The fact that I am not a Democrat gives me the freedom to speak out on the floor of the House, to vote against both the Democratic and Republican proposals.” “He screams and hollers, but he is all alone.” “Bernie alienates his natural allies. His holier-than-thou attitude—saying in a very loud voice he is smarter than everyone else and purer than everyone else—really undercuts his effectiveness.” What did his Democratic colleagues think of him?- Rep. Joe Moakley (D-Mass.)- Rep. Barney Frank In a recent interview with Politico Sanders was asked that since he was running for the Democratic nomination for President why not become a Democrat? He wouldn't answer the question, responding instead with: "I’m running for the Democratic nomination. I will meet all the regulations and requirements. I look forward to doing that." That, Bernie, is what we call dodging the question. In a Presidential election the entire slate of Democratic candidates run as a team, From President to U.S. Senate and House candidate to Governors and state legislators. And that Democratic team is vitally important in 2016. We need to win back the Senate. We need to win dozens and dozens of House seats and put a serious dent
, Korea, Latvia, Macao, Mexico, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, province of China, The Netherlands, Tunisia, Turkey, the United States and Uruguay. (Some countries have more than one government entity on the list; Internet Explorer also trusts subnational governments like that of the Autonomous Community of Valencia in Spain, and government-affiliated organizations like the PRC's China Internet Network Information Center.) Although there is no public evidence that this power has been abused or that government-run CAs are less trustworthy than private-sector CAs, each of these states has the power to facilitate attacks on encryption anywhere in the world — not just in its territory or Internet domain. Certificate authorities get on browsers' trusted lists by making a public statement about how they operate and submitting to some sort of external audit. If they do their job properly, they make it easy for users to securely interact with web sites and services automatically, without having to somehow look up and manually verify encryption keys. Yet these organizations' position at the center of the web encryption infrastructure is largely unaccountable, since users will never know if a CA signs off on something untrue. But any CA could choose to do so. Given what we now know about the vulnerability of the trust infrastructure to both technological and legal interference, we urgently need a meaningful way to double-check the CAs. Soghoian and Stamm propose some mechanisms and offer a plug-in to give users browsers' more information about who is certifying sites and where the CAs are located, which could be of particular interest to those concerned about international espionage. Concerned by this and other research on the vulnerabilities introduced by CAs, EFF has also been working on concepts to help Internet users make use of many more sources of information to supplement and double-check the CAs — and help detect when they certify things that are not true. We will be publishing a whitepaper to outline some of our proposals in the near future. () As part of EFF's application to become an accredited NGO at the United Nations, we have been requested to use that organization's official terminology: Taiwan, province of China.The Royal Enfield Himalayan has finally entered the Indian two-wheeler market with an aggressive price point of ₹ 1.55 Lakh (ex-showroom, Munbai) and ₹ 1.78 Lakh (On-Road). The bike was one off the most awaited launched in 2016 and is the first ground-up, new Royal Enfield motorcycle to be launched in India. The model will also be sold in Delhi after initially facing a ban for registration, being a BS-III compliant unit and is priced at R.s 1.7 lakh (on-road, Delhi). Available in the NCR region like Gurgaon, Faridabad, Ghaziabad and Noida, the Himalayan is priced at ₹ 1.79 lakh (on-road). As of now customers in Delhi can go book the Himalayan, especially with the Ladakh season openin up soon. The company has said that it is working on the BS-IV compliant version, which should be ready to go on sale by April 2017. Royal Enfield Himalayan 1.79 Lakh * On Road Price (New Delhi) FIND OUT MORE Also Read: Why Royal Enfield Himalayan Will Not to Be Sold in Delhi (Royal Enfield Himalayan Launch) Royal Enfield has hardly left anything to our imagination and the bike was unveiled a day before the 2016 Auto Expo commenced. Having disclosed all the technical specifications then Royal Enfield has waited for more than a month to officially launch the bike along with the prices. The Himalayan has been one of the most anticipated launches of 2016 and is the first purpose built motorcycle to be introduced by any Indian manufacturer. The Himalayan will cater to those who have been looking forward to buy an affordable adventure tourer. At the heart of the Royal Enfield Himalayan is a 411cc air-cooled, single-cylinder engine with an overhead crank and carburetor that produces a healthy 24.5bhp at 6500rpm. Now don't be disappointed by these figures because at the end of the day the Himalayan is built for munching miles rather than win races and that is exactly what the bike is capable of doing with its massive 32Nm of peak torque which is achieved at 4500rpm. The low-end torque is impressive and comes in handy as you navigate through dirt tracks at low speeds or climb steep ascents. Unlike most of the other Royal Enfield motorcycles out there, the Himalayan's engine is smooth and feels much more refined. This can be seen when you start the engine as the carbureted motor puts out a relatively strong exhaust note with the occasional 'thump' to hear that will not disappoint RE aficionados who want to hear the bellow of the engine. Also Read: Royal Enfield Himalayan First Ride Review The Himalayan is built on an all-new frame and comes with features that have been developed for the sole purpose of making the bike a highly capable off-roader. The purpose built motorcycle comes shod of 21-inch front and a 17-inch rear wheels wrapped with dual purpose tyres from CEAT, a 15-litre fuel tank, 41mm telescopic front forks with 180mm travel, a Royal Enfield-first monoshock suspension at the rear and an underbelly skid plate. It also gets a ground clearance of 220mm, which is actually more than some of the Compact SUVs on sale here. Other features include a long visor, wide handlebars, upright riding position, new semi-digital and semi-analogue instrument cluster. Apart from that, the standard instrumentation also includes a compass and gear indicator which rings in a new generation of bikes from RE. We can tell that the company is moving in a new direction with this bike and is taking care of the needs of its customers. The Himalayan will be available only in two colours - Snow and Granite and will come with a range of accessories, apparels and gears for enthusiasts. The bike gets some strong metal frames on both sides of the tank and a large grab rail with a carrier to attach panniers and extra fuel cans. Royal Enfield also conveyed that it is likely to launch a fuel injected version of the bike with ABS sometime soon. The bike is future ready with provisions already made for the same. Certainly, the Himalayan is a big step up for the manufacturer. Dimensions Length 2190mm Width 840mm Height 1360mm Ground Clearance 220mm Seat Height 800mm Wheelbase 1465mm Specifications Engine 411cc Max Power 24.5bhp@6500rpm Max Torque 32Nm@4000-4500rpm Transmission 5-Speed constant mesh For the latest auto news and reviews, follow CarAndBike on Twitter, Facebook, and subscribe to our YouTube channel.SYDNEY--Hearing implant maker Cochlear Ltd. (COH.AU) won a court victory in the U.S. that could allow it to partially recoup a US$131.2 million damages payment. The Australian company said a judge in the Los Angeles district court ruled that three-out-of-four patent claims that a jury had previously found Cochlear had infringed upon were invalid. The judge, however, upheld the jury's verdict of "direct and contributory" infringement on the one remaining claim, although the jury's verdict of "wilful" infringement was also overturned. Cochlear continued to deny it breached any patents and said it would consider appealing any subsequent damages ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals. "While we appreciate the judge's thorough and detailed analysis of this case, we strongly believe the facts and law do not support the jury finding of infringement of the one remaining patent claim against Cochlear," Chris Roberts, the company's chief executive, said in a statement. The lawsuit was brought by the Alfred E. Mann Foundation for Scientific Research and rival implant maker Advanced Bionics LLC., a unit of Sonova Holding AG (SOON.VX) The judge overturned the full US$131.2 million in damages awarded by the jury. A new trial on damages will be held at a future date, Cochlear said. Write to Ross Kelly at ross.kelly@wsj.com Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwiresThe strained relationship between the Delhi Police and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal witnessed an interesting twist on Sunday when a constable filed a complaint against the CM for referring cops as "thullas". Constable Ajay filed a written complaint against Kejriwal in south Delhi's Lajpat Nagar police station for using derogatory language against policemen. Kejriwal, during an exclusive interview with India Today Group Consulting Editor Rajdeep Sardesai, was made to respond to a diverse set of questions ranging from his controversial TV ad campaign to his face-off with the Centre over the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) controversy. Responding to a question on the ACB row, Kejriwal, who has often accused the Centre of tying its hands over the law and order question, said, "These people want that even if a thulla (cop) is caught demanding money from the street vendors, we can't try him." Thulla is a slang mostly used in and around the national capital. Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi had reacted strongly to Kerjiwal's remark. "I refuse to believe the chief minister could have used such a word, but if he has, it is very unfortunate and derogatory," Bassi had said. One of the principal points of conflict between the Kejriwal government and the Centre is over the control of the Delhi Police, which the AAP leader, since his first 49-day stint in the national capital two years ago, wants to come under the control of the city government. That demand is also part of Kejriwal's argument towards making Delhi a full state, a plank he is now pursuing aggressively with plans to hold a referendum on it in future.Lionel Richie's daughter Sofia has made a name for herself in the fashion industry, but that doesn't mean she isn't subjected to everyday racism. Especially when people forget that she's actually black. “I’m very light, so some people don’t really know that I’m black,” Sofia Richie, 18, said in an interview with Complex. “I’ve been in situations where people will say something kind of racist, and I’ll step in and they’ll be like, ‘Oh, well, you’re light.’” And it's those statements that might cause her to go off. “‘That still doesn’t cut it, buddy,’” she responded. “‘It’s 2016—you better get your [s—t] together before you get slapped out here.’” As the daughter of a famous singer, Richie realizes that all eyes are on her, but she said her faith in God keeps her grounded, especially when it comes to relationships. Advertisement “One of the key factors of life is love, and the key factor of God is love, so having that understanding is really important in a relationship,” she explained. “Having someone that genuinely respects you and understands your life and is open to hearing about your life is really cool. Having someone to just open up to and talk to when [s—t] is bad and when [s—t] is great.” Richie also went on to discuss her possible music career but said she doesn't want to use her father's name as a crutch. “I wanted to have a music career for a long time. Music is my life, and it speaks to me—Rihanna, a lot of Frank Ocean, I love Shawn Mendes!” she said. “I just want to have my own direction and be free with it. I don’t want anyone to have a hold on me because of my dad.”On this date, March 3, 1968, Jean Beliveau scored for the Montreal Canadiens in a 5-2 loss to the Red Wings to become the second player in NHL history with 1,000 points. It was his 911th NHL game, 27 games earlier than Gordie Howe, who had reached point No. 1,000 on Nov. 27, 1960, his 938th NHL game. In honor of that Hall of Fame accomplishment, we wanted to share this great piece about Mr. Beliveau from the THW Archives, written by former contributor Kevin Hunter and originally published on Jan. 22, 2010. One of my fondest memories, from the time I was ten years old, was spending Tuesday nights with my dad at the Montreal Forum. At the time, Junior hockey was thriving with three teams representing Montreal – the Royals, the Nationales and the Junior Canadiens. Every Tuesday there was a doubleheader involving two of the teams and opponents from all over the province of Quebec. At that time, pre-draft, Canadiens owned the rights to each and every prospect in the Province of Quebec. By attending these games, avid hockey fans could see the future stars of the NHL as they grew into their professional careers. When the Quebec Citadelles came to town their star player was a smooth-skating, hard-shooting playmaker by the name of Jean Beliveau, already chosen by the fans and the press for a spot in the Hall of Fame. Playing right wing for the Nationales was another sure-fire pro with a wicked shot, Bernard Geoffrion, whom the press dubbed “Boom Boom”. The third major star in the QJHL was Dickie Moore, the leading scorer on the Montreal Junior Canadiens. Realizing the inevitable, Montreal hockey fans could not wait for this trio to make it to the big league and unite on a line for Les Canadiens. Visions of Stanley Cup championships danced in their heads. As the Montreal fans waited with bated breath, dark clouds appeared on the horizon of this blessed event. The owner of the Quebec Aces in the Quebec Senior Hockey League sat Beliveau down and convinced him to stay in Quebec City and play for the Aces, where he would pay him as well or better than they would in Montreal. Though Canadiens owned his pro-rights, the QSHL was still designated amateur, despite the salaries of the players, so there was no way he could be forced to join the NHL. For two years he stayed put and led the QSHL in scoring both years. In that second year, in a brief “tryout” stint of three games, the most allowed without turning pro, Beliveau scored five goals. Finally, in a brilliant strategic move, Frank Selke of the Canadiens bought the entire QSHL league, turned it pro, and told Beliveau to report in the fall to Montreal. Before leaving Quebec City in 1953, Jean proposed to and married Elaine Couture, the love of his life, a union that has lasted 58 years. That fall, the three junior stars were reunited on one line wearing the Bleu, Blanc et Rouge. It was the beginning of a magnificent career for the players and a lifetime of service to the team for the man. All three would end up in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Jerseys with the numbers 4, 5 and 12 fly high above the ice in the Bell Center, never to be worn again. Starting in 1953-54, Jean Beliveau played eighteen full seasons for the Canadiens, retiring in 1971. In those years he broke all the team’s scoring records, winning ten Stanley Cups in the process, five as Captain. He was awarded the first Conn Smythe trophy in its inception year (1965), two Hart trophies for MVP and one Art Ross trophy, winning the scoring championship in 1955-56. His reign as the dominant center in the league created thrill after thrill, night after night, for his loyal fans who filled every seat in the Forum every night he played. After retiring as a player Beliveau joined the front office as the Canadiens’ Ambassador at Large, thus having his name inscribed on the Stanley Cup seven more times as an executive, making a total of seventeen rings. Through all this he has remained above all a loyal husband, father and grandfather to his girls. When offered the office of Governor-General of Canada a few years ago, he graciously declined, not wanting to spend that much time away from his family. Le Gros Bill, as he was affectionately called, accomplished all of his boyhood dreams on and off the ice but, most of all, he quietly led the league in Class. Get well soon, Mr. Beliveau.* * * * * Нам нравится думать, что мы являемся рационально мыслящими людьми, однако спешим Вас огорчить. Мы все мыслим неразумно, иррационально.В течение долгого времени исследователи и экономисты считали, что люди всегда принимают логичные, хорошо продуманные решения. Тем не менее, за последние десятилетия учёными был обнаружен широкий спектр ментальных ошибок, которые подорвали репутацию нашего мышления. Время от времени мы способны принимать правильные решения, но в большинстве случаев мы делаем странный, иррациональный выбор, исходя из своих эмоций.Психологи и исследователи поведения человека очень любят изучать различные ментальные ошибки. Их существует очень много, и каждая из них имеет причудливое название вроде «эффект простого нахождения в поле зрения» или «ошибка нарратива». Мы не будем вдаваться в научные термины рассматривать все ментальные ошибки, а уделим внимание лишь тем, которые чаще всего проявляются в нашей жизни, и постараемся объяснить их простым для понимания языком.Ниже представлены пять самых распространённых ментальных ошибок, которые уводят Вас от принятия правильных решений.Сегодня практически все популярные онлайн-СМИ наполнены систематическими ошибками выжившего (англ. survivorship bias). Заголовки вроде «8 вещей, которые успешные люди делают каждый день», «Лучшие советы, которые когда-либо получал Ричард Брэнсон» или «Как Леброн Джеймс тренируется в межсезонье» – это систематические ошибки выжившего в действии.Систематические ошибки выжившего относятся к нашей склонности фокусироваться на победителях в какой-либо отдельной области и учиться у них, совершенно забывая при этом о проигравших, которые использовали ту же стратегию.Существуют тысячи спортсменов, которые тренируются так же, как Леброн Джеймс, однако они не смогли попасть в НБА. Проблема заключается в том, что никто не слышал о тех тысячах спортсменов, которые не смогли добраться до вершины. Мы слышим только о людях, которые «выжили». Мы ошибочно переоцениваем стратегии, тактики и советы одного «выжившего», игнорируя тот факт, что они не работают для большинства людей.Другой пример: «Ричард Брэнсон, Билл Гейтс и Марк Цукерберг бросили школу и стали миллиардерами! Вам не нужна школа, чтобы добиться успеха. Предпринимателям просто нужно перестать тратить время на учёбу и заняться делом».На каждого Брэнсона, Гейтса и Цукерберга надеется по несколько тысяч других предпринимателей, которые потерпели крах, залезли в долги и остались с незаконченным образованием. Систематические ошибки выжившего говорят о том, что мы не знаем, как та или иная стратегия проявит себя конкретно в нашем случае.Поскольку о победителях часто вспоминают, а о проигравших вообще забывают, становится очень сложно определить, приведёт ли к успеху та или иная стратегия либо нет.Страх перед потерями (англ. loss aversion) относится к нашей склонности решительно избегать потерь на пути к приобретению прибыли. Результаты исследований показывают, что если кто-то даст Вам 10 долларов, Вы испытаете небольшой прирост удовлетворенности. Но если Вы лишитесь 10 долларов, то испытаете значительно более высокую потерю удовлетворённости. Да, реакции противоположны, но они равны по величине.Наша склонность избегать потерь заставляет нас принимать глупые решения и менять своё поведение только ради того, чтобы сохранить те вещи, которые у нас уже есть. Мы стремимся защитить вещи, которые имеем, и это может привести к тому, что мы будем слишком переоценивать их, по сравнению с другими возможными вариантами.Например, если Вы купите новые туфли, это принесёт Вам небольшой прирост удовольствия. Если Вы ни разу не смогли надеть эти туфли и решили их продать спустя несколько месяцев, то данный шаг, скорее всего, окажется для Вас невероятно болезненным. Вы никогда не носили их, но по какой-то причине не можете расстаться с ними. Страх перед потерями.Точно так же, Вы можете почувствовать маленькую частичку радости, когда по пути на работу все светофоры будут гореть для Вас зелёным светом, но если водитель автомобиля перед Вами замешкается, и Вы упустите возможность проскочить на зелёный свет, то Вас охватит чувство злости. Боль от потери возможности гораздо сильнее, чем удовольствие, возникшее вначале.Эвристика доступности (англ. availability heuristic) – это весьма распространённая ошибка, которую наш мозг делает, предполагая, что примеры, легко приходящие нам на ум, являются самыми важными или превалирующими вещами.Результаты исследования, проведённого Стивеном Пинкером из Гарвардского университета, показали, что мы живём в наименее жестокое время в истории человечества. Сегодня намного больше людей, живущих в мире, чем когда-либо. Число убийств, изнасилований, сексуальных домогательств и случаев жестокого обращения с детьми неуклонно снижается.Многие люди удивляются, когда слышат эти статистические данные. Некоторые до сих пор отказываются в них верить. Если мы живём в самое мирное время в истории, тогда почему в мире происходит так много войн прямо сейчас? Почему каждый день мы слышим новости о том, что где-то кого-то убили или изнасиловали? Почему так часто случаются террористические акты и разрушения?Добро пожаловать в эвристику доступности.Ответ заключается в том, что мы живём в мире, где о каждом событии тут же становится всем известно. Информация о какой-либо катастрофе или преступлении является широкодоступной, как никогда прежде. Зайдите в Интернет, и Вы найдёте столько информации о недавних событиях, сколько вряд ли бы уместилось в одном выпуске газеты сто лет назад.Общий процент опасных событий уменьшается, однако вероятность того, что Вы услышите о них, возрастает. И поскольку информация об этих событиях всегда доступна, наш мозг считает, что они происходят с большей частотой, чем есть на самом деле.Мы переоцениваем влияние того, о чём помним, и недооцениваем превалирование событий, о которых мы ничего не слышали.Недалеко от моего дома есть кафе быстрого питания, где продают очень вкусные бургеры с сыром. В меню указано большими буквами: «ДЛЯ ОДНОГО БУРГЕРА МОЖНО ВЫБРАТЬ МАКСИМУМ 6 ВИДОВ СЫРА».Моя первая мысль: это абсурд. Кто захочет заказать бургер с шестью видами сыра?Вторая мысль: какие шесть видов сыра выбрал бы я?Я не задумывался над тем, какими гениальными являются владельцы кафе, до тех пор, пока не узнал об эффекте привязки (или якоря; англ. anchoring). Видите ли, заказывая здесь бургер, я, как правило, выбирал какой-то один вид сыра. Но после того как я прочитал в меню «ДЛЯ ОДНОГО БУРГЕРА МОЖНО ВЫБРАТЬ МАКСИМУМ 6 ВИДОВ СЫРА», мой мозг привязался к тому, что можно заказать больше сыра, чем обычно.Большинство людей не станут заказывать шесть видов сыра, однако этой привязки достаточно для того, чтобы с одного кусочка перейти к двум или трём, увеличив таким образом стоимость бургера на пару баксов.Этот эффект часто используют в коммерческой сфере. Например, бизнесмены обнаружили, что если установить лимит, например, «12 штук товара в руки», то люди будут покупать в два раза больше, чем обычно.Но, пожалуй, самой распространённой сферой, где применяется эффект привязки, является ценообразование. Если Вы увидите на часах в магазине ценник 500 долларов, то посчитаете их слишком дорогими для своего бюджета. Однако если, зайдя в магазин, Вы сначала увидите часы за 5000 долларов, а потом – за 500, то цена на последние покажется Вам вполне разумной. Большинство продуктов премиум-класса играют очень важную роль: они позволяют товарам среднего ценового диапазона казаться дешевле, чем есть на самом деле.Склонность к подтверждению своей точки зрения (англ. confirmation bias) – это тенденция искать или отдавать предпочтение информации, которая подтверждает наши убеждения, и вместе с тем игнорировать или обесценивать то, что им противоречит.Например, Человек А считает, что изменения климата – это серьёзная проблема, поэтому он ищет и читает только статьи и книги о сохранении окружающей среды, изменениях климата и возобновляемых источниках энергии. Как результат, Человек А продолжает подтверждать и подкреплять свои текущие убеждения.В свою очередь, Человек Б не верит в то, что изменение климата является серьёзной проблемой, поэтому ищет и читает только те материалы, в которых изменение климата называют мифом. Как результат, Человек Б продолжает подтверждать и подкреплять свои текущие убеждения.Изменить свою точку зрения не так просто, как кажется. Чем дольше Вы верите во что-либо, тем больше игнорируете и фильтруете всю противоположную информацию.Другой пример. Если Вы только что приобрели Honda Accord, считая его лучшим автомобилем на рынке, то, естественно, будете читать только те статьи, в которых хвалят эту машину. Между тем, если Вы в каком-то журнале наткнётесь на информацию о том, что автомобилем года был выбран, к примеру, Chevrolet Impala, Вы отвергнете её, посчитаете ошибкой или найдёте какое-либо другое оправдание.Большинство людей не хотят новой информации, они стремятся к подтверждению того, что уже знают.После прочтения данной статьи у Вас возникнет вопрос: как заставить мозг не делать эти ошибки?Для начала не думайте о них как о признаке того, что Ваш мозг работает неправильно. Рассматривайте их как свидетельство того, что ярлыки, используемые мозгом, не всегда несут с собой пользу. Существует множество сфер повседневной жизни, где психические процессы, упомянутые выше, являются невероятно полезными, поэтому не стоит от них избавляться.Проблема заключается в том, что наш мозг настолько хорошо выполняет эти функции, что мы, в конечном счёте, используем их в ситуациях, в которых они проявляют себя негативно. В таких случаях самосознание является одним из лучших вариантов решения проблемы. P.S. Меня зовут Александр. Это мой личный, независимый проект. Я очень рад, если Вам понравилась статья. Хотите помочь сайту? Просто посмотрите ниже рекламу, того что вы недавно искали. Copyright Muz4in.Net © - Данная новость принадлежит Muz4in.Net, и являются интеллектуальной собственностью блога, охраняется законом об авторском праве и не может быть использована где-либо без активной ссылки на источник. Подробнее читать - "об Авторстве" Вы это искали? Быть может это то, что Вы так давно не могли найти?With today's release of the Ryzen 3 processors, AMD completes the circle of the mainstream Ryzen processor family. Starting with the 8-core Ryzen 7 that disrupted the high end of the market, followed by the Ryzen 5 that shook up the Core i5 segment, Ryzen 3 goes after the world of the Core i3 targeting budget PC builders, gamers, and even enterprising business consumers willing to build their own machines or looking for information here on what to select. We already learned about the Ryzen 3 products launching today, the 1300X and the 1200, from a video that AMD CEO Lisa Su posted a couple of weeks ago. But pricing and performance were still an unknown, both of which we are going to show you in great detail today. What can a $129 and $109 processor get you with four true cores? As you'll soon see, the Ryzen 3 product family competes against the Intel Core i3 line in terms of pricing but is definitely a concern for the Core i5 family when it comes to multi-threaded workloads. Let's dive into the specifications and see what AMD has put together for us. Specifications The devil is in the details and as we will see the core counts and clock speeds of Ryzen 3 make it very compelling for a wide range of consumers. Ryzen 3 1300X Ryzen 3 1200 Pentium G4560 Core i3-7100 Core i3-7350K Ryzen 5 1600X Ryzen 5 1500X Core i5-7600K Core i5-7500 Architecture Zen Zen Kaby Lake Kaby Lake Kaby Lake Zen Zen Kaby Lake Kaby Lake Process Tech 14nm 14nm 14nm+ 14nm+ 14nm+ 14nm 14nm 14nm+ 14nm+ Cores/Threads 4/4 4/4 2/4 2/4 2/4 6/12 4/8 4/4 4/4 Base Clock 3.4 GHz 3.1 GHz 3.5 GHz 3.9 GHz 4.2 GHz 3.6 GHz 3.5 GHz 3.8 GHz 3.4 GHz Turbo/Boost Clock 3.7 GHz 3.4 GHz - - - 4.0 GHz 3.7 GHz 4.2 GHz 3.8 GHz Cache 8MB 8MB 3MB 3MB 4MB 16MB 16MB 6MB 6MB Memory Support DDR4-2400 Dual Channel DDR4-2400 Dual Channel DDR4-2400 Dual Channel DDR4-2400 Dual Channel DDR4-2400 Dual Channel DDR4-2400 Dual Channel DDR4-2400 Dual Channel DDR4-2400 Dual Channel DDR4-2400 Dual Channel TDP 65 watts 65 watts 54 watts 51 watts 60 watts 95 watts 65 watts 91 watts 65 watts Price $129 $109 $80 $119 $149 $229 $189 $239 $204 Continue reading our review of the AMD Ryzen 3 1300X and 1200 processors! Both the Ryzen 3 1300X and the Ryzen 3 1200 are four-core, four-thread CPUs, marking the first time we have seen a Zen-based design not utilize the company's implementation of SMT. AMD made the decision to target the Core i3 family that largely uses dual-core HyperThreaded configuration with a "four true core" mentality, counting on the ability of native cores to scale better than Intel's SMT implementation. Intel's advantage lies in both IPC (instructions per clock) and that the Core i3 processors all hit much higher frequencies than the Ryzen 3 equivalents. The Core i3-7350K for example runs at 4.2 GHz so that even without Turbo technology, it will be running 500-1000 MHz faster than the Ryzen solutions across the board. The Core i3 and even the Core i5 CPUs we are looking at today max out at DDR4-2400 for officially memory speeds, and the Ryzen 3 CPUs will hit DDR4-2400 officially with easy jumps to higher clock rates like DDR4-3200. Because of the fabric interconnect differences between the Ryzen and Core i3/i5 processors, that additional memory speed actually means quite a bit more to the AMD hardware; something we have observed and commented on many times in the recent past. TDP is an interesting discussion as both Ryzen 3 parts are labeled as 65 watts. Actual measured power draw wasn't so homogenous and in our previous Ryzen testing. The required power draw for Ryzen exceeds that of equivalent Intel hardware. The Core i5 CPU has a TDP of 65 watts but the Core i3 processors only claim 60-51 watts of power. The Ryzen 3 1300X has a price tag of $129, putting it squarely between our Core i3-7100 and Core i3-7350K. The Ryzen 3 1200 is only $20 less but that puts it under the price of the 7100, but still another $20 higher than the Pentium G4560. It will be interesting to see how the performance picture plays itself out. Both of the Ryzen 3 retail boxes will ship with a Wraith cooler in the box. The Platforms The AM4 socket remains unchanged as do the platforms that Ryzen 3 can operate in. The X370, B350, and A320 chipsets can all run the Ryzen 3 hardware though because of the pricing scheme, its likely we would only see buyers use A320 or B350 motherboards in these builds. For those of us on a budget, a Ryzen 3 CPU with an A320 motherboard (which range in the ~$60 area) can provide a great value. Compared to the higher end chipsets, the A320 lacks multi-GPU support and CPU overclocking capability - if you aren't interested in getting your hands dirty with settings adjustments, the A320 will offer the same memory and performance capability while saving you $20-30 over matching B350 offerings. (Note that while CPU overclocking is locked out of A320, memory overclocking and XFR are still supported.) Core to Core Latency Testing Though I had no inclination that this area of interest would change or shift with Ryzen 3 compared to the Ryzen 7 or Ryzen 5 hardware, we ran the core-to-core latency application on the Ryzen 3 1300X CPU to see if it fell in line with expectations. The results are where I thought they would end up - when running the memory at 2400 MHz (the same we used as default with Ryzen 7/5), the CCX to CCX latency creeps past the 130ns mark. Because of the four core configuration we have a pair of discrete cores on each CCX enabled, showing us the lower, expected latency timings when communicating across the same CCX. Performance expectations for workloads like 1080p gaming based on this data should be very similar to the Ryzen 5, which was also two cores per CCX, though with SMT enabled.James Hertler, below, shut down Lucky Break Billiards in September, a month after police cracked down over BYOB issues. (Click to enlarge) By JOHN T. WARD How’s this for an auspicious start for a business? • In early 2011, in an effort to spice up nightlife, Red Bank Mayor Pasquale Menna spearheads a zoning law change to allow billiards parlors and other entertainment-based businesses to operate downtown. • Several months later, former Mayor Ed McKenna, as lawyer on a lease for a planned billiards parlor, calls now-deceased police Chief Steve McCarthy to confirm that it could operate as a bring-your-own-beer and wine establishment. McKenna gets an OK, he tells his client, James Hertler, who was in McKenna’s office during the call. • That October, Hertler goes before the zoning board and wins quick, unanimous approval of his plan for Lucky Break Billiards. Throughout its lengthy resolution of
greatest success, un-tweeted tweetnotes on why it struggles. SPOILERS throughout. It’s All About Death In SPECTRE Bond is the agent of death who must go from killer to saviour. And the whole movie circles around this message. Or did you miss the mask he was wearing at the start? From Blofeld’s discussion of the man he and James saw snuffed out to M’s explanation that Bond’s is also a licence not to kill, it’s all utterly on-point. The funeral, the Day of the Dead parade, even the clinic Swann works at where prolonging life is the aim (even if you’re miserably downing health shakes to do it). There are dead parents all over the shop. Bond’s mum and dad, Oberhauser Snr., Swann’s poisoned pop, even the previous M. And boy do those lost Bond Girls get mentioned. But that tells you SPECTRE is about death. Why is it about changing Bond? It’s All In The Structure : The Blown Roses What happens as standard in Daniel Craig Bond films? In Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace and Skyfall there are key things that always go the same way. When SPECTRE diverts away from them, it makes a statement. Informant Bond Girls die. That’s the standard. They sleep with 007, help him out, and the moment he leaves them alone, they’re in danger. Solange hammocked to death in Casino Royale, Fields drowned in oil, Severine William Telled. All imperilled while Bond was absent. Even Dench’s M, figuratively his Bond Girl for Craig’s third film — and with whom there’s a mother-son subtext we’d better not dwell on too closely — only gets to start dying when she’s torn away from Bond as Skyfall burns. In SPECTRE Monica Bellucci’s character, Lucia Sciarra, lives. And let’s be clear: she lives in spite of what’s around her. She’s defined as a widow, the funeral is a haunting, lingering, black-and-white thing. She’s marked by death, and then Bond walks up to her… And we cut. We cut to her life. A miserable final drink at home as assassins come for her. We’ve stopped following Bond — a rare thing in these movies — and for a moment she’s the lead. Two figures line up to execute her. And Bond takes them out. If you think that’s normal Bond, look again. Typically we get those scenes from his perspective, not hers. This is all about her reaction, not his action. It’s not an action hero facing the odds, it’s a sudden reprieve from a saviour. And then, okay, back to normal. They do sex. But after? Bond’s doing his usual thing of walking away with the information he wanted, leaving the woman — Solange, Fields, Severine, whoever — behind, alone. And to be a Bond conquest is to be marked for death once he’s left the room. Bond leaves Lucia a phone number. He puts her under the care of Felix Leiter. It’s perhaps the only name you could mention, loaded with history as it is, that would immediately make you feel she’s safe. Felix isn’t in the movie, but his name carries weight…and by not being in the movie, oddly, we know he can’t screw up the job. Lucia will survive. Bond’s found a way to offer aftercare. By the way, if you think this ‘parallels across movies’ stuff is unintentional, have a look at the relative finales of Casino and Quantum: first Bond loses a woman to water, then he saves a woman from fire. There’s intent here. It’s All In The Structure: The Hit Men What else happens as standard in Daniel Craig Bond films? In Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace and Skyfall there are killers for hire who Bond chases down for information, but whom he’s forced to kill before they can be useful. They’re all people who run along rooftops, too. Parkour-ing bomb-maker Mollaka, M’s traitorous bodyguard Mitchell, Skyfall’s train-topping, building-dropping Patrice — each film shows Bond trying to execute an intelligence mission only for it to fall into death. Death Bond delivers. SPECTRE starts this way too, with Sciarra dropped out of a helicopter rather than being usefully interrogated. But that leads 007 to The Pale King, aka Mr White. Standard Bondian procedure would lead to a rooftop chase and an unfortunate execution. But Bond shows up and White is in the basement (as far from a roof as one can get)…and he’s already dying. Poisoned and rotting, the man-corpse White faces perhaps Craig-Bond’s first civilised, sit-down interrogation. Bond’s only just ahead, but he’s beaten the reaper. And when it’s time to die, White executes himself, without provocation. The Bond of SPECTRE has grown. He’s no longer death incarnate. And if he can just persuade Madeleine Swann of that, he might have a shot at becoming a rounded human, beyond the hollowed-out shell of duty he became in those first two (Craig) films. And what do you know, it works! Come the finale of SPECTRE, Bond’s in the role of merciful saviour. We get a third act where he personally kills practically no-one — possibly two men who have him hooded at gunpoint, and a helicopter pilot; no character with a name. A record low for third-act 007. Instead, Bond becomes saviour to a captured Swann and then allows Blofeld to live. It’s a conclusion that only works, if it does, because the theme of the film is Bond’s transition from death-bringer to saviour.T here was an extraordinary here was an extraordinary report in Tuesday’s Washington Post about the Clinton e-mail investigation. It involved the government’s interview of longtime Clinton consigliere Cheryl Mills. It details how Justice Department attorneys made an agreement with Mills’s attorney to cut off questioning about a key aspect of the case. Mills, who is a lawyer, was represented at the interview by a lawyer named Beth Wilkinson. As is customary in these situations, the questioning was conducted jointly by FBI agents and Justice Department prosecutors. Yet when things got dicey, it seems the Justice Department prosecutors worked jointly with Ms. Wilkinson to block the FBI from asking about Mills’s collusion with Clinton in the belated provision of thousands of Clinton’s e-mails to State — provided only after nearly 32,000 of those e-mails were deleted. The Post’s Matt Zapotosky describes the incident this way: Near the beginning of a recent interview, an FBI investigator broached a topic with longtime Hillary Clinton aide Cheryl Mills that her lawyer and the Justice Department had agreed would be off-limits, according to several people familiar with the matter. Mills and her lawyer left the room — though both returned a short time later — and prosecutors were somewhat taken aback that their FBI colleague had ventured beyond what was anticipated, the people said. The report subsequently elaborates (the italics are mine): The questions that were considered off-limits had to do with the procedure used to produce e-mails to the State Department so they could possibly be released publicly, the people said. Mills, an attorney herself, was not supposed to be asked questions about that — and ultimately never was in the recent interview — because it was considered confidential as an example of attorney-client privilege, the people said. Though reported matter-of-factly, this is quite amazing. The first remarkable thing to note is that there is a press report at all. This is supposed to have been a law-enforcement interview in a criminal investigation. Those are supposed to be non-public, much like grand-jury proceedings. You may recall that there are various ongoing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits in which journalists and watchdog groups are seeking access to information about Mrs. Clinton’s improper private e-mail system. While the Obama State Department has been slow-walking disclosures, the Obama Justice Department has been fighting off the FOIA lawsuits by representing to federal judges that allowing information to become public at this time could compromise the FBI’s investigation. Yet the Post can only have gotten the information published in its report from leaks by the Justice Department. Indeed, Mr. Zapotosky writes that goings-on in the Mills interview were described to the Post “by several people, including U.S. law enforcement officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing and those involved could face professional consequences for discussing it publicly.” (Emphasis added.) Isn’t that special? The “U.S. law enforcement officials” know it is unethical for them to be speaking about what happened in an investigative interview. Do they resolve this ethical “dilemma” by ethically refraining from comment? No, they unethically leak to the press in cowardly anonymity — your government at work. It is even possible (though by no means certain) that the Post’s pipeline includes a government lawyer who participated in the interview. It is interesting, to say the least, that the report, which heavily relies on anonymous government sources, somehow manages not to reveal the names of the government officials who participated in the events the report describes. The other preliminary matter worth noting here is that the Post is completely in the tank for Mrs. Clinton and her minions. So what are we to make of the fact that the Obama Justice Department chose the Post to funnel its leak to? The upshot of the Post’s patent partisanship is that we do not learn key details that paper is no doubt in a position to tell us. The report advises us that “so far, investigators have found scant evidence tying Clinton to criminal wrongdoing” — and how would the Post know that? In the middle of the report, moreover, readers are invited — in blue italics — to check out another report entitled, “Officials: Scant evidence that Clinton had malicious intent in handling of e-mails.” Sounds great for her... especially since they conveniently fail to tell you that “malicious intent” is not required to prove felonious mishandling of classified information. In fact, gross negligence would do, so if there really is even “scant” evidence of malicious intent, that suggests it would be fairly easy to prove the crime. Details, details. In any event, the upshot of the Post’s patent partisanship is that we do not learn key details that paper is no doubt in a position to tell us (especially since the article makes clear that Ms. Wilkinson, Mills’s lawyer, is also a very willing source). For example, did Mills get immunity? What is Mills’s status? Were there conditions placed on her interview? Would she really voluntarily cooperate, no strings attached, with government officials who have prosecutorial authority? After all, Mills has a record of being uncooperative even under circumstances where government investigators were not in a position to file criminal charges against her. For example, earlier this year, a State Department inspector general (IG) issued a report regarding the department’s appalling record of non-compliance with FOIA during Clinton’s tenure. It noted that Mills was well aware that Clinton’s e-mails circumvented State’s filing system and therefore were not searched in order to determine whether some were responsive to FOIA requests. This was a violation of federal law, which requires each government agency to undertake a search that is “reasonably calculated to uncover all relevant documents.” (See Report at p. 8 & n.29 and pp. 14-15.) Mills not only failed to ensure that such a search was done; she knowingly allowed the State Department to represent — falsely, it turned out — that it possessed no responsive documents. We now know that, when IG investigators attempted to question Mills to ascertain why she did that, she told them, through her lawyer, that she refused to speak with them. (See January 27, 2016, letter of Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Charles Grassley (R., Iowa) to Secretary of State John F. Kerry.) She had good reason to take that position: Obstructing an agency’s lawful compliance with a FOIA request could constitute a felony. For present purposes, though, the point is that Mills’s refusal to cooperate with the State Department IG suggests she has concerns about potential criminal jeopardy. It thus seems highly unlikely that she consented to an interview by FBI agents conducting a criminal investigation unless she was given some form of immunity. As I have previously explained, a person in her position generally has three choices: (a) she could assert her Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination and refuse to submit to FBI questioning unless the government gave her immunity from prosecution — which would be legally prudent but, if it became public, politically lethal; (b) she could agree to testify before the grand jury, during which she would have to face questions from a prosecutor and the grand jury without having her lawyer present, and would risk incriminating herself; or (c) she could agree to submit to an interview by agents and prosecutors, with her attorney permitted to be present, in exchange for qualified immunity. This qualified form of immunity would be memorialized in a proffer agreement — the so-called Queen for a Day arrangement — in which the government agrees not to use the witness’s interview statements against her at any future proceeding. (There are some important reservations, including the right to prosecute the witness for any false statements during the interview.) Option (c) is the usual preference for “cooperative” witnesses who have potential criminal exposure but feel they can’t afford to take the Fifth for political reasons. It allows their lawyers to be active participants in the interview — to call timeout, for example, if questioning paints the witness into a corner where she must either admit guilt or lie. So was Mills given at least qualified immunity in exchange for answering the FBI’s questions? The Post doesn’t tell us. By contrast, the Post takes pains to note that Brian Pagliano, the old Clinton hand who was hired by the State Department during Hillary’s tenure and serviced her homebrew server, “was granted immunity so he would cooperate as part of the probe.” Oddly, Mr. Zapotosky immediately follows that fact with the assertion that “there is no indication a grand jury has been convened in the case.” But a grant of immunity is an indication that grand-jury activity may be underway. We don’t know what kind of immunity Pagliano got. If it was full immunity by judicial order, however, that would be for the express purpose of grand-jury testimony. And if it was qualified immunity, it would likely be because the government anticipates his cooperation in making a case against other suspects — which would require a grand-jury indictment. That brings us to the most intriguing part of the Post’s report. Again, the Post says the FBI tried to ask Mills about “the procedure used to produce [Clinton’s] e-mails to the State Department.” Mills’s lawyer promptly called timeout, leaving the room with Mills so they could consult. When they returned, Mills was not required to answer the FBI’s question on this crucial topic. It turns out the Justice Department’s lawyers had made an agreement with Mills’ lawyer — seemingly unbeknownst to the FBI — that this topic would be off-limits due to “attorney-client privilege.” Why would the Justice Department agree to such a restriction? Here, the Post kicks up some sand, tossing into the mix that Mills is “an attorney herself.” But as someone once said, what difference, at this point, does that make? Mills was not Clinton’s lawyer — not at the State Department and not in the production of the e-mails to the State Department nearly two years later. Mills was a government official when the improper e-mail communications arrangement was in use. Her own actions and communications with Clinton and others in connection with the production — and destruction — of e-mails is highly relevant. Moreover, absent a written waiver from the government, the rules of professional ethics forbid a lawyer who has been a public official from representing a client “in connection with a matter in which the lawyer participated personally and substantially as a public officer or employee.” This rule would bar Mills from acting as Clinton’s lawyer even if another obvious conflict of interest did not already prevent such an arrangement (namely, the fact that they are joint participants in potentially criminal transactions under investigation). Remember, Clinton, Mills, and other top Clinton staffers knew that Clinton’s e-mails were not preserved in State Department files. They knew this notwithstanding that federal law and procedure, which discourage any use of private e-mail accounts for government business (let alone systematic use of private e-mail), require that, if private e-mail is used for an official communication, a copy of that communication must be placed in government files. Clinton and Mills well knew that this was not done. The e-mails remained stored on Clinton’s private server for nearly two years after Clinton and Mills left the State Department at the end of President Obama’s first term in early 2013. Before Clinton tried to destroy those thousands of e-mails (some or all of which the FBI may since have been able to retrieve from the server), it was her duty to review them with the State Department to assure its concurrence that they were indeed private. For now, we have only the dubious say-so of Clinton and her confederates. The FBI and the rest of us are expected to believe one of the highest-ranking, busiest officials in the United States government had time for 31,830 e-mails about yoga routines, wedding gowns, and the like. How can it be possible that the FBI is not being permitted by the Justice Department to ask a key witness — an accomplice witness — about one of the central transactions under investigation? On what basis could the Justice Department have sided with Mills’s attorney against the FBI? The Post rationalizes that “it is not completely unknown for FBI agents and prosecutors to diverge on interview tactics and approach.” That’s ridiculous. This was not tactical. This was not a disagreement over whether to play “good cop/bad cop.” This was a disagreement about the substance of the case, about what the FBI is permitted to investigate. And by the way, if (as I suspect) Mills has been given some form of qualified immunity, part of the rationale for doing that is to have a free-flowing interview with no fact matters under investigation excluded from inquiry. So on what basis could the Justice Department have sided with Mills’s attorney against the FBI? The answer may be found by carefully parsing (as one must always do with the Clintons) an unsworn statement Clinton’s office put out last October The statement claims that, upon receiving the State Department’s December 2014 request that she provide any government records she kept when she left, “Secretary Clinton directed her attorneys to assist by identifying and preserving all emails that could potentially be federal records.” The statement then shifts to the passive voice, such that we are told about how this and that search “was conducted” — but not by whom, and with no light shed about communications during the process, particularly in connection with the thousands of e-mails Clinton tried to erase from her server. More important, does the Obama Justice Department believe that? If so, somebody ought to let the local mafia boss know that if he wants to avoid federal prosecution, all he needs to do is bring his lawyers along the next time the goodfellas get together to divide the spoils and decide who needs to get “whacked.” Or could it be it’s just the Hillary Clinton case in which the Obama Justice Department is playing for the wrong team? — Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior policy fellow at the National Review Institute and a contributing editor of National Review. The report states that “investigators consider Mills... to be a cooperative witness.” Again, the Post can know that only if its Justice Department sources are telling it so. But more to the point, as I’ve previously laid out in some detail, there are all kinds of “cooperative witnesses.” Some, for example, are mere innocent observers who have nothing to do with potentially criminal activity and unconditionally cooperate with law enforcement because they are not suspects. Others may be accomplices in the potentially criminal activity; they generally cooperate only if promised immunity, or at least a reduction of criminal charges.In December 2014, under pressure from public and congressional demands for information, the State Department finally requested that Clinton surrender any government records she may have kept when she left. Only then did Clinton acknowledge the homebrew server system on which 62,320 e-mails were said to be stored. Of these, only 30,490 were turned over to the State Department — in a paper form that was impossible to search digitally, forcing the Department to expend mammoth resources and taxpayer dollars to scan them into its filing system. Clinton then unilaterally deemed the remaining 31,830 e-mails “private, personal records” — which she undertook to destroy by deleting them, despite their having been significant enough to preserve up until that point.Shannen Coffin has previously noted Clinton’s desperate attempt to blame her attorneys for her misconduct. But do she and Cheryl Mills really believe that by involving lawyers in their joint activities — activities that were fraught with potential improprieties and were undertaken in conjunction with people who were not their lawyers — they can shield those activities from criminal investigation under a haze of “attorney-client privilege”?Blind Black Bowmore What happens when you put what's arguably the most legendary single malt into an otherwise unassuming, unhyped blind tasting? Not a whole lot. The group only knew that they would be tasting a selection of single malts of my (Adam) choosing. The price was typical for a LAWS meeting -- members share the costs of bottles -- so there weren't any unusual expectations. The whole point of this scheme was that nobody would be remotely expecting anything crazy. You just don't "waste" a Black Bowmore without any serious pomp and circumstance! You at least have to polish your pinky, so it's ready to stick out while you drink! Unless, of course, you're as insane as LAWS seems to have become. In that spirit, I "hid" the Black Bow in a lineup of other obscure bottles I'd been wanting to taste, or otherwise needed blind opinions on: I put the Black Bowmore second in the lineup after a relatively tame whisky to be sure palates were still fresh and ready. When it came time for the Black Bow to go around, it was poured unceremoniously. I watched with curious amazement for about 15 minutes while everyone nosed and tasted. Nobody jumped out of their chairs. Nobody even made much of a fuss. A few eyebrows raised, but nothing crazy. Most thought it was "pretty good," a couple "great." Some weren't terribly impressed. Nobody guessed it was Bowmore, nor did anyone seem to think it was anything super-special. These are all guys who know whisky, most of whom are serious, hardcore single malt veterans. One important thing to keep in mind here is that the guys "knew" it "couldn't" be some kind of ultra-legendary collectible, because at today's pricing it wouldn't have remotely fit the budget for the meeting. The general consensus was that it was some oddball cask from a "2nd tier" distillery, using the logic that might otherwise make sense for a meeting like this. So, why didn't anyone say, "HOLY SHIT, THIS IS THE BEST STUFF I HAVE EVER TASTED, THIS WHISKY IS UNDENIABLE PROOF OF GOD!!" Well, I think that's because it's just a really nice malt. Any "legendary" whisky is good-to-excellent, but mind-blowing is impossible. Whisky can only get so good, and the rest is added in your head. Really. When you're told something is excellent, expensive, rare, and revered, it's going to taste a lot better. It's a proven physical and psychological fact. And that's fine, it's part of the experience. It also means we should try to be enthused and excited about every whisky we taste. And that's fine, it's part of the experience. It also means we should try to be enthused and excited about every whisky we taste. I think the legend around Black Bowmore is in large part because it was one of the first premium, highly-aged, richly-charactered, special-edition single malts. It was a "very high" price on release (like $150 - $300) and those who bought it gave it careful attention. They knew it was special and unique. And it was, and still is. But over those next 10 years or so, as bottles became more scarce, and the internet became a thing, talk of this hard-to-find and definitely-worth-tasting bottle snowballed into a whole other dimension. It's the same thing that happened more recently with bourbon, where bottles that were fairly respected in the oughts and early teens became "legends" as their availability dried up. Combine that scarcity with a good helping of "FOMO" (Fear of Missing Out), and the experience of tasting those "legends" -- or more appropriately, what people imagine that experience must be like -- gets blown out of proportion. Those of us in LAWS admittedly suffered from the same phenomenon when we were first starting out with malts. But it's also why we spent so many years tasting blind. We had all sorts of contests, challenges, and even weekly tasting drills. And what happened was, we became comfortable with our own palates. The fear of "not liking something that's actually good" vanished. You shouldn't suffer any embarrassment to discover that the whisky you didn't like is something that everyone else thinks is great, or vice-versa. It doesn't matter. You enjoy what you enjoy.Welcome to Taipei, Taiwan / Every year, I pick a month or two between November and February to spend in Taipei. These long trips are made possible by working remotely as a freelance illustrator. But once each day’s work is done, I’m free to grab my sketchbook and explore. This annual trip is my chance to conveniently miss a chunk of Chicago winter and to enjoy daily life in Asia, surrounded by mochi and savory buns. It’s an eating paradise. With vendors hawking sweet and savory treats from afternoon until past midnight, it’s easy to see how snacking has become something of a Taiwanese pasttime. With so many tasty distractions on every street corner, it’s easy to forget that the city is surrounded by lush, subtropical forests and mountains. So in the pursuit of moderation, I’ve spent more and more time trying to see the natural parts of Taipei. From hiking to the highest peak in northern Taiwan to walking among fireflies in a city park, there is a lot to discover! BEING ACTIVE AND SEEING THINGS I first thought that jogging through the streets of Taipei would be a great way to explore the city. In the humid Taipei winter, I’d only need a tank top, shorts, and running shoes to take off in whatever direction I wanted. However, I always felt like there was something a little weird about it all. One day, I was running back home when I heard an elderly grandpa yelling across busy Jientan Rd. It took a few minutes of yelling before I realized that he was yelling at me in Taiwanese. “COLD!!! LADY! IT’S COLD, LADY, VERY COLD.” Oh my god, I’d managed to get yelled at by an Obasan on the open streets of Taipei. That’s when I realized what was weird about me running in Taipei streets: me. Taipei city streets are not a normal place for exercise. Since then I’ve realized that there are plenty of places where I can run and explore without getting scolded. The community rec center in my neighborhood is more packed every year, reflecting a rising interest in being physically fit. Taiwanese people have always loved being in nature, so hiking is probably the most natural fit. Here are a few things I like to do to stay active on my trips back to Taipei: Hike, then soak on Yang Ming Shan The silvergrass-covered Yang Ming Mountains are so easily accessible from Taipei that all it takes is getting on a bus from Jientan MRT station. Hiking up Qixing Mountain, the highest peak in northern Taiwan, is a 11 to 19 degree grade, 5.7km, 3 hour hike. For something shorter or easier, walk to flat, grassy Qingtiangang. You might even bump into some grazing buffalo, present in this area since the Japanese occupation. These volcanic mountains are known for their hot springs, especially in neighboring Beitou. Yangmingshan’s Tien Lai Hotel is our favorite place to soak and stay a night. We come for the outdoor mixed pool area rather than the indoor nude baths. Bathing suits are required outside in an area that consists of pools at different temperatures, a rain shower area, and even a cold pool with fish. Dangle your feet in and see if you can guess what they’re there for! http://english.ymsnp.gov.tw Pour tea on Maokong Mountain Maokong mountain is named for cats but is all about tea. There are a couple ways to get up Maokong mountain: you can hike, take a taxi, a bus, or the city gondola. The Maokong gondola ride lasts for a surprisingly long 30 minutes as it travels over the Taipei zoo and into the forested hills. It’s especially nice at sunset! Once on the mountain, there are a couple well-marked trails near the gondola stop. They travel through these tea farms, often revealing farmers hard at work. Taiwan’s known for “high mountain” teas, especially Oolong and Tieguanyin. To try these teas, you can choose from one of the many tea houses and spend a few hours doing “pours” — it’s a bit of an complicated process, so the shops will usually give you a hand. Come with a book or some good company! If you stay long enough for a meal, try eating at Ayishi Big Teapot restaurant, marked Y22 on the Maokong visitor guide. Keeping with the tea theme, this restaurant cooks tea leaves into dishes or infuses food with tea flavors. I come here every visit and I always order a couple staple dishes: the jasmine tea fried rice, whole fish steamed in tea, and a dish of roots (potato, taro, and sweet potato) sprinkled with plum powder. http://www.bigteapot.idv.tw/ Stroll in Daan Park with the fireflies Taipei has been restoring fireflies in this large city park over the past few years, releasing young glowworms and limiting nighttime lights. With an increasing focus on being an ecofriendly city, Taipei is actually holding the International Firefly Symposium this April 2017. Aside from chasing fireflies at night, Daan is a bustling city park, and one acceptable place to run! In the mornings, you can’t get far without coming up on multiple groups of seniors doing tai chi or dancing. You’ll usually hear their boom boxes or smell the tiger balm before you see them, but it’s a nice testament to the way that the older generation is taking care of itself. Walk up the strange back side of Yuan Shan This mountain is best known for the Grand Hotel. In its heyday, it was one of the most glamorous hotels in the area. Still in operation, the huge red hotel’s placement on Yuan Shan makes it visible from many parts of the city. The rest of the modest mountain appears heavily forested, but there is a small system of stepped trails that reach the summit lookout in 30–45 minutes, and then connect to the hotel after another 15 minutes. But I don’t come here for the views or the hotel. It’s hard to describe the strange shantytown village that has been built along these trails, but it keeps me coming back year after year. Imagine a squatter’s philosophy in place here: if you build something, it’ll belong to you. As a result, a hike up this trail will take you past elderly citizens waltzing, playing ping pong, singing karaoke, raising chickens, and even doing a little bit of farming. Run or bike along the Taipei Riverfront Trail The three rivers that run through Taipei have been outfitted with a beautiful series of riverfront parks, with a trail winding through 62 miles of it and stretching as far north as Danshui. This tranquil path hosts runners and bikers, who can then watch the dragon boat rowers practicing on the rivers. My favorite stretch starts at the trail entrance behind the Story Museum / Fine Arts Museum and winds north towards the Grand Hotel, mostly because of a particularly pretty mural along that stretch. You can rent bike shares (YouBikes) from many places all over the city — just look for the orange stacks of bikes. For a rainy day, go to Eslite Bookstore Imagine a beautiful 24/7 bookstore, with floors dedicated to different book sections of all types, music, gifts and stationery, and a particularly good eye for product design. It’s hard to spend less than a couple hours in Eslite, thanks also to the comfortable coffee shops and restaurants. Loitering and reading on the spot are encouraged! SNACKS Preparing breakfast at Yong He Dou Jiang. Clockwise from top left: fried you tiao, cutting dough for shao bing, grabbing man tou, and packaging dan bing. One morning 8 years ago, I was grocery shopping with my mom in the humble Shilin produce market when we caught a rich, buttery smell. We wandered around until we found the source: a pineapple cake vendor! Pineapple cakes are a beloved national snack, an individually packaged square cake with a hint of pineapple jam inside. The vendor had just put a few trays of cakes in the oven, so he offered us some cooled versions. But that’s not what I wanted. If they were any bit as good as they smelled, I had to try those freshly made cakes. I started visiting this pineapple cake man at least once every day. He would roll his eyes and scold, “Lady, they’re not done yet! That’s not how you’re supposed to eat them!” But one day, I showed up at the perfect time. The pineapple cakes were out of the oven, but not long enough to cool and harden. They were warm and crumbly, buttery and gooey. They were amazing. Although I kept visiting the pineapple cake man, I never caught him at that perfect moment again. That Shilin produce market was demolished in 2011 and is waiting to become a performing arts center. Pineapple cake stores have since risen to a new level, and you can do tastings at some particularly upscale name brand shops. 8 years can change a lot of things, but I still think about those fresh pineapple cakes. Vendors often come and go, and international influences are perpetually showing up in new fusion creations. But there are some popular shops and stands that have stayed constant over the past 8 years. Here are a couple stops I always make on my visits back to Taipei: Fluffy scallion pancakes / 葱抓餅 stall outside Shilin MRT stop, on your right as you’re walking out from Exit 1. These fluffed up versions of scallion pancakes have topping options like egg, basil, and hot sauce. You can even toss a square of Kraft cheese on there — I always do! I like this particular stall because it’s usually not a long wait, and the portions are small enough to still be a snack and not a meal. Oyster omelettes / 蚵仔煎 at Ning Xia Lu Nightmarket. Ning Xia Lu is a small, traditional night market, so locals come here to avoid tourists as well as to get a few classic dishes: oyster omelets, oyster noodles and rice balls. One particular shop, Yuan Huan Oyster Omelette / 圓環邊蚵仔煎, has been killing it at the oyster pancake game for years. Taiwanese people think long food queues point to quality, and this stall always has people lined up down the street. Oyster omelettes are a sweet and savory mix of egg, leafy greens, small oysters, and sweet chili sauce. These omelettes are much more glutinous than their American counterparts, although the sides are sometimes fried to a nice crisp for contrast. Black pepper bun / 胡椒餅 at Shilin Nightmarket. The opposite of Ning Xia Lu in many ways, this is the largest night market in the city. It hasn’t been the same for me since the outdoor eating place was demolished a couple years back, but I still come here during off hours to grab a bun. The black pepper bun is a palm-sized, sesame crusted doughy bun filled with pork, scallions, and of course black pepper. It’s baked in a hot oven for 10 minutes, leaving the outside crispy and the middle soupy and piping hot. Pork belly bun / 割包 at Gongguan Nightmarket. Pork belly buns seem to be everywhere in the States these days, thanks to the fatty meat trend. But I still go back to the first place I had my all-fatty-meat pork belly. 藍家割包 is a stall in the tiny streets of Gongguan Nightmarket just off National Taiwan University. If the all-fat option scares you, go for the half fat / half lean combo instead! It’s also hard to leave without a drink, so pick up some boba across the street from 陳三鼎黑糖粉圓專賣店. Big big fried chicken / 大大雞排 at Ximending. This place is always as hyper as the high school kids that frequent it, although I have a greater appreciation for its history now that I’ve watched the Taiwanese gangster flick Monga. I just can’t resist the freakishly huge chicken nugget and its flaky MSG crumbles, despite the obvious signs that it’s come pretty far from once being a chicken. I still don’t get how it could possibly be one continuous piece of meat (there are bones)! Handmade Mochi at IJYSHENG / 一之軒. This is a chain bakery with excellent fresh mochi in many flavors. The black sesame is one of the best. These mochi are made twice a day, so you don’t have to worry about getting stale mochi at night. I love taking a couple dozen home to the States, but beware that you’ll want to hand carry them and eat them all within 2–3 days. Just remember to never refrigerate them, or else they’ll lose all their magic! There are always new things to do, eat, and drink every time I go back, but not before I stop at my old haunts. This list of favorites grew out of the many responses I’ve written to friends with suggestions for their trips. In my opinion, the snacks are tried and true, while the outdoorsy recommendations range from standard to a little weird. I’d love to hear about your favorite spots and must-dos in the comments! Julia Kuo is a Taiwanese-American illustrator. She currently works out of Chicago for most of the year and Taiwan in the winter.
Can Dance The band's self-titled debut LP placed them alongside their contemporaries in the UK post-punk scene, with comparisons drawn to labelmates Cocteau Twins, as well as The Cure. Sans the more worldbeat-oriented sound with which the group would soon become synonymous, Dead Can Dance's debut features a more sparse, dark sound and is unlike anything else in their oeuvre. Spleen & Ideal Released in 1985, Dead Can Dance's follow-up to their debut LP sees the group moving towards a more globally-inspired darkwave style. Here you'll find the sweeping soundscapes, ominous atmospherics, and early music inspirations now considered to be hallmarks of their sound. Into the Labyrinth Dead Can Dance's 1993 release represented a shift in their ever-evolving sound, with world music influences taking center stage on tracks inspired by Indigenous Australian dance and Irish ballads. This is the first album on which Perry and Gerrard played all instruments themselves, and was the group's first album to make a commercial splash on US alternative radio.The actual plot of the new reboot of Spider-Man has been kept a secret for months now, with only vague ideas of where it was headed. Now, finally, Columbia Pictures has released the official synopsis for the film. Fans can finally know the who and what and where of this new production. This new reboot stars Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone. It is being directed by Marc Webb (love the irony) and is being produced by Columbia Pictures. Here is the official synopsis from the studio: One of the world’s most popular characters is back on the big screen as a new chapter in the Spider-Man legacy is revealed in “The Amazing Spider-Man.” Focusing on an untold story that tells a different side of the Peter Parker story, the new film stars Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Campbell Scott, Irrfan Khan, with Martin Sheen and Sally Field. The film is directed by Marc Webb from a screenplay written by James Vanderbilt, based on the Marvel Comic Book by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Laura Ziskin, Avi Arad, and Matt Tolmach are producing the film in association with Marvel Entertainment for Columbia Pictures, which will open in theaters everywhere in 3D on July 3, 2012. “The Amazing Spider-Man” is the story of Peter Parker (Garfield), an outcast high schooler who was abandoned by his parents as a boy, leaving him to be raised by his Uncle Ben (Sheen) and Aunt May (Field). Like most teenagers, Peter is trying to figure out who he is and how he got to be the person he is today. Peter is also finding his way with his first high school crush, Gwen Stacy (Stone), and together, they struggle with love, commitment, and secrets. As Peter discovers a mysterious briefcase that belonged to his father, he begins a quest to understand his parents’ disappearance – leading him directly to Oscorp and the lab of Dr. Curt Connors (Ifans), his father’s former partner. As Spider-Man is set on a collision course with Connors’ alter-ego, The Lizard, Peter will make life-altering choices to use his powers and shape his destiny to become a hero. The Amazing Spider-Man opens in 3D, 2D and IMAX theaters on July 3. Personally, I think it is too early for a reboot of a series of films that came out a few years ago, but as a hardcore fan of Andrew and Emma (and their cute relationship) I will definitely watch the film. There is no word yet though, if there is going to be more films made afterward, but it is reasonably to believe if it does well in the box office they will strive to make another one. You can also watch the teaser trailer that was released in 2011. Share this: Twitter Tumblr Facebook Reddit Google Pinterest Like this: Like Loading...Our washing machine is broken. Or, at least, the pipe it drains into is. Despite all my attempts to fix it, crawling around on my belly with a pipe wrench and a plumber's snake, all I have to show is a broken PVC pipe, a minor chemical burn, and a mountain of laundry that our family of four has piled up. So last night, I put in an order with Washio, an on-demand laundry service. And this morning, an extremely nice and highly professional woman showed up at our door, promptly at 7 a.m., took away our laundry, and left us with a chocolate pastry from a bakery in Oakland. It was amazing, and I feel conflicted about it. It's the same kind of feeling I have whenever I take an Uber, or Lyft, or use Instacart to pick up groceries, rather than going myself. I found myself apologizing to the woman who picked up our laundry. "Our washing machine is broken," I explained. "Well that's good business for us," she countered. And it's true, I guess. Why wouldn't she be happy to have work? A job is a job when you need one. And yet my guilt stems not from whatever her own personal experience is as much as it does the remaking of the great American economy into a vast labor market of contract workers — the 1099 economy — whose days are dictated by the whims of mobile software and whose job security is often determined by the numerical star rankings of a capricious and harried market. I spent a decade freelancing, a 1099 contractor, and it was fantastic. I had a freedom most people could only dream of. There was no boss to answer to other than myself. I made decent money too, not initially, but I hustled and worked hard and made it. The American way. Of course, I had my wife, a nurse, to lean on financially during the lean times, and my parents to fall back on failing that. Thanks to a year-to-year magazine contract, I even had the luxury of a steady paycheck during much of that time. But I banked almost no money for my retirement during those years, even when times were fat. And as soon as our first child was born, you'd better believe I went out and got a motherfucking 9-to-5. One that would make sure I had a safety net if I were suddenly unable to work. One that came with a modicum of security in case of unforeseen unemployment, and health benefits, and even life insurance — because we are all going to die. You are going to die. And the person who drives your Uber will die. And the person who brings your groceries from Instacart will die. And the person from Homejoy who cleans your home is going to die. And the person who shows up in a TaskRabbit T-shirt and hangs your TV and assembles the Ikea bed that's been sitting in a box in your garage for the past three months is going to die. Or maybe get hurt and leave the workforce. Or maybe the startup they work for will fail, as startups often do. How are we, as a society, going to deal with that? Going to deal with them? What will it mean if we completely remake our workforce of laborers into contractors without the myriad benefits we associate with full-time employment? Who ultimately benefits when they don't? Obviously the companies who employ (or, don't employ) contractors benefit. So too do their payment processors. Even the consumer does. That's certain. Here in San Francisco, where a corrupt and broken taxi system has long failed us, it's hard not to love Lyft and Uber's amazing degree of efficiency, both in how well they work and how little they cost, comparatively. Yet the most ruthlessly efficient (and pleasurable!) delivery mechanisms are not always the ones that are best for us over time. Heroin, injected intravenously, is amazing. But it's probably better for most of us to take a Tylenol 3 for our pain. Yes, we can all be connected via apps and services now, but first, we are all connected as a society. There are forces at work to put the brakes on all this. Current lawsuits in San Francisco, for example, seek to have Uber and Lyft drivers reclassified as employees. Because there are rules about who is a contractor, and who is not. We are a nation of law, and the law is not something arbitrary, given to us by God or kings, but rather it is something we have agreed upon, and that we can remake. Laws can be rewritten. And often it is the wealthy and powerful who write them. David Plouffe wasn't hired for his insight into complex dispatch systems. Washio charges $1.60 per pound for wash-and-fold laundry. The wash-and-fold a few blocks away costs $1.25 for the same. The machines at a nearby laundry are $2 to wash and another $2 to dry, and I estimate it would take me about three hours all told to get our great heaping mass of laundry washed, dried, and folded up into piles sorted by size and function. When you factor in our children and our jobs and the pipe repair awaiting me in my basement, the extra cost I'm paying to have someone come get it and do it for me seems negligible. It seems like a bargain. The devil always does.CBLoL: Finals Preview A team that is significantly superior to those in their region often plateaus without seeking out better opponents. This makes it difficult for a dominant domestic team to improve past a certain point, while they additionally become harder to evaluate in comparison to international competition. Top Brazilian teams have been in this situation for a while. PaiN Gaming knows all too well the discrepancy between dominating your region while failing to evolve into any sort of international threat. As the de facto Brazilian League of Legends organization, paiN has attended more international tournaments than any other Brazilian team, tied with KaBuM e-Sports. Each time, they failed to move on to either the next round of competition or, in the case of Gamescom 2013, lost their chance to play in the World Championship. Similarly, INTZ e-Sports tasted the same bitterness of international defeat last split. Dominating 2015 CBLoL Summer, the team traveled to the International Wildcard Tournament with high hopes as heavy favorites. They lost 1-3 to Turkish team Besiktas in the Final: their only opportunity for a ticket to the Mid Season Invitational. A Truly Fearless Club Following their defeat at the International Wildcard Tournament INTZ promptly returned home and won the XMA Mega Arena event in early May, reasserting some of their regional dominance. INTZ looked good going into the Winter CBLoL split, having learned a few things from their time in Europe. Unfortunately, XMA would be their last tournament with star jungler Gabriel "Revolta" Henud, who left a few weeks later for Keyd Stars. Suddenly, INTZ's prospects plummeted in the eyes of the public. Revolta had been credited for taking the group of four young talents and transforming them into a domestic powerhouse. Without him, the landscape of the team shifted. INTZ's players are not strangers to shifting landscapes. Previously, upon Revolta's acquisition, his teammates took time adjusting to his more aggressive and quick jungle style, having previously been led by herbivore jungler Thiago "Djoko" Maia. With Revolta gone, support Luan "Jockster" Cardoso roleswapped into the jungle position. INTZ picked up veteran support player Leonardo "Alocs" Belo from sister team INTZ Red and immediately went to work on their synergy and macro play. Their first few weeks were shaky as Jockster adjusted to the jungle, and the rest of the team coordinated around him. INTZ dropped their Week 1 set to Revolta and Keyd 0-2, but bounced back in the second week with a 2-0 against Red. During their more recent transformation, the burden of carrying initially fell on mid laner Gabriel "Tockers" Claumann. Often soaking up all three bans, Tockers drew opponents' focus while the rest of the team took objectives and honed their macro play around Jockster's pathing. ""We are not actually a mid-focused team but we were out of sync, so I just got the role to carry," Tockers says. "As time went by, we just became a team and made it that I needed to do less. I rely 100 percent on my team, and I know I do not need to be the carry but do what the team needs" While Tockers was busy making his case to be considered one of the best in the region, Jockster and Alocs slowly but steadily began to click. With their newfound coordination, INTZ's vision control tightened and their map movements grew crisper by the week. "Jockster's jungling shows obvious promise," coach Alex "Abaxial" Haibel says of the former support's transition. "But there are still big flaws to iron out. His synergy with Alocs can be at a very high level." Additionally, this Finals marks Alocs' fourth trip to a regional final. "[Alocs] has a veteran's discipline which helps set a good example for the rest of the team," Abaxial says. Alocs' experience indubitably plays a part in INTZ's success, also aided by the fact that the team has had to shift their playstyle multiple times in their several iterations. This has created an incredibly malleable and seemingly meta-resistant squad that, if given time to adjust, can adapt to any style of play that suits them best. Reclaiming the Throne PaiN Gaming has had a rocky few splits in the last year, missing both the 2014 Regional CBLoL Final and the Summer 2015 CBLoL Final. Their last significant achievement was winning the domestic IEM San Jose qualifier before falling to Cloud9 in the first round of the actual event. There are no doubts that paiN has always been able to acquire talent. Some of the most mechanically-gifted players in the region are on the current iteration of paiN, and throughout the years the organization has never lacked for top regional talent. However, as the game has shifted into a more team-oriented and macro-focused game, paiN has struggled to make the most of said talent. "It is complex to work with a team of stars as paiN," coach Gabriel "MiT" Souza admits. "All [paiN] players have a lot of individual experiences and my main work has been uniting them as a team." One of those aforementioned stars, carry top laner Matheus "Mylon" Borges, was recently acquired prior to the recent 2015 Winter split. Many feared that Mylon would be one carry too many on a paiN team that dedicates more resources to their mid laner, Gabriel "Kami" Santos and AD carry Felipe "brTT" Gonçalves rather than their top. Committed to making the team work, both paiN and Mylon quelled this fear as the season progressed. "After the change in the top lane, we have improved a lot," mid laner Kami says. "I think part of it is because now we absolutely know we can be the best team. Aside from that, we have gotten professional help from a group of sports psychologists who have worked with some pretty big names here in Brazil. The guys are great and have made a huge difference in the way we handle things out of the game and even during the matches." Mylon has excelled on a variety of champions, from tankier initiators like Maokai and Sion to his signature carries like Rumble. He necessitates jungle pressure from opponents without always taking resources from his own team, freeing up jungler Thúlio "SirT" Carlos to farm up or gank other lanes. To his own credit, SirT additionally began to diversify his jungle pathing while remaining one of the key components in paiN's macro play. Previously known as a jungler who always managed to be exactly where his team needed him, SirT's strengths lie in counterganking and helping control objectives, which have also aided paiN's growth. Historical Context The last time these two teams met in the playoffs, Tockers swept away paiN's imminent Game 1 win quite literally with a timely Azir ultimate and triple kill as paiN was killing INTZ's nexus. PaiN never fully recovered from the shocking loss and INTZ went on to sweep them 3-0. "I was practically celebrating when the team was about to finish the match," MiT admits. "Unfortunately for us the defeat happened, but I think it was very important for our adaptation and evolution in this second split." That semifinals series was Abaxial's first with INTZ and he remembers it well, albeit from watching replays. "Ironically I didn't see Tockers save the world live," he says. "I was not in Brazil yet and overslept the day of the semi-finals. I woke up to my team killing the Nexus 30 seconds later. Oops." These two teams have met once more since that fateful series, with INTZ victorious in the 2015 Winter regular season set now owning a 6-1 record over paiN this year going into the Winter Final. However, INTZ is not taking these past performances as a measurement of this much-improved paiN team. "I think Pain did a good job tightening their macro game between our Week 6 match and now," Abaxial says. "I am stretching my imagination to its limit to beat paiN." MiT also speaks of sleepless nights and a laser-like focus on preparation, citing paiN's losses against INTZ as a catalyst for his team's growth. "We tried to work as much as possible the communication and the early game, especially after the games against INTZ this season." This preparation paid off recently in paiN's 3-0 semifinals sweep of Keyd Stars that earned them a spot in the finals. "The team was hugely dedicated," MiT says of his players and staff. "We motivated each other for the game against Keyd and we worked day and night to give our best against them. All the players were playing 14 hours a day, me and John [RNG, paiN's analyst] were sleeping only four hours a day." Featured Matchup It would be remiss to speak of INTZ without mentioning their top laner, Felipe "Yang" Zhao. Yang is a monstrous force top lane force that cannot be ignored. He often accrues leads himself, even in disadvantageous situations or lane swaps; however, if INTZ gives him an ounce of jungle help, Yang will transform that slight advantage into a significant lead. Similarly, Mylon also will require attention from INTZ. Like Yang, Mylon is incredibly dangerous with a lead. The difference between the two lies in how they use their advantages. INTZ has a strong split-push setup and often relies on Yang's laning dominance in addition to his excellent minion control. Meanwhile, paiN is more likely to involve Mylon in skirmishes around objectives, making the most of his ability to control fights by laying down a perfect Rumble Equalizer or initiating onto a squishy target as Maokai. With top lane additionally occupying a dominant spot in the current metagame, both teams will likely be looking to get their top laners involved as quickly as possible. One More Time, One More Chance Regardless of who is crowned champion of 2015 CBLoL Winter, Brazil should take pride in either of these teams representing their region. INTZ and paiN Gaming have each improved significantly throughout the recent split and looked impressive in their respective semifinals victories. On Aug. 8, 2015, 14,000 spectators will fill Allianz Parque in São Paulo to see these two teams clash, making up the largest Brazilian League of Legends event in history. "Even with all the players already used to finals, playing in the stadium will be a huge and unique experience," MiT says of the event's scope. Yet, neither team will be satisfied without another taste of an international stage. Both paiN and INTZ are finalists in 2015 CBLoL Winter. Both have experienced dominant phases and disappointing performances outside of their region. Both want the ticket to the upcoming International Wildcard Tournament to contend for a World Championship spot. Brazil doesn't receive many chances. Both teams want to make this one count. Enjoy these pieces? If you aren't getting enough Brazilian League of Legends in your life, register on LiquidLegends.net and join us in the discussion on our forums!Carly Fiorina speaks at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition's forum in Waukee, Iowa, in April. (REUTERS/Jim Young) ALDEN, Iowa -- GOP presidential hopeful Carly Fiorina said Thursday that parents should not be forced to vaccinate their children against diseases like measles and mumps, although she added that public school systems can forbid unvaccinated children from attending. "When in doubt, it is always the parent's choice," Fiorina said during a town hall in an agricultural building in rural Iowa on Thursday evening. "When in doubt, it must always be the parent's choice." Fiorina's comment came in response to a question from a mother of five children who said that because of her religious beliefs, she will not allow her children to receive any vaccines that were created using cells from "aborted babies." Fiorina told the woman that parents must be allowed to make such decisions. "We must protect religious liberty and someone's ability to practice their religion," said Fiorina, receiving a round of applause. "We must devote energy and resources to doing so. Period." Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard who has never held elected office, recounted a discussion she had with her daughter, who was hesitant to have her own daughter vaccinated against the sexually transmitted disease HPV. "And she got bullied. She got bullied by a school nurse saying: 'Do you know what your daughter is doing?'" Fiorina said. She said her daughter's response was this: "Yes. I do, actually." After the town hall, Fiorina further explained her stance on vaccinations to a group of reporters: "When you have highly communicable diseases where we have a vaccine that's proven, like measles or mumps, then I think a parent can make that choice -- but then I think a school district is well within their rights to say: 'I'm sorry, your child cannot then attend public school.' So a parent has to make that trade-off." Fiorina said that when it comes to "these more esoteric immunizations" for diseases that are not contagious or communicable, school districts should not be allowed to mandate that children receive the vaccination.Formspring hacked, all passwords reset Social network Formspring reset passwords for all of its 28 million members Wednesday after hackers posted password information to about 420,000 accounts online. The security breach came a month after a similar breach affecting the passwords of 6.5 million members of professional social network LinkedIn. In a blog post, Formspring founder Ade Olonoh said the San Francisco company was notified that about 420,000 password hashes were posted to an online security forum, although they did not include user names or other member-identifying information. "Once we were able to verify that the hashes were obtained from Formspring, we locked down our systems and began an investigation to determine the nature of the breach," Olonoh wrote. "We found that someone had broken into one of our development servers and was able to use that access to extract account information from a production database." Formspring plugged the hole and upgraded its encryption systems, but also decided to disable all passwords to "play it safe," he said. Members who signed on through Facebook could still do so, but the company also advised all users to change their passwords once they logged back on. The 2-year-old company last month shifted from its social question-and-answer roots to emphasizing conversations based on interests, according to TechCrunch. "To their credit, Formspring appears to have dealt with the security breach quickly and fairly transparently," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at computer security firm Sophos. "There are undoubtedly lessons to be learned from the hack - and users would be wise to ensure that they take heed of the advice to use unique, hard-to-guess passwords on different websites - but I'm much more impressed with how Formspring has handled this incident than, say, LinkedIn," Cluley said on his company's blog, Naked Security.Police recover man's body from popular Nimbin swimming hole Posted Police have found a body believed to be that of a man who disappeared at a popular swimming hole in far northern New South Wales. The 19-year-old had been with friends at Hanging Rock Falls, north-west of Nimbin, on Tuesday. Police said the man was using a rope to swing out over the waterhole when he hit a rock face and fell into the water. He did not resurface. Despite efforts from friends and bystanders he could not be found. Police, NSW Ambulance paramedics and the Westpac Rescue Helicopter also failed to find any trace of the man. A further search on Wednesday morning located a body. While the body has not yet been formally identified, police believe it is the missing man from the state's Illawarra region. An investigation is underway into the circumstances surrounding his death. The swimming spot is popular with tourists and a number of people have been injured or died there. Locals living nearby said the waterhole was dangerous to visitors and up to seven metres deep in some places. A 14-year-old boy died after falling into the waterhole four years ago. His body was found in deep water by a police diving team. The swimming hole is on a crown reserve and is the responsibility of the NSW Government. A spokesman for the NSW Department of Crown Land said a sign warning against swimming at the waterhole was put up three years ago after the death of the 14-year-old. He said the department would cooperate with any inquiry arising from the current incident. Topics: disasters-and-accidents, nimbin-2480Become a Dishcrawl Ambassador! Is Dishcrawl in your city? If not, now’s your opportunity to become a local hero! Bring Dishcrawl to your city and experience an awesome journey filled with food, entrepreneurship, and happiness. A little about Dishcrawl and our “Mission 100” Dishcrawl’s Ambassador Program is an initiative created by Dishcrawl Founder Tracy Lee. Our “Mission 100” is a 2012 goal to create 100 local entrepreneurs through the Dishcrawl Ambassador Program in cities across the U.S. and Canada. “When I began Dishcrawl, it was because I wanted to do more with my life than work a 9-5. I know so many women who feel the same. We started the Ambassador Program so females who want to take charge of their lives can.” says Tracy Lee, Founder of Dishcrawl. “I want to make success accessible to everyone passionate enough to get involved in their local food community.” What does it take to be an Ambassador? Being an Ambassador means you get to take people on food adventures, work with chefs at local restaurants, and become a leader in your local food community. Only the motivated, passionate, and dedicated survive the Ambassador Program, and we don’t accept anything less. The dedication is 15-20 hours a week. It’s easy if you’re motivated. We make sure we give you the tools to be successful. What benefits come with the Ambassador Program? In addition to gaining new skills or using the already awesome skills you have in marketing, PR, social media, sales, event management, personal and business branding and more, we reward our Ambassadors’ hard work by sharing the net profit from our Dishcrawls. Feedback from our Ambassadors “It’s a great way to contribute to the local food scene while quickly learning key business skills and building your own personal brand within the industry,” says Katie Mitchell of Portland, one of Dishcrawl’s first ambassadors. Apply for our Ambassador Program To apply for our Ambassador Program, send a paragraph on why you are awesome, what city you’re located in, and when you want to start taking over the food world. Emails can be sent to hi@dishcrawl.com. Looking forward to meeting you! Much Love, Tracy @ladyleet and the Team DishcrawlOver-the-counter birth control has always struck me as a weird thing for Democrats and Republicans to agree on. Given the war on reproductive rights overwhelmingly endorsed by GOP politicians, it would seem as if making contraception more widely available -- which would necessarily happen if the pill were to be stocked on CVS shelves, perhaps between the allergy meds and tampons -- would run contrary to the party line. Of course, the GOP’s endorsement of over-the-counter birth control is actually just a thinly veiled attack on the Affordable Care Act -- specifically the healthcare law’s contraceptive mandate, which requires insurance companies to cover birth control at no cost to women. A number of Republicans, notably Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner, have endorsed over-the-counter birth control in an ostensible effort to deflect from their records of being openly hostile to reproductive healthcare, but also as a way of debilitating a crucial element of ACA. Advertisement: Their support is for making birth control more widely available, by allowing women to buy it at pharmacies without a prescription pending FDA approval. But it’s not necessarily support for making contraception more accessible, which is the true benefit of low- to no-cost sharing. To counteract the gaps in Republican measures regarding over-the-counter birth control -- specifically Gardner’s Allowing Greater Access to Safe and Effective Contraception Act -- Washington Sen. Patty Murray (D) introduced legislation this week that would handle any questions about coverage should the FDA approve certain forms of contraception for over-the-counter use. "The law would make sure when the FDA determines a birth control pill is appropriate for routine daily use... insurance has to cover it," Murray said of her law during a press conference this week. "The Republican approach of access without affordability is like handing someone a single shoe." Murray’s bill would ensure that the ACA apply to birth control purchased in pharmacies without a prescription -- but that’s only if and when that option becomes available. And, for the moment, it’s not. But, as I wrote earlier this week, some states are considering a related alternative to over-the-counter availability: pharmacist-prescribed birth control. California, which will begin allowing pharmacists to prescribe the pill in coming months, is the first state to make a wider array of healthcare workers the gatekeepers to contraception, effectively increasing access for thousands of women. While the state is still keeping birth control behind the counter -- and, by necessity, available only with a prescription -- the option to receive it without going to the doctor is huge. But allowing women to avoid regular physician visits also raises concerns among some healthcare providers. To understand the drawbacks of the California law and over-the-counter birth control in general, I spoke with Dr. Kathleen Morrell, a New York-based OB-GYN, who explained why she and others in the medical community -- including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists -- support wider availability of birth control in pharmacies, whether it’s prescribed by a pharmacist or sitting on a shelf. Our conversation has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity. Advertisement: I want to start out by talking about the California law, and get to the broader issue of pharmacists prescribing birth control over-the-counter, and how this has been politicized. For starters, the major pro is that [over-the-counter birth control] just increases access, specifically when it comes to the pill -- which is still the No. 1 used reversible form of birth control by women in this country who are actually choosing some form of contraception; it is still the No. 1 method other than sterilization. So, certainly, for many women it will improve their access and give them one less barrier to using something, and therefore it would potentially have a positive effect on the never-changing unintended pregnancy rate in this country. In fact, there has been some research showing that this could potentially impact the unintended pregnancy rate by just having contraception available over-the-counter. There’s also been research showing that women are actually completely capable of reading instructions, understanding what the side effects are, understanding whether or not something is safe for them to take, and then deciding whether or not to take it. So, even if the pharmacist wasn’t involved, it’s still something women could do themselves over-the-counter. The potential pros of involving the pharmacist is that it could then potentially allow for a woman’s health insurance to cover it. I think one of the reservations a lot of us have is that we don’t want birth control to just be over-the-counter, period. If that happens, then all of a sudden you go from this amazing Affordable Care Act, where women are now paying a low cost-sharing with their birth control methods with zero deductible, back to a place five years ago, even three years ago, where women were still paying out of pocket. What it seems to me, based on what I’m seeing, is that this could potentially be a very valuable workaround that allows women greater access with fewer barriers, while also making sure that barrier atop is not put back up. And that was one of the things that got politicized-- there were a lot of Republicans suggesting that birth control should be over-the-counter as a way of circumventing the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate. What is the ideal situation here, as far as access goes, with over-the-counter contraception availability and having pharmacists prescribe birth control? What does that look like? I think the ideal access is that a law like the one in California would allow women to not have to work around the schedule of their physicians, and that if something happens to their birth control, or if they decided that they want to have birth control, they don’t have to wait to get to their doctor's office or wait for an appointment. All they would have to do is walk into any pharmacy, which has much more accessible hours than a doctor’s office frequently does. So this would be one step in the right direction of women having faster access, and reducing the likelihood of unintended pregnancy for themselves. Advertisement: This law is in California, which hasn’t had the same sorts of laws directed at restricting abortion access and shutting down clinics. Clearly we’re not talking about abortion, we’re talking about contraception, but those two things are very much alike when it comes to women going to healthcare providers and actually receiving birth control. If this law were to go into effect in states like Texas, which has seen dozens of clinic closures in the last year, what do you think that would look like? Unfortunately, the same states that have highly restrictive abortion laws tend to also have pretty poor rapport with women’s reproductive healthcare. There’s constant legislation I’m seeing and hearing about where funding is being cut, and access is being decreased, particularly for poor women -- who we know are at the highest risk of unintended pregnancy in the country. So I would like to think that anything like this California law, which would improve access, would improve access for everybody. So any kind of decrease there is, to the barriers of both access and cost -- as long as those two things go hand in hand, you’re going to see an improvement in women’s abilities to control their contraceptive choices and therefore actually decrease their rates of unintended pregnancy. Could you speak to what role the ACA mandate plays in women’s ability to access birth control? When the Guttmacher Institute had put out their numbers, in a research project last year, early in the pre/post-Affordable Care Act they were looking at the percentage of women who were paying out of pocket. It showed that, for the pill, it went from 15 percent of women having access to it to 40 percent -- and that was over a year ago that they did the research, so it’s bound to be higher a year later. So when you look at older reproductive stuff, it shows the average woman spends $16 a month on birth control, but that was probably written before the Affordable Care Act, so that number is probably lower now. The only thing women are paying is whatever their insurance premium is, because after that women are getting their pills with no additional costs. I think a lot of people are attacking [Republicans’ birth control access bill] because it’s about getting it over-the-counter, it’s not about the protections for cost, and that’s really the main concern. We don’t just want stuff over-the-counter because we want stuff over-the-counter -- we want people to have insurance coverage for it. If you make it over-the-counter but the ring is still $100, for example, that doesn’t mean it’s accessible. What are some of the drawbacks of the California law or of over-the-counter birth control generally? I know there’s some concern that women might not go to receive preventative care at their doctors’ offices and clinics. That’s certainly something that we’d be concerned about as physicians, that someone would use it to replace preventative care. But I think women are smart, and I think women understand what they need, and if birth control is all they need right then and there and they don’t want to come to us for anything else, then we should at least not become a barrier by saying, “You have to come and see me at the doctor's to come and get this contraception.” Women are smart, and we should trust them to know what’s right for them, and I don’t think being a barrier to their contraceptive needs is the right way to go as providers. Advertisement: The whole point, at the end of the day, is that we want women to be healthy, but we also do have to trust them to know what that means for themselves. Certainly, if this became a country-wide thing, and everyone was doing it, it would be much easier to then understand how over-the-counter birth control would affect women’s interactions with the medical care community. And we would then just have to change the way that we talk to women about it, to understand where a doctor is appropriate, and why they need to come and see us for STD testing, or for pap smears, et cetera. But I think we should be able to mold what we do as a medical field to what women’s needs are.WASHINGTON, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has been invited to address a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress, congressional leaders said on Wednesday, an honor intended to underscore Washington’s commitment to his country as it battles separatist pro-Russian rebels. Republican John Boehner, the speaker of the House of Representatives, invited Poroshenko to address a meeting of the House and U.S. Senate on Sept. 18. “Having President Poroshenko address Congress is another signal of our steadfast commitment to the aspirations of his people,” Boehner said in a statement. “It will be an honor and a privilege to welcome him to the United States Capitol.” Foreign heads of states and heads of government have been invited to address joint meetings of Congress since the early 1800s, normally to underscore their countries’ close allegiance with the United States. The last such address by a foreign leader was South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s more than a year ago, on May 8, 2013. (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Doina Chiacu)
bring in money from alternative sources. A significant amount of the money right now is coming from various US government grants. That's great that there's money coming in, but most of that is restricted money, and you have to work on the specific things that are talked about in the proposal and the grant issuance. So we're looking to find some additional funding sources. There's a big crowdfunding going on right now to get individual donations. I noticed Laura Poitras at the top of my Tor Browser the other day. Yes, Laura was the first champion that we had out there, but you should be paying attention. There's all sorts of really interesting people that have been released and are going to be released as champions, all wearing our “This is what a Tor champion looks like” shirts. You mentioned changing the public perception of Tor. I feel like in journalist, academic, activist circles that we roll in, it's great. It's a tool for privacy, for anonymity, for making sure the government isn't tracking what you're doing and making sure miscreants writ large are not tracking you. But I feel like that's—I don't want to say divorced from—but maybe separate from the perception the public at large has. Many have only heard of Tor because that's how you access Silk Road or the deep, dark, scary Web. Is that the perception you mean? That's exactly what I mean. And it's kind of crazy. I'm going to take off my Tor hat for a second. As someone who has observed Tor for years and years from the outside, it's actually kind of mind-blowing, the difference between what the project is actually about, the service, and how essential it is to the infrastructure of freedom versus the public's reaction to it is and how it has been received in papers. That really is one of the things that I'm hoping to change. These are brilliant technologists who are doing the work of the angels, and they are doing important stuff. If you talk to any of them, I don't recall a single solitary person I've met who is in this for the Dark Net. Everyone here wants to make the world a better place and sees this as an essential freedom tool; [Tor technologists] think of themselves as freedom fighters. It's really weird that the public perception is so completely out of touch with what this project is really about. One of the ways is to teach the members of the organization themselves that they have nothing to be defensive about. I think when these kinds of attacks happen, the community gets extremely defensive and tends to blow up negative stories in ways. They should just let that stuff slide and put some positive stories out there and be able to talk about how it's helping journalists do their jobs and it's helping activists in parts of the world where their governments would kill them if they knew who they were. So, it really starts by talking to reporters like you who are going to get the story out there. Is it just a marketing issue? Does there just need to be more Tor stickers on buses? What does that look like? In a way it's a reputational kind of thing. The reality is that to the people who are working on Tor, is great. It is a freedom-enhancing project. The people who are working on it, they understand that is their mission. That is what they're about. So it really is a perception thing; we have to change the perception. I don't think stickers on buses is the way to do it, but I think coupling ourselves to stories that are positives stories—about revolution and about personal privacy and about people using Tor for medical research and for all sorts of ways that Tor is being used for positive ways. Let's talk about that more instead of talking about the Dark Net. Personally, I use it maybe 10, 20 percent of the time. I know that there are people out there that are using it a lot of the time. But for me as much as I might hate Flash, there are times that I need to watch something on YouTube. I can't do 100 percent of the things that I need to do on Tor. Even Craigslist blocks a lot of Tor access, so I have to shuffle circuits to hit one that will work. How much do you use it for yourself in day to day life? There's a sort of fantasy—how will Tor grow, what would that look like if we had unlimited resources, and how would we make that more accessible—and the fantasy is that maybe someday it's built-in to a privacy option on regular apps that you use. You wouldn't normally have it turned on, and instead when you do your Google search, you would click a switch and say “I would like to browse privately now”—that would be Tor. That's kind of the way we're thinking about it. Before I came to Tor, I wasn't a big Tor user, but I was a big Tor supporter. I don't know if you know, but there was a time early in Tor's career that EFF actually sponsored Tor, so I always recognized the importance of it. But like you, most of my communications aren't deeply private. Most of my communications, I don't think of it that way. There are lots of people in the Tor community that do private things all of the time. But this very week, they've been giving me all kinds of new tools that I've never used before.History, it is said, is just one damn thing after another. So is the future, the difference being that with history we sort of know what happened, whereas with the future, who can really know? What ifs are the future. Companies and people make a lot of money telling others what will happen, but who can be really sure? As a rule of thumb, the further the projection, the weaker the prediction. That rule doesn't stop people from making predictions, many of which consist, wrongly, in assuming that the future will proceed in some linear fashion from today. Story continues below advertisement So let's play a little what if with Canada's bitumen oil, of which there is said to be a 200-year supply in Alberta. It is landlocked. It has to pass through others' territories to get to customers. There are many pipelines now, and four more are ready to go or in planning: to the Pacific near Vancouver (Trans-Mountain) and Kitimat (Northern Gateway), the Gulf of Mexico (Keystone XL) and Saint John. The Harper government Tuesday approved the Northern Gateway project. Government approval, however, is one thing; getting it built is another. Chances are that pipeline will be tied up for years in the courts as aboriginals contest it. And the population of British Columbia, or at least a chunk of it, doesn't want the pipeline either. Meeting the five conditions laid down by B.C. Premier Christy Clark will be hard to impossible. So Northern Gateway is likely a long shot. Trans-Mountain? Opposition to twinning the existing line is very strong in the Lower Mainland, where the spectre of more tanker traffic is deeply unpopular. The federal government can implement new safety measures for pipelines and tankers, but people still fear an accident. Maybe the fear is irrational. Maybe the odds of something bad happening are so low that people should stop worrying. But they do, and that's a political reality. Put Trans-Mountain down as a maybe. Keystone XL has been studied more than any pipeline in history. Still, it hasn't been approved. The closer President Barack Obama gets to the end of his time in office, the more he, like all presidents, begins to think of legacy. Here's a leader who has talked extensively about the challenge of climate change. Would his legacy – as he is defining it – be enhanced or hurt by approving Keystone XL? The forces in the U.S. favouring Keystone XL are formidable. Ultimately, one person with an eye on history will decide. The west-to-east route across Canada has the best chance of success. But success is not assured, because no defined project has been submitted and opponents have not mobilized. It has the best political shot, what with a strongly federalist Premier in Quebec, a very eager New Brunswick government, and the chance to replace imported oil along the route. Chances of success: probable. Rail, it is argued, could pick up at least some of the slack should some or all of these pipeline projects fail. Indeed, it could. But with the memory of Lac-Mégantic fresh in everyone's mind, how many towns and cities want a big upsurge in trains carrying crude oil rumbling through them? It's not a given that flowers will be strewn on the tracks in welcome. Story continues below advertisement Story continues below advertisement What about price? Wise people keep saying oil prices will keep rising because new discoveries cost more to find and exploit than conventional oil. But what if that prediction is wrong? What if renewable energy really takes off, because, as is happening, wind and solar are becoming cheaper by the day and electric cars (see Tesla) become much more popular a decade from now and the Chinese, no slouches at long-term planning, arrive with electric vehicles for the masses. And so on. What if new technologies continue to unlock more conventional oil? Where would that leave bitumen? At a recent conference in Ottawa, a representative of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, showed predictions (again, the uncertainties of the future) of oil prices in 2030: the International Energy Agency, around $115 (U.S.); Standard & Poor's, around $60; HSBC and Bloomberg, $50. If the IEA is right, bitumen oil should be profitable; if the others are correct, where would that leave bitumen? Maybe the future will unfold as most "experts" believe and our governments want; that is, it will be a lot like today. If not, however, then what?A row has broken out among physicists over an analogy used by Werner Heisenberg in 1927 to make sense of his famous uncertainty principle. The analogy was largely forgotten as quantum theory became more sophisticated but has enjoyed a revival over the past decade. While several recent experiments suggest that the analogy is flawed, a team of physicists in the UK, Finland and Germany is now arguing that these experiments are not faithful to Heisenberg’s original formulation. Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle states that we cannot measure certain pairs of variables for a quantum object – position and momentum, say – both with arbitrary accuracy. The better we know one, the fuzzier the other becomes. The uncertainty principle says that the product of the uncertainties in position and momentum can be no smaller than a simple fraction of Planck’s constant h. When Heisenberg proposed the principle in 1927, he offered a simple physical picture to help it make intuitive sense. He imagined a microscope that tries to image a particle like an electron. When light bounces off the particle, we can “see” and locate it, but at the expense of imparting energy and changing its momentum. If less light is used, the less the momentum is perturbed but then the less clearly it can be “seen”. He presented this idea in terms of a trade-off between the “error” of a position measurement (Δx), owing to instrumental limitations, and the resulting “disturbance” in the momentum (Δp). Not necessarily wrong Subsequent work by others showed that the uncertainty principle does not rely on this disturbance argument – it applies to a whole ensemble of identically prepared particles, even if every particle is measured only once to obtain either its position or its momentum. As a result, Heisenberg abandoned the argument based on his thought experiment. But this did not mean it was wrong. Then in 1988 Masanao Ozawa at Nagoya University in Japan argued that Heisenberg’s original relationship between error and disturbance does not represent a fundamental limit of uncertainty. In 2003 he proposed an alternative relationship in which, although the two quantities remain related, their product can be arbitrarily small. Ozama then teamed up with Yuji Hasegawa at the University of Vienna and others in 2012 to see if his revised formulation of the uncertainty principle held up experimentally. Looking at the position and momentum of spin-polarized neutrons, they found that, as Ozawa predicted, error and disturbance still involve a trade-off but with a product that can be smaller than Heisenberg’s limit. (See “Neutrons revive Heisenberg’s first take on uncertainty”.) Optical conformations At much the same time, Aephraim Steinberg and colleagues at the University of Toronto conducted an optical test of Ozawa’s relationship, which also seemed to confirm his prediction. Ozawa has since collaborated with researchers at Tohoku University in another optical study, with the same result. Now, Paul Busch at the University of York and colleagues have published calculations that defend Heisenberg’s position. Busch, Pekka Lahti of the University of Turku and Reinhard Werner of Leibniz University claim that Ozawa’s argument does not apply to the situation Heisenberg described. “Ozawa’s inequality allows arbitrarily small error products for a joint approximate measurement of position and momentum, while ours doesn’t,” says Busch. “Ours says if the error is kept small, the disturbance must be large.” Johannes Kofler of the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching, Germany explains: “The two approaches differ in their definition of Δx and Δp, and there is indeed the freedom to make these different choices.” Kofler, who was not involved in this latest work, adds: “Busch et al. claim to have the proper definitions, and they prove that their uncertainty relation always holds, with no chance for experimental violation.” Truer to Heisenberg? The nub of the disagreement is which definition is best. Ozawa’s is based on the variance in two measurements made sequentially on a particular quantum state. Whereas that of Busch and colleagues considers the fundamental performance limits of a particular measuring device, and thus is independent of the initial quantum state. “We think that must have been Heisenberg’s intention,” says Busch. But Ozawa feels Busch and colleagues are focusing on instrumental limitations that have little relevance to the way devices are actually used. “My theory suggests if you use your measuring apparatus as suggested by the maker, you can make better measurement than Heisenberg’s relation,” he says. “They now prove that if you use it very badly – if, say, you use a microscope instead of a telescope to see the Moon – you cannot violate Heisenberg’s relation. Thus, their formulation is not interesting.” Steinberg and colleagues have already responded to Busch et al. in a preprint that tries to clarify the differences between their definition and Ozawa’s. What Busch and colleagues quantify, they say, “is not how much the state that one measures is disturbed, but rather how much ‘disturbing power’ the measuring apparatus has”. ‘Disturbing power’ “Heisenberg’s original formula holds if you ask about ‘disturbing power’ but the less restrictive inequalities of Ozawa hold if you ask about the disturbance to particular states,” says Steinberg. “I personally think these are two different but both interesting questions.” But he feels Ozawa’s formulation is closer to the spirit of Heisenberg’s. In any case, all sides agree that the uncertainty principle is not, as some popular accounts imply, about the mechanical effects of measurement – the “kick” to the system. “It is not the mechanical kick but the quantum nature of the interaction and of the measuring probes, such as a photon, that are responsible for the uncontrollable quantum disturbance,” says Busch. In part the argument comes down to what Heisenberg had in mind. “I cannot exactly say how much Heisenberg understood about the uncertainty principle,” Ozawa says. “But I can say we know much more than Heisenberg,” he adds. Busch and colleagues describe their results in Physical Review Letters. Aephraim Steinberg and colleagues write about their experiment in this feature article about weak measurement: “In praise of weakness”.It's been like pulling teeth to get the Microsoft Surface team to talk about what's going on with Surface Pro supply, beyond the most basic statements. Microsoft made the Intel-based Surface Pros commercially available starting February 9. Within minutes -- or even less in some cases -- the 128 GB Surface Pros were sold out at Microsoft brick-and-mortar stores, Microsoft's online store, Best Buy and Staples. In some cases, 64 GB models sold out, as well. I've asked a few times in the past couple of days about what caused the supply problems and when there would be more devices in stock in the U.S. and Canada. Until February 12, the answer I received, via company spokespeople, was "“We are pleased that the demand for the Surface Pro is so great. Our focus is to get ordered Surface units delivered to our customers as quickly as possible.” Not so helpful. But during a Twitter chat on February 12, Panos Panay, the head of the Surface team, provided a few more details about availability. "We are shipping more 64gb now to BBY, Staples, MS Store and online. 128gb at BBY, MS Stores by Saturday." A number of participants on the chat asked Panay and team why there were seemingly so few Surface Pros available. None of the Microsoft officials on the chat responded to any of those questions -- or to questions about availability of Surface Pro in countries other than the U.S. and Canada. Microsoft execs have said previously that they'd have more to say about broader Surface Pro availability in the coming weeks. It's interesting Panay didn't say Staples would be getting more 128 GB Surface Pros. I've been hearing scuttlebutt that Staples might have intentionally decided against ordering many Surface Pros because of soft demand for Surface RTs. I asked Microsoft and Staples both for comment on this. A Microsoft spokesperson referred me to the "demand for Surface Pro is so great" statement again. A Staples spokesperson said: "We don’t publicly discuss internal plans." Looking at the Staples.com site, there is a difference between the listings for the two Surface Pro listings. Here's the 128GB page, which says the devices can be shipped for pick-up to stores, but otherwise are orderable online only: And here's the 64 GB Pro page on the Staples site, which does specify these devices are also available in brick and mortar stores: The Surface Pro 128 GB page doesn't mention any possibility at all of store availability -- beyond the option of paying to have devices shipped to stores -- while the 64 GB version does. Update (February 13): One contact of mine has a different theory about why Staples isn't getting any of the 128 GB Surface Pros. He said he's heard Staples never carries the high-end model of any PCs or tablets. I have no idea whether this is true. Many potential Surface Pro customers were frustrated because Microsoft decided against taking pre-orders for the devices, leading them to assume there'd be sufficient supply when they went to physical stores in the U.S. and Canada to get them. I've heard from a number of readers that retail employees at Microsoft Stores, Best Buys and Staples seemingly had no idea how many Surface Pros they had in stock and/or when they'd get more. I've heard in the past couple of days that some Surface Pro purchasers have been able to reserve Surface Pro devices, but only by paying $50 for a Best Buy gift card. The Surface Pro is the second member of the Microsoft Surface PC/tablet family. It is based on an Intel Core i5 processor and gets between four to five hours of battery life, on average. Pricing starts at $899 for the 64 GB model. Some believe the 64 GB model is less popular because it provides only 32 GB of storage. The 128 GB model, which starts at $999 provides 96 GB of user-available storage. Windows PC retailers like Best Buy and Staples are increasingly in the same place bookstores are. They are becoming a place for users to come in and kick tires -- or test drive new devices -- before buying them online. I'm sure this is just one more thing that contributes to supply-chain/stocking problems. Update No. 2 (February 13): The Surface Blog has a new post about availability. It now sounds like only "some" 128 GB Pro units will be available by the end of the week. From the February 13 blog post: "We are shipping 128GB SKU later this week to retailers, with some units available by the end of the week. Our priority (and that of our retail partners) is to fulfill orders from customers who made a reservation first." For those looking to get 128 GB Surface Pros in Canada from the few Microsoft Stores, Future Shops and Best Buys, there may be an additional delay, according to the post: "Canada is following a similar timeline but may take an extra few days to start arriving." Update No. 3 (February 13): In what may be indicative of supply-chain issues (or just a strange one-off mistake), Surface Pro customer Andrew Hill notes he received his 128 GB Pro in a 64 GB Pro box from his Best Buy store in Missouri. He has posted pictures to his SkyDrive showing the discrepancy.Bali Nine drug kingpin Andrew Chan, who is facing death by firing squad in Indonesia, masterminded another international heroin smuggling attempt out of Hong Kong - but the operation failed, resulting in three young Australians being jailed. Daily Mail Australia can reveal for the first time that Chan enlisted Sydney teenager Rachel Diaz, 17, and Chris Vo, 15, both from western Sydney, as drug couriers to smuggle $1 million worth of heroin in condoms, which they were to swallow in Hong Kong and bring back to Australia. The Hong Kong deal was to run at the same time as the Bali Nine operation - when Chan, Myuran Sukumaran and seven Australian mules were arrested, some with the drugs strapped to their bodies. It can also be revealed that after his own arrest, Chan wrote a letter to Diaz in Hong Kong, ordering her to keep her mouth shut. Scroll down for video The Godfather: Andrew Chan was involved in three international drug smuggling operations when he was arrested in Bali Drug mule: Rachel Diaz was hired by Bali Nine mastermind Andrew Chan who, following her arrest and incarceration in a Hong Kong prison, wrote her a letter ordering her to keep her mouth shut Hard to swallow: The 114 heroin-filled condoms which Rachel Diaz, 17, was supposed to swallow when the trainee Sydney hairdresser was arrested in a seedy Hong Kong hotel room Drug kings: One-time mail room worker Myuran Sukumaran (left, with Andrew Chan) says he became involved in the 8.3kg Bali importation to satisfy his lust for fast cars, glamorous women and and a life of nightclubbing Chan and syndicate partner Sukumaran are on death row and were told this week by new Indonesian President Joko Widodo that he would not grant them pardons, despite their attempts to rehabilitate themselves behind bars. They could face death by firing squad in coming months. Chan, who Indonesian police called 'The Godfather' when they arrested him, was a key organiser of the Australian end of the smuggling and distribution network, which was detailed in the Hong Kong court during Diaz's trial and described as a 'predatory crime syndicate'. In just two weeks in April 2005, the syndicate was responsible for the arrest, and later the incarceration, of 17 young Australians for heroin trafficking in three countries. The hotel room in a seedy Hong Kong district where Rachel Diaz, 17, and Chris Vo, 15, were preparing to swallow 114 heroin-filled condoms and make the eight-hour flight back to Sydney Frantic father: Coca Cola representative Ferdinand Diaz, pictured in Hong Kong, made several attempts to get his daughter (pictured during her school days) freed from prison Diaz, Vo and their minder Hutchinson Tran, 22, were arrested in a low budget Hong Kong hotel room on April 12, 2005. They were found with 114 condoms filled with up to 1kg of heroin - but Diaz had had second thoughts about taking part in the operation, for which they were to be paid $200 for each 5cm-long condom they ingested. Diaz's father Ferdinand failed to get his daughter released on bail and 12 months after her arrest, she was sentenced to 10 years and eight months. Vo, by then 16, received nine years, and Tran got 13 years and four months. All have since been released, with Diaz serving out the majority of her sentence in a NSW women's prison after being transferred in February 2009 under the International Transfer of Prisoners' Act. Five days after her arrest, Bali police arrested Chan, Sukumaran and their mules Renae Lawrence, Martin Stephens, Scott Rush, Si Yi Chen, Matthew Norman, Michael Czugaj and Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen. The seven couriers recruited by Chan and Sukumaran have all received sentences ranging from 18 years to life. Predator: Death row inmate Andrew Chan, who claims he would serve God as a pastor if he was set free, was a cynical drug trafficker who landed at least 17 young Australians in jail before his arrest No way back: Scott Rush, aged 19, at Denpasar Airport on April 17, 2005, as Bali police remove packages of heroin strapped to his body Several trips: Panel beater turned drug mule Renae Lawrence made two successful trips for Chan from Bali with heroin strapped to her body but was caught on the third, in April 2005, and sentenced to 20 years Young dupes: Former Wollongong bartender, Martin Stephens (left) and Sydney catering worker Matthew Norman (right), pictured at Kerobokan Jail, Bali, in 2007, two years after they were duped by Chan who had promised them quick riches by acting as heroin mules in Bali Behind closed doors: Lured to this hotel in Hong Kong's Tsim Sha Tsui district by a drug gang which preyed on young Australians, Diaz, 17, and Vo, 15, were arrested with 1kg of heroin in condoms Both the Bali Nine and the Hong Kong drug smuggling deals were connected with a third, lesser-known attempted heroin importation in which Chan and Sukumaran conspired with four young Brisbane people. Daily Mail Australia can also reveal that in the lead up to the Bali Nine and the Hong Kong operations Chan and Sukumaran visited a young Korean-Australian who was later arrested and charged over the Hong Kong conspiracy following the arrest of Diaz, Vo and Tran. A Korean-Australian and a co-conspirator were charged with plotting to import the packages of heroin that Diaz and 15-year-old Vo were meant to swallow. HISTORY OF THE BALI NINE The Bali Nine are a group of nine Australians who attempted to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin from Bali to Australia on August 17, 2005. Drug mastermind Andrew Chan and his cohort, Myuran Sukumaran, recruited six men and one woman aged between 19 and 30 years old and strapped heroin to their bodies. Renae Lawrence, Martin Stephens, Scott Rush, Si Yi Chen, Matthew Norman Michael Czugaj and Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen were arrested in a hotel and at Denapasar airport and taken to Bali's Kerobokan prison. Lawrence was sentenced to 20 years, Rush's sentence has been redeuced to 18 years and the other five mules are serving life sentences. Chan and Sukumaran were given the death penalty and in early December 2014, Indonesia's new President Joko Widodo said the men would face execution by firing squad. With prison remission, Lawrence's current earliest possible release date is February 2026. Chan visited the Korean-Australian at least three times in different NSW prisons and once with Sukumaran in late 2004, just before the two made two 'practice' runs to Indonesia with several of the future Bali Nine couriers, including Renae Lawrence, and successfully returned to Australia with heroin strapped to their bodies. Chan, who was a manager at a Sydney catering company, duped three of his staff - Lawrence, Norman and Stephens - into becoming mules, promising them thousands of dollars in return. Following the arrests in Hong Kong and Bali within days of each other - and a series of other arrests in Sydney and Brisbane just days later - police said the Bali Nine had no connection with the Diaz case. However, detectives have exclusively revealed that Chan was in contact with Diaz for months and all three trafficking deals were connected to a Sydney-based Chinese drug smuggling syndicate which had links to Myanmar. Chan, who has found God in prison, was regularly visiting another convicted drug dealer in prison as he was conspiring to commit the Bali Nine deal. Diaz and Vo were recruited to go to Hong Kong as drug mules, police say, on the promise of $6000 or $7000 for a single trip. Diaz, a trainee hairdresser with churchgoing Filipino migrant parents, and Vo, a McDonald's worker and son of a single mother of Vietnamese origin, came from modest income families in western Sydney. Neither had previously known connections with drug syndicates, nor had they met before they flew out from Sydney to Hong Kong in April 2005. Diaz's parents, Ferdinand and Maria, believed she was having a sleep-over at a friend's house and then reported her missing when she failed to return. Squalor and misery: Australian inmates Si Yi Chen, Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen and Matthew Norman in a holding cell before a court appearance at Denpasar Greedy fool: Myuran Sukumaran (pictured arriving at court to appeal his death sentence) admits his role in the Bali Nine drug deal just because he wanted an easy life with cars, money and women On the day she and Vo were due home, April 13, police believe the Korean-Australian went to Sydney Airport to collect them, armed with three packets of laxatives. Diaz and Vo were in a room at the Imperial Hotel, in Hong Long's Tsim Sha Tsui backpacker district, with the 114 heroin-filled condoms, supplied by Hutchinson Tran, when police burst in. Vo was prepared to swallow 30 packages but Diaz had apparently reconsidered, realising they could burst inside her stomach during the eight-hour flight back to Sydney. Fearful place: Hong Kong's notorious Tai Lam correctional facility where Diaz was incarcerated before being transferred to a Sydney prison Firing squad: After a series of court appeals, Myuran Sukumaran (left) and Andrew Chan are the sole remaining members of the Bali Nine who still face death by an Indonesian firing squad Earliest possible release: With prison governor's remissions, Bali Nine drug smuggler Renae Lawrence will be the first of the group to gain freedom, in February 2026 at the earliest Meanwhile, four Australians from Brisbane - aged 24, 22, 18, and 19, had been arrested in Brisbane and charged with conspiring with Chan and Sukumaran of conspiring to import heroin to Australia. A fifth, Khanh Thanh Ly, 24, was arrested in Sydney. Ly subsequently pleaded guilty, but said he was only a 'runaround' in the gang whose members included Sukumaran, and was never paid but did it for the 'glamour' and entries to parties and clubs. The Bali Nine incident was linked to one of the world's biggest drug syndicates, Crescent Moon, which has smuggled large quantities of heroin from Myanmar (Burma) to Western countries. Chan has admitted he saw the Bali Nine deal as a 'quick pay day'. He has never spoken about his involvement in the Hong Kong deal.. Often we hear organizations are “going” agile and trust that they are successfully embracing core agile philosophies and reaping the benefits. Yet, for most organizations, this effort seems to generate complex organizational problems that result in unintended process, people and/or business failures. At EK, we’re commonly asked how can organizations identify causes, detect failure trajectories early, and become equipped to avoid such pitfalls while they transition to agile? Understanding the current agile state is imperative. We often see organizations asking questions, such as: Is agile a destination or a means to an end? Is the organization keeping scorecards on “ going ” agile or does it really care about better business results? How much of this is communicated to employees to see how it relates to their work? These questions often trigger responses that are telltale signs for the lack of meaningful understanding on the real drive behind the agile transformation. This is what results in lack of vision; wasted resources, high chance of abandonment during the process and inability for the organization to quickly respond to market opportunities or threats. Our experience working with multiple organizations facing these challenges is what has shaped our approach to successful agile transformations. Here, we share our take on common reasons for failure and key recommendations to help organizations answer these questions. Agile is NOT a process implementation, but a shift in mindset and a cultural transformation. Agility is a change in our way of thinking, assumptions, notions, and incentives that drive our actions and thus guide our processes and approaches. This is more important than forcing company policies and procedures to change or trying to implement agile as a solution. According to the 10th State of Agile Report, the top causes of agile adoption failures revolve around the organization’s culture being at odds with agile core values. This impacts the ability to change as an organization and fuels the lack of support for cultural transition for employees. A well-prepared organization will invest in cultivating an agile mindset across teams to give birth to the collective agile way of thinking. This will result in teams who are motivated to self-organize, collaborate, innovate, and experiment to overcome obstacles, and ask questions to understand and act in the best interest of the business. One approach we recommend is complementing the agile adoption process with change management activities. This approach fosters buy-in and ensures the agile vision, goals, and benefits are well-communicated to your employees. Agile is NOT an end-goal, but a journey toward continuous improvement. Although agile is historically associated with software development, organizations have proven to realize the value of agile successfully in various business units in order to deliver specific business results. Usually, the decision for most organizations to start the agile transformation process is driven by: Building the right/quality products, Quick delivery to market, Getting faster return on investment (ROI), and/or Gaining visibility and transparency. The application of project management methodologies, processes and tools is not the destination, rather a means to reach an end. Informed organizations recognize that agile frameworks such as Scrum, Kanban, or Lean use a set of tools and methods that integrate effective planning and development strategies to help organizations constantly deliver toward specific business goals. That is a continuous journey. Agile is NOT a one size fits all; but a tailored approach for your organization’s unique vision, unique culture, and specific needs. At EK, we’ve found that many agile adoption approaches fail because they tend to focus heavily on pushing business units and/or individual teams to follow prescribed approaches that may not take existing organizational strengths and weaknesses into account. The particular requirements of an organization’s culture, business domain, or scale of projects may not be adequately addressed by predefined agile practices. Most agile frameworks such as Scrum, Kanban, or XP, recognize this dilemma and suggest that processes be tailored to fit each unique situation. When your organization is considering agile adoption or if the existing transformation process is not working, it is vital to take a step back to identify the weak points and guide teams to customize and enhance boilerplate approaches to make it your own. Overall, an agile transformation will only be successful and sustainable if it begins with a full understanding of the core values of “becoming” agile. An organization must be able to explicitly deliver the intended business rationale but be willing to change supporting processes and organizational frameworks. This holistic approach will inform and improve the end-to-end delivery process and thus maximize success throughout the agile transformation. Are you in the midst of “going” agile? Are you looking to help your organization develop an agile mindset? Our experience has proven that developing an effective approach is achievable and scalable. EK has developed a Quick Starter Kit for Agile that applies a four-step approach to activate agile within organizations by: 1) Ensuring key stakeholders have a common understanding of agile concepts and benefits; 2) Identifying underlying structural and organizational culture challenges to determine effective change management responses; 3) Envisioning agile benefits, desired outcomes, and how to measure success; and 4) Planning to develop a concise, contextualized strategy for agile transformation. The outcome of this approach provides you with actionable next steps to accelerate and actualize agile at the enterprise level. Learn more on how our agile design can actualize success and maximize your investments in your agile transformation.WASHINGTON -- Individuals with five neurodevelopmental disorders -- autism spectrum disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, Tourette syndrome, dyslexia, and Specific Language Impairment -- appear to compensate for dysfunction by relying on a single powerful and nimble system in the brain known as declarative memory. This hypothesis being proposed by a Georgetown University Medical Center neuroscientist is based on decades of research. It is published online and will be in the April issue of Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews. The proposed compensation allows individuals with autism to learn scripts for navigating social situations; helps people with obsessive-compulsive disorder or Tourette syndrome to control tics and compulsions; and provides strategies to overcome reading and language difficulties in those diagnosed with dyslexia, autism, or Specific Language Impairment, a developmental disorder of language. "There are multiple learning and memory systems in the brain, but declarative memory is the superstar," says Michael Ullman, PhD, professor of neuroscience at Georgetown and director of the Brain and Language Laboratory. He explains that declarative memory can learn explicitly (consciously) as well as implicitly (non-consciously). "It is extremely flexible, in that it can learn just about anything. Therefore it can learn all kinds of compensatory strategies, and can even take over for impaired systems," says Ullman. "Nevertheless, in most circumstances, declarative memory won't do as good a job as these systems normally do, which is an important reason why individuals with the disorders generally still have noticeable problems despite the compensation," he adds. Knowing that individuals with these disorders can rely on declarative memory leads to insights on how to improve diagnosis and treatment of these conditions. It could improve treatment in two ways, Ullman says. First, designing treatments that rely on declarative memory, or that improve learning in this system, could enhance compensation. Conversely, treatments that are designed to avoid compensation by declarative memory may strengthen the dysfunctional systems. Ullman says compensation by declarative memory may also help explain an observation that has long puzzled scientists -- the fact that boys are diagnosed with these disorders more frequently than girls. "Studies suggest that girls and women are better than boys and men, on average, in their use of declarative memory. Therefore females are likely to compensate more successfully than males, even to the point of compensating themselves out of diagnosis more often than males," Ullman says. Declarative memory may also compensate for dysfunctions in other disorders, he adds, including attention
for really intriguing things that I have not seen before in a TV series.” Listen to our complete interview with John Kessel and Laura Miller in Episode 179 of Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy (above). And check out some highlights from the discussion below. Laura Miller on Philip K. Dick and the I, Ching: “He was very interested in esoteric Western philosophy, and also Eastern spirituality and culture, so he was particularly fascinated by the I, Ching. He and his wife made a lot of decisions in their life after consulting the I, Ching, as do the characters in the novel. … They throw the I, Ching and they collect the hexagrams, and they decide what to do based on that. And while he was writing the novel, every time one of the characters would cast a hexagram, he would do that himself, and he claimed that he decided what direction the novel would go in from the results that he got.” John Kessel on authenticity: “One thing they did also, which I hope they will pick up on if they continue the series, is this question of authenticity. It comes up with regard to these two Zippo lighters—that’s also right out of the book—that Childan has in the TV show. It’s not him in the book, but at any rate, the question of where does authenticity lie, or what is the value of something? Is it inherent in the object itself? In its historicity, its associations? Or is it all in the head? And of course in a story like this, where so much of reality is a matter of perception—and it gets to be more so as the story goes on—that’s a fundamental idea that I think they understand, and I hope they’ll continue to work with.” Laura Miller on John Smith: “I think that he is one of the most interesting characters in the series, partly because they aren’t trying to take a character who Dick conceived of as being, essentially, pretty passive and turn them into active characters. They’re freed to create this guy, and then they just really run with the idea that he feels the same way about fascism that your typical Middle American Ward Cleaver-type guy feels about Americanism, and so they’re really doing something with picking out the ways that the idealized, wholesome, controlled notion of normal family life is something that both Nazism and classic mom-and-apple-pie Americanism have in common.” John Kessel on Hitler: “Hitler is not even in the book, he’s gone, and Martin Bormann is the Führer in the book, which is interesting because I saw some criticism of this series saying, ‘Oh well Dick didn’t understand that Hitler was enfeebled by the end of the war and could never have been the Führer in 1962,’ when in fact Dick knew that. But the TV people—I think quite understandably—needed to have Hitler in there.”0 of 17 Leon Halip/Getty Images With 20 players becoming free agents this offseason and just over $9 million in cap room to carry over, Ted Thompson and the Green Bay Packers have some difficult decisions to make regarding key players at positions on both sides of the ball. Veterans James Jones, John Kuhn, Ryan Pickett, Sam Shields and B.J. Raji join 12 other unrestricted free agents the Packers will have to let walk or re-sign in the near future. The big storylines of the offseason will include whether or not the Packers re-sign cornerback Shields, if Raji's $8 million offer is still on the table (and, if not, if a subsequent offer has been made), if Jones fits into the receiving corps moving forward and, of course, if Jermichael Finley's spinal-fusion surgery has jeopardized his chances of being re-signed in Green Bay. In addition to the 17 unrestricted free agents, Green Bay also has two restricted free agents (Jamari Lattimore and M.D. Jennings) and one exclusive-rights free agent (Chris Banjo). Expect the Packers to tender the lowest contract to Lattimore, to provide depth at the linebacker position. While they may do the same with Jennings, so that they're not re-building the safety position from the ground up, his play hasn't earned anything higher than the absolute-lowest tender. And, even then, if they can draft a safety like Ha'Sean Clinton-Dix or Dion Bailey, they won't miss him if they let him walk and move Micah Hyde to safety. The following slides examine each of Green Bay's free agents in depth and whether the Packers should re-sign or let them walk, as well as players on whom the Packers could possibly place the franchise tag, though Thompson is reticent about using it and is not incredibly likely to do so. Criteria considered were, first and foremost, the potential cap hit, followed by production in 2013 and depth at the position, i.e. if the Packers could develop a player to replace the departing free agent in 2014. Free agency begins on March 11, and the deadline to designate a franchise player is March 3. The Packers must prioritize key players on this list (such as Shields and Evan Dietrich-Smith) who, if allowed to get to free agency, may receive offers from other clubs the Packers cannot match.With its declaration that high-speed Internet is a basic service, Canada’s telecom regulator is shifting its regulatory focus from voice to broadband. In a much-anticipated decision released Wednesday, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission declared that all residents are entitled to access voice and broadband Internet services on fixed and mobile wireless networks. The ruling compels telecommunications providers to help fund $750-million in broadband infrastructure in rural and remote areas over the next five years, sets ambitious speed targets and requires them to offer an unlimited data plan. “These goals are ambitious, they will not be easy to achieve and they will cost money. But we have no choice,” Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais said at a news conference. “The future of our economy, our prosperity, our society – indeed the future of every citizen – requires us to set ambitious goals, and to get on with connecting all Canadians for the 21st century.” The CRTC will mandate Internet speeds of 50 megabits per second (Mbps) download and 10 Mbps upload – 10 times faster than existing speed targets, which Blais said “didn’t cut it anymore” given the exploding demand for data. It also declared that the latest wireless technology should be available on major roads and directed wireless providers to offer mobile services for people with disabilities within six months. To pay for this massive improvement in broadband service – only 82 per cent of Canadians had access to the new target speeds as of 2015, according to the CRTC – the regulator will stop subsidizing voice services and shift the money to broadband instead. The Telecommunications Act gives the CRTC the power to force any provider to contribute to a fund that supports access to basic services. The local voice subsidy, which was $100 million in 2016, will be phased out. The CRTC will still collect the money from telecom service providers, but it will go to a $750-million fund dedicated to broadband projects in rural and remote communities. The CRTC expects to double its annual collections to $200 million within five years by requiring providers such as BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc. and Telus Corp. to contribute a percentage of their retail Internet revenue. These costs may be passed on to consumers. “Even at a $200 million amount, that comes out to about 50 cents per subscriber per month. I think that’s a price that makes eminent sense when we want to make Canada competitive in a digital economy,” Blais said in an interview. To access cash from the fund, which will be managed at arm’s length, applicants must submit proposals to upgrade infrastructure in underserved areas. Up to 10 per cent of the annual fund will go to satellite-dependent communities, such as those in Nunavut and Northern Quebec, for the first five years of the program. The CRTC hasn’t worked out the exact funding mechanism yet, but will start a public process to do that in early 2017. But the CRTC stopped short of regulating retail Internet rates or setting a price cap for basic Internet service, much like the skinny basic television package it mandated earlier this year. Blais said regulation of wholesale rates is enough at this point. Blais emphasized the CRTC alone cannot solve the digital divide that impacts rural and low-income Canadians. He praised Rogers and Telus for their affordable Internet programs for low-income Canadians and said affordability issues are best solved by governments in conjunction with carriers. The CRTC submitted a report to the federal Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development “All players in the Canadian communications landscape will need to do their part to ensure Canadians have access to the services they need to participate in the digital economy,” Blais said. Consumer advocates such as OpenMedia applauded the decision as a game changer for underserved communities with the caveat that it won’t be much help for those who can’t afford the rates. “The speed is good, the recognition that this is what the world is now is good, the money is decent… but if you’re not a middle income person, you’re out of luck,” John Lawford of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre said. Rogers, which said it already offers unlimited plans at speeds 20 times faster than the new target, acknowledged high-speed Internet is a must for Canadians. “While there are still many details to be worked out, we are encouraged by this reasonable plan to help increase access to Canadians in hard to reach areas of our country,” Rogers senior vice president David Watt said in a statement. Bell said it was reviewing the decision and Telus did not respond to a request for comment. The CRTC initiated a review of basic services in 2015 to update the rules for the digital era where Internet access can be crucial for education, work and health alongside social connection. Previously, the basic service objective consisted of a local landline, dial-up Internet, access to the long distance network, voice message relay service (a feature that enables people with hearing or speech disabilities to use the phone), emergency services and a printed copy of the local phone book upon request. It was created in 1999 to ensure all Canadians had access to affordable, high-quality telecom services even if they lived in rural and remote areas. The subsidy regime that placed a levy on larger providers was established the following year. When the CRTC last reviewed the basic service requirements in 2011, it found no need to declare broadband a basic service since “virtually all” Canadians (95 per cent) already had access. An estimated 99.5 per cent of Canadians had broadband access by the end of 2015, according to the CRTC. That number drops to 93 per cent when excluding Internet accessed via satellite or LTE networks. Financial Post ejackson@nationalpost.com twitter.com/theemilyjacksonOfficials in White County, Tennessee, have given inmates the option of ending their jail sentence early if they voluntarily agree to have a vasectomy or birth control implant. General Sessions Court Judge Sam Benningfield, who signed a standing order in May, said he made the decision to ensure that inmates would not be “burdened with children,” according to WTVF. OJ SIMPSON GETS PAROLE, ELIGIBLE FOR RELEASE OCTOBER 1 The program works like this: Both sexes can volunteer to participate, which is free of charge. Women are given a Nexplanon contraceptive implant, which works for up to four years, in their arm. The Tennessee Department of Health will provide vasectomies for men who volunteer for the program. Those who participate will receive 30 days of credit toward their jail time. So far, 32 women have received the implant, while 38 men are waiting for a vasectomy, The Daily Beast reported. Benningfield said his standing order is meant to help inmates. “I hope to encourage them to take personal responsibility and give them a chance, when they do get out, to not to be burdened with children. This gives them a chance to get on their feet and make something of themselves,” Benningfield told WTVF. “I understand it won’t be entirely successful but if you reach two or three people, maybe that’s two or three kids not being born under the influence of drugs. I see it as a win, win.” But others think the program is possibly illegal. District Attorney Bryant Dunaway told the news station that Benningfield’s order was “concerning” to him, and that his office didn't support the decision, adding, “It’s comprehensible that an 18-year-old gets this done, it can’t get reversed and then that impacts the rest of their life.” DERANGED WOMAN CRAWLS THROUGH DOGGY DOOR TO ATTACK TWO YOUNG GIRLS WHO WERE HOME ALONE The ACLU reportedly released a statement calling the program “unconstitutional:” "Offering a so-called 'choice' between jail time and coerced contraception or sterilization is unconstitutional. Such a choice violates the fundamental constitutional right to reproductive autonomy and bodily integrity by interfering with the intimate decision of whether and when to have a child, imposing an intrusive medical procedure on individuals who are not in a position to reject it. Judges play an important role in our community – overseeing individuals’ childbearing capacity should not be part of that role." County inmates are also being given two days’ worth of credit toward their jail time if they complete a state-run neonatal education program, the purpose of which is to teach inmates about the dangers of having a child while on drugs.This post is featured in the CAPC Magazine, July 2016: Pop Culture Cults issue of Christ and Pop Culture Magazine. Subscribe to Christ and Pop Culture Magazine by This post is featured in theissue of Christ and Pop Culture Magazine. Subscribe to Christ and Pop Culture Magazine by becoming a member and receive a host of other benefits, too. Every Tuesday in The Minority Report, Drew Dixon takes a look at trends in youth culture and offers some biblical wisdom for navigating them. Sometimes when I forget to set the coffee maker, I stop by McDonald’s on the way to work. Their coffee is decent, and I like to have an Egg McMuffin from time to time. And though it is always busy in the morning, McDonald’s is quite efficient and I can always get in and out of the drive-through quickly. Say what you will about McDonald’s or fast food in general, but it provides me a product that I like and am occasionally happy to pay for. This morning was one of those times, so as I pulled into McDonald’s, something strange happened. I pull right up to the drive- through window—there was no line. Only later, once I perused my Facebook feed, did I realize why McDonald’s wasn’t busy. It is Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day. It became very clear to me that this was the case because I quickly lost count of the number of people on my feed who had taken pictures of their chicken sandwiches or wrote a status declaring their plans to go to Chick-Fil-A. I also saw one status by a gay friend of mine, joking about how he was going to wear a chicken shirt to work today. I think the claims of the mayors of Boston and Chicago that Chick-Fil-A isn’t welcome in their respective cities is ridiculous. It is ridiculous in terms of Dan Cathy’s constitutional right to free speech and in terms of holding an entire company accountable for the personal views of its CEO. Yet, I also find it slightly childish that so many Christians are so excitedly posting their love for Chick-Fil-A for all their Facebook friends to see. I want to pull these sisters and brothers aside and ask them what they think they are accomplishing by publicly declaring their love for Chick-Fil-A. Do they feel they are supporting the first amendment? Do they believe that eating a chicken biscuit sends a message to governing officials like Thomas Menino and Rahm Emanuel that they can’t force their views on others? Or do they think they are taking a stand for the traditional definition of marriage? If all these Christians are motivated by protecting their first amendment rights, then let’s make that clear. If the goal is to win the culture war by purchasing waffle fries, I want no part of this buycott silliness. I have friends on Facebook who are gay, who feel that their home state discriminates against them. I have friends who are firm advocates of gay marriage. I know what the Bible says about homosexuality and I believe it. Going to Chick-Fil-A and posting a picture on Facebook, however, seems like an incredibly unproductive way of engaging these friends in an important dialogue. It feels like political positioning rather than Kingdom ethics. These friends are not going to consider the claims of the gospel because I promise to eat waffle fries in support of traditional family values. These people do, however, value my friendship. I want them to see the glory of Jesus in the gospel, but I fear too many of their Christian friends on Facebook seem more interested in winning a culture war than proclaiming the gospel. I want to tell my gay friend wearing the chicken shirt that not all Christians are like that, but I am not sure it would help. I like Chick-Fil-A for breakfast but I rarely go there. It’s not on my way to work, and it’s more expensive than McDonald’s. Honestly, I am glad I didn’t stop by Chick-Fil-A this morning because I have no desire to wait an hour for a chicken biscuit when I can get something just as good for cheaper in a fraction of the time. I also want to be cognizant of my neighbor and feel it’s important that we, as Christians, avoid turning absolutely every issue into a culture war of vast proportions. It just feels childish. Another friend of mine posted this passage on Facebook today; it seems appropriate: Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:14–21). ______________________________________________________ ****Update: After receiving a number of messages about this article, I want to make clear something that perhaps was not clear in the article. I think its fine to support companies that you like. We all do this every day with our dollars. I also think its fine to want to show support to someone like Dan Cathy who merely admitted publicly what he believes and I do not think businesses should be blocked from building based upon the religious beliefs of their CEO–something that the ACLU and the LA Times both recognize. In that sense, I was overreaching by saying “I want no part of this buycott silliness.” I understand Christians wanting to voice support of a man whose company they like and who they feel was unfairly treated. All believers should be honest about what they believe, particularly when asked. I am not in any way advocating that believers hide their beliefs from the world. These things were not my concern–my concerns was motivated with how Christians go about proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom of Jesus Christ to an unbelieving world. Did you enjoy this piece of content from Christ and Pop Culture Magazine? The continuation of this site and the insightful cultural analysis our writers produce is only possible through your generous support. Consider becoming a member for as little as $5 per month. You’ll get free stuff each month, full access to CAPC Magazine (including all back issues), entrance to our exclusive members group on Facebook — and you’ll help us keep the lights on. Join now.Highlights of Newcastle United's 2-0 victory over Manchester City in the Capital One Cup. Highlights of Newcastle United's 2-0 victory over Manchester City in the Capital One Cup. An understrength Newcastle pulled off a big Capital One Cup shock by beating holders Manchester City 2-0 to book their place in the quarter-finals. United boss Alan Pardew fielded an extremely inexperienced side, featuring six changes from the weekend league win at Tottenham, but he was rewarded with an energetic and committed display from his youthful team. This was epitomised by teenage forward Rolando Aarons, who showed raw pace to go past Eliaquim Mangala and unexpected poise to finish low past Willy Caballero from a tight angle to open the scoring in just the sixth minute. The away side had to weather plenty of pressure and survived a scare when Fabricio Collocini sliced a clearance on to the frame of his own goal in the first half. Alan Pardew praises his 'outstanding' Newcastle side Alan Pardew praises his 'outstanding' Newcastle side But they strengthened their grip on the game with 15 minutes remaining when substitute Moussa Sissoko broke into the box and clipped a superb shot into the far corner of the goal before holding out for a famous triumph. The win continues Newcastle's recent rejuvination under Pardew, who has now overseen three successive victories, having previously managed just two in the previous nine, both in the League Cup. In contrast, it is worrying times for City, who threw away a two-goal lead to draw against CSKA Moscow in the Champions League and lost 2-1 at West Ham in the Premier League in their two games prior to this defeat. City boss Manuel Pellegrini fielded a strong team for Wednesday's tie, but despite their vastly superior possession they were unable to break down the Newcastle defence. Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini admits that his side didn't play well enough Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini admits that his side didn't play well enough The home side certainly had their chances to score. Stefan Jovetic should have netted with a shot at the back post from a Samir Nasri cross but was denied by a superb save from Rob Elliot, while Edin Dzeko had an even better chance late in the game with a shot from point-blank range that was blocked by the diving Ryan Taylor on the line. But what characterised City's performance was a lack of speed, a scarcity of penetration and, most worryingly, a lack of ideas in the final third. It could have been even worse for them had Caballero not superbly saved a Paul Dummett volley from a corner and the referee not waved away the protests for what looked like a clear penalty for a foul on Gabriel Obertan in the box by Aleksandar Kolarov. Newcastle's reward for the victory is an away trip to Tottenham in the last eight.Samsung and Barnes & Noble Announce Partnership to Create Co-Branded Tablets Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 NOOK Combines Leading Samsung Tablet Technology with the Award-Winning NOOK® Reading Experience Samsung and Barnes & Noble Announce Partnership to Create Co-Branded Tablets; Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 NOOK. New Tablet combines leading Samsung tablet technology with Award-winning NOOK reading technology. Samsung and Barnes & Noble Announce Partnership to Create Co-Branded Tablets; Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 NOOK. New Tablet combines leading Samsung tablet technology with award-winning NOOK reading technology. New York, NY & Ridgefield Park, NJ – June 5, 2014 – Samsung Electronics America and NOOK Media, a subsidiary of Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), today announced a partnership to develop co-branded Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 NOOK tablets that feature the award-winning Barnes & Noble digital reading experience. The co-branded devices will combine popular Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 hardware with customized NOOK software to give customers powerful, full-featured tablets that are designed for reading, with easy access to Barnes & Noble's expansive digital collection of more than three million books, leading magazines and newspapers. The companies are expected to introduce Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 NOOK in a 7-inch version in the U.S. in early August. The co-branded tablets will be prominently displayed along with NOOK eReaders and sold at Barnes & Noble's nearly 700 bookstores across the U.S. and online at bn.com, one of the leading e-commerce sites. "We are very excited and proud to partner with Samsung, a world-class technology and tablet leader, to create customized co-branded devices featuring our valuable NOOK reading experience and digital content catalog for Barnes & Noble customers nationwide," said Michael P. Huseby, Chief Executive Officer of Barnes & Noble, Inc. "Standing behind these great new devices will be the power of our 40,000 Barnes & Noble booksellers combined with our deep bookselling and retail expertise to provide sales support and personalized in-store customer service for our lineup of new Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 NOOK products. Partnering with Samsung brings our customers great new products and evidences our commitment to our NOOK customers and growing our digital content business." Mr. Huseby noted that the Company will continue to offer its NOOK GlowLight™ and continue to provide customer support for its millions of customers. He added that the partnership is a major milestone in Barnes & Noble's efforts to rationalize the NOOK business. Working with Samsung on co-branded tablets will allow the Company to reduce its exposure to the substantial cost structure and other financial commitments that accompany ownership of the hardware production aspects of the NOOK tablet business. Going forward, the Company will be able to focus on its proven expertise in acquiring and delivering the best digital reading experience to grow NOOK content sales. "Samsung has had a strong relationship with Barnes & Noble, offering the company's award-winning reading experience to users of Galaxy Tab products," said Tim Baxter, President of Samsung Electronics America. "Samsung is dedicated to providing consumers with choices that best fit their lifestyle. So, we are excited to be taking this next step with Barnes & Noble to offer Galaxy Tab 4 devices that are tailored to the needs of their customers and enhance the NOOK reading experience."On Friday, 22 April 2016 at 13:41:52 UTC, Mike Parker wrote: > I was late, but I have since gotten this taken care of, so it's all golden. > > FYI, for anyone facing a similar problem in the future and is hung up waiting on me to merge a pull request, the base loader in DerelictUtil allows overriding the default library names. So instead of a library like DLangUI requiring a patched Derelict package, you could do this: > > version(Derelict_OS_Android) > DerelictFT.load("libft2.so"); > > You can pass multiple library names as a single, comma-separated string: > > DerelictFT. load("libft2. so,libf reetype. so"); > > Or as an array (which is what the above is converted to internally anyway): > > DerelictFT.load(["libft2.so", "libfreetype.so"]); Thank you for your help! I've updated dlangui dub.json with latest DerelictFT.Sometimes an utter disregard for privacy on the Web serves as its own just reward. In a sad case from the last week, two Rutgers students, Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei, are being charged with invasion of privacy after allegedly setting up a webcam to secretly record one of the students' roommate having "a sexual encounter" with another man. The filmed student, an 18-year old freshman named Tyler Clementi, is thought by police to have jumped to his death off the George Washington Bridge last week, according to documents posted by TheSmokingGun. The central piece of evidence against Ravi and Wei? Ravi's twitter feed, where he detailed the entire exploit. On September 19th, Ravi tweeted that "Roommate asked for the room until midnight. I went into Molly's room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay." And on September 21, he wrote, "Anyone with iChat, I dare you to video chat me between the hours of 9:30 and 12. Yes it's happening again." Ravi deleted his Twitter account sometime after that message, but it can still be seen via Google's cache. Ravi's twittering isn't limited to his illegal filming of his roommate's sexual encounters. He also overshares the usual embarassing material, including one post he wrote from his iPad on September 17th: "Sitting here stoned out of my mind with a buddy watching top 100 viral videos. Pandas sneezing is what college is about." The two students face a maximum of five years in jail. One argument in Ravi's favor: If he imposed a painful lack of privacy on his roommate Clementi, at least he also imposed it on himself.The Cable Industry Is Fighting Tooth And Nail To Prevent Cable Set Top Box Competition from the protectin'-innovation-through-obstinance dept "Regrettably, the report veers off course by including a controversial proposal to place a burdensome technology mandate on MVPDs known as AllVid. This approach could jeopardize consumer protections including privacy, emergency alerts, parental controls, and inhibit innovation by allowing the government to dictate the way video content is delivered to consumers. Fortunately, the report reflects substantial opposition to the idea of a new, government-imposed technology mandate and extensively describes the proposal's shortcomings." "Cable and satellite companies will surely resist change or try to water down the new F.C.C. regulations. After all, they stand to lose billions in rental fees. But it is in their long-term interest to give consumers more choices. A growing number of Americans are giving up cable-TV because it costs too much. Consumers might be more inclined to pay for cable if the industry stopped trying to nickel-and-dime them." For years now regulators have tried fruitlessly to bring a little more competition to the cable set top box market. While CableCARD was supposed to be a revolution on this front, regulatory enforcement was messy and inconsistent, and to protect set top box rental revenues and overall market control, cable companies rarely advertised the technology and made installations frequently nightmarish and expensive. When lackluster CableCARD stats then emerged annually, the cable industry just shrugged and apathetically declared that gosh --Senators Ed Markey and Richard Blumenthal recently collected data from ten cable companies and found that things haven't really improved when it comes to set top box competition. Their data found that 99% of cable customers still rent a cable box, and pay $231 in fees annually for hardware that's usually not even worth a single year's payments. As a result, the cable industry generates $19.5 billion per year in rental fees, and has every incentive to keep things as they are.Last fall, Congress passed the Satellite Television Extension Act Reauthorization (STELAR), which effectively killed the CableCARD and the FCC's sloppy attempt to crack open the set top market. However, STELAR's passage included the creation of the the Downloadable Security Technology Advisory Committee (DSTAC), tasked with advising the FCC on how to move forward on a CableCARD replacement that actually works. That's no small feat given the cable industry desperately wants to maintain the status quo, and the copyright brigades want hardware to be as locked and crippled as possible.Among the DSTAC proposals released last week (pdf) is the idea of a "virtual headend," where network security functionality is performed in the cloud, leaving the end user device flexible for an array of hardware and software solutions. It's an evolution of the "Allvid" proposal the FCC considered in 2010, intended to create a single, unified standard for a set top gateway that's open to all forms of video competition, software and hardware alike.Not too surprisingly this idea has the support of companies like Google, Apple, Sony and Microsoft, but has faced stiff opposition from the cable industry. With reports suggesting DSTAC will be pushing such an open platform (even if more flexible than the original Allvid proposal), the cable industry's chief lobbying apparatus (the NCTA) is of course once again trotting out the safety, privacy and security bogeyman:Yes, and we wouldn't want to "inhibit innovation," would we? Opening up the locked-down cable set top box not only would open the door to greater set top hardware competition, but it would ultimately threaten the cable industry's stranglehold over cable itself. As such, it's highly unlikely that any proposal worth its salt will see NCTA approval. It's also probably unsurprising that Allvid has the support of consumer advocates like Public Knowledge and the New York Times editorial board, which this week tried to soft sell the idea to the cable industry at the bottom of an editorial on the subject Except it's not really in their long-term interest to give consumers more choices. Open set top gateways and open, competing platforms would only further usher in increased Internet video options, incurring a mass realization that people pay the cable industry far too much, for far too little. As such, expect the cable industry to scratch, piss and moan until it has ensured that whatever standard emerges from the FCC committee is a scarred and bastardized shadow of the original intent. And should this shadow actually survive the lobbying gauntlet and see real-world adoption, the cable industry will surely work tirelessly to ensure the same level of dysfunction consumers enjoyed with the CableCARD.On the bright side: none of this really matters longer term. Neither incompetent regulators nor terrified legacy giants can stop the Internet video revolution from threatening traditional cable television. And as traditional cable's power wanes, its all-too-comfortable walled-garden authority over the set top box market becomes utterly irrelevant. As such, the cable industry needs to stop focusing on swimming upstream, and start battening down the hatches ahead of what's going to be a particularly nasty storm. Filed Under: cable, cablecard, competition, fcc, set top box, stelar, tvPresident Trump was right about one thing this week (look, it happens). It is extremely hard to tell someone that their husband or wife or son or daughter has been killed while fighting in the country’s uniform. Well, it should be. Every service member who dies in one of America’s wars gives up his life in following the orders of the commander -n chief. And that commander in chief — no matter how self-absorbed — should take personal responsibility for it. But Trump could not have been more wrong in how he handled questions about whether he made calls to the next of kin to the four American soldiers who were killed in Niger on Oct. 4. Then again, there was so much wrong with the way he handled this issue. First, he indicated he had not already made the calls. “I will at some point during the period of time,” he said. Which period of time? Who knows.Senator Just in the past three weeks, McCain has mixed up Iraq and Afghanistan, Somalia and Sudan, and even football's Packers and Steelers. Ironically, the errors have been concentrated in what should be his area of expertise - foreign affairs. McCain will turn 72 the day after Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) accepts his party's nomination for president, calling new attention to the sensitive issue of McCain's advanced age, three days before the start of his own convention. The McCain campaign says Obama has had plenty of flubs of his own, including a reference to "57 states" and a string of misstated place names during the primaries that Republicans gleefully sent around as YouTubes. But the mistakes raise a serious, if uncomfortable question: Are the gaffes the result of his age? And what could that mean in the Oval Office? Voters, thinking about their own relatives, can be expected to scrutinize McCain's debate performances for signs of slippage. Every voter has a parent, grandparent or a friend whose mental acuity slipped as they grew older. It happens at different times for different people - and there is ample evidence many in their 70s are sharp and fit as ever. There is also ample evidence others do start to slip at that age. In McCain's case, his medical records, public appearances and travel schedule have suggested he remains at the top of his game. But his liberal critics have been pouncing on every misstatement as a sign that he's an old man. Already, late-night comics have made McCain's age an almost nightly topic, with CBS's David Letterman getting a laugh just about any time he says the word "McCain" and "nap" in the same sentence. Last week, McCain tried to defuse the issue by pretending to doze off during an appearance with NBC's Conan O'Brien. Republicans would like to make the case that McCain is seasoned and Obama is a callow newcomer to the public stage. But that'll be harder if he keeps up the verbal slips, which make it easier for comedians and critics to pile on. "FIRST GAFFE OF OBAMA TRIP......GOES TO MCCAIN," blared Monday afternoon's banner headline on the left-leaning Huffington Post, accompanied by a photo of McCain appearing to slap his forehead. That referred to an ABCNews.com posting asserting that McCain appeared to "confuse Iraq and Afghanistan, in a "Good Morning America" interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer, who asked whether the "the situation in Afghanistan is precarious and urgent." McCain responded: "I'm afraid it's a very hard struggle, particularly given the situation on the Iraq/Pakistan border," McCain said. The ABC posting added: "Iraq and Pakistan do not share a border. Afghanistan and Pakistan do." Unfortunately for McCain, that wasn't an isolated slip. Among the other lapses: -"Somalia" for "Sudan" - As recounted in a reporter's pool report from McCain's Straight Talk Express bus on June 30, the senator said while discussing Darfur, a region of Sudan: "How can we bring pressure on the government of Somalia?" Senior adviser Mark Salter corrected him: "Sudan." -"Germany" for "Russia" - A YouTube clip from last year memorializes McCain referring to Vladimir Putin of Russia - following a trip to Germany - as "President Putin of Germany." -This spring, McCain said troops in Iraq were "down to pre-surge levels" when in fact there were 20,000 more troops than when the surge policy began. -Also this spring, McCain twice appeared to mistake Sunnis and Shiites, two branches of Islam that split violently. -In Phoenix earlier this month, McCain referred to "Czechoslovakia," which has been divided since Jan. 1, 1993, into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. He also referred to Czechoslovakia during a debate in November and a radio show in April. -In perhaps the most curious incident, McCain said earlier this month that as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, he had tried to confuse his captors by giving the names of Pittsburgh Steelers starting players
, renewable, and sustainable. The substrates have a low surface roughness of only about two nanometers. “Our next steps will be to work toward improving the power conversion efficiency over 10 percent, levels similar to solar cells fabricated on glass or petroleum-based substrates,” says Kippelen. The group plans to achieve this by optimizing the optical properties of the solar cell’s electrode. There’s also another positive impact of using natural products to create cellulose nanomaterials. The nation’s forest product industry projects that tens of millions of tons of them could be produced once large-scale production begins, potentially in the next five years. Jeffrey Youngblood, an associate professor in Purdue University’s School of Materials Engineering, collaborated with Kippelen on the research. Their findings appear in Scientific Reports. A provisional patent on the technology has been filed with the US Patent Office. This research was funded in part through the Center for Interface Science: Solar Electric Materials, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, by the Office of Naval Research, and the US Department of Agriculture–Forest Service. The USDA-Forest Service provided funding for CNC substrate processing. The US Forest Service-Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) provided CNC materials. Source: Georgia TechNorth Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, reacts during the launch of four missiles from an undisclosed location of North Korea. (KRT via Associated Press Video) The Trump administration has no intention of taking up China on its proposal of a deal between the United States and North Korea. But behind the scenes, the White House is working to come up with an alternative approach that could be ready soon. The United States and North Korea are risking a “head on collision,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Wednesday, calling on both sides to “flash the red light and apply brakes on both trains.” He proposed that the United States and South Korea halt their “Foal Eagle” military exercises in exchange for an end to nuclear and missile testing by the regime of Kim Jong Un. The reciprocal confidence building measure would be meant to lead to direct engagement. Wang also complained about U.S. deployment of the THAAD missile defense system in South Korea. But a senior Trump administration official told me that the U.S. government is “underwhelmed” by the Chinese offer and will not use it as a starting point for dealing with the North Korean threat, though the policy is still being formed. “This isn’t really a new proposal in any way. This is what the Chinese have wanted for a long time,” the official said. The Trump administration believes that China is still reluctant to use the leverage on the Kim regime that Beijing has available, despite recent steps such as suspending coal imports.“They take steps, but steps that are inadequate to change the regime’s behavior,” the official said. “We’re looking for genuine signs the Chinese are willing to get serious about North Korea.” The administration has been engaged in a serious policy process to develop a response to a series of North Korean provocations and bizarre acts, including a February missile test of a medium range ballistic missile, the apparent assassination of Kim Jong Un’s brother in Malaysia using VX nerve agent and this week’s simultaneous launching of four missiles in Japan’s direction. There have been multiple meetings of the National Security Council’s deputies committee, most recently last week, the senior Trump administration official said. A principals committee meeting, which would include Cabinet members and White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, is in the works. “We are reevaluating how we are going to handle North Korea going forward,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said Wednesday. “We are making those decisions now. And we will act accordingly.” The options span a broad range and could be altered or adjusted throughout the process, officials cautioned. But lawmakers and experts said that short of a military strike, which nobody wants to contemplate, there is a limited set of tactics the Trump administration could adopt: increase the pressure, engage, or some combination of the two. Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking Democrat Ben Cardin (Md.) told reporters Wednesday that he too rejects Beijing’s idea that the United States and South Korea should stop military exercises in exchange for Pyongyang adhering to multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions. But he wants the United States to talk with the Kim regime. “It’s not a matter of trading with North Korea for it complying with its international obligations, that’s not what’s at stake,” he said. “But I would welcome an opportunity to have exchanges with North Korea.” Multiple Trump administration officials said that White House is wary of engaging with Pyongyang unless the Kim regime first changes its behavior. Some officials are pushing for increased sanctions on North Korea as well as secondary sanctions on foreign entities that aid North Korea, which would include Chinese state-connected companies. Cardin would rather the administration persuade Beijing to put more pressure on Pyongyang, rather than escalating a dispute with China over the issue by sanctioning Chinese firms. “If we are going to be effective, we need Chinese cooperation. So I would hope the Trump administration has a strategy for working with China for isolating North Korea’s activity,” he said. “We have a common interest here, and it seems to me through diplomacy we should be able to get China to put the pressure on North Korea.” The Trump administration reportedly canceled what was set to be a meeting between senior North Korean officials and former U.S. officials this month in New York. The meetings were to be convened by the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, led by Donald S. Zagoria. Initially the State Department said it would grant visas to the visiting North Korean officials, but later reversed course. Joel Wit, a nuclear expert who has participated in several “Track 2″ unofficial dialogues with North Korean officials, told me that simply increasing the pressure on Pyongyang and Beijing would likely not achieve U.S. objectives. “I don’t think we’re going to get anything out of it, and it’s likely the Chinese will react badly and the North Korean reaction will be more tests,” he said. A more nuanced strategy might be to prepare the punitive measures while simultaneously reaching out to Pyongyang to offer a direct dialogue, even if it’s done on an unofficial level. By nodding to China’s request, the United States could be in a better position to bring Beijing along if and when harsher measures become absolutely necessary. “If we make a credible offer to restart negotiations with the North Koreans and they blow us off, that may help us with the Chinese,” said Wit. “If we think we can just push around the Chinese with second degree sanctions and they are going to roll over, that’s not going to happen.” Of course, the administration’s chances of success in dealing with the North Korean issue would be increased if President Trump filled several empty senior administration positions dealing with Asia, including but not limited to: assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific affairs, ambassador to South Korea and ambassador to Japan. Time is of the essence. The end of the U.S.-South Korea military exercises will be a natural opportunity for both sides to step back from the brink of conflict. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is headed to the region next week. He has a brief window to find a way for both Beijing and Pyongyang to save face while giving Trump enough reason to reengage. If that opportunity passes, both sides could escalate, the situation could deteriorate further and the options for the Trump administration would only narrow.Jenni “JWoww” Farley, Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, and Angelina “Jolie” Pivarnick of Jersey Shore The final episode of the reality show Jersey Shore, which followed eight self-proclaimed young “Guidos” for a summer, airs tonight. The show has been a massive success, scoring record-breaking ratings for MTV and generating a frenzied stream of tweets, blog posts, and YouTube videos. Surely MTV will want to repeat the cultural phenomenon, and yet the particular magic of the Jersey Shore is impossible to recreate. MTV cannot bring this cast back for a second season; they’ve already been spoiled by their fame. Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi is doing the weather for a local New York TV station in between appearances at bars with names like Tequila Ranch. She will never again do another back handspring at the club out of natural exuberance—she will be doing it because she knows the viewing audience wants her to. And if the network attempts to bring another group of Guidos to a seedy house in Seaside, N.J., they will surely be sad imitations of the originals. The Situation is sui generis. MTV needs a new tribe to study. Lucky for them, there’s a group of feisty young people just a few hundred miles north on the Atlantic coast. They’re called Massholes. Though there is some disagreement about what, exactly, constitutes a Masshole, there are several characteristics present in all definitions. A Masshole is a resident of Massachusetts—though sometimes Rhode Island, New Hampshire, or Maine—who possesses a nearly carnal love for the Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics, and Bruins; operates motor vehicles in an aggressive fashion; drinks Sam Adams; and overuses the word wicked. Massholes can be found summering in many sandy New England locales, including Revere Beach (outside Boston), Narragansett Beach (in Rhode Island), and Weirs Beach (on New Hampshire’s Lake Winnipesaukee). But for our purposes, the proposed series will be based in West Dennis, Mass., an old Masshole stomping ground on Cape Cod. (On the B.S. Report podcast last month, ESPN’s Bill Simmons suggested a Jersey Shore spin-off set on the North Shore of Boston. But why set the show on the Commonwealth’s second most famous cape?) An undying love for Jonathan Papelbon and a knack for navigating rotaries may not seem like enough to unite a group of people, but it’s important to remember that the concept of “Guido,” as put forth by Jersey Shore, is not much more elaborate. Though it originated as a derogatory term for Italians, Guido, as defined by the show, is not just about ethnic identity—Jenny “Jwoww” Farley appears to be part Irish. It’s more about a particular lifestyle that involves a lot of tanning, clubbing, and hair product. As Snooki explained to talk show hostess Wendi Williams, “Guidos and Guidettes are good-looking people that like to make a scene, like to be center of attention, and like to take care of themselves. … It’s kind of a compliment.” Like Guidos, Massholes have reclaimed a term that was coined as a derisive epithet. And like Guidos, they’re already a beloved pop-cultural punching bag—think “Mad Men with Massholes” and the recurring SNL “Boston Teens” sketch. The term is deeply entrenched in the lexicon. Angry Democrats have blamed the election of Scott Brown on Massholes who only voted for him because he was supported by Red Sox hero Curt Schilling. It’s true that Massholes are a more diverse subculture than Guidos, but that would only make a series about them more compelling. There are two main Masshole strands: Kennedy-lite types, often from the North Shore or Boston’s wealthy Metro West area, who go to small New England liberal arts colleges (Bowdoin, Colby, Dartmouth) and wear lots of khaki; and more blue-collar types, often from South Boston or one of the commonwealth’s harder-knock-cities (Everett, New Bedford), who share a hairdo: a weathered Sox cap in the warmer months, a fleece-lined Pats hat in the winter. These two sorts of Massholes will probably not get along particularly well. The latter will find the former condescending, just like in that scene in Good Will Hunting in which Matt Damon’s character gets in a fight with that snotty dude at the Harvard bar. Except in Massholes, the warring factions will mend their ways by the end of the each episode, hard feelings salved by a quick trip to the nearest beach bar, where they will find common cause, chanting “Yankees suck” as they watch the latest from the Fens on NESN. And what will the individual castmates look like? What will their slightly incomprehensible nicknames be? Massholes are not just an economically and educationally diverse bunch. They’re also more ethnically varied than Guidos: There are Jews, Irishmen, WASPs, Italians, and Portuguese who will happily cut you off on the Bourne Bridge and then give you the finger. (Again, this simmering diversity only promises greater, crazier entertainment.) Below are some broad sketches for a few Masshole hopefuls, based on the bios for the Jersey Shore cast-mates on MTV’s Web site.Slate readers should add their own cast member nominees in “The Fray,” as this list is surely incomplete. Robert “Fitzy” Fitzpatrick, 24, Boston Fitzy says he hates drama, but it always seems to follow him wherever he goes. This amateur hockey player (most recently, he’s been holding down a spot on the checking line of the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins) just wants to have fun this summer. But if love intervenes, Fitzy might have to choose between his love of hockey and his love of one special Massholina. Likes: his Boston Whaler, his beat-up Hartford Whalers hat. Dislikes: A-Rod. Sarah “Animal” Conti, 21, Worcester, Mass. Sarah never goes anywhere without her No. 12 Tom Brady Jersey or her trademark hairdo: a slicked-back ponytail with lots of bobby pins. Her girls back home nicknamed her “Animal,” because when her hair is down, she looks like the eponymous muppet. Also because she drinks like a bear. These are qualities that Fitzy finds hard to resist. Theodore “Weasel” Taft, 22, Marblehead, Mass. This college senior wants one last summer of fun before he graduates from Dartmouth and starts his job in sales at his family’s sailboat company. He just wants to stay out of trouble for two months, but he has a history of being disqualified from regattas for unsportsmanlike conduct. He has one rule: “Don’t fall in love at the Cape.” Aviva “Diva” Goldsmith, 20, Brookline, Mass. Aviva works at her mother’s nail salon by day, but by night her inner diva comes out. She’s looking for that special guy in her life, but she’s not willing to settle. Diva spends most weekend nights cruising for a husband at the bar across the street from Tufts’ Dental School. She is a reality TV veteran, once appearing on an episode of MTV’s True Life: I’m Getting Breast Implants. Joe “Hot Rod” Tavares, 32, West Dennis, Mass. The elder statesman of the crew and also the only local, Hot Rod’s life is one endless summer share. He’s the peacekeeper and the biggest sports fan: He has a full-torso tattoo of a Red Sox jersey, as well as a second tattoo in his nether regions that says “10/27/2004 World Champions.” During football season, Hot Rod is a groundskeeper at Gillette Stadium and keeps a piece of sacred sod under his pillow for good luck. He touched Tom Brady’s hair one time. DJ Pauly D., 28, Johnston, R.I. For the die-hard Jersey Shore fan who will surely be crushed when the original goes off the air, Massholes should provide some continuity. Who better than the pointy-haired Rhode Island native Pauly D.? He will spin at whatever cheesy club the Masshole housemates go to and occasionally “creep” on Aviva. As fans of Jersey Shore know, he has a history of hearting Jewish girls, and has a T-shirt to prove it.Did Sen. Bob Corker violate federal labor law? Sen. Corker's statements about a union election at the VW plant in Chattanooga, Tenn. raise questions about whether the result will stand. Storified by AJAMStream· Fri, Feb 14 2014 14:55:10 Yimg Sen. Corker, who was instrumental in bringing VW to Chattanooga as mayor of the city, has vocally opposed unionizing the plant. His statement on Wednesday, however, may have crossed the line from opposition to interference, according to labor law experts. Many observers pointed out that if the assurances Corker spoke of came directly from VW, it would make the Senator a conduit for the company in attempting to influence the vote outcome, which would be a clear violation of federal labor law. Corker's Conundrum: He said VW execs told him if UAW loses, VW will add SUV line, If VW said that, it's breaking law http://t.co/gw3EAOhDFQSteven Greenhouse The law in question is the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, which codified an employer's First Amendment right to oppose a union, so long as the company does not attempt to influence workers' decisions by threatening reprisals or offering incentives if they vote one way or the other: Expression of views without threat of reprisal or force or promise of benefit The expressing of any views, argument, or opinion, or the dissemination thereof, whether in written, printed, graphic, or visual form, shall not constitute or be evidence of an unfair labor practice under any of the provisions of this subchapter, if such expression contains no threat of reprisal or force or promise of benefit.codes.lp.findlaw.com If the tip came from VW, it would contradict past statements made by the company, which has expressed openness to the possibility of a union in Chattanooga. VW has also said publicly that the unionization vote will have no bearing on the company's decision about whether to construct a new SUV production line in Chattanooga or its plant in Mexico. Corker has refused to say whether the tip about the SUV line came directly from VW. He defended his statement saying that his remarks acted as a counterweight to UAW's influence on plant workers. “When you’ve got a situation where only one entity is making its case," Corker said, "I believe it would be irresponsible for me — especially with the involvement, the background, the knowledge — not to be making these points.” Kenneth Dau-Schmidt, a professor of labor and employment law at Indiana University, said in an interview with The Tennessean: “Although there aren't many precedents where a party other than the employer attempts to intimidate the employees before an election, the purpose of NLRB elections under federal law is to get the employees’ free and informed decision about whether they want to be represented by the union.” Harley Shaiken, who researches labor issues at the University of California-Berkeley, told Reuters, "If the senator's statement doesn't violate the letter of the law, it certainly violates the spirit of the law." Without knowing whether the tip came directly from VW, labor law experts are unsure about whether Corker can be held liable. Regardless, the votes integrity may be questioned. While the Senator's statement is the first to actually throw the legality of the vote in doubt, Chattanooga plant workers have not been free of outside influence. Conservative groups such as Americans for Tax Reform have invested heavily in fighting what they see as a potential tipping point for unionization at southern state auto plants. If VW plant workers reject unionization, Corker's comments could provide the UAW with grounds to contest the election and schedule another vote. Do you think Sen. Corker's statement compromises VW plant workers' unionization vote? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.Donald Trump may want you to believe that D.C. has sold out of dresses because of his big day, but the truth is that even the lowest of the low in performance and spectacle – ticket scalpers – are seeing that demand is exceptionally low for Trump’s inauguration. According to the New York Daily News, individuals who got their hands on Trump inauguration tickets with the intent on selling them for big bucks to Trump devotees are finding that they made a bad investment – so bad, they just may be forced to use the tickets themselves, lest they see them wasted completely. “Yossi Rosenberg, 36, of upper Manhattan, told the Daily News he bought a pair of tickets to Friday’s Washington, D.C. event from a woman in Westchester County for $700, thinking he could flip them for at least twice as much. But nobody’s biting. ‘Nobody wants to buy them,’ Rosenberg told The News. ‘It looks like I’m stuck with them, I might even have to go.'” Rosenberg said that he expected some of Trump’s wealthy supporters to buy the tickets from him, but when no one bought them, he began to advertise the hot items on white supremacists sites. Apparently, those who spend their time advocating for the extermination of a race don’t have that much extra cash lying around. We aren’t in the business of feeling sorry for ticket scalpers as they make the act of attending live events a real headache, still we can’t help but feel particular pity for Rosenberg, who clearly misread the national temperature when it comes to buffoon Trump. Also, Rosenberg would be displeased to learn that even now, just days from the Inauguration, Joe Schmoe can go and get his own free tickets online to the inauguration – something you wouldn’t expect from even your child’s choir’s rendition of “Stone Soup.” We already had some inking that enthusiasm for the event was low, considering how it compared to Obama’s 2009 inauguration where the city issued 3,000 bus parking permits to Trump’s 200. Meanwhile, over 1,200 parking permits have been issued for the following day when the Million Women’s March is set to begin, protesting the appointment of Donald Trump. Though no doubt we will all see a full audience at the 45th president’s inauguration, there are already rumors that individuals are being hired to attend the event in order to make up for the growing boycott and counter protests planned for the event. No matter what happens, Donald Trump will shout far and wide about how amazing, how spectacular, and how highly-attended his ascendancy to the throne was.Sonic hedgehog (Shh), the most widely characterized of the Hedgehog homologs, is essential for proper embryonic development1,2,3. The Shh pathway involves the autocleavage of full-length Shh into an active 20-kDa N-terminal fragment (ShhN), which binds to its 12-pass transmembrane receptor, Patched (Ptc1), reversing its inhibitory effect on Smoothened (Smo). One effect of this de-repression is the activation of Gli transcription factors, which regulate the transcription of target genes that include Gli1 and Ptch1 (ref. 1). Several synthetic and natural small-molecule modulators of Smo, an apparent member of the family of G protein–coupled receptors (GPCRs), have been discovered using cell-based phenotypic screens4. Shh signaling antagonists that bind to Smo include cyclopamine (3), SANT1 (4) and Cur-61414 (5)5,6. Shh signaling agonists that bind to Smo include the synthetic small molecules purmorphamine (6) and Hh-Ag1.2 (SAG; 7)7,8. Furthermore, small molecules that inhibit Shh signaling downstream of Smo, GANT61 (8) and GANT58 (9), have also been reported (Supplementary Fig. 1 online)9. The discovery of small-molecule modulators of Shh signaling provides an avenue to regulate the activity of a pathway implicated in medulloblastoma, basal cell carcinoma (BCC), pancreatic cancer, prostate cancer and developmental disorders2,10,11. Phase 1 clinical trials in BCC and pancreatic cancer involving the Smo antagonists GDC-0449 and IPI-926 (NCT00607724 and NCT00761696 at http://clinicaltrials.gov, respectively) are currently underway12,13. None of the reported synthetic Shh pathway inhibitors are known to target the Shh protein itself. To our knowledge, all reported examples of discoveries of small-molecule Shh signaling modulators resulted from the use of cell-based phenotypic assays. Target-based discovery of modulators of Shh signaling was expected to provide a complementary approach. Small-molecule microarray (SMM)-based screens have enabled the discovery of small molecules that bind target proteins of interest and modulate the cellular functions of their targets14,15,16. In this system, small molecules have been linked covalently to a glass surface and screened for binding to either a purified protein or an epitope-tagged protein in a complex cell lystate17,18. Here, we report a screen of bacterially expressed ShhN using SMMs containing a collection of approximately 10,000 diversity-oriented synthesis (DOS) compounds and natural products arrayed on a single microscope slide19. In the ShhN SMM screen, some structurally related macrocycles emerged as noteworthy assay positives. A representative macrocycle, 1 (Fig. 1a), was retested for binding to ShhN via surface plasmon resonance (SPR) (Fig. 1b). The compound exhibited binding to ShhN in a concentration-dependant fashion with a K d of 9 μM, determined by fitting steady state data. To our knowledge, this is the first reported discovery of a small molecule capable of binding to the ShhN protein. Figure 1: Characterization of SMM hit 1. (a) Structure of 1. (b) SPR plot of 1 binding to purified ShhN. The plot shows normalized response units (RUs) on the y axis and time (s) on the x axis. The concentrations plotted are 0.78 μM, 1.56 μM, 3.13 μM, 6.25 μM, 12.5 μM and 25 μM, in order of increasing normalized RUs. (c) Luminescence plots for a Gli-dependent firefly luciferase reporter gene assay of 1 at the indicated concentrations. ShhN represents a positive control for medium containing ShhN palmitoylated at the N terminus. The assays were performed at 0.25% (v/v) DMSO. Each value represents the average of five experiments, with the error bar denoting the s.d. Full size image We examined the activity of 1 in Shh-LIGHT2 cells (American Type Culture Collection)20, which is an NIH3T3 cell line with a Gli-dependent firefly luciferase reporter. These cells have been widely used to demonstrate the efficacy of Shh pathway inhibitors (cyclopamine) and activators (purmorphamine and SAG)4,6,21. Shh pathway activity was inferred by measuring firefly luciferase levels after a 30 h incubation with compound in the presence of N-palmitoylated ShhN. The compound exhibited moderate Shh pathway inhibition (Fig. 1c) and did not demonstrate cytotoxicity at any of the experimental concentrations based on a cell titer viability assay run in parallel (see Supplementary Methods online). This raised the possibility that the ShhN binding was related to the moderate Shh pathway inhibition. As part of an ongoing structure-activity relationship effort, we identified a 12-membered macrocycle, which we have named robotnikinin (2), that showed increased ShhN binding and displayed a substantially longer dissociation time than 1. Based on SPR experiments, robotnikinin (Fig. 2a) demonstrated ShhN binding capacity at concentrations between 1.56 μM and 25 μM, with a K d of 3.1 μM derived from kinetic data (Fig. 2b). When this compound was tested in an NIH3T3 line transformed with a Gli-luciferase construct, or Shh-LIGHT2 cells11, it showed concentration-dependent inhibition of ShhN-induced pathway activation (Fig. 2c). Additionally, at concentrations above 30 μM, the macrocycle exhibited inhibition comparable to that observed upon treatment with 6.25 μM cyclopamine in Shh-LIGHT2 cells. No substantial cytotoxicity was observed as judged by cell titer measurements using a cell viability assay. Figure 2: Robotnikinin. (a) The structure of robotnikinin, which is the compound that resulted from follow-up chemistry efforts to optimize potency. (b) SPR curve of robotnikinin showing concentration-dependent binding to purified ShhN. Normalized RUs are plotted over a time course. The concentrations plotted are 1.56 μM, 3.13 μM, 6.25 μM, 12.5 μM and 25 μM, in order of increasing Rus. (c) Inhibition of Gli signaling by robotnikinin in Shh-LIGHT2 cells stimulated with medium containing ShhN palmitoylated at the N terminus, relative to 6.25 μM cyclopamine (a small-molecule inhibitor of Smoothened). Shh-LIGHT2 cells stimulated with N-palmitoylated ShhN along with 3.6 μM purmorphamine or 100 nM SAG (small-molecule activator of Smoothened) showed negligible inhibition at the indicated concentrations of inhibitor. (d) Robotnikinin lowers levels of endogenous Gli2 mRNA (analyzed by qPCR) in primary human keratinocytes in a dose-dependent manner; this effect is blocked by the co-administration of Smo agonists. Note that there is some Gli expression in the absence of exogenous Shh due to the presence of a basal amount of Shh in the growth medium. (e) When analyzed by qPCR, synthetic human skin displayed Gli1 and Gli2 transcriptional repression in the presence of varying concentrations of robotnikinin. (f) Robotnikinin inhibits the induction of the Shh pathway. Our experiments support a mechanism involving inhibition of the actions of Shh, either directly or indirectly by interfering with a precursor complex. All error bars show s.d. Full size image To explore further the potential mechanism of Shh pathway inhibition involving direct perturbation of the ShhN protein complex, the same compounds were tested in a Ptch1−/− cell line derived from mouse embryos lacking Ptc1 function. The cell line had both Ptch1 alleles replaced with a β-galactosidase (β-gal) reporter21. Because Ptch1 inhibits Hh pathway activation by repressing Smo function and is also a target gene, removing both Ptch1 alleles results in constitutive pathway activation and β-gal expression. Small-molecule pathway inhibitors that act downstream of Ptch1 remain active in this cell line. In the Ptch1−/− cell line, Shh pathway activity is proportional to the β-gal levels observed after 30 h of incubation with compound. No substantial difference was observed when the Ptch1−/− cell line was treated with N-palmitoylated ShhN or low serum–containing culture medium, which confirms that with the Ptc1 receptor absent, the Shh pathway is constitutively activated and ShhN does not increase pathway activation21. Previous studies have demonstrated that cyclopamine, whose target (Smo) is downstream of Ptc1 (refs. 6,22), is effective at ablating β-gal reporter activity in this cell line. In our study, treatment with 6.6 μM cyclopamine resulted in substantial pathway inhibition. In contrast, no pathway inhibition was observed using robotnikinin at any of the concentrations tested after normalizing luminescence data for cell titer (Supplementary Fig. 2a online). These results support a model in which this small molecule inhibits the Shh pathway upstream of Ptc1 in Shh-LIGHT2 cells. Our model predicts that treatment of Shh-LIGHT2 cells with the Smo agonists purmorphamine and SAG would override the inhibitory effect of robotnikinin given that Smo functions downstream of Shh/Ptc1. When we tested the model by co-administering 3.6 μM purmorphamine in addition to various concentrations of robotnikinin, virtually all of the inhibitory effect was eliminated. This effect was recapitulated when 100 nM SAG was co-administered (Fig. 2c). Next, we sought to test our model in the context of a different cell line, without reliance on a reporter gene construct. C3H10T1/2 cells are an immortalized mouse mesenchymal stem cell line that differentiate to osteoblasts upon treatment with N-palmitoylated ShhN, with alkaline phosphatase as a reliable marker of the transformation8,23. Robotnikinin showed dose-dependent inhibition of alkaline phosphatase induction in the cell line in the presence of ShhN, but no detectable inhibition when 3.6 μM purmorphamine was co-administered (Supplementary Fig. 2b). These data indicate that the inhibition and epistatic rescue of robotnikinin was not dependent on the Shh-LIGHT2 cell line. Consistent with its mode of action upstream of Smo and in contrast with other small-molecule modulators of Shh signaling, we also determined that at concentrations up to 25 μM, robotnikinin does not compete for Smo binding with BODIPY-cyclopamine in a Smo-overexpressing human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293 cell line (Supplementary Fig. 2e). To obtain direct evidence of the ability of robotnikinin to block Shh signaling, we investigated its actions on two types of human primary cells on endogenous levels of transcripts resulting from Shh-induced genes. The first study used real-time PCR (qPCR) to measure quantitatively levels of mRNA for the Shh-induced transcription factors Gli1 and Gli2 in primary human keratinocytes. When primary human keratinocytes were stimulated with N-palmitoylated ShhN and incubated with robotnikinin, Gli2 and Gli1 transcription was markedly repressed by 30 h (Fig. 2d and Supplementary Fig. 2c). Most Gli2 transcription was abolished in the presence of 100 μM robotnikinin at the 30 h time point. When Smo agonists purmorphamine and SAG were co-administered with robotnikinin, an active Shh pathway phenotype was observed with a loss of response to robotnikinin, as evidenced by Gli2 and Gli1 mRNA levels (Fig. 2d and Supplementary Fig. 2c). A second study used synthetic skin that was prepared by first populating dehydrated collagen matrix, itself derived from human skin grafts, with primary human keratinocytes. Next, several dermal layers were formed by culturing over an extended period. Following incubation with robotnikinin, the primary human synthetic skin tissue was analyzed by qPCR for levels of Gli1 and Gli2 transcripts. These experiments revealed that the tissue displayed reduced levels of Gli1 and Gli2 mRNA while remaining histologically normal (Fig. 2e and Supplementary Fig. 2e). Robotnikinin was thus found to retain its activity in human-derived tissue. We have described to our knowledge the first example of a small molecule that binds to purified ShhN protein. Robotnikinin inhibits Shh signaling in a concentration-dependent manner but exhibits no inhibitory activity in a cell line lacking the Ptc1 receptor, does not compete with cyclopamine-Smo interactions and does not exhibit an inhibitory effect in the presence of the well-characterized Smo agonists purmorphamine and SAG. Robotnikinin displays substantial repression of Shh-induced Gli1 and Gli2 in primary human skin cells and human-derived skin tissue. In light of the ShhN-binding properties of the macrocycle and the results of our epistasis analyses (the macrocycle's lack of substantial Shh pathway inhibition, using Gli activity as a surrogate for pathway activity in the Ptch1−/− cell line, and the ability of two agonists of the downstream Smo to override its effects), we propose a new mechanism of action involving direct targeting of the ShhN protein complex (Fig. 2f). Recent evidence has indicated that Hh signaling is facilitated by HhN binding partners Ihog, Boi and heparin in Drosophila melanogaster, and Shh binding partners (Ihog orthologs) Cdo and Boc in vertebrates24,25. The data presented here suggest that robotnikinin interferes with the ability of the ShhN protein complex to relay its signal efficiently to Ptc1. Small molecule–mediated disruption of protein-protein interactions involving extracellular growth and differentiation factors with their receptors is in general challenging, yet the process described here led directly to a success. The discovery of robotnikinin has provided a powerful small-molecule probe of an important signaling pathway involving a step in the pathway not previously accessible to small-molecule modulation. We believe that robotnikinin will be especially valuable as a probe of diseases associated with aberrant Shh pathway activity. Note: Supplementary information and chemical compound information is available on the Nature Chemical Biology website.Speeding tickets are, by far, the most common moving violation. If you want to fight your ticket, here are some things you should know about. Speeding tickets are, by far, the most common moving violation. If you want to fight your ticket, there are two things you must find out. Were you charged under an “absolute,” “presumed,” or “basic” speed law? (Don’t worry, we’ll explain this jargon in this article.) How did the cop determine your speed?—through pacing, aircraft, radar, laser, VASCAR, or other means? Three Types of Speed Limits The 50 states basically use three types of speed limits. We call these “absolute,” “presumed” (or “prima facie” in legalese), and “basic” speed limits. Because each type of speed-limit violation often requires a unique defense, it is key to understand which you are charged with violating. Absolute. Most states have an “absolute” speed law. There is no trick to how this works: If the sign says 40 mph and you drive 41 mph or more, you have violated the law. Most states have an “absolute” speed law. There is no trick to how this works: If the sign says 40 mph and you drive 41 mph or more, you have violated the law. Presumed. “Presumed” speed-limit violations are a little more complicated but give you far more flexibility in building your defense. In states that use this system for all or some of their roads—California and Texas, for example—it
slow, of the brig-sloop HMS Clio, arrived at the Spanish settlement at Port Louis to request that the Argentine flag be replaced with the British one, and that the Argentine administration leave the islands. While Argentine Lt. Col. José María Pinedo, commander of the Argentine schooner Sarandí, wanted to resist,[22]:90 his numerical disadvantage was obvious, particularly as a large number of his crew were British mercenaries who were unwilling to fight their own countrymen.[22] Such a situation was not unusual in the newly independent states in Latin America, where land forces were strong, but navies were frequently quite undermanned. He protested verbally,[23]:26 but departed without a fight on 5 January. The islands have since continued under British rule except during the Falklands War. After their return in 1833, the British did not attempt to develop the islands as a colony. Initially, plans were based upon the settlers remaining in Port Louis, supported by the annual visit of a warship. Vernet's deputy, Matthew Brisbane, returned in March 1833 aboard the sealer Rapid during the visit of HMS Beagle[24]. He took charge of the settlement and was encouraged to further Vernet's business interests provided he did not seek to assert Argentine Government authority.[22][25][26] Argentines have claimed that the population of Puerto Luis was expelled after the British return,[27] but historical records shows that only four members of the settlement chose to leave.[28][29] Following the Gaucho murders in August 1833, the Falklands were administered as a military outpost with the few remaining residents of Vernet's colony. The first British Resident, Lt Smith, was established in 1834 and under his administration and initiative the settlement recovered and began to prosper. Lt Smith's commanding officer was not enthusiastic about Royal Navy officers engaged in encouraging commerce, and rebuked Smith. Smith resigned, and subsequent residents allowed the settlement to stagnate. In 1841, General Rosas offered to relinquish any Argentine territorial claims in return for relief of debts owed to Barings Bank in the City of London. The British Government chose to ignore the offer.[30] In May 1840, under pressure from merchants in London, the decision was made[by whom?] to establish a permanent colony in the Falklands. A British colonial administration was formed in 1842. This was expanded in 1908, when in addition to South Georgia, claimed in 1775, and the South Shetland Islands, claimed in 1820, the UK unilaterally declared sovereignty over more Antarctic territory south of the Falklands, including the South Sandwich Islands, the South Orkney Islands, and Graham Land, grouping them into the Falkland Islands Dependencies. In 1850, the Arana-Southern Treaty otherwise known as the Convention of Settlement was signed between the United Kingdom and Argentina. It has been argued by several authors on both sides of the dispute that Argentina tacitly gave up her claim by failing to mention it and ceasing to protest over the Falklands. Between December 1849 and 1941, the Falklands were not mentioned in the President's Messages to Congress. Following the introduction of the Antarctic Treaty System in 1959 the Falkland Islands Dependencies were reduced to include just South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. Territory south of the 60th parallel was formed into a new dependency, the British Antarctic Territory, which overlaps claims by Argentina (Argentine Antarctica) and Chile (Antártica Chilena Province). In 1976 the British Government commissioned a study on the future of the Falklands, which looked at the ability of the islands to sustain themselves, and the potential for economic development. The study was led by Lord Shackleton, son of the Antarctic explorer, Ernest Shackleton. Argentina reacted with fury to the study and refused to allow Lord Shackleton permission to travel to the islands from Argentina, forcing the British to send a Royal Navy ship to transport him to the islands. In response Argentina severed diplomatic links with the UK. An Argentine naval vessel later fired upon the ship carrying Shackleton as he visited his father's grave in South Georgia. Shackleton's report found that contrary to popular belief, the Falkland Islands actually produced a surplus by its economic activities, and was not dependent on British aid to survive. However the report stressed the need for a political settlement if further economic growth was to be achieved, particularly from the exploitation of any natural resources in the water around the islands. A map from a world atlas published in 1794 complete with marginal notes describing sovereignty: the Falklands belonged "to Great Britain by right of first discovery", the British had "a fort and settlement" on "the North of Western Falkland", while Spaniards "had a fort in the Eastern Isle". Argentine settlements [ edit ] American privateer, Colonel Jewett Argentina declared its independence from Spain in 1816, although this was not then recognised by any of the major powers. The UK informally recognised Argentine independence on 15 December 1823, as the "province of Buenos Aires",[31] and formally recognised it on 2 February 1825,[32] but, like the US, did not recognise the full extent of the territory claimed by the new state.[33] In October 1820, the frigate Heroína, under the command of American privateer Colonel David Jewett, arrived in Puerto Soledad after an eight-month voyage and with most of her crew incapacitated by scurvy and other disease. A storm had severely damaged the Heroína and had sunk a Portuguese ship pirated by Jewett called the Carlota.[34] The captain sought assistance from the British explorer James Weddell to put the ship into harbour. Weddell reported that only thirty seamen and forty soldiers out of a complement of 200 were fit for duty, and that Jewett slept with pistols over his head following an attempted mutiny. On 6 November 1820, Jewett raised the flag of the United Provinces of the River Plate and claimed possession of the islands for the new state. Weddell reported that the letter he received from Jewett read:[35] Sir, I have the honour to inform you of the circumstance of my arrival at this port, commissioned by the supreme government of the United Provinces of South America to take possession of these islands in the name of the country to which they naturally appertain. In the performance of this duty, it is my desire to act towards all friendly flags with the most distinguished justice and politeness. A principal object is to prevent the wanton destruction of the sources of supply to those whose necessities compel or invite them to visit the islands, and to aid and assist such as require it to obtain a supply with the least trouble and expense. As your views do not enter into contravention or competition with these orders, and as I think mutual advantage may result from a personal interview, I invite you to pay me a visit on board my ship, where I shall be happy to accommodate you during your pleasure. I would also beg you, so far as comes within your sphere, to communicate this information to other British subjects in this vicinity. I have the honour to be, Sir Your most obedient humble Servant, Signed, Jewett, Colonel of the Navy of the United Provinces of South America and commander of the frigate Heroína. Many modern authors report this letter as the declaration issued by Jewett.[22] Jewett's report to the government of Buenos Aires does not mention any claim to the Falkland Islands,[36] and news of the claim reached Argentina by way of the United States and Europe in November 1821, over a year after the event.[37] Luis Vernet, appointed by the Buenos Aires government as Military and Civil Commander of Falkland Islands and the Islands adjacent to Cape Horn in 1829 In 1823, the Buenos Aires government granted land on East Falkland to Jorge Pacheco, a businessman from Buenos Aires who owed money to the merchant Luis Vernet.[38] A first expedition travelled to the islands the following year, arriving on the East Falkland on 2 February 1824. This was deemed as "a failure" by author Mary Cawkell:[7]:31 "A week after arrival in February 1824, Areguati sent a despairing letter to Pacheco."[11]:47 Its leader was Pablo Areguatí, who brought with him 25 gauchos. Ten days later Areguatí wrote that the colony was perishing because the horses they had brought were too weak to be used, thus they could not capture wild cattle and their only other means of subsistence was wild rabbits. On 7 June, Areguatí left the islands, taking with him 17 gauchos. On 24 July, the remaining eight gauchos were rescued by the Susannah Anne, a British sealer. After the failure, Pacheco agreed to sell his share to Vernet.[38] A second attempt, in 1826, sanctioned by the British [11]:48 (but delayed until winter by a Brazilian blockade), also failed after arrival in the islands.[11]:52 In 1828, the Buenos Aires government granted Vernet all of East Falkland, including all its resources, with exemption from taxation for 20 years, if a colony could be established within three years. He took settlers, including British Captain Matthew Brisbane, and before leaving once again sought permission from the British Consulate in Buenos Aires.[11]:50 The British asked for a report on the islands for the British government, and Vernet asked for British protection should they return.[11][39] On Vernet's return to the Falklands, Puerto Soledad was renamed Puerto Luis. The Buenos Aires Government, headed by General Juan Galo de Lavalle, appointed Vernet "Political and Military Commander" in a decree of 13 June 1829. The British objected to this as an Argentine attempt to foster political and economic ties to the islands. One of Vernet's first acts was to curb seal hunting on the islands to conserve the dwindling seal population. In response, the British consul at Buenos Aires protested the move and restated the claim of his government. Islanders were born during this period (including Malvina María Vernet y Saez, Vernet's daughter).[39] Vernet later seized three American ships, the Harriet, Superior and Breakwater, for disobeying his restrictions on seal hunting. The Breakwater escaped to raise the alarm and the Superior was allowed to continue its work for Vernet's benefit. Property on board the Harriet was seized and Vernet returned with it to Buenos Aires for the captain to stand trial. The American Consul in Argentina protested Vernet's actions and stated that the United States did not recognise Argentine sovereignty in the Falklands. The consul dispatched a warship, the USS Lexington, to Puerto Luis to retake the confiscated property. By 1831, the colony was successful enough to be advertising for new colonists, although a report by the captain of the Lexington suggests that the conditions on the islands were quite miserable.[40][41] The captain of the Lexington in his report asserts that he destroyed the settlement's powder store and spiked the guns; however it was later claimed that during the raid the Argentine settlement at Puerto Luis was destroyed. Upon leaving to return to Montevideo, the captain of the Lexington declared the islands to be res nullius (nobody's property).[39] (Darwin's visit in 1833 confirmed the squalid conditions in the settlement, although Captain Matthew Brisbane, Vernet's deputy, later insisted that these were the result of the attack by the Lexington.)[25] Vernet had returned to Buenos Aires in 1831 before the attack, and resigned as governor. An interim governor, Esteban José Francisco Mestivier, was appointed by the Buenos Aires Government. He arrived at Puerto Luis with his family aboard the schooner Sarandí in October 1832.[39] Mestivier's appointment again drew protests from the British consul in Buenos Aires. The Sarandí, under the command of its captain, José María Pinedo, then began to patrol the surrounding seas. Upon its return to Puerto Luis on 29 December 1832, the Sarandí found the colony in an uproar. In Pinedo's absence there had been a mutiny led by a man named Gomila; Mestivier had been murdered and his wife raped. The captain of the French vessel Jean Jacques had meanwhile provided assistance, disarming and incarcerating the mutineers. Pinedo dispatched the mutineers to Buenos Aires with the British schooner Rapid. Gomila was condemned to exile, while seven other mutineers were executed. On 2 January 1833, Captain John Onslow arrived and delivered written requests that Pinedo lower the Argentine flag in favour of the British one, and that the Argentine administration leave the islands. Pinedo asked if war had been declared between Argentina and the United Kingdom; Onslow replied that it had not. Nonetheless, Pinedo, heavily outmanned and outgunned, left the islands under protest, with the Argentine flag being lowered by British officers and delivered to him. Back on the mainland, Pinedo faced court martial; he was suspended for four months and transferred to the army, though he was recalled to the navy in 1845. Sovereignty dispute [ edit ] It is said that in 1833, Manuel Moreno (representing the United Provinces) protested against the British occupation of the islands, and the issue was then debated in the Argentine Congress every year until 1849, with a formal protest issued each year. The British government denies this. It is also stated that the British rejected the initial protest, and did not answer the subsequent protests; and that the matter was not raised again in Congress until 1941.[citation needed] The American sealing vessels Harriet and Breakwater that had been seized by Vernet (see above) brought claims against their insurers, and in 1839 these claims reached the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Williams v. Suffolk Insurance Company.[42] The insurers argued that Vernet was the legal governor of the Falkland Islands, the sealing was therefore illegal and so they ought not to have to pay. The ruling of the Supreme Court was: The government of the United States having insisted, and continuing to insist, through its regular executive authority, that the Falkland Islands do not constitute any part of the dominions within the sovereignty of Buenos Ayres, and that the seal fishery at those islands is a trade free and lawful to the citizens of the United States, and beyond the competence of the Buenos Ayres government to regulate, prohibit, or punish, it is not competent for a circuit court of the United States to inquire into and ascertain by other evidence the title of the government of Buenos Ayres to the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands. The 1850 Convention of Settlement, otherwise known as the Arana-Southern Treaty, which did not mention the islands, agreed to restore "perfect relations of friendship" between the two countries. There were no further protests until 1885, when Argentina included the Falkland Islands in an officially sponsored map.[citation needed]. In 1888, Argentina made an offer to have the matter subject to arbitration, but this was rejected by the British Government.[citation needed]. Other than the protest lodged in 1885, the British Government did not acknowledge any further protests by Argentina until the 1940s, although the official position of the Argentine Government is that "During the first half of the twentieth century, the successive Argentine governments made it standard practice to submit protests to the United Kingdom".[43] The Argentine Government does not identify these annual protests, but authors such as Roberto Laver [44] claim at least "27 sovereignty claims, both to Britain, domestically in Argentina and to international bodies". In International Law, territorial claims are usually considered defunct if there is a gap of 50 years or more between protests over sovereignty.[45] Following World War II, the British Empire declined, and many colonies in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean gained their independence. Argentina saw this as an opportunity to push its case for gaining sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, and raised the issue in the United Nations, first stating its claim after joining the UN in 1945. Following this claim, the United Kingdom offered to take the dispute over the Falkland Islands Dependencies to mediation at the International Court of Justice in The Hague (1947,[46] 1948[47] and 1955[47]). On each occasion Argentina declined. In 1965, the United Nations passed a resolution calling on the UK and Argentina to proceed with negotiations on finding a peaceful solution to the sovereignty question which would be "bearing in mind the provisions and objectives of the Charter of the United Nations and of General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) and the interests of the population of the Falkland Islands (Malvinas)."[48] A series of talks between the two nations took place over the next 17 years until 1981, but failed to reach a conclusion on sovereignty. Although the sovereignty discussions had some success in establishing economic and transport links between the Falklands and Argentina, there was no progress on the question of sovereignty of the islands. After the two nations signed the Communications Agreement of 1971[49], whereby external communications would be provided to the Falkland Islands by Argentina, the Argentine Air Force broke the islands' airways isolation by opening an air route with an amphibious flight from Comodoro Rivadavia with Grumman HU-16B Albatross aircraft operated by LADE, Argentina's military airline. In 1972, after an Argentine request, the United Kingdom agreed to allow Argentina to construct a temporary air strip near Stanley. On 15 November 1972 a temporary runway was inaugurated with the first arrival of a Fokker F-27; subsequent flights arrived twice weekly. Flights were improved in 1978 with Fokker F-28 jets, after the completion of a permanent runway funded by the British Government. This service, the only air connection to the islands, was maintained until the 1982 war.[50][51][52] Also YPF, which was then the Argentine national oil and gas company, was in charge of supplying the island regularly.[53] Whilst maintaining the British claim, the British Government considered a transfer of sovereignty less than two years before the outbreak of war.[54] However, the British Government had limited room for manoeuvre owing to the strength of the Falkland Islands lobby in the Houses of Parliament. Any measure that the Foreign Office suggested on the sovereignty issue was loudly condemned by the islanders, who reiterated their determination to remain British. This led to the British Government maintaining a position that the right to self-determination of the islanders was paramount. But Argentina did not recognise the rights of the islanders, and so negotiations on the sovereignty issue remained at a stalemate.[55] In 1976, Argentina landed an expedition in Southern Thule, an island in the South Sandwich Islands which at that time was part of the Falkland Islands Dependency. The landing was reported in the UK only in 1978, although the British government issued a rejection of the notion of sending a force of Royal Marines to dismantle the Argentine base Corbeta Uruguay. There was a more serious confrontation in 1977 when the Argentine Navy cut off the fuel supply to Port Stanley Airport, and said they would no longer fly the Red Ensign in Falklands waters. (Traditionally ships in a foreign country's waters would fly the country's maritime flag as a courtesy.) The British Government suspected Argentina would attempt another expedition in the manner of its Southern Thule operation. James Callaghan, the British Prime Minister, ordered the dispatch of a nuclear submarine, HMS Dreadnought and the frigates Alacrity and Phoebe to the South Atlantic, with rules of engagement set in the event of a clash with the Argentine navy. The British even considered setting up an exclusion zone around the islands, but this was rejected in case it escalated matters. These events were not made public until the Parliamentary debates in 1982 during the Falklands War. Falklands War [ edit ] Location of the Falkland Islands The Falklands War of 1982 was the largest and most severe armed conflict over the sovereignty of the islands. It started following the occupation of South Georgia by Argentine scrap merchants whose number included some Argentine Marines. However, the UK had also reduced its presence in the Islands by announcing the withdrawal of HMS Endurance, the Royal Navy's icebreaker ship and only permanent presence in the South Atlantic. The UK had also denied Falkland Islanders full British citizenship under the British Nationality Act 1981. Commander-in-chief of the Argentine Navy, Admiral Jorge Anaya In 1982, Argentina was in the midst of a devastating economic crisis and large-scale civil unrest against the repressive military junta that was governing the country. On 2 April, with Argentine Navy commander-in-chief Admiral Jorge Anaya as the main architect and supporter of the operation, a combined Argentine amphibious force invaded the Islands. Immediately, the UK severed diplomatic ties with Argentina, and began to assemble a task force to retake the Islands. A diplomatic offensive began, to gain support for economic and military sanctions. The United Nations Security Council issued Resolution 502 calling on Argentina to withdraw forces from the Islands and on both parties to seek a diplomatic solution.[56] Another resolution[57] called for an immediate ceasefire, but this was vetoed by both the United States and the United Kingdom. The European Community condemned the invasion and imposed economic sanctions on Argentina, although several EC states expressed reservations about British policy in this area.[58] France and Germany also temporarily suspended several military contracts with the Argentine military. The United States supported mediated talks, via Secretary of State Alexander Haig, and initially took a neutral stance, although in private substantial material aid was made available to the UK from the moment of invasion. The US publicly supported the UK's position following the failure of peace talks. The British Task Force began offensive action against Argentina on 23 April 1982 and recaptured South Georgia after a short naval engagement. The operation to recover the Falkland Islands began on 1 May, and after fierce naval and air engagements an amphibious landing was made at San Carlos Bay on 21 May. On 14 June the Argentine forces surrendered, and control of the islands returned to the UK. Two Royal Navy ships then sailed to the South Sandwich Islands and expelled the Argentine military from Thule Island, leaving no Argentine presence in the Falkland Islands Dependencies. Following the 1982 war, the British increased their presence in the Falkland Islands. RAF Mount Pleasant was constructed. This allowed fighter jets to be based on the islands and strengthened the UK's ability to reinforce the Islands at short notice. The military garrison was substantially increased and a new garrison was established on South Georgia. The Royal Navy South Atlantic patrol was strengthened to include both HMS Endurance and a Falkland Islands guard ship.[59] As well as this military build-up, the UK also passed the British Nationality (Falkland Islands) Act 1983, which granted full British citizenship to the islanders. To show British commitment to the islands, high-profile British dignitaries visited the Falklands, including Margaret Thatcher, the Prince of Wales and Princess Alexandra, The Hon Lady Ogilvy. The UK has also pursued links to the islands from Chile, which had provided help to British Forces during the Falklands War. LATAM now provides a direct air link to Chile from Mount Pleasant.[60] In 1985 the Falkland Islands Dependencies, comprising at that time the island groups of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and Shag Rocks and Clerke Rocks, became a distinct British overseas territory — South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. Under the 1985 constitution the Falkland Islands Government (FIG) became a parliamentary representative democratic dependency, with the governor as head of government and representative of the Queen. Members of the FIG are democratically elected, the governor is effectively a figurehead. Theoretically the governor has the power under the 1985 constitution to exercise executive authority, in practice he is obliged to consult the Executive Council in the exercise of his functions. The main responsibilities of the governor are external affairs and public services.[61] Effectively under this constitution, the Falkland Islands are self-governing with the exception of foreign policy, although the FIG represents itself at the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonisation as the British Government no longer attends. Relations between the UK and Argentina remained hostile after 1982, and diplomatic relations were restored in 1989. Although the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the UK and Argentina to return to negotiations over the Islands' future,[62] the UK ruled out any further talks over the Islands' sovereignty. The UK has also maintained controls on arms exports to Argentina,[63] although these were relaxed in 1998.[64] Relations between the UK and Argentina improved further in the 1990s. In 1998, Carlos Menem, the President of Argentina, visited London, where he reaffirmed his country's claims to the Islands, although he stated that Argentina would use only peaceful means for their recovery. In 2001, Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, visited Argentina and said he hoped the UK and Argentina could resolve their differences that led to the 1982 war. However, no talks on sovereignty took place during the visit, and Argentina's President Néstor Kirchner stated that he regarded gaining sovereignty over the islands as a "top priority" of his government.[65] Argentina renewed claims in June 2006, citing concern over fishing and petroleum rights; the UK changed from annually granting fishing concessions, to granting a 25-year concession.[66] On 28 March 2009, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown stated that there was "nothing to discuss" with Cristina Kirchner, the Argentine president, over sovereignty of the islands, when they met in Chile on his pre-2009 G-20 London Summit world tour.[67] On 22 April 2009 Argentina presented to the UN a formal claim to an area of the continental shelf encompassing the Falklands, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, and parts of Antarctica, citing 11 years worth of maritime survey data.[68] The UK quickly protested these claims.[69] In February 2010, in response to British plans to begin drilling for oil,[70] the Argentine government announced that ships travelling to the Falklands (as well as South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands) would require a permit to use Argentine territorial waters. The British and Falkland governments stated that this announcement did not affect the waters surrounding the islands.[71][72] Despite the new restrictions, Desire Petroleum began drilling for oil on 22 February 2010, about 54 nautical miles (100 km, 62 mi) north of the Islands.[73] In 2011 the Mercosur bloc agreed to close ports to ships flying the Falkland Islands flags, while British-flagged ships would continue to be allowed.[74] In March 2013 the Falkland Islanders voted overwhelmingly in a referendum for the territory to remain British. Argentina dismissed this referendum.[75][76] The British Government urged Argentina and other countries to respect the islanders' wishes.[77] Current claims [ edit ] Argentina [ edit ] The Argentine government argues that it has maintained a claim over the Falkland Islands since 1833, and renewed it as recently as December 2012.[78] It considers the archipelago part of the Tierra del Fuego Province, along with South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. Supporters of the Argentine position make the following claims: The Nootka Sound Conventions [ edit ] In 1789, both the United Kingdom and Spain attempted settlement in the Nootka Sound, on Vancouver Island. On 25 October 1790, these two Kingdoms approved the Nootka Sound Convention. The Conventions included provisions recognising that the coasts and islands of South America colonised by Spain at the time were Spanish, and that areas south of the southernmost settlements were off limits to both countries, provided (in a secret article) that no third party settled there either. The conventions were unilaterally repudiated by Spain in 1795[citation needed] but implicitly revived by the Treaty of Madrid in 1814.[citation needed] The sixth article of the convention states:[92] It is further agreed with respect to the eastern and western coasts of South America and the islands adjacent, that the respective subjects shall not form in the future any establishment on the parts of the coast situated to the south of the parts of the same coast and of the islands adjacent already occupied by Spain; it being understood that the said respective subjects shall retain the liberty of landing on the coasts and islands so situated for objects connected with their fishery and of erecting thereon huts and other temporary structures serving only those objects. Whether or not this affected sovereignty over the islands is disputed. The British argue that the agreement did not affect the respective claims and only stipulated that neither party would make further establishments on the coasts or "adjacent" islands already held by Spain.[93] Argentina argues that "the islands adjacent" includes the Falklands and that the UK renounced any claim by the agreements.[94] Constitution of Argentina [ edit ] The Argentine claim is included in the transitional provisions of the Constitution of Argentina as amended in 1994:[95][96] The Argentine Nation ratifies its legitimate and non-prescribing sovereignty over the Malvinas, Georgias del Sur and Sandwich del Sur Islands and over the corresponding maritime and insular zones, as they are an integral part of the National territory. The recovery of these territories and the full exercise of sovereignty, respecting the way of life for its inhabitants and according to the principles of international law, constitute a permanent and unwavering goal of the Argentine people. In addition, Argentina demonstrates its claim to the islands by stating they are part of its Tierra del Fuego Province. United Kingdom [ edit ] de jure and de facto control over the islands The UK exercises bothandcontrol over the islands In 1964 the Argentine government raised the matter at the United Nations in a sub-committee of the Special Committee on the situation with regard to the implementation of the UN Declaration of the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. In reply, the British Representative on the committee declared that the British Government held that the question of sovereignty over the islands was "not negotiable". Following a report by the Special Committee, UN General Assembly Resolution 2065 was passed on 16 December 1965. In its preamble it referred to the UN's "cherished aim to bring colonialism to an end everywhere", and invited both nations to proceed with negotiations to find a peaceful solution bearing in mind "the interests of the population of the Falkland Islands (Malvinas)".[48][97] In January 1966 the British Foreign Secretary, Michael Stewart, visited Buenos Aires when the Argentine claim to the islands was raised with him, following which, in July, a preliminary meeting was held in London, where the British delegation "formally rejected" the Argentine Ambassador's suggestion that the UK's occupation of the Islands was illegal.[97] On 2 December 1980, Nicholas Ridley, Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, stated in the House of Commons: "We have no doubt about our sovereignty over the Falkland Islands... we have a perfectly valid title".[97] The British government regards the right of the islanders to self-determination as "paramount"[97][98] and rejects the idea of negotiations over sovereignty without the islanders' consent.[99] Supporters of the British position argue: Falkland Islands Constitution [ edit ] The Constitution of the Falkland Islands, which came into force on 1 January 2009, claims the right to self-determination, specifically mentioning political, economic, cultural, and other matters.[107] International and regional views [ edit ] Argentina has pursued an aggressive diplomatic agenda, regularly raising the issue and seeking international support. Most South American countries have expressed support for the Argentine position and called for negotiations to restart at regional summits.[108] The People's Republic of China has backed Argentina's sovereignty claim, reciprocating Argentina's support of the Chinese claim to Taiwan.[109] Conversely, the Republic of China (Taiwan) acknowledges British sovereignty and ignores Argentina's sovereignty claim.[110] Since 1964, Argentina has lobbied its case at the Decolonization Committee of the UN, which annually recommends dialogue to resolve the dispute. The UN General Assembly has passed several resolutions on the issue. In 1988, the General Assembly reiterated a 1965 request that both countries negotiate a peaceful settlement to the dispute and respect the interests of the Falkland Islanders and the principles of UN GA resolution 1514.[111] The United States and the European Union recognise the de facto administration of the Falkland Islands and take no position over their sovereignty;[109][112] however, the EU classifies the islands as an overseas country or territory of the UK, subject to EU law in some areas. The Commonwealth of Nations listed the islands as a British Overseas Territory in their 2012 yearbook.[113] At the OAS summits Canada has continued to state its support for the islanders' right to self-determination.[114][115] Map of the Islands, with British names Map of the Islands, with Argentine names See also [ edit ] References [ edit ] Sources [ edit ] Further reading [ edit ] "Falkland Islands Profile". BBC. Raimondo, Fabián (2012). "The Sovereignty Dispute over the Falklands/Malvinas: What Role for the UN?". Netherlands International Law Review. 59 (3): 399–423. doi:10.1017/s0165070x12000277. ISSN 0165-070X. Coordinates:Hi, I love to use NoMachine on RaspberryPi-2 that I use for digital signage. I’ve installed: nomachine_4.6.4_1_armhf.deb by running the command: <span style=”color: #404040; font-family: Gudea, ‘AG Foreigner Light-Plain Medium’, sans-serif, sans-serif; line-height: 14.3999996185303px; background-color: #ffffff;”>$ sudo rpm -i nomachine_4.6.4_1_armv6hl.rpm</span> But I’m seeing repeated dependancies which are stumping me; <p class=”p1″><span class=”s1″>~/Downloads $</span><span class=”s2″> sudo dpkg -i nomachine_4.6.4_1_armhf.deb </span></p> <p class=”p1″><span class=”s2″>(Reading database … 78093 files and directories currently installed.)</span></p> <p class=”p1″><span class=”s2″>Preparing to replace nomachine 4.6.4-1 (using nomachine_4.6.4_1_armhf.deb) …</span></p> <p class=”p1″><span class=”s2″>/usr/NX/bin/nxserver.bin: /lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.15′ not found (required by /usr/NX/lib/libnxdiag.so)</span></em></p> <p class=”p1″><em><span class=”s2″>/usr/NX/bin/nxserver.bin: /lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.15′ not found (required by /usr/NX/lib/libnxdifb.so)</span></p> <p class=”p1″><span class=”s2″>/usr/NX/bin/nxserver.bin: /lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.17′ not found (required by /usr/NX/lib/libnxdifb.so)</span></em></p> <p class=”p1″><em><span class=”s2″>/usr/NX/bin/nxserver.bin: /lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.15′ not found (required by /usr/NX/lib/libnxdift.so)</span></p> <p class=”p1″><span class=”s2″>/usr/NX/bin/nxserver.bin: /lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.15′ not found (required by /usr/NX/lib/libnxdixl.so)</span></em></p> <p class=”p1″><em><span class=”s2″>/usr/NX/bin/nxserver.bin: /lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.15′ not found (required by /usr/NX/lib/libnx.so)</span></p> <p class=”p1″><span class=”s2″>/usr/NX/bin/nxserver.bin: /lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libm.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.15′ not found (required by /usr/NX/lib/libnxc.so)</span></em></p> <p class=”p1″><em><span class=”s2″>/usr/NX/bin/nxserver.bin: /lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libm.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.15′ not found (required by /usr/NX/lib/libnxcau.so)</span></p> <p class=”p1″><span class=”s2″>/usr/NX/bin/nxserver.bin: /lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.15′ not found (required by /usr/NX/lib/libnxcau.so)</span></em></p> <p class=”p1″><em><span class=”s2″>/usr/NX/bin/nxserver.bin: /lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.15′ not found (required by /usr/NX/lib/libnxcde.so)</span></p> <p class=”p1″><span class=”s2″>/usr/NX/bin/nxserver.bin: /lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.15′ not found (required by /usr/NX/lib/libnxne.so)</span></em></p> <p class=”p1″><em><span class=”s2″>/usr/NX/bin/nxserver.bin: /lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.17′ not found (required by /usr/NX/lib/libstdc++.so.6)</span></p> <p class=”p1″><span class=”s2″>/usr/NX/bin/nxserver.bin: /lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libm.so.6: version `
million on opening day Friday, including Thursday evening’s $5.5 million bow. Despite coming in below the first days of its two predecessors (Into Darkness was technically lower, but had a staggered opening on Wednesday and Thursday in May 2013), this nonetheless represents another successful launch for the third film in the rebooted era of the venerable franchise celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. By comparison, Friday’s Beyond figure came in 11 percent ahead of Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation‘s $20.3 million opening day last July and technically stands as the second highest opening day in Trek franchise history (the 2009 reboot claimed $26.9 million sans Thursday numbers). With excellent reviews (86 percent) and word of mouth (85 percent) so far, we expect the film to hold up well in the days and weeks ahead. We’re officially projecting a three-day weekend of $59 million based on Friday’s figures. (Worth noting is that would be nearly identical to the $60 million inflation-adjusted opening weekend — $30.7 million non-adjusted — of 1996’s Star Trek: First Contact, which premiered during the franchise’s 30th anniversary). Debuting in a strong second place yesterday was Warner Bros. / New Line’s Lights Out from producer James Wan, claiming $9.15 million. The original horror flick had been the recipient of strong buzz over the past few months, and Wan’s name certainly had something to do with that given his streak of commercial success lately. By comparison, this summer’s previous sleeper thriller hit — The Shallows — bowed to a (still strong) $6.88 million on its opening day last month. Lights Out is playing very well among critics and horror fans, so we expect some decent staying power throughout the end of summer. Look for an opening weekend around $22.3 million. Ice Age: Collision Course earned an estimated $7.8 million on opening day, down 53 percent from its predecessor’s $16.73 million first day in July 2012. For the weekend, we’re projecting around $22 million. Also noteworthy: The Secret Life of Pets eased 43 percent from last Friday to $8.65 million yesterday, giving it a 15-day haul of $240 million as it looks toward a third frame around $28.9 million. Ghostbusters slid 64 percent from opening day last week to $6.2 million yesterday, giving it an eight-day cume of $71.5 million with a pace toward $20.5 million for its sophomore frame. Finding Dory added another $2.087 million yesterday, giving it $455.07 million domestically as it continues to build on its total as the highest grossing animated film in history. Around a $7.1 million weekend is ahead. Hillary’s America posted $1.362 million in its first day of wide release, down significantly from the $2.255 million of Obama’s America four years ago when it expanded to a similar number of theaters. A weekend around $3.9 million appears likely. Meanwhile, Absolutely Fabulous bowed to $660,000 from 313 locations yesterday. Look for a weekend around $1.6 million. WIDE (1000+) # TITLE WEEKEND LOCATIONS AVG. TOTAL WKS. DIST. 1 Star Trek Beyond $59,000,000 — 3,928 — $15,020 $59,000,000 1 Paramount 2 The Secret Life of Pets $28,900,000 -43% 4,048 -333 $7,139 $260,278,745 3 Universal 3 Lights Out $22,300,000 — 2,818 — $7,913 $22,300,000 1 Warner Bros. / New Line 4 Ice Age: Collision Course $22,000,000 — 3,992 — $5,511 $22,000,000 1 Fox 5 Ghostbusters (2016) $20,500,000 -55% 3,963 0 $5,173 $85,756,739 2 Sony / Columbia 6 Finding Dory $7,100,000 -37% 2,576 -960 $2,756 $460,079,119 6 Disney 7 The Legend of Tarzan $6,200,000 -46% 2,844 -707 $2,180 $115,594,084 4 Warner Bros. 8 Mike & Dave Need Wedding Dates $4,300,000 -44% 2,137 -871 $2,012 $40,257,747 3 Fox 9 Hillary’s America – The Secret History of the Democratic Party $3,900,000 5113% 1,217 1214 $3,205 $3,991,524 2 D’Souza Entertainment Quality Flix 10 Central Intelligence $2,700,000 -50% 1,602 -779 $1,685 $123,018,163 6 Warner Bros. / New Line 11 The Purge: Election Year $2,300,000 -63% 1,701 -970 $1,352 $76,542,220 4 Universal LIMITED (100 — 999) # TITLE WEEKEND LOCATIONS AVG. TOTAL WKS. DIST. 1 Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie $1,600,000 — 313 — $5,112 $1,600,000 1 Fox Searchlight 2 The BFG $920,000 -76% 686 -1496 $1,341 $50,863,057 4 Disney / DreamWorks 3 Independence Day: Resurgence $850,000 -76% 730 -1560 $1,164 $101,174,325 5 Fox 4 The Shallows $625,000 -79% 513 -1182 $1,218 $53,613,125 5 Sony / Columbia 5 The Jungle Book (2016) $445,000 -14% 233 -43 $1,910 $361,674,897 15 Disney 6 Now You See Me 2 $305,000 -56% 257 -266 $1,187 $64,287,535 7 Lionsgate / Summit 7 Captain America: Civil War $118,000 -34% 116 -68 $1,017 $406,804,345 12 Disney PLATFORM (1 — 99) # TITLE WEEKEND LOCATIONS AVG. TOTAL WKS. DIST. 1 Cafe Society $730,000 103% 50 45 $14,600 $1,232,379 2 Lionsgate / Amazon 2 Train To Busan $235,000 — 27 — $8,704 $235,000 1 Inc. Well Go USA 3 Alice Through the Looking Glass $52,000 -47% 78 -29 $667 $76,462,381 9 Disney 4 Zootopia $36,000 -48% 84 -47 $429 $341,232,778 21 Disney — Friday Report: Sources are reporting this morning that Star Trek Beyond warped into release with an estimated $5.5 million haul on Thursday night. Comparisons are somewhat skewed to the last two entries in the franchise with their non-standard opening nights, but last night’s figure does come in noticeably ahead of Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation‘s $4.0 million Thursday night start last July. The audiences may be more similar than one might think given the target adult audience of both franchises. Ultimately, this is a healthy start for Trek with strong reviews and early word of mouth indicating potential for legs. Lights Out scared up an excellent $1.8 million last night, setting the stage for a breakout weekend ahead. By comparison, The Shallows rang up $1.33 million last month when it proved to be a mid-summer sleeper hit driven by positive reviews. Meanwhile, Ice Age: Collision Course took in $850,000 last night — similar to the $800,000 of The Angry Birds Movie back in May. That said, the new release may prove more frontloaded with kids out of school at this point in the season. Full Friday estimates and early weekend estimates will be published on Saturday morning.You may not think of public broadcast television at the cutting edge of innovation, but PBS is proving otherwise. A trio of traditional media organizations, including PBS, The New Republic, and the National Review, are teaming up with social news site Reddit to create an experimental new interactive news program called YourWeek that allows people to actively participate in determining what news stories get reported. Using Reddit, which allows users to vote stories up and down and have conversations around particular items, YourWeek producers, "search out the smartest conversation and stories from your world" and use the wisdom of crowds to determine what stories they should cover. Basically, it's "the traditional weekly "story meeting" with 10,000 people (or more) instead of just the small editorial staff," said Erik Martin, the online producer for YourWeek, who took the time to explain the start-up's strategy to Citizentube. "We'll post questions to the Reddit community, ask them for the best angles on stories, or just ask them which headlines from the front page they'd like to see explored on the show." The YourWeek team then posts drafts of each of the video story segments online (here on YouTube) and solicits feedback from the community, which they then incorporate into the final version of the episode. After the show is completed, the discussion continues back on the web and users can start suggesting content for the next episode. "Ideally," Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit, told us, "it's 24-7 news program that marries the quality of PBS journalism with the vast resources and timeliness of the Internet." YourWeek is still in beta, so it's hard to say if this is the future of television just yet -- but our curiosity is highly piqued. Stay tuned!Myths and legends have generally come to be viewed as work of fiction, superstition, or fantasy. However, many have theorized that myths were, in fact, a way for people to explain real—and perhaps perplexing—events using the knowledge and beliefs of their time. In support of this theory, a number of events described in mythology, which were once considered mere fairy tales, have now been proven through archaeology to have existed, or at least to have some basis in reality. Here we examine ten such myths, which may have some truth to them after all. Mermaids have occupied our imagination for thousands of years, originating in ancient Assyria with the legend of goddess Atargatis, whose worship spread to Greece and Rome. In history, mermaids have been connected with hazardous events in European, African and Asian culture, including floods, storms, shipwrecks and drownings. Homer called them sirens in the Odyssey, who lured sailors to their deaths. They have been depicted in Etrurian sculptures, in Greek epics, and in bas-reliefs in Roman tombs. In 1493, Christopher Columbus even reported seeing mermaids on his voyage to the Caribbean. But could our concept of a mermaid actually have originated from a real medical disorder? Sirenomelia, named after the mythical Greek sirens, and also known as ‘mermaid syndrome’, is a rare and fatal congenital malformation characterized by fusion of the lower limbs. The condition results in what looks like a single limb, resembling a fish tail, leading some to questioned whether ancient cases of the condition may have influenced legends of the past. It is known, for example, that ancient descriptions of sea monsters derived from sightings of real-life species such as whales, giant squid, and walruses, which were rarely seen and little understood at the time. Whether or not the congenital condition may have influenced stories of women with fish-like tails will never really be known. Nevertheless, the likeness between the two has had one positive effect – it has helped children suffering from Sirenomelia to feel proud of their resemblance to the beautiful and mythical beings described in our ancient past and which has persisted through popular media to the modern-day. Research published this year in the Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage suggests that an ancient Aboriginal love story written in the sky reveals the Aboriginals’ knowledge of variability in the star Betelgeuse, the ninth brightest star in the night sky and second brightest in the constellation of Orion. Betelgeuse, also known as Alpha Orionis, is a variable star whose magnitude varies between 0.2 and 1.2. This means that the star subtly brightens and fades over a period of about 400 days. The variation in Betelgeuse's brightness was believed to have been observed with a telescope in 1836 by Sir John Herschel, when he published his observations in Outlines of Astronomy. However, the recent study suggests the Australian Aboriginals knew of its variability long before this time, and that it was recorded in their ‘Dreamtime’ stories. One story, now referred to as “The Orion Story” involves the stars making up the constellations of Orion and Taurus. According to the legend, the story tells how the constellation Orion (called ‘Nyeeruna’), which is often portrayed as a male hunter, chases after the Pleiades star cluster, usually portrayed as a group of seven sisters (‘Yugarila’). Standing between Nyeeruna (Orion) and Yugarilya (Pleiades cluster), is their eldest sister Kambugudha, represented by the Hyades star cluster. Kambugudha taunts Nyeeruna by standing before him. The club in Nyeeruna's right hand, which is the star Betelgeuse, fills with 'fire magic' ready to throw at Kambugudha. However, she defensively lifts her foot, which is the star Aldebaran and also full of fire magic, causing Nyeeruna great humiliation and putting out his fire. A detailed analysis of the complete story led researchers from the University of New South Wales to suggest that the reference to the ‘fire magic’ of Betelgeuse is an observation of the star in its bright phase, while reference to ‘putting out his fire’ is an observation of the fading of Betelgeuse. In ancient Japanese folklore, the Kappa is a water demon that inhabits rivers and lakes and devours disobedient little children. While some believe the legend originated from sightings of the Japanese Giant Salamander, a species still alive today, others maintain that the myth, or at least part of it, is real and that an unusual set of mummified remains, showing a webbed hand and a foot, is proof that the Kappa exists. Now people have the opportunity to see for themselves as the unusual body parts went on display for the first time this year at the Miyakonojo Shimazu Residence on the island of Kyuushuu in Japan. The remains, which include a foot and an arm with hand attached, are said to have been given to the Miyakonijo Shimazu family after a Kappa was supposedly shot on a riverbank in 1818. Archaeologists discovered the skeleton of a massive dog that would have stood 7 feet tall on its hind legs, in the ruins of Leiston Abbey in Suffolk, England. The remains are near where an ancient legend spoke of a hellhound called Black Shuck, said to have flaming red eyes and a rugged black coat, who terrorized villagers. The name Shuck derives from the Old English word scucca meaning ‘demon’. He is one of many ghostly black dogs recorded across the British Isles. Its alleged appearance during a storm on 4th August, 1577 at the Holy Trinity Church, Blythburgh, is a particularly famous account of the beast, in which legend says that thunder caused the doors of the church to burst open and the snarling dog crashed in and ran through the congregation, killing a man and a boy, before it fled when the steeple collapsed. Brendon Wilkins, projects director of archaeological group Dig Ventures, said: “Most of these legends about dogs may have some roots in reality.” The remains of the massive dog, which is estimated to have weighed 200 pounds, were found just a few miles from the two churches where Black Shuck killed the worshippers. It appears to have been buried in a shallow grave at precisely the same time as Shuck is said to have been on the loose, primarily around Suffolk and the East Anglia region. Over seven decades ago, an ancient skeleton was found in a well in Sverresborg, a medieval fortification located in Bergen, Norway. But World War II put an end to the excavations and the body was reburied and largely forgotten. Now, 70 years later, archaeologists rediscovered the remains and dated them to the 12th century AD, a period when the Sverris Saga was written, which tells the tale of a dead man thrown in a well in Sverresborg. Could it be that the recovered remains belong to that very man? The Sverris Saga provides a detailed account of the Norwegian king Sverre Sigurdsson, along with a large cast of characters, elaborate scenes, and dialogue. King Sverre led the Birkebeiners (“birch legs”), a party of rebels that were so poor they made their shoes of birch bark, in a fight for the throne of Norway against the church-supported Baglers. The saga tells of a battle in Sverresborg (“Sverre's Castle”) in Trondheim in 1197, where the Baglers won. The Sverre Saga says that after the battle: "the Baglers took all the goods that were in the castle, then they burned down every house that was there. They threw a dead man in the well, since they carried stone, and filled it." The Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research wrote: “We are more than reasonably sure that the skeleton in the well can be attributed to the dramatic tales in the saga when Sverre castle was destroyed.” A government investigation carried out by the Fljotsdalsherao municipal council in Iceland has ruled that a legendary sea serpent named Lagarfljotsormurinn, which is rumoured to inhabit Lake Lagarfljot, actually exists. The commission ruled that a 2012 video of what is claimed to be Iceland’s most famous lake monster is authentic. The Lagarfljótsormur, or ‘Lagarfljót worm’ is an Icelandic lake cryptid which is purported to live in a freshwater, glacial-fed lake in Egilsstaðir. The earliest recorded sightings of the Lagarfljótsormur date back to the Icelandic Annals of 1345, and have continued into the 21st century. However, sightings increased exponentially after a home video shot in 2012 went viral. The home video shows what looks like a long, serpentine form swimming in the glacial lake in eastern Iceland. If the video is authentic, and actually depicts a living creature, it may not be as monstrous as the legends say. Many species of fish have been found which resemble ‘sea monsters’ described in mythological tales, for example, the frilled shark (Chlamydoselachus anguineus), and the giant oarfish (Regalecus glesne). It might just be that a similar species may inhabit Lake Lagarfljot, leading to the development of legendary tales over the centuries. Captain John Bennett and his crew were stunned when they dragged onto their fishing boat a creature with tentacles like fire hoses and eyes like dinner plates, while fishing in Antarctica’s remote Ross Sea. It was an enormous 350 kg (770 pound) squid which they had hauled up from one mile below the surface. Could this have been the creature that inspired tales of the legendary Kraken, rumoured to devour men and crush ships? The colossal squid, which measures the length of a minibus, was caught 8 months ago and was kept frozen until September, when scientists finally thawed it out in a bid to unlock the mysteries of this rarely seen monster of the deep. Kat Bolstad, a squid scientist from the Auckland University of Technology, said that it's possible that ancient sightings of the colossal squid gave rise to tales of the Kraken, a giant sea creature in Scandinavian mythology, which was first mentioned in the Örvar-Oddr, a 13th century Icelandic saga. Kat Bolstad explained that sperm whales often eat colossal squid and are known to play with their food, so sailors may have mistaken that for epic battles. The mythical Golden Fleece is best known for featuring in the ancient legend of Greek hero Jason and his band of sailors, the Argonauts. Geologists have theorized from investigations that the Golden Fleece may have been more than a simple mythical plot device, and was instead a reality for the people of the Black Sea region. Evidence suggests that the quest for the Golden Fleece may have been based on an actual historical voyage to the ancient Colchis Kingdom. A field investigation study of the mythical ‘golden sands’ of Colchis published in Quaternary International theorizes that the story “took inspiration from an actual voyage sometime between 3,300 and 3,500 years ago”. In the myth of Jason, the son of Aeson, usurped king of Iolcos, commissions a ship built by Argus, the Argo, and gathers a group of heroes, the Argonauts. They embark on a quest to find the fleece - the skin of a winged ram, a holy ram of Zeus, - so Jason might return his father to the throne of Thessaly, Greece. There are many interpretations of the symbolism and meaning of the Golden Fleece, including it representing royal power, the flayed skin of a Titan, a book on alchemy, the forgiveness of god, a fabric woven from sea silk, and the wealth of Colchis. Geologist Avtandil Okrostsvaridze of Ilia State University in Tbilisi, Georgia, and his colleagues, stated that mountain streams of the Svaneti region contain small particles of gold which tumble through the water after eroding from rock formations. Locals traditionally immerse sheepskins in the streams to trap the metal, creating a fleece rich with gold. This technique has endured for thousands of years, suggesting to geologists and historians that the region is the same ancient Colchis Kingdom as referenced in the Golden Fleece myth. The researchers wonder if the story of Jason and the Argonauts may have been based on a real and ancient mission to learn the secrets of the technique of gold extraction, or to retrieve sheepskins glittering with flakes of gold. The Vikings have been reputed to be remarkable seafarers who would confidently head into unexplored waters. This year a team of researchers from Hungary and Sweden claim to have a clue as to how the Norse warriors managed to fearlessly navigate their way through unknown oceans to invade unsuspecting communities along the North Sea and Atlantic Sea coasts of Europe – it is believed that they combined the power of a sun-compass, with that of a sunstone to navigate their ships after dark. A well-known ancient Norse myth describing a magical gem which could reveal the position of the sun when hidden behind clouds or even after sunset, was the subject of intrigue for many years, until researchers found a unique crystal in the wreck of an Elizabethan ship sunk off the coast of the Channel Islands. In March, 2013, a team of scientists announced that the crystal made of a calcite substance could have indeed acted as a remarkably precise navigational aid. In the latest study, researchers examined a fragment of an 11th-century dial found in Uunartoq, Greenland, and attempted to extrapolate its features into something that would allow Viking navigators to detect the position of the sun from the twilight glow on the horizon passing through two calcite sunstones. The results found that when used in combination, the dial and the sunstones could find the position of the sun even after it had passed below the twilight horizon. Scientists at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia rediscovered a rare and important find in their storage rooms – a complete human skeleton who lived around 6,500 years ago in the Sumerian city-state of Ur. The aptly named ‘Noah’ was originally found within a layer of deep silt, indicating that he lived after an epic flood. The first known recorded story of a great flood comes from Sumer, now southern Iraq, and it is generally believed to be the historic precursor of the Biblical flood story written millennia later. Sir Leonard Woolley, a British archaeologist who originally found ‘Noah’ in the 1920s, referred to the layer of silt, which was ten-feet thick in some places, as the ‘flood layer’, because, around 40 feet down, it reached a layer of clean, water-lain silt. The individual is known to have survived or lived after the flood as he was buried in its silt deposits. Woolley determined that the original site of Ur had been a small island in a surrounding marsh. Then a great flood spoken covered the land in the Ubaid-era. People continued to live and flourish at Ur, but many scholars believe it was this flood that was written about in the ancient Sumerian cuneiform tablets and retold by many cultures around the world. Some also believe it was the Sumerian account that later inspired the Biblical story of Noah’s Ark. By April HollowayScroll, the leftist propaganda blog became one of the latest publication to spread the misinformation and lies about the decision and impact of crackdown on illegal slaughterhouses by the Uttar Pradesh government. The propaganda blog wrote an article titled: UP: Lucknow’s legendary Tunday Kababi downs its shutters as meat crackdown intensifies Read the headline again. Not only it fails to clarify that the crackdown is against illegal slaughterhouses and not against “meat”, it suggests as if the famous Kabab joint in Lucknow had gone out of business. If there was an award for dishonestly crafting a sentence to push a propaganda, Scroll wins it hands down right there. - Advertisement - - Article resumes - The propaganda worked as news portal Firstpost published a report, making the Scroll article their source, and titled it “Tunday Kababi in Lucknow shuts down after Yogi Adityanath announces UP slaughterhouse ban“. Since most people read just headlines, it was widely believed that a legendary eatery had gone out of business. Seizing the opportunity, eminent journalists soon jumped on the outrage bandwagon and lamented about the loss of Lucknow’s joy and history: If so this is beyond terrible. Would expect @UPGovt to step in here.Tunday Kababi is part of Lucknow’s joy and history. https://t.co/Gdex9hiCQJ — barkha dutt (@BDUTT) March 23, 2017 Just as the masses were beginning to wonder if the joint would ever open for business, people started tweeting pictures which showed the Kabab joint was not just open but was buzzing with activity: Delhi is spreading rumors about Tundey Kebabi Aminabad being shut, It was closed for an hour due to shortage of raw material. #LivePictures pic.twitter.com/JV9mPlMwov — Vedank Singh (@VedankSingh) March 23, 2017 Dear all, the Kapurthala one is open too..so please quit the maatam for Lucknawi cuisine..#Lucknow#MeatBanhttps://t.co/MYkK3jLESs — Dr Sumita Misra IAS (@sumitamisra) March 23, 2017 The truth is, the eatery was closed temporarily on Wednesday due to the lack of meat as illegal slaughterhouses are being closed down. The eatery was opened today, though it was unable to serve buffalo meat and mutton as it couldn’t source the meat. This, however, raises the questions if the eatery, which opened way back in 1905, had been sourcing all its meat from illegal slaughterhouses? Because the state government has clarified that licensed slaughterhouses would be allowed to function as usual. Perhaps yes, because a journalist named Faisal Fareed reported that there was no legal slaughterhouse in Lucknow! This is in line with a report that was published last year: Lucknow does not have any legal slaughter house. After 110 years Tunday Kababi shop in old Lucknow ws closed yesterday due to meat shortage. — FAISAL FAREED (@postfaisal) March 23, 2017 So apart from reaffirming the website Scroll as a leftist propaganda blog, the incident reaffirms how businesses, right in the capital city of Uttar Pradesh, could have been running without following rules and regulations all these years. This exposes the level of law enforcement by earlier regimes. Strangely, the media could never spot an opportunity for an investigative report about how popular eateries could be willingly or unwillingly helping illegal businesses by sourcing raw materials from them? UPDATE: After our report, Scroll changed their headline as well as content in their original news report. Share This Post and Support:Posted August 16th at 1:00pm. MUT 17 TOP 5 Tight Ends Jimmy Graham - TE, Seahawks - A 3-time Pro Bowler, Jimmy Graham recorded 48 receptions for 605 yards and 2 touchdowns in the 11 games her started in the 2015 season. Tyler Eifert - TE, Bengals - Eifert had a breakout year in the 2015 season, recording 13 TD receptions in 13 games and setting the Bengals franchise record for TDs by a tight end in a single season. He was also selected to his first Pro Bowl. Delanie Walker - TE, Titans - Delanie Walker shattered the Titans' franchise tight end records in the 2015 season, including the single season receiving yards record (1,088). He led the league in receptions by a tight end and was selected to the 2015 Pro Bowl. Greg Olsen - TE, Panthers - During the 2015 season Olsen set Panthers records for career receiving yards and receptions for a tight end. He finished the 2015 regular season with 77 receptions with 1,104 yards and 7 touchdowns, and was selected for his second consecutive Pro Bowl.Vegetables are an important part of a healthy, well-balanced diet. They are low in fat and calories, contain no cholesterol and are rich in vitamins like A and C, and minerals and fiber. But exactly what form of vegetables are best? Are there more vitamins in fresh, canned or frozen vegetables? Backyard Garden Vegetables Most people believe that fresh vegetables are the best option because they have not been tampered with or processed. This is true if you are purchasing local, native produce from a farmers market or are picking them straight from your backyard garden. However, if you are getting your vegetables from a grocery store or buying a non-native vegetable, this might not be the case. The nutritional value of fresh vegetables is determined by their seasonality and availability in the area. Many vegetables have travelled far distances to land in the produce section of your chain grocery store. When the vegetables are shipped across the country, they are exposed to extreme temperatures which release their important nutrients like vitamin A and C. Many fresh vegetables, which need to be shipped great distances, have also been harvested before they are ripe (before vitamins and nutrients have had a chance to fully develop within the vegetable). From the Freezer Section Frozen vegetables, on the other hand, are picked at the peak of ripeness then blanched and flash-frozen to remove bacteria and lock in their essential vitamins and nutrients. The faster they are frozen after picking, the more nutrients they will retain. Plus, while fresh vegetables have a lifespan of only a week to two weeks at best, frozen vegetables can last much longer in the safety of your freezer. Straight off the Shelf Canned vegetables can lose some of their vitamin C in heating process during canning, but when they are handled and canned quickly, much like frozen foods, the majority of nutrients are locked in and retained. Therefore, canned vegetables can have the same, if not more nutrients than fresh vegetables and the levels of these nutrients remain the same even after one to two years of storage. Canned vegetables are also one of the safest products to choose, as they often contain no preservatives and because they are heated before being canned, are free from food related contamination. Read the Label Salt is often added to canned or frozen vegetables for taste reasons, so be sure to read the label and choose products that contain low or no sodium levels. When choosing frozen vegetables, the only ingredient listed should be vegetables. Boiling vegetables also releases nutrients, so be sure to boil them for as little time as possible. Increase Your Daily Intake The average person eats only one third of the recommended daily intake of vegetables each day. Whether you choose fresh, frozen or canned vegetables, they will all provide you with the crucial vitamins and nutrients your body needs. So whether you pick them straight from your garden, dig into your freezer or pull them off your shelf, try to add vegetables into your meals each day to keep your body healthy.KABUL (Reuters) - Pakistan will consider freeing former Afghan Taliban second-in-command, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, if current releases of lower level members help to advance peace efforts, officials from both countries told Reuters on Thursday. “After releasing 13 Taliban, Pakistan promised to free Mullah Baradar if these releases prove effective in peace negotiations,” said a senior Afghan official close to talks between Islamabad and Kabul. Afghanistan has been pushing Pakistan to release Afghan Taliban captives who could provide leverage in any peace talks. Pakistan has released mid-level Taliban prisoners over the last two days. But Pakistan is under growing pressure to free senior Taliban figures like Baradar, as most NATO combat troops pull out by the end of 2014. Afghan officials believe he may command enough respect to persuade the Taliban to engage in talks with the Kabul government. Asked if Baradar would also be freed, a senior Pakistani foreign ministry official said that could happen if the release of the mid-level Taliban figures “produced results”.This is a picked upload! It showcases some of the best talent and creativity available on MTS and in the community. NOTE This mod was created with all expansion packs installed, Each interaction requires different expansion packs installed * All the interactions will show up in your game even if you don't have the required expansion packs installed, But will not function when you click on them * *Corrected thanks to Nonamena NOTE : YOU ONLY NEED BASE GAME TO INSTALL THIS MOD!, YOU DON'T NEED ANY OTHER EXPANSION PACKS TO RUN IT, IF YOU DON'T HAVE ONE OR ANY OF THE EXPANSION PACKS THE GAME WILL WORK FINE AND IT WON'T CRASH, ONLY YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO USE THE INTERACTIONS THAT REQUIRES THAT CERTAIN EXPANSION PACK! Expansion Packs requirements Bless Torture Burn Make Pee Self Master All Skills Using this interaction will not max Charisma unless your sim already has all of the friend requirements, or if you're using a mod to reduce the friend requirements of charisma skil. Starve To Death Make Ugly Temporarily Ghostify Zombify Turn Into Ice Make Fall In Love With Next Sim Make Enemy With Next Sim Lightning Strike Make Super Happy Strike Surroundings With Lightning And Meteor Meteor Shower Hurricane Summon Meteor Max Influence With All Groups This mod adds a new option to the sim pie menu " Target " or " Self " Called " Disasters & Blessings ".And by clicking on different interactions inside that option, different events will be created.Watch the Mod's video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTQe...UiNR3lTWZ7MxzDg ___________________________________________________________They worked on both patches so they should work for future patches, not sure thoughand other people who helped me in the modding discussionSpecial thanks to CmarNYC & Nonamena for helping me all along <3Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. EU economies will contract by 4% in 2009, the European Commission has forecast - more than twice what it predicted at the start of the year. The worsening of the global financial crisis, dropping levels of world trade and continuing house value falls had prompted the huge downgrade, it said. Europe's economy would not start recovering until the second half of next year, the commission added. It also predicted unemployment in the 27-nation EU would reach 10.9% in 2010. The jobless figure would be 11.5% across the 16 countries using the euro, known as the eurozone, it added. 'Exceptional circumstances' "The European economy is in the midst of its deepest and most widespread recession in the post-war era," said EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner, Joaquin Almunia. "But the ambitious measures taken by governments and central banks in these exceptional circumstances are expected to put a floor under the fall in economic activity this year and enable a recovery next year." EUROZONE v EU The 16 eurozone countries are: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain The European Union is made up of those countries in the eurozone plus: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Sweden and the UK Countries needed to focus on cleaning up banks' toxic assets, he added. The commission's forecast is not as bleak as the outlook from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) - which says eurozone GDP will fall by 4.2% this year. However it is less optimistic than the European Central Bank which forecast a 3.8% contraction in its latest estimate. In January, the commission had predicted the eurozone would shrink by 1.9% in 2009 and grow by 0.4% in 2010. As well as the downward revision for this year, it now expects the eurozone economy to shrink by 0.1% next year. Irish woes The commission expects inflation to fall well below the European Central Bank's target of 2%. It projects inflation to slow to 0.4% this year from 3.3% in 2008, and to rise to only 1.2% in 2010. While the downturn was widespread, the extent of economic contraction varied between nations. Germany, Europe's biggest economy, is expected to contract 5.4% this year, while the UK is expected to shrink by 3.8%. However the once-booming Irish economy will see a 9% drop and Latvia will shrink by 13.1%, the commission said. "The main factors behind the recession are the worsening of the global financial crisis, a sharp contraction in world trade and ongoing housing market corrections in some economies," the commission said in a statement. Poland rejected the commission's prediction of a 1.4% contraction in its economy - saying the figure was "mistaken" and
officially out and director of spirits Damian Windsor is leaving in two weeks! What this means for the food and the three other bars in the building which have yet to open—as well as the currently opened bars—is not clear. But here’s what we do know about the bars themselves. The five bars were conceptualized by owner Andrew Meieran and consultant Michael Neff (formerly of Three Clubs) while Windsor (Power House) served as the creative source between all bars. “We didn’t want to make a space that just had a lot of bars in it,” says Neff. “We wanted each space to have its own identity. We have different designs, different intentions, different names, different educational programs.” Each bar has its own lead bartender who is in charge of creating the specialty cocktail menu for their particular bar. For the mezzanine Monarch Bar it’s Chris Amirault (Harlowe), for the Gothic Bar it’s Dustin Newsome (Seven Grand), and Aaron Polsky (Greenwich Project in NYC) is doing the basement Shadowbox. No word yet on who will be in charge of the upstairs Tiki bar or the Treetops restaurant bar. Even though each bar will have its own distinctive cocktail program, all—with the exception of Shadowbox—will also share a classic cocktail menu. “The purpose of that is for people who are going from space to space or they’re checking out the new space. We just wanted to have a little bit of through line,” explains Neff. However, this doesn’t mean that you can order a vodka tonic at every bar, or even a Tiki bar cocktail down at the Gothic bar, since each bar has limited space and its own program. “We want to be able to specialize, to not offer everything in all places,” says Neff. So, he adds, if you want a Budweiser and a shot, there are three spaces where you can get that. There just won’t be a huge selection of vodka at, say, the Tiki bar. “I only have so much room, I need to focus on rum or Japanese whiskey or something else. If you want a lot of vodkas, you can go downstairs. As big as the place is there isn’t a lot of space for our stuff. We don’t have massive backbars so we have to be able to make choices.” So here’s the lowdown on each bar. Monarch Bar: This beer-focused California-themed neighborhood bar, which is also the dining room for the cafeteria, is open at 11 a.m. to close. Guests can drop-in with their tray of cafeteria food and enjoy beverage table service. Choose from 20 draft beers, a Golden State wine list, eight specialty cocktails as well as soda fountain creations. The 1930 soda fountain, when the bar is fully operational, will offer four different floats and four boozy options. There will also be four cocktails that are loosely based on an ingredient found in the featured floats. Currently there is a Big Sur Bacon Bomb float and a bacon bourbon Old Fashioned garnished with the same candied bacon found in the float. Since the bar is technically a restaurant, this means that not only can children sit at the bar, too, but as soon as the cafeteria is open 24 hours the bar will be open from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. “So we’re looking for ways to get some bartender breakfast style specials going,” says Amirault. Gothic Bar: Since this was where modern science fiction was born, the back bar is done up like a Gothic church altar complete with soaring arches. Guys like L Ron Hubbard, Forrest Ackerman, and Ray Bradbury met up on Thursday nights and sat on a bench on the second floor of Clifton’s when that back room was known as the Brown Room. Now it’s a high-volume, high-energy bar with some elements of sci-fi homage like a meteorite at the bar and cocktails named “Forrest J.” and “The Two Rays” on the menu. And that sacred bench where the Los Angeles Science Fiction League once congregated is now a booth. The cocktails, by Newsome, are meant to be easy to execute for the high-volume bar while still being delicious and approachable. And since the bar has the most space it will also showcase the most kinds of spirits, making it conducive to hosting tastings as well as guest bartenders. Still in the works: tableside cocktails delivered via bar carts as a large format option. Treetops Bar: This space is slated to be a fine-dining restaurant with a small bar whose focus is on rare and unusual spirits. This is where you’d go to sip on something special. However, because the space has proven so popular for throwing awesome private events, and there currently isn’t a chef, the restaurant itself won’t be ready till some time next year. Pacific Seas Tiki Bar: Even though this bar on the fourth floor was still in disarray when I got to see it earlier this month, the space holds such promise. There’s actually a vintage Chris-Craft motorboat jutting out of the middle of the bar where bartenders will serve drinks from. And not to mention the fact that Tiki fans can visit the old decorations of the beloved and now closed Bahooka Tiki restaurant here. Because of the holidays it most likely won’t open til the first of the year. Shadowbox: Located in the basement, Shadowbox will be different from the other Clifton bars in every way. It won’t offer the house classic cocktail menu at all as it is meant to be akin to the Aviary in Chicago—a high concept, fully immersive experience. It will be the only bar in the building that you will need a reservation for. The cocktail program by Polsky promises to bring back a sense of magic and wonder to even off-duty bartenders and cynical cocktail drinkers. “They’re going to play with every kind of trick that we have to make things cool and fun,” says Neff. For instance, as soon as a guest is seated, they will be approached by one of two cocktail carts. One cart will offer an Old Fashioned while the other is tableside spherification of French 75s with a vodka, gin, or cognac option. “It’s basically a champagne cart and we’ll spherify the actual cocktail. So we still get to do the cool stuff but we’ll get to say, ‘Hey, you want a drink while you’re deciding?'” explains Neff. Other cool finds in the basement are an ice cave with a window where guests can see how Clifton’s grows and farms icicles as well as an “excavation site” covered with plexiglass by the bar so you can stand over where fossilized dinosaur eggs have been “dug up.” Shadowbox is projected to open in six to eight weeks. Be excited, be very excited. Once all five bars are open Clifton’s will no doubt resemble an Escher painting with cocktail enthusiasts tromping up and down the stairs in a seemingly neverending circuit, going from bar to bar. UPDATE: Justin Oliver, former manager of the famed tiki bar Smuggler’s Cove in San Francisco, will be running the Tiki bar, Pacific Seas. Clifton’s Cafeteria, 648 S Broadway, Downtown, 213-627-1673Where are the faculty? American college students are increasingly resorting to brute force, and sometimes criminal violence, to shut down ideas they don’t like. Yet when such travesties occur, the faculty are, with few exceptions, missing in action, though they have themselves been given the extraordinary privilege of tenure to protect their own liberty of thought and speech. It is time for them to take their heads out of the sand. I was the target of such silencing tactics two days in a row last week, the more serious incident at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California, and a less virulent one at UCLA. The Rose Institute for State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna had invited me to meet with students and to give a talk about my book, The War on Cops, on April 6. Several calls went out on Facebook to “shut down” this “notorious white supremacist fascist Heather Mac Donald.” A Facebook post from “we, students of color at the Claremont Colleges” announced grandiosely that “as a community, we CANNOT and WILL NOT allow fascism to have a platform. We stand against all forms of oppression and we refuse to have Mac Donald speak.” A Facebook event titled “Shut Down Anti-Black Fascist Heather Mac Donald” and hosted by “Shut Down Anti-Black Fascists” encouraged students to protest the event because Mac Donald “condemns [the] Black Lives Matter movement,” “supports racist police officers,” and “supports increasing fascist ‘law and order.’” (My supposed fascism consists in trying to give voice to the thousands of law-abiding minority residents of high-crime areas who support the police and are desperate for more law-enforcement protection.) The event organizers notified me a day before the speech that a protest was planned and that they were considering changing the venue from CMC’s Athenaeum to one with fewer glass windows and easier egress. When I arrived on campus, I was shuttled to what was in effect a safe house: a guest suite for campus visitors, with blinds drawn. I could hear the growing crowds chanting and drumming, but I could not see the auditorium that the protesters were surrounding. One female voice rose above the chants with particularly shrill hysteria. From the balcony, I saw a petite blonde female walk by, her face covered by a Palestinian head scarf and carrying an amplifier on her back for her bullhorn. A lookout was stationed about 40 yards away and students were seated on the stairway under my balcony, plotting strategy. Since I never saw the events outside the Athenaeum, which remained the chosen venue, an excellent report from the student newspaper, the Student Life, provides details of the scene: The protesters, most of whom wore all black, congregated outside Honnold/Mudd Library at 4 p.m. to stage the action. “We are here to shut down the fucking fascist,” announced an organizer to a crowd of around 100 students. The protesters subsequently marched to the Ath around 4:30 while chanting. An organizer shouted “How do you spell racist?” into a megaphone; the marchers responded “C-M-C.” When they arrived, the protesters were greeted by around two dozen Campus Safety officers and Claremont police officers, stationed at various locations around the building. Protestors ignored the officers (who did not obstruct them) and the makeshift white fences sectioning off areas of Flamson Plaza, enveloping each of the Ath’s entrances with multiple rows of students linking arms. White students were encouraged to stand in front to form a barrier between students of color and the police. The protesters continued their chants, including “hey hey, ho ho, Heather Mac has got to go,” “shut it down,” and—most frequent and sustained—“black lives matter.” Some of the officers appeared visibly uncomfortable during chant of “from Oakland to Greece, fuck the police.” Keck Science professor Anthony Fucaloro pushed against and grappled with the crowd of protesters in an unsuccessful attempt to reach the door Garrett Ryan CM ‘17 brought a large speaker to the Hub’s patio, blasting Sousa’s patriotic march “The Stars and Stripes Forever” to provoke the protesters. A woman who ran up to him managed to steal his audio cable after a brief scuffle, cutting off the music and garnering cheers from the protesters when she returned to the crowd. “It was not well-received,” Ryan told TSL. Steven Glick PC ’17, the co-editor-in-chief of the conservative Claremont Independent publication, attempted to livestream the protest, but he was swarmed by protesters who blocked his phone. Several administrators attended the protest and stood to the side. They told TSL that they saw their role as ensuring student safety, but they also sympathized with the protesters’ views. “Black Lives Matter is really at my heart,” said Pomona Associate Dean Jan Collins-Eaglin. Of all the chants, “How do you spell racist?” “C-M-C,” was the most absurd. “Racist” CMC is so desperate for “diverse” students that it has historically admitted black and Hispanic students with an average 200-point lower SAT score than white and Asian students. Such racial preferences satisfy CMC’s desire for racial virtue but set the alleged beneficiaries up for academic struggles, if not failure. Shortly before 6 pm, I was fetched by an administrator and a few police officers to take an out-of-the-way elevator into the Athenaeum. The massive hall, where I was supposed to meet with students for dinner before my talk, was empty—the mob, by then numbering close to 300, had succeeded in preventing anyone from entering. The large plate-glass windows were covered with translucent blinds, so that from the inside one could only see a mass of indistinct bodies pounding on the windows. The administration had decided that I would live-stream my speech in the vacant room in order to preserve some semblance of the original plan. The podium was moved away from a window so that, as night fell and the lights inside came on, I would not be visible to the agitators outside. I prefaced my speech by observing that I had heard chants for the last two hours that “black lives matter.” I therefore hoped that the protesters were equally fervent in expressing their outrage when five-year-old Aaron Shannon, Jr., was killed on Halloween 2010 in South-Central Los Angeles, while proudly showing off his Spiderman costume. A 26-year-old member of Watts’s Kitchen Crips sent a single bullet through Aaron’s head, and also shot Aaron’s uncle and grandfather. I said that I hoped the protesters also objected when nine-year-old Tyshawn Lee was lured into an alley in Chicago with the promise of candy in November 2015 and assassinated by gang enemies of Tyshawn’s father. The gangbangers’ original plan had been to cut off Tyshawn’s fingers and send them to his mother. While Black Lives Matter protesters have in fact ignored all such mayhem, the people who have concerned themselves are the police, I said. And though it was doubtful that any of the protesters outside had ever lost a loved one to a drive-by shooting, if such a tragedy ever did happen, the first thing he or she would do is call the police. I completed my speech to the accompaniment of chants and banging on the windows. I was able to take two questions from students via live-streaming. But by then, the administrators and police officers in the room, who had spent my talk nervously staring at the windows, decided that things were growing too unruly outside to continue. I was given the cue that the presentation was over. Walkie-talkies were used to coordinate my exit from the Athenaeum’s kitchen to the exact moment that a black, unmarked Claremont Police Department van rolled up. We passed startled students sitting on the stoop outside the kitchen. Before I entered the van, one student came up and thanked me for coming to Claremont. We sped off to the police station. The previous night, I actually succeeded in delivering a talk on policing to the audience who had come to hear it; such heretofore ordinary circumstances are now noteworthy. My hosts, the UCLA College Republicans, had titled my presentation “Blue Lives Matter,” which campus activists viewed as an unspeakable provocation. After I finished speaking and welcomed questions, pandemonium broke out. Protesters stormed the front of the classroom, demanding control of the mike and chanting loudly: “America was never great” and “Black Lives Matter, They Matter Here,” among other insights. After nearly 10 minutes of shouting, one of the organizers managed to persuade some students to line up for questions. The College Fix paper captured the subsequent interaction: A black female asked whether “black victims killed by cops” mattered. “Yes,” Mac Donald replied. “And do black children that are killed by other blacks matter to you?” At that the room erupted in gasps and angry moans and furious snaps, and the young lady who asked the original question began to yell at Mac Donald, pointing her finger and repeating the original question.... “Of course I care [that black victims are killed by cops], and do you know what,” Mac Donald said. “There is no government agency more dedicated to the proposition that black lives matter than the police.” Again, gasps and moans filled the auditorium. “Bullshit! Bullshit!” a young woman off camera could be heard screaming. Mac Donald continued: “The crime drop of the last 20 years that came to a screeching halt in August 2014 has saved tens of thousands of minority lives. Because cops went to those neighborhoods and they got the dealers off the street and they got the gang-bangers off the street.” Mac Donald took more questions and at times was able to articulate her points during the Q&A, but was also often interrupted by angry audience members shouting out things such as: “I don’t trust your numbers.” “Why do white lives always need to be put above everybody else? Can we talk about black lives for one second?” “The same system that sent police to murder black lives... ” “You have no right to speak!” “What about white terrorism?!” To the inevitable claim that poverty causes gun violence, I responded that if students really believed in that causation, they should be concerned that mass low-skilled immigration was driving down wages for the American poor. That provoked a new chant: “Say it loud! Say it clear! Immigrants are welcome here.” At 8 pm, the organizers decided to end the event, and I was hustled out of the room with a police escort. To my knowledge, the UCLA administration has not addressed the disruption of my presentation and interaction with students. The Claremont McKenna administration did, however, respond. Two days before my speech, the director of the Rose Institute, Andrew Busch, sent out an email decrying the use of the epithet “racist” “as a bludgeon with which to shut up critics or keep friends in line.” Busch optimistically put matters in the conditional: “If we ever accept that approach we will have taken a giant step toward surrendering freedom of thought and expression”—as if intmidation via the R-word is not already routine on and off campuses. Busch graciously tried to provide a neutral summary of my views and noted that I, too, aim to protect black lives. A few minutes after I was escorted out of the Athenaeum, a campus-wide missive from Vice President for Academic Affairs & Dean of the Faculty Peter Uvin expressed disappointment that people could not attend the lecture, but lauded the fact that the lecture was live-streamed. Uvin, a government professor specializing in development and human rights, went on to establish his bona fides with the social-justice crowd. “I fully understand that people have strong opinions and different—often painful—experiences with the issues Heather Mac Donald discusses. I also understand that words can hurt. And in a world of unequal power, it is more often than not those who have a history of exclusion who are being hurt by words. I support everyone’s right to make this world a better one.” This may not have been the best moment to reaffirm the idea that undergirds such silencing protests: that speech can damage allegedly excluded or marginalized minorities. The next day, CMC president Hiram Chodosh, a former international law professor, weighed in. He explained the failure to intervene against the protesters: “Based on the judgment of the Claremont Police Department, we jointly concluded that any forced interventions or arrests would have created unsafe conditions for students, faculty, staff, and guests. I take full responsibility for the decision to err on the side of these overriding safety considerations.” Chodosh said that students who violated school policies by blocking access to buildings would be held accountable. A poorly written editorial in the student newspaper attributed to me positions I have never taken and quoted me wildly out of context. Such misunderstanding goes with the territory. But the editorialists’ explanation for why my talk had to be shut down revealed the “racism is everywhere” brain-washing that students at even a once relatively conservative campus like Claremont now receive: “If we allow her to speak at the Ath or attend her talk, we are amplifying her voice and enhancing her credibility. Last month, we proposed that writing and publishing an article, even if it’s ‘free of opinion,’ is not passive. This is a throughline for many of our editorials this year: many actions that seem neutral in theory are actually entrenched in unconscious bias.” Last week’s events should be the final wakeup call to the professoriate, coming on the heels of the more dangerous attacks on Charles Murray at Middlebury College and the riots in Berkeley, California, against Milo Yiannapoulos. When speakers need police escort on and off college campuses, an alarm bell should be going off that something has gone seriously awry. Of course, an ever-growing part of the faculty is the reason that police protection is needed in the first place. Professors in all but the hardest of hard sciences increasingly indoctrinate students in the belief that to be a non-Asian minority or a female in America today is to be the target of nonstop oppression, even, uproariously, if you are among the privileged few to attend a fantastically well-endowed, resource-rich American college. Those professors also maintain that to challenge that claim of ubiquitous bigotry is to engage in “hate speech,” and that such speech is tantamount to a physical assault on minorities and females. As such, it can rightly be suppressed and punished. To those faculty, I am indeed a fascist, and a white supremacist, with the attendant loss of communication rights. Hyperbole is part and parcel of political speech. But I would hope that there are some remaining faculty with enough of a lingering connection to reality who would realize that I and other conservatives are not a literal threat to minority students. To try to prevent me or other dissenting intellectuals from connecting with students is simply an effort to maintain the Left’s monopoly of thought. The fact that this suppression goes under the title of “anti-fascism” is particularly rich. I am reluctant to wield the epithet “fascist” as promiscuously as my declared opponents do. But it must be observed that if campus conservatives tried to use physical force to block Senator Elizabeth Warren, say, from giving a speech, the New York Times would likely put the obstruction on the front page and the phrase “fascist” would be flying around like a swarm of hornets, followed immediately by the epithet “misogynist.” And when students and their fellow anarchists start breaking glass, destroying businesses, and assaulting perceived opponents, as they did during the Milo riots and at Middlebury College, it is hard not to hear echoes of 1930s fascism. It is not enough for professors to sign statements in support of free speech (and surprisingly few have actually done so). When word goes out of a plan to “shut down” non-conforming political views, that plan must be taken deadly seriously. Claremont McKenna took obvious pains to protect my talk, but they were not enough. I will not second-guess president Chodosh’s decision not to arrest the mob blocking access to the Athenaeum. Administrators and campus police are loathe to do anything that might necessitate the use of force against student darlings, as the deplorable passivity of the UC Berkeley campus (and Berkeley city) police during the anti-Milo riots on February 1 revealed. But if arrests are all but foreclosed, enough police manpower must be summoned to maintain open access through sheer command presence. Before a planned blockade, the faculty must reaffirm in their classes the campus’s belief in free expression. And the faculty must show up to the threatened event itself to give meaning to the ideal of free speech; they must shame the students trying to prevent their fellow students from hearing ideas that challenge campus orthodoxies. Fortunately, the campus thugs are too dim-witted to understand that by trying to shut down nonconforming speech, they are only giving it a greater cachet, as President Chodosh ruefully noted in his post-blockade email. Retroactive punishment for violating school rules is necessary, as Charles Murray has persuasively written. President Chodosh should follow through on his promise to hold the censors accountable; if he does, it will be a first, since punishment violates the consumerist ethos of American higher education. We are cultivating students who lack all understanding of the principles of the American Founding. The mark of any civilization is its commitment to reason and discourse. The great accomplishment of the European enlightenment was to require all forms of authority to justify themselves through rational argument, rather than through coercion or an unadorned appeal to tradition. The resort to brute force in the face of disagreement is particularly disturbing in a university, which should provide a model of civil discourse. But the students currently stewing in delusional resentments and self-pity will eventually graduate, and some will seize levers of power more far-reaching than those they currently wield over toadying campus bureaucrats and spineless faculty. Unless the campus zest for censorship is combatted now, what we have always regarded as a precious inheritance could be eroded beyond recognition, and a soft totalitarianism could become the new American norm.Watch Dogs creative director Jonathan Morin has promised that gamers will get the same experience on Watch Dogs whatever version they decide to purchase. Morin explained that Watch Dogs will look great on the PlayStation 4, but the same experience is there for the PlayStation 3, Wii U, Xbox 360, and PC. “No, I don’t think so. I think it’s more… I mean, of course, new machine means new tools and means an extension of the original vision. So, PlayStation 4 will be great for Watch Dogs,” Morin told me. “That being said, I firmly believe that creating a game experience starts with what you want to do and achieve as a team. It has nothing to do with tools. The tools are there to facilitate certain things. So the same experience is there on the PS3 and other consoles. Players will have the same enjoyment; they will not feel any letdown.”Last week, Elon Musk, CEO of both Tesla and SpaceX, announced new options and trims for Tesla’s award winning electric sedan, the Model S. One of the new option is a battery pack electronics upgrade, the Ludicrous Speed Upgrade, which enables faster acceleration for the existing Model S P85D and the new P90D. On this new driving mode, the Model S can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 2.8 second, making the 5,000 lb 4-door sedan faster than a McLaren F1. Earlier this year, we wrote about SpaceX transferring some technology and welding equipment to Tesla. Now it seems like the new “Ludicrous” upgrade might have been made possible due to knowledge acquired through rocket engine manufacturing at SpaceX. The Ludicrous upgrade consists of 2 improvements to the electronics of the Model S’ battery pack. The first improvement is the replacement of a standard fuse to an “advanced smart fuse” which enables the monitoring of current to the millisecond, and makes it possible to cut the power with “extreme precision”. The second improvement is where SpaceX’s expertise might have come into play. Tesla replaced the main pack contactor to use Inconel instead of steel. Inconel is a space-grade superalloy well suited for extreme high temperature environments. This superalloy is primarily use in the aerospace industry, and one of its more famous use is in the novel manufacturing process of SpaceX’s SuperDraco engine. The SuperDraco provides trust to the launch escape system of SpaceX’s Dragon V2 spacecraft. It also offers deep throttling ability and has multiple restart capability for propulsive-landing. Here are eight SuperDraco engines at work during a pad abort test: Together, these eight SuperDraco engines produce 120,000 pounds of axial thrust, which is quite impressive, but maybe even more impressive and where the synergy with Tesla might come into play, is how SpaceX manufactures these engines. SpaceX 3D prints the engine’s combustion chamber in Inconel using a process of direct metal laser sintering – a first in rocket engine manufacturing. Here’s an Inconel combustion chamber emerging from a 3D metal printer at SpaceX: Inconel is a difficult (read expensive) metal to shape and machine. The ability to 3D print it streamlined the manufacturing process, presumably making it less expensive. Inconel works well under incredibly high temperature, which is the reason why it’s being use to build rocket engines, but it is also why Tesla chose the superalloy for its new main contactor. Inconel is more “springy” than steel under the heat of heavy current, which combined with the “smart fuse” allow Tesla to increase the max power output of the Model S’ battery pack from 1300 to 1500 Amps. It’s unconfirmed if SpaceX had any involvement in Tesla’s development of the new Inconel main contactor or if it was a similar transfer of technology and equipment as it was with stir welding. A Tesla representative didn’t respond to inquiries on the subject. Aside from stir welding, sharing a CEO (and the CEO’s jet) and now possibly the use of Inconel, SpaceX seems to have also involved Tesla, to a lesser level, in their plan for a space-based internet service through a constellation of satellites. The company revealed through an application with the FCC that they intend to install a test ground station for their satellite constellation at Tesla’s Fremont factory. Some people are speculating that SpaceX’s broadband internet could eventually replace the current internet service in Tesla’s cars, which is currently transitioning to LTE, but there are doubts about the feasibility of this project. No matter the level of synergy between Tesla and SpaceX, any link between the manufacturing of spacecrafts and consumer vehicles is too cool not to mention. Pictures courtesy of SpaceX.Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins has officially been knighted by the king of Gunslingers. "I thought (Cousins) played outstanding (Sunday night) and has played outstanding this year," Brett Favre said on SiriusXM NFL Radio this week, via The Washington Post. "Those conditions were more Green Bay-like. Trust me, it's not easy. It's not easy throwing into the wind. It's not easy throwing with the wind. The throw that Kirk Cousins made to (Pierre) Garcon in the second half, the long touchdown into the wind, and it dropped right in the basket? I mean, it was an outstanding throw. I thought, 'OK, he's arrived.'" He added: "I thought he did an outstanding job. I know what it is like to throw in those type of conditions and it's not easy. And he did it time and time again. He came across as real confident. He's got a true competitor mentality about him. I like that about him." We've been talking a lot about Cousins of late. These stretches of dominance are becoming somewhat of a signature for the former fourth-round pick, who, over his last eight games, has completed 67.8 percent of his passes for 2,398 yards, 16 touchdowns and four interceptions. This rivals last year's end-of-season streak that pushed Washington into the playoffs. The only difference between this year and last year are the teams around him. The matchup against Dallas (9-1) Thursday afternoon is yet another proving ground for Cousins, who is on his way to setting some records with the contract he'll sign with Washington (6-3-1) this offseason. The team's six wins earlier this season could all come with some sort of caveat -- they beat an unhealthy Giants team before their winning streak, a Vikings team at their absolute worst, ect. -- if you tried hard enough. Even the blowout victory over the Packers came amid some serious in-house tumult for Green Bay. While we agree with Favre, there are plenty waiting until Thanksgiving to decide whether or not they Like That.The Zeppelin was a rigid, "lighter-than-air" manned aircraft developed by German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the latter part of the 1800s. The design was finalized by 1895 and the style born into aviation history using the classic "cigar" shape which was tapered at both ends and powered by propeller-driving engines suspended in individual nacelles under the aircraft. The "Zeppelin", as it came to be known, grew in popularity with the masses for its unique appearance and travel range. Internally, the fabric shell housed a line of light alloy structure (duralumin) and contained cells usually filled with hydrogen or helium. The filling provided the vessel with its required lighter-than-air quality. A compartment was typically affixed to the underside of the design - either to ferry passengers from one destination to another or to provide military personnel with unfettered views of a region ahead from a bird's eye perspective. The first Zeppelin to ferry passengers was LZ.6 in 1909 while the first German Zeppelin was accepted for service that same year in March. The first German Zeppelin to bomb England in World War 1 (1914-1918) was L.3 and L.4 at Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn respectively, this on January 15th/16th, 1915. At the start of World War 1, some 21 Zeppelins were in circulation to which the German military operated 14 between its Army and Navy branches and further examples were confiscated from DELAG, the world's first airliner company. Zeppelin designs were evolved considerably in the lead up to war and proved valuable in the opening stages of the conflict due to their operating altitudes and endurance. For the German military, the Zeppelin served for scouting and reconnaissance while others were eventually graduated to an early, albeit cruse, form of strategic bombing as fixed-wing aircraft still lacked the required ranges to reach Britain across the North Sea. The L.10 served as one such German military Zeppelin. She exhibited the traditional tapered cigar shape with stabilizing fins added to her aft section. Power was served through 4 x Maybach C-X series engines of 210 horsepower each which provided the airship with a maximum speed of 57 miles per hour and an operational range of 2,700 miles. Operating ceilings ranged up to 10,500 feet. These qualifications were adequate in the early part of the war where the airship could essentially out-climb an enemy interceptor. Dimensions included a running length of 536 feet, 6 inches, a diameter of 61 feet, 4 inches and a height of 79 feet, 4 inches - certainly a large and visible target. Maximum take-off weight was listed at 35,000lbs. Her typical operating crew was eighteen personnel and defense was through a collection of three or four machine guns. Her complete bomb load was 5,840lbs. First flight of L.10 was recorded on May 13th, 1915. L.10 served as her tactical designation while she carried the production designation of "LZ-40". L.10 served with the German Naval Airship Division and represented one of the early (and improved) "P-class" Zeppelin forms. She was involved in several air raids against Britain during her wartime career including one such mission on June 4th, 1915. On this sortie, the vessel was misguided by strong winds which sent her in the direction of Gravesend (east of London) where she ended up dropping her bombs. Such results proved all too common for airship raids and led to much random bombing, usually over civilian populations. As night time hours decreased over the summer months of 1915, airship raids were, in turn, curtailed to a certain extent - they presented obvious tempting targets in daylight hours. L.10 returned to Britain, this time at Tyneside, between June 15th/16th, to engage targets but, again, results were poor. On August 12th/13th, L.10 was involved in a four-strong airship raid over Harwich with better results - L.10 being the only airship to reach the intended target area. In an attack on the Lea Valley reservoirs on August 17th/18th, 1915, L.10 was once again put off course and ended attacking Leyton and Walthamstow resulting in the deaths of 10 persons with 48 injuries despite a threat from British interception aircraft and ground-based anti-aircraft fire. The service career of L.10 came to an abrupt end when, on September 3rd, 1915, the aircraft was struck by lightning in a storm over the North Sea. The vessel was forced to crash land which claimed the lives of all of her 19-man crew near Cuxhaven. Such ended the flying career of German Zeppelin L.10. In all, L.10 completed eight reconnaissance sorties over the North Sea and participated in five bombing missions against Britain. In these missions, she dropped a total of 1,984lbs (9,900kg) of ordnance. From a military standpoint, strategic bombing using Zeppelins led to very mixed results. They largely served a psychological purpose to showcase enemy civilians that no place was safe from the reach of the Germans, especially London. Bombing was rather indiscriminant and rarely led to the defined target being struck and night time results proved much poorer due to visibility - largely reliant on maps, memory and visual references. Conversely, interceptors and ground-based cannon fire found it difficult - if not impossible - to locate and engage enemy airships in the dark. Airship pilots had the added advantage of quick climbing and losing any attackers in clouds should the sky provide them - early aircraft required up to one hour to reach the required engagement altitudes. Where German Zeppelins proved their worth was in over-the-horizon reconnaissance, particularly of the North Sea, where airship commanders could work in unison with surface naval forces in locating enemy warships, convoys or minefields. Indeed, a large percentage of missions involved simple reconnaissance over strategic bombing of targets. The age of the wartime airship was further curtailed with the widespread adoption of incendiary ammunition which held a tendency to ignite the highly flammable hydrogen being used in German airships like the L.10. The only combined German Army/Navy air raid involving airships against London was on September 2nd/3rd, 1916 and this involved six Zeppelins. However, poor weather limited effectiveness of the raid and SL.11 lost to an intercepting British BE.2c. As losses mounted, the German Army gave up use of Zeppelins in February of 1917 while Navy use lingered on due to their usefulness in the reconnaissance role - ultimately enlisted some total 73 airships for service.Sacks for Cierra Mizzou lineman sacks for his sister. When Kony Ealy arrived at Mizzou in 2010 from New Madrid, Mo., he was a slight (for a defensive end) 215‐pounder waiting in the shadow of future NFL Pro Bowler Aldon Smith. Now
the side and huddle together. <3 minutes of silence.> <Wind noises suddenly become audible through suits.> Beta: Fuck! Alpha: Beta, get to the side! Beta: It's blowing goddamn sideways! There's no fucking vent so it can do that! Delta: There's a vent on a pipe. Look. Beta: FUCK! <A loud clang is heard through Beta's suit.> Beta: Guys, I'm on the fucking wires! Alpha: Grab onto one of the pipes and pull away from the cables- your suit's insulated, it'll hold- Beta: The wires are hot! They're burning through the fucking insulation! Alpha: Hold on! Beta: I can't fucking hold on, I'm- [Optical loop through Beta's suit severed. Vacuum line returns helium to base.] Gamma: Nielsen! Alpha: God fucking dammit! Delta: Let's fucking go! The wind's going down again! Gamma: Motherfucking pipes! <Four minutes of panicked breathing.> Alpha: Base, you there? Base: YES Alpha: We're heading out now. Beta's dead - wires burned right into her fucking suit and fried her. We've sealed the tube - is it working again? Base: YES Delta: The hallway's going left. It wasn't going that fucking direction when we came in here. Gamma: The tether's still leading down it, though. Alpha: Base, tighten the tether, would you? Base: OK Alpha: It's tight. Proceeding. <Six minutes of silence.> Alpha: The walls are changing. They aren't concrete any more, they're riveted steel, it looks like. Gamma: Painted matte olive drab. Alpha: There's another chamber up ahead. We have to go through it to get out. <One minute of silence.> Alpha: There's a fucking lake in here. It's goddamn deep and there are a shitload of pipes going into it. Delta: It's fucking huge - looks like it's a mile across. Halogen lights going all across the ceiling. Alpha: Base, I thought we were still inside the mountain. It's not this fucking big. Base: HOLD ON Base: YOU ARE IN MTN. 1200 MTRS TETHER OUT Delta: There are lights underwater. Look. Gamma: They're blue. Looks like - Looks like the lake is full of nuclear reactors. Gamma: That sample line's still working, right? Base: YES Gamma: Sending a water sample. <Two minutes pass.> Gamma: You got it yet? We've only got two days worth of air left. [Sample vial arrives at base, four minutes after it is expected to. Sample triggers radiation alarms upon arrival.] Base: GO GO GO - DANGER - SMPL HGH RADIOACTIVE Alpha: God fucking dammit, let's go! Follow the tether! <Three minutes of rapid breathing.> Alpha: Hold it. Gotta rest a moment. Gamma: Got it. Delta: Let's - AGH! <A clang is heard through the team's suits.> Alpha: What the FUCK?! Delta: I leaned on a goddamn pipe and it fell off the wall! Gamma: It's full of fucking mice! Alpha: Base, we've got mice. Mice from a pipe. Delta: Thousands and thousands of mice. Gamma: Goddamn mice pipe. Gamma: GODDAMN MICE! GODDAMN PIPE! <Several gunshots are heard through the team's suits.> Alpha: HOLD YOUR FUCKING FIRE, Gamma! Gamma: Fucking pipes! Delta: You hit that one over there - it's leaking. Gamma: Oh no. Alpha: Gamma, give me your sidearm. Gamma: Yes, sir. Alpha: There's some sort of white billowing cloud. Can't tell if it's gas or vapor. Alpha: We have to go forward. <Two minutes of silence.> Delta: Oh Christ, it's fucking cold. Liquid nitrogen or something. Alpha: Just get through it as fast as you can. Gamma: My suit's joints are icing over. Delta: Mine's fine - yours probably needed that outer layer. Gamma: Motherfucking pipes. Alpha: There are frozen mice all over the floor. <Two minutes of silence.> Gamma: I can't fucking bend my elbows. Alpha: Just keep going. <One minute of silence.> Gamma: Something just fell off my air pack - my air's getting colder. Delta: Mine's fine. Alpha: Looks like your tank's exposed - we gotta get you out of here. <One minute of silence.> Gamma: Guys, my lungs are fucking freezing, and my suit knees are getting stiff - Can you drag me if they freeze up? Alpha: We'll get you out of here, Gamma. <Two minutes of silence.> Gamma: Guys, my knees are stuck. I'm fall- <A crunching noise is heard.> Alpha: Fuck! Gamma! Delta: His visor's smashed. He's dead. Cut him loose. Alpha: God dammit! [Optical loop through Gamma's suit severed. Vacuum line receives hydrogen, cooled to near-cryogenic temperatures, for several seconds.] Alpha: Let's fucking get out of here. <Six minutes of silence.> Alpha: The hallway's doubling back. Delta: It's warmer here. Alpha: Here's the other end of that pipe Gamma knocked loose. Looks like it's empty. Delta: There's a whooshing noise coming out of it - must be pneumatic. Delta: God fucking dammit. Alpha: What did you do?! Delta: I didn't touch it! I leaned next to it and it started spewing mouse hair! Delta: Let's just get out of here. <28 minutes of silence.> Alpha: There's a bigger chamber here, and the pipes go into the wall again. Heading in. Alpha: The chamber is tall - looks like five or six stories. The walls are covered in what looks like asbestos halfway up. Delta: There's one pipe in here - sticking a short ways out of the ceiling. It ends after about half a meter. Delta: Shit - something just fell out. Alpha: Get back in the hall! <The sound of shattering glass is heard through the team's suits.> Alpha: What the fuck? Delta: Why? Why is this even here? Alpha: Base, it dropped a Mason jar full of yellow powder. Alpha: Gamma had the sample vials. We can't go back. Delta: I've got a film canister here. Alpha: Good thinking. Alpha: Sending sample. Base: OK <35 minutes of mostly silence, punctuated by shattering glass.> [Sample arrives, 33 minutes past expected arrival.] Base: RECEIVED - WAIT Base: SMPL IS 50 SULFUR 50 UNKNWN BIO SUBST Base: WAIT OK Alpha: That's fine - we can rest a while. [23 minutes pass while Base analyzes sample.] Base: DONE Base: OTHER 50 TREE POLLEN - COAST REDWOOD Alpha: Expected it would be something useless. Alpha: Let's go. Keep following the tether - it'll lead back eventually. <Twelve minutes of silence.> Alpha: All the pipes are headed back into the wall again. There's something on the wall up ahead. Alpha: It looks like the wall is covered almost floor to ceiling with open pipes. Alpha: Let's move forward and hope they don't cover us in slime or something. <Thirty seconds of silence.> Delta: Wait a moment. Delta: They're rifled! They're fucking gun barrels! Alpha: Oh, fuck! Run! Delta: They end up there! <Fifteen seconds of panicked breathing.> <Enormous amounts of automatic gunfire heard through both suits. Gunfire continues for approximately five minutes. Vacuum line begins leaking.> Delta: It's stopped. Base, can you hear me? I'm fucking deaf. Base: YES Delta: Alpha's dead - I can't even recognize his fucking suit. I'm the last one. Delta: There's five inches of lead stuck to the wall. Jesus Christ. Delta: I'm cutting him off now and sealing the tube. Delta: Base, am I close to getting out of here? [At this point, Base had withdrawn twelve kilometers of tether. At its maximum extension, it had spooled out 1400 meters. The extra tether was chemically and physically identical to the original tether material. This information was withheld from the final task force member to maintain morale.] Base: YES Delta: Thank god. Delta: Gonna keep going now. <Twelve minutes of silence.> Delta: There's another chamber up ahead. <30 seconds of silence.> Delta: Base. Base: YES Delta: The hallway ends here. Delta: There's one little pipe. In the middle of the floor, about three inches in diameter, five inches in length. Delta: My tether is going into it. Delta: My tether is going into a fucking pipe and I'm not getting out of here. Delta: Fuck it if I'm waiting for my air to run out and breathe in whatever there is now. Probably phosgene or xenon or something. Delta: I've got twelve rounds in my sidearm and I'm going to blow my fucking brains out before the ceiling can come down and crush me. Delta: I'm sending back my roll of film. Push it a stop when you develop it. Base: OK Base: SHORE YOU PERFORMED ADMIRABLY Base: WE ARE SORRY Delta: Doesn't make a difference anymore. Delta: Tell me when the film gets there and I'll cut the tether loose. Base: OK [Film canister arrives, four hours past expected arrival.] Base: SHORE THE FILM IS HERE Delta: Good. Delta: In my quarters, there's a locked box under the bed. The combination is 3589. Please deliver the note inside to my brother. Base: WE WILL Delta: Don't send anyone else in here. Use robots or something. Don't put any more people through this. I don't care if they're Ds – nobody deserves this. Delta: I'm going now. Not gonna let this place win. <A crunching sound is heard, followed by the sound of inrushing air, and a gunshot.>The money that people pay for using water is enough to cover only the operations of national water agency PUB and the depreciation of its water works, pipelines and water reclamation plants, Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat said yesterday. The annual surpluses PUB gets are transferred to its reserves to finance its plants and equipment, he told the House, addressing the issue of the water price hike that surfaced throughout the Budget debate. "The Government pays for part of the total cost of securing a safe and clean supply of water for our people and businesses," he added, as he underlined the strategic value of water and updated members on plans for investments in the water system. PUB intends to invest $4 billion on additional water infrastructure in the next five years. The sewerage network will be improved as well. A deep tunnel sewerage system, costing more than $4 billion, will be completed in 2025. Related Story See water price hike in perspective, says PM Lee Related Story 5 key questions on water Another $3 billion will be spent on other sewerage network projects, and to strengthen the resilience of the water supply, in the next five years. These expenses exceed the revenue from the water conservation tax, which is expected to be about $1.6 billion in the five-year period, he added. Over the past three days, MPs had voiced residents' concerns that business and living costs were expected to go up with the 30 per cent hike in water price, which will take effect in two phases, starting in July this year. Others, however, stressed that water is a precious resource as Singapore's existence hinges on it, and that the price of water should reflect its value. "Water sufficiency is a matter of national survival," Mr Heng said, as he noted how founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew "obsessed over water since the Separation Agreement". "Securing a sustainable water supply for Singapore has been an all- consuming pursuit of the Government since Independence. We lodged our water agreements with the United Nations, invested in a strong defence force and developed strong capabilities in water technologies," he added. "Singaporeans have enjoyed uninterrupted and high-quality drinking water through rainy weather and droughts alike. This is not mere good fortune or our birthright. Rather, it is the result of long-term planning, a can-do attitude, innovation and sound policy," he said. Mr Heng reiterated a point Environment and Water Resources Minister Masagos Zulkifli made on Tuesday, that the cornerstone of Singapore's policy on water is pricing it on sound economic principles to reflect its "long-run marginal cost" - that is, the cost of supplying the next available drop of water, which is likely to come from Newater and desalination plants. "This ensures that users will conserve water, and we can make timely investments in the water system," he said. Yesterday, Ms Sylvia Lim (Aljunied GRC) of the Workers' Party asked why a proposed carbon tax will be implemented only in 2019, but Singaporeans were not given a similar two-year notice for the increase in water price. Mr Heng said the carbon tax is new and it will take time to study carefully the details before rolling it out. "A more fundamental point is whether Ms Lim agrees that water is of strategic significance and that we should each do our part," he added.Credit: Jason Knight A compact press that turns plastic shopping bags into skateboards has been designed by a student at Brunel University London in a bid to tackle community litter and deforestation - and give kids a cheap new hobby. Over 300 million tons of plastic is produced globally each year, and while a large percentage of it can be recycled, much is simply trashed. Around 90% finds its way in to landfills, oceans, animal stomachs and our water supply. BA Industrial Design and Technology student Jason Knight, 22, believes that recycling could become a fun, more attractive, activity if the waste can be turned into something constructive for young people with a tangible personal reward as well as an environmental impact. Skateboard decks are traditionally made from plywood, most often taken from Canadian maple trees, and are one of the biggest causes of maple deforestation. Pro-skateboarders can go through dozens of decks a year, and young fans can find the cost of replacing their boards prohibitive. Jason hopes that independent skate shops and other local businesses could ultimately set up their own recycling centres, allowing people to use the machine with their own collected waste plastic. The waste plastic would gain a new purpose, and the personal cost of buying a new deck (typically around £40-£60) would be reduced. Credit: Jason Knight He began experimenting with recycling plastics two years ago, shredding and then melting down bags made from high-density polythene. Once heated to 130 degrees, the plastic becomes soft and malleable like clay and reduces in size as particles melt together. Sustained pressure moulds it into a solid object and, with air pockets removed, creates an incredibly strong material with a multi-coloured surface finish resembling marble. During a placement year as part of his course, Jason worked at Danis FabLab, FabLab RUC, developing a plastic shredding machine after realising the most time consuming part of the process was breaking down plastic bags by hand. He exhibited the shredder at a number of music and art festivals in 2016 and ran plastic recycling workshops, helping festival-goers melt and mould bags into hard plastic bottle openers. For his final year university project – set to be exhibited from 15-18 June as part of the annual Made in Brunel showcase – he designed an easy-to-use, compact, and relatively inexpensive press and a range of prototype boards. Experienced skateboarders have described the decks as more flexible than a wooden board but, when you get the hang of it, "you can ollie (jump) higher than with a wooden board, opening up new possibilities for tricks". Aesthetically, the boards "look incredible". "The fact that each board is unique is so cool, riders will be able to customise their decks with whatever colours they like," one user added. Credit: Jason Knight The final press is a self-contained heating and pressing machine, which includes safety lights to stop users burning themselves and a heating implement activated with a simple twist thermostat. Built from steel, the press weighs 200kg in total, stands around 6ft x 6ft, holds an aluminium mould, and is mounted on wheels. Before pressing a deck the inner faces of the mould are coated with a release agent, acting as a lubricant so the molten plastic spreads with as little effort as possible. It currently takes around two hours to heat the plastic required for one skateboard, but Jason plans to continue developing his design to speed things up. "It's been proven that there's a positive correlation between people interested in skateboarding and people interested in sustainability. Yet there's also this dated stigma going back to the origins of skateboarding subculture that considers skateboarders are a public nuisance," Jason explains. Credit: Jason Knight "I hope that this design, which could allow people to contribute to a local community by collecting waste while creating something really cool, might go some way in helping challenge that stigma." Explore further: Why you're almost certainly wasting time rinsing your recycling More information: Made in Brunel is a student led collaborative platform focused on showcasing good design from Brunel University London. The Made in Brunel exhibition runs from 15 – 18 June 2017 (11am-6pm) at the Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf, London. Free tickets can be booked at madeinbrunel.com Follow @madeinbrunel for more information and updatesExclusive: Official Washington’s neocons love to condemn President Obama for not enforcing his “red line” after a sarin attack in Syria in 2013, even though one neocon now admits that U.S. intelligence lacked the proof, writes Robert Parry. By Robert Parry Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic has penned an opus on President Barack Obama’s foreign policy which starts with a long segment dissecting Obama’s supposed failure to enforce his “red line” against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad using sarin gas to kill hundreds of civilians outside Damascus on Aug. 21, 2013. For Official Washington’s foreign-policy elite, Obama’s flinching from a bombing campaign against Assad was a historical inflection point for which Obama deserves hearty condemnation. But if you read far enough into this story of Obama’s “feckless” behavior, you encounter a curious admission from Goldberg: that U.S. intelligence was unsure whether Assad was responsible for the attack. As Goldberg writes, “Obama was … unsettled by a surprise visit early in the week from James Clapper, his director of national intelligence, who interrupted the President’s Daily Brief, the threat report Obama receives each morning from Clapper’s analysts, to make clear that the intelligence on Syria’s use of sarin gas, while robust, was not a ‘slam dunk.’ “He chose the term carefully. Clapper, the chief of an intelligence community traumatized by its failures in the run-up to the Iraq War, was not going to overpromise, in the manner of the onetime CIA director George Tenet, who famously guaranteed George W. Bush a ‘slam dunk’ in Iraq.” What I was told by intelligence sources at the time was that the evidence against Assad was anything but a slam dunk. It was not even “robust,” as Goldberg insists. There were serious doubts among intelligence professionals about many of the “certainties” that Official Washington’s neocon-dominated foreign policy establishment had quickly accepted as true about the sarin attack, blaming Assad. In the face of that “group think,” Clapper surely did not want to go too much against the grain – he’s far too timid a bureaucrat for that – but his analysts were balking at once again being pushed into justifying another hasty war. This resistance from the U.S. intelligence community should have been easy to spot, except that the neocons were whipping Official Washington into another war stampede. They saw the sarin attack as the catalyst for another “regime change,” so the last thing they wanted was a sober analysis of the evidence. They wanted a “group think” to take hold and to bait a reluctant Obama into action by portraying him as a wimp if he didn’t start bombing right away. Rush to War The neocon strategy almost worked. Across Official Washington and the mainstream U.S. news media, there was a classic rush to judgment. However, when Secretary of State John Kerry made a bellicose case for war on Aug. 30, 2013, and released a supporting “government assessment,” what was most remarkable to me was that there was not a shred of verifiable evidence implicating Assad. Indeed, it made little sense that Assad would have launched a sarin attack when United Nations inspectors had just arrived in Damascus to examine suspected chemical weapons cases that Assad was blaming on jihadist rebels. The fact that Kerry had to rely on a new confection, called a “government assessment” prepared by political operatives rather than the traditional “intelligence assessment” expressing the consensus judgment of the 16 intelligence agencies, was a further tip-off that the U.S. intelligence community was not onboard. After Kerry’s speech, I reported on the startling lack of evidence in the “dodgy dossier.” So, on Aug. 31, 2013, when Obama began to back away from the rush to war, the President deserved praise for showing reasonable caution. After all, what sense would it make to punish the Syrian government for launching a sarin attack if, in reality, the atrocity was carried out by someone else, in this case, one of the radical jihadist groups trying to trick the U.S. government into intervening in the war on their side? It’s now clear that if Obama had launched a major bombing campaign against the Syrian military, he might have inadvertently cleared a path for Al Qaeda’s Nusra Front or the Islamic State to seize control of Damascus, touching off an even more devastating human catastrophe. But “regime change” in Syria was a neocon obsession, even if it carried the risk of terrorist groups gaining control of a major Middle Eastern nation. In the weeks and months after the sarin attack, the case against Assad continued to crumble. The U.N. inspectors recovered only one rocket carrying sarin and it was incapable of traveling the distance that would have indicated that it was fired by the Syrian military. Then, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh reported in 2014 that intelligence officials had traced the attack to radical jihadists in apparent collaboration with Turkish intelligence. More recently, I’ve been told that U.S. intelligence now agrees with Hersh’s reporting. In other words, Clapper’s recognition that there was no “slam dunk” case implicating Assad has been vindicated by subsequent evidence. But Official Washington’s foreign-policy elite simply can’t accept these findings, instead maintaining the myth that Assad flouted Obama’s “red line” and that Obama lost his nerve and thus undermined U.S. “credibility.” This myth is so beloved among neocons and their liberal-interventionist allies that it can’t be surrendered regardless of its lack of evidentiary support. After all, admitting that another neocon “group think” was dangerously misguided – after the Iraq War WMD fiasco – might finally topple some of these self-important pundits from their endowed think-tank chairs. Americans might finally recognize that these pompous know-it-alls are really just vacuous know-nothings. So, instead of an article praising Obama for his realism and restraint – for demanding hard evidence before launching another U.S. war in the Middle East – we get Jeffrey Goldberg’s opus analyzing why Obama chickened out on the “red line” and how that failure has impaired U.S. foreign policy.Menil Picasso vandal gets 2 years in prison Pablo Picasso painted "Woman in a Red Armchair" in 1929. A vandal damaged the work in June at the Menil, where it underwent several months of restoration. Pablo Picasso painted "Woman in a Red Armchair" in 1929. A vandal damaged the work in June at the Menil, where it underwent several months of restoration. Photo: Hickey-Robertson Photo: Hickey-Robertson Image 1 of / 28 Caption Close Menil Picasso vandal gets 2 years in prison 1 / 28 Back to Gallery A Houston college student pleaded guilty Tuesday to vandalizing a Picasso painting at the Menil museum last year in exchange for two years in prison. Because Uriel Landeros, 22, has been in jail for five months since surrendering to authorities in January, he may be paroled as soon as he goes to prison, his lawyer said. RELATED: Dominique de Menil changed Houston, one art treasure at a time "He was happy with the deal," said Emily Detoto. "With five months credit, he may just go in to get classified and immediately be paroled." She said he did not want to be on probation because he is an artist trying to finish his college career at the University of Houston while traveling for art shows. Landeros was charged with graffiti with damage costing between $20,000 and $100,000 and criminal mischief, both of which are third-degree felonies with a punishment ranging from two to 10 years behind bars, after spray-painting Picasso's "Woman in a Red Armchair" at the Menil Collection on June 13. A cellphone video taken by a museum patron showed Landeros spray-painting a stencil of a bullfighter killing a bull and the word "conquista" - Spanish for "to conquer." The 1929 masterpiece is valued at several million dollars and has since been restored. After fleeing to Mexico, Landeros posted a video himself, saying he did not intend to destroy the painting. RELATED: Lindy Lou Layman, accused of destroying Tony Buzbee's Andy Warhol art, challenges charges "I did this to turn heads," he said in the video, "to raise awareness. … I am sorry for insulting anybody who misunderstood my message." In January, he turned himself in and has been in the Harris County Jail since then. Detoto said Landeros decided to plead guilty to graffiti as long as the criminal mischief charge was dropped. "As an artist, he believes what he did was art, if not making a statement," Detoto said. "There was no way he was going to plead guilty to criminal mischief." Landeros' family was in state District Judge Vanessa Velasquez's courtroom to support the artist, Detoto said.The Toronto Maple Leafs announced Wednesday that the team has trimmed their training camp roster to 46 players. The Leafs current training camp roster includes a total of 26 forwards, 15 defencemen and five goaltenders. An updated training camp roster can be found in the attached file. The following four players have been released from training camp and reassigned to the Toronto Marlies, who open camp September 28: Casey Bailey, Frederik Gauthier, Brendan Leipsic and Josh Leivo. The following three players have been reassigned to their respective junior teams: Travis Dermott (Erie), Andrew Nielsen (Lethbridge) and Dmytro Timashov (Quebec). The Maple Leafs continue their preseason schedule on Friday night when they play host to the Buffalo Sabres at Air Canada Centre. Training camp resumes tomorrow at MasterCard Centre with practice beginning at 10 a.m.Folks who see equality as a good thing readily agree that gender roles are discriminatory and oppressive. Despite this, it appears that many people have difficulty applying this knowledge to everyday situations. Perhaps this is because it’s far easier to agree with concepts when they’re presented as straightforward and conciliatory rather than as confrontational or requiring critical analysis. Acknowledging the harm caused by gender roles often incites derision and dismissal, which speaks to the reality that these tropes are status quo. They’re so ingrained in our culture that overcoming them is a constant struggle. Gender roles stretch across the globe and dictate not only how females should behave but also how males should behave. The key difference, however, is that whereas males are punished for non-conforming, females are both punished for non-conforming and made to be subordinate when we conform through a host of expectations designed to make us passive and submissive. No matter what we do we’re set up to fail because not only are we never dominant like males are, but we’re never even equal in the gender hierarchy. Patriarchy is the most oppressive system in the world. Save for whatever minute percentage of people who might live in matriarchal or equal circumstances, patriarchy controls everyone, impacts everyone negatively, and subordinates half of the world’s population. When we throw in the additional trauma of discrimination based on race, age, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, and every other form of oppression, it’s a miracle that people who are marginalized and oppressed multiple times over are so resilient. Children have a tough time trying to make sense of this when they realize that the things they’re supposed to like and do don’t always match up to their own interests and personalities. They don’t yet have the experience or analytical tools to understand that there isn’t anything wrong with them and that the source of this cognitive dissonance is a system that was deliberately concocted well before they were born. This is mass psychological torture. It’s not up to kids to figure this out. It’s up to parents, teachers, relatives, and other adults. This is not a personal problem, a family dispute, or an identity crisis first and foremost. It’s a social issue. A moral issue. Yesterday, it was reported in the news that a seven-year-old child was banned from using the girls’ washroom at a Catholic school in Edmonton, Alberta. The child identifies as a transgender girl. The parents say they knew from the beginning that something was different about their child… “As soon as she could speak, she would articulate that she is a female and would gravitate towards feminine objects,” the mother said. “I just told my mom I felt like a girl,” the seven-year-old recalled. That’s when her parents say they knew their child wasn’t “a boy who liked girl toys — she was a girl who had a penis.” This is where I have to call a time out. What exactly is meant by feminine objects? Females have specific sex characteristics, so it makes sense to describe females and their unique physiology as feminine; but how are inanimate objects feminine? What about them is in any way female – or male, for that matter? For example, in an episode of Food Network’s Southern at Heart, Damaris Phillips describes her coconut lavender macaroons as feminine. On its face this statement doesn’t make any sense but the viewer understands what’s implied; something about these cookies reminds her of abstract qualities she associates with the female sex. This is the essence of gender and it’s where the problem starts. It seems highly tenuous that an individual at the age of seven is at a stage in their life where they can elucidate the difference between being a boy who likes “girl toys” and actually being a girl. Children as young as four years old are now being asked to declare their gender identity. So what does it mean to think or feel like a boy or a girl, exactly? How does a boy who is learning to speak know enough about language – about anything – to know that they’re in fact a girl? Surely we should approach cases of potential gender dysphoria in children with extreme caution given their lack of maturity. I don’t know that anyone should be comfortable trusting the judgement of a child on a subject so complex it makes the heads of educated adults spin. I’ve thought about what I would do if this were my child. Here’s what I’m thinking. A boy who likes stereotypically “feminine” things or has stereotypical “feminine” qualities is simply a boy who doesn’t conform to how society has decided boys are supposed to be. That doesn’t make him female. Associating traits like sensitivity or vivaciousness and an interest in dresses, pretty things, dance, soft colours, dolls, etc. with being female does nothing except reinforce gender stereotypes. There is absolutely no logical basis for associating the things our society identifies as feminine to the condition of being female. Being female means being a member of the female sex and no doctor will deny that being a member of the female sex means having a female anatomy, which necessarily involves primary and secondary female sex characteristics, and absolutely includes a vagina. Whether any given female can become pregnant is irrelevant; a properly functioning reproductive system is required for pregnancy and gestation and any human being who’s ever been born was given birth to by a female. Being female cannot mean having a penis. Of course, no one is disputing that the child is of the male sex, so what we’re left with is the question of what their gender is. While sex and gender are often conflated, they are separate concepts. This is where what is considered controversial to some people is simple for others. If you believe that there is in fact no basis for thinking that being male must involve expressing a prescribed masculinity and being female must involve expressing a prescribed femininity, then you are gender critical. While gender criticism is often described as a central element of radical feminism (radical feminists are gender abolitionists, to be more precise), it’s also key to feminism at large because it’s impossible to challenge sexism without challenging gender stereotypes. It’s one thing to acknowledge that discrimination against females exists but in order to challenge this discrimination we need to understand how and why it manages to organize different cultures, geographies, classes, and generations. In order for an ideology to endure so many barriers of time and space it must consist of a subliminal and self-perpetuating set of beliefs. Every oppressive system assigns unequal value to different groups of people. This requires that we develop a set of attitudes and assumptions about them that serve to make them unworthy relative to another group. At the same time, these people, should they use their voice or exercise any degree of autonomy or power, are seen as a threat and are summarily ignored, silenced, threatened, harmed, and murdered. How else can we explain white American police officers killing black women and men in cold blood and in plain view time and time again? How else can we explain the alarming number of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in Canada, which Stephen Harper shrugged off as not “really high on our radar”, the blame for which indigenous men are expected to shoulder all on their own with no consideration of the effects of colonial patriarchy? How else can we explain why discrimination persists despite the fact that many people who discriminate do so unintentionally and unknowingly? Patriarchy, like white supremacy, only requires that people with privilege go about their daily lives. That’s why even those who are aware of these systems and try to avoid contributing to them end up making mistakes. This is what it means for oppression to be systemic. To be systemic is to be effective. Growing up, I was very close to my older brother and was surrounded by boys more so than girls. This influenced my taste in music, my language, my sense of physicality, etc. I did all sorts of “masculine” things as well as “feminine” things and it never once crossed mine or my parents’ mind that this called into question my identity as a girl or a female. I have no doubt that the males who surrounded me rubbed off on me but they weren’t the way they were because of something innate. It was because they were raised to be that way from infancy as a result of the school curriculum, teachers, spiritual leaders, parents, friends’ parents, advertizing, books, movies, etc. It’s telling that this process actually hedged the female socialization that I was simultaneously subjected to. I also have a mother who exhibited femininity in many ways, but not consistently – and this didn’t escape my notice. My mom could be fairly tough with me and I saw that she was brave, outspoken, and did the same hard labour as her male co-workers. She told me about some of the misogynistic things they would say and do. It’s no wonder we’ve always shared a love of Bette Davis movies. Overall, the message was clear: never let people push you around and never let a man tell you that you’re inferior. I wouldn’t be the strong, independent woman I am today if I hadn’t had her example to follow. Not long ago, I was taking a walk with my aunt, her 10 year old daughter, and two male cousins of around the same age. As she watched them my aunt said to me, “Boys and girls are so different.” I responded, “That’s because we tell them they are.” Silence followed. Later that evening I was teasing her husband and my brother for comparing their scars, which they seemed to think were badges of honour. To me, they just looked like reminders of stupidity. I remarked that they were lucky they didn’t have to go through the shit women do, neither through stupidity nor by choice, simply for being born with a reproductive system destined to hemorrhage every month unless it was transformed (usually accidentally) into an incubator that would eject a baby way too big for the hole it’s supposed to come out of. Whatever the method of delivery, I added, a woman gets ripped open, leaving a scar that will rival anything they can dream of bragging about. At this point my younger cousin – bless her heart – added that girls have to suffer the job of doing their hair and make-up too. “That’s your choice!” my brother countered. And therein lies the difference between sex and gender. Femininity and masculinity are arbitrary social constructs. Each of us should be free to express whatever traits come naturally to us without having to worry about how they supposedly relate to our anatomy. If we’re really concerned about equality and the well-being of children who will become adults who make important decisions, this is what we need to teach them. Going back to the article about the transgender child: The family has found an ally in Catholic school trustee Patricia Grell, who has publicly criticized the administration’s decision. “I’m really worried about the impact of this stance we’ve taken on that child,” Grell said. “I’m very worried about that child’s mental health and wellbeing.” I’m worried too. I’m worried that adults can’t seem to let children like what they like and act how they act regardless of their sex and leave it at that. There’s nothing wrong with these kids. They don’t need to change. Our society does.By By JohnThomas Didymus Nov 29, 2011 in World The United States is building a fence stretching about 300 feet out into the Pacific to stop illegal Mexican immigrants from taking advantage of the low tide to cross into Southern California. According to Michael Gimenez, a border patrol officer, "the project we are working on is to
uggy industry out of existence. The difficulty with supposing that automation is producing unemployment is that automation isn't new, so how can you use it to explain this new phenomenon of increasing long-term unemployment? Q. Maybe we've finally reached the point where there's no work left to be done, or where all the jobs that people can easily be retrained into can be even more easily automated. A. You talked about jobs going away in the Great Recession and then not coming back. Well, the Great Recession wasn't produced by a sudden increase in productivity, it was produced by... I don't want to use fancy terms like "aggregate demand shock" so let's just call it problems in the financial system. The point is, in previous recessions the jobs came back strongly once NGDP rose again. (Nominal Gross Domestic Product - roughly the total amount of money being spent in face-value dollars.) Now there's been a recession and the jobs aren't coming back (in the US and EU), even though NGDP has risen back to its previous level (at least in the US). If the problem is automation, and we didn't experience any sudden leap in automation in 2008, then why can't people get back at least the jobs they used to have, as they did in previous recessions? Something has gone wrong with the engine of reemployment. Q. And you don't think that what's gone wrong with the engine of reemployment is that it's easier to automate the lost jobs than to hire someone new? A. No. That's something you could say just as easily about the 'lost' jobs from hand-weaving when mechanical looms came along. Some new obstacle is preventing jobs lost in the 2008 recession from coming back. Which may indeed mean that jobs eliminated by automation are also not coming back. And new high school and college graduates entering the labor market, likewise usually a good thing for an economy, will just end up being sad and unemployed. But this must mean something new and awful is happening to the processes of employment - it's not because the kind of automation that's happening today is different from automation in the 1990s, 1980s, 1920s, or 1870s; there were skilled jobs lost then, too. It should also be noted that automation has been a comparatively small force this decade next to shifts in global trade - which have also been going on for centuries and have also previously been a hugely positive economic force. But if something is generally wrong with reemployment, then it might be possible for increased trade with China to result in permanently lost jobs within the US, in direct contrast to the way it's worked over all previous economic history. But just like new college graduates ending up unemployed, something else must be going very wrong - that wasn't going wrong in 1960 - for anything so unusual to happen! Q. What if what's changed is that we're out of new jobs to create? What if we've already got enough hot dog buns, for every kind of hot dog bun there is in the labor market, and now AI is automating away the last jobs and the last of the demand for labor? A. This does not square with our being unable to recover the jobs that existed before the Great Recession. Or with lots of the world living in poverty. If we imagine the situation being much more extreme than it actually is, there was a time when professionals usually had personal cooks and maids - as Agatha Christie said, "When I was young I never expected to be so poor that I could not afford a servant, or so rich that I could afford a motor car." Many people would hire personal cooks or maids if we could afford them, which is the sort of new service that ought to come into existence if other jobs were eliminated - the reason maids became less common is that they were offered better jobs, not because demand for that form of human labor stopped existing. Or to be less extreme, there are lots of businesses who'd take nearly-free employees at various occupations, if those employees could be hired literally at minimum wage and legal liability wasn't an issue. Right now we haven't run out of want or use for human labor, so how could "The End of Demand" be producing unemployment right now? The fundamental fact that's driven employment over the course of previous human history is that it is a very strange state of affairs for somebody sitting around doing nothing, to have nothing better to do. We do not literally have nothing better for unemployed workers to do. Our civilization is not that advanced. So we must be doing something wrong (which we weren't doing wrong in 1950). Q. So what is wrong with "reemployment", then? A. I know less about macroeconomics than I know about AI, but even I can see all sorts of changed circumstances which are much more plausible sources of novel employment dysfunction than the relatively steady progress of automation. In terms of developed countries that seem to be doing okay on reemployment, Australia hasn't had any drops in employment and their monetary policy has kept nominal GDP growth on a much steadier keel - using their central bank to regularize the number of face-value Australian dollars being spent - which an increasing number of influential econbloggers think the US and even more so the EU have been getting catastrophically wrong. Though that's a long story.[1] Germany saw unemployment drop from 11% to 5% from 2006-2012 after implementing a series of labor market reforms, though there were other things going on during that time. (Germany has twice the number of robots per capita as the US, which probably isn't significant to their larger macroeconomic trends, but would be a strange fact if robots were the leading cause of unemployment.) Labor markets and monetary policy are both major, obvious, widely-discussed candidates for what could've changed between now and the 1950s that might make reemployment harder. And though I'm not a leading econblogger, some other obvious-seeming thoughts that occur to me are: * Many industries that would otherwise be accessible to relatively less skilled labor, have much higher barriers to entry now than in 1950. Taxi medallions, governments saving us from the terror of unlicensed haircuts, fees and regulatory burdens associated with new businesses - all things that could've plausibly changed between now and the previous four centuries. This doesn't apply only to unskilled labor, either; in 1900 it was a lot easier, legally speaking, to set up shop as a doctor. (Yes, the average doctor was substantially worse back then. But ask yourself whether some simple, repetitive medical surgery should really, truly require 11 years of medical school and residency, rather than a 2-year vocational training program for someone with high dexterity and good focus.) These sorts of barriers to entry allow people who are currently employed in that field to extract value from people trying to get jobs in that field (and from the general population too, of course). In any one sector this wouldn't hurt the whole economy too much, but if it happens everywhere at once, that could be the problem. * True effective marginal tax rates on low-income families have gone up today compared to the 1960s, after all phasing-out benefits are taken into account, counting federal and state taxes, city sales taxes, and so on. I've seen figures tossed around like 70% and worse, and this seems like the sort of thing that could easily trash reemployment.[2] * Perhaps companies are, for some reason, less willing to hire previously unskilled people and train them on the job. Empirically this seems to be something that is more true today than in the 1950s. If I were to guess at why, I would say that employees moving more from job to job, and fewer life-long jobs, makes it less rewarding for employers to invest in training an employee; and also college is more universal now than then. Which means that employers might try to rely on colleges to train employees, and this is a function colleges can't actually handle because: * The US educational system is either getting worse at training people to handle new jobs, or getting so much more expensive that people can't afford retraining, for various other reasons. (Plus, we are really stunningly stupid about matching educational supply to labor demand. How completely ridiculous is it to ask high school students to decide what they want to do with the rest of their lives and give them nearly no support in doing so? Support like, say, spending a day apiece watching twenty different jobs and then another week at their top three choices, with salary charts and projections and probabilities of graduating that subject given their test scores? The more so considering this is a central allocation question for the entire economy? But I have no particular reason to believe this part has gotten worse since 1960.) * The financial system is staring much more at the inside of its eyelids now than in the 1980s. This could be making it harder for expanding businesses to get loans at terms they would find acceptable, or making it harder for expanding businesses to access capital markets at acceptable terms, or interfering with central banks' attempts to regularize nominal demand, or acting as a brake on the system in some other fashion. * Hiring a new employee now exposes an employer to more downside risk of being sued, or risk of being unable to fire the new employee if it turns out to be a bad decision. Human beings, including employers, are very averse to downside risk, so this could plausibly be a major obstacle to reemployment. Such risks are a plausible major factor in making the decision to hire someone hedonically unpleasant for the person who has to make that decision, which could've changed between now and 1950. (If your sympathies are with employees rather than employers, please consider that, nonetheless, if you pass any protective measure that makes the decision to hire somebody less pleasant for the hirer, fewer people will be hired and this is not good for people seeking employment. Many labor market regulations transfer wealth or job security to the already-employed at the expense of the unemployed, and these have been increasing over time.) * Tyler Cowen's Zero Marginal Product Workers hypothesis: Anyone long-term-unemployed has now been swept into a group of people who have less than zero average marginal productivity, due to some of the people in this pool being negative-marginal-product workers who will destroy value, and employers not being able to tell the difference. We need some new factor to explain why this wasn't true in 1950, and obvious candidates would be (1) legal liability making past-employer references unreliable and (2) expanded use of college credentialing sweeping up more of the positive-product workers so that the average product of the uncredentialed workers drops. * There's a thesis (whose most notable proponent I know is Peter Thiel, though this is not exactly how Thiel phrases it) that real, material technological change has been dying. If you can build a feature-app and flip it to Google for $20M in an acqui-hire, why bother trying to invent the next Model T? Maybe working on hard technology problems using math and science until you can build a liquid fluoride thorium reactor, has been made to seem less attractive to brilliant young kids than flipping a $20M company to Google or becoming a hedge-fund trader (and this is truer today relative to 1950).[3] * Closely related to the above: Maybe change in atoms instead of bits has been regulated out of existence. The expected biotech revolution never happened because the FDA is just too much of a roadblock (it adds a great deal of expense, significant risk, and most of all, delays the returns beyond venture capital time horizons). It's plausible we'll never see a city with a high-speed all-robotic all-electric car fleet because the government, after lobbying from various industries, will require human attendants on every car - for safety reasons, of course! If cars were invented nowadays, the horse-and-saddle industry would surely try to arrange for them to be regulated out of existence, or sued out of existence, or limited to the same speed as horses to ensure existing buggies remained safe. Patents are also an increasing drag on innovation in its most fragile stages, and may shortly bring an end to the remaining life in software startups as well. (But note that this thesis, like the one above, seems hard-pressed to account for jobs not coming back after the Great Recession. It is not conventional macroeconomics that re-employment after a recession requires macro sector shifts or new kinds of technology jobs. The above is more of a Great Stagnation thesis of "What happened to productivity growth?" than a Great Recession thesis of "Why aren't the jobs coming back?"[4]) Q. Some of those ideas sounded more plausible than others, I have to say. A. Well, it's not like they could all be true simultaneously. There's only a fixed effect size of unemployment to be explained, so the more likely it is that any one of these factors played a big role, the less we need to suppose that all the other factors were important; and perhaps what's Really Going On is something else entirely. Furthermore, the'real cause' isn't always the factor you want to fix. If the European Union's unemployment problems were 'originally caused' by labor market regulation, there's no rule saying that those problems couldn't be mostly fixed by instituting an NGDP level targeting regime. This might or might not work, but the point is that there's no law saying that to fix a problem you have to fix its original historical cause. Q. Regardless, if the engine of re-employment is broken for whatever reason, then AI really is killing jobs - a marginal job automated away by advances in AI algorithms won't come back. A. Then it's odd to see so many news articles talking about AI killing jobs, when plain old non-AI computer programming and the Internet have affected many more jobs than that. The buyer ordering books over the Internet, the spreadsheet replacing the accountant - these processes are not strongly relying on the sort of algorithms that we would usually call 'AI' or'machine learning' or 'robotics'. The main role I can think of for actual AI algorithms being involved, is in computer vision enabling more automation. And many manufacturing jobs were already automated by robotic arms even before robotic vision came along. Most computer programming is not AI programming, and most automation is not AI-driven. And then on near-term scales, like changes over the last five years, trade shifts and financial shocks and new labor market entrants are more powerful economic forces than the slow continuing march of computer programming. (Automation is a weak economic force in any given year, but cumulative and directional over decades. Trade shifts and financial shocks are stronger forces in any single year, but might go in the opposite direction the next decade. Thus, even generalized automation via computer programming is still an unlikely culprit for any sudden drop in employment as occurred in the Great Recession.) Q. Okay, you've persuaded me that it's ridiculous to point to AI while talking about modern-day unemployment. What about future unemployment? A. Like after the next ten years? We might or might not see robot-driven cars, which would be genuinely based in improved AI algorithms, and would automate away another bite of human labor. Even then, the total number of people driving cars for money would just be a small part of the total global economy; most humans are not paid to drive cars most of the time. Also again: for AI or productivity growth or increased trade or immigration or graduating students to increase unemployment, instead of resulting in more hot dogs and buns for everyone, you must be doing something terribly wrong that you weren't doing wrong in 1950. Q. How about timescales longer than ten years? There was one class of laborers permanently unemployed by the automobile revolution, namely horses. There are a lot fewer horses nowadays because there is literally nothing left for horses to do that machines can't do better; horses' marginal labor productivity dropped below their cost of living. Could that happen to humans too, if AI advanced far enough that it could do all the labor? A. If we imagine that in future decades machine intelligence is slowly going past the equivalent of IQ 70, 80, 90, eating up more and more jobs along the way... then I defer to Robin Hanson's analysis in Economic Growth Given Machine Intelligence, in which, as the abstract says, "Machines complement human labor when [humans] become more productive at the jobs they perform, but machines also substitute for human labor by taking over human jobs. At ﬁrst, complementary eﬀects dominate, and human wages rise with computer productivity. But eventually substitution can dominate, making wages fall as fast as computer prices now do." Q. Could we already be in this substitution regime - A. No, no, a dozen times no, for the dozen reasons already mentioned. That sentence in Hanson's paper has nothing to do with what is going on right now. The future cannot be a cause of the past. Future scenarios, even if they seem to associate the concept of AI with the concept of unemployment, cannot rationally increase the probability that current AI is responsible for current unemployment. Q. But AI will inevitably become a problem later? A. Not necessarily. We only get the Hansonian scenario if AI is broadly, steadily going past IQ 70, 80, 90, etc., making an increasingly large portion of the population fully obsolete in the sense that there is literally no job anywhere on Earth for them to do instead of nothing, because for every task they could do there is an AI algorithm or robot which does it more cheaply. That scenario isn't the only possibility. Q. What other possibilities are there? A. Lots, since what Hanson is talking about is a new unprecedented phenomenon extrapolated over new future circumstances which have never been seen before and there are all kinds of things which could potentially go differently within that. Hanson's paper may be the first obvious extrapolation from conventional macroeconomics and steady AI trendlines, but that's hardly a sure bet. Accurate prediction is hard, especially about the future, and I'm pretty sure Hanson would agree with that. Q. I see. Yeah, when you put it that way, there are other possibilities. Like, Ray Kurzweil would predict that brain-computer interfaces would let humans keep up with computers, and then we wouldn't get mass unemployment. A. The future would be more uncertain than that, even granting Kurzweil's hypotheses - it's not as simple as picking one futurist and assuming that their favorite assumptions correspond to their favorite outcome. You might get mass unemployment anyway if humans with brain-computer interfaces are more expensive or less effective than pure automated systems. With today's technology we could design robotic rigs to amplify a horse's muscle power - maybe, we're still working on that tech for humans - but it took around an extra century after the Model T to get to that point, and a plain old car is much cheaper. Q. Bah, anyone can nod wisely and say "Uncertain, the future is." Stick your neck out, Yoda, and state your opinion clearly enough that you can later be proven wrong. Do you think we will eventually get to the point where AI produces mass unemployment? A. My own guess is a moderately strong 'No', but for reasons that would sound like a complete subject change relative to all the macroeconomic phenomena we've been discussing so far. In particular I refer you to "Intelligence Explosion Microeconomics: Returns on cognitive reinvestment", a paper recently referenced on Scott Sumner's blog as relevant to this issue. Q. Hold on, let me read the abstract and... what the heck is this? A. It's an argument that you don't get the Hansonian scenario or the Kurzweilian scenario, because if you look at the historical course of hominid evolution and try to assess the inputs of marginally increased cumulative evolutionary selection pressure versus the cognitive outputs of hominid brains, and infer the corresponding curve of returns, then ask about a reinvestment scenario - Q. English. A. Arguably, what you get is I. J. Good's scenario where once an AI goes over some threshold of sufficient intelligence, it can self-improve and increase in intelligence far past the human level. This scenario is formally termed an 'intelligence explosion', informally 'hard takeoff' or 'AI-go-FOOM'. The resulting predictions are strongly distinct from traditional economic models of accelerating technological growth (we're not talking about Moore's Law here). Since it should take advanced general AI to automate away most or all humanly possible labor, my guess is that AI will intelligence-explode to superhuman intelligence before there's time for moderately-advanced AIs to crowd humans out of the global economy. (See also section 3.10 of the aforementioned paper.) Widespread economic adoption of a technology comes with a delay factor that wouldn't slow down an AI rewriting its own source code. This means we don't see the scenario of human programmers gradually improving broad AI technology past the 90, 100, 110-IQ threshold. An explosion of AI self-improvement utterly derails that scenario, and sends us onto a completely different track which confronts us with wholly dissimilar questions. Q. Okay. What effect do you think a superhumanly intelligent self-improving AI would have on unemployment, especially the bottom 25% who are already struggling now? Should we really be trying to create this technological wonder of self-improving AI, if the end result is to make the world's poor even poorer? How is someone with a high-school education supposed to compete with a machine superintelligence for jobs? A. I think you're asking an overly narrow question there. Q. How so? A. You might be thinking about 'intelligence' in terms of the contrast between a human college professor and a human janitor, rather than the contrast between a human and a chimpanzee. Human intelligence more or less created the entire modern world, including our invention of money; twenty thousand years ago we were just running around with bow and arrows. And yet on a biological level, human intelligence has stayed roughly the same since the invention of agriculture. Going past human-level intelligence is change on a scale much larger than the Industrial Revolution, or even the Agricultural Revolution, which both took place at a constant level of intelligence; human nature didn't change. As Vinge observed, building something smarter than you implies a future that is fundamentally different in a way that you wouldn't get from better medicine or interplanetary travel. Q. But what does happen to people who were already economically disadvantaged, who don't have investments in the stock market and who aren't sharing in the profits of the corporations that own these superintelligences? A. Um... we appear to be using substantially different background assumptions. The notion of a'superintelligence' is not that it sits around in Goldman Sachs's basement trading stocks for its corporate masters. The concrete illustration I often use is that a superintelligence asks itself what the fastest possible route is to increasing its real-world power, and then, rather than bothering with the digital counters that humans call money, the superintelligence solves the protein structure prediction problem, emails some DNA sequences to online peptide synthesis labs, and gets back a batch of proteins which it can mix together to create an acoustically controlled equivalent of an artificial ribosome which it can use to make second-stage nanotechnology which manufactures third-stage nanotechnology which manufactures diamondoid molecular nanotechnology and then... well, it doesn't really matter from our perspective what comes after that, because from a human perspective any technology more advanced than molecular nanotech is just overkill. A superintelligence with molecular nanotech does not wait for you to buy things from it in order for it to acquire money. It just moves atoms around into whatever molecular structures or large-scale structures it wants. Q. How would it get the energy to move those atoms, if not by buying electricity from existing power plants? Solar power? A. Indeed, one popular speculation is that optimal use of a star system's resources is to disassemble local gas giants (Jupiter in our case) for the raw materials to build a Dyson Sphere, an enclosure that captures all of a star's energy output. This does not involve buying solar panels from human manufacturers, rather it involves self-replicating machinery which builds copies of itself on a rapid exponential curve - Q. Yeah, I think I'm starting to get a picture of your background assumptions. So let me expand the question. If we grant that scenario rather than the Hansonian scenario or the Kurzweilian scenario, what sort of effect does that have on humans? A. That depends on the exact initial design of the first AI which undergoes an intelligence explosion. Imagine a vast space containing all possible mind designs. Now imagine that humans, who all have a brain with a cerebellum, thalamus, a cerebral cortex organized into roughly the same areas, neurons firing at a top speed of 200 spikes per second, and so on, are one tiny little dot within this space of all possible minds. Different kinds of AIs can be vastly more different from each other than you are different from a chimpanzee. What happens after AI, depends on what kind of AI you build - the exact selected point in mind design space. If you can solve the technical problems and wisdom problems associated with building an AI that is nice to humans, or nice to sentient beings in general, then we all live happily ever afterward. If you build the AI incorrectly... well, the AI is unlikely to end up with a specific hate for humans. But such an AI won't attach a positive value to us either. "The AI does not hate you, nor does it love you, but you are made of atoms which it can use for something else." The human species would end up disassembled for spare atoms, after which human unemployment would be zero. In neither alternative do we end up with poverty-stricken unemployed humans hanging around being sad because they can't get jobs as janitors now that star-striding nanotech-wielding superintelligences are taking all the janitorial jobs. And so I conclude that advanced AI causing mass human unemployment is, all things considered, unlikely. Q. Some of the background assumptions you used to arrive at that conclusion strike me as requiring additional support beyond the arguments you listed here. A. I recommend Intelligence Explosion: Evidence and Import for an overview of the general issues and literature, Artificial Intelligence as a positive and negative factor in global risk for a summary of some of the issues around building AI correctly or incorrectly, and the aforementioned Intelligence Explosion Microeconomics for some ideas about analyzing the scenario of an AI investing cognitive labor in improving its own cognition. The last in particular is an important open problem in economics if you're a smart young economist reading this, although since the fate of the entire human species could well depend on the answer, you would be foolish to expect there'd be as many papers published about that as squirrel migration patterns. Nonetheless, bright young economists who want to say something important about AI should consider analyzing the microeconomics of returns on cognitive (re)investments, rather than post-AI macroeconomics which may not actually exist depending on the answer to the first question. Oh, and Nick Bostrom at the Oxford Future of Humanity Institute is supposed to have a forthcoming book on the intelligence explosion; that book isn't out yet so I can't link to it, but Bostrom personally and FHI generally have published some excellent academic papers already. Q. But to sum up, you think that AI is definitely not the issue we should be talking about with respect to unemployment. A. Right. From an economic perspective, AI is a completely odd place to focus your concern about modern-day unemployment. From an AI perspective, modern-day unemployment trends are a moderately odd reason to be worried about AI. Still, it is scarily true that increased automation, like increased global trade or new graduates or anything else that ought properly to produce a stream of employable labor to the benefit of all, might perversely operate to increase unemployment if the broken reemployment engine is not fixed. Q. And with respect to future AI... what is it you think, exactly? A. I think that with respect to moderately more advanced AI, we probably won't see intrinsic unavoidable mass unemployment in the economic world as we know it. If re-employment stays broken and new college graduates continue to have trouble finding jobs, then there are plausible stories where future AI advances far enough (but not too far) to be a significant part of what's freeing up new employable labor which bizarrely cannot be employed. I wouldn't consider this my main-line, average-case guess; I wouldn't expect to see it in the next 15 years or as the result of just robotic cars; and if it did happen, I wouldn't call AI the 'problem' while central banks still hadn't adopted NGDP level targeting. And then with respect to very advanced AI, the sort that might be produced by AI self-improving and going FOOM, asking about the effect of machine superintelligence on the conventional human labor market is like asking how US-Chinese trade patterns would be affected by the Moon crashing into the Earth. There would indeed be effects, but you'd be missing the point. Q. Thanks for clearing that up. A. No problem. ADDED 8/30/13: Tyler Cowen's reply to this was one I hadn't listed: Think of the machines of the industrial revolution as getting underway sometime in the 1770s or 1780s. The big wage gains for British workers don’t really come until the 1840s. Depending on your exact starting point, that is over fifty years of labor market problems from automation. See here for the rest of Tyler's reply. Taken at face value this might suggest that if we wait 50 years everything will be all right. Kevin Drum replies that in 50 years there might be no human jobs left, which is possible but wouldn't be an effect we've seen already, rather a prediction of novel things yet to come. Though Tyler also says, "A second point is that now we have a much more extensive network of government benefits and also regulations which increase the fixed cost of hiring labor" and this of course was already on my list of things that could be trashing modern reemployment unlike-in-the-1840s. 'Brett' in MR's comments section also counter-claims: The spread of steam-powered machinery and industrialization from textiles/mining/steel to all manner of British industries didn’t really get going until the 1830s and 1840s. Before that, it was mostly piece-meal, with some areas picking up the technology faster than others, while the overall economy didn’t change that drastically (hence the minimal changes in overall wages). [1] The core idea in market monetarism is very roughly something like this: A central bank can control the total amount of money and thereby control any single economic variable measured in money, i.e., control one nominal variable. A central bank can't directly control how many people are employed, because that's a real variable. You could, however, try to control Nominal Gross Domestic Income (NGDI) or the total amount that people have available to spend (as measured in your currency). If the central bank commits to an NGDI level target then any shortfalls are made up the next year - if your NGDI growth target is 5% and you only get 4% in one year then you try for 6% the year after that. NGDI level targeting would mean that all the companies would know that, collectively, all the customers in the country would have 5% more money (measured in dollars) to spend in the next year than the previous year. This is usually called "NGDP level targeting" for historical reasons (NGDP is the other side of the equation, what the earned dollars are being spent on) but the most advanced modern form of the idea is probably "Level-targeting a market forecast of per-capita NGDI". Why this is the best nominal variable for central banks to control is a longer story and for that you'll have to read up on market monetarism. I will note that if you were worried about hyperinflation back when the Federal Reserve started dropping US interest rates to almost zero and buying government bonds by printing money... well, you really should note that (a) most economists said this wouldn't happen, (b) the market spreads on inflation-protected Treasuries said that the market was anticipating very low inflation, and that (c) we then actually got inflation below the Fed's 2% target. You can argue with economists. You can even argue with the market forecast, though in this case you ought to bet money on your beliefs. But when your fears of hyperinflation are disagreed with by economists, the market forecast and observed reality, it's time to give up on the theory that generated the false prediction. In this case, market monetarists would have told you not to expect hyperinflation because NGDP/NGDI was collapsing and this constituted (overly) tight money regardless of what interest rates or the monetary base looked like. [2] Call me a wacky utopian idealist, but I wonder if it might be genuinely politically feasible to reduce marginal taxes on the bottom 20%, if economists on both sides of the usual political divide got together behind the idea that income taxes (including payroll taxes) on the bottom 20% are (a) immoral and (b) do economic harm far out of proportion to government revenue generated. This would also require some amount of decreased taxes on the next quintile in order to avoid high marginal tax rates, i.e., if you suddenly start paying $2000/year in taxes as soon as your income goes from $19,000/year to $20,000/year then that was a 200% tax rate on that particular extra $1000 earned. The lost tax revenue must be made up somewhere else. In the current political environment this probably requires higher income taxes on higher wealth brackets rather than anything more creative. But if we allow ourselves to discuss economic dreamworlds, then income taxes, corporate income taxes, and capital-gains taxes are all very inefficient compared to consumption taxes, land taxes, and basically anything but income and corporate taxes. This is true even from the perspective of equality; a rich person who earns lots of money, but invests it all instead of spending it, is benefiting the economy rather than themselves and should not be taxed until they try to spend the money on a yacht, at which point you charge a consumption tax or luxury tax (even if that yacht is listed as a business expense, which should make no difference; consumption is not more moral when done by businesses instead of individuals). If I were given unlimited powers to try to fix the unemployment thing, I'd be reforming the entire tax code from scratch to present the minimum possible obstacles to exchanging one's labor for money, and as a second priority minimize obstacles to compound reinvestment of wealth. But trying to change anything on this scale is probably not politically feasible relative to a simpler, more understandable crusade to "Stop taxing the bottom 20%, it harms our economy because they're customers of all those other companies and it's immoral because they get a raw enough deal already." [3] Two possible forces for significant technological change in the 21st century would be robotic cars and electric cars. Imagine a city with an all-robotic all-electric car fleet, dispatching light cars with only the battery sizes needed for the journey, traveling at much higher speeds with no crash risk and much lower fuel costs... and lowering rents by greatly extending the effective area of a city, i.e., extending the physical distance you can live from the center of the action while still getting to work on time because your average speed is 75mph. What comes to mind when you think of robotic cars? Google's prototype robotic cars. What comes to mind when you think of electric cars? Tesla. In both cases we're talking about ascended, post-exit Silicon Valley moguls trying to create industrial progress out of the goodness of their hearts, using money they earned from Internet startups. Can you sustain a whole economy based on what Elon Musk and Larry Page decide are cool? [4] Currently the conversation among economists is more like "Why has total factor productivity growth slowed down in developed countries?" than "Is productivity growing so fast due to automation that we'll run out of jobs?" Ask them the latter question and they will, with justice, give you very strange looks. Productivity isn't growing at high rates, and if it were that ought to cause employment rather than unemployment. This is why the Great Stagnation in productivity is one possible explanatory factor in unemployment, albeit (as mentioned) not a very good explanation for why we can't get back the jobs lost in the Great Recession. The idea would have to be that some natural rate of productivity growth and sectoral shift is necessary for re-employment to happen after recessions, and we've lost that natural rate; but so far as I know this is not conventional macroeconomics.Days after her live-in partner was killed by the police in an antidrug operation in Bulacan province, a woman from Caloocan City was found dead — her body mutilated and bearing signs of torture — almost 500 kilometers away in Cagayan province. According to one of the relatives of Rodesa Imbat, 29, her body was already bloated when fished out of Cagayan River, the head wrapped in duct tape, the teeth pulled out, and one of the nipples sliced. ADVERTISEMENT Imbat also bore stab wounds in the arms and chest, said the relative, who agreed to talk to the Inquirer on Friday on the condition that she would remain unnamed. Imbat’s immediate family members positively identified the body based on her tattoo — “Klea” — which remained visible despite the onset of decomposition. They were able to bring her body back to Caloocan from Cagayan only on Saturday. Stab wounds The Cagayan provincial police director, Senior Supt. Warren Tolito, confirmed that a woman was found dead in the Cagayan River in Enrile town around 12:40 p.m. on Sept. 17. A postmortem examination noted three stab wounds on the left part of her chest and two stab wounds on the right arm, Tolito said. The body also bore a “Klea” tattoo on the torso. Imbat and her live-in partner Benedict “Ude” Resureccion, 37, were last seen alive when they left their Caloocan home together on Sept. 13, according to a statement posted by their relatives on Facebook on Sept. 16. The couple, they said, went to the apartment of Resureccion’s sister in San Jose del Monte (SJDM), Bulacan, to give her the invitation to the birthday of Klea, the couple’s daughter who was turning two years old on the 14th. Police report The relatives said they would later learn that “unidentified men” abducted Imbat after shooting Resureccion dead in that apartment. Resureccion’s wake is ongoing in Sapang Palay also in San Jose del Monte. ADVERTISEMENT But according to a spot report submitted to Supt. Fitz Macariola, the acting SJDM police chief, Resureccion was one of the two suspects killed in a buy-bust
computer systems, some of which ran code that was 30 years old. His predecessor Brian Pink had left at the start of 2014, warning in his final annual report that the Bureau had barely enough cash to "keep the lights on". When Pink arrived in 2007 the Bureau received $302 million in a non-census year. Seven years of growing expenses and relentless "efficiency dividends" later, it received scarcely any more, $312 million. Australian Statistician David Kalisch: After the census fiasco, there are doubts whether the ABS is even managerially up to the task of the plebiscite survey. Credit:Andrew Meares Pink had responded by axing or indefinitely postponing some of Australia's most loved surveys. One was the national time-use survey which records how Australians spend every 15 minutes. It hasn't been updated since 2006, before the arrival of the iPhone. Kalisch was interviewed for the $705,030 job at the start of 2014 but wasn't appointed until December, leaving the Bureau without a leader during a year in which it was meant to be fine-tuning Australia's first predominantly digital census. Bureau of Statistics head Duncan Young. Credit:SBS Tony Abbott and his treasurer Joe Hockey dithered because they didn't like the look of the candidate the selection committee had first recommended. Project Archer would deliver the census once every 10 years instead of five, directing the savings to buy new computers. To sell the idea, Kalisch had to diss the census. "There is a lot of, perhaps, misinformation about the value of census," he told a Senate hearing. "There is a sense in the community that a lot of the information is derived from the census, which is just not true." Assistant Treasurer Michael McCormack and the ABS chief statistician David Kalisch explain the census outage on Wednesday. Credit:Andrew Meares The primary purpose of the census is indeed prosaic – it is to count the number of people aged 18 and over in order to determine the shape of electorates. It's why politicians are particularly keen on keeping it, and why cancelling it was always a big ask. The government said no, and gave the Bureau an extra $235 million over five years in order to upgrade its computer system. But the census itself had to be cut-price, costing more like $200 million than the previous $300 million to $400 million. Work on the questions as good as stopped. Every five years there's an additional special-interest question. It's incredibly valuable real estate, fought over in the same way as the payload on a mission to space. In 2001 as Peter Costello was gearing up to replace John Howard as Australia's prime minister, he gave a speech about the "spirit of the volunteer" in an attempt to humanise himself. As treasurer, he instructed the ABS to make the 2006 special question about volunteering, even though it already collected more detailed statistics on volunteering in another survey. The Bureau reluctantly complied, and then when the Rudd government left it short of funds in the lead up to the 2011 census, left it in because it didn't have the money to devote to framing another question. By the lead up to this census it was short of money again and desperately short of time. It left in the ill-defined question for the third consecutive census. Directed to actually conduct the census, and keen to extract some value from it, Kalisch and his team revived an idea categorically ruled out by his predecessor. Pink had said no to retaining names. "It wasn't going to happen. I can tell you that," Pink said this week. "I always used to say to my people: you can't kill the goose that lays the golden egg, and the golden egg is the census. In my view, you only need 20 per cent of Australians who are concerned about security and you put the census at risk." When given the option of having their names and forms retained and stored in the archives for release a century later instead of being destroyed after processing, 39 per cent of Australians had said no. The immediate use of their names might have alarmed them more. Names had always been retained for a short time in order to eliminate duplicates and establish the relationship between household members, but destroyed after checks, usually well before 18 months. On October 19, Kalisch convened a meeting of his executive group. It agreed to conduct a privacy impact assessment into the permanent retention of names as well as exact addresses, which had also previously been destroyed after checking. Whereas in Pink's day the privacy impact assessment had been conducted externally, and had savaged the proposal, this one would be conducted in-house "consistent with our practice with data integration projects and leveraging the experience and knowledge we have built since 2005". Its publication along with a half-hearted endorsement from focus groups conducted by Colmar Brunton Social Research would be timed "to quickly follow" the release of the regular Trust in ABS survey which always produced impressive results. Appearing before the Senate economics committee two days later, Kalisch said nothing about the plan to retain names and addresses. He made a short statement to "update the committee about our census preparations". Things were "on track" and momentum was building. A few months earlier he he had told the committee things were coming along "beautifully". On December 8 the executive group considered the proposal in more detail. The ABS had published a statement of intent on its website on November 17, unreported in the mainstream press, and received just three responses, all negative, from what it termed "concerned private citizens". The internal privacy impact assessment had given it a tick. The Bureau had sent a minute to the office of the assistant minister to the treasurer Alex Hawke, appointed a few weeks earlier by the new Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. A report prepared for the meeting said it had been "noted". The Bureau wanted to build a reputation as Australia's "premier integrator of government data". If it couldn't retain names and addresses, potential users might see it as "unnecessarily constraining itself and therefore constraining whole-of-government data integration". "There are many administrative datasets that are likely to have considerable statistical value," the report said. "In addition to the personal income tax data which has already been used in data integration projects, future data integration projects could include the use of welfare payments data, Centrelink unemployment benefits data, Medicare and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme data, Australian Immunisation Register, the electoral roll, and other nationally important datasets." The report envisioned no limit on what the ABS could link and charge for, so long as the names and addresses themselves were kept within the ABS. Information from the census on ethnic or religious backgrounds could be linked to information from the immunisation register to work out what type of families on what types of incomes were the least likely to immunise. Criminal records could be linked to census records, if permission were given, to see what sort of Australians were convicted of what sort of crimes. Until that point the Bureau had mainly relied on "bronze" linkage – the rough linking of files using identifiers other than names and addresses. A move to "gold" linkage using names and addresses would get "maximum value for what is already one of the most valuable statistical assets the ABS holds". On the Friday before Christmas, the Bureau released an eight-paragraph statement deceptively titled ABS response to Privacy Impact Assessment. Once more unreported in the mainstream media, it said the Bureau would retain the names and addresses collected in the census "to provide a richer and dynamic statistical picture of Australia through the combination of census data with other survey and administrative data". In April, with the census imminent, after reports in Crikey and the Australian Financial Review, Kalisch backed down somewhat. Names would be kept for only four years, but the really useful linkage keys derived from them would still be kept indefinitely. One of Kalisch's predecessors, Bill McLennan described what was planned as "without doubt, the most significant invasion of privacy ever perpetrated on Australians by the ABS". "I am appalled that the ABS can think it can use the threat of prosecution to make me provide data that allows the ABS to set up what is, in effect, a statistical Australian Card," he wrote. As it moved to counter declarations by Crikey reporter Bernard Keane and high-profile politicians including Nick Xenophon that they would either not complete the census or not provide their names, the Bureau emphasised the $180 per day fines. They applied for each day the forms weren't complete, without limit. Although the Bureau was also careful to point out that they applied only after September 23, the main message received was that the forms had to be completed on census night itself, August 9. By 7.30pm, as millions of Australians tried to get online at once amid what may have been denial of service attacks, the system crashed and was taken down. It had been built by IBM for $9.6 million and load-tested by Revolution IT for $469,000. ABS robots, set up to automatically respond to tweets, encouraged Australians to continue to try to log on. Kalisch had said just the day before the Bureau was "ready" with the best security features for which "you could ever ask". Loading The new minister, Michael McCormack, in the job for mere weeks, at first couldn't get through to Kalisch. McCormack had been appointed after an embarrassing interlude in which there seemed to be no minister responsible. Hawke's position had been abolished and neither treasurer Scott Morrison nor financial services minister Kelly O'Dwyer had been given the job. A fortnight after being appointed small business minister McCormack was told it was his. Before the website went back online late Thursday Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull promised an inquiry after which he said "heads would roll".Jaipur: Scripting history, the fifth unit of the Rajasthan Atomic Power Station (RAPS) on Monday set a world record for continuous operation for 740 days. It broke the record of 739-day operation without a shutdown held by US-based LaSalle nuclear power plant. Notably, the United States and Canada had refused to give India the technology of nuclear power production. Under the Rajasthan Atomic Power Project (RAPP), two nuclear reactors were being installed in Rawatbhata with the help of Canada. After the nuclear bomb test in Pokhran in 1973, the nuclear trade links between Canada and India were curtailed and all Canadian engineers left the project in the midway. The second RAPP reactor was completed by Indian engineers without any Canadian assistance. "The 5th unit of the Rajasthan Atomic Power Station began commercial production at 1356 hours on August 2, 2012. At that time, it was thought that we would produce electricity nonstop for one year. As we achieved the set target, we decided to break the record of 539-day continuous operating run held by Kaiga Atomic Power Station. We not only this target as well, but also created a new record of nonstop operation for two years. Finally, we are ahead of the United States," Station Director Vinod Kumar told Bhaskar News. In November 2012, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) intensively audited over several weeks two reactors at the RAPS for safety. It has concluded that the reactors are among the best in the world, the indigenously made 220 MW atomic plants can withstand a Fukushima type of accident, even suggesting that the "safety culture is strong in India" and that India emerged a winner with a high global safety rank. In 1994, Pickering Unit 7 set a world record for continuous operation (894 days) without a shutdown, but it cannot be broken as permission to continue to operate for such a long period without a shutdown cannot be obtained because of international safety norms. The RAPS unit produced electricity worth Rs 1.8 crore per day. It means, the cost of electricity it produced so far stands at Rs 1330.20 crore. An estimated sum of Rs 1200 crore was spent on the unit. The fifth unit of the RAPS produces 50 percent of the total requirement of electricity in the state. Image: Fifth unit of Rawatbhata nuclear power stationIn the summer of 2010, our family of four made a decision that would transform our lives for the better though not for reasons we could have ever anticipated. After moving within a few blocks of the Commercial-Broadway Station the previous year and finding our car collecting dust in the garage, we ditched it. We made all our trips by foot, bicycle, transit and car-share for the rare instance that we needed to borrow one. article continues below This was solely a practical —not an ideological — decision. Living in a compact, walkable neighbourhood afforded us the luxury of having everything within a 20-minute walk or 10-minute bus ride. We quickly discovered both could be replaced with a five-minute bike ride. Above all, this put an extra $800 in our pockets each and every month, an incentive enabled by the transportation choices available in our city. This includes car-share, which ultimately convinced us to give up car ownership for good. Delitefully car-free Within months, we began documenting this newfound freedom, mobility and simplicity through the written word, photography and film. And over the past five years, this work has taken us places we never could have imagined as we garnered a global audience on social media and ended up speaking about the (many) triumphs and (few) challenges of our car-lite lifestyle in cities as far away as Auckland, New Zealand. It also formed the basis of Modacity, our fledgling communications firm that now works with transportation agencies across North America, including an impending documentary film series for the Arlington County Department of Transportation in Virginia. Bruntlett siblings, Coralie, 8, and Etienne, 6, ride ahead of their father who records a typical day in July, 2015 for the CBC with a GoPro camera attached to the handlebars of his bicycle. Of the incredible interest that fuelled this crazy adventure, we can only offer the following explanation: our followers are intrigued to view a liveable, life-sized city through the eyes of one (or four) of its users. This has turned our family’s unremarkable day-to-day existence into something truly remarkable, where the simple act of getting from A to B is a memorable, shareable and joyous experience. READ MORE: Different rules of the road apply to bicycles READ MORE: Freedom one reason women ride Never was this more apparent than when we were recently approached by the CBC to appear in an upcoming documentary for The National, their flagship nightly news and current affairs program. The concept was a simple one: “What if a Canadian city such as Vancouver, Toronto or Montreal invested hundreds of millions of dollars into bicycle infrastructure?” A film crew followed our family around for three days in July as we went about our daily routine and illustrated that very scenario to viewers: What would that investment look like “on the ground” for regular Canadian families? 20 by 2020 Despite recent gains in Vancouver, and a political mandate to continue replacing car trips with other transportation modes, our family remains an anomaly rather than the normality, even in the option-rich community of Grandview-Woodlands and its commercial epicentre, The Drive. With cycling in particular, city officials could do much, much more. They could be investing more than the measly $5 per citizen per year (in comparison, the Netherlands invests almost $50 per citizen per year). They also could be aiming higher than the current goal of a two per cent mode share increase — from five to seven per cent — by 2020 (benchmarking ourselves with Dallas, Mississauga and Atlanta). If you apply those two metrics to the wider Metro Vancouver region, you’ll see we’re falling further behind the rest of the world with each passing day. From a user perspective, conditions are incrementally improving but are far from ideal. While Vancouver does have an existing network of bike boulevards stretching across the city, they resemble an afterthought, relegated to residential side streets with very few amenities. When planning our route to the dance studio, supermarket or coffee shop, our family is constantly forced to choose between comfort and convenience or leave the bikes at home altogether, a worst-case scenario when our destination is located on Commercial Drive. Therein lies the problem: If families like ours don’t feel safe using the bicycle as a mode of transportation, they simply won’t. The CBC documentary also interviews Kay Teschke, a professor at the UBC School of Population and Public Health. Teschke argues that we could and should make a significant investment in bike infrastructure, as they did in Seville, a mid-sized Spanish city with roughly the same population as Vancouver. In 2009, city officials in Seville looked at an insignificant 0.2 per cent bicycle mode share and decided to do something about it. Over the next three years, they installed 140 kilometres of protected bike lanes. Vancouver built just six in the same period. That 0.2 per cent share quickly went to seven, and then nine, and now it’s 15 per cent of all trips. That’s an 11-fold increase in the number of bike trips, crowning Seville “The Cycling Capital of Southern Europe,” according to the Guardian. With similar bravado and vision in the next five years, Teschke believes Vancouver could easily grow its bicycle mode share to 20 per cent of all trips by 2020. Dude, where’s my car park? Near the end of the filming process with the CBC, an interview with journalist Ian Hanomansing reinforced the perceived downside of moving a family around town without four seats and a steering wheel. Those supposed impracticalities include, but certainly aren’t limited to, distance, weather, terrain, scheduling, safety and the ability to haul larger objects. In this screen shot provided by the CBC, Chris and Melissa Bruntlett sit down in their living room for an interview with journalist Ian Hanomansing on July 16, 2015. The national broadcaster followed the Vancouver family over three days for a documentary feature. To address each of these barriers, we reiterate that living car-lite isn’t black and white. There are plenty of grey areas. We are lucky enough to live in a city that provides us with myriad options, and — given sufficient planning and foresight — can get where we want without a car when practical and borrow one when necessary. One thing stood out from our interview. When discussing the possibility of installing protected bike lanes on major thoroughfares such as Broadway, Hanomansing immediately and rhetorically asked, “But where will I park my car?” Indeed, the expectation that every driver should be provided with cheap and convenient on-street parking has become the single biggest barrier to building a more liveable city. We feel entitled to a parking spot on the street directly outside our home, despite by-laws requiring each dwelling unit to supply an off-street space. We feel entitled to a parking spot directly outside a shop, despite ample spaces on side streets and nearby parkades. This attitude was beautifully illustrated in a September newspaper article "Jury is Still Out on Impact of Downtown Vancouver Bike Lanes." Mike Brascia stands beside the separated bike lane on Hornby street Sept. 9, 2014. Photo Arlen Redekop / PNG While designing the Hornby Street protected bike lane, city engineers completed a detailed parking assessment. For every on-street space removed for the bike lane, one was added to a nearby side street or parkade, resulting in no net parking loss. However, this didn’t stop Mike Brascia of Brascia’s Tailors & Menswear from posing for a, angrily gesturing at the missing parking spots on Hornby Street, seemingly unaware of the eight-storey parking garage directly above his right shoulder. If Mr. Hanomansing took one thing from the half hour we spent together on the morning of July 16, it was this: Our little family does not identify ourselves solely as “cyclists,” nor are we stubborn radicals trying to save the world. We choose the humble bicycle for the majority of our daily trips because it is by far the most practical, efficient and enjoyable way to get from A to B. More families like ours will choose the healthy act of cycling once our cities don’t just make it safe and convenient, but also make it delightful. The CBC feature will air later this year on The National. Chris and Melissa Bruntlett are the co-founders of Modacity and are inspired to live a happy life of urban mobility. Reach them at chris@modacitylife.comand melissa@modacitylife.com.A person who claimed that the operators of Grooveshark were engaged in systematic copyright infringement will keep his anonymity, a court has ruled. The allegations, which were made in the comments section of an online news article, prompted Grooveshark's parent company to unmask their author. They have now failed in that mission. In 2010, Universal Music Group (UMG) sued Grooveshark owners Escape Media in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, claiming that the company infringed their copyrights by storing and subsequently distributing tracks to which UMG holds the copyrights. In 2011, news site Digital Music News (DMN) published an article which contained claims from a member of a rock band that Grooveshark had illegally hosted the band’s music and refused to take it down when notified. The article attracted around 100 comments from DMN readers, one of whom claimed to be an employee of Escape Media. The commenter, who posted under the name “Visitor”, claimed that he had regularly received “direct orders from the top” at Escape to upload music to Grooveshark’s servers. Worse still, “Visitor” claimed that the company would not fully remove infringing content, even if artists or music labels complained. These allegations were viewed as problematic by Escape since in order for a service provider to gain immunity under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), it must remove copyrighted material once it becomes aware that an infringement has taken place. So, in an effort to unmask this supposed employee of theirs, in January 2012 Escape served a subpoena on Digital Music News in order to obtain “Visitor’s” identity. After DMN refused to comply, in March 2012 Escape petitioned the Los Angeles Superior Court for enforcement. DMN was subsequently ordered to comply but promptly filed an appeal. DMN argued that unmasking “Visitor” would not lead to the discovery of evidence admissible in UMG’s New York lawsuit against Escape (identifying information about “Visitor” had all been deleted) and that enforcement of the subpoena would infringe on the First Amendment rights of both DMN and “Visitor”. Ultimately the court decided that since Escape had presented a prima facie case that “Visitor’s” comments were libelous, no First Amendment protection was available. DMN was ordered to comply with the subpoena and provide a copy of its server to Escape. DMN copied the servers but lodged an appeal in attempt to avoid handing them over. This week the Court of Appeal of the State of California handed down its decision and it’s bad news for Escape. Escape had argued that proving “Visitor’s” comments to be false would help them show that the company did not supervise direct infringement of UMG’s copyrights. The Court rejected Escape’s basis for needing access to “Visitor’s” identity stating that this “out-of-court quarrel is of no consequence to the determination of UMG’s lawsuit.” Escape enjoyed no success on the privacy front either. “Even if Visitor’s identifying information was reasonably calculated to lead to admissible evidence, his or her right to privacy under the California Constitution would outweigh Escape’s need for the information,” the Court said. “That interest begins with Visitor’s need for a venue from which to be heard without fear of interference or suppression. Visitor’s anonymity also frees him or her from fear of retaliation, an even more compelling interest if Visitor truly is an Escape employee, as represented, because exposure could endanger not only his or her privacy but also livelihood.” The Court concluded with a summary of its opinion as to the value of “Visitor’s” comments. “Visitor has done nothing more than provide commentary about an ongoing public dispute in a forum that could hardly be more obscure — the busy online comments section of a digital trade newspaper,” the Court wrote. “Such commentary has become ubiquitous on the Internet and is widely perceived to carry no indicium of reliability and little weight. We will not lightly lend the subpoena power of the courts to prove, in essence, that Someone Is Wrong On The Internet.” With that the Court of Appeal ordered the trial court to vacate its order enforcing the subpoena and thereby protecting “Visitor’s” privacy.Frank Skrah Klamath County Sheriff Frank Skrah, addressing the news media last year in Klamath Falls, will go on trial Feb. 8, 2017, on nine misdemeanor charges. (Kevin N. Hume/The Herald and News via AP) (The Associated Press/2015) KLAMATH FALLS-- A February trial has been scheduled for a southern Oregon sheriff accused of assault and official misconduct. Sheriff Frank Skrah of Klamath County faces nine misdemeanor charges stemming from complaints that he roughed up suspects and failed to notify the owners of 30 privately owned mailboxes that the boxes were damaged by an on-duty deputy. The Herald and News reports Klamath County Judge Roxanne Osborne will preside over the trial that's scheduled to begin Feb. 8. Skrah pleaded not guilty and remains on the job. He is not seeking re-election. The charges stem from Skrah's dealings with three men, James Johnson, Kenneth Bragg and Jason Charles, according to The Oregonian/OregonLive. In three separate incidents, Skrah allegedly held a flashlight against Johnson's throat on Feb. 11, 2013; he allegedly hit Charles on Jan. 14, 2014; and prosecutors claim he choked Bragg on Feb. 27, 2015. Skrah, a former Los Angeles police officer and investigator for the California judicial department, was elected Klamath County sheriff in 2012, has denied any wrongdoing. -- The Associated PressFetal ultrasound screening has become routine practice in many western countries. During the last decade, such screening has led to frequent situations characterised by clinical uncertainty due to the disclosure of soft markers in the unborn child. Soft markers are minor anatomical variations indicating a somewhat increased likelihood that the fetus has a chromosomal aberration, most frequently trisomy 21 (Down syndrome). This paper presents the results of a comprehensive literature search of the National Library of Medicine with emphasis on the chronological development of scientific knowledge in relation to soft markers and the link between advancing imaging technology and clinical counselling dilemmas. An analysis of the literature makes evident that many ultrasound examiners have counselled individual pregnant women on the basis of insufficient data. Moral dilemmas have thus emerged as a direct result of advancing medical technology, and healthy fetal lives prove to have been lost due to invasive diagnostic testing aimed at resolving clinical uncertainty. Ultrasound examiners have warned against a policy of disclosing all findings of soft markers to expectant parents, but no exploration of experiential aspects linked to the disclosure of fetal soft markers has yet been published in the medical literature. The emotional reactions of mothers are important to consider given their potential impact on the biological development of the fetus. In conclusion, this paper stresses the need for paying close attention to the crucial distinction between technology development and technology implementation in relation to prenatal testing. Furthermore, it provides strong arguments for scrutinising the interface between prenatal testing and human experience.Jeremy Corbyn has today demanded “change” in the workplace for millions of people following high-profile scandals over the business practices of BHS and Sports Direct. The Labour leader said more than six million people earned less than the living wage and faced “insecure and stressful” work. He sought to tap into public outrage after parliamentary committees issued strong criticism of BHS, the failed department store once run by Sir Philip Green, and retailer Sports Direct, run by Mike Ashley. Corbyn said Corporation Britain “has to change” if it is to work for the majority of people in employment. “Even Theresa May understands she has to pay lip service to change in the workplace and the boardroom”, he wrote in The Observer. The same newspaper reported that Corbyn would overturn Blair-era union legislation to require companies with more than 250 staff to recognise a specific union with which they would bargain over pay. Corbyn also issued a stinging attack on Green, who ran BHS before selling it to former bankrupt Dominic Chapell. “Nowhere has the need for reform of corporate Britain been more cruelly exposed than at BHS. This was the goose that laid golden eggs for Sir Philip Green,” he wrote. “Knighted under Tony Blair, Green was appointed by David Cameron as his “tsar” for government efficiency. Green efficiently avoided his taxes, asset-stripped the company and left the government to pick up the pieces for 11,000 discarded workers and 20,000 worried pensioners. The former BHS owner will never know the insecurity faced by his ex-employees or millions of other workers legally exploited by bad bosses.” Green’s stewardship of BHS and its sale was branded as the “unacceptable face of capitalism”. The business man has pledged to “sort” the black hole in the pension fund. Ashley was heavily criticised by MPs over the working practices at Sports Direct’s warehouse and Shirebrook and has said he is now making changes.FARGO, N.D. – North Dakota State University completed its 2017 football schedule with the addition of Mississippi Valley State for the season opener Saturday, Sept. 2, at Gate City Bank Field at the Fargodome.Additionally, NDSU and Eastern Washington have moved their game to Saturday, Sept. 9, in Cheney, Wash., from the originally scheduled date of Sept. 16. The Bison will have a bye on Sept. 16 before hosting Robert Morris (Pa.) on Sept. 23.NDSU and Mississippi Valley State, from the Southwestern Athletic Conference, have met twice previously in a 2006 and 2007 home-and-home series. The Bison won 45-0 in Fargo and 58-7 in Itta Bena.North Dakota State will play an 11-game schedule in 2017 with its six home games against Mississippi Valley State, Robert Morris, and Missouri Valley Football Conference opponents Missouri State, Western Illinois, Northern Iowa and South Dakota.NDSU has two open non-conference dates remaining in 2018 after the home-opener with Delaware, and one open non-conference date in 2019 following games against Butler at Target Field in Minneapolis, at home against North Dakota, and at Delaware.A total of 26 victims died when the gunman, named as Adam Lanza, 20, began firing at Sandy Hook Elementary School in the sleepy New England town of Newtown, Connecticut, 60 miles from New York. Another body was found at his family home. He used weapons including two handguns, a Glock and a Sig Sauer, and a.233 Bushmaster rifle was found in the back of a car at the school. Sandy Hook teaches nearly 700 children from kindergarten through to the fourth grade, roughly ages five to 10, and many of the victims were reported to be the youngest pupils. Eighteen of them died at the school and two in hospital. The gunman walked into his mother Nancy Lanza’s classroom at around 9.30am and opened fire. It was unclear whether she died in the classroom, or earlier at her nearby home. Police sources said a “mind numbing” number of spent cartridges littered the floor of the school. Frightened children are rushed to safety. Picture: AP Photo/Newtown Bee, Shannon Hick ABC News published a picture that it reported showed Adam Lanza, the gunman. Picture: ABC News A young boy is comforted in the aftermath of the shooting. Picture: Reuters As he attacked, some children fled through nearby woodland and back yards. Other survivors, some crying, were led to safety in a line with their hands on the shoulders of the child in front. Two young girls described seeing the gunman go into their classroom and shoot their teacher. President Barack Obama went on television and appeared to weep as he said: “Our hearts are broken today.” Referring to the dead children, he said: “They had their entire lives ahead of them. There is not a parent in America who does not feel the same overwhelming grief that I do.” He promised “meaningful action” regardless of the politics of gun control in America. He also ordered flags at the White House to be flown at half mast. The gunman, wearing black fatigues and a military-style vest, was found dead in a classroom, but it was not clear whether he took his own life or was shot by police. A second man wearing camouflage trousers was seen being handcuffed. One witness described him shouting: “I didn’t do it.” The suspect’s brother Ryan Lanza, 24, was being questioned by police, the Associated Press reported. He told police that Adam Lanza, 24, had a “personality disorder” and was autistic, or has Asperger’s syndrome, ABC News said. Neighbors described the gunman as “odd.” A mother who was in a meeting with the principal and half a dozen other people at about 9.30am described having heard a “pop pop pop” in the hallway. The witness described cowering under a table and said that 100 rounds or more might have been fired. Two bodies were seen in the hallway in a pool of blood and children had to run past. A young girl is given a blanket after being evacuated from the school. Picture: Reuters A satellite view of the school. Picture: AP Heavily armed Connecticut State Troopers outside the school on Friday. Picture: AP One nine-year-old boy said: “I was in the gym. We heard lots of bangs and we thought it was the custodian knocking stuff down. Then we heard screaming. Then police came in and said, 'Is he in here?’ Then they ran out and we went to the closet in the gym and hid. Then we ran to the fire house and saw a guy on the floor in handcuffs. We were just happy to be alive.” Brenda Lebinski, another parent, said that her eight-year-old daughter had been among children saved by a teacher who locked them in a closet. “My daughter’s teacher is a hero,” she said. “Everyone was in hysterics – parents, students. There were kids coming out of the school bloodied. I don’t know if they were shot, but they were bloodied.” It was the latest in a series of mass shootings over the last several years. In 2007 Seung-Hui Cho shot and killed 32 people and wounded 17 others at Virginia Tech university. In July this year James Holmes killed 12 and injured 58 at a cinema in Aurora, Colorado. Security expert Lou Palumbo said “When you look at a death toll, with this number of children, we’ve surpassed any of these prior incidents.”Rainbow Bird and Monster Man is a 2002 Australian documentary film, directed by Dennis K. Smith, telling the story of Tony Lock's childhood as a victim of sexual abuse and his attempts as an adult to escape his tortured past. [1] The film explores the reluctance of authorities and families to confront sexual abuse as well as the impact it has on victims' lives. Tony Lock recalls himself as a child in the 1960s at the age of four, part of an aloof family in Trentham, Victoria. His father was an alcoholic agricultural labourer. Tony developed a warm attachment to his father's workmate and drinking friend Gordon Kerr, but the older man then sexually assaulted both Tony and his younger brother periodically ten years before his parents unexpectedly saw this for themselves and were forced to acknowledge what was happening.[3] Tony and his brother were then sent away to live with family in Melbourne. Tony seemed to be living a normal, happy life, but as he aged into his twenties he lost his job and drifted in a life of alcoholism and drug abuse. Eventually Tony left for Western Australia to come clean. After hearing radio reports of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, Tony returned to his hometown in 1995 to have Gordon charged. Despite having a confession from Gordon himself, the police refused to initiate criminal proceedings. One night soon afterwards Tony became very agitated; he pleaded with the police to detain him so he would not harm himself or anyone else but was ignored. Tony went to Gordon's home and knocked on the door, holding an axe for self defense. Gordon opened the door and pointed a gun at him. During a moment when the gun was pointed away Tony struck Gorden with the axe. Tony was charged with murder and convicted of manslaughter under a plea bargain in 1996. As he already served his sentence in custody before being convicted, Tony was released immediately afterwards. The film concludes in 2002 with Tony, who, while functioning in a comparatively normal life, still remains frequently traumatised by his experiences.With all the mindless anti-Americanism abroad, some Americans may be surprised that there is widespread admiration among foreign citizens and even foreign officials for our Constitution, including our Bill of Rights. When I represented the U.S. as a Congressman in a visit to Lithuania before the implosion of the Soviet bloc, my colleagues Chris Cox and Dick Durbin joined me in bringing what we thought Lithuanians wanted: aspirin and blue jeans. Wrong! In far greater demand were the scores of copies of the Constitution and the Federalist that were almost torn from the hands of Congressman Cox (who had brought them) by citizens and aspiring officials. Later, as a U.S. Ambassador at Large on Modern Slavery visiting over 60 countries, both friendly and less so, I found foreign citizens eager to discuss our Bill of Rights, including the Fourth Amendment: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the places to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. Advertisement Foreigners were surprised, then, when they learned that the Obama administration was collecting phone and email data on millions of its own citizens. They were shocked when they learned that the Obama administration was collecting data on millions of foreign citizens and tapping into conversations of friendly governments in the European Union offices, at the UN, and in 39 embassies of nations who consider themselves friends of the United States. And all this was done in a proceeding where the Obama administration was the prosecutor, judge, and jury. Foreigners, particularly Europeans, wondered: what was the “probable cause” stipulated in America’s venerable Fourth Amendment? National Intelligence Director James Clapper’s argument that, in essence, we were collecting an ocean of data to catch a terrorist fish was ridiculed. By this standard, foreigners realized that the NSA could spy on everyone on the theory that some robbery, murder, or some other crime might be stopped. This led the conservative German chairman of the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee to state: “the spying has reached dimensions that I did not think were possible for a democratic country… [America] has lost all balance—George Orwell is nothing by comparison.” When your friends compare your government to the totalitarian state
. Behind the screen looms a hulking gold bolder of a statue in the form of a massive beast with great claws pressed to the ground in what looks like supplication. The throne is empty. MINISTER Wait here for just a moment. I will inform her royal majesty of your presence. KORRA and her friends exchange looks but have no choice but to stand there as the MINISTER departs. Time passes. The MINISTER returns, now acting more uncomfortable and awkward than imperious. BOLIN jumps back from where he has been leaning against a pillar with his hands in his pockets. MINISTER (sheepish) Um, actually could you come follow me? Er, sorry. KORRA raises a rather scathing eyebrow but they follow him out another door. EXT. ROYAL GARDENS Their path takes them past courtyards, through grand halls, up staircases, down staircases, and across bridges over ornamental canals and ponds. All the party members except KORRA are looking more weary by the moment. Finally they exit out into a palace courtyard at the edge of the walled grounds that could probably house a small town comfortably. The elegant artificial ponds and manicured trees are watched over by a tall central pagoda that is apparently still under construction. A woman in elaborate green and gold robes and an ornate headboard stands at the marble railing looking out at the workmen moving around the construction project. Several other ministers stand at her side. Off to the side, in the shadows under the eaves more of the dark robed Dai Li wait in perfect stillness. EARTH QUEEN No, no no! The new pagoda must have clear lines of sight to the entrances. Those plants ruin the view you incompetent fool! And if this is not completed in time you will be lucky to remain living in this city! (turns) Avatar Korra. KORRA (deadpan) Hi. EARTH QUEEN (narrows her eyes) It is customary to bow before the queen. KORRA And I know I've read somewhere that its customary to bow before the Avatar so how about we just stay on our feet. The surrounding ministers wince and gasp. However, the EARTH QUEEN does not react except for a slight stiffening of her expression. EARTH QUEEN As a wise man once said, everything changes. I suppose we might both accept that. (turning to fully face Korra) I know why you are here. As if happens, you are in luck. An air bender has appeared within Ba Sing Se. Bring her forward. One of the dark-robed Dai Li smoothly steps forth from behind a nearby column where he had been completely hidden. BOLIN jumps with shock at his sudden appearance, and he is not the only one in the Avatar's party who is freaked out. The Dai Li agent brings forth with him a woman in her late fifties who looks fairly terrified by all her surroundings. At catching a glimpse of the EARTH QUEEN the woman instantly drops down into genuflection, pressing her forehead against the ground. Quickly ASAMI moves over to help the woman up. The woman gets to her feet but backs up while still refusing to raise her chin away from her chest. KORRA (furrows her brow) Only one? I've seen this city. Millions of people live here, there must be more than just one air bender out there. EARTH QUEEN This is my city. When something remarkable happens, I hear of it. Just as I heard that you were defeated in Zaofu. KORRA (defensive) I was drugged... (suspicious) How did you know that? EARTH QUEEN It is my duty to know everything that happens with all the lands of the Earth kingdom. (pauses meaningfully for a breath) Those who took you down were the same who attacked old Yudao, what you now call Republic City, were they not? KORRA (holding onto her anger) Yes. They call themselves the Red Lotus and they may be planning more violence in your country too. If you want, I can help with- EARTH QUEEN That will not be needed. The Earth Kingdom is well prepared for all the threats against it. (she gestures to one of her ministers) Your concern is noted, Avatar. Now, our time is done. Once the official portrait photo has been taken you may retire to the provided accommodations and return to your airship tomorrow. I am sure Tenzin and the United Republic will be very interested in what you have learned here. A photographer appears out of nowhere and a flashbulb goes off, leaving KORRA rubbing her eyes. KORRA (thrown off balance) Woah, hey! Not so fast. I cam half way across the world and I'm not leaving here until I find the rest of the air-benders. There's probably tons around this area and they're all just hiding from you! EARTH QUEEN (glares at Korra) This is Ba Sing Se, my city. Even the Avatar is subject to our law. If you insist on flouting my authority you will be taught that lesson. ASAMI (angry and offended on Korra's behalf) And what will happen when all the other nations hear about you disrespecting the protecter of the world's balance? EARTH QUEEN (raises an eyebrow as if just noticing Asami materialize out of air) Asami Sato of the United Republic, is it not? I take it you are here on behalf of your disgraced father's company. Hoping to slip in with the Avatar for a royal audience of your own. That was presumptuous. MAKO Hey, she-! EARTH QUEEN But as it happens I can respect ambition. You are in luck, I received report of the remarkable new weapons your company produced for that idiot Amon. The Earth Kingdom is modernizing, and if Republic City's current government is foolish enough to deny the resources at their hand I know my nation can put them to good use. (waves to her side) Speak to my Minister of War. Mecha-tanks, torpedoes, airships, I want it all. I am sure you will reach a desirable arrangement. ASAMI is visibly disturbed by exactly how easy this deal that will save her company has been. The EARTH QUEEN waves a handing to the Dai Li agent. He nods his head in response to this wordless command and then makes a small sharp gesture with his hands. The stones below his feet open up and in a flash he drops down out of sight, vanishing entirely as the floor seals behind him. KORRA I also want to talk to you about your army movements. I saw from Zaofu- EARTH QUEEN (Locks eyes with Korra) My nation was terrorized by the Fire Nation for a hundred years. To this day wide swaths of our territory are still under the sway of banditry. Those towns spared that have become almost servants of a 'United Republic' that Avatar Aang carved out of my lands, and half of my tax revenue is in delinquency. You're concerned about the maneuvers of my armies? Go give Councilor Tenzin his air bender, Avatar, and let my Kingdom fend for its own balance, just like your predecessor did. She turns away in a signal for KORRA to exit. KORRA I'm not going to let this go! And you can't make me. EARTH QUEEN Maybe not. My kingdom has been weakened for the past three generations, but everything changes. Think on that, Avatar. The ministers cluster around KORRA and her friends to usher them out the door. KORRA tries to turn back to glare at the EARTH QUEEN but the ruler is just staring out at the under-construction pagoda. INT. ROYAL PALACE The group walks down a long hall in low, private conversation. MAKO She was really quick to buy a lot of weapons from you, Asami. ASAMI (uneasy) Yes. The company desperately needs it but... (Shakes her head and turns to Korra) Korra, for the past week I've been comparing population sizes and the number of air-benders we've seen so far and only one appearing in all of Ba Sing Se doesn't just seem unlikely, it looks impossible. MAKO (nodding) As soon as Korra questioned the numbers, the Queen baited her as a distraction. BOLIN (to Korra) Maybe they're all just hiding? Like you said? KORRA Maybe. But the Earth Queen's lying about something, so we're going to get our own answers. And we need to hurry. Zaheer's still coming after us. (Expression darkens) I hope it's just us. We need to find those air bender quickly. EXT. NORTHERN AIR TEMPLE The Air Temple is a nest of towers and Tibetan style buildings perched on top of peak in a dense range of taller snow-capped mountains. The Zaofu airship is slowly lifting back off and turning to leave. High above, JINORA rides her flying bison as they swoop down to where TENZIN's family and the new air-benders are forming up on a balcony platform. Two uniformed White Lotus members watch. JINORA dismounts and joins the induction group. TENZIN Welcome, to the Northern Air Temple! Your new gift of air bending means that you are a part of this heritage that stretches back to the dawn of history. I am honored and humbled to share with you the teachings and stories of this culture now reborn. The air bender inductees look on with trepidation mixing with excitement. BUMI is standing off to the side with his small luggage bag and comically large and overstuffed backpack. TENZIN Right. Today we will just start with a few simple lessons. These lessons prove to be anything but simple. They test standing up to punishing wind, tracing elaborate sand mandalas, and endless history lectures from TENZIN to the point that the students fall asleep and fall off the tall anchorite posts they were forced to sit on. MEELO and IKI get board quickly and wander off. JINORA remains beside her father. PEMMA (approaches Tenzin) Don't you think you might be pushing the indoctrination a little hard? I mean, I ran away to join the air acolyte students back in the day and even I think this is...excessive. TENZIN There's just so much to do and, and... and does my son have a crossbow?! Off to the side MEELO has propped up a crossbow almost larger than he is on to a low wall. He pulls the trigger and the bolt thuds into a wall just to the side of a mark he was aiming for. MEELO Aw, I missed. BUMI (cheerful) It's ok, little buddy! That thing pulls to the left! (shakes his head to Tenzin expressing that it doesn't) TENZIN rushes over to grab the crossbow and shove it into BUMI's arms. TENZIN Really, if you're not going to help me, you could at least not make things worse. BUMI (offended and a little angry) Yeah, sure. That goes perfectly with the fact that you never actually asked me for my help. TENZIN Don't be petty. I'm here protecting dad's air bender legacy! BUMI (shrugs with feigned casualness) And I'm not an air bender. Fine. I'll leave you to your nation then. BUMI exits. PEMMA gives her husband a very sharp look. TENZIN Fine! Kids just... run them through some of the basic stances. He exits and his children look at each other hesitantly as the new air-benders watch in blinking confusion. Then TENZIN's young son MEELO stomps forward with as much dignity and power as a small child can muster. MEELO All right, maggots! Welcome to the Air Nation! Look to your left. Look to your right! One of you will not make it out of here alive! INT. BA SING SE ROYAL PALACE, KORRA'S APARTMENTS LIN is sitting at a table reading a newspaper. A large picture of Korra and the Earth Queen is on the front page. It is rather unflattering for Korra. There is a knock at the door which then quickly opens. MINISTER Good morning, Avatar. I am here to accompany you on your guided tour of our wonderful and ancient city of... (sees only Lin) Um, where is the Avatar? LIN (shrugs and continues to read the newspaper) Out. MINISTER Out?! Wait, where are the rest of your party? LIN Out. (With distaste) Teenagers. The MINISTER turns around and flees, just barely concealing panic. LIN lets a small smile slip out at his retreating back. EXT. BA SING SE At that moment KORRA and her friends are riding through the luxurious Inner ring in a gilt-walled train car propelled along its track by earth-benders standing in back. They arrive at the gate leading through the high circular wall to the Middle Ring. The soldiers stationed there move to block this strange party but are thrown off guard when BOLIN presents the newspaper with the photo of KORRA and the queen to serve as their passport. KORRA and her friends manage to bully their way past these soldiers and get through the gate. Moments later a second train-car now full of palace soldiers comes piling up and rush up to the gate, only to be pointed through the wall to where KORRA and the rest had vanished. The soldiers rush through the gate only to be confronted by city streets and no sign of where KORRA had gone. KORRA and her friends search for rumors of what happened to the expected air-benders. MIDDLE RING MAN Oh yes, I heard Qian Hong down the street got air-bending a few months ago. BOLIN Great! Where is he? MIDDLE RING MAN Hmm, you know, I haven't seen him in weeks. To tell the truth, some people around here were a bit embarrassed. I mean, 'air' bending? It seems a little...foreign. The group approaches the next ring wall and passes through the gate to the next zone of the city. This Lower Ring is much more crowded and worn than the previous zone. As KORRA and her friends strike out here they are now being followed by menacing figures in dark green robes in the shadows and around corners. The Queen's Dai Li have tracked them down. EXT. BA SING SE, LOWER RING, VARIOUS LOCATIONS LOWER RING WOMAN (in the middle of a longer story) All the air benders snatched right off the street! People disappear in the night all the time here. It's the Queen's secret police, the Dai Li, I tell you. ASAMI That's terrible! LOWER RING WOMAN Yeah, and they're also the ones who concoct all the diseases poor people get down here, control the sky with their weather machine, and I think they ratted out to my boss that I was getting drunk at work! ASAMI That's...what? MAKO just hangs his head in weary recognition of this style of storyteller. He grabs the confused ASAMI and genuinely enthralled BOLIN as they walk away. High above them, hidden in the tangle of tiled roofs, Dai Li agents keep a careful watch. Further in the crowded streets of Ba Sing Se, the group has split up to cover more ground. BOLIN and MAKO are together as are KORRA and ASAMI. The view switches between these two separate but parallel investigations. MAKO (to woman) And that's the last time you saw her? KORRA (to man) Are you sure you don't know where he went? As MAKO and BOLIN walk away dejected, the woman they were speaking to shakes her head and turns away to walk down a narrow path between two buildings. Suddenly two stone walls slide up out of the ground at each end and seal off this space as if it had been built this way. Two Dai Li agents drop down on each side of her and raise their hands where they wear jointed stone gloves. Elsewhere KORRA and ASAMI sigh as they turn away from their own interview subject. As soon as they turn a corner, stone gloves shoot out of the shadows to clamp down on the man's mouth and arms. He struggles for a breif moment before being pulled back into an alley where Dai Li agents are waiting. There is the sound of moving stone and then a view of the alley shows it undisturbed and they are all gone. In a market square. LOWER RING MAN (dismissive) You're not the Avatar. KORRA Uh, yeah I am. LOWER RING MAN Nah, the Avatar's way more buff. KORRA stammers in indignation and fights her instinct to start flexing while ASAMI tries to keep from bursting out in laughter. Several streets away MAKO and BOLIN walk along. BOLIN Man, no one knows of one air bender who still lives around here. MAKO The Dai Li. I've heard that same story too often for it to be just conspiracy talk. The Earth Queen must be capturing air benders. BOLIN (less certain) Er, ok, but how would we prove that? And why would she want to? It's not like she's got a shortage of benders in this huge city. They walk by a brick wall. MAKO Let's go meet back up with Korra and Asami. I've got an idea that- The brick wall beside them suddenly swings out and strong arms reach out to grab them, dragging both brothers back inside. The wall closes up behind them with earth-bending. INT. DARK DISUSED ROOM MAKO (coughing to clear his throat) Hah. I knew the Earth Queen would have a problem with us asking questions. MING HUA (in the dark) Oh, that is not the problem you should be worrying about. A lightbulb flicks on and MAKO and BOLIN realize they have been captured by the Red Lotus. EXT. AIR TEMPLE The new air-benders are practicing in an open air space overlooking both the lower towers of the temple and the cliffs below. Of the ten or so trainees, OPAL and KAI are the only ones displaying any competence. All repeatedly stumble, fall or get knocked over by their comrades bursts of wind. JINORA dances around them with expert moves, avoiding any interference and providing a kind word at the right time even if that means briefly levitating halfway up a wall to get close. KAI and OPAL collapse at the end of the exercise in front of TENZIN. KAI (to Jinora, winded) You're too good at this. JINORA (with a smile) I've had lessons since I was six. Don't worry, give it a few years and you'll catch up. TENZIN (proud) That's right. Jinora only got to this point through tireless effort and attention to both the spiritual and physical aspects of air-bending. Why, it took me until I was seventeen to master all the techniques she has learned by twelve. JINORA Master? Does that mean you'll finally let me get my tattoos? TENZIN (still smiling warmly) Not a chance. JINORA frowns at him in well-practiced irritation. INT. AIR TEMPLE BUMI looks out a window down at the air-bender training ground. Then he sighs and turns around. He walks though dusty halls with his hands in his pockets. Then he enters into an immense hall filled with statues of men and women in every type of dress. The statues spiral out from the middle of the floor up spiral ramps that carry on up the sides of the tall tower-room. There hundreds of them. He walks forward and approaches the central statue, that of a bald man with an arrow tattoo across his head. It is the only one free of dust and signs of age. BUMI Hi, dad. He briefly turns away, uncomfortable with this exercise. BUMI Well, I'm pretty sure you can't hear this. All these statues of past Avatars aren't really you. I mean, you're currently off being Korra, right? Reincarnation's weird to think about. (laughs and then stops) I'm sorry I wasn't an air bender like you hoped. But hey, look around, things worked out all right, didn't they? Look, I don't blame you for spending extra time with Tenzin, you were Avatar and on top of all that you had to train the only other air bender in the world! I get it. I just wish, I don't know, I'd found some way to be my own part of that legacy. Instead of, er, going off and joining the military. Ha! Some pacifist air monk I made! (turns around) Yeah, that's probably for the best. Things are going to be fine the way they are. INT. BACK OF TRUCK BOLIN and MAKO are bound hand and foot by metal cuffs, sitting in the windowless back of a truck. GAHZAN and MING HUA watch over them while ZAHEER and P'LI are up front driving. The mood is dark and tense as the truck slowly rumbles along MAKO (determined) Once again, where are you taking us? P'LI (calm and ominous) You'll find out soon enough. And when you do you'll- The truck breaks sharply to avoid hitting the car in front of them. P'LI (frustrated and venting) Oh, come on! Ba Sing Se traffic is somehow even worse these days! Move, people! (honks) I hate this city. GHAZAN (chuckling) Ha! You last thirteen years chained in an ice prison and a traffic jam breaks you in an hour. Never change, P'li. BOLIN Wow, thirteen years. I can't even imagine. What did you do for all that time? MING HUA (shrugs) Be bored mostly. I used to watch the guards and make up stories about them in my head. Who had a family back home, who had really wanted to be a baker, who was dating who and what they would do when their other one found out about it. BOLIN Hey, that sounds fun. Let me try! (inspects Ghazan, then points) Hmm. You were raised by your older sister, you grew your first mustache when you were ten, and I'm sensing, just sensing, an unspoken sexual tension between you two. MING HUA frowns and looks away but GHAZAN just grins. GHAZAN Two out of three. Not bad. MAKO Bolin! Stop making friends with the bad guys! Suddenly, it gets much darker in the truck. BOLIN Woah, hey, what's happening now? MING HUA (wicked smile) I guess we could say we're making friends with the bad guys too. From outside it can be seen that the truck has peeled off the road to enter into a tunnel in the side of a massive wall. The tunnel goes on straight, deep into the dark. Earth Kingdom soldiers step forward and smoothly raise up a wall behind the truck. The truck travels through a long tunnel underground. Then it stops and MAKO and BOLIN are thrown out of the back into a large artificial cavern lit by glowing crystals. Dai Li agents are everywhere, but what really stands out is that MAKO and BOLIN are not the first captives here. people are locked in metal cells and in the center of the open space Dai Li are overseeing a large group of people in prisoners clothes practicing air bender techniques. In the back, one of the air benders is being beaten by guards for some transgression. DAI LI AGENT (to air bender conscripts) For the glory of the Earth Queen! Air strike, now! The outer edges of the air-bendings push past MAKO and BOLIN, rustling their hair as they look down in horror. INT. BA SING SE PALACE, KORRA'S APARTMENTS LIN It was an idiotic risk for you to head out unprotected like that. See what it's got you? ASAMI (worried) Mako and Bolin still aren't back yet? KORRA Damn it, I knew I should have kept looking out there. Something's happened to them. LIN This city is almost larger than all of the United Republic. There's half a hundred neighborhoods that could swallow Republic City whole without a sign. You searching the streets would do nothing. Besides I doubt they're lost. AOTO (nods) The Earth Queen. ASAMI You think she-? She is cut off by a knock at the door. Everyone jerks to attention as the door swings open to reveal the MINISTER. MINISTER (To Korra with relief) I finally find you. KORRA Really. What does her insufferable royal majesty want now? MINISTER (shakes his head) No that's not... You have a mistaken perception of me. I do not serve the queen blindly. The world has other needs, and morality gives greater duties. I want to help you, Avatar. (takes a breath) I know where your friends are being held captive. They are imprissoned up with the Air Bender Legion. AOTO (horrified) Legion? MINISTER They're being trained as the Queen's captive army. The treatment they've suffered is- KORRA (narrows her eyes with fury and determination) Show me. LIN (cautioning) Korra. KORRA Now. INT. BA SING SE PALACE KORRA and her allies march forward through the halls, joined by AOTO and his two other Lotus guards. A small troop of Earth Kingdom soldiers suddenly jerk to attention as they see this party striding through restricted areas. PALACE GUARD Halt! You don't have permission to be in this part of the palace. I have to ask you to turn around and... (sees Minister and stops in confusion) Minister? What are you doing with... KORRA keeps walking towards him. The other guards begin to nervously put their hands on their weapons. PALACE GUARD Avatar, I am going to have to ask you to stop and return to your- Just before she gets to him, KORRA suddenly spins around with her palms raised in an air bending technique. All the guards are shoved to the side against an intensely ornamented wall by a huge blast of wind that knocks them off their feet. Then in a flash KORRA is there in front of them. She reaches out to thrust her hands at the thick sheets of gold and iron that form the decorations and then wraps them out and around the guards as if they are made of cloth. Then she steps back and continues walking as the guards struggle against their metal bonds. MINISTER That was unfortunate. We'll have to move quickly now. ASAMI Oh dear. This is going to be an international incident, isn't it. LIN She's the Avatar. That's basically her job description. (glances at Aoto) And if there's one thing she knows it's a straight up fight. Korra versus all the Earth Queen's men? What would you call that? ASAMI (Joining in with a smile as she looks at KORRA walking out in front) About even odds. INT. UNDERGROUND CELL This section of the underground Dai Li base is all metal. MAKO and BOLIN are in the same cell. A JAILOR walks away after having locked the door. JAILOR (grumbling to self) Bringing prisoners in the wrong way. No one ever follows regulation. You'd think with the Air Legion stationed here they'd know not to... (trails off into unintelligable) BOLIN squeezes his face against the bars. BOLIN (to Mako) That was them! That was all the missing air benders! What were those Earth Kingdom guys doing with them? MAKO Making an army. The question is, though, why did they let us see it? The Earth Kingdom has secret prisons everywhere and yet Zaheer's Red Lotus got us brought here, surprising all those guards. Why, if they're only hiding us from Korra? Something's up. EXT. ROYAL GARDENS - NIGHT - KORRA runs through through one final door and stands on the same elegant patio where she recently met the EARTH QUEEN. She looks out across the night-time garden at the under-construction pagoda as the MINISTER points at it. KORRA (furious) That woman. She had me out here just so she wave them in front of my face without me seeing. MINISTER There is a secret underground facility beneath all this. The pagoda was intended to disguise the burst of new construction ordered when the Queen learned of the appearance of the air-benders. KORRA Thank you. I'm going to get them all out. I'm going to set them free. MINISTER (nods) I have to get back. Your airship has already been given full clearance to take off so rescue your people and go. I'll try and buy you as much time as possible and limit the military's response but I can only do so much. MINISTER exits. AOTO Korra, think carefully about what you're doing. This is effectively an act of war. KORRA I know. The Earth Queen could move her prisoners at any time and chances are we'd never find them again. She seized Mako and Bolin to hold over my head. They'd be hostages, making sure I can never interfere with her plans for fear of what she'll do to them. That's why we have to do this now. LIN Well, you've put your mind to it at least. Right, now there's a specialized earth-bending technique for finding this kind of secret entrances through vibrations in the ground. I...can't manage it anymore, but maybe your Avatar deal will give you some beginner's luck with- KORRA Thanks Lin, but we don't have the time for secret doors. So we're going to do this my way. KORRA sinks down into a wide stance, her hands curled into fists in front of her hips, and faces the expanse of garden and the pagoda against the wall. Her muscles tense as she gathers her strength. Then she thrusts her arms down before wrenching them up again. The ground splits before her, a straight fissure racing forward across the entire garden. Then the land on each side begins to tilt back in two massive crumbling slabs. This exposes fitted stonework beneath. KORRA is ripping the roof off the secret prison. INT. JAIL CELL A distant rumbling shakes the prison cell. MAKO and BOLIN both look up at the blank celling above them, MAKO stopping his fruitless effort to cut through the bars with his fire. BOLIN (worried) What was that? MAKO Something dangerous, and we're trapped in here. If you wanted to figure out metal-bending right now that would be real useful. BOLIN I've told you a million times. I've tried, but I don't have the gift for- The rumbling happens again and BOLIN winces with anxiety. He looks at the metal bars. BOLIN But then again, what do I know? Puts his hands against the bars and begins to strain in an effort to effect them. EXT. ROYAL GARDENS Most of the garden no longer exists, ripped aside, leaving a pit down into exposed underground rooms and hallways. KORRA is breathing slightly heavily as ASAMI looks on with a mixture of pride and astonishment. LIN even looks slightly impressed, though AOTO is still inscrutable. KORRA There's our way in. I don't hear any alarms yet, but someone must have noticed. ASAMI (steps forward to the edge of the hole) Right. If we can find Mako and Bolin they might- Out of the night behind her, two stone gloves shoot out with the speed of bullets. They grab onto ASAMI and pull her backwards with a scream. KORRA bursts after her, blasts of fire appearing under the heels of her feet. She manages to catch ASAMI and smashes the stone gloves, setting her free. Then they both look up at the palace. Both the ground level patio and the tile roof above now hold dark-robed Dai Li agents standing as still as statues, looking down at KORRA. KORRA Beifong, Aoto, take your guys down there and rescue everyone. I'll hold them off. AOTO Avatar, it's our duty to protect-! KORRA Now! With me at least there's less chance of them making any fatal 'accidents'. Even the Dai Li can't cover up the death of the Avatar. ASAMI Korra, I- LIN (grabs Asami) Right. You heard the woman. They exit down the pit. KORRA (Continues to eye the Dai Li) Ok. Let's do this. Dai Li agents leap forward as KORRA punches out with fire. INT. Jail Cell The sounds of rumbles and smashes filter through the underground prison. BOLIN stands with his hands pressed against the bars, his muscles straining as he tries different holds and postures. BOLIN (low and to himself) Come on. This is the moment. You can do this. You mess up a lot but right now is your time to come through. Come on on one, two, grrrah! He give one last mighty effort, but the bars are unmoving and unchanging. He sags back and looks at them dejected. BOLIN Yeah, no. This isn't working. As he half turns around back to MAKO, BOLIN gives the door one last frustrated bang with his fist. The lock clicks open. MAKO (surprised and impressed) Woah. That's how you do it? BOLIN (even more confused as he looks at his hand and the door) Uh, maybe? But I don't think that was me. The door swings open to reveal LIN standing in the entrance with ASAMI behind her. LIN Get a move on, boys. If those guards get back in the main controls then these cells are all going to lock back up. MAKO (grateful and surprised) Asami! The brothers exit the cell and start running behind LIN. MAKO (to LIN with a slight smile) I guess that's two to one on jail-breaks for you, chief. Eh, I'll catch up. LIN (ignoring that comment) Those White Lotus guys are getting the air benders free, but they need help. The Queen's men mean business. They burst out into the main cavern where the air bender training had been conducted. The three White Lotus are fighting well but are only not being defeated because the newly freed air benders are putting up quite a distraction, buffeting the area with sharp gusts. BOLIN and MAKO quickly join in the fighting, as does LIN but though she earth bends a few small rock projectiles she mostly sticks to hand to hand. ASAMI focuses on freeing the last of the air benders but her electric gauntlet and quick takedown moves are a surprise for anyone who thinks she's an easy target. They can not win against the Dai Li but they might escape. ASAMI We need to get above ground! MAKO Where's Korra? Another rumble shakes everything around them. LIN (pointing up as her answer) What do you think that is? EXT. PALACE GARDEN - NIGHT - Above ground, the sounds of thuds and crashes echo throughout the ravaged garden lit by the moon and flashes of fire. One Dai Li agent is slumped against a pillar, held in place by a frozen wave of ice. Another appears, flung through the air to go tumbling across the ground ending with impacting a wall as his robes smoke slightly. Near the smashed scaffolding of the pagoda, KORRA stands in the middle of a dry pond, much of its former water gathered up into an undulating ring levitating around her as a living shield. Dai Li stand in fighting postures on every side of her. The Dai Li move fast, launching themselves up and to the side by sudden projections of earth. They shoot out small rock projectiles from within the voluminous sleeves of their robes. KORRA tries to block them and attack back with any of the elements, but the strikes are coming from every direction and despite her talent hits slip through. Each impact makes KORRA grunt or stagger, though she still responds with incredible force. But she is losing her form. Eventually she falls to her knee as a bunch of hits land against her back. She gathers up the water into an ice dome above her as she pants. More strikes smash agains the ice, then one shot drills through to hit KORRA's side. She cries out in pain, closing her eyes. For a brief moment there is only the sound of her breathing out. Then she opens her eyes and they are blazing with white blue light. Out on the banks of the dry pond, the Dai Li agents take a step forward looking down at the small ice dome. Then they notice the ground beginning to tremble as the breeze picks up. The ice dome explodes, replaced by a high pillar of earth and stone lancing up into the sky. KORRA stands on top against the stars. Then she turns her head and the light from her eyes shines out. INT. PALACE TOWER In the distance below, the garden's stone pagoda crumbles as it is slammed back to the palace's outer wall with one push. An invisible wave of air whips across the roofs of the palace complex, ripping up all the tiles it passes. Huge plumes of fire splash against walls and hundreds of yards up into the air, as dust clouds rise. The EARTH QUEEN watches this from the balcony with fear and hate as her knuckles grip onto the railing. The MINISTER pants as he runs up the stairs to finally reach her. EARTH QUEEN (to Minister) Forget the timetable. I need everything at our disposal.
Frey's character is correct - I've never met either of them. If that's the case, maybe it makes Frey's experience less compelling as a story. I don't really want to read a story about a someone who is spoiled and unaware, because I don't often find those stories interesting. But to confuse the validity of a person's feelings with the storytelling value of their experience is to shun empathy and human connection. Each person we write off as undeserving and needy is one less person that we feel compelled to help and be considerate of. From my perspective, it seems like this approach is the approach of the reviewer and the news, where people are reduced to statistics and circumstances. Attempting to answer the question of whether emotions are deserved will force us to look at others less fortunate than us, to consider outside perspectives, and to maybe change. Yes, we need to adjust our view of the world by looking to others, and yes we need to care for those who are less fortunate. But this method of tearing people down seems opposed to caring and compassion. And of course, there is a grand irony to all of this. In asking whether we are right to judge the emotions and suffering of others, we are judging the emotions of the people who judge others. I think this is inescapable. All it means is that we need to have a discussion - so let's talk.Blacktail Plateau Drive Yellowstone is so massive and there are so many incredible views to be had from your car, that many people spend the majority of their time in the park within the confines of their vehicle. While we generally prefer to get out and hike and explore, we spent our fair share of time traversing the park in our rental car and experiencing the views from the road. By far our favorite drive was the Blacktail Plateau Drive, a six-mile, one-way dirt road with unbelievable mountain views. Getting There If you’re heading west from Tower Junction on Grand Loop Road, the entrance to Blacktail Plateau Drive is about 8.5 miles up on your left. If you’re heading east from Mammoth, the entrance will be on you right after about 9 miles. The Drive The road is rough and full of potholes, so the six-mile drive will take about 20-30 minutes, not including the time you will inevitably spend pulling over to take pictures. It’s definitely preferable to drive this road with a high clearance vehicle, but it’s easily passable without one as long as you take it slow. We were driving a rental sedan and we were fine. There were a handful of other cars on the road during our drive, but compared to the main roads in the park, it was relatively quiet. We were there in June, so although it wasn’t quite peak season in the park, it was certainly a busy time of year. If we were there in July or August it’s possible it would have been busier. The road is one-way and takes you from west to east, running more or less parallel to Grand Loop Road with sweeping mountain vistas off to your left for much of the drive. The drive begins with a relatively steep ascent before reaching the plateau. After a few miles, the view in the rearview mirror becomes too good not to pull over… The northern part of the park, while there are no geysers to speak of, has some of the most impressive mountain views and some of the best opportunities to spot wildlife. It’s not uncommon to see bears lumbering along the plateau, but unfortunately we had no such luck; however, we did see a herd of bison crossing the road. Bison are a very common sighting in Yellowstone, but with the striking mountainous backdrop this was by far our best bison sighting. There are plenty of places along the road to pull over to either let people pass or to get out and walk around. As you might imagine, the section of the drive along the plateau is relatively flat, but once you start making the descent back down towards the Grand Loop Road, the grade becomes very steep and the road starts to wind back and forth. Even if you don’t see any wildlife along the drive, the views are well worth it and it’s a welcome break from the crowds. The drive doesn’t take long, so it isn’t a big time commitment. We’d certainly recommend it. Check out some of our other favorite scenic drives: The Denali Highway and Oak Creek Canyon Like this: Like Loading...Getty Images Leah Remini is dropping more behind-the-scenes intelligence about Scientology as she continues to promote her new tell-all memoir, "Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology." A new preview of the former Scientologist's interview for Friday's "20/20" aired Thursday on ABC's "Good Morning America." In it, the actress alleges that Scientology gives its young members a false sense of confidence. "Because Scientologists view children as spiritual beings, you're not treated as a kid, so you're given a lot of responsibility," she said. "Your ego becomes extremely inflated." Remini stars alongside her family on TLC's "It's All Relative." TLC Remini left Scientology in July 2013 when she began to challenge the organization's control over its members. Her own daughter was also coming of age in the organization and she said she didn't want that life for her. During the interview, Remini said that she wants others to understand how she had gotten so deep into Scientology. "The decision to leave is you are giving up everything you have ever known and everything you have worked for your whole life," she said. "I feel that people need to understand, this has been my whole life. I want them to understand how it happens." "Good Morning America" will air another preview of the interview on Friday morning. Remini's "20/20" special will air Friday at 10 p.m. on ABC. Watch the preview below:Did I mention it was my birthday a few weeks ago? Because it was but we don’t really celebrate it because it’s right after Christmas and everyone is too tired. But Victor assured me that he’d actually gotten me a present, although I’d have to wait until it was finished, and I assumed he was a tremendous liar because that’s the sort of thing I’d say if I forgot someone’s birthday too. Turns out though that he actually did get me something. Or…well….he got me something to give away, but that’s nice because that’s one of my favorite things, and ranks somewhere in between the smell of a good library and the sound of the TARDIS (preferably circa David Tennant.) And that’s what makes this present so perfect. It’s a Little Free Library. They’re tiny neighborhood libraries you put in your front yard…An outdoor box full of books where anyone can stop by and take a book and bring back another one to share. This kid explains it better than I can. They’re popping up all over the world and they are fabulous. I highly recommend getting one. The only problem I have is that my neighborhood is really hard to get to so instead of putting it here I want to put it somewhere it’s easy to access. I’m the steward for this library so it needs to be somewhere in the San Antonio/Central Texas area, close enough that I can visit it and keep it maintained. It needs to be somewhere we’d have permission to install it (on a pole or bolted to something permanent). The light on the top is solar powered and lights up -dimly- at night. I’m going to check into local parks, but if you know of a place that would be perfect, let me know. I’ll keep you posted. “Books. People never really stop loving books… …You want weapons? We’re in a library. Books are the best weapon in the world. This room’s the greatest arsenal we could have. Arm yourself!” ~ Doctor WhoTyra Banks embraces her anglophilia on cycle 18 of America’s Next Top Model, which will pit British contestants against Americans when it premieres Wednesday. “This is a boxing match between two regions,” says Banks. “It’s interesting to see these them battle it out to get on top.” Sure, every season has a makeover episode that comes with the requisite tears and resistance. But this season, the girls will be forced outside the box with amped-up style overhauls. “One girl will get pink hair, another girl will have half her head shaved off. Another girl got ‘America’s Next Top Model‘ shaved into her scalp,” says Banks, whose style team will pull inspiration from the punk rock aesthetic and pop stars like Lady Gaga and Katy Perry. “Instead of normal makeovers, we’re calling them ‘takeovers.’ ” “There will be tears, emotion, and some girls will be pissed off,” adds the fashion mogul. “You can only imagine a girl finding out she’s getting half her head shaved.” And as for the personalities to watch, Laura on the American side will likely ruffle feathers. “She’s a crazy, in-your-face girl,” says Banks. “She actually has ‘pirate’ tattooed inside her lip.” Ashley, from Scotland, is “really funny,” though Banks confesses, “I can’t understand what she’s saying. Her accent is so great but it’s like you need subtitles.” Contestant AzMarie’s androgynous look will “definitely have some of my viewers going, ‘Whoa, I’m kind of titillated right now,’ ” says Banks. And the Americans will face stiff competition in their costars from across the pond. “The British girls are very competitive,” according to Banks. “They have some spunk.” America’s Next Top Model: British Invasion premieres Feb. 29 (9 p.m. ET) on the CW.Whenever we write about bike/car "interactions" we get a lot of complaints that cyclists bring much of this upon themselves by blowing through red lights and stop signs, and generally cycling aggressively. While convalescing after being hit by a truck, Dr. Chris Cavacuiti of the University of Toronto had some time to study the statistics and concluded otherwise. He is interviewed by Bet McIlroy in the U of T's Experience Research: Another U of T Professor was not so lucky. While there is a public perception that cyclists are usually the cause of accidents between cars and bikes, an analysis of Toronto police collision reports shows otherwise: The most common type of crash in this study involved a motorist entering an intersection and either failing to stop properly or proceeding before it was safe to do so. The second most common crash type involved a motorist overtaking unsafely. The third involved a motorist opening a door onto an oncoming cyclist. The study concluded that cyclists are the cause of less than 10 per cent of bike-car accidents in this study. The available evidence suggests that collisions have far more to do with aggressive driving than aggressive cycling. So what can we do to reduce bike-car accidents? There is a wide variety of effective strategies that can reduce motorist/cyclist collisions. Many European countries have far lower rates of cycling fatalities than we do in Canada, despite having roads that are narrower and more crowded than ours. They have managed this through a combination of rigorous driver education and training as well as strong law enforcement policies that place the burden of responsibility with driver—not cyclists—when it comes to collisions. The Europeans have also done a far better job investing in cycling infrastructure to keep cyclists safe. More of this interesting interview at Experience Research., found in Biking Toronto Should Cyclists be Allowed to Blow Go Through Stop Signs? Freakonomics on Bike Safety For Bicylists, There is Safety in Numbers Do Bicycle Helmet Laws Do More Harm Than Good? Graph of the Day: Bike Ridership and CasualtiesWhen I was a practicing California personal injury attorney I was always amazed by how quick people are to sue. I handled cases where people wanted thousands of dollars in damages for something as silly as tripping over a clothes hanger. Fortunately, there has not been a lot of litigation in the escape room industry to date, but I fear it is only a matter of time. An expensive lawsuit could put an escape room out of business, so I recommend proactively doing everything you can to protect yourself from liability. Baby-Proof Your Rooms! Some players are like little children—they want to touch EVERYTHING, and in some cases put things in their mouths! Escape room staff need to be prepared by making sure the room is as safe as possible. For example, covering dangerous (and likely non-game related) objects, such as electrical outlets, with clear “Do Not Touch” symbols. Make sure all props are in their proper place, and are not loose/defective/broken. Even something as simple as a nail sticking out of a wall could be harmful when players are frantically yanking pictures off a wall without paying proper attention. Employ Attentive Game Managers! Game managers who are actively watching/listening to what is going on in the room can frequently protect players from hazards/themselves. For example, if they hear players say something like “maybe we should climb up to the ceiling to look for clues” the GM can promptly intervene. In addition, GM’s can keep an eye out for child players, intoxicated players, or other players who are more likely to hurt themselves. Buy Insurance! No matter how careful you are, accidents can still happen. You should seriously consider investing in general liability insurance to make sure that your business is covered for accidents. Make Players Sign a Waiver/Disclaimer! Many will argue that waivers are un-enforceable in court, and in many cases and jurisdictions that is correct. Judges throw out waivers for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to the following: Ambiguous terms. Waivers must be clear, easy to read, and easily understood by a regular person. Illegal provisions. There are some behaviours you cannot preemptively excuse, and it is illegal to ask someone to waive certain rights. As such, you should include statements like “I hereby release Escape Room X from negligence to the fullest extent permitted by law.” Contracts of adhesion and/or uneven bargaining power. Players may argue that they were forced to sign the contract in order to play and did not have time to consult with an attorney to fully understand its terms. Lack of consideration. Contracts must always be a bargained for exchange involving something of value. In the escape room context, consider a statement like “In consideration of being allowed to participate…” It is very important that you have a well-drafted waiver that complies will all the legal requirements in your particular jurisdiction. You can certainly start with a waiver template (like our EscapeAssist one) but you should have all waivers looked over by a local attorney before implementing them. Even if a waiver does not prevent a lawsuit, it can certainly be used as a legal defense. You can argue that you clearly laid out potential risks of playing your escape game, and the player voluntarily assumed those risks. The assumption of the risk defense places some of the responsibility on the player (to take care for their own safety), and will hopefully decrease the amount of damages they are awarded. Finally, lawsuits aside, waivers are helpful purely as a scare tactic. At a minimum, they encourage players to take the game more seriously, be aware of their surroundings, and have concern for their own safety.No, St. Louis, you really don't get to do this today. pic.twitter.com/acQhGfwZpX — Craig Calcaterra (@craigcalcaterra) November 3, 2015 Look at this shit. Just look at it and let it sink in. This is part of some pathetic slide show—welcome to 2007, guys!—that the St. Louis Dispatch put together on the day the Royals are holding their World Series parade in Kansas City. It's 13 slides comparing the two teams in various idiotic categories. Don't read it. I clicked one, here is what I read, under a split screen of Royals and Cardinals celebrating series victories: "By the end of October, the 2015 Kansas City Royals had more to celebrate than the regular season's winningest team, the St. Louis Cardinals. (AP and Post-Dispatch photos)." This one sentence contains more salt than the Wieliczka Salt Mine, which has fucking statues made of salt. I wanted to get mad about this stupid slide show and its entire premise, but I just feel bad for the people of St. Louis who subject themselves to this kind of thing. Oh, we were the regular season's winningest team [pushes glasses up nose] so who's better? The Royals are better. They won the World Series. The St. Louis Cardinals did not. The Cardinals lost in the division series to the Cubs, who got swept by the Mets, who lost to the Royals, who, again, won the World Series.Image copyright Reuters Image caption Amnesty said the alleged crimes were apparently sanctioned by Hamas officials Hamas forces in the Gaza Strip committed serious human rights abuses including abductions, torture and extra-judicial killings of Palestinian civilians in 2014, a report says. Most of the victims were accused of collaborating with Israel, Amnesty International investigators report. The report says no-one had been brought to account for the abuses, suggesting they were officially sanctioned. Hamas said the report was biased and had relied on dubious sources. The report, entitled Strangling Necks, covered the period of last summer's 50-day war between Israel and militants in Gaza. It says while "Israeli forces were inflicting destruction and death on the people in Gaza, Hamas forces took the opportunity to ruthlessly settle scores". Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum told BBC Arabic the report was "highly politicised and lacks professionalism and credibility. "It wasn't based on accounts from all parties nor did it listen to Hamas or even the police force in the Gaza Strip. It was just based on accounts from some sources, which is not enough to write a report of such calibre from such an international rights organisation." The fighting between Israel and the militants left at least 2,189 Palestinians dead, including more than 1,486 civilians, and 11,000 injured, according to the United Nations. On the Israeli side, 67 soldiers and six civilians were killed, with scores more wounded. Amnesty has been deeply critical of the actions of both Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza in recent reports, accusing both sides of abuses during the conflict. Israel and the Palestinians have rejected the allegations. 'Committed with impunity' In the latest report, Amnesty says Hamas forces committed the abuses during Israel's military offensive, which began on 8 July and ended on 26 August 2014. According to the report, at least 23 Palestinians were subjected to summary, extra-judicial executions. Most were already in prison, accused of acting for Israel, it says. Image copyright AP Image caption Amnesty has previously accused both sides of war crimes during the 2014 conflict In addition, "perceived political opponents" of Hamas were abducted, tortured or assaulted - "particularly members of the rival Fatah party and former members of the Palestinian Authority security forces in Gaza". "These abuses too were committed with impunity," the report says. BBC Middle East correspondent Kevin Connelly says Hamas exercises undisputed authority within Gaza, and Amnesty's powerful report depicts an organisation responding to the relentless pressure of Israeli military operations with a brutal campaign against its own enemies within. In one incident, six men were shot dead outside a mosque as they knelt in hoods in front of a crowd of men, women, and children, the report says. The killings were among a series of "spine-chilling actions, some of which amounted to war crimes, [and] were designed to exact revenge and spread fear across the Gaza Strip," Amnesty regional director Philip Luther said. Amnesty called on the Palestinian authorities to "impartially and independently" investigate the allegations, and bring the perpetrators to justice.Without a doubt, the most talked about things at E3 this year is virtual and augmented reality. Every company seems to be either looking into reality-altering technology, creating games for it or even making their own hardware. But there is one major exception: Nintendo. And given the 126-year-old company's history, it's an odd exception. After all, Nintendo was one of the first major video game makers to fully embrace the use of virtual reality in games with its release in 1995 of the Virtual Boy. The headset, which displayed monochromatic 3D games using a parallax effect, was a system both too futuristic and not futuristic enough when it was released. It was dismal failure and was discontinued about six months after its launch. The company had much greater success with its augmented reality experiments, which include a number of mini-games and experiences on the 3DS. Earlier this week, I had a chance to chat with Fils-Aime about his take on the industry, Nintendo and the state of things to come in gaming. In light of Microsoft's HoloLens, the Oculus Rift, the PlayStation's Project Morpheus, I wanted to know if Nintendo was reevaluating its take on virtual reality. Is there a Virtual Boy 2 in our future? Probably not, at least not yet. Nintendo, it seems, remains pessimistic about the current state of the technology. "We have knowledge of the technical space, and we've been experimenting with this for a long, long time," said Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime. "What we believe is that, in order for this technology to move forward, you need to make it fun and you need to make it social. "I haven't walked the floor, so I can't say in terms of what's on the floor today, but at least based on what I've seen to date, it's not fun, and it's not social. It's just tech." Update: It looks like the company may have changed its mind about VR.FROM the attic of his cramped old factory in the middle of Northampton, Stephen Etheridge, the head of Church’s, a shoemaker, gazes down on the deserted bus station next door. He explains how his company will soon be expanding to fill the four-acre (1.5-hectare) site, creating 100 or so jobs in the process. The move has caused a stir in Northampton, about 70 miles north of London, as it is the first time in living memory that a shoe company is growing rather than closing. The recent success of a venerable old firm like Church’s, founded in 1873, reflects a wider revival of Northampton’s luxury shoemakers, buoyed by the insatiable Asian appetite for a bit of old English craft and class. There was a time when the city of Northampton and its surrounding towns did little else but produce shoes. The industry there employed tens of thousands of people in hundreds of factories, small and large; fortunes were made making millions of boots for the army during the first world war. But that era of mass manufacturing came to a calamitous end in the 1980s as production moved overseas to take advantage of cheaper labour. Now Britain imports almost all its shoes. There were fears that the whole industry might become extinct. But posh bootmakers like Church’s, Joseph Cheaney and Loake clung on. They employ hundreds of people each, rather than the thousands of old Northampton, but they have now found a very profitable niche in the global market and are prospering as never before. Get our daily newsletter Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks. Loake is still a family-run firm, making shoes in the same factory in nearby Kettering that the founding brothers built in 1894. Like all the area’s luxury cobblers Loake only makes “goodyear welted” shoes, a 300-year-old process whereby the shoe is stitched together. This time-consuming and expensive technique gives the footwear strength and durability. As Andrew Loake, the current head of the company, explains, all shoes used to be made like this until the advent of cheaper injection-moulding. “So,” he explains, “our shoes have moved from being mass-commodity items to being specialist and different.” In that sort of market, argues Mr Loake, the only way to go is to make shoes better rather than cheaper. His company now uses higher-quality leather than it did in the 1980s. Each shoe takes eight weeks to make, involving about 200 processes. Some of these haven’t changed for a long time. But that is exactly what new consumers, particularly in Asia, want to pay for. Exports now account for over one-third of its sales, and have been increasing steadily over the past decade. Loake’s biggest export market is Sweden. Its second-biggest is South Korea, reflecting, says Mr Loake, “a hunger for high-quality goods” in Asia. Church’s is also doing well in the East. Although it is now owned by Prada, an Italian luxury-goods company, it sells itself as the quintessential English manufacturer. To control the Church’s brand, it sells almost half of its products through its own bespoke shops—four in Hong Kong, two in Shanghai, and one in Singapore. It is trying to open one in Beijing, too. Prices are steep, rising to £1,000 ($1,500) a pair. But, even producing 5,000 pairs a week, the company cannot meet demand—hence the expansion of their factory in Northampton. If the 21st century does belong to Asia, at least its masters will be well-shod.A plan to raise millions of dollars as a reward for information in regards to the whereabouts of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has not gone to plan, with less than two per cent of the target raised so far. Family members of those who were on board the Beijing-bound flight, which went missing after departing from Kuala Lumpur on March 8, launched a crowdfunding campaign earlier this month in hope of raising $5 million within a month. The campaign to raise $5 million for the search for MH370 has raised less than $80,000 so far, A $3 million portion of that was to be used as a reward for whistleblowers and the other $2 million was to be used to fund private investigators to follow up on any information provided. "Reward MH370" was launched on June 8 on indiegogo.com and has raised $80,000 so far, still well short of a revised target of $100,000 by the July 8 "deadline".News in Science Eight-armed animal preceded dinosaurs Scientists have discovered what they believe is an eight-armed creature, which colonised a large section of the world's oceans over 300 million years before the first dinosaurs emerged. The findings represent the first comparable animal fossils from the Ediacaran Period, 635 to 541 million years ago, which appear in two drastically different preservation environments - black shale of South China and quartz rock of South Australia. "According to palaeogeographic reconstructions, South China and South Australia were close to each other at the time, belonging to a supercontinent called Gondwana," says lead author Dr Maoyan Zhu. Zhu, a scientist at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, first helped to make the China-Australia connection two years ago during a Beijing conference. He showed a photo of the unusual eight-armed creature, called Eoandromeda octobrachiata, to co-author Dr James Gehling of the South Australia Museum. "He was so surprised and immediately opened his laptop and showed me images of new fossils uncovered from a new locality at the Flinders Ranges of South Australia," says Zhu. "We wondered if these were the same fossils." Zhu, Gehling and their colleagues collected eight compressions of the animals from the Doushantuo Formation at Wenghui, China. They then traveled to Flinders Ranges, Australia, and collected seven specimens, leaving 31 others on two excavated and reassembled beds. The findings are published in the November issue of Geology. There is no question the creature, believed to represent one type of animal, had a lot of arms. Simple and symmetrical The eight arms are clearly preserved in our specimens," says Zhu, adding that the arms were tubular and in close contact with each other, but not joined. He and his colleagues believe the animal was a soft-bodied, dome-shaped organism that lived on seabeds and fed by absorbing dissolved nutrients from the ambient environment. Before the latest fossils were found, some researchers identified the creatures as lichens or fungus-like organisms, but Zhu and his team suspect that at least some Ediacara fossils represent now-extinct diploblastic animals, or creatures that possess only two cellular layers separated by a jelly-type substance. "Diploblastic animals are common creatures on present day earth," he said, mentioning that jellyfish, corals and sea anemones belong to the group. "These animals (display) radial symmetry but lack complex organs, as shown by E. octobrachiata," he adds. The multi-armed creature, and several other early life forms, went extinct around 542 million years ago, which Zhu says, "left empty niches for the subsequent Cambrian explosion of complex animals." Representatives of nearly all existent animals emerged at this time, when a rapid increase in oxygen made respiration and metabolism possible. Bridging the gap In a separate paper, Professor Shuhai Xiao, a researcher in the Department of Geosciences at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and colleague Dr Marc Laflamme provide an overview of Ediacara fossils. In the paper, which has been accepted for publication in the journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution, Xiao and Laflamme agree that, "Ediacara biota bridges the cryptic evolution of multicellular life in the early Ediacaran and the extraordinary radiation of animals in the Cambrian period." In addition to the eight-armed creature, they describe other early living things that looked like leaves, shells, stars and something almost akin to a peace symbol. Xiao and Laflamme hope that as the Ediacara fossil database grows ever larger, more mysteries about these very early organisms will be solved.Advertisement Report: FBI says Brittanee Drexel was abducted, raped, killed, fed to gators Agent's testimony based on prison inmate's statement, Post and Courier reports Share Shares Copy Link Copy A court document includes an FBI agent's detailed account describing a teen, who went missing in Myrtle Beach, as having been abducted, gang-raped, shot to death and her body thrown into an alligator pit in a swamp, according to a report in The Post and Courier.Brittanee Drexel, 17, of Rochester, New York, disappeared during a 2009 spring break trip to Myrtle Beach. In July, the FBI announced that their investigation had determined that Drexel was murdered. At that time, the FBI told Drexel’s mother that a suspect or suspects had been identified.Previous stories: August news conference \| Brittanee's mother speaks \| Suspect identifiedThe Post and Courier report says FBI agent Gerrick Munoz’s detailed account is based on a statement from a prison inmate who claims he was present when Drexel was killed.Munoz testified that inmate, Taquan Brown of Walterboro, told investigators he went to a “stash house” in the McClellanville area in the days after Drexel was abducted, according to the report.Brown reportedly told the FBI that when he went into the house with a couple other men, he saw Timothy Da’Shaun Taylor, then 16, “sexually abusing Brittanee Drexel.”Munoz testified that Brown saw others in the room with Taylor and Drexel, and that when he was outside the house, Drexel ran from the house, was pistol-whipped, taken back inside and shot. Brown told the FBI that he assumed Taylor had shot Drexel, whose body was then wrapped and taken away, The Post and Courier reported.The FBI agent said several witness told investigators that Drexel’s body was put in a gator pit so it would be eaten, according to the report.Munoz reportedly testified that investigators have searched several alligator ponds to no avail. He said investigators have been told that the area is peppered with as many as 40 of these ponds.Munoz testified that another inmate corroborated Brown’s account, and told investigators that Taylor had picked Drexel up in Myrtle Beach and took her to McClellanville where she ended up in a sex trafficking situation.The Post and Courier reported that Drexel’s family could not be reached for comment on the new developments and the FBI would not comment on the testimony.Taylor's attorney said the testimony is a “squeeze-job” to force Taylor’s cooperation, the report said.A judge ordered Taylor released on $10,000 bail, which he posted later in the day after the bond hearing, The Post and Courier reported.Taylor’s mother, Joan Taylor, 44, of McClellanville, told The Post and Courier that the story is “craziness” and is being used by federal authorities anxious to solve the case.Disclaimer: This article exposes what I (and others) feel is the correct way to manage environment variables in development. Environment variables help us define values which we do not want hard-coded in our source. They allow us to customize code behavior depending on the environment in which it is running. There is a problem in the way most people manage their environment variables though, and it has to do with their scope. Let’s say we are building an app which uses Amazon web services’ S3 to upload some assets. Amazon requires us to use a Secret Access Key and an Access Key Id. The most common way to set environment variables is by declaring them in our.bash_profile file. Like this: export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=foo export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=bar Simple enough, after a quick reload we can access our environment variables in node: var secretAccessKey = process.env.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY; var accessKeyId = process.env.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID; Good, this usually works well, unless we have, for example, another project which also uses AWS credentials. We can’t name the variables the same because environment variables are global, so all we are left with is namespacing. After a couple of years using this approach, your.bash_profile can get pretty big. Not only that but you will probably have to think twice before deleting a 2-year-old environment variable (how can you be so sure it is not being used somewhere else?). The solution: Local environment variables Yep, environment variables which only exist in the scope of a certain project. It is common knowledge that values which are sensitive or depend on the code’s environment should not be committed to version control (because of course, you want the environment to provide them), so don’t worry, we won’t be doing that. Well… sort of. We need the following: A way to read local environment variables A setup script An ignore rule for our environment file To make this happen we will be using DotEnv. The setup We first install the package: npm install dotenv --save Now we create a.sample-env file with sample/default values for our development environment: AWS_SECRET_KEY=fake_secret AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=fake_key_id The template file serves as a guide for developers to know which environment variables the project needs, and also works for setting default variables when possible. Now we will create a setup script for our project (if we don’t have one), which any contributor should run before they start working Here’s mine (setup.js): 'use strict'; fs = require('fs'); fs.createReadStream('.sample-env') .pipe(fs.createWriteStream('.env')); We then can run it with node setup.js (Or declare it as an npm script) The script simply copies the contents from the.sample-env and creates with them a new file called.env By default, the DotEnv library will look for the.env file to set the environment variables. We now add an ignore rule (if using Git) to avoid the environment variables from being committed to the source code. Add the following line to your.gitignore file: .env Almost ready, now we open our.env file and edit the values with real values AWS_SECRET_KEY=real_secret AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=real_key_id Remember to edit the.env file, not the.sample-env Finally we need to use DotEnv to load our environment variables var dotenv = require('dotenv'); // There's no need to check if.env exists, dotenv will check this // for you. It will show a small warning which can be disabled when // using this in production. dotenv.load(); Our development environment is now ready, we have local environment variables which don’t conflict between different projects. Remember, this is for your Development environment, not Production It is important to remember that this setup should only be used for development. For production you should still set your environment variables in the standard way. That’s it. Hope this helps you as it has helped me, feel free to comment your thoughts on this approach.Khaled Aziz, 36, holds up his wrists to show wounds he says were inflicted by Shiite militia fighters during three days of torture he and dozens of men suffered after they fled their town near the besieged Islamic State-held city of Fallujah. Photo: Tamer El-Ghobashy/The Wall Street Journal. AMRIYAT AL FALLUJAH, Iraq—Food is in short supply and the water is always too hot to drink in this sun-baked desert camp for thousands of Iraqis who have fled the Islamic State-held city of Fallujah. But most of the uprooted Iraqis here, all of them Sunni Muslims, had only one complaint for visiting government officials this week: Where are our men? The question was shouted often, sometimes through tears, by desperate women searching for their husbands, brothers and fathers. “I just want to see them with my eyes,” pleaded Niran Ayad, 20 years old, reeling off the names of her father, several uncles and cousins and other missing relatives. “I just want to know if they’re alive.” The mystery surrounding the whereabouts of hundreds of fighting-age Sunni men has given rise to allegations that Shiite Muslim militias known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, a crucial component of the Baghdad government’s offensive to retake Fallujah, are to blame for their disappearance. The gathering political storm is threatening to undermine the government’s military campaign to recapture Fallujah and reclaim all of western Anbar province from the Sunni radicals of Islamic State, said a spokesman for Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, whose Shiite-dominated government is under pressure to rein in the controversial but effective militias. Mr. Abadi has formed a committee to investigate the reports of executions and beatings. On Monday, his office said an undisclosed number of people had been arrested on charges of abusing Sunnis displaced from their homes by the fighting in Fallujah. “This negatively affects security forces and Popular Mobilization Forces,” said the spokesman, Saad al-Hadithi. “And this negatively affects national unity and gives [Islamic State] a gift.” An Internally displaced woman
500 people laid off on the NBN project because their employer is not getting paid. It's an outrageous scenario. "There's no suggestion as yet that there will be industrial action in Tasmania, it's certainly being discussed but sub-contractors need to be paid." Visionstream says some work has been delayed because of asbestos issues and it is working with subcontractors on schedules and pay rates. Meanwhile, 25 subcontractors working on the rollout in Ballarat in Victoria are still off the job because of a pay dispute. Staff from two subcontracting firms said on Monday they would not be returning to work amid complaints of drip-feed payments and disagreements about contractual terms. One firm told the ABC it would not be sending its workers back on the job until the dispute with the contractor, Transfield, is resolved. Topics: internet-technology, computers-and-technology, business-economics-and-finance, federal-government, government-and-politics, federal-elections, australia, ballarat-3350, vic, hobart-7000, tasBlitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich by Norman Ohler, translated from the German by Shaun Whiteside Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 292 pp., $28.00 Norman Ohler, a German journalist, novelist, and filmmaker, was intrigued when a disc jockey in Berlin told him that the Third Reich was riddled with drugs and suggested that somebody should make a film about it. Ohler began to study the subject, thinking at first to write a novel, but then decided not to treat it as fiction, even though he lacked historical training. After his research in German and American archives had progressed, Ohler approached one of the leading German historians of the Nazi era, the late Hans Mommsen. Mommsen was impressed by his findings and became his unofficial supervisor. At the core of Ohler’s book lie the fundamental paradox and shameless hypocrisy of Nazism. Its ideology demanded purity of body, blood, and mind. Adolf Hitler was portrayed as a vegetarian teetotaler who would allow nothing to corrupt him. Drugs were depicted as part of a Jewish plot to poison and weaken the nation—Jews were said to “play a supreme part” in the international drug trade—and yet nobody became more dependent on cocktails of drugs than Hitler, and no armed forces did more to enhance their troops’ performance than the Wehrmacht did by using a version of methamphetamine. Although Ohler’s book does not fundamentally change the history of the Third Reich, it is an account that makes us look at this densely studied period rather differently. In the nineteenth century, Germany led the world in chemical and pharmaceutical research. In 1805, while Goethe was writing Faust in Weimar, Friedrich Wilhelm Sertürner was experimenting with opium poppies in Paderborn and eventually isolated morphine. In 1827, the pharmaceutical industry began with Heinrich Emanuel Merck, an apothecary in Darmstadt who, Ohler writes, had a “business model of supplying alkaloids and other medications in unvarying quality.” A quarter of a century later, morphine became available for pain relief in military surgery. Germany maintained its lead over the world mainly because the country had so many well-educated chemists. One from the Bayer Company in 1897 synthesized aspirin from willow bark. Eleven days later, the same man, Felix Hoffmann, created diacetyl morphine, which was trademarked as Heroin. Bayer advertised and sold it as a cure for headaches, for cough relief, and to help babies sleep. Profits were enormous. Political and social upheaval only seemed to increase the market. Even in revolutionary Petrograd, the consumption of cocaine soared among young commissars and their mistresses from noble families, as memorably depicted in M. Ageyev’s Novel with Cocaine. In bankrupt Germany after World War I, the psychic and physical trauma of the conflict made Germans desperate for the industry’s products.…Astronauts on board the International Space Station are reminded of the continuing brutal conflict between Israel and Gaza as they witness air strikes from hundreds of miles above ground. European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst shared photos taken from space of Israel and the Gaza Strip onto Facebook and Twitter with a bleak caption: “My saddest photo yet. From the International Space Station we can actually see explosions and rockets flying over Gaza and Israel.” The situation in the area is harrowing. Israel continues to pummel Gaza with air strikes and on Monday, Israel struck a hospital in Gaza killing 5 people, two of whom were patients in their beds. It has been reported that over 700 Palestinians have died so far in Gaza, a third of whom were children, alongside 34 Israelis. According to the UN, more than 100,000 Gazans have now been displaced. Kerry has pledged that the US would provide $47 million in humanitarian aid in order to help those affected by the situation. While astronauts on board the ISS are frequented with views of the Earth that are second to none, this is not the first time that such vistas have been tainted. In 2001, NASA astronaut Frank Culbertson photographed the smoking World Trade Center following the infamous plane crashes. In 2011, Expedition 26 astronauts witnessed floodwaters that were the result of a tsunami that tore across Japan. It seems that you truly cannot escape from the world, even from space. My saddest photo yet. From #ISS we can actually see explosions and rockets flying over #Gaza & #Israel pic.twitter.com/jNGWxHilSy — Alexander Gerst (@Astro_Alex) July 23, 2014 [Hat tip: space.com]Man Seeking Woman is an American comedy television series that aired for three seasons on FXX from January 14, 2015, to March 8, 2017.[1] The series is set in Chicago, about a naïve and soft-spoken man in his 20s named Josh Greenberg (played by Jay Baruchel), who finds himself in several surreal and awkward circumstances while trying to find love. The series is based on a book of short stories, The Last Girlfriend on Earth, by Simon Rich,[2] who is also the series creator, executive producer, and showrunner. Jonathan Krisel, Andrew Singer, and Lorne Michaels are also executive producers, with Broadway Video, Allagash Industries and FXP (formerly FX Productions) as production companies.[3] It has received generally positive reception from critics. On April 4, 2017, the show was canceled.[4] Premise [ edit ] Most episode plots are based on relatable conflicts and struggles of entering/maintaining a relationship; however, these conflicts are taken to absurd and literal extremes. The show centers on Josh Greenberg, who struggles finding love after a break-up with his long term girlfriend Maggie. His mature and successful older sister Liz often tries to help him enter into a serious relationship, and his sex-crazed best friend Mike often tries to help him with solely having sex. Josh's efforts oftentimes lead him into surreal and awkward circumstances such as going on a date with an actual troll, physically misplacing his penis, or meeting a Japanese monster composed of human penises. Sometimes Josh is successful in finding a girlfriend; however, these relationships usually only survive for one episode. Cast [ edit ] Main [ edit ] Jay Baruchel as Josh Greenberg, a naïve and soft-spoken 27-year-old man working a temp job. He struggles to find love, following a break-up from a long relationship. He is sometimes used as a straight man when absurd and surreal things happen. [5] Eric André as Mike Scaggs, Josh's laid-back best friend who has an easier time with girls than Josh. He often attempts to help Josh, however, he is more interested in helping him have sex as opposed to entering into a serious relationship. [6] Britt Lower as Liz Greenberg, Josh's protective and caring older sister who also tries to help Josh. Her methods of helping are more rational and down-to-earth than Mike's; they are more driven to getting Josh into a serious relationship. She has a condescending view of Mike, who in turn doesn't seem to have an opinion of her. Maya Erskine as Maggie, Josh's ex-girlfriend, who breaks up with him in the first episode. (season 1) [6] Katie Findlay as Lucy, Josh's girlfriend and later wife. (season 3) Recurring [ edit ] Robin Duke as Patti Greenberg, Josh and Liz's mother. Mark McKinney as Tom Greenberg, Josh and Liz's step-father. Ennis Esmer as Leo, Liz's boyfriend (season 1) Rosa Salazar as Rosa Mendes, an office co-worker that Josh and Mike fall in love with. (season 2) Cole Escola as Chris, one of Lucy's roommates (season 3) Production [ edit ] On June 19, 2013, FXX ordered a pilot episode for Man Seeking Woman from Simon Rich, directed by Jonathan Krisel.[2] On February 6, 2014, Jay Baruchel was cast as the lead character, Josh Greenberg.[5] On March 20, Eric André, Britt Lower, and Maya Erskine were announced as the remaining principal cast members.[6] On July 2, the network announced it had picked up the series for a 10-episode series order, as well as its principal cast and production crew.[3] On October 31, Miles Fisher was cast in a recurring role.[7] The series is filmed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.[8] On March 3, 2015, it was renewed for a 10-episode second season.[9] On April 12, 2016, FX announced it was renewed for a 10-episode third season.[10] Episodes [ edit ] Season Episodes Originally aired First aired Last aired 1 10 January 14, 2015 ( ) March 18, 2015 ( 2015-03-18 ) 2 10 January 6, 2016 ( ) March 9, 2016 ( 2016-03-09 ) 3 10 January 4, 2017 ( ) March 8, 2017 ( 2017-03-08 ) Reception [ edit ] Man Seeking Woman has been met with positive reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives the first season of the show a rating of 81%, based on 31 reviews, with an average rating of 6.73/10. The site's critical consensus states, "Amusingly surrealistic and enjoyably odd, Man Seeking Woman is easy to fall for, taking a ridiculously funny approach to a common theme."[11] On Metacritic, the season has a score of 66 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[12] The second season received positive reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a rating of 100% based on 8 reviews with an average rating of 8.0 out of 10.[13] The third season also received positive reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a rating of 100% based on 12 reviews with an average rating of 8.83 out of 10. The site's critical consensus states, "Man Seeking Woman explores new avenues of storytelling in season 3, while maintaining its excellent absurdist humor and imaginative dealings with relatable relationship issues."[14] On Metacritic, the season has a score of 89 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[15]How accurate are online auto insurance quotes? For example, Geico, Progressive, or Esurance? Are they accurate if you are honest about the information? And even though they don't ask for the VIN number? ANSWER: I might suggest one to visit this internet site where one can get quotes from different companies: insurecheap.us RELATED FAQS: Pregnant and losing insurance? I recently got laid off and don't want to use COBRA because of the high cost. I am only 31 so I don't think I can apply for Medical or Medicaid. I also know that I cannot get new insurance because I am already pregnant. Does anyone know how to get State-Funded insurance or at least assistance from the state? I live in California. Can someone with a DWI that is 5 years old get non-owners insurance and legally drive someone's car? Or better yet, if they get their own insurance in the state of NC male, 28, employeed part time get a insurance that is not at a high rate even with the DWI?" Do I need public liability Insurance? We are starting a service that matches companies to website designers. Its an online service. Theoretically there could be issue between the companies meeting through our service. Would we require some sort of public liability insurance to cover us for such issues? or maybe some other sort of insurance.? regards Ashley Will this affect my car insurance rates? Once, several years ago I had given the information to the other person but had not heard from anyone several days later, so I called my insurance... sadly (my bad) I did not get the other persons information so I was told not to worry about it until the other person reported it... that never happened... what happens here????.." Why car insurance cards come in pair? Just wondering why insurance identification cards come in pair? Anyway? ^_^ T.Y. How much does roofers insurance cost? I'm a one-man show for residential work looking for the cheapest policy? How much does roofers insurance cost? I'm a one-man show for residential work looking for the cheapest policy? Where can i get affordable health insurance? I live in iowa.. Where are some places i can get some affordable (cheap) health insurance? Thanks! Does a retired teamster get life insurance? My dad died, my step mom says he has no life insurance. he has been a teamster for over 25 years." Can I wait to report damage to insurance company till car payed off? My car was parked on a busy street in icy conditions and when I returned to it, it had clearly been hit but no one left a note, etc. It will probably be very expensive to fix...although it is only cosmetic damage and it isn't horrible. In fact, from a distance, you don't notice it much. Anyway....my husband passed away recently and my finances have been limited. I have full coverage on the car (It is a 2004 ford escape)....because I am still making payments on it. We have a $1000 deductible, which I cannot afford right now. Besides, my brother-in-law tells me he can spruce up the damage and make it look better..and of course won't charge me much for that. So....here was my plan. Please tell me if I'm doing anything illegal here or just tell me if my plan will work: So...I'm expecting a large enough tax refund that I can pay the car off in March if I choose to do so. Once that is all complete...and before I drop my full coverage to just liability, I was going to report the damage....and go through the process of getting estimate, etc...and then not have the car fixed and just take a check. With that check, I was going to pay off some other bills I'm very behind on (mainly hospital bills). That plan will help me get my finances in order and get out from under debt. But I'm not sure if I'm thinking clearly on this! Someone please tell me if this plan is an option. Thank you!" I got into a car accident like 2 weeks ago and i havent recieved a rent a car from the insurance company?????? I havent recieved a rentacar from the insurance company i didnt have insurance since the car was no more that 3 hours new to me i had just bought it. It was cansidered a total lose from the insurance what should i do. Would insurance on a 1992 lexus sc 300 be expensive? im 18 year old in riverside california? yes i recently just got my license and im only 18 in riverside california Where can i buy health insurance? I'm have a low income and I'm looking for a right insurance coverage. I work as a part time job so my employer won't buy an insurance for me. Please if anyone knows any...show more What is the best health insurance company in Canada? from your experience. just a student on a budget. i have two little ones as well. About how much does insurance cost for a 16 year old male in new Mexico cost???????? About how much does insurance cost for a 16 year old male in new Mexico cost???????? Car accident and lapse of insurance...? Alright, this is part two of my question. To recap, on March 25 I was in a two car motor vehicle accident in California. I had no idea that my insurance had lapsed because I had moved before the notice was sent out. Therefore, I told the police that I had insurance under my current holder. Both parties feel the other person was at fault for this accident. My car was totaled while his only had minor damage. Myself and my passenger were hurt, while the other car's passengers werent. Now, my questions are as follows: 1. Do I need to call the police and let them know that I had no insurance, but just reinstated it yesterday? 2. Will I be facing jail time or just fines? I am willing to pay anything in order to clear this up. 3. Will I lose my license? 4. What other steps do I now need to take to resolve this issue? I've never had a wreck before and I have a clean criminal record, so I am a newbie to this process. Please help me!" I would like to know which is the average prize for a scooter insurance? I would like to buy a new scooter, i don't know yet which one exacly but it' s probably going to be a 250cc or 125cc, prize around 2000 - 3000. I would just like to know which can be the average prize to insure it, as I checked on the net for a quote but all of of them ask me for my details and everything....I am a little bit scared to give my all my details away to an unknown website over the internet, so I was just wondering if somebody could give me at least an idea on the average scooter insurance prize ( I know I know, I am so inexperinced about this things!!! ) By the way, my age is 32, if that makes the difference Thank you very much for your help in advance." What is the best medical insurance company in illinois? What is the best medical insurance company in illinois? Low cost car insurance in California? I'm a young driver with no previous driving experience who needs low cost auto insurance coverage in California, where can I get it?" How much does it cost to buy insurance for a small business? How much does it cost to buy insurance for a small business? Health Insurance and Auto Insurance.? Just wondering how this works. Let's say this happens one day.... I cause an auto accident and I'm injured. My insurance will cover up to $5,000 for my medical bills. I have a heath insurance policy that has a 3,000 deductible and once that limit is reached, the health insurance company will cover everything else. (0% coinsurance on my behalf). Will the auto insurance be used towards my health insurance deductible if the above said scenario should happen?" Will my car insurance be able to transfer over to another car without extra fees? My mother-n-law has an extra car that she doesn't have insurance on because she doesn't drive it shes letting me use it for a month. If i get my own policy and pay the 6 month premium in full and add that car to it when I take that car off after i give it back to her will i have a credit that I can transfer over to my car when i get one in a couple months without paying anything extra? I need to know where i stand with insurance? basically a guy drove into the side of me and my car is in the garage awaiting assessment to see if its to be written off or fixed. of course the insurance wants whatever is cheapest and its looking like it would be cheaper to write it off. if this happens can i 1. offer to pay more on my excess to get it fixed? 2. get the car picked up and pay for it all myself to get fixed at my own mechanics? its not that the car isn't fixable its just that the insurance is looking at the cheapest option, which looks like writing it off, because my excess is so high, but if they do this i will never be able to afford the insurance, so would rather keep this policy and fix it, anyway is this possible and can anyone find a loophole?" Health insurance options for single moms? My daughter is on my boyfriends health insurance right now, but he is switching jobs and his new job makes him get through 60 days of training before being able to receive health insurance. I am personally covered under my parents insurance, but they will not allow me to insure my daughter with them, so I was wondering if there is any affordable insurance options for my daughter while my boyfriend is unable to insure her. I am currently unemployed (to stay home with our baby) and since we are not married I am considered a single mom" What are the chances of me 'winning' this car insurance claim? Yesterday i was leaving work, driving along a road, when a young girl ( 17/18 ) drove straight out of the car park on the left and hit my nsf wheel so hard it pushed my car 5ft across the road. She said she didn't even look to see if a car was coming. She has large scuff marks on the corner of her bumper, my car has a dented wing, wrecked wheel (which is no longer pointing straight ). This girl is on her parents insurance. Her boyfriend was on his motorbike and said to me, he didn't believe she just did that, he saw it all. My insurance company says it seems straight forward - she was totally at fault, My car is not drive able. Husband ( mechanic ) seems to think i may need a new steering rack, wishbone maybe strutt, wing, alloy wheels....they may write my car off as its value for insurance is 1200. Has anyone else experienced a similar accident or got any advice?" How does my driving record affect my parents insurance rates? In Illinois How does my driving record (20 F) affect my parents auto insurance if I'm not on their policy? I have my own car in my name and my own insurance policy in a different company than theirs. I do have 2 points on my record from a collision back in Oct. of 08' shortly after I got my license. Even than I had my own car and own insurance. I do live at home but I don't drive any of their cars ever. How accurate are online auto insurance quotes? For example, Geico, Progressive, or Esurance? Are they accurate if you are honest about the information? And even though they don't ask for the VIN number? ANSWER: I might suggest one to visit this internet site where one can get quotes from different companies: insurecheap.us Where is the best place to get an online car insurance quote? Well, I just got a new car and need to get insurance. I was wondering what the best site is for insurance quotes and where I can get the cheapest insurance? Thank you in advance!" Car insurance question? In Georgia, if you let someone borrow your car and they get a speeding ticket, does it make your insurance go up too since it happend in your car?" Anyone know of an car insurance company that doesn't require the vehicle to be in your name? Geico cancelled our policy because our car is in our grandmothers name.Also if she gets a policy, the addys have to all match.Are all insurance companys this strict?the car is about to die soon, so we dont wanna spend more money on transferring the title, but I guess we will if we have to.We are getting another car fixed soon that we will be driving." Do Republicans think low insurance rates means cheap healthcare? The fact is that under ObamaCare insurance rates are set by the amount the insurance company pays to doctors and hospitals. If they charge more than 125% of what they pay out they...show more "Searching for car insurance, suggestions?" I'm currently searching for a decent car insurance company. What do the great people of Yahoo Answers recommend? Do you possibly have any examples of how this car insurance company has helped you in the past? I don't know if it matters, but I live in Southern Illinois (in case region matters.) 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I can afford the payments, Just not insuracne, lol" How much would car insurance be for a 1999 eclipse gs? what would i be paying if i got a normal full coverage on this eclipse? and please no go to this link and get a free quote just give me an estimate, thanks" Long term car insurance abroad? I need to leave UK for 3-4 months and I need car insurance for my car. Currently I have Elephant insurance but they only offer 30 consecutive days for driving abroad but I need longer than that. Is there other company which can insure for longer than 90 days? Or what do you usually do? Can I insure car with local insurance companies if I have UK registration? Thank you "Since the Federal Govt. will make us buy govt health insurance, can they make us buy a GM?" Since the Federal Govt. will make us buy govt health insurance, can they make us buy a GM?" "What company, in your opinion, is the cheapest for car insurance?" I'm 29, good credit rating, have like 1 speeding ticket on my record (will be taken off with defensive driving)" Can I drive this car without insurance? So i just bought a new 350z model 06 from someone and i was wondering if i can drive it for couple of days. I live in California, near oakland and san jose. I heard people telling me that when u buy a new/used car u can drive it for 15-30 days without insurance. If someone knows a link to some stuff about this please tell me :D Thanks." Why pay for health insurance anymore? The Community Organizer (Barry O) has made sure that pre-existing condition cannot be basis for refusal when buying health insurance. So why not just wait until you get sick to purchase insurance? Its like waiting until you get into a car wreak to buy car insurance. Barry's penalty for not having insurance doesn't kick in for another few years... so why have insurance before getting sick? How much does points on your license affect my insurance? I would like to let you people know that I'm a full-time student, and that this month has to be officially the worst month of my life. Throughout this month I've been pulled over twice, and the reason for them are pretty stupid if you ask me. I basically see it as being at the wrong place at the wrong time. The first time I got pulled over was while I was getting off a red light with a car in front of me. I got hit with 3 tickets. - Tailgating, (supposedly I was too close to the other car when i was getting off the red light) - Careless driving, (don't know how this plays a roll in why I got pull over) - Loud muffler, ( just got it back from the mechanic that day and had a leak on the exhaust) The second time I got pulled over I stopped on a red light and checked if I can make a right on red, there was no sign stating I can't, so I went ahead and turned red when possible. I was given two tickets. smh -____- FML - Failure to observe traffic control device ( don't know how if I clearly noticed it was red) - Careless Driving _______________________________ Aside from the facts that they are points on my license, I'm going to do my best in trying to take some courses that can remove the points they gave my license. All in all, how much will this affect my insurance. Again FML, I'm a full-time student who commutes and has no job." What reputable health insurance companies are out there? My mom doesn't have health insurance and my job doesn't give insurance to family members. I would like to pay monthly to a health insurance company so my mom could get health check up when she needs it. Do you know any health insurance companies that can accept low monthly payments since I don't get paid that much? Car insurance first time owner? Hi, I'm an international student with USA drivings license in Fl. I'm covered by my boyfriends car insurance company in order to drive his car but that's everything what I have as insurance. I'm on my way on buying a new car and I don't know what to do. Because I have my driving's license for an less than year the rates are pretty high. Almost 500$ for a month. Does anybody know any cheap insurance company that will help me to overcome this obstacle and moreover is there any other trick that I can use in order to reduce the rates. Thank you in advance." How important is insurance to you? Insurance companies sell them in many different forms. Life, Critical illness, Pet etc... We never used to have so much insurance in good old days but nowawadays we seem to have an insurance product to cover almost everything.Although the need for insurance is very much there do you think we are being tricked by the companies..? What are your thoughts / experiences? (well lets not talk about car insurance as its a must to have)" Getting out of a speeding ticket for insurance purposes? Is there a way I can get out of a speeding/failure to meet at a stop sign ticket? I really don't care about paying the ticket or court costs at all, but I just can not, really, really, can not pay the extra insurance money. I am paying out of state tuition AND I am in Architecture. Architecture is SUCH an expensive major. The police officer (whose name I can't even read on the ticket because it is just a scribble) gave me a ticket for speeding and failure to stop at a stop sign. I have always been a great driver, I never speed, I always stop at stop signs, I don't drink/text/talk over the phone and drive, I always have my seatbelt on. This one time I absolutely needed to get home at 2am I decide to go a little faster and yup, of course I get a ticket. I don't want to lie, I was doing 36 on a 20 zone at the time, I admit it even though I honestly did not realize I was going at 36 I didn't' do it on purpose. I didn't think hey I'm just gonna go faster because no one is around, I really honestly did not notice I was going at 36. But I am not sure about the stop sign thing. Honestly I was not paying much attention because I drive through this stop sign everyday but I distinctly remember there was a car already at the stop sign coming from the left so I HAD to stop. There was absolutely no one else coming from any of the four sides, so I might have not stopped completely but I did slow down almost to a stop and then kept going. Then like I said I was going at 36 on a 20 zone. This was at 2 a clock in the morning when there was literally not a soul around. The police officer was practically hiding in a dark, empty parking lot and came out of no where. I really don't want to make excuses for myself. I know what I did was wrong and I'll admit it. But this is my first ticket, and I really don't want t have to pay so much more money on my insurance for a slip as small as this one. My boyfriend was with mi in the car if that means anything. I really don't know, I've never had a ticket before. I've been reading up on how to get out of a ticket, and a lot of people say it is good to talk to the officer, and I thought about doing it but the officer's name is not readable at all. He also completely misspelled my name. In Puerto Rico we use both my father's and mother's last names so I have two last names. Let's say my name is X, my father's last name is Y and my mother's is Z. In Puerto Rico it goes like X Y Z and since my license is from Puerto Rico that is how it is written in my license. But the police officer wrote X Z. So my name is wrong in the ticket. I don't know if that counts for anything, someone told me that if they misspell my name or the officer's it means the ticket is dropped. This seems unlikely but hey, like I said I really have no clue. Again, I don't want to make excuses for myself, but I just can't afford extra insurance costs. I just cant..." What should i expect to receive for a 1997 saturn sl1 from an insurance campany after total? i have a 1997 saturn sl1 that has 122,000 miles on it, power door locks, aftermarket component speakers, tinted windows, automatic, power steering, A/C. i was rear ended and the the body shop told me totaled. now im waiting for the insurance to pay me for the car and make an offer. does anybody have an idea what i should expect. this was a reliable car, i drive this car everywhere, it was supposed to get me to school everyday when i start college and my school is about 10 miles each way. i just dont want a low ball offer where i cant purchase a car thats going to get me to college everyday when i dont have a job. what is the average for this car, in great shape. will they pay for the speakers, the starter i just replaced 2 weeks ago" First car insurance help.? Hi, I just bought my first car today. It was a Ford Ka 1997 1.3L. I am at college and have only 210 income per month. I don't know which would be the best type of insurance for me. I need to be insured for at the latest 24th April 09. Should I do monthly or annually. I did an annual insurance quote over the internet and the cheapest I got was with Endsleigh for 1500. What would be the best method of payment for me? Thanks very much for any help." Would car insurance on a? 2006 dodge ram 1500 short bed single cab or 2005chevy tahoe z71 cost more? How accurate are online auto insurance quotes? For example, Geico, Progressive, or Esurance? Are they accurate if you are honest about the information? And even though they don't ask for the VIN number? ANSWER: I might suggest one to visit this internet site where one can get quotes from different companies: insurecheap.usLEE THOMAS• AMAGALLERYPHOTOS.COM His Holiness Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad led the convention The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community have also paid tribute to the victims of terror attacks during the landmark three day event. The Worldwide Head – or Caliph – of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, His Holiness Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, led the convention with a rallying call to members to serve the country they live in and to work for peace at every level of society. The Caliph led thousands in a vow of peace at Oakland Farm, Alton, in the Hampshire countryside. Thousands gathered in the canvas village with rows upon rows of stalls and a maze of tents for the 50th anniversary event. The Ahmadiyya Caliphate is a Muslim organisation established in India in 1889 and came to Britain in 1913. The group built London’s first mosque, The London Mosque in Putney, in 1926 and it now has more than 100 branches across Britain, including the Baitul Futuh mosque in south London, the largest in western Europe. LEE THOMAS More than 30,000 Muslims attended the meeting LEE THOMAS Muslims pledged allegiance to their country of residence and formed a human chain LEE THOMAS The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community also paid tribute to the victims of terror attacks All people who wish to promote peace must stand united against such bloodshed His Holiness Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad Muslims from more than 90 countries around the world pledged allegiance to their country of residence and formed a human chain to re-affirm their rejection of violence and extremism. His Holiness Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said:“We continue to witness grave injustices being committed against innocent people, be they Muslims, Christians, Jews or people any faith or of no faith. "This is most reprehensible and there is no justification
prescient representatives of the Italian Left at the inception of the fascist movement, and on several occasions predicted that unless unified action were taken against the rise of Mussolini’s movement, Italian democracy and Italian socialism would both suffer a disastrous defeat. The years 1921 to 1926, years “of iron and fire” as he called them, were eventful and productive. They were marked in particular by the year and a half he lived in Moscow as an Italian delegate to the Communist International (May 1922- November 1923), his election to the Chamber of Deputies in April 1924, and his assumption of the position of general secretary of the PCI. His personal life was also filled with significant experiences, the chief one being his meeting with and subsequent marriage to Julka Schucht (1896-1980), a violinist and member of the Russian Communist Party whom he met during his stay in Russia. Antonio and Julka had two sons, Delio (1924-1981), and Giuliano, born in 1926, who lives today in Moscow with his wife. On the evening of November 8, 1926, Gramsci was arrested in Rome and, in accordance with a series of “Exceptional Laws” enacted by the fascist-dominated Italian legislature, committed to solitary confinement at the Regina Coeli prison. This began a ten-year odyssey, marked by almost constant physical and psychic pain as a result of a prison experience that culminated, on April 27, 1937, in his death from a cerebral hemorrhage. No doubt the stroke that killed him was but the final outcome of years and years of illnesses that were never properly treated in prison. Yet as everyone familiar with the trajectory of Gramsci’s life knows, these prison years were also rich with intellectual achievement, as recorded in the Notebooks he kept in his various cells that eventually saw the light after World War II, and as recorded also in the extraordinary letters he wrote from prison to friends and especially to family members, the most important of whom was not his wife Julka but rather a sister-in-law, Tania Schucht. She was the person most intimately and unceasingly involved in his prison life, since she had resided in Rome for many years and was in a position to provide him not only with a regular exchange of thoughts and feelings in letter form but with articles of clothing and with numerous foods and medicines he sorely needed to survive the grinding daily routine of prison life. After being sentenced on June 4, 1928, with other Italian Communist leaders, to 20 years, 4 months and 5 days in prison, Gramsci was consigned to a prison in Turi, in the province of Bari, which turned out to be his longest place of detention (June 1928 -- November 1933). Thereafter he was under police guard at a clinic in Formia, from which he was transferred in August 1935, always under guard, to the Quisisana Hospital in Rome. It was there that he spent the last two years of his life. Among the people, in addition to Tania, who helped him either by writing to him or by visiting him when possible, were his mother Giuseppina, who died in 1933, his brother Carlo, his sisters Teresina and Grazietta, and his good friend, the economist Piero Sraffa, who throughout Gramsci’s prison ordeal provided a crucial and indispenable service to Gramsci. Sraffa used his personal funds and numerous professional contacts that were necessary in order to obtain the books and periodicals Gramsci needed in prison. Gramsci had a prodigious memory, but it is safe to say that without Sraffa’s assistance, and without the intermediary role often played by Tania, the Prison Notebooks as we have them would not have come to fruition. Gramsci’s intellectual work in prison did not emerge in the light of day until several years after World War II, when the PC began publishing scattered sections of the Notebooks and some of the approximately 500 letters he wrote from prison. By the 1950s, and then with increasing frequency and intensity, his prison writings attracted interest and critical commentary in a host of countries, not only in the West but in the so-called third world as well. Some of his terminology became household words on the left, the most important of which, and the most complex, is the term “hegemony” as he used it in his writings and applied to the twin task of understanding the reasons underlying both the successes and the failures of socialism on a global scale, and of elaborating a feasible program for the realization of a socialist vision within the really existing conditions that prevailed in the world. Among these conditions were the rise and triumph of fascism and the disarray on the left that had ensued as a result of that triumph. Also extremely pertinent, both theoretically and practically, were such terms and phrases as “organic intellectual,” “national popular,” and “historical bloc” which, even if not coined by Gramsci, acquired such radically new and original implications in his writing as to constitute effectively new formulations in the realm of political philosophy.LEWISTON — City officials are checking vacant properties and stepping up police patrols to try to prevent another fire in a downtown neighborhood where three major fires have gutted nine buildings and left nearly 200 people homeless since April 29. A fire burned two vacant four-story apartment buildings on Bartlett Street early Monday morning, setting already shaky residents on edge in the densely populated neighborhood now dotted with burned buildings. Videos Additional Photos Firefighters work at the Bartlett Street apartment buildings that burned Monday morning. Photo by Matt Byrne / Staff Writer Lewiston officials plan to check and secure vacant properties in the area within the pink line, and police will step up patrols, in the wake of three fires in eight days. Firefighters work at the scene of a fire that destroyed two vacant apartment buildings on Bartlett Street in Lewiston on Monday morning. Fire Chief Paul LeClair said it took firefighters nearly four hours to bring the flames under control. Tim Greenway / Staff Photographer Firefighters spray water on what's left of the roof of a vacant apartment building on Bartlett Street in Lewiston on Monday. Tim Greenway / Staff Photographer Firefighters spray water on the roof of a vacant apartment building on Bartlett Street in Lewiston on Monday. Tim Greenway / Staff Photographer A firefighter checks for hot spots on the front of a vacant apartment building on Bartlett Street in downtown Lewiston on Monday. Tim Greenway / Staff Photographer Authorities say more than 100 firefighters responded to the scene of a blaze on Bartlett Street reported at about 3 a.m. Monday. Police and firefighters are on the scene of a three-alarm fire in downtown Lewiston on Monday morning. Tim Greenway / Staff Photographer Related Headlines Governor offers Lewiston residents little hope of funding assistance Fear has some ready to pack up and leave city 12-year-old’s family faced eviction Fires unveil crisis in Lewiston’s housing stock Interactive map: Abandoned and condemned buildings in Lewiston Police say a 12-year-old boy set a fire on April 29 in a recently condemned nine-unit complex at 105-111 Blake St. The fire heavily damaged three buildings and displaced 75 residents. On Friday, a fire allegedly set by another 12-year-old boy heavily damaged more apartments in four buildings on Bartlett and Pierce streets. More than 100 more people were left homeless. Investigators have not determined the cause of Monday’s fire, said Fire Chief Paul LeClair. No one was seriously injured. Firefighters took nearly four hours to bring the flames under control, he said. Police Chief Michael Bussiere said police have questioned witnesses, but have not yet determined how the fire started. Lewiston police are being assisted by the state Fire Marshal’s Office and investigators from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “The fact we’ve had three major fires downtown in a week is a major concern for us,” Bussiere said. He said his department has stepped up patrols in the neighborhood and is taking other measures to prevent future fires, but he declined to elaborate. “The hammer is coming down,” Lewiston Mayor Robert Macdonald said at a news conference Monday afternoon. “We’re not going to put up with this anymore.” In response to the fires, the city has established a public priority response area, a roughly 35-block area around the fire sites. Vacant properties in the area will be checked and secured by the city’s staff, officials said. Representatives of federal and nonprofit aid agencies have met to coordinate services, and the city will issue 30-day dump passes to let people dispose of bulky or unwieldy waste. The city will host a housing fair Wednesday to help resettle the scores of residents who have been displaced, and will work with nonprofits to collect household items and infant supplies, including 15 cribs. Holly Stover, acting director of multicultural affairs for the state Department of Health and Human Services, said 27 families have been displaced by the fires, including 23 large refugee families. Gov. Paul LePage, who grew up in Lewiston, will visit the city Tuesday to meet with Macdonald and view the fire damage. State lawmakers from Lewiston have asked the governor to declare an emergency and release funds from the governor’s emergency fund to help Lewiston residents who have lost their homes in the fires. Phil Nadeau, the deputy city administrator, said city officials are working to determine the cost of responding to the three fires. Monday’s fire was spotted by a police sergeant who was on patrol in the neighborhood, Bussiere said. First responders quickly evacuated nearby buildings. During the evacuations, an officer was injured slightly while kicking in a door. When firefighters arrived, fire was showing from the rear of the buildings at 114 and 118 Bartlett St., LeClair said. He said the buildings are a total loss and will be demolished. Gil Arsenault, Lewiston’s director of planning and code enforcement, said the buildings are owned by LJM LLC, a company operated by a Lewiston landlord who has significant holdings. “He was mothballing them,” Arsenault said of the unoccupied structures. Lewiston fire investigator Paul Ouellette said police have questioned two people in connection with the fire. Shannon McWilliams, who lives nearby on Pierce Street, said she watched as police took a man, identified as Brian Morin Sr., into custody after the blaze began. Morin, 29, who was released later Monday morning, said he was returning to an apartment where he was staying with friends near the fire site about 3 a.m. Monday, around when the fire began. He said he tried rousing people in a neighboring building, but couldn’t wake anyone. Soon after, police arrived and he was taken into custody for questioning. He was released about seven hours later. “(The police) asked why I did it, and what I used to set it,” said Morin, who was convicted in 2001 of unlawful sexual conduct. He said he will take a polygraph test Tuesday and believes it will show his innocence. “I’m not going to admit to something I didn’t do,” he said. Officials would not say whether Morin has been ruled out as a suspect, or whether anyone else has been identified. Nadeau, the deputy city administrator, praised the community response to the fire and encouraged people to continue to pass tips to police. “The message needs to be clear. … We are exhausting every opportunity and every resource to make sure people feel safe,” he said. “We hope people who live in this city can go to bed tonight feeling safe.” But people who live in the neighborhood said they don’t feel safe. Jenn Ahlberg, who watched from a stoop Monday morning as firefighters mopped up on Bartlett Street, said she was shocked by the timing of the fires. “It makes me wonder which building is going to be next,” she said. Gillian Graham can be contacted at 791-6315 or at: [email protected] Twitter: grahamgillian Matt Byrne can be contacted at 791-6303 or at: [email protected] ShareI have recently read Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, and I had many “aha moments” while reading it. I do not claim that it is a bible of productivity and everything but it has many good theories based on scientific experiments. What Is Willpower? In short willpower is psychological power that we drain every time we go out of our routine, or decide on something like what to wear today. It replenishes after a sleep or a meal. If your willpower is depleted, you more likely go for your bad easy habits, such as, smoke a lot, eat junk food, procrastinate and less likely to successfully change your habit in a good way. So in short, a strong and undamaged willpower is a must, if you want to have a productive programming day. Here is why: Programming contains a lot of decision making. We decide of things all the time. What should be the name of file, folder, function, class variable. It is even considered the hardest part of programming, naming things; There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things. —Phil Karlton [1] And there are vast ocean of ways of doing a specific thing. Choosing a library or a utility plugin. It even seems to me programming is an activity of deciding. No surprises if it depletes your willpower. Programming is not a routine job at all although there are times that you just apply what you know best, implement a CRUD view for example. But most of the time, a programmer will try to improve by trying new methods. And because of constantly changing tech world, one have to change ways of doing things. So we can hardly speak of a standard way of doing things in programming. Programming requires concentrated thinking. Because most of the programs tend to get complex over time. It is just the nature of things. Adding a feature there and here, introducing bugs, noticing the initial structure is so wrong and starting to implement workarounds. You’ll get a complex thing, that it will be impossible to a programmer to have full knowledge of the system at a time. So one needs to separate concerns, and only focus the problem at hands. And believe me that requires concentration. It will deplete you if it wont deplete your willpower. So a programmer should come to a work with filled willpower if he/she wants to do some productive work. And avoid things that will drain willpower, before doing any work. Here is my list of productivity tips, with willpower in mind. 5 ways to be more productive 1. Eliminate distractions while doing work. If you are relatively healthy, you’ll arrive work with a full willpower reserves. One would want to solve some problems at hand, with their willpower still full. A depleted willpower will make things harder. It is only logical that, a person with depleted willpower, will not work on hard problems as much as a person with full willpower. And distractions will nearly always drains will power. A mail notification may immediately kick you out of concentration. And concentration to a specific problem is a very expensive thing. You need to fill your short term memory with relevant data before even attempting to solve a problem. And this process requires willpower. So just avoid random browsing in the morning, do not check your emails, close all notifications. Go on fix some problems right away. Doing so will have mental rewards which will help you retain some of willpower. 2. Have a Plan Having an idea of what to do in a day, will help you organize yourself in a subconscious level. There is evidence that people will use their willpower according to their future tasks for that day. According to a study[2], if there are 3 tasks to be done, humans tend to utilize their willpower in an equal manner. But after they are done, if you surprise them with a new task, they’ll find hard time to do that task, but an other group which were informed about 4 tasks before, will not. So have a clear plan, for example, have most important 3 things to do that day. And write them down. 3. Burn The Ships, occasionally Do you find yourself that constantly you fail to complete your daily task list. Then it means you are planning too much daily tasks for your self. But sometimes it will help you to be self determined. Say your self: you wont live until you complete the tasks at hand. This kind of self determination has many references in literature and history. But using this technique continuously results an unhappy life. So only use when needed. We always should pursuit a happy life after all. 4. Be Healthy In many studies willpower is associated with physiological metrics or general health. For example, your willpower is directly dependent on blood sugar[3]. Having a steady levels of blood sugar may have positive effects on your mood and allow you to concentrate longer on tasks. And regular exercising is a proven method to have a greater mood. So eat healthy, exercise, you’ll find yourself with a stronger willpower. And notice that eating sugary junk food will crash your blood glucose/insulin levels, preventing you to be in a focused state for long times. For me following a low-carb high-fat diet, helps me to have a stable mood all the time. There are lots of ways to get this metabolic effect in different diets with different macros(carbohydrates, fat and protein). 5. Have a TO-DO list This is the one of the most important thing to have a productive day. There are several benefits of having a TO-DO list. It is because of the Zeigarnik effect: “Uncompleted tasks and unmet goals tend to pop into one’s mind.” So when you decide to do something later, you should add it to your TO-DO list. Otherwise, your mind will bug you with that at random times. And by constantly clearing items from TO DO list will let you have a satisfaction of doing things. Conclusion Programming is in general a complex and a very demanding activity. And it drains your willpower all the way. So do not take it lightly. Focus your tasks in the early hours of day in which your willpower probably would be full. Have a plan at the start of the day. Do not let yourself to be distracted by unnecessary things such as random browsing. Take care of your health. Without a good health, do not expect to have a good performance in programming. And finally always take notes about future things to do, to prevent your subconscious to bug you at random times. REFERENCESWe think that these images of Aston Martin’s new DB11 super coupe that appeared on the web are the real deal, matching what we’ve seen up until now. Aston Martin’s successor to the ageing DB9 signals a new era for the British brand, not only because it ditches the repetitive design that characterized most of its models over the past decade or so, but also because it will be one of the firm’s first cars to benefit from the Mercedes-AMG partnership. The new DB11’s exterior incorporates styling cues from Aston’s recent studies like the DBX crossover, the DB10 from the James Bond flick ‘Spectre’ and even the CC110 centenary special, with the front end maintaining the brand’s signature grille, but decorating it with sharper details, and the fastback rear deviating from the brand’s design norms. There are no pictures of the interior yet, but prototypes of the car were fitted with a digital instrument panel and electronic dials lifted straight off from Mercedes-Benz’s S-Class Coupe, suggesting that the production DB11 will share its electrical architecture with the German luxury marque’s top model. It’s believed though that the DB11 will not be based on an AMG platform and instead continue riding on an evolved version of Aston’s VH aluminum architecture. The British carmaker has already confirmed a new 5.2-liter twin-turbocharged V12 engine capable of delivering around 600 horses, possibly offered with both an eight-speed automatic and a six-speed manual, while the AMG will likely result in the availability of the former’s 4.0-liter turbo V8 as well. We’ll know more on Tuesday during the DB11’s world premiere at the Geneva Motor Show. Thanks to Enrico for the tip! Photo GalleryADVERTISEMENT Like the U.S., Australia is faced with a scandal involving women in the military. That's where the similarities end, however. While American generals have been criticized for their handling of an epidemic of sexual assaults, Australia's army chief, David Morrison, is getting rave reviews for a blistering video he released this week demanding, through clenched teeth, that sexists in his country's military mend their ways or find another place to work. Morrison this week revealed that 17 military personnel, including high-ranking officers, were under investigation for allegedly creating and exchanging "explicit and profane" emails and images that were demeaning to women. Three of them have been suspended. "Those who think that it is okay to behave in a way that demeans or exploits their colleagues have no place in this army," Morrison says in the video. "Female soldiers and officers have proven themselves worthy of the best traditions of the Australian army... If that does not suit you, then get out... There is no place for you amongst this band of brothers and sisters." Morrison also promises to be "ruthless" in rooting out sex abuse in the ranks, and urges all soldiers to do their part if they witness abuse. "Show moral courage and take a stand," he says. Commentators in Australia and the U.S. say the withering message was exactly what everyone — victims and abusers alike — needed to hear. "Holeeee. Efffing. Crap," says Mary Elizabeth Williams at Salon. "It's brilliant." The words are powerful. But the utterly credible fury is what nails it. It is a validation of the frustration and anger a whole lot of people who have been on the receiving end of that 'toughness' have been enduring for a very long time. And it says, yeah, you're right. This is goddamn outrageous. [Salon] Morrison's direct, unflinching attacks on abusers have left observers slack-jawed. "Er, hang on," writes Sean Power at Mamamia. "Where are all the weasel words, the evasive language, and the spin?... This bloke is the real deal."ADVERTISEMENT Even as the FDA is considering approving genetically modified salmon for human consumption, there's another engineered creature that's stirring debate: The Enviropig — or, to critics, "Frankenswine." The animal's Canadian creators say it is less harmful to the environment than natural pigs, and would help farmers cut costs. Really? (Watch a CNN report on the pigs) What is the Enviropig? It's a pig that has been genetically engineered, by researchers at the University of Guelph in Canada, to better digest and process phosphorus. Why would that be beneficial? Pig manure is high in phytate, a plant form of phosphorous. When pig farmers use the manure as fertilizer, the phosphorous enters the watershed and causes huge algae blooms that choke the oxygen supply and create aquatic "deadzones." How did scientists create the Enviropig? They added an E. Coli bacteria gene and mouse DNA to a standard pig embryo. With this modification, the pig's phosphorous output is decreased by as much as 70 percent. The need for costly phosphorous food supplements is also negated, so the animals would, in theory, be cheaper to raise. How many of these special swine are in existence? A family of some 20 Enviropigs currently lives on University of Guelph property. Will we be eating Enviropig bacon anytime soon? Hard to say. A Canadian agency has approved production of the animals under "containment procedures," and they have been submitted to the FDA for approval. A spokesperson for the University of Guelph says "We suspect the FDA is more than halfway through the process of reviewing our application," but the agency will likely require additional information and research. Are there any genetically altered animals at the supermarket now? No. Genetically modified grains and produce have been for sale in North America since the early-'90s, but no such animal is currently approved for consumption — although the FDA is reportedly on the cusp of approving the AquAdvantage Salmon, which grows twice as fast as natural salmon. Are there reasons to be cautious about Enviropigs? Organic farming advocates say farming practices, not the pigs themselves, need to be altered. Opponents of genetic modification say we are opening a Pandora's Box by creating any such organism. "It's a completely novel cell invasion technology where we are crossing the boundaries of nature as no other generation has before," says Andrew Kimbrell, the director of the Center for Food Safety. "And the question is to whether that is safe, whether that is something that we should be doing ethically. Those are very serious questions that we as a society need to be asking." Sources: CNN, Wall Street Journal, Guelph Mercury, Digital JournalImage caption Many women experience debilitating heavy periods Around a quarter of women of reproductive age suffer from heavy bleeding which blights their lives every month. A report by experts at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has found significant variations in the care they are offered. Sarah, now 44, has experienced severe, prolonged, bleeding ever since she started her periods at the age of 13. "We had a register for PE and were excused showers if we were on our periods. But because my name was down on the register for the previous week, I was made to go into the communal showers, even though I was bleeding. "I've suffered on and off from anaemia, and so had to take iron tablets, all my life." She saw her first specialist at the age of 17, but that was to be the first of many appointments which failed to find a solution. Sarah, who lives in Cornwall, said: "I particularly remember seeing a male consultant when I was very young. He was really awful, and had no time for me at all. I came out in floods of tears." She has had two surgical procedures to try to ease her symptoms, one in her early 30s to have polyps and fibroids removed, and a second five years ago to remove the damaged lining of her womb - a procedure called endometrial ablation. On both occasions, her symptoms abated - but then came back as bad as they had been before. 'I'm 100% ready' Sarah was recently told she has severe endometriosis (where small pieces of the womb lining are found outside the womb) and adhesions caused by her previous surgery. She says she is now "100% ready for a hysterectomy". "My bleeding affects my sleep because I have to get up to go to the toilet in the night, I get chronic diarrhoea, migraines. "And it affects me at work. It is possible that the quality of care does vary throughout the country Professor Allan Templeton,, RCOG "I've had to take in plastic bags to put on my chair in case I leak through. Sometimes I've taken in changes of clothes too." Sarah has been told she needs an exploratory procedure to assess exactly how surgeons would carry out her hysterectomy, but she hopes to have had it by the end of the year. The RCOG investigation found significant regional variations in surgical rates. Between 2003 and 2006, the proportion of women having surgery who underwent endometrial ablation (a less invasive surgical procedure) ranged from 46% to 75% within the 10 strategic health authorities in England. The rest had hysterectomies. After April 2006, the proportion varied from 64% in the east midlands to 82% in the north east. Professor Allan Templeton, from the RCOG, said: "We don't know why there is this variation, and are carrying out further work to investigate further. "But it is possible that patients' expectations are different, that the range of care and treatments offered are different in different areas. "What we really want to find out is what women think of their care. Are they satisfied? Do they think they are being offered all of the options? Are people taking their problems seriously? And is their quality of life improving? "With the regional variations, it is possible that the quality of care does vary throughout the country."Annually, London Borough hosts the Camden’s Business Awards where a range of local companies, large and small, were up for recognition for their contribution to innovation, the local economy, design and the creation of new job opportunities. I was there to support the Accessible Environments team of the design and engineering company Arup who over several years have worked tirelessly to support our work as a small local charity – we were initially approached by this team because they were interested in doing some fundraising for a local charity that supported disabled people. We soon found further common ground, and the relationship has since led to Arup training service users and staff to carry out access audits and providing placements for young people with a learning disability in their high-tech, high performance and yet awesomely inclusive work environment. Our relationship with Arup really exemplifies a voluntary sector organisation and a business working together at its best. What I’ve learned is that when the corporate world engages with charities and voluntary sector organisations, some key elements determine the long-term value achieved. Below I identify 3 of them: Shared values One is around the importance of shared values, in this case focusing on a genuine commitment to pursuing inclusion and community participation. The most effective outcomes come from working with businesses like Arup that embrace the same outcomes we care about and approach them with the same respect, rigour and commitment. That attitude is also demonstrated by the staff of John Lewis, Oxford Street, when they take our students on work placements throughout the store. They have a genuine personal commitment to helping young people with a learning disability succeed. That’s shown wonderfully when we have events at the store to mark student achievements and staff from all departments flock to take part in the celebrations – not because they are told to or have to but because, like our supporters at Arup, they care about the lives and progress of the young people their company hosts. Last year, I also spent an evening at the 15th birthday celebrations of The Front Yard Company a small social enterprise who share their beautifully designed building with a community of other makers and designers across the road from our offices. My invitation came about because, over the last few years, due to some wonderfully supportive and collaborative interactions with the Front Yard Company. They designed and supplied the plant lockers which decorate the road outside our building and provide places for cyclists to securely lock their bikes. Most importantly, they also worked with our students with a learning disability to place and fill them with bulbs and bushes. The celebrations were a wonderfully warm and vibrant evening with the diverse guests and speakers showing how deeply embedded this little company is in their part of North London. The company chose to mark their place and story in the community by highlighting organisations nearby, including Elfrida Rathbone Camden (ERC). The company is so physically close to our location they see our young people, families, and staff coming in and out every single day. They value all our stakeholders as neighbours and contributors to the local community too. Respect Secondly, it is vital to have respect for the skills that exist on both sides of the relationship – the partnership has been about mutual learning and especially a recognition that we all learn from the experiences of service users. It’s important to state that this is a learning process that flows both ways too. Arup’s Accessible Environments team tell me that working with our service users have improved their understanding of some of the day-to-day barriers that the built environment presents. Apparently, there is little in today’s building codes and standards which directly addresses the requirements of people with neuro-diverse needs. An added benefit of working with charities, it can help sharpen professional insights and skills on the side of the business partner too. Much as with the relationship with local authorities, it’s important that voluntary organisations and their service users are not just seen as absorbing resources. We want businesses to see their interactions with us as beneficialal opportunity as well. Pragmatic support Lastly, it has been really important for ERC that our corporate partners whose resources are so much greater understand the limitations and pressures on our side (such as having to prioritise the demands of service delivery over fundraising) to make sure the support offered is pragmatic and enables real change. Ongoing access to work placements like those described above has helped our learners build their self-esteem, and overcome barriers around access to academic qualifications, role models and confidence in the workplace. Practical support can come in other ways too like that given to us by Bikes for Good Causes (BGC) a Wood Green social enterprise that sells good quality, donated bikes and also provides a full bicycle repair and maintenance service. When I and 3 ERC colleagues committed to do the London to Brighton Bike Ride in 2016 the manager of BGC, Sue Wade kindly agreed to support ERC by making sure our bikes were in good condition ahead of the ride. What struck me when I contacted Sue was how quickly she had said yes (which is not to say that BGC can always do this – they have to raise income and be sustainable to meet their own objectives). Before my good fortune in coming across BGC I had been in contact with a national cycling chain with a Camden branch which two of us had actually bought our bikes from. That big company didn’t feel able to help us with our request which is, of course, their prerogative but I did think at the time that it was a slightly short-sighted decision on their part, bearing in mind all the local recognition and publicity we would have given them. But for BGC it was an automatic decision based on their community spirit and ethos regardless of whether it held any possible benefit for them. I think there is something in our experiences about how voluntary organisations and businesses, whether either is big or small, that can create meaning and sustained relationships based simply on retaining a sense of generosity and respect in giving support and in working with each other. When that happens we all become community workers no matter who pays our wages.LOWELL, Mass. — For the second night in a row, Massachusetts-Lowell staged a third-period comeback to extend its unbeaten streak to 11 games. The River Hawks erased a 4-1 Northeastern lead and tied the game with 55.3 seconds remaining. Then with 1:53 left in overtime, Christian Folin blasted a one-timer into the top corner to send the largest crowd in Tsongas Center history into a frenzy. Joseph Pendenza cut the lead to 4-2 with 11:07 left in the game when he raced down the left wing and beat Bryan Mountain (33 saves) glove-side. Five minutes later, Derek Arnold made it 4-3 with a power-play goal that came less than a minute after he had a goal waved off. The score remained that way until the final minute. With the extra attacker on, Riley Wetmore pulled the puck out of a scramble in front and fired it past Mountain. What I saw -Northeastern blew another third-period lead. For the third time in the last four games, the Huskies led by two goals or more in the third period and couldn’t close out the game. They did still end up with the win against BU last weekend, but not before they blew a three-goal lead. This weekend, they saw a two-goal lead turn into a tie last night, and a three-goal lead turn into a loss tonight. When this happens early in the season, you can write it off as a team still finding its way and still learning how to close out games. But it’s the end of January now. There’s no excuse for it. Even if it had happened just once, you could chalk it up as a bad night. But three times in two weeks is indicative of a bigger problem. Whether it’s a conditioning issue or a coaching issue or a players issue, I don’t know. But whatever it is, it could very well cost the Huskies a playoff spot. -Joseph Pendenza registered a goal and three assists and really played a remarkable game, possibly his best in a Lowell uniform. He assisted on Lowell’s first goal, scored the second, and then assisted on both the tying goal and the winning goal. He led all players with six shots on goal and an incredible plus-4 rating. Beyond the numbers, though, he was just a terror for the Northeastern defense all night. He was aggressive all game and consistently created scoring chances, whether it was making good decisions with the puck or driving hard to the net without it. What I thought -Like Friday’s game, this wasn’t exactly a goaltending duel. Both goalies gave up a bunch of juicy rebounds, and both goalies paid for it on a couple goals. Doug Carr, who got pulled Friday night, didn’t have a great weekend, but he’s proven he’s a good goalie and I’d expect him to still get some starts even when Connor Hellebuyck comes back. Northeastern’s goaltending is much more concerning, though. Chris Rawlings’ inconsistency throughout his four years has been well-documented, and Mountain hasn’t really been much better. He’ll make some great saves, but then let one in that he should’ve had. Add in the defensive struggles in front of the goalie, of which there are many, and it’s easy to see why the Huskies are fighting for their playoff lives. -The River Hawks didn’t really come anywhere close to playing their best hockey this weekend. They only sustained offensive pressure in spurts, they didn’t do as good of a job clearing out the front of their own net as they usually do, and, as previously mentioned, Carr wasn’t really on his game. But despite all that, they still came away with three points. Part of being a good team is winning even when you don’t bring your A-game, something the River Hawks couldn’t do earlier in the season. They’ll obviously need to be better moving forward than they were this weekend, but they can also be encouraged by the fact that they came back twice and proved to themselves that they’re never out of a game. What they said -Lowell coach Norm Bazin: “Well, it was an exciting hockey game tonight. We certainly made it dramatic, more dramatic than the coaches would like. But obviously it went our way, so we’re very, very pleased with the result. I thought it was a tale of two games. The first half we definitely lost. The second half we definitely won.” -Northeastern coach Jim Madigan: “We obviously let it slip away. We worked hard for two and a half periods, and then we just let it slip away at the end. We’ve got to get better and have more composure later in games. … We got tired a little bit, I think more mentally than physically, and they capitalized. They’re a good team. I thought we were weathering the storm, but then we made a couple bad plays late in the period and they capitalized.” What else you should know -The game
Chris was warned by one nurse not to sing or hum for months until his platelets rebounded, lest he permanently damage his vocal cords. Nor should he have sex or masturbate until his body could recover, to avoid the excruciating pain and risk of tearing the lining of his urethra, breaking a blood vessel and causing “bruising in places that are awkward and weird”, as Chris puts it. The threat of another E. coli infection also interfered with his sex life (anal sex could increase his risk of bacteraemia), as did his faltering self-image. “You just don’t really feel comfortable in your skin, which kills your confidence a bit,” he says. Chris isn’t alone. A recent Danish study of nine patients found that many were still struggling to regain their sexuality a full year after a bone marrow or cord blood transplant, because of negative body image, physiological limitations and other concerns. One 49-year-old described his fear of passing out or keeling over during an unexpectedly strenuous session: “And in that very moment, you believed you were going to die because the air simply… you wanted to finish even though you were fighting for breath; because it is unfair to the other person to stop, so I thought, ‘If I pass out, then that is just what I will do’, because you push yourself to the limit, and then you have to lie still for 10–15 minutes afterwards.” Even with all this, Chris reminded himself, things could be far worse. 4. NowMumbai: The anti-narcotics cell (ANC) of the police has said it has busted a drug racket with the arrest of a 42-year-old Navi Mumbai resident who allegedly supplied drugs to Bollywood celebrities in the western suburbs. Acting on a tip-off that the accused, Vivek Lulla alias Vicky, was to deliver a consignment to an accomplice near the MMRDA grounds in Bandra, ANC officials laid a trap and arrested him. Nearly 56gm of mephedrone, also known as MD or meow meow, worth Rs 1.12 lakh was seized from him.Lulla, who has been on the police radar for the last three months after a few Nigerians arrested for drug possession had identified him as the supplier, was booked under the NDPS Act and remanded in police custody, said deputy commissioner of police (ANC) Shivdeep Lande. Police are on lookout for two women who were his carriers.“There was not a single case against Lulla though he has been running the cartel for some time,” said an officer. Lulla lived on the 13th floor of the upmarket Sea Breeze society on Palm Beach Road.There’s a strange place in the sky where everything is attracted. And unfortunately, it’s on the other side of the Milky Way, so we can’t see it. What could be doing all this attracting? Just where the heck are we going? We’re snuggled in our little Solar System, hurtling through the cosmos at a blindingly fast of 2.2 million kilometers per hour. We’re always orbiting this, and drifting through that, and it’s somewhere out in the region that’s not as horrifically terrifying as what some of our celestial neighbors go through. But where are we going? Just around in a great big circle? Or an ellipse? Which is going around in another circle… and it’s great big circles all the way up? Not exactly… Our galaxy and other nearby galaxies are being pulled toward a specific region of space. It’s about 150 million light years away, and here is the best part. We’re not exactly sure what it is. We call it the Great Attractor. Part of the reason the Great Attractor is so mysterious is that it happens to lie in a direction of the sky known as the “Zone of Avoidance”. This is in the general direction of the center of our galaxy, where there is so much gas and dust that we can’t see very far in the visible spectrum. We can see how our galaxy and other nearby galaxies are moving toward the great attractor, so something must be causing things to go in that direction. That means either there must be something massive over there, or it’s due to something even more strange and fantastic. When evidence of the Great Attractor was first discovered in the 1970s, we had no way to see through the Zone of Avoidance. But while that region blocks much of the visible light from beyond, the gas and dust doesn’t block as much infrared and x-ray light. As x-ray astronomy became more powerful, we could start to see objects within that region. What we found was a large supercluster of galaxies in the area of the Great Attractor, known as the Norma Cluster. It has a mass of about 1,000 trillion Suns. That’s thousands of galaxies. While the Norma Cluster is massive, and local galaxies are moving toward it, it doesn’t explain the full motion of local galaxies. The mass of the Great Attractor isn’t large enough to account for the pull. When we look at an even larger region of galaxies, we find that the local galaxies and the Great Attractor are moving toward something even larger. It’s known as the Shapley Supercluster. It contains more than 8000 galaxies and has a mass of more than ten million billion Suns. The Shapley Supercluster is, in fact, the most massive galaxy cluster within a billion light years, and we and every galaxy in our corner of the Universe are moving toward it. So as we hurtle through the cosmos, gravity shapes the path we travel. We’re pulled towards the Great Attractor, and despite its glorious title, it appears, in fact to be a perfectly normal collection of galaxies, which just happens to be hidden. What do you think? What are you hoping we’ll discover over in the region of space we’re drifting towards? And if you like what you see, come check out our Patreon page and find out how you can get these videos early while helping us bring you more great content!Sunday on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” when asked about a potential Hillary Clinton administration pursing the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement after the election if they win, Democratic vice-presidential nominee Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) said, “You never close the door.’ Partial transcript as follows: TODD: After the election, President Obama will travel overseas, probably talking up the idea of TPP and an Asian trade agreement. if you guys are elected, will you pursue an Asian trade agreement, even if it’s not the TPP? KAINE: Hillary and I haven’t talk about that question directly. We aren’t against trade. We want to find export markets for American businesses because they will be able to add workers the more they export. That’s very important. And whether it’s in Asia or Europe, if we can find deals that meet those goals, more jobs, higher wages and good for national security and good enforcement provisions, we’re open to them. So, no, you never close the door if you can get a deal that’s good for American workers and our economy.As an actress, producer, director and theatre arts lecturer at The University of Texas at Arlington, Julienne Greer knows the techniques that help draw people's deepest emotions to the surface. Now, she's building on her experience and research to help scientists and robotics engineers better understand the human experience so that they can build more responsive robots. Greer, who holds a master's degree in media arts and a doctorate in humanities, recently authored the paper, "Building emotional authenticity between humans and robots." In it, she referenced a robot named 'Pepper,' which has been widely hailed as an emotionally responsive humanoid robot that understands feelings, and is meant solely to emotionally interact with people. When Pepper was unveiled in Japan in June 2014, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son said that his company's aim was to "develop affectionate robots that can make people smile." In her paper, Greer noted in response that when humans make certain gestures, such as a smile, it could mean that they are "happy." It could also mean that they are "angry," but smiling in order to make themselves less aggressive in tense situations. Scholars intrigued by Greer's work, invited her to present her paper at the Sixth International Conference on Social Robotics held in Sydney, Australia last month. They also requested that she lead attendees in a session on enhancing the relationship between human beings and emotional robots. "Most people only think of engineers and scientists when it comes to robots, which I truly believe will one day be a part of our normal, day-to-day lives," Greer said. "With that in mind, don't we want the people who design this technology to also consider how human beings express feelings and interact with one another in addition to considering how a robot should be wired?" Greer's expertise is in the performance technique method acting, so she led the workshop attendees through several brief method exercises. One exercise consisted of verbally guiding the participants through the re-creation of drinking a beverage through the engagement with and discovery of individuals' sensory responses. "Although it seems simple, it is a rather complex undertaking as it involves shuttling their attention between all of their senses -- sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch, as well as an inner kinesthetic sense of the muscles used in swallowing," Greer said. "By utilizing all of the senses, I improve the chance the subject will have at least one significant sensory experience." During the question and answer session afterwards, many of the participants spoke about their experiences. One learned their strongest sensory response of the re-creation of the beverage was the weight of the liquid in the glass and how the balance of the glass was altered as the liquid swirled within it. "The fascinating aspect of sensory work is how it opens the imagination to the cognitive work our senses do all day, every day to connect us to our world. The subject becomes aware of new sensory stimuli, which in turn creates an emotional response." Greer said this is significant. The categorization of behaviors or gestures and an understanding of how they create specific emotions in humans will allow the engineers and roboticists to apply those gestures and behavior to the programming of robots. Giuseppe Boccignone, a keynote speaker at the conference and computer science associate professor at the University of Milan, Italy, remarked after attending Greer's presentation: "It is not in the algorithms and models, per se, that lies the creation of an actual relationship between humans and social robots, but in the measure of how algorithms and models serve the purpose of building connection and authenticity. " Beth Wright, dean of the UT Arlington College of Liberal Arts, said that Greer's research demonstrates the many opportunities for the arts and sciences to work together. "Nationwide we are seeing exciting examples when STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) becomes STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math)," Wright said. "This type of relationship presents unlimited opportunities for innovation and real world problem-solving across university disciplines. Such collaborations can unite faculty and students with a common desire to learn, share and explore as disciplines become more integrated." The plan now is for Greer to develop a data-capturing test that would among other things, find out the response of humans to robots confronting a variety of circumstances. "Performance, connection and authenticity are the gold standard that should be hoped for in the creation of the relationship between humans and robots," Greer said. "We can attain these goals through the specific application of understanding human behavior, gesture, shape and relationships. We must be specific in programming robots to respond to, and to eventually to learn from, the human relationships they will be a part of." Greer's current studies stem from her research into the emotive connection between humans and their video game counterparts. Her 2011 paper, "Digital Companions: Analyzing the emotive connection between players and non-player character companions in video game space," was published by Inter-Disciplinary.Net, a global network of people, projects and events.The Foreign Secretary sees a 23 point drop in his net favourability score in the past two months among Tory voters YouGov’s latest favourability tracker survey reveals that Boris Johnson’s net favourability score has declined among the public, and taken a big hit among Conservative voters. While Boris had a net favourability score of -17 among the general public in early September, this has since diminished to -29, while his net favourability score among Conservative voters has slumped from +35 to +12. Currently, 28% of the general public have a favourable view of the Foreign Secretary while 57% hold unfavourable ones. Among 2017 Conservative voters, 52% have a favourable view of Boris while 40% hold unfavourable views. The results follow the Foreign Secretary coming under fire for the way he has handled the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian woman who faces seeing her prison sentence in Iran extended after Boris said that she had been in the country training journalists. However, it is impossible to say how much of the change from two months ago can be attributed to the Zaghari-Ratcliffe case alone. Since YouGov's last favourability scores the Foreign Secretary has: generated negatives headlines following a poorly-received joke about dead bodies in Libya, had a public tangle with the UK's chief statistician over the Leave campaign’s pledge to spend £350m a week extra on the NHS, and been accused of undermining the Prime Minister's Florence speech by writing a 4,000 word article setting out his vision for Brexit and subsequently allowing speculation to mount that he would resign if May's speech did not match closely enough with what he was calling for. The latest favourability figures place the Foreign Secretary further behind Theresa May among Conservative voters. In September the Prime Minister held a 21 point net favourability lead over Boris, which has since almost doubled to 38 points with May holding a +50 net favourability score compared to Boris’s +12. (By comparison, Jeremy Corbyn has a net favourability score of +60 among Labour voters). Corbyn and Labour still maintain their net favourability lead over May and the Conservatives In the battle between the two party leaders for the affection of the general public, Jeremy Corbyn maintains his net favourability lead over Theresa May, although both leaders still hold negative net scores. At the time of the previous poll Theresa May’s score was still on a recovery trajectory following her post-election low of -34 in June. This now seems to have been arrested, with the Prime Minister’s current net favourability score of -23 about the same as it was in early September (-20). Likewise, Corbyn’s latest score of -10 has remained essentially unchanged since mid-August, when it was -13. Photo: Getty See the full results hereLast year’s Chicago Cubs were an overwhelming team, riding one of the most impressive run differentials in recent history to a world championship. But this season, the Cubs have struggled to lift themselves above.500 despite playing in a mediocre division. Chicago should watch out — if it keeps playing this poorly, the Cubs will end up undergoing one of the largest drop-offs ever suffered by a World Series winner. Teams often struggle after a championship. Even the most exceptional roster can get pushed back toward average through some combination of a World Series hangover and regression to the mean. But the Cubs’ slide is uncommon even by those standards. According to run differential, only five other champs in history have declined as much as Chicago has this year : The Cubs’ decline is historic RUN DIFFERENTIAL TEAM YEAR CHAMPIONSHIP YEAR FOLLOWING YEAR DIFFERENCE Florida Marlins 1997 71 -256 -327 New York Yankees 1939 438 153 -285 Boston Red Sox 2013 197 -81 -278 Boston Red Sox 1912 268 23 -245 St. Louis Cardinals 1931 211 -34 -245 Chicago Cubs 2016 252 25 -227 Detroit Tigers 1935 271 53 -218 Los Angeles Angels 2002 207 -7 -214 Chicago White Sox 1917 199 14 -185 Pittsburgh Pirates 1909 265 83 -182 Cleveland Indians 1948 282 106 -176 All run differentials are based on a 162-game schedule. Source: Lahman’s Baseball Database Of the 10 teams on the list, seven played before 1950, when baseball was a very different sport. In the current era (since 1988), the Cubs drop-off is the third worst, trailing only the 2013 Red Sox — more on them later — and the infamous fire-sale 1997 Marlins. Chicago had more room to fall than most champs — only 19 World Series winners matched the 2016 Cubs’ +252 run differential — but that just makes their current mediocrity stand out all the more starkly. Boston’s decline between 2013 and 2014 provides the best recent precedent for Chicago’s slump. Just two years after current Cubs President Theo Epstein left the Sox, Boston won the World Series with a core roster that Epstein mostly assembled. The following year, however, the Red Sox disappointed their fans by scraping together a woeful 71-win season. This was part of a multi-season trend of the Red Sox zig-zagging between contention and mediocrity, and that stretch wound up being the most extreme set of year-to-year swings in MLB history. But unlike the 2014 Red Sox or the ’98 Marlins, the 2017 Cubs have fallen apart while fielding a roster that’s largely unchanged from the year before. The Red Sox lost a star in Jacoby Ellsbury, along with an everyday catcher (Jarrod Saltalamacchia) and some bit players; the Marlins turned over nearly their entire team after winning it all. By contrast, Dexter Fowler counts as the Cubs’ only notable subtraction, and a healthy Kyle Schwarber (fresh off his World Series heroics) was supposed to offset Fowler’s loss. Instead, Schwarber floundered so much that he was was sent to the minors. (Granted, Fowler hasn’t been impressive with his new team, either.) It’s unlikely that the Cubs will continue to be this bad for the rest of the year. Even with their poor play through the season’s first 83 games, most projections call for them to rack up many more wins over the second half. They ought to sneak into the playoffs in a division with few strong contenders, and once they’re there, anything can happen. But even if you credit Chicago with the elevated run differential that these projections expect over the rest of the season, rather than simply pro-rating their differential so far, the Cubs would still end the year with the eighth-largest decline in history. No matter what happens, the Cubs’ 2017 performance will have been just as historic as it was a year earlier, even if it’s not nearly so impressive.Update: Capcom has confirmed that Resident Evil 7’s Gold Edition and Not A Hero DLC will both launch on December 12th in the US and EU. Nearly all of the content from Not A Hero and the new End of Zoe campaign can be played in VR. Original story: Nine months into 2017 and Capcom’s Resident Evil 7: Biohazard remains one of the best VR releases of the year. Good thing there’s more on the way, then. Gematsu reports via a translation of Japan’s Famitsu magazine that Resident Evil 7’s Not A Hero DLC will be arriving on December 14th. For those that don’t know, Not A Hero is a free story-based expansion to the original game teased during the ending credits. If you haven’t beaten Resident Evil 7 yet then we’d suggest not reading on past here as we’ll feature some spoilers. The campaign will let you play as Chris Redfield, the iconic series protagonist that made a small cameo at the end of the main campaign. We’re expecting the story DLC to still support the PlayStation VR (PSVR) headset on PS4, just as the original campaign does, though that hasn’t been confirmed yet. The add-on was originally meant to arrive in the spring, but ended up being delayed. It looks like Capcom has more Resident Evil 7 coming, though. Also due for release in Japan on December 24th (cutting it a bit close for Christmas shopping) is a Gold Edition of the game. This will apparently include both Banned Footage DLC add-ons that released a few weeks after the original game. These DLCs were premium experiences with new modes, only a handful of which supported PSVR. The Gold Edition will also include another new expansion titled ‘End of Zoe’, suggesting a focus on one of the original campaign’s support characters. We’ve reached out to Capcom to confirm that the Gold Edition and Not A Hero DLC will be arriving in the US and EU at the same time as Japan. All-in-all this is very good news; we loved Resident Evil 7 when it launched back in January, awarding it 9/10 in our review and recently placed it on our list of the best VR games of 2017 so far. The game’s VR support was touted as a big success by Sony itself, and we know that at least 200,000 people have played it in PSVR. VR support is exclusive to Sony’s device for a year, but we’re hoping the PC edition gets Rift and Vive integration in 2018. Tagged with: Resident Evil 7: BiohazardAMC is taking a page out of the Walking Dead playbook by airing Fear the Walking Dead’s second season in two separate chunks, the network announced at the Television Critics Association’s press tour on Friday. Fear the Walking Dead will kick off its second season on Sunday, April 10 at 9 p.m. ET, followed by Talking Dead at 10 p.m. ET. The 15-episode season will air the first seven episodes in the spring, with the remaining eight episodes airing later in 2016. Flagship series The Walking Dead is set to return on Sunday, Feb. 14 at 9 p.m. ET, followed by Talking Dead at 10 p.m. ET and Comic Book Men at midnight. Better Call Saul returns for its second season on Monday, Feb. 15 at 10 p.m. ET. WANT MORE EW? Subscribe now to keep up with the latest in movies, television, and music. For the first time ever, AMC will also launch a fourth night of original programming on Tuesdays, which will start with the debut of the six-part miniseries event, The Night Manager, on April 19 at 10 p.m. ET. Based on John le Carré’s espionage drama, the series stars Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie. Turn: Washington’s Spies will return for a third season on Monday, April 25 at 10 p.m. ET on AMC. The 10-episode season will build toward the most notorious moment in American history, the defection of traitor Benedict Arnold (Owain Yeoman).The Humanitarian Conundrum: Reconciling Peace and Justice For a while now, I have struggled with what I have recently decided to refer to as the Humanitarian Conundrum. This conundrum involves the attempt to reconcile my distaste for violence of any kind with my belief not only in the need for justice but also the existence of a moral obligation to our fellow humans. What I have, as a humanitarian, is a desire for peace in conjunction with the unfortunate understanding that peace cannot always be brought about peacefully. Though I would not necessarily call myself a strict pacifist, I definitely have pacifistic tendencies. As a result, it is difficult for me to come to grips with the idea that my call for civilian protection often means the use of violence in order to fulfill the task of protecting. As a long time supporter of the Responsibility to Protect, I am very aware that while prevention is the ideal it is often not the reality. Historically speaking, the international community has been slow to react to humanitarian atrocities; even slower if not perhaps often incapable of preventing potential atrocities. As a result, the last resort of military intervention can become the only viable option for protecting civilians from harm. I have found that while on the surface these concepts of peace and justice seem compatible, in practice they quickly become dichotomous. For while it is possible to seek justice through non-violence, the reality is that justice often comes in the form of military action. I remain today unable to fully explain my distaste for US military action in general, yet my support for our intervention in Libya. Not to mention my strong belief that we ought to have intervened on the behalf of the Darfuri people long ago. There is a definite disparity there, for which I continue to seek clarity. Ultimately, for me, it comes down to a gut feeling that inaction in the face of crimes against humanity is morally unacceptable. Nicholas Kristof said it beautifully in his recent article, Hugs From Libya: "I've seen war up close, I detest it. But there are things I've seen that are even worse -- such as the systematic slaughter of civilians as the world turns a blind eye." Leave it to Kristof to so simply express my exact sentiments. Yet, there remains a need for further explication of this stance as we begin to discuss particular instances such as Libya. The question remains of how we reconcile the violent reality of civilian protection with a general belief in peaceful, non-violent action. Truthfully, I believe this is a question for which we may never find a fulfilling answer. It will instead serve as an important dialogue to be had amongst pacificists and non-pacificsts alike. I will leave you with some semblance of an answer as to how I reconcile my uneasiness with the violence of military action with my belief in the moral imperative of protecting civilians My answer for you today is simply this: I seek peace because it sits right with my soul. I seek justice because otherwise my soul could not be at peace with me. With that said, today you will find me in front of the White House bringing attention to the violence in Abyei and calling for action. While I remain uncomfortable with the idea of using violence to stop violence, I cannot morally justify inaction in the face of genocide.The Canadian Press TORONTO - A 31-year-old man charged with mischief after throwing waffles on the ice at a Toronto Maple Leafs game says he did it out of frustration at the underperforming team. "I'm just a normal Leafs fan and love them to death," Joseph Robb of Oakville, Ont., said Wednesday in an interview. "I don't know, maybe this is what needed to be done just to keep the attention on them. Because how many years are they going to go (without success)? I'm only 31 and I've been through a lot." His love affair will be from a distance, however, after being barred from the Air Canada Centre, as well as other Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment events at BMO Field and Ricoh Coliseum. Further punishment could follow from a January court appearance. Robb's waffle-toss in a 6-3 loss to Atlanta on Monday night was the second such incident at the ACC this month. Officials could not spot the first culprit. The second was easier to notice, since he was wearing a Santa hat and Darcy Tucker Leafs jersey as he walked down the stairs towards the playing area before heaving the waffles over the glass. Toronto, which currently stands 28th in the 30-team league with a 12-17-4 record, was trailing 5-1 at the time. The Leafs said they consulted with police and "supported entirely" the decision to lay the mischief charge. "It's just an inappropriate action that we're trying to ensure that doesn't repeat itself," said Bob Hunter, MLSE executive vice-president for venues and entertainment. "If the fans want to boo and the fans want to say things then they have every right and opportunity to do that. But to throw things in a crowd of 19,000, we do not consider as being appropriate behaviour." Robb was issued a trespass notice from MLSE that will stand "until such time that we remove that." "This was just another classic case of someone deciding 'I'm going to make a statement,"' added Hunter. "Well, unfortunately that's the wrong way to make your statement." Robb did not think he would face such sanctions because he didn't hear about any repercussions to the first waffle-throwing incident some days ago. Robb acknowledged he had thought about his actions, in that fans don't usually arrive at games with a box of waffles. "No you don't. Obviously. (I) thought long and hard since the guy threw the waffles. And I said 'Hey, you know what I've got the balls to do it."' Leafs winger Clarke MacArthur had a different interpretation. "It's not funny. The guy's an idiot, whoever's doing it," he told reporters Tuesday. Leafs coach Ron Wilson called it "dumb." Robb already is working on his defence. "I see octopuses being thrown on in Detroit games and hats being thrown on. I mean, is a hat better than a waffle? Just because you're praising someone (with a hat for a hat trick), you can't throw something on when they're crap?" The waffle story has been drawing plenty of attention locally, in part because of the mysterious choice of the frozen breakfast treat. "Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the two incidents this season involving the tossing of frozen waffles onto the ice is that it's taken Leafs fans so long to figure out a measurable way of expressing distaste for a team that hasn't won jack since 1967," wrote Globe and Mail columnist Jeff Blair. "How about tossing some good hockey players on the ice?" offered someone named identifying himself as SabreDude on www.tsn.ca. Asked if he regrets his actions, Robb paused before saying no. "This needs to be said," he said. He did apologize for throwing the box of waffles while play was going on. He said it was "one time to make a message." Robb seemed unfazed by being banned from the arena. "Bar me. I don't get to games anyway," he said. "They've overpriced tickets, they give them to fans who wear suits and don't even want to watch them play. If that's what type of fans they want in their building, then have them. I'll still watch them on TV." But later he said he would apologize. "Because I'd love to go back to the ACC. It's a great venue to watch hockey. But as of now, just good luck the rest of the season." Robb also tore into MLSE for charging fans to watch the team on its Leafs TV station. "This team is a joke and I'm glad it's getting all the publicity it can," he said of the stunt. "I'm not here to gain from it. I've had many opportunities -- CBC's 'The National' wants to do interviews with me on TV. And I don't think it's right, because that's not my purpose. My purpose was just to say I'm a frustrated Leaf fan and this is not acceptable no more and that's it." Robb was handling the calls at his parents' house, because his father has the same name and the phone had been ringing "non-stop," he said. A local report pegged the first waffle-thrower as a 27-year-old construction worker identified only as Jack M -- the same name as a tweeter sending messages as @EGGO--BOMBER. Hunter said MLSE bars a dozen to two dozen fans a year due to inappropriate behaviour. "It's got to be a serious nature," he said. Hunter notes that between the ACC, BMO Field and Ricoh Coliseum, almost three million fans a year attend MLSE events.Get the latest news and videos for this game daily, no spam, no fuss. Just in case you had any doubts, the Final Fantasy XV code that you get with Final Fantasy Type-0 will not likely give you immediate access to the much anticipated game's demo. Square Enix announced that a demo code for FFXV would be packaged with copies of Final Fantasy Type-0 earlier this week, but writing in the comments of the official Square Enix blog, Dan Seto, a member of the Square Enix community team, provided a few more details. "Hey guys a lot of you are asking for clarification on when the Final Fantasy XV demo is actually coming out so let me clarify: The release date of the Final Fantasy XV demo has not been confirmed and we will announce more details closer to the release of Final Fantasy Type-0 HD. We will try our best to make sure you don't have to wait long but at the moment we can't confirm a specific date." Much like the Doom beta that came packaged with copies of Wolfenstien: The New Order, the code will likely give you access to a demo of the game at some future date.David Cameron is facing a sleaze investigation after finally being forced to admit he had a £30,000 stake in his late father's offshore fund. The Prime Minister has been reported to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner over allegations that he should have declared the shareholding. After days of failing to kill off questions, Mr Cameron dramatically confessed last night that he had profited from the Bahamas-based company. He also conceded that some of the £300,000 left to him by Ian Cameron may have come from funds kept offshore. Labour MPs insisted Mr Cameron should consider his position, accusing him of being 'less than honest' and'speaking out of both sides of his mouth'. David Cameron visited a building contractors in Oxfordshire today as Downing Street raced to prepare his tax returns for publication and it emerged he could face a parliamentary standards probe Backbencher John Mann called for Mr Cameron to'resign immediately' and said he had referred the issue to commissioner Kathryn Hudson. 'No interpretation of his actions could conclude that he has acted in an 'open and frank' way, in line with the Code of Conduct for MPs,' he said. 'It is only now, with the Panama revelations, that David Cameron has been forced to admit that he did not register his financial interests.' 'This is a matter of transparency and integrity. David Cameron has shown neither of these qualities and should resign as Prime Minister.' Downing Street made clear the Prime Minister believed he had declared everything in accordance with rules. Sent out to defend the premier in a round of interviews earlier, business minister Nick Boles claimed his 'natural human reaction' had been to avoid sullying his father's reputation. But he said 'with the benefit of hindsight' Mr Cameron should have confessed to the previous interest in the Blairmore investment fund. In an bombshell TV interview last night, Mr Cameron said he and his wife Samantha had jointly held a stake in his father's investment fund, Blairmore, which was registered in Panama and operated out of the Bahamas. SHOULD THE PM HAVE DECLARED SHARES IN FATHER'S OFFSHORE FUND? Labour backbencher John Mann has called for the Prime Minister to resign David Cameron has been referred to the parliamentary standards commissioner for failing to declare his stake in Blairmore. Mr Cameron has said that he bought the shares in his father's investment vehicle in 1997, and sold them in January 2010 for £31,500 - a £19,000 profit. Under Commons rules, MPs are obliged to register a shareholding that is greater than 15 per cent of a company or worth more than their annual salary. The guidance does state that 'collective investment vehicles' are 'not generally registrable'. However, the rules also stress that it is'sometimes appropriate to register shareholdings falling outside' those categories. Politicians are reminded that the purpose of the register is 'to provide information of any financial interest or other material benefit which a Member receives which might reasonably be thought by others to influence his or her actions, speeches or votes in Parliament, or actions taken in his or her capacity as an MP'. Labour MP John Mann said: 'David Cameron has broken the rules on Standards in Public Life that he, along with me and others, voted for. 'No interpretation of his actions could conclude that he has acted in an 'open and frank' way, in line with the Code of Conduct for MPs. 'It is only now, with the Panama revelations, that David Cameron has been forced to admit that he did not register his financial interests.' 'This is a matter of transparency and integrity. David Cameron has shown neither of these qualities and should resign as Prime Minister.' Shadow work and pensions secretary Owen Smith said: 'Why didn't he register his interest in this offshore (fund) back in 2005 when he first became an MP? 'He says he's going to publish his tax return. I think he will need to go further and be clear about what his investments have been in the past.' He said they had sold the shares in January 2010 – four months before he became Prime Minister – for £31,500, pocketing a tax-free profit of just over £19,000 on the deal. He also pledged to release his personal tax return in an attempt to limit the damage from his revelation. But he insisted that he had paid all UK taxes due on his investment during the 13 years he held it. In the next few days aides are expected to publish a summary of Mr Cameron's tax affairs going back to before the 2010 election. LABOUR LEADER REFUSES TO ANSWER QUESTIONS ABOUT PM Jeremy Corbyn has been criticised for losing his temper with journalists seeking a comment on David Cameron's tax haven issues. Emerging from his north London home in cycling gear today, the Labour leader was met by a group of reporters and a camera crew. A series of questions were thrown at him about the row that has engulfed the Prime Minister since details of his father's offshore fund were revealed. But Mr Corbyn seemed unwilling to take advantage of his Tory opponent's difficult situation. Wearing a cycle helmet and wheeling his bike out of the front door in Islington, the veteran left-winger insisted: 'Good morning everybody. Thank you for coming... I don't do interviews in any circumstances.' Pushing away a recording device being wielded by one reporter, Mr Corbyn said irritably: 'Put it away please.' He then cycled away down the road as a journalist plaintively called after him: 'Any reactions to David Cameron's statements last night Mr Corbyn? Should Mr Cameron resign?' Mr Boles said Mr Cameron's reluctance to give full details had been a 'natural human thing' when people were 'attacking his father'. 'It's only natural and human that when these revelations were first published, when people started attacking his father who died six years ago, who he loves very much and who can't defend himself, to not want to intrude on his father's memory,' he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. 'People will understand that he is a son as well as a Prime Minister.' But he added: 'With the benefit of hindsight he would rather that all of what has come out of the last four days would have come out on the first day.' Shadow work and pensions secretary Owen Smith said Mr Cameron had to come to the parliament on Monday and explain his actions. 'If he was not trying to hide something why didn't he confess
idi people - that Khanza made her bold move: relocating to the isolated mountaintop. On August 15, with the mountain still largely surrounded by Isil fighters, Khanza was flown in a helicopter to the military base. She immediately got down to work under the supervision of Dr Hawar. “What shocked me the most was seeing people suffering from lack of food, clothes and water,” she says recalling the wave of 50,000 Yazidis who had climbed the mountain in the scorching summer of 2014 to escape an Isil onslaught. Today some 8,750 Yazidis remain on Mount Sinjar, in poor living conditions. Many require ongoing medical attention. Khanza walks me across the road to her clinic, a cabin stocked with medicines and medical equipment donated by the Kurdish Health Ministry and local NGO Rise Foundation. An elderly woman steps inside, wearing the white dress and veil favoured by older Yazidis. She takes a seat at Khanza’s desk and slowly explains that she is suffering from joint pain and cannot walk properly. "I don’t want to get married, take care of children and take orders from a husband". Khanza Ali “When we come, we want you to be here,” says the woman suddenly, prompting the young medic to laugh. “They often tell me they don’t want me to get married and leave,” she smiles. In an act of rebellion against the conservative patriarchy she lives under, Khanza refuses to marry - choosing instead to dedicate her life to her profession. “I don’t want to get married, take care of children and take orders from a husband - and my family respects this,” she explains. While she may not want children of her own she has followed more than 100 women on the mountain through their pregnancies, deliveries and postnatal recoveries; a few even named their babies after her. The perils and uncertainties of living in a war zone are also likely to have played a key role in convincing Khanza to reject the idea of marrying. “I’ve seen soldiers who got married a month ago, coming here and dying,” adds Khanza, who had no experience in treating war casualties before moving to the mountain. Indeed, the day prior to our meeting, six soldiers had been brought to her clinic with shrapnel wounds and one had lost a finger. “I’m still very scared when I hear clashes. I’m scared that Isil could come up the mountain". Khanza Ali Sometimes, Khanza ventures down the mountain to the frontline where she offers the fighters advice. A worrying number of Iraqi Kurdish soldiers have received no formal first aid training and are unfamiliar with devices such as tourniquets, which can save lives. At times the medical team’s limited equipment has meant they’ve been unable to treat some casualties, such as limb amputations, forcing them to travel north to the cities of Duhok and Zakho, and further endangering the wounded. “I’m still very scared when I hear clashes,” Khanza admits over lunch, a plate of rice and chicken cooked by a young male chef. “I’m scared that they (Isil) could come up the mountain.” Khanza and her colleagues take a quick break before she rushes back up the winding mountain road to see her next patient, another elderly woman accompanied by family members. Time off is a luxury she has learnt to do without, having had only two breaks from the mountain in over a year. Even on the all-important Muslim holiday of Eid she was caught up tending to 75 patients. “Even if the situation is bad, I smile and wear make-up to show the enemy that there is still life here". Khanza Ali “I had put on my [civilian] clothes but there were casualties so I had to change back and get to work.” Khanza admits she often gets bored of wearing the same military uniform day-in and day-out. However, she never fails to iron her fatigues. “I always take care of myself. Even if the situation is bad, I smile and wear make-up to show the enemy that there is still life here,” she says, pointing to her black eyeliner, rosy cheeks and gold earrings. “My sister sends it to me from Germany.” Photo: Tom Robinson A year after being dropped off atop Mount Sinjar by an old Iraqi helicopter and having to confront the savage reality that reigns here, Khanza has found a family in the Yazidi community and a home on the mountain. “I never feel alone,” she explains. “The Yazidis are great, open and kind and the Peshmerga (Kurdish soldiers) support me, too.” Would she consider following the wave of refugees currently journeying to Europe? She shakes her head, explaining that she was recently given the chance to relocate there, but turned it down. “I don’t want to go to Europe, I just want to stay and serve my country.”(CNN) When the guests around your Thanksgiving table are busy stuffing their bellies, here's one way to break the lull in conversation: dazzle them with some tasty turkey trivia. Here's 9 to get you started. 1. A tradition is born TV dinners have Thanksgiving to thank. In 1953, someone at Swanson misjudged the number of frozen turkeys it would sell that Thanksgiving -- by 26 TONS! Some industrious soul came up with a brilliant plan: Why not slice up the meat and repackage with some trimmings on the side? Thus, the first TV dinner was born 2. Going shopping? Not if you're a plumber. Black Friday is the busiest day of the year for them, according to Roto-Rooter, the nation's largest plumbing service. After all, someone has to clean up after household guests who " Not if you're a plumber. Black Friday is the busiest day of the year for them, according to Roto-Rooter, the nation's largest plumbing service. After all, someone has to clean up after household guests who " overwhelm the system." 3. This land is my land There are four places in the United States named Turkey. Louisiana's Turkey Creek is the most populous, with a whopping 435 residents. There's also Turkey, Texas; Turkey, North Carolina; and Turkey Creek, Arizona. Oh, let's not forget the two townships in Pennsylvania: the creatively named Upper Turkeyfoot and Lower Turkeyfoot! Photos: Photos: The numbers that make Thanksgiving Photos: Photos: The numbers that make Thanksgiving The numbers that make Thanksgiving – Thanksgiving is full of numbers -- some big, some astonishing. For example, this Thanksgiving Americans will eat an estimated 46 million turkeys. That's a lot of bird. Hide Caption 1 of 7 Photos: Photos: The numbers that make Thanksgiving The numbers that make Thanksgiving – To get to those Thanksgiving dinners, 46.3 million people are estimated to be traveling. Is it just a coincidence that the number of travelers and the number of turkeys are almost identical? Hide Caption 2 of 7 Photos: Photos: The numbers that make Thanksgiving The numbers that make Thanksgiving – You can thank this woman, Sarah Josepha Hale, for leading the drive to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. Hale spent 36 years on her crusade before Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the Thanksgiving holiday in 1863. Hide Caption 3 of 7 Photos: Photos: The numbers that make Thanksgiving The numbers that make Thanksgiving – The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade has become a mainstay of the day. The event, which celebrates its 90th anniversary this year, is typically watched by 50 million people. No word on how many like Hello Kitty. Hide Caption 4 of 7 Photos: Photos: The numbers that make Thanksgiving The numbers that make Thanksgiving – Other mainstays of Thanksgiving Day are the annual NFL games, traditionally featuring the Detroit Lions (pictured against the Green Bay Packers) and the Dallas Cowboys. The NFL Thanksgiving Day game has been played since 1920. Hide Caption 5 of 7 Photos: Photos: The numbers that make Thanksgiving The numbers that make Thanksgiving – Be prepared to exercise: The Calorie Control Council says the average person will eat 4,500 calories on Thanksgiving this year. That's 3,000 for dinner and another 1,500 for "snacking and nibbling" -- a nice way of saying "all the food you'll eat while waiting for the turkey to cool." Hide Caption 6 of 7 Photos: Photos: The numbers that make Thanksgiving The numbers that make Thanksgiving – And then, the next day, it's time to hit the mall for Black Friday (assuming you haven't gone Thursday night). Good luck getting a parking space: 92.1 million people reportedly went shopping on Black Friday in 2013. Hide Caption 7 of 7 4. Leaving a legacy When Abe Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday, it was thanks to the tireless efforts of a magazine editor named Sarah Josepha Hale. Her other claim to fame? She also wrote the nursery rhyme, "Mary Had a Little Lamb." 5. Gobble, gobble? 6. Ben's bird If Ben Franklin had his way, the turkey would be our national bird. An eagle, he wrote in a letter to his daughter, had "bad moral character." A turkey, on the other hand, was a " much more respectable bird." 7. Born in the U.S.A. Thanksgiving is not just an American holiday. Canadians celebrate it too. Except they do it the second Monday in October. 8. Don't blame the bird You stuffed yourself, and now you're feeling sleepy, very sleepy. But it ain't the tryptophan in the turkey. In fact, chickens have more tryptophan. You're groggy because you overate. And digesting all that grub takes a lot of energy 9. Talking turkey"We will, of course, meet our international obligations. But we expect also our rights to be respected too. "So I don’t think we’re going to be seeing that sort of money change hands. "We will meet our international obligations, whatever that turns out to be. But that is nothing like [what] we are talking about here." Five EU directives we'll be glad to see the back of EU working time directive The directive, which has been phased into British law since 1998, is a source of acute frustration for surgeons and medical staff. Many believe it deprives them of the chance to perform enough procedures to become fully competent because of the strictures it imposes on shift patterns. The directive guarantees employment terms such as a maximum 48-hour week and four weeks of paid holiday per year, as well as rules on hours of rest for shift workers. While individual workers can ask to be exempted from the directive, NHS trusts are obliged to draw up rotas that meet the rules. This often means that doctors who are on call, but who sleep undisturbed through their shift, are nevertheless sent home “to rest” when they could take part in training. Bendy bananas In 1994, the European Commission drew up regulation 2257/94, which stated that bananas in general should as a minimum be “free from malformation or abnormal curvature of the fingers”. Under the regulation, “extra” class bananas must be “free from defects”, while class 1 bananas can have “slight defects of shape” and class 2 bananas are allowed to have “defects of shape”. The regulation was repeatedly highlighted by Boris Johnson during the EU referendum campaign.Organise mass resistance against the the junta – consisting of the Troika, the oligarchy and the capitulating government - to stop the passing the agreement by parliament! What should the members of SYRIZA and the Left Platform do? The memorandum agreement, which was signed this by the prime minister at the EU Summit this morning - and which includes massive austerity, new levels of over-taxation of the people, sweeping privatisations and cuts in wages and pensions - is nothing but a sellout and a submission to the demands of the Troika. It is also a punishment of the people for their courageous, classbased 'NO' vote [in the referendum last Sunday]. The government and the leading group in SYRIZA capitulated. The working people and youth are not going to do the same. The most crucial issue at the moment is to build a massrevolutionary working class “NO” movement, in order to stop the adoption of the new memorandum by parliament and to overthrow the parliamentary junta of "national unity". What is to be done now: An indefinite general strike as well as daily mass rallies and demonstrations demanding the rejection of the agreement. Organise meetings to elect committees of struggle in every workplace and in every neighbourhood. The Communist Tendency calls on all members of SYRIZA to react decisively in the coming hours. The anger of the left rank and file must be transformed into political action and not be left to dissipate and end with people leaving the movement with "bowed heads". We must not make it easier for the leading clique of liars to complete their betrayal. They have not only violated, but destroyed, all ideological, political, programmatic and founding principles of the party. All the shame of the betrayal is theirs. To wage a final battle against the liars who lead the party, is an issue of political honor, but above all a means of rescuing the best left activists. The Communist Tendency calls on all members of SYRIZA to demand emergency meetings of their local branches to adopt the following resolution: "The Meromandum Agreement and the draft laws that accompany them must be voted down by all of the SYRIZA members of parliament. "Those SYRIZA MPs who vote in favor of the agreement and the government officials who accept to carry them out, will automatically have put themselves outside of the party. They can no longer be welcome in any of the bodies of the party and would not have the standing of party members. "An emergency congress of SYRIZA is needed, that will politically denounce the government and will adopt a new program, a new policy and elect a new leadership." We demand the immediate convening of the Central Committee to discuss and adopt the above resolution. We urge the Left Platform to support us and to demand of its members to vote against the agreement and of its ministers to resign from the memorandum-government of "national unity". If this necessary final battle against the lying leaders as explained above is lost, then the left wing of SYRIZA should proceed to the establishment of a new party based on the political and programmatic principles of genuine scientific socialism and a firm political denouncement of reformism and social democracy, which has once again proven to be responsible for large losses and betrayals. The conduct and success of this final battle depends entirely on the attitude and choices of the largest tendency of the Left of the party, the Left Platform. If the Left Platform does not directly adopt the essential steps mentioned above, then thousands of demoralized fighters will leave the party and it will render the staying of the leftists and communists inside SYRIZA meaningless. The Communist Tendency, although it is a new tendency with small forces, is and has always been, the only consistent opposition to the leadership within the party. It was the only Tendency to support an alternative political program during the founding congress and in all the other party bodies and to oppose the social democratic views of the leadership. It was the only Tendency in the Central Committee of the party which, through its representatives, voted against all the political suggestions of the leadership. This was not due to any “ideological fetish”, but because within these suggestions the seed of a future betrayal was hidden. This is the reason why, it was the only Tendency that was deprived of the right to be part of the voting ballots and to be represented within the party MPs. This consistent political stance of the Communist Tendency, as opposed to the dominating current of the applauders, apologists and the gutless “opposition” of “abstainers” and “amenders”, allows us to make an appeal for rallying and organising the best militants of the party today. Comrades, members, supporters and voters of SYRIZA that we have fought with, shoulder to shoulder, during the strikes and demonstrations, in the neighborhoods, in the workplaces and Universities, against the Memoranda, defending the rights of the working class and the poor people - stay away from the poison of disappointment and cynicism! Indeed the SYRIZA of the leadership team, the SYRIZA of social democracy and careerism is over. Our SYRIZA though, the SYRIZA of of the left rank and file and the class struggle is alive. We call upon you today to strengthen this Tendency. Organise with the Communist Tendency, fight for the only real political solution which favors working people, for the anticapitalist, socialist rupture! This is the best answer to the lying reformist leaders, this is the only way to turn this valuable lesson of reformist betrayals into a decision to act, that will prepare the victorious revenge of genuine socialism.by Sarah Scoles You've heard it a billion times: Don't go near the supermassive black hole. You'll shoot your eye out have your entire body stretched into spaghetti-thinness like Mike Teavee post-Television Room. And the same is true for molecular gas that would like to turn itself into stars. Please don't forget the lessons I have taught you (Credit: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory)Generally, if you are a cloud of molecular gas with ambition to become something more, you'd be well-advised to steer clear of shearing gravitational fields, such as those surrounding the most dense and extreme objects in the universe. Duh. Or maybe not? Observations from the new ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter Array) telescope and CARMA (Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy) show that fetal stars are gestating while snuggled up against Sagittarius A, the black hole at the center of the Milky Way, which is a respectable 4 million times the mass of our Sun. Scientists believed that stars could not form so close to such a massive object, as the effects of its gravity should prevent clouds of molecular gas -- the combined egg/sperm that leads to star formation -- from collapsing under their own gravity to form self-adhesive spheres of plasma. The data They believed it was impossible, at least, until they made a detailed map of the millimeter-wave photons coming from right around Sagittarius A. In this map, they saw the characteristic signal of the compound SiO -- the aptly named silicon monoxide. And the SiO was clumped together in clumps. Eleven distinct and identifiable clumps. They look like and move like this: Silicon monoxide clumps 1-11 are labeled in this map of the galactic center. Some of the clumps were even lucky enough to have their velocities measured, which is what the plots artistically surrounding the map show (Yusef-Zadeh, et al., 2013)Scientists see SiO where protostars -- objects that are not yet stars but are well on their way -- are shooting "I'm here!" jets into space. The protostars' energy excites the molecules and make them glow at specific wavelengths. When the astronomers saw the SiO evidence that protostellar jets, and thus protostars, were forming so close to a supermassive black hole, they thought, "Huh?" and then decided to try to answer that question before publishing a paper and then publish a paper with the answer. The conclusions For any star -- whether it's next to a supermassive black hole or not -- to form, a cloud of molecular gas has to collapse and become denser and denser and hotter and hotter until it is dense and hot enough to hold itself together and begin nuclear fusion. Near a supermassive black hole, astronomers thought the shearing gravitation -- tidal forces -- would prevent molecular gas from collapsing, because the gravitational effect of the black hole would always be more than the gravitational effects of molecules on each other. But when actual empirical evidence contradicts what you made up in your head and on paper/hard drive, you have to adjust what's in your head, because those protostars are way too far away to be adjusted in a reasonable amount of time, and also you'll shoot your eye out. In their paper (cited below), the researchers put forth two explanations: Clump-clump collisions: Small clumps of gas were able to form, and then they accidentally hit each other and stuck together, and as more and more clumps stuck to them, they became massive enough for their internal gravity to take over. The problem with this idea is that it requires 60 individual initial clumps. UV compression: There's a significant UV radiation field around Sagittarius A. The radiation causes pressure, which can cause compression, which can cause clumps of gas to collapse. The only problem with this explanation is that it takes 50,000 straight years of UV compression to give a clump the kind of mass and collapse that allow its own gravity to win. So there are problems with both models. There are problems with most models. Not that dapper Harry Stiles of One Direction is a model, but, you know, you get my point. My point being that Photoshop is amazing and scientific models, like models of teenage popstardom, are rarely perfect.But at least they came up with some ideas, and they (or other teams) can investigate clump-clump collision and UV compression in other situations and on hellasupercomputers to see if tweaking the terms leads to scientific expectations that better match scientific data. While they do that, you can think about how these protostars formed in the past 100,000-1,000,000 years. Whenever I hear numbers like that in astronomy, it makes me sit up and hit my head on something and listen. Because in terms of the universe, 100,000 years ago might as well be right now. I mean, dude, Homo sapiens existed then. Whenever I hear numbers like that in astronomy, it makes me sit up and hit my head on something and listen. Because in terms of the universe, 100,000 years ago might as well be right now. I mean, dude, Homo sapiens existed then. they are big! One is more than 30 times more massive than the Sun is. One is more than 30 times more massive than the Sun is. they are bright! One is more than 40,000 times more luminous than the Sun is. One is more than 40,000 times more luminous than the Sun is. they are hanging out around a gigantic pit of superdense nothingness that has ripped spacetime. If only they could speak, they could tell us what this black hole has been doing while the modern hominid species has been flitting about planet Earth. But they can't. So we'll just have to keep doing science. F. Yusef-Zadeh, M. Royster, M. Wardle, R. Arendt, H. Bushouse, D. C. Lis, M. W. Pound, D. A. Roberts, B. Whitney, & A. Wootten (2013). ALMA Observations of the Galactic Center: SiO Outflows and High Mass Star Formation near Sgr A The Astrophysical Journal Letters arXiv: 1303.3403v1What are your thoughts? Comment on Facebook. === The labour dispute that cancelled the opening of B.C. public schools Tuesday is pitting the financial pressures faced by striking teachers against the public pressures on the provincial government to reopen classrooms. And in that war of wills, teachers may blink first, a University of B.C. education professor says. “Of those two forces, the government is in a position to hold out longer than the teachers are,” Wayne Ross said in an interview. “Public pressure will increase but financial pressure on the rank and file will increase faster. They have the same pressures as everyone else on a monthly basis.” Ross said the government’s strategy is to hold out, let the teachers feel the financial hardship of being on strike, and then reach a negotiated settlement that nullifies two court rulings that went in favour of the teachers. “Basically, the government is asking the teachers to give up what they’ve won in court.” In 2002, the B.C. government removed clauses from the teachers’ contract that guaranteed working conditions and it legislated a prohibition from bargaining those issues. In 2011, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Susan Griffin found the measures violated the teachers’ constitutional right to freedom of association, which includes the right of a union to collectively bargain with an employer over working conditions. She gave the government a year to fix the unconstitutional legislation. In 2014, Griffin ruled for the second time that the government had violated teachers’ constitutional rights when it stripped class size, class composition and specialist teacher ratios out of their collective agreement and she retroactively restored the old provisions to the contract, but noted they could be subject to bargaining in future. The government received a stay of the decision pending its appeal, set for October. “The government doesn’t want to legislate them back,” Ross said. “If the government can get a negotiated contract that says anything less than what Justice Griffin’s decision has in it, then they win. If they can get a negotiated contract, they save themselves from being three-time losers in the courts.” George Abbott, who served as education minister from 2010 to 2012 and is now with Victoria consulting company Circle Square Solutions said the province cannot toss money at reaching a settlement with the teachers that is inconsistent with the pattern of earlier public sector contracts. On the issue of class size, he argued that the “empirical evidence” does not support significant expenditures to reduce a classroom size by a few students. He said there is room for negotiating additional resources on the issue of class composition, where the understanding of students with physical, behavioural and mental issues has changed considerably since 2002. Improved teacher training is one option for consideration. The problem is that relations between the BCTF and the province have “soured” to the point that reaching an agreement on such issues is difficult, he said. Communications consultant Bill Tieleman predicted that the dispute could linger for two to six weeks and that it’s clear that pressures must mount on both parties before a settlement is reached. “I don’t see any grounds for this to be resolved quickly,” he said. “This is a fundamental dispute on both sides. It will set the stage for years to come.” Jim Sinclair, the president of the B.C. Federation of Labour, pledged that organized labour will turn up the heat on the government in the coming days. While a provincewide general strike is not currently on the table, it is not being dismissed. “We’ll see what happens at the end of the week,” Sinclair said in an interview at a Labour Day rally at Swangard Stadium in Burnaby. “We’re meeting, as the leadership of the labour movement, Thursday morning and we’ll be talking about how we can make sure this gets resolved. It could be discussed, but right now we’re discussing how to put pressure on the government.” He noted the last general strike “was in 2005 when the teachers were on strike.” Tieleman said he does not believe that a general strike is an option this time. “The issues are specific to the teachers,” he said. “They have a lot of support from labour but I can’t see it leading to a broader dispute.” Sinclair urged union members and citizens of all stripes to support the striking teachers. “This week we are telling parents and labour movement folks and everybody to head down to the picket lines because this week is critical. The premier has to get the message.” The union movement is organizing rallies in Victoria, Prince George and Kelowna, with a major demonstration planned for Friday in Vancouver. Sinclair’s message to the government is, ‘You made this mess in 2002. We’ve dragged it through the school system for 12 years, through two court cases and now it’s back at the bargaining table. And in 18 months you haven’t put one more penny on the table to solve it.” Recent timeline of the dispute: June 2013 - A two-year contract for B.C.’s teachers expires. Sept. 2013 - Teachers start their bid in B.C. Supreme Court to have their contract provisions regarding class-size limits and staffing ratios restored to 2002 levels. Jan. 2014 - Teachers win court case. Justice Susan Griffin finds the government twice passed unconstitutional legislation aimed at stripping teachers of bargaining rights. Griffin finds the province did not negotiate in good faith during 2012 bargaining, and even tried to provoke a strike. Feb. 2014 - Province appeals decision, with Peter Fassbender saying it would cost government $1 billion. Government received temporary stay of ruling. Fassbender later emails teachers directly, attempting to explain the government’s side. March 2014 - teachers vote 89 per cent in favour of a strike. Initial government offer was for seven per cent increase over six years, followed by raises tied to inflation for a total of ten years. Teachers wanted 13.5 per cent increase over three years. May 2014 - Government meets teachers’ plan for rotating strikes with wage cuts and a partial lockout. June 2014 - Teachers lower their wage demands to eight per cent over five years, government offer remains at seven per cent over six. Class size and composition continue to be sticky point in negotiations. June 10, 2014 - The BCTF says its strike pay fund is running dry. Teachers nevertheless vote 86 per cent in favour of a full-scale strike. June 17, 2014 - schools close on account of dispute. June 20, 2014 - Both sides agree to mediation with help from Vince Ready, who initially declines the charge. July 2, 2014 - Mediator and B.C. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Kelleher cannot bring the two sides together. July 16, 2014 - Finance Minister Mike de Jong unveils budget surplus then says there is no plan by government to pass back-to-work legislation before start of school year. July 31, 2014 - province announces $40 a day contingency plan for parents of young schoolchildren should the strike continue past Sept. 2. Aug. 8, 2014 - the two sides come together for the first time since schools shut down in June. Both sides call for further negotiations over the next few weeks. Aug. 27, 2014 - Fassbender calls for a two-week “stand down” from strike action once mediation begins. Aug. 28, 2014 - Ready meets with Fassbender, Jim Iker, the president of the BCTF, and Peter Cameron, the chief negotiator of the BCPSEA. Aug. 30, 2014 - Ready walks away from the table with both sides too far apart for mediation. Sept. 2, 2014 - Scheduled start of the 2014/15 school year. With a file from Matthew Robinson lpynn@vancouversun.com Follow me: @LPynn Click here to report a typo or visit vancouversun.com/typo. Is there more to this story? We'd like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. CLICK HERE or go to vancouversun.com/moretothestoryPhoto via Flickr user fdecomite This year we learned, again, that the people who are in charge of enforcing the law have no idea what they were doing. Major news stories on the NSA’s epic surveillance program, prisoner abuse at Guantanamo Bay, and the ongoing use of drones to kill people all over the Middle East showed just how deeply rooted the US’s military-law-enforcement-surveillance-prison-industrial complex is, and how at every turn there seem to be more abuses perpetrated either by the administrators responsible for these programs or the rank-and-file officers who weren’t given enough oversight or direction. The silver lining is that media outlets, individual reporters, and advocacy organizations from across the ideological spectrum have been banging the drum louder than ever and forcing us to pay attention to the evils of our criminal justice system. This year brought us journalist Radley Balko’s book on the militarization of the police, documentarian Eugene Jarecki’s feature-length indictment of the war on drugs, and a continuation of the excellent coverage of prisons and cops we’ve come to expect from Mother Jones, Reason, the ACLU, and other civil libertarian standbys. Maybe this enthusiastic advocacy will someday lead to major reforms. Maybe we’ll even reminisce about 2013 as the year the long trend of incarceration and overaggressive policing finally broke. There were a few bright spots, after all: Bipartisan support for bills intended to reduce the harm done by mandatory minimum sentencing laws inspired Attorney General Eric Holder to offer his own modest reforms in that area. Washington and Colorado voted to allow the sale of recreational marijuana, thereby pounding a few more nails into the drug war’s eventual coffin. From today’s vantage point, however, 2013 mostly looks like another brick in a vast concrete wall—law enforcement as a whole was awful, individual cops and departments were worse. Lives were ruined and dogs were shot. Apropos of all that, here are a few “awards” for the guys with badges. There’s no prize money, just a faint hope that these dubious honors won't need to be handed out again. Most Racist Police Department: New York City The country’s biggest police force would be hard-pressed not to wind up with some very awkward incidents—when you have 34,000 officers, some of them are going to mess up. But a few bad apples can’t be blamed for the NYPD’s stop and frisk program or its CIA-style monitoring of Muslims. For all the cops’ spying on mosques, they produced no useful tips, and stop and frisk didn’t lead to many arrests either. Between January 2002 and June 2012, nearly 4.5 million New Yorkers were stopped on the street and searched for drugs or weapons, and nearly 90 percent weren't doing anything illegal. The majority of these searches were performed on black or hispanic individuals, giving the whole thing a strong stink of prejudice. Though the policy’s supporters—including lame-duck Mayor Mike Bloomberg—claim this makes the city safer and that minorities aren’t singled out because of their skin color, civil liberties activists begged to differ and sued in 2010. In August, a federal judge ordered reforms and oversight to the officially racist policy, but two months later she was dismissed from the case for being biased against the city. Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio has pledged to reform the practice once he takes office in January, even if some cops oppose his efforts. Most Kafkaesque Definition of “Assault”: New York City, Again A Manhattan grand jury, faced with the case of officers who shot two bystanders during an effort to apprehend an unarmed mentally unstable man in October, have decided assault charges are warranted, which makes sense given that, well, two people were shot. Except they have declined to charge the officers who shot the women, instead blaming the unstable man who had been darting in between cars and causing a bit of a scene on the day in question. He forced the cops to pull out their weapons and fire, apparently, and also made them miss. (By the way, he was eventually brought down by a Taser.) Photo via Flickr user David Shankbone Most Justly Earned Settlement: Daniel Chong In April 2012, Daniel Chong, then 23 years old, was put into custody when a DEA task force raided his friend’s house. Put in a holding cell and told he wouldn’t be charged, Chong was left alone for the next four days without food or water. Chong was reduced to drinking his own urine to survive, and at one point he was so sure he was going to die he attempted to leave a note of farewell to his mother by breaking his glasses and carving “Sorry Mom” into his arm. After his was finally found, Chong was hospitalized for five days. On July 25, 2013, Chong settled with the federal government for $4.1 million. According to Chong’s attorney, the DEA said they intended to institute national standards that included cameras in cells, as well as daily checks on detained suspects. Worst Asshole in Law Enforcement: Joe Arpaio Where to begin with Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio? The 81-year-old media whore has been elected six times, in spite of costing taxpayers millions of dollars, thanks to the numerous and justified lawsuits filed against him. First nationally known for bringing back chain gangs and attempting to humiliate inmates by making them wear pink underwear, Arpaio’s definition of law and order includes housing inmates in tent cities and jails that reach dangerous temperatures in the summer, serving cheap, rotten food, and, most recently, mandating patriotism in his prisoners. He aggressively pursues immigrants who crossed the border illegally—so much so that the Department of Justice has sued him for discrimination and disallowed him from enforcing immigration laws at all—but his deputies have ignored scores of sexual assault reports. In May, soon after a federal judge found that Arpaio had unconstitutionally targeted Latinos in his policing, he survived yet another recall attempt. Arizonans can’t seem to get enough of their racist uncle. God bless democracy. Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Photo via Most Racist K9 Officers: Los Angeles County According to data compiled by the Police Assessment Resource Center, in the first half of the year, LA County Sheriff’s Department police dogs bit only non-white suspects. This is likely because K9 units were usually deployed in less affluent neighborhoods where crime is more common, but it could be argued that police dogs should only be used in very serious criminal incidents, since their use often leads to suspects getting seriously injured. Most Cowardly Pet Killing, Dog Category: Antoine Jones of Georgia On October 7, Antoine Jones, a six-foot, 300-pound probation officer, went to the Albany, Georgia, home of Cherrie Shelton, as he had multiple times in the past in order to check up on her son. As Jones walked to the door, Shelton’s 12-pound Jack Russell terrier Patches ran outside barking at him. Shelton told the local news she tried to explain that Patches didn’t bite, but before she could finish, Jones shot her dog, who died half an hour later. The officer said in a report he was threatened by the tiny dog, but though the Georgia Department of Corrections initially supported him, an internal investigation of the incident was reportedly opened at the end of October. Most Cowardly Pet killing, Non-Dog Category: Unnamed NYPD Officers According to a lawsuit filed by Evelyn Lugo, during a legally dubious raid on her home in September 2012 a New York cop stomped the family’s pet parakeet to death while yelling, “Fuck the bird!” The injuries to several family members are documented in photographs, so it’s quite possible the bird-murder portion of the complaint is accurate as well. RIP Tito the bird. Most Cowardly Pet Killing, in Front of Children Category: Barry Accorti of Ohio
the solar system in two interesting ways: viewed from above the solar system or riding along with the comet. Here's how: In the app settings, under Solar System, switch on the option for Selected Object Orbit. Next, search for the sun, then tap the Orbit icon. You will see the 3D model of the solar system showing colored orbits of the planets. Next, search for a comet by typing its name or scrolling through the provided list to find it. Select the comet and exit the search menu. The comet's elliptical orbit will now appear among the planets in a model of the solar system. While in this mode, you can rotate, pan and zoom to see the size and shape of the orbit. Notice the extreme orbital inclination of most comets' orbits. Comet Halley's 75.5-year orbit extends out to Neptune, while little Comet 2P/Encke, which returns to Earth's vicinity every 3.3 years, ranges only between Mercury and the asteroid belt. The orbit of the now-disintegrated Comet ISON — and the current orbit of that comet's debris heading outward from the sun, which the app still tracks — is highly elongated and open. [Green Comet Lovejoy Photobombs Night Sky Photos by Stargazers] Comet C/2015 V2 (Johnson), visible this year, will make only one pass through the solar system. Its orbital inclination is nearly 90 degrees from the planes of the planets' orbits. (Image: © SkySafari App It's a lot of fun to explore comets this way. To see a comet traveling, open the time controls and adjust the date forward and backward. When the comet is far from the sun, increments of months are better. But near perihelion, try stepping by day or hour. Tapping Now will always return you to the present. The other way to see the comet in action is to ride along with it. The setup is the same as above, except that you'll tap the Orbit button when in the comet's information window. You may need to pinch the display to zoom out enough to see the rest of the solar system. As the comet reaches the perihelion date, the sun will loom larger, and then the star will retreat afterward. To exit both app configurations, tap the Earth icon, then switch off the Selected Object Orbit feature. Enjoy! Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak, now visible in binoculars under a dark sky, is in the northern sky this month, passing through the bowl of the Big Dipper on March 23-25. Look for a faint, greenish patch of light. (Image: © SkySafari App Going beyond Periodic comets are the primary source for meteor showers. After many orbits, the dropped material accumulates into an elongated zone of fine-grained debris, which Earth's orbit can intersect. As the planet passes through them every year on the same dates, the particles burn up as meteors in the atmosphere; the duration of the shower depends on the width of the zone. Halley's Comet is responsible for the Eta Aquarid and Orionid meteor showers. Your astronomy app will have a meteor shower index. There are good websites to tell you what comets are observable. Cometchasing.skyhound.com lists current and upcoming comets, ranked in order of visibility, with notes about when and where to look and what instrument is required (naked eyes, binoculars, small telescope, etc.). Links provide a printable finder chart showing each comet's path over the month. Seiichi Yoshida's Weekly Information About Bright Comets provides observing notes, finder charts, recent photographs and a light curve showing a comet's predicted brightness profile over time as well as brightness estimates contributed by observers. His Visual Comets in the Future page lists the comets observable during the evening, midnight and predawn times, month by month into the future. The last truly magnificent naked-eye comet was 1996-97's Hale-Bopp, which shone almost as bright as Venus for many months and sported a tail stretching over many degrees of sky. Until the next great comet appears, skywatchers can enjoy the many smaller ones that are available from time to time, and travel the solar system with astronomy apps. In the next edition of Mobile Astronomy, we'll show you how to use your mobile astronomy app to plan for the Great American Total Solar Eclipse of Aug. 21, 2017. Until then, keep looking up! Editor's note: Chris Vaughan is an astronomy public outreach and education specialist, and operator of the historic 1.88-meter David Dunlap Observatory telescope. You can reach him via email, and follow him on Twitter as @astrogeoguy, as well as on Facebook and Tumblr. This article was provided by Simulation Curriculum, the leader in space science curriculum solutions and the makers of the SkySafari app for Android and iOS. Follow SkySafari on Twitter @SkySafariAstro. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.Queensland MPs are staying silent on their stance on abortion, prompting a Senator to repeat her call for their transparency on the issue. Larissa Waters wrote to each of Queensland's 89 MPs on October 30, asking them to state their position on decriminalising abortion, following reports women were being forced to travel interstate for the medical procedure, because of Queensland's "outdated law". Abortion is still covered under Queensland's criminal code. Abortion is still covered under Queensland's criminal code, a fact Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath said Labor had no plans to change. Previous attempts to change the law have created an ambiguous situation for both doctors and women in Queensland, with the procedure considered lawful if a medical professional finds there to be significant danger to a woman's mental or physical health.CORNWALL, Ontario – The City of Cornwall started the process towards considering whether or not to reform the way the people of Cornwall elect their officials. Council received a report from Administration on electoral reform at the City Council meeting on Monday, Feb. 13. The report specifically explained the differences between First Past the Post (the current voting system) and Ranked Ballot. The reason for the report is that the Province has allowed municipalities to consider changing their voting process, as long as they make a decision before May 1, 2017, which would be in time for the 2018 municipal election. If the process were started now it would include an education process to educate counillors and a public forum where the voters can give their input. Councillor Elaine MacDonald wanted Council and the city to at least consider the idea of reviewing the voting process. "Let us not fail to act and not even look at this opportunity without making a knowledgable decision without going to the public," she said. Councillor Bernadette Clement agreed with the motion. "By not following through with this its like us making a decision on how we elect ourselves without public consultation," she said. Councillor Andre Rivette was opposed to starting the review process to learn about Electoral Reform. "is the system we have, is it broke now," Counillor Rivette asked. "What’s the cost involved? The machines we have now, are they any good? No? We’d have to throw that money away right away." While Councillor David Murphy was in favour of public consultation, he did not buy the Ranked Ballot system as a viable option. "Its always a good idea to go to the public, but its a convoluted complicated process," he said. "I’ve been looking at this issue for over a year and I still don’t have my head wrapped around it so how is Joe Public supposed to get it down in a month," added Councillor Claude McIntosh. The Mayor however, proposed by-passing the May 1 deadline and look down the road to a referendum for more time to learn about the process and get input from the public. Councillor Elaine MacDonald agreed with the possibility of a referendum, but in her closing remarks addressed the question as to whether the current First Past the Post system is broken. "We hear tonight that in our last election we had 33 percent voter turnout, I think that’s the answer for you," she said. "If I ever heard of a symptom of ill-health, that was it." Ultimately, Council backed Councillor Elaine MacDonald’s motion to start the process to review the voting system. All councillors voted in favour of the process except Councillors Denis Carr and Andre Rivette. Under the First Past the Post system, the candidate with the most votes wins, even if they do not have a majority of the votes. First Past the Post is criticized for not being representative. Those voters who do not vote for the winning party do not have their voices represented, even if the winning party is backed by a minority. In a Ranked Ballot system, each voter is allowed to pick multiple candidates and "rank" them according to preference. Under this system, it becomes more likely that the winning party has more widespread support of the public, because they would have to be either the first, or second choice of the voter.ADVERTISEMENT After eight years under a Democratic governor, Wisconsin faced a $3.6 billion budget shortfall, a high tax climate, and was hemorrhaging jobs. Voters soundly rejected – not once, but twice –the notion that more government, more taxes, and more spending would solve our problems. But this is the exact same plan that President Obama, and his Democratic colleagues, are trying to sell to the American public and voters in my home state. The president has made clear that his vision for the future of this country involves more government, taxes, and spending. A simple evaluation of his record gives Wisconsinites a picture as to what the future would hold under a second term. Candidate Barack Obama Barack Hussein ObamaWith low birth rate, America needs future migrants 4 ways Hillary looms over the 2020 race Obama goes viral after sporting black bomber jacket with '44' on sleeve at basketball game MORE made the now-infamous pledge that he would cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term. But as president, he attacked attempts to address the drivers of our national debt while adding $5 trillion to it. He has yet to present a plan to reduce our debt; in fact, his most recent budget did not garner a single vote in Congress. Instead, in order to feed our bloated government and out-of-control spending, the President crisscrossed the country campaigning for higher taxes that would hit 900,000 small businesses. These tax hikes are estimated to kill 14,900 jobs in Wisconsin. The president’s major legislative achievement, ObamaCare, is also a drag on job creation. Nearly 3 in 4 small businesses say that ObamaCare discourages them from hiring. Recent estimates say it will take 80 million man-hours just to comply with its rules and regulations. That is a lot of time spent on paperwork, not job creation. Even beyond its impact on the economy, ObamaCare will hurt Wisconsin, not help. If President Obama is reelected and ObamaCare remains law, we can expect 100,000 Wisconsinites to lose their employer-provided health care and 59 percent of people who buy their own health insurance will see their premium increase. What the president has been unable to accomplish legislatively, his administration has by regulation. So, his Administration’s regulations also paint a bleak picture for Wisconsinites about what to expect from another term. While the president claims to have an “all-of-the-above” energy plan, his EPA issued emissions standards so burdensome that coal plants are closing down across the country to comply. Last week, the largest coal company announced it will cut 1,200 jobs nationwide, due in part to "a regulatory environment that's aggressively aimed at constraining the use of coal." Wisconsinites should be concerned: coal provides around two-thirds of our electric power. When I spoke with small business owners in my district, they were fed up with a federal government that doesn’t get it and regulations that seem detached from the real world. One owner said, “There is no cost-benefit analysis that seems to make any sense, and I think it has a lot of people scared. If you aren’t in their sights, you are probably soon to be in their sights.” Wisconsin’s taxpayers, families, and small businesses can’t afford four more years of President Obama’s big-government vision for the country. Mitt Romney brings the understanding of what it takes to get our economy working again and infuse the private sector with the confidence that government is not out to get them, but rather get out of their way. After announcing Paul Ryan Paul Davis RyanBrexit and exit: A transatlantic comparison Five takeaways from McCabe’s allegations against Trump The Hill's 12:30 Report: Sanders set to shake up 2020 race MORE as his running mate, the gap in Wisconsin closed significantly. It is more than the fact that Paul is Wisconsin’s Congressman from the First District—but that he has exhibited real leadership when there was a void. Paul Ryan took on the nation’s budgetary problems when the President demurred. In Wisconsin, we have been proud of his work for years, and we are happy to share him with the rest of the nation. It is no wonder the president is finally making it to Wisconsin after an eight month hiatus. Wisconsin has tasted the benefits of limited government and restrained spending. And it is much better than what the president has been selling. Sensenbrenner is a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee.U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Thursday issued an explicit warning to North Korea, saying that any use of nuclear weapons on the U.S. or allies would be met with an "effective and overwhelming" response. A Pentagon spokesman said that Mattis "emphasized the priority that President Trump places on the Asia-Pacific" during his meeting with acting President Hwang Kyo-Ahn. U.S. defense secretaries have long offered assurances to South Korea and Japan that its nuclear "umbrella" will protect them, but Mattis's statement was perhaps more pointed than most. He made the remarks during an appearance with his South Korean counterpart, Defense Minister Han Min Koo. "North Korea continues to launch missiles, develop its nuclear weapons program, and engage in threatening rhetoric and behavior," Mattis said with Han standing at his side and U.S. and South Korean flags at their backs. "We stand with our peace-loving Republic of Korea ally to maintain stability on the peninsula and in the region," he added. "America's commitments to defending our allies and to upholding our extended deterrence guarantees remain ironclad: Any attack on the United States, or our allies, will be defeated, and any use of nuclear weapons would be met with a response that would be effective and overwhelming." Mattis's statement showed by he chose South Korea for his first visit overseas since becoming defense secretary Jan. 20. He sought to reassure South Koreans of the longstanding U.S. commitment to a defense treaty that President Donald Trump suggested during the campaign was a bad deal for America. Mattis also was discussing with the South Koreans a timetable for deploying an advanced U.S. missile defense system, the Theater High-Altitude Area Defense, or THAAAD, that is meant to improve protection of South Korea and Japan -- as well as U.S. troops stationed in both countries -- against a North Korean missile attack. The current caretaker South Korean government has said it supports THAAAD deployment, but the decision is in doubt because of approaching national elections. Mattis was scheduled to fly to Tokyo on Friday for further consultations. The U.S. has 28,500 troops permanently based in South Korea and about 50,000 in Japan. "Were it not for the provocative behavior of North Korea, we would have no need for Thaad out here," Mattis said in his breif remarks to reporters. Alluding to China's objections to having Thaad deployed in South Korea, Mattis said, "Thaad should be a worry to no nation other than North Korea." In Washington this week, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held its first policy hearing since Trump took office to discuss North Korea. There were more questions than answers. Last month, Trump fueled speculation of possible U.S. military action to pre-empt North Korea's weapons development. In response to Kim's threat, Trump tweeted, "It won't happen!" But he didn't elaborate how he could be so sure. "Does that mean we have drawn a red line?" Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., asked at Tuesday's Senate hearing. During the campaign, Trump complained that defense treaties disadvantaged the U.S. and that he would not rule out abandoning signatories if they refuse to pay more for their defense. He also suggested that South Korea and Japan, which are already within the range of North Korean missiles, might acquire their own nuclear weapons rather than rely on U.S. deterrence. The Associated Press contributed to this reportEvery year, Coachella is the place for artists to pull out all the stops, and Lido made sure he delivered something special for his debut set in Indio, Calif. A few days before his performance at the Gobi Tent, the Norwegian-born, 23-year-old producer announced on social media that he’d be playing his highly anticipated album, Everything, in full. It’s quite an unprecedented move to debut new material to fans because the experience is happening in real-time. The reactions, comments, and everything in between comes with a lot more weight. Lido didn’t have to worry too much. The crowd ranged from casual listeners to folks who have been following his every move for the last few years, a good sign that he’s got a dedicated fan base who have been waiting to hear what he’s been working on. At around 8:20 PM, a black silhouette was removed to reveal his series of situational visuals that structure the story of what happens to you after a post breakup. It complements the theme of every feeling a guy has gone through after getting dumped. You want to drink a little more to ease the pain, some days will feel gloomier than usual, and there are plenty of times when you want to seek immediate companionship. POST CONTINUES BELOW He’s a vigorous performer, switching from drums to piano to vocals all in the span of one song. "Crazy" was a peak moment for Lido, as the entire crowd came alive for the song's spectacle. Jaden Smith, who Lido says is one of his best friends, appeared on stage to perform a new collaboration, where Smith’s lyrics play an important role in the album’s concept. Overall, these first listens indicate that Everything will be some of his most personal music to date. It hasn’t been 24 hours yet and Lido is still in awe at what transpired the night before. “It was the most emotional 45 minutes of my life,” he says. Here, he breaks down Everything, Jaden’s role on the album, and if the songs draws from his past relationship with Halsey. We also talk about his Kanye West tribute project, The Life of Peder, and why major labels should embrace unofficial remixes more. Why did you decide to debut Everything at Coachella? The album is a concept album. There’s a story from the first song to the last song. And last night, we performed 90 percent of the album in the order of the album. We played it front to back because of that story. When we started talking about Coachella and how to do this, all of the original music that I put out is from two years ago. I was basically just like, "I don’t want to play old music." And then we started [putting together the setlist] and I was like, "I’m going to play this song and I’m going to play this song from the album." It just felt weird. It was like, "I’m missing the whole story." So I was like, "Fuck it. We’re just going to do the whole thing. We’re just gonna play the whole album." And give people this story. POST CONTINUES BELOW Can you summarize what this story is about? I had a little speech in the beginning of the set. I said, "This story is not about a girl. This is a story because of a girl." It is a very unconventional breakup album in the sense where it’s the story about what happens after a breakup. Most people write about the incidents, the complications and the conflict that leads up to breakup on an breakup album and just what happened. This is very much what happens after. It’s almost like the grieving process. You know where you have [five] steps in the grieving process? It’s kind of like that. It’s an extremely personal and honest album. It’s the story of what happens to your mind when you care so much about somebody and that somebody disappears. POST CONTINUES BELOW After they heard your new songs, some of your fans thought the content was about your ex-girlfriend Halsey. It is a very personal situation. Whether or not that’s the person, I won’t disclose at this time. It was very important to me to write this album to be not gossip-y. Like I said, this is not an album about a girl. This is an album about my head after a girl did some fucked up shit to it. So whoever triggered that is not so important to this story, which is why I don’t really want to get into that. But it was a very real situation for sure. Did your breakup with her play a part in the songwriting process? In general, it was very important as a concept. She helped me develop a lot of the songs. She even co-wrote parts of it. Yeah, she’s one of the most important people in my life. She’s still absolutely my best friend even though we’re not dating anymore. She was there last night and everything. POST CONTINUES BELOW What’s going through your mind when you’re performing new material for the first time? It’s crazy because basically this performance was two years’ worth of feelings squeezed in 45 minutes. Like magnified by thousands of people. I poured out so many emotions in those 45 minutes. I walked off the stage and I was just empty. I just collapsed. I’m still trying to realize what happened. I’m still trying to catch up. I’m super proud about what we did and I’m super proud of our team for pulling all of this shit off. It was a very risky thing to do. It was a very ambitious thing to do. Literally the craziest shit that we ever pulled off. And we barely did it. We decided to play the album not very long ago and we pulled together some absolutely crazy shit for it. I’m super proud of the fact that we did it. I’m sort of happy that I got to premiere it in the platform that we did. And right now, I feel good about it obviously, but I don’t think it has caught up to me quite yet. POST CONTINUES BELOW Jaden is one of my best friends and he’s probably one of the most important voices on the album. Tell me about the song with Jaden Smith you debuted last night. What’s it called? The song with Jaden, I am not going to give you the title of the song just quite yet. Jaden is one of my best friends and he’s probably one of the most important voices on the album. When I wrote the album, I very carefully picked every voice that appears on it because they all play a very specific role; they all play a very specific character in the story. Jaden’s song is sort of a turning point. It’s towards the end of the album, and it is sort of song about acceptance and perspective. He is very much the same reason why this album became what it did because of his contributions to the album in general. Image via Lido/Photography by Donslens So he gave you some creative guidance? Absolutely. He wrote a verse from my standpoint. He wrote a rap verse as if it was me and that sort of completely blew my mind and we sort of shaped the rest of the album in a way that he interpreted that song. POST CONTINUES BELOW Was that one of the first songs you did? It was one of the first songs that we had a feature on. And sort of realized like, "Yes, this is the way to do it. I want this album to be written completely from my perspective." So yeah, that was really, really special. Does he only appear once? All the voices on the album are very much fluid. I’m trying to be careful how I word everything. They all play very specific parts and some of those parts repeat and some of those parts intertwine. So Jaden’s voice definitely happens more than once. Though that is sort of his moment and where his character is the most central one. It’s a complicated album. I want to get into your remix of Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo. Why do you have such a deep appreciation for remixing music? In general, I think my appreciation for remixing has a lot to do with me just loving ideas. I grew up surrounded by a lot of gospel musicians and a lot of jazz musicians. Improv and interpretations of songs and changing of songs was a very natural thing for me. POST CONTINUES BELOW When I got into electronic music, I was like, "Yes, this is the same. This is jamming. This is the jazz club right here." I think whenever I hear something, when I hear someone having an idea that I hear a different interpretation of. If it’s like, "Ah shit, I wish I had that idea because I would have done this instead." I think it’s just my love for music and my non-existing respect for the purity of music. Music is a living thing, music is supposed to change. Music is supposed to breathe. And that is why I love taking ideas and extending their life and extending their potential or changing people’s perspective of it. I think that’s why I love remixing so much. What’s your message to these major labels who don’t understand the idea of sampling? Labels don’t realize what remixes do. This is not the story of what’s the thing? The hoverboards? This is not the story of that where you forgot to patent it and suddenly everybody is making the same thing. That’s not what this is because me remixing a song takes people back to the original. Me remixing [Bill Withers’] “Ain’t No Sunshine” made people remember the original and went back and copped that as well. It’s not like people are gonna be like, "Oh, I really want to buy this song. But, hey, I see a remix next to it, I’m gonna buy this remix instead." That’s not the math of it. POST CONTINUES BELOW I do believe that’s the way major labels think of it. You’re taking something that you are supposed to make money off of and now you are not making that money because you took it instead. That money didn’t exist if I didn’t do that. It’s just a twist that’s a very old mentality unfortunately. I think both music and the industry is in a transitional period. We are gonna butt heads a lot. But hopefully, we’re gonna figure it out soon. You were inspired to remix Kanye’s album. Are you thinking of doing any other hip-hop albums this year? Kanye’s album was one of those things where I listened to the album and I was like, "Holy shit. I really want to remix every song." And that happens very rarely. I don’t know. If another album does that to me, then absolutely I would love to do that again. It was a really fun and challenging process. But it’s been a very long time since I wanted to remix so many songs on one project that I have to do all of them. So we’ll see. If that happens again—yes. A million percent. POST CONTINUES BELOW How long did it take you to put together? It took me about three days. More or less. So who knows, maybe something like that comes along again. Recently, Halsey performed "Castle" at the MTV Movie Awards. What did you think of her performance? I was there. It was amazing. Such a powerful thing to watch something that we wrote together being performed in such a cool platform. Me and Jaden had a fucking dance-off in the middle of the thing, it was hilarious. That was a fun night. I’m not a red carpet person. I would rather be in a dirty studio somewhere. It was really special to see the music being performed that way and she killed that performance.There’s no need for a hacker to attack a server or network if they can simply trick someone into disclosing confidential information. Microsoft is adding an additional layer of defense to help stop that from happening—if you subscribe to Office 365. In the coming weeks, Microsoft said it will begin showing what it calls “Safety Tips” at the top of email: colored bars to let you know whether an email is safe, suspicious, or known to be fraudulent. Microsoft said Safety Tips will be managed by Exchange Online Protection, the back-end protection mechanism used to secure email sent through Office 365. Why this matters: Everyone tells you, don’t click on suspicious links!—and yet we do, because we don’t necessarily think the link is suspicious. It might be a purported email from HR, or from a client, or an urgent request that comes in late on a Friday. Microsoft’s Safety Tips won’t be able to block everything, but it’s an additional layer of security that will make the crook’s job a little harder. Of course, it’s also another reason to subscribe to Office 365. What Safety Tips will look like What you’ll see will be different depending on whether you’re working within Outlook for the Web (not the consumer-focused Outlook.com, but the browser-based version of Outlook for Office 365) or in the Outlook app. All four types of messages will be flagged within the web version of Outlook, but only suspicious emails will be highlighted within the Outlook application. Microsoft will classify email into four different types of categories. Suspicious email is email that has failed sender authentication or is simply a known phishing email. It will be flagged with a red bar: An Unknown message will be identified as yellow, and Exchange Online Protection will mark it as spam. Finally, a Trusted email will come from a domain that Microsoft has flagged as safe. It will have a green bar attached to it. A gray bar designates a Safe email—not one that’s necessarily safe, per se, but one that the user has pulled out of the Junk folder into the inbox, or that the organization has itself flagged as safe to read. You’ll also have the option of letting Microsoft know that the message that it flagged as suspicious is in fact genuine. “Safety Tips are an important tool in combating phishing scams and online fraud,” Microsoft said in a statement. “With this new functionality, Office 365 automatically provides an additional layer of protection for all its users.”A Florida police officer has been placed on administrative leave pending an internal affairs investigation after he fired a stun gun into a 62-year-old black woman's back during an arrest in a Tallahassee neighborhood, police said. Tallahassee Police Chief Michael DeLeo called a news conference early Wednesday to announce the investigation after authorities obtained a video capturing the Tuesday afternoon incident that was shot by a citizen on a nearby porch. "Based on the video, I have enough concerns to call for an internal investigation," DeLeo said. "We will conduct a thorough investigation into this incident. We want to be transparent with the community by sharing what we can at this point, including the video." DeLeo added that, "The investigation will determine if the officer's actions were legal and if those actions were consistent with the expectations I have set for our officers in terms of how we respect and treat our citizens." The Tallahassee Democrat reported that "the incident is the latest to raise questions about the Tallahassee Police Department's use-of-force tactics. Earlier this month, Tallahassee city commissioners voted to settle a federal lawsuit for $475,000 brought by Christina West, a Tallahassee woman who suffered broken bones and other injuries during her DUI arrest in August 2013." According to police, the officers were responding to recent complaints from citizens about drug deals in the neighborhood. The woman, Viola Young, approached one of the police cars parked on the narrow street to inquire about one of the people — two women and a man — who had been arrested. The officer standing outside the squad car advised the woman to stay back. Police said that's when Officer Terry Mahan walked over to Young and attempted to take her into custody. In the amateur video, which is laced with expletives, Young grabs her arm, she slips away and starts walking away from the officer when he uses his stun gun, striking her in the back. She falls face-first to the ground. Officers surrounded her and eventually helped her to her feet and walked her to a squad car, the video shows. Police didn't release the name of the person who shot the video. Get the Monitor Stories you care about delivered to your inbox. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy Police said Young was medically cleared by paramedics and taken to the Leon County Jail. It wasn't immediately known whether she has a lawyer or what she was charged with. Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.ADVERTISEMENT Berman noted that opponents of the controversial online copyright bill, the Protect IP Act, had cited Clinton's earlier remarks in arguing the bill would undermine free speech and U.S. opposition to Web censorship in foreign countries. "When despots shut down the Internet to suppress dissent, the U.S. must condemn it. But that does not mean that governments are defenseless against crime and fraud when it is carried out online," Berman wrote. Clinton agreed in her reply, noting the State Department has focused on ensuring the Internet is open for people across the globe to express their views, but adding that the State Department will have future opportunities to reiterate its support for intellectual property protections. Critics of Protect IP and its House counterpart, the Stop Online Piracy Act, argue the bills would jeopardize free speech by requiring search engines, online ad networks and other third parties to cut off access to sites deemed rogue or dedicated to copyright infringement. Berman, whose district encompasses part of Hollywood, is a co-sponsor of the Stop Online Piracy Act. The bill is heavily supported by the entertainment industry and business groups, which argue online copyright infringement is costing them billions in lost revenue and thousands of U.S. jobs.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption New MP claims to be the first Darren in the Commons A new MP has proclaimed himself as "the first ever Darren" to be elected to the House of Commons. Bristol North West MP Darren Jones claims his name — combined with the area's early evidence of human habitation — makes his a "historic and fascinating constituency". The new Labour MP ousted Conservative Charlotte Leslie in the general election earlier this month. Labour mopped up all four Bristol seats at the election. Fellow Bristol MP Kerry McCarthy used Twitter to hail the newest member of the "Bristol posse", which includes Bristol West MP Thangam Debbonaire — surely the first Thangam to be elected in the UK. Speaking as MPs debated the Queen's Speech, Mr Jones said: "From the earliest evidence of human habitation on these British Isles on the shores of the River Avon near Shirehampton, to the 8th Century monastery of Westbury-on-Trym, granted by King Offa of Mercia, to the Roman settlements at Sea Mills and Lawrence Weston, and the Domesday reference to the parish of Henbury and now, so I am told, to the first ever Darren elected to this House of Commons, Bristol North West is an historic and fascinating constituency." He said it was "deeply humbling" to represent the area where he had grown up on a council estate and pledged to fight for a soft Brexit to protect businesses and residents who rely on the EU. Other notable Darrens in British lifePHILADELPHIA — Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman said that as of Monday morning, the campaign had yet to review the speech Sen. Bernard Sanders was scheduled to deliver later on in the evening at the Democratic National Convention, but said he’s confident the speech will be good for the Clinton campaign. “The short answer to that is that no, we have not,” Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “We already saw what he’s going to say when he stood with her in New Hampshire, endorsed her, was full-throated, said this is a campaign that he wants to be involved with,” Mr. Podesta said. “He wants to do everything he can to elect her and defeat Donald Trump, and that’s what we’re going to get tonight.” “He’ll have a big audience to do it, and that’s good for us,” Mr. Podesta said. Mr. Sanders’ team has said that in the speech, the Vermont senator “will make it clear that Hillary Clinton is by far superior to Donald Trump on every major issue.” At the Republican National Convention last week in Cleveland, Sen. Ted Cruz was showered with boos after he declined to endorse Mr. Trump in his convention speech, instead urging attendees to vote their “conscience.” On the morning of Mr. Cruz’s speech last Wednesday, Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort had said on CNN he hadn’t seen the speech but that the Texas senator’s words would leave “no doubt” he wanted Mr. Trump to be president. The following morning, however, Mr. Cruz said he had informed Mr. Trump by phone several days earlier that he wouldn’t be endorsing him. Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.Image caption Searles of Hunstanton told the BBC that it was reviewing customer policy A widow says she felt like an "oddity" after she was told she could not stay in a motor home at a Norfolk holiday park because she was single. Annette Gration, 58, was told she could not stay at Searles of Hunstanton, as the company had a policy against people staying by themselves. Mrs Gration, of Skegness, Lincolnshire, was eventually allowed to stay after saying she would be joined by her son. The company said the issue would be addressed at its next policy review. Mrs Gration, whose husband Phil died from cancer last July, said she decided to speak out after failing to receive a response to her complaint to Searles. More on this and other Norfolk stories Image copyright Annette Gration Image caption Annette Gration whose husband died from cancer last July, was told she could not stay at Searles of Hunstanton She said she went to the camping site last November in her camper van with two friends who were travelling in their own van. When she arrived she was told she "was not allowed on because I was a single person". 'Quite angry' "I felt I was an oddity and not welcome because of my
let us pull it out?”, they said “let us think about that” and they thought about it and came up with something, and they fished that capsule out and we were back in business after a while. But that was a little sore point … so, the freeze valve, sampling and fuel addition are such thorny problems, though not surprising, that at the end of the experiment we got problems with them. So, back to the question, what would I tell the President? I would say that we worked for several years on an experiment that in our estimation proved what it went out to prove, that you can handle this molten salt reliably and when things go wrong, the things that went wrong with us, anyway, we were able to fix. And that the dynamics, the chemistry, the materials situation was better than anybody, well except enthusiasts might have dreamed that it might be that good, but everybody else was sure to have their fingers crossed. Anyway, it turned out wonderful materials-wise. The freezing, we had a radiator that blew air across the red-hot tubes with the salt on them and the air went up a big stack. And in the wintertime, when it was bitter cold, all the birds in Anderson County perched at the top of that stack to get warm, meanwhile down there it was red hot, but up there it was just nice. But that worked for years, it never froze up. The radiator never froze. So, that was one that was more of a challenge than the freeze valves, but the freeze valves had a glitch and the radiator didn’t. At one time we had to scram, we had doors that dropped down on either side of the radiator, salt still going through, to stop the air flow. And the big doors made by Joy Blower Company had a hub that was about this big of cast aluminum, big veins that went around and I was down at scout camp and they didn’t bother to tell me that hub blew up! [Sorensen: “I’ve heard that story, yeah”], it cracked and pieces went everywhere. So the doors dropped down like they were supposed to, we got the salt down in tanks, cooled it down, went in and inspected it, there weren’t any crumbs of the blower hub on the hot tubes, the tubes that would be red-hot. We thought that might be a problem, but that ended up alright after a while. Joy had made a lot of these same blowers for NASA, and they were fine. Anyway, my word to the President would be, in my opinion, the potential, the advantages outweigh the difficulties and the concept is ultimately going to be a practical application, so that’s my bottom line. [Sorensen: well, good!, good… I’m getting stuff on that, thank you, thank you!] Sorensen Note: Many thanks to Eduardo Madrid for the transcription of the interview.Image copyright Gofundme An inquiry has been launched into how a teenager fell to her death on a luxury yacht in Jamaica. Deckhand Bethany Smith, 18, of Denbighshire, was working up a mast of 196 ft (60m) luxury schooner Germania Nova, berthed in Port Antonio. Yacht management company Hill Robinson, which charters the Germania Nova, has started an "immediate investigation". Hill Robinson partner Niall Robinson said they were "doing everything to support the family and friends". Ms Smith left her home in Glyn-Dyfrdwy to sail around the world with her family 10 years ago in their yacht "Cape" along with her younger brother Bryn. After spending three years cruising around the Mediterranean, the family sailed on to the Canary Islands and west Africa where they spent a further two years before crossing the Atlantic in March 2012. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Bethany Smith death: 'I cannot imagine how they are feeling' They have since toured the Caribbean islands extensively, writing about their travels online. Writing in a blog last year, Ms Smith's mother said the family were delighted she had got a job as a trainee on the Germania Nova. A crowdfunding page set-up to help her family said the yacht was berthed in Port Antonio when she fell and Ms Smith died in hospital from multiple injuries. Jamaican police said Ms Smith was cleaning the Germania Nova's mast on Tuesday afternoon when the ropes became undone and she fell on to the deck. "We are desperately sad to confirm that a tragic accident has occurred on Germania Nova leading to the fatality of a crew member," said Mr Robinson. "The crew member's next of kin have been informed and our thoughts are with the family, friends and fellow crew members at this very difficult time." A family friend who started a gofundme campaign to help the family meet the costs of the tragedy said Ms Smith would be remembered for being "a generous person and a ray of sunshine who brought laughter and music into the lives of those she met". The memorial fund has passed its target and raised around £10,000 (US $12,185) to help her family pay for the travel and funeral costs. Family friend and Llangollen councillor Stuart Davies described the shock felt in the local community, where Ms Smith's grandmother still lives. "It's tragic. As a parent of two daughters I cannot imagine how they are feeling," he said. "They were about eight or nine when they went. It was their life - it revolved around yachts, boating and that."Please enable Javascript to watch this video DENVER -- It’s not a bird. It’s not a plane. It’s a Goosinator. The Goosinator is a local invention from a company in Lakewood. It is bright orange with teeth and eyes painted on. The device has a propeller and a rudder that allows it to skim across water, grass, ice and snow to scare away geese. Denver Parks and Recreation employs seven of the remote-controlled goose-hazing devices across its parks system to keep Denver’s Canada goose population in check. “The biggest complaint we get from Denver parks users is the goose poop,” Denver Parks’ wildlife program administrator Vicki Vargas-Madrid said. About 20,000 Canada geese live in Denver parks year-round. During the winter when they migrate, that number doubles. “They want to live here year-round so when we haze them, it creates the idea of a predator and they continue to migrate. That’s their natural instinct,” Denver Parks staff member Scott Bartell said. Wildlife staff use the devices about three times a week in all of Denver’s parks that have water features. “It’s really used with a technique that would be similar to a predator like a coyote or a fox,” Vargas-Madrid said. Denver has been using the Goosinator for about five years. “We have used this so often that you only have to pull it out of the truck and the geese see it and they’re off flying,” Vargas-Madrid said. As well as it works, hazing is not a permanent fix to overpopulation. “Yes, they do return. This is their home,” Vargas-Madrid said. A hazed flock might return to the same spot in as little as an hour or by the next day. “We’ve created this for them, so they’re not going to stay away completely,” she said. However, hazing at least provides some temporary relief for park visitors.The Democracy Alliance, a George Soros-backed umbrella group of wealthy left-wing political donors, paid activists to disrupt at least one event for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, according to a document from the group’s conference in Santa Monica in April 2016. Under the heading “Case Study: Racial Justice,” the Democracy Alliance document says (emphasis added): Through our rapid response fund Solidaire has remained nimble, providing agile support in moments of uprising, helping ensure activists have the materials, food, supplies, stipends and bail funds to sustain and escalate their disruption of business as usual. In support of the assertion that black lives matter, 2015 saw us lend our backing to: the uprising in Baltimore a transgender delegation to the Movement for Black Lives Convening in Cleveland response to pro-Confederate backlash in Georgia an action to disrupt the International Conference of Police Chiefs in Chicago actions in Ohio on the one-year anniversary of the killings of Tamir Rice and Tanisha Anderson disruption of a Donald Trump fundraiser in New York City occupation of the 4th Police Precinct in Minneapolis In addition, the document lists a line item of $9,200 spent on “SURJ – Disrupting Trump.” SURJ apparently stands for “Showing Up for Racial Justice,” an organization that describes itself as “a national network of groups and individuals organizing White people for racial justice.” It is unclear whether the $9,200 was meant to cover one disruption, or several. The Facebook page for SURJ includes a profile photo exhorting visitors to “SHOW UP AGAINST WHITE TERROR” (original emphasis), and also includes two videos of protest actions in New York. The first video is a local news story from December 2015 reporting that activists had defaced the statue of Christopher Columbus in Manhattan’s Columbus Circle to protest against Donald Trump. The second video is a self-produced documentary about a protest against Trump at a Republican event in New York in April 2016. The link for that video is either disabled or has been made inaccessible to the public. Video and photos of the event survive on Twitter, however (language warning). The people have made it to entrance of Grand Hyatt!! #ShutDownTrumpNYC #HateFreeNYC pic.twitter.com/eGwS0wummB — Millions March NYC (@MillionsMarch) April 14, 2016 The revelation about Soros’s link to the disruptions comes after conservative filmmaker James O’Keefe and his Project Veritas exposed an effort by Democrats to incite violence at Trump rallies and other Republican events for more than a year. The effort centered around a consulting firm called Democracy Partners, with deep ties to the Hillary Clinton campaign and to the White House. Since the story broke Monday, Democracy Partners consultant Scott Foval has been fired, and the group’s co-founder, Robert Creamer, has been forced to resign. The Washington Free Beacon, which first exposed the inner workings of the Democracy Alliance, describes it as a “secretive dark money group backed by George Soros and other liberal mega-donors.” In addition to Soros, major participants include mega-donors such as Tom Steyer, the financier-turned-climate activist who is entertaining a run for California governor in 2018. Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. His new book, See No Evil: 19 Hard Truths the Left Can’t Handle, is available from Regnery through Amazon. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.October 2, 2014 at 1:03 PM UPDATE, 1:55 p.m. \| The Mercer Island School District superintendent said he took a “preemptive approach” to the boil alert issued Thursday after E. coli was found in the water supply. “In a preemptive approach anticipating that a new boil-water advisory might be issued by the City of Mercer Island, I alerted the district’s leadership team and our food services provider to notify staff and students that they should not consume water until further advised about the safety of our water supply,” District Superintendent Dr. Gary Plano said in a statement. “District staff set up portable washing stations in school bathrooms and kitchens. Today we have removed all fresh food from the school lunch menu. In consultation with officials from the Department of Health, food prepared in a ‘heat and eat’ fashion was approved by health officials for Thursday and Friday, if needed,” he said. “We are reviewing our bottled water supply to ensure there is enough water for students and staff in each building and taking appropriate action,” Plano said. “Until further notice we are planning a normal school day for the reminder of today and tomorrow’s schedule is planned as normal, unless otherwise notified,” the statement said. ORIGINAL POST \| The City of Mercer Island has issued another advisory asking residents to boil their drinking water. On Thursday afternoon the city announced that a sample of its water supply tested positive for E. coli. The news comes days after the bacteria was found in the water supply and later sampling found that it was gone. City officials, in a statement, said: “All water customers on the Island should boil their water before drinking, or use bottled water. There are no confirmed reports of illness at this time. Public Health – Seattle & King County orders all restaurants to close; inspectors will be visiting all locations to provide assistance.” City officials say that residents need to use boiled or purchased water for drinking, making ice, brushing teeth, and food preparation until further notice. “Bring the water to a boil, let it boil for at least 1 minute, and let it cool before using. Boiling kills bacteria and other organisms that could potentially be in the water. Dishwashers can be used if run with the sanitizing/heat cycle and commercial dishwashing detergent. Dishes can be hand washed if rinsed in a diluted bleach solution – one teaspoon household bleach to one gallon of water – and then allowed to air dry. Water can be used for bathing, but do not drink any of the water and do not allow babies to put the water or wet washcloth in the mouth.” More details from the city are on mercergov.org.A video recorded by James Wood of Cotati claims to show police officers entering his home and using a stun gun on him on May 10, 2013. (James Wood) A video recorded by James Wood of Cotati claims to show police officers entering his home and using a stun gun on him on May 10, 2013. (James Wood) COTATI (KPIX 5) — A Sonoma County man’s video that shows police officers kicking in a door and using a stun gun on him has gone viral and is raising questions about the constitutionality of police tactics. James Wood, 33, said he had a loud argument with his wife last Friday, but what he did not know was that a neighbor had called 911. The call, and a subsequent call by a police officer for backup, started a chain of events which led to Wood getting zapped by a stun gun several times while his wife, Jennifer, is heard screaming in the background. When officers showed up at his door, Wood said four officers all drew their pistols, pointed them at the couple and a family friend and demanded to go inside without explaining why. Raw Video Of Police Incident (Explicit Language) “I asked several times, ‘What am I being accused of?’” Wood told KPIX 5. “And when they didn’t answer, I asked, ‘do you have a search warrant?’ And they said, ‘No, we don’t need one.’ And I was like, ‘you’re not getting in here. I am not opening that door.’” Wood is heard on the video saying it is his constitutional right to refuse the officers entry. Officers asked, “Why are you not coming out?” Wood’s friend, James Helton responded, “Because we don’t live in a police state sir. Martial law has not been established in this country.” “We had surrendered inside our house,” Wood said. “I was not going to surrender my door.” James Wood is an Army veteran who arrived home to his wife and children in December, 2012 after a yearlong tour in Afghanistan. “This was the thought running through my head while I was scolding them for pointing weapons at unarmed civilians: if you want to point guns at people and kick in doors, I could talk to a recruiter and you all would be shipped away right quick,” he said. In the video, police officers are seen forcing entry into the home. After an officer grabs his wife’s arm, Wood is heard to yell, “You are assaulting her.” An officer immediately fired his stun gun at Wood, hitting him five times. In a press release, Cotati police said the officers’ actions were justified because it was a call for domestic violence, and as such, the officers could not leave without making sure everyone inside the apartment was safe. “To do so would be a neglect of duty,” said the statement. “Due to the exigent circumstances, the officers were forced to kick the door open in order to enter the apartment. Constitutional law allows for officers to make entries under these types of circumstances without a warrant.” Paul Henderson, a former prosecutor and KPIX 5 legal analyst, agreed the officers had the right to force entry into the home. “In the case where you have a third party calling from outside of the house, the cops have to investigate,” said Henderson. “They’re not necessarily going to take or believe someone telling them from behind a locked door that everything is okay without doing an investigation.” According to the police press release, Wood faces two charges: obstructing a peace officer and false imprisonment. Jennifer Wood, James’ wife, showed KPIX 5 bruises on her arm and said an officer caused them. She was adamant that there was absolutely no domestic violence between her and her husband, just a loud disagreement about finances. “The officer later tried to get me to say my husband abused me,” Jennifer Wood said. “But I told him, ‘the only one that hurt me was you.’” The couple is angry that the situation escalated the way it did. “If they had been polite and explained what was going on, we wouldn’t be here,” James Wood said. (Copyright 2013 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)There are lots of music subscription services that let people listen to all the songs they want for $10 a month. Apple thinks that price is too high. Sources say Apple is talking to the big music labels about a new set of rights and features it would like to include in a revamped version of the Beats Music service it bought earlier this year. Among the things Apple wants is a new pricing structure that would allow it to sell the service for less than the $10 level it’s at now. Discussions are in their early stages, sources say, and Apple isn’t planning on overhauling Beats Music until next year. Last month, Apple said a TechCrunch report that the company was planning to “shut down” Beats was not true. But people familiar with the company’s thinking said it might alter the service over time. Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr declined to comment. Getting the labels to sign off on a price cut will require some work on Apple’s part. After initially resisting the notion of subscriptions, in part because they worried all-you-can-eat services would cut down on CD and download sales, music executives eventually agreed to let services like Rhapsody, Spotify and most recently Beats offer all-you-can-stream services for $10 a month. Now download sales are indeed dropping, while revenue from streaming services is picking up. But it’s unclear how much of the download decline should be attributed to subscription services like Spotify and Beats, and how much of it stems from the use of free services like YouTube, Pandora and even Apple’s own iTunes Radio. Meanwhile, many music industry observers believe there is a limited pool of consumers willing to pay $10 a month to rent music — especially since few people spent that much money on music during the CD era. Spotify, the world’s biggest on-demand subscription service, says it has more than 10 million paying users. But a recent survey suggested that only 25 percent of music streamers spent more than $10 on music every three months. Additional reporting by Dawn Chmielewski.(Photo: David Goldman, AP) I watched the two Republican presidential candidate debates in South Carolina last week, and although the contenders spent quite a bit of time bickering over economic issues (as well as bashing each other), they ignored the elephant in the room. The biggest long-term threat to the U.S. economy isn't government over-regulation, high taxes, or even the deficit. It's climate change. I work for a nonpartisan, tax-exempt organization that can't endorse candidates. We do, however, educate the public and promote government policies based on science. So I can't get into the Republican or Democratic presidential candidates' positions on climate, which you can easily find with a quick Internet search. But I can tell you how battered their respective states' economies will be if we don't dramatically reduce carbon emissions, and do it soon. The snapshot projections below are what scientists expect the climate in each state to look like over the next three decades and beyond under a business-as-usual scenario where we continue to burn fossil fuels and destroy tropical forests at today's rates. It's not a pretty picture. In general, Americans should expect more smog, more heat, more droughts, and more flooding. Georgia: First, let's look at the home of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Georgia's largest industry is agriculture, which contributes more than $68 billion annually to the state economy. It's the nation's number one producer of broiler chickens, peanuts, pecans and watermelons, and among the top producers of blueberries, cabbage, cantaloupes, cotton, eggs, onions, peaches, tomatoes and tobacco. Unchecked climate change likely would saddle those farmers with more droughts. In 2007, a major drought across most of the Southeast caused $1.3 billion in economic damage in Georgia, including losses of $63.1 million in corn, $160.1 million in cotton, $83.8 million in hay, and $92.5 million in peanuts. A 2008 report by the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) and the Center for Integrative Environmental Research at the University of Maryland calculated that an additional 5 percent in crop losses due to climate change would mean nearly $110 million in direct and indirect economic losses in Georgia annually. Rising sea levels and more intense hurricanes, meanwhile, would threaten Georgia's coastline. According to the NCSL report, the cumulative cost to replenish sand to protect the state's coastline from a 20-inch rise in sea level could reach $154 million to $1.3 billion by 2100. Georgia generally does not suffer as much damage from hurricanes as its neighboring states Florida and South Carolina, but in 2004, Hurricane Ivan caused nearly $70 million in property damage in the Peach State. Illinois: You might remember that Barack Obama's Chicago suffered through a horrific heat wave in July 1995 that led to more than 700 heat-related deaths over a five-day stretch. By 2050, under the business-as-usual scenario, Chicago would experience a heat wave as hot as that one every summer, according to "Confronting Climate Change in the U.S. Midwest," a 2009 report by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). Peoria, Rockford, Springfield and other Illinois cities would face similar conditions. Such searing heat, combined with higher smog and soot levels, would aggravate asthma and other respiratory problems and cause more premature deaths across the state. In July 1995, a deadly hot air mass settled over Chicago, killing more than 700 residents. By mid-century, Chicago likely will suffer similar heat waves every summer unless we dramatically reduce global warming emissions. (Photo: © Gary Braasch 2007) Scientists project that Illinois likely would experience an increase of at least 20 percent in heavy precipitation over the next 30 years, mainly in the winter, spring and fall, which could mean more flooding. That, coupled with more frequent short-term summer droughts, heat stress, and wider insect ranges, would spell trouble for the state's $11 billion-a-year agricultural sector. Corn yields, for example, could decline as much as 50 percent by the middle of the century. Meanwhile, hog and pig producers already are losing $20.5 million a year due to heat stress, and nearly permanent summer heat stress would threaten dairy cows, hogs, pigs and other livestock toward the end of the century. Massachusetts: Mitt Romney was governor of a state that today is experiencing earlier springs, hotter summers, and milder winters than it did in 1970--all consistent with climate change. Under the business-as-usual scenario, it would get worse. According to UCS's 2007 report, "Confronting Climate Change in the U.S. Northeast," over the next 30 years, the state's largest cities, including Boston, Springfield and Worcester, likely would experience nearly 20 summer days with temperatures higher than 90º F. That could worsen the state's smog problem and accelerate pollen production, which could lengthen the allergy season. Massachusetts is home to one of the country's biggest commercial fishing industries. Based on current emissions trends, scientists project that ocean temperatures will be too warm by the end of this century to support the historically important Atlantic cod. Lobsters in coastal waters south of Cape Cod, meanwhile, would be cooked by mid-century. The state also produces a quarter of the nation's cranberries. Heat stress would significantly depress yields for them and other fruit and vegetable crops, which currently generate about $94 million annually, by mid-century. Rising sea level not only would increase the frequency and severity of storm surges and coastal flooding, it is expected to overwhelm some low-lying coastal areas and dramatically accelerate erosion. Sea-level rise also would threaten salt marshes and estuaries, which provide nursery habitat for commercial fish and feeding grounds for migrating birds. Finally, by mid-century, warmer winters would drive many ski resorts out of business, and by late-century, the trees that provide the state's spectacular fall foliage displays--maple, beech and birch--would disappear. Pennsylvania: Rick Santorum, a former senator and representative, hails from Pennsylvania. The top agricultural industry in the Keystone State is dairy farming, and major cash crops include corn, vegetables, mushrooms and fruit, especially grapes and apples. Over the coming decades, Pennsylvanians likely would have to deal with longer, more intense summer heat waves; reduced winter snowpack; and declining farm yields, according to a 2008 UCS study, "Climate Change Impacts and Solutions for Pennsylvania." Most state residents would have to suffer through twice as many summer days over 90º F than they did before 1990. That would degrade air quality, exacerbating allergies, asthma and other respiratory illnesses; stress dairy cows, limiting milk production; and reduce yields of Concord grapes, sweet corn and apples. Prized hardwood trees, including black cherry, sugar maple and American beech, would decline precipitously. Winters, on the other hand, would be milder. The areas in the state that typically experienced 30 days or more of snow before 1990 likely would only see only about two weeks of the white stuff. That would mean significantly fewer ski resorts and very little, if any, snowmobiling. Texas: Texas Gov. Rick Perry dropped out of the race a few days after the first South Carolina debate, but Ron Paul, the U.S. representative from the state's 14th district--just south of Houston on the Gulf coast--is still in contention. Given the state's size, not all counties would be affected in quite the same way over the next few decades, but significant areas already are experiencing extreme heat, drought and wildfires. Last summer, for example, some counties endured more than a month of consecutive 100º F-plus days, and much of the state is still suffering from a devastating year-long drought that is expected to stretch through at least next summer. The state also is beset by a range of extreme weather, including tornadoes, hail, thunderstorms, damaging winds and hurricanes, but not all are associated with climate change. That said, unchecked climate change is bound to make the withering heat, extended drought and deadly wildfires in the Lone Star State routine. Texas is suffering from a year-long drought that completely dried up O.C. Fisher Lake in San Angelo. Droughts like this current one, which is expected to last through next summer, likely will become routine in the Lone Star State. (Photo: AP) That isn't good news for the state's $20 billion agricultural sector. Texas boasts the most farms in number and acreage in the country. It produces the most cattle and is a leading state for sheep and goat production. It also is the top state for cotton, its leading crop and second-most-valuable farm product, and is a major producer of cantaloupes, cereal grains, grapefruits and watermelons. The current drought has hit them all, triggering $5.3 billion in losses last year, according to the Texas AgriLife Extension Service at Texas A&M University. Including the drought's ripple effect on fertilizer dealers, processing plants, grocery stores and other related businesses, the estimated loss balloons to $8.7 billion. It's climate change, stupid: Not to let the Republican presidential hopefuls off the hook, but one reason they have largely ignored global warming is because journalists haven't pressed them on it, especially during the televised debates. I can't say that I have watched all 23 of the debates that have occurred so far. But I have seen a number of them, and I have read the coverage. As far as I can tell, other than a brief mention about climate science during a debate in early September, moderators have abdicated their responsibility to address one of the most critical issues of our time. Of course, for most Americans today, the biggest issue is the economy. It reminds me of the 1992 campaign, when then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton challenged President George H.W. Bush. To keep the Clinton campaign focused, lead strategist James Carville hung a sign in Clinton's Little Rock headquarters that said, in part: "The economy, stupid." Although the sign was only meant for internal consumption, "It's the economy, stupid" became the de facto slogan of the Clinton campaign. The difference today is we know a lot more about the threat of global warming than we did two decades ago. We know that, next to a nuclear war, it poses the most significant long-term threat to not only our economy, but to the future of the planet. So it would be fitting to update that 20-year old sign to read "Climate change, stupid" and hang it on the stage during not only the presidential candidate debates, but during the debates for all candidates running for office this year.A social media user who was convicted on charges of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a photograph was subsequently acquitted after an appeals court ruled that Erdoğan was portrayed as a cock, which is superior in the pecking order to the hen, the Diken news website reported on Thursday. Hasan Akkaya was sentenced to one year in prison by the Karşıyaka 1st Penal Court of First Instance in İzmir province for insulting President Erdoğan on social media with a photoshopped image in which Erdoğan was depicted as a rooster and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu as a hen. The court converted the sentence to a TL 6,000 fine. Akkaya appealed the decision to the İzmir District Administrative Court. Sinan Alabay, the lawyer for Akkaya, told the court: “If there is an insult, it could be against Ahmet Davutoğlu, who was depicted as a hen kissing the foot of the cock. There is no insult against President Erdoğan in this image.” Agreeing that the rooster is superior to the hen and that there is no insult of the president in the picture, the court decided to acquit Akkaya. A court in the western province of Aydın on April 18 acquitted physician Bilgin Çiftçi, who faced charges of insulting President Erdoğan by pointing out similarities between Erdoğan and Gollum, a fictional character, in a Facebook post. Çiftçi shared three facial expressions of Erdoğan and Gollum side by side on his Facebook page on Aug. 23, 2014, after which an investigation was immediately launched. Çiftçi lost his job as a public servant in October 2014. Scores of people in Turkey have been detained or arrested or are under investigation on allegations of insulting Erdoğan. As of the end of 2016, at least 10,000 people were under investigation on suspicion of terrorist propaganda and insulting senior state officials on social media. According to figures released by the Ministry of Interior Affairs in December, 3,710 social media users had been investigated in the last six months of 2016, of whom 1,656 were arrested. A total of 1,203 of those investigations resulted in releases on probation.SACRAMENTO — Sitting in the VIP section of the brand new Bonney Field, while neon-colored roller coasters and Ferris wheels whirled at the nearby State Fair, Sacramento Republic FC president Warren Smith opened up about the future of Republic’s $3 million Cal Expo-located field and the possibility of gaining entry into Major League Soccer. MLS, which plans to expand to 24 teams (up from 19) by 2020, always has been the stated goal of the first-year franchise ever since it first announced itself as a USL PRO expansion team in 2012. “We’re in this for Sacramento,” Smith said. “(Soccer is) a great sport, we love it, it’s been a lot of fun, but we deserve more in Sacramento. We want the best. The best league in the country is MLS so we want that for Sacramento.” The blueprint toward gaining an MLS franchise always has included four things: strong fan support, a decent market size, a soccer-specific stadium and a group of wealthy investors. With the moderately large metropolitan area that is Sacramento, pairing with the 14,587 fans that the team averaged coming into Thursday night’s game against MLS-bound Orlando City Soccer Club, Republic FC seemingly has the first two boxes checked off and is now looking to fill the latter two. To fan the MLS flames even further, Sacramento Republic FC had 5,908 season ticket holders as of Thursday morning according to team officials. While the 8,000-capacity Bonney Field is unprecedented at the USL PRO level, MLS requires roughly an 18,000-plus seat facility, preferably in a downtown location, both things that Smith says the team is working on. He wasn’t at liberty to speak about what those locations might be, or what potential investors he is in talks with, but he did mention that Bonney Field likely will be expanded before next season. To get to MLS, Republic FC needs the fans to continue to pack it to the brim as they have been. “We’re looking into the feasibility (of expanding Bonney) now,” Smith said. “We’re permitted for 8,000. We’ve been working with Cal Expo to expand that permit. We’ve asked the capacity to be up as high as 14,000 but we don’t know yet what we’re going to land on.” Even if the stadium expands to that number, the Republic will need to construct a new field to meet MLS standards. “At the MLS level, you need to have at least 18,000 seats. This is great quality but at the same time place is just as important as the team you put on the field,” Smith added. “We will need to build another facility. We’ve been in conversations with the city about what we might be able to do and where we might be able to build, but that’s a longer-term objective right now. Even if we were awarded the franchise next year, we’re not starting play until 2018.” But despite all that, Smith remains confident with what lies ahead. “I’m very confident that we will get there, to MLS,” Smith said. “I was asked recently if I could put a percentage to it. I’d love to say 100 percent, but you know I can’t do that, it’s not our decision, but I’d say 75 percent.” Note: Orlando and New York each have expansion franchises launching next year while Atlanta is set to begin in 2017. Miami has been granted a franchise provided they secure their a stadium, making 23 of the 24 spots in the league spoken for. Smith says that Sacramento currently ranks behind a possible Minneapolis bid for the last of 24 spots. There is no timetable for further expansion. — Reach Evan Ream at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter at @EvanReamHaving trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page. I-69 lane closures for 106th Street bridge construction Walsh Construction Company plans to close lanes of northbound Interstate 69 this week between 82nd Street (Exit 201) and 116th Street (Exit 205) for construction of the new 106th Street interchange. Crews are building two new bridges over I-69, one for each direction of traffic on 106th Street, and will be pouring concrete piers in the interstate median. Multiple left lane closures should be expected. The following schedule is subject to change and will be updated as work progresses: Monday, July 11 - northbound I-69 will have three left lanes closed from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Tuesday, July 12 - northbound I-69 will have three left lanes closed from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Wednesday, July 13 - northbound I-69 will have three left lanes closed from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. The speed limit near the construction zone at mile marker 204 is reduced to 55 mph and may be reduced further to 45 mph when workers are present. Motorists are advised to pay attention to work zone warning signs, follow posted speed limits and keep a safe following distance from other motorists. For more information about safe driving in highway construction zones, go to http://www.in.gov/indot/2356.htm. About the project INDOT awarded a $21.7 million contract to Walsh Construction Company to build a two-lane, oval-shaped roundabout on 106th Street over I-69 and ramps to and from both directions of the interstate. Two separate two-lane bridges will each carry one direction of traffic. The bridge to carry westbound traffic on the north side of 106th Street is also designed to accommodate pedestrians. The project is intended to reduce congestion at existing I-69 interchanges at 96th and 116th streets, increase traffic safety in the area and provide direct interstate access at 106th Street. Direct access will serve existing residential and commercial destinations and accommodate development and population growth in the area. Access on 106th Street over I-69 will remain closed through construction of the new interchange. The new I-69 Exit 204 to 106th Street is scheduled to open before the end of this year. For more information about the 106th Street interchange project, go to http://www.in.gov/indot/3399.htm. Stay informed Avoid congested road conditions often associated with construction zones by seeking alternate routes of travel. Motorists can learn about highway work zones and other traffic alerts at indot.carsprogram.org, 1-800-261-ROAD (7623) or 511 from a mobile phone. Subscribe to receive text and email alerts about INDOT projects at https://public.govdelivery.com
ing support for Palestinian rights were distributed at the entrance to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ afternoon address to his delegates. Later in the day, activists unfurled Palestinian flags on the convention’s main floor when delegates participated in a voice vote to approve the party’s platform. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict was a prominent feature of the platform drafting debate, with Sanders representatives pushing for — but failing to secure — stronger language decrying Israel’s “occupation” of Palestinian land.These 17 countries have the world's highest credit rating, AAA from both Moody's and Standard & Poor's, but the U.S. risks losing that high standing if lawmakers don't raise the debt ceiling. NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Amid the contentious debt ceiling debate, the United States is at risk of being booted out of a prestigious group of countries that boast a spotless credit rating. Only 17 countries in the world -- currently including the U.S. -- hold the highly coveted triple-A rating from both Standard & Poor's and Moody's. (S&P rates an additional three countries as triple-A, that aren't featured on Moody's list). Germany, Canada, France, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland are among those with the undisputed stamp of approval -- so is the Isle of Man, a British crown dependency off Ireland's east coast, and Singapore (both of which are too small to see on our CNNMoney map above.) Now, S&P and Moody's are questioning the United States' membership in this exclusive club. The triple-A rating enables nations to borrow funds at a low cost, because their governments are considered stable and their bonds safe. The U.S. for example, has seen its dollar become the world's No. 1 reserve currency because its bonds are held in such high regard by investors. They're backed by the "full faith and credit of the U.S. government" -- which until now, has never seriously been called into question. Already, just the threat of a possible downgrade has taken a toll. Prior to November 2007, the United States boasted some of the safest bonds in the world. That started to gradually change with the recession, and now the country's creditworthiness continues to be questioned amid the debt ceiling debates. Investors can discern the "risk" associated with a country's debt, by looking at the cost to insure against a possible default -- through a financial instrument called a credit default swap. In the case of the U.S., that cost surged on Thursday to its highest level since 2009. By that measure, U.S. bonds are no longer in the clear lead as a safe bet, compared to other triple-A rated countries. By looking at the prices of 5-year credit default swaps, Norway's debt ranks the safest, followed by Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, the Netherlands and Australia. Canada, Singapore and Germany also have safer bonds than the United States. If lawmakers don't come through with a deal to raise the debt ceiling and lower the long term deficit, the U.S. could soon join the ranks of the lower-level, double-A rated countries like China, Spain, Japan, Saudi Arabia and even Kuwait.A strong showing Tuesday will give Sen. Bernie Sanders a chance to continue his presidential campaign, claim momentum, and push his populist message. What it won’t give him is a chance to win the Democratic presidential nomination. Sanders could back up his surprise win in Michigan’s primary last week by defying polls with victories in Ohio, Missouri, and perhaps Illinois. He may then prevail in other states like Pennsylvania and Indiana and in the eight western states still set to award delegates. Wins in those states could influence perceptions of the Democratic race, but they would not do much to help Sanders catch former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Clinton had 1,235 Democratic convention delegates headed into Tuesday’s voting. Sanders had 580. The former first lady and New York senator is more than halfway to the 2,383 delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination. That is a nearly insurmountable lead. Democrats award delegates proportionally, meaning that even in states Sanders wins, he makes only modest gains in delegates. An analysis by the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan electoral handicapper, found Sanders needs to win 61% of the remaining pledged delegates to catch Clinton. Sanders claimed at a CNN town hall on Sunday that the task is doable. “If we do well in a number of states and if the general sentiment becomes that ‘Bernie Sanders is the candidate who will defeat Donald Trump,’” Sanders argued, superdelegates supporting Clinton, who are allowed to change their mind, might instead back him at the Democratic convention this summer. Clinton’s lead among pledged delegates is indeed smaller, 766 to 551, according to an Associated Press tally. But the problem with Sanders’ scenario is that Clinton’s growing lead and entrenched support from party leaders leaves little chance that superdelegates will ditch her. Clinton built her advantage with blowout wins in large states like Texas, where she won 147 delegates to Sanders’ 75, and in places like Georgia and South Carolina, where she crushed Sanders among African-American voters. Sanders has won big, too. But his bigger victories came in states like New Hampshire, Maine, Kansas, and Nebraska, which have small populations and fewer convention delegates. Sanders beat Clinton in Kansas with support from 68% of caucus goers, but gained just 15 delegates. Clinton’s win with 83% of the vote in Mississippi’s Democratic primary, by contrast, netted her 26 more delegates than Sanders. Sanders upset win last week in Michigan won him headlines, but just seven more pledged delegates than Clinton. The Michigan result barely budged predictions. After that primary, Clinton’s odds of winning the nomination fell just 2 points from 95% to a 93% on PredictWise, which aggregates market and polling data. On Tuesday, Clinton is positioned to win easily in North Carolina and delegate-rich Florida, which Sanders has essentially conceded. No matter how Clinton performs in the Midwest, she will increase her delegate lead and push Sanders’ odds of him catching her toward zero. Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook accurately noted last week that even if Sanders wins in Ohio, Illinois, and Missouri on Tuesday, Clinton would still net more delegates. The New York Times’ Nate Cohn recently wrote that even in the unlikely event Sanders beats Clinton across the board going forward—winning in Wisconsin, Rhode Island, West Virginia, and Kentucky, in addition to Alaska, North Dakota, and the Rocky Mountain states— and even if Sanders throws California into tossup territory, the math doesn’t work for Bernie. “She [Clinton] still wins—and comfortably,” Cohn wrote. To win the nomination, Sanders would need to not just beat, but badly beat, Clinton in both California and her home state of New York. Such an outcome is not looking likely. Sanders has shown he can win states, earning him the opportunity to keep competing with Clinton through the convention. But Tuesday’s primary votes will ensure he can’t seriously compete to go on to the general election.About We've all commanded team mates or groups of AI units in a game. In OBEY you are instead positioned to command your enemies (human opponents) - and to be commanded by them. Players are always free to obey/disobey, it is up to them to deal with the consequences of their actions in the game. One player, balanced on a precarious throne, has vast advantages in firepower and income. But everyone else has the very things that the overlord player needs to make their dominion last. Any player could take the overlord's place, if they're clever and quick. Who has the real power? When funded, OBEY will be released for PC/MAC/Linux. NOTE TO BACKERS! ALL TIERS $11 AND ABOVE ALL INCLUDE BETA ACCESS: EVERYONE WILL BE ABLE TO PLAY BY SUMMER 2015! BETA/ALPHA ACCESS IS ALSO INCLUDED IN ANY EXTRA KEYS IN YOUR TIER! Do you want to be able to share the maps you make with other players? Do you want me to bring this to other platforms? Leaderboards and Achievements? Let's get this thing funded! To learn more details about how the coercive game mechanics in OBEY function, have a listen to this audio (5 mins) or watch a stream of a play session or scroll down to the "Action! Strategy! Stealth! Coercion!" section. Why would you give your worst enemy the very tools he will use to destroy you - willingly? Press Reactions: "[the] mechanics help foster multiplayer dynamics that are amazing to watch unfold. In one game players might end up in a Totalitarian-style play style. In another, a bunny uprising, or flat-out anarchy may occur. Really, it’s up to each player and their acceptance/rejection of “obeying” that makes each match unique. Although there may be other games out there that foster such gameplay, I have definitely never played one before." - Marcus Estrada, Cliqist.com , Cliqist.com "...this is a tense, fast-paced King of the Hill-type encounter where the balance of power is constantly shifting and is not always in the hands of the only person with actual weaponry. Playing into the overlord’s hand can be more lucrative than attempting to constantly subvert, creating a bizarre and uncomfortably totalitarian-feeling experience, whereas once the dropship is eliminated complete anarchy can erupt with players casting off their tracking collars and bum-rushing the robot for control.." - Julian Aidan, hardcoregamer.com , hardcoregamer.com "As games for the most part have clearly defined player interactions, be they competitive or cooperative, a new project on Kickstarter plays with participants’ self-interests like few games do...The game has players interact as helpless bunnies, but it’s much more complex than it looks." - Luke Siuty, http://indiegamemag.com/ -, http://indiegamemag.com/ "I am really glad we here at GAU caught you early on this because we loved the game", "OBEY was my favorite game at Boston Festival of Indie Games" - Drew Frayre, gaustudios.com Watch a game session recorded by YouTuber FRAGMIX! Below is the same session as recorded by YouTuber xGD0G - his strategy is to build up a lot of trust before subverting! Here is another video of the same session, as experienced by the (very subversive!) Twitch user Venraiden. Features: Unique asymmetrical gameplay King-of-the-Hill gameplay for new or casual players and deep gameplay for experienced players Stealth gameplay mechanics Play tricks and mind games against your opponents Maintain fragile alliances with opponents based on self-interest Create your own maps A complex world that allows for almost unlimited forms of deception Really cool robot to control and explode bunnies with Bunny customization Windows, OSX, Linux Multiplayer action DRM Free Local LAN support - no internet required. Run your own private server. No micro-transactions, no BS, just a solid game. All tiers $11 and above get BETA access in Summer 2015. Estimated final release is Fall 2015. You can get your hands on the OBEY ALPHA as soon as January! Let's play OBEY! What makes OBEY special? Maybe you saw the enormous robot annihilating defenseless little bunnies with its cannon, missile launchers, and then a flamethrower and thought "I've seen this before - this is nothing new." Consider the following: The robot that kills bunnies is also controlled by a 'defenseless' bunny. When we realize that the creatures in the game are the ones committing ultra-violence against each other, we begin to understand the game. The robot player can only shoot missiles, flames, and generally abuse the other players when those players have enabled it! "Oh, that's clever! Horrible, and maybe even a little deranged, but exceptionably clever. I mean, we're all used to ordering around hordes of little peasants or heroes or whatever, but giving and receiving orders to/from actual players? And not just team commands, group action, or quest suggestions, actual coercive micromanagement? The psychological aspects are great. Seriously, I'm in." -Grey_Moment, Steam user Action! Strategy! Stealth! Coercion!! OBEY is really two games in one. Some players play OBEY like an action game and like to shoot anything that moves in the face with a chain cannon the size of a small apartment building. This is FINE. However, OBEY is a deeper game, and playing it for a bit reveals its true nature as a strategy and psychological game. Even in its current state, it rewards trickery and creativity much more than twitch skills. OBEY is the first video game designed from the ground up with player vs. player coercion at its core. Because of this, there is no other game that plays like OBEY. Mastery of OBEY means understanding its coercion mechanics. If you want to know details about how the game mechanics work, have a listen to the audio below (5 mins), or watch a play session, or have a read of my gameplay blog post or some articles about OBEY. VOTE for OBEY on Steam Greenlight! Vote! Vote! Vote! Approach and Inspiration OBEY was inspired by authoritarian systems of influence and the way they function. OBEY is not about bunnies or robots at all: the meaning of OBEY becomes evident when you realize that the situation spontaneously arising in your game with your fellow players mirrors a recurring human pattern. These are the ideas that have, and will continue to inform my decisions on OBEY. Budget Backers on Kickstarter often see games being funded for $10k or $30k, and you may wonder why I have not done the same. To the uninitiated, let me disabuse you of the illusion that any but the most primitive web games can be funded for those amounts. (Do you really think a team of devs can work for a year on $50k alone? No). In my case, I have personally invested everything into getting the game where it is today. Backers are funding the completion of OBEY to 100%. In order to keep your risk as backer as low as possible, I developed the game as far as I could BEFORE asking you to fund it. Here is what I have already completed: Gameplay implementation and proof of concept Networking systems & matchmaking Modular environment systems and art pipeline Level editing pipeline Art and effect pipelines Here is how the funds will be distributed: The minimum goal is designed to buy enough time to complete the list below (in the following section). Why Kickstarter? OBEY is a game I have wanted to see made for over a decade. Realizing no one was going to make it but me, I decided to make it myself. I know there are tons of other players that want to get their hands on this. (In fact, someone sent me an email the other day with the subject line "GIVE ME YOUR GAME"). NOW it is time to get this project in front of YOU! Kickstarter is the perfect way to bring us together to not only complete this game but make OBEY as awesome and fun to play as possible! Things I will do with the funds if we meet the minimum goal: Sound effects (the game does not have any sound at the moment) Music The game is begging for an alliance system so players can team up against each other. This is one of the first things I will add. An AI system so that the game can be played with fewer players. (right now, OBEY needs at least 4 players to have the most enjoyable session possible) The AI doesn't have to be smart, just complex enough so human players can hide among them (like in Spy Party). I know this will work because I have already seen skilled human players try to hide among less skilled players! Destructible environments (the map has to get utterly trashed as a round progresses) The game will require in-game VoIP. Game Modes A Linux build Bunny customization/accessory system (bunnies will still all look the same to the robo player, though) Tons of UI work to be done Art passes. Do you like the way OBEY looks? I will make it even better! The game has only been playable for about 2 months, and it's already fun and doing what it is supposed to do. I need to refine the gameplay based on YOUR feedback! But there is so much more! "Let's get OBEY funded so we can talk about stretch goals!" Do you want to be able to share the maps you make with other players? Do you want me to bring this to other platforms? Leaderboards and Achievements? Let's get this thing funded, and tell me what you want! Do you like what you see? Tell your friends - I can't do this without you! The more we can raise, the better I can make this game! The Team It's just me! I have been making games for 12 years professionally full time (plus also usually late into the night). Mainly as an environment and technical artist and also as an indie programmer. I am also a self-taught coder (14 years, but forever learning). In 2008, I left my last studio position as environment art supervisor at Kaos Studios to become indie. I have been indie ever since. If you would like to know more about my professional past, have a look at my linkedIn, my personal website, or my old art portfolio. OBEY is my personal Mt. Everest. Join the adventure!!! :D NOTE: I will be hiring out the sound/music - so that will be the one area that I will not be doing alone. Media If you would like press materials, please do check out the press kit, or visit obeygame.com. You can also download a big zip with the latest screenshots here. If you are a YouTuber and want to give OBEY a try, contact me through my YouTube account. Why do you hate bunnies? This is a fair question. Firstly, I chose baby bunnies to counter the robot because I wanted the contrast and asymmetry between players inside vs outside the robot to be as large as possible. I wanted the player's avatar to reflect their (apparent) impotence against the robot's (apparent) invincibility. Secondly, because baby bunnies seem to me to be among the most defenseless and innocent of creatures, it makes it all the more shocking when it becomes evident that it is they perpetrating horrific acts against each other (for money). Sound familiar? Finally, baby bunnies are a fitting animal to live in a magical forest, which I also wanted to have as an environment to counter the hard lines and aesthetic of the robot (NOTE: the forest is going to get a few art passes before OBEY is done). Also, I do not actually hate bunnies. Behold: Me not hating a baby bunny I found in my yard. Also note that baby bunnies do not care for: carrots, kale, or blueberries. In fact, shortly after this picture was taken I learned that baby bunnies only care about one thing, and one thing only: GOLD. Just kidding. I learned they only care for: milk from mommy bunny teats. ---Carrie Underwood was a guest on Australia’s The Circle to promote her Play On album. Underwood has been a vegetarian since adolescence, but has recently removed all animal products from her diet due to a medical condition. Will Carrie be our next vegan celebrity hero? “I grew up on a farm. Once I learned why we had a farm, that was that,” Underwood said, referring to her decision to go vegetarian. “I’ve recently made the switch to vegan because I’m actually kind of lactose intolerant.” Welcome to the club, Carrie. Both the vegan and lactose intolerant ones. Contrary to what millions of dollars in advertising campaigns want us to believe, the ability to drink milk without severe consequences–as in a belly ache or worst later– is actually NOT normal. Outside of those with Northern European heritage, most people in the world lose their ability to digest lactose after birth. Thirty to 50 million Americans are lactose intolerant and the majority of Native Americans, Asian-Americans and African-Americans cannot digest milk products properly. Milk does a body good? For many people, only if it’s sourced from rice, almonds, coconut or soy. Photo: PR Photos Possibly Related Posts:Job seekers speak with employer representatives at a job fair in Beijing. European Pressphoto Agency A new survey shows that people in China have a positive view of women's status in the workplace -- although, perhaps unsurprisingly, men have a rosier take on the issue than women. 76% of Chinese men believe that both genders have an equal chance at ascending the corporate ladder, while only 53% of Chinese women say the same, according to the survey by global recruitment firm Hays. The firm surveyed 521 Chinese respondents as part of a broader poll of nearly 6,000 people across 31 countries. The gender gap exists on the issue of pay as well: 87% of Chinese men said they think men and women receive equal pay for doing the same work, compared with 72% of Chinese women.''We've only just got this judgment. We'll carefully study the judgment and we'll make an appropriate response after we've made that study.'' Prime Minister Tony Abbott says his government remains committed to the chaplaincy program. Credit:Andrew Meares The challenge to federal funding of the scheme was launched by Ron Williams, who says there is no place in public schools for non-secular programs. The decision could undermine the federal government's recent decision to allocate $245.3 million to continue running the chaplaincy program for another five years. That funding was intended specifically for schools to hire faith-based chaplains rather than social workers. Under the program, 3700 schools are eligible for up to $72,000 funding to employ chaplains. Queensland father Ron Williams outside the High Court in 2011. Credit:Andrew Meares In a unanimous decision, six judges on the High Court held that the federal government's agreement to fund the Scripture Union of Queensland to provide chaplaincy services to Queensland schools was unlawful. Four of Mr Williams' children attend a Queensland school that receives federal funding for chaplains. Mr Williams said the decision was a huge win for the ''silent majority of parents'' around the country who opposed the chaplaincy program. ''I think we can call this a 6-nil clobbering,'' Mr Williams said. He said that he had been ''gobsmacked'' when the federal government funded the program in the recent budget while ''slashing education and health''. State grants an 'option' to fund chaplains program Sydney University constitutional law professor Anne Twomey said on Wednesday that the federal government would be able to continue the chaplaincy program by providing grants to state governments rather than directly to schools. ''This is the only real option. They can do that and they probably will,'' she said. National School Chaplaincy Association secretary Peter James said the High Court decision was disappointing but he welcomed Mr Abbott's support for the program. ''Having ruled out the current funding model, we now look to the Commonwealth to put in place an alternative funding solution,'' he said. ''That could well be a system of grants via the states and territories - an alternative which the High Court acknowledged was possible in 2012 and again in the course of this hearing... [W]ith the government behind the program and, in fact, bipartisan support for the program I'm confident that some form of funding will be put in place.'' Mr James said funding was guaranteed until December but the federal government would probably need to make changes to the program so money could flow next year. The case targets a law that allows funding of a wide range of programs that comprise up to 10 per cent of federal expenditure, including accommodation for asylum seekers offshore, the national counterterrorism committee, ''Gallipoli-related activities'' and ''cybersafety''. In 2012, Mr Williams won his first High Court battle against the chaplaincy program when six of its seven judges ruled that it exceeded the Commonwealth's executive spending powers under the constitution. The judges also said that the government could not spend money on programs that fall outside these powers without authority from Parliament. This threatened federal funding for not only the chaplaincy program, but potentially hundreds of other programs that the government had similarly agreed to pay for without passing individual laws. About a week later, the then Labor government amended a law to include 427 arrangements, grants and programs it could fund without legislation. In total they amounted to between 5 and 10 per cent of Commonwealth expenditure. This second High Court case challenged the changed law, which the High Court has now held is invalid for the payment of the chaplaincy program. Court's decision Professor Twomey said the High Court had ''read down'' the law rather than striking it down as totally invalid. Its decision meant that the law only validly funded programs which were attached to a Commonwealth head of power. Professor Twomey said most of the programs funded under the law were likely to be constitutional, because they fell under Commonwealth heads of power, including foreign affairs and defence. But she said there could be a number of programs that did not fall under such powers which were open to similar High Court challenges. ''There will be uncertainty, but for the Commonwealth uncertainty is better than the certainty of losing. High Court challenges are costly, risky and people don't usually object to receiving money. The Commonwealth has inertia on its side,'' she said. Professor Twomey said that if the government was ''being prudent'' they would identify the programs in the law at risk of being unconstitutional, and begin negotiating individual grants with the states. ''But if they want to be particularly arrogant about it... they could just say 'unless someone challenges it and it's found by a court to be invalid we'll just keep doing what we're doing'.'' In their decision, the judges said they had not considered or resolved any broader questions of the validity of the law beyond the chaplains program. They said that taken literally, the law – which gives the federal government power to fund an open list of programs – could be interpreted to apply even to ''cases where the Parliament does not have constitutional power to authorise the making, varying or administration of arrangements or grants''. But the judges said that it ''should be read as providing power'' to grant funds "only where it is within the power of the Parliament to authorise the making, variation or administration of those arrangements or grants. To read the provision in that way is to read it within constitutional power". The Commonwealth and the Scripture Union of Queensland had argued that the payments to chaplains fell under the Parliament's constitutional power to make laws for ''benefits to students''. But the High Court held that the funding agreement ''does not provide material aid to provide for the human wants of students''. The payments involved only wages for chaplains to ''support the well being'' to children who attended certain schools. ''And the only description of how the'support' is to be given is that it includes'strengthening values, providing pastoral care and enhancing engagement with the broader community','' Chief Justice Robert French, Justices Kenneth Hayne, Susan Crennan, Susan Kiefel, Virginia Bell and Patrick Keane said. ''These are desirable ends. But seeking to achieve them in the course of the school day does not give the payments which are made the quality of being benefits to students.'' Loading with Benjamin Preiss, Alexandra Smith Follow us on TwitterAnyone who understands the modern left could not be shocked by U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson’s issuance of a temporary restraining order against President Donald Trump’s executively invoked travel ban – but that doesn’t make the order any less outrageous. The ruling was not just an exercise in judicial tyranny, as many have commented, but an act of jurisprudential nihilism and anarchy. Courts are not policymaking bodies but judicial tribunals that decide actual disputes on the basis of the facts and the law. For decades, the courts have arrogated to themselves the power to act outside their constitutional authority by usurping the legislative function of writing and rewriting, rather than interpreting, laws and adjudicating their constitutionality. Judicial activism overwhelmingly comes from left-wing judges, many of whom see their role as advancing a progressive policy agenda and exhibit little respect for the Constitution and rule of law when they might interfere with that agenda. When President Trump issued his original travel ban, it was wholly predictable that some court would attempt to nullify it. In that case, its job was made easier by the arguable clumsiness of the rollout, even though most honest commentators believed that the underlying order passed constitutional muster. Phony critics pretended the ban was stricken only because it was illegally crafted and opined that had Trump used greater care in composing the order, he would have faced no judicial obstacles. Others recognized this as a convenient excuse and said Trump would not be able to circumvent judicial obstruction merely by drafting a more precise order. Alas, when the president issued a new order, it suffered the same fate as the first. Once a plaintiff was recruited for the cause, it wasn’t hard to find a court to eradicate Trump Travel Ban 2.0. What was less predictable, though, was the transparent speciousness of the court’s reasoning in striking down Trump’s lawful order. A self-respecting judge would be embarrassed by this sophistry, unless he derived his professional self-concept from his devotion to political causes through bastardization of his sworn judicial oath. Chief Justice John Marshall, in establishing the judiciary’s prerogative of judicial review in the 1803 case Marbury v. Madison, said, “It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.” He did not say, “The judiciary is superior to the legislative and executive branches, and accordingly, we have the right to just make stuff up.” Yet that’s precisely what Judge Watson did. He issued the temporary restraining order mainly because the executive order purportedly violated the Establishment Clause, which Watson reduced to this formulation: “The clearest command of the Establishment Clause is that one religious denomination cannot be officially preferred over another.” But even Watson admitted it is undisputed that the order “does not facially discriminate for or against any particular religion, or for or against religion versus non-religion.” So it’s not Trump’s executive order that arguably violates the Establishment Clause; it’s his alleged intent behind the order, which Trump supposedly revealed in his statements during the presidential campaign and otherwise concerning Muslims. The judge says that to determine whether the order violates this clause, a court must apply the three-part “Lemon test.” To show it has not run afoul of the clause, the government action must satisfy all three prongs of the test: 1) It must have a primary secular purpose. 2) It may not have the principal effect of advancing or inhibiting religion. 3) It may not foster excessive entanglement with religion. Watson concluded that the order fails the first test – the “secular purpose” prong – so a court wouldn’t even have to consider the other two tests. But it is painfully obvious that the primary purpose of Trump’s executive order is secular; he has exercised his sovereign duty to protect Americans and America’s national security interests. It is laughable and outrageous to suggest there was any other purpose – much less a religiously discriminatory purpose – to invoke the order. On Page 32 of his 43-page screed, Watson cited the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling that “official action that targets religious conduct for distinctive treatment cannot be shielded by mere compliance with the requirement of facial neutrality.” But nothing in the order targets religious conduct for distinctive treatment! The order doesn’t address any aspect of Muslim religious conduct, unless Watson was arguing that terrorism is protected religious conduct. The ban applies to just six nations whose entrants are believed to present a higher risk of harm to the United States. This is not about religion but about national security. The five pillars of Islam are wholly unthreatened by Trump’s order. Particularly disingenuous was Watson’s statement, on Page 36, that “any reasonable, objective observer would conclude … that the stated secular purpose of the Executive Order is, at the very least, ‘secondary to a religious objective’ of temporarily suspending the entry of Muslims.” This is astonishing, even for a radical jurist. No reasonable person – apart from a mixed-up, virtue-signaling leftist – would conclude that the stated secular purpose is secondary. If you’re going to consider Trump’s statements, he is nothing if not a national security hawk. Moreover, Americans who voted for him based on national security concerns see this order as a national security imperative. They know, even if pointy-headed leftist judges do not, that presidents have a duty to protect the United States and that the greatest threat to its national security presently is from terrorists. I repeat: There is no religious objective to this order at all, much less a primary one. It doesn’t apply just to Muslims, and it doesn’t “target religious conduct” of Muslims. On top of all this, Watson conceded that to issue the temporary restraining order, he had to determine that the plaintiffs had met their burden of establishing a strong likelihood of success on the merits of their claim, yet he never explained how there is a small likelihood, much less a strong likelihood, of success, especially considering that this would be, according to liberal Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, a case of first impression. The judge has written 43 pages of words – just words – designed to obfuscate the issue and justify the unjustifiable judicial usurpation of the sovereign power of the executive branch over national security. This will not stand. Watson’s order cannot stand.Lok Sabha Election Commission elections Security was stepped up in three counting centres in Chennai after the police received a bomb threat on late on Wednesday night.An anonymous caller told Chennai’s police control room that bombs had been planted at three counting centres, and that they would go off the day the votes for thepolls will be counted (today).The police conducted search operations in all three centres -- Anna University, Loyola College and Queen Mary's College -- but no bombs were found.The caller had also claimed that bombs would go off at two other places including a government hospital. The police have received several such threat calls since May 1, when twin blasts aboard the Bangalore- Guwahati Express at Chennai central claimed the life of a 24-year-old TCS employee and left 14 others injured.Thewill today count some 550 million votes cast in the Lok Sabha. Counting at 989 centres across the country will begin at 8 am. Election Commissioner H S Brahma said all data accruing from the process would be updated on the poll panel’s website after every five minutes.The final tally will be clear by midday. Although the count would begin at 8 am, about one million officials from the central and state governments would assemble at the counting centres at 5 am.The BJP has planned elaborate victory celebrations when Narendra Modi will thank the people of Vadodara and Varanasi, from where he contested, and address a rally in Ahmedabad and a victory march in Delhi in two days.In case you were wondering, actor Sarah Michelle Gellar really does come across as super smart and warm as you hoped she would. And while I rarely get tongue tied when interviewing celebrities, I’m not too proud to admit that I did get a little gushy (okay, a lot) when chatting with her earlier this week. After all, for nearly a decade, Gellar played the role of vampire slayer extraordinaire Buffy Summers–and she saved the world. A lot. More recently, she appeared on the twisty short lived series Ringer and then The Crazy Ones along with the late great Robin Williams. She was also part of the Scream franchise and far too many movies and TV shows to list. I caught up with the mother of two and child hunger advocate and activist to discuss her new partnership with nonprofit organization No Kid Hungry, whose mission it is to help bring healthy breakfasts to schoolchildren. What made you decide to become involved with No Kid Hungry? Is it a cause you were familiar with, or is it something that interested you once you became a mother? Sarah Michelle Gellar: It’s an incredibly big passion of mine. Even though we had a little growing up my mother always taught me that you could make a difference to other people–even if it wasn’t financial. I’ve had so many opportunities to travel all around the world to help various causes. I traveled to Guatemala to raise awareness of Fair Trade and worked on building houses in Africa with Habitat for Humanity. But once you have children, your whole life shifts. I can’t just pick up and move somewhere with no electricity for two weeks. And I don’t want to, even if I could. My children have become my focus for me. In my 20s it was fun to travel everywhere, but when I had my children, my priority shifted to children here in America. I started to read about Urban Hunger and the studies and statistics about how many children go hungry. Something like four out of five children are hungry at some point. I thought–that’s not possible. And then I started to read about No Kid Hungry and I learned a term that really frightened me–Suburban Hunger. Right now the kids living right next door to you might be going hungry. So I got their number (No Kid Hungry) and I just called them up and I said I’m here and I’m able to help. I think they thought it was a joke at first. And it’s a great time to be working with them. They’re just launching their hunger in our schools report. It’s so frightening, across America, you hear that about 90% of the schools have the program in place already, but so many kids are still hungry each and every day. Very rarely do you have a problem where you can have the solution in front of you. I think there are many ways to be part of the solution. Be aware of it. Sometimes you might not realize that the family is next door is hungry. Share the report. Share the studies and information on Facebook or Twitter or with your mom friends at school. Work with local government to advocate on behalf of kids. We have to take care of these kids, because these children are going to be the decision makers in the future. We craft our future. And we are one of the richest countries in the world; everybody should be able to eat. I think also as a parent, you understand the way that children think; they don’t want to be singled out and as the food programs work now, these kids feel singled out. I think most people don’t realize that breakfast comes with lunch. And you’re asking these kids to come to school earlier than the others and you end up singling them out from the other kids. Who do you hope to inspire or educate with your involvement with No Kid Hungry? Are there specific lessons
have happen."About the Video Transcript Share/Embed 1 Van Der Linden, Sander. “ How the Illusion of Being Observed Can Make You a Better Person: Scientific American. ” Scientificamerican.com. Scientific American, Inc., 3 May 2011. Web. 30 Apr. 2013. Anonymity makes all the difference, and unfortunately, this frees some to partake in some pretty egregious behavior. This is particularly true online. We’re 20 years into the experiment of the World Wide Web, and we can clearly see how Internet anonymity plays out across social media, chat rooms, and comment sections. Usually just a nuisance, anonymous troublemakers, known as trolls, can be dangerous when they go after the vulnerable. In an effort to better understand what makes them tick, psychologists are starting to take a closer look at the psychology of the Internet troll. In 1981, Leon Mann published a study documenting the phenomenon of suicide baiting. 2 Studying the circumstances surrounding 21 public suicide attempts, Mann observed that in 10 cases victims were jeered and baited to, “jump!” He identified several contributing factors to this anti-social behavior including membership in a large crowd, the cover of night, and relative distance from the victim – all hallmarks of anonymity. The irony here is that while a focused set of watchful eyes keeps us in check, the distracted eyes of many don’t. We all behave differently when alone. Anonymity frees us from a perceived obligation to act in accordance with certain social norms. For example, most people refrain from picking their nose in public, but dig with abandon when alone. This isn’t revelatory – fear of judgment is a powerful motivator and is well documented by psychologists. 1 So, while most of our anonymous behavior is relatively benign, what happens when it isn’t? Transcript At their most benign, trolls raise blood pressures across Internet chat rooms. At their worst, they push innocents to a lethal breaking point. But why? Why engage in such anti-social behavior? Those trying to understand, motivated by the desire to best the troll, find as many answers to this question as trolls themselves. Some assume trolls are bullies, cowards, or sociopaths. Is this true? Sometimes, but as David Auerbach posits in, anonymity as culture: treatise, “…there’s no way to know the views of the participants.”1 They’re anonymous players in a game without rules. Without the why, perhaps understanding lies in the mechanism for how trolls engage in such behavior. How can someone who outwardly appears to respect social norms (going to work, raising a family) so easily adopt a contrarian alter-ego? In a word, disinhibition – the phenomenon wherein one abandons social inhibitions that would normally be present in face-to-face interactions. In what he calls, the online disinhibition effect, psychologist, John Suller, explaisn that anonymity afforded by the Internet sets the stage for trolling.2 Similar behaviors were observed over CB radios in the 1970s when airwaves were infected by racist ramblings and disturbing masturbation fantasies.3 Arguably, the Internet is more disposed to this behavior, because, as Auerbach observes, this is the first time where “discourse is primarily written rather than spoken.” Suller identifies six factors contributing to the online disinhibition effect. Dissociative Anonymity and Invisibility: You don’t know me, and you can’t see me. Michael Brutsch, a computer programmer, cat-lover, and family man, turned himself into Violentacrez, the infamous Reddit smut-peddler who earned fandom through moderating controversial subreddits like “Jailbait.” The Internet allows one to reinvent him or herself behind an anonymous veil. The obvious irony is that Brutsch was outed by Gawker. A fool-proof system, it is not. Asynchronicity: See you later. Trolling comes from the fishing technique of setting one’s baited line in the water, dragging it behind the boat, and waiting for a bite. The activity is passive, allowing one to go about his or her business while waiting for results. The same principle plays out online. Brian Limond, a self-confessed troll and atheist prefers going after his own. His chum of choice – posing as a devout Christian. Setting his bait in the Twittersphere, “It’s such a shame that athiests will never know true love. #atheism,” he sits back, enjoys that beer, and watches as the infuriated godless bite. Solipsistic Introjection: It’s all in my head. Without the visual cues of face-to-face conversation, one is free to assign characteristics to those they encounter online. Discussing what he calls A-culture, Auerbach asserts that introverts who once found solace and community online felt threatened when Facebook took it away, turning safe anonymity into a competition for attention. Participants in A-culture see outsiders as a threat to their territory. Dissociative Imagination: It’s just a game. Violentacrez illustrates how one might dismiss trolling as “just a game.” Reddit assigns “karma points” to popular subreddits, motivating people to actively moderate provocative content. Justifying his anti-social persona in the name of the game, Violentacrez admitted creating racist and misogynistic subreddits in an attempt to accumulate “meaningless Internet points” – he was wildly successful. Minimizing Authority: We’re all equals. The Internet provides a unique opportunity for individuals to interact freely across the social strata. This is notably true in politics. Some political parties hire people to troll forums, spreading their rhetoric. Perhaps only online can a troll launch ad hominem attacks “directly” at the President, a privilege once reserved for pundits. The online disinhibition effect illustrates that trolls are opportunistic, playing an online game rooted in their anonymity. Simple, really. Do note, however, that each factor relies on a common thread to make it viable – people willing to engage the troll. Trolling is not a game of solitaire. Unless we want to actively suppress freedom of speech, the only way to beat a troll is to not play the game.Here's a collection of Sir Alex Ferguson's best quotes. On Ryan Giggs "I remember the first time I saw him. He was 13 and just floated over the ground like a cocker spaniel chasing a piece of silver paper in the wind." On Gary Neville "If he was an inch taller he'd be the best centre-half in Britain. His father is 6ft 2in – I'd check the milkman." On Paul Ince "I used to have a saying that when a player is at his peak, he feels as though he can climb Everest in his slippers. That's what he was like." On Italians "When an Italian tells me it's pasta on the plate I check under the sauce to make sure. They are the inventors of the smokescreen." On the 1999 Champions League triumph "I can't believe it. I can't believe it. Football. Bloody hell." On media criticism of Juan Sebastián Verón "On you go. I'm no fucking talking to you. He's a fucking great player. Yous are fucking idiots." On Liverpool "My greatest challenge is not what's happening at the moment, my greatest challenge was knocking Liverpool right off their fucking perch. And you can print that." On the 2003 title race "It's getting tickly now – squeaky-bum time, I call it." On kicking a boot into David Beckham's face in 2003 "It was a freakish incident. If I tried it 100 or a million times it couldn't happen again. If I could I would have carried on playing!" On Filippo Inzaghi "That lad must have been born offside." On Arsène Wenger "They say he's an intelligent man, right? Speaks five languages. I've got a 15-year-old boy from the Ivory Coast who speaks five languages!" On his former charges as managers "It can be difficult to pinpoint who would make it as a manager. For instance, nobody here thought Mark Hughes would become a manager, never in a million years, and we all thought Bryan Robson was a certainty to be a top manager." On the referee Alan Wiley "The pace of the game demanded a referee who was fit. It is an indictment of our game. You see referees abroad who are as fit as butcher's dogs. We have some who are fit. He wasn't fit. He was taking 30 seconds to book a player. He was needing a rest. It was ridiculous." On José Mourinho "He was certainly full of it, calling me boss and big man when we had our post-match drink after the first leg. But it would help if his greetings were accompanied by a decent glass of wine. What he gave me was paint-stripper." On Rafael Benítez, reacting to the Spaniard's infamous 'facts' press conference "I think he was an angry man. He must have been disturbed for some reason. I think you have got to cut through the venom of it and hopefully he'll reflect and understand what he said was absolutely ridiculous." On whether Liverpool would win the title in 2007 "You must be joking. Do I look as if I'm a masochist ready to cut myself? How does relegation sound instead?" On Old Trafford "The crowd were dead. It was like a funeral out there." On Manchester City's Carlos Tévez poster "It's City isn't it? They are a small club, with a small mentality. All they can talk about is Manchester United, that's all they've done and they can't get away from it." On City again "Sometimes you have a noisy neighbour. You cannot do anything about that. They will always be noisy. You just have to get on with your life, put your television on and turn it up a bit louder." On Wayne Rooney's transfer request "Sometimes you look in a field and you see a cow and you think it's a better cow than the one you've got in your own field. It's a fact. Right? And it never really works out that way." On Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid "Do you think I would enter into a contract with that mob? Absolutely no chance. I would not sell them a virus. That is a 'No' by the way. There is no agreement whatsoever between the clubs." On Manchester United's 19th league title "It's not so much passing Liverpool. It's more important that United are the best team in the country in terms of winning titles." And on their 20th "Look at me – it's taken 10 years off me today. It's these tablets, they're great!"By Chris Bruce A federal appeals court Aug. 18 reinstated a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act suit against a law firm that misstated the principal and interest due on a credit card loan in a collection effort ( Afewerki v. Anaya Law Group, 9th Cir., 15-cv-56510, 8/18/17 ). Although the FDCPA bars debt collectors from making false statements when collecting debts, any such false statement must be “material” — a term the FDCPA itself doesn’t define. The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit focused on that question in connection with efforts by the Anaya Law Group of Westlake Village, Calif., to collect on a debt owed by Robel Afewerki, who owed $26,916.08 on a loan with a 9.65 percent interest rate. The Anaya Law Group sued Afewerki in state court, saying he owed $29,916.08 ($3,000 too much). The firm also misstated the interest rate, saying incorrectly that it was 9.965 percent (0.315 percent too high). Afewerki sued the firm under the FDCPA, but a district court held for the firm on summary judgment, saying the misstatements weren’t material. The Ninth Circuit disagreed and vacated that ruling, saying the misstatements were material based on how the “least sophisticated debtor” might react to the misstatements. The least sophisticated debtor in Afewerki’s position, the court said, “may well have simply paid the amount demanded in the complaint and would have overpaid by approximately $3,000.” “For these reasons, we conclude that the incorrect statement of the principal due in the state court complaint, which was further inflated by the incorrect interest rate, was material,” Judge Richard R. Clifton said for a three-judge panel that includes Judges John B. Owens and John Antoon II. Grace Period Upheld However, the panel agreed with the district court’s ruling for the law firm on a separate claim under California’s Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The firm was able to mount a defense under the state law because it corrected the misstatement within 15 days of discovering the error and served Afewerki with notice of the correction. Afewerki said California lawmakers had repealed the 15-day grace period in 1999, but the court disagreed. According to the Ninth Circuit, the California Supreme Court hasn’t addressed whether the grace period was repealed, nor have the California Courts of Appeal done so in a published opinion. In an email to Bloomberg BNA, Alana B. Anaya of the firm called the ruling “a good decision in part,” citing the firm’s arguments that the 15-day grace period hadn’t been repealed. That’s a victory for creditors “which have been litigating this issue for some time,” Anaya said. “Our office believes that allowing the 15 day grace period serves public policy well as it can avoid a myriad of lawsuits for items that have been promptly corrected,” Anaya told Bloomberg BNA. “Our office will continue to litigate these cases on behalf of Creditors.” To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Bruce in Washington at cbruce@bna.com To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Ferullo at MFerullo@bna.com Copyright © 2017 The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. All Rights Reserved.Early Voting Schedule Pursuant to Article 19A of the Illinois Election Code, Early Voting for the Consolidated General will be conducted at the listed locations and times. Any voter validly registered in Champaign County may vote at ANY early voting location during the early voting period, however, any vote cast is final, and may not be revoked, and the voter is not eligible to cast a vote on election day. Dates: Thursday, February 21, 2019 through Monday, April 1, 2019 Locations & Times Brookens Early Voting 1776 East Washington Street, Urbana - Map external link February 21 - March 26: weekdays 8:00am - 4:30pm March 27- March 29: 8:00am - 7:00pm Saturday March 30: 9:00am - 12:00pm Sunday, March 31: 10:00am - 4:00pm Monday, April 1: 8:00am - 7:00pm Illini Union - Pine Lounge - 1st Floor 1401 West Green Street, Urbana - Map external link March 27- March 29: 10:00am - 6:00pm Saturday March 30: 9:00am - 12:00pm Sunday, March 31: 10:00am - 4:00pm Monday, April 1: 10:00am - 6:00pm Meadowbrook Community Church 1902 South Duncan Road, Champaign - Map external link March 27- March 29: 10:00am - 6:00pm Saturday March 30: 9:00am - 12:00pm Sunday, March 31: 1:00pm - 4:00pm Monday, April 1: 10:00am - 6:00pm Leonhard Recreation Center 2307 Sangamon Dr., Champaign Map external link March 27- March 29: 10:00am - 6:00pm Saturday March 30: 9:00am - 12:00pm Sunday, March 31: 10:00am - 4:00pm Monday, April 1: 10:00am - 6:00pm Church of the Living God 312 E Bradley Ave, Champaign Map external link March 27- March 29: 10:00am - 6:00pm Saturday March 30: 9:00am - 12:00pm Sunday, March 31: 1:00pm - 4:00pm Monday, April 1: 10:00am - 6:00pm Lake of the Woods-Elk's Pavilion Lake of the Woods Rd, Mahomet Map external link March 27- March 29: 10:00am - 6:00pm Saturday March 30: 9:00am - 12:00pm Sunday, March 31: 10:00am - 4:00pm Monday, April 1: 10:00am - 6:00pm Tolono Public Library 111 East Main Street, Tolono - Map external link March 27- March 29: 10:00am - 6:00pm Saturday March 30: 9:00am - 12:00pm Sunday, March 31: 10:00am - 4:00pm Monday, April 1: 10:00am - 6:00pm Prince of Peace Lutheran Church 802 E Douglas, St Joseph Map external link March 27- March 29: 10:00am - 6:00pm Saturday March 30: 9:00am - 12:00pm Sunday, March 31: 1:00pm - 4:00pm Monday, April 1: 10:00am - 6:00pm The Gathering Place 200 S Centruy Blvd, Rantoul Map external link March 27- March 29: 10:00am - 6:00pm Saturday March 30: 9:00am - 12:00pm Sunday, March 31: 1:00pm - 4:00pm Monday, April 1: 10:00am - 6:00pm If the person is a first time voter required to show ID, the acceptable forms of ID include: a current and valid photo ID a current utility bill bank statement government check paycheck a student ID along with a lease or other government document that shows name and address A voter registration card is NOT acceptable identification Grace Period Registration and Voting will be available at all Early Voting locations at the dates and times specified above. Aaron Ammons Champaign County ClerkThe calls for peace continue after two men were shot and killed on Saturday, putting an end to a Baltimore City Cease Fre that was supposed to last 72 hours. RELATED: Shots Ring Out During ‘Cease Fire’ Weekend, Claiming 2 Lives Several Cease Fire events drew large crowds on Sunday. The Cease Fire did not reach the goal: an entire weekend without homicides. However, many in the community still came out and called the effort a success. With their hands joined together, Baltimore City residents, stand against a murder rate that continues to skyrocket, despite a ceasefire calling for a murder-free weekend. “There’s just too much stuff going on, too many lives are being lost and we just gotta give each other hope,” says Marvin McDowell, who attended the prayer vigil. Dozens took to the streets of Baltimore, spreading their message of peace, even after two deadly shootings, dismantled hopes of a successful Cease Fire calling for 3 days without murders in Baltimore. “It’s good for people to know the better things that we’re actually trying to do to bring Baltimore up,” says Amaya Murillo, attended the prayer vigil. Community activists and members spent the week urging shooters to hold their fire for 72-hours in an effort to turn the tide on the city’s skyrocketing homicide rate, which reached 210 murders on Saturday. “I choose to focus on the fact that we got an A+ on the effort. An A+ on the bringing together of people,” says Shameeka Dream, Community Activist. During one prayer vigil, police had to restrain a man who tried to disrupt the event. Instead of letting hostility and fear take over, the crowd decided to stay here and pray for Baltimore and call for peace. Mayor Catherine Pugh expressed support for the community-led effort. “This city needs prayer. It needs love. It needs people who care about this city,” says Mayor Pugh. In a statement released on Sunday, Mayor Pugh said: “I commend the citizen-driven Ceasefire call this weekend. The power to change our city rests in our hands. We have all heard the painful cries of the mothers, fathers, husbands, and wives as they have mourned loved ones to violence. This movement must continue and it will take each one of us doing our part to reaffirm the value of human life. We can do this together.” Whether remembering those killed this year or calling on a higher power, communities are more determined than ever. “We had an uprising. Now they got to see us rise up,” says Cease Fire organizer, Errick Bridgeford. To end the violence that’s claiming so many lives. Baltimore City Police Commissioner Kevin Davis issued a statement on the community’s efforts: “We are proud of the grassroots efforts this weekend with the Baltimore Ceasefire. This has been a great conversation starter and momentum builder. Hopefully, everyone who participated in events around the Baltimore Ceasefire will use this as energy to continue to move forward to do their part in driving down violence in our city. Public safety is the responsibility of all of us and it’s been a beautiful sight to see so many people engaged for a better and safer Baltimore. Our resilience will be a model for cities across the country. It takes all of us to affect change. We look forward to additional events in the future. Success is measured on sustainability, not instantaneous results.” City state’s attorney Marilyn Mosby joined crowds Sunday and continued the calls for peace despite not reaching their goal of a weekend without bloodshed, by reading the names of those who lost their lives this year. So far there have been no arrests in the city’s two latest murders. Follow @CBSBaltimore on Twitter and like WJZ-TV \| CBS Baltimore on FacebookA well-worn statistic doing the rounds at present is that Liverpool have found the frame of the goal twenty-one times in their first twenty-eight league games this season. That figure is the joint most in the top five leagues in Europe, tied with Barcelona, according to whoscored.com. The fact that their opponents have only found their woodwork four times in the league this season further exacerbates the feeling that the Reds have been unlucky to not win a few more games In a season when Liverpool only have 33 goals in their ‘For’ column, being inches away from a further 21 goals has made a massive difference to their points tally. Or so you might think. Whilst it has had an impact, it’s probably not as pronounced as you would assume. I have broken down Liverpool’s woodwork stats further to try to quantify this. For starters, eleven of the goal frame hits have occurred in matches that the Reds won anyway. Whilst the wins may have been more comfortable, and an improved goal difference is always welcome, in terms of actual league points a little over half of the woodwork strikes have had no bearing on the points tally at all. That leaves ten that might have made a difference. Those ten are therefore spread across the seventeen league games that Liverpool have failed to win this season. In eleven of these matches, the Reds did not hit the post or bar, which appears to leave six games where striking the frame of the goal might have cost Liverpool further points. As one of these games was a 3-1 defeat away at Bolton Wanderers though, and the frame of the goal was only struck once (meaning the Reds would still have lost even had the shot gone in) we are left with just five matches: The stand out match from these five is the home draw with Norwich City; Liverpool put nine of their twenty-one shots on target that day, plus found the woodwork three times, yet had only the solitary goal (and point) to show for their efforts. The matches with Sunderland and Swansea only have one goalframe strike apiece, and thinking back to those matches shows how much difference in likelihood of scoring there can be between woodwork hits; Stewart Downing hit the bar from long distance against the Mackems, and realistically would have done very well to score from where he took the shot, whereas Andy Carroll really should have found the net with a point-blank header six yards out against the Swans. The really interesting cases are Fulham and Arsenal. At Craven Cottage, we can see there was one of the four occasions this season that the opposition have found the frame of the Liverpool goal, and that if all three woodwork strikes in that match were goals then it would have ended as a 2-2 draw. Similarly, a narrow defeat at home to Arsenal recently might actually have been a narrow win had a couple of shots hit the post and gone in, rather than rebounding to safety from a Gunners’ perspective. In total, in the unlikely scenario that all woodwork strikes actually went in, then Liverpool would have ten more points than they have now. That would put them in 4th position, level on points with Arsenal but ahead on goal difference. I think this is an unrealistic assumption though, as all teams hit the woodwork every so often. Pure speculation now on my part, but from the figures above I think it’s reasonable to say that the Reds should’ve beaten Norwich, had a point from Fulham and Arsenal, and the other two draws you have to take on the chin. That would mean an extra four points, which is perhaps a little more realistic. But then I can point out here that Liverpool also missed penalties in the Sunderland and Arsenal games, so who knows what points they should really have had. Of course, goals change games, and had Liverpool scored earlier (or indeed, at all) in the above five matches plus the Bolton defeat, then the results could very easily have swung in their favour. But ultimately, with all the airing that the statistic regarding Liverpool’s woodwork woes gets, I was very surprised to see how few games it has really mattered in. That said, if the Reds finish within ten points of fourth spot, a big part of me will certainly now be thinking ‘what-if’ about this season. Statistics sourced from EPLIndex. Please take a look at my other articles, a list of which can be found here.Getty Images NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell may not have had anything to say about President Donald Trump on Wednesday, but then-candidate Donald Trump has plenty to say about NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell more than a year ago. “The Commissioner is a dope,” Trump previously told the New York Times in comments published on Wednesday. “He’s a stupid guy.” The remarks were made in 2015, when Mark Leibovich of the Times was interviewing Trump in connection with a profile. There’s no reason to think President Trump has changed his mind on the subject, given his friendship with Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, Patriots coach Bill Belichick, and Patriots owner Robert Kraft. “The Commissioner is a weak guy,” Trump said at the time. “When he made the Ray Rice deal, everybody said: You’re stupid. You’re weak. And it was such a weak deal. So now he’s going overboard with their star, Brady.” Trump wanted Brady to go overboard in return. “I said, ‘Tom’ — I gave him a lawyer — I said, ‘Here’s what you do. Sue the NFL for $500 million tomorrow. Sue ’em up in Boston, for everything. They’ll come to the table.’ He said, ‘Aw, man.’ He really was torn. He’s not Trump. He said, ‘I just want to win another Super Bowl.'” (Ultimately, the lawsuit regarding Brady’s suspension was filed by the NFL in Manhattan, with the goal solely of determining whether the suspension was permitted by the labor deal between the NFL and the NFL Players Association.) Trump also thinks Kraft erred in trusting Goodell to go easy on Brady in exchange for Kraft’s decision not to fight penalties imposed on the team. “Bob said, ‘I had a wink from the Commissioner,’” Trump said. “He choked, just like [Mitt] Romney choked. He said: ‘You know what? They winked at me.’ I said, ‘Bob when you make a deal, you should have gotten it all wrapped up.’ Who ever heard of making a deal like that? Now you got this mess.” Notwithstanding the mess, the Patriots are on the brink of winning the Super Bowl in the same season during which Brady served his four-game #DeflateGate suspension. And President Trump likely isn’t on the brink of inviting Roger Goodell to the White House for a slice of pizza, a taco salad, and/or a bucket of chicken.Whoa, you aren't browsing with Javascript, congratulations! You probably don't need this tutorial, which will look broken for you. Just install an adblocker with a privacy/tracking protection list, block third-party cookies, block referers, and install HTTPS Everywhere. In less than 10 minutes, you can drastically improve your privacy online and protect yourself against unwanted and invisible tracking. Note that these privacy safeguards will also be blocking some ads. EFF is working with online advertisers to try to convince them to provide real privacy protections for users, but until they agree to meaningful standards about online tracking, these steps will be necessary for users to safeguard their browsing privacy. Aside from removing ads, these changes won't affect your browsing experience on the vast majority of websites. It's possible, however, that a tiny fraction of websites may behave differently or break, in which case the easiest solution is to temporarily use a "private browsing" mode without the settings enabled, or a fresh browser profile/user with default settings. Firefox instructions Chrome instructions Step 1: Install Adblock Plus Get Adblock Plus. After it is installed, be sure to change your filter preferences to add EasyPrivacy: Then go to "Add Filter Subscription" -> "Add a different subscription" and select "EasyPrivacy": Step 2: Change Cookie Settings Now you are going to set your cookies to expire when you exit your browser, and disallow third-party cookies from being set. To do this, go to Edit -> Preferences -> Privacy. Under "History", choose the drop down "Use custom settings for history". Under "Accept cookies from sites", uncheck "Accept third-party cookies", and right below select "Keep until I close Firefox": Great! No more unwanted tracking cookies. Cookies are small identifiers that websites store in your browser to keep track of who you are. Deleting them whenever you close your browser makes it much harder to track you over a long period of time. There are some small annoyances to doing this -- you will have to log in to services such as Gmail and Facebook every time you start your browser -- but the privacy gains are significant. Step 3: Turn Off Referers This famously misspelled header typically sent by default with every HTTP request gives a lot of potentially personal information to websites. But you can turn it off. Open a new tab and in your URL bar, type "about:config". You will see a scary warning; click "I'll be careful, I promise!" At the search bar, type "referer". You should see the value "network.http.sendRefererHeader". Double click it, and change the value to 0: Ta da! No more referers. Now close that tab if you are worried about accidentally changing other settings. Step 4: Install HTTPS Everywhere Install EFF's browser add-on HTTPS Everywhere. This maximizes your use of HTTPS to ensure that your private conversations with websites can't be snooped on or tampered with by other parties. Congratulations! You are now in an elite group of users fighting back against unwanted privacy invasions. Give yourself a pat on the back, and then please share these tips."He was the only quarterback in the NFL to complete fewer than 50 percent of his attempts (48.1) against the blitz last season. Kaepernick's legs weren't much of a weapon against pressure either. He averaged 4.89 yards per dropback when blitzed, fourth worst. Interestingly enough, Blaine Gabbert averaged 8.24, second best." Last week, ESPN featured a piece that used ESPN Stats & Information to take a look at the five best and the five worst quarterbacks of 2015 against the blitz. San Francisco 49ers quarterbackwas among the latter.The other quarterbacks at the bottom of the list included, and. The top five on the list were, andThe following is what ESPN's Sheil Kapadia had to say about Kaepernick.In 2015, Kaepernick was pressured nearly 40-percent of the time behind that offensive line while Gabbert was pressured nearly 38-percent of the time. Most of that was due to poor offensive line play. According to Football Outsiders, when it comes to pass protection, the 49ers offensive line ranked second-to-last among the 32 NFL teams, ahead of just the Tennessee Titans. They allowed the quarterback to be sacked 53 times last season with Kaepernick going down 28 times and Gabbert accounting for the other 25.Under pressure, Gabbert took a sack 20.2-percent of the time while Kaepernick's number was 24.1-percent. Gabbert's completion percentage under pressure was still 51.8-percent while Kaepernick's nose dived to 35.2-percent. Gabbert also had a better accuracy percentage under pressure, a Pro Football Focus statistic that throws out things like throwaways, spikes, batted balls, and other factors.Kaepernick: 35.2% completion, 46.8% accuracyGabbert: 51.8% completion, 61% accuracyThe two quarterbacks will be involved in a battle for the starting job when the 49ers open training camp in late-July. Up until now, Gabbert has been getting most of the reps in the 49ers' offseason program, but Kaepernick was finally able to start practicing last week during a three-day mandatory minicamp. While he took part in individual and 7-on-7 drills, he sat out 11-on-11 drills during practices.Last Thursday, Kaepernick spoke to the media for the first time since the end of the 2015 season and for the first time since the offseason drama involving surgeries and trade requests. "At this point, everything is football. I'm a 49er. Once again, excited to work with Chip and this coaching staff," said Kaepernick, who expects to be ready to go for training camp."To Be GMC Professional Grade you must build upon your strengths. Look at your team now and assess what it does best. Is it running the football? How about pass defense? How about throwing the ball deep? Do they find creative ways to win? Let me know how you would build on that success to get your team into the playoffs." To me, the Seahawks' ultimate identity is that of toughness. On offense, they want to run the football, control the tempo, control the clock, and every once in a while, throw it deep to create explosive plays. Win or lose, they want you to feel like you played a tough, hard-fought game. On defense, it's the same -- toughness is the identity. They want to take away your run game, make you one dimensional, and then flummox and demoralize you by limiting plays over the top and creating turnovers. During the first half of the season, we saw flashes of that identity. It showed up early against Green Bay and Denver, but disappeared against San Diego and Dallas. Over the past two weeks, they seem to be, as Pete Carroll put it, "recapturing" that ethos and identity. Carroll has talked about it a lot this week. "It was really a great accomplishment," he said Monday, about beating the Raiders while extremely short-handed due to injuries. "We played so well in the first half, and really felt like it was the style we loved seeing. Our guys were all over the football, the ball was coming out. Just ball hawking and taking care of the football on our side. Just a lot of really good stuff.... To get the win, get it done, and keep moving forward and feeling really good about how hard we played, we accomplished something good today. I was happy about that." It wasn't pretty, of course. Special teams struggled, the offense struggled at times. But their demeanor has really seemed to have changed from urgent pressing to something more dialed in "We feel a connection," Earl Thomas said at his locker on Sunday. "That's the most important thing: the connection, the intensity and the attention to detail. We're all tied around on a string, and we've got to fly around to the ball and keep celebrating and just having fun. The purest form of the game." (Seriously how can you not love Earl Thomas). Pete Carroll echoed this. "There's a fine line between that crazed mentality that you see and when you think you're going," Carroll said. "You're trying really hard, but there's a difference. The energy of it, the emotion of it, was so obvious. The guys have really captured it, and I'm hoping we can keep going. It will make all the difference for us." He expounded on that on Monday when talking with Brock and Salk on 710 ESPN. Said Carroll, "What's really exciting is that the defense is really playing. They're really going. It was a great effort (on Sunday). Brandon Mebane and Michael Bennett were flying off the line of scrimmage, and they were causing problems. Bruce Irvin is really coming around, really contributing. Not just in the big plays that you're seeing, but in a lot of the other plays as well. The group is really playing well. Tharold Simon played excellent football (on Sunday). That's really cool for us. To get that big guy out there, you know, he was all over them, as was Richard Sherman on the other side." "So," he continued, "if you look at the last three weeks, we're only allowing about 250 (yards) a game, or so. That's big time. Also, check out the quarterback efficiency against us the last few weeks, that's the numbers that we're used to seeing, you know, in the past couple years. So, things are getting better. (Cam Newton: 61.0, Derek Carr: 66.5) Carroll
since the combustion of both fossil fuels and biomass produces carbon dioxide), and what forest management techniques are employed in the areas where the biomass is harvested. In 2010, a group of prominent scientists wrote to Congress explaining that the notion that all biomass results in a 100 percent reduction of carbon emissions is wrong. Biomass can reduce carbon dioxide if fast growing crops are grown on otherwise unproductive land; in this case, the regrowth of the plants offsets the carbon produced by the combustion of the crops. But cutting or clearing forests for energy, either to burn trees or to plant energy crops, releases carbon into the atmosphere that would have been sequestered had the trees remained untouched, and the regrowing and thus recapture of carbon can take decades or even a century. Moreover, carbon is emitted in the combustion process, resulting in a net increase of CO2. Nevertheless, biomass energy is currently considered renewable, and thus qualifies for tax credits, subsidies and incentives in the U.S. These include the Renewable Electricity Production Tax Credit which pays closed-loop (organic matter planted exclusively to produce electricity) biomass energy producers $.023 per kilowatt-hour and open-loop biomass (any other waste or residue) producers $.012 per kilowatt-hour; and Renewable Energy Certificates wherein every megawatt hour of electricity generated by biomass earns a credit that can be sold, traded or bartered, giving its owner the right to claim to have purchased renewable energy. The Investment Tax Credit will reimburse 30 percent of biomass plant development if construction is begun by the end of this year, and if operation begins by 2024. And biomass is eligible for subsidies from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In part due to these incentives and the pressure to reduce coal use, energy companies in the U.S. and Europe are turning to biomass. By 2030, biomass could account for 60 percent of total final global renewable energy use, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency. Most of the new biomass electricity generating plants being proposed in the U.S. will burn wood. Plants in the Southeast U.S. are churning out wood pellets to meet Europe’s increasing need for wood. Last year, wood pellet exports from the Southeast increased 70 percent; the Southern U.S. is now the largest exporter of wood pellets in the world. Since there isn’t enough logging residue to meet the increased demand for biomass, many fear that more standing trees will be chopped and more forests clear-cut. The new biomass plants produce 38 megawatts of electricity on average, but many are being built in the 50 to 110 megawatt range. According to the Partnership for Policy Integrity, a 50-megawatt plant burns 2,550 lb. of green wood each minute. As an example, the 50-megawatt McNeil plant in Burlington, VT burns 625,000 tons of green wood from trees and residue each year. Additional wood is needed for co-firing in coal plants where wood is burned with coal to meet state renewable energy mandates (resulting in additional carbon emissions), pellet production, and liquid biofuels. While admittedly most forests will not actually be clear-cut for biomass energy, the numbers make clear the amount of pressure that will be brought to bear on our forests. How is this increase in biomass burning impacting climate change, our health, and the environment? Today’s biomass-burning power plants actually produce more global warming CO2 than fossil fuel plants: 65 percent more CO2 per megawatt hour than modern coal plants and 285 percent more CO2 than natural gas combined cycle plants (which use both a gas and steam turbine together). In addition, burning wood biomass emits as much, if not more, air pollution than burning fossil fuels—particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, lead, mercury, and other hazardous air pollutants—which can cause cancer or reproductive effects. The air pollution from biomass facilities, which the American Heart Association and the American Lung Association have called a danger to public health, produces respiratory illnesses, heart disease, cancer, and developmental delays in children. Harvesting and removing limbs, leaves and plant parts from forests, which would normally recycle nutrients back into the soil as they decay, can diminish soil fertility and hasten erosion. Heavy machinery used for Iogging compacts soil and increases runoff, which may affect water quality. Removing vegetation from the ground also impacts wildlife habitats on the forest floor. For five years, the EPA has been reassessing the climate impacts of biomass burning; it is still not clear how wood energy will eventually be regulated, but a decision is expected this year. The agency has been working with scientists to develop formulas so that states and power plant owners can calculate the climate impacts of wood fuel. Members of the U.S. Senate recently proposed an amendment to the Energy Policy Modernization Act that would deem forest biomass “carbon neutral.” Under President Obama’s Clean Power Plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, this measure would make biomass equivalent to zero-emission wind and solar energy as a replacement for coal. In response, 65 scientists and stakeholders wrote a letter to the Senate protesting that “Granting carbon amnesty to forest biomass burning for energy could lead to significant depletion of U.S. forests. The potential implications of declaring carbon neutrality for forest biofuels are great because even small quantities of bioenergy require large quantities of wood. The U.S. Energy Information Agency estimates that for each 1 percent added to current U.S. electricity production from forest biomass an additional 18 percent increase in U.S. forest harvest is required. This policy would also encourage the destruction of forests in developing countries that would see the U.S. as an export market….We urge you and other members of the Senate to reconsider this well-intentioned legislation and eliminate the misrepresentation that forest bioenergy is carbon-neutral.” As the thinking about biomass continues to evolve, state, federal, and international regulations need to clearly distinguish between the types of biomass energy that are beneficial and those that are detrimental. Treating all biomass, regardless of its source, as carbon neutral, could lead to increased greenhouse gas emissions at home and around the world. As the scientists said in their 2010 letter to Congress, the “globally improper accounting of bioenergy could lead to large-scale clearing of the world’s forests… any legal measure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions must include a system to differentiate emissions from bioenergy based on the source of the biomass.”Formerly weighing 360 pounds and now down to 200, John David Glaud’s transformation is really impressive. While John is proud of how far he’s come, he still harbors insecurities about his weight loss, which is not uncommon among those who have shed a significant amount of weight. Specifically, he says, he’s feels awkward about the pounds of loose skin hanging all over his body — remnants of his larger days. Watch the video below to see what we mean. As the camera rolls, Glaud strips down, revealing bunches of skin under his arms, over his stomach and on the insides of his thighs. Although he’s self-conscious about it, loose skin is typical of dramatic weight loss like his. “I’m comfortable clothed. I’m not that comfortable unclothed,” he said in a Nov. 8 video for his “Obese To Beast” YouTube channel. This is how the New York Magazine puts it: The experience of significant weight loss is much more psychologically complex than the multi-billion-dollar diet industry, with its beaming “after” photos and promises of a new life, acknowledges. After all that work, it can be a disappointing blow to discover that bodies that have lost 50-plus pounds simply don’t look like bodies that have maintained a steady weight since reaching adulthood. Despite Glaud’s own insecurities, he still looks on his weight loss as a positive change. “I wanted to have a perfect body, but that’s not the case. And that’s okay,” he concludes. “Loose skin and all, I’m happy with where I’ve come from and where I am at now.”The heavenly host and our modern life The angelic host Angels and demons Guardian Angel Feast of St. Archangel Michael The Rational Heavenly Powers Why does the Archangel Michael have a martial appearance? Homily for the feast of holy Archangel Michael and the heavenly host From the spiritual diary of St. John of Kronstadt, “My Life in Christ” Synaxis Of The Holy Archangel Michael The Rational Heavenly Powers The Creation of Heaven and the Establishment of the Angelic World “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Thus begins its narrative the Book of Genesis, the book of life. From ancient times the Church has always understood heaven to mean the “rational heaven,” i.e. the angelic world. The first creative act of the Triune God was the creation of “second lights” – the celestial bodiless powers. Here is how St. Gregory the Theologian pontificates on this subject back in the 4th century: “Since it did not suffice for the grace of God to be engaged solely in the contemplation of its own self, but rather required that this grace be disseminated, spreading out further and further, so that the number of recipients of this grace would be as immense as possible, because such is the nature of this supreme grace, – God first of all thinks of creating the angelic forces; and so the thought becomes deed, implemented by the Word and fulfilled by the Holy Spirit… Insofar as the first creation was pleasing to Him, He then thinks up another world, material and visible, or – what is the same – a harmonious composition of heaven and earth and everything that is between them” (Homily 38). This is when and why the rational heaven was created. However, the very name angel (which is a Greek word) signifies messenger, i.e. a spirit created for some special service, in order to pass on messages to someone. In fact, Apostle Paul himself calls the angels the ministering spirits: “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” (Hebrews 1:14). What awesome and extraordinary words: the celestial powers, besides serving God, are sent to serve the human beings who are to inherit salvation. They are sent to us, frail humans! This service to mankind is performed primarily by the guardian angels, of whom we shall speak later. What do we know of how the angelic world was created and how it is set up? According to Church teaching, the angels were created before the beginning of our visible world and were all created instantaneously, the same number of them that there is now, with the exception of the fallen angels, whose number is determined by theologians as being one third of the entire angelic assembly, according to the Revelation. The nature of angels is entirely spiritual. They are bodiless and fleshless. The Church calls them “the second lights.” As such, they are participants in the divine light and ineffable glory of God. Having been created free, the angels became so fortified in virtue after their victory over the fallen spirits, in obedience to God and in love for Him, that they lost all propensity for sinning and became entirely established in goodness. In this especially they differ from human beings. There remains a very complex question: which world is higher in the eyes of God – the angelic world or the world of righteous human beings? The angels’ designation as ministering spirits, as well as certain other scriptural texts lead us to believe that human essence transformed by holiness may be higher than the angelic one, but only in the hereafter of course. Furthermore, only about man was it said that he was created in the image and likeness of God. The Divine Word, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, became incarnate in order to save and redeem sinful mankind, but did not transform itself into one of the fallen spirits in order to save them. However, there is no established Church teaching on this subject, so it would be wiser for us to humbly bow down before this divine mystery… What do we know of the structure of the angelic world? For this we have the writing of St. Dionysius the Areopagite, a disciple of Apostle Paul, entitled “The Heavenly Hierarchy.” We will briefly present this writing as recounted by a well-known Russian 19th-century religious writer, the reverend G. Dyachenko. The Heavenly Hierarchy It is composed of three orders. Each order has three ranks. The highest order is composed of the seraphim, the cherubim, and the thrones; the middle order is composed of dominions, powers, and authorities; the lowest order is composed of principalities, archangels, and angels. The supreme angelic order are the seraphim. Their name means flaming, fiery. Being directly and continuously in the presence of the One Who is love, Who lives in unassailable light, Whose throne is flaming fire, the seraphim burn with supreme love for God, and this flame of love ignites all the others. The prophet Isaiah describes the seraphim to us in his 6th chapter: “I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another and said: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory”. The second rank of the highest order is comprised of the cherubim, whose name means comprehension or knowledge. It is for this reason that they are called the many-eyed. Contemplating the glory of God and possessing supreme knowledge and wisdom, they pour forth the wisdom of God upon others. Many places in the Holy Scriptures speak of the cherubim; for example: “So God drove out Adam; and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden a cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life” (Gen. 3:24). The Book of Ezekiel speaks of the cherubim numerous times: “And there appeared in the cherubim the form of a man’s hand under their wings. And when I looked, behold the four wheels by the cherubim; one wheel by one cherubim, and another wheel by another cherubim, and the appearance of the wheels was as the color of a beryl stone” (10:8-9). The third rank of the highest order consists of the thrones, called God-bearing not by their essence, but by their service, since God blessedly and unfathomably rests upon them. God also shows His majesty and justice through this rank of angels. Let us now turn to the middle order of the heavenly hierarchy. Its eldest rank is composed of dominions, who dominate the lower ranks of angels. Serving God willing and joyfully, they pass on to those living on earth the power of prudent self-control and wise self-arrangement; they teach men to control their feelings, to restrain unbridled desires and passions, to subordinate the flesh to the spirit, to dominate one’s will and conquer temptations. The rank of dominions is followed by the rank of powers, through whom God produces signs and miracles for the glory of God and to aid and strengthen those who labor and who are burdened. This rank is mentioned to us by Apostle Peter, who says that Christ, ascending into the heavens, was worshipped by angels, and authorities, and powers. To the lowest rank of the middle order belong the authorities, who have great power over the devil, conquer him, guard men from his wiles, and fortify those who engage in spiritual labors. Some Church Fathers believe that the guardian angel of Apostle Peter, who lead him out of prison, belonged to this angelic rank. The lower order of the heavenly hierarchy includes the following: the first rank is that of the principalities, who rule over the lower angels, assign tasks, distribute services among them, and rule over kingdoms and communities of men. The next-to-last rank is composed of the archangels, messengers and heralds of God’s mysteries, who communicate God’s will to men. The last rank is called simply angels, the bodiless spirits who are closest to men. It is they who are primarily sent into the world as our guardian angels. This is what we know of the ranks and orders of the heavenly hierarchy. The Great Seven Slightly more is revealed to us by the Holy Scriptures and Holy Tradition concerning the seven supreme archangels: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Salaphiel, Jegudiel, and Barachiel. The first two archangels have an especially high standing and are also called the supreme commanders of God’s forces. They reign over the entire angelic host and are the leaders of all the heavenly bodiless powers. The name Michael in Hebrew means: “Who is like unto God?” or “Who is equal to God?” “EL” is a short version of the ancient Hebrew word Elohim, which in Russian means God. Michael was second in rank in the heavenly hierarchy to Sataniel, who was also called Lucifer, i.e. morning star or son of dawn. When the latter in his pride rebelled against God, the Lord’s divine providence allowed the angels who remained loyal to Him, led by the Archangel Michael, to engage in combat with Lucifer. It appears that this combat was quite strenuous, because according to the Revelation of St. John the Theologian, they (the bright powers) “overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death” (Rev. 12:11). This part of the Revelation gives us to understand that the mystery of redemption through the blood of the Lamb, foreseen in God’s plan, was already in action in the world on high, and assisted in the victory of the angels who testified to it in heaven. As to a struggle “until death,” this should be understood as the pressure of such a struggle to the very end, a struggle that could end with the spiritual death of some of the heavenly forces. Angelic host What else can we say about the Archangel Michael? The prophet Daniel calls him the guardian of the Jewish people. But after the hard-hearted Jews condemned themselves by putting their Saviour and Redeemer to death, thus losing their status as the chosen people, the Archangel Michael became, according to universal Christian belief, the guardian and defender of Christ’s Church. For this reason many Church Fathers believe that the Archangels Michael and Gabriel were the two angels who appeared to the myrrh-bearing women and brought them glad tidings of Christ’s Resurrection. We can also see the two supreme archangels in many New Testament appearances. The special appearances of the Archangel Gabriel will be mentioned below. On the day of the Last Judgment it will, of course, be the Archangel Michael who will lead the heavenly host that will come down with Christ. Therefore, this archangel is always depicted in icons in a militant manner, with a sword or spear in his hand. Sometimes the top of the spear is crowned with a white banner bearing the sign of the cross. The white banner represents the archangel’s eternal purity and unshakeable loyalty to the Heavenly King, while the cross indicates that the battle with the kingdom of darkness and victory over it are achieved only with the help of Christ’s Cross. The second place in the celestial hierarchy is occupied by Archangel Gabriel, whose name means the power of God. In view of the fact that the name of each heavenly denizen corresponds to the nature of his service, this archangel is specifically the herald and servitor of God’s omnipotence. It was he who foretold Zacharias that by the power of God this barren old man would become the progenitor of the greatest man born of woman – the Forerunner and Baptist John. It was he who announced to Joachim and Anna that they would give birth to a wondrous and Most-blessed Virgin. It was he who visited and reared Her while She was growing up in the temple of Jerusalem, nourishing Her physical strength with heavenly sustenance. It was he who brought Her a branch from paradise on the day of the Annunciation, with the wondrous message that She had been chosen by the Lord to receive God the Word in Her womb. The Archangel Gabriel also appeared several times to the righteous Joseph, giving him necessary advice. Some Church Fathers believe that Gabriel was the angel who fortified the Lord during His anguished night in the garden of Gethsemane. And, as was mentioned above, he and Archangel Michael were the heralds of Christ’s resurrection and ascension. And, finally, the same Archangel Gabriel appeared to the Mother of God to announce to Her the day of Her earthly dormition. In church hymns the Archangel Gabriel is called “the servitor of miracles,” being the herald of God’s great miracles. For this reason he is iconographically depicted either with a paradisiacal branch in his right hand, or with a lighted lamp in the right hand and a mirror made of jasper in the left. The lamp means that God’s destinies are concealed for a time, while the mirror means that through Gabriel they are reflected as in a mirror. The word of God also made known to us the names of five other archangels. The third one is called Raphael, which means God’s healing. Raphael is the healer of illness and the helper in sorrow. He is mentioned in the Book of Tobit, which describes how this archangel accompanied Tobit’s son Tobias in the guise of a man and freed him from an evil spirit, gave back sight to the old and blind Tobit, and then disappeared after giving the latter various useful advice. This archangel is often depicted with a medicinal vessel in his hand, in the manner of the Great-martyr and healer Panteleimon. He is the one whom all who suffer spiritually and mentally should call upon, fortifying their prayer with deeds of mercy and charity. The name of the fourth archangel is Uriel, which means the light or fire of God. Uriel is depicted with a sword raised upward and held in the right hand at the breast, and with fire in his left hand, turned downward. As the angel of light, Uriel primarily enlightens the minds of men with the revelation of truths in general and divine truths in particular. As the angel of divine fire, he enflames the hearts of those who appeal to him with love of God, and destroys within them all that is unclean, worldly, and sinful. For this reason he is regarded as the protector of all who work at spreading the true faith of Christ, i.e. missionaries, as well as people who have dedicated themselves to pure science. He is the true source of many great scientific discoveries. Those discoveries, of which the discoverers them-selves say that they often made them unexpectedly, by inspiration from above. Writers and poets should pray to Archangel Uriel to inspire them, if they wish to be writers and poets by the grace of God. But the archangel should not be asked to reveal the mysteries of nature, which surpass our mind and our human needs, or the prophecies of future events. Let us hear how Uriel replied to Esdras, a righteous man, but one over-whelmed with excessive curiosity. Esdras wished to learn from the angel the secret of the fate planned for the earth by God, and the reason for the seeming victory of evil in the world. The archangel agreed to reply, but demanded that Esdras first fulfill one of the following three tasks: either weigh the flame of fire, or indicate the beginning of wind, or return the past day. When Esdras said that he was unable to do any of this, the wise archangel replied to him thusly: “If I were to ask thee, how many dwellings there are in the midst of the sea, or how many springs in the beginning of the deep, or what boundaries hath paradise, thou wouldst perhaps say unto me: I never went down into the deep, nor as yet into hell, neither did I ever climb up into heaven. Nevertheless, now I have asked thee but only of the fire, and wind, and the day which thou hast passed through, that is, of things from which thou canst not be separated, and yet canst thou give me no answer of them.” And the angel said to Esdras: “Thine own things, and such as are grown up with thee, canst thou not know; how should thou then be able to comprehend the way of the Highest, and, the world being now outwardly corrupted, to understand the corruption that is evident in my sight?” (3 Esdras 4:7-11). It would not be amiss for modern scientists to heed the archangel’s wise advice and to remember that men of knowledge should primarily be the servitors of the light of truth. The fifth archangel is called Salaphiel, which means the communicant of God. He is also mentioned in the same book of Esdras. He is depicted in a prayer-ful pose, with arms folded at the breast and with lowered eyes. Whoever has a hard time praying should ask Archangel Salaphiel to instruct him in proper prayer. How many of us can say that they are able to pray attentively, without distraction, and if not fervently, then at least warmly? And how many people do not know that there is a celestial teacher of prayer, and do not call upon the Archangel Salaphiel for help. The name of the sixth archangel is Jegudiel, which means the glory or laudation of God. In his right hand he holds a golden crown, and in his left – a whip made of three thongs. His duty is to guard, advise and defend, together with a host of subordinate angels, in the name of the Holy Trinity and by the power of the Cross, all those who work for the glory of God in various responsible domains of human endeavor, to reward the good laborers and punish the bad. This great celestial denizen should be appealed to with prayer by kings, military and civil leaders, judges, heads of households, etc. Finally, the last of the sacred group of seven supreme angels – last in order, but not in dignity – is Archangel Barachiel, the angel of God’s blessings, as denoted by his name and by his image on icons. He is depicted with a multitude of rose flowers scattered throughout his raiment. Since God’s blessings are varied, so is the service of this archangel quite multifaceted. He is also the supreme leader of all guardian angels, because through him are sent the blessings of a good family life, of seasonable weather and the abundance of the fruits of the earth, of success in trade and all worldly affairs in general, i.e. all the things in which guardian angels provide assistance to people. The Book of Esdras also mentions the name of Archangel Jeremiel, which means the supremacy of God, but the Church believes that this is simply another name for Archangel Uriel. How Angels Live Little is known to man of how the angelic world lives at present and how it will live when time ends. However, from all that we have said previously, we can already see that the life of the bodiless spirits is quite varied and that their activity is great. If the Mighty Lord saw fit to create an entire hierarchy of angels, entrusting each rank with a certain kind of activity, this in itself shows how busy these ministering spirits are. The guardian angels alone have a great deal of work to do with their prot?g?s – the frivolous and sinful humans. We have many testimonies in the writings of the Holy Fathers of how guardian angels often bitterly weep when they look at the sinful behavior of those whom they have been sent to watch. However, the celestial world is primarily a world of light and joy, and there is undoubtedly much more joy than sadness in the life of the angels. And their supreme joy consists in contemplating and glorifying the brightly-shining Triune Divinity, in constant attendance upon God. If on earth the Divine liturgy is a previous gift from God to sinful humanity, a gift through which it is sanctified and becomes part of Divinity, then one can piously believe that neither did the Lord deprive the bodiless powers of this great gift. We can presume that in the high heavens the angelic host also serves a spiritual Divine liturgy, in which the Lamb of God is pre-eternally sacrificed out of love for His creation. At this supreme heavenly Eucharist the angels primarily give glory and thanks to the Creator. But the innumerable choirs of heavenly forces also pour forth their prayers. For whom? Obviously not for themselves, since they are living in the fullness of all the bounties that are accessible to them, but for their beloved mankind, which is adulterous and sinful, mired in worldly vanity, and so needful of celestial aid. The constant participation of the angels in our earthly services, especially the liturgy, serves as a pledge of this. “Now the powers of heaven invisibly do serve with us,” clairvoyantly confirms the Church at the mysterious liturgy of Presanctified Gifts, while in the daily liturgy of St. John Chrysostome the serving priest, as though mentally seeing the angels, proclaims that they sing, exclaim, shout, and say: “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of hosts…” The Church boldly confirms that “The angels in heaven, O Christ our Saviour, sing Thy Resurrection…” There is a multitude of such testimonies, and they are well-known to all Christian believers. It only remains to speak of the activity of the heavenly forces on earth. It is the guardian angels who are primarily engaged in such activity. The Guardian Angels Christ Himself assures us of their existence by saying: “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones (children); for I say unto you that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of My Father which is in heaven” (Matt. 18:10). There are two opinions in the Church: some Holy Fathers believe that a guardian angel is assigned to each person at his conception, while others feel that only the newly-baptized receive a guardian angel. These two opinions are reconciled in the following manner: a guardian angel is assigned by God to each individual at his conception, but begins to watch over him only after his baptism. This is confirmed by various texts in the Holy Scriptures and church services. Speaking about guardian angels, let us first of all point out that according to the Scriptures they are assigned not only to individuals, but to entire nations or churches. We have already mentioned that the Archangel Michael was initially the guardian angel of the Hebrew people, but after the latter’s loss of their status as the chosen people he became, according to Church belief, the guardian angel of the Christian Church. The same Prophet Daniel, who was the first to call Archangel Michael the great prince of the Jews, talks also about the heavenly princes of the Persian and the Greek peoples. If these pagan peoples were able to have guardian angels as their “princes,” then it can be reasonably assumed that other, especially Christian, peoples have not been deprived of such grace. In the Revelation of St. John the Theologian there is numerous mention of the angels of the seven Churches (Rev. 1:20) as the Lord addresses each of these angels in turn: “To the angel of the Ephesian Church write that… And to the angel of the Smyrnian Church write that…”, etc. From which rank of the heavenly hierarchy are the guardian angels chosen? It is natural to assume that it is from the lowest rank of plain angels. However, are not all the bodiless powers called ministering spirits? We already know that even the commanders of the angelic host, Michael and Gabriel, were sent into the world to serve, while Michael guards the Holy Church even to this day. Therefore, it would not be wrong to piously believe that the guardianship of individual Orthodox Churches and peoples has been entrusted by the Lord to angels from higher levels of the celestial hierarchy. But let us talk about the guardian angels of us, plain Christians. The Church prays daily: “For an angel of peace, a faithful guide, a guardian of our souls and bodies, let us beseech the Lord.” How should this prayer be understood, when each one of us already has his or her guardian angel, at least from the day of baptism? Our misfortune is that through our sins and evil actions we often chase away our guardian angel. It is for this reason that we must constantly entreat the Lord to return him to us. We should firmly bear in mind that our guardian angel is our best and truest friend. Therefore, it is very important to mentally converse with him and take his advice as frequently as possible. Whoever does this knows from experience that frequently, after an ardent prayer to one’s angel, a bright and excellent idea suddenly comes to one’s mind, or a doubt is successfully resolved. That is the guardian angel’s answer. It is well to pray to one’s angel in times of sorrow, mental anguish, and even business failures, for our angel is “peaceful,” and he will help restore peace to our troubled souls. If we learn to constantly feel the presence of our celestial friend, then it will become awkward for us to engage in sin. Yes, we must, we really must learn to love our guardian angel. He not only guards and cherishes us in this earthly life, but also takes up our soul immediately upon our death, protects it from the demons, takes it through the terrible heavenly tolls, and carries it up to God for the first and second presentation. Our guardian angel will also intercede for us at the Last Judgment. The Church confirms this in its canon to the guardian angel: “When my humble soul is unharnessed from my body, may thy bright and most-holy wings enfold it, O my preceptor…” “When the thrones are set up, and the books are opened, and the Ancient in days takes His place to judge men… then show upon me thy love of mankind, and entreat Christ to deliver me from gehenna…” Let us look at just a few of the numerous examples taken from life of the help provided to mankind by the guardian angels. Each one of us can complement these examples by events taken from our own lives or the lives of our family members and friends: - Apostle Peter was miraculously delivered from prison by an angel. - St. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna and a disciple of St. John the Theologian, was miraculously saved from death by his guardian angel. During one of his travels, St. Polycarp and his deacon stopped for the night at a wayside inn. At midnight his guardian angel appeared to him and said: “Polycarp, get up and quickly leave this inn, for it will fall down.” The vision and the warning occurred thrice. And as soon as St. Polycarp went out of the inn, it straightaway fell down. - When St. Cyril of Belozersk was building his monastery, all his neighbors were amazed at the success of his venture and thought him to be a rich man. Because of this rumor, a certain avaricious landowner gathered his servants and went at night to rob St. Cyril and the monastery. However, when they approached the gates, the evildoers saw a great multitude of warriors walking around the monastery with unsheathed swords. The robbers waited until morning, hoping that the warriors would fall asleep, but they waited in vain and returned home empty-handed. On the second night they came again and noticed the presence of even more warriors, and again they returned home without success. When morning came, the landowner sent a servant to the monastery to find out what kind of regiment was standing at the monastery and how long it would be there. The servant came back and reported to his master that for a whole week there had not even been any pilgrims at the monastery, let alone troops. The landowner then realized that the monastery was being guarded by God’s angels and repented of his evil intent. - There were once two monks living in the Kievan Caves Lavra – the priest Titus and the deacon Evagrius. For several years they lived in such perfect amity that the other brothers were amazed at their unanimity. But the envious enemy of mankind succeeded in planting hostility and hate between them to such an extent that they could not even look at each other without extreme annoyance. All the brothers’ attempts to reconcile the two were in vain. Soon afterwards the priest Titus became ill. He began weeping over his sin and sent for his enemy Evagrius to ask his forgiveness, but Evagrius did not even wish to listen and began cursing the other monk terribly. The brothers dragged him over by force to Titus’ deathbed. Titus managed to get up and fell to his knees before Evagrius, tearfully begging him for forgiveness, but the inhumane Evagrius cried out: “I do not wish to make peace with you, neither in this life nor the next.” Upon saying these words Evagrius immediately fell dead. At the same time, the priest Titus arose from his bed completely recovered and said: “During my illness I saw angels who had moved away from me and were weeping, and evil spirits who were rejoicing over my perdition. When Evagrius began to curse me, I saw a terrifying angel strike him with a flaming spear, which is why the wretched one fell dead; this same angel gave me his hand and helped me recover from my illness…” - From the life of St. Seraphim of Sarov we know that when he was 6-7 years old, he fell down from the top of a belfry under construction in the city of Kursk, i.e. from a height roughly equivalent to the 5th or 6th floor of a modern apartment building, and remained completely unharmed. The saint himself testified that he was saved by his guardian angels. From all that has been said here about the angels, we can divine the mutual involvement of the two worlds – the angelic and the human – and their diunity. As the second creation possessing not only a soul, but also a body created in the image and likeness of God, elevated by Christ to the throne of God, and which had produced from its depths the One Who is more honorable than the cherubim and beyond compare more glorious than the seraphim, humanity is currently the crown of creation. It does not exist to serve the angelic world, and yet it can be said that the angelic world had been partially created to serve mankind. To Christian believers this concept brings not only joy, but also the realization of their great responsibility before God. And how wonderful and comforting is the thought that in the angels we have loyal friends, preceptors, helpers, and guardians of our souls and bodies. O holy archangels and angels, pray to God for us sinners! Amen. Arch
during the same open- and closed-loop blocks. During open-loop blocks, after each trial ending at the home target, the robot hand would close for 2 s. During this time, the participant was instructed to imagine that they were closing their own hand. State decoder calibration was similar during closed-loop calibration blocks: after each home target trial, the hand moved to the home target if the participant had not already moved it there, and an auditory cue instructed the participant to imagine closing their own hand. In closed-loop grasp calibration blocks using the DLR arm, the robot hand would only close if the state decoder successfully detected a grasp intention from the participant’s neural activity. In closed-loop calibration blocks using the DEKA arm, the hand always closed during grasp calibration irrespective of the decoded grasp state. Sequential activation of DLR robot hand actions during the drinking task In the drinking task, when participant S3 activated a grasp state, one of four different hand/arm actions were activated, depending upon the phase of the task and the position of the hand: (1) close the hand around the bottle and raise it off the table; (2) stop arm movement and pronate the wrist to orient the bottle towards the participant; (3) supinate the wrist back to its original position and re-enable arm movement; or (4) lower the bottle to the table and withdraw the hand. Tracking baseline firing rates Endpoint velocity and grasp state were decoded based on the deviation of each unit’s neural activity from its baseline rate; thus, errors in estimating the baseline rate itself may create a bias in the decoded velocity or grasp state. To reduce such biases despite potential drifts in baseline rates over time, the baseline rates were re-estimated after every block using the previous block’s data. During filter calibration, in which the participant was instructed to move the endpoint of the hand directly towards the target, we determined the baseline rate of a channel by modelling neural activity as a linear function of the intended movement direction plus the baseline rate. Specifically, the following equation was fitted: z = baseline + Hd, where is the threshold crossing rate, is the channel’s preferred direction and d is the intended movement direction. As described above for the filter calibration, only data during the initial portion of the trial, from 0.2 to 3.2 s after trial start, were used to fit the model. Only the last block’s data were used to estimate each unit’s baseline rate for use during decoding in the following block (unless the last block was aborted for a technical reason, in which case the baseline rates were taken from the last full block). This method for baseline rate tracking was not used for S3’s drinking demonstration or for the blocks in which the participant was instructed to reach and grasp the targets because it could no longer be assumed that the participant was intending to move the endpoint of the hand directly towards the target (Fig. 1d). For these blocks, the mean threshold crossing rate of each unit across the entire block was used as a proxy for its baseline rate. Mean rates did not differ substantially from baseline rates calculated from the same block (data not shown). Hand velocity and grasp filters During closed-loop blocks, the endpoint velocity of the robot arm and the state of the hand were controlled in parallel by decoded neural activity, and were updated every 100 ms for S3, and every 20 ms for T2. The desired endpoint velocity was decoded using a Kalman filter7,8,12,36. The Kalman filter requires four sets of parameters, two of which were calculated based on the mean-subtracted (and for T2, smoothed with a 0.3 s exponential filter) threshold crossing rate,, and the intended direction, d, whereas the other two parameters were hard coded. The first parameter was the directional tuning, H, calculated as. The second parameter, Q, was the error covariance matrix in linearly reconstructing the neural activity,. The two hard-coded parameters were the state transition matrix A, which predicts the intended direction given the previous estimate d(t) = Ad(t − 1), and the error in this model, These values were set to A = 0.965I for both S3 and T2, and W = 0.03I for S3 and W = 0.012I for T2, where I is the identity matrix (W was set to a lower value for T2 to achieve a similar endpoint ‘inertia’ as for S3 despite the smaller bin size used for T2). From past experience, it was found that fitting these two parameters from the perfectly smoothed open-loop kinematics data produced too much inertia in the commanded movement to control the robot arm properly, though this may have been a function of the relative paucity of signals rather than a suboptimal component of the decoding algorithm. To select channels to be included in the filter, we first defined a ‘modulation index’ as the magnitude of a unit’s modelled preferred direction vector (that is, the amplitude of its cosine fit from baseline to peak rate), in hertz. When unit vectors are used for the intended movement direction in the filter calibration regression, this is equivalent to, where H i is the row of the tuning model matrix H that corresponds to channel i. We further defined a ‘normalized modulation index’ as the modulation index normalized by the standard deviation of the residuals of the unit’s cosine fit. Thus, a unit with no directional tuning would have normalized modulation index of 0, a unit whose directional modulation is equal to the standard deviation of its residuals would have a normalized modulation index of 1, and a unit whose directional modulation is larger than the standard deviation of its residuals would have a normalized modulation index greater than 1. We included all channels with baseline rates below 100 Hz and with normalized modulation indices above 0.1 for S3 and 0.05 for T2. For T2, we included a maximum of 50 channels; channels with the lowest normalized modulation indices were excluded if this limit was exceeded. Across the six sessions, the number of channels included in the Kalman filter ranged from 13 to 50 (see Supplementary Table 1 and Supplementary Fig. 8). The state decoder used for hand grasp was built using similar methods, as previously described8. Briefly, threshold crossings were summed over the previous 300 ms, and linear discriminant analysis was used to separate threshold crossing counts arising when the participant was intending to close the hand from times that they were imagining moving the arm. For the state decoder, we used all channels that were not turned off at the start of the session (see Setup in Methods) and whose baseline threshold crossing rates, calculated from the previous block, were between 0.5 and 100 Hz. Additionally for T2, we only included channels if the difference in mean rates during grasp versus move states divided by the firing rate standard deviation (the d′ score) was above 0.05. As for the Kalman filter, we included a maximum of 50 channels in the state decoder for T2; channels with the lowest d′ scores were excluded if this limit was exceeded. Across the six sessions, the number of channels included in the state decoder ranged from 16 to 50 (see Supplementary Table 1). Immediately after a grasp was decoded, the Kalman prior was reset to zero. For both robot systems, at the end of a trial, velocity commands were suspended and the arm was repositioned under computer control to the software-expected position of the current target, to prepare the arm to enable the collection of metrics for the next three-dimensional point-to-point reach. Additionally, during the DEKA sessions, three-dimensional velocity commands were suspended during grasps (which lasted 2 s). Bias correction For T2, a bias correction method was implemented to reduce biases in the decoded velocity caused by within-block non-stationarities in the neural signals. At each moment, the velocity bias was estimated by computing an exponentially weighted running mean (with a 30 s time constant) of all decoded velocities whose speeds exceeded a predefined threshold. The threshold was set to the 66th centile of the decoded speeds estimated during the most recent filter calibration, which was empirically found to be high enough to include movements caused by biases as well as ‘true’ high-velocity movements, but importantly, to exclude low-velocity movements generated in an effort to counteract any existing biases. This exponentially weighted running mean was subtracted from the decoded velocity signals to generate a bias-corrected velocity that commanded the endpoint of the DEKA arm.Sam Clovis on Thursday withdrew his nomination to serve as the U.S. Agriculture Department’s chief scientist. Clovis withdrew his nomination days after unsealed court documents revealed that his communications with other members of President Donald Trump’s campaign put him in proximity to the federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. In a letter to Trump dated Wednesday, Clovis claimed, “The political climate inside Washington has made it impossible for me to receive a balanced and fair consideration for this position.” Clovis said he did not want to “be a distraction or negative influence.” “I worked hard during the campaign and take some pride in the accomplishment of having you elevated to the Presidency,” Clovis wrote. Sam Clovis’s letter withdrawing from consideration for undersecretary post at US Agriculture Dept. pic.twitter.com/Rawsd1727y — Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) November 2, 2017 “We respect Mr. Clovis’ decision to withdraw his nomination,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement. Ironically, it was precisely the “hard” work Clovis claimed he did on Trump’s behalf during his 2016 campaign that put Clovis’ nomination in question to begin with. Clovis served as the supervisor to George Papadopoulos, a former adviser on Trump’s campaign. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty earlier in October to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian nationals. According to court documents unsealed on Monday, Papadopoulos kept other members of Trump’s campaign updated on those communications. In several messages, Clovis told Papadopoulos he’d done “great work” with his initial outreach to Russians who wanted to set up a meeting, and Clovis said he “would encourage” Papadopoulos to set one up “off the record.” NBC News reported Tuesday that special counsel Robert Mueller’s team questioned Clovis, and that Clovis testified before the investigating grand jury in the Russia probe. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday said she was “not aware of any change that would be necessary” with regard to Clovis’ nomination. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) on Wednesday said that Clovis’ scheduled testimony before the Senate Agriculture Committee, scheduled for next Thursday, could be pushed back. Grassley said it was “too early” to say whether he thought Clovis would face legal consequences, but said he is nevertheless still backing Clovis’ nomination. CNN first reported on Thursday morning, citing an unnamed White House source, that Clovis’ nomination could be yanked. Clovis, Trump’s pick to oversee the Department of Agriculture’s research section, is a non-scientist and open climate skeptic. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) in August cited Clovis’ “backwards” views in a statement calling on Trump to withdraw Clovis’ nomination. “He is a proud ‘skeptic’ of climate change and wildly unqualified for the position of USDA Chief Scientist,” the senators said. The Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing a letter from Clovis to Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), the top Democrat on the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, that Clovis repeatedly responded to questions about what science credentials he has as “None.” Clovis instead cited his teaching career (focused on homeland security, foreign policy and political science) and his experience running for office as proof that he is qualified to be the department’s top scientist. This post has been updated.Emotional funeral service for Hillsborough Deputy John Kotfila Jr. Copyright by WFLA - All rights reserved An emotional goodbye for fallen HCSO Deputy John Kotfila Jr. [ + - ] Video WFLA Web Staff - LUTZ, FL (WFLA) -- Friends, family and law enforcement officers paid their respects to Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office Deputy John Robert Kotfila Jr. on Friday. Kotfila, 30, was killed in a crash with a wrong-way driver on the Leroy Selmon Expressway last weekend. Copyright by WFLA - All rights reserved Hearse carrying Deputy Kotfila arrives at St. Timothy's Catholic Church in Lutz Friday morning. (WFLA) Copyright by WFLA - All rights reserved Hearse carrying Deputy Kotfila arrives at St. Timothy's Catholic Church in Lutz Friday morning. (WFLA) Funeral services were held Friday, March 18 at St. Timothy's Catholic Church, located at 17512 Lakeshore Road in Lutz. HCSO Honor Guard escorted Kotfila's body to the church Friday morning. HAPPENING NOW: HCSO Honor Guard preparing to escort Deputy John R. Kotfila, Jr. pic.twitter.com/OcwrHZl3yv - Larry McKinnon ⭐️ (@LarryMcHCSO) March 18, 2016 A woman who called 911 after seeing the wrong-way driver early Saturday morning, says Deputy Kotfila intentionally drove into the path of the vehicle to prevent the wrong-way driver from hitting her. The witness says Kotfila ended his life, to save hers. "This man put himself in front of us as a human shield. Absolutely. He definitely saw what was going on. When I take a step back and look at the way everything occurred, he absolutely was a human shield for us," said Sarah Geren. The Sheriff's Office says Kotfila is the fourth officer to have died in a vehicle crash in 2016 and the first officer fatality from the state of Florida. The legacy of HCSO Deputy Kotfila will live on as a founding member of the Safety Net Team, a program which helps find adults and children with special needs who have wandered away from home. "John made us better. He made this program better. He makes this sheriff's office better and he is going to be missed," said HCSO Sgt. Massaro. Anyone wishing to donate to the family of Deputy John R. Kotfila, Jr. may do so via the Lynn Sowers Memorial Foundation. Please notate "Deputy Kotfila" with your donation. The Lynn Sowers Memorial Foundation was created in memory of Deputy Lynn Sowers, following her tragic death in 1995. The Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization established to financially assist Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office employees who have suffered an unforeseen catastrophic event. To date, the Foundation has distributed over $1,000,000 to employees in need. Copyright by WFLA - All rights reserved Deputy John Kotfila Jr.(center) and his father Sergeant John Kotfila Sr.(left) with the Massachusetts State Police and his brother Michael Kotfila, then with the Plymouth Police Department, MA, in their respective law enforcement uniforms. Image HCSOAs Tony Gonzalez sulked beside his locker following Atlanta’s heartbreaking loss in the 2013 NFC Championship Game, we thought that was just about the worst way the future Hall of Famer’s career could have ended. But we were wrong. The worst way it could end would be in a state of apathy, not agony. And if the Falcons hold on to Gonzalez through the end of this season, that’s exactly what will happen, particularly now that Julio Jones has suffered a potentially season-ending injury. In March, Tony made the difficult decision to return to the Falcons and the NFL for one more year with the hope that he could finally win a Super Bowl. "It's now or never," he said. "This is it." But now that it’s abundantly clear Atlanta will not be hoisting the Lombardi Trophy any time soon, Thomas Dimitroff and the entire organization owe it to Gonzalez to trade him so he can have the opportunity to reach his ultimate goal. Watching Gonzalez depart is going to be painful no matter what, but he’s going to leave soon regardless of whether or not he finishes the year with Atlanta -- that's a fact. It’s worth it to accelerate that goodbye if it 1) puts Tony in a better spot, and 2) improves the Falcons’ in the long-term. Dealing Gonzalez to a contender is a win-win situation. One of the classiest, most well-respected men in the history of the game can get a legitimate crack at a championship, and the Falcons can gain valuable assets that will help them revive from the mess they find themselves in at the moment. It’s hard to speculate what kind of a return Atlanta could get for Gonzalez, but one has to imagine there are GMs out there willing to part with some decent draft picks to acquire No. 88. And given the number of holes the Falcons currently have on their roster, gathering as many selections as possible is in the team’s best interests. The Falcons probably won’t be entering "rebuild-mode" this spring, but they’re going to need to re-tool an abysmal defense and an unacceptably weak offensive line. And let’s not forget: Roddy White and Steven Jackson are getting up there in age. This offense isn’t going to have elite potential a whole lot longer in its current state. The draft is Dimitroff's wheelhouse, and making strong picks will be more important in 2014 than any other year the current regime has been around. Sending Gonzalez elsewhere will, ultimately, give Dimitroff more opportunities to patch the holes that currently plague Atlanta. * * * * * It’s been an absolute treat to watch the greatest tight end of all time dominate opposing defenses in an Atlanta jersey, and the Falcons should have no regrets about the investments they made in him. But down the road, none of us will care about a few highlight-reel catches he made during meaningless games in a lost season. That’s just the harsh reality we have to face. Moving on can be hard, but often times it is the right thing to do. I know a lot of people are going to disagree with me on this, and that’s OK. But if you take emotion out of the equation, you may realize dealing Gonzalez is more logical than holding onto him. A lot has to be done to get the Falcons back to contention, and this move would be a tremendous -- albeit an excruciating -- start. Dimitroff: Please, give Tony the chance he deserves to win a Super Bowl. And more importantly, put this team in the best position possible to succeed after this nightmare year comes to a close.Since we just had a beautiful new baby girl just last week, I thought it was a good time to write up how to introduce your dog to a new baby in the house. When the time comes to bring home your new baby, you will be excited and nervous all at the same time. One thing that may weigh heavily on your mind is how your dog may react. Will he be jealous and become aggressive to the infant? Will he be overly excited and accidentally injure the baby? How will you be able to control your dog and care care for a new child simultaneously? The answer is all in the preparation and control of introductions. Prepare Yourself & Your Dog In the weeks before you new baby’s arrival, you should prepare your dog with obedience training. Go beyond the simplicity of sit and stay, and work on boundary control and other needed commands. Your dog’s repertoire should consist of ‘drop it,’ ‘leave it,’ ‘go to bed/crate’ and ‘wait.’ This will help you keep your dog under control whenever you drop an item or food on the floor and to get him out of the way when you need to get from one point to another safely without stepping over him. Telling him to wait is another means of control, as you can stop him from running out an open door or any other impatience behavior he is doing at that moment. With all these controlling commands that the both of you should know, you will also need to prepare for the major schedule change. Just because a new human family member is coming home does not mean your dog’s needs get to be pushed to the back burner. On the contrary, in order to keep behavioral problems at bay his exercise and stimulation needs must be kept up as normal, or maybe even increased! Because of the major changes, your dog will be effected too, not just yourself. He can quickly become bored or frustrated if he cannot be taken on a walk to burn off his energy. The Smell Dogs smell good, I mean, real good. They can associate smells and make connections. Think of police drug dogs. They know the smell of they are to find and know what to do when they smell it. I hate to put babies and drugs in the same article but it kind of works the same way. When your baby is born, one of the first things the nurse will do is place a hat on your new arrival before they are even cleaned. you can have your husband or other family member take that hat (or a blanket) home a day or two before they baby comes home. Give the babies hat or blanket to your dog. When you do so, do it in a calm way. Talk to your dog and tell him “easy” in a calm voice. Don’t let your dog play with it. Take a couple minutes to get them settled down if needed. Let them sniff it, etc. Leave it with them when you leave the house. If your dog does chew on it, that is okay. The point is to introduce your babies smell to him. If you could bring home something else the next day, it is even better. Two days with your babies smell before they come home. If you can’t do this, that is okay as long as you get them something with the babies smell. A Calm Intro It is important to keep the initial introductions between your dog and baby as calm and controlled as possible. You will be able to really work on the wait command during this, so be sure to have a handful of very high value treats ready to go. Begin with your dog on leash, and everyone involved in a calm and positive mind set. Anyone who is nervous or anxious can bring out that energy into your dog, which can lead to a stressful introduction. It is a good idea to have someone go into the house first and let the dog outside to potty and get the initial excitement of welcoming you home out of the way. With your dog on leash, stay a few feet back from the baby. Let him sniff the air and listen to the sounds the baby makes. All of this is very new and strange to him, so he may be excited or scared. Whenever he calms down, which may take several minutes, give him a bite of the high value treat. You are taking some of his excitability away from the baby and onto the positive reinforcer. Whenever he is calm and totally under control, you can take a step or two towards the baby. Again, wait if he gets overly excited and reward him when he is calm. Continue with this regimen of rewarding only calm behavior until you are close enough to the baby that the dog can just barely not touch him or her. When he is completely calm and relaxed, his reward should let him sniff the baby. This is what he has worked so hard to do, after all. He can explore the baby, safely, for a few moments then should be asked to turn his attention towards you for a reward once again. For the best, safest results during this entire sequence your dog should be thoroughly exercised beforehand. A dog who has all of his energy out is actually more receptive to learning and will be more relaxed. This will set him up to succeed and the whole process may go much quicker than you expect! You should watch the interactions between you dog and baby at all times until you feel comfortable that everything is okay. Dogs may be a little too lovable with new babies as well. Our dog is very “into” our new daughter Paisley. He likes to go up and comfort her when he thinks she needs something. His way of comforting her is to lick her right in the face. Cute, but not something we want until she gets a little older. If you would like more tips, check out our follow up article called I’m Pregnant… How Do I Tell My Dog? How was your dog with a new baby in the house? Share in the comments below! Resources and Credits: lilsugar.com, ilovedogs.com, 2ndchance.infoJosh Sargent has burst onto the mainstream U.S. Soccer scene in recent weeks, leading the USA U-17 national team to World Cup qualification and then jumping up to the U-20s for the World Cup on that age level. He's been more than just a part of Tab Ramos's team–he's been a catalyst for it. With three goals in his first two games with the U-20s, Sargent has shown he belongs with the older age group and has validated Ramos's choice to call him in despite qualifying for the competition without him. He now has the chance to become the second U.S. men's player–joining Freddy Adu–to compete in the U-17 and U-20 World Cups in the same year. Naturally, there's a buzz building around the forward. So who is Josh Sargent? Here's more about the latest rising star in U.S. Soccer. HOMETOWN Sargent hails from outside St. Louis, from O'Fallon, Missouri. He played for the St. Louis Scott Gallagher Development Academy club, which helped produce the likes of U.S. internationals Taylor Twellman, Pat Noonan and Tim Ream, and he is the latest in a line of talent to emerge from the St. Louis area. U.S. YOUTH HISTORY According to U.S. Soccer, Sargent first played for the U.S. at a U-14 training camp four years ago, moved to the U-15 level from there and played for in the Nike International Friendlies in 2015 prior to joining the U-17 residency program. He scored 14 goals and has seven assists in 29 international games before helping the USA qualify for the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup this past April, where he scored five goals and had two assists. He scored twice against Mexico, including a highlight-reel effort. 👀 Josh Sargent is only 16, but he's already scoring golazos for the U.S. U-17s vs. Mexico. (🎥: @CONCACAF) pic.twitter.com/HCkxiFx5G0 — Planet Fútbol (@si_soccer) April 27, 2017 He trained with the U.S. U-20s in January and made enough of an imprint to warrant a call to the U-20 World Cup despite not being part of the qualification effort. PRO PROSPECTS According to Goal.com, Sporting Kansas City has his MLS homegrown rights, should he opt to stay in America when turning pro. That, however, seems unlikely, at least to start his career. Goal is also reporting that Sargent has a deal to sign with Werder Bremen when he turns 18 and is eligible to sign with a club abroad. Since last October, according to U.S. Soccer, he has trained with PSV Eindhoven and Schalke.MNT CHICAGO (Feb. 29, 2016) -- The Copa America Centenario Local Organizing Committee (LOC) announced today the start times to all 2016 Copa America Centenario matches, culminating in the Final on June 26 (8:00 p.m. ET) at MetLife Stadium, which will determine the champion of this once-in-a-lifetime event, honoring 100 years of the Copa America tournament and featuring some of the world's best teams and players. The full tournament match schedule, including kick off times, can be found HERE. The tournament will open on Friday, June 3, when host United States welcomes Colombia to Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, in Group A action. The inaugural match will kick off at 9:30 p.m. ET. Other notable group matches include a rematch of the 2015 Copa America final between Argentina and Chile in Group D on June 6 (10:00 p.m. ET) and a second continental finals rematch when Jamaica and Mexico clash on June 9 (10:00 p.m. ET) in a replay of the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup final. Early response from fans has been strong, and the local organizing committee encourages fans to purchase their Venue Passes early to ensure the best seats. Tickets to the Copa America Centenario are available by visiting CA2016.com. Fans have until Friday, March 4 at 11:59 p.m. local venue times to purchase Venue Passes and be eligible for the lottery to buy tickets to the Copa America Centenario Final. Buy your tickets now at CA2016.com Copa America Centenario tournament schedule Follow the tournament news at the event's official Twitter account and Facebook page Copa America Centenario will be televised around the world, and on the Univision Network and FOX family of networks in the United States. Full TV schedule is expected at a later date. This historic tournament will feature the top star players from North, South and Central America, as well as the Caribbean. Lionel Messi, Neymar Jr., Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez, David Luiz, James Rodriguez, Kaka, Michael Bradley, Clint Dempsey and many more are anticipated to take part.Commenting on everything has become "the overall theme of my life," says Joel McHale, whose show Community was just ordered for a 13-episode fourth season by NBC. Community follows the story of a group of community college students in Greendale, Colorado, and has found a fervidly loyal fan base over the course of its first three seasons with its topical meta-humor and fantastical, unconventional form. In addition to his NBC gig, McHale also hosts The Soup on E! Entertainment Television, which is a satirical offering of pop culture and television events that happen throughout the week. McHale's pitch-perfect, straight faced delivery and biting commentary have kept the show alive for seven seasons, and shows no sign of slowing down. Neither does McHale, who will also star in the upcoming film Ted, written and directed by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane. Joel McHale talks about how he jumps from one form of social commentary to the other, what audiences stand to gain from Hillbilly Handfishing, and why he enjoys being emasculated on television.A top state official is pushing back against the federal government's claim that Texas was among states whose election systems were targeted by Russian hackers ahead of the 2016 presidential election. "At no point were any election-related systems, software, or information compromised by malicious cyber actors," Texas Secretary of State Rolando Pablos wrote in a letter to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Thursday. Last week, the Department of Homeland Security said the election infrastructure of 21 states, including Texas, was targeted by Russian hackers. Being targeted does not mean that votes were changed but that a system was scanned. Shortly after the announcement, officials in California and Wisconsin said they'd received contradictory information from the department that suggested they'd been incorrectly included on that list. Pablos, in his letter, made a similar claim and asked the department to "correct its erroneous notification" that the state agency's website had been the target of malicious hackers. Pablos argued that federal officials had based their assessment on "incorrect information" and that an investigation by his office with the state's Department of Information Resources had found no such targeting. "In order to restore public confidence in the integrity of our elections systems, it is imperative for DHS to further clarify the information provided," the letter says. "Our office understands that you have provided similar clarification to election officials in Wisconsin and California. We respectfully request you provide the same clarification to the State of Texas." A Department of Homeland Security spokesman told Reuters Thursday that "additional information and clarity" had been provided to several states, and that the department stood by its assessment "that Internet-connected networks in 21 states were the target of Russian government cyber actors seeking vulnerabilities and access to U.S. election infrastructure." But Sam Taylor, a spokesman for the Texas Secretary of State, said Friday that the issue remained unsettled. “Our office is hoping to have a conversation with DHS in the coming days to receive additional clarification on this issue,” Taylor said. Last September, Pablos' predecessor denied a request by the Russian consul general in Houston to allow a Russian government official inside a Texas polling station on Election Day to study the U.S. election process. Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified the official who denied a 2016 request by a Russian official.“There’s a way in which a lot of the Supreme Court decisions have been ever narrowing what corruption means,” Tara Malloy, a staff lawyer at the Campaign Legal Center, told me. “And McDonnell is one further example of it.” The case narrowed what could be defined as an “official act” under federal corruption statutes—the quo of a quid pro quo, so to speak. Since McDonnell, it only applies to direct exercises of a government official’s power, like voting for legislation or signing an order. More seemingly mundane activities, like urging other officials to intervene in someone’s favor or setting up meetings for donors, do not qualify. Before the decision, federal prosecutors brought cases against Democrats and Republicans alike by arguing that “official act” applied to all sorts of actions taken by public officials. Former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, a Republican, was convicted in 2015 after taking more than $175,000 in luxury gifts, personal loans, and more from Johnnie Williams, a Virginia businessman who received favors from the governor. On appeal, McDonnell argued his actions were part of being an elected official and fell beyond what federal bribery laws could prohibit. The Supreme Court agreed. Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote the Court’s opinion, appeared to anticipate a public backlash. “There is no doubt that this case is distasteful; it may be worse than that,” he wrote. “But our concern is not with tawdry tales of Ferraris, Rolexes, and ball gowns. It is instead with the broader legal implications of the government’s boundless interpretation of the federal bribery statute.” All eight justices sided with McDonnell, with the ninth seat vacant after Antonin Scalia’s death in February. “The concern of the Court was that the prosecution not define ‘official act’—which is what the statute there required—too broadly,” Malloy said. “They thought that ‘official act,’ according to the prosecution, was basically anything a public official did by reason of their position or through the resources of their position. And the Court said, ‘No, no, no.’” At the same time, Roberts also took an exceedingly generous view of McDonnell’s activities. Where the Justice Department saw an elected official providing special perks for a lucrative donor, the chief justice saw the risk that “conscientious public officials” could be hauled in by prosecutorial zealots. “Officials might wonder whether they could respond to even the most commonplace requests for assistance, and citizens with legitimate concerns might shrink from participating in democratic discourse,” he mused, as if to suggest judges and juries would not be able to tell the difference. Randall Eliason, a George Washington University law professor and former federal prosecutor, described McDonnell to me as “a lawyerly opinion in the worst sense of the word.” By focusing on just one aspect of the statutory definition of “official act,” he said, the Court missed the broader issues with the relationship between McDonnell and an influential donor who showered him, and his wife, with lavish gifts. He offered a jarring hypothetical that illustrates how officials could leverage their power in a post-McDonnell world: Currently, I could set up a system where I’m a governor and I tell everybody who might want to meet with someone in my cabinet to make a pitch, or try to get a contract, or advocate for some program. I could say, “Okay, I’ll set up a meeting for you. The cost is $10,000.” And that just goes in my pocket. That’s not a campaign contribution; it’s not going to be reported to the public anywhere. That’s just going to be a gift for me, and I’ll set up the meeting. I’m not going to tell anybody what to do, I’m not going to tell them what to decide, I’ll just get you in the room. And if you don’t pay me, no meeting. Eliason and other legal observers had thought McDonnell could prevail in his appeal, but the scale of the ruling came as a surprise. “I mean, access is valuable, right?” Eliason told me. “And you can just pay for access as long as the official doesn’t actually agree to decide something for you, but can get you in the room with the other movers and shakers who are going to do it. Now that’s not considered corruption.”These Democrats aren't attending Trump's inauguration after he blasts Rep. John Lewis CLOSE Many performers have already turned down the opportunity to perform at the inauguration due to not supporting Trump and now Democratic leaders are following suit. USA TODAY NETWORK The number of lawmakers planning to skip the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump grew over the weekend after he criticized civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis. As many as a dozen House members had already said they wouldn’t attend the swearing-in Friday, but others joined them in a show of support for Lewis. After Lewis said in a Meet the Press interview that he believes Trump's election is illegitimate and he won't go to the inauguration, Trump tweeted Saturday morning that the Georgia Democrat should take better care of his “horrible” and “crime-infested” district and was “All talk, talk, talk - no action or results. Sad!” Hours later, lawmakers began saying they would bow out of the inaugural ceremony because of the insults. “I will NOT attend the inauguration,” Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., tweeted. “When you insult @repjohnlewis, you insult America.” Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., said that "after much thought," she also would stand with Lewis and not attend. "I stand with those who have fought for us and encourage future leaders to act with inclusion and respect," she tweeted. Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., said the decision for him was a personal one and “quite simple.” “Do I stand with Donald Trump, or do I stand with John Lewis? I am standing with John Lewis," he said in a statement. Lieu, whose office had previously told the online news site Mic he would be doing reserve duty the day of the inauguration, said he doesn’t dispute that Trump won the election, but he doesn’t want to “normalize” Trump’s behavior or the “disparaging and un-American statements he has made.” “Trump — who lost the popular vote — has made a series of racist, sexist and bigoted statements,” he said. “In addition, he has attacked Gold Star
�♦ For right-wing elites too, there’s a Great Chain of Being. At the very top are a few right-wing academics, the fellows at the well-funded think tanks, the writers at top conservative magazines, and especially the NeverTrumpers. That something might be said for the Republican nominee’s policies—for restrictive immigration laws, for better trade deals, for campaign-finance reform—is mostly ignored. More revealing, however, is what those at the top of the chain say about Trump supporters. For George Will, they were “invertebrates.” For Charles Murray and Kevin Williamson, the story is one of white working-class vice, of drug use, divorce, and unwed births. If the underclass wasn’t working, that was its fault. After looking at one town, National Review’s Williamson wrote, “the truth about these dysfunctional, downscale communities is that they deserve to die. Economically, they are negative assets. Morally, they are indefensible. … Donald Trump’s speeches make them feel good. So does OxyContin.” Had the likes of Williamson paid more attention to Trump’s message, they might have realized that he spoke to real middle-class concerns. Our immigration laws are a scandal and effect a wealth transfer from poor to rich native-born Americans. Our tax system has done the same, and our schools betray our students. The perfect Republican idiots looked at the evidence of income immobility in America and blamed it on the move to an information economy, as though the highly mobile countries to which the American Dream has fled—Denmark and Canada—are living in the Stone Age. They were foolish to ignore the voters and more foolish still because they failed to recognize that all the barriers to economic and social mobility, to the American Dream, were created by the left. It was the right’s issue, and they gave it away. Williamson reminds one of the unfeeling strain in contemporary conservatism. It’s something we’ve seen in Mitt Romney, Ted Cruz, Randians, and not a few libertarians. What Romney and Cruz communicated was a perfect fidelity to right-wing principles and an indifference to people. In 2011 Romney presented us with a 59-point plan and settled back as though he had just proven that he deserved the office. No one read any of it, however. What we heard instead was his notorious line about the 47 percent who are “takers,” a phrase that came out of the American Enterprise Institute and which doomed his presidential campaign. Nearly half of all Americans were spongers, Romney had said, and these presumably were the sort of people whom he liked to fire. By contrast, Obama told us he had our back. That was a bit of an exaggeration, as it turned out, but Romney lost what should have been an easy Republican win. Ted Cruz too approached the primaries as though politics were nothing more than ticking off a series of right-wing boxes. He had an extraordinarily efficient team of Washington advisors—but, graced with a face that seemed incapable of a human smile and given to embarrassing and showy displays of Evangelical piety, he was hard for most primary voters to take. His biography revealed an inner life that was not without its moments of warmth and self-deprecating humor, but none of that came across in the campaign. What Romney and Cruz had promised was growth, more growth, a greater GDP, but none of this much appealed to middle-class voters who thought that all of the growth would go to people at the top of the heap, asset-fund managers like Romney or lawyers like Cruz. Defending free trade, for example, Cruz said correctly that this would be great for American consumers. What he left out was how it would affect American producers, the working men and women whose jobs are lost when factories move to lower-cost nations abroad. That’s not to say that free trade is a net negative, but only that policies can’t be judged without taking into account their distributional effects on all segments of the people. ♦♦♦ In 1845, Benjamin Disraeli, then a society novelist (as well as a politician), shocked his readers when he announced that England was divided into two nations—the rich and the poor. We also are divided into two nations—the intellectuals and la populace, Big Brains versus Little Brains, with the wealth gains going to the former and the smallest of trickle-down kopecks to the latter. Romney and Cruz were obviously members of the Big Brain nation and that’s to their credit, but now we’ve seen a barrier descend between them and the lower classes, like the one described by Disraeli, two nations between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other’s habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets; who are formed by a different breeding, are fed by a different food, are ordered by different manners, and are not governed by the same laws. Our intellectuals—a word invented by the repellant and brilliant anti-Dreyfusard Maurice Barrès—live in a bubble, amongst their own kind. They’ll dress differently, eat very different food, laugh at different jokes, attend entirely different schools, and have wholly different leisure activities. They’re far more likely to be liberal than conservative, but whatever their politics they’ll recognize that they have much more in common with each other than with their ostensible political allies amongst the Little Brain populace. The sense of belonging to a particular class has given us a distinct literature, enjoyed only by the intellectuals. Amy Chua’s Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother gave away all their tricks to move their children up the Chain, and for this reason was greedily devoured by them. David Brooks’s Bobos in Paradise did the same for their manners and diversions. Earlier still was Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray’s The Bell Curve, which first described the rise of an intellectual class. But intellectuals read it with a guilty pleasure. “How horrible,” they thought, but hugged themselves in delight to find that they belonged to a special, aristocratic class. There have always been differences between the quick and the slow, but I rather think they mattered less in the past, or at least that we were less divided. In the public school I attended in Canada as a young child, an imbecilic, hydrocephalic boy was one day brought to class. He could not talk, but from the way he smiled he seemed to be very happy to join us. I imagine his parents felt the experience would be good for him, and that our teachers—Sisters of Charity—thought that the experience would be good for us. I’d like to report that the students befriended him, but we didn’t. We were six or seven years of age, and a little shy and formal. And worried, too, perhaps that we’d open ourselves to ridicule if we did so. No one mocked him, but then no one sought him out either. He lasted no more than a week amongst us, and I never knew his name or what happened to him, but since then not a year has passed when I’ve not recalled him. The Sisters of Charity had a special reverence for the Curé d’Ars, St. Jean-Marie Vianney, a French priest of the early 19th century. The Church has had a good many highly intelligent saints, but the Curé d’Ars wasn’t one of them. He was slow indeed, and scarcely able to master the Latin he needed to become a priest. He was, however, a profoundly holy person, and it was that combination of sanctity and slowness that commended him to the nuns. They gave us relics of his cassocks and encouraged us to share their love for his simple gifts. I mention these little stories to emphasize how deeply perverse they’ll seem to the modern reader (for all this happened many years ago). Worth today is measured on an IQ scale, not a holiness one. Indeed, the very idea of holiness will seem unintelligible to most people today, the idea that merit attaches to a life devoted to the service of God, quietly, humbly lived in a little village, without television screens to celebrate public displays of virtue. As for my hydrocephalic classmate, many will think it a shame he was not aborted. But then I would have missed the message about the sanctity of life, of all life. And he would have missed his life, which I expect had more moments of holiness than mine ever will. I remember his face, but count it a shame I never knew his name. I have another reason to mention these stories, for I want to distinguish the radical equality that the Sisters of Charity embraced from the divide between the makers and takers of Mitt Romney and the American Enterprise Institute, between Big and Little Brains. The divide is seen in where you live, the school you went to, the clothes you wear, and the food you eat. It’s also a question of religious belief, for most intellectuals on the right draw their inspiration not from the Judeo-Christian tradition but from abstract theories of natural rights that have little need of God. They revere Jefferson, but as Walter Berns once asked me, just what kind of a god is “Nature and Nature’s God” anyway? At most, He’s Descartes’s god, as seen by Pascal, where he appears in Act I of the drama to give the system a “little push” and then departs the scene. But if that’s all He is, why do we need Him? ♦♦♦ Romney was a bishop in the Mormon Church. Cruz was given to ostentatious displays of religious belief. Few politicians advertise their unbelief. But dig deeper and you’ll find that many right-wing intellectuals are atheists—the Randians, many libertarians, and some of the leading Straussians. We’ve known all this and had thought it didn’t matter. In part that’s because we’ve adopted the rule of etiquette which demands that religious matters are too private to be discussed (which is an excellent rule for dinner parties). We’ve also observed that our atheist friends adhere to a code of honor and morality at least as elevated as that of the loudmouthed believer. Conscious of our own sins, “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner” is the only prayer one should dare utter. I still think this, but now I begin to think that things are more complicated. However moral and generous the atheist might be, I suspect he’d have a hard time comprehending how I felt about my hydrocephalic schoolmate. I thought my poor classmate had presented me with a moral challenge (which I had failed), but I suspect that natural-rights theorists would think this mere sentimentality. And this I think is a failing on their part. By resting their political beliefs on abstract axioms of natural rights they have subscribed to theories of learned heartlessness; and it is a testament to their personal goodness that they’re better than their theories. One doesn’t learn empathy or kindness from John Locke. Perhaps it’s not something one learns at all. The natural lawyer says it’s written on one’s heart; the evolutionary biologist says it’s coded in our genes, which perhaps comes down to the same thing. But it’s not to be derived from abstract theories. At best it’s a philosopher’s premise, not his conclusion, as it was for Adam Smith in The Theory of Moral Sentiments. We might get it from our families, or be reminded of it by novelists such as Dickens, Hugo, or E.M. Forster. Mostly, however, we get it from religious education and belief. The libertarian’s free-market principles explain how we can build a society in which both others and I may flourish. What they don’t explain is why I should care about others. Our Judeo-Christian heritage tells me I should, but this has been overwritten by the secular doctrines of today. Even devout Christians will prefer to speak the language of natural law and natural rights, conceding to the secular left the principle that moral and political arguments can be framed only in terms that might appeal to people of other or no faiths. But in so doing they abandon the firmest and most encompassing foundations of our moral language. The natural lawyer, who is often an atheist, would have you think that the opposite of natural law is anarchy and nihilism. It’s not. It’s revealed law, the law given to Moses and preached by Christ. The natural-rights theorist can tell you what others owe him, but not what he owes to others save for the thinnest of duties: don’t harm others, don’t steal from them or defraud them. Does that sound like a complete moral code? Does that tell me anything about my duties to my hydrocephalic classmate? Morality within the limits of reason alone is the morality of an efficient insurance contract: I will help you because it is in my interest to do so, because I expect a return favor from you. It is the morality of pay-for-play, of Peter Schweizer’s Clinton Cash. It is the debased morality that Alexis de Tocqueville saw at the root of the self-help religion of 1830s Protestant America. But morality is not a means but an end in itself, and the goodness I should have shown to my hydrocephalic classmate was its own reward, if any reward there was. The last chapter of Job, if canonical, might nevertheless be regretted. Kant sought to prove the existence of God from the moral law. He had it backwards. We more readily can infer the moral law from the existence of God. What I learned from my religion is that we all have souls, that we’re all equal in the eyes of God, that the theologian’s Great Chain of Being was a wicked fiction and a betrayal of Christianity, that the lowest of lives is as precious as that of an Ivy League grad. With their egalitarian principles, that’s something the left claims to understand better than the right, and perhaps they do too. What the right had, in place of political egalitarianism, was religion. But what happens when the salt loses its savor, when religious lessons are no longer learned? What one is left with is what Tocqueville—himself a religious skeptic—called the hardest aristocracy that has appeared on earth. Ah yes, my atheist friends are generally more moral than I am. That’s a distressingly low bar, however. And even if they are privately charitable, we are permitted to wonder what might follow when mere sentiments are unmoored from a faith tradition. My friends are the inheritors of a religious, Western culture in which they live as illegal aliens, enjoying its harvest without planting the seed. A.J. Balfour, the most intelligent of British prime ministers, predicted all of the 20th century’s atrocities when he saw where this might lead: Their spiritual life is parasitic: it is sheltered by convictions which belong, not to them, but to the society of which they form a part; it is nourished by processes in which they take no share. And when those convictions decay, and those processes come to an end, the alien life which they have maintained can scarce be expected to outlast them. My atheist friends who themselves adhere to the highest codes of duty and honor might nevertheless want to consider how often they’ve observed antique republican virtue on display on college campuses or on television. What they’ve seen instead, for the most part, is the detritus of a culture that has lost its religious anchoring and with it any semblance of a moral culture. They have dispensed with God and for their sophistication ask to be accepted by the intellectuals of the left as fellow members of a privileged elite in our Great Chain of Being. But in abandoning the religious tradition of the West, in their contempt for the invertebrates, the OxyContin sniffers, the takers, they reveal the icicle lodged in the conservative heart. F.H. Buckley is a professor at Scalia Law School at George Mason University and the author of The Way Back: Restoring the Promise of America.Facebook has apologised for “mistakenly” banning the use of a temporary profile picture frame commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre. Facebook’s picture frame function allows users to change their profile photos in support of a cause. The frame in question carries messages calling for justice for Tiananmen protesters and an end to the “dictatorial regime” in China. ‘Belittlement’ Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union Chief Executive Fung Ka-keung, who made the frame, told HKFP that he submitted the item for review at around 5pm on Friday. He said he received a notification within 24 hours saying that his design was rejected, on the basis that it fails to meet the company’s terms and policies. Facebook said the frame “belittles, threatens or attacks a particular person, legal entity, nationality or group.” Fung then submitted on Saturday afternoon another frame showing a candle and the text “Don’t forget June 4,” hoping that Facebook would approve it. It was still under review at the time of publication. ‘Political decision’ Critics questioned whether Facebook’s decision was politically motivated. A day after the incident was reported in the news, the social media giant issued an apology. “We mistakenly rejected the said photo frame. We apologise for the incident and have notified the relevant user that the frame has been approved,” a spokesperson for Facebook told HKFP. But Fung said the response was inadequate. “Facebook should give an explanation, since it hasn’t approved another frame and is taking an unusually long period of time to review it,” he said. “I think if I only submitted one frame and it was not approved, it might be a technical problem or an issue with the art. But we have a frame that was originally rejected, and another that is still under review after a long time – it makes people suspect the decision might be political.” More than 1,000 people had switched their profile pictures using the approved frame by Monday evening, according to Fung. See also: Pro-democracy activists fly kites in Sai Kung to commemorate 1989 Tiananmen massacre Almost 28 years after Beijing’s violent crackdown on the student-led protests in Tiananmen Square, the incident remains a taboo in mainland China. The Chinese government censors books relating to the event and blocks online searches of relevant terms. Beijing has also never given an official death toll for the crackdown, though independent observers tallied more than 1,000 dead. Facebook has been blocked in China since 2009, but its CEO Mark Zuckerberg has indicated a desire to re-enter the country.Seven years ago today, the 2010 Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor in Wales ended (a day late due to weather) with the Europeans claiming a 14.5-13.5 victory over the U.S. A couple of days before those matches started, the 2010 Junior Ryder Cup was contested up north at Gleneagles in Scotland, which would also play host to the 2014 Ryder Cup. In the junior version of the biennial matches, the U.S. came away with a 13.5-10.5 victory. And it was a pretty star-studded U.S. team -- one that featured three current PGA Tour players, two of them major champions, in Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas and Ollie Schniederjans. On the final day, Spieth was a 3 and 1 winner in his singles match over Albert Eckhardt; Thomas defeated Mortiz Lampert, 4 and 2; and Schniederjans was defeated by Juhana Kukkonen, 2 and 1. Since those matches, Spieth, Thomas and Schniederjans have made out OK in the professional game. Less than five years after those 2010 matches, Spieth won both the Masters and U.S. Open in 2015. In 2017, he added the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale to his stout resume. In total, he has 11 PGA Tour wins with multiple-win seasons in 2015, 2016 and 2017. Spieth has also been a member of two Ryder Cup teams and was a huge factor in 2016 at Hazeltine in helping lead the Americans to their first win since 2008 at Valhalla. Thomas, meanwhile, has six PGA Tour victories -- five this season, including his first major at the PGA Championship and was the FedExCup Champion and the PGA's Player of the Year. Then there's Schniederjans. He waited until 2015 to turn professional and has since won the 2016 Air Capital Classic on the Web.com Tour and is now on the PGA Tour. A three-time NCAA All-American at Georgia Tech, Schniederjans is also a former No.1-ranked amateur golfer in the world. Isn't it amazing what these three have accomplished when just seven years ago, as 17 year olds, they were playing in the Junior Ryder Cup? They grow up so fast!From a bacteria’s perspective the environment is one big DNA waste yard. Researchers have now shown that bacteria can take up small as well as large pieces of old DNA from this scrapheap and include it in their own genome. This discovery may have major consequences – both in connection with resistance to antibiotics in hospitals and in our perception of the evolution of life itself. Our surroundings contain large amounts of strongly fragmented and damaged DNA, which is being degraded. Some of it may be thousands of years old. Laboratory experiments with microbes and various kinds of DNA have shown that bacteria take up very short and damaged DNA from the environment and passively integrate it in their own genome. Furthermore this mechanism has also been shown to work with a modern bacteria’s uptake of 43,000 years old mammoth DNA. The results are published now in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The discovery of this second-hand use of old or fragmented DNA may have major future consequences. Postdoc Søren Overballe-Petersen from the Centre for GeoGenetics at the Natural History Museum of Denmark is first author on the paper and he says about the findings: "It is well-known that bacteria can take up long intact pieces of DNA but so far the assumption has been that short DNA fragments were biologically inactive. Now we have shown that this assumption was wrong. As long as you have just a tiny amount of DNA left over there is a possibility that bacteria can re-use the DNA. One consequence of this is in hospitals that have persistent problems with antibiotic resistance. In some cases they will have to start considering how to eliminate DNA remnants. So far focus has been on killing living pathogen bacteria but this is no longer enough in the cases where other bacteria afterwards can use the DNA fragments which contain the antibiotic resistance." The research group’s results reveal that the large reservoir of fragments and damaged DNA in the surroundings preserve the potential to change the bacteria’s genomes even after thousands of years. This is the first time a process has been described which allows cells to acquire genetic sequences from a long gone past. We call this phenomenon Anachronistic Evolution – or Second-hand Evolution. Professor Eske Willerslev from the Centre for GeoGenetics at the Natural History Museum of Denmark is the leader of the project. He says: "That DNA from dead organisms drives the evolution of living cells is in contradiction with common belief of what drives the evolution of life itself." Furthermore old DNA is not limited to only returning microbes to earlier states. Damaged DNA can also create new combinations of already functional sequences. You can compare it to a bunch of bacteria which poke around a trash pile looking for fragments they can use. Occasionally they hit some ‘second-hand gold’, which they can use right away. At other times they run the risk of cutting themselves up. It goes both ways. This discovery has a number of consequences partially because there is a potential risk for people when pathogen bacteria or multi-resistant bacteria exchange small fragments of ‘dangerous’ DNA e.g. at hospitals, in biological waste and in waste water. In the grand perspective the bacteria’s uptake of short DNA represents a fundamental evolutionary process that only needs a growing cell consuming DNA pieces. A process that possibly is a kind of original type of gene-transfer or DNA-sharing between bacteria. The results show how genetic evolution can happen in jerks in small units. The meaning of this is great for our understanding of how microorganisms have exchanged genes through the history of life. The new results also support the theories about gene-transfer as a decisive factor in life’s early evolution. Søren Overballe-Petersen explains: "This is one of the most exciting perspectives of our discovery. Computer simulations have shown that even early bacteria on Earth had the ability to share DNA – but it was hard to see how it could happen. Now we suggest how the first bacteria exchanged DNA. It is not even a mechanism developed to this specific purpose but rather as a common process, which is a consequence of living and dying."The Story – Ultimate Comics Spider-Man Vol. 1 – 3 + Extras (Collection) (2000-2014) Ultimate Comics Spider-Man Vol. 1 – 3 + Extras (Collection) (2000-2014) : This files of Ultimate Spider-man consist of Version 1 – 3 Plus some extras, ranging from year 2000 – 2014! Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man was an ongoing monthly comic book series published by Marvel Comics that debuted in September 2011 as part of the second re-launch of the Ultimate Marvel imprint. It followed the “Death of Spider-Man” storyline that concluded the series Ultimate Spider-Man, to which Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man served as a sequel. The Free Marvel Comic Download Ultimate Comics Spider-Man Vol. 1 – 3 + Extras (Collection) (2000-2014) Language : English \| Year : 2000-2014 \| Size : 9.8 GB Ultimate Comics Spider-man v1-3 + Extras (on smaller parts) Screenshots : Notes :The reversible USB type-C connector is something that the industry has been waiting for since the introduction of the original USB bus in 1997. This year PCs, computer components and mobile devices finally started to incorporate USB-C receptacles, but not all implementations necessarily support all features introduced by the latest version of the USB specification. Apparently, there are nine possible implementations of USB-C ports with different functionality. The latest Universal Serial Bus 3.1 specification introduces the new reversible 24-pin type-C receptacle as well as a number of innovative features that greatly expand usage of the USB bus, but retain full compatibility with previous versions of the standard. Key improvements of the USB 3.1 and the USB type-C are higher performance, improved power delivery, universal connector and vendor-specific capabilities. The key idea behind the USB 3.1 type-C is to create one interconnection that does everything. The USB 3.1 not only increases physical data signaling rate to 10Gb/s, but it also changes its encoding scheme to 128b/132b (inherited from PCI Express 3.0), which greatly lowers line encoding overhead to 3 or 4 per cent. In theory, peak bandwidth of a perfect USB 3.1 implementation could be as high as 1.2GB – 1.25GB/s. In addition, the USB 3.1 supports USB power delivery 2.0 specification, which allows one cable to transfer up to 100W of power to a device. Finally, USB type-C and USB 3.1 allow IHVs [independent hardware vendors] to implement their own functional extensions via Alternate and Accessory Modes to differentiate their products. Unfortunately, far not all features are compulsory for implementation. As it turns out, the USB-C receptacle can be used with virtually any USB 2.0, USB 3.0, USB 3.1 or Thunderbolt 3 controller. This allows various vendors to build new devices without using of advanced, expensive and power hungry USB 3.1 controllers as well as appropriate power and signal management ICs. However, this means that different devices with the exact same connector will support different (480Mb/s, 5Gb/s or 10Gb/s) data-rates. Moreover, vendors may or may not add support for DisplayPort functionality via USB-C port, which means that select devices will feature display output, whereas others with the same port will not. Finally, some devices will support USB Power Delivery technology, whereas others will not. A good news is that the USB implementers forum has designed eight distinguished labels that describe capabilities of different USB-C ports. A bad news is that the presence of a USB 3.1 type-C connector does not automatically mean anything. At present the only implementation of the USB 3.1 type-C connector that fully supports all features of the standard can be built using Intel Corp.’s “Alpine Ridge” controller, which also supports the company’s 40Gb/s Thunderbolt 3 technology. Ironically, to support all the capabilities of the USB 3.1 spec, IHVs have to use a controller that supports competing Thunderbolt 3 interconnection bus. At present Gigabyte Technology is the only maker of mainboards, which uses Intel’s “Alpine Ridge” on its Intel Z170-based platforms and supports all the features that the USB 3.1 has to offer with Thunderbolt 3 on top of that. In addition to different kinds of USB type-C ports, there are different types of USB type-C cables, including USB 3.1 type-C to type-C cable assemblies with 15 wires inside as well as USB 2.0 type-C to type-C cables with 5 wires inside. A fully-fledged USB type-C cable is active, electronically marked cable, with an ID chip that contains vendor-defined messages (VDMs) from the USB Power Delivery 2.0 specification as well as other information necessary to support additional functionality. To make things even more complicated, there will be a host of legacy cable assemblies and adapters that will help to connect new devices to old systems as well as old devices to new systems. Over time, all implementations of the USB type-C receptacles will support 10Gb/s data-rates as well as power delivery capabilities. However, nowadays there is a clear mess with different USB-C versions. The only way to get a device with a USB 3.1 type-C port done right is to get a product that supports Intel’s Thunderbolt 3, the port that truly does it all. Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE. KitGuru Says: Different implementations of USB-C allow to build cheaper devices and make the new connector more widespread. However, such approach creates an incredible mess and confuses a lot of potential buyers and greatly devalues the USB 3.1 type-C technology in general.The assassination was the latest in a string of bloody murders of maverick rebel commanders in Ukraine's restive east, fuelling fears among senior separatist ranks of further purges. Rival factions are jostling for power as two opposing camps in the rebels' self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic (LNR) struggle to consolidate their rule. In exclusive interviews with VICE News, against a disturbing backdrop of Soviet-style paranoia, illegal detentions, torture and extrajudicial killings, rebel military chiefs and well-placed sources in the regime have spoken of their profound sense of unease — and their fears about who could be next. But Dryomov would never reach his destination. A bomb hidden in his vehicle was detonated as he approached the town's outer limits. The explosion killed him on the spot; his driver died on the way to hospital. On the morning of December 12, Dryomov and his driver left the all-night wedding party in Stakhanov to head northwest to the devastated frontline town of Pervomaisk. In a wintry corner of Ukraine's rebel heartland, the potholed highway carved through rolling, snow-covered steppe beneath a horizon stained by the occasional smokestack and a pair of industrial behemoths – a coke furnace and vast steel works. With frontline trenches invisible at this distance, any traveler would be forgiven for thinking that peace had finally returned to this swathe of Ukraine's eastern rustbelt. The rebel commander had been married for less than 24 hours before the car bomb exploded. Pavel Dryomov, one of the most prominent, pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, was celebrating his wedding in the rebel-held town of Stakhanov with his new wife and a colorful array of guests, including men drawn from the ranks of his own Cossack militia. A former bricklayer in his late 30s, the outspoken commander appeared to have finally made peace with his notional superiors in the rebel leadership; the nearby stretch of the front was relatively quiet and an upcoming Christmas truce promised to calm hostilities further. There seemed no better time for a celebration. Read more The rebel commander had been married for less than 24 hours before the car bomb exploded. Pavel Dryomov, one of the most prominent, pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, was celebrating his wedding in the rebel-held town of Stakhanov with his new wife and a colorful array of guests, including men drawn from the ranks of his own Cossack militia. A former bricklayer in his late 30s, the outspoken commander appeared to have finally made peace with his notional superiors in the rebel leadership; the nearby stretch of the front was relatively quiet and an upcoming Christmas truce promised to calm hostilities further. There seemed no better time for a celebration. On the morning of December 12, Dryomov and his driver left the all-night wedding party in Stakhanov to head northwest to the devastated frontline town of Pervomaisk. In a wintry corner of Ukraine's rebel heartland, the potholed highway carved through rolling, snow-covered steppe beneath a horizon stained by the occasional smokestack and a pair of industrial behemoths – a coke furnace and vast steel works. With frontline trenches invisible at this distance, any traveler would be forgiven for thinking that peace had finally returned to this swathe of Ukraine's eastern rustbelt. Related: The Priest, the Pianist, a Cat, and a DIY Sauna—One Week in Ukraine's Forgotten War But Dryomov would never reach his destination. A bomb hidden in his vehicle was detonated as he approached the town's outer limits. The explosion killed him on the spot; his driver died on the way to hospital. The assassination was the latest in a string of bloody murders of maverick rebel commanders in Ukraine's restive east, fuelling fears among senior separatist ranks of further purges. Rival factions are jostling for power as two opposing camps in the rebels' self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic (LNR) struggle to consolidate their rule. In exclusive interviews with VICE News, against a disturbing backdrop of Soviet-style paranoia, illegal detentions, torture and extrajudicial killings, rebel military chiefs and well-placed sources in the regime have spoken of their profound sense of unease — and their fears about who could be next. * * * In many ways, Dryomov's demise was a death foretold. It was no secret that the outspoken field commander loathed LNR's Moscow-anointed leadership. The Soviet idealist — some would say warlord — took regular swipes at his superiors and had envisioned building his own neo-socialist "Cossack" republic centered in the depressed mining town of Stakhanov. His units of Don Cossacks — a martial tribe whose medieval forebears fled serfdom to live as free men on the frontiers of imperial Russia — were among the most outspoken militias in their opposition against the LNR's ruling authorities. In a coarse, rambling video posted on YouTube last winter, Dryomov claimed to possess digital files which allegedly proved corrupt links between organized crime networks and Igor Plotnitsky, the LNR's authoritarian leader. He had gambled on the hope that the contents of this flashcard would serve him as collateral. If he were targeted, he warned, the information would be sent "to every computer server in the world." In the words of a high-level source in the SBU (Ukraine's security service): "Dryomov was neither a comfortable figure for Plotnitsky nor Russian security forces." However in recent months Dryomov's barbed criticisms had softened after he made peace with Plotnitsky, at least publicly. This truce had no doubt been prompted, in part, by a suspicious pattern of events. He was well aware of the fate of other independent rebel warlords who had refused to submit to LNR's central leadership. They now lay six feet under, permanently silenced. 'This is not the first murder in the LNR of commanders who have distinguished themselves by the independence of their views' There was Prapor, a pro-Russia, Cossack leader who was killed during an operation by the LNR authorities to disarm his independent militia. Alexander Bednov, a well-known field commander who went by the nom de guerre "Batman," died under suspicious circumstances on New Year's Day, 2015. That same month, Yevgeny Ishchenko — one of Dryomov's allies and the former "people's mayor" of Pervomaisk, the frontline town held by Cossack rebels — threatened to "turn his weapons in the opposite direction," a blatant declaration of his hostility to Plotnitsky's regime. A few weeks later, he was dead. Perhaps the most high-profile figure to be eliminated in this bloody process of streamlining was Aleksey Mozgovoy, the founder of the pro-Russia "Ghost Brigade." This ruthless commander, known for his love of poetry and distrust of Plotnitsky, showed a diehard devotion to the dream of building a pan-Slavic "Novorossiya" (a historical term, now denoting the loose confederation of rebel-held territory). He was building his own legend, his own fiefdom. And then, in May, he was dead. A roadside ambush of mines and machine-guns killed him, along with six others. "Ghost Brigade" founder Aleksey Mozgovoy was killed in a roadside ambush in May 2015. (Photo by Mstyslav Chernov/AP) Officially, the LNR authorities blamed subversive Ukrainian groups for the string of mysterious deaths. Privately, many here feel the enemy is closer to home. In the wake of Dryomov's murder, Plotnitsky reportedly outlawed all public meetings of the slain commander's Cossack militants. In an uncharacteristically provocative piece in December, Russia's official armed forces daily wrote: "Independent observers note this is not the first murder in the LNR of commanders who have distinguished themselves by the independence of their views." That same month, Alexander Zhuchkovsky, an influential, pro-separatist activist and blogger, alleged that responsibility lay even higher than the LNR. Senior separatists, he wrote, "cannot take that level of decision" — a thinly-veiled allegation of Moscow's involvement in Dryomov's death. Amid indications that the Kremlin is serious about de-escalation, rebel field commanders who resist any rapprochement with Ukraine are put out of commission. 'Plotnitsky is becoming paranoid.... I could
partner,” said Nick Sampson, senior vice president of Faraday Future. Faraday Future expects to bring its ﬁrst vehicle to market in 2017. In addition to producing vehicles, the company plans to explore other aspects of the automotive and technology industries, including unique ownership and usage models, in-vehicle content and autonomous driving. “With energy constraints, urban crowding, and the increasingly intrinsic relationship we have with technology, today’s cars simply do not meet today’s needs,” said Sampson. “Our range of 100% electric and intelligent vehicles will offer seamless connectivity to the outside world.”Still, addressing all of these lapses is possible, according to Joshua Stein, a real estate lawyer in New York. “If there are missing links in your chain of title, you go back to your transferor and get the documents you need,” he said in an interview last week. “If the transferor doesn’t exist any more, there are ways to deal with it, though it’s not necessarily easy or cheap. Ultimately, you can go to the judge in the foreclosure action and say: ‘I think I bought this loan but there is one thing missing. Look at the evidence — you should overlook this gap because I am the rightful owner.’ ” Such an unwieldy process will make it more expensive for banks to overhaul their loan servicing operations to address myriad concerns from judges and regulators, but analysts say it can be done. ON the other hand, resolving paperwork woes in the world of mortgage-backed securities may be trickier. Experts say that any parties involved in the creation, sale and oversight of the trusts holding the securities may be held responsible for any failings — and if the rules weren’t followed, investors may be able to sue the sponsors to recover their original investments. Mind you, the market for mortgage-backed securities is huge — some $1.4 trillion of private-label residential mortgage securities were outstanding at the end of June, according to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. Certainly no one believes that all of these securities have documentation flaws. But if even a small fraction do, that would still amount to a lot of cabbage. Big investors are already rattling the cage on the issue of inadequate loan documentation. Last week, investors in mortgage securities issued by Countrywide, including the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, sent a letter to Bank of America (which took over Countrywide in 2008) demanding that the bank buy back billions of dollars worth of mortgages that were bundled into the securities. The investors contend that the bank did not sufficiently vet documents relating to loans in these pools. The letter stated, for example, that Bank of America failed to demand that entities selling loans into the pool “cure deficiencies in mortgage records when deficient loan files and lien records are discovered.” Bank of America has rejected the investors’ argument and said that it would fight their demand to buy back loans. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Mortgage securities, like other instruments that have generated large losses for investors during the crisis, have extremely complex structures. Technically known as Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduits, or Remics, these instruments provide investors with favorable tax treatment on the income generated by the loans. 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. When investors — like the New York Fed — contend that strict rules governing these structures aren’t met, they can try to force a company like Bank of America to buy them back. Which brings us back to the sloppy paperwork that lawyers for delinquent borrowers have uncovered: some of the dubious documentation may undermine the security into which the loans were bundled. For example, the common practice of transferring a promissory note underlying a property to a trust without identifying it, known as an assignment in blank, may run afoul of rules governing the structure of the security. “The danger here is that the note would not be considered a qualified mortgage,” said Robert Willens, an authority on tax law, “an obligation which is principally secured by an interest in real property and which is transferred to the Remic on the start-up day.” If, within three months, substantially all the assets of the entity do not consist of qualified mortgages and permitted investments, “the entity would not constitute,” he said. If such failures increase taxes for investors in the trusts, Mr. Willens said, the courts will have to adjudicate the inevitable conflicts that arise. What if a loan originator failed to provide documentation substantiating that what’s known as a “true sale” actually occurred when mortgages were transferred into trusts — documentation that is supposed to be provided no longer than 90 days after a trust is closed? Well, in that situation, a true sale may not have legally happened, and that doesn’t appear to be a problem that can be smoothed over by revisiting and revamping the paperwork. “The issue of bad assignment has many implications,” said Christopher Whalen, editor of the Institutional Risk Analyst. “It does question whether the investor is secured by collateral.” In other words, were the loans legally transferred into the trust, and, if not, do the trusts lack collateral for investors to claim? Advertisement Continue reading the main story For example, according to a court filing last year by the Florida Bankers Association, it was routine practice among its members to destroy the original note underlying a property when it was converted to an electronic file. This was done “to avoid confusion,” the association said. But because most securitizations state that a complete loan file must contain the original note, some trust experts wonder whether an electronic image would satisfy that requirement. All of this suggests that while a paperwork cure may eventually exist for foreclosures, higher hurdles exist when it comes to remedying flaws in mortgage-backed securities. The only way to wrestle with the latter, some analysts say, is in a courtroom. “The whole essence of this crisis is fraud and unless we restore the rule of law and transparency of disclosure, we are not going to fix this,” said Laurence J. Kotlikoff, an economics professor at Boston University.Law enforcement officials in Florida on Wednesday issued an Amber Alert for two young boys who they said had been abducted by “anti-government” parents. The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said that 35-year-old Joshua Hakken tied up Patricia Hauser, the maternal grandmother of 4-year-old Cole Hakken and 2-year-old Chase Hakken, at around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday morning. Joshua Hakken took the boys and fled along with his wife, 34-year-old Sharyn Hakken, in Hauser’s 2009 silver Toyota Camry. They are suspected to be traveling in a 2006, black GMC Sierra with Florida tag number U95KT. The truck may also have been pulling a 2012 Forrest River pop-up camper. “Both suspects are anti-government and have attempted a previous abduction at gunpoint in Louisiana,” a statement from the sheriff’s office warned. “Both subjects are considered armed and dangerous.” Information about who had legal custody of the children was not immediately available. The Tampa Tribune reported that Joshua Hakken had been arrested in June 2012 on various drug charges, including “possession of a controlled dangerous substance in the presence of a minor.” Authorities are urging anyone with information to call the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office at 813-247-8200 or dial 9-1-1. Watch this video from WTSP, broadcast April 3, 2013.Recently, CEOs of the major fast food restaurants were challenged to eat from their respective kids’ menu for a week. The point being whether these industry leaders were willing to eat from a menu that served questionable food to children. Interesting proposition, but I believe there is a much more important discussion that needs to take place a little closer to home. It’s all too easy to pin the ills of society on big, bad capitalists. Surely someone is to blame for growing waistlines and failing health! Shouldn’t the first and final line of defence rest within ourselves? Unless there are regulations being breached, a burger joint can’t be held liable for the parenting decisions of a blame-happy generation. Advertisement 00 : 00 Seriously, does anyone really think chicken nuggets and fries qualify as a balanced, healthy meal? We don’t blame car manufacturers, Netflix and escalators for contributing to the ills of sedentary living. Somehow, fast food seems to have taken the hit. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not defending an industry that knowingly produces a product that diminishes the health of its regular customers. But shouldn’t government oversight bodies also bear some of the load? After all, despite questionable nutrition practices, fast food is simply working within “acceptable” parameters as set out by the powers that be. More importantly, personal responsibility has to factor into this somewhere. After all, Chubby’s Burger Emporium isn’t forcing you to eat there. Stepping off my soapbox for a moment, its important to note that I’m not necessarily preaching abstinence, even though it’s the healthiest position to take. I’m merely suggesting a planned and conscious transition toward moderation — although many people need to take a hard look at their definition of moderation. Let’s be honest, the occasional burger tastes great. The burger, fries and chocolate shake I ordered at the Cancun airport earlier this year still rate high on my “favourites” list. After all, this stuff is engineered to fire the happy receptors in your brain. Is it healthy? Gosh no, but they never made that claim. This was simply a planned blip in an otherwise healthy diet. Again, choices and moderation. Back on the box. Over time, feeding leftover spaghetti to your garburator results in clogged pipes and costly repairs. Believe me I know. Likewise, our bodies aren’t wired to function on highly processed food. Eating it daily or weekly is a recipe for a bypass. Despite the risks, we joke about food such as bacon, even though it’s a loaded gun. Not so funny when Doctor Serious tells you your heart health is equivalent to that of a 70-year-old. Tough message to hear when you are only 35. Well-known physician Dr. John MacDougall talks about his years working with largely indigenous populations in Hawaii. He found that older generations who followed mostly plant-based diets lived long, healthy lives. The two generations that followed, however, became sick as processed food and meat-based diets became the norm. Diseases mostly unheard of in grandparents such as gout, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer and obesity began to surface in children and grandchildren. It’s all too easy to blame the toy of the week for an exploding obesity epidemic. I would suggest, however, that a weak consumer constitution plays a much bigger role. They say you can’t put lipstick on a pig, but apparently you can. We know fast food is ugly (check out one of the hotdog-making videos on You Tube), but we seem to love eating congealed chemical goop. In the end, the biggest culprit in this health debacle is lifestyle. Sure, the food industry is an enabler, with regulatory bodies playing a passive, yet equal, role. Better nutrition standards would force fast food companies to fall in line, but ultimately the decision still rests with consumers. Should Mr. or Ms. CEO be obliged to eat at the kids’ table? No, they should be busy making proper health decisions for their own families — like the rest of us.Amazon posted another solid earnings report for the first quarter, beating analyst estimates with revenue of $35.7 billion and handily surpassing profit expectations with earnings per share of $1.48. The results mark the eighth quarter in a row that Amazon has posted a profit. Yes, the same Amazon that has long been maligned for its supposed inability to make money. A big reason for the profit streak is the growth of Amazon’s cloud-computing business, Amazon Web Services. The unit is way more profitable than Amazon’s core retail business — there are no physical products to buy, store and ship in AWS — and growing rapidly. While its growth is decelerating, its revenue still grew 43 percent year over year to $3.7 billion. That helps the bottom line a lot. But to know Jeff Bezos’s priorities is to know that he cares more about cash flow than net income. That’s because Amazon isn’t looking to sit on the money that flows through its coffers — it’s looking to spend it on investments like new warehouses, more Alexa-powered gadgets and original video programming that will create the next moats separating it from the competition over the next decade. And these numbers are moving in the direction Bezos likes to see. Amazon’s stock was up more than 3 percent in after-hours trading.The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Marysville, Ohio, where O.M. Scott began selling lawn seed in 1868. The company is considered an industry leader in the lawn and garden market, with regional offices and research facilities across the U.S. and businesses in Canada, Europe and Asia Pacific. In the U.S., the company's Scotts, Miracle-Gro and Ortho brands are market leading in their categories, as is the consumer Roundup brand, which is marketed in North America and most of Europe exclusively by Scotts. Outside of North America, the company's brands include Miracle-Gro, Evergreen, KB, Fertiligene, Celaflor and Substral. Overview [ edit ] The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company manufactures and provides do-it-yourself lawn, garden and home protection products in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. Among their offerings are consumer fertilizers, plant foods, soils and mulches, pest controls, grass seed and bird food. The company's principal consumer brands in North America are Scotts, Miracle-Gro, and Ortho. In addition, Scotts is Monsanto's exclusive agent for the marketing and distribution of consumer Roundup. Scotts LawnService serves the "do-it-for-me" consumer in the U.S. with on-site lawn, tree and shrub fertilization, insect control and other related services through its network of 160 locations. Scotts LawnService is considered a leader of this USD$5 billion category.[citation needed] In 2013, the company reported net sales of $2.82 billion, a 9% increase in the second half of the year, and an adjusted income of $174.4 million.[citation needed] History [ edit ] Scotts' headquarters in Marysville Scotts was founded in 1868, by Orlando Scott as a premium seed company for the U.S. agricultural industry. In the early 1900s, the company began a lawn grass seed business for homeowners and, in 1924, became the first to ship grass seed products directly to stores. Prior to that, consumers could purchase Scotts seed only through the mail.[3] By 1940, Scotts's sales had reached $1,000,000 and the company had 66 associates. For the next 15 years the company focused on developing new products to combat weeds, fertilize grass and develop automated electronic seed processing and packaging plants. In the early 1960s, Scotts started selling a "program" of products for lawns; established special training classes to help retailers better assist customers in developing their lawns; received a U.S. Patent for Trionized bonding which produced fertilizers that delivered sustained feeding; and introduced a complete line of Turf Builder combination products. By the end of 1971, the company had added two new divisions to its portfolio: the Golf Course Division, developed to promote an exclusive line of professional products for golf courses and other large institutional accounts; and Scotts LawnService, established after Scotts found a significant "do-it-for-me" customer segmentation. The service offers on-site lawn, tree and shrub fertilization, insect control and other related services through its network of 160 locations. The company also launched a direct-to-consumer helpline allowing lawn owners to call Scotts for advice and assistance. Later that year, privately owned O.M. Scott & Sons was purchased by ITT, the international business conglomerate. Fifteen years later, Scotts became an independent company through a leveraged buyout from ITT. In 1992, Scotts became a publicly traded company with an initial offering of $19.00 a share. Three years later, it merged with Miracle-Gro, a gardening company, to create the Scotts Miracle-Gro Company.[4] During the 2012 United States presidential election the company endorsed the election of Republican Party candidate Mitt Romney[5] Sale of bird seed in 2005–2008 [ edit ] On January 27, 2012, Scotts Miracle-Gro agreed to plead guilty in federal court and pay $4.5 million in fines for selling 73 million units of bird seed from November 2005 to March 2008 that was coated with pesticide known to be deadly to birds and fish. Pesticides were added to protect the product from insects during storage, notwithstanding that Storcide II, one of the pesticides used, was clearly marked as extremely toxic to birds. Records show that its own experts warned of the risk in the summer and fall of 2007 and yet Scotts continued to sell the deadly product until March 2008. In 2008, Scotts Miracle-Gro also falsified pesticide registration numbers required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on its products.[6] On September 7, 2012, in Ohio, a federal court sentenced Scotts to pay a $4 million fine and perform community service for 11 criminal violations of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). In a separate agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency, Scotts agreed to pay more than $6 million in penalties and spend $2 million on environmental projects. According to the Justice Department, both the criminal and civil settlements are the largest under FIFRA to date.[7] GM Grass [ edit ] Scotts has developed several genetically modified grasses, including herbicide-tolerant Kentucky bluegrass and creeping bentgrass. In 2007, the U.S. Department of Agriculture fined Scotts Miracle-Gro $500,000 when modified DNA from GM creeping bentgrass, was found within relatives of the same genus (Agrostis)[8] as well as in native grasses up to 21 km (13 mi) from the test sites.[9] Peat bogs in the UK [ edit ] In 2001 Scotts was involved in a major dispute with nature conservation bodies and the UK Government about the future of several peat bogs in the north of England. Under pressure from the European Union the UK government moved to declare a number of peat bogs, covering an area of 4097 acres in Yorkshire and Cumbria, as Special Areas of Conservation, thus ending Scotts ability to harvest peat for their garden products. During the course of the dispute Nick Kirkbride, the then managing director of Scotts in Britain, described the peat bogs as having "no more conservation interest than a ploughed field".[10] The peat bogs were eventually saved from further destruction by the payment by the UK government of compensation of £17 million to Scotts for loss of the right to extract peat.[11] Mergers and acquisitions [ edit ] 1914 - The O.M. Scott & Sons Company was incorporated. 1977 - Scotts introduced its retail product line into Canada through a distributorship arrangement with Home Hardware. 1988 - Scotts acquired the lawn and garden business of Hyponex Corporation, the largest producer and marketer of organic growing media products in the U.S. 1992 - Scotts acquired Republic Tool & Manufacturing Company, providing total quality control over the manufacture of Scotts spreaders. 1993 - Scotts acquired the Grace-Sierra Horticultural Products Company, adding controlled-release fertilizer technologies such as Osmocote, along with other brands including Metro-Mix, Banrot and Peters. In addition, Sierra also brought on board a well-established international organization for manufacturing, sales, and distribution. This organization began in 1964 when Archer Daniels Midland Company produced the first-ever resin-coated controlled-release fertilizer. 1995 - Scotts merged with Miracle-Gro Products, Inc. 1997 - Miracle Care Garden Ltd.: Approximately a third of the growing U.K. lawn and garden products company was owned by Miracle-Gro at the time of the 1995 merger, and in January 1997, Scotts purchased the remaining interest in the company. 1997 - Scotts acquired Emerald Green Lawn Service, which would become Scotts Lawn Service in 1998. 1997 - Scotts purchased privately held Levington Horticulture Ltd., to expand into the U.K. horticulture market 1998 - The company acquired the organics company EarthGro, Inc., expanding access to mass merchant retailers and home centers in the Northeast region 1998 - The company acquired 80% ownership of plant breeding company Sanford Scientific, Inc. (SSI). 1998 - Scotts acquired Rhône-Poulenc Jardin, continental Europe's largest consumer lawn and garden products company. Rhône-Poulenc Jardin manufactures and sells a full line of consumer lawn and garden pesticides, fertilizers and growing media products in France, Germany, the Benelux countries, Austria, Italy, and Spain. 1998 - Scotts acquired the Shamrock brand of U.K. and Irish peat products form Bord na Mona, Ireland. 1998 - Scotts entered into a collaboration with the Monsanto Company to apply biotechnology products to the turfgrass and ornamental plants business. Under the agreement, Scotts and Monsanto agreed to share technologies, including Monsanto's extensive genetic library of plant traits and Scotts' proprietary gene gun technology to produce transgenic turfgrasses and ornamental plants. 1998 - Scotts completed an acquisition with ASEF — a privately held Benelux-based lawn and garden products company. ASEF is a leading consumer lawn and garden products company—with operations in the Netherlands and Belgium — selling fertilizers, growing media, and pesticides. 1999 - Entering into the pesticide industry, Scotts completed agreements with Monsanto Company for exclusive U.S., Canada, U.K., France, Germany, and Australia agency and marketing rights to Monsanto's consumer Roundup herbicide products and for the purchase of the Ortho and related lawn and garden businesses. 2000 - Scotts acquired Substral, a leading consumer fertilizer brand in many European countries, including Germany, Austria, Belgium, France and Nordics. Scotts also purchased Smith & Hawken, a leading brand of garden-inspired products that includes pottery, watering equipment, gardening tools, outdoor furniture and live goods. 2005 - Scotts entered into the U.S. wild bird food market through the acquisition of the Morning Song brand. 2014 - Scotts Miracle-Gro sells wild bird food line to Global Harvest Foods Ltd. 2015 - Scotts Miracle-Gro buys General Hydroponics and Vermicrop Organics to move into the marijuana market, under the name Hawthorne Gardening Company 2015 - Scotts Lawn Service merges with ServiceMaster's TruGreen, becoming the largest lawn care company in North America. 2016 - The Hawthorne Gardening also purchased Gavita Horticultural Lighting and American Agritech known as Botanicare to fill out their cannabis portfolio. 2016 - Scotts acquired Blossom, a California manufacturer of Internet enabled sprinkler systems. [12] 2017 - Scotts acquired Can-Filters, a Canadian-based carbon filter manufacturer and fan wholesaler under their Hawthorne Gardening Co. brand. 2018 - Scotts Miracle-Gro announced its plan to acquire Sunlight Supply Inc., a hydroponics supplier, for $450 million in cash and stock.[13] Brands [ edit ] United States [ edit ] Black Magic Blossom Bovung Can-Filters Earthgro Ecoscraps Gavita General Hydroponics Greenlight Hawthorne Gardening Company Hyponex Miracle-Gro Ortho Ortho Elementals Osmocote Scotts Scotts Lawn Service Supersoil TOMCAT Vermicrop Organics Whitney Farms Outside the U.S. [ edit ] Can-Filters Celaflor Evergreen Fertiligene Gavita Holland B.V. KB Pathclear Scotts Ecosense Substral WeedolThe post-Cold War era was therefore not an aberration but a continuity and confirmation of an absolute historical purpose for the United States. Gradually, however, over the course of the generation that has passed since the Cold War, the United States has become less and less able to afford global predominance. As America entered a new century, its main aim should have been to bring other nations into the fold of international norms and the rule of law, especially as its own power diminishes. Instead, the United States did what declining superpowers often do: engage in futile, needless wars far from its borders, in which short-term security is mistaken for long-term strategic goals. The consequence is an America less prepared than it could have been to deal with the big challenges of the future: the rise of China and India, the transfer of economic power from West to East, and systemic challenges like climate change and disease epidemics. If the United States won the Cold War but failed to capitalize on it, then the Soviet Union, or rather Russia, lost it, and lost it big. The collapse left Russians feeling déclassé and usurped. One day they had been the elite nation in a superpower union of republics. The next, they had neither purpose nor position. Materially, things were bad, too. Old people did not get their pensions. Some starved to death. Malnutrition and alcoholism shortened the average life span for a Russian man from nearly 65 in 1987 to less than 58 in 1994. If many Russians felt robbed of a future, they were not wrong. Russia’s future was indeed stolen — by the privatization of Russian industry and of its natural resources. As the socialist state with its moribund economy was dismantled, a new oligarchy emerged from party institutions, planning bureaus and centers of science and technology and assumed ownership of Russia’s riches. Often, the new owners stripped these assets and closed down production. In a state in which unemployment had, officially at least, been nonexistent, the rate of joblessness rose through the 1990s to peak at 13 percent. All this happened while the West applauded Boris Yeltsin’s economic reforms. In retrospect, the economic transition to capitalism was a catastrophe for most Russians. It is also clear that the West should have dealt with post-Cold War Russia better than it did. Both the West and Russia would have been considerably more secure today if the chance for Russia to join the European Union, and possibly even NATO, had at least been kept open in the 1990s. Instead, their exclusion has given Russians the sense of being outcasts and victims — which, in turn, has given credence to embittered jingoists like President Vladimir Putin, who see all the disasters that have befallen the country over the past generation as an American plot to reduce and isolate it. Mr. Putin’s authoritarianism and bellicosity have been sustained by genuine popular support. The shocks of the 1990s have given way to an uninhibited cynicism among Russians, which not only encompasses a deep distrust of their fellow citizens but also sees conspiracies against themselves everywhere, often contrary to fact and reason. Over half of all Russians now believe Leonid Brezhnev was their best leader in the 20th century, followed by Lenin and Stalin. Gorbachev is at the bottom of the list.The European Union Council, which begins on Thursday, is scheduled to sign the new fiscal compact. But at the same time, a dozen countries, led by Italy, are contesting the austerity policies imposed by "Merkozy" and calling for an economic stimulus package. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has given the pact minimal support, out of consideration for German Chancellor Angela Merkel. His Socialist opponent (in the up-coming presidential election) François Hollande has promised to renegotiate the accord if he wins the ballot. The Budget Pact is scheduled to be signed by 25 European heads of government on Friday, March 2, in Brussels. Only the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic are expected to abstain, but the issue is not yet closed. Signing the pact opens the way for the ratification procedure, but this could be tricky at a time when there is a relative reprieve of the sovereign debt crisis due to the Greek bailout. This Tuesday Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny, unexpectedly announced his intention to organise a ratification referendum. In France, Mr Sarkozy has decided not to rush the ratification of the pact by parliament, preferring to wait until after the presidential election (April 22 & May 6) and the legislative elections (June 10 & 17). But he intends to schedule the ratification vote quickly if he is re-elected. On the other hand, if Mr Hollande is elected, many leftist leaders do not want to ratify the pact as it exists. They hope to strengthen, as of the June EU summit, the growth and economic governance chapters of the pact, which they see as, first and foremost, a way to etch in stone the notion of budgetary discipline so close to Ms Merkel's heart. Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, whom the heads of government should confirm for another two and a half years in his post, hopes to avoid a challenge to the European Stability Mechanism, which is currently on course for ratification. Under pressure to strengthen this permanent bailout fund, Germany insisted on linking the two agreements politically. In substance, the difference of opinion on the new treaty between Mr Sarkozy and Mr Hollande reflects the current state of discussions within the 27 EU members. Having, under market pressure, favoured austerity they must now discuss the best way to support their economies without increasing deficits. The austerity plans currently implemented just about everywhere on the continent are being more and more contested by trade unions and by public opinion as unemployment rises in the most precarious countries. “The crisis we are facing is also a growth crisis<!-- /* Font Definitions / @font-face {font-family:Arial; panose-1:2 11 6 4 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} / Style Definitions / p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Arial; mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Arial; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language:EN-GB; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:70.85pt 70.85pt 70.85pt 70.85pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1” In addition, they risk, according to many leaders, aggravating the looming recession. "Right now we are focusing too much on the financial penalties and the austerity plans," said Socialist Martin Schultz, President of the European Parliament during a visit to Athens on Tuesday. Warnings of this sort are more and more frequent. Twelve countries, including Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Poland, are asking for a reorientation of the economic policies defended by the Merkel/Sarkozy duo. "The crisis we are facing is also a growth crisis," they said in a letter initiated by Mario Monti, the caretaker Italian Prime Minister. But, in the minds of the twelve signatories to this letter, the solution is to be found in greater deregulation, through labour market reform in each of the States and by increased commercial opportunities on the continent. These are not the types of solutions touted by the French left. The recession that threatens the 27 Member States is of special concern to their international partners. In the short-term, the stakes are also – and perhaps even especially – to define the terms of application of the stability and growth pact, as reinforced last autumn. Spain is also asking for its obligations to be reduced, a request batted aside by the EU Commission as well as the European Central Bank. Upon taking office, the newly-elected French President will be faced with a dilemma: protecting the credibility of the collective monitoring apparatus slowly emerging from the Eurozone crisis.Originally Posted by Tom Originally Posted by Hi guys, This isn't a crying thread like most here. I'd just like to say what drove me to finally quit this game. I enjoyed playing this game for a very long time. I played back in closed beta. HoN was really fun, and it seemed like the game was going in a great direction. S2 was very communicative with it's community, and responded a lot to the community's requests. With the introduction of HoNcast, it seemed like HoN was going to be the next big game. But then a lot happened to change this. HoN has became a game where every single non *** tier carry has the ability to clear a creep wave with little mana. Any carry who doesn't automatically goes down to complete trash tier. For a long time, I refused to play DoTA. I was very loyal to HoN and I told myself I wouldn't switch to it. But I've noticed that game is actually balanced. The worst thing I have to deal with is an occasional natures prophet or pudge over there. And I'm not saying they're overpowered. They're annoying more than anything. In this game, pub games are dominated by monkey king/pebbles/fayde/other stupid heroes. I understand the direction that S2 wanted this game to go. But I don't think the community really wanted a game where more than half the heroes are considered trash tier. Anyways, nothing more to say. I just wish that this game hadn't gone the road it did. HoN was a great game. But it's not anymore. It's not fun to play with raging teammates anymore. It's not fun to play against overpowered stupid heroes anymore. I enjoyed my time here. But I see this game has no future and I don't want to play a game with no future. -TomRULED OUT: Manny Muscat has a shoulder injury and will not play in Brisbane. The news was mixed on the Wellington Phoenix injury front on Wednesday with Manny Muscat ruled of Sunday's game in Brisbane with a shoulder injury but Nathan Burns and Alex Rodriguez were cleared to play. Muscat damaged the AC joint in his shoulder during last Saturday's 2-1 win over the Glory in Perth which propelled the Phoenix to the top of the A-League ladder for the first time. The left back played on until the 69th minute at nib Stadium before being substituted for Michael Boxall. "It's not a bad injury but I can't see him being right for this week [against the defending champions Roar at Suncorp Stadium]," said Phoenix coach Ernie Merrick. "I'd say it's only a one-week type injury. If he was a rugby player, of course he'd be back in this week. Manny's tough, he played on through the injury. It's a very painful injury but he'll only be out for a week." Regular right back Louis Fenton is likely to take Muscat's spot on the left, with Boxall coming in on the right. Leading goalscorer Burns (hip) and classy midfielder Rodriguez (hamstring) missed the Perth game but both trained well on Wednesday and are available for selection. Burns is expected to come back into the starting lineup at the expense of Joel Griffiths while Merrick will again have to make a tight call between Rodriguez's superior passing ability or the graft of veteran Vince Lia, who played well in his 150th Phoenix game in Perth. Merrick's selection headaches this week are minor, however, compared with next week's looming migraine. The A-League is an anomaly in world football in that it doesn't break for FIFA international windows. That means the Phoenix will be without seven players on March 29 for what should have been a blockbuster against second-placed Sydney FC at Westpac Stadium. Burns is in the Socceroos squad for friendlies against world champions Germany in Kaiserslautern on March 26 and Macedonia in Skopje on March 31, while All Whites coach Anthony Hudson has selected six Phoenix players for the April 1 friendly against South Korea in Seoul – Boxall, Fenton, Tom Doyle, Michael McGlinchey, Tyler Boyd and Joel Stevens. Boyd and Stevens are only back-up players and Merrick has plenty of cover for playmaker McGlinchey, but with three fullback options unavailable, the Scot will be desperately hoping Muscat is fit to play. The situation could have been even worse if midfield star Roly Bonevacia had accepted a call-up from Curacao. Bonevacia was flattered at being selected for Curacao's World Cup qualifier against Montserrat in Willemstad but opted to prioritise club over country. "He's never played for Curacao," Merrick said. "He was born and grew up in Amsterdam so he's played for Holland at under-17, under-21 and Olympic level. He hasn't decided whether he's going to switch or not [in the future] but at the moment he's going to represent our squad." Sydney will be without two players for the Wellington match – record-breaking goalscorer Marc Janko, who is the captain of Austria, and Olyroos midfielder Terry Antonis. "I've probably been one of the most forceful in voicing my opinion about not having international dates in the A-League," said Sydney coach Graham Arnold. "But it's the same for every team. We lose a couple of players but Wellington will
ash with savings. Investors are tripping over themselves to lend money to the U.S. government at negative real rates because there aren’t enough places to productively put money. That’s not the fault of U.S. government policy, and it would be nice if the next president understood that.US foreign policy Hypocrisy at its Most Naked By Alan Hart October 05, 2011 " Information Clearing House " -- Russia and China’s veto of the UN Security Council resolution which condemned Syria over its brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters and contained a weak reference to the possibility of sanctions against Damascus proved (again) one thing – that despite torrents of soaring rhetoric to the contrary by our leaders, international politics is not about doing what is right and in the best interests of all nations and peoples, it’s only about the short-term, short-sighted, political self-interest of leaders and their governments. And the statement by U.S. ambassador Susan Rice, described by the New York Times as “one of her most bellicose speeches in the Council chamber”, was pure, unadultered hypocrisy at its most naked. But let us first of all be clear about the meaning of hypocrisy (hypocrite is from hypokrite, the ancient Greek for actor). The definitions of hypocrisy are “a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not… the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion.” The synonyms for hypocrisy are “cant… dissembling… insincerity… piousness.” The antonyms are “genuineness… sincerity.” If I was contributing to the updating of dictionaries, I would add another definition of hypocrisy – American foreign policy. In her statement after Russia and China had vetoed and before she walked out of the Council chamber, Susan Rice said: “The United States is outraged that this council has utterly failed to address an urgent moral challenge and a growing threat to regional peace and security.” This is, of course, the same Susan Rice who will cast the U.S. veto to kill the Palestinians’ bid for Security Council recognition of their statehood (if the bid gets to the Security Council). It is apparently of no concern to her and her master that the Security Council has utterly failed, time and time again, to address the criminal policies of the Zionist (not Jewish) state of Israel, policies which present a far more urgent moral challenge and growing threat to regional peace and security than what Bashar al-Assad’s monster regime is doing in Syria. Rice also said: “Today the courageous people of Syria can now see who on this Council supports their yearning for liberty and universal human rights and who does not.” Quite so, madam ambassador, but is it of no concern to you that almost the whole world (of peoples not governments) is aware of who on the Security Council supports the Palestinian yearning for liberty and universal human rights and who does not? If there was a Nobel prize for hypocrisy, Susan Rice would have to be added to the list of nominees for it along with President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. (Question: What do those two gentlemen have in common? Answer: In the context of targeted assassinations, it can be said that both are cold-blooded killers). On another matter… The jury in my mind is still out on the question of whether or not professor Shlomo Avineri, the Polish-born Israeli political scientist, is a hypocrite. His most recent article is in Ha’aretz with the headline No realistic chance of permanent Middle East peace. The following is its opening paragraph. “In his speech to the UN General Assembly, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas once again made a common Palestinian mistake: a Palestinian leader does not have to persuade the nations of the world, but rather the Israelis. A Palestinian state will arise only if the Palestinians convince the Israelis that they are indeed ready to live in peace and mutual recognition.” In theory that makes a lot of sense, but it ignores the fact that most Israeli Jews have been brainwashed by Zionist propaganda and, as a consequence, need to feel threatened, need to believe they are the victims and not the oppressors. Put another way, most Israeli Jews do not want to believe that the Palestinians (the vast majority of them) have long been ready for peace on terms which any rational government and people in Israel would have accepted with relief. That being so, there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell of peace unless and until an American president has the freedom and the courage to use his leverage to compel Israel to end its occupation of all Arab land grabbed in 1967. Alan Hart has been engaged with events in the Middle East and their global consequences and terrifying implications – the possibility of a Clash of Civilisations, Judeo-Christian v Islamic.... More Sign up for our FREE Email Newsletter For Email Marketing you can trust Support Information Clearing House Monthly Subscription To Information Clearing House Option 1 : $5.00USD - monthly Option 2 : $10.00USD - monthly Option 3 : $15.00USD - monthly Option 4 : $20.00USD - monthly Option 5 : $35.00USD - monthly Option 6 : $50.00USD - monthly Option 7 : $100.00USD - monthly Search Information Clearing HouseNo Man’s Sky fans have long wondered whether it’s possible to see other players if they’re on the same planet. The answer, it appears, is no. Player TheSadCactus noticed this afternoon that he had landed on a planet discovered by a different player, named Psytokat. SadCactus sent his new buddy a message, and before long the two players were both on Twitch, streaming their progress as they tried to meet up in the same place at the same time to see what might happen. What happened was... nothing. As of post time they’re still experimenting, but it appears that different players are all located in different instances within the game (which is why you can pause). They haven’t been able to see each other on either planets or a neighboring space station. Observers had long believed that running into another player in No Man’s Sky, as unlikely as it may be, would allow you to see them. In a 2014 interview, designer Sean Murray made it seem as if players would run into one another while traveling. He has since discouraged people from focusing on multiplayer.Mikhail Gorbachev says we're "on the brink" of one. Henry Kissinger thinks he knows how to avoid one. And Vladimir Putin seems to be trying to provoke one. Cold War talk is in the air and Cold War fears are on the rise. Over the past eight months, according to a report by the London-based European Leadership Network, close military encounters between Russia and the West have spiked to their highest levels in decades. These include "violations of national air space, emergency scrambles, narrowly avoided mid-air collisions, close encounters at sea, simulated attack runs...harassment of reconnaissance planes, close overflights over warships, and Russian ‘mock bombing raid’ missions." But despite the rhetoric and the posturing, the escalating conflict between Russia and the West is not a new Cold War. For this to be a Cold War, Russia would need to be a superpower. It is not. Moscow would need to lead a bloc of nations that enjoys rough parity with the West. It doesn't. And it would need to be offering an alternative model to Western liberal democratic capitalism. It isn't. "Russia is a mid-sized power that lacks the capacity to shape the international environment single-handedly. It is not in the top league with the U.S. and China," political analyst Vladimir Frolov wrote recently in "The Moscow Times." "Moscow suffers from superpower phantom pains, but its ambitions are not backed by economic power or technological prowess. Its sole claim to superpowerdom is its nuclear weapons, brandished too cavalierly." Despite Moscow's best efforts, there is no Russian-led bloc of countries opposing the West. The much-touted BRICS is essentially a group of mid-level powers clinging to a rising China. And for all its flaws -- and they were legion -- Soviet communism presented an alternative political and economic system to Western democratic capitalism and an alternative development model that enjoyed some traction, particularly in the Third World. What is Russia offering today? Homophobia and gay bashing masquerading as"traditional values"? A kleptocracy fueled by petrodollars? Fantasies of a revived Russian empire? "Neither Russia nor even China (whose leaders long ago abandoned the communist vanguard for the pursuit of profit) offer universalist ideologies capable of competing with free market capitalism," Stewart M. Patrick, director of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations International Institutions and Global Governance Program, wrote recently on his blog. At best, Moscow is offering a scattershot critique aimed at appealing to all the foes of globalization, be they on the left or the right. That the Kremlin is not presenting an alternative to the West is even evident in the nature of its propaganda, as Peter Pomerantsev noted in a recent piece in "The Atlantic." Putin's Russia, according to Pomerantsev, "reinvents reality, creating mass hallucinations that then translate into political action." Unlike the propaganda promoting Soviet communism, which was based on a universalist and more-or-less internally consistent and logically coherent ideology, facts and proof are irrelevant. "For the Soviets, the idea of truth was important -- even when they were lying. Soviet propaganda went to great lengths to 'prove' that the Kremlin’s theories or bits of disinformation were fact," he wrote. "The point of this new propaganda is not to persuade anyone, but to keep the viewer hooked and distracted -- to disrupt Western narratives rather than provide a counternarrative." No, this isn't a Cold War. But guess what? It's even scarier and more dangerous. During the Cold War the Kremlin had a stake in -- and was interested in maintaining -- the existing international system. Despite its ideology and rhetoric, the Soviet Union after Stalin wasn't revolutionary at all. It was a classic status-quo power. But in the past 25 years, a new international order has taken shape to replace the bipolar superpower rivalry -- and Moscow doesn't like it. It wants the old 20th-century bipolar world back, or a 19th-century concert of great powers, each free to act in their own spheres of influence. And if it doesn't get it, it is going to do its best to disrupt the existing order. "Russia’s intervention in Ukraine, however disingenuously denied and creatively concealed, constitutes a frontal assault on the liberal international order that the United States and its Western allies have done so much to promote and build," Patrick of the Council on Foreign Relations wrote. Russia's behavior, he added, represents "the resurgence of a more primitive form of power politics" in which established norms like "the principle of sovereignty, the sanctity of borders, the illegitimacy of spheres of influence, and the supremacy of citizenship over ethnicity" are under assault. The Cold War was a stable and predictable arrangement. The world we are now entering is anything but. Russia is playing the role of a spoiler. And spoilers bent on challenging the international order -- especially nuclear-armed ones -- are dangerous. And we've seen this movie before. Napoleonic France tried to disrupt the British-dominated European order in the early 19th century, as did Germany -- twice -- in the early 20th century. "We are not in a'revolutionary' period of world politics, in Kissinger’s terms, in which a radical power -- think revolutionary France, Leninist Russia, or Maoist China -- pursues (at least for a while) dreams of world revolution," Patrick wrote. Not yet. But we could be soon. -- Brian WhitmoreFrank Sinatra’s daughter has a warning about President-elect Donald Trump Donald John TrumpREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails Trump urges North Korea to denuclearize ahead of summit Venezuela's Maduro says he fears 'bad' people around Trump MORE reportedly choosing her father’s classic song, “My Way,” as the tune for his first dance as commander in chief. “Just remember the first line of the song,” Nancy Sinatra wrote to her more than 140,000 followers on Twitter on Wednesday night. The opening line in the 1969 hit penned by Paul Anka is, “And now, the end is near.” ADVERTISEMENT The president-elect will take to the dance floor with wife Melania Trump at the Liberty Ball on Friday to the Sinatra tune, according to the Washington Examiner, citing a source “with knowledge of the official inaugural balls.” Sinatra’s 76-year-old daughter, who had her own hit in 1966 with “These Boots are Made for Walkin’,” has been an outspoken Trump critic. She tweeted earlier this month:After Monday night’s 108-102 loss at home to Houston, the Celtics are now a full game behind the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference standings and just three games in front of the improving Chicago Bulls and Orlando Magic. Last season, the Celtics, made it to the Finals despite being just the No. 4 seed in the East, but coach Doc Rivers is emphasizing that home court advantage will be critical in this season’s playoffs. "This year's not like last year, where you can coast," Rivers told ESPN.com. "You don't have home court this year, you could go home." The Celtics are just 5-5 over their last ten games, and Rivers called their loss to the Rockets “probably our worst defensive effort in three or four years.” They have been playing without Kevin Garnett, however, who should return soon. They’re also expecting center Kendrick Perkins back in less than three weeks. Still, the Heat, winners of 21 of their last 22, are showing no signs of slowing down, the revamped Magic have won nine straight (and are 9-2 since making two blockbuster trades that netted them Hedo Turkoglu, Jason Richardson and Gilbert Arenas), and the Bulls have posted a 25-12 record despite being without Carlos Boozer to start the season and Joakim Noah currently. Things should be interesting down the stretch in the East.TORONTO, Sept. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ - The Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD Bank Group or TD) today announced it has entered into an agreement with a syndicate of underwriters for an issue of 8 million common shares, at a price of CDN$76.50 per common share, to raise gross proceeds of CDN$612 million. TD has also granted the underwriters an over-allotment option to purchase, on the same terms, up to an additional 1.2 million common shares. This option is exercisable, in whole or in part, by the underwriters at any time until the date that is two business days prior to the closing. The maximum gross proceeds raised under the offering will be CDN$703.8 million should this option be exercised in full. TD previously announced its intention to issue common shares prior to the closing of the MBNA Canada credit card portfolio transaction for prudent capital management purposes. Net proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes. The common shares will be issued by way of a prospectus supplement that will be filed with securities regulatory authorities in Canada under TD's October 25, 2010 base shelf prospectus. The common shares to be offered have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy such common shares in the United States or in any other jurisdiction where such offer is unlawful. About TD Bank Group The Toronto-Dominion Bank and its subsidiaries are collectively known as TD Bank Group (TD). TD is the sixth largest bank in North America by branches and serves approximately 20 million customers in four key businesses operating in a number of locations in key financial centres around the globe: Canadian Personal and Commercial Banking, including TD Canada Trust, TD Insurance and TD Auto Finance Canada; Wealth Management, including TD Waterhouse and an investment in TD Ameritrade; U.S. Personal and Commercial Banking, including TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank and TD Auto Finance U.S.; and Wholesale Banking, including TD Securities. TD also ranks among the world's leading online financial services firms, with more than 7 million online customers. TD had CDN$665 billion in assets on July 31, 2011. The Toronto-Dominion Bank trades under the symbol "TD" on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges. SOURCE TD BANK GROUPSolar is now cheap enough to compete 12:29 PM ET Thu, 9 Jan 2014 Solar securities are still largely unproven, and the relatively short tenure of solar projects–less than 20 years in many instances–may become a barrier to wider adoption of solar financing. Still, the move toward tapping capital markets means green projects could make the sector less vulnerable to the backlash that often ensues from using public funds. Private investors are starting to warm to the idea: US Bank has a alternative energy arm that has doled out more than $1.7 billion to a spate of renewable projects in the U.S. A steep drop in solar prices and costs—data from the Solar Energy Industries Association says sun-power is now 60 percent cheaper than it was just a few short years ago—is fueling strong demand. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), growth in renewable power generation is expected to exceed 858 billion kilowatt hours by 2040, with a bulk of that growth coming from solar. Renewables generated 524 billion kilowatt hours in 2011. Because solar power can be generated at the local level, and because its infrastructure can be built easily without the politically-tinged problems that accompany crude, it makes for a comparatively attractive investment. (Read more: Critics question 'green loans,' but US points to the numbers) Mike Sheppard, senior energy and power analyst with research IHS, says investors "see it as a trend…that opens up new sources of capital investment from people not yet willing to risk money in technology" that may not be proven, he added. "Securitization smooths out [risks], diversifying over multiple projects," Sheppard said. "That concept is relatively new…and its a definite trend that a lot of people are looking forward to." —By CNBC's Javier E. David. Follow him on Twitter @TeflonGeekImpact Engine is a new Chicago accelerator that focuses on for-profit startups with a social or environmental focus. The social entrepreneurship program plans to announce its first batch of eight companies Tuesday, which include startups in education, energy, financial services and health. Five of the eight companies focus on international markets. Impact Engine is headed by Chuck Templeton, founder of OpenTable, who is also an investor in the program. Impact Engine has raised $500,000 to invest in the startups. Like other incubator programs, Impact Engine takes a small equity stake, 7%, in exchange for $20,000 in funding. The 12-week program provides mentorship, advising and seminars as entrepreneurs build their businesses. The program is housed in the 1871 building with other tech firms such as Excelerate Labs. The program was founded by Jamie Jones, assistant director of social enterprise at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, and Linda Darragh, executive director of Kellogg's Levy Institute for Entrepreneurial Practice and the Heizer Center for Private Equity and Venture Capital. Templeton, who has invested in or advised a number of startups, says he got involved with Impact Engine because he believes in its mission. "Some of the biggest challenges are people consuming in a way that's frankly unsustainable," Templeton says. The two main requirements for companies in the program is that the companies have a focus that Impact Engine can help with. Secondly, that the company's social or environmental goals are tightly connected to the business model. In other words, the company cannot just give away a free product to needy people, while the rest of the business operates separately. "We're trying to avoid instances of the buy-one-and-give-one away mindsets," Templeton says. "It's providing a solution that actually addresses an issue and makes money at the same time, rather than two discreet things." How do these social entrepreneurs balance their social goals with business goals? The startups generally are set up so that when they grow as a business their customers see improvements as well, Templeton says, citing POMS, a payments startup that focuses on the "underbanked" population. "If you can help them reduce the (finance) fees they pay by 70-80%, it helps them directly," Templeton says. "The idea is when these (companies) are making money, the population they're serving benefits as well. The more money they're making the more benefit they have." Here is the list of companies as they describe themselves: Azadi Pads - More than 300 million women living in rural India face financial, educational, and social challenges because they do not have access to hygienic menstruation products. Azadi Pads creates biodegradable sanitary pads that are both accessible and affordable to this population. Collaborative Group - Collaborative Group aims to provide sustainable employment to artisans in need around the globe, from Guatemala, Kenya, India, and beyond. It advocates for artisans and underserved populations by sourcing goods to socially conscious retail partners and distributors in the United States. Effortless Energy - Effortless Energy helps residents coordinate and finance energy efficiency retrofits throughout their home. McKinsey estimates that cost-effective residential energy efficiency measures constitute a $230 billion market, yet adoption has been extremely low. By addressing the financial, operational, and behavioral market barriers, Effortless Energy makes home energy efficiency a snap. Ithaca Education - Ithaca Education helps teachers deliver personalized and rigorous literacy curriculum to students through its web-based platform, CERCA. This tool aligns to the new Common Core State Standards by focusing on argument-based teaching methods. CERCA lets teachers build and share lessons, track growth, collaborate with students, and create academic portfolios online. Light Up Africa - Light Up Africa provides renewable energy to marginalized populations in Kenya through The Zoom Box, an efficient and affordable kinetic energy storage device. The Zoom Box easily attaches to bicycles, motorbikes, livestock, and boats in order to provide electricity for small personal devices, such as cellular phones and lamps. POMS - About 80 million consumers in the U.S. don't have a credit or debit card or bank account. But traditional financial services for the underbanked population have limited reach and predatory fees. By integrating into existing retail terminals, POMS provides real-time payment transfer solutions to the underbanked that are significantly cheaper than today’s options. Portapure - Portapure invents, designs, and manufactures affordable, easy-to-use water filtration products for the nearly one billion individuals who lack access to clean drinking water. Raise5 - Raise5 is a fundraising platform that lets people raise money for their favorite charities and non-profit organizations through micro-volunteering. Users can donate a small service or task—logo design help, copy editing, etc.—in exchange for $5 to the charity of their choice.Now playing: Watch this: What the repeal of internet privacy rules means to you Broadband providers won't have to get your permission before sharing your web browsing history and other personal data with marketers thanks to a vote Tuesday on Capitol Hill. Republicans in the US House of Representatives approved a resolution that prevents privacy rules passed by the FCC last year from taking effect. The vote was 215 in favor and 205 opposing the measure. The Senate voted on Thursday to adopt the resolution to nullify the rules. All that's left now is for President Donald Trump to sign the order. Earlier Tuesday, the White House said he plans to sign it. This will essentially repeal the Obama-era regulation passed in October days before Trump was elected. These rules would have required broadband companies to get their customers' permission before they sell "sensitive" information about their web browsing activity, app usage or whereabouts to marketers. Because Republicans used the Congressional Review Act -- a tool that enables lawmakers to expedite bills to reverse recent regulations -- it also prohibits the Federal Communications Commission from adopting similar rules in the future. Why should you care? Proponents of the rules, like consumer advocacy groups, say this is bad news because the rules protect your privacy. Without these regulations, these groups say that broadband providers will be able to sell information about where you've been online, what you're buying, the apps you're using, and where you're located to marketers and other third parties, like insurance companies. "ISPs like Comcast, AT&T and Charter will be free to sell your personal information to the highest bidder without your permission -- and no one will be able to protect you," Gigi Sohn, an adviser to former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, wrote in an op-ed Tuesday. Wheeler championed the privacy rules. Marguerite Reardon/CNET Meanwhile, internet service providers say the regulations are too strict and unfairly single out broadband providers, because they require broadband companies to adhere to a more stringent privacy requirement than internet companies must follow. They say the rules are burdensome and will stifle competition, driving up prices. "The FCC's flawed broadband privacy rules will have a chilling effect on internet innovation and competition," said Gary Shapiro, head of the Consumer Technology Association. Instead, these groups say that broadband companies should follow the same privacy guidelines as internet companies, like Facebook and Google. They follow rules established by the Federal Trade Communication, which only requires companies offer consumers the opportunity to opt out of such data sharing. Industry groups argue having two sets of rules gives internet companies a competitive leg up. For broadband companies the stakes are high. These companies are looking to expand their businesses and offer marketers more targeted advertising, and they want to use the personal information they collect from their customers to do it. The nation's largest broadband companies -- AT&T, Comcast and Verizon -- have each made acquisitions in an effort to build their digital content holdings. That makes them not only the companies that provide a broadband pipe into your home, but also ones whose own content rides that network. The vote, which has been highly politicized, fell along party lines. It's part of a GOP effort to eliminate several regulations issued during President Barack Obama's final months in office. And it comes just days after Trump's plan to repeal and replace Obama's health care law failed. Trump has already signed several resolutions under the Congressional Review Act to repeal regulations, including two related to education and one concerning the environment. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who voted against the rules when he was a commissioner before being appointed chairman in January, had already put the brakes on the rollout of the rules. In February, the FCC voted to hold off implementing the rules until challenges to them could be assessed. Batteries Not Included: The CNET team shares experiences that remind us why tech stuff is cool. CNET Magazine: Check out a sampling of the stories you'll find in CNET's newsstand edition. Correction 4:22 pm PT: An earlier version of the story misstated the final vote count.Cameroon currently has more than 250 rescued chimpanzees living in three chimp wildlife sanctuaries. Attempts to find forests into which to release them — safe from the bushmeat and pet trade, and not already occupied by other chimpanzee populations — have failed so far. The intensification of logging, mining and agribusiness, plus new roads into remote areas, along with a growing rural human population, are putting intense pressure on un-conserved forests as well as protected lands. Unless habitat loss, poaching and trafficking are controlled in Cameroon, reintroduction of captive chimpanzees may not be achievable. Some conservationists argue, however, that reintroduction of captive animals is needed to enhance genetic resilience in wild populations. If current rates of decline are not curbed, primatologists estimate that chimpanzees could be gone from Cameroon’s forests within 15 to 20 years. YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — Two male chimps, Avi and Max, take turns inside an electric-fenced compound where eight Central chimpanzees are housed at the Mefou Primate Sanctuary not far from Cameroon’s capital. The broad-chested dominant males aren’t allowed in the enclosure together because keepers fear their rivalry could degenerate into vicious fighting and endanger the entire Pan troglodytes troglodytes community. Avi and Max are survivors of a brutal bushmeat and pet trade that seriously threatens the Central African nation’s great apes and often leaves infants orphaned. The two males have lived at the sanctuary almost since it was created in 2000. After the country’s first attempt to release them failed in 2015, it now seems that life in captivity might be their ultimate destiny. Hundreds of other captive chimpanzees face the same fate inside Cameroon’s three ape sanctuaries. While life inside the sanctuaries is a great deal safer than that in the forest — with chimps well-fed and receiving round-the-clock medical care — some primatologists and animal defenders say the great apes and other primates belong back in the wild. “Chimpanzees don’t belong in any form of captivity,” contends Sheri Speede, founder and director of In Defense of Animals-Africa (IDA-Africa), which runs the Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Center in Cameroon’s eastern region. “They are better off living free in protected forests, where they can have normal family groups and natural demographics.” The problem: where to create new protected areas in Cameroon, a nation with rapidly expanding agribusiness and extraction industries, plus a fast growing rural population — all of which are encroaching on un-conserved forests and are a recipe for habitat loss, great ape trafficking and the bushmeat trade. Not a single site left A little more than a decade ago, several non-governmental organizations, including IDA-Africa, the Pandrillus Foundation, and Ape Action Africa, along with the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife, began discussing possibilities for Cameroon’s first chimpanzee reintroduction attempt. Those talks moved ahead slowly. Eventually, the NGOs — jointly known as the Cameroon Chimpanzee Reintroduction Group (CCRG) — commissioned a study running from 2012 to 2015 to find a suitable forest site into which to release captive chimpanzees. Switzerland-based Cameroonian researcher Lawrence Baye led the survey. He and his team combed four forests, looking for existing or historical chimp populations, talking to locals, observing current human activities and learning about planned land uses. “The goal of the three-year-study was to identify a large area of intact habitat forest that was under-protected and depleted of chimpanzees, which could serve as a reintroduction site for the subspecies Pan troglodytes troglodytes,” says Speede. “We based our search on criteria pertaining to the quality of the habitat, importance from a conservation perspective, use by existing wildlife populations, presence of natural boundaries, and use by human populations locally.” But the three-year search proved futile — no forests were seen as safe for the chimpanzees, and the reintroduction effort has now been temporality called off. “The human populations in proximity to the forests were too dense and depended on ongoing extractive and agricultural activities in the forests; planned development projects near the forests promised to bring an unavoidable influx of people in the future; and largescale commercial enterprises, such as logging or mining, were already operating or were slated to begin operations in the forests,” Speede explains. “The difficulty with reintroduction is that the good, [well-protected] chimpanzee habitats… already have chimpanzees living there,” explains Pandrillus founder Liza Gadsby. And “those [forests] with low populations that could absorb more animals have low populations for a reason — generally poaching.” Finding sanctuary Speede has been at the forefront of Cameroon’s effort to release its captive chimpanzees. A doctor of veterinary medicine, she has spent the better part of her life, including 13 years of fulltime residence in Cameroon from 1998 t0 2011, trying to conserve critically endangered great apes. A major part of her work is offering refuge to the orphaned primates that manage to escape slaughter in the wild. Working with a team that includes local caregivers, Speede currently houses, feeds and medically cares for more than 70 rescued chimps at the Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Center, a two-kilometer-square “tract of lush habitat” within the Mbargue Forest in eastern Cameroon. Sanctuaries like this one are essential for dealing with the rising number of rescued primates orphaned in Cameroon each year. These facilities provide a safe haven for young chimps after family groups are shattered by hunters feeding a national appetite for bushmeat, as well as an international demand for pets. Great apes defenders estimate that Cameroon now has more than 250 chimpanzees trapped behind electric fences in its three wildlife sanctuaries — many of these animals, experts say, could be released to the wild, if they but had a place to go. The largest population is confined behind tall wire fences that cut through densely packed undergrowth in Mefou Natioal Park — home to Avis, Max and others for more than a decade. Run by Ape Action Africa, the Mefou Primate Sanctuary houses 110 chimps in three enclosures, out of a total of 350 captive primates. Pandrillus, which runs the Limbe Wildlife Center at the foot of Mount Cameroon, says it is presently caring for 55 chimps at its facility. At the time of rescue, most of these great apes were stranded, malnourished, sick and frightened infants. Many more of Cameroon’s chimps are caged in private homes as pets and are unaccounted for, notes James Jeta, head of education at Ape Action Africa. “Dignity and joy” Cazza, a member of the Mefou sanctuary chimp community, was six months old when rescued from “inside a cardboard box, strapped to the back of a wildlife trafficker’s motorbike.” Likely her mother was killed and harvested as bushmeat. When Cazza was brought to the Mefou sanctuary, the animal was “frightened,” dehydrated and needed lice treatment, according to her profile written up by the Ape Action Africa staff. “Other [chimps] languished years, sometimes decades, on chains or in tiny cages before we could change their lives,” notes IDA-Africa on its website, referring to the animals in its care. “Their personal histories are all compelling but not unique,” Pandrillus reports on its website, adding that great ape “atrocities continue to play out daily across Africa in the 22 habitat countries where chimpanzees still survive, despite strict laws against hunting, legally protected habitat areas, conservation NGO input, and international treaties against trade.” Through its work, IDA-Africa says it is offering orphaned chimps “a second chance to live with dignity and joy,” shielded from the combined impacts of poaching, the bushmeat trade and habitat destruction. In spite of the safe haven that sanctuaries now offer orphaned chimps — some of which were rescued just “hours from death” — keeping the animals behind electrified fences is not anyone’s idea of an ideal solution to the problem, says Jeta of Ape Action Africa. Africa’s dwindling wild chimpanzees After the failure of finding a forest in which to safely release captive great apes, Speede says she and her colleagues are focused now on preventing further habitat destruction in Cameroon and tackling the other root causes that pluck wild chimps out of the forest: “The primary threats to chimpanzees are habitat destruction, hunting and disease,” says Save the Chimps, an NGO: “The increasing human population is encroaching ever deeper into even protected areas of chimpanzee habitat, and large scale logging is now a major threat to the forest primates of Africa.” In addition “there is now a thriving but unsustainable commercial market for bushmeat, including chimpanzees.” And then there is disease: As rural human populations grow, people increasingly come into contact with wild primates, increasing the odds of infectious diseases jumping from species to species. Common diseases “which may be mild in humans [can be] lethal to chimps,” notes the NGO. In the past, chimpanzees inhabited forests from Senegal to western Uganda and Tanzania — an area the size of the United States. They have already disappeared from the wild in four African nations — Gambia, Burkina Faso, Benin and Togo, mostly due to habitat loss and poaching, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Today, they are found in just 22 countries, according to Pandrillus. According to WWF, “Senegal, Mali, the Cabinda enclave of Angola, Equatorial Guinea, and Sudan contain small, dispersed populations that are seriously at risk. Populations have severely declined in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria, Burundi and Rwanda. Côte d’Ivoire, for example, once harbored an important population; however a recent survey found this had declined by 90 percent over the last 20 years.” Current wild population estimates across all of Africa range from 150,000 to 300,000 chimpanzees. Heavy concentrations are found in Central Africa, where WWF believes Pan troglodytes troglodytes, the Central chimpanzee, may total “115,000 individuals, mostly in Gabon, Cameroon and Congo.” Pandrillus offers a lower estimate of 93,000 for the region. Based on the current rate of decline, primatologists estimate that chimps could be gone from Cameroon’s forests within 15 to 20 years. Reintroduction vs. protection As wild populations decline, Cameroon’s sanctuaries expect to see the number of incoming chimps go up. Better law enforcement and more efficient rescue operations over the last two decades have improved the chances of orphaned chimps being confiscated from poachers and traffickers and ending up in sanctuaries. Proponents of reintroduction say that a return to the wild of these once-wild orphans is only natural, and would give the chimps a chance to live where they were meant to live. These proponents point to a successful release in 2008 by the Chimpanzee Conservation Center in Guinea — the reintroduction of six male and nine female Western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) — as “an historic event for chimpanzees in Africa.” That accomplishment demonstrated that “releasing rehabilitated wild-born orphan chimpanzees can make a positive contribution to the conservation of the species and the release habitat,” according to Tatyana Humle, Christelle Colin, Matthieu Laurans and Estelle Raballand. Writing in the International Journal of Primatology in 2010, the four researchers saw the injection of genetic materials into endangered wild populations as a plus for reintroduction. Conservationists also point out that captivity is expensive. Reintroduction can free up money for protection in
migration — needs to be considered as urgent priority," says Steve Trent, executive director of EJF. The report says there will be far more climate refugees than there have been Syrian refugees Threat multiplier The report highlights the situation in the Middle East and Africa, including the worst drought to hit Syria in 900 years. It caused farmers to lose their livestock and livelihoods, which were desperately needed in the context of the war. The report notes that 1 million Syrians were already on the move because of the drought before a single gunshot was fired in the conflict. The report says such events will spread to other parts of the world. And the hurricanes that have affected the United States this year show richer nations are not immune to the effects of climate change. The report features interviews with military leaders who say global refugee numbers are set to rise as political, social and economic tensions collide with worsening climate change impacts. "What we are talking about here is an existential threat to our civilisation in the longer term," US Military Corps Brigadier General Stephen A. Cheney told EJF. "In the short term, it carries all sorts of risks as well and it requires a human response on a scale that has never been achieved before." "If Europe thinks they have a problem with migration today, wait 20 years and see what happens when climate change drives people out of Africa — the Sahel especially." A separate report released this week by Oxfam details some of the displacement that has already happened because of extreme weather events. It found that between 2008 and 2016 an average of 21.8 million people per year were newly internally displaced by sudden-onset extreme weather disasters. Such instances include the destruction wrought by Cyclone Pape in Vanuatu in 2015, and Cyclone Winston, which displaced more than 55,000 people in Fiji in 2016. Fiji, which is hosting this year's climate summit in Bonn, lost around a fifth of its GDP as a result of the storm. Worsening hurricanes in the Atlantic could drive increased climate migration Climate risk insurance Insurance against climate change-related weather events already exists. In 2015 at a summit in Elmau, Germany, the G7 group of wealthy countries set up an initiative on climate risk insurance for vulnerable areas of the world, covering around 400 million people. The objective is to stimulate the creation of effective climate risk insurance markets that could function on their own. InsuResilience, an initiative of the German development agency GIZ, based in Bonn, is carrying out the G7's plan. It is running programs to establish climate risk insurance markets across the world. The insurance would help people rebuild after climate-change realted weather events that result in loss of life, livelihood and assets. The goal is to make sure those people stay put and do not become climate refugees. Rapid emergency assistance and reconstruction is provided by the schemes. Germany wants to push for global climate risk insurance programs at the Bonn summit Opportunities in Bonn The German government has been a leader in pushing for these programs. Last year the German Development Ministry invested around €2.8 billion in international climate protection and adaptation. A spokesperson for the ministry told DW that during the Bonn climate summit, Germany will push for a global partnership for climate risk insurance. "Increasingly, climate change will also influence flight movements," said Gerd Müller, Germany's minister for economic cooperation and development. "Because where grass can no longer grow... or where the rising sea level has flooded coastal areas, people will have to find a new home." Although the COP23 summit is not being held in Fiji (the Fijian government is presiding over the meeting, which is being held in Bonn for logistical reasons), the country intends to leave its mark on this year's summit by stoking the idea of climate risk insurance. The new testimonials from military experts may convince other delegations that the time has come to establish more such schemes.Curtis Wilkie, fellow at the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics at University of Mississippi, covered national politics for the Boston Globe for 25 years. When Thad Cochran agreed last fall to speak to my politics class at the University of Mississippi, I introduced the senator as a “moderate Republican.” He stopped me. “I’m not a moderate,” he said, in his usual soft-spoken manner. “I’m a conservative.” No modifier need be applied. He recognized it could now be used against him. Story Continued Below Thad might disagree today, but “moderate” is a word that many other Mississippians would use—admiringly—to describe his 36-year career in the Senate, which is under threat, perhaps permanently, from a movement that considers compromise the equivalent of surrender. After years working quietly on bipartisan measures and channeling billions of dollars in appropriations to his home state, Cochran, 76, has faced a devastating challenge from within his own party in a close primary runoff against Tea Party challenger Chris McDaniel—a rebuke that has been all the more stunning considering that Cochran had not been seriously challenged, by Democrats or Republicans, since 1984. To those who respected him, even when they might have disagreed politically, it’s a genuinely sad reminder that what Thad Cochran represents—the old-school politics of the true Southern gentleman—is already an anachronism. Thad—he is known throughout Mississippi by his first name—has never displayed a combative temperament. From the beginning of his career he rejected the invective of Southern demagoguery, a specialty that so many of his contemporaries were practicing when he was first elected to Congress. Privately, he can give a hilarious, scornful imitation of the blatherings of the late segregationist Mississippi Gov. Ross Barnett. In actuality, Thad seems a descendant of the school of courtly Southern senators—I think of Sam Ervin of North Carolina, John Sparkman of Alabama, John Stennis of Mississippi—who spoke of conservative values but never carried the rattle of pitchforks in their voices. With seniority and mild manners, they cultivated trust among their colleagues and parlayed it into federal riches for their home states. Full disclosure: I’ve known Thad since we were young boys on the Ole Miss campus in 1947, while our teacher-parents were earning their master’s degrees. A decade later, we were back at the university as students. Over the years, we lived in Washington at the same time, while he was in Congress and I was a correspondent for the Boston Globe. Now, like so many Ole Miss alumni our age, we both call Oxford home. Thad and I have plenty of political differences, but he is not the kind to disrupt a friendship with argument. That’s not his style. Like most Republicans of his vintage in our state, Thad was originally a Democrat. He once told me he voted for Lyndon Johnson in 1964, when Barry Goldwater’s candidacy and the passage of the Civil Rights Act triggered a stampede by white conservative Mississippians to the Republican Party. Four years later, Thad helped to lead a statewide campaign among disaffected Democrats who supported Richard Nixon. By 1972, he was a successful Republican candidate himself for a seat in the House. Thad’s basic conservatism was never in doubt, but from the start of his career he departed from a line long held by most Mississippi politicians at that point: Race issues weren’t part of his political calculus. He refused to join in the bitter-end resistance to school integration in Mississippi in the 1970s, and he became one of the first white officials to make alliances with blacks. (In a rare sight for a Republican, Thad is openly seeking help in the predominantly black Mississippi Delta in the closing hours of the campaign.) After he won a Senate seat in 1978, Thad built seniority and power the same way as had congressmen and senators who once represented the old “Solid South,” Democratic since the end of Reconstruction: by quietly acquiring clout as the region changed to red on the political map. He specialized in agriculture and appropriations and rarely engaged in discussions about heated “wedge issues” such as abortion rights and gun control. Thad became an example of the proverbial Capitol Hill “work horse,” laboring in private while the “show horses” sought cameras and acclaim. NBC tells me he only appeared on Meet the Press twice, most recently in 1997. Thad Cochran with Trent Lott in 2006. \| AP Photo Back in the 1970s, ’80s and even ’90s, members of Congress drew on the expertise of others, regardless of party designation. A Democrat from an industrial state wouldn’t hesitate to seek advice on a farm issue from a Republican friend from Iowa. Congress was more of a community, and Thad fit into it easily. He was an excellent tennis player and often found himself in a tough match with a Democrat; he played regularly with John Breaux of Louisiana and even competed in annual, informal contests with Ted Kennedy at Hickory Hill. Once the game was over, it was all bonhomie off the court. Instead of exercising conservative zealotry, Thad worked often with Democrats in the Senate and—God forbid—with Democratic administrations to craft legislation acceptable to both sides. In 2002, for instance, he was one of 11 Republicans who voted to pass the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill. His voting record was still reliably conservative, usually approaching 90 on the American Conservative Union scale, though it never reached 100 percent. Today a mere 90 is not good enough for many of his constituents. Despite his low-key demeanor, Thad’s ability to steer appropriations Mississippi’s way made him a hero back home. They’re often disappointed by his votes, but even Mississippi Democrats generally like Thad as a man and respect his ability to guide billions of dollars to the state through his role as a leader on the Appropriations Committee. Budget-watchers might sneer at him as a prince of pork barrel spending, but Mississippi has profited through public works projects, funds for education and, most notably, relief after Hurricane Katrina.Fat passengers were asked to stand up (Picture: Getty) We’re used to hearing some fairly mundane announcements at train stations. But every now and then there will be one that makes us think ‘did I actually hear that?’. That’s what happened on a train in Basingstoke, Hampshire, when a member of railway staff is alleged to have said: ‘We are going to be like sardines on this train, so can I ask that only slim people sit on the three seaters. If you are fat then it is simply not going to work.’ One commuter said: ‘I am not necessarily a big person, but most people are larger than those seats anyway. ‘It’s pretty disgusting. I would get fired if I said that at my work.’ MORE: The last man of Fukushima: How one man stayed to feed the abandoned animals MORE: Where’s Putin? Russian president not seen for nine days Advertisement Advertisement But, South West Trains said that the comment was meant in jest and most commuters took it in a light-hearted way. A spokesman for the South West Trains-Network Rail Alliance said: ‘All passengers are welcome on board our trains. Our guard was aware this particular service was very busy and, in a light-hearted way, pointed out that some middle seat spaces might not be comfortable for passengers with a similar build to herself. ‘This was in no way intended as a slight on any customers and the majority of passengers on the train took the comments in the spirit in which they were intended. However, like ourselves, she is very sorry if any passengers were offended by her remarks. ‘We run some of the busiest trains in the country and we appreciate that space on some of our trains is limited. To provide extra space and seats for our customers, we are in the process of investing £250m in extra carriages and new trains.’The title affectionately called the “Big Gold Championship” made its official WWE debut in September 2002, but its true lineage dates to the formation of the National Wrestling Alliance in 1948. Hoping to raise its prestige, the young organization named an NWA World Heavyweight Champion to reign over its member territories. By the 1980s, the title became synonymous with the NWA’s largest territory, Jim Crockett Promotions. When JCP morphed into WCW after Ted Turner purchased the company in 1988, the NWA World Heavyweight Championship likewise transformed into the WCW Championship. Chris Jericho unified the WCW Championship with the WWE Championship in 2001 to become the Undisputed WWE Championship, seemingly retiring the championship held by legends like Lou Thesz, Jack Brisco, Harley Race and Ricky Steamboat. But when that new WWE Title became exclusive to SmackDown, Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff revived the only championship respectable enough to lead the flagship program. Bischoff revealed WWE’s version of the “Big Gold Championship” Sept. 2, 2002. In celebration of the title’s 11-year anniversary with WWE, WWE.com ranks the 15 best champions to claim the World Heavyweight Title in WWE. ( PHOTOS \| PLAYLIST \| VOTE DREAM OPPONENT FOR SHEAMUS) 15 Goldberg Days as champion: 84 Key wins: Triple H Remembered as one of the most dominant Superstars in history, Goldberg became the first former WCW World Champion to win WWE’s World Heavyweight Championship. Goldberg set his sights on Triple H and the World Title at SummerSlam 2003 in the Elimination Chamber. He eliminated three competitors, but The Game stole the victory thanks to help from his Evolution cronies. Goldberg finally earned a one-on-one match against Triple H at Unforgiven under the condition he would retire if he lost. The imposing Superstar overpowered The King of Kings, though, en route to capturing his only title in WWE. The desperate Game responded by placing a $100,000 bounty on the champ. Still, Goldberg defeated The Cerebral Assassin at Survivor Series in a glorified Handicap Match, as Ric Flair and Batista stood in the Evolution leader’s corner, despite entering with a bum foot. For having to fight off attacks from the entire Raw roster, Goldberg’s 84-day was certainly credible. 14 Daniel Bryan Days as champion: 105 Key wins: Big Show & Mark Henry, Elimination Chamber It may seem like a bit of a stretch to call Daniel Bryan one of the best World Heavyweight Champions considering his 105-day reign ended in a whimper at WrestleMania XXVIII. His title defenses more than compensate for his 18-second loss to Sheamus, though. After essentially picking up the scraps at WWE Tables, Ladders & Chairs by pinning an already weakened Big Show, the submissions expert made his first prominent World Title defense at Royal Rumble 2012 locked inside a steel cage with Show and Mark Henry. Bryan managed to outlast his much larger foes, however, to escape the cage. Bryan followed the upset by retaining his title inside an Elimination Chamber. Granted, he benefitted from entering the match last, but that doesn’t discount that he had to outmatch fan-favorite Santino Marella, who was on another level that night. Ultimately, two high-pressure title defenses make Bryan’s reign more reputable than his WrestleMania record suggests. 13 Randy Orton Days as champion: 138 Key wins: Christian The youngest World Champion in WWE history, Randy Orton took home his first World Heavyweight Championship at 24. It’s certainly an impressive feat, but the reign left a lot to be desired. Orton showed his inexperience, losing the title to Triple H in his first defense. The loss started The Viper on a seven-year drought away from the title, until he challenged Christian just days after Captain Charisma clinched his first World Title. Orton and Christian put on several instant classics during summer 2011, but The Viper ultimately finished on top, winning the title twice from Christian. While his second reign ended because of his hotheadedness — Orton lost his cool, earning a disqualification loss and dropping the title due to the bout’s stipulations — his third also wrapped with the first defense. No one can deny his three title victories deserve recognition, but The Apex Predator’s reigns lacked bite. 12 Kane Days as champion: 154 Key wins: The Undertaker It’s hard to dissect Kane’s only World Heavyweight Championship victory. Sure, he cashed in his Money in the Bank contract on Rey Mysterio after Jack Swagger beat up The Master of the 619. The title victory may have been cheap, but his reign was anything but. The key to Kane’s domination was his utter decimation of his half-brother The Undertaker. The Big Red Monster defeated The Deadman in a one-on-one bout (Night of Champions), a Hell in a Cell (Hell in a Cell) and a Buried Alive Match (Bragging Rights). While The Nexus assisted Kane at Bragging Rights, The Devil’s Favorite Demon certainly did not look like he wanted their help, as he tried to fight off the crew when they appeared. Anytime you can defeat arguably the most respected Superstar in the history of WWE on three occasions, it’s a noteworthy title reign. 11 CM Punk Days as champion: 160 Key wins: Edge, JBL, The Undertaker CM Punk’s jump to the main event scene and the World Heavyweight Championship picture came courtesy of his pair of Money in the Bank contracts. Punk took home the coveted contract at WrestleMania XXIV and XXV, respectively, choosing to cash in against the reigning World Heavyweight Champion both times. First, he told Edge to “Go to Sleep” in 2008 after Batista beat up The Rated-R Superstar. Then in 2009, he spoiled Jeff Hardy’s first reign with the title by cashing in following Hardy’s brutal Ladder Match against Edge. Despite being outsized by many of his opponents, Punk managed to retain against Batista, JBL and The Undertaker ━ even defeating The Deadman in a Submission Match. His rivalry with Hardy during summer 2009 might best define his history with the championship. Punk defeated Hardy in a Tables, Ladders and Chairs Match and a Steel Cage Match, banishing Hardy from WWE. 10 Chris Jericho Days as champion: 106 Key wins: Shawn Michaels, Batista, Elimination Chamber, Edge The last WCW World Champion, Chris Jericho unified the title with the WWE Championship in 2001 to become the first Undisputed Champion. The wily Jericho started his reign when he practically stole a last-second pinfall in a Championship Scramble at Unforgiven 2008. Though Jericho lost earlier in the night to Shawn Michaels, he found himself added to the match at the eleventh hour to replace the injured champion, CM Punk. Jericho’s history with the title often involved unforgiving steel. His first reign included victories against Punk ━ in a Steel Cage Match ━ and Shawn Michaels ━ in an instant classic of a Ladder Match. His second reign started with a victory on the 800th episode of Raw in a Steel Cage Match against Batista. His third and final ━ for now ━ reign began in an Elimination Chamber Match in 2010, when he pinned reigning champ The Undertaker. 9 John Cena Days as champion: 105 Key wins: Chris Jericho, JBL, Edge & Big Show Despite his close association with the WWE Championship, winning the title 10 times and introducing the current design, John Cena also found success with the World Heavyweight Title on two occasions. The Cenation leader first won the title from Chris Jericho at Survivor Series 2008 after tossing the champion onto his shoulders for an Attitude Adjustment. He retained his title against the tough JBL at Royal Rumble despite an interference by Shawn Michaels, who was then-employed by the millionaire. The Champ dropped the title in an Elimination Chamber Match the following month to The Ultimate Opportunist, Edge. But given the difficulty of Satan’s Prison, it’s hard to fault Cena for the loss. His second reign started at WrestleMania XXV, when he hoisted Big Show and Edge simultaneously for an AA en route to victory. That’s nearly 700 pounds Cena carried on his shoulders. The reign came to an abrupt end the following month, but it cannot overshadow the WrestleMania moment. 8 Mark Henry Days as champion: 91 Key wins: Randy Orton, Christian, Daniel Bryan In 15 years, Mark Henry held two solo titles, the European and the ECW Championship, respectively. So when The World’s Strongest Man earned an opportunity at Randy Orton’s World Heavyweight Title, he was not going to let it slip through his massive fingers. The title victory laid the foundation of Henry’s “Hall of Pain” and proved — in case the WWE Universe had any doubt — other Superstars should quake with fear when they see him walking to the ring. As if his dominant Hell in a Cell defense against Orton wasn’t enough to prove Henry was the toughest on the block, The World’s Strongest Man had the guts to risk his title despite a serious foot injury against Daniel Bryan in a Steel Cage Match. Henry could barely walk, but managed to deliver a World’s Strongest Slam from the second rope to secure the win and his legacy as part of WWE’s elite. 7 Rey Mysterio Days as champion: 140 Key wins: Kurt Angle & Randy Orton, JBL, Fatal 4-Way He may be the smallest World Champion in WWE history, but Rey Mysterio’s two reigns with the World Heavyweight Title certainly made a big impact. Miraculously winning the 2006 Royal Rumble Match after entering No. 2, Mysterio defeated Kurt Angle and Randy Orton in a dramatic Triple Threat Match at WrestleMania 22 for the championship. The Master of the 619 added thrilling wins against Orton at Backlash and JBL at Judgment Day to his historic reign before he lost the title at The Great American Bash to King Booker — thanks in part to Chavo Guerrero’s unexpected betrayal. Like his first reign, the second ended under dubious circumstances, with Kane cashing in his Money in the Bank contract after Rey finished a grueling match against Jack Swagger. Mysterio’s reigns may not have been the most stellar, but he proved himself against big men like Big Show, JBL and Jack Swagger. 6 Sheamus Days as champion: 210 Key wins: Daniel Bryan, Fatal 4-Way, Dolph Ziggler & Alberto Del Rio It’s hardly surprising that a reign that began with an 18-second victory at WrestleMania XXVIII would be so dominant. It only took two hits for Sheamus to notch his first World Heavyweight Championship against Daniel Bryan at the Show of Shows: Sheamus hitting Bryan and Bryan hitting the canvas. His quick victory aside, the credibility of Sheamus’ reign came from his willingness to accept all challengers — no matter the size or the number. He faced Alberto Del Rio, for example, one-on-one, in a Triple Threat Match and in a Fatal 4-Way Match. He’s retained the championship gold against five former World Champions — Bryan, Del Rio, Randy Orton, Chris Jericho and Dolph Ziggler. That’s not to mention the various injuries he battled with and the challenges he accepted throughout his reign. To say Sheamus is the gutsiest World Heavyweight Champion in history may be an understatement. 5 King Booker Days as champion: 126 Key wins: Fatal 4-Way, Big Show & John Cena After bouncing around the mid-card and tag team scenes in his first five years in WWE, Booker T finally cemented his place in the main event by winning the 2006 King of the Ring. The five-time WCW Heavyweight Champion carried that momentum to his first World Championship reign in WWE, defeating Rey Mysterio for the World Heavyweight Title at The Great American Bash. King Booker survived a Fatal 4-Way and a challenge by Batista in his first defenses. More impressively, though, Booker found himself in a rivalry with WWE Champion John Cena and ECW Champion Big Show over which championship was the most prestigious. A vote by the WWE Universe at Cyber Sunday forced Booker to defend his title against his fellow World Champions. Thanks to a timely assist from Kevin Federline, Booker held onto his title and escaped Cyber Sunday as the best World Champ in the company. 4 The Undertaker Days as champion: 207 Key wins: Batista, Edge, Fatal 4-Way Controversy surrounds The Undertaker’s three-reigns with the World Heavyweight Championship. After securing the title at WrestleMania 23 against Batista, The Deadman dropped the title when Edge cashed in his Money in the Bank contract after he waged war in a Steel Cage Match. His second reign ended when Vickie Guerrero fired him in 2008, vacating the title. An interference by Shawn Michaels at Elimination Chamber 2010 cost him his third and final reign. Questionable losses aside, The Undertaker won the title at WrestleMania twice (23 and XXIV, respectively) and in a Hell in a Cell against CM Punk. As anticipated from The Undertaker, he accepted all challenges, defending the “Big Gold Championship” in a Last Man Standing Match, a Chairs Match and a Triple Threat against former WWE Tag Team Champions Jeri-Show, Chris Jericho and Big Show. It’s an impressive set of victories for an already impressive resume. 3 Edge Days as champion: 409 Key wins: The Undertaker, Batista, John Cena, Elimination Chamber No one held the World Heavyweight Championship more than Edge, as The Rated-R Superstar won the title seven times. Granted, when a Superstar wins a title seven times, that means they also lose it seven times. In Edge’s defense, he vacated the title twice, was on the receiving end of a Money in the Bank contract cash in and was stripped of the championship by Vickie Guerrero. He’s only lost it three times under fair competition. The WWE Hall of Famer’s title victories came against serious heavies like The Undertaker, John Cena and Batista, just to name a few. His most memorable defense, though, may have been at WrestleMania XXVII when he defeated Alberto Del Rio to retain. Little did the WWE Universe know it was his last match. Edge retired the following Monday on Raw and surrendered the the title that Friday on SmackDown. To retire as champion may be the highest honor one can receive. 2 Batista Days as champion: 507 Key wins: Triple H, JBL, Eddie Guerrero, The Undertaker Evolution’s enforcer refused to wait for Triple H to step away from the spotlight, and in the process, became one of the best World Heavyweight Champions in history. Batista defeated his mentor Triple H at WrestleMania 21 to win his first World Title, launching him on an epic reign that featured two more victories against The Game, including a brutal Hell in a Cell Match. After his victory in The Devil's Playground, he took the title to SmackDown, where it’s since remained for all but 10 months. He bested JBL and Eddie Guerrero before tearing his tricep muscle. Batista emotionally surrendered the championship Jan. 10, 2006, ending his 282-day reign, still the longest in the title’s history. The four-time champion defeated King Booker, The Great Khali and Chris Jericho to kick off the rest of his spells as champ, but the first was the most memorable. 1 Triple H Days as champion: 616 Key wins: Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair, Elimination Chamber No one controlled Raw quite like Triple H did from 2002 to 2005. The Game became the first World Heavyweight Champion Sept. 2, 2002, when Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff presented him with the title. Sixteen-time World Champion Ric Flair took exception to the gift, challenging Triple H to “earn” it. After beating The Nature Boy, The Cerebral Assassin ran through a myriad of former WCW World Champions, defeating Flair, Scott Steiner, Booker T, Kevin Nash and Goldberg. The honors achieved during Triple H’s five reigns include defeating Kane to unify the title with the Intercontinental Championship, besting Shawn Michaels in Three Stages of Hell and Last Man Standing Matches, and winning two Elimination Chamber contests. His 616-day mark as champion is more than 100 days longer than that of the closest Superstar, Batista. His reigns may have earned the WWE Universe’s ire, but Triple H knew how to hold onto the “Big Gold Championship.”Senator JV Ejercito on Tuesday chided the Land Transportation and Franchising Regulatory Board (LTFRB) for implementing a crackdown on Grab and Uber vehicles, which he said “offer far better and more convenient services than regular taxis.” “In the first place, LTFRB has to put in mind why these TNVS (Transport Network Vehicle Services) are thriving. Ngayong may maayos naman na serbisyo na inoffer sa publiko, pipigilan naman ng LTFRB! (Now that there is a better service being offered to the public, the LTFRB is now stopping it)” Ejercito said in a statement. ADVERTISEMENT Instead of suspending the issuance of TNVS, Ejercito said the LTFRB should take action first on the complaints against picky and abusive taxi drivers. READ: LTFRB to impound Uber, Grab cars lacking franchise “Kung ganito kayo kaingay at kadesididong patawan ng service ban ang Grab at Uber, dapat ganito rin ang aksyon ninyo sa mga reklamo sa regular taxis! (If you are this clamorous and determined to impose service ban against Grab and Uber, you should also display the same action on the complaints against regular taxis!)” Ejercito said of the LTFRB’s new decision. The visibly piqued senator said he will call for a meeting to mediate with the LTFRB and the management of Grab and Uber to come up with a compromise for both parties before July 26. “I am not siding with anyone on this issue. What’s important to consider here is the convenience and safety of the riding public. We would consider all remedies without disregarding the law,” he said. Ejercito is the vice chairman of the Senate committee on public services. He also called on Grab and Uber to immediately comply with the requirements to ensure the safety of their riding customers. Recently, the LTFRB fined Grab and Uber P5 million each for violating the terms and conditions of their accreditation, such as the inclusion in their platforms of drivers who do not have franchises to operate. By July 26, Grab and Uber drivers without franchises will be fined P120,000 and their vehicles impounded for three months. JPV ADVERTISEMENT RELATED STORY LTFRB: Uber, Grab to blame for ‘mess’ Read Next LATEST STORIES MOST READShips of the Vaadwaur Supremacy emphasize the frontal assault and overwhelming offensive tactics favored by the Vaadwaur commanders. Their dedication to warfare allows these starships to remain formidable foes, even though portions of their technology could be considered antiquated by modern definitions. Manasa-class Escorts (also sometimes called Assault Vessels) represent the bulk of the Vaadwaur fleets. This highly maneuverable attack craft possesses tremendous offensive capabilities along with remarkable durability due to its powerful shields. Tier: 6 Faction: All Rank Required: Rear Admiral / Brigadier General / Sub Admiral I Availability: Vaadwaur Lockbox Hull Strength: 30,000 at level 40, 34,500 at level 50 and 40,000 at level 60 Shield Modifier: 1.2 Crew: 150 Weapons: 5 Fore, 2 Aft Device Slots: 2 Bridge Officer Stations: 1 Lieutenant Tactical, 1 Commander Tactical, 1 Lieutenant Commander Engineering, 1 Lieutenant Science/Intelligence, 1 Lieutenant Universal Console Modifications: 5 Tactical, 4 Engineering, 2 Science Base Turn Rate: 18 degrees per second Impulse Modifier: 0.21 Inertia: 70 +10 Weapon Power, +10 Engine Power Can Equip Dual Cannons Console – Universal – Polaron Barrage Launcher Matter-Antimatter Warp Core Starship Mastery Package (Escort) Precise Weapon Systems Tactical Maneuvering Enhanced Weapon Systems Devastating Weaponry Frontal Assault (Starship Trait) Console – Universal – Polaron Barrage Launcher The Vaadwaur Manasa Assault Escort comes equipped with the Polaron Barrage Launcher. This trademark piece of technology has become a well-known signature of Vaadwaur fleets since their recent re-emergence in the Delta Quadrant. By utilizing a series of special power capacitors, loaded directly into the primary weapons relays, they can periodically unleash a punishing barrage of polaron energy into a foe's general vicinity. This universal console also provides an Accuracy buff that scales with your current throttle level. This Console Mod can be equipped in any console slot. It may be equipped on any Vaadwaur ship. You may only equip one of these mods. Frontal Assault (Starship Trait) After achieving level 5 in your Vaadwaur Manasa Assault Escort’s starship mastery, you will unlock the Frontal Assault starship trait. While this starship trait is slotted, activating Cannon abilities will provide a boost to your frontal shield hardness and regeneration rate for a short time. Battlecruisers of the "Astika" class further reinforce this focus on offensive force while also being capable of withstanding heavy incoming fire, thanks to its sturdy craftsmanship and many versatile capabilities. Tier: 6 Faction: All Rank Required: Rear Admiral / Brigadier General / Sub Admiral I Availability: Lobi Store Hull Strength: 45,000 at level 40, 51,750 at level 50, 60,000 at level 60 Shield Modifier: 1.16 Crew: 600 Weapons: 5 Fore, 3 Aft Device Slots: 4 Bridge Officer Stations: 1 Lieutenant Commander Tactical, 1 Lieutenant Engineering/Command, 1 Commander Engineering, 1 Lieutenant Science, 1 Lieutenant Universal Console Modifications: 4 Tactical, 5 Engineering, 2 Science Base Turn Rate: 6.5 degrees per second Impulse Modifier: 0.15 Inertia: 38 +10 Weapon Power, +5 Shield Power, +5 Engine Power Can Equip Dual Cannons Console – Universal – Assault Mode Relays Matter-Antimatter Warp Core Cruiser Communication Arrays Command – Shield Frequency Modulation Command – Strategic Maneuvering Command – Weapon System Efficiency Starship Mastery Package (Battlecruiser) Absorptive Plating Enhanced Weapon Banks Enhanced Plating Armored Hull Supremacy (Starship Trait) Console – Universal – Assault Mode Relays The Vaadwaur Astika Heavy Battlecruiser comes equipped with the Assault Mode Relays universal console. This unit contains sophisticated circuitry designed specifically to facilitate quickly shunting power between engines and weapons in the blink of an eye. Vaadwaur starships frequently make use of this capability to allow their vessels to swap between being highly mobile, and highly deadly. While this "Assault Mode" universally grants benefits to outgoing weapon damage, each class of Vaadwaur vessel utilizes this power swap a little differently, benefiting in different ways. On the Assault Escort, entering Assault Mode will grant additional shield regeneration and shield hardness for the ship's forward arc. On the Heavy Battlecruiser, exiting Assault Mode will cripple nearby enemies' sensors by placating all nearby foes. This universal console also provides a substantial passive increase to turn and flight speed as long as Assault Mode isn’t active. This Console Mod can be equipped in any console slot. It may be equipped on any Vaadwaur ship. You may only equip one of these mods. Supremacy (Starship Trait) After achieving level 5 in your Vaadwaur Astika Heavy Battlecruiser starship mastery, you will unlock the Supremacy starship trait. While this starship trait is slotted, activating Beam: Fire At Will or Cannon: Scatter Volley will provide a small boost to all subsystem power levels per target hit for a short time as long as these attack modes are active. This bonus stacks up to 20 times. The Vaadwaur Pythus Fighter is an incredibly agile fighter craft. It comes equipped with a Vaadwaur Polaron Emitter Array and a Quantum Torpedo Launcher. Additionally, the Pythus Fighter also comes with an Integrated Beam: Overload I ability. This ability doesn't require a Bridge Officer to use, but it has a longer recharge time than normal. Faction: All Availability: Lobi Store Hull Strength: 6,000 (increases as you level) Shield Modifier: 0.55 Crew: 8 Weapon: 2 Fore Device Slots: 1 Bridge Officer Stations: 1 Ensign Tactical, 1 Ensign Universal Console Modifications: 2 Tactical, 1 Engineering Base Turn Rate: 25 degrees per second Impulse Modifier: 0.2 Integrated Beam: Overload I +10 Weapon Power Quantum Torpedo Launcher that increases in effectiveness as you level Vaadwaur Polaron Emitter Array that increases in effectiveness as you level Vaadwaur Artillery Set Additional Barrage Launchers (2 pc) By equipping both the Assault Mode Relays and Polaron Barrage Launcher universal consoles onto a Vaadwaur starship you will gain the Additional Barrage Launchers set bonus. This will cause your Polaron Barrage to create 5 additional secondary targets within a 360-degree area around your vessel. The vessels of the APU (which stands for "Automated Personnel Units") are robust and practical, and well-suited for warfare thanks to their longstanding conflicts with one another. The APU from the Pralor and Cravic factions have waged an unending war with one another for many years, thanks to their inflexible interpretation of the core programming that drives them. Despite being artificial lifeforms, the APU are entirely self-contained and do not integrate with any of their known technology. Their starships and equipment can therefore be easily adapted for use by other species. Tier: 5 (Can be upgraded to T5-U) Faction: All Rank Required: Rear Admiral / Brigadier General / Sub Admiral I Availability: Vaadwaur Lock Box Hull Strength: 38,000 Shield Modifier: 1 Crew: 200 Weapons: 4 Fore, 4 Aft Device Slots:
problem of identity asks: ‘What does it mean for a thing to remain the same thing if it changes over time?’ or ‘What makes two entities the same kind of thing?’ The problem of individuation asks: ‘How do we tell things apart?’ or ‘What are the boundaries of an object?’ Identity is fundamentally about the nature of sameness and continuity; individuation is about differences and breaks. These two issues are different sides of the same coin. You can often reframe one in terms of the other to suit your focus. To pick something out in the world you need to know both what makes it one thing, and also what makes it different than other things – identity and individuation, sameness and difference. Each of these aspects of individuality also tends to come in degrees. A bee is better individuated than a swarm; and a swarm is better individuated than an ecosystem. Similarly, you are closer to the person you were yesterday than you are to the one in your baby photos. Such abstractions connect to more practical questions. Imagine you’re trying to catalogue the species of invertebrates in your garden. You’d want to lump the juveniles and adults together as members of the same species even if they looked different. To do this you’d need to understand the different stages of an organism’s lifecycle, so as to avoid errors regarding identity. Admittedly, this might make it quite difficult to get an accurate species count in a garden swarming with butterflies and caterpillars. Likewise, you’d need to be careful not to individuate the wrong way, counting parts of one organism as separate entities rather than a single thing. If you spy a slug and a snail, you’d need to take note of two kinds of living things. You wouldn’t want to count one slug, and then a second slug with a third thing – a growing shell – hitching a ride on its back. But with enough knowledge at your fingertips about the lives of invertebrates, a good enough taxonomy should be possible – right? That’s more or less true for animals, but you don’t have to leave your garden to find fuzzier cases: plants. What individuates one organism from another? Plant life is tricky here because it can be hard to tell when a plant is growing and when it’s making something new. The philosopher of biology Peter Godfrey-Smith at the University of Sydney diagnoses the distinction between growth and reproduction as one of the central puzzles at the heart of biological individuality. As he puts it: ‘reproduction is making a new individual, while growth is making more of the same’. But there’s an uncertain relationship between the two. As well as sprouting from seeds, strawberries and many grasses send out above-ground horizontal stems called runners or stolons. New systems of roots and leaves will grow where these runners set down. If the runners get severed, the plants will carry on with no problems. A single strawberry seed can produce a large network of distinct ‘plants’, some connected and some disconnected from the others. It’s difficult to determine the boundaries of the plant that grew from the original seed, and consequently, how many total strawberry plants there are in the garden. In the early 19th century, plants were what really kickstarted the debates among naturalists about the definition of individuality. Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather of Charles Darwin, wrote in The Botanic Garden (1791): ‘A tree is properly speaking a family or swarm of buds, each bud being an individual plant.’ A special draw for the early naturalists building up their museum collections were the unusual organisms swept up during survey expeditions across the world. Strange colonial creatures with weird life cycles were being dredged up from the sea: encrusting colonies of sac-like tunicates that start life swimming around like tadpoles; long chains of transparent jet-propelled salps; and corals, anemones, sea pens and other animals that were initially believed to be plants. A young Charles Darwin served as the ship’s naturalist on one of these expeditionary voyages, collecting 5,000 specimens over the course of five years. In his journal – published as The Voyage of the Beagle (1839) – he wrote about his interest in the ‘compound animals’ of the sea, where ‘the individuality of each is not yet completed’. Take corals, made up of colonies or clusters of thousands upon thousands of connected clones called polyps. ‘What can be more remarkable [than] to see a plant-like body producing an egg, capable of swimming about and of choosing a proper place to adhere to, which then sprouts into branches, each crowded with innumerable distinct animals, often of complicated organisations,’ Darwin said. He compared the individual units of such ‘zoophytes’ to buds on a tree; but he, like his grandfather, accepted that the buds ‘must be considered individual plants’. The English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley – who would later gain renown as ‘Darwin’s Bulldog’ – presented an influential account of individuation in his address to the Royal Institution of London in 1852. Huxley studied a group of jellyfish-like marine invertebrates called hydrozoans. Some hydrozoans (the hydra) live their lives as individual polyps, while others (siphonophores, such as the Portuguese man-of-war) develop into complex colonies made up of many individuals. Huxley dubbed these latter creatures zooids. Huxley’s problem was to figure out how to pick out ‘a single thing of a given kind’ for comparative purposes. Is an individual hydra polyp analogous to an entire siphonophore colony – or is it more like a member of that colony? The dandelion is not a small plant but ‘a large tree with no investment in trunk, major branches, or perennial roots’ To begin with, biological individuality couldn’t rest merely on independent existence, Huxley said. As in the case of single zooids or our disconnected strawberries, treating individuality as the capacity to self-sustain would ‘inevitably lead to absurdities and contradictions’. Instead, Huxley singled out sexual reproduction – the generation of a new organism through the fusion of sperm and egg – as the pertinent criterion. Asexual ‘reproduction’ through cloning and budding, like the expanding stolon network that emerges from a single strawberry seed, is only growth. True biological individuality, he said, ‘is the sum of the phenomena presented by a single life: in other words, it is all those animal forms which proceed from a single egg, taken together’. A hydra polyp that reproduces via sexual reproduction is therefore analogous to a siphonophore colony, not an individual zooid. A page detail from Ernst Haekel’s Kunstformen der Natur. Courtesy Wikipedia. More than a century later, the American biologist Daniel Janzen extended this view in his paper ‘What Are Dandelions and Aphids?’ (1977). Much like the strawberry, both dandelions and aphids can alternate between asexual and sexual reproduction. Most of the dandelion clusters that you come across in the yard are clones resulting from asexual reproduction. So from the perspective of evolution, Janzen argued, all these clones are part of the same scattered individual. On this view, a single dandelion is not actually the familiar small plant; it’s more akin to ‘a very large tree with no investment in trunk, major branches, or perennial roots. It has a highly diffuse crown.’ For Huxley and Janzen, sexual reproduction draws a clear line in the sand between growing larger and producing new. It leaves us in a strange situation, though – not just with regards to plants and invertebrates, but also concerning the vast majority of unicellular life, including almost all bacteria. These organisms tend to reproduce by asexual division, dividing in half to produce two clones. So the two bacteria left behind would have to be considered as parts of a larger whole; and, failing mutation and sub-population differentiation, an entire population of bacteria would be considered a single individual. That seems pretty unsatisfactory. So what’s the alternative? Recall that individuality has two sides. We’ve been looking at the criteria for what individuates organisms – an area where sexual reproduction seems particularly helpful. But we might also look at it from the other direction, to discern what endows all parts of a thing with a coherent identity. That is, what makes a living system a specific individual, something that can undergo change but somehow remain the same? One answer is to see individuality as a spectrum or gradient. But can something be more or less ‘distinctly itself’? That’s very counterintuitive – not least because the notion of the individual has long been tied to the idea of essences, the irreducible ‘natures’ of things that lie in a realm somewhere beyond the shifting world of matter. Long before Darwin set foot on the Beagle, Aristotle explained the natural world in terms of ‘primary substances’ – his name for individuals qua individuals, the most basic forms of existence. A single, specific acorn is a primary substance, from which you can then build more general categories such as acorns or seeds. Aristotle went on to analyse why something is the way it is in terms of four causes, with the final cause or telos (meaning ‘end’ in Ancient Greek) being the ultimate reason or purpose for its existence. A thing’s telos is its essential nature. Acorns are meant to become oak trees, just as knives are meant to cut. The forces that animate the acorn lie within it, and work so as to achieve this ultimate goal. This teleology goes all the way down. Why does the acorn fall from the tree? Because, being made mostly of the elements of earth and water, it wants to find its natural place, which is as close to the centre of the Earth as possible. For nearly two millennia, Aristotle’s theory of final causes dominated how European scholars thought about the living world. But such notions were eventually displaced by the philosophies that emerged during the scientific revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries. Instead of the telos, science focused on the interaction of matter in motion in accordance with universal laws. On this view, organisms are not defined by some abstract, transcendent purpose; their distinct quality must come from what can be observed down here on Earth. Acorns become oak trees due to the unfolding interactions of their underlying matter. Tacking on something about the nature or purpose of an acorn adds nothing to this explanation. One of my favourite figures working through this period of intellectual upheaval was Sir Kenelm Digby – an extraordinary but now obscure 17th-century English natural philosopher, alchemist, privateer and courtier, who was also a celebrated swordsman, a famous brewer, and the inventor of the modern wine bottle. Digby was at the forefront of biological thinking, especially in organismal development. He obsessed over how natural systems are organised and develop – starting with simple cases and moving up in complexity towards humans. In Two Treatises (1644), his most well-known philosophical work, Digby attempted to wed the emerging mechanical philosophy with Aristotle’s idea that individuals are something more than just the collection of their parts. But, in accordance with a scientific paradigm, this ‘something more’ shouldn’t come from the realm of the non-material or occult. Digby thought of animals as intricate automata, and like a machine, the behaviour of an animal could be caused only by the underlying order and actions of its parts. But what is it that unites the parts of a system into a living individual? A haphazard pile of elephant parts is not the same thing as an elephant. In fact, all those parts would be dead To solve the problem, Digby developed a theory of how compound entities are organised. Animals and machines have an internal division of labour, he said: the parts have ‘very different natures and kinds of motion’ such that ‘one might conceive they were every one of them a complete different total thing by itself’. Living things are made up of parts that perform distinct functions; bones support, hearts pump, hands grasp and manipulate. But there must be something that turns a system into an independent and genuine whole, rather than just a set of parts ‘artificially tied together’. Digby’s answer was to say that the wholeness comes from the system being functionally interdependent and integrated. That is, the activities in one part of the system are brought about by a cause external to the part where it occurs (interdependence); and the mutual workings of the parts account for the behaviour of the system as a whole, making this activity internal to the entire system (integration). An elephant’s heart, for example, pumps blood only because it’s supplied with energy from the digestive system, oxygen from the respiratory system, and support from the skeletal system. All those bits working in tandem is what makes it possible for an elephant to walk around doing elephant things. By contrast, a haphazard pile of elephant parts is not the same thing as an elephant. In fact, all those parts would be dead. So the functioning or existence of each part depends on the functioning or existence of the other parts, and you get the characteristic behaviour of the individual only when all the parts are organised and working together as a whole. A Bullfrog by Hans Hoffmann c.1580. Courtesy Budapest Museum of Fine Arts. The notion of functional integration as a basis for biological identity was fully developed only in the 19th century, where it was transformed by the rise of both cell and evolutionary theory. Herbert Spencer was a polymath biologist and philosopher who coined the expression ‘survival of the fittest’. He tried to unite complex new findings about metabolism and organismic development with evolution and the seeming correspondence of organisms to their environments. In The Principles of Biology (1864), Spencer wrote that a biological individual is one in which the interdependence of the parts allows it to function and respond to environmental change as a whole. That is: ‘any concrete whole having a structure which enables it, when placed in appropriate conditions, to continuously adjust its internal relations to external relations, so as to maintain the equilibrium of its functions.’ Cell theory added another dimension to the debate: hierarchy. The traditional view was that you can carve up living systems in only one way. If you find individuals, then any smaller units are parts, and any larger units are groups, communities or colonies. This was the position of Digby and T H Huxley. But from a hierarchical perspective, individuals can be made up of other individuals. For example, in his 1855 survey of ‘the vegetable individual’, the botanist Alexander Braun described speculations that flora are made up of tiny, lively, independent granules that ‘inhabit the secret halls of the bark-palaces we call plants, and here silently hold their dances and celebrate their orgies’. Enter Julian Huxley, a biologist, grandson of Thomas, and brother of Aldous, author of Brave New World (1931). Huxley developed a more rigorous theory of biological hierarchy. Living matter could be grouped into continuing, ‘closed, independent systems with harmonious parts’, he wrote in The Individual in the Animal Kingdom (1912). This position differed from his grandfather’s in that it included organisms that reproduced asexually, sub-organismal individuals such as cells, and discontinuous individuals such as ant colonies. Crucially, Huxley also endorsed gradients of individuality. In real systems, he wrote, ‘closure is never complete, the independence never absolute, the harmony never perfect’. This was of real interest when it came to understanding the evolution of multicellular organisms, such as ourselves. Evolution teaches us that no organism was ever cut from whole cloth or brought into being out of nowhere. At some point in history, independent cells must have changed so as to be able to stick together and then evolve as a collective. This was what Huxley called ‘the movement of individuality’ – the transformation of individuals into a new higher-level individual. You could also see this as the continuous emergence of new part-whole hierarchies. Collectively, such changes are now known as major transitions or evolutionary transitions in individuality. They include genes coming together as chromosomes; an archaeon (a bacteria-like organism) engulfing a bacterium to become eukaryotes (the bacterium eventually became our mitochondria); the origins of multicellularity; and the origins of social groups that act as cohesive individuals (such as insect colonies). Where does this leave us on the question of the definition of a biological individual? There seem to be many options on the table but none that works well across the board. The strengths and weaknesses depend on the particular problem at hand: how to tell growth from reproduction, how to differentiate individuals from collectives, what unifies organisms as wholes, or how to deal with the hierarchical structure of biological systems. Perhaps we simply have to throw up our hands and agree with Spencer, when he said in 1864: ‘There is, indeed, as already implied, no definition of individuality that is unobjectionable.’ So what? Does it matter if there’s no grand theory of biological individualism? There’s one way in which it surely does. To construct explanations, population biologists and ecologists must be able to discern individuals in a population. Evolutionary biologists must be able to tell parents apart from their offspring, and one lineage from another. Immunologists and developmental biologists must be able to distinguish between an individual and its environment. In other words, biologists must be able to count things, and then compare those counts. But maybe there’s simply no way of picking out the true nature of biological individuals. Instead, there might just be lots of different ways of carving up biological systems, lots of different kinds of individuals, each relevant for a different purpose. It’s a patchwork. Many biologists and philosophers take that stance. One of the things that Janzen pointed out in ‘What Are Dandelions and Aphids?’ was that evolutionary biologists and ecologists are talking about different things when they talk about individual dandelions and individual aphids. Various parts of biology might settle on different objects worth describing. So perhaps a biological individual is just whatever it is that biologists happen to find useful to pluck out and examine. The American philosopher David Hull wasn’t satisfied with that response. He claimed that the individuating practices of biology should be based on the best worked-out theories about life, not simple expedience. Hull followed the lead of Julian rather than T H Huxley – that is, while it’s clear and convenient to link individuality to sexual reproduction or spatial separation, there’s no underlying scientific theory that demands it. For Hull, the only biological theory sufficiently robust to account for individuation was the theory of evolution by natural selection. Evolution itself is meant to tell us which entities count as individuals. Because natural selection is the engine of evolution, Hull said, we need to account for individuality in terms of what is required for selection. At their most basic, evolutionary individuals are entities that vary among each other, their variability causes variations in fitness, and that variation and fitness is passed along to the next generation. These individuals are also often referred to as ‘units of selection’ because they are the unit upon which the process of natural selection operates. It is the selective pressure over evolutionary time that explains why organisms have functional cohesion, are well-fitted to their environment, go through reproductive bottlenecks and develop from unicellular eggs. These traits often correlate with being an individual, and can function as a handy marker – but they are not a reason to define something as an individual per se. Hull’s view has been hugely influential, almost to the point of dominance. I agree with Hull that biological individuality should be based on our best theories, and that evolution by natural selection is the best tool we’ve got. But the focus on evolutionary theory as the sole theoretical criterion of individuation is unfortunate. Not because it isn’t up to the job, but because it’s side-lined some of the rich historical approaches we’ve discussed here, such as functional integration – which now, funnily enough, have become relevant in new ways. The reason for the revival is that there’s a revolution brewing in how we understand the role of microorganisms in evolutionary history. Symbioses are collectives made up of different species, or unlike things living together. A familiar example are termites, who rely on the bacteria and protists in their gut to digest the cellulose that makes up their primary diet. This cohabitation is quite different to the corals, hydrozoans and ant colonies that fascinated the 19th-century naturalists; they were made up of the same species. (Though we now know that these colonial animals are symbiotic collectives as well.) We’ve long suspected that multicellular creatures, including us, have been entangled in symbiotic relationships with bacteria and other microorganisms throughout our evolutionary history. But until recently, details of symbiotic interactions were pretty shadowy and difficult to uncover. That all changed with the advent of DNA sequencing. Now scientists can simply extract bacterial DNA, and start to figure out what bacteria are there, and what they are doing. It turns out that many symbiotic interactions appear to run very deep indeed. Let’s return to aphids, the bane of greenhouses and gardeners everywhere, the companion to Janzen’s dandelions. These insects have another interesting feature, beyond the way they shift between asexual and sexual reproduction. They are specialists that feed exclusively on the sap of plants. This presents a problem for the aphid because plant sap is devoid of some of the essential amino acids that they need to survive. Where once they would have had to forage elsewhere, they now get a substitute through a special partnership with bacteria (such as Buchnera aphidicola) that live inside their cells. The bacteria synthesise the amino acids that the aphid needs. But by now this symbiosis is at least 160 million years old, and both partners have lost the ability to survive without the other. In the case of Buchnera, they lost most of their genome. Sometimes evolution can lead to simplification as well as complexification in the ‘movement of individuality’. The bacteria are now so well-integrated with the aphids that they are passed down from mother to offspring through inclusion in the egg. Many of the microbes that live with you are probably doing it passively. You are just another environment for them Most symbiotic associations aren’t bound up so tightly. But they’re still almost everywhere we look. Like all other large mammals, humans carry around a massive and diverse community of symbiotic microbes, collectively called the microbiome. These microbes, mostly bacteria, cover nearly every surface of the body. They’re teeming on your skin, on your teeth and in your airways. But the majority of them, by far, reside in your gut. The most recent estimate puts the number of microbes living in and on you as equal to the number of cells in your body (the paper that made this estimate notes that the ratio is so close that pooping can swing the balance). Many of the microbes that live with you are probably doing it passively. You are just another environment for them and they don’t have much effect on you. But some of them have been functionally and physically integrated with your body. It turns out your microbiome has an extraordinary and sometimes disturbing range of effects. It can make some otherwise unavailable nutrients available to you, and so have an impact on your metabolism and your weight. It influences the development of your tissues and your immune system. It can help defend you against pathogens. It might even have consequences for your behaviour and mood. Unlike in the aphids, where offspring get their symbionts from their mothers, almost all of your bacteria were picked up from the environment. This difference is a big one. Aphids pass down their symbionts like they pass down their genes. This means, for one, that there is inheritance, one of the necessary conditions for natural selection. If one aphid does better than others because of a variation within its bacteria, and those bacteria are passed down from generation to generation, then that symbiotic collective of aphid and bacteria will meet the requirements for being an evolutionary individual. In Hull’s terms, together they make up a unit of selection. There’s an entirely new thing where before there were two. That’s not the case for you, nor is it the case for most of your microbes – so through the eyes of evolution, you’re separate individuals. True, we don’t inherit our microbiome, the way aphids inherit their Buchnera. From the point of view of evolution, we’re separate creatures. But recall Digby and Spencer’s talk of functional interdependence and integration as the criteria that bind together an organism. What makes something a genuine whole rather than a mere collection of parts turns on both the degree to which each part depends on the others for its operation or existence, and the degree to which the maintenance, behaviours and responses of the whole are a result of the structure and interplay of its parts. If the make-up or functioning of a system depends on one part, in these ways, then that part belongs to the whole, regardless of how it got there or whether it’s passed on. If we want to understand the human metabolism and how it works, or how the immune system develops in a single individual, or how organisms take in energy and maintain themselves – then it seems clear we need to include at least some of our most vital microbes. Through the lens of physiological individuality, in which discrete parts function as an integrated whole, you’re an individual who contains human parts and microbial parts. I think it’s time we move beyond the historical quest to find a single theory of individuality to explain how the biological world is divided up. What you are trying to grasp – be it development, physiology or evolution – determines the interactions that will be important for figuring out the boundaries of a creature. There isn’t one single answer to the question of where to draw the limits of my body. We are in constant interaction with the organisms living in and upon us – a locus of biotic relations and overlapping borders. If you relax and try to imagine every facet at once, you’ll see that we’re a kind of Venn diagram come to life. I’m looking forward to the day I get to share this with my daughter – perhaps the next time we go to the aquarium to look at the coral, and she points and asks: ‘What’s that?’Share. Your very first look at what's next. Your very first look at what's next. Important Update: A trusted source has told IGN that this controller is real. However, our source notes that it's an early prototype. The controller, in other words, is likely to change between now and when the console launches. Sony has responded to our inquiry to note that it "can't comment on rumors or speculation", its typical response. We'll almost certainly find out what the final controller looks like at the PlayStation event in NYC on February 20. Exit Theatre Mode The original story (with a further update) is below. We finally have an actual picture of what the PlayStation 4 controller looks like, at least in prototype form (see the above "Important Update" for more on that). The picture comes by way of Destructoid, which posted the picture taken from an unknown source. There’s a lot of familiar stuff on the controller along with a litany of new and interesting features. For starters, the directional pad (d-pad) on the left seems to feature meatier, bulkier buttons that are put closer together than on DualShock 3. The face buttons on the right side of the controller seem standard. The analog sticks look to be a bit further apart, though they remain level, unlike the Xbox 360 controller's unevenly placed sticks. However, the sticks themselves are concave, like the Xbox 360’s. PlayStation 3’s controller includes convex analog sticks. Exit Theatre Mode The much-rumored touch pad – a la the back of PlayStation Vita – appears at the center of the controller. There’s a small, mystery button to the left of the pad, above and to the right of the d-pad. Is this the rumored share button? Or is it a start or select button, both conspicuously absent from this version of the controller? Meanwhile, there’s a glowing “something” on the top of the controller – most likely PlayStation Move-related – as well as a PlayStation button seemingly identical to the one on the PS3 controller. Above the PlayStation button appears to be a speaker, and what looks to be an audio jack is underneath the controller, perhaps used to plug in a headset. (Please see our full breakdown of the PlayStation 4 prototype controller for more.) Sony has indicated, per usual, that it does not comment on rumor and speculation. Update: Another source has told IGN that the mysterious space in the middle of the controller can be pressed like a button, something Kotaku's source has also stated. Our separate source also indicates that the R2 and L2 buttons may actually be more in line with spring-loaded Xbox 360-like triggers and that the light atop the controller is indeed a PlayStation Move sensor. Colin Moriarty is an IGN PlayStation editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.David Moyes and Wayne Rooney: No new United deal yet for striker The Sun on Sunday newspaper reported that Rooney had signed a new four-and-a-half year deal worth £300,000 a week to stay at Old Trafford. However, the club have insisted that the 28-year-old has yet to sign a contract extension, which was reportedly worth £70m until summer 2018. "There is no deal, which is why we haven't announced it," a United spokesman said. Negotiations, which have been taking place for some time now, are believed to be still continuing. Rooney has been linked with an exit ever since the end of last season, when former manager Sir Alex Ferguson said he had made a transfer request, and Chelsea were reported to be interested in a swoop for his services. United's dip in form - they are seventh in the Premier League table, 11 points off the top four - appeared to be another cause for concern regarding Rooney's future, but the opening of talks several weeks ago appear to have allayed fears of him leaving. Journalist Charlie Wyett, who wrote the Sun's Rooney story, explained more to Sky Sports' Sunday Supplement. "We are saying that he has not just agreed, but he has actually signed," Wyett told the programme. "Obviously that has yet to be announced for Manchester United. "I think he realises it is the best place for him still. I know others thought he might go to Chelsea or elsewhere, but I think (David) Moyes has had a series of meetings with him and convinced him to stay. "I think Rooney will be the next captain of Manchester United and I think that it is a boost for Moyes. He is obviously going through a difficult spell."FORMER Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks claims he was hounded out of the Northern Territory the week before US President Barack Obama came to Darwin. Hicks, who admitted training with the Taliban in Afghanistan, said he didn't know the US president was coming to town when he came to the Territory capital on a fishing trip in November last year. He claimed police watched him, told him his name had been "red-flagged", tracked him back to Adelaide, and that his car had possibly been fitted with a surveillance device. "I was harassed by the police from the time I was 30km out of Darwin (stopping) for fuel," he told a Human Rights Day event at Charles Darwin University. "They told me that I had no choice, that I had to leave." For more, go to the Northern Territory NewsJuly 4, 2017 — Ron Chusid There are many theories as to why Hillary Clinton lost the election. The most likely involve her being the most conservative, insider candidate conceivable in a year in which voters wanted a change, promises from Donald Trump (regardless of whether he could keep them) of jobs, contrasted to Clinton’s views on trade deals, the terrible campaign run by Clinton which failed to give any good reasons to vote for Clinton beyond her gender and the view that it was her turn, and Clinton’s dishonesty canceling out Donald Trump’s negatives. The Clinton camp is sticking to their fallacious claims that she lost due to factors such as Russia, James Comey, and misogyny. While economic issues do appear to have been more important, Reason has found a paper which suggests an another issue was responsible for Clinton’s loss in a post entitled, Did Endless War Cost Hillary Clinton the Presidency? A new study attributes Donald Trump’s victory last year to communities hit hardest by military casualties and angry about being ignored. These voters, the authors suggest, saw Trump as an “opportunity to express that anger at both political parties.” The paper—written by Douglas Kriner, a political scientist at Boston University, and Francis Shen, a law professor at the University of Minnesota—provides powerful lessons about the electoral viability of principled non-intervention, a stance that Trump was able to emulate somewhat on the campaign trail but so far has been incapable of putting into practice. The study, available at SSRN, found a “significant and meaningful relationship between a community’s rate of military sacrifice and its support for Trump.” The statistical model it used suggested that if Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin had suffered “even a modestly lower casualty rate,” all three could have flipped to Hillary Clinton, making her the president. The study controlled for party identification, comparing Trump’s performance in the communities selected to Mitt Romney’s performance in 2012. It also controlled for other relevant factors, including median family income, college education, race, the percentage of a community that is rural, and even how many veterans there were. “Even after including all of these demographic control variables, the relationship between a county’s casualty rate and Trump’s electoral performance remains positive and statistically significant,” the paper noted. “Trump significantly outperformed Romney in counties that shouldered a disproportionate share of the war burden in Iraq and Afghanistan.” For myself, opposition to the warfare/surveillance state was a major criteria in voting. This is an area where my views overlap with those of the libertarians at Reason and was an issue in which they were closer to the views of the candidates from the left as opposed to Republican candidates. While Bernie Sanders stressed economic issues in the campaign, a major reason I voted for him was his opposition to both the Iraq war and the Patriot Act. Unfortunately the Democratic Party used McGovern era rules, and then further changed the rules in 2016, to basically rig the nomination for Hillary Clinton, who is both one of the most hawkish politicians on the political scene, and has a far right-wing record on civil liberties. The post from Reason concluded by saying, “The paper by Kriner and Shen should be ample evidence that there will be space in the 2020 election cycle for a principled non-interventionist not just to run, but to win.” While I personally would like to see a candidate win based upon finally ending the wars begun under Bush, I am not so optimistic that this will be sufficient for a candidate to win. On the other hand, I do prefer their attitude of encouraging candidates based upon principle as opposed to an effort described by Recode by Mark Pincus and Reid Hoffman to “hack” the Democratic Party. Their project, entitled Win the Future (yes, shortened to WTF) plans to adopt planks based upon an internet vote: To start, the group will query supporters on two campaigns: Whether or not they believe engineering degrees should be free to all Americans, and if they oppose lawmakers who don’t call for Trump’s immediate impeachment. A group which seeks to reform the Democratic Party but currently doesn’t know what it stands for sounds too much like the Democratic Party of today.Grainy video of Mitt Romney talking to big-dollar donors in Florida has the political world in a tizzy. Romney’s remarks in the secretly recorded video that 47 percent of Americans believe they are victims entitled to government help prompted a swift response from the Barack Obama campaign and a late-night explanation from Romney himself. We’ll be checking several claims from Romney’s remarks at the May 17, 2012, fundraiser in Boca Raton, Fla. Here we’ll examine one we’ve heard before. It was tucked into Romney’s description of how he can win over voters who supported Obama four years ago but are disappointed now. "Those people that we have to get, they want to believe they did the right thing but he just wasn't up to the task. They love the phrase that he's ‘over his head.’ … The best success I have at speaking with those people is saying, you know, the president has been a disappointment. He told you he'd keep unemployment below 8 percent. Hasn't been below 8 percent since," Romney said. Did Obama promise to keep unemployment below 8 percent? Not exactly. Projection or promise? The source for Romney’s statement -- and others like it -- is a Jan. 9, 2009, report called "The Job Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan" from Christina Romer, then chairwoman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, and Jared Bernstein, the vice president's top economic adviser. Their report projected that the economic stimulus plan would create 3 to 4 million jobs by the end of 2010. The report also included a chart predicting unemployment rates with and without the stimulus. Without the stimulus (the baseline), unemployment was projected to hit about 8.5 percent in 2009 and then continue rising to a peak of about 9 percent in 2010. With the stimulus, they predicted the unemployment rate would peak at just under 8 percent in 2009. The important word here is projection. The economic analysis wasn’t a promise, it was an educated assessment of how events might unfold. And it came with heavy disclaimers. "It should be understood that all of the estimates presented in this memo are subject to significant margins of error," the report states. "There is the more fundamental uncertainty that comes with any estimate of the effects of a program. Our estimates of economic relationships and rules of thumb are derived from historical experience and so will not apply exactly in any given episode. Furthermore, the uncertainty is surely higher than normal now because the current recession is unusual both in its fundamental causes and its severity." There's also a footnote that goes along with the chart stating: "Forecasts of the unemployment rate without the recovery plan vary substantially. Some private forecasters anticipate unemployment rates as high as 11% in the absence of action." Of course, we now know the unemployment rate did exceed 8 percent. It peaked at just over 10 percent in early 2010 and has decreased very slowly. In August 2012, it was 8.1 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Our ruling Romney told donors he could win over wavering voters by reminding them that Obama said "he'd keep unemployment below 8 percent." Obama didn’t say that. Rather, his Council of Economic Advisers predicted that the stimulus would hold it to that level. Their report included heavy disclaimers that the projections had "significant margins of error" and a high degree of uncertainty due to a recession that is "unusual both in its fundamental causes and its severity." The sub-8
regulation, “solving” weight problems by diet and exercise becomes hard-to-impossible, and the people who loudly insist otherwise tend to kind of be jerks. And alas, it doesn’t seem to work to just inject leptin directly. As per Guyenet People with garden variety obesity already have high levels of leptin…while leptin therapy does cause some amount of fat loss, it requires enormous doses to be effective – up to forty times the normal circulating amount. Also troubling is the extremely variable response, with some people losing over thirty pounds and others losing little or no weight. This is a far cry from the powerful fat-busting effect of leptin in rodents. [Leptin as] the new miracle weight-loss drug never made it to market. This disappointment forced the academic and pharmaceutical communities to confront a distressing possibility: the leptin system defends vigorously against weight loss, but not so vigorously against weight gain. “I have always thought, and continue to believe,” explained [leptin expert Rudy] Leibel, “that the leptin hormone is really a mechanism for detecting deficiency, not excess.” It’s not designed to constrain body fatness, perhaps because being too fat is rarely a problem in the wild. Many researchers now believe that while low leptin levels in humans engage a powerful starvation response that promotes fat gain, high leptin levels don’t engage an equally powerful response that promotes fat loss. Yet something seems to oppose rapid fat gain, as Ethan Sims’ overfeeding studies (and others) have shown. Although leptin clearly defends the lower limit of adiposity, the upper limit may be defended by an additional, unidentified factor – in some people more than others. This is the other half of the uncomfortable dichotomy that makes me characterize The Hungry Brain as “wishy-washy”. The lipostat is a powerful and essentially involuntary mechanism for getting weight exactly where the brain wants, whether individual dieters are cooperative or not. Here it looks like obesity is nobody’s fault, unrelated to voluntary decisions, and that the standard paradigm really is just an attempt by lean people to feel smug. Practical diet advice starts to look like “inject yourself with quantities of leptin so massive that they overcome your body’s resistance”. How do we connect this with the other half of the book, the half with food reward and satiety and all that? IV. With more rat studies! Dr. Barry Levin fed rats either a healthy-rat-food diet or a hyperpalatable-human-food diet, then starved and overfed them in various ways. He found that the rats defended their obesity set points in the expected manner, but that the same rats defend different set points depending on their diets. Rats on healthy-rat-food defended a low, healthy-for-rats set point; rats on hyperpalatable-human-food defended a higher set point that kept them obese. That is, suppose you give a rat as much Standardized Food Product as it can eat. It eats until it weighs 8 ounces, and stays that weight for a while. Then you starve it until it only weighs 6 ounces, and it’s pretty upset. Then you let it eat as much as it wants again, and it overeats until it gets back to 8 ounces, then eats normally and maintains that weight. But suppose you get a rat as many Oreos as it can eat. It eats until it weighs 16 ounces, and stays that weight for a while. Then you starve it until it only weighs 6 ounces. Then you let it eat as much as it wants again, and this time it overeats until it gets back to 16 ounces, and eats normally to maintain that weight. Something similar seems to happen with humans. A guy named Michel Cabanac ran an experiment in which he put overweight people on two diets. In the first diet, they ate Standardized Food Product, and naturally lost weight since it wasn’t very good and they didn’t eat very much of it. In the second diet, he urged people to eat less until they matched the first group’s weight loss, but to keep eating the same foods as normal – just less of them. The second group reported being hungry and having a lot of trouble dieting; the first group reported not being hungry and not having any trouble at all. Guyenet concludes: Calorie-dense, highly rewarding food may favor overeating and weight gain not just because we passively overeat it but also because it turns up the set point of the lipostat. This may be one reason why regularly eating junk food seems to be a fast track to obesity in both animals and humans…focusing the diet on less rewarding foods may make it easier to lose weight and maintain weight loss because the lipostat doesn’t fight it as vigorously. This may be part of the explanation for why all weight-loss diets seem to work to some extent – even those that are based on diametrically opposed principles, such as low-fat, low-carbohydrate, paleo, and vegan diets. Because each diet excludes major reward factors, they may all lower the adiposity set point somewhat. (this reminds me of the Shangri-La Diet, where people would drink two tablespoons of olive oil in the morning, then find it was easy to diet without getting hungry during the day. People wondered whether maybe the tastelessness of the olive oil had something to do with it. Could it be that the olive oil is temporarily bringing the lipostat down to its “bland food” level?) Why should some food make the lipostat work better than other food? Guyenet now gets to some of his own research, which is on a type of brain cell called a POMC neuron. These neurons produce various chemicals, including a sort of anti-leptin called Neuropeptide Y, and they seem to be a very fundamental part of the lipostat and hunger system. In fact, if you use superprecise chemical techniques to kill NPY neurons but nothing else, you can cure obesity in rats. The area of the hypothalamus with POMC neurons seem to be damaged in overweight rats and overweight humans. Microglia and astrocytes, the brain’s damage-management and repair cells, proliferated in appetite-related centers, but nowhere else. Maybe this literal damage corresponds to the metaphorically “damaged” lipostat that’s failing to maintain weight normally, or the “damaged” leptin detector that seems to be misinterpreting the body’s obesity? In any case, eating normal rat food for long enough appears to heal this damage: Our results suggest that obese rodents suffer from a mild form of brain injury in an area of the brain that’s critical for regulating food intake and adiposity. Not only that, but the injury response and inflammation that developed when animals were placed on a fattening diet preceded the development of obesity, suggesting that this brain injury could have played a role in the fattening process. Guyenet isn’t exactly sure what aspect of modern diets cause the injury: Many researchers have tried to narrow down the mechanisms by which this food causes changes in the hypothalamus and obesity, and they have come up with a number of hypotheses with varying amounts of evidence to support them. Some researchers believe the low fiber content of the diet precipitates inflammation and obesity by its adverse effects on bacterial populations in the gut (the gut microbiota). Others propose that saturated fat is behind the effect, and unsaturated fats like olive oil are less fattening. Still others believe the harmful effects of overeating itself, including the inflammation caused by excess fat and sugar in the bloodstream and in cells, may affect the hypothalamus and gradually increase the set point. In the end, these mechanisms could all be working together to promote obesity. We don’t know all the details yet, but we do know that easy access to refined, calorie-dense, highly rewarding food leads to fat gain and insidious changes in the lipostat in a variety of species, including humans. This is particularly true when the diet offers a wide variety of sensory experiences, such as the hyperfattening “cafeteria diet” we encountered in chapter 1. Personally, I believe overeating itself probably plays an important role in the process that increases the adiposity set point. In other words, repeated bouts of overeating don’t just make us fat; they make our bodies want to stay fat. This is consistent with the simple observation that in the United States, most of our annual weight gain occurs during the six-week holiday feasting period between Thanksgiving and the new year, and that this extra weight tends to stick with us after the holidays are over…because of some combination of food quantity and quality, holiday feasting ratchets up the adiposity set point of susceptible people a little bit each year, leading us to gradually accumulate and defend a substantial amount of fat. Since we also tend to gain weight at a slower rate during the rest of the year, intermittent periods of overeating outside of the holidays probably contribute as well. How might this happen? We aren’t entirely sure, but researchers, including Jeff Friedman, have a possible explanation: excess leptin itself may contribute to leptin resistance. To understand how this works, I need to give you an additional piece of information: Leptin doesn’t just correlate with body fat levels; it also responds to short-term changes in calorie intake. So if you overeat for a few days, your leptin level can increase substantially, even if your adiposity has scarcely changed (and after your calorie intake goes back to normal, so does your leptin). As an analogy for how this can cause leptin resistance, imagine listening to music that’s too loud. At first, it’s thunderous, but eventually, you damage your hearing, and the volume drops. Likewise, when we eat too much food over the course of a few days, leptin levels increase sharply, and this may begin to desensitize the brain circuits that respond to leptin. Yet Rudy Leibel’s group has also shown that high leptin levels alone aren’t enough – the hypothalamus also seems to require a second “hit” for high leptin to increase the set point of the lipostat. This second hit could be the brain injury we, and others, have identified in obese rodents and humans. And he isn’t sure exactly what aspect of the normal rodent diet promotes the healing: I did do some research in mice suggesting that unrefined, simple food does reverse the brain changes and the obesity. I don’t claim that it’s all attributable to the blandness though– the two diets differed in many respects (palatability, calorie density, fiber content, macronutrient profile, fatty acid profile, content of nonessential nutrients like polyphenols). Also, we don’t know how well the finding applies to humans yet. One of the problems is that it’s very hard to get a group of humans to adhere strictly to a whole food diet for long enough to study its long-term effects on appetite and body fatness. People are very attached to the pleasures of the palate! But all of this together seems to point to a potential synthesis between the hyperpalatability and lipostat models. For most of human history, the lipostat faced only mild stresses and was able to maintain a normal weight without much trouble. Modern society has been incentivized to produce hyperpalatable, low-satiety food as superstimuli. This modern food is able to overwhelm normal satiety cues and produce short-term overeating. And for some reason this short-term overeating raises the lipostat’s set point (maybe because of brain damage and leptin resistance), causing long-term weight gain in a way that is very difficult to reverse. V. But I still have trouble reconciling these two points of view. A couple of days ago, I walked by an ice cream store. I’d just finished lunch, and I wasn’t very hungry at the time, but it looked like really good ice cream, and it was hot out, so I gave in to temptation and ate a 700 calories sundae. Does this mean: 1. Based on the one pound = 3500 calories heuristic, I have now gained 0.2 lbs. That extra weight will stay with me my whole life, or at least until some day when I diet and eat 700 calories less than my requirement. If I were to eat ice cream like this a hundred times, I would gain twenty pounds. 2. My lipostat adjusts for the 700 extra calories, and causes me to exercise more, or ramp up my metabolism, or burn more brown fat, or eat less later on, or something. I don’t gain any weight, and eating the ice cream was that rarest of all human experiences, a completely guiltless pleasure. I should eat ice cream whenever I feel like it, or else I am committing the sin of denying myself a lawful pleasure. 3. My lipostat will more or less take care of the ice cream today, and I won’t notice the 0.2 pounds on the scale, but it is very gradually doing hard-to-measure damage to my hypothalamus, and if I keep eating ice cream like this, then one day when I’m in my forties I’m going to wake up weighing three hundred pounds, and no diet will ever be able to help me. 4. Not only will I gain 0.2 pounds immediately, but my lipostat will adjust to want to be 0.2 pounds heavier, and I will never lose it, even if I try really hard to diet later. 5. The above scenario is impossible. Even if I think I just ate ice cream because it looked good, in reality I was driven to do it by my lipostat’s quest for caloric balance. Any feeling of choice in the matter is an illusion. I think the reason this is so confusing is because the real answer is “it could be any one of these, depending on genetics.” Note the position of the grey squares representing BMI Right now, within this culture, variation in BMI is mostly genetic. This isn’t to say that non-genetic factors aren’t involved – the difference between 1800s America and 2017 America is non-genetic, and so is the difference between the perfectly-healthy Kitavans on Kitava and the one Kitavan guy who moved to New Guinea. But once everyone alike is exposed to the 2017-American food environment, differences between the people in that environment seem to be really hereditary and not-at-all-related to learned behavior. Guyenet acknowledges this: Genes explain that friend of yours who seems to eat a lot of food, never exercises, and yet remains lean. Claude Bouchard, a genetics researcher at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has shown that some people are intrinsically resistant to gaining weight even when they overeat, and that this trait is genetically influenced. Bouchard’s team recruited twelve pairs of identical twins and overfed each person by 1,000 calories per day above his caloric needs, for one hundred days. In other words, each person overate the same food by the same amount, under controlled conditions, for the duration of the study. If overeating affects everyone the same, then they should all have gained the same amount of weight. Yet Bouchard observed that weight gain ranged from nine to twenty-nine pounds! Identical twins tended to gain the same amount of weight and fat as each other, while unrelated subjects had more divergent responses…Not only do some people have more of a tendency to overeat than others, but some people are intrinsically more resistant to gaining fat even if they do overeat. The research of James Levine, an endocrinologist who works with the Mayo Clinic and Arizona State University, explains this puzzling phenomenon. In a carefully controlled overfeeding study, his team showed that the primary reason some people readily burn off excess calories is that they ramp up a form of calorie-burning called “non-exercise activity thermogenesis” (NEAT). NEAT is basically a fancy term for fidgeting. When certain people overeat, their brains boost calorie expenditure by making them fidget, change posture frequently, and make other small movements throughout the day. It’s an involuntary process, and Levine’s data show that it can incinerate nearly 700 calories per day. The “most gifted” of Levine’s subjects gained less than a pound of body fat from eating 1,000 extra calories per day for eight weeks. Yet the strength of the response was highly variable, and the “least gifted” of Levine’s subjects didn’t increase NEAT at all, shunting all the excess calories into fat tissue and gaining over nine pounds of body fat… Together, these studies offer indisputable evidence that genetics plays a central role in obesity and dispatch the idea that obesity is primarily due to acquired psychological traits. These studies suggest that one way genetics affects obesity is by altering the tolerance level of the lipostat. Genetically privileged people may have very finicky lipostats that immediately burn off any extra calories they eat, and which never become dysregulated. Genetically unlucky people may have weak lipostats which fail to defend against weight gain, or which are too willing to adjust their set point up in the presence of an unhealthy food environment. So, given how many people seem to have completely different weight-gain-related experiences to each other, the wishy-washyness here might be a feature rather than a bug. One reason I’ve always found genetics so exciting is that there are all these fields – nutrition is a great example, but this applies at least as much to psychiatry – where everyone has wildly different personal experiences, and where there’s a large and vocal population of people who say that the research is exactly the opposite of their lived experiences. People have tried to shoehorn the experiences to fit the research, with various levels of plausibility and condescendingness. And for some reason, it’s always really hard to generate the hypothesis “people’s different experiences aren’t an illusion; people are genuinely really different”. Once you start looking at genetics, everything sort of falls into place, and ideas which seemed wishy-washy or self-contradictory before are revealed as just reflecting the diversity of nature. People who were previously at each other’s throats disputing different interpretations of the human condition are able to peacefully agree that there are many different human conditions, and that maybe we can all just get along. The Hungry Brain and other good books in its vein offer a vision for how we might one day be able to do that in nutrition science. VI. Lest I end on too positive a note, let me reiterate the part where happiness is inherently bad and a sort of neo-Puritan asceticism is the only way to avoid an early grave. There’s a sort of fatalism to talking about “food reward”. If the enemy were saturated fat, we could just stick with the sugary sweetness of Coca-Cola. If the enemy were carbohydrates, we could go out for steak every night. But what do we do if the enemy is deliciousness itself? A few weeks ago Guyenet announced The Bland Food Cookbook, a collection of tasteless recipes guaranteed to be low food-reward and so discourage overeating. It was such a natural extension of his philosophy that it took me a whole ten seconds to realize it was an April Fools joke. But why should it be? Shouldn’t this be exactly the sort of thing we’re going for? I asked him, and he responded that: If I thought enough people would actually be capable of following the diet, I would consider making such a cookbook non-ironically. The second point I want to make here is that there are many ways to lose weight, and deliberately reducing food reward is only one of them. You could also exercise, eat a low-calorie-density diet, eat a high-protein diet, restrict a macronutrient, restrict animal foods, restrict plant foods, eat nothing but potatoes. Most approaches overlap with a low-reward diet to varying degrees, but I don’t think the low reward value encapsulates everything about why every weight loss strategy works. BTW, low-carb folks often have a knee-jerk reaction to the low-reward thing that goes something like this: “I eat food that’s delicious, such as steaks, bacon, butter, etc. It’s not low in reward.” But it is low reward in the sense that you’re cutting out a broad swath of foods, and an entire macronutrient, that the brain very much wants you to eat. Eating more of a particular category of rewarding food doesn’t completely make up for the fact that you’re cutting out a whole other category of rewarding food that you would avidly consume if you weren’t restricting yourself. So things aren’t maximally bad. And hunter-gatherers enjoy their healthy diets just fine. And certainly there are things like steak and wine and so on which are traditionally “good food” without being hyperprocessed hyperpalatable junk food. But if you really enjoy a glass of Chardonnay, is that “food reward” in a sense that’s potentially dangerous? Is anything safe? What about mongongo nuts? Is there anywhere we can get them? At least the consolation of things making a little more sense. One thing that always used to bother me was the so-called “ice cream diet” – that is, if you eat a 700-calorie ice cream sundae for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day, that’ll be only 2100 calories – around the average person’s daily requirement, and low enough for many people to lose weight. Why wouldn’t you want to do that? The idea of junk food being inherently damaging – while it has a bit of Puritan feel to it – at least fits our intuitions on these sorts of things and gives us a first step towards reconciling the conventional wisdom and the calorie math. Overall I strongly recommend The Hungry Brain for everything I talk about here and for some other good topics I didn’t even get to (stress, sleep, economics). I would also recommend Guyenet’s other writing, especially his debate with Dr. David Ludwig on the causes of obesity (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. I also recommend the list of diet tips that Guyenet gives at the end of the book. I won’t give them all away here – he’s been nice enough to me that maybe I should repay him by not reprinting the entire text of his book online for free. But it’s similar to a lot of standard advice for healthy living, albeit with more interesting reasoning behind it. Did you know that exercise might help stabilize the lipostat? Or that protein might do the same? Also, one piece of advice you might not hear anywhere else – potatoes are apparently off-the-charts in terms of satiety factor and may be one of the single best things to diet on. And speaking of good things to diet on… (note that this next part is my own opinion, not taken from The Hungry Brain or endorsed by Stephan Guyenet) Slate Star Codex’s first and most loyal sponsor is MealSquares, a “nutritionally complete” food product sort of like a whole-foods-based, protein-rich, solid version of Soylent (it looks and tastes basically like a scone). I’m having some trouble writing this paragraph, because I want to recommend them as potentially dovetailing with The Hungry Brain‘s philosophy of nutrition without using phrases that might make MealSquares Inc angry at me like “bland”, “low food reward”, or “not hyperpalatable”. I think the best I can come up with is “unlikely to injure your hypothalamus”. So, if you’re looking for an easy way to quit the junk food and try a low-variety diet that’s unlikely to injure your hypothalamus, I recommend MealSquares as worth a look.AOD SUPPORTERS "Columbia City Manager Mike Matthes" "AOD spokeswoman Sonja Tuitele" "REDI vice president Bernie Andrews" “For me, the milk plant checks all the boxes from a due diligence process...Matthes said.“ "REDI spokesman Bernie Andrews said." "AOD spokeswoman Sonja Tuitele said." AOD CRITICS "Most ardent government and taxpayer watchdogs" "Weitkemper....unsuccessfully mounted a campaign for city council" "Self-proclaimed taxpayer watchdog Ken Midkiff" "...whose main mission is to help small farmers and rural residents fight" Weitkemper has sounded the call for several years...He insists Midkiff worries Midkiff also is among the voices chiming in on the supposed perils Scott Dye begged to differ Dye has a litany of published articles and photos Midkiff is among those who quickly remind Ask yourself which voices come across as more competent, more knowledgeable, more credible. One word -- "said" -- describes how supporters speak. AOD critics, on the other hand, sound like hand-wringing, sky-is-falling types. Discounting the credibility of citizen activists is one way local journalists and editorial writers "shore up" the credibility of policymakers and power brokers, especially when their ideas are mediocre (The Dinner Train) or downright bad (Blight/EEZ). This media bias toward money and power stands in stark contrast to the good journalists' dictum: "The job of the newspaper is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." Links in story provided for further background information. Citizens wary of latest REDI planGet the biggest daily stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email TWITTER went into meltdown earlier thanks to a guest on the Jeremy Kyle show. The women appeared on the programme begging: “Stop harassing me just because I’m sleeping with your ex”. However, the viewers were less concerned with her personal dramas and more concerned about something else- her TEETH. And in a twist that we couldn’t even have dreamt up – Gary Beadle from Geordie Shore has been tweeting about her because she has messaged him in the past. Now that would be a match made in heaven, wouldn’t it? Here’s the best… Follow the Daily Record on Facebook for all the latest news, sports & entertainment updatesWith their creeping menace and interior monologues, the novels of Shirley Jackson might appear unfilmable – but a new attempt is a cause for celebration As the queen of American weird fiction, Shirley Jackson’s stories and novels have perhaps been neglected by Hollywood more than her reputation and talent would merit. That’s possibly because Jackson’s vast oeuvre could be deemed largely unfilmable for modern audiences, relying on the building of tension, dread and disquiet through the subtle progression of narratives that are in many cases built on internal monologues. Now, though, one of Jackson’s best-loved novels is coming to the big screen in the shape of her 1961 triumph – and to my mind her best book – We Have Always Lived in the Castle. The Hollywood Reporter revealed this week that filming began in Dublin this month on an adaptation co-produced by Michael Douglas and directed by Stacie Passon, in what is the centenary year of Jackson’s birth. The first star announced was Sebastian Stan, who played the Winter Soldier in the Captain America movies. Stan’s role as Charles Blackwood, while an important one in the plot, is relatively minor compared to the two main characters, Constance and Mary Katherine Blackwood, and their casting announcements came later on Wednesday – Alexandra Daddario (from the Percy Jackson series) will play elder sibling Constance, while American Horror Story’s Taissa Farmiga will be Mary Katherine – Merricat to her small family. Constance and Merricat exist together with their rather befuddled Uncle Julian in a rambling, tumbledown pile, all that remains of a once grand dynasty which was all but wiped out when someone put arsenic into the sugar bowl which most of the family sprinkled on their desert. Elder sister Constance is generally thought to have committed the deed, though nothing could be proved. Still, the townsfolk are convinced that was the case and the killings have passed into local legend, children singing rhymes about the deaths to Merricat as she ventures infrequently into civilisation to gather supplies. They live a life of sequestered, fading grandeur, which is only interrupted with the arrival of cousin Charles, who begins to court pale Constance. But is he just trying to get his hands on the family silver? And tensions are rising between the Blackwoods and the townsfolk … A gothic enough tale, but related in such pedestrian terms barely scratches the surface of Jackson’s novel. The devil is in the detail of We Have Always Lived in the Castle, the story told through the eyes of troubled Merricat and her unsettling rituals – she hangs totems and fetishes around the bounds of the Blackwood land to protect the remains of the family – and her thoughts are very dark indeed. The novel is a masterpiece of the macabre, and the tension ratcheted up by Jackson, who died in 1965 after being troubled with demons of her own in the shape of painkillers and alcohol, is almost unbearable. As such, it is difficult to see just how it could be packaged up for cinema audiences who perhaps like their blockbusters big on action and light on twisted introspection. However, with director Passon also having a credit for the Amazon Studios’ transgender drama Transparent as well as the Sundance hit Concussion, which she wrote and directed, perhaps she has an eye for the offbeat which might just pull off the adaptation. If so, an impressive adaptation of a Shirley Jackson novel will have been a long-time coming. Only two of her stories have made it to the big screen – 1957’s Lizzie, based on her short story The Bird’s Nest being the first. Perhaps Jackson’s most famous novel, The Haunting of Hill House, has been filmed twice, both times as The Haunting. The 1963 version of this story of a group of psychics invited to stay at a haunted house is by far the best, transferring Jackson’s prose into cramped monochrome menace with the unforgettable scene where one character sharing a bed with another talks of her growing fears, only to find when the light is switched on that her roommate is nowhere near. So whose hand has she been holding? The less said about the fairly execrable 1999 remake the better. Perhaps Jackson’s most famous short story, The Lottery, has been adapted three times, twice for television (though the 1996 version is only loosely based on Jackson’s story, and attempts to form some kind of sequel) and once as a short film in 1969. Whether We Have Always Lived In The Castle is indeed even capable of being successfully filmed we’ll have to wait and see. But if it opens up Jackson’s work to a wider audience in her centenary year, then it’ll have some merit at least.It’s kinda strange how much power and playfulness are in this tract. One wonders how one could believe what they did until one realizes the insane stultifying notions people currently accept. ‘Shtumovoi, opustashaiushchii manifest anarkhofuturistov’, K Svetu (Kharkov),14 March 1919, P.I. Ah-ah-ah, ha-ha, ho-ho! Fly into the streets! All who are still fresh and young and not dehumanized – to the streets! The pot-bellied mortar of laughter stands in a square drunk with joy. Laughter and Love, copulating with Meloncholy and Hate, pressed together in the mighty, convulsive passion of bestial lust. Long live the psychology of contrasts! Intoxicated, burning spirits have raised the flaming banner of intellectual revolution. Death to the creatures of routine, the philistines, the sufferers from gout! Smash with a deafening noise the cup of vengeful storms! Tear down the churches and their allies the museums! Blast to smithereens the fragile idols of Civilization! Hey, you decadent architects of sarcophagi of thought, you watchmen of the universal cemetery of books – stand aside! We have come to remove you! The old must be buried, the dusty archives burned by the Vulcan’s torch of creative genius. Past the flaky ashes of world-wide devastation, past the charred canvases of bulky paintings, past the burned fat, pot-bellied volumes of classics we march, we Anarcho-Futurists! Above the vast expanse of devastation covering our land the banner of anarchy will be proudly unfurled. Writing has no value! There is no market for literature! There are no prisons, no limits for subjective creativity! Everything is permitted! Everything is unrestricted! The Children of Nature receive in joyous ecstasy the chivalrous golden kiss of the Sun and the lascivious, naked, fat belly of the Earth. The Children of Nature springing from the black soil kindle the passions of naked, lustful, bodies. They press them all in one spawning, pregnant cup! The skin is inflamed by hot, insatiable, gnawing caresses. Teeth sink with hatred into warm succulent lovers’ flesh! Wide, staring eyes follow the pregnant, burning dance of lust! Everything is strange, uninhibited, elemental. Convulsions – flesh – life – death – everything! Everything! Such is the poetry of our love! Powerful, immortal, and terrible are we in our love! The north wind rages in the heads of the Children of Nature. Something frightful has appeared – some vampire of melancholy! Perdition – the world is dying! Catch it! No, wait! Frenzied, penetrating cries pierce the air. Wait! Melancholy! Black yawning ulcers of agony cover the pale, terror-stricken face of heaven. The earth trembles with fear beneath the mighty wrathful blows of its Children! Oh, you cursed, loathsome things! They tear at the fat, tender flesh and bury the withered, starving melancholy in the flowing blood and fresh wounds of its body. The world is dying! Ah! Ah! Ah! cry millions of tocsins. Ah! Ah! Ah! roar the giant cannon of alarm. Destruction! Chaos! Melancholy! The world is dying! Such is the poetry of our melancholy! We are uninhibited! Not for us the wailing sentimentality of the humanists. Rather we shall create the triumphant intellectual brotherhood of peoples, forged with the iron logic of contradictions, of Hate and Love. With bared teeth we shall protect our free union, from Africa to the two poles, against any sentimental level of friendship. Everything is ours! Outside us is only death! Raising the black flag of rebellion, we summon all living men who have not been dehumanized, who have not been benumbed by the poisonous breath of Civilization! All to the streets! Forward! Destroy! Kill! Only death admits no return! Extinguish the old! Thunder, lightning, the elements – all are ours! Forward! Long live the international intellectual revolution! An open road for the Anarcho-Futurists, Anarcho-Hyperboreans, and Neo-Nihilists! Death to World Civilization! Group of Anarcho-Futurists (1919) 35.362023 -86.209434 Advertisements[Not pictured: the poolside Jumbotron. Photos: Jonathan Phillips, Curbed Atlanta] Just in time for college football season — and less importantly, classes — a new Midtown tower chockfull of "ultra-modern student apartments" has opened for Georgia Tech pupils with discerning taste. And while he's probably paying the rent, these University House apartments are not your daddy's dorms. Gone are the musty communal showers, beaten-down kitchens and deplorable furnishings of higher-education past. The roughly 700 Tech students to nab a bed here will enjoy sparkling city views, vintage arcade games, multiple lounges and a resort-style pool with a freakin' Jumbotron. Like other new student residences around Atlanta, the project aims to capture demand for off-campus, upscale living. Is it a flunk-out factory in the making, or a case of smart kids finally getting what's rightfully theirs? Only time will tell. · UH - Midtown [Site]Rainbow Six Siege's first DLC map could be set on a yacht that has collided with an icy tundra, judging by a new piece of concept art. The tease appears in a video uploaded by Ubisoft Mexico last month (spotted by Reddit), and seems to show the frozen, shipwrecked yacht wedged amongst an icy cliff-face. A different image is used in the US version of the trailer, simply showing what appears to be a submarine emerging out of icy seas. You can take a look at the full image above. Ubisoft has yet to detail any of Rainbow Six Siege's upcoming DLC maps, but has confirmed that four are due to roll out between January and December. All of them will be free to download. In addition, 8 new Operators from across 4 new CTUs will also be available, with the first two due to release on February 2, 2016. Again they'll be free to download, but will require a substantial amount of in-game XP to unlock. They'll also be available instantly via the game's Season Pass or for £3.99 each. Source: reddit.com, Ubisoft MexicoWell we just got to lay hands on the above Foxconn-manufactured, Tegra 2-powered Android prototype, and we'll be honest -- it was awfully sweet. There wasn't much going on beyond some gaming action -- we didn't see it boot into standard Android -- though it was running the 3D football title you see above at a pretty healthy clip (check out the video after the break). NVIDIA reps weren't very keen on sharing info about the device, though we can tell you that it's apparently got 1GB of RAM inside cuddled up to that 1GHz ARM Cortex 9 CPU, a front-facing camera, and the WSVGA screen measures 8.9-inches (it's also a much wider aspect ratio than something like the iPad). We're going to hold any judgment till we see this thing cooking with a full UI, but we're not knocking it -- get this in at the right price, and we'll likely be first in line.Correction, the screen size is 8.9-inches, not 9.7.What do Jeremy Howells and several BIPS customers have in common? They each lost a lot of bitcoins because of the way they were stored. But BitGo, a company offering a new multi-signature wallet service, says that it doesn’t have to be that way. Howells lost £4m in bitcoins after he threw out his hard drive, while payment processor and online wallet service BIPS saw over $1m stolen in a wallet hack. They both suffered from the same problem: a single point of failure. BitGo’s founder Mike Belshe says that relying on a single device to store your bitcoins is a bad idea. Web wallets are outside the user’s control, while their own devices are prone to attack, hardware failure, or simple user error. “You wouldn’t want to use pure web, but you wouldn’t want to use pure client-side either – at least not for most mortals,” he said. “
Sunday, June 18, 2017. Photo: Tyler Jocson Wong Photo: Tyler Jocson Wong Image 1 of / 10 Caption Close Video: Whales are hanging out near the Golden Gate Bridge 1 / 10 Back to Gallery Through all his excitement, Wong managed to take some spectacular pictures, which he shared with SFGATE (see gallery above). In the video Zinkova captured Sunday (below), at least three whales can be seen in the shadow of the iconic bridge, surrounded by people kiteboarding and windsurfing. Humpbacks have been spotted on several occasions over the past few weeks as the marine mammals make their way up the California coast as part of their summer migration. "It is rare to see the whales so close to the bay," Kathryn Nazar, a spokesperson for San Fracisco Whale Tours told SFGATE after tourists on board the company's whale watching boat witnessed an adult humpback breach right in front of the Golden Gate Bridge. "We have seen it the last couple years [but] more in the summer months." ALSO READ: Humpbacks trying to fight off killer whale feeding frenzy This spring was also an amazing whale watching season in Monterey Bay. Killer whales in the area went on an unprecedented feeding spree, killing seven gray whale calves in just 12 days. Humpbacks also got in on the action, charging into the fray and trying to protect the gray whale calves from the predators.Let us start on a journey. A journey back to a time when the Maltese population lived in Malta and Gozo with a cult obsessed with life and death. Symbols of sexuality were common, with many phallic shapes and fertile obese figurines strewn around the remains that have survived to the modern era. Settlers from Sicily had arrived around one and a half millennia before this culture developed bringing goats, cows, sheep, crops, and quickly deforested the island. At some point over this time the population developed an obsession with temple building, and a complex culture around it, that only became more extreme as the civilisation flourished. “The Maltese Islands seem to have gone on a complete tangent from what was going on around them giving expression to the Temple Period which lasted for just over a millennium,” Dr Nicholas Vella (Department of Classics and Archaeology, University of Malta) said. The Temple Period civilisation is famous for having built the oldest free- standing stone structures in the world. They covered Malta and Gozo with over 30 temple complexes over their 1100-year history. Apart from extensive temple sites cluttered with the evidence of complex rituals and animal sacrifices, intricate burial complexes were also built showing a deep respect for death. During the Temple Period artwork flourished. Hundreds of statues have been discovered. Although famous for abundantly fertile ‘fat ladies’, these only make up around 15% of the statues found, with phallic and especially androgynous symbols being much more common. How the Islands managed to sustain such a rich culture is a mystery. Another mystery is how it all ended. The Temple people did not suffer from any obvious disease, lack of food, or invasion, at least that is the story the studies carried out until now tell us. One theory is that environmental stress and religious extremism somehow killed them off. The Temple people came and left, ‘we cannot find a successor,’ stated Prof. Anthony Bonanno (Department of Classics and Archaeology, University of Malta). A Light in the Darkness In the early 20th century, Sir Themistocles Zammit’s unearthing of underground burial complexes—hypogea—with the adjoining megaliths of the Tarxien Temples solidified Malta’s identity with this stone architecture. Unfortunately, by the 1950s archaeology had lost its importance in Malta. The craze generated by Temi Zammit’s findings had long died out, and as independence rolled on in 1964 things just got worse, culminating in Mintoff’s government that dissolved the whole Faculty of Arts at the University of Malta. In those days, Bonanno was a lecturer with a lot of time on his hands – “I had very little teaching.” So it came as a lifesaver when the Director of the Tourism Department approached him to organise a conference that, after approval from a new Rector, culminated in a conference in 1985 on Fertility Cults in the Mediterranean. At the conference, amateur archaeologist Joseph Attard Tabone showed how he thought he had rediscovered an ancient stone circle immortalised by Charles de Brocktorff’s watercolours. Amazed by the revelation, world-leading archaeologist Colin Renfew was easily persuaded to organise a dig in Gozo. By 1987, the British were back with Dr David Trump, Prof. Caroline Malone (Queen’s University Belfast, back then Cambridge) and Dr Simon Stoddart (University of Cambridge) all digging alongside the Maltese team that included Bonanno, Dr Tancred Gouder (Museums Department), Vella (back then as a student), and others. A change in government that year reinstated the Faculty of Arts—archaeology was back in the picture. The Brocktorff or Xagħra Stone Circle, he says, was a lost site. “We went there thinking, ‘we cannot do too much damage, let’s dig a hole in the ground’ and it turned into very much more. Our original programme of five years was extended to seven. […] Babies were brought ª to the site. It has taken up a lot of our lives […] then we decided that that was the limit of our funding and energy,” recollected Malone. Seven years of digging and 220,000 bones from 800 individuals later, and they revealed “a great crater left by a collapsed cave, it had been a hypogeum. A natural hypogeum enhanced by megalithic monuments that probably lasted around 1500 years till 2500 BC as part of the Ġgantija complex.” They had found an archaeological goldmine that helped train a new generation of archaeologists who are all now prominent in the field. Squaring a Circle The Xagħra Stone circle was an extensive underground burial complex. Not as big as the hypogeum at Ħal Saflieni, that Sir Themistocles Zammit estimated housed around 6,000–7,000 individuals, but it revealed a civilisation whose complexity is unusual for its age and it took over a decade for the Anglo-Maltese team to compile extensive results from the digs. The rituals of the burial practices changed greatly with time. During the early Żebbuġ Period, between 4000–3500 BC, the rock-cut or natural caves housed family units, one generation on top of the other. Bones seemed to have been pushed to the side to make space for the most recent burial. Several gifts were placed with the dead but no obvious human figurines. After this time, the Temple Period flourished. The burial complex was extensively modified with the internal caverns extended and subdivided into rooms with many more enclosed spaces for burials for their complex death rituals. More communal burials seem to emerge, with large pits housing hundreds of individuals whose bones have been separated, sorted, and stacked on top of each other. Grave gifts had transformed to the famous ‘fat ladies’ that are clearly female in this case. At ground level, another grave-pit was found exclusively for male body parts without grave gifts, hinting towards a matriarchal society. It seemed that older burials were removed and body parts sorted into mass pits with newer burials placed in the compartmentalised caves or chambers. To take care of these complex rituals a priest caste arose. “[They] managed the conduct of these buildings [that] served an economic and political purpose.” This clue is one reason for the idea that religious extremism developed and extinguished the temple flame. Isotope and trace element analysis of the bones showed that they were healthy and mostly ate meat or vegetables. The trace elements left by eating copious amounts of fish or seafood are absent. The Temple people were not fishermen but neither were they riddled with disease. Accompanying the magnificent temples and hypogea was an overflow of art. “The art has three forms of human representation: […] one form is dressed, usually standing, ungendered, they have elaborate hairdos, belts, necklaces, and skirts, perhaps a status of office. Another form is the naked fat figures, again mostly ungendered though some are female, like the Sleeping Lady and the Venus of Ħaġar Qim. "There is no evidence that they were being worshipped, but they are representative of ancestors. […] Finally there is another form: the abbreviated or monstrous. You get all sorts of funny little representations: you get phallic symbols, tiny knobs for arms and legs, and all sorts of curious things. In this group you also have everyday domestic animals being shown, reptiles and fish, and birds,” explained Bonanno. “The Gozo dig showed new facets of artistic production.” Bonanno wrote about a set of six plank-like human figurines. They were found interred with, presumably, the artist. “They represent several works of the same artist in different stages of production. One is simply a rough cut, two others showing intermediate stages, and two completely finished products.” Bonanno compared the sculptor to Michelangelo’s unfinished Prisoners or Slaves. The archaeologists also found a seated pair of near-identical ungendered human figures. “One carries a cup, the other a miniature version of itself,” leading Bonanno to think about the triad, again walking away from a singular mother goddess. “The dual figure is only about 15cm across and 13cm high.” Some statues are much larger. “There is only one example of a colossal statue standing 2.5 to 3m high at Tarxien. Only the lower half has survived. Its position in the vestibule, behind the entrance in the Tarxien Temples, with the area being decorated with spiral reliefs, is the best candidate for the representation of a divinity,” said Bonanno. Human sculptures with multiple figures are very rare during this time. This level of artwork was unparalleled according to Bonanno. So why did it all end? The European White Knight Enter FRAGSUS. The Europe-wide €2.3 million study that brings together seven countries, five institutions (the Universities of Cambridge, Malta and Queen’s Belfast, Heritage Malta and the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage), 19 academics, 10 post-doctorate researchers, and around 50 students, all coordinated by Prof. Caroline Malone and all focused on trying to answer the questions: What killed off the Temple people? Why do some civilisations survive for millennia in fragile environments and others do not? Answering these questions (and plenty others) needs many experts on board from fields as diverse as geologists to biologists, apart from archaeologists to interpret it all. They are also using scientific techniques to an extent never seen before on the Islands, from soil and pollen studies to GPS and LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging laser) technology, all to try and reconstruct the past. Key ingredients are 12 cores that are being taken of Maltese soil and sediments. A core involves taking a circular sample of soil down to the bedrock. In Malta and Gozo this ranges from two to 20 metres in depth. “This is like taking a sample to carry out a biopsy: from a tiny sample you try and build up a general picture, […] if I find material in the core that is suggestive of a very wooded environment it means that the environment was wooded but then eroded. If erosion has taken place, it means that the landscape might not have been heavily terraced. Everything is linked,” illustrated Vella. Research on the Temple people did not stop after the Xagħra Circle dig and these cores are developing on previous ones, however they have never been studied so systematically. Prof. Patrick J. Schembri (for more about his research see www.um.edu.mt/think/a-life-studying-life/) is leading the local team studying molluscs, which includes snails, found within these cores to figure out the past environment and cultural habits. “We found a great many species that not only tell us about the environment at the time but also about how this has changed. As a bonus they also tell us about human activities,” stated Schembri. Researcher Dr Katrin Fenech went into greater detail about how much information we can glean simply by studying assemblages of snails. For a snail, the Maltese Islands and seas have not changed too much over the last seven thousand years, so you find similar species back in the Temple Period as today. “The species can be broadly categorised into ‘land snails’, ‘brackish water molluscs’ and ‘marine molluscs,” said Fenech. These categories can be split into whether the snails live in the open countryside, or love shade, or live just about anywhere. So if you find a shade-loving snail (such as Ferrussacia folliculus) in a place that is today rocky and dry, you can assume that just before Neolithic humans landed on Malta there were a lot more trees. Because they are taking so many cores, they can refine these statements to specific areas. At Tas-Silġ, a Neolithic temple site that was reused by subsequent civilisations, “the marine molluscs that were found all came from habitats at Marsaxlokk Bay that still exist today or were known to have existed in the not so distant past,” said Fenech. Since the marine molluscs are edible, this shows that although sea food was not a regular on the menu, it was part of their diet. Land snails seem to have been a preferred delicacy. “At Taċ-Ċawla [a Neolithic settlement during the Temple Period] we recently found and excavated the first ever true shell middens in the Maltese Islands. These consisted of thousands of large edible land snails. Over 90% of snails were the red-banded snail (Eobania vermiculata). This snail is still found all over Malta, but while still eaten in Crete, it is off the menu for the modern Maltese. It’s a cultural notion, whether you eat them or not. At Taċ-Ċawla, they quite clearly ate them, at Tas-Silġ and at any other archaeological sites in Malta, this is not so clear,” explained Fenech. Prehistoric Malta has often been depicted as a wooded wonderland, pristine before the taint of humanity. Molluscs nod towards a different story. “The very few typical forest or woodland species that exist in the Maltese Islands (e.g. Lauria cylindracea) have not been found in any archaeological deposits.” If Malta were wooded, it was not Island-wide. “The Islands had large patches of extensive vegetation cover, although whether this was forest, woodland or scrub-land is a matter of definition. This is one area that FRAGSUS is investigating,” emphasised Fenech. Going back to the puzzle of what killed the Temple people off, when I asked Fenech about the idea of rapid ecological change, she quickly replied with “define ‘rapid’ There is evidence from Marsa that indicates warmer, wetter periods as well as cooler, dryer periods. Whether this change was sudden or gradual is impossible to say.” The problem is inadequate radiocarbon dating to get more accurate dates and the low number of cores studied. FRAGSUS should change that. The Maltese team are not the only ones looking at these cores. They are being split in half with Dr Chris Hunt (Queen’s University Belfast) and other colleagues looking at its pollen, soil composition, bone fragments, and tephra (although the Maltese team are studying some of these as well), which all tell you about the conditions under which the soil was created. “Most of our cores are from coastal locations, which are great because you get deep cores and good preservation due to the anaerobic [oxygen-free] conditions,” explained Dr Reuben Grima. Malone had previously emphasised, “every last granule here, we will date”. While probably an exaggeration, the approach is important - study everything using any scientific discipline you have at hand, then piece the puzzle back together. Another important piece of the Temple people puzzle is the studies into ancient and modern landscapes. The local specialists are Dr Nicholas Vella and Grima aided by researcher Dr Gianmarco Alberti. Part of their work involves studying the landscape to see how people exploited the land for cultivating crops and raising animals. These two ways of life were the mainstay during the Temple Period. What would have made most sense to the Neolithic Maltese was to mix and match these lifestyles. “On a small island rainclouds can literally pass you by, missing you time and again.” Poor harvests could have been regular. “They would have had a range of crops like wheat and barley, as well as lentils, fruit, and olives,” explained Grima. They also had sheep, goats, and cattle as abundantly found around the Tarxien Temple Complex. “At the megalithic monuments they were either practising ritual sacrifice or ritual feasting, either as a gift to the god/s or to keep the population happy, healthy, cohesive, and power to the priest caste”. Using these strategies, they survived for hundreds of years. To make sense of the huge amount of information needed to understand how an entire civilisation lived, the archaeologists are using models to reconstruct the past. Grima modelled the Neolithic monuments in his research. He used a GIS model to map all the temples in Malta and study why those sites were chosen. “The temple builders chose areas near fresh water springs, close to low-lying areas with a low gradient, which are better suited to accumulate soil, rather than high windswept areas prone to erosion. The temples have a convenient access point to the sea, with a preference for south-facing slopes for the megalithic monuments.” It is likely that the Temple people built their huts near these monuments. “At Skorba [another Neolithic site] it is very obvious because you have huts built next to and in some cases below the foundations of megalithic monuments.” FRAGSUS is allowing the reexamination of these temple, hypogeum and residential units with a much wider range of specialists, tools, and resources. In the Knights’ and British periods, Vella and his team are figuring out that “landholdings would have a bit of the garigue on top because that is perfect for collecting firewood and for a degree of pasture. [Underneath this] is where you will have a spring, therefore your farm and gardens are found there. Horticulture would be practised at that level. "Then you have a clay slope, and that is where you will plant your grain. You don’t need to water it because the clays are going to keep moist even throughout summer. Then you will probably reach the valley bottom, which does not belong to anyone because you need to have running water (recently ignored by the Maltese construction industry),” explained Vella. Again, FRAGSUS is going to bring a wealth of new information from the core studies and over five dig sites around the Islands. “The above all leaves a lot of unanswered questions,” remark Grima and Vella. How did the ancients raise their animals? What did a day in their life look like? Why didn’t they fish much? How much trade was there with other civilisations? Who was being buried at these sites—the leaders of the settlements or everyone? Was everyone healthy? To try and understand, the FRAGSUS team have just dug up a Neolithic settlement in Gozo. A Residential Area Dig sites are the other key source of information for archaeologists. I went to visit one at Taċ-Ċawla in Gozo two weeks into the dig. It is one of the few examples of prehistoric domestic life and might help answer many of the questions Grima and Vella pose. Despite its importance, “it was a dumping site for 20 years, since the council never took [the rubbish] away. I’m afraid it has been neglected,” lamented Malone, on site with a team of enthusiastic students from Malta and Britain. The site was found around 25 years ago because of “some Dutch amateur archaeologists who made a big fuss about […] an illegal building on this very spot.”I was shocked but not surprised. The building frenzy in Malta has rarely cared much about the history and ecology of the Islands, with many artefacts probably destroyed. “At Taċ-Ċawla, we have a very intense settlement, wonderful material culture is coming out—pottery and dark soil which makes us very happy”. Malone went on to explain, “dark soil is full of charcoal and human excrement, all the stuff that represents living and it tends to be black like a compost heap”. Examining what these people threw out lets archaeologists know the their diet, lifestyle, and culture. “We will be sieving this dark soil, all this carbonised material […] to float off all those lightweight bits into mesh and then look under a microscope to identify bits of chaff, plant remains, tiny teeth, bones, all sorts of stuff and recognisable seeds,” explained Malone. They are splitting the area up into square metres to study it all and be able to plot where and what they did in each area. This is a 3D model of their lives. Such a systematic approach has rarely been undertaken on the Islands and never on this scale. It needs this big team and millions of Euro. The approach is necessary because archaeology has moved on in leaps and bounds from the time of Temi Zammit. It has become a rigorous science. “Archaeology has changed out of all recognition from retrieving material to understanding the relationship between all the component parts into something that is far more meaningful,” explained Malone. “We already have an idea that they ate rather less well at the end of the Temple Period than at the beginning. They got less meat and they had no fish.” If this team get it right, within a few years they will have cracked the code. The FRAGSUS team are planning to take things further. Site digs are being planned all over the Islands but it is also an opportunity to go for field walks, collecting pottery to try and see if there are concentrations which might conceal archaeological sites. It could provide new sites to dig for decades. All of this will feed into that model of prehistoric Malta, giving more and more clues to build a picture out of this jigsaw of evidence. The Maltese team are seeing this as an opportunity not only to figure out this puzzle so closely linked to the Islands’ identity, but an opportunity to study a big chunk of Maltese history through all ages. For example, at the Taċ-Ċawla site they had to remove classical Punic/Roman vine trenches, which will also be studied. In Malta and Gozo, history has tended to pile up on top of itself. The advantage of being so small. FRAGSUS is a fantastic opportunity to put the spotlight on Malta and invest properly in Archaeology. Archaeology is not a discipline obsessed with the past. You can only know the present by understanding the past, and the idea of a fragile ecosystem is still prevalent in Malta. Our environment defines our situation. “There are island environments that are overpopulated and yet they manage to survive because, presumably, they have some form of in-built resilience. It is a word we use a lot because of the financial crises, the resilience of certain places more than others. How far can you go in a place where resources are finite and when you have to depend on help from abroad?” cleverly pointed out Vella. We are quite sure how the Temple people did not die, but uncertain about why they did. Even if we cannot draw a direct lineage from the Temple people to us, by figuring out how they died, Malta can figure out how to flourish. This article is in partnership with Think, the University of Malta’s research magazine (http://www.um.edu.mt/think) and originally published in Issue 10So I thought my column this week would be a fun one, focused on the what-the-f&#k article last week in the New Yorker about some deeply narcissistic tech titans — are there any other kind? — who are “prepping” for the apocalypse by hoarding gold, stashing weapons and even buying spreads in remote places to hide. Aside from commenting on their base inanity and deep selfishness, I even had the best joke to impart that one techie told me: In the event of doomsday, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is I have a bunker in New Zealand. The bad news? Peter Thiel is my neighbor. Ahahaha. Imagining the end times spent with the quirky tech investor — who does, in fact, have one of those Kiwi escape pods — is certainly surreal. But it’s not much more bizarre than Thiel’s response this weekend as he tried mightily to spin an epic fib he told last year about President Donald J. Trump. It took place in the question-and-answer part of a speech in D.C. that Thiel delivered in late October about his support of Trump, after a reporter asked him about the Muslim ban threat the candidate had clearly made. As I reported then: “The media is always taking Trump literally,” says Peter Thiel, while his supporters take him “seriously.” Well, thank goodness Peter Thiel is here to translate words that are said by someone who may be running the most powerful country in the world. He’s just kidding! Sort of! Not really again, but another nice pivot. Dear Peter Thiel: Words. Matter. A. Lot. Look at me writing them down here on my keyboard. I was being quite sarcastic then, because at the time I thought that Trump very much meant to do exactly as he said and that Thiel was either very stupid or very disingenuous for pretending otherwise. Let me state for the record, I do not think Peter Thiel is very stupid. But a fabulist? Well, let’s fast-forward to this weekend, when Thiel tried to launch another whopper in a pathetic attempt to defend Trump’s appalling executive order to bar the entry of refugees and also travelers from seven Muslim nations into the U.S. A Thiel spokesman told the Wall Street Journal that “Peter doesn’t support a religious test, and the administration has not imposed one.” Oh. Peter. Words. Still. Matter. A. Lot. So please, for the love of Facebook, stop manipulating those words when everyone can see the real-life actions and consequences they have resulted in. More to the point, every time you open your mouth, you look more and more like you got played by Steve Bannon and his army of hobgoblins to the detriment of tech leaders whom you somehow got to bow and scrape to the new administration. It was bad enough that you pulled off that frightful kumbaya by trooping the most powerful people in Silicon Valley into Trump Tower for what amounted to a photo op for Trump and managed to get them to do so without uttering a word about key issues at the core of tech, like immigration, publicly (though several execs in attendance like Apple’s Tim Cook and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella did bring up the issue in the private part of the meeting). I called them “sheeple” at the time for doing that and staying silent publicly before and after the meeting, with you as their unlikely shepherd. Now worse, you have dragged your pals, like tech icon Elon Musk and Uber’s Travis Kalanick, onto the president’s advisory council, with the promise that engagement with Trump will give them the chance to change his mind. Not so, as it turns out, since they now look like quislings in the wake of the immigration disaster. After asking for suggestions on Twitter this weekend of how to approach Trump later this week on the ban, they are getting pilloried on social media for even being affiliated with the whole sorry mess. This one from well-known techie Erica Joy was a typical response: .@travisk Resign from anything to do with Trump, Travis. Stop being complicit in working with a fascist regime or keep losing customers. — EricaJoy (@EricaJoy) January 29, 2017 As for the vast majority of tech leadership and pretty much all of their employees, they are now making a break for the wall-free border with the government’s capricious and ill-conceived crackdown on immigrants and refugees. The burn started slowly on Friday, with muted opposition largely focused on the impact on their workforces. Only a few strong voices, such as the very brave Reed Hastings of Netflix, made powerful moral statements about the Trump order. Hastings’s this-shall-not-stand tone was infectious, as it turned out. By the end of the weekend, techies were ratcheting up the volume by the hour with increasingly more emotional, moral-high-ground statements, as well as offers of gobs of money (Google, Lyft, Uber and high-profile techies like Chris Sacca and Tony Faddell), food (DoorDash) and even homes (Airbnb). Google founder Sergey Brin’s appearance at San Francisco International Airport was a heartening visual of that. While he said he was there as a refugee and not as a rep for the search giant, his presence spoke volumes about the way this was headed. I knew that would be the case after I tweeted this note below late Friday night and it quickly started to garner a plethora of responses, including from some prominent techies, all of whom wanted in. Will tech leaders come out strongly and publicly against Trump's Muslim ban? I'm taking names. First part of that expression to follow. — Kara Swisher (@karaswisher) January 28, 2017 That included Laszlo Bock, former head of Google People Ops, who wrote: “former tech leader here, but still 100 percent against excluding people from our nation based on religion, origin, etc.” It went on like that as opposition to the Trump immigration order has grown and I expect it to do so even more, as those very rich and very powerful and very influential tech companies start to act like they actually have money, power and influence. And, thank goodness, some of the loudest people on earth finally realize they have a very loud voice. Behind the scenes, where all the real stuff happens, I am told the political arm-twisting has commenced and that there are a number of joint efforts that are under way. We’ll see how effective and long lasting they are, especially since there are many things tech wants from the Trump administration, as I have outlined before. But given Trump has literally made good on several of his more heinous campaign promises that everyone thought he would not, I think cooperation between tech and Trump is going to be rarer than more opposition. For example, what of Trump’s hard-line stance in the campaign on encryption or his appointment of very anti-net neutrality FCC chairman Ajit Pai? Neither will be easy to find common ground on. And just today, Bloomberg is reporting another executive order being drafted focused on work visas that tech companies depend on, which will have a big impact on how critical talent is recruited. According to the report, “companies would have to try to hire American first and if they recruit foreign workers, priority would be given to the most highly paid.” Well, that’s not going to go over well at Coupa Cafe in Palo Alto. No, no. no. (Fly-on-the-wall dream: I’d love to be in the boardroom at Facebook, where Peter Thiel is a director, to hear him explaining this one away.) More: I was at a chock-full event in Palo Alto last week, as tech types planned their attack on the defunding of Planned Parenthood and the reinstatement of the global gag rule by Trump and the GOP that restricts foreign aid to those organizations that reference abortions in family planning. It was a move that Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg spoke out against last week. “We don't have to guess,” she wrote, noting that the move is a disaster for women globally. “We know what this will do.” What else? Well, now there are rumors that Trump could sign another executive order aimed at restricting advances in rights made by gays and lesbians, such as allowing people to refuse to do business with them due to religious objections (expect federal legislation here too). And, earlier this week, press secretary Sean Spicer said, “I don't know,” when asked if Trump would rescind a Barack Obama executive order banning anti-LGBT discrimination by federal contractors. Given tech leaders have been very vocal in their support of gay issues, which are important to their employees, if Trump does any of this, it should go off like a Roman candle in Silicon Valley. I’ll be curious what Thiel, who is now famously gay after his speech at the Republican National Convention this summer, will say about it if that comes to pass. I am guessing declaring that “Peter doesn’t support anti-gay orders, and the administration has not imposed one” will not work quite as well the second time around. And neither will Silicon Valley not taking Trump both seriously and literally anymore. Because these are serious times and we need serious people who will literally be compelled to act and speak out on all this and more. (And if you think I am going to stop nagging you all, you should ask my kids how that goes.) It’s probably a bummer for many of tech’s leaders that car execs or finance types or Hollywood moguls are not held to this high standard. In fact, the New York Times’ Mike Isaac tweeted about that yesterday. whispers im getting from some inside tech co's who feel unfairly targeted: "you dont see other fortune 500 company CEOs speaking out." — ಠ_ಠ (@MikeIsaac) January 29, 2017 As I replied, you don't see other Fortune 500 CEOs brag endlessly and loudly about changing the world when times are good. So, stop your whining, because if your brand has always been about changing that world, you better be ready to take responsibility when it does actually change. That or go buy a place in New Zealand. Until then, we have Bette Davis to comfort us:I never knew urban planning was so relaxing! Mini Metro puts your in charge of designing, building, and growing the train lines for a rapidly growing city. New stations pop up constantly, passengers never stop rolling in, and you’ve got to work with limited resources. The super simple interface and soothing music keeps it chill while you solve everyone’s problems, one subway station at a time. Listen to the Podcast: Watch Me Play Mini Metro How to Play Mini Metro The game does everything to minimize UI, so it can be a little confusing at first — you’re immediately thrown into what appears to be a 2D map with super simplified graphics. You typically can see a river running through the middle of the screen. And there are 2-3 shapes scattered around: a triangle and a circle for example. You click one of them and a colored line starts following your cursor (or finger if you’re on mobile). You drag it over to the other shape and suddenly a colored line appears between them. A little train car appears on it and starts moving between the two shapes. Then you realize: Those shapes represent subway stations — and you just connected them with a subway line that has one train going on it. Tiny symbols start stacking up at each subway station and when the train arrives, they hop on board it and ride it. These are the people you’re serving, and seeing them stack up next to subway stations helps you understand what you need to do to make the subway system work better for the needs of the city. You’re feeling good about this. You’ve got a simple subway going and everyone is taken care of. Then suddenly you spot a small dot on on the other side of the river you don’t remember seeing before. It’s growing… what’s happening. Is this bad? It’s a new subway station and people are already filling into it. You’ve got to find a way to connect it to your existing lines. But there’s no convenient way to hook into your existing lines without causing huge delays for your existing, already-too-busy stations. How are you going to redraw the existing subway lines, add new lines, or use infrastructure upgrades to alleviate the current issues and solve this new problem? Better figure it out, because the people are waiting! Better figure it out, because the people are waiting! Eventually you are going to get overwhelmed and “lose” when too many people are not able to get where they need to go. At which point you can keep playing for fun, replay in that city, or try a new city (which you unlock by reaching certain thresholds in earlier cities). At which point you can keep playing for fun, replay in that city, or try a new city (which you unlock by reaching certain thresholds in earlier cities). It’s not a tycoon game or even simulation game (although Extreme Mode gets close to simulation). At it’s heart, it’s a strategy game. It’s about thinking on the fly and solving a puzzle that constantly changes and evolves. 7 Reasons to Drop Everything and Immediately Play Mini Metro (Each of these points is discussed in detail on the podcast. Listen to it!) Soothing Relaxation! Frequent Traveler Rewards! Choose Your Own Adventure… Or Choose Your Own Infrastructure! 3 Modes! Daily Challenge! Hidden Depth! CHRONOMANCY! Get It Now! Contact UsA male Narwhal, whose tusk, as a Unicorn horn, was a common piece in cabinets. Cabinets of curiosities (also known in German loanwords as Kunstkabinett, Kunstkammer or Wunderkammer; also Cabinets of Wonder, and wonder-rooms) were notable collections of objects. The term cabinet originally described a room rather than a piece of furniture. Modern terminology would categorize the objects included as belonging to natural history (sometimes faked), geology, ethnography, archaeology, religious or historical relics, works of art (including cabinet paintings), and antiquities. The classic cabinet of curiosities emerged in the sixteenth century, although more rudimentary collections had existed earlier. In addition to the most famous and best documented cabinets of rulers and aristocrats, members of the merchant class and early practitioners of science in Europe formed collections that were precursors to museums. History [ edit ] Dell'Historia Naturale (Naples 1599), the earliest illustration of a natural history cabinet Fold-out engraving from Ferrante Imperato's(Naples 1599), the earliest illustration of a natural history cabinet virtuoso might evince A corner of a cabinet, painted by Frans II Francken in 1636 reveals the range of connoisseurship a Baroque-eramight evince The earliest pictorial record of a natural history cabinet is the engraving in Ferrante Imperato's Dell'Historia Naturale
72,50489,4523,567 hack - Legend Of The Twilight,6.72,26789,4520,1316 Kanokon OVA,6.71,14738,4582,1934 Black God,6.71,1757,4583,4505 Dragon Ball GT,6.7,175921,4612,195 Kanokon,6.7,71086,4621,470 Dagashi Kashi,6.69,74056,4645,349 Dance with Devils,6.69,19616,4646,1365 Red Data Girl,6.68,32611,4719,951 Hal Movie,6.68,28269,4726,1509 Pom Poko Movie,6.68,28269,4726,1509 Time of Eve Movie,6.68,28269,4726,1509 Maken-Ki,6.65,60762,4836,537 Tokyo ESP,6.64,46606,4892,648 Ah My Buddha 2,6.64,25862,4857,1264 Ah My Buddha,6.64,25862,4857,1264 Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash,6.63,13481,4904,2125 Ikkitousen,6.6,47061,5026,729 Kenka Banchou Otome - Girl Beats Boys,6.6,8545,5030,2044 Beyblade Burst,6.6,781,5018,4579 Sky Wizards Academy,6.58,49244,5107,678 Ninja Slayer From Animation,6.58,6746,5115,1914 Chaos HEAd,6.57,107640,5141,293 Coppelion,6.56,34617,5180,856 Chaos Child,6.56,14163,5178,1078 Brothers Conflict,6.55,43725,5216,834 Clockwork Planet,6.53,18562,5286,977 Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt,6.53,12384,5300,2247 Mass Effect - Paragon Lost Movie,6.49,3096,5445,4128 Arcana Famiglia,6.42,57450,5684,555 Toradora SOS,6.41,31693,5744,1131 Leviathan - The Last Defense,6.41,7516,5750,2378 Lagrange - The Flower of Rin-ne,6.4,565,5777,6350 elDLIVE,6.38,7981,5823,1922 Maken-Ki Two,6.34,27981,5978,1126 Valkyrie Drive - Mermaid,6.34,20217,5990,1196 Sakura Diaries,6.31,3541,6092,3605 DRAMAtical Murder,6.3,35796,6111,788 Trickster,6.28,13874,6198,1025 Daimidaler - Prince vs Penguin Empire,6.28,12968,6183,1611 BlazBlue Alter Memory,6.26,23465,6240,1157 Wizard Barristers - Benmashi Cecil,6.25,16441,6305,1520 Luck and Logic,6.23,22587,6399,1138 SoniAni - Super Sonico The Animation,6.23,17207,6371,1294 No-Rin,6.22,1100,6398,4983 Garo - Crimson Moon,6.22,346,6393,6910 Shining Hearts,6.2,11543,6463,1878 The Silver Guardian,6.19,9902,6473,1662 Valkyrie Drive -Mermaid- Specials,6.19,2849,6464,3707 18if,6.19,2588,6432,2586 Magical Warfare,6.18,58206,6512,552 Green Green,6.11,13779,6692,2201 Genocyber,6.07,5029,6789,2790 First Love Monster,5.98,12802,6983,1358 Aquarion Logos,5.88,2952,7171,2900 Divine Gate,5.84,34952,7245,736 Chaos Dragon Red Dragon Campaign,5.83,24381,7259,986 Endride,5.8,8564,7295,1467 D-Fragments,5.78,9,11501,12230 Diabolik Lovers,5.76,68531,7392,508 Hand Shakers,5.75,12519,7416,1240 Monster Hunter Stories - RIDE ON,5.75,1556,7418,3473 Seven Mortal Sins Uncensored,5.71,5918,7466,1261 Bikini Warriors,5.33,18536,7979,1521 The Laws of the Universe - Part 0 Movie,5.25,359,8077,6719Alt-Right trolls argue for hours with Twitter bot The internet's army of enraged anime avatars has a new enemy beyond their comprehension: a Twitter bot created by writer and activist Sarah Nyberg to make fools of them. Some lose themselves to hours of interaction, unaware they are ranting at a computer program. She told The Verge via Twitter DM that the bot uses a combination of generative and static statements sourced from the Javascript library Tracery. But the bot doesn’t even need to be that smart. As Nyberg pointed out, "So many arguments, especially on a place like Twitter, are almost content-neutral. You can swap one argument out for another and the context is almost irrelevant." That’s why @arguetron’s conversations look so much like arguments a real person might have with a persistent troll. Nyberg also cited barrl.net blogger Nora Reed as the project’s inspiration. Reed is best known for their Twitter projects, including a think piece headline generator and a bot that pitches terrible consumer products for women. Nyberg notes that she took a page out of Reed’s book by following only the accounts of real-life fish bait shops from the @arguetron account. Engadget's Richard Lawler writes that it "feeds the emptiness of alt-right trolls" who are looking for fights. Arguetron is by design not abusive or malicious in its tweets, and does not actively seek out adversaries. That's in contrast to some bots, like Nigel Leck's 2010 project @AI_AGW, which hunted down global warming deniers to provide automated fact-based responses explaining the science. Nyberg reports that the record holder is an "infowars egg" snared by the bot for 10 hours. this infowars egg is the record holder it argued with the bot for... almost TEN HOURS. yes, really. pic.twitter.com/DiQdNd8azw — Sarah Nyberg (@srhbutts) October 6, 2016 this is my favorite interaction someone repeatedly attempts to sexually harass the bot thinking it's human, this is how it replies: pic.twitter.com/2xqXVRTJPZ — Sarah Nyberg (@srhbutts) October 6, 2016 Sadly, the bot appears to have been shadowbanned--or at least muted from search results and user notifications--on Twitter.Burn marks showing through the backside of the Chromolly Flywheel Clutch taken apart - visible signs of damage to the disk and flywheel This is the analysis of my blown clutch, and should serve as informational for those considering a similar setup to what I was running. This clutch was taken off my '91 Skyline GTR which at the time was running roughly 400 horse at the wheels.I got this clutch in a pinch last season from a buddy in Montreal, he'd used it for about 1,000 km's and then he had to pull his motor or something so he sold it to me, after a call in to ACT USA, I measured the puck thickness to be less than 0.10 of a mm different from new, and there was no glazing on the flywheel so it was in decent condition, this is a picture on the day I received it:The clutch is stated for a 300ZX-TT but most people will also use it in the Skyline GTR because it's easy to get quickly and replacement disks are very cheap compared to other brand names. It's an ACT Ceramic 6 puck unsprung hub with a Toda Racing Light Weight Chromolly Flywheel.As a review of how it felt to drive this clutch in my car, it has a very On/Off button feel, the ceramic tends to screech and whine when its cold, and it's not a very comfortable clutch for city traffic. How-ever, the lightness of the setup did make for a very notable improvement in engine response. The revs would rise and fall much much quicker than the oem set up. This clutch handled a few launches under my foot, with a little light feathering into a 4wd launch it hooks up very well and never slipped on me.Two weeks ago from today, I was doing a launch just as I had always done before, a little feathering and a quick connect to jet the car forward, it hooked up nicer then I'd ever felt before. Up until now the car was running only 13 PSI for all of last season, so this was the first time I'd ever launched the car at my new power setting running 18 PSI since dyno-tuning. As I let out the clutch all felt normal, the car lunged up on all 4 wheels, and roared up the highway on-ramp tearing through first gear like a monster, at the top of first I pressed the clutch in quickly and went to shift into second to continue the glory that was this epic lift off which came to a sudden end. I couldn't get into second gear! or third! Something went wrong here....I pulled over to the side of the road and was towed to Autoworx, where the car would undergo investigation. At first we suspected a blown Slave cylinder based on the symptoms, it made sense. But once the guys realized the slave was actuating fine, they had a look into the bell-housing only see shards of clutch everywhere, it was at this point we knew something went wrong with the clutch, so the transmission came out and what was found was quite interesting. As pictured above right away there were 2 noticeable brown marks completely burned through the flywheel.Looking at the pressure the plate you can see signs of massive heat damage and something is actually stuck and fused onto opposite ends of the surface!Here are some close up macro photos of the material which has fused to the surface of the metal pressure plate:It's obvious to see whats happened here, the clutch disk must have gotten so hot that it fused material from the ceramic pucks onto the pressure plate. There are large chunks of clutch missing in the exact shape and position on the clutch disk. The material is also noticeably worn down completely to the rivets which is evidenced by the scoring on them.The front side of the disk is pictured in the photos above, and we find the exact same markings and chunking off, on the reverse side of the disk as well.On the Toda Flywheel it's the same story, massive burns and fused material...The guys at Autoworx believe the cause of all this unforgivable heat and fusion to be due to the combination of this clutch with a light weight chromolly flywheel. The thinner flywheel material and less heat dissipating properties of chromolly mean that when launching the car, the heat builds up very quickly and didn't have the chance to cool off, it became so hot that it caused the ceramic pucks to fuse with the flywheel and pressure plate. It's because they were stuck all together that I was not able to change gear.I am happy with the use I got out of the ACT clutch kit, it sufficed for one season and put up with everything I threw at it. I guess the extra power and torque that the new tune has produced was just too much for it to handle, and it was probably close to the end of it's life anyways.This story has been transmitted to Advance Clutch USA, and we'll be posting their response up here when it is available, I'm interested to see their take on this.For the time being, I have replaced my setup with a new oem flywheel and a Stage 3 Bully Clutch. Bully is a Canadian company based out of Ottawa, so I was able to get the clutch for my car in less than a week. They also offer 90 day warranty which will cover my summer time use, and they've assured me it will be able to handle my car no problem. So far I can say the clutch feel is very light, and the heavier rotating mass is noticeable through a now slower engine response, but it holds the power well. Haven't had the chance to really drive it hard though as I'm still under the break in period for another 350 km's.Two weeks ago, the brand new Condé Nast College of Fashion & Design opened its doors in London, offering two courses: the ten-week Vogue Fashion Certificate and the yearlong Vogue Fashion Foundation Diploma. The new college’s main selling point (which they are promoting aggressively via social media) is that students get an unparalleled insight into the fashion industry, with the staff of Condé Nast’s numerous U.K. publications being lined up as speakers and mentors. The courses are also making use of Condé Nast’s contacts outside the company — at this weekend’s British Vogue Festival, Sir Paul Smith mentioned he would soon be speaking at “that posh college.” Posh is one word for it. Fees at the college are astonishingly high compared to more established London institutions. For the diploma, students will pay £23,472 (approximately $36,351). Down the road at Central Saint Martins (whose alumni include Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen, and Christopher Kane), fees for the same qualification are only £3,500 ($5,420) for European students and £10,800 ($16,726) for international students. The Cut spoke to principal Susie Forbes to find out why the college has opened, what it has to offer, and why she believes that studying with Condé Nast is worth the designer price tag. Photo: Courtesy of Cond? Nast College What prompted Condé Nast to open its own college? We’ve been exploring brand extensions of the company for several years now, which has resulted in the Vogue Festival, Wired Consulting, and all sorts of other projects. The college seemed like a no-brainer: We’ve got fantastic magazine brands and 700 people working for the British company. There’s an ongoing issue with how opaque fashion is — it’s a world that lots of people want to get into, but it can feel very inscrutable. So there just seemed to be an opportunity to connect with students, and to hopefully help people find their place. There are staff popping in here all hours of the day, looking around and wanting to engage with the students. This is an experience that you cannot get anywhere else — to go in and see how these worlds work and how the meetings are run, and hear the opinions of people who are at the forefront of fashion. We’re not designed to be a feeder college for Condé Nast, but nonetheless, we in effect are the industry. With the current high unemployment rate, it could be argued that there are already more than enough people trying to get into the fashion industry. What would you say to that? I don’t agree. Generally what I hear is that there are jobs, but it isn’t always easy to marry up the recruits with the jobs. This is part of where we come in. We endeavour to have hundreds of light-touch relationships with industry. We have made absolutely no promises of internships or jobs as part of the course, because otherwise people sign up for that reason, rather than inherently for the studies. But I’ve got somebody here full-time, phoning every single company that we can, not just here but abroad where our students might be returning to, and saying “Where are your gaps? What roles are you recruiting for? How do you find your interns?” We are going to be wholly judged by our graduates, so we’re obviously hoping that they’ll be extremely employable. When we do pick up the phone to employers, the student then has to get the role on their merit — but we would hope that they would have a jolly good chance of being interviewed and recruited. Photo: Courtesy of Cond? Nast College Talk me through the courses that you’re offering. At the moment we have the first group of 45 students on the Vogue Fashion Certificate, which is a ten-week course and will run four times a year, concentrating on fashion design, media, business, and PR. You can’t teach somebody how to be a PR person, stylist, or anything else in ten weeks — but what we can show them is what it’s like to be all of those things. The students are university graduates who want to get into fashion, but aren’t sure which area. So by exposing them to all sorts of speakers, whether that’s retailers, bloggers, stylists, editors, or iPad designers, hopefully we can give them that lightbulb moment. My vice principal, Gary Pritchard, has a PhD in talent and skills, so he’s doing lots of one-on-one sessions with the students, trying to help them work out what they’re good at. In October, the Vogue Fashion Foundation Diploma starts — that’ll bring the number of students in the building up to 90. They’re more likely to be school-leavers than university graduates, and they will be touching on many of the same topics but in more depth, and with more opportunity to choose a particular pathway. So if after the first term they think I’m absolutely convinced that I want to be a journalist, then we can bespoke their course towards that. Any plans to launch more courses? Certainly not this year. We’re keen to get our feet under the desk first and make sure that we’re doing everything right. We’ve got a very tempting roster of other magazines that we publish, from which I can imagine all sorts of interesting courses, but there seems to be a huge amount of interest in Vogue-branded studies, so that’s where we’re starting. On the foundation diploma, there are three full scholarships each year. How do you award those? First of all, it’s important to mention that we’re very determined to be a meritocracy, so we charge one fee for all the students, which is almost unique — most British colleges charge higher fees for international students, and we didn’t want to do that. The scholarship applicants will apply in the same way as the others, which is to fill out the online application form, upload their personal statement, fulfill a piece of written work, and be interviewed. And then beyond that, they will be means-tested. Obviously we’re going to have a huge number of applicants for the scholarships, so they’ll go to the strongest candidates who meet the financial criteria. Photo: Courtesy of Cond? Nast College The fees are significantly higher than at other fashion colleges in London. Can you explain why? We’re a private provider, so we get no state funding. What we’re providing comes at an enormous cost. We’ve spent two years refurbishing our incredible building and hiring the very best people that we can. Students are here five days a week, frantically busy with high contact hours, which is unique to us. So they are being challenged all hours of the day with teachers and speakers coming in a fabulous schedule of activity, and that all comes with a price tag. Condé Nast has invested a huge sum of money in this project and is really excited about it in the long term. There’s nothing we want more than to have a huge success on our hands.Anti Defamation League's Foxman - Fit person to control the Internet? In 2009 email alerts from the Rev. Ted Pike of the National Prayer Network were invaluable for following the Obamacrats’ smuggling through of the iniquitous Hate Crime legislation of that year. Now he is sounding the alarm about another horrifyingly threatening measure: the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), which passed the House on April 26th. CISPA (Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act) is a bill that would take away a very great freedom: privacy on the internet. It would make federal spies of…internet giants such as Google, Facebook, Verizon, Comcast, and Time-Warner Cable These federal informants would receive “wish list” requests from the government for information on internet users. In return, internet moguls would supply to the government (without our consent) our names and information about us free of any possible liability. The Rev. Pike is of course an unswerving opponent of Zionism and its influence in American life, so he has every reason to be afraid: The Anti-Defamation League has long coveted the role of providing to the government and its internet spies the pivotal definitions which determine which ideas are a “national security threat.” Should CISPA pass, ADL wants to be in firm agreement with the government and internet industry on exactly who will be reported as an internet hater, anti-Semite, security threat or possible domestic terrorist. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) will convene a new working group on cyberhate that will bring together Internet industry leaders and others to probe the roots of the problem and develop new solutions to address it head-on. The Task Force on Internet Hate, created by the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Anti-Semitism (ICCA), formally approved a motion May 7 establishing the "Anti-Cyberhate Working Group,"… "We are honored to have been appointed by the ICCA to convene this important working group," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "Internet hate continues to have a global impact on civil society... We welcome the commitments of Google and Facebook to participate in this dialogue to combat online hate speech, Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism… Christopher Wolf…who serves as Co-Chair of the ICCA Task Force on Internet Hate and Chair of the ADL Task Force on Internet Hate, stated...”The Internet has been infected with the virus of hate since its inception, and the Task Force is proving to be one of the most effective mechanisms for developing voluntary efforts to disable the virus." Unfortunately he can prove this allegation by reference to a May 10 2012 press release from the ADL which gloats ADL Teams With Internet Industry Leaders To Convene Cyberhate Working Group May 10, 2012 Different though our interests are, recent events were hardly necessary to remind Immigration Patriots that there is equal enthusiasm for repressing and harming us. To their credit the ACLU and Mozilla have both declared against this measure, an annotated critique of which is here. So has the Obama Administration! But the GOP House seemed indifferent to opposition – or, perhaps, just obedient. And that quintessential creation of the Internet, the Drudge Report, has apparently carried nothing. Unfortunately, that is not a surprise. The measure is now headed for the Senate. I strongly suggest signing up for the National Prayer Network’s email alerts (via their home page) to keep track of it.0 During the Warner Bros. panel at last year’s San Diego Comic-Con, filmmaker Zack Snyder took the stage to briefly preview the very first footage from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. He subsequently brought Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, and Gal Gadot out to wave to the crowd, but just as quickly as they appeared, they turned and walked off the stage. As he was exiting, Snyder added, “We’ll see you guys next year,” hinting at a much larger Batman v Superman presence at San Diego Comic-Con 2015. While Warner Bros. has yet to announce what it will be showcasing at Comic-Con next month, there is obviously going to be something significant for Batman v Superman. The panel will no doubt include Snyder and the return of Affleck, Cavill, and Gadot, but who else? – Perri spoke with the film’s Lex Luthor, Jesse Eisenberg, recently in anticipation of the excellent drama The End of the Tour, and she took the opportunity to ask the actor if he might be gracing Hall H with his presence: “I’ll be there…I think I’m there for the hour I’m on the stage.” While it was a pretty safe bet that Eisenberg would be taking part in what’s sure to be a memorable panel for Batman v Superman, we now have it straight from the horse’s mouth that he’ll be attending Comic-Con 2015. Moreover, when asked what DC movie Eisenberg is looking forward to besides his own, he had high praise for Batman v Superman screenwriter Chris Terrio: “I like what this writer does, this guy Chris Terrio. He wrote this movie we did and I just think he’s so great. He’s such a good writer. I like what he does with characters, I like what he does with wordplay and cleverness. I like anything he writes.” Terrio, who won the Oscar for writing Argo, was brought in to rework David S. Goyer‘s initial draft of the screenplay for Batman v Superman, and it sounds like his contributions were significant. It’s certainly encouraging to see Eisenberg describe the script as full of wordplay and cleverness. Expect many more details on Comic-Con panels over the next few weeks, and be sure to tune in to Collider for our extensive coverage from the event. San Diego Comic-Con 2015 runs from July 8—12th. Look for the full interview on Collider soon: Jesse Eisenberg just confirmed to us that he’ll be on the ‘Batman v Superman’ stage at Comic-Con. #LexLuthor #SDCC #BatmanVSuperman A photo posted by ColliderNews (@collidernews) on Jun 18, 2015 at 12:47pm PDT To catch up on all of our Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice coverage, click here. Peruse the recent links below.With a lot of new owners the concept of socialization is harped on endlessly. Socialize your dog! Take them everywhere! Make them meet everyone! They have to meet all the dogs! Take them to puppy play sessions twice per day! The dog park is great for puppies! They need daily specialized socialization classes! They should love this! Unfortunately, that extremist approach to a fairly simple concept has perpetuated something that’s hard to get around; There is an overwhelming belief that all dogs should love everyone and everything and anything outside of that assertion is somehow deviant, worrying, and likely a temperamental flaw to be crushed out, trained endlessly, or gotten rid of posthaste. It’s beaten into our heads that dogs need friends and social lives and time off-leash, and freedom to be themselves and space and holy crap it’s starting to sound like you’ve got a child not a dog. Unfortunately what a lot of these voices berating us fail to take into account is that dogs are individuals and there is such a thing as too much too fast in terms of socialization. Enter, the dog park. Dog parks, to many people are a welcome beacon of off-leash space in an on-leash world. In theory they could be wonderful, but a lot of things could be wonderful in theory. Like deep-fried peanut butter & jelly sandwiches. Regardless of how you feel about adult dogs at dog parks, I think there is one thing we can all agree on. Puppies do NOT belong at dog parks. Period. End of story. Why, you ask? Let us count the ways. Illness. Injury. Stress and fear responses. The list goes on and on. Dog parks are like frat parties. They are full of loud, rude, clueless, and overstimulated individuals who only get worse when part of a large group. Plus, farting and humping is not only allowed, but encouraged. For real, though. Think about sending your 13 year old daughter to a frat party. Yeah. Besides being a major parenting fail, it would also be a disaster. So if you wouldn’t risk your teen daughter in a group of hooligans, why would you trust your impressionable puppy? There are plenty of ways to get controlled socialization for your puppy. Find a stable adult dog for it to play with. Set up playdates with other similarly aged puppies. Attend a puppy class at your local trainer who doesn’t just release them into the wild like some kind of weird documentary film. The key here is to set your puppy up for success. Be smart about it and use some common sense (sadly not all that common) and be your pup’s advocate. And if your dog or puppy is a bit of a hermit? Well that’s really okay too. We certainly don’t like everyone; why should our dogs? They’re entitled to their opinions on the matter. The idea that all dogs must be friendly and get along all the time is at best naive. If more people spent time imprinting manners in their dogs rather than engaging in free-for-all socialization (which is usually more detrimental for sensitive pups) we’d have a lot fewer issues in the long-run. Eventually we want training to supersede their opinions but until then, socialize your puppies elsewhere. And the next person who suggests you take your puppy to the dog park? We give you permission to punch them in the throat. AdvertisementsAbout Us Founded in 2004 by longtime partners, Patrick Cooney, Sal Di Mercurio and Edmond Carlson, Northstar Properties was formed with a vision to create and maintain an industry leading, revolutionary property management company. Edmond Carlson, a twenty year veteran of the multi-family housing industry, envisioned what a synergistic team, focused solely on property management, could do for the community. With his dedication to honesty and integrity, along with his commitment to long-term relationships, employee education programs, and his proven track record as one of the best property management professionals in the industry, he was able to quickly assemble a team of proven industry performers that far exceeded his expectations. Today, Northstar exists to provide quality housing for apartments across Oklahoma. We’re deeply passionate about the communities we serve and aim to improve the lives of our residents each day. Our staff is trained, certified and experienced in handling quick responses. Likewise, we’re dedicated to the continuous improvement of our properties — investing in upgrades and features that encourage our communities to live inspired. After Edmond’s passing in 2016, his wife, Ann became involved in the ongoing tradition that Patrick, Edmond, and Sal began. Each family’s next generation has become an integral part of Northstar’s local and national excellence.WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans invoked the “nuclear option” Thursday, overturning the body’s rules so Neil Gorsuch could be confirmed to the Supreme Court with a simple majority vote. The vote — entirely along party lines — was 52 to make the change and 48 against. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the change — from 60 to 51 votes — was necessary to break a Democratic filibuster intended to block the Colorado appellate judge. “This will be the first — and last — partisan filibuster of a Supreme Court nomination,” McConnell said of the history-making step. “The nuclear option means the end of a long history of consensus on Supreme Court nominations,” griped Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer. The extreme move was teed up shortly after 11:30 a.m. when the Senate voted 55-45 to end debate, failing to advance President Trump’s first high court nominee with the minimum 60 votes necessary. Four Democrats joined Republicans: Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Michael Bennet of Colorado. Falling short of the 60 votes needed, McConnell moved to change the rules for Supreme Court nominees to 51 votes. “Our Democratic colleagues have done something today that is unprecedented in the history of the Senate,” McConnell said. “Unfortunately, it has brought us to this point. We need to restore the norms and traditions of the Senate and get past this unprecedented, partisan filibuster.” Republicans blamed the “radical move” on the Democrats’ unwillingness to accept Trump as the president. “This isn’t really about the nominee anyway,” McConnell said before the vote. “The opposition to this particular nominee is more about the man that nominated him and the party he represents than the nominee himself.” Schumer said the real extreme option was when McConnell refused to even allow President Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, a hearing. The blame falls on Republicans’ shoulders, he said. “We believe what Republicans did to Merrick Garland is worse than a filibuster,” Schumer said. “…These past few weeks, we Democrats have given Judge Gorsuch a fair process, something Merrick Garland was denied.” Gorsuch heads to a final vote Friday in the Senate, where he’s expected to pass with a majority of votes. He’d filled the vacancy left by the death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia in February 2016. Both parties bemoaned the breakdown of the Senate and worried that the elimination of the 60-vote threshold will lead to more partisan justices. Democrats under Sen. Harry Reid deployed the nuclear option in November 2013 under Obama to get his lower-court nominations approved but had maintained the 60-vote rule for Supreme Court nominees. In a last-ditch effort to avoid going nuclear, Schumer put forward a motion to postpone the nomination vote to April 24 — after the two-week Easter recess — to allow both sides and Trump to chart a path forward. That vote failed 48-52 in a party-line division. “In a post-nuclear world, if the Senate and the presidency are in the hands of the same party, there’s no incentive to even speak to the Senate minority,” Schumer said. “That’s a recipe for more conflict and bad blood between the parties, not less.”An object claimed to be 13,000-year-old alien satellite orbiting the Earth is just a piece of an old space shuttle. by Brian Dunning Filed under Aliens & UFOs, Urban Legends Skeptoid Podcast #365 June 4, 2013 Podcast transcript \| Download \| Subscribe Also available in Russian Listen: http://skeptoid.com/audio/skeptoid-4365.mp3 Thermal blanket debris photographed from Endeavor, STS-88. Image courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center Thermal blanket debris photographed from Endeavor, STS-88.Image courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center Stories say it's up there in the blackness right now, just outside the Earth's glow. It tumbles slowly and deliberately through the darkness, sweeping smoothly along its unrelenting orbit. The Earth spins below, largely unaware of its unauthorized parasitic visitor. It is the Black Knight satellite, a mysterious object cirling the Earth, of unknown (and possibly alien) origin — the story says it's up there right now, and has been for 13,000 years. Like so many stories of weird phenomena, the Black Knight satellite legend starts with Nicola Tesla. It's said that he picked up a repeating radio signal in 1899, that he believed was coming from space, and said so publicly at a conference. In the 1920s, amateur HAM radio operators were able to receive this same signal. Next, scientists in Oslo, Norway experimenting with short wave transmissions into space in 1928, began picking up Long Delay Echoes (LDEs), a not fully understood phenomenon in which they received echoes several seconds after transmission. The apparent explanation finally came in 1954 when newspapers (including the St. Louis Post Dispatch and the San Francisco Examiner) reported an announcement from the US Air Force that two satellites were found to be orbiting the Earth, at a time when no nation yet had the ability to launch them. It appeared that Black Knight had been detected by multiple lines of evidence, and was confirmed by the US Air Force. By 1960, both the United States and the Soviet Union had hardware in orbit. But on February 11, 1960, newspapers everywhere reported some alarming news: that somebody else also had something in orbit. A radar screen, designed by the US Navy to detect enemy spy satellites, had picked something up. It was described as a dark, tumbling object. It wasn't ours, and it wasn't the Soviets' either. The next day, newspapers reported a bit more information. The mysterious object was orbiting at about 79 degrees off from the equator, not the 90 degrees of a proper polar orbit. Its orbit was also highly eccentric, with an apogee of 1,728 km but a perigee of only 216 km. The object made a complete orbit every 104.5 minutes. At the time, the Navy was tracking one known casing from an old Discoverer launch, a half shell a bit less than 6 meters long. Discoverer VIII had launched on November 20, 1959, a stepping stone toward launching a man into space and then recovering him in a parachuting capsule. The launch went as planned, but its mission to eject its 136 kg capsule didn't go so well. The capsule's casings came off as planned, but the capsule itself went astray into an orbit somewhat similar to that of the mystery object, and was eventually declared lost. The Navy tracked one of the casings, which was then orbiting every 103 minutes at 80 degrees, with an apogee of 950 km and a perigee of 187 km. Black Knight's object was similar, but not exactly the same. And then, in 1963, astronaut Gordon Cooper reported seeing a greenish UFO during his 15th orbit on board Mercury 9. It was witnessed on the radar screens by approximately 100 people at NASA's Muchea Tracking Station near Perth, Australia. An official explanation given later was that Cooper's electronics malfunctioned, and he breathed in too much CO 2 which gave him hallucinations. Black Knight's reality seemed to be undeniable. In 1973, Scottish researcher Duncan Lunan wanted to know for certain. He went back to the Norwegian scientists' LDE data and analyzed it. Lunan discovered that it was a star chart pointing the way to Epsilon Boötis, a double star in the constellation of Boötes. Whatever Black Knight was, it appeared to be transmitting an invitation from the people of Epsilon Boötis, an invitation that was 12,600 years old, according to Lunan's analysis. The final piece of proof came in 1998, when the space shuttle Endeavor made its first flight to the International Space Station on flight STS-88. Astronauts aboard Endeavor took many photographs of a strange object, which were widely available to the public on the NASA website. But soon the photographs all disappeared. They reappeared some time later, with new URLs, and with
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But in the five years since, Chromebooks have defied expectations, becoming the most used device in US classrooms and even outselling Macs for the first time this year. Still, people complain about their inability to run useful software, but that’s all about to change. In the latest version of Chrome OS (53), one million Android apps are now available for Chromebooks through the Google Play store. After a brief software update, you’ll be able to install to almost any Android app on the market, dramatically changing what your Chromebook is capable of doing. Advertisement For now, the update is only available on ASUS’s Chromebook Flip and will soon be on Google’s Pixel (2015) and Acer’s Chromebook R11 with more coming. Eager to try the feature, I dusted off our Chromebook Flip and used it for a couple of days. Obviously. the new software is in the early stages of roll out right now, but even after spending just a few days with the beta, I can safely say that the finished version will be a sea change for Chromebooks, with the potential to transform them from the limited devices they are into full-fledged computing machines. Here’s what it’s like to use the Chrome OS supercharged with Android Apps. Setup Updating my Chromebook was pretty easy. I browsed through the settings, switched my device to the Chrome developer channel, and installed update 53 within a few minutes. After a quick reboot, there it was just sitting in my shelf—the Google Play store. Advertisement Once you’ve installed the update, Android apps are immediately and can be pinned to your shelf like any other app or web URL. There are, however, some caveats. Most Android apps are built for smartphones and tablets, so a handful aren’t available on Chrome OS just yet. These are a few factors that prohibit an Android apps on your Chromebook: Apps that need a good rear camera (sorry, no Instagram yet) Anything that would require GPS Any app with SMS or text messaging abilities Advertisement All these are hardware limitations, so if you’re patiently waiting for Android apps to arrive on your older Chromebook, don’t expect to see them anytime soon. But these problems might not be as permanent as you’d think. Google announced during its developer conference in May that future Chromebooks, specifically ones from Samsung, will come with the hardware necessary to take advantage of these apps. But for now, you’ll find that a handful of apps won’t work. Of course, other issues come up as well. Most of these machines are not designed to download and store apps for offline use, so some Chromebooks might be severely limited when it comes to storage space. It’s also important to note that many older devices have no means of memory expansion like an Android phone. This will likely change with the next new crop of Chromebooks. Advertisement An all new app-filled world While some of your favorite photo apps might be missing, Chrome 53 has plenty stuff worth downloading. Granted, I didn’t try out a million apps to see how they performed on Chrome, but most apps I used ran without any major issue. This is because Android is actually running in a separate container on ChromeOS, not through emulation, so the experience is remarkably smooth. All apps have a windowed and fullscreen version with no resizing options, likely because app makers never had to worry about it. And you can still see some growing pains, like the fact that the app drawer doesn’t disappear when you enter fullscreen mode. Luckily, you can just set the taskbar to autohide. Advertisement Most Android apps on Chrome OS certainly look like normal desktop applications, they don’t act that way just yet. These are, after all, Android apps. For some apps, it doesn’t really matter. Spotify, for example, will use the mobile app’s horizontal landscape design when running on a Chromebook. It’s maybe not quite as intuitively laid out as its its standard desktop app, but certainly usable and can save songs for offline use. Nice. On other apps, weird, unexpected stuff can happen. The one thing I noticed on the Netflix app was that it wouldn’t continue running the background if I switch over to another app. This is probably because Android doesn’t have multi-window support yet (though it is coming with Android N this fall), and there’s really no reason for an app to keep playing in the background like it would on a normal desktop. Advertisement So as soon as I clicked out of Orange Is The New Black over the weekend to send a quick email, Netflix immediately stopped. Obviously, Google and other developers will have to implement new multitasking features in order to make things run more smoothly. It’s also worth mentioning that with apps like Spotify, which have been designed to run in the background, it wasn’t an issue. So in some cases, it’s worth sticking with the Web version of a certain app if you can. As for serious work, Chromebooks are about as useful as an Android tablet in terms of app availability, so you’re using mobile versions of Photoshop instead of a full-fledged desktop app. But the Google Play Store does fill in some necessary gaps, with apps like Trello and Feedly, for helping me to get work done. You can now download Office as well and use offline, which is a big help. Compared to some of Google’s more tepid attempts at making Android work-friendly, Chromebooks running Android is a step in the right direction. Advertisement Gaming comes to Chrome OS The most obvious benefit of the Google Play store running on ChromeOS are the games that come with it. Of course, the Chrome Web Store had some games, but they were nothing compared to the ones on Android. Since many popular games, like Hearthstone for example, don’t have desktop clients, these apps have been almost completely closed off to Chromebook and even most desktops for that matter. Yes, that means you can now play Clash of Clans (without any emulators) on a laptop. Advertisement But it’s not all good news when it comes to gaming on a Chromebook. Some games have fixed perspectives, either horizontal or vertical. Any games in the latter category get super weird on a horizontal display. For specific Chromebooks like the Flip, the problem is less of an issue because it can basically turn into a tablet because of its 360-degree hinge. Almost every other Chromebook cannot. For now, if you’re trying to play a vertical mobile game, my best advice would be don’t. The beginning of something great Android apps on Chrome OS are far from polished. There’s a lot of work that both Google and the developers need to do in order to make it usable for most people. For porting such a massive amount of apps over from one platform to another, though, the experience is surprisingly good. Advertisement Right now, all major gadget companies are trying to take tablet computing to the next level. Microsoft thinks it’s onto something with the Surface. Apple’s trying to turn its iPad into a laptop replacement, and this could very well be Google’s most competitive version of a productivity tablet. The launch of Chrome 53 doesn’t mean the end of all Android tablets, but it could be the beginning of a kind of Chromebook we’ve never seen before.Matt Roberts/Getty Images This is the second article in my Best of the Best series, examining fighters who best demonstrate one facet of the fight game in MMA. The previous piece was Anderson Silva's Thai Clinch. One of the topics I am most often asked about is head movement. What is the place of head movement in MMA and who is particularly effective in using it? Obviously we can point to examples of good head movement such as Anderson Silva, Fedor Emelianenko and B.J. Penn, and we can point to fighters who lack head movement, such as Nick Diaz and Diego Sanchez. We can even point to fighters who use head movement all the time except when they attack, at which point they stand bolt upright—an ailment I have affectionately named Rashad Evans syndrome. But the question of when head movement is appropriate is an equally important one. B. J. Penn's overly enthusiastic focus on head movement numbed him to correct use of range, and his footwork suffered because of it—making him a sitting target for low kicks and body shots. This is an example of how excellence in one area of the striking game does not mean that a fighter has "excellent striking" as a whole. Aside from numbing a fighter to proper footwork, over-zealous head movement in MMA also places the user in great danger of eating a hard kick or knee. One only needs to watch Chuck Liddell's head kick on a ducking Babalu or Jose Aldo's counter knee as his opponent ducked in with a body jab to understand that ducking the head is not always appropriate or safe. A few more examples are Mark Hunt slipping straight into Cro Cop's left high kick during their match in K-1 and Marlon Sandro attempting to slip a salvo of half effort punches from Pat Curran, only to lean into a fight-ending high kick. Someone who does use head movement incredibly effectively in MMA is Ross Pearson, who meets Ryan Couture this weekend in Sweden. Today I want to focus on just one movement that Pearson performs well, in a sport where it is exceptionally dangerous to attempt: the inside slip. To understand just how dangerous a great inside slipper can be, take a look at Jersey Joe Walcott's knockout of Ezzard Charles to win the heavyweight title. This is possibly the greatest one-punch KO of all time, and it is to my mind certainly the best finish in heavyweight title history. Whenever you speak to a new coach, terms change and pairs are often reversed. An inside slip to some might be a slip to the inside of one's own stance (right for an orthodox fighter), but I use the term to describe slipping to the inside of an opponent's jab (to the left for an orthodox fighter vs an orthodox fighter). Slipping inside of an opponent's jab, rather than towards the outside of it, is a good deal more dangerous because it carries a fighter's head towards the opponent's cocked right hand. If you want to see just how badly this can go wrong - watch Quinton Jackson lean straight into Wanderlei Silva's right hook at the end of their second bout. Yes, to slip inside of an opponent's jab takes some guts to attempt and a good understanding of what the opponent is most likely to do. Anticipation, speed and common sense are the keys to success with this position. If it is so dangerous and so taxing, why bother? Because of the wonderful counter punches which suddenly open up from this position. Some of the most memorable knockouts in boxing history have come from "inside position". It is a wonderful method to close the distance for a fighter who excels with the lead hook (such as Pearson). There are numerous ways to alleviate some of the dangers of the inside slip. One can bring the right elbow across the face to act as a hand destruction should the opponent punch the elbow, or one can extend the right hand, palm open, to pin the opponent's right forearm to his chest—preventing him from striking during the slip (a favourite of Archie Moore). Most fighters who use the inside slip have success almost entirely because of good timing and anticipation, however. Ross Pearson is no different. Pearson excels against opponents who will attempt to engage him with jabs, where he can use his inside slip to maximum effect. George Sotiropoulos was a fantastic stylistic matchup for Pearson in this respect. Sotiropoulos' jab is sharp and hard, but he lacks combination punching skill and as such attempted to pot shot Pearson. Throughout the fight, whenever G-Sot thrust in a rapier-like jab, Pearson would slip to the inside of it and change level. In the early going, this led to the two men colliding with Pearson's head in G-Sot's sternum. As the match progressed, Pearson would land effective offense both with his right hand during the slip and using the slip to coil himself for the left hook. In addition to a nice right hook to the body, Pearson will also use a right hook to the temple combined with an inside slip. If he successfully slips his opponent's jab the right hook travels over the top in a Cross Counter, probably the most effective knockout punch in the boxing arsenal and a favourite of Alistair Overeem and Mark Hunt among others. Pearson is at his best, however, when he has his range and timing down and is using the inside slip to coil his brilliant left hook. Notice how deeply he slips, making it extremely hard for his opponent to follow him with a right hand. This is a far deeper slip than when he is using his right hand to counter simultaneously. Mike Tyson is remembered for almost always slipping to his opponent's power hand side first, but was tough to hit because of how deep his slip was. Ross Pearson relies very heavily on this inside slip and his level changes, however. When Ross is forced to stay upright he has been hit hard and finished before. Cub Swanson used the threat of wild, winging head kicks to keep Pearson standing upright, where his lack of effective footwork makes him easy to hit. Edson Barboza was also able to nail Pearson with punches off of a blocked kick. Even G-Sot was able to wobble Pearson with a stiff jab after forcing him to reconsider his regular strategy with a wild front kick at Pearson's head. Why does this work so well? If Pearson slips into a shin bone, foot or knee, his forearms are not going to be able to absorb the force of the kick and he will probably eat much of the force with his head as it moves to meet the attack. Forcing Pearson to engage in a kickboxing match limits his options and makes him an easy target. Boxing with Pearson is generally going to get a fighter hurt with tight counter punches. Jack Slack breaks down over 70 striking tactics employed by 20 elite strikers in his first ebook, Advanced Striking, and discusses the fundamentals of strategy in his new ebook, Elementary Striking. Jack can be found on Twitter, Facebook and at his blog: Fights Gone By.UConn, state colleges get top rankings in US News & World Reports Image 1 of / 29 Caption Close UConn, state colleges get top rankings in US News & World Reports 1 / 29 Back to Gallery The University of Connecticut has been ranked the 18th top public university in a U.S. News & World Report list released Tuesday. The No. 18 ranking places UConn ahead of many other noted schools and reflects the university’s strides in retention and graduation rates, reputation among peer institutions and guidance counselors, and other factors measured by the rankings. U.S. News & World Report’s list placed Sacred Heart University in Fairfield as fourth in the north region in 2018 in terms of innovation. The annual publication, also has a list for campuses with the highest international student bodies — and the University of Bridgeport is close to the top in the north with 14 percent. Looking for a campus focused on good instruction, Fairfield University, in addition to ranking third overall in the north, is also ranked third in the north for having a faculty with an unusually strong commitment to teaching. The annual rankings give college bound students and their families, a guide to more than 1,400 U.S. universities. More Information Connecticut colleges to make 2018 U.S. News Best Colleges Rankings National Universities 3. Yale University 56. University of Connecticut 176. University of Hartford Best Regional Universities North 3. Fairfield University 13. Quinnipiac University, Hamden 41. Sacred Heart University, Fairfield 78. University of St. Joseph, West Hartford 85. Eastern Connecticut State University, Willimantic 94. University of New Haven 94. Central Connecticut State University, New Britain 116. Albertus Magnus College, New Haven 120. Western Connecticut State University, Danbury 130. Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven Second Tier schools, listed but not ranked: University of Bridgeport National Liberal arts Colleges 21. Wesleyan University, Middletown 44. Trinity College, Hartford 46. Connecticut College, New London Overall, Princeton University ranked first nationwide for the seventh straight year, with Yale University ranking third — sharing the spot for a second year with the University of Chicago. The University of Connecticut is 56th on that national list — up from 60 in 2017. More important to UConn officials, is its standing among public universities and in 2018 it rose to 18th nationwide — in a tie with University of Texas-Austin, University of Washington and Purdue. It is the highest UConn has climbed on the national public college list. UConn President Susan Herbst was thrilled. “This is a reflection of our core academic strength and UConn’s exceptional faculty, staff, students and leaders — and state investment over many years,” Herbst said in a prepared statement. The upward trajectory was accomplished, she added, despite ongoing cuts to UConn’s appropriation from the state. UConn also made strides in another important area in this year’s U.S. News rankings: It now is No. 24 nationwide among the Best Colleges for Veterans, up from No. 36 last year. UConn ties for that No. 24 spot in the category with the same peers with which it shares the overall No. 18 position, along with George Washington University. Among all public and private universities in the rankings, UConn’s position at No. 56 was a move upward from last year’s No. 60 spot, and places the University among the top 5 percent of all institutions nationwide. What the scores mean The rankings focus on 15 indicators of academic excellence and student outcomes, including class size, test scores of incoming students and graduation rates. Campuses with significantly higher graduation and freshman retention rates score the highest. The average six-year graduation rate is 96 percent for the top 10 National Universities and 92.5 percent for the top 10 National Liberal Arts Colleges. Those schools also retain 96.5 percent of their freshmen or better. “Before taking out student loans or writing a tuition check, families should research graduation and retention rates,” Brian Kelly, editor and chief content officer of U.S. News, said. “Colleges that saddle students with debt but do little to support them through graduation are contributing to a vicious cycle.” Many colleges have a love/hate relationship with the rankings, insisting they are only one factor college-bound students consider. One ranking colleges prefer not to score high on concerns student debt. U.S. News compiled a list of the schools whose Class of 2016 graduated with the heaviest and lightest debt loads. Among regional university’s in the north, Quinnipiac came in fifth with an average debt of $47,217 by graduation. Some 71 percent of Quinnipac students left with debt. By comparison, Yale grads leave with an average loan debt of $13,625, one of the lowest nationwide. Dominic Yoia, Quinnipiac’s director of financial aid said what students there borrow, they pay back. The university has just a 1.4 percent default rate on student loans, according to the U.S. Department of Education. “Our graduates are securing jobs with salaries that allow them to pay off their student loans,” Yoia said. What about Connecticut? In the north region, Fairfield University ranked third, Quinnpiac in Hamden ranked 13th and Sacred Heart 41. Eight other university were ranked on the list, including the state’s four regional public universities — Western, Southern, Central and Eastern. Beyond the overall rankings, students can research schools with the most diversity — both economic and ethnic. There is a list for best value, best colleges for “B” students and best schools depending on intended major. The list of most “innovative” schools is somewhat new and is based on a survey of college presidents, provosts and admissions deans asked to name institutions they think are making the most improvements in curriculum faculty, campus life, and facilities. “Being considered one of the most innovative universities is a result of our mission and careful strategic planning,” Kim Primicerio, a Sacred Heart spokeswoman said. “Sacred Heart never rests, however, and we will continue striving to meet our mission, goals and potential to serve our students and our community.” At Fairfield University, officials celebrate not only its third place ranking in the north, but also making it onto the national list for its undergraduate business program, third in the north for teaching undergraduates, and a new category devoted to service learning program excellence. “The rankings that Fairfield continues to achieve are a reflection of the quality of our faculty, staff, and students, both in the learning environment we create here on campus, as well as the amazing achievements of our alumni,” said Fairfield President Mark R. Nemec.VIPER is a visual interpreter of a slightly adjusted version of Pascal, created as part of the OSI (Open Studies in Computer Science) platform wazniak.mimuw.edu.pl. Authors Piotr Chrzastowski-Wachtel Anna Niewiarowska Michal Adamaszek Downloads: Complete package (English) : a short manual, syntax, sample programs and the stand-alone application all in English vip-en.zip : a short manual, syntax, sample programs and the stand-alone application all in English vip-en.zip Complete package (Polish): a manual, syntax, sample programs and the stand-alone application all in Polish vip-pl.zip Run as Java applet: Screenshots Demos Almost all the demonstration animations come from the OSI website. Their authors are Piotr Chrzastowski-Wachtel, Jacek Chrzaszcz and Daria Walukiewicz-Chrzaszcz. Quick intro EN : The left window is for the source code, under it are the output and error consoles. The right frame displays the memory, gray buttons turn the visibility of variables on and off. First you need to compile your code (press the compile button). You will be prompted for the input data (if any). After compilation it is not possible to edit the code. You may now start the program or step through it. The program can be stopped at any time and speed can be adjusted. When the program is over press the end button to return to edit mode. : The left window is for the source code, under it are the output and error consoles. The right frame displays the memory, gray buttons turn the visibility of variables on and off. First you need to compile your code (press the compile button). You will be prompted for the input data (if any). After compilation it is not possible to edit the code. You may now start the program or step through it. The program can be stopped at any time and speed can be adjusted. When the program is over press the end button to return to edit mode. PL: W oknie po lewej piszemy tekst programu, pod spodem na szarym tle jest konsola na outputy, jeszcze nizej konsola na komunikaty kompilatora. Na zoltym tle sa zmienne, szarymi przyciskami na gorze mozna wlaczac/wylaczac widocznosc. Najpierw kompilujemy program (kompiluj) co wczytuje tez dane wejsciowe. Jesli kompilcja byla OK, to od tego momentu edycja jest zablokowana. Potem mozna uruchamiac (krok po kroku lub startem - zatrzymanie w dowolnej chwili przez stop). Jak nam sie znudzi klikamy Koniec i wracamy do trybu edycji kodu. Papers VIPER, a Student-friendly Interpreter of Pascal; Michal Adamaszek, Piotr Chrzastowski-Wachtel, Anna Niewiarowska, Proc. ISSEP'2008, LNCS 5090, 192-203 Acknowlegments. We thank the following people who submitted bug-reports, suggestions, or otherwise contributed to VIPER: Maksymilian Osowski.1. Overview In this article, we introduce the RESTful API Modeling Language (RAML), a vendor-neutral, open-specification language built on YAML 1.2 and JSON for describing RESTful APIs. We’ll cover basic RAML 1.0 syntax and file structure as we demonstrate how to define a simple JSON-based API. We’ll also show how to simplify RAML file maintenance through the use of includes. And if you have legacy APIs that use JSON schema, we’ll show how to incorporate schemas into RAML. Then we’ll introduce a handful of tools that can enhance your journey into RAML, including authoring tools, documentation generators, and others. Finally, we’ll wrap up by describing the current state of the RAML specification. 2. Defining Your API (creating the.raml file) The API we’ll define is fairly simple: given the entity types Foo, define basic CRUD operations and a couple of query operations. Here are the resources that we will define for our API: GET /api/v1/foos POST /api/v1/foos GET /api/v1/foos/{id} PUT /api/v1/foos/{id} DELETE /api/v1/foos/{id} GET /api/v1/foos/name/{name} GET /api/v1/foos?name={name}&ownerName={ownerName} And let’s define our API to be stateless, using HTTP Basic authentication, and to be delivered encrypted over HTTPS. Finally, let’s choose JSON for our data transport format (XML is also supported). 2.1. Root-Level Settings We’ll start by creating a simple text file named api.raml (the.raml prefix is recommended; the name is arbitrary) and add the RAML version header on line one. At the root level of the file, we define settings that apply to the entire API: #%RAML 1.0 title: Baeldung Foo REST Services API using Data Types version: v1 protocols: [ HTTPS ] baseUri: http://myapi.mysite.com/api/{version} mediaType: application/json Notice on line 3 the use of braces { } around the word “version“. This is how we tell RAML that “version” refers to a property and is to be expanded. Therefore the actual baseUri will be: http://myapi.mysite.com/v1 [Note: the version property is optional and need not be a part of the baseUri.] 2.2. Security Security is also defined at the root level of the.raml file. So let’s add our HTTP basic security scheme definition: securitySchemes: basicAuth: description: Each request must contain the headers necessary for basic authentication type: Basic Authentication describedBy: headers: Authorization: description: Used to send the Base64-encoded "username:password" credentials type: string responses: 401: description: \| Unauthorized. Either the provided username and password combination is invalid, or the user is not allowed to access the content provided by the requested URL. 2.3. Data Types Next, we’ll define the data types that our API will use: types: Foo: type: object properties: id: required: true type: integer name: required: true type: string ownerName: required: false type: string The above example uses expanded syntax for defining our data types. RAML provides some syntactical shortcuts to make our type definitions less verbose. Here is the equivalent data types section using these shortcuts: types: Foo: properties: id: integer name: string ownerName?: string Error: properties: code: integer message: string The ‘?’ character following a property name declares that the property is not required. 2.4. Resources Now, we’ll define the top-level resource (URI) of our API: /foos: 2.5. URI Parameters Next, we’ll expand the list of resources, building from our top-level resource: /foos: /{id}: /name/{name}: Here, the braces { } around property names define URI parameters. They represent placeholders in each URI and do not reference root-level RAML file properties as we saw above in the baseUri declaration. The added lines represent the resources /foos/{id} and /foos/name/{name}. 2.6. Methods The next step is to define the HTTP methods that apply to each resource: /foos: get: post: /{id}: get: put: delete: /name/{name}: get: 2.7. Query Parameters Now we’ll define a way to query the foos collection using query parameters. Note that query parameters are defined using the same syntax that we used above for data types: /foos: get: description: List all Foos matching query criteria, if provided; otherwise list all Foos queryParameters: name?: string ownerName?: string 2.8. Responses Now that we’ve defined all of the resources for our API, including URI parameters, HTTP methods, and query parameters, it is time to define the expected responses and status codes. Response formats are typically defined regarding data types and examples. JSON schema can be used instead of data types for backward compatibility with an earlier version of RAML. We’ll introduce JSON schema in section 3. [Note: In the code snippets below, a line containing only three dots (…) indicates that some lines are being skipped for brevity.] Let’s start with the simple GET operation on /foos/{id}: /foos:... /{id}: get: description: Get a Foo by id responses: 200: body: application/json: type: Foo example: { "id" : 1, "name" : "First Foo" } This example shows that by performing a GET request on the resource /foos/{id}, we should get back the matching Foo in the form of a JSON object and an HTTP status code of 200. Here is how we’d define the GET request on the /foos resource: /foos: get: description: List all Foos matching query criteria, if provided; otherwise list all Foos queryParameters: name?: string ownerName?: string responses: 200: body: application/json: type: Foo[] example: \| [ { "id" : 1, "name" : "First Foo" }, { "id" : 2, "name" : "Second Foo" } ] Note the use of square brackets [] appended to the Foo type. This demonstrates how we would define a response body containing an array of Foo objects, with the example being an array of JSON objects. 2.9. Request Body Next, we’ll define the request bodies that correspond to each POST and PUT request. Let’s begin with creating a new Foo object: /foos:... post: description: Create a new Foo body: application/json: type: Foo example: { "id" : 5, "name" : "Another foo" } responses: 201: body: application/json: type: Foo example: { "id" : 5, "name" : "Another foo" } 2.10. Status Codes Note in the above example that when creating a new object, we return an HTTP status of 201. The PUT operation for updating an object will return an HTTP status of 200, utilizing the same request and response bodies as the POST operation. In addition to the expected responses and status codes that we return when a request is successful, we can define the kind of response and a status code to expect when an error occurs. Let’s see how we would define the expected response for the GET request on the /foos/{id} resource when no resource is found with the given id: 404: body: application/json: type: Error example: { "message" : "Not found", "code" : 1001 } 3. RAML with JSON Schema Before data types were introduced in RAML 1.0, objects, request bodies, and response bodies were defined using JSON Schema. Using data types can be very powerful, but there are cases where you still want to use JSON Schema. In RAML 0.8 you defined your schemas using the root level schemas section. That is still valid, but it is recommended to use the types section instead since the use of schemas may be deprecated in a future version. Both types and schemas, as well as type and schema, are synonymous. Here is how you would define the Foo object type at the root level of the.raml file using JSON schema: types: foo: \| { "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/schema", "type": "object", "description": "Foo details", "properties": { "id": { "type": integer }, "name": { "type": "string" }, "ownerName": { "type": "string" } }, "required": [ "id", "name" ] } And here is how you would reference the schema in the GET /foos/{id} resource definition: /foos:... /{id}: get: description: Get a Foo by its id responses: 200: body: application/json: type: foo... 4. Refactoring with Includes As we can see from the above sections, our API is getting rather verbose and repetitive. The RAML specification provides an include mechanism that allows us to externalize repeated and lengthy sections of code. We can refactor our API definition using includes, making it more concise and less likely to contain the types of errors that result from the “copy/paste/fix everywhere” methodology. For example, we can put the data type for a Foo object in the file types/Foo.raml and the type for an Error object in types/Error.raml. Then our types section would look like this: types: Foo:!include types/Foo.raml Error:!include types/Error.raml And if we use JSON schema instead, our types section might look like this: types: foo:!include schemas/foo.json error:!include schemas/error.json 5. Completing the API After externalizing all of the data types and examples to their files, we can refactor our API using the include facility: #%RAML 1.0 title: Baeldung Foo REST Services API version: v1 protocols: [ HTTPS ] baseUri: http://rest-api.baeldung.com/api/{version} mediaType: application/json securedBy: basicAuth securitySchemes: basicAuth: description: Each request must contain the headers necessary for basic authentication type: Basic Authentication describedBy: headers: Authorization: description: Used to send the Base64 encoded "username:password" credentials type: string responses: 401: description: \| Unauthorized. Either the provided username and password combination is invalid, or the user is not allowed to access the content provided by the requested URL. types: Foo:!include types/Foo.raml Error:!include types/Error.raml /foos: get: description: List all Foos matching query criteria, if provided; otherwise list all Foos queryParameters: name?: string ownerName?: string responses: 200: body: application/json: type: Foo[] example:!include examples/Foos.json post: description: Create a new Foo body: application/json: type: Foo example:!include examples/Foo.json responses: 201: body: application/json: type: Foo example:!include examples/Foo.json /{id}: get: description: Get a Foo by id responses: 200: body: application/json: type: Foo example:!include examples/Foo.json 404: body: application/json: type: Error example:!include examples/Error.json put: description: Update a Foo by id body: application/json: type: Foo example:!include examples/Foo.json responses: 200: body: application/json: type: Foo example:!include examples/Foo.json 404: body: application/json: type: Error example:!include examples/Error.json delete: description: Delete a Foo by id responses: 204: 404: body: application/json: type: Error example:!include examples/Error.json /name/{name}: get: description: List all Foos with a certain name responses: 200: body: application/json: type: Foo[] example:!include examples/Foos.json One of the great things about RAML is the tool support. There are tools for parsing, validating, and authoring RAML APIs; tools for client code generation; tools for generating API documentation in HTML and PDF formats; and tools that assist us with
it thinks it is: That’s our man V there. He’s wearing his trademark Guy Fawkes mask. Guy Fawkes is the book’s symbolic hero. Lloyd mentions in an afterward that he wanted to rehabilitate Fawkes because blowing up parliament was a great idea. But—and I hope this is obvious to many of you when you stop and think about it—it’s patently absurd to take Guy Fawkes as an anarchist-leftist superhero. Fawkes was a ex-soldier and Catholic extremist trying to overthrow an authoritarian anti-Catholic State and replace it with an authoritarian Catholic one. It’s just plain dumb to borrow the symbol of Fawkes without the slightest care for what it represents, just as it is an act of idiocy for the hacker group Anonymous and various members of Occupy—a movement I support, I hasten to add— to adopt the Fawkes mask as their icon. As the book wears on (and on, and on) it also gets derailed by its panic and anger at female infidelity, a crime that is punished with gleeful violence at every turn. On pages 39-41, V recasts his quest to free England as a lover’s spat with the female statue of Justice, who has cheated on him with Authority: Care to guess how it ends?: When Evey propositions V, he abandons her on the streets of England. Having nowhere else to go, she briefly takes up with a liquor smuggler named Gordon. With the inexorability of an early-eighties horror movie, as soon as she has sex with him, he gets killed by gangsters. After this, she is kidnapped, tortured, and interrogated, as faceless interlocutors demand to know the location of V and his plans. At night, she reads a letter from a fellow inmate which gives her the courage to accept death rather than betray V. It is then revealed that the whole kidnap/torture/interrogation thing was an elaborate ploy by V to set Evey free by helping her get down to the individual freedom that exists within us, the last thing that we control. While initially upset, here’s Evey’s eventual response from page 174: This would be hard enough to swallow were it not for the fact that Evey’s incarceration included sexualized imagery: And actual sexual assault: You see, dear reader, if you won’t see the light, we have the freedom, as filmmaker Michael Haneke put it, to rape you into enlightenment. Stockholm Syndrome is liberty. Also, War is Peace and Ignorance is Strength. Just shut your pretty little mouth and do what the author tells you. Never you mind that this is supposed to all be about radical individuality being the only way forward. You are radically free to agree and that’s about it. Finally on the docket of cheating women who need to be punished, we have Helen Heyer. Helen becomes a regular presense in the third act of the book, as the (oddly fragile given that it’s supposed to be frighteningly all-powerful) society crumbles. The wife of a high-ranking fascist, Helen tries to maneuver her husband into the role of Leader by sexually manipulating his colleagues. She also refuses him sex. Helen is a classic misogynist caricature, simultaneously frigid and a whore, using her body to get ahead. It doesn’t work, of course. V sends her husband a videotape of her sleeping around, he murders her lover and is killed in the process. Helen’s plans come to naught and the book’s supposedly-cathartic orgy of chaos and violence ends on the final page with her about to be gang raped by hobos because she’s sick of trading sexual favors to them for food. Seriously. That’s the book’s ending. All of Moore’s bad habits as a writer are on display in V, from its misogyny to the stentorian, hectoring tone of the text whenever its eponymous hero shows up to its frantic, desperate need to impress us with its creator’s brilliance. I feel I’ve only really scratched the surface of V For Vendetta’s terribleness here. Part of me was tempted to simply scan the song on pages 89-93 and write “Game, Set, Match,” underneath, or discuss the hackneyed and emotionally manipulative story about what happens to one of the prominent fascists’s wives after he dies, how she comes to miss his physical and emotional abuse when she has to take up a stripping job for money. Or catalogue the way in which each allusion—to everything from MacBeth to Sympathy for the Devil—is constructed not because of its actual relation to the material, but because it’s impressive. Instead, let me close on a personal note. The reason why I find V For Vendetta so upsetting, the reason why it makes me so angry, is on some level political. I am a leftist. Unapologetically so. That V For Vendetta—with its nihilistic embrace of violence, it’s distrust of the institutions that will be required to enact any lefty agenda, its hatred of women and its love of coercion— has caught on amongst lefties, that in particular Guy Fawkes has been taken as a symbol of anything other than far-right religious terrorism is something I find particularly galling. I worry that at heart some of my fellow travelers on the Left feel reified by this work’s subtextual assertion that anyone who disagrees with them must be blinkered, an uninformed idiot who simply needs to be enlightened or blown up. I suppose there is another way to read V, one where the surface and subtext are actually in constant conflict. One where the first chapter’s title (The Villain) is meant to be taken more seriously, where we are meant to see Evey’s torture not as she comes to eventually see it, but for the problematic and rapey coercion of one who disagrees with our main character. Maybe we are meant to see the downfall of the state as a complicated thing, and the gang-raping hobos not as a darkly ironic enforcement of Moore’s id but rather as a sign of complexity in the work. Perhaps V’s anarchist utopia is never shown because utopia means no-place and V is, in fact, wrong. Certainly there are panels and excerpts one could use to make this argument, but I am not the one to make it, nor would I really be convinced by that argument. It’s a bit too clever by half, a way of taking the book’s considerable weaknesses and claim them as strengths. Besides, Moore does a far better job in Watchmen of having the character whose worldview is closest to his also be a monster who does something unforgiveable for “the greater good.” [1] This is almost entirely due to the presense of Stephen Fry [2] Somehow this authoritarian hellscape on an isolated island nation with limited land and resources also manages to have a hyper-advanced sci-fi surveillance state and all of the middle class comforts of late twentieth century life, but there’s so many bigger problems with the text, we should probably let that one slide. [3] V’s plan, by-the-by, is implausible within the world Alan Moore has constructed. We’re meant to believe that V, an escaped political prisoner, has somehow managed to amass a huge fortune, a wide network of real estate, hacked into Fate, the central computer that oversees all surveillance and activity within England and designed a meticulous plan to bring down the Government in under 5 years. [4] Both also try to create analogues for our own time within their world, things that feel both exaggerated and frighteningly real at the same time. Brazil begins with a typographical error leading the State to torture and murder the wrong man, which feels ridiculous until you recall Maher Arar. Nineteen Eighty-Four’s Two Minutes Hate isn’t exactly Talk Radio, but it’s not not Talk Radio. [5] You could argue that Evey is the protagonist of V and V the mentor figure. I actually think the book is confused about who its main character is. V doesn’t change, so he makes a shitty protagonist. Evey changes but is so thinly rendered and boring you can feel the book wanting to focus more often on V. [6] Think Ellen Page in Inception. __________ Click here for the Anniversary Index of Hate.The 2013 MLS Supporters’ Shield-winning New York Red Bulls announced today that they signed Team Defensive Player of the Year Jamison Olave to a new contract. Per team and League regulations, specific terms of the deal were not disclosed. “Jamison showed last season and throughout his MLS career that he is an elite centerback in the League and we are pleased to sign him to a new deal. His performances last year were vital in our success last year,” said Red Bulls Sporting Director Andy Roxburgh. “We look forward to Jamison’s contributions in the coming season, as he continues to be an important part of our squad.” In his first season as a Red Bull, Olave was the team’s Defensive Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year following a stellar campaign in which he helped New York win the Supporters’ Shield. The centerback featured in 29 regular season games, 27 of which were starts. Olave led all New York defenders with four goals and played a total of 2,368 minutes. In games that Olave played, New York, which conceded the third-fewest goals in the Eastern Conference, had a 17-6-6 record. Olave was originally acquired by New York along with forward Fabian Espindola on Dec. 3, 2012 from Real Salt Lake in exchange for allocation money. The 32-year-old joined Real Salt Lake from Colombian club, Deportivo Cali, on Feb. 20, 2008. He had made 120 appearances (119 starts) for Real Salt Lake, amassing 10 goals and two assists. The Colombian has been recognized as one of MLS’ top defenders and was named the League’s Defender of the Year in 2010. He is a two-time MLS Best XI selection and All-Star (2010 and 2011) and was also part of the Real Salt Lake side that won MLS Cup in 2009. In that year, Olave appeared in 25 regular season matches and played in every minute of their four playoff games. Olave began his career at Deportivo Cali before playing with Colombian clubs Atletico Huela (2002), CD Patriotas FC (2003), Chico FC (2004). He then returned to Deportivo Cali in 2005, helping it win the domestic championship.What the movie gave me that I loved: The first time we ever see any cinematic attempt at a realistic domestic life between Lois and Clark on the big screen. Her fear for him, his confiding in her, how their professional lives work with their relationship and Clark's abilities. But also a Lois Lane who is a completely determined and relentless journalist in the face of bodily danger. The first time we see a truly scary, at times nightmarish, Batman. A broken Batman who has lost his faith and his idealism, who now blurs the line between vigilante and brutal punisher. (Pun not intended... but still applicable.) He drinks, he pops pills, he's restless. He's depressed. And he's ruthless... until he comes back from the brink. A bat cave with rotating podiums for the suit, and a memorial for what is clearly a deceased Robin, his own attire spray painted with what we can only infer are the words of the Joker. (Suicide Squad may or may not reveal more, or perhaps we'll have to wait for the stand alone Batfleck flick.) An Alfred that is a capable strategist, with a wry sense of humor that allows him to match wits with the world's greatest detective. (And even helps him work.) He also, as always, at least tries to be Bruce's conscience, with less than optimal results. The World Engine sound effect while Bruce Wayne approaches his parents' grave, foreshadowing that it's a dream (repeated again at the onset of his Flash vision sequence,) and underscoring how traumatized he was by Superman's battle with Zod and its implications for his own role in the world - and how much that trauma hearkens back to the loss of his parents. The moment Senator Finch defied Luthor being the moment he became resolved to kill her, lending his prior disturbing but ultimately merely awkward manner a far more menacing tone. (And her realization of this through a callback to their creepily adversarial conversation.) Clark's realization that his idealism is not only seen as quaint today ("America's conscience died with Martin, Robert, and John,") but genuinely questioning his own ethical compass. A similar moment occurs when Lois seems aghast that someone would "use live soldiers as guinea pigs," and is told, "And this is what makes you such a good reporter. Stuff like this still shocks you." The implied but not explicit (although much MORE explicit in this Ultimate Edition!) deft manipulation by Lex through subtle mentions of people responsible for creating the negative perception in Bruce and Clark's minds of one another vanishing or having a mysterious aura. A disturbed, genuinely unsettling Lex Luthor who perpetually feels on the verge of exploding. (Who, it is heavily implied, is not Lex Luthor as we know him, but Lex Jr. Whether that is sufficient justification for such a departure of characterization is for you to decide. I for one loved it.) Clark feeling powerless to change the world, doubting his own effectiveness, and having to resort to using Superman to confront Batman. This is why he didn't make more effort to "talk" incidentally. By this point both had already been maneuvered into despising one another. But more importantly, Superman by this point had bought into the same lie Batman has - "No one stays good in this world." He did make a halfhearted attempt, but with his mother's life on the line and already feeling powerless to do the right thing in his own life, he seized upon a "hero" worse than he feared the world now saw him as, in a last desperate attempt to at least save the few good things he still sees in his world. Just as Batman seized upon Superman as the new personification of his own pain and rage. The "Martha scene." Yes, that scene was a pro for me, not a con. It was a complete reversal of the deception described above. At the start of the film, we see Bruce's father laying, dying, mutter, "Martha," to his beloved wife, as a young and shattered Bruce looks on. Later, Superman is laying broken, similarly to Bruce's father, saying "Martha" in his last gasp as well. Bruce has become what he despises. He is taking the life of a man who loves a woman named Martha, laying defenseless at his feet. Only in this moment is Bruce redeemed, recognizing what he has become. When he throws the spear away he's not "freaking out," he's angrily and disgustedly rejecting what he's become: a monster like his own mother's killer. I didn't see it as them miraculously and conveniently "making up." Instead, for me, this was where Bruce regains what remains of his CONSCIENCE. Both learn from one another that their broken faith in good was a grievous error. Thus it became beautiful and powerful, not ridiculous or unbelievable. A Wonder Woman who holds her own (and then some - downright gleeful at the prospect of a worthy opponent in Doomsday) with Superman and Batman, and perhaps more importantly and interestingly... a Diana Prince who holds her own (and, again, then some) with Bruce Wayne. The way Doomsday (even though I do wish they had held off on him - see my only major complaints below) continually grows more powerful and "is unkillable." And the way Wonder Woman takes it to him, even cutting off his hand at one point, but it still rapidly becomes clear that even she is struggling, and that in due course, he would wear them down and be victorious if not for Clark's ultimate sacrifice. Which is why the Doomsday fight is redeemed for me. I wish it hadn't been Doomsday but... if they were going to KILL Superman, then it HAD to be him. And it does make for a tragic, extremely moving finale. There was no way to stop the beast. Even the golden lasso broke when he began to evolve for a final time. The only thing that could stop him was kryptonite. And the only one strong enough to drive said kryptonite into him once he became more armored... was the one that kryptonite would also weaken enough for Doomsday to kill. Tragic irony in the literal sense: the weapon Batman's hatred and rage drove him to use to kill Superman is the only thing that saved the world... but also ended up still killing Clark, despite Bruce's change of heart. Brutal. Beautiful. Perry White's darkly comedic digs at Clark repeatedly throughout the movie were, in their way, hilarious. Possibly the closest thing to true comedy relief in the whole movie. But still making a point nevertheless. I also loved how when the chips were down, he dropped his callous demeanor to help Lois as a personal favor the moment she said nothing more than, "It's not for a story." He was born to play these sorts of "tough guy, yet unflinchingly heroic and loyal when need be" characters, as we saw on Hannibal. He just conveys so much heart yet authority. Lex's PUNS. This was a great bit of writing in my opinion, rendering the nervously diabolical yet brilliant Luthor as being so far ahead of the curve mentally that he's darkly amused by his own brilliance without even having to try. After kidnapping Clark's mother and expounding on how he believes Superman is essentially God and that total righteousness cannot coexist with absolute power, he quips, "Mother of God, will you look at the time!" When asked by a legless man what he wants he replies, "To help you stand for something." He tells Senator Finch, "You are gonna be on the hot seat in there, June bug," before she dies in an explosion. When Superman arrives after his timer expires he quips,"Late late says the white rabbit... right wabbit? Out of tricks..." (Trix.) And in his final confrontation with Batman he says, "Civilization on the wane (Wayne,) manners (manors) out the window," before snorting at his own cleverness. This was a fantastic character trait. Lex's explanation of the etymology of the world Philanthropist, in contrast to what we know about him. Yes, he "loves humanity," but only as an extension of his own ego and inability to tolerate what he perceives to be a god-like figure in Superman. Also his, "The bittersweet pain among men is having knowledge without power, because that is paradoxical," being played off as an amusing outburst by a socially awkward weirdo, is in actuality an ironic delivery of an existential statement of the human condition. (This moment also gives us a glimpse into the pain behind Luthor's madness.) Likewise, there's a fantastic moment in the movie where a montage of Superman rescuing people throughout the world is juxtaposed over somber music, and a news report featuring Charlie Rose and others debating whether such a being should be celebrated or feared. Clark watches this report after his heroics, sullen and confused as to what he must do to make it clear that his intentions are good. This is a stark contrast to, say, Superman IV in which Clark watches the world "stumble headlong into nuclear annihilation," and decides unilaterally to stop it... and is hailed the world over as a savior, complete with John Williams' beautiful fanfare. Again and again throughout this film we see symbolism drawing sharp parallels between our own conscience and morality as a nation and as a world, with the idealized hero Superman has traditionally been. It's almost as if Snyder is saying to us, "Look. You say you want a hopeful, lighthearted vision of Superman. But that's not the world I see us creating with our own non-super hands and hearts. If Superman really came down to Earth tomorrow... this is what might actually happen." And while I agree movies CAN be just escapism and it might be a tad pretentious for a super hero flick of all things to try to be more... it's still Read moreBEIJING HERE is my prediction about China: The new paramount leader, Xi Jinping, will spearhead a resurgence of economic reform, and probably some political easing as well. Mao’s body will be hauled out of Tiananmen Square on his watch, and Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning writer, will be released from prison. These won’t happen immediately — Xi won’t even be named president until March — and I may be wrong entirely. But my hunch on this return to China, my old home, is that change is coming. Here’s my case for Xi as a reformer. First, it’s in his genes. His father, Xi Zhongxun, was a pioneer of economic restructuring and publicly denounced the massacre of pro-democracy protesters in 1989. Xi’s mother chooses to live in Shenzhen, the most capitalist enclave in the country. Xi is also one of the first Chinese leaders to send a child to the United States as an undergraduate. His daughter is a junior at Harvard, reflecting her parents’ emphasis on learning English and their admiration for American education.GREENVILLE COUNTY, S.C. – There’s a man-made trail winding through the woods near the Fleetwood Manor Apartments, leading to an abandoned home on the edge of a pond. Children say clowns live there. Police in Greenville County in northern South Carolina haven’t been able to substantiate the children’s claims, but a police report from the first clown sightings on Aug. 21 reveal a “suspicious character... dressed in circus clown attire and white face paint, enticing kids to follow him/her into the woods.” A woman told a responding deputy that her son had “seen clowns in the woods whispering and making strange noises” at around 8:30 p.m. that night, according to the report, which was obtained by 48 Hours’ Crimesider. She said the boy led her to where he saw the clowns, and then she also saw them “flashing green laser lights” before they ran away into the woods, according to the report. Around that same time, the woman’s older son reported hearing ”chains and banging on the front door” of their residence. The deputy investigating the case said another woman at the same apartment complex said she saw a clown outside around 2:30 a.m. that morning. The “large-figured clown with a blinking nose, standing under a post light near the garbage dumpster area” waved at her, and she waved back, according to the police report. “The suspect did not approach her or harm her.” Several children in the area told police clowns had displayed “large amounts of money” in an attempt to lure them into the woods. The children said they believed the clowns lived in “a house located near a pond at the end of a man-made trail in the woods,” according to the police report. Greenville County Sheriff’s Office Master Deputy Ryan Flood told Crimesider deputies investigated the house but found no clues. “It’s abandoned,” Flood said of the house. “Every time (deputies) have gone there they have not been able to find anything, clothing or anything else that would indicate someone lives there.” Flood said witnesses have declined to give police their names. Eight days after the initial sightings, police began receiving new reports. In one of two sightings reported on Monday night, a teenage girl told sheriff’s deputies she saw a man taking pictures of kids, and shortly after, saw a man wearing a black jacket and a clown mask coming out of the woods. In the most recent incident, on Tuesday night, Greenville city police responded to a clown sighting near an apartment complex, where a witness said the clown left in a car, before police arrived, reports CBS affiliate WSPA. In another incident that was not reported to police, residents told WSPA that they chased clowns after kids told them the clowns were by the playground. They told the station they saw the clowns drive away in a dark-colored car. It is not clear how many clowns were inside the vehicle. Investigators in Greenville County, where Flood said there is no history he can recall of unusual clown sightings, are so far stumped. “To my knowledge, there haven’t been any kind of circuses in town,” Flood said. “There’s crazy stuff all the time, but nothing along the lines of this to my knowledge.” In all the reported cases, deputies and officers were unable to recover evidence that could substantiate the reports. Flood said there were no surveillance cameras monitoring the areas where the clowns were allegedly spotted. Flood said police have increased patrols in the areas where clowns were sighted.Of the many things that Atlanta United Darren Eales is proud of – highest attendance in MLS, an insane fact about merchandise sales, an ever-growing number of season-ticket sales – one he is most proud is how the team has played in its first 17 games. “To be the top goal-scoring team in MLS as an expansion team is incredible,” he said. “Says a lot for the players, the effort they put in, Tata (Gerardo Martino) and his coaching staff, and Carlos (Bocanegra) and Paul (McDonough) …” Eales said he wanted the team to play an exciting, attacking brand of soccer. That’s not new for many teams. But with a starting lineup consistently loaded with young South Americans and a mix of MLS veterans, Atlanta United is fulfilling Eales’ hope. Eales, a wealth of facts, noted that the average expansion team averages 1.14 goals per game. Atlanta United averages 1.94 goals per game, finishing the season’s first half with 33 goals in 17 games. “I’m pretty proud that Atlanta United, our team, is attractive to watch,” he said. And they are also pretty good. At the end of the season’s first half, Atlanta United is in the sixth and final playoff spot in the East with 24 points. It will play 10 of its remaining 17 league games at home, either at Georgia Tech’s Bobby Dodd Stadium or at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Eales discussed the team’s stylish soccer and many, many things in a 20-minute interview held on Tuesday. Atlanta United President Darren Eales. Photo: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Questions and answers have been paraphrased for brevity and clarity: Q: Will the team be active in the secondary transfer window? A: We will always look at every transfer window if we feel we can improve the squad. We just put a whole new team together in the past transfer window. We won’t be busiest of MLS teams, but if we can improve the squad, we will. That will always be our aim in every transfer window. Q: Will the loans for Greg Garza and Yamil Asad be made permanent? A: On both of those, we have the loans for another six months. that’s something we will look at as the season develops. Q: I ask because the Josef Martinez loan was made permanent so quickly. A: There was an option. It was a slightly different mechanism. Q: Adding three Homegrown Players…does that mean that three players will have to be cut at season’s end, right, or do you anticipate more roster rules changes? A: The roster rules are always changing. It will be interesting to see how that progresses as years go by and seasons go by. We do have positions available for players who are on loan. For example, Anton Walkes, he was on loan this season. He will go back to Tottenham Hotspur at the end of season. Q: What has been the best moment on the field so far this season? A: There have been some fantastic moments. For me, winning our first game. Going to Minnesota, first ever win, doing it in the snow. Going into that game I was a little bit fearful. We had a team of South Amercians playing against a bunch of Scandinavians. Us both being expansion teams, us scoring six goals, which was a record for an expansion team, all of that made it even sweeter. Off the field, there’s a million. The feeling at Bobby Dodd at that first game, more than 50,000, the national anthem being played, everybody standing and wearing the striped jersey. For me, that was that lovely feeling, ‘Yeah (sarcastically) Atlanta’s not really a sports town.’ Q: That’s not the first time I’ve heard you say that. Dispelling that myth is kind of turned into a crusade for you. A: This is an amazing city with amazing fans who now getting lauded quite rightfully for their great support for the team and for soccer. I love that they are proving the naysayers wrong. Q: What has been the lowest point so far this season on the field? A: It was a low point when our reporter thought we would lose to Colorado (laughs). Josef’s injury. You look back to it. He scored five goals in three games. We were flying. He goes to Venezuela and suffers an injury that put him out when we were just getting ourselves going. About that time, the same evening, Miguel (Almiron) was playing as well and went down. I was screaming in the house on how unfair life was. For me, that was the worst moment so far. You have no control over it. In a salary cap environment, losing Josef wasn’t ideal. Q: Are you satisfied with the team’s number of points? A: Yes. Expansion teams average one point per game. Now we are at 1.41 points per game. We have played 17 games, 10 on the road. It’s a much more favorable schedule in the second half of the season. I’m absolutely happy. Key now is going to be making our home advantage count. Q: What is the key for the team to secure a playoff berth? A: As I was saying, we have 10 of our 17 at home. If we can aim to win those home games, we will be more than set for a playoff position. Q: Do you care what the seeding is? A: I just want to make it. To be the first team to make the playoffs since Seattle is unbelievable. We know it’s going to be tough. Q: Who has been the biggest surprise player? A: Julian Gressel. We took him at No. 8. We got that pick from Orlando in a trade. If you look at the draft predictions, no one had Julian as a top-10 pick. 🚨Only 2 spots away! @JulianGressel has almost clinched his place in the MLS All Star Game Get him there 👉 https://t.co/Fmkkk0EIsi pic.twitter.com/ZmYXFaVuVy — Atlanta United FC (@ATLUTD) June 28, 2017 As the combine went on, he was someone we talked about and decided to go for him. No one, not even Tata, who was a big fan, would have dreamed he would have 15 starts with five assists and three goals. Q: Which player needs to step up? A: They all do. The reality is, and we said this from the start, we were a brand new team when we started the season. We need to continue to improve as the season goes on. That’s everybody. Whether it’s Josef Martinez, Miguel Almiron, (Leandro Gonzalez) Pirez at the back, (Michael (Parkhurst) Parkie at the back. To a man we need to improve, not just individually, but as a team. Everybody needs to step their game up. As an expansion team, we expect that to happen as the season goes on. Q: Prediction on final points total? A: It’s hard to say exactly a number. We just have to keep going and grab as many points as we can. The East is a lot tougher than it’s been in the recent past. Over the past six years, we’ve looked at targets to aim for. We will have to readjust our sights. Q: Can you provide an update on filling Ann Rodriguez’s job? A: We are going through the process. It’s going well. Q: How many season tickets have you sold? A: It’s been unbelievable. We’ve been breaking records left, right and center. The highest average attendance is in our sights. After our game against San Jose (on Tuesday), we will have more cumulative people through the gate —more than 370,000 — which is more than 14 teams had in total last season. That just puts it into context. And we have 10 more games to go at home. We’ve sold more than 35,000 season tickets, which is incredible. Q: Can you share any information on merchandise sales? It’s hard to go anywhere and not see someone wearing a jersey, shirt, a car decal or a flag. A: That’s something else that’s blown our expectations. We knew we had an amazing fan base. It’s crazy, everybody has a shirt on. Family went to Chattanooga, went up the incline and at the top, in the queue, was a person wearing a (Hector) Villalba jersey. The merchandise portal on mls.com sells gear for the 22 teams, plus LAFC and league-branded items. Twenty-five percent of the merchandise sales through that portal are Atlanta United. Q: Last question, will you make the playoffs? A: I hope we will. Hopeful. Q: Come on, yes or no? A: Soccer is a tricky game. You’ve got to not have injuries, have a bit of luck. We’ve put ourselves in a good position at the halfway stage. Ten of 17 home games to come. Fan base has been incredible. At our last four games at home, you’ve seen the way fans can lift the players. We’ve put ourselves in a great position. We still have to execute in the second half of the season.COL Doug Watchko: "This is the Ex O. This year's Christmas Party will be held in the port Hangar Bay starting at 1600 hours."Watchko: "Off duty personnel only. The party will continue through each rotation."Watchko: "Anyone caught at the party on their duty shift will be thrown in the brig. That is all."Arrival of Raptor 269, returning from Caprica recon mission.Maverick and his team had discovered that the planet, original home world of the Galactica, was not as hazardous a place as their newfound friends led them to believe. Radiation levels and trace elements were nominal.What the purpose of the quarantine is remains to be discovered.Mav: "Looks like we got here just in time!"Pvt Bonsch: "Awesome! It’s the Christmas party!"Bones: "And it looks like there's plenty of booze!"Korund: "Just what the doctor ordered!"Mav: "After you, Doc."Korund: "Thanks, Mav. Away missions sure make me thirsty!"Denise Price, call sign Grumpy: "Ooh, Chettina, here's Mav back from his mission!"Kuo: "Looks like he was rolling in something on the beach."Mav: "Here's to you, Doc! Mmm, smooth!"Dave Sterling, Effluvial Ergonomics Engineer: "Hey, Stace, check out what I caught at the buffet!"S. Sterling, FTL Computational Analyst: "Lovely! Looks like you should have thrown it back!"Grumpy: "Geeze, so much for the male bonding, here he comes."Korund: "Oh well, looks like Mav's skipping the next round."Bonsch: "I see food!"Mav: "Hello, ladies! So, what did we miss while we were away?"Kuo: "Oh, not much, just the usual grease and gears."Price: "Oops, I need a refill, check ya guys later."Tyler Halliwell, Exobiologist: "Hey, Denise!"Grumpy: "Oh! Hi, Tyler! How've you been? Haven’t run into you in a while."Halliwell: "We don’t get out all that often, still working on the Kobol specimens, but that’s not important right now. Merry Christmas!"Grumpy: "Aren’t you sweet! Yes, Merry Christmas to you, too!"Halliwell: "What do you say we ditch this party and..."Grumpy: "Sounds good to me!"Bones: "Gentlemen."Heath Flor, Fluid Dynamics Engineer: "How’s it hangin', LT?"Bones: "Not bad, not bad. Got a little fresh air today. So, Flor, what's the deal with the Buc’s outfit?"Flor: "Frakin' Cripson here told me it was going to be a costume party, knew I was a big Pyramid fan."Phip Cripson, Custodial Maintenance: "Hey, I thought it would liven things up a bit! A couple more rounds, and nobody'll even notice!"Lechun Schifu, Executive Chef: "It's suckling pig! Family recipe! Very good, very good!"LT Kevin Moodster, call sign Strummer: "Uh, is there any hot sauce to go with it?"Shifu: "Hot sauce?!? You! Go! Don’t come back! No pig for you!"Korund: "Extra crispy, extra skin! I'll take an ear."Pvt Corthay: "Is that cooked through? Could have sworn I saw a pulse."Shifu: "No pig for you! Don’t come back!"Pvt Simon: "What Commander, no food?"LTCMDR Garry King: "At these kinds of functions, I've learned to drink first, THEN eat!"Stuart Delahay, Aeronautics: "Okay..."Stu: "Who's next?!?"Kevin Walter, Metallurgy: "Fire when ready!"Delahay: "Remember, you asked for it!"Giovanni Seynhaeve, Air Scrubber Technician: "Man, this bites. I would have thought at least ONE girl would come sit in my lap."Arrival of Triton Scout ShipWatchko: "Guess who’s coming to dinner?"Nempec: "You've got that right, Doug."Maj Leda Ouriana, call sign Cougar: "Wow! A real party!"Capt. Nancy Dendauw: "Thrilling..."Admiral Mahan: "Well, it’s nice of them to invite us, so we should be cordial."Nempec: "Welcome back, Admiral, to you and your officers.
be in place. There was always going to be a very significant Armed Forces component, it will now be a bit larger than we originally envisaged it being." Later, Mr Hammond told the BBC that he would discuss with military chiefs and fellow ministers the best way to "reward" troops who work at the Olympics. His words raise the prospect that a medal could be awarded to those who take on security duties during the Games.CLOSE President Donald Trump's lawyer said Sunday that the President is not under investigation for possible obstruction of justice - despite Trump seemingly confirming that he was in a tweet earlier in the week. Time President Trump (Photo11: MICHAEL REYNOLDS, EPA) WASHINGTON —- An attorney for President Trump disputed reports Sunday that Trump is under formal investigation for obstruction of justice in connection with the firing of FBI Director James Comey, despite claims to the contrary by government officials and the president's own tweets. "There's been no notification of any investigation," defense attorney Jay Sekulow told Fox News Sunday. "Nothing has changed in that regard since James Comey's testimony." As for a Trump tweet on Friday — "I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt" — Sekulow said he was reacting only to a Washington Post story about the alleged probe citing anonymous sources. I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 16, 2017 A person familiar with the matter confirmed to USA TODAY that Trump is indeed under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller and his team. Trump referred to the "witch hunt" again in a series of tweets Sunday, saying in one missive that "the MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN agenda is doing very well despite the distraction of the Witch Hunt. Many new jobs, high business enthusiasm." The MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN agenda is doing very well despite the distraction of the Witch Hunt. Many new jobs, high business enthusiasm,.. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2017 ,.. The president's "investigation" tweet on Friday appeared to refer to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller as special counsel last month, shortly after Comey's dismissal. Comey told the Senate Intelligence Committee he believes Trump fired him because he resisted the president's request to drop the Russia investigation, especially as it pertained to former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Asked on Fox News about reports that Trump may consider removing Rosenstein and maybe Mueller from their posts, Sekulow said, "I've heard nothing about that at all. Nothing." In his Sunday morning television appearances, Sekulow said Trump fired Comey over performance issues. The president's lawyer noted that some Democrats called for Comey's dismissal because of the way he handled the email investigation into Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton. On another question — Trump's suggestion that he may have tapes of conversations with Comey — Sekulow told CBS' Face The Nation, "I think the president is going to address that in the week ahead." Senate and House committees are also investigating Trump. As with Mueller's efforts, the congressional probes began over potential links between Trump's campaign and Russians who sought to influence last year's election by hacking Democrats close to Clinton. As for Trump's repeated criticism of the "witch hunt" against him, Sekulow told NBC's Meet The Press: "He's not afraid of the investigation. There is no investigation. I want to be clear here." Even as he denied any investigation, Sekulow made references to an obstruction of justice investigation during his Fox News Sunday interview, prompting expressions of incredulity from host Chris Wallace. "Oh, boy," Wallace said at one point. "This is weird." Contributing: Kevin Johnson Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2sE1SojNote: This article originally appeared at The Daily Beast. Read it there. When God shuts one window in the culture war, he opens another. If last week’s Supreme Court rulings cooled some of the passions about same-sex marriage by returning the issue at least temporarily to the states, then abortion has moved to the front burner after Democratic Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis’s 11-hour filibuster of a Republican bill that would have banned almost all abortions in the Lone Star State after 20 weeks of pregnancy. The media response to Davis’s filibuster, which dominated Twitter and other social media last Tuesday, ran to the extremes that we’ve come to expect in any discussion of supposedly divisive social issues. Depending on your point of view, Davis is either a brave hero fighting for women everywhere or the second coming ofKermit Gosnell, the notorious Philadelphia doctor recently found guilty of murdering babies. So despite decades of polling data showing that large majorities of Americans believe abortion should be legal under some circumstances, you could be excused for thinking there are only two possible positions when it comes to terminating pregnancies: either all abortions should be allowed, or none should be. Yet the most striking thing about attitudes toward abortion is how stable they’ve been over the 40 years since Roe v. Wade. Gallup has been tracking public sentiment on the matter since 1975, when 22 percent of Americans agreed that abortion should be illegal under any circumstances and 21 percent believed it should be legal under any circumstances. Those numbers are now 18 percent and 28 percent respectively. In 1975 54 percent believed abortion “should be legal only under certain circumstances.” The number is now 52 percent and has never gone above 61 percent or below 48 percent. Over the past 15 years, the number of Americans calling themselves “pro-life” and “pro-choice” has narrowed to a few points, with 48 percent identifying as pro-choice and 44 percent as pro-life (in 2011, those figures were basically flipped). Official political stances on abortion are absolutely Manichaean, however, with the Republican Party and most of its leading figures stressing that life begins at conception, a belief that would outlaw virtually all abortions except those necessary to protect the health of the mother. The Democratic Party platform—and most of its highest-profile members, including President Barack Obama—“strongly and unequivocally supports” abortion at any time and for any reason during a pregnancy. Most Americans reject such categorical, extreme views and instead offer conditional support for abortion depending on when it’s performed. Gallup found that while 61 percent of Americans think abortion for should mostly be legal in the first three months of pregnancy and 27 percent felt it should be legal in the second trimester, just 14 percent agreed it should be allowed on demand in the final three months. Unlike their political representatives, then, Americans hold a far more nuanced view of abortion, and one that comports with the reality of the procedure. Of the roughly 1 million abortions performed a year in America, about 90 percent take place within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy and only 1 percent take place after 20 weeks (in fact, over the past decade, there has been a marked trend toward earlier abortions). That helps explain why 62 percent of Texans supported S.B. 5, the bill that Wendy Davis filibustered. There’s no question that mostly Republican legislators in a variety of states are pushing to restrict abortion. The Alan Guttmacher Institute notes that states “enacted 92 provisions restricting abortion in 2011, nearly triple the previous record of 34 in 2005.” Yet most of these restrictions—which have to do with waiting periods, the use of taxpayer dollars, parental notification for underage women—ultimately have little to no effect on the number of procedures actually performed. And as Guttmacher acknowledges, the more extreme the restriction, the less likely it is to become law. Hence, Mississippi voters in 2011 voted down an amendment to the state constitution that would have defined a person as “every human being from the moment of fertilization.” In Culture War?: The Myth of a Polarized America, the political scientist Morris P. Fiorina documents how, contrary to the way we talk about many social issues, there is broad agreement over topics such as immigration, gay marriage, the environment, tolerance, and abortion. Forget what you think you know about red and blue states, he counsels. When you look at what most people believe, America is mostly purple. He also helps to explain how political discourse over these same issues is typically divorced from mainstream opinion. Part of the reason, says Fiorina, is that the operatives who control political parties and much of our media discussions are from the extreme edges of virtually any given topic. The result is a major disconnect between what most people think about various topics and what most politicians and media commenters espouse. No topic offers up a better example of that dynamic than abortion. As a diehard libertarian, I’m not arguing that issues of basic rights should be put to a majority vote (for the record, I’m pro-choice). God, no. But if you’re actually interested in persuading people to your point of view or effecting social change, it certainly behooves you to understand where they are on a given topic. You wouldn’t know that from the way politicians and the press talk about abortion. Sadly, as abortion reclaims its leading role in America’s culture wars, get set for a lot of heat and very little light. And virtually no interest whatsoever in what the majority of Americans actually think about the topic. Note: This article originally appeared at The Daily Beast. Read it there. Related Video: On May 26, Gillespie moderated a discussion on "Abortion & Libertarians" featuring Ronald Bailey, Mollie Hemingway, and Katherine Mangu-Ward. Watch it below or go here for downloadable versions and more info.MAMAMOO is preparing a special performance for 2017 KBS Song Festival! According to KBS, MAMAMOO will be performing a medley of hit K-pop song that were released in 2017 as part of their stage at the night’s festivities. The girl group has received a lot of love for their witty and captivating performances at various events, and have showcased medleys in the past, so anticipation is high for their upcoming stage. MAMAMOO has had a great year. They released their “Purple” album in June and their title track “Yes I Am” set a new record for girl groups by attracting 940,435 cumulative listeners in 24 hours on music streaming site Melon. Their music video also amassed five million views in five days as well, reflecting the popularity of the group and their music both in and outside of Korea. The girl group will be one of eight teams to perform at 2017 KBS Song Festival alongside Red Velvet, BTS, SEVENTEEN, EXO, GFRIEND, Wanna One, and TWICE. There will also be a special performance by the contestants and mentors of KBS’s “The Unit” as well. 2017 KBS Song Festival will be held on December 29 at 8:30 p.m. KST. Source (1)As eyewitnesses watched in horror, a 27-year-old Turlock man punched and stomped a toddler to death on a darkened country road Saturday night in Stanislaus County before a police officer shot and killed the attacker. Eyewitnesses tried to stop the man, who swung and slammed the child into the asphalt behind his parked four-door Toyota pickup. Investigators spent Father’s Day trying to understand and cope with the savage attack on Bradbury Road, 10 miles west of Turlock near cow pastures and dairy farms. The boy’s beating left police and rescue workers badly shaken, said Deputy Royjindar Singh. “Why would somebody do this?” Singh said. “In the shadows and light it looked like he had hit an animal,” said Dan Robinson, chief of the Crows Landing Volunteer Fire Department, who came upon the chaos driving home from a late dinner in Turlock, in an interview with the Modesto Bee. “As we backed up again, I could see that he had blood on his arms. I could see that it was a small child.” Robinson jumped from his vehicle and confronted the man, who lunged at him. Robinson said the man wasn’t screaming and wasn’t loud, but was forceful, saying “demons” were in the boy. “Give me the knife. Give me the knife,” the man said as he grabbed for a pen in the fireman’s front pocket. “There was a total hollowness in his eyes,” Robinson said, “like I could see right through to the back of his head.” An elderly couple was first on the scene, calling 911 about 10:15 p.m. to describe the terror unfolding before their eyes. The man ripped the child out of a car seat in the back of a pickup truck, threw him to the ground and kicked and stomped him against the pavement, witnesses told deputies. At least three people yelled at the man and attempted to pull him off the boy, but were brushed back by the attacker. Coroner’s deputies believe they know the boy’s name, but “due to the severity of his injuries making a visual identification is nearly impossible,” Singh said. Seeking a connection They were also trying to establish the connection between the attacker and the boy. Authorities were attempting to contact family members on Sunday, but Singh said many live out of the area. A Stanislaus County sheriff’s helicopter flying in the area on another matter arrived about six minutes after the initial 911 call. Officers in the helicopter could see the man beating a child on the road. Because patrol deputies were still several minutes away, they decided to land in a field near the man’s vehicle, Singh said. The helicopter’s tactical flight officer, a Modesto police officer, ran toward the suspect with his gun drawn, but he was unable to reach the roadway because of an electric and barbed wire fence, Singh said. “When the flight officer first contacted the suspect and tried to get him to stop, the infant was on the ground and the suspect was kicking and stomping the child,” Singh said. “The officer demanded that the man stop, but he just continued his assault.” The officer, who has not been identified, then shot the man, who was pronounced dead at the scene. The toddler was taken to Emanuel Medical Center in Turlock, where he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival. “Some of the key questions we’re trying to answer is why this happened?” Singh said. “What was going on before the suspect left? Where was he going? Where had he been? What was going on in his life that day?” Stanislaus County Sheriff Adam Christianson sent department employees an e-mail Sunday offering assistance to any staff member affected by the incident, Singh said. “It does hit home, especially for the deputies with children and those officers in the helicopter that attempted to save the boy’s life,” he said. “This is one of the more violent scenes they’ve ever seen. It involves a victim who is defenseless and helpless. And it’s Father’s Day.” Nurse shaken Nurse Isabelle Thomas, who lives a few hundred yards from the scene, was working at Emanuel Medical Center when her son called her with word something bad had happened. Soon she heard of the little boy who died 500 yards from her front door. “I couldn’t go to sleep,” she said. “I couldn’t rest without seeing it and all that blood. I couldn’t believe all that blood.”Nearly 20 years ago, as Modern Orthodoxy was continuing its rightward march, a pioneering seminary opened in Riverdale, N.Y. Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (YCT), founded by the Soviet Jewry activist and maverick Rabbi Avi Weiss, would offer a more liberal option for men pursuing rabbinic ordination. Describing itself as more inclusive and open-minded than the prevailing norms, the fledgling seminary was a tangible symbol of the split that was opening up in the Modern Orthodox community. And it had a name for its new brand: Open Orthodoxy. Now, in what appears to be a rebranding — or de-branding — effort, the leadership of YCT is distancing itself from the term “Open Orthodoxy.” “We want to focus on the important work we are doing in the Orthodox community and beyond, rather than focus on a label that has become a distraction,” said Rabbi Asher Lopatin, who succeeded Weiss as YCT president in 2013. Get New Jersey Jewish News's Newsletter by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up On July 26, NJJN received an email from YCT that read, in part: “We have been referred to as an ‘Open Orthodox Seminary’ by your newspaper, which is incorrect. ‘Open Orthodox’ is not a term that we use to describe ourselves, nor is it part of any language on our site, mission, marketing materials, etc.” That message indicates a marked change for a school established in 1999 to embody the philosophy of Open Orthodoxy, which Weiss has described as “expressing vibrancy, inclusivity, and non-judgmentalism.” In particular, he has written that the “key issue today is inclusivity” — for expanding women’s ritual roles in the synagogue, accepting LGBTQ members as full members of the community, reducing stringent rules for conversion, and encouraging dialogue with other denominations and faiths. The YCT website incorporated the language of Open Orthodoxy in its mission statement from its inception and for several years it carried the tagline “Where open Orthodoxy begins.” But that language is gone. At issue is more than terminology. It’s about a political and ideological struggle within Orthodoxy, with YCT seeking to bolster its standing as part of that movement, albeit on its left wing, countering critics who say it is beyond the bounds of halacha, or Jewish law. The stakes are high for YCT, which has had an uphill battle in placing its rabbis in mainstream Modern Orthodox pulpits. Yeshiva University (YU), the well-established, far larger institution, sponsors the primary Orthodox rabbinical school in the field, Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS). YCT’s decision to drop the “Open Orthodox” phrase appears to signal a renewed bid to become more accepted within the movement. As 2017 YCT graduate Rabbi Daniel Geretz, who leads Ma’ayan, a partnership minyan in West Orange, put it, “The context might be about who has the ‘right’ to speak for Modern Orthodoxy.” Lopatin’s preferred wording reflects that reality. “The term ‘Modern Orthodox’ has developed into a nice, inclusive term in the Orthodox world,” he said in a phone interview. Weiss, for his part, says he continues to use Modern Orthodox and Open Orthodox interchangeably, noting “we are all talking about the same thing, and what matters is the holy work we are doing.” His latest book, due out in a few months, is titled “Journey To Open Orthodoxy.” But Lopatin has taken to correcting the language of supporters, even in conversation. “When they say, ‘Open Orthodox,’ I say, ‘We are Modern Orthodox. We are a full part of Modern Orthodoxy,’” he said. Steven Bayme, national director of contemporary Jewish life for the American Jewish Committee, observed that Weiss uses “open” to highlight “being open to a range of viewpoints and to all Jews,” but not necessarily to create a new movement. Bayme said there is a wide range of ideological positions among YCT students. He personally prefers the term “Modern Orthodox” because “it suggests synthesis and is value-based,” while he believes “Open Orthodox sounds utilitarian.” Rabbi Steven Exler, a YCT graduate, is senior rabbi at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale (HIR), which Weiss led for more than four decades. It is known for its outreach and pioneering efforts on behalf of women clergy. Exler said he often uses “the word ‘open,’ lower case” in describing the synagogue as welcoming. The terminology debate “doesn’t keep me up at night,” the rabbi said. “Our shul never felt a need to prove [anything] to anyone else. What matters, whether the label remains or not, is that we continue our mission, and that everyone recognizes we are part of the Orthodox community. We don’t want to give others ammunition to write us out [of Orthodoxy]; we want to stay in.” Rabba Sara Hurwitz, dean of Yeshivat Maharat, also sought to play down the issue. She said the women’s seminary, established in 2009 by Weiss, sees itself as a “big tent” institution, attracting women from across the Orthodox spectrum. “Our values are clearly associated with both Modern Orthodoxy and Open Orthodoxy,” she said, “and we are reflective of the entire Orthodox community at large.” Yeshivat Maharat used the language of Open Orthodoxy on its website from 2009 until 2012, though to a much lesser extent than YCT. It no longer does. “Words have come and gone,” Hurwitz said. “We use them as descriptions of our values, and those are values we are proud of.” (It should be noted that while YU is often cited as the educational and spiritual core of Modern Orthodoxy, it has not used the term since Dr. Norman Lamm, as its president, chose “Centrist Orthodox” to describe the school more than four decades ago. YU is widely seen as having moved further right in recent years.) Definitions and background As a YCT student, Rabbi Menashe East, who was ordained in 2005 and leads the Mount Freedom Jewish Center in Randolph, found Weiss’s approach — focusing less on tightening religious boundaries and more on welcoming worshippers — “deeply inspiring.” East called that method an antidote to the “closed, insular, afraid-of-questions, dogmatic” form of Orthodoxy he describes as “condescending to the non-Orthodox and resentful of the non-Jew,” a form that has replaced the Modern Orthodoxy of his childhood. He said YCT was created in part as an effort to instill “values meant to help recover and redeem a Modern Orthodoxy that had lost touch with these core attitudes.” The reason the phrase “Open Orthodoxy” disappeared from the YCT website and mission statement at the end of 2015 may well be connected to the stepped-up criticism the seminary was receiving from the Orthodox right that year. That was when the charedi Agudath Israel of America targeted Weiss and his institution, calling Open Orthodox ideas “heretical.” It was also the year the mainstream Orthodox Rabbinical Council of America, which bars YCT graduates from membership, barred the ordination of women and prohibited its synagogues from hiring women with the title Maharat, used by Yeshivat Maharat. In 2016, The Jewish Press, a voice of the Orthodox community, condemned the school, suggesting that “Open Orthodoxy is ‘openly unorthodox,’ asserting that the philosophy is for “heretics,” and calling it “a wolf in sheep’s clothing, appealing to unknowing Jewish communities that seek a meaningful and genuine Orthodox religious experience.” That same year 11 YCT graduates joined a petition distancing themselves from partnership minyanim, which embrace a liberal view of halacha and permit women to read Torah, receive aliyot, and lead parts of services that don’t require the presence of 10 men. This year, the Orthodox Union formally banned synagogues from hiring women clergy and is in the process of deciding what action, if any, to take against the handful of OU synagogues that engage women in rabbinic-like positions. Lopatin dismissed the wave of criticism. “We have not taken a beating,” he said. “Everyone in the Orthodox world gets criticized by someone on their right or someone on their left.” And he insisted, “We are doubling down on the idea of openness but also emphasizing the reality that we are part of the Orthodox world.” He and other proponents of the liberal approach point to successes in the last two decades with the creation of JOFA, the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, and the International Rabbinic Fellowship (a liberal response to the Rabbinical Council of America), in addition to the founding of YCT and Yeshivat Maharat. (Edah, a liberal Orthodox organization, closed in 2007; and the jury is still out on Porat, a national effort launched last year by Weiss and others to revitalize Modern Orthodoxy around the country.) Most observers view the last two decades as one of dramatic ascendancy in numbers and influence for the more fundamentalist, charedi elements of the Orthodox community. (According to a 2015 Pew Research Center study, 62 percent of Orthodox Jews are charedi.) YCT officials point to its 120 rabbinic graduates as a sign of their acceptance in the Orthodox world. But only 20 are in OU-affiliated synagogue pulpit positions, including three at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, the congregation Weiss led. Many more have taken positions in Modern Orthodox and pluralistic day schools, or serve in chaplaincy or as Hillel directors on campus. At least one is in an OU-sponsored JLIC (Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus) position at a university. It is difficult to say whether the shift away from pulpit positions has been intentional or a necessity, given that many Orthodox synagogues feel pressured to hire YU graduates. Sylvia Barack Fishman, a professor of Judaic studies at Brandeis University, noted that more than 90 percent of YCT graduates have jobs that utilize their rabbinic skills. She said that those who disparage YCT do so because they feel threatened. Barack Fishman asserted that some Orthodox critics use the term “Open Orthodox derogatorily rather than descriptively, with the goal of delegitimizing Modern Orthodox leaders and lay people who support women’s leadership in public Judaism.” Such critics “are trying desperately to make Modern Orthodoxy into a closed club — and insisting that only they may define who belongs in that club,” she said. Even as the intra-Orthodox debate goes on about terms, definitions, and boundaries — who’s in and who’s out — there are those who call for greater unity. Geretz of Ma’ayan in West Orange doesn’t see the need to choose one brand of Orthodoxy over another. “The challenges facing the Modern Orthodox Jewish community, and really the greater North American Jewish community — all the denominations — are so great that we really need to work together.… I don’t see that anyone who uses labels to set up a divisive atmosphere is really working to help resolve those challenges.”Anonymous So, you talk a lot about trans women. What about trans men? A lot of people look at them as a sort of traitors. I don't know what to feel, but honestly I don't like them much We talk about transwomen because transwomen are males, and thus our oppressors in patriarchy. Patriarchy is a sex-based oppression of females, as patriarchy is dependent on gender, and gender is assigned based upon biological sex. Just as males can not “identify out” of their male privilege by transitioning, females can not gain male privilege by identifying as men. Thus they are (regardless of gender identity) still the oppressed class within patriarchy as they are female. I do not feel like transmen are traitors, and I do not dislike them. I do feel like all trans people male and female alike perpetuate gender, and thus perpetuate patriarchy as patriarchy and gender are one in the same. By insisting that by preforming femininity or masculinity you are either male or female as trans people do, they are enforcing gender roles and perpetuating an oppressive hierarchy designed to subjugate and enslave female women. For this reason, I am angered by trans politics as a whole, but I do not think transmen are traitors. I have sympathy and hold solidarity for all females. -R4df3mGeorge Washington knew it. He was particularly conscious of his forehead, which he believed would look better if it was even bigger. For maximum emphasis he’d pull his hair back into a tight ponytail – then finish the powerful, masculine look with ringlets of curls and a ribbon. The face of US political power To find out what the average American politician looks like, BBC Future commissioned a composite face, which is a blend of all US Senators and House representatives. Click here to discover what it looks like, and what it says about US political representation in 2017. Abraham Lincoln knew it too. The public delighted in mocking his face, which was unusually angular and asymmetric. Though he’s remembered as one of America’s greatest presidents, at the time he was deeply unpopular. He was as ugly as a scarecrow, they said. He was ungainly and cadaverous, they said. Eventually even the man who sculpted his likeness at Mount Rushmore joined in, saying his face was “primitive” and “unfurnished”. We tell ourselves that what we really want from our politicians is competence, a dash of charisma and a bucket load of sensible ideas. But that might be a tad optimistic. Evidence suggests that the facial appearance of a politician significantly shapes voting decisions – and we often may not even realise it is happening. Psychologists have known for years that first impressions play a far bigger role in our lives than we’d like to think. For example, we can’t help suspecting that those with doe eyes and pudgy lips are trustworthy souls, while those with wider faces have a tendency for aggression. The judgements are involuntary, unconscious and happen at frightening speed The judgements are involuntary, unconscious and happen at frightening speed: some are made in as little as 33 thousandths of a second, which is barely enough time to register what you’re looking at. “In our studies people say ‘this is ridiculous, I barely saw that was a face’,” says Alexander Todorov, a psychologist from the Princeton University and leading expert in the subject. These “thin slice” character judgements are based on the slimmest of clues. And yet they have far-reaching implications, from where you work to who you marry. Naturally, we expect CEOs and military personnel to look dominant, while those in caring professions should be baby-faced. If you’re born with the right aesthetic, you’re more likely to be hired in the first place and may find it easier to rise through the ranks. On the other hand the wrong face – such as one that looks serious if you’re dating or stereotypically criminal in court – could blight your romantic prospects or even land you in jail. But perhaps the most uneasy finding of all is how these snap judgements and prejudices shape politics. The science is not quite 40 years old, but the sheer weight of evidence is overwhelming. Though voters tend to have rational ideas about what makes a good leader – “The characteristic that always wins is competence,” says Todorov – the way these qualities are assessed is spectacularly reckless. In the end we discern it from the candidate’s face. The effect is so powerful, psychologists have correctly predicted the outcome of elections in the US, Bulgaria, France, Australia, Mexico, Finland and Japan, and the share of votes in US Senate, House of Representatives and gubernatorial elections using this characteristic alone. For these studies, participants weren’t told anything about the candidates – just shown a photograph of their head and shoulders and asked to rate their competence. The method can even be used to predict the results of elections in foreign countries – and works whether you ask 90-year-olds or five-year-old children. “There are a lot of great candidates out there who have a much lower chance of being elected because of their appearance. It’s probably not good for democracy,” says Gabriel Lenz, a political scientist from the University of California, Berkeley. How has this happened? Should we be worried? And what can we do about it? The idea that facial appearance can influence how a population sees its leaders actually dates back thousands of years. In ancient times it was called the art of “physiognomy”, the belief that a person’s character can be judged from their face. In Eastern cultures it was taken very seriously indeed. One Chinese king, Jianzi of Zhao, believed the face was as good a way as any to assess his grown sons as potential heirs. In particular, a noble pair of earlobes was considered auspicious. Historical documents from China boast of emperors with lobes so long, they dangled down to brush their shoulders. The preference even made its way into religious iconography: statues of Buddha are depicted with drooping lobes to this day. In ancient Persia, honours were only bestowed upon those with curved, beak-y noses The Persians were more into noses. It began with the founder of the Achaemenian Empire, Cyrus the Great. His notable nose was long, curved and sharp, and set the royal standard for generations. Honours were only bestowed upon those with the curved, beak-y kind and young men would pinch theirs with bandages in the hope of coaxing it to grow that way. By the 18th Century, physiognomy had become something of a pseudoscience. The Swiss pastor Johann Lavater analysed thousands of faces to narrow down the features that were linked to certain dispositions. In his bestselling book, Physiognomischen Fragmente, he laid out a hundred systematic rules, many of which would later be disproven. Suddenly workers, neighbours and politicians could be favoured or rejected not just on their social class and wealth, but their facial features too. Across the globe, looking presidential became crucial to being taken seriously. Portraits of president George Washington were altered to enhance the arch of his forehead, while artists lamented not preserving Benjamin Franklin’s corpse for public view – the masses really needed to see his exemplary physiognomy for themselves. Today’s politicians are no less image conscious. In Washington DC, business for plastic surgeons and dermatologists is booming; this is a place where faces seem to wrinkle at an unnaturally slow pace. It’s even been used as a political weapon. Back in 2004, Ukrainian presidential candidate Victor Yushchenko developed chloracne, pustules and lesions associated with over-exposure to the toxic chemical dioxin. Tests revealed the level in his blood was 6,000 times above normal; he alleged that he had been poisoned. While these modern politicians might not be using debunked physiognomy to guide them, they are probably right to be image-conscious. Though our first impressions are usually wrong, we almost always agree on them. “There’s something very reliable about these judgements,” says Jon Freeman, a psychologist at New York University. “They’re consistent across thousands of people.” The bias favours politicians who appear competent, but also reliable, older, attractive and familiar. In an election, candidates with this countenance tend to win with a wider margin of victory. Many of these features are self-explanatory, but what exactly a competent face looks like exactly is harder to pin down. The bias favours politicians who appear competent, but also reliable, older, attractive and familiar “In an ideal world you would randomly assign some candidates to have plastic surgery and go from there,” says Lenz. However, a slightly less invasive way to look for clues is to make one artificially. Back in 2010, together with Christopher Olivola from Carnegie Mellon University, Todorov did exactly that. The plan was to create a batch of extremely-competent looking faces and see what kind of features they ended up with. To set up the experiment, first they taught a computer what a strong leader looks like by randomly generating faces and asking volunteers to rate how able they looked. Then they used this knowledge to create a range of faces, some of which had been enhanced to look hyper-competent. As the attribute increased, they underwent a radical transformation: the gap between the eyebrows and the eyes shrank, faces became less round, cheekbones became more pronounced, and jaws became more angular. The competent faces were the most attractive, mature and masculine. “It’s a bit disturbing because you can see that it’s gender biased. It’s essentially a male face that people want. The face which is incompetent is a female face,” says Todorov. Are these preferences hardwired from birth – or are they learnt? It’s a mystery that has been hotly debated for years, partly because it’s very difficult to study. It’s not like scientists can lock babies away from the outside world and ask them what kind of leaders they prefer when they grow up – though similar experiments have been performed in monkeys. A consensus is emerging, however. “I tend to favour a more cultural association,” says Freeman. He’s spent years studying snap judgements and the hidden ways they lead to sexism in politics. “I think there’s much more evidence that our ideas about gender and competence reflect perceptions embedded in our culture.” Take the 115th United States Congress. As BBC Future has discovered, blending together photographs of every single member yields a face that’s good-looking, middle-aged and distinctly masculine. This depressing finding makes a lot of sense when you consider that the current government is 80% male and getting on a bit; the average age is 57.8 years for members of the House and 61.8 for Senators. Globally, there are just nine heads of state under 40 and 15 female heads of government or state. No wonder this isn’t how we view competent leaders. If our perceptions are learned, they’re likely reversible Which brings us to the good news. If our perceptions are learned, they’re likely reversible. “The more women you have in successful leadership positions, the UK being a good example, the more people might change their minds,” says Todorov. The ground is gradually shifting. Over half of current woman world leaders are the first in the history of that country. And some cultures are way ahead. As of January 2017, Rwanda had the highest number of women parliamentarians, who hold 63.8% of seats in the lower house. The US government is gradually getting older and Donald Trump was the oldest president when he entered office, at 70 years old. But elsewhere, the public are waking up to the potential of fresh-faced 30-somethings. French President Emmanuel Macron is just 39, while Austria recently elected Europe’s youngest leader, Sebastian Kurz, who is just 31. Some biases are harder to get away from, however. In psychological circles it’s a well-known fact that people tend to develop a liking for things, such as their own face, merely because they are familiar with them. This “mere-exposure-effect” is a potent secret force in everyday life – the very reason companies pour billions into branding and songs become more catchy the hundredth time you hear them. The images had been manipulated – they were actually a blend, a 60:40 mashup of the candidates and the unknowing students For a study in the journal Political Psychology, psychologists from Stanford University tried a sneaky experiment. In the run-up to the 2006 Florida gubernatorial election, they conducted a mock election by showing undergraduates photographs of the running candidates and asking who they’d vote for. But the images had been manipulated – they were actually a blend, a 60:40 mashup of the candidates and the unknowing students themselves. Naturally, the students much preferred those who resembled them
if you are not familiar with the term, let me quote Wikipedia: “variable shadowing occurs when a variable declared within a certain scope (decision block, method, or inner class) has the same name as a variable declared in an outer scope.” Seems legit, quite a common practice, most languages support variable shadowing and it’s just fine. Go is not an exception, yet it’s different. That’s how shadowing works here: Yeah, I am also aware that := operator creates a new variable and assigns a right-hand value to it, so according to language spec it’s an absolutely legit behaviour. But here is a funny thing: try removing the inner scope—it’d work just as expected (“after 42”). Otherwise, say hello to variable shadowing. Needless to say, it’s not just some funny example I came up with during lunch, it’s a real thing people run into eventually. I’ve been refactoring some Go code earlier this week and run into it twice. Compiler is fine, linters are fine, everybody is fine—code is not working. Reason 4. You can’t pass []struct as []interface Interfaces are great, Pike&Co. keep on saying that it’s what Go is: interfaces is how you workaround generics, it’s how you do mock testing, it’s the way polymorphism implemented. Tell ya, I loved interfaces with my heart right while reading “Effective Go” and I keep on loving them. Except “this nil interface is not nil” issue, I addressed above, there is another nasty thing which make me think that interfaces do not have a first-class support in Go. Basically, you can’t pass a slice of structs (that satisfy some interface) to a function, recieving slice of this interface type: Unsurprisingly, this is a known issue, which is not considered an issue at all. It’s just a yet another funny thing about Go, alright? I really recommend you to read a related wiki on point, you’d find out why the “passing struct slice as interface slice” won’t work. But hey, just think about it! We can do this, there is no magic, it’s just a compiler issue. Look, I did an explicit conversion from []struct to []interface on lines 49–57. Why can’t Go compiler do this for me? Yeah, explicit is better than implicit, but wtf!? I just can’t stand how people look at this sort of bullshit language is full of and keep on saying “yeah, it’s just fine”. It is not. It’s what makes Go a horrible language. Reason 5. Non-obvious range “by-value” loops This is the first language issue I ever encountered. Alright, so there is a “for-range” loop in Go, it’s there to range over slices and listen to channels. It’s used everywhere and it’s just fine. Here is still a minor issue though, most newcomers keep on failing on: range loops are by-value only, it copies values and that’s it, you can’t really do anything about it, it’s not foreach from C++. Note, I do not compain about Go missing by-reference ranges, I complain about ranges being non-obvious. Verb “range” kinda says “iterate over items”, it doesn’t really say “iterate over items’ copies”. Let’s take a look at For from “Effective Go”, it says nothing like “range copies values from the slice”, it just doesn’t. I agree that it’s a minor issue, I got over it pretty quickly (minutes), but unexperienced gopher might spend some time debugging a chunk of code, wondering why values do not change. You guys could at least elaborate the point in “Effective Go”. Reason 6. Questionable compiler rigidity As I could have told you before, Go is considered a clear, simple and readable language with a strict compiler. For instance, you can’t compile a program with an unused import. Why? Just cos’ Mr. Pike thinks it’s right. Believe it or not, unused import is not the end of the World, I can totally live with it. I totally agree that it’s not right and compiler must print a related warning, but why the hell would you terminate compilation because of such a minor thing? Unused import, really? Go1.5 introduced a funny language change: now you may list map literal omitting the contained type name listed explicitly. It took them five (or even more) years to realize that explicit type listing might be excessive. Another thing I particularly enjoy in Go is readability thing: commas. You see, in Go you are free to define multiline import / const and var blocks: import ( "fmt" "math" "github.com/some_guy/fancy" ) const ( One int = iota Two Three ) var ( VarName int = 35 ) Alright, it’s just fine. But once it comes down to “readability”, Rob Pike decided that it might be a great thing to add commas. At some point, after adding commas, he decided that you should keep the trailing comma as well! So instead of writing this: numbers := []Object{ Object{"bla bla", 42} Object("hahauha", 69} } You must write this: numbers := []Object{ Object{"bla bla", 42}, Object("hahauha", 69}, } I still wonder why we can omit commas on import/var/const blocks and just can’t on lists and maps. Anyway, Rob Pike knows better than me! Viva la Readability! Reason 7. Go generate is too quirky First of all, note that I do not have anything against code generation. For a poor language, like Go, it might be the only viable way of omitting some copy-pasting for a generic sort of stuff. Still, go:generate—a code generation tool, which is being used by Go folks all over the World now is just rubbish. Well, to be fair, tool itself is fine, I like it. The whole approach is just wrong. Let’s see, to generate some code you are supposed to use special magic comment. Yeah, some magic sequence of bytes somewhere in the code comments leads to code generation. Comments are meant to explain code, not generate it. Still, magical commenting is a thing in today’s Go. Interestingly, noone actually cares, it’s just fine. In my humble opinion, it’s definitely much worse than freaking unused imports. Epilogue As you can see, I didn’t complain about generics / error handling / syntactic sugar / other quite classical Go-related issues. I agree that generics are not critical, but if you take away generics, please give us some normal code generation tools, not some random punky funky magical comment shit. If you take away exceptions, please give us ability to safely compare interfaces to nil. If you take away syntactic sugar, please let us write the code that works as expected, without some “oops haha” variable shadowing stuff. All in all, I’ll continue to use Go. For a good reason: just because I love it. I hate the language: it’s absolute crap, but I love community, I love tooling, I love fancy design decisions (hey interfaces) and the whole ecosystem. Hey man, wanna fork Go?HTC’s latest financials make for another fairly dismal read for the mobile device and VR headset maker, though — crumbs of comfort — it’s making a slightly smaller year-over-year loss. Its operating loss for Q4 2016 was NT$3.6 billion ($116.8M) vs a loss of NT$4.1 billion ($133.1M) in Q4 2015. Revenue for Q4 2016 was also down at NT$22.2 billion ($720.7M), which is a year-over-year drop of around 13 per cent. Not great news, clearly, but less of a YOY revenue slide than in other recent quarters. However gross margin declined year over year too, dropping from 13.9 per cent in Q4 2015 to 10.5 per cent in Q4 2016. While HTC’s year over year operating margin was almost the same, at -16.0 per cent for the quarter. In its report for Q4, HTC claims “robust sales performance” and notes sequential revenue “improving sequentially over 2016”, though revenue was actually flat between Q3 and Q4 — at a point in the sales cycle when you might be expecting a holiday boost to earnings. HTC also flags what it describes as “aggressively managed” operating expenditure delivering a 34 per cent cost reduction for the business over the course of the year. But efficiency savings can’t in themselves beget business turnarounds — that requires a string of product wins. And virtual reality is a risky bet for HTC to be making for that, given the lack of proven consumer demand for such a nascent tech. In recent years loss-making quarters have become the norm for the Taiwanese company, which posted its first ever loss making quarter in Q3 2013. Since then, the raft of management changes, portfolio tweaks and a partnership with games publisher Valve focused on virtual reality have yet to translate into any sustained upward momentum for HTC’s business. On the product front — beyond its ongoing efforts to tout its Vive VR play — Q4 saw HTC put out several mid tier handsets badged with existing/long-in-the-tooth brand names, such as Desire and Evo. Notably it’s since launched what it dubs a “new direction” for its phones business, announcing last month a new mobile brand, HTC U, for a range of handsets pre-loaded with a new AI assistant. Not having a much needed smartphone refresh ready to go in Q4 clearly didn’t help its sales performance in the quarter. HTC was also the design and manufacturing partner for Alphabet’s new Google-branded Pixel handsets, which launched during the quarter. But there are few signs that relationship has translated into substantial sales revenue for HTC. Its Q4 report provides little detail on any future plans, merely pointing to its continued investment of effort to try to establish a sustained market for VR. “HTC continues to build the virtual reality ecosystem around HTC VIVE, with several events underlining the growing reach of the Vive platform, including opening the first VIVE-based arcade in Taipei, first demo days for VIVE X accelerator program in Beijing, Taipei, and San Francisco, and the launch of VIVE studios,” it notes.Chinese tourists have quietly returned to the shopping streets of Seoul, and K-pop stars are gingerly planning their China comeback, as South Korea's President Moon Jae In began his visit to China yesterday with hopes of thawing icy economic relations. He is accompanied by the largest-ever business delegation of 260 company executives, all keen to resume collaboration with their country's largest trading partner. Bilateral ties were strained last year after China objected to South Korea's deployment of an American Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (Thaad) missile shield. The ties started mending following the signing of an Oct 31 bilateral agreement to move beyond the diplomatic row. But experts said it will take time to rebuild trust and return to pre-Thaad friendly ties. While government-led economic boycotts can be lifted easily, the "bigger problem" is the psychological impact of China's anti-Korea campaign, said Dr Lee Seong Hyon, a research fellow at think-tank Sejong Institute. "It will take some time for Chinese consumer sentiment to recover (and for the Chinese) to buy South Korean products. It will also take time for Chinese tourists to go to South Korea as before," he told The Straits Times. China's group tour ban resulted in estimated losses of 7.5 trillion won (S$9.3 billion) for South Korea's travel-related industries as the number of Chinese visitors in the first 10 months of the year fell 50 per cent year on year to 3.53 million, according to official data. And the worst is not over. China's travel ban has been lifted only partially and tour groups are reportedly told to avoid staying at Lotte Hotel or shopping at Lotte Department Store or Lotte Duty Free - a move deemed as punishment for the conglomerate which gave up a golf course to free up land to house the Thaad system. But not all is lost for South Korea. Experts said the silver lining is the country's quick response in diversifying its trade partnership, most notably with those in South-east Asia. South Korean retailers, including Lotte, that decided to pull out of China have reinvested in countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia. Nami Island, a popular drama filming site which used to draw 350,000 tourists from China a year, made up for the Chinese shortfall of 78 per cent through aggressive promotion in South-east Asia. Tourists from the region rose to about 568,000 this year, up from 368,000 in 2012. Experts said a boom in South Korea's IT and semiconductor sector also helped mitigate losses from tourism, beauty and entertainment industries. Samsung Electronics, for one, registered the highest sales growth of 14 per cent in China in the first half of this year as Chinese companies including smartphone makers imported 19.27 trillion won worth of semiconductor chips and display panels from the company. China's travel ban will reduce South Korea's 3 per cent economic growth by only about 0.2 per cent, said Dr Kang Hyun Ju, a research fellow at think-tank Korea Capital Market Institute, citing Bank of Korea figures. "This year's economic growth far exceeded expectations mainly because of the IT and semiconductor boom. The Korean economy is resilient and lucky in that sense," he said, adding that growth estimates for next year will be more optimistic. Meanwhile, Korean entertainment companies are starting to make plans to stage comeback concerts for their artists in China early next year, according to local reports. South Korean actress Jeon Ji Hyun was featured in an advertisement for healthcare company Mentholatum on Alibaba Group's e-commerce site Taobao last month, while girl group Mamamoo became the first K-pop act to do a TV recording in China this year. But experts said it remains to be seen if China-Korea ties can go back to pre-Thaad levels as both sides are scarred by the row and will tread cautiously. Dr Kang warned of future political conflicts if the Thaad issue escalates again. "Efforts to separate politics from the economy will be needed for both countries, considering how South Korea and China are now tied more closely economically."Despite the large number of major Republican presidential candidates — now 15, following Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s entry into the presidential race last week — they do not represent the full spectrum of their party’s beliefs on climate change. This is the unfortunate byproduct of the particular fusion of social conservatives and big business interests that came together to form the modern GOP. They don’t always have the same priorities, and so when an issue like opposition to climate action binds them together, it’s particularly sticky among Republican politicians. Pew polls find that between a quarter and half of Republican voters accept the basics of climate science, depending on how you phrase the question. And roughly half of Republicans support the EPA setting limits on carbon emissions from power plants. You might think that one of the establishment candidates would see a political advantage in being the only contender to embrace a more moderate position — one that would also play better in the general election — as Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio have done on immigration. But none of the 15 Republican candidates for president supports EPA’s carbon regulations. With the exception of South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham (who is polling at 0.6 percent), they oppose regulating climate pollution at all. Walker, for example, pledged never to back a carbon tax. Bush, Rubio, Ted Cruz, and Rand Paul have all sneered at climate science. That’s because accepting climate science threatens the very foundations of any GOP presidential aspirant’s base. For the religious right, climate science is anathema for both doctrinal and cultural reasons. Accepting climate science means accepting Earth science and what it shows us about how the Earth is billions of years old rather than a few thousand. So Christian fundamentalists and all those who interpret the Bible literally or subscribe to “Young Earth Creationism” cannot accept the foundations upon which climate science is built. More broadly, issues like evolution that set up the same tension between the religious right’s medieval belief system and modern science make social conservatives unwilling to accept any evidence that God is not, in fact, personally micromanaging the Earth’s affairs. For the business wing of the Republican Party, climate science is anathema for both ideological and financial reasons. Ideologically, real acceptance of the science would mean acceptance that greenhouse gas emissions need to be slashed, and the most straightforward way to do that would be more government regulation. For the average Tea Party activist or Ayn Rand fan, government regulation is presumed to be bad, and working backward from that climate science must therefore be bogus. Financially, regulation of greenhouse gases could hurt fossil fuel companies and related interests like the Koch brothers’ industrial empire, but also other big businesses. That’s why the corporations that control the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers have set the business lobby against regulating carbon pollution. The two camps’ reasons are different, but together they make an overwhelming case for Republican politicians to keep denying climate science. Add in tribal identity and the case for cowardice becomes completely irresistible. Politics is not just about positions, after all, it’s about identity. Climate denial is one way a Republican politician can intimate to the anti-modernity wing of the GOP that he or she is one of them and doesn’t trust professors or the mainstream media. So intransigence on climate change becomes an appealing way of pulling together the disparate strands of the Republican Party. It keeps heartland social conservatives and corporate bosses on the same team. It’s sort of like the inverse of Democrats’ efforts to connect clean energy with economic populism. This is notably different from the situation with another hot issue, immigration, on which the GOP is split. Many rank-and-file Republican voters harbor anti-immigrant views, but big business wants immigration reform that would bring more potential workers into the U.S. That’s why we’ve seen some top Republican presidential candidates, such as Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, embrace immigration reform, while there’s not yet any evidence of such a shift on climate change. The significance of an issue to business interests is key. Compare immigration to abortion or Republican warmongering in the Middle East: because the business wing of the party does not have a financial stake in moderating on those issues, Republican pols just pander to the conservative base on them, despite divided opinion among their more moderate voters. Twenty-seven percent of Republican voters support abortion rights, according to a Gallup poll from last year, but none of their presidential candidates do except for former New York Gov. George Pataki, who currently polls at an average of 0.2 percent. Thirty-one percent of Republicans support making a deal with Iran to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons, but all the Republican presidential candidates oppose it. In fact, the prospects for GOP moderation on climate change are in some ways even worse than on abortion. While the Wall Street Journal editorial page might make a show of opposing abortion rights, there is no reason to think that if, say, John McCain had chosen a pro-choice running mate like Joe Lieberman they would have refused to back the ticket. Selfish rich white men who live on the East Coast don’t actually care about protecting fetuses, it’s just a trade they’ve made with the yokels in exchange for keeping the capital-gains tax rate low. But imagine how they, or an executive from ExxonMobil, might respond to a climate hawk on the GOP ticket. That’s why none of the GOP’s top-polling contenders have clearly accepted climate science. The only Republican candidates to even partially acknowledge the overwhelming scientific consensus on anthropogenic climate change are ones with little to no chance of winning the party’s nomination — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Carly Fiorina, Graham, and Pataki. According to the Huffington Post polling average, Christie is the only one of those who averages (barely) above 2 percent, and he is the only one who is (barely) placing in the top 10, necessary to qualify for the CNN and Fox News debates. (In 2008, Mike Huckabee, who Huff Po has in seventh place, accepted climate science and supported emissions caps, but he has long since flip-flopped.) This disconnect between Republican politicians and voters on climate change is not limited to the presidential candidates. In June, 239 House Republicans voted for (and only four voted against) a bill that would delay EPA from regulating power plants’ carbon emissions until all legal challenges are settled and would allow states to opt out of the rules, thus rendering them worthless. Get Grist in your inbox Always free, always fresh. The DailyThe BeaconThe Weekly Ask your climate scientist if Grist is right for you. See our privacy policy Major conservative media figures such as talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh and Erick Erickson of RedState and Fox News enforce this trend. They behave like political strategists rather than truth-seeking journalists and unleash fury on candidates who deviate from the orthodox party line. Is there any hope of breaking this logjam? Currently, Republican politicians get away with denying climate science because the moderate wing of their party shrugs it off. Moderate voters may accept climate science and support carbon regulation, but they don’t care enough about it to vote on it. What Democrats and climate hawks must do, then, is turn backwardness on climate change into a symbol of backwardness writ large, as I argued in a recent post. They must make Republican moderates embarrassed to vote for a candidate who does not accept climate science and embrace climate action, in the same way it would embarrass them to vote for a candidate who says that women cannot get pregnant when raped. Because the one thing Republican politicians care about more than anything else is winning.Championship Cubs to make second White House visit; Obama, now Trump WASHINGTON — The Cubs brought their World Series trophy to Capitol Hill on Tuesday and will lug it to the White House on Wednesday for a private meeting with President Donald Trump, more low-key than the televised love fest former President Barack Obama squeezed in before leaving office. The Cubs are here for a four-game series with the NationaIs. Cubs co-owner Todd Ricketts told the Chicago Sun-Times, “I think the president just knew that we all were going to be here going to baseball games and thought it would be fun to come up and have an unofficial visit with the team.” The Trump visit “is going to be more social and unofficial and not like the last time,” he said. “... This is a little more low key and it’s more of a friendly visit that what we did before, which was super awesome.” A White House spokesman, Helen Ferre, said the Cubs meeting with Trump will be closed to the press. Todd Ricketts, a Cubs board member, was tapped by Trump to be the Deputy Commerce Secretary, only to withdraw his nomination in April, unable to untangle his complex finances. White House sports team visits sometimes get tangled up in the politics of the players – and the president. A Sun-Times poll of 22 of the 27 Cubs players, taken in the visiting team clubhouse on Tuesday before the second game with the Nats, revealed that 12 will go to the White House and ten said they are declining the invitation. Obama, who took a day off from being a White Sox fan, gave a rousing official White House welcome to the Cubs on Jan. 16, four days before the Chicago president left office. The celebration was jammed with Chicagoans overjoyed at the Cubs winning their first World Series since 1908. The tradition of a president inviting championship teams to the White House is one that Trump seems to be continuing. Still, it is very unusual for a team to be honored twice – even though the second shot is billed as “unofficial.” In this case, the Ricketts family are mega donors to Republican candidates and causes – except for Cubs co-owner Laura, who is a big Democratic contributor and fund-raiser. The mother of a son born earlier this month, she is remaining at home. GOP Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts, another Cubs co-owner – who did not make the Obama White House celebration – will be at the White House on Wednesday. Hundreds of fans posed for pictures with the trophy in a Senate meeting room. The Ricketts brought the trophy to Illinois Democrats Sens. Dick Durbin, Tammy Duckworth and Rep. Mike Quigley plus GOP House Speaker Paul Ryan R-Wisc. * * *** Cubs manager Joe Maddon was reminded of the speculation that the NBA-champion Warriors might decline a visit to the Trump White House as a protest against his presidency and dismissed the idea that the Cubs’ trip amounted to an endorsement. “To go [Wednesday] is out of respect to the Ricketts family and to the office and the building itself,” he said. “Listen, I like the United States a lot. I like living here a lot. I like everything that it that it represents a lot. When you get a chance as a citizen to get to go to the White House, you go. “And whether you like that person that’s running the country or not, out of respect to the office itself you go. I don’t agree with all the other banter that’s going on right now because I have a different perspective. I would much prefer living here than some of the other places that adopt different methods of government. “I think sometimes that gets confused when people want to take a stand [without] realizing actually what we have here, which is a lot better than most everyplace else.” First baseman Anthony Rizzo said, “I’m going because it’s the United States of America and I’d rather not (be) anywhere else but this country. There’s no political ties. It’s the White House.” Pitcher Pedro Strop said, “I just didn’t feel like I want to go.”Students and museum goers listen to talks by members of the New Horizons team during "Pluto-Palooza," at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The New Horizons space probe will make its closest encounter with Pluto on July 14. NEW YORK -- With the New Horizons space probe only two months away from its close encounter with Pluto, the mission team is hosting Pluto-centric events around the country. About 250 students and museum-goers gathered in the Rose Center for Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History in New York to hear members of the New Horizons team discuss the first space mission built specifically to study the dwarf planet Pluto. In the past month, New Horizons has hosted Pluto-Palooza events in California and Hawaii, and the next one will take place in Denver on June 20. The New Horizons probe will make its closest approach to Pluto on July 14. Cathy Olkin, deputy project scientist for New Horizons, spoke at the event and emphasized the mission's dive into the unknown: "We've never been to Pluto. We don't know what we'll find." [NASA's New Horizons Mission in Pictures] Cathy Olkin, deputy project scientist for New Horizons, speaks with students during the "Pluto-Palooza" event at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. (Image: © Calla Cofield/Space.com) Speaking at the event here in New York, in addition to Olkin, was Mark Buie, co-investigator for New Horizons, and Tiffany Finley, a member of the science operations team. The group discussed some of the science that the mission will address, the design of some of the instruments on board and how the team will manage the close encounter with Pluto. You can watch a video of the event on Space.com. Finley and her colleagues are working on coordinating the "dance" among the instruments on board the probe. During its close encounter with the dwarf planet, the probe will rotate, giving different instruments the opportunity to collect data. While most of this work has been planned and scheduled in the years leading up to the encounter with Pluto, Finley said she and her teammates will be on hand to make changes based on what happens. The team did rehearsals with the spacecraft in 2012 and 2013. Now, the real event is less than nine weeks away. At the event, employees of the museum said that they will be using real data from New Horizons in a software program called Open Sky. Free to the public, the software will show the probe in its approach of Pluto, as well as updated images of the dwarf planet's surface. Artist's illustration showing NASA's New Horizons spacecraft approaching Pluto and the dwarf planet's largest moon, Charon. The debate over Pluto's planetary status has taken center stage in the last decade, but at the museum event, members of the New Horizons team said they wanted to focus public attention on a more important point: Pluto is a very cool place, and New Horizons is going to tell scientists a lot about it. Far from being a cold, dead rock, Pluto is a body with active geological processes and an atmosphere. Even though it lies more than 3 billion miles from the sun, it is illuminated by about the same amount of sunlight seen on Earth shortly after sunset. It's also a member of the Kuiper Belt, a group of objects that have hardly changed since the formation of the solar system, Buie told Space.com after the presentation. Pluto and the other objects in this region will offer scientists new information about how the solar system formed, he said. During its closest approach to Pluto, the probe may be able to see new moons or a ring system. After this flyby, mission leaders say they hope to select another object in the outer region of the solar system, called the Kuiper belt, to fly by and study. Editor's Note: This article was updated to correct the following: AMNH is releasing software, not videos, built using data from the New Horizons probe. Follow Calla Cofield @callacofield.Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.The Scottish leg of a concert tour supporting Jeremy Corbyn to become the next prime minister has been hit by disappointing ticket sales. Organisers of the #JC4PM tour, which is travelling across the UK and is due in Edinburgh on Wednesday evening, are struggling to fill the stalls section of the 2,000-seater Festival Theatre in the Scottish capital. The show will see a crowd of Corbyn supporters enjoy speakers such as Scottish Labour's pro-Corbyn MSP Neil Findlay alongside comedians such as Mark Steel and musical acts including Charlotte Church. One of the tour's organisers told BuzzFeed News that tickets, which are priced at £20 or £50 with an autographed poster, have not sold as well as he had initially hoped because of the political dominance of the Scottish National Party. "The tickets have not sold very well at all, and I can't really say if people will buy a lot on the night," said organiser Crispin Flintoff. "We're hoping to fill the stalls but it's a massive theatre. We did this all spontaneously and we didn't know what the demand would be and we have booked one of the largest theatres in Scotland. "It's not going to be full like the others were."Corporeal or not, Mavis is still one busy lady. She has her own Web site (www. mavisbeacon.com), as well as a philanthropic program called ''Mavis Cares'' that donates software to nonprofit organizations specializing in job-skills training. She also gets a lot of mail and requests for speaking engagements. ''I get a couple of calls a week, I would say, and that's not even including consumers who want to get more information about Mavis,'' said Ms. Hankin, who has been Ms. Beacon's public relations representative for the past three and a half years. ''A lot of reporters will call and ask for interviews,'' she added. ''Teachers call in and want to know more about Mavis and where she's teaching these days.'' She may be just an educational program, but Mavis can certainly act a little more lively than some flesh-and-blood teachers out there. She keeps her students tapping away at the keyboard with a variety of games and music, and by sheer force of humor and personality (she'll even tell you to ''call it a day'' sometimes if the program senses that you are skipping around or goofing off during a typing drill). ''Once people use 'Mavis,' they think they see her name in other places around the country,'' Ms. Hankin said. ''They envision that maybe they saw her on a show.'' Even once the truth is revealed, some people are not convinced. ''There was one man who kept calling back,'' Ms. Hankin recalled. ''He could not believe it. He kept asking questions, and saying 'Are you sure?' '' Mavis was brought to life almost 12 years ago, in initially rudimentary form, by Les Crane, Walt Bilofsky and Joe Abrams for their software company, Software Toolworks, then located in Sherman Oaks, Calif. The first version of ''Mavis,'' which used just four colors on screen and came on 5 1/4-inch floppy disks, was shipped in the fall of 1987. In the early years, Mavis was little more than a photo on the box. She made her way into the program only gradually. But on the programming end, the first version offered what were then some fairly advanced features, like pop-up windows and flexible navigation, so the user didn't always have to return to the main menu to select another area of the program. The product's release came only about half a year after planners had approved the concept, in the spring of 1987. The complex code was written quickly, not by a huge development team, but by just a few programmers working nonstop through the summer. Advertisement Continue reading the main story ''Three guys, three computers, three beds, in four months,'' is how Mr. Bilofsky, the main programmer, recalled it. ''That was a really intense experience.'' A lot has changed between then and the release of the latest ''Mavis Beacon.'' Version 9 was coded by dozens of people, with a full year to work between upgrades. The program has also grown. It is now a fully interactive CD-ROM that features snazzy full-color graphics, music to type by (selections from classical to Motown), Internet support, a typing-game arcade and a digitized Mavis presiding over the classroom. The CD-ROM is available for both Macintosh and Windows. Apart from the allure of Mavis, another feature that helps make the program such an understanding and sympathetic tutor is its proprietary Adaptive Response Technology. The software can analyze a user's keystrokes and adjust the drills and lessons to the appropriate level. After a dozen years on the market, Mavis has gone through a few modest makeovers, usually with each new version of the software. ''She tends to change as much as people change their looks, really,'' Ms. Hankin said. ''We change her clothes according to the new styles. We change her hairstyle. We change her overall appearance. 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. ''She used to look much more conservative because teachers used to be viewed as much more conservative. Now she's more of a modern professorial type of teacher.'' Another aspect of Mavis that makes her unusual is her race. In a techie world traditionally dominated by white males, an African-American woman on the front of a software box tends to get one's attention. ''The whole concept was this idea of trying to anthropomorphize computer software and to put a person on the cover,'' Mr. Abrams said, ''so people would think it was a person trying to teach them how to type, as opposed to a computer.'' So the ''Mavis'' creators decided they needed a strong character to present the lessons, and Mr. Crane was put in charge of finding a model to photograph for the box cover. ''One day he walked into Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills to buy some cologne, and there behind the cosmetics counter was a beautiful black woman named Renee L'Esperance,'' said Mr. Bilofsky, reading from a file that was put together to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Software Toolworks. ''Born into a well-to-do Haitian family, she fled the Duvalier regime and wound up at Saks. She had never modeled, and her extremely long fingernails made her an unlikely typist, but when Les looked at her, he saw Mavis.'' It just so happened that Mavis was black. ''It wasn't intentional that the role model would be African-American,'' Ms. Hankin said. ''Les was just looking for who the right person would be to play Mavis.'' Advertisement Continue reading the main story Mr. Crane was a former disk jockey and host of television's ''The Les Crane Show'' (known as ''ABC's Nightlife'' during the last few months of its one-year run opposite NBC's ''Tonight Show'' in 1964-65). He was also a huge fan of the rhythm and blues sound. So he named his creation after the singer Mavis Staples. The character's last name refers to a beacon of light in the keyboard hunt-and-peck darkness. ''It was pretty much an instant success,'' Mr. Abrams said. ''But believe it or not, even though it was 1987, we had some initial reluctance to carry the product because there was a black woman on the box. People did not believe it would sell.'' Mr. Abrams, who concentrated on marketing the software, said that some stores in the South and Southwest had been reluctant to display the product at first because there was a black woman on the package. But reluctance to carry the product was not confined to those regions of the country. Mr. Abrams said he had also been turned down by 47th Street Photo in Manhattan, a large electronics store (which has since filed for bankruptcy) which was, at the time, a valuable outlet for software developers. (A lawyer for 47th Street Photo's former owners declined to comment.) The problem began to disappear after a rave write-up about the program appeared in The New York Times. ''I remember walking into our offices in Sherman Oaks about 8:00 A.M. on the morning the review had run, and the phones were ringing off the hooks,'' Mr. Abrams said. When callers asked where they could buy the product in the New York City area, Mr. Abrams made sure that they were directed to 47th Street Photo, he said. ''After they'd gotten about 150 phone calls one morning,'' Mr. Abrams said, ''the buyer called me up and said, 'O.K., you win
. “You’ve got the DNC, some of the Hillary-tied PACs diving into this story,” said Kevin P. Hagan, a New Jersey-based Democratic strategist. “You don’t want to continue to give your perceived opponent a pass.” In Trenton, Wisniewski has subpoenaed more internal e-mails and documentation, promising additional hearings aimed at showing whether Christie or any top officials in his office were involved in the decision to shut down the traffic lanes. “We’re not done,” Wisniewski said. In Washington on Monday, Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, called for a “comprehensive investigation” of the lane closures. He said the incident “exacerbates my concerns with the governance and previous oversight of the Port Authority.” A senior aide to Christie acknowledged privately that scrutiny of the governor intensified almost overnight after his easy reelection last month. As the front-runner for the GOP nomination, Christie “fully expects” the scrutiny from Democrats and the news media to continue, the aide said. As Christie told reporters at his Dec. 2 news conference, “We’re not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy.”The most significant policy fight of the week is arguably taking place in Michigan, where Republican lawmakers are pushing through a "right-to-work" bill that would weaken labor unions in one of the country's most heavily unionized states. President Obama traveled to Michigan today and criticized the bill, which Gov. Rick Snyder (R) has yet to sign. Workers protesting the right-to-work proposal in Michigan. (Carolos Asorio/AP) Why the uproar? Under right-to-work laws, employees in unionized workplaces can no longer be required to pay unions for the cost of being represented. These statutes are broadly understood to erode the influence and power of organized labor — if unions have a harder time collecting money for the services they offer, they'll have fewer resources to work with. Currently, 23 states have such laws on the books. Michigan would be the 24th — and, because of its long pro-union history, perhaps the most important. So what effects do these laws have? There's a dizzying amount of research on the subject, but a few broad conclusions have emerged over the years: Right-to-work laws do weaken labor unions. The laws appear to tilt the balance of power so that workers reap fewer of the gains from growth. And it's still hard to find definitive evidence that right-to-work laws help (or harm) a state's overall economy. 1) Right-to-work laws tend to weaken labor unions. This is one thing the left and right agree on. If unions are barred from requiring employees to pay the cost of representation, there's a free-rider problem. Why bother sending money to my union if I'll benefit from its bargaining efforts regardless? Pretty soon, unions are drained of funds and can't launch as many organizing drives or wield influence. And unions do get weakened. A 1998 survey of the econometric literature by William J. Moore found that right-to-work laws lead to more free-riding behavior among employees. That, in turn, leads to a decline in unionization drives, in organizing successes, and ultimately in overall union density. Recently, Idaho and Oklahoma saw their union densities drop after adopting right-to-work laws in the early 2000s. Some labor backers have wondered if unions can overcome this adversity. They'll just have to prove their worth to workers. "For example," writes Rich Yeselson, "the most powerful local union in the country, Culinary 226 in Las Vegas — a political powerhouse that ensures middle-class wages and benefits for hotel housekeepers — operates in a right-to-work state and gets close to 100% dues compliance." That said, this appears to be an exception, not the rule. 2) Under right-to-work laws, workers reap fewer gains from economic growth. Supporters of right-to-work laws often argue that they'll help attract more businesses to a state. Opponents retort that weakening unions will lead to an erosion of wages. (A large Economic Policy Institute study from 2011 found that, after controlling for a host of factors, right-to-work states have lower wages on average than pro-union states.) Both arguments might be correct. One careful study conducted by Hofstra's Lonnie Stevans in 2007 found that right-to-work laws do help boost the number of businesses in a state — but the gains mostly went to owners, while average wages went down. "Although right-to-work states may be more attractive to business," Stevans concludes, "this does not necessarily translate into enhanced economic verve in the right-to-work state if there is little 'trickle-down' from business owners to the non-unionized workers." So business owners gain, and workers lose. One possible retort is that these states could simply set up new safety-net programs to compensate workers who are hurt. But that leads to another question: Without strong unions in place, who will push for these policies? 3) The broader economic effects of right-to-work laws are often difficult to disentangle. There's all sorts of research back and forth on the impacts of right-to-work rules. But as economists Ozkan Eren and Serkan Ozbeklik complained in one major study last year, most of this work is plagued by the "difficulty of distinguishing the effects of the [right-to-work] laws from state characteristics, as well as other state policies that are unrelated with these laws." For instance: In 2001, Oklahoma passed a right-to-work law and soon saw its manufacturing base shrivel. But how much of that was due to the law and how much due to competition from China? Similarly, one 1998 study by Thomas J. Holmes found that companies in heavily unionized states often relocated just across state borders to right-to-work states. But is that due to the right-to-work laws or other policies? One reason why it's so difficult to determine cause and effect is that only about 7 percent of private-sector U.S. workers are currently unionized — a small (and dwindling) slice of the workforce. What's more, companies make decisions on where to locate for a whole slew of reasons, from energy costs to infrastructure. The strength of unions isn't the only factor. That's why we'll continue to be barraged by study and counter-study for years to come. 4) The laws should also be placed in broader context. But set all the research aside for a second. The right-to-work bill in Michigan is also an indicator of a broader trend in the United States. As Rich Yeselson details, Michigan is one of the most heavily unionized states in the country, with 17.5 percent of workers belonging to a union. The United Autoworkers is one of the most storied unions in the country. If Michigan, of all places, is no longer safe from a sweeping revisions to its labor laws, then none of the remaining pro-union states in the Midwest and Northeast are immune. In a country where the strength of organized labor has already been dwindling for decades, that's a major change. Further reading: --My colleague Sean Sullivan has an overview of the political fight around Michigan's right-to-work bill, while Greg Sargent offers some reasons to think that Snyder may not sign the legislation after all.In any age of rapidly changing political and partisan perspectives, it is perhaps well to remember how the immigration debate was originally framed In any age of rapidly changing political and partisan perspectives, it is perhaps well to remember how the immigration debate was originally framed back in 1986 when the Reagan/Bush Amnesty plan, put forth to placate the demands of Corporate America for cheap labor, was first enacted. Ignored at the time were the protests which began as early as 1969, when Cesar Chavez and members of the United Farm Workers marched with the Reverend Ralph Abernathy and U.S. Senator Walter Mondale to the border with Mexico to demand the cessation of employers’ practice of importing illegal labor as a means of cutting wages and reducing thousands of their workers to the most grinding poverty. The government’s response to such protests and demands for economic justice? In the 1980s at a time when African American teenage unemployment approached a disgraceful 80 percent, Big Business cynically petitioned the INS for more visas for cheap foreign labor on grounds that there was an “unskilled labor shortage”. They largely got what they demanded. While Democrats courageously resisted such blatant attempts to lower the wages of legal Hispanic and African Americans, Reagan Amnesty apologists claimed that Americans wouldn’t stoop to perform the “dirty work” that only illegal workers would perform, ignoring the obvious fact that unemployed legal workers gladly and gratefully collect garbage and work in the coal mines if decent wages were paid. In fact the pleas for economic justice in America were made many years before by the great African American educator, Booker T. Washington, who made his famous “ In fact the pleas for economic justice in America were made many years before by the great African American educator, Booker T. Washington, who made his famous “ cast down your bucket where you are ” speech at the Atlanta International Exposition in 1895. Having recognized the racist and notorious practice of Big Business of importing and hiring cheap immigrant labor in order to avoid hiring African Americans, Washington pleaded: (T)o those (of you) who look to the incoming of those of foreign birth, cast down your bucket where you are. (If you but do so) we shall stand by you with a devotion that no foreigner can approach, ready to interlace our industrial, commercial, civil and religious life with yours.” It should be no surprise, therefore, that these demands for economic justice were taken up by the wife of Martin Luther King, who in 1991 joined with eight CEO’s of America’s leading African American organizations to oppose Republican Senator Orin Hatch’s bill to do away with sanctions against employers who persisted in hiring illegal aliens as a means of discriminating and reducing the wages of against African Americans. “We are concerned, Senator Hatch” “We are concerned, Senator Hatch” Coretta Scott King wrote in her now largely forgotten letter, “That your proposed remedy…will cause another problem—the revival of …discrimination against black and brown U.S. documented workers, in favor of cheap labor.” Subscribe to The Morning Email Wake up to the day's most important news.  Given the success of Big Business in lobbying the U.S. government to ignore these pleas for economic justice — on grounds of “humanitarianism” no less — it is perhaps the ultimate irony that this success has translated also in flipping the partisan narrative to the point where even legal immigrants have been tricked into adopting the Reagan/Bush agenda against their own economic interest under the ideological banner of the party that for decades opposed it. But there may now be signs of enlightenment by those who have been most oppressed by the Reagan/Bush agenda. In 2014, by a strong majority of 53 percent, male Latinos voted for the But there may now be signs of enlightenment by those who have been most oppressed by the Reagan/Bush agenda. In 2014, by a strong majority of 53 percent, male Latinos voted for the Texas Republican Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who had promised to stop the notorious practice of luring illegal immigrants—even little children— to their deaths in the desert with such promises as amnesty, and in-state-tuition. And so, gradually the tide may be turning in Booker T. Washington’s and Coretta Scott King’s demand for economic justice. Even in Germany today, where Merkel basked in the “humanitarian” glow of luring hundreds of thousands un-vetted illegal immigrants with promises of cash rewards (but no jobs, of course), the spectacle of teeming throngs of desperate young males being herded into the most degrading “refugee” camps, or worse showered with useless “vouchers,” may be finally revealing to the world the immorality of luring people from their homes, families, and culture for little more than the political aggrandizement of the politicians who created it. The tragedy, of course, is that the billions spent on such self-defeating endeavors could have been instead been spent on providing safety and economic help in zones created for their protection in the home countries.Are you 16-17 years old? Fancy doing something AMAZING with your Summer? Why not join us on our National Citizen Service(NCS) Programme? Acknowledged by UCAS! Recognised by Employers! Each and every young person that completes NCS Summer will receive one of the following rewards (your choice): • £50 Cash reward! OR • A full FREE season ticket for 2015/16 Season!* Start your NCS Journey on Monday 3rd August when we set off to Lockerbie, Scotland for our 1st residential! ( 5 days of team building with your friends – canoeing, Kayaking, High ropes, Abseiling etc.). On the 10th August we’re then going to UCLAN Halls of residence for our 2nd residential! (5 days of improving skills, Confidence, CV writing, Interview. Many guest speakers and completion of your First Aid Course.) On the 17th August – 28th August we are based at Turf Moor, the home of Burnley FC completing your social action project (think about helping the community, volunteering and making a difference!) 4 of the most amazing, fulfilling and rewarding weeks of your life – you even get to keep your weekends to yourself and it all for FREE! Get involved by signing up online at www.burnleyfccommunity.org/ncs or contact Darcie on darcie.mclaren@burnleyfc.com or call 01282 704716. *One U18’s season ticket, tickets are non-transferable and locate in an area of the stadium at our choice.Some of the best and most interesting topics we cover here at Lifehacker are our how-to guides: Those posts that take you through a project step by step and leave you at the end having completed something you've always wanted to do. Here's a look back at our most popular how-to features of 2012. Advertisement Your Wi-Fi network is your conveniently wireless gateway to the internet, and since you're not keen on sharing your connection with any old hooligan who happens to be walking past your home, you secure your network with a password, right? More » Advertisement You may know what a VPN, or Virtual Private Network, is; you probably don't use one. You really should be using a VPN, and even if you don't think so now, at some point in the future you may consider it as important as your internet connection. More » Advertisement It's no secret that there's big money to be made in violating your privacy. Companies will pay big bucks to learn more about you, and service providers on the web are eager to get their hands on as much information about you as possible. More » Advertisement Between the Blu-Ray player, cable box, laptop, and everything else hooked up to your TV, your home theater situation is a mess. Here's how I rolled all those devices into one awesome media center-the media center of my dreams-for under $500. More » Advertisement If James Bond logs on to a computer, he doesn't want to leave a bunch of files, cookies, or his IP address out there for someone to find. It might seem extreme, but sometimes it's a good idea to take the same precautions yourself. More » Advertisement You've heard the word "server" thrown around a lot, but usually in the context of web sites or big companies that have a lot of data to store. In reality, a server can be just as useful in your home. More » Advertisement Mountain Lion, Apple's next version of OS X (10.8), is out. This means now's the perfect time to prepare your Mac for the smoothest upgrade transition. More » Advertisement You can easily download OS X Mountain Lion from the App Store any time after purchasing it, but if you want your own physical copy of the installation, here's how to make your own Mountain Lion install DVD or USB drive. More » Advertisement The internet really does have everything, and it's all available for download without lifting a finger. A series of helpful scripts, all installable in a few minutes, can transform your computer into an automatic media downloading machine. More » Advertisement No matter how fast and shiny your laptop was when you got it, time takes its toll, and your laptop's now dirtier, hotter, slower, and less effective than is was on day one. Here's how to give your laptop an extreme makeover and bring it back to-or at least closer to-its former glory. More » Advertisement The moment you get effortlessly lost in work goes by any number of names: focus, concentration, escapism, flow, and countless others. It's the point where you're able to blur the world around you and calibrate your brain to pay attention to one single task. More » Advertisement Election Day is over, and we all know what that means: tomorrow you'll wake up to an onslaught of annoying, ignorant Facebook posts from your friends (God love 'em) complaining about whichever candidate won. More » Advertisement The Nook Simple Touch is great for reading ebooks. It's got plenty of storage, it's small enough to carry anywhere, can be used with one hand, can hold tons of books, its e-ink display is crisp and easy to read, and most importantly, it runs a skinned and customized version of Android behind Barnes and Noble's interface. More » Advertisement Even if you're a Windows fan, you've probably thought about trying OS X. Maybe you'd like to test drive OS X before switching to a Mac or building a Hackintosh, or maybe you just want to run that one killer OS X app on your Windows machine. More » Advertisement Wouldn't it be awesome if you could just drop a PDF in a folder and it would automatically show up on your Kindle? Or if imported photos automatically scaled themselves down to a smaller size? More » Advertisement Your home computer is the perfect machine. It's customized to your exact needs, runs all your must-have apps, and holds every important file you'd ever need to access. More » Advertisement If getting active and staying healthy were easy, everyone would do it...but we don't. We come home after a long day of sitting in a chair to de-stress by sitting in another chair, unable to summon the energy to take a walk or hit the gym. More » Advertisement Raise your hand if you've shared a username and password with someone over IM? Ever share a document with your SSN or other extremely sensitive information without protecting it? More » Advertisement The annual Consumer Electronics Show is in session, which means thousands of people have descended on Las Vegas to stare at next year's dust-gathering trash. More » Advertisement It seems like every day there's news that a new site or service has been hacked. The intruders make off with usernames and passwords, and even if they're encrypted the service forces users to change them. More » Advertisement Every day, we're confronted with claims that others present as fact. Some are easily debunked, some are clearly true, and some are particularly difficult to get to the bottom of. More » Advertisement With the release of any new operating system comes a list of annoyances for veteran users. OS X Mountain Lion is no different, and while a number of its new features are great, a few annoyances have popped up that are pretty easy to fix. More » Advertisement When you sign a two year contract with your wireless carrier, you probably know there's a termination fee if you want to get out early. You may think that fee could be waived if you could demonstrate a real need to end your contract, but this sad story suggests otherwise. More » Advertisement Amazon is often our go-to place for buying things online, but the best deals aren't always obvious. There are several ways you can save quite a bit of money when shopping on Amazon, but only if you utilize the right programs and strategies. More » Advertisement If you're thinking of getting in on all the new features of the new "re-imagined," touch-friendly operating system, here's what you should do now to get ready. More » Advertisement Advertisement Your home media center may be awesome, but it doesn't do you much good when you're at a friend's place and desperate to watch the Game of Thrones finale, get in a few laps on Mario Kart, or listen to a great new band you discovered. More » Advertisement Movie tickets are becoming more and more expensive, and with quick home releases there are fewer reasons to make a trip to the theater. You may get an enormous screen and high quality sound, but you can also have that in your home for a lot less than you'd think. More » Advertisement If you've ever thought "I wish my Android phone would do [X] whenever [Y] happened"-for example, text your significant other whenever you leave work; More » Advertisement You know how every new gadget that comes out makes your old one look slow and dingy...even if it's only slightly better? You don't need to be independently wealthy to always have the latest iMac, or upgrade to the newest Nexus every time it's announced. More » Advertisement Opportunity doesn't favor the wealthy, it favors the resourceful. You can get free travel, entertainment, gadgets, and even internet access by knowing about a few simple tricks and services. More » So there you have it. It has been a great year of how-tos and walkthroughs. Whether your favorite of the year made the list or not, we'd love to hear which guide helped you the most. And if you're still hungry for how-to, take a gander at the most popular how-to guides of 2011, 2010, 2009, and 2008. AdvertisementThis post may contain affiliate links; please read the disclosure for more information. Did you know that there is a new item that isn’t even on the actual menu boards at Restaurantosaurus? Well, it seems Disney’s Best Kept Secret isn’t the Vacation Club, it’s actually a double cheeseburger at Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park. Ordering two of these bad boys set us back $34.58, so yes, just one of these meals is $17.29. Double 1/3 lb Angus Bacon Cheeseburger ($17.29) From this angle, the burger look rather unassuming, but I assure you, there is a lot of cholesterol hiding under that bun. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality (outside of the bun of course). The bacon was crispy, the burgers were fresh off the grill, and the cheese was melted nicely. This was not one of the worse counter service burgers I have ever had at Disney World. It’s still no D-Luxe Burger, but it really wasn’t bad. I just wish the counter service bun would change to something like they have at D-Luxe. If you would like to curtail your cardiac arrest a little longer, the fries can be substituted for apple slices. So, there is a really good value to be had here. If you ask (upon ordering the double burger) for a second hamburger bun, Restaurantosaurus will provide it at no additional charge. That means that this meal can be split rather easily, making the $17.29 a very good value as opposed to ordering an entire separate meal. There is also a full “fixins bar” filled with condiments and other goodies you can add to your burger to bulk it up. While not my first recommendation for counter service dining at Animal Kingdom (but neither is Flame Tree Barbecue), the secret double cheeseburger at Restaurantousaurs is a surprisingly decent double cheeseburger that packs as much value as it does hamburger meat.Quietus - Hand-XBow Mortal Coil - Flail (1H) Death Reach – Fist Sacrificer - Sacrificial Dagger Heart of Darkness - Source Lifebane – 1H Weapon Grim Reaper – 2h Mighty Weapon (This item isn't currently appearing in the Mystic's transmogrification list, which is a known issue that we've already bugged.) Infernal Helm Death Mask Hallowed Helm Here are the names of all the transmogrification patterns you can learn from Arma Mortis and andArma Haereticorum (the books you receive for purchasing the DDE or CE of Reaper of Souls):Arma Mortis:Arma Haereticorum:Note that when you train these patterns at the Mystic, the toasts can progress a little slowly. As long as you right-click on both books with the Mystic window open, though, you will train all 10 transmogrification patterns.We've tested this several times based on your reports and everything seems to be working correctly. The only issue we've found is that the "Grim Reaper - 2h Mighty Weapon" pattern is not properly appearing in the Mystic's list of eligible appearances (even though is it being successfully learn by your hero). As noted above, we're already looking into that bug and hope to have it resolved as soon as possible.Can you folks, next time you log into the game, take a look at your lists and see if everything is there?With the recent news that Spider-Man will return home to Marvel, and thus finally — finally — join the beloved Marvel Cinematic Universe, the floodgates have been opened, and fans will now undoubtedly wonder (if not demand) what other homesick properties Marvel can liberate. Obviously, Spider-Man is the big hero, but Hugh Jackman is the big actor and Wolverine would almost certainly be the next big target for both fans and Marvel — if not because of both the character and actor’s popularity, then because Wolverine is an Avenger. In an interview today, Wolverine himself revealed where he stands on the character coming home. “There’s so many forces at play there, man, beyond what anyone would want. The thing I’ve always loved about the comic-book world is how the fun thing was how a writer of a comic book could just pull all these characters together and what became a Friday-night discussion of ‘it would be cool to see Batman fight Wolverine’ and bang, Monday morning they’re working on it, you know. But that’s an idealized world.” Jackman provided a very professional answer — actors are trained for that — but the beginning of the quote certainly seems to hint that it’s not up to him, which is something you generally say when you’re up for something, but you need the go-ahead first. He also called the crossover possibility an “idealized world,” and who wouldn’t want to live in one of those? For now, we just have to hope Marvel keeps the gears turning, and Fox somehow comes around to the same conclusion Sony did.Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) (AP) (CNSNews.com) – In remarks on the Senate floor today, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said that because Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) objected to a bill to advance Montenegro’s inclusion in NATO, “the senator from Kentucky is now working for Vladimir Putin.” “If there is objection -- and I note the senator from Kentucky on the floor -- I will say before I read this, if there’s objection, you are achieving the objectives of Vladimir Putin," said McCain. "You’re achieving the objectives of trying to dismember this small country [Montenegro] that has already been the subject of an attempted coup." "I have no idea why anyone would object to this," he continued, "except I will say, if they object, they are now carrying out the desires and ambitions of Vladimir Putin, and I do not say that lightly.” McCain then went on to explain the rules and procedures for pushing the Montenegro treaty bill forward in the Senate. As he finished his remarks, Sen. Paul asked the Senate president to speak. Paul then said, "I object," and left the room. McCain then said, “I note the senator from Kentucky leaving the floor without justification or any rationale for the action he has just taken. That is really remarkable, that a senator blocking a treaty that is supported by the overwhelming number—perhaps 98, at least, of his colleagues—would come to the floor and object and walk away, and walk away.” “The only conclusion you can draw when he walks away is he has no justification for his objection to having a small nation be part of NATO that is under assault from the Russians," said McCain. “So I repeat again, the senator from Kentucky is now working for Vladimir Putin," said McCain. Montenegro is a small nation on the southern border of Bosnia-Herzegovnia and the nothern border of Albania. To its west is the Adriatic Sea and to its east is Serbia. Montenegro's population is estimated at 622,000. Montenegro is seeking to join the European Union and was invited to join NATO in 2015. Currently, there are 28 nations in NATO, a military alliance formed in 1949 to oppose the Soviet Union and then the Warsaw Pact. The Soviet Union officially dissolved as a nation in 1991.Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo are one of the most successful and famous teams working in comics today. Snyder made comics fame when his first stand alone book, AMERICAN VAMPIRE for Vertigo, won an Eisner. In 2011, with DC Comics’ New 52s, Snyder became the writer of both SWAMP THING and BATMAN. His first Batman arc, the Court of Owls, was a comic sensation due to the incredible writing and Capullo’s phenomenal artwork. From there, Capullo and Snyder exploded in fandom and praise as they continued to release remarkable, compelling Batman stories together. Capullo established a name for himself working with the biggest names in comics. Moving from X-FORCE and QUASAR at Marvel to Image’s SPAWN and HAUNT, Capullo gained recognition for his bombastic art style. Fans love his dynamic and cinematic action sequences, as well as his rock and roll aesthetic. Capullo also is a notable Metal music fan and drew album art for Five Finger Death Punch, Disturbed, and more. Personally, his character design for the Joker in the “Death in the Family” BATMAN arc is my favorite rendition of the character; it made the Joker downright terrifying. Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo Share the Love and News about their Legendary Partnership After putting out hit after hit, Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo were the undeniable masters of the Bat-verse. However, with DC’s Rebirth around the corner, the dynamic duo handed the reins to another incredibly talented team, Tom King (fresh off his Eisner-nominated THE VISION run) and David Finch. Capullo and Snyder didn’t get slow down though. Snyder came out with an incredibly introspective and experimental mini-series, AD: AFTER DEATH with Jeff Lemire for Image. Capullo went to work with Mark Millar on REBORN, a high energy sci-fi/fantasy romp. These projects proved to be some of their most emotionally stimulating and wildly creative, but fans were in for another treat. Snyder and Capullo announced they were reuniting once again for a DC event book, DARK NIGHTS: METAL. Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo promised that METAL will be very Bat-centric, very cosmic, and very rock and roll. In our interview, these DC legends let us know about the highly anticipated event, their other projects, and the music playlist they use for inspiration. Be sure to keep an eye out for anything with their names on it; these seasoned pros only get better with each project!Joel Yogerst (left) and Quinten White will link up with Bristol in November Bristol are to take two ex-college American Football players on trial, as they bid to gain professional UK deals. Joel Yogerst is a University of Wisconsin-River Falls Falcons fullback while Quinten White is a Temple University linebacker. They will link up with Andy Robinson's squad in November. "There's an enormous pool of talented athletes in the States and rugby union is rapidly developing in the country," director of rugby Robinson said. "I'd like to welcome Joel and Quinten to Bristol Rugby and we look forward to seeing what they can achieve here." NRL and Rugby Union code-switchers Hayden Smith: Played for Saracens between 2008 and 2012 before an 18-month spell in the NFL with New York Jets. Rejoined Sarries last year. Dan Lyle: Was offered an NFL contract by Minnesota Vikings in 1996 but opted to play rugby union for Bath. Went on to play for Leicester Tigers and was capped 45 times for the USA. Terry Price: Capped by Wales and British and Irish Lions in the 1960s, before a brief spell at the Buffalo Bills. Gavin Hastings: A former Scotland international and the captain of the 1993 British and Irish Lions, he went on to win a World Bowl for NFL Europe team the Scottish Claymores The pair were spotted during an open trial day for the National Rugby Football League (NRFL) Combine, which is due to launch in the USA next summer. They have signed a two-week trial with Championship leaders Bristol, with a view to them training and developing their rugby union knowledge. "Joel and Quinten both provide unique skillsets that will translate favourably as they transition into their professional rugby careers," said Shawn Zobel, a player recruitment specialist for the NRFL Combine. "I'm sure they'll show really well at Bristol, their attitude and work ethic is of the highest calibre."Nearly a decade after being honorably discharged from the U.S. Marine Corps, John Gerula is still struggling to fit back into his hometown of Windber, Pennsylvania. The now 33-year-old Iraq War veteran signed up for the Marines at the age of 18 -- two weeks after working as a first responder during the September 11 attacks. Gerula's first disaster call as a junior firefighter was to the crash of United Airlines Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. John Gerula, 33, served in the U.S. Marine Corps for six years. CBS News "I was one of the first responders there. We were the first vehicle on the scene," Gerula told CBS News. "That actually pushed me to join the military. I graduated high school early to join the Marine Corps." During his six years in the Marines, Gerula spent one year deployed in Iraq, served as part of a military intelligence unit and fought in "Operation Phantom Fury" -- the Second Battle of Fallujah, where U.S. troops fought against al Qaeda militants. He survived numerous IED explosions. "There were a lot of long, hot days in the sun and a lot of time off the Forward Operating Base," Gerula recalled. When Gerula returned home in May 2007, he didn't think things would simply "go back to normal" -- but he never expected the transition to be as hard as it was. He suffered from a traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which has caused added anxiety and stress for the veteran. "It's tough trying to fit back into a society where veterans are having a hard time getting back in," Gerula said. "It's easy to put the uniform on, but it's very hard to get back in society when you have been doing that for so long." To help work through his challenges, Gerula receives weekly counseling at a nearby VA facility. "It's been hard. Coming back... there's not much support when it comes to veterans," Gerula said. "It was tough in the beginning, but there are some groups out there now that are starting to help veterans." One of those groups, Gerula says, is American Humane. It's through the non-profit's new Shelter to Service program, which rescues homeless pets from shelters across the country and trains them to become service dogs for veterans, that Gerula met his new best friend: Oliver. John Gerula, 33, and his new PTSD service dog, Oliver, meet for the first time. American Humane The one-and-a-half-year-old terrier mix was abandoned by his owner and rescued from a shelter in Colorado. After three months of training, the dog was finally able to meet his new owner for the first time last week. "It was an emotional experience. Me and him clicked right away," Gerula said. "He started giving me hugs. We were a match the first minute I touched his leash." On Friday, Gerula attended a day-long training with Oliver, where he practiced basic commands with the dog. The dog is trained to keep spaces between Gerula and others, sense when his owner gets stressed and even retrieve any medication he may need. "When he puts that vest on, he's all business," Gerula said. "He's hyper-vigilant. He looks around. He stays on my left side and he will not move unless I tell him." John Gerula and his new PTSD service dog completed a day-long training on Friday, July 14. American Humane Amy McCullough, Ph.D., the national director of military of affairs at American Humane, recalls the day she recruited Oliver for the Shelter to Service program. "He was standing there in his kennel, looking beautiful. He had been there for over two months with no one taking a look at him," McCullough told CBS News. "I brought him out. I met him. He was sweet, sensitive, so attuned to humans that he was the best candidate there." It's not the breed of the dog that matters -- it's the temperament, McCullough explained. And Oliver certainly has the right temperament for the job. "He's very affectionate. Very loving. He loves to have attention. The attention has to be on him, and that's good, that keeps my attention on him," Gerula said. He described it as like having two different dogs: "Oliver the working dog and Oliver the play dog." On Monday, Gerula took Oliver home to Windber, Pennsylvania, where he'll spend his days running around a one-acre yard, standing by Gerula's side as he works in his wood shop and volunteers at the local fire department. John Gerula, 33, pets his new PTSD service dog, Oliver, who will help provide support for the Marine Corps. veteran. CBS News "He'll go everywhere with me. He's very welcome at the fire department. They can't wait to meet him. They say he's the firehouse mascot," Gerula joked. So far, three veterans, including Gerula, have been placed with service dogs through American Humane. Next year, McCullough hopes to increase that number fourfold. "Every day 20 veterans take their own lives and over half a million shelter dogs are euthanized every year, so as an organization who has worked to help both these groups for over a century we're compelled to really address this challenge," McCullough said.Fire Emblem Fates, the fifteenth game in the Fire Emblem series, released today. For the first time, the series follows two distinct storylines across two different versions, Birthright and Conquest. Since the series’
television aspect of it. Billy Elliot was some form of progress. But I think things need to be taken to a larger platform.” When pushed further he said it’s not just TV, it’s a variety of things. Oh, and it’s not just ballet. Advertisement Whatever it may be, he’s clearly on a mission, and given how far the child known as “the dancing boy” on the street and “the black one” at ballet school has come against the odds, it would take a brave man to bet against his future success. “That’s the role I’m most excited for,” he told me. “Eric being an adult.” To see our photoshoot with Eric Underwood, click here. To watch a video of Eric Underwood dancing at our photoshoot, click here. Follow How To Spend It on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and sign up to our newsletter.Posted By: Stonecipher Sept. 9, 2008 One of the few things we’ve learned about Governor Sarah Palin in the last week and a half is that she is very fond of running around telling people that she told Congress "thanks, but no thanks" in regards to Alaska’s infamous bridge to nowhere. While this claim is completely disingenuous at best, it happens to be pretty much the only ammunition the half-term governor has at this point and the media has happily repeated the line over and over and over and over and over. It’s getting annoying. And it is time for America to stand up and say "thanks, but no thanks" to Sarah Palin. Almost two weeks after Governor Palin was announced as the Republican Vice Presidential nominee we have yet to see her answer a single question from the press. Not from the networks, not from the cable news shows, not from the Anchorage Daily News and not even from the mighty Wasilla, Mat-Su Valley Fronteirsman of Palin’s hometown. The reason for this media blackout given by the McCain Campaign? They refuse to let her be questioned by the media until they are confident the media will treat her with "respect and deference." Those are words from McCain campaign manager Rick Davis appearing on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace. Respect and Deference. You nominate a woman Mr. Davis, who most of the country has never even heard of, to be Vice President of the United States - one heartbeat away from the Presidency - one 72-year old, John McCain heartbeat away - and you won’t let her speak with the media until she is treated with respect and deference? What’s wrong with you? Did Barack Obama get any respect and deference during his primary run? Was it respectful of FOX News to report a completely fictional story, based on an email, that Obama attended a Muslim Madrasah in Jakarta as a child? Did the media show deference when, before voting even began in the primaries, they openly questioned whether or not Obama was "black enough" while simultaneously pointing out that he may in fact be "too black" to win the presidency? Was it respectful, Mr. Davis, when you and your campaign released an absolutely despicable ad which falsely claims that Barack Obama wanted to teach sex ed. to kindergartners when, in fact, the bill in question was designed to protect small children from sexual predators? Was it deference you were showing Mr. Davis, when you ran an ad comparing Barack Obama to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton? And now Mr. Davis, after all of the slams against Barack Obama for his "lack of experience", you nominate a half-term governor of the 47th largest state in the nation, who was mayor of a town of 5,000 just three years ago, who admittedly hasn’t thought too much about Iraq, and you expect the media to lay off and take it easy on her? Give me a break Mr. Davis. Barack Obama did not have the luxury of waiting for the media to show him respect and deference. If she wants to be Vice President and play on the national stage she needs to be ready for some hardball. The majority of the American people know nothing about what this woman believes in and you are asking them to elect her to the second highest office in the country. That, my friend, is not showing any respect or deference what-so-ever for the American people. As it appears right now, Sarah Palin will not actually be interviewed until this coming Sunday, a full 16 days (out of 67 until Election Day - or 23% of her candidacy) since she was nominated. Who is going to be interviewing her? FOX News? No, that would be too obvious. Rick Davis and the McCain campaign have granted the first Sarah Palin interview to none other than ABC’s Charlie Gibson. The same Charlie Gibson who, along with George Stephanopoulos, spent the first 51 minutes of what was supposed to be a debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama back on April 16th, grilling Obama on things like his flag pin and his next door neighbor in Hyde Park, Chicago. So for 23% of Palin’s candidacy her views will have been completely kept in the dark and then all we’ll get is professional softballer, Charlie Gibson. During the Gibson interview we can expect to hear more about her son heading off to Iraq on Sept. 11 (which Joe Biden’s son will also be doing on Oct. 3 with far less fanfare), her NRA membership, her cute daughter Piper, her pregnant daughter Bristol, her working class husband Todd and her image as the "hot" VP candidate. What we shouldn’t expect to hear from Gibson are questions about her extreme views on abortion, which she is against even in the case of rape or incest. Or her nutty, completely outdated and counter-productive abstinence-only approach to sex education. We won’t hear about how she bilked the state of Alaska for a per diem every night she chose to sleep in her own home in Wasilla, Alaska rather than in the capitol of Juneau - a move which her predecessor, Democrat Tony Knowles, denounced as a scam while he was in office. We aren’t likely to hear about her complete denial that the polar bear is an endangered species or that global warming actually exists. And we certainly aren’t likely to hear more than one token question (with no follow-up) about that false claim that she was against the bridge to nowhere. So when will we actually get to know who Governor Palin really is and what her views are? Well, until Rick Davis and the McCain Campaign decide to show some respect and deference to the American voters, those of us unlucky enough to live in the lower 48, or in Hawaii, will have a tough time figuring out just where the half-term Governor of Alaska stands on most issues. And until that happens, America needs to say "thanks, but no thanks" to Sarah Palin.I have not been able to stop smiling since I opened the mail today. This past year I had a few experiences that lead to me really sitting down and deciding I wanted to do things I'd always dreamed of doing. Don't let life pass you by! I made a list of 30 things I want to do by the time I turn 30 (next summer!) Some were mundane items like have that much procrastinated meeting with a financial advisor, some are to try and better myself like try out classes at the gym to find one I actually enjoy, and some are just to live life and do awesome things like ride a hot air ballon. I mentioned this list on my bio and in the bucket list section of the sign up. AND SO MY SANTA BOUGHT ME A TRIP ON A HOT AIR BALLOON NEAR WHERE I LIVE! OH MY GOSH I AM SO EXCITED. THANK YOU SO MUCH SANTA YOU ARE THE BEST SANTA AND I'LL REMEMBER YOU FOREVER. You are so generous and I am so very grateful! EDIT: I wanted to edit my thank you post to say I got a follow up message from my santa about their fathers experience with fighting leukemia and fulfilling some of his bucket list items before he passed away, and about how that had inspired them to give the gift. I just wanted to say again on how moved I am! And if you have a chance....feel free to join me in making a donation to MD Anderson Cancer Center.('Note-Bandi: Demonetisation and India's Elusive Chase for Black Money' is an upcoming book from Oxford University Press dedicated to the "memory of Indian citizens who lost their lives due to demonetisation"). Excerpts from the preface by R. Ramakumar. 'Demonetisation'-- the withdrawal of legal tender status of notes of denomination Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 -- announced by India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi over a televised address on 8 November 2016 will go down in history as one of the most reactionary and illogical economic policies ever attempted in independent India. It crippled an economy that ran on cash and was plagued by a slowdown; it destroyed the livelihoods of millions of farmers, workers, traders, women and the elderly; and it violated the dignity and liberty of law-abiding citizens. Yet, in a post-truth world, demonetisation also left public opinion in India deeply polarised. The language of the state had a deceptive appeal. In a society marked by abject poverty and inequality, and where everyday lives of citizens are marred by myriad forms of corruption, it came as no surprise that Modi's misadventure was received as a decisive measure. Economists like me knew of the earlier demonetisation of 1978. But we also knew that it had failed to unearth any significant amount of black money. We were also aware of quack ideologues of the right-wing who demanded measures like demonetisation and the substitution of income tax with a blanket transactions tax. But we had also dismissed them as obscurantist drivel. Never did one imagine that one among these irrational ideas would actually find a place in economic policy. Of course, many aspects of neoliberal economics are intrinsically inverted on logic. But the demonetisation of 2016 beat them all. * In his address to the nation, Modi made two major claims in defence of demonetisation: on the one hand, it would stamp out counterfeit currency that was aiding terrorism; on the other, it would help the government unearth ‘black money'. Soon after the address, one also heard television commentators waxing eloquent on India's imminent embrace of a cashless economy. * First, the claim that demonetisation would hit terror financing was overstretched because the total circulation of counterfeit currency did not exceed 0.002 percent of the total notes in circulation. Second, no significant mobilisation of black money may be expected, as about 94 percent of the unaccounted wealth was stored in the form of non-cash assets. Third, a cashless economy can never be created over diktats, as the persistence of cash was a structural feature of the economy. What India needed was a structural transformation of its informal economy into a modern and productive sphere, which would systemically reduce the dependence on cash. A ‘war on cash' would thus be ineffective and premature. Sycophants apart, these views were also shared by economists across the Left-Right spectrum. *** First, according to the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) Annual Report for 2016-17, the total value of counterfeit notes of denomination Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 detected by banks rose from Rs 27.4 crore in 2015-16 to Rs 40.8 crore in 2016-17: an increase by just about Rs 14 crore. As a share of the value of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in circulation in November 2016, the value of counterfeit notes detected in 2016-17 amounted to just 0.0027 percent. The critics were right; the extent of circulation of counterfeit notes did not, in any way, justify a drastic action like demonetisation. Second, the RBI also released estimates of the value of old notes returned to the banks between 10 November 2016 and 30 June 2017. Out of the Rs 15.44 lakh crore worth notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 in circulation as on 8 November 2016, about Rs 15.28 lakh crore had returned to the banks. In other words, 98.96 percent of the demonetised notes were back in the banks and only 1.04 percent remained outside. The return of about 99 percent of the demonetised notes is the most important indicator of the failure of demonetisation. In December 2016, the Attorney-General of India, Mukul Rohatgi, had informed the Supreme Court that the government did not expect more than Rs 12 lakh crore to be back in the banks. The remaining Rs 3 lakh crore was black money, which would not return to the banks and could be ‘extinguished' and passed on by the RBI to the government as dividend. Red-faced, the government tried to contain the damage by claiming that demonetisation was intended to bring back all cash into the formal banking system. But in the public eye, the jury was no more out. There was no black money left to be ‘extinguished'. Third, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) releases quarterly estimates of gross value added (GVA). As chapters in this volume would argue, these estimates typically underestimate changes in the informal sector. Yet, despite methodological infirmities, on a year-to-year basis, the growth rate of GVA showed a decline from 7.6 percent in the first quarter (Q1) of 2016-17 to 5.6 percent in the Q1 of 2017-18. This decline was in continuation of a similar decline reported for the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2016-17. The CSO estimates have officially signalled that demonetisation was instrumental in intensifying recessionary tendencies in the Indian economy. * * * Stung by the estimates released by the RBI and the CSO, the Modi government tried to initiate a campaign to celebrate the ‘success' of demonetisation in August-September 2017. This campaign made three major claims. First, demonetisation resulted in the ‘highest ever black money detection'. Black money worth Rs 16,000 crore (i.e., the remaining 1.04 percent of Rs 15.44 lakh crore) did not return to the banking system. Second, there was an ‘unprecedented increase in tax compliance' after demonetisation. About 56 lakh taxpayers were newly added and the number of tax returns filed rose by 24.7 percent in 2017-18 over 2016-17. Third, digital banking grew rapidly after November 2016. The number of digital transactions rose by 56 percent between October 2016 and May 2017. All the three claims were false. Papers in this volume provide a comprehensive coverage in this regard. First, the claim of detection of Rs 16,000 crore was actually an admission of failure, because the very premise of demonetisation was the existence of at least Rs 3 lakh crore as black money. In fact, the costs of demonetisation hugely outrun its benefits. One, even if we assume, conservatively, that India's GVA shrank by 1 percent after November 2016, the resulting economic loss would be about Rs 1.5 lakh crore. Two, due to demonetisation, banks were inundated with new deposits worth lakhs of crores while credit outflows largely stagnated. As a result, the RBI had to mop up excess liquidity worth Rs 10.1 lakh crore from banks under the Market Stabilisation Scheme (MSS). The total interest outgo of the RBI on this count alone was Rs 5,700 crore. Three, the RBI's costs incurred for printing new notes rose from Rs 3,420 crore in 2015-16 to Rs 7,965 crore in 2016-17: a rise by Rs 4,545 crore. These costs did not include intangibles, such as the time spent by bank staff on consumer interface and paperwork over many months. Four, due to the higher costs incurred by the RBI under different heads, the total surplus transferred by the RBI to the government fell from Rs 65,876 crore in 2015-16 to Rs 30,659 crore in 2016-17: i.e., a decline of Rs 35,217 crore. In sum, demonetisation was an extraordinarily loss-making proposition for the exchequer. Second, the claim of rise in tax compliance after demonetisation is simply unimpressive. One, there is nothing remarkable about the rise in the number of tax returns filed in 2017-18 compared to earlier years. Compared to the corresponding previous year, the rise in the number of tax returns filed was 51 percent in 2013-14; 12.2 percent in 2014-15; 29.9 percent in 2015-16; and 24.3 percent in 2016-17.3 Two, even among the 56 lakh assessees newly added, about 38.8 lakh assessees (or about 69.4 percent) reported an annual income of less than Rs 5 lakh. The average annual income of these new taxpayers was only Rs 2.7 lakh. In sum, the increase in tax revenue from the new assessees would be insignificant. Three, the claims of the government on the extent of spread of digital banking defy basic statistical logic. Analysis shows that, one, the percentage rise in the number of digital transactions were primarily owing to low base effects. Two, the total value of non-cash transactions rose by only 18.8 percent between November 2016 and August 2017. Despite efforts to popularise mobile banking, the value and volume of mobile-based transactions recorded negative growth rates between November 2016 and August 2017. All available evidence till August 2017 points to the return of cash in everyday transactions. The government's aim of forcing citizens to shun cash had failed. (R. Ramakumar is Dean, Centre for Study of Developing Economies, School of Development Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. He can be reached at ramakumarr@gmail.com) Follow Live updates here. Firstpost is now on WhatsApp. For the latest analysis, commentary and news updates, sign up for our WhatsApp services. Just go to Firstpost.com/Whatsapp and hit the Subscribe button.Sage Northcutt’s big UFC push will continue next month when he makes his first appearance on a FOX-televised main card. Northcutt (7-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC) will fight fellow undefeated lightweight Andrew Holbrook (11-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) at UFC on FOX 18 on Jan. 30. The main card airs on FOX following prelims on FOX Sports 1 and UFC Fight Pass at Newark’s Prudential Center. The matchup was announced on tonight’s UFC on FOX 17 broadcast. Northcutt is coming off his second UFC win in a 68-day stretch when he submitted Cody Pfister in the second round at UFC Fight Night 80 earlier this month. The 19-year-old is the youngest fighter on the UFC roster and will attempt to make it three octagon victories before his 20th birthday. Holbrook will attempt to end Northcutt’s hype train in a more convincing fashion than his first UFC win. He picked up a controversial split decision win over Ramsey Nijem at UFC on FOX 16 in July in what was his first-ever fight to go the distance. Holbrook has earned 10 of his 11 career victories by stoppage, nine in the first round, and will attempt to add Northcutt’s name to his resume. For more on UFC on FOX 18, check out UFC Rumors section of the site.Last year if you would have said Daft Punk was releasing a new album in 2013, we all would have just said “That's a rumor” and dismissed it, but could it be that the image art that ‘InTheMix‘ released back in September of last year was actually something of truth? As shown below, the image says “Daft Punk No End 3.13.13” which would be tomorrow. Before you dismiss this post, take into consideration that Daft Punk and management have been very good about keeping everything very secretive, such as any news about release dates, collabs, leaks, etc… but with all of the hype in recent weeks, it is very possible that Daft Punk may be releasing new material tomorrow. While this is just a speculative post, take into consideration the 15 second clip that was played during Saturday Night Live, the suspicious “leaked track” that was uploaded to ‘Daft Punk's Official Soundcloud' and the recent change of Daft Punk's website to display the Columbia Records logo. While this is just a rumor, we can only hope that new music from Daft Punk is coming tomorrow.There is nothing college football fans and pundits like discussing more than whether a storied program is “back.” Sure, it’s nice when new teams arise and interesting story lines happen, but we set our watch by the same crew of blue-blood programs achieving success. When one falls out of the top tier, we speculate about its return to form, and college football’s return to normalcy. Perhaps no school has sought that normalcy more eagerly than Penn State, which has spent the past five years chasing a world in which people associate its football team with football, and nothing more. Back in September, head coach James Franklin was coaching for his job. The team had winning seasons in each of his first two years at Penn State, but hadn’t quite achieved the success predecessor Bill O’Brien had, despite O’Brien’s teams playing under enormous NCAA sanctions. Franklin’s staff seemed to stifle the growth of Christian Hackenberg, a once-budding QB prospect whose completion percentage and total yardage declined in every year at Penn State. The Nittany Lions started the year 2–2 with a loss to Pitt, a school Penn State fans view with such derision they sometimes get upset when you even insinuate the two are rivals, and a blowout defeat by Michigan. Franklin’s seat was officially hot. With five straight victories, including a whiteout win over then-no. 2 Ohio State, the Nittany Lions can be considered back. They’re ranked in the top 10 for the first time since 2009 — before Joe Paterno died, before the sanctions for the cover-up for Jerry Sandusky’s decades of child abuse came and went, before “Penn State football” made national news instead of just the sports pages. If the Nittany Lions win their final three games — Indiana, Rutgers, and Michigan State, all matchups they’ll be favored in — they’ll have 10 wins for the first time since the same year. And they’ll probably head to a New Year’s Six bowl, either the Cotton or the Orange. If they do, I’d recommend watching them. I cannot emphasize enough the joy of watching Saquon Barkley, the sophomore running back who takes more pleasure than anybody in college football in embarrassing defenders in one-on-one situations. He spins, he jukes, he hurdles, and if you try to prepare for any of those three moves, he’ll hit you with one of the others. The good news for defenders is that he’s done this so many times in his two years in State College that there’s a decent chance their moment of misery might not even make it into his highlight reel. (Those are highlights from his freshman year. He’s been even better as a sophomore.) The Nittany Lions also have one of the top 15 defenses in the country, per S&P+. And for the neutral fan, the team as a whole seems dead set on creating drama: It’s ranked 36th on offense and 54th on defense in the first quarter, but it’s top-five in both categories in the fourth. So yeah, Penn State is back. But even with a spectacular season to feel great about, Penn State almost certainly won’t be conference champion. The team probably won’t even be in the championship game. The Nittany Lions played great and even squeaked out a win over Meyer, riding a raucous home crowd and forcing a pair of rare special teams snafus by a typically airtight Buckeyes team. And they’ll still need miracles elsewhere — like Michigan losing to Indiana or Iowa, whom they’re 18-point road favorites against this weekend — to win the division. These are the facts of life for a team squeezed into an unbalanced divisional scheme that pits it against Urban Meyer and Jim Harbaugh. Franklin is a really strong coach; he managed to make Vanderbilt a competent SEC team for multiple seasons, a feat so preposterous we might not see it again in our lifetimes. But he hasn’t out-recruited Harbaugh or Meyer, and he doesn’t seem likely to out-coach them often. When Penn State was good under Paterno, he was the team’s coach. When Penn State was bad under Paterno, well, he was the coach. Things went that way for almost 50 years. Then, in a span of three months, Sandusky’s crimes came to light, Paterno was fired, and Paterno died. There’s famously a tiny, but EXTREMELY LOUD subsect of Penn State fans that was driven off the edge by this — the group of truthers who have dedicated their lives to broadcasting their version of what Paterno knew and when he knew it. Their angry devotion to a dead coach’s legacy mainly serves to show the rest of us how football could allow a coach to become trusted enough that people would allow him to conceal his friend’s sexual predation for decades, but, well, truthers rarely get subtlety. While reckoning with the moral consequences of supporting Penn State, the rational majority of fans also had to get used to a unique recalibration on the sidelines. They’d been shot out of a cannon into a college football landscape very different than the one they were used to, where coaches actually change jobs from time to time. When O’Brien left after two successful seasons, it seemed like treason. When Franklin struggled modestly off the bat, as plenty of good coaches do, it was time to talk about firing him. Fraknlin’s abilities have been validated by the team’s current success, but the quick rush to judgment is still concerning. Paterno’s teams won two national championships in 46 seasons, and three Big Ten titles in 19 years in the league. And he was one of the greatest coaches of all time. If Penn State coaches take a year or two to turn good teams into great teams, the pitchforks shouldn’t come out. That’s just how college football works. As long as the Nittany Lions are stuck in a sardine can with two of the top three coaches in college football, it will take something special to make the conference championship game — let alone win it. This thing happening now is really good, and there’s a chance it could stay that way and not get any better. Penn State fans should love this team the way Barkley loves hating defenders. Smile at them the way you can tell Barkley is smiling when yet another ill-fated cornerback tries an arm tackle and gets nothing but air.Gerard Piqué faced the media on Wednesday in a bid to diffuse the rising tension surrounding the Spain player after Sunday's Catalan independence referendum. The Catalan defender, who has publicly supported the northeastern region's right to vote on secession, was booed by Spain fans at an open training session on Monday, amid reports of a rift within the squad - particularly between Piqué and international defensive partner Sergio Ramos - and suggestions he could leave the camp before Friday's World Cup qualifier against Albania. Full screen Gerard Piqué Ballesteros (EFE) Gerard Piqué press conference: as it happened 13:30: That's the end of the press conference. 13:29: Piqué: "I want people to see that I defend what I think, but I respect and understand that there are many people who think differently. We have to sit down and dialogue - not just politicans, but all people." 13:27: What has hurt you the most? "What has hurt me the most is [the effect on] my team-mates. That's why I'm sitting here now." 13:26: How would you react to Catalan independence? Would you be happy? "What does it matter how I react? I can have my opinion, but this goes far beyond what my opinion is. There are many who want independence, and many who don't. What's important is dialogue: that the politicans do their job and find a solution." 13:23: Piqué: "What I want right now is to play a good game on Friday [against Albania]. I think that's much more of a priority." 13:20: "Dialogue brings people closer together," Piqué says. He compares the desire for independence in Catalonia to that of an 18-year-old son who wants to leave his parents' home: "If you talk to him, maybe he won't leave." 13:17: Piqué is asked which national team he'd choose if Catalonia achieved independence: "I don't know what would happen. It's a scenario that I haven't considered. But if that happened, there would be a process of three, four years [before Catalan independence became a reality] like Brexit - so I'd be 33 or so, and I don't think I'd have to make that decision, so I haven't considered it." 13:15: Piqué is asked if he's considered retiring from the Spain team early: "I've been playing for Spain for almost ten years - I don't want to leave by the back door." 13:12: Piqué is asked if he wants Catalonia to be independent: "That's the million-dollar question. I can't answer that. Footballers are global figures, and I can't position myself on one side. Right now, my answer to that is not important. We're in a difficult political situation and the only way forward is through dialogue or this problem is going to get worse. Through dialogue anything can be achieved." 13:11: Piqué is asked about Sergio Ramos, in the wake of reports that the pair's relationship has broken down: "The Ramos thing is a lie - we get on phenomenally. We're going to be partners in a business venture that I proposed to him." 13:10: Piqué says he can understand why his team-mates might be growing tired of the issue - "that's why I've come out", he says, so that his colleagues don't have to keep on having to field questions about it. 13:08: Piqué: "Even if we disagree, what is most important is that we respect each other and have dialogue." 13:06: Piqué: "I've never positioned myself on one side or the other. All I've said is that the people have to vote." 13:05: Piqué: "I think someone who is pro-independence can play for the Spain team. If there is no Catalan national team and you don't have anything against Spain, you think Spain is great and you think the people are great, why can't you play for them?" He stresses that he's not talking about himself there. 13:02: Piqué: "It's impossible that we can all have the same opinion - if I'm in favour of having the chance to vote [on Catalan independence], I also respect the fact that there are people who think differently to me." 13:01: "No-one can doubt my commitment to the Spanish national team," Piqué declares. 12:58: "I'm here to make myself clear and because the coach asked me to," says Piqué, "and I'll try to help the team in any way I can." 12:57: Piqué is asked if he has contemplated quitting the Spain team. He says the first day - when he was on the end of abuse from Spain fans during the team's open training session - was difficult, but thinks it is a challenge for him. 12:55: Out comes Piqué... 12:45: Good afternoon! It has been announced that Spain defender Gerard Piqué will be giving a press conference in a few minutes' time. We'll bring you details of what the Barcelona player has to say as soon as he appears.Oakland police chief charming, but she has work to do Oakland’s new police chief sure does talk differently. Anne Kirkpatrick, the first woman to lead the department, talked about transforming a force plagued by scandals involving racist texts and a sexually exploited teenager, and a lack of stability at the top. But she spoke with a Southern accent that is as sweet and thick as Tennessee maple syrup. At her introductory news conference, Kirkpatrick repeatedly said “y’all,” pronouncing it properly as yawl. Kirkpatrick is an outsider who’s definitely not from around these parts, but her charisma and aw-shucks folksiness was downright entertaining. “I like her humor,” Maxine Jasper-Collins, an Oakland resident, told me afterward. “I liked the energy,” added Cynthia Adams, who also lives in Oakland. “It’s something different.” Both Jasper-Collins and Adams hail from Arkansas, so they understood where the plain-spoken Kirkpatrick was coming from. I spent two decades in South Carolina, so I appreciated Kirkpatrick’s self-deprecating approach. “Y’all are probably thinking, ‘Where did that accent come from?’” she said. The Memphis-born Kirkpatrick was raised in the Deep South, where children are taught to say “yes, ma’am” and “yes, sir” to their elders. Memphis, a city known for cradling rock, blues, soul and country musicians such as Elvis Presley, B.B. King, Otis Redding and Johnny Cash, is where Kirkpatrick began her exemplary policing career. A former police chief in Spokane, Wash., Kirkpatrick recently led reform efforts in Chicago. I’m relieved the person who accepted the job wants to live in Oakland even if, like many residents, she can’t quite afford to buy a house. “Y’all are expensive,” she said, drawing laughter. There’s nothing funny about the problems Kirkpatrick is being asked to solve in a city where many residents simply don’t trust police officers. While Kirkpatrick has been in charge of smaller police departments, she’s never had the buck stop with her in a high-profile city like Oakland where the slightest misstep can lead to an explosive situation. And it’s not clear what she accomplished as a bureau chief in Chicago, if anything. Should the fact that she was only there for six months raise questions about her commitment? If she sticks around, I feel Kirkpatrick’s homey demeanor will positively improve community policing — but only if some of y’all can get over her drawl which can, to unfamiliar ears, sound like a pat-on-the-head scolding. That includes the rank and file. More than anything else, Oakland needs a chief who talks with people — not at them. “I absolutely want to reach out and get to know people, sit down with them, and have them ask me anything they want to ask,” Kirkpatrick responded when I questioned how she would connect with young people. Regina Jackson, president of the East Oakland Youth Development Center, which focuses on building character and confidence in children and young adults, nodded when Kirkpatrick said she would have to earn respect. “Because a title doesn’t give you carte blanche to how to be received,” Jackson said. “That’s what we teach kids all the time. It’s not what they say; watch their actions.” Jackson believes Kirkpatrick’s outsider status is an asset, because she doesn’t hold allegiances inside a department that remains under federal court oversight stemming from a 2003 civil rights settlement over alleged beatings, evidence planting and falsified reports. “She’s able to start from the ground up in terms of demonstrating her authenticity,” Jackson said. Mya Whitaker, the program director for the Bay Area Urban Debate League, was one of three Oakland residents on the search committee. Even though the search has ended, she said the voices of black and brown residents still need to be included if the fragmented relationship between residents and local police is to be repaired. Some could argue there isn’t anything to improve, because an appropriate relationship has never existed. Still, building a rapport will require Kirkpatrick to do more than say things a different way. “Our communities have a severe distrust of the police,” Whitaker said. “What will she bring? What is she about? You have good things, but how will you implement them?” San Francisco Chronicle columnist Otis R. Taylor Jr. appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Email: otaylor@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @otisrtaylorjrAs was noted by Alfredo last night, FC Dallas has a very busy week ahead of them. The red stripes have a US Open Cup clash with the hated Houston Dynamo on Wednesday night, and 65 or 66 hours after that match ends they will kick off in Portland on artificial turf in a matchup that will have a direct effect on the Supporters Shield race and potential playoff seeding. That timeframe is much shorter than the amount of time most human beings would need to recuperate after playing 90 minutes, let alone a decent chance of overtime and PKs on Wednesday. FC Dallas needs to earmark a couple players as being capable of pulling off 180 minutes in that timespan, and Schellas Hyndman and staff will have to rotate the lineup quite aggressively to maximize performance and minimize the risk of injury. The club did this pretty well a couple weeks ago when FCD took on the Fort Lauderdale Strikers in USOC play and visited the Colorado Rapidsa few days later. The only players to play 180 minutes that week were George John, Michel, and Blas Perez, while Jair Benitez (178), Fabian Castillo (175), Matt Hedges (139) and David Ferreira (106) were the only other ones to play 100-plus minutes. That was with 95.5 hours of recovery time, though, which is a very different proposition from a 65-66 hour turnaround. We have to hope the trainers get a good reading for how well each of the players above withstood the extra workload before, so they can gauge who's capable of doing it on even shorter rest. So, it will be impossible for the club to use a first choice lineup twice. Which players are best suited to which match? It has to be noted that Raul Fernandez and Je-Vaughn Watson won't be available Wednesday because they will have played for their national teams the night before, and they don't have any more national team fixtures in the short term. If healthy, maybe they will be available on Saturday only. If Blas Perez recovers from his bout of Montezuma's revenge by then, he'll probably be preparing to play for Panama against Costa Rica next Tuesday. Also, Kellyn Acosta is already with the U20 World Cup team, so he won't be available in either match. Past those automatic issues, the biggest questions center on the real
-seeded squad in 2006 did. But they fell behind a surprising top dog in the West, as Columbus, a franchise with all of one postseason appearance in its 10-year history, grabbed the Presidents' Trophy with a 115-point outburst.Of course, having a top line with three of the top young players in the game doesn't hurt.The Blue Jackets boast one of the strongest trios in the League with homegrown talent Rick Nash playing on the wing with Jonathan Toews and Nathan Horton. Toews, with 91 points in our simulation, proved the main force behind our simulation's top team. True to real life, Toews' impact was felt both ways, as his plus-24 was the best rating among the League's top 20 scorers. Nash was not to be outdone, putting together an 84-point campaign with 39 goals, but the most underrated aspect of Columbus' powerhouse just might be goalie Tuukka Rask. While Rask has never had a full-time starting job in the real NHL, getting out from behind Tim Thomas seems to agree with him. Rask had one of the most complete seasons of any netminder in EA's simulation, winning 42 games and posting a 2.29 GAA.Right behind Columbus, the Oilers were a force to be reckoned with in their own right, as Crosby netted 51 goals to go along with his 70 assists. Many of those assists likely went to Crosby's linemate Dany Heatley, who had an impressive bounce-back season in our simulation with 91 points, tied with Toews and Nashville's Zach Parise for the fourth-most in the League.The West's playoff bracket had a decidedly Central flavor, as each team aside from Detroit finished in the top eight, with Chicago, led by an 84-point season from Ryan Kesler, and Nashville, which benefited from Parise's seamless return from a meniscus tear, each totaling 104 points. Los Angeles proved best in the Pacific, as St. Louis, Anaheim and Phoenix rounded out the conference's postseason field.Because our staffers had to work within the confines of the NHL salary cap, the Re-Draft provided an interesting exercise in how efficiently a team can use their money when given a completely blank slate to work with. If one thing is clear, it's that you won't succeed without doling out some cash.The lowest total salary to make the postseason in our simulation belonged to the Montreal Canadiens, who were the fifth seed in the East in using up a Moneyball-esque $55.349 million of the cap. The sixth-seeded St. Louis Blues were the only other team to make the playoffs with a payroll below $56 million.In fact, the top teams in each conference were all big spenders, as three of the top four teams in the West played chicken with the 2011-12 NHL salary cap of $64.3 million, while all of the top four teams in the East spent more than $59 million. The Predators win the award for coming closest to the League's upper spending limit, squeezing just under the cap with a League-high payroll of $64.276 million, but they did get tie for the third most points in the West for their trouble.The average payroll of all 16 playoff teams came in at a robust $59.343 million, nearly $2 million more than the average payroll of $57.344 million of teams that didn't make their respective top eights.It should be noted that money doesn't necessarily buy everything. The second and third highest payrolls in our simulation belong to the Wild and Rangers, respectively. Minnesota finished ninth in the West while the Rangers, despite an offensive machine in Joe Thornton on the top line, Jaromir Jagr's return to the Blueshirts and three very solid defensemen in Mark Streit Kimmo Timonen and Victor Hedman, finished a very surprising 30th out of 30 teams across the simulation, compiling just 64 points during the season.Even if money isn't guaranteed to buy you a playoff berth, though the evidence suggests it certainly helps, we can determine that not spending money is highly unlikely to work in your favor. For a hint of how a tight budget can impact your team, look no further than the exercise in austerity undertaken by the San Jose Sharks and Calgary Flames, who stayed in a near embrace of the League's 2011-12 salary cap floor of $48.3 million with payrolls of $51.904 million and $49.187 million respectively. The two totals were by far the lowest in our simulation, with the next lowest, the $54.545 million Colorado Avalanche, nearly $3 million higher than San Jose. For their thriftiness, the Sharks and Flames ended up with the two worst records in the Western Conference.All the regular season results aside, hockey season isn't complete until the playoffs happen, and now that the NHL Re-Draft has been boiled down from 30 teams to 16, the fun can really begin.Can Columbus make good on its Presidents' Trophy and bring the Stanley Cup to the Buckeye State for the first time? Can Edmonton bring the chalice back to Alberta for the first time in 21 years? Do Phoenix and Philadelphia have upsets up their sleeves? There are plenty of questions to be answered and a Cup to be hoisted. On Wednesday, NHL.com will have the final results of EA SPORTS' simulation of the NHL.com Re-Draft's Stanley Cup Playoffs.Image copyright AFP Japanese shares have continued their slide, falling almost 7% in two days and entering bear market territory. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 dropped sharply by another 2.3% to close at 15,713.39, adding to Tuesday's 5.4% tumble. The index has lost more than 20% since mid-2015, meaning that it entered a bear market as investors lost their confidence. Latest concerns have been fuelled by a strengthening of the yen, which is expected to hurt exports. The worry is that the currency is seen as a safe haven in an insecure regional economic context. If the yen keeps appreciating, it could hurt companies' international competitiveness and cut into the export sector's profits. Andrew Walker, World Service economics correspondent Once again the financial sector took the full force of the storms in Tokyo. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial has lost 15% this week and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial is down 13%. It's certainly true that the recent growing unease about the global economic outlook and the consequent financial market turbulence does have the potential to affect the banks more than many other sectors. But has the sell-off in financial stocks been overdone? Judging by the performance of the European markets so far on Wednesday, some investors do seem to think so. Deutsche Bank, the focus of European anxiety managed to gain more than 10%, but then it is still down a lot from the New Year. It leaves us with a great deal of uncomfortable uncertainty about where the financial world is heading. What we can say for sure is that the clouds that gathered during the financial crisis are still with us. Over the past few days, the yen has been rising against the US dollar, despite the Bank of Japan's recent introduction of negative interest rates. Japan's lenders were amongst the hardest hit as the negative rates are expected to squeeze their already tight profit margins. The banks Sumitomo and Nomura lost 4% and 3.5% respectively, while Mitsubishi bank tumbled 7%. "Asian markets have fallen once again, although without quite the same ferocity we saw in yesterday's bloodbath and there is some buying coming back into the equity markets," Chris Weston of IG markets said in a note. Commodities weigh down Australia In Australia, the ASX 200 lost 1.2% to close at 4,775.70 points, adding to the 2.8% decline of the previous day. Shares continued to be weighed down by the dominant energy sector. Bellwether stocks BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto were down by 2.5% and 1.2% respectively as concerns about lower global commodity prices continued to affect the market. Banking stocks were equally hard hit, with NAB, ANZ and Westpac all seeing significant falls. Image copyright AFP Image caption CBA was the only lender with slight gains The only lender of the big four to beat that trend was the Commonwealth Bank, which posted half-year results just before the market opened. The bank posted a 4% gain in cash profit, although revenues slipped and loan impairment expenses increased. Shares picked up and rose by 1.8%, a moderate gain given that the bank's shares have dropped more than 15% since the beginning of the year. Markets in Hong Kong, China and South Korea remained closed for the Lunar New Year holidays.USAA touches off Twitter firestorm after yanking Hannity ads A tweet targets S.A.-based USAA for canceling advertising on the conservative Sean Hannity Fox News show. The company is getting blowback from conservatives on social media over its decision to yank advertising from the show this week. Hundreds of people have taken to social media to express their displeasure with the decision and some are calling for a boycott. less A tweet targets S.A.-based USAA for canceling advertising on the conservative Sean Hannity Fox News show. The company is getting blowback from conservatives on social media over its decision to yank advertising... more Photo: Courtesy Image Photo: Courtesy Image Image 1 of / 13 Caption Close USAA touches off Twitter firestorm after yanking Hannity ads 1 / 13 Back to Gallery San Antonio-based USAA touched off a firestorm on Twitter and Facebook this week after the financial services company was named on a list of TV host Sean Hannity’s advertisers and then, under public pressure, decided to pull its ads. USAA and other companies were criticized after Media Matters for America, a left-leaning media watchdog group, released a list of advertisers with the conservative Fox News talk show host. But USAA’s Twitter feeds exploded after the company told followers Wednesday night that it would no longer advertise on the show. Hannity supporters are now calling on customers to drop USAA, using the hashtag #BoycottUSAA on Twitter to express their displeasure. The company was founded by a group of Army officers in 1922 and serves about 12 million members across the world. The controversy started after USAA responded to a request on Twitter to stop advertising on Hannity’s show from @kathydettmer at 5:14 p.m. Central time Wednesday: “Thanks for sharing your concern Kathy. Advertising on opinion shows is not in accordance with our policy and we’ve since corrected it.” USAA was among a handful of companies that pulled its advertising from Hannity’s program after he was criticized for promoting a widely discredited theory over the murder of a former Democratic National Committee staffer. That unleashed a torrent of anger from Hannity supporters and some USAA members on the company’s customer service and official Twitter accounts, @USAA_help and @USAA, as well as on its Facebook page. “USAA betrayed @seanhannity @POTUS #Trump supporters and #veterans Please Google ‘review websites’ & then leave reviews! #BoycottUSAA #MAGA,” @Lazulu_OFFICIAL tweeted, referencing President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan Make America Great Again. “Does @USAA_help @USAA care about your opinion when they're taking your money? I think not. It's a stupid business decision to get political,” wrote @JamesKentjr on Twitter Friday morning. Conservative political commentator Laura Ingraham tweeted her support for Hannity to her 1.47 million followers: “The @USAA dropping @hannity is shameful--esp after all he has done for our troops. #IStandWithHannity.” On Facebook, USAA member Kevin Siffermann posted a video of himself cutting up a USAA Visa credit card with a pair of scissors. “Bye, bye, USAA,” he said in the video. He said he called USAA and was told it had to hire outside help to field all the complaints it’s been getting. USAA spokesman Roger Wildermuth on Thursday said the company didn’t pull ads because of outside pressure relating to the criticism. “It is our policy to not advertise on any opinion-based programming,” Wildermuth said in an email, reiterating the company’s tweets. “There was an error which led to our ads running during some opinion-based programs, and as soon as that was discovered, the error was corrected.” Whether USAA has pulled ads from other opinion-based shows couldn’t immediately be determined. Wildermuth did not have new comments on Friday. Brent Bozell, president of Media Research Center, a right-leaning media watchdog group, blasted USAA as “dishonest” and their spokesmen as “terrible liars” on Thursday because it is still advertising on MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews on Thursday. “We have several other examples of USAA advertising on left-wing shows that would clearly violate their stated ‘policy,’” Bozell said in a statement. “USAA's customers — so many of them veterans who have no greater champion than Sean Hannity — have every right to be outraged. USAA owes them specifically, and the public at large an explanation. This duplicity is obnoxious and shameful.” Other companies that stopped advertising with Hannity were automotive classified site Cars.com; mattress maker Leesa Sleep; the exercise company Peloton; and Crowne Plaza Hotels, according to media reports. pdanner@express-news.netStory highlights Discovery of a large field of unusual circular mounds announced Friday Unique-looking structures are created by a green algae, scientists say JUST WATCHED See the Great Barrier Reef from a turtle's-eye view Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH See the Great Barrier Reef from a turtle's-eye view 01:36 (CNN) Australia's famed Great Barrier Reef may be in trouble -- but it's not all bad news coming out of the region. Scientists have discovered a large doughnut-shaped coral reef in northern Queensland, sitting behind the iconic Great Barrier Reef. The discovery of a large field of unusual circular mounds was announced Friday by a group of scientists from James Cook University, University of Sydney and Queensland University of Technology, who worked with laser data from the Australian Royal Navy. Mardi McNeil from Queensland University of Technology and lead author on the new research paper called the discovery "vast." "We've now mapped over 6,000 square kilometers (about 2,300 square miles)," McNeil said. "That's three times the previously estimated size, spanning from the Torres Strait to just north of Port Douglas."As the quartet of Amway Canadian Championship participants prepare for the second leg of the tournament’s semifinals this week, planning is already underway to include a fifth team next year with a vision for perhaps even more in the future. Speaking with MLSsoccer.com late last week, Canadian Soccer Association president Victor Montagliani said he likes the tournament’s current format, but that its two NASL teams – FC Edmonton and 2014 expansion debutants Ottawa Fury – will likely play against one another next year to determine which team reaches the tournament semifinals with Major League Soccer clubs Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. “What’s going to happen is the format will still be the home-and-away like we have now,” Montagliani said. “We’ll have a playoff between the NASL teams in terms of playing off for that spot. It hasn’t all been formalized but that’s sort of what we’re looking at for next year.” READ: Whitecaps top NASL side FC Edmonton in first leg of ACC semis Beyond 2014, Montagliani says plans are already in the works to see how the tournament can grow even more in the coming years. With the CSA looking build the country’s semi-pro third-division infrastructure with regional leagues, the plan is to eventually include those clubs into the tournament. Financial constraints are naturally an obstacle for teams that aren’t in the professional ranks, but Montagliani still thinks it's possible. “I think what you’re going to see with the increase of professional clubs in Canada over the next few years, even with our semi-pro leagues that are in their infancy in some of our regions,” he said, “we’re going to see some changes. Probably not in the next one or two, but definitely in the next five years, you’re going to see some increase in terms of the number of teams involved in the competition.” READ: All you need to know about the 2013 Canadian Championship Montreal will host Toronto in the second leg of their semifinal series on Wednesday night (7:30 pm ET, Sportsnet in Canada), while Vancouver host Edmonton (10 pm ET, Sportsnet in Canada). Toronto FC have won the tournament each of the past four years.As mentioned on the simple-talk blog, Microsoft recently acquired Revolution Analytics, a leading commercial provider of software and services for the open source R programming language. IT Professionals are now more likely to encounter R as it is integrated into Microsoft’s platforms and is used in conjunction with other software. Microsoft’s interest reflects that of the wider technology community where R has been growing in popularity in recent years. Oracle has contributed R packages and provides Oracle R Enterprise as a component of the Oracle Advanced Analytics Option of their database. Commercial support by large corporation demonstrates that R, though open source, provides significant commercial value. Scientists and academicians who have historically used the language have long recognized this and continue to comprise a significant number of R users. Why R? R has its origins in the S programming language created in the 1970’s. S was originally intended to simply be an interactive interface to well-used Fortran routines at Bell Labs. R was created as an open-source alternative in the 1990s. Since then R has been used by scientists, statisticians and more recently data scientists as a convenient environment for interactive exploratory data analysis. But R is not limited to interactive sessions. Because it is a programming language, entire scripts can be created and packaged as libraries. Scripted solutions provide more consistent and reliable results than workflows that require a great deal of manual interaction with a graphical user interface. R has attracted a user base unlike many other general purpose programming languages. Many users of R are technically savvy but not from a traditional computer science or programming background. But those who work with R regularly often find themselves delving into programming to customize solutions to the problems they are pursuing. This historical background explains how R has garnered a loyal community over the years, but does not demonstrate that it has any practical value or relevance today. And yet, R continues to be popular, and even is being adopted in settings where it was not previously used. Why would anyone choose R over a popular general-purpose programming language? In fairness, R is often not considered a general-purpose programming language. It tends to be compared with specialized statistical products such as SAS, SPSS and Stata. It is frequently discussed when considering data manipulation using Excel spreadsheets or a relational database like SQL server. R is best used to manipulate moderately sized datasets, do statistical analysis and produce data-centric documents and presentations. It addresses a relatively specific niche, and there is no comparable technology that exhaustively covers the range of functionality available through R. R’s popularity is largely due to its interactive nature, its expressiveness, and the extensive collection of third-party libraries created for it. These qualities together differentiate it from other popular programming languages and data analysis tools that are available today. Installing R R is distributed under a GNU General Public license as a Windows-style installer and is designed to be as close as possible to the same version on other platforms. It is a 54 Mb download from the CRAN (Comprehensive R Archive Network) site and will run on all current Windows operating systems. The distribution includes a text-based command-line version, R.exe, RScript.exe that is designed to be used in scripts and CMD batch files, and RGui.EXE, which provides both a command interface and a GUI. The R package can also be downloaded via Chocolatey (choco install r.project). R is best used in conjunction with the RStudio Integrated Development Environment (IDE). The Desktop version is freely available for download from RStudio.com. To replicate the examples presented later in this article, two packages (ggplot2 and dply) must be installed. These can be installed using function calls within R, or by clicking the Packages tab and choosing to install each package using RStudio. The syntax to install the packages using function calls is as follows: 1 2 install. packages ( " dplyr " ) install. packages ( " ggplot2 " ) This makes the packages available for use, but they need to be referenced within a script which will use them. These packages will be loaded into R when they are required in the examples below. Also note, R packages can contain not only code, but also other resources like documentation and sample data sets. The data sets referenced below are found in these two packages. R’s Interactive Nature Individual R expressions can be entered at a command line interpreter and an immediate response is produced. 1 2 mean ( c ( 9, 7, 3, 1 ) ) [ 1 ] 5 This example includes two function calls. The c() function combines its arguments into an R vector which is like an array in other programming languages. A vector contains variables of the same type, and casts all of its arguments automatically to the lowest common data type available to the arguments provided. The mean() function returns the arithmetic mean of the values in this vector which in this case is 5. This illustration hints at why R is so popular among professionals who are looking for immediate results to calculations. With a single line of code, and a minimal number of characters, a calculation can be done. No special commands are required to compile or run a program to produce a result. Calculating a mean is a trivial example, but R has built in capabilities that cover a wide range of mathematical and statistical functions. These are not available using SQL and are cumbersome if available at all in other general purpose programming languages. Recall that R includes a number of datasets within its packages. A list of data sets in the ggplot2 package can be displayed by calling the data function. 1 data ( package = 'ggplot2' ) One of the data sets available is named mpg and contains fuel economy data for 38 models of car. You can load the ggplot2 package to make this data available within your R session and view the first few rows using the head command. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 library ( ggplot2 ) head ( mpg ) manufacturer model displ year cyl trans drv cty hwy fl class 1 audi a4 1.8 1999 4 auto ( l5 ) f 18 29 p compact 2 audi a4 1.8 1999 4 manual ( m5 ) f 21 29 p compact 3 audi a4 2.0 2008 4 manual ( m6 ) f 20 31 p compact 4 audi a4 2.0 2008 4 auto ( av ) f 21 30 p compact 5 audi a4 2.8 1999 6 auto ( l5 ) f 16 26 p compact 6 audi a4 2.8 1999 6 manual ( m5 ) f 18 26 p compact Suppose you wanted to perform a linear regression to determine the effect of engine displacement on gas mileage. A simple plot of the data using R base graphics results can be performed in a single line of code, specifying the x and y columns as the arguments. 1 plot ( mpg $ displ, mpg $ hwy ) Again, R’s interactive nature comes to the fore. Immediately a plot of the data is displayed. A linear model can be fit and a summary generated in two lines of code. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 fit < - lm ( hwy ~ displ, mpg ) summary ( fit ) Call : lm ( formula = hwy ~ displ, data = mpg ) Residuals : Min 1Q Median 3Q Max - 7.1039 - 2.1646 - 0.2242 2.0589 15.0105 Coefficients : Estimate Std. Error t value Pr ( > \| t \| ) ( Intercept ) 35.6977 0.7204 49.55 < 2e - 16 * * * displ - 3.5306 0.1945 - 18.15 < 2e - 16 * * * --- Signif. codes : 0 '*' 0.001 '' 0.01 '*' 0.05 '.' 0.1'' 1 Residual standard error : 3.836 on 232 degrees of freedom Multiple R - squared : 0.5868, Adjusted R - squared : 0.585 F - statistic : 329.5 on 1 and 232 DF, p - value : < 2.2e - 16 Even if you are not interested in this degree of statistical detail, the plot generated earlier can use this model to fit a regression line expressing the trend in the data. 1 abline ( fit, col ='red', lwd = 5 ) In R, there is often more than one way to perform the same task. Using the ggplot2 package graphics, the plot above can be created with different styling. The geom_smooth method does the linear regression calculation internally, so this listing is not dependent on the previous one. 1 2 3 4 library ( ggplot2 ) ggplot ( mpg, aes ( displ, hwy ) ) + geom_point ( ) + stat_smooth ( method = " lm " ) The interactivity of R is greatly increased when used in conjunction with the R Studio IDE. RStudio makes working with R easier by providing shortcut keys, code completion, window management, and graphical interactions that can be used instead of complex function calls. The following example shows how to create a histogram with a color gradient in only four lines of code. This example presumes the previous installation of the ggplot2 library to provide both the graphic capabilities and the data used to render the plot. The plot generated is a histogram which indicates the number of ratings that appear in the data set. Very few are at zero or 10, while the majority of the ratings center around the mean of 5.9. There are a larger number of values close to the mean, which appears in red, while the color gradually fades towards green at the lower and upper ends of the range where there are fewer ratings. 1 2 3 4 5 library ( ggplot2 ) ggplot ( movies, aes ( x = rating ) ) + geom_histogram ( aes ( fill =.. count.. ) ) + scale_fill_gradient ( " Count ", low = " green ", high = " red " ) RStudio can also be used to easily create HTML or PDF documents, and HTML based presentations from templates. It simplifies common processes like exporting images and importing and exporting data files. It provides visibility to a great deal of information about the R environment and the commands run interactively during a session. In short, RStudio further enhances the existing strength of R as an interactive environment for statistical analysis. It also enhances R’s ability to easily express complex concepts using simple expressions or interactions. Using R in Batches R is not limited to interactive execution. Scripts that involve a series of function calls can also be executed. Such scripts are saved with a “.R” extension by convention. The image shown above in RStudio can be generated by creating a script named movies.R with the following content. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 library ( ggplot2 ) ggplot ( movies, aes ( x = rating ) ) + geom_histogram ( aes ( fill =.. count.. ) ) + scale_fill_gradient ( " Count ", low = " green ", high = " red " ) ggsave ('movies.png' ) The one addition to the previous listing is a call to ggsave to save the image in a file named movies.png. The image is created by invoking the script using RScript (OSX) or RScript.exe (Windows). Note that depending upon your environment, you may need to specify the path to the RScript executable. 1 Rscript. exe movies. R R’s Expressiveness The code snippet shown earlier also suggests something about R’s expressiveness. 1 2 mean ( c ( 9, 7, 3, 1 ) ) [ 1 ] 5 The notation is close to standard mathematical notation. There is very little extraneous syntax related to the design of the language. This example also demonstrates why R is so frustrating to many professional programmers. The function name c() is short and not descriptive. The result is displayed beside a [1] because the result is also a vector of length one and the 1 indicates the index of the value being displayed. R has no notion of independent primitive values. An individual value is a single element contained within a vector. The data types in use are significant, but not explicitly called out as in statically typed languages. Data type conversions occur automatically. This can be incredibly useful, but also confusing. In the following example, TRUE evaluates to 1, and both integers and decimals are included. 1 2 mean ( c ( 9.0, 7, 3, TRUE ) ) [ 1 ] 5 These idiosyncrasies aside, R does “what you want” in many cases, particularly if the user is reasonably disciplined about writing clear code. Besides, R is often used in an interactive manner that involves crosschecking that helps to identify problematic code. In addition, third-party libraries can hide many low level details of the language from the average user. The dplyr library utilizes an operator (%>%) to stream the results of one function to the next in a manner like UNIX piping. In the following example, the movies dataset is filtered to select only animation movies longer than 120 minutes that were released in 2004. The title and rating of these movies is displayed. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 library ( dplyr ) movies % > % filter ( year == 2004 & Animation == 1 & length > 120 ) % > % select ( title, rating ) title rating 1 Incredibles, The 8.3 2 Steamboy 6.6 In this example, movies is a data frame in the local environment containing rows and columns. The syntax used by dplyr maps to concepts in SQL. In fact, dplyr can also be used in close conjunction with relational databases like SQLServer. When used in this manner, dplyr generates SQL behind the scenes to interact with the database. R’s Extensive Collection of Third-Party Libraries At the time of writing this article, R has over 6,000 packages that are freely available from CRAN (the Comprehensive R Archive Network) and numerous other packages and scripts can be found at Bioconductor and GitHub. These packages often provide simple APIs that function as Domain Specific Languages for experts working in a given field. Because of R’s flexibility, and the nature of the language these packages can be challengingly diverse and inconsistent. Fortunately, largely because of the work of a few individuals, many packages are becoming more consistent in their structure and function. Hadley Wickham has created a number of popular packages related to data manipulation, plotting and the creation of R packages. The dplyr and ggplot2 libraries introduced earlier are among his best-known creations. In addition, the reshape, stringr and lubridate packages are extremely useful for standard data manipulation and processing of data frames. Most R users have a favorite group of packages that are geared towards their particular workflow and requirements. Though not part of the core language, they are inseparable from the language’s success. Conclusion R is a quirky yet powerful language and statistical environment that is making inroads in settings where increasingly sophisticated data processing is being performed. Simple tasks can be performed using a function call or two, yet R also provides the tools to allow statisticians and scientists with stringent mathematical and data processing needs. R will continue to grow in popularity among IT professionals as long as there is a need to reliably and efficiently produce business information from an ever increasing deluge of data.In a statement by the Texas Sports Information Department, Texas Longhorn standout wide receiver and track star Marquise Goodwin has announced a return to the football team. "When Marquise talked to me and our coaches about coming back and playing this year we were 100 percent in support if that was what he wanted to do," Brown said. "He had decided earlier to redshirt and focus on track and field, and we backed himthen just as we are now. He’s a tremendous young man who is blessed with a lot of ability in both football and track and field. Marquise has had great success in both sports and will continue to, but at the end of the day, what I heard from him was that he really missed football and wanted to play this year. We want what’s best for him and know he’s in great shape, is a fast learner and can help us, so we’re glad to have him back." "I really appreciate coach Brown, (men's track and field head) coach (Bubba) Thornton and all of my coaches for being so supportive of me through all of this," Goodwin said. "They stood behind me when I decided to redshirt and couldn’t have been more understanding and agreeable when I wanted to come back. It’s a wonderful feeling knowing that you have those kinds of people — my family here at UT — believing in and standing behind you." Goodwin is expected to add a lot of experience to the youthful wide receiver corps as well as special teams.©2011, HD, COLOUR, 54 MINS The Tea Party movement has taken American politics by storm. But is this truly a populist uprising or one of the greatest feats of propaganda ever seen? Seeking to find out, Australian filmmaker Taki Oldham embeds himself in the Tea Party uprising. From men sporting tri-corner hats in Louisville Kentucky (the movement takes name from a key event in the American revolution) to 100,000 placard waving patriots in Washington D.C. ‘taking our country back’ from Obama’s ‘communist’ regime. But who are generals of this army? Enter brothers Charles and David Koch. Oilmen, billionaires 20 times over and on a mission to create a privatized America. For three decades they’ve unwritten a propaganda war, funding fake grassroots groups (branded ‘astroturf’ by opponents) to dupe citizens into protesting on behalf of some of Americas most powerful people and corporations. As Taki infiltrates one such group, Americans For Prosperity, he captures David Koch beaming as operatives report running Tea Party events all over the country. Weaving together commentary from propaganda experts and political insiders with unprecedented footage, The Billionaires’ Tea Party follows astroturf groups Americans For Prosperity and Freedomworks coopting the movement from day one. As the Koch’s extreme vision of free market capitalism is woven into that cherished American spirit of individual freedom, the patriotic Tea Partiers are guided to oppose key elements of the Obama agenda. Witness hysterical scenes as a proposed Health Care bill is reframed as Soviet style ‘socialised medicine’. Follow industry-funded spin doctors and scientists dismissing Obama’s climate bill a liberal conspiracy to control peoples lives and destroy the economy. See the cosy relationship between Koch operatives and Fox News. Come undercover as Tea Partiers are indoctrinated into equating their own interests with those of corporate America. Finally, see the stunning culmination at the 2010 elections as fully 1/3 of those elected are Tea Party endorsed candidates out to make the Koch’s dream a reality. With America now facing a new era of budget-slashing union-busting politics, The Billionaires’ Tea Party is both a journey through a unique moment in American history and chilling portent of the corporate takeover of democracy. Key Credits: Filmed, Directed, Edited & Produced by Taki Oldham.With the offseason underway for a number of teams, and the rest to join them in a few weeks, we're looking at what's in store for each club in the coming months. 2016-17 Grade: F Calling the Buffalo Sabres' season anything but an utter disappointment would be too generous. It's not that they were expected to take a gigantic leap forward in a single campaign, it's that they took a step backward despite adding Kyle Okposo in free agency and Dmitry Kulikov via trade, seeing Rasmus Ristolainen develop into a durable, productive defenseman, and having a healthy Robin Lehner for the majority of the season. Jack Eichel missed the first six weeks of 2016-17 with an injury, during which time the Sabres struggled and never recovered. He ranked 10th in the NHL in points within the four-plus months after he returned, but the rest of the team couldn't keep the club afloat in his absence and didn't do enough to complement him when he came back. (Photo courtesy: Action Images) Evander Kane put his off-ice issues behind him, leading Buffalo with 28 goals, and it was Eichel who generated the most controversy away from the rink, reportedly presenting the Sabres with an ultimatum whereby his desire to sign an extension supposedly hinged on the dismissal of head coach Dan Bylsma. Bylsma and general manager Tim Murray were fired the next day, about three weeks before Jason Botterill was given the GM duties. Eichel's injury undoubtedly impacted the offense, but a Sabres club loaded with talent up front (including Eichel, Kane, Okposo, Ryan O'Reilly, and Sam Reinhart) tied for sixth-worst in the NHL with only 2.43 goals per game. The Sabres did produce with the man advantage, boasting the most effective power play in the NHL during the regular season, but they offset that with the sixth-worst penalty kill. It was a flawed, top-heavy roster that wasn't utilized properly, and Buffalo ultimately failed to meet the reasonable expectations of contending for a playoff spot. Free agents The Sabres have more than a few decisions to make on their roster for next season, but the club's core will be largely unaffected. Player (Position) 2017-18 Status Age '16-'17 Cap Hit ($M) '16-'17 Points Dmitry Kulikov (D) UFA 26 4.333 5 Brian Gionta (F) UFA 38 4.25 35 Cody Franson (D) UFA 29 3.325 19 Marcus Foligno (F) RFA 25 2.25 23 Zemgus Girgensons (F) RFA 23 1.15 16 Johan Larsson (F) RFA 24 0.95 11 Taylor Fedun (D) UFA 28 0.
weird that people equate nudity with sex.” And so far there have been very few mishaps with the nudity on the farm. Colin explains: “There are a few things you simply can’t do naked – like crop spraying as you need to wear protective clothing. "And obviously if I’m in an area with lots of nettles and thistles then it makes sense to wear clothes. “But otherwise I don’t see the harm in it. The farm is tucked away so it’s not as if I’m going to offend anyone. "We’ve had a couple of funny incidents though, when naturist friends were staying and we went for a walk and decided to sunbathe in the field. "I looked up and saw the cows wanted to come and see what we were doing, and then they sort of charged across the field to have a better look. "My friends were a bit wary, but I stood up and they stopped, and then just stood and watched us! “On another occasion a cyclist was watching me so intently from the road while I was doing the combine harvesting in the nude that he nearly fell off.” To read more of this story pick up Closer mag, out today.Newswise — BOSTON (July 24, 2012, 5:00PM EST)—A study, performed in mice and utilizing post-mortem samples of brains from patients with Alzheimer’s disease, found that a single event of a moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) can disrupt proteins that regulate an enzyme associated with Alzheimer’s. The paper, published in The Journal of Neuroscience, identifies the complex mechanisms that result in a rapid and robust post-injury elevation of the enzyme, BACE1, in the brain. These results may lead to the development of a drug treatment that targets this mechanism to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. “A moderate-to-severe TBI, or head trauma, is one of the strongest environmental risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease. A serious TBI can lead to a dysfunction in the regulation of the enzyme BACE1. Elevations of this enzyme cause elevated levels of amyloid-beta, the key component of brain plaques associated with senility and Alzheimer’s disease,” said first author Kendall Walker, PhD, postdoctoral associate in the department of neuroscience at Tufts University School of Medicine (TUSM). Building on her previous work, neuroscientist Giuseppina Tesco, MD, PhD, of Tufts University School of Medicine (TUSM), led a research team that first used an in vivo model to determine how a single episode of TBI could alter the brain. In the acute phase (first two days) following injury, levels of two intracellular trafficking proteins (GGA1 and GGA3) were reduced, and an elevation of BACE1 enzyme level was observed. Next, in an analysis of post-mortem brain samples from patients with Alzheimer’s disease, the researchers found that GGA1 and GGA3 levels were reduced while BACE1 levels were elevated in the brains of Alzheimer’s disease patients compared to the brains of people without Alzheimer’s disease, suggesting a possible inverse association. In an additional experiment using a mouse strain genetically modified to express the reduced level of GGA3 that was observed in the brains of Alzheimer’s disease patients, the team found that one week following traumatic brain injury, BACE1 and amyloid-beta levels remained elevated even when GGA1 levels had returned to normal. The research suggests that reduced levels of GGA3 were solely responsible for the increase in BACE 1 levels and therefore the sustained amyloid-beta production observed in the sub-acute phase, or seven days, after injury. “When the proteins are at normal levels, they work as a clean-up crew for the brain by regulating the removal of BACE1 enzymes and facilitating their transport to lysosomes within brain cells, an area of the cell that breaks down and removes excess cellular material. BACE1 enzyme levels may be stabilized when levels of the two proteins are low, likely caused by an interruption in the natural disposal process of the enzyme,” said Tesco, assistant professor of neuroscience at Tufts School of Medicine and member of the neuroscience program faculty at the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts. “We found that GGA1 and GGA3 act synergistically to regulate BACE1 post-injury. The identification of this interaction may provide a drug target to therapeutically regulate the BACE1 enzyme and reduce the deposition of amyloid-beta in Alzheimer’s patients,” she continued. “Our next steps are to confirm these findings in post-mortem brain samples from patients with moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injuries.” Moderate-to-severe TBIs are caused most often by traumas, such as severe falls or motor vehicle accidents, that result in a loss of consciousness. Not all traumas to the head result in a TBI. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, each year 1.7 million people sustain a TBI. Concussions, the mildest form of a TBI, account for about 75% of all TBIs. Studies have linked repeated head trauma to brain disease and some previous studies have linked single events of brain trauma to brain disease, such as Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s disease currently affects as many as 5.1 million Americans and is the most common cause of dementia in adults age 65 and over. Additional authors on the study are Eugene Kang, MPH, research assistant in the department of neuroscience at TUSM; Michael Whalen, MD, PhD, Neuroscience Center and department of pediatrics at Massachusetts General Hospital and associate professor at Harvard Medical School; and Yong Shen, MD, PhD, of the Center for Advanced Therapeutic Strategies for Brain Disorders at Roskamp Institute. This study was supported by grants from the National Institute on Aging (#AG033016 and #AG025952), part of the National Institutes of Health; and a grant from the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund. Walker KR, Kang EL, Whalen MJ, Shen Y, Tesco G. The Journal of Neuroscience. “Depletion of GGA1 and GGA3 mediates post-injury elevation of BACE1.” Published online July 25, 2012, DOI: 0.1523/JNEUROSCI.5491-11.2012 About Tufts University School of Medicine and the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical SciencesTufts University School of Medicine and the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts University are international leaders in innovative medical education and advanced research. The School of Medicine and the Sackler School are renowned for excellence in education in general medicine, biomedical sciences, special combined degree programs in business, health management, public health, bioengineering and international relations, as well as basic and clinical research at the cellular and molecular level. Ranked among the top in the nation, the School of Medicine is affiliated with six major teaching hospitals and more than 30 health care facilities. Tufts University School of Medicine and the Sackler School undertake research that is consistently rated among the highest in the nation for its effect on the advancement of medical science.Test Prep for Schools Our Shared Goal: Higher Test Scores on the Math PSAT/SATACT The goal of ShillerMath’s Test Prep is to deliver significantly higher scores on the math portion of the PSAT/SAT/ACT. How? Through our research we discovered that the main reason students get questions wrong is NOT that they don’t know the content: It’s that they: Misread the question or possible answers Felt rushed Were overconfident Misapplied the content Something else Not knowing the content was responsible for fewer than 25% of wrong answers: Focusing just on content will not help most students. So when students get stuck we help them discover, understand, – and fix – the real reason. We Measure and Synthesize We measure everything about how the student interacts with the app. We are able to determine if students are: Overconfident Guessing Not challenging themselves Giving up when they run into difficulty We Communicate We tell the students exactly what we’ve observed – and what they may do to approach questions better. Of course if the reason is lack of content knowledge we help them understand it – both within the app and by referring to external resources. This approach has resulted in an average math SAT score increase of 107 points. The Importance of the Teacher Learning is hard: When learning something new, students often struggle. Many students need help getting over their negative emotions to reach their goal. Without a trained teacher these students often give up. With a trained teacher students work through those negative emotions and experience new epiphanies and the joy of learning. Ascertain reality, including their thoughts and feelings Respond constructively to negative emotions Press pause Use tight logical thinking Ask for help That’s why teachers are so important. Teachers help students to: Teachers do this using the Socratic Method: Asking questions until students understand the real reasons for not getting correct answers. Teacher Training Because the teaching component is critical to the success of the program, we provide teacher training, on site if possible. Through September 2016 this training is included as part of the school’s site license. How the Course Works We recommend finding an existing class where students can spend 30-45 minutes per week online in a classroom environment. Any device is OK: Desktop, laptop, tablet, or smart phone. A course length of anywhere from 6 to 12 weeks is effective: Most students start to become self-aware of how they learn as early as the second class. Three forms of online help are included in the app: Hints Q&A History Tutor Help (provided by the teacher or ShillerMath tutors) Students are encouraged to use whatever other resources they can find, including: Asking other students or the teacher for help Googling Khan Academy or other instructional videos Regular feedback is provided to students via email, with suggestions on how to learn more effectively and efficiently. Many students have told us that this course helped them in all aspects of their schooling and even their home life. How to Implement at Your School Please contact Serenity Enriquez serenity.enriquez@shillermath.com 203-210-5208.Mamadou Sakho has not featured for Liverpool this season Jurgen Klopp says he will "address the situation" surrounding Mamadou Sakho following the Liverpool defender's outburst on social media. The 26-year-old, who has been frozen out of the Liverpool squad since being sent home early from the club's pre-season tour of the United States, is yet to make a first-team appearance this season. Sakho was sent home early from Liverpool's pre-season tour of the United States Sakho rejected a move to Stoke before the close of the summer transfer window, despite Klopp suggesting a move away from Anfield would be the best solution for the France international. Prior to Liverpool's 5-1 home victory over Hull on Saturday, Sakho took to Snapchat to speak of his disappointment at his current situation at the club and claimed he had been fully fit for three weeks after recovering from a heel injury. When asked about Sakho's conduct, Klopp said: "The thing is I was kind of confronted with this, somebody told me this morning there was something I should know about. Actually on a match day I'm really in a completely wrong mood to think about things like this. "I know something was on the thing that neither of us use [Snapchat]. "But it's not the right moment to speak about it. Most of the times in life it makes sense to think about something and then it's more likely that you give the right answer. "It's not positive I would say. I will address the situation when I think it's the right moment. I haven't decided when that is yet. But it's not Christmas." Highlights: Liverpool 5-1 Hull Highlights: Liverpool 5-1 Hull However, Klopp did reserve special praise for left-back Alberto Moreno, who has not started a league match since the opening day of the season and was an unused substitute in the win over Hull. "To be honest, one of the best players in training in the last few weeks has been Alberto Moreno," Klopp added. "He took the situation [being dropped] brilliantly and is in a really good moment."A Texas community college professor in San Antonio arrived at class on the first day of a new law allowing concealed carry of handguns wearing protective body armor. San Antonio College Professor Charles K. Smith, a physical geography teacher, expressed his displeasure about Texas’ new campus carry law that went into effect for community colleges on August 1 by wearing a bulletproof vest and combat helmet, Guns magazine reported. Governor Greg Abbott signed two pro-gun bills into law in June 2015, Breitbart Texas reported. The first allowed for open carry of handguns by licensed citizens. The second bill provided for concealed carry of handguns by licensed citizens on college campuses. The open carry went into effect for public four-year colleges and universities on August 1, 2016, and for community colleges a year later. The professor apparently believes he is in more danger from a student who has passed a handgun safety class and a criminal background check than from people illegally carrying guns. “I realize students were carrying guns on campus illegally, but now it’s legal to do so,” Smith expressed to a San Antonio reporter. “It increases the chances of something happening.” Smith has a ranking of 3.4 out of five at ratemyprofessor.com where one alleged student rated him as a one and wrote, “Horrible individual. He apparently feels so unsafe around his students that he feels the need to wear bullet proof garb to protect him from the new campus carry laws. Dont (sic) take him if you respect your rights as an American. Cuz he obviously doesnt (sic).” Others said his class is boring while others said it is “easy” because of how he tests. A Facebook post by Hot Mustard garnered more than 1,100 shares, nearly 500 reactions, and over 400 comments. John Svitil wrote, “I’m not going to blast or denigrate this professor. Everybody has the right to make an ass out of themselves. His logic is way off. In the article, he basically condoned illegal carrying of firearms but is against legal carry. His thinking is ass backwards. Maybe he should start walking the streets in this garb since Texas allows CCW.” Rickey Gile wrote, “If youre (sic) that big of a puss, quit your job. “(U)sed to be if when they were mad at me and wanted to shoot me, they had to go home and get a gun.” (D)ude, they have always had them, against the rules or not. N(o)w that it is ok for the good guys to carry, be sure to thank one of them for saving your ass one day.” And Jason Rose posted, “Someone should put some plates in that carrier. If you’re gonna titty baby, titty baby hard.” In February, the Houston Chronicle reported three “gun discharge” incidents on college campuses during the fall semester. Only one of those appears to have involved a person licensed to carry. In that incident, a Tarlton State University student accidentally discharged a weapon in a dorm room. The incident resulted in minor property damage and no injuries. An incident at Texas Tech University where a person fired a gun three times on campus also left no one injured and resulted in no property damage. The Houston newspaper did not report that shooter to be a licensed individual. The third incident is also not reported to be carried out by a licensed individual. This incident involved a University of Houston student who apparently committed suicide at the Hilton hotel on campus. The Houston newspaper reported that concerns about the campus carry law have faded following the initial days the law went into effect. “(It) was, for the most part, a non-event,” John Sharp, chancellor of the Texas A&M University System told the reporter. “Why people thought eligible students who act responsibly in the community would act irresponsibly on campus was beyond me.” One University of Texas professor, Mark Sheridan, decided to move his individual meetings with students to a bar because Texas does not allow handguns to be carried into an establishment that sells liquor as its primary revenue source. “If I want to work at a place that bans guns,” Sheridan said, “the bar seems like the safest bet for me.” A local bar manager apparently brought the idea to the professor.In extraordinary comments in an extensive interview with the ABC's Four Corners program on Monday night, Mr Lawler has predicted that his decision to go public will see him "characterised as that scum bag, crook, fraudster and at the very best somebody who's been bewitched by an evil harridan, mainly Kathy. That I'm c--t struck and that I have been utterly taken in by somebody who is a serious crook". Michael Lawler and Kathy Jackson. And Mr Lawler has also revealed that he has about 60 recordings of private conversations with Fair Work Commission president Iain Ross dating as far back as 2012. The recordings include detail of discussions about Mr Lawler's extended period on sick leave, during which he has given legal advice to Ms Jackson, and reveal Mr Ross promising to "<!--[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-AU JA X-NONE <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <![endif]--><!--StartFragment-->take responsibility for any amounts of sick leave you seek, there's no cap or anything like that".<!--EndFragment--> Mr Lawler has been under fire for taking more than nine months' sick leave while Ms Jackson fought a civil case brought against her by her former union. He concedes that Mr Ross will likely be "very annoyed indeed" at the covert recording. Fair Work Commission President Iain Ross. Credit:Jesse Marlow Ms Jackson was found guilty in a civil case that ended in August of misusing her position as head of the union to fraudulently gain financial advantage and ordered to pay about $1.4 million. She was found to have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on unauthorised expenses including clothes, fine dining, grocery and liquor shopping, personal mortgage repayments, as well as flights and hotels while on multiple overseas vacations. In the program, Ms Jackson that she did not take "anything like" $1.4 million from the HSU, nor anything from the HSU "<!--[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-AU JA X-NONE <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <![endif]--><!--StartFragment-->I wasn't entitled to. And I do want to qualify it like that because they'll come out and say 'yes, but you did spend this money on travel' - yes I did, I was entitled to that." Ms Jackson insists she was entitled to up to $28,000 in travel entitlements and that she had this undertaking in writing, while head of the HSU. Mr Lawler concedes that the written evidence of this entitlement is "<!--[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-AU JA X-NONE <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <![endif]--><!--StartFragment-->gone, it's not in the public domain. All the minutes, all bar eight sets of minute, meeting-minutes are missing." And pressed about the so-called "crooked" transaction - which saw money transferred into a joint mortgage account held Ms Jackson held with her ex-husband Jeff Jackson, and which allegedly flowed on in to Jackson and Lawler's Wombarra, NSW home, Mr Lawler makes a concession. "The last time I did a count it was in the order of $50,000 dollars and they are the transactions that represent the payment of monies from the NHDA, the slush fund of the Number Three branch, into the Jeff Jackson account or their joint mortgage account and, I know what her explanation for those transactions is, it's not a very palatable explanation, but it's an explanation none the less and it'll be given at some point," he says. Ms Jackson says that she did not know at the time that money transfer was improper but "with the benefit of hindsight, yes". But the current HSU national secretary, Chris Brown, says Ms Jackson "was of the view that if she blew the whistle and was seen to be the person, ah, cleaning up the union then any wrongdoings that she had done, ah, would be overlooked and exonerated".<!--EndFragment--> In the program, Mr Lawler also says that he encouraged Ms Jackson to become a whistleblower, and that he worked on her legal case while on leave. Earlier on Monday, Workplace Minister Michaelia Cash announced that Peter Heerey QC, a former Federal Court judge, would lead the independent investigation of complaints levelled against Mr Lawler. As a vice-president of the Fair Work Commission, Mr Lawler can only be removed by a vote by both houses of Parliament. Mr Heerey served on the Federal Court between 1990 and 2009 and has now returned to private practice as a barrister at the Victorian Bar. "It is essential that public confidence is maintained in the institution of the Fair Work Commission," Senator Cash said. "I will not be commenting on the specific complaints before the independent investigator has had an opportunity to report back to me on this matter." Follow us on TwitterThis is an alphabetical list of the covers performed on the Live Lounge section of The Fearne Cotton Show on BBC Radio 1 (and previously on The Jo Whiley Show before Whiley left the station). There are also a few that have performed at the Live Lounge tent at festivals such as Glastonbury Festival and Radio 1's Big Weekend. Also some of the covers are performed on the Live Lounge Tour, in which the songs are performed at a location that means something to the artist. Songs that appear on Live Lounge compilations or other releases are footnoted. A [ edit ] B [ edit ] C [ edit ] D [ edit ] E [ edit ] F [ edit ] G [ edit ] H [ edit ] I [ edit ] J [ edit ] K [ edit ] L [ edit ] M [ edit ] N [ edit ] O [ edit ] P [ edit ] Q [ edit ] R [ edit ] S [ edit ] T [ edit ] U [ edit ] V [ edit ] W [ edit ] X [ edit ] Y [ edit ] Z [ edit ] Notes [ edit ]Email reveals plan for new liquor licensing laws to crack down on alcohol-fuelled violence was approved by NSW Cabinet Updated NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell has spent the past 16 months sitting on a Cabinet-approved plan to curb alcohol-fuelled violence, despite swelling public pressure for a crackdown. An email obtained by the ABC shows Cabinet gave its in-principle approval in 2012 to new liquor licensing laws that would have encouraged venues to address violence and forced them to foot the bill for regulations. The revelations have emerged after the father of Sydney assault victim Daniel Christie delivered an emotional plea for action from the NSW Government at the 18-year-old's funeral. Michael Christie told mourners yesterday: "It's up to our elected members to set guidelines and a framework to stop this insanity, in the name of all those who have died a violent death or been injured by these acts." The changes approved by Cabinet would have brought NSW into line with every other state in Australia, forcing licensed venues and alcohol retailers to pay an annual fee and containing incentives to curb violence. Under the system, which is being considered by the Government again, venues deemed riskier would pay a higher fee based on their location, trading hours, capacity and compliance with the Liquor Act. The leaked email from within a New South Wales Government authority, dated October 2012, says: "On Monday 17 September 2012, Cabinet approved in principle the introduction of a periodic fee system... to commence from 1 July 2013." "[Cabinet] agreed that periodic fee levels should be comparable to fee regimes in other Australian jurisdictions," the email said. Venues currently only pay a one-off licensing fee, regardless of how they are managed, leaving taxpayers to foot much of the bill for the state's liquor regulation and compliance scheme. Government backbenchers infuriated by delay The delay has infuriated some NSW Liberal backbenchers. "This is unbelievable," one told the ABC. "I'm shocked we could have had something in place already". Another said, "This will blow up the Government." Deputy Opposition Leader Linda Burney says the the NSW Government is "in the grip of the liquor lobby." She says the policy could have saved lives. "It's unforgiveable," she said. "Particularly with the death of Thomas Kelly [in July 2012] and subsequent tragedies, it is mind-blowing, irresponsible and inconceivable that the Government has been sitting on this policy." Cabinet to consider 'package of measures' on Monday In a statement, Hospitality Minister George Souris says the "periodic risk-based licensing scheme" is contained in a "package of measures to address drug and alcohol-fuelled violence [that will] go to Cabinet on Monday". Mr O'Farrell has promised to deliver a plan to tackle alcohol-fuelled violence next week but Robert McEwen, the father of another Sydney assault victim, is losing faith. "Barry's got to be true to his word, he's got to be accountable to the people of NSW," he told the ABC. "The reluctance to tackle these issues suggests to me that maybe there's a lack of transparency there." Mr McEwen's 23-year-old son, Michael, narrowly survived a late-night bashing at Bondi a month ago. Robert McEwen and Governor-General Quentin Bryce were among mourners at Daniel Christie's funeral yesterday at the Hillsong Church in Baulkham Hills. Topics: alcohol, states-and-territories, government-and-politics, crime, law-crime-and-justice, crime-prevention, kings-cross-2011, sydney-2000, nsw, australia First postedArsène Wenger’s latest grand plan of converting his winger into a striker failed to get off to the best starts on Saturday. Lukas Podolski, wearing number 9 for Arsenal, has played much of his early career and for FC Koln last season as the second-striker (in between an unsuccessful stint at Bayern Munich), but it’s his reinvention as a goalscoring wide man for Germany (44 goals in 100 appearances) which has gained him the most distinction. However, Wenger feels that Podolski has the spontaneity and individualism to replace Robin van Persie as the main striker and against Sunderland, his debut initially looked promising. His movement laterally was good but eventually, in the simmering heat, his endeavour turned to toil and later frustration as Arsenal failed to breach Sunderland’s defence in a goalless draw at the Emirates. It didn’t get much better for his replacement, Olivier Giroud, who missed perhaps the easiest chance of the afternoon, skewing a late chance wide. Wenger concedes that there is a lot of work for Podolski to do, saying that he needs to “change his game, make runs in behind and to protect the ball and move around the box.” The signs are that Wenger will persist with Podolski and hopes that he learns the position on the job but he will need to improve quickly if he is to replicate or better Van Persie’s impact last season. Wenger has the other option of using Podolski on the left of the 4-3-3 but the issue arises of balance. Because it’s that, he felt, was the key tactical quandary in the draw with Sunderland; that the use of three strikers upset the rhythm of Arsenal’s passing game. In the match, Wenger started Gervinho and Theo Walcott as the two wide players but while the pair featured frequently together last season, this season he sees the two battling together to assume one of the starting places in the front three. That’s because the tactics have changed this season with emphasised placed back on a technical style after last year’s attempts to use the flanks more via the “three striker system”. Wenger might have felt that was a good idea because he envisaged Cesc Fabregas staying and having the world’s best through-passer delivering killer balls to meet the forwards’ runs. But, as he found out towards the end of the season, playing three direct forwards only placed more responsibility to create centrally and especially, that meant Alex Song had to come to the fore. This season, the idea is to include at least one creative player on the flanks in the hope to give plurality to Arsenal’s chance creation. But against Sunderland, everything was once again created from a central source, chiefly from Santi Cazorla who made seven chances – a third of Arsenal’s total. “In some games it works, in some not,” said Wenger. “We went for a different formula last year and the balance is not always right, but in this game today we needed maybe one more creative player to be a bit more accurate in the final third. There was not a lot of space left to our strikers; everything had to be created from our midfield.” Santi Cazorla was superb, finding openings and linking play and he was especially never too far away from Mikel Arteta as the pair combined the most times in the match (29 times). He was given freedom to roam although he might have found using three strikers inhibited his impact somewhat. In the first-half, his natural instincts were to drift laterally in a fairly new role as the playmaker but found the static movement of Gervinho and Walcott not exactly conducive to pass-and-move. They did, however, create space for him by stretching the play. Cazorla might have been better off dropping deep instead and allowing Abou Diaby to push up as he demonstrated in pre-season to try and penetrate Sunderland’s shape. Certainly, the wingers were unable to do that as they found space a premium to run into. Of course, it wasn’t entirely their fault; Gervinho had a lively game, running at defenders (which, at 20 times, it’s the most dribbles one player has attempted in a game since Cristiano Ronaldo six years ago). But often he found two or three defenders breathing around his neck or simply just run out of space on the pitch. He was often forced to go alone too because Wenger (or might it have been the Steve Bould effect?) instructed his full-backs to play more cautiously after a couple of early warning signs that Sunderland might punish on the break and as such, rarely offered the overlap. The other issue was that the hastily assembled team simply didn’t pass it quick enough to move Sunderland’s defence out of position. Having another creative player in there would have helped (and it’s become increasingly one of the most important positions on the pitch). Podolski’s quick give-and-goes present him as a compromise alternative but Song’s impending departure meant that Cazorla – who might have started wide – was required centrally. So here we are; after one match of the new season, new signings, the Emirates still served up a typical Arsenal. But it’s this sort of encounter that Arsenal must find solutions for and it seems Arsène Wenger’s answer to improve Arsenal’s attacking play is not to find a Plan B; or necessarily more variety. But as a possession side, it’s to improve what they are best at. Which seems a logical move. Because it’s as Athletic Bilboa coach, Marcelo Bielsa, says; “attacking football has nuances” and it’s controlling and understanding those nuances which might make Arsenal better.Sinn Féin TDs have distanced themselves from the views of their colleague Peadar Tóibín, who on Sunday criticised the Oireachtas Committee on the eighth amendment for an imbalance in its list of witnesses. Mr Tóibín, who was suspended from the parliamentary party for six months in 2013 when he voted against the Protection of Life in Pregnancy Bill, holds anti-abortion views and was critical of the number of witnesses favouring repeal of the amendment compared to the numbers of those who favour its retention. “It’s natural that TDs would seek to bring in witnesses that would further their political objectives on committees, but when you look at the balance of the members and also the witnesses, 24 witnesses are pro-choice and 4 witnesses are pro-life,” he told RTÉ’s the Week in Politics. “I’m a chair of a committee, and even on issues that I wouldn’t agree with I would make sure there’s a balance of people coming before a committee so that there’s a good honest debate.” But Sinn Féin TDs Jonathan O’Brien, who is a member of the committee, and Eoin Ó Broin criticised Mr Tóibín’s comments. “The imbalance has been caused by Pro-Life groups refusing to appear before the committee. Don’t cry over spilt mill when you intentionally spilt it yourself just so you can cry,” Mr O’Brien said in a tweet. Some anti-abortion witnesses, including the professor of psychology Patricia Casey, have declined to appear before the committee as they believe that its outcome is pre-determined in recommending a repeal of the eighth amendment. Mr Ó Broin also tweeted that his remarks did not represent the Sinn Féin view of the committee. He said he was “disappointed” that Mr Tóibín “has aligned himself with Mattie McGrath & Rónán Mullen in trying to undermine the work of Committee & SF reps on it”. Mr McGrath and Mr Mullen, both members of the committee, have been highly critical of the imbalance in the witness list. Speaking at the Fine Gael national conference at the weekend, the committee’s chairwoman Senator Catherine Noone, said that the committee had found it difficult to find expert medical witnesses who wanted the eighth amendment - which places the mother and unborn’s life on a equal footing and underpins Ireland’s strict anti-abortion laws - retained in its present form. “So far (and it seems that will remain the case) we have really struggled to get experts in the medical area to come to the committee to state that the status quo should be maintained,” Ms Noone told an abortion debate at the Fine Gael conference. The committee’s hearings continue this week with witnesses from the HSE and the Irish Family Planning Association. The IFPA has long campaigned for a change in Ireland’s law on abortion. Sinn Féin is due to debate its policy on abortion at next weekend’s ard fheis in Dublin.With the opening game of the World Cup only a week away, the anticipation for the World’s greatest sporting spectacle is reaching fever pitch. England may have given the game to the world, but it is Brazil that is the romantic home of football, and the first World Cup on Brazilian soil in 64 years is a show that you will not want to miss a single minute of. This is also the first World Cup in the age of omnipresent smartphones, and twitter announced in a webinar this week that more people have tweeted about the Brazil World Cup than the previous edition in South Africa already. That’s perhaps not surprising if you think back to how much has changed in the technology landscape since 2010. With three matches a day during the group stages of the competition, and 32 competing World Cup squads to keep track of, that is a lot of news to keep up on. There have been a glut of applications coming out in the android play store for the World Cup, and that’s why we thought we would test a few of the applications to try to find the best android World Cup application and save you the bother. Onefootball Brasil From the makers of the immensely popular Onefootball app – with over 14 million downloads, Onefootball is one of the biggest football apps for android. Onefootball Brasil is available on iOS and Windows Phone as well as Android, and is available in 15 languages, completely free of charge. Onefootball Brasil is our choice of the best World Cup app on android for a number of reasons. Firstly, the app’s match pages are second to none, you can receive notifications for goals as well as check line-ups, see live match statistics and chat with other fans watching the game in real-time. The app also has sections where you can read related tweets, watch videos and see live tables and standings. Perhaps the best part of the app, and what separates it from the other apps available in the market greets you on the main page when you open the app. Onefootball have partnered with a number of football sites to syndicate their content within the app, so you can read the latest World Cup news from numerous sources all in one place. We haven’t tested the app on other platforms, but on android, Onefootball uses a pleasing cards style interface that fits in well with the rest of the android ecosystem and the android design guidelines. Proven Quality is proud to have chosen Onefootball as our app partner for the World Cup, meaning you can read all of our World Cup content syndicated within the Onefootball Brasil app. You can download Onefootball Brasil from Google Play, iTunes, or for Windows Phone. FotMob We’ve been long-time users of the FotMob app on android as it offers a great live scores service for a huge variety of leagues. FotMob have recently added a World Cup section, and while it does not offer as much news or information as the Onefootball app, if you’re heading out to Brazil they do have a number of excellent video guides for each of the host cities. Team pages are well featured, with audio news recordings, fixtures, tables, squad listings. They also have a news section for each team, but as they only seem to be pulling content from Sky Sports, there is not nearly as much variety of content as the Onefootball app. The interface is also very well designed. You can download FotMob from Google Play. Official FIFA app FIFA’s official app is a decent effort with a pleasing design. It doesn’t offer as many features as the other apps mentioned, and is somewhat slow to load and navigate, even on wifi. Available in five languages, The FIFA app does however include news from the FIFA site, a match centre and a table of the official FIFA country rankings. The FIFA app also has video and photo sections, but at time of writing there are only two videos, and the photo section loads a blank page. FIFA’s app can be downloaded from Google Play, and is also available for iPhone and iPad. 365Scores Another unofficial app, 365Scores offers scores, news, tweets, and standings information as well as a section for confirmed transfers. 365Scores has good squad listings and photos for each of the teams at the tournament, and their brackets for the later rounds of the World Cup look good too. 365Scores excels with stadium guides, displaying a map of
Olivier Tremblay contributed reporting to this story.Irano Hind Shipping Company is a joint venture between Shipping Corporation of India and Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines which was partly dissolved in the face of the anti-Iran sanctions. "Call for dissolving was taken because sanctions were eroding the company and sanctions were affecting me (SCI) also," SCI's Chairman and Managing Director A K Gupta said, Business Standard reported on Sunday. "The sanctions on Iran are to be lifted, we need Iran,” he added. "No final decision has been taken on the JV dissolution though lot of work has been done towards dissolution. To go ahead and finally dissolve it, whether to end it or wait for a bit, we are little short of it. It is at the highest level, let us see," Gupta said. Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) on July 14 reached a conclusion on a lasting nuclear agreement that would terminate all sanctions imposed on Tehran over its nuclear energy program after coming into force. The promising prospect of trade with Iran has prompted many countries to explore the market potential in the populous Middle East nation.Up to $10,000 for information leading to the arrest of people who commit 'laser strikes' Like TIME on Facebook for more breaking news and current events from around the globe! The FBI announced a new rewards initiative to reduce incidents of people pointing lasers at aircraft Tuesday, a phenomenon the bureau says is on the rise. Under a new regional rewards program, giving information that leads to the arrest of “any individual who aims a laser at an aircraft” could net you $10,000, according to an FBI press release. The reward initiative will run for 60 days. The bureau will also be working with local law enforcement “to educate teens about the dangers associated with lasing.” Shining a laser into the cockpit of an aircraft can disorientate and even temporarily blind a pilot, according to the FAA. Even pocket lasers can project a powerful enough light to endanger crew and passengers. According to the FBI, incidents of people pointing handheld lasers at aircraft—or “laser strikes” in the parlance of the FBI—have climbed more than 1,100 percent since 2005 and in 2013 occurred, on average, about 11 times a day. “Aiming a laser pointer at an aircraft is a serious matter and a violation of federal law,” said Ron Hosko, assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division. “It is important that people understand that this is a criminal act with potentially deadly repercussions.” The FBI told TIME it was not aware of any incident in which a handheld laser being pointed at an aircraft had caused a plane crash.Three family members of victims of the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack demanded Monday that House Speaker John Boehner create a select committee to investigate the assault that killed four Americans. U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens, Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith, and security officers Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were all killed during the attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya on Sept. 11, 2012. In a letter hand-delivered to Boehner, Smith’s mother, Pat Smith, and uncle, Michael Ingmire, as well as Woods’ father, Charles Woods, pressed Boehner to form a select committee to investigate the Benghazi scandal. “Your reluctance to lead and resistance to create a Select Committee on Benghazi must end,” the letter read. “More than 75 percent of all House Republicans – with the conspicuous absence of those in leadership or committee chairmen – have co-sponsored Rep. Wolf’s Select Committee bill. Few bills in this Congress demonstrate such overwhelming support from Republicans." In addition to forming a focused bipartisan committee, the letter also cited a recent New York Times report that the letter claimed ignored congressional testimony. So far, Boehner has had five separate House committees investigate the matter. An independent select committee would have subpoena power and the authority to read classified documents. Boehner has said publicly he opposed the creation of a select committee and didn’t see the need for one. There was no immediate reaction from his office to Monday's letter. In a Dec. 30 opinion piece published on FoxNews.com, Ingmire called for Boehner to be removed from office. “As a family member the slow drip of truth from these committees is maddening and, at times, insulting,” Ingmire wrote. “Overall, John Boehner has been an ineffectual House Speaker and needs to be removed. He has failed to unify even his own party.” Fox News' Catherine Herridge contributed to this report.2015 is behind us and what an amazing year this has been for Flyway! Now that Continuous Delivery and database migrations are entering the mainstream, Flyway is seeing even more adoption and recognition than ever before. As a testimony of this, last year Flyway was honored with the highest distinction "Adopt" on the ThoughtWorks Technology Radar. And it's really been quite a ride since the project's humble beginnings on Google Code (yes, that used to be a thing) in 2010. Every single year has come with tremendous growth, and last year was no exception. In fact Flyway passed 850,000 downloads in 2015 alone! So let's kick off 2016 with a bang! Please welcome Flyway 4.0! The highlights of this release are: Repeatable Migrations support Sybase ASE, SAP HANA and Apache Phoenix support Java-based migration and callback enhancements Improved compatibility with schema-first persistence frameworks Improved compatibility with Git Disabling clean Datasource auto-configuration when running in Boxfuse instances Commercial support plans Repeatable Migrations support Versioned migrations are a great way to evolve your relational database schema. You can think of them as transformation functions you apply to your schema. They let you reliably evolve the structure of your database by creating, altering or dropping objects like tables and indexes. Versioned migrations are also a great way to evolve reference data or perform bulk corrections of user data. There are however a few areas where they tend to create some friction. This usually occurs when you either manage code (think stored procedures, functions, packages,...) or manipulate objects, like views, that don't physically hold data themselves. In those cases, it's easy to end up over time with many almost identical copies of the definition of the same objects scattered over many different migration files. This feels wrong and simply doesn't make sense when you could just as well be keeping the history within your version control system. To better support these scenarios we are today expanding Flyway beyond versioned migrations and introducing a new type of migrations: repeatable migrations. Here is a brief example: R__My_view.sql CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW my_view AS SELECT * FROM my_table WHERE name LIKE 'My%'; As you can see we have a number of differences compared to versioned migrations: It has a different prefix (configurable of course): R instead of V instead of It has no version number and no order compared to other migrations It can be run multiple times (thanks to the CREATE OR REPLACE clause) You can now evolve the definition of this view within the same file. History will be kept in your version control system and Flyway will reapply this migration every time the checksum changes and previous runs will be marked as superseded. The same migration will therefore appear multiple times in your history: +---------+--------------------+---------------------+---------+ \| Version \| Description \| Installed on \| State \| +---------+--------------------+---------------------+---------+ \| 1 \| Create first table \| 2016-02-29 13:40:00 \| Success \| \| 1.1 \| Adjust structure \| 2016-02-29 13:40:05 \| Success \| \| \| My View \| 2016-02-29 13:42:00 \| Superse \| \| \| Other Repeatable \| 2016-02-29 13:42:05 \| Success \| \| 1.2 \| Populate table \| 2016-02-29 13:45:26 \| Success \| \| 2.0 \| Add foreign key \| 2016-02-29 13:45:27 \| Success \| \| \| My View \| 2016-02-29 13:48:00 \| Success \| +---------+--------------------+---------------------+---------+ You can start using this today with both SQL and Java-based migrations. SAP ASE, SAP HANA and Apache Phoenix support As Flyway increasingly becomes our industry's de-facto standard for database migrations, the ever growing list of supported databases keeps on expanding. With Flyway 4.0, we are adding support for not one, but three new databases: SAP ASE (previously known as Sybase ASE), SAP HANA and Apache Phoenix: Flyway now supports a total of 19 different RDBMS. Special thanks to Jason Wong for contributing SAP ASE support and Josh Mahonin for contributing Apache Phoenix support. Special thanks to SOFTRONIC for sponsoring SAP HANA support. Java-based migration and callback enhancements During the Flyway 3.x series we introduced a number of configuration options and lifecycle hooks including callbacks. Just like migrations, callbacks can be written either in SQL or in Java. When writing them in Java unfortunately there was no easy way to access Flyway's configuration. We decided to remedy this with Flyway 4.0. Both Java-based migrations and Java-based callbacks can now implement the ConfigurationAware interface (or inherit from either BaseJdbcMigration or BaseFlywayCallback ) and gain access to the Flyway configuration which will be automatically injected at runtime: public class V2__MyJdbcBasedMigration implements JdbcMigration, ConfigurationAware { private FlywayConfiguration flywayConfiguration; @Override public void setFlywayConfiguration(FlywayConfiguration flywayConfiguration) { this.flywayConfiguration = flywayConfiguration; } public void migrate(Connection connection) throws Exception { // Migrate using configuration stored in the flywayConfiguration field } } Improved compatibility with schema-first persistence frameworks We are strong believers in contract-first development and when it comes to the database, your schema is the contract between your application and the DBMS. This is a natural fit for tools like jOOQ that generate their persistent model directly from a freshly migrated schema. Yet in the past Flyway's Maven, Gradle and SBT plugins looked for migrations in the target directory of the project, which created a chicken and egg situation where they only solution was to split the project into separate modules of which one would first migrate the database before the next one would then generate the persistence classes and compile the code. We decided to fix this in Flyway 4.0 by changing the defaults where the Flyway build tool plugins look for migrations: Flyway 3.x default location Flyway 4.x default location Maven, Gradle, SBT classpath:db/migration filesystem:src/main/resources/db/migration So if you don't need Java-based migrations, Flyway 4.0 will now be much easier to use with schema-first persistence frameworks like jOOQ. Improved compatibility with Git Git has definitely won the version control system war. Yet it comes with this widely used "feature" called core.autocrlf=true which automatically adjusts the line endings of text files based on the operating system you currently use. While this sounds great in theory it actually causes a number of problems with teams using different operating systems. One of them was Flyway checksum failures as the files now have different contents on Windows than they do on Linux and Mac. To address this Flyway 4.0 now ignores line endings when calculating checksums and all existing checksums in your metadata table will be automatically adjusted on first run to be compatible with this new algorithm. Disabling clean Clean is an incredibly useful operation in development. With a single command you can wipe your database schema completely clean of all its objects. This is a fantastic way to be able to experiment and quickly start over if things don't work out. In production however, running clean is usually something you ever do once as it is severely career-limiting. To prevent such disasters we are introducing an additional safety measure. By setting: flyway.cleanDisabled=true Flyway will now refuse to clean your schema until cleanDisabled is set to false again. We recommend all Flyway users to active this on their production environments immediately. Datasource auto-configuration when running in Boxfuse instances Last year has been a very busy year for us as next to Flyway, we also launched Boxfuse. Boxfuse is the easiest, most reliable and secure way to run your JVM-based apps on AWS. It is based on three core principles: Immutable Infrastructure : Creating servers and never modifying them again by treating a server as one immutable unit that is regenerated after every change and promoted unchanged from environment to environment to eliminate drift and increase reliability by ensuring you run the exact same code in production as the one you tested in test. : Creating servers and never modifying them again by treating a server as one immutable unit that is regenerated after every change and promoted unchanged from environment to environment to eliminate drift and increase reliability by ensuring you run the exact same code in production as the one you tested in test. Minimal Images : Analysing your application and generating minimal tailor-made Linux-based images on the fly that are 100x smaller than a typical Linux system and take just seconds to produce. : Analysing your application and generating minimal tailor-made Linux-based images on the fly that are 100x smaller than a typical Linux system and take just seconds to produce. Blue/Green Deployments: Deploying a new version of an app in parallel to the existing one and only making the switch at the elastic IP or elastic load balancer level once the configured health checks of the new version have passed. Deployments are fully automated and effectively transactional, providing you with zero-downtime updates. Boxfuse has been designed from the ground up for Continuous Delivery and integrates naturally with Flyway. Boxfuse comes with special support for Spring Boot, Grails, Play, Dropwizard, Tomcat and TomEE as well as regular executable jar applications. It can use your framework's native configuration file to detect port and healthcheck information, based on which Boxfuse will provision AMIs, Security Groups, Elastic Load Balancers and Auto-Scaling Groups for you, with zero additional configuration required. Boxfuse also detects whether your application uses MySQL or PostgreSQL and will automatically provision the necessary AWS RDS instances as well as configure your framework of choice to use the correct JDBC URL, user and password. And if you choose to use Flyway directly to migrate your database on application startup, it is now as simple as: new Flyway().migrate(); as Flyway automatically picks up the database configuration exposed by Boxfuse. We took the same principles you love about Flyway (simplicity, focus, power), and applied them to deploying applications on AWS. Find out more on the Boxfuse website. Commercial support plans If you have questions or need help, Flyway you can get answers via the flyway tag on StackOverflow as well as the issue tracker. Over the last few years we seen increased demand to go further and also offer professional dedicated support to organisations who need guaranteed response times as well as the piece of mind knowing someone will be there when they need assistance. Today we are opening up our professional support subscription program which we have offered to a selected number of clients in the past to all companies using Flyway. These are the three support tiers we are offering: Light Business Enterprise Response Time 3 business days 2 business days 2 business days Pre-release access Yes Yes Yes Contact Email Email Email / Skype / Phone Scope Defects Defects + Consultancy Defects + Consultancy Remote Consultancy Not included 8 hours (4 x 2 hours) 24 hours (12 x 2 hours) For more information about our professional support subscriptions, contact us at [email protected] Special thanks We would like to extend special thanks to SOFTRONIC for sponsoring SAP HANA support and Code Lutin for making a donation to the Flyway project. Grab it while it's hot! Flyway 4.0 is out and it is a big one. Flyway now expands beyond versioned migrations and offers Repeatable Migrations as well as SAP ASE (previousls known as Sybase ASE), SAP HANA and Apache Phoenix support. Additionally, Java-based migrations and callbacks now have an easy way to access the Flyway configuration, compatibility with schema-first persistence tools has been improved, Git's autocrlf issues have been relegated to the past, clean can be disabled and when running within Boxfuse instances Flyway now auto-configures its datasource. Companies that require guaranteed response times now have access to our professional support subscription plans. This release packs in even more with a huge list improvements and bug fixes across the board. Enjoy Flyway 4.0 and grab it while it's hot! All users are encouraged to upgrade. Flyway is brought to you with by Axel Fontaine, Boxfuse and the many contributors. P.S.: Spread the word and don't forget to subscribe to our monthly newsletter below or follow @flywaydb to stay in touch.What to do when PyPI goes down Lately PyPI, the Python package index, has been having some availability issues. When PyPI goes down it really hurts Python developers: we can’t install new packages, bring up new development environments or virtualenvs, or deploy code with depedencies. Work is ongoing — see PEP 381 — to add much-needed resiliency to PyPI, and the fruits of these labors are starting to become available. In particular, a number of PyPI mirrors are now available: b.pypi.python.org, c.pypi.python.org, and d.pypi.python.org are up and running. Each mirror has fairly up-to-date copies of all the packages and metadata on PyPI. They’re not totally perfect clones — the public parts of the web interface aren’t on the clones — but they have everything that package installation tools need. This means that when PyPI goes down, you can make a few tweaks, switch to a mirror, and get on with your day. In the future I expect most Python packaging tools will gain native, transparent support for failing over to these mirrors, but for now you’ll need to manually do so. All of the Python packaging tools support mirrors, each in a slightly different way: pip If you’re using a recent pip (0.8.1 or later) use the --use-mirrors flag: pip install --use-mirrors $PACKAGE You can also set the PIP_USE_MIRRORS environment variable. This’ll automatically query the list of mirrors and keep trying until one responds. It can take a bit of time when PyPI’s down as it waits for PyPI to time out, but it’ll work. For older versions of pip, or if you want to force the use of a particular mirror, use: pip install -i http://d.pypi.python.org/simple $PACKAGE If you want to instruct pip to always use the mirror — good if you’ll be doing a lot of installation, or if you’re using pip as part of a bigger automation tool — then put: [global] index-url = http://d.pypi.python.org/simple Into ~/.pip/pip.conf. virtualenv Unfortunately, virtualenv uses easy_install to boostrap a new environ, so simply making the pip changes isn’t enough to allow you to create new virtualenvs when PyPI is down. Instead, you’ll need to make the global change to ~/.pydistutils.cfg desribed. under easy_install, below. Buildout To use a mirror with Buildout, add: [buildout] index = http://d.pypi.python.org/simple Into your buildout.cfg. To use the mirror globally in any Buildout on your system, put those same lines above into ~/.buildout/default.cfg. If you need to run a Buildout bootstrap.py, note that it currently uses easy_install as part of the bootstrap procedure, so you’ll need to add the lines to ~/.pydistutils.cfg described below. Like pip, I expect that Buildout will eventually gain native mirror support. easy_install Really, you shouldn’t be using easy_install any more — please switch to pip. If you must, though, you can use a mirror with easy_install : easy_install -i http://d.pypi.python.org/simple $PACKAGE To make easy_install use a mirror globally, put: [easy_install] index_url = http://d.pypi.python.org/simple Into ~/.pydistutils.cfg. Because “easy_install“ is no longer under active development, I don’t expect “easy_install“ to ever gain native mirror support. Once again, you should switch to “pip“. Correction I’m informed by PJ Eby, the maintainer of setuptools and easy_install, that those projects aren’t quite dead yet and that he’s got plans to add mirroring support to easy_install. I apologize for getting my facts wrong about the state of setuptools and easy_install Still, I suggest that folks switch to pip : it’s got a larger development community, more active forward progress, and it’s a better tool in general. Once again, you should switch to “pip“.With the release of the new film "The Imitation Game", I decided to read the biography this excellent film was based on - Alan Turing: The Enigma. In it, the author Andrew Hodges relates the story that the 15-year-old Alan Turing derived the Maclaurin series for the $\arctan$ function, i.e. \[\arctan(x) = x - \frac{x^3}{3} + \frac{x^5}{5} - \frac{x^7}{7} + \ldots\] This is trivial using calculus, but it's explicitly stated that young Alan Turing neither knew nor used calculus. How would you derived such a series without calculus?This is a tricky problem, and I'd suggest first tackling the much easier problem of deriving the Maclaurin series for $\exp(x)$ from the relation $ \exp(2x) = \exp(x)\cdot \exp(x)$. This is an underconstrained relation, so you'll need to assume $c_0 = 1, c_1 = 1$.Getting back to $\arctan$, you could start with the half-angle formula for the tangent : \[\tan(2x) = \frac{2\tan(x)}{1-{\tan}^2(x)}.\] Now use the Weierstrass-like substitution $x = \arctan(t)$ to get \[\tan(2\arctan(t)) = \frac{2t}{1-t^2}.\] The right-hand side can be expanded in the usual geometric series fashion to get \[\tan(2\arctan(t)) = 2t\cdot (1+t^2+t^4+\ldots).\]Finally, take the $\arctan$ of both sides and assume we have the series expansion $\arctan(x) = c_1 x + c_3 x^3 + c_5 x^5 + \ldots$. Note that we may ignore the terms with even powers of $x$ as $\arctan(x)$ is an odd function This gives us the setting \[2\arctan(t) = \arctan(2t\cdot (1+t^2+t^4+\ldots))\] and expanding as a power series \[2(c_1 t + c_3 t^3 + \ldots) = c_1 (2t\cdot (1+t^2+\ldots) + c_3 (2t\cdot (1+t^2+\ldots))^3 + \ldots\]The next step is to line up powers of $t$ on both sides and set up a system of simultaneous equations. There's some algebra and combinatorics involved, but we end up with the system of equations \[c_{2i+1} = \sum_{j=0}^{i} c_{2j+1}\cdot 2^{2j} \cdot {{i+j} \choose {2j}}.\] Note that this system is underconstrained due to our functional relationship being satisfied by any multiple of the $\arctan$ function. We'll assume that $c_1 = 1$, but note that this follows from the classical (non-calculus) limit $ \lim_{x\to 0} \frac{\sin(x)}{x} = 1$.The first few relations are \begin{align}c_1 &= c_1 \\c_3 &= c_1 + 4\cdot c_3 \\c_5 &= c_1 + 12\cdot c_3 + 16\cdot c_5 \\c_7 &= c_1 + 24\cdot c_3 + 80\cdot c_5 + 64\cdot c_7\end{align}Assuming $c_1 = 1$ as above we quickly calculate $ c_3 = -\frac{1}{3}, c_5 = \frac{1}{5}, c_7 = -\frac{1}{7}$, with the pattern being obvious.That $c_{2i+1} = \frac{(-1)^i}{2i+1}$ can be verified by Wolfram Alpha:An obvious question is whether or not there's a simple demonstration of this; in particular, one that a young Alan Turing may have found. This I don't know (yet).Get ready dumpling lovers. It looks like the very first Bay Area outpost of beloved global dim sum chain Din Tai Fung may be opening as soon as next week. According to an email from Din Tai Fung representative Ashley Chu, the company is anticipating that the new Santa Clara outpost, located in the Westfield Valley Fair Mall, will begin having a limited opening on Tuesday, May 10. While this date is not 100% guaranteed — a representative from the mall’s management office says that their team has not yet received a confirmation that Tuesday is indeed the day, they do say that the construction barriers around the restaurant have been taken down. — it does appear that Bay Area food lovers are just days away from being able to enjoy what many consider to be some of the best Taiwanese soup dumplings in the world. One thing that is certain: When the restaurant does finally open, expect very, very long waits. Though Din Tai Fung doesn’t accept reservations, according to Chu’s email, the Santa Clara location will offer a text-message waitlist system, so you can walk around the mall instead of bringing your folding chairs to sit in line. Chu also notes that when the wait list exceeds a few hours, Din Tai Fung will temporarily stop taking names until those guests are seated. Inside Scoop will continue to monitor Din Tai Fung’s opening status, so be sure to check back here soon for continuing coverage, including opening crowds, food, photos and more. [UPDATE]: Inside Scoop spoke with a Valley Fair management this morning (Tuesday, May 10), and they confirm that the restaurant will in fact open its doors today. Prepare for for the onslaught. In the meantime, here are some mouthwatering photos from Din Tai Fung’s Instagram feed. “Breakfast of champions” is right @jenxyu! Thanks for the awesome photo! #DinTaiFungUSA #DinTaiFung A photo posted by Din Tai Fung (@dintaifungusa) on Oct 30, 2014 at 12:48pm PDT Our Truffle & Pork XiaoLongBao are made with truffle slices, truffle oil, and truffle salt???? A photo posted by Din Tai Fung (@dintaifungusa) on Feb 26, 2015 at 12:22pm PST Can you name all 4 #dintaifungusa dishes in this photo? A photo posted by Din Tai Fung (@dintaifungusa) on Oct 9, 2014 at 4:07pm PDT Din Tai Fung at Westfield Valley Fair, 2855 Stevens Creek Blvd., Space 1259, Santa Clara. (408) 248-1688. dintaifungusa.com. According to Din Tai Fung Valley Fair’s Facebook page, hours will be Monday-Friday from 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Saturday from 10 a.m.-10 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m.-9 p.m.Six grill masters, 7 judges, 120 tickets sold, two charities, everyone’s favorite beachside breakfast spot, a full band and a plateful of delicious ribs. Screaming success is the only way to describe it. I mean…look at this pic someone snapped of me helping Kelly McGuire auction off some of his stuff for charity. No I didn’t win…I was just having a great time! (Photo by Helen Mott) Let me first show you what was going on when I first walked in. All of the grillers were in action. Kevin (who has participated in ALL of the cook-offs) has a new smoker/BBQ that’s pretty snazzy. He’s also got the body of a god. Kevin is from Orange Walk but has been in San Pedro for years. He now has his own restaurant – Kevin’s Kitchen – just south of town. Confidence. I like it! We’ve got Rick from Kansas City. Perhaps you’ve heard of their BBQ? We’ve got home town favorite Charles! Who works the BBQ at Estel’s every single weekend. His food is FANTASTIC. We’ve got Jim…the one most likely to appear on TV with Guy Fieri. He just looks like a pit master and he’s got personality to spare. There were two newcomers in the mix. Randy and Ali. Ali from California. No matter who was grilling, the ribs were looking divine… and it was a gorgeous day. Chef Chris with his new ridiculously cute puppy Lola. Coconut Leo taking it easy. And Kendall from Ecologic Divers and Sailing Charters. Kelly McGuire auctioned off some merchandise for the Scholarship awarding charity – The Sunshine Foundation. And this lovely lady later won the 50/50 raffle. Congratulations. Left to Right: Barrington, the MC; Eve, one of the charity organizers and the winner! The judges were served first and I was there to stick a camera in their faces while they were eating messy ribs. Chris, the chef at Blue Water Grill. Dorian, the Editor of Ambergris Today. Thumbs up! Kelly McGuire…well I doctored up his picture just a little bit. Not fair to show someone with rib in his teeth! Chef Jeff from Rojo Beach Bar knows how to make sure his photo isn’t taken like that. Hold up a dirty rag? All seven judges were all business. Hard at work. So I went to find my color coded ribs. And was so quick to dive in…that I forgot to take a picture! How embarrassing. But know that the colors went like this: Yellow (SPICY!) = Jim, Orange = Rick, Purple (reminiscent of a Tootsie Roll – in a good way) = Kevin, Green = Charles, Blue = Ali and Red = Randy. Here is how I ended up voting. I would have put the beans (made by Estel’s) as #1…but I wrote them in instead. Yum. And then, after lots more music, the announcement was made. The guys lined up and… AND THE WINNERS! Judges’ Choices: 1. Ali (Blue) 2. Charles (Green) and 3. Rick (Orange) and Kevin (Purple) Tie Peoples’ Choices: 1. Rick (Orange) 2. Charles (Green) and 3. Jim (Yellow) Congratulations everyone. What a super fun day and $10bzd of each ticket went to the Sunshine Foundation. For lots more FANTASTIC pics, check out Dorian’s article in Ambergris Today. And for posts about some of the earlier cook-offs, check out the blog posts below. LONG LIVE BBQ! The Kid, The Box, and The King Photo by Rob Paul (@tempusrob) Photo by Thomas Tischio (@TischPhotos) Rising Stars and Old Faces Photo by Rob Paul (@tempusrob) Photo by Thomas Tischio (@TischPhotos) Photo by Thomas Tischio (@TischPhotos) Photo by Rob Paul (@tempusrob) Photo by Rob Paul (@tempusrob) Viewing Guide Get hyped by watching the trailer for PAX Arena! PAX Arena is this weekend at PAX South. The sequel to 2015's Smash @ PAX, PAX Arena will bring even more hype with even more top players. Here are the narratives and details heading into Melee at PAX Arena.Genesis 3 was an interesting start to 2016 for Melee's Five Gods. Out of the five, Mango, Hungrybox, and Mew2King will be eyeing first place at PAX Arena.After a somewhat disappointing 2015, Mango managed to bounce back at Genesis 3 with his best performance in recent memory. Although he lost to Axe 3-1 in the Winner's Bracket, he managed to make another one of his legendary Losers runs. After convincingly beating Plup to make top 8, Mango brought back his fast and aggressive Fox in favor of his Falco. He led many to believe prior to Genesis that he may go solo Falco, but his Fox ended up dismantling PPMD, Axe, and Nintendude. He made it to Grand Finals after a very close set with Hungrybox. Mango's biggest challenge at PAX Arena will be Hungrybox, who nearly defeated a "peak Mango" at Genesis 3. If Mango can replicate his play from Genesis, a win at PAX Arena may be likely.Steady as always is Hungrybox, whose consistency will help at PAX Arena. At Genesis 3, the Jigglypuff main had a solid run through Winners before losing to Armada. In Loser’s Finals, he had to face his long-time rival Mango, a matchup that was traditionally in Mango’s favor before 2015. Although Mango did end up winning, Hungrybox nearly managed to beat a “peak Mango” – something that would have been unlikely in years prior. If Hungrybox can get past Mango, PAX Arena may be his tournament.Mew2King will be a wild card coming into PAX Arena. 2015’s Smash @ PAX saw “The Return of the King” – as the Melee veteran beat Leffen 6-0 to win the tournament. However, with Mew2King’s disappointing result at Genesis 3 and his waning interest in Melee, the chance of another return may be unlikely. Additionally, he will have to get past Hungrybox and Mango at PAX Arena, two players who can give Mew2King trouble on a bad day. A fresh positive mindset and solid play is what Mew2King will need to win PAX Arena.Hot off his Genesis 3 performance is Axe, looking to defend the Southwest at PAX Arena. Genesis was his best tournament in a while, as he managed to beat Mango’s Falco and place 4th overall. Axe will have to face many challenges to replicate his success at PAX. Mango, Hungrybox, and Mew2King are all players that have given Axe trouble in the past, and players such as Westballz, Shroomed, and SFAT have proven to be close competitors to Axe in the past.Looking to bounce back from his Genesis 3 performance is Westballz. He ended up placing 17th at Genesis, losing to Nintendude and PewPewU. Last weekend, he managed to redeem himself by winning Frosty Faustings VIII and Super Smash Sundays over the likes of Lucky, S2J, MacD, and Duck. If Westballz can reach his high peaks, PAX Arena could be the tournament that will kick off another great year for the red Falco.Two of NorCal’s finest will be bringing their all to PAX Arena – Shroomed and SFAT. Shroomed was a model of consistency in 2015, placing top 8 at nearly every big tournament he attended. Genesis 3 proved to be another outlier for Shroomed, as he lost to Nintendude and Plup for 17th place. However, with solid records against Axe, Westballz, Lucky, and SFAT, another top 8 may be likely for Shroomed at PAX Arena. Meanwhile, SFAT will be looking to repeat his performance from Genesis 3, arguably his best tournament ever. He convincingly beat Mew2King in the Winner’s Bracket, and after being sent to Losers by PPMD, he eliminated his good friend PPU to make top 8. He capped off the tournament by winning a close set over Ice, only to be eliminated by Axe for 5th place. If SFAT can duplicate his play from Genesis 3, he will be able to make it far at PAX Arena and give players such as Axe, Westballz, Shroomed, Lucky, and S2J a challenge.Norwalk will be coming in full force at PAX Arena with Lucky and S2J in attendance in addition to Mango. Lucky was generally consistent in 2015, having some high peaks. After losing a close set with PPMD at Genesis 3, he went on to lose to Wizzrobe, ending up at 17th. With his flashy and aggressive play, Lucky can give the best a run for their money at his peak, and it will be his turn to show that at PAX Arena. Also known for his flashy and aggressive play is S2J, looking to show the improvements he has been making in his play. He placed 13th at Genesis 3, even managing to take a game from Armada. S2J has recently developed a secondary Falco, which has even had close games with Westballz recently. With his tight gameplay and his new Falco, S2J may just be set for success at PAX Arena.Wizzrobe has been very successful in Melee recently, and he will only be looking to continue that at PAX Arena. Although he lost to Alex19 early in the Winner's Bracket, he tore through the Loser's Bracket, beating Lucky and losing a very close set to Mew2King. If his Genesis 3 performance means anything, PAX Arena should be another stepping stone in Wizzrobe's road to the top.Defending his current home state of Texas is Wobbles. At Forte 3 in December, he showed that he could still compete at the top, beating out Westballz and SFAT for first place. However, his Genesis 3 result was less than spectacular, failing to make top 64 after losing to Milkman and DJ Nintendo. With a home-court advantage and no top Peaches in bracket, Wobbles could make a deep run at PAX Arena
1991) Quiet Cove (October 1, 1991) River's Peace (October 8, 1991) At Dawn's Light (October 15, 1991) Valley Waterfall (October 22, 1991) Toward Day's End (October 29, 1991) Falls in the Glen (November 5, 1991) Frozen Beauty in Vignette (November 12, 1991) Crimson Tide (November 19, 1991) Winter Bliss (November 26, 1991) Season 24 (1992) [ edit ] Grey Mountain (January 7, 1992) Wayside Pond (January 14, 1992) Teton Winter (January 21, 1992) Little Home in the Meadow (January 28, 1992) Pretty Autumn Day (February 4, 1992) Mirrored Images (February 11, 1992) Back-Country Path (February 18, 1992) Graceful Waterfall (February 25, 1992) Icy Lake (March 3, 1992) Rowboat on the Beach (March 10, 1992) Portrait of Winter (March 17, 1992) Footbridge (March 24, 1992) Snowbound Cabin (March 31, 1992) Season 25 (1992) [ edit ] Hide-a-Way Cove (August 25, 1992) Enchanted Falls Oval (September 1, 1992) Not Quite Spring (September 8, 1992) Splashes of Autumn (September 15, 1992) Summer in the Mountains (September 22, 1992) Oriental Falls (September 29, 1992) Autumn Palette (October 6, 1992) Cypress Swamp (October 13, 1992) Downstream View (October 20, 1992) Just Before the Storm (October 27, 1992) Fisherman's Paradise (November 3, 1992) Desert Hues (November 10, 1992) The Property Line (November 17, 1992) Season 26 (1992-1993) [ edit ] In the Stillness of Morning (December 1, 1992) Delightful Meadow Home (December 8, 1992) First Snow (December 15, 1992) Lake in the Valley (December 22, 1992) A Trace of Spring (December 29, 1992) An Arctic Winter Day (January 5, 1993) Snow Birch (January 12, 1993) Early Autumn (January 19, 1993) Tranquil Wooded Stream (January 26, 1993) Purple Mountain Range (February 2, 1993) Storm's a Comin' (February 9, 1993) Sunset Aglow (February 16, 1993) Evening at the Falls (February 23, 1993) Season 27 (1993) [ edit ] Twilight Beauty (March 2, 1993) Angler's Haven (March 9, 1993) Rustic Winter Woods (March 16, 1993) Wilderness Falls (March 23, 1993) Winter at the Farm (March 30, 1993) Daisies at Dawn (April 6, 1993) A Spectacular View (April 13, 1993) Daybreak (April 20, 1993) Island Paradise (April 27, 1993) Sunlight in the Shadows (May 4, 1993) Splendor of a Snowy Winter (May 11, 1993) Forest River (May 18, 1993) Golden Glow of Morning (May 20, 1993) Season 28 (1993) [ edit ] Fisherman's Trail (May 25, 1993) A Warm Winter (June 1, 1993) Under Pastel Skies (June 8, 1993) Golden Rays of Sunlight (June 15, 1993) The Magic of Fall (June 22, 1993) Glacier Lake (June 29, 1993) The Old Weathered Barn (July 6, 1993) Deep Forest Falls (July 13, 1993) Winter's Grace (July 20, 1993) Splendor of Autumn (July 27, 1993) Tranquil Seas (August 3, 1993) Mountain Serenity (August 10, 1993) Home Before Nightfall (August 17, 1993) Season 29 (1993) [ edit ] Island in the Wilderness (August 24, 1993) Autumn Oval (August 31, 1993) Seasonal Progression (September 7, 1993) Light at the Summit (September 14, 1993) Countryside Barn (September 21, 1993) Mountain Lake Falls (September 28, 1993) Cypress Creek (October 5, 1993) Trapper's Cabin (October 12, 1993) Storm on the Horizon (October 19, 1993) Pot O' Posies (October 26, 1993) A Perfect Winter Day (November 2, 1993) Aurora's Dance (November 9, 1993) Woodsman's Retreat (November 16, 1993) Season 30 (1993-1994) [ edit ] Babbling Brook (November 23, 1993) Woodgrain View (November 30, 1993) Winter's Peace (December 7, 1993) Wilderness Trail (December 14, 1993) A Copper Winter (December 21, 1993) Misty Foothills (December 28, 1993) Through the Window (January 4, 1994) Home in the Valley (January 11, 1994) Mountains of Grace (January 18, 1994) Seaside Harmony (January 25, 1994) A Cold Spring Day (February 1, 1994) Evening's Glow (February 8, 1994) Blue Ridge Falls (February 15, 1994) Season 31 (1994) [ edit ] The 31st and final season of The Joy of Painting aired on PBS in 1994, before the death of Bob Ross on July 4, 1995. Reflections of Calm (February 22, 1994) Before the Snowfall (March 1, 1994) Winding Stream (March 8, 1994) Tranquility Cove (March 15, 1994) Cabin in the Hollow (March 22, 1994) View From Clear Creek (March 29, 1994) Bridge to Autumn (April 5, 1994) Trail's End (April 12, 1994) Evergreen Valley (April 19, 1994) Balmy Beach (April 26, 1994) Lake at the Ridge (May 3, 1994) In the Midst of Winter (May 10, 1994) Wilderness Day (May 17, 1994) Legacy [ edit ] As part of its launch of Twitch Creative, Twitch.tv streamed every episode of The Joy of Painting over a nine-day period starting on October 29, 2015, what would have been Ross' 73rd birthday.[9][10][11] Twitch reported that 5.6 million viewers watched the marathon, and due to its popularity, created a weekly rebroadcast of all 31 seasons of The Joy of Painting to air on Twitch each Monday from November 2015 onward, and will have a marathon of episodes each October 29. A portion of the advertising revenue has been promised to charities, including St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.[12] This event was also repeated on October 29, 2016, for his 74th birthday.[13] In 1993, Ross made TV commercials for MTV. In 2015, all 403 episodes of The Joy of Painting were added to the official Bob Ross YouTube channel.[14] In 1994, Bob Ross appeared on Bill Nye the Science Guy, where he did a self-parody segment entitled "The Artistic Eye with Bob Ross". In June 2016, Netflix repackaged several 1991–1992 episodes of The Joy of Painting under the moniker Beauty Is Everywhere.[15] A second package of episodes titled Chill with Bob Ross was added in December. In November 2017, the first teaser trailer for the 2018 film Deadpool 2 was released, featuring a parody of The Joy of Painting.[16]Iraqi special forces paused their advance in an eastern district of Mosul on Wednesday to clear a neighborhood of any remaining Islamic State militants, killing eight while carrying out house-to-house clearances. Six of the militants were killed inside a tunnel in the newly-recaptured Gogjali neighborhood, while the other two were shot dead as they advanced on troops, Lt. Col. Muhanad al-Timimi of the Iraqi special forces told The Associated Press. One of the militants was wearing an explosives-laden vest, he added. Meanwhile, hundreds of civilians cleared out of the adjacent neighborhood of al-Samah, some carrying white flags. All the women were wearing the niqab, a veil that entirely covers the face or only has a small, slit-like opening for the eyes, and all the men had long beards. ISIS strictly enforces an Islamic a dress code in territory it holds. Throughout the day, special forces could be seen going house to house in Gogjali, Mosul's easternmost district, while sappers searched the road for explosives and booby traps left behind by the jihadis driven out a day earlier. Gen. Abdul-Ghani al-Asadi, the top counterterrorism forces commander, told reporters a curfew had been imposed in the neighborhood while gains there were being consolidated. "We fear that Daesh militants could attack our forces or the town with mortars," he said, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS. "So for the safety of the families we ask them to stay inside their houses." He spoke in the town of Bartella, some 9 miles behind the front lines. Brig. Gen. Haider Fadhil said that no advances were planned while high humidity and clouds obscured the view of aircraft and drones — a key component to the operations provided by a U.S.-led air campaign. The guns were largely silent during the day in Gogjali, which is inside Mosul's city limits but just outside more urban districts, although sporadic rifle cracks could be heard as well as some army artillery fire on ISIS positions. Fadhil said special forces had detained three suspected ISIS militants in the area. The pause came a day after Iraqi troops set foot in the city for the first time in more than two years, gearing up for urban warfare expected to take weeks, if not months. In the next stage, troops will have to navigate streets likely lined with booby traps, fighting house to house while trying to avoid killing civilians, more than one million of whom are still in the city. Further to the south, where progress has been much slower, Federal Police forces captured four small villages outside the Hamam al-Alil area, over 19 miles from Mosul, the army said. The largest of the four is Min Gar, some 6 miles west of Hamam al-Alil, spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool said of the Wednesday morning operation. Mosul is the last major ISIS stronghold in Iraq, and driving the militant group from the city would be a major blow to its ambitions of creating a cross-border "caliphate" stretching into Syria. ISIS announced the project in Mosul in 2014, after it routed the much larger Iraqi military, which had been neglected and demoralized by corruption. However, concern over the fate of civilians caught up in the fighting has been growing, after residents reported that ISIS militants were rounding up thousands of people to use as human shields and killing those with suspected links to the security forces. According to one account given to the AP, the fighters went door to door in villages south of Mosul, ordering hundreds of people at gunpoint to march north into the city, where urban fighting is expected to be heaviest and the presence of civilians will slow the army's advance as it tries to avoid killing innocents. In the latest international condemnation of ISIS, which has carried out mass killings of perceived opponents in the past and boasted about them in grisly photos and videos circulated online, the United Nations called on authorities to collect evidence of ISIS abuses of civilians for future use by tribunals. The Norwegian Refugee Council warned that more than 1 million civilians trapped inside Mosul "are in grave danger" as Iraqi troops advance into the city. The aid group, which works with refugees and internally displaced people, said that around 18,000 Iraqis have fled their homes since the start of the massive Mosul military operation over two weeks ago. Its Iraq chief, Wolfgang Gressmann, said the agency's aid workers were "bracing... for the worst." "The lives of 1.2 million civilians are in grave danger, and the future of all of Iraq is now in the balance," he said Adama Dieng, special adviser to the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the prevention of genocide, also expressed concern over "the increasing risk" of sectarian violence or revenge attacks during the Mosul campaign, especially where state-sanctioned Iraqi Shiite militias are approaching Sunni communities. "Any kind of retaliatory violence against individuals on the basis of their membership of a specific group is unacceptable," he said in a statement released Tuesday. Political rhetoric on the issue has been heating up, after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently warned that Turkey would be closely monitoring Shiite militias' behavior in northern Iraq and seeking to safeguard the rights of ethnic Turkmens there. Erdogan said the Iraqi Shiite militias could prompt a Turkish response if they "terrorize" the Iraqi-Turkmen town of Tal-Afar. On Tuesday, Turkey's defense minister said his country was making preparations for "all kinds of possibilities" as the Turkish military began deploying tanks and other vehicles to the border town of Silopi. In a televised speech later that evening to praise the Mosul operation, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi downplayed an escalation. "We don't want war with Turkey. We do not want confrontation with Turkey," he said. But if it happens, "we are ready." Separately, Amnesty International said government-sanctioned tribal Sunni fighters taking part in the Mosul operation had carried out revenge attacks against men and boys they suspected of being ISIS militants in newly-liberated areas. Fighters from the Sabawi tribe, originally from Mosul, unlawfully rounded up civilians, beat them with metal rods, gave them electric shocks and tied some of them to the bonnets of vehicles and paraded through the streets or placed in cages, the London-based group said in a report based on interviews with local officials and eyewitnesses.Nevada voters oppose raising hotel room taxes to pay for a proposed $1.9 billion domed stadium that could potentially house the relocated Oakland Raiders, according to a new KTNV-TV 13 Action News/Rasmussen Reports poll. The poll of 800 likely voters found that 52 percent opposed raising hotel room taxes to build the stadium, with 32 percent favoring the idea and 14 percent undecided. The poll was conducted between Sept. 16 and 18, and after an advisory committee approved recommendations for the stadium plan to Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, who is being pressured to quickly call a special session of the state Legislature to approve the deal. Rasmussen polls historically have a Republican bias, according to a FiveThirtyEight ranking of polling groups. Stadium backers led by Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson have proposed construction of a $1.9 billion domed stadium near the south end of the Las Vegas Strip that would house the UNLV football team and potentially the Raiders. The proposal calls for $750 million in room taxes, $500 million from the Raiders and NFL and $650 million from Adelson. Sands representatives pledged to take care of any cost overruns and associated infrastructure costs from building the stadium, but said the proposed $750 million in room tax money is non-negotiable. Any proposal raising taxes requires a two-thirds vote of the Legislature, which isn’t scheduled to meet until February 2017. Stadium developers say a special session, which must be called by Sandoval, is needed to put together a proposal relocating the Raiders in time for the NFL’s owners meeting in January. Voters were specifically asked, “Do you favor or oppose increasing Las Vegas hotel room taxes to raise $750 million to help pay for a stadium to house the Oakland Raiders?” Opposition to funding the stadium through tax dollars was unanimous across nearly all demographic lines, including 50 percent of voters polled in Clark County. Voters who favored the stadium proposal were asked if they thought the level of taxes raised was too high, too low or just right. Of those voters, 58 percent said the amount proposed was “just right,” with nine percent saying it was too low and 20 percent saying it was too high. Voters were also asked if voting to raise taxes for stadium construction would make them more or less likely to support their state legislator. Twenty percent said they’d be more likely to vote for legislators who approved the stadium deal, while 38 percent said an affirmative vote would make them less likely to support that legislator and 36 percent said it would have no impact.. The results echo an earlier 13 Action News/Rasmussen Reports poll from July, which found 55 percent of voters opposed to the concept of using up to $500 million in public funds to help build a stadium. The 13 Action News/Rasmussen Reports poll has a four percent margin of error with a 95 percent level of confidence. The poll was conducted using a mix of 75 percent automated voice polling and 25 percent online responses. Full crosstabs and demographic breakdown of polling results are available here. KTNV will release additional polling results this week on topics including the presidential race, the U.S. Senate race, a ballot question to legalize recreational marijuana and voter opinion on recent action take to overhaul the Clark County School District.The Excellence of KiwiBerries 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 image carousel by WOWSlider.com v7.2 The Pioneering of Genetics and Management of a new Organic Specialty Crop Unrivaled in Taste, Nutrition and Born & Bred in America We are the only Certified Organic Breeder-Grower-Packer-Marketer of fresh fruit Kiwi Berries. Celebrating 30 Years! Our Passion Poppers have the highest Brix, soluble solids content (ssc), of any kiwi fruit developed for human consumption. Kiwi Berry Direct is our on-farm direct - to - consumer shipping program that will deliver Kiwi Berries to your doorstep! Chef Bill and Karen Scepansky, owners of Smart Partners, have distributed our Passion Poppers to PA Schools for the past 3 years. Read More The next generation of Hi-Brix Hybrids created at our farm, additions to the "Passion" series, have the highest Brix ever recorded. Read More "We're the only one in the world"...developing and growing Kiwi Berries to sell along the East Coast. Read the article The Original and still the Best of Kiwi Berries Sustainable Through Repeat Consumer Demand Pioneering Passion Perseverance PrideIt was the best of years, it was the worst of years. To hear some folks tell it, 2017 marked a hideous cataclysm in the affairs of man. “So long 2017, you won’t be missed,” wrote Robert Schlesinger in US News & World Report. “Little went well in 2017,” this sage confided in his threnody, “but maybe 2018 will be better.” Mel Robbins, writing for CNN, sounded a similar note. “This year,” Robbins wrote, “I heard so many people ask, ‘Is this really happening?’” 2017 was “bizarre,” an “alternate reality.” What happened in 2017 to mark it out as a year that will live in infamy? Dear Reader, I hope that you are sitting down. You will hardly believe the hideous truth. Quaff a bit of brandy. Have the smelling salts at hand. What was the unspeakable reality that sent almost the entire U.S. media, the academic establishment in toto, nearly all of Hollywood, and Democratic politicians from Washington state to Florida into hysterical mourning? Are you ready? Steady on. Take a deep breath. OK, here it is.Lot Details Grateful Dead "Skull and Roses" banner from the Grateful Dead movie, used by Bill Graham at Winterland Natural canvas and purple cotton, embroidered with red and yellow; age soiled, waterstained. According to Rudson Shurtliff, a Merry Prankster and Hard Trucker, "This Skull & Roses banner was hung at Winterland in SFO. Upon the closing of Winterland Bill Graham gave this banner to his good friend Ram Rod. Now it can be yours..." Rock Scully remembers, "Bill Graham told me when we were discussing the Dead's five night stand at Winterland in S.F., 'This is going to be big, Rock, really big.' Bill was talking about his new set of two gigantic banners. One was this Skull and Roses the other the Stones' Lips logo. Bill's crew had just finished suspending them from the rafters behind the stage. Off hand I replied that it was a good thing they were big since they were going to be in the movies. 'What movie?,' cried Bill. Hence began an historical tirade at top volume. In the end Ram Rod and I had to sit him down and cool him out. We began by explaining that we were all feeling pretty worn out. It was time for the Dead to take a break. These were probably going to be our last shows for a year or maybe forever and hence Jerry's keen desire to film and record them. Bill was stunned and when I left Winterland that afternoon Ram Rod went to Bill's office to try and console him. Later in San Rafael, I asked Ram Rod how Bill was taking this news. He said Bill was feeling better after being reminded how much better those banners were going to make his shabby old Winterland look in the movies. The Skull and Roses banner hung there for another four years before Bill decided to shut the place down before it fell down. The bands final show at Winterland was New Year's Eve 1978. Not long after that Bill asked Ram Rod he could come over to his house in Marin. At that meeting he gifted this banner to Ram Rod thanking him for their many years of friendship and reminding him that he wanted to be the first to know when the Dead wanted to work again." 360 x 360 in.On May 23rd, the organizers of the FreeOK Oklahoma Freethought Convention decided to hold a fundraiser for Rebecca Vitsmun. Vitsmun, as you might recall, was the woman who famously told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that she was an atheist when he asked her if she was thanking the Lord following the tornado: The fundraiser put Vitsmun’s phrase, “I’m actually an atheist,” on t-shirts: These shirts will be sold online and at the FreeOK Convention in June for a $25 donation to a relief fund designated to help our heroine and her son get through this very difficult time. All tees are black, 100% cotton with “I’m actually an atheist” screen printed in white with the scarlet letter A that has come to be associated with atheism. Ladies cuts are available. When ordering, you may choose to have your tee shipped or have it waiting for you at the convention on June 22nd. As always, your support is appreciated. Awesome, right? You got a shirt and Vitsmun’s family received some money to help them out through their difficult time. In fact, FreeOK sold over 1,000 shirts — they’re still fulfilling orders as we speak, but we’ll know very soon how much money will be given to the Vitsmuns. Here’s where things get weird. On May 25th, two days after the fundraiser began, a San Francisco-based man named Richard Cox bought the domain name ImActuallyAnAtheist.com and began selling t-shirts that were clearly a rip-off of those sold by FreeOK: Cox also extended the line of clothing to phrases like “I’m actually a Buddhist” and “I’m actually an Improviser” and other things that made no sense at all outside of any context. Why did he do that? Who knows. Maybe to throw people off. We also don’t know how many shirts he sold. Either way, none of the money from his shirts went to Vitsmun’s family (or any relief efforts that we know about). Kai Tancredi, the Events & Social Media Coordinator for the FreeOK conference, told me via email why this was so upsetting to her: … I’m less concerned with the legality of his actions and more irritated with the opportunism. We’ve spent way too much energy preserving the design and intent of the Actually merchandise we sell for strictly non-profit purposes. … I have contacted both CafePress and Mr. Cox via email with a cease and desist request and 72 hours to comply before the matter is escalated. I don’t know who this guy is — given his name, “Dick Cox,” it may just be a pseudonym — but I hope he does the right thing, shuts the store down, and gives any money he made to charity. What a horrible thing to do, to take a wonderful act of generosity and repurpose it in order to divert the funding and make money for yourself.This is the ECB’s monetary policy objective: “Inflation rates of below, but close to, 2%” Have a look at the graph below and tell me if the ECB is fullfilling it’s objective… Oops I forgot – the ECB is not targeting a 2% inflation measured by the GDP deflator, but instead is targeting euro zone CPI (HICP) inflation, which of course includes non-monetary factors such as import prices and indirect taxes. You all of course know that it would make much more sense to target the GDP deflator than CPI (if not see here), but then again then the ECB would have to ease monetary policy aggressively… PS if you wonder why German 10-year bond yields are inching closer and closer to 1% you might want to have a look at the GDP deflator graph once again… Update: Scott Sumner has a related post. AdvertisementsGamers often talk about the convergence of film and games. But in Life Is Strange, some of my favorite moments are the literary allusions because they make the world feel richer and more authentic. That starts with Max’s last name, Caulfield, which is a reference to Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye, the iconic rebel who calls everything “phony.” At first, I wasn’t sure if the reference was intentional, but then there’s a poster of The Wingers and the Cow in Max’s room which mirrors the cover for Catcher. There’s also a moment when she inspects a hunter’s hat near the principal’s office and notes how “Only a total ‘phony’ would wear a creepy hat like that.” While the two Caulfield’s personalities are different, the spirit of defiance and being an outsider imbue both. Advertisement Max’s hobby, photography, plays an important role throughout the game. The school guard is setting up cameras to survey the entire campus in the name of security so the callbacks to Big Brother and 1984 are somewhat obvious in that context (also one of the missing persons disappeared in June 8, 1984- the actual 1984 was published on June 8, 1949). But the guard can be photographed harassing Kate Marsh, who in turn has a rabbit called Alice a la Alice in Wonderland. You’ve borrowed a book from Kate, The October Country by Ray Bradbury, which is a collection of darkly twisted short stories. This reflects the way that Life Is Strange is in some ways also a collection of short stories about the strange citizens of Arcadia Bay. Another Bradbury short story, “A Sound of Thunder,” is also mentioned, which is about a world in which time travel is done as a fun excursion. The story illustrates the “butterfly effect” when a group of hunters go back to 65 million years in the past to kill a tyrannosaurus. The main character accidentally kills a butterfly so that when he returns to his time, a cascade of differences has changed their present. It’s no coincidence that you also see butterflies throughout Life Is Strange. Advertisement Horror book references abound. One of the dorm room slates reads, “Redrum,” or “murder” in reverse, a macabre reference to The Shining that seems relevant in the sense of Max possessing special powers like her literary counterpart, Danny Lloyd. Max calls one of the dogs she sees “Cujo,” the eponymous dog who goes on a rampage in the Stephen King classic. She also has Battle Royale in her possession, the powerful novel by Koushun Takami where a bunch of high school students are forced to kill each other (this came before The Hunger Games). While Life Is Strange hasn’t broken out into a gladiatorial fight to kill each other yet, the social competitions are mental bouts for social prestige that take a serious toll on the students, depending, of course, on the choices Max makes (Kate’s arc is really rough). “Moby Deck Tours” is a callback to Moby Dick and a fight against the cosmic indifference of life, which Max is struggling against. In the dormitories, a William Blake poem is quoted for Kate: “Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright, in the forest of the night.” The poem is outwardly about the celestial war for the Heavens, but can also represent the internal battle for our own humanity. As Kate has struggled with personal demons, it’s a poetic attempt by Max to show her support. Advertisement In one of the photos Max sees, Chloe’s mom, Joyce, is with Ken Kesey, the author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest as well as Sailor Song. The latter novel takes place in Kuinak, a small fishing town similar to Arcadia Bay that is one of the few places on the planet left that hasn’t been ravaged by environmental destruction. Max also mentions Jack Keroac, which evokes the spirit of being “On the Road” and their desire for a carefree life, which Chloe often mentions. Chloe also refers to Max multiple times as “Sherlock,” an obvious connection with the famous sleuth as they try to find a missing girl, Rachel Amber. There’s multiple Hamlet references and Max’s facebook header, “Time is Bunk” is a quote from The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy. I’m sure the ability to rewind time and change your decisions would make for an interesting addition to the galactic map. A construction agreement you find is signed by Howard Roark, the stubborn protagonist of The Fountainhead whose architectural purity I’ve heard jokingly referred to as the bane of many architect professors. When stealing money from the principal’s office, Max mentions spending time at Powell’s Books, which is the largest independent bookstore for used books in the world and a nice callout to one of the coolest group of bookstores in Portland. Advertisement I’m sure there’s some I’ve missed and many more to come (I just started the fourth chapter). The best part about the literary references is, they’re not intrusive, but rather, primarily exist to fill out the world and give it more texture. If you catch them, great. But if not, it doesn’t hamper the experience or detract from it all. Life Is Strange would be remarkable without a single literary reference. That it seamlessly blends them into the universe is a testament to the fantastic writing from Dontnod Entertainment and its dedication to creating an experience that shows life is strange, but also fascinatingly complex. It actually reminded me of a moment from another Square game, Chrono Trigger, and its powerful trial scene. Just the way your early choices in the classic JRPG impact the way the trial happens, Max’s decisions have an even bigger role throughout the whole of Life Is Strange. None of that would matter if you didn’t care about those people. Fortunately, in decisions like adding literary references from the real world, Life Is Strange goes a long way to creating believable characters in a believable world.Op-ed: Witness to Stonewall History, 46 Years Later Taking the elevator at the Manhattan Municipal Building to the Landmark Preservation Committee on the 9th floor, an elderly woman just slipped in as the doors were closing. She looked at me, and asked “Going to the hearing?” Pleasantly taken aback, I laughed and said yes, pleased in that moment to be obviously, visibly gay. On the ride up she expressed her hope that there would be a large crowd. The hearing that we were both attending was for the presentation of research materials and testimonies for granting of landmark status to the Stonewall Inn, at 51-53 Christopher St. The crowd, though not huge, was larger than most audiences for LPC public hearings, and was notable for the palpable sense of camaraderie and excitement that pervaded the halls outside the hearing room. While we waited for the two proposals on the docket preceding the proposal for the Stonewall Inn to be decided, people chatted with arriving friends while others handed out stickers in support of the measure, fliers for meetings about the preservation of other significant sites in the LGBT struggle for equality, and the form to fill out if interested in testifying. The Stonewall Inn is already on the National Registry of Historic Places and is a New York state historic landmark, and was included in the Greenwich Village Historic District even before the June 28, 1969 uprising against the police by gays, lesbian, bisexual and transgender bar patrons. However, these provisions do not provide enough protection for the building against changes its owners may want to make, and more importantly, this is the first building in New York City to be considered for landmark preservation specifically for its significance in the struggle for LGBT rights. After a brief overview of the building’s history from when construction began in 1863 through the first commemoration of the uprising in 1970, New York City Public Advocate Leticia James started the proceedings with a heartfelt testimony in which she described the confrontation between police and patrons at the Stonewall Inn as significant to all marginalized and oppressed peoples as “a symbol of rebellion and standing up for your rights.” For almost two hours, speaker after speaker gave short but impassioned speeches about the historic and cultural significance of the Stonewall Inn. City Council member Corey Johnson described coming to New York for the first time when he was 17, and heading to the Stonewall Inn within the first two hours, and closed his remarks by pointing out that “there are few locations that can be cited as the birthplace of an entire movement.” Speakers representing the state senate, City Comptroller Scott Stringer, the National Trust, the National Parks Conservation Association, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, as well as private citizens — including three men who had participated in the rebellion — described the Stonewall uprising as “the embodiment of the American spirit,” representing “the first time gay people stood up for themselves, and won” and as part of “a long continuum of the American experience.” One participant in the original rebellion reminded the assembled of the police and mafia collusion that lead up to the events of that night, and said that while he was grateful for it, it really was “an awful place.” Among the over 20 people offering testimony, multiple people, including an LPC committee member, mentioned the unattractiveness and banality of the building’s façade, and its lack of any true architectural relevance. However, this in itself was a milestone in New York City preservation — the designation to protect this unremarkable-looking building was being sought exclusively for what had happened there, not how it looked, and as Ken Lustbader, co-founder of the New York City LGBT Historic Sites Project pointed out, privacy-enhancing features like “the size and configuration of the doors and windows” are significant as “a vernacular architectural expression of LGBT history in New York City.” When the last speaker had had their say, Commissioner Meenakshi Srinivasan said, to much excitement, that “it is clear that the people have spoken,” and that the committee would now do something to her knowledge unprecedented, and vote immediately, instead of reviewing the materials and scheduling the vote for a future session. The committee voted unanimously in favor of granting the Stonewall Inn landmark status, to the assembled crowd’s loud and extended applause. After several committee members spoke movingly about the significance of this for all historical preservation, the crowd filed out and ebullient strangers congratulated each other for what had just taken place, and spurred on by victory, discussed all the other sites — Julius’s Bar, the LGBT Center on 13th Street, the firehouse at 99 Wooster St — that hold significance for our community and that must be next on the preservation agenda. RICHARD WILLIAM ALLEN is a writer living in New York City. He is currently working on a memoir of gay life in Tel Aviv.As he was coming back from one of his many fishing expeditions in Hardy, Virginia, retired goalie Dan Berthiaume received a call from ECHL commissioner Brian McKenna. Having not played in the ECHL since 2004, Berthiaume was completely unaware of why McKenna was calling. “To be honest, I wasn’t even aware they had a Hall of Fame for the ECHL,” recalls Berthiaume in a phone interview with TheSinBin.net. “It was something that never really crossed my mind and really surprised me. I was touched when I heard from Mr. McKenna I was going to be inducted and it’s a proud moment for me.” Berthiaume played 364 games in the ECHL and is one of three goalies to have over 200 wins all-time (Nick Vitucci and Marc Magliarditi being the other two), is tied for first with Vitucci for more 20-or-more-win seasons, and held the record for longest winning streak by a goalie for two decades until his 13-game streak from 1994-95 was broken by Jeff Jakaitis in 2014-15 during the South Carolina Stingrays’ amazing run. With all of that
á'í Faith. Early life [ edit ] Rocco was born as Alessandro Federico Petricone, Jr.[2] in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1936, but raised in nearby Somerville, the son of an Italian immigrant,[3] Mary (née DiBiase; 1909–1978) and Alessandro Sam Petricone (1896-1949)[4], a native of Gaeta, Italy.[5][6] According to organized crime turncoat Vincent Teresa, Alex was a hanger-on with the Winter Hill Gang of the Boston area. An unwanted advance toward Petricone's then girlfriend on Labor Day, 1961, touched off the Boston Irish Gang War of the 1960s. Georgie McLaughlin, who made the advance, was beaten by Winter Hill Gang members.[7] Howie Carr, a Boston-area journalist and radio personality who has written extensively about the Boston underworld, has written that the young Petricone (whose nickname was "Bobo") was arrested in Charlestown in November 1961 along with Winter Hill boss Buddy McLean for questioning following the death of Bernie McLaughlin of the Charlestown Mob, the first murder of the war.[8] Petricone was released without charge and moved to California in 1962. (When he returned to the Boston area in 1972 to play a bank robber in the film The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Petricone — now using the name "Alex Rocco" — set up a meeting between Robert Mitchum and local Irish-American gangsters to help Mitchum research his part as Eddie Coyle, a low-level Irish-American criminal. Rocco introduced Mitchum to Howie Winter, leader of the Winter Hill Gang.[9] Another Winter Hill Gang member who met with Mitchum was Johnny Martorano, who had murdered Billy O'Brien, a low-level gangster.[10]) He first worked as a bartender in Santa Monica, California and took acting lessons from actor Leonard Nimoy, a fellow Boston native. Nimoy was not impressed with Rocco's heavy Boston accent and told him to take speech lessons. Rocco followed through with Nimoy's instructions and after ridding himself of the accent came back to study under Nimoy and character actor and teacher Jeff Corey.[citation needed] Career [ edit ] Rocco played the part of Moe Greene, a Las Vegas casino owner, in the film The Godfather. Greene's character represented the top Jewish mobster in Las Vegas; although he sought an Italian role, director Francis Ford Coppola remarked "I got my Jew!" on seeing Rocco.[1] Other notable films in which Rocco appeared include The Wedding Planner, as Salvatore and (uncredited] Smokin' Aces. In the film That Thing You Do!, Rocco played Sol Siler, the founder of Playtone Records.[citation needed] In the fall of 1975, Rocco starred in the role of Pete Karras, a widowed father, writer, and photographer, in a 12-week CBS drama series Three for the Road, with Vincent Van Patten as his older son, John Karras, and Leif Garrett as his younger son, Endy Karras. After the death of their wife and mother, the Karrases sell their house, buy a recreational vehicle, and roam throughout the United States.[11] He played Charlie Polniaczek, Jo's father on The Facts of Life. In 1989, he played Gus Keller in the Corey Feldman and Corey Haim movie Dream a Little Dream. From 1989–90, Rocco was a regular on the television comedy series The Famous Teddy Z as "Al Floss", a Hollywood talent agent. He received an Emmy Award as Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for this role in 1990. In 1997, he appeared (along with Rodney Dangerfield) in the annual Thanksgiving episode of the ABC sitcom Home Improvement.[citation needed] Rocco also had a recurring part in the long running animated series The Simpsons as the head of Itchy and Scratchy Studios, Roger Meyers, Jr. In DVD commentaries, Rocco expressed true gratitude to The Simpsons' staff for allowing him his first voice-over role. He did further voice work on two early episodes of another Fox sitcom, Family Guy. Rocco did a voiceover on the 1998 Disney/Pixar film A Bug's Life, deeming it his "greatest prize in life" as he was paid $1 million to record eight lines.[1] In 2008, he starred in Audi's Super Bowl commercial for the Audi R8 supercar. The commercial was inspired by one of the films Rocco was in: The Godfather. He played a rich man who finds the front fascia of his luxury car in his bed, a nod to the scene from the original movie in which Jack Woltz, a rich movie producer, finds the head of his prized racehorse in his bed.[12] He was also featured on the Starz cable channel's crime-drama series, Magic City.[13] Personal life [ edit ] After moving to Los Angeles, Rocco became a member of the Bahá'í Faith,[14] and he appeared in a number of productions related to the religion over the years.[15][16][17] He also thanked Bahá'u'lláh in his Emmy Award acceptance speech.[18] His first marriage was to Grace Petricone, and they had one daughter, Maryann. After moving to California, he married Sandra Elaine Rocco (September 1, 1942 – June 12, 2002)[19] on March 24, 1964. He adopted her son, Marc King, who became known as Marc Rocco (June 19, 1962 – May 1, 2009), a film producer, screenwriter, and director.[20] The couple had two children, a daughter Jennifer and a son, Lucien, and one grandson. Sandra Rocco died of cancer, aged 59. Rocco remarried, to Shannon Wilcox on October 15, 2005.[21] Alex Rocco died on July 18, 2015 from pancreatic cancer in Studio City, Los Angeles, at the age of 79.[1] Filmography [ edit ] Film [ edit ] Television [ edit ]The updated lexicon for civics lessons, which was reexamined in the Education Ministry after criticism by the High Court of Justice, continues to present Israeli Arabs as hostile to the state, the High Court as controversial and democracy as procedural in essence. It turns out that while most of the changes in the pamphlet are cosmetic, there are several substantial changes that are likely to increase criticism against it: In the definition of the National Education Law, the importance of the study of Jewish culture in the schools was emphasized; statements such as “most Israeli citizens agree on its description as a Jewish state” are now presented as facts, without reservations; and the statement that many Israeli Arabs will prefer to remain citizens of the state even if a Palestinian state is established - was erased. Most of the changes are in line with the textbook “Being a Citizen in Israel,” Most of the changes are in line with the textbook “Being a Citizen in Israel,” which was published in 2016 and criticized by professionals due to its religious content and attitude towards Arabs, although the pamphlet is meant to be used by civics teachers in all the state schools in the coming year, and is supposed to be submitted to the High Court on Monday. But members of the committee claim there are many defects, and there is no agreement on the pamphlet among committee members, many of whom have dozens of reservations about it. — Advertisement — The pamphlet of concepts in civics has changed from being an aid for checking the matriculation exams to a tool that dictates the method of study in class, because the definitions it contains are those that the students need for the exam, rather than the ones that appear in the three approved civics texts. Last week academics and civics teachers petitioned the High Court to stop use of the pamphlet to prepare for the exam because it contradicts the curriculum, serves as a propaganda tool for the Education Ministry and because there were many defects in the process of preparing and approving it. Supreme Court Justices Salim Joubran, Zvi Zylbertal and Yoram Danziger harshly criticized the content, attacked the Education Ministry for the preparation process and ordered an explanation of why it should still be used. But the justice’s criticisms and the petitioners’ claims were barely taken into account in the updated version. For example, a statement presenting Arabs as hostile to the state was left in place. The statement that some Christians don’t want to identify as Arabs, which Joubran said is a marginal phenomenon, was erased, but the division of the Arabs into three groups: Christians, “some of whom volunteer for national or military service,” Druze who “are part of the country’s security apparatus” “ and Muslims “a minority of whom volunteer for service” - was retained. The new pamphlet says that most of the Bedouin serve in the army or do national service, but the Israel Defense Forces recently noted a decline in their numbers. Keep updated: Sign up to our newsletter Email * Please enter a valid email address Sign up Please wait… Thank you for signing up. We've got more newsletters we think you'll find interesting. Click here Oops. Something went wrong. Please try again later. Try again Thank you, This email address has already registered for this newsletter. Close Zylbertal’s protest against presentation of the Supreme Court as controversial didn’t affect the new version. — Advertisement — The petitioners also protested against the focus on the Jewish identity of the state, as well as the downplaying of the democratic basis in the definition of the state (basic democratic values such as freedom and equality don’t appear in the pamphlet), and there is no real change in the new version. Prominent among the additions to the new pamphlet is the treatment of the National Education Law. To a sentence from the law to the effect that one goal of the school system “is love of the people and the land and the study of Israel’s heritage and the Jewish tradition,” the following was added: “The law emphasizes the importance of teaching Jewish tradition in the schools.” This is not part of the law, but it justifies the ministry’s steps to strengthen Jewish tradition in state (secular) schools. In the chapter about minorities, the definition of Arabic as a language with a special status rather than an official language remains. This same idea appears in the nation-state bill that is now in the Knesset, and is designed to weaken the status of Arabic in Israel. The committee of civics professionals approved the new pamphlet last week, but the members haven’t actually reached an agreement. Many of them are demanding a revote, but there may be no time for that. Reliable sources said that the version approved in the committee was drawn up by a limited group of members, and doesn’t reflect the views of most of them, or agreement on a common denominator. Dr. Moshe Hellinger, a political science professor at Bar Ilan University, said that “parts of the pamphlet dealing with democracy in Israel are worthy but the part dealing with the image of the Jewish state contains a systematic presentation of a narrative that the Arab minority simply cannot be part of. The part dealing with the Jewish nation state accords with right-wing legislation to emphasize Israel’s Jewish nature - particularly with characteristics that exclude the Palestinian minority.” There were so many reservations that some members had no time to present their views. Nevertheless, after three hours of discussion committee chairman Dr. Asaf Malach brought the version to a vote without introducing changes, despite considerable opposition. In the end it was approved by a 6-5 majority, and will probably be the version submitted to the High Court and used in the coming year. The Education Ministry said that the index of concepts has not yet been agreed on and the discussion is being conducted according to all the rules followed in committee discussions of this kind.” Malach said that this report contains two systematic defects: ridiculing and demonizing views that don’t accord with the newspaper’s policy, and a clearly distorted presentation of the procedural issues.Russian Media: Snowden Checked Out of Hotel For exactly a month, NSA leaker Edward Snowden has sat holed up in a Moscow airport, caught in the purgatory of its so-called "transit zone." Now, he’s gone. Or at least that’s what RIA-Novosti is reporting. "If I’m not mistaken he is not here," a hotel employee told the state-run news agency. If Snowden has in fact left the Sheremetyevo airport, his departure would mark an appropriate end to the media spectacle that has played out inside its terminals. As Snowden has fed documents to his preferred media outlets and the world marveled at the true capabilities of the NSA, the man behind those revelations has stayed almost entirely out of the spotlight. He provided one interview to the Guardian at an early stage in his saga, and then, promptly disappeared. With the exception of a meeting with human rights groups, Snowden has managed to utterly elude the combined efforts of the global media. False rumors that he had boarded an Aeroflot flight to Havana, sent the media scrambling to buy tickets on the flight. Camera crews dreamed of interviewing him aboard the flight, but his seat remained empty, leaving the disappointed reporters with a pointless one way flight to Havana — one of the few that doesn’t serve alcohol. At one point, the Associated Press sent a reporter to Moscow without a Russian visa for the express purpose of getting himself detained in the hotel where Snowden was allegedly hiding. But Snowden was nowhere to be found, and the reporter’s only real accomplishment was to get into arguments with his jailer at the hotel. When Snowden finally appeared in public to speak with human rights activists, journalists weren’t invited and were left to deduce what was said from second-hand accounts and tweets from the meeting. Now, the world’s most elusive celebrity seems to have checked out of his hotel and managed to continue his incredible streak of passing unnoticed under prying eyes. Consider for a moment the number of authorities Snowden has now managed to deceive and evade: the NSA, Booz Allen Hamilton, the combined forces of U.S. law enforcement and the State Department, and the international press corps in Hong Kong and Moscow. So why did he ever leave? Well, for one thing the room service is terribly expensive, according to the AP: Buffalo mozzarella and pesto dressing starter? 720 roubles (about $20). Ribeye steak: 1,500 roubles (about $50). Bottle of Brunello di Montalcino red wine: 5,280 roubles ($165). A miniature bottle of Hennessy XO cognac: 2,420 roubles ($80). Or maybe Snowden has grown tired of being holed up in a hotel that functions more like a jail for visa-less travelers than the luxury accommodation its room service makes it out to be. "Should you wish to see the full range of facilities offered by our hotel during your next stay, we strongly recommend you to get a visa before flying to Moscow," a sign at the capsule hotel reads. Or does Snowden even exist? Out of sight like Schrödinger’s cat, he occupies a strange metaphysical space to his global audience, dead and alive to us all at once.After officially filing a lawsuit against Kris and Luhan for illegally continuing promotions in China through the Shanghai court on the 4th, SM Entertainment has filed another lawsuit against Luhan and affiliated movie production companies through the Hong Kong court on the 10th. The agency released the following statement: "After filing a lawsuit through the Shanghai court in China on February 4, SM Entertainment has officially filed a lawsuit against Luhan and the movie production companies, which allowed Luhan to star in a film without notice, through the Hong Kong court on February 10. As revealed in our previous statement, we will take legal measures to protect the rights and profits of SM, EXO, and other victims affected by the illegal celebrity promotions and breach of contract, and prevent such infringement of rights. Until there is a final verdict from the court, the contracts between SM, Kris (Wu Yi Fan), and Luhan are still valid and effective, meaning that all commercial activities, endorsement deals, and movie filming and appearances are a breach of contract and infringement of SM and EXO's rights and profits. Despite SM having the exclusive rights as Luhan's agency and management all over the world including Korea, China, and Hong Kong, [Luhan] violated his contract by starring in a Hong Kong movie, and because the Hong Kong movie production companies allowed Luhan to star in the film without any prior consent from SM, they have to take joint legal responsibility. Through our legal team KING&WOOD MALLESONS, we've officially filed a lawsuit against Luhan and Luhan's movie production companies at the Hong Kong court. SM plans to take legal action against any blindly-following company or individual for all of the illegal promotions whether it is in China, Hong Kong or another country." UPDATE -- SM Entertainment also revealed to Ilgan Sports on the 11th that they're preparing to file a new lawsuit against Kris as well.In August we heard about the first wave of Motorola Mobility’s cost saving and rationalisation strategies. The company had been taken over in May by Google and it really did seem like a case of the new broom sweeping more cleanly; 4,000 jobs were to go and the huge and confusing range of smartphone offerings were slated to be reduced dramatically. Now it appears that Motorola Mobility is removing dedicated websites in many countries and regions where it is a very minor competitor. Depending on where you stay in the world you might be greeted by the following message when you head to your localised Motorola Mobility website: We are streamlining our business and support systems, and unfortunately, we'll no longer have a dedicated website for (Insert your country here). Your local support sites (Insert your country here) will remain open, well into the future, and we'll continue to provide support for our products. If you are interested in viewing our current products, you can still do so, here.* Products on these sites are not guaranteed to be available in your country. The “here” link above varies depending upon your region. On the closed “Rest of Europe” website it directs to the UK site. The list of sites closed with the above message includes; India, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Israel, Rest of Asia, Rest of Europe, Middle East & Africa. Looking at “The Rest of Europe” people who would have been catered for by that site can perhaps find what they need on other Motorola sites; Eastern Europe, Western Europe and Northern Europe. It seems most surprising that the Motorola Mobility India site has been closed in this way. To view current products users in India are redirected to the US site. This is a huge market to withdraw from. India-based mobile website Think Digit said in its report of the closures that “We would recommend not picking up Motorola phones now, if you are in the market for a new Android device. As for those of you who already own Motorola, keep your fingers crossed.” Now all that seems to remain of the restructuring and rationalisation plan is to sort out the offerings of Motorola smartphone offerings into a smaller, more coherent range, focusing on quality rather than quantity.The Democratic National Committee (DNC) on Saturday passed a resolution banning donations from corporate contributors whose areas of interest come into conflict with the DNC's stated values. The resolution, which was introduced by California member Christine Pelosi, passed unanimously. Christine Pelosi is the daughter of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Christine Pelosi has introduced similar resolutions before that were shot down over concerns about which industries the measures would target. #DNC will VOTE today on my resolution to empower grassroots donors and refuse corp money contra our platform. Democrats, let's #WalkOurTalk! pic.twitter.com/5zMsGSWckH — (((sfpelosi))) (@sfpelosi) October 21, 2017 The move was celebrated on Twitter by progressive members of the Democratic Party who have been pushing to reduce corporate influence in the party. An online petition created by MoveOn member Sandy Phillips indicates that the resolution was designed to target "gun, tobacco, payday lender, and other corporate donations counter to our values." "Thnx Pelosi for taking a stand. Admire that you have always been for eliminating these positions of cronyism," wrote Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) on Twitter. The resolution's strength in the DNC is unclear. Hours after the resolution passed, Pelosi warned that DNC officials were whispering that the vote is not legally binding, allowing DNC Chairman Tom Perez Thomas Edward PerezClinton’s top five vice presidential picks Government social programs: Triumph of hope over evidence Labor’s 'wasteful spending and mismanagement” at Workers’ Comp MORE to ignore it. Pelosi issued a call on her Twitter account, challenging Perez to uphold the vote of DNC members. "Amid scuttle from @ DNC staff that # WalkOurTalk" resolution is legally 'nonbinding' let's ask @ TomPerez: will you heed Members' vote or not?" Pelosi tweeted. The DNC met this weekend in Las Vegas for the party's fall meeting. Along with scheduled speakers such as Perez and vice chairman Rep Keith Ellison Keith Maurice EllisonOvernight 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 Ilhan Omar defends 2012 tweet: 'I don't know how my comments would be offensive to Jewish Americans' States scramble to fill void left by federal shutdown MORE (D-Minn.), the event also featured a surprise appearance from former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Harry Mason ReidSenate confirms Trump court pick despite missing two 'blue slips' Can Lindsey Graham take the politics out of judicial battles? Bottom Line MORE (D-Nev.). A previous rule implemented during the Obama administration by the DNC banning contributions from federal lobbyists was rolled back last year by former DNC chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.). --This report was updated on Oct. 23 at 4:21 p.m.WWE 2K18 Roster Reveal Week #2 (with Screenshots!): Bobby Roode, Nakamura, Ember Moon & more! The second week of WWE 2K18 Roster Reveal has started! IGN is revealing the entire roster of WWE 2K18 with 4 huge weekly reveals, and we will of course cover them all like we do every year! In case you missed the first week of reveals, check out THIS article to see everything released last week. Stay tuned on this page to find out all the uncovered characters in real time and for brand new HD Screenshots featuring those characters. Also, make sure to keep an eye on our Twitter page for all the live updates! List of the 37 Superstars and Women Confirmed in the WWE 2K18 Roster Reveal Week #2 : As always, all the WWE Superstars, Women and Legends officially revealed during the Roster Reveal weeks will be included in the complete WWE 2K18 Roster Page. WWE 2K18 Roster Reveal Week #2 HD SCREENSHOTS: To watch Bobby Roode, Ember Moon, and The Miz & Maryse Entrance Videos check out THIS link. For the complete list of confirmed WWE 2K18 characters so far and their respective profiles, you can visit our traditional WWE 2K18 Roster Section, featuring all the Superstars, Women and Legends from WWE, NXT and 205 Live announced so far for the game.Macroglossum stellatarum looks and behaves remarkably like a hummingbird, albeit without the “swordfighting” and high-pitched battle cries of their avian lookalikes. Selective advantage of mimicry is obvious in situations where the imitated organism is less palatable or more dangerous, or when said mimicry furthers the mimic’s own life cycle, but what if the apparent object of imitation is no longer found in the mimic’s range? Such is the case with the European hummingbird hawk-moth, which confuses birders in northern Europe in late summer. Hummingbirds are a purely New World group of birds, so what exactly are the European hummingbird moths gaining from mimicking a non-existent group of birds or, on the other hand, when is a mimic not a mimic? If you ask your hipster friends you are sure to receive an explanation for why partaking in a trend can be a truly novel act, owing to some small esoteric twist or another. Macroglossum in the Old World may have undergone a mutual convergent co-evolution, rather than outright mimicry as the common name for these insects might suggest. Fossils of largely modern hummingbirds in Europe have been described dating to the Oligocene (about 30 million years ago). Add to that the apparent evolutionary footprint of significant pollination by hummingbirds seen in a number of Old World flowers, and it begins to look plausible that Macroglossum and other Old World humming-moths settled into a niche of pollinating long-stemmed, nectar-heavy and perch-free flowers, alongside but not dependent on hummingbirds. If your mouth-part is longer than the rest of your body combined you might as well use it, whether or not a hummingbirds are currently trending in your area. A 30 cm proboscis never goes out of style. This digression was kindled by a few sunny afternoons spent in the company of beautiful hawk-moths in the Tuscan hills. I’m not an expert in long-tongued pollinators, and it’s not clear to me how much of a role mimicry and convergent evolution both may have played in European hummingbird moths. The extremely long proboscis of Xanthophan morgani and the correspondingly deep nectar placement of Angraecum sesquipedale is a famous example of co-evolution that had a strong impact on Darwin’s thinking. To my knowledge, there has never been a hummingbird with a 35 cm tongue, and in many ways hawk-moths may have pioneered the lifestyle of deep-seated nectarivory, before it was cool. The fossil records for hummingbirds and hawk-moths alike are rather spotty. Xanthophan morgani with extended proboscis from the London Museum of Natural History, by Wikipedia user Esculapio Equally remarkable is the visual system. Behold those pseudopupils!We’re proud to announce the release of a better, faster, and all around Android- ier Slack for Android! We’ve been hard at work on this new app for many months and we’re so excited to share it with you all! The update will be rolling out throughout today and tomorrow. What took us so long? Glad you asked. Here’s a full run-down of the magnificent changes that have gone into Slack for Android 2.0. The first thing you’ll notice is that we’ve updated the way you find your way around: The left and right drawers have been dropped in favor a simpler tabbed navigation. Tabs provide quick access to all your channels, direct messages, starred items, and mentions. Know exactly where you want to go? Quickly “Jump to…” any channel, group, or direct message. Constantly switching between teams? Simply select your team from the top dropdown and off you go. A much refined notification experience, with notifications grouped by team. A shiny new button floats attractively in the bottom right corner of the channels list for quickly locating or creating channels, DMs or groups. Search functionality has been greatly improved with the ability to open search results in a new “archive viewer” so you can see the full context of a message result. We’ve heard your feedback regarding the slowness of switching channels, switching teams, and generally navigating around the app. This is our first release to offer substantially better experience when you’re not connected — all the messages that loaded last time you were connected can be read, and you can move much faster from place to place. It’s a bit better now, but it will be even better in the future. Promise. We’ve also taken a cue from Google’s Material Design guidelines and updated the app accordingly: New icons, some new transitions, and a generally more pleasant experience on most devices. We’re also happy to say that full message* _formatting_ is now supported on `Android`. In addition to this, we now respect your emoji preferences set via the web. What this actually means is… Android emoji! Give it a try! It’s swell. But that’s not all! We completely rewrote Slack for Android from the ground up so that we’d be able to provide more advanced Android features, quicker updates, and a greatly improved experience in the future. Since this is a fresh start, there will be some bumps along the way. We’re working on making performance on low memory devices better and optimizations around initial load time, for example. This isn’t the end. We’re just getting started. Sincerely, The Slack for Android TeamIt didn't take long for Parks Canada to catch its first offender. An 11-kilometre no-stopping zone set up Sunday in southern Kootenay National Park east of Radium Hot Springs to discourage human-wildlife interaction, nabbed its first offender, also on Sunday. "They were feeding the bear french fries," Tania Peters of Parks Canada told CBC News Tuesday. "It's disappointing for sure to see, but it is also an opportunity for us to educate people about what the correct behaviour is in a national park. "It is challenging for us to change the behaviour of wildlife, so it's much more accessible to try to change the behaviour of people and our visitors." The zone, several kilometres east of Radium Hot Springs, starts at the McKay Operations Centre and ends at the Cobb Lake Trailhead. There are also area closures at the Olive Lake day-use site and the southbound brake check, where there's no stopping except for commercial vehicles. Last year two charges were laid and four formal warnings were given in the Kootenay National Park no-stopping zone east of Radium Hot Springs. (Brian Spreadbury/Parks Canada) "Most motorists and visitors are super respectful of that no-stopping zone, but from time to time we do have to educate visitors," Peters explained. "Generally we try to start with warnings, but if the behaviour is something out of the ordinary or something that is putting people at risk, we do have the ability to lay charges." The zone was first put in place in 2014 after a grizzly and her cubs foraging near Olive Lake caused traffic chaos as people stopped to look at the animals. Max fine of $25K "Last year two charges were laid through the duration of the no-stopping zone and four formal warnings were given. "Beyond that, a lot of staff issued informal warnings and took the opportunity to educate visitors and motorists about the no-stopping zone. That is really our first step," Peters said. The french-fries-offering individual has an upcoming court date and could face a fine of up to $25,000 if found guilty. The no-stopping zone is lifted when wildlife retreats from the base of the valley. "It depends year to year," Peters said.Exile has been the second most common fate for dictators who lost office since World War II, yet scholars know little about this phenomenon. In this article, we ask a simple yet previously unanswered question: where do exiled dictators go? We argue that three sets of factors—transnational ties, geographic proximity, and monadic characteristics of potential host states—influence where dictators flee. For evidence, we use original data on exile destinations to construct a directed dyadic data set of all autocratic rulers who fled abroad upon their ouster. We find that dictators are more likely to go into exile in states that are close neighbors, have hosted other dictators in the past, are militarily powerful, and possess colonial links, formal alliances, and economic ties. By contrast, fleeing dictators tend to avoid democratic states and countries experiencing civil conflict. These findings raise broader implications for several outcomes ranging from regime transitions to conflict termination.SunEdison Watches As Things Turn From Bad To Worse Then Jump Off A Cliff March 10th, 2016 by Joshua S Hill Fourteen Months Of Pending Doom It was just over a year ago that SunEdison and its first yieldco, TerraForm Power, announced closure on the $2.4 billion acquisition of energy company First Wind. A month later, SunEdison announced record installations of just over 1 GW in 2014 but a net loss of $242.1 million in the fourth quarter. This was followed a quarter later by the acquisition of seven renewable energy portfolios in emerging countries, and the intention to form a second yieldco dedicated to emerging markets (TerraForm Global, founded during the middle of 2015). All in all, maybe the writing was on the wall the whole time, because less than a year after the company announced its first quarter results for 2015, things seem to have gone terribly pear-shaped. It could all be said to have started back in August, when investors began becoming remarkably skittish at the company’s second quarterly earnings report, which revealed record growth and, according to Bloomberg Business, left analysts “scratching their heads” in the wake of what was then the biggest drop in SunEdison’s shares in 14 years. The earnings report came a month after SunEdison announced that it would be acquiring Vivint Solar for $2.2 billion. In an attempt to appease its shareholders, SunEdison announced the creation of a new $1 billion warehouse investment vehicle. More recently, however, things have gone from bad to startlingly worse. Arrival of Doom At the beginning of March, SunEdison and TerraForm Power announced that they had settled with Latin America Power for $28.5 million over the termination of the planned acquisition of Latin America Power by SunEdison. This was followed four days later by the announcement that Vivint Solar had terminated its merger agreement due to “SunEdison’s failure to meet its obligations under the merger agreement.” Vivint Solar added that “SunEdison’s failure to consummate the merger when required pursuant to the terms of the merger agreement constitutes a willful breach of the merger agreement, and Vivint Solar intends to seek all legal remedies available to it in respect of such willful breach.” Vivint Solar wasn’t kidding, as on the same day, the company announced it had commenced “action in the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware suing SunEdison, Inc. over its willful breach of the merger agreement between Vivint Solar and SunEdison.” “SunEdison has willfully breached its obligations under the merger agreement and we intend to pursue Vivint Solar’s remedies vigorously,” said Gregory Butterfield, President and CEO of Vivint Solar. Vivint Solar is seeking damages for the benefits its stockholders expected in connection the transaction, among other legal actions. A Bleak Future SunEdison’s shares have barely seen any good news for several months now, and with the company’s fourth quarter and full year 2015 earnings report currently delayed (we are expecting it any day now), things are not looking up. Bloomberg has suggested that “It is perhaps beginning to dawn on SunEdison’s share holders that, despite having narrowly avoided a car crash, they’re still driving a heap of junk (debt).” And Greentech Media have posited that “We are witnessing the end, or perhaps the remaking, of SunEdison.”TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma'an) -- Israeli police have made no arrests after hundreds of football supporters attacked Palestinian workers at a shopping mall in Jerusalem, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported Friday. The assault in Malha mall on Monday was "a mass lynching attempt," cleaner Mohammed Yusuf told Haaretz. An Israeli police spokesman did not respond to inquiries from Ma'an, but witnesses told Haaretz that hundreds of football fans flooded the mall after a match and chanted anti-Arab slogans, screaming "Death to the Arabs." The football supporters verbally abused and spat on three Palestinian women who were in the food court with their children. When Palestinian workers tried to help them, the mostly-teenage rioters assaulted them. "They caught some of them and beat the hell out of them," bakery owner Yair told Haaretz. "They hurled people into shops, and smashed them against shop windows. I don't understand how none shattered into pieces. One cleaner was attacked by some 20 people, poor guy, and then they had a go at his brother who works in a nearby pizza shop and came to his rescue." Attackers asked Jewish shop owners for knives to use as weapons but none obliged, onlookers said. Malha's executive director Gideon Avrahami described the incident as "a disgraceful, shocking, racist incident; simply terrible." But despite CCTV footage of the riot, Jerusalem police told Haaretz that no one was arrested because no complaint was filed. Later Friday, a YouTube video emerged showing a portion of the incident at Malha Mall. According to the US-based website Electronic Intifada, the clip shows fans dressed in Beitar colors shouting "death to the Arabs" in Hebrew. The post said unchecked racism against Arabs is endemic in Israeli soccer.Note: The following piece refers solely to the events of HBO's "Game of Thrones." I have not read the books and do not plan to. Dear readers, I have an apology to make. A few weeks ago, I wrote an article defending someone I felt was a chronically under-appreciated character in the "Game of Thrones" TV universe: Stannis “The Mannis” Baratheon, would-be king of the Andals and the First Men and, in my opinion, actually a pretty cool dude! Sure, Tyrion and Daenerys are the flashy characters who get all the love, but Stannis – a besieged underdog, a competent leader, a loving father (uh... my bad) – seemed to be getting short shrift for all the dogged hard work he has been doing since the show began. Advertisement: Well, I have now had a day to process Sunday’s events, in which Stannis, prompted by religious freak Melisandre, took his daughter Shireen – an emblem, as our recapper Libby Hill writes, of "all things good and loyal and sweet" in the show -- and burned her alive at the stake while she sobbed and screamed his name. It was one of the show’s most cruel and heart-wrenching scenes, in a show that wantonly murders adorable doggies in cold blood (RIP, Lady the Direwolf). Suffice to say, this was not a good fatherly move, nor, might I add, is it something a cool dude would do. Or as Joel Johnson aptly put it, in a piece that I am choosing to read as an entirely earnest take: "Opinion: Stannis Baratheon is NOT a Good Dad." So yeah, sorry to be a flip-flopper (Stannis
worked on outside the building but shielded behind a long security fence. Screenshot by CNET It's also possible to tell from that imagery and by visiting Treasure Island that whatever was under construction in the area outside Hangar 3 has since been moved to a floating barge alongside the pier adjacent to the property, which is off-limits to the public and guarded by private security. The barge is 250 feet long, 72 feet wide, and 16 feet deep, and was built in 2011 in Belle Chasse, La., by C & C Marine and Repair. Its registration number is BAL 0010. Behind it is a perfect view of the new eastern span of the San Francisco Bay Bridge. On top is a four-story-tall modular building made from shipping containers and sporting 12 tall white spires that look like they could be anything from masts to flagpoles to antennas. The containers each have three narrow slits for windows, and there is a stairway on the northeast corner that goes from ground level to the top. There's also one container on that side that slants to the ground at a 45-degree angle. Wrapped mostly in dark netting, the structure doesn't reveal what's inside. James Martin/CNET Joel Egan, the principal at Cargotecture, which designs custom cargo container buildings, said the structure looks like a data center. "The cutouts in the long walls of the containers, when they line up, they make hallways," Egan said. "You could put all sorts of mainframes into the containers...It doesn't have enough windows for an office building." Egan also said that putting a data center on a barge would provide access to abundant water -- a key for cooling large numbers of servers. Asked if the theoretical concept of a floating data center made practical sense, Jonathan Koomey, a Stanford research fellow and expert on data centers responded by listing a number of advantages such a system would offer. Although saltwater could be problematic as a cooling source, he said, it's a surmountable problem. "It wouldn't surprise me at all," Koomey said, before seeing any pictures of the project on the barge, "if there were a bunch of containers, and it turned out to be data center." After being shown pictures of the barge, however, Koomey said that there was nothing conclusive in them to indicate that it was a data center. But companies like Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, and others have been installing specially built data centers in shipping containers for some time because they're easy to deploy. And Google even has a patent for the concept. Perhaps more persuasive is that in 2009, Google was granted a patent for a " water-based data center," defined as a "system [that] includes a floating platform-mounted computer data center comprising a plurality of computing units, a sea-based electrical generator in electrical connection with the plurality of computing units, and one or more sea-water cooling units for providing cooling to the...computing units." Google The patent further suggests that "the computing units are mounted in a plurality of crane-removable modules," that "the computer data center comprises a floating-platform mounted data center," and that "the modular data centers may be arranged in a two-dimensional or three-dimensional grid. For example...two rows that each contain two containers...Those modules could also be stacked two or more high." The patent was granted to three men -- Jimmy Clidaras, David Stiver, and William Hamburgen, all of whom still work at Google. Only Clidaras replied to requests for interviews, although he wasn't immediately available to comment. Time magazine, for one, thought so much of the concept that it named Google's idea one of its "best inventions" of 2008. Why? Google's patent spelled out some of the most valuable advantages: Because the system is built from modular, standard-size shipping containers, it's easy to deploy, via ship or truck, to areas that are in most need of Internet infrastructure; there's little-to-no pollution created by wave-generated energy; and a floating data center could produce plenty of power via wave energy at a distance of 3 to 7 miles offshore, and in 50 to 70 meters of water. The structure built on the barge could easily be following just this concept. And it could well be the answer to this article, which pondered, "What Happened to Google's Floating Data Center?" Hunting for the Google connection Although Google has not confirmed any projects on Treasure Island, which is owned by the US Navy and subleased by the city of San Francisco, ample evidence suggests that the company is behind whatever is going on inside Hangar 3 and on the barge at the southeastern end of the island. When asked by CNET, Treasure Island director of island operations Mirian Saez said that Google had not leased Hangar 3. She said that a company called By and Large LLC was the new major tenant of the building. Screenshot by CNET By and Large has a miniscule online profile, and no clear ties to Google. The lease, provided by Saez, identifies two men, Mike Darby and Kenneth Yi, as By and Large's official representatives, as well as a phone number for the Delaware-registered company. Darby told me he wasn't associated with By and Large. Yi, who is the signatory on the lease, couldn't be reached for comment. Even so, a former Google employee who requested anonymity said it "makes perfect sense" that the tech giant would set up an innocuous LLC to officially run a big stealth project. Saez said that a man named Tim Brandon was the point of contact for By and Large, and provided a phone number. Punch in the digits provided by Saez and you'll hear, "Thank you for calling Google. The number you dialed is no longer in service." In addition, Brandon's LinkedIn profile identified his current position as "Senior Transaction Manager, CBRE @ Google" and his top responsibility as "Lead and manage all acquisition and disposition activity for Google's Silicon Valley portfolio." Until I contacted him, that is. After I messaged him through LinkedIn and sent him an e-mail earlier this week -- without getting a response -- Brandon's profile now lists his current position as just "CBRE" and his top responsibility as "Lead and manage all acquisition and disposition activity for Silicon Valley portfolio." Screenshot by CNET CBRE is short for CB Richard Ellis, which identifies itself as "the world's largest commercial real estate services firm serving owners, investors and occupiers." A CBRE spokesperson confirmed Brandon's employment but said the company doesn't talk about clients. The company routinely assigns its people full-time to clients for any number of tasks or services, he said. In such cases, those people's professional profiles would list them as "CBRE @" the specific client's name. CBRE's Website lists Brandon as located in Mountain View, Calif., home to Google headquarters and no CBRE offices. By and Large is both the official Hangar 3 tenant and the owner of the barge. An online document showed that By and Large is the owner of the freight barge that holds the structure. A representative at C & C Marine and Repair, which built the barge, told me that a vessel like BAL 0010 is capable of going "anywhere the owner can take it," including into open water. That suggests that whatever is being built on the barge could well be intended for waters well beyond Treasure Island and San Francisco. James Martin/CNET Even without a formal link to Google, I did find less official but persuasive evidence. A woman who works at the Oasis Cafe, down the street from Hangar 3 said that she had frequently served people wearing Hangar 3 badges who paid with "Google credit cards." She also said that whatever has been going on inside the building and on the barge is very hush-hush on the island and that even the people she suspected are Google employees don't "know what they're working on." James Martin/CNET When I met someone working in a section of Hangar 3 that's separate from the main part of the building and inquired what building it was, the man asked who I was looking for. I answered "Google," and without hesitating he said I needed to go to a main entrance a bit further down the side of the structure. That entrance was manned by a security guard and had two cameras mounted above the entryway. A security supervisor turned me away when I asked to visit Google or talk to Tim Brandon. Upon returning to Hangar 3 a couple of days later with a CNET photographer, we were watched closely by two people, including one with a big set of binoculars. A sign on one entrance to Hangar 3 reads, "You are entering a secure building. Please prepare to surrender your smart phone, camera phone, camera, and or any other audio/visual devices." Daniel Terdiman/CNET Chris Childers, a Treasure Island local, told me that although he had never seen the word "Google" anywhere in or around Hangar 3, people have been talking about Google being in the giant building, and working on the barge, for months. In fact, Childers said, the tenant had taken over the Hangar 3 parking lot last December, and for months had very tight security around it. "I heard it was a Google project," Childers said. He also recalled the long security fence around the Hangar 3 property that is visible in Google satellite imagery, as did an artist who works close to Hangar 3. Childers told me that a woman at a Treasure Island bus stop that he suspected was a Google employee had told him, about what was going on inside Hangar 3 and on the barge, "I can't tell you [what the project is, but you'll see it soon enough, and it'll be really cool." He also said that the woman told him that the massive project being built on the barge had likely been built piecemeal inside Hangar 3 and that "'I can't believe we built it all inside'" Hangar 3. Larry and Sergey, and anyone else who might have knowledge of this project, we'd love to hear the full story. Update (Sunday, 5:45 p.m. PT): This story now more accurately represents comments made by Stanford researcher Jonathan Koomey.This is not about "equal rights," this is about extortion. These fanatics could have gone anywhere to host their civil union, they instead chose to target and harass this one Inn owner and persecute him solely for his beliefs. From Reuters: CHICAGO (Reuters) - An Illinois inn that refused to allow a same-sex couple hold their civil union ceremony on the property was fined more than $80,000 by the Illinois Human Rights Commission on Tuesday. An administrative law judge with the commission ordered TimberCreek Bed & Breakfast to pay $15,000 each to Todd and Mark Wathen for emotional distress. The Wathens had contacted TimberCreek in 2011 as they looked for possible locations for the ceremony. TimberCreek owner Jim Walder had responded to the Wathens' inquiry with an email that said "homosexuality is immoral and unnatural," according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois. TimberCreek, located about 100 miles south of Chicago, must also pay $50,000 in attorneys' fees and $1,218.35 in costs. Why would you even want to hold your wedding at a place where people don't want you? Who wants to give money to people who hate them? This is pure politics, they shopped around for someone to shakedown. The amount of stress this must have put this man under is immeasurable, and now he's been hit with an obscenely large bill for the "crime" of wishing to use his own property as he sees fit. Take a look at TimberCreek Bed & Breakfast's Yelp page, it's rated one star because of left-wing fanatics vandalizing it with a flood of fake reviews. The left is literally trying to destroy this man's life simply because he believes differently than they do. These fanatics don't care about freedom, they hate freedom: They want privilege, the exact thing they claim to despise in others. Follow InformationLiberation on Twitter and Facebook.BBC News, with Charles Connor. News from the war between Russia and the CUI: house to house fighting in Novosibirsk continues unabated. General Suvarov’s encirclement has cut off the CUI expeditionary force, and he has announced that he intends to leave not one invader alive. CUI forces, spearheaded by the Yangban, have driven the Red Gauntlet and Peach Orchard Exiles back into a burning Tianjin. CUI deputy foreign minister Liu Yesui warned that aid to CUI exile groups would be met with ‘harsher’ penalties in the future, noting that it could be considered an act of war. Officially, both Russia and the CUI are considering ‘all options’; unofficially, rumors persist that the attempted use of strategic nuclear weapons by both sides has failed due to the intervention of Scion. The United Nations continues to debate an appropriate response, but Russia and the CUI have united to veto consideration of every proposal thus far. Meanwhile, in Montreal, Quebecois independence will be coming up for a vote again, with PQ leader Pauline Marois citing concerns about the cultural and economic effects of the proposed free trade zone with the United States of America. BBC News. Click to expand...The U.S. Department of Education announced Thursday the conclusion of its investigation into the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. Upon review, the department found 11 instances in which the university violated the Clery Act. The Department of Education now suggests the school should be fined $2.4 million, the largest fine issued for Clery Act violations in history. Penn State’s violations were found to have taken place in the investigation’s time range of 1998-2011. Sandusky was indicted on 40 counts of sex crimes against young boys in 2011. Advertisement The Clery Act requires all colleges and universities receiving federal financial aid to report the number of on-campus criminal offenses and issue warnings if a crime represents a threat to those living on campus. Penn State received $566.4 million in financial aid in the 2014-15 award year, according to the Department’s letter As a reminder, several Penn State officials allegedly knew about Sandusky’s actions decades before he faced the legal system—Joe Paterno was reportedly notified in-person by a victim in 1976; former president Graham Spanier, former VP Gary Schultz, and former athletic director Tim Curley are all currently facing charges of child endangerment and failure to report suspected child abuse; a man presumed by John Doe 102 to be athletic director Jim Tarman was reportedly notified of a case of sexual abuse in 1987 or 1988, depending on John Doe 102’s age. (Doe said he could not testify under oath that it was Tarman for sure, saying that he remembered the names “Harman” or “Carman” after the incident.)* John Doe 102, an occupant of the Nittany House, a center for troubled youth on Penn State’s campus, was told to write an apology letter to Sandusky and Tarman for “telling lies” before running away. Advertisement Ten of the eleven findings are paired with fines that come in under $40,000—finding No. 5, which states Penn State failed to “properly classify reported incidents and disclose crime statistics from 2008-2011,” was tagged with a $2.17 million fine. You can read the Department’s full list of findings here. Below, find an abbreviated list from their bulletin: Finding #1: Clery Act violations related to the Sandusky matter (proposed fine: $27,500). Finding #2: Lack of administrative capability as a result of the University’s substantial failures to comply with the Clery Act and the Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act throughout the review period, including insufficient training, support, and resources to ensure compliance (proposed fine: $27,500). Finding #3: Omitted and/or inadequate annual security report and annual fire safety report policy statements (proposed fine: $37,500). Finding #4: Failure to issue timely warnings in accordance with federal regulations. Finding #5: Failure to properly classify reported incidents and disclose crime statistics from 2008-2011 (proposed fine: $2,167,500). Finding #6: Failure to establish an adequate system for collecting crime statistics from all required sources (proposed fine: $27,500). Finding #7: Failure to maintain an accurate and complete daily crime log. Finding #8: Reporting discrepancies in crime statistics published in the annual security report and those reported to the department’s campus crime statistics database (proposed fine: $27,500). Finding #9: Failure to publish and distribute an annual security report in accordance with federal regulations (proposed fine: $27,500). Finding #10: Failure to notify prospective students and employees of the availability of the annual security report and annual fire safety report (proposed fine: $27,500). Finding #11: Failure to comply with the Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act (proposed fine: $27,500). Advertisement The fines are the second payout Penn State has been asked to make this week. Last Friday, whistleblower and former Nittany Lions assistant coach Mike McQueary was awarded $7.3 million by a jury that found the university defamed him after he sounded the alarm on Sandusky’s abuse of young children. *Correction: This post has been updated to show Jim Tarman’s presence at the Nittany House originated from John Doe 102's deposition. The initial version read, “former athletic director Jim Tarman was notified of a case of sexual abuse in 1987 or 1988, depending on John Doe 102's age.”When US president Donald Trump arrived in Washington, promising to “drain the swamp,” he signed an order barring lobbyists from working in his administration on matters they had been paid to influence in the previous two years. But he has hired numerous former lobbyists and industry lawyers to work on their old portfolios, and he now refuses to disclose the extent of the practice. The White House’s surprising refusal was revealed by a New York Times records request. It uncovered a letter from White House official Mick Mulvaney refusing to share a list of ethics ban waivers for officials in the Trump administration with the Office of Government Ethics. Mulvaney suggested that the question was outside the office’s purview. The director of the ethics agency, Walter Shaub, told the Times that he had “never seen anything like” the White House’s “extraordinary” reply. This is only the latest clash between the ethics office, created after the scandals of the Nixon administration, and president Trump. The relationship has been in the spotlight since a controversial tweet-storm in late November. The restriction on former lobbyists’ work in government was first employed by president Barack Obama, and like Trump’s, the previous administration used waivers to exempt hires from the ban when it argued that the need for expertise outweighed the perception of an appointee’s conflict of interest. In those cases, however, the waivers were publicly disclosed to the OGE. Trump appears to have stopped doing this (a statement released to the Times yesterday said the administration is seeking “further legal guidance”). So the public only knows some of the former influence peddlers now working in government and overseeing daily decisions that effect their former clients. Timothy Clark, for example—formerly a lobbyist for the drug-makers trade association PhRMA—is the White House liaison to the Department of Health and Human Services. Michael Catanzaro, a former oil industry lobbyist, heads up the energy issues portfolio at the National Economic Council. Byron Anderson, a former lobbyist for the financial services industry, is at the Department of Labor, where he previously lobbied against a rule intended to protect retirement savers from excessive fees. These examples are only known thanks to careful observation by journalists, but many more such lobbyists could be at work in government; only the Trump administration knows how many and where they are. The White House’s refusal to disclose this information, along with the end of reporting on meetings between Trump staff and outside lobbyists at the White House, amounts to a reduction in government transparency that ethics experts say is troubling. The ethics agency, which has limited power to compel the White House to produce such records, may now be forced into a legal confrontation with the president’s team, adding to the growing number of inquiries into corruption and ethics violations in the executive branch. When Trump signed the order instituting the lobbying ban in January, he portrayed Obama’s version as less effective, citing “loopholes” and a shorter ban on post-government lobbying. But, without any insight into how, why, when, and to whom waivers in the rules are issued, Trump’s ban is all loophole.By Alex Peysakhovich, Research Scientist and Kristin Hendrix, User Experience Researcher Our goal with News Feed is to show people the stories most relevant to them — ranking stories so that what’s most important to each person shows up highest in their News Feeds. When we rank and make improvements to News Feed, we rely on a set of core values. These values — which we’ve been using for years — guide our thinking, and help us keep the central experience of News Feed intact as it evolves. One of our News Feed values is to have authentic communication on our platform. People have told us they like seeing authentic stories the most. That’s why we work hard to understand what type of stories and posts people consider genuine, so we can show more of them in News Feed. We also work to understand what kinds of stories people find misleading and spammy to help make sure people see those less. We’ve heard from people that they specifically want to see fewer stories with clickbait headlines or link titles. These are headlines that intentionally leave out crucial information, or mislead people, forcing people to click to find out the answer. For example: “When She Looked Under Her Couch Cushions And Saw THIS… I Was SHOCKED!”; “He Put Garlic In His Shoes Before Going To Bed And What Happens Next Is Hard To Believe”; or “The Dog Barked At The Deliveryman And His Reaction Was Priceless.” To address this feedback from our community, we’re making an update to News Feed ranking to further reduce clickbait headlines in the coming weeks. With this update, people will see fewer clickbait stories and more of the stories they want to see higher up in their feeds. How we reduce clickbait headlines To address clickbait headlines, we previously made an update to News Feed that reduces the distribution of posts that lead people to click and then quickly come back to News Feed. While this update helped, we’re still seeing Pages rely on clickbait headlines, and people are still telling us they would prefer to see clearly written headlines that help them decide how they want to spend their time and not waste time on what they click. We are focusing more effort on this, and are updating News Feed by using a system that identifies phrases that are commonly used in clickbait headlines. First, we categorized tens of thousands of headlines as clickbait by considering two key points: (1) if the headline withholds information required to understand what the content of the article is; and (2) if the headline exaggerates the article to create misleading expectations for the reader. For example, the headline “You’ll Never Believe Who Tripped and Fell on the Red Carpet…” withholds information required to understand the article (What happened? Who Tripped?) The headline “Apples Are Actually Bad For You?!” misleads the reader (apples are only bad for you if you eat too many every day). A team at Facebook reviewed thousands of headlines using these criteria, validating each other’s work to identify a large set of clickbait headlines. From there, we built a system that looks at the set of clickbait headlines to determine what phrases are commonly used in clickbait headlines that are not used in other headlines. This is similar to how many email spam filters work. Our system identifies posts that are clickbait and which web domains and Pages these posts come from. Links posted from or shared from Pages or domains that consistently post clickbait headlines will appear lower in News Feed. News Feed will continue to learn over time — if a Page stops posting clickbait headlines, their posts will stop being impacted by this change. We’ll continue to update how we identify clickbait as we improve our systems and hear more from people using News Feed. Will this impact my Page? We anticipate that most Pages won’t see any significant changes to their distribution in News Feed as a result of this change. However, websites and Pages who rely on clickbait-style headlines should expect their distribution to decrease. Pages should avoid headlines that withhold information required to understand what the content of the article is and headlines that exaggerate the article to create misleading expectations. As always, Pages should refer to our publishing best practices. We will learn from these changes and will continue to work on reducing clickbait so News Feed is a place for authentic communication.Not only that we can construct matrices that represent transformations, it turns out that every matrix defines a transformation! According to the textbook definition: Let $A$ be a $m\times{n}$ matrix, and $\mathbf{x}$ an element of $R^n$. $A$ defines a matrix transformation $T(\mathbf{x})=A\mathbf{x}$ of $R^n$ (domain) into $R^m$ (codomain). The resulting vector $A\mathbf{x}$ is the image of the transformation. Note that matrix dimensions m and n correspond to the dimensions of the codomain ( m, number of rows) and domain ( n, number of columns). Matrix transformations have the following geometrical properties: They map line segments into line segments (or points); If $A$ is invertible, they also map parallel lines into parallel lines. Example 1 from page 248 illustrates this. Let $T:R^2\rightarrow{R^2}$ be a transformation defined by the matrix $A=\begin{bmatrix}4&2\\2&3\end{bmatrix}$. Define the image of the unit square under the transformation. The code: ( let [ a ( dge 2 2 [ 4 2 2 3 ] ) p ( dv 1 0 ) q ( dv 1 1 ) r ( dv 0 1 ) o ( dv 0 0 ) ] [ ( mv a p ) ( mv a q ) ( mv a r ) ( mv a o ) ] ) '(#RealBlockVector(double n:2 offset: 0 stride:1) ( 4.00 2.00 ) #RealBlockVector(double n:2 offset: 0 stride:1) ( 6.00 5.00 ) #RealBlockVector(double n:2 offset: 0 stride:1) ( 2.00 3.00 ) #RealBlockVector(double n:2 offset: 0 stride:1) ( 0.00 0.00 ) ) And, we got a parallelogram, since $A$ is invertible. Check that as an exercise; a matrix is invertible if its determinant is non-zero (you can use the det function). Something bugs the programmer in me, though: what if we wanted to transform many points (vectors)? Do we use this pedestrian way, or we put those points in some sequence and use good old Clojure higher order functions such as map, reduce, filter, etc.? Let's try this. ( let [ a ( dge 2 2 [ 4 2 2 3 ] ) points [ ( dv 1 0 ) ( dv 1 1 ) ( dv 0 1 ) ( dv 0 0 ) ] ] ( map ( partial mv a ) points ) ) '(#RealBlockVector(double n:2 offset: 0 stride:1) ( 4.00 2.00 ) #RealBlockVector(double n:2 offset: 0 stride:1) ( 6.00 5.00 ) #RealBlockVector(double n:2 offset: 0 stride:1) ( 2.00 3.00 ) #RealBlockVector(double n:2 offset: 0 stride:1) ( 0.00 0.00 ) ) I could be pleased with this code. But I am not. I am not, because we only picked up the low-hanging fruit, and left a lot of simplicity and performance on the table. Consider this: ( let [ a ( dge 2 2 [ 4 2 2 3 ] ) square ( dge 2 4 [ 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 ] ) ] ( mm a square ) ) #RealGEMatrix[double, mxn:2x4, layout:column, offset:0] ▥ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ┓ → 4.00 6.00 2.00 0.00 → 2.00 5.00 3.00 0.00 ┗ ┛ By multiplying matrix $A$ with matrix $(\vec{p},\vec{q},\vec{r},\vec{o})$, we did the same operation as transforming each vector separately. I like this approach much more. It's simpler. Instead of maintaining disparate points of a unit square, we can treat them as one entity. If we still want access to points, we just call the col function. . Instead of maintaining disparate points of a unit square, we can treat them as one entity. If we still want access to points, we just call the col function. It's faster. Instead of calling mv four times, we call mm once. In addition to that, our data is concentrated next to each other, in a structure that is cache-friendly. This can give huge performance yields when we work with large matrices. This might be obvious in graphics programming, but I've seen too much data crunching code that uses matrices and vectors as dumb data structures, that I think this point is worth reiterating again and again.NEW YORK—All over America IKEA futons are groaning with the restless insomnia of journalists”tossing, turning, cursing the impotence of their melatonin capsules”burdened with the future of the Republic. Long nights of torment, and then... Morning resolve! Before they”ve even microwaved their second Jimmy Dean Sausage Sandwich, they know that this will be the day of reckoning. They will fire up the Kia Sedona and take the long way to work, giving them more time to think about the epic 1,500 words that will make the difference between chaos and civilization. Yes, they tell their wives, It’s time for my “Donald Trump is a Dickwad” column. Let me make it clear here that I”m not talking about lesbian-rights vegans who organize fair-trade coffee boycotts at Maxwell House and agitate for medical marijuana in The Nation. Nor am I thinking of tweed-jacketed professors of sociology at Montana State submitting articles to the Journal of Spanish-American Diacritical Marks. Think-tank analysts at the Institute for Pan-Arab Non-Alignment are most certainly churning out white papers on why Donald Trump is a dangerous threat to the Maghreb treaty on fish hatcheries, but I”m not discussing them either. I”m not talking about intellectuals or activists or experts. No. I”m talking about the guy who enrolled at McNeese State in the nineties and fell into deep reverence for Professor Rusty Naugahyde, the legendary teacher whose Newswriting 312 workshop was almost as inspirational as Lou “The News Is Sacred” Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Our starry-eyed undergraduate buys a safari jacket, takes an oath of objectivity and resolves never to be a member of a political party. After that it takes years of struggle to become the lead Metro columnist at the Lotus Tree, Kansas, Daily Arapaho, days spent chronicling the brutal fights over county bond issues needed to repair the Lost Frenchman Bridge. But now that he’s a 32nd-degree Mason and chairman of the Little League committee on maintenance and parking, he knows that it’s his responsibility, and his privilege, to tell the people of Lotus Tree that Donald Trump is a narcissistic disagreeable soulless callous rude arrogant authoritarian vicious egotistical vulgar braggart and megalomaniac, possibly a lunatic, definitely a psychopath, perhaps a fascist. This goes against everything in the journalism rule book. Elections are the ultimate on-the-one-hand, on-the-other hand story. You get the League of Women Voters to interview each candidate and then you make sure every biography is exactly the same length as the one before it and the one after it. You never say that one campaign platform is better or worse than another campaign platform. You occasionally note “controversy” over “remarks perceived to be off color,” but you limit your commentary to observations like, “It now appears that Beaver County Sheriff Judd will bring his traditional voting bloc to the side of Culpepper, while District Judge Monahan will side with the Democratic challenger.” The last thing you ever do is suggest, much less state, that someone is a pathological liar, because there’s a strong likelihood that more than 50 percent of the people you write about in the course of a lifetime will be, in fact, pathological liars. What is it about Donald Trump that makes journalists go insane? “It’s a political movement based on the First Amendment.” If you do a Donald Trump word search on Google, and you use various combinations of the most popular descriptive adjectives, you get the following results. In ascending order: puerile 85,000 (not a popular term in the Midwest) boorish 115,000 soulless 240,000 patronizing 248,000 egotistical 253,000 megalomaniac 261,000 (this one would score higher if it were not six syllables, therefore rendering it unusable in headlines) vengeful 304,000 callous 395,000 grandiose 406,000 combative 407,000 birther 425,000 condescending 452,000 (could be combined with patronizing for a higher score) mean-spirited 453,000 misogynistic 479,000 (misleadingly low because “woman hater” gets over a million) foul-mouthed 500,000 disagreeable 503,000 arrogant 509,000 lunatic 524,000 immature 525,000 (should probably be combined with puerile) xenophobic 532,000 fascist 554,000 authoritarian 571,000 braggart 586,000 obnoxious 606,000 narcissistic 635,000 boring 643,000 (wow, this one really shouldn”t make it past the fact-checkers) haughty 645,000 obsessive 707,000 superficial 713,000 psychopathic 784,000 thin-skinned 785,000 vulgar 967,000 Obviously these highly technical terms used in political analysis will tend to overlap, and I certainly don”t want to ignore those writers who put in extra effort to string together metaphorical invective like “a walking lie,” “a grotesque experiment,” “a witless frat boy,” “Herman Cain on steroids” (rethink that one, please, I”m having trouble connecting the reference), and “a combustible mix of P.T. Barnum updated by Kim Kardashian.” This latter one comes from Richard North Patterson writing in the Huffington Post and I”m not sure what it means, but it sounds good. The Huffington Post, by the way, instituted a policy whereby every article about Trump includes the following disclaimer: Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims”1.6 billion members of an entire religion”from entering the U.S. Not just one article. Every article on Trump has this same wording at the end of the piece. I knew that Huffpo was known for its liberal slant, but I had no idea they had thrown out all pretense of evenhandedness. Even Fox News pretends to be “fair and balanced.” As I say, Donald Trump makes people insane. But let’s cut to the chase and look at what I”m calling the Big Eight. Of all the words used by the press to describe Donald Trump, the million-hit wonders are these: bully 1.4 million self-obsessed 2.5 million vicious 9.1 million rude 13.3 million cruel 13.3 million liar 16.2 million angry 19.3 million And the winner”drum roll, please: idiot 20.5 million Notice that five of the eight are internal attributes, only one can be fact-checked, and the most popular epithet of them all is the last refuge of sputtering incoherent rage. It’s reminiscent of the old Saturday Night Live routine, with Dan Aykroyd responding to anything Jane Curtin said with, “Jane, you ignorant slut.” Ladies and gentlemen, most unjournalistic. Moreover, never in history have so many professional journalists felt the need to issue their own press releases! George Will made a big deal out of resigning from the Republican Party, not realizing that most people had no idea he was a card-carrying Republican in the first place and, uh, George, hate to tell you this, but the fact that you joined any political party, for any reason, kind of zeroes out your credibility. What you should have done is hire a hacker to clean up your computer trail. There was even an Edward Snowden-style episode in which Tony Schwartz, ghostwriter on Art of the Deal, repudiated his calling, booked himself on talk shows, and told the New Yorker, “Trump didn”t meet any model of human being I”d ever met. He was obsessed with publicity, and he didn”t care what you wrote.” I don”t know what the rules of ghost
unch — is that while GM is at least arguably salvagable, Chrysler is a hopeless basket case. So if we’re going to do anything, we should probably bail out GM but let Chrysler go under. That would save the taxpayers some money and reduce overcapacity in the auto industry at the same time. Unfortunately, politics being what it is, the Obama administration probably feels like they can’t pick winners and losers and needs to treat them both equally. This is almost certainly dumb, but it’s what’s most likely going to happen. So the American public will end up pumping $10 or $20 billion into Chrysler in order to help it become, basically, the North American subsidiary of Fiat — a partnership that does the U.S. auto industry little good and will itself almost certainly crumble and fail before long in any case. What a mess.Photographer Alexander Semenov has a degree in Zoology with a specialization in invertebrate animals, particularly squid brains. Rather than fear the uncomfortable sting of jellyfish, like most of us do, Semenov seeks them out, discovering the natural beauty and magnificence of these creatures in their own environment through underwater photography. After four years of practice, Semenov says, “When you’re working at something every day, you inevitably get a lot of experience. Eventually I began to get interesting photos–one or two from each dive.” His experience is evident in his final results. Through his photographs, Semenov is able to share a rare world with us by bringing the depths of the sea to the surface. Fun fact: Jellyfish lifespans typically range from a few hours to several months. Alexander Semenov’s website via [Lost At E Minor]Microsoft just unveiled what some are calling the largest tablet computer you've ever seen. But that's not exactly true. In the late '70s, researchers at MIT built a tablet that filled an entire room, and there it is in the images above and the video below. It was called the Spatial Data Management System, and although it was enormous, it was an awful lot like a modern tablet or smartphone. It had a touch screen, voice recognition, and multiple apps. It could even make phone calls. The idea behind the system is simple: We humans are inherently spatial thinkers. "People are really natural explorers of space and manipulators of space," says William Donelson, who created the system as part of his masters thesis in MIT's Machine Architecture Group, the predecessor to today's Media Lab. "If you wander around your city or your neighborhood, you'll remember where things are, and I wanted to incorporate that concept into a database." Donelson says the team wanted to build a user interface that could mimic the way people organize files on a physical desktop. They weren't the only ones working on this idea at the time: engineers at Xerox PARC in Palo Alto developed an experimental computer with a desktop interface in the mid-70s and released a commercial version in 1981. But Donelson's Spatial Data Management System had a certain grandeur that those clunky boxes lacked. The user sat in a large armchair dubbed the "Captain Kirk Chair," with dual touchpads and joysticks built into each arm. Two touchscreens—boxy Tektronix color monitors on rolling carts—were positioned on either side, just within reach. One presented what we'd now call the homescreen, an assortment of brightly-colored boxes that opened up different programs when poked by the user. The apps included a calculator, maps, a book reader, and photo and video viewers. The brains behind all this was network of four minicomputers, packing up to 640KB of combined processing power and 640MB of memory in the original version (more on the tech specs here). The display was a 6 by 8 foot television screen directly in front of the user, and 8 speakers positioned around the room provided surround sound. A user could also issue voice commands to open an app, initiate a phone call, or record a memo. "Visitors were completely blown away," Donelson says. He says the system was arguably the first multimedia computer. But the primitive chips it used made it a finicky beast. "If it got too hot it wouldn't work, if it got too cool it wouldn't work," Donelson says. "I would spend hours trying to adjust the fans to keep it running." "Much of what we wanted to do back then has become reality today, now that computers are finally powerful enough and budgets are high enough," Donelson says. The video below shows the system in action. It's a bit slow by today's standards, so here are a few highlights worth checking out: 1:08 Scrolling through photos. Zooming in and out. 3:02 Flipping through the pages of a book using the trackpad. 4:30 Voice commands to pull up photos and a map on the screen. 5:05 Voice commands to initiate a phone call and find a contact. 7:55 Calculator. 8:48 Maps. 9:37 Playing a video (a clip from the TV show Columbo) and using the touchscreen to control the audio language and playback speed.Argentina’s NL\|El Gato recently shared a video demonstrating a new glitch in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. The glitch in question is similar to the dead character snapback glitch that allows two simultaneous characters to appear on screen, the difference being that the first assist is brought in instead of the second. This grants the incoming character some weird properties, the most notable of which is that cinematic hypers will not animate properly. The video below shows what happens when using this glitch with certain Capcom characters’ hypers and what combos they can pull off with it. For more, be sure to check out Gato’s original video highlighting the discovery, including how the aptly-named “Blanka glitch” acts with M.O.D.O.K. Source: El Gato, thanks to P2D\|McArthur for the tip.Paris (CNN) Photographs of Britain's Duchess of Cambridge sunbathing topless on vacation in 2012 were an invasion of privacy, a French court ruled on Tuesday. The court in Nanterre, in the western suburbs of Paris, awarded 100,000 euros in damages to the duchess and her husband, Prince William. It also slapped both the editor of Closer magazine and the chief executive of the publishing group that owns it with the maximum fine possible under French law (45,000 euros or about $53,500). The couple had asked for 1.5 million euros (nearly $1.8 million) in damages after the magazine and regional newspaper La Provence published grainy photos that showed the duchess sunbathing topless while on holiday in the south of France. The photos were taken with long lenses as the duke and duchess stayed at a private chateau owned by Viscount Linley, a nephew of Queen Elizabeth. William and his wife were on a nine-day tour of Southeast Asia, seen here arriving in Tuvalu in 2012, when the paparazzi pictures where published. Paul-Albert Inweis, the main lawyer for Closer, called the fines "somewhat exaggerated" after the ruling.You might think it'd be hard not to notice 68 million tons of rock and debris suddenly crashing down a mountainside. But when one of the biggest landslides of the past four years occurred in a remote region of Alaska, researchers knew almost everything about it except its exact location. Tracking it down took a coordinated effort between seismologists, geomorphologists, and ordinary citizens in a process that has become the new norm for finding large landslides around the world. These days, when a big landslide happens, its rumblings get picked up by the network of seismic sensors in place around the globe to detect earthquakes. Landslides have a distinct signature. Unlike earthquakes, which release bursts of energy for a few seconds, slides create sustained readings that can last many minutes. But scientists haven't been tuned in to this frequency for long. A year ago, seismologist Goran Ekstrom and geophysicist Colin Stark, both of Columbia University, published a paper in Science explaining how seismic data could reveal the time, force, direction, and speed of a large landslide. Before this, most big slides in remote locations went unnoticed. But there's one last missing piece: The seismometers can only locate where a landslide occurs within 30 kilometers or so. When a long rumbling shook southeastern Alaska on February 16, researchers immediately knew it was one of the biggest natural landslides in recent memory. (A larger, man-made landslide in 2013 tumbled 165 million tons into the Bingham Canyon open pit mine in Utah, making it the biggest non-volcanic landslide in North American history.) The seismic data put the Alaskan whopper somewhere in the vicinity of Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. That's where geographer Dave Petley of Durham University in the U.K. and The Landslide Blog, which he runs, came in. "I post the details and approximate location of the landslide, and we then, in effect, crowdsource finding it," said Petley. The blog post was noticed by geomorpholgist Marten Geertsema of the University of Northern British Columbia, who contacted Alaskan pilot Drake Olson. About a week after the landslide occurred, Olson flew to the location and photographed the exact region where it happened, on the flank of Mount La Perouse. From the images, Petley estimated that the debris flowed 4.8 kilometers downhill and left deposits as deep as 13 meters, nearly the height of a five-story building. NASA also got in on the game, using its Earth-observing satellite Landsat 8 to take the before and after shots from space seen at the top of this story. Because of winter snowfalls, the landslide already was buried beneath a light dusting. Soon, "the whole thing will be invisible, spread out under the ice," said Petley. Because the slide occurred in so remote a region, "we knew what happened in the National Park before the officials in the National Park knew." Without this coordinated online effort, Petley said, the Mount La Perouse landslide might never have been spotted. The technique has in fact helped scientists realize that major events such as this are much more common than once thought. Large landslides require big slopes and often take place in remote areas. "We used to think they were pretty rare," said Petley. "But we've probably just missed them in the past." Researchers now think that roughly half a dozen big landslides happen in a typical year, though a massive earthquake can trigger as many as 40 large landslides. Petley has been running his blog for about eight years, and it has become a focal point for the landslide research community. In 2012, he helped identify the root cause of a flash flood at the Seti River in Nepal. He knew that rainfall couldn't have been a culprit behind the flooding because it was May, well before monsoon season. "There was a lot of misinformation going around about that one," said Colin Stark, adding that media reports had blamed a snow avalanche or the collapse of a glacial lake dam. He and Ekstrom combed through their seismic data to find a large landslide signature that had occurred in the region a day before the flooding. The slide likely broke a natural earthen mass that had held back river water, creating a flood wave that traveled downstream. After seeing Petley's post, Kunda Dixit, a Nepalese journalist, got in contact with him and sent photos and videos taken by a Russian pilot named Captain Alexander Maximov, who was giving a tour over that region of Nepal at the time. Maximov's pictures captured the landslide as it happened, and he had posted his video to YouTube, showing the landslide moving down the slope of a mountain named Annapurna IV. As in the recent Alaska event, NASA provided satellite images of the area from space. The information is useful for basic geological research, giving scientists a better understanding of the dynamics of large landslides, and also in identifying areas where landslides might be likely to occur. In recent years, the Landslide Blog has posted different teleseismic landslide detection events, often those occurring in Alaska, where there is good seismic data, including at Hubbard Glacier fjord and Mount Lituya. The posts elicit help from NASA or other landslide hunters. I asked Petley if there had been an instance where he had posted landslide information to his blog and it hadn't led to other researchers and amateurs helping identify the event from the ground or space. "It hasn’t happened yet," he said.The charter of the National Security Agency limits its powerful surveillance to the rest of the world, not US citizens. But one controversial carve-out in NSA rules has for years allowed it to vacuum up communications that aren't "to" or "from" a foreign target, but merely "about" one—no matter who sends or receives it. Now the NSA says it will end that practice. And in doing so, it concedes a significant win to the privacy advocates who have fought it for years. The loophole the NSA is closing, as first reported by the New York Times, falls under the 702 provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The NSA's interpretation of FISA allowed it to search the vast firehose of internet data that passed through its wiretaps of fiberoptic cables for certain "selectors," or search terms, and collect that data if any part of the communication passed outside the US—even if one or both people communicating were in fact Americans. "NSA will no longer collect certain internet communications that merely mention a foreign intelligence target," reads a statement from the agency. "Instead, NSA will limit such collection to internet communications that are sent directly to or from a foreign target." About Time Exactly why the NSA decided to end those "about" searches still isn't entirely clear. But privacy advocates are cautiously declaring a victory. "The problem of this kind of 'about' searching is that it meant actually scanning the contents of every email to see if the messages contain the target selector," says Robyn Greene, policy counsel at the Open Technology Institute. "That implicates foreign affairs, human rights activism abroad, international businesspeople, lawyers who work internationally and researchers...Stopping 'about' collection is a huge boon to privacy for both Americans and individuals abroad." For at least a decade, the NSA has interpreted FISA to allow it to collect so-called "upstream" data based on search terms that go beyond merely who send or received it. It also takes into account strings of information that might be included in the communications, like an email address, phone number, IP address, or the "signature" that identifies a certain piece of malware. In 2008, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which serves as the judicial watchdog for the NSA's potential privacy violations, approved that legal interpretation in a classified ruling. The practice has remained contentious. Privacy advocates argue that it's unconstitutionally indiscriminate, violating Fourth Amendment protections from warrantless searches of US citizens. Any American communicating about a certain selector could have their communications caught in the NSA's dragnet if their communications simply pass through a foreign server, something they have little or no control over. "This could just be two people talking something, or a reporter writing a certain email address. It really broadens the aperture for the collection of communications without a warrant," says Andrew Crocker, an attorney with digital rights group EFF. "In our view, it’s been unconstitutional all along." It also happens frequently. In 2011, for instance, the FISC revealed an estimate that about.2 percent were between Americans, amounting to tens of thousands of individual communications. The same year, it blocked the NSA from doing any upstream data collection for close to six months, though it never revealed why. In 2014, a report by the White House's Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board raised the issue of the broad, indiscriminate targeting of "about" searches once again. That board also pointed to the problem exacerbated by so-called Multi-Communication Transactions: Due to the complexities of how data is packaged and moves around the internet, the NSA's filter pulled in entire bundles of digital communications despite many of the messages containing nothing to do with the target selector. "You would have one message that met the conditions to trigger collection, and then whoops, they got everything else in the same package including totally domestic emails," says Julian Sanchez, a privacy-focused research fellow with the Cato Institute. Legal Remedy To deal with those inherent problems, the NSA at some point agreed to store the domestic communications it collected with special protections, and only grant access to analysts under certain, secret conditions. In its public statement, though, the NSA conceded to "inadvertent compliance lapses," indicating that those special procedures failed. After reporting the violations to Congress and the FISC, the NSA decided to cease its "about" collection altogether, and even to delete older data collected under the practice. "Even though the Agency was legally allowed to retain such 'about' information previously collected under Section 702, the NSA will delete the vast majority of its upstream internet data to further protect the privacy of US person communications," the NSA statement reads. But while privacy advocates applaud that move, they also argue it's not enough. Instead of leaving the decision to the NSA's discretion or secret court rulings, Congress should encode the rollback in law when it renews the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act later this year, says OTI's Robyn Greene. "We need to codify an end to 'about' collection in the law," says Green, "This decision doesn't reduce that need for legislative reform, it highlights the need." In response to the NSA's statement, Senate Intelligence Committee member Ron Wyden said he intended to introduce that very legislation. Privacy advocates now hope that the NSA's decision to stop the "about" searches might reduce the chance that Congress will seek to authorize the practice. "This takes off the table one of the most controversial elements in the reauthorization debate," the EFF's Crocker says. "Straightforwardly, that's a good thing."A majority of U.S. Supreme Court justices express support for a Muslim woman denied a job at Abercrombie & Fitch because she wore a head scarf. (Reuters) A majority of U.S. Supreme Court justices express support for a Muslim woman denied a job at Abercrombie & Fitch because she wore a head scarf. (Reuters) The Supreme Court seemed inclined Wednesday to agree with a Muslim woman who charged that retailer Abercrombie & Fitch violated antidiscrimination laws when it denied her a job because her head scarf conflicted with the company’s dress code. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission took up the case of Samantha Elauf, who was denied a job at one of the chain’s stores in Tulsa. Elauf, then 17, had worn a head scarf, or hijab, since she was 13. At issue in the case was whether Elauf needed to explicitly volunteer during her interview that she wore the head scarf for religious reasons. Abercrombie said this action was necessary to trigger a federal law that prevents religious discrimination in hiring and requires employers to either offer an accommodation or say why it would impose a substantial burden. Both liberal and conservative justices questioned Abercrombie lawyer Shay Dvoretzky about why the company could not outline its policies — in this case, the clothing retailer prohibited head coverings — and ask the applicant whether it would be impossible to comply. The question, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said, would be as simple as, “You have a problem with that?” Samantha Elauf, right, who was denied a sales job at an Abercrombie & Fitch store in Tulsa in 2008, stands with U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lead attorney Barbara Seely at the U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 25. (Jim Bourg/Reuters) Dvoretzky said that would be “asking employers to treat applicants differently based on stereotypes or assumption about whether something is likely a religious practice.” He said the EEOC’s rule “would lead employers to treat people differently based on their religion, which is precisely the opposite of what Title VII wants,” referring to the anti-discrimination statute. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg responded: “Title VII requires them to treat people who have religious practice differently. They don’t have to accommodate a baseball cap. They do have to accommodate a yarmulke.” Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. proposed a hypothetical that he said “is going to sound like a joke, but, you know, it’s not.” He envisioned four job applicants: “The first is a Sikh man wearing a turban, the second is a Hasidic man wearing a hat, the third is a Muslim woman wearing a hijab, the fourth is a Catholic nun in a habit.” Alito continued, “Now, do you think... that those people have to say, ‘we just want to tell you, we’re dressed this way for a religious reason. We’re not just trying to make a fashion statement.’” In Elauf’s case, the interviewer and a supervisor conferred and agreed they thought Elauf wore the hijab for religious reasons. They then concluded she could not meet the company’s “Look Policy,” which promotes an East Coast collegiate preppy style that prohibits caps and the color black. Deputy Solicitor General Ian H. Gershengorn ran into trouble with some justices in trying to come up with a standard for how sure an employer would need to be that an applicant might need a religious accommodation if the information wasn’t volunteered. But he said that was unnecessary here. “If the employer had not assumed that this was religious, had not believed it, they would have hired her,” Gershengorn said. “The default rule for ‘I’m not sure’ is hire.” Only Justice Antonin Scalia voiced support for Abercrombie’s view of the case. “You could avoid those hard questions — whether it’s understand, believe, suspect — by adopting the rule that the court of appeals adopted here, and that is, if you want to sue me for denying you a job for a religious reason, the burden is on you to say, ‘I’m wearing the head scarf for a religious reason, or I’m wearing the beard for a religious reason,’ ” Scalia said. But Ginsburg said that Elauf was not even aware the company had a policy against head scarves. “How could she ask for something when she didn’t know the employer had such a rule?” Ginsburg said. Justice Elena Kagan seemed to agree with Gershengorn that the point of the law was to encourage a dialogue about whether religious accommodations were required, and that might involve “awkward” conversations. Abercrombie’s policy, she said, seemed to be that simply not hiring certain people means it may avoid stereotypes. “Now, between those two options, the option of using a stereotype to make sure that somebody never gets a job and using a stereotype to have an awkward conversation, which does this statute seem to think is the worst problem?” she asked. While religious and civil liberties groups backed Elauf, business groups supported Abercrombie. But it was unclear why the company continued to fight Elauf’s claim. A jury awarded her $20,000 in damages after a district judge said her claim could go forward. The Denver-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit reversed the decision. But the company has since changed its policy on head scarves and settled similar lawsuits elsewhere. The case is Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, Inc.The Minnesota Republican spent more than $185,000 on lawyers in the last three months. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., speaks June 14, 2013, at the Faith, Freedom Coalition conference in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Mark Wilson, Getty Images) Story Highlights Michele Bachmann has faced campaign finance investigations by the FEC and others Investigations started after former staffer alleged the presidential campaign improperly used money Presidential campaign debt is down to $30,673 from the more than $1 million after her bid failed WASHINGTON -- Rep. Michele Bachmann's got some serious legal bills. In the last three months, her presidential, congressional and leadership campaign committees spent more than $185,000 on Washington lawyers -- more than six times what they spent during an average quarter last year. The spike in legal fees came as the Minnesota Republican grappled with campaign finance investigations by the Federal Election Commission, the Office of Congressional Ethics and others. STORY: Tea Party fave Bachmann won't run for Congress again STORY: Bachmann aide arrested, charged with theft Campaign finance reports filed Monday show her congressional committee paid $120,000 to Washington law firm Patton Boggs between May 30 and June 26 and her presidential committee paid the same firm $55,000 during the period. A lawyer at the firm, William McGinley, has been representing both committees in the probes. Bachmann's leadership committee, MICHELE PAC, paid $11,300 to the Washington firm of Holland and Knight, where attorney Chris DeLacy has been representing the leadership committee and Guy Short, the national political director for Bachmann's presidential campaign. The investigations started after former campaign staffer Peter Waldron alleged in a complaint to the FEC in January that Bachmann's presidential campaign improperly used MICHELE PAC to pay the campaign's Iowa chairman and to hide payments to Short, a Colorado political consultant, for presidential campaign work. The probes intensified in April when a former chief of staff, Andy Parrish, corroborated the accusations and alleged in an affidavit that Bachmann personally knew about the payments to the Iowa chairman. DeLacy, the lawyer for Short and MICHELE PAC, asserted Tuesday his clients have been falsely accused by disgruntled former Bachmann staffers. "My clients have done nothing wrong and it is unfortunate the system can sometimes be manipulated in a way that creates the appearance of wrongdoing, when in fact nothing illegal or inappropriate has actually taken place," said DeLacy. "I am confident these dubious allegations will be carefully examined and then rejected by any impartial finder of fact." A spokesman for Bachmann declined to comment. McGinley, the lawyer representing her other committees, did not respond to a message seeking comment. He has previously denied the former staffers' allegations. “My clients have done nothing wrong and it is unfortunate the system can sometimes be manipulated in a way that creates the appearance of wrongdoing, when in fact nothing illegal or inappropriate has actually taken place.” Chris DeLacy, attorney for MICHELE PAC and Guy Short There is no indication the legal bills will decline anytime soon. The FEC investigation could last years. Congressional ethics investigators have completed their initial investigation, but the full House Committee on Ethics soon could decide the case merits further review. And if the FBI has been poking around, as MinnPost reported, a more serious criminal probe could ensue. Aside from legal fees, the other large expenses on the campaign finance reports filed this week were payments on debt left over from her presidential campaign. Bachmann's congressional committee paid the presidential campaign committee some $140,000. That brings the campaign debt to $30,673, down from more than $1 million after her presidential bid failed. Bachmann's fundraising pace for her congressional committee continued unabated, despite the controversies, the finance reports show. The committee raised $815,000 last quarter from individual contributors. Most of that -- $614,000 – came from donors across the country giving less than $200 each. An analysis of larger, itemized contributions indicates that the giving tapered off considerably after Bachmann announced May 29 that she would not seek re-election. The average weekly haul dropped from $21,000 to $6,000 after the announcement. Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/16HRKVqNever, ever. Not once. At no time in Jermon Bushrod’s long football journey did he line up at offensive guard in a game. Not even in his formative years. But that’s exactly what the Dolphins will ask of him this fall, as Miami’s newest offensive lineman will learn a new position in his 10th NFL season. And it’s not like the Dolphins see him as an insurance policy in case one of their other guards don’t pan out. Sign Up and Save Get six months of free digital access to the Miami Herald They need him to play. And they need him to play well. “Whatever needs to be done,” Bushrod told Miami reporters Friday, the day after signing a one-year contract with the Dolphins. “I'm going to compete. I have an offseason to compete.” Bushrod added: “I don't see it being too tough an obstacle. It'll be hard, but playing in the NFL is hard.” Just ask Dallas Thomas. And Billy Turner. And Jamil Douglas. The Dolphins had expected two of those three young guards to emerge last year. None really played at a starting caliber level. So it’s now up to Bushrod, who doesn’t even have a full offseason to learn the position. He underwent shoulder surgery last month. The recovery time is supposed to last into the summer. But Bushrod insisted that he’ll be ready for the start of training camp in late July. He feels a little bit better everyday. Plus, Bushrod has already proven that he isn’t a one-dimensional player. He lost his starting job in Week 3 last year after suffering a concussion and that shoulder injury. And yet, then-Bears offensive coordinator Adam Gase found creative ways to get Bushrod on the field once he got healthy. “I think it will be good for me to get out of the left tackle comfort zone,” Bushrod told the Dolphins’ in-house radio program. “When I did come back [last year], I wasn't as healthy as I once was, but he still found some ways to get me on the field, big tight end packages, things like that. He kept me interested. He kept me motivated. I was learning new things. I was learning new techniques.” Bushrod insisted he will have that same mindset this year in Miami. He cited his relationship with Gase as a big factor in signing with the Dolphins “He's going to bring that fire,” Bushrod said of Gase. “He's going to bring that energy. He's what this team needs.” But an even bigger factor: The interest Miami showed in him early in free agency. Bushrod said he had a number of teams reached out, but the Dolphins “stepped up.... They came out and made the move now.”Kinect always sounded a little too good to be true. The new motion controller for Xbox 360 uses an array of cameras and microphones to let a player control videogames using only body and voice, promising a new level of natural interactivity. For gamers with an eye toward the future, Kinect is a fascinating proof of concept. Its use of infrared readings to put together a surprisingly accurate and responsive 3-D model of your body beats the pants off any previous camera-based controller. The $150 Kinect, which launches Thursday, allows you to pull off some pretty complex stuff you simply couldn't with a Wii remote or PlayStation Move. For instance: cranking out full-body dance routines, or using your arms, legs and head to plug holes in a leaky submarine. At its best, it's like having a motion controller strapped to each limb. The Wii proved that accessible controls can get mom, grandpa and little sis to play games. Microsoft hopes to court those same casual gamers with Kinect, and then encourage them to log into the Xbox Live Marketplace to buy movies and stream music, all of which can now be done without ever touching a controller – at least if it's not too sunny outside. Like so many new technologies, 3-D camera control needs lots of improvement before it advances from nifty gimmick to fully functional hardware. The software that drives the current version of Kinect leaves a lot to be desired, and even if Microsoft fixes these early problems, the hardware labors under some perhaps insurmountable limitations. Kinect: Perfect for Vampires and Night Owls ——————————————- Let's get the biggest problem out of the way first: Direct sunlight on your body kills Kinect. Sunshine doesn't make the controller slightly less accurate – it completely obliterates the sensor's ability to see you. I was rocking out to Lady Gaga in Harmonix's excellent Kinect launch title Dance Central, but as soon as the sun streamed in through my west-facing windows that afternoon, the game couldn't read my poker face – or my poker arms or poker legs, for that matter. Closing my blinds helped a little, but the sunlight that shone in through the cracks and hit parts of my body caused me to be invisible in Kinect's eyes. Kinect also has some pretty serious space requirements. I am a city dweller with a studio apartment, and even though I have a good amount of distance between me and my television, I barely have enough room to play some games. You need to be at least 6 feet back from the TV and have enough clear horizontal space to play many of the minigames in Kinect Adventures. For example, I can play Rally Ball, a minigame in which you use your body to play a sort of 3-D version of Arkanoid, bouncing balls into the screen to break blocks. But I pretty much know that if a ball is headed for the lower left corner of the screen, I'm not going to hit it – I'm going to jam my foot into my bed. Rally Ball is one of the better uses of Kinect I've seen, something fun and challenging that's truly only possible with this hardware. But it is not rearrange-my-furniture fun. Dashboard Confessional ———————- Microsoft this week pushed out an update to the Xbox 360 dashboard that included the Kinect software. Now, whenever you're sitting on the 360's menu, you can simply wave your hand in the air to be whisked off to the Kinect Hub, a separate menu that lets you interact with any of the Xbox features Kinect can currently control. At this moment, it's a limited feature set. You can browse and buy movies and shows from the Zune Marketplace, watch on-demand college football and South American soccer on the ESPN3 channel, or stream music from Last.fm. The channel interfaces use an on-screen cursor controlled by your hand, but while Kinect lets you point, it won't let you click. So you must hover your hand over anything you want to select, then hold it there until a small meter fills up, indicating your selection. This works pretty well, although it means it always takes longer to do anything with Kinect. Simply pausing a videogame, which is always done by holding your right hand straight down and your left hand at a 45-degree angle, takes about four seconds. Kinect also utilizes voice commands, which worked with an amazing 100 percent accuracy. I didn't have to set up this functionality for it to recognize my voice. However, the voice commands only work for a small set of features, and the single most useful and important voice command any Xbox 360 owner will need doesn't exist: "Xbox, off." Isn't turning off the machine precisely when you most want to use voice commands? When you're in bed, having just watched a bunch of Pawn Stars on Netflix, too tired to find the remote? Speaking of which, I know a lot of people with Xboxes. I have never seen any of them watch movies downloaded from Zune Marketplace. I have seen or heard of almost all of them watching Netflix streaming. Guess what doesn't work with Kinect? Maybe Microsoft will add support in the next Xbox 360 software update, but until then, Kinect does not work with Netflix, one of the internet's most popular streaming media sources. Turn Me On, Turn Me Off ———————– Kinect lacks on-and-off functionality in a more general sense as well. When you press a button on a standard controller, it sends a very clear signal. A switch is flipped; a zero becomes a one. Kinect doesn't possess this ability. All it has is fuzzy analog input – as I said above, the point but not the click. I was throwing a rubber pig to my imaginary pet cheetah Skittles in the childrens' game Kinectimals when I realized what this means for game design. Take pig-tossing as an example. Kinect doesn't know when you want to let go of the animal, so it must guess. And it doesn't always guess right, which leads to a disconnect between what you imagine you're doing and what happens on-screen. Pigs fired at random when I was just winding up. Bowling in Kinect Sports presents the same problem. The Wii version of bowling is markedly superior for one reason – you hold down a button when you're holding the ball, and release it to let it go. The accelerometer does the fuzzy stuff, tracking the swing of your arm, but the button reports when, exactly, you release the ball. Kinect's launch games work around this basic deficiency, some more successfully than others. Faced with a new and unique input method, software designers will inevitably spend lots of time trying new things. Eventually, we'll see something of a universal Kinect language, as developers narrow down options to a few common gestures and menu layouts that work best. Xbox, Fast Forward —————— For hard-core gamers, Kinect is a box full of potential, offering tantalizing glimpses at how full-body control could be used for game designs that simply wouldn't work any other way. But at launch, the available games get tripped up by Kinect's limitations more than they are liberated by the control system's abilities. Besides bringing better software and more robust dashboard functionality, the coming months and years should get us closer to finding out if the very premise upon which Kinect is based is true or not. It's clear Microsoft will attract new users based solely on the "wow" factor of controlling your television holding absolutely nothing in your hands. For that reason, Kinect is undeniably cool. But your grandparents watch plenty of TV, right? Even though the only way to control it is by using a remote with 100 tiny buttons? What exactly is wrong with buttons? Next: Hands-On With Kinect Games Hands-On With Kinect Games ————————– These brief impressions of the Kinect games I've been able to try will reveal some of the new control system's strengths and weaknesses. Dance Central Ubisoft is having great success with Just Dance for Wii, but leave it to the maker of Rock Band to drive the dancing game forward. Dance Central doesn't just ask you to replicate dance moves for hits like "Funkytown" and "Pon de Replay" – it teaches them to you. An elaborate feature called "Break It Down" shows you the steps one by one, slowing down the music if you're having trouble replicating the fancy footwork. I had a great deal more fun with this than I would have if it just made me dance and gave me a rating afterward telling me how much I sucked, which is usually what happens. Kinect Sports This had to happen, insofar as Wii Sports is one of the best-selling videogames of all time. British developer Rare's take on the sports minigame genre is cute, funny and playable enough, featuring mainstays like bowling and
create new categories of crime and render otherwise law-abiding Americans criminals. Notice how we keep coming full circle back to the point where it’s average Americans like you and me being targeted and turned into enemies of the state? That brings me to the third factor contributing to Americans being arrested, charged with outrageous “crimes,” and jailed: the Corporate State’s need for profit and cheap labor. Not content to just lock up millions of people, corporations have also turned prisoners into forced laborers. Survival Solar Battery Charger - Free Today! According to professors Steve Fraser and Joshua B. Freeman, “All told, nearly a million prisoners are now making office furniture, working in call centers, fabricating body armor, taking hotel reservations, working in slaughterhouses, or manufacturing textiles, shoes, and clothing, while getting paid somewhere between 93 cents and $4.73 per day.” Tens of thousands of inmates in U.S. prisons are making all sorts of products, from processing agricultural products like milk and beef, to packaging Starbucks coffee, to shrink-wrapping software for companies like Microsoft, to sewing lingerie for Victoria’s Secret. What some Americans may not have realized, however, is that America’s economy has come to depend in large part on prison labor. “Prison labor reportedly produces 100 percent of military helmets, shirts, pants, tents, bags, canteens, and a variety of other equipment. Prison labor makes circuit boards for IBM, Texas Instruments, and Dell. Many McDonald’s uniforms are sewn by inmates. Other corporations—Microsoft, Victoria’s Secret, Boeing, Motorola, Compaq, Revlon, and Kmart—also benefit from prison labor.” The resulting prison labor industries, which rely on cheap, almost free labor, are doing as much to put the average American out of work as the outsourcing of jobs to China and India. No wonder America is criminalizing mundane activities, arresting Americans for minor violations, and locking them up for long stretches of time. There’s a significant amount of money being made by the police, the courts, the prisons, and the corporations. What we’re witnessing is the expansion of corrupt government power in the form of corporate partnerships which both increase the reach of the state into our private lives while also adding a profit motive into the mix, with potentially deadly consequences. This perverse mixture of government authoritarianism and corporate profits is now the prevailing form of organization in American society today. We are not a nation dominated by corporations, nor are we a nation dominated by government. We are a nation dominated by corporations and government together, in partnership, against the interests of individuals, society and ultimately our freedoms. If it sounds at all conspiratorial, the idea that a government would jail its citizens so corporations can make a profit, then you don’t know your history very well. It has been well documented that Nazi Germany forced inmates into concentration camps such as Auschwitz to provide cheap labor to BASF, Bayer, Hoechst, and other major German chemical and pharmaceutical companies, much of it to produce products for European countries. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it, whether what we are experiencing right now is fascism, American style, or Auschwitz revisited? Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. He is the author of A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State and The Change Manifesto.By Tony Sheil, Griffith University As the higher education sector begins to look to life under the 44th parliament, it might pause to consider the words of prime minister-elect Tony Abbott upon claiming victory last Saturday night: Now is the time to stop campaigning and start governing. With the burden of office comes a sense of pragmatism. People behave differently once off the campaign trail – not immediately, but usually over the long term. The incoming education minister, presumably Christopher Pyne with the possible support of Brett Mason in the higher education and research portfolio, will come to one immediate conclusion. On balance, they have inherited a portfolio in good health. Under the previous Coalition government support for research and development in Australia as a proportion of GDP grew from around 1.5% in 2002 to almost 2.0% in 2007. Continued support under Labor saw that proportion move upwards over 2.2% edging closer to the OECD average which is around 2.3%. For Australian research, the decade since 2002 has been kind with progressive increases in funding for people and projects, infrastructure and equipment. This has propelled 19 Australian universities into the Academic Ranking of World Universities top 500 and five into the top 100. This was helped by the additional funds created by expanding student places, which in turn led to a greater capacity to undertake more research. For this they should thank their predecessors as far back as Coalition education ministers David Kemp and Brendan Nelson who gave us the Backing Australia’s Ability and Backing Australia’s Future innovation plans, former Liberal higher education minister Julie Bishop who brought us the Higher Education Endowment Fund, former Labor prime minister Julia Gillard for the uncapping of student places and the former Labor higher education minister Kim Carr for his commitment to senior, mid and early career fellowships plus Higher Degree Research scholarships. The prime minister-elect also deserves an honourable mention here for his commitment as health minister to doubling the National Health and Medical Research Council budget. No government would want to undo these accomplishments, especially when their own Coalition predecessors, including the incoming prime minster and foreign minister, were largely responsible. But there will be cuts and there will be some redirection of funding. Those engaged in medical research and big science will be feeling more comfortable than colleagues in the humanities, arts and social sciences who might be entering a difficult period. They will most certainly need to sharpen up their arguments about the impact of their research and to lobby for the creation of a Chief Social Scientist position like never before. It is doubtful that the Coalition will reverse Labor’s efficiency dividends – cuts to universities that were to fund the former government’s school funding reforms. Although the new government will still need to pass legislation to implement them. The Coalition’s Real Solutions for All Australians paper commits to the continuation of current funding levels as well as support for long-term infrastructure funding. Of course, the Coalition has committed to cutting red tape, regulation and reporting in the sector – as did Labor in 2007. The Coalition has committed to developing Northern Australia as an “education hub” and the promotion of the region as a study destination for international students. But there remains a question mark over whether students will want to study there. The foreign minister’s creation of a “New Colombo Plan” is also commendable. The new policy, based on the post-war higher education initiative which supported Asia’s elite to study in Australia, would see more Australian undergraduates study in Asia. But we have a task at hand to convince our students to consider this option with the same enthusiasm they have for Europe and North America. Medical research and training will be well cared for with additional places for interns, practice incentive payments and allied health scholarships. A Murray-Darling medical school will be placed onto the agenda by the Nationals, while support for research into areas such as tropical health, diabetes and dementia have already featured. The Coalition has also left itself with ample policy wiggle room in some key areas. Throughout the campaign they have remained silent on their precise approach to the uncapping or recapping of student places or the reintroduction of full-fee places. The commitment for a review and restructure of research funding leaves much up in the air. Likewise we have no detail on Coalition plans on research impact – that is, assessing research based on its impact on industry or the community. The future of recent exercises in the area of assessing research quality, including an impact component of the Excellence in Research for Australia program or revival of the Research Quality Framework, remains uncertain. Just prior to the election, Abbott expressed some intriguing views about higher education in The Conversation, stating: Obviously the higher education sector is a contributor to GDP, and it is important for our economy, but in the end universities are there to pursue learning, they’re there to be the guardians of truth, they’re there to push the boundaries of knowledge. This strong commitment to the value of education in its own right will undoubtedly prompt robust Cabinet discussions. What lies in store for the sector varies by discipline and in the eyes of the beholder. It is improbable that any cuts will be as severe as Howard’s 1996 cuts. As higher education expert Andrew Norton has already suggested, cuts will most likely be driven by a need to correct budget deficits than to serve party interests. Tony Sheil is affiliated with Griffith University.Royce Gracie has experience in single-night tournaments. And Scott Coker has experience getting fighters to come back after long layoffs. Does that mean Gracie (14-2-3) might consider a return to fighting if the Bellator president asked him to join the promotion? After all, Ken Shamrock came back and fought Kimbo Slice recently. “Ken Shamrock is still in shape – for an old man,” Gracie recently told MMAjunkie. “You can never say never in this business. It’s Scott Coker running the show, bringing the old guys back. He talked to me a couple times. I said, ‘Man, leave me alone.’ He said, ‘I’m going to get you back in the cage.'” But who would Gracie want to fight if he did come back? “When you’re on the top, you don’t choose,” he said. “You get chosen. (Coker) asked. I said, ‘You never choose your opponents. Let them choose. Let them come to me.'” Gracie hasn’t fought since June 2007. But while he was in the UFC, during the promotion’s first five events, he fought in three single-night tournaments – winning all three. This week, Bellator gets into the one-night tournament fold with a four-man light heavyweight tourney at Bellator 142 in San Jose, Calif. Gracie said fighting in a one-night tournament means a different approach is needed than knowing you have one fight. “There’s a lot of strategy involved,” he said. “You’ve got to know your opponent. It’s a whole setup. You’ve got to take your opponent out of his game. Having to fight two fights in one night, it’s a total different strategy now. You’ve got to go hard, but you can’t hurt yourself. You’ve got, what, maybe 20 minutes? Then you have to go back and fight again.” Gracie said he hopes to see the one-night tournament format make a resurgence. “I hope (we’ll see it more),” he said. “Maybe not every event, but once a year, twice a year, get the best four guys in that division and see who’s the best for that night. A championship belt, there’s the champion and then there’s the guys who have to climb up the ladder. But get the best four guys in one night, and anything can happen.” For more on Bellator 142, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.*SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO* President Obama's Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Peter Orszag, accused Senate Republicans on Sunday of trying to kill health care reform by dragging out the legislative process. Appearing on CNN's State of the Union, Orszag labeled the attempts to push back the health care reform timeline as a "typical Washington bureaucratic game of if you don't have a better alternative just delay in hopes that that kills something." "We want to get this done by August and we think we can," he added. "There are those that are advocating delay just as a desperation move to try and kill this." Orszag stressed that not everyone calling for delay had sinister motives. The moderate Democrats in the Senate and Blue Dog Democrats in the House, he said, were "actively participating in the debate and that is great." This past week, Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) Mary Landrieu (La.) and Ron Wyden (Ore.), along with Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.) and Maine Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins signed a letter asking to slow down the health care reform debate. Nevertheless, from Orszag's CNN appearance, it seemed clear that the administration thinks pushing back the health care timeline amounts to a death sentence for reform. On Sunday, the OMB Director repeated that the White House's goal was to have legislation passed through both the House and the Senate by the time both chambers break for August recess. "It's still the goal," he said. "We think we can make that. We are working towards that." He added that the White House had been in discussion over the weekend with many of the recalcitrant House Democrats and Senate Finance Committee members to hammer out some sort of agreement.1. I'm Sadek Drobi. I'm here at Erlang Factory with Simon Peyton Jones and Joe Armstrong. Can you please tell us about yourselves and what you've been busy with lately? JA: I'm Joe Armstrong and I'm at Erlang Factory. I've just been to a very nice talk where Simon has told us about the birth of Haskell and Erlang and how they point along parallel routes solving the same problems. I think we can talk a bit about that, because in your lecture you said things about "We tried that and it was an absolute disaster". We also tried - you know this making everything parallel - we did that as well. SPJ: Was it a disaster? JA: Yes. You know this bit about you deleted all the people's code? We've done that as well. SPJ: I'm Simon Peyton Jones, I work at the Microsoft Research in Cambridge at the moment. Previously I was a professor at Glasgow University. I've been doing functional programming now for 30-odd years, because I got addicted to it when I was at university and never been able to give it up. It's like a drug, but a good drug. Haskell is a programming language evolved because a bunch of different academics were working on lazy functional programming languages around the world, but they were all different languages and we realized that if we'd just agree to a common language, then we would be able to share a lot more work together, so we got together and formed a committee, which wasn't necessarily a very promising way to go about designing an elegant and beautiful language. But actually the committee worked very well, because we had enough common goals. That was in the very early '90s. Haskell has come a long way since then. Many languages die fairly quickly after they've been designed, but Haskell has lasted 20 years, as has Erlang. JA: Erlang had a different start than Haskell. It started in an industrial environment. It started in the computer science lab at Ericsson and the original goal was to find a better way of programming. It wasn't actually to make a programming language at all, it was somewhat after the event that we discovered we created a programming language - that was kind of accidental. SPJ: But you also had a very specific application at least, didn't you? You really were telecoms. JA: We wanted to just program a small telephone exchange in the best way possible and we wanted to just steal our ideas from different programming languages and put them together and just try them out and see if they work. SPJ: You knew the application you needed and you knew that concurrency was key - concurrency and robustness was key. JA: I remember back in the '80s going to conferences and talking about shared memory systems, and I always poked up my hand and asked the same question over again - "Well what happens if one of these shared memory things fails?" and they would say "Well it all fails". That's what we didn't want, you know. We make products with... a standard Ericsson product should have a downtime of four minutes per year or something like that; or better than that. Our key problem is handling failure. Right from the early days, we thought "Well the only way to handle failure is no shared memory and no transaction memory or anything that locks things" and that's why we copy everything. That's why we have a sophisticated error handling. So, here we are back in the '80s, about 1984 - 1985, just thinking how we can put these things together and it was only later that we realized "Oh, we've made a programming language and better give it a name" and people started using it and such. SPJ: It never struck me quite as positively as this before, but Erlang was born very much out of a demand pool. You had a telephone exchange, you wanted to program it and the language happened to come out of that. Haskell was the exact reverse. We were on a mission from God to explain why laziness was fantastic for the world, so it was very much technology push. We wanted to explain functional programming, lazy functional programming in particular, through the medium of a language. You were at this end and we were at this end. JA: But in the same point in time we were doing the same things. I remember one of the things we did in Erlang, we... First of all we implemented it in Prolog and I did that. Later, Robert Virding came along and Robert was very into parallel concurrent languages. We made one of our first big mistakes, which was announcing what the performance of something will be before you've done it. You've made that one! SPJ: No, no, no! We'd never do that! JA: We cross-compiled Erlang to Strand, which was a parallel language and we implemented a language like that and we happily told everybody "It will be 6 times faster" before we'd actually done this. SPJ: Was it? JA: No. It didn't work. SPJ: Didn't work at all! Naught times faster! JA: The first thing we did, we wrote an Erlang program, we cross-compiled it to all this parallel stuff and we had 3 Erlang processes and it was as parallel as possible and suddenly there were 6 million processes in the machine, 6 million threads - we got far too much parallelism. At that was the same time you said, in your talk, "Well, we tried to make everything parallel and it was just far too much parallelism." We did the same stuff at the same time. SPJ: A nice remark I remember you making about Robert was that he came to you one day and asked to make a few small changes in the compiler. Then, the next line in your paper was "Robert is incapable of making a small change to anything, so he completely rewrote the whole thing." JA: He left a little comment at the top, "Joe first wrote this", and then everything is completely different. We used to rewrite each others' code. 2. Haskell and Erlang have 2 distinct models of concurrency, right? Haskell is going to side-effect free, Erlang is about messaging. Can you talk a bit about this in contrast to both models of concurrency? SPJ: I suppose Haskell initially wasn't a concurrent language at all. It was a purely functional language and we had the idea from the beginning that a purely functional language was a good substrate for doing concurrency on. But it turned out to be a lot harder to turn that into reality than I think we really expected because we thought "If you got e1+e2 then you can evaluate e1 at the same time as e2 and everything will be wonderful because they can't affect each other because it's pure." But it turned out to be very hard to turn that into actual wall clock speedups on processes, leaving aside all issues of robustness or that kind of stuff, because if you do that style of concurrency you get lots of very tiny fine-grained processes and you get no locality and you get very difficult scheduling problems. The overheads overwhelm the benefits, in short. From there, we've evolved generally towards giving the programmer some control over that kind of concurrency. That was the first form of concurrency that Haskell grew. It was a controlled form of this implicit level of concurrency. We added other things afterwards that we'll talk about later, but it was very different to Erlang's model of concurrency. JA: Erlang started with just this pure process and copying everything. The reason for copying was error handling. Error handling was central. In my view of the world, the view of the world I've always had was all these little processes all talking to each other in a global namespace. SPJ: But that already, as you know, was completely alien to Haskell, which is just a functional program which is evaluated, so a totally different model. JA: In the first incarnation of Erlang, it was just... little black boxes were communicating, copying their messages - it's a mailbox model, copying to a mailbox. What we were doing was relational. We had Prolog processes inside the black boxes. SPJ: But you saw the light. JA: We had to. You are launching a rocket program, because... We wanted from a black box perspective, if you send a certain sequence of messages in, you want the same sequence of messages to come out. You want that to be reproducible and deterministic and Prolog isn't like that. It backtracks, and it has things like that. It just sort of became more natural to make it functional. We never made a decision about having types or not having types. That wasn't an issue. We started with Prolog. Prolog didn't have types, so we got the dynamic type system that Prolog had. The issues we were interested in were limiting errors, propagation of errors, restarting things, restarting bits of the system without taking down all the system, having things which may appear inconsistent while you are upgrading them, continuously evolving systems, not systems you stop and restart. We can't stop our systems and globally check they are consistent and then relaunch them. We incrementally change bits and we recognize that they are inconsistent under short time periods and we live with that. Finding ways of living with failure, making systems that work, despite the fact they are inconsistent, despite the fact that failures occur. Error models are very sophisticated. When I see things like Scala or I see on the 'net there's this kind of "Erlang-like semantics", that usually means mailboxes and message boxes, it doesn't mean all the error handling, it doesn't mean the live code upgrade. The live upgrade of code while you are running a system needs a lot of deep plumbing under the counter - it's not easy. SPJ: I still think it's amazing you can make that work at all. JA: Phil Wadler saw it... You know, you can have two versions of the same model with all the same names, he didn't believe it was possible until we showed it to him. 3. You mentioned some other language got inspired from Erlang and from Haskell, also about concurrency. For example, Scala. The dynamic part of Erlang actors in the same way that languages like F# and C# implement features coming from functional programming, more specifically Haskell. Can you talk a bit about this and how things get implemented in the mainstream or in other languages? JA: I don't know. People say "What will happen to Erlang?" and I have no idea. There are certain languages which are very influential, but don't get widely used, like Smalltalk, for example. Smalltalk is the ultimate object-oriented language and it has influenced Objective-C and all sorts of languages. It has this core band of pure Smalltalk programmers who don't believe in anything else, but it wasn't destined to take over the world. Erlang is probably... I don't know, maybe it's in that category, it influences other languages... It comes from a funny place, it comes from Ericsson, it comes from a telecoms company and that's really not our main business, to make languages. Microsoft's main business is to make languages, but you have the sort of muscle to support a language. We have languages supported by companies like Microsoft and Sun and Java and C# and things like that. Then, you have languages not supported by big companies like Ruby and Perl, and they have their own communities. Erlang is in between - it's not in the sense of Microsoft or Sun being supported in the big scale, but it's not living all by itself in an open source community. It has the financial resources to do the compiler and keep the core clean, which is very good. Where it goes from there, I don't know. SPJ: But nevertheless, there is this company that supports it - there isn't for Haskell, curiously. Microsoft is generously supporting myself and Simon Marlow, but they are not supporting us to work on Haskell. I'm hired as a researcher and I happen to work on Haskell. JA: It's a good change to work on C#. SPJ: In principle I could. I don't think it's going to any time soon. I suppose Microsoft could turn around and tell me "Please don't work on Haskell any more." 4. Like they did with Erik Meijer, right? SPJ: Erik is a whole different ball of wax. Erik works in the developer division in Microsoft and that's much more product focused, but amazingly Erik has brilliantly found a way to meld ideas from functional programming in quite a product-focused kind of way and build a little research bubble in the developer division that they perceive as being actively valuable to them. I think that's amazing! Whereas I'm a mere parasite. I'm a researcher who isn't required on a month-by-month basis in the way that Erik is to produce immediate value to the company. But I think Haskell is also a bit different to Erlang. I think of Haskell as a... Its principle value is a kind of ideas factory. It's a laboratory in which ideas can grow and flow. It has a very active user community and a very active research community. Lots of research papers use Haskell as their substrate and indeed use GHC, the compiler that Simon and I built, as a substrate for their work. It's a laboratory in which ideas can go in that may then get transferred elsewhere. We've seen lots of examples of that, not perhaps specifically for Haskell or for functional programming in general, going right back to garbage collection, which is now taken as "Of course you have garbage collection", but it was a long time before that was taken as wrote, it was a long time that people thought it would never be taken as wrote, but that grew up in the functional programming community. Generics in Java and C# grew up in their functional programming type system world and are now taken for granted. LINQ, the language integrated query system in C#, is heavily informed by ideas of functional programming. I'm actually quite happy if Haskell serves as a role of generating ideas then move into the mainstream. Whether Haskell will itself ever become a truly mainstream language - it has hundreds of thousands of users, but not hundreds of millions of users, so it's a completely different kind of scale than Microsoft's product languages. Whether it will ever become a language on that scale, I don't know and I wouldn't want to give up being an ideas factory in order to get that. I'm just delighted that my colleague, Don Syme, who is 3 doors down the corridor, has developed F#, in which now actually there's a kind of pipeline, so now he can get pipeline ideas out of Haskell into F# and out of F# into C#. And I'm also delighted that he successfully made the case to Microsoft to turn it into a product that the company does support in a way that Erlang is supported and Haskell is not. F# really is a Microsoft product. That's a huge breakthrough for a big mainstream company like Microsoft to support a functional language. But the ideas factory is the bit that I... that is the most important thing, the high order bit. JA: That's fun, isn't it? It's the same in Erlang. I think in a way you know your graph, and it's like you have this initial enthusiasm, you get up to there and there's this sort of plateau where not much happens. I think that happened in Erlang as well. I don't understand why, it seemed to be very stop-go. You work on things, then suddenly something happens and then I think it's a time taken to ingest the ideas, these ideas are fermenting in people's brains for a long time. When people started being permanently connected to the Internet with broadband connections - that's a quantitative change. You saw the file-sharing networks. It's only about 4-5 years ago that people started deploying distributed algorithms. In the first few years of that they said "What shall we do?" Nobody knows so they invented Bittorrent and things like that. You have social networking programs, you have things like that. Google Wave will come along and replace email in a few years time. Suddenly people want to know how to write distributed programs, which they never wanted to do before. So, how do you do distributed transactions? How do you do consistency? It was always a pretty obscure part of computer science, these distributed algorithms. Then we said "We've got these to do parallel. How the heck do we program these things?" In Erlang or Haskell, these algorithms are just difficult, but in other languages they are... SPJ: Downright impossible! JA: Yeah, right! I mean even if you have a very clean, pure programming language and you take Paxton algorithms or something like that, they are complicated things. They make your head hurt. There is a whole branch of mathematics, a whole branch of computer science to understand distributed algorithms and they live at the bottom of these social networks and things, ticking along. So I don't think you are going to see Erlang replacing Javascript or anything like that in browsers, but where you are seeing them being deployed is in the infrastructures, in the clouds and things like that, to glue the bits together properly, because that's where you need the complex algorithms. We are seeing an infrastructure-building things, cloud computing and what you are doing inside modern massive multicores, how do you organize computations. There where it's being used a lot. SPJ: Whenever you've got concurrency and multiple processes working, you need to be very careful about side effects. Otherwise it just does your head in. Something that Haskell and Erlang both share is being careful about effects. Haskell is sort of super-careful and Erlang is merely careful, but in both cases, we don't have this, unrestricted side effects all the time, the computational fabric being effectful. It seems to me it makes it jolly hard to write programs that exploit multithreads. JA: I didn't really know what thread safety was in Java, so I wrote a little Java Swing thing and of a Java friend I asked: I wrote this Java process and it worked fine. I could create one window, and then I created 2 windows in a graphical program and I drew a rectangle in one and I drew a rectancle in the other and it crashed. And I said "Why did it crash?" And he said "Well the Swing library's not threadsafe". Now, what does that mean? It means if you got one thing that works, you do 2 of them in parallel, they interact in strange ways. I thought "How can you program like that? It's impossible to program!" If you got this non-thread safety, maybe you got this code that's threadsafe that reads stuff and this code that's threadsafe that writes stuff, you try to compose into a program that reads and writes and then you go "Oh, it didn't work!" Then you are scratching your head and thinking "Maybe something is wrong. Let's put a mutate or a lock around the whole thing" and it works for a while and then somebody else has forgotten to lock it. What happens when it crashes? How is the failure model integrated with the locking models? Because if you lock stuff it seems you don't fail and you release the lock and then you hide that in the libraries and nobody can see and you inherit stuff from there and you've got a mess. SPJ: One of the ways that I speculate that functional languages may end up influencing the mainstream, is that mainstream languages will gain a larger and larger subset of purely functional programming, that will make it easier to write functional programs that don't use side effects a lot. So, you can get more and more computation done, useful and complicated computation, like the algorithms you were describing, without using side effects. I think that, as they get richer subsets - F# is an example of this because it's built on a substrate that is completely imperative. The.NET system is an imperative system, but F# makes it easier - it reduces the barrier to entry for writing functionally. I think that's a trend that we will see continue. JA: What I noticed is that the Erlang libraries, they are pure libraries, and the pure functions are incredibly reusable. They just work forever. You do them, you test them and forget about them and you can reuse them in many different contexts that you hadn't thought about. The goal in system design is to divide your system in such a way that as much as possible of it is pure and the messing stuff's on the side. SPJ: That's why you need those types, Joe! JA: No, that's why you need good error recovery mechanism, because even with your types, you need to test it. First, I want to write a factorial program, my factorial program will say "factorial of n is 42" and the type inference then will say "This is a type int to int", so it's OK, it's correct. You have to say factorial 3 is 6. SPJ: You are misrepresenting me! I never said that types guarantee your program is correct, but you were talking about segregating events and types are a very good way to segregate things. 5. In the same topic, in Scala, which we say got inspired by Erlang, for the actor model, actually they don't copy memory, they don't copy data structure, but they rather share them and there are no constraints on the data structure, so it could be mutable and it could be shared. Martin Odersky, father of Scala wrote a paper about using types, be it inferred or not, type annotations for guaranteeing that the reference is not consumed concurrently. So, you can use mutable data structure, which is very nice for performance reasons, yet you get some guarantees of not having race conditions. Can you talk a little bit about that from the two perspectives? SPJ: First thing to say, Scala is not just a knock-off of Erlang. It's a whole sophisticated language which rather elegantly combines functional and object oriented systems, in a rather innovative and unusual way. But I think you are right - one thing you can do with Scala is implement an Erlang-like model. Once you've got an imperative system, in which you can mutate things, it is possible to use type systems to constrain exactly how you mutate them so that, for example, ownership types in object oriented languages are an example of doing this. I don't know about Scala's... I don't know the paper that you are describing of Martin's, but systems that allow mutual objects to flow around and be used once and be owned by different threads can work, but they tend to be rather complicated. My gut feel is that you need type systems that tread this narrow line between being expressive enough to say what you want and not being so complicated that nobody can understand them anymore. Ownership types for a conventional object oriented language are a way of controlling some of these things, but that feels to me like taking a system that's already using too many effects and trying to retrospectively patch it up, is better to start - from my preferences - would be to start with a system in which effects are (a) few, because the functional subset is very big and (b) rather constrained. Now, Haskell has a rather crude distinction between effectful programs and not. That's not enough to just say it has some effects, might not be enough. That gets you back into the land of controlling effects more precisely, but at least it's a smaller piece of your program. At the moment I'm agnostic about whether types are the right mechanism for trying to do this much more fine-grained control of effects in which you are saying "This reference is owned by that thread for this period and then the ownership moves to that." That's a rather sophisticated thing to do. It's very clever, I'd be very interested in papers written about it. JA: I don't like the idea of mixing things too much. SPJ: What sort of mixing? JA: If you look at Haskell, Erlang, Scala and F#, what do you see? If you look at Haskell, you see something which, within its context, within the little framework it sets up for its sandbox, it's very consistent, it's very beautiful. You look at Erlang, it kind of fits, the bits fit together nicely. Of course, they don't fit together nicely with the JVM or with.NET or anything like that. If you want to use all the nice things that are there, you can't use them, or you can use them, but it's difficult. So the other approach is, you say "Let's use the JVM and target lots of different languages, so that the different languages can use each other" or you can do that within the.NET framework, you get Scala and you get F#. The benefit there is you can use all these other things that are available, but in order to do them, you have to break them, massively corrupt and break these abstraction boundaries and I don't like that. I think you are breaking abstraction boundaries in the wrong place. How I would like to see systems built is through communicating back boxes. And I would like to see the type systems applied to the definition of the protocols themselves and I haven't seen that done. SPJ: That's been lots of work on that kind of stuff in the type systems for contracts. JA: Yes, I've done some stuff myself, but it seems to have very little impact on how protocols are designed. Protocols are designed, typical ways are, if you write RFCs and things like that and they are defined in English with text and a lot of people think they are defining protocols, but they are in fact defining message structures and they don't say anything about ordering... SPJ: You must send an A and then a B and they must be all applied. JA: Yes. Classically, an API for files, say, you can open a file and you can close a file and you can read a file and you can write it. They don't tell you that you have to open it before you can read it, do they? SPJ: The very idea that there is a thing that you do things to it is part of what gives rise to that problem. JA: In a lot of programming languages, if you have a file open and read and write, the programmer is supposed to know just by magic that you should open it before you read it. That makes sense on one processor - what does it mean on a parallel program? What happens when you have 2 things that try to open the file at the same time? Do you get 2 copies and one of them fails? Is it like a transaction? Is
othsayer. In the opening scenes, a pretty girl in a dress walks the surface of a painted planet to discover the rotting corpse of an astronaut amidst blasted mountains. It’s the cute John Lewis moon advert turned into the stuff of bad dreams. A devil’s tail slips from beneath the girl’s dress. And who might that astronaut be? Major Tom is dead. Bowie lives. Blackstar video: 'It’s the cute John Lewis moon advert turned into the stuff of bad dreams' Credit: YouTube “I’m not a film star, I’m not a pop star, I’m a blackstar,” he sings. He is certainly a star of his own very peculiar devising. It is unlikely to worry Adele about her prospects for dominance of the charts. But this extraordinary visual and musical taster will make any Bowie fan salivate for the new album to be released on January 8th next year. At 68 years old, Bowie is still the strangest superstar in pop.On November 2, speaking at a Democratic fundraiser in New York, President Barack Obama poked fun of the Republicans, joking that if they cannot handle CNBC moderators how could they possibly handle Russia’s Vladimir Putin? “Every one of these candidates says, ‘Obama’s weak, Putin’s kicking sand in his face. When I talk to Putin, he’s gonna straighten out.’ …and then it turns out they can’t handle a bunch of CNBC moderators!” Mr. Obama said. “I mean, let me tell you: if you can’t handle those guys,” he continued, laughing, “I don’t think the Chinese and the Russians are going to be too worried about you.” While Mr. Obama had his fun, he neglected to mention more serious matters—the Russian plane crash over the Sinai peninsula on October 31 that took the lives of all 224 passengers on board. The current American administration will go down in history as one of the most weak and unprofessional with no affinity for etiquette and good manners. Where Mr. Obama failed, other Western and world leaders expressed their condolences—British Prime-Minister David Cameron, Polish President Andzej Duda, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Chinese President Xi Jinping among them. On his Twitter page, Mr. Cameron wrote: “PM expresses condolences to President Putin over Sinai plane crash. Britain shares Russia’s pain and grief.” Mr. Hollande wrote: “[A]fter the occurred tragedy [President] sends his condolences to President Putin and expresses his solidarity with the Russian people..” Even Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko took to Twitter with the following: “I express my personal condolences to all the families of those perished in the catastrophe of the Russian passenger plane over Egypt.” Not Mr. Obama. The Kremlin isn’t worrying why Barack Obama didn’t send condolences, reported Interfax. “Probably, this should not be explained by the Kremlin,” said Dmitry Peskov, the Press Secretary to the Russian President, answering why there was no official telegram from Mr. Obama. Mr. Peskov said there were “a lot” of messages from other world leaders. Secretary of State John Kerry expressed condolences on behalf of “all American people” to the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov—that was all, said Putin’s press secretary. Russia’s national news service Information Agency outed Mr. Obama as “the only world leader that did not express his condolences [to Russia] on the air catastrophe A-321.” “This is personal,” wrote Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, adding “the current American administration will go down in history as one of the most weak and unprofessional with no affinity for etiquette and good manners.”Further Reading Psychology Today, August 1974, pp. 22-26 Love Can Be An Addiction Interpersonal Heroin Stanton Peele Morristown, New Jersey Archie Brodsky Boston, Massachusetts People can become addicted to other people in the same way they become addicted to drugs. We are not using the term addiction in a metaphorical sense; we mean it literally. The interpersonal dependencies in the cases that follow are not like addictions. They are addictions. Richard and Joan became lovers and isolated themselves from their friends while he was a sophomore in college and she was still in high school. Neither had ever had another lover. Whenever possible they spent their time together and passed the evenings when they were apart on the phone. They supported each other in conflicts with family and friends. In this way individually and as a pair, they ignored criticism from the outside. After a few years, they married and moved to a different university. There a more active social and political life beckoned them. They found they no longer needed each other as much. On the new campus Richard felt free from old male rivalries, and Joan grew more self-confident. She had no further use for a dominant man to direct her actions and her feelings about herself. The marriage ended immediately upon Joan's revelation that she had been having a clandestine affair. Guy, a capable, young physician, lives in constant need of a woman's devotion. An attractive, desirable man, Guy approaches every eligible partner with a sense of weakness and desperation, which he masks with bravado. When he finds a lover and begins to feel secure with her he becomes manipulative, demanding that the woman show her loyalty by catering to him. His demands increase until the relationship is destroyed. Then he experiences withdrawalsleepless nights, rapid heartbeat, muscle tightness and alternating periods of lethargy and frenetic movement. Until he finds another lover, his professional life suffers and he is listless and detached with friends. These symptoms show that Guy is addicted. Something Is Missing By addiction, we mean the classic, quasi-physiological syndrome identified by tolerance and by withdrawal. When a person requires larger and larger doses of a substance in order to obtain the desired effect, he has built up a tolerance to it. Withdrawal is the body's traumatic readjustment to a drugless state. Severe withdrawal looks like an attack of the flu fever, sweating and shivering, nausea, rhinitis, alternating sleeplessness and drowsiness. Most agonizing to the addict, however, is an intangible feeling that something central is missing from his body and his existence. Since tolerance and withdrawal are known through subjective reports and observations of behavior, there is no reason to think of them, and addiction, as primarily physiological phenomena. Over the past few years, drug researchers have realized that the pattern of addiction can be generalized. Alcohol users, barbiturate users, tranquilizer users, tobacco smokers, and coffee drinkers, as well as narcotics users, may build up a tolerance and go through withdrawal, even though each of the drugs in question is chemically distinct from the other. Although each drug acts differently on the body, the manifestations of tolerance and withdrawal remain the same. In trying to explain why this is so, researchers have moved from the old concept of addiction as a physical dependence to a concept of addiction as a psychic dependence. The new orientation emphasizes the experience a person has with a drug. It asks, "What does the fixation do for the addict?" It suggests that drugs do not victimize a person, but that a person uses drugs to give his life a structure and to secure him against novelty and challenge. People, including addicts, react to drugs according to their mental set and social setting. Both of these are cultural factors. Stanley Schachter's classic studies of emotional arousal demonstrated that the way a person behaves after a shot of adrenalin depends on his expectations and the social setting of the shot. Through field observations of marijuana smokers in the 1950s, Howard Becker found that learning to be a drug user involves more than mastering techniques and implements. It means learning what sensations the user is supposed to feel and why he is supposed to enjoy them. Louis Lasagna showed that the effects of morphine can be simulated by a placebo. Andrew Weil's marijuana research at Harvard [see "The Natural Mind," Psychology Today, October 1972] wiped out any serious doubt about the central role of set and setting. These data suggest that the biochemical aspects of addiction are only half the story. Addiction is partially self-induced. It is a function of the way a person interprets his experience. To understand this other half of the story, we need to look at the general pattern of addictionthe pattern revealed in the case histories of Richard and Joan and Guy. Safe, Repetitive, Predictable As a person becomes progressively more involved with a drug, he becomes more dependent on the reassurance it offers. He becomes less able to deal with the problems and uncertainties that made the drug desirable in the first place. Eventually, that person reaches a point where he cannot be deprived of this source of reassurance without considerable trauma. This is addiction. What has happened has little to do with physical dependence. By now, the addict not only feels more helpless facing the world at large, he also feels helpless facing the drug he needs. He believes that he can neither live without it nor free himself from its grasp. If addiction is something that happens inside a person's consciousness, if it is largely a matter of how someone responds to and organizes his experience, then it is natural that potential addictive objects are not limited to drugs alone. Anything that is safe, repetitive, predictable, and sufficiently consuming will do. It may be a job (as in Wayne Oates's Confessions of a Workaholic) or a socially or institutionally defined role. The Jesus freak movement provides a striking contemporary example of the way religion can serve as the opiate of the people. Young people who join religious communes get an integrating concept for their lives. They abide by a set of rules and rituals, and in return bypass the chaotic flow of direct personal experience. They resolve any uncertainty by a cure-all faith in a higher power. Fundamentalist religion is a common form of addiction today, but not the most common. The most prevalent form, which to some degree probably touches all our lives, is interpersonal addiction, or addiction to someone we think we love. Few Are Free The susceptibility to addiction, interpersonal or otherwise, is not an all-or-none proposition. Very few of us are free from the impulse to retreat to safe ground. The shadings that separate interpersonal addiction from real love are as imperceptible as the changing color of the sky at twilight. But so are the shadings separating a drug addict from a drug user. Addiction is not only a quasi-physiological syndrome. It is a state of being. It is a word we often use to describe persons with a set of specific, interrelated personality traits. In The Road to H, Isidor Chein lists some of the traits that go into the making of heroin addicts in the ghetto: passivity, low self-esteem, excessive consciousness of life's dangers, distrust of other people, high need for predictable oral gratification, defensively constricted personality structure, lack of creative motivation except when pushed, and an exploitative orientation toward others. Among the GI heroin users in Vietnam these characteristics were often absent. It was only the perils and constraints of their immediate situation that turned them into drug users. Thus, when the GIs returned to U.S. civilian life, most of them quit heroin, even though according to all the clichés about "drug fiends" they were physically hooked on heroin [see "A Conversation with Jerome Jaffe," Psychology Today, August 1973]. Most of us come from the middle class. Passivity, low self-esteem and other interrelated personality traits curse the suburbs as they do the ghettos. But drug addiction, with its disruption of stable living habits, does not fit into the middle-class lifestyle. Interpersonal addiction, which accentuates possessive love and family privatism, fits only too well. Lee Rainwater has shown that lower-class persons are likely to form dependency relationships with concrete objects (e.g. alcohol, drugs), while middle-class persons are inclined to seek self-gratification through emotional attachment to other people. The middle class prepares its offspring for an exclusive, one-to-one relationship in adulthood. Not finding many sure sources of interpersonal gratification in the open community, the middle-class adolescent comes instead to expect a single relationship to provide compensatory comfort. "The rest of the world may be cold and forbidding, but my spouse will still be with me." Just as ghetto residents are constantly exposed to drugs, we in the middle class are constantly tempted by the false security of interpersonal addiction. Which of us succumb? It is possible to have a close relationship, or a marriage, without becoming addicts. An addictive relationship, like drug addiction, is a single overwhelming involvement that cuts off a person from life. Addicted lovers become less able to cope with anyone or anything else. The relationship itself becomes paramount. It becomes the only point of certainty in a bewildering and dangerous world. The addicted lovers gradually let go of all other interests and activities. Using a Lover In contrast, a mature conception of love involves a desire to grow and expand oneself through the relationship, a desire for one's lover to do the same. If you love someone, you welcome anything that adds to the richness of your partner's experience, partly because it makes him or her more stimulating. If you are self-completed, you can welcome even the kind of experience that draws your lover away from you. Only if you are using your lover to fill up the emptiness within yourself do you begrudge him or her personal growth. This begrudging leads to jealousy and possessiveness. An addictive relationship shows through when it ends in an abrupt, total and vindictive breakupas traumatic as heroin withdrawal. When two people who have been extremely intimate suddenly turn around and hate each other, it is usually because they have been thinking more of themselves than of each other. When Richard and Joan broke up, their acquaintances were shocked that two people who had seemed so much in love could walk away from each other with such callous disregard for each other's feelings. But their love had been merely a temporary solution for their individual problems. "Addiction" and "mature love" are words, black and white words. Some persons are "interpersonal addicts"; others are "mature lovers"; but most relationships only tend toward one extreme or the other. Most relationships are a combination of the two. Addictive Vs. Mature Love Are the lovers improved by the relationship? By some measure outside the relationship are they better, stronger, more attractive, more accomplished, or more sensitive individuals? Do they value the relationship for this very reason? Do the lovers maintain serious interests outside the relationship, including other meaningful personal relationships? Is the relationship integrated into, rather than set off from, the totality of the lovers' lives? Are the lovers also friends? Would they seek each other out if they should cease to be primary partners? Does each lover have a secure belief in his or her own value? Answers to questions such as these only begin to untangle the subtleties differentiating addictive from mature love. As an addictive relationship unfolds, the lovers may seem to be seeing each other for the pleasure and excitement of it, but this doesn't last. After awhile, the lovers are just there for each other, not for mutual growth or self-expression, but for comfort and familiarity. They reach a tolerance for each other. As for withdrawal, we have all seen the emotional and physical havoc that follows in the wake of some breakups, and the desperate ploys a jilted lover will try in order to get another "shot" of his or her beloved. Trajectory of Self-Destruction An addictive relationship is ultimately self-destructive, for the pair and for the individuals involved. The case history of Larry and Sheena traces the trajectory of this self-destruction. When Larry arrived in New York to start his first job after taking a graduate degree in mechanical engineering, he contacted Sheena. On a previous visit to the city he and Sheena had enjoyed a brief fling together. Actually Larry had another woman in mind with whom he wanted to live, but that would take some working out, and in the meantime he needed a place to stay. Larry told Sheena that he did not plan on staying with her long. He told her about the other woman. Sheena was a practicing clinical psychologist, and Larry thought of her as an independent professional woman who might enjoy a casual affair. He misjudged her. Sheena had married while still in her teens. She had become a mother when she was 19. Ever since her husband had drowned in a boating accident she had moved from one intense clinging relationship to another. In the big city, Larry eagerly went ahead with his plans. At the same time he took advantage of the domestic comforts Sheena was only too happy to provide. One evening he went out to see the other woman. He returned to find Sheena hysterical. She had badly injured herself in a fall from a ladder, though whether accidentally or deliberately was uncertain. By the time Larry realized that his other, more passionately conceived affair was not going to get off the ground, he began to feel that he had stumbled into a horrible bind. He moved out of Sheena's apartment and in with a male friend. But when he returned to Sheena's to pack up his belongings, she implored him to stay, and he changed his mind again. He stayed on for several months more. Next, Larry announced that he was moving out because he was not prepared to live with Sheena's child. He said he did not want the child getting too accustomed to him. He thought this would force a separation from Sheena, but Sheena sent her child to live with her former in-laws. Larry stayed on in the apartment for two more years. Whenever he told Sheena that she was little more than a roommate to him, she would tell him he was crazy, that he was out of touch with his feelings. He, by not making good on his threats to move out, made her interpretation of the relationship as plausible as his own. In a sense, they had two relationships going on simultaneously, both of them self-serving and self-deluding. Nonetheless, neither partner had the self-respect to walk out. The pair frequently fought, but no changes in behavior ever resulted. Finally, Larry found an engineering job in the north of England. He justified the move to Sheena as a step forward in his career. He told friends that by going to Europe he would be able to get away from her. But Sheena found an opening in a psychiatric program in London, and the couple flew to Europe together. Larry settled in the north of England and Sheena settled in London. In her letters and phone calls to him, Sheena sounded sane and reasonable. Like a heroin addict feigning a cure to gain some ulterior end, she spoke of a new lovernot to make Larry jealous, but to reassure him that she would no longer cling to him. Intimacy Begrudged Larry invited Sheena to come for a visit. He knew he was in trouble when he got a call from her at the local railroad station the night before she was supposed to arrive. The visit was a running battle reminiscent of their days in New York. Sheena demanded, and Larry begrudged her, promises of future intimacy. Sheena's London lover either did not exist or did not matter. But Larry still did matter to her, above all else, and he apparently could not do without her. Today, the relationship goes on in this manner. It takes a heavy toll. For one thing, it seriously retards Sheena's growth because it cushions her from reality. Instead of developing a broader, more open outlook in the aftermath of her husband's death, she has continued to live by the same limited conception of choices that led to her early marriage. "If we break up now," Sheena has said to Larry, "then all the time we've spent together will have been wasted.' She is like a heroin addict obsessed with the next fix. She does not value the relationship for any meaning it has for her, or for what it contributes to her experience. She is interested only in Larry's continuing presence. As for Larry, outwardly more adventurous and self-contained, his behavior is no more rational than Sheena's and just as self-destructive. Despite his efficient, expeditious air, Larry does not seem sure about what he wants from life. He is powerfully moved by someone who looks after him in small, domestic ways. Perhaps this makes him think he is being taken care of in larger ways. Incapable of dealing with his emotions, he needs a person like Sheena who bestows her affection indiscriminately. Larry is not only an ideal foil for an addict. He is an addict himself. Larry and Sheena, as well as other interpersonal addicts, are not afflicted by an act of fate. Parents transmit their tendency toward interpersonal addiction to their children. Usually parents simply pass on to children their own need for external supports, their own need for an outside organizing principle for their lives. Sometimes, however, parents are directly dependent on their children, and in turn get their children addicted to them. This may lead to a situation where a child remains dependent on his or her parents long after becoming an adult, as when a young divorcee moves back in with her parents and accepts their management of her personal and sexual affairs. Or it may lead to the kind of complicated mutual dependency depicted in Portnoy's Complaintmutual, because Portnoy's obsessive preoccupation with his parents prevents him from acting autonomously. Take the case of Alice, a clerk working in a large downtown office. Every day precisely at 4:00 p.m.. Alice's telephone rings. Her 10-year-old son is calling to say that he is home safely from school. If the boy does not call, Alice frantically dials dozens of numbers all over her neighborhood. She will leave the office early it she cannot locate her son. But more often it is the boy himself who makes the extra calls, consulting his mother for detailed advice about some minor problem. The broader outlines of this case history are more familiar. Alice is bright. She is a single parent. She wants to go back to school. She says she can't because of her boy. In this way she avoids confronting her predicament. In return, Alice is teaching her son dependency instead of how to deal with life. Love Vs. Exploitation We believe that our concept of addictive love sheds light on the nature of middle-class family life as well as on the nature of addiction. Juxtaposing "love" and "addiction" gives us another way of looking at the world. By generalizing the pattern of addiction we can see that heroin users, for instance, are not a race apart. Dependency on drugs is akin to middle-class dependency on spouses. It just so happens that society finds drug addiction unredeeming and so outlaws the syndrome. The concept of addictive love can provide us with another means of self-examination. Like Erich Fromm in The Art of Loving, we believe that if persons are to work toward mutual understanding and actualized love, we must learn to distinguish between love and the destructive exploitation of self and others that takes the name of love. Bibliography Becker, Howard S. Outsiders. Free Press, 1963. Chein, Isidor et al. The Road to H. Basic, 1964. Fromm, Erich. The Art of Loving. Harper & Row, 1956, Bantam, 1970 (paper). Laing, R. D. The Divided Self. Pantheon, 1969. Lasagna, Louis, Frederick Mosteller, John M. von Felsinger and Henry K. Beecher. "A Study of the Placebo Response" in American Journal of Medicine, Vol. 16., No. 6, pp. 770-779, June 1954. Peele, Stanton with Archie Brodsky. Love and Addiction. Taplinger, 1975. Rainwater, Lee. "A Study of Personality Differences Between Middle and Lower Class Adolescents" in Genetic Psychology Monographs, Vol. 54, pp. 3-86, 1956. Schachter, Stanley. "The Interaction of Cognitive and Physiological Determinants of Emotional State" in Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 1, Leonard Berkowitz, ed. Academic, 1964. Seligman, Martin E. P. "Fall Into Helplessness" in Psychology Today, Vol. 7, No 1, pp. 43-48, June 1973. Solomon, Richard L. and John D. Corbit. "An Opponent-Process Theory of Motivation: II Cigarette Addiction" in Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Vol. 81, No 2, pp. 158-171, April 1973. Szasz, Thomas S. "The Ethics of Addiction" in Harper's Magazine, Vol. 244, No. 1463, pp. 74-79, April 1972. Zinberg, Norman E. and John A Robertson. Drugs and the Public. Simon and Schuster, 1972.Despite Protests, Maine's Electoral College Votes As Expected Vanquished Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was awarded three of Maine’s electoral votes and President-elect Donald Trump received one following a vote by the Electoral College at the State House today. Similar votes took place across the country, drawing protests and media attention to what has typically been a ceremonial event. Maine Republicans had hoped to celebrate Trump’s win. The president-elect made history in November by splitting Maine’s four electoral votes for the first time since 1828. But first Republicans had to escort GOP chairman Rick Bennett, one of Maine’s electors, past a crowd of more than 100 protesters gathered outside the State House. Similar protests took place all over the country, a last-ditch effort to deny Trump the presidency. The hope among Trump opponents was that 37 or more Republican electors would not vote for Trump and become what’s called faithless electors. There have only been 157 faithless electors in history, according to Maine Archivist David Cheever, and he says there haven’t been any in Maine. Bennett made it clear weeks ago that he had no intention of voting for anyone other than Trump. The prospect of a faithless elector was instead raised by a Democratic elector. David Bright, one of two at-large electors, announced earlier in the day that he planned to vote for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, not Clinton. Bright of Dixmont quickly made national headlines. He says he wasn’t trying to disrespect Clinton, and was trying to send a message to Sanders voters to stay active in the Democratic Party. “So I thought if I could send a message to those folks, ‘We need you. The Democratic Party needs you, America needs you,’” Bright said before the election on Monday. Bright’s vote would have taken away one of the three votes Clinton had earned by winning the statewide vote. But as the protests dissipated in the cold outside the capitol, so too did the specter of Bright breaking Maine’s law against faithless electors and making history. Bright did cast his ballot for Sanders, but his ballot was ruled out of order by Betty Johnson, the president of the Electoral College. Johnson ordered a re-vote. On the second vote, Bright voted for Clinton. Sanders actually beat Clinton in Democratic caucuses held here in March. But during a speech explaining his vote, Bright said Clinton and the Democrats had failed to energize Sanders supporters. “Many of them lost hope as well as lost interest. Many felt the Democratic party had not listened to them, did not care about them and did not respect them. Their sense of loss in July became part of our party’s loss in November,” he said. State Rep. Diane Denk, another Democratic elector, says her vote in Monday’s Electoral College left her conflicted. But she says she was proud to participate in an election of great magnitude. “On the other hand the doubt that I feel going forward is tremendous,” she says. On the Republican side, Bennett struck a more optimistic tone, saying Trump’s victory was a blow to economic globalization and unchecked immigration. He also cited Trump’s appeal in rural Maine, a region hammered by the loss of paper mills and manufacturing jobs. The president-elect, Bennett says, spoke directly to voters there. It wasn’t his vote for Trump, he says — it was a ballot for 2nd District voters. “Today, on behalf of the forgotten people of Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, with hope in my heart, I humbly cast their vote for Donald J. Trump for president of the United States of America,” he says. Trump will receive more than 300 electoral votes after all the votes are tallied by the Electoral College — more than the 270 he needs to win the presidency.Authorities in Oklahoma on Monday were unable to confirm if bullying was involved after a 15-year-old male killed himself with a gun in a Cowetta school bathroom. Speaking to reporters at press conference, Superintendent Jeff Holmes explained that a “ninth grade student at Cowetta Intermediate High School died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound” soon after school began on Monday morning. Coweta Police Lieutenant Donnie Krumsiek praised the school faculty for their response, saying that “unfortunately a life was lost but it could have been a lot worse.” “You’ve seen the same coverage I have, school shootings where multiple lives are lost,” Krumsiek told reporters. “We’re very fortunate that didn’t occur today.” Several reporters noted that witnesses had said bullying may have been a factor in the student’s death, but Krumsiek said he had no evidence to support that claim and Holmes refused to release any personal information regarding the victim. “We do have a bullying policy,” Holmes remarked. “There’s zero tolerance for bullying in each of our schools — starting from elementary school on up — have extensive character education programs and a component of each of those would be suicide prevention.” “I’m not going to comment on the student,” he insisted, noting that the principals and counselors described the ninth grader as “a very fine young man.” Holmes said he was not yet sure if criminal charges were possible if bullying was suspected in the case. “We want parents to know that we care about their kids, we care about every single one of their kids,” the superintendent added as he choked up. “That’s all I have at this point.” Watch this video from KTUL, broadcast Feb. 4, 2013.We're a jaded bunch here at Engadget sometimes, and with most of us using SSD-based systems these days it's hard to get too excited about good old spinny disks. Still we're also suckers for impressive technology, so our interest was piqued when Western Digital announced its 5mm thin 2.5-inch hard drives the other day. Luckily, the company saw fit to bring samples of its skinny new WD Black hybrid drive and WD Blue HDD to IDF 2012 and let us handle both briefly. The verdict? These are impossibly thin -- perfect for all those nice Ultrabooks we're expecting to see hit the market in the next few months. Details on performance, availability and pricing are scarce since these drives are intended for OEMs. Take a look at our gallery below, which includes thickness comparisons with WD's upcoming 1TB 7mm thin HDD and a standard-sized loyalty card -- then peek past the break for our hands-on video.Amid the many dangers inherent in the crisis that has erupted over Ukraine, one of the greatest, and least recognised, is that of misreading Russia. Already a Western consensus has gained hold, according to which Vladimir Putin has spent his 14 years in power just waiting for the chance to rebuild the Soviet empire, and here he is now, gleefully seizing it with both bloodied hands. Outside Russia, the near-unanimous view of what has happened is that Putin ordered an invasion of the Crimean peninsula, to be followed by full annexation. As such, it represents a gross violation of the 1994 Budapest agreement guaranteeing Ukraine’s post-Soviet sovereignty. It is also a move, so this consensus goes, which could, unless the West hangs together and hangs tough, escalate into the reintegration of eastern Ukraine, if not the country as a whole, into a greater Russia. Emotive parallels are drawn with the Third Reich and a certain leader who annexed the Sudetenland. The horror scenario does not stop here. If Russia “retakes” Ukraine, so the argument goes, can the other former Soviet republics be far behind? Belarus is already more or less in the Russian bloc. Then there is Moldova, for which the frozen conflict in pro-Russia Transdnestria can be seen as a bridgehead in waiting. Join Independent Minds For exclusive articles, events and an advertising-free read for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month Get the best of The Independent With an Independent Minds subscription for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month Get the best of The Independent Without the ads – for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month Armenia might be rewarded for its co-operative attitude to Russia’s Eurasia bloc by being allowed to retain nominal sovereignty, but Georgia… Well, what were the Russian mini-protectorates of South Ossetia and Abkhazia designed for after the 2008 war if not to facilitate a takeover of all Georgia? Only the Central Asian republics are exempt from Putin’s malevolent calculation – for being too much of an economic drain and too much demographic trouble. But what if building a new Russian empire is not actually what Putin is about? Western leaders, egged on especially by those European countries that were scarred, and no wonder, by their bitter experience of Soviet domination, have created a Cold War bogey of Putin and Putin’s Russia that is lodged in their collective brain. Putin’s every move and every utterance is slotted into that logic and judged in that frame. The result is a predisposition to take literally what might not be meant literally, and all too often to discount what Putin and his officials actually say. Where is the proof that Putin’s ultimate objective is to incorporate Ukraine into a greater Russia, or to prevent it from orientating itself towards the European Union – by force, if necessary? Ah yes, that infamous quotation: Putin’s designation of the collapse of the Soviet Union as “one of the greatest geopolitical catastrophes of the 20th century”. But nostalgia does not presuppose expansionism, even when the opportunity is there. Russia tolerated a pro-Western Ukraine under the arch-Ameriphile, Viktor Yushchenko, after the Orange Revolution. The difference this time was the brief, but total, breakdown of authority in Kiev. Shape Created with Sketch. In pictures: The crisis in Ukraine Show all 15 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. In pictures: The crisis in Ukraine 1/15 Perevalnoye, Ukarine Russian forces stand as they block the Ukrainian unit in Perevalnoye, not far from Simferopol 2/15 London, England Memorials and floral tributes, dedicated to protesters who were killed in recent clashes with security forces in Kiev, surround a statue of 'Vladimir the Great', the Grand Prince of Kiev from 980 to 1015 AD, in Notting Hill in London 3/15 Kiev, Ukraine Pallbearers carry the coffin of Andryi Pozniak (25) a self defense volunteer who was shot and killed by an unknown assailant near Kiev's Independence Square 4/15 Simferopol, Ukraine Ukrainian police officers hold an activist of the Ukrainian women movement Femen 5/15 Kiev, Ukraine A woman distributes food on Independence Square in central Kiev Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images 6/15 Lubimovka, Ukraine Ukrainian soldiers at the Belbek military base talk friends and family members through the gates of the base entrance in Lubimovka, Ukraine Sean Gallup/Getty Images 7/15 Donetsk, Ukraine Pro-Russian activists demonstrate in front of the regional administration in Donetsk. Russian military forces and planes were flowing into Crimea on March 3, in violation of bilateral accords, Ukrainian border guards said Alexander Khudoteply/AFP/Getty Images 8/15 Donetsk, Ukraine Riot policemen stand guard in front of the regional administration in Donetsk Alexander Khudoteply/AFP/Getty Images 9/15 Perevalne Pro-Russian activists stand guard in front of armed men in military fatigues blocking access to a Ukrainian border guards base not far from the village of Perevalne near Simferopol Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images 10/15 Kirillovsky, Russia Russia's President Vladimir Putin, accompanied by Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu (front left), walks to watch military exercises upon his arrival at the Kirillovsky firing ground in the Leningrad region RIA Novosti/Reuters 11/15 Sevastopol, Ukraine A Russian Navy De-Gaussing Ship passes in Sevastopol harbour. The Russian Black Sea Fleet commander Aleksandr Vitko has issued an ultimatum to the Ukrainian military personnel in Crimea, according to reports Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty Images 12/15 New York, USA The UN Security Council chamber during a meeting on the situation in the Ukraine at the UN headquarters in New York City Jason Szenes/EPA 13/15 Bakhchisaray, Ukraine Armed men in military fatigues block access to Ukrainian military barracks in the small Crimean city of Bakhchisaray Genya Savilov/AFP/Getty Images 14/15 Sevastopol, Ukraine A Ukrainian soldier speaks to his daughter through a gate as he waits inside the Sevastopol tactical military brigade base near Belbek in Sevastopol Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty Images 15/15 Odessa, Ukraine A Pro-Russian activist waves a chain after an unsuccessful attempt by the demonstrators to storm a regional state administration building in the Black Sea city of Odessa Alexey Kravtsov/AFP/Getty Images 1/15 Perevalnoye, Ukarine Russian forces stand as they block the Ukrainian unit in Perevalnoye, not far from Simferopol 2/15 London, England Memorials and floral tributes, dedicated to protesters who were killed in recent clashes with security forces in Kiev, surround a statue of 'Vladimir the Great', the Grand Prince of Kiev from 980 to 1015 AD, in Notting Hill in London 3/15 Kiev, Ukraine Pallbearers carry the coffin of Andryi Pozniak (25) a self defense volunteer who was shot and killed by an unknown assailant near Kiev's Independence Square 4/15 Simferopol, Ukraine Ukrainian police officers hold an activist of the Ukrainian women movement Femen 5/15 Kiev, Ukraine A woman distributes food on Independence Square in central Kiev Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images 6/15 Lubimovka, Ukraine Ukrainian soldiers at the Belbek military base talk friends and family members through the gates of the base entrance in Lubimovka, Ukraine Sean Gallup/Getty Images 7/15 Donetsk, Ukraine Pro-Russian activists demonstrate in front of the regional administration in Donetsk. Russian military forces and planes were flowing into Crimea on March 3, in violation of bilateral accords, Ukrainian border guards said Alexander Khudoteply/AFP/Getty
another set. Earl Turner and his Organization were the champions of a life-centered set of values, a set of values in which the central reality is not the individual, but all of Life: the Cosmos, in its entire temporal extension. Opposed to them were not only the values of the government and the media and the plutocrats, but also the individual-centered set of values of mass man, of the average voter. And in The Turner Diaries the life-centered values won, and those values then ruled. And the whole world was changed: its government, its racial composition, its art and industry, it life-styles, and all its priorities. Human nature didn’t change–that is, the mentality and the values of the average White person didn’t change, because those are things which can only be changed over the course of generations, though the evolutionary process. But a different set of values, the values of an elite minority, gained precedence over the values of the man. That’s what The Turner Diaries is all about. And as I said earlier, it’s not a plan or a blueprint. The details–the bombings and assassinations, the nuclear war and its aftermath–are all fiction. But the struggle for dominance between the two sets of values portrayed in the book is not fiction. That’s real. And it is in this regard that Earl Turner’s Organization is the model for the National Alliance. We are concerned, then, not only with education, with helping people clarify their thoughts and reach the proper conclusions, but also with embodying and institutionalizing a set of fundamental values and a view of the world. We are convinced that, unless our values prevail and rule, unless it is our world view which determines the shape of the future by setting men’s priorities and guiding them in their decisions, then there will be no future–that is, no future worth mentioning, because it will be a retrograde future, and our race will not be a part of it. And, in fact, the only valid reason why our race should survive is that it is the bearer of the values that we are determined shall prevail. For life loses its intrinsic value when its only motive is to increase its quantity, went its only goal is satiety. The value of every form of life of every race of every individual is not that it is an end in itself but that it is a means to a higher end. The value of a man’s life is not to be found in the degree to which he enjoys himself or in the amount of wealth or power he accumulates–and especially is it not to be found in the so-called good he does by making life more comfortable for others. It is to be found only in the extent to which he helps prepare the way for a higher, a more fully conscious life than his own. Earl Turner understood that and acted accordingly and we must do the same. Source: “Whose Values Shall Rule?” by Dr. William Pierce from National Alliance Bulletin June 1980.Russia’s dirty war in Ukraine is far from frozen, and despite the deteriorating situation, the West appears keen to turn a blind eye. While the fighting in southeast Ukraine has rumbled on incessantly throughout the winter, inducing conflict fatigue and a drop in media coverage, the last weeks have seen a marked spike in the number of attacks. Ukrainian officials are reporting up to 71 attacks a day, with most of the fighting concentrated around the separatist-held cities of Donetsk and Gorlovka, as well as the countryside east of the Azov port city of Mariupol. Both sides accuse each other of daily using heavy mortars, which were supposed to have been withdrawn in accordance over a year ago in accordance with the first Minsk agreement. According to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which monitors the ceasefire, last month saw the return of the use of Grad multiple-launch rocket systems and 152 mm artillery. Both were reportedly used on two consecutive days in separatist-held Gorlovka. Jan. 26 and 27 saw a multitude of reports from Donetsk residents on social media of intense fighting in the north of the city, where the frontline runs alongside the ruins of the airport and the suburbs of Peski and Avdeyevka. Dozens of Twitter and VKontakte (Russia’s Facebook equivalent) users across the city reported a powerful explosion and shockwave on the 27th, for which there is still no credible explanation. Some users claimed that the shelling was the heaviest heard since the final assault on Donetsk Airport at this time last year. Furthermore, over the last few days, we have seen the targeting of frontier checkpoints, which allow civilians to enter and leave separatist-held territory, by Russian-backed fighters, raising the possibility that the government may be forced to close these vital passages to avoid casualties. The Jan. 13 call, put forth by the new Russian representative at the Minsk peace talks, Boris Gryzlov, for an immediate, total ceasefire has clearly amounted to nothing. The Ukrainian and separatist leaderships are pursuing diametrically opposed plans regarding the holding of local elections in the occupied regions of the Donbass—a key element of the Minsk ceasefire agreements. While Kiev, and the text of the Minsk deal itself, says the elections must be held in accordance with Ukrainian law, Aleksandr Zakharchenko, the leader of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR), last week restated his commitment to barring all major Ukrainian political parties and conducting the votes under DNR “law.” The prospects for another element of the Minsk process—the exchange of prisoners of war, are looking gloomy too. On Jan. 28 the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation to Ukraine, Alain Aeschlimann, told reporters that his organization had been allowed access to only four of the 133 Ukrainian prisoners the separatists claim to hold. On Jan. 25 former President Leonid Kuchma, the lead Ukrainian negotiator in direct talks with the Russian-backed separatists, said that he now thinks that many of those prisoners are already dead. The separatists are, he suggested, using the negotiations over the number of prisoners to stall and buy time. All this comes amidst a grim backdrop. The ICRC says that over a thousand people are still missing as a result of the conflict in the Donbass, and disease, fostered by a breakdown in infrastructure and thousands of casualties caused by the fighting, is spreading rapidly. Ukraine (as well as southern Russia) is now in the grips of an epidemic of H1N1 variant flu, which has infected 18 regions of the country and killed at least 171 people. Schools have been closed indefinitely in Kharkiv. In separatist-held Donetsk, well over 2,000 people have turned to doctors with complaints of viral respiratory infections so far this year. The sister Lugansk “People’s Republic” reports an even worse situation, with more than 10,000 people infected and dozens of quarantine zones introduced. Both Eduard Basurin, a DNR military spokesman, and Vadim Solovyov, an MP in the Russian State Duma, have claimed that the flu outbreak in Ukraine originated from an American biological warfare facility in government-controlled Kharkiv. This of course, combined with a (most likely Russian) cyber attack that caused a blackout late last year and the stand-off at the frontier with occupied Crimea over imports, only adds to the deep-seated mistrust between Kiev and the Russian side. Yet on Jan. 22, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that sanctions on Russia could be lifted within “these next months” if the Minsk agreements were implemented in full. Leaving aside the fact that sanctions were first introduced in response to Russia’s occupation and annexation of Crimea—a completely separate issue on which there is not even a hint of progress, Kerry’s suggestion that Minsk could be fully realized in the space of a few months is absurd. Poroshenko has said that there must be a ceasefire before the “special status” law, that would establish semi-autonomy for the occupied areas of the Donbass and establish the legal framework for local elections, comes into effect. And even if those highly contested electoral plans come to fruition, the Minsk agreements stipulate the withdrawal of all foreign (i.e. Russian) forces from Ukraine and the return of government control of all of the border with Russia before full implementation looks near. Kerry’s hint at rapprochement is part of a wider trend. The German and Finnish governments continue to pursue the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project with the Russian state gas monopoly Gazprom, a policy that flies in the face of moves to achieve European energy independence and is opposed by Ukraine, Poland, and the Baltic states. In the U.K., despite a devastating conclusion from the public inquiry into the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, which found that the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) had organized the radiological assassination, and that then FSB chief Nikolai Patrushev and even President Vladimir Putin himself had “probably” ordered it, the government has refrained from rocking the boat. During the House of Commons debate that followed the publication of the Litvinenko Inquiry report, the home secretary, Theresa May, opposed calls from across the house for the introduction of a British equivalent to the U.S. Magnitsky Act—a broad sanctions bill aimed at corrupt and human rights-abusing Russian officials—and announced little more than the lukewarm punitive measure of freezing any U.K. assets belonging to the two assassins, who have been living under Kremlin protection (one as an MP) for almost a decade since the murder. The reason for both Kerry and May’s soft approach to Russia derives from Western hopes that Putin will be of assistance in Syria. “We will continue to call on President Putin for Russia, as one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, to engage responsibly and make a positive contribution to global security and stability,” May said. “They can, for example, play an important role in defeating [ISIS] and, together with the wider international community, help Syria work towards a stable future.” But this means turning a blind eye not only to the killing of Litvinenko, but Russia’s annexation of Crimea and invasion of the Donbass for the sake of a hope that Putin may be turned to work with the West on Syria. If Russia can, with impunity, use radioactive polonium to murder a British citizen in London or shoot down a passenger airliner over Ukraine, then how can we collaborate on “serious crime” or “aviation security”? The hope here is profoundly misplaced. While Russia “could” play an important role in fighting ISIS, they are not and have used the cover story of doing so to further aims that run directly contrary to the (publicly stated, at least) aims of the U.K., U.S., and France. The vast majority of Russian airstrikes in Syria are aimed not at ISIS-held territory, but areas controlled by opposition groups. This includes U.S.-supplied Free Syrian Army units. When they do carry out strikes in ISIS-held land, they bomb water treatment plants and grain silos, which the Russian Ministry of Defense attempts to pass off as oil refineries. Meanwhile, there are reports that Russia actually spent the years prior to the direct military intervention last September dispatching domestic jihadists to wage war in Syria with groups including ISIS itself. The worst effect of this is that by devastating the opposition, which includes both nationalists and Islamists of shades varying from moderate to the fundamentalist, while leaving ISIS relatively unscathed, Putin and Bashar al-Assad are ensuring that the moderates are squeezed out and the jihadists’ appeal to bombed and abused Sunnis is strengthened. Furthermore, if the Assad regime succeeds, with the help of Russian air and ground forces, in retaking rebel-held areas like Idlib and Aleppo, then the refugee crisis that is already causing a breakdown in the EU Schengen system of free movement will worsen dramatically. It is by no means a stretch to say that the breakup of the European Union is a foreign policy goal for the Kremlin. Russia has fostered relationships with far-right Eurosceptic parties across the EU, with the virulent, neo-Vichyist Front National even receiving millions of euros from a Kremlin-linked Russian bank. Last month has even seen Russian state TV spreading a fabricated story of a German teenager being gang-raped by immigrants and the Russian embassy in London posting starkly racist tweets about Germany being trampled beneath the feet of migrants. Western governments now appear set to ignore Russian malfeasance, not only in Ukraine and Syria, but at home in the EU, for the sake of fantasy and financial gain.Russia’s embassy in Damascus, as well as its naval base in the port of Tartus, are continuing to perform regular operations, though “in very stressful and unsafe conditions,” Russia’s foreign minister said Friday. MOSCOW, June 28 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s embassy in Damascus, as well as its naval base in the port of Tartus, are continuing to perform regular operations, though “in very stressful and unsafe conditions,” Russia’s foreign minister said Friday. He dispelled rumors that that the facilities were to be shuttered due to the ongoing Syrian civil war, denouncing such reports as “speculation and provocation.” Regarding the naval base, which is for Russia is a last-remaining military foothold beyond the former Soviet Union, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said “there are no plans to evacuate this facility, as well as its staff.” In February, the minister said the base, used for the maintenance and resupplying of Russian warships in the Mediterranean, had a staff of “several dozen.” Only civilians currently work at the facility, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Thursday.Brand New is an Arkansas-based jazz band of old men who have been playing in the band for around 25 years. History Edit They got the name from the fact that when they first started playing shows, people simply referred to them as that "brand new band." Now, more than 20 years old, the name is kept for mere irony. It doesn't make people laugh anymore. It also doesn't help that their fans are now way too old to comprehend anything. They rose to stardom with their hit songs "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Speak in Japanese so I can fulfill my promise to exact revenge on that girl that as subtle as a phallus in the small of my back", and The Big Lebowski are Some of My All-Time Favorite Movies So Fuck Off and Die" and "What In This Great Big World of Ours Could I Possibly Accomplish By Going on a Double Date With You, Your Best Friend Stacy, and Her Mom (Who Has Got It Going On)?" The band is well known for making mix tapes and sending them to their friends as last minute birthday gifts. At least it looks like you put some thought into the gift right? Anyway, the band had a holy war with the Christian band Taking Back Sunday for 30 years, but they have since come to terms with each other, even going as far as to make a Christmas EP together. The two bands were feuding because the lead singer of Taking Back Sunday, Applegate Lagare, once put the underwear of Brand New in the freezer on a tour. Trivia Edit0 Altamonte Springs officer demoted, suspended for trying to keep friend from arrest ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla.,None - An Altamonte Springs police officer has been demoted and suspended for stepping into an investigation involving his friend. Officials said Officer Luis Torres tried to keep his friend from getting arrested. That friend later sued the police department. Torres, an officer since 1996, was recently demoted from senior police officer and suspended for 36 hours without pay following the internal investigation. It all stems from the 2007 arrest of James Sada for disorderly conduct and battery for an incident involving his son at the Altamonte Mall Sears store. According to the report, Torres admitted Sada was a friend. Torres didn't respond to the scene, but he showed up later and allegedly asked a supervisor if it was "possible not to arrest Sada." Two years later, he asked another officer to give Sada's son a break during a traffic stop. Sada's charges were later dropped, and he sued the police department asking for $1 million for false arrest and slander. Torres admitted trying to help his friend. He contacted Sada's attorney and gave testimony without telling the police chief. He was also accused of lying during a deposition to help his friend. That wasn't proven in the internal investigation, but the police chief wrote that he was incompetent, used poor judgment and deserved the demotion. The police chief wrote in his discipline report that Torres' testimony about how he got involved in the lawsuit was misleading to the point a federal judge had to intervene and question him about his actions. WFTV's Jeff Deal asked why Torres wasn't fired. The police chief said he believes the report speaks for itself. Torres takes a 3.5 percent pay cut with the demotion. This incident is just the latest in problems for the Altamonte Springs police department. Last week, an Altamonte Springs officer was disciplined for inappropriate behavior at Lake Brantley High School, where he was a school resource officer. Earlier this year, other officers got in trouble for using a cellphone while driving and ethics violations.House Speaker John Boehner spoke out against conservative interest groups on Wednseday. Photo by Rod Lamkey/Getty Images John Boehner had reached his limit. In a meeting with his House colleagues to discuss Wednesday’s budget agreement, the House speaker finally let loose on the conservative groups that have been roiling Republican politics. Organizations like the Club for Growth and Heritage Action had opposed the plan without even knowing its details, said Boehner, because their true goal was to raise money and expand their organizations, not fight for any particular principle or policy. “No one controls your voting card but you,” Boehner said. This wasn’t just a message for closed-doors. The speaker took on the groups in public: “They’re using our members, and they’re using the American people for their own goals,” Boehner said in a press conference Wednesday. “This is ridiculous.” The budget agreement reached by Rep. Paul Ryan and Sen. Patty Murray could very well bring some order to a policy process that has skidded from crisis to crisis for the last four years. But politically the deal has the potential to be very disruptive. Boehner was not simply voicing an alternative policy position about the merits of the plan’s spending reductions. He was making a claim about the low motives and trickery of the organizations that claim to represent the interests of grassroots conservatives. When Ryan unveiled the budget agreement, he prefaced several of his statements by saying “as a conservative.” What’s being debated is not just the merits of the agreement, but who gets to determine who is and isn’t a conservative. Ryan, the author of budgets that have been characterized by Democrats as radically conservative, is a trusted voice. He at least has the right enemies. What Ryan and Boehner are arguing for is pragmatic conservatism. Ryan made his case in the pages of the National Review: We’ve cut spending in a smarter way. And we’ve made it clear: Tax hikes aren’t an option. We’ve said budget talks should be about how Washington can live within its means, not how families should pay more. For conservatives, this agreement shows we can make Washington work—and on our own terms. It’s not perfect. But it’s a start. Republicans leaders want to avoid another politically costly moment of brinkmanship that might sink GOP poll numbers further. Instead, they want the country to focus on the president’s health care plan, which they hope will continue to hurt Democrats. What GOP leaders are fighting against is the outsize expectations of the faithful who want policy victories that are impossible in a system of divided government. At times like this, pragmatic party leaders often tell their stalwarts not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good, but Boehner is saying more than that. He is calling out the arbiters of purity in his party, saying that while they use the language of policy and principle, they are merely doing so to advance their own narrow aims. They can never be satisfied because satisfaction doesn’t bring in donations. Boehner is essentially calling them grassroots con men. He isn’t alone either. A lot of Republican senators had the same complaint during the shutdown battle, accusing Sen. Ted Cruz of joining in the deception. “They’ve got the grassroots all confused,” complained one Republican senator at the time. By speaking out now, Boehner is rendering a verdict about the shutdown. It was such a political disaster, and the stupidity of the blind-ally politics promoted by these conservative groups is so self-evident, that he takes only a minimal political risk by speaking this plainly in public. During the government shutdown, the House speaker was regularly labeled as weak for allowing these same conservatives to hijack the process. Boehner’s conception of the job is not as a dictator, but a leader who tries to shape the will of his conference. In the fall, he was “overrun,” as Boehner put it, by his party’s fervor for a budget confrontation. Part of that fervor was whipped up by these outside groups. Boehner spearheaded their fight, even after he made the case for a different tactical approach. (One that he thought might actually work.) One possible benefit of a strategy GOP leaders knew was doomed was that failure would teach GOP maximalists a lesson. After touching the hot stove and experiencing the predictable consequences of defiance divorced from strategy, they would learn the lesson. If they didn’t learn it then, House Speaker Boehner wants to make sure they get the message now.The crew of a blimp mysteriously vanished in 1942, but their blimp came back OK... without them. by Brian Dunning Filed under History & Pseudohistory, Urban Legends Skeptoid Podcast #380 September 17, 2013 Podcast transcript \| Download \| Subscribe Listen: http://skeptoid.com/audio/skeptoid-4380.mp3 The L-8 blimp, c.1942 US Navy photograph The L-8 blimp, c.1942US Navy photograph It was a foggy Sunday morning in San Francisco, in August of 1942. The United States was at war with Japan, and coastal defenses along the western coast of the US remained on high alert for prowling Japanese submarines. A daily chore in San Francisco was a sortie by a naval blimp to look for subs outside San Francisco Bay. Today's flight of the L-8 started no differently, but the way it ended has kept people talking for more than 70 years. Unlike a rigid airship, a blimp is just an inflated bag with no structure to help it keeps its shape. Only a few hours after it left, the craft was seen drifting in from the ocean, sagging terribly into a V-shape. Some swimmers at the beach tried to grab it by its hanging control lines but failed. It bounced up the cliff side — dangerously dislodging one of its depth charges and stopping both its engines in the process — and continued its aimless drifting over the San Francisco peninsula. Soon it became entangled in some power lines and finally came to rest in the middle of an intersection in Daly City. As bystanders ran to help, the mystery became immediately evident: there was nobody on board. The obvious suggestions came right away. Perhaps the men fell out. Perhaps they jumped out, either to commit suicide or to go AWOL. Maybe they got in a fight and threw each other out. Maybe one fell, and the other also lost his grip trying to help him. Maybe they had found a Japanese sub, and were forced to jump out at gunpoint. Nobody could really come up with any better guesses than these, and still to this day, the Navy hasn't either. The L-8 had been a Goodyear advertising blimp until it was turned over to the Navy for the war effort. It was a solid ship, with a strong history and no real problems, and had successfully managed severe weather in the past. Its mission today was its usual daily patrol: to launch at 6:00am from Treasure Island, a large, flat, manmade island in the middle of San Francisco Bay, and from there to fly a large figure-8 pattern outside San Francisco Bay. The pattern went straight out to the Farallon Islands, a group of rocky prominences fifty kilometers out into the Pacific Ocean from the harbor entrance. From there they were to head for Point Reyes, about 30 kilometers north, and then about 65 kilometers south to Montara, a point south of San Francisco, and then back up to the Golden Gate and land at Treasure Island. The trip usually took four to four and a half hours, and would be repeated after refueling. The men were trained to look for Japanese submarines, and were equipped with two Mark 17 depth charges in case they found any, and also a pistol and Browning.30 caliber machine gun. The gondola was a pretty comfortable affair, fully enclosed and still equipped to accommodate Goodyear passengers. You'd be no more likely to fall out of it than you would from a family car. Of course, the Navy convened a board of inquiry, the transcript and findings for which are all available online. Findings were slim; questions were many. However the sequence of events was more or less put together. All went according to plan until 7:42am, when Cody made his final radio transmission, that they were going to investigate a possible oil slick. Crew aboard two boats in the area — a fishing vessel called Daisy Grey and a US liberty ship, the Albert Gallatin — reported seeing a blimp descend to a low altitude and circle the same area for nearly an hour. It was reported that at one point, the blimp dropped a flare. Afterwards, the blimp turned toward San Francisco — not where it was supposed to go, but the shipboard witnesses didn't know that. By 10:30 the L-8 was overdue, and the Navy put out a radio call asking aircraft if they saw a stray blimp. Its position was reported at 10:49 by the pilot of a Pan-Am Clipper flying boat; at 10:53 by an Army P-38 Lightning fighter plane; and at 11:00 by another Navy plane that observed it rise to about 2000 feet and then descend. All these observers reported that everything seemed to be OK, with no indication that the L-8 was not under control, and they all placed it on its way back toward the Golden Gate. That's when it was seen, crumpled nearly in half, coming down onto the beach, and striking the cliff. Relieved of the weight of a 325-pound depth charge, it rose again and finally came to rest in Daly City. The Navy personnel got there around noon, and the questions began to be asked. What had happened to the crew? The pilot was Lt. Ernest DeWitt Cody, 27, the experienced usual pilot of the L-8. He'd had a "15 minutes of fame" moment a few months before in connection with the famous Doolittle Raid, in which 16 carrier-launched B-25 bombers struck Tokyo. On April 4, 1942, Cody flew the L-8 out from San Francisco to meet the aircraft carrier USS Hornet, which was loaded with the bombers. The Hornet had steamed out of port two days previously, and L-8 went out to deliver a crate containing 300 pounds of delayed spare parts for the planes. Also aboard was Ensign Charles E. Adams, 38, a twenty-year veteran of airships. Adams had been present at the crash of the Hindenburg in 1937 and was among those who rushed in to pull out survivors. He had official commendations for his gallant conduct appended to his permanent service record, including a note of thanks from General Hermann Göring himself. Neither of the L-8's crewmen was a slouch. The condition of the L-8 when it came down only served to deepen the mystery. There was plenty of weight still on board, including fuel, that Cody and Adams could have jettisoned if they were in any trouble, and no indication that they'd tried to do so. Everything on board, including three parachutes, a life raft, tools, etc., were still stowed precisely where they should be. Although both engines had been stopped and were slightly damaged when the L-8 first struck the cliffs, the fuel and ignition to both were still on. Its radio was functioning and set to the proper frequency. Of all the items still on board, the most remarkable was a briefcase of classified documents, which Lt. Cody had carried on as was done every day. This briefcase was heavily weighted, and standing orders were for the briefcase to be thrown overboard into the ocean in the event of any emergency. Evidently no emergency had taken place. What was missing, on the other hand, were two of the five water-activated smoke bombs the blimp carried, called Mark 4 float lights. If you did spot a submarine, you'd toss one of these where you saw it, and it would make a flame and thick black smoke for about two minutes. This is almost certainly what was observed by the witnesses on the boats. Relieved of the weight of two crewmen, the blimp would have risen until it reached its pressure-height altitude, which was between 2100 and 2500 feet on that day. An automatic vent opened to release helium to keep the blimp from bursting, and it descended. So its appearance of being sagged into a V-shape was exactly as expected. One the most talked-about pieces of evidence is the door. L-8 had a single side door, which was always safety locked from the inside during flight, and was confirmed to have been so by the ground crew. But at the crash site, the door was open; and not just open, it was opened all the way so that a catch engaged which held it open. Other pilots testified that it would be virtually impossible to do this from inside during flight. Thus, a lot of speculation has surrounded the position of the door. However, common sense reveals that this is not remarkable. Somehow Cody and Adams did get out, and so the door was no longer safety locked from the inside when the L-8 came down. It landed in a busy intersection in Daly City, and many people were on hand. The first thing they did, which was long before police or the Navy arrived, was open the door to render help. The gondola was at a sharp angle facing nearly straight up, and the door would have to be swung up to open it. It was only natural for first responders to swing it up into the catch position. It would have been more surprising if the door had not been in this position by the time the Navy arrived. There are some popular hypotheses and re-tellings of what happened to be found on the Internet. Some suspect that a stowaway may have been on board, who perhaps overpowered Cody and Adams. But this is impossible, as the gondola is quite small with no possible place for anyone to hide. It's also posited that perhaps, while flying low to look for the source of the oil slick, waves had gotten into the gondola and washed the men out. But the L-8 had definitely not come into contact with the water, as proven by hollow spaces in the bilge of the gondola and the lower fin both being bone-dry and containing dust which would have been washed out. At the conclusion of its investigation, the Navy offered its own best-guess of what might have happened. Somehow Ensign Adams opened the door and fell out. Maybe he was airsick, maybe they were horsing around, maybe he was trying to get a better view of the oil slick, who knows. Lt. Cody tossed out the float lights to mark his companion's position, then circled low and, perhaps upon finding him, stopped the engines. In some circumstance, while single handedly trying to control the blimp and retrieve Adams, Cody fell out himself. I can't think of anything that better fits the evidence. Perhaps deploying the life raft for Adams would have taken one hand more than Cody had available, and it's not surprising that making a radio report was lower priority than saving your buddy's life. But the simple fact is that we don't know, and we can't ever know exactly what two men did in that small car over the Pacific Ocean on that grim day. It's consistent in every way with an honest accident. There is no foul play, no Japanese submarine, no alien UFO abduction, nor anything else extraordinary needed to explain what could just as easily be explained by a single moment of human inattention. We can't know the circumstances, but we do know that Cody and Adams ultimately slipped beneath the waves; and for that, we have for them today a few lines of the naval aviator's hymn that they knew so well: Guard and guide the men who fly, Through great spaces of the sky; Be with them traversing the air, In darkening storms or sunshine fair. By Brian Dunning Follow @BrianDunningUPDATE: McAfee has been arrested in Belize on charges related to weapons. A Gang Surpression Unit raided his research facility, according to reports. McAfee has said the police “murdered my dog in cold blood,” took his passport and busted down unlocked doors. He claims the raid was a shakedown and that the weapons charges are bogus. But this isn’t the first time McAfee has found himself at the center of legal or civil scuffles. Read below Fast Company‘s 2010 profile of the outspoken programmer and anti-virus software pioneer–and his responses in the comments. advertisement advertisement No road runs the length of Ambergris Caye, a 25-mile-long island off the Belizean coast, so to get to John McAfee’s house, I climb aboard a boat in the resort town of San Pedro, on the island’s southern tip, and motor north for half an hour, along a coast of white beaches set with resorts and private villas. At last, his pier comes into sight, and I step off and walk down the weathered boards, the blue-green water shimmering through the cracks, to find him emerging from the shrubbery beside the swimming pool, his smile blinding against the reddish brown of a fresh tan. Twenty-three years after he essentially invented the antivirus-software industry, McAfee, now 64, radiates the vitality of a rich man who thinks about more than money. As he steps forward to meet me at the edge of his yard, he’s wearing sandals, shorts, and a muscle shirt that reveals a wiry physique and a tiger-stripe tattoo on each shoulder. He grips my hand with sinewy vigor. For decades, McAfee was a hard-partying ne’er-do-well playboy entrepreneur, a self-described trickster and bullshit artist who’d spent the majority of his adult life gadding about and having fun. That’s all in the past now, or so he would have me believe. He leads me into the cool semidarkness of his compound’s central living room. It has been nearly three years since I last saw him, in the scrubby desert of southern New Mexico, and while the environment couldn’t be more different, McAfee himself looks unchanged. He has spent the intervening years building a new life for himself on the coast of Central America. He has just auctioned off the last of his sprawling properties back in the United States and sold or given away many of his possessions. He has taken a huge financial hit, he says, but that’s okay. He has enough to fund his latest passion, his gift to the future: developing new kinds of antibiotics from herbs found deep in the rain forests of Belize. In a radio-ready baritone, McAfee unfurls his story, digressing over centuries and across continents. He describes the economic injustice of the developing world, the imbalances of education and capital, and how tapping the biodiversity of the rain forest for natural cures will help address those problems. “The product is something the world desperately needs, or will need, within a few years,” he says, “as our last lines of antibiotic defense are breached by the ever-growing ranks of drug-resistant bacteria.” As he talks, he flicks at the fabric of his pants, unable to contain his relentless energy. He pauses, suddenly serious: “But maybe I should ask what kind of story you came here to write? An exposé?” John McAfee’s rise to fame and wealth began with what at the time seemed a minor annoyance. In the mid-1980s, he was working for Lockheed Martin as a software designer when he came across one of the first computer viruses, the Pakistani Brain. Seeing an opportunity, he picked the virus apart and figured out how to defeat it. Then he built a program, called VirusScan, that could detect and disarm multiple virus threats automatically. The program — the first commercial antivirus software — was an impressive achievement, but it’s what he did next that was true genius. Instead of selling it, as every other software maker was doing, he gave it away for free via online bulletin boards. In no time, he had a base of 30 million users; revenue followed in the form of upgrade charges and licenses for corporate customers. By 1994, McAfee’s antivirus company was worth half a billion dollars. advertisement Though his name was on the product, McAfee wanted nothing to do with it anymore. He sold his entire stake, worth, he says, “$50-to-$100 million. I wanted to move on. Who wants to be tied to the past?” His next project was software company Tribal Voice, which made an instant-messaging platform that allowed Skype-like telephony. It quickly attracted a quarter-million-strong following despite the era’s slow dial-up connections. In 1999, McAfee sold the company for $17 million. “When John was at Tribal Voice, the growth rate was incredible,” says former employee Jim Zoromski. “But when it got to be too popular, it started to feel too much like work, and John wasn’t interested.” McAfee had already found financial security. Now he wanted to leverage his success into something greater: a sense of never-ending possibility. He turned his attention to yoga, racing ATVs and motorcycles, and long-distance Jet Ski journeys. “Life is free; life is limitless. You can do whatever you want,” he told me in New Mexico in 2007. “Success for me is, Can you wake up in the morning and feel like a 12-year-old?” In 2002, he happened upon an in-flight magazine article about a class of lightweight aircraft called “trikes” — essentially, hang gliders with engines. Intrigued, McAfee and his 22-year-old girlfriend, Jennifer Irwin, moved to Arizona for flight school. There they met a local man who had mastered the art of flying trikes very low, no more than a few feet off the ground, over the rugged desert of Arizona and New Mexico. McAfee had found his next calling. Skimming the surface of the desert at 75 miles per hour is an inherently dangerous way to fly, but that only made it more addictive
. On Thursday Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso gave a speech in New York confirming trade ministers from the other TPP countries would meet in May to discuss the deal, which he said offered more than bilateral trade negotiations. READ MORE: NZ to carry on preparing for TPP despite latest blow New Zealand's Trade Minister Todd McClay said it was fair to characterise Japan as now taking a leadership role, among a group of countries including New Zealand, Australia and Singapore, which were "doing a bit more of the leg work". "Japan is showing leadership around a common set of trade rules across the Pacific. New Zealand is very pleased to join them," McClay said on Friday. The meeting in Hanoi would not lead to an agreement, but it was possible agreement might be reached by the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Vietnam in November, McClay said. Key aspects of the TPP, including rules around dispute resolution, copyright and state owned enterprises, were included because of the demands from the US. Its absence may lead to demands for elements of the agreement to be renegotiated. McClay said officials were still discussing how the agreement could go forward, before establishing potential sticking points. While it was possible New Zealand could live with the current agreement, McClay said the potential for others to join later needed to be maintained. "We want to make sure it's open for others to join. TPP was, whatever we do going forward would have to be," McClay said. Former trade negotiator Charles Finny said New Zealand and Australia had already shown strong support for resurrecting the deal and Japan now appeared to be taking a leading role. "It is less clear that Malaysia and Vietnam are willing to implement the TPP as negotiated without the United States being part of the agreement," Finny said. Stephen Jacobi, executive director of the New Zealand International Business Forum, said Japan's statements could be motivated by concern that a bilateral trade deal with the United States could come with even greater demands than the TPP. "It's going to be really difficult to keep the coalition together so the more big players who express confidence, the better," Jacobi said. Japan was likely to harbour hopes the US would be convinced to rejoin the trade bloc, "but I don't think that will necessarily stop [Japan] implementing TPP." Professor Jane Kelsey, a long time critic of the TPP negotiations and secrecy, said it would be even more difficult to justify the claimed benefits of the deal without the involvement of the US. "The National Government needs to front up to New Zealanders and tell us what they are planning so they can be held accountable at the ballot box," Kelsey said. Pursuing the deal would ensure it became an election issue. "They should not under-estimate the ongoing opposition to this deal, with or without the US. Secretive moves to resurrect it will fuel the fire," Kelsey said.PLAINFIELD — The two police officers accused of stealing more than $11,000 from the city by filing fraudulent timesheets have now been suspended without pay, according to the city’s department of public affairs and safety. In a 39-count indictment handed down Monday, Sgt. Leslie Knight and Lt. James Abney were charged with offenses including official misconduct, theft by deception, conspiracy, falsifying records and computer theft. The pair, each with more than a decade of service in the police division, are due for their first court date on Wednesday. A department spokeswoman confirmed that Knight, 44, and Abney, 46, had been given unpaid suspensions, and said the office has no further comments at this time. The indictment alleges that Knight intentionally faked extra-duty job vouchers, overtime reports and accumulated time reports on a total of 31 occasions between Feb. 7, 2012 and Oct. 31, 2013. Abney is accused of doing the same 17 times between Jan. 6, 2012 and July 23, 2013. Believing an investigation was underway, Abney then engaged in “conduct which a reasonable person would believe would cause a witness to testify falsely and/or withhold any testimony” in April of this year, the indictment said. Details of the alleged witness tampering were not provided. Knight is further charged with using another employee’s username to access the database of work, sick, vacation and accumulated time in her efforts to obtain extra pay. Knight took home more than $6,800 in illegally billed payments, according to Union County Assistant Prosecutor John Esmerado, who is handling the case. Abney allegedly collected more than $4,200. Both Knight and Abney served as ranking officers while they were allegedly filing false work claims, according to the prosecutor's office. During this time, Knight was also in charge of overseeing the scheduling of all extra-duty work by Plainfield officers. Last year, Knight earned a salary of $99,584, while Abney earned $118,492, according to public records. Abney has served in the Plainfield police division for 19 years, and Knight for 12. If convicted, the officers would be permanently barred from holding any public-sector job in New Jersey. MORE UNION COUNTY NEWS Katie Lannan may be reached at klannan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @katielannan. Find NJ.com on Facebook.Serelitz Profile Joined April 2011 Netherlands 2226 Posts #2 Even with TSL looking at it's worst and reIGN looking at it's best, I can't see TSL losing this. Bagration Profile Blog Joined October 2011 United States 17857 Posts Last Edited: 2012-01-23 21:45:15 #3 There is a very good chance that Hyun will get played! Awesome! I think TSL is definitely favored, but I could see Reign taking this as they have played very well in these conditions, and even pushed FXO to the brink in the NASL TeamLeague (different format though). Considering the recent loss of key players and the drama with TSL, there is a solid chance for Reign to win this. Polt is of course the main threat to Reign, with his strong TvP against a Protoss heavy team. Team Slayers, Axiom-Acer and Vile forever RPR_Tempest Profile Blog Joined February 2011 Australia 7627 Posts #4 They don't have anyone who can take down Polt, IMO. Soundwave, Zerg player from Canberra, Australia. @SoundwaveSC Bagration Profile Blog Joined October 2011 United States 17857 Posts Last Edited: 2012-01-24 18:01:55 #5 On January 25 2012 02:49 RPR_Tempest wrote: They don't have anyone who can take down Polt, IMO. Polt will be the biggest problem for Reign. Still, with it being Bo1, anything is possible. Polt will be the biggest problem for Reign. Still, with it being Bo1, anything is possible. Team Slayers, Axiom-Acer and Vile forever TheTurk Profile Joined January 2011 United States 713 Posts #6 My heart is with ReIGN but my head says TSL will win. Starcraft is a lifestyle. brachester Profile Blog Joined March 2011 Australia 1755 Posts #7 both my head and my heart say TSL will win. I hate all this singing ssg Profile Joined July 2011 United States 1531 Posts #8 If ReIGN can somehow take down Polt, I think they should have this. Easier said than done. MCDayC Profile Joined March 2011 United Kingdom 12847 Posts #9 Polt is the barrier for ReIGN, without him I would say that ReIGN stands a decent chance, but as it is, I would have to go with a TSL victory. VERY FRAGILE, LIKE A BABY PANDA EGG Wrathsc2 Profile Joined March 2011 United States 1995 Posts #10 Polt all kill A marine walks into a bar and asks, "Wheres the counter?" Back Profile Joined May 2010 Canada 505 Posts #11 But what if Polt was held up in the trunk of a car... just thinking out loud. CosmicSpiral Profile Blog Joined December 2010 United States 10772 Posts #12 Reign is going to have an important decision to make. Do they send Artist as their ace or as their middle-man? Artist could sweep the TSL zergs if he is on his tip-top game, but if he is upset by Heart or Cyrano then Inori is going to have to beat Polt. Writer Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muß man schweigen. xi Tempest x Profile Joined July 2011 Scotland 340 Posts #13 Polt is obliviously the biggest challenge, but i still can't see reIGN winning even if the take him out, Hyun, Symbol and Revival are all too strong. Bagration Profile Blog Joined October 2011 United States 17857 Posts Last Edited: 2012-01-24 18:53:24 #14 On January 25 2012 03:33 CosmicSpiral wrote: Reign is going to have an important decision to make. Do they send Artist as their ace or as their middle-man? Artist could sweep the TSL zergs if he is on his tip-top game, but if he is upset by Heart or Cyrano then Inori is going to have to beat Polt. It all depends on how the series progress. I believe that it would be best to send out a guy like slush, tricky, unorthodox, but not the team's big guns. The team's chances are not badly hurt if he loses, but he is still good enough to take games. You try to draw out tsl's major players, ideally polt. Of course I'm not affiliated with reign, nor am I privy to the inside workings of either team, but I feel reign should try to snipe down tsl, since reign lacks the strong all around player capable of killing sprees, while tsl lacks a deep roster (relative to the other Korean teams of course) and will likely be heavily reliant on polt. It all depends on how the series progress. I believe that it would be best to send out a guy like slush, tricky, unorthodox, but not the team's big guns. The team's chances are not badly hurt if he loses, but he is still good enough to take games. You try to draw out tsl's major players, ideally polt. Of course I'm not affiliated with reign, nor am I privy to the inside workings of either team, but I feel reign should try to snipe down tsl, since reign lacks the strong all around player capable of killing sprees, while tsl lacks a deep roster (relative to the other Korean teams of course) and will likely be heavily reliant on polt. Team Slayers, Axiom-Acer and Vile forever CosmicSpiral Profile Blog Joined December 2010 United States 10772 Posts #15 On January 25 2012 03:51 Bagration wrote: Show nested quote + On January 25 2012 03:33 CosmicSpiral wrote: Reign is going to have an important decision to make. Do they send Artist as their ace or as their middle-man? Artist could sweep the TSL zergs if he is on his tip-top game, but if he is upset by Heart or Cyrano then Inori is going to have to beat Polt. It all depends on how the series progress. I believe that it would be best to send out a guy like slush, tricky, unorthodox, but not the team's big guns. The team's chances are not badly hurt if he loses, but he is still good enough to take games. You try to draw out tsl's major players, ideally polt. Of course I'm not affiliated with reign, nor am I privy to the inside workings of either team, but I feel reign should try to snipe down tsl, since reign lacks the strong all around player capable of killing sprees, while tsl lacks a deep roster (relative to the other Korean teams of course) and will likely be heavily reliant on polt. It all depends on how the series progress. I believe that it would be best to send out a guy like slush, tricky, unorthodox, but not the team's big guns. The team's chances are not badly hurt if he loses, but he is still good enough to take games. You try to draw out tsl's major players, ideally polt. Of course I'm not affiliated with reign, nor am I privy to the inside workings of either team, but I feel reign should try to snipe down tsl, since reign lacks the strong all around player capable of killing sprees, while tsl lacks a deep roster (relative to the other Korean teams of course) and will likely be heavily reliant on polt. The main problem with sniping is that Reign doesn't have a deep roster either. You can afford to snipe if you have a big roster like oGs or Startale. The main problem with sniping is that Reign doesn't have a deep roster either. You can afford to snipe if you have a big roster like oGs or Startale. Writer Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muß man schweigen. Seriox Profile Joined November 2010 Germany 373 Posts Last Edited: 2012-01-24 18:54:56 #16 I don't see ReIGN winning this. asdfTT123 Profile Blog Joined June 2009 United States 989 Posts #17 Inori will beat Polt and ReIGN will win 5-3. n.Die_Jaedong <3 Yonnua Profile Blog Joined October 2011 United Kingdom 2225 Posts #18 One word: Artist. LRSL 2014 Finalist! PartinG \| Mvp \| Bomber \| Creator \| NaNiwa \| herO The Final Boss Profile Joined February 2011 United States 1815 Posts #19 On January 25 2012 03:46 xi Tempest x wrote: Polt is obliviously the biggest challenge, but i still can't see reIGN winning even if the take him out, Hyun, Symbol and Revival are all too strong. Artist can definitely beat HyuN, Symbol, or RevivaL. His TvZ is ridiculously good (number 1 vZ International ELO at the moment) and he's only lost 4 of hist last 40 TvZs. I don't know if he could beat all three of them, because that would be asking a lot from any Terran, but if there's anybody on ReIGN who possibly could, it would definitely be Artist. Polt is definitely going to be the biggest challenge for ReIGN. But maybe KiWiKaKi can pull out a win over Polt. He beat GuMiho the other day in the NASTL with a crazy 8 gate all-in build. If KiWi pulls out one of his ridiculous builds and Polt doesn't scout it, KiWi could definitely win a Bo1 over him. Frankly, I think that this game is going to be a lot closer than people are calling it. I think that people are underestimating Artist. Artist can definitely beat HyuN, Symbol, or RevivaL. His TvZ is ridiculously good (number 1 vZ International ELO at the moment) and he's only lost 4 of hist last 40 TvZs. I don't know if he could beat all three of them, because that would be asking a lot from any Terran, but if there's anybody on ReIGN who possibly could, it would definitely be Artist.Polt is definitely going to be the biggest challenge for ReIGN. But maybe KiWiKaKi can pull out a win over Polt. He beat GuMiho the other day in the NASTL with a crazy 8 gate all-in build. If KiWi pulls out one of his ridiculous builds and Polt doesn't scout it, KiWi could definitely win a Bo1 over him.Frankly, I think that this game is going to be a lot closer than people are calling it. I think that people are underestimating Artist. The Final Boss Profile Joined February 2011 United States 1815 Posts #20 On January 25 2012 03:33 CosmicSpiral wrote: Reign is going to have an important decision to make. Do they send Artist as their ace or as their middle-man? Artist could sweep the TSL zergs if he is on his tip-top game, but if he is upset by Heart or Cyrano then Inori is going to have to beat Polt. Heart isn't on TSL, nobody actually knows how good Cyrano is, and I doubt that anybody on ReIGN could beat Polt in a straight up game, even Artist. Heart isn't on TSL, nobody actually knows how good Cyrano is, and I doubt that anybody on ReIGN could beat Polt in a straight up game, even Artist. 1 2 3 4 5 16 17 18 Next AllIn its first year of business, Hired organized thousands of developer interviews for companies trying to fill spots. It quickly became clear why some companies couldn’t hire. “Ninety percent of companies are bad at hiring, but it’s particularly bad among seed stage companies and first time founders,” says founder Matt Mickiewicz. Here are the most common hiring mistakes made by employers on Hired: Too many twentysomething founders look for employees just like themselves. “So you discriminate against anyone who is in their 30s or 40s or has a family,” says Mickiewicz. “But the most talented and experienced people will be in their 30s and 40s. I know one well-known startup who has been trying to fill a role for over four months, and has gone through two dozen candidates, simply because the founder mandates 80-hour workweeks.” Founders typically look for candidates who have a similar educational background to themselves and live within 25 miles of their office. A CEO with a Stanford CS degree will often look down on anybody who doesn’t, but this seriously limits the talent pool available to his startup. “We look a lot outside Silicon Valley,” says Mickiewicz on recruiting for Hired itself. “There are really talented people who don’t live on the coast and there’s a lot less competition for that talent.” Another typical form of hiring self-sabotage is to concentrate on candidates from well-known companies like Google, Facebook, or Apple. “Don’t just cherry-pick the Google engineers and the Stanford grads to work at your ‘Uber for Laundry,'” says Mickiewicz. “Hiring Google engineers is generally a really bad idea. If you work at Google you have access to an entire set of tools and technologies that you won’t have in a smaller startup environment.” Hired has also found that Google engineers are three times more likely than average to reject interview requests, simply because few companies are willing to match a Googler’s existing salary. On the other hand, startup CEOs tends to be prejudiced against developers who work for less cutting-edge large companies, like Dell, Accenture, or Salesforce. Mickiewicz points out that Uber’s CTO was hired from VMware. Too many interviewers still rely on puzzles and programming trivia questions. Google stopped asking puzzle questions in interviews when it found that the fact that a candidate could calculate how many golf balls fit into a plane had no bearing on whether they could actually do the job. Viewing the interview as a combat sport is another common pitfall. “Asking an engineer to architect Google Maps on the whiteboard when they work for a car-sharing startup,” Mickiewicz says, “just because the CTO worked on Google Maps. It becomes like a battle of wits. The CTO versus the applicants: Who’s smarter?”I was hoping my next pony submission would be the next episode title card i had been working hard on in-between paid jobs but i have been sick for the last three daysand i just did not have the patience to complete it which sucks(it was a season 3 one as well) but maybe i can still get it done before the end of the weekhave to see if times on my side.I was bored a lot when i wasso when i had psychical strength to hold my tablet i drew a lot of pony sketchesand quite liked this one i did of Vinyl and Octavia looking in to space working on their craft. Originally i wanted to leave it as a cute sketchuntil i saw the recent funny animation Vinyl and Neonand an adorable SFM pony video of OctaviaI think next to Mrs Rarity i like the paring of these two and the personalities the fandom has created for them both. I would like to draw more popular background characters in the future, as they never get much love from me.Until next deviation Bronies LATERSDawn in Photoshop CS6 with my Wacom tablet 5is this CuteWinFailThe District would be the first jurisdiction in the country to require gun owners to purchase liability insurance, under a bill being considered by the D.C. Council. The legislation, introduced Tuesday by D.C. Council member Mary M. Cheh, would mandate that gun owners maintain policies of no less than $250,000 in coverage. By requiring insurance, Ms. Cheh said she hopes the law would ensure that money is available to help a gunshot victim pay medical costs and promote gun safety. “I think there ought to be a source of money that they could count on to compensate them for their injuries,” Ms. Cheh, Ward 3 Democrat, said of victims of gun violence. As introduced Tuesday, Ms. Cheh’s version of the bill would cover “any damages resulting from negligent acts, or willful acts that are not undertaken in self-defense.” She said she envisions the District’s law providing coverage for a wide range of scenarios, from a person intentionally shot during a robbery to a child who picks up an unsecured gun and fires at someone. The bill would require most gun owners to get insurance within 30 days of the law’s passage or have their gun permits revoked. At least six states have introduced similar gun liability insurance legislation over the last several months, with the law proposed in New York requiring insurance of at least $1 million, according to the New York Times. As of mid-February, none of the six states — California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania — had passed the legislation. Ms. Cheh, a constitutional law professor, said she introduced the bill “in an effort to balance reasonable restrictions on the Second Amendment with safe and responsible gun legislation.” She said she hopes insurance companies can promote safer gun ownership by offering lower rates to those who meet certain criteria or follow safety guidelines, but she doesn’t believe that requiring insurance will create a barrier for gun ownership. “If you create a standard that can’t be met, it’s like a ban. But I don’t think it comes anywhere near that,” she said. As policymakers look to address gun control in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn., some wonder whether these types of laws ignore a rather large loophole. “Do you think for one second that the bad guys are going to buy an insurance policy?” asked George Lyon, president of the District’s Community Association for Firearms Education. “This is a solution in search of a problem.” Organizations like the National Rifle Association already offer insurance policies for gun owners — personal liability plans between $100,000 and $250,000 offer coverage for bodily injury or property damage. Plans offering self-defense insurance cover injuries and damage as well as civil and criminal court costs, as long as the policyholder is acquitted of criminal charges or the charges are dropped. A policy with the highest coverage for both types of insurance would cost $254 annually, according to the NRA. Mr. Lyon said he owns liability insurance for his gun but questions whether requiring such insurance would be unduly burdensome for some. “What you’re really doing there is telling people of lesser means that we don’t want you to have a gun,” Mr. Lyon said. Nationwide, medical care for those killed or injured by gunfire in 2010 cost an estimated $3.2 billion, according to a USA Today report on a cost analysis study by the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation. The District’s Crime Victims Compensation Program already offers a form of compensation that could be utilized by gunshot victims for things like medical treatment, loss of wages and funeral costs, but reimbursement is capped at $25,000 per claim. Any movement on Ms. Cheh’s Firearm Insurance Amendment Act will likely be sometime off. The bill, co-sponsored by council member David A. Catania, at-large independent, was referred jointly to the District’s committees on the Judiciary and Public Safety and Business and Consumer Affairs for a hearing. Judiciary committee Chairman Tommy Wells, Ward 6 Democrat, said he needed to research the issue and that a hearing likely wouldn’t take place before summer. Ms. Cheh said she hopes to work out the details of the legislation during a hearing, such as whether a minimum $250,000 coverage amount should be adjusted, and to hear from stakeholders on the proposal. Among others concerned with the bill’s potential impact is the District’s police union chairman, who wonders how the law would affect law enforcement, particularly retired police officers. While the proposed law leaves an exemption for any “peace officer,” who Ms. Cheh said would presumably be covered through their employer, it was not explicitly stated whether or not military or retired law enforcement would also be required to get insurance. “This is the type of legislation that on its face could be so sweeping that it could have consequences that are unintended,” Fraternal Order of Police Chairman Kristopher Baumann said. Ms. Cheh said she did not anticipate any interference from Congress, which has oversight over laws passed in the District, if the measure were to pass the council. Because the District’s initial gun ownership legislation was passed without issue from Congress and because other states are also contemplating bills calling for mandatory gun insurance, Ms. Cheh said she thinks it would be “less palatable” for Congress to interfere on such a bill. Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.Unlike the other major awards shows, the MTV Video Music Awards have little concern for the history of its industry. The VMAs live completely in the moment — no token statuettes granted to veterans who bothered to do some kind in the past year, no montages of tributes to fallen pop stars, no brooding on the past in any way. Will Smith may be one of the biggest media stars in the world, including a long and extremely successful recording career, but the only reason you saw so much of him during this year's broadcast was because of his buzz-generating offspring seated next to him. The network's institutional lack of attention span is how Justin Timberlake could earn a Video Vanguard award for a solo career that consists of three albums, and really more like two and a half if we're going to be honest about The 20/20 Experience. Still, the medley of hits he performed went on for what felt like ages, and not in a bad way — the dude's catalog is wall to wall jams. In the briefest of nods to the existence of pop culture before ten years ago (Bruno Mars's retrocentric wardrobe aside), he briefly brought out his former boy-bandmates for a brief 'N Sync reunion before he peaced the F out on them and they literally sank down into the floor of the stage like doomed souls returning to the underworld. The night's other big, medley-based blockbuster event was Miley Cyrus, Robin Thicke, 2 Chainz, and Kendrick Lamar trading verses of their current hits. The visuals for Miley's segment of the performance were based on the controversial video for her latest single "We Can't Stop," with oversized teddy bears and callipygous black women festooning the stage, while the visibly wired singer twerked and stuck her tongue out in a face-contorting way that may have been intended as a parody of SNL star Vanessa Bayer's impersonation of her, or just proof that her appropriations extend past hip-hop culture to include Gene Simmons. Robin Thicke wore a Beetlejuice suit and dry-humped her. 2 Chainz remarkably had the least outrageous stage setup of the night. Kendrick Lamar made it all the way through his bit without declaring himself the King of Brooklyn, where the show was being filmed. Miley's "We Can't Stop" video was frozen out of all of the major awards, despite the fact that it set a new record for a music clip accumulating 100 million views on YouTube. Perhaps it was MTV's way of sneak-dissing the platform that put the final nail in its identity as a place to watch music videos. Daft Punk's inescapable "Get Lucky" also lost in all categories it was nominated in, which may have been the most shocking aspect of the night. The show was otherwise shock-free. Macklemore winning Best Hip-Hop Video set rap fans across the Internet howling, but given his omnipresence over the past twelve months it wasn't unexpected. (His speech after winning Best Social Message for "Same Love" set the bar for self-congratulatory behavior for the night.) A$AP Rocky managed to ruffle some feathers by using a PSA-ish moment on stage with Jason Collins where he was supposed to speak about gay rights to instead plug A$AP Ferg's new album Trap Lord, but the moment's scandalousness had less Twitter impact than the sight of a plump Joey Fatone doing choreographed dance moves. The VMAs were bookended this year by performances from Lady Gaga and Katy Perry, arguably the two biggest current female pop stars, both of whom have new albums dropping, which gave the whole massive production the feel of a very personal duel between the two divas. Gaga had the advantage of opening the show with her new single "Applause" — which you could also hear throughout the night in a new Kia commercial on heavy rotation — and choreography that incorporated five distinct costume changes in real time. (She eventually settled on a seashell bikini and thoroughly unkempt wig, which she kept on for the rest of the evening.) Perry, on the other hand, was blessed by the show's producers with a slow, dramatic build-up to her show-closing performance. Early on in the evening she was shown walking into the trailer of a gold-painted big rig that was shown throughout the broadcast cruising through the streets of Brooklyn. When it finally arrived at the Brooklyn Bridge, Perry appeared on an outdoor stage made up to look like a boxing ring, wearing glammed-up boxing gear. It took a fraction of a second to figure out that she was more or less reenacting Christina Aguilera's "Dirrty" video. It was an obvious bite, but then again "Dirrty" came out all the way back in 2002. In the world of the VMAs that's ancient history. Follow The Culture Blog on RSS and on Twitter at @ESQCulture.Tim LaHaye died last week. He was 90. He was best known for co-writing the “Left Behind” series of novels about the battle of Armageddon, which fundamentalists believe will follow the Rapture of Christian believers from earth. The books have sold over 63 million copies—the version of the series for kids has sold 11 million copies alone—and the obituaries led with that. He helped found the Moral Majority with Jerry Falwell and sat on its board, and in 1981 began the Council for National Policy, a secretive directorate for religious-right organizations that has been called “the most powerful conservative organization in America you’ve never heard of.” He was so fanatically devoted to what Christians call “the Great Commission”—Matthew 28:19–20: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you”—that when he once ran into the Dalai Lama in Israel he shook hands with him and asked, “Sir, has anyone ever explained to you who Jesus Christ really is?” An aide to the incarnation of the Bodhisattva rebuffed LaHaye, leaving His Holiness the Dalai Lama walking the long path to the unbelievers’ Lake of Fire. But LaHaye’s greatest contribution to the power of fundamentalist Christianity in America was more subtle, and, on the surface, sounds like a hilarious joke. At the time ministers like LaHaye began politicizing en masse against the fruits of the moral lassitude of the 1960s—gay rights, abortion, secular humanism in education, feminism, and all the rest—Protestant fundamentalism was suffering from a gaping deficiency as a social movement, betokening its parochial roots: its insularity, its joylessness, and a befuddled inability to compete with the blandishments of liberal, modern therapeutic culture. Their flocks looked longingly upon the worldliness forbidden them. Earlier generations of preachers would have simply forbade with greater intensity. Figures like the LaHayes (husband and wife), James Dobson, and Pat Robertson created a Christianity that would embrace what the modern world offered, up to a point. They were so successful that by the time of Ronald Reagan’s second successful presidential run, fundamentalist Christianity comprised an entire parallel universe within which one could live fully, eschewing the outside world as utterly wicked even as the Christian world came more and more to resemble it. Depressed? Anxious? Bored? Bible reading not cutting through the fog? Turn to Dr. James Dobson, a psychotherapist with impeccable secular credentials whose Christian-inflected self-help books like Dare to Discipline (1970) and What Wives Wish Their Husbands Knew About Women (1972), and “Focus on the Family” seminars and videos had become so popular by 1977 that he quit his therapy practice and incorporated a nonprofit organization that produced a weekly 30-minute radio phone-in show. Or if Dobson doesn’t do the trick, call in to the Christian Broadcasting Network’s crisis counseling service, with a staff of 6,000 friendly ears, fielding 1.25 million calls in the first half of 1976 alone. (“Most calls concern potential suicides, alcoholics, unwed mothers, drug abuses, and marital problems,” the Los Angeles Times explained. “Literature is sent to callers and complex cases are offered professional help.”) SPONSORED Looking for worldly purpose? Try politics. Need a night out? There were “Christian” movies, like Russell Doughten’s four-part A Thief in the Night series. Or, why not stay in and have some fun? In 1976, LaHaye and his wife Beverly, who as the founder of Concerned Women of America nearly equaled her husband in influence, published a book called The Act of Marriage: The Beauty of Sexual Love. It was, yes, a Christian sex manual, one which indubitably added to the sum total of joy in the world because it insisted that erotic ecstasy was not something forbidden for Christian couples but required of them. “Modern research has made it abundantly clear that all married women are capable of orgasmic ecstasy. No Christian woman should settle for less.” “Sexually illiterate” men, and “selfish lovers” were excoriated. With Masters and Johnson, the LaHayes agreed that the vaginal orgasm was a myth, which meant careful study of clitoral response was a must for Christian sexual literacy. And it was in the Bible—where, in the most curious exegesis in the history of Christendom, the LaHayes discovered the proper Scriptural method for manual-vaginal stimulation: “The wife lying on her back with her knees bent and feet pulled up to her hips and her husband lying on her right side.” Just like the Song of Solomon advised, Chapter 2, Verse 6: “Let his left hand be under my head and his right hand embrace me.” Nor was the hubby’s stimulation neglected: the book included a chart where women could record daily progress on their Kegel exercises. Funny, yes. Serious, too. Books like The Act of Marriage—and Tim’s earlier, tamer, 1968 publication, How to Be Happy Though Married—were part of a movement without which the darkness the Christian right has visited on our land would not have been possible. They helped make of fundamentalism an entire, enveloping world. All the better for them to get to work enveloping our world, too.What that energy drink can do to your body (CNN) Energy drinks may be popular — the global energy drink market was worth $39 billion in 2013 and is forecast to reach $61 billion by 2021 — but they have gotten a bad rep among health experts. They “may pose danger to public health,” warns the World Health Organization. Children “should not consume” them, cautions the American Academy of Pediatrics. The American Beverage Association stands by the safety of energy drinks, indicating that many of their ingredients are also found in common foods and have been rigorously studied for safety. So what exactly are those ingredients, and how do they impact your body? Over the years, concerned experts have been getting closer to answering those questions, said Dr. John Higgins, a sports cardiologist with McGovern Medical School at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. Most energy drinks typically contain large amounts of caffeine; added sugars; vitamins, such as B vitamins; and legal stimulants, such as guarana, a plant that grows in the Amazon; taurine, an amino acid that’s naturally found in meat and fish; and L-carnitine, a substance in our bodies that helps turn fat into energy. “Overall, the concern is that these vitamins, amino acids and herbals are often in higher concentrations than naturally in food or plants, and the effects when combined especially with caffeine may be enhanced,” said Katherine Zeratsky, a clinical dietitian at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Higgins, who has led multiple studies on energy drinks and health impacts, agreed. With the caffeine, sugar and stimulants, Higgins said that more research is needed to determine how those ingredients could interact to cause negative health effects. “They’re sort of a black box. We really don’t know a lot about them,” Higgins said of energy drinks. “People need to be aware of that,” he said. “For certain groups, it could be potentially dangerous, like for those under 18, women who are pregnant, people who have a caffeine sensitivity, people who don’t consume caffeine on a regular basis and people who are taking certain medications, like Adderall for attention deficit (disorder).” Rachel Hicks, a spokeswoman for the American Beverage Association, issued a statement from the group that said many people around the world have safely consumed energy drinks for more than 25 years. “Many of the ingredients in energy drinks, such as B vitamins and taurine, are found naturally in many foods,” the
fuel consumption and horsepower further from the rest of the pack. Even at a technical track like Sugo, that could prove problematic through the flat-out run through the two long straightaways. But what doesn’t help Lexus’ chances at sustained success is the simple fact that both the Honda NSX-GT and the Nissan GT-R GT500 NISMO have made significant gains in the tests over the Spring Break. Honda have traditionally excelled at Sugo, the site of their last GT500 victory way back in September 2015. The GTA’s recent 15 kilogram performance adjustment certainly paid dividends at Autopolis, helping the #17 Keihin NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Takashi Kogure) and the #100 Raybrig NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Takuya Izawa) to a double-podium finish. Keihin Real Racing would love to end their seven-year winless drought at the same venue that they took their very first GT500 victory, and Team Kunimitsu, who won in 2015, would also love to get Honda back on the top step of the podium as well. Discount the #16 Motul Mugen NSX-GT (Hideki Mutoh/Daisuke Nakajima) at your peril: They were fastest on the first day of the two-day official test here in June. After a winless 2016 and a start to 2017 of mixed fortunes, Sportsland SUGO could be the venue where Honda starts to turn it all around. Traditionally, Nissan haven’t fared well at Sugo. They never won here until 2009, and they’ve won just three times since in GT500. But they are the defending champion manufacturer here, courtesy of a brilliant, strategic race from the #24 Forum Engineering Advan GT-R of Kondo Racing. With the new driver combination of Daiki Sasaki and João Paulo de Oliveira, Kondo Racing looks to go back-to-back at Sugo, potentially employing that same strategy to their benefit. They need a strong finish here to turn around what’s been a disappointing follow-up so far to a fantastic multi-victory 2016 campaign – but they have momentum on their side after a successful tyre test at Fuji last week. The two Michelin-clad GT-Rs, the #23 Motul Autech GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda/Ronnie Quintarelli) and the #46 S Road Craftsports GT-R (Satoshi Motoyama/Katsumasa Chiyo), could also impress after a good run at Sugo – and of course, the #12 Calsonic Impul GT-R (Hironobu Yasuda/Jann Mardenborough), which has never won at Sugo, is always a factor everywhere. So, with Honda and Nissan looking stronger, where could Lexus find their best hopes to win this race, and match Nissan’s run of four wins to open the season from 2016? That would likely be with the two cars not yet mentioned: The #1 Denso Kobelco SARD LC500 (Heikki Kovalainen/Kohei Hirate) finished 2nd here last year and were a serious factor for the win before the race was red-flagged due to a heavy crash for a GT300 car. They’re also out to avenge their hard-luck outcome at Autopolis, being involved in the lead battle with Lexus Team au TOM’s before two collisions late in the race ended their day. But perhaps the best hopes lie with the only Yokohama-clad Lexus: The #19 WedsSport Advan LC500 (Yuhi Sekiguchi/Yuji Kunimoto), which was fastest here in the June test, and also had a solid race here last July, with Sekiguchi and Kovalainen battling hard for several laps during the race. Over the break, Yokohama seemed to find massive improvements in pace, and their tyre suited this circuit well in 2016, and may yet do so again in 2017 – so the WedsSport LC500, the Forum Engineering GT-R, and the Mugen NSX could all be serious contenders for the victory. One thing that is for certain at Sugo: This likely won’t be a dull race, not at a venue that’s seen pit lane traffic jams, extremely variable weather, the two closest finishes in series history, and the legendary “3 Wide Pass” exactly ten years ago. Emotions will be high, tensions will be high, and at the halfway mark of the 2017 Autobacs Super GT Series, the complexion of the GT500 Championship could change dramatically this weekend.The Best Sewing Machine for Beginners The Best Starter Sewing Machine If you are looking for The Best Sewing Machine for Beginners, it should be Brother CS6000i ($145 on Amazon). After spending 20 hours researching the top rated sewing machines that work great as your first sewing machine, Brother CS6000i is our clear winner. We also talk about a few other alternatives below, but for most people who are looking to get started with sewing, Brother CS6000i is our top pick. Check Current Sale Price When you are looking for a starter sewing machine, you want an easy to use sewing machine that is affordable, has straightforward instructions and lets you get started right away. Brother CS6000i is beginner-friendly, portable, offers plenty of of sewing and quilting features and goes easy on your wallet. Brother designed this specifically for self-starters and balances versatility, quality, and price with tons of useful features. Its simple to use LCD display stitch selector lets you select your stitch with the touch of a button and see your selection at the LCD display screen. Adjustable sewing speed slide lets you easily control how fast or slow you want to sew. It has a stop/start button that allows the machine-use without included foot control. Threading could not be easier. All you need to do is simply follow the numbered diagram printed on the machine. The over sized table gives you the extra space needed for large sewing projects such as quilts. I really like the automatic needle threader. Simply touch the lever on the side of the machine and Brother CS6000i automagically pushes the thread directly through the needle. The sewing area is brightly lit. You will be very thankful when working on darker fabrics. The built-in free arm is great for sewing cylindrical items such as cuffs, sleeves and children’s pants. Brother CS6000i includes 27 stitches to help you re-fashion your wardrobe. For example, you have Blind Hem Stitch to create virtually invisible hems on skirts, pants and sleeves. The Basting stitch is great for getting the right fit by temporarily securing seams. The Overcast and Zigzag stitches help prevent fabric from fraying. Over 5,000+ customers have given Brother CS6000i a rating of 4.6 stars on Amazon. Read reviews from recent buyers here. Having right set of tools & accessories is important once you being sewing. It comes with the following accessories which are more than sufficient for all of your sewing needs: Brother CS6000i comes with a 25-year manufacturers warranty and phone support for the life of the product. Brother recommends you do not use this machine in countries that do not support 120V AC, even if you are using a voltage adapter. It’s currently on sale on Amazon. Click here to check it out and compare prices. Other Top Rated Sewing Machines for Beginners Beginner Sewing Machine Reviews Janome Magnolia 2212 Sewing Machine Check Current Sale Price If, for some reason you do not like Brother CS6000i, we have a great alternative for you – Janome Magnolia 2212. Janome’s Magnolia 7318 is a very easy-to-use starter sewing machine that has plenty of features and supreme functionality. To help you with your at-home projects, it comes with 18 Built-In Stitches, a Top Loading Bobbin System and 4 Step Buttonholes. The controls are easy to read and use. The dials turn very smoothly. The stitch panel on the front shows you the list of stitches with their corresponding stitch letter. You will turn the dial to select your desired stitch. You can adjust the length and width of the stitches to suit your needs. The large, easy to use reverse lever comes in very handy to reinforce your stitch. Magnolia 2212 doesn’t have a dial for controlling the stitching speed, but it’s not a deal-breaker as you can control the speed easily with the foot pedal. The measurement marking on the needle plate itself is very convenient. You can easily measure seam allowances using the seam guides on the needle plate. The see-through bobbin cover lets you keep track of your thread. Magnolia 7318 is designed to be jam proof when you are sewing the edge of the fabric. It comes with the following standard accessories: zipper foot, buttonhole foot, sliding buttonhole foot, needles, bobbins, small screwdriver, lint brush, seam ripper (buttonhole opener), large spool holder, small spool holder, additional spool pin and felt cushion. Overall, Magnolia is a fantastic sewing machine for beginners or casual sewers. Over 133 customers have given it a 4.5 stars on Amazon. Read the reviews here. SINGER 9960 Quantum Stylist Sewing Machine Check Current Sale Price If you are serious about sewing and want to get a machine that has advanced features and smart technology, you should get –SINGER’s 9960 Quantum Stylist Sewing Machine. It is a 600-stitch computerized sewing machine that ships with everything you need – an extension cable, accessories for your every need and a hard cover. The easy threading system with automatic needle threader makes threading the machine effortless. I was able to get the entire machine threaded, from the spool to the needle’s eye, in just seven seconds. I find the automatic threader to be one of the most efficient time-savers. It’s a computerized machine that comes equipped with advanced digital information advisor. The LCD screen displays all pertinent information including selected built-in stitch, stitch length and width settings, and recommended presser foot. The easy-to-load and easy-to-insert bobbin conveniently loads from the top. You are always able to monitor the thread supply via the clear cover. There are 13 styles of fully automatic one-step buttonholes. In order to prevent gaps in stitching or fabric distortion, the sides of the buttonholes are sewn in the same direction. 600 built-in stitches allow you to choose the perfect stitch for any project. You can easily edit the stitch to control the exact look of a stitch pattern with elongation and mirror imaging. There is a chart located on the upper lid of the machine for quick reference. The extension table provides plenty of room for large projects such as quilting. SINGER’s 9960 has electronic auto pilot and speed control features that provide complete control of sewing speed. This helps make sewing difficult areas easier and error-free. As long as you read the instructions in the manual this is a very easy machine to use. Customers have given this machine a rating of 4.5 stars out of 5. Read the reviews by over 1,250 Amazon customers here. Janome 2212 Sewing Machine Check Current Sale Price Janome 2212 has all the basic stitches a serious beginner needs when learning to sew. You can easily adjust width and length of stitch to suit your needs. The stitch selection dial makes it easy to select the desired stitch. The reverse lever lets you easily lock the stitches. It threads easily, has easy turn dial for pattern selection and the drop feed is great for quilting and other free motion sewing. It comes with a plastic cover which is rugged enough for home storage. It feels steady even when you get up to a faster speed. It comes with easy to follow guide book that will get you going in no time. Customers have given it a rating of 4.6 out of 5 (read customer reviews & check price ). When you purchase, you get the 25-year manufacturer’s warranty from Janome. Brother Project Runway CS5055PRW Sewing Machine Check Current Sale Price Brother’s Project Runway CS5055PRW is perfect for a beginner who wants a little growing room. As a beginner, you will really appreciate the free-motion stitching. The built-in automatic needle threading is a huge time-saver, especially for beginners. 50 built-in stitches cover all the basics as well has give you some room for creativity. You can use the built-in quilting stitches to embellish or join quilt blocks. The quick setup top drop bobbing lets you get started sewing quickly – simply drop in your bobbin, pull the thread through the slot and off you go! It’s lightweight and super portable – making it easy to carry from one room to another. Other features include Easy-view LCD display screen with intuitive stitch selector, Convenient stitch chart, LED-lit Super bright work area, 5 one-step, custom-sized buttonholes and vertical spool pin. Over 385 customers have given it a rating of 4.5.5 out of 5. Read the reviews here. Brother’s Project Runway CS5055PRW ships with 25-year manufacturer’s warranty from Brother. The Best Embroidery Machine for Beginners Brother SE-400 Sewing and Embroidery Machine Check Current Sale Price If you are looking to focus on embroidery, our pick for The Best Embroidery Machine for Beginners is Brother SE400. SE-400 comes with spacious 4 x 4 inch embroidery area which will give you plenty of room to let your embroidery freedom run wild. There are 7-point feed dogs that let you smoothly feed and advance fabric. The workspace is brightly lit – so you won’t need to look for any other lights to get the job done. Advanced LCD display lets you access built-in designs, control design editing features and view tutorials. The automatic needle threader threads the machine in one-touch – which is a huge time-saver. The jam-resistant drop-in top bobbin makes the sewing process quick, reliable and hassle-free. The bobbin winding system easily and quickly prepares bobbins for you – for ease of threading. One-touch automatic thread cutter conveniently cuts your top and bobbin thread. You can keep your machine software up to date by connecting your machine to a computer and downloading updates. You are also able to download and import designs. Brother SE-400 uses the industry standard.pes files for digitizing design and.pen for embroidery files. Over 1,500 Amazon customers have given it a rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars. Read customer reviews & check price here. Brother offers a 25-year manufacturer’s warranty and phone support for life. Due to its reliability and over-the-top performance, it has remained #1 bestselling embroidery machine in Amazon. The Best Heavy Duty Sewing Machine for Beginners SINGER 4423 Heavy Duty Sewing Machine Check Current Sale Price Our pick for The Best Heavy Duty Sewing Machine for Beginners is SINGER 4423. This machine is capable of sewing through just about anything you throw at it. The internal skeleton of the sewing machine consists of a Heavy Duty Metal Frame that ensures that the machine remains still for skip-free sewing. The unique stainless steel bed plate makes sure that your fabric feeding is smooth for even sewing. The powerful motor (which is 60% stronger than conventional sewing machines) can sew upto 1,100 stitches per minute – which means you can finish your projects much faster. Even though it is a heavy duty sewing machine, SINGER 4423 is very beginner friendly. The automatic needle threader threads the eye of the needle without eye strain or frustration. The top drop-in bobbin is very easy to insert and remove. The clear cover lets you easily monitor the thread supply. You can easily sew buttons, free-motion embroidery or monograms by lowering the feed dog using the conveniently located lever. Stainless Steel Bed Plate provides smooth fabric feed for even sewing. It ships with 25-year manufacturer’s warranty from Singer. Over 2,400 customers have shown outstanding love for this machine. You can read the reviews here. Click here to learn more and compare prices. The Best Sewing Kit for Beginners Craftster's Sewing Kit Check Current Sale Price Our pick for the best sewing kit for beginnners is Craftster’s Sewing Kit. This sewing kit comes in a nice little CD-sized 4.5″ by 5″ zipped pouch which is very convenient for storage and travel. You will find pretty much everything that you would want to have inside a sewing kit, which include: 12 spools of thread in various colors A tape measure with one side in inches, another in centimeters A fairly large thimble A seam ripper A large safety pin Three white buttons Small stainless steel scissors 2 threading tools 2 pins Secure container with 10 needles The elastic holders in the case keep everything organized – neat & tidy and securely in place. Over 725 Amazon customers have given it a rating of 4.4 out of 5. Read the reviews of this kit & check sale price here. When you buy this sewing kit, you also get a bonus ebook titled “The Hand Sewing Survival Guide”- which has over 30 Pages of step-by-step illustrated instructions to help you master essential hand-sewing skills to repair all clothing, buttons, seams, rips and holes. Features to Consider When Buying a Beginner Sewing Machine Automatic Needle Threader It’s rather time consuming and frustrating when you have to manually thread the needle. This becomes even harder for people with poor eyesight. You want to look for sewing machines that have automatic needle threader built on so that the machine can take care of this for you without straining your eyeballs. Workspace Light You wan’t a workspace is brightly lit – so you won’t need to look for any other lights to get the job done. Most modern sewing machines come with built-in light – just make sure yours has one. Automatic Buttonholer Since buttonholes are rather complicated to sew beautifully, technology can really come in handy. Generally speaking there are two varieties of buttonholes: 4-step buttonholes that are sewn in four steps; and 1-step buttonhole sewn in one step. Adjustable needle Having an adjustable needle allows you to move the needle to the left or right (off the center) while you are stitching straight. This feature is very helpful for edge-stitching. Up/down Needle This feature lets you choose whether the sewing needle will stay embedded or rise when you take the pressure off controls. This feature becomes really handy whenever you have to “pivot” as you continue sewing – for example when you are sewing on a corner. Most machines have a button that automatically raises or lowers the needle. Adjustable presser foot pressure As you learn to sew, you will be coming across a variety of fabrics. Having an adjustable presser foot pressure lets you adjust the pressure of the presser foot to accomodate different types of fabrics. Drop-in Top Bobbin The top drop bobbing allows you to get started sewing quickly – simply drop in your bobbin, pull the thread through the slot and off you go. The drop-in top bobbin makes the sewing process quick, reliable and hassle-free. Some machines also have the bobbin winding system that easily and quickly prepares bobbins for you – for ease of threading. Adjustable Feed Dog Height Being able to adjust the height of feed dogs also comes in really handy as you sew different types of fabrics. How to Use a Sewing Machine? Here is a video that gives a good overview of how to use a sewing machine in a beginner-friendly manner: The first thing you need to learn is how to thread your bobbin. Depending on the model of your machine, there might be slight variations, but here is a gist of what you neeed to do: Locate your thread spindle and slide the thread onto the thread spindle. Secure the spindle by sliding the little piece that helps keep the thread on spindle. Pass the end of the thread through the thread holder. Pass thread through the bobbin and wrap it around the little circle. Slide bobbin back on the spindle. Flip the switch that lets the foot pedal to put thread on the bobbin. Keep pressing the foot pedal until you get the desired amount of thread on the bobbin. Now cut the thread and your bobbin is good to go. Now you will need to thread your machine. Your machine will have instructions on how to get it done (including the automatic ones). Here is a gist of what needs to get done: Flip the switch switch back that lets the foot pedal to put thread on the bobbin. Slide the bobbin into its holder and close the cover. Drop the needle by slowly turning the handle. When the needle comes back up, it should have bobbin thread with it. Simply pull the thread out and through and you are good to go. You are now ready to sew. Sewing Machine Care and Maintenance How to Clean a Sewing Machine The first place you need to go for your sewing machine care and maintenance – is your manual. Every machine is different. Carefully follow manufacturer’s instructions on how to properly care and maintain your machine. That being said, here are the basic steps that applies to most machines to keep them clean and running smoothly. First of all, before you do anything, be sure to unplug your machine. Then you will want to remove as much lint as possible. A little brush comes in very handy to get this done. Open all the areas that you can and try to get rid of lint and dust including crevices and cracks. Check your manual to find out what parts can you remove during cleaning and make sure you clean all of those areas. It’s a great idea to make a habit of cleaning the lint and dust off your machine every time you are done with a sewing project. You don’t have to take everything apart – just clean wherever you can get to. You will do a more thorough cleaning during regular cleaning/oiling cycles. How to Oil a Sewing Machine Be extra careful not to use just any oil in your sewing machine. Generally, a sewing machine oil is a clear white oil. Check your manual for all the spots where the oil goes in. You probably need to apply no more than a drop at each of those spots. Keep a soft cloth handy to clean up any accidental drops and spills. Oiling the machine helps prevent rush and lubricates the moving parts. After oiling your machine, run some stitches on a scrap of fabric to make sure everything is working smoothly and to allow excess oil to escape. A Few Other Things to Keep in Mind You will want to replace your sewing machine needle if it’s been a while since you replaced it. Depending on how much you sew, it’s probably a good idea to replace the needle every few weeks. Your sewing machine has many screws. If you come across any regular screw that is loose, gently tighten them. Do not touch anything that you are not comfortable with. Set screws are probably best handled by a repair shop. If you see set screws loose or missing, definitely take the machine to a repair shop. Because set screws affect the timing of the machine, you are better off letting a repair shop handle it. Also, make note of any wear and tear that seem out of the ordinary – especially signs of wear and tear on the wires. The electrical prongs need to be tight and secure. If anything seems odd, do not attempt to repair the machine yourself – take it to a repair shop. Types of Sewing Machines: Manual, Mechanical, Electronic and Computerized Manual Sewing Machine Manual machines are the most basic type of sewing machines. They are powered either using your foot or via hand-crank on the side of the machine. Because of their labor-intensive process, they are hardly in use today. Mechanical Sewing Machine Mechanical sewing machines are simple machines that run on electricity. Although old-school, manual machines can be very reliable and easy to use. They have very simple dials, buttons, and levers. You need to manually adjust most functions of the machine. The speed is controlled by a mechanized foot pedal. The more pressure you apply on the pedal, the faster your stitching speed. Electronic Sewing Machine Electronic sewing machines are a little bit more advanced than their mechanical counterparts. As such, they have more features and can perform more functions. They can effortlessly get some “frustrating” jobs done – such as automatically sewing buttonholes to a desired shape and size, automatically cutting the thread, automatically adjusting the thread tension and stitch length, etc. Computerized Sewing Machine Computerized sewing machines contain microprocessors that control various functions and operations of the sewing machine. These machines can be programmed to pretty much do all the work on their own. You are able control stitches (the type, length, and width), and some machines will even sense the type of fabric you’re using and adjust stitches or thread tension accordingly. These machines can connect to computer and download embroidery and other patterns for your sewing projects. You can then use these downloaded patterns to automatically sew patterns or stitches on any of your projects. Because of their advanced features, computerized sewing machines are the most expensive of the ones we discussed. Conclusion Our pick for The Best Sewing Machine for Beginners is Brother CS6000i. It is beginner-friendly, portable, offers ample range of sewing and quilting features and goes easy on your wallet. Check Current Sale Price In this article we have reviewed several top rated sewing machines for beginners. The information and reviews presented in this guide should help you analyze different sewing machines and their features to make the right choice for your needs. Happy sewing!Judicial Watch sued the Justice Department on Friday in an effort to obtain any non-disclosure agreements signed by former FBI Director James Comey. The Freedom of Information Act lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, after the DOJ did not respond to the conservative watchdog's June 13 FOIA request. The group wants to see any such agreements in light of Comey's controversial decision to leak notes describing conversations with President Trump. “How is it the FBI allowed Mr. Comey to walk out the door with sensitive documents about President Trump?” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said. “It is remarkable that we have to sue the FBI in federal court to get these answers about this scandal.” In the lawsuit, Judicial Watch is seeking “any and all non-disclosure agreements pertaining in full or in part to the handling, storage, protection, dissemination, and/or return of classified and/or sensitive information that were signed by or on behalf of former FBI Director James Comey.” Fitton also wrote to the FBI in June urging them to recover and release federal records and memos it claims were “unlawfully” removed by Comey. “As you may be aware, the Federal Records Act imposes a direct responsibility on you to take steps to recover any records unlawfully removed from the FBI,” Fitton wrote in that letter, claiming Comey unlawfully removed memos that could contain contents regarding the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. The FBI, at the time, told Fox News that they had no comment on the letter from Fitton. JUDICIAL WATCH SEEKING DOCUMENTS 'UNLAWFULLY REMOVED' BY COMEY The memos in question were written by Comey himself, leaving unclear how the FBI or the courts would view them; Judicial Watch insists they are official records. Comey testified in June before the Senate Intelligence Committee that he gave one of his memos regarding a meeting with President Trump to a friend, Columbia University Professor Daniel Richman, who then leaked the contents of the memo to the New York Times. “I asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter—I thought that might prompt the appointment of special counsel,” Comey said in his testimony. But when asked about the contents of that memo, Richman told Fox News it was “a non-story.” “No memos were given to the press, and no memos were classified at the time I received them,” Richman told Fox News, explaining the “substance” of the memo was given to the press, but not the physical document. “This was not classified at the time, and remains unclassified,” Richman said.Microsoft is at the forefront of mixed reality with Hololens. You can buy a development kit today and see exactly how it works and what it can do. They have clearly sunk significant resource into the project and continue to push the technology forward. But this has become somewhat more complicated in recent months when Microsoft announced Windows Holographic. In traditional Microsoft style, they are creating and hoping to license the operating system for a mixed reality headset. This will solve a large problem for OEMs wanting to make their own headset and positions Microsoft to profit regardless of who can create the best headset as long as it is running Windows Holographic. While this is a smart move regardless it does show a lack of faith in Hololens as a product. I would speculate that they have hit certain road blocks with Hololens, in particular with resolution and field of view. They know overcoming these will be challenging and potentially a large distraction from their current business. Letting the rest of the market sort these issues out will save them that trouble. In either case, Microsoft is making a heavy bet on MR. If it takes off they will be well positioned to influence and profit from the future of Mixed Reality. Magic Leap Well this one is obvious. They are betting the farm on their mixed reality headset to be a success. If it flops, so does the company.Officially, Rick Fabian uses to relieve severe pain from a litany of health problems. But more than pain, the 60-year-old Vietnam vet relies on the drug to blunt the debilitating symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. "I was a crabby vegetable, my wife says," said Fabian, who lives in Corbett. "I am still a little bit high maintenance, but I do better.... I am not saying I am cured, but I am kinder and gentler to people. I am happier." Oregon medical marijuana advocates are laying the groundwork to add PTSD to the list of conditions that qualify patients to use medical marijuana. They say many with the disorder are already in the state program because they have other medical conditions that allow them to legally use the drug. But as more veterans return home and struggle to resume their lives, advocates say it's time to recognize PTSD as a stand-alone condition. Medical Marijuana As with virtually all marijuana-related matters in the United States, the debate over expanding Oregon's program to include PTSD is politically charged. The drug's outlaw status under federal law makes it a lightning rod for controversy. Two previous attempts to add PTSD to Oregon's program have failed, and Colorado and Arizona officials recently rejected efforts to add the condition to their medical marijuana programs. Law enforcement in Oregon generally opposes the expansion of the program. Some drug treatment providers caution against treating PTSD sufferers with what they view as an addictive drug. Oregon is home to an estimated 300,000 veterans, including more than 20,000 from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, according to the Oregon Department of Veterans' Affairs. A 2008 Rand Corporation study found nearly 20 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan vets reported PTSD symptoms. Jason Hansman, senior program manager for the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said medical marijuana's potential to help sick veterans deserves serious examination. "We treat it like any other new treatment technique: We want to see it studied. We want to see increased research to see if it's a viable solution," said Hansman, whose group represents 145,000 veterans. But Darryl Inaba, director of clinical and behavioral health services at the Addictions Recovery Center in Medford, opposes expanding Oregon's medical marijuana program to include PTSD. PTSD sufferers, he said, should be treated with medications that don't post the same addiction risk. "People have to realize marijuana is very addicting," said Inaba. Although he emphasized that he sees some medicinal value in marijuana, Inaba said the drug "causes both physical and emotional addiction." Growing the program But some veterans say they rely on medical marijuana to function. Program now These are the conditions for which someone can obtain an Oregon medical marijuana card: Cancer, glaucoma, agitation due to Alzheimer’s disease, HIV/AIDS, cachexia (a weight loss disease that can be caused by HIV or cancer), severe pain, severe nausea, seizures including but not limited to seizures caused by epilepsy, persistent muscle spasms, including but not limited to spasms caused by multiple sclerosis Jared Townsend, a 27-year-old Iraq War veteran, depends on the drug to help him sleep and, as he puts it, "balance life out a little bit better." The Hillsboro man qualifies for medical marijuana due to severe pain from a ruptured disc and injured shoulder, injuries from his 2007-08 combat tour. But the drug is a bigger help with his PTSD symptoms. "If I get racing thoughts and real worked up, it can break a panic attack pretty quick," Townsend said. Seventeen states and Washington, D.C., have medical marijuana laws, but only a few list PTSD as a qualifying condition. In New Mexico, which legalized medical marijuana in 2007, the inclusion of PTSD on the list has been significant. The New Mexico Department of Health said 40 percent of medical marijuana patients list PTSD as their qualifying condition, far more than any other condition. But expanding Oregon's medical marijuana program to cover more conditions isn't easy. First, a person must submit a petition to add a health condition. The state then convenes a panel of experts to review it. The Oregon Health Authority selects who sits on the panel, which in the past has included people who advocates say opposed marijuana's medicinal use. Since the program's implementation 14 years ago, only one new condition – agitation related to Alzheimer's disease – has been added to the list of conditions. Brian Michaels, a Eugene attorney said he and other advocates are pushing for a new system for evaluating which health problems to add. They're hoping Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, whose job includes advising the medical marijuana program, supports efforts to change the process. Michaels said medical marijuana participants and supporters viewed Rosenblum's predecessor, John Kroger, a former federal prosecutor, as hostile to the program. Pro-marijuana groups gave Rosenblum $200,000 in her primary campaign, about a third of her total. "We are not expecting Ellen to be a big medical marijuana supporter," Michaels said. "We just want her to advise the agency to advance its interest in administering the Oregon medical marijuana act." What researchers say States considering whether to add PTSD to their medical marijuana programs face a lack of research on the topic, and that's not likely to change anytime soon. Dr. John H. Halpern, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and researcher at McLean Hospital outside Boston, one of the country's leading psychiatric hospitals, said there's an "overabundance of case reports" suggesting marijuana aids PTSD sufferers. In a recently published paper, Halpern presented a case study he helped conduct on a PTSD sufferer whose marijuana use dramatically eased his symptoms. But the politics of marijuana bogs down any meaningful examination of its benefits, Halpern said. Halpern is one of only a handful of U.S. researchers to conduct clinical research on humans using a so-called Schedule 1 drug. That category of drugs, which includes marijuana, heroin and ecstasy, is defined as substances that have a "high potential for abuse" and "no currently accepted medical use." Halpern said when it comes to research proposals involving Schedule 1 drugs, only marijuana studies are required to undergo an additional review by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The agency's research focus is on drug abuse and addiction. "We are at this point because there are limited treatment options for people with PTSD," Halpern said. Society ought to help people who are suffering, "whatever the public policy issues are," he said. "Sometimes we have to tolerate a lot of things," Halpern said, "for someone to have an improved quality of life." --What's new in this version 30.9.2014 -Fixed controls for Windows 8 users. 14.9.2014 -Fixed revitalize and "fury" 28.8.2014 -Doors, chests and signs now open. 20.8.2014 -FIX FOR ALL RESOLUTIONS. 20.8.2014 (1.6 / 1.2) -New content "The Final Adventure" -Explore the Desert, the Crypt and the Void. -Defeat Sand Worm, Grandmancer and The Void Knight. -Gather 12 different new items. -4 new enemy types. -FREE game extended up to the 5th world! -Rebalanced enemy and player statistics (stat reset is recommended if high level) -Skill reset available. -Enemies redistributed across levels. 3.6.2014 5.0.0.1 (1.5.00) -Added keyboard controls & shortcuts 3.6.2014 5.0.0.1 (1.5.00) -Fast fix to "Continue", not working -Music is now on by default -Reduced filesize 2.6.2014 5.0.0.0 (1.5.00) -Huge amount of bugfixes -Added "The Elemental palace" -content -Added Item specialities -Added beastiary -Reworked UI and graphics -More stable 17.4.2014 4.4.5.0 (1.4.00) -Optimization -Fixed keyboard UI/Controls -Reduced package size 18.3.2014 4.4.0.0 (1.4.00) -Added 'Fallen Warrior' -content pack for free! -Trial&Free functionality -Bug / performance fixes -Balancing 10.3.2014 4.3.6.0 (1.3.60) -Graphics are crisp again! -Optimization patch 7.3.2014 4.3.5.2 (1.3.51) -Inventory fixed 1.3.2014 4.3.5.0 (1.3.50) -Lowered resolution -> increased stability -Added Demon Talents to compensate!When the koopalings were first introduced in smash bros, I am not ashamed to admit I squealed like a moron. Why? Because it meant I could play as Ludwig Von Koopa, who’s ALWAYS been my favourite. When the Bowser jr amiibo was announced, my original plan was to grab enough of them to be able to make the koopalings along with Bowser jr, buttttt… cost wise meant I had to be sensible and only custom one. So of course I picked Ludwig From the original model I cut off the hair, horns, eyebrows and eyes, carved off his bandana and trimmed down his nose, along with cutting into it for Ludwig’s “cat smile”. I then slowly started to rebuild his face with green stuff / epoxy, starting with the muzzle to resmooth it, as well as adding in his tooth. I built up his face, adding in his eyebrows and making a little indent for his eyes, which I let all dry before
able to get out of 10.5.6. "I can verify this to be true," he wrote. I've fully charged and used it till it went dead twice now." Currently, there appears to be no known cause of the improvement, as AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext is generally disabled on hackintoshed netbooks to eliminate crashing associated with that kernel extension. While the improvement could be due to overall optimizations in the OS, no one in Ars Orbiting HQ has noticed any appreciable improvement in battery life with our current Apple laptops. Since the phenomenon appears to be limited to Atom-based netbooks (as far as we can tell), this could be an indicator that Apple may yet have a product that's smaller than a notebook but bigger than an iPhone up its sleeve. "When I look at what's being sold in the netbook space today, I see cramped keyboards, terrible software, junky hardware, very small screens," Apple COO Tim Cook told analysts last month. That doesn't preclude Apple from introducing something to compete with netbooks, but you can expect anything that Apple might unveil in this space to address those issues.TAMPA, FL — A 39-year-old Tampa woman's alleged attempt to avoid the hospital co-pay required to acquire care for her sick daughter has cost her a manslaughter charge. According to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, Jolanda Stridiron was brought into custody Sunday at the Polk Street Greyhound bus station where she works as a ticket taker. Deputies charged her with aggravated manslaughter in connection with the February 2015 death of her 6-year-old daughter. The girl, who suffered from a rare condition called Dandy-Walker Syndrome, began complaining of vomiting and severe headaches on Feb. 7, 2015, sheriff's office spokeswoman Cristal Nunez confirmed. Rather than go to the emergency room with the child, Stridiron is accused of deciding to wait for a scheduled doctor's appointment the next week. The child, who has not been identified, died two days later, the sheriff's office said. Stridiron's arrest came at the conclusion of an investigation that spanned more than a year. Detectives learned that Stridiron had been instructed by doctors that such symptoms in her daughter required immediate medical attention, Nunez confirmed. Detectives also uncovered Stridiron's alleged decision to avoid the hospital expense after speaking with witnesses, the agency reported. Medical professionals, Nunez said, advised the sheriff's office that the child's chances for survival would have been much greater had she been afforded urgent care. Dandy-Walker Syndrome is a "congenital brain malformation involving the cerebellum (an area at the back of the brain that controls movement) and the fluid filled spaces around it," according to the Dandy Walker Alliance. Symptoms include slow motor development and the potential for progressive enlargement of the skull. Older children may experience symptoms brought on by intracranial pressure that include vomiting, convulsions and irritability. An estimated 1 in 2,500 children are born with the disease, which can prove fatal in some cases. Stridiron remained in the Hillsborough County Jail Wednesday in lieu of $50,000 bond. She has no prior criminal record in the county, jail records indicate. If convicted, Stridiron could face life in prison. It is unclear how much the hospital visit would have cost Stridiron versus a trip to a doctor's office. Booking photo courtesy of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office Sign up for the Tampa Patch newsletter and alerts! Be sure to follow us on Facebook, too!Tamera Mowry with husband Adam Housley Leftists love to hate interracial couples — if they’re conservative. This made my heart ache and my blood pressure spike: Actress Tamera Mowry, who is black, wept in an interview with Oprah Winfrey over the vile bigotry she has encountered because of her marriage to Fox News reporter Adam Housley, who is white. Misogynist haters called Mowry a sellout and a “white man’s whore.” International news outlets labeled the Internet epithets she endured “horrific” and “shocking.” Advertisement Advertisement Horrific? Yes. Shocking? Not at all. What Mowry experienced is just a small taste of what the intolerance mob dishes out against people “of color” who love, think, and live the “wrong” way. I’ve grown so used to it that I often forget how hurtful it can be. Mowry’s candor was moving and admirable. It’s also a valuable teachable moment about how dehumanizing it can be to work in the public eye. Have we really sunk to this? #ad#Young actresses in the 21st century forced to defend their love lives because their marital choices are politically incorrect? We’re leaning backward in the regressive Age of Hope and Change. Let’s face it: Mowry’s sin, in the view of her feckless detractors, is not merely that she married outside her race. It’s also that she is so open about her love for a white man who — gasp! — works for reviled Fox News. Neither of them is political, but the mere association with Bad Things (Fox, conservatives, capitalism, the Tea Party, Christian activism, traditional values) is an invitation for unabashed hate. Advertisement The dirty open secret is that a certain category of public figures have been routinely mocked, savaged, and reviled for being partners in interracial marriages or part of loving interracial families (for a refresher, see the video clip of MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry and friends cackling at the holiday photo of Mitt Romney holding his black adopted grandson in his lap). Advertisement And the dirty double standard is that selectively compassionate journalists and pundits have routinely looked the other way — or participated directly in heaping on the hate. Have you forgotten? Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was excoriated by black liberals for being married to Virginia, who happens to be white. The critics weren’t anonymous trolls on the Internet; they worked for major media outlets and institutions of higher learning. USA Today columnist Barbara Reynolds slammed Thomas and his wife for their color-blind union: “It may sound bigoted; well, this is a bigoted world and why can’t black people be allowed a little Archie Bunker mentality?... Here’s a man who’s going to decide crucial issues for the country and he has already said no to blacks; he has already said if he can’t paint himself white he’ll think white and marry a white woman.” Advertisement Howard University’s Afro-American Studies chair, Russell Adams, accused Thomas of racism against all blacks for falling in love with someone outside his race. “His marrying a white woman is a sign of his rejection of the black community,” Adams told the Washington Post. “Great justices have had community roots that served as a basis for understanding the Constitution. Clarence’s lack of a sense of community makes his nomination troubling.” Advertisement California state-senate Democrat Diane Watson taunted former University of California regent Ward Connerly after a public hearing, spitting: “He’s married a white woman. He wants to be white. He wants a colorless society. He has no ethnic pride. He doesn’t want to be black.” Advertisement Mowry is not alone. The Thomases and the Connerlys are not alone. Poisonous attempts to shame are an old, endless schoolyard game played by bullies who never grow up and can’t stand other people’s happiness or success. Time doesn’t lessen the vitriol or hostility. Take it from someone who knows. “Oriental Auntie-Tom,” “yellow woman doing the white man’s job,” “white man’s puppet,” “Manila whore,” and “Subic Bay bar girl” are just a few of the printable slurs I’ve amassed over the past quarter-century. You wouldn’t believe how many Neanderthals still think they can break me by sneering “me love you long time” or “holla for a dolla.” My IQ, free will, skin color, eye shape, productivity, sincerity, maiden name, and integrity have all been ridiculed or questioned because I happen to be a minority conservative woman happily married to a white man and the mother of two interracial children who see Mom and Dad — not Brown Mom and White Dad. Mowry’s got the right attitude. She wiped away her tears and told Oprah that haters wouldn’t drag her down. Brava. Live, laugh, think, and love without regrets. It’s the best revenge and the most effective antidote to crab-in-the-bucket syndrome. Advertisement — Michelle Malkin is the author of Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies (Regnery, 2010). Her e-mail address is malkinblog@gmail.com. © 2014 Creators.comLast night, virulently anti-gay activist Scott Lively joined fellow activists Peter LaBarbera and John Kirkwood for a discussion on the supposed persecution of Christians in the wake of the Supreme Court’s gay marriage decision. Predictably, the conversation was filled with dire warnings and over-the-top language, such as when Lively declared that America has “entered into a time of apostasy” as evidenced by school shootings and “the barbarianistic behavior that is manifested so much on the internet.” But worst of all, he said, is the acceptance of homosexuality, which is the most abominable of all sins because, according to the Bible, “it’s the only sin associated with the incineration of four cities.” “The widespread acceptance of homosexuality by society is the harbinger of wrath of God,” he said. “It’s the only sin that is associated with the reprobate mind, the worst state that a person can have and then the apostate culture that derives from that … [If you read Romans,] you see what God believes about this and what he warns about. Even AIDS and these other diseases, it says they receive in themselves the penalty of their error, which is appropriate. It’s plain, simple Scripture, stated as clear as could possibly be done and that’s manifest before our eyes in the way that these people are now struggling with all these diseases that are associated with their conduct.” “The heart of it is malicious deception,” Lively concluded, “which is the satanic goal, isn’t it?”Friends and family of Chattanooga shooting victim Skip Wells plan to hold a public memorial for him Tuesday. The service is scheduled to take place at Sprayberry High School in Marietta, according to a spokesman for the family. Details are still being finalized, but the gathering will be in the school’s stadium and begin at 7 p.m. Funeral arrangements are still pending. The 21-year-old Sprayberry graduate was one of four Marines killed Thursday in an attack at the Navy Reserve Support Center in Chattanooga, Tenn. Another shooting victim, Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Randall Smith, a reservist serving on active duty in Chattanooga, died two days after the shooting killed the Marines. After graduating from Sprayberry in 2012, Wells initially attended Georgia Southern University, where he studied history, according to his Facebook page. The university issued a statement Friday saying the community was “saddened by the news.” Wells, the school said in the statement, was enrolled as a student at Georgia Southern from 2012 through fall of 2013. Those who knew Wells are mourning the Marine and say he was a brave, selfless person who “always put others before himself.”ISTANBUL — The Turkish Army launched an operation into Syria to evacuate soldiers guarding the Tomb of Suleyman Shah, which has been besieged by Islamic State militants, and move the tomb’s remains, an official and Turkish news media reported on Sunday. The military then destroyed what was left of the site to prevent the militants from using the enclave, and one soldier was killed by accident during the operation, CNN Turk said Sunday, citing military officials. The operation, called Sah Firat, began on Saturday and involved a large convoy of tanks and other heavy weaponry that entered Syria through Kobani, the Kurdish territory in Syria that has recently been freed of Islamic State militants in an American-led military operation, according to the Turkish newspapers Milliyet and Yeni Safak. The reports were pulled from the Internet almost immediately after being posted. The military operation was conducted in correspondence with Enver Muslim, the leader of the Syrian Kurdish group in control of Kobani, and aimed to evacuate around 40 soldiers, including 20 elite troops from the Turkish special forces who guarded the tomb. Suleyman Shah was the grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire. His tomb is considered by the government here to be in Turkish territory, and it has been guarded by Turkish soldiers.Bush Stadium in downtown Indianapolis was built in 1931 as a field for Negro and minor-league baseball teams. Today, it's a historical relic holding hundreds of rusting vehicles traded in under "cash for clunkers," a spooky memorial to waste. If you're a fan of baseball movies, you've seen Bush Stadium. It stood in for Comiskey Park in the movie Eight Men Out. In its heyday, it resembled a minature Wrigley Field, with ivy-covered outfield walls and an Art Deco stone entry. It's been vacant since 1996, left to rot by an indifferent city that rented it to junkyards needing someplace to park vehicles trashed in 2009 during cash for clunkers. More recent photos show the herd has thinned, but hundreds of derelict vehicles remain in a slow-motion race of decay from the elements. Preservationists have for years sought some way of saving Bush Stadium, which appears on the National Register of Historic Places. But despite several proposals, some as recently as October, it appears the stadium will go the way of the vehicles on its infield, scrapped before being used to its fullest. This story was written by Justin Hyde and originally published by Jalopnik on Dec. 14. Photos: Indiana Historical Landmark Foundation via TwitterBy Zlatin Stanimirovv October 14, 2016 Hackathons Are For Fun & Profit (But Mostly Profit) Wouldn’t it be amazing if you could boost your connections, get job offers, promote your project and learn a lot in 2 or 3 days? Look no further! There is such a thing, and it’s called a Hackathon. In the past 3 years I’ve attended several, taken prizes off most of them, and even helped with the organization of one. When you’ve made preparations and have the correct mindset, a Hackathon can be an amazing experience. I am here to help you get the most out of each one you attend! What exactly is a Hackathon? “… an event in which computer programmers and others involved in software development, including graphic designers, interface designers and project managers, collaborate intensively on software projects.” That’s the boring, wikipedia definition. In layman terms: A Hackathon is an event where developers work on a project, usually over a weekend, then they present their project to predetermined judges, where a winner is chosen. Most of the hackathons out there are for teams, this is not a solo game. There isn’t a strict format and no strict rules. The common scenario is 2-3 days, from Friday night until Sunday afternoon. Usually you aren’t allowed to do development work on your project before the hackathon. There are prizes, although the financial gain isn’t what usually attracts people; rather the fun and competitive spirit is what brings them in. The organizers of the Hackathon take care of food and drinks during the weekend. In most cases you are allowed to stay and work through the entire night. There is a theme which should be followed (e.g., Internet of things, video games, and so on) and it is strongly encouraged, though not mandatory to follow the theme. The scenario above is my preferred setup. Everyone is in one place, you can work uninterrupted, and you don’t have to take care of the food and drinks. There are several other formats worth discussing: Online Hackathons : you attend from the comfort of your own home, presentation is via a stream or video, and you buy your own pizza. : you attend from the comfort of your own home, presentation is via a stream or video, and you buy your own pizza. Single-sponsor Hackathons are organized or paid for by one company. The difference here is that usually the theme of the hackathon is using a product already being developed or actively engaged by the company. Behind the scenes, this is usually a big interview for the participants, and the best teams get lucrative (job) offers. For these Hackathons, it’s normal to have a 2-3 person per team limitation. (Personally, I don’t like this type of hackathon, since I don’t feel that a possible employer deserves 30-40 hours of my free time, but then again the prizes are usually big.) are organized or paid for by one company. The difference here is that usually the theme of the hackathon is using a product already being developed or actively engaged by the company. Behind the scenes, this is usually a big interview for the participants, and the best teams get lucrative (job) offers. For these Hackathons, it’s normal to have a 2-3 person per team limitation. (Personally, I don’t like this type of hackathon, since I don’t feel that a possible employer deserves 30-40 hours of my free time, but then again the prizes are usually big.) Marathon Hackathons have an uncommonly long duration. It can be anywhere from a week, up to a month. If you are looking to fill a portfolio with good projects, these Hackathons are a great choice. If you work daily, that is plenty of time to get a project to a decent version, which can be showed off to future employers. When I was reading up on some articles to see what other blogger nerds have to say about Hackathons, I met quite a few unhappy people. Their criticism ranged anywhere from: “They promote an unhealthy lifestyle.” to “They are for people without a life.” And my personal favorite: “The best projects don’t win.” Let’s dissect these one by one: “They promote an unhealthy lifestyle” – If you live healthy, you will find a way to eat healthy and get some exercise, regardless of where you are. You aren’t chained to a cubicle or something during this time. In fact, most hackathons offer cooked meals. – If you live healthy, you will find a way to eat healthy and get some exercise, regardless of where you are. You aren’t chained to a cubicle or something during this time. In fact, most hackathons offer cooked meals. “They are for people without life” – Because being around people sharing common interests with you, and making new friends, is for losers. Right? – Because being around people sharing common interests with you, and making new friends, is for losers. Right? “The best projects don’t win” – This is sort of true. An amazing presentation and an innovative idea will usually win over a more technically advanced or complete project. Accept this, and make it an advantage, not a liability. Hackathons can suck if you don’t go prepared or you go with a bad mindset. So let’s see how we can prepare ourselves! How do you get the most out of a hackathon? You must have clear goals for what you want to accomplish. The first step is setting your expectations straight. Otherwise you risk losing your own time, which is horrible since most Hackathons take place during a weekend (aka the best time of the week, aka your free time). There are three more common options. You can: Attend to compete – give it your best shot, show what you can currently do Attend to enhance your network of contacts – because there are rarely enough people for a project when you need them Attend to learn – hackathons offer a good environment for learning things fast, so might as well use it No Team? No Problem. Let’s assume you don’t have a team but you want to attend a hackathon. As soon as you decide you are attending the event, start communicating with other attendees. Attendee lists are always public, so send an email to as many people as you can. Don’t get discouraged if a lot of the attendees don’t answer your email, since you only need one team. Furthermore it’s people you don’t know, who don’t know you. They don’t owe you anything, even the courtesy to respond back to your email (given it isn’t filtered as spam). Even if you haven’t found a team until the hackathon starts, you should still go. Most hackathons will let you join a team, or form a new team, in the first few hours of the hackathon. Unless the rules explicitly say you can’t form teams at the hackathon, don’t rule this out. So, you’re competitive and you want to win? Alright, let’s see how we can increase your chances. The biggest shock for a lot of people is that the presentation and what you showcase have bigger value than what you have actually coded. The judges won’t care about your unit tests, automated build, or detailed configuration. You should still do all these things if you want to continue working on the project after the hackathon, or if you want to put it in your CV, but the judges won’t care too much. In order to increase your chances to win, you should have something shiny to show and a good presenter. I can’t help you with your presentation skills (that’s for another post), but I can tell you that pretending to give (or actually giving) a fuck seems to put you in the upper half. What I can help with is what you will show. Something shiny means something which is usable, or at least appears to be. If you have deployed your software somewhere, or you give a tablet/laptop to the judges so they can test it out, you will get a lot of points. Your goal should be exhibiting a demo. You can prepare by finding a nice presenter and thinking about interesting ways to show off your project. In some hackathons, the judges or sponsors will come visit the teams and get to know the people and projects. If the hackathon you are attending is like that, you should try to always have something to show, even if it isn’t finished. The easiest way is to keep the master branch of your project with something that can be showcased, regardless of how many hard coded values there are. If you are not sure if the judges or sponsors will be meeting with the teams during the event, just ask. Your Secret Weapon — To Protect Against Other Secret Weapons If you compete, one thing which is often forgotten is to prepare your development setup beforehand. You can hire a decent VPS (virtual private server) for 10$ a month. I’ve personally failed once before because it literally took me and my team 15% of the entire hackathon to set up everything. Don’t make this mistake! We did everything we could possibly do wrong: used one of our PC’s for development (which meant we had to create a user with which to connect over ssh), we had to install and configure our web server, db server install our programming language and it’s packages, and so on and so on. This all had to be done during during the hackathon, which is a pain in the ass and, as I’ve written above, lost us 15% of the time for development on this particular hackathon. In order to save so much time simply: Get a VPS Set up the environment for dev Make sure everyone has the access they will need Test test test Making friends and future business partners Maybe you are a the talkative type and want to extend your network or meet possible mentors? You should consider going alone and working on some mini project during the weekend. If the sponsors/mentors come, you could show them you are doing something, but spend some extra time talking to them. Usually if they are interested, they will make an offer, but it doesn’t hurt mentioning that “you are looking for new opportunities” as the headhunters on LinkedIn like to say. Connecting with the other developers there is a bit more tricky, since most of them are there to work on a project, and aren’t up for chit chat. You should time when you go and talk to people. The best times is around food breaks and late in the night, when participants are already tired and relaxing into a more conversational mood. Want to make this a learning experience? You will learn a lot by competing, but if you want to maximize the amount of things you take in, you should do some research on what technologies the other teams will be using. Get familiar with some of those technologies and during the hackathon read the source of the 1-3 most interesting projects. If you have questions, just go and ask the developers (during the correct times!), they will be more than happy to help you out. Additionally you can talk to the judges/mentors for general guidance, book recommendations, and so on. Most of them are really friendly and will also be glad to help. Next Level: Organizing a Hackathon Maybe you want to organize a Hackathon? In short: you will need money. While you can get sponsors, it is pretty hard to gather money for a first time Hackathon. Here is a list of your expenses: Place / Venue – Where the people will go? This is usually one of the more expensive things. If you are short on money, you should consider doing an online hackathon since you won’t have to pay much for this. When picking a venue remember: If it doesn’t have a good internet connection (Wi-fi) you will have provide it somehow. Unless you have excess routers you most likely want to keep this on the top of your list when looking for a good venue. – Where the people will go? This is usually one of the more expensive things. If you are short on money, you should consider doing an online hackathon since you won’t have to pay much for this. When picking a venue remember: If it doesn’t have a good internet connection (Wi-fi) you will have provide it somehow. Unless you have excess routers you most likely want to keep this on the top of your list when looking for a good venue. Food – Another thing that you don’t have to pay for if it’s an online hackathon. Coffee and tea is mandatory in the real world. Usually you can get good offers if you negotiate in advance with some local restaurants. Also, since it’s 2016, do consider vegetarian/vegan/gluten-free (and whatever the next hip thing will be) options. Everyone will be happy with pizza, but I would try to get some cooked food. (In fact, my favorite local hackathon manages to put out cooked food every time, which is just amazing) – Another thing that you don’t have to pay for if it’s an online hackathon. Coffee and tea is mandatory in the real world. Usually you can get good offers if you negotiate in advance with some local restaurants. Also, since it’s 2016, do consider vegetarian/vegan/gluten-free (and whatever the next hip thing will be) options. Everyone will be happy with pizza, but I would try to get some cooked food. (In fact, my favorite local hackathon manages to put out cooked food every time, which is just amazing) Website / promotion – You will need a website, but you can get a one on WordPress for $5 and a domain for another $5. In terms of promotion, as long as you contact local schools and universities (depending on your target), you won’t have to pay a lot. Maybe a few Facebook ads or a few sponsored content posts from influential local technology related blogs/Facebook pages? In any case, advertisement for this sort of thing is generally cheap. – You will need a website, but you can get a one on WordPress for $5 and a domain for another $5. In terms of promotion, as long as you contact local schools and universities (depending on your target), you won’t have to pay a lot. Maybe a few Facebook ads or a few sponsored content posts from influential local technology related blogs/Facebook pages? In any case, advertisement for this sort of thing is generally cheap. Prizes – Since most people go for the glory/fun/learning they don’t have to be something grand, but keep in mind that a lucrative prize will attract more people – Since most people go for the glory/fun/learning they don’t have to be something grand, but keep in mind that a lucrative prize will attract more people Technical team and presentation equipment – You will need people to take care of any internet and other technical issues that might come up. Since there is a very small number of issues that can occur in a hackathon, you can usually get away with calling a favor from a friend or doing it yourself. Keep in mind that it is pretty annoying, especially if there are a large amount of people. To me it was so annoying that if I ever organize a Hackathon on my own again, I will pay some poor souls to deal with this. – You will need people to take care of any internet and other technical issues that might come up. Since there is a very small number of issues that can occur in a hackathon, you can usually get away with calling a favor from a friend or doing it yourself. Keep in mind that it is pretty annoying, especially if there are a large amount of people. To me it was so annoying that if I ever organize a Hackathon on my own again, I will pay some poor souls to deal with this. Swag – You MUST have stickers and shirts. Everyone loves them, and I can guarantee you will end up looking cheap if you don’t have them. Other optional things include notebooks, pens, mugs…the standard giveaway things. If you want to view an example of a world famous hackathon you should have a look at NASA’s SpaceApps challenge. It is a yearly hackathon, and hundreds of locations around the globe host a spot,so chances are you can compete in the next one! Go and check it out. How do you find hackathons? There are several platforms, but most of them are glitchy, have outdated or sketchy hackathons or just host a plethora of the “2 day interview”hackathons which aren’t really to my liking. What I do recommend is googling “Hackathons in <your city’s name>” or sending an email to the nearest university which teaches some form of CS. That’s what worked for me and frankly I’ve found more hackathons I can attend. Let’s sum up You must have a goal, something you want to achieve for the duration of the hackathon Once you have a goal you must do as much preparation as you can before the hackathon Do not lose focus and try out many things you didn’t plan on doing (you can still try some though!) Have fun and make this a positive experience for you and the people around you Now that you have learned the ropes go, make some new friends and build something awesome!Two weeks after his sudden death at the age of 66, Tom Petty was buried in a private ceremony yesterday that was reportedly attended by family members and a group of his closest friends. A few details regarding the service leaked courtesy of TMZ, where it's reported that Petty was laid to rest at the Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine in Pacific Palisades, an affluent suburb of Santa Monica near Los Angeles. He isn't the first renowned rocker to find a place at the Shrine; as TMZ's report notes, that's also where George Harrison — Petty's friend and former bandmate in the Traveling Wilburys — was buried after he died in 2001. While the ceremony was limited to Petty's inner circle, fans were still able to catch a few glimpses of the service courtesy of his daughter AnnaKim, who posted a series of photos to her Instagram account. Under one shot, a picture of a display set up at the service, she wrote, "The dark of the sun we will stand together"; to caption another, she simply wrote, "Into the great wide open." The dark of the sun we will stand together💜 A post shared by @inviteloveinvitelove on Oct 16, 2017 at 4:19pm PDT Into the great wide open⚡️ A post shared by @inviteloveinvitelove on Oct 16, 2017 at 4:22pm PDT This is very hard for me💜 A post shared by @inviteloveinvitelove on Oct 16, 2017 at 6:33pm PDT Petty's burial comes after weeks of widespread tributes to his incredible legacy, and arrives shortly before his longtime bandmate and creative partner Benmont Tench faces the difficult task of moving forward with his first solo show following Petty's passing. A cause of death has yet to be determined.After George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq ended up producing ISIS, which was quickly made into a new official enemy of the United States, I am sure that there were lots of Americans saying to themselves, “Oh my gosh, another official enemy. But once we vanquish this one, it will finally be over. We will finally have peace, tranquility, and prosperity.” Those people were living a pipe dream. Now that ISIS has been vanquished, is the Pentagon bringing the troops home? Is there going to be a ticker-tape military parade in New York City? Is George W. Bush going to do a painting entitled “Mission Accomplished”? Of course not. Everyone needs to resign himself to the discomforting reality of living under a national-security state and an overseas empire: There is always going to be an official enemy or official enemies. It never ends. The process is perpetual. How else could the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA justify their ever-increasing budgets, influence, and power? Official enemies are the coin of the realm. They never run out of official enemies. That’s what all the anti-Russia brouhaha is all about. It’s really just an outgrowth of the Cold War obsession with the Soviet Union, a big official enemy — along with communism — that the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA never thought would go away. Communism and the Soviet Union provided the national-security establishment with a gravy train that was supposed to go on forever. The dismantling of the Soviet Union caught them by surprise. Convinced that the Cold War would go on forever, they didn’t have a new official enemy in ready reserve. But it didn’t take them long to find one. Enter Saddam Hussein, who became the new official enemy during the entire 1990s. Recall the national obsession during that decade: “Saddam! Saddam! We have to get Saddam! He has WMDs! He’s coming to get us!” Saddam proved to be a lucrative official enemy. He kept the U.S. military-intelligence-industrial complex in high cotton for more than 10 years. Other official enemies? The list is endless. The Taliban. Qaddafi. Assad. Terrorism. Al Qaeda. Drug lords. It’s possible to go from being an official friend of the Empire to an official enemy. And heaven help any American who doesn’t flow with the tide and adopt the new official enemy as his own. For example, in World War II the communist-controlled Soviet Union was declared to be an official friend. The Reds were made into partners and allies in the war effort. Immediately after the war, however, the Soviet Union was converted into an official enemy. Even though they had just defeated Hitler — who U.S. officials said was going to come and get us — Americans were told that they now faced an even bigger threat — the Soviet Union, their wartime partner and ally. And Nazi officials were converted into official friends and secretly brought into the U.S. government. Those weren’t the only instances of conversion from official friend to official enemy. Saddam Hussein himself fell into that category. In the 1980s, he was an official friend of the Pentagon and the CIA. They were even helping him to kill Iranians during that decade. In fact, he was such a good official friend that the United States even furnished him with the weapons of mass destruction that they later cited as the justification for invading Iraq and ousting their official friend Saddam (who by that time had become an official enemy) from power. Once they unexpectedly lost the Soviet Union as their Cold War official enemy, they simply converted Saddam into a new official enemy. And every American was expected to get on board. Consider Iran. It’s on the current Top Ten list of official enemies. It wasn’t always that way. From 1953-1979, Iran was considered an official friend of the Pentagon and the CIA. But then in 1979, the Iranian people revolted against the regime-change operation that the CIA had initiated in Iran in 1953 and the subsequent U.S.-supported and U.S.-trained tyranny of the Shah. The successful Iranian revolt against the tyranny of the Shah immediately converted Iran into a new official enemy. After being exhorted to love Iran for some 20 years, Americans were expected to quickly begin hating Iran and making it a new official enemy, a sentiment that Americans are expected to continue today. It’s not always clear how they arrive at official friends and official enemies. Today, communist Cuba and communist North Korea remain official enemies despite the end of the Cold War in 1989. At the same time, communist Vietnam and communist China are considered official friends. Egypt’s unelected military dictatorship? An official friend, just like Pinochet’s unelected military dictatorship in Chile in the 1970s was. On the other hand, the democratic regimes of Salvador Allende in Chile, Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala, Mohammad Mossadegh in Iran, and Mohamed Morsi in Eygpt? All official enemies. Consider Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. Today he is an official enemy, a dictator so bad that U.S. officials are even risking war with Russia (which is currently the top official enemy) in the attempt to achieve regime change in Syria. It wasn’t always that way. In 2002 Canadian citizen Mahar Arar was kidnapped by U.S. officials in Virginia as he waited to change planes on his way back to Canada. Striking a deal with the Assad regime, CIA officials transported Arar to Syria for the purpose of being tortured. He spent a year there being tortured before finally being declare innocent. How did the CIA strike that deal with the Assad regime? What were the terms of the deal? Who were the Syrian officials they struck the deal with? Did President Bush know about and sign off on the deal? We don’t know because we are not permitted to know. And the mainstream press has never pressed the CIA for the details on how the deal got done. All we know is that Assad was a good enough official friend to torture someone on the request of CIA officials. Today? As we all know, America’s torture partner Assad has been converted into an official enemy. Notice something important about Switzerland: The Swiss don’t have official friends and official enemies
the end of April, and I thought he was starting to come out of it then. He's always a slow starter, and as the weather starts to turn in the Northeast, he starts to heat up. "He's chased out of the zone a little more than I've seen him do in the past. There hasn't been the same discipline -- at least in the games I saw. That said, he still has incredible vision. When the ball is out of the zone, he's already stepping out of the box before the pitch is in the catcher's mitt. I think the key components for him are still the same as they've been the last three or four years. I wouldn't stick a fork in David Ortiz just yet.'' The numbers:.233/.310/.341 in 176 at-bats Through June 4, Rockies right fielder Carlos Gonzalez's.261 batting average on balls in play ranked 138th among big league hitters. AP Photo/John Bazemore Gonzalez penciled a lot of surgical appointments into his daily planner in 2014. He had his appendix removed in January and a tumor removed from his left index finger in June, before surgery in August to repair a torn patella tendon and remove a bursa sac from his left knee. Gonzalez was right on schedule during his offseason rehab, but he still looks like a guy trying to play catchup at the plate. As so many hitters have learned through the years, all that time spent recovering from an injury can put a crimp in baseball activities over the winter. "I don't like to make excuses,'' Gonzalez said this week. "If I'm playing terrible, I'm playing terrible. It's as simple as that. But it was a different offseason than I had in the past. I didn't start hitting until January, and I lost weight so I could put less stress on my knee. "I've never been a guy who goes to the plate and says, 'I'm going to hit a home run.' I've always tried to get on base and create opportunities, and the home runs just happen. Right now, it's not happening. There haven't been a lot of extra-base hits so far. But hopefully I can continue to stay healthy, and I'll have 450 more at-bats. I'll have more opportunities, and things are going to get better.'' Inside the numbers: Gonzalez has a.272 batting average on balls in play (126th among big-league hitters), so he might be due for a few more balls to find some holes. His 23 percent line-drive rate is the second highest of his career, so he has hit some balls with authority. He is batting a mere.220 with a.597 OPS in 24 games at Coors Field, which is almost mind-bogglingly bad. Provided his knee or some other appendage doesn't give out on him, he's likely to go on a roll just like the one his pal Troy Tulowitzki went on this week. Said Rockies general manager Jeff Bridich: "His at-bats have gotten better over the last couple of weeks. He's seeing the ball better and taking more walks. I don't think his mind is racing or he's pressing as much as he was.'' The numbers:..202 BA;.601 OPS The Phillies had reason to be concerned when Utley, who turned 36 in September and struggled badly for the final four months of the 2014 season, was hitting.099 as of mid-May. "Teams were trying to pitch around him, but they wouldn't let him,'' said an NL scout, who theorized Utley was trying to do too much to carry the Phillies' young, untested lineup. Three weeks ago, FiveThirtyEight Sports took note of Utley's respectable batted ball velocity and horrific numbers and pronounced him "The Unluckiest Man in Baseball.'' Utley has shown enough improvement of late to cross the Mendoza line. In a 5-4 victory over the Reds on Tuesday, he bunted for a hit against the shift, grounded a single through the hole against the shift, then pulled a 393-foot home run off Johnny Cueto. Phillies second baseman Chase Utley was hitting.099 as of mid-May, but he has since raised his average above the Mendoza line. Scott Rovak/USA TODAY Sports Utley played in 155 games in 2014, which is far too many at this stage of his career. Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg has already sat him five times this season, and maybe the extra rest will help keep Utley fresher down the stretch. Utley remains a terrific influence on the young Philadelphia players, with his professional approach to the game, though that might not warrant the $15 million annual outlay the Phillies could spend on his vesting options from 2016-2018. Inside the numbers: As Utley has aged, he has become much less effective against left-handed pitching and needs to be protected more against the top-flight lefties. During his peak from 2006 through 2010, Utley hit.295 (285-for-966) with 44 homers and 156 RBIs versus lefties. Since 2011, he has batted.219 (133-for-607) with only 16 homers and 69 RBIs against left-handers. "It became a little frustrating at times," Utley said of his early struggles. "You're putting some decent at-bats together. Maybe not perfect, but good enough that you think you might deserve a hit here and there. For whatever reason, they weren't falling. You try not to change too much, but mentally, it can be tough. "It's all about recognizing pitches. The earlier you can recognize a pitch, the better. You're going to hit balls right at guys or hit some bleeders that fall in. That's the nature of the game during the course of a season. They say they all even out. We'll see if that happens.'' Other stragglers of note • Melky Cabrera, who signed a three-year, $42 million contract with the Chicago White Sox in December, has a.530 OPS and five extra-base hits in 217 at-bats. • Detroit's Ian Kinsler, a two-time 30-homer man, has one homer in his first 215 at-bats. • St. Louis' Yadier Molina is batting.283, but he has yet to homer in his first 183 at-bats.The transcript of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos is missing something. On Wednesday, Trudeau said "My predecessor wanted you to know Canada for its resources. I want you to know Canadians for our resourcefulness." But in the text released by the Prime Minister's Office and dated Jan. 20, the remark is slightly different. "Canada was mostly known for its resources. I want you to know Canadians for our resourcefulness," it reads. The online version of the speech includes a general note, "Check against delivery," meaning the text may differ from the delivered version — the speaker may have diverged from the provided text, or the provided text could have been modified after the speech delivery. One Conservative MP has already taken to Twitter to question Trudeau's credibility over the omission. British Columbia MP Dan Albas said Saturday, "Controversial or not, leadership is standing behind what you say." If true, a damaging blow to credibility. Controversial or not, leadership is standing behind what you say. https://t.co/VJ2ELeVUJx — Dan Albas (@DanAlbas) January 23, 2016 Slip of the tongue or deliberate change? Catch Trudeau's full speech below to hear his spoken quote. With files from The Canadian Press CORRECTION: Jan. 24, 2015 - A previous version of this story did not mention the fact the transcript includes a note that it may differ from the actual delivery. The story has been updated to reflect this. Also on HuffPostUnfortunately, an anti-vaxxer is really just a conspiracy theorist. Some of them even admit they would not change their mind in light of any evidence, or keep shifting the goalposts until the proof they demand is impossible to provide. This is the crux of the issue: you can’t tackle a conspiracy theorist with facts or evidence, because their logic prevents them from taking into account anything that contradicts their worldview. In fact, Lewandowski and his colleagues have outlined six criteria for conspiratorial thinking, and most of those apply to anti-vaxxers. Allow me to demonstrate with examples gleaned on anti-vaccination forums online. The first criterion is nefarious intent — the belief that presumed conspirators have evil intentions. For anti-vaxxers this usually goes along the lines of Big Pharma “killing babies for money.” Similar narratives include careless doctors, incompetent health authorities, research fraud and other explanations for why nobody believes that vaccines are bad. In other words, every health official is in on it and the people who don’t see this are fools. Obviously. Then there is the perception of oneself as a persecuted victim. Sure enough, anti-vaxxers are usually quick to complain about suppression of “the truth” they have discovered, particularly when health authorities issue warnings about misleading anti-vaccination campaigns. The next criterion that fits the bill is nihilistic skepticism, the attitude anti-vaxxers show when they refuse to believe in anything that doesn’t fit their theory. And lastly, self-sealing reasoning means that any evidence against the conspiracy is interpreted as evidence for it. This is exactly what anti-vaxxers do when they face a study like Eslick’s: they claim the data has been cherry-picked, the author has vested interests, the University of Sydney received new lab equipment for running this research, and so on and so forth. You can’t debate a conspiracy theorist using evidence and reason. It’s absolutely crucial to realise this when faced with claims by anti-vaccination campaigners. Anti-vaxxers are immune to evidence. And you know what — it’s really disappointing. We need watchdogs for the medical industry as much as we need them everywhere else. Vaccines are not without risks, but they prevent diseases. And yes, pharmaceutical companies are known to engage in shoddy and sometimes unethical practices. Manufacturing mistakes happen, and people can be harmed by medications. But it is crucial that the discussion of these issues is done in a rational environment that encourages real debate and bases arguments on solid evidence. Not with militant activists who refuse to accept anything that won’t fit their narrative. Scientists make mistakes and correct them, but you can’t expect a conspiracy theorist to admit they are wrong.Dishes outside the traditional canon, like this Korean fried chicken, are making waves nationally as well as in and around Denver. The Ethniche column began in May 2014 as a deep dive into the city’s international culinary scene, with each month devoted to four or five restaurants serving the cuisine of a specific country, region or culture. After a year, though, I changed tactics, looking instead for less common foods, whether traditional dishes from little-represented countries like Sudan (you can find unique egg and bean dishes at Aurora’s Sudan Cafe) or dishes from well-known countries that are rare here (like the champurrado I found at Tarasco’s New Latino Cuisine); I also compared different versions of dishes at several similar restaurants (an exploration of Sichuan peppercorns at three Chinese restaurants gave me an appreciation for numbing heat). As 2015 came to a close, I realized that although I’d eaten my way through Hawaiian Spam rolls, Korean fried chicken, Jamaican oxtail and Southern barbecue in its many permutations, there is still plenty that Denver and its suburbs have to offer that I haven’t even touched — and plenty more coming our way on the culinary horizon. I’m not a fan of New Year’s resolutions (the pile of unread books at my bedside and receipts for unused gym memberships will serve as evidence), but when it comes to food, I generally find a way to follow through on promises, inspiration and self-motivation. Many Americans have just committed to new diet and exercise regiments that they may or may not uphold, but I’m going in the opposite direction: I vow to eat more than ever in 2016 — not more calories, but with more variety, and from a greater variety of sources.Constitutional recognition of Indigenous people 'racist': David Leyonhjelm Updated Liberal Democrat senator David Leyonhjelm has come out against the Federal Government's push to recognise Indigenous people in the constitution. Late last year, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said he was prepared to "sweat blood" to ensure Indigenous people received constitutional recognition. But Senator Leyonhjelm has told the Upper House the proposed legislation singles out Aboriginal people on the basis of race. "Giving legal recognition to characteristics held by certain persons — particularly when those characteristics are inherent, like ancestry — represents a perverse sort of racism," he said. "Although it appears positive, it still singles some people out on the basis of race." He also described the bill as divisive, quoting part of the legislation, which reads: "The Parliament, on behalf of the people of Australia, acknowledges and respects the continuing cultures, languages and heritage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples." "This is divisive," Senator Leyonhjelm said. "It is likely that some Australians do not respect the cultures, languages or heritage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. "What is the Parliament doing to these people when it asserts that the people of Australia respect Aboriginal cultures? It is casting them as 'un-Australian'." Senator Leyonhjelm also quoted part of the legislation which read: "The Parliament, on behalf of the people of Australia, acknowledges the continuing relationship of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples with their traditional lands and waters." He warned that it stereotyped Indigenous people. "It is likely that some Aboriginal people do not have a relationship with traditional lands and waters," he said. "What is the Parliament doing to these people when it asserts that Aboriginal peoples have such a relationship? It is denying their Aboriginality." Current constitution allows for racial discrimination: Gooda Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda said recognising Indigenous people in the constitution is about "removing the existing race discrimination from the constitution". "If you support race equality, it's important to understand that the Constitution doesn't currently reflect that. It allows for race discrimination today," he said. "It's too early for anyone to be so trenchantly opposed to this. Let's remember this is an opportunity to make progress in the relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. "I encourage all Australians to get across this issue so they can make an informed decision." The push to recognise Indigenous people in the constitution has bipartisan support. The Prime Minister has said he would like a referendum on the issue to happen on the 50th anniversary of the 1967 referendum. Topics: constitution, government-and-politics, indigenous-policy, indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander First postedMarvel have the Star Wars license. And they are letting everyone know it. Including reprinting all their old Star Wars comics from the seventies and eighties in omnibus form. From Star Wars to The Empire Strikes Back, with lots to fill in in-between, including a rather thinner Jabba The Hutt. Here’s the oncoming solicit… STAR WARS OMNIBUS VOL. 1 HC CHAYKIN COVER WRITTEN BY ROY THOMAS, HOWARD CHAYKIN, ARCHIE GOODWIN, JO DUFFY & CHRIS CLAREMONT PENCILED BY HOWARD CHAYKIN, CARMINE INFANTINO, WALTER SIMONSON, HERB TRIMPE, MICHAEL GOLDEN, AL WILLIAMSON & MIKE VOSBURG COVERS BY HOWARD CHAYKIN & GREG HILDEBRANDT Star Wars: The Original Marvel Years collecting Star Wars (1977) #1-44 and Annual #1. 880 PGS./Rated T …$125.00 ISBN: 978-0-7851-9106-3 STAR WARS OMNIBUS VOL. 1 HC HILDEBRANDT COVER (DM ONLY) 880 PGS./Rated T …$125 ISBN: 978-0-7851-9318-0 About Rich Johnston Chief writer and founder of Bleeding Cool. Father of two. Comic book clairvoyant. Political cartoonist. (Last Updated ) Related Posts None foundIt is expected to be medium-range, capable of reaching Japan, Yun Byung-se said. Earlier, the Defence Ministry said preparations appeared complete, and the launch could take place at any time. Mr Yun said Seoul was bracing for the test-fire of a ballistic missile dubbed "Musudan" by foreign experts after the name of the north-eastern village where North Korea has a launch pad. Experts said the Musudan is built to reach the US territory of Guam as well as US military installations in Japan. A test-firing of the Musudan missile would violate UN Security Council resolutions banning North Korea from nuclear and missile activity, and escalate tensions. Japan has deployed PAC-3 missile interceptors in key locations around Tokyo. North Korea has not announced launch plans but has told foreign diplomats in Pyongyang that they will not be able to guarantee their safety. It has also urged tourists in South Korea to take cover, warning that nuclear war is imminent. However, most diplomats and foreign residents appeared to be staying put. South Korean military vehicles carrying soldiers pass at barricaded Unification Bridge near the border village of Panmunjom (AP) US army soldiers drive armored vehicles during annual military drills in Yeoncheon, South Korea, near the border with North Korea (AP) The threats are largely seen as rhetoric and an attempt by North Korea to scare foreigners into pressing their governments to pressure Washington and Seoul to change their policies toward Pyongyang, as well as to boost the military credentials of North Korea's young leader, Kim Jong Un. On the streets of Pyongyang, the focus was less on preparing for war and more on beautifying the city ahead of the nation's biggest holiday, the birthday of its founder Kim Il Sung. North Korea sporadically holds civil air raid drills during which people practice blacking out their windows and seeking shelter. But no such drills have been held in recent months, locals said. Last year, the days surrounding the centennial of the birth of Kim Il Sung, grandfather of the current ruler, was marked by parades of tanks, goose-stepping soldiers and missiles, as well as the failed launch of a satellite-carrying rocket widely believed to be a test of ballistic missile technology. A subsequent test in December went off successfully, and that was followed by the country's third underground nuclear test on February 12 this year, possibly taking the regime closer to mastering the technology for mounting an atomic bomb on a missile. The resulting UN sanctions and this spring's annual US-South Korean military drills have been met with an unending string of threats and provocations from the North. Press AssociationMost traditional beer styles can be made anywhere on the planet. All you need is access to the basic ingredients, preserved and delivered in a timely manner, and a means of production. That’s what makes beer a manufactured product more than an agricultural one in most people’s minds. But breweries like Jester King are changing that. They’re incorporating hyper-local ingredients, often seasonally, and taking advantage of free resources like bacteria and wild yeast to complete the picture. It’s more akin to cider and wine making than beer production — and Jester King doesn’t just do this for the special stuff. "All of our beer now contains native yeast and bacteria,” explains Extract. “It’s an impression of where we are, a sense of place. Wildflowers, berries, the air, and our land. Take that and mix the organisms into to a new environment, and the equilibrium and flavors will change. Let it ferment for as long as it needs to ferment, to a complete dryness. We like dry beers and the flavors theses yeasts produce when they run out of sugar to eat and start to wind down, kicking out other flavors and aromas. From kettle to glass the quickest we can make beer is about three months. They could just as easily take six months or more if they need to. It takes a long as it takes. It’s ready when it tells us it's ready. Our spontaneous fermentation program with the coolship, in the winter we’re making beer that goes from kettle to coolship, cools overnight, starts off with 100% native airborne yeast, and ferments several years in oak barrels until it’s ready — or it doesn’t and we dump it. For us, it’s about embracing nature and taking risks.” Indeed, at the cross-streets of “black metal and commercial suicide” this team has been hard at work finding ways to off-set the feasibility problems faced by many of their ideas. The costs of sourcing grains from a local malster, water from a well, fruits from local farmers, and waiting — so much waiting — adds up fast. And then there’s the strain on their infrastructure. “We brewed a bière de garde with hay in the mash,” recalls brewer Garrett Crowell. “It's going to be aged in some brandy casks starting next week.” What does hay do in a mash? "Mostly it breaks the rakes in your mash tun,” explains Crowell. “Word to the wise — 80lbs of hay in the mash is a terrible idea. But you can get some minuscule amounts of sugar from it. Used properly, it can aid in run-off like rice hulls. And the aroma comes through in the wort.”On Tuesday, Jessie, Gamble said she received a flier titled "The Racist in Your Class," alleging her group's "close friendships with Neo-Nazis and White Supremacists" and publishing Gamble's personal information, including her phone number and her father's (Photo: KOMO News). SEATTLE -- Alt-Right speaker Milo Yiannopoulos is scheduled to speak at the University of Washington on Jan. 20, the same day as the inauguration of President-Elect Donald Trump, organizers confirmed Thursday. Yiannopoulos, a writer for the conservative website Yiannopoulos, a writer for the conservative website Breitbart, was banned from Twitter in 2016 after his followers targeted an African-American actress. He has also been criticized for his involvement in GamerGate, which "claims to promote ethics in gaming journalism but has been condemned for its treatment of women," according to CNN The College Republicans at the University of Washington decided to invite Yiannopoulos to campus last summer because of his social media following and because he was free, said Jessie Gamble, the group's president. "We invited Milo because of the safe space culture and what can and cannot be talked about on college campuses. He advised us to break it right open and to keep colleges as a bastion of the free exchange of open ideas," Gamble said. When asked about Yiannopoulos' background as When asked about Yiannopoulos' background as anti-immigrant and anti-feminist, Gamble said she felt it important for everyone to hear him out -- including those who disagree with his views. "I think hate speech is arbitrary, depending on the person. Every person has a different threshold of what is going to push them over the edge and what they're going to stand," she said. "It's a hard thing to conceptualize, to have the same rubric for everyone." The move didn't sit well with some. On Tuesday, Gamble said she received a flier titled "The Racist in Your Class," alleging her group's "close friendships with Neo-Nazis and White Supremacists" and publishing Gamble's personal information, including her phone number and her father's. "I was a bit shocked. I kind of had an idea that something would happen," she said Thursday. "The fact that it actually did kind of took me for surprise." "While we welcome all events that have an educational value to the campus, we certainly want to pay attention when somebody's being harassed or threatened," said Maj. Steve Rittereiser with the University of Washington Police Department. "We make sure everyone on campus is safe, whether they're planning events or not." Rittereiser said they're still in the planning stages for the Jan. 20 event. So far the university was not planning to increase security, he said. "We support all educational events. Some obviously become controversial, but hopefully the concept here is it's a good learning experience for everyone," Rittereiser said. The UW College Republicans have been using The UW College Republicans have been using GoFundMe to raise money to pay for insurance for the event and any added security costs, Gamble said. The event, scheduled for 7 pm on Jan. 20th at Kane Hall, is sold out "Hear ideas, even if you don't agree with them," Gamble said. "Even if you're repulsed by them or you'll never agree with them, hear to at least understand where someone's coming from."More than a few people are pissed off Microsoft has decided to quietly cancel the Xbox Live Family Pack, which netted you four Xbox Live Gold accounts at the discounted price of $99.99. The benefits for this system were tenfold, including a massive discount in price, and other helpful options like the ability to restrict child accounts, and allot a Microsoft Point allowance with the press of a button. Rather than give users a heads up however, Microsoft has simply stopped offering the service under cover of the night, and when users woke up this morning finding that there was an error code for their renewal option, a rep informed them that it was "no longer being offered." If you renewed already you will still have access, but if you tried to renew today, you're basically screwed. I can confirm personally that I am not given the option to renew. With the PlayStation 4 on the horizon, and the PS3 offering free content and application access right now, this move is beyond idiotic, and will no doubt sour a ton of paying customers. In fact, I utilize the Xbox Live Family Pack myself to net a small discount for me and my wife. Now, like many others out there, I'm considering not renewing for the first time since the launch of Xbox Live, when I purchased my very first subscription pack that came with a headset and a free copy of Moto GP. I know I can get discounted cards for around $35 per account during the myriad of sales that Amazon, Best Buy, and Toys R' Us hold. But with all of the great things Sony is doing with PlayStation Plus, it's really, really hard to justify paying Xbox Live with each passing day. You are logged out. Login \| Sign upIn an episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" called "The Game," the entire Enterprise crew becomes addicted to a game introduced by an evil faction as a means of mind control. The crew was ultimately saved by a young cadet who watched in horror as the ship's crew became willingly addicted one by one. Last month, Larry Warford felt like he was in a similar situation. The Detroit Lions offensive lineman was a fan of Pokémon Go until something he saw near Arizona State University campus was enough to convince him to quit cold turkey. The Detroit Free Press reported Warford was living in Tempe in early July when the Pokémon Go app was released. Like millions of others, he downloaded the app and began rounding up Pokémon near his residence. That all changed for him during one disturbing day near ASU. "I'll tell you why I stopped playing it. I was walking down Mill Avenue in Tempe, pretty much on (ASU's) campus... I was walking down and literally everyone that was on their cell phone walking down that same street was playing Pokémon Go. I was looking at their screens and it was about 30, 40 people walking down Mill," Warford told the Detroit Free Press. "It was a bunch of people playing it and I was like, 'I don't like this.'" Warford later met a teammate at a restaurant who was also playing the game. "I deleted it because I was like, 'This is some mind-control stuff.' I don't like it," he said. "They were playing it and I was like, 'Nope!' And I deleted it right there, right when I got to the restaurant." Many people have become concerned about the safety issues the game presents, as players often don't pay attention while walking or driving. But for Warford, the concern obviously goes much deeper. "Yeah, it's popular. But I don't like it," he said. "Something's not right."Women in Ohio who have an abortion may have to make another difficult decision if a bill related to fetal remains disposal is passed: Burial or cremation? Women would be asked whether they would prefer to bury or cremate the fetal remains from an abortion under House Bill 417. The bill is in response to Attorney General Mike DeWine’s report on Ohio’s Planned Parenthood clinics, in which he found that some clinics were disposing of fetal remains in landfills. Planned Parenthood of Ohio has said DeWine's report was "inflammatory and false." Rep. Robert McColley, R-Napoleon, said the bill would work to ensure “that the lives of the unborn are treated with dignity and respect.” Under the proposed bill, hospitals or abortion facilities that perform abortions are required to pay for the disposal of fetal remains. The bill also allows an abortion facility to arrange the cremation or burial of the remains after receiving consent from the woman or her parents, or if a decision has not been made within a reasonable time after the abortion. Women should not be forced to have these conversations if they don’t want to, said Gabriel Mann, a spokesman for NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio. “There is nothing that stops women from asking these questions with their doctors,” Mann said. “We just don’t want them to be forced to have that kind of conversation if it’s not something that they’re interested in.” Mann said the proposed bill could also increase the cost of an abortion. “We don’t want to lose more providers or have women who can’t afford the procedure because of these additional requirements that aren’t medically necessary,” Mann said. Joshua Lim is a fellow in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism Statehouse News Bureau. You can reach him via email at joshielim93@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @JoshuaLim93BEIRUT, Lebanon — A Syrian rebel group took credit for setting off a bomb in a supermarket parking lot in a part of southern Beirut populated with Hezbollah supporters Tuesday. Fifty-three people were injured, according to Lebanese health officials. The bomb exploded several hundred yards from the offices of Hezbollah officials but wounded mainly civilians. The Brigade 313-Special Missions, affiliated with the rebel Free Syrian Army, announced responsibility for the attack on its Facebook page. But another FSA brigade denounced the attack, and responsibility for the bombing has yet to be determined. Syria's civil war has spilled over into Lebanon with greater intensity in the last few months. Hezbollah and its allies support the government of President Bashar al-Assad, while Sunni militias back the rebels. The war remains a political battle, but it has sharply increased religious and ethnic strife in both Syria and Lebanon. While the war has increased animosity between Sunni and Shia, it has also devastated Syria's Christians, some of whom have now fled to Lebanon. Their story is rarely told. Maryam, her husband and two children fled the fighting in Syria and arrived here in Lebanon with only one suitcase each. They left the war-torn city of Qusayr prior to its recapture by pro-government forces. "Bullets were flying everywhere," Maryam told GlobalPost, asking that only her first name be used. "There were rockets. My children couldn't go to school." The family suffered months of hardships, in part because they were Christians, according to Maryam. "The mosques announced they wanted to round up all the Christian men. The families became scared." The family finally left after masked men came to their apartment intent on taking all the Christian men in the building. "We either had to run for our lives or join the fight," said Maryam, who is Roman Catholic. The family fled to Zahle, a predominantly Christian city in the eastern mountains of Lebanon. Their masked antagonists weren't the infamous thugs of Assad. Nor were they fighters from other countries intent on waging jihad. They were local, anti-Assad rebels intent on purging Qusayr of pro-Assad Christians. The city had become a major battleground, with religion as a defining factor. Maryam is among the thousands of Syrian Christians who have fled the fighting but received little international attention. The Most Reverend Archbishop Issam Darwish, a Melkite Catholic whose archdiocese includes Zahle, said Syrians have lived in peace for generations. He blames the anti-Christian violence on extremist groups such as Al Nusra and other jihadists. "They believe Syria is a Muslim country, and the Christians must leave," he said. "But most Syrians are not like that." Christians in Syria trace their history back to the days of St. Paul. Damascus became a major center of Christianity during Roman times. Islam became the dominant religion under Arab and later Ottoman empires, but Christians generally lived peacefully with their Muslim neighbors. When the French occupied Syria and Lebanon after World War I, they implemented a divide-and-conquer strategy that favored some Christian sects. Many Syrian Christians achieved higher incomes and educational levels than their Muslim counterparts, differences that persist today. Christians also participated in the anti-colonial struggle and helped found the nationalist Baath Party in the 1940s. Today Christians make up about 10 percent of Syria's 22.5 million people, and include a variety of Orthodox and Catholic denominations. In 1970 Hafez al-Assad, Bashar's father, came to power in a military coup. His family was Alawite, a mostly secular-minded minority that split off from Shia Islam centuries ago. The Assads established a brutal, but secular, dictatorship. Some Christians rose to positions of power in business, government and the military. When the Syrian uprising broke out in March 2011, Christians remained neutral or sided with Assad. They saw that Muslim extremists - both Shia and Sunni - had driven Christians out of Iraq after the US invasion of 2003. They feared a similar crisis in Syria. Even in the early months of the uprising, some local Sunnis were chanting the slogan, "Christians to Beirut, Alawites to the tabout [coffin].” "We heard that slogan," said Joseph, Maryam's husband. "The rebels say, 'we never said that.' But if you look, it's true. Where are the Christians? They are here in Lebanon." According to UN statistics, some Christians have left but in far fewer numbers than their Sunni Muslim counterparts. Less than 1 percent of Lebanon's 560,000 Syrian refugees are Christians, according to Dana Sleiman, spokesperson for the Beirut office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Overall, some 1.5 million Syrians have fled their country. While fewer Christians are displaced, refugees say their fears are real. For example, Christians are more often the target of kidnap-for-ransom crimes because they are perceived to be more wealthy. "Most of the kidnappings are against Christians in our village," said Samara, a woman who fled a religiously mixed area in the northern Kurdish region of Syria. She got along fine with Kurdish neighbors, but feared the influx of jihadists in the Sunni Muslim community. She and her husband Jamal owned a small business. "I wanted to go to work, But there were men in the streets with masked faces. I was scared." They left when their teenage son was repeatedly threatened with abduction. The couple didn't know if the kidnappers were jihadists or just criminals taking advantage of the chaos. And, they said, the Assad government offered no protection. "The police are useless," she said. "They never leave the police station." Samara and Jamal are now sharing a two-room flat with six relatives who had fled to Zahle months before. They came to Lebanon seeking safety among this country's Christian minority. Local churches in Zahle were slow to respond to the refugee influx, even a year after the uprising began. Eventually, however, local churches set up refugee programs in conjunction with the Catholic charity Caritas. "The Lebanese Christians also passed through difficult times during their civil war and they know what we're going through," the refugee Joseph said. Archbishop Darwish said the Zahle parish now serves 720 Syrian families, providing subsidies for food, medical care and a portion of their rent. However, only 5-10 families have registered with the UNHCR, the United Nations agency far better equipped to handle the refugee influx. Some Syrian Christians don't register because they are proud and don't want to accept charity, he said. Others have brothers and husbands fighting with the Assad armed forces and fear that refugee registration lists might eventually find their way to the rebels. "At the beginning we thought the UNHCR was attached to an anti-Assad political party," said Joseph. "We were afraid to sign up." Joseph and Maryam did eventually register with the UNHCR after church officials convinced them of UNHCR's neutrality. The fear of Muslim opposition groups is widespread among Christians, who see themselves under attack throughout the region. The secular dictatorships of Iraq and Syria, which protected Christians to some extent, no longer exist. Many Christians feel they have a choice between settling in Lebanon or following their forbears to immigrate abroad. "We are afraid," said Archbishop Darwish. He blames the US for trying to take advantage of the Arab Spring to bring the region under its control. He said the US supports various Muslim rebels without thinking through the long-term impact. "The US has no concern about minorities," he said. "They have their plan, and it's not for Christians. It's not for democracy." Darwish expresses support for Assad as a force against US hegemony. In an open letter to President Obama, Darwish wrote about Assad, "He is a liberal, cultured personality, and he symbolizes confidence and safety to Syrian minorities, especially Christians." Such views outrage other Lebanese Christians. Bassem Shabb, a Lebanese Protestant Member of Parliament for the Future Movement, said that supporting dictators has caused tremendous problems for Christians in the region. The Future Movement, the party headed by Saad Hariri, has strongly opposed Assad and his Lebanese ally Hezbollah. Shabb noted that Christians in Iraq largely sided with Saddam Hussein. "Now the Christians in Syria may be repeating the same mistake," he said. "For the Catholics and Maronites in Aleppo [Syria] to openly support the regime is suicide." Elie El-Hindy, chair of the Political Science Department at Notre Dame University outside Beirut, agreed that Christians have been unwise to side with secular dictators against the Muslim majority. "The more they take sides or engage in alliances, the more they will be threatened," he said. "One party is going to win; another will lose." Rather than lament the attacks on Christians around the region,
to load data to the table or make queries for data, we need to create the module’s model, resource and collection files. We create the basic model file in Test.php in the app/code/Aion/Test/Model directory. This file includes the following: <?php /** * Copyright © 2016 AionNext Ltd. All rights reserved. * See COPYING.txt for license details. / namespace Aion\Test\Model; /* * Aion Test model * * @method \Aion\Test\Model\ResourceModel\Test _getResource() * @method \Aion\Test\Model\ResourceModel\Test getResource() * @method string getId() * @method string getName() * @method string getEmail() * @method setSortOrder() * @method int getSortOrder() / class Test extends \Magento\Framework\Model\AbstractModel { /* * Statuses / const STATUS_ENABLED = 1; const STATUS_DISABLED = 0; /* * Aion Test cache tag / const CACHE_TAG = 'aion_test'; /* * @var string / protected $_cacheTag = 'aion_test'; /* * Prefix of model events names * * @var string / protected $_eventPrefix = 'aion_test'; /* * @return void / protected function _construct() { $this->_init('Aion\Test\Model\ResourceModel\Test'); } /* * Get identities * * @return array / public function getIdentities() { return [self::CACHE_TAG. '_'. $this->getId(), self::CACHE_TAG. '_'. $this->getId()]; } /* * Prepare item's statuses * * @return array / public function getAvailableStatuses() { return [self::STATUS_ENABLED => __('Enabled'), self::STATUS_DISABLED => __('Disabled')]; } } We define the two cache tags needed for operating Magento 2.0 cache. It is also important to define an event prefix to use it as part of the event name if using observers later on. The most important thing to do now is defining the resource model belonging to the model in the _construct() function. It is recommended to create the getAvailableStatuses() function and the two STATUS_ constant values for later use. It is not a must to implement the getIdentities() function, but it still would be useful for the proper operation of cache management. After we have created our basic model file, we should create the resource model for it. We create the basic resource model file in Test.php in the app/code/Aion/Test/Model/ResourceModel directory. The file includes the following: <?php /** * Copyright © 2016 AionNext Ltd. All rights reserved. * See COPYING.txt for license details. / namespace Aion\Test\Model\ResourceModel; /* * Aion Test resource model / class Test extends \Magento\Framework\Model\ResourceModel\Db\AbstractDb { /* * Define main table * * @return void / protected function _construct() { $this->_init('aion_test', 'test_id'); } } Now the most important thing is to implement the protected _construct() function, where we define which field represents the primary key in the table created earlier. Having finished with this, we create the collection with the help of the resource model. We create the basic collection class file in Collection.php in the app/code/Aion/Test/Model/ResourceModel/Test directory. The file includes the following: <?php /* * Copyright © 2016 AionNext Ltd. All rights reserved. * See COPYING.txt for license details. / namespace Aion\Test\Model\ResourceModel\Test; /* * Aion Test collection / class Collection extends \Magento\Framework\Model\ResourceModel\Db\Collection\AbstractCollection { /* * @var string / protected $_idFieldName = 'test_id'; /* * Store manager * * @var \Magento\Store\Model\StoreManagerInterface / protected $storeManager; /* * @param \Magento\Framework\Data\Collection\EntityFactoryInterface $entityFactory * @param \Psr\Log\LoggerInterface $logger * @param \Magento\Framework\Data\Collection\Db\FetchStrategyInterface $fetchStrategy * @param \Magento\Framework\Event\ManagerInterface $eventManager * @param \Magento\Store\Model\StoreManagerInterface $storeManager * @param \Magento\Framework\DB\Adapter\AdapterInterface\|null $connection * @param \Magento\Framework\Model\ResourceModel\Db\AbstractDb\|null $resource / public function __construct( \Magento\Framework\Data\Collection\EntityFactoryInterface $entityFactory, \Psr\Log\LoggerInterface $logger, \Magento\Framework\Data\Collection\Db\FetchStrategyInterface $fetchStrategy, \Magento\Framework\Event\ManagerInterface $eventManager, \Magento\Store\Model\StoreManagerInterface $storeManager, \Magento\Framework\DB\Adapter\AdapterInterface $connection = null, \Magento\Framework\Model\ResourceModel\Db\AbstractDb $resource = null ) { parent::__construct($entityFactory, $logger, $fetchStrategy, $eventManager, $connection, $resource); $this->storeManager = $storeManager; } /* * Define resource model * * @return void / protected function _construct() { $this->_init('Aion\Test\Model\Test', 'Aion\Test\Model\ResourceModel\Test'); } } We implement the _construct() function in the collection class, in which we basically define which resource model class belongs to the model class that was created earlier. Essentially, it would be enough and suitable for having a collection, but thinking about the future, it is better to inject the store manager class in the public __construct() function at this moment for later use, because multistore support is mandatory with every module. After finishing with all three files, we have managed to create those classes with which we can write and read data using our database table created earlier. 9) Loading up data to the table using script In order to be able to add data to the module’s basic table using script, we needed to produce the model structure. We create the data script in InstallData.php in the app/code/Aion/Test/Setup directory. The file includes the following: <?php /* * Copyright © 2016 AionNext Ltd. All rights reserved. * See COPYING.txt for license details. / namespace Aion\Test\Setup; use Aion\Test\Model\Test; use Aion\Test\Model\TestFactory; use Magento\Framework\Setup\InstallDataInterface; use Magento\Framework\Setup\ModuleContextInterface; use Magento\Framework\Setup\ModuleDataSetupInterface; /* * @codeCoverageIgnore / class InstallData implements InstallDataInterface { /* * Test factory * * @var TestFactory / private $testFactory; /* * Init * * @param TestFactory $testFactory / public function __construct(TestFactory $testFactory) { $this->testFactory = $testFactory; } /* * {@inheritdoc} * @SuppressWarnings(PHPMD.ExcessiveMethodLength) / public function install(ModuleDataSetupInterface $setup, ModuleContextInterface $context) { $testItems = [ [ 'name' => 'John Doe', 'email' => 'john.doe@example.com', 'is_active' => 1, ], [ 'name' => 'Jane Doe', 'email' => 'jane.doe@example.com', 'is_active' => 0, ], [ 'name' => 'Steve Test', 'email' =>'steve.test@example.com', 'is_active' => 1, ], ]; /* * Insert default items / foreach ($testItems as $data) { $this->createTest()->setData($data)->save(); } $setup->endSetup(); } /* * Create Test item * * @return Test / public function createTest() { return $this->testFactory->create(); } } We implement the install(…) function in the InstallData class, in which we create test data in a multi-dimensional array. We iterate through it and then call the createTest() function which has the “task” to create the new Test Model. Then, after adding the bundles as data, we save the model. Here, it is important to mention the TestFactory class which was created in the class and injected in the __construct() function. This class is automatically created by Magento 2.0 in the /var/generation/Aion/Test/Model directory when it is running for the first time ($this->testFactory-> create()). Since we are still at the beginning of our module development, let’s discard manually the previously created “aion_test” table from the database and delete the entry belonging to our module in the “setup_module” Magento 2.0 table. Of course, alternatively, we can run data upload in the command line (terminal) using version number upgrade, thus we do not need to discard manually our previously created table and there is no need to deal separately with the “setup_module” table either. 10) Table update script and version upgrade While developing our module, we need to modify frequently the basic database table, sometimes creating a new database table. In the case of Magento 1.x, we could do this with upgrade scripts either with respect to database or to data. It is the same with Magento 2.0, but luckily, now we can manage all the database scripts within one file instead of separate files. We create the database update script in UpgradeSchema.php in the app/code/Aion/Test/Setup directory. The file includes the following: <?php /* * Copyright © 2016 AionNext Ltd. All rights reserved. * See COPYING.txt for license details. / namespace Aion\Test\Setup; use Magento\Framework\Setup\UpgradeSchemaInterface; use Magento\Framework\Setup\ModuleContextInterface; use Magento\Framework\Setup\SchemaSetupInterface; /* * @codeCoverageIgnore / class UpgradeSchema implements UpgradeSchemaInterface { /* * Upgrades DB schema, add sort_order * * @param SchemaSetupInterface $setup * @param ModuleContextInterface $context * @return void / public function upgrade(SchemaSetupInterface $setup, ModuleContextInterface $context) { if (version_compare($context->getVersion(), '2.0.1') < 0) { $setup->startSetup(); $setup->getConnection()->addColumn( $setup->getTable('aion_test'),'sort_order', [ 'type' => \Magento\Framework\DB\Ddl\Table::TYPE_SMALLINT, 'length' => null, 'nullable' => false, 'default' => 0, 'comment' => 'Test Sort Order' ] ); $setup->endSetup(); } } } In this example, with the help of upgrade script, we add a new field (sort_order) to the basic database table („aion_test”). The implemented modification in the upgrade function will run only if the module’s version number reaches the 2.0.1 value, seen in the example. 11) Frontend data display In order to display the created data on frontend, we need to modify the frontend template and the block class belonging to it. The block class has already been prepared previously, now we complement it. We create the block class in Test.php in the app/code/Aion/Block/ directory. The file contains the following: <?php /* * Copyright © 2016 AionNext Ltd. All rights reserved. * See COPYING.txt for license details. / namespace Aion\Test\Block; use Magento\Framework\View\Element\Template; /* * Aion Test Page block / class Test extends Template { /* * @var \Aion\Test\Model\Test / protected $test; /* * Test factory * * @var \Aion\Test\Model\TestFactory / protected $testFactory; /* * @var \Aion\Test\Model\ResourceModel\Test\CollectionFactory / protected $itemCollectionFactory; /* * @var \Aion\Test\Model\ResourceModel\Test\Collection / protected $items; /* * Test constructor. * * @param \Magento\Framework\View\Element\Template\Context $context * @param \Aion\Test\Model\Test $test * @param \Aion\Test\Model\TestFactory $testFactory * @param array $data / public function __construct( Template\Context $context, \Aion\Test\Model\Test $test, \Aion\Test\Model\TestFactory $testFactory, \Aion\Test\Model\ResourceModel\Test\CollectionFactory $itemCollectionFactory, array $data = [] ) { $this->test = $test; $this->testFactory = $testFactory; $this->itemCollectionFactory = $itemCollectionFactory; parent::__construct($context, $data); } /* * Retrieve Test instance * * @return \Aion\Test\Model\Test / public function getTestModel() { if (!$this->hasData('test')) { if ($this->getTestId()) { /* @var \Aion\Test\Model\Test $test / $test = $this->testFactory->create(); $test->load($this->getTestId()); } else { $test = $this->test; } $this->setData('test', $test); } return $this->getData('test'); } /* * Get items * * @return bool\|\Aion\Test\Model\ResourceModel\Test\Collection / public function getItems() { if (!$this->items) { $this->items = $this->itemCollectionFactory->create()->addFieldToSelect( '' )->addFieldToFilter( 'is_active', ['eq' => \Aion\Test\Model\Test::STATUS_ENABLED] )->setOrder( 'creation_time', 'desc' ); } return $this->items; } /** * Get Test Id * * @return int / public function getTestId() { return 1; } /* * Return identifiers for produced content * * @return array / public function getIdentities() { return [\Aion\Test\Model\Test::CACHE_TAG. '_'. $this->getTestModel()->getId()]; } } We implement the previously created Test Model and the testFactory belonging to it as well as the collectionFactory (itemCollectionFactory), into the constructor of the block class. The collectionFactory class is very similar to the testFactory, which is generated by Magento 2.0 as well in the var/generation/Aion/Test/Model/ResourceModel/Test/ after its first call. The getTestModel() function creates a model, and is responsible for loading with the appropriate ID, while the getItems() function creates a complete collection. We can write the data, for testing, in the template file belonging to the block. The file includes the following: <?php /* * Copyright © 2016 AionNext Ltd. All rights reserved. * See COPYING.txt for license details. /?> <?php /* * @var $block \Aion\Test\Block\Test /?> <div class="aion-test"> <h2><?php echo __('This is a test extension!')?></h2> <!-- See a sample model --> <?php \Zend_Debug::dump($block->getTestModel()->getData());?> <!-- See a sample collection --> <?php \Zend_Debug::dump($block->getItems()->getData());?> <!-- See a sample collection iteration --> <?php $items = $block->getItems();?> <?php if ($items->getSize()) :?> <?php foreach ($items as $item) :?> <h3><?php echo $block->stripTags($item->getName())?></h3> <p> <span><?php echo __('Email:');?></span> <span><?php echo $item->getEmail()?></span> </p> <?php endforeach;?> <?php endif;?> </div> So we now have added our own database table to our basic Magento 2.0 module and loaded it with test data. We have also created the model, resource and collection needed for it and also displayed the test data on frontend. END OF PART 1 In Part 2, we describe how to create the admin grid and the necessary controllers of the module. See also Part 3 (observers) and Part 4 (Knockout JS).I know that this particular phrase has been overused in this rabid shaggy dog of a campaign, but both candidates gave speeches today and shit really got real. Hillary Rodham Clinton went to Las Vegas and, if The New York Times is correct here, she pretty much fitted Donald Trump for a lovely armband. "The de facto merger between Breitbart and the Trump campaign represents a landmark achievement for the alt-right," Mrs. Clinton planned to say, according to the prepared remarks. "A fringe element has effectively taken over the Republican Party." Mrs. Clinton also planned to note that David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan leader, was "jubilant" on his radio show recently while describing Mr. Trump. "A man with a long history of racial discrimination, who traffics in dark conspiracy theories drawn from the pages of supermarket tabloids and the far reaches of the internet, should never run our government or command our military," Mrs. Clinton planned to say. "If he doesn't respect all Americans, how can he serve all Americans?" Meanwhile, El Caudillo del Mar-A-Lago went to New Hampshire—which at least makes more sense than going to Mississippi with Nigel Farage—and responded with his usual cool dispatch. "Hillary Clinton's actions constitute all of the elements of a major criminal enterprise." On Wednesday night, she was a bigot. I suspect that by Saturday, she's going to be a werewolf. "What is being uncovered now is one of the most shocking scandals in American political history. A Secretary of State sold her office to corporations and foreign governments, betraying the public trust—putting innocent lives in danger—and then she went to great lengths to hide, delete, destroy and lie about the evidence. Just like her lie that she never sent any material marked classified. Lie after lie after lie. This is the corruption we expect to see in a Third World country—but not in America." There is not an ounce of evidence in the record for any of this. Not even the last part. American history is chockfull of examples of Cabinet officials who actually did sell their office. Somewhere in the Beyond, Albert Fall is rightly pissed about this. "Now, I have not seen Hillary Clinton's remarks. And, in a sense, I don't want to dignify them by dwelling on them too much, but a response is required for the sake of all decent voters she is trying to smear. The news reports are that Hillary Clinton is going to try to accuse this campaign, and the millions of decent Americans who support this campaign, of being racists." Well, not all of them, as she said in Las Vegas. Just the crazy racist ones. "All of this adds up to something we've never seen before. Of course there's always been a paranoid fringe in our politics, steeped in racial resentment. But it's never had the nominee of a major party stoking it, encouraging it, and giving it a national megaphone. Until now." OK, so now I have to take a second. This is breathtakingly harsh campaign rhetoric. "You're a crook! Yeah, well, you're a Klansman." I am perfectly willing to blame the tone of things on the forces stirred up throughout the Republican primary process by the eventual nominee, currently pivoting so hard he's screwing himself into the ground. I suspected something like this would break out, but not before Labor Day. Christamighty, what's left now? And please don't answer that. I'd rather wait here under the sofa until it actually happens. But one of the very real responsibilities for this nightmare of a campaign lies not with a candidate that normalized hate groups but with an elite political media that, by adhering to rules that did not apply, normalized that candidate. Donald Trump has hurled wild, vicious (and largely unsubstantiated) charges every since he first stood up behind a podium as a candidate. This is nothing new. So now, his wild, vicious (and largely unsubstantiated) charges are being hurled in a campaign context in which they have become the way people run for president, at least in 2016. And they're being hurled at a person for whom much of the elite political media has had a barely concealed grudge for 25 years. There now will follow some earnest chin-stroking about the tenor of the campaign. And nothing will change. This is the campaign we are going to have, and there's no turning back. It's going to be rough, and more than half-vile, but it's going to be more reflective of the actual state of the nation than a hundred soft-focus TV spots with gentle music. We have to face it. The four horsemen have been out of the barn for months now. Click here to respond to this post on the official Esquire Politics Facebook page.by Heiko Seeberger In the first part of this series we gave you a high-level overview of Akka – now we are going to take a deep dive into the realm of Akka actors as provided by the akka-actor module which lay the foundations for all other Akka modules. As we believe that one cannot learn coding without reading and/or writing code, we will develop a tiny actor-based library step by step: a publish-subscribe-based event bus called PubSub. Of course Akka comes with production-ready local and distributed solutions for this domain, so this is just to get our hands dirty with a well-known example. We are going to use the Scala programming language, simply because it’s so much more convenient for writing Akka-based code, but Java could be used to get the same results. Actor Model In the actor model – as conceived in 1973 by Carl Hewitt et al. – actors are “fundamental units of computation that embody processing, storage and communication”. All right, let’s try to break this down. Being a fundamental unit of computation simply means that – when writing software using the actor model – we will mainly focus our design and implementation efforts around actors. In a fantastic interview with Eric Meijer Carl Hewitt explains that “everything is an actor” as well as “one actor is no actor, they come in systems”, which boils down to what we just said: When using the actor model, our code will consist of actors. So how does an actor look like? What is processing, storage, and communication, after all? In a nutshell, communication means asynchronous messaging, storage means that actors can have state and processing simply means that actors can handle messages, which is also known as behavior. That doesn’t sound terribly complicated, right? So let’s take the next step and look at Akka actors. Anatomy of an Akka Actor As shown in the below picture, an Akka actor is made up of several collaborating components. The ActorRef represents the logical address of an actor and enables us to asynchronously send messages to the actor in a fire-and-forget manner. The dispatcher – by default there is one per actor system – takes care of enqueuing messages into the mailbox of an actor as well as scheduling the mailbox for dequeuing one or more messages – but only one at a time – to be processed by the actor. Last but not least, the Actor – typically the only API we have to implement – encapsulates state and behavior. As we will see later, Akka prevents us from getting direct access to an Actor and thus ensures that asynchronous messaging is the only way to interact with it: It’s impossible to invoke a method on an actor. It’s also worth pointing out that sending a message to an actor and processing of that message by the actor are two separate activities, which most probably happen on different threads – of course Akka takes care of the necessary synchronization to make sure that any state changes are visible to any thread. Therefore Akka sort of allows us to program in a single-threaded illusion, i.e. we don’t – and mustn’t – use any primitives for synchronization like volatile or synchronized in our actor code. Implementing an Actor Nuff talking, let’s start coding! In Akka an actor is a class that mixes in the Actor trait: class MyActor extends Actor { override def receive =??? } class MyActor extends Actor { override def receive =??? } The method receive returns the so-called initial behavior of an actor. That’s simply a partial function used by Akka to handle messages sent to the actor. As the behavior is a PartialFunction[Any, Unit], there’s currently no way to define actors that only accept messages of a particular type. Actually there’s already an experimental module called akka-typed which brings back typesafety to Akka, but that’s not yet production-ready. By the way, an actor can change its behavior, which is the reason for calling the return value of the method receive the initial behavior. All right, let’s implement the core actor for our PubSub library: class PubSubMediator extends Actor { override def receive = Actor. emptyBehavior } class PubSubMediator extends Actor { override def receive = Actor.emptyBehavior } Currently we don’t want PubSubMediator to handle any message, hence we use Actor.emptyBehavior which simply is a partial function not defined for any value. Actor Systems and Creating Actors As mentioned before, “one actor is no actor, they come in systems”. In Akka an actor system is a collaborating ensemble of actors which are arranged in a hierarchy. Therefore each and every actor has a parent actor as shown in the below picture. When we create an actor system, Akka – which internally uses a lot of so called system actors – creates three actors: The root guardian, which is at the root of the actor hierarchy, as well as the user and system guardians. The user guardian – often just referred as the guardian – is the parent of all top-level actors we create – so in this context top-level means “as top as possible for us”. All right, but how do we create an actor system? Simply by calling the factory method provided by the ActorSystem singleton object: val system = ActorSystem ( "pub-sub-mediator-spec-system" ) val system = ActorSystem("pub-sub-mediator-spec-system") But why do we have to create an ActorSystem at all? Why not simply create actors? The latter is not possible, because directly calling the constructor of an Actor throws an exception. Instead we have to use a factory method provided by – guess – the ActorSystem to create a top-level actor: system. actorOf ( Props ( new PubSubMediator ), "pub-sub-mediator" ) system.actorOf(Props(new PubSubMediator), "pub-sub-mediator") Of course actorOf doesn’t return an Actor instance, but instead an ActorRef. This is how Akka prevents us from getting access to an Actor instance, which in turn ensures that asynchronous messaging is the only way to communicate with an actor. The name we provide must be unique amongst the siblings of the actor, else an exception will be thrown. If we don’t provide a name, Akka will create one for us, hence every actor has a name. But what’s that Props thingy? Well, that’s simply a configuration object for an actor. It takes the constructor as a by-name parameter – i.e. lazily – and can hold other important information, e.g. about routing or deployment. When it comes to remoting, it’s important that Props can be serialized and therefore it’s an established best practice to add a Props-factory to the companion object of an actor. This is also a good place for a constant for the name of an actor. With all that knowledge, let’s complete the PubSubMediator and also create a test for it using ScalaTest and the Akka Testkit, which is another Akka module facilitating testing of Akka actors: object PubSubMediator { final val Name = "pub-sub-mediator" def props : Props = Props ( new PubSubMediator ) } class PubSubMediator extends Actor { override def receive = Actor. emptyBehavior } class PubSubMediatorSpec extends WordSpec with Matchers with BeforeAndAfterAll { implicit val system = ActorSystem ( "pub-sub-mediator-spec-system" ) "A PubSubMediator" should { "be suited for getting started" in { EventFilter. debug ( occurrences = 1, pattern = s "started.${classOf[PubSubMediator].getName}" ). intercept { system. actorOf ( PubSubMediator. props ) } } } override protected def afterAll ( ) = { Await. ready ( system. terminate ( ), Duration. Inf ) super. afterAll ( ) } } object PubSubMediator { final val Name = "pub-sub-mediator" def props: Props = Props(new PubSubMediator) } class PubSubMediator extends Actor { override def receive = Actor.emptyBehavior } class PubSubMediatorSpec extends WordSpec with Matchers with BeforeAndAfterAll { implicit val system = ActorSystem("pub-sub-mediator-spec-system") "A PubSubMediator" should { "be suited for getting started" in { EventFilter.debug(occurrences = 1, pattern = s"started.*${classOf[PubSubMediator].getName}").intercept { system.actorOf(PubSubMediator.props) } } } override protected def afterAll() = { Await.ready(system.terminate(), Duration.Inf) super.afterAll() } } As you can see, we create an ActorSystem and a PubSubMediator actor in PubSubMediatorSpec. The actual test is a little contrived, because our PubSubMediator is still pretty anemic: It makes use of lifecycle debugging and expects a debug message like “started … PubSubMediator …” to be logged. The full code of the current state can be accessed on GitHub under tag step-01. Communication Now that we know how to create actors, let’s talk about communication, which – as mentioned above – is based on asynchronous messaging and strongly relates to the two other properties of an actor: behavior – i.e. the capability to handle messages – and state. In order to send a message to an actor you need its address, which is represented by its ActorRef: mediator! GetSubscribers ( "topic" ) mediator! GetSubscribers("topic") As you can see, ActorRef offers the! – pronounced “bang” – operator, which sends the given message to the respective actor. Once the message has been delivered, the operation is completed and the sending code proceeds. That implies that there is no return value (other than Unit), hence messages are indeed sent in a fire-and-forget manner. While this is simple, we often need responses. Thanks to the fact that the! operator implicitly takes the sender as an ActorRef, this can easily be done: override def receive = { case Subscribe ( topic ) => // TODO Actually handle subscription sender ( )! Subscribed } override def receive = { case Subscribe(topic) => // TODO Actually handle subscription sender()! Subscribed } In this example the behavior of the receiving actor handles a particular message – the Subscribe command – and sends a message – the Subscribed event – back to the sender. Thereby the method sender is used to access the sender for the message which is currently being processed. With these insights, let’s further enhance the PubSubMediator and the respective test. First we add the message protocol – the set of all messages that belong to PubSubMediator – to the companion object: object PubSubMediator { case class Publish ( topic : String, message : Any ) case class Published ( publish : Publish ) case class Subscribe ( topic : String, subscriber : ActorRef ) case class Subscribed ( subscribe : Subscribe ) case class AlreadySubscribed ( subscribe : Subscribe ) case class Unsubscribe ( topic : String, subscriber : ActorRef ) case class Unsubscribed ( unsubscribe : Unsubscribe ) case class NotSubscribed ( unsubscribe : Unsubscribe ) case class GetSubscribers ( topic : String ) final val Name = "pub-sub-mediator" def props : Props = Props ( new PubSubMediator ) } object PubSubMediator { case class Publish(topic: String, message: Any) case class Published(publish: Publish) case class Subscribe(topic: String, subscriber: ActorRef) case class Subscribed(subscribe: Subscribe) case class AlreadySubscribed(subscribe: Subscribe) case class Unsubscribe(topic: String, subscriber: ActorRef) case class Unsubscribed(unsubscribe: Unsubscribe) case class NotSubscribed(unsubscribe: Unsubscribe) case class GetSubscribers(topic: String) final val Name = "pub-sub-mediator" def props: Props = Props(new PubSubMediator) } Next let’s implement the behavior, which has been empty so far: class PubSubMediator extends Actor { import PubSubMediator. _ private var subscribers = Map. empty [ String, Set [ ActorRef ] ]. withDefaultValue ( Set. empty ) override def receive = { case publish @ Publish ( topic, message ) => subscribers ( topic ). foreach ( _! message ) sender ( )! Published ( publish ) case subscribe @ Subscribe ( topic, subscriber ) if subscribers ( topic ). contains ( subscriber ) => sender ( )! AlreadySubscribed ( subscribe ) case subscribe @ Subscribe ( topic, subscriber ) => subscribers + = topic - > ( subscribers ( topic ) + subscriber ) sender ( )! Subscribed ( subscribe ) case unsubscribe @ Unsubscribe ( topic, subscriber ) if! subscribers ( topic ). contains ( subscriber ) => sender ( )! NotSubscribed ( unsubscribe ) case unsubscribe @ Unsubscribe ( topic, subscriber ) => subscribers + = topic - > ( subscribers ( topic ) - subscriber ) sender ( )! Unsubscribed ( unsubscribe ) case GetSubscribers ( topic ) => sender ( )! subscribers ( topic ) } } class PubSubMediator extends Actor { import PubSubMediator._ private var subscribers = Map.empty[String, Set[ActorRef]].withDefaultValue(Set.empty) override def receive = { case publish @ Publish(topic, message) => subscribers(topic).foreach(_! message) sender()! Published(publish) case subscribe @ Subscribe(topic, subscriber) if subscribers(topic).contains(subscriber) => sender()! AlreadySubscribed(subscribe) case subscribe @ Subscribe(topic, subscriber) => subscribers += topic -> (subscribers(topic) + subscriber) sender()! Subscribed(subscribe) case unsubscribe @ Unsubscribe(topic, subscriber) if!subscribers(topic).contains(subscriber) => sender()! NotSubscribed(unsubscribe) case unsubscribe @ Unsubscribe(topic, subscriber) => subscribers += topic -> (subscribers(topic) - subscriber) sender()! Unsubscribed(unsubscribe) case GetSubscribers(topic) => sender()! subscribers(topic) } } As you can see, the behavior handles all commands – e.g. Publish or Subscribe – and always sends a positive or negative response back to the sender. Whether a command is valid and yields a positive response – e.g. Subscribed – depends on both the command and the state, which is represented as the private mutable field subscribers. As mentioned above, only one message is handled at a time and Akka makes sure that state changes are visible when the next message is processed, so there is no need to manually synchronize access to subscribers. Concurrency made easy! Finally let’s take a look at a portion of the extended test: val subscribe01 = Subscribe ( topic01, subscriber01. ref ) mediator! subscribe01 sender. expectMsg ( Subscribed ( subscribe01 ) ) val subscribe02 = Subscribe ( topic01, subscriber02. ref ) mediator! subscribe02 sender. expectMsg ( Subscribed ( subscribe02 ) ) val subscribe03 = Subscribe ( topic02, subscriber03. ref ) mediator! subscribe03 sender. expectMsg ( Subscribed ( subscribe03 ) ) val subscribe01 = Subscribe(topic01, subscriber01.ref) mediator! subscribe01 sender.expectMsg(Subscribed(subscribe01)) val subscribe02 = Subscribe(topic01, subscriber02.ref) mediator! subscribe02 sender.expectMsg(Subscribed(subscribe02)) val subscribe03 = Subscribe(topic02, subscriber03.ref) mediator! subscribe03 sender.expectMsg(Subscribed(subscribe03)) As you can see, we are sending Subscribe messages to the mediator using the! operator and expect to receive respective responses. As before the full code of the current state can be accessed on GitHub under tag step-02. Lifecycle We have neglected to take one important aspect of actors into account: They can come and go, in particular they can terminate or be terminated any time. If we have access to an ActorRef, we don’t know whether the actor, which is represented by it, is alive or not. In particular we won’t get an exception when we send messages to a terminated actor. Instead the ActorRef remains valid, but gets redirected by Akka to deliver messages to the dead letters mailbox at best effort. That means that these messages get logged, which is useful for testing, but by no means a way to build something like a retry facility or even guaranteed delivery. But sometimes we really need to know whether an actor is still alive or not. In our case, we want to be able to get rid of terminated subscribers, else the PubSubMediator sends unnecessary messages and might sooner or later even run out of memory. For that purpose, Akka provides a facility to monitor the lifecycle of actors. As we can only watch the termination of actors, it’s called death watch. In order to monitor an actor, we simply call the method watch provided by the ActorContext which is available within an an Actor via context: context. watch ( subscriber ) context.watch(subscriber) After that, Akka will send the watching actor a Terminated message after the watched actor has terminated. It’s guaranteed that this is the last message received from an actor, even in the case of remoting. All right, let’s finish the PubSubMediator: class PubSubMediator extends Actor { import PubSubMediator. _... override def receive = {... case subscribe @ Subscribe ( topic, subscriber ) => subscribers + = topic - > ( subscribers ( topic ) + subscriber ) context. watch ( subscriber ) sender ( )! Subscribed ( subscribe )... case Terminated ( subscriber ) => subscribers = subscribers. map { case ( topic, ss ) => topic - > ( ss - subscriber ) } } } class PubSubMediator extends Actor { import PubSubMediator._... override def receive = {... case subscribe @ Subscribe(topic, subscriber) => subscribers += topic -> (subscribers(topic) + subscriber) context.watch(subscriber) sender()! Subscribed(subscribe)... case Terminated(subscriber) => subscribers = subscribers.map { case (topic, ss) => topic -> (ss - subscriber) } } } As you can see, we watch each subscriber when processing a valid Subscribe command and remove any terminated subscriber when handling the respective Termianted message. Again, the full code of the current state can be accessed on GitHub under tag step-03. Conclusion We have arrived at the end of our introduction to Akka actors. To summarize, we have covered the most important concepts of the actor model like communication, behavior and state as well as actor systems. We have also covered the implementation of these concepts with Akka and further looked at death watch. Of course we have omitted a lot of interesting and important stuff, e.g. creating child actors, supervision, etc. But there are other resources to complete your knowledge, e.g. the excellent Akka Documentation. Stay tuned for follow-up posts covering Akka Cluster and more. Of course questions and feedback are highly appreciated.Ford North America Executive Vice President and President Raj Nair said he’s glad to have “cleared up” allegations that the Ford GTs had been sandbagging in the build-up to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with the Detroit manufacturer unable to defend its GTE-Pro class win after struggling for outright race pace. The No. 67 Ford of Harry Tincknell, Andy Priaulx and Pipo Derani capitalized on a
The statement also mentions crime, substance abuse, social unrest and poverty as concerns. Last fall, the Alabama Department of Public Health launched a new HIV/AIDS awareness campaign, saying that Mobile County ranked second only to Jefferson County in the number of HIV cases. Madison, Montgomery and Tuscaloosa counties also were among the counties with the highest number of new cases. Thompson said his platform has evolved since he made that initial statement, however. He has been seeking feedback from potential voters, and their responses have prompted him to broaden his focus. "I'm just not referring solely to the body, I'm referring to the health of the community," he said. "The mental health, the economic health... I don't want people to think that health care is limited to one particular avenue." Where other people might see inexperience, Thompson sees an opportunity to start from a fresh sheet of paper. "If President Obama had listened to other people, he would have not run, because he was told that he was inexperienced," he said. "I don't think that youth is the best criteria. I think the best criteria for a candidate is what their priorities are and the way they are able to think." "What I've been doing, I've actually been going around with my notebook, interviewing various people, asking what their concerns are," he said, "and I've been focusing and re-prioritizing some of the things that I thought were really, really, really important." Among other things, he's begun to put a new emphasis on fighting crime. His vision is that if elected, he would continue that process, using a leadership style that would be transparent and driven by constituent concerns. "It's an evolution," he said. "I'm not going to be static." More information about Thompson's candidacy can be found at www.electanthonythompson4mayor.com and his campaign's Facebook page. Municipal elections will be held on Aug. 22. The official qualifying period for candidates runs from July 5 to July 18. Aug. 7 is the last day for voters to register, and Aug. 21 is the last day to apply for an absentee ballot. Full information can be found at the city's website.This Sunday, May 21, 2017, photo provided by the Chester County District Attorney's Office in West Chester, Pa., shows opioid drug packets, a syringe and other belongings found by law enforcement personnel in an addiction counselor's bedroom at the Freedom Ridge Recovery Lodge, a suburban Philadelphia halfway house in West Brandywine Township, Pa. Two men working as addiction counselors at the halfway house died of opioid overdoses inside the facility and were found by residents on Sunday, authorities announced Wednesday, May 24, 2017. (Chester County District Attorney's Office via AP) WEST CHESTER, Pa. (AP) — Two addiction counselors at a suburban Philadelphia halfway house died of opioid overdoses inside the facility on the same day, authorities said Wednesday. “If anybody is wondering how bad the opioid epidemic has become, this case is a frightening example,” said Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan. “Opioids are a monster that is slowly consuming our population.” Emergency responders were called to Freedom Ridge Recovery Lodge on Sunday afternoon after residents found the counselors unresponsive in separate bedrooms. Residents tried to revive one of the counselors with naloxone but were unsuccessful and called 911, police said. The men lived and worked at the home as on-site counselors with six male residents. The counselors’ duties included organizing daily activities for the residents and keeping medications under lock-and-key. They died at the scene, and their identities haven’t been released. A call seeking comment from the owner of the group home, located in a quiet residential area in West Brandywine, weren’t immediately returned Wednesday. Many addiction counselors are former addicts themselves. It wasn’t immediately clear if that was the case for the two who died. Baggies stamped with a Superman logo and “danger” logo were found in the counselors’ rooms and tested positive for heroin and fentanyl, officials said. Hogan warned the public to stay away from baggies with those markings, saying they contain drugs “likely to kill anybody who uses them.” Law enforcement officers weren’t even allowed to handle the drugs without special precautions “because of the extreme danger of death or injury,” Hogan said.Share. "I know now why you cry." "I know now why you cry." We haven't quite reached the terrifying sci-fi hellscape described by the Terminator franchise, but researchers at Facebook have brought us just a bit closer to the age of the machines. Recently, they pulled the plug on an artificial intelligence system after it developed its own language. The AI in question was actually designed to maximize efficiency in language, but according to Fast Co. Design, the researchers forgot to add a crucial rule in its programming: the language had to be English. So the "two AI agents" moved on with their programming to communicate as efficiently as their programming would allow, putting the conversation between the two outside the understanding of humans. Exit Theatre Mode "Agents will drift off understandable language and invent codewords for themselves," Georgia Tech research scientist Dhruv Batra said. This isn't anything new, either. It's something that keeps cropping up when researchers experiment with this type of AI. The purpose of these particular Facebook AI agents is to communicate in English, so programmers reworked the code to get the AI back on track. But if AI is allowed to keep to its own devices, Fast Co. Design said, it eventually creates a language all its own. One that can't be understood by human beings. Now is the perfect time to prepare yourself for the end of humanity's reign over Earth by watching the new 4K Blu-ray of Terminator 2. It seems less a blockbuster action film from the '90s and more of a dark fortelling of our grim future under the emotionless rule of the machines. Regardless of our impending doom, it's a great movie. Seth Macy is IGN's weekend web producer and just wants to be your friend. Follow him on Twitter @sethmacy, or subscribe to Seth Macy's YouTube channel.Harrisburg District Judge Robert Jennings III faces extortion and other criminal charges after investigators say he demanded campaign donations from employees within his office. Jennings, 65, of Harrisburg, has been charged with a single count of extortion, four counts of coercion, four counts of official oppression and four counts of demand property to secure employment. He was arraigned on the charges Thursday morning. The Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General accepted a referral from the state's Judicial Conduct Board alleging misconduct at the judge's Harrisburg office and launched an investigation into the claims in November 2014. In early 2009, Jennings allegedly told the constables who worked in his office to provide 10 percent of their earnings to his re-election campaign fund, according to the attorney general's office. If the constables didn't, Jennings said he would not give them any future work assignments out of his office, according to the complaint. The allegations extend beyond the judge's alleged employee donation requirement. Jennings also had officers drop outstanding parking tickets against him when they were in his office, according to the criminal complaint filed by Special Agent Timothy Shaffer. Agents with the attorney general's office interviewed constables that worked in the judge's office. The constables told agents that Jennings would pick people in his office to collect money from the other constables. When one refused, Jennings once again instructed the money be collected and deposited at the bank, saying, "I wear the black robe here," according the complaint. One constable reported that he donated $2,000 to the campaign to preserve his job, and another constable is listed as donating $1,135 to the effort. Jennings allegedly said he needed the money to buy campaign signs and posters. Each time, money was passed between the constables in white envelopes. One constable told investigators that he did not use the white envelope attached to his check when he picked up his money from the office. Jennings allegedly told the constable he wanted a portion of the check. When the constable declined and asked if he would get more work, Jennings replied, "You will see," according to the complaint. The constable did not receive any future work after the conversation. Jennings' attorney, Lenora Smith, spoke with a PennLive reporter before her client's hearing, saying, "He is deserving of due process [of law] like anybody else." Jennings, who has held his position since 2004, would not comment following the hearing and held papers in front of his face as he walked to his vehicle. The charges follow misconduct charges previously filed by the state's Judicial Conduct Board against Jennings in November, which allege the judge took financial kickbacks from constables for his 2009 election campaign, sat on citations filed against himself and associates and made inappropriate sexual comments to women. The Court of Judicial Discipline ordered him to be suspended from his $86,899-a-year post with pay until the case is decided. The Court of Judicial Discipline will hold a trial to determine Jennings' official status as a judge separate to the criminal charges brought against him. The court can also accept stipulations in lieu of a trial. Jennings was released from custody on $10,000 unsecured bail, meaning he will not have to pay any of the money unless he fails to appear for a scheduled court hearing. He is tentatively scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 11 for a preliminary hearing on the charges. PennLive reporter Matt Miller contributed to this story. Editor's Note: This post has been updated to reflect that the Court of Judicial Discipline will hold a trial on misconduct allegations.Alexander, Lee propose abolition of SCOTUS filibusters But they face an uphill climb because of qualms by many Republicans and Democrats. Unbowed by opposition in both parties, two Republican senators on Wednesday moved forward with a plan to gut the filibuster for all nominations — including those for the Supreme Court. Sens. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Mike Lee of Utah introduced a Senate resolution to “establish by rule the Senate tradition of approving presidential nominations by a simple majority vote.” Senate Democrats gutted the filibuster on all presidential nominations except those to the Supreme Court in 2013 — an exemption Alexander and Lee seek to end. Story Continued Below They argue that a bare majority requirement for all nominees is in keeping with hundreds of years of Senate tradition, though the practice of filibustering and requiring 60 votes on nominees became increasingly popular over the past dozen years until Democrats killed the 60-vote requirement. “This rules change would establish by rule the Senate tradition of approving presidential nominations of Cabinet members and judges by a simple majority vote, which existed from the time Thomas Jefferson wrote the rules in 1789 until 2003, when Democrats began filibustering federal circuit court of appeals nominees,” they said in a joint statement on Wednesday. But they face an incredibly steep path to getting their resolution enshrined as the new rule of the chamber. Rather than the “nuclear option” used by Democrats that changed the rules with just a majority of votes, Lee and Alexander seek to get broad support from both parties, which would require 67 votes for approval of the changes on the Senate floor. Before making it to the floor for consideration by the full Senate, the proposal will first be considered at the Senate’s Rules Committee, where Chairman Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) will put it to committee vote, likely as early as next week, a Republican aide said. “We’ll have a markup and see what happens,” Blunt said in a recent interview. The proposal will likely face opposition from the panel’s liberal members over the Supreme Court provision. Democrats specifically made an exception to the Supreme Court in 2013 over worries that abolishing the filibuster on the nation’s highest court could allow a future Republican president to easily confirm conservative justices to the panel and potentially overturn Roe v. Wade. And plenty of Republicans also want to change the filibuster threshold back to 60 on nominations, arguing that it would be hypocritical not to after railing against Democrats’ gutting of the filibuster for more than a year. Given those partisan and intraparty divisions, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) predicted last week that Alexander and Lee’s proposal is unlikely to win the broad support it needs. If the GOP is unable to corral 67 votes for those filibuster reforms, the Senate rules will probably stay as Democrats left them: 51 votes require for confirmation on all nominees except for those to the Supreme Court, which will need 60. “Where we’re probably going to end up is with the status quo,” McConnell told USA Today.In part 1 we got a good sense of the condition of the Stingray as it arrived. We reviewed the removal and coating of the wheels and calipers, carbon fiber inserts/accents and a very thorough breakdown on how we made the tail lights look better than new. Welcome to part 2. We will show the true condition and restoration of the paint, paint protection film/clear bra installation and the finished product with cQuartz Finest on the paint and Opti-Guard Leather and Fabric coating applied. We measured the composite panel finishes with our Defelsko Positector 200 b3 Advanced. Paint work had approximately 26-31 microns of clear coat. Well within a safe range to work with. Preparing a surface for restoration is far too underrated in my opinion. Properly taping off sensitive areas will do a few things. Obviously, it helps to protect a surface from the mechanical abrasion of the pad and machine. My approach is to tape off an area and treat it as a back up in case you overshoot the panel you’re working on. It should not be used as a crutch to lean on. Even the best taping job could peel up in a spot. Better safe than sorry. It allows you to more thoroughly work a panel. When we are restoring paint, our goal is to restore the edge of a panel as much as the middle of the panel. Taping off nearby panels and surfaces allows someone to focus on one edge, the important one…the one you’re working on. By nature, working an edge or a high point on a panel tends to be a hot spot, or rather, an area prone to excessive heat while correcting. Taping off the edge of a nearby panel gives you one less area to be overly concerned with while working towards those more demanding results. I think it’s worth noting that thorough taping takes a long time. Which translates to a higher cost on a project. If you are doing this for yourself, understand that there is an art to taping and you can waste a ton of it to get the right protection without being sloppy and taping too much over the painted surfaces. I’ve seen detailers take as long as possible and still not do a great job. Be patient while learning how to do this step, it will pay off. We aren’t joking when we talk about protecting surfaces. The hood had already been restored in this image. We were moving towards getting results on the fenders here. Generally, bumpers are done last on our projects. The paint was far from new looking despite the Stingray’s age. Deep scratches, swirl marks and factory DA sanding marks were all present on this brand new car that had never seen a hand or machine wash outside of the factory or dealership. Our silver level paint correct was still able to take make a huge impact in the paint’s appearance. One of the many examples of deep damage we found and repaired. You will probably notice the lack of swirl marks around the heavy scratch. This picture was taken after our initial cut phase but before we did spot heavy scratch removal. After Rear diffuser before correction After Rear spoiler before After Rear side of rear spoiler before After Gnarly deck lid damage Beautiful Another before After Getting after it with a Flex 3401 Sure, we are going to install clear bra and carbon fiber vinyl film on the front end of the car. But not cleaning up the paint prior to protecting it is not an option! Looks like she’s ready for paint protection film and carbon fiber vinyl film. Carbon fiber vinyl is installed. Here I am installing the full hood clear bra piece. We use wide format plotters to cut precision patterns designed for the exact panel we are protecting. The Stingray had clear bra installed on the whole hood, whole front fenders, front bumper, side mirrors, a-pillars, door cups, rocker panels and a strip on the trunk lid. The owner was so happy with how it came out that he wants to come back to have the rest of the car protected with clear bra in a month or so. After all of the detailing and restoration for the exterior we topped it off with 2 coats of cQuartz Finest. Our final product was exactly what the client was looking for. The automobile was cleaned, decontaminated, restored and protected. The interior was thoroughly detailed. The seats were protected with Opti-Guard Leather and Fabric coating. Finally all of the exterior glass was treated with a long term water repellant coating. Do you like finished detail shots? How about shots showing off the project in three different types of lighting? We have that. Remember those hammered wheels? Tail pipes are spot on! Thanks for taking the time to read about this project and learn about what we do at Detailed Designs Auto Spa. We work hard at bringing something special to the table for our clients in Atlanta and all the southeast and hope you can find value in some of the techniques we use in your own detail projects.AN INVESTIGATION by the Police Ombudsman into the murder of six men by the unionist Ulster Volunteer Force in Loughinisland in 1994 has confirmed there was collusion between British agents, the Royal Ulster Constabulary and loyalist death squads in the massacre. Six men were killed and five more wounded in the UVF gun attack on The Heights Bar in Loughinisland, County Down, on 18 June 1994 while watching an Ireland World Cup soccer match. The six men cut down by the UVF as they watched the football were Daniel McCreanor (59), Adrian Rogan (34), Malcolm Jenkinson (52), Eamon Byrne (39), Patrick O’Hare (35) and Barney Greene (87). ● Scene of the UVF massacre that was organised, carried out or aided by British Government agents The report published today by Police Ombudsman Dr Michael Maguire states: “When viewed collectively, I have no hesitation in unambiguously determining that collusion is a significant feature of the Loughinisland murders.” The catalogue of collusion contained in the report includes:- The involvement of agents in the importation of weapons used in the murders; The role of agents directly involved in the attack; The active participation of British state agents in the killings; Collusion between the RUC and UVF resulting in suspects being tipped off that they were to be arrested; Failure to follow up information; “Catastrophic failures” in the investigation of suspects. The Police Ombudsman also found that there had been “fundamental failings” in the investigation into the Loughinisland murders. “I can only conclude that the desire to protect informants may have influenced policing activity and undermined the police investigation into those who ordered and carried out the attack,” the Ombudsman said. “When combined with a flawed investigation of the Loughinisland murders this had undermined the investigation into those responsible for the crimes and ultimately justice for the victims and survivors.” The Ombudsman's report states that the RUC Special Branch had information that the assault rifles imported from South Africa by British agents which were used in the attack on the Heights Bar had been stored at a farm in Glenanne used by the notorious ‘Glenanne Gang’, which was made up of loyalists, state agents and serving soldiers and police officers in the British Army’s Ulster Defence Regiment and the Royal Ulster Constabulary. The farm at Glenanne was also used as a base for the Dublin and Monaghan bomb attacks in 1974. The families of those killed in the UVF attack have welcomed today’s report. ◼︎ South Down Sinn Féin MLA Chris Hazzard, who has worked closely with the families, said: “This report from the Police Ombudsman into the Loughinisland massacre reveals the undeniable and shocking scale of collusion between British agents, the RUC and the UVF gang who carried out the attack. “No one can now deny that the British Government and its forces actively colluded with loyalist death squads to murder Irish citizens and then went to great lengths to protect those responsible.”Image copyright Jonathan Bachman/Reuters Image caption Jonathan Bachman's image from Baton Rouge has been widely shared on social media Protests have continued in the United States, after violent incidents involving African American people and the police last week. On Sunday, dozens of protesters were arrested in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where a black man was killed by police last Tuesday. In an atmosphere of heightened racial tension, and amid growing debate over the seeming militarisation of American police, one photo has stood out. It was taken by Jonathan Bachman, a New Orleans-based photographer who has been working for Reuters in the past few days. The image shows Ieshia Evans, a young woman in a dress standing calmly in front of two police officers wearing layers of armour, and appearing to approach her in a hurry. 'I am a vessel': #BlackLivesMatter muse The photograph was taken outside the Baton Rouge police headquarters, where most of Saturday's protest was focused. "The police were called out to clear Airline Highway where demonstrators had blocked the road... They managed to get most of the protesters off to the side," Bachman told the BBC via email. "I was on the side of the road photographing protesters arguing with police. "I looked over my right shoulder and saw the woman step onto the road. She was making her stand. She said nothing and was not moving. It was clear that the police were going to have to detain her." Reuters reported that she was later detained. Then Ms Evans herself took to Facebook to respond to the furore, saying she was "alive and safe". "I appreciate the well wishes and love, but this is the work of God. I am a vessel!" 'Humbled' Among the most prominent people to share the image on Facebook was Shaun King, a senior justice reporter with the New York Daily News newspaper with more than 560,000 followers. One comment beneath his post, liked more than 3,300 times, called it a "legendary picture" that "will be in history and art books from this time". Image copyright Facebook/Shaun King Why do US police keep killing unarmed black men? The cases where US police have faced killing charges US race relations: Six surprising statistics Why don't black and white Americans live together? The demonstration, organised by the civil rights group Black Lives Matter, took place days after police killed Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge. A video showed two white police officers holding him down and shooting him. Police said they had received a report an armed man was making threats. Other notable figures online to share the image include Calestous Juma, a Kenyan-born professor at the John F Kennedy School of Government, who was once named among the 100 most influential Africans. British-Indian novelist Hari Kunzru praised the "grace under pressure" shown by the woman in the photo. Bachman said he was unaware of the praise he was getting until his father called him, a few hours later. So how does he feel? "I feel very humble to capture an image that tells the story of what has been happening here in Baton Rouge. "The woman did not show any aggression toward the police. I feel it is very representative of the peaceful demonstrations that have taken place here. People are very angry and have gone through a tremendous amount of pain; but they have not turned to violence." He is still in Baton Rouge, covering the events there. The incident was also captured from another angle by Associated Press photographer Max Becherer. Image copyright Max Becherer/AP AP reported that the woman in the photograph was grabbed by officers after refusing to move off the road. The protests were not entirely peaceful - Louisiana's The Advocate newspaper said 102 people were arrested, with eight guns seized. One police officer lost several teeth after being hit by a projectile, it said. Image copyright Jonathan Bachman/Reuters Image caption This image shows a man being detained by police near the Baton Rouge Police Department Image copyright Jonathan Bachman/Reuters Image caption A young woman confronts police during Saturday's march Image copyright Jonathan Bachman/Reuters Image caption In this image, a Bible is held to the sky near the supermarket outside which Alton Sterling was shot Do you know the woman in the photograph standing in front of two policemen? If you do, please email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk. If you are available to talk to a BBC journalist, please include a telephone number. If you have joined the Black Lives Matter protests, email your pictures to yourpics@bbc.co.uk, upload them here, tweet them to @BBC_HaveYourSay or text +44 7624 800 100. Or WhatsApp us on +44 7525 900971. Read our terms and conditions.Bashir Comes in From the Cold LONDON — “The calamities of a people are the gifts of another.” So says an Arabic expression common in Sudan that could easily be the country’s motto. Tragic events have a knack for conspiring to extend the longevity of the Sudanese regime — or rather, the Sudanese regime has a knack for leveraging tragic events to stay in power. The latest calamity to benefit the government of Omar al-Bashir, who became an international pariah when he invited Osama bin Laden and other terrorists to Sudan in the 1990s and later earned the distinction of being the first sitting head of state indicted by the International Criminal Court for crimes committed in Darfur, is the massive refugee crisis gripping Europe. In exchange for cooperating with the European Union to halt the movement of migrants and refugees through Sudanese territory, Bashir’s government is being quietly invited in from the cold. For almost three decades, Khartoum has faced crippling U.S. and EU sanctions. And since his ICC indictment in 2009, Bashir has been a fugitive from justice in much of the world — only able to visit a handful of countries in Africa and the Persian Gulf without fear of arrest. Now Bashir’s government is set to receive a generous chunk of the EU’s $2 billion “Emergency Trust Fund for Africa,” which aims to combat migration at its source by promoting development and strengthening border security. For Sudan, the refugee crisis has been a godsend. For a combination of reasons — its strategic location next to Libya and Egypt, its largely ungoverned hinterland, and its porous borders — Sudan has become a major transit hub for refugees and migrants from Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Syria who are hoping to reach Europe. Historically, the Sudanese government has been rather relaxed about migration through its territory. But presented with the carrot of EU funds, and the possibility of normalization of relations with European nations, it has suddenly become far more disciplined about policing the movement of people within its borders. Refugees in Sudan say officials who previously accepted bribes from people on the move now appear unwilling to do so, and Khartoum’s notoriously chaotic police force has suddenly gotten more organized when it comes to apprehending migrants, particularly from Eritrea. In May, close to 1,000 Eritreans were reportedly rounded up in Khartoum and either taken to prisons there or deported back to Eritrea. Then in June, Sudan captured Mered Medhanie, an Eritrean smuggler thought to be responsible for the 2013 drowning deaths of almost 400 migrants near the Italian island of Lampedusa, and extradited him to Italy. This awakening of good global citizenship was no coincidence. In April, Neven Mimica, the EU commissioner for international cooperation and development, formally announced a roughly $110 million aid package to Sudan through the Emergency Trust Fund for Africa, ostensibly earmarked for reducing poverty, creating jobs, and improving the delivery of basic services in marginalized and conflict-affected areas. “Our new support of [$110 million] will essentially focus on improving the living conditions for those who call Sudan home, helping returnees to the country to reintegrate back into society, and improving security at the borders,” Mimica said in a statement. Mimica surely hoped the world would take note of the first two items he highlighted, but it is the last one — border security — that prompted the uneasy rapprochement with Brussels in the first place and has absorbed the bulk of the funds. In May, Der Spiegel and the New Statesman obtained secret documents revealing that the EU had earmarked funds to train Sudanese border police and planned to provide equipment such as cameras, scanners, and servers to the Sudanese government so it can register incoming refugees and build two closed “reception centers” in the eastern towns of Gadaref and Kassala. It’s not clear if these funds were part of the $110 million aid package announced in April or part of a separate $45 million grant, also from the Emergency Trust Fund, that the Sudanese government is set to receive a portion of in exchange for managing migration. Either way, Sudan is effectively being funded to stanch the flow of migrants and refugees to Europe — and to build open-air prisons to house them. It’s an unsavory deal for Europe to say the least. Outsourcing the management of migrant routes to a cash-strapped government with a miserable human rights record will not only mean more suffering for desperate migrants and refugees. It will strengthen a regime whose demise many wish to hasten, including, presumably, European countries whose sanctions have cut Khartoum off from international financial markets. A spokesperson for the EU’s Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development was quoted by the news service IRIN as saying the Emergency Trust Fund for Africa was “designed to improve migration management” and that “no funding will be channeled through the beneficiary countries’ government structures.” This statement is misleading at best and at worst an outright lie. In countries like Sudan, where the line between public and private is often blurred, money does not have to travel through official channels to reach government pockets. Even if funds are only disbursed to nonprofits and other private partner organizations, the Sudanese government will control every aspect of the process, right down to who gets to bid for construction tenders and contracts to install and operate the surveillance equipment. There is little accountability or transparency when it comes to the Sudanese government’s fiscal policies, and it’s hard to imagine the EU looking too closely at the money trail, so long as the migration route via Sudan is effectively patrolled and sealed off. Moreover, the entities that will enforce the new migration measures designed by the EU — the police, the border control, and the so-called Rapid Support Forces (RSF) — are very much a part of the government. A paramilitary force that supports the beleaguered Sudanese army, the RSF in particular stands accused of horrific human rights abuses, including extrajudicial killings, torture, and mass rape. It was formed in 2013 from elements of the janjaweed, the notorious militias that carried out the government’s genocide in Darfur, and answers directly to the National Intelligence and Security Service. The idea was to create a nimble and decisive force to address the country’s regular rebel uprisings and serve as a bodyguard for the central government. RSF troops regularly patrol Khartoum, a city that is increasingly becoming a garrison town, securing it against potential rebel attacks — and now enforcing immigration policies dreamed up in Brussels. It is troubling that those who perpetrated the Sudanese government’s crimes in Darfur now form Europe’s first line of defense against unwanted refugees. But even more troubling is the fact that the EU is now arming Khartoum with international credibility at a time when its domestic legitimacy is arguably at an all-time low. Cash-strapped because of low oil prices and sullied in the eyes of many of its citizens by its brazen use of extrajudicial killings and detentions, Sudan is facing its largest student protests in recent memory — protests that at times have devolved into bloody clashes with security forces. But instead of amplifying the pressure on Bashir by calling out his abuses, European governments are quietly letting his government escape its previous international isolation. In June, for instance, Marta Ruedas, the U.N. resident and humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, paid Bashir a visit at the presidential guesthouse in Khartoum. She was the highest-ranking U.N. official to meet with the president for several years. Mimica himself visited Sudan and met with the first vice president, as well as Sudanese officials in the ministries of International Cooperation, Foreign Affairs, and Interior. Presumably, a visit with the president was still a bridge too far — optically at least. This is not the first time that a foreign tragedy has proved a boon to the Sudanese regime. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Bashir’s government began quiet but close cooperation with the United States on intelligence. In exchange, Khartoum gained additional leverage over U.S. sponsored peace negotiations with southern Sudanese rebels, as well as promises of sanctions relief once South Sudan achieved independence in 2011. The United States backed away from its promise of sanctions relief after new conflicts erupted in 2011 in Sudan’s Blue Nile and South Kordofan states, but it continued to work closely with Sudanese intelligence officials. Today, in private, many U.S. officials say they’d like to remove Sudan from the U.S. state sponsors of terrorism list, a move that has proved politically impossible to date. Now Sudan has a new set of bargaining chips: desperate refugees willing to risk their lives to get to Europe. It’s unlikely that all or even most of the sanctions will be lifted anytime soon — the optics are still too bad for most Western powers — but cooperation on the refugee front is a clear first step toward rehabilitation for Bashir. If Sudan is coming in from the cold, however, the Sudanese people will remain stranded on the outside for the foreseeable future, bearing the brunt of international sanctions until they are lifted and the brutality of their government long after that. EBRAHIM HAMID/AFP/GettyImagesBaltimore’s former mayor, Sheila Dixon, has told close associates that she intends to run as a write-in candidate for mayor in the November 8 general election. Dixon plans to announce her candidacy tomorrow morning after filing paperwork at the city Board of Elections. (The election board is closed today for Columbus Day.) Reached last night, Dixon did not deny her write-in bid, saying, “I am not going to be discussing that today. If you want to reach out to me on Tuesday, that’s fine.” It is unclear how much a Dixon write-in, rumored for weeks but taking on concrete form this weekend, will change the sleepy dynamics of Baltimore’s mayoral election. The Democratic Party candidate, state Sen. Catherine E. Pugh, had been relying on the overwhelming number of registered Democratic voters to coast to victory against Republican Alan Walden and Green Party candidate Joshua Harris. Pugh has laid off her campaign staff, ended the lease on her main campaign office and has been preparing for her presumed mayoralty with a transition team led by former Baltimore County executive James T. Smith Jr. Contested Primary Results Dixon’s planned write-in would rekindle the fierce rivalry between the former mayor, who resigned from office in 2010 following her conviction of one count of misappropriation of gift cards, and the West Baltimore state senator. Dixon lost to Pugh by less than 3 percentage points in a crowded field of candidates. The April 26 primary was marred by various irregularities, including precinct stations that opened late and election board judges that failed to show up. The Maryland Board of Elections took the unprecedented step of decertifying the primary results until officials conducted a review of the ballots and made adjustments. The review added a few more votes for Dixon, but did not change the primary’s outcome. In June, Dixon allies filed a federal lawsuit calling for the primary results to be tossed out and new elections conducted. The suit has not yet moved forward in the court system. By filing so late, Dixon’s name will not appear on the ballot. Instead, voters will have to print her name on the ballot and fill in the nearby oval in order for the vote to be counted. Early voting for the election begins in less than three weeks on October 27.Share Update on July 10, 2014: On what is Nikola Tesla’s 158th birthday, the scientist was not only honored with a day in his name, but the new Tesla museum at Wardenclyffe has received a $1 million donation from, who else, but Elon Musk, founder of Tesla Motors. The donation was made possible thanks in part, again, to Matthew Inman, the comic artist who helped successfully crowdfund the purchase of the laboratory grounds and the building of the museum. In a conference call with Inman and Tesla Museum Vice President, Gene Genova, Musk also pledged to build a supercharging station on the grounds that would allow museum visitors to charge their Tesla cars. The museum is also launching a “Buy a brick for Nik” campaign, where people can buy a brick and inscribe it with whatever they want; the brick will go into the construction of the museum. (H/t LiveScience) Original article: Matthew Inman, the lone man behind the comics of The Oatmeal, is at it again on the crowdfunding platform IndieGoGo. This time Inman is asking for contributions that will go into securing the site of Nikola Tesla’s final laboratory in Shoreham, New York, for the future development of a Tesla museum. As of today, Inman has more surpassed his $850,000 goal and cracked the $1 million mark. Nikola Tesla was many things. He was an inventor, an engineer, physicist, and most notably a futurist, who paved the way for modern technologies that we take for granted, including wireless communication and radio, and alternating current systems. We also Tesla to thank for other nifty inventions like the Tesla coil, which sends visible high-voltage sparks shooting into the air. Today he’s a cultural icon. In the early 1900s, that Tesla attempted to construct a tower adjoining his laboratory, which would in theory generate electricity and wirelessly transmit it to the world. The tower ultimately failed despite its construction due to two factors. First, Tesla’s initial attempts at transmitting electricity failed due to insufficient experimentation. Second, the Panic of 1910 froze investment in his projects from J. Pierpont Morgan (founder of investment bank, J.P. Morgan). Tesla’s project was indefinitely halted and the site was sold off to George Boldt, proprietor of the Waldof-Astoria, for $20,000 ($400,000 in today’s value) to pay off his overdue rent. The site’s new owners destroyed the tower in 1917 for scrap. The Long Island science organization has long sought to transform the property into a Tesla museum, while other interested buyers plan to raze the structures and redevelop it. Its current owner,
.Find out more at the Tesco website Receive a Mum and Baby Bundle worth £9.99 when you buy a pack of newborn Huggies after receiving your voucher. Regular communications, offers and vouchers are available, and you can also share your stories for a chance to receive a £10 Sainsburys voucher.Offers a range of benefits including:Receive 5 free packs through the mail including samples, vouchers and information. Also sign up to receive even more offers by email.Find out more on the Heinz website Receive a free huggable polar bear and nutritional advice tailored to your pregnancy and baby's early development.Find out more and sign up at the Aptamil website While many have referenced a welcome pack when signing up with SMA, the website currently only lists online tools and updates. Still, it's worth signing up in the hope of vouchers and possible samples.Visit the SMA website Sign up online to receive free weaning spoons and vouchers.Sign up to receive a free Recipe Folder, packed with advice and recipes for every weaning stage - from just starting out, to eating with the family.Find out more at the Organix website Get free online advice and guides (possibly vouchers too) when signing up to Pampers Village.Join the Hipp Baby Club to receive a free, personalized baby calendar, samples, vouchers and regular mailings.Though not useful during pregnancy, the ELC Birthday Club offers birthday discounts and freebies for young children and it's worthwhile joining.Benefits include:Babies R Us is the dedicated baby department for this popular store. Sign up to receive email newsletters and vouchers for all your baby needs.Join online or in-store to receive a free pregnancy/baby booklet, loads of helpful checklists, up to £150 in money-saving vouchers and useful advice. Enter your details to receive samples of Johnson's baby creams.Register your details to receive a free sample nappy and money-off vouchers for your growing baby.Register for your chance to receive free size-1 sample nappies from this caring, eco-friendly supplier.Enter your details to receive a free sample of this treatment for nappy rash.Choose from two nappies to try out the range before committing to purchase a full pack. A 50p handling charge may apply.Register to receive 14 days free access to subscriber-only content and a copy of Nursery World magazine.Receive a surprise gift plus vouchers and information when you sign up to the Philips Avent Family Club.These wonderful book packs are usually first offered by your healthcare professional or can be collected from your local library.Sign up to receive exclusive guides, product samples and moneysaving vouchers.I hope you've found this a useful one-stop resource to discover freebies and useful baby clubs. We'd love it if you'd pass this on to anyone else who could need it by sharing on Facebook, Twitter or your favourite networking site.If you know of any baby clubs or freebies not listed here, please let us know in the comments section below so we can ensure this list is kept up to date.By Dan Moren Now you can find your friends on iCloud.com Apple’s spent the last couple years beefing up its web-based apps—the other week, the web-based iWork trio officially lost their “beta” label; this week, Find My Friends makes the jump. I’ve long been a big fan of the Find My Friends app on iOS; it also got a Notification Center widget in OS X El Capitan. The web app looks like a pretty decent implementation, though I did notice one bizarre detail: when I loaded it up earlier today, it didn’t display any of the names of my contacts—or their icons. Instead it just showed me their email addresses. Kind of bizarre, since I certainly have contact information for all of these people. It also lacks some of the niceties of the mobile app, such as the ability to easily plot directions to a friend’s location, or set up notifications, or control sharing settings on a more granular basis. So it’s not really a replacement for Find My Friends on iOS—just a handy way to see where that friend you’re meeting is, if the kids are home from school, or whatever you use Find My Friends for. [If you appreciate articles like this one, help us continue doing Six Colors (and get some fun benefits) by becoming a Six Colors subscriber.] [Dan Moren is a tech writer, novelist, podcaster, and the Official Dan of Six Colors. You can email him at dan@sixcolors.com or find him on Twitter at @dmoren.]The news broke recently that more and more websites make money by mining cryptocurrencies on their visitors’ computers. A person browses a site, unaware that their CPU is loaded more than normally, working on a task they didn’t put. The device slows down, making its owner less happy and productive. On the other hand, this type of mining can let websites earn money without selling ads. The Pirate Bay, that had been recently caught mining cryptocurrencies on the visitors’ computers, shows the type of ads that annoy people a lot. A part of its audience might be ready and willing to lend some of their computer power in order to support the website and get rid of the ads. One of the tools that now gain popularity for enabling mining on a website is Coinhive. They provide a JavaScript miner for the cryptocurrency called Monero. We at AdGuard taught our desktop apps to detect the Coinhive miner on websites and ask users whether they would allow it to use their computer. We believe that it is not right to simply block it, but warning the user and asking for his or her consent is necessary. We work at detecting other mining tools as well. So if you notice any websites that use your device for mining without warning you and asking for permission, please report us. And you should not worry too much about this news and expect every web page to abuse your CPU. Only websites with a really large audience can earn somewhat substantial money by mining on users’ devices.Assetto Corsa – Mazda 787B V1.2 Released Assetto Corsa – Mazda 787B V1.2 Released Patrik Sander and friends have made a new version of the Mazda 787B mod available for Assetto Corsa. This update implements a fix to make the mod fully compatible with Assetto Corsa V1.1. The update also contains two brand new liveries and a new PSD template to make the headlights paintable. The Mazda 787B was a Group C sports prototype engineered to compete in the World Sportscar Championship, All Japan Sports Prototype Championship and the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1990 and 1991. The 787B weighed 831 kg. It had a 2622 ccm 4-rotor 26B Wankel engine, mid-mounted with RWD and a 5 speed manual transmission. The Wankel had a whopping 700 HP@ 9000 RPM with 620 LB FT of torque. Download! Credits: 3D Model by Patrik Sander Physic by David Dominguez Sound by elMariachi90 Mazda 787B v1.2 Changelog: AC v1.1.1 fix collider fix paintable headlights 2 new skins Get Assetto Corsa at http://store.steampowered.com/app/244210/There are many theories about the origins of April Fool’s Day celebrations. One such theory is that it originated in France in the 16th century when King Charles IX adopted the Gregorian calendar, moving the start of the year from the end of March to January 1. Legend has it that the people who continued to celebrate the New Year on April 1 were mocked and had pranks played on them. Despite its popularity, this is a questionable theory, as Alex Boese, curator of the Museum of Hoaxes, points out. The calendar reform was not a sudden change but rather a gradual process throughout the 16th century. In addition, the French New Year prior to the reform was officially celebrated on Easter, which is a holiday based on the lunar calendar and thus has no official relationship to April 1. Another French origin story for April Fool’s Day points out the large numbers of newly-hatched fish that populated the rivers in April. These young fish were easy to catch and thus became known as “poisson d’Avril” or “April fish.” Celebrating the arrival of these easy-to-catch fish led to people playing pranks on each other and the still-practiced French custom of trying to tape a paper fish to someone’s back and dubbing them a “poisson d’Avril.” The postcard above is an example of poisson d’Avril greetings that were especially popular in the late-19th- and early-20th-centuries. Regardless of the actual origins of April Fool’s celebrations, be on your guard today and beware the poisson d’Avril! Further reading: April Fools’ Day April Fools’ Day Mystery: How Did It Originate? (National Geographic) The Origin of April Fool’s Day (The Museum of Hoaxes) What Is April Fools’ Day? How Did It Begin? (Huffington Post Canada) And don’t miss the Museum of Hoaxes’ April Fool Archive!I was impressed by the graphics and attention to detail when I played Elder Scrolls: Skyrim on the PC, and the first few hours I spent with the game flew by. Soon, however, the game's terrible menus and user interface began to sour the experience, and I found myself tempted to put the game back on the shelf for a month or so until these issues can be fixed. This might be a contender for game of the year, but it's also a clunky mess once you begin to level up your character, manage your inventory, or use your map. The good news for PC players is that a full suite of modding tools is on the way, and the community will take care of all the balls that were dropped by the original development teams. And boy oh boy, so many balls were dropped. Jim Rossignol summed up most of the issues I have with the game's usability issues over at Rock Paper Shotgun: Hell, Oblivion's awkward interface was bad enough, but at least it allowed you to see almost everything at a glance. And sure, Bethesda, take away my stats, but at least allow me to see what I am wearing and equipped with inside the menus? The bonuses I have? Anything? No? And so I have to exit the menu system to look at my character? And I also have scroll through everything just to see what I am carrying? And even when you are clicking about in the menu there's a huge margin of error with a mouse, that most precise of pointing devices? Come on, Bethesda, this is not the future of RPG interface design we were promised. This graphic from Reddit also does a wonderful job of summing up just how horrible and unintuitive the menus in the game can be: The mistakes made in the menus are basic and frustrating: why am I scrolling when so much of my screen goes unused? Why is it so tricky to compare the stats of my weapons and gear? It's one thing when a game has an interesting idea and it fails in practice; I think innovations and risks should be celebrated even if they don't pay out in the end. In the case of the menus in Skyrim, there is no grand design or idea. Everything is just clunky and hard to use. It's also designed to be used with a controller, which is extra annoying for those of us on a mouse and keyboard. Speaking of the mouse, movement with your mouse is a sludgy mess until you turn off mouse acceleration, but there is no way to do this in the game's menus. You have to go into the game's.ini file and make the change manually. This is a very basic flaw, and it's nonsense that it takes so much fiddling to make mouse controls tolerable. Gamefront has a good list of tweaks to make the game a more enjoyable experience on the PC. After a few minutes of tweaking, the game became much more fun. Still, the real humdinger is the perk system, where you scroll through a series of constellations in order to select new powers for your character. This sounds great on paper, and during E3 it was an impressive visual. But that's what it is: a visual trick. It's very pretty to look at it, but it takes way too long to move from constellation to constellation, and it's impossible to see all the perks you've unlocked across every constellation. This makes it hard to find the cohesion in your character, and it gets in the way of actually building the skill set you want in the game. It's form over function in the worst way, and Gamasutra went as far as calling it the "worst screen in the history of [User Interfaces]." So the game is bad? Or I should buy it on a console? No, absolutely not. The game is wonderful, and it's a pleasure to get lost in Skyrim's story. There are plenty of mysteries to solve and enemies to fight, and the game can be played a variety of ways. I've invested way too many hours into it already, and I've barely scratched the surface of what Skyrim has to show me. When other games are sold for $60 and can be finished in under 10 hours, the amount of content included in Skyrim feels almost criminal. There is already talk of DLC, which is insanity; is anyone out there close to being bored with the content that already exists? The PC version of the game may seem like a clunky mess now, but Bethesda has promised the release of a full suite of tools modders will able to use to bend the game to their will. I've already spoken to people who are in the process of "fixing" the menus, and mods that increase the game's usability should hit the Internet days, if not hours, after the tools are available, and maybe even before. Give it two months, and the PC version should be honed to perfection. Until then, we can only scratch our heads at the silly design mistakes that riddle the game, enjoy the game's story and beautiful locations, and start flame wars by laughing at how the game performs on the consoles.Killer Queen Arcade Now Available Through Raw Thrills arcadehero (Thanks to BumbleBear Games, Raw Thrills and Betson for the info; corrections have been made to the article regarding screen sizes and the company name) Not many independent arcade titles have found their way to the spotlight of mass distribution and even fewer have been able to get picked up by a major game manufacturer. So with that in mind, it is noteworthy what has happened with the following story – Raw Thrills Inc. has joined forces with the creators of the independently made Killer Queen Arcade to bring the game to the wider audience of the arcade market. (Click on any image below for a larger view) If you need a refresher, Killer Queen Arcade was released back in 2014 and stood out for being a 10 player (5v5) joystick arcade title. The game concept itself had started out as a real world/physical game that the creators felt would work best as an arcade title. Pairing two five player cabinets together that also featured 46″ screens(corrected from 55″), it was a behemoth of a game to come across at the locations that have picked it up since 2014. With Raw Thrills coming in for the new version, some changes have been made to it to maximize its potential including the re-designed cabinets you see above and some gameplay tweaks. On the hardware side, the TV positions have been slight adjusted and the size increased slightly to 47″; cup holders have been standard since the 3rd revision of their cabinet and the game now has some retro style side art (has a distinct late 70s/early 80s Midway/Williams vibe): On the software side, the new tweaks include a tutorial to help new players understand how this unique game works; they have added AI players to fill in spots that are not available for human players (similar to the unreleased Pac-Man Battle Royale: Tournament Edition software); and they have also corrected a number of bugs.The new version has gone through extensive testing and is available now. Locations that have the previous build will be able to update the software. Here is the flyer for the new release: UPDATE: This video was just posted to the Betson Youtube…doesn’t tell you much in the event that you don’t know what the game is already but it does focus on the primary aspect of the multiplayer: It is surprising to see Raw Thrills go this route as they generally have opted to keep their skill video games based on a control scheme tailored to a car, motorcycle or gun as opposed to joysticks. They have moved on that with developments like Galaga Assault and World’s Largest Pac-Man And Friends, although those games were developed for other companies. With this targeting bars, it should be interesting to see how it works out. This game has been added to the “Already Released” column on our 2016 game releases tracking page. What are your thoughts on the new Killer Queen Arcade? Share this: Facebook Twitter Google Email Reddit Like this: Like Loading…Repairing Damaged Hearts With Pig Parts Injectable biomaterial for treatment of heart attacks. Marsha Lewis, Contributing Producer (Inside Science TV) -- The statistics are shocking. Almost half of all Americans live with one or more risk factors for a heart attack. Now, bioengineers at the Christman Lab at the University of California, San Diego have created a material that could repair and even reverse the damage done by a heart attack. "A heart attack is a single event where the blood supply is blocked to that downstream tissue," said Karen Christman, a bioengineer at UCSD. When the tissue is deprived of the blood it needs, it becomes damaged. "So we're looking at coming in a month after that process has happened to try and reverse it and prevent further damage," said Christman. They're hoping a new gel will be able to do just that. It begins with the heart tissue from a pig. Todd Johnson, a bioengineering graduate student at UCSD, explained that they spin the pig heart tissue through detergent, which removes the cellular content of the tissue. The proteins that are left behind are then freeze dried and pulverized into a fine powder which is digested with enzymes, explained Johnson. This process creates a liquid that's injected directly into damaged heart tissue through a catheter. The idea is that new scaffolding creates a new home for cells to come in and repair the heart, explained Christman. "Once it goes into the tissue, it actually self-assembles into a hydrogel. You can think of hydrogel as something similar to Jell-O," said Johnson. New cells attach themselves to the hydrogel scaffold. Within three weeks the gel disappears, leaving behind the new heart cells and less scar tissue from the heart attack. The creation of more cardiac muscle that could give heart failure patients a new lease on life. "End-stage heart failure can be really bad … this could be something where they would have normal quality of life," said Christman. Get Inside The Science: Engineering A New Biomaterial Therapy For Treating Heart Attacks Karen Christman, University of California – San Diego Todd Johnson, University of California – San Diego Jean Wang, University of California – San DiegoBreaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. Nov. 6, 2017, 9:46 PM GMT / Updated Nov. 6, 2017, 9:46 PM GMT By Paul A. Eisenstein President Donald Trump on Monday pressed leaders of the Japanese auto industry to up their game, even though many Japanese brands have significantly higher American content than iconic Detroit products like the Ford F-150. The president, who landed in Tokyo at the beginning of a 12-day Asian tour, told Japanese business executives, “Try building your cars in the United States instead of shipping them over. That’s not rude. Is that rude? I don’t think so?” Trump made automotive manufacturing and jobs a central tenet of his 2016 campaign for the White House. And while he primarily focused on Mexican car plants he also cited Japanese automakers, Toyota in particular. But his latest comments raised more than hackles as automotive observers pointed out that Japan has invested heavily in U.S. automotive manufacturing over the past three decades. “The president didn’t express himself well,” said David Cole, director-emeritus of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan. “There’s no question the Japanese produce a significant portion of the cars they sell in the U.S. here in the U.S.,” and even more if you include NAFTA. This isn’t the first time the subject of Japanese auto imports has been raised. Detroit’s Big Three automakers were able to force the Japanese to accept supposedly voluntary import restraints in the early 1980s. That led Honda to open its first U.S. plant in Marysville, Ohio in 1982, and Toyota following up several years later in a partnership with General Motors called New United Motors Manufacturing. (That Fremont, California facility today is run by Tesla.) Today, virtually every Japanese automotive manufacturer operates at least one assembly plant in the States. Mazda, which walked away from a Michigan plant operated as part of a joint venture with Ford, plans to return by 2021 in another partnership, this time with Toyota. According to the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, that country’s carmakers produced about 4 million vehicles in the United States in 2016 – and when plants in NAFTA partners Canada and Mexico are included that accounts for three-quarters of their total U.S. sales. Over the last 30 years, imports of Japanese-made vehicles have tumbled sharply, from 3.5 million annually to just 1.5 million last year. Meanwhile, Japanese automakers have become some of the largest automotive exporters from the U.S. In 2016, for example, Toyota shipped over 135,000 vehicles – over half an assembly plant’s worth – from the U.S. to 40 foreign markets. Counting the number of vehicles assembled in the U.S. is just part of the debate. In their early years, Japanese makers largely relied on engines, transmissions and other high-value components, most produced in their home market. But that also has shifted. Nissan, for example, produces everything from sheet metal stampings to powertrains in Tennessee, where it also operates the largest assembly plant in the United States. The Smyrna plant, an hour outside Nashville, even produces batteries for the Leaf electric vehicle. As a result, many Japanese products now rank at the top of the “Most American” vehicle lists, including the Camry, which was number one for 2017 according to research done by both Autoguide.com and Cars.com. (A third study, by Marketwatch, ranked two Jeep models at the top.) On the flip side, many supposedly "American-made" cars use components imported from Japan, China, South Korea and other parts of the world, even if they are assembled somewhere in this country.Anyone fancy a 21-inch touch screen monitor with an ARM CPU and enough computing grunt to run Android? For about twice the price of a conventional monitor? Taiwanese analyst outfit WitsView says monitor-makers are considering just such a gadget as a way to fix the sales slump in the display industry. That slump is in part caused by slowing PC sales thanks to users' preference for tablets and smartphones. By tapping into that shift, WitsView feels, monitor-makers may find a way to grow again. The firm offers the following description for this product: “An Android LCD monitor is a LCD monitor equipped with the ARM processor, featuring the Android operating system, and adjustable to a horizontal angle on top of the touch function and WiFi, which can be regarded as a simple version of [all-in-one computer] AIO or a large-sized tablet.” The analyst firm goes on to say “the user experience on an Android LCD monitor is similar to that on a tablet and can be seen as the extension of a tablet.” But WitsView also feels that the Android-powered monitors would compete with all-in-one PCs, the cheapest of which retail for around $US600. At $US400 an Android monitor would undercut those PCs handily but also give monitor-makers a chance to sell a product with a higher margin than their conventional wares. WitsView's post on Android monitors doesn't say who will make them, when or if they may emerge or if punters want them. Current experience suggests there's not likely to be a queue for giant tablets: Sony's 20” Vaio Tap has been well-received but is not a hit product. Nor have environments offering rapid bootup and access to a basic computing environment done well: the SplashTop “instant-on” environment scarcely rates a mention on the eponymous company's website just four years after appearing in many netbooks. Perhaps if Android monitors could easily be unclipped from their stand and revert to battery power they could be of utility or interest. Such an arrangement could make desks less of an anchor for monitors and therefore spur new reasons for purchase, an important factor given the devices don't really wear out. Your correspondent's 24” screen, for example, is seven years old and shows no sign of wearing out other than a dodgy power button. Which leaves just one important consideration: what to call a giant convertible monitor/fondleslab hybrid? Do feel free to offer your ideas in the comments. ® Bootnote Since posting this story we've learned that Acer showed off an Android monitor at Mobile World Congress and promised it would reach European stores in March. Here we are in May and all we've got to go on is this video.The democratic socialist is taking a stand by running a clean campaign, and it’s already making a big impact on the race for president. If Clinton ran an attack ad, she risked coming off as desperate or a bully. But by not running attack ads, she would essentially render herself unable to combat any surge in the polls by Sanders. When Bernie Sanders’ Senior Advisor Tad Devine announced in August that the Democratic presidential candidate would not be running any attack ads against Hillary Clinton, many saw the move as simply being consistent with his previous campaign strategies and his progressive platform. Sanders has said he “hates and detests these 30-second negative ads” and has never run one. He sees the ads as part of what’s broken with American politics, and his disavowal of them fits with his electoral reform policies, which condemn super PACs and the buying and sensationalizing of U.S. elections. But Sanders’ refusal to produce attack ads has proven to be more than a matter of simple moral consistency. His pledge represented a shrewd political decision by the Sanders campaign—a decision that has now paid off. Electoral reform is central to Sanders’ platform for president. By swearing off attack ads against his opponents and cash from super PACs which often fund such ads, he has attempted to show that unlike his opponents, he can actually carry out the ideals he speaks so often about. In fact, shortly after Bernie’s announcement, his campaign sent a cease-and-desist letter to a PAC supporting him, which was first formed by Congressional lobbyist Cary Lee Peterson to encourage the Vermont Senator to run. Meanwhile, Clinton, who earned a reputation for cutting attack ads during her 2008 presidential bid against Obama, is running on a similarly progressive electoral reform platform—while also gladly accepting more than $20 million in support from Priorities USA Action, her Super PAC. At the same time as her own website criticizes the Supreme Court’s Citizen United case, saying it “helped unleash hundreds of millions of dollars of secret, unaccountable money into U.S. elections that is drowning out the voices of ordinary Americans and distorting our democracy,” Hillary is seeking some $2 billion, much of it PAC money, for her campaign. However, the political depth of Bernie’s refusal to run negative attack ads has proven far more important than revealing contrasts between the two candidates. This decision actually forced Hillary’s campaign into an incredibly difficult position. If she ran an attack ad, she risked coming off as desperate or a bully. But by not running attack ads, she would essentially render herself unable to combat any surge in the polls by Sanders. Until recently, Clinton had held off on running negative publicity. But Sanders’ self-identification as a socialist must have been too hard for her campaign to resist attacking. On September 14, the Huffington Post received an email from one of Clinton’s Super PACs that intimated Sanders would begin diplomatic ties with terrorists and linked him to the socialist former President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez. In its report on the email, HuffPost concluded it was unclear whether the message would be disseminated to anyone else. If it was, however, “the attack would be in the vein of what Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said about Sanders earlier this year—that he's unelectable, since he's a self-identified democratic socialist.” Sanders’ campaign was quick to react to this attack, sending out an email that illustrated the difference between his political strategy and that of the “billionaire class.” “Let’s send a powerful message that we have had ENOUGH of the billionaire class buying elections,” the email read. “If we stand together to fight back against these ugly attacks, we can ensure this election is about who has the best ideas, and not who has the biggest donors.” Within two days, the Sanders campaign had raised $1.2 million in grassroots contributions. According to the executive director of ActBlue, the progressive fundraising website Bernie uses to receive online donations, at one point during the blitz, they were receiving 180 contributions per minute. And on September 20, less than one week after the Super PAC attack first went live, Hillary promised CBS News’ John Dickerson on “Face the Nation” that she has “no interest” in running attack ads on Bernie. “I want this to be about ideas and about policies,” she said. “I know Bernie. I respect his enthusiastic and intense advocacy of his ideas. That's what I want this campaign to be about, and I hope people who support me respect that.” In fact, this was one of the first times since his announcement that Sanders was explicitly mentioned by Clinton. In the past, she has avoided saying his name and declined to comment on the threat his campaign poses to her success in the primaries. Sanders’ commitment to refrain from producing attack ads paid off, allowing him to illustrate a vital contrast between himself and Clinton—and raising his campaign more than a million dollars in donations in the process. Furthermore, his consistency forced Clinton to backtrack on an important issue under public scrutiny, reinforcing the notion that she is simply a politician willing to do whatever it takes to win while Sanders operates out of an ironclad commitment his progressive ideals. Such commitment is a big part of why Sanders’ campaign has proven so refreshing for so many American voters, and for millennials in particular. This generation has largely been disillusioned with U.S. politics: Fewer millennials vote, join political parties or consider politics one of their interests than in previous generations. But Sanders’ campaign has reinvigorated a large proportion of the country’s newest voters: some 59 percent of college-aged Democrats support Sanders, compared to Clinton’s 18 percent, a Chegg Media Center poll reports. Almost half of the students surveyed find Hillary “unfavorable.” Sanders has managed to pull Clinton to the left on yet another issue. As he continues to surge in the polls, Clinton is responding by moving left on issues as diverse as Black Lives Matter, the Keystone XL pipeline, Wall Street and electoral reform and even the Fight for 15. As long as Sanders continues to maintain his progressive stances on a number of other issues, his principled campaigning will likely continue to translate into tangible political gains. By the end of the primaries, regardless of who wins, the candidate will either be a true progressive dedicated to combatting inequality, fighting systemic racism, and running a clean campaign, or someone forced to champion a number of progressive causes that she likely would have barely considered otherwise. And, unlike Hillary Clinton, that’s what matters to Bernie Sanders—that someone, anyone, gets the job done.Robert Cheeke is a bodybuilder and a vegan. Bodybuilding has been long associated with meat-eating because of the belief that meat is the best source of large amounts of protein, but he has shown that eating plant-based foods can also work for the sport. What follows is an interview with him. Why did you decide to stop eating animal-based foods? I grew up on a farm and developed an appreciation for farm animals similar to the respect and appreciation someone might have for a dog or a cat. Given this perspective of farm animals and my closeness to them through my involvement in 4-H, raising them as pets, it seemed fitting to stop eating my animal friends. I no longer wanted to contribute to animal cruelty and suffering and decided to go vegan, as a teenager in the agriculture town of Corvallis, OR in the mid 90’s. How long have you been vegan? I have been vegan since December 8, 1995 (when I was 15 years old and 120 pounds – By 2003, I was up to 195 pounds and a competitive bodybuilder running veganbodybuilding.com). What are some of your favorite sources of protein? I honestly don’t have a single favorite source of protein. I eat a wide variety of foods based on what I’m in the mood for, where I am on a given day, what my training and competition schedule is like, and so on. In general, I like to eat Thai, Indian, Mexican, Japanese, and Ethiopian foods. These ethnic foods tend to be comprised of rice, vegetables, beans and legumes, and greens. Overall, they are incredibly filling, calorie and protein-rich and very tasty. If I feel like I want additional protein on top of my whole-food based meals, I’ll use plant-based protein powders such as Vega, which is primarily made up of hemp, pea and rice protein. What are some of your favorite vegan foods? I love fruits more than anything else. I travel regularly and have the amazing opportunity to pick fruit off the trees and eat the freshest, tastiest fruit available. Berries in the summer are perhaps my ultimate favorite, but I’m also a big fan of more traditional fruits available in anywhere America year-round including bananas, apples, oranges, and grapes. My second favorite type of food is probably burritos. I eat burritos almost every day. They are made of up some of my individual favorite foods including rice, beans, and avocado and all together are calorie-rich, protein dense, and of course very tasty and filling. Yams and potatoes, quinoa, kale and artichokes are some of my other favorite whole foods. Thai and Indian dishes, especially Masaman and Yellow Curry and vegetable samosas and Aloo Matter, are by far my favorite dinner meals. Avocado rolls are another menu item I indulge in regularly. Do you measure the amount of protein you consume daily because of your bodybuilding? When I am preparing for competition or in bulking-up phases of my bodybuilding program I do measure my daily intake of protein. My levels of consumption are far greater than that of someone who isn’t training for my specific sport, but I’ve noticed that consumption of 1-1.5 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight, combined with intense resistance weight training sessions one or two times a day, allows me to build muscle, get stronger and improve as a bodybuilder. When I am not training regularly, I don’t consumer nearly as much protein, probably less than 1 gram per pound of bodyweight, because I am not creating tears in muscle and therefore don’t need as much protein to repair, recover and grow. You started as a serious distance runner, how did you decide to start bodybuilding and are there any advantages to began a vegan also? I was a 5-sport athlete in high school (soccer, cross country, wrestling, basketball and track & Field) combined with a few other extra-curricular sports I did on my own (skateboarding, tennis, dancing) and after high school I chose to pursue cross country distance running in college. I was an NCAA collegiate runner at Oregon State University in 1999 and enjoyed it, but knew that in the back of my mind and in my heart, I always wanted to be a muscular person. I stopped running and started picking up weights immediately. I gained 30 pounds in my first year of real dedicated training and went on to win multiple bodybuilding championships and have competed more than 10 times over the past decade. A vegan diet/lifestyle is very conducive to success in athletics because plant-based whole foods provide the best sources of nutrition, coming from their original forms. The nutritional components we need to thrive are vitamins, minerals, amino acids, fatty acids and glucose and those all come in their original and best forms from fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, seeds and legumes. Whether we’re referring to running, swimming, football or bodybuilding, all athletes and non-athletes alike, can benefit from a plant-based, whole food vegan diet/lifestyle. Do you receive messages via your website and YouTube Channel from people about their conversion to a vegetarian or vegan diet in some part due to the information about it you have shared? I get emails, Facebook messages, Twitter comments and YouTube comments every day. I am pleased to know a lot of people have found my work and the work of my fellow vegan athletes to be inspirational and I am happy that collectively we’re saving a lot of lives and progressing forward in our quest for compassion and peace. When you travel how do you maintain your diet and how do choose your foods when you eat at restaurants that typically don’t cater to vegans? In 2011, I traveled about 250 days out of the year. This was for my Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness book tour, my work with Vega – a plant-based whole food nutrition company, and my work with the new documentary film Forks Over Knives. I drove thousands of miles in my car around the US and Canada and took nearly 50 flights, attending vegetarian, vegan, health, fitness, and animal rights themed events in all corners of North America. As a bodybuilder I learned a decade ago to pack food with me at all times. I carry fruit, protein and energy bars, protein powder, nuts, and other vegan snacks and sometimes full entrees everywhere I go. Whether in the car, or on a plane, I always have lots of food with me. When I’m stopped in a given city for a few days I seek out various restaurants and grocery stores. I’m very easy –going and don’t always desire a vegetarian or vegan restaurant, but seek out ethic food restaurants, grocery stores and co-ops or even farmer’s markets during the summer. I eat at Mexican, Thai and Indian food restaurants most often, followed by regular trips to the grocery store to stock up on produce and snacks. I’ve been to more vegan restaurants than I can count, and I do like to support vegan businesses where they exist, primarily in major cities. Any restaurant is going to have some sort of vegetables, greens, fruits, etc. and whether the items are listed on the menu or not, I can find suitable food even if I
�菓), also called gwajul (과줄), is a type of yumil-gwa, which is deep-fried, wheat-based hangwa (Korean confections).[2] Traditionally, the sweet was offered in a jesa (ancestral rite) and enjoyed on festive days such as chuseok (harvest festival), marriages, or hwangap (sixtieth-birthday) celebrations.[2][3][4] In modern South Korea, it is also served as a dessert and can be bought at traditional markets or supermarkets.[5][6] Etymology [ edit ] Yakgwa (약과; 藥菓), consisting of two syllables, yak (약; 藥; "medicine") and gwa (과; 菓; "confection"), means, "medicinal confection".[7] This name comes from the large amount of honey that is used to prepare it,[8][4] because pre-modern Koreans considered honey to be medicinal and so named many honey-based foods yak ("medicine").[7] "Honey cookie" is a common English translation for this confection's name. History [ edit ] Yakgwa is a food with a long history. It was made for Buddhist rites during the Later Silla era (668–935).[9] During the Goryeo era (918–1392), yakgwa was used for pyebaek (a formal greeting) in the wedding ceremony of Goryeo kings and Yuan princesses.[10] Yakgwa was originally made in the shape of birds and animals, but it became flatter for ease of stacking during the Joseon era (1392–1897).[10] In pre-modern Korea, yakgwa was mostly enjoyed by the upper classes, as wheat was a rare and cherished ingredient, and honey was also regarded highly.[5] Preparation and varieties [ edit ] The dough is made by kneading sifted wheat flour with sesame oil, honey, ginger juice, and cheongju (rice wine).[1][4] Yakgwa gets its shape by being pressed into flower-shaped wooden molds called yakgwa-pan (약과판), or flattened with a mallet and cut into squares.[1][9] Depending on the size, yakgwa is classified into dae-yakgwa (large), jung-yakgwa (medium), and so-yakgwa (small).[6] The ones cut into squares or rectangles are called mo-yakgwa (angular yakgwa).[8] Shaped pieces are then slowly deep-fried at a relatively low temperature, around 120–140 °C (248–284 °F).[3] The deep-fried cookies are then soaked in honey, mixed with cinnamon powder, and dried, which gives the yakgwa a sweet taste and a soft, moist texture.[2][4] [3] The treat may also be sprinkled with various topping such as pine nuts or sesame seeds.[2] See also [ edit ]Aiding proxies and terrorists to fight in Syria is precisely what the US has done and is doing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday warned against the conflict in Syria descending into sectarian warfare because of “proxies or terrorist fighters” being sent to join the fight, forgetting that this is actually US policy. “We have to send very clear expectations about avoiding sectarian warfare. Those who are attempting to exploit the situation by sending in proxies or terrorist fighters must realize that will not be tolerated,” Clinton said. But Washington has been using proxy rebel militias, many of whom have ties to terrorist groups, to topple the regime of Bashar al-Assad for months now. So what she really meant was that no one other than the US or its allies better send proxies to fight in Syria. The US has been sending non-lethal aid, like communications gear and intelligence assistance, to the rebel militias in Syria, while the CIA is facilitating the delivery of weapons from Gulf Arab states like Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Meanwhile, Turkey, a NATO ally, has been providing safe haven to the Free Syrian Army and training them at a secret military base inside Turkey. The great majority of the rebels are Sunni, a factor which has already – despite Clinton’s forewarning – redefined the conflict in sectarian terms as they try to oust an Allawite regime and have reportedly attacked minority Shiites and Christians, groups that have been historically favored by the regime. Furthermore, many of the rebels have come from foreign countries like Iraq and have ties to terrorist groups like al-Qaeda. They face a growing list of accusations like suicide bombs, torture, and extra-judicial executions. “The evidence is mounting that Syria has become a magnet for Sunni extremists, including those operating under the banner of Al Qaeda,” reports the New York Times. “The presence of jihadists in Syria has accelerated in recent days in part because of a convergence with the sectarian tensions across the country’s long border in Iraq.” According to one US intelligence estimate, as many as a quarter of the 300 rebel groups in Syria may be fighting under the banner of al-Qaeda, says Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Clinton’s inability to see that her own government’s policies have already been integral in accomplishing precisely what she warns against illustrates her ideological penchant for US interventionism. Last 5 posts by John GlaserPresident-elect Donald Trump will meet with Mitt Romney this weekend to discuss the Cabinet position of secretary of state, CNBC reports. CNN also reported that the two will talk about governing moving forward and a possible Cabinet position for Romney, though the position was not specified. NBC News quoted as source close to Trump who has direct knowledge of Trump's thinking as saying secretary of state is the position to be discussed on Sunday. Romney, the GOP nominee in 2012, was one of Trump's fiercest critics throughout the primaries and presidential election season, refusing to endorse him. In a March speech, Romney called Trump a "con man" and a "fraud." Then in June, Romney told CNN that a Trump victory would lead to "trickle-down racism." Despite all of that, Romney called Trump to congratulate him on his victory over Hillary Clinton. The former Massachusetts governor also tweeted out a note of congrats: "Best wishes for our duly elected president." Romney's father George was also a politician, first serving as the governor of Michigan from 1963-1969 and then as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 1969-1973 under President Richard Nixon. Nixon, as it turns out, has been in the news this week as President-elect Donald Trump works on choosing the people who will work in his cabinet — under intense scrutiny and media reports — after he won last week's election. Nixon, according to Fox News, announced all of his cabinet picks six weeks after the 1968 election. Since 1968, George HW Bush is the only president-elect to announce cabinet nominations within the first week after Election Day. pic.twitter.com/AYQCkWkFjg — Fox News Research (@FoxNewsResearch) November 16, 2016 Trump has announced two choices: senior adviser Steve Bannon and Chief of Staff Reince Priebus.Laws on Children Residing with Parents in Prison Back to Children Residing with Parents in Prison Part III. Foreign Country Surveys Algeria Algerian Law No. 04-05 of 2005, which deals with prison organization and the social reintegration of prisoners, contains provisions related to prisoners who have minor children.[1] Paragraph 6 of article 16 allows for the postponement of carrying out a prison term against a convicted person for the benefit of a minor child if the other spouse is also in prison. Paragraph 7 of the same article allows for postponement of a prison term of a pregnant woman or a mother with a minor child less than twenty-four months old. In accordance with article 17, the postponement shall last until two months after delivery if the child was stillborn or until the child is twenty-four months old if he is alive. Where a woman does give birth during her imprisonment, article 51 of the Law requires that the prison administration coordinate with the appropriate social welfare agency to arrange for placement of the newborn. If no placement is available, the imprisoned mother can keep the child with her until it is three years old. Information on the number of children living with their mothers in prison could not be located. Back to Top Argentina Argentinian Law 24660 on the Execution of Penitentiary Penalties[2] provides that an imprisoned mother may keep her children younger than four years of age with her in prison. The prison is to provide child care services and facilities with specially trained staff.[3] As of 2011 only one prison for women had a child care facility, however.[4] As of 2008, eighty-six children were living with their mothers in prison, according to a United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) report.[5] Back to Top Australia Each of Australia’s six states and two mainland territories apply their own legislative frameworks in relation to the correctional facilities that they manage. Provision is made in the policies or legislation of all of these states and territories for the accommodation of children with their mother in prison.[6] The Standard Guidelines for Corrections in Australia state that if provision is made for children and infants to reside with their primary caregiver in prison, “comprehensive and well structured policies and programmes should be developed where the interests of the children are paramount.”[7] The other guidelines on this matter are as follows: Assessment processes for determining the placement of a child in a custodial environment should include appropriate input from the relevant external agencies. Children and infants should be allowed to reside with their primary care giver in prison only after the Administering Department is satisfied that it is in the best interest of the child/ren to do so and there is no mechanism for the primary care giver to complete her/his sentence in the community (for example via home detention). The accommodation for primary care givers and their children should, wherever possible be domestic rather than custodial. While prisoners are responsible for the care of their children living in the prison, the Administering Department should take reasonable steps to ensure a safe environment for children.[8] Information on the age limits and numbers of places available for children to reside with their mothers in prison in each state and territory is provided below. 1. Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) has detailed rules and procedures related to children residing with female detainees in a specified ACT prison.[9] Female detainees who are the caregivers of children up to the age of four years or who are pregnant may participate in the Women and Children Program.[10] Following approval, children are placed with their caregiver in a women’s cottage at the prison. The cottage “consists of two five bedroom units with a shared living room, dining room, kitchen, laundry and courtyard.”[11] 2. New South Wales The New South Wales Mothers and Children’s Program[12] has three components: a full-time residency program, occasional residency program, and release of the mother to serve her sentence in an approved environment away from a correctional center.[13] In order for a child to reside full-time with his or her mother, he or she must be aged under six years and not attending school.[14] The two residency options are available in two correctional centers in the state. In one facility there are eight cottages that provide full-time accommodation for up to a total of forty women and sixteen children, and in the other there are full-time places for five women with preschool aged children.[15] 3. Northern Territory The Northern Territory Prisons (Correctional Services) Act 1980 (NT) provides for a female prisoner who gives birth to a child or who has children under five years of age to obtain permission to have that child or those children accommodated with her in a prison.[16] In 2012, it was reported that “a new 24-bed cottage to meet the needs of women with children in custody has been constructed at the Alice Springs Correctional Centre.”[17] 4. Queensland In Queensland, approval may be granted for a child who is not eligible to start primary (i.e., elementary) school to reside full time with his or her mother in a correctional facility.[18] Detailed procedures apply to the consideration of an application, and to the management of the mother and child who reside together in a facility.[19] Three Queensland women’s prisons have residential units that accommodate women who have a baby or young child residing with them in prison.[20] One prison has units that accommodate a total of eight inmates and their children; another regularly has “up to six children, sometimes ten, placed with their mothers;”[21] the third has a specialist unit that can accommodate up to eight mothers and babies, plus another eight places for mothers and babies in a double unit.[22] 5. South Australia The South Australia Department of Correctional Services issued an instruction in 1993 stating that provision may be made for a child to live with a parent in prison.[23] According to the Department’s 2002–03 Annual Report, the Adelaide Women’s Prison has facilities to accommodate nine women with children under three years of age.[24] The 2012–13 Annual Report stated that a goal for the following year was to establish a mothers and babies program at the prison.[25] 6. Tasmania In Tasmania, a prisoner may request approval for a child to live with the prisoner in the prison.[26] The women’s prison in Tasmania has a seven-bed mother and baby unit.[27] 7. Victoria In Victoria, “[p]risoners who are pregnant or who are the primary carers of young children may apply for the Mothers and Children Program.”[28] A child must be under school age in order to live in the prison with his/her mother.[29] The program is available in the state’s two women’s prisons where mothers and their children are housed in dedicated facilities.[30] According to a February 2013 news report, at that time nine children, aged two months to four years, were living in prison with their mothers in the state.[31] 8. Western Australia In Western Australia, a detailed policy directive sets out the rules and procedures related to children residing in prisons with their mothers.[32] For the residential programs in some prisons, the age at which a child’s residency must cease is twelve months.[33] However, in purpose-built facilities, the age limit is generally four years.[34] According to one report, in one prison with special facilities for mothers and children there were nine children residing with their mothers in 2010–11, although the facilities were designed to accommodate six.[35] Back to Top Belgium Belgian law allows inmates (détenus) to have their child live with them in prison until the child is three years old.[36] The law provides for special facilities specifically designed to accommodate mothers with children.[37] According to the Coordination des ONG pour les Droits de l’Enfant (NGO Coordination for Children’s Rights), a nongovernmental organization that focuses on children’s rights, there were five places for mothers with children in the French-speaking regions of Belgium (Wallonia and Brussels).[38] The same report notes, however, that there are often more than five mothers with children owing to prison overpopulation.[39] The children’s length of stay ranged from a few weeks to the legal limit of three years.[40] As of November 2012, there appeared to be thirteen children living with their mothers behind bars in Belgium (including the Flemish-speaking region).[41] Back to Top Benin Beninese law appears to allow mothers to keep their young children with them in prison, although no special accommodation seems to be provided for such situations.[42] It has been reported that there are approximately a hundred children under the age of five living with their mothers in Beninese prisons.[43] Back to Top Bolivia The Code of Criminal Procedure (Código de Ejecución Penal)[44] provides that children aged six or younger may live with their incarcerated parent if that parent has custody.[45] When both parents have custody, the child remains with the parent who is free except when the child is breastfeeding, during which time he/she stays with the mother in prison.[46] Children living in prison with their parents stay in child care facilities set up for them.[47] For older children, the Code of the Boy, Girl and Adolescent[48] provides that when both parents are in prison and it has been determined that their children do not have extended family, or that the extended family cannot possibly assume responsibility for the children’s care, those children will be assigned to a foster home or institution located close to their parents’ prison, except for children younger than six years old, who remain with their mother in prison.[49] The authorities are required to provide children separated from their parents the opportunity to stay connected with their parents in prison.[50] According to official sources there are approximately two thousand children living in Bolivian prisons with their parents.[51] Most of these children are younger than six years of age but there are many prisons where children older than six, mostly adolescents, are still living in prison with their parents.[52] The lack of enforcement of the maximum age established by law has caused a high number of human rights violations and crimes against these children, which the government is trying to reverse and correct.[53] Back to Top Botswana Botswana law provides that a breastfeeding child of a female prisoner may live with the mother until the child has been weaned. During the child’s stay in prison, the child may be provided with “clothing and necessaries at the public expense.”[54] According to a 2013 US Department of State report, Botswana prison authorities allow female prisoners to bring breastfeeding children under the age of two to prison; however, some prison do not have maternity facilities.[55] After the child has been weaned, the Prison Service is required to place the child with a relative or family friend who is able and willing to provide support or, in the event that such a person is not available, with a government-approved child care provider.[56] A previous US Department of State report noted that, in 2012, there were 4,241 prisoners in Botswana, 141 of whom were female.[57] No statistical information concerning the number of children living in prison with their mothers was located. Back to Top Brazil Article 83(§2) of Law No. 7,210 of July 11, 1984, determines that Brazilian prisons for women must have a nursery where convicted women can care for their children, including nursing them until they reach at least six months of age.[58] For the purpose of assisting the child whose guardian is in prison, a women’s penitentiary must have a section for pregnant women and women in labor, and a child care facility to house children older than six months and younger than seven years.[59] The nursery and the child care facility must be equipped with qualified personnel in accordance with the guidelines adopted by educational legislation, and have opening hours that guarantee the best care for the children and their guardian.[60] On July 15, 2009, the National Council of Criminal and Prison Policy (Conselho Nacional de Política Criminal e Penitenciária) issued Resolution No. 4, which details the steps to be taken for the gradual separation of the convicted mother from her child, once the child reaches the age of one year and six months.[61] According to the National Penitentiary Department (Departamento Penitenciário Nacional), in December 2012 there were 14,119 convicted women incarcerated in a “closed regime” (regime fechado) in the country.[62] However, no information was provided regarding how many children were being raised in prison. Back to Top Burma According to a 2011 report submitted to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) by the Child Rights Forum of Burma, there are infants and young children living in prison with their mothers in Burma.[63] The report states that babies born in prison and children who accompany their mother during the mother’s incarceration do not receive adequate health care and nutritious food, and their mothers are often denied assistance during childbirth. Moreover, the absence of everyday stimuli and educational material in Burma’s prisons hampers children’s social and emotional development.[64] No Burmese law regarding children in prison was located. Back to Top Burundi Burundian law appears to allow imprisoned mothers to have their children live with them. There were eighty-five babies and children living with an incarcerated parent (parent) in Burundian prisons as of 2009, out of a total penitentiary population of 11,084 inmates.[65] No special accommodation is provided for these children and their incarcerated parent, and only nine of them had access to special health services and clothing provided by a charity organization.[66] Back to Top Cambodia According to an October 2013 report of the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (Ligue cambodgienne pour la promotion et la défense des droits de l'homme, LICADHO), there were fifty-one children aged between one month and eight years living with their incarcerated mothers in the prisons monitored by LICADHO in July 2013. The report states that the Cambodian Prison Law of December 2011 lowered the maximum age limit of children allowed to stay in prison from the age of six to the age of three, but this age limit has not been fully observed. The report also said that the Cambodian prison system is incapable of providing for most of a child’s basic needs, including education, family life, proper nutrition, and medical care.[67] Back to Top Cameroon Cameroonian prisons appear to house young children who were born there to incarcerated mothers. As of July 2012, there were allegedly five infants in the central prison of Yaoundé, the capital.[68] No special accommodation seems to exist for these children and their mothers, and the Yaoundé central prison is extremely overpopulated: originally built for eight hundred inmates, it housed 3,922 inmates in 2012, including 114 women and 211 juveniles.[69] No information on how many children live with incarcerated mothers in other Cameroonian prisons was located. Back to Top Canada In Canada, offenders who have been sentenced to imprisonment for two or more years are kept in federal corrections facilities, while those with a lower sentence remain in provincial correctional centers.[70] Certain measures are in place to help incarcerated parents maintain parental relations with their children, including escorted temporary absence,[71] unescorted temporary absence,[72] and family visits without a physical barrier to personal contact.[73] For younger children, the Correctional Service of Canada established guidelines in 1995 to provide for a Mother-Child Program (MCP),[74] which is subject to the institutional head (or warden’s) discretion and an institution’s space availability.[75] The MCP provides a full-time cohabitation program for female offenders with children under four years old and a part-time program for children aged six and under. The program was fully implemented in 2001 and was modified in 2008 by Public Safety Canada, after the media covered the Whitford case, [76] in which a mother accused of shooting her partner was allowed to temporarily keep her newborn child in prison.[77] As a result of the Whitford decision the eligibility criteria were modified by ministerial directive to exclude offenders convicted of serious crimes and to restrict the part-time program.[78] In practice, the rate of participation for the MCP is very low, which is attributed to “correctional overcrowding,” a “more punitive institutional culture,” and a number of changes to “program’s eligibility criteria.”[79] Since 2008, only fourteen children have participated at the federal level, eight of them on a full-time basis.[80] There were three MCP participants among 261 federal female offenders in April 2003, four participants for 460 offenders in April 2007, and zero participants for 603 offenders in April 2012.[81] These numbers illustrate that the rate of MCP participation has decreased even while the number of female prisoners has increased. The Correctional Service of Canada recently announced the expansion of “special rooms” to facilitate the MCP but it has not been confirmed whether more women would actually participate, according to news reports.[82] At the provincial level, most of the provinces, including Québec, Ontario and Alberta, do not provide a specific program allowing the cohabitation of children with their offender parents and programs that are in place are limited to familial visits, with the distinction that Alberta has implemented videoconference visits to allow for more visits, as well as longer visiting hours.[83] British Colombia began to provide an MCP at provincial institutions in 1973 to permit “women who gave birth while serving sentences of provincial incarceration” to “keep their babies with them in their respective institutions.”[84] In 2008, a mother-baby program was cancelled in a provincial correctional center but the Supreme Court of British Columbia reversed the decision by declaring it an unconstitutional violation of the principles of fundamental justice and the right to equality under sections 7 and 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.[85] Back to Top Chile The Regulation of Prisons[86] requires Chile’s prisons for women to provide adequate spaces and conditions for the pre- and postnatal care and treatment of mothers and their breastfeeding children.[87] In regular prisons that are not dedicated only to women, the penitentiary authorities must provide the necessary measures and programs for women who bring their breastfeeding children with them.[88] As of 2012, 307 mothers had children of breastfeeding age living with them in the prison for women located in Santiago.[89] Back to Top China Chinese law does not appear to allow children to live in prisons with their prisoner mothers. Instead, the Criminal Procedure Law provides that a woman sentenced to imprisonment or criminal detention may be permitted to temporarily serve her sentence outside of prison when she is pregnant or breast-feeding her own baby.[90] Back to Top Colombia The Penitentiary and Prisons Code of Colombia[91] provides that children aged three and younger may live with their mothers in prison unless a judge decides otherwise.[92] The Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar (Colombian Institute of Family Welfare), in coordination with penitentiary authorities, provides special care to minor children residing in prison with their mothers, including educational and recreational programs for them.[93] As of July 2013, there were 237 children living with their mothers in Colombia’s prisons.[94] Back to Top Côte d’Ivoire Ivorian law appears to allow incarcerated mothers to keep their young children with them in prison. As of July 2014, there were 144 pregnant women and mothers of children under three years of age at the MACA, the main prison in Côte d’Ivoire.[95] These inmates and their children are housed in regular prison cells, as there are no special accommodations for them.[96] Back to Top Cuba According to a Quaker United Nations Office report, as of 2010, the age limit for children living in prison with their incarcerated mothers in Cuba was generally one year.[97] No relevant statistical information on the number of children incarcerated with their mothers could be located. Back to Top Denmark Danish law provides that “an inmate has the right to have [his/her] child under the age of one accompany [him/her] to prison, provided that he or she is capable of looking after the child.”[98] Thus, the Danish provision does not limit the right to care for a child to only the mother but all inmates are given the same right, provided they can care for the child. Also, inmates in Denmark are allowed to cohabit with a fellow incarcerated inmate if the couple had a relationship before being sentenced, and with nonsentenced spouses at the more relaxed family houses of open prisons or halfway houses (i.e., houses where prisoners who are soon to be released are housed).[99] High-security prisons are uncommon in Denmark; instead most inmates serve their sentences in so-called open prisons, as these are the presumed sentencing facilities for all crimes resulting in less than five years in prison.[100] The articulated goal is to have all inmates serve in an open prison.[101] Denmark does not have special female prisons but has recently discussed the creation of the same.[102] The reason for the current lack of special female prisons is the relatively few female inmates (totaling seventy-five in 2014)[103] and the principle of being incarcerated close to family members.[104] The few mothers in prison can also be explained by the fact that Danish legislation specifically includes a mission statement that the purpose of a prison sentence is to serve as punishment” but also to help the individual transition into a crime-free life.[105] Inmates are given the same rights to health care as the population at large and also perform work the same as ordinary citizens.[106] Prison mothers who work in prison are entitled to a year of maternity leave, i.e., they have to remain in prison but do not have to work or study during this time, which allows them to focus on taking care of their children.[107] Working inmates are also entitled to paid sick leave.[108] Another accommodation that benefits mothers is Denmark’s relatively short prison sentences and its willingness to assign alternative sentences, such as electronic surveillance. Electronic surveillance is used for prison sentences of up to five months.[109] Other alternatives include serving out the sentence in an institution.[110] There has been one report of a child that was conceived in a high security prison, born while her mother and father served a sentence for murder, who was reared in prison until her third birthday and then moved out to be better accommodated.[111] Another report estimated that approximately ten children live with their parents in prison each year in Denmark.[112] Back to Top Ecuador Ecuador’s Code of Childhood and Adolescence[113] provides that children whose parents are in prison are to receive protection and assistance from the state outside of the rehabilitation institution to ensure their right to family and community interaction, and are to be provided with direct and regular contact with their parents.[114] In 2007, the government started a program called Ecuador Sin Niños en las Cárceles (Ecuador with No Children in Prisons) to remove children older than three years of age from the prisons where they were living with their mothers. As of 2012, only 203 children remained with their mothers in prison, reduced from 1,400 in 2007.[115] Back to Top Egypt Article 20 of Law No. 396 of 1956 on the Organization of Prisons, as amended by Law No. 20 of 1973, provides that a newborn in Egypt can remain with his/her imprisoned mother until the child reaches the age of two. If the mother is not willing to have the child stay with her or when the child has reached two years of age, the child must live with his/her father or any relative selected by the mother. If the child does not have a father or any other relatives, the prison director must notify the governor to place the child in an outside orphanage. The director will notify the imprisoned mother of the location of the orphanage so that she can visit the child in accordance with regulations.[116] Article 31-bis of Law No. 12 of 1996 Promulgating the Child Law, as amended by Law No. 126 of 2008, states that [a] nursery shall be established in every prison for women, according to the specifications for nurseries, where children of female prisoners may be placed until they reach the age of four on condition that the mother stays with her child during the first year of his life. A decree shall be issued by the Minister of Interior to regulate the communication between the imprisoned mother and her child. The mother shall not take the child to her prison cell and she shall not be deprived from seeing her child or taking care of him as a punitive action for any wrongdoing.[117] According to a report issued by a women’s rights organization in 2013, there were thirty-five imprisoned mothers living with their children in the largest women’s prison, located in Cairo.[118] Information on the total number of children living with their mothers in prison in the country could not be located. Back to Top El Salvador Salvadoran law provides that children under five years of age can stay with their incarcerated mothers in prison. To this end, the law requires that a place for child care must be established in women’s prisons[119] and that those prisons must provide pediatric care for children.[120] An article published online in May 2013 indicated that the prison of Ilopango—an overcrowded prison just outside of San Salvador, the capital—contained 1,700 women prisoners, 300 of whom were mothers struggling to provide their children with a family-like environment.[121] Back to Top England and Wales England and Wales have specialized mother and baby units that are separate from the general population within women’s prisons to allow babies to stay with their mothers if a number of factors are met.[122] Admission into the unit is not automatic; it is decided by an admissions board chaired by a social worker. The capacity of these centers is very limited, with only seventy-seven places across the nation,[123] while around 120 females in custody give birth each year.[124] The decision to admit the mother and baby takes into account a number of factors, including a) Whether it is in the best interests of the child b) The necessity to maintain good order and discipline within the MBU c) The health and safety of other babies and mothers within the unit[.][125] In the majority of cases, the child leaves the unit by the time the child is eighteen months, or earlier if it is in the best interests of the child to do so. There are exceptional cases where the child may be allowed to stay longer, but the general expectation is that the child will leave the unit by the age of eighteen months or earlier. The separation plan is agreed upon by a team as soon as the mother enters the unit, and the mother is involved in the process. Back to Top Ethiopia Ethiopian federal law provides that an infant under the age of eighteen months whose mother is in federal custody and who needs close maternal care may be allowed to stay with the mother.[126] In this situation, the Federal Prison Administration (the Administration) is required to provide the infant with “the necessary food, vaccination, medical care as well as other necessary items.”[127] In addition, on the recommendation of a medical officer, the Administration is required to provide extra food to female inmates who are pregnant or caring for an infant child.[128] The law further provides that if staying with the mother is likely to “have an adverse physical or psychological impact” on the infant, the child must be placed with a close relative.[129] In the absence of a close relative, the Administration is required to “facilitate the possibilities” of finding another suitable placement for the child.[130] For instance, some prisons in Ethiopia have placed in orphanages children for whom prisons were deemed unsuitable and no relation was available to assume custody.[131] A secondary source consulted for this report indicated that regional prisoner treatment regulations and directives follow the same standards.[132] In a 2012 study of 114 of the 119 detention centers (housing both convicts and people awaiting court decisions on their cases) in the country’s nine regional states and two Federal City Administrations, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) found that there were 88,610 detainees, of whom 2,700 (3.1%) were female.[133] The EHRC also found that 496 children were staying with their mothers in detention centers around the country.[134] Back to Top Fiji The Fiji Corrections Service Act 2006 provides for regulations to be made in relation to “arrangements for female prisoners and their children consistent with the rights and obligations of CEDAW [Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women] and CRC [Convention on the Rights of the Child], and in particular the rights of mothers to feed and care for their infant children whilst in prison.”[135] The Corrections Service Regulations 2011 also provide for Commissioners Orders to be made related to “arrangements for female prisoners and infant children.”[136] The Officer in Charge of a prison must ensure compliance with the Regulations and Orders, including those relating to all aspects of the role of Visiting Medical Officers, “including matters associated with... the rights of female prisoners and their young children.”[137] The relevant Orders could not be located. According to media reports, in 2009 the first ever arrangements were made for an infant to reside with his mother in the Fiji women’s prison, with the International Women’s Association providing assistance to renovate an empty room to turn it into a nursery and donating clothing, bedding, and furniture. The prison service was also said to be providing for the special needs of the mother and child, including dietary needs.[138] It was also reported that, as part of new arrangements under the 2006 legislation, children up to six years of age would be able to reside in prison with their mothers.[139] Later in 2009, the prison service reported that a second baby had been born to an inmate and that the women’s prison “has special accommodation for all necessary pre-natal and post-natal care and treatment.”[140] An August 2013 media report indicated that there were forty-five inmates in the women’s prison and that one child aged three years resided in the prison.[141] Funding for a new women’s prison was allocated in the government’s budget for 2014.[142] Back to Top Finland In Finland, the Prison Act specifies that placing a child in custody together with its parents is governed by the Children’s Protections Act.[143] A small child can be placed in a family unit in the prison while the parent is serving his/her sentence.[144] The upper age limit is generally two years, but can be extended to three years if the welfare of the child so demands it.[145] The wording of the legislation is gender neutral on its face, allowing both men and women to be accompanied by their small children. A social worker assigned to the child decides whether or not to send a child with the parent, after first having heard the Criminal Sanctions Agency’s recommendation.[146] According to the Prison Act, men and women must live in separate units (wards) of a prison but may live in the same prison.[147] There are in total twenty-six different prisons in Finland, none of which is an all-female prison.[148] In one “open prison” there is a family unit in which parents can live with their small children.[149] Inmates are assigned to the prison with the appropriate security level that is closest to their home.[150] Finland restricts prison sentences to only the most extreme cases.[151] A number of other alternative and conditional sentences can be imposed. These include conditional imprisonment, suspended sentences, and electronic monitoring.[152] All prisoners have the right to
gray or "shades of fawn from pale cream to red," according to the AKC. The pumi is a relative of the puli, an extremely striking dog known for its long, corded hair: toggle caption Frank Augstein/AP You can see a pumi herding sheep in the video below, and the action picks up at around the 1-minute mark.Somali-American task force seeks to build support for anti-terror program Hodan Hassan Laura Yuen \| MPR News Members of a Somali-American task force say they're confident they can win over skeptics as they roll out a new program aimed at preventing terror recruitment in Minnesota. Many Somali Minnesotans remain mistrustful of the pilot program spearheaded by U.S. Attorney Andy Luger. But task force member Hodan Hassan says her community needs the resources it would provide. "When you see that we're trying to find employment for youth, and we're trying to find ways to support building a new center for youth, people will see with their own eyes that there's nothing to be afraid of," she said. "This is a resource creation for the Somali community, and we're inviting all communities to be part of it." • Complete coverage: Called to Fight Luger signed a memo saying he would not use the program to gather intelligence, which is a widespread concern among Twin Cities Muslims. The program aims to hire an independent researcher to identify the root causes of radicalization, including identity issues, community isolation, lack of role models and unemployment. Inequality and low social mobility have impeded the community and have provided a window for overseas terrorist groups like al-Shabab and ISIS to take hold, task force members said. "They provide money, they provide work, they provide women to marry — they provide a lot of things," said Mohamed Mohamud, executive director of the Somali American Parent Association, said of the extremist groups. "So we're trying to overcome that." But critics don't believe jobs or scholarships will do much to prevent someone from turning to violent ideology. Several young men arrested recently in the Twin Cities on charges of trying to join ISIS were working and attending community college. And experts say there isn't a single profile of who might be endangered of becoming radicalized. The task force also seeks to provide community "support teams" — including imams, parents, teachers, coaches, and mental health professionals — that could intervene in the lives of young people who have been disconnected from their families. A final component of the program calls for community events aimed at fostering positive relations between the Somali community and law enforcement. Task force members say the program has $200,000 in seed money, seeks to secure additional federal grants, and has secured financial commitments from foundations. A third-party nonprofit would likely serve as the project's fiscal agent and distribute the funds to avoid the perception that the money is coming from law enforcement. "This committee is working with law enforcement, but we're not working for law enforcement," said Abdi Salah, an aide to Minneapolis City Council Member Abdi Warsame. "We're happy to have the U.S. Attorney's office as a partner, but with or without the U.S. Attorney's office, there's a problem that needs to be addressed. And that's exactly what this committee is doing." Meanwhile, a separate task force comprising Somali-American and Muslim community members met this week for the first time to address the threat of radicalization and ways to support the youth. The group is backed by about 50 Muslim organizations that have joined a statement coming out strongly against Luger's program. Jaylani Hussein, the head of the Minnesota chapter on the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said he remains concerned about efforts to expand social services in the Somali community through the lens of counterterrorism. Many Somali-Americans find that approach stigmatizing, he said.Americans pining for a peaceful existence might consider moving to New Zealand, the most peaceful nation on Earth, according to the 2009 Global Peace Index released Tuesday by an Australian-based research group that counts former President Jimmy Carter, Ted Turner and the Dalai Lama among its endorsers. The U.S. is 83rd on the roster, according to the Institute for Economics and Peace that rated the relative tranquility of 144 nations according to 23 “indicators” - including gun sales, the number of homicides, the size of the military, the potential for terrorism and the number of people in jail. The index defined peace as “the absence of violence,” and so far, things are a little dicey. Violence and instability have increased, respect for human rights has decreased. The researchers also calculated that the world’s nations have collectively lost close to $8 trillion due to the complications of widespread violence. RELATED STORIES: • EXCLUSIVE: Al Qaeda eyes bio attack via Mexico border • ‘Confidential’ U.S. nuclear sites show up on web • First lady brings message of hope to D.C. school After New Zealand, the top 10 most peaceful nations are Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Austria, Sweden, Japan, Canada, Finland and Slovenia. In the bottom 10 are Zimbabwe, Russia, Pakistan, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Israel, Somalia, Afghanistan and, in last place, Iraq. Traditional U.S. allies generally fared well on the list: Germany is at 16, Australia at 19, Spain (28), South Korea (33), Britain (35) and Italy (36). Libya, Nicaragua, Jordan, Cuba, China, Peru and Ukraine all are rated more peaceful than the United States. Rwanda is rated 86, Syria 92, Iran 99 and Mexico 108. “Because they can work better with others, peaceful countries can constructively work together on solving some of our most pressing economic, social and environmental problems. Indeed, peace is the prerequisite to helping solve today’s major challenges, such as food and water scarcity, decreasing biodiversity or climate change,” said Clyde McConaghy, a former advertising director and business executive who developed the index with entrepreneur Steve Killelea. “Peace is a concrete aim that can be measured and valued, not just in social terms but in economic terms. There is a clear correlation between the economic crisis and the decline in peace,” Mr. McConaghy continued, adding that peace tends to promote productivity and trade. America’s so-so rating on the Index is better than its grade last year, when the nation was ranked 89th. The six-point jump is due in part to a lower risk of terrorism, said Leo Abruzzese, director of North American research for the Economist Group, which calculated the data for the index. The Economist Group also publishes the Economist and Roll Call, among other things. “Although the United States saw an increase in ranking despite the economic crisis, some factors - such as the ease of access to weapons, a large prison population and ongoing combat deaths - prevented it from ranking higher this year,” Mr. Abruzzese said. The index is primarily based on 2008 data from the International Institute of Strategic Studies, the World Bank, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute and United Nations sources. Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.Jesse Orosco's magical flying glove, the one that seemingly defied gravity and never came down after the Met reliever flung it into the air in triumph at the conclusion of both the league playoffs and the World Series last year, is enchanted after all. It may be recalled that George Vecsey raised the question of the glove's mysterious properties in a Sports of The Times column on Monday. After studying tapes of the two clinching games, he noted that the glove had clearly gone up in the air but just as clearly had never come down on the pile of celebrating Mets. That the mitt did in fact come down - somewhere out of camera range - seemed obvious. ''I got the glove back,'' Orosco told Vecsey, ''that's all I know.'' Not quite. What Orosco knew, but wouldn't tell, is that the glove is continuing to work its magic - by buoying the spirits of a New York City police officer, Steven McDonald, who was paralyzed by a gunman's bullet in Central Park last year. According to Bernie Bennett, a New York public relations man, the story of the glove's latest enchantment began Dec. 12, when Orosco attended the police Honor Legion's annual Christmas party for the wives and children of slain police officers at O'Neill's restaurant in Maspeth, Queens, a Bennett client. Orosco, a friend of the restaurant's owner, George O'Neill, had already revealed a humanitarian streak, Bennett notes, by delaying a trip to his Florida home so that he could attend the party as its only celebrity guest. He revealed even more when he heard of McDonald's ordeal and learned that the officer was an avid Met fan who would be thrilled by a visit from him. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Orosco paid that visit during a brief return to New York after Christmas, calling on McDonald at Bellevue Hospital. He brought along a bat and some other gifts, but when the conversation in the room turned to the glove he had twice lofted into baseball history, he decided he hadn't brought enough. The glove, he told McDonald, would be his. Because visits to McDonald are severely restricted, Orosco wasn't able to take the glove to the officer before he had to return to Florida, so he entrusted it to O'Neill's manager, Michael O'Connor, who said yesterday that he expected to arrange a visit to deliver it next week.YouTube September 1, 2008 John McCain’s on Ambien. So much for being ready for that 3 a.m. call. One humorous doctor said, "The key is to use Ambien-like sleeping medications in moderation and don’t mix them with other sedative drugs or alcohol … Most importantly, avoid use in the event you have to consider escalation from Defcon 4 to Defcon 3." Ambien, America’s best-selling prescription sleeping pill, is showing up with regularity as a factor in traffic arrests, sometimes involving drivers who later say they were sleep-driving and have no memory of taking the wheel after taking the drug. In some state toxicology laboratories Ambien makes the top 10 list of drugs found in impaired drivers. 26.5 million Ambien scripts are written every year. (As of 2007). Ambien’s maker, Sanofi-Aventis, says the drug’s record after 13 years of use in this country shows it is safe when taken as directed. …A spokeswoman for the F.D.A. said the drug’s current label warnings, which say it should not be used with alcohol and in some cases could cause sleepwalking or hallucinations, were adequate. Ambien is the sleep aid that was at the center of a class action lawsuit after users noticed bizarre side effects, like getting up in the middle of the night and cooking huge meals, then leaving the burners at full blast and going back to bed. I remember reading one man’s account. He said he heard sounds from the kitchen and found his wife tearing open a package of hamburger buns, "like a grizzly bear." Still, some sleep experts maintained that the rarity of these side effects, coupled with the wide use of the drug, make it unlikely that a problem would arise if the commander-in-chief were taking the pills. "I suspect that drugs like Ambien are used very commonly by government officials, particularly when crossing time zones," noted Dr. Donald W. Greenblatt, director of the Strong Sleep Disorders Center at the University of Rochester Medical Center. John McCain is not a bad man, it is simply not proper for the guy with his finger on the button to be medicated.Every great chef has a defining recipe — a signature dish that displays his or her taste, style, background and technique. Most commonly it is an inspired assembly of ingredients, often (but not always) unique, that becomes a chef’s calling card. In the best case, a signature dish boosts a chef’s star status. Famous signature dishes include Paul Bocuse’s puff-pastry-topped truffle soup VGE, Ferran Adrià’s liquid olive and the Troisgros brothers’ saumon à l’oseille. Jean-Georges Vongerichten claims to have invented the molten chocolate cake, Thomas Keller’s Oysters and Pearls is considered his first masterpiece, and every time you eat a plate of black cod with miso, you should raise a glass to its inventor, Nobu Matsuhisa. A signature dish can be something other than an expression of a chef’s vision. Few would deny that the Big Mac is McDonald’s signature dish, or that rôtisserie chicken made St-Hubert’s name. Some restaurants remain famous for a signature dish long after the original chef is gone, such as Il Vero Alfredo in Rome, reputed to be the birthplace of fettuccine Alfredo, or Le Cirque in New York, where crème brûlée made its debut. A signature dish doesn’t have to be a creative masterpiece. It can be a classic that draws people to a restaurant simply because it’s done so well, like Judy Rodgers’s wood-fire roasted chicken at Zuni Café in San Francisco, or Tom Colicchio’s braised short ribs at Craft in Manhattan. How many restaurants have a signature dish? Fewer than you’d expect of late, since the trend is to constantly update menus as regular customers are eager to move on to something new. Twenty years ago in Montreal you may have gone out specifically for Le Passe-Partout’s mousse de foie de volaille, Les Halles’ pamplemousse Marie-Louise or Desjardins’ lobster Thermidor. But today, with such a push for innovation and love for cuisine du marché, the signature dish is about as present as the chafing dish. Dig a little, however, and you’ll find a handful of dishes that have been served by restaurants since their early years, dishes that influence other chefs, dishes that have become so popular that they can’t be struck from the menu — even if the chefs and restaurant owners yearn to. Dishes that you crave days, months and even years after you first tasted them. In contrast to a list I assembled in 2011 featuring 12 of Montreal’s iconic foods, this roundup is of 12 signature dishes found in some of the city’s top restaurants. Of course I am bound to miss a few, so if you have a Montreal signature dish to suggest, let us know. Related 1. General Tao chicken, L’Orchidée de Chine. This beloved Chinese restaurant’s menu features dozens of Szechuan classics, but it’s their General Tao chicken that satisfies — and sells — most. Why? No doubt the succulent white meat enrobed in the thinnest and crispest of deep-fried coatings, then doused in just the right amount of sweet, sour and spicy sauce. When poorly executed, this Szechuan favourite is greasy, heavy and cloying. But for the past 30 years at L’Orchidée de Chine, a heaping plate of General Tao has been a thing of beauty. And just a little piggy, too. I love it. (2017 Peel St.; 514-287-1878; lorchideedechine.net) 2. Lobster spaghetti, Joe Beef (see sidebar below). Joe Beef’s lobster spaghetti is probably as famous for being unapologetically rich and extravagant as it is for its recipe in the cookbook The Art of Living According to Joe Beef, where the headnote states: “Among other things that don’t make any sense: this is probably the most popular Joe Beef dish.” With a generous portion of lobster flesh, cups of cream, Cognac and bacon, what’s not to like? The price of this baby can be an eyebrow-raiser, but thrifty diners take note: it’s also sold in half portions. (2491 Notre-Dame St. W.; 514-935-6504; joebeef.ca) 3. Duck in a Can, Au Pied de Cochon. Who else but genius chef Martin Picard could think up this decadent mix of duck magret, foie gras, cabbage, roasted garlic and balsamic demi-glace, which is cooked in a can, opened at the table and poured onto a crouton topped with puréed celery root? Only at Au Pied de Cochon could something so luxurious emerge from a tin can. The picture in the Au Pied de Cochon cookbook of an awestruck Anthony Bourdain being served this dish says it all. (536 Duluth Ave. E.; 514-281-1114; aupieddecochon.ca) 4. Steak tartare, L’Express. Though L’Express is equally famous for its marrow bone appetizer, and though the steak/frites is its bestseller, the steak tartare feels most like its signature dish because when dining at this St-Denis St. institution, so many customers around you are scarfing it back. No, it’s not moulded into a timbale shape or topped with vegetable chips. It doesn’t look like much. But scoop up a few bites and you’ll taste the ideal balance of caper tang and Tabasco kick, with a good hit of parsley, mustard and seasonings to make this mass of gooey meat simply irresistible. Make sure to request it “relevé” (spicy) and pair it with a glass of Beaujolais. (3927 St-Denis St.; 514-845-5333; restaurantlexpress.com) 5. Velouté de maïs, La Chronique. I can’t get enough of La Chronique’s gorgeous corn soup. It’s a must in corn season, and also great made out of season when they use vacuum-packed kernels. The dish starts out dramatically, with a single fat scallop topped with truffle shavings and surrounded by sautéed leeks. With much brio, chef Olivier de Montigny arrives at the table and pours the corn soup over top. The soup is sweet and bright flavoured, with none of that overwhelming starchy taste you get from old corn. The leeks add a rustic touch, and that scallop brings in the fresh taste of the sea. Marvellous. De Montigny tells me it’s always a bestseller, and the seafood changes according to the seasons, with crab and lobster often substituting for the scallop. (104 Laurier Ave. W.; 514-271-3095; lachronique.qc.ca) 6. Seared scallops with fennel purée and lemon confit, Le Club Chasse et Pêche. There are two signature dishes at Le Club Chasse et Pêche: the braised suckling pig risotto and the beautiful seared scallop dish with fennel and lemon, which have been on the menu since the restaurant opened in 2005. Seared on one side, the scallops are then lightly roasted and served with a sweet lemon confit cream and puréed fennel, though I recall a purée of Jerusalem artichoke in the early days that added a welcome earthiness to the seafood’s sweetness. “We would be crazy to remove it from the menu,” says Le Club’s chef de cuisine, Mélanie Blouin. “It’s always a hit.” (423 St-Claude St.; 514-861-1112; leclubchasseetpeche.com) 7. Ricotta gnocchi, Impasto. Plenty of Montreal’s Italian restaurants serve gnocchi, but none make one better than Impasto, which, since opening in 2013, has never removed the dish from its menu. Of five pastas on offer nightly, the gnocchi always comes out as the first or second bestseller, says chef Michele Forgione. He tells me the tomato basil sauce is made with canned Roma tomatoes imported from Italy that are cooked low and slow for five hours with garlic, red onion and basil. As for the gnocchi, it’s made with a dense, whole milk ricotta, resulting in the most pillowy of pastas. Add a generous sprinkling of Parmigiano-Reggiano and a shot of peppery olive oil, and you’ve got a dish that has made gnocchi addicts of many. (48 Dante St.; 514-508-6508; impastomtl.com) 8. Gratin de chèvre et pommes de terre, Brasserie T! A true-blue signature dish conceived by chef Normand Laprise, the gratin de chèvre was on the menu back in his days as chef at Citrus before making its way to the Toqué! menu, and is now featured as an appetizer at his more casual Brasserie T! Made with a “parmentier” base of potatoes and leeks topped with a gratinéed mound of goat cheese, it’s served with a red or yellow pepper coulis and a side salad, resulting in a dish that’s as delicious today as it was when it was created in 1989. (1425 Jeanne-Mance St.; 514-282-0808; brasserie-t.com) 9. Sashimi platter, Park. Every Japanese restaurant worth its salt serves sashimi. But when chef Antonio Park decided to take on the sashimi platter, he made his big, colourful, and so sought-after that he and his crew assemble a dozen on a busy night. Just look at Park’s Instagram account to ogle dozens of his sashimi masterpieces. Not only are his creations absolutely stunning to look at, the fish he slices into the most perfect of rectangles include many Japanese varieties like sayori (halfbeak) and kaimin tai (red snapper), as well as sustainable bluefin tuna (with the often high prices that follow). (378 Victoria Ave.; 514-750-7534; parkresto.com) 10. Milos Special, Milos. The signature dish of the city’s most famous Greek restaurant and its owner, Costas Spiliadis, the Milos Special is on the menu at all six of Spiliadis’s restaurants (Montreal, Miami, Athens, London, Las Vegas, New York). Made with thin slices of zucchini and eggplant that are coated in the lightest of batters and fried to a shattering crisp, the vegetable chips are stacked high and served with a thick tzatziki sauce and nuggets of fried saganaki cheese. Who can dine at Milos without enjoying this seriously scrumptious dish? (5357 Parc Ave.; 514-272-3522; milos.ca) 11. French toast with caramel sauce, Leméac. This fat slice of french toast is made with homemade brioche and topped with a quenelle of milk jam ice cream and a generous slug of maple-caramel sauce. It’s the epitome of sheer piggyness and, more importantly, deliciousness. Conceived by Leméac’s original pastry chef, Patrice Demers (now of Patrice Pâtissier), back when the restaurant opened in 2001, this dessert always elicits oohs and ahhs when it hits the table. “C’est vraiment un hit,” says chef Maxim Vadnais, who tells me it’s their top-selling dessert. “It’s a dish regulars always order for newcomers,” he says, “because they like to see their reaction when it arrives at the table.” Sweet. (1045 Laurier Ave. W.; 514-270-0999; restaurantlemeac.com) 12. Beignets with caramel sauce, Le St-Urbain. These made-to-order beignets look like a piece of modern sculpture and taste like the world’s lightest doughnuts. Featured on Le St-Urbain’s menu since Day 1 in 2009, the golden squiggles are part churro, part beignet, and the salted butter caramel sauce adds just the right gilding to the lily. “It’s the one thing that never changed on our menu,” says chef Adam Ganten. “We tried to take it off, but customers were angry, so we put it back on. We sold over 2,220 beignets last year. It represents about 75 per cent of our dessert sales.” (96 Fleury St. W.; 514-504-7700; lesturbain.com) * The making of a signature dish: Joe Beef’s lobster spaghetti The year was 2005, and the restaurant was the original 25-seat Joe Beef. The planned menu would feature market cuisine with fresh seafood — oysters especially — and no more than three starters and three main courses changing daily. In search of what to serve, chef-owners David McMillan and Fred Morin turned to an American colleague for inspiration. “We were reading a Bon Appétit article about this chef in Philadelphia called Marc Vetri,” says McMillan. “He has a 25-seat restaurant like what we were planning, and he even removed a table of four to make room for a meat slicer. We were impressed by his priorities, because back then the idea was to put in as many tables as possible, no matter where they would go. We were reading the dishes on his menu and one stood out: the lobster spaghetti. So we put it on our menu, too, as an ode to cool chef Marc Vetri. “Years later, we had him here at the restaurant as a guest chef and he saw us making lobster spaghetti and we admitted we got the idea from him. He wasn’t mad at all. He was flattered.” Though the name is the same, the Joe Beef dish and Vetri’s are very different. Vetri’s is more Italian in nature, featuring a tomato base, while the McMillan/Morin version is made with a heavily creamed lobster bisque base spiked with Cognac. “To me,” says McMillan, “lobster begs for butter and cream.” With the meat from a 1 1/2- to 1 3/4-pound lobster added to the mix, no wonder the dish retails between $40 and $80, depending on the market price. Happily, half portions are available. “Lobster spaghetti has never left the menu, and I’m a bit mortified that something so luxurious has become our signature,” says McMillan. “But for many who come here, it’s a celebratory dish — a plate of lobster spaghetti along with a rib steak for two. When the Rolling Stones ate here, it was four lobster spaghettis. It’s really too expensive at times like now when the price of lobster is so high, but as soon as that fluctuates, it’s our bestseller. Every restaurant should have a lobster spaghetti on the menu.” * The making of a signature dish: Toqué!’s salmon tartare Although chef Normand Laprise still serves his gratin de chèvre et pommes de terre, he is equally famous for starting the salmon tartare trend in Montreal. The first time I tasted the now-common timbale of seasoned raw fish cubes was 24 years ago at Toqué!, where Laprise’s salmon tartare was considered a signature dish. Decorated with taro-root chips, his rendition was a simple mélange of cubed salmon, chives and mustard vinaigrette, which he topped with a thin layer of mashed avocado. Tartare is found on many Montreal menus today, but back then it was unheard of. From where did Laprise draw his inspiration? The classic steak tartare? Sashimi plates at the then new and branché sushi bars? “I first recall tartare making an impression on me in the early ’90s, when I dined at Bouley, David Bouley’s restaurant in New York City,” Laprise told me in 2008. “I ordered a tasting menu, and one of the courses was a small mound of striped bass tartare with a quail’s egg yolk in the middle. It was so good I wanted to ask for more.” After that revelation, Laprise started on his own rendition, beginning with the freshest fish available in Montreal at the time: salmon. As for the topping, he told me those many years ago, “I was eating often at a little Mexican restaurant back then, and I remember eating guacamole and thinking it would marry well with the salmon tartare.” Laprise debuted his salmon tartare at Citrus and it was such a big hit that when he opened Toqué! in 1993, he put it on the menu because customers kept requesting it. Though considered cutting-edge then, tartare has come a long way. You’ll still find a tartare at Toqué! on occasion as well as in the vast majority of Montreal’s other high-end restaurants, ranging from the trout, apple and celery root tartare at La Récolte, to the salmon tartare with puffed rice, nori, purple perilla leaves, chives and dill at Montréal Plaza. You can hear Lesley Chesterman on ICI Radio-Canada Première’s Médium Large (95.1 FM) Tuesdays at 10 a.m., and on CHOM (97.7 FM) Wednesdays at 7:10 a.m. criticsnotebook@gmail.com twitter.com/LesleyChestrmanImagine telling AT&T you're done with dropped calls, or telling T-Mobile you're done with slow data. Yes, elections matter, and the FCC is proposing something spectacular for Americans...assuming that shitting-their-pants mobile phone operators don't kill the mammoth proposal: The federal government wants to create super WiFi networks across the nation, so powerful and broad in reach that consumers could use them to make calls or surf the Internet without paying a cellphone bill every month. The proposal from the Federal Communications Commission has rattled the $178 billion wireless industry, which has launched a fierce lobbying effort to persuade policymakers to reconsider the idea, analysts say. That has been countered by an equally intense campaign from Google, Microsoft and other tech giants who say a free-for-all WiFi service would spark an explosion of innovations and devices that would benefit most Americans, especially the poor. The airwaves that FCC officials want to hand over to the public would be much more powerful than existing WiFi networks that have become common in households. They could penetrate thick concrete walls and travel over hills and around trees. If all goes as planned, free access to the Web would be available in just about every metropolitan area and in many rural areas. Think about it -- how often do you actually use your smartphone to make phone calls or texts now anyway? For many folks, particularly the younger set, smartphones are about data, data, and data. They use Skype to make calls, Whatsapp to send texts, and Facebook to stay in touch -- all on data. This is why the likes of AT&T now force Americans to purchase unlimited texts and phone minutes -- or otherwise face outrageous per-text or per-minute fees -- because the wireless companies realize that Americans are really carrying around small computers in this day and age -- the 'phone' is only an inconsequential 'app' at the bottom of your screen. This is a Big Ducking Deal, folks: The new WiFi networks would also have much farther reach, allowing for a driverless car to communicate with another vehicle a mile away or a patient’s heart monitor to connect to a hospital on the other side of town. If approved by the FCC, the free networks would still take several years to set up. And, with no one actively managing them, connections could easily become jammed in major cities. But public WiFi could allow many consumers to make free calls from their mobile phones via the Internet. The frugal-minded could even use the service in their homes, allowing them to cut off expensive Internet bills. “For a casual user of the Web, perhaps this could replace carrier service,” said Jeffrey Silva, an analyst at the Medley Global Advisors research firm. “Because it is more plentiful and there is no price tag, it could have a real appeal to some people.” Designed by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, the plan would be a global first. When the U.S. government made a limited amount of unlicensed airwaves available in 1985, an unexpected explosion in innovation followed. Baby monitors, garage door openers and wireless stage microphones were created. Millions of homes now run their own wireless networks, connecting tablets, game consoles, kitchen appliances and security systems to the Internet. “Freeing up unlicensed spectrum is a vibrantly free-market approach that offers low barriers to entry to innovators developing the technologies of the future and benefits consumers,” Genachowski said in a an e-mailed statement. Some companies and cities are already moving in this direction. Google is providing free WiFi to the public in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan and parts of Silicon Valley. Cities support the idea because the networks would lower costs for schools and businesses or help vacationers easily find tourist spots. Consumer advocates note the benefits to the poor, who often cannot afford high cellphone and Internet bills. Unsurprisingly, this is a policy move that would benefit both the wealthiest Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs and the poorest individuals in America's cities and rural areas:This is a policy that could transform American competitiveness and create thousands of new jobs, as well as diminishing the burden of outrageous wireless phone bills on poor Americans. Waiting for the GOP to cry'socialism' in 3,2,1...1 / 1 Show Caption + Hide Caption – (Photo Credit: Courtesy Photo) VIEW ORIGINAL Fort Huachuca, Arizona - Mountain Vista Communities now has on-post home leasing opportunities for single Soldiers. Fort Huachuca offers what is considered a safe and secure environment, its own school system, and convenience to Sierra Vista and surrounding areas and Southeast Arizona attractions. On-post living is a community within a community, providing residents with a place to live, relax, play, and work -- where the military lifestyle combines with the life of the modern-day Family. Mountain Vista Communities reflects a military Family housing environment where every resident's needs -- whether a single Soldier or a growing Family -- is considered priority number one. Living on-post is both cost effective and time efficient. Immediate savings are received at move-in, and monthly savings are realized through decreased travel and included utilities. Rent, which is currently equivalent to basic allowance for housing rates, is paid through allotment and includes 24-hour home maintenance services, trash and recycling collection, and all reasonable electric, gas, water and sewer utilities with potential utility conservation rebates. There are no security deposits, credit or background checks, and no pet rents or deposits. Additional amenities exclusive to on-post residents include a recently constructed community center with fitness, game and tot rooms, volleyball and basketball courts, disc golf course, dog park, a meeting/party room that can be reserved for events, free Wi-Fi, and a computer and printer for residents' use. There are free community events such as barbecues, crafts, cooking classes, wine and beer tastings, game nights and massage classes. Select neighborhoods and a variety of homes and styles are available, and restrictions may apply. For more information and availability, contact Mountain Vista Communities at 520.515.9000.Projected marijuana tax revenues* State Tax Revenue (in millions) California 105.4 New York 65.5 Florida 48.2 Texas 46.6 Ohio 34.8 Michigan 32.4 Illinois 31.6 Pennsylvania 30.5 Washington 22.0 Virginia 20.9 North Carolina 20.6 Georgia 19.3 New Jersey 19.3 Massachusetts 18.4 Indiana 17.8 Colorado 17.6 Missouri 15.6 Minnesota 14.3 Oregon 14.1 Maryland 13.9 Wisconsin 13.4 Arizona 13.0 Louisiana 13.0 Tennessee 12.2 Kentucky 10.2 Connecticut 9.8 South Carolina 9.1 Alabama 8.9 Oklahoma 8.3 Nevada 7.9 Arkansas 6.7 Kansas 6.6 Mississippi 6.6 Iowa 6.2 New Hampshire 5.6 Nebraska 5.0 New Mexico 4.9 Utah 4.7 Rhode Island 4.6 Maine 4.1 West Virginia 4.1 Hawaii 4.0 Montana 3.6 Idaho 3.3 Alaska 2.8 District of Columbia 2.8 Vermont 2.8 Delaware 2.4 South Dakota 2.0 North Dakota 1.6 Wyoming 1.2 * Revenues based on state-by-state marijuana consumption, assuming pot were legalized. Source: Prof. Jeffrey Miron, "Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibitions," June 2005.OK, I quickly tested with the same save file I posted to help you find the bugger, and after hitting Next Turn, behavior seems back to normal: notification for deal expiration, counters correctly reset, expired deal appears in the diplo window with correct turn dates. Great!Tech curiosity: what was it?On a secondary note, I noticed that some deals without expiration appear in the diplo window (Embassy deals, which appear as expired even though they don't and are still valid). Also, I had one resource deal cancelled due to a DoW against me, and the expiration date was set to what it would have been if normally expired, not the real DoW date. Are these related to the previous bug?Thank you so very much for making it savegame compat!In a global environment more sensitized than ever to causes like living wages and worker safety, thousands of Chinese in Dongguan, a southern city with a population of more than eight million, walked off their jobs making sneakers for well-known global brands like Reebok, Nike and Adidas this month, triggering one of China's biggest labor strikes in years as they demand better pay and benefits. And they're not showing any signs of returning to work. “On April 5, there was a demonstration by the workers in the streets,” Kevin Slaten, program coordinator at New York-based watchdog group China Labor Watch, said by telephone on Tuesday. “Then there was a lull where the workers met and discussed, and then the issue exploded on April 14. You’re looking at basically a half-month of work interruptions. That’s a significant amount of time for a company.” The workers are demanding past unpaid social insurance, a 30 percent pay increase from their base monthly pay of about $240, and a one-time payment based on seniority. The company counter-offered to pay a living subsidy of about $37 a month, to begin paying fully into the workers’ pension plans by next month, and to provide the unpaid social insurance by the end of 2015. China’s expanding global manufacturing presence has emboldened the workers, who are aware of their contribution to the country's economic growth, and they're increasingly demanding better pay and benefits. They're doing it by putting pressure on the factory owners whom the large international shoe companies contract to keep prices low enough to appeal to Western consumers and bottom-line-focused shareholders.

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